Father’s Day Address 2022

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 19 June 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay

 

When we refer to God as our Heavenly Father what do we mean? What are some of the traits and values common among fathers that are a reflection of the attributes of God? God loves us. He is proud of us. He is cheering for us…. We have a number of verses that we will look at on this Father’s Day that show us a little bit about God as our Heavenly Father.

 

Jeremiah 29:11: “'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. '”

We fathers are proud of our kids. We enjoy their performances: school, church and community plays, musicals, recitals. We celebrate their victories as if they were our own. I have cheered many dance medals, at least one soccer medal, and academic and behavourial awards. I think this is what is meant in part by Jeremiah 29:11: “'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. '” God loves us. Our Heavenly Father enjoys our performances and competitions. He cheers for us like a dad cheers on his children. God is proud of us.

 

Psalm 149:4 – “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation.”

I am a proud father. I have three great kids. Rebecca has a natural ability in so many things. She learned to read very early, thanks very much to Calvin and Hobbs comics. Being our eldest, we celebrated so many firsts with her. All of kids! Sarah-Grace: I often remember one play she was in in primary grades. She portrayed a character called ‘Nasty Boots’ that I think the whole town celebrated – it really was that good. She has preached many times not only here but also growing up and as a pre-teen she even went on the road preaching a sermon she wrote and it was very well received. I was so proud. Heather -even right now, at 11 years-old - is producing her own TV show. Like any dad, I am so happy to see my children succeed. So with us, even more with God.

Psalm 149:4 – “For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; He adorns the humble with salvation.” God is our Father and thus like a father, I really believe that the Lord celebrates with us. He laughs with us. He cries with us. He celebrates with us. I know that in recently receiving the award from our community here, I spent quality time really thanking the Lord and spending time with God: Thanking Him for allowing and enabling me to serve Him and others. I know how I am cheering for my kids in everything they do for the Lord, and I want you all here to know that God is cheering for you and me too! And even more! He does take pleasure in us and He lavishes His love upon us.

 

1 John 3:1a – “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

As fathers we are also blessed just to see our children grow up: We are excited when they speak their first word, when they take their first step. We are happy when they make a friend.

We are happy when they celebrate rites of passage: We celebrate graduation from a class, high school (or maybe university); when they get a job, when they move out (even though you miss them terribly); and then for some maybe they will go on to get married and/or have kids themselves. And maybe celebrate many more rites of passage. 1 John 3:1a – “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

 

John 16:33 – “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. “

 

2 Corinthians 1:3 - “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

 

As parents we are always concerned for our children and hope they can avoid or get through every crises and struggle. God has the same hope for us like we read earlier in Jeremiah 29:11: “'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. '” But also John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” And 2 Corinthians 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

There is trouble in this world. As parents we hope and pray that our children will never fall prey to addiction (drugs, alcohol, gambling, anything); we hope and pray that they are always healthy (and can come through any times when they aren’t); we hope and pray that life doesn’t knock them down too hard or too often; we hope and pray that they are resilient and will continue to get up when life knocks them down (and learn from it too!) – for in this world there will be trouble but God has overcome the world. And as we have every confidence that our children can get through, God has every confidence in us too. We hope and pray that our children will receive comfort from us and we hope and we pray that they will experience the comfort that the Lord offers to each and everyone of us, even and especially in our most challenging times. The Lord, our Heavenly Father loves us even more than we love our earthly children - as impossible as it may seem that anyone could love more than we love our kids, our Heavenly Father does. We hope and pray, with the Lord, that our children are never consumed by hate, fear, or sin. Hate, fear and sin can paralyze us. But love trumps hate and God, our Father, loves us

 

Matthew 10:29-31 – “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

 

Proverbs 3:11-12 – “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent His rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in.”

 

When the Bible talks about sin, I really think it is often referring to an Heavenly Father trying to point His children away from trouble. I don’t think sins are a list of things that bad people do. It is more like something we do or something that happens which puts us in harms way (missing the mark). Or it is calamity, destruction and a force all of its own waiting to pounce on us. A loving Heavenly Father thus warns us like He did Can in Genesis 4:7. Remember Cain and Abel? Jealousy and rage and murder are about to consume Cain and entice him to murder His brother and so God (who loves Cain every bit as much as He loves Abel) gets his attention and says, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” God loves us all and He desires for us to overcome sin and to overcome the world as He has overcome the world.

 

Luke 12:32 – “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”

 

Our children are among the most precious things in the world to us. God loves us even more than we love our own children. Just like our heart is full when our children make things for us – a picture, or a poem – so is God’s heart when we make things for Him. Just like our heart is full when they do things for us like make a party, mow the lawn, or clean the house; so is God’s heart full when we do things for Him. Just like our hearts are full when our children do things for each other; so God’s heart is full when we do things for one another. Just like my heart is full when I see my children helping and doing things for anyone in need; so God’s heart is full when we help out others in need (either personally, through our Army here, or in other ways). Just like our heart is full even just seeing our children together, so is God’s heart full seeing His children here together. And just like my heart is overflowing when my children are together with me celebrating and enjoying life, I can’t even tell you how much God loves to see each and everyone of you here with Him and each other today. God is a Father to each and everyone of us and His heart is filled and overflowing with joy to have you come together with His other children just to see Him and spend time with Him on this Father’s Day – just like any other day. He loves you.

 

So on this Father’s Day, let us come before our Heavenly Father and know that He is proud of us and He loves us and He wishes the best for us, He will never leave us nor forsake us and He will always be here for us even until the end of the age. Let is pray.

 

John 13:33-14:31: Are you coming to Father’s House?

 Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 07 June 2021, by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

Today is Fathers’ Day. At one point this week we actually had a glimmer of hope that we would see Rebecca this weekend and for most of the week it looked like Susan, Sarah-Grace, and Heather would be able to head to the mainland this weekend to see her, but it didn’t work out. 

Fathers’ Day is often a chance when children are able to visit their fathers. This can be quite an occasion if the children live a distance from their fathers – as Susan and I have for most of our adult life – and/or if they don’t get to see their parents very often. If they live quite a distance away sometimes the visits are longer because of it. Children, even adult children going to see their fathers can be quite an occasion.   

Jesus, in our passage today is speaking about going to see his father. Jesus is unmarried and probably in his early thirties and he is at dinner with his students and closest friends when he tells them that he is going to see his father and the conversation that ensues with his disciples is quite interesting. 

Jesus says, 13:33-34: “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me…[but] Where I am going, you cannot come...” 

Simon Peter then asks Jesus, ‘Where are you going? What do you mean that we can’t come with you? Jesus tells Peter, 14:1-4, “I am going to my Father’s House;” he says, “…My Father’s house has many suites… I am going there to prepare a place for you. And …I will come back and take you to be with me…. [and then he says] You know the way to the place where I am going.” 

Peter and the others don’t really know the way and are still not entirely sure where he is going, so Thomas now tries to get a clear answer. He re-asks Peter’s question his own words, he asks, Verse 5, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 

Jesus answers, Verse 6, “I am the way... No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” 

Thomas was trying to help, by rephrasing Peter’s simple question ‘where are you going’? And now Thomas, like Peter, is left to ponder Jesus’ responses. Jesus’ answer to, ‘how do we get to where you are going?’ is ‘I am the way to where I am going’. This probably isn’t all that helpful for Thomas and Peter. 

Philip takes a crack at finding out exactly where Jesus is going as he asks for further clarification; Verse 8, Philip asks, “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough.” Jesus says that he is in the Father and the Father is in him and that they will know that Jesus is in the Father and that they will be in Him as long as they obey His commandments. Jesus is in God and God is in Jesus, He says, and they too can be in God as they obey Jesus’ commandments. 

But the disciples still don’t quite understand where Jesus is going, so now Judas (not Judas Iscariot) asks, 14:22, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus then more fully explains to his disciples that He is going away but He is not leaving them (or us) alone – the Paraclete is with us to comfort and help in times of trouble – and Jesus will come back too (15:28) and when he ultimately comes back, he will be with those of us who love him and so keep his commands forever – for we will receive a suite or a mansion that he has prepared for us right in his Father’s House (14:2). We never need to be alone. We can be with the Lord forever and for now,

So the answer to the question, ‘where is Jesus going?’ After dinner, Jesus will be arrested. He will be tried. Jesus will be executed. Three days later He will rise from the dead and come to his disciples, then he will go to His Father’s House, he will ascend to the Father who is in Heaven.  

That is where Jesus is going now in our text and then sometime very soon now in our world he is coming back. Jesus went to the Father and Jesus made the only way to the Father. Every one of us who loves Jesus (as shown by obeying His commands) will continue to live our life with him even after we pass away; as we go to be with Jesus in our eternal mansion. So the question for us today is not where is Jesus going – we know that - but rather the question for us today is where are WE going? Are we going with Lord? If we are going with the Lord now then we can be assured that our journey will not end even at the grave. The Lord will never leave us or forsake us and even after we leave this life we can join him in the suite, the mansion, that he has prepared for us in his Father’s House for eternity. 

Let us pray. 

Exodus 3-4: “Go!”

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 24 June 2012 (15 June 2014) by Captain Michael Ramsay

Click here to read 15 June 2014 version:  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/06/exodus-31-416-go.html

We have just had Fathers’ Day (last weekend) and I have certainly been blessed with three of the greatest children for whom a father could ask. On Father’s Day two of my girls made me nice cards. One of them gave me this great coffee cup reading “World’s Greatest Dad” and she gave me a Mars Bar to go along with it. The two oldest girls then came and helped out at the Soapbox Derby as per The Salvation Army’s tradition here in Swift Current. We topped off the evening watching an old 1930s movie and eating homemade ice cream sundaes. It was a good day and I have good daughters.

Sometimes, however, I must admit that my children listen better than they do at other times. I can remember the other week: I remember telling them that we would have to walk home when they arrived at my office. I told them that we would have to walk home because mom couldn’t come pick us up. I told them to make sure to put their coats on because it was raining and we would be walking home. I told them not to bring too many things home from the office because we would be walking home. We then head outside and immediately one of the children asks, where’s the car?

My girls can do so much and can be at times quite confident in their abilities. Rebecca, I remember, even as a three year-old, sang this amazing impromptu solo at a talent show (or something like that) in front of maybe hundreds of people that was absolutely captivating for all who were present. Sarah-Grace played the villain in the school play just this year and she did a spectacular job. Many people have commented on her performance. And this past fall and the one previous she won a prize for her confident ability to sell chocolates for her school. My children, they can be quite confident in their abilities at times.

Moses, in our pericope today, may lack some of this confidence that my girls have at times displayed but Moses appears to listen in very much the same manner as my girls did this past week. Moses, in our story today, as he stands before God, sounds a little like a scared child and as the reader nears end of the pericope, he actually sounds a lot like an obnoxious child as he keeps refusing to just do what he’s told.[1] Here is a brief paraphrase of the text we read earlier today.

Exodus 3:8: The LORD says to Moses, “I have come down to rescue the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians…” 3:10, “Now go, Moses, because I am sending you to Pharaoh.”

Moses: Exodus 3:11, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 3:12: the LORD speaks. It’s not about you. “I will be with you. I have sent you…”

Exodus 3:13, Moses: “Well … suppose I go and…? If I go, who should I say sent me?”

Exodus 3:14-17, the LORD: “I am who I am! Tell them I am sending you! Go and tell them that I am the one who will deliver them.” Exodus 3:16, the LORD says: “I have watched over you…” Exodus 3:17, the LORD says: “I have promised to bring you up out of your misery…” Exodus 3:18 and so on, God says: “I will strike the Egyptians” God says, “I will perform wonders among them…” God says, “I will make the Egyptians favourably disposed to My people…” God says, “I will do it!”

Moses, Exodus 4:1: “But what if they do not believe me…”

God then provides Moses with all kinds of signs, wonders and miracles that God performs… Exodus 4:2-3:

Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.

God then turns it back into a staff and then the LORD gives Moses leprosy and cures it and then He tells Moses that He, God, will do all this and more for him in front of Pharaoh. God will even turn the Nile River to blood, He says.

Then, Exodus 4:10, Moses says to God: “I can’t do that…I am slow of tongue…I can’t…. I can’t”

Exodus 4:11, the LORD, who might be getting a little ticked off at this point, I know I would be, He says: “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or who makes him mute? Who gives him sight and who makes him blind…” In essence the LORD is asking, “Who? Moses, who? Who’s the one who does all of this? I am!”, He says. Exodus 4:12, God says: “Just go! I will do the rest! I will tell you what to say. Just Go! ^[2]

Exodus 4:13, Moses: “No, Please send somebody else…”

By Exodus 4:14 God is getting really upset by this disobedient adult child. Exodus records that, ‘Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses… “Get Aaron to help you; he can speak; I will help you both speak and teach you what to do.” God does it (cf. Genesis 26:3, 24; 31:3; Exodus 4:12, 15; Deuteronomy 31:23; Joshua 1:5; 3:7; Judges 6:16).

God still does everything that God says God is going to do. God delivers Israel;[3] He does it but He is angry with Moses. Actually, a few verses later, Exodus 4:24, it says that God is more than a little upset with Moses. God, it records, is even going to kill Moses but Moses’ wife – who isn’t even an Israelite – she knows how satisfy the LORD and she saves her husband life and/or possibly even her own son’s life.

Now Moses ultimately, we know, does wind up forfeiting his right to enter the Promised Land and he does die on the outside looking in. After a later display of his lack of faith in God, Moses earns this consequence and maybe even more than that. The Biblical story cares a lot about one’s descendants and we don’t know much about what happened to Moses’ sons at all (1 Chronicles 23:14). God may have even effectively ended Moses’ family line (Numbers 3:1, 27:21 but cf. 1 Chronicles 23:14; see also Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 11).[4] At any rate, God certainly removes them from any prominence in posterity. The priesthood descends through Aaron’s line – not through Moses’ or his sons. The next political leader is Joshua, not one of Moses’ sons. Moses dies on the outside of the Promised Land looking in and in our pericope today, Exodus 3:1-4:31, Moses angers God through his lack of faith and faithfulness and he really is blessed simply to escape with his life.

How about us? Jesus asks the same thing, in essence, of us that He asks here of Moses. Just like God, from the bush, asks Moses to point His people to the salvation that He has provided for them from slavery, if we flip in our Bibles to Matthew 28:18-20, you will notice that Jesus asks us to do the very same sort of thing. Jesus asks us to point everyone to eternal salvation. Jesus says, Matthew 28:19-20a: “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you….”

Just like with Moses, God wants to bless us as instruments of His salvation. Do we ever think of reasons why we can’t do that? Do we ever relentlessly question God –ignoring His repeated responses- like Moses does in Exodus Chapter 3? Do we ever doubt God in our ignorance like it appears that Moses is doubting God here in Exodus Chapter 3? Do we ever ignore God when He is telling us that He will do something through us? Do we ever argue instead that we can’t possibly live up to what God wants us to do? If so, then, like Moses, we have probably angered God. And if this is the case then we will be blessed to simply escape with our lives.

God has asked each and every one of us to point people to the salvation that is available for everyone through Christ Jesus, our Lord (Matthew 28:18-20; cf. TSA docs 6, 10,11). Do we do that or do we argue with God -refusing to lead others to salvation- as if it is us that need to die for their sins? Do we ever, like Moses, offer to God and ourselves a litany of excuses and reasons why we can’t obey Him in pointing everyone we meet to salvation? Do we ever, like Moses, come up with lame excuses as to why we can’t obey God’s great commission? Do we ever, like Moses, say that we are not good enough speakers to lead people to salvation? Do we ever, like Moses say, “What if they don’t believe us?” Do we ever, like Moses say, “Who am I that I should be the one to do it?” Do we ever like Moses say, “Please God, send someone else?” Do we ever decline the opportunity; do we ever decline the command and do we ever decline the commission to lead people to the salvation that is found in Jesus Christ?

I have told the story before of a friend of mine who was a car salesman. He felt the prompting of the Lord to lead a friend to Christ - as I believe each of us will who serve the Lord. He felt that the LORD was telling him to tell an employee or a co-worker about the Lord. He felt that he was supposed to point someone to salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord. He knew that the Lord was commissioning him to share the gospel. He didn’t do it. The very next day -I believe- he found out that his employee, his co-worker, his friend had died.

Today, all of us here worshipping the Lord together are like Moses standing before God at that burning bush. God has asked us to point others to His salvation. The question is, will we do it?

Moses did. God is a loving God and God is a patient God. God waited for Moses. God waited 400 or more years actually (Cf. Genesis 15:14).[5] God waited those many years to use Moses to point God’s people to salvation. God did not give up on Moses. Even though Moses tried God’s patience, pushing God seemingly to the limit, God persisted and God used even Moses – taking Moses from this position of a doubting coward who was seemingly afraid more of pointing people to salvation than of defying God (Matthew 10:28), to the point where Moses is remembered today as the great lawgiver whom God used to lead a whole nation out of slavery and into a life for service to the LORD (cf. also Deuteronomy 30:11-20, Judges 21:25, Ps 56:13, Proverbs 11:19, 13:14, 14:27, 18:21, Jeremiah 21:8, John 5:24, Hebrews 13:6, Romans 2:1-16, 6:13, 1 John 3:14).[6]

My friend, the car salesperson: He never forgot the lesson God taught him that day. He went on to be an evangelist, a pastor, and a preacher – probably the best preacher that I have ever heard actually. God did not give up on him (Romans 3:3,4; cf. Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5). Even though he may have tried God’s patience, pushing God seemingly to the limit, God persisted and he used even my friend – taking him from this position of a doubting coward who was seemingly afraid more of pointing people to salvation than of defying God (Matthew 10:28), to the point where he is remembered today by me as great preacher whom God has used to lead many people out of slavery to sin and into a life of service to the LORD. It was in my time knowing this man that the Lord drew even me towards Officership in The Salvation Army.

It can be the same with all of us here today. We are all standing before God, like Moses at the burning bush. God is asking us to point others out of slavery to sin and towards this glorious salvation in Christ Jesus. The question for us today is will we invent excuses as to why we can’t obey God’s great commission? Will we tell our Lord that we are not good enough speakers or that we don’t know enough to lead people to salvation? Will we doubt God and ask, “What if they don’t believe us?” Will we question God saying, “Who am I that I should be the one to do it?” Will we plead, “Please God send someone else?” Or will we – like Moses eventually does – follow God in leading our friends and our family to salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord?

In just a few minutes we are going to join the Baptists in a community barbeque. Their youth and our youth handed out flyers to the homes in the neighbourhood in preparation for this event. There may be some people that we are going to meet in the next hour or so that have never met Jesus; so I encourage us to ask anyone we don’t recognize if they attend the Community Baptist Church or some other church in town. If they don’t (or even if they do), pray silently, then ask them if they know the Lord - and who knows, if they don’t yet, maybe in our obedience to God, maybe even this afternoon, maybe God will use even us to lead someone to salvation.

Let us pray.

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] But cf. Kathy Beach-Verhey, "Exodus 3:1-12," Interpretation 59, no. 2 (April 1, 2005):180-182. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 20,2012). 181.

^[2] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S. 74: Moses, unlike his early days in Egypt, has learnt to distrust himself so thoroughly that he will incur God’s anger (Exod. 4:14). Self-distrust is good, but only if it leads to trust in God. Otherwise it ends as spiritual paralysis, inability and unwillingness to undertake any course of action. Moses, like Elijah (1 Kgs 19), is a picture of a man who has had a ‘nervous breakdown’, and is now unwilling to work for God at all.

[3] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, The Book of Exodus, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 712.

[4] Cf. Rabbi Menachem Posner, Ask the Rabbi @ The Judaism Website, “Do we know anything about Moses’ descendants? Did they enter the Land of Israel with everyone else?” On-line at http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/1530929/jewish/What-Happened-to-Moses-Descendants.htm (viewed 19 June 2012)

[5] Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/I. Divine Redemption (1:1-18:27)/B. Preparations for Deliverance (2:1-4:26)/5. Answering inadequate objections (3:11-4:17)/b. What if they ask what your name is? (3:13-22), Book Version: 4.0.2

[6] Cf. Fredrick Carlson Holmgren, "Exodus 2:11-3:15," Interpretation 56, no. 1 (January 1, 2002): 73-76. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 20, 2012), 76.
[7] Cf. Dr. Angus Patterson, "Turning the World Upside down," The Expository Times 122, no. 10 (July, 2011), 497-500. She uses the bush as an object lesson explaining how the divinity of Christ and the humanity of Christ are intertwined.

Malachi 2:10-12: Don’t Marry the Daughter of a Foreign God

Presented to Swift Current Corps, 19 June 2011

By Captain Michael Ramsay

This is one you may hear again sometime but I thought it was appropriate for Fathers’ Day: When we were in Winnipeg, on Friday nights I used to help out with the street outreach at the Weetamah Corps. We would walk around the streets at night to see who we could offer a warm meal, a hot chocolate or a place to stay down at the shelter (the Booth Centre) for the night. We then tell them about Jesus.

Now these nights usually go quite late -until 1 or 2 in the morning sometimes – and so at the end of a long week, I am just exhausted and really quite look forward to my one day of sleeping in – Saturday morning.

Well this one Saturday about 6am or so – four or less hours after I crawl into bed – Rebecca (who was then only 4) and Sarah-Grace (who was 3 at the time) come bounding into our bedroom.

“Daddy, what’s a trout?” Rebecca, as a four year-old, asks me as she and her sister climb on my bed. “What’s a trout?” (aside: You know what it is like when you try to respond to someone but you really don’t want to wake up – that is what it is like)
“What’s a trout?”
“A fish, why do you ask”
“A fish?”
“Yes a fish”
“Oh… Like Nemo…?”
“Short of, I think Nemo is a Clown fish”
“Oh”

“Daddy,” asks Sarah-Grace, who has been standing there the whole time, “what’s a trout?”
“A fish”
“Like Nemo”
“No”
“Daddy”
“Yes, Sarah-Grace”
“What’s a trout?”
“A chipmunk. A Chipmunk!” I snap back with all the composure of one who has not had enough sleep.

The girls run out of the room laughing, none the worse for wear. I put my pillow over my head and just try to get back to sleep wondering just what that was all about and why I was woken up for a question that no one seemed to want the answer to anyway.

At this point, in comes Susan. Slowly and today with the calm demeanour of the caring mother and wife. I know I have spoken a little harshly to my daughters, so I listen intently as she lifts the pillow from my head and gently asks me, “Michael, What’s a trout?”[1]

That story is dedicated to any parent of small children who ever suffered under the delusion that it was possible to sleep in sometime.

Here, in Swift Current, we are looking at the book of Malachi in Bible Study and in the services for the month of June so I had a challenge for today to try to find something at least loosely Father’s Day related. This is what I came up with, Malachi 2:10-12:

Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?

Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the LORD cut him off from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings offerings to the LORD Almighty.

This isn’t necessarily the most feel-good part of scripture and it is a part of the larger pericope that we read earlier about breaking faith with our brothers and sisters (Malachi 2:10-16). Verse 10 says that when God’s children break faith with each other that we are profaning the covenant of our fathers (cf. Malachi 1:2, 2:12, 3:6; cf. also Isaiah 51:2).[2]  How do we do this? Two ways:

1. By marrying the daughter of a foreign God (Marrying someone of a different faith)
2. By breaking faith with the wife of our youth because God hates divorce

What is the consequence of marrying daughter of a foreign God or getting divorced? Malachi says that as a result of these actions we are cut off from God even though we may bring offerings to the Lord (Malachi 2:12) and God no longer accepts or even acknowledges our offerings (Malachi 2:13). This is important.

Today we are not going to talk about the second listed action of breaking faith here, divorce, other than to draw our attention to Verse 16: which states, ‘I hate divorce’ says the LORD God of Israel” (cf. Isaiah 50:1; Cf. also 1 Corinthians 7). This is really quite self-explanatory and so I am going to leave that for today and move onto addressing the first listed way that we break faith with each other and in the process cut ourselves off from God so that He no longer accepts our offerings (Malachi 2:12-13). We break faith with each other and profane our fathers’ covenant by marrying the daughter of a foreign God.

What does this mean to marry the daughter of a foreign god since we know that there is only one God (TSA Doctrine 2)? There are not multiple Gods, so what does it mean to marry the daughter of a foreign god (cf. Numbers 25; Judges 3:6; 1 Kings 9:24, 11:1–13, 16:31; Ezra 9:12; Nehemiah 13:23–27)? Basically what this means – marrying the daughter of a foreign god – is just to marry someone who worships other gods and thus open the door to that temptation for yourself and for your children.[3]

Why was it such a temptation to worship false foreign gods? We know this temptation goes way back in Genesis. We know that the Chaldeans way back when Abram left Ur worshipped other gods.  We know that Israel/Jacob’s family worshipped other gods: his wife stole her father’s household idols. We know that Egyptian society when Moses left Egypt worshipped other gods. We know that the inhabitants of Canaan when Joshua entered Canaan worshipped other gods. We know that -as recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles- throughout most of Israel’s short history as a nation, we know that there was a fierce rivalry between the people who worshipped the foreign gods of Baal and Ashterah and the people who worshipped YHWH (cf. 1 Kings 17-19). If Israel had been subjected to the tyranny of the majority that we call democracy back then I imagine that the Baal Party would have won the popularity contest that we call a general election more times than they lost it in the Old Testament (cf. Genesis 3:2, Judges, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles). Even the second and the last king of the united kingdom of Israel, Solomon, in all his wisdom, was led astray by his wives who worshipped other gods (1 Kings 11). He, like his forefather Jacob, married the daughters of foreign gods. Even King Solomon, who apparently was unequalled in his wisdom, was led astray by marrying daughters of other gods. This happened quite a bit throughout Israel and Judah’s history and that frequency is one of the reasons why the Bible mentions over and over and over and over again that we should not marry daughters of other gods.

In ancient Palestine, even though there is only one real God and they know there is only one God, Israel could still be tempted to worship idols, false gods (Deuteronomy 6:4–9, 11:13-21; Numbers 15:37–41; cf. for ex. Deuteronomy 31:14-22, Judges 2:10-15). Even though they are commanded not to worship false gods many times in their history, they are still tempted to worship false gods. This is how much of a temptation it is for them to worship idols and false Gods: we remember the exodus story, right? We remember all the plagues that God visits on the Egyptians. We remember that God parts the Red Sea and drowns Israel’s pursuers. We remember that God feeds the Israelites manna, bread from heaven, on a daily basis. We remember that in all their travels as they are walking around the desert for 40 years, the Israelites shoes never wear out. We remember that God is right with them: they are led by God’s pillar of cloud by day and His pillar of fire by night. We know that the Israelites know the power of God and let me read you this story that takes place right after and right when all these miracles are happening: Moses is receiving the Ten Commandments, the first 4 of which tell us how we are supposed to worship God, worship God alone and not have any idols (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5). I am reading from Exodus 32:1-4 and 19-24 (NIV). This is while Moses is still on the mountain with the LORD, receiving the 10 Commandments:

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

       Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”  So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.  He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

[Verse 19]…When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

      He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”

      “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewellery, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

This is what happened when Moses was on the mountain speaking with God and getting the Ten Commandments. The people chose to forsake God when Moses was up the mountain and worship these false gods that were no gods at all. This happens all through the Bible.

How does this apply in 21^st Century Canada? In BC where I am from you can often see Buddhist idols in many restaurants and other businesses. Many Sikhs around the lower mainland proudly wear their turbans, bracelets, and ceremonial daggers as symbols of their faith. There is not a lot of this in Swift Current though.

What foreign gods can we be tempted to worship here? Across this country, one of the fastest growing religions is secular atheism. The ceremonies of that faith are quickly becoming the ceremonies of our country. Whereas at public events across this country people used to pray to the Christian God upon whose word our nation was founded (Psalm 72), at the national ceremonies following the Swissair crash in the Maritimes, all the clergy present were invited to invoke the name of their deity except the Christians, and a few years later at the Canadian 9/11 remembrance ceremonies only the secularist religion was represented.[4] In recent years the Lord’s Prayer and the Bible have been removed first from our schools and now even from the House of Commons. Did you know that very recently there used to be big prayer meetings on Parliament Hill? Canada now has its first Prime Minister who does not even bother to attend these – even when it would be politically beneficial for him.[5] Canada is worshipping the idols of secular atheism: we abstain from praying in our state functions; the Bible has been removed from classrooms and hospital rooms across this country. Many teachers and politicians alike who are teaching our children and making laws and are not so slowly turning this country into a secular-atheist state. How does this happen? How does a country that once belonged to God follow the secularist religion instead? We do this by Christians denying Christ. We do this by Christians not putting God first, and we do this by Christians marrying the daughters of foreign gods (Numbers 25; Judges 3:6; 1 Kings 9:24, 11:1–13, 16:31; Ezra 9:12; Nehemiah 13:23–27).[6]

People who worship these other gods, people who practice these other religions –Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Atheism- are daughters of foreign gods. When we are married we bring people from two different households with two different sets of traditions and rituals and make one new household. If a child of the one true God marries a daughter of a foreign god, what is going to happen to your children? If your husband or wife has bought into the secular fairytales, what are they going say when you tell your kids the truth? If dad worships God but mom worships herself; if mom submits to Christ but dad mocks her faith, what are the kids going to do? Mark 3 tells us that a divided house cannot stand and it can’t. If we marry the daughters of foreign Gods, our homes, our churches, and our country will fall (cf. Deuteronomy 31:14-29).  This is sad.

God loves our children and He doesn’t want them to go to hell so it is very important to Him that we do not marry daughters (or sons) of foreign gods. There is more to it too in our world today. I submit that there are other ways that we commit this same sin of marrying the children of foreign gods. If in our marriages, if in our families, if in our lives, we ourselves don’t read our Bibles with our kids; if we ourselves don’t pray with our kids; if we ourselves don’t worship the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul with our kids; then indeed for all practical purposes we have commit the same sin of Malachi 2:10-12 because we are failing to raise our children in the Lord and instead we are placing them in danger of the fires of hell.

Not too long ago, the Lord spoke to me loud and clear through one of the local radio stations. There is this old Irish folk song – generations old – called Whiskey in the Jar. I don’t know if anyone here knows that song or not. Susan knows all kinds of these old folk songs. She really likes some of those old fashioned numbers and so as a result I was familiar with it. Well, I got in the car one day, turned on one of the local radio stations and – I don’t know if anyone here is familiar with Metalica, they are a contemporary heavy metal band – I heard them doing a heavy metal rendition of this old Irish folk song. I was sort of in shock. I was struck by it as I began to think of all the remakes of songs that I have heard over the years. Many times the remakes were my first exposure to the song and it got me to thinking. When the words of an old song are put to a new tune they become accessible to a new generation. As we continue to sing these same songs in new ways, we remain faithful to their intent, passing it onto our children and to our children’s children.  This is like our personal testimonies and conversations about the Lord. When we put the gospel message of salvation into our own words, in our own tune and share it with our children then we are indeed passing that eternal truth of salvation down through the generations; so, today on this Fathers’ Day in the 21^st Century, we parents have a choice. We can either serve the foreign gods of secularism (or other faiths) that have invaded our country and thus remove our children from the blessing that comes from being raised in a Christ-centred home or we can –through praying and reading the bible with our children - spread the gospel in a new way to the tune of our own personal testimony and the tune of own personal experiences and in the process point our children, our city, our province and indeed our whole country to the song of everlasting life that will be sung forever with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

Let us pray.

 

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] Trout story by Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Mark 4:35-41: We Stand in Awe of You' Presented to Tisdale Corps on March 30, 2008 and Nipawin Corps on April 6, 2008. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/03/mark-435-41-we-stand-in-awe-of-you.html  

[2] Baldwin, Joyce G.: Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1972 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 28), S. 258: These fathers probably refer to the patriarchs specifically and then ultimately God only by extension.

[3] Robert L. Alden, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Malachi/Exposition of Malachi/IV. The Unfaithfulness of the People (2:10-16), Book Version: 4.0.2

[4] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay,  'The Ethics of Salvation: Should We Proclaim the Gospel?' Presented to William and Catherine Booth College 19 April 2007. Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_History_TSA.htm#Ethics

[5] Leslie MacKinnon, 'Inside Politics Blog: Religion on the Hill', May 18, 2011 8:23 AM. Available on-line: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2011/05/prayer-on-the-hill.html  

[6] Baldwin, Joyce G.: Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1972 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 28), S. 258: ‘Daughter of’ implied ‘bearing the character of’ a deity whose whole ethos was diametrically opposed to the righteousness of Israel’s God, and since a married couple must come to a common understanding in order to live happily together, one or other partner had to compromise on the matter of religion. It had been proved in Israel’s experience that in practice the less demanding standards prevailed (1 Kgs 11:1–8; 16:31; Neh. 13:23–27), and apostasy quickly became the fashion. Since apostasy had been responsible for the exile it was unthinkable that the whole community should be put at risk again.