Genesis 2:15-3:24, Romans 5:11-18, Revelation 22:1-5: Back to the Garden

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, Port Alberni BC, 28 July 2019 by Major Michael Ramsay and 30 March 2025

 

This is the 2025 version; to view the 2019 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2019/07/genesis-215-3-back-to-garden.html

Doctrine 5: We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall, all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

…and/but…

Doctrine 6: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will, may be saved.

 

Doctrine 5 has been referred to as the doctrine of Original Sin (or more precisely ‘originating sin’) and that concept goes back at least to Irenaeus and Augustine. Doctrines 5 & 6 are how TSA explains corporate (as opposed to individual) Salvation; Corporate Salvation is like getting back to the Garden of Eden – what life was like before the Fall.

 

This is the garden. Reading from Genesis 2:15-18:

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

¹⁸ The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

 

Then this is what happened there, Genesis 3:1-6:

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it

 

And as a result of this first/original sin, Genesis 3:21-24:

²¹ The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. ²² And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

Salvation can be understood then like humanity getting back to the Garden. Salvation is about people and even all of creation returning to our original full and proper relationship with God. In Revelation Chapter 22 it speaks about us being restored to be in the very presence of the Tree of Life (which was in the garden!) and of God Himself.

 

Some people have asked why do we need to be restored? Why do we need to get back? Why were we kicked out, punished for what Adam and Eve did anyway? I never ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge; how come I have to suffer their consequences? I look at the consequences of the original sin like this: Our lives are affected by the choices of Adam and Eve, our original parents, in much the same way that our lives are affected by the choices of our biological or custodial parents and their parents before them. Adam and Eve were evicted and moved from the Garden of Eden; therefore, their children - Cain, Abel, and Seth - weren’t born in the Garden of Eden.

 

I was born and Susan and I were raised on Vancouver Island here – like Adam and Eve were created and raised in Eden. However, Heather was born and our eldest two daughters were mostly raised in Saskatchewan and then Toronto. We left the Island before Sarah-Grace was one year old for our work with The Salvation Army. It wasn’t sin that caused us to move away – like it was with Adam and Eve – but our children had no more say over the fact that they were raised and away from the Island than Cain, Abel, and Seth did that they were raised away from Eden. As our children live with the results of our actions –both good and bad: a life of serving the Lord but also growing up without family nearby – so we all live with the results of our ancestors’ actions – not just moving from one place to another – but the results of all kinds of choices they made over the years: our parents, our grandparents, and their parents, all the way back to our original parents. That is why and how we are suffering the consequences of originating sin. Does that make sense?

 

Walter Bruggemann, one of the foremost OT scholars, has noted that Adam and Eve’s perfect fear here cast out love (Genesis 3:10) and notes that as Jesus sets everything right, perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18-20).[1]          

 

This is the Adamic Covenant. The Bible also speaks about the way in which we can return to perfect love, to the Garden, to Eden. In Genesis 15, through the ceremony of the smoking firepot and the Abrahamic Covenant, we are shown that God (Jesus Christ) will give up His life in consequence of humankind transgressing that agreement with Him; and then Jesus’ death will lead to our Salvation insofar as Jesus receives the consequences for those actions (that of humanity at the time of Abraham, and at the time of Adam, and more) [2] – thus making it possible for us to return to what life was like in the garden.

 

Doctrine 6 of The Salvation Army reads: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

 

Good Friday and Easter is all about this and In the New Testament we are told a little bit about this. A few people today have some scriptures to read for us:

·       Galatians 3:13: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

·       1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

·       Romans 5:6: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

·       Romans 5:17-18: For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.

·       1 John 2:2: He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Again:

·       Galatians 3:13 says Jesus became a curse by dying on the cross

·       1 Peter 2:24 says that He bore our sins and we are healed

·       Romans 5:6 says that He who was righteous died for we who were unrighteous

·       Romans 5:17-18 says that Jesus’ death and resurrection reconciles us all, undoing Adam’s death and banishment.

·       1 John 2:2 says that this atonement was for the whole world, all of creation.[3]

 

And let me read from near the end of the concluding book in this more than a Divine anthology, the Bible. Revelation 22:1-5 speaks about at the end of our age when God will come down with Heaven in the New Jerusalem and there once again will be the Tree of Life (from Eden), freely available to all of us:

 

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

 

Even though sin and death entered into the world through Adam and Eve and we have been living life outside of the garden, Jesus is the light, and because of Good Friday and Easter morning and more He is returning and bringing back with Him when He does at the eschaton, the Tree of Life from Eden.

 

This is what Easter is about. Last time I spoke we chatted about the Mosaic Covenant and the Law. Jesus died on the cross so that we can return to a time before we even had the Law. Jesus died so that we could return to a time before there was even sin; the Law was trying to mitigate sin’s consequences for us. Jesus’ death completes the Mosaic Law. Jesus’ death fulfills the covenant with Abraham. Jesus’ resurrection removes the cherubim and flaming sword from the Garden of Eden. As Jesus has entered new life for eternity so can we; we can re-enter the garden. We can be welcomed back into the garden and see and experience the Tree of Life and reign with Jesus forever. This was made possible through the resurrection and is what we celebrate at Easter.

 

Would you like to reign with God forever? Do you want to be in the eternal city, with the Tree from the Garden of Eden, where there is no more sin, no more hate, no more death, no more deceit; no more decay, no more sorrow, where everyone is honest, and everyone is loving, and serving our Lord? Do you want to? You can. Jesus provided for our Salvation between the Cross and the empty tomb on Good Friday and Easter morning and we can start experiencing the beginning of that very Salvation even today which lasts forever in the eternal Garden of Eden.

 

Today, as we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and leader, we can in essence make our way back to the Garden. If we would like to live forever in this place, where there is no more pain, no more suffering, no more sin, no more hate, no more death, no more deceit; where we are honest and loving and serving our Lord, we can. All we need to do is ask - Jesus has already done the rest.

 

Let us pray.

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[1] Walter Bruggemann, Genesis (Interpretation: Westminster John Knox Press, 1982), p 53

[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today, (Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com./ptl4covenants.htm

[3] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 369.

Romans Parts 1 and 2, 1-4 and 5-8: Preschool Class Walking the Line.

Presented to TSA AV Ministries 16 March 2025 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

Before we needed to be away for a little bit, we were looking at Paul’s letter to the Romans quite a bit. Today I want to review a little bit of what we have spoken about and look at some of the broad themes, ideas and context of the first seven or eight chapters. First some questions:

 

·       Who wrote Romans? (Paul)

·       When was it written? (Mid to late 50s CE)

·       Who was it written to? (Holy People / Saints in Rome – which means Christians)

·       Where is Rome? (Modern day Italy)

·       Who is Paul? (an Apostle, a Roman, a Pharisee from Tarsus in modern day Turkey)

·       Where and how does Paul die? (executed in Rome – probably beheaded)

 

This is important. Paul writes these words probably realizing that he is nearing the end of his life. He is respected by the letter’s recipients, and he wants them to be aware of many things. Now this is a very long letter. I have never written a letter this long – even my sermons aren’t near this long! - even in the days when I wrote letters to put in the mail – way back before email and social media, remember that? I never wrote letters this long. Now because this letter to the Romans is so long, he covers a lot of stuff. It is sort of like – do you remember the old days? – Did you ever have a friend or family friend who only sent you a letter once a year – maybe at Christmas – and it would go on and on for pages telling you more than you could ever possibly want to know about their life, children, family and pets, etc.

When Paul writes his letter, he has some things he expects that we will know before he even starts writing. When I used to teach, we would often give students vocabulary sheets of words they needed to know as they read. If the Bible was a Ginn Reader and we each had vocab sheets, words like these may be on them:

 

·       Law – rules the demarcate the people of God (separate out / reveal). Given to the Hebrews through Moses.

·       Circumcision – a sign that specific males are part of the people of God. This was given to the world through Abraham (hundreds of years before Moses was born). Looking around the room, all of us seem old enough that I don’t need to explain how that is done.

·       Flesh – our own body, our own self, our own thoughts, our own mind, as compared to ‘Spirit’ which is of God

·       Sin / Trespass - In Romans this refers to anything destructive that erodes holiness, peace, wholeness and/or life itself. Paul also uses the word to refer to things we do to hurt and decay ourselves and others (often translated ‘trespass’). He also uses the word ‘sin’ or ‘sin nature’ to refer to a desire or compulsion to do something we know that goes against peace, wholeness, and holiness. This is like addiction. We know what is right, we resolve not to do what is wrong but… and Paul spends a lot of time explaining the ‘but’.

·       Faith – this is a key word in Romans. The word faith (Greek: Pistos) also means faithfulness. It is a reciprocal word. Whenever you see it, you should probably read it as the faith of one person (either the subject or the object of the sentence) and the faithfulness of the other,

·       Grace – When one does what is best for another regardless of merit or anything else they are extending grace. Often a person experiences grace and mercy at the same time. You do something, you are awaiting the results or consequences of that action and instead you get a reprieve as grace is extended to you.

 

Romans in Review:

 

Chapter One: Romans 1:16-17 can be read as a thesis of at least the first part of the letter: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith[fulness] from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith[fulness].”

Chapter Two: Hebrews were given the Law but still they weren’t able to do what it said any more than Gentiles and others who were not given the Law.

There are good things in the Law that we should know and let people know about for their own benefit, because if they know in advance, they can be saved the consequences of these things such as: don’t murder, covet, lie, etc. These truths that are written down are all a very good standard for our life that warn us about what not to do to keep us out of trouble.

Chapters Three and Four explain the weakness of the Law. One of the weaknesses mentioned is simply temptation. Sometimes we would never even have considered doing something wrong, if someone hadn’t come up to us and said ‘no, don’t do that’! I remember I got in trouble a few times in elementary school because I just had to try whatever it was that the Teacher had told us not to do, because I had never even considered that before she told us.

An analogy: a teacher gives her class a rule, ‘no walking on the street’. She gives the class this rule because she doesn’t want them to be it by a car: if they get hit by a car they might be hurt, injured, die, and also, in so doing, emotionally hurt their friends and family, the driver of the car, etc. – so there is a good rule: don’t walk on the road.

Now there are some bad things to come out of this good rule: some people tattle. Some people tell the teacher every time a classmate walks too close to the road, every time a classmate accidently touches the road, every time a classmate walks in the direction of the road. Some people are so concerned about the rule – ‘don’t walk on the road’ – that they abuse their classmates with it. That rule which is made to protect people’s lives is now being used to make their life miserable. This is legalism: when we care more about the rules than the people the rules are there to protect, when we care more about punishing people who do ‘bad things’ than helping people to ‘do good things’ and to be safe – which is the reason the law is there in the first place.

And then, of course, there is that almost uncontrollable temptation, as well. Once the teacher tells Johnny not to step on the road, he wants to try it even though he has never even considered walking on the road before: he will walk as close beside it as he can, then he will put a foot on it. Then he will pretend to fall on it – all the while he is testing to see why this rule is here. And then Cindy Lou Who telling on him all the time doesn’t help either. This all makes him want to break the rule, which makes him vulnerable to the natural consequences of breaking the rule, which is getting hit by a car.

Now if you look at your vocab sheets, you will notice that Paul talks about circumcision. Circumcision is a sign that people belong to a group: the ancient Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham. It is like when classes of children are walking near the road how they all have brightly coloured pinnies or t-shirts on. These are the kids that have been told specifically not to go on the road. Now, it would be best for us all not to go on the road, but only the kids in the class wearing the pinnies have been given that rule for their outing: so the Law is the rule not to go into the road (which could result in death and / or other things) which was given to the children wearing pinnies (which is circumcision) but it really is best for everyone not to step on the road, whether they were told the rule or not. Does that all make sense? There are many ‘pinnies’ we have in the contemporary church to identify ourselves as children of God like this today. In the modern/post-modern church I would say that whenever you read ‘circumcision’ in the Bible, it may be valuable to read ‘baptism’ or any other pinnie that Christians put on to show we are God’s children.

Chapter 5 we have talked about a lot and I will speak more about too – but for today’s purposes, it talks about getting back to the Garden of Eden, getting back to a time before we needed rules to avoid doing what is harmful and to do what is good: when we could just do that by being in a relationship with God. Perseverance through the suffering of life brings us back to the garden.

Chapters 6 through 8, which we will look at soon enough, wrestle with sin: the desire of the children in our school/pre-school analogy, to walk in the road, those telling you to (or not to sometimes) walk in the road, and -of course- the act of walking in the road itself. Basically, what Chapter 6 says is that if you just follow your teacher you won’t walk in the road. These days preschoolers, as well as wearing pinnies, often hold a rope to help them follow their teacher. Chapter 6 says just keep holding the rope and follow your teacher – if you accidently step on the road or if someone else does, don’t dwell on it, just keep looking at the teacher, holding the rope and walking – it is when you stop and focus on the road or your friend who is on the road or the one who is nagging you about walking on the road, that you run into trouble (that is not to say you shouldn’t help your friend up if they fall on the road) but you just need to keep on keeping on following the teacher.

Chapter 7 always reminds me of AA. Anyone here who has ever attended AA meetings will know just how valuable they can be. AA’s step one paraphrased, “We admitted that we were powerless over sin [alcohol] – that our lives have become unmanageable.” Chapter 7 speaks of Sin as that force, that temptation, trying to draw us into that which leads to destruction, into the peril of the open road; Sin in Chapter 7 is the Odessey’s siren song calling us to some imagined pleasure that in reality will just wreck the ships of our life on the rocks of death and destruction. Sin is calling the preschoolers away from the safety of the path towards certain doom in the road. In Chapter Seven, Paul sounds like Odysseus strapped to the mast of his ship, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do, I do” (7:16) “So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law but in the flesh a slave to the law of Sin” (7:25)

Chapter 8 offers us the hope. The teacher sees us on and near the road and still “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. (8:1) The teacher pulls us aside, kneels beside us and offers us much comfort. She tells us that we don’t need to worry about all the do’s and the don’ts of the rules. We don’t need to worry about getting into trouble, taunting others, or even telling on them. We just need to follow our teacher along the path she is leading us along and then we will be okay, Romans 8:14, “for those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.’

So that is my wish for us today. Let us just keep our eyes on Jesus – nothing else can save us from sin or death. Nothing else can make us holy or whole. Let us cast our eyes upon Jesus. For us we turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face, all the temptations of life will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Let us pray.

 

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Romans 5:3,4: Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside.

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on April 20, 2008; Swift Current Corps on August 09, 2009; Corps 614 Regent Park on May 15, 2016; and Alberni Valley Ministries on February 16, 2025 by Captain (Now Major) Michael Ramsay

  

This is the 2025 Alberni Valley version. To view the previous version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/04/romans-534-hope-and-angel-on-downtown.html

  

I have shared this story with you previously:

 

When our oldest two children were just little, we served with The Salvation Army in North America’s poorest postal code - Vancouver’s downtown eastside. I remember one day – one morning, I was mugged. I knew better but I wasn’t paying attention. It was early in the morning and I was right on Main and Hastings – that most infamous intersection in this most infamous neighbourhood and I was on the pay phone with Susan (remember those things!) 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’m sure, 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 from in front of the bus with my life, the mugger escaped with my briefcase, my laptop, and my files for the kids.

 

It was when I was walking back, completely distraught and despondent from this incident, that I experienced the miracle that happened: 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.

 

When the Apostle Paul recorded these words circa 55 AD in his letter to the Romans, he himself had already seen much suffering - he had already spent so much time under arrest, so much time in prison and even now he will be ultimately killed for his faith and tradition suggests that he was even beheaded by the Romans themselves.

 

In the first few verses of Chapter 5 Paul was not only warning the Romans about the persecution and suffering that was coming for him but he was also warning them about the suffering that was coming for them and ultimately he was warning us about the suffering that may be coming for us as we do the Lord’s bidding as well.

 

Now you’ll notice from our text today, that not only are we to endure our suffering but Paul says, depending on your translation, we are to rejoice and even boast in our suffering (cf. Phil 2:17; 1 Pet 4:6, 4:13). 1 Thessalonians 5:18 states that we are even to give thanks in all circumstances (cf. Phil 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; we are to rejoice. Now we should think about what exactly God and Paul are saying here for a moment because it does go against a lot of popular culture and indeed seems to oppose the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’ that is ever so prevalent in our affluent North American culture.

 

This prosperity heresy - the idea that wealth, health and prosperity come to those whom God loves but trials, tribulations and suffering on this earth come to those whom God hates - this prosperity heresy was apparently alive and well in Paul’s day as well but just like it was a lie then, it is not true now.

 

Paul says that we should rejoice in our suffering because - if indeed our suffering is for the gospel of which Paul is not ashamed (1:16) -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 you know why God gives us that ability to get through more suffering: because we’ve got more difficult times to get through! So as we rejoice in our perseverance through these times we can rejoice because we will be ready for – the even more difficult times that are still to come but there is even more than that.

 

Paul says that through this perseverance we will also develop character. And what is character? 

 

Character is what you get when you survive suffering (joyfully?)

 

Here are some comics that give us Bill Waterson’s perspective:

 

Character is what you get when you survive suffering (joyfully?)

 

 … In my home growing up the phrase ‘It will build character’ was always the answer to the question. “Why should I do that? Why do I have to …rake the leaves, mow the lawn, clean my room, take grade six band? ...It will build character. Well more or less this is what Paul is saying

 

Paul really does say that we should enjoy our character-building experiences. (They are a means to the strength of the Lord.) In Philippians 1 Paul says that whatever happens, everything will be okay because living is Christ and even to die is gain because there is the resurrection ahead. We really have nothing to lose! To die is gain and to live, to live is Christ! (Phil 1:21)

 

Paul had a lot that was building his character with all his time in jail and the Roman Christians had great opportunities to develop character as they faced lions in the Coliseum and my mugging on the downtown eastside wasn’t our first experience with loss nor was it our last but it was directly related to our work for the Lord and this period was extremely significant in our lives.

 

When I was mugged and my laptop containing all the information for The Salvation Army’s tutoring ministry was stolen it was only the beginning. My foot was injured, my hands were inexplicably painfully swollen, my eye was injured (so painfully that I couldn’t even get up for days) and it was later re-injured too- I required surgery; Sarah-Grace, who was 2 at the time suffered seizures in front of our eyes, our car stopped working; we ran a transition house out of the DTES then: a person in our home was struggling with heroin addiction, the police visited our home and encouraged a roommate of ours to leave and so many more things that even a chain of attacks straight from the Enemy. We were serving the Lord, openly and abundantly and we were suffering as we did so and there was more to come.

 

Knowing all this was still to come, after my mugging the Lord sent His messenger - the angel in the form of a downtown eastside resident - to encourage me to perseverance. He told me specifically from Romans 5:3,4, to “...rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

 

What is Paul saying about suffering here? He is saying we have to rejoice in it but is he talking about any kind of unpleasant event? Any suffering? Not necessarily. The Greek word here (thlipseis) refers to, more literally, ‘pressure’ that is applied to Christians from the world, from God’s opponents (cf. John 15:18, 16:20). John Stott writes that Thlipseis is “almost a technical term for the suffering which God’s people must expect in [these] last days.” This suffering is something that we can expect as we do the will of God in these last days. When we serve the Lord, there is opposition both spiritual and practical and though the war is won, the battle rages fierce.

 

As we fight in this battle that is our life, there are people, powers and principalities who oppose God and who oppose us. As we fight in this battle, it develops our perseverance, it develops our character, we become like battle-hardened veterans experienced in engaging the foe. We are no longer green. Our character is being built. We know that we can endure. We know that we may live up to what has already been obtained (cf. Phil 3). We can be bold for the gospel (cf. Phil 1). We know we can be counted on to persevere through even more of whatever opposition, whatever pressure the enemy throws our way. We know we can, like Paul says here, we can have hope - because God will never leave us nor forsake us (Romans 3:3,4).

Jesus Christ himself suffered and he rose again on the third day. Jesus Christ himself endured and he is the reason for our hope. And what is our hope in that grows through this suffering, this perseverance and character-building experiences? What is this hope? This hope through Jesus Christ is in the power of the gospel, the power to transform us all (Ro 1:16), our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ who will never leave us nor forsake us and our hope is in the resurrection of the dead.

 

Paul knows, as we know, that when our bodies fade away it is not the end. We will be in paradise with our Lord but more than that: there is the hope of the ultimate resurrection of the dead. We will rise again.

 

And as the Lord has conquered Sin and Death, he will indeed continue to conquer our own sins that lure us to death and we can have confidence, we can have faith, we can have hope in the resurrection.

 

But even more than that - now I know that there are some serious struggles that each face us each here today. I remember when we were serving in Nipawin and Tisdale, Saskatchewan a father and son perished and another family lost their home in an explosion and fire that rocked the Nipawin.

 

Now our pets are often a source of comfort. Our cats and dogs offer us comfort when we are in times of need. The family whose house was lost in the explosion, they had a dog. The dog didn’t escape. The house exploded and fell in on him. The fire raged and ravaged the site all day and in the night. In the morning, just before 7am when I was bringing the firefighters and SaskEnergy people coffee, we heard it – barking. The dog was barking. You should have heard the firefighters cheer. You should have seen the excitement on their faces. They pulled the dog from the rubble and he wasn’t even hurt, not a bit. The Lord saved the dog. This provided hope for the fire fighters, hope for the SaskEnergy guys, hope for the Emergency Operations Centre staff, and comfort and hope for this family who had already suffered such loss. The Lord provides hope in our suffering.

 

(Some of the work you do at the Army here, btw, the Lord uses to provide that hope to people too – last week alone in this small community you served people 868 Breakfasts, 877 lunches, 946 dinners ​at the Bread of Life​ and 3942 meals to the shelters ​and from the food truck​. We have had 265 overnight guests at our shelter, and so much more)

 

The enemy will attack with whatever Thlipseis (pressure) he can muster. The Enemy does and will attack those of us here that serve the Lord. There is pressure but we must not give in to the temptation to surrender to the pressure. Instead we must boast in our sufferings, experience our new found endurance and character so that we too will continue to experience the faith, the joy, the hope that is in Christ Jesus.

 

Let us all, as Romans 5 says, “...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).

 

Let us pray.

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Psalm 147:7-11: Does God Prohibit the Kilt?

 Presented to the Alberni Valley Salvation Army, 25 January 2025 and Swift Current Corps 23 January 2011 as well as 28 January 2018, an on-line homily by Captain/Major Michael Ramsay

This is the 2025 version.

 

To view the 2018 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2018/01/psalm-14710-mans-legs.html

To view the 2011 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/01/psalm-14710-neither-delighteth-he-in.html

  

Psalm 147:10: “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man.” I thought this was an appropriate passage to look at on Robbie Burns Day. For Christmas one year Susan bought me some Bible Commentaries on Psalms. In one of these books, Peter C. Craigie, from Scotland, writes:

 

…. It was the custom in Scotland for boys to wear the kilt to church on Sunday; to this day I can recall singing the words of Psalm 147:10 ‘Neither delighteth he in any man’s legs’. I pondered at that time the question of whether scripture condemned the kilt.

 

When I read Peter Craigie’s quote I knew immediately what I should preach on while I am wearing my kilt for Robbie Burns Day. Do we know who Robbie Burns is? Robert Burns (1759-1796) was an 18th Century Scottish poet and songwriter who wrote hundreds of lasting tributes to Scottish life in both song and poetry. Of himself, he wrote:

 

The poetic genius of my country found me, as the prophetic bard Elijah did Elisha—at the plough, and threw her inspiring mantle over me. She bade me sing the loves, the joys, the rural scenes and rural pleasures of my native soil, in my native tongue; I tuned my wild, artless notes as she inspired (ROBERT BURNS, Edinburgh, April 4, 1787).

 

Robert Burns is a poet; he is not to be confused with Scotland’s patron saint; do you know who that is? …St. Andrew from the Bible. St. Andrew’s Day is the 30th of November, and it is a national holiday in Scotland. Robert Burns Day is the 25th of January and this is a good time for the Scottish diaspora, people of Scottish heritage in this country here to get together, wear the kilt, eat haggis, and listen to the bard’s poetry, bagpipes, and watch or try some highland or Scottish country dancing.

 

Last night Susan, our parents, Sarah-Grace and I went to the Robbie Burns dinner put on by PAHDA at Echo as we do almost every year to watch Heather dance. When we were in Toronto and before, Sarah-Grace would dance too. Robbie Burns Day is always a lot of fun

  

Verse 10 of our text today is not referencing the kilt, Highland Dancing or Robert Burns. in the NIV it reads: “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior [or 'man' in place of 'warrior' depending on the year published];” the rest of this sentence is contained in Verse 11: “the LORD delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.”

 

Psalm 147:10 is not talking about wearing a kilt, bathing suit, or shorts when it says that God doesn’t delight in a warrior’s legs. This passage is not addressing Christian modesty. It is telling us that if we put our faith in something instead of God – in this example the passage is specifically referencing the military: ‘horse’ being calvary and ’warrior’ being ‘warrior’ – if we put our faith in people, the military, or anything else, instead of God, we will not impress God - who is the creator, preserver, and governor of all things.

 

The prophet Samuel warned the ancient Hebrews that if they were a unified country under a single political leader that the leader would press their children into military service (1 Sam 8:1-22). King Solomon and his heirs did just this and more as they ignored this advice of Psalm 147 and put their faith in themselves, their military, their legs, and their horse until God finally had enough and put an end to the Kingdom of Israel (2 Chr 36:17-21).

 

Putting their faith in their military or the military of regional superpowers was futile. I think Canada is discovering the challenges of trusting in the benevolence of superpowers these days.

 

What about us individually? Who do we trust? We know that putting faith in anything instead of God, we know that not trusting God is basically a rejection of Him and His Kingdom. A New Testament equivalent is contained in Matthew 6:24-27:

 

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 

 

Psalm 147:10: “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man.” Psalm 147:11: “the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”

 

Now ‘fear’ can mean a lot of things in the Bible. The word translated ‘fear’ in this verse, ‘yare’, in the tense and context, refers quite simply to a moral reverence. It is a kind of deference but it does not include any of the moral dread that is involved with other variations of the word ‘fear’. An example of this ‘fear’, ‘yare’ in our society is sort of like when one is in court and the judge tells you specifically to remove your hat, you do it. This ‘yare-fear’ would probably be – in this context - more like if someone meets me when I am out of uniform and they are using rather rough language with a lot of profanity and swear words. As soon as they recognize me or find out that I am an Officer/ pastor, they immediately apologize for every swear word they ever uttered in their whole life it seems! ‘Watching their language’ is out of respect for my vocation, my calling. It is not out of fright. Likewise, we, in the Lord’s courtroom, need to respect his authority and we can also put our faith in His unfailing love.

 

This unfailing love, (checed), relates to a strong sense of goodwill especially as can be relied on in real times of need (cf. Deuteronomy 7:7,12; Psalm 89:24, 28, 33, 49; 2 Samuel 7:15; Isaiah 55:3).[10] Sometimes this word is translated as ‘mercy’ or ‘kindness’. This word, checed, relates to one you can turn to in a crisis. We all have friends and family but we know that when the chips are down there are some we can trust more than others. This word for love or mercy applied in this context refers to one who will never let us down in a time of need. And that one is God.

 

The Lord delights in those of us who respect Him – who care enough about Him and His feelings to watch our language around Him. And He can be trusted in our time of need because of His unfailing love for us (cf. John 3:16ff.). We don’t need to rely on horse and men’s legs. We don’t need to rely on cavalry and infantry. We don’t need to rely on man or Mammon. We don’t need to rely on people or money. We don’t need to rely on anyone in place or instead of God. God will provide.

 

How about us here today? Do we ever fall into this trap of trusting someone or something instead of God? Do we sometimes put our faith in money, the strength of the horse or the legs of a man? Do we ever put our faith in something that can let us down– instead of relying on God? 

 

So today I would like to encourage you. If there is anyone or anything in our life that we are tempted to put our trust in ahead of God, if we have been let down by others, if we have been let down by circumstances, if we have been let down by ourselves, there is still one who can deliver us. There is one, and probably only one who will never let us down – and that one is God. Really if everyone and everything else in life does let us down, God promises that He will never leave us or forsake us.

 

So today, with all the real things that our troubling us, let us trust God. He loves us and will take care of us.    Let us pray