If only there was a mediator for me

 

Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me.  --Isaiah 43:27

In ancient Greek mythology, there was a doctor-demigod named Asclepius.  According to Wikipedia, Asclepius was said to be such a skilled doctor that he could even raise people from the dead.  So stemming from the myth of his great healing powers, pilgrims would flock to "healing temples" built in his honor in order to seek spiritual and physical healing.  These temples, called Asclepieia were scattered throughout ancient Greece, and throughout the Roman empire.

Some might say that the Pool of Bethesda mentioned in John chapter 5 was just such an Asclepieon, or "healing temple."  In fact, there may have been some Hellenistic influence in this Jewish site, but the spot was definitely of Hebrew origin.  The name itself means "house of mercy" or "house of grace," and the Jews who gathered there had not made a pilgrimage to some Greek demigod.  According to verse 4, the people there were waiting for a messenger of God (usually translated "angel") to stir the waters, so that the first to wash in the water would be healed.

This Messianic hope of an intermediary, a messenger or interpreter from God to intervene on behalf of His people is evident from the earliest Jewish writings.  Perhaps the oldest book in our biblical canon is the book of Job, and in chapter 33 we see the fourth "friend" of Job excoriating him regarding repentance and deliverance.  Let's read Elihu's message in verses 23 through 30:

If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, and he is merciful to him, and says, "Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom; let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor"; then man prays to God, and He accepts him; he sees His face with a shout of joy, and He restores to man his righteousness.  He sings before men and says: "I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me.  He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and m life shall look upon the light."  Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life. (Job 33:23-30, ESV)

Reading the book of Job is difficult, because the "friends" whom Job called "miserable comforters" (Job 16:2) all spoke half truths.  Their advice, which each one voiced vehemently, was couched in theological jargon and sounded right, but was a misinterpretation of Scripture.  Like many false teachers today, they believed that God's blessing was always found in health, wealth, and prosperity.  If a man was found to have lost his fortune, or to be stricken with disease, then he must have committed a heinous sin and God must be terribly angry with him.  The remedy, then, was repentance and penitent acts that might ease God's anger, after which one could only hope that God might forgive, and then perhaps restore what was lost.

The Pulpit Commentary explains the passage (from verses 23 and 24) this way:

"If there be a messenger (or angel) with him." It is generally supposed that "the angel of the covenant" is meant, and that the whole passage is Messianic; but much obscurity hangs over it. The Jews certainly understand it Messianically, since they read it on the great Day of Atonement, and use in their liturgies the prayer, "Raise up for us the righteous Interpreter; say, I have found a ransom." Elihu's knowledge of an Interpreter, or Mediator, one among a thousand, who should deliver the afflicted man from going down to the pit, and find a ransom for him (ver. 24), is certainly very surprising; and we can scarcely imagine that he understood the full force of his words; but it cannot be right to denude them of their natural signification. Elihu certainly did not mean to speak of himself as an "angel-interpreter, one among a thousand;" and it is not probable that he intends a reference to any merely human helper.

"Then he is gracious unto him; and says." Some interpret, "Then he (i.e. God) is gracious unto him, and he (i.e. the angel) says. Others make God the subject of both clauses. But the angel is the natural subject. "Deliver him from going down to the pit." The mediating angel thus addresses God, and adds, "I have found a ransom," leaving the nature of the ransom unexplained. Some notion of ransom, or atonement, underlay the whole idea of sacrifice, which appears to have been universally practiced from the remotest times, by the Oriental nations.

In short, Elihu was speaking more than he knew.  If God sent a messenger, or mediating angel, to intervene on Job's behalf (and it was a one-in-a-thousand shot, that may happen once in a lifetime, or maybe twice or three times if he was lucky), then Job would receive from God the light of life.

Just like the paralytic in John 5, who could not have dreamed that the man Jesus could do so much more than the mythic angel who would stir the healing waters in the pool, Elihu in Job 33 could not have imagined that the mediator whom God would send would not be merely a messenger, not merely an angel, but the very Son of God.  Without intending so, Elihu was prophetically testifying of the Messiah Himself.  Job knew better than Elihu, because in Job 19:24 Job declared, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth."

The Enduring Word Bible Commentary says this about Elihu's wish for a messenger or Mediator:

"If there is a messenger for him": Again, Elihu (in is overly wordy way) told Job that God did send a messenger of some sort; Job’s problem was that he did not receive it.

i. On mediator in Job 33:23: “Or interpreter: i.e., one who can interpret and reveal the truth concerning God and His ways.” (Bullinger)

ii. “Jesus Christ is indeed a blessed interpreter. An interpreter must understand two languages. Our Lord Jesus understands the language of God. Whatever are the great truths of divine intelligence and infinite wisdom, too high and mysterious for us to comprehend or even to discern, Christ fully understands them all… Moreover, Jesus understands our language, for he is a man like ourselves, touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and smarting under our sicknesses. He can read whatever is in the heart of man, and so he can tell to God the language of man, and speak to man in the language of man what God would say to him.” (Spurgeon)

 I had never thought of a mediator in this way.  In the business world, a mediator will meet with both sides in a dispute, and help bridge the gap.  Jesus does this.  However, thinking of a mediator as an interpreter is more than just thinking in terms of international business.  It is more than a person fluent in both English and Japanese helping to negotiate terms between equal businesses in the US and Japan.  It is more of a spiritual exercise, by which a physical man and a spiritual God are at odds, and God becomes a Man to stand between the physical and the spiritual, and to thereby create a way for holy God to speak to sinful man, and for sinful man to come into fellowship with holy God.

Chad van Dixhoorn said, "On the judgement day, the accuser will have no arguments to match our Advocate, for the wounds of our risen Savior will eloquently plead our case."  Again, from Spurgeon:

We were neither righteous nor yet good, yet Christ died for us. “Oh!” said a little boy once to his mother, “I do not think so much of Christ dying for men, I think I would be willing to die if I could save a hundred men by dying.” But his mother said, “Suppose it was a hundred mosquitoes,—would you die for them?” “Oh, no!” he said, “I would let the whole lot of them die.” Well, we were much less, in comparison with Christ, than mosquitoes are in relation to men, yet he died for us, good-for-nothing creatures that we are. Well does one say, “God shows part of his love to us in many different ways, but he shows the whole of his love in giving Christ to die for us.” Here you see his heart laid bare, the very heart of God laid open for the inspection of every believing soul. To die for saints would be great love; but to die for sinners, while they are yet sinners, and regarding them as sinners,—this is love with emphasis, the very highest commendation that even divine love can have. (C. H. Spurgeon, “Grace Abounding,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 58 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1912), 263).

"If only," cried the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda.  "If only there was someone to carry me to the waters when they are disturbed, then I might be healed."  Jesus provided another way.  "If only," cried Elihu.  "If only there was an angel/messenger, a mediator, an interpreter who could act on Job's behalf, then he would not suffer so."  Jesus is all that and more.  Call upon Him and live.

 

The faithfulness of Job (a type of Christ)

 

As many were astonished at you--with appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind--so shall he sprinkle many nations.  Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.  Who has believed what he has heard from us?  And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God, and afflicted.  --Isaiah 52:13-53:4

 Have you ever heard anyone spoken of as having "the patience of Job"?  This was a phrase more in use several generations ago that now.  I think it comes from a passage in the New Testament book of James, where the writer is encouraging Christians to hold fast to their faith.  "Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord," he says in James 5:7.  He gives the example of a farmer, who waits for the fruit of the earth, knowing that in time the seed he planted will bring forth abundance.

He goes on to say, "You also, be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." (James 5:3).  Our hope is in Jesus, who will come and take away our suffering, and will give us rest and comfort.  Using the prophets as examples, he says in verses 10 and 11: "As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast.  You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful."  The NKJV translates the word "steadfastness" as "perseverance."  The Amplified Bible calls it "patient endurance."

The Greek word used here is hypomonē which means steadfastness, constancy, and endurance, all words used to describe Job.  The prophets were patient, according to James, because they knew the end from the beginning; they knew by faith that things would get better, either in this life or the next.  Job was not a prophet, but he did speak prophetically in Job 19:25 when he said, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth."  In the end, I believe that James was using the prophets as an example of patience, but Job is used as an example of faithfulness.

Ezekiel 14: 13-14 says, "Son of man, when a land sins against Me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God."  Here, Ezekiel listed Job along with Daniel and Noah, men who were faithful in all things.  All three, I believe, can be called types of, or men who foreshadow, Christ.  Perhaps future blog posts will feature Noah and Daniel as types of Christ, but in this particular one I want to focus solely on Job. 

The Righteous Brought Low

Job is described as a righteous man.  The very first verse of the first chapter of Job describes him as "blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil."  Job was a wealthy man with 10 children, whom he loved dearly.  In fact, whenever the children would gather together, probably on their birthdays (verse 4), there would be eating and drinking and much merriment.  After the party was over, "Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.  For Job said, 'It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.' Thus Job did continually." (verse 5).

Unbeknownst to Job, he was a topic of discussion in the spiritual realm.  God bragged on him (verse 8), and Satan challenged God to remove his wealth and his family to see if his faith would be shaken.  When that didn't work, Satan doubled down, demanding that God take away Job's good health.  After having lost his possessions, his family, and his health, surely Job would turn away from God.  As it turns out, even when Job suffered all this loss, he was still faithful.

In similar fashion, Jesus was sinless and without blame.  He had all the riches of heaven at His disposal, yet He gave all that up so that He could be clothed in flesh as a man--not a wealthy man, but rather one born of humble means (laid in a manger, for goodness sake).  Jesus withstood spiritual oppression, facing Satan himself, who tempted Him in the wilderness when Jesus was fasting (see Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13, and Mark 1:12).

Just as Job had unsightly sores all over his body, so Jesus had open wounds from scourging and beatings.  Jesus went even further--He offered His life as a sacrifice for sinners, suffering death on a cross.  Philippians 2:7-11 says, "But (Jesus) emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the Name that is above every name, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

The Restoration and Exaltation

Each Christmas we watch the movie "It's a Wonderful Life."  George Bailey was an influential member of the community who fell on hard times, but when his friends and all the folks he had help heard about it, they all brought money and gifts to help him stay out of trouble.  The value of the money and gifts more than made up for his deficit, but the realization that his community supported him and his friends would sacrifice for him made him feel accepted and affirmed.

After having endured the loss of his possessions, his family, and his health, as well as being berated by three so-called "friends", Job remained faithful.  As a reward, God "restored the fortunes of Job" and "gave him twice as much as he had before." (see Job 42:10).  "And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning." (verse 12).  All Job's relatives and all who had known him before and who had eaten at his table came to comfort him and show him sympathy, and each of them gave him a piece of silver and a ring of gold (verse 11).  Not only were his fortunes restored, God gave him ten more children, each of them more beautiful than the last.  We are not told how Job felt after all this, but we do know that "after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. (verse 16).

When Jesus was crucified, He was resurrected.  After this, He ascended back into heaven, having completed the work that God the Father had given Him to do.  And now, according to 1 Peter 3:22, Jesus, "who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him."  Jesus has been restored to His former place in glory.  In addition, He has opened a pathway for those of us who had been outcast to gain access to God through Christ.  Hebrews 10:19-22 says, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the news and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us drawn near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from and our bodies washed with pure water."  Jesus's sacrifice opened heaven for Gentiles and penitent sinners, of which I am one.

The Reconciliation Through Intercession

God gave Job a job to do.  Just as Job had sacrificed for his ten children to cover for their sins, God required a sacrifice from Job's friends to atone for the sins they had committed against Job.  "Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and to to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offerings for yourselves.  And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly.  For you have no spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." (Job 42:8).  When Job was obedient, the Lord accepted Job's prayer (verse 9) on their behalf.

Romans 8:34 says, "Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised---who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."  1 John 2:1 says, "My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin.  But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."  And Hebrews 7:25 says, "Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them."  Jesus performs the job of intercessor much better than Job ever could.

Matthew Henry, in his Introduction to the commentary on Job, says this:

In general, Job was a great sufferer, was emptied and humbled, but in order to his greater glory. So Christ abased himself, that we might be exalted. The learned bishop Patrick quotes St. Jerome more than once speaking of Job as a type of Christ, who for the job that was set before him endured the cross, who was persecuted, for a time, by men and devils, and seemed forsaken of God too, but was raised to be an intercessor even for his friends and had added affliction to his misery. When the apostle speaks of the patience of Job he immediately takes notice of the end of the Lord, that is, of the Lord Jesus (as some understand it), typified by Job, James 5:11.

What can we take from this comparison?  The whole point of typology is not to venerate Job (or any other Old Testament character) as our savior, but to show how the life and work of Jesus was foretold by Scripture.  The entire Bible narrative centers around the Christ, using the stories of sinful men who foretold the coming of the sinless Savior.  Job teaches us patience, yes, but also faithfulness, perseverance, and steadfastness.  Most of all, however, Job point us to Jesus.

The Gospel According To Nehemiah

 

He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by night.  They asked, and He brought quail, and gave them bread from heaven in abundance.  He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river.  For He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham, His servants.  So He brought His people out with joy, His chosen ones with singing.  --Psalm 105:39-43

The word "gospel" originated in Old English, combining gōd meaning "good" and spel which is "news," or "a story."  In modern English it means "the teaching or revelation of Christ."  In common usage, it is a set of principles or beliefs, and also something that is absolutely true.

When we think of gospel or "gospels" in the Bible, we think of the first four books of the New Testament.  In this essay I want to show that the good news, the absolute truth of the revelation of Jesus Christ is found throughout the Scriptures, not just in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Come along with me and see if you agree.

Let's begin in the book of Nehemiah.  Now this is not a book that springs to mind immediately when we think of sharing the good news of Jesus.  In fact, along with the book of Ezra, it is basically a history of the Jewish exiles returning to their homeland, and the rebuilding of the capital city of Jerusalem after the 70 year exile in Babylon.  The bulk of the story is Nehemiah's leading the people in rebuilding the wall around the city, and overcoming many obstacles including threats of violence from other nations living in and around Palestine.

In chapter 8 we see Nehemiah's friend Ezra reading the Torah, the Book of the Law that God had given them.  All of the people gathered around to hear these words read aloud for the first time in a generation.  They wept when they realized how far they had gotten from God's law.  Nehemiah declared it a holy day, (the origin of our word holiday), and encouraged the people, saying, "Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." (Nehemiah 8:10).

God is creator and sustainer of all things

Our focus today will be on Nehemiah chapter 9, in which the entire gospel is laid out step by step.  The first declaration of good news is that God created us.  Read with me verse 6: "You are the Lord, You alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and You preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you."

This is good news, because it means there is order and purpose in life.  Life did not begin from chemical reactions stemming from oceanic heat vents releasing gases and energy.  Nor did we evolve from primordial cells through a process of evolution.  If that were so, then life on Earth is one giant accident, and life has no meaning.  There would be no reason for moral development, because Man, the epitome of the evolutionary process, would exist and operate like the lesser animals.  The meaning of life would only be the survival of the fittest, kill or be killed.

On the contrary, if we know that God created us in His own image, then we do have a moral basis, and life has meaning and purpose.  Christ came to clarify that meaning and purpose for us.  As it says in Colossians 1:15-17, "He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or ruler or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

Christ is all we need

The entire 9th chapter of Nehemiah is a praise song, sung to God for what He has done for His people.  The people were reminded of Abraham, their forefather, and how God blessed him.  They were reminded of Moses, the descendant of Abraham who had led them out of slavery in Egypt.  They were also given the hope of a savior, who we now know is Jesus, the Son of God.

Let's read verse 15.  "You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and You told them to go in to possess the land that You had sworn to give them."  If you are familiar with God's provision during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, you will recall the stories.  Scripture often recalls those miracles, not because of an obsession with the past but also as a prophecy for the future.  How would they know the Savior when He appeared?  He would fulfill those signs and symbols in such a way that it would be obvious to anyone who had eyes to see.

Bread

One of the elements of survival for any living creature is food.  God provided food in the wilderness, food the likes of which had never been seen before.  The people called it manna which basically means, "what is it?"  Even though they didn't know exactly what it was, or where it came from, it did sustain them for the duration of their lives, until they reached the Promised Land.

Jesus said, "I am the bread of life.  Your fathers are the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die'.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.  And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Water

Another element of survival is water.  In the most dire circumstances, and over the bitterest complaints, God came through by providing a spring of water from a rock.  There were no visible springs or rivers in the wilderness where they were.  God, in His infinite wisdom, knew where the underground springs were.  He showed Moses where to access the life-giving water, and the access point was not soft earth from which Moses could sink a well.  Instead, it was from the hardest substance around.  Interestingly, God did not command Moses to break the rock, but only to touch it with his staff.  It was Moses who struck the rock (twice!) in disobedience to God's express instructions.  God did not want the people to venerate Moses because he was not the source of the spring.  It was God, the source of life itself, who provided for the people.

Jesus, when speaking with a Samaritan woman who met Him at a well in the heat of the day (not a normal time for drawing water), said this: "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14).  Later, He spoke to the crowds in Jerusalem, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'." (John 7:37-38)

There is also the metaphor of Jesus as the rock from which the water flowed.  Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:1b-4, "Our fathers were all under the cloud, and passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all at the same spiritual food, and all drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ."

Shelter

The people listening to Ezra at the direction of Nehemiah their governor were celebrating the Feast of Booths, what is today called Sukkot.  The genesis of this celebration was described in Deuteronomy 6:10-12. "And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you--with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant--and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."  He goes on to instruct them to build temporary shelters, like tents or booths, to remind them of the temporary quarters they lived in during the 40 year trek through the wilderness.

Jesus also spoke of a Promised Land, a heavenly home that we have no hand in building.  John 14:1-3 says, "Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in Me.  In my Father's house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also."  Our spiritual survival depends on His sheltering us, eventually taking us home with Him in Heaven.

The Spirit gives us comfort

The third point of the Gospel found in Nehemiah 9 is found in verse 20: "You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold Your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst."  Even when they had sinned against God, He still sustained them.  The verses leading up to this point out that although the people demanded Aaron build them a golden calf, He did not withdraw His Spirit from them.  He still sent a cloud by day and a fire by night.

Did you realize that the cloud and the fire were pictures of the Trinity?  A cloud requires three elements: water vapor, colder air, and condensation nuclei (the particles in the air that water droplets adhere to--they can be soot or smoke, ocean spray, and dust or particles of soil aloft.)  A fire requires three elements as well: heat, fuel and oxygen.  The children of Israel were led through the wilderness day and night by representatives of the triune nature of God.  Think about that.

Jesus said, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." (John 14:26).  Why is that good news? Because Jesus is no longer with us bodily, and we continue to need a mediator, and advocate before the Father.

We need a savior

As the people were reminded, sin had separated them from God.  Disobedience caused them to be exiled for 70 years.  "Therefore You gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer.  And in the time of their suffering they cried out to You and You heard them from heaven, and according to Your great mercies You gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies." (Nehemiah 9:27).

We, too, are separated from a holy God by sin and disobedience.  Ne need a Savior.  The good news, the Gospel, is that God, in His infinite mercy, has provided one for us.  His name is Jesus Christ.

In Christian theology, we speak of saviors as "types" of Christ.  Moses was a "type" of Christ, as he led Israel out of bondage in Egypt.  Other "types" of Christ in the Old Testament include Noah, Jacob, David, and Samson, to name a few.  All of these Bible characters were "saviors" in a way, leading us to the Savior of the world, who is Christ Himself.

One more interesting (to me) tidbit of information from this passage: Ezra read the words of the law, and Nehemiah had gathered the people together.  The Levites were there, as well, encouraging and preaching to the people, bringing revival from the former outcasts and exiles.  One of the Levites listed in verse 5 was a man named Jeshua.  As you may know, the Jewish name for Jesus was Yeshua.  This is a mere coincidence, I'm sure.  Jeshua may have been a common name in Israel over the years.  It is just one more link in a chain of evidence that shows the good news, the gospel truth that is Jesus Christ made evident in the Old Testament.

Stay weird, Christian. Stay weird.

 

What agreement has the temple of God with idols?  For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."  --2 Corinthians 6:16-18

We live in interesting times.  If you have been keeping up with politics, you may have seen a politician who was relatively unknown until recently try to introduce himself at a political rally.  He caught the nation's attention by calling the other side "weird."

It's funny what will catch on in popular media.  "Weird" became a watchword, a meme, a political catch-phrase.  In response, the other political party began making speeches with a theme, "I know you're weird, but what am I?"

While this has been going on in the real world, I have been watching reruns of a politically themed TV series from about a decade ago.  In one particular episode, the main character, a female attorney, is running for office in Chicago.  Her opponent, a divorced man, was fending off accusations that he was gay because he was not dating women and had not remarried.  In one particularly candid moment, he confessed to our heroine that he was not gay, but that he was devoutly religious.  The reason that he had not remarried was because he believed the Bible teaches it would be sinful for him to divorce his wife and marry another.  When asked why he didn't explain this to the public, he said the public would think him weird.  Anyone who took the words of Jesus that seriously, he said, would not be understood by the masses.

All throughout Scripture, God has called for His people to be set apart.  To be separate.  To be weird.

In my daily Bible reading I have been going through the book of Ezra.  Even though it shares the story of a small part of Jewish history, I think it has practical application for the Church today.  The story begins at the tail end of the Babylonian exile, a period of 70 years that Hebrew men and women were forced to relocate to a pagan capital, while Jerusalem was dismantled, brick by brick.  God had done this, or had allowed it to happen, because His people were unfaithful.  As a nation, they had turned their backs on God and had given themselves to idols.  God, in turn, had banished them from the Promised Land and had sent them, in chains, to the Capitol of Idolatry, Babylon.  There may be a sermon there--you know, about the fact that if you reject God's call and follow sin, God will show you the consequences of sin. "The wages of sin is death"--or an eternity in hell, not because God did not call them to repent, but because they rejected his call.

70 years.  To some, this may have seemed like an eternity.  If there were any faithful remnant--and we know there were, because we read of Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (better known by their Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meschack and Abednego)--they would have died off during this time.  The Jewish children born in exile may have been assimilated into Babylonian culture.

When the time came for Jews to be returned to Jerusalem, Ezra witnessed a miraculous reversal of a political reality.  Babylon had fallen to Cyrus the Great, who issued this decree found in Ezra 1:1-4.

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.  Whoever is among you of all His people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel--He is the God who is in Jerusalem.  And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem."

Not only were the conquered people allowed to go home to Jerusalem to rebuild, but reparations were made.  For all the gold and silver and precious stones that he been removed from the temple when Jerusalem fell to the Chaldean army, Cyrus commanded it be replaced.  But wait, there's more! Cyrus also decreed that those who chose to return to Jerusalem should also be given beasts of burden to help them carry back their possessions, their tools, the gold and silver that had been stolen, and that a freewill offering take place to help them on their journey.

Within two years of their return, the people of Israel had laid the foundation of the temple that had been destroyed.  As construction of the temple proceeded, there were enemies of Israel that opposed the building of the temple.  They thought the Hebrews were weird, and if Ezra and his people were successful in restoring worship of the one true God, then their idols would be banished or at least diminished in importance in the local culture.

These enemies of God tried three times to thwart the building of the Temple.  The first was with kind words of encouragement.  We want to help, they said.  "Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to Him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here." (Ezra 4:2).  This was, of course, a lie.  They did not serve the same God, and they had not been keeping up the temple sacrifices.  They only wanted to come alongside and change the plans a bit, perhaps to make the temple more inclusive.

Church, beware of those who preach a message of inclusion.  "We all worship the same God.  We're all God's children."  How many times have we heard this in our own culture?  It is a lie!  We have allowed a message of hyper-grace to permeate our thinking, so that when the culture says things like "love is love," we smile and nod like the specific sin of homosexuality is perfectly normal and acceptable to God.  We celebrate "Earth Day" with the prevailing culture, not as stewards and care-takers of God's creation, but instead as if we are worshiping nature itself.

When offers of kindness were refused by Ezra and the elders of Israel, the next level of resistance was to "discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build," bribing counselors against them to frustrate their purpose (Ezra 4:4-5).  The message changed from, "we want to be a part of this" to "you're so weird."  Again, we see this in our culture today.  Devout Christians are called names and ridiculed, which leads to government regulations being passed against us.  Do you remember regulations passed against in-person congregational meetings a couple of years ago in the name of public health?  If Christians meeting together was counter-cultural before Covid, then it was downright criminal during Covid restrictions.  Don't you think that as time goes by the restrictions against the Church won't become more normalized until the State can shut it down completely?

The final attempts by God's enemies were to write letters to the emperor, the ruler who succeeded Cyrus.  If Cyrus could reverse the edict by the ruler that had exiled Jews to Babylon, then couldn't his successor just as easily reverse course again, and outlaw the rebuilding of the temple?  As it turns out, that's exactly what happened.  As a result, construction was stopped for a time.  After a thorough investigation, a letter came from Darius, king of Persia allowing construction to continue.  Again, reparations were ordered, and more gold and silver were apportioned to the Israelite people, and construction could begin again, according to the will of God.

In the ninth chapter of Ezra, there was one more obstacle found to being faithful to God. It was brought to Ezra's attention that some of the faithful had intermarried with the idolatrous pagans around them. When he found out, Ezra tore his clothes and fasted, and he prayed that God would forgive them. Then he gathered all the people together and demanded that they dissolve these sinful relationships.

In order to dedicate themselves to God's service and to dedicate the temple completely to God, Ezra recognized that they must follow God's law to the letter.  To be fully used by God, one must fully trust Him and His word. The psalmist said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."

I am not advocating divorce if you are married to an unbeliever, although Paul addressed this in 1 Corinthians 7. I will say that this would be an important issue when searching for a spouse. You see, every one of the obstacles thrown up by the enemies of Ezra could be evident in an unequally yoked relationship. An unbelieving spouse could kindly ask you to be unfaithful to God. He or she could discourage you with derision or even use fear to keep you from fulfilling God's purpose in your life. Finally, an unbelieving spouse could place legal hurdles in your path to slow you down or stop you altogether from following God fully and faithfully.

I think this principle is not limited to a marriage relationship. It could apply to your business dealings or even close friendships. Yes, we are called to evangelism, to sharing Christ with people. We must remember, though, that when Jesus sat with tax collectors and sinners, it was not He who was changed. Jesus told His disciples that if they go into a place where their message was not received with joy, they were to shake the dust of that place off their feet.

Restoration

 

Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; they are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully; though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it.  --Psalm 69:4 NKJV

 The dictionary defines the word restoration in two ways.  First, it is the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition.  An example would be, "The restoration of Andrew's sight."  A second definition would be the return of a hereditary monarch to a throne, a head of state to government, or a regime to power.  For instance, "the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy."

Here is an excerpt from another blog writer:

To restore means to bring back to a former or original condition. Implicit in this definition, at least for me, is the notion that the former condition is better than the current condition. I think of the restoration of an old automobile. My friend Joe bought a 1972 12-cylinder Jaguar and is restoring it back to its original condition with great care and love. Or, the Sistine chapel. Judy and I saw the restored Michelangelo painting on the ceiling in all of its vivid, brilliant colors. In the corner of the ceiling we saw a 1-meter square patch that had not been restored. In contrast to the restoration it was dingy and gray. So, when I think of restoration I think of bringing something back to its original beauty. That is what Jesus did in my life: He brought me back to (or closer to) the life God always intended for me to live and the function or purpose for which He created me.

This week I came across a passage in 2 Chronicles that stood out to me.  Now, when you read the book of 2 Chronicles, you see an account of the nation of Israel being torn in two after the death of Solomon, followed by a list of kings of Israel (all bad) and the kings (and one queen) of Judah (some good, some bad).  The good kings were always rewarded by God.  The bad kings were always punished by God.  In His divine Providence, God sometimes used other nations to punish His people when they turned to other gods.

When you get to chapter 28 of 2 Chronicles, you see that God used the army of Israel to punish the kingdom of Judah.  Ahaz, Judah's evil king, "was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force. (verse 5)"  The name of the king of Israel was Pekah, who by the way was also an evil king.  Verse 6 says, "For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers."

Jumping down to verse 8, "The men of Israel took captive 200,000 of their relatives, women, sons, and daughters.  They also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria."  The army of Israel was on a roll.  They had killed Judah's men of valor.  They took prisoners.  They took much spoil.  I would imagine they would have marched all the way to Jerusalem, wreaking havoc in their wake.

But God stopped them.

But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded, and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, "Behold, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, He gave them into your hand, but you have killed them in a rage that has reached up to heaven.  And now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, as your slaves.  Have you not sins of your own against the Lord your God?"  --2 Chronicles 28: 9-10

This prophet, this man of God, stood up to the army of Israel, who was foaming at the mouth.  They had tasted blood and were out for more.  But God said no.  Stop.  The punishment against Judah was for their sins, not for Israel's enrichment.  Hadn't Israel sinned as well?  

Israel needed an attitude adjustment.  Instead of, "KILL, KILL, KILL," they should instead be thinking, "There but for the grace of God go I."  Amazingly, that's exactly what happened.  Oded the prophet of God said, "Now hear me, and send back the captives from your relatives whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you. (verse 11)"  The chiefs or heads of the clans of Ephraim, whose names are mentioned specifically in verse 12, heard the word of the Lord and stood up against the men of war.  We see in verse 14 their reaction: "So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly."

Here's where it gets interesting.

And the men who have been mentioned by name rose and took the captives, and with the spoil they clothed all who were naked among them.  They clothed them, gave them sandals, provided them with food and drink, and anointed them, and carrying all the feeble among them on donkeys, they brought them to their kinsfolk at Jericho, the city of palm trees.  Then they returned to Samaria.  --2 Chronicles 28:15

Did you get that?  The victorious army--who had been sent by God to deliver judgment to the people of Judah--they set the prisoners free, and restored them.  The defeated people of Judah, the ones whom God was justly punishing, saw His grace in action.  Their nakedness was covered.  They had sandals placed upon their feet.  They were fed and given drink.  The sick were anointed with oil (a healing liniment), and the wounded (the lame and the feeble) were placed on donkeys so they didn't have to walk.  In addition to all that, they were escorted home.

I believe that the prophet Oded was a type of Christ.  The name Oded means "restorer."  Jesus came to restore us with the Father.  He is called "the second Adam" because whereas the first Adam had sinned and had forfeited Man's relationship with God, Jesus came to restore a right relationship with the Father.  Oded said, "send the captives home" in verse 11.  Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27).  The people who heard Oded speak went the extra mile, not just releasing the captives but taking care of them and delivering them home.  The followers of Jesus (like Paul) said, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:20-21)."

We see in 1 Peter 5:10 the ministry of restoration given by God to His Son Jesus.  "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you."

Going back to the dictionary cited at the beginning, we see Jesus fulfills both definitions.  When Jesus began His earthly ministry, he quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 when He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor; He has send Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery (or restoration) of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (Luke 4:18-19)."  Not only does He restore us physically and spiritually, He restores the kingdom of God on Earth.

Rough start? Stick the landing!

 

He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.  And he departed with no one's regret.  They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. --2 Chronicles 21:20

I'm sitting here watching the Olympic games in Paris, France.  It's amazing to see such tremendous athletes competing on the world stage.   The high level of performance makes it that much more heartbreaking when you see someone fail spectacularly.  

We are tempted to say, "That looks like something I'd do."  If a runner trips and falls, if a gymnast slips off the high bar or the balance beam, it makes them look more normal, more like one of us.  It doesn't matter how much they worked and trained and sacrificed to get there.  It only matters how they finished.

When we read the account of the kings of Israel in 2nd Chronicles, we see some good ones like David, Solomon, and Asa who started strong but faltered at the end.  We also see some terrible kings, like Jehoram whose epitaph is found in the verse cited above.  When he died, "he departed with no one's regret."  Reading a legacy like that in the Bible makes Jehoram rather famous in his folly.  It reminds me of the current meme, "Wisdom has always been chasing you, but you have always been faster."

This is one of the things that shows the veracity of the Bible.  Even the heroes of the faith are shown in their weakness.  We do not want to start strong, and then end poorly.  Nor do we want to be like the character in the Dilbert cartoon above, so entrenched in mediocrity that the best he can hope for is to end in the middle of the pack.

Who is your favorite character in the Bible?  It may be Daniel, who never had a bad thing written about him.  For most of us, it is too late to emulate perfection, for we have most likely already fallen a number of times.  We would do better to follow Joseph, who was kind of obnoxious at the start, but once he humbled himself (or was humbled by God), he remained faithful and ended strong.  He stuck the landing.

In the New Testament, we strive to be like Jesus, "the Author and Perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2,3).  More realistically, however, we can come closer to being like Paul.  He didn't just start out badly; he literally killed people for professing Christ.  After his conversion, however, he devoted himself to God, to the preaching and teaching of Scripture, so that at the end he could present himself a faithful servant of his Savior.

Paul wrote, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?  So run that you may obtain it.  Every athlete exercises self control in all things.  They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.  So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.  But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

Coaches have a pithy saying: "No pain, no gain."  Paul put it this way: when we suffer for Christ's sake, "we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:3-5).

We must never give up doing good, getting better, finishing strong.  Hebrews 12:1 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."

In other words, even if we have fallen early, slipped up or tripped up, even if we have scored for the other team, we need to not get discouraged.  We need to stick the landing.

C'mon, man!!

 

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.  --2 Timothy 4:2

Groucho Marx is credited with the quote, "When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out.  A best friend will be in the cell next to you, saying, 'Dang, that was fun!'"  We laugh, because that quote makes light of our sinful nature.  A friend, or companion, might be in the same predicament as you are, because both of you were engaged in unseemly behavior.  However, we all know that the best friend we could have would be one that keeps us out of jail in the first place.

In a spiritual sense, we often say that Jesus is our best friend.  We sing hymns like Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners.  I would like to posit that, while Jesus may be a Friend, our best friend in all the world is the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said, "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor--Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever." (John 14:16 AMP).

The Greek word for "Helper" (or "Comforter" in the KJV, "Advocate" in the NIV) is παράκλητος or paracletos.  It literally means, "one who pleads another's cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for the defense, legal assistant; an advocate."  If our friend Groucho found himself in jail, it would be advantageous for him to be friends with a lawyer, a legal advocate who could stand before the judge in court and plead his case.

Spiritually speaking, we who are called by God according to His purpose (Romans 8:28) have an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who stands before a holy God and argues on our behalf.  Therefore, we have assurance that when the Judgment comes, we who are covered by the blood of Jesus will not face condemnation, we will not be subject to the wrath of God, but instead will realize fully the grace of God.  We will avoid hell, and be ushered into a place prepared for us called Heaven.

A popular Christian hymn, God Our Father We Adore Thee has this verse:

Holy Spirit, we adore Thee!
Paraclete and heavenly guest!
Sent from God and from the Savior,
Thou hast led us into rest.
We adore Thee! we adore Thee!
by Thy grace forever blest.
We adore Thee! we adore Thee!
by Thy grace forever blest.

But wait, there's more!

We've already seen that the Greek word paracletos is a noun, and we have seen what it means.  There is a similar Greek word, a verb, that comes from the same root word.  It is παρακαλέω or parakaleō.  Twenty-three times in the New Testament that word is translated "comfort."  That makes sense--the Holy Spirit, our paraclete, is called "Comforter."

However, the verb parakaleō is found 86 more times in the New Testament, and is variously translated beseech, exhort, desire, pray, and entreat.  "Beseech" is kind of an archaic word that means to beg, or to make a request of someone in an earnest or urgent manner.  Paul said in Romans 12: 1, "I appeal (parakaleo) to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."  (ESV--the NIV translates it as "urge", the NKJV translates it as "beseech".  You get the idea.)

According to people who have studied New Testament Greek more than I have, the sense of the word paracletos is "One who comes alongside."  The verb form parakaleo, then, is not a description of a confrontation.  The Holy Spirit is not our accuser--that is Satan's job.  Instead of confronting us, He stands beside us, throws His arm around us, and says, "C'mon, Man!"

This exhortation can be positive, as in "C'mon, Man!  You can do it!"  It can also be negative, as in "C'mon, Man!  Not that way!!"  It is the Holy Spirit's job to guide us, to encourage us to good works, but also to chide us, to scold us a little when we get turned around.  This can be unpleasant at times, because it goes against our sinful nature, but it is ultimately for our good.

You may have grown up in a church that uses this form of call and response:

Leader: God is good.

People: All the time.

Leader: And all the time,

People: God is good. 

This simplistic view is sometimes dangerous.  It implies that if anything bad happens in your life, it is not of God.  The Old Testament prophet Isaiah says of God, "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7, NKJV).  We can get into a theological argument here about the sovereignty of God, and disagree about if bad things happen to good people is it of God or of the devil.  I will tread lightly here, but I would remind us that "We know that all things (both good and bad) work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28 NKJV).

When the Holy Spirit comes alongside us, puts His arm around us, and effectively says, "C'mon, Man!" it inevitably leads to change.  Sometimes those changes are painful, especially if it deals with entrenched sin, or means that we have to stop being friends with sinful, unregenerate people.  If we are honest about our spiritual walk, we would have to admit that at some point in our past God had to kick our keister to get us into line. 

In our study of Scripture in it's original language and verbiage, the Holy Spirit is our paraclete, One who comes beside to comfort and to guide.  His work is summed up in the Greek verb parakaleo a combination of the preposition para (meaning near, beside, in proximity, or causal) and the word kaleo (meaning to call by name, to invite, or to give a name or a title).  Therefore surround yourself with people who are led by the Spirit to call you out, to call you by name, to come alongside and bestow upon you the name Christian so that you are bound to live up to it.  These people are truly doing God's work among men, by the grace and direction of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus.