Archive for Old testament

Fallen Angels

October 22, 2009 at 9:45 pm · Filed under New Testament, Old testament, evil ·Tagged , , ,

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Satan cast out of heaven by   Gustave Doré

 

Introduction

 
Last week we were thinking about angels. Yes, they do exist! They are real spiritual beings who surround the throne of God and are his messengers for mankind. Billy Graham refers to then as “God’s Secret Agents” in the world. But if this is the case, why then is there so much evil in the world? Why do ( to quote the poet Burns) “the best laid plans of mice, and men, gang aft agley” ?

Why is it that all the best utopian schemes to eradicate poverty, and to usher in world peace, and all the political solutions to the world’s problems fail, time and again? Why are we humans so ineffective at doing good?

Partly, we must admit, it’s our own fault. It’s the inherent selfishness and sin of mankind. But I think it goes further than that. Why, for example, does evil sometimes take such a personal and vindictive form? How can we understand such a man as Hitler, who had an insane hatred of the Jews?

The Bible writers ( the Prophets, and Evangelists, and Apostles ) and even Jesus himself, would answer that Satan and the fallen angels are behind all this. Evil is not just the absence of good. There is more to it than just the forces of decay and dissolution at work in the universe. 

No, evil is personal, and it is anti-God. There is an extremely powerful, malign being who hates God and his people and who does all in his power to thwart God’s purposes in the world. More than that, there are millions of such beings – devils, demons, evil spirits, fallen angels – call them what you will.

What then are these fallen angels? And since we are coming up to Hallowe’en, when many people will be concentrating on the occult, it might be a good thing now for us to think about them. After all, you have to know your enemy.

The Fallen Angels: their origin

Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve in Eden were tempted by the Serpent. Other passages of the Bible indicate that the Serpent is Satan. But how did Satan get there? Was not everything “good” when God created it? How did evil originate,  and how did Satan become evil?

Now we can not be dogmatic about this, but it seems obvious that if God created beings who could love him of their own free will then he would also have to allow the possibility of their not loving him. If they really are to love him freely they they also have the choice of rejecting him. He did not create them as robots.

This theme of the fall and rebellion of Satan and his followers is dealt with great poetic genius by Milton in Paradise Lost. It may read a bit like mythology in Milton but this idea is found in Scripture – the idea that some of the angels became evil.

For example

God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment. ( 2 Peter 2:4 )

and

The angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
( Jude 6 )

Nothing is said about what their sin actually was, but it is likely that they exalted themselves against God and aspired to the supreme authority. Satan, when he wanted to tempt Adam and Eve, used the same lure of selfish ambition and pride.

 

Their leader: the Devil

He appears in Scripture as the recognized head of the fallen angels. It seems that he was originally one of the highest princes of the angelic world. Perhaps he was the chief of all the angels. So when Satan led the rebellion against God, then Michael would have been promoted to Archangel ( see Revelation 12:7-12).

What titles are given to the Devil in Scripture?

Satan
This comes from the Hebrew “shatan”, which means “adversary”. This title emphasizes the fact that he is  the enemy of God and Man. That is why he caused the Fall of Man. That is why he attacked Jesus at the start of his ministry.

Apollyon
This comes from a Hebrew word meaning “destroyer”. Because he seeks to spoil all that is good and to destroy God’s works.

The Devil
This comes from the Greek word “diabolos”, which means “accuser” or “slanderer”. What the Devil does is, firstly to  tempt us to sin, and then secondly to accuse us of sinning! So we are tempted to wallow in our sins and to give up trying to be good. “May as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb”.

The Devil is the author of all those guilt feelings which don’t go away, even when we confess our sins. (It is interesting that it is also the work of the Holy Spirit to make us feel guilty – He convicts us of our sins. But when that happens we turn to Jesus and receive forgiveness. On the other hand, the guilt feelings that the Devil produces do not lead to salvation.)

The prince of this world
Or even “the god of  this world” ( 2 Corinthians 4:4)
 This doesn’t mean that Satan is in control of the world – simply that he has power over all who do not submit to God. After all, you don’t actually have to be a Devil-worshipper or Satanist to do the Devil’s work. All you have to do is to fail to love and serve God.

As “prince” or “god” ( note the small “g”) of this world Satan has tremendous power and knowledge, but he is not all-powerful and all-knowing. Only God is. Satan’s power is limited by God and will ultimately serve God’s purposes.

We see this pre-eminently in the events of the Crucifixion. It was Satan who entered into Judas and tempted him to betray Jesus. It was Satan who motivated the enemies of Jesus when they agitated for his death. It was Satan who brought Jesus to the Cross.

But in Gods sublime purpose that very Cross was turned from defeat to victory. Through that Cross Jesus saved the human race, and indeed brought liberation to the whole universe. For all his evil intentions Satan only succeeded in fulfilling God’s plan. How amazing and mind-boggling is that!

 

Fallen angels: their activities

It is instructive to contrast the good and bad angels.

  • The good ones perpetually praise God, the bad ones perpetually curse him
  • The good ones fight God’s battles, the bad ones oppose God.
  • The good angels carry God’s messages, the bad ones try to deceive God’s people.
  • The good protect God’s people, the bad bring harm on God’s people.

They have many ways of doing these things:

  • Demons can possess people, sometimes causing physical or mental illness.
  • They possess Spiritualist mediums, impersonating the dead in order to deceive people. They lead people into occult bondage.
  • They bind and imprison humans with the ropes of fear, despair, discouragement, sorrow, lusts and temptations.

All these are ways used by the Devil and his angels to destroy God’s work.

 

But we must remember that they are on the run! They are on the losing side, and they know their cause is hopeless. Even though they are chained to hell in pits of darkness ( Jude 6). As Calvin said, “Though as spirits they are not limited to one place, they drag their chains wherever they go.”

 

Fallen angels:  their downfall

In the Parable of the Strong Man ( Matthew 12:22-29 ) Jesus likened Satan to a tyrant who has to be overcome and bound before his house can be despoiled and his captives released. Jesus himself is the one who binds Satan by his victory on the Cross.

Yes, Satan was mortally wounded at Calvary, but he still thrashes about ( as Michael Green says). He is rather like a conger eel in a fishing boat.  It is dangerous for hours after it has been caught. If you go near it it will bite your foot.

So Satan and his angels refuse to lie down and die. They still seek to harm us. But when, by faith, we stand in the victory of Christ we can bind them. Some people indeed have a special ministry of binding evil spirits and releasing the captives.  But in a sense, all Christians can bind Satan and his cohorts. Whenever we take up the weapons of love and encouragement, of joy and trust in the word of God, whenever we hold up the shield of faith we are binding Satan – we are holding back his evil purposes.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.  ( Revelation 12: 12)

He knows he has a lost eternity. He is destined to be cast into the bottomless pit, with all his followers  ( Revelation 20:10).
All this might seem to be a bit scary. The activity of the fallen angels is frantic and their power is great ( for the time being). But we must remember that Christ and his angels have the final victory, and we shall share in that victory if we trust in Jesus.

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Angels

October 22, 2009 at 9:25 pm · Filed under New Testament, Old testament, worship ·Tagged , ,

 

depiction of a seraph from a mediaeval manuscript

“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” Hebrews 1: 14

 The other day I was walking past a little “New Age”-type shop in the town which often has dubious items in its window. (Some weeks ago there was a display of items connected with witchcraft – occult books, magic wands, crystal balls, etc.) What caught my eye the other day a was a display all about angels – or rather “Angel Therapy”. Apparently a lady by the unlikely name of Doreen Virtue has made this her speciality. She has cornered the market on “angels” and has written books about how you can contact your guardian angel and get help from them. You can buy special Angel Cards which are used rather like Tarot cards to tell fortunes.

I know that none of you would ever have anything to do with such occult rubbish as this. Don’t be misled by the word “Angels” – it really has nothing to do with the angels in the Bible, or not with the good ones anyway. (There are, of course, fallen angels or demonic spirits and it is far more likely to be connected with them.)

So realizing that such a thing as “Angel Therapy” is now quite popular in some circles I thought it was a good idea to look once again at what the Bible has to say about angels. (Looking into my sermon records I see it was eleven years ago when we last looked at this topic.)

People sometimes say, “Do you belive in angels?” And I feel like answering, “Yes, I believe in angels – but not necessarily the same as the angels you believe in. I depends what you mean by “angels”.

Well, what does the word “angel” conjure up for you? If you say someone is an angel you mean they are a very good person or a very caring person. Nurses are often called angels. If you say a little girl looks like an angel you probably mean she is pretty and has fair hair. If you say a child is an angel you mean they are well behaved.

For many people angels are confused with fairies. They don’t distinguish between the former which is a powerful spiritual being mentioned in the Bible and the latter which is entirely fictional. They think of some kind of delicate creature, usually female, with wings. Our ideas have been conditioned by illustrations in fairy-tale books, and by Christmas cards as well as by the paintings of the great masters of the renaissance period.

I think we may have to jettison all these ideas and go back to the Bible if we really want to know what angels are. Think for a moment: how would we react if an angel were to appear before us at this moment. Would we say, “Oh how lovely, how cute!” or would we be struck dumb with terror?

I would suggest the latter. Indeed, most times we read about angels in the Bible, the very first thing they have to say is, “Do not be afraid”. In the Bible people are always struck with awe at the appearance of a heavenly spiritual being.

Let’s try to answer some questions about angels:

 

What is an angel?

Our text says that they are ministering spirits sent to help God’s people. They are also described as fellow-servants with us humans ( Revelation 22:8).

The word Angel comes from “Angelos” in Greek, which means simply a messenger. The Hebrew word is Malak, and that also means messenger.

Here is a dictionary definition: “Angel: a messenger of God, familiar with him face to face, and therefore of an order of being higher than that of man.”

Angels are created beings, just as we are, but holy and uncorrupted. They are moral beings – pure spirits who worship God freely. No wonder that people are always terrified when they meet an angel! Angels shine with some of the glory of God himself. They bring to us a touch of his holiness. Sometimes they are called Seraphs or “burning ones” – a reminder to us of the fact that our God is a consuming fire ( Hebrews 12:29).

As purely spiritual beings, angels exist on another plane than ours. They inhabit another spiritual dimension. But Jesus tells us at the Resurrection we shall be like the angels. We shall be raised with a new spiritual body ( 1 Corinthians 15) and we shall share in the incorruptible life of eternity.

 

What do they look like?

Who knows? As purely spiritual beings angels are not visible to us. How they appear to one another we do not know, but when they manifest themselves to us they usually take human form.

Now, if we base our ideas of angels on works of art, or Christmas cards, or children’s nativity plays we might they are delicate, fairy-like, female creatures. (It’s always the little girls who get to play the angels in the nativity play – never the little boys!) But in the Bible, on every occasion the angel appears in the form of a man, with or without wings. In Mark 16:5, for example, we read of a “young man in a white robe” appearing at he tomb of the risen Jesus. On other occasions the angel is always referred to as “he”.

As far as I know ther is only one reference in the Bible to angels taking a female form, and that was in a vision or dream. The prophet Zechariah had a vision of two angelic creatures in the form of women with wings like those of a stork (Zechariah 5:9).

However, although may use a masculine personal pronoun when speaking of an angel but that does not mean they are men. Because angels are without a biological body they do not have a gender – you do not think of them as male or female.

As for the idea of angels having wings, this seems to have come from Isaiah’s vision of the seraphim crying “Holy, holy, holy!”

“I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:1-3)

It is interesting to note that they had six wings, not two. Why then are angels usually depicted as creatures with two wings?

 

What do angels do?

One of their tasks is to bring messages from God. Sometimes messages of good news and sometimes messages of judgement, or of warning. Sometime it is a summons to action: “Get up, get going!” For example:

· to Gideon: “Arise and go in thy might”.

· to Elijah: “Arise and eat”.

· to Joseph of Nazareth: “Go quickly”.

· to Philip: “Arise and go”.

It’s all a bit monotonous really – but then, a fire alarm is monotonous!

Sometimes the angels help God’s people in times of trouble. For example, when Elijah was worn out and depressed after the contest on Mount Carmel, the Angel of the Lord came and strengthened him.

Some angels watch over Gods people and preserve them from harm. These are known as guardian angels. In Daniel 10 we read that each a nation has its guardian angel. And Jesus refers to the guardian angels of children: “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10 )

According to Hebrews 2, the angels were active in the giving of the Law to Moses.

In the Book of Revelation it is the angels who will execute God’s final judgement.

 

How many angels are there?

Perhaps God only knows the answer to that one. There must be far more than we can imagine – Daniel 7: speaks of “myriads upon myriads”. But their number is still finite: only God is infinite.

 

How may different types are there?

Again we do not really know, but we do read of various types of angels in the Bible:

 

Cherubs (or Cherubim)

The image suggested by the word cherub is probably of a chubby, red cheeked child. That is how cherubs are depicted in the paintings of Raphael and other Renaissance artists. This image owes more to the pagan Roman Cupid than to the Bible.

Cherubs in the Bible are very different. They are the angels who guard God’s presence. Two statues of cherubs were placed above the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies.

When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden cherubim prevented them from returning: “So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 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.” ( Genesis 3:24)

 

Seraphs (or Seraphim)

These seem to have a similar role to cherubim and they also worship God without ceasing.

We have already referred to guardian angels.

 

Destroying angels

At various times in the history of Israel God would bring his judgement upon the nation and send his destroying angel. The Angel of the Lord Very often the angel sent by God is referred to in these terms.

Sometimes the Angel of the Lord even seems to be a manifestation of God himself – a pre-incarnation manifestation of God the Son or an appearance of the Holy Spirit. If this is so then we are not talking of an angel here but of God himself.

 

Angel Gabriel

According to Jewish tradition there are four archangels: Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and Uriel. But in the Bible only the first two are named, and only Michael is said to be an Archangel.

 

Archangel Michael

He is the guardian angel of the people of Israel.

Reference is made in several places to various ranks of angels, but we haven’t got time to go into these now.

And then there are the fallen angels: Satan and his demons. This will be the subject of another sermon.

But going back to the good angels:

 

How do they work?

Once again we don’t really know. Often their ministry is secret and invisible. Billy graham has written a book entitled “Angels: God’s Secret Agents”. There are many instances, even today, when people have had food provided apparently miraculously, or have been saved from danger by what seems to be angelic intervention.

Only on occasions of supreme significance in the history of our salvation do angels reveal themselves. For example: in the life of Jesus. Angels ministered at his birth, his temptation, at the Garden of Gethsemane, at the Resurrection and at the Ascension.

 

Why are angels so often unseen?

Perhaps it is because if we could see them we would be tempted to worship them, as John was in the Book of Revelation:

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!” ( Revelation 22:8-9 )

In the Early Church there were some groups who worshipped angels. The Letter to the Hebrews was written to combat this heresy. In it the writer compares Christ to the angels and stresses his superiority over them.

 

Why do people so often misrepresent angels?

Why do they persist in seeing angel as fairy-like creatures? It’s surely because every picture they have seen in the media, in books, in popular art has been influenced by the art of the renaissance. This in turn has come down from images of Greek and Roman Pagan gods in classical art. If people read the Bible they would have a much better idea of what angels are.

 

Conclusion

Why should we think about angels? You might be thinking, “This is all a bit theoretical. What practical help is it to the Christian life?” A great deal, I would say.

Angels are holy and awesome beings who reflect God’s holiness and power. Read all the passages in the Bible about angels and you will inevitably be led to think about God’s holiness and to worship him.

Too often we let our worship sink to the merely human, mundane level. But we don’t just come to church to feel better, or to be entertained, or to meet people. We come to worship and honour God.

Often nowadays, in many churches in Wales, it is a small group of ten or less people gathering to worship. For them it is a great source of encouragement to know that the glory of God in worship does not depend on the number of people attending. However small our congregation we know we are joined by countless millions of angels in our worship of God. Let us be encouraged as we remind ourselves that our faith is not just of this world.

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“The heavens declare”

September 25, 2009 at 7:19 pm · Filed under God the Father, Old testament ·Tagged , , ,

 

Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.           ( Psalm 19 :1 )

Perhaps these words remind you of the famous chorus from Haydn’s Creation. They are from Psalm 19, a great song of praise to God for his creation and for his law. I want us to think about this psalm today.

Now, the psalms are perhaps the greatest example of Hebrew poetry. Even when they are translated into other languages, such as English, we can still hear the poetry in them. How is it possible then to preach a sermon on a psalm?  I’ve always found it difficult and have not often attempted to do so.

This is because the last thing we want to do is to dissect the psalm, to analyze it minutely, to cut the soul out of it. To turn the most beautiful poetry into dry-as-dust precepts and theology. And whatever I say about the psalm will never compare with the sublimity of the original, or even with the English or Welsh translations. The best we can hope to do is to use our imagination a a little,  to see the background of the psalm. What did it mean to the person who wrote it, and what can it mean to us today?

 
A Psalm of David

First  we note that it was written by David. He had been a shepherd boy and had spent a great deal of time out-of-doors. He had looked up to the sky and seen magnificent cloud fortresses illuminated by shafts of light from the Sun. As he settled his sheep in the fold he gazed up at the night sky. He wondered at the stars and moon as he lay down to sleep under the sky.

In the morning he arose and  the Sun’s beams warmed his chilled bones  – bringing new life to him. He meditated on the power and warmth of the Sun. David then led his flock out to the pasture and sat down on a great rock from which he could watch them. Then he took up his harp and sang  a hymn to God. He felt the rock beneath him, solid and dependable, and he realised that God was like that rock. He was reliable – David could trust in him.

He sang, “The Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.  His words and his laws are perfect – they bring joy and life to my soul.” To his mind God’s laws were like the rays of he Sun penetrating everywhere and bringing life. Lighting the path ahead and showing the way. Warming the soul and comforting.

David meditated on his inner life. He realised that he had made mistakes,  and more than that, he had committed sins. God’s Law shone right into his very heart. David prayed that sin would not rule over him.

Once again he took up his harp and he sang a new song to God. He gathered all his thoughts together in the words of this psalm and sang it to the Lord. He ended with these words:
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer”.

Well, we’ve been using a bit of imagination. I don’t know whether these really were the circumstances in which this psalm was written, but they might have been.

Here is another version of this psalm put into simple English for those who do not speak it as their first language. It can also help us to get a fresh view of the psalm:

 

An EasyEnglish Translation on Psalm 19

           (This is) a song of David for the music leader.

     The heavens are telling us about the glory of God.
     The sky is showing the things that his hands have made.

     One day pours out the story to another day.
     One night tells the next night what it knows.

     (But) they do not use words and have no languages.
     Nobody hears their voice.

     (Yet) what they say goes into all the earth.
     Their words go to the ends of the world.
     God has made a home for the sun (in the sky).

     The sun comes out from his home like a bridegroom.
     He is very happy to run fast, like a very strong man.

     His sunrise is at one end of the heavens.
     He travels in a big circle to the other end.
     Nothing can hide from the heat of the sun.

     The book of the LORD is wonderful.
     It makes people feel alive again.
     We can trust what the LORD tells us.
     He points out the way when we are not sure of it.

     What the LORD tells us to do is always right.
     It makes us feel happy deep down inside us.
     What the LORD commands us is pure.
     It makes our eyes shine with new light.

     The fear of the LORD is a clean fear.
     It will always remain with us.
     Every word that the LORD says is true.
     Every one of them is righteous.

    They are of more value than gold,
     even a lot of pure gold.
     They are sweeter than honey,
     even the best honey that bees make.

     Also, they are a guide to your servant.
     Good things come if he obeys them.

     Who can know when he has made mistakes?
     Forgive me all my secret sins.

     Also, stop your servant from wanting to sin.
     Do not let sin rule over me.
     Then nobody will say that I did wrong.
     I will be clean (because you help me).
     I will not do anything very bad.

     Lord, I want everything that I say to make you happy.
     I want all my thoughts to please you.
     You are my Rock and you are my Redeemer.

 (  For information on this translation see  www.easyenglish.info  )

 

The God of nature and the Lord of Israel

This Psalm divides into two sections. In the first part  ( v1-6) David speaks of the glory of God as shown in the skies. He uses the name  El  for God. This is the general Hebrew word for a god – any god. It could be used of a pagan god. Or it could be used for God himself. ( Just as we use the words “God” and “god” in English.)

But from verse 7 onward the psalm changes gear. David talks about the Law and he refers to God as the Lord. This is the Hebrew name Yahweh ( or Jehovah) – it is the personal name God revealed to Moses from the burning bush. It is God’s covenant name – the name he uses when he is in a relationship with people. Yahweh, Jehovah, The Lord (as we usually translate it in English).

“The heavens declare the glory of God, but God’s Law reveals even more – his personal voice to his chosen people. He introduces himself to them by his first name, as it were.”
(From the Student Bible. Philip Yancy and Tim Stafford.  ISBN 0-340-41078-7 )

 

The glory of God

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
It was true in those days and its even truer today. The more we mere mortals look into the universe the more we are astounded at the immensity and beauty of it all. When we turn our telescopes at the sky we see distant galaxies shining with incandescent gas. We see rings round Saturn and moons orbiting Mars and Jupiter. We see amazing craters on the moon. We marvel at it all and we say, “Truly God is great, who created all this!”

You don’t need to know about the God of the Bible to be able to say that. You might never have seen a  Bible or heard of Jesus but you can still see the evidence for God the Creator. Only fools says there is no God.  ( Psalm 14 )

And the Apostle says: 
“Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”  ( Roman 1:20 )

The heavens declare the glory of God

Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
here is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
(Psalm 19:2-4)

Although there are no audible words their voice is heard in every nation. The Sun, David says, shows God’s glory and its warmth penetrates everywhere. Without the Sun there would be no life on earth.

We talk about solar power as if it were something new. But we’ve all been living off solar power since time began!  If we burn wood in our grate then that  is just solar power stored by a tree. We may burn coal or oil to fire our power stations and use petrol in our cars but these fossil fuels are just solar power which has been stored away for vast periods of time.
We depend on the Sun for physical life and we depend on God’s truth for spiritual life. This is where the psalm changes gear.

 

The Law of the Lord

Yahweh’s Law is what revives the soul. It brings wisdom, joy, illumination. it warns of wrong paths and it shows the right path to take. For David it was the Law of Moses – the first five books of the Bible. That’s all he had. Yet he found that Law was able to bring light and joy to  his soul. We have so much more – the prophets, the psalms, proverbs, historic books – and that’s just the Old Testament. Then on top of that we have the gospels about Jesus and the writings of his Apostles.

The Bible shows us the way to live and it points us to Jesus, our Redeemer

David, as he reflected on God’s Law, became aware of his inward sins. He realised that it’s not just the outward things that matter.

Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
(Psalm 19: 12,13 )

He knew that God was his Rock and Redeemer.

 
Conclusion

What about us?  Do we know God as our Rock, our Redeemer? Do we know Jesus as the Saviour who brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light? He made it possible for our inward sins and faults to be forgiven.
 
If we can say the pagans had no excuse for rejecting the true God, what excuse do we have if we reject God, when we have the full revelation of himself in his Son Jesus. He is our Rock and Redeemer.

(Reflections on David the shepherd boy in this sermon were suggested by EasyEnglish commentary on Psalm 19 .   See    www.easyenglish.info    )

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“If my people”

September 18, 2009 at 7:21 pm · Filed under Christian living, Old testament, Prayer ·Tagged , , ,

2 Chronicles 7:11-22

Do you get depressed about the news – I know I do sometimes. Often it is nothing but a litany of murders, rapes, child abuse, violent robberies, financial scams, cynical exploitation of the poor and weak, marital unfaithfulness, sexual promiscuity, teenage pregnancies, homosexuality, drug abuse, binge drinking. All these things seem to be on the increase – not to mention the economic downturn and the problems of unemployment and debt. All these ills are but symptoms of the malaise of our society and it seems to get worse year by year. Of course, their has always been crime and humans have always been sinful. But there were in place in the past stern codes of morality and standards of behaviour based on the Ten Commandments which helped to hold back the worst effects of sin.

And then the state of the church is not promising. I ask myself, “Will there be a Presbyterian Church of Wales in ten or fifteen years time. I do remember asking this question 20 years ago! Well we are still here – but only just. There has been a steady decline in the membership of our denomination over the last 20 years or so. The fact the the decline is slow must not blind us to the truth that it is happening. Just as the decline of the Roman Empire took place over several centuries, so it is with our church and with our society.

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”   ( Matthew  5:13)

If God’s people in the church lose their “saltiness”, what then will be the state of society?

 

Complacency

We might think that just because Wales has a Christian heritage we will never lose our chapels and churches. After all, we are known as the Land of Revivals. God would surely never allow his church to disappear from Wales.  But on what basis do we say this? History  shows us that the churches in Asia Minor ( which were the first Christian churches  outside Palestine and had been established by the Apostle Paul) vanished when Islam took over that area. They had become corrupt and they were not able to stand up to the onslaught of militant Islam. Today in Turkey there are very few native Christians.

The same is true for the churches  of North Africa which were centres of theological scholarship in the time of Saint Augustine. Now they are no more – also destroyed by Islam.  this should be a warning to us in Wales.  Christianity can die out in a country and it will be replaced by something else. In Wales it might be materialistic Atheism that takes over, or New Age spirituality perhaps.

The ancient Israelites had the same kind of  misconception about he Temple and the city of Jerusalem. They thought that because it had been established by God it could never be destroyed. God would surely never allow his Temple to be removed – no matter how badly his people behaved. The prophets spoke out against this complacent attitude, this false hope, but the people took no notice. So it was a severe shock to the nation when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed the Temple and took the people off into exile!

 

God’s promise

Our reading take us a lot further back than those times -  right to the reign of Solomon, to the time when the Temple itself was built.  When the Temple was dedicated Solomon offered a long prayer to God (you can read it in 1 Chronicles chapter six)  in which he prayed that God would bless the nation and make his dwelling  in that place.

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
(2 Chronicles 7:1 )

And God answered. He spoke to Solomon in a vision at night. And God made a promise to Solomon concerning the nation of Israel.  It’s a promise we can also take hold of,  for under the New Covenant all who believe in the Messiah are part of the Israel of God.
 
This was the promise:

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”        (2 Chronicles 7:14 )

I believe this promise from God shows us the way out of our current plight. It shows how God can revive and renew his people. It shows how he can heal our nation and bring us back to himself.

Why do we not see revival in Wales, the Land of Revivals?  Well here, in these verses, we see three conditions for revival. Or rather, three hinderances we must get rid of. The three hinderances are:

  • Pride
  • Prayerlessness
  • Perversity

Let’s look at them:

 
1) Pride

“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves.”
(2 Chronicles 7:14 )
 
These people need to become humble. But who are we talking about? Who are God’s people. In the Old Testament they were the people of Israel.  They were called by his name – they were Israel and he was the God of Israel. Their behaviour would reflect for good or bad upon the God of Israel

We also are called by his name. Jesus is the Christ and we are Christians – followers of Jesus  Christ.  And our lives will reflect on Christ himself. People will see the way we live and decide on that basis whether or not they want to have anything to do with Christ.

Yes, we are called by his name and this verse says we must  humble ourselves.

Why is lack of humility – pride – singled out here as the main sin? Pride was the original sin of mankind – and of Satan himself. It was pride that led to the building of the Tower of Babel.  It is pride that separates people from God and from one another. It is pride that lead to wars and strife.

(We are not talking here about the justifiable sense of pride that one might have in one’s country, one’s school or one’s work, but rather the pride of arrogance. The pride that thinks it is better than everyone else. The pride that sets itself against God himself.)

And perhaps spiritual pride is the worst – as with the Pharisees in the time of Jesus who thought they were alright. They prided themselves on their good works – when in fact they were spiritually poor. They were in a worse spiritual state than the very people they despised – the tax gatherers and sinners.

We must turn from that kind of pride and humble ourselves before God.

 
2) Prayerlessness

“and pray and seek my face.”  ( 2 Chronicles 7:14 )

The most important thing of all is our relationship with God. It’s not just a matter of saying prayers, reciting set forms of words. It’s about being open to God and dependant on God, or rather,  realising our dependence on him.

No revival ever came to the Church without a lot of prayer beforehand. People had been praying for decades prior to the 1904 revival that there would be a spiritual awakening in Wales. Evan Roberts, the leader of that revival, himself had spent about ten years in fervent,  persistent  prayer before the revival came.  It wasn’t a matter of his personality and gifts -  it was the working of the Spirit of God.

So God’s people must humble themselves, and pray, and develop their relationship with him, before there can be any revival of the church. And without revival there will be no Christian Church in Wales in 50 years time.

 
3) Perversity

 
 (I’ve chosen this word purely to allow an alliterative scheme! What I am really thinking about is sin.)

“If my people … will seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven  …”   ( 2 Chronicles 7:14 )

God’s people must turn from their wicked ways. Not just the people of the world, but those who are called by his name. This means that we are to live lives which glorify God.

Once again we think of the words of Jesus:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”  ( Matthew  5:13 )

If we are not “salty” then we will not be able to restrain corruption in our society. Ask yourself this question: “Is my life any different from that of any respectable member of society who is not a Christian?”  It ought to be  different. There should be some elements in our life which are only there because we are followers of Jesus. We are called to be more loving, more kind, more generous, more moral, and more honest than the people of the world.

In a sense we are responsible for the state of our nation. Had we shone brighter as  lights, had our salt not lost its savour, our society might not have got into the state it is in now.   In the Old Testament we read of Daniel praying for the nation (Daniel Chapter 9 ). He identifies with the nation completely and confesses the sins committed by the nation  -  sins of idolatry and contempt of God’s laws. Daniel has not committed these sins himself but he confesses them to God on behalf of the nation. Perhaps we need to pray  for our nation in this way.

There are also many sins which can be found among church-going people which are a hindrance to revival coming to the church.  Among them are sexual immorality, dishonesty, and a bitter unforgiving spirit towards others.

 Revivals are always preceded by people putting things right with God and with those around them. Confessing their faults, making reparation when they can, seeking to be reconciled with their neigbour.

 
Conclusion

This verse sets out the conditions for revival, but it also gives promises when these conditions are fulfilled. The promises are of reconciliation and restoration.

 

1) Reconciliation to God

“Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin …”
 (2 Chronicles 7:14 )

Once we have repented, confessed our sins to God and put our trust in Jesus who died for us, then we know peace with God. Our conscience is clear and our communion with him is restored.

 
2) Restoration of our land

“Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
 ( 2 Chronicles 7:14 )

God promises to heal our land,  that is, to help to put right our social ills. There is no doubt that past revivals have brought healing to our land. They have always been followed by a wave of social reforms and an increase  in righteousness.

“Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
( Proverbs 14:34 )

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
( 2 Chronicles 7:14 )

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Days of Elijah: some Old Testament heroes

July 28, 2009 at 10:36 am · Filed under Old testament, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , , , , ,

 

 

( Talk given at a Family Service. The names of the heroes were presented on a board using the technique of “ladder writing” with a paint brush.)

Sing Hymn,  “Days Of Elijah”,  by Robin Mark ( Songs of Fellowship No. 1047 )

These are the days of Elijah,
Declaring the word of the Lord:
And these are the days of Your servant Moses,
Righteousness being restored.
And though these are days of great trial,
Of famine and darkness and sword,
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord!’

Behold He comes riding on the clouds,
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call;
Lift your voice, it’s the year of jubilee,
And out of Zion’s hill salvation comes.

These are the days of Ezekiel,
The dry bones becoming as flesh;
And these are the days of Your servant David,
Rebuilding a temple of praise.
These are the days of the harvest,
The fields are as white in Your world,
And we are the labourers in Your vineyard,
Declaring the word of the Lord!


Let us think about these four Old Testament heroes:

 
ELIJAH

Elijah was a great man of God he lived at a time when the Israelites were turning away from the true God to worship all kinds of false gods. The chief of the pagan gods was Baal. And there were hundreds of priests of Baal in the land, all supported by King Ahab and his evil wife Jezabel. One day God told Elijah to go and see King Ahab so he went and challenged him to a contest. “Let’s see who is the true god. Gather together all the prophets of Baal and of the goddess Asherah and come to meet me on the top of Mount Carmel.

On the mountain Elijah said to the people, “How long will you limp along with two opinions? If the Lord is God follow him,   if Baal is god follow him!
Let’s see which god can answer by fire.  Let’s build two altars and put a sacrificial animal on both. You pray to your god and I’ll pray to mine. The god who sends fire down from heaven to burn up the sacrifice is the true God.

So the prophets of Baal started praying to their god. All day long they cried  out, “O Baal hear us!”  They ranted and raved, they went into trances, they even gashed themselves with swords and spears. But their god did not answer them. Then it was Elijah’s turn – all alone,  surrounded by 850 pagan prophets. He gave orders that the altar and the whole sacrifice should be soaked in water. Eventually it was saturated.  (It would have to be some fire if it was going to burn up that!)

Then Elijah prayed. He simply asked God that he would send fire and prove he was the true God. No ritual, no dancing, and certainly no slashing himself with a sword!

And God answered! There was a sudden bolt of lighting from the sky and the whole sacrifice was incinerated. Even the stones were destroyed. And all the water was evaporated. All the people bowed down and worshipped the Lord.

 So Elijah was used by God to restore the true worship of God in Israel.

These are the days of Elijah,
Declaring the word of the Lord

God calls us to do that today – like Elijah.

 

MOSES
Moses was used by God to bring the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt. God did many mighty deeds through Moses, parting the Red Sea, etc.  And God gave him the Ten Commandments, the Law for his people. To show them how they should live their lives.

We also are called by Jesus to shine out with good deeds.

Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

 And these are the days of Your servant Moses,
Righteousness being restored.
And though these are days of great trial,
Of famine and darkness and sword,
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord!’

 

 EZEKIEL

Perhaps we don’t think of him as a hero, but Ezekiel spoke God’s words to the Jews when they were in exile in Babylon. They were very discouraged and so was Ezekiel. And God gave him a wonderful vision to encourage the nation.

There was this valley full of dry bones – the bones of a mighty army that had been slain. God told Ezekiel to prophecy, to ask the Wind to come from the four corners and to breath into the bones. He did this, and then he saw, before his eyes, the bones being covered with flesh and skin. But they were still dead. God told him to prophecy a second time, to ask the Wind or Spirit to come and breath life into them. He did so and they came alive and rose to their feet – a mighty army!

This vision was given to encourage the people of the Jews. God was going to bring the nation back to life. he was going to revive them and bring them back from exile. The Wind, or Breath, is the Spirit of God.

We are called today to pray for God to send his Spirit in fresh power, to give new life to his church. We feel like dried up bones but he can make us vibrant and alive for Jesus.

These are the days of Ezekiel,
The dry bones becoming as flesh

 
DAVID

David was a shepherd boy who became a king. As a lad he defeated Goliath through  his trust in God. He wrote psalms of praise to God and accompanied himself on a harp as he sang. As king in Jerusalem he started to get ready the materials to build the first Temple of the Lord.  (Actually it was his son Solomon who built it,  but David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, ready for the building of the Temple.)

And these are the days of Your servant David,
Rebuilding a temple of praise.

We are called to build a Temple of praise to God with our worship, and to go out and bring in others.

These are the days of the harvest,
The fields are as white in Your world,
And we are the labourers in Your vineyard,
Declaring the word of the Lord!

Behold He comes riding on the clouds,
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call;
Lift your voice, it’s the year of jubilee,
And out of Zion’s hill salvation comes.

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In the beginning

July 20, 2009 at 7:56 pm · Filed under God the Father, Old testament ·Tagged , ,

See full size image

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam and Eve cast out of the Garden of Eden

 

( Sermon preached in the Brecon Presbyterian Church in 2005)

 

Introduction

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”.

These are possibly the most important words in the whole Bible. They tell us that the world did not just come about by chance – that there is an intelligent and creative mind behind it all. These first chapters of Genesis are at the centre of controversy between the Fundamentalists who would insist it must all be taken absolutely literally and those who would want to see how these chapters relate to the findings of science. For example, geologists studing rock strata have deduced that fossils are the remains of creatures that flourished millions of years ago – how does that fit in with the seven days of Creation? 
 
I’m not going into that controversy now except to say that personally I tend towards the scientific approach. We could spend hours discussing the interpretation of these chapters and still miss the point. The message is the important thing here. What does Genesis teach us about God, about the world, about human nature? It conveys profound truths in a few words. The first chapters of Gen. undergird the  whole Judeo-Christian outlook, which is so different from that of other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. 

 

God alone 

(v1) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
  – it teaches that there is one God, that he existed before the world and that he created all that is. Also, in the way that it speaks of him, it implies that he is a rational being who thinks and speaks. Indeed it is through his words that he creates the world. 
 
 (v3-4) And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.
God first made the light. This is more than just a reference to that electromagnetic radiation that stimulate our optic nerves. Perhaps it means energy in general but surely it also refers to light in a spiritual sense. For God always shines his light into the darkness of our souls -

“For God , who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of  God in the face of Christ”.   (2 Cor. 4:6)

The next few verses of Genesis tell us how God spoke and things came into being.  “Stuff happened!”  He didn’t have to make it out of anything – he created it out of nothing. 

 He made a world with all things in order – Sun, Moon, Earth, land, sea, plants and animals. God made all things and gave them all the means of existence and sustenance.  God: the giver of all. To him we owe our very existence. We are required to worship him. 

 

 Caedmon’s Hymn

 Now let me praise the keeper of Heaven’s kingdom,
   the might of the Creator, and his thought,
 the work of the Father of glory, how each of wonders
   the Eternal Lord established in the beginning.

 He first created for the sons of men
   Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator,
 then Middle-earth the keeper of mankind,
   the Eternal Lord, afterwards made,
 the earth for men, the Almighty Lord.
(C7th. Old English poem)

 

Mankind 

God said, “let’s make human beings”.
(Gen. 2:7)  the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

 We are indeed made from the dust – from the materials of the earth. Take a handful of  soil and analyse its elements chemically. You will find carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, iron, calcium, magnesium and numerous other elements. Take the same amount of human tissue and analyse it and you will find the same elements. We are made up of the same materials as the earth. And when we die and decay those elements are released back to the earth to be recycled by nature.
“For dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Gen. 3: 19).

 

Breath of God 

 The animals and plants are also made of the same elements but God breathed life into man. Not just the life that all animals have but a divine breath. So there is that divine spark in every human being. 
(Gen 1: 26) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,
-this is is another way of saying the same thing.
 
    So God created man in his own image,  in the image of God he created him;   male and female he created them.
 - male and female – both in God’s image. They were created equal. It is only the fall and the coming of sin that has introduced inequality. 

 

Stewardship 

(Gen.1: 28)   God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God put them in charge of creation.  With their intelligence they have the power to dominate all other species. But what use will they make of this power? Will they rule kindly and justly? Or will they exploit and ravage the world of its resources? Will they mistreat the lower species and abuse them? Will they ruin the environment in which they have been placed by God? I don’t think that I need to answer that question!

In the beginning, though, all was right – man and woman were in harmony with their environment and God gave them work to do.

 (Gen. 2: 15.)  The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Human beings were made to to work – not to be idle. But the work that they were given in the beginning was not irksome toil, it was profitable and creative. It was the task of nurturing, tending, caring, improving the Garden of Eden. Work was never intended to be drudgery in the beginning – that is a consequence of man’s sin and fall. 
 

The Fall

Gen 3 tells how this Fall came about. It was the results of listening to the Evil One. It was the results of doubting the goodness of God. 
Gen. 3: 4 – 5 -  “You will not surely die”, the Serpent said to the woman, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”     In other words, “God’s just a spoilsport!”

So they listened to the evil One, they took the fruit, and suddenly they realised they were naked. They hid from God in the bushes. Now what was there to be ashamed of? It wasn’t the nakedness itself – it was the disobedience that they were ashamed of. There’s nothing sinful in a naked human body in itself but there is something deeply sinful in disobeying and distrusting God .

 

Banned from the Garden

So they were cast out of the Garden and had to make their way in the hard world with toil and suffering.  Immediately everything is messed up. Work is now irksome drudgery.

·  Humans are out of joint with the universe now. No longer are they in harmony with their environment. They start to spoil it and to exploit it.

·  They are out of joint with one another too. Even when they are still in the garden the first thing we see after the Fall is a domestic quarrel. God says to Adam, “What have you done?” Adam says, “She did it, it was her fault!” The woman says, “It was the serpent’s fault!” So this fatal tendency to blame others for our own faults began in the Garden of Eden. 
 
·  Man is now also out of joint with himself  – he becomes a restless being who can find no inner peace.  That can only come if he can get God back at the centre of his life.

·  He is completely out of harmony with God  – and this is the worst effect of his sin, for God is the source of life.  Adam and Eve have shut themselves off from God – they will die.

 
Conclusion 

 But I can’t end this sermon on a negative note. For, after all, we know the Good News:  how one of Eve’s descendants, Jesus Christ, has defeated that old Serpent Satan. He has overcome death.

·  He has dealt with the problem of sin and guilt. He has opened the way to put as right with God.

·  And he has made it possible to know inner peace.

·  He has made it possible for there to be reconciliation and forgiveness among the warring tribes of earth.

·  He has shown as the way of unselfishness so that we can be better stewards of the world’s resources and creatures. By his Cross and Resurrection Jesus has undone the work of the Evil One and reversed the effects of the Fall. Glory be to his name! 
 
But to understand and appreciate what Jesus has done for us we first need to realise the depths to which we have sunk. And the first chapters of Genesis tell us. They tell us who God is, who we are, and what we are really like, and they point us forward to Jesus the Saviour.

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The Prayer of Jabez

June 27, 2009 at 10:48 am · Filed under Old testament, Prayer ·Tagged , , ,

 

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And God granted his request.  (1 Chronicles 4:10 )

Some years ago I was in a Christian bookshop in Cardiff, browsing the shelves, when I saw something that caught my attention – “Prayer of Jabez Plaque”. I thought, “Whatever is that?” I looked at it, read the prayer on it from 1 Chronicles 4, and thought, “That’s nice”. Then I looked around and saw a whole shelf of merchandise linked to this prayer of Jabez – book-marks, plaques, key rings – all sorts of things. I thought, “There’s something going on here.” Little did I realise that this was the biggest thing in Christian publishing and merchandising for a long time.

 

Prayer of Jabez coffee mug!

 

How strange! Until recently, hardly anyone had heard of Jabez. All we know of him is in a few verses in 1 Chronicles. Now he has suddenly become the centre of a vast enterprise .  Bruce Wilkinson is the man behind it all. He wrote a book on the Prayer of Jabez which became an international best-seller, topping the New York Times best-seller list and selling nine million copies. It has been embraced by Evangelicals, Catholics, Fundamentalists, and even by non-christians!

 

A prayer or a mantra?

Here is the full text of this prayer from 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

Jabez was more honourable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, I gave birth to him in pain. Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And God granted his request.

 
A recipe for success?

Bruce Wilkinson has taken this simple prayer from the Old Testament and used it as a basis for a whole philosophy of life.  I think I can see why  this  is so popular, and why so many people use the Prayer of Jabez as a kind of good luck charm.

The Jabez Prayer is a cry to God for success and to be delivered from pain and evil. It is very natural to want to pray this kind of prayer. (And Jesus did tell us to pray to be delivered from evil.) But some people see the prayer of Jabez as a recipe for success in life -  and not just spiritual success. Jabez prayed that God would increase his territory and God answered his prayer. Some people think in terms of increasing their material wealth.

 
Vain repetition?

Jesus did teach his disciples to pray for their daily needs, as well as for God’s Kingdom to come, and that they might be delivered form the power of the Evil One. So it’s not wrong to pray, asking things for yourself. But Jesus also warned his disciples against using any prayer  as a kind of mantra – something you repeat over and over again, hoping it will bring success.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.   Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.       (Matthew 6:7-8)

The trouble with much of the literature associated with the Jabez Prayer is that it encourages people to do just that. To keep repeating the same prayer over and over.

 
A formula for blessing?

In the preface to his book Wilkinson writes:
“I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always answers. It is brief – only one sentence with four parts – and tucked away in the Bible, but I  believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God … I challenge you to make the Jabez prayer for blessing part of the daily fabric of your life. To do that I encourage you to follow unwaveringly the plan outlined here for he next thirty days. By the end of that time you’ll be noticing significant changes in your life, and the prayer will be on its way to becoming a treasured lifelong habit.”

In other words, the claim is  that if we just pray the Prayer of Jabez, word for word, every day for a month, then we’ll see Gods power released in our lives. Was it that Jabez stumbled upon the right formula for asking things of God? I don’t think so -  prayer is not a matter of getting a technique right. Prayer is all about our relationship with God. It’s a matter of learning to wait on God and to experience his help and power in our lives. The working of that power might indeed bring worldly success and wealth, but then it is just as likely to involve a life of poverty or persecution. Indeed, to judge by the general tenor of Jesus’ teaching, you could say it is more likely to be the latter.

 

 

A pattern of prayer

Now, I’ve been negative so far in what I’ve said about how some people use the Prayer of Jabez but I don’t want to give the impression there is anything wrong with the actual prayer itself.  Far from it, it is a gem  of a  prayer, and all the more precious in that it is set in the midst of all these dry-as-dust genealogies in 1 Chronicles!

I think that for many of us, brought up in the Presbyterian Church, nurtured in a Calvinistic way of looking at things, there is no danger of getting bogged down in prosperity teaching. The danger is the opposite. Perhaps some of us have been taught to believe that it is wrong and selfish to pray for ourselves, that you should never ask things for your own benefit. I have heard that view expressed. Well, the Jabez Prayer can perhaps help us to see that it is not wrong to ask things for ourselves. ( Although we should be able to see this from the Lord’s Prayer.) If we put God first in our lives surely we do have the right to believe that he will provide all that is needful for us to serve him.
What then can we learn from the Prayer of Jabez?

 
1) Jabez was more honourable than his brothers

The word could mean more “distinguished”, or even more “honoured”, than his brothers. However I think it might mean that he had a greater concern for the honour of God. He asked great things from he Lord because he believed that the Lord was  a great God.

Once there was a philosopher in the court of Alexander the great. He was of outstanding ability, but was very poor. So he asked Alexander for financial help, and was told to draw whatever he needed from the Imperial Treasury. So he asked the treasurer for an amount equal to about £30,000 in our money. Of course the the treasurer refused. But Alexander said, “Pay the money at once. This man has done me a singular honour. By the largeness of his request he shows that he has understood both my wealth and my generosity.”
One hymn writer says:

Thou art coming to a King;
Large petitions with thee bring.
For his grace and power are such
None can ever ask too much.      (John Newton

Jabez also had that kind of faith. Have we?

 

 

 2) His mother had named him Jabez, saying, I gave birth to him in pain.

She had named him Jabez because he had been born in pain – she had had a terrible time in labour. Jabez, in the Hebrew language, means “he causes pain”.

Such a name would have been seen as a very bad omen in those days. The Hebrews had an almost magical understanding of the effect of names. To be called Jabez ( he causes pain) was almost like a curse. But by his faith Jabez turned the curse into a blessing. That’s why he is mentioned in 1 Chronicles.

 
3) Jabez cried out to the God of Israel

He cried out to the God of Israel no doubt in his concern to avoid making a disaster of his life, and thus fulfil the meaning of his name. He was also concerned for the honour of God. He cried out, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!”

In these words we are reminded of the prophet Isaiah:
Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.   (Isaiah 54:2)

In Christian terms this can be seen as a prayer for the extension of God’s Kingdom. Both texts have been an inspiration to many pioneer missionaries, eager to extend the Kingdom of Christ. Do we cry to God like this?
“Oh that you would extend the borders of your Kingdom Lord! Oh that more people would come to know Christ’s love and power! Oh that the people of this city would turn to you!  Oh that the Church would grow in numbers and in spiritual depth!”

Do you pray like that for your city, for your church, for the members of your family? That they will come to know God?

Jesus taught us to say: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done”.  Do we pray that way.

 
4) Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.

Matthew Henry comments: He prayed that God’s hand might be with him. God’s hand with us to lead us, protect us, strengthen us, and to work all our works in us, is a hand all-sufficient for us”.

“Free from pain” – this is a very natural thing to pray for. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
“Do not bring us to the time of hard testing” is an alternative translation.
Jabez was very concerned that he might suffer harm and pain because of his name.

 Matthew Henry comments:  He prayed that God would keep him from evil, the evil of sin, the evil of trouble, all the evil designs of his enemies, that they might not hurt, nor make him a Jabez indeed, a man of sorrow. God granted that which he requested. God is ever ready to  hear prayer: his ear is not now heavy.”

 

 

5) And God granted his request

This is the whole point of the passage. Jabez and his prayer feature in the book of Chronicles because something amazing happened in his life. This prayer is spiritual dynamite! Not in the way that some people would want to use it - as some kind of mantra to be recited - but as an inspiration to faith.

In the nineteenth century John Hyde the missionary was inspired by this verse to start a life of faith and prayer that resulted in him being known  by the nickname “Praying Hyde”.

Are we also prepared to be inspired by the Prayer of Jabez?

 

[Sermon preached in Park End Presbyterian Church, Cardiff, June 16th. 2009]

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Joseph and his brothers

May 18, 2009 at 7:52 pm · Filed under Old testament, Suffering ·Tagged , ,

 

 Joseph Recognised by His Brothers, by Peter Von Cornelius 

 

[Talk given at a Family Service in the Brecon Presbyterian Church]

Joseph had ten older brothers and one younger. His older brothers hated him because he was the favourite of their father Jacob. One day Joseph’s father gave him a very special ornamented robe with long sleeves. It was the sort of garment only worn by an important man. Jacob was treating Joseph as if he was the head of his brothers. And Joseph also used to tell tales on his brothers when they did wrong. So they hated him.

 

The dreamer

And Joseph was a dreamer. One day he told his brothers how, in his dream, they had been binding corn in the field when suddenly all his brothers’ sheaves bowed down to his. And in another dream the Sun and Moon and eleven stars had all bowed down to him. This was too much even for Jacob. So he said, “Will I, and your mother, and your brothers all bow down to you?”

One day Joseph was sent by his father to see how his brothers were getting on with tending the flocks – he was sent to check up on them. When they saw him coming from a distance they said, “Here comes that dreamer, let’s get rid of him”. Some wanted to kill him, but eventually they just grabbed him and threw him down a pit. It was a dry water cistern. Joseph cried for help but the brothers ignored him and sat down to enjoy their lunch. Eventually they sold him off to some traders who were on their way to Egypt.

 

In Potiphar ’s house

So Joseph ended up in the slave market in Egypt. He was bought by Potiphar , the chief of the palace guard. Joseph had had a hard time, but in Potiphar ’s house God blessed him. He was so good a servant that Potiphar put him in charge of the whole household. Everything went smoothly and Potiphar prospered. But after a while Potiphar ’s wife began to notice Joseph – he was a very handsome young man of about 18. She was filled with desire for him. “Come to bed with me!” she demanded. Now Joseph could have done this. He would have been well treated as Potiphar ’s wife’s “toyboy”. No doubt he would have got away with it. But Joseph knew in his heart it was wrong. “My master trusts me with everything. He has kept nothing back from me, except you because you are his wife. And it would also be a sin against God.” Potiphar ’s wife was persistent – every day she pestered Joseph and tried to get him to lie with her.

One day she came into the house while Joseph was doing his household duties. There was no one else there. She grabbed hold of his robe and said, “Come to bed with me!”Joseph ran off, leaving the robe in her hands. Then Potiphar ’s wife was angry – she had been rejected. She screamed out to the servants and told them that Joseph had tried to rape her. When she told Potiphar, he was angry, and had Joseph put in prison.

 

In prison

But in the prison God was still with Joseph. The prison warder, when he saw how competent Joseph was, put him in charge of the whole prison. Joseph did all the administrative work and the everything ran smoothly. The story of Joseph is full of ups and downs. We’ve already seen some of them. But there are a lot more to come!

Reading: Genesis 40:1-8

 1 Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt.     2 Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,    3 and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined.

    4 The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them. After they had been in custody for some time,    5 each of the two men— the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison— had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.

    6 When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected.    7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, Why are your faces so sad today?

    8 We both had dreams, they answered, but there is no-one to interpret them. Then Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.

Genesis 40:1-8 (New International Version – UK)

 

We’ve just heard how the cup bearer and the baker of Pharaoh had dreams they could not interpret. With God’s help Joseph was able to explain the dreams. The cup bearer had dreamed of a grape vine with three branches which budded and blossomed before his eyes and then produced grapes. Then, in his dream, he took the grapes, squeezed the juice and gave the cup of grape juice to Pharaoh. Joseph saw that this was a sign that the man would be forgiven by Pharaoh and restored to his high position. When that happens, Joseph said, “Get Pharaoh to let me out of this prison. I haven’t done anything wrong!”

The baker, when he heard the favorable interpretation, eagerly told Joseph about his dream. He had dreamed of three baskets of cakes which he was carrying on his head. And the birds were coming down and pecking at the cakes. Joseph said, “In three days time Pharaoh will lift up your head – but not in the good way he lifted up the cup bearer’s head. No, he won’t restore you to honour. Instead he will lift up your head on the gallows! And so it happened just a Joseph had predicted: the cupbearer got his job back but the baker was hanged.

But when the cup bearer got his old job back he forgot all about Joseph and left him there in the prison!

 

Pharaoh’s dream

Joseph spent two more years in prison before something else happened. Pharaoh had a dream, a very strange one. Seven fat cows came out of the Nile, followed by seven skinny ones. And the starved and skinny ones swallowed up the fat and sleek ones. Again he dreamt. This time seven plump ears of corn were followed by seven withered and blasted ears. And the withered ones swallowed up the plump ones.

Pharaoh woke up with a start! He didn’t like these dreams one bit, even though he couldn’t tell what they meant. He called or all his wise men and magicians, and not one of them could interpret his dreams. Then, at last, the cup bearer remembered Joseph. He told Pharaoh about this Hebrew slave who had predicted everything that happened to him and to the baker. “Call him at once,” said Pharaoh . So they hurriedly brought Joseph out of the jail. They gave him a wash and a shave and put clean clothes on him, and brought him before Pharaoh .

“I hear you can interpret dreams,” said Pharaoh.

“No, not I, but God can explain them,” said Joseph.

So Pharaoh told his dreams and Joseph explained them with God’s help. The seven fat cows and seven fat ears of corn represented seven years of plentiful crops. They would be followed by seven years of famine. And the years of famine would be so severe that they would eat up all the harvests from the good years.

Joseph said, “Pharaoh should find a wise man and put him in charge. He should collect one fifth of each of the good harvests and store away the grain as provision for the bad years which will follow. “What a good idea,” said Pharaoh, “And who is better fitted to do it than Joseph?”.

So Joseph was made the second in command over the whole land of Egypt. He had full authority to implement the famine relief strategy.

 

Ruler of Egypt

So Joseph became a great man and married the daughter of one of the priests and ruled the land of Egypt under Pharaoh. And then it came about as Joseph had predicted. And Joseph so organised things that there was no starvation in Egypt. But the neigbouring counties were hard hit by the famine and people flocked to Egypt to buy the surplus grain.

One day some Canaanites came to Egypt on donkeys with bags of silver to buy food. Joseph immediately recogised them as his brothers – but they didn’t recognise him. After all, he was now a full grown man in his thirties and he was wearing Egyptian clothes and was clean shaven. He didn’t look like a Hebrew at all. And he was speaking Egyptian and communicating with them through an interpreter.

Joseph was disturbed in mind – he had mixed feelings. On the one hand he was glad to see his brothers and he desperately wanted to hear about his father. On the other hand, could he trust them? They had sold him as a slave. They had even talked of killing him. How could he know whether he could trust them? Testing his brothers So Joseph decided to test them. He accused them of being spies and put them in prison. Then he sent them home but kept one of them – Simeon – as a hostage.

Later, when they returned with Benjamin the youngest brother, Joseph played a trick on them. He planted a silver cup in the neck of Benjamin’s sack of grain and then accused him of theft. The brothers were aghast. They believed that this had come about as punishment for what they had done to Joseph almost twenty previously. Judah offered his own life as a slave in exchange for Benjamin. How could they return to their father Jacob without Benjamin the youngest? It would break Jacob’s heart which had already been shattered after the disappearance of Joseph.

Now Joseph could stand it no longer. He ordered out all his servants and he wept loudly before his brothers as he told them he was Joseph. They were stunned and shocked. They couldn’t believe it. How could this man be Joseph? And if he was, what then? Would he not now take his revenge on them?

 

Reconciliation

But Joseph said, “Don’t be upset, it has worked out alright. God has sent me to Egypt ahead of you so I could save the lives of all of us. Go back to my father. Tell him I am alive and now in charge of the land of Egypt and then come and live here in this land where there is plenty of food.”

 Pharaoh was pleased when he heard about Joseph’s brothers. He invited them to go home and bring the whole family to Egypt. And so Jacob came at last to Egypt to meet his son who was now such an important man. And he saw his two grandchildren, Joseph’s sons. And he was presented to Pharaoh and lived the rest of his life in the land of Egypt. After Jacob died his body was embalmed after the custom of the Egyptians and carried back to the land of Canaan for burial. And then Joseph’s brothers were afraid that he would now take his revenge on them – now that their father was dead. So they sent a message to Joseph saying that Jacob, before his death, had asked that Joseph would forgive them.

Joseph wept when he heard this – he had already forgiven his brothers years before. He was grieved that even now they didn’t trust him. They didn’t believe him when he said he had forgiven them. Joseph said, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good! He brought me to this position of power so I could save the lives of many people”. So he spoke kindly to them.

 

Conclusion

What do we learn from Joseph ? Life is full of ups and downs but God is in control. He was even in control when Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave, and when Potiphar’s wife accused him, and when he was forgotten in jail. God was still in control and brought good out of the situation. Like Joseph we have to learn to trust God. if we are faithful to God he will be faithful to us. He is the Faithful One.

Theres a little song in the old Scripture Union hymn book “Sing to God” – No. 130

Joseph had eleven brothers

 Joseph had eleven brothers, and they wished him far away. Sold him for a slave in Egypt for some silver coins one day.

Refrain: He remembered the Lord in the land of Egypt and the Lord remembered him.

He worked very hard for his master and was treated like a son. Until he was thrown in prison for a crime he hadn’t done.

He worked very hard for the warder and took care of all the men. He explained their dreams but he longed to have his freedom back again.

Pharaoh had two dreams that bewildered him till Joseph made them plain. He was given power and appointed to take charge of all the grain.

 Joseph’s brothers travelled to Egypt; no where else could they buy bread. They didn’t know this great man was Joseph; they were sure that he was dead.

He discovered that they were sorry for their cruelty and greed. Told who he was and forgave them and he helped them in their need.

(Sister Oswin)

We have to learn to forgive – just as Joseph did.

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Christ our Passover

April 13, 2009 at 12:29 am · Filed under Jesus Christ, Old testament, Sacrifice of Jesus, Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

 

Passover ceremony

Have you ever wondered why the date of Easter jumps around so much. There can be as much as a month’s difference from one year to the next. Easter is what is known as a “movable feast” – but why?

The simple answer is that it is connected with the Jewish Passover, and that varies from year to year because it always occurs at full moon. Jesus died and rose at Passover time, and so Easter is always held a this time of the year. But it does not always coincide with Passover. For some reason the Church leaders in the Middle Ages decided to use a different method of calculating the date to that used by the Jews. Possibly they were motivated by anti-semitism – I don’t know. I think it would be a very good idea if we kept the same time as the Jewish Passover, or alternatively  kept a fixed date for Easter. This year Easter does coincide with Passover, and so I thought it would be a good thing for us to see the parallels between the two.

Jewish passover rituals

The Passover has been celebrated for thousands of years by the Jewish people. It is a retelling of how God rescued his people from a life of slavery in Egypt. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt in a hurry after the last plague fell  ( the Death of the Firstborn). The original Passover ceremony involved the sacrifice of a lamb and the  daubing of its blood on the doorposts and lintel of the house. Then the lamb was roasted whole and eaten by the members of the family. They also ate unleavened bread as a reminder that, when they fled Egypt, they had not had time to wait for their bread to rise,  but ate it without yeast.

In the modern Passover ceremony there is no lamb – for since the destruction of the temple in AD 70 there have been no animal sacrifices in Judaism. A shank-bone of a lamb is always present on the table as a reminder of the sacrificial lamb but no lamb is eaten at the modern Passover meal.

 

Christian significance

“Well,” you might say, “that’s all very interesting, but what’s it got to do with us as Christians?”  A lot actually!

In the New Testament Christ is spoken of as the sacrificial lamb of God through whom the sins of the world are take away. John the Baptist  spoke of him in this way and Paul spoke of Christ our Passover sacrificed for us. It is very likely that his Last Supper with his disciples was a Passover meal. His use of bread and wine in the Sacrament he instituted comes from the Passover.

Not one bone broken

When the Passover Lamb was sacrificed it was important that none of its bones were broken. Its blood was poured out, but its bones were not broken, and it was roasted whole.  In Psalm 34: 20 it is prophesied of the Messiah that “not one of his bones will be broken”. During the crucifixion the soldiers came to break the leg bones of the victims as a means of hastening their death. (It prevented the man on the cross from being able to push up with his legs to take a breath. With their legs broken the poor victims could not breath and were soon asphyxiated.) But when the soldiers came to Jesus they found he was already dead, and so they did not break his leg bones. Thus the prophetic words of the Psalmist were fulfilled.

Passing over

The original Passover lambs were slain so that their blood could be daubed on to the door posts and lintels of the houses of the Israelites. It was said en that when the destroying angel came to strike the firstborn of that house he would stay his hand when he saw the blood on the door posts. God and his destroying angel  would “pass over” that house. Hence the term Passover.

It is from this incident in the Old Testament that we gain our Christian understanding of the work of redemption which Christ did for us. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. His blood was shed for us. When we trust in him and in the power of his blood we are, as it were, putting the blood on the doorposts and lintel of our lives.  God passes over our sins  and refrains form punishing us. Instead the punishment falls on Christ the sinless victim on the cross.

First fruits

As part of the Passover festival the Israelites would take some of the first fruits of their barley harvest and bring it to God’s Temple to offer as a sacrifice.
(There were two grain harvests in the land, one a barley harvest, which began at the Passover, and the other a wheat harvest, which began at Pentecost.)

They brought the first fruits ( i.e. the first sheaf of barley they harvested)  to show that they trusted God to provide for the rest of the harvest. How appropriate it is that it was at the time of the offering of the first fruits of the barley that Jesus rose from the dead. Paul tells us that Christ became the first fruits of those who are asleep (1 Corinthians 15:  20 ) -  i.e. the first one to rise from the dead and a guarantee that we also shall rise on the Last Day.

Resurrection

In the Passover ceremony today there is a fascinating ritual carried out by the head of the household. Three matzos ( pieces of unleavened bread) are taken and placed together. After a while the middle one is broken, wrapped in a cloth and hidden away while the ceremony proceeds. Later it is brought out and shared between the participants. It is thought that this was the unleavened bread which Jesus  broke and shared with his disciples saying, “This is my body which is broken for you”.

If you ask a Jew what is the significance of this part of the ceremony they will not be able to tell you. But Jews who have become followers of Jesus see a great significance in these actions. For them the three matzos represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The middle one is the Son, Jesus, whose flesh was broken on the cross. It is hidden in away, just as the body of Jesus was hidden in the tomb, and it is “resurrected”  just as he rose on the third day.

 

Christ our Passover

In the Passover ceremony four cups of wine are drunk. The third one, which is taken just after the meal, is known as the Cup of Redemption. It was this cup which Jesus raised when he said “this cup is the New Covenant in my blood”.  For his followers it represents his blood shed on the cross so that we could be forgiven. The New Covenant – the New Agreement – between God and his people, sealed with the sacrificial blood of Christ. Through his Death we are cleansed of our sins and through his Resurrection we are raised to newness of life. So this is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday. But every Sunday is a kind of mini Easter, a celebration of his Resurrection on the first day of the week. And every time we share in Holy Communion we remember the sacrifice of Jesus. In the worlds of the Apostle Paul:

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.      

 (1 Corinthians 5: 7-8 )

[Sermon preached at Brecon Presbyterian Church, Easter Sunday 2009 ]

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Gehazi’s Greed

February 23, 2009 at 4:42 pm · Filed under Materialism, Old testament, worship ·Tagged , , ,

Elisha refusing Naaman’s gift

by Pieter de Grebber

 

2 Kings 5:15-27

 In our last sermon we heard of Naaman, a proud commander of the Syrian army who was healed of his leprosy when he humbled himself and washed in the river Jordan. Today we shall see the continuation of the story – and what a contrast! The story moves from the nobility and faith of Naaman to the grasping and money-grubbing of Gehazi the servant of Elisha.

 

 Gratitude

It starts, however, with gratitude. As soon as Naaman realised he had been cured of his leprosy, he went back to Elisha and said:

Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. Please accept now a gift from your servant. The prophet answered, As surely as the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing. And even though Naaman urged him, he refused. ( 2 Kings 5:15b-16)

Now this seems churlish of Elisha . Why couldn’t he accept the gift with good grace and then give the money to the poor? (In fact, you might think that Elisha behaves churlishly all through this story.) But there is a reason for his refusing the silver and fine garments. True, Elisha was a poor man and he could have lived much more comfortably if he had accepted Naaman’s gift, but Elisha’s poverty was voluntary. He had no desire for gold and silver, fine clothes and a comfortable life-style. What Elisha wanted to do was to convey a message – that Gods blessings were gifts of grace. You can’t buy them. He wanted Naaman to realise this fact. He didn’t want Naaman to think that he had paid for God’s favour with his money – it was a free gift.

It appears that Naaman was not offended by Elisha’s refusal. He was so thankful that he resolved only to worship the Lord, the God of Israel. Never again would he offer sacrifices to any other God.

Please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the LORD. (2 Kings 5:17)

So what did he want this soil for? It wasn’t for his garden! No, he wanted to worship the God of Israel upon the soil of the Holy Land. In his way of thinking, you worshipped a god on his own turf. Each god was restricted to a particular area or nation. So if he wished to worship the God of Israel, then he would need some of the Land of Israel on which to stand while he worshipped. Naaman had not yet come to the realisation that there was only one true God, and that he could be worshipped anywhere.

We might be amused at Naaman’s simplicity – our conception of God is so much more sophisticated. But then, we have the revelation of the whole Bible, Old Testament and New. We have the words of Jesus telling us that God is spirit and that he is to be worshipped in spirit an in truth. He can be worshipped anywhere. Any land can be the Holy Land, any ground is holy ground to the child of God. Naaman did not realise this – his conception of God was more primitive. He wanted to take his mule-loads of soil home so that he could spread it out on the floor in his private chapel. And there he could worship the God of Israel upon the soil of Israel.

Elisha is not averse to this plan. No doubt he hopes that Naaman will find true salvation in worshipping the God of Israel in his own way. But then, Naaman says something which sounds suspect:

But may the LORD forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I bow there also— when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant for this. (2 Kings 5:8)

“Go in peace,” says Elisha. He does not condemn Naaman for what would seem to us to be a total compromise of his faith. To go into a pagan temple and to bow down to the idol there! How can this be countenanced? But then Elisha knew the situation better than we do. Naaman was chief military man of the King of Syria. He had important official and ceremonial duties. One of these was that the had to accompany his master into the Temple of Rimmon. His master leant on his arm and, together, they were supposed to bow to the statue of the god Rimmon. How could Naaman avoid doing this? How could he remain upright while the King bowed? How could he refuse to go into the Temple? How could he fail in his ceremonial duties? To do so would anger the King and possibly result in Naaman’s death. At the very least he would lose his position. I think Elisha saw how important it was for a man like Naaman to retain his official position. So he refrained from judging him.

We must realise that at this stage Naaman is not a strong believer in the God of Israel. He knows very little about his new God except that he had been healed through his power. In time, perhaps, he will come to a deeper understanding of discipleship. So he sets off in peace.

 

Greed

But all this was too much for Gehazi, the servant of Elisha . He couldn’t bear to see all that lovely money disappearing.

Gehazi, said to himself, My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him. ( 2 Kings 5:20)

“My master’s a fool. This man wants to give us money and he refuses it! At the very least I’ll get some for myself.” To those of a worldly frame of mind Gehazi’s way of thinking seems quite justifiable. Why not make a quick buck while you can?  I can’t help thinking that it is that kind of attitude on the part of certain people in the world of high finance that has got us to our present economic crisis.

I read recently about an evangelist in South America who held a huge evangelistic campaign in a certain town. Thousands of people came, hundreds were converted and many were healed or delivered of evil powers. But the local pastors criticised the evangelist for not taking up a collection at these meetings. He was, they thought, missing a God-given opportunity. The people were really grateful, they were willing to give. It would be criminal not to take money. But the evangelist had the same kind of attitude as Elisha. He didn’t want to charge people for God’s grace. It was a free gift.

Gehazi might have thought he was being reasonable but by his actions next he jeopardised the good name of his master Elisha and even brought the name of the Lord into disrepute. So Gehazi hurried after Naaman.

When Naaman saw him running towards him, he got down from the chariot to meet him. Is everything all right? he asked. Everything is all right, Gehazi answered. My master sent me to say, ‘Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.’ By all means, take two talents, said Naaman. He urged Gehazi to accept them, and then tied up the two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing. He gave them to two of his servants, and they carried them ahead of Gehazi. ( 2 Kings 5:21-23)

Naaman is still grateful – he offer two talents of silver (about 150 pounds weight of silver). This was quite a sum of money – enough to buy a house or an olive grove. But Naaman is only to glad to pay for his healing. Imagine now, some of Naaman’s servants going back home and being asked, “How much did your master pay for his cure?” “Two talents of silver”, they would say. “That seems very reasonable,” the other servants would say – thinking that Elisha had charged for God’s gift. That was exactly what Elisha had wanted to avoid.

Notice also how Gehazi compounds his sin by lying. He makes up some story about two needy servants of God from the back country who need financial help. He plays on Naaman’s generous nature. And that’s what happens today sometimes. It’s not unknown for missionaries to exaggerate the need so they can get more money for their mission. Sometimes the whole thing is a scam, a made up story to get money. How such scams dishonour God. And this is just what Gehazi was doing – he was scamming. He didn’t intent to give any of this wealth to any other person. It was pure greed.

And now we have an anomaly. As far as we know, Gehazi had been an exemplary servant before this time. He served is master well and did everything he was supposed to do. But his heart was not right with God. He lived in the household of a man of God but he himself was not converted. He had even had a part to play in the performance of a mighty miracle when Elisha had raised a boy from the dead. Gehazi had seen God’s power at work but his heart had not been changed. It’s a solemn thought that you can see God’s power at work in people’s lives and not be moved. You can hear the gospel and not respond to it. You can be a member of a church, or even a church officer or minister, and still not be truly converted. You can grow up in a godly household and still not be a child of God. Gehazi was that kind of person – an unspiritual man.

 

Punishment

Gehazi accepted the silver and then took steps to hide it away. And then he went and stood before his master, as if nothing had happened.

Then he went in and stood before his master Elisha. Where have you been, Gehazi? Elisha asked. Your servant didn’t go anywhere, Gehazi answered. But Elisha said to him, Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants and maidservants? Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants for ever. Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and he was leprous, as white as snow. (2 Kings 5:25-27)

 Gehazi thought he was so clever, and his master was so stupid. So heavenly minded he was no earthly good. But Elisha could see, he was no fool. He had the gift of knowledge from God. He was far more wise and discerning and shrewd than Gehazi. He knew what his servant had been up to and pronounced God’s judgement on him.

We might think Gehazi’s punishment was severe but it seems to have only been a mild form of leprosy. (In later chapters he is at he court of the King of Israel recounting the mighty deeds Elisha had done. So the punishment could not have been that severe.) It probably had a salutary effect on his spiritual state. (It might not have even been leprosy as we know it today. In Hebrew the word for leprosy was used for a variety of skin diseases which made people ritually unclean.)

 

A lesson

Surely, the main lesson from this sorry incident is that it’s all to easy for us to be worldly-minded. The worldly individual always thinks he is wiser than the spiritual person. Just as Gehazi thought his master was stupid. But in the end it was Gehazi who was the fool. In the end it will be the spiritually minded people who will inherit eternal life. As the Apostle Paul writes in Romans:

To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6 (AV)

Or in a modern version: The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; (NIV)

And as the hymnwriter John Newton puts it:

Fading is the worldling’s pleasure, all his boasted pomp and show; solid joys and lasting treasure, none but Zion’s children know.

Greed and the love of money can cause great spiritual harm, as Paul tells us:

People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:9-11)

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