Week 21: Romans 5:3-4: Rejoice

A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 19 February 2015

Read Romans 5:1-5

One morning when we were missionaries on Vancouver's downtown eastside, I was mugged. It was early in the morning and I was on Main and Hastings – that most infamous intersection in this most infamous neighbourhood - and I was on the phone with my wife who was out of town at the time.

Someone came running up behind me, grabbed my briefcase and tore down Main Street. In the briefcase was my laptop and all the information for the summer school program I was running for the kids in the area; so, like anyone mugged in the depths of skid row, I…well, I chased the mugger.

I followed him down Main Street through Chinatown across busy streets and around the myriad of mazes that are Vancouver’s back alleys. Scaring rats, jumping over sleeping street folk, I pursued my assailant. When I was within reach of him… I fell right in front of a bus and though I escaped with my life, the mugger escaped with my briefcase, my laptop, and the program files for the kids.

It was when I was walking back, completely distraught and despondent, that I experienced a miracle: I encountered an angel, a messenger of God, in the back alleys of Vancouver’s storied downtown eastside. I can still remember vividly; he looked like a ‘dumpster diver;’ he prayed with me and he offered me these words of encouragement from Romans 5:3,4 “...but let us also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Inside I sighed. I knew he was right. God gave me these words to encourage me. . God sent His messenger to prepare us for impending challenges ahead.

In the next months a number of tragedies and struggles would confront our family. We were to receive serious, vocal, practical and other opposition from the Enemy through even people very close to us. We had to consciously protect even our children from harm; the foe is relentless.

The Apostle Paul says here that we should rejoice in our suffering because - if indeed our suffering is for the gospel - it will produce perseverance and you know what perseverance is good for, right? It gives us the ability to get through more suffering and difficult times and you know why God gives us the ability to get through more suffering and difficult times? …Because we’ve got more suffering and difficult times to get through still. So as we rejoice in our perseverance through difficult times we can rejoice because we will be ready for the even more difficult times that lay ahead.

Romans 5: “...rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” And this hope will never disappoint us (v.5).

When have you had an opportunity to experience that hope that we experience as we rejoice in our suffering?

www.sheepspeak.com 

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[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Romans 5:3,4: Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside. Presented to Swift Current Salvation Army, 09 August 2009 and Nipawin and Tisdale on 20 April 2008. On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/04/romans-534-hope-and-angel-on-downtown.html

Ruth 1: Footprints in the Snow

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 27 October 2013
by Captain Michael Ramsay.

Moving can be an interesting time. New places can be very different from old places. I remember when we moved from Victoria to the prairies. We moved in the summer and we noticed how nice and warm Winnipeg was – much warmer than summers in Victoria. I also remember seeing all of these man-made lakes around the city. These really perplexed me. We would look at them: they would be beautiful but there were signs all over them that said ‘no swimming’, ‘no boating’, ‘don’t go in the water’, etc. I wondered why do they have all of these man-made lakes if you can’t swim in them or you can’t boat on them?  Do you know what the lakes are for? When Winter struck we found out what they are for: they were outdoor ice rinks. I come from a city where we only get snow once every four years or so and it usually only lasts for at the very most a week. Who of us from there had ever heard of, let alone experienced, an outdoor ice rink?

Also we brought our children into pre-school in Winnipeg in their boots and coats from the wet coast and were rewarded with a note home explaining to us that those are nice but they aren’t real coats and boots: these might be good for rain but in Winnipeg they need to be good for temperatures down to –40c. I remember then calling home and explaining to someone how cold it was in Winnipeg and the Vancouver or Vancouver Island native thought of the coldest temperature that they could think of and they actually asked me: how cold is it there… -5c? At –5c in Winnipeg, I explain, people are wearing shorts. This was a little bit different from Victoria.

Another thing that was different and that is really quite a blessing is the sunlight. On the prairies here you can experience weeks straight with great sunlight and without any real clouds. That is really a welcome change from the Pacific North Wet where you can seemingly have cloud cover for a month or more straight. Every part of our country has such unique beauty and when and wherever you move there are a number of things to get used to, no matter where you go.

In our story today we read about a lady who emigrates from Judah to Moab with her husband and her sons and then her husband and sons unexpectedly pass away and she returns to Judah with her daughter – a new immigrant to a new country. The book of Ruth relays some of their experiences upon coming to Judah. We know in this day and age that immigrating to Canada can come with it’s own challenges, especially for some people. Immigrating to Bethlehem in Judah at the time Ruth did bring some serious perils with it but that was not the full extent of Ruth and Naomi’s difficulties.

Women did not have all the rights and responsibilities in those societies then as they do in our country today. Widows found even less provision for them: they could be quite vulnerable; childless widows would be even more vulnerable; childless, immigrant widows would be very vulnerable. That is exactly what Ruth is as our story develops today.

We read about how Naomi and her husband left their home in Bethlehem in Judah when things were bad – there was a famine – and they went to the country of Moab, looking for a better life. Things may have been going well for a while. Naomi and her husband Elimelech raise their family; their sons, Mahlon and Chilion, grow up and get married. And then as providence would have it Naomi’s husband, her oldest son and her youngest son all die. Elimelech, Mahlon, Chilion all die. Now this would be bad enough in this time and place if your husband and all your children died. In that day and age, that was almost the only way that a woman would be provided for. Naomi couldn’t just go and get a job at 7-11 or at the bank. Also remember that there were no old age pensions in ancient Judah or ancient Moab – your only retirement plan was your sons. They were who provided for you in your old age. Now Naomi all of a sudden has nothing and not only does she have nothing but she has two daughters-in-law, who also have nothing and Naomi has some responsibility to provide for them.[1] It is in this situation that Naomi decides to pack it all up in Moab and head back to Bethlehem in Judah. It is in this situation that Naomi says, Ruth 1:13, “…No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has been against me” and Ruth 1:20-21, “She said to them, ‘Call me no longer Naomi [which means pleasant], call me Mara [which means bitter] for the Almighty [Shaddai] has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty; why call me [pleasant] Naomi when the LORD has dealt harshly with me, and the Almighty [Shaddai] has brought calamity upon me?”

Two questions that arise for us quite naturally today then are these:[2] 

1)      Are Naomi’s accusations toward God valid: did God forsake her? 

2)      Do we ever reproach God in a similar manner because we feel like God has forsaken us?

Are Naomi’s accusations valid? Naomi was married. There was a famine in her home country so she and her husband felt they had to flee to a foreign land. When they got there, there were no ‘good Judean women’ for her sons to marry so they – quite contrary to Israelite law – married foreigners (cf. Deuteronomy 7:3, 23:3). Then, all of a sudden, she has nothing: her husband and sons die and she is a foreigner with no job, no income, no support, no noted life savings, no children, no foreseeable future but she does have her deceased sons foreign wives to support. And as we noted when we were reading Genesis 38 about Judah and Tamar the other week, Naomi also may have some responsibility –if at all possible - to provide a son for a husband to each of her daughter-in-laws.[3] Naomi is totally despondent, saying: “the hand of the Lord is against me”; “the Lord has dealt bitterly with me”; “I went away full but the LORD brought me back empty”; “the LORD has dealt harshly with me”; “the Almighty has brought calamity upon me.”

Do we ever feel this way? Does our life ever seem to collapse around us? I have heard stories lately of friends either near or far who have lost homes, who have lost fathers, who have lost mothers, who have lost jobs, who have lost pets, who have lost their health, who have been completely overwhelmed with life that tears well up in their eyes. There are some of us here today who are right in the middle of this. There are people here today who are like Naomi and Ruth and who are like Job looking over the horizon to see yet more messengers coming with yet more unwanted news. There are some here today who when the phone rings, don’t want to answer it for fear of what news awaits them. Do you ever get to the point where you don’t want to see anyone for you know that they can’t possibly be bringing any good news? Do you ever get to the point where you are so vulnerable that even the slightest thing now will just seemingly melt away your last drop of strength and do you ever get to the point where you are tempted to ask God to just snuff out your light altogether? Do you ever get to the point where your heart cries out with Naomi’s: “the hand of the Lord is against me”; “the Lord has dealt bitterly with me”; “I went away full but the LORD brought me back empty”; “the LORD has dealt harshly with me”; “the Almighty has brought calamity upon me”? Do you ever find yourself there?

There have honestly been days when I am so overwhelmed by the demands on me from ministry, from family, from everyone else’s problems and from my own, that when I receive an email from headquarters demanding some seemingly frivolous report to be written, requiring some seemingly meaningless hoop to be jumped through, or some requesting seemingly onerous task be done in some seemingly unreasonable time, that I can be tempted to even question whether in deed the Lord really did call me to ministry in The Salvation Army? If He really called me then why would it seem at times that “the hand of the Lord is against me”; “the Lord has dealt bitterly with me”; “I went away full but the LORD brought me back empty”; “the LORD has dealt harshly with me”; “the Almighty has brought calamity upon me” and what can I do about it?

What could Naomi and Ruth do about it?[4] While Naomi reproached God and returned home, Ruth is a different story.[5] Ruth – far from turning on God – turns towards God. Ruth sticks by Naomi, her deceased husband’s mother. Naomi - even in her bitter unpleasant state - is used by God, as an evangelist, to bring Ruth to salvation. And Ruth is not only brought to salvation, Ruth is brought by God, through Naomi to Rahab’s –whom we met last week – son.[6] And Ruth was chosen by God to be the great grandmother of Kind David. And Ruth was chosen by God to be an ancestor of Jesus who is the Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour of the whole world. God when Ruth was at her lowest point, God pointed her to this great salvation for Ruth, for Naomi and for ultimately the whole world.[7]

Look how Ruth responds to the same calamity that befalls Naomi. Look how Ruth responds. Instead of heading home complaining bitterly to God about how He is treating her, she follows God and her mother-in-law, Naomi into the unknown future with a strong declaration of faith. Naomi tries to discourage Ruth from following her into this future but Ruth replies, Verse 17 “Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” And Verse 16, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth follows God into the Promised Land. Ruth experiences salvation.

So here is the thing. Naomi turned from pleasant to bitter and God still saved her.[8] Romans 3:3,4a, “What if some were [even] unfaithful will their unfaithfulness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means!” Hebrews 13:5, God says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”; Romans 10:13, “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved;” also Acts 2:21. And Ruth -even more- Ruth experiences the joy of that salvation in the midst of her calamity for Ruth moreover chooses not to suffer that bitterness for Ruth chooses to turn God when life seemed to turn on her. With Ruth and with Naomi and with us and with our Lord, it is like that poem, ‘Footprints’, that was read recently at the funeral service for Agnes Gerlack; the variously attributed poem reads:

One night I dreamed a dream.

As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.

Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.

For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,

One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

After the last scene of my life flashed before me,

I looked back at the footprints in the sand.

I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,

especially at the very lowest and saddest times,

there was only one set of footprints.

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.

"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,

You'd walk with me all the way.

But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,

there was only one set of footprints.

I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you

Never, ever, during your trials and testing.

When you saw only one set of footprints,

It was then that I carried you."

And that is the same with us today, no matter what is weighing us down, no matter what struggles we have, no matter if everything seems to be falling apart around us, no matter what trials and tribulations come our way, no matter what, the Lord is there with me and Lord is there with you and exactly when things seem to be the darkest then as we look we will notice that there is the light of God to show us the way; just when things seem the most difficult, there will always be our Lord carrying us through.

We don’t need to be bitter like Naomi. We don’t need to submit ourselves to the pain of bitterness in the midst of life’s very real struggles. We don’t need to worry (cf. Matthew 6:19-34). Jesus loves us. God loves us and God promises us that He will never leave us nor forsake us and just when things seem to be their most challenging, just when we can’t possibly move forward one more step at all, just then there is God right in the middle of our trials with us, carrying us on His shoulders towards His Salvation both for now and forever.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Cf. Thomas W. Mann, “Ruth 4: Between Text and Sermon,” Interpretation 64 (2010).

[2] Cf. Martha L. Moore-Keish, “Ruth 2,” Interpretation 64 (2010).She phrases the relevant questions as ‘where is God?’ and ‘where are we?’

[3] Captain Michael Ramsay, “Thanksgiving at Judah’s House,” Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 13 October 2013):  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/10/thanksgiving-at-judahs-house.html

[4] Cf. Athalya Brenner, “From Ruth to the ‘Global Woman’: Social and Legal Aspects,” Interpretation 64, no. 2 (April 2010): 163 for a good discussion of possible motivations God may have provided.

[5] Cf. Kathleen A. Robertson Farmer, Ruth in Niw Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 2, ed. Leander E. Keck, et. al (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1998), 907 What is lost in the English translations is Ruth's tone of indignation. She is incensed that she would be asked to leave, or forsake, her mother-in-law.

[6] Captain Michael Ramsay, “Rahab the Redeemed (Joshua 2&6, Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25),” Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 20 October 2013):  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2011/09/rahab-redeemed-joshua-2-hebrews-1131.html

[7] Cf. Jessica Tate, “Ruth 1:6-22: Between Text and Sermon,” Interpretation 64 (2010)

[8] Cf. Peter Lau, “Ruth 1:1-18,” The Expository Times 121, no. 1 (2009): 27-28.

Judges 6:1-16: Salvation, Theodicy, Gideon, and Dinosaurs

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 08 Jan. 12

By Captain Michael Ramsay

There was a show on Television late last century called Dinosaurs; it was about an anthropomorphic family of dinosaurs. There was a mom, a dad, a brother, a sister and a baby. Here is a clip about a running exchange between the dad and the baby. The dad loves the baby and will do anything to just try to get the baby to call him ‘Daddy’ but instead the baby just keeps referring to him as ‘Not the Mama’.

[1]

This, I think in some sense, is God’s relationship to Israel in the book of Judges. God just wants Israel to love Him and show that they love Him. He wants them to call him Father but they just refuse to and instead they just do whatever they see as fit in their own eyes. This is the tragedy of the book of Judges. It really is a love story that has all of the sorrow of Romeo and Juliet or some other Shakespearian tragedy.

 

God in the opening scene of Judges offers Israel the place of rest that she had been promised. It is before her. God uses Joshua, a conquering hero, to bring His people into this promised land and this is good as, Judges 1:7, “ the people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel” (cf. Joshua 1:14, 10:7; compare Judges 1:10–15, 20 and Joshua 15:13–19; Judges 1:21 and Joshus 15:63; Judges 1:27, 28 and Joshua 17:11–13; Judges 1:29 and Joshua 16:10).[2] But, Verse 10, “after that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what He had done for Israel.” And, Verse 11, “Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.” This is the sad, sad story of the story of Judges that is repeated again and again and again (Judges 2:11, 3:7, 3:12. 4:1, 6:11, 10:6, 13:1, 20:13). God loves His people and, like the Daddy Dinosaur, He just wants them to call on Him, their Father, but again and again and again the people refuse to this and instead they serve other gods or -possibly even worse- just like today; Judges 21:25, instead of serving God, everyone just does as he sees fit; the Authorized Version reads, “…every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” God loves them but instead –like Baby Dinosaur- they just serve themselves.

Our story today opens up with, “Again Israel did evil in the eyes of the LORD and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites” (Judges 6:1; cf. Genesis 25:2; Numbers 22:7, 25:6, 31:8). Israel did evil in the eyes of the LORD and they suffered the natural consequences of this.[3] They decline God’s offered love and protection so they do not have it; they reject the Lord and so they do not have Him. I don’t know how many of you know Stephen; he has been our janitor here since Alvin moved. Stephen is from England and he worked in a street mission in one of the larger cities over there. Sometimes when we chat, we compare the Lord’s blessings through Stephen’s serving the Lord in urban missions in Birmingham, England with Susan and my experiences on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and Winnipeg’s North End. We were talking the other day. Stephen was mentioning the really high unemployment in England, the crime in the large urban centres, the people that he had known who were pedophiles, addicted to drugs, involved in violence. He relayed to us one story where he needed to rely on the Lord’s strength in order to evict a man from the shelter who was, in turns out, carrying a loaded gun. I then relayed similar stories from our experiences living and working alongside prostituted peoples, people enslaved by addiction, and other horrors that do occur in a society where people are beginning to walk away from the Lord and so there is poverty in the midst of abundance.

The Lord has provided more than enough for everyone in our country – for everyone in our world really. The problem is now that we in this country are quickly moving away from the Lord; we are failing to share these resources with our neighbours, with society. Now – societally speaking– at the same time as we in the English-speaking world are refusing to share our material resources, we seem have no problem in eagerly sharing a secular sense of entitlement with everyone we meet. We deserve everything in our own eyes but we are unwilling to be reconciled with God and with our neighbour. We want everything for ourselves. We just want to do what is right in our own eyes (Judges 25:21); more and more in this country we choose to do evil in the eyes of the Lord (Judges 6:1). We continue to focus on ourselves, instead of on God and our society (our neighbour), and then we are somehow surprised and even complain that– even though it is us that has left God and our neighbour - when we need God and when we need our society, we complain that they are not there. You cannot keep your cake on a shelf forever and eat it all at the same time. You cannot turn down a job and still expect to collect the paycheque.

In our country as we have more and more resources and finances we seem to be more and more readily committing the sin of Judges and we seem to be more and more moving away from the Lord as we more and more are doing what is right in our own eyes instead of loving God and loving our neighbours. We leave God and we leave our neighbour behind and then are offended and surprised when God and society, whom we left behind, are not right there with us when we need them. We leave God behind and then our surprised when more and more of us are struggling with sin, poverty, addiction, rejection, and isolation. We leave God behind and then we are surprised when more and more people in this country are more and more oppressed as they feel the effects our actions.

There is even more than this though – lest you think that somehow in our discussion so far that I am promoting the prosperity heresy, which states that if you love God, you will be healthy, wealthy and wise but if you don’t you won’t be. This is certainly not true. (The opposite may even be true to some extent.) Judges 6:1:“Again Israel did evil in the eyes of the LORD and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” God loves His people. God, like the daddy dinosaur in our opening clip, God wants his people to love Him. He really wants his children to show and experience the same love for Him that He has for them. God knows that His people will be so much better off -even if they have nothing else- so long as they have Him. God never promises that if we turn to Him there will be no hardship; God however does promise that with God we can rejoice even in our suffering because God will see us through it (2 Corinthians 12:9) God really wants us to experience all the joys of loving Him which are so abundant, so plentiful, so good that even in the midst of our very real suffering in this life we can boast and we can be joyful (cf. Genesis 39; Romans 5:3-4; Philippians 2:17, 3:1, 4:4; 2 Timothy 1:8-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13).

 

God also knows that many of our problems tend to happen when things are apparently going quite well. When societies are wealthy, we tend to do what is right in our own eyes and what is evil in the eyes of the Lord (Judges 6:1, 25:21; Proverbs 3:5). God, in His love for the Israelites, finally gives them into the hands of the Midianites. This is the action is a Father who is willing to do whatever is necessary for the salvation of His children. The picture here is of a people who have rejected God and are so trapped in their sin like someone with a limb caught in an active piece of farm machinery. In pulling them out they may lose a toe, finger, a foot, or even worse but if you don’t pull them out they will die. This is the pain that God is suffering through. God is the Father extricating His child from the machinery. The Israelites are so steeped in their sin that the way to pull them out now is through the seven years in the hands of the Midianties and even though it hurts God so much to see His children suffer in this way, He knows that this is the way He can save them from their sin, from themselves, and from even eternal separation from the paradise of His love so -even though it pains them and even though it pains Him- the LORD is willing to do even this to save His children (cf. TSA docs. 6,10,11).

I think that we in Canada in the 21^st Century are just like the Israelites of the twelfth and eleventh centuries BCE when it comes to turning our back on God and beginning to feel the consequences of that.[4]  I mentioned last week how I recently read comments on news sites where people feel free to blame God for every difficulty that they encounter. At the same time, however, they are completely unwilling to turn to Him for the support that He offers us when we suffer the consequences of our own actions.

In and through and maybe even because of our affluence, things are starting to get bad here. The income disparity is higher than even before, drug addiction is more prevalent than ever before, sexual perversion is more known and accepted than every before. There are many things to which Canada and Canadians are becoming enslaved as we leave the safety and security of our Lord. God doesn’t want us to walk in this direction but we are and as we are, people in our society are suffering.

Here is the real tragedy: God wants us to be saved from all of this (TSA docs. 6,10). God does not want us to be trapped in our sin or enslaved by the Midianites and God will do whatever is necessary to extradite us from the machinery of our sin that has got a hold of us and is pulling us to our death. God will do what is ever necessary and we know that He has already provided for our salvation at a great cost to himself. Looking back from our text today to the story of Abraham where God promises salvation to the whole world -Genesis 12:3- and even promises that He will die if necessary to save us from our sins –Genesis 15:7-21.[5] Looking forward in our text to where God does indeed send His Son who is Himself, God Incarnate; we see that this is true. God is faithful even when we are faithless (cf. Romans 3:3,4; see Deuteronomy 31:6,Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5). God has provided for the salvation of Gideon; God has provided for the salvation of the Israelites; God has provided for the salvation of the Canadians, and God has provided for the salvation of the whole world (cf. TSA doc. 6). John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” This plays out in a number of different ways.

1)      As far as Gideon and Israel are concerned in our story today, the Lord answers Israel’s cries and Gideon’s doubts with, Judges 6:16, “…I will be with you, and you will strike down the Midianties together.”

2)      As far as Canada is concerned, if indeed we cry out to the Lord, He has already provided for our salvation from those things with which the devil is presently enslaving our society. He will answer our cries and doubts with, “I will be with you, and we will strike down the oppressor together.”

3)      As far as each one of us in this room today is concerned, God – like the daddy dinosaur from our introduction –loves us and just wants us to love Him. Whatever challenges there are in our lives, whatever difficulties there are in our lives, He does not want us to perish under their weight. God does not promise us that there will be no suffering in this life. What God does promise us however is the opportunity, as the Apostle Paul repeatedly tells us in his letters, to learn how to suffer and even to experience joy in the midst of our suffering (Romans 5:3-4; Philippians 2:17, 3:1, 4:4; 2 Timothy 1:8-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13). And the story of Joseph in Genesis tells us how to prosper in our imprisonment, in our slavery, in our troubles, and in our life (Genesis 39). God can save us for now and forever.

So today then, I know that some of us are feeling the weight of being crushed by our world around us; some of us are feeling deep oppression. Some of us are struggling with sin. Some of us may be suffering under the oppression of circumstance, the oppression of unemployment, the oppression of crisis or the slavery of stress, the slavery of disabilities, the slavery to struggle. Some of us may be suffering from real emotional, intellectual, or physical pain. Some of us may be suffering alone, as instead of casting our burdens upon the Lord, we like the sin of the judges, continue to do what is right in our own eyes (Psalm 55:22, 1 Peter 5:7). We don’t need to suffer alone; with the Lord we can rejoice in every circumstance: Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again, fulfilling the promise to Abraham and fulfilling the promise to the whole world that indeed the whole world can be saved (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:7-21; John 3:16). We can prosper in our troubles. We can delivered in our suffering to the point that we can even rejoice in whatever circumstances we face in this life (Philippians 2:17, 3:1, 4:4; 2 Timothy 1:8-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13). Jesus is there for us; he is offering this salvation to the whole world so that whosoever may will be saved (John 3:16; TSA doc.6). So I encourage all of us today, if there are any here who have not fully grasped hold of His salvation and if there are any of us here today who are not experiencing the joy of the Lord even in the midst of our very real suffering, please come up to the altar, to the mercy seat here and we will gladly pray with you as you accept this salvation which the Lord offers freely to each and everyone of us here.

Let us pray.

 

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1]‘Not the Momma’ Dinosaurs clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNR4hKbSH7I

[2] Arthur E. Cundall in Morris, Leon: Judges and Ruth: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1968 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 7), S. 21: There are close parallels between the two accounts [Joshua & Judges…The minor points of difference will be dealt with in the commentary on the text. But what appears to be a major difference is that in Judges attention is given to the individual participating tribes, particularly Judah, whereas in Joshua the Conquest is viewed as the work of the united tribes under one leader.

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

[4] Dennis T. Olsen, The Book of Judges (NIB II; Nashville: Abingdon, 1998), 724

[5] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'When God is Bound… a look at Genesis 15:7-21’ in Journal of Aggressive Christianity, (Issue 52: December 2007 – January 2008), pp. 5-10

2 Timothy 1:12: Learn To Suffer

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 23 Oct. 2011

By Captain Michael Ramsay

2 Timothy 1:12: That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

Today’s message (sermon/homily/preach) on 2 Timothy 1:12 is entitled ‘Learn to Suffer’. ‘Learn to Suffer’ is motto of a Scottish Clan. Anyone know which clan? Clan Duncan: John Duncan, I did a little bit of research into your clan in preparing for today.

The Clan motto is ‘Learn to Suffer.’ Did you know that 2 of the early kings of Scotland were Duncans: One was Duncan I and do you know who was the other? Duncan II. Duncan I obtained the throne through murder and Duncan II lost it the same way. The Duncans would learn to suffer. The Duncans historically weren’t so good at choosing the winning side in important battles. They supported the victorious Robert the Bruce in his wars and received benefits from that. But later they supported Charles I, who was defeated, murdered and his country conquered by Cromwell’s Puritans. In supporting the losing side in this war, the Duncans would learn to suffer. They later supported Bonnie Prince Charlie in the Jacobite revolt and then they really learned to suffer, suffering all the consequences that come from launching an unsuccessful revolution. Most of the Duncan lands were even taken from their family. They indeed learned to suffer. And as Romans 5:3,4 says, I am sure it helped build their character.

Today we are looking at 2 Timothy 1:12: “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”

We are going to pull out a few things from this verse:

q       Paul, as he writes this letter is suffering in jail for the Gospel of Christ, wants us to learn to suffer properly;

q       He is not ashamed of the gospel or his suffering because he knows Christ; nor should we be ashamed as we know Christ;

q       Christ is able to take care of, to guard everything Paul and we entrust to him.

1) Christ is able to take care of, to guard everything Paul and we entrust to him.

Paul has given up his whole life to follow Jesus. Much of his life as a Christian, Paul actually spends in jail for the gospel of Christ. He learns to suffer. We said last week that Paul would die in prison but even still and especially because of this then he trusts God and Christ with everything because Christ is able to guard whatever we give over to him to guard. When I think of that sentiment of Christ as a guard, I am reminded of a parable Jesus told. Last Halloween, I preached on the parable of the Haunted House.[1] Luke 11:24-26: “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” The house is haunted by more demons than it was in the first place (Cf. TSA doc. 9).

But, Luke 11, Verses 21-22, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armour in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils (Luke 11:21-22; cf. Matthew 12:29, Mark 3:27)”

Jesus is the strongest strongman. He is absolutely able to guard what we have entrusted to him. Jesus is stronger than anyone else and he is the only one who can guard what we have entrusted to him – even our very lives for now and forever.[2] Everyone and everything else can be over-powered by evil, others, and/or ourselves but Christ is able to guard whatever we have entrusted to him for that day.

2) Paul is not ashamed of the gospel or his suffering because he knows Christ; we should not be ashamed for we know Christ.

In Romans 1:16, Paul uses this same phrase declaring that he is ‘not ashamed of the gospel’.[3] It is likely that there is a connection with what Paul is saying here to Jesus’ claims that if one is ashamed of Jesus, then the “Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory (Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; cf. also Psalms 31:1-3; 71:1-2; 143:1).” Paul, in 2 Timothy 1:8, says that we should not be ashamed to suffer for the gospel. We must learn to suffer for the gospel. The word ‘gospel’ is a rendering of the Greek word euangelion, which means ‘good news’ or ‘good message’ (cf. Isaiah 40:9, 52:7). “The gospel is not merely the initial proclamation of Christ which wins converts, but is the whole Christian message”[4] (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:6, 23). And For Paul, “the gospel was the sovereign message, from none other than God, concerning Jesus the Messiah, God’s unique Son…[It is] news that Jesus had become the spearhead of God’s ‘age to come;’ news that, within this new age, the principalities and powers…and sin and death themselves had been defeated and were now summoned to allegiance.”[5] This is exciting. This is something that we should not be ashamed of; rather we should yell this from the rooftops. Even as we must suffer for the gospel, we must not be ashamed of the gospel. Point 2, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel or his suffering for it because he knows Christ; we should not be ashamed of the gospel for we know Christ. This brings us to our main point for today, point 3.

3) Paul as he writes this letter is suffering in jail for the Gospel of Christ and as our suffering will come, he wants us to learn to suffer properly.

2 Timothy 1:8: “So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.” Clan Duncan says ‘learn to suffer’.

The Apostle Paul says ‘join me in suffering’.

Paul is not only warning Timothy and the Ephesians here about the imprisonment, persecution, and suffering that he is experiencing but he is also encouraging Timothy to suffer and ultimately he is encouraging us all to join him in suffering for the gospel.[6]

Not only are we to endure our suffering but also Paul says elsewhere that we are to rejoice and even boast in our suffering (Romans 5:3,4 cf. Philippians 2:17; 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13). 1 Thessalonians 5:18 states that we are even to give thanks in all circumstances (cf. Philippians 4:11) and Paul in Philippians 4:4 says, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.’

So this is important: we aren’t supposed to lick our wounds when we suffer for doing the Lord’s work but we are to rejoice.

Paul, in Romans 5:3,4 says that we should rejoice in our suffering because - if indeed our suffering is for the gospel of which Paul is not ashamed (2 Timothy 1:8, Romans 1:16) then our suffering will produce perseverance and you know what perseverance is good for right? It gives us the ability to get through more suffering and difficult times and you know why God gives us that ability to get through more suffering and difficult times, because we’ve got more difficult times to get through still. So as we rejoice in our perseverance through suffering; we can rejoice because in this we will be ready for the even more difficult times that are still to come.[7] We must rejoice in the Lord as we learn to suffer for Him.

I have shared some of our story here before about the suffering we saw and experienced for the gospel when we were serving in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and other places and times that I will not go into again today. Even here, in Swift Current suffering may not be so obvious but when you serve the Lord, suffering is waiting for you; so, like the Duncans’ motto says ‘learn to suffer’ and like the Apostle Paul says, 2 Timothy 1:11,12a “… of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am...” So, 2 Timothy 1:8, “join with me in suffering[8] for the gospel, by the power of God.”

I have a lesson from history for us to remember today about suffering for the gospel:[9]

In the 1800s, the Hawaiian Islands suffered a severe leprosy epidemic, which was dealt with largely by isolating lepers on the island of Molokai. They were simply dumped there and left to fend for themselves. The crews of the boats carrying them there were afraid to land, so they simply came in close and forced the lepers to jump overboard and scramble through the surf as best they could. Ashore, they found no law and no organized society, simply desperate persons waiting for death. A Belgian missionary priest, Joseph Van Veuster (Damien of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart), …came to Hawaii in 1863, and in 1873 was sent at his own request to Molokai to work among the lepers.

We all know what leprosy is, right? It is a terrible disease, whereby you lose feeling in parts of your body, penultimately you can even lose body parts and ultimately you die. Apologist and Philosopher, Ravi Zacharias, tells us this story about the Missionary Priest, Damien: [10]

One morning before he was to lead their daily worship [for the lepers], he poured some boiling water into a cup when it swirled out and fell on his bare foot. It took him a moment to realize that he had not felt any sensation. Gripped by the sudden fear of what this could mean, he poured more water on the same spot. No feeling whatsoever. Damien immediately knew what had happened. He walked tearfully to deliver his sermon, and no one at first noticed the difference in his opening line. You see, he normally greeted them, “My fellow believers.” But this morning he began with, “My fellow lepers.”

Darren Provine tells us what God did through Damien:[11]

[Damien] He was fully aware, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, that it would be His Father’s will to crush Him. Still, he came. He organized burial details and funeral services, so that death might have some dignity. He taught the people how to grow crops and feed themselves better. He organized a choir, and got persons to sing who had not sung in years. He gave them medical attention. (Government doctors had been making regular visits, but they were afraid of contagion, and would not come close to the patients. They inspected their sores from a distance and then left medicines on a table and fled. Damien personally washed and anointed and bandaged their sores.) There was already a small chapel on the island. It proved too small [with what the Lord was doing through Damien], and with the aid of patients he built a larger one, which soon overflowed every Sunday. Damien …continued to work there until his death on 15 April 1889.

Ravi concludes his thoughts about Damien, thusly; he says:

Think of the cost! It is one thing to minister and pour your life into others when distance remains between the minister and the receiver. It is quite another when sacrifice closes that distance in painful relief. In the greatest condescension imaginable, Jesus came into this world knowing what obedience to the Father would cost Him.

Jesus, Himself, was the suffering Saviour. He died via state execution, on the cross, for us. Jesus suffered and died for us. Peter, Paul, and the other apostles, tradition has it all suffered and, save John -who actually lived through an attempt to boil him alive- tradition has it that they all accepted their martyr’s crown. Paul -in this letter to Timothy and to the church there in Ephesus- encourages us all to this same resolve. Paul was not sad in his suffering for this gospel, this good news, this good message that Jesus defeated death and sin between the cross and the empty tomb so that we can all live holy lives wholly dedicated to him is glorious news indeed (TSA doc. 10). ^[12]  Even if we fall asleep before Christ returns we don’t have to worry as long as we faithfully serve the Lord, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him need not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Whatever we have to suffer on this earth and many, like the Apostle Paul in Rome and like the Missionary Priest Damien in Hawaii, like many, have suffered much; whatever suffering we must bear pales in comparison to the joy that will be experienced by us, the joy experienced by those whose lives we touch when they experience God’s salvation and the joy felt by God Himself, as He rejoices over every sinner saved. In our suffering, let us rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. For that is why I am suffering as I am. And I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

Let us pray. 

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[1] Captain Michael Ramsay,  Luke 11:14-28 (Matthew 12:25-29, Mark 3:23-30): The Parable of the Haunted House. Presented to the Swift Current Corps 31 October 2010. Available on-line:  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/10/luke-1114-28-matthew-1225-29-parable-of.html

[2] Cf. James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 837.

[3] W.E Vines, “I am not ashamed”, in Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word Vol. IV. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), p. 292.

[4] James D.G. Dunn, Romans 1-8 (WBC 38A: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 1988), p. 47; cf. Donald Guthrie,: Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 145

[5] N.T. Wright, The Letter to the Romans (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), p. 427.

[6] Captain Michael Ramsay, Romans 5:3,4: Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside. Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on April 20, 2008 and Swift Current Corps on August 09, 2009. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/04/romans-534-hope-and-angel-on-downtown.html

[7] Cf. RCH Lenski, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, p. 338.

[8] Ralph Earle, The Expositor's Bible Commentary,  Pradis CD-ROM:2 Timothy/Exposition of 2 Timothy/III. Suffering for the Gospel (1:8-18)/A. Plea to Timothy (1:8), Book Version: 4.0.2: "Join with me in suffering"—all one word, synkakopatheson (only here and in 2:3). It is compounded of patheo, "suffer"; kakos, "bad"; and syn, "together." So it means "bear evil treatment along with," "take one's share of ill-treatment" (A-S).

[9] Darren Provine, Damien, Priest, Missionary, and Martyr 15 April 1889, (Rowan University: Cited 20 October 2011) Available on-line: http://elvis10.rowan.edu/~kilroy/jek/04/15.html

[10] Ravi Zacharias, The Price of Sacrifice, Monday, August 14, 2000: http://www.rzim.org/resources/read/asliceofinfinity/todaysslice.aspx?aid=9131

[11] Darren Provine, Damien, Priest, Missionary, and Martyr 15 April 1889, (Rowan University: Cited 20 October 2011) Available on-line: http://elvis10.rowan.edu/~kilroy/jek/04/15.html

^[12] cf. Donald Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 146: God has called us to a holy life because he himself is holy. His activities partake of his own character. The same idea is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 where the call to holiness is set over against uncleanness.

Genesis 41: Seven Years of Abundance

Presented to Swift Current Corps, 24 July 2011

By Captain Michael Ramsay

 

One of my daughters collects stuffed and ornamental cows; when she was involved in 4-H, it was the cow programme she was interested in. We have pictures of her with my mom’s cousin’s cows around Tisdale, Sk. So being as we read about Pharaoh’s dream with the fat cows and the skinny cows, I asked her to share some cow jokes with me. She found me one or two. I found a couple more. Here we go:

 

 What do you call a sleeping bull?

(A bull-dozer.)

 What could you call a newborn calf?

(A new moo!)

Do cows give milk?

(No, you have to take it from them.)

How would you get a cow in your car?

(You promise to let her steer.)

What is a milking barn full of happy cows called?

 (A merry dairy.)

Where do cows go when they want a night out?

(To the moo-vies!)

What did the bored cow say when she got up in the morning?

("It's just an udder day")

What's a cow's favourite musical note?

(Beef-flat)

How did the farmer find his lost cow?

(He tractor down.)

What sound do you hear when you drop a cow?

(Cowboom!)

Why did the bow-legged cowboy get fired?

(Because he couldn't keep his calves together.)

Why are round hay bales not as good for cows?

(Because they need a square meal.)

Did you hear about the cow that couldn't give milk?

(She was an udder failure.)

Why did the cow have a bell around its neck?

(Because its horn didn’t work.)

Knock, knock (Who’s there?)

Cowsgo (Cowsgo who?)

No, silly, cows go ‘moo’

 

In our story today we are actually addressing a very serious situation. There is about to be a famine throughout the country of Egypt.[1] The government of the day is well aware of it and our text today (Genesis 41) tells us what they are going to do about it.

 

We read a few moments ago that God lets Pharaoh’s government know that a famine is coming and God also makes provision for the people so that they can survive the famine. Joseph and Pharaoh obey God and people are saved.[2] We remember the flood story with Noah (Genesis 6-9; cf. also Matthew 6:25; Luke 1:53, 6:21). This is somewhat reminiscent of that: a flood was coming and God let people know about it so that presumably none needed to perish but alas some chose to do so. We know too that in the NT – still to come in the Biblical record, but firmly established in our own historical record now – that God sent His only begotten Son to earth so that no one needs to perish but sadly some people still do make that choice (John 3:16-21). But back to our story at hand – God warns the Pharaoh government of the impending calamity and the hereditary monarch, Egypt’s Head of State, Pharaoh, himself, heeds the warning from YHWH and appoints Joseph to make provision in the years of abundance in preparation for the impending years of famine; he does this by raising taxes by 20% (Genesis 41:33).
 

Now it doesn’t say how the people reacted to a 20% increase in taxes but if it was in this day, place, and age; I can’t imagine that a 20% tax hike would be a popular measure but Pharaoh obeys God on Joseph’s advice and does it anyway and all in all it appears actually to go really well as far as we know. Egypt has seven years of economic prosperity. Genesis 41:37 records that “during the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully.” Everything is seemingly good. Everyone is presumably happy. The land is producing and God, through Joseph and increased taxation, is storing up for future famine (Genesis 41:30). These are the seven years of abundance.[3]
 

These years of abundance remind me of pictures I have seen of the roaring 20s. Actually it is not too different from that at all because we know what came after the years of abundance in the ‘roaring twenties’ – they were followed by the ‘dirty thirties’, the ‘Great Depression’ and the Second World War. Famine followed abundance.
 

But now in our text, it is the good times. It is the years of abundance and, Genesis 41:37, “during the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully.” Everything is good. Everyone is presumably happy. Genesis 41:30, “but seven years of famine will follow them, then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten and famine will ravage the land.”
 

In the so-called ‘Western World’, in the English-Speaking Empire, in North America, and in Canada today, it seems that we are experiencing our years of abundance right now:

q       A new car, I noticed driving by the lot the other day costs upwards of $20 000.00 and there are no shortages of nice cars in this community. According to Statistics Canada, in total, the value of car and truck sales in Canada hit a record high of nearly $54.6 billion. The average sale price of a new motor vehicle in this country rose to about $32,700.^[4] These are the years of abundance.

q       Houses here cost hundreds of thousands of dollars -these are the years of abundance - but guess how much the average house sells for in Vancouver, BC, where Susan the 2/3rds of the kids and I spent some time?

o       Average price for a new home in Vancouver costs between $900 000 and 1 million dollars. These are the years of abundance.^[5]

q       Apparently a few years ago when we had our last majority government with Chrétien, Canada had so much economic success that it was even beyond belief. These are the years of abundance.

q       Teachers have been taking job action here recently for a further raise. They are evidently now, with just a bachelors degree - not a Masters or Doctorate or anything – and some seniority able to earn about $100 000 a year for teaching school. These are the years of abundance.

q       There are apparently more TVs than people in Canada. No one needs a TV but there are even TVs in prisons in this country. Some flat screen TVs in this country can cost upwards of $2000.00 . These are the years of abundance.

q       We have so much abundance in this country: did you realize that each bomb that Canada is dropping on the North Africa right now costs $100 000.00. That’s $100 000.00 per bomb. That’s not including aircrafts, pilots, wages, other machinery and personal. It costs $100 000.00 for each bomb we are dropping on Libya alone.^[6] If we can spare that money than these are certainly the years of abundance.

q       More about the abundance of the military: Our neighbours to the south, the leaders of the English-speaking Empire, do you know how much they spent on their military last year alone? $698 billion; almost $700 billion; that is 7/10^th of a trillion dollars just on the military alone.^[7] Here, these are the years of abundance. We have abundance galore!
 

Genesis 41:37, “during the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully.” Everything is good. Everyone is presumably happy. Genesis 41:30, “but seven years of famine will follow them, then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten and famine will ravage the land.”

 

q       Today, 1.02 billion people in the world are hungry.^[8] Famine is ravaging the land.

q       Today, 1 billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day.^[9] Famine is ravaging the land.

q       Today, nearly one in three people die prematurely or have disabilities due to poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies.^[10] Famine is ravaging the land.

q       Today, throughout the world, 170 million children suffer from malnutrition, more than 100 million never attend school, 230 million have no access to secondary education, and almost 250 million work to pay for their own needs and those of their families. Famine is ravaging the land.

q       Today and over the next ten years, 40 million children in Africa alone will lose their parents as a result of AIDS. Famine is ravaging the land.

q       Today, 800 million people have no access to health care. Famine is ravaging the land.

q       Today, 1.6 billion people in the world have no access to drinking water.^[11] Famine is ravaging the land.

   

Genesis 41:37, “during the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully.” Everything is good. Everyone is presumably happy. But, Genesis 41:53, “The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end.” Praise be to God though: God provides; Joseph listens to God; Pharaoh listens to God; and Pharaoh’s government serves God by raising taxes 20% to provide relief for those suffering. Joseph believes and obeys God. Pharaoh believes and obeys God. Joseph and Pharaoh heed God’s warning signs of the impending famine; Pharaoh submits to God and Joseph submits to God and His provision for the people by raising taxes and storing up for the impending famine (Genesis 4:39-45). God provided for the people and Pharaoh and Joseph obeyed God to distribute those provisions (cf. Exodus 23:6,11, Leviticus 19:10,15, 23:22, 27:8, Deuteronomy 15:4, 15:7, 15:11, 24:12-15, 1 Samuel 2:8, Psalms. 22:26, 34:6, 35:10, 82:3, Isaiah 61:1, Ezekiel 16:49, 18:12, 22:29, Amos 2:7, 4:1, 5:11-12, 8:4-6, Zechariah 7:10.).

 

For much of the world today the seven years of abundance have come to an end and the famine is here but we in Canada are still in our years of abundance. God has told us during our years of abundance about the famine that is killing people – men, women, and children around our world today – but the question is, are we listening to God like Joseph listened to God and like Pharaoh listened to God? From our abundance, are we distributing God’s provisions to our brothers and sisters in need like Pharaoh and like Joseph did or are we just selfishly squandering this abundance on ourselves and watching them die?

 

Did you know that if the top 22 countries (of which Canada is one) gave less than just 1% of their budgets to eradicate poverty a year; it would be eradicated? Did you know that Canada, as one of these affluent, high-tech industrial society in the trillion-dollar class^[12] with a GDP $1.574 trillion (2010 est.) and budget expenditures in excess of $677 billion (2010 est.), has promised to give almost that 1% but we are not keeping our promise. Our current government is not living up to our commitments. We are not worshipping God in obedience like Joseph. did We are not worshipping God in obedience even as much as Pharaoh. We are not heeding the warning signs God is giving us. Not only are we not raising taxes the 20% that Pharaoh needed to raise, we are not even providing the less than 1% it would cost us to eradicate poverty.[13] This is disgusting actually. Can you believe that in Canada, which once considered ourselves a Christian country, we now vote overwhelmingly in favour of tax cuts instead of providing for the poor, the needy and the destitute? Can you believe that in Canada we have the audacity to ignore and defy God in ways that even this Egyptian Pharaoh would not dare by refusing to provide for others out of God’s abundance?[14] Today it is, Genesis 41:37, “during the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully.” Everything is good. Everyone should be happy. But for much of the world, Genesis 41:53, “The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end.”  God provided for the people in Egypt, Joseph and Pharaoh’s government listened to Him and even though there was a famine in the land, people didn’t need to perish and they were saved (cf. John 3:16-21). If we repent, and obey God then we too today can be saved.
 

This is how bad it is today with us neglecting to worship God in obedience and in providing for our neighbour. Did you know that the number of people in the world who suffer from malnutrition as a result of hunger is greater than 1.2 billion and the number of people in the world who suffer from malnutrition as a result of over consumption is also greater than 1.2 billion?
 

Our politicians are well aware of this. Dr. Jack Layton commented a few years ago that “50,000 people die each day in the Third World and Canada can do its share to ease suffering.” One BQ MP made this sage observation (s)he said, “The problem of poverty is not God’s fault; it's man’s, the resources are here. The economy is here. We just need to share what there already is.” But we aren’t. God has provided. We aren’t doing our part.
 

Genesis 41:37, “during the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully.” During Canada’s years of abundance the land has been producing plentifully but sadly we have not been worshipping him by obeying Him in providing for the marginalized. We have been defying Him in ways that the Pharaoh of today’s pericope would never even dare. Today I encourage us to worship God by distributing His abundance to those who need it rather than just squandering it on ourselves.
 

Ignoring God’s warnings that he has given us as clearly  -even more clearly actually than he gave to Pharaoh and Joseph- is defiance. This defiance of God on our nation’s part here as we neglect our brothers and sisters is bad enough but there is more. Catherine Booth said, “Friends, are you more concerned about relieving temporal distress than you are about feeding famished souls? If you are, you may know where you Charity comes from – [hell]” (Papers on Godliness, p 27-28). And “All other objects and aims of life [are] subservient to the one grand purpose of preaching the Gospel to every creature and striving to win every soul with whom they come in contact to its salvation” (The Salvation Army in Relation to the Churches, pp 31-32).^[15]
 

We mentioned the flood of Noah’s time earlier: We remember the flood story with Noah (Genesis 6-9). There a flood was coming, God was about to drown the world in His sorrow because of our sin and still God mercifully lets people know about it in advance so that presumably none needed to perish but alas some chose to do so. We know too that years later, God sent His only begotten Son to earth so that no one needs to perish but sadly some people still do make that choice (John 3:16-21; cf. TSA doc. 6). This is sad. We have had the gospel shared abundantly in this country. We have had years of abundance from God. Now we apparently have a famine of the word and the work of God coming; so I ask us have we stored up for ourselves treasures in heaven by sharing the gospel with those around us (Matthew 6:19-20)?
 

My appeal to us today is this: We here are still in our years of abundance Judging by the news we may be coming to the end of it but we need to take the time in our abundance to worship God with our obedience. If we would like to provide for the physical needs in the world, you are welcome to put more of God’s abundance in the offering plate on a weekly basis or grab a sign up sheet here to buy a Gift of Hope to provide for people in this world in abject poverty.[16] And I also encourage us all as good Salvationists and good Christians, to worship God by obeying His command to share the gospel even unto the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:18-20). Pray for the salvation of your friends and neighbours. Invite them to worship with us here. Invite them to serve the Lord. He really does wish that none should perish and He has made the provision that, as we are faithful, even we can be saved.

   

Let us pray.

   

 http://www.sheepspeak..com/

   

[1] Cf. Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 1967 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 1), S. 209, re: the historical severity of Egyptian famines.

[2] Cf. Gordon Wenham, Genesis 16-50 (WBC 2: Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Inc., 2000), 393.

[3] Cf. John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/VI. The Account of Jacob (37:1-49:33)/G. Joseph's Interpretation of Pharaoh's Dreams (41:1-36), Book Version: 4.0.2

[4] Ashley Ker, 'New Motor Vehicle Sales: 2006 in Review' Statistics Canada. Report available on-line (viewed July 2011):

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-621-m/11-621-m2007054-eng.htm

[5] Canadian Real Estate Association, 2007 – 2008. Accessed through Canadian Living. Available on-line (viewed July 2011): http://www.canadaliving.org/house-prices-canada.html

[6] CBC News, ‘Canada drops 240 bombs in Libya air campaign’

Posted: May 25, 2011 4:35 PM ET. Available on-line (Last Updated: May 25, 2011): http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/05/25/libya-cda-bombs.html

[7] Judd Legum 'REPORT: U.S. Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since 2001', Apr 11, 2011.

[8] UN Food and Agriculture Organization

[9] The World Bank,  "World Development Indicators 2007."

[10] World Health Organization (WHO), "Malnutrition."

[11] UNDP: http://www.teamstoendpoverty.org/wq_pages/en/visages/chiffres.php

[12] CIA Factbook, ‘Canada’, Available on-line (viewed July 2011): https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html

[13] Make Poverty History.ca, Available on-line (viewed July 2011): http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/learn/issues/reduce-global-poverty

[14] But Cf. Walter Brueggemann, Genesis (Interpretation 1: Louisville, Ken.: John Knox Press, 1982), 330.

[15] Cited from Sheepspeak Commentary, ‘Catherine Quotes’ Tuesday July 19, 2011. Available on-line: http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html#4325604199288793490

[16] The Salvation Army, ‘Gifts of Hope’. Available on-line at: www.salvationarmy.ca/giftsofhope 

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