The Sun did…what?

     The Sun—what do we know about it? In ancient times it was considered to be a fiery disk, just “up there” in the sky, possibly even attached to a track on a vault or dome over the earth. In Greek mythology, Icarus flew too close to the sun, melted his waxen wings and crashed into the sea. If someone could fly on wings and get to the sun, they obviously thought it was very close. 

     In many cases, Scripture adopts “accommodation” as an approach to ancient science, geography, astronomy, medicine, and the like. The Bible uses some of the attitudes of the ancients (in lieu of twenty-first century science)—to them, the sky was a dome mounted on pillars at the outer edges; the sun, moon and stars were attached to tracks on the inside of this dome. This is why the people of Babel thought they could build a tower high enough to reach that “dome”, then they could break through it directly into heaven. (Gen.11:4). 

     The sun features many times in Scripture (at least 173 times according to my concordance). Often it is an astronomical body in the sky but very frequently it has literary or symbolic connotations. 

     Genesis 1:16 tells us that God made “the greater light to govern the day”. Deuteronomy 33:14 credits the sun with “bringing forth the best”. And an event unique in the history of the world occurs when Joshua gives orders to the sun and it stands still. (Josh.10:12-14) The sun is personified again in Psalm 104:19—it “knows when to go down.” This continues in Eccl.1:5—“The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.” Isaiah (24:23) talks about wicked things done on the earth, even making “the sun ashamed”! 

     In Hezekiah’s day, the Lord gives another astronomical sign through the sun: “I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.” (Isa.38:8) Amos tells us that in a time of trouble and famine, the Lord “will make the sun go down at noon.” (Amos 8:9) This essentially happened at the cross, when “the sun stopped shining.” (Luke 23:45) What a relief to look forward to that future day when, “Your sun will never set again.” (Isa.60:20) 

     Figurative examples are not infrequent. In Genesis 37:9, the sun bows down to Joseph in a dream. David, in Psalm 19, pictures the sun coming out of its “tent” in the heavens, running his course like a champion, from one end of heaven to the other. Psalm 84 tells us that “the LORD God is a sun and shield”, providing both physical and spiritual light and warmth, then moderating it with some shade and shelter. On this same note, Malachi tells us that one day “the sun of righteousness” will rise. (Mal.4:2) Finally, John tells us that, after a great deal of sun-scorching and pain, those who reach the celestial city “will not need the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.” (Rev.22:5) In fact, “the city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it.” The sun has at last served its purpose. From now on “there will be no night there.” (Rev.21:23-25)    

"Glory"

      In his video on Sunday, May 31, 2020, Lew Worrad touched on the subject of glorification, quoting 2 Corinthians 3: 7-11, where Paul says, “the ministry that brought death…came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory.” 

      Then Worrad explained the picture of Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex.34:29, 30). Being in God’s presence, he caught some of God’s glory. Back down among the Israelites, that glory faded. 

      Another time when Moses caught that glory was on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and Elijah. Luke tells us (9:31) that they were talking about His “departure”, i.e., His death, which He would accomplish at Jerusalem. The glory was evident to Peter, James, and John (Mark 9:2-4) in the blindingly white garments, “whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them.” There is even a hint in Mark 9:15 that some of that radiance remained, as with Moses in the wilderness—when Jesus and the three disciples came down to join the others, Mark says, the crowds “were overwhelmed with wonder, and ran to greet Him.” There was still something special that drew them to Him. 

      There may even be another place where Moses shows up. Here we go into “sanctified imagination”, but the possibility is there. Remember all the persons who showed up at the tomb after the resurrection? Matthew (28:2) tells us there was an angel, whose “appearance was like lightning.” Mark says (16:5), “they saw a young man dressed in a white robe.” John (20:12-14) mentions two angels and Jesus at the tomb. But what does Luke say (24:4-8)? “Two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.” And these men mention in some detail Jesus’ death and resurrection. Among all those gathering around the tomb that morning, dare we suspect that these were Moses and Elijah, come to see the results of their talk on the Mount? Jesus had indeed “accomplished” His death, and “accomplished” His resurrection. The only thing left now was His ascension to glory.

How Heaven’s time interacts with ours

        I’ve enjoyed C.S.Lewis’ stories of Narnia, partly because Earth-time and Narnia-time run differently. Children slip into Narnia, spend hours, or even years there, then return to the same moment they left Earth. For example, Prince Caspian was only twenty when the children last saw him in Narnia; the next time the same boy sees him, Caspian is an old man. A few weeks here can mean decades have passed in Narnia, and a generation here covers thousands of years there. 

       Fantasy, of course, but what a fun concept! Did C.S.Lewis dream this idea up for himself? Probably not. He was deeply immersed in the Bible—and what did he find there? For starters, think of the angel Gabriel, whom we first meet as he explains prophecy to Daniel (Dan.8:16, 9:21), in Babylon. 

     Surprisingly, the next time Gabriel shows up is in the temple in Jerusalem, there to announce the birth of a son, John, to Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1:19). Six months later he appears to Mary in Nazareth (Luke 1:26). This represents a gap in appearances by Gabriel, of over 500 years—with no change in Gabriel but great changes in Israel. 

        There are also “theophanies” or “Christophanies” that are similar. A few examples:—a “man” appears to Abraham just before the destruction of Sodom (Gen.18:17); the same man, we believe, appears to Joshua, just before Jericho falls (Josh.5:13); and later still, Isaiah sees the same Man, even Jesus Himself (Isa.6:1, John 12:41). 

      We bless C.S.Lewis for illustrating salvation in his child-friendly pictures. It’s gratifying to see how this aspect of his stories comes straight out of Scripture. In the extreme case, three generations back on Earth paralleled the entire existence of Narnia, from its creation (The Magician’s Nephew) to its ultimate end (The Last Battle). In a similar way, our time is really running at break-neck speed, compared to Heaven’s time. If a thousand years are as one day to the Lord (2 Peter 3:8), then it’s only two days of Heaven’s time since He was here. We are only in the third day now.

"The shriveled hand"

        One Sabbath day, a man with a withered hand ducked in at the back of the synagogue in Capernaum, as the rest of the congregation chatted and caught up on the latest news with their neighbours. He kept the ugly hand hidden in the folds of his jacket, and shied away from any conversation. But Jesus saw him.

        Then, as folks quieted down ready for the service to start, the young rabbi from Nazareth spoke up and centered him out:
“Stand up in front of everyone.”

        Under some compulsion, he stood and moved forward. The eyes of the crowd turned to him momentarily, then settled back on Jesus. They watched Him closely to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath.

        Jesus faced the crowd.

        “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”

        No response.

       “Come on people. Someone, speak up. Anyone‽”

        But they remained silent. Neither man nor woman supported him.

        Jesus looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man,

        “Stretch out your hand.”

        He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

        After the service, the grateful man was shocked to overhear some Pharisees and Herodians plotting how they might kill his Healer. 

                                                    [See Mark 3:1-6]

The disciple whom Jesus loved

        We all think we know who this disciple was so let’s take a look at the context. This exact wording only occurs five times, and all in the Gospel of John. In fact, every time the name “John” comes up in this Gospel, it refers to the Baptist or to Peter’s father, never to the Disciple John, himself.

     Chapter 13:23 is the last supper. “This disciple” is reclining at the table (as was the custom in those days) next to Jesus, with his back toward Him. He leans “back against Jesus” and inquires who is going to betray Him.

        The next scene (19:26) is at the cross where, as Jesus is dying, he has the disciple and Mary adopt each other as mother and son. “This disciple” then took her to his own home.

Occurrence number three (20:2) comes on Sunday morning. Mary Magdalene reports to Peter and “the other disciple, the one Jesus loved” that the Lord’s body is missing. The two disciples run to the tomb to check.

        The fourth time we read of “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (21:7) is as the disciples are fishing on Galilee. Only seven are there: Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John, and two others. “This disciple” identifies Jesus to Peter.

        The last time this term is used (21:20) is after breakfast on the shore of Galilee. “This disciple” tells of following Peter and the Lord, then confirms his own identity (21:24) as the author of this Gospel. “The disciple whom Jesus loved” is John.

        We don’t want to stop there, though. John uses this special term mostly to downplay his own part in the action. We, in turn, can use his pattern. Whenever we write or talk or even think about Jesus, God gives us the right to call ourselves “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, simply because we know that “Jesus loves me.” 

Baptism in a lake

Women who stepped out of their usual role.

 

       With a title like this we automatically think of high-profile women like Deborah, the judge of Israel; or of Abigail, whose quick-thinking averted a family massacre; or of Queen Esther, who put her life on the line to rescue her entire nation.

        But there were women in Scripture who stood up for what was right, who did their duty, who served the Lord faithfully, even though we may not know their names.

        Does anybody remember Zelophehad’s daughters? He had five of them. And what did they do? When Moses was dividing up the land to the tribes, and the families, and the sons of sons, their father was left out because he had no sons. In front of all the leaders of Israel, they asked Moses for a proper share (Num. 26:33; 27:1-11), as it would have gone to a son, and they, out of all the women of Israel, got it. The LORD Himself said, “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right.”

        Next, look at the people returning from exile in Babylon. The walls of Jerusalem are still in shambles. Nehemiah gets the men to work and the walls go up quickly. After 52 days, the walls and gates are finished and Nehemiah records credits for good service. There, in the list of priests, goldsmiths, men of Tekoa, perfume-makers, Levites, temple servants, and merchants, is this little note: “Shallum…repaired the next section with the help of his daughters.” (3:12) —Huge amounts of work, not just supervisory but perhaps physical too, and no names given. We think these ladies should rate a listing in Hebrews 11, along with the woman in Proverbs 31!

        Now let’s jump into the 21^st century—a young woman teaches for a week in Girls’ Camp in 2013; a camper girl trusts the Lord and wants to be baptized. The girl is from a non-Christian home and has no Church. Who will baptize her? That young teacher steps in and performs a very public baptism in the lake:----

        Our final example is from the Missions Magazine for September/October, 2015. Julie Frank, a young missionary nurse in Zambia has been watching her neighboring country of Namibia. There doesn’t seem to be much gospel presentation happening there. She travels across the country with a friend, Rebekah Flynn, and at this time it comes into her heart to have a gospel outreach in Windhoek, the capital. Over the next six months, she organizes printing of decorative Bible texts in the local dialects; obtains a government permit to have the outreach in Windhoek, March 9-18, 2015; lines up twin Zambian brothers to help; and gathers all the local missionaries, friends and relatives possible (13 in all), for the trip.

        Teams were set up near the bus station, near grocery stores and near malls. In those ten days, they gave away 15,000 Scripture texts, 1,000 children’s papers, and 1,000 Gospels of John. Halfway through they had to get 10,000 more texts printed and gave them all away as well. Julie’s conclusion at the end of the trip: — “People are thirsty for the Word of God…People’s responses were overwhelming.”    

        And our conclusion from all these stories: —God doesn’t need the big names to do His work—faithful devotion is all He asks. Ì