Tag: Providence Reformed Church

OK, just to be up front, I don’t intend to be nice here. No, I’m not going to try to be extra mean either. I just have a little story to tell from years ago about one of the worst handlings of Scripture that I can ever recall. It involves an Old testament passage and a teacher reading into the passage something that is completely, ridiculously, absolutely not the message intended by the author of the passage.

 

Funny thing is, if you know me, you know I could be telling you one of many stories here. This one comes from a devotional book that I owned in college (so if you were hoping for me to call out some teacher you know of, I’m not going there). As a simple aside, I generally dislike devotional books, and this one could be the reason why. Quite often, these little books take biblical passages, ignore the context, disregard authorial intent, overlook proper interpretive method, and abuse the Bible by making the little story into a self-help prosperity grab. And, in case you think I’m picking on one bad thought in a book, understand that the story I’m going to tell you is from the lead devotional in a book, the title of which encapsulates the error: Don’t Quit Until You Taste the Honey. (For grins and giggles I looked this up on Amazon and discovered that this was published by the Baptist Sunday School Board, now Lifeway, in 1993.)

 

The story goes like this. Samson, soon to be a judge over Israel, is a very selfish and sinful man. He determines that he wants to marry a Philistine woman—obviously something against the commands of God. Samson even defies his parents’ wish that he would choose a nice Israelite girl. Samson wants this Philistine woman, because she looks good to him, she is right in his eyes. Of course, every man doing what is right in his own eyes is the theme of Judges and the reminder of the godlessness and lawlessness that marked rebellious Israel in the days of the judges.

 

So, on the way to see if the marriage alliance is possible, Samson kills a lion that leaps out at him. Perhaps this should have reminded him that he is under the protection of God and should hope to avoid God’s judgment. On the second trip, this time to pick up his wife, Samson sees the carcass of the dead lion on the side of the road.

 

Now, before reading what Samson did, remember the biblical laws given to Israel. You were not supposed to touch a dead body. You were not supposed to eat unclean food. There was a holiness code to live by. And, Samson was under a Nazarite vow, so he had even higher standards of purity to obey. And Israelites were not supposed to mix marriages with the Philistines, which Samson was in process of doing and thus rebelling against the law of God.

 

Judges 14:8-10 – 8 After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9 He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

  

Samson scrapes honey out of the rotting carcass of a dead animal, eats it, and gives it to his unsuspecting parents. He makes himself unclean and spreads that impurity to others. Samson dishonors the Lord, disobeys the law, and drags others down with him.

 

Now, there is certainly a good personal thought here. When we sin, we often lead others astray with us. We can infect the lives of others with our impurity if we are not careful. Sin does not just hurt us.

 

There is a nice biblical picture here of what was happening in the nation. Samson was not doing right. Though he brought benefit to the nation by rescuing them from the Philistine’s in years to come, he also brought sinful uncleanness everywhere he went. He was used by God. He was a man who had a kind of faith in the power of God. But Samson was also spreading unholiness.

 

In a smaller picture, this shows us the wrongness of Samson’s marriage. Honey is good. Marriage is good. But when a person of God marries against the command of God and unites with someone who hates God, it is against the command of god. It’s like the honey in the lion carcass.

 

Any of those might have been fair thoughts for the devotional to use. But the title of the book says it all. The author used the honey story as a self-motivational exercise. He wanted us to learn from this story that Samson didn’t quit, no matter how hard things got. He stuck to his guns, he pressed on, and he was rewarded in the end with the sweet taste of honey. So, don’t quit until you taste the honey. Don’t give up on your dreams until you get there. That is what the author of the devotional book took from this passage.

Friends, that is bad biblical interpretation. And, before you think I’m just a horrible meanie, please know that I can look back over some of the stuff I’ve taught in my past and see that I used to be just as bad. Even now, if I get anything right, it is because of the grace of God and the good teachers I have been privileged to learn from; it is not of my own making.

 

But with that said, can we please, for the love of all things right, stop allowing ourselves to read little pithy devotionals that do not handle Scripture in context? Can we please not allow ourselves to rip a verse out of its original meaning and make it encouraging for the here and now? If you want to be encouraged for today, preach the gospel to yourself. Remind yourself that you are a sinner who needed grace to avoid the wrath of God. Remind yourself that Jesus lived perfection and then died as a sacrifice to pay for your sins. Remember that Jesus rose from the grave and grants everlasting life to us when we believe in him and yield our lives to him. Remember that, because Jesus is alive, because he grants us forgiveness, because he promises to return, because he is sanctifying us, because he promises us eternal perfection, we have hope for the here and now. Our lives have meaning because of Jesus and his perfection.

 

IN fact, you can then go back to the ugly Samson story and let it be what it is. We are the kind of sinners who would eat honey from a carcass, because we are the kind of people who will grossly dishonor God for our pleasures. But thanks be to God, in Christ, we can know that there is forgiveness for our ugliest sins. So we need not scrape honey from a rotten corpse. Instead, we can find life and eternal joy in obeying the Lord and looking forward to his glory forever. That is way better than maggot-infested sweets in the here and now.

Don’t you hate it when somebody tells you that you were wrong? It’s only natural that we would not like it. After all, we want people to think we are smart, strong, solid in our faith. Besides, we think that we think better than others. We honestly believe that, all things being equal, we as individuals have a pretty good view of the world.

 

But Scripture is smarter than us. The word of God has a wise challenge for us. The wise grow from correction. Only the fool bristles every time he or she is corrected.

 

Proverbs 9:7-9

 

7 Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse,

and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

8 Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;

reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;

teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

 

This passage is hard for me. Of course it depends on who rebukes or corrects me, but it is hard. It’s funny, the more I love the person correcting me, the less well I personally tend to receive that correction. So, when I get an anonymous note about something, I can usually let that slide off pretty easily. But when my wife wants to tell me where I’m blowing it, I really don’t like it.

 

So, for me, this passage has a lot to offer. I need to learn that a wise man is teachable. A wise man grows wiser still when reproved. Only a scoffer, only a foolish, ungodly man lashes out or refuses to hear when approached with a problem. Similarly, only a fool gets grumpy or sullen when corrected.

 

How about you? How are you when corrected? Do you hear it? Do you receive it well and evaluate it fairly? Are people around you willing to correct you, or are they tip-toeing around your tender feelings and not willing to share with you the truths that would help you because you cannot hear them? May we all learn to be wise people who grow wiser still as we listen to one another and grow together in Christ.

I cannot think of a topic more often discussed, disagreed upon, or even argued about in the church more than the topic of spiritual gifts. We have our continuationist and cessationist debates. We have our spiritual gift inventory folks and our folks who hate those little tests with a passion. We have significant scholarly disagreement on how to define the new testament understanding of the gift of prophecy.

 

In the midst of such a discussion, it is interesting when we actually see things written in Scripture about spiritual gifts. So very often, what is written in the Bible is so much less fantastic than some would like to make the gifts of God. And I found such a passage in Romans 1. In the midst of Paul’s greeting the Roman church and telling the Christians there about his desire to visit, he mentions spiritual gifts and then says what he means by them.

 

Romans 1:11-12 – 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

 

When Paul spoke of imparting a spiritual gift to the roman church, he was not talking about some mystical power source. He was not telling the church anything about empowering them to heal, speak in tongues, or prophesy. Instead, Paul immediately defines what he meant here by saying that he wanted the spiritual blessing of mutual encouragement.

 

There is a major point here that is often missed by both sides of the continuationist cessationist debate. Regardless of what you believe about the modern existence of revelatory sign gifts once the canon of Scripture was closed, the purpose for spiritual gifts is what we so often ignore. The gifts that God has blessed his church with are for the building up of the body. This is not so that people would feel that they had any sort of superior abilities to other Christians or so that people could be enamored by the mystical. Instead, the point of the gifts that Paul wanted to impart in Rome was so that the local church might grow together in their love of Christ. It was not about show. It was not about sensuality. It was about loving each other as brothers and sisters in Christ just as the Lord Jesus called us to do.

 

John 13:34-35 – 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

Think about the less glamorous spiritual gifts—the ones that we pay little attention to: serving, hospitality, mercy, encouraging, teaching, leading, etc. Such gifts are not the ones people are arguing about. But the point of these gifts is what Paul is talking about. As we come together as a family in Christ, God has gifted and shaped every last one of us to matter in the body. God has designed us to encourage each other, to build one another up. And God has done this in a supernatural way, a Holy Spirit filled way, so that we need one another to be built up as the church is supposed to be.

 

So, do you want to experience spiritual gifts? Join a church and jump in. Share your life with other believers. Open the word of God together. Pray together. Be committed to one another. Care for each other in times of pain. Work together for the growth of the church. Walk with each other through the sorrows and joys of life. And as you build each other up in the faith, you will be experiencing the genuine, never-ending spiritual gifts and their genuine purposes.

 

Go the other direction with this thought. What happens if you are not committed to a local church? What happens if you refuse to really connect with the church? You are taking from yourself the ability to have the spiritual gifts Paul was referring to in Romans 1. You are also failing to help others who need you in their church body to experience the kind of mutually encouraging gifting that God commands.

Many scholars understand that the Gospel According to Mark is strongly influenced by the life testimony of the apostle Peter. Just as Luke was a companion of Paul, so Mark had a great deal of time with Peter to record for us his accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus.

 

The connection to Peter in Mark gives us a beautiful story of the grace of Christ. In Mark 14, we saw the well-known story of Peter denying that he ever knew Jesus. At the last supper, Peter swore that he would never, ever leave Jesus, no matter what happened. When faced with the prospect of being exposed as a follower of Jesus, however, Peter denied ever knowing him, even to the point of cursing himself as a proof.

 

How bitterly must Peter have regretted his failure? How many times, when Peter would hear a rooster crow, did he feel again the guilt for looking a servant girl in the eye and swearing never to have followed Jesus? How deeply must this all have hurt?

 

So, it is beautiful to see what Mark records to us that the Lord had the angel say to the women at the empty tomb after the resurrection of Jesus.

 

Mark 16:6-7 – 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 

 

The angel tells the women that Jesus is alive. That, of course, is eternity-changing. The angel sends the women back to tell the disciples which makes sense. But notice that the angel specifically tells the ladies to communicate the resurrection to Peter. The very same disciple who denied ever knowing Jesus is singled out to get the news of the resurrection.

 

Why? Why would Peter be mentioned here? I believe it is a lovely picture of grace. Peter had gone as low as he could go. He knew he had failed. And right here, the angel lets us know that God has not written him off. Why tell Peter? Peter needs to know that Jesus is alive. Peter needs to know that Jesus finished the work. Peter needs to know that Jesus has grace, even for a sinner like him.

 

Can you imagine what it must have been like for Peter, now older and a leader in the church, to have told Mark this story? How must Peter’s eyes have filled with tears of regret as he talked about his flat denial of the Savior? How must his voice have sounded when he told Mark, “and Peter, the angel said that the message was for me too?”

 

How much of your past do you live under? How many past failures still eat at your soul? If you are under the grace of God in Christ, you might want to see how wonderfully free was the grace God gave Peter. Peter denied Jesus , and yet the Lord sent him a personal note about his resurrection. If God can forgive and use Peter, God can forgive and use us. Yes, we must repent and believe. No, we cannot stay in our sin. But we must take heart and rejoice that grace can cover our pasts so that we can be useful to the Savior.

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.