A PLAGUE ON YOU!

                                                                A PLAGUE ON YOU! 

“But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.” Genesis 12:17. 

Introduction

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We pick up Abram as he continues his journey through the land the LORD had promised to his descendants. We see that there is a great famine in the Promised Land. The LORD had sent this famine to test the faith of His servant Abram. What was Abram going to do? Would he call on the LORD to provide for him, knowing that the LORD is faithful? Or would he lean on his own understanding?

We see that Abram, like many of us, had not yet learned to fully trust in the LORD. However, the LORD is patient with His children. So, let’s see if we can learn from what the LORD taught Abram. Christian, you need to learn the proverb, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding!” (Prov. 3:5).

The Plan

Abram looked at the Promised Land and saw severe famine all around. If he could have changed stones to bread, he would have. The place had become a wilderness. Hunger and thirst hid behind every dry and parched rock. Of course, Abram didn’t know the verse of Scripture, the verse the LORD quoted when He was in the wilderness, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Jesus trusted in God the Father to provide for Him. But what about Abram? The LORD had caused the famine to teach Abram to trust in Him alone. It was to teach Abram to trust every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

When Moses addressed the children of God he said, “He [the LORD] humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut. 8:3).

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        Did Abram trust in the promises of God during the famine? No, instead Abram wrote an elaborate ‘stage-play’! And Sarah, his wife, was to be the star player in this stage play. In simple terms, Abram had a plan. He told his wife that they were flying south for the winter. Just like the Canada goose, they were heading south to escape the season of famine. Sarah was to be his passport, his ticket into the ‘Oasis Casino.’ He was going to park his camel and try his luck on the ‘pokey machines’ of Egypt!

Abram was a gambler (we see this in Genesis 12:12-13). The stakes were high. He was gambling with his life! Like all gamblers, Abram had a system. He had a plan – Sarai! We’re told in Genesis 12:11 that Abram observed that Sarah was “a woman of beautiful countenance.” Take a beautiful woman with you and you’ll receive the royal treatment on her account. “Pretty girls just seem to find out early, How to open doors with just a smile!”[1] So go the words for a popular song from the 70s. Abram knew that his wife’s pretty face would get him into the ‘Oasis’. And we see in Genesis 12:14 that the Egyptians agreed with Abram, “So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful.”

Abram had masterminded a brilliant plan. His fake passport had fooled Egyptian customs. “The princes of Egypt also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.” BINGO! JACKPOT!

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        What a great mind this man Abram had. His plan was foolproof. There he was. In among the high-fliers. He was, so to speak, playing the roulette wheel beside the high rollers. In today’s vernacular, no doubt Abram couldn’t believe his ‘luck’. He even landed himself beside the highest of the high rollers, the Casino owner, Pharaoh himself. Find a stunningly beautiful woman, use her wisely, and you can go places in this world. Doors will open for you. And here’s the proof.

Why put up with famine in the land the LORD has promised, when you can wallow in the riches of Pharaoh’s court? So there was the beautiful Sarai in the palaces of Pharaoh. Marilyn Munro in Kennedy’s Camelot? There’s more to it than that.

What was really going on here? Abram wasn’t really gambling with luck, was he? Abram was really gambling with the LORD. He was putting his trust, not in God, but in the flesh. He was trusting in his own plan, not God’s plan. He was putting his trust in his wife. He was trusting in his wife’s good looks. He was trusting in those things that don’t last. “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley”[2] As the LORD through His Prophet Isaiah says, “All flesh is grass, and its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isa. 40:6-8).

O Abraham, don’t you see that the famine in the Promised Land is from the LORD? The Spirit of the LORD, like a hot wind, has blown upon it and brought this famine. O Abraham, why do you seek refuge in the things of the world? Wouldn’t you rather be a doorkeeper in the house of your God than dwell in the tents of iniquity? Abram was young in the faith. He had a lot to learn. But praise the LORD for His patience toward all His children.

To summarise before we move on: Abraham, at this time, trusted in his own wits. He trusted in his own wife. He trusted in her beauty. And he trusted in the wealth of a nation.

The Place

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Egypt was a mighty world power in Abram’s time. Egypt at the time of Abram some 4000 years ago was different to today. The great Pharaohs were around in those days. Some of the great pyramids had probably been built before then. So, we can imagine something the wealth of the place needed to build pyramids. Today 99% of the people in Egypt live in 4% of the land. The size of the country today is, in rough terms, 1100 kilometers by 1100 kilometers. Just about all of that is desert, more than 90% apparently.

Now, we know that 4000 years is a long time and perhaps the land was quite different than what it is now. However, the most fertile parts of Egypt must always have been along the banks of the River Nile. The Nile would overflow its banks each year and the silt deposits were great for growing things in. The Egyptians were good agriculturalists. They also had settled livestock. They used the little fertile land they had wisely.

Abram was a pastoralist. He was into flocks of sheep and herds of cattle etc. He was living the life of a nomad, keeping an eye open for good grazing ground in Canaan. However, when the famine came what was he to do? We don’t know how much of his livestock survived the famine in Canaan. If any of the droughts we’ve witness over the last few decades in Australia are anything to go by, I don’t expect Abram had much livestock left. One drought-stricken Australian cattleman said it was almost enough to make a man fall on his knees and pray to God!

What did Abram do? Well, he didn’t look first to his bank manager for an extension on his loan. Neither do we see him falling to his knees. No! He looked south to Egypt, to the oasis in the desert. He looked to a type of ancient Las Vegas in the Nevada desert. So, Abram went there. He reasoned with Sarai, “We have to get away from this dry and parched land. If we remain here, we’ll perish along with the livestock, Promised Land or not!” Abram thought, “If I head south what do I have to lose, my life, my wife?” Abram took the gamble and went to the oasis in the desert.

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        According to the Egyptian paintings from around that time, the Egyptian people were copper colored, (like ‘bronzed Aussies’?). The Egyptians therefore were descendants of Ham, one of Noah’s three sons. See, e.g., “Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham” (Psa. 105:23). Therefore, when Abram went there, the Hamites met with some Shemites, (As you know, Noah’s three sons were called Shem, Ham and Japheth). And the skin of the Shemites was lighter in appearance than that of the Hamites. This might have contributed to the beauty of Sarai in the eyes of the Egyptians. There’s a painting from the tomb of Khnum-hotep III which depicts a foreign ruler arriving in Egypt with thirty-seven ‘Asiatics” (i.e., Shemites). They’re not sure whether the scene recalls Abram’s visit or that of Jacob’s sons (Gen. 46-47). The painting dated from around 1890 BC, so it could be either. The Hamites are copper colored and the Shemites are much fairer. Anyhow, the Egyptians fell off their barstools when they saw Sarai’s beauty!

“Don’t go near her or the boss will kill you!” Abram was right about the Egyptians. They knew a good-looking woman when they saw one. “The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house” (Gen. 12:15). We can only take it that Pharaoh had men scouting around for beautiful women for him.

So, Abram got Sarai to lie about their marital status and tell Pharaoh she was his sister. Pharaoh treated Abram well on account of his “sister” (Gen. 12:16). Abram received a sizeable payout at the Oasis. He got sheep, oxen, male and female donkeys, male and female servants and camels, all tax-free. And all of this because he had a beautiful sister, correction, WIFE! Sarai was Abram’s wife no matter how close they were related. Sarai was a married woman and more than that. She might have been part of Abram’s elaborate plan, and she might have had the star role in his elaborate stage-play, but there was One infinitely greater than Abram who had a role for Sarai to play.

Sarai was to play a star part of an even greater plan – God’s plan of redemption. Abram, for the moment, had forgotten about that plan. He had forgotten about the promise the LORD had made to him. “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you” (Gen. 12:2-3).

How is God going to make Abram into a great nation when Abram has gone into the place of captivity? There are echoes here of Adam and Eve in the Garden submitting to the Serpent. Abram’s wife Sarai has been taken captive by Pharaoh. Pharaoh through Sarai, the go-between, the mediator, has given Abram the fruit of the land. Abram is into livestock. “Here!” says Pharaoh, “Have some sheep, oxen, donkeys and camels. I’ll even give you some people to serve you. Have some male and female slaves.” By the way, one of these slaves was a woman named Hagar, i.e., “Hagar the Egyptian” (Gen. 25:12).

Anyway, we see a Bible motif here. We see an underlying element or theme at work. Always remember that “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). At this point in time Abram had not learned this. He was young in the faith. He was somewhat immature. He needed to learn to keep his eyes on the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Pharaoh in the Bible is a type, or picture, of the Devil, the Serpent. Egypt at this time represents the Devil’s Domain, his kingdom of darkness. Of course, his kingdom is full of delights, delights for the flesh. But what about the spirit? It’s the place of spiritual bondage. It’s the place where people are captive to the things of the world.

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Take a walk through the local RSL (Returned Services League). Take a look at the hotel along the road. I remember seeing a billboard outside a hotel “Twenty (or was it 40?) new pokey [slot] machines!” Go and look and you’ll see a perfect example of people in captivity. Look in the hotels and RSL’s. Look in those places where they have all those gambling machines.

There was a member of a bowling club in Scotland who wet herself in front of a pokey machine. She was afraid to leave the ‘one-armed-bandit’ for a second – even to go to the toilet! She was afraid someone else would move in on her absence and commandeer the machine and hit the elusive jackpot. But we don’t have that problem here in Australia. At least not in the hotel with the forty new pokey machines! ‘No waiting! There’s room for all!’ But we should “Seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).

Turn your back on the ‘Get Rich Quick’ schemes. Don’t seek to rub shoulders with the rich and famous in order to try to gain riches. For that is to gamble with your soul at Pharaoh’s Casino. Pharaoh’s Oasis is but a desert mirage. His kingdom of glamour and glitter will all be dissolved on the Last Day (2 Pet. 3:11).

You might have fun at the ‘Oasis Casino’ for a little while. But you’ll find that there’s a principle at work. You’ll find that you’ll need to expend twice the amount of effort to receive half the amount of fun. You’ll need to make twice the number of bricks with half the amount of straw. That is how the mathematical law operates in Pharaoh’s (i.e., the Devil’s) domain.

Gamblers talk about beating the ‘system’. YOU WILL NEVER BEAT THE SYSTEM! Pharaoh is the hard-hearted taskmaster. He is the picture of the Satan himself. Brothers and sisters, friends, do not serve Pharaoh. As Jesus said to the devil who tried to tempt Him in the wilderness, “Away with you Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” (Matt 4:4). As the LORD said to Pharaoh through His servant Moses, “Let My people go that they may serve ME!” (Exod. 8:1b).

Sarai, Abram’s wife, was a captive in Egypt. Pharaoh wanted her to serve only him. “But the LORD plagued Pharaoh’s house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife” (Gen. 12:17). “She will serve only Me and not Pharaoh!” says the LORD. So, the LORD set about delivering His people from the hand of Pharaoh. “A plague! A plague on you Pharaoh! A plague on your house!”

The Plague

The LORD was teaching Pharaoh a lesson. However, Pharaoh refused to truly listen. His House refused to listen even though subsequent Pharaohs were taught the lesson over and over. But the LORD was also teaching Abram a lesson. Abram needed to learn to trust in God and God alone. “You shall have no other goods before Me” (Exod. 20:3).

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There was to come a time in the future when Abram would become mature in the faith. There would come a time when he would say to his son, (whom the LORD told him to sacrifice), “The LORD will provide!” a time when he would say to his future son, Isaac, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Gen. 22:8).

Pharaoh learned nothing from his encounters with the living God. But Abram learned to trust God for all things. He learned not to trust in his own plan but rather to trust in God’s plan, even the eternal plan of salvation, i.e., the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Abram had heard the words of prophecy from the LORD Himself. We see by Abram’s actions that he hadn’t fully understood the words of prophecy. God was patient with Abram. However, His patience ran out with Pharaoh. Pharaoh has another plan. Pharaoh’s plan was devised by “the great dragon, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan; who deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9a).

Jesus says Satan has been a liar from the beginning. He is the one who cast doubt into the mind of Adam’s wife Eve. “Has God indeed said?” (Gen. 3:1). “Did God really say this? And did God really say that?” The devil is still saying the same thing today. “Has God indeed said all of this?”, i.e., all that is written in the Bible.

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Abram had to learn to trust the promises of God. He had to learn to take God at His Word. And so do we more than ever. We must stop flirting around with Pharaoh. We must stop running down to Egypt whenever there’s a famine in the church. Yes, Pharaoh will give you people if that’s what you’re after. He gave Abram male and female slaves. What has Pharaoh given to the church today? What has he given to the church that has gone down to Egypt in a famine? For example, he’s given us blatantly unrepentant practicing homosexual ministers, hasn’t he? He’s given us blatantly unrepentant practicing lesbian preachers in the pulpit, hasn’t he? Of course, if a person is Biblically repentant, then that’s different, we can handle that. Also, the practice of homosexuality is not the unpardonable sin. According to the Bible all human beings are sinners in need of salvation regardless of what our particular sinful actions are, be it homosexual acts or whatever. However, to twist and distort Scripture to make it say something it doesn’t, is to speak the same language as the devil who is the father of lies. “Did God really say this” Did He really say that” As per the serpent to Eve, “Has God indeed said?” (Gen. 3:1).

Some people would take away from God’s Word and add to it as it suits them. They don’t believe in the supreme authority of Scripture and/or they put their ‘spin’ on it. Yes, God can save even the vilest of sinners. He saved me! He saves all believers. However, those who are flirting with the things of the world, those who are happy in the courts of Pharaoh, those who are ignoring the promises of God, need to beware. As John the Apostle wrote, “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book [i.e., Revelation, and by extension, the Bible as the completed Word of God]: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18-19; cf., Deut. 4:2, 12:32; Prov. 30:5-6).

“The LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abrams wife” (Gen. 12:17). Now, you may think that plagues are just a natural part of this fallen world. If you think that then you’re only half right. There are no plagues in the kingdom of God. Plagues belong only to the kingdom of Satan. However, when the Kingdom of God advances on earth so too does medical science, for example. Read the Book of Leviticus, for instance, if you don’t believe what I’m saying. It was Christianity that brought doctors, hospitals and medical science, not paganism. Christianity, true Christianity, brings healing to the nations (Rev. 22:2).

Drs. McMillen and David Stern have written a bestseller book titled None of These Diseases. The title comes from the following verse in Exodus, where the LORD says to His people, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you” (Exod. 15:26). Say McMillen and Stern,

“None of these diseases!” What a promise! For centuries epidemics has killed thousands of Egyptians and Hebrews. Ancient treatments rarely helped. Often the “cure” was worse than the disease. Yet God made a fantastic promise – freedom from diseases.

God gave Moses many health rules, filling a whole section of the Bible…

Thousands have died through the centuries, however, because doctors ignored the biblical rules. Finally, when doctors read a tried these guidelines, they quickly discovered how to prevent the spread of epidemics. Thus Moses could be called the father of modern infection control.

Even today we are still benefitting from God’s 3,500-year-old instructions.[3]

 

Look at some of those countries where the gospel has yet to flourish and you’ll see squalor and disease. E.g., we’ve seen HIV and AIDS in epidemic proportion, pandemic in places where the Word of God has either been ignored (such as in the West) or has not yet penetrated.

Pharaoh and his whole house, even his kingdom, was cursed by God. Even all of creation groans under this curse (Rom. 8:22). But those who listen to Word of God, those who believe the promises of God, are set free. Now, this isn’t to say that Christians will be free from all disease in this life, but rather where the Kingdom of God makes inroads there is better quality of life.

Where people are obedient to the Gospel venereal disease disappears, for instance. It’s no longer an epidemic. AIDS virtually vanishes. Where the Gospel advances marriages produce obedient children making for a safer society. A safer society means fewer murders which means a lower mortality rate. All I’m trying to tell you about is a principle seen throughout Scripture, i.e., the ‘Good News’ principle. When Israel was obedient to God, then God blessed them. When they turned their backs on His promises He cursed them. (See, e.g., Deut. 27-28 for a list of God’s covenant blessings and curses.) God even sent plagues among His own people so that they would know it was Him. He sent the plagues so that they would turn to Him in repentance for help!

Abram needed to learn to turn to God first and foremost for help and not to conform to the world (cf. Rom. 12:2). There were blessings in abundance awaiting Abram from the hand of God. But first he had to see the fallen world for what it really was, a desert-mirage. There is nothing of any substance in the kingdom of this fallen world. The kingdom of this world is just a sandcastle in the sky. The storm cloud of God’s wrath is going to wash all its sin and unrighteousness away on the Last Day. This world with its elements, i.e., its elementary teaching, will be dissolved at the earth’s renewal (2 Pet. 3:10, 12; Gal. 4:3, 9; Col. 2:8, 20; Isa. 65:17 with Rev. 21:1). It’s the Kingdom of God and His righteousness we need to seek, for that remains forever. However, you won’t find it hanging around in Pharaoh’s court.

Abram went down to Egypt for help during a famine. The LORD gives this warning through His prophet Isaiah, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!” (Isa. 31:1).

Let’s consider Pharaoh for a moment. Pharaoh figured out the connection between the plagues and Sarai. Pharaoh had had adulterous intentions towards Abram’s wife. Whatever he had planned for Sarai had been unsuccessful. He knew there was something different about this woman to all the rest. And we gather that at some point Sarai must have told him she was Abram’s wife (Gen. 12:18). The LORD (back in Gen. 12:3b) had already said to Abram, “I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse him who curses you.” Pharaoh had unwittingly come between a man and his wife – a man of God and his wife! He had separated a man from his wife because of his antics – marriage wrecker! So, God cursed him with great plagues for his trouble! “I will curse him who curses you” (Gen. 12:3) – even him who curses you unwittingly. (“What, therefore, God had joined together, let not man put asunder!”)

If non-Christians could only think more like Pharaoh, they would see the connections between plagues and famines, and the people of God, the children of our father Abraham, i.e., all who are in Christ. Perhaps this is too much to ask since even many Christians fail to see the connections! But all it means is that we’ll never be short of material for a lesson on trusting in God and not Pharaoh.

There will be more and more famines and plagues until people learn to trust in God with thankful obedience. But if the world ever wants to spare itself then it needs to learn to, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding!” We need to learn to walk in grateful obedience to the promises of God.

Conclusion

Should Abram have gone down into Egypt with Sarai? No. Why not? Because by substituting his own plan he was putting God’s plan of redemption in jeopardy. Paul the Apostle illuminates it all for us, “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16).

As to His humanity, God the Son, i.e., Jesus Christ, was to descend from Abram and Sarah, not Pharaoh and Sarah! So the LORD intervened by sending great plagues into Pharaoh’s house. Pharaoh got the message and sent Abram packing, “Here is your wife, take her and go your way.” I don’t think it is a misapplication of Scripture to quote at this point the verse where God says, “Out of Egypt I called my Son” (Matt. 2:15b).

Pharaoh was only too glad to see the backs of Abram and Sarai – to escape the plagues of God! However, the only sure way to escape God’s plague on you is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This is found of course only in the One who came through the loins of Abram and the womb of his barren wife Sarai, his Seed Jesus Christ.

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[1] The Eagles, from Hotel California song.

[2] Robert Burns, To A Mouse.

[3] 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), 11.

KARLUK (Book review)

Karluk: The Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration by Willaim Laird McKinlay has now been told. Setting off in June 1913, Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a Canadian explorer who captained the Karluk, a ship with a 25-member crew of seamen and scientists. Shortly thereafter the ship became stuck in Arctic ice, stranding the crew which, fortunately, included an Eskimo family consisting of mother, father, and their two daughters, Helen and Mugpi, aged five and three. This family was an invaluable Godsend, using their Arctic skills (hunting, shoemaking, clothe making and repairing, cooking skills etc.) to help save the survivors as they wandered around the frozen wastelands of drifting and raggedy icefloes for six months. Eleven of the crew never made it.

Dogsleds and snowdrifts, polar bears and snow blindness. The weather was extreme and brutal, especially during times of 24-hour darkness. Yet periodically there were rays of hope. The author, William Laird McKinlay, lived to tell the tale, wanting to set the record straight, which he did in 1976 before dying in Glasgow at a ripe old age of 95 in 1983.    

McKinlay does well describing the personality clashes and group dynamics of men when under unimaginable stress. They were ill-equipped, lacking in leadership and survival skills, and were suffering from malnutrition and many mysterious ailments.

Aged only 25, McKinlay was the ship’s magnetician and meteorologist, a scientist not an Arctic explorer, yet not without hope. McKinlay wrote,

Just before I left home our family minister had given me a Bible, with ‘Psalm 121’ inscribed on the fly-leaf. My Bible was somewhere on the Mary Sachs or the Alaska, but just the thought of it sustained me. And when I walked along the sandspit and looked at Wrangel’s distant mountains, I was seeing my own Scottish hills and remembering those lines from Psalm 121: ‘I to the hills will lift mine eyes, from whence doth come mine aid.’ My thoughts were not gloomy. (Page106) 

Many times, close to starving, sick and weak, with periods of malnutrition, bouts of diarrhoea and constipation, surely for McKinlay the timeless truth of Jesus’s words rang true, when He said, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread along, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ God’s Word sustained him. Spiritual food! Facing one gruelling ordeal after another, day after day, night after night, he just seemed to ‘get on with it’ as the party struggled to walk from the ice-crushed Karluk to Wrangel Island, from whence they hoped to be rescued. And rescued they were! What a remarkable story of resilience. McKinlay concluded,

It is enough for now that the whole story of the Karluk has been told. I thank God that I have been spared to tell it. I have never ceased thanking Him for bringing me through the experience of the Karluk and Wrangel Island. I believe it was my faith in God that sustained me, a faith kept alive by the memory of Psalm 121: ‘I to the hills will lift mine eyes, from whence doth come mine aid.’

As that great Scottish theologian, Professor William Barkley put it: ‘The fact that God is on our side does not mean that we will enjoy a comfortable troublefree existence. What it does mean is, that no matter what comes to us, we can face it erect and foursquare.’ (Page 162)

TREACHERY & LOYALTY

                                                        Treachery & Loyalty

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        The Bible is full of contrasts and even opposites; darkness and light, heaven and hell, life and death etc. Whereas the first man Adam was treacherous unto death, the Last Adam (i.e., Jesus) was loyal unto death. The former’s treachery and subsequent death brought death to all mankind. However, the latter’s loyalty and subsequent death brought life to all who trust in Him. “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Rom. 5:18).

To what and toward whom was Adam treacherous and Jesus loyal? For Adam’s treachery to bring death to all humanity, he must have been representing himself, his wife and his posterity. And for Jesus’s loyalty to bring life, He must be representing those who trust in Him for salvation. Therefore, Adam and Jesus are federal representatives, or, in Biblical terms, both are covenant heads. In other words, both represent their own constituents before God. Whereas Adam’s constituents are fallen and are therefore dead, those who belong to Jesus have been raised to life, everlasting life.

As representing the nation, it is the Sovereign or Prime Minster or President who declares war. Adam declared war on God by sinning against Him. The late great theologian RC Sproul provides a sense of gravity and proportion for what Adam did while representing us. 'Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward the One to whom we owe everything, to the One who has given us life itself.' Without Christ Jesus we remain in our state of cosmic treason against God because Adam is our covenant head. However, having instead Christ Jesus as our Redeemer, i.e., as our covenant head, we will remain forever in a condition of complete loyalty to God. Jesus lived the perfect life that we as sinners cannot live, and He died a substitutionary death to pay to God what we owe for our treachery against Him.

God genuinely offers to forgive the treachery of those who have Jesus to represent them before God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). In Christ and Him crucified, God’s grace and forgiveness is displayed. Says Jay Adams, “The cross was not merely an act of compassion and mercy directed toward mankind; it was a cosmic event in which God demonstrated who and what He is before all the universe.”

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        The sparkling diamonds of God’s grace, mercy and compassion gloriously stand out against the black velvet backdrop of our treachery, yes, our cosmic treason. We see this illustrated time and time again throughout the Old Testament, even by those who should have known better, 'But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt treacherously with Me' (Hos. 6:7). However, we believers now have a better covenant than the one between God and Adam our old covenant head. We even have a better covenant than that between God and Old Testament Israel.

Yet, even as Jesus was inaugurating the promised new covenant (as per Jer. 31:31f., Heb. 8:8-12), there was treachery at the table among the twelve. “He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table' (Luke 22:20-21).

Which is it for you dear reader, treachery or loyalty?

THIS OLD HOUSE

                                                                    This Old House 

1 Peter 2:4-10 (NIV UK)

As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him – ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says:

‘See, I lay a stone in Zion,

    a chosen and precious cornerstone,

and the one who trusts  him

    will never be put to sham

⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

‘The stone the builders rejected

    has become the cornerstone,’

⁸ and,

‘A stone that causes people to stumble

    and a rock that makes them fall.’

They stumble because they disobey the message – which is also what they were destined for.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Introduction

In Glasgow, Scotland, there once were rows and rows of old tenement buildings. These old brick buildings used to house the workers in the day of Clydeside shipbuilding. As the shipbuilding industry died a death in Scotland so did these buildings. They became slums – good only for the wrecking ball! And so whole communities were disrupted as the demolition crews moved in.

Whole communities such as the Gorbals were demolished! The displaced people became known as the “Glasgow overspill.” There was social upheaval – social unrest. Then someone had a brainwave. Instead of destroying the community why don’t we renovate? And so rows and rows of old tenement buildings were spared. After renovation people flocked to these buildings wanting to live in these communities. It’s amazing what can be done with an old house.

If you were an old house, what do you think could be done with you? Do you think you should be condemned as unsafe? Or do you think you could be renovated to become a home fit for royalty? Well, in terms of the Bible, all mankind is standing like rows of condemned houses.

We are like derelict and dilapidated buildings with broken windows and leaky roofs. We stand covered in grime and soot awaiting the wrecker’s ball. But God has decided to spare some of us. He has decided to renovate us! He has purchased us and He is forming a new community. So let’s consider some of the work the Lord is doing as He renovates us.

1. Walls Removed

There has been a solid brick wall built up between you and God. Of course, this wall was demolished when you were converted. For when God began His renovation in you, He removed that wall. How did that wall get there? Well, sin built a wall between you and God. You inherited your house from your great, great… grandfather Adam. Adam was the master plan for every house that was to come after him. And he was the one that built the wall that separates each of us from God. His design was passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, you live in a house with a wall separating you from God.

However, when God moved into your (ie, the Christian’s) house, the wall of the carnal mind which is enmity against God was torn down. Romans 8:7 says, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God…” Or as the NKJV puts it, “The carnal mind is enmity against God...” “Enmity” or “hostility” is something that separates. Enmity is a barrier, a wall. And as the walls of Jericho came a tumbling down, God levels that wall in you first off. Then He begins to patiently clear away the dust and rubble of that wall.

There’s another wall that needs to be torn down. The wall between you and your brother and sister in Christ. Scripture says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” Galatians 3:28.

There may be racism, social distinction, sexism in the world outside, but there is to be none of it in Christ’s church. Each of us has our different roles to play in the church and in society, but we are not to despise others because of their station in life.

In New Testament times, the Jews despised the Gentiles and called them dogs! But when a Jew and a Gentile were converted, they became as one. “For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” Ephesians 2:14.

However, the wall between you and your non-Christian neighbour stays in place. If you’ve ever renovated a house, you’ll know about “supporting” walls. A supporting wall cannot be removed unless you want the house to fall down. It’s kind of like our spine – we need it to keep us upright.

It was Adam who erected the wall between you and God. This wall is taken away by Jesus Christ. But it was God who put the wall in place between the Christian and the non-Christian. The Lord said to the serpent in the Garden after Adam fell, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.’” Genesis 3:15.

The “Offspring” or “Seed” of the woman is of course Christ, Galatians 3:16. And since the offspring of the serpent are all the non-elect, it means that there is a barrier between those who are of Christ and those who are of the world. Jesus says, “‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” John 15:18-19.

Therefore, the wall between the Christian and the world has to remain or Christianity crumbles. Christians need to be aware that it’s not a flimsy plasterboard partition. It is a load-bearing wall. The Apostle Paul emphasizes this where he says, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 2 Corinthians 6:14-16.

This doesn’t mean that we are to turn our backs on the world. No of course not! Jesus sends us into the world with good news for the world. The point is that we are not to become like the world. There is to be a difference between His Church and the world.

So we’ve then seen a couple of walls removed in the “old house” which is the Christian’s body.

2. Wires Replaced

What we’re talking about here is the rewiring of the mind. You wouldn’t renovate an old house without rewiring it. If you’re going to think the thoughts God wants you to, you’ll need a new electrical system. Scripture says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will” Romans 12:2.

You used to be wired according to the system of this world. But now you’ve been rewired to accommodate a power way stronger than the power in the world. You can now do things that you couldn’t before. You now have the power to glorify God.

Before your regeneration and subsequent conversion, you didn’t have the power to do any spiritual good. Sin had tripped the breaker, blown the fuse. Sin had broken the connection with God. But now God has come into your house and is busy rewiring.

Now you have the ability, not only to understand the will of God, but to obey and do it. Where before, you were at best like a Pharisee able only to keep God’s Commandments outwardly. Now you can say with Paul, “I can do all this through Him who gives me strength” Philippians 4:13. This means that sin has no power over you. It doesn’t mean that you’ll never sin again. It does mean that sin has lost its dominion over you. Your sin used to rule in your old house like a tyrant. But now that the Lord has begun His renovations, you are back in control.

Your mind that was once controlled by sinful impulses, is now capable of resistance. Those sinful cravings can now be resisted by the power of God in you. If you were a glutton, for instance, the Lord has given you back control of your appetite. If you were a drunkard, the Lord has empowered you to control your drinking. Paul says to the Corinthians, “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were.” 1 Corinthians 6:10-11.

The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The Lord is able to save even the vilest of sinners from their sins. He does so through regeneration and conversion whereby the power of Christ and His cross is, by the Holy Spirit, transferred to the Christian’s old house.

But this old house needs to be rewired to accommodate that power. You need to be converted from Alternating Current to Direct Current. The difference between AC and DC is this: Alternating Current means just that, that the current alternates back and forth, whereas Direct Current flows constantly in one direction only.

So then, before your conversion from AC to DC you would flip flop back and forward over things. You were like the children mentioned by Paul, who were “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming…” Ephesians 4:14. But the Holy Spirit has rewired the old house in which you live.

Conversion from AC to DC was complete when you were hooked up to the new power generator. The living, active and powerful Word of God is hidden in your heart like a battery in a watch. The Holy Spirit has flicked the switch and enabled you to welcome Christ into your home.

While running on this new power source you heard a knock at your door. You recognized the voice of the Lord and He came into your home to dine with you (Revelation 3:20). Things are still a bit of a mess in your house – what, with a couple of walls removed.

And when there are wires being replaced it can look like spaghetti-junction for a while. In fact, you’re embarrassed the Lord has come to visit and the place is in such a mess.

But don’t ever forget the reason why the Lord has come to your house. He has come to renovate, and He will clean up the mess. And the Lord will keep on renovating and cleaning up the mess until the job is completed. “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6.

But what about all those grime-covered and broken windows?

3. Windows Repaired

An old building wouldn’t be an old building without its grime-covered windows smashed. The world has been throwing mud and stones at you all your life. But the Lord is repairing your windows.

What are windows for? Windows are for letting in air and light and seeing out of. However, they also let out light, don’t they? When the Lord turns on the power in the Christian’s house the lights come on.

If Christ the Light of the world comes, by His Spirit, to live in your home it stands to reason that the lights will come on. A Christian house with all the lights on is warm and inviting on a cold dark night.

Now, Australia is a strange place at Christmas time. The sun is splitting the concrete in the streets. Even though it’s the middle of summer the Christmas cards are covered in snow! Therefore, no matter where you live you’ve all seen the little house with the warm glow emanating from it. The one with the snow-covered roof that looks all warm and cozy inside.

It would be a lie to tell you that the Christian’s heart is always like the house in that picture. However, there is a peace that transcends all understanding in the Christian’s heart. And that peace comes across to those who are on the outside looking in.

Where there were once panes of glass that couldn’t be seen through, there is now a welcoming warmth emanating out into the surrounding world. It’s a place of rest and refreshment for weary travelers. Why? It’s because Jesus, the Light of the world, lives in that house by His Spirit.

He is the One who is breaking down the walls. He is the One who is rewiring your home. He is the One who doesn’t want you hiding your light under a basket. He is the One who says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” Matthew 11:28.

If someone came to you with a heavy problem, would you try to hide Jesus in the closet? Would you say, “Quick Jesus, in here! There’s someone at my door!”? No! It might very well be that the person has seen the light on in your home on a cold and dark night, when everyone else in the street has gone to bed so to speak.

And when the Lord repairs our windows, we begin to see the world through different eyes. We begin to see the enmity, the hostility, between the world and the kingdom of God. We begin to see the forces of darkness at work. We begin to see the battle between light and darkness.

We see it in the political arena. We see it in the state schools. We see it in the streets. We see it on the TV – on the radio – and in the newspapers. We see clearer and clearer the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of the woman.

But never forget that the Lord is more than able to save even the vilest of sinners. However, when the Lord repairs your windows, you are able to see the vileness of sin in the world outside – the sin that at one time had overcome your heart. But thank the Lord that you are able also to see the kingdom of God. Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” John 3:3. To have the Lord renovating your old house is to be born again which is to be converted. And when, by the grace of God, you are converted you see the world in a different light.

I began by talking about the old derelict tenement buildings in Glasgow being renovated. And we used that as a picture of the individual Christian being renovated by God. But let’s not miss an important point – as we begin to tie things together.

Christians tend to be a bit too individualistically minded. In other words, we tend to act as single people. But in Glasgow whole communities were renovated, not just individual houses. And so it is with us – we are part of a renovated community – a Christian community. We are a community within a hostile community. The world with all its false religions and philosophies setting themselves up against God.

Now, Jesus says that we are to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every nation. It seems to me that the local churches have been doing this in their communities. However, I believe a strange thing has been happening.

Because the churches have been so busy out there campaigning, they’ve been neglecting the upkeep of their houses, even their own Christian community.

It’s good and Scriptural that we reach out to the lost and dying in the world. But what about the Christian home? Scripture says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” Galatians 6:10.

So it’s right that we seek to do good to our non-Christian neighbour, but it is clearly wrong to neglect our own household. In fact, it makes you worse than an unbeliever if you neglect your local church.

Scripture says, “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”1 Timothy 5:8.

A neglected house becomes dilapidated. A row of neglected houses becomes a slum. And a slum becomes ready for the wrecking ball.

At present, many other churches are obsessed with outreach in the community. On the surface this looks good. It’s good to care about winning the lost – but what’s really happening? Well, like any army on a campaign overseas, the home front becomes weak and prone to attack. A bunch of old codgers like “Dad’s Ary” are guarding things at home while the forces are overseas as it were. The enemy has been busy on the Home Front – busy swinging the wrecking ball. Whole Christian communities are being demolished rather than renovated.

And how does the enemy swing the wrecking ball? He does it by talking Christians into removing supporting walls. Do you remember that the Lord has put a wall between us and the world? Well, the enemy wants that load-bearing wall to come down. Remove that one and the building is liable to collapse and destroy everyone in it!

The enemy swings the ball by filling churches with people desiring to have their ears tickled. The Devil is filling the Lord’s Church with people who have no interest in sound Biblical preaching – as more and more churches become like the world to attract the world. Then the Christian community becomes a slum.

Think of the church at Corinth. The Corinthians received the Apostle Paul’s severe rebuke for turning the Lord’s Supper into a common meal that you could find in any everyday restaurant. When we evangelise and invite people to church, make sure they are coming to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed, that they are coming to a place that is special, a place that is as different from the world as the Lord’s Supper is to a Happy Meal from Maccas!  

However, the Lord is in the business of renovating. He can even rebuild run down Christian communities. He can remove walls. He can renew wires. He can replace windows.

Conclusion

I don’t want to live in a slum – do you? So let’s encourage our brothers and sisters in the faith. God has renovated you the individual along with others. He has renovated our whole church community. Your number one priority is to build up your brother and sister in the faith to the glory of God. Therefore, live as God wants you to live at peace with your Christian neighbor in a God-glorifying community. The Lord will draw others into your community as He spares other houses from the wrecker’s ball.

If all the old houses the Lord has renovated were gathered into one place, what a picture that would be. Think of it, all those little lights making up one greater light – the church. Now picture this on the top of a hill on a cold and dark night. What a sight this would be to a traveler wearied by this world. 

Look around, people are sick to the back teeth with crime in the community. They’re sick of people spray-painting slogans on their walls. They’re sick of break and enters. They’re sick and tired of criminals getting away with murder. They don’t want their neighbourhood to become a slum. The whole nation is becoming weary of it all.

We have the answers! Can’t you see? The harvest is white so shine the light. But make sure there are walls where there should be walls. But also make sure there are no walls where they shouldn’t be. Make sure the wires are able to handle the power of the Lord. And finally, make sure the windows are clean. Make sure you can see the world outside. But make sure that the world can see the lights on in your home.

Isn’t it amazing what the Lord can do with an old house?