BOOKS DESIGNED NOT TO WEARY THE READER

First appeared on Caldron Pool (29 Nov 2024). 

https://caldronpool.com/books-designed-not-to-weary-the-reader/ 

Caldron Pool · News, Opinion, Commentary

From plumbing to preaching, Neil McKinlay’s journey reveals how engaging writing and accessible theology can transform lives.

Books Designed Not to Weary the Reader

“Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.” Ecclesiastes 12:12b-13

God by His grace alone converted me in a basement in Winnipeg at the tail end of 1988 while I was reading His Word. No offence intended to those lovers of ye olde KJV, but not having been brought up in a church-attending household in Scotland, I was having great difficulty understanding the King Jamesian (apparently Elizabethan!) English. Yes, God is sovereign in the salvation of His elect, but I can say (tongue-in-cheek) that I would’ve been converted sooner if I had been given a NKJV or even an NIV to read instead of the KJV!

Growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I began studying as a candidate for the ministry in the Presbyterian Church of Australia in the early 90s. It was then that I began noticing two different styles of book writing. For the sake of simplicity, let’s call them formal and informal, as in theological textbooks versus Bible sermons. As a new Christian I was having trouble understanding why anyone would write in such a dry and dusty manner, when, instead, they could just simply say what they mean. That’s when I discovered the difference between the written and the spoken word. Why didn’t everyone write as, e.g., Martyn Lloyd-Jones does in his commentaries? Old 100-watt light bulb moment! I discovered that these were written beforehand as sermons.

This newly hatched bookworm began to study books on homiletics, which, as I discovered, is just a fancy word to do with preaching. I had read in one that it is a good idea is to give out printed copies of your sermons after preaching them. I had won the Homiletics Award upon graduating from Theological College PCQ in 1996. A few years later my old theological professor told me that he wished he could write like me. This astounded me! Was he kidding? He had eleven or twelve earned doctorates under his belt. In the early 2000s, he was asked by a fellow PhD-ian what I was like as a theologian. My old professor replied, “Not bad – for a plumber.” How does that old Mac Davis song go? “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble.” Well, maybe it’s not so hard for me. I’ll never forget that once a plumber always a plumber!  

I began to put my theory into practice, of always consciously attempting to present deep truths in an engaging way. This isn’t that much different to sermon preparation. Sure, exegeting a Bible text while consulting the Hebrew/Greek are the heart of it. However, Systematic and Biblical Theology books (among others) are perused too. The finished product being something that an average congregation could hear/read, understand and apply, yes, even plumbers like me! Now I use the same method when writing articles and books.

For example: I read my old professor’s lengthy article “Quarterly Communion at Annual Seasons” and then condensed its contents into a couple of easily readable pages. Wrote my old theological professor: “On February 17th 2002, it was my joy to preach in the North Pine Presbyterian Church in Brisbane Australia. At the end of the service the Minister, Rev. Neil MacKinlay, [sic.] gave me his own Session’s handout for his congregation at the door of his kirk. Frankly, Rev. MacKinlay’s [sic.] handout is so good, that I decided to incorporate it now at the end of this third edition of this article of mine on Quarterly Communion at Annual Seasons.” See chapter 30 of the 5th edition.

While at the same church on a Sunday evening, after the service I was approached by a visitor from Sydney. He asked my if I’d like to write for his monthly magazine for writers! I’ve been writing a short article based on the Bible every month now for over twenty years, in which I try to engage the reader who, though not necessarily a Christian, generally is also a writer. I collected thirty of these articles and self-published my first book in 2006 called The Song of Creation and Other Contemplations. My old theological professor kindly wrote its foreword. The rest, as they say, (whoever “they” are), is history.

We Christians have the message of life, eternal life in Christ Jesus. It is imperative that we get the law and the gospel out there in an understandable way. The Ethiopian Eunuch was reading  the Bible, but Philip the Evangelist asked him, “‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?’” Acts 8:30-31. I write so that even a plumber like me can understand.

Allow me to be opaque for a second: I’m an eschatological optimistic presuppositionalist! And, more simply, I believe my old professor’s car’s bumper-sticker was correct in saying “God’s Law or Chaos!” I believe that mustard seedly and leavenly more and more sinners will be converted, yes, even whole nations, before the Lord’s physical return. My two cents worth in this Great Commission includes all my books. Some of my titles include:

The Gospel: Simply yet Profound (2021) at Tulip Publishing in Australia; From Mason to Minister: Through the Lattice (2011) and Jefferson’s Tears (2018) at Nordskog Publishing Inc. in the U.S. (now closing down); Jesus for the Layman (2019) at Neetah Publishing in Scotland (published as Weemac Publishing); On the Lord’s Table (2020), On the Church (2022), Socialism: My Part in its Downfall (2020), I Believe! The Apostles’ Creed (2020); The Covenant: Simple yet Profound, Holding Fast Our Confession: Westminster Confession of Faith and its Biblical Teaching (2021) and many others self-published at Amazon. I have coauthored with Rudi Schwartz, a fellow PCA minister, The Unfaithful Bride & The Faithful Groom: Covenant Making, Breaking, & Renewal and The Kingdom: Every square inch, both also self-published at Amazon.  

Being the Bad Guys (Review)

 

Though I found this to be a very engaging and good read – in which I was learning that our Western cultures now have been taken over by non-Christians holding vastly different ideas of morality to those taught clearly in the Bible, I must admit that I was hoping to find a way of regaining any ground we may have lost as Christians. 

Sure, applying those principles of how to live in such an ungodly culture as taught in this book, may help towards that end, however, I didn’t get the impression if what we Christians have ceded to the “world” will ever become unceded – unless and until the Lord returns. 

Is there no hope for the West in the here and now before the “Second Coming”? Can we put the toothpaste back in the tube by which as Christians we mean putting Satan back on his chain (as we trample him underfoot)? If so, I missed it! Good book nevertheless for what it addresses. For all that, please read “Being the Bad Guys” and be blessed.  

CHERUBIM AND SERAPHIM

Cherubim and Seraphim

Image from web

Is it just me or does this happen to everyone? I was “triggered” as the preacher was preaching. Sometimes I’m sent soaring in the heavens. This time my mind was sent back to stand at the gate to the garden of Eden. In his sermon, the pastor had mentioned “the God who dwells between the cherubim.” This, of course, has to do with the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies; first in the tabernacle then in the temple. It also got me thinking about Nadab and Abihu. “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev. 10:1). We can see something of why it says in Hebrews, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb, 12:29).

If we were to add together what we’ve seen so far, and to state the obvious, we might say that the God who dwells between the cherubim is a consuming fire.

Image from Web

Meanwhile back at the garden gates. “So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24). Unlike Aaron’s son’s, Nabab and Abihu, God did not consume Adam and Eve. Instead, He put in place cherubim and a flaming sword, which, like the wheels Ezekiel saw in his vision of God (Ezek. 1:15-217), "turned every way”.

So, now we have a flaming sword between cherubim.  

Who doesn’t love singing the old hymns? The following are a couple of verses that will help us work our way to the heart of what I would like us to see. Reginal Heber wrote the brilliant Holy! Holy! Holy! hymn. The Triune God is thrice holy. Here’s verse two:

2 Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore Thee,

casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee,

which wert and art and evermore shalt be.

Then there’s that great old hymn, O Worship the King by Robert Grant. In verse two he writes:

2 O tell of His might and sing of His grace,

whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.

His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,

and dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

So, we’ve got cherubim and seraphim falling down before God and we see, as it were, God riding on the wings of the storm. Poetic pictures lifted from Isaiah and the Psalms illustrating the holiness and the mightiness of the Triune God.

Now, and here’s the rub: If we keep in mind that we know about God analogously, such as Him riding on the dark thunderclouds of the storm as it moves across the earth. We never see God as He is, but always through a Mediator, a go-between. “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). And if we will agree that Christ has always been the Mediator, yes, even “the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8), then we will see that He is the One “Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind” (Psa. 104:3b).

So, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). He is the God who dwells between the cherubim, Who walked in the garden with Adam and Eve, Who is a consuming fire, and consumed Nabab and Abihu when they tried to fob Him off with profane fire. Yes, God is Triune, and is holy, holy, holy. Just like the flaming sword, He is the One everyone needs to go through to get to God. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). He is the eternal Word who came from heaven to earth and became flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14). 

Now, we know that when God “came down” to give His Law to Moses on Mount Sinai “that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain … Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly … And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the Lord, and many of them perish” (Exo. 19:16,18,21). “And He came with ten thousands of saints; from His right hand came a fiery law for them” (Deut. 33:2b). Instead of “fiery law" the ESV has “flaming fire”. However, Strong’s Concordance agrees with “fiery-law” (See Hebrew 799). One is reminded here of what Abraham saw when God cut a covenant with him, “It was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces” (Gen. 15:17 ESV).

So, after all that, in the words of that old Matthews Southern Comfort song, “we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.”

It’s the word “flaming” as in “flaming sword” and “fiery” as in “fiery law or “flaming fire” that we need to focus on. The words fiery and flaming as used here are the same in the Old Testament Hebrew language.

Now, the preacher I mentioned above, also mentioned the “snake on the stake”, i.e., the one that King Hezekiah destroyed. “He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan) (2 Kings 18:4b NIV). (Nehushtan means copper. Depending on percentages, copper mixed with tin gives you bronze and brass.) What does this have to do with the cherubim and the flaming sword at the gate to the garden of Eden? It’ll become clearer in a moment.

Moses & Brass Serpent
Engraving by Jacques P Migne 1864

The reason Moses had made the bronze snake was because “the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live” (Num. 21:6-8; cf. 1 Cor. 10:8-10).). The NIV changes the word “fiery” to “venomous snakes”, we can’t have the reader thinking that these are anything other than regular poisonous snakes! The OT Hebrew word here is saraph, which, yes, means “burning” as perhaps happens when bitten by a poisonous snake. However, that word saraph as in fiery, is the exact some word for seraph, as in the seraphim that Reginal Heber in his Holy! Holy! Holy! hymn has us mention as we are singing.

We’ll use the NIV for the following vision of Isaiah, “I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (Isaiah 6:1-7).

Whether Israel in the wilderness or Isaiah in the temple, seraphim are messengers, angels, of God for judgment and for healing. Now, one more verse before we look at the cherubim and the seraph (a.k.a. the flaming sword) at the gate to the garden. The NIV misses the boat with its “adders and darting snakes” instead of the NKJV’s and ESV’s more accurately descriptive “the viper and fiery flying serpent”, “the adder and the flying fiery serpent” in Isaiah 30:6; (cf. 14:29). Keep in mind the idea of the Lord riding on the wings of the wind surrounded by His cherubim (clouds) and His seraphim (lightning bolts, yes, fiery flying serpents).

“He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24). John Calvin offers the following,

Moses … speaks of punishment, when he relates that man was expelled and that cherubim were opposed with the blade of a turning sword, which should prevent his entrance into the garden … Moses uses a word derived from whiteness or heat … God had commanded two cherubim to be placed at the ark of the covenant, which should overshadow its covering, with their wings; therefore he is often said to sit between the cherubim … In this place angels are called cherubim … that it is referred to angels is more than sufficiently known. Whence also Ezekiel (Ezekiel 28:14) signalizes the proud king of Tyre with this title, comparing him to a chief angel.

Now, Calvin has mentioned Ezekiel 28, in which chapter we read about the king of Tyre being compared with the Devil, Satan. “You were in Eden, the garden of God … You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones … And you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones” (Ezek. 28:13a,14,16b). So, we see Satan being referred to as “the anointed cherub who covers … the covering cherub.” The word “covering” means to fence in, cover over, protect, defend, hedge in etc. (Strong's Concordance, Hebrew 5526). (May we be permitted to add "cloud", as in cloud-covering, to the list?) So, like the cherubim on the seat of atonement “covering” the ark of the covenant, Satan (like Adam who was to tend and keep it) (Gen. 2:15), the “anointed cherub” was to guard things in the garden. But, as we know, Adam broke covenant with God (Hos. 6:7), instead entering into a covenant with the rebellious chief angel.

How did the Devil deceive Eve and slither his way into convincing Adam to join him in his rebellion? “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made” (Gen. 3:1). Yes, we’re back to cherubim and seraphim, serpents. Because of the serpent, shouldn’t we have expected Satan to be a seraph rather than a cherub? If we keep in mind that he was a chief angel with respect to the garden, we can see how he had command over all the angels that were under him, whether cherubim or seraphim, even those angels (now become demons) that had joined him in his great rebellion. Satan spoke through the serpent, (or perhaps even transformed himself into a serpent), and by so doing, he became "that serpent of old."

Salvador Dali, Christ of St. John of the Cross

Though I prefer the idea that the fiery flying serpent pictures the Messiah, could it be that the snake on the stake that God commanded Moses to make was simply picturing a dead snake - prefiguring God's gospel promise of the Seed of the Woman crushing the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15) and healing, yes, saving His people from His fiery judgment? “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 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 3:14-16).

However, when we understand “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14), then the idea that the flying fiery serpent on the pole was representing the preincarnate Anointed One, the Mediator, begins to make more sense. And, keeping in mind that the Devil was a chief angel, then we can see why the "anointed cherub" would try to impersonate and even try to usurp the princely role of the One who was to be the Anointed, anointed as the everlasting King of kings and angels.

There is only one angel in the Bible referred to as an Archangel, even Michael. Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator, commenting on the war in heaven recorded in Revelation 12, says,

The parties—Michael and his angels on one side, and the dragon and his angels on the other: Christ, the great Angel of the covenant, and His faithful followers; and Satan and all his instruments. [And, on Daniel 10} Here is Michael our prince, the great protector of the church, and the patron of its just but injured cause: The first of the chief princes, v 13. Some understand it not of a created angel, but an archangel of the highest order, 1 Thess 4:16; Jude 9. Others think that Michael the archangel is no other than Christ himself, the Angel of the covenant, and the Lord of the angels, He whom Daniel saw in vision, v. 5 … Christ is the church's prince; angels are not, Heb 2:5. [On Daniel 12] Michael shall stand up in His providence ... Christ is that great prince, for He is the prince of the kings of the earth, Rev 1:5. And, if He stand up for His church, who can be against it? But this is not all: At that time (that is, soon after) Michael shall stand up for the working out of our eternal salvation; the Son of God shall be incarnate, shall be manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Christ stood for the children of our people when He was made sin and a curse for them, stood in their stead as a sacrifice, bore the curse for them, to bear it from them. He stands for them in the intercession He ever lives to make within the veil, stands up for them, and stands their friend. And after the destruction of antichrist, of whom Antiochus was a type, Christ shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, shall appear for the complete redemption of all His.

Keep in mind that the “anointed cherub” was thrown out God’s holy mountain, the garden of Eden (Ezek. 28:14) as seen in the following, “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down” (Rev. 12:7-10). “And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).

So, the One who excommunicated Adam and Eve from His garden and posted angels on piquet duty at its gate, even, cherubim and seraphim, is the One who dwells between the cherubim, is the One rides upon the thunderclouds, “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen” (Rev. 1:7); “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works” (Matt. 16:27).

Yes, "Our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29) - as we've seen with the "flaming sword" and the "fiery flying serpents", "cherubim and seraphim" etc., but He gives grace to all who "Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

Let us end with a couple of verse from the old Horatius Bonar hymn, Glory be to God the Father:

3 Glory to the King of angels, glory to the Church’s King,

glory to the King of nations; heav’n and earth your praises bring!

Glory, glory, to the King of glory sing!

4 Glory, blessing, praise eternal! thus the choir of angels sings;

Honour, riches, pow’r, dominion! thus its praise creation brings.

Glory, glory to the King of kings!

SOCIALISM: My Part in its Downfall

SOCIALISM: My Part in its Downfall is an attempt to alert the discerning reader that Socialism is a thief that robs us of more than our money and our property, but the very freedoms that Western civilization is built upon.

In the aftermath of the recent “the day the universe changed” American election, I’m really enjoying rereading my own wee contribution to it all, published 41/2 years ago.

It’s great to see so many eyes being opened and so many becoming ex-Socialists (as did I, when converted back in the late 80s).

Available at: SOCIALISM: My Part in its Downfall : McKinlay, Neil Cullan: Amazon.com.au: Books

BRAX AND THE SOMEWHAT OLD TREEHOUSE (Book review)

This Granddad loves the Brax book. I got one copy for my grandson and another for my wee granddaughter. I hope I’m even as half as good an example to my grandies as Brax’s gramps was! This is an excellent wee book. Its pages of rhymes are beautifully illustrated. It even includes a “How to Draw Brax” in five easy steps.

Brax (a tenacious young pup) is an Australian production written and illustrated by Ben Davis. (Non-Australians will be surprised to hear that “saw” and “floor” do actually rhyme, at least as spoken in the Land Down Under!)

It is suitable for ages baby to ten.

After reading Brax a couple of times, the book’s rhymes have now got me thinking in rhyme!

The essence of the book is:

                                                                            Christ the Lord is the rock-solid foundation, 

                                                                            upon which to build for the next generation.

(Available at Amazon and Reformers Bookshop.)

GATEWAYS

 

Gateways

I grew up on the southern end of Loch Lomond, the gateway to the Highlands. I then lived in Winnipeg, the gateway to the West. I now live in Brisbane, which has the Gateway Arterial, though I’m not too sure what it is a gateway to. None of these gateways has an actual gate at its centre.

Image from Web

Was there a gate at the entrance to the Garden of Eden? Or were cherubim and the flaming sword its gate? Then there are the ‘pearly gates’ in the walls of the new Jerusalem, the Lamb’s wife. These also have angels posted at each of them. Though the tree of life is there, no angels appear to have ‘a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life’ (Gen. 3:24). ‘Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates … three gates on the east, north, south, west… The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl … Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there’ (Rev. 21:12-13, 21a, 25). So, we go from one closed gate at the beginning of the Bible, to twelve open gates at the end of it. What happened in between? What happened to the flaming sword? Well, it burnt itself out on another gate!

‘Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved”’ (John 10:9). ‘He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God’ (Rev. 2:7). So, Jesus is the gateway to Paradise. Instead of having our access to the Garden blocked by angels and a flaming sword, we enter through Jesus. How so?

Who likes a bottleneck in traffic or leaving a stadium? Jesus is the world’s bottleneck. He says, ‘Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it’ (Matt. 7:13-14). Why is the gate so narrow? ‘Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”’ (John 14:6). So, it’s narrowed down to Jesus. We cannot get to God unless we go through Him. Otherwise, it’s through the flaming sword which turns every way on the broad gateway to hellfire.

Jesus extinguishes the flames for those who go through Him. He fireproofs all who are repenting and believing in the Gospel. What’s the Gospel about? It’s about Jesus saving His people from God’s everlasting fiery wrath by living a perfect life as their representative and taking their punishment for them. Their punishment has to do with Him undergoing the fiery wrath of God poured out on Him on the cross. This was the baptism of fire God’s only begotten Son underwent on their behalf, as the angels of death, as it were, turned God’s flamethrowers on Him, holocausting Him like the Passover Lamb He was.

By being resurrected, Jesus is the gateway to everlasting life. He says, ‘Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation’ (John 5:28-29). He is the gateway to the new earth, the world, the meek shall inherit (Matt. 5:5; Rom. 4:13). ‘For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved’ (John 3:17). May Jesus cause a huge bottleneck as the gateway!     

CHRISTMAS

 

Christmas

Image from Web

Christmas is about the incarnation. We sing about it every year in the old Wesley hymn, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! ‘Veiled in flesh the Godhead see/ Hail, the incarnate Deity/ Pleased as Man with man to dwell/ Jesus, our Immanuel.’ Yet, I fear that, along with the Trinity, the two natures of Christ is perhaps one of the most misunderstood teachings of the Bible. It wasn’t the Father or the Spirit who became flesh, but God the Son. Christmas celebrates this fact. Therefore, those who deny that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit also deny that Jesus is the incarnate Deity. However, those in whose hearts the Spirit has effectively worked savingly with His Word, those whom God by His grace alone has regenerated and declared righteous on Christ’s account, see clearly according to Scripture alone that Jesus is the second Person in the Godhead who was born as a human baby in Bethlehem. God and Man in one Divine Person with two distinct natures forever.

The Incarnation of God did not begin on the very first Christmas Day, but rather some nine months prior in the womb of a woman who was virgin at the time. Mary, the virgin, was having the same problem we would be having when she heard that she was going to conceive without a man. However, God had it explained to her: ‘And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God”’ (Luke 1:35). And Mary had the benefit of knowing and also applying the Old Testament Scriptures: ‘Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel’ (Isa. 7:14). Immanuel, of course, means ‘God with us’ (Matt. 1:23). So, the third Person of the Godhead, in Mary’s womb united her human substance with the Divine substance of God as she conceived the Son that she gave birth to on that first Christmas Day.

Now, this is where it begins to go wrong for some people. They think that if Jesus is God, then as God He didn’t need to be born in the usual way, opening the womb (Luke 2:22-24). Couldn’t He just ooze through the walls of Mary’s womb? You see the same happening with His resurrection. They think that He oozed out of His graveclothes and oozed through the tomb walls even before the stone was rolled away, that He oozed through the locked door into the room where His disciples were meeting after His resurrection. But this is to confuse His two natures, the human with the Divine! It is a popular belief today. Jesus is fully God! And we don’t like your use of the word ‘ooze’! Yes, but He’s also fully Man and I don’t like the way you’ve got Him passing through solid objects as if His body were not like yours and mine!

Isn’t Christmas more exciting when as adults we can talk about adult stuff, such as ‘What did Jesus get you?’ instead of childish things, e.g., ‘What did Santa get you?’ By His Incarnation Jesus has ensured, in the words of the old song, ‘Man will live forevermore/ Because of Christmas day.’ (Belafonte) How so? ‘For this reason He had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people’ (Heb. 2:17). The Son saved humans by becoming fully human and remaining fully human forever. He’ll live on the new Earth with those humans He has saved (Matt. 5:5) by His incarnation (John 1:14), life, death, resurrection (Matt. 1:21), ascension (Dan. 7:14) and bodily return (Acts 1:11). 

Click the link for Celtic Worship playing their version of Hark! The Herlad Angels Sing! https://youtu.be/LN0FRBdNC1E?si=Bhv0sJkZ6-hOlzf6

PRAYING FOR A MIRACLE

 

Little Johnny raised his hand and said to his teacher, “Miss, can I go to the toilet?”  Ever true to her vocation, Johnny’s teacher took every opportunity to teach. “You mean, may I go to the bathroom.” Little Johnny replied with a question, “Well, can I?” Discerning the urgency of the present situation, the teacher granted Johnny’s request, “Yes, you may.”

Hezekiah's Prayer for Healing
(Image from the Net)

Whereas the word can speaks of ability, may speaks of an optional possibility or probability. God can do miraculous things. When it comes to God and our diseases it’s not can I be healed, but rather, heavenly Father, may I be healed? God can heal us, but He may or He may not. For those of us who are still alive, we have perhaps seen or experienced the two ways God heals us: a) the rare miraculous, and b) the common use of secondary means – such as medical technology, surgical precision, and modern medicine as administered by doctors etc. As Christians we certainly give God the glory for those rare miraculous healings, however, when it comes to the latter, perhaps we’re not always so enthusiastic about glorifying God when He instead chooses to use instruments. Thus, we glorify God for apparent ‘supernatural’ healing, but not so much for ‘natural’ healing, yet both are from Him. He can use the extraordinary or He may use the ordinary or He may not use either.      

James Montgomery Boice had liver cancer. His congregation and friends told him they were praying to God for his healing. As a teacher and preacher true to his calling, he responded by saying to his congregation,

“A relevant question, I guess, is when you pray, pray for what? Should you pray for a miracle? Well, you’re free to do that, of course. My general impression is that the God who is able to do miracles, and He certainly can, is also able to keep you from getting the problem in the first place. So, although miracles do happen, they’re rare. A miracle, by definition, has to be an unusual thing. I think it’s far more profitable to pray for wisdom for the doctors. Doctors have a great deal of experience, of course, in their expertise, but they are not omniscient. They do make mistakes. And then also, for the effectiveness of the treatment. Sometimes it does very well, and sometimes not so well, and that is certainly a legitimate thing to pray for. Above all, I would say, pray for the glory of God. If you think of God glorifying Himself in history, and you say, where in all of history has God most glorified Himself? He did it at the cross of Jesus Christ. And it wasn’t by delivering Jesus from the cross, though He could have. Jesus said, “Don’t you think I could call down from My Father ten legions of angels for My defence?” But He didn’t do that. And yet that’s where God is most glorified.”[1]

James Montgomery Boice died on the 15th of June 2000 at the age of 61 from liver cancer. He was a man of prayer, a most humble man of prayer. I saw him at a conference on Mount Tamborine, Queensland in the 90s. His voice reminded me of the famous actor, Richard Widmark, who played Jim Bowie in the 1960 movie The Alamo, along with John Wayne as Davy Crocket. (We can make idols out of great actors, and we sometimes do. As Christians, we sometimes may be guilty of doing something similar with great preachers and teachers of the faith!) Dr Boice had just finished delivering a great talk, after which we were having a break. I wanted to do some backslapping and tell him how brilliant his lecture was. The place was abuzz, and I couldn’t find him anywhere in the crowd. I noticed that a side door was slightly ajar. I squinted through the opening. There was the solitary figure of Dr Boice, standing with head bowed and eyes closed, with his back against the wall as if trying to hide. He was deep in prayer with his Lord. I returned to the crowd with that image of that saint burnt forever into my retina, yes, my heart. Even when no one could see him, he was teaching us about Jesus! Jesus often retreated from the great crowd to pray (Luke 5:16) and taught His disciples to do likewise (Mark 3:7; Luke 9:10).

As the cross began to cast its shadow of death upon Jesus, our great Teacher and Preacher, we observe the following, “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” (Matt. 26:36-42 NIV).

There’s the old story about the guy on the roof of his house in a flood with the water rising, refusing help from a boat and then a chopper saying he was praying that God would save him. He was praying for a miracle, but God had already sent him the means for him to be saved from the deluge. He couldn’t see it because he was waiting for the miraculous.

God wants us to pray to Him. He can do the miraculous, but more often than not heals us by ordinary means. Remember that Paul recommended to Timothy that he use a little wine to heal his stomach ailment and frequent illnesses (1 Tim. 5:23). We are given a little peak behind the scenes where Hezekiah humbly prays to God with tears because he is going to die. Then the Lord told Isaiah to tell Hezekiah, “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life” (Isa. 38:5). However, though God can, He didn’t use the extraordinary to heal Hezekiah, but the ordinary, “Isaiah had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover” (Isa. 38:21; 2 Kings 20:1-7).

Therefore, when we are praying for a miracle, we must not forget that God, though He can do the miraculous, He may and is more likely to use the ordinary. His is the glory! And we must also be prepared for the worst, as was James Montgomery Boice, yes, as was Jesus. In the words of Job “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15a).  

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[1] Remembering James Montgomery Boice, (See at 2.10 in https://youtu.be/AOiio8N4WrA