Something Was Wrong!

“If there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.” Heb.8:7.

        It may sound almost heretical to look at the Old Testament and say, “Something was wrong!”, but it was the writer to the Hebrews who said it— it is an inspired judgement.

I puzzled over what could be “wrong”. It couldn’t be the laws themselves—they were given by God. It couldn’t be the physical nature of the laws, because God made matter and pronounced it “good”.

        My next step was to compare the old and new covenants in Hebrews 8, and I found at least a dozen contrasts drawn by the writer, including: an earthly sanctuary versus a greater and more perfect tabernacle; a tabernacle made with human hands versus a sanctuary “not of this creation”; the people did not remain faithful versus God will put his laws in their minds and they will all know him; a repeated sacrifice once per year versus one sacrifice forever; animal sacrifices versus better sacrifices; and finally, gifts and sacrifices that were unable to clear the conscience of the worker versus eternal redemption.

        The last contrast seems to be the key to what was wrong— everything the Israelites did in obedience to the law never gave them a permanent right standing with God. Ezekiel tells us that a wicked man, by changing his behaviour, could live; equally, a good man could do evil and die. Ezekiel 3:20-21. Nothing was forever, and that was wrong. By Christ’s sacrifice on the cross better promises were established, all need for sacrifice was finished, and He redeemed us forever. Heb. 9:12.

Crossword— Women of the Bible

 

Across

1.       She was asked, "Will you go with this man?", and she said, "I will go."

4.       The very first woman.
5.       She chased the birds and wild animals away, day and night.
9.       A prophetess and judge of Israel.
12.    The Feast of Purim is celebrated by the Jews in her honour.
13.    She killed General Sisera with a tent peg.
14.    A beautiful Shunammite girl.
18.    "Call me Mara."
22.    She never left the temple but worshiped night and day.
23.    Abraham's second wife.
24.    Hosea's wife.
25.    Her first husband's name was "Fool".
26.    She said, "From now on all generations will call me blessed."
27.    Queen of Ethiopia.
28.    Mother of Solomon.
  

 

Down

2.       Mary's relative, and mother of John the Baptist.

3.       She gave her name to pancake syrup!
5.       Jacob said, "She was quite my favourite wife."
6.       A seller of purple.
7.       David said, "These sons of________ be too hard for me."
8.       The most wicked of women.
10.    "Your people will be my people and your God my God."
11.    She said, "I give this child to the Lord."
15.    She said, "God has brought me laughter and everyone...will laugh with me."
16.    A tent-making lady.
17.    She was cumbered about much serving.
19.    She said, "You are the God who sees me."
20.    Wife of Joseph.
21.    A woman of sincere faith, mother of Timothy.

Book Review: Your God Is Too Small

Your God Is Too Small

J.B.Phillips

Touchstone/ Simon & Schuster /

New York 2004 Paperback

124 pp

            There’s a puzzling title—how can God be “too small”? Well, Phillips is absolutely right. The God people believe in can really be too small. For instance, to some people, God is a “resident policeman”, or the leftovers from their relationship with their parents, or a “grand old man in the sky”, or a “meek and mild” Jesus, or even “God-in-a-box”, who comes out at our beck and call. This is Part One, which Phillips labels “Destructive— Unreal Gods”.

        Part Two is “Constructive—An Adequate God”. Phillips talks about God, unfocussed, and then coming into focus in Jesus. He talks about “clues to reality”, such as the fact that matter is destructible and “reality” lies in another realm altogether; that beauty arouses a hunger and a longing which is never satisfied in this world; that there is something unavoidably attractive about the good (honesty, sincerity, faithfulness and so on).

        The latter part of the book raises some of the big questions—What sort of person is God? What is the purpose of life? What is really wrong with the world? What sort of people does God intend men to be? What are we to make of pain and disease, injustice and evil? What is the truth about sin and forgiveness?

        The very last pages touch on some things we can get excited about— “Satisfactory Reconciliation”, “The Abolition of Death”, and “Theory into Practice”. At last, the rubber meets the road, so-to-speak.

         John Bertram Phillips (1906-1982) was born in Barnes, Surrey, educated in London and Cambridge, and was ordained an Anglican clergyman in 1930. According to Wikipedia, “he found the young people in his church did not understand the Authorised Version of the Bible,” so he “used the time in the bomb shelters during the Blitz, to begin a translation of the New Testament into modern English.” After the war, he continued the work, with the support of C.S.Lewis, and published the complete New Testament in 1958. A few other of his books include, The Newborn Christian, Making Men Whole, When God was Man, and Appointment with God.

Apologetics: Dashing infants against rocks??

        In my daily reading, I’ve just come through Psalm 137, and what a shocker that last verse is—  “Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” My first instinct is to repudiate it with all my heart. Then I remember that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God” and that “God is love.” However can these three quotations be reconciled? Pages and pages have been written about this Psalm, but it is essentially a prayer for justice, and for the righting of wrongs.

        The word “infant” may mean a very young or even a grown child (compare the “children” of Israel), and focuses on relationship and not on age. It points to the fact that the sins of the fathers are being repeated in the next generation. These deaths seem to be the psalmist’s view of the only way the sins of the fathers can be stopped. Since we believe that babies who die go straight to heaven, this is far better in the eternal scheme of things than for the children to grow up,  reject God, and be lost forever. It confirms our Lord’s comment about Judas  (Mark 14:21) that, “It would be better for him if he had not been born” — not “if he had not been conceived” (perhaps indicating that the soul comes into existence at conception). It was the same with David’s son by Bathsheba— when he died, David said, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” (Indicating that the baby was already in Paradise.)

        Modern unbelievers point to this verse and say “How brutal!” But what about the writhing in pain that occurs as a modern Canadian unborn baby is “salted out” or aborted by dilation and evacuation (D&E)? Abortion is arguably a great deal more brutal. Of course, in neither case are we taking into account the taker of these lives—“Thou shalt not kill.” We have to remember, too, that this is not a blessing on the killers. It is a statement of fact about the unthinking cruelty of the warriors who would later conquer Babylon, specifically, the Medes and Persians, in 539 BC. They were “happy” in their evil, much like a modern-day terrorist!

        To return to the three quotations in the first paragraph, as Christians, we must repudiate this sentiment. Our Lord, himself said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Mat.5:43-44. God is love. The souls of those children are safe in His care!                           Ì

Word Search

Faithful to the End—or Not!

        Our story begins in the town of Nob, on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem.  It is the temporary home of the tabernacle and a large family of priests. King Saul’s head shepherd, Doeg the Edomite, is here on business when he catches sight of David being sheltered and fed by these priests. He reports his news to Saul who comes with his military and accuses the priests of treason. Ahimelech, the chief priest, maintains their innocence but, at Saul’s order, Doeg murders 85 of them, plus the women and children. One who escapes is Abiathar, Ahimelech’s son, who takes an ephod and joins David at Keilah (1 Samuel 21-23).

        In those early days, David has Abiathar the priest use the ephod at least twice—once to ask the Lord if he should leave Keilah, and once to ask about rescuing the families taken captive from Ziklag (1 Samuel 30:7).

        The next appearance of Abiathar is many years later, during Absalom’s rebellion. The priests (with Zadok, a fellow priest and contemporary) are carrying the ark of the covenant out of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley, and Abiathar offers sacrifices to the Lord (2 Samuel 15:24).  David then turns them around and sends the ark and the priests, along with their sons Jonathan and Ahimaaz, back into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 15:25-29). The plan is to have these two young men get news to David of Absalom’s plans. They do, at the risk of their lives, and the story reads like excerpts from a novel (see 2 Samuel 17:15-22).

        Years later, David is on his deathbed when he hears that Abiathar and Joab have conspired to make Adonijah king. This was never David’s intention and he had Solomon publicly crowned within hours, by Zadok the priest.

        After David’s death, Solomon tells Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your fields in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you carried the ark of the Sovereign Lord before my father David and shared all my father’s hardships.” (1 Kings 2:26) Then Solomon makes Zadok high priest in place of Abiathar.

        As Solomon said, Abiathar shared all David’s hardships. What made him turn against David’s wishes at the very last? Did he hope to gain anything? Was he just following the crowd, since Adonijah may have been the logical heir to the throne? Sad to say, one bad choice, carelessly made, lost him and his descendants the high priesthood, had him expelled from Jerusalem, and almost cost him his life.

        Is there a lesson for us today? It seems clear—we too have a King, and we need to serve Him faithfully. The Apostle Paul put it in a nutshell in Ephesians 5:10—“Find out what pleases the Lord!”

What is the Gospel?

        If we look at all the gospel presentations after the resurrection, we find that the preachers are always showing that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, even to Gentiles. The question then becomes, not “What is the Gospel?” but “Who is the Gospel?”

        On the very day of the resurrection Someone joined the two on the road to Emmaus and explained the entire Old Testament in terms of the Messiah (Luke 24:13-35), in the time it took to walk eleven kilometers. John, in his record, states, “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31.

        As we move into the book of Acts, we hear Peter say, on the Day of Pentecost, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs…God raised him from the dead.” Acts 2:22, 24.

        There are as many as two dozen places in the Acts where the message is unmistakable. For instance Philip “went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ.” (Acts 8:5) Later, speaking to the Ethiopian, he “told him the good news about Jesus.” (8:35) After Saul’s conversion in Damascus, the first thing he did was “to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.” (9:20) In Caesarea, Peter stood up in front of Gentile Cornelius and his friends, “telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ.” (10:36) In Philippi, Paul’s cry to the jailer was “Believe in the Lord Jesus!” (16:31) In Athens, to more Gentiles, Paul’s word was still “the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.” (17:18)

        We could go on, because there are many more examples. We trust the point has been made—the Good News is Jesus— Jesus is the Gospel. But knowing this is not enough. We have to pray to Him directly. Tell Him you believe Him. Tell Him you trust Him. Only that will make Him real in your life.   Ì                                       

Arch of Titus, Rome, May 2012

Arch of Titus in Rome, AD 82. The sculptor probably had the lampstand (menorah) in front of him as he carved. As good as a photograph from the first century!

Good Friday

        When we find good poetry, we know it right away. Nothing shoddy or maudlin here; nothing “homey”. This poem is too powerful to save just for Easter. We need to feel its force right now— read the poem as if it were your own words. For straight talk to one’s heart, few can match Christina Rossetti’s Good Friday:

 

Am I a stone and not a sheep

That I can stand, O Christ,  beneath Thy Cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved

Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon—
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,

But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.                

The Grace of God—mentioned on a Canadian Coin???

 

 

Yes! And it has been there for as long as we have been a nation. It's a little bit hidden nowadays— the coins simply say "ELIZABETH II D^.G^.REGINA". But all through the last century and going back to the 1850's, it was much clearer. Here is the quote from an 1858 ten cent piece: "VICTORIA DEI GRATIA REGINA". For those with a smattering of Latin it now comes clear:

"GRATIA" = "by the grace"

"DEI" = "of God"

"REGINA" = "queen"

The modern-day version of this is simply D^.G (D = DEI and G = GRATIA). Not as clear as we might like but still good reason for being thankful we live in Canada!   Ì

Book Review: a shepherd looks at PSALM 23

Keller, Phillip a shepherd looks at PSALM 23, illus.  by Robert Doares,  Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1970, 144 pp.

 

    I first came across the name of Phillip Keller when my father gave me a used book titled On Wilderness Trails. I was at an age when wildlife, woods and back-packing all appealed to me, and here was the ultimate outdoorsman. Born and raised in Kenya, Keller came to Canada and got a degree from the University of Toronto, in Science and Agriculture. Early in their marriage, he and his wife, Chic, bought a decayed old farm on the southern tip of Vancouver Island and gradually turned it into a wildlife sanctuary.

        At other stages in his life he was a photographer, a journalist, a pastor, and always a conservationist. This book draws on Keller’s eight years’ experience as a sheep rancher. His purpose is to bring God’s people into an “appreciation of the endless effort put forth by our Saviour, for His sheep.” He points out that David wrote this psalm speaking as a sheep! The Shepherd owns me and His ownership is legitimate.

      This book is a devotional that also informs—in twelve short chapters he praises the Saviour on every page, and every chapter brings us relevant facts about keeping sheep. For instance, Keller describes the “butting order” that sheep establish—and there are definite advantages to being “bottom sheep”. We learn that sheep will drink from any dirty pool; it takes the shepherd to find them good water. We learn about a “cast” or “immobilized” sheep; this is one that has rolled onto its back and can’t get up again. It will lie there and flail till it dies, if the shepherd doesn’t get it back on its feet. The parallel with our Shepherd is unmistakable. Keller makes the point that Christians are so much like sheep that it is “well nigh embarrassing”.

Phillip Keller

        The parallels with the spiritual life keep coming: We have to go through the valleys; we can’t be “air-lifted” to higher ground. The shepherd combs the meadows for poisonous plants and removes them to “prepare the table” for the sheep. The shepherd applies a mixture of oil and sulphur to the heads and noses of the sheep to protect them from flies. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me—Do I leave a trail of sadness or gladness?”

        Keller really knew his stuff and he packaged it in a delightful book. You’ll read Psalm 23 with fresh eyes again.

"Stand Back!"

        “Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.”

        “Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.”

        “The ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.”

        This drama in Numbers 16 is one of the awfulest in all Scripture. It looks like Korah and his family were completely wiped out. Happily, we read in Numbers 26:11, the little verse, “The line of Korah, however, did not die out.” It’s interesting to speculate how that could be—did Korah have sons or grandsons who remained faithful to Moses? Korah had three sons, Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph— “these were the Korahite clans.” Ex.6:24. Did some members of all three clans survive? We just aren’t told. From the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 6:22-28 and 6:33-38, it seems that the prophet Samuel was a distant descendant of Korah, which would make him too a Levite but not a priest.

        Just two more generations on, we discover that Samuel’s grandson was Heman, “the musician”, who may have been a “director of music” as in the psalm titles. Along with Asaph on his right hand and Merarites at his left hand, we learn that “these are the men David put in charge of the music in the house of the LORD after the ark came to rest there. They ministered with music before the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.” 1 Chr.6:31-32.

        The Korahites were also  gatekeepers, “responsible for guarding the thresholds of the Tent, just as their fathers had been responsible for guarding the entrance to the dwelling of the LORD.” 1 Chr.9:19 The Korahites were multi-talented people: “A Levite named Mattithiah, the firstborn son of Shallum the Korahite, was entrusted with the responsibility for baking the offering bread.” 1 Chr.9:31.

        In King Jehoshaphat’s day  a vast army of Moabites and Ammonites came against Judah. The king called on the LORD for help, the LORD answered through the prophet Jahaziel, and “all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD.” 2 Chr.20:18-19. “Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the LORD, the God of Israel, with very loud voice.”

        We don’t want to leave this study of the Korahites without looking at some of the Psalms that are credited to them in some way or another. The eleven Psalms are 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 84, 85, 87, and 88. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern or theme to them; some of them run the same gamut as Psalm 42: Downcast... downcast... downcast... I will yet praise him...”  For instance Psalm 44 talks about a nation “rejected... humbled... plundered... covered with shame...crushed...” until at last they cry “Rise up and help us.”

        Some of these psalms are hopeful and joyful. Psalm 47 says, “Shout to God with cries of joy...God is the King of all the earth,” and Psalm 84 exults, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.”

        Probably the greatest of the eleven is Psalm 45, praising the Messiah—  “My heart is stirred by a noble theme...You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace...Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever...at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.” Notice that this particular psalm is called “A wedding song.” Might this be the marriage supper of the Lamb?     

        So what can we take away from this picture of a family history spanning 600 years or more? The most obvious thing would be that if there is something rotten in our family’s past or even in our own personal past, God can take dedicated or re-dedicated believers and make something beautiful. The Korahites guarded the gates of the temple, some of them baked special bread for the offering, and the most talented led the musical presentations. Although Jude 11 warns us of those who “have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion”, we can take comfort from the fact that many more of Korah’s descendants never rebelled but were inspired to bring great glory to God.

Word Search: All the Books of the Old Testament

S S V K C S O O H M E 2 U H H R D G L S S B R E V O R P L N E T I L N E H E M I A H H A B A K K U K U I O C L L S I O B A D I A H R E A K J R C R C S J 1 K I N G S Z M Z 2 S E I L E I K E Z E R R R O E M J N T N A E E N M S M L A S P I J N O M O L O S F O G N O S H C A P X I S R A A T I G R H I A A C G T A T 2 H O E H A A A H N H 1 H E A A A S C U L E V I T I C U S M N Z J T A 1 E A R M E A E E 2 A U E D U N M E I X E J H M D S L M H S A D E U T E R O N O M Y A B U A I N G M E 1 E N X D A B C E J E N S I E A L J A E D O U H R H T L J N E S L C H A I A S I S I A G G A H L