Galatians 3:19-25: Don’t be a McChicken

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 28 August, 2011

Based on an earlier version presented to Nipawin Corps on January 20, 2008 and to Tisdale Corps on January 27, 2008 which is available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/01/galatians-319-25-dont-be-mcchicken.html

By Captain Michael Ramsay

One day at the McDonald farm there is a rumbling in the air; something is a foot. In the chicken coop something isn’t just quite right. The old farmer walks all around the chicken wire fence. It seems to be in tact. The barbed wire along the perimeter looks undisturbed. Everything looks fine as he locks up the hens for the night. But inside the henhouse on the top rung, something is stirring…it is Henrietta the poultry hen.

Now, as soon as Farmer McDonald closes the door to the coop, Henrietta the hen, speaks up: “It’s time.” Quickly Henrietta, Polly, Mick, and all the chickens on the top rung run to the southeast corner of the coop. They peck and they peck the ground in the corner like never before. Last night they had almost made it. Tonight would be the night. Finally – breakthrough! Henrietta and the other chickens are free. They are free from the farmer’s coop. They are free from the barbed wire and the chicken wire; they are free from the tedious ritual and routine. They are free!

They spend the next morning roaming around the yard, exploring the whole farm. They eat what they want, when then want. They can be near or wander far away. They talk. They talk and they talk some more: it’s a hen’s life. They spend that whole day walking around eating what and when they want and really enjoying the full freedom from the yard. At the end of the day, they perch on a branch of tree across the road from the farm and cuddle up for the night. It is good.

They have a nice rest but in the morning when they wake up, they notice something on the road: it is Mick the Chicken crossing the road. They wonder. Why did the chicken cross the road? Mick is walking back towards the farm.

Mick is walking back to the coop. She goes across the road, to the fence and through the same crack under the chicken wire fence. She walks around the corner and up the walkway onto her old bar in the farmer’s small, confining chicken coop. The farmer then notices the crack in the fence and repairs it quickly. Mick is trapped.

Henrietta can’t believe it. She sees the whole thing where she is sitting, still free, looking on from her perch on other side of the road. She sees Mick, of her own accord, trapped all over again on the farm.

Mick was free and then she just goes back to be trapped all over again and it is even worse then she thought at first. As Henrietta scans the farm and hears the noises: here a cluck, there a cluck everywhere a cluck, cluck. She remembers, Mick the Chicken is on McDonald’s farm. The Mick Chicken is back at MacDonald’s!

And you know what happens to McChickens at McDonald’s.^[1] They get eaten. Mick is trapped.

And this is just like the Galatians to whom Paul writes his letter: the Galatians have become just as trapped by the Law of the Old Covenant – the way they used to do things between the Exodus and Resurrection - as Mick the chicken is by McDonalds. And Paul is quite concerned. After all as we read in Galatians 3, where Paul repeatedly calls the Galatians ‘foolish’, he says in verse 10, “All who rely on this law, the way they used to do things, are under a curse; for it is written ‘cursed is anyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law (cf. Gal 3:10; Deut 27:26).’ And it seems no one is able to do that.

Paul is then rightly quite concerned because it appears that there are some ‘false believers’ (Gal 2:4) who actually want the Galatians to be trapped by the Law.^[2] It appears that there are some here, in the Galatian churches, who are walking away from their freedom and in the process even walking away from the Gospel of Christ.

Rather than relying on Jesus, they prefer to return to the rules, regulations, feasts, celebrations and the Law (cf. Gal 4:9,10) as if that can save anyone from our sins: the Law has been fulfilled (Matt 5:17-48; cf. Heb 8:13; cf. also TSA doc. 6). None of even us who are grafted into the promise offered to Abraham (Gen 12:3) and David (2 Sam 7), none of us can possibly do anything to merit salvation and the resurrection – its not possible: All who rely on the Law are under a curse because they do not and will not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the Law (cf. Gal 3:10, Deut 27:26).

The people in Galatia here are at risk now of being trapped by the Law. Paul is desperately, in this letter, trying to point them to freedom again.^[3] He is trying to stop Mick the Galatian chicken from returning to the confines of the Law of the Old Covenant (Gal 3:4, 4:9).

This raises a question though: If the Law is something that traps us, if the Law is something that curses us, why did God give humanity the Law in the first place? Why did God write the Ten Commandments and hand deliver them to Moses? Did God want to trap us? Really, if the Law is so terrible, why were God’s own people expected to follow it for so long – hundreds of years before it was fulfilled (Exod 20, 34; Deut 5, 10; cf. Matt 5:17; Rom 2: 12-29, 9:30-10:4; Heb 8:13). Why?[4]

For me, as I was reading and re-reading Galatians, this was a pivotal question that kept coming to my mind. If the Law of the Old Covenant is so bad, why did God give it to his ‘chosen people’? And you’ll notice in the passage, Galatians 3:19-25, that Paul considers this question as well.

Paul speaks of people as being imprisoned and guarded by the Law in Verse 23. He says that the Law –depending upon your translation -was our guard, our disciplinarian, our custodian, or some translations even say our schoolmaster in Verses 24 and 25. This is interesting because the word in verses 24 and 25 that is translated these so many different ways probably could best be rendered ‘tutor’ and tutors –unlike guards or disciplinarians- tutors were generally not considered bad people in first century Galatia.^[5] They were the good guys: they were servants (slaves) protecting and helping the children.

I look at the historical role of the Law like this:[6] The Law is sort of like a storm cellar. We’ve heard about the terrible tornados that hit Ontario recently? Remember the Wizard of Oz? The Law is like a storm cellar. It is a place to hide when the storm kicks up, a place of refuge. When humankind started sinning (Verse 19), sin entered the world like a tornado bringing death and destruction to everything in its path. It is recorded in Galatians 3:19 that the Law was given to us as a result of our transgressions (cf. Romans 5:20).

There is this storm of sin and death kicking up out there. People are dying and so God builds this storm cellar in the form of the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) and the Law for our own protection. God builds the Law as a shelter from this storm of sin and death and He gives it to Moses, saying to him, “Here, in there, take everyone in with you. Quick. Hurry!”

Moses does and the people remain in this safe, albeit somewhat cramped and confining, shelter for a long time and then something happens…Jesus, through His death and resurrection, defeats sin. Jesus calms the storm. It is over. As Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished” (cf. TSA doc. 6).

So now the storm is over. It is finished and Jesus, through His death and resurrection, has freed us from the storm cellar as the storm is finished. We no longer need to remain in the storm cellar of the Law. It kept us safe for a while but it is of no use to us now, sin and death – the storm – has been defeated.

So, while the storm is whipping around outside we are all very grateful if we can find shelter in the Law of the Old Covenant but who of us, after the tornado had passed wants to continue to live in a hole in the ground? No one. No one in her right mind anyway.

This is exactly what Paul is talking about here in Chapter 3 of Galatians. And in Chapter 4, he goes on explaining the Law as if it were this servant guardian tutor of a small child. The guardian only has any authority until the child is grown, then the child has authority over the slave. We are no longer servants to the Law, customs and ceremonies. While we are grateful for the shelter God provided through the Law. We are especially thankful now that He has freed us from that hole in the ground.

But I have a question for us. Are their times when, like Mick the Galatian Chicken, that we are tempted to return to the confines of the Law or of a new law or some other trap? Are there ways in which, even though life is carrying on outside the storm cellar, we refuse to walk around in the freedom of Christ? What are some of the rules, special days, and traditions that can cut us off from our freedom in Christ (Galatians 4:10)?

I remember one incident at a youth group activity many, many years ago. Janet[7], one of the girls at the church, invited a group of her Christian friends to a youth event and at break time these kids –who she knows are smokers- step outside for a cigarette. They have their cigarettes and start roughhousing a little bit. Janet is devastated; she cries. It doesn’t make any sense to her. A Christian couldn’t do those things. There are rules to follow. There are things YOU HAVE to do. So while it would serve us all well to never have a cigarette, of course, and we should all be on the road to holiness, sanctification, which ends in glorification; here is the problem: like Janet and like Mick the Galatian Chicken, we can become trapped by our own rules, our own laws. We can start to believe that these rules are the means to our Salvation or, just as bad, someone else’s.

Have you ever thought, “Does he really need that piece of chocolate cake? He’s already 800 pounds.[8] How can she really call herself a Christian? She stays up all night playing video games[9] and she doesn’t clean up after herself or help out around here at all. Look at that kid. He’s got his nose, ears, eyebrows and probably other parts pierced. I’m a good solid Christian though. I don’t smoke. I go to church and Bible study. I never eat too much. I always give my tithe. When I get to heaven, I’ll get a big house – not like those people who just get in by the skin of their teeth.

Don’t we sometimes get trapped by believing that if we never speed and always declare all our income on our income tax; if we never lie, obey all the commandments and the Golden Rule, then we’ll get into heaven? Now I am not saying that we shouldn’t do these things but this won’t assure us a spot at the resurrection and with this aren’t there also some things that tempt us to hide in the security of the storm cellar of legalism rather than experiencing the full freedom of Christ? What are the things that trap us? Is there anything that is impeding our relationship with Christ? Are there any chains that are holding us back, stopping us from experiencing the full freedom in Christ? Is there anything at all that causes us to hide in a storm cellar of legalism?

Remember Christ died freeing us from the storm cellar. Christ died on the cross so we don’t need to be trapped by our traditions. Christ died so we don’t need to be trapped by our prejudices. Christ died so we don’t need to be trapped by the Law. Christ died so we don’t need to be trapped by, as Paul says in Galatians 4:10, observing special days, months, seasons, and years. Christ died. Christ died defeating the storm of Sin and Death and freeing us from all this and then He rose from the dead. Jesus rose from the dead. So for those of us who are still trapped beneath ground in the storm cellar of legalism, for those of us who are still underground in prejudice and self-righteousness, let’s rise with Christ. Let’s not remain in the ground. Let us let Him break those chains that bind us and let us experience the full freedom of a wholly sanctified life with Christ. 

Let us pray.

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

Related: 

Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Don't be a McChicken: Covenant and Galatians 3:19-25' in the Journal of Aggressive Christianity Issue 67 (June - July, 2010), pp. 35-38. Available on-line:

http://www.armybarmy.com/JAC/article10-67.html

Captain Michael Ramsay 'Galatians 3:19-25: Don't be a McChicken...' Presented to Nipawin Corps on January 20, 2008 and to Tisdale Corps on January 27, 2008. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/01/galatians-319-25-dont-be-mcchicken.html

  

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[1] Based on: ‘Mickey the Hen’ from the sermon, Free as a Bird: Galatians 5:1-15. by Michael Ramsay (Presented to Weston Corps April, 2006)

[2] Richard B. Hays, Galatians. (NIB: XI. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 314. The NIB calls them ‘Missionaries’

[3] It appears that many of the Galatians were originally Gentiles and thus not subject previously. This then would be particularly irritating to the apostle, Paul. Cf. also Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians.  (WBC: 41. Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1990), 227.

[4] Cf. Ramsay, Michael. Paul’s Understanding of the Role of Law as Reflected in Romans 2:12-16, 17-24, and 25-29. Available on-line at: www.sheepspeak.com/NT_Michael_Ramsay.htm

[5] Cf. Cousar, Charles B., Galatians. (Interpretation. Louisville, USA: John Knox Press, 1982), 79.

[6] Cf. for a good discussion of the role, function, and traditional understanding of the Law, NT Wright, “The Law in Romans 2,” Paul and the Mosaic Law, ed. James D. G. Dunn (WUNT 89; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1996), republished with English translations of German essays (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001).

[7] The name has been changed

[8] Intentional example since “Experts estimate that 10 to 25% of all teenagers and 20 to 50% of all adults have a weight problem”. Obesity Canada. n.p. [cited 09 04 2006] On-line: http://www.obesitycanada.com/

[9] 80% of BC Teens play video games regularly. Media Analysis Laboratory Simon Fraser University, Burnaby B.C. “Video Game Culture: Leisure and Play Preferences of B.C. Teens.” Simon Fraser University (October, 1998): 5.

1 Timothy 6:3-10: Godliness with Contentment

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 14 August 2011

By Captain Michael Ramsay

Whenever we leave town, we soon appreciate the fact that driving here in Swift Current can be quite nice actually. A traffic jam is what? 3 Cars long? If I have an appointment somewhere at 11am and I want to get there in plenty of time I leave my office at ten to eleven.  It’s not like that everywhere.

I can remember one day in Vancouver. We were urban missionaries there with The Salvation Army prior to our entering Officership. Have you ever had one of those days and one of those ideas that maybe seem good at the time but if you had actually taken time to reflect, you would have done things differently? I remember this one day; there was ourselves and another missionary family that we didn’t really know that well at the time in our car. We were stuck in traffic for a long time – the better part of an hour I imagine and I was getting frustrated. I then notice that the car is just about out of gas and we are coming up on the last gas station for a while and cars are lined up around the block and down the street: all of this with my family and these other missionaries in the vehicle. It is a hot summer day and we don’t have air conditioning and I am slowly starting to boil over both figuratively and literally. We wait in line to get gas; we wait and we wait some more with all the other people and all the other cars in line; slowly, we keep moving one car closer at a time to get to the pumps. Finally it is our turn, after such a long wait and with me now completely run out of patience; this car comes barging in, cuts directly in front of us and the whole line of cars behind us.

Now allegedly, this is what may have happened next: maybe my foot might have slipped off the brake onto the gas and maybe I might have accidentally rammed the back of this car and maybe I might have accidentally pushed it all the way past the pumps out of the station area. Now, providentially, the back of this fellow’s car was already completely smashed in before today. And I say that allegedly all of these things may have happened because of the dozens of witnesses who were also waiting in line at the pump when this man cut us all off and the gas station attendant manning the security cameras, all of them voluntarily swore that none of this ever happened. They even told me that they would testify in court that none of this ever happened and that I never made contact with his vehicle and one missionary fellow who was in my car was quite happy to talk to the man whose car I allegedly struck about the merits of waiting one’s turn while I calmly – calm for the first time in a couple of hours I might add - filled my tank, paid the clerk, and enjoyed a few moments of surprise popularity with the people around before I went on my way wondering what had just happened.

In our text today, Paul is having a similar release to this alleged incident. Paul is boiling over. Paul is adamantly and intentionally ranting against the prosperity heresy (or ‘gospel’ as some people call it) here and those who use the gospel as a means to make money. Paul is quite angry as he spews out a list of what is wrong with people who espouse false doctrine (See the list generated in 1 Timothy 2:1-6:2; cf. also Matthew 7:13, Acts 8:20, Philippians 3:19, 1 Thessalonians 5:3) - especially those who claim that godliness is a means to financial gain.^[1] Paul says that these people are not agreeing to sound instruction; these people are conceited; these people understand nothing; these people are just interested in ‘controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions’ (1 Timothy 6:4) and these people are a constant source of friction, Paul says, especially those who ‘have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain’ (1 Timothy 6:5).

Paul goes on. About the idea profiting financially from the gospel he says, Verses 7-9, that: 

We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

You know those bumper stickers that say, ‘he who dies with the most toys wins’ – The Apostle Paul would not have had one of those.

Verse 10 records literally in the Greek that ‘the love of money is ___ root of all evil’.^[2] For the record, the word for evil here doesn’t necessarily mean moral sin. It can mean anything from an unfavourable event, to something bad, to harm, to illness to wickedness, etc…^[3]

Now, before I merge onto the main highway of our talk today - 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “that godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it,” but Verse 10b, “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” - I am going to spend a couple of moments on 1 Timothy 6:10a because 1 Timothy 6:10a is among the most quoted and, as world-renowned Biblical scholar James D.G. Dunn points out, the most misquoted verses in the whole Bible (1 Timothy 6:10; cf. Sirach 27:1).^[4] So please indulge me as I ever so quickly follow a rabbit down a very short linguistic rabbit trail.

The KJV (AV) Bible, from which many of us read as we memorized scripture growing up, states that “for the love of money is THE root of ALL evil…” (1 Timothy 6:10a). The NRSV and the NIV Bibles that we have in the sanctuary today, in an attempt to modernize the language and moderate the force of the text, record that “the love of money is A root of ALL KINDS OF evil.” You see the difference? These modern translations seem to go –in my opinion- too far in their revision of the Authorized Version.^[5]  The text in Greek literally reads that ‘the love of money is __ root [with neither a definite nor an indefinite article prior to the word ‘root’] of ALL evil.’^[6] ‘The love of money is __ root of all evil.’ This is actually somewhat important. The love of money (not money itself) is not necessarily the sole root of every evil in the world as the KJV can sometimes be erroneously quoted to suggest. However, neither (as can be read into the NIV) is money so impotent and unimportant as to be just one equal cause among many for some of the problems in our world today. The sin of ‘the love of money’, as the rest of our pericope today points out, is in reality much worse than that. And Paul in his worked up state is using quite emphatic language here. A better translation of 6:10a according to many of the scholars I read in preparation for today is: ‘Root of all evils is the love of money’ (cf. also RSV).^[7]

The implication of this (what this means) then is –if anyone is still following me down this little rabbit trail –that anything bad in this world can be caused by a love of money. And if we look in our world today, I think we will find that that is true. Any of the myriad bad things we see happening around us are not necessarily specifically but certainly generally can be readily caused by a love of money: wars, murder, theft, lying, cheating, slander, etc… Any of these things CAN be caused by a love of money: Loving money can cause a lot of problems but even in the midst of Paul’s rant about the evils of the love of money here, 1 Timothy 6:6 assures us that on the other hand, “godliness with contentment is great gain” and remember too from when we looking at the story of Joseph a couple of weeks ago (Genesis 37-50; esp. Genesis 39)^[8] that “what God’s prosperity in our lives looks like is when God’s work is being done through us.”^[9]  Money does not equal prosperity. Money does not equal great gain. What does equal great gain, as our text today (1 Timothy 6:6) shows us, is godliness with contentment but -Verse 9- “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.” And, Verse 10b: “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (cf. TSA doc. 9).”

In the time and the place that Paul is writing here, there obviously are people who are trying to make their fame and fortune off the gospel. Paul is not saying that church leaders should not be paid. Just a few verses earlier, 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul writes quoting Deuteronomy, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4; cf. 1 Corinthians 9:9) and, quoting Luke, “the worker deserves his wage” (Luke 10:7). Paul is not opposed to people getting paid for doing God’s work. He is concerned that people may be doing God’s work for the purpose of getting paid (cf. Mark 4:19, 10:25; Luke 1:53, 6:24, 12:15-21, 16:19-26; James 5:1-5; Revelation 3:17-18).

I think we see this a lot in the western world, in the first world today. I get more than a little uneasy if I see a minister in a large church who owns an equally large house and has a garage full of toys to go with it. I admit that I get more than a little queasy when I think about Christian authors or Christian musicians who actually become wealthy from doing God’s work of spreading the gospel or from producing music that people are supposed to use for worship purposes. Either the music is produced to worship God or the music is produced to make money. You cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13, cf. 1 Peter 5:2). I have never really bought into the whole idea of CCLI.

I remember also the 1980s when it seemed like every popular Christian televangelist in the USA was getting into problems because of either their finances or their fame. And I get really, really angry so much that I could step on the gas or, like the Apostle Paul, I could spew out a whole tirade of words like those in our text today (esp. 1 Timothy 6:3-5; cf. also Philippians 3:19, 1 Thessalonians 5:3) when I hear people promoting the prosperity heresy. Some people in some churches – probably even in this town – but most notoriously in South Korea and parts of the USA actually claim that if you are serving God faithfully you will be blessed financially and if you aren’t blessed financially then that is because you obviously aren’t following God. This is a horrible lie of the Enemy’s. 1 Timothy 6:9: “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.” And Verse 10b: “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

But 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it,” We remember the story of Joseph that we were looking at a couple of weeks ago. When and where did it mention he prospered? Was it when he was living at home as the favoured son of a wealthy herdsman (Genesis 37)? NO! Was it when he was riding around in a chariot as 2nd in command of the whole Egyptian Empire (Genesis 40-50)? NO! The scriptures recorded that he prospered in the in-between times when he was in slavery and when he was sitting in prison for a crime he didn’t commit (Genesis 39). That is when the scriptures record that Joseph prospered because God’s prosperity is not material wealth. As Biblical scholar John Sailhamer reminds us, “What God’s prosperity in our lives looks like is when God’s work is being done through us.”^[10] The Apostle Paul in our text today, 1Timothy 6:6-7 says, “that godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” The NT church, as recorded in Acts, sold all their possessions and pooled them together for the Glory and the Kingdom of God (Acts 2:42-47). We remember too that the Apostle Paul had a part-time job as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). He had no time for people whose goal was to make money and who then would use the gospel as a tool to do just that because, 1 Timothy 6:9, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.” And, Verse 10b: “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

On the other hand, 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” In light of all this I am really thankful that The Salvation Army has a policy that actually forbids our Officers from moonlighting.[11] Did you know that our pay is still considered nothing more than a living allowance? We are not officially employees protected by labour laws and the like. Officers agree at the time of acceptance to training (seminary) that if there is no money available, we will forgo our living allowance and I have spoken to older Officers serving overseas who have done just that.

Did you know too that of the money that an Officer is paid for doing a funeral or any other public service, we are supposed to donate 100% of it back to the corps (local church)? Do you know how much I get paid for writing the book, Praise The Lord For Covenants,^[12] and the articles that I write in various journals and papers? Zero. Nothing. As per Army regulations, it all goes back to the ministry. This is a great buffer against the temptations caused by a love of money.

Speaking of this love of money, on the other side of the coin – if you’ll excuse the pun - I can remember being really upset by those televangelist scandals in the 1980s that we briefly mentioned earlier. These scandals gave God and the church a black eye in the eyes of many people at that time. It seemed like so many of the prominent TV evangelists gave into the devil’s temptation to seek wealth, subsequently fell from grace, and in the process presumably and horribly took many innocent people down with them. 1 Timothy 6:10b: “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

In contrast though, 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” A little earlier than these televangelist scandals of the 1980s, I can remember as a teenager being really impressed with a Christian musical group called The Resurrection Band. I don’t know if anyone here has ever heard of them. They are a Chicago band. They were the first hard rock Christian band to ever find popular success. One of their songs reached #6 on the American charts; they had sold out concerts; they had good record sales; even Canadian kids like me who in those days really didn’t care for Christian music at all were listening to them. Do you know what they did with the profits they made? They, like the church did as recorded in the book of Acts, donated 100% of the profits they made to their church community (Acts 2:44-45).^[13] They didn’t donate a 10% tithe. They didn’t donate a 50% bonus tithe. They donated 100% back and spent their days working in ministry in their church community. These people could have chosen to be rich but instead they chose to follow God. 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.”

We cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13, cf. 1 Peter 5:2). Remember too the story of the rich young ruler who went away sad because Jesus had asked him to sell all his possessions and follow him (Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31). Our goal as Christians cannot be to make money. Our goal needs to be to see souls saved both for now and eternity our goal needs to be to fulfil the great commission Jesus gave us, as recorded in the book of Matthew to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:16-20). Centuries ago, Agur prayed this historic prayer:

…give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me,

lest I be full, and deny thee,

and say, ‘Who is the LORD’…[14]

Luke reminds us in Acts that the early Christians sold everything, gave to the poor, and followed Jesus (Acts 2:42-27)). So today I would encourage us not to be distracted by a love of money - and this includes a want (desire) of money too! You don’t need to be rich to be in love with money. Don’t be distracted by a love of money and don’t let the devil distract you with anything else either that can tempt you to take your eyes off Jesus and of our goal of pointing everyone we know to this great salvation that comes from Christ alone. Today let us confess and throw off all worldly distractions because Verse 10b: “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Instead let us give our all for the Lord for, 1 Timothy 6:6-7, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” So let us give our all for Jesus.

Let us pray.

 

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

 

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[1] Cf. James D.G. Dunn, The 1^st and 2^nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 828.

[2] Marvin R. Vincent, The First Epistle to Timothy, ‘The Root’ (Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament IV: Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2009), 277; R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 1 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), 709.

[3] The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. ‘2556: kakos’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), 45.

[4] James D.G. Dunn, The 1^st and 2^nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 828.

[5] Donald Guthrie,  Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 127: the Greek throws emphasis on the word root, and parallels could be found to justify the definite article in English (as av, rsv). This makes the expression more sweeping, but the apostle’s mind is so absorbed with the snares of riches that he addresses himself to extreme cases. Certainly for those mentioned in verse 9 the root of all their evils was love of money, but it must not be deduced from this that love of money is the sole root of all evils, for the New Testament does not support this.

[6] R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 1 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), 709; Marvin R. Vincent, The First Epistle to Timothy, ‘The Root’ (Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament IV: Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2009), 277.

[7] James D.G. Dunn, The 1^st and 2^nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 828; R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 1 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), 709; Marvin R. Vincent, The First Epistle to Timothy, ‘The Root’ (Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament IV: Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2009), 277.

[8] Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Genesis 39:2a: Prosperity', Presented to the Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, July 10, 2011. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/07/genesis-392a-prosperity.html

[9] John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/VI. The Account of Jacob (37:1-49:33)/E. Joseph in the House of Potiphar (39:1-23), Book Version: 4.0.2

[10] John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/VI. The Account of Jacob (37:1-49:33)/E. Joseph in the House of Potiphar (39:1-23), Book Version: 4.0.2

[11]The Salvation Army, UNDERTAKINGS ENTERED INTO BY AN OFFICER OF THE SALVATION ARMY AND APPLICANT’S AGREEMENT WITH THE SALVATION ARMY. Cf. Articles 8-12. Available on-line: http://www.uss.salvationarmy.org/uss/www_uss_ebc.nsf/0/4D80BE2B7E53AABA8025738B0068E8AE/$file/C-2%20Application%20for%20SA%20Officership.pdf

[12] Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today'. Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army

[13] I never thought that I would cite this source but here it goes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_Band

[14] Agur. Cited in Thomas C. Oden, First and Second Timothy and Titus (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Louisville, Ken., John Knox Press, 1989), 103.

Genesis 50:15-21: Regarding Forgiveness: Do not be afraid, for are we in the place of God?

Presented to the Swift Current Corps, 07 August 2011
Presented to Alberni Valley Corps, 30 September 2018 

By Captain Michael Ramsay

The Alberni Version was entitled 'Oh Brother!'

I remember Grade 5. It was an interesting time in my life. My teacher actually taught my father Grade 5, a generation ago. I was predisposed to like him but it just didn’t work. I questioned him once about why my name was on the board for a detention before the class even began. When I questioned Mr Cavin on it he replied, “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll deserve to be on the detention board soon.” Grade 5 was not my finest hour and I am sure I annoyed Mr. Cavin enough. On this day I didn’t disappoint him though in earning my spot in detention quickly – though I think he went a little over the top in giving me the detention. I really didn’t do anything wrong but I was part of a world record setting team, I’m sure, for the 4 quickest detentions in history. You see something had happened and this girl in my class, Crissy, was crying. Caveman saw her crying and gave her a detention. I was surprised and I thought this was the silliest thing in the world to get a detention for crying so, like any sympathetic 10 or 11 year-old boy, …I burst out laughing, earning myself a detention. Paul, who sat right behind me and was also a regular member of the detention club, thought that this was amusing that I had gotten a detention so early and so easily that he broke out laughing. Thus he also earned a detention. Christopher, another classmate of ours, was then so overcome by the humour involved in the whole situation that he laughed and was assured a seat in detention hall himself. Grade 5: our class motto could have been, ‘Where a detention is waiting for you before you ever get there.’ Sometimes there are challenges in life but Genesis 50:19 assures us “Do not be afraid.”
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“Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?” This is part of Joseph’s response to his brothers when they came to him seeking forgiveness. We remember the history between Joseph and his brothers, right? His brothers are pretty tough costumers. To recap, this was Joseph’s family life growing up: Joseph’s dad has children with a number of different women and Joseph’s oldest brother has an affair with the mother of a couple of his own half-brothers. Another brother of Joseph’s runs into the problem with a prostitution scandal that involves his daughter-in-law and two more of Joseph’s brothers trick and murder a whole community’s males before the rest of them carry off all of their possessions, their wives and their children. These were Joseph’s brothers (Genesis 34-38).[1] Now, there was also more than a little bit of sibling rivalry between Joseph and his brothers as their dad made no bones about the fact that Joseph – the second youngest- was his favourite son and we remember that Joseph didn’t necessarily hide this favouritism and that Joseph (even given their history) had been known to tattle on these brothers to dad (Genesis 37:2).

Now all this is bad enough but we remember the main thing that Joseph’s brothers did to him that would require forgiveness. Think of the worst prank that you have ever played on a younger sibling or the worst thing that an older brother has done to you and I imagine that this is probably worse. Genesis Chapter 37:12ff records how Joseph’s ten older brothers treat him. They grab their 17 year-old younger brother and throw him into an empty well and then they sit down to have lunch all the while, it seems, discussing whether or not they are going to kill him or what else they are going to do with him. (Imagine what it would be like in the well, hearing that conversation!) Providentially some slave traders come along; so instead of killing Joseph, his brothers decide to sell him into slavery. This is the last time they see Joseph for many, many years. Joseph then spends quite a few years as a slave before he is sent to prison for a crime he doesn’t commit. All of this directly follows his brothers’ actions of kidnapping, confining, and selling him into slavery. They have a few things for which they need forgiveness and they are scared of their brother, Joseph. And they are more than a little bit afraid because Joseph is now – in our story today – the second most powerful man in all of Egypt.

Joseph has already shown too that he is not necessarily above games and a measure of retribution. Remember when Joseph and his brothers met the first time after all these years: Joseph accuses them of being spies; he frames them for theft and then wrongfully imprisons Simeon, one of his brothers. Then, upon their next meeting much later, Joseph threatens to do the same thing to one of his other brothers. The brothers were afraid of Joseph and they are particularly afraid of Joseph right now because their dad has just died. Remember that Joseph was dad’s favourite so the brothers figure that maybe Joseph is just waiting until dad dies to finally really get back at them once and for all for the horrible things they did to him as a teenager. Dad, they figure, was their protection from their brother, preventing him from exacting his long overdue revenge on them and now dad is dead so they fear that it is payback time (cf. Genesis 27:41-45).[2]

Genesis 50:15 records that “When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did him.’” Have you ever done something wrong and just sat there worrying about the consequences? This is what it is like for the brothers. I can remember more of Grade 5 or even Grade 6. For whatever were my behavioural problems in elementary school I was pretty conscientious about wanting to get my work done on time. It was important to me. To this day, it is still very important to me but I can still remember Grade 5. There was this big library assignment that we were working on every week for a month or so. I was in bed one night drifting off into sleep when I shot up wide awake in horror, realizing that the assignment was due tomorrow AND I didn’t do it AND there was nothing I could do about it now because their was no internet in those days AND so I needed to work in the library AND our Librarian, Mr. Stubbs, was not a man anyone wanted to mess with. I remember that feeling in the pit of my stomach that accompanied the fact that I had done something wrong (neglected my homework) and there was nothing that I could do accept face the music. Have you ever had that feeling?

It is the same feeling, when you are driving along, look in the rear-view mirror, see the red and blue flashing lights come on behind you; you look down at your speedometer; you pull over to the side of the road, roll down your window and wait for the inevitable, “Driver’s licence and registration please. Do you know how fast you were going?” It is that same feeling in the pit of your stomach. You are guilty and there is nothing you can do; you are entirely at the mercy of the nice man or the nice woman in blue. For Joseph’s brothers it may even have been more intensified than this too because with the protection of their father out of the way, they know that Joseph has the power of life and death over them. He can -with impunity- have them all killed, if he so desires.[3]

It is in this setting that they contact Joseph and say (and they might even be lying)[4] that, Verse 17, their dad said before he died that, “This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.”

The brothers are guilty. They know it. They approach their Joseph – who is in authority over them – in full fear and trembling.[5] It is with this same sense of deference and even trembling and we should approach God when seeking forgiveness (Psalm 2:1; Proverbs 1:7, 9:10; Ephesians 6:5; Philippians 2:2).[6] We have all committed crimes against God and sins against our neighbours (Romans 3:23, 5:12; Cf. Daniel 9:11).[7] And it is in light of this fact – pertaining specifically to worship - that Matthew 5:23-24 records, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” - if we want to be able to come before God we should make things right with our Christian brothers and sisters. Because we have all sinned we need to make things right with our brothers and sisters; we need to seek and to offer forgiveness and then appear before the Lord; when we do this it is exciting: we see such grace abound. This is what his brothers did. “But Joseph said to them, [Genesis 50:19-21] ‘don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me [ra`ah, literally "evil'],[8] but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.’

Scholar Derek Kinder tells us that each sentence of Joseph’s threefold reply is a pinnacle of Old Testament (and New Testament) faith. It serves,

1)      To leave all the righting of one’s wrongs to God (Vs. 19; cf. Romans 12:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; 1 Peter 4:19);

2)      To see His providence in man’s malice (Vs. 20; cf. Genesis 45:5), and

3)      To repay evil not only with forgiveness but also with practical affection (Vs. 21; cf. Luke 6:27ff.),

“These are attitudes which anticipate the adjective ‘Christian’ and even ‘Christlike’. Note that in verse 21 the I is emphatic: Joseph was promising something more personal [and practical] than philanthropy.”^[9]

Now many of us have been hurt and that hurt to some of us may still sting just as much as that of Joseph’s being sold into slavery and being wrongfully convicted and of being betrayed by his own big brothers. But –even and especially in the midst of our pain and our sorrow - this is where we need to receive and offer forgiveness just like Joseph.

1)      We need to refrain from seeking revenge or even justice for what has happened to us in the past as horrible as it might be;

2)      We need to notice how God is working even in the midst of the evil done to us by our own friends and family;

3)      And we must forgive our brothers and sisters for all that they have done to us; Joseph wept emotionally, and took care of them practically. He loved them and provided for them.

This is forgiveness and the Lord asks no less from us in our worship of Him. Luke 17:3,4 records that “…If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.  If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” Matthew 6:15 (cf. Matthew 18) states “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” 

The Lord wants to forgive us and so the Lord wants us to forgive our brothers and sisters like Joseph forgave his brothers so that we can be in a right relationship with Him. He wants us to weep tears of forgiveness over our Christian brothers and sisters when they hurt us. The LORD wants us to notice how - even in the midst of the evil perpetrated against us and against God - He is working. And our Heavenly Father desires that indeed we will forgive and be reconciled with our siblings in the Lord so that nothing will interfere with our worship of and relationship with Him.

Let us pray.

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay 'Genesis 39:2a: The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered.' Prepared for the Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, July 10, 2011. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/07/genesis-392a-lord-was-with-joseph-and.html

[2] Cf. Genesis 27:41-45 for a similar story involving Joseph’s dad and his uncle

[3] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, Genesis (Interpretation 1: Louisville, Ken.: John Knox Press, 1982), 370-371. He contends that at first Joseph’s words could be interpreted as ambiguous at best, certainly not comforting.

[4] Cf. Gordon Wenham, Genesis 16-50 (WBC 2: Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Inc., 2000), 490. Quoting Sternberg (Poetics, 379), he refers to this as “a desperate fabrication”

[5] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Proverbs 1:7, 9:10: Yir’ah, The Fear of the LORD.' Presented to the Nipawin Corps, 17 May 2009. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/05/proverbs-17-910-yirah-fear-of-lord.html

[6] Cf. Gerhard Von Rad. Genesis. (Old Testament Library: Philadelphia: Westminister, 1961). I recommend this for further reading as almost every source I viewed pointed back to Von Rad at some point in the discussion.

[7] Cf. Gordon Wenham, Genesis 16-50 (WBC 2: Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Inc., 2000), 490 re. the use of the term ‘crimes’ against our neighbours.

[8] John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/VII. The Final Joseph Narrative (50:15-26)/A. Joseph's Forgiveness (50:15-21), Book Version: 4.0.2

^[9] Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1967 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 1), S. 235