Category: devotional

Ecclesiastes 11:5

 

As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

 

            Without overemphasis, I want to make a simple pro-life argument from a verse that I have never seen used for that purpose. Ecclesiastes 11:5, in making the point that we do not understand the ways of God, points out to us that we have no idea how God gives “the spirit” to a child in the womb. We do not know how a living soul is put into the flesh of a child, and so how can we possibly know the ways of the Lord.

 

            Now, here is the simple argument that comes to me this morning. If we do not know how God gives life, the soul or spirit, to a child, how dare we destroy it? If we are going to make a mistake here, the mistake simply must be on the side of the preservation of life. There can be no credence given to any argument that declares a child only alive or only to have value when it is of a certain size, a certain age, or in a certain location (outside its mother’s womb). No, as we do not know anything about how God gives “the spirit” to a child in the womb, we must make it our choice to protect all children in the womb. Babies have life (“the spirit”) given to them by God. WE must protect that life as we protect all people who are created in the image of God.

 

            Of course there are more arguments, clearly biblical arguments, for the protection of human life. This one could even be much better formed. However, it is another fascinating truth to be held to by the people of God as we strive to honor God in every arena of life.

Matthew 11:2-3

2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

 

            I’ve always found this question from John the Baptist fascinating. John had seen the Holy Spirit of God come down and rest upon Jesus at his baptism. John knew that this was the sign promised to him by God that he would prepare the way for the Lord’s anointed, the promised Rescuer from God. Yet, here John asks Jesus if he was right. Was Jesus really the one God has promised?

 

            Why would John ask this? John was suffering. John was in prison. John was about to be executed. An evil human ruler had put John in jail, would soon take off his head, and was facing no apparent consequences. The man John had proclaimed as the coming King promised by God was doing nothing to put a stop to this.

 

            Why was John confused? He wanted Jesus to turn the world upside-down. He, like others of that day, wanted to see Jesus set up an earthly kingdom that would set right the wrongs of the world and put down the oppressors of God’s people. John knew that Jesus was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” However, John did not know how this would all work out any more than did Jesus’ disciples who showed constant confusion about Jesus’ ultimate plan until his resurrection. John was confused, because things did not at all work out like he had hoped.

 

            Jesus responds to John’s messengers with the reminders of the way that Jesus was pushing back the darkness in the world. Jesus was healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, healing those who could not walk, and even raising the dead. IN all that he did, Jesus was defeating the effects of the fall of man. Jesus was bringing the Kingdom of God, but in a different way and in a different timing than John expected. But, John was not to doubt, Jesus is exactly who John had proclaimed earlier, the Promised One from God.

 

            There is something that we should consider as we think about John’s question and his predicament. John knew Jesus. He proclaimed Jesus. Jesus himself would declare that John was among the greatest born of woman. Yet, for all this, John suffered. John’s life did not go smoothly. He was abused. He was eventually murdered. No matter how faithful John had been, he did not find the payoff in this life.

 

            The truth is, we will not always have it easy. Some faithful Christians suffer greatly. Others suffer in small ways. For some, ministry is a joy. Others suffer great hardship and pain. Some see churches grow. Some feel the betrayal of those they have trusted. Some live in financial peace and give to kingdom causes. Others suffer poverty. Some are free. Some are persecuted. Some have big families. Some never find a spouse though a family is their desperate desire. Some are healthy. Some are sick. Some seem to succeed. Others never seem to get it together.

 

            Christians, knowing and loving God is no guarantee of ease in this life. Suffering is often part of the life of a believer. This is not a sign that Jesus is not who he claimed to be. Jesus always told us that we would suffer for the sake of the kingdom. Until Jesus returns and sets everything right, finally right, we will wrestle through hardships and joys, tragedies and triumphs, as we march on toward the promise of the Savior.

 

            John was discouraged and a little confused. Jesus reminded him that John’s original view of Jesus was correct. Even though John suffered, Jesus is still the Savior and the Promised Rescuer. We too need to press on and continue to trust Jesus, even when things do not find our picture of how life should go.

Proverbs 18:1

 

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire;

he breaks out against all sound judgment.

 

            In our modern culture, the concept of privacy has become a coveted and protected “right.” However, in the words of scripture, clinging to privacy is a very dangerous thing.

 

            I think particularly now about a friend of mine who has been a friend for a long time. I can always tell when he is doing well and when he is doing poorly. How? The more private he becomes, the more in shambles is his Christian walk. The more open he is with me, the better he is doing. Rest assured, I do not believe that I am any sort of deciding factor in his life. But, the truth is, when he tries to keep things to himself, to hide from others, to drop off the edge of the planet, it is generally because he is also hiding sin and foolish behavior about which he does not want to be confronted.

 

            And, the truth is, I am also similar. If I’m being foolish, I try to hide it. If I am leaning away from godliness, I often turn inward. I don’t want to share my life with friends who might show me that I am heading in a wrong direction.

 

            The point of this proverb is obvious. Are you one who hides his or her actions? If so, you are in danger. Are you one who relies on your own counsel alone? You are foolish. You need Christian friends around you to help you to grow. You cannot make it in this life alone; you were not designed to. Find a church. Find Christian friends. Be open and honest. Do not fight for privacy. Tell the truth. Walk with others. This is the path of wise Christian living. 

Exodus 32:4-5

 

4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”

 

            The scene of Israel worshipping the golden calf is one of those moments from the Old Testament that many Christians have been taught since children’s Sunday School. It is familiar. And, we are glad to know that we are not like those people who did all that stuff. We are glad to know that we would never make a golden calf and worship it in place of God.

 

            Of course, you likely also know that many will take this story as an opportunity to talk to Christians about their modern idols. We love self, fame, pleasure, money, reputation, success, leisure, or something else to the point of distraction. If we are not careful, we will bow down to our own little idols. This is almost always applicable teaching for the idols of the heart.

 

            But I want to take this account in one other direction this morning as I think it through. The words of Aaron and the people in the passage above have my attention. They are terrifying. After the people give their gold and the golden calves are fashioned, they declare that these are the gods who brought the people up out of Egypt. That has always really bothered me. But then, Aaron declares something else that totally stuns me. Aaron says that tomorrow, the people are going to celebrate a feast to the Lord.

 

            Do you get what just happened? Aaron is presenting the calves, the idols, the golden statues as the Lord. This is worse than I used to imagine. I used to simply see in this story that the people were taking the credit rightly due to God for leading them out of Egypt and giving it to the statues. Now, however, I see that Aaron is taking the statues and declaring them to be the Lord. This is not the people redistributing the credit for getting them out of Egypt; this is Aaron redefining who God is for the people.

 

            Now, if we grasp that a major part of what is going on here is that Aaron and the people are bowing to a created and falsified picture of who or what God is, we see a much better application for our lives than simply not to let career or sex be idols for us. The application that I am seeing here is that it is a terrible thing to give people a false picture of who the Lord is. Not only is it terrible, it is tempting. However to do so is to dishonor God greatly.

 

            When you depict God for others, how do you picture him? Do you picture him as a strong bull? Do you emphasize his strength, his anger, and his toughness? Do you tell people that God is somebody you had better get to serving and not make excuses? Do you show fellow Christians that they are never pleasing him and are in danger of having him trample them? If so, you may have fashioned a golden calf.

 

            Or, perhaps you depict a God who is very shiny and sleek. Perhaps you are showing people a picture of God as someone who is full of wealth and desperately desirous of giving that wealth to them if they will only have the confidence to claim it. Perhaps your picture of God is one who is truly golden and ready to share if only they will put on a big enough smile or pray with enough conviction or give first so that they can receive in return.

 

            Perhaps the picture that you have painted for others of God is one of the bull’s horns. There is harshness and hardness. You cannot just ask such a God for help, you must beg. You cannot just serve such a God, you must bleed. You cannot love him without doing more and more and more.

 

            You know what the problem is with these pictures, they are neither all wrong or all right. The people chose golden calves likely because those animals made them think of the strength of the deity who led them out of Egypt. They had seen God trample over Pharaoh and his chariots. They knew him to be strong and fierce. Golden calves seemed about right. And, they had a piece of the truth in them.

 

            The problem is, golden calves are not nearly enough to depict God. God is mighty and fierce. He is also the God who is so loving toward sinners that he sent his only Son to die to pay the price for people who would never and could never live up to his standards. This is the God who loved children enough to let them come to him even when the disciples tried to push them away. This is also the God who was calm enough to sleep during a raging storm on the lake. And it is the God who was fierce enough to turn over tables in the temple and who was fiery enough in his stare not to have anyone try to stop him. This is the God who raised the dead son of a widow simply because it was the kind thing to do. This was the god who made extra wine at a wedding feast to keep the family from being shamed. This was the God who destroyed all life except a remnant in a flood. This is the God who will return to earth on a white war horse with a sword in his teeth and blood on his robe. This is the God who also said of Nineveh that he did not wish to destroy so many people who were so ignorant, even though his own prophet hated their guts—and with good reason.

 

            No, a bull or a calf does not do enough to depict God. But you know what, neither do many of our own descriptions of God. If we are not careful, we will paint for others a picture of God that is so flawed as to be no better than a golden calf. Let us be cautioned, especially those of us who preach and teach. Let us tremble at what picture of God we may bring. Let us never depict him apart from holiness and power and wrath and mercy and grace and whatever else the word of God has shown us. Let us be faithful to the text of Scripture as we show the people who hear us a portrait of the Lord we worship.

Exodus 20:25

 

If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.

 

            We really do not get how significant is the holiness of God. We assume that God is like us. We assume that, if a person does his or her best, that’s all God wants. We assume that a person who gives a good solid try gets a pass from God and whatever they were trying to do would be acceptable.

 

            But look at the verse above from Exodus 20. God let Israel know, in no uncertain terms, that their best efforts were not things that made things acceptable to him. God said that, if the people of Israel wanted to build an altar for them out of stone, they could not use tools on the stone. Why? If they were to touch the stone with their tools, shaping the stone with their best efforts, they would actually profane the stone and the altar.

 

            What am I taking from this? I’m not saying that you should not put forth effort in worship or try to please God. Not at all. What I am saying is that we see here that our best efforts, on their own, do not make a thing acceptable. Sincerity is not the measure of holiness. God is clear that his law, his word, his holiness is the measure. We need to do things that please him as he has commanded.

 

            This understanding has an impact on how we worship and how we live in general. When we worship God, we need to be careful to do so “in response to God’s gracious revelation of himself and in accordance with his will” as Dr. Daniel Block used to tell me in seminary. Remember, the 2 sons of Aaron who tried to get creative in worship found their best, most sincere efforts met with fire from the altar and not with acceptance from God. God has the right to determine what he will accept in worship. We do not have the right to tell him what he should accept.

 

            Similarly, in daily life, our obedience to God must be obedience based on his word and not on our own ideas. Often people have very sincere, very thoughtful, very emotional opinions about what God should or should not accept as proper human behavior. But I think that the verse above in Exodus reminds us that we do not get to set what ought to be right and wrong behavior. Right behavior is revealed to us in Scripture, not the result of our best reasoning. Yes, sometimes we will have to use prayer, the guidance of the Spirit, the Scripture, and our best reasoning to try to rightly apply first century principles to 21^st century technology and situations, but this is not the same thing as being creative about what should be right and wrong.

 

            Now, if I were to leave things with only Exodus 20, we would find ourselves in a very difficult place. None of us live up to this perfect standard. Isn’t this the whole point of why we love the gospel so? God made a way for us to please him. He did not make a way for us to please him by us creatively applying our best efforts. Instead, the way to please God is to admit that we do not please him on our own. The way to please God is to fall on our knees and come to Jesus for mercy. Then God will apply Jesus’ perfection, his pleasing of the Father, to our account so that when God looks at our lives, he sees us as just as pleasing to him as Jesus. Then, under the grace of Christ, the authority of Scripture and the filling of the Spirit, we can obey God in a way that pleases him for his glory and our joy.

Exodus 9:16

 

But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

 

            Every once-in-a-while it is fun to see something in Scripture that you have known, but which is pointed out with dramatic clarity. For example, I have known for a while that God does the things that he does for the sake of his name, his honor, his glory. Understanding that has been a  major point of strengthening my Christian walk. It has certainly helped me in understanding and even in leading worship. It is also a major factor in my preaching.

 

            So, when I read the verse above in the cycle of plagues on Egypt in Exodus, I was not surprised. But, it was very neat to see it spelled out in such clarity to Pharaoh himself. What was God’s message, not to Moses and his people but to Pharaoh himself? God tells Pharaoh that he could have wiped the Egyptians off the map long ago. HE still could. But that is not his plan. No, God intends to use the plagues and Pharaoh’s hard heart to demonstrate his power. God intends that Pharaoh’s attempts to thwart God’s plan would lead to the entire world proclaiming God’s glory. And God accomplished his plan.

 

            Pharaoh did all he could to withstand God. He did it with the might of a nation that God had built through his revelation to Joseph. Yet, when Pharaoh made it appear that he was the supreme, when he allowed himself to be worshipped as a god, the real God demonstrated before the eyes of all Egypt and the watching world that there is one true God over all, and it is not Pharaoh. God showed that he has the power to accomplish his will in any way he pleases.

Exodus 8:15

 

But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

 

            Reading this about Pharaoh today reminds me of some of my most sorrowful, most shameful, most lost-looking behavior. Pharaoh was lost. He hated the God he refused to believe in. But, on occasion the plagues made Pharaoh realize that he was in trouble and on the wrong side of God’s commands. Pharaoh would then plead for mercy. But, when Pharaoh received that mercy, he would harden his heart and go back to acting exactly as he had before.

 

            I get it. I get Pharaoh. I’ve been there. I’ve had times in my life, even my Christian life, when I would plead with God for some favor. I would ask God to get me out of a mess of my own making. I would declare my intent to follow God and to not put myself in such a foolish place ever again. And, when things would work out, I would often find myself right back where I started.

 

            Here is what is so scary about that. To sin, plead with God, receive mercy from God, and then return to the very same sin is behavior that looks like Pharaoh—behavior that looks like a lost person. And, if we are honest, all of us, yes, even growing believers, have moments or seasons of life that look lost.

 

            What should we do when we see ourselves looking lost? Off the top of my head, I would advocate for the following:

• Repent – Of course this is right. It’s not always as easy as we would wish, but it is the ultimate answer.
• Pray – This goes with repent, but should not be ignored.
• Examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. I think it can be dangerous for a person to question his or her salvation with every failure. At the same time, Scripture is clear that it is very dangerous to assume you are OK with God solely based on some event or declaration you made in the past that is not changing your present.
• Rest in the gospel. Oh, I know, this looks like I’m contradicting the last bullet point. Well, I’m not, at least not really. The truth is, if your entire hope for your eternity, your forgiveness, and your righteousness is in the person and work of Christ alone you are in the family of God. If you have committed yourself to follow Christ under his grace, allowing him to be your Lord and to claim you as his child, you are in the family of God. And if you are in the family of God, you should not allow your failure, even a season of failure, to make you assume that you are totally out of the family.
• Be honest. Don’t play games with God. Don’t try to convince yourself of something that is not really there. Don’t lie to your friends. Don’t fake it at church (don’t skip church either). Don’t be a hypocrite in front of your lost friends, but openly admit that you are a sinner who is only forgiven by grace and not because of your own goodness.
• Work with a friend to grow. Perhaps a pastor, prayer partner, or mentor could help you shake off the pattern of failure that you have in your life.

 

Pharaoh looked lost, and he was. I have, at moments, looked lost, and I was not. Still today, I am a sinner in need of grace. Still today, I trust in the person and work of Christ alone for my salvation. Still today, I declare that Jesus is my Lord and I owe him total allegiance. Still today, I do not live up to my commitment. Still today, I do not live up to the righteousness that God has declared that I have in Christ. Still today, I press on and give God praise for his astounding grace.

 

            What about you? What do you do when you look lost? To whom do you go for counsel and support? Are you honest about your failures? Are you fighting to get past them? Are you resting in Christ? Are you examining your own faith?

Psalm 37:39-40

 

39 The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;

he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.

40 The Lord helps them and delivers them;

he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,

because they take refuge in him.

 

            There is a telling phrase in these two verses that we do not want to miss as we look over this psalm. In verse 39, we see that the Lord brings salvation to the righteous. This concept, of course, sounds like all the world religions that exist. Most people grow up believing that their salvation or at least their reward from their deity will come to them based upon their own righteousness.

 

            But how do we deal with this concept? Christianity is not a religion in which we are granted salvation because of our own righteousness. It is an alien righteousness, a foreign righteousness, an imputed righteousness that saves us. We are saved by God, not because of our righteousness, but because God has granted us his righteousness in Christ. In an amazing exchange, God places our guilt on Jesus and Jesus’ righteousness on us (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21).

 

            Is Psalm 37:39 contradicting New Testament Christianity? Of course it is not. Nor do we need to look far to find the answer. Peek at verse 40. What is the reason that God saves the righteous? Salvation does not come to them because of their righteousness. Instead, we see that salvation comes to those who have taken refuge in the Lord.

 

            Now, let’s not misconstrue any of this. The salvation being spoken of in this psalm is salvation from physical harm and death. We understand that, in a thoroughly biblical picture of eternal salvation, we only take refuge in God if he first moves us to do so. Salvation is a gift of God and the work of God from start to finish. Yet, it is also true that we are saved by God by grace through faith in Christ. Faith in Christ, in a very simple sense, is to take refuge in him. Faith is to run to Jesus, to plead for his mercy, and to hide under the shelter of his life, death, and resurrection.

 

            Does the picture in Psalm 37 look like the gospel? Of course it does. We need to be rescued. Only the righteous are rescued—however, it is the righteousness of Christ that is applied to the rescued. Nobody is rescued because of his or her own righteousness. How do we receive salvation? How do we have the righteousness of Christ applied to us? We take refuge in him. We do not earn anything. We do not bring anything favorable to the table. We simply run to Jesus and hide in him.

Luke 19:29-30 (ESV)

29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here.

 

            The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as he rode on the colt on Palm Sunday is a story that we tend to know well. But one thing stands out to me this morning.

 

            As we know, this event fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah. Zechariah 9:9 declares, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Then, just before his crucifixion, Jesus enters Jerusalem just as this prophecy predicts.

 

            What grabs my attention is that Jesus did this very much on purpose. He fulfilled this prophecy on purpose. He wanted people to understand, when they reflected on this event, that this was Jesus very intentionally declaring him to be the promised King of Israel. This was Jesus claiming to be the Messiah in about as clear and public a way possible.

 

            Sometimes there are those who do not know the Bible or Jesus who try to claim that Jesus never claimed to be what his disciples later said about him. Such a claim will not work. If Jesus intentionally put himself on a colt to enter Jerusalem as he did here, especially at the time of year he did so and in the manner he did so, he knew he was the Messiah. Jesus could not have been clearer had he put a crown on his head and said, “I’m the King!”

            So, today, as I think over this passage, I am reminded that our Savior did not do anything accidentally. He is God who came to earth. HE is the Promised One from centuries past. Jesus is the Messiah, and he is worthy of my homage and allegiance.  

Psalm 24:3-5

 

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?

And who shall stand in his holy place?

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to what is false

and does not swear deceitfully.

5 He will receive blessing from the Lord

and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

 

            Psalm 24 asks an interesting question. Who is going to be allowed into God’s presence? Who can approach the Lord over all?

 

            The answer is not encouraging. A person with clean hands and a pure heart is who may approach God. A person who is always honest, that is a person who can approach God. Basically, a person whose purity matches that of God is the one who may expect to be allowed in the presence of God. This is not encouraging, because it is not any of us.

 

            If we left things here, with only verses 3-4, it might seem as though the way to God is right living, works-based righteousness. It would also seem to me to be impossible for me, as I am certainly not good enough on my own. But then we read verse 5, which describes gifts that the one who comes to God will receive: “He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

 

            Look at that verse carefully, and notice that one of the gifts given to the one who approaches God is righteousness. Righteousness comes to the person as a gift. The person who is allowed into the presence of God is not there because he has earned it with a perfect life after all. No, there is something strange going on here. Yes, God’s standard is perfection. Yet, the one who is granted access to God is given righteousness.

 

            How sweet it is to see the gospel here in Psalm 24. God’s standard is perfect righteousness. None of us meets that standard. Jesus pointed out that God alone is good in Luke 18:19. However, in Christ, God grants to us the righteousness of Christ as a gift. Even though our lives do not look like it completely, the righteousness of Jesus is counted to our account if we have come to Jesus in faith. This doctrine is the doctrine of imputation, and it is a marvelous and necessary doctrine for believers. We must grasp that we, apart from the gracious gift of Jesus would never be good enough to come to God. Yet, in Christ, we are given the righteousness we need to ascend the hill of the Lord. We can even see our lives change so that our hands are cleaner and our hearts are purer than ever before. Eventually, when we finally arrive in glory, our lives will be perfected by God, matching the righteousness that he has already granted us in Christ.