A Dumb Decision; Isaiah 39

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God Our Creator; Isaiah 40:12-31

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When the Enemy Attacks; Isaiah 36-37

 

I have always found the Hezekiah stories interesting.  He’s one of those mixed bag Judean kings.  He gets rid of the high places and idols, emphasizing that the temple is the only legitimate place to offer sacrifices to the Lord.  He undoes a lot of the evil that his father Ahaz had done.  He worships the Lord, but he also makes some pretty stupid mistakes, which we will see in the next couple of weeks.  In today’s story the Rabshakeh, which means cup-bearer, comes to Jerusalem on behalf of King Sennacherib of Assyria with a large army to threaten the people and try to get them to make an alliance before it is too late.  Assyria has already defeated the Egyptians and several prominent Judean cities.  That alliance God said would fail has fallen.  The threat is real, and they knew it was coming.  They had been given opportunities to repent, and they had not.  In this story, I think there are some lessons we can learn when we are threatened by enemies. 

            One good thing to do when the enemy attacks is to keep your mouth and don’t escalate the situation.  The Rabshakeh’s insults are strong.  He attacks the King.  He attacks the Lord.  He tries to put doubt in their minds about Yahweh, insinuating that it is a bad thing that Hezekiah has limited their place of worship.  He claims that Yahweh is the one who has told them to go up and destroy the land and that Sennacherib and the Assyrians are the ones with Yahweh’s approval, and it’s not a total lie.  God has directed them to go up and attack, but perhaps what he doesn’t know is that God has already assured the Judeans that Assyria will not succeed.  He tells of other conquests and how those lands gods did not save them.  He threatens their lives with starvation and death.  A lifetime ago, I was a 6^th grade teacher at Gramercy Christian School, and the Hezekiah stories were part of our Bible curriculum.  This story is a bit spicy, and of course certain kids wanted to be the one to read particular verses from the King James Version!  I’m sure it was spicier when Rabshakeh said it.  The leaders didn’t want the regular folk to understand what he was saying, and so they asked him to speak in Aramaic instead of Judean, but Rabshakeh doubles down on his insults.  I’m sure in more modern language it would be something like, “Eat sh—and die.”  In fact, if someone insults you in this way, you can reply, “I didn’t know you could quote the Bible.”  And then tell them this Bible story, and the next thing you know you could be having a spiritual conversation with someone who was an enemy and end up telling them about Jesus!  Hey, you never know.  But the leaders of Judah wisely do not respond to the Rabshakeh.  “They were silent and answered him not a word according to the king’s command.”  When you refuse to respond to threats, you buy time.  You don’t have to prove anything.  Reason doesn’t work when emotions run high.  Our tendency is to get defensive.  We even think we have to defend God’s honor, but there are times for apologetics discourse, and there are times to remain silent.  Sometimes the best thing we can initially do when an enemy threatens us is to remain calm and not respond in haste. 

            The next good thing to do when the enemy threatens is to turn to God’s word.  The three return to the king in mourning and despair.  The king also rends his garments in mourning, but he immediately, through these same ambassadors, sends for Isaiah t, whom he knows speaks the Word of the Lord.  Isaiah gives a reassuring word from the Lord that the Lord will cause the Assyrian army to return to their own land, and God’s answer is quite specific.  When our enemy threatens us, we can turn to God’s Word to hear a reassuring Word.  God tells us again and again to not be afraid, that He is with us no matter what, that He has and will overcome all our enemies, that He holds us in His hands.  We have so many promises right here in this book.  We can’t go and ask Isaiah in person what God says, but we have God’s words through Isaiah written down for us, and not just his but so many others have recorded God’s words for us in this book. 

            Another good thing to do when your enemy threatens is to pray.  Notice as Eliakim goes to Isaiah on Hezekiah’s behalf, he asks Isaiah to pray for them.  Hezekiah specifically says, “Perhaps the Yahweh your God will hear.”  Hezekiah’s faith is weak.  Although he has destroyed all the false places of worship, his trust is not fully in Yahweh.  Like his father, he still thinks of Yahweh as Isaiah’s God, not his own, or it could just be that in the face of threat, Hezekiah is in a place of doubt.  Friends, this is part of the reason the Church exists.  We were not meant to face all the threats of the world on our own.  We need the spiritual support of other believers.  When you have doubts, other believers can pray for you.  It is a good thing to enlist others to pray for you and your circumstances, especially when your faith is weak. 

            But we should also pray for ourselves.  hen Hezekiah gets a letter back from King Sennacherib, who had turned back, just as God promised, but who still threatened, Hezekiah prays for himself and his nation.  Look at how Hezekiah prays.  He takes the threatening letter to the temple, spreads it on the floor and prays over it.  His requests are very specific.  He asks God to pay attention.  He tells the specific things that Sennacherib and his army have done.  We should be specific and intentional in our prayers as well.  Tell God what has happened and ask for His intervention.  In describing his circumstances, Hezekiah realizes that some of his fears aren’t all that rational.  As he talks about Assyria destroying the gods of various nations, he realizes, “O, those gods are just manmade idols anyway.  They don’t have any power.  Of course their gods couldn’t save them, but You the real God.”  Naming our situation when the enemy threatens us helps us to clarify it and what we need God to do about it.

            Notice that Hezekiah begins his prayer with praise.  When the enemy threatens, we should begin our prayers with praise.  Praise reminds us who God is.  It helps us to remember God’s power and presence.  It reminds us of the reality of God.  Did you catch how Hezekiah’s praise reflects his circumstances?  His praise of God is relevant to the threat at hand.  He praises Yahweh as Yahweh of Hosts—Lord of the Armies.  This is a military threat, but God’s got a mightier army.  He lifts up Yahweh as the God of Israel.  This is the God of his people, but then he goes on to praise God as not just the God of Israel but the God over all, the only true God, the maker of heaven and earth.  Whatever threat we are facing, we can praise God as being the One who can overcome that threat.  If faced with a medical situation, we can praise God for being the one who heals, the Great Physician, the one who saves, the one who has power over life or death.  If we are faced with financial threat, we can praise God for being the one who owns all things, the one who provides for all our needs.  If we face natural disasters, we can praise God for being Lord of Creation, the one whom the wind and waves obey, the One who can walk on water, the one who sends rain from heaven, the one who draws a line in the sand for the sea.  Whatever kinds of threats we may face, we can praise God in a way that reminds us that He is in control and has all power against every enemy that may come against us. 

            When petitioning God, Hezekiah gives the “why” for the outcome he desires.  Hezekiah asks for deliverance, but he does so that, “all the kingdoms of the earth will know that You alone, Yahweh, are God.”  We need to think about our petitions and tell God our “why”.  What is the purpose of the outcome we desire?  It is just to solve a problem?  How does the answer we desire play into the bigger part of God’s plan for the world?  Maybe we ask God to deliver us for what God wants to do through us to expand His kingdom.  Maybe we ask for God’s help so that in answering it can show an unbelieving friend or even the enemy who threatens us who God is.  Sometimes when I have come to the “why” of my prayers, it has changed my request.  I realized that what I was praying for was completely self-centered.  We are told to pray in accordance with God’s will.  The “why” of your prayer can very often help you determine whether or not you are praying in accordance with God’s will. 

            The story ends with God answering Hezekiah’s prayer.  First God brings the word of promise through Isaiah, and then we have the actual account of how that answer came to pass. 

God’s answer came in multiple parts.  The angel of the Lord, symbol of the pre-Incarnate Christ, destroyed 185000 Assyrian soldiers, causing the retreat of the army and Sennacherib to go back to his home in Nineveh.  God promised the land would provide for them for the next two years, taking care of all those who were faithful to the Lord.  God promised that a faithful remnant would remain and continue to rise up.  Sennacherib was killed by 2 of his sons while he was worshipping his false god 20 years later.  When we ask in confident faith according to the will of God, we can trust that God will answer our prayers. 

            When the enemy threatens, remember, sometimes the best thing to do is to keep your mouth shut.  You don’t have to respond to the threat.  Turn to God’s Word to see what God has already said about your situation.  Ask others to pray for you.  Pray for your situation remembering to praise God in light of the threat you face.  Be specific about your situation.  Remember to not only ask the Lord for what you want God to do buy why you want God to answer, so that you can pray in accordance with God’s will.  Look for the answer, and remember to thank God for it.

The Final War; Isaiah 34, Revelation 6, I Peter 4:7-19

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The Devil is Defeated!; Isaiah 33:1, Hebrews 2:14-16, Romans 16:17-20

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Where Do You Put Your Trust?; Isaiah 30-31

 

Once again, I’m amazed at the relevance and timeliness of this scripture.  We have an anxiety epidemic in this country.  People are stressed out. Long term economic outlook for the younger generations is very bleak.  Want to flee to somewhere else?  Things are even bleaker in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and most of Europe.  We think, “If so and so could get elected, things will get better.”  Then so and so doesn’t get elected and we feel defeated, or so and so does get elected, but nothing changes.  Campaign promises are broken, and the status quo remains.  I listened to a doctor this week who told one of his patients with high stress to turn off the news for a month.  The patient followed orders, came back in a month, and their sleep quality had improved and their blood pressure had gone down.  We find ourselves anxious and despairing because we put our trust in the wrong things.  We think this program or this person can fix things, if we passed this law or got rid of this one, if we got this job or moved to this place, or made this investment.  King David wrote in Psalm 20:7 “Some boast in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of Yahweh our God.”  God is the only person in whom we can fully trust.  God’s Word is the only Word we can truly trust. 

            There are many wrong places in which we can put our trust.  One of the worst things we can do is trust in ourselves and make up our own plans without consulting God.  When we don’t ask for God’s guidance, when we try to go it alone, when we devise our own schemes, they very often come back to bite us.  Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  Who can know it?”  We can get deceived if we follow our heart, especially if we let our emotions lead us.  Even if we use our rational minds, we often do not come up with all the possible solutions.  And although our instincts can be very trustworthy because God gave them to us, we really need to consult God with our plans.  Who knows the heart?  God does.  The Bible study group is looking at the Exodus Way—how God leads us out of bad situations, leads us through wilderness times, and leads us into the Promised Land, God’s kingdom.  Our podcast episodes this week pointed out that many of the situations from which we need Exodus—for God to lead us out—are ones of our own making.  Somewhere along the line, we deviated from the plan God had for us.  This is what we see in our passage today.  God’s own people are falling under judgment because they had devised their own scheme instead of trusting God.  Assyria was threatening them, but instead of asking for God’s direction and deliverance, they rebelled against Yahweh, and looked elsewhere for help.

            This leads to the next bad place to put one’s trust which is in unholy alliances.  Israel decides it will make an alliance with Egypt, the country that had oppressed them for 400 years.  Paul warns us about forming unholy alliances in 2 Corinthians 6:14ff.   

    Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?  What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:  'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’  Therefore, ‘Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.  Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”   And, ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’

Unholy alliances can result with us ending up indebted to those who want to see us fail.  Isaiah warns Israel that this alliance with Egypt is going to end up in their humiliation.  The rulers of Egypt will not be able to help them.  Military might often backfires.  We have seen this time and time again in our own country’s history.  Let’s pray we aren’t making the same mistake again!  Certainly, the regime change in Syria hasn’t gone so well, especially for Syrian Christians.  Alliances are costly.  Tribute would have to be paid to Egypt in the form of money and goods, but often in return military service.  Ray Ortlund in his commentary on Isaiah points out that human favor is costly, but often worthless.  It certainly was going to be for Israel.  We must not try to spiritualize unholy alliances nor fall prey to the idea that the ends justify the means.  Sometimes God does call us to work with those who are very different from us, but we must only do so as God guides us. 

            The third bad place to put our trust in bad advice and flattery.  How many times have you witnessed people asking for advice or searching online for advice only to ignore or dismiss said advice when it didn’t affirm what they wanted to hear?  Maybe you have been guilty of this.  We Instead of listening to the Lord, and going so far as to try to silence the seers and prophets, told them to speak pleasant words.  They didn’t want to hear about God, let alone about what God had to say.  They didn’t want to be reminded of God’s commandments.  Often we want to remake God in our image instead of being conformed to God’s image.  We need to be careful not be drawn in by pleasant words when we need to receive the prophetic word.  Flannery O’Connor wrote, “The truth does not change according to your ability to stomach it.” 

            The consequences for misplaced trust can be disastrous.  For Israel, God says through Isaiah that their destruction will come suddenly and unexpectedly and so complete that it will be like a clay pot that is broken so violently that all is left is dust and crumbles so small that none is big enough to scoop a coal from the fire or to scoop water out of a cistern.  Our misplaced trust can leave us utterly defeated and broken. 

            But there is hope and good news.  When we find ourselves broken and defeated because we have misplaced our trust, the solution is simple and readily available.  God’s good word to Israel and to us is this: “In repentance and rest, you shall be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.”  All we have to do is call out to God in repentance and rest in Him.  We have to let God take control and trust in Him and His goodness.  At first glance, we may find God’s way to be unhelpful.  Waiting on the Lord in the middle of a “crisis”?  That’s a real challenge.  And God can be demanding.  God’s commandments, after all, are non-negotiable, and aren’t always easy to follow.  Loving your neighbor is tough.  Loving your enemy is even tougher.  Denying yourself?  When we find ourselves being offended by something Christ asks us to do, we need to ask ourselves why.  There’s probably a sin in there that needs confessing, and something for which we may need to ask for God’s help.

            Sadly, Israel refused to repent.  God says that they were not willing.  Instead, they tried to flee the coming Assyrian army on horses.  Even so, God didn’t give up on them.  Isaiah says, “The Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore, He is on high to have compassion on you.  For Yahweh is a God of justice.  How blessed as those who wait for Him.”  God is patient with us as well.  God waits for us to repent and to call out to Him.  He will carry out justice.  Isaiah continues the good news, “A people will inhabit Zion, Jerusalem.  You will weep no longer.  He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.  When He hears it, He will answer you.”  Bible study friends, if that last phrase sounds like what we heard this week in our study, you are correct in seeing the pattern that God always answers when His people cry out to Him.  The One who has withheld blessings from the unrepentant lavishes them on the repentant. The One who has wounded in judgment, will heal all wounds in love.  He will be your Teacher and show you the way you should go.  The proverb says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path.”  Isaiah then says they will get rid of their idols.  When we see who God is and what God can do, we will willingly destroy our own idols.  All it takes is repentance.  God always responds to repentance with mercy.

            This message in Isaiah 30-31 was for the nation more than it was for individuals.  I think we need to hear the same concerns as a nation.  We have celebrated Independence Day, but our nation is not in great shape today.  The dollar is on the verge of collapse.  Our Constitutional freedoms for which the founders of this country fought so hard for and drafted so carefully are being eroded.  Our citizens are largely unhealthy.  Our people are divided.  As a country, we are putting our trust in the wrong places.  I finished reading my required books for my theology group in October, so I am back to reading for fun.  I picked up this book about the CIA.  Listen to this snippet about the fall of Communism in Europe after the Berlin wall and Soviet Union collapsed…

    ...The fall of Communism was the result of a huge undercurrent; a longing for civil and religious freedom among the people which could no longer be restrained...When Communism fell in the East, the people did not pour into the streets waving American flags or praising the CIA for its power and prowess.  They broke out into the streets in droves and celebrated Communion.  Churches barely tolerated during the Cold War which had not been closed down by the government were swamped.  The Soviet Duma began having daily Bible studies during its sessions.  The sad part was, while the former Soviet Union was introducing the Bibe in its government sessions and placing it as a part of student curricula in its schools, America had kicked the Bible out of education and almost every part of open public life.  I watched the beginning of one inspiring revival of religious freedom in the East, and the slow elimination of another in America, occurring despite the warnings of the framers of the Constitution.  It was if we had become so fat and happy we had forgotten the fundamental truth which gave us our freedom and liberty.

The author, Kevin Shipp, goes on to share a conversation he had with a former KGB agent.

    'You know, Kevin, our country has left communism and is now a democracy.'
     'Yes, I know, that is wonderful.'    
     'But there is one thing we have learned.'     
     'What is that?'                      
     'We have learned a free society cannot function without a belief in the Bible.'                                       

 Amazed, I responded, 'You know, you are right!'  I will never forget that moment and how ironic it was that the opposite seemed to be happening in America--the country which had communicated this truth to the world for so many decades.  Communism had fallen because of human being's innage thirst for true religion, freedom, and meaning in life.

And we as a country have turned even further from God today than he was talking about then.  And for some reason, we want to make Russia, a majority Christian country, whose adherence to the faith rivals and percentage wise by some surveys, exceeds ours, our enemy.  Perceived enemies are not the real threat.  God will take care of them, just as God took care of Assyria.  God told them that He was going to fight them in multiple ways—with natural disasters, and in battles, and that they would be the one burned up on the Topheth.  God is our ally.  The gospel is truth. God is our only hope.  Ray Ortlund in his commentary on Isaiah wrote, “Our only hope is in abandoning every other hope, however obvious.  Our only truth is in disbelieving every other truth, however widely accepted.  Our only safety is in trust; our only stability is in yielding control; our only freedom is in surrender.”  Our future with Christ is secure and joy-filled, and nothing can separate us from God’s love.

            What do your actions say about your trust in God?  Do you act like God isn’t in the picture?  Do you ask God to bless your schemes and plans instead of asking God what His plan is?  Do you live as if you have to go it alone?  Do you try to find your own solutions to your problems without consulting God?  Do you feel like you have to make compromises with people whose values oppose yours simply to get things done?  It happened a lot during COVID.  Remember that God is not obligated to bless your plans, but God does bless your obedience when you walk in His plans.  Again, from Ray Ortlund's commentary on Isaiah:

  ...whatever God says to us in the gospel, he speaks with love and grace.  Some of his truths will melt in your mouth.  Other truths will hit you like a ton of bricks.  But everything God says opens up to you the life hidden with Christ in God--if you are open.  Trust him enough to keep listening.  Give his gospel a willing audience in the inmost chamber of your soul, whatever his Word says.  Do not listen with detachment, but open your heart wide to God.  He will surprise you with how his wisdom really does work. 

May we off-load “our alliances with the false salvations of this world, and enter more and more into the life that is hidden for us with Christ in God.”  How do we do this?  We become like little children reaching out to our Heavenly Father, and He will give “songs in the night.” 

A Grain of Wheat; John 12:20-26

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When It All Falls Apart; Isaiah 29:1-14, Matthew 15:1-9, II Timothy 3:1-5

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Dream Dreams!; Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2:1-21

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The Invisible Church; Ephesians 1:1-14

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The Visible Church; I Corinthians 12:12-31a

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Proclaiming the Resurrection; Acts 10:34-48

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Unbelievable News; Luke 24:1-43

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Jesus Is Buried; Luke 23:50-56

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The Lamb Comes into the House; Exodus 12:1-6, Mark 11:1-11

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An Innocent Man; Luke 23:47, Matthew 27:54, Mark 15:39, Hebrews 7:23-28

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"I Commit My Spirit"; Luke 23:46, Psalm 31

 

“I commit my Spirit into Your hands.”  These are dying words.  They are literally the dying words of Jesus—His last statement from the cross.  These are the dying words of Stephen, the first martyr, who in his own death, mirrored Jesus in all of his words and actions including interceding for forgiveness for his murderers.  These are words of total surrender to and trust in God the Father.  But one doesn’t have to wait until one is dying to utter these words.  These words were first spoken by David in a psalm he gave to his choir director so that it could be performed for corporate worship.  They came from a personal place in his own experience but can be used by anyone.  These are words that we can use as an expression of our own trust in God.

            The psalms are the prayerbook of the Hebrew people.  Both Jesus and Stephen would have grown up singing and reciting Psalm 31.  Think of how many hymns you know by heart.  Jesus and Stephen would have been able to recall these words and apply then to their situation. 

As David wrote these words for the choir director, it’s clear he was thinking back on his own life when he had been in a dire situation, one in which he didn’t know if he would live or die.  He did live, and so the psalm ends in praise to God for preserving him and being his refuge.  But the promise of preservation is for all of God’s people.  We might be saved like David was, able to live many years, or we might lose our lives like Stephen, but that doesn’t mean God does not preserve us, for we have been given eternal life.

The Brief Statement of Faith of the PC(USA) begins, “In life and in death, we belong to only comfort in life and in death?  The answer is, “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.  He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.  He also watches over me in such a way that not a hear can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven.  In fact, all things must work together for my salvation.  Because I belong to him, Christ, by His holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him.  “I commit my Spirit” ought to be our response to the fact that in life and in death, we belong to God and in response for all that Jesus has accomplished for us.  Biblical scholar J. Clinton McCann Jr says, “Into Your hands I commit my spirit” can be said as, “I turn my life over to you.”  Our lives already belong to God, but committing our spirit to God shows that we acknowledge this fact, and both willingly and with hope surrender ourselves to God. 

Unlike us, Jesus was fully in charge of His own death.  He had told Pilate that Pilate couldn’t take His life unless He, Jesus, permitted it.  Jesus had preached as recorded in John 10 how He lay down His own life only to take it up again, and “No one takes it from Me, but I law it down on my own initiative.  I lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.  This commandment I received from My Father.”  When Jesus said, Father, into your hands I commit My Spirit,” He was reiterating that He was surrendering His life to the Father.  The Romans and the Jewish leaders were only the means by which Jesus died. But they were not in control of Jesus’s death any more or any less than you and I were.  Jesus’s last breath was His to surrender.  Jesus died on purpose with purpose.  He died to accomplish all those things stated in that first answer to the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism.   

The last words that Jesus spoke before His death were not the first time that He had committed His spirit into the Father’s hands.  From the time He entered humanity, Jesus submitted Himself to the Father.  He constantly sought the Father’s will and obeyed it.  He lived in the Father’s hands and He died in the Father’s hands.  His life is a model for us that we can make the same commitment any and each day of our lives. 

The sentence “Into your hands I commit my spirit” is not the only forshadowing of Jesus’s life we see in the psalm.  David speaks of being falsely accused.  Jesus had been falsely accused of blasphemy.  The psalm says, “My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and body.”  Jesus was the “Man of Sorrows.”  But unlike the psalmist, it was not His iniquity that caused His pain, but ours.  The psalmist speaks of being rejected by and repulsive to his friends and neighbors.  With the exception of John and some of the women, the disciples fled when Jesus was arrested.  But the psalmist also confesses, “My times are in your hands.”  And at the beginning of each stanza confesses that he trusts in God.  God orders everything from our births to our deaths to everything in between—times of abundance and times of scarcity, times of doubt and times of surety, times of hardship and times of ease.  The writer of Ecclesiastes words it, “To everything there is season:  a time and a purpose under heaven.”  In life and in death, we belong to God. 

What about you?  Do you commit your life into the Father’s hands in times of affliction?  What about all the time?  Everyday?  With every moment of your life?  Is Jesus truly Lord of your life?  I see people who claim to love Jesus, but they really haven’t fully committed themselves into the Father’s hands.  The Bible study group is working on Lesson 4 in our study, which looks at the expectation of suffering in the life of a disciple.  It is far more normal and to be expected that one who is really committed to following Jesus will suffer.  Even in our world today, far more believers are persecuted for their faith than not.  One of the passages we are looking at is I Peter 4.  The chapter ends with verse 19 which says, “Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”

A test of whether or not we have committed our souls to God is will we do the right thing even when it costs us dearly. 

            Committing our spirits into God’s hands doesn’t mean all of our problems will go away. As Craig Broyles writes, “God does not automatically or instantaneously solve problems.”  However, not submitting to Christ’s Lordship doesn’t mean that we will have less problems. In fact, I guarantee it will mean more because you will be working against the Holy Spirit instead of in cooperation with the Spirit.  Have you ever thought of your problems as God’s problems to fix?  David did.  He didn’t blame God for his problems in this psalm, but he does expect God to do something about them.  He knows his problems are way too big for him to solve on his own.  He ask God more than once to “deliver me,” “rescue me quickly,” “save me,” “don’t let me be put to shame,” “make your face shine upon your servant,” (that’s a prayer for God’s blessing and favor), “let the wicked be put to shame,” “let the lying lips be silent.”  All of these are requests for God to solve his problems.  Committing our lives into the Father’s hands is “letting go and letting God be God.”

               Despite all the hardships and suffering, God is good and has great goodness stored up for those who fear Him, those who commit their spirits into His hands.  The apostle Paul considered all of his many sufferings as “light and momentary afflictions” compared to the eternal weight of glory he would experience.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “If a son asks his father for bread, will the dad give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a scorpion?  If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”  God has good things to give us.  When you worry about what God might take away and use it as an excuse to not surrender to God, you miss out on all the wonderful things God would have for you.  It is God who wants the best for us.  It is the world that harms and takes away, and it is the devil who comes to “steal, kill and destroy.”  God is worthy of our trust.  Jesus is worthy of our total devotion.  Will you like Jesus, David, Stephen, Peter, and Paul and so many others “commit your spirit into His hands?”

Behind the Curtain; Luke 23:45b, Hebrews 9-10

 

We use curtains to hide things.  Shower curtains maintain our privacy as well as keep the water from getting all over the floor.  Window curtains keep people from looking into our houses.  I used to watch the Price is Right when I was younger.  Would pulling back the curtain reveal a great prize, like a new car or trip or an okay prize like a small kitchen appliance?  The climax of the Wizard of Oz occurs when Dorothy and her companions finally get to Oz to meet the wizard, and Toto, the dog, being intuitive as pets are, pulls back the curtain to expose a man using special effects.  While clever, the man has no magical powers or real knowledge of how to get Dorothy back home.  For years, the curtain protected the wizard, but now all was exposed.  He was just a power-hungry individual engaged in manipulation.  Curtains can conceal something wonderful or something shameful, and sometimes the difference is in perspective.  In our Scripture readings today, we hear about the curtain in the temple, the one that separate the Holy of Holies from the inner court.  Upon Jesus’s death, that curtain was not simply pulled back, it was torn in two from top to bottom.  Everything behind the curtain was exposed.  For some it was shameful, for others, it reveals wonderful things. 

            The shame hidden behind the temple curtain was fake worship.  In the video clip, you saw the high priest’s reaction to the tearing of the veil.  The Jewish leaders are devastated.  They cannot pretend to offer sacrifices anymore.  The sham worship they had been doing for hundreds of years was exposed.  There was no Ark of the Covenant.  What you saw cracked inside the Holy of Holies was a stone altar.  I don’t know if they put a stone altar in there or if it was a somewhat empty space, but what was not there was the Ark of the Covenant.  It had been taken in the 6^th Century BC.  The Coptic Orthodox Church of Ethiopia claims to have it at the Church in Axum, and maybe they really do.  But since they claim to have had it for 3000 years, I seriously doubt it. 

            There’s nothing in Scripture to say that the temple itself was torn in two like the movie.  Presumably. they made another curtain and restarted their fake worship for a few more decades, but the tearing of the veil also foreshadowed that the sham worship would be ended once and for all when the temple would be destroyed in 70 AD. 

            Gibson got it wrong in showing the veil being torn from the bottom to the top, which is what you might expect if it was the earthquake that caused it, but top to bottom shows that this rending of the curtain is God’s intentional act.  In the negative sense, it symbolized the departure of the glory of God from the Temple.  I Samuel 4 tells the story of the Philistines attacking Israel and stealing the Ark of the Covenant.  In the process, the sons of Eli the priest, Hophni and Phineas, are killed, and Eli himself dies upon hearing the news that his sons are dead and the Ark has been taken.  Phineas’s wife, who is very pregnant, goes into labor at the news, and dies shortly after the traumatic birth, the midwives try to encourage her by saying she has delivered a boy, boy, but she names the child, “Ichabod,” which means “the glory has departed,” saying that the glory of God has been removed from Israel—no ark, no glory.  And the Jews had felt abandoned by God.  They hadn’t seen that glory in a long time, though the priest did stay alive from year to year, giving them hope, and yet, we know God was still working and answering prayers.  Just in the offering of incense, not even in the Holy of Holies, but just outside of it, Zechariah learned that his prayers for a child had indeed been heard, and not only that, all the cries for a Messiah were about to be answered with the birth of Jesus. 

            And so the tearing of the curtain also symbolizes good news.  We hear again in our Hebrews text how the Holy of Holies could only be entered once a year and only by the high priest.  This was where the presence of God presumably dwelt, and literally did many times as recorded in the Old Testament.  But the tearing of the veil showed that the presence of God was not limited to time or space or a particular person, but everyone could now have access to the God’s presence.  God is not hidden away, but accessible to anyone.  The accessibility comes through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. 

            There’s no more need for a Temple, no more need for sacrifices.  Jesus offered Himself once for all.  Christ is the high priest of a tabernacle not made by human hands, one that is far superior to Solomon’s or Herod’s temple.  And He didn’t offer the blood of animals, but He offered His own blood.  We don’t have to worry from year to year if our sins will be forgiven; we have been forgiven and are being forgiven.  The prize on the other side of the torn curtain is eternal life in Christ.  The last verse of Hebrew 9 contains the promise that Christ will appear a second tie for salvation for those who eagerly await Him.  He won’t have to pay for sin again because that’s already been done. 

            There were other sacrifices besides the once-a-year atonement sacrifice that involved putting blood on the Ark of the Covenant.  There were individual guilt offerings.  There were peace offerings, and there were thank offerings.  On the cross, Jesus not only paid for our sins, but for our guilt and shame.  Those are removed.  Through His blood, Jesus has made peace between us and God.  As a thank offering Jesus shows us that everything good comes from God.  In return, we offer our thanks and praises to God as offerings, and we offer ourselves as living sacrifices in thanks to God. Jesus truly is the once for all sacrifice.   

Notice there’s nothing about the need for an earthly temple to be established before Christ returns.  Rather, our text says that all those things from the beginning were mere shadows of what was to come.  Anyone saying that the Temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt before Christ can return is at best grossly misinterpreting the book of Daniel.  Herod’s temple was the 3^rd physical temple.  The second temple was rebuilt by the exiles who returned to Jerusalem.  The temple that matters now is the one not built by human hands, which we are told is the Church—the people who follow Christ are the temple of God, and each one of us is a temple of God.  I want to read just a little more from Hebrews 10 beginning in 19:  

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy  Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Here we are told that the veil that was torn was Jesus’s own flesh.  And because of what Christ did, we can confidently enter in to the most holy place, the presence of God.  We can have assurance that our hearts are sprinkled and our bodies washed with pure water.  This latter is a reference to baptism, which signifies our entrance into the church.  We have assurance of our forgiveness, and we are called to encourage each other to love and good deeds.  No longer are our works dead, but profitable.  And we are called to continue to meet together as His Church.  If we want to hasten the day of Christ’s coming, we are to live as the writer of the Hebrews tells us and as Peter tells us to in 2 Peter 3:11 in “holy conduct and godliness.”  Peter also tells us that the reason Christ hasn’t returned yet is because the Lord is patiently waiting for people to come to repentance.  Jesus Himself said that He will not return until “this gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the earth.”  There are still people who need to hear the good news of the kingdom.  Believe it or not, some of them are right here in our town.  And there are a lot of people groups in the world who still have never heard.  We need to pray, as Jesus commanded, that “the Lord of the harvest would send more laborers.”  

Friends the curtain is gone!  We have full access to God in Jesus Christ and access to all of God’s blessings.  We have assurance that our sins are forgiven, that our prayers are heard and will be answered.  We have assurance of eternal life.  We offer worship pleasing to God.  We have the best prize package!  And the Man behind the curtain is no scam artist, but Jesus Christ—God in flesh, who is our High Priest forever. 

Finding Your Identity; Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Luke 4:1-13

 To listen, click here.

The Brightest and Darkest Moments; Luke 9:28-36, Luke 23:44-45a

 

Think of the brightest moment in your life—a time of happiness, wonder, and joy.  What was it?....Now think of the darkest moment in your life—a time of great pain, grief, maybe a tragedy you would rather forget.  Maybe you even asked or cried out, “Where are you, God?”  Was Jesus in both of those moments?  Did He share in your joy?  Did He share in your sufferings?  Today we look at the brightest and darkest moments in Jesus’s life—His transfiguration, and his crucifixion. 

            The Transfiguration was literally the brightest day for Jesus.  He appeared in light as light.  Luke describes his clothing as flashing like lightening.  Jesus appeared in all His heavenly glory, that which was His from before time, and that which He has now.  Jesus was being honored by God the Father.  And yet, even in this brightest moment, there was talk of darkness ahead.  Jesus, Moses, and Elijah are having a conversation about “Jesus’s departure” “He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.  That’s a nice way of saying Jesus’s death.  We aren’t giving any details about the conversation, but it was something Peter, James, and John were able to hear, although they do not participate in it.  We are only told that towards the end of the conversation, Peter interrupted to say that they could build tabernacles for Jesus and the two prophets.  Luke tells us that they had been sleepy before this, and it was the light that brought them to their senses.  The other two gospels emphasize how terrified they were.  While this was a bright day for Jesus, the disciples were overwhelmed and scared.  God has to speak in a cloud to tell them to PAY ATTENTION!  Something important and serious is happening and going to happen.  They had to be reminded that Jesus wasn’t an ordinary rabbi.  He is the Son of God, the Chosen One.”  If you remember from last week, these are the very titles that the religious leaders used to mock Jesus and challenge Him to come down off the cross. 

            For the 3 disciples, I’m sure this was a WOW experience that took some time to process.  They didn’t talk about it until years later.  That probably would’ve been a hard thing to do!  The Bible study group has been looking at the life of Paul this week.  In re-reading Paul’s conversion experience this week, it dawned on me that the light Paul and the soldiers experienced on that Damascus road was the glorified Jesus—the risen and ascended One shining with the same glory that Peter, James, and John saw on that mountaintop, light so bright that it left Paul blind until Ananias healed him, and may have even been the source of his ongoing eye problems, which Dr. Luke helped treat.  Like Peter, James, and John, everyone fell to the ground in fear.  I can imagine Paul talking to Peter after he returns from his 3 year period in the wilderness and sharing his experience.  I’m sure Peter and John both would have made comparisons with their experience of Jesus. 

For Jesus, this experience allowed Him to reveal His divine fullness to the disciples.  The voice from the Father, echoing what He spoke at Jesus’s baptism, must have been a comfort and reassurance to Jesus.  He would hear God speak one more time during Holy Week when Jesus was teaching and some Greeks wanted to see Jesus.  We don’t know if they ever got to, but the people around Jesus did.  He tells them, “This voice has not come for my sake but for your sakes.” This bright moment for Jesus gave Him something to look forward to, knowing that He was about to face His darkest moment. 

Jesus’s darkest moment was hanging on the cross, dying.  Everyone in Jerusalem and maybe even broader, participated in this darkest moment with the sun being obscured for 3 hours.  We have seen that yes, there was an eclipse during this time, but this couldn’t have been any ordinary eclipse.  3 hours of totality would be something for sure!  Totality during an eclipse is generally a few minutes.  The longest solar eclipse ever recorded is 743 BC at just over 7 ½ minutes.  That’s BC, so if one lasted 3 hours in 33 AD, it surely would have made the history books.  Furthermore, Jesus was crucified around the full moon, not the new moon, which is required for a solar eclipse.  In fact, Julius Africanus writing in 240 AD, reflecting on the writings of Thallus from 50 AD, says that Thallus’s explanation of this 3 hours of darkness being an eclipse are “without evidence.”  There was also an earthquake when Jesus died.  We will hear more about this in a couple of weeks.  Depending on when that earthquake actually hit, it could have thrown enough dust in the air to darken it.  We know that volcanos have done this, so much so, that the sky has been darkened for nearly a year!  3 hours is nothing for a volcano and even a large earthquake.  But all the gospel put the earthquake just before or right at Jesus’s death.  Back in Luke 22, when Jesus was arrested, He said “to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come out against Him, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs as against a robber?  While I was in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me, but this is your hour and power of darkness.”  Of course, Jesus’s arrest and trials and tortures by the Jewish leaders and Herod were all at night.  In the morning, He went before Pilate and was tried and tortured.  And as He was crucified around noon, the sky once again became as dark as night and stayed that way until Jesus died at 3pm.  This was also an hour of the power of darkness.  It looked like evil was winning.  Certainly, evil was very much at work.  The sky darkening could have been creation’s response to the crucifixion of Jesus.  When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the religious leaders tried to make Jesus get His disciples to shut up as they were praising God and singing about the Messiah, but Jesus told the leaders that if they were to be silent, the rocks would cry out.  Romans 8 tells us that all creation is groaning, even now.  Romans 8:20-22--"For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.  We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."

But just as there was a bit of darkness on Jesus’s brightest day for the disciples, that holy terror that overcame them and perhaps even lingered after they came down from the mountain, there is brightness for us on Jesus’s darkest day.  Craig Evans suggests in his commentary on Luke that the 3 hours of darkness might be a foreshadowing of Christ’s return.  Christ’s return is referred to by both Jesus and Paul as being “like a thief in the night,” not that it means Jesus will come at night (because it will always be light somewhere anyway), but that His coming will be unexpected.  Paul, Peter, and the book of Revelation all talk about the heavens and earth shaking violently when Christ returns.  Even Jesus, as brokenhearted as He is, knows that He will come again in glory.  The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus went to the cross keeping in mind the “joy that was set before Him.”  Joy would be coming. 

We know that there is even more light for us on this darkest of days, so much so that we now call this day, “Good Friday.”  The brightest as we have heard the past two weeks is that we have been forgiven at the cross and have had the way to eternal life opened for us.  We know that Jesus’s crucifixion is the greatest expression of God’s love for us, that God sent Jesus to be condemned and die in our place.  And though it looked like evil was winning, it was by Christ’s death that the devil was defeated.  Colossians 2:15 says, “When He, that is Jesus, disarmed the rulers and authorities (that is the spiritual powers and authorities), He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through the cross.”  Yes, we can stand with the women and John at the cross and weep.  It is a very dark day, but the darkness cannot overcome the light.

            We may not realize it, but Jesus is present with us not only in our brightest moments, but in our darkest moments as well.  He suffers with us, and we offer our sufferings up to Him.  In our brightest moments, He rejoices with us, and we are called to glorify and praise Him.  Jesus is with us in every moment.  No matter how dark it gets, Jesus is the Light which the darkness cannot overcome.  The Light will shine again.  Darkness cannot win. 

Saving Others; Luke 23:35-43

 

The first Sunday in Lent in just two weeks away.  Generally, the first Sunday in Lent is recognized as “Temptation of the Lord Sunday.”  It’s a story we all know well, and yes, we will hear it again, but even now, I want to remind you that two of the 3 named temptations that Jesus faced from the devil were ones in which He was tempted to save Himself—turning stones into bread, and throwing Himself off the Temple, in which case, it would be the angels that would come to His aid.  The devil, for all three temptations, started out by challenging Jesus’ identity, “If you are the Son of God” or “Since you are the Son of God.”  Here at the end of His earthly life, Jesus faces one last temptation to save Himself.  Those daring Him to do so, use similar, devilish words, “If this is the Christ of God, the Chosen One,” “If you are the Messiah,” “If you are the King of the Jews,” then save yourself!  But Jesus’s mission was always, “I have come to seek and to save the lost.”  Jesus’s mission was saving others. 

            The challenge for Jesus to save Himself was all done in a mocking, critical way.  The first ones to start it were the “rulers”—that is the Jewish religious rulers.  They start their railings by saying, “He saved others.”  Note that even though they are jeering and once again trying to rile up the bystanders who came to watch the crucifixion, they admit a truth:  Jesus saved others.  No longer are they denying what they had seen and heard—Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, and forgave sins.  For their mocking and challenge to make sense, they have to admit that Jesus did and can save!  Even so, they do not want to admit that He is the Messiah.  As they mock Jesus, they are fulfilling prophetic words found in the Apocrypha.  I would like to read to you from the Wisdom of Solomon.  This is from the King James version.  Yes, the early King James Bibles contained the apocrypha.  There are people who try to say that the apocryphal books are not quoted in the New Testament, but I think that’s because they haven’t read them. Jesus quotes from the book of Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus, many times.  Other passages, like this one I’m about to read are alluded to.  This is from Wisdom 2:1 and then picking up in verse 10 to the end of the chapter.  I found more in later chapters of this book as well.  But listen and see if you can picture the religious rulers at the foot of the cross.  

For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.

2

10Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.

11Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.

12Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education.

13He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.

14He was made to reprove our thoughts.

15He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion.

16We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.

17Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.

18For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.

19Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.

20Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.

21Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.

22As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.

23For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.

24Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.

            The second group to mock Jesus is the Roman soldiers.  The Roman soldiers pick up the taunt for Jesus to come down from the cross.  Instead of saying, “If you are the Christ, the Chosen One, the Messiah,” terms which held little to know meaning for them, they pick up on the title, “King of the Jews.”  “If you are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.”  They can see the sign Pilate has had written and placed on the cross.  The sign was written in 3 languages so that everyone who was literate could read and understand these words, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.  The longest version of the sign is recorded in the gospel of John, “Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews.”  If all this was on there, then the sign would have been of significant size.  In his commentary on Luke, Craig Evans points out that these words are probably the only words about Jesus written in His lifetime.  The disciples wouldn’t have written the gospels until after Pentecost.  The earliest gospel manuscript dates to around 52 AD.  Paul wrote about Jesus earlier than the disciples did!  We can date Galatians to 49 AD.  This title for Jesus, written above His wounded head, though incomplete, was nonetheless true.  He was and still is King of the Jews.  Pilate wanted to believe in Jesus.  He refused to write what the Jewish leaders wanted him to write, which was, “He says He is the King of the Jews.”  And yet, Pilate could not embrace the truth even as he knew and professed Jesus’s innocence.  Jesus wasn’t just King of the Jews.  He was King of the Roman soldiers as well, and He didn’t come off the cross so that they too might be saved. 

            Even the criminals on the crosses on either side of Jesus joined in the mocking and challenging Jesus to come off the cross.  Matthew’s gospel tells us both were involved.  These men would have known nothing about Jesus, and still they jeered and cried out for Jesus to save Himself.  But they add something extra—“Save yourself, and us.”  Perhaps they were really hoping that Jesus would prove Himself and take them all off their crosses, and yet they didn’t really believe He could do it.  Would they have changed if He had?  I don’t think so.  I can imagine them getting freed and then booking it just as hard as they could.  Maybe the one would have, like the one leper out of the 10 that returned to Jesus to give thanks, still have turned to Him in worship and thanks.  That’s not what happened.  However, even though Jesus doesn’t take Himself and them off their crosses, one of the thieves is saved.  At some point one of the criminals changed his mind.  He stopped mocking and called across to the other one saying, “Don’t you even fear God, since you are under the same condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.”  As death approaches, the reality of what he has done sets in.  He is about to meet his maker.  This is not the time to joke around, but to prepare for eternal judgment.  Some people try to say that the thief was saved without repentance.  No, he doesn’t ask Jesus to forgive him, but he DOES confess his sin before God.  He acknowledges that he has committed crimes which deserve the death penalty and he confesses referential fear of God before God.  And then He looks to the One who can really save Him.  He goes on to say to the other criminal, “But this man has done nothing wrong.”  Somehow, he discerned Jesus’s innocence.  Perhaps it was hearing Jesus pray, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  The words above the cross that Jesus is a King hit him in a new way.  The Holy Spirit is at work.  He turns to Jesus and says, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.”  Because Jesus didn’t save Himself, He could save the man hanging next to Him.  Jesus replies, “Truly, I say to you today, you shall be with Me in Paradise.”  Paradise was a mythological walled garden.  Jesus uses language this man can understand.  It is a return to the Garden of Eden.  This walled garden of Paradise is the garden of the King.  To be invited in, was a huge honor.  To be with Jesus in Paradise means being a companion of the King in a safe place of peace and beauty!  How much better than simply coming off the cross! This man has eternal life!  Peace and fellowship with God forever where no evil exists and no harm can be done by him or to him. 

            Three different groups of people challenged Jesus to save Himself and to come off the cross, but Jesus didn’t come to save Himself.  Could Jesus have come down off the cross?  Of course.  Could He have healed His own wounds like Wolverine in X-Men?  I’m sure.  But that was not His purpose.  Jesus came to save others.  If He had come off the cross, even if He had gotten the other two men down off their crosses, Jesus wouldn’t have saved anyone but Himself.  The criminals would have died some other way, even if was at the end of a long life, but they would have still faced judgment and eternal condemnation.  The repentant thief wouldn’t have had the promise of paradise with Jesus.  Jesus didn’t get off the cross because He was in the business of saving others.  He died to save all who believe from the second death.  He died to give us eternal life.  He died that the world might be saved.  He died that those who lived thousands of years before Him and thousands of years after Him might be saved.  Jesus died that you might be saved.