Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....March 12, 2018
Last week we began a two week teaching from Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lakewood, California. It came to be because I could not get anything written that would be worth of you readying. So I turned to a friend and mentor who had happened to send me this teaching. I pray you enjoy his superlative words on the state of the world today and how we got here.
Adam and Eve had great intimacy together. It was an innocent intimacy. Scripture says they were "naked and unashamed." That doesn't just speak to physical matters. The text is saying they were also emotionally naked and unashamed. There was no intimacy barrier.They had no bad memories from their exes. They had no bad memories from high school. They had no bad lessons they had learned from their parents. Everything was perfect for Adam and Eve. They understood each other. They had the only perfect relationship that ever existed between a man and a woman, because they had no bad history, no sin, and no hang-ups. They had perfect bodies made by God. But when they sinned, it ruined the whole thing. It messed up the relationship. That intimacy of understanding each other became fear and hiding and distrust and shame. The Bible says, "They suddenly felt shame at their nakedness … so they strung fig leaves together to cover themselves."
Men and women have been covering up ever since, and I'm not talking about clothes. I'm talking about covering up emotionally. We hide from each other. We don't want to let anybody get close to us. We don't want them to know us, and we cover up.
I want to ask you: What's your fig leaf? What do you use to keep people from getting close to you? Is it that you wear a mask or play a role or pretend that you're somebody you're not? Do you hide in secret? Adam did the very two things that every man and every woman has done since: he hid and he blamed.
That's what sin always does in a relationship. When you have sin in a relationship, you are afraid of revealing your true self, so you hide—even from your husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend. You don't let them know your deepest fears. Every relationship in the world has been damaged by sin and the evil that's in the world.
The other thing Adam did is he blamed. He said to God: You know, the reason I'm in this trouble is that woman you gave me caused me to be tempted. And ever since we have been hiding our own weaknesses and blaming other people for the problems in our lives.
Spiritual discontentment and darkness is the fifth result of our sin. Sin leaves a hole in your heart that nothing can fill. Pascal called it "the God-shaped hole." There's a God-shaped vacuum in your life that nothing else can fill. We try to fill it with sex, popularity, hobbies, or sports, but it's like putting a square peg in a round hole—it doesn't fit. You were made for God. St. Augustine said this: "Lord, thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee." You were made by God and for God, and until you make that connection, you're going to be looking, running, and always spiritually discontent. What you need is God. Trying to find meaning in music or sex or anything else is not the answer.
Although the world is great and there are a lot of good things in the world, we have to be realistic about it. We live on a broken planet that has natural disasters and deformities, physical decay and death, emotional distress and disappointment, distance and discord in relationships, and spiritual discontent and darkness. It is no wonder there is an epidemic of depression in our world. I would be depressed, too, if I thought that was the end of the story. But it's not. There is good news.
How can you be happy in a world full of pain, suffering, sorrow, broken relationships, and bad memories? How can you be happy on a broken planet? For that matter, how can you get happy on a planet that has all those problems? Jeremiah has the answer. Jeremiah was a prophet, and he wrote two books in the Bible. One of them is called the Book of Jeremiah, and he wrote another one called the Book of Lamentations, which means "the sorrows." In Lamentations he gives his testimony. He says:
I cannot find peace or remember happiness. Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering makes me miserable. It's all I ever think about, and I am depressed. Then [here's the good news] I remember something that fills me with hope. The Lord's kindness never fails. If he [God] had not been merciful, we would have been destroyed. The Lord can always be trusted to show mercy each morning. So, deep in my heart, I say, "Lord, you are all that I need. I can depend on you."That phrase, "Lord, you are all that I need," is the antidote to depression. It's the key to happiness in a broken, messed-up, damaged world. You don't put your trust in people, because they're going to let you down. You don't put your trust in circumstances, because they're going to disappoint you. You don't put your trust in things, because they're not going to last. You put your trust in God and say, "Lord, you are all that I need."
God is in control of this world.We see the reason the world's in a mess—it's sin. I've blown it, and you've blown it. Adam blew it, and we've seen the results. Here's the question that I have: why doesn't God just shut the Earth down? When he looks down and sees genocide, suicide, war, rape, murder, people hating each other, people cheating on each other, and people being mean, why doesn't he just pull the plug on the planet? Why does he put up with it? He's got the power to just shut it all down, so why doesn't God just close up shop? Why is he allowing a broken planet to limp along for a little bit longer? He doesn't shut the world down because although the world is broken, God is still in control, and history is moving toward a climax.
Second Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise to return"—which is when he's going to pull the plug on the planet—"as some people think. No, he's being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish." God doesn't want anybody to go to hell. He doesn't want anybody to be separated from him for eternity. So he's giving more time for everyone to repent. The reason God puts up with all the grief that he sees on this planet is because he's being patient and waiting for you to step across the line and come to know him. He wants you in his family. Or, if you are in his family, he wants you to witness to your family and your friends and your neighbors, because he wants them in the family, too. Once the door to the ark is shut and it starts to rain, it's not opening again 15 minutes later. It's over. When God shuts it down—when you die or Jesus comes back—it's over. There's no second chance. So God says: I'm waiting a little bit longer just so people have the opportunity to receive my grace.
When somebody comes to you and says, "I can't believe in, worship, or love a God who would callously stand by and watch little children suffer and women be raped," here's what you say: "I don't believe in that kind of God, either." God isn't that kind of God. You have no idea how much it hurts God when he sees all the sin on the Earth. It hurts him more than anybody else. He weeps and grieves and says: Look at what my children are doing. They're abusing each other. They're lying to each other. They're cheating each other. They're killing each other. They're being evil to each other. They're hurting each other. They're gossiping about each other.
God feels every sin. He's grieving, and the only reason you grieve is because you're made in God's image. God has emotions, and he gave you emotions, too. God feels everything much more intentionally than you ever will. He's far more worried about women who get raped than you are. You don't think about it all the time, but he does. He's watching it, he cares about it, and he hates it with a passion. The only reason he's holding back his fierce judgment on evil is because he's waiting for you and others to step across the line, so he can pull the plug and say: Okay, everybody who's going to be in is in.
God already knows who's going to say "Yes" to his invitation. He already knows because he knows the future. He's not determining it—you get to choose—but he already knows, and he's giving you that little bit of extra time. He's waiting for you. Yes, the world is a mess, but God is in control.
We must respond to God's control of this world.There are four ways I should respond to the fact that God is in control of this world.
Number one: Receive God's grace daily. If God is waiting to shut the world down so he can show his grace, then you need to receive it on a daily basis. The Bible says this: "Through the sin of one man [that's Adam] death began to rule, but now how much greater is the result of what was done by one other man, Jesus Christ?" All who receive God's abundant grace and are freely put right with him will rule in life through Christ. If you have never received the grace of God, you need to receive it now.
Number two: Remember this place is temporary. Don't get too caught up in this fallen world. Don't get caught up in its fashions and values. Don't get too enamored with the things of this world, because nothing you see is going to last. Everything is going to vanish one day. There are only two things that are going to last for eternity—God's Word and God's people. You need to build your life on those things that are going to last. This is all temporary. The Bible says that I'm here on earth for just a little while. The Bible says: "This world is not our home. We're looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven."
Number three: Reject manmade solutions. Because this world is a broken world that has sin and evil in it, you have many unmet needs. This is not a perfect place, so all your needs will not be met while you're here on Earth. You have unmet sexual needs. You have unmet personal needs. You have unmet relational needs. You have a need to be understood. You have a need to be loved. You have a need to not be lonely. You have financial needs that are unmet. All of these different needs are in your life because we live in a planet that's not perfect, because sin and evil exist. What you don't want to do is give in to the temptation of figuring out how to meet your needs in your own way rather than trusting in God. That would be a really big mistake.
One last thing: God says to reach out and testify about his love. Once you know the meaning of life, you need to pass it on. You need to teach others what I told you. You need to explain it to your friends and to your family, because they're living without hope. The Bible says this: Go out into the world uncorrupted, like a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the life-giving message into the night. God says he wants you to pass it onto others. If you're in the family, God says: I'm just waiting for your family and friends to get in, too. So go tell them, and then we can shut this thing down and get on with eternity. Go tell them.
My sincere mahalos to Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lakewood, CA
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
This is why I love being a Pastor. Stories like this.
My tire blew up while on the highway. This man pulled over on the side of the road and spent the next 40 minutes helping me replace my tire.
He said he was a local preacher, and when I offered money for his help he said that he was just doing the Lord's work.
What a guy!
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
Last week, we began our journey through the Old Testament book of Isaiah. I gave you a brief outline of the entire book and this week we get into...
Isaiah’s message
It is a daunting task for a reader to face sixty-six chapters in page after page of unbroken print. I offer here in this Introduction a ‘reader’s review’, an attempt to survey the wood before examining the trees. Please read this before you begin to tackle the text, looking up the (by no means exhaustive) references provided en route.
(a) Isaiah 1–5
The account of Isaiah’s call (6:1ff.) provides a convenient ‘marker’, suggesting that chapters 1–5 form an introductory unit. As the Commentary shows (pp. 47–75), this turns out to be a satisfactory observation. In these chapters Isaiah sketches the situation into which he was called. Their basic theme of disobedience (1:2–4, 15–16, 19–20; 2:5–9; 3:8–9; 5:7) is placed between the brackets of hope and no hope: on the one hand, the Lord has a future for his people (1:26–28; 2:2–4; 4:2–6), but on the other, sin must be judged (1:5–6, 24–25; 2:10–11; 3:11). This latter predominates: chapter 5 contains no note of hope and ends with a vision of unrelieved darkness (5:29–30).
(b) Isaiah 6–12
Opening with the story of a single sinner cleansed (6:5, 7), this section ends with the song of a saved community (12:1–6). Within these brackets the section does something characteristic of the whole Isaianic literature: it takes as its major theme a sub-topic from the section preceding. In 1:26 the coming glory of Zion is anticipated in Davidic terms: David was the first to occupy Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:6–9) and things will yet be as they were ‘at the beginning’, i.e. the days of David come back again. This Davidic theme is central to chapters 7–11. Against the background of the apostate King Ahaz (7:10–12), the light of the coming perfect King shines out (7:14; 9:1–7; 11:1–9).
(c) Isaiah 13–27
Within the vision of the coming perfect King, a minor theme is the universal empire over which he would rule (9:7; 11:4, 6–9, 14–16). Is this wishful hyperbole or a solidly grounded hope? The worldwide, indeed cosmic, panorama of chapters 13–27 is designed to provide the answer. Isaiah 13:9–13, along with 14:1, sets out the philosophy of history which animates these chapters: the Lord is the world ruler and when his ‘day’ comes he will exert his rule alike over heaven and earth, but at the centre of all his operations lies his compassion for his own people. Zion has this sure place in the Lord’s plans (14:32) and is a refuge for a troubled world (16:5); its ruler is sometimes David (16:5) and sometimes the Lord (24:23). The whole series comes to a dramatic climax in the contrast of two cities: the world’s city—the human attempt to organize the world without God—which falls (24:10), and the strong city of salvation (26:1) which stands.
(d) Isaiah 28–37
Within the world panorama of chapters 13–27, the Lord’s final purpose of ‘one world, one people, one God’ was set out in terms of the world map as Isaiah knew it: Israel sandwiched between the would-be superpower, Egypt, and the actual superpower, Assyria. At the End, the Lord will make them a united, co-equal whole (19:23–25; 27:11–13). In Isaiah’s time the people of the tiny puppet kingdom of Judah could well have questioned the realism of such a hope! In answer to this spoken or unspoken query, Isaiah moves on into chapters 28–37, dealing with an actual history in which Judah, Egypt and Assyria—the very nations which formed his eschatological trio—became entangled. In chapter 28, Jerusalem seems rightly doomed (verse 11), but the Lord’s cornerstone is there (verse 16) and it remains to be seen how the divine farmer will deal with his field (verses 23–29). In fact his purpose is an eleventh-hour deliverance (29:1–8). The people of Judah have sinfully involved themselves with Egypt (30:12) and invited the wrath of their overlord Assyria, the unnamed adversary of 30:17. But the supposed strength of Egypt is meaningless (30:7), and a divine purpose long since framed has determined that the Assyrian march against Zion is his funeral procession ending in his funeral pyre (30:33). Chapters 36–37 record how all this actually happened (37:36–38).
(e) Isaiah 38–55
Chapters 28–37 are dominated by the topic of the deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian threat and the proof this offers historically of divine sovereignty in ordering earthly history. But there is a distinct sub-theme: this great deliverance is totally contrary to what Jerusalem’s rulers and people deserve. The same could be said of chapters 7–11 where the coming King is an unmerited promise but, while that earlier section acknowledged national sinfulness (e.g. 8:11–12, 19), its major concern was the sin of the leadership. There is no passage quite like 30:8–17. Equally, while the great Isaianic title, the Holy One of Israel, occurs at 10:20, in chapters 28–35 it occurs more often than in the rest of Isaiah 1–37 taken together (29:19, 23; 30:11–12, 15; 31:1; 37:23): there has been a specific national rejection of the Holy God (30:11).
There is thus a deeper problem than how Judah may or may not fare in the power politics of the day. What about sin and rebellion, rejection of the word of the Lord (28:11–12) and of the Lord of the word (30:10–11)? This situation receives pointed illustration in the sin of Hezekiah, detailed in chapters 38 and 39. To choose security in an alliance with Merodach-Baladan (39:1–4) was to throw the divine promise of security and deliverance (38:6) back in God’s face and to abandon the way of faith. As a result the Lord of history would use the forces of history in the earthly chastisement of his people (39:5–7; 42:18–25). Nevertheless, mercy would triumph, and the comfort of God would come to his people as outlined in 40:1–2: the ‘period of duress’ (40:2a) would end; Cyrus the Restorer would send the exiles home and Jerusalem would rise again (44:28; 45:13; 48:20–22). But also, sin would be covered and cancelled (40:2b): the Lord’s Servant, the Redeemer, would bring the people back to God (49:5–6) by bearing their sins (53:8, 12).
(f) Isaiah 56–66
Isaiah foresees that the people will be less than happy to have Cyrus as their restorer (45:9–11) and it is easy to see why they felt like this. They were exiled from Jerusalem as a subject people, dominated by the imperial power of Babylon. To return home by permission of Cyrus the Persian left their situation unchanged; they were still subject, still under an imperial power. David had not returned; there was now not even a puppet king in Zion; national sovereignty seemed more of a dream than ever! So when will the Lord’s people really be a free people, free of worldly influence and oppression? It is to this topic that Isaiah turns in chapters 56–66. The opening is significant: the people are still awaiting the Lord’s salvation (56:1). But the Lord has his Agent at the ready: one who will dry his people’s tears (61:1–3), put an end to their oppressors (62:8) and by himself execute the great double work of redemption and vengeance (63:1–6). At last, Jerusalem will be the center of the New Earth (65:17–25).
Isaiah’s thought
It is not an overstatement to say that today the pendulum of specialist opinion is swinging rapidly away from the older emphasis on differences within the Isaianic literature and more towards the great unities which bind it all together. This is not to say that the specialist world is any nearer to asserting one single author, Isaiah of Jerusalem: far from it. But the rigidity of a first, second and third Isaiah separated by hundreds of years is giving way to the thought of an ongoing ‘Isaiah school’, prolonging, enlarging and re-applying the teaching of the master-prophet. For, after all, it will not do to impute silliness or carelessness to the ancient guardians of the written texts who in every other way give evidence of their extreme caution. We cannot, on the one hand, find them safeguarding the separate integrity of a fragment like Obadiah, or, as some would say, even inventing a name for the author of Malachi to guarantee its distinctness, and then, on the other hand, suppose that, querying what to do with the acme of Old Testament prophecy, Isaiah 40–55, they slotted it in with Isaiah 1–39 because they happened to have half a scroll, or whatever, to spare! It is a welcome thing to hail the scholarship which is steadily opening up the streams of unity in the Isaianic literature.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 17–21). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
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