Best of Times, Worst of Times

 

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

—Galatians 4:4

Charles Dickens described the days of the French Revolution in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities: ¹

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

That sentiment prevails whenever we consider other periods of history, as well.

In the days of Jesus’ birth, the Roman Empire ruled most of the then-known world. In the capital city of Rome, the society was secure, prosperous, and luxurious. However, hiding beneath the surface, the entire fabric of society and culture was in imminent danger from hopeless and hidden perversion.

The Greek language was spoken in the entire Empire, unifying it like the world had never seen before. Only the resistance of the Jews kept the Roman Empire from a total allegiance to the ruling authorities. According to Jewish scholar, Alfred Edersheim, the city of Rome: ²

… in one short reign was transformed from brick into marble, … side by side, the most abject misery and almost boundless luxury.

The religious life of the Roman Empire suffered from superstition and from the deification of the Emperor. As Edersheim describes it: ³

Might was right. The social relations exhibited, if possible, even deeper corruption. The sanctity of marriage had ceased. Female dissipation and the general dissoluteness led at last to an almost entire cessation of marriage. Abortion, and the exposure and murder of newly-born children, were common and tolerated.

Edersheim goes on to point out the vile, cunning, evil reign over the Jewish territory of the various monarchs in the Herodian Dynasty, who ruled from 47 BC to 72 AD. This explanation gives us an idea of the way in which God prepared the perfect coming of His Son, Jesus Christ, in the middle of this extremely vile reign of the Herods.

When we read in Scripture about the “Light coming into the darkness,” we begin to understand how bad life must have been for the Jews in those days, and how the most devoted of them waited longingly for the coming of the Messiah. The Lord Jesus Christ came in the fullness of bad times, when history brought all the ripened powers and circumstances together.

As you read the description of the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection, we should consider these questions:

• Do we see a parallel between those ancient days and our own times?
  
  
• Can we relate to the “darkness of the hour” in our present age?
  
  
• Do we cry out for a new coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?
  
  
• Does He have for our day a time of spiritual renewal and hope?
  
  
• Or, will we experience the Second Advent of our Savior, when He will come again in the clouds of heaven?
  
  

As we consider these questions, the answers should move us to consider the longing that ought to reside in our hearts. In any case, we need to watch, pray, and stand ready to see what God will do in our time!

______________________

1 Dickens, Charles, and Harvey Dunn. A Tale of Two Cities. New York, NY: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1921. Book 1. Chapter 1

2 Edersheim, Alfred The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, 1993. Pp. 177-179.

3 Ibid.

 

 

What Did Malachi Know?

 

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

—Malachi 3:1

We hear the Prophet Isaiah’s words so often during Advent because he vividly foresees the birth of Christ. For example, in Isaiah 40:3, we read:

A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”

That word “prepare” is often associated with both the first and the second Advent of the Messiah.

In the New Testament, at the birth of John the Baptist—the man who would become the immediate forerunner of Jesus—his father Zechariah said, as recorded in Luke 1:76:

“You my child will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him.”

John the Baptist called the people who waited for the Messiah to prepare themselves because the Messiah was beginning His ministry among them. He preached repentance and sought to have the people purified, so that they might serve Christ.

Malachi’s entire prophecy, which happened some 400 years before Christ came to earth, called the people to prepare by purifying their worship, purifying their priestly line (the Tribe of Levi), purifying their marriages, and purifying their priorities in handling their money.

I love the section from which our opening verse is taken. Malachi 3:2-4 goes on to state these words of God speaking through the Prophet Malachi:

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.

This prophecy of Malachi refers to the Levites, or those who served in the Temple. I like to think that we, as New Testament saints, are as much Levites, for we serve in Christ’s church, as the Levites served in the Temple.

Yes, our full-time ministers and priests spend time as servants in the church, but so do the church musicians, the Christian Education teachers, those who prepare the holy ornaments of worship, the individuals who set up the Communion Table and prepare the elements of Holy Communion, those people who clean the church, and those who lead the spiritual and business matters of the church. All these people serve God in the church, following the example of the Levitical service in the Temple.

We see clearly that Malachi stresses the purity of those who would serve Christ. What can we expect from the Messiah as we wait for Him during this Season of Advent?

In Joel 2:28-30, this Prophet speaks of the kind of repentance that John the Baptist called for among the people of God. He promises a new day:

I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.

Even God, speaking through the lips of the Prophet Malachi, as recorded in Malachi 3:10b agrees:

“See if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

So, in this passage, we see that Malachi saw the coming Messiah clearly. And, Malachi warned God’s people to Prepare, to Purify themselves and to expect God to Pour Out His blessing on them.

Certainly, in the first Advent, with the coming of Jesus to earth in the manager of Bethlehem, God began His revelation to all the people of His eternal plan to bring the people He had chosen to belong to Himself out of their sin and into the wonderful relationship with Him through His Son.

As we wait for His second coming, can we see how these admonitions fit us perfectly now? We, too, wait for the Promised One to come again. We need to prepare, to purify ourselves and wait for the pouring out of God’s blessing!

 

 

Image

 

The Son is the radiance and only expression of the glory of [our awesome] God [reflecting God’s Shekinah glory, the Light-being, the brilliant light of the divine], and the exact representation and perfect imprint of His [Father’s] essence, and upholding and maintaining and propelling all things [the entire physical and spiritual universe] by His powerful word [carrying the universe along to its predetermined goal].

—Hebrews 1:3 AMP

Who is this Messiah we consider during Advent? By scanning the entirety of Scriptures, we find Him defined with our inadequate language.

In Isaiah 9:2, we read:

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

In John’s gospel 8:12, Jesus defines Himself.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

That light, we read in our title verse comes directly as the radiance of God, a reflection of the Shekinah glory. This glory was reflected in the burning bush for Moses (Exodus 2:2), again in the pillar of fire leading the Israelites from Egypt. (Exodus 13:21). We see this awesome reflection in the tongues of fire that sat on each of the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 2:3).

In this day, how does God provide for us this reflection of God’s brilliant glory? We see God as we look at Jesus. We see His perfect image by gazing at Him through direction from His written Word and prayer, through Spirit-led preaching and teaching.

Not only in those ways, but God expects each of His followers to live as a reflection of God’s Shekinah glory in our lives. We represent the image of Christ to this world. The more “face time” we have with Him, the more fully we absorb and then give off His powerful light.

What a tremendous promise in this regard we read in 2 Corinthians 3:18:

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Even if we shine brightly as lamps in this dark world, we must have oil or power—the Shekinah glory—from some source other than ourselves. The Bible often describes the oil we need as the power of the Holy Spirit. As we look at the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit allows us to mirror Jesus to the watching world.

We cannot expect to give off the Light of Christ in this world unless we reflect Him in the same way that the moon reflects the sun. Nor have the power to continue to shine as lamps without the oil of the Spirit.

This question is worth asking ourselves: “Is the ‘light’ I give off come to me from my own dimly lit bulb and does it shine for my own glory? Or instead, do I truly reflect the glory of my Father in Heaven?” The difference is like night and day!

 

 

The Key

 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

—Psalm 100:4

So many times in Scripture, especially in the Psalms, we are encouraged to “Give thanks to the Lord.” The Psalms also persuade us to “Praise the Lord” and to “Worship the Lord.”

To me, praise and worship stem from a mindset that understands to Whom we belong and also from a mindset that understands His greatness and power. We worship because God is worthy of our worship. And, we praise Him for His attributes and those universal benefits we receive from His magnificent grace and power, including the salvation from the penalty of our sins.

To give thanks, however, brings praise to a personal level. In fact, I would like to assert that we open the door to God’s presence with thanksgiving.

We should ask ourselves: “Have our hearts ever felt cold and indifferent when we came to God in prayer?” Certainly none of us can claim that we always come to God with the totality of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, even though He requires that of us.

May I suggest that, when we feel distant from our Lord, we should consider beginning our prayer times with a round of thanksgiving. It doesn’t take long before our hearts engage more fully, when we think how personally God has intervened in our lives—even during times when we wait and wonder at the way He leads us.

This idea has come to me through two passages of Scripture. We find the first passage in Romans 1:21-32. Here the writer describes the wrath of God against wickedness, and the steps to the decline of evil in a person. The very first step downward in this list of sins is a lack of thanksgiving. Romans 1:21:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him.

As we read the rest of the first chapter of Romans, we recognize that the sin that the Apostle Paul writes about only gets darker and deeper. One commentator uses the phrase: “… sin begets sin.” That is, new sin heaps itself on existing sin.

The other passage of Scripture, in which I read this kind of progression, is found in Psalm 106. Here we discover a record of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. Interestingly enough, the Psalm begins with the admonition, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.” When the Psalmist recounts the history of the Jewish nation and recalls their sin, notice the very first thing the Psalmist states about God in Psalm 106:7:

When our fathers were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles, they did not remember your many kindnesses.

From there on, the list includes: rebellion, discontent, jealousy, idolatry, unbelief, apostasy, insurrection, and accommodation to the culture around them. This represents quite a list of terrible sins. But, please take note that not remembering the Lord and His goodness with thanksgiving is the lack of action that first started them down the wrong path.

During this Thanksgiving week, I invite you to rediscover with me the wonderful way in which the giving of thanks to God provides the key that opens the gate, allows us to come into the very presence of our Lord, and allows us to experience anew His sweet Spirit.

 

 

Regard Not Your Stuff!

 

Regard not your stuff, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.

—Genesis 45:20 KJV

Through miraculous circumstances, Jacob learned that his lost son, Joseph, was actually alive and had become a highly influential official in Egypt. He eagerly looked forward to his reunion with Joseph and set out for Egypt, taking his family to settle there.

When Pharaoh learned that Joseph, his second in command, had discovered his family, and that they were going to travel to Egypt, he said to Joseph, as recorded in Genesis 45:17-23 KJV:

Say unto thy brethren, “This do ye; lade your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan; And take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.”

Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is your’s.

And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment. And to his father he sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.

Certainly, we can see echoes of Jacob’s experience occurring in the New Testament. Jesus spoke several times in the Gospels about the stuff of life, and the dangers of regarding it too highly. Can you see the parallels to Joseph’s story recorded in the text of the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 6:19-21 KJV?

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

As our lives on this earth come to an end, we will take a journey to God our Father. He knows we will have no need for the stuff of this life because all the good of Heaven will be ours. In fact, as stated in the Scripture passage quoted above from Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus admonished us to lay up treasures in Heaven.

As I pondered these words of Jesus, I wondered what the actual treasures were to which Jesus referred. The Psalmist, writing in Psalm 119:89-91 ESV, states these words:

Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants.

These are the kind of treasures that endure in heaven. They cannot be destroyed by moths or by vermin. Thieves cannot break in an steal these treasurers. Therefore, these treasures are the ones we must lay up in heaven: the word of God, the recognition that God remains always faithful, the reality that God created the heavens, the earth, and all things. The enduring truth that God is above all things and He alone is worthy of all glory, honor, and praise.

The people whom we have had the opportunity to introduce to the mysteries of God and have influenced for Christ also belong to the treasury of Heaven. Some may have directly come to know Christ’s salvation through our witness. Others drew more closely to Him through our lively participation in their lives, through our teaching, our preaching, and our sharing with them what God means to us and what He has done to transform our lives.

Like the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:13-21, we read a story from Jesus about a person who lived for treasures on earth and worked for a padded, comfortable, enjoyable retirement, rather than serving others with his wealth. In telling this parable, Jesus reminded us that God controls the length of life, and that all of those treasures we store up to give us the future on earth that we think we control constitute a lie.

Let us consider how we might put away the importance of our stuff in exchange for the eternal riches of God’s grace. That is a most appropriate eternal exchange!

 

 

In Charge

 

He has put his angels in charge of you to watch over you wherever you go.

—Psalm 91:11 NCV

Do you enjoy being in charge? The person in charge usually gets to sway opinions and the direction of the group that he or she leads: the college homecoming festivities, the annual yearbook, the decorating committee, the gala banquet, or even the Pastor Nominating Committee. The one in charge has a great deal of responsibility. But, being in charge can certainly feel good.

Joseph must have felt highly honored, yet very much surprised, when Potiphar, an official in Pharaoh’s court of Egypt, put Joseph in charge of everything Potiphar owned. Genesis 39:3-4 tells us:

When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.

We don’t know much about Potiphar. Perhaps he felt great relief in having someone so competent as Joseph acting as his steward. In Genesis 39:6, the Scripture states:

“So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.”

This statement makes me wonder if Potiphar had more than he could handle and had become anxious about it. He allowed Joseph’s help to relieve him of the anxiety he had over everything. Joseph certainly was a highly competent, fiercely loyal, and dedicated steward.

It is important to note that a steward is defined as: “a servant or slave elevated to a position of responsibility in his or her master’s kingdom.” Even though he or she remains a servant or slave, a steward thinks only of what is the very best action to take, in order to support his or her master. A steward sets aside any personal feelings or desires that he or she may have. Instead, a steward focuses every bit of his or her attention on the wishes of his or her master.

As I think about Potiphar turning over everything he valued to the stewardship of Joseph, it reminds me of times when responsibility has weighed heavily on me. What do we do when we have neither the ability, nor the confidence, to handle something with which we have to deal?

Does God give us tasks with which He knows we will struggle? What if we are given a child with special needs that, in our own strength, we have no way of meeting? We may feel the weight of not having the wherewithal to successfully perform the tasks that make up our responsibility. Yet, we find ourselves seemingly in charge.

Or, what about a dangerous job assignment that feels way too much for us? Or, helping a parent who no longer can stay in his or her home alone? Or, what about guiding our business, in order to make enough income to support our employees and satisfy our stockholders? Or, what about … Well, you can name some situation you have faced where you were placed in charge.

In puzzling over this dilemma, I remembered what the Psalmist told us in Psalm 91. This Psalm is chock-full of promises of protection and help for the person “who dwells in the shelter of the Most High and rests in the shadow of the Almighty.”

When it comes to the really important things in our lives, what a relief to know that God has not put us solely in charge. Instead, in order to supply protection and help, God has actually put His mighty angels in charge!

How easy it must be for them to handle the problem. Like Potiphar, we don’t have to concern ourselves with anything! Let us rest easy and give praise to God.

 

 

A Boatload of Trouble

 

And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

—Matthew 14:33

The disciples had just helped feed 5,000 people near the Sea of Galilee (or Lake of Gennesaret). They must have been tired. However, Matthew 14:22 relates that Jesus told them to get into a boat and go across the Sea to Bethsaida. By the time they reached about half way, they had a “Mid-trip Crisis.” A furious storm came up, and because the wind blew against them, they strained at the oars. Have you ever felt you were “straining at the oars” against a storm in which someone else had involved you?

To make this even harder to understand, as He waited on shore, Jesus could see them in this predicament. And, for reasons that only He would understand, He waited—until sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.—to go to their aid out on the Sea. Instead, Jesus stayed where He was and prayed.

This story contains the miracle of Jesus walking on the water and terrifying the disciples as He came alongside them. His words must have brought great relief to these hardened fishermen, who saw many storms on this Sea. He spoke to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then He climbed into the boat and the wind died down. John 6:20 adds that:

Immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

Jesus may leave us in the boat straining at the oars for a period of time way beyond what we think our strength can bear. He wants to build our endurance and our faith. But, what sweet relief we feel when we know He has come to us and joined us in the storm. He can speak peace to us in that terrible place. And, what is more, He can help us immediately get to our destination.

When we feel that God has left us alone in the storm, we can be assured by this story that He watches us and prays for us like He did for the disciples. We can have confidence to keep going until such time as He reaches us and climbs into our boat!