None of These Diseases: The Bible’s Health
Secrets for the 21st Century by S.I.
McMillen & David E. Stern was first published in 1963 and was revised in
2000. I had read an earlier edition (1984 I think) and was pleased when I
spotted this updated version.
Though the Word of God never changes, this is one
of those books that could continue endlessly being revised and updated. Biblical
assessment and application to current developments of modern medicine and
medical science are always appreciated. Both authors are medical doctors and
they make the following claim,
“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.[1]
The book is plainly written in easy-to-understand language
and is not shy in using a bit of humour to help get its message across. Though I
found some of its Biblical references and applications a bit challenging here
and there, (such as the material on circumcision and the avoidance of animal
fat), it nevertheless got me checking out its claims against Scripture. And that
is a really healthy thing to do!
[1] S.I. McMillen and David E. Stern, None
of These Diseases: The Bible’s Health Secrets for the 21st Century,
(Revell, a division of Baker Books, Revised edition, 2000), 11.
“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.
[3] S.I. McMillen and David E. Stern, None
of These Diseases: The Bible’s Health Secrets for the 21st Century,
(Revell, a division of Baker Books, Revised edition, 2000), 11.
Karluk: The Great Untold Story of Arctic Explorationby 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)
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.”
Image from Web
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?
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.
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.
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 mennor
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?
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?
