Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on December 16, 2007
Presented to the Swift Current Corps on July 11, 2010 & Jan 25/15
Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries on December 22, 2019
By Captain Michael Ramsay
The original presentation began with a quiz: the congregations were shown pictures of famous people that are readily recognisable and asked to identify them and at the end they were also shown a decades old picture of myself: the latter they weren’t able to successfully identify.
I remember - about the time these pictures were taken – I was a janitor; I worked nights for a big janitorial company. They have many buildings all over the city and I worked for this company since before I ever went to university so when I did go back to school, they were kind enough to work around my schedule.
They made me a ‘floater’: now a floater is a very important position because we are given the keys and alarm codes to banks and other important businesses all over the city and our shifts often end late at night or early in the morning so one doesn’t want just anybody walking around some of these buildings (for security reasons) in the middle of the night.
I remember one night. I’m on ‘floater’ duty. I have four buildings to clean. The first one, I have a staff working with me and I am given the unpleasant job of letting one of them go and that doesn’t go over so well. My second building takes me twice as long to clean as it should and when I get to my third building, it is well passed midnight and I have never been in this building before and I can’t find the light switch anywhere. As a result, I am late turning off the alarm and the thing goes off: it is loud. So while it is still ringing and the place is still dark I run and trip over a desk trying to turn it off and then the phone rings (the alarm company always calls to see why an alarm is going off) so I’m off and running again and this time it is in the other direction -still in the dark - to find the phone before I miss the call and the alarm company phones the police. I get to the phone just in time but not before crashing into another desk in the pitch black and yelling out some words that – don’t worry – I won’t repeat here.
I finally get this alarm mess sorted out but by now my leg that I have bashed twice is killing me as I am limping around the whole building still looking for the light switch in the pitch black. I am very lost in a maze of cubicles and I really can’t see anything and I am not feeling too happy at all when I hear something.
I hear something. I hear something growl. I hear something growl and bark loudly. This is not good. So what do I do? I yell. I yell quite loudly as I hit the floor. Peering up I can see a couple of police dogs and a police officer staring down at me. I can tell you – I don’t know if you have ever encountered an angry police dog but that was one of the scariest moments of my life.
What happened was when I spoke with the security company on the phone – remember I was just a spare, not the regular cleaner – my name wasn’t on the list of people who were approved to be in the building after midnight and instead of calling the company I worked for, like they are supposed to do, they called the police and so I almost got seriously hurt by a police dog.
Even though I told them my name they didn’t really know who I was.
This is not entirely unlike our story here today. Look at 11 verses 2 and 3, “When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
John knows Jesus - just like the alarm company knew my name from our phone conversation – John knows Jesus, just like we know who many of those people whose pictures flashed on the screen at the beginning of the sermon are but here, it seems, John, like the alarm company with me and like many of us with those famous people, John is not entirely certain who exactly Jesus is.
Now I don’t know if you remember from when we were studying Luke earlier in the year, John is Jesus’ cousin. Not only that. Jesus’ mom and John’s mom are fairly close. Remember from Luke chapter one, that when Mary finds out she is going to have a baby; it says, she gets ready and hurries to meet Elisabeth and when Elisabeth hears that Mary is going to have a baby –the baby in her stomach – John the Baptist – leaps, it says. John and Jesus are family but still in the passage before us today John asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
And not only that, as we read last week as well, if you’ll remember, John is actually the one who baptises Jesus. These two know each other in this way but still John asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Not only do they know each other. Do you remember the interchange between the two of them – you can flip back to Chapter 3 if you want – when Jesus comes to be baptised? John says, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? (Matt 3:14).” John obviously knows Jesus and he obviously knows something about Jesus, even before and right at the beginning of Jesus ministry but now, now for some reason, John asks of him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
But there is even more: remember the heavens open up and God declares, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matt 3:16)” and still John, who is there at the time asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Well this is interesting then – if John knows Jesus so well, who, other than the Messiah, the expectant King, could John be expecting?
Could John be expecting that Jesus is Elijah?[1] Some theorists have posited that John may have thought Jesus was Elijah; certainly other people did (cf. Matt 17:10-12; Mark 6:15, 8:28; Luke 9:19). After all – even though Jesus claimed that John was Elijah later in this very chapter we are looking at here today, in 11:14 (cf. also 9:11-13; Luke 1:17), John himself at one point denies that very claim (John 1:21). So if here John does not realise that he himself is fulfilling the role of Elijah and if he does not realise that Jesus is the Christ, he could have thought Jesus was Elijah – maybe.
Maybe John was just asking this questions for others and he really knew the answer all along. This was a popular view of the Reformers evidently– an unlikely view given the context of the passage, I would think, the gospels don’t tend to be quite so tricky – but maybe?[2]
He could be a prophet (Jeremiah; cf. Matt. 16:14)– much like John himself– only greater. If John saw the dove at Jesus’ baptism he may even recognise that, yes, Jesus is God’s son but maybe he just doesn’t know what that means? After all aren’t we all the children of God? Weren’t angels in the Genesis account sometimes referred to as ‘sons of God’ (Gen 6:2-4)? So then what does it mean to be the ‘Son of God’ and who, who is Jesus? Is he the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?
Well this is an important question for us today then too, isn’t it? Who is Jesus? The most educated, religious people of Jesus day, the Pharisees and Sadducees did not accept him as the Messiah, the Christ, the King to come, and in our story today John the Baptist, someone who knows Jesus even before he is born, someone who is his cousin, someone who baptises him, someone who teaches the same message of ‘repent for the Kingdom is near’ (cf. Matthew 3-4), someone as close to Jesus as John asks the question, are you the one to come, or should we expect someone else? Well, is Jesus the one to come or should we expect someone else; who do we say Jesus is?
A good man? - I have heard people say that. An imaginary figure? - I have heard that too –this one is rather silly though since we have much better evidence for Jesus as Christ than we do for Julius Caesar as Roman Emperor or the even the very existence of Socrates.
Was Jesus just a prophet as some – such as the Muslims and the Jews – suggest? Was he a mere man? Was he only a voice calling from the wilderness? Much of the world today would say that he was some kind of the prophet.
Could he just have been a religious teacher from a minor Roman province who developed a cult following that continued to grow for well – thousands of years now – there are more Christians in the world than ever before and, of course, the Bible is the world’s best-selling book. But all that aside, could he be just a dead teacher?
These are all answers with which people today answer the question, ‘Who is Jesus?’ Is he the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?
I think this is important because it changes everything doesn’t it? If Jesus is our Lord; if he is our king and his kingdom is at hand; if he is our wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace (Isa 9:6) – then we need to submit to his authority don’t we? So who is this Jesus?
Of course Matthew answers this question right in our text today. He does it in a couple of different ways. First, he does actually call him the Christ / Messiah (same word, different language) in Verse 2 and even more than that, look at how Matthew records Jesus’ response to the question, ‘are you the one to come?’
He says, verses 4-6, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” Jesus is drawing John’s attention to the glory of the Kingdom of the Messiah mentioned in Isaiah 35:5-6 and 42:18.
Here, listen to part of Isaiah 35 again - we read it earlier today - where the Christ’s Kingdom is described:
The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendour of our God.
And more, look at verse 5, HERE IT IS. It says that in the Messianic Kingdom to come, “… the eyes of the blind be opened (just like it says is happening now in our passage in Matthew) and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. - And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.
Isn’t this great?! And Isaiah 42 is much the same: this is what Jesus is answering to John’s question. John asks, are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? And Jesus answer gives John tangible evidence that indeed this Kingdom of God is at hand. The Kingdom of the Christ, the Messiah is being established now; it is here. Just like John and Jesus proclaim – it is now at hand.
Who is Jesus? He is this Messiah. He is this Christ. This kingdom is being established and the wondrous aspects of it are available now. This is what Jesus lets John know and he reveals it in His own way in His own time. It reminds me of a story I read about just recently in the Expository Times.[3]
James V, the King of Scotland used to go around the country dressed like everyone else: a common person. That is because he wanted to meet the everyday people of the country not just the rich and powerful. He wanted to see how the normal people lived.
One day he was dressed in very old clothes and was going by a place known as Cramond Brig, when he is attacked by robbers who don’t know who he is. There is a fierce struggle and he is nearly overcome when, at just the right moment, a poor farm worker - Jock Howieson - hears the commotion comes to the disguised king’s aid.
Now Jock, the poor labourer, who works on this portion of the King’s land, known as Cramond Brig, now Jock unawares takes the undercover king home and gives him a dinner of broth and Jock - as the king is recouping – naturally asks the man who he is.
The King responds – in a Scottish brogue that I am not even going to attempt – ‘Ach, I’m a good man of Edinburgh.’
‘And where do you live in that city and where do you work?’
‘Well,’ says James, ‘I live at the palace and I work there too.’
‘The palace, is it? I’d like to see the palace; if I could see the King, I’d tell him a thing or two…’
‘About what?’ asks the man.
‘I’d tell him that I should own this land that I am on. I work it every day and he never comes here & gets his hands dirty working this land’
‘You’re right enough’, says the man. You come tomorrow to the palace at Holy Rood and I’ll show you around. Come at two.’
So the next day at two o’clock, Jock Howieson, is washed, dressed and at the palace to meet his new friend at the back door. The good man, whom Jock had saved the day before, shows him around the kitchen, the dining room, the bedrooms – the whole place. Then, at last, the two of them come to the great rooms of the State.
‘Do you want to see the King?’ the man asks Jock.
‘Oh yes indeed’, says Jock, ‘I do. I do want to see the King.’
So they enter the great hall and as they come in, men bow and ladies curtsey. It is really quite a thing to see.
So Jock whispers to his friend, ‘How will I know who the king is?’
‘He’s the only one who keeps his hat on’
Jock says, ‘But… there’s only us two with our hats…’ and Jock immediately takes off his hat as he realises that James is indeed the King of Scotland.
And so it is with us today. Jesus is King. He is walking around with each of us showing us his domain here on earth and just waiting for us to take off our hats as we realise that indeed Jesus is the one to come and he has arrived (and he’s coming back too, soon!)
Appeal: If there are any of us here today who have not taken off our hats and lain them before the Lord, I invite you to come up front here to the mercy seat and do just that – acknowledge the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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http://www.sheepspeak.com/
[1] Cf. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/IV. Book Version: 4.0.2. re: Schweitzer.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Margaret Forrester. The Expository Times. Vol. 119 Number I Pages 47-48.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
Victory: The Final Whistle (Romans 13:11-14)
Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on December 02, 2007
Presented to Swift Current Corps on August 16, 2009
Presented to Corps 614 Regent Park on February 07, 2016
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Last weekend something happened…something exciting happened… Blue Bombers fans you may wish to cover your ears…the Riders won the Grey Cup. This was exciting. I know some of you probably didn’t get to see the whole game because you were in church like us or doing other things but on the way home in the car, when I turned on the radio, the Blue Bombers were up 3 to nothing. When they made it seven to nothing, I felt quite alone as the 5 and 6 year-old in my backseat erupted into a chorus of “Go Winnipeg Go!” I had faith, though - though it was mixed with a little doubt – I had faith that the victory we’ve been waiting for here for 18 years was finally coming through and –as we all know now my faith, my hope was not in vain. The cup returned.
I don’t know if you remember but in the last couple of minutes of the football game, right after that interception near the end, you could see the anticipation as the cameramen zoomed in on the players’ faces. They knew the game had been won already but it wasn’t over yet. The game had been won. They wanted to celebrate but it wasn’t over yet. The game had been won already and it took everything for the coach to keep the players on the sideline and staff off the field because the game wasn’t over yet. They knew that it had been won but the game wasn’t over yet. The anticipation was written on the Riders’ faces as they knew that the game had been won but it wasn’t over yet….
This is exactly the situation that our text is talking about today. I’ll read part of it for you again:
Ro 13:11-12 "And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here...."
It says that the night is nearly over! In verse 11 it says that our salvation is nearer than when we first believed! Now the Apostle Paul, in his numerous letters, uses the word ‘salvation’ in a number of ways. One way he uses the word is to refer to how we can be saved from the normal course of events in our lives (cf. Philippians 1:19).
Indeed we ourselves can be saved from daily events such as happened to me a few weeks ago when we were driving back from Winnipeg, we were pulled over; the officer however decided not to issue us a ticket: we were saved that expense. The other day Susan was going to walk back from dropping off our car to have winter tires put on. An employee at the store, however, offered her a ride; she was saved the walk. This is a common way that we are saved everyday and this is one way that Paul does indeed use the word ‘salvation’ but this daily salvation is not exactly what Paul is talking about here.
Paul speaks at times also, in other places in his letters - such as in 2 Corinthians 6:2 – about the ‘day of salvation’ and that ‘day of salvation’ is already here. It is not still to come; it has arrived but in verse 11 of our text today it says that our salvation is still to come: it says that our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed so how can that be?
How can our salvation be both now and still to come? How can it be both near and here already. This is an important concept to understand (theologians refer to this concept as a ‘prolepsis’) because our Salvation, as it is, has indeed already been achieved. It was achieved when Jesus died and then won the victory through rising from the dead. Paul himself acknowledges this in other places in the scriptures: 2 Corinthians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 15:2, Ephesians 2:8 and the Apostle Peter talks about just this sort of thing in 1 Peter 1. So then Christ has already won the victory but the final reward of Salvation is yet to come. The Game is won but the final whistle has not been sounded yet and the great cup is still be presented.
It is very much like our roughriders game. When the player went down on one knee to run out the clock at the end there was no way that they could be defeated. The Rider nation, as it were, the Roughrider fans were already victors with the team, just like we are already victors with Christ.
When Christ died on the cross and then rose from the grave, Death was dealt its deathblow, so to speak: Christ intercepted the pass and ran for the final touchdown to put the game out of reach. There is no way now that sin and death can ever come back and win the game but the thing is that that final whistle hasn’t gone yet[1] and this is exactly what Paul is speaking about in our text here today.
In this passage in Romans, Paul is speaking about salvation as if it were that final whistle. Sure the Riders had won the game with 20 seconds left to go but they did not get to hold the Grey Cup until after the final whistle had sounded.
The analogy Paul uses to make this point is quite neat – and for those here who aren’t Riders’ fans or aren’t football fans, I imagine a new analogy is a bit of a welcome relief right now. Paul refers to our salvation as the daytime that is almost here. This is exciting actually because, just as with the game that is out of reach, there is nothing that we can do to stop the daytime from coming, there is no such thing as a night that never ends; for that to happen the earth must stop spinning and then we would have a lot more problems than just a lack of light. Day hasn’t arrived yet but there is nothing we can do to stop it from coming.
That being said, Paul has some words for us. He says that we should wake up (verse 11)! We don’t want to miss it. Wouldn’t you hate to be a Riders fan who, after 18 years in waiting, slept through the awarding of the cup. It wouldn’t change the outcome of the game but it would sure affect you. Paul says wake up, you don’t want to miss the finish. You don’t want to miss the dawn but he says even more than that.
He says that since the darkness is fading (verse 12), we should no longer live like we are in the darkness. It is like ‘regime change’ such as we’ve heard so much in the news the last couple of years and there is a good example of this from historical England actually.
There was a time in England’s history when she had neither a King nor a Queen. Parliament had won the war against the monarchy and that is arguably the darkest period in all of English history. The rules of their society changed so drastically: it became so repressive without the king to look out for the interests of the common people that they eventually begged the son of the king to come back to rule over them again – but, even then, it takes a while and people have to be convinced to act the way the new regime wants. Just ask the Americans how well their governments in Iraq and Afghanistan are going…it may be a new day there but many people are still not choosing to living under their authority.
It is the same in our world of the text today. When Christ died there came about a regime change – the King is back. The Son of the King has come and he is indeed coming back and as this is the case, it is time to stop acting as if he is not.
Daytime is arriving so we should stop doing all of those things that people like to do in the night. Some of these things that we should stop are listed in our text today: it says in verse 13 that we should not engage in sexual immorality and debauchery; we should not engage in dissention and jealousy. Doing so, acting on our own selfish desires, would be like swearing allegiance to the darkness, to the old regime, the defeated regime; it would be like paddling out to join the Titanic as it’s going down or buying shares in Eaton’s as it goes ‘belly up.’ It would not be prudent. It would not be smart.
This is important. You see when we focus on ourselves rather than God and others (see verses 8-10; Matt 7:12, 22:40), we are serving the defeated regime and don’t be mistaken, even though it is defeated, it is still fighting and even though darkness has lost, people are still dying.
This is very much like the battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. I don’t know how much you know about that battle or that war but it is very significant. You see the War of 1812 began when England was busy trying to contain Napoleon as he was bringing war to every corner of the planet he could reach. England was very busy trying to stop him so the Americans thought this would be a good time to conquer Canada so like they did many times before, they invaded – only it didn’t go so well. They lost. We were saved. They failed to conquer Canada and they were forced to send their agents overseas to sue for peace.
While on December 24, Christmas Eve, 1815, the war ended; but there was no long distance telephone, e-mail, or other way to tell the troops in the field this quickly in those days and so on January 8th a terrible thing happened. General Pakenham took the initiative on his own and invaded New Orleans. The enemy had already been defeated, the war had already been won but there were over 1700 casualties that day. The war had already been won but many people still perished in the battle that followed.
This is what it is like for us today. Even though the victory has been won already, people are perishing everyday. If we follow our own selfish desires, even though the war has been won…not everyone has been delivered from the darkness. There are still people perishing everyday.
How many of us, like General Pakenham’s troops are perishing when they don’t have to. How many of us are acting on our own instead of submitting to God? How many in this world – how many of us, our friends, or our family, still give in to drunkenness or debauchery and sexual sin? When we do so we are serving the darkness, the old regime, the defeated regime.
How many of us still give into quarrelling and jealousy? They are the same as the former sins, you know. And so when we do, we are serving the darkness, the old regime, the defeated regime. If you break one aspect of the law you transgress the whole thing (Gal 3). In the eyes of the Lord sin is sin and the consequence of sin is the same as it was for those poor people who marched to their graves in New Orleans even though the victory has been one. The wages of sin are death (Ro 6:23).
So why would we commit sexual sin or quarrel with each other? Why when we know that that is submitting to the old regime, the defeated government? Why? Why are we content to live in the darkness?
Why not rather strap on the armour of light like it says in verse 12. Actually this is neat too. Did you know that the word translated as ‘armour’ here (and in Ephesians 6 too) –‘hopla’ - is probably better translated ‘weapons.’[2] This designates much more than just defending oneself with amour. This refers to going out and seizing the foe. We should not just hide from the darkness we must wage war against it.
It says in verse 14 that we must put on Jesus Christ himself and make no provisions for our own selfish desires and really that is what the answer to everything is isn’t it? As we put on Christ, we can engage the world and not succumb to it. When we have Him as our armour nothing can slay us – He has no Achilles heel.
So it is to this end that I exhort us today. The game has been won, the foe has been defeated; therefore for us to be engaged in selfishness now would be like if in the last minute of play one of the roughriders switched to join the Blue Bombers, why when the victory is already won would anyone want to forfeit their prize before it is awarded? Why would we want to reject our salvation now that the daylight is coming?
So today, I leave us with this encouragement. Sin is already defeated. Death is dead and the darkness is fading so let us, like Jesus said to the lady accused of adultery (John 8:10), let us go and sin no more so that we may be there to hoist that great cup high with Christ who has already won us the victory.
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To view the 2016 Toronto version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2016/02/romans-1311-14-really-super-bowl.html
[1] - just like with injury time in soccer, only the ref knows when it will but nonetheless the game is out of reach.
[2] NT Write, Romans NIB: 728; the word is ‘hopla’
Presented to Swift Current Corps on August 16, 2009
Presented to Corps 614 Regent Park on February 07, 2016
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Last weekend something happened…something exciting happened… Blue Bombers fans you may wish to cover your ears…the Riders won the Grey Cup. This was exciting. I know some of you probably didn’t get to see the whole game because you were in church like us or doing other things but on the way home in the car, when I turned on the radio, the Blue Bombers were up 3 to nothing. When they made it seven to nothing, I felt quite alone as the 5 and 6 year-old in my backseat erupted into a chorus of “Go Winnipeg Go!” I had faith, though - though it was mixed with a little doubt – I had faith that the victory we’ve been waiting for here for 18 years was finally coming through and –as we all know now my faith, my hope was not in vain. The cup returned.
I don’t know if you remember but in the last couple of minutes of the football game, right after that interception near the end, you could see the anticipation as the cameramen zoomed in on the players’ faces. They knew the game had been won already but it wasn’t over yet. The game had been won. They wanted to celebrate but it wasn’t over yet. The game had been won already and it took everything for the coach to keep the players on the sideline and staff off the field because the game wasn’t over yet. They knew that it had been won but the game wasn’t over yet. The anticipation was written on the Riders’ faces as they knew that the game had been won but it wasn’t over yet….
This is exactly the situation that our text is talking about today. I’ll read part of it for you again:
Ro 13:11-12 "And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here...."
It says that the night is nearly over! In verse 11 it says that our salvation is nearer than when we first believed! Now the Apostle Paul, in his numerous letters, uses the word ‘salvation’ in a number of ways. One way he uses the word is to refer to how we can be saved from the normal course of events in our lives (cf. Philippians 1:19).
Indeed we ourselves can be saved from daily events such as happened to me a few weeks ago when we were driving back from Winnipeg, we were pulled over; the officer however decided not to issue us a ticket: we were saved that expense. The other day Susan was going to walk back from dropping off our car to have winter tires put on. An employee at the store, however, offered her a ride; she was saved the walk. This is a common way that we are saved everyday and this is one way that Paul does indeed use the word ‘salvation’ but this daily salvation is not exactly what Paul is talking about here.
Paul speaks at times also, in other places in his letters - such as in 2 Corinthians 6:2 – about the ‘day of salvation’ and that ‘day of salvation’ is already here. It is not still to come; it has arrived but in verse 11 of our text today it says that our salvation is still to come: it says that our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed so how can that be?
How can our salvation be both now and still to come? How can it be both near and here already. This is an important concept to understand (theologians refer to this concept as a ‘prolepsis’) because our Salvation, as it is, has indeed already been achieved. It was achieved when Jesus died and then won the victory through rising from the dead. Paul himself acknowledges this in other places in the scriptures: 2 Corinthians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 15:2, Ephesians 2:8 and the Apostle Peter talks about just this sort of thing in 1 Peter 1. So then Christ has already won the victory but the final reward of Salvation is yet to come. The Game is won but the final whistle has not been sounded yet and the great cup is still be presented.
It is very much like our roughriders game. When the player went down on one knee to run out the clock at the end there was no way that they could be defeated. The Rider nation, as it were, the Roughrider fans were already victors with the team, just like we are already victors with Christ.
When Christ died on the cross and then rose from the grave, Death was dealt its deathblow, so to speak: Christ intercepted the pass and ran for the final touchdown to put the game out of reach. There is no way now that sin and death can ever come back and win the game but the thing is that that final whistle hasn’t gone yet[1] and this is exactly what Paul is speaking about in our text here today.
In this passage in Romans, Paul is speaking about salvation as if it were that final whistle. Sure the Riders had won the game with 20 seconds left to go but they did not get to hold the Grey Cup until after the final whistle had sounded.
The analogy Paul uses to make this point is quite neat – and for those here who aren’t Riders’ fans or aren’t football fans, I imagine a new analogy is a bit of a welcome relief right now. Paul refers to our salvation as the daytime that is almost here. This is exciting actually because, just as with the game that is out of reach, there is nothing that we can do to stop the daytime from coming, there is no such thing as a night that never ends; for that to happen the earth must stop spinning and then we would have a lot more problems than just a lack of light. Day hasn’t arrived yet but there is nothing we can do to stop it from coming.
That being said, Paul has some words for us. He says that we should wake up (verse 11)! We don’t want to miss it. Wouldn’t you hate to be a Riders fan who, after 18 years in waiting, slept through the awarding of the cup. It wouldn’t change the outcome of the game but it would sure affect you. Paul says wake up, you don’t want to miss the finish. You don’t want to miss the dawn but he says even more than that.
He says that since the darkness is fading (verse 12), we should no longer live like we are in the darkness. It is like ‘regime change’ such as we’ve heard so much in the news the last couple of years and there is a good example of this from historical England actually.
There was a time in England’s history when she had neither a King nor a Queen. Parliament had won the war against the monarchy and that is arguably the darkest period in all of English history. The rules of their society changed so drastically: it became so repressive without the king to look out for the interests of the common people that they eventually begged the son of the king to come back to rule over them again – but, even then, it takes a while and people have to be convinced to act the way the new regime wants. Just ask the Americans how well their governments in Iraq and Afghanistan are going…it may be a new day there but many people are still not choosing to living under their authority.
It is the same in our world of the text today. When Christ died there came about a regime change – the King is back. The Son of the King has come and he is indeed coming back and as this is the case, it is time to stop acting as if he is not.
Daytime is arriving so we should stop doing all of those things that people like to do in the night. Some of these things that we should stop are listed in our text today: it says in verse 13 that we should not engage in sexual immorality and debauchery; we should not engage in dissention and jealousy. Doing so, acting on our own selfish desires, would be like swearing allegiance to the darkness, to the old regime, the defeated regime; it would be like paddling out to join the Titanic as it’s going down or buying shares in Eaton’s as it goes ‘belly up.’ It would not be prudent. It would not be smart.
This is important. You see when we focus on ourselves rather than God and others (see verses 8-10; Matt 7:12, 22:40), we are serving the defeated regime and don’t be mistaken, even though it is defeated, it is still fighting and even though darkness has lost, people are still dying.
This is very much like the battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. I don’t know how much you know about that battle or that war but it is very significant. You see the War of 1812 began when England was busy trying to contain Napoleon as he was bringing war to every corner of the planet he could reach. England was very busy trying to stop him so the Americans thought this would be a good time to conquer Canada so like they did many times before, they invaded – only it didn’t go so well. They lost. We were saved. They failed to conquer Canada and they were forced to send their agents overseas to sue for peace.
While on December 24, Christmas Eve, 1815, the war ended; but there was no long distance telephone, e-mail, or other way to tell the troops in the field this quickly in those days and so on January 8th a terrible thing happened. General Pakenham took the initiative on his own and invaded New Orleans. The enemy had already been defeated, the war had already been won but there were over 1700 casualties that day. The war had already been won but many people still perished in the battle that followed.
This is what it is like for us today. Even though the victory has been won already, people are perishing everyday. If we follow our own selfish desires, even though the war has been won…not everyone has been delivered from the darkness. There are still people perishing everyday.
How many of us, like General Pakenham’s troops are perishing when they don’t have to. How many of us are acting on our own instead of submitting to God? How many in this world – how many of us, our friends, or our family, still give in to drunkenness or debauchery and sexual sin? When we do so we are serving the darkness, the old regime, the defeated regime.
How many of us still give into quarrelling and jealousy? They are the same as the former sins, you know. And so when we do, we are serving the darkness, the old regime, the defeated regime. If you break one aspect of the law you transgress the whole thing (Gal 3). In the eyes of the Lord sin is sin and the consequence of sin is the same as it was for those poor people who marched to their graves in New Orleans even though the victory has been one. The wages of sin are death (Ro 6:23).
So why would we commit sexual sin or quarrel with each other? Why when we know that that is submitting to the old regime, the defeated government? Why? Why are we content to live in the darkness?
Why not rather strap on the armour of light like it says in verse 12. Actually this is neat too. Did you know that the word translated as ‘armour’ here (and in Ephesians 6 too) –‘hopla’ - is probably better translated ‘weapons.’[2] This designates much more than just defending oneself with amour. This refers to going out and seizing the foe. We should not just hide from the darkness we must wage war against it.
It says in verse 14 that we must put on Jesus Christ himself and make no provisions for our own selfish desires and really that is what the answer to everything is isn’t it? As we put on Christ, we can engage the world and not succumb to it. When we have Him as our armour nothing can slay us – He has no Achilles heel.
So it is to this end that I exhort us today. The game has been won, the foe has been defeated; therefore for us to be engaged in selfishness now would be like if in the last minute of play one of the roughriders switched to join the Blue Bombers, why when the victory is already won would anyone want to forfeit their prize before it is awarded? Why would we want to reject our salvation now that the daylight is coming?
So today, I leave us with this encouragement. Sin is already defeated. Death is dead and the darkness is fading so let us, like Jesus said to the lady accused of adultery (John 8:10), let us go and sin no more so that we may be there to hoist that great cup high with Christ who has already won us the victory.
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To view the 2016 Toronto version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2016/02/romans-1311-14-really-super-bowl.html
[1] - just like with injury time in soccer, only the ref knows when it will but nonetheless the game is out of reach.
[2] NT Write, Romans NIB: 728; the word is ‘hopla’
Monday, November 19, 2007
2 Samuel 13-18: Taking Matters in His Own Hands: the Story of Prince Absalom
Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps November 18, 2007
and 614 Warehouse Toronto 230 pm service, Aug 20, 2017
by Captain Michael Ramsay
We have been studying covenant lately through our sermons and our Bible studies. We have discovered particularly through 2 Samuel so far how well one’s life can go when one is walking in a proper covenant with the Lord.
Today I have come with a story: A story from a long time ago in a place far, far away. The time is about 3000 years ago and the place is the land of ancient Israel and in this story no one is walking in a proper covenant with the LORD.
“Taking Matters in His Own Hands: the Story of Prince Absalom.”[1]
Chapter One: the Son of the King.
This story is about a young man by the name of Absalom. Now Absalom isn’t just any ordinary young man. He is a beautiful man. All the features that the people of his day love including the long following hair. And he has a gift. He has a silver tongue, he does, and he can tell you just exactly what you think you need to hear.
Absolam is a prince but this Prince Absalom isn’t just any prince, he is the son of King David. One of the most powerful kings that Israel would ever have and the founder of a dynasty that would last –well – with the advent of Christ, ultimately forever. Prince Absalom’s dad, the king, was a man after God’s own heart. God loved him and in his early days he followed the Lord religiously, in his early days sought the Lord’s council in everything he did, in his early days he was walking in a strong relationship with the Lord.
But Prince Absalom wasn’t born in these early days – he wasn’t born until after David was already made King of Judah but he must have heard the stories when he was growing up. He must have heard the stories about how his father and his cousins (Aunt Zeruiah’s kids – Joab, Abishai and Asahel) how they lived there life on the edge for a long time fighting as mercenaries and committing all sorts of heroic acts. He must have heard about how David was anointed as a young shepherd boy and then rose to be King of this Kingdom. He must have heard the stories about how his dad had slain the giant Goliath and about how he was victorious in the civil war.
He must have heard all of these stories when he was young and I imagine these stories would be almost all that Prince Absalom would have of his father as his mother (who herself was the daughter of the king of Geshur) tucked him in at the night. His dad, in Absalom’s early years, was always off at work fighting wars alongside his cousins and the other ‘mighty men’ – away pursuing the foe while Absalom and his brothers grew up at home. The King was a busy man.
Chapter 2: Dad Comes Home.
It is too bad that Prince Absalom probably didn’t get to see too much of his dad in his early days but as Absalom got older, the King took his job closer to home. Some would say too close to home and some would say that he wasn’t taking the job too seriously either. Prince Absalom at this time would see his cousins bail his father out on a couple of occasions as his dad, at times, doesn’t even bother to rise from his couch until late in the day.
Absalom would hear the stories of his father’s heroics from a time when he wasn’t around but when his dad comes home, Prince Absalom would see quite a different King than that. He would see a man who takes matters into his own hands instead of relying on the Lord.
I don’t imagine it was too well hidden from Absalom, his sister Tamar, or his older half-brother Amnon, the affair that David had with Bathsheba right in their own home. Remember that? David wants Bathsheba, so instead of consulting the Lord, he takes matters into his own hands.
The princes were probably in the palace when the king had their neighbour’s wife brought to him so he could sleep with her and then they would’ve certainly learned about how his attempts to cover up this act resulted in the murder of Uriah and the deaths of many others. They would see David taking matters into his own hands instead of relying on the Lord.
Is it any wonder that when Absalom’s brother decides that he is in love with Absalom’s sister, that Absalom’s friend tells Amnon to rape her. Amnon then takes matters into his own hands and rapes Prince Absalom’s sister. This isn’t too different from dear ol’ dad now is it?
Absalom loves his sister. He loves her so much that he even names his own daughter after her. Absalom loves his sister so much and even though he tells her not to take this abuse to heart, he himself refuses to talk to Amnon for years and the King, his father; and the King, Amnon’s father; and the King, Tamar’s father, and the King does nothing…you see the time where the books of Samuel mention that David turns to the Lord for council have passed and are yet to come but they are not here. David is now taking matters into his own hands. He sons see this.
Can you imagine? Your half-brother rapes your sister and your father does nothing about it for two whole years and continuing. Well, I guess it might not seem too much of a stretch since Bathsheba, the lady with whom David had the affair, is still living in the same house with the King and Absalom’s mother.
One day though Absalom has had enough. He takes matters into his own hands. He was biding his time and his time comes. He has a plan. He invites all his brothers to a big work party. They have this great feast and Amnon, whom he hasn’t spoken to for two years is getting drunk and Absalom commands his servants – in a way sort of like his dad did with Uriah – Absalom orders his servants to kill his brother. When no one else would, Absalom takes matters into his own hands and Absalom kills the man who raped his sister.
Now David loves Amnon, who had raped Tamar and who was both Absalom’s sister and David’s own daughter. He loves him and it doesn’t say that he ever punished him for the rape of Tamar. Absalom knows this and Prince Absalom flees after killing his brother whom the King loves.
Chapter 3: Absalom Comes Home.
Prince Absalom is living in exile (in his mother’s home town of Geshur) and now the King, who refused to help Absalom to deal with his brother. And now the King - after Absalom has murdered his own brother - And now The King, David, misses Absalom. Well, cousin Joab notices this and, taking matters into his own hands, he decides to convince David to bring Absalom home and since he misses him so much and David does. Again the scriptures say nothing about any of these men consulting the Lord in how they are trying to solve these problems at all. They are rather taking matters into their own hands.
Well now David has invited Absalom back to Jerusalem but he refuses to let him come back to stay at the palace. He is just fine having him around but – parents of adult kids will probably understand – it is time for him not to be under foot anymore.
This isn’t good enough for Absalom however. He figures, well, why did dad invite me back to town if he won’t let me stay with him in the palace; so, Absalom, taking matters into his own hands, comes up with a plan – he’ll ask cousin Joab. After all Joab helped him last time he needed something. So he sends for Joab but Joab doesn’t come. He sends for him again but Joab doesn’t come. So Absalom has an idea – he takes matters into his own hands and he has his men set Joab’s barley fields on fire.
Now cousin Joab is a soldier, a general, a fighter, and the leader of David’s armies and he comes and he is mad…but Absalom’s plan works for now – Joab, albeit angrily I imagine, helps to patch things up between Absalom and David – a father and son reunite but Joab, I’m sure, has not forgotten about his barley fields.
Well Joab may be unhappy but Prince Absalom has another idea. There is no mention of anyone turning to the Lord in these stories and I imagine that Absalom’s respect for his father - who was absent all the years he was growing up and who was what he was when he was home - I imagine his respect for his dad has hit a low tide right about now as everyone is taking matters into their own hands.
His respect for his dad may be at an all time low but Absalom is now back at home and Absalom is strutting his stuff. He is letting everyone know that he is a prince in the land. He cruises around all the days in a fancy chariot with fifty guys running around ahead of him. He is living it up and letting everyone know that he is a force to be dealt with in the Kingdom.
Chapter 4: On His Own Authority
Absalom returns home to the palace and is living it up and not only that…you see, one of a King’s jobs in these days, when he is not out fighting battles is to hear the complaints of the people. The King is also a Supreme Court judge, as it were.
Absalom notices some weaknesses in the way that his father is doing this job and he thinks he can do it better on his own. He heads down personally to meet people who are coming to see the King and when they go to bow and pay their respects to Prince Absalom, he grabs them and kisses them and tells them that he understands what they are going through.
He is like an opposition party heading into an election – “If I were the premier ruler, things would be different…” and just like when David was at war with Saul’s house and he became stronger all the time, now it is Absalom of whom they might be singing songs. It is Absalom who, on his own, is stealing the people’s hearts… and is he who has a plan.
Without any mention of consulting God, he goes to his father and asks, “Dad, can I go to Hebron…I have vow to take care of.” Now you see Hebron was where David was crowned King of Judah and Hebron was where David was crowned King of all Israel and Judah. Hebron was David’s first capital. David later abandoned it and made Jerusalem his capital and now Absalom asks permission to go to Hebron.
When Absalom gets there, they proclaim him king instead of his father! Absalom is a popular young man, he is a beautiful young man, and if the leaders of God’s people were chosen by general election, he would win a landslide. Support is flocking to him from his dad’s camp. Even one of David’s more popular cabinet ministers, as it were, cross the floor, his chief advisor, Ahithophel, whom everyone loves and respects, joins Absalom. Maybe things are going well in Israel, maybe they aren’t but David has been in power for many (even more than 16) years and in many people’s eyes it is just time for a change. Absalom is forming government.
David is vacating the capital as quickly as he can. If there were shredders in those days, they would be a buzzing. There isn’t a lot of time to leave. He is being outmanoeuvred by the opposition but as he is leaving something happens…
Chapter 5: The Return.
As David is fleeing, it says in the scriptures, 15 verse 31, it says David prays. David prays. In our story today there has been no mention of people seeking the Lord’s direction. No mention at all. Not Absalom, not Amnon, not Joab nor Tamar, and not even King David who was a man after God’s own heart but now David is recorded as approaching God for the first time in five chapters. David prays…
David prays that the Lord will turn Ahithophel’s council to foolishness and without dragging out my story for too many more pages suffice it to say that God answers David’s prayer. As David returns to the Lord, the Lord returns the kingdom to David. David ceases to take matters into his own hands, but instead puts matters in the Lord’s hands and in the battle that follows because the Lord turned Ahithophel’s council to foolishness, as David turns to the Lord, Prince Absalom dies, the battle is called off and the Lord then uses Joab to save David’s victory.
Prince Absalom is dead. David mourns his death for he loves his son even though his son hated him. At anytime had Absalom returned to the King probably would have continued to forgive him
Epilogue.
It is a sad note on which to end this story really, for David was a good man, a praying man who often sought the council and leading of the Lord. He went through a period though when there is no record of that devotion and he went through this period in the formative years of his sons and he paid the consequences just as the prophet Nathan had said he would for his affair with Bathsheba.
And now Prince Absalom is dead; it is too late, he is not in his father’s Kingdom anymore.
Well, it’s not too late for us. If we are taking matters into our own hands instead of praying, if we are in rebellion against God and only relying on ourselves, we can stop and return to His palace because as long as we have breath in us, we can still return to God. Just as David loved Absolam even when Absolam hated his Father, our heavenly father will accept us back with open arms – so let’s lay down our arms before it is too late.
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[1] This sermon took some very different directions as it was preached: if you heard it preached in either Nipawin or Tisdale and you think that this is different – it is. The Nipawin sermon was also somewhat different from the Tisdale one…
===
Click here to read related questions: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2017/08/2-samuel-13-questions-peace.html
===
and 614 Warehouse Toronto 230 pm service, Aug 20, 2017
by Captain Michael Ramsay
We have been studying covenant lately through our sermons and our Bible studies. We have discovered particularly through 2 Samuel so far how well one’s life can go when one is walking in a proper covenant with the Lord.
Today I have come with a story: A story from a long time ago in a place far, far away. The time is about 3000 years ago and the place is the land of ancient Israel and in this story no one is walking in a proper covenant with the LORD.
“Taking Matters in His Own Hands: the Story of Prince Absalom.”[1]
Chapter One: the Son of the King.
This story is about a young man by the name of Absalom. Now Absalom isn’t just any ordinary young man. He is a beautiful man. All the features that the people of his day love including the long following hair. And he has a gift. He has a silver tongue, he does, and he can tell you just exactly what you think you need to hear.
Absolam is a prince but this Prince Absalom isn’t just any prince, he is the son of King David. One of the most powerful kings that Israel would ever have and the founder of a dynasty that would last –well – with the advent of Christ, ultimately forever. Prince Absalom’s dad, the king, was a man after God’s own heart. God loved him and in his early days he followed the Lord religiously, in his early days sought the Lord’s council in everything he did, in his early days he was walking in a strong relationship with the Lord.
But Prince Absalom wasn’t born in these early days – he wasn’t born until after David was already made King of Judah but he must have heard the stories when he was growing up. He must have heard the stories about how his father and his cousins (Aunt Zeruiah’s kids – Joab, Abishai and Asahel) how they lived there life on the edge for a long time fighting as mercenaries and committing all sorts of heroic acts. He must have heard about how David was anointed as a young shepherd boy and then rose to be King of this Kingdom. He must have heard the stories about how his dad had slain the giant Goliath and about how he was victorious in the civil war.
He must have heard all of these stories when he was young and I imagine these stories would be almost all that Prince Absalom would have of his father as his mother (who herself was the daughter of the king of Geshur) tucked him in at the night. His dad, in Absalom’s early years, was always off at work fighting wars alongside his cousins and the other ‘mighty men’ – away pursuing the foe while Absalom and his brothers grew up at home. The King was a busy man.
Chapter 2: Dad Comes Home.
It is too bad that Prince Absalom probably didn’t get to see too much of his dad in his early days but as Absalom got older, the King took his job closer to home. Some would say too close to home and some would say that he wasn’t taking the job too seriously either. Prince Absalom at this time would see his cousins bail his father out on a couple of occasions as his dad, at times, doesn’t even bother to rise from his couch until late in the day.
Absalom would hear the stories of his father’s heroics from a time when he wasn’t around but when his dad comes home, Prince Absalom would see quite a different King than that. He would see a man who takes matters into his own hands instead of relying on the Lord.
I don’t imagine it was too well hidden from Absalom, his sister Tamar, or his older half-brother Amnon, the affair that David had with Bathsheba right in their own home. Remember that? David wants Bathsheba, so instead of consulting the Lord, he takes matters into his own hands.
The princes were probably in the palace when the king had their neighbour’s wife brought to him so he could sleep with her and then they would’ve certainly learned about how his attempts to cover up this act resulted in the murder of Uriah and the deaths of many others. They would see David taking matters into his own hands instead of relying on the Lord.
Is it any wonder that when Absalom’s brother decides that he is in love with Absalom’s sister, that Absalom’s friend tells Amnon to rape her. Amnon then takes matters into his own hands and rapes Prince Absalom’s sister. This isn’t too different from dear ol’ dad now is it?
Absalom loves his sister. He loves her so much that he even names his own daughter after her. Absalom loves his sister so much and even though he tells her not to take this abuse to heart, he himself refuses to talk to Amnon for years and the King, his father; and the King, Amnon’s father; and the King, Tamar’s father, and the King does nothing…you see the time where the books of Samuel mention that David turns to the Lord for council have passed and are yet to come but they are not here. David is now taking matters into his own hands. He sons see this.
Can you imagine? Your half-brother rapes your sister and your father does nothing about it for two whole years and continuing. Well, I guess it might not seem too much of a stretch since Bathsheba, the lady with whom David had the affair, is still living in the same house with the King and Absalom’s mother.
One day though Absalom has had enough. He takes matters into his own hands. He was biding his time and his time comes. He has a plan. He invites all his brothers to a big work party. They have this great feast and Amnon, whom he hasn’t spoken to for two years is getting drunk and Absalom commands his servants – in a way sort of like his dad did with Uriah – Absalom orders his servants to kill his brother. When no one else would, Absalom takes matters into his own hands and Absalom kills the man who raped his sister.
Now David loves Amnon, who had raped Tamar and who was both Absalom’s sister and David’s own daughter. He loves him and it doesn’t say that he ever punished him for the rape of Tamar. Absalom knows this and Prince Absalom flees after killing his brother whom the King loves.
Chapter 3: Absalom Comes Home.
Prince Absalom is living in exile (in his mother’s home town of Geshur) and now the King, who refused to help Absalom to deal with his brother. And now the King - after Absalom has murdered his own brother - And now The King, David, misses Absalom. Well, cousin Joab notices this and, taking matters into his own hands, he decides to convince David to bring Absalom home and since he misses him so much and David does. Again the scriptures say nothing about any of these men consulting the Lord in how they are trying to solve these problems at all. They are rather taking matters into their own hands.
Well now David has invited Absalom back to Jerusalem but he refuses to let him come back to stay at the palace. He is just fine having him around but – parents of adult kids will probably understand – it is time for him not to be under foot anymore.
This isn’t good enough for Absalom however. He figures, well, why did dad invite me back to town if he won’t let me stay with him in the palace; so, Absalom, taking matters into his own hands, comes up with a plan – he’ll ask cousin Joab. After all Joab helped him last time he needed something. So he sends for Joab but Joab doesn’t come. He sends for him again but Joab doesn’t come. So Absalom has an idea – he takes matters into his own hands and he has his men set Joab’s barley fields on fire.
Now cousin Joab is a soldier, a general, a fighter, and the leader of David’s armies and he comes and he is mad…but Absalom’s plan works for now – Joab, albeit angrily I imagine, helps to patch things up between Absalom and David – a father and son reunite but Joab, I’m sure, has not forgotten about his barley fields.
Well Joab may be unhappy but Prince Absalom has another idea. There is no mention of anyone turning to the Lord in these stories and I imagine that Absalom’s respect for his father - who was absent all the years he was growing up and who was what he was when he was home - I imagine his respect for his dad has hit a low tide right about now as everyone is taking matters into their own hands.
His respect for his dad may be at an all time low but Absalom is now back at home and Absalom is strutting his stuff. He is letting everyone know that he is a prince in the land. He cruises around all the days in a fancy chariot with fifty guys running around ahead of him. He is living it up and letting everyone know that he is a force to be dealt with in the Kingdom.
Chapter 4: On His Own Authority
Absalom returns home to the palace and is living it up and not only that…you see, one of a King’s jobs in these days, when he is not out fighting battles is to hear the complaints of the people. The King is also a Supreme Court judge, as it were.
Absalom notices some weaknesses in the way that his father is doing this job and he thinks he can do it better on his own. He heads down personally to meet people who are coming to see the King and when they go to bow and pay their respects to Prince Absalom, he grabs them and kisses them and tells them that he understands what they are going through.
He is like an opposition party heading into an election – “If I were the premier ruler, things would be different…” and just like when David was at war with Saul’s house and he became stronger all the time, now it is Absalom of whom they might be singing songs. It is Absalom who, on his own, is stealing the people’s hearts… and is he who has a plan.
Without any mention of consulting God, he goes to his father and asks, “Dad, can I go to Hebron…I have vow to take care of.” Now you see Hebron was where David was crowned King of Judah and Hebron was where David was crowned King of all Israel and Judah. Hebron was David’s first capital. David later abandoned it and made Jerusalem his capital and now Absalom asks permission to go to Hebron.
When Absalom gets there, they proclaim him king instead of his father! Absalom is a popular young man, he is a beautiful young man, and if the leaders of God’s people were chosen by general election, he would win a landslide. Support is flocking to him from his dad’s camp. Even one of David’s more popular cabinet ministers, as it were, cross the floor, his chief advisor, Ahithophel, whom everyone loves and respects, joins Absalom. Maybe things are going well in Israel, maybe they aren’t but David has been in power for many (even more than 16) years and in many people’s eyes it is just time for a change. Absalom is forming government.
David is vacating the capital as quickly as he can. If there were shredders in those days, they would be a buzzing. There isn’t a lot of time to leave. He is being outmanoeuvred by the opposition but as he is leaving something happens…
Chapter 5: The Return.
As David is fleeing, it says in the scriptures, 15 verse 31, it says David prays. David prays. In our story today there has been no mention of people seeking the Lord’s direction. No mention at all. Not Absalom, not Amnon, not Joab nor Tamar, and not even King David who was a man after God’s own heart but now David is recorded as approaching God for the first time in five chapters. David prays…
David prays that the Lord will turn Ahithophel’s council to foolishness and without dragging out my story for too many more pages suffice it to say that God answers David’s prayer. As David returns to the Lord, the Lord returns the kingdom to David. David ceases to take matters into his own hands, but instead puts matters in the Lord’s hands and in the battle that follows because the Lord turned Ahithophel’s council to foolishness, as David turns to the Lord, Prince Absalom dies, the battle is called off and the Lord then uses Joab to save David’s victory.
Prince Absalom is dead. David mourns his death for he loves his son even though his son hated him. At anytime had Absalom returned to the King probably would have continued to forgive him
Epilogue.
It is a sad note on which to end this story really, for David was a good man, a praying man who often sought the council and leading of the Lord. He went through a period though when there is no record of that devotion and he went through this period in the formative years of his sons and he paid the consequences just as the prophet Nathan had said he would for his affair with Bathsheba.
And now Prince Absalom is dead; it is too late, he is not in his father’s Kingdom anymore.
Well, it’s not too late for us. If we are taking matters into our own hands instead of praying, if we are in rebellion against God and only relying on ourselves, we can stop and return to His palace because as long as we have breath in us, we can still return to God. Just as David loved Absolam even when Absolam hated his Father, our heavenly father will accept us back with open arms – so let’s lay down our arms before it is too late.
--------------
[1] This sermon took some very different directions as it was preached: if you heard it preached in either Nipawin or Tisdale and you think that this is different – it is. The Nipawin sermon was also somewhat different from the Tisdale one…
===
Click here to read related questions: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2017/08/2-samuel-13-questions-peace.html
===
James 1:2-8: Faith is Like Riding a Bike
Presented to the Lodge in Tisdale on November 13, 2007
by Captain Michael Ramsay
I have two daughters: One is six; the other is five. Sometimes I go to the park with them. In the winter we take our sled but in the summer we often ride our bikes there. My six year-old has been riding her bike for a couple of years now and has grown quite confident. She is quite proud that she doesn’t even need training wheels anymore. She can race everywhere – zooming past her sister and I. She is an excellent bike rider. She takes some risks; sometimes she crashes but she is a great bike rider and she knows it.
My younger daughter is still learning to ride her bike. She tells us that she is also really fast. She hasn’t been riding as long as her sister and still needs training wheels. She strikes out in faith but sometimes – after a crash or getting stuck too often – she just wants to quit. She hasn’t developed the perseverance that comes from faith that she can ride her bike ‘really fast.’
My elder daughter, on the other hand, knows that even if she falls off she can get up again and get going. She has faith and this gives her confidence to preserver with her learning and as a result her ability to ride her bike grows…
This is sort of the same scenario that is playing out in the church at Jerusalem at the time of James’ writing his letter that we read from earlier.
They know that God is all-powerful, that He knows everything, and that His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10). They should know that he wants every good thing for them (Phil 1:6) just as everything He created was indeed good (Gen. 1:21) and as it says in our text today that all good things are from God (James 1:17) BUT they are experiencing trials now and they may be lacking some of the faith that comes from perseverance.
In this letter, James is asking them to persevere so they will get better at riding their bikes of faith and have the trust that they will be okay. They, in Jerusalem, are not necessarily so sure here that they will be. The trials here are experienced much like someone new to a bicycle. They have the opportunity to either waver and give up or to persevere and grow in faith.
A specific trial they are experiencing in Jerusalem now is persecution and through that a testing of their faith. - here is a very important point actually from James 1:13-14 – God tests them. He does not tempt them. “For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” So, what’s the difference between testing and tempting? This: in a fair test you can pick any answer. When God tests, he wants us to pick what is right but he lets us choose. Temptation, on the other hand, is when we are faced with that test and the devil or our own evil desires try to make us pick the wrong answer.[1]
Today in Tisdale, we are still tempted by our own evil desires and we need the faith that comes from perseverance. What are some of our temptations? Maybe a piece of cake that violates a specific diet of ours; maybe too much TV – not just the shows on it but the time that it can take up that would be better spent doing something for God .
What other of God’s tests can the devil try to use to tempt us away from our faith? Maybe pride that we can do things on our own. This is a bad one…I heard an interesting point in a sermon a year ago or so[2] – has everyone seen those WWJD, What would Jesus do, bracelets? They are a great proclamation of our faith. The preacher suggested that it would be even better if they instead read, “Jesus, what should I do?” This would put the emphasis on God’s power to solve our problems rather than our own ability to emulate Him.
There are many other trials in our life through which the devil may attempt to tempt us away from God. We can value our family, friends, or the things that the Lord has given us stewardship over more than we value the Lord himself. We can spend so much time doing other things that we neglect God and our Bible study. There are many ways that we can be tempted to waver on our bicycles of faith.
You see, the less time we spend on our bikes of faith, the less confident we feel. But as we are exercising our faith -praying everyday and noticing what God is doing on a daily basis; as we are reading the Scriptures, our confidence grows and we won’t start to falter or doubt. We will grow in faith instead.[3]
This is good news for us. James tells us that these tests that are from the Spirit are actually good news. It is these tests that develop our perseverance and he says, 1:4, “perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James is encouraging the believers in Jerusalem. They have some serious trials: everything they know, their jobs, even their very lives are in jeopardy. These are serious trials[4] and James is encouraging them through these for it is through these trials from God that they will indeed be strengthened so that they can resist the devil and the gain wisdom needed to flee all temptation (cf. James 4:7; 2 Tim 2:22).
And about this strength, this wisdom to resist and flee temptation, there is even more good news, James 1:5 records that “if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” God will provide the wisdom. God will do it. The more we face the trials, the more our perseverance and indeed our faith itself will grow. We need not falter. We need not doubt. We need not necessarily ask, “What would Jesus do?” We just need to stay the course. We need to persevere. We need to finish the test and then, through a non-wavering faith, they will pass.
We just need to persevere. We need not falter. We need not doubt. We need not scramble around trying to figure out exactly what Jesus would do in every situation. He is here. We can ask him; we can persevere. The more that we practice, the more we will believe. The more our deeds reflect our claims, the stronger we will be.
It is like My youngest daughter, she knows she can ride her bike – and fast. Her faith is still growing though. As she perseveres more and more and is picked up off the ground and then picks herself off the ground and then one day she will be ready to take her training wheels off even, like her sister.
It is the same with us here as we persevere in our Bible study, in our prayers, in our faith. As we persevere, our faith grows. These tests (friends, TV, food, whatever they happen to be) are not a threat. Passing them is a means by which God give us the strength to carry on. As we let the Lord take us through trials our perseverance is developed, our faith is developed. These tests are what God uses to draw us closer to Him. So I encourage you then to persevere. Turn off the TV sometimes, if you need to –you can read your Bible instead. Persevere. Avoid gossip and idle talk – pray instead. Persevere. Spend time with God and persevere.
--------------
[1] Ex: when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness: The Spirit led him to the test but the devil provided the temptation (Matt. 4:1-11, Luke 4).
[2] Captain Gord Taylor. Salvation Army, Maple Creek, Summer 2006.
[3] James 1:7-8: “He who doubts is like a wave on the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord….”
[4] Their service of the Lord was leading to “brother being pitted against brother” cf. Mark 13: 12-13.
by Captain Michael Ramsay
I have two daughters: One is six; the other is five. Sometimes I go to the park with them. In the winter we take our sled but in the summer we often ride our bikes there. My six year-old has been riding her bike for a couple of years now and has grown quite confident. She is quite proud that she doesn’t even need training wheels anymore. She can race everywhere – zooming past her sister and I. She is an excellent bike rider. She takes some risks; sometimes she crashes but she is a great bike rider and she knows it.
My younger daughter is still learning to ride her bike. She tells us that she is also really fast. She hasn’t been riding as long as her sister and still needs training wheels. She strikes out in faith but sometimes – after a crash or getting stuck too often – she just wants to quit. She hasn’t developed the perseverance that comes from faith that she can ride her bike ‘really fast.’
My elder daughter, on the other hand, knows that even if she falls off she can get up again and get going. She has faith and this gives her confidence to preserver with her learning and as a result her ability to ride her bike grows…
This is sort of the same scenario that is playing out in the church at Jerusalem at the time of James’ writing his letter that we read from earlier.
They know that God is all-powerful, that He knows everything, and that His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10). They should know that he wants every good thing for them (Phil 1:6) just as everything He created was indeed good (Gen. 1:21) and as it says in our text today that all good things are from God (James 1:17) BUT they are experiencing trials now and they may be lacking some of the faith that comes from perseverance.
In this letter, James is asking them to persevere so they will get better at riding their bikes of faith and have the trust that they will be okay. They, in Jerusalem, are not necessarily so sure here that they will be. The trials here are experienced much like someone new to a bicycle. They have the opportunity to either waver and give up or to persevere and grow in faith.
A specific trial they are experiencing in Jerusalem now is persecution and through that a testing of their faith. - here is a very important point actually from James 1:13-14 – God tests them. He does not tempt them. “For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” So, what’s the difference between testing and tempting? This: in a fair test you can pick any answer. When God tests, he wants us to pick what is right but he lets us choose. Temptation, on the other hand, is when we are faced with that test and the devil or our own evil desires try to make us pick the wrong answer.[1]
Today in Tisdale, we are still tempted by our own evil desires and we need the faith that comes from perseverance. What are some of our temptations? Maybe a piece of cake that violates a specific diet of ours; maybe too much TV – not just the shows on it but the time that it can take up that would be better spent doing something for God .
What other of God’s tests can the devil try to use to tempt us away from our faith? Maybe pride that we can do things on our own. This is a bad one…I heard an interesting point in a sermon a year ago or so[2] – has everyone seen those WWJD, What would Jesus do, bracelets? They are a great proclamation of our faith. The preacher suggested that it would be even better if they instead read, “Jesus, what should I do?” This would put the emphasis on God’s power to solve our problems rather than our own ability to emulate Him.
There are many other trials in our life through which the devil may attempt to tempt us away from God. We can value our family, friends, or the things that the Lord has given us stewardship over more than we value the Lord himself. We can spend so much time doing other things that we neglect God and our Bible study. There are many ways that we can be tempted to waver on our bicycles of faith.
You see, the less time we spend on our bikes of faith, the less confident we feel. But as we are exercising our faith -praying everyday and noticing what God is doing on a daily basis; as we are reading the Scriptures, our confidence grows and we won’t start to falter or doubt. We will grow in faith instead.[3]
This is good news for us. James tells us that these tests that are from the Spirit are actually good news. It is these tests that develop our perseverance and he says, 1:4, “perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James is encouraging the believers in Jerusalem. They have some serious trials: everything they know, their jobs, even their very lives are in jeopardy. These are serious trials[4] and James is encouraging them through these for it is through these trials from God that they will indeed be strengthened so that they can resist the devil and the gain wisdom needed to flee all temptation (cf. James 4:7; 2 Tim 2:22).
And about this strength, this wisdom to resist and flee temptation, there is even more good news, James 1:5 records that “if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” God will provide the wisdom. God will do it. The more we face the trials, the more our perseverance and indeed our faith itself will grow. We need not falter. We need not doubt. We need not necessarily ask, “What would Jesus do?” We just need to stay the course. We need to persevere. We need to finish the test and then, through a non-wavering faith, they will pass.
We just need to persevere. We need not falter. We need not doubt. We need not scramble around trying to figure out exactly what Jesus would do in every situation. He is here. We can ask him; we can persevere. The more that we practice, the more we will believe. The more our deeds reflect our claims, the stronger we will be.
It is like My youngest daughter, she knows she can ride her bike – and fast. Her faith is still growing though. As she perseveres more and more and is picked up off the ground and then picks herself off the ground and then one day she will be ready to take her training wheels off even, like her sister.
It is the same with us here as we persevere in our Bible study, in our prayers, in our faith. As we persevere, our faith grows. These tests (friends, TV, food, whatever they happen to be) are not a threat. Passing them is a means by which God give us the strength to carry on. As we let the Lord take us through trials our perseverance is developed, our faith is developed. These tests are what God uses to draw us closer to Him. So I encourage you then to persevere. Turn off the TV sometimes, if you need to –you can read your Bible instead. Persevere. Avoid gossip and idle talk – pray instead. Persevere. Spend time with God and persevere.
--------------
[1] Ex: when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness: The Spirit led him to the test but the devil provided the temptation (Matt. 4:1-11, Luke 4).
[2] Captain Gord Taylor. Salvation Army, Maple Creek, Summer 2006.
[3] James 1:7-8: “He who doubts is like a wave on the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord….”
[4] Their service of the Lord was leading to “brother being pitted against brother” cf. Mark 13: 12-13.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Greater Love Has No Man Than To Lay Down His Life For His Friends (John 15:13)
Presented to the community of Nipawin at the Remembrance Day Ceremony, November 11, 2007, and to the community of Swift Current at the Remembrance Day Ceremony, November 11, 2009 and 2012
by Captain Michael Ramsay (Padre, Royal Canadian Legion #56)
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends, John 15:13.
On November 11, 1918, the armistice was signed to end the Great War, the war to end all wars – the First World War. Canadians, our friends and our family, in service to God, King, and country, marched overseas to lay down their lives for our friends
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
On November 11, 1813, almost 200 years ago now, Canadians repulsed an horrific enemy invasion, with the help of our friends, the British and the First Nations. We laid down our life for our family. They laid down their life for us, their friends.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
On November 11, we remember also our friends and families, some of whom are here today, who headed overseas again, in what is remembered now as World War II, in service to God, King, and country to lay down their lives for their friends. Many of us have friends and family who marched out of Saskatchewan here to offer their lives up for their friends. My uncle from Silver Stream never spoke of the day they were surrounded by the Germans until he died a couple of years ago.
My own grandfather returned home to Saskatchewan from California when war broke out so that he could serve God, King and country in the war. He eagerly grabbed some friends from Cut Knife and they drove over the Rockies to enlist. Not all of them that enlisted that day with my grandfather, I believe, lived to see the end of the war.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
The Salvation Army and other volunteers were present in both these wars – in the trenches -offering both support and the love of God to the soldiers.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
At the conclusion of the Second World War some allies turned foes and some foes turned friends in the Cold War that ensued and again Canadians headed overseas – this time to Korea – to offer our lives on behalf of our allies and to lay down our lives for our friends. We remember these heroes here today.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
As this cold war progressed, Canadians continued to stand beside our allies but we also donned blue berets for the first time, intentionally standing between warring factions, some with legitimate grievances, protecting and reconciling populations, and still offering our lives for our friends. We are here to remember them today.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
2000 years ago, Jesus died on the cross so that we all may live.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
Through the real horrors of the wars a great thing happened: Canada’s primary foes during 1814, 1914, and 1944 are now some of our closest friends and allies. Our soldiers laid down their lives for us, their friends. And they laid down their lives so that we could be reconciled to our brothers. Canada is reconciled to her old foes and united with them more than ever because of the sacrifice of our friends, siblings, parents, grandparents, and our veterans. Thank you.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
And it was through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we all may experience this same reconciliation with God.
Jesus has laid down his life for us his friends. Many of our servicemen and women, whom we remember today, have laid down their lives for us, their friends.
And today our soldiers continue to fight for our friends. Today we are still fighting for peace and today our soldiers are still laying down their lives so that one day the dreams of World War I can be realized; one day ‘the war to end all wars’ will finally have been fought and their will be no more need for tears or for brave young men and women lay down their lives for their friends.
Today we are here to remember those who have laid down their lives for us, their friends.
Let us pray.
“Thank you Lord for the sacrifice of all those who have served this country in the wars of the 20th Century and beyond. Thank you that they, like you, died so that we may live. Thank you that they offered their lives for us. Let us not forget. Amen.
by Captain Michael Ramsay (Padre, Royal Canadian Legion #56)
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends, John 15:13.
On November 11, 1918, the armistice was signed to end the Great War, the war to end all wars – the First World War. Canadians, our friends and our family, in service to God, King, and country, marched overseas to lay down their lives for our friends
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
On November 11, 1813, almost 200 years ago now, Canadians repulsed an horrific enemy invasion, with the help of our friends, the British and the First Nations. We laid down our life for our family. They laid down their life for us, their friends.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
On November 11, we remember also our friends and families, some of whom are here today, who headed overseas again, in what is remembered now as World War II, in service to God, King, and country to lay down their lives for their friends. Many of us have friends and family who marched out of Saskatchewan here to offer their lives up for their friends. My uncle from Silver Stream never spoke of the day they were surrounded by the Germans until he died a couple of years ago.
My own grandfather returned home to Saskatchewan from California when war broke out so that he could serve God, King and country in the war. He eagerly grabbed some friends from Cut Knife and they drove over the Rockies to enlist. Not all of them that enlisted that day with my grandfather, I believe, lived to see the end of the war.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
The Salvation Army and other volunteers were present in both these wars – in the trenches -offering both support and the love of God to the soldiers.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
At the conclusion of the Second World War some allies turned foes and some foes turned friends in the Cold War that ensued and again Canadians headed overseas – this time to Korea – to offer our lives on behalf of our allies and to lay down our lives for our friends. We remember these heroes here today.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
As this cold war progressed, Canadians continued to stand beside our allies but we also donned blue berets for the first time, intentionally standing between warring factions, some with legitimate grievances, protecting and reconciling populations, and still offering our lives for our friends. We are here to remember them today.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
2000 years ago, Jesus died on the cross so that we all may live.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
Through the real horrors of the wars a great thing happened: Canada’s primary foes during 1814, 1914, and 1944 are now some of our closest friends and allies. Our soldiers laid down their lives for us, their friends. And they laid down their lives so that we could be reconciled to our brothers. Canada is reconciled to her old foes and united with them more than ever because of the sacrifice of our friends, siblings, parents, grandparents, and our veterans. Thank you.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.
And it was through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we all may experience this same reconciliation with God.
Jesus has laid down his life for us his friends. Many of our servicemen and women, whom we remember today, have laid down their lives for us, their friends.
And today our soldiers continue to fight for our friends. Today we are still fighting for peace and today our soldiers are still laying down their lives so that one day the dreams of World War I can be realized; one day ‘the war to end all wars’ will finally have been fought and their will be no more need for tears or for brave young men and women lay down their lives for their friends.
Today we are here to remember those who have laid down their lives for us, their friends.
Let us pray.
“Thank you Lord for the sacrifice of all those who have served this country in the wars of the 20th Century and beyond. Thank you that they, like you, died so that we may live. Thank you that they offered their lives for us. Let us not forget. Amen.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
2 Samuel 1-5: Divided House
Presented to each Nipawin and Tisdale Corps, 21 October 2007
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Quiz:
1. Samuel anointed two Kings; who was the first one?
2. Who was the second one?
3. Name the giant the David killed
4. Tricky one: what is a prophet?
5. List one prophet in the book of 2 Samuel… (not Samuel, he’s dead) *Answers at bottom
Let me give you a bit of history before we begin. In the book of 1 Samuel, which we did not read yet as a community, Israel was finished with its judges and the corrupt leadership of the High Priest and his sons. They begged God and Samuel for a king and one was reluctantly given to them: Saul. Saul was a tall, dark, and handsome farmer. He was a reluctant ruler – he did not want to be king – and eventually his Kingdom was torn away from his family line.
1 Samuel ends as King Saul and his son Prince Jonathan die in battle. Throughout the last days of Saul’s reign a rival for the throne[1] was set up in the person of David. The prophet Samuel himself anointed David as king and David and Saul have quite a relationship that sees David and his mighty men and Saul and this soldiers competing for the heart and soul of the Israelites.
All this is in First Samuel but now Saul (and Samuel for that matter) is dead as 2 Samuel opens up but there is still a problem. The tribes of Israel and of Judah are locked in a civil war because Abner, one of Saul’s generals (acting on his own and for his own benefit)[2] has seized power (2:8-9; contrast David, 2:2-7) –even though it is David who is the Lord’s anointed (1 Samuel 16:13). Look at verse 8 and 9: It says there that Abner (not God) takes Ishbaal and makes him king - he thereby seizes control by propping up Saul’s son Ishbaal (Ishboseth) as a puppet ruler.
Now this war goes on for quite a long time and the forces loyal to David – under the leadership of Joab – have great success in their battles against General Abner (2:17; 3:1). Abner proves himself to be a much better politician than a general for even as he is losing badly his military contest with Joab, he is stealing all of King Ishbaal’s remaining power (3:6, 11).
Then Abner, after he is the one who provokes the entire war in the first place (2:8-9) by installing a puppet ruler[3], betrays his own people by switching sides in this war (3:8-20). Abner acts on his own and is concerned primarily about himself and his own power – and, as a result, there is war and the house of Israel is divided.
Israel is divided and in our text today, 3:20-31, we read about Abner’s treason to Israel in approaching David. He stages his betrayal masterfully. He provokes King Ishbaal (3:6) to the point where even he can’t stomach it anymore, kicks up a big fuss and heads over to Judah.[4]
Abner, however, in relying on himself rather than God, makes a serious mistake:[5] He forgets about Joab.[6] Now Joab is the one who, in our story today, is shown as out-manoeuvring and defeating Abner in battle (2 Sam 2:17-28). Joab is known to be quick with a knife and to even carry out David’s murderous deeds for him (2 Sam 11:16-17). And Abner has previously killed Joab’s brother (2 Sam 2:23) and now Abner has forgotten about Joab. And so guess who shows up now? 3:21: “just then the servants of David arrived with Joab from a raid…”
And Joab is mad.[7] 3:24-25: Joab goes to the king and says, ‘what have you done? Abner came to deceive you and you let him get away!’ Joab knows Abner is up to something and now Joab goes to deal with it on HIS own[8] and, in verse 27, it says that Abner dies for shedding the blood of Joab’s brother. There is more death. The house is still divided.
Now at first glance this may not seem to be so bad for David actually. Your enemy’s armies are on the retreat and now their popular leader is dead. It seams like this would be a good thing? Right? But how does David thank Joab, verse 29, he says: May his blood fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father's house! May Joab's house never be without someone who has a running sore or leprosy or who leans on a crutch or who falls by the sword or who lacks food."[9] (Wow that’s quite a curse!)
So what’s the problem? Well, the problem is that Israel is still embroiled in a terrible civil war. It is not reconciled. Her house is still divided, even with Abner out of the way. Joab ON HIS OWN struck back at Abner and now David is vulnerable to someone seeking revenge. Israel is still at war. Israel is not reconciled. Her house is still divided.
Think about our houses today. I have, in my time, seen many divided houses. We have, in the past, had tenants who were always fighting with each other. I had one friend while I was growing up whose mother was so loud that we could hear her yelling at her sons all the way down the block. I had another friend who was thrown out of his house and had his father and his brother on another occasion come to blows.
I have seen homes where one spouse cannot stand to be around the other anymore; so, he looks for any excuse to have an out of town business trip. I have another friend who has signed up for every extra-curricular activity – every sports team in town - so he doesn’t go home. I have many friends from my time in the business world who just work and work all the time and if they can prolong their evening a little longer by heading out for a drink – or anything else - they will. These houses are divided.
There are houses divided – like Israel was - all over this country, in our community, and probably even in our churches. People act on their own. Wives yell at their husbands. Husbands leave the house to work long hours or to drink. They return to more yelling so they seek solace in more abandonment, which provokes still more yelling. It’s a terrible cycle. Houses remain divided; they need to be reconciled; what do you do?
In our world today there seems to be a big need for us all to be reconciled to God. Pornography and indulgence in sexual sin are at an all time high. They are even openly promoted in North America. I remember reading somewhere that more than 80% of US pastors have confessed to use of pornography in some way. Drug addiction and export are rampant. There are more wars and violence these days in the world than there has ever been at any time in history. And the sin inside the churches is AT LEAST as bad as it is outside. I believe the divorce rate is even higher inside than outside the churches actually . It seems like even Christian societies and houses are divided and in need of reconciliation? So, what do you do?
So, what do you do? This is a question that I wrestled with in studying this text? How come there are still divided houses? Why did Jesus die, anyway? Romans 5:10, didn’t Jesus die to reconcile us to God, (Rom 5:10, 2 Cor 5:18, Eph 2:16, Col 1:20-22)? Didn’t He rise again to establish His Kingdom (the Kingdom of God) on earth as it is in Heaven (Matt 6, Lk 11). As we seek first the Kingdom of God, is not all else supposed be added unto us (Matt 6:33)? Isn’t Jesus a Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6), rather than of war and divided houses (cf. Matt 12:25, Mark 3:25, Lk 11:17)? And, after all is said and done, aren’t all things supposed to work out for the good for those of us who love the Lord? (cf. Eph 6:8) So why is everything seemingly worse when Christ died so that we can be reconciled? Why are houses still divided?
What can this portion of the scriptures teach us about that? What can 2 Samuel 2-5 teach us, on this side of the cross, about when the battle against sin and death is supposed to be already won? Well, I think there are a couple of important things.
One that we have been looking at a lot lately through our Bible studies about Moses, Aaron, Abraham, and Babel, and Abner and Joab: if we don’t act on our own instead relying on God, we won’t have this discord in the first place. You see David was anointed by God way back in 1 Samuel (1 Sam 16:13) and he inquires of the Lord in our text today (2:1) before his people ratify his kingship.
There would not be this war in the first place had Abner consulted God, instead of, as we see in 2 verse 8, taking Ishbaal and making him king! If Abner, who was supposed to be a commander in the Lord’s army, had relied on God instead of seeking his own glory none of this would have happened! And if Joab hadn’t taken out HIS OWN vengeance on Abner when he did (3:26-27), maybe the problems could have ended a lot smoother and quicker. Maybe.
God promises (Col 1:20-23) that we will experience his reconciliation as we continue in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all know that if our country today would just keep its eyes on the Lord it wouldn’t keep getting deeper into the troubles it is every day with the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and everyone suffering the consequences of doing what is right in his own eyes. And in our own lives, if we’d just keep our eyes on the Lord, we wouldn’t have waded into a lot of the difficulties that we personally have. We know that.
But now a lot of us in this world are already in a mess. We are already addicted to all kinds of self-indulgences. There are many divided houses in and out of the churches (Rom 5:10, 2 Cor 5:18, Eph 2:16, Col 1:20-23). Why then aren’t we benefiting from God’s reconciliation? After all, Jesus did die so we would be reconciled to God.
I think we have an answer to this in our text today. In Chapter 5: 1-3, it says:
“All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, "We are your own flesh and blood. In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the LORD said to you, 'You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.' "
When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a compact with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel.”
You see God already - way back in 1 Samuel 16:13 – as was reaffirmed in 2 Sam 2:1-7 of our text today, united/reconciled Israel through David. Most of the tribes of Israel however, chose to reject this reconciliation; they continued to serve someone else – one of their own – they continued to serve themselves (2 Samuel 2-4), instead of the King.
In order for Israel to be reconciled with Judah then, Israel had to give up its claim to be its own King. They had to give up on their demands of independence (5:1-3). They had to no longer be ruled by one of their own choice. They, instead, had to repent, change their whole way of thinking, and had to submit to the leadership of another. They could not maintain their independence and experience reconciliation at the same time. It is not possible. It is not possible to be independent and reconciled at the same time.
And this I think is important: we cannot experience our independence and reconciliation all at the same time. Many of us here today have taken wedding vows (Eph. 5:23-6:3; cf. Col. 3:18-19) Husbands you must love your wives (it says!) as Christ loved the church – and how did Christ love the church by serving them. (He gave up his own life, for the life of the church.)
And wives, you must submit to your husbands. It is true. Children of believing parents; (cf. Matt 10:35-36,12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21) you have a responsibility to them as well.
After all, Just like Saul dies and Israel is united under a new king,[10] Jesus dies so that we might be reconciled under the true King. So then let us not be the captains of our own ships instead, let us now go, serve God and live reconciled lives.
----
* Answers 1) Saul, 2) David, 3) Goliath, 4) a messanger of God, one who speaks for the Lord, etc. 5) Nathan
[1] This rivalry was actually for succession to Saul’s reign. Saul very much desired that his descendants should rule; there is a certain irony in this in that he himself was reluctant to take the job. David also never harmed Saul or his sons but waited on the Lord instead.
[2] Cf. Birch, 2 Samuel, NIB: 1212, 1222.
[3] He does this by acting on his own to install Ishbaal as King. Ishbaal appears to be nothing more than a puppet ruler and the scriptures testify that David, by way of a contrast, inquired of the Lord before he was acknowledge as king over Judah. Cf. Birch, 2 Samuel, NIB: 1212, 1222.
[4] Ibid; cf. also Birch, 1213 and Tullock and McEntire, The OT Story, 7th ed., p. 148.
[5] Abner comes up with this masterful political and military coup idea to betray his King and secure power and glory for himself; however, in relying on himself rather than God, he makes a serious mistake: He forgets about Joab.Now Joab, as we will find out (as we continue to read in 2 Samuel) is, from time to time, David’s right hand man. He is with David from near the beginning (cf. 2 Samuel 23; 1 Chronicles 2:16). Joab is the one who cares enough to rescue David from his self-indulgence at home (with Bathsheba) so that David -not Joab- may be remembered for conquering Jerusalem (2 Samuel 12:26-28). He is the one who tries to stop David from sinning against God and causing the death of many people in the process (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21). He is the one who, in our text for Sunday (2 Samuel 2-3) is shown as out-manoeuvring and defeating Abner in battle (2 Samuel 2:17-28) and he is the one who is loyal enough to David to carry out David’s own murderous deeds for him (Uriah: 2 Samuel 11:16-17).And Abner – acting on his own - forgets about Joab. And Joab - acting on his own - kills Abner, And Solomon - acting a generation later - kills Joab.
[6] Joab is David’s Nephew; the son of his sister, Zeruiah.
[7] While he was out fighting, David is politicking with his enemy.
[8] Cf. 2 Kings 2:5, 34. This is his ultimate undoing as this is the reason given for Joab’s death in the purges that later accompanied Solomon’s rise to power.
[9] One irony of this curse may be of course that Joab is of David’s father’s house; Joab is David’s nephew (1 Chr. 2:16).
[10] Intentional turn of phrase here – I am linking the language to that of Joshua and Judges, as I think the author of Samuel does as well with this same phraseology.
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Quiz:
1. Samuel anointed two Kings; who was the first one?
2. Who was the second one?
3. Name the giant the David killed
4. Tricky one: what is a prophet?
5. List one prophet in the book of 2 Samuel… (not Samuel, he’s dead) *Answers at bottom
Let me give you a bit of history before we begin. In the book of 1 Samuel, which we did not read yet as a community, Israel was finished with its judges and the corrupt leadership of the High Priest and his sons. They begged God and Samuel for a king and one was reluctantly given to them: Saul. Saul was a tall, dark, and handsome farmer. He was a reluctant ruler – he did not want to be king – and eventually his Kingdom was torn away from his family line.
1 Samuel ends as King Saul and his son Prince Jonathan die in battle. Throughout the last days of Saul’s reign a rival for the throne[1] was set up in the person of David. The prophet Samuel himself anointed David as king and David and Saul have quite a relationship that sees David and his mighty men and Saul and this soldiers competing for the heart and soul of the Israelites.
All this is in First Samuel but now Saul (and Samuel for that matter) is dead as 2 Samuel opens up but there is still a problem. The tribes of Israel and of Judah are locked in a civil war because Abner, one of Saul’s generals (acting on his own and for his own benefit)[2] has seized power (2:8-9; contrast David, 2:2-7) –even though it is David who is the Lord’s anointed (1 Samuel 16:13). Look at verse 8 and 9: It says there that Abner (not God) takes Ishbaal and makes him king - he thereby seizes control by propping up Saul’s son Ishbaal (Ishboseth) as a puppet ruler.
Now this war goes on for quite a long time and the forces loyal to David – under the leadership of Joab – have great success in their battles against General Abner (2:17; 3:1). Abner proves himself to be a much better politician than a general for even as he is losing badly his military contest with Joab, he is stealing all of King Ishbaal’s remaining power (3:6, 11).
Then Abner, after he is the one who provokes the entire war in the first place (2:8-9) by installing a puppet ruler[3], betrays his own people by switching sides in this war (3:8-20). Abner acts on his own and is concerned primarily about himself and his own power – and, as a result, there is war and the house of Israel is divided.
Israel is divided and in our text today, 3:20-31, we read about Abner’s treason to Israel in approaching David. He stages his betrayal masterfully. He provokes King Ishbaal (3:6) to the point where even he can’t stomach it anymore, kicks up a big fuss and heads over to Judah.[4]
Abner, however, in relying on himself rather than God, makes a serious mistake:[5] He forgets about Joab.[6] Now Joab is the one who, in our story today, is shown as out-manoeuvring and defeating Abner in battle (2 Sam 2:17-28). Joab is known to be quick with a knife and to even carry out David’s murderous deeds for him (2 Sam 11:16-17). And Abner has previously killed Joab’s brother (2 Sam 2:23) and now Abner has forgotten about Joab. And so guess who shows up now? 3:21: “just then the servants of David arrived with Joab from a raid…”
And Joab is mad.[7] 3:24-25: Joab goes to the king and says, ‘what have you done? Abner came to deceive you and you let him get away!’ Joab knows Abner is up to something and now Joab goes to deal with it on HIS own[8] and, in verse 27, it says that Abner dies for shedding the blood of Joab’s brother. There is more death. The house is still divided.
Now at first glance this may not seem to be so bad for David actually. Your enemy’s armies are on the retreat and now their popular leader is dead. It seams like this would be a good thing? Right? But how does David thank Joab, verse 29, he says: May his blood fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father's house! May Joab's house never be without someone who has a running sore or leprosy or who leans on a crutch or who falls by the sword or who lacks food."[9] (Wow that’s quite a curse!)
So what’s the problem? Well, the problem is that Israel is still embroiled in a terrible civil war. It is not reconciled. Her house is still divided, even with Abner out of the way. Joab ON HIS OWN struck back at Abner and now David is vulnerable to someone seeking revenge. Israel is still at war. Israel is not reconciled. Her house is still divided.
Think about our houses today. I have, in my time, seen many divided houses. We have, in the past, had tenants who were always fighting with each other. I had one friend while I was growing up whose mother was so loud that we could hear her yelling at her sons all the way down the block. I had another friend who was thrown out of his house and had his father and his brother on another occasion come to blows.
I have seen homes where one spouse cannot stand to be around the other anymore; so, he looks for any excuse to have an out of town business trip. I have another friend who has signed up for every extra-curricular activity – every sports team in town - so he doesn’t go home. I have many friends from my time in the business world who just work and work all the time and if they can prolong their evening a little longer by heading out for a drink – or anything else - they will. These houses are divided.
There are houses divided – like Israel was - all over this country, in our community, and probably even in our churches. People act on their own. Wives yell at their husbands. Husbands leave the house to work long hours or to drink. They return to more yelling so they seek solace in more abandonment, which provokes still more yelling. It’s a terrible cycle. Houses remain divided; they need to be reconciled; what do you do?
In our world today there seems to be a big need for us all to be reconciled to God. Pornography and indulgence in sexual sin are at an all time high. They are even openly promoted in North America. I remember reading somewhere that more than 80% of US pastors have confessed to use of pornography in some way. Drug addiction and export are rampant. There are more wars and violence these days in the world than there has ever been at any time in history. And the sin inside the churches is AT LEAST as bad as it is outside. I believe the divorce rate is even higher inside than outside the churches actually . It seems like even Christian societies and houses are divided and in need of reconciliation? So, what do you do?
So, what do you do? This is a question that I wrestled with in studying this text? How come there are still divided houses? Why did Jesus die, anyway? Romans 5:10, didn’t Jesus die to reconcile us to God, (Rom 5:10, 2 Cor 5:18, Eph 2:16, Col 1:20-22)? Didn’t He rise again to establish His Kingdom (the Kingdom of God) on earth as it is in Heaven (Matt 6, Lk 11). As we seek first the Kingdom of God, is not all else supposed be added unto us (Matt 6:33)? Isn’t Jesus a Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6), rather than of war and divided houses (cf. Matt 12:25, Mark 3:25, Lk 11:17)? And, after all is said and done, aren’t all things supposed to work out for the good for those of us who love the Lord? (cf. Eph 6:8) So why is everything seemingly worse when Christ died so that we can be reconciled? Why are houses still divided?
What can this portion of the scriptures teach us about that? What can 2 Samuel 2-5 teach us, on this side of the cross, about when the battle against sin and death is supposed to be already won? Well, I think there are a couple of important things.
One that we have been looking at a lot lately through our Bible studies about Moses, Aaron, Abraham, and Babel, and Abner and Joab: if we don’t act on our own instead relying on God, we won’t have this discord in the first place. You see David was anointed by God way back in 1 Samuel (1 Sam 16:13) and he inquires of the Lord in our text today (2:1) before his people ratify his kingship.
There would not be this war in the first place had Abner consulted God, instead of, as we see in 2 verse 8, taking Ishbaal and making him king! If Abner, who was supposed to be a commander in the Lord’s army, had relied on God instead of seeking his own glory none of this would have happened! And if Joab hadn’t taken out HIS OWN vengeance on Abner when he did (3:26-27), maybe the problems could have ended a lot smoother and quicker. Maybe.
God promises (Col 1:20-23) that we will experience his reconciliation as we continue in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all know that if our country today would just keep its eyes on the Lord it wouldn’t keep getting deeper into the troubles it is every day with the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and everyone suffering the consequences of doing what is right in his own eyes. And in our own lives, if we’d just keep our eyes on the Lord, we wouldn’t have waded into a lot of the difficulties that we personally have. We know that.
But now a lot of us in this world are already in a mess. We are already addicted to all kinds of self-indulgences. There are many divided houses in and out of the churches (Rom 5:10, 2 Cor 5:18, Eph 2:16, Col 1:20-23). Why then aren’t we benefiting from God’s reconciliation? After all, Jesus did die so we would be reconciled to God.
I think we have an answer to this in our text today. In Chapter 5: 1-3, it says:
“All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, "We are your own flesh and blood. In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the LORD said to you, 'You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.' "
When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a compact with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel.”
You see God already - way back in 1 Samuel 16:13 – as was reaffirmed in 2 Sam 2:1-7 of our text today, united/reconciled Israel through David. Most of the tribes of Israel however, chose to reject this reconciliation; they continued to serve someone else – one of their own – they continued to serve themselves (2 Samuel 2-4), instead of the King.
In order for Israel to be reconciled with Judah then, Israel had to give up its claim to be its own King. They had to give up on their demands of independence (5:1-3). They had to no longer be ruled by one of their own choice. They, instead, had to repent, change their whole way of thinking, and had to submit to the leadership of another. They could not maintain their independence and experience reconciliation at the same time. It is not possible. It is not possible to be independent and reconciled at the same time.
And this I think is important: we cannot experience our independence and reconciliation all at the same time. Many of us here today have taken wedding vows (Eph. 5:23-6:3; cf. Col. 3:18-19) Husbands you must love your wives (it says!) as Christ loved the church – and how did Christ love the church by serving them. (He gave up his own life, for the life of the church.)
And wives, you must submit to your husbands. It is true. Children of believing parents; (cf. Matt 10:35-36,12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21) you have a responsibility to them as well.
After all, Just like Saul dies and Israel is united under a new king,[10] Jesus dies so that we might be reconciled under the true King. So then let us not be the captains of our own ships instead, let us now go, serve God and live reconciled lives.
----
* Answers 1) Saul, 2) David, 3) Goliath, 4) a messanger of God, one who speaks for the Lord, etc. 5) Nathan
[1] This rivalry was actually for succession to Saul’s reign. Saul very much desired that his descendants should rule; there is a certain irony in this in that he himself was reluctant to take the job. David also never harmed Saul or his sons but waited on the Lord instead.
[2] Cf. Birch, 2 Samuel, NIB: 1212, 1222.
[3] He does this by acting on his own to install Ishbaal as King. Ishbaal appears to be nothing more than a puppet ruler and the scriptures testify that David, by way of a contrast, inquired of the Lord before he was acknowledge as king over Judah. Cf. Birch, 2 Samuel, NIB: 1212, 1222.
[4] Ibid; cf. also Birch, 1213 and Tullock and McEntire, The OT Story, 7th ed., p. 148.
[5] Abner comes up with this masterful political and military coup idea to betray his King and secure power and glory for himself; however, in relying on himself rather than God, he makes a serious mistake: He forgets about Joab.Now Joab, as we will find out (as we continue to read in 2 Samuel) is, from time to time, David’s right hand man. He is with David from near the beginning (cf. 2 Samuel 23; 1 Chronicles 2:16). Joab is the one who cares enough to rescue David from his self-indulgence at home (with Bathsheba) so that David -not Joab- may be remembered for conquering Jerusalem (2 Samuel 12:26-28). He is the one who tries to stop David from sinning against God and causing the death of many people in the process (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21). He is the one who, in our text for Sunday (2 Samuel 2-3) is shown as out-manoeuvring and defeating Abner in battle (2 Samuel 2:17-28) and he is the one who is loyal enough to David to carry out David’s own murderous deeds for him (Uriah: 2 Samuel 11:16-17).And Abner – acting on his own - forgets about Joab. And Joab - acting on his own - kills Abner, And Solomon - acting a generation later - kills Joab.
[6] Joab is David’s Nephew; the son of his sister, Zeruiah.
[7] While he was out fighting, David is politicking with his enemy.
[8] Cf. 2 Kings 2:5, 34. This is his ultimate undoing as this is the reason given for Joab’s death in the purges that later accompanied Solomon’s rise to power.
[9] One irony of this curse may be of course that Joab is of David’s father’s house; Joab is David’s nephew (1 Chr. 2:16).
[10] Intentional turn of phrase here – I am linking the language to that of Joshua and Judges, as I think the author of Samuel does as well with this same phraseology.
Covenant: a Three Legged Race
Presented to Tisdale Corps Council October 9, 2007
by Captain Michael Ramsay
The three-legged race is always a fun one to watch at the fair. Perhaps you have noticed that some people seem to do it with ease whereas many others tend to fall down and trip all over each other. I have seen dads tied to their kids who have simply picked them up and run with them without breaking the tie that binds.It is a lot of fun but you’ll notice that the team that wins moves in sink with each other so that with every stride they are matching their partner.
When you have two independently minded people however (like siblings often) you see two people going nowhere other than to a pile-up on the ground.Over these weeks we have been and will be looking at covenants in our Bible studies and sermon series. The thing about covenants – as we discussed on Sunday – the word itself refers to being bound, tied, or shackled together, not unlike the three-legged race.
We in the Salvation Army are a covenanted people. Our soldiers pledge to uphold our doctrine and, among other things, abstain from all that can enslave the mind and body. Our officers covenant to make soul-winning a primary focus of our lives. We are bound to this. And as Christians in general we are yoked together with Christ. In this, I think we need to remember that it is difficult to move, let alone win the race, when the one you are yoked together with is going in the other direction; ...BUT when you are following in a proper covenant, the Lord’s yoke is easy! And really what can we accomplish on our own that isn’t accomplished much more easily and effectively when we were shackled to the LORD!
by Captain Michael Ramsay
The three-legged race is always a fun one to watch at the fair. Perhaps you have noticed that some people seem to do it with ease whereas many others tend to fall down and trip all over each other. I have seen dads tied to their kids who have simply picked them up and run with them without breaking the tie that binds.It is a lot of fun but you’ll notice that the team that wins moves in sink with each other so that with every stride they are matching their partner.
When you have two independently minded people however (like siblings often) you see two people going nowhere other than to a pile-up on the ground.Over these weeks we have been and will be looking at covenants in our Bible studies and sermon series. The thing about covenants – as we discussed on Sunday – the word itself refers to being bound, tied, or shackled together, not unlike the three-legged race.
We in the Salvation Army are a covenanted people. Our soldiers pledge to uphold our doctrine and, among other things, abstain from all that can enslave the mind and body. Our officers covenant to make soul-winning a primary focus of our lives. We are bound to this. And as Christians in general we are yoked together with Christ. In this, I think we need to remember that it is difficult to move, let alone win the race, when the one you are yoked together with is going in the other direction; ...BUT when you are following in a proper covenant, the Lord’s yoke is easy! And really what can we accomplish on our own that isn’t accomplished much more easily and effectively when we were shackled to the LORD!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Genesis 15:7-21: When God is Bound...
Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 07 October 2007 by Captain Michael Ramsay
To view the updated 19 March 2012 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/03/genesis-15-7-21-when-god-is-bound.html
I know that some of you have been coming out to Thursday night Bible study. This has been a lot of fun as not only have we dug deeper into the Scriptures but in past couple of weeks people have confessed old pranks they have pulled and I’ve confessed all the difficulties that I have had adjusting my speed to the straight open stretches of roads here in Saskatchewan. I’m getting much better by the way…
All these stories of pranks and cars got me thinking back to my teenage years. At the church youth group I went to it wouldn’t be uncommon to have fifty kids out on any given Friday night and even more of us came out to the big events. And we had some big nights where we would have some good competitive events – and, I must confess, my team had this terrible habit of… winning - mostly because we paid more attention to the rules than the others.
For example, we had these events called KGB runs. They were these games where you started in the university forest and had to make your way back to the church at night without being caught by the leaders, who would catch you by ‘tagging you’ with a flashlight. So everyone would start walking and sneaking through the woods trying not to get caught but MY team we would sneak (yes) but right to the parking lot where one of us would leave our car and we would drive to just outside the church and walk in – no one SAID we weren’t allowed to drive.
So, of course, once the organizers caught on, at the next event like this, they have all the rules written out and among those rules are –not surprisingly- no cars are allowed and the borders of the game are well-defined of where we are and are not allowed to go.
So with the new rules in place and the leaders determined to catch is, we have a new plan, not too far into the forest we have stashed … really big flashlights. So then when the people who are ‘it’ see the flashlights they just assume we are on their team and our whole team walks safely in without being caught.[1]
Now the planners are making it their priority to make their rules so air tight that know one can possibly misapply them. As they get ready for the next big event, they even brag that their rules are ‘Mike-proof’
Well this next event was a car rally. You know what those are? You drive around the city and are given clues that you have to solve in order to figure out where you are going to drive to next and as you figure it out, you drive to the next location and get the next clue to figure out and so on.
The people who are planning this event, like I said, are determined to stop any creative problem solving. So we are given the rules that include the normal no breaking the law or speeding, –after all this is a church group. To enforce this, they have each of the drivers put our driver’s licenses in a sealed envelope. If the envelope is opened, they know that you were caught by the police. We then had to show we agree to the rules by signing the envelope, along with the leaders, and this big fancy agreement.
Well, we are winning, as usual coming near the end of the rally – and there is this open stretch of road – now you don’t get these so much in Victoria, so we open it up to speed for the finish line and… you guessed it. The red and blue lights come on behind us. The officer asks for my licence and I hand over the envelope.
So we arrive first and they give us the prize and as all the other teams come in, they can’t believe that we’d won again. But then the leader remembers, “Oh, I need your drivers’ licences’, so one by one each team puts their sealed envelopes on the table. And then it is my turn… They were bound to beat us eventually and this is how they did it. They made this big fancy agreement, we failed to live up to it and as a consequence we lost our reward.
If you’ll turn with me to our text today, Genesis 15:7 – 21, we’ll look at Abram’s big fancy agreement with God. This agreement (or covenant) is a very significant one for us as we have just finished studying Luke-Acts,[2] and for all Christians today because you see it relates back to the good news of Chapter 12 –from our readings this week, where God has already promised Abraham that all nations of the earth will be blessed through him and, as well, it looks forward to Chapter 17 where the symbol of circumcision is introduced (17:11).
The promise includes us here and now also, even though neither we, nor our nation existed at the time of this agreement (cf. John 8, Mark 3, Luke 3, Romans 2). Genesis 12:3 is the first time that the Gospel, the ‘good news’ (that all the nations of the world will be blessed through Abraham) is presented in scripture and it is here in Chapter 15 that God ratifies he promises about inheriting the promised land with a contract (v.18) and a strange and significant, symbolic covenantal act.
Now I should probably take some time to explain exactly what a covenant is and was. The Hebrew word for covenant here, berit[h], is the most common term translated 'covenant' in the Hebrew Bible: it appears 286 times making it quite an important word.[3] This word in all likelihood is also associated with the older Akkadian word ‘biritu’, which means literally “to fetter”, “to shackle” or to “bind” and when it is used in the sense it is here, it designates the beginning or the end of a contract.[4] The image then is of two people being fettered or bound together by this covenant.[5]
This particular contract, in the text before us today, is only one of three in the entire Hebrew Bible where God himself is bound[6] - the others are with Noah, (Gen. 17, Num. 25:12) and the Davidic covenant (II Sam. 23:5, Pss. 89:3, 28-29; 110:4) which we will come to in a couple of weeks.
The word image for us here then is clear. It is that of God, in this contract, actually shackling himself to a promise to Abram and in so doing, of course, not only is God bound to the promise but He is bound to the consequence of a broken covenant – which in this case –as we’ll see in a bit – is possibly even death (cf. Jer 34:18-20).[7]
Now let’s take a look at this whole contractual ceremony here because it is, well, peculiar. In verse 9, it is recorded that God asks Abram to bring him a number of different dead animals of varying (and mostly forgotten)[8] significance and has him cut many of them in half and Abram does.[9] And Abram stays by these bodies guarding them from other animals that want to eat them (v.11) and then he falls asleep into a ‘deep and terrifying darkness (v.12).’
Abram is terrified as the Lord approaches him and says, verse 13, “know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. Wow, this is ‘good news’! (sarcasm) – Abram is terrified (v. 12) and the Lord meets him with the comforting words of, ‘your descendants will be slaves for 400 years.’
This is great (sarcasm) and there is even more: look at the contractual ceremony here. After God tells Abram that his family will be slaves and then those who enslave them will be punished - at the same time that all this is happening, another people will be allowed to run wild in the promised land until their sin reaches its absolute full measure (v. 16). There will be 400 years of sin and 400 years of slavery and now, verse 17, “when the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and walked between the pieces [of the dead animals]. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram… (vss. 17,18)”[10]
And this is interesting: the 400 years of sin and slavery are signs of the covenant or contract. They are not the contract itself. This section highlights a portion of the covenant and that portion states that his descendants will eventually possess this land that he is on.[11] And what is the sign that they will possess this land? The sign is that they will be in slavery for 400 years and - none of this sign will Abraham see ever actually see.[12]
Further, remember how we said that this is one of the few times in scripture where you will find that it is actually God who is bound by the contract. Here it is ONLY God who is bound by the contract. It is God (represented by a smoking firepot with a blazing torch[13]) who walks between the halves of the dead animals here – not Abram. This is interesting because in so doing, God says that he will pay the consequence for the broken covenant. He says he is bound and he will pay for it, if our interpretation of the ceremony is correct, with His own life. This ceremony has other parallels in ancient customs and literature but only in Jeremiah (34:18-20) in the Scriptures is this type of a ceremony mentioned and there it says:
"...all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth."
If the covenant fails after this ceremony, the one bound by it here, dies. This is serious and this is like the ceremony that God is voluntarily taking upon Himself here. And it says that Abram does believe Him (and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness, v.6) EVEN BEFORE the Lord goes to these great lengths to bind himself to his promise.
So then Abram believes God, even before God covenants up to even His own life. Abram believes God that he and Sarai will have kids and that they will inherit the promised land, and then God makes this deal that may EVEN risk His own life, and then Abram, at his wife’s insistence… has sexual relations with his wife’s slave. And she becomes pregnant. Aarrgg!
This is reminiscent of earlier in Genesis isn’t it?[14] There, Adam takes matters into his own hands at his wife’s prompting and she blames the serpent (Gen 3) and sin and death enter the world and here Abraham takes matters into his own hands and Sarah blames God (16:3) after God has just entered into this most serious covenant.
God has put a lot on the line. In the contract he may be bound, to die, if it is not kept…and instead of relying on God, Abram, a hero of Hebrews 11’s walk of fame, takes matters into his own hands…just like Adam…and just like the People of Babel who we looked at a couple of Chapters previous (Gen 11:1ff).
Well, what about us? Are we any more faithful[15] than Abram with God’s life on the line? Years ago, before I ever met Susan, I met a lady at a place I used to frequent. I felt the Lord prompting me to give her $500; she, I was led to believe, needed it to go up north and gain the custody of her infant son. I gave her the money – and that was a lot of money for me in those days – actually it’s a lot of money for me in these days too – but I give this stranger the money at what I feel at the time is the Lord’s prompting and she tells me she will meet me there again on a certain date with the money and – well – the time comes and goes and I continue to go to that place a few times over the next months still with faith but I confess each time this faith is intermingling with more doubts until it get to the point that I am thinking of calling friends of mine and tracking her down on my own, in my own strength, and retrieving the money. My thoughts drift from faith to frustration…
I also think of a friend of ours – I think Susan has told you his story – he is a godly man and the Lord taught me lots through him. Before I ever met him, he felt the Lord telling him to witness to one of his employees, to tell him the good news of Jesus Christ. He believes the Lord but he does not tell his employee and the next day, he hears that his employee is dead.
From the Bible again, remember the Israelites with Moses on the edge of this land promised to them by God. Ten of 12 spies come back saying that they are afraid; they don’t have faith and they won’t invade (Deut 1; Num 14). The Lord is angry and tells them that because they did not act in faith their generation would not inhabit the land; so the people get up early in the morning and say, “We know we have sinned, we’ll go do it now”…but it is too late…God is not with them…and they are defeated by their enemies.
And Abram, righteous Abram, now has chosen to act on his own instead of trusting God. God pledged his life so that we may have faith and faithfulness (Romans 1-3) but we are faithless many times over and what is the consequence of our faithlessness? God dies. God dies.
God is fettered and bound in this covenant for Abram. As a consequence of Israel’s sin in the dessert a whole generation dies outside of the promise and as a consequence of our sin today, God dies: Jesus dies on the cross.
God didn’t need to make this promise to us? He didn’t need to make this promise to Abram. Abram believed Him before He put his life on the line. But God did make this promise and the thing about God is that, even if we are unfaithful to our promises, He remains faithful (Romans 3:3,4).[16]
And look ahead in our text from Genesis with me, God is not unfaithful, and in Chapter 21, verse 2, it says, “Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.”
So now here it is…even though Abram may not have acted in a manner consistent with faith, ONLY God was bound here and as the covenant is fulfilled, God lives!
God promised children to Abraham and God provided children to Abraham. God promised that his decedents would inhabit Canaan after 400 years of slavery, and God provided that they inhabited the land after 400 years of slavery. Like the Apostle Paul says emphatically, centuries later, in his letter to the Romans, “What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all! …( Romans 3:3,4)” No way. No! No! God is faithful even and especially when we are not!
God promised Israel that they would inhabit the land and, even though they were faithless at the border, God still fulfilled his promise a generation later.
My friend who did not pray with his employee the night before he died, went on to be a pastor and never forgot the lessons the Lord taught him that night in the whole time I knew him anyway.
And my other friend…the lady I met…just when I had almost given up hope that she would ever find me and return the $500, she did and that’s not the end of the story. Years later, I almost came to tears. I came out of my house and there she was with her son. He was now 5 or 6. She knew our tenants and was visiting them. The Lord let me meet her son – the Lord let me see how He used His $500 to help a child be raised by his mother. She, in her excitement at seeing me, grabbed her now school-aged son and said, “This is the man from the story I told you…” THIS child KNOWS the stories of the MIRICLES of GOD. Even though, after I believed I had my doubts, The Lord used even me to do His will.
And he rewarded me in such a way that day that I will never forget it.
And isn’t that the same for all of us? Jesus died on the cross because of our sin. Jesus died because of our faithlessness but God is faithful to His promises and Jesus is alive. Jesus rose from the dead! Jesus defeated death. He died for us and he rose again. Nothing we do can change that! Now all we need to do is not reject him.
So then let’s not be like that generation of Israelites who rejected his invitation to the promised land and died in outside of the promise. Rather on this day of thanksgiving let us be thankful for to God for his sacrifice, inherit the promise, and come to and delight in the free gift of eternal life.
[1] These three stories are based on real events.
[2] These sermons are available on-line: www.sheepspeak.com
[3] G.E. Mendenhall. “Covenant.” In The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George Arthur Buttrick. (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1962), 715.
[4] G.E. Mendenhall, P. 715.
[5] Michael Ramsay, “Berit[h].” In the Journal of Aggressive Christianity.
[6] G.E. Mendenhall, P. 718.
[7] Death is the penalty meted out to those who violate this ceremony the only other time it is recorded as being enacted in the scriptures: Jeremiah 34:18-29. See Sarna, Genesis, PP. 114-115, Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, 446. cf also, Anet, p.532 and John H. Sailhamer Abraham and the covenant (15:1-21).
[8] Terence E. Fretheim, NIB, P. 446.
[9] John H. Sailhamer Abraham and the covenant (15:1-21)
[10] The fire and the smoke are interesting symbols here. They cast the reader’s mind ahead to the fire and smoke with which God led the Israelites out of Egypt and to this same promised land. Those who have been studying Acts along with us will also note the pillars of fire that settled above the peoples heads in Acts II, which may or may not be making reference to the Exodus and by extension this passage as well.
[11] The Holiness Code in Leviticus (esp. Lev 25), as well as the prophecy of Amos (esp. 3-4) and numerous other portions of scripture testify that yes indeed the Lord was faithful in fulfilling this agreement but as the covenantal talks are re-opened with future generations who are looking for a permanent territorial blessing for their genetic offspring, it is granted to them albeit with conditions (pertaining to caring for the poor and the land) which they did not fulfill (cf. Gen 18:19; 26:5; Amos 3:1-2; Lev 25:2; 26:34-35; cf. also N.T. Wright, “Romans and the Theology of Paul,” Pauline Theology, Volume III, ed. David M. Hay & E. Elizabeth Johnson, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995): 37.) The blessing to the nations (12:3) that was offered through Abraham, however, still stands to this day. Remember also that the messianic prophecies to David are not tied to the physical land (2 Samuel 7) and of course are ultimately fulfilled in Christ. We should neither forget that God that he can raise up decedents of Abraham from stones if need be (cf. John 8:31-41; Hebrews 11:8-12). and indeed he does graft all the nations into the promises of Abraham (cf. Matthew 3:9, Luke 3:8, John 8, Romans 11). It is also interesting in this passage that God promises on his own life that Abraham’s decedents will receive this land; Abraham’s decedents are unfaithful and God pays with the life of his Son.
[12] Compare this to Moses’ sign the LORD is speaking to him (Exod 3:11-12) and the sign of the Lord’s faithfulness re: the provision of his people around the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee (Lev 25:19-20).
[13] This does cast our minds tangentially ahead to the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire with which God will later lead the Israelites around the desert.
[14] Cf. Chapter 11. This is the chapter where Abram is introduced. He is introduced ironically enough after the people from the city of Babel are dispersed for (pridefully) taking matters into their own hands.
[15] I am using the term ‘faith’ in the rest of this document in a manner that is consistent with the so called ‘New Perspective on Paul’
[16] Cf. N.T. Wright, “Romans and the Theology of Paul,” p. 37. See also NT Wright, “The Law in Romans 2.”
To view the updated 19 March 2012 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/03/genesis-15-7-21-when-god-is-bound.html
I know that some of you have been coming out to Thursday night Bible study. This has been a lot of fun as not only have we dug deeper into the Scriptures but in past couple of weeks people have confessed old pranks they have pulled and I’ve confessed all the difficulties that I have had adjusting my speed to the straight open stretches of roads here in Saskatchewan. I’m getting much better by the way…
All these stories of pranks and cars got me thinking back to my teenage years. At the church youth group I went to it wouldn’t be uncommon to have fifty kids out on any given Friday night and even more of us came out to the big events. And we had some big nights where we would have some good competitive events – and, I must confess, my team had this terrible habit of… winning - mostly because we paid more attention to the rules than the others.
For example, we had these events called KGB runs. They were these games where you started in the university forest and had to make your way back to the church at night without being caught by the leaders, who would catch you by ‘tagging you’ with a flashlight. So everyone would start walking and sneaking through the woods trying not to get caught but MY team we would sneak (yes) but right to the parking lot where one of us would leave our car and we would drive to just outside the church and walk in – no one SAID we weren’t allowed to drive.
So, of course, once the organizers caught on, at the next event like this, they have all the rules written out and among those rules are –not surprisingly- no cars are allowed and the borders of the game are well-defined of where we are and are not allowed to go.
So with the new rules in place and the leaders determined to catch is, we have a new plan, not too far into the forest we have stashed … really big flashlights. So then when the people who are ‘it’ see the flashlights they just assume we are on their team and our whole team walks safely in without being caught.[1]
Now the planners are making it their priority to make their rules so air tight that know one can possibly misapply them. As they get ready for the next big event, they even brag that their rules are ‘Mike-proof’
Well this next event was a car rally. You know what those are? You drive around the city and are given clues that you have to solve in order to figure out where you are going to drive to next and as you figure it out, you drive to the next location and get the next clue to figure out and so on.
The people who are planning this event, like I said, are determined to stop any creative problem solving. So we are given the rules that include the normal no breaking the law or speeding, –after all this is a church group. To enforce this, they have each of the drivers put our driver’s licenses in a sealed envelope. If the envelope is opened, they know that you were caught by the police. We then had to show we agree to the rules by signing the envelope, along with the leaders, and this big fancy agreement.
Well, we are winning, as usual coming near the end of the rally – and there is this open stretch of road – now you don’t get these so much in Victoria, so we open it up to speed for the finish line and… you guessed it. The red and blue lights come on behind us. The officer asks for my licence and I hand over the envelope.
So we arrive first and they give us the prize and as all the other teams come in, they can’t believe that we’d won again. But then the leader remembers, “Oh, I need your drivers’ licences’, so one by one each team puts their sealed envelopes on the table. And then it is my turn… They were bound to beat us eventually and this is how they did it. They made this big fancy agreement, we failed to live up to it and as a consequence we lost our reward.
If you’ll turn with me to our text today, Genesis 15:7 – 21, we’ll look at Abram’s big fancy agreement with God. This agreement (or covenant) is a very significant one for us as we have just finished studying Luke-Acts,[2] and for all Christians today because you see it relates back to the good news of Chapter 12 –from our readings this week, where God has already promised Abraham that all nations of the earth will be blessed through him and, as well, it looks forward to Chapter 17 where the symbol of circumcision is introduced (17:11).
The promise includes us here and now also, even though neither we, nor our nation existed at the time of this agreement (cf. John 8, Mark 3, Luke 3, Romans 2). Genesis 12:3 is the first time that the Gospel, the ‘good news’ (that all the nations of the world will be blessed through Abraham) is presented in scripture and it is here in Chapter 15 that God ratifies he promises about inheriting the promised land with a contract (v.18) and a strange and significant, symbolic covenantal act.
Now I should probably take some time to explain exactly what a covenant is and was. The Hebrew word for covenant here, berit[h], is the most common term translated 'covenant' in the Hebrew Bible: it appears 286 times making it quite an important word.[3] This word in all likelihood is also associated with the older Akkadian word ‘biritu’, which means literally “to fetter”, “to shackle” or to “bind” and when it is used in the sense it is here, it designates the beginning or the end of a contract.[4] The image then is of two people being fettered or bound together by this covenant.[5]
This particular contract, in the text before us today, is only one of three in the entire Hebrew Bible where God himself is bound[6] - the others are with Noah, (Gen. 17, Num. 25:12) and the Davidic covenant (II Sam. 23:5, Pss. 89:3, 28-29; 110:4) which we will come to in a couple of weeks.
The word image for us here then is clear. It is that of God, in this contract, actually shackling himself to a promise to Abram and in so doing, of course, not only is God bound to the promise but He is bound to the consequence of a broken covenant – which in this case –as we’ll see in a bit – is possibly even death (cf. Jer 34:18-20).[7]
Now let’s take a look at this whole contractual ceremony here because it is, well, peculiar. In verse 9, it is recorded that God asks Abram to bring him a number of different dead animals of varying (and mostly forgotten)[8] significance and has him cut many of them in half and Abram does.[9] And Abram stays by these bodies guarding them from other animals that want to eat them (v.11) and then he falls asleep into a ‘deep and terrifying darkness (v.12).’
Abram is terrified as the Lord approaches him and says, verse 13, “know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. Wow, this is ‘good news’! (sarcasm) – Abram is terrified (v. 12) and the Lord meets him with the comforting words of, ‘your descendants will be slaves for 400 years.’
This is great (sarcasm) and there is even more: look at the contractual ceremony here. After God tells Abram that his family will be slaves and then those who enslave them will be punished - at the same time that all this is happening, another people will be allowed to run wild in the promised land until their sin reaches its absolute full measure (v. 16). There will be 400 years of sin and 400 years of slavery and now, verse 17, “when the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and walked between the pieces [of the dead animals]. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram… (vss. 17,18)”[10]
And this is interesting: the 400 years of sin and slavery are signs of the covenant or contract. They are not the contract itself. This section highlights a portion of the covenant and that portion states that his descendants will eventually possess this land that he is on.[11] And what is the sign that they will possess this land? The sign is that they will be in slavery for 400 years and - none of this sign will Abraham see ever actually see.[12]
Further, remember how we said that this is one of the few times in scripture where you will find that it is actually God who is bound by the contract. Here it is ONLY God who is bound by the contract. It is God (represented by a smoking firepot with a blazing torch[13]) who walks between the halves of the dead animals here – not Abram. This is interesting because in so doing, God says that he will pay the consequence for the broken covenant. He says he is bound and he will pay for it, if our interpretation of the ceremony is correct, with His own life. This ceremony has other parallels in ancient customs and literature but only in Jeremiah (34:18-20) in the Scriptures is this type of a ceremony mentioned and there it says:
"...all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth."
If the covenant fails after this ceremony, the one bound by it here, dies. This is serious and this is like the ceremony that God is voluntarily taking upon Himself here. And it says that Abram does believe Him (and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness, v.6) EVEN BEFORE the Lord goes to these great lengths to bind himself to his promise.
So then Abram believes God, even before God covenants up to even His own life. Abram believes God that he and Sarai will have kids and that they will inherit the promised land, and then God makes this deal that may EVEN risk His own life, and then Abram, at his wife’s insistence… has sexual relations with his wife’s slave. And she becomes pregnant. Aarrgg!
This is reminiscent of earlier in Genesis isn’t it?[14] There, Adam takes matters into his own hands at his wife’s prompting and she blames the serpent (Gen 3) and sin and death enter the world and here Abraham takes matters into his own hands and Sarah blames God (16:3) after God has just entered into this most serious covenant.
God has put a lot on the line. In the contract he may be bound, to die, if it is not kept…and instead of relying on God, Abram, a hero of Hebrews 11’s walk of fame, takes matters into his own hands…just like Adam…and just like the People of Babel who we looked at a couple of Chapters previous (Gen 11:1ff).
Well, what about us? Are we any more faithful[15] than Abram with God’s life on the line? Years ago, before I ever met Susan, I met a lady at a place I used to frequent. I felt the Lord prompting me to give her $500; she, I was led to believe, needed it to go up north and gain the custody of her infant son. I gave her the money – and that was a lot of money for me in those days – actually it’s a lot of money for me in these days too – but I give this stranger the money at what I feel at the time is the Lord’s prompting and she tells me she will meet me there again on a certain date with the money and – well – the time comes and goes and I continue to go to that place a few times over the next months still with faith but I confess each time this faith is intermingling with more doubts until it get to the point that I am thinking of calling friends of mine and tracking her down on my own, in my own strength, and retrieving the money. My thoughts drift from faith to frustration…
I also think of a friend of ours – I think Susan has told you his story – he is a godly man and the Lord taught me lots through him. Before I ever met him, he felt the Lord telling him to witness to one of his employees, to tell him the good news of Jesus Christ. He believes the Lord but he does not tell his employee and the next day, he hears that his employee is dead.
From the Bible again, remember the Israelites with Moses on the edge of this land promised to them by God. Ten of 12 spies come back saying that they are afraid; they don’t have faith and they won’t invade (Deut 1; Num 14). The Lord is angry and tells them that because they did not act in faith their generation would not inhabit the land; so the people get up early in the morning and say, “We know we have sinned, we’ll go do it now”…but it is too late…God is not with them…and they are defeated by their enemies.
And Abram, righteous Abram, now has chosen to act on his own instead of trusting God. God pledged his life so that we may have faith and faithfulness (Romans 1-3) but we are faithless many times over and what is the consequence of our faithlessness? God dies. God dies.
God is fettered and bound in this covenant for Abram. As a consequence of Israel’s sin in the dessert a whole generation dies outside of the promise and as a consequence of our sin today, God dies: Jesus dies on the cross.
God didn’t need to make this promise to us? He didn’t need to make this promise to Abram. Abram believed Him before He put his life on the line. But God did make this promise and the thing about God is that, even if we are unfaithful to our promises, He remains faithful (Romans 3:3,4).[16]
And look ahead in our text from Genesis with me, God is not unfaithful, and in Chapter 21, verse 2, it says, “Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.”
So now here it is…even though Abram may not have acted in a manner consistent with faith, ONLY God was bound here and as the covenant is fulfilled, God lives!
God promised children to Abraham and God provided children to Abraham. God promised that his decedents would inhabit Canaan after 400 years of slavery, and God provided that they inhabited the land after 400 years of slavery. Like the Apostle Paul says emphatically, centuries later, in his letter to the Romans, “What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all! …( Romans 3:3,4)” No way. No! No! God is faithful even and especially when we are not!
God promised Israel that they would inhabit the land and, even though they were faithless at the border, God still fulfilled his promise a generation later.
My friend who did not pray with his employee the night before he died, went on to be a pastor and never forgot the lessons the Lord taught him that night in the whole time I knew him anyway.
And my other friend…the lady I met…just when I had almost given up hope that she would ever find me and return the $500, she did and that’s not the end of the story. Years later, I almost came to tears. I came out of my house and there she was with her son. He was now 5 or 6. She knew our tenants and was visiting them. The Lord let me meet her son – the Lord let me see how He used His $500 to help a child be raised by his mother. She, in her excitement at seeing me, grabbed her now school-aged son and said, “This is the man from the story I told you…” THIS child KNOWS the stories of the MIRICLES of GOD. Even though, after I believed I had my doubts, The Lord used even me to do His will.
And he rewarded me in such a way that day that I will never forget it.
And isn’t that the same for all of us? Jesus died on the cross because of our sin. Jesus died because of our faithlessness but God is faithful to His promises and Jesus is alive. Jesus rose from the dead! Jesus defeated death. He died for us and he rose again. Nothing we do can change that! Now all we need to do is not reject him.
So then let’s not be like that generation of Israelites who rejected his invitation to the promised land and died in outside of the promise. Rather on this day of thanksgiving let us be thankful for to God for his sacrifice, inherit the promise, and come to and delight in the free gift of eternal life.
[1] These three stories are based on real events.
[2] These sermons are available on-line: www.sheepspeak.com
[3] G.E. Mendenhall. “Covenant.” In The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George Arthur Buttrick. (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1962), 715.
[4] G.E. Mendenhall, P. 715.
[5] Michael Ramsay, “Berit[h].” In the Journal of Aggressive Christianity.
[6] G.E. Mendenhall, P. 718.
[7] Death is the penalty meted out to those who violate this ceremony the only other time it is recorded as being enacted in the scriptures: Jeremiah 34:18-29. See Sarna, Genesis, PP. 114-115, Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, 446. cf also, Anet, p.532 and John H. Sailhamer Abraham and the covenant (15:1-21).
[8] Terence E. Fretheim, NIB, P. 446.
[9] John H. Sailhamer Abraham and the covenant (15:1-21)
[10] The fire and the smoke are interesting symbols here. They cast the reader’s mind ahead to the fire and smoke with which God led the Israelites out of Egypt and to this same promised land. Those who have been studying Acts along with us will also note the pillars of fire that settled above the peoples heads in Acts II, which may or may not be making reference to the Exodus and by extension this passage as well.
[11] The Holiness Code in Leviticus (esp. Lev 25), as well as the prophecy of Amos (esp. 3-4) and numerous other portions of scripture testify that yes indeed the Lord was faithful in fulfilling this agreement but as the covenantal talks are re-opened with future generations who are looking for a permanent territorial blessing for their genetic offspring, it is granted to them albeit with conditions (pertaining to caring for the poor and the land) which they did not fulfill (cf. Gen 18:19; 26:5; Amos 3:1-2; Lev 25:2; 26:34-35; cf. also N.T. Wright, “Romans and the Theology of Paul,” Pauline Theology, Volume III, ed. David M. Hay & E. Elizabeth Johnson, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995): 37.) The blessing to the nations (12:3) that was offered through Abraham, however, still stands to this day. Remember also that the messianic prophecies to David are not tied to the physical land (2 Samuel 7) and of course are ultimately fulfilled in Christ. We should neither forget that God that he can raise up decedents of Abraham from stones if need be (cf. John 8:31-41; Hebrews 11:8-12). and indeed he does graft all the nations into the promises of Abraham (cf. Matthew 3:9, Luke 3:8, John 8, Romans 11). It is also interesting in this passage that God promises on his own life that Abraham’s decedents will receive this land; Abraham’s decedents are unfaithful and God pays with the life of his Son.
[12] Compare this to Moses’ sign the LORD is speaking to him (Exod 3:11-12) and the sign of the Lord’s faithfulness re: the provision of his people around the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee (Lev 25:19-20).
[13] This does cast our minds tangentially ahead to the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire with which God will later lead the Israelites around the desert.
[14] Cf. Chapter 11. This is the chapter where Abram is introduced. He is introduced ironically enough after the people from the city of Babel are dispersed for (pridefully) taking matters into their own hands.
[15] I am using the term ‘faith’ in the rest of this document in a manner that is consistent with the so called ‘New Perspective on Paul’
[16] Cf. N.T. Wright, “Romans and the Theology of Paul,” p. 37. See also NT Wright, “The Law in Romans 2.”
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