Jesus’ Last Evening: Love One Another

Tonight we remember the last evening of our Lord’s life. Recall the key events and statements that lead up to Jesus’ arrest:

  • Jesus washing the disciples’ feet
  • The prophecy of a betrayal by one of the Twelve
  • The Last Supper, and the institution of the Lord’s Supper
  • The New Commandment: That they love one another as He has loved them
  • The prophecy of Peter’s denial
  • “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”
  • “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father”
  • “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”
  • “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing”
  • “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit”
  • “The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.  And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.”
  • “If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
  • “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
  • “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
  • “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
  • “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
  • Gethsemane: “Not My will, but Yours be done.”
  • To Judas: “Would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

Over the centuries, many Christians have seen the New Commandment –  “Love one another as I have loved you” – as the theme that integrates all these events and statements. (For this reason, many call this evening Maundy Thursday, from mandatum, the Latin word for “commandment” in John 13:34.) With that in mind, consider how much we learn about love through the highlights above:

  • Love is humble and serves
  • Love is loyal, and never betrays
  • Love is forgiving and forbearing
  • Love warns and speaks even hard truths when that will be good for the other
  • Love gives up all for the loved ones
  • Jesus’ love encourages us and empowers us through the Helper to become like Him and to fulfill His work
  • Love sends us out
  • Love warns of division and opposition
  • Love points others to the only source of all good, the Father Himself
  • Love makes clear there is only one way to the Father
  • Love emphasizes our weakness to accomplish anything apart from Christ in us
  • When we love Jesus, we rejoice to obey Him
  • The loving, humble Jesus says that to know Him and the Father is eternal life
  • Love unifies us so that our very unity might bear witness to the One Who loves

We can say more. The disciples who heard Jesus speak and act out these truths then taught others the New Commandment and its implications. The Apostle Paul highlights the commandment also. Here is a complete selection of verses in the New Testament that use the Greek word for “one another” in reference to some or all followers of Christ. Negatively, we are told not to:

  • Pass judgment on one another
  • Put a hindrance in another’s way
  • Divide one from another
  • Provoke or envy one another
  • Lie to one another
  • Seek revenge on one another
  • Speak evil of one another
  • Grumble against one another

Instead, positively we are to:

  • Encourage one another
  • Honor one another
  • Live in harmony with one another
  • Pursue peace with one another
  • Welcome one another
  • Show hospitality to one another
  • Instruct one another
  • Greet one another
  • Serve one another
  • Bear one another’s burdens
  • Bear with and forgive one another
  • Do good to one another
  • Speak the truth to one another
  • Be kind to one another
  • Submit to one another
  • Count others more significant than yourself
  • Consider one another, how to stir up one another to love and good works
  • Confess sins to one another
  • Pray for one another
  • Know that we have fellowship with one another – that is, we are teammates for a common purpose

So on this “New Commandment Thursday,” I encourage you to meditate on these Scriptures and to reflect on this summary list of what loving one another means. May God be pleased to make us “increase and abound in love for one another and for all . . . so that he may establish [our] hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13).

 

Beginning Romans

We begin this Sunday a new series of sermons on the book of Romans, The Power of God Unto Salvation to Everyone Who Believes.

Throughout church history, God has used this letter time and again to bring many to faith and to restore His church to Gospel truths. Read the biographies or the writings of Augustine, of Luther, of Bunyan, of Wesley, and you will see the great influence of the book of Romans.

The title of our series is taken from Romans 1:16, which reads in part, “the gospel . . .  is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

Note three key truths in this brief sentence:

  1. The Gospel is not only Good News. It is not only an offer or invitation. It is a power. It is a power granted to people. And it is a power that is effective, that produces a result: salvation.
  2. And what can we say about this salvation? The Gospel not only saves us from God’s just wrath – His righteous punishment, from hell itself – which all men deserve (Romans 1:18, 3:23). Nor does the Gospel save us only from our self-destructive passions and desires (Romans 1:24-27). That is, the Gospel is not simply a get-out-of-hell-free card. Rather, the Gospel saves us unto being Christlike (Romans 8:29). The Gospel transforms us from the inside out (12:2). It is indeed the power of God unto salvation, unto becoming what God created us to be.
  3. This Gospel, this power unto salvation, is to everyone who believes. It is not to all Jews because they are descended from Abraham; it is not to those who have the Scriptures because they have the Scriptures; it is not to those who prove themselves worthy or who look righteous in the eyes of others. Rather, this power unto salvation is for all who look away from themselves and look to the power of God unto salvation, who look away from their own efforts and look to Jesus who has already made the effort.

So this Gospel, this power – this Spirit-wrought ability to be conformed to Christlikeness – is yours now as a gift, if you believe, if you trust, if you depend on Christ alone. As the Apostle says to those who have received this power, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14).

And that present, in-this-world salvation from slavery to sin culminates in the eternal, joyful state – when we, as “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” are glorified with Him (Romans 8:17) and revealed as the sons of God (Romans 8:19).

That’s the glorious theme of the letter to the Romans.

So I encourage you: Read the book in its entirety, noting the way Paul weaves this theme throughout. Let this letter begin to dwell in you richly – and pray with me that God would use this great epistle for His glory in the life of DGCC as He has used it so often in His people over the centuries.

But how are we to approach this letter? How should we go about interpreting it?

Consider these three guidelines:

  1. Look at the context. Many of you have heard me quote D.A. Carson: “A text without a context is just a pretext for a proof text.” We must look at the context, then look at the context, then keep looking at the context. How we interpret any one verse must make sense in the flow of thought in the surrounding paragraph, in the chapter, in the letter, in the New Testament as a whole, in the story of the Bible as a whole. While this exhortation holds for the interpretation of all Scripture, the near context is especially important when interpreting Romans. Paul is always a logical thinker who advances his argument systematically, but in Romans – unlike, say, his second longest letter, 1 Corinthians, where he addresses a series of somewhat separate issues in the Corinthian church – he sustains his argument over most all of the book.
  2. Ask the right question. If you don’t ask the right question you cannot get the right answer. And if the question you ask seems to have no good answer, perhaps you are asking the wrong question. As a possible example, consider Paul’s account of his struggle with sin: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15). Many interpreters ask the question: Is Paul talking about his pre-Christian life, or his life as a believer? The question itself presupposes that he is talking about one or the other. And in the history of interpretation of Romans 7, scholars have marshaled strong arguments for one answer to that question or the other. But what if both non-Christians and Christians can experience such a struggle – and yet neither all non-Christians nor all Christians have that struggle? In that case, we would have asked the wrong question, and the question itself would have diverted us from properly understanding the passage. We have to ask the right questions.
  3. Know the Old Testament. We cannot understand the book of Romans without an understanding of the Old Testament. Paul quotes the Old Testament about fifty times in this letter – an average of almost four times a page in my Bible. He draws time and again on Old Testament stories: Adam, Abraham, Jacob and Esau, Pharaoh and Moses, David. He speaks of Old Testament ideas and uses Old Testament categories: Law, circumcision, remnant, sacrifice. We must dig into the Old Testament if we are to dig into and profit from Romans.

So join me in eagerly anticipating what God will do through our time in this great book. May these truths dwell in us richly, so that we may become what God intends us to be individually and corporately, and therefore we might play our role in bringing about “the obedience of faith for the sake of His Name among all the nations” (Romans 1:5).

Fearing the One Who is Fearsome: God and Truth

Those of you following the Bible Unity Reading Plan are nearing the end of the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, sometimes called the books of Moses. God has brought His people to the edge of the Promised Land. Here Moses reviews the more than forty years since God brought His people out of Egypt. The people have seen God work; they have heard His voice; they have sometimes responded with joyful obedience, but so often instead have rebelled against Him. God has brought them to Himself (Exodus 19:4); He has made them His people and so they are to love Him above all and obey Him (Exodus 20:2-17, Deuteronomy 27:9-10, 6:5-9). He has given them all these commandments for their good (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

As Moses looks forward past his death, knowing their bent toward rebellion, he warns them:

If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions (Deuteronomy 28:58-59 ESV).

Bear with me here for a bit as we look in more detail at this text.

What is the purpose of the central clause? Why does Moses include, “that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God”?

First of all, remember that the word “Lord” in all capitals is used when the Hebrew text contains the Name of God, “I Am That I Am, ” most often these days transliterated “Yahweh.” With this understanding, it is clear that “this glorious and awesome name” and “the LORD your God” are in parallel to each other.

Second, remember that for the ancient Israelites, names were often used to describe character. A name is a window into who the person is. So to say that God’s Name is glorious and awesome is to say HE is glorious and awesome.

Third, note that the Hebrew verb translated “fear” is repeated in a different conjugation and translated “awesome” by the ESV.

At this point, perhaps a different translation will be helpful. Let’s take the New American Standard, replace “LORD” with “Yahweh,” and replace “fear” with “hold in awe”:

If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to hold in awe this honored and awesome name, Yahweh your God (Deuteronomy 28:58)

In this rendering, the point of the central clause is clearer: Moses is restating in other words what it means to be “careful to observe all the words of this law.” We cannot do that in a legalistic sense: “OK, here’s a command, I’ll keep it and show God how good I am.” For to be careful to observe all the words of this law is indeed to love Yahweh with all our heart, soul, and strength!

Rather, Moses is saying that to be careful to observe all the words of this law is indeed logical, true, right, and pure; it is to fear the One who is fearsome, to hold in awe the One who is awesome, to honor the One who alone deserves honor, to delight in the One who is Joy itself.

And all of that depends on Yahweh being the true God, the God of truth, who speaks words of truth to His people. If He is not, then none of Moses’ words make any sense. There is no reason to fear Him if He is not fearsome; there is no reason to hold Him in awe if He is not awesome.

Thus, hundreds of times Scripture emphasizes that God is true, that His words are true, that Scripture itself is our only hope of knowing the truth. Allow me to give a quick summary of the way God speaks of truth in His Word:

  • God’s ways, judgments, rules, law, commandments, and words are all said to be true (2 Samuel 7:28, Psalm 18:30, 19:9, 119:142, 119:151, Proverbs 30:15, Revelation 15:3, 16:7, 19:2, and many more).
  • In contrast, those who oppose God are liars. Satan is the prototypical liar (John 8:44), the antichrist is defined as the liar (1 John 2:22), and those today who are unrighteous “suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18).
  • Jesus, on the other hand, emphasizes time and again that His words are true. More than 60 times, Jesus introduces His words with “Truly” or even “Truly, truly.” He came to bear witness to the truth, and everyone “of the truth” listens to Him (John 18:37). He alone is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
  • This risen Jesus is “the true one,” “the true witness” (Revelation 3:7, 14).
  • God is seeking true worshipers who must worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24).
  • It is through abiding/remaining in Jesus’ word that we will know the truth – and that truth will set us free (John 8:31-32).
  • We must receive the Spirit of Truth, who guides us into all truth (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13, 1 John 5:6). We can then both know and be in Him who is true, the true God. And this is eternal life (1 John 5:20).
  • Paul calls the gospel “the word of truth” (Ephesians 1:13, Colossians 1:5), and he calls the church “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
  • In contrast, those who oppose God are under a “strong delusion” having “refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10).
  • So we in the church must preach the Word, even when it is unpopular and derided, because many, having “itching ears,” will “turn away from listening to the truth” (2 Timothy 4:2-4).  And as we use the Scriptures for teaching and correction, God may “grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25; see also 3:16).

Thus, Scripture claims that it is the source of ultimate truth. We, like the ancient Israelites, have a bent towards rebellion, towards suppressing this truth, and are therefore under a delusion. The Word by the Spirit must dwell in us richly if we are to know the truth, and in turn be set free. So we must submit ourselves to God and His Word – and so find the glorious freedom of the children of God.

So be careful to do all the words of God’s instruction – that is, hold in awe the One who is awesome, glory in the One who is glorious, hold to the true words of the One who is Truth – to your great joy and fulfillment.

[For further reflection on Scripture and truth, read and meditate on this compilation of more than 200 verses on this theme. For more on the process of coming to submit to Scripture, see these three blog posts from 2013: first, second, and third. The Bible Unity Reading Plan is available as an android app here.]

From Atheism to Truth

Holly Ordway was an English professor, a competitive fencer – and an atheist. She writes:

Life inside the fortress of atheism was good. I thought I could make sense of the world just as well as, or much better than, the people who claimed to have faith. I didn’t believe in God, but I had a worldview that felt perfectly satisfactory. It wasn’t a particularly cheery view, but I preferred truth over comfort any day. . . .

Some fools couldn’t face the darkness, but as for me, I could savor the idea of standing on my lonely precipice, able to recognize my identity as a meaningless speck in an uncaring universe and go on living without the artificial comforts of religion.

Over time, her atheism “gradually hardened into strident hostility.” Christians were fools, satisfying their longings with a made-up God. She dismissed any arguments for Christianity; “I had locked myself into my fortress and flung away the key.”

Yet, even in her fortress, Holly occasionally recognized that the world – and she herself – was stained:

All I had to do was look at myself and the people around me to recognize that anger, jealousy, insecurity, envy, contempt, selfishness, fear, and greed were deeply rooted in the soil of being human.

But she saw no solution to these problems with humanity in what she experienced of Christianity:

The bumper-sticker expressions of Christian affirmation—“I’m not perfect, just forgiven!” “God is my co-pilot!”—and the kitsch art that I saw—a blue-eyed Jesus in drapey robes (polyester?) comforting some repentant hipster, or cuddling impossibly adorable children (none crying or distracted), presented faith as a kind of pious flag-waving. “Look, I’m Christian! I know Jesus!” Well, thanks, but no thanks; this Jesus doesn’t look like he could handle anything worse than a skinned knee. I didn’t know then how to say it, but I was looking for the cosmic Christ, the one by whom all things were made, the risen and glorified Jesus at the right hand of the Father.

From high school, Holly was moved by poetry and loved fantasy literature. Indeed, an analysis of The Lord of the Rings figured prominently in her doctoral dissertation. When she began to teach poetry in her classes, she found herself moved by the faith-filled lines of John Donne, George Herbert, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14 inspired a deep longing in her:

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

Then Hopkins. He “blazed with intensity, illuminating a dimension to the world that I had not believed existed. I had so carefully honed my defenses of denial, individualism, and rebellion, and here was Hopkins slipping past my guard.” These lines from his poem “Carrion Comfort” hit her hard:

Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;
Not untwist—slack they may be—these last strands of man
In me or, most weary, cry I can no more. I can:
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

She writes:

Hadn’t I been feasting on Despair for years? And I was starving. I read and reread “Carrion Comfort”. Hopkins spoke what I had never shared with anyone, what I had scarcely dared to admit. He had been where I was—and had not stayed there. Hope, wish day come. . . . Was there such a thing as day for me to hope for?

Holly was surprised to find that her fencing coach of almost a year, Josh, was a Christian. He fit none of her stereotypes.

He was a caring and gentle person—though not a pushover—and there was something different about him, something I had never seen before: a kind of peace. His wife, Heidi, . . . had that same underlying joyfulness. . . . [Josh] cared about me, not as a potential convert, but as me, a unique individual, and he always, always treated me with respect.

One night after a disastrous fencing competition, Holly and Josh talk late into the night. She asks question after question. Her last question was key: “When I die, what do you think is going to happen to me?” Josh initially demurs: “I’d rather not answer that question.” But when Holly explains that she genuinely wants to know his thoughts, he replies:

“I believe that we will come before God in judgment, and he will give each person either perfect justice or perfect mercy.”

I sat in silence thinking about this for a moment. Slowly, I said, “And you believe that it would be better for me to know enough, beforehand, to ask for perfect mercy?”

“Yes, I do.”

And that was all he said. Perfect justice or perfect mercy. At that dim morning hour, and again as I thought about it later, I recognized something important: I didn’t want justice. I considered myself a ‘good person’, but in my heart I was afraid to be judged on the real self behind my outward image. Perfect justice was terrifying.

Following Josh’s suggestions, Holly then begins reading on apologetics. She comes to believe that arguments for the existence of God are more powerful than those against. But eventually she recognizes that, if God is Who Scriptures claims He is, He cannot be analyzed as an object. He is a Person. One day, “without my asking, I encountered the Other, God the Holy Spirit, in a way profoundly different from evaluating him as an idea.”

But she has still not reckoned with Jesus:

Was Jesus who he said he was? There were many miracles that I could think about, but they all paled into insignificance next to the singular miracle of the Resurrection. Had it really happened? Because if it had, then Christianity was true.

Two books were especially helpful to Holly at this point: Gary Habermas’ The Risen Jesus and Future Hope and N.T. Wright’s The Resurrection of the Son of God. Eventually convinced that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead physically, in a glorified body, she had a choice:

I could choose to turn my back, to reject Jesus, and in so doing reject utterly God himself. Pride urged me to do it. This was the voice that whispered: “If you surrender, you lose. Be your own self, no one else’s. Be a rebel.” Or I could accept defeat, lay down my arms and acknowledge Jesus as Lord. . . whatever that entailed.

She did indeed lay down her arms. She ended her rebellion. She submitted to her rightful king.

Holly’s journey to faith in Christ is her own. Her fencing coach Josh showed great discernment and wisdom in the way he gently led her to faith; but that way is not a model for all. Some will follow similar paths; many follow completely different paths.

And her book describes her continuing journey, to Anglicanism and then Roman Catholicism. (With her penchant for considering serious arguments, it would have been helpful had her coach Josh suggested she read Book 4 of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion).

But praise God for His grace and mercy exhibited in the new life of Holly Ordway. Praise God that she is a recipient of perfect mercy. Praise God that He did batter the heart of this rebel against Him, that He did indeed bend His force to break, blow, burn, and make her new. May He work similarly in our friends, our families – and in our own hearts.

Holly Ordway, Not God’s Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms, (Ignatius Press, 2014).

 

Two Kingdoms: Rebellion

Consider this Gospel presentation, “Two Kingdoms:”

Here is a truth I have come to know.  God created the world as His Kingdom, and all was very good. But Satan rebelled, desiring worship that only God deserved. He set up his own kingdom, at war with God’s kingdom of light. The first man and woman, deceived by Satan, chose to rebel also. Since then, all of us have joined that rebellion against our rightful king.

Satan’s kingdom is the kingdom of darkness. He deceives people, saying, “You don’t have to serve me, just serve yourself!” Yet as we serve ourselves, we end up destroying all that is good, even all true pleasure. That is Satan’s goal.

God’s kingdom of light has overcome the kingdom of darkness. For God sent Jesus to earth to live as man should live. Jesus then died on a cross, suffering to pay the penalty we deserve for our rebellion. But God raised Him from the dead, showing that Jesus has authority even over death and the kingdom of darkness. Jesus will reign forever and ever.

God commands all men to turn from their rebellion against Him. He invites all of us to leave the kingdom of darkness and to become citizens of the Kingdom of light. We must turn from our selfish ways and acknowledge that Jesus is our rightful King. We must let Him tell us what to do. By God’s mercy on account of the cross, we can receive His forgiveness and escape from the kingdom of darkness, gaining love, joy, and peace in the Kingdom of light forever.

We live in this little bubble called life for 70 to 80 years. When it pops, we join whichever king we served for all eternity. Which king are you serving?

In a series of blog posts, we’ll look at different key points in this presentation. Today: Rebellion.

Often we think of sin as breaking a rule – rather like driving 75 in a 65mph zone. Yes, there is a rule. Yes, if I get caught there might be consequences. But the main point of the rule is highway safety. Those making the traffic laws can’t adjust them for differing weather conditions, or for the amount of traffic congestion; they must set one speed limit. Yet in the absence of snow, ice, or heavy rain, and particularly when few if any other cars are on the road, I can safely drive 75 in a 65mph zone. In that case, the only problem with breaking the rule is getting caught.

But sin is not like that. Sin is rebellion against our rightful King. When I sin, I despise God. I dishonor Him.

Why?

Unlike those setting traffic laws, God knows all things. He is “the only wise God” (Romans 16:27). He knows exactly what will be for your good and mine. He has our best interests at heart. He gives us commandments for our good (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

Furthermore, He is “the great king over all the earth” (Psalm 47:2).  He “rules over all” (Psalm 103:19). And He reigns not because of the consent of the governed, but because He created us. We are contingent, dependent creatures. Apart from His act, we do not exist. As a potter has authority over the vessels he makes, so God has authority over mankind (Isaiah 29:15-16, Jeremiah 18:3-6).

So it is possible for me to rightly question traffic regulations. I may also have reservations about the wisdom of more important laws passed by state and federal legislatures. I can advocate for changes in those laws. Indeed, in the course of human events, there may even be times to rise in rebellion against a human government. In such cases, we are saying, “I know better than the present government what is in my interest, and what is in the interests of the people of this country.” And we may be right.

But we can never make that claim against God! We never know better than He what is in our own best interest. We never could set up an alternative government for the universe that would order it more efficiently! Yet that is what we effectively claim whenever we disobey God. We are despising His wisdom. We are rebelling against His rule. We are claiming that He does not have our genuine interests at heart. We want to overthrow our King.

Consider this truth when you are tempted to sin. It may seem small. It may seem trivial. God’s Law may seem inconsequential. It may seem that no one will be hurt. A thousand arguments may well up inside you, arguing for why breaking God’s Law is no big thing.

But every sin  is rebellion. You despise God whenever you sin.

Don’t rebel against your rightful King.

(If you would like to meditate more on rebellion against God, this file contains many biblical references to our rebellion against God and our despising His word).

God’s Law and Life in His Family

Those of you following the Bible Unity Reading Plan read the Ten Commandments this last week. How is that Law relevant for us today?  Why did God give the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel? Did God give these commandments so that the people could enter into a relationship with Him by keeping them?

How can we answer questions like this?

We must look at the context of the commandments:

  • Including the immediate context of the passage,
  • Including the context of the storyline of the book of Exodus,
  • Including the context of the overall storyline of the Bible,
  • Including what the New Testament has to say about these commandments.

Consider first the immediate context and the storyline of Exodus. The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. While they were still slaves, God said, “Israel is my firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22).  Not after they kept the Law. Before they even received the Law, Israel was in the family of God. (more…)

Who Am I?

“Who am I?”

Many people spend years trying to answer that question.

We Americans in particular spend time and energy trying to discover ourselves. So we take personality tests and, in evangelical circles, spiritual gift inventories. We want to know who we are.

At the beginning of Exodus 3, Moses thinks he has answered that question. He had an extraordinary childhood:

  • Hidden in the Nile River to escape Pharaoh’s edict that all Hebrew baby boys should be killed
  • Found by Pharaoh’s daughter
  • Brought into the palace and raised as her son
  • Given the best upbringing, the best education
  • He became “mighty in words and deeds” (Acts 7:22)

As a young man, he rightly identifies himself with God’s people rather than with the Egyptians. He turns his back on riches and power. He seems to have seen himself as the logical vessel through whom God would rescue His people from Egypt.

But then Moses acts in his own power, not God’s. Thinking he is the key actor in this drama, he kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew. His own people reject him as leader (Exodus 2:11-14). So the highly-educated and talented Moses leaves Egypt, and becomes a shepherd out in the sticks. He stays there for forty years.

Initially Moses seems to miss Egypt; he gives his first son a name that laments his exile. But over time that lamentation turns to contentment. Moses hadn’t taken a Myers-Briggs test or a spiritual gift inventory, but after all these decades, he has decided who he is. “Who am I? A shepherd. Nothing more.”

Then one day Moses sees a bush burning, but not consumed by the fire. As Moses approaches, God speaks to him: “Go! I’m sending you to Pharaoh! Bring my people out of Egypt!”

Moses is flabbergasted. God challenges his self-assessment. Who is he?

So he asks:

”Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)

God answers in two ways – two ways that are absolutely key for Moses as well as for us.

The first answer is in Exodus 3:12:

God’s first answer: Surely I will be with you.

God is saying: “What matters is not your personality, your experience, your education, or your preparation. What matters is that I am with you! What defines you is that I work through you!”

Do you see? This is why Moses failed before! He was in the prime of life, well-connected, energetic, mighty in speech. And he blew it. He blew it because God was not with him in the actions he took.

For all of us: This is the most important aspect of who we are. Not our personalities. Not our education or life experiences. Not our family or ethnic backgrounds.

Instead: Is God with you? Are you stepping out in God’s power for His glory? As you seek to help others – are you leaning on Him? Depending on Him? Trusting Him?

Moses tells God: “Who am I? I’m inadequate for this task.” God tells him: “Yes, you are – by yourself. You proved that 40 years ago. But you’re the one that I am with! And if I’m with you – my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in your weakness.”

Now look at the rest of Exodus 3:12:

“And this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

God’s second answer: You shall worship God

Many commentators struggle over this sentence. We normally think of a “sign” in such a context as something that encourages us, something that shows us we’re able to complete a task, or something that gives us direction in a task.

But Moses thinks he is inadequate for bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. How does the fact that they will worship God after they are already out of Egypt help or guide Moses now?

This is a key point. God is here answering not only the question: Who is Moses. He’s also answering the question: Who are the people of Israel? His answer is: “You all are the ones who may worship Me. This defines you. This is who you are.”

Remember, God is holy. Left to ourselves, we are repugnant to him. Defiled. Unholy. Stained. In this state, we cannot approach Him to worship Him – except on His terms. He – and only He – can tell us how we may worship and who may worship.

So understand: Who we are is a result of our relationship to Him. That is: Our identity is defined by this relationship to God.

  • Those who reject Him forever ultimately become irrelevant and unimportant. Their only purpose in eternity is displaying God’s justice.
  • Those who are His spend eternity fulfilling the purpose of their creation: Worshiping Him, giving praise, honor, and glory to Him, delighting in Him and they learn more and more of His inexhaustible goodness forever and ever. This defines them.

So as Moses showed us through his earlier failure, we will do nothing for God apart from His working in us. Indeed, we have nothing to offer others. We are inadequate. But if He is with us – we can offer everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Indeed, God has promised to work in us and through us to bring about the filling of the earth with the knowledge of His glory. God has promised to bring about worship through us.

So, ask yourself: “Who am I?”

Scripture tells us: “I am by nature an object of God’s wrath. I am a rebel against my rightful King’s purpose for me.  I am one who will not submit to God. I am one who wants to be god of my life.”

But through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we rebels, like Moses, can have a new identity. We can be forgiven. We can become children of God. We can become ambassadors of God, God making His appeal through us. We can become worshipers.

Therefore: “Who am I?”

May we all be able to say truly:

“I am the one whom God is with.  And I am the one who worships God.”

(Parts of this devotion are taken from a sermon, “I Am Who I Am” on Exodus 3:11-22, preached December 27, 2009. Audio of that sermon is available online.)

 

Jacob and Joseph: Pursuing Your Greatest Joy

Think of someone you dearly loved whom you have lost. What would you do to have that person back? Would you do anything? Anything?

This is the situation in which Jacob finds himself in Genesis 45 and 46. Imagine the scene: At 130 years of age, Jacob waits nervously for his eleven living sons to return with food from Egypt. For 22 years he has thought that his favorite son Joseph is dead. For 22 years he has mourned him. And much against his will he sent Benjamin, Rachel’s only other child, to Egypt. The sons have been gone for weeks now, perhaps for months. Jacob worries about their return. He sleeps fitfully, and wakes up at night thinking he should never have let Benjamin go. “He’ll never come back! He’ll disappear just like Joseph, and my last connection with Rachel will be gone! I’ll die in misery!”

But this day, he hears the donkeys arrive – his sons have returned! He goes out to meet them, and sees Benjamin right up front. Benjamin! Still alive! But before Jacob can reach him, before he can embrace him, all the sons cry out, “Father! Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!”

Jacob is stunned. “Joseph? Alive? And ruler of Egypt? Is this some type of cruel joke?”

But the brothers tell him the story – all the words of Joseph, as the text tells us. And they must confess their own part in the story – without accusations or argument. When Jacob hears their heartfelt confession and Joseph’s God-centered words – “It was not you brothers who sent me here but God” – Jacob realizes, “Those indeed are the words of my son.”

So he concludes (Genesis 45:28):

“It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

Ask yourself: If you were to find out that that loved one you miss more than anything was alive, living a few hundred miles away, wouldn’t you rush there? Wouldn’t you go right away and see that person? That’s what Jacob feels. And that’s what he begins to do.

So Jacob travels with his family until they reach the southernmost tip of the promised land, Beersheba. To keep traveling toward Egypt will mean leaving the promised land. Evidently, Jacob is beginning to doubt the wisdom of that step. Genesis 46:3 tells us he is afraid to go down to Egypt.

What is he afraid of? We can speculate about many possible fears, but he fundamentally fears disobeying God!

The news about Joseph has caused Jacob to remember the greatness of his God. In recent years Jacob has allowed the difficult circumstances of his life to overshadow his trust in God’s sovereignty. But he knew God. He had wrestled all night with God, and in the end clung to Him, not letting go. He knew that holding on to God was more important than any danger he had to face. He knew God was worth more than all else.

And now, God has proved Himself once again to Jacob. God has kept Joseph alive despite Jacob’s years of doubt. God has watched over Joseph and miraculously exalted him in Egypt. Learning of God’s miraculous faithfulness has renewed Jacob’s faith.

But he is faced with a dilemma: Jacob has a strong desire to see Joseph – and would God really save Joseph, exalt him, and not want Jacob to go to him?

On the other hand: God sent Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans to “the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). And then after Abraham arrived in Canaan, God told him, “To your offspring I will give this land.” (Genesis 12:7). God had promised Canaan to Abraham and his descendants – not Egypt. Indeed, God had brought Jacob’s mother from far away so that Isaac would not leave the promised land. And in Genesis 31:3 God had told Jacob himself to leave his father-in-law’s house and return to this land: “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”

All of these memories would lead Jacob to think that he would be disobeying God, displeasing God, to go down to Egypt. But there is one more memory that would have underlined this danger more than all the others. When Abraham first came to Egypt, right after God told him He was giving him the land of Canaan, a famine occurred in the land. And Abraham did not seek God’s face, but disobeyed God, traveling where? To Egypt! Abraham feared the famine, did not trust God, and left the promised land – leading his wife into danger and almost into disaster (Genesis 12:10-20). Jacob does not want to follow this example.

So Jacob thinks: “I only want to go where God wants me to go. God has shown Himself to be loving and gracious and sovereign and good through bringing my son virtually back from the dead. Should I now presume to leave the land of my calling – the very land God promised to my grandfather and father, the very place he instructed me to enter – when God has shown his power, might, and love so clearly?”

Therefore, Jacob halts before leaving the promised land. He decides that his proper response to the revelation about Joseph is not to go to Egypt – the proper response is to worship God. So he does.

And God calls out to him in a night vision: “Jacob! Jacob!” Jacob is listening, and replies: “Here I am.” God continues:

Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. (Genesis 46:3a)

That is, “I am the God of the covenant. I am the God who brought Abraham out of Ur. I am the God he disobeyed to go to Egypt. I am the God who will bring about the fulfillment of all my promises through your offspring.”

“Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.” (Genesis 46:3b)

God had promised Abraham that he would make him into a great nation (Genesis 12:2). And now he tells Jacob that that promise will be fulfilled through Jacob in Egypt.

“I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.” (Genesis 46:4)

In Hebrew, there is a strong emphasis on “I.” We could translate this verse, “I, even I will go down with you to Egypt, and I, even I, will bring you up again.”

God is saying, “Jacob, there is no conflict between following your desire to see Joseph and your desire to serve me. I will fulfill both desires. Go! I am with you! I will bring you back! And your beloved son will be with you until your death. I will not take him away from you again.”

Jacob acts wisely here. He shows a willingness to part with what he wants most on earth to hold on to God. And God gives him both.

Finally, Joseph and Jacob are reunited:

[Joseph] presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. 30 Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.” (Genesis 46:29-30)

Jacob last saw Joseph when he was 17, going out to seek his brothers, dressed in his many-colored coat. He’s now 39, dressed in the robes of an Egyptian ruler. But this exalted personage is Jacob’s son! His beloved son! Dead, and now alive!

Jacob is content. Living with Joseph will be a joy; but now even death holds no fear.

Jacob had feared dying in sorrow (Genesis 42:38). Now, through the very trip he didn’t want Benjamin to take, Jacob is reunited with Joseph. He fears death no more.

What a joyous reunion!

Question: Is the reunion with Joseph Jacob’s greatest joy?

Jacob knows that the answer to that question is “No”. At Beersheba he was willing to give up this reunion. For Jacob knew a yet greater joy: The joy of knowing and following the God of the universe. The joy of fulfilling God’s purposes for his life.

Jacob knew this God to be:

  • The good, loving God, who always keeps His promises;
  • The merciful God Almighty who protected Joseph and miraculously exalted Him.

True joy can only be found in obedience to Him. To disobey the source of all good gifts is to seek pain eventually, not pleasure.

So Jacob’s greatest joy is found in following God, clinging to Him. God had granted him the great earthly joy of holding his son raised to life. But he knew: Having Joseph without God is no gain.

What about you? Your purpose in life is to glorify God. Your greatest happiness will come from fulfilling that purpose. We often must give up lesser pleasures to pursue greater ones. The path to your greatest joy can be paved with saying “No” to what seems good. Indeed, Jesus told His disciples:

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8:34-35)

If instead you try to hold on to what you think you need for joy in this life, you will lose – you will never attain the greatest joy of following Jesus.

As 17th century English pastor William Gurnall says,

A man never comes to enjoy himself truly, in any comfort of his life, till [he is] prepared to deny himself readily in it.

Are you prepared to deny yourself readily every comfort of your life?

God is not stingy – He doesn’t withhold something or someone from you just out of meanness, or to reserve it for Himself. If He withholds something from you, He does that for a purpose. If we give up a highly-desirable joy – even our greatest earthly joy, as Jacob was willing to do – we do so for the much greater joy set before us.

If your possessions, friends, or family members are more important to you than God, if they become idols to you, you will not enjoy them truly. You will not enjoy them fully. Indeed, those very idols will become to you a source of great pain. But if you accept them as God’s gifts to you – which he could easily take away at any time for your good – if you can see them as undeserved presents showered on you by One Who loves you more than you can imagine – then they can be sources of great joy.

Are you – like Jacob – willing to say no to some pleasures in order to pursue your greatest pleasure?

(Parts of this devotion were taken from a sermon, “True Joy and Self-Denial” on Genesis 45:16-47:27, preached November 14, 2004. Both text and audio of that sermon are available. The William Gurnall quote is from The Christian in Complete Armour, (Banner of Truth, 1964; originally published 1662-1665), Volume 1, p. 569.)

God’s Hand At Work

How does God work in our lives? How does He bring us to Himself?

Sometimes He works through a Damascus-road experience: Suddenly, in an instant, an enemy of Jesus becomes His follower (Acts 9).

Other times the work is slow and painful. There are steps forward. Then steps backward.

One such case is Jacob’s first wife, Leah.

Remember the story: Jacob flees from his brother Esau, who wants to kill him for tricking him out of his birthright and his father’s blessing.

Jacob leaves home, using the pretense of going to find a wife from among his relatives in order to get his father’s blessing for the journey. But when he meets his cousin Rachel, he sheds the pretense. This is the girl he must marry!

He agrees with Rachel’s father Laban that he will work seven years for her. When the time is complete, in the dark of the wedding night, Laban sends Rachel’s older sister Leah into Jacob’s tent. In the morning, Laban tells the irate Jacob that he can marry Rachel also the following week – if he will agree to work another seven years.

In this culture, children are vital and sons are especially important. Sons will provide security for their parents in their old age, and will inherit and manage the property. A wife who bears many children – particularly many sons – is highly honored. A wife who does not bear children is in danger of being replaced.

Leah clearly enters this marriage unwanted and unloved. But then, “The Lord opened Leah’s womb” (Genesis 29:31). She bears four sons in short order. Their names tell us what is going on inside Leah’s head.

First, she gives birth to Reuben – meaning, “See? A son!” – saying “Because the LORD has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me” (Genesis 29:32).

What does this tell us about Leah? What does she want more than anything else? She wants her husband to love her!

In the booklet, “Marriage: Whose Dream?” Paul Tripp tells the story of a woman he was counseling:

I once was talking with a lady who had been married many years.

She was married to a person who, very honestly, I would have to say was a bad man. He was angry, controlling, and manipulative. He said and did hurtful things. She had dreamed of the ultimate husband, but she certainly hadn’t gotten him. Now she was so embittered by the blessings other women in her church enjoyed that she said she could no longer go to worship. She felt as if God had forsaken her, so much so that she couldn’t read her Bible or pray.

As I listened, I wanted her to understand her identity in Christ. I wanted her to know the love of the Lord; that God is a refuge and strength, an ever‑present help in trouble. So I started reading her passages that spoke of the amazing, abundant love of God, and in the middle of a verse she said, “Stop! Don’t tell me again that God loves me. I want a husband who loves me!”

And she pounded her fist on her chair as she said it.

That woman is seeking God’s gifts, rather than God Himself.

She doesn’t want God’s love. She wants God to provide her with a husband to love her.

Do you see how that is demeaning to God?

God becomes the genie whose gifts give us delight. His presence is not fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). Rather, His gifts are fullness of joy.

Isn’t this the case with Leah? She acknowledges God’s hand in giving her a son, and that’s good – as far as it goes. But she does not treasure God. In essence, she doesn’t even treasure the son God has given her. She treasures her husband’s withheld love. And so she’s miserable.

Leah bears two more sons and it doesn’t get any better:

She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. (Genesis 29:33-34)

That attachment doesn’t happen. Sons do not produce the love from Jacob Leah so desires

But finally, with her fourth son, we see a different Leah:

And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she called his name Judah. (Genesis 29:35)

Do you see the difference? She does not see this child as a tool by which she will achieve her desires. Instead, she simply praises God for what He has given.

So ask yourself:

  • Are you more like Leah after the birth of Reuben, or Leah after the birth of Judah?
  • Are you excited about what God’s gifts will enable you to enjoy?
  • Or are you first and foremost simply thankful to God for His gracious gifts?

Unfortunately, Leah does not live day by day in a state of praising God. But at least after the birth of Judah, Leah shows us how to respond to God’s gifts. This is one step to becoming a man or woman of God: Acknowledging God as the source of all that is good in our lives, and praising Him for it.

Not pining after what we don’t have, but rejoicing in the God who is working together all things together for our good and His glory.

For God is behind all that happens – in this story and in our lives. He is behind Leah’s pregnancies. He is behind Rachel’s barrenness.

He is in control.

But like us, those in the midst of the story have a hard time seeing His hand at work.

William Cowper wrote these wise words about such times:

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will. . . .

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.

God moves in His mysterious ways Leah’s life. By God’s grace, she is becoming a woman of God.

The next paragraphs show us Leah still has a long ways to go. Hers is not a Damascus Road experience.

But God in His wisdom is at work, via a long, slow process. Leah has taken an important step.

So consider those you love. Those you have witnessed to – both those who have not come to faith, and those who have professed faith but seem stalled, seem to be floundering.

God moves in mysterious ways. Pray for the sovereign God to continue the process, to guard these loved ones from hardening of heart or making shipwreck of their faith. Trust in His sovereign hand to work all things together for the good of His people – including you! – and the glory of His Name. And then play your role – your role in the sovereign plan of God – so that you yourself might be one of the mysterious ways that God makes your loved one a man or woman of God.

So check, first, your heart: Is God your treasure?

Second, check your faith: Do you trust God is at work?

Third, check your actions: Pray, and consider: What would God have me do in the lives of these I love?

(Parts of this devotion were taken from a sermon, “The Making of a Man of God” on Genesis 29:31-31:55, preached August 29, 2004. Both text and audio of that sermon are available.)

God Opposes the Proud

James tells us: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

But who is proud?

Consider some obvious biblical examples

  • Haman, rejoicing in the favor of the king and (he thinks) the queen, is full of pride (Esther 5:11-12).
  • Nebuchadnezzar, surveying his domain and exulting in his power, is full of pride (Daniel 4:29-30).
  • The Pharisee, thinking highly of his religiosity while looking down at the tax collector, is full of pride (Luke 18:10-12).
  • Herod, delighting in the people calling him a god, is full of pride (Acts 12:20-23).

But there are also less obvious biblical examples, where pride manifests itself more subtly.

Consider Job. Is Job proud?

Job is a righteous man (Job 1:1). He has avoided sexual immorality, not only in act but also in desire (Job 31:1, 9-12). He has been generous, helping the poor (Job 31:16-22). He was wealthy, but did not trust in his riches (Job 31:24-25).

Yet God allows Satan to afflict him. Job suffers terribly. His friends tell him he suffers because of his sin.

Job knows better. Compared to other men, he is good. He is righteous. God Himself has said so! (Job 1:8). If God were to apportion suffering according to the measure of a man’s sinfulness, Job would not suffer.

When Job protests against his friends’ accusations, he initially echoes God’s statement about himself. But then he goes further – and here pride comes in. He demands from God the opportunity to defend himself. In effect, he asserts that God has done wrong by having him suffer. While his perplexed cries to God in the midst of despair are right, proper, and necessary (for example, Job 30:27-31), his assertion that God would have to give way before the logic of his case is prideful (see, for example, Job 23:3-7).

This truth comes out more clearly in the last several chapters of Job. Elihu – who himself is infected with pride (Job 36:4)! – concludes his speech with these powerful and true words, even as God begins to manifest Himself in thunder and whirlwind:

“God is clothed with awesome majesty.  The Almighty — we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.  Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.” (Job 37:22b-24)

Then God speaks, reprimanding Job – who has indeed been wise in his own conceit:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:2-4).

After Job says he cannot speak before such majesty (Job 40:4-5), God asks him:

Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?  Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?  Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor.  Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. (Job 40:8-12)

Note: God says that He is right and just. He is acting from His very nature when He brings low the proud and treads down the wicked.

Job knows that he himself has spoken in prideful ways. He therefore repents. He acknowledges that he has not really understood God’s greatness, power, and righteousness. By despising himself, he is acknowledging his pride:

I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. . . . I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;  therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:3b, 4-6)

Job’s pride is very different from that of Nebuchadnezzar or the Pharisee or Herod or Haman. Indeed, he did not consider himself prideful until God confronted him.

This type of pride is especially dangerous because we so often pretend that it is not pride. This pride manifests itself:

  • Whenever we think we are not getting what we deserve
  • Whenever we think we have been good and righteous and hardworking and God is not coming through
  • Whenever we are upset that someone else got the promotion we thought we deserved
  • Whenever we are hurt that another person – in the school, in the church, in the family, in the workplace – is receiving more recognition or attention than we are
  • Whenever we are jealous of gifts that others have which we do not have

So check your heart. Pride is a subtle, infectious sin. Learn from Job. For God opposes all types of pride – but He gives abundant grace to the humble.