CULTURE CONFLICT

 

CULTURE CONFLICT

“There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock” Genesis 13:7.

Introduction

            You may be familiar with some of the TV programs that came out of the 50s. “Leave It to Beaver” and that kind of thing, the almost too-good-to-be-true family shows. And what about all those TV Westerns from the 50s? The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates in Rawhide. We’ve all, no doubt, seen or at least have heard of these programs, if not in the original, then as syndicated reruns.

The TV stations tend to show them when they’re not concerned about ratings. Anyhow, if you’re familiar with the likes of “Rawhide” or “Wagon Train” you won’t find it too hard to get a rough picture of what’s happening in the text before us. In today’s terms, Abraham is bringing Western Culture, i.e., civilization, into a pagan land. Or, if you want to use the imagery of the old TV westerns, what we see before us is the start of ‘How the West was Won.’ This is the beginning of the winning of the West. The wagon trains are coming with families. They’re coming to settle the land. They’re coming to cultivate it, to subdue it. They’re bringing their domesticated livestock. They are opening up a new frontier. They are bringing “culture” into an uncultured place. And why shouldn’t they? It’s a Biblical thing to do.

Abram and his entourage, his “wagon train,” are simply being obedient to the LORD. As we’ve seen already it was the LORD who actually brought Abram to this land. And the LORD always acts according to His own will. And when Abram ‘up and left’ his home in Ur of the Chaldeans, he was simply acting according to the will of God.

Galatians 3:8 states clearly that Abram had heard the Gospel. How else could he be saved? Therefore, Abram was being obedient to the Gospel of God as it had been revealed at that time. (Yes, of course, we have to bear in mind that Abram didn’t have a copy of the New Testament with him) but as we follow Abram’s life, you’ll begin to see Gospel patterns and images more and more.

You’ll begin to see how the beginning connects with the middle and the end. In other words, you’ll begin to see more of the magnitude of the Gospel of God. You’ll see that what God did through Christ at Calvary is still being worked out in the world today. As Paul says to the Romans, “We know that all things work together for good to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Abram has been called out of Ur of the Chaldeans according to the eternal purpose of God. And we see that God is doing a great deal of preliminary work in and through the life of Abram. Since Abraham has been given the title “father of believers” one would expect his children to follow in their father’s footsteps somewhat. So, we should expect to see with Abram, albeit in embryonic form, something of what we as the Church, Abraham’s children, are expected to do today. We have the same Master. We follow the same LORD who never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever

In the following we meet Abram after his escapade in Egypt. He has returned to the LORD and to the Promised Land with great riches. And he is now, once again, seeking to be fully obedient to the Gospel.

Now, Abram and all his followers, whether wittingly or not, at this point in time, are simply being obedient to the “Cultural Mandate.” So, as they used to say in the old westerns from the 50s, “meanwhile back at the ranch.”

We pick up the story of Abraham as he moves into the great frontier. We know that he’s already seen some of this frontier land. And you’ll remember that the LORD had sent a famine on this same land. And Abraham went down into Egypt to escape the drought. But now he is obedient once again to God and His Cultural Mandate, i.e., the Gospel.

So in the following we’re going to look at a couple of things in our text: Culture and Conflict. We’ll look at these in their Biblical and historical context, while at the same time we’ll apply what we learn to ourselves as the Church in the World today.

The general theme of the following is: Christianity is the highest form of culture, but Gospel obedience means conflict!

Culture

First thing we need to do is define what we mean by culture. The word “culture” has been misused and abused almost beyond recognition nowadays. I don’t mean to bore you with detail, but this is important. My dictionary defines the word “culture” something like this:

1. The cultivation of plants or animals, esp. to IMPROVE the breed.

2. The development, and refinement of MIND, MORALS, or taste.

3. The condition thus produced; refinement.

4. A specific stage in the development of a civilization.

5. Cultivation of the soil.

Therefore, for something to be “cultured”, that something has to have been developed or refined somewhat. By definition, then, a thing has to be cultivated before it can be called “cultured.” For instance, if you were to come across a bunch of people somewhere who had next to no morals, you’d say that they were uncultured. You would say that they were uncivilized. Therefore, it’s all to do with obedience to God.

Wherever there is obedience to God there, too, is culture or civilization. Therefore, the degree of culture or civilization in any society is directly proportionate to the degree of obedience to God. The Ancient Greeks, for instance, had a great civilization or culture, but only in so far as it measured up to the Law of God, i.e. the 10 Commandments. And we know that all mankind has God’s Law written on their hearts (Rom. 2:15). Adultery, in the forms of fornication and homosexuality were apparently rife in ancient Greece. Greece met its downfall, as did ancient Rome after it because of this uncivilized behaviour. It would seem that God puts up with this kind of thing only for so long!

We see our culture, Western Society and Civilization going the same way. The West was won by the Gospel, not the gun, though many of our forefathers were persecuted and even martyred for the Faith. However, Western Society is now becoming less civilized as the Gospel is increasingly covered over by the settling dust of secular humanistic rhetoric.

            There is a dust encrusted Bible in many-an Australian home but the less it is read and obeyed, the more these homes will produce uncivilized offspring. Abraham, himself tended toward uncivilized behaviour by going down into Egypt. And we saw before that Abram tempted Pharaoh also to behave in an uncivilized manner by saying that Sarah was only his sister and not his wife.

To be truly civilized is to have good morals both inwardly and outwardly. To be truly civilized is to show obedience to God, whether wittingly or unwittingly. But now Abram is once again being obedient to God’s Cultural Mandate. His house is multiplying with people. However, none of them are from his own loins – yet.

You are familiar with the Cultural Mandate? Here’s a reminder. The Cultural Mandate is of course recorded for us in Genesis 1:28, “Then God blessed them [i.e., mankind], and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth.” The command or mandate is given again to Noah and his family after the Flood as they stepped out of the ark. Genesis 9:1-3, “So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.”

So then, God commands us to multiply in numbers and fill the earth and subdue it to God’s glory. However, the tendency is for us to cluster in great cities and live on top of each other. The first great city like this in the Bible was Babel and you all know the story of the great Tower. God confused the languages then, and scattered mankind all over the earth. Therefore, we see that when man refuses to obey the Cultural Mandate, God intervenes.

Directly connected to the Cultural Mandate is the “Great Commission” Where the Cultural Mandate is general, the Great Commission is specific or particular. But in the Great Commission, as in the Cultural Mandate, people are to be obedient and are to go forth and multiply.

An almost entirely overlooked aspect of the Great Commission is the fact that the Church is to multiply her numbers through godly offspring. Few Christians, it would seem, see any connection between the Cultural Mandate and the Great Commission. They forget that their children belong to the Church every bit as much as they do. But as we obey the Cultural Mandate/Great Commission, we are to teach others to be obedient too. We are to baptize and to teach our children to obey and we are to baptize and to teach the nations to obey.

The Church is to be a light on the hill, the salt of the earth. She is to set the good example, as we shall see in our father Abraham, and as we see most clearly in Jesus Christ. For Jesus says in Matthew 28:19ff., “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, TEACHING THEM TO OBEY ALL THINGS I HAVE COMMANDED YOU...” So we see that it’s the role of the Christian Church not only to be obedient to the LORD ourselves but also to teach the nations to likewise be obedient to Christ and His Gospel commandments.

And before we move into our second and final point, let’s summarize: The Cultural Mandate is God’s command to all mankind to obediently go forth and multiply and subdue the earth to the glory of God. The Cultural Mandate is given generally to all mankind whereas the Great Commission is given specifically to the Church. When we look at Abram we see the beginning of the transition from the general to the specific or particular.

Abram’s offspring would become as numerous as the stars in heaven, the sand of the sea. In Abram God is beginning to form a new people who will one day be whole-heartedly obedient to His Cultural Mandate as expressed in the Great Commission. Culture, then, has everything to do with obedience to God – i.e., doing God’s will. Culture, then, has to do with morals – keeping God’s Moral Law, i.e., His Ten Commandments.

Conflict

If Christianity is the highest form of culture, then Gospel obedience will mean conflict. It stands to reason then that wherever Christians are obedient to the Gospel there will be conflict. As pictured in the 50s westerns, families who were united to other families with their domesticated livestock were moving into new frontiers. The wagon trains formed circles of defense against attacks from the natives on the land – conflict! Likewise, the Church forms a line of gospel defense against pagan attack. When the civilized meet with the uncivilized, when culture meets non-culture, when the Church meets with the world, she meets with conflict.

No doubt you’ve heard the expression, “Christians are to be in the world, but not of the world”? Well, we see clearly that Abram was in the world but not of the world. We’re told in Genesis 13:7b that “The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.” These were the epitome of depravity. They were uncultured, uncivilized. They were unchristian! However, Abram was different. He was walking in the Spirit not the flesh. He was walking with the true God who had revealed Himself to Abram, the God who had given him revelation.

So Abram, as it were, has ordered his wagons to form a circle. In Genesis 13:4b we read, “And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.” This, of course, doesn’t mean that he ran around calling out, “LORD! LORD!” Rather it means that he began to truly worship God in spirit and in truth. Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). And since we are told in Acts 4:12, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,” then Christ was present with them by His Spirit in the Promised Land.

The pagans all around followed their perverted religions – ‘heathen-anity’ or ‘pagananity.’ In other words, non-Christians were in the land. But as King David wrote in the Shepherd’s Psalm, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Heathenism and Paganism, i.e., false religion, the worshipers of false god’s are enemies of Christ. Abram, like the Church today, was in the presence of his enemies.

The natives were in direct violation of at least the first two commandments: 1. You shall have no other gods before Me. 2. You shall not make for yourself any carved image. The natives, the indigenous people, or if you will, the Indians who lived in Canaan, followed a false religion and worshipped false gods. And as we shall see some other time, if you will, the Plains Indians, i.e., those Canaanites who lived on the plain of Jordan, were the most uncivilized. For on the Plain of Jordan were the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. As it says in Genesis 13:13, “The men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.” Notice that it says who they were exceeding wicked against – not Abram – not each other. They were exceedingly wicked AGAINST THE LORD.”

Now, here’s where there is the greatest amount of conflict between Christianity and the world. The world, as you know, refuses to submit to the Law or will of God. So when Christianity comes along and tells the world that it’s to repent, i.e., to stop breaking God’s Law and believe in the Gospel, there is immediate conflict. All that the world hears is what it calls a bunch of hypocrites telling the world to behave itself. However, the world and Christians themselves must learn that it’s not people who are telling the world to behave. It’s God!

It’s God who’s telling them to repent or they’ll end up destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah! And the type of behaviour that God is demanding is not an outward obedience to His Ten Commandments, but rather an inward obedience to His Gospel. God wants you to have a heart for Him and for His Law. And an inward obedience to His Gospel always expresses itself as an outward (albeit imperfect) obedience to His Ten Commandments.

Abram, as we see, had the Gospel in his heart. He was obedient to God. With Abram came true religion, the true worship of God. As he called out to God he was bringing civilization into the uncivilized land of Canaan. He was bringing culture into the midst of the uncultured! There he was between Bethel and Ai, the church on the hill shining in the darkness. He was at the place where he had built an altar. He had erected a structure different to all the rest in that pagan land. (We looked at that above.) And so it is wherever Christians go, whether it be into the workplace, or whether it be into darkest Africa or the Amazon Jungle, or whether it be into the place where the Indians of America lived, or the outback of this great land of Australia, wherever Christians go, they take with them true religion, i.e., culture, civilization, Christianity.

God wants the knowledge of Himself to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9). Habakkuk 2:14 says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” The Church then, is to hitch up the wagons and go West young man! She’s to keep on spreading! And as the Church tries to spread the knowledge of God she meets with conflict. Conflict with the pagan nations is guaranteed. Conflicting worldviews will do that, but there will also be conflict among the members of the Church. We see this principle at work in our text: Genesis 13:7, “There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock.” Conflict among the people of God!

It’s the same old story, isn’t it? When your local Church gets too big, it’s time to plant another. The LORD doesn’t want us to unite together and build another Tower of Babel. So, as my old boss used to say to us when he caught us all in a huddle talking: “Spread out in a bunch!” I think he meant that the whole bunch of us was to break up and go elsewhere else and do something. Well, that’s what the Great Commission is about, isn’t it?

Don’t take over a whole city block and build a mega church. Get going out there and Christianize the whole world by influencing it with the Gospel. Go West young man and seek other pastures. “The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want. He makes me down to lie. In pastures green He leadeth me, the quiet waters by.”

I remember at college looking into the history of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. I was hoping they weren’t going to ask me how many times the Church had split over the years. The list, it seemed, went on and on and on – split after split after split! No doubt many of these splits were anything but amicable. No doubt there was a great deal of conflict between Christians. And no doubt during these times of conflict much deadwood would have been removed from the Church. But be that as it may, every church group worshipped the same LORD! They might have all had their differences, but they were all one and the same – Christians! Sure, some were apostate. Some were Christian in name only. As Paul says to the Romans, “For they are not all Israel who are of Israel” (Rom. 9:6b). But the LORD would have us multiply throughout the whole earth. He would have us reproduce the way the cells of our body reproduce.

The cells spread by splitting and splitting but they are all part of the same body. We see the same principle at work when the LORD split Israel into twelve tribes. We see a principle for the need to divide in Genesis 13:6, “Now the land was not able to support them, that they may dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.” So Abram decided that it would be better for him and Lot to separate. And in Genesis 13:9 Abram said to Lot, “Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me.” Did Abram not love Lot? Of course he did (as we’ll see up ahead).

In Genesis 13:11, as in the old westerns, we see Lot ride off into the sunset. Actually, he rode off into the sunrise, but you get the picture. Genesis 13:11, “Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.” So then, as we begin to hitch up the wagons and get ready to ride off into the sunset ourselves, let me remind you of this: We, the Church, have moved into hostile territory. We are surrounded by painted savages on every side. It’s looking bad for us at the moment – conflict without and conflict within! Sex outside of marriage, violence, drugs are all promoted and glorified in the TV programs of today and is in turn applied (i.e., acted out) in society. The TV shows of the 50s which promoted family life and integrity are mocked as unrealistic!

Conclusion

What are we to do? We’re living among an uncivilized people. Well, we obey the Gospel, don’t we? For as the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 4:17b asks the rhetorical question: “What will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” The Church once again, needs to remind herself of the Cultural Mandate. She needs to once again look at the words of the Saviour. The words of Jesus in the Great Commission Matthew 28:18ff are “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all things I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.”

The Canaanites and the Perizzites might still be in the land, but we have a faithful Saviour. One who is still with us. We are more than conquerors. (We’ll see this principle at work in Abram up ahead.)

The message of the Gospel is a life-changing message. The Gospel not only prepares us for heaven, it also brings culture to non-culture. For Christianity is the highest form of culture, but Gospel obedience means conflict – even culture conflict.

JESUS IN GENESIS - The Sabbath

 

Jesus in Genesis: The Sabbath

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. ² And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Genesis 2:1-3

Introduction

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            The Bible begins with the Triune God in and of Himself, which means that was no such thing as anywhere because He had not created anywhere or anything! Then, God seems to have us viewing things from outer space as we watch the heavens and the earth begin to appear as He creates the space into which He places the matter He has created when He began time “In the beginning.” Next, we seem to zoom in on the planet Earth from outer space. From there, we focus our attention on God forming a man and then placing Him in a garden which He has made for him to live in. Then, He has us focus our attention of two trees He has planted in the midst of the garden which is east of the geographical location He calls Eden. Says Geerhardus Vos,

 

Originally God alone existed. He was known to Himself alone. And had first to call into being a creature, before any extraneous knowledge with regard to Him became possible. Creation therefore was the first step in the production of extra-divine knowledge.[1]

In order of sequence, Genesis begins with our focus on God, then the heavens and the earth, next the earth, then man, a garden, and two trees. The subjects covered in Genesis 2, as we move from the general to the particular, include: God making man (2:7), planting a garden (2:8), placing man in it to cultivate it as well as guard it from intruders (2:15), ascribing Adam’s diet while entering into a covenant with him as humanity’s representative (2:16), having Adam catalogue the birds and animals (2:19-20, forming a woman from Adam’s rib (2:21-22), and performing a wedding between the man and the woman (2:23-25).

Seeing Jesus in Genesis

If you have ever been asked by a fellow Christian how you managed to get such and such a teaching from a text in the Bible, then you will know why so many people fail to see Jesus in the Old Testament. They want to see a “proof text” that specifically shows Him by name. However, we have already shown that by using Scripture to interpret Scripture, we can easily see Jesus in Genesis. We also referred to this as Truth interpreting Truth, or in terms more in line with what we’re looking at, letting the Word (Jesus) interpret the Word (Scripture) for us. This view sets us free from quenching the Spirit by our using the Bible as a series of proof texts.

An example of this may be those who isolate and use obscure texts of Scripture as a mandate for persons to be immersed in water as a proxy for people who have already died and have already gone either to heaven or hell. “Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?” (1 Cor. 15:29). Where’s the command here for either immersion itself or immersion on behalf of the dead?

Then there are those who use proof texts to promote their idea that we are damned to hell if we are not baptised. They do this by isolating texts from the rest of Scripture, such as, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16a). And what about the fate of infants who die without baptism or professing Christians who die without baptism? They use texts in isolation, such as the following, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38a, NIV). This includes those who would turn water baptism into a person’s profession of faith rather than the application of the sign and seal of God’s covenant promise to believers and their children.

Many divisions among Christians have their origins in the misuse and misapplication of proof texts. Sects and cults abound because of proof texting. Again, it is good to be able to point to a portion of Scripture that teaches a particular doctrine. However, every doctrine of Scripture must be scrutinised by the checks and balances of the whole counsel of God. Now, with that said, the irony is that now we need to use a proof text to illustrate that this teaching is Biblical. “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Robert Reymond says that the “whole counsel of God” has to do with “keeping with the emphases and balances of Scripture.”[2] The checks and balances must be applied to so called prooftexts.

 

            The men who wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms did so without the so-called “proof-texts”. They were asked by the Parliament of the day if they wouldn’t mind supplying specific examples of where to find in the Bible each doctrine taught in the Confession and Catechisms. The Westminster Divines, (as they’re called), with no little reservation complied with the request. However, the reason these men were loath to supply verses as “proof” of doctrine, was that they didn’t want to be accused of reducing the Bible to a series of “proof-texts”.

The Westminster ‘Divines’ believed in the principle of Scripture interpreting Scripture (Sola Scriptura). Therefore, every text of Scripture must be viewed in light of every other text of Scripture. Every doctrine in the Scriptures must be viewed in light of every other doctrine in Scripture. They believed that every doctrine taught in the Bible is a component of the whole of what the Bible teaches.[3]

Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) must not be confused with Biblicism, which is the belief that people do not need the help of external sources to interpret the Bible. This can often result in, e.g., things like refusing blood transfusions. Again, this happens when texts such as “abstain from … blood…” (Acts 15:29 and all its Old Testament antecedents) are misapplied. For the Biblicist, if there are no proof texts for it, much of modern medicine and medical technology is to be eschewed. However, Scripture Alone has nothing to do with the refusal of organ transplants etc. simply because none are seen in the Bible.

Like the committee at the Westminster Assembly, we need to recapture holistic Biblical thinking, i.e., taking the Bible as a whole and not simply a catalogue of proof texts. Biblical Theology helps us to do this. AA Hodge wrote,

The committee at first wrought at the work of preparing the Confession and Catechisms simultaneously. “After some progress had been made with both, the Assembly resolved to finish the Confession first, and then to construct the Catechisms on its model.” They presented in a body the finished Confession to Parliament, December 3, 1646, when it as recommitted, that the “Assembly should attach their marginal notes to prove every part of it by Scripture.” They finally reported it as finished, with full Scripture proofs of each separate proposition attached, April 29, 1649.[4]

Says Geerhardus, “Biblical Theology relieves to some extent the unfortunate situation that even the fundamental doctrines of the faith should seem to depend mainly on the testimony of isolated proof-texts.”[5] Though it is good to point to a text in Scripture that clearly teaches any particular doctrine, when it comes to seeing Jesus in Genesis, we must view the Bible as a whole rather than a source of our favourite proof texts, lest we become like those men on the road to Emmaus who missed seeing Jesus in the Old Testament, “Then He said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:25-27).

Surely it is better to be accused of seeing Jesus in the shadows of Old Testament Scripture where others cannot, than to miss Him completely and be called “foolish”?

The Dutch American theologian Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949) is credited with being as the father of Reformed Biblical Theology. He helped set us free from obsessive proof texting by instead showing us how Scripture interprets Scripture. He did this by emphasizing the historical unfolding of God’s redemptive plan through Scripture. If we are to see Jesus in Genesis, we must have in full view the Creator’s plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. 

Seeing Jesus in God’s Plan of Redemption

Genesis 2 begins with the words, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished” (Gen. 2:1). Before we try to answer the obvious question, when, as in when creation first took place, let us first acknowledge that it is God’s work of creation that was finished, not His work on earth. “But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (John 5:17).

With the Father and the Spirit, when the Word had completed His creation work, He could’ve just as easily said, “It is finished!”  When the Word had completed the work that His Father had given Him to do on earth by going to the cross, we are told, “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit” (John 19:30). With Philipp Bliss we sing,

Lifted up was He to die;

‘It is finished’ was His cry;

Now in heaven exalted high:

Hallelujah! what a Saviour!

Thus, if we were to consider a brief history of man, we could say that our story as human beings begins with the first man breathing in to receive his spirit from God and ends with the last Man breathing out to return it to Him. However, this end of man was merely the Word, who became flesh, resting on the sabbath after completing His work on earth.

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40). It is upon His resurrection from “the heart of the earth” that the promised new earth or (re)creation begins, which of course, is foreshadowed by God forming man from the dust. Also, let us not overlook the connection between “Jonah in the belly of the great fish” and the resurrected Jesus eating fish to prove it was He who had been in the belly of the earth! “And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, He asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate it in their presence” (Luke 24:41-43, NIV).

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Speaking of Jonah and the fish, keep in mind that Simon Peter was the son of a man who shared the same name with Jonah (Matt. 16:17; John 1:42, 2115,16,17, NKJV). Again, after Jesus’ resurrection from the belly of the earth, “Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.’ Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and eat breakfast.’ Yet none of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You?”—knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish. This is now the third time Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after He was raised from the dead” (John 21:10-14).

Jesus used Jonah in the belly of a fish to foreshadow Himself in the belly of the earth. “And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (Jon. 2:10, NIV).

It was as if the grave had swallowed something alien to it, something poisonous, something it couldn’t hold down, but notice where Jesus was, after God had commanded the earth to as it were vomit the Word onto dry land. “Jesus stood on the shore” (John 21:4a). And who was it that came to Jonah on the shore? “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time…” (Jon. 3:1). Yes, it was the Word who came with the Word to Jonah, yes, and to Peter son of Jonah.

Seeing Jesus in the Sabbath

Though there had been a bit of numbering for Bible chapters and verses over many centuries before it, it wasn’t till the first Bible in English was published that the system of numbering entered popular acceptance and use. This was the Geneva Bible, first published in 1560.

Having noted that numbered chapters and verse were not in the original manuscripts, it is interesting to note that Genesis 2 begins with God finishing His labours then resting from them. “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done” (Gen. 2:2).

Now, we take note that humans were formed on the sixth day (Gen. 1:26-31). Eve was formed from Adam’s rib on the latter half of the day. This was after Adam had named the birds and animals. Therefore, Adam and Eve spent their honeymoon night together, knowing that they wouldn’t have to go to work the next day. Their first whole day together was going to be on the Sabbath, the day of rest. The word Sabbath means rest, not seven. They were to rest in God on their first day of their week.

This is where some Christian groups and cults go wrong by insisting that the Sabbath day is always at the end of the week as it was for Old Testament Israel. However, if we look for Jesus in the Sabbath, and see the connection between Adam and Jesus, we will begin to see how the day changed from the end of the week to the beginning. In Hebrews 4, the writer refers to the first Sabbath day, “And yet His works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in these words: ‘On the seventh day God rested from all his work” (Heb. 4:3-4, NIV). Then he goes on to say, “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from His” (Heb. 4:8-10, NIV). Says Rowland Ward,

 

The emphasis in the fourth commandment is not so much on the sequence of days, as if the moral content includes the last day of the week, but on the meaning of the sabbath itself. Nowhere does the Old Testament tell us: Keep the seventh day of the week, but tells us to keep the weekly sabbath. Whether the sabbath follows or precedes the other six days of the week, it is still the seventh day in relation to the other six days.[6]

Every Sunday when Christians meet together for worship we are entering into God’s rest – just as Adam and Eve did on the first day of the week, their first full day after their creation. Jesus is the firstfruits of the new creation, i.e., this creation which is now in the gradual process of being purged of sin and its effects. “For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:25-26).

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The first day of the week, the Sunday, was significant for Adam and Eve, and also for Jesus. It was the day that Adam the gardener with his wife, Eve, were to rest from their labours and meet with the Lord in the garden, just as Mary met with the resurrected Lord in a garden. “Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid” (John 19:41). And look what happened after God had, at His resurrection, breathed the breath of life into the last Adam’s nostrils, “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ She, supposing Him to be the gardener…” (John 20:15a). Is it just me, or is it hard not to see Adam and Eve in the garden prefiguring Jesus and Mary in the garden?

Rowland Ward comments on the change of days from the last to the first day of the week,

 

On the day of his resurrection Christ appeared to his disciples, and likewise a week later (John 20:19,26). After his final parting from them, marked by the Ascension, he poured out the Spirit. This event occurred on the day of Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, and also fell on the first day of the week… It is in light of such principles that the true significance of the New Testament emphasis on the first day of the week is seen. The significance of Christ’s honouring of the first day of the week is as great as the divine example provided in Genesis 2.[7]

            Notice what day it was when the Word came to John, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last’” (Rev. 1:10-11a). Westminster Confession of Faith 21, chapter 7 says,

As it is of the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in His Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, He hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath.[8]

Thus, God built the Christian Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, into nature. Why? It is for Jesus. It is His day. It is the day when we as it were down tools and meet with Him, just as Adam and Eve were to do in the garden to enter into His rest.

---

[1] Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments, (Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1948, Reprinted 1985), 4.

[2] Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, (Second Edition – Revised & Updated, Thomas Nelson, Nashville, Tennessee, 1998), 917.

[3] Neil Cullan McKinlay, Growth Enhancer: Enlarging Westminster Shorter Catechism, (Weemac Publishing, Brisbane, 2025), 8.

[4] AA Hodge, The Confession of Faith, (Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, Scotland, First published in 1869, reprint 1978), 20.

[5] Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments, (Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1948, Reprinted 1985), 17.

[6] Rowland S. Ward, The Westminster Confession of Faith for the Church Today, (Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia in Melbourne, 1992), 149.

[7] Ibid., 152-3.

[8] Book of Forms, Reformed Churches of Australia, (Reformed Churches Publishing House, Geelong, Victoria,1991), 168.

THE WANDERER RETURNS

                                                         THE WANDERER RETURNS

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“Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. ² Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. ³ And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, ⁴ to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.” Genesis 13:1-4

Introduction

Abram already has undergone a real test of faith. God had led Abram to a land which He had promised to give to Abram’s descendants. But it turned out that there was severe famine in the Promised Land. What was Abram supposed to do? Instead of trusting in the LORD to provide, Abram planned a holiday in Egypt to get away from it all! We looked at some snapshots of Abram and Sarai’s vacation in Egypt. We looked at Abram’s holiday plan. We looked at the place where he stayed. And like all the well laid plans of mice and men there was a plague on Abram’s holiday. Or rather the plagues were on those with whom Abram and Sarai were staying.

In the following we pick up the story where we left off. Pharaoh, the owner of the ‘Holiday Resort’ was only too happy to see the backs of Abram and Sarai. He was so anxious to see them leave that he ‘waved their tab’ – as they say in Canada. Abram and Sarai had made a killing in Egypt, and Pharaoh had sent them home, letting them keep all their ‘Casino’ winnings.

Now we pick up the ‘holiday party’ as they journey home. They are heading back to the place where they were before they went, which was between Bethel and Ai. They were struggling home with bags full of silver and gold. With the holiday behind them they were keen to get back home and get back into the routine. In the following we’ll have a look at three areas, viz., the Trip, the Trinkets and the Trust. The general gist of what we’ll be looking at is as follows: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13).

The Trip

“Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South” (Gen. 13:1). Abram had gone down to Egypt. Now he’s ascending the hill to the Promised Land. So the “trip” we’re talking about is the trip home and not so much the trip to Egypt. Like the Israelites ascending the steps of the Temple, Abram was returning to the place of worship. Whether he was singing like Moses and Miriam after being delivered out of the hand of Pharaoh we can only guess. But as they made their trip back home, they had much to praise God about.

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            Like any of us on the trip back home from an exciting holiday, Abram would have been running everything that happened through his mind as he unpacked his suitcase. He would be thinking, “I did a lot of stupid things! In fact, the whole idea was stupid! I should have stayed where I was, famine or no famine. Why did I have to run off to Egypt? Why did I put my wife’s honor in jeopardy? Why didn’t I just trust in the LORD to provide and be done with it?”

And isn’t that the way of it for us today? Whenever a Christian backslides, he may spend the rest of his life casting it up to himself. He’s never short of help in casting it up his backsliding to himself. The devil and his demons are only too glad to help you do penance for the rest of your life. The “Accuser of the Brethren” is only too happy to hand you a cudgel with which to beat yourself black and blue for your failings. But not the LORD, not our LORD. When we are faithless, He remains faithful. Who do you think it is who is leading Abram back to the place he was before? The Good Shepherd, the LORD, rescued Abram from his folly. The LORD delivered him.

Do you read here that the LORD started calling Abram names, casting things up to him?  Did the LORD say to Abram, “You stupid idiot! Why didn’t you listen to Me?” No, that’s not the LORD who’s accusing you of your past backsliding. It was Pharaoh and his house who were plagued by God, not Abram and his house.

Oh yeah, it’s wrong to backslide. What Abram did was wrong. However, the LORD went down into Egypt to rescue Abram from his backsliding, not to destroy him. Abram had turned his back on his sin, and he was back on the wagon. After this brief interlude, he was wanting to get back to the LORD. So, you do likewise. Turn your back on your backsliding and seek the LORD. He’s not going to clobber you. He’s going to bless you. However, this is not to say that there will be no consequences for your past indiscretions. The repentant drunkard might have done irreparable damage to his liver. The repentant promiscuous homosexual might yet develop HIV and/or AIDS even after rejecting that lifestyle.

One of the slaves Abram picked up in Egypt was a woman by the name of Hagar. Hagar and her descendants were to become the bane of Israel’s life. The cattle Abram picked up from Egypt were about to cause friction between him and his nephew Lot. If you belong to the LORD and you wander away from Him, He will bring you back. But chances are that you won’t be rescued unscathed. However, put it behind you and get on with serving the LORD. For if you are truly repentant, then the LORD has fully forgiven you.

To those who truly belong to the LORD, as does Abram, “There is therefore now no condemnation” (Rom. 8:1). The LORD has His everlasting arms around even the most “Kamikaze” of Christians. The LORD won’t allow you to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. He has you by the scruff of your neck with a love that will not let you go. The Psalmist says, “My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net” (Psa. 25:15). Whether the LORD’s got you by the scruff of the neck or by the ankles, the point is that He’s got you. Always remember that it’s the “fatted calf” our Father wants to kill when the wanderer returns and not the wanderer.

Abram may have deserted the LORD by going down to Egypt, but the LORD hadn’t deserted Abram. So then, Abram and his family were making the trip home to where they had been before.

The Trinkets

The LORD didn’t meet Abram like a Customs Officer at the border of the Promised Land and ask, “Anything to declare?” We’re told in Genesis 13:2 that “Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.” Abram got to take all his winnings, all his holiday trinkets, with him into the Promised Land.

            Now, then, what does this picture say to those who say, “You can’t take your riches with you when you die”? Here’s God letting Abram into the Promised Land with all his earthly belongings. Abram was a very rich man! The LORD says elsewhere, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:24-25). Yet the Customs Officers didn’t confiscate everything Abram had. He got to keep everything he had won at Pharaoh’s Casino. Jesus says it is hard for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God but not impossible! He says, “The things that are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

Why is it that our picture of a missionary is some white bloke sitting in a mud hut overseas? If I was to ask to be sent to Beverley Hills, why would no one take me seriously? Poor people may be more open to a Saviour, but don’t the rich need a Saviour too? Is it more “righteous” to be poor and less “righteous” to be rich? Both the rich man Abram and the poor man Lazarus died and went to heaven! Whether you’re rich or poor is neither here nor there. The kingdom of God is not about food or drink. It’s got nothing to do with how rich or how poor you are. And yet we have this mindset that sees poverty almost as a sign of righteousness or piety. Jesus stopped the rich young ruler at the border of the kingdom of heaven. He wouldn’t let him into His kingdom, the Promised Land with all his riches. Why not? It wasn’t because the LORD had anything against riches. It was because the rich young ruler had put his trust in all his riches, in trinkets! However, for some reason nowadays Christians in general seem to be ashamed of riches, But think of the work that could be done if the Church was full of rich Christians. Think of the work the Church could do if we had one millionaire in the congregation who tithed! It’s the love of money that is the root of all evil not money itself.

I was a member of a congregation that donated a small sum to a financially struggling congregation out west in a small town somewhere. Well, it turned out that one of the members of that congregation upon realizing the church’s financial struggle followed our example and anonymously donated $10,000! The church I was attending had in this set a good example for others to follow. And praise be to God that there are still some around today who follow a good example.

The Church is supposed to be the light on the hill with words and with deeds. The Roman Church is the richest in the world, yet her people are some of the poorest! There’s nothing wrong in having a nice church building to worship in, even a beautiful one. One has only to look at the temple Solomon built. Its designer was God. But to bleed your people dry to build and maintain beautiful cathedrals while your people go hungry spiritually and physically is criminal. But it’s just as criminal to hold back whatever wealth you have from the work of the LORD. For everything we own belongs to the LORD. It is given to us by the LORD. It is His! The LORD can just as easily take all our trinkets, all our riches, back again.

Listen to what the LORD says in the first chapter of Haggai, i.e., Haggai 1:7ff, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,’ says the LORD. You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the LORD of hosts. ‘Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

            So the moral of the tale is this: Use whatever wealth you have for the building of the LORD’s Church throughout the earth. We’re not necessarily talking about buildings. We all know that Christians can worship anywhere. But let me just pause here and pose a question: When you drive through center of any western city, when you look at the skyline, are you able to pick out church buildings from the others? Are you able to tell the difference between a church building and a bank building, for instance? The church is the one with the steeple, the arched windows, isn’t it? Well, I put it to you that as the church becomes more and more like the world, so do our buildings. And how many church buildings have you driven by only to find that they have been converted into a theatre or a restaurant or something? The world wants to change our church buildings into theatres. A theatre is a place of entertainment! At the theatre you’re entertained by people acting as if they are something when they’re not. You could be excused nowadays for thinking you were walking into a church when you were actually walking into an entertainment theatre.

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            So, the world wants to change our churches into entertainment centers. And I’m sure you are aware that many churches are quite happy about this. If they’re not happy then why is there so many puppets, mime and drama in the churches nowadays? And by the same token, why is it that some congregations go to great lengths nowadays to build buildings that look more like pancake houses than churches? We were in an old Methodist Church building in Brisbane City which was turned into a pan-cake house! Inside you’re now handed a menu instead of a hymn book and a Bible. There were photos on the walls from its glory days when it was packed with people feeding on something more substantial than flapjacks!

The Christian Church today has adopted a strange philosophy, the belief that the Church must become like the world in order to attract the world. But you as a Christian should stick out like a sore thumb. Therefore, the building you worship in should stick out like a sore thumb. What’s wrong with a majestic steeple pointing heavenward? However, nowadays you’re never sure whether you’re going to get served pancake or the Word of God! But more often than not you’ll be served something other than God’s Word. Don’t be deceived: some of the churches in this town are really pancake houses! The world and the things of the world have infiltrated the churches. And the churches reflect the world and the things of the world. And now instead of building church buildings, we build multipurpose buildings. Apparently, it increases the resale value of the building for the future.

The Church today needs to learn anew what the LORD was teaching Abraham. And here it is: All the riches of the world, all their buildings and all their cities belong to God. And if it pleases God to give us silver and gold, then He gives us them. If it pleases God to give us whole cities, then He gives us whole cities. If it pleases God to give us the whole earth, then He gives us the whole earth. But you and I won’t see a brass razoo of it unless we trust in the LORD. Unless we trust in the LORD with all our heart, soul, strength, might, and mind, the little you have will be taken from you and given to those who do trust the LORD. That’s what the LORD is teaching Abram, i.e., to trust in Him and Him alone, and not to trust in the world or the things of the world, the things of Egypt.

Like Abram, we need to take our eyes off the things of the world and trust in the things of God.

The Trust

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            If this were a game of monopoly, Abram is no longer in jail. However, he’s back at the beginning collecting more than 200. He landed on Chance and bankrupted himself. He had to pay the owner of the Promised Land everything he had in a famine. He went down to Egypt to try to bail himself out of his debt. But actually, Egypt turned out to be the jail, i.e., the place where people go when they cannot pay their debts. But Abraham had a Community Chest card up his sleeve. He had a “Get Out of Jail Free Card”, didn’t he? So here we are seeing him use that card. “Abram called on the name of the LORD.”

Abraham went back to that little sanctuary he had built. He returned from his spin around the Monopoly Board and landed on Church Street. Did all the buildings look the same on Church Street? Let’s see, there are the Amorites with their Baals and Ashteroths. There they are over here cutting themselves and calling on Baal. There’s another lot over there throwing their children into the fiery belly of their god Moloch. All these establishments of the Canaanites dotted the skyline of the Promised Land. But that which Abram built was different. Abram had built an altar there, an altar to the LORD who had appeared to him. Right there smack-dab right in the center of pagansville he had built a church building, a building that was different to all the rest. He had built an altar, not to an unknown God, but the LORD who had appeared to him, the LORD who had promised to bless him, the LORD who had promised to make him a great nation, the LORD who had promised to bless those who blessed Abram and curse him who cursed him. So, when it says that Abram called on the name of the LORD, it means that Abram began to worship God once more.

The prodigal has returned, but this prodigal has much more than smelly clothes on his back. This is the wild rover has come home with gold in great store! The wanderer returns. Think about it, Abram had already lost whatever he had in a famine the LORD sent. But now he’s returning with gold in great store and a heart that is ready and willing to use his riches to the glory of God. He knew that everything he had belonged to the LORD. Like Paul, he had learned that “in whatever state, to be content; [to] know how to be abased, and... how to live in prosperity... [Like Paul, Abram] learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” (Phil. 4:11-12).

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            Abram could say along with Job, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). The LORD took Abram’s riches away in a famine. But now He has blessed him with even greater riches. Like Job, whom God blessed with more at the end than he ever had at the beginning (Job 42:12). In fact Abram is the richest man there is apart from Christ. For Paul to the Romans in 4:13 tells us that Abram is the heir of the whole world!

So, who says you don’t get to take your riches with you? Abraham and all the meek along with him shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5). Therefore, all the silver and gold and livestock that Abram had when he left Egypt is just a small token of what’s in store for him. In fact, Abram coming out of Egypt, the world, with all his riches as he entered the Promised Land is a great biblical motif. It is a picture of the wonderful provision of God for His people. He brings us up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and He bestows great blessings upon us.

When we set our hearts to worship God in spirit and in truth, He sets His heart to bless us. It is the LORD who brought Abram up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. It is the LORD who brings us out of that land of bondage too. It was the LORD who brought Israel out of captivity in Egypt, the LORD who says to Israel in Deut. 6:10ff., “And it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant – when you have eaten and are full – then beware, lest you     forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Deut. 6:10-12).

Conclusion

The LORD had given His Church all the great cities of the Western Civilization. They were ours and all the steeples on every skyline were testimony to this fact. However, the Western skyline is rapidly changing. It’s beginning to look more and more like Egypt! Instead of steeples we see Moslem onions. Domes dot the horizon! The Church has forgotten the LORD who brought them out of Egypt. It’s time we made the trip back to that place we were before. It’s time we gathered our trinkets together in our swag and headed back to the Promised Land. It’s time we begin to trust in God, to really call on the name of the LORD. It’s time for the wanderer, all the wanderers, to return and call on the name of the LORD!

If you’re still stuck down in Egypt. If you have been faithless, then follow father Abraham up the hill back to the Promised Land. You might have been faithless up till now, but God hasn’t. The LORD is faithful and he will forgive the wanderer. Even if you’ve been the wildest wild rover, return to the LORD. If you belong to Him, He will not deny you because He cannot and will not deny Himself.Come, come back to Abraham’s family altar, and once more call on the name of the LORD. Make the trip. Bring your trinkets but trust in the LORD!