God’s retributive justice is recorded in II Chronicles 15:5-7. He troubled the nations with “every kind of distress” in the ninth century B.C. II Chronicles also records God’s use of disease as retribution against the kings of Judah. Asa’s of the feet 16:12; Jehoram’s of the bowels 21:16-21; Uzziah’s of leprosy 26:16-23. He also punished Herod Agrippa I with a fatal attack of worms Acts 12:21-23.
Perhaps we should at least consider that the principle still applies to modern nations, including America. Especially when the unrest percolating through the world may well presage even-more troublesome disasters! Assuming for the purpose of this blog—and speculating that it may well be more than an assumption—what will determine our response if God has greater corrections, disciplines and punishments for all societies? It all depends on our spiritual state, our personal relationship with God and our willingness to accept God’s judgments as just and ultimately redemptive, not unfair and ultimately punitive. King David and Cain, the first-son of Adam and Eve, serve as models. David, a man of spiritual integrity, fell to a momentary passion that led to worse abominations. But when confronted and accused, found forgiveness by admitting his sin II Samuel 12:13. Which had positive results. Cain, a man of soaring egotism, at home only with self-will, felt at ease defying God’s rules of sacrifice. Having committed that colossal sin, he had no compunction about killing brother Abel. And, when confronted, engaged in a verbal argument with the Creator. Which had negative results. End Part III
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God avenged himself on Babylon for destroying the Temple Jeremiah 50:28, 51:11. Indeed, Ezekiel 25:1-7, Obadiah 11-12 and Zephaniah 2:8-11 condemned the nations bordering Israel for delighting in Jerusalem’s fall to Babylon, its vaunted Temple reduced to rubble. God also avenged himself on Imperial Rome for shedding the blood of Christians Revelation 17:6, 18:1-24. For no reason except they believed so strongly that Jesus Alone was Lord that they wouldn’t pinch incense before a bust of Caesar as lord. That refusal made Christians an illegal religion and subject to the animosity of an Empire that tolerated all religions—even Judaism—BUT the ONE that defied Caesar’s deification!
Because later Israelites trusted in the Temple, Jeremiah 7:4-8, as earlier Israelites trusted in the Ark, I Samuel 4:3, God let both be removed. However, since he directed the construction of both Ark and Temple as SYMBOLS of his Presence, HE remained sovereign even when the symbols vanished. That’s why we need to understand both judgments as God’s attack on Satan, not merely on the powers he inspired to attack God’s possessions. Satan arrogated to himself the right to remove God’s Presence from humanity and his sovereignty over all human history. As the ultimate con man, who fools himself first, Satan thought to eliminate God’s memory in his people by removing symbols that represented him. Instead, back from exile Israel returned to the Holy Land and re-built the Temple—more modestly than Solomon’s to be sure, but just as meaningful to the people. In addition, with prayer to replace animal sacrifice, the synagogue to replace the Temple and rabbis to teach God’s word as the personal possession of each believer. Satan also knew that he couldn’t deny the efficacy of Christ’s forgiveness of sin on Calvary, and verification of it on Resurrection Sunday. He couldn’t eliminate Christianity in the first century, but hoped to punish believers so harshly it would deter unbelievers from confessing Christ. He persevered in his hatred of God, knowing the multitudes in Heaven, Revelation 19:1-10, applauded God’s presence empowering his people through every trial, every bloodshed, every loss to achieve the greater gain of eternal life. For knowing he’s damned, and can ever be redeemed, Satan settles on any soul, or combination of souls, stupid enough to believe his claim that God is no longer relevant. Make no mistake, every effort by humanity to harm, limit or erase God’s Presence in society is a wind from Satan that reaps God’s whirlwind sweeping away the devil and all his allies. The warning should terrify those in American culture who presently denigrate Christ’s Singularity and Christianity’s claims. Who say God isn’t needed and Christ is but one of a number of equally-gifted world religious leaders. That it hasn’t surfaced the fear of God in our society YET simply proves we have made such deities of our minds, our education, our technology, our politics that we’re spiritually blind. Which is now, and has increasingly been since the 1960’s, the opinion of “shakers and movers” from academia, business and politics. But take heart, Christians. God in Christ, and no one else, certainly not the human ego, with all its egotists, determines truth. End Part II The virus has made us look at and into each other’s eyes. A not-unpleasant experience since eyes are windows into the soul. I’ve seen some very interesting eyes in the past few weeks. It’s permitted us to see masks worn as everyday necessities, even in banks, convenience and grocery stores. Refreshing, when it used to mean a robbery in progress Sign of the times, however: I read this past week of a masked woman, hidden behind sunglasses and a hat, robbing a store.
The virus had led to washing and re-washing of hands. Conclusion: we’re either wonderfully over-hand washed now or previously woefully under-hand washed. From observing hand-washing habits of loved ones and strangers before they eat, it’s more likely the latter. The virus has also forced an isolation on us that’s led to creative ways to amuse ourselves. One San Diego artist has found painting rocks a pleasant avocation since her art-shows don’t exist now. She then stashes them in neighborhood yards for perfect strangers to find. It’s certainly changed the long-time habit some of us have enjoyed: giving hugs! Tracy, our resident church-hugger, has been reduced to elbow touches. And speaking of change: watching a preacher on TV ain’t the same as sitting in a group seeing a preacher proclaim God’s word. To say nothing of being in the assembly as all of God’s people SING to the glory of God in Christ. To say nothing of sharing the Lord’s Supper with the entire group instead of with your wife each Sunday. What this writer has especially noticed: we’re suddenly afraid: of each other; of what’s happening; of what may happen; of staying inside; of congregating anywhere. Indeed, we’re now afraid of everything but Judgment Day. And of everyone but God. We want to avoid every activity that could hazard our health, but remain unafraid of habits, associations, entertainments, materialism and secularism that blacken our soul before God. And, having experienced an alarming disruption in our national life, nothing in the media has suggested what surely more than a few Christians have pondered: could the COVID-19 be the beginning event in a series of afflictions sent by God to punish us for rejecting his Son? To awaken us to our basic need of forgiveness of sin? To renew faith in the Gospels as true accounts of Jesus Christ’s life? To renew acquaintance with and commitment to Jesus Christ as God’s Last, Final, Full Revelation of himself to humanity? To ready us for a spiritual revival that can come only when we have suffered the BLOW that brings us to our knees before God in Christ? Surely...given what we have become as a nation, contrasted with what we began as a nation, raises the threat of divine judgment on us to far more than a possibility! End Part I While understanding God’s refusal to allow Moses into Canaan, we can empathize with the anger Moses felt when he lashed AT THE ISRAELITES, though by doing so disobeyed God. It symbolized the truth of James 1:20 “that man’s anger does no bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
However, and the point of this series, Jesus excelled Moses when facing the greatest crisis of his ministry. Anticipating Gethsemane at the Last Supper, Jesus expressed his appreciation of the disciples’ faithfulness to him “in my trials” Luke 22:28. That statement alone proves the Master’s amazing, persevering fortitude and strength of mind and emotion. He carried lightly the onerous burdens of disease, demonology, leadership rejection, disciple-incompetence and crowd fickleness. And only in brief glances, and nearly always with the Cross in view, do we see the stress it imposed. At the first LESS and MORE as his ministry advanced, until it hit him between the eyes in the Garden. However, far from feeling he would die in Gethsemane, he became intensely aware of what the Cross demanded: separation from God! While I feel it almost a sacrilege to intrude on his sacred struggle—and do so only to prove the Master’s valorous self-control before his destiny contrasted to Moses’ loss of it before the rock, we see Christ’s far greater patience in an infinitely greater issue. His destiny to die, and provide forgiveness of sin, experienced as never before the assault by his first-time-ever separation from His Father. That momentarily drew from him his REQUEST, “take this cup from me”—instantly followed by his DESIRE, “yet not my will, but yours be done” Luke 22:42. The crisis had been reached and mastered in those two phrases. But...the result of his surrender to his Father’s will; that it meant the loss of their eternal fellowship, affected him so crushingly that, as an angel “from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him,” Luke 22:43, Christ Jesus, “being in anguish...prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” Luke 23:45. The angel came and strengthened him through that loss. There is one more phrase in Luke 22:29 to consider. Since the disciples had remained loyal to him, Jesus would “confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me....” That comported well with the Master’s later invitation to depraved Laodicea, Revelation 3:19-21. Read it for yourself. Understand, from the latter text, that Jesus is talking to each of us. He has come to us. He has lived among us. He has been here with us. He knew what it meant. He knew what his cry of abandonment meant. A shriek that surely terrified onlookers at the cross, coming out of the dark, from him, righteous man they knew him to be. No one could know then what it all meant. We hardly know now. But it did mean he had gone through life as its Conqueror and made every generation of believers his companions in spiritual conquest. He has returned to the Father, awaiting the time God sends him again to PROVE his earlier conquest and to take with him into his Holy City all who love and serve him. Let us all bow in face-down adoration before his Majesty. Let us kneel our lives side by side as we worship the One who “loved us and gave himself for us” Galatians 2:20. Amen. Fini Jesus excelled Moses in every possible way. In any reference, Jesus credited Moses as God’s spokesman, but left no doubt: he succeeded Moses with a superior ethic. Even Moses couldn’t lead Israel into Canaan. A sin against God’s direct word, in the 40th year of Israel’s wandering, cost the Great Prophet, Legislator, Poet and Writer access.
That teaches two important lessons. One, God’s rule rules even his appointed ministers. Merely striking the stone, from which God directed him to SPEAK water into existence, cost Moses inheritance in Canaan Numbers 20:1-13. That warns all of God’s leaders, lay or clerical: do not think he exempts us from the discipleship he expects from church members. Let us abhor the myth that teaching and leading others automatically guarantees our personal spiritual enfranchisement. Paul himself warned against such presumption in I Corinthians 9:26-27. Two, unless each is forgiven, every Christian is accountable to God for every sin committed, however exalted our office. Whatever role we fill, whatever function we discharge, whatever title we hold, Christ looks first and foremost at how we let him rule our personal habits, attitudes and lifestyle. We may each face particular challenges in being a disciple—something particular that can, if we let it, prevent growth in Christ-likeness. Peter had to conquer his love of fishing to be an apostle (writer’s interpretation of John 21:15). Paul had to surrender his religious pedigree Philippians 3:4-14. The two quasi disciples wanted to be followers—LATER. good old procrastination at work Luke 9:59-62; later is easier because it delays decisions. Governor Felix had an interest, but surrendering his ego-driven life killed his desire Acts 24:24-26. The Rich Young Ruler flatly refused to pay the price Jesus placed on his discipleship Matthew 19:16-22. Whatever we want to keep, but surrender to serve Jesus, is the wild horse we ride to successful discipleship. Whatever we want to keep, and won’t surrender, will be the wild horse that tramples lifeless our spiritual life under its hooves! End Part II Joshua 3:1-4 records the warrior’s instruction to Israel prior to crossing the Jordan River. Note that they were to follow the ARK carried by priests, “then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.” Then...“But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it.”
In our family communion service Sunday Judy called this a “holy distancing” contrasted with COVID-19’s “social distancing.” Good insight. During the night a further insight came to me. Naturally, as my custom is, up I got and wrote the additional thoughts. In a strict sense, neither priests nor Ark had been that way before. However, as the sacred repository of God’s NAME, with the Pre-existent Jesus as Vanguard, HE led. See Numbers 10:33-36 for a similar previous experience. It’s no surprise that the Hebrews writer, in 12:1ff, urged his readers to fix their eyes on Jesus as “the author and perfecter of our faith.” Not on the crowd of witnesses of chapter 11 were they to rivet their eyes 12:1. They were simply examples for us. If they lived faithfully to God with lesser spiritual privileges—the Law of Moses and his prophets—we can and must be faithful with God’s revelation of Christ who...(well, read 12:1-13). The point of all this is: though not even the ark had been that way before, Israel could follow since GOD led the ark. The Lord Jesus Christ can certainly be followed because he has been this way before--He, “who being in very nature God...took “the very nature of a servant”...and “humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:5-8. Jesus has been this way before, knows the way through it triumphantly, and shares it with any obedient servant. End Part I Small ships bringing the earliest settlers to Plymouth and Virginia limited possessions to fundamentals: tools without handles; firearms with powder and shot; treasured furniture; seeds for planting, fish hooks and lines, shoots of fruit trees; the Family Bible; a simple pharmacy for illnesses; basic clothes; chests into which they crammed personal keepsakes. With economy the rule, and survival the intent, they trusted their God-given creative skills to provide other necessaries when they arrived. Colonial Design Book, 19
All of that has lessons for our discipleship. Since Jesus want us living now in the prospect of inhabiting our eternal home, he urges a minimalist approach to life-possessions. As he condemned the rich fool in Luke 12:13-21, who accumulated for a future he didn’t have, he commended the poor widow who had little for daily needs, but instead gave it to God Mark 12:41-44. We can learn of the dangers to discipleship without making a demon of wealth or a deity of poverty. For example, and a particular curse of American life, accumulating so many possessions we first stuff our houses full, then rent storage space for the rest—because we can’t surrender what we want, see and buy. For example, filling our schedules with so many events, meetings and activities we find ourselves coming and going—with no time to “smell the roses”, let alone contemplate the Glory of God! As if being busy proves our efficiency, not how undisciplined we are; and having no time for Bible study and worship by being so occupied with making a living. COV-19 has called a halt to some of the frenetic pace. But will it resume once life opens again, or can we have learned to do without what merely keeps us busy, not effective, particularly as we ask, “What have I done for Jesus”? For example, knowing we need to commit our life to Jesus—and we intend to ...later; or we need more time to think about it; or we have questions that remain unanswered; or we don’t want to confront the hard things the Bible teaches: “righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come” Acts 24:25. All of that simple procrastination, like Governor Felix or King Agrippa II. Or any of us who think our doubts or reservations will ever bring us closer to God. Spirit-filled discipleship demands our constant attention to our ultimate life-goal. That keeps our lives focused and our distractions fewer. That means we sacrifice what could be helpful now for what is essential for us to survive judgment and enter Heaven. The letter apostles and elders sent to Gentiles following the Jerusalem Council upheld Paul and Barnabas’ ministry. Nothing in Mosaic ceremonies or food laws, including circumcision, would be demanded of converts.
While yielding not even an inch in scriptural truth to heretics, the Jerusalem leaders also prohibited Gentile Christians access to behavior endemic to Roman society. Meaning...what Gentiles found acceptable in permissive Roman religions had no welcome in Christianity, particularly the sexual orgies associated with heathen fertility rites. Which underscores a spiritual truth expressed throughout the Bible: what may be acceptable to unbelievers cannot be tolerated by God’s people. And Christians need to know and defend the differences. For example, Hamor the Hivite, ruler of Shechem, considered a grace to have his people intermarry with Jacob’s family Genesis 34:8-10. But God considered it a disgrace. Having freed the patriarch from the domination of a heathen father-in-law, he wouldn’t subject him to the corruption of heathen nations. For example, the heathen Philistines loaded God’s Ark on a new cart pulled by two cows when returning it to Israel I Samuel 6:1-12. But when David assayed to bring the Ark to Jerusalem from Abinadab’s house, he too loaded it on a new cart. That decision cost Uzzah his life II Samuel 6:6-8. From his first response of anger and fear David turned to RESEARCH: why had the Ark been a source of danger? I Chronicles 15:11-15 reveals that David found the answer in Exodus 25:10-16. What God allowed to ignorant Philistines, he punished Israel for disregarding his Word. I Corinthians 2:6-16 reveals an important spiritual principle. God has endowed Christians with wisdom denied the unsaved. Beyond even that, God has declared unbelievers unfit and unqualified to judge Holy Spirit-empowered Christians. They inherit wisdom to discern truth from error, acceptable from rejected behavior and values God honors or rejects or abhors. The honor of possessing such wisdom denied our depraved, secularized, materialistic culture, imposes an equal responsibility. We must always, whatever society may demand or desire, view all life, teachings, attitudes and behaviors through truth revealed in scripture. Our enfranchisement in Christ demands we assume that role. The unsaved will instinctively seek an easier way to Christ than self-denial. But believers need to already be living that self-denying discipleship. The unsaved will not consider Jesus essential, but believers need to already be proving he’s irreplaceable. Christians...let us stand firm in repeating to our society what Jesus taught, however unwelcomed or unwanted they find his message. Let us remember, since Jesus has ALL authority, “no other religious leader has ANY.” Therefore, any teaching or practice that disregards him or disagrees with him must be condemned, not tolerated. Only the Person of Jesus, the Nature of Jesus, the Purpose of Jesus, the Message of Jesus, the Eternality of Jesus and the Singularity of Jesus will Remain after all of God’s enemies have been sent to Hell with Satan and his demons. Amen. Fini By being God’s elect people of God’s elect FAITH, Christians invariably engender conflict from unbelievers: one group or another, for one reason or another, but always from somebody, because Gospel teaching always offends someone or some group.
For example, in Pisidian Antioch, for being too popular Acts 13:43-45. In Iconium, for causing division among the populace Acts 14:4-5. In Lystra, for refusing to accept adulation Acts 14:11-18. In Philippi, for being an illegal religion upsetting Roman customs Acts 16:20-21. In Thessalonica, for causing a riot Acts 17:5-9. In Corinth, for being heretics defying Jewish Law Acts 18:12-13—repeated in Ephesus Acts 19:8-10. More ominously in Ephesus, for causing economic turmoil in profitable business enterprises Acts 19:23-27. (And these are just selections from Paul’s missionary trips.) If 1st century Christianity stirred equal opposition in opponents and joy in believers, why would 21st century Christians expect to be exempt from the same bifurcation? Especially as Christians face the opposition of liberals who want Islam accepted as an equal of Christianity. As the homosexual lobby, with cultural tolerance on its side, demands Bible-Christians accept it as an alternative –lifestyle. It can never be, in either case. UNLESS, against God’s declared will, we want a church with no sharp distinction between the saved and unsaved. Where equilibrium between each occurs: the saved too strong to adopt the behavior of the unsaved, but too weak in witness to challenge them to repent and be baptized. Unless, against God’s declared command, we want the church of Christ to be what the Jewish synagogue had become in Ephesus. It existed as an isolated monotheistic faith in a heathen culture. Untainted by heathenism, true; but, shamefully, unwounded by efforts to evangelize the heathen. It accommodated, not opposed, its culture. Closing thought on this point. After his brutal stoning in Lystra—the result being death had God not reversed the results—Paul “got up and went back into the city” Acts 14:20. Then, after further preaching in Derbe, Paul and Barnabas returned through the cities where all manner of hostility had been experienced. As an encouragement to the Christians in each place, he stressed, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” Acts 14:22, I Thessalonians 3:4. To give the Christians help in remaining faithful through all their sorrows in Christ, they appointed elders—likely Christian men mature in Moses, and understanding the problems that brought Hebrews—to bolster new Christians through the difficulties their new faith imposed. Shall we in America, Christians, expect to gain with minimum effort, and against push-over opponents, what it cost Jesus his blood to provide, and Christians through the ages theirs to continue? Will not Jesus, who shed his blood to Found his Faith, and many Christians in history, who shed theirs to Defend it, be ashamed of us if we hardly break a sweat to proclaim it? End, Part VIII One reason preachers won’t discuss controversial subjects is the conviction that it offends people. And if offended, they won’t return to services. And if they don’t return, how can they be taught? Point of fact, then: when will we address issues that could offend people?
As always, Jesus serves as our model. If he had ignored tough issues, made no controversial claims or feared hurting people’s feelings, we wouldn’t have Matthew 13:4, 19; for who would want to hear that he allowed Satan to snatch God’s word from his life—just because he had no interest in God? Think of the many obituaries who would be offended. We wouldn’t have Matthew 16:24; for who wants to let Jesus, first thing and foremost, assassinate our ego in order to be his disciple? We wouldn’t have John 8:58-59; for when claiming to be God in the Flesh, the Jews, “picked up stones to stone him”...and he saved himself only by “slipping away from the temple grounds.” We wouldn’t have John 5:24-27. For he claimed to personally be the VOICE of God calling all the dead alive on the Last Day. How offensive that was to Moses, and how much more offensive to every religious leader since? We wouldn’t have John 14:6; for in answer to Thomas’ request that Jesus reveal the way he would go, he replied, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Understand that his men understood that he used the Greek equivalent of Exodus 3:14—he IS the Jehovah God, the “I Am Who I Am!” Not content to make that revolutionary claim, he then added, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” How irritating to world religious leaders who claim THEY offer the way to whatever future life their adherents enjoy. Think of it: everyone ever to live must have Jesus Christ’s approval before he can enter God’s Presence. Even those who thought they determined who would be lost or saved. And on and on! Now...expect Jesus to be fair in judging everyone who hasn’t heard of him. But do not expect Jesus to change what he said about being the sole Judge of all mankind and the SOLE PERSON to determine the eternal fate of every mortal ever to live. Alexander Hamilton knew that paper money needed silver or gold backing it, supporting it, giving it stability—or it would be worthless. The spiritual life originated by the ONE GOD must necessarily have ONE ALL-Powerful, ALL-Authority figure in charge of it in history and judging all humanity by HIS standards at the end. And Jesus Christ is that ONE. The darkest days of the American Revolution “tried men’s souls,” Thomas Paine wrote in his Crisis papers. Christians can truly say, “These are the days that try the courage of preachers.” Since Jesus preached what needed to be said, trusting the Holy Spirit to relate it to listeners, will preachers proclaim the gospel faithfully, trusting the same Spirit to relate it to listeners? End Part VII |
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