Thumbing through Genesis

In the latter part of Genesis, the story starts to skip around a bit, and becomes a little harder to follow.

Here's what I mean: Genesis 32, Jacob is afraid of Esau, and wrestles with God, gets name changed. / 33, Jacob timidly returns to meet Esau. / 34. Jacob's daughter is (to put it delicately) 'defiled'. Her brothers slay the man who did it, and his family. Then they plunder what's left. Jacob turns tail and runs. / 35. God comes again in a vision and again tells him his new name, reaffirms the covenant. Benjamin born, Rachel dies. Firstborn (Ruben) sleeps with Jacob's concubine (wife), Issac dies. / 36 Genealogy of Esau / 37 Joseph gave a 'bad report' about his half-brothers, was the favorite, got a special robe, had dreams of greatness, told his brothers, they plotted to kill him, then they changed their plan to selling him into slavery.
Then in 38, it leaves off with Joseph headed to Egypt, and jumps over to tell the story of Judah's family. Judah is one of Joseph's brothers, 3rd son of Leah and Jacob.

Judah's daughter in law was trying to have a family, but her 2 husbands died. The first one was wicked, so the Lord killed him. That's all it says. Then she becomes wife of his brother, to raise up a son to the dead brother. God kills him too. Hubby #2 doesn't mind sharing the bedroom, but apparently didn't want to provide the child. Fast forward: and Judah did not give her as wife to the next son when he was of age.

So Tamar is childless, but is supposed to have a member of the family sire a child for her. Then Judah's wife dies. Judah travels, and is seeking the comfort of a woman. Tamar deceives him, poses as a prostitute, and lo and behold, they conceive a child.

Her pregnancy becomes evident to all, and Judah accuses her of immorality, and calls for her to be burned alive. *

She produces the evidence that Judah is the baby's father (oops). Suddenly the call for sexually impure people's execution is forgotten, and she had twins. (Incidentally, one of these twins is in Jesus' family tree.)

From there, it pans back to the story of Joseph, his humiliation, accusation, incarceration, vindication and exaltation.

The famine comes, and he has the encounter with his brothers, where they are tested, left to twist awhile, but finally restored and forgiven.

How do we make sense of all these twists and turns? Yes, in one sense, this is a fairly orderly chronicling of the affairs of life. The births, the deaths, the interactions and the drama of life in their day. It paints some of the broad strokes of what life looked like with them.

In a redemptive history sense, it shows how God's hand of Providence upholds both the weak and the undeserving within His ultimate plan. The weak, as we see the vindication of two women wronged in different ways, Tamar, in particular, upheld by God more than once.

And my favourite: this passage shows Joseph as a type and shadow of Christ.

His own brothers count him an enemy, and seek his life. They plan his death, and put him in a sort of a tomb.

Death is cheated because the slave traders show up, but the garment is still provided as "proof" of his death. Through many twists and turns, he becomes the Prime-Minister of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.

Consider the life and nature of the brothers in question. Besides attempted murder, kidnapping, and profiting from the trafficking in human slaves (their own brother, no less!), Simeon and Levi murdered a family after arrangements had been made for that family's son to marry Dinah. Ruben slept with his stepmother, Judah was going to execute his daughter-in-law for having slept with him. Sounds like prime-time TV, right?

These were not nice people. They murdered a whole family for defiling their sister, but did nothing when their brother slept with dad's wife. Mercy and justice simply were not words that they had a good grasp of.

Contrasted to that, Joseph lived a life where there was no moral failing in his life that God considered worth pointing out.

Joseph, in a position to jail, sell into slavery, or even kill those wicked brothers who had enslaved him, instead forgave(!) them, and still more amazing, gave them gifts.

Jesus, in a position to justly judge and condemn us to eternal hell for our sins, lived a perfect life, and offers us that righteousness he procured, and absorbs the Divine wrath in himself upon the Cross.

Wicked and undeserving brothers were welcomed and offered grace by the one who held their very lives in his hands.

Wicked and God-denying sinners are welcomed and offered grace by the Redeemer who holds our very eternity in his nail-pierced hands.

Such a glorious gospel!

Marriage and Prayer

²But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. ³The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. ⁵Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.God's word is very frank and practical. It isn't afraid to directly address sensitive issues, or issues of practical importance.

What is being said here?
First, the obvious application of the passage: The preservation of the sanctity of marriage.

God acknowledges our natural appetites, and directs us to their proper and healthy uses.

Physical intimacy is sanctioned within marriage. [You might notice also, that there is no ambiguity about the relationship: one male, one female.]
More than sanctioned, the marriage covenant is elevated and sanctified in Hebrews 13.

Marriage is especially significant to a Christian because it is a picture of the relationship between Christ and His Church. -- but we will come to that point shortly.

What is required of husband and wife?

In contrast to the Shiite law which states that a man must be permitted to approach his wife every 4th day, the Bible requires that we respond to one another's affections. What this means is NOT a legalistic mark-the-days-on-the-calendar sense. Who wants their loved one to engage in a merely mechanical duty-based response? Yuck.

To belabour the point a little, the Bible is not a hard-and-fast-comply-at-gunpoint instruction in this matter. Every commandment is kept by loving (1) God and (2) one another.

As Christians we are to be available our spouses. No using intimacy as a leverage for behaviour modification. No punishing the spouse by withheld affection. Intimacy (at any level) is to be freely returned, because (and only because) of our mutual love. We have been made one, this motivates us to nurture the relationship. To fix quarrels quickly. To remain positive, kind and loving to one another. The only exception noted was fasting, and then only under an agreed circumstance. Recap: no unilateral withholding of intimacy with your spouse. (By the way... Men, this includes emotional intimacy.)

I Peter 3:7 shows a relationship between giving proper honor to your spouse and the effectiveness of your prayers. If you fail to honour your spouse (in this case, wife), it will inhibit your prayers.

REMEMBER: Marriage is to be a picture, or an echo of the relationship between Christ and His Church.

What does this tell us? First, that we should not think we who call Christ "Lord" can pick and choose which of his ways are worth following. He is Lord, or He is not. We can't have it both ways. He does not heap heavy burdens on us, and what he does ask of us is less than what He himself gave to us.

Second, since it tells us about our reasonable response to Christ, it also tells us about what we can expect about His reaction toward His bride (the Church).

He does not withdraw His affections. He is good. He has already given himself for His Church, and in so doing, proven His love for her. We should be confident that he hears and answers when we call.

Consider this, too: If natural marriage is given this instruction to safeguard the relationship between man and wife, so that they will delight in one another, and not seek some unlawful outside comfort, what does this tell us about Christ and his Church?

He is our delight. He is our delight in His PERSON, not just His benefits.

Would our good God and Saviour withdraw Himself from us? We are made to worship. We are "idol factories". If we do not find ourselves worshiping God, we worship elsewhere.

Whatever comfort, hope, identity, satisfaction or delight might lawfully be sought in God, is an abomination when sought in the Created Order. We cannot help ourselves, we worship. If God were to withdraw Himself, we would worship something else. Would a loving husband put his spouse intentionally into equivalent temptation? No! You can see a picture of how he guards and purifies his love in Hosea. Re-read that seldom-read Biblical book if you haven't lately.

Paul connects the dots in Ephesians. These (Eph 5:22-33) should be verses that inform and embolden us in our faith, and fan our love for the Lamb of God. They explicitly transpose some aspect of the unity and reciprocity of marriage to the mystery of Christ and His Church.

How Eternal is Eternal Life?

I was asked an interesting question recently, which I will paraphrase this way:

Will there be Free Will and/or danger of falling again into Sin in Heaven?

There are two parts to this question. The first deals with our will, and the second deals with our security.

Let us begin with the will. Much is made of Free Will. Free will, in its truest meaning, is possessed only by God Himself. He has complete understanding of every situation, cannot be influenced by things 'outside of His control' (clearly), cannot be intimidated, bought, or act from a corrupt motive. He is free, every time, to make the best decision.

Nobody questions His free will, yet there are clearly things he "cannot" do. He cannot tempt or be tempted to sin(James 1:13), He cannot lie (Titus 1:2) He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim 2:13). Are we perhaps misunderstanding "free will"?

Luther said this about the free-will (so-called) in his famous 'Bondage of the Will"

You describe the power of "free-will" as small, and wholly ineffective apart from the grace of God. Agreed? Now then, I ask you: If God's grace is wanting, if it is taken away from that small power, what can it do? It is ineffective, you say, and can do nothing good. So it will not do what God or His grace wills. Why? Because we have now taken God's grace away from it, and what the grace of God does not do is not good. Hence it follows that "free-will" without God's grace is not free at all, but is the permanent prisoner and bondslave of evil, since it cannot turn itself to good.

Our will is not so free as we suppose when we begin, because we cannot, as fallen man, decide to be redeemed. We are dead in ourselves and must be made alive in Christ.

Romans 6:17-18 puts it this way:

¹⁷But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. ¹⁸You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

It works this way: You were once completely independent of an appetite for righteousness (Rom 6:20) you sinned, willingly and gladly. Put differently - you sinned of your own free will. What happens when you are Redeemed? You experience a New Birth. There is an internal overthrow of the Old and it begins to be replaced by the New. (1 Cor 5:17) We have new affections. We desire different things. We desire His Goodness, His kingdom. We Cherish His Lordship. Do we stumble? Yes. We are not yet conformed to His Image. But it grieves us. We cry out to Him for forgiveness (1 John 1:6-10) and strength to walk in Union with Him. This process of being transformed by the renewing of our minds is Sanctification.

We have the Surety (or down-payment) of our Redemption, none less than the Holy Spirit Himself.

We will be transformed, not merely in our bodies, but in our understanding, also. This mortality will put on immortality. We will no longer see in the glass darkly, but then face-to-face.

So, once we have been redeemed, we look forward to that great day when the promise becomes the reality.

The question, again, is can we lose our salvation once in Heaven?

I will ask you a question: Which has greater effect? Sin or Grace?
Romans 5:20-21 answers that for us. Sin abounds but Grace abounds much more.

Sin reigns over the sinner. To what end? Death and Hell. For how long? Eternally.
Can the condemned sinner ever "lose" his damnation? No. "It is where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. " or again.. "the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever and they have no rest day or night"

Romans 5:21 which tells us that sin reigns over the sinner to death, also tells us that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Quickly breaking this down, arguing from the lessor to the greater: If we are confident that the eternal punishment is unyielding, unrelenting and undiminished for all eternity, what are we to suppose is meant by Grace (God's gift, not our effort) ruling?
How long is this rule? Eternal.
What is the eternal gift? Life.
By who or what is this gift provided? Through Jesus Christ Himself.

Still need assurance?
How about this?

One is Daniel's prophesy (remember that Son of Man is what Jesus called Himself)

¹³ “ I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
¹⁴ Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.

His possession, which He bought with His blood cannot be taken from Him, and it will not be diminished or destroyed. It shall not pass away. We are that possession purchased with His blood (Rev 5:9; 1Pet 1: 18-19).

He said of us: (John 10:27-29)

²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: ²⁸And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

Are you concerned that you may yet be tempted in a place that has no need of Sun or Moon but that God Himself will be its illumination? In a place where there will be no night!

Remember that it is given unto man to die ONCE, and after that judgment (Heb 9:27)

Consider: Rev 21:27 -- nothing that defiles, nor abominations, nor anything that causes a lie shall enter, but only those in the Lamb's book of life.

And again: Rev 22:3

And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

[If you do not see a curse, sin must be absent, because Sin is linked to the curse throughout the Bible.]

And if that were not enough: Rev 22:4

They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

Be encouraged. Stand strong. Put on the armor of light.
Your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed.

Not a Victim...

It is the time of year where there we, as a culture, take time to remember the Crucifixion.
(If we are consistent, we must also remember Jesus' Resurrection and Ascension.)

Inevitably, there will be some that mourn and lament Good Friday's 'tragic hero'. "Isn't it sad that Jesus was so misunderstood," some would say, "and had to die?"

"Isn't it sad," some would say, "that the gentle Lamb was so horribly mistreated?"

Jesus was not blindsided by the Cross.
He was not mugged by men, scourged, and left to die on a cross.

He is on record as saying: (John 12:27)

Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.

Jesus was on a mission. He had a specific purpose. It was not merely to be a good example, or to provide some good teaching.

Luke 18:31 cites Jesus saying that the reason they were going to Jerusalem was so that everything spoken about him would be accomplished (teleo: completed, fulfilled, brought to perfection, put the finishing stroke upon).

This is perfectly consistent with the "It is Finished" statement in John 19:30.

So then, since he was no victim, what exactly was going on? He certainly seemed to be a victim, didn't he?

No. He was much more than a victim. He was a willing sacrifice. There is a world of difference between the 2.

He made this clear in John 10:17-18 where he explicitly said his life was not to be taken from him, but freely laid down. This is also echoed in his conversation with Pilate, or with his arrest in Gethsemane, it is not the will of man orchestrating the death of the Son of Man, but rather the decree of Almighty God himself.

Jesus is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8)

But why?

It was the only means by which men, hostile to God, and alienated from him by their sin, could be restored. Jesus asked -- while he prayed in the garden -- whether there could be some other way. There was no other way.

Sin could not be left unpunished, or God must suppress His Justice.
Humanity could not be condemned entirely, or God must suppress His love.

What was it that motivated the Son to face the torment, and see it through to the end?
He had his goal in mind:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

What did this look like to the Father?

Isaiah 53 breaks this down in unmistakable detail. (I encourage you to read the entire chapter.)

I would like to focus our attention to a particular portion of it:

The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all... (v. 6)

Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering (v. 10)

my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities (v. 11)

Jesus was here to bear our guilt. For us to even understand the Good news, we must first wrap our head around the fact that Sin is no merely abstract thing. It corrupts us. It changes our core nature. It sets on a collision course with God's goodness. It evokes a real divine response of real wrath.

If God were to just wave away sin, that would make him as bad as us.

Sin needed to be dealt with.

The reason we don't often understand Grace is that we know, deep down is that God does require moral perfection. He has been explicit about that throughout His Word. Because of that, we have a tendency to move the goalposts -- to give reasons we have achieved, in some way, that perfection. But the reality is, we haven't.

We try to make arbitrary checklists and say we have lived the godly life, if we can check off the right boxes. We tell ourselves we're 'good enough', forgetting that: "If we say we have no sin, we call God a liar." (1 John 1:9-10)

What we're doing when we do that, is we are trying to be our own Saviour. We are trying to be Christ. The merit we are looking for, that perfect life, does exist. But it isn't our merit. It isn't our perfection. It's HIS.

Christ did not come to change the Law. His coming fulfilled it.

He came to change US.

He did not come as a victim. He came as a conquering King. The foes he vanquished were sin and death.

Mission Accomplished.

The suffering Lamb is the Lion Rampant!

Rejoice in Him!

Trust to His merit, not your own.
Turn from sin, and turn to Christ.

Orissa Persecution Update

Here is recent update concerning what has been happening in India since the horrors that befell Christians in Orissa last year.

Some excerpts:

Extremists are requiring Christians to reconvert to Hinduism, and in light of next month's elections, vote for the Hindu fundamentalist party. Believers also must withdraw any reports of violence that were submitted to the government.

--further down the article--

According to the All India Christian Council (AICC), the 2008 anti-Christian violence killed nearly 60 people, including 2 pastors. Christians in over 300 villages were targeted; 4,400 houses were burned, and 50,000 people were left homeless. Nearly 20,000 individuals were injured in attacks, and two women were gang-raped; one of them was a nun. Hindu extremists now are forcing Christians in Orissa to vote for the fundamentalist party in elections beginning April 16.

A Pastor in New Delhi was had a mob break into his home, beat him, his wife and son, and was robbed...A pastor somewhere else had fractures in his back and ribs after being attacked by Hindu radicals after a prayer meeting.


Treasure your freedom, but make use of it, too.

Thinking Biblically - Human Interactions

If you were to take an informal poll of a hundred Christians, and ask them what the Christian is to do when sinned against, the vast majority here and now might say "forgive him".

The problems don't begin until you probe deeper.

What do you do before that, and why?

Let's back up a little and look at Luke 17.

How does Jesus begin?
He tells them (I'm paraphrasing):
It is inevitable that some will sin, and that some will cause others to sin. This has enormous consequences which should not be taken lightly (He then mentions a millstone and the sea to drive that point home).

With the seriousness of sin as the backdrop for what is to follow, Jesus says:
"Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him."

Let's look at "yourselves", "rebuke", "repents", and "forgive" a little more closely.

1) Be mutually accountable to one another.
"Yourselves" - heautou (Strong's #1438). One meaning is "reciprocal, mutual, one another".

2) Boldly speak concerning sin
"Rebuke" - (epitimaō Strong's # 2008) In NT spoken of an estimate or judgment put upon what is wrong, and hence, to admonish, reprove; admonish strongly with urgency, authority, that is to say to enjoin upon, charge strictly, the idea of rebuke or censure being employed.

3) Repent
"Repent" - (metanoeō Strong's #3340) "This change is always for the better, and denotes a change of moral thought and reflection; not merely to repent of, nor to forsake sin, but to change one's mind and apprehensions regarding it; hence, to repent in a moral and religious sense, with the feeling of remorse and sorrow"

Said differently, this is not merely "I did a bad thing".
It is not merely "I'm going to stop doing that bad thing".
It is in fact, a changing of the thinking toward the "bad thing" itself.

4) "Forgive" - (aphiēmi 863) Describes complete acquittal. Carries a sense of being sent away, or set free. Guilty person treated as innocent.

The person (after repentance) is expected to be granted full release, and treated as innocent of all charges, regardless of any actual original wrongdoing. (Notice this treatment is not offered to the person who justifies their sin, but the one who changes his thinking toward it.)

Next, Jesus immediately ups the ante, and directly commands his disciples to forgive as often as they are asked to forgive.

This thought was so foreign to their way of thinking that the disciples cried out to Jesus to increase their faith. He responded with two parables. The mustard seed and the servant making supper for the master.

The fist parable addresses the disciples' ability to look at yourselves / rebuke / repent / forgive. It is a function of faith, and it does not require a so-called spiritual giant to do this.

The second addresses submission. We are to do this -- plainly and simply because He is Lord.

We are to look/rebuke/repent/forgive because we have been told to.
We are also to have a humble attitude to this. You are not unusually gifted for having rebuked, or repented, or forgiven. You have simply lived the life you were supposed to.

You should have an attitude, not of having been unusually faithful, but of having measured up to the basic expectation of Christian conduct.

In so far as we are warned from sin, we preserve the dignity and character of the Church. As we do that, we protect His name from being blasphemed by our conduct, and safeguard the Glory of God.

Christian Imperative

Imperative.

Noun:

-	a command.

-	something that demands attention or action; an unavoidable obligation or requirement; necessity

The Church in the West needs to rediscover the word "imperative".

When we represent the Gospel, we need to be careful not to reduce our must to a mere should.
To moral relativists in our age, we need to speak plainly about what God Commands.

We cannot be shy in proclaiming His message. Simply put, because it is not ours to modify. Where God says Must, we cannot say 'should' without changing the message, and being unfaithful ambassadors of Christ.

Christ has been given all authority.
He has given the same authority to us. Why?
So that when we speak, we have the confidence that we (insofar as we are aligned with his revealed will in his Word) speak with the same imperial confidence.

Policemen do not urge people to reconsider the robbing of a bank. They command the criminal to stop. Why? Because they have been invested with the authority to do so. Furthermore, they have the means to do so.

Ambassadors have a more urgent task. We are to "go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in..." That's no passive invitation. We are to speak from a position of authority, as Jesus, Peter, Paul did.

You Must be born again.

You Must take up your cross daily.

There is no other name under heaven by which men Must be saved.

Whoever is great Must be a servant.

You Must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

You Must forgive ...

Scripture Must be fulfilled.

We Must obey God rather than men.

We Must not put Christ to the test.

You also Must help us by prayer.

We Must ALL appear before the Judgment seat of Christ...

One who is taught the word Must share all good things with one who teaches...

The list goes on and on and on.

We deny God as King if we cringe from stating plainly what the Author of Creation's imperatives are. We also cheat our hearers.

This is where the congregation needs to have two responses:
1) Recognize our need to pray for our leaders.

We hardly think of Paul as a coward, someone easily intimidated, or someone in need of any encouragement. In fact we tend to think of him as almost superhuman. But remember this: Paul solicited the prayers of the Church. Why? Here's the quote, Eph 6:18-20

To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, ¹⁹and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Did you catch that? Paul was concerned he might not be as bold as he ought. If he needed these prayers, so do those Preaching and Teaching the Word of God in a corporate service. Pray for them.

2) We need to look inward, and prayerfully check our hearts, priorities and motives.

Are we so jealous of our glory that we are prepared to deny God his? That's called idolatry.

So many people stand ready to apologize (!) for believing some allegedly quirky archaic statements that are "obviously" not "really true" to an enlightened thinker. [How many 'sophisticated' Christians blush when an agnostic asks probing questions about New Testament references to the virgin birth, casting out demons, or walking on water?]

It is evidence of our own unbelief, and a hesitation to put our full confidence on the truth of His word. It illuminates lingering doubts that the detractors might be right. We are unwilling to seem like a knuckle-dragging idiot, and suspicious that we just might be one for believing it.

Jesus spoke about such things.

This is unbelief.
"An evil heart of unbelief," as Jesus termed it.

You need to repent of it. You Must.

And so must I.