SEEING JESUS IN THE RIVER

Seeing Jesus in the River

The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads Genesis 2:8-10    

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        A schoolfriend and I, when we were ten-year-olds, planted a small garden in a corner of the woods. We transplanted little trees and shrubs and what have you, all of which quickly died. Turns out that when you uproot plants and trees you need to make sure you don’t snap off roots in the process. Between that and a lack of watering, thorns and thistles taking over, we soon lost interest.

“The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden” (Gen. 2:8a). Eden means pleasant, delight(ful). Therefore, unlike the garden with the withered trees and shrubs my friend and I had planted and neglected, God’s garden was pleasant. It was well watered. “Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan towards Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the LORD…” (Gen. 13:10a).

Now, though different words are used in the original Hebrew, watered well and well watered can mean the same thing in English, i.e., that the garden was watered well as in good or that it was watered from a well as in from a spring. Both are true! “Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads” (Gen 2:10).

We shall look at the four rivers that flowed out of the garden more closely in a moment. However, we notice that a river out of Eden flows east through the garden that the LORD had planted and had placed the man. So now we are beginning to see Jesus of whom it can be said. “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper” (Psa. 1:3). Yes, “there He put the man whom He had formed.”

Like a river out of Eden, the motif of being planted next to a river flows through the Bible from beginning to end. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit” (Jer. 17:7-8). “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing” (Ezek. 47:12, NIV). “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7).

        In Scotland, uisge beatha is Gaelic for water of life. It is where we get the English word whisky from. Be that as it may, Jesus is the true water of life. We can clearly see His face being reflected in the river out of Eden. He said to the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14, NIV). “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37b-38). So, the idea for us today is to make sure we are planted next to the last Adam so that, like a river out of Eden, out of our hearts will flow rivers of living water.

I read the following in a book with the attractive title, A River Out of Eden,  

 

In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no other good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. As that unhappy poet A.E. Houseman put it:

‘For Nature, heartless, witless Nature

Will neither care nor know.’

DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music.[1]

Wow! Talk about the blind leading the blind! Has the author of that book been overindulging in the uisge beatha? “A universe of blind physical forces”?! We’ve noted already that, like Mr Magoo reading Genesis, not everyone is able to see Jesus’s reflection in the river. However, this reading of the Bible is so far beyond the “myopic proof-text hermeneutic” that it is gone down the river and has become totally lost at sea! Send the lifeboats!

            There’s a scene in the movie The Perfect Storm that perfectly illustrates what it means to be lost at sea. A man escapes from his sinking boat in the middle of an enormous raging storm. We see his head bobbing in the water as the camera retreats to show the vastness of the man’s lostness. The Bible often uses the raging sea to show the hatred and rage that fallen man has against the Creator.

 

Woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas, and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters; but God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. Isaiah 17:12-13.

            Though the pain is searing and real, because they have seen Jesus in Scripture, like Horatio Spafford who lost four daughters at sea, Christians can sing the hymn he wrote afterwards,

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Surely the Biblical imagery in the following is not hard to see. Unbelievers are unlike the eight who were baptised in the ark but are like those immersed in the Flood. They are unlike those “children of the mist” who were baptised in the cloud but are like Egyptians in hot pursuit who were immersed in the sea. They are unlike the man planted by the rivers of water, whose leaf shall not wither but are like “the ungodly … [who] are like the chaff which the wind drives away” (Psa. 1:4).

The Bible begins with God bringing order to His creation and ends with everything totally in order forever because of Jesus.

 

The earth was barren, with no form of life; it was under a roaring ocean covered with darkness. But the Spirit of God was moving over the water … The sea was no more … Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” Genesis 1:2; Revelation 21:1b, 22:1-2, CEV.

        So, surely even Mr Magoo is able to see the reflection of Jesus in the river flowing out of Eden in the following words spoken to Ezekiel,

 

He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. Ezekiel 47:8-9.

“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people” (Matt. 4:23).

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[1] Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden, Phoenix, 1996, 155.

THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN

 The parable of the good Samaritan – Luke 10:25-37

²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

²⁶ ‘What is written in the Law?’ he replied. ‘How do you read it?’

²⁷ He answered, ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”; and, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”’

²⁸ ‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’

²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half-dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”

³⁶ ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’

³⁷ The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’

Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’ Luke 10:25-37

Watch video: 

 

        How did you get to church? Walk, skateboard, electric scooter, bike? I bet most of you came by car. Your car wouldn’t be much use in taking you to church if you accidently had a nail in one of your tyres. But let’s say that you had a nail in all of your tyres. You’d be thinking that someone had been up to no good, wouldn’t you?

We’re looking at The Parable of The Good Samaritan. However, we’ll be talking a little about the Ten Commandments, i.e., God’s Moral Law. Why? Well, it’s because Jesus was asked a question by an “expert in the law” who was up to no good. It was in response to a couple of questions from this lawyer that Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

We’ll try to embed three nails: 1. The Lay of the Land. 2. The Law & The Lawyer. 3. The Lesson Learned.

1.     1. The Lay of the Land

This so called “expert in the law” is up to no good. We’re told that he “stood up to test Jesus” (10:25). So Jesus sort of does that Judo thing where you redirect your opponent’s momentum. In other words, have you ever noticed how often Jesus answers a question with another question? “‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’” (Luke 10:26).

To teach the “expert in the law” the true meaning of the law, Jesus uses the analogy of a man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho, which was over 27 kms (17 miles) away. If the man in the parable had a car, he could’ve just released to handbrake and the car would’ve rolled all the way there downhill from Jerusalem to Jericho. I hope the brakes work!

Camping as kids, we had a leaky air mattress that would be great at the beginning of the night, but, later, you’d wake up because you were sleeping directly on the ground. This lawyer and the Pharisees had let all the air out of God’s Law. Jesus is about to teach this “expert of the law” about the spirit of the law.

Scripture says, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:26). The expert in the law’s heart was as flat as a cane toad on a busy road! He was spiritually dead. And because spiritual things are spiritually discerned, he could not see the spiritual nature of God’s Law.

So, that’s the lay of the land. Jesus is teaching an expert in the law about the spirit of the law. The Spirit always works with God’s Word. We are to be doers of God’s Word and not just hearers. The Samaritan was a doer of God’s Word. The Priest and the Levite who walked past the dying man were hearers only.

The expert in the law had asked Jesus what he must ‘be doing’ to inherit eternal life. And the Teacher, Jesus, told him that he needed to be ‘doing’ God’s Word, i.e., keeping the law. He was a hearer only and not a doer.

At this point the expert in the law should have admitted that he was a sinner and that, as such, he is unable to keep the law.  But let’s see how things develop.

1.   2. The Law & the Lawyer

Now, in verse 26 Jesus had asked the “expert in the law” two questions. First, “What is written in the law?” and secondly, “How do you read it?”

He answered, ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”; and, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”’ Jesus commends him for his right answer, “You have answered correctly.” 10 out of 10. “Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’”

Both the Old and the New Testaments contain Law and Gospel. They are one Book! If you remove the Gospel from the Old Testament, you become just like the Scribes and the Pharisees, just like this expert in the law, who is actually a scribe.

Jesus tells him that if he fulfills all the conditions of the law, then he will have the eternal life he was asking about. Brothers and sisters, this ‘love God and your neighbour as yourself’ is itself a summary of the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, which in turn, is a summary of the whole Law of God.

The Heidelberg Catechism, LORD’S DAY 34, Question 92 answers the question, What does the Lord say in His law? It answers by listing all Ten Commandments from the Book of Exodus 20:1-17.

Then Question 93 asks, How are these commandments divided? Answer, Into two tables. The first has four commandments, teaching us what our relation to God should be. The second has six commandments, teaching us what we owe our neighbour.

So, like two beams on a cross, the first four commandments are vertical towards God and the last six are horizontal towards other human beings. This vertical and horizontal love is, of course expressed by Jesus on the cross when He said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

The writer to the Hebrews says that Jesus is “the exact representation” of God. In the Godhead, the Father loves the Son and the Spirit. The Son loves the Father and the Spirit. And the Spirit loves the Father and the Son. Each Person in the Godhead loves God and the other Persons, His Neighbour, as Himself. Therefore, if you’re still with me, in the Godhead, God loves God and His neighbour as Himself. 

Jesus is God’s Law with arms and legs, heart and soul. Notice again that Jesus asked the expert in the law’, “What is written in the law?” Jesus said in John 5:39-40, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.”

The One who brings you eternal life is right before your very eyes! Will the expert in the law realise that Jesus is the Messiah, the Promised One? Does he see that God’s Law is condemning him? And does he see his need for the Messiah, Jesus, as the perfect Law-keeper, to save him from his sins?

One of the roles of the Ten Commandments is that they are used by the Holy Spirit to convict you of your sin. Sin is the breaking of the Law in thought, word, or deed. Thus, God’s Law, or even its summary, shows you your need for a Saviour, yes, Jesus Christ.

Jesus was about to demolish the expert in the law’s attempt to sabotage God’s Law, by his, as it were, putting nails in the tyres of the law. Jesus was going to reinflate the law by full filling, filling full, the law. But first He had to remove a nail.

The lawyer can see that Jesus has him cornered. He already knows that no one can keep the law perfectly. That is why he and the Pharisees have let the air out of the tyres of God’s Law. They didn’t want the law driving up and down their streets like a cop car, for fear that it would catch them breaking the Law, exposing them as hypocrites.

So, they had made the impossible possible by making God’s Law easier to keep, much easier. An example of this is where Jesus corrects their false religion where He says, “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” (Matt. 5:43-44). Nowhere in the Law are we commanded to hate our enemies. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is teaching us how to love even our enemies!

        The word spirit in the Bible is the same as breath or wind. Pneumatic tools are driven by air. Like those big human windsocks that you see flapping around outside of some of the car sales yards, you know, those things that are filled with air and wave their arms like a giant basketball player, as the air gushes through them as they try to attract your attention. Well, if you turn off the air machine, these windsock men collapse in a heap like an empty set of clothes.

Like his friends, the Pharisees, the “expert in the law” were like a body without a spirit, dead. They were as flat as bread without the yeast, unleavened bread. They were wine with all its gladness removed. They were decaffeinated coffee! They were law without love. They were devoid of the Spirit of God. They were flat tyres.

The scribe was dead spiritually. The Apostle Paul, says, “We know that the law is spiritual” (Rom. 7:14a). Therefore, the law is a spiritual thing. It comes from the Spirit of God. Paul also says, “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:14).

However, this so-called expert in the law’s spiritual deadness does not stop Jesus from explaining His spiritual law to him. And neither should it stop us from sharing spiritual things with people who are spiritually blind and dead.

This so-called “expert in the law” already knows that the summary of the law comes from putting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 together to form, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and, Love your neighbour as yourself.”

But, like anyone who is caught with their hand in the cookie-jar or biscuit tin (or shortbread tin if you’re Scottish!), he tried to justify himself. Notice what he says in verse 29, “But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’” He knows he’s been sprung already, Jesus has him cornered. So he looks for an escape hatch. “Yes but, but, but who’s my neighbour?” He’s pleading ignorance!

Isn’t that what we all do when we get caught wronging as in wrongdoing? We try to justify ourselves! How can it be a sin to hate my neighbour if I don’t know what is meant by the word ‘neighbour’? So Jesus reminds him that it is not about who his neighbour is. It is about his heart! God’s Law is about love, loving God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself. “Do this and you will live.”

2.     3. The Lesson Learned

Now, the first lesson we’ve already learned is that this expert in the law is spiritually dead. Like all non-Christians, he needs to be born again, born from above, born of the Spirit. He’s got no fizz in his Fanta. He needs to have the air put back into his tyres. The human windsock needs to have wind blowing through it! How does this happen? It happens when the Spirit works with His Word in our heart.

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

Here’s the parable: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half-dead.”

The robbers were obvious Commandment-breakers, “Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not murder.” We don’t know who this victim was, whether he was rich or poor, black or white. He’s just some random man. He’s probably more rich than poor because the robbers thought that even his clothes were worth stealing.

 A priest and then a Levite, when they came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side of the road. So, the outwardly religious representatives avoided him. The point Jesus is making in this parable is that they too were Lawbreakers! 

^“But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.”

This Samaritan is a Law-keeper. He loves God and his neighbour both inwardly in his heart and outwardly by his actions. Where it says “he took pity on him” it is saying that he felt compassion. He had an awakened heart, a heart that loves.

What’s a Samaritan? Remember the Woman at the Well? “Then the woman of Samaria said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans)” (John 4:9). They even called Jesus a Samaritan, as a derogatory term. So, the expert in the law hates Samaritans.

However, the Good Samaritan, the Law-keeper, goes the extra mile. “The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’ The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’ Therefore, be a doer of God’s Word and not just a hearer.

The Good Samaritan seems to perfectly illustrate Jesus. However, the Bible commentator, William Hendriksen says, “As soon as the Samaritan saw the sorely afflicted one, his heart went out to him. This makes us think of Jesus Himself (Matt. 9:36), though it would be wrong to say that the Samaritan represents or symbolizes Jesus.” Well then, what about the man the Samaritan helped? Maybe he’s a picture of Jesus? Who is Jesus? He is going to enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey. He is going to be set upon, stripped of His clothes, beaten to a pulp and left to die!

The Good Samaritan kept the spirit of the Law by doing the stuff Jesus is talking about in Matthew 25. “‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or ill or in prison, and did not help You?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life’ (Matt. 25:44-46).

 “Lord, when did we see You …  needing clothes and clothe you?” “When they had crucified Him, they divided up His clothes by casting lots” (Matt. 27:35). But He is going to be clothed by being wrapped in linen, i.e., after having His wounds bandaged and cleaned. “Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen” (John 19:40).

        They nailed God’s Law to the cross when they crucified Jesus. The Dutch Master, Rembrandt, would often paint himself into his paintings. He painted himself into one called “Raising the Cross,” showing that he contributed to Jesus being nailed to a cross. 

David Stern wrote, “[Jesus] suffered real torture, oozed real blood, and writhed in real pain – for you. If not for the sins of humanity, Jesus would not have needed to die. Your sins helped nail Him to that cross. If one of those Roman soldiers hammering a nail into Jesus’ hand were to turn and face you, you might be startled to see your own face on the body of that Roman soldier.”[1]

Jesus was the only perfect Law-keeper perfectly keeping the spirit of the Law. They didn’t like Him showing them up as sinners. They wanted to kill the spirit of the Law.

Like putting nails into the tires of your car, they had Him, the Word of God, the Law incarnate, nailed to the cross, where “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When He had said this, He breathed his last” (Luke 23:46).

These unbelievers had Jesus nailed to a cross because they hated Him. But what was Jesus doing on behalf of those who believe? “Having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). Therefore, while they were nailing Him to the cross, He was at the same time nailing the notice of cancelation of the debt we owe to God for breaking His Law.

Conclusion

A man asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Therefore, this is ‘a life and death’ question, one that we all must ask. He wants to know what he has to do. Good question but bad motive. So Jesus took aim at this man’s heart, and ours.

By the time Jesus was finished with him, if the Spirit had been working with His Word in his heart, he should have well and truly have been convinced that he was not keeping God’s Law, that he was a sinner in need of a Saviour, yes, we mean Jesus!

Do you have nails in your tyres like the expert in the law or are you filled with the Spirit like the Good Samaritan? If so, then go and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”; and, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”’

Prayer: Father we thank You for Your gift of grace. We thank You that when Jesus was nailed to the cross by wicked men You were at the same time nailing the notice that You have cancelled all our debts. Help us to show our gratitude to You by our forgiving our debtors as You have forgiven us our debts. May Your Spirit continue working with Your Word in our hearts, enabling us to love God and our neighbour as ourselves. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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[1][1] S.I. McMillen and David E. Stern, None of These Diseases: The Bible’s Health Secrets for the 21^st Century, (Revell, a division of Baker Books, Revised edition, 2000), 252-3.

ENDING SOON

 Ending Soon

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        Some people think that the world is ending soon. Some Christians sects have been teaching that ‘it’s a minute to midnight’ for nigh on two hundred years! ‘The Great Disappointment’ refers to an event on 22^nd October 1844 when thousands of Christians gathered to watch the skies for the supposed immanent return of Jesus Christ. They’re still at it! Books, television shows and movies have been made to promote this idea. However, Jesus says, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32). Yes, we struggle to understand how even the Son did not know the date of His return, much in the same way we wrestle with His words to His Father in the shadow of the cross, ‘Not as I will, but as You will’ (Matt. 26:39b).

‘The Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1:1b, 14a). The Godman is going to return from the place He ascended to after His resurrection to dwell among His redeemed people on the redeemed planet Earth. However, no one knows when. So, why the confusion? Jesus was addressing His immediate hearers, not some future generation, ‘Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened’ (Matt. 24:34). Typically, a generation is around forty years. Jesus accurately predicted the major event which took place some forty years later.

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        The destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies climaxed with the demolition of the Temple in AD 70. Therefore, those of that generation knew that things were ending soon. In simple terms, God’s removal of the Temple was the end of the Old Testament way of doing things and the transition to the New Testament administration. It is the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant spoken of by Jeremiah and the author of Hebrews, (Jer 31:31-34; Heb. 10:11-18). The period of transition is recorded in the Book of Acts, which is sometimes referred to as The Acts of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:16-17, ‘But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour My Spirit on all flesh…”’ Notice the mention of ‘the last days.’ When were these last days? Again, the last days climaxed in AD 70.

But what about our own generation? When are the last days for us? Is the world ending soon? Should we be outside watching the sky? Or should we be seeking to disciple all the nations, as per the administration of the new covenant into which the non-Jewish nations are now to be included? ‘Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ (Matt. 28:18-20). The KJV has Jesus saying. ‘I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’ Therefore, the end of the age and the end of the world mean the same thing.

Before He ascended to Heaven bodily, from whence He shall return bodily, Jesus said, ‘It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you’ (John 16:7). The Spirit of Christ will work through His Church on earth to disciple the nations. We still have a long way to go in this awesome endeavour. Therefore, we would not expect the world to be ending soon.

GOD'S COMFORTING PROMISE

 

GOD’S COMFORTING PROMISE

“¹⁴ And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: ‘Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; ¹⁵ for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. ¹⁶ And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. ¹⁷ Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.’ ¹⁸ Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord.” Genesis 13:14-18.

Introduction

“Wee, sleekit, cow’rin’, tim’rous beastie,

O what a panic’s in thy breastie!”

The Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote those words in 1785 after he had upturned a mouse and her nest while he was ploughing a field. He could see that the timid little mouse was in a troubled state. In the poem Burns then begins to look at things from the mouse’s point of view. And he runs a comparison between himself and the wee mouse. He ends his poem to the mouse by saying,

“Still thou art blest compar’d wi’ me!

The present only toucheth thee;

But oh! I backward cast my e’e

On prospects drear!

An’ forward tho’ I canna see,

I guess an’ fear!”

In the following I would like us as Christians to know that we don’t have to panic like a little mouse. Neither do we have to “guess an’ fear” about our future – or even the future of the planet earth. Why? Because our sovereign God is in control of all things. Just as He was in control of the plough with which Robert Burns upturned the little mouse’s house.

The general gist of the following is summed up in these words: The LORD comforts the compliant by confirming His Word to them.

Compliance

Genesis chapter 13 began by telling us Abram, after his escapade down in Egypt, is back on track. Chapter 13 ends by informing us that Abram is still on track. “Then Abram moved his tent [etc.] and built an altar there to the LORD” (Gen. 13:18). So it’s not without reason that Abram is called the father of the faithful. However, as we’ve already seen, and will no doubt see in the future, Abram is anything but perfect. For like the rest of us, Abram struggled at times to do the right thing by God. But here in this chapter we see that Abram is compliant with the will of the LORD. For, if you remember, Abram was told to get out of his country (Gen. 12:1).

This meant that he was to get out from his kindred – even from his father’s house. And you know Abram’s father Terah and his nephew Lot left Ur of the Chaldeans and came with him. But Abram’s father died back in a place called Haran. And we’ve already looked at the amicable separation between Abram and his nephew Lot. But for now, I want you to notice something that is all too often overlooked today.

            The thing too often overlooked is the sovereignty of God in world events. Be it a sparrow dropping from a tree or a hair from your head or bombs from a plane. Or be it the upturning of a mouse house with your plough-blade. Be it anything that comes to pass, all things comply with the secret or hidden will of God. That is, whatever things come to pass – come to pass because they have been ordained by God. And this of course is not to say men are not held accountable to God for their actions good or bad. But it is to say that God is still in control.

At no point has He lost control, either in the past, present or future. So, this means that when the Christian puts his head on his pillow at night, he can sleep. He can sleep because his heavenly Father is watching over him and every atom of the universe.

God is busy even as you sleep, working His purposes out. We’re not always privy to how He does this. Therefore, this we’ll call the ‘secret’ will of God. For instance, none of us knows the moment we’re going to die. Neither does anyone know when the Lord is going to return bodily. God has a secret or hidden will – His decretive will. It is secret or hidden from our view (cf. Deut. 29:29). But the Christian should be comforted knowing that God is in control – control of all things. There’s great comfort expressed in the words of the old hymn, “Whate’er my God ordains is right: His holy will abideth.”

But there is an even greater comfort to be had by being obedient to God. When you know what God would have you do and you do it, that is comfort to your soul. Take Abram and Lot for instance. Both were compliant to the secret or hidden will of God. However, only one of them was conscious he was doing the will of God, and that one was Abram. Abram let his nephew Lot choose where he wanted to live. If Lot went to the right Abram would go to the left and vice versa. Lot chose to go and dwell in the cities of the plain of Jordan – even as far as Sodom!

Now then, it has to be admitted that both Abram and Lot were compliant with the secret will of God. As we are reminded of the Proverb, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” (Prov. 16:33). But here’s the difference between Abram and Lot in this instance. Both were compliant with the secret will of God. But only Abram was compliant with God’s revealed will. Abram separated himself from Lot because of what God had already told him to do. Therefore, he was being obedient to the revealed will of God. However, Lot saw the whole thing as his opportunity to move from tent-life to city-life. But I want you to see that, though Lot wasn’t focused on the things of God, he was still complying with the will of God, albeit the secret will of God.

God had told Abram to get out from his kindred. The LORD had revealed this to Abram in Ur of the Chaldeans; this is the revealed will of God then. But Lot, as you know, was the last of Abram’s kindred. So when Abram asked Lot to choose where he wanted to go, Abram was complying with the revealed will of God, wasn’t he?

Both Abram and Lot got themselves entangled in all that nonsense when they went down to Egypt. Abram learned his lesson to “Come out from among them and be separate” (2 Cor. 6:17). But Lot? Well, he can’t wait to get back in among it all again. So he dashes off to dwell in the cities of the plain. And when he got there? Well, he’s like those today who seem to have no confidence in the sovereign power of God in all things. To put it bluntly, they’re too busy looking at the things of the world and not the things of God. Therefore, like Lot in Sodom, their hearts become troubled when they see evil around them. They forget the words of the Shepherd Psalm, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” They forget that Jesus says, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b). They forget that Jesus says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” All authority over what? Over everything. Even every atom of the universe. Even you and me and the Devil. Therefore, since Christ has overcome the world and has all authority in heaven and on earth, Christians should find comfort in this knowledge.

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            But instead, we see Christian bookstores flooded with scary End-times books. However, the Lord hasn’t revealed the date of His return. It’s part of His secret will. You’ll know all about it after He returns like a thief in the night. So why all the scary books? The thing I find scary about these kinds of books is that some of them are written by Christians who claim that God has revealed His secret will in Scripture. They’ve been promoting the any-second rapture of the church for over two hundred years. So this means that they have been wrong for over the last two hundred years!

How long will it take for them to realise that what Jesus says is true, that no one knows the day or the hour of His return? And with regard to their supposed rapture of the church, Jesus prayed these words in John 17:15, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” Does this sound like the entire believing Church of Jesus Christ is suddenly going to leave the planet earth to the unbelievers? Anyway, as Abram and Lot were compliant with the sovereign secret will of God, so are all other things. Therefore, there is great assurance to be had for the Christian in the knowledge that God has control of all things “Whate’er my God ordains is right: His holy will abideth!” But more than that, there is even greater comfort in knowing that you are doing the will of God.

Just before John Calvin died, his friends, noticing he was really sick, tried to get him to lie down in his bed. “What?” replied Calvin, “And have the Lord come for me and catch me idle!” Calvin knew the comfort that comes from consciously complying with the will of God! He was a doer of the Word.

Now, to be sure there’re many mysteries in the world, e.g., the date of Christ’s return, the suffering of the seeming innocent etc. But these and like mysteries are mysteries because God has a secret or hidden will. However, He also has a revealed will which is for our comfort. Look at Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

So the general idea then, is that we leave all the mysteries with God. What is a mystery to us makes sense to God, so we leave its secret with Him. But those things He has revealed to us in His Word we consciously seek to do. In the words of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

That should be the constant prayer of the Christian. He ought to pray that the Lord’s will will be done on earth – beginning with himself. Therefore, every Christian should search the Scriptures to find out what is God’s revealed will – and then go and do it. And if this is the attitude of the Christian, he will find great comfort in the Word of God. Because obedience or conscious compliance with the revealed will of God brings comfort.

Comfort

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            First, we need to define what we mean by the word ‘comfort.’ Most of us, I’m sure, think of comfort as soft cushions and soft pillows. Most of us think that to comfort someone is to give them a soft shoulder to cry on. And no doubt the word comfort can be used in this way. But in the following we’re using the word comfort the way the Bible uses it, i.e., where comfort means to strengthen, or literally to fort-ify with or fortify together. E.g., the Comforter, the Holy Spirit is the One who strengthens us. He gets alongside us and strengthens us, as in the Lord’s Supper for example. Well, look what’s happening in our text.

Abram is being compliant to the Word of God which has already been revealed to him. “And the LORD said to Abram...” (Gen. 13:14). God spoke to Abram. So the LORD got alongside Abram and strengthened him with words of comfort. However, notice that the LORD did this after Abram had complied with what he’d been told to do. So Abram was a doer of the Word of God, and God continued to strengthen him.

And what exactly has Abram done? Well, he’s separated himself from Lot – his last kin. Abram now has no blood relatives left with him, no next-of-kin, unless of course you include Sarai. Technically Sarai was Abram’s half-sister, as well as his wife, and she also was barren (Gen. 11:30). But did the LORD tell Abram to divorce his half-sister who was his wife? No! This speaks volumes against those who believe in ongoing revelation, and claim God told them to leave their wife and become a missionary or whatever.

First off God has given us all His revealed will in the form of the Bible. And secondly, though God permits divorce because of the hardness of men’s hearts, He hates it. And what better example than Abram and Sarai? The LORD has told Abram to separate from his kindred. Isn’t Sarai Abram’s kindred and his wife? However, there’s no mention of the LORD telling Abram to dump his wife. In fact, don’t we hear echoes loud and clear here of what our Lord says in Matthew 19:4ff.? “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’ So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matt. 19:4-6). And didn’t the Lord give Adam a wife in order to help him, even comfort, i.e., strengthen him? So wives, get alongside your husbands and strengthen them!

Look at this short excerpt from Malachi 2:14-16 which spells out the main purpose of marriage, “The LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth ... she is your companion and your wife by covenant ... Did He not make them one ... and why one? He seeks a godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. For the LORD God of Israel says that He hates divorce” (Mal. 2:14-16).

So, if we put it all together, the LORD wants a man to find a woman, make an unbreakable covenant with her, leaving his father and mother to raise godly offspring. Therefore God will comfort, strengthen those who are striving to be obedient to Him in marriage. Is this not what’s taking place as we see the LORD invisibly superintend the life of Abram?

Is it not a great comfort then, to know that God always complies with His own revealed will? God is telling Abram He’ll bless his marriage with as much offspring as dust on the earth (Gen. 13:16). God is reminding him of the promise already made that He’d make him into a great nation. By this, of course, is meant the church as Paul says, “Therefore know that only those who are faith are sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7). And some other time we’ll look more closely at this along with the fact that Christ is the ultimate Promised Seed of Abram (Gal. 3:16). But for now, we are strengthened in the knowledge that God never acts contrary to His own revealed will. However, look at what else is happening in our text: Abram did what the Lord had told him to do. He has now separated himself from his nephew Lot. This must have broken Abram’s heart. Abram loved his nephew Lot! But Abram complied with the revealed will of God. He obeyed the LORD. However, is the LORD oblivious to what Abram must be going through at this time? No, the LORD came and comforted him with words of encouragement.

So then, we need to ask: What are the words the LORD uses to encourage Abram? Well, all the LORD is doing here is reassuring Abram with what He has already said. In other words, the LORD is coming to Abram and confirming what He has already revealed to him. Thus, the LORD comforts the compliant by confirming His Promise to them.

Confirmation

Think back to what the LORD has already said to Abram as recorded in Genesis 12:1, “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation [etc.]” Now look at what the Lord is saying to Abram in Genesis 13:14ff., “Lift your eyes now and look... for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth...[etc.]”

            Abram has complied with what God has already revealed to him. And now the Lord is comforting him by promising that he will be faithful to His own Word. The Lord does the same thing with us in the Lord’s Supper. He brings us comfort by confirming in the Supper that He will be faithful to His own Word. That’s the way it works.

In the Lord’s Supper the Communicant sees that he or she has a place in the will of God – if he or she has been striving to conform to and do the revealed will of God. If you or I do the right thing by God, we get to sleep at night. As Christians we should put our heads on our pillows at night and think about whether what we’re doing in life lines up with God’s revealed will, i.e., the Bible. The comfort comes with the confirmation that you are being compliant to the revealed will of God. But if the Christian discovers he’s done or is doing something in life contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture, then he is a troubled spirit. For example, look at Abram’s nephew Lot – and what Christian among us cannot relate to this man? We all tend to look at things through the eyes of Lot. He saw the well-watered plain of Jordan. Where Abram is content dwelling in a tent in the hills, Lot wants to go live in the cities of the plain.

Now, you’re going to see in a moment that it was God’s secret will that Lot go there. However, Lot, it would seem, went there for his own selfish reasons. Abram has learned his lesson from the time he went down into Egypt. But Lot, it would seem, is still attracted to the neon lights, the glitter and lifestyle of the city. It’s easy for us to look at things through the eyes of Lot. Lot followed the desire of his heart. But he wasn’t mindful of the things of God. So he became a troubled spirit. And the LORD would eventually have to send in two of His angels to deliver Lot from Sodom. However, looking through God’s eyes it’s not hard to see God’s grace in sending Lot into Sodom. Because like Noah before him, Jonah after him, Lot was a preacher of righteousness.

The Bible calls Lot a “righteous” man (2 Pet. 2:7-8). So, Lot was a Christian. He was a member of the Christian Church as the Church existed at the time of Abram. And is there anyone who would enjoy living in, say, San Francisco or King’s Cross Sydney, witnessing to people constantly involving themselves in the practice of sodomy? Well, that was the mission field Abram’s nephew Lot was sent into by the sovereign God. No! It wasn’t Lot’s intention to go to Sodom as a Christian missionary, but can you see that it was the secret will of our gracious God that Lot should go there? Lot had one thing in mind, but the LORD had another.

So, whatever it is that you’re planning to do, seek confirmation in the Word of God that it’s okay. Otherwise, it might just blow up in your face as it did with Lot. Robert Burns expresses this same idea in the same poem I referred to earlier. You’ve probably come across the words:      

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men

Gang aft a-gley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain

For promised joy.

By the way, there are Christians who take great joy in this type of work. But I’m sure you can see the difference between these Christians today and Lot back then. Whereas Lot tended toward self-service, Christians living among those who engage in unnatural sex (Rom. 1:24-27) are serving the LORD. And there’s the joy, the joy in doing the revealed will of God as confirmed by His Word. When these Christians put their heads on their pillows at night they can sleep. They know that they are there serving the LORD according to His revealed will. Both Lot and Abram, no doubt, knew beforehand that the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD (Gen. 13:13). No wonder the Apostle Peter says of Lot, “that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds” (2 Pet. 2:8).

So, we see then that Lot in Sodom was compliant to the hidden or secret will of God. Seen through the eyes of God, Lot went exactly where the LORD wanted him to go. But Lot didn’t enjoy one bit being the conscience of Sodom! He had a troubled spirit because he was not consciously complying to the revealed will of God. And neither was anyone else around him. In other words, if Lot had gone to Sodom with the intention of winning the Sodomites over to the God of Abram, he would have spared himself the torment of soul. So, to cut the long story short, Lot was a Christian troubled because he was too busy looking at his evil and wicked surroundings and not the kingdom of God like Abram.

So, as we begin to tie it all together, it’s not hard to see that we’re touching on a common problem in the Church at large today. Instead of getting on with what we’re supposed to, (i.e., witnessing to the LORD in an evil and wicked time) many are too busy looking at their surroundings. To look at the amount of End-Time books that are flooding the Christian bookstores, you’d think the devil was sovereign ruler of the world. We know that the devil, as Peter says, “Walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). However, James says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:7-8).

Conclusion

Abram was busy consciously complying to what God told him to do. And the word of the Lord came to him reinforcing what He had already promised him. So, Abram was happy to move his tent and build another altar and continue worshipping God. He trusted that God had everything under control and would come good with His promises. But Lot? He still had a lot to learn about the revealed will of God, never mind His secret will.

So how is it with you? Are you a “Wee, sleekit, cow’rin’, tim’rous beastie, O what a panic’s in thy breastie!” Or are you confident that God has everything under His sovereign control? Are you overly worried about the things around you or are you busy doing something about it, such as everything revealed in Scripture? Are you obedient to the revealed will of God at home, at work, at school, at play? Are you seeking to be obedient to God in your marriage, if you are married?  Are you striving to bring up a godly offspring?

Always remember that the LORD comforts the compliant by confirming His Promise to them.