A good kind of shame
“I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us.” Ezra 8:22
Ezra boasted about his God to King Artaxerxes. When it was time for the people to set out on the long journey home, the boast was put to the test. What enemies might they encounter on the way? Would it not be safer to go with a royal escort? Undoubtedly it would be more dangerous to do so! For it would put God’s name in jeopardy in the courts of Babylon, and such a thing is never to be ventured.
It would not be a bad thing to see more of this kind of shame among Christians. Are we even apprehensive, never mind ashamed, to rely on human means before the mighty promises of God? Many ministries are not, it seems, ashamed to do so. This passage isn’t about the question of physical defense as such; it’s about the heart-posture of the Christian. Do we defy all earthly odds when there’s a clear promise of God on our side? That’s the time to open your eyes wide and watch for the miraculous hand of the living God to appear.
God’s runners
“So the couriers went from city to city through the country…but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.” 2 Chronicles 30:1
The Passover was to be celebrated once again in Jerusalem. This most sacred feast had been sorely neglected, but God offered his mercy to the people if they would but humble themselves and return to him. In order to spread the word as quickly as possible, Hezekiah sent his couriers, or runners, to and fro, from city to city.
They told everyone the good news of the Feast and of God’s favor. A few listened, but most hardened their hearts and mocked the royal messengers. This kind of response to free grace is the history of God’s prophets, and apostles, and of the Son of the King himself, when he went about telling the good news of redemption at hand.
We are God’s runners now. The church is filling the planet with the sound of happy news from Jerusalem above. How the people treat us is not our business; we tell everyone the news that God’s free mercy is at hand, and that he is ready to receive everyone who returns to him through the slain Lamb. The Feast is ready; you must only take your seat there with Christ. Today is the day of celebration.
A camel, a gnat, and a preacher walk into a garden
Charles Spurgeon once preached a sermon called “Supposing Him To Be The Gardener.” It was a play off words from the text of John 20:15. Let us hear from the preacher:
You know the “him” to whom we refer, the ever-blessed Son of God, whom Mary Magdalene in our text mistook for the gardener. We will for once follow a saint in her mistaken track; and yet we shall find ourselves going in a right way. She was mistaken when she fell into “supposing him to be the gardener”; but if we are under his Spirit’s teaching we shall not make a mistake if now we indulge ourselves in a quiet meditation upon our ever-blessed Lord, “supposing him to be the gardener.”
It seems a dangerous thing to tamper with God’s word like that. Stick to the meaning of the text, buddy! The literal eyes of grammatical historians and historical grammaticians blaze with fire at the unspeakable indecency of the Spurgeon.
And yet, his sermon was owned by the Spirit. I defy any believer to read it without experiencing deep affection for Christ. Some of Spurgeon’s regular congregants said that, prior to this occasion, they didn’t really know what eloquence was. But how could it be, if he handled the text so carelessly? Because the mighty Spirit owned the Christ-bearing discourse in spite of its apparent unfaithfulness to the text.
Spurgeon was faithful to the whole text of the Bible in what he preached, and it hit with Holy Spirit power. It is better to place our emphasis upon the right doctrine, even if taken from the “wrong text,” than to insist too much upon any lesser matter, though exposited according to every modern standard of Calvie dispy excellence. Get us to Jesus as fast as you can preacher. Let your exposition be painstaking, but for the love of all things good and decent, let there be no more of this straining out exegetical gnats and swallowing doctrinal camels.
Do yourself a favor and suppose Christ to be the gardener with Heavy C here.
Do it God’s way
“Because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand.” 2 Chronicles 16:8
King Asa was victorious early on, but his latter reign was more disappointing than third wave charismatic prophecies. The reason for this was that he ceased to rely on God. Instead, he looked for help elsewhere, in Syria (v 7) and in physicians (v 12). The prophet Hanani offered the king severe rebuke, along with gems of encouragement to return his trust to the Lord (most famously, verse 9).
The word to Asa is the word we all need to hear: do it God’s way. Asa conquered impossible odds time and again by simple trust in God. This is also how we do valiantly for Christ, by relying on him, instead of looking for help elsewhere. How do we rely on him? By trusting his word and doing it. We must place our feet upon his paths and we must venture all upon the promises.
God’s ways secure God’s help. They are not magic spells to bind his power; they are expressions of trust and hope in him, which he loves. It seems smarter to trust in the strong kings of Syria, but you must not do so. We walk straight forward by faith. In church, in life, in work, in play, do it God’s way. May you be filled with the knowledge of his will and rely on the Lord in all things today!
Storybook world
“What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?” Luke 13:18
The Lord who made the world entered the world, and when he walked through it, he interpreted the world with flawless exegesis. He could preach expository sermons upon the winds and the waves, the beasts and the birds, and all the growing things. We have some of these things preserved in Living Memory in the Book, but I expect that the apostles enjoyed lordly gems of this sort on a regular basis when they walked with the God-Man.
It seems like his favorite theme to illustrate by way of nature is the kingdom of God. He saw the kingdom in the creature. He was right to do so because he embedded pictures of the kingdom in the creature when he the Creator created the creature. Maybe we can become more godly if we begin to see our world with the magnificent vision with which the Lord Jesus Christ saw everything. From mustard seeds to mushy dough, with the words of Christ dwelling richly in our hearts, perhaps we too can begin to exposit the wonderful world around us. For the world is a book in which we walk with the great Author.
Mindcraft
“There was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her.” 2 Chronicles 9:2
Solomon was the wonder of the ancient world. In far away places, they heard tell of a little kingdom to the east, or to the north, to the south, or perhaps westward, where a strange people lived, whose king was blessed by the gods with great wisdom. The Queen of the South wasn’t so sure what she thought about all this. Who could believe such things anyway? She must find out for herself.
The event is well known and still cherished by several cultures (some hit and miss art stands in its memorial). Of all the peoples who sent to inquire about Solomon (1 Kings 4:34), why is Sheba’s visit recorded in Scripture? Well, for one thing, she asked a lot of questions. She was wise and inquisitive (which are sometimes the same thing, and sometimes the opposite!). In her case it was highest wisdom; the Lord himself speaks in her honor (Matt 12:42).
Her questions gave Solomon a chance to spread his wings. How high could he reach? What limits were set on his knowledge? There had to be a roof, a ceiling past which he could not go. But there wasn’t. For all practical purposes from the human point of view, he knew everything. This was quite astonishing. Whatever wisdom or knowledge you desired, it was there, like treasure, hidden away in the vast mind of the king. He reminds me of Another.
If you want something undone yourself
“He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15
The Garden sets the stage for the rest of the Bible. It seems a brief moment, but it is a moment of, shall we say, great moment. The transactions which take place here teach us the lay of the land: God’s goodness, God’s holiness, and God’s grace—his goodness in creating the Garden and giving it to Adam and Eve, his holiness in reserving one tree for himself to remind them that he is better than all the best things, and his grace in promising mercy even before he pronounced the curses of sin upon the man and his wife.
The One who walked with them in paradise was God the Son. No one has ever seen God the Father, not even Adam and Even (John 1:18). God the Son has always been the brightness of his glory to mankind, “rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man” (Prov 8:31). So when he told the serpent that one of their children would crush his head and undo his wicked work, what he was really saying was, “I’m coming here as one of them to finish this myself.” As the saying goes, If you want something done right, do it yourself, or in this case, If you want something undone right, undo it yourself.
It was all a dream
“They are like a dream.” Psalm 90:5
Moses was a man of deep feeling. When he prayed, he meant it. This psalm is one of his prayers, and it is one of our treasures. Apparently, he was the first national prophet and the first psalmist; Jesus is the Last.
This poetic prayer is a sober look at our sinful morality in light of God’s holy eternality. We are evil and easily killed; God sees all and lives forever. The saying before us—they are like a dream—springs out of these thoughts.
Our likeness to dreams comes as a shock. Is that what our lives really are? Before techie-thoughtie leaders talked about the simulation, the man of God talked about the strangely dreamlike nature of our lives. At first it sounds like a good thing. But what Moses means is not so pleasant: we vanish like a dream, and are gone forever.
The longing feeling you get when you wake up from a good dream is a microdose of the pain we feel when people die. They’re gone and we can’t find them anymore. But that is not the end. Eternity welcomes all, some to life, some to death that never dies.
Listen! For the sake of your own souls, and for the sake of your loved ones, make sure you are safe in Christ today. Flee to him and you will (in the words of another psalm) “be like those who dream” (Psalm 126:1).
Got you covered
“There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb” 2 Chronicles 5:10
What’s up with the ark? Well, God sat enthroned atop the ark, from whence he reigned among the people of Israel. Incidentally (or was it?) the throne covered something, the commandments. Perhaps… No, it can’t be. But yes. It must be. The mercy seat, where mercy was dispensed, covered the peoples’ sins of commandment breaking.
But it didn’t really, did it? Only the blood of Jesus washes away sin (Heb 10:4). I suppose we have to take this as yet another figure of the atonement; the text forces us once again to consider Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus ascended to the true throne of grace once for all for all of us, and our law-breaking is covered by his reign of grace. Gone. All gone! Let us go to the throne of grace today to receive grace to help, that we may run in the way of God’s commandments with the heavenly joy and energy that come from divine forgiveness, full and free.
Head Lights
“Your eye is the lamp of your body.” Luke 11:34
What you look at matters. Your eyes allow light into your body, so the images you see are brought within. But what you think about is even more important than what you look at, for the things we think about make the closest approach to our selves. The eyes of your heart let things into your soul.
When you look at wickedness longingly, it walks right in and makes itself at home in your heart. When idols consume your thoughts they consume your self. If you set sin sludging through your feelings, is it any wonder that darkness is formed in you? This is more than negative thinking, it’s necrothought. Death is welcomed when sin is treasured.
So look to Christ. Those who do are radiant. Their faces brighten and their souls come alive under the golden rays of the Sun of Righteouness. Think about Christ today. Think about how far he traveled, how much he suffered, how greatly he loved, and how powerfully he won, to save you. Such things will lighten the soul even as honey brightened the eyes of Jonathan.