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We love those neat Bible stories of heroes who stood their ground and by faith won victories. We love seeing David take down a giant, Samson take out the Philistines, Esther boldly denounce Haman, or Ruth bravely approach Boaz. And, if we are not careful, we will see these stories and say that the message of the Bible is a call for us to be brave and faithful just like the heroes on the pages.

 

For sure, it is good to mimic righteous behavior. It is good to honor the Lord and trust him. It is good to be willing to sacrifice your comfort and even your life for the honor of the name of God. But these stories are often bigger. They often have more to tell us than just be good and strong.

 

Consider Gideon. There is a mighty man and a powerful tale. He starts off almost cowardly in chapter 6 and through the beginning of chapter 7 of Judges. But then he believes the promise of God. Gideon gathers an army, takes out an enemy, and then brings the rescue of God to Israel.

 

So, are we supposed to want to be a Gideon? Is he the point of the story? No, he most certainly is not. Yes, Gideon experienced the victory of God when he was willing to trust and obey the Lord. But, for the most part, Gideon was not willing to trust or obey the Lord. I already mentioned how fearful he was at the beginning. The test with the fleece was a sign of a lack of faith, not a sign of trusting the Lord.

 

But the ending of Gideon is even worse than his beginning. After he has won a victory, seeing the Lord take out an enemy force of 132,000 with a half-battalion of 300 men, Gideon looks like he is going to do well. 

 

Judges 8:22-23 – 22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” 23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.”

 

That’s some good stuff! They clamor at Gideon to wear a crown, to sit on the throne, to begin a dynasty. They want him to be the ruler of the land, a king.

 

But Gideon tells them no. He will not rule them. His son will not rule them. Only the Lord will rule them. That’s the way it’s supposed to be!

 

But, if you watch what Gideon says and does next you see that he is not someone to imitate. The next words out of Gideon’s mouth are a request. He plays on the good will of the people to ask for a little payment, a little treasure. Since they all have spoils from the battle and the victory, Gideon asks for a little contribution. He requests that the people each give him an earring from their treasures. That turns into a pretty big bundle of gold and jewels.

 

In an interesting way, Gideon has asked not to be king. Then he turns around and asks for the kind of tribute due to a king. He says he wants God to rule the people. But he turns around and asks for treasure for himself instead of asking the people to sacrifice thank offerings to the Lord. With his words he says, “Don’t look at me.” With his actions, he puts himself center-stage.

 

And then it gets even worse.

 

Judges 8:27 – And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.

 

At the end of the day, Gideon takes his treasure, uses it to make an ephod, and leads the people away from the Lord and toward idol worship. An ephod was, in the priestly service, a garment worn by the high priest. But, in other settings, an ephod was a term for an idol. Perhaps Gideon used his treasure to fashion an idol and then put a garment on it like the priest’s ephod, making that term be the one used here.

 

Judges 8:30-31 – 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech.

 

As we draw to the end of Gideon’s life, we see that he married multiple wives, setting himself up like a king. He even had a concubine whose son he named after the Philistine king, Abimelech. This is not a man whose heart was for the Lord. This was not a man to imitate.

 

Gideon is no hero. Yes, he had faith to believe that the Lord would give him victory in the battle. Hebrews 11 tells us of that faith; and that faith was good. But Gideon, both before and after the battle does not trust God, does not believe God, will not sacrifice his safety or comfort for God, violates the law of God, and wants to be king instead of God.

 

Gideon is a lesson in the sovereignty of God and the sinfulness of man. We learn that God can and does use all sorts of people to accomplish his will. God is mighty and powerful. God will not allow us to have his glory. That is why God whittled Gideon’s army down from 32,000 to 300—he would not allow his glory to go to Gideon and the men. God did supernatural good through a man who was not a man of God.

 

At the same time, the story is one of sadness. Gideon did not believe. He did not obey. He did not finish well. Sure, he had money and fame, but he did not have the Lord. He was willing to dishonor the Lord and turn to idols the moment no battle was in front of him.

 

Who is like Gideon? I am. You are. We are together. If we do not have the sovereign grace of God over us, we will fear and distrust the Lord. If we do not have the grace of God over us, we will fail when we try to accomplish things for the Lord. If we do not have the sovereign grace of God over us, we will turn from the word of God and make up, for ourselves, little false deities who cannot help us and who can only lead to our destruction. If we do not have the sovereign grace of God over our lives, we will set ourselves up as little kings and queens to rule our little lives until we die.

 

May this story, may the ugly ending of Gideon, remind us of how desperately we need grace. We cannot and will not obey the rules enough to please God. We must have Jesus, the one who obeyed the rules for us. We must have Jesus, the one who took our punishment for our disobedience. We must have the Holy spirit, who leads us away from making ourselves kings and queens and who shines the light of glory on the Lord. May we have the grace of god planned by the Father, purchased by the Son, and applied by the Spirit so that we do not become little Gideons ourselves.

What should it sound like when we talk to God? Particularly, what should it sound like when we are afraid? How ought we to speak to the Lord of the Universe when things are hard?

 

A study of the Psalms shows us a pattern in prayer that we would do well to learn.

 

Psalm 61:1-2a

 

1 Hear my cry, O God,

listen to my prayer;

2 from the end of the earth I call to you

when my heart is faint.

 

The psalmist opens his cry to the Lord by expressing his desperation. There is no doubt in the way that these words sound that he is in distress. He needs the Lord. He is pleading with God to hear him and answer him. Though there is no complaint in his tone, no accusation of wrongdoing toward God, the psalmist is clear that he needs the help of the Lord, and he feels he needs it right now.

 

In the next part of the psalm, as in so many, the psalmist will present requests to God. He will describe the situation and ask for mercy. He will have no problem asking God to rescue him, to save him from enemies, and to get rid of those who would hurt him.

 

And then the psalmist will wrap up with confidence in the Lord and commitment to the worship of God.

 

Psalm 61:8

 

8 So will I ever sing praises to your name,

as I perform my vows day after day.

 

Even as the psalmist, in a short prayer, asks God for help and protection, he closes with a promise to serve the Lord. He is not at all trying to buy God’s favor with obedience—that would simply not work. But the psalmist is expressing confidence. He knows, at the end of the day, the Lord will keep his promises. At the end of the day, the Lord will do what is right. At the end of the day, the psalmist will keep his promises of worship and obedience. At the end of the day, God will do that which brings the Lord glory and the psalmist will find joy as he glorifies the Lord.

The Bible’s story is the story of God accomplishing his plan in his creation. The Lord is perfect, mighty, holy, and glorious. And, when all is said and done, all that happens in the universe will be turned to magnify the glory of the Lord.

 

Consider the Old Testament portion of this story. God created, and his people rebelled. God chose not to destroy humanity, but promised them that he would send someone into the world to rescue them from their sin and crush the enemy. God chose one particular nation, Israel, and said that he would bring the Promised One through them.

 

At Mount Sinai, under the leadership of Moses, Israel received the law of God. All of those laws served to prove that the nation desperately needed to be forgiven. The law showed the people that they could not follow God on their own and that they needed someone to rescue them from their sin. The law exposed their weakness as much as it demonstrated for them a holy God whose standards sinful humanity does not meet.

 

By the time we reach the book of Judges, things with Israel have gotten bad. Though the people kept saying they would follow and obey the Lord, they did not do so.

 

Judges 2:1-3 – 1 Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? 3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”

 

Israel simply did not do what God told them to do. They did not do away with the false gods of the inhabitants of the land. They did not drive the people out of the land, but instead lived among them. Israel compromised. And as they compromised, they sowed the seeds of their own destruction. And only the grace of God through the leadership of the judges would preserve the nation as God preserved his promise that he would send someone to rescue his people through Israel.

 

Let’s not go much further in the story of Israel today. Suffice it to say that God did keep enough of the nation alive through the centuries to eventually send the one he had promised. Jesus was born, and the Savior accomplished all that God had intended. And the Savior will return to this world someday.

 

But, for now, what should we learn from Israel? What does the opening of Judges tell us? God commands us to do certain things, simple things. They may be hard to do, but they are not often complicated. With Israel, God told them to do away with any influence of the pagan religions of the land. Israel decided that it would be easier for them and better for them to tolerate that stuff and to weave it into their national culture. And in doing so, they hurt themselves greatly through their disobedience. Their compromise would be a thorn in their flesh for all of their history.

 

But what about us? What does God clearly call us to be? Where are we tempted to compromise? What pagan elements are we willing to tolerate in our lives, in our churches, in our families? Where do we refuse to call sin that which God calls sin? Where are we willing to flex with the culture so as to be more well-liked by the culture?

 

Where are we willing to say that God’s ways are too strict, too hard? Where are we willing to look at the word of God and say that God could not possibly want us to keep all his commands? Where are we willing to say that, though we know this is wrong, we will do it anyway because we just can’t help it?

 

Dear friends, may we learn from the mistakes of Israel in Judges. There is no life and joy to be found in disobedience to the Lord. There is no good to be gained by compromising his standards. And no, this is not legalism. Legalism is to believe that I make myself righteous through keeping rules and laws. Obedience is to follow the commands of the Lord because he has already declared me righteous. May we learn from this people that to obey the Lord is good while to compromise with the world is deadly.

Grief, depression, sorrow, self-pity, fear, pain, distress, all of these are part of the lives of so very many people today. While every experience is different in some ways, all seem to have some similar patterns and causes. For example, in each of the situations we face, our emotions love to build on each other. Sadness leads to sadness. Depression spirals downward to the darkness of despair. Grief can, if unchecked, build upon itself until we have reached a point that we feel ourselves too low to ever get out of the Slough of Despond.

 

One of the hardest things about situations of emotional darkness is that, as we face them, we so often tell ourselves lies in the middle of our pain. And often, the lies we tell ourselves perpetuate the cycle of sorrow. Don’t get me wrong, we may not at all intent to lie to ourselves. But we allow ourselves to think things that keep our dark emotions swirling, digging deeper and deeper down.

 

What kinds of lies do we tell? Sometimes, we shape our thinking as if this life was all there is. When we can only focus on the earthly, the temporal, the here and now, we lie to ourselves. Forgetting eternity is lying to ourselves. The lie is that heaven, eternity with the Lord, will not outweigh our pain in the here and now. It is false to believe that the God who sees us will not be enough to comfort us.

 

Sometimes we set our minds on a false center point. We let ourselves believe that we are the center of the universe. Again, we would not say it aloud, but, for the season of sorrow, we behave as if there is no god, and as if our experience is the only truth that exists.

 

Sometimes the lie we let ourselves believe is that nobody understands us. Nobody has gone through or is going through the kinds of sorrow and pain that we face. And so, when friends want to comfort us, we cannot be open to their kindness. We wall ourselves off, feeling the isolation of being alone in a universe that has set us personally apart for a pain that nobody else can grasp.

 

It was this last falsehood that we let ourselves believe that caught my attention as I was pondering Scripture this morning. What does the word say to us about feeling like we are walking down a road that nobody else can imagine?

 

Hebrews 4:15 – For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

 

The writer to the Hebrews tells us that the High Priest over us, the Lord Jesus, understands. He knows our temptations. And do not miss the fact that when we tell ourselves lies, we are tempted to sin. When we let ourselves believe that we are alone in the universe, we are not believing truth. The Lord Jesus has faced pain like ours. He understands.

 

Really? Does Jesus really know what it is like to feel the depth of personal, emotional despair? Does he know what it feels like to face utter blackness and disappointment? Does he know what my pain feels like?

Let us honestly consider the night that the Savior had in the garden before his arrest. Jesus looked forward, and he saw hell. When Jesus considered what was about to happen, he knew that the plan was for God the Father to pour out on him, God the son, every ounce of wrath and judgment that God the Father has for every sin that God the Father would ever forgive. Jesus was about to become the instrument of God’s justice, the sacrificial substitute to save the souls of all who would come to him.

 

Understand that, in order to save our souls, Jesus must pay our penalty. And do not be so small-minded as to think that the physical sufferings of the cross are the only payment that Jesus made. We cannot fathom what was happening in the spiritual realm. We cannot grasp what the punishment would have been like. But get this truth: The proper punishment for my sins would have cost me an eternity in hell under the wrath of God. Jesus took that punishment upon himself while on the cross. But it was not only my punishment, my hell, that Jesus took. He also took the same type of punishment for all of the sins of all the forgiven.

 

Look at how Jesus personally felt looking forward to the price he was about to pay.

 

Mark 14:32-36 – 32 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 34 And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

 

What did Jesus feel? He was greatly distressed, troubled, and sorrowful to the point of death. We know from other accounts that the Savior actually sweat drops of blood from his forehead, the pressure and emotional agony was so great. (That is, by the way, a genuine medical condition that can happen to people under tremendous pressure and pain.)

 

Jesus asked God the Father if there might be any possible way to save his people other than having to die in their place and suffer punishment equivalent to their hells. But Jesus also accepted that, at the end of the day, the Father’s will must be done. The plan that he and the Father and the Spirit agreed upon in eternity past would be carried out.

 

Now, return to your distress and mine. Return to our sorrow. We hurt. We feel the blackness of sorrow and hopeless despair. And we tell ourselves that nobody knows. We tell ourselves that we are walking a path that nobody has ever walked but us. Nobody understands our pain.

 

And we must grasp that what we are telling ourselves is a lie. Jesus knows. If anybody would understand, Jesus would. He faced the weight of the eternal wrath of God for sinners he would save. He looked in the blackest pain that has ever been manufactured by the fury of God for sin. He saw it coming his way and that there was no way out. He knew where he was going. He knew he was taking to himself a level of pain and sorrow and shame that none of us has ever dreamed of feeling.

 

Jesus knows. Are you disappointed in your life? Are your dreams not coming true? Does it feel like the world has handed you a raw deal? Do you feel unloved? Do you feel misunderstood? Jesus knows. He received the rawest deal of all. He felt the deepest disappointment of all. He suffered the greatest emotional distress of any person ever. He faced the blackest future of any person ever. He gets it. He gets you. No matter what kind of pain it is, he has faced an emotion to match, yet without sin.

 

So, as we face our sorrows, can we start by telling ourselves the truth? Jesus knows. Can we remember that we are not alone. And, can we remember that, because of what Jesus suffered on our behalf, we can have life forever in the presence of the lord. And, the life we will have in the presence of God will bring to us a fulfillment and a joy that will outweigh, that will more than counterbalance, every sorrow and pain and disappointment and distress of this life. Jesus knows us. He understands us. And he is the High Priest who brings prayers for us into the throne room of God. So may we battle our darkest feelings with the blazing bright truth that we are not alone, not at all. 

Most types of entertainment have a top tier and a lower level. Acts that have made it, that everybody knows and wants to see, are you’re a-list. Acts that are working their way to the top might be thought of as B-list or lower. Concerts have their headliners and their opening acts. Baseball has the major and the minor leagues. Wrestling has the guys that get the top billing and the guys on the undercard.

 

Similarly, there are some verses in the Bible that are not so famous and some that rise to superstar level. This is not because of any lack of value in the text, but simply because we have learned some while not pondering others as much. For example, everybody knows John 3:16, the verse about God so loving the world, but very few could give you the 2 verses leading up to it, about Jesus being like the snake on the pole. Lots of people know Philippians 4:6-7, about not being anxious but praying, but cannot tell you anything about the following verse, the one that calls us to think on good things and not evil ones.

 

This odd type of thinking came to mind today as I finished reading through the Book of Joshua. Many well-studied Christians have spent time thinking about Joshua 24:14-15, “14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” So many of us, even if we could not cite the reference, know that powerful call to choose this day whom we will serve.

 

Contextually, Joshua is wrapping up his ministry of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land. He is reminding the people to turn from idols, to refuse to be led astray by the people of the land, and to make the Lord their one and only God. And the people respond positively. They want to serve the Lord.

 

What caught my attention, however, is the fact that Joshua responded negatively to the people’s proclamation. Eagerly they said they would serve the Lord. But Joshua’s response to them was pretty negative. Joshua pointed out that, if they were not serious, if they were unfaithful, they would only bring God’s judgment on themselves. He warned them that they could not fool the Lord here and they would not be let out of their commitment to their God.

 

Joshua 24:21-24 – 21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” 22 Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” 23 He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.” 24 And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.”

 

It is the above set of verses that struck me as I read through this chapter, because this is the follow up to the “choose this day” passage. The people say they want to serve God. Joshua says they will fail to meet God’s holy standard and get into deep trouble. But they still agree to serve the Lord. And then we get the words above.

 

Joshua said to the people, and the people agreed, that they were witnesses against themselves that they had committed to serve the Lord. Their words, their pledges, would be binding. In the future, when the people sinned, they would be confronted with the commitment they made this day before Joshua.

 

And this all brings me to why I thought of this verse, the often ignored follow up to the “choose this day” passage. The claim to be willing to follow the Lord is a claim that is an actual, standing witness against us in our lives. I know, that sounds rough, but think about it. When we say, “I am a Christian,” or “I serve Jesus,” or “Jesus is Lord,” we are declaring a willingness to follow the Lord. We are speaking words of commitment. We are participating in the formation of a covenant, a super-strong contract, with the Lord in which he is our God and we are his people. And, once that covenant is made, our words become a witness for or against us.

 

I have to say that, when I look over my life, there have been so very many failures. I have messed things up both accidentally and purposefully more times than I can count. And some of my worst failures and greatest foolishness came after I had committed my life to Jesus. I was saved, and still acting like an idiot.

 

In such a time, this passage from Joshua applies. My words bear witness against me. You see, when I am rebelling, when I am failing, when I am acting selfishly, the words of my commitment to Christ are there. Those words command me to change my actions and attitude or deny my commitment to the Savior. And, since I cannot leave the Lord, since I am in his hand and nobody can snatch me away—not even me-I must change. I must repent. I must prove to be his for his glory.

 

What about you? What do your words say about you? What is your commitment to the Savior? Is your life matching the claim that you have to be a follower of Jesus? If not, how can you bow before him, turn from sin, and live to match your claim that Jesus is Lord?

 

Let’s not only see the A-list to make a choice at one point in our lives to follow Jesus. Instead, let’s let those verses we do not remember as often remind us that our words of commitment witness against us when we are tempted to ignore the commands of the Lord. If you are a Christian, you have to have made a personal commitment to follow Jesus. But Christianity is far more than a single, momentary decision. That decision rules our lives from now through eternity.

In my reading of Mark, I found myself pondering predestination in a passage that I have heretofore not considered in that light. It is the conversation between Jesus, James, and John about their request for special seats in the kingdom of heaven. And in that conversation, we get to see one more hint of the fact that the Father has determined the future for these men.

 

In Mark 10, Jesus speaks of his coming crucifixion and death as an atoning sacrifice. Strangely, this led to disciples seeking to land the most prime positions in the kingdom of God. Obviously, we are not often good at recognizing that we are not personally at the center of the universe. James and John (along with their mother according to a parallel account) approach Jesus asking for the best seats in the kingdom of God. They want to sit on thrones next to Jesus in his kingdom, elevated above the other disciples.

 

Jesus first asks these two disciples if they think they can really handle the kind of suffering he is about to go through. The two confidently assert they can. In a sense they will, as James and John will die as martyrs. In a broader sense, however, they can’t even come close to the spiritual suffering of the Savior.

 

But then Jesus tells the two something fascinating, something they did not expect.

 

Mark 10:40 – “but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

 

Jesus tells John and James that he is not the one assigning seats in the kingdom. No, that authority belongs to another, This is obviously the Father’s decision.

 

But in that verse, in Jesus’ response to the disciples, is a hint at predestination that we do not often see. Jesus said, regarding the right to sit in the positions of highest honor, “but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” Those seats are for particular persons. Which? Those persons for whom those seats have been prepared. Stop and think. Look at the verb tense. Jesus, speaking to John and James, tells them that the seats of highest honor in the kingdom have already been prepared for specific people. That decision has already been made. And there is no reason to think that Jesus is telling John and James that they can do anything to change that decision. It is a destination for some that has been determined beforehand—a pre-destination.

 

Giving the passage a fair reading, we can see that the seats of honor are already reserved. Jesus does not tell John and James that, if they make the right choices or do enough good, they can work their way into those seats. Instead, Jesus indicates that the decision of who will sit in those seats has been made already—presumably by the Father—and that decision was made long ago. This is exactly what we teach when we look at predestination. God the Father decides and determines our destination.

 

Now, I certainly would not argue that this passage in Mark is the slam dunk text to prove Calvinistic predestination. There are far more texts to consider. There are far deeper arguments to ponder. But it is interesting that the wording of this text hints at predestination, and a predestination of the kind that a Calvinist can see with no discomfort. However, for one whose theology of salvation or the future puts all outcomes into the hands of men, this statement from Jesus must feel awkward.

It is funny how, from time to time, our read through Scripture will open to us a passage that we have seen countless times. I cannot say how many times I’ve read through the book of Proverbs. For a long while as a student, I read a Proverb a day—that’s a benefit of a 31-chapter book.

 

If you asked me what Proverbs tells us about the fear of the Lord, I would quickly say to you that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (cf. Prov. 1:7). I would tell you that the Proverbs are clear that we must have a proper understanding of the holiness of God, of our position before God, and the awe-inspiring, trembling-inducing, fall-on-your-face holiness that we see in Scripture when men stand before the Lord. No person is wise who thinks they deserve the right just to bounce into the presence of God based on their own merit.

 

But, in this year’s read through the Bible, I saw something in Proverbs about the fear of God that I do not recall taking note of.

 

Proverbs 8:12-13

 

12 “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,

and I find knowledge and discretion.

13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil

and perverted speech I hate.

 

Wisdom speaks to us about the fear of God. This time wisdom says to us that the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.

 

Let me simply ask, when you define fear of the Lord, is hatred of evil in your definition? If not, why not? What would it look like in your life if hatred of evil was a part of your character?

 

This catches me, because I do not think we spend much energy in the modern church focusing on the hatred of evil. That is negative. It is certainly not socially popular. We do not think that hating evil will make us well-liked by the world. Perhaps we fear that hating evil, if that became part of our reputations, would inhibit our evangelism.

 

But, dear Christian friends—and I’m aiming at myself here too—if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, if we cannot please the Lord without properly fearing him, and if hating evil is a major part of the fear of the Lord as this verse says, then hating evil must be a part of the character of the child of God.

 

If we want to get slippery here, we will decide that we will hate evil, the evil that all the rest of the world hates. So, we will hate human trafficking, porn addiction, drug abuse, and murder. And, of course we should hate those things. But are those the only things the Lord tells us are evil? Is not any human sin evil? Is not any rebellion against the Lord evil? Is it not evil when we dishonor the Lord with our words and with our bodies just as much as it is when we harm other people? The truth is, we are to hate sin, even the sin we think is not such a big deal, if we are to properly fear the Lord.

 

This leads me to some strong self-examination. Do I hate sin? Do I hate evil? Or, do I only hate some evil, the obvious, big, dirty evil? Am I not, if I am honest, often entertained by evil?

 

Someone might challenge that, if we really are to hate evil, we would hate so much that we would feel like this entire world is not our home. To that I think I should respond with the following: Exactly.

It is hard to imagine how Jesus could have kept from being frustrated by his disciple’s. Yes, I know, he is God in the flesh, so his perfection and love did it. But, when simply thinking from a human perspective, those guys would have gotten on our nerves. They would have annoyed us for many reasons, not the least of which is that we are most like them.

 

For example, one day, the disciples argued with each other while in Galilee. The basis of their disagreement was the question of which of them was the greatest. Just think, these guys are walking around with God the Son, and they are still able to fight with each other about rank, position, or recognition.

 

Mark 9:33-36 – 33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

 

Jesus says that, if we want to be great, we need to be willing to be last. We do not achieve greatness by pressing ourselves forward. We do not become great by getting others to see our greatness. Instead, being a humble servant is a sign of greatness.

 

Then Jesus took a little child, held it, and said that to receive a little one in his name is to be great. Think about that. Jesus is telling us that to care for a kid, a simple task, is to be great. Jesus is letting us know that nursery workers are easily as great as megachurch pastors on conference stages. He is telling us that ones who clean up the mess in the fellowship hall are as important as the skinny-jeans-wearing band leaders. There is no way to take a position or a job in the church that makes you outrank others in the kingdom of God.

 

The funny thing is, we know all this. But, if we are honest, we are not good at living it. We get frustrated when people do not recognize our ideas and our contributions. We think that people who are given a public platform are more important than those who are not gifted speakers. We think that those who get the book deals and whose congregations are larger are the ones we need to hear speak to us. But the Lord is clear that there is no way to measure heavenly greatness with those criteria.

 

May we grasp that the Lord knows us and that our worth is measured, not by the opinions of others but by the love of our Savior. May we understand that we do not need earthly recognition to be fulfilled. May we stop thinking that there is a stage to reach or a platform to stand on that will give us ultimate joy in this life. May we treasure the pastor of a tiny church as much as we treasure the pastor of a gigantic one. May we not desire to outrank others, but rest in the perfect wisdom of our Lord. May we serve, love, and care for the least among us as a way to rightly honor the Lord.

The Bible is not a hard book to understand. I know that for many, that previous sentence feels false. But, if you think about it, God did not inspire a book that was intended not to be understood. For the most part, if we will read it simply, clearly, in its context, we will understand the message that the author intended us to get. When God says for us not to have any gods before him, that is not hard to grasp. When we read of Jesus calming a storm with a word, we understand what happened there and are rightly amazed. When James tells us that out of the same mouth we wrongly speak blessings and curses, we know what he means.

 

But there are some verses that, on their surface can cause problems. In Mark 9, for example, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power” (Mark 9:1). How can that be? How can Jesus say that some of the men standing with him, his disciples, will see the kingdom of God come with power before they taste death?

 

One way this is handled by some is to say that the kingdom of God arrived in power at some point during the lives of the disciples. A few groups point to the fall of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70 as such a time. But, at that point, the arrival of the kingdom is in a form only grasped by a select few. Others, liberal scholars, argue that Jesus was simply wrong about the timing of his return. But we who believe in the deity of Christ reject this notion out of hand. Still others tie the coming of the kingdom in power to Jesus’ resurrection or to the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

 

But, in the Mark passage, as well as in the parallels, the context of Jesus’ statement could give us a clue that, to interpret A.D. 70 or one of the other later times as the arrival of the kingdom to which Jesus is referring might be over-interpreting the passage.

 

Look at the words in context, taking note of what follows Jesus’ declaration without a transition.  

 

Mark 9:1-3 – 1 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”

2 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

 

In all the parallel passages (Mat 16:28-ff, Mark 9:1-ff, and Luke 9:27-ff), Jesus declares that some of his disciples will see the kingdom in power. Then, immediately the authors of the gospels tell us about this trip up the mountain with Peter, James, and John. There, the three see Jesus transfigured. His glory shines. His identity as God is gloriously visible in a way that others do not get to see. Old Testament saints join Jesus on the scene and speak with him.

 

I would suggest that this scene is what Jesus hinted at in verse 1. Only some standing with Jesus in Mark 9:1 will see the kingdom of God coming in power. This is not because only a few disciples lived to A.D. 70, but rather, it is because only 3 go up the mountain of transfiguration to see the unveiling of the glory of Jesus. They see what the kingdom of God will eventually look like. They see the Savior in his glory, his power, his majesty.

 

I know that there are others, very solid believers, who reject this explanation. But I do find it interesting that, as topically as some of the gospel writers arrange their material, they all choose to put the claims of Jesus together with the transfiguration. They want us to see that these are part of the same context. Peter, John, and James glimpse Jesus for a moment, not as suffering servant, but as the glorified Son of God. Though their glimpse on the mountain is a short-lived experience that they only bring into focus after his crucifixion and resurrection.

 

My point in all this is not to utterly finalize the debate on what Jesus said, but to point out that often, if we will look, the context of a passage will open to us its meaning without us having to feel like we cannot possibly understand Scripture. God gives us clues that make it possible for us to grasp what feels, at first, impossible.

 

And, of course, from the passage, the disciples did see the kingdom of God as it was coming. Now Jesus is risen and glorified. And now, we have the odd position of living in the already and not yet state of believers who are both in the kingdom and awaiting the kingdom. We know Jesus is alive and glorified. We now have the Holy Spirit and the completed word of God. We now share the gospel, preach the word, change the world, and bring the kingdom. We also await the return of Jesus when he will bring the kingdom, come in judgment, reign as king, and set all right forever.

What is a good practice for believers as it concerns Bible reading? Should we really be spending time in the word every day? Or, is it possible that this is a legalistic requirement made up by people who were trying to help us along with their own best guesses?

 

I think we can say that there is no, particular, certain, biblical requirement as to exactly how much time we must spend in Scripture or how regularly we open the Bible. At the same time, there are places in Scripture that show us what is wise and helpful. And we should take those verses very seriously as we seek to know and please the Lord.

 

Joshua 1:8 – This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

 

When God was preparing Joshua and the Israelites to cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, he gave Joshua a charge regarding the written law of God. Joshua was to meditate on the law of God day and night. That word of God was not to be out of his mind. It was to be a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute concern for the new leader of the people. And, God let Joshua know that such meditation would help him to live well before God and to be blessed with success as he and the Israelites went into the promised land.

 

How then could we not think that what God said to Joshua would be helpful to people like you and me? Joshua needed to daily meditate on the word of God. So, while there is no biblical requirement, no rulesy standard to follow, God has made it plain that daily time in the word, at least for Joshua, is a good thing. But if this is good for Joshua, it must also be good for us. So, I would argue that it is wise for us to consider taking time each day to be in the word of God. We should read Scripture, pray over it, consider it deeply, and remember it.

 

How long each day should we spend in the Scriptures? Obviously that will be different for each person. How well can you read? How well can you think? How easy or how hard is it for you to focus on important truths? How long does it take you to study and understand a passage of Scripture? All of these are factors that have to come into play.

 

At the same time, notice that God told Joshua not to let that word of the law depart from his mouth. God’s word was to be constantly on his mind and in his speech. Joshua had to spend enough time in the word that it flowed out of him. How long would you need to spend in the word every day in order for it to flow naturally out of you? I cannot set that time for you. However, if you only give the word of God a passing glance in the morning or in the evening, I would bet that you are not having it flow out of your life like your breath. If you are only reading a short, shallow devotional, you are probably not being changed by the word in such a way as to let the word become a part of your very mind and being.

 

Also note that Joshua was to study the word, speak the word, meditate on the word, and remember the word so that he could obey the word. What will it take from your daily time in the word to help you to know and understand it well enough to obey it? That is the main question. For some, the time will be shorter. For others the time will be longer. But for all of us, the time needs to be a commitment that leads us to life-changing obedience.

 

Friends, the word of God is a treasure. God speaks to us in the pages of Scripture. We hear his voice in the word. We see his character and his ways in the word. We learn what is right and what is wrong with us in the word. We learn what we are to be inn his word. We learn how to find the joy of his glory in his word. May we therefore never neglect his word. May we love God enough to regularly, daily, spend time, significant time, in his word to know him and to follow him.