20 Clues from the Old Testament

"Pascal's Wager"

     Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and Christian theologian. Some of his quotes are so outstanding that we still hear them today, for instance:

· “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

· “In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.”

· “The heart has reasons that reason cannot know.”

· “Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”

· “I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”

· “Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.”

        But what was Pascal’s “wager”? And what was a Christian doing “wagering” anyway? In fact, Pascal wasn’t placing any bets, he was balancing Christianity against unbelief. One form of his evaluation says, “If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.”

        To explain a little further, Pascal is saying that if you believe in God you’ve covered all your bets—if there is a hell, you’re safe, and if there isn’t, it doesn’t matter. But there is more. How do you establish yourself on “God’s side”? Mental assent to the wager is not enough because it should be blindingly obvious to everyone.

        The Apostle Paul said, ‘If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ (Rom.10:9). Jesus himself explained: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mat.11:28). And the end result will be, “I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” (John 10:14).

Absolute Commitment!

     For most people in the Bible, their commitment wavered—at some point they faltered. Think of Abraham in Egypt; think of Jacob with his father-in-law; think of Peter at the high priest’s palace; think of Mark, going home from the gospel work in Asia Minor. But there are several people whom we never hear backed down, even under the severest resistance and even when it seemed that God Himself was against them. We might mention Job, or Ruth, or Elisha, for starters.

      The man I want to look at is Ittai the Gittite. Who on earth was Ittai the Gittite? Read the story in 2 Samuel 15:14-22 and 18:1-12. Being a Gittite (a non-Israelite), he was from Gath, the former home of Goliath, deep in Philistine territory.

When David was on the run from Saul, his only refuge was with Achish (aka Abimelech), king of Gath. David and his men were given Ziklag as their town, but from there they secretly raided other Philistine towns. The story is sordid but we believe that at some time during these years Ittai learned of David’s God. He could no longer stay with his own people and, like Ruth in an earlier day, he joined the Israelites, along with his 600 men and their families.

        The real test of his commitment came years later when Absalom rebelled. As David evacuated Jerusalem, he told Ittai to go back to Absalom. Ittai’s response:—“As surely as the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant be.”

        Ittai is a hero from God’s word—Peter made exactly the same promise to his King only a few meters from the same spot, and failed miserably (John 13:37). Let’s remain faithful and claim David’s blessing on Ittai for ourselves, as well, “May the LORD show you kindness and faithfulness.”

Baptism says "I Died!"

     Scripture identifies several ways to die “unnaturally”, such as drowning, stoning, hanging, crucifixion, beheading, by the sword (i.e., in war), and by murder/manslaughter. And there were several ways of getting rid of the body—burial in the earth, sealing up in a cave, burial at sea, and cremating.

     Both Old and New Testament writers put the believer in some of these positions. For instance, Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” (Gal.2:20). And, “our old self was crucified with him.” (Rom.6:6).   In Rom.6:4, he says, “We were therefore buried with him...” Heb.13:11 indicates that, for sacrifices, “the bodies are burned outside the camp.” As far as the sailors were concerned, Jonah was a dead man never to be seen again, once they threw him into the sea. (Jonah 1:13-16).

     So, partly as an academic exercise, what are some of the means that could have been used to show association with Christ in His death? Possibilities might include tying to a cross (and releasing), sealing up in a cave (and releasing), simulated stoning, simulated burning, and submersion in water (and releasing).

     In fact, many years ago a missionary from Africa stood at the pulpit in Shoreacres and told us of some believers in the heart of the Sahara who wanted to be baptized. There was no way they could get together enough water to cover a person so they chose an alternative—they got a coffin. As each believer lay down in that coffin, the lid was closed over them. They were as good as dead. Then the cover was opened and they were raised “to walk in newness of life.”

     Out of all these possibilities, the Holy Spirit has chosen baptism—submersion in water—as our way to identify with Jesus. See Acts 8:36, 9:18, 10:47, 16:33, 18:8, etc. It says in clearest picture form, “I DIED WITH CHRIST.” It doesn’t get any stronger than that! As Christians, we are dead to the world and to sin. If we have really made this commitment, let’s pull ourselves together—with God’s help we can resist those calls from sin and the devil. Jesus has something far better to offer:—

     “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” Ephesians 3:16-19.

     “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise.” Ephesians 5:15.

Book Review: The 10 Dumbest Things Christians Do

The 10 Dumbest Things Christians Do

by Mark Atteberry.

Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Nashville

2006

210 pp

     The author was generous—“dumb” isn’t strong enough—I would call some of his selections “bad” and even “evil”. Atteberry is thorough in his discussion of each item; we’ll use his own words in the following sampling of his list:—

#1. Slinging Mud on the Bride of Christ. “Consider how it must break His heart when we  thoughtlessly besmirch the one He gave His life for, with unbecoming words and actions.”

#3. Living Below the Level of Our Beliefs. “...at that point in his life [re: Bathsheba/Uriah], David’s worship was nothing but a hollow ritual. He was showing up on time, warmly greeting all of his friends, singing all the most popular new psalms, and no doubt offering the kind of beautiful prayers you would expect from one of history’s greatest poets. Then, when the service was over, he was walking unchanged right back into his pathetic, morally corrupt little life.”

#5. Hopping from Church to Church.  “I believe God is disappointed in all chronic church hoppers. I say that because there are so many critical New Testament commands a church-hopping believer simply cannot fulfill.”

#6. Fighting Among Ourselves.  “Friendly. Fire. Two harmless words until you put them side by side. Then they become unspeakably ugly...forgiveness is important because it makes us more like Jesus.”

#7. Missing Golden Opportunities. ”The single most important thing you can do to prepare yourself to be used by God is study the Scriptures.”

#8. Settling for Mediocrity. “The church needs to be more conscious of the way it presents itself to the lost. It’s true, God never said, “Go ye into all the world and impress people.” But you can’t go anywhere in the world and find a business or organization that is thriving on mediocrity...God loves excellence.”

#10. Accepting the Unacceptable. “So anytime you find yourself in a situation where you feel you need to speak up, ask yourself how you can do it in the least offensive way possible. There just might be someone within earshot who is secretly curious about the Lord they see you serving so passionately. Don’t blow that opportunity by being needlessly mean and hateful.”

“In the process, we must never forget to reflect the heart and character of Christ.”

     Atteberry maintains a light-hearted tone throughout the book but he knows and we know that some of his material and some of his examples are heart-breaking.

     I was personally convicted by every one of Atteberry’s items, so much so that I wished we could share every chapter with the whole local church, much like Ezra did in those days of the restoration of temple worship in Jerusalem (Neh.8:1-8). He read the Scriptures then he explained what he had read and showed how it applied to those faithful believers.

     We need to take the Scriptures to heart in just the same way.

Reviewed by Glenn Wilson          

“The Train to Burlington”

     Now that same day two of them were going to a suburb called Burlington about a half hour train  ride from Toronto. They were talking with each other about the violence in the Middle East, then they moved on to police brutality, then to the new construction along the tracks, then to the Leafs and the Jays. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and sat down beside them, but they were kept from recognizing him.

     He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you ride along?”

     They frowned. One of them, named Demas, commented, “You must be a visitor not to know about all these things?”

   "What things?" he asked.

     "All the politics,” they replied. "And the terrorism, and the racial tension, the sale of Hydro One and even our teams?"

     He said to them, "How foolish you are! Do you ever talk about Jesus?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he quickly explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

     As they approached their stop they suggested, "Come to lunch with us." But he was disappointed with their apathy. He travelled on...

                                                                                                                               (Luke 24:13-35,with apologies to Dr. Luke)   Ì

“Breaking of Bread”

   ¹⁹ On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"    John 20:19. 

     Among assemblies, the ‘breaking of bread’ is one of our main reasons for being, and our format for public worship. As a background to what I’ve been thinking, let me tell you that my wife and I were at a meeting very similar to our breaking of bread a few months ago. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and we were there (at Smith’s funeral home) for a man who had just died—we were all there in remembrance of him and we talked with his relatives and friends about his accomplishments in life.

     Don Scholefield loved his wife and his family. He served in the Canadian Navy during the war; after the war he started a flight training school in Quebec; more recently he was inducted into the  Quebec Air and Space Hall of Fame.

     But what a difference between that remembrance service and our breaking of bread! Up at the front of the chapel was a casket and a body. We have no body—we have only an empty cross and symbols of a death—bread and wine.

     We know that the Lord asked His disciples, at the last supper, to remember Him. That was the first Breaking of Bread, as we call it. Now look at our header verse—I believe this is the second Breaking of Bread. The disciples had met together, as He asked, to remember Him. And He came to them again. But Thomas wasn’t there. He obviously didn’t take the Lord’s request to heart, so he missed Him.

     The disciples must have told Thomas what he missed, so he was there the next week, for the third ever Breaking of Bread. And the Lord came again (verse   26). We might almost say that Thomas was there in unbelief, but one sight of the Lord changed him forever!

     Twenty or more years ago, Johnny Cash put out a movie called “The Gospel Road” and in it there is a song that reviews some of the experiences of Peter. To quote the final words of the song—and to reiterate what every Breaking of Bread says...

He’s alive! He’s alive!

        He’s alive and I’m forgiven,
     Heaven’s gates are open wide.
        He’s alive!
                                                                                                                                              Ì