THE PROMISE & THE PILGRIM

 

THE PROMISE & THE PILGRIM

“All the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.” Genesis 15:3.

Introduction

I’m sure you’re familiar with the saying, “The best things come to those who wait!” Well, that’s the way it is for Abram in our text, and that’s the way it is for each of us. The LORD promised him an inheritance some 4,000 years ago. Abram’s still waiting to receive it. The LORD promised him land and descendants. He lived long enough to see a few descendants. However, Abram died and was buried without receiving the inheritance of the land he was promised. So, either the LORD made a promise and failed to deliver, or the promise is still good.

In the following I hope to demonstrate that the LORD’s promise to Abram is still good. The general gist of what we’ll be looking at is: Faithful saints hold fast the good promise of the LORD.

The Promise

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We see then that the LORD said to Abram, “All the land which you see I give to you and your DESCENDANTS forever.” Therefore, the LORD has made a promise to Abram and his descendants or seed. So let us focus for the moment on the promise as it relates to Abram’s descendants.

Now, this is the third time the LORD has come to Abram promising him land and descendants. The other two times are recorded in Genesis 12:1-3 where it says, “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” And again, in Genesis 12:7a, “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’” This is the third time the LORD has promised Abram land and descendants, and it’s not the last. The LORD confirms this promise to Abram again in Genesis chapters 15, 17 and 18.

If the telephone company or somebody thinks you owe them money they keep on sending you reminders. One time we received a couple of reminders from somebody who got their wires crossed. So, you notify them and you get it all straightened out – or so you think, until you get another reminder in the mail! But here’s the LORD for the third time, in the text before us, reminding Abram of His promise to him and to his descendants.

Abram doesn’t even have any descendants, and Lot, his next of kin, has separated from him. However, the promise is to Abram and his descendants, not to his next of kin. Therefore, land was promised to Abram’s descendants.

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So, we ask: What land was promised to which descendants? Well, Abram’s descendants were promised the land as far as Abram’s eye could see. We take it that he’s on some hill or mountain. And the LORD is telling him to pan all around. “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, westward...” (Gen. 15:14).

Lot, as you know, lifted his eyes and he saw the well-watered plain of Jordan. He saw what looked like the lush land of Egypt. It was like the Garden of Eden (Gen. 13:10). But the LORD didn’t invite Abram to look at rivers, green grass, shrubbery and that sort of thing. No! Abram was invited to look at the dust – the dust of the earth. “I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered” (Gen. 15:16).

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            I used to have enough trouble counting my homing pigeons when they were flying around. Who could count even a handful of dust, never mind the dust of the earth! This is no “Guess the exact amount of lollies (i.e. candies or sweets) in the jar and you win the prize!” No! There was no guessing the amount of descendants. They were to be as the dust of the earth.

In the Hebrew, the word eretz can be translated either land or earth. Dust of the land, dust of the earth, eretz – land or earth. The word is used in the first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the eretz.” You wouldn’t translate it ‘land’, would you? So, usually the context determines whether the Hebrew eretz is to be translated land or earth. And we find these words recorded in Genesis 15:18, “On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.’”

As Abram walked the length and breadth of the land, between these two great rivers, what would he have been thinking? He would be thinking: “This is some promise the LORD’s given me and my descendants! The LORD’s shown me the land as He promised. Now He’s saying that we are heirs of this land, that my descendants and I will inherit it!”

No wonder he moved his tent and built an altar to the LORD. Abram’s hit the jackpot! You see the way some people carry on when they win a million bucks. They leap and jump all over the place kissing and slobbering over anyone standing next to them. But hang on a minute. All Abram has at the moment is a promise. All he has is the LORD’s Word. And is that not all that any of us has?

I remember as a new Christian trying to come to grips with eternal life. “Wow! I’ve got eternal life. So, this means... what does it mean?” I remember thinking, “What good is this eternal life? I still have to die.” Then I began to understand what Jesus was on about where He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). So it’s the promise of eternal life I have. And who’s the One who’s making this promise to me? Well, it’s the same LORD who made the promise to Abram and his descendants. And what did the LORD promise Abram and his descendants? Genesis 13:15 again, “All the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.” Take note at this point, the word descendants may also be rendered seed as in one or many. However, since we’re focusing on the promise, we need to ask to whom was this promise made? In other words: Who are the descendants of Abram? We take it that at this point in time Abram didn’t know. He didn’t know because he didn’t have any descendants at this time. And we find in the chapters up ahead that Abram first off thinks that one of his servants will have to be counted as his offspring. Then the LORD tells him that Abram himself will be the father of a child. So, he gets tangled up in the mess with Sarah’s servant Hagar. Then the LORD tells him that his, up till then, barren wife Sarah is going to bear his child. But for now, all Abram has is the LORD’s Word he will have descendants like the dust of the earth. And in 1 Kings 4:20-21 we read, “Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. So, Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the River [i.e., the Euphrates] to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt.”

So, we see that, at the time of David and Solomon Abram’s descendants are innumerable. They are living in the tract of land promised to Abram and his descendants. And apparently, it was much the same again during the inter-Testamental period. But were all those people really the ones to whom the promise of the land was made? Remember, the promise was made to Abram and his descendants.

Was Rahab, the harlot who was rescued from Jericho, a descendant of Abram? Was Ruth the Moabitess, who married Boaz, a descendant of Abram? Well, according to the Apostle Paul both Rahab and Ruth were descendants of Abram. He says, for instance, in Galatians 3:29, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

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            It’s true that Jesus says to some Jews who were claiming to be Abram’s descendants, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants” (John 8:37). But He was talking about descendants as to flesh. For Jesus went on to say to these same men, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do [etc.]” (John 8:44). Therefore, their real father was the devil, not Abraham!

“When [John the Baptiser] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones” (Matt.3:7-9).

Paul in Romans chapters 3 and 4 goes to great lengths to tell the Jews their fleshly decent counts for nothing In Galatians 3:7 he says, “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abram.” Both Rahab and Ruth were of faith, as were all the Old Testament saints. So, to cut the long story short, the descendants who receive the promise of the land are only those who believe along with Abram, the father of all believers (Rom. 4:11;16).

Right then, if the LORD is giving the land to Abram and his descendants and we Christians are his descendants, then the land is ours, right? Does this mean that all Christians should start chartering airplanes to the land of Israel? Should we go there and demand that the present Christ-denying occupants give us our promised land? If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re missing something, something very important. Hopefully it’ll become even more clear to you as we move into our second point. But just before we move on, let me recap what we’ve looked at.

The LORD has made a promise to Abram. He has promised him descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth. We’ve taken note that the New Testament stipulates that Abram’s descendants are like him, i.e., believers. That Abram is the father of the faithful, therefore it is faith and not race or ethnic origin that makes a person a descendant of Abram. It’s faith and not flesh that counts with God.

And we’ve seen, in particular, that the land was promised to the descendants of Abram, i.e., you, me and every believer that has ever lived or will live. So, let’s move on.

The Pilgrim

The land was also promised to Abram. Yet Abram never took possession of the land, did he? But look at what the LORD says to Abram, “All the land which you see I give to YOU” (Gen. 13:15). Look also at Genesis 13:17, “Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to YOU.” But Abram remained a pilgrim, a sojourner, in the land until his dying day. In fact, Abram had to buy a field with his own money as a place of burial. So, in order to help us understand what’s really happening here, we need to bring the rest of Scripture to bear on this text.

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        Now, this is what we’re doing, we’re trying to understand what the LORD has in mind here. We are NOT trying to see how well Abram understood the LORD’s promise. We have the benefit of the rest of Scripture to help us understand this promise. However, you might be surprised at how much Abram had grasped already.

Always keep in mind that the LORD revealed His promise to Abram in one lump sum as recorded in Genesis 12:1-3. Then as a preacher expounds and opens up the Scriptures to his congregation each week, so the LORD opened up the understanding of Abram to what He has already said. The word of promise remains the same but under the LORD’s tutelage, Abram’s understanding grew by instalment. Like every other believer, Abram would grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ only so far as He had revealed Himself at that time. But as I said, we’re not trying to see how deep an understanding Abram had of God’s Word. Rather we’re seeking to understand what the LORD means by the promise of land and descendants.

The promise was made to Abram, and we Christians today testify that we are Abram’s descendants. Abram lived to see the birth of Isaac and other children. But you wouldn’t say he saw descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth. And neither did he receive the land the LORD promised him. Speaking of the land, listen to what Stephen says about it, “And God gave him [i.e. Abram] no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abram had no child, He [the Lord] promised to give it to him [i.e. Abram] for a possession, and to his descendants after him” (Acts 7:5).

Just think about that for a moment. We see that Abram was to receive this land, and the LORD promised it to him and to us. Therefore, the question we need to answer is this. How or when is our father Abram and we, his descendants, supposed to receive this promised land?

I was at a funeral where a man said that he was not going to miss his friend who had just died. He said that he wouldn’t miss his friend because his friend would be with him always in his heart. Is this how Abram was going to inherit the promised land? Was Abram carried around in the bosom of his descendants? Is this what the LORD meant when He promised the land to Abram? Is this what the LORD means when He promises the land to us? What do you think?

Look again at the words of Genesis 13:15, “For all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants FOREVER.” So, that word FOREVER sounds like a long time, doesn’t it? But did Abram ever possess the land even for five minutes? No! Have any of us possessed the land for any length of time? No! So there must be more going on here than the naked eye can see. Look at Abram. He was a pilgrim, wasn’t he? Like the words of the hymn,

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,

Pilgrim through this barren land;

I am weak, but Thou art mighty;

Hold me with Thy powerful hand:

Bread of heaven, feed me till my want is o’er. 

Abram was a pilgrim in a barren land. His nephew and fellow believer Lot, well, he spied the well-watered plains of Jordan. He rushed off to the place that was lush like the land of Egypt, like the Garden of Eden. But Abram was to walk the length and breadth of a barren land looking at and counting particles of dust. This was the land which couldn’t support Abram and Lot and their herdsmen. As Abram looked at the dust he surely must have wondered how this land would ever support a multitude like the dust of the earth! How would this land ever feed them? It couldn’t even sustain a bunch of herdsmen and their livestock. So Abram must have had a few questions running around in his head. Not the least of which was, how was he supposed to possess the land forever. I mean it’s all very well for the eternal God to say to Abram, “I’m giving you some land FOREVER.” “Oh! That’s nice, but it’s just a pity that I won’t be able to live forever to enjoy it forever!” At least Abram got to see it for a few years. But what about you and me? When you look at a passage like this, you’re thankful you’ve got the whole rest of the Bible.

So, as we begin to tie things up into a nice big bow, let’s shine some New Testament light onto the subject. Speaking of the Old Testament saints (including Abram) the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13).

So, Abram died along with Isaac and Jacob after him without receiving their inheritance. But as a sailor catching a glimpse of land in the days of the old wooden ships, so Abram saw the substance of God’s promises in the far off distance – “Land ahoy!” So rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub, Abram, Isaac and Jacob, have yet to inherit the promised land, the land they saw far off in the distance. So, when then are they and we for that matter, supposed to inherit this land? Well, first let’s see if we can get a better idea of the length and width of this our inheritance.

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            Is our inheritance that piece of land which runs between the River Nile and the Euphrates? David in Psalm 37 mentions a couple of times, verse 9b, “Those who wait for the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.” And then in verse 11, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” And also in Psalm 25:13, speaking of the man who fears the LORD, he says, “His descendants shall inherit the earth.” However, the word for earth (eretz) in these instances may also be translated land, which is how the New International Version renders it in each case.

But what about what Jesus says in Matthew 5:5? Even the NIV renders it, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” But alas! The Greek word for earth used there is sometimes also used for land. So maybe we should charter some planes and boats and trains to the Middle East and claim our inheritance. But hold the phone! Let’s ask the Apostle Paul to help us. “For the promise that he would be the HEIR of the WORLD was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13). So faithful Abram and his faithful seed, yes, even you and even me, are HEIRS of the WORLD!

But wait a minute. Does that word world really mean world, or does it really mean land? Well, the New Testament Greek word Paul uses is cosmos, the same word used by Jesus in John 3:16 “For God so loved the WORLD (Gr. cosmos)…” And I’ve yet to see any Bible commentator translate the word cosmos as land. For God so loved the LAND? No, He loved the cosmos! And as Paul uses it in relation to Abram it means the earth. So, the LORD has promised Abram and us the world, the universe!

So, here’s the tricky bit, how or when are we and Abram supposed to receive the earth or the world? Abram’s been dead for 4,000 years or something. So the LORD’s going to have to resurrect Abram, isn’t he? The LORD’s going to have to raise Abram from the dead in order to present him with the earth. And if you don’t think that Abram believed in the resurrection of the dead, then ask yourself what Abram was doing placing Isaac on an altar as a sacrifice? Hebrews 11:19 says Abram was, “Accounting that God was able to raise him [Isaac] up, even from the dead.”

And don’t forget that Abram has already seen a foreshadowing of Isaac’s resurrection. “Sarai is barren” (Gen. 11:30). Her womb is dead. Therefore, any child conceived therein and born therefrom is rising from the dead as it were, “as a root out of dry ground” (Isa. 53:2).

“Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son” (Gen. 18:11-14).

Abram’s body crumbled back to the dust, so did Isaac’s and Jacob’s after him. Your body, my body, all our bodies are going to crumble back to the dust, aren’t they? All of the children of Abram sleep in the dust. So will we. But what does the Prophet Daniel say? “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame” (Daniel 12:2). And what does John the Baptiser say to the Pharisees and Sadducees? “Do not say to yourselves, ‘We have Abram as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones” (Matt. 3:9b).

But none of this makes any sense without Christ. Christ is the true descendant of Abram, isn’t He? Those words of the Lord’s Apostle Paul, “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). But again, Galatians 3:29, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

If we belong to Christ, then whatever belongs to Him belongs also to us. Therefore, the promise of the earth is made to us in relation to Christ. Only those who trust in Christ, as did believing Abram, will receive their inheritance in Christ. And doesn’t Psalm 2:8 say that the nations are His inheritance and ends of the earth His possession? And where do the nations live? In Palestine? Between the two great rivers? No! The nations are scattered over the whole face of the earth like dust; Christ’s inheritance is Abram’s and our inheritance in Christ.

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        And Christ’s resurrection guarantees Abram’s resurrection and our resurrection and secures our inheritance. And it’s through the spread of the Gospel as the poured out Spirit applies it, that the LORD raises up the children of Abraham from the dust of the earth. As the flood waters in Noah’s day were God’s poured out judgment-curse upon the earth, so the Holy Spirit in our day is God’s poured out blessing upon the earth. So this means that even those dry and parched nations will yet turn to the LORD, for they, and all the ends of the earth belong to Him. This was the promise the LORD made to Abram when He said, “All the land which you see I give to you and your DESCENDANTS forever.” The whole world and everything in it is ours in Abram’s Seed Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

God has promised that faithful Abram and his faithful offspring, even you and me, will inherit the earth. He has given His promise to pilgrims. The promise given Abram is the promise given us. We are the heirs of the world. The meek SHALL inherit the earth. So, even though Abram’s body, like ours, was made of dust and crumbled back to dust, the promise of God remains. So like Abram our father, we look forward to that day when all the graves shall open up. As Jesus Christ says, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth” (John 5:28).

Oh what a day that’s going to be! And father Abram is going to look into the faces of all his children, including your face and mine. But he won’t be able to number us. We’ll be as numerous as the dust, the dust of the earth, the earth we’re inheriting for our habitation forever.

We’ve seen then that the LORD’s promise to Abram is still good. And that we too, like our father Abram, should hold fast the good promise of the LORD, because the best things come to those who wait. Therefore, wait on the Lord Jesus Christ.

MIND EXERCISES

Mind Exercises

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            When it comes to writing, exercising the mind is important. A strong vocabulary comes from working out with weighty words. Muscular minds. Warmup exercises may involve things like crosswords and scrabble, with spells on the thesaurus and dictionary. Share your drink bottle with your readers. Give them verbal electrolytes.

Like prose on steroids, weighty words and even archaisms can uplift readers, supplying them with a poetic adrenalin rush. Add weights to the bar by saying, e.g. “gird up the loins of your mind” (KJV) rather than, e.g. “with minds that are alert” (1 Pet. 1:13, NIV). In the arena of the Bible, the former stays in its lane. It brings to mind the Biblical picture of a man gathering up his robes lest he becomes entangled when running. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1, KJV).

The New Testament word for train or exercise, is from where we get gym and gymnasium etc. It refers to being disencumbered by clothes, even nakedness. As Christians, we are to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Rom. 12:2). Therefore, to think clearly, we need to disrobe our rags of sin to exercise our minds. “But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:6-7, NKJV). “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air” (1 Cor. 9:26, KJV).

Mind exercises produce strong minds that will win gold medals in the verbal Olympics. As writers we ought not to be afraid of introducing freshly coined words into the currency of thought. Mind minting.

For inspiration, test the weight of each of the following examples. These, and countless others like them, have been in circulation since 1611: 

Apple of his eye (Deut. 32.10), the blind leading the blind, (Matt. 15.14), eating one’s words (Jer. 15.16), an eye for an eye (Matt. 5.38), the skin of my teeth (Job 19.20), a thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12.7), the writing is on the wall (Dan. 5.5), bridle your tongue (Psa. 39:1; James 1:26), clear as crystal (Rev. 22:1).

SEEING JESUS IN THE RIVER

Seeing Jesus in the River

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

‘For Nature, heartless, witless Nature

Will neither care nor know.’

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

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

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

 

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

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

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watch video: 

 

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

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

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

1.     1. The Lay of the Land

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.   2. The Law & the Lawyer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, they had made the impossible possible by making God’s Law easier to keep, much easier. An example of this is where Jesus corrects their false religion where He says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:43-44). Nowhere in the Law are we commanded to hate our enemies. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is teaching us how to love even our enemies!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.     3. The Lesson Learned

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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