Rejoice Jubilantly with All Joy

Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.  The Lord is near.  --Philippians 4:5

What brings you joy every time you think about it?  What causes you to rejoice?  In this Christmas season, you may think of giving the perfect gift to a loved one.  You may think of a child's sense of wonder and surprise when presented with that one perfect gift.

The word "rejoice" occurs 77 times in the New Testament.  It occurs 10 times in the little letter of Philippians.  It occurs twice in the one verse that is associated with this, the third Sunday of Advent.  The verse is Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!"

What is the motivation for Paul's sense of joy in this statement?  I think it is found in the very next verse, near the end: "The Lord is near."

We all know those people who never do anything unless the boss or the teacher is in the room.  These inauthentic people have bad behavior generally, but their behavior improves as soon as they see someone in authority over them.

As Christians, our behavior would surely improve if Jesus suddenly showed up in our midst.  (Remember the disciple we know as "Doubting Thomas"--when Jesus appeared before him, he no longer doubted.)  In fact, more than just our behavior might improve.  Our countenance, the look on our faces, might immediately improve as well.

But Paul didn't say for us to rejoice only when we sensed His presence.  He said to rejoice in the Lord always.  Why?  Because the Lord is near.  Always.

It is human nature to long for something better.  We anticipate the coming of Christmas, and our joy is increased.  I think Mary had that sense of anticipation.  As the donkey crested that last hill and the lights of Bethlehem came into view, I think she must have anticipated the end of her long journey from Nazareth, looking forward to some rest before going into labor.  Joseph, too, may have been looking forward to securing lodging for the two of them, and beyond that perhaps locating a local midwife there in Bethlehem.  There was that sense of heightened anticipation, that all the hope, all the preparation was soon going to culminate in the birth of a blessing.

We, too, have something to long for, something to keep us pressing on in joyful anticipation.  No, it's not Christmas, which will be over in a little over a week.  It's not even the coming New Year, with it's challenges and resolutions.  It is the imminent return of Jesus at the end of this age.  Remember that line in the Lord's Prayer that says, "Thy kingdom come"?  That is what we are longing for, that is what we look forward to with great anticipation.

The Jews have a tradition in their Passover celebration of setting a place at the table (or at least pouring a cup of wine) for the prophet Elijah.  Those families with young children may ask the youngest to go outside and watch for Elijah as they finish their meal preparations.  The reason they do this is that the prophets said Elijah must come first, before the Messiah arrives.  This tradition keeps hope alive, and incorporates anticipation into the celebration.

Of course, we Christians believe that John the Baptist fulfilled the role set forth in Scripture, that "Elijah must come first."  John's message echoed Isaiah 40:3, when he said he was one crying in the desert, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." (see Mark 1:3).  That message is just as powerful now as it was when John said it.  Even now, Lord Jesus, come!

Closely related to the words "joy" and "rejoice" is the term "jubilation".  In the book of Leviticus Moses set forth the command from God that every 50th year would be a year of Jubilee, in which all debts would be forgiven, ancestral lands would be restored to their original owners, and most importantly, those who had sold themselves to pay off a debt would be set free.  This celebration was a foretelling of the coming of God's kingdom on earth.  In that day, we who have been enslaved to sin will be set free forever.  In that day, we who belong to God will be given our inheritance in Him.

Zechariah 14:9 says, "And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one."  Revelation 20:4-5 describes a time when those who have been martyred for the sake of Christ will come to life and reign with Jesus for a thousand years.  Friend, if the thought of this event doesn't make you jubilant, nothing will. 

We should rejoice that the day is coming, and that it is coming sooner now than ever before.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud, and majesty and awe

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave

        Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel 

Hope Is A Four Letter Word

And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.                   --1 John 3:3

What do you take to a baby shower?  What kinds of gifts should you bring?  Certainly there is an air of expectation and hopefulness.  All mothers know the joys and fears of the expectant mother-to-be:  the hope that this period of discomfort and sacrifice will culminate with the birth of the baby; the hope that the baby will be healthy and well, and the suppressed fear of what she would do if the baby is not healthy or whole; and finally the fear (especially of first-time mothers) that she will not be a good mom, that she would not know how to care for and nurture the baby properly.

That is why the gifts at the baby shower are given in anticipation of the life that is to come.  Friends bring warm clothing, bath oils, talcum powders, all nice things to help make the baby comfortable.  Parents may bring play-pens, strollers, car-seats--more expensive items to make it easier to keep the baby safe while travelling away from home.  But the most important gift of all is diapers.

No one in polite society will say what the diapers are for, but we all know.  The child will go through a ton of them before he is toilet-trained.  However, there is the hope that one day, eventually, the child will no longer need them.

Last week I wrote about the wise men, the magi from the East, who traveled first to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem to pay honor to Jesus, the new-born King.  They brought with them gifts, tribute (if you will) to the King of kings.  We all know the gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

Gold was often brought as tribute to royalty.  When foreign leaders visited David and Solomon in the Old Testament, they brought gold.  Aside from its monetary value, gold is seen as pure, as desirable, as durable, and even as royal.

Frankincense is an essential oil used in perfumes because of its pleasant aroma.  The effused aroma promotes relaxation and feelings of peace.  It also has medicinal or healing properties, that foretold of Jesus's ministry on Earth.

Myrrh is named for the Arabic word for "bitter."  It, too, is an essential oil that historically had been used in embalming and mummification as far back as ancient Egypt.  This gift foretold of His death, and yet alluded to his Resurrection, because it, too, has medicinal and healing powers when used as an essential oil.  One source I read says its antioxidant properties help in restoring dead cells or preventing cell death.  Is that not one role that Jesus fulfills now?

So we see that the birth of the Savior brought with it hope, but as the gifts of the Wise Men foretold, that hope would come through hardship.

There is a place near the southern tip of Africa that we call the Cape of Good Hope.  In the fifteenth century, as the European population expanded and the demand increased for spices from the East (to preserve food more than season it), the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was trying to find a shipping route to India southward around the continent of Africa.  As he approached the southern tip, he experienced the phenomenon of competing currents where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.  The cold Atlantic current mingles with the warm Indian Ocean current, and at certain points may mingle with Antarctic winds from the South.

Those of you familiar with meteorology recognize that the clash of a warm-air current meeting with a cold front can cause violent storms.  This is why Dias first called the place Cabo das Tormentas, or "Cape of Storms."

How many of us are tormented by frequent storms in life?  We are sailing along with warm wind currents when BAM! a cold front meets us out of nowhere.  Satan sends storms to buffet us, much like the storm encountered by the Disciples on the Sea of Galilee.  Matthew chapter 8 (and again in Luke chapter 8) tells of a time when Jesus and His disciples got into a boat and started across the lake.  Jesus was tired, and fell asleep in the bow.  A huge storm erupted, causing waves large enough to swamp the boat; the disciples, experienced fishermen who had plenty of experience sailing these waters, feared for their lives.

They shouldn't have.  Jesus, the source of hope, was in the boat with them.

The One who had created the winds and the waters by His Word spoke peace to the waves, and there was calm.  His question to them, "Where was your faith?" was not so much chastising them for not being able to withstand the storm themselves.  I think it had more to do with their faith that the Son of God, who was in the boat, could not have been destroyed by the storm.  Their proximity to Him, therefore, assured their safety as well.

Back our story about the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias:  It was in 1411 that he first sailed through the "Cape of Storms".  Seventy years later, King John II renamed it the "Cape of Good Hope" (Capo de Boa Esperanza) because there was now a reliable shipping trade route to India.  He was optimistic and full of hope that the people of the West would benefit greatly from increased access to spices and preservatives from the East.

You see, hope does not exist without adversity.  You can't say, "I hope I get this job," if there was no possibility that you could lose it.  You can't think "I hope my daughter gets home safely," if there was no real hazard, no actual perils to which she could possibly fall prey.  Our hope for good recognizes the prevalence of evil; our hope of life is juxtaposed with the very real possibility of death.  We cling to hope, especially when the source of hope is outside of ourselves.

So we meditate on hope this second Sunday of the Advent season.  This weekend my pastor told the background of one of the most quoted Scriptures of the Christmas season.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Emanuel.  --Isaiah 7:14

We know this as a Messianic scripture, and Old Testament verse that foretold the coming of Jesus.  But the background is an instance where Ahaz, the king of Judah, had lost all hope, and Isaiah the prophet had offered some.  The adversity at the time, the circumstance that made Ahaz lose hope, was that his enemies in Syria had begun to lay siege on Jerusalem.  Ahaz knew that his army was no match for the Syrian army.  In fact, he had secretly sent messages to another enemy, the king of Assyria, offering the people of Judah as slaves if he would spare his own life.

Ahaz feared for his life.  Isaiah came with words of hope.  "Take care and be calm," he said.  "Have no fear and do not be fainthearted." (Isaiah 7:4).  Isaiah's message was to believe God.  You see, God had already promised, before Ahaz was born, that a descendant of David would always be on the throne in Jerusalem.  Ahaz had no heirs at the time, but he was genuinely afraid.  He also had no faith, and as a result, he was hopeless.

Hopelessness drives people to do desperate things.  Today we empty the store shelves in anticipation of a storm, or we make a run on gasoline when we think that oil supply chains may be cut off.  The Donner Party resorted to cannibalism when the winter storm got so bad.  Ahaz offered his people as slaves to a foreign power because he feared his enemy.

Isaiah came with a word of encouragement:  God's got this.  There is no reason to get all panicky.  "Ask for a sign for yourself from the Lord your God," Isaiah said.  "Make it as deep as Sheol or high as heaven." (Isaiah 7:11).  Unfortunately, Ahaz was hopeless.  "I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord." (Isaiah 7:12).  This was not a statement of humility; he was not trying to bow to God's greatness.  Instead, he was showing exactly how little faith he had in God.

Isaiah's answer, that one day a virgin would conceive and bear a son, whose very name means "God with us," was meant to show that God was being true to His promise that the line of David would one day culminate in the birth of the Messiah.  God had not yet finished His plan for you, Ahaz, so have faith.  Much like Jesus's question to the disciples: Where is your faith?  Don't you know that God's promises are true?  Therein lies our source of hope.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare to make no other claim,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
In ev'ry high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, his covenant and blood
Support me in the raging flood;
When ev'ry earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When he shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in him be found,
Clothed in his righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before his throne.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

 

I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will  have the Light of life.  --John 8:12

I am the Bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.  --John 6:35

Today is the first Sunday of Advent.  It is four weeks before the celebration of God's greatest gift to Mankind.  As we prepare for Christmas with our families, we should stop and remember the preparations that God made thousands of years ago so that we could know Him.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."  --Matthew 2:1-2

Most Bible scholars agree that the wise men from the East had traveled up to two years to get to Jerusalem to visit the Christ child.  The star they followed had appeared two years before their meeting with Herod to ask where He might be born.  Think about that for a minute; God sent a heavenly light to guide the men to His only Son, who would describe Himself later as the Light of the world.

That was not the only preparation that had been made.  Not by a long shot.  Matthew tells us more of the story.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.  Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.  They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:   AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, AND BY NO MEANS THE LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL."  --Matthew 2:3-6

The prophets had written this prediction fifteen hundred years earlier.  That's how long God had anticipated the Advent of His Son in Bethlehem.  Did you know that "Bethlehem" means "House of Bread"?  Oh, and Jesus's earthly parents did not even live in Bethlehem--God had to manipulate the political leaders of the day to call a census at that exact moment, just so that the One who later called Himself the Bread of life would be born in the "House of Bread."

See what God did there?

So here's the deal.  We can take that information and tuck it away in our brain, and go on with our Christmas shopping and baking and travelling.  Or we can heed the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:15, "Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of Peace."  We have the Good News of Jesus Christ in our hearts.  How can we best prepare our world for His peace?

One of the older carols you may hear in the next three weeks is one that says, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin in me."  Let's make preparation to share His love in the coming year, not just monetarily or materialistically.  The very best gift we could give to someone is to share the Gospel, the greatest gift God ever gave to anyone.

Let's be the light of the world that Jesus said we were in Matthew 5:14.  You may think what can one person do?  One little point of light can pierce the darkness, but a number of small lights along the path can guide someone's attention to the Son.  That is what we have been put on earth to do.  Let's prepare our hearts and minds to that end, because of the preparation God performed to introduce to us the Way to Him.

The Gift of the Gospel

 

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! --2 Corinthians 9:15

Growth is part of life.  Certainly physical growth is noticeable in all living things until they reach maturity.  Emotional growth, or maturity, is not always so evident.  Some may say that the male gender of homo sapiens never reaches full maturity.  If you look closely, however, you may see subtle signs of maturity, even in our culture.

Take, for example, the popular song Margaritaville by singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffet.  Released in 1977 on the album titled Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, the lyrics chronicle the epiphany of a man in the throes of alcoholism, to the detriment of everything else in his life.  He has stayed in the same place for a season without moving on, but also without knowing why.  He notices a tattoo that he doesn't remember getting, another consequence of spending so much time "wasted".

Human nature being what it is, we like to assess blame elsewhere, and in Buffet's first person narrative, this song is no exception.  Each chorus ends with an admission that his problems cannot be attributed to the fairer sex, but with each reiteration he comes closer to the truth.  The evolution of thought begins with "it's nobody's fault."  As the song progresses, it becomes, "Hell, it could be my fault."  The culmination, and the epiphany (I think), comes in the final conclusion: "But I know it's my own damn fault."

A similar progression of maturation is evident in the life of the Apostle Paul.  I read somewhere this past week (I can't find the source, but it is not original to me) that early in his ministry, Paul wrote to his followers, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." (1 Corinthians 11:1).  A few years later, he wrote a more humble self-portrait: "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of good is not....Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:18, 24).  Finally, very late in Paul's career, we find his letters to Timothy, a young pastor that Paul was mentoring.  In one of his letters to his young protege (I can't bring myself to use the more modern word  "mentee"--but that's another topic), Paul refers to himself as the chief of sinners (my translations says "foremost" of sinners: 1 Timothy 1:15).

For a patriarch of the faith, who wrote a third of the New Testament, this is quite a telling progression.  The older he got, the more humble Paul was, and the more he realized what grace means. How much more should we, who are not Paul, grow in humility as we mature in the faith.

In the Evangelical world I grew up in, the presentation of the Gospel is given in kind of a three-tiered fashion.  To the very young, we would say that God gave His Son, Jesus, as a free gift.  We cite John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."  To underscore the idea of salvation as a free gift, we also cite Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

To the more mature, we acknowledge that although salvation is a free gift, it is not received by all.  Belief is essential, but James 2:19 says that even the demons believe, and they shudder at the thought of God.  We are taught that we have a responsibility to accept the gift, or it will be offered in vain.   We cite John 1:12, "But as many as receive Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name."  No, we do not teach a works-based salvation--Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."

It is to the true follower, however, that the whole truth is revealed.  In order to have assurance of salvation as applied in your own life, you need to make Him Lord of your life.  It is not enough to identify with Christians; one must identify with Christ, and bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8).  It is not enough to pay lip service to Christ by calling Him Lord.  You must actually put yourself in subjection to Him.  2 Corinthians 5:15 says, "He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."

To recap, you might tell a child that God gave us a free gift, because children love gifts and know how to receive.  You might tell a more jaded adult, one who has learned not to believe everything they read, to go ahead and take the gift.  "Taste and see that the Lord is good."  Finally, to the true seeker, the one who hungers for the things of God, you might say the final (and most important) step is to make Jesus Lord of your life.

Now, an unchurched person might call this a bait-and-switch approach to the gospel, comparing it to the allure of the world.  You offer this gift, like candy (they may say), but then snatch it away at the last minute, telling them that they must follow your rules to attain it; and once it is in their grasp, then you enslave them.  Satan has followed this blueprint for so long that it has become the norm.  It is hard to get them to understand that Jesus has pure motives, and that to become a servant of His can free them of their burdens.  "My yoke is easy," Jesus said, "and My burden is light."

To those who believe, there is a danger of not progressing or maturing past the "gift" stage.  The author of Hebrews put it this way:

Concerning Him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.  For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.  But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. --Hebrews 5:11-14 

If you accept Christ as a free gift only, and fail to mature into righteous living, you are in danger of missing out on the rewards of righteousness.  Further, you are in danger of falling away.

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God...For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. --Hebrews 6:1, 4-6

Imagine a father, a world-famous astronomer, who has three children.  On Christmas morning he gives all three of them a gift.  It is the same gift for all three children, but each of them receives his own gift.

The youngest one tears open the wrapping paper and sees a high powered telescope.  "Oh, cool!" he exclaims, then he sets aside the telescope and gets distracted by other gifts and activities of the day.  The telescope winds up in the bottom of his toy box.  Only if the father gives him age-appropriate books about stars, and lets him see models of the Solar System, and takes him to a planetarium--only then may the child gain an interest in astronomy, and he may go back and find that telescope and use it to see worlds beyond his own.

The middle child opens the box, and sees the high powered telescope.  She wrinkles her nose.  "Thanks, Dad," she may say.  But at her first opportunity she exchanges the telescope for the latest trend in clothing fashion.  The clothes may look good for a season, but they will soon go out of style, or become shabby, or she may even grow out of them.  One day she may look out on the night sky and remember the telescope her Dad gave her.  But she will not realize that she traded his gift for something fleeting, fashionable for a moment and then tossed aside.  To her, the gift was meaningless.

The more mature child (not necessarily older--they may have been the same age) takes the telescope, and immediately sets it up on the highest point of the house.  He looks through the lens, and asks his father to explain the parts of the Universe that are in his field of vision.  The father lovingly answers his son's questions, and prompts him toward a career in the sciences.  The gift is truly life-changing for this son, as it gives him purpose and allows him to follow in his father's footsteps.

This story may help explain the passage we read in Hebrews.  The less mature child, the one who needed milk and not meat, grew in grace and favor while the father provided the means toward maturity.  The middle child threw away the gift; there was no going back and re-creating that Christmas morning for her--just like there is no way for Christ to come back, be born of a virgin, life a perfect life, die a horrible death, and be raised on the third day for those who reject His initial gift.  The older son made the best use of the gift, putting it immediately to good use, and growing from the experience, all the while learning from the father.

In the last post I wrote, I referenced the parable of the sower.  That thought is reiterated by the writer of Hebrews, here:

For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.  --Hebrews 6:7-8

Sometimes you may feel close to being cursed.  I know I do sometimes.  We must remind ourselves of the promise written to us in 2 Peter 1:3, which says, "His divine power has bestowed on us (absolutely) everything we need for (a dynamic spiritual) life and godliness, through true and personal knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence."  Don't hesitate to take hold of the gift He offers, but be sure to make good use of it, because it is life-changing.

God loves the broken hearted

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.  --Psalm 51:17

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.  --Psalm 34:18

Our small group Bible study this week focused on preparing our hearts for God, in the sense of having tender hearts, or being tender-hearted, so that God can bless us.  Ephesians 4:32 says, "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

One wag in our group weighed in with this nugget:  "There are three ways to tenderize meat:  you can apply trauma (i.e. beat the hell out of it); you can slow cook it (e.g. apply low heat for an extended period of time); or you can marinate it (in a flavorful marinade, usually accompanied by a chemical tenderizer).  As for me," he said, "I'd rather soak in the presence of God than to either go through trauma (as some do), or to go through an extended period of heat (i.e. refinement)."

There followed a discussion of  differing experiences:  those who have gone through tremendous trauma but have come through at the end with a greater love and trust for God; those who have endured a time of trial, where the heat has been turned up but has not overwhelmed, and in the end there is a greater appreciation for God's blessing and provision.  Very few had examples of just marinating in God's presence and praise for an extended period of time.

One rabbit trail that was followed was that some meat is fatty, and the gristle will always be tough, no matter how long it is pounded, cooked, or soaked.  Some people just have a heart of stone, so that if they experience a trial such as the loss of a loved one they remain hard and unpliable.  The conclusion we drew is that some people can't change who they are--complainers are gonna complain, stiff-necked people are gonna stiffen their necks, and sinners are gonna sin.

In the midst of this discussion, we read a verse that really struck me.  All of the promises of hope are found in this one verse:

Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you. --Hosea 10:12

On one level, this is a great way to live.  As the Apostle Paul said, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." (Colossians 3:17).  When you sow, sow to righteousness; when you reap, reap to mercy and kindness.  At all times seek the Lord until He comes to reward you.

On a deeper level, though, it is worth ruminating on.  Come, fellow cows, let's chew the cud awhile.  Twice in this verse the writer mentions righteousness.  When the Bible mentions righteousness, it always refers to God.  Our righteousness is as filthy rags (cf. Isaiah 64:6).  Literally this compares our good works to a used sanitary napkin, a bloody thing a woman discards with disgust during her menstrual cycle.  There is no good use for it.  Our only true righteousness is that imputed to us through Christ.

A modern Christian song has this chorus:

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You Every hour I need You My one defense, my righteousness Oh God, how I need You

As in "(You are) my one defense, (You are) my righteousness.." (Not to be confused with the incorrect interpretation, "My only defense (is) my (own) righteousness...")

An old hymn puts it this way:

When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found; Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.

The next part of our verse implores us to "break up your fallow ground."  We must work to keep from getting hardened, because when God rains down His blessings, hardened folks cannot by nature soak it in.  The blessings of God become runoff, increasing the blessings of another and not the hardened heart.  I think this is why, in Jesus' parable about the talents, He concluded "For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will  have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away." (Matthew 25:29).

I think of the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-8.

The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the air ate it up.  Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.  Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out.  Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.

Keeping in mind our text in Hosea 10:12, the fallow ground falls into three categories: the hardened soil, as in a path, tramped down with heavy traffic; the rocky ground, dry, with no moisture; and the thorny ground, already overgrown with weeds and thorn bushes.  Hosea calls us to break up the fallow ground, to prepare it to receive the blessings of God.  For the first kind of ground, boundaries must be set, so that people will stop walking over it and compressing the soil; then it must be broken up by force.  For the second kind of ground, the hard parts (the stones) must be removed, and the soil irrigated; we cannot abide hardness in our own hearts.  The third kind of ground we know is fertile, because it is overgrown with weeds and thorn bushes; it only needs to be cleaned out, the dead and worthless and even harmful plants uprooted and thrown into the fire, so that there is room for the good seed.

If you are like the first kind of soil, then the trauma of a plow is what you need.  The plow is not pleasant when applied, but leaves the soil upturned and ready for the blessing of God.  Accept the trauma God brings into your life with gladness, because joy comes in the morning.

If you are like the second kind of soil, then a long, slow process of removing stones from your life is what you need.  The work is hard, and it will not be completed in a day, but when it is finished the soil will be aerated and ready to receive the rain.  Do not abandon the heat, for the sweat of your brow will reap rewards.

If you are like the third kind of soil, then a chemical weed-killer may be applied, along with a fertilizer, making you ready for a long soak.  Give up the harmful overgrowth, and prepare for the good seed, so that you may one day enjoy the harvest.

The last part of our verse in Hosea brings the payoff: "For it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on  you."  In another place, the Scripture reads, "Behold, now the is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2b).  It is time to seek the Lord.

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will  have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. --Isaiah 55:2-3

Toward what end?  Until what season should we we seek the Lord?  "...Until He comes to rain righteousness on you."  I looked up the word "rain" used in this verse in the Strong's concordance.  This is the only place where the Hebrew word is translated "rain".  The Hebrew word is apparently a homonym, a single word that has two different meanings depending upon the context.  One use of the word is translated teach, teacher, instruct, or show.  In one sense it is to pour out knowledge and wisdom to someone who is prepared to learn.  The other main use of the word is translated to shoot (as in arrows) or to throw, archers, shooters, to cast.  In this sense, an army or an enemy can rain down death and destruction on a particular target.

Friends, when Christ comes again, He will pour out His Righteousness as rain upon all of us.  Depending upon the condition of our hearts, he will either pour out on us the knowledge of Himself, which we will receive with joy; or He will rain down destruction and death to those who are not prepared for His coming.  To the former, the Righteousness of God will be a source of wisdom, the Answer to the question our hearts have been asking throughout our lives.  To the latter, the Righteousness of God will be a weapon of war used to pierce the hearts of stone and carry them to hell.  Do not harden your hearts toward God.  Give grace a chance.

Three Short Devotionals

This week I have thought about what to write, and I couldn't decide.  Couldn't narrow it down.  Couldn't discern one particular thought.  So tonight, I will lay down three separate devotional thoughts, and see if they have anything in common.  Maybe one will reach you where you are right now. Maybe you are searching for something to share at an upcoming talk, and you, like me, can't decide what to speak about.  Feel free to use one of these ideas, or maybe one of them will spur you on to your own study and the Holy Spirit may lead you to a thought or idea that He has for you to share.  Maybe one of these thoughts will be a stepping-off point for you, maybe not.

Here is what has been on my heart.

When King Ahab Obeyed The Lord

You probably remember Ahab as a wicked king.  He was a nemesis to Elijah the prophet.  He had married Jezebel, who turned his heart away from God.  However, there was a time in his life when God used him to defeat an enemy of Israel.

That enemy's name was Ben-Hadad.  We read about him in 1 Kings.  He was king of Syria after the nation of Israel was divided.  In chapter 15 we see a treaty between Ben-Hadad and Asa, the king of Judah.  Asa had been at war against Baasha, then king of Israel.  Asa was afraid that Jerusalem would fall to Israel and the kings of Aram (Damascus) and others.  So he took all the treasures of the Temple at Jerusalem, and sent them to Ben-Hadad with a plea for help.  Syria had apparently been helping Israel in their war against Judah, and Asa was asking Ben-Hadad to switch sides, and to fight against Israel instead of against Judah.  Beh-Hadad agreed, and targeted the king of Israel, and killed him.

Fast forward to the reign of Ahab.  In 1 Kings 20 we see that Ben-Hadad sent a message to Ahab, basically saying, "You know you wouldn't be king if not for me."  Ahab responded that he did, in fact, know this.  Ben-Hadad sent another message to Ahab, king of Israel:  "You and your entire family are mine.  Your wives and your children are mine.  And very soon, my army will come and occupy Samaria, and my servants will go house to house and carry away anything and everything that is desirable."

Ahab was frightened by this threat.  He went to his advisers and the elders of Samaria, who all told him he would need to stand up for himself.  Ahab sent a message to Syria saying no, you can't walk all over us.  We will fight you rather than have you come and occupy our land and carry away our wives and our children, our gold and our silver, our households and our servants.  This is where it ends.

The name Ben-Hadad means "Son of the mighty one".  Hadad was a mighty warrior in the book of Genesis; Ben-Hadad may have been his descendant, or he could have been named for an idol, a false god named for the original warrior Hadad.  In any case, Ben-Hadad was full of himself.  He sent a message to Ahab that said, "May the gods to so to me and more also" if the armies of Syria do not descend upon Samaria, and wipe them out as easily as picking up handfuls of dust; the whole city will be carried away, even the ground on which it stands.

I love Ahab's response.  He said, "Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off." (1 Kings 20:11).  In other words, show me more than words; show me what you got.  Before the fight, it's all words.  After the fight, we'll really know who won.  If you beat me, then you can boast after the fact.  But until then, shut your mouth.

After Ahab had sent this message, a prophet came to him and said, "God will give you victory."  You will go up and defeat this toad, and God will give him into your hand.  Ahab went up into the mountainous regions where the Syrian and Aramean armies were stationed, and they routed them.  The Arameans ran, but re-assembled in the flat-lands.  They said to themselves, "Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they were stronger there than we; but let us fight them in the plains, and surely we will prevail." (1 Kings 20:23)

Don't ever underestimate the power of God.  The Syrians and Arameans formed the battle lines.  "And the sons of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the country." (1 Kings 20:27b).  The army of Israel killed 100,000 of their enemy that day.  Ben-Hadad fled to a fortified city, and sued for peace.  He sent a message to Ahab: Please let me live.

Can you imagine?  This man who had been so full of himself, whose name means "son of the Mighty", who had been so cocky and arrogant in his original messages, now is pleading for his life.  Ahab sent for him, and Ben-Hadad stood defeated before him.  He promised to return the cities of Samaria that had been taken in war-time.  He even promised Ahab that he could have streets in Damascus--he could come in and occupy the city, just as Ben-Hadad had done in Samaria.

What's sad is that Ahab agreed.  He called Ben-Hadad his brother.  He made a covenant with him, and let him go.  A prophet came and admonished Ahab, saying that God had delivered your enemy into  your hand, and you let him go.  "Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people." (1 Kings 20: 42).

God had put it on Ahab's heart to stand up and fight.  He had gone from a humble leader of an occupied land to a victorious field general under the direction of God.  But when it was time to finish the fight, Ahab proved he was no better than his enemy.  He gave up too soon.

Friend, trust God.  Philippians 1:6 tells us that even if we feel defeated, we can stand, "Being confident of this very thing: that He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

When God Worked Out His Will For The Shunamite Woman

After Ahab died, and after Elijah was taken into heaven, the prophet Elisha was ministering in Israel.  He had a servant named Gehazi, and they knew a woman in the area of Shunam.  This woman was apparently from a family of means, since she held some prominence in the area.  Whenever Elisha would travel through the area, she would invite him into her home to eat.  She finally told her husband to build a room up on the roof of their house, so that when Elisha came over to eat he could stay in his own room.

Elisha wanted to do something nice for her, but she said she had everything she needed.  He asked Gehazi what should be done for her, and Gehazi said she was barren; she had no children.  Elisha promised her a son, a miracle baby, since the woman's husband was quite old.  Sure enough the woman bore a son, and was very happy.  However, when he was about 4 years old the child died.  The woman sent for Elisha, asked why he had allowed her to bring a child into the world if God was going to take the child from her like this.  Elisha went and prayed over the child, and he lived.

The story of Gehazi goes south a bit.  You will recall that the captain of the Syrian army, a man named Naaman, had leprosy.  He came to Elisha and asked to be healed.  Elisha told Gehazi to tell him to wash in the Jordan River 7 times.  Naaman did it, and was healed.  Out of an abundance of gratitude, Naaman offered lavish gifts to Elisha--silver and gold and new clothes.  Elisha refused the gifts, and sent him away.  But Gehazi got greedy, and ran after Naaman and said that Elisha had changed his mind, and he would take 2 talents of silver and 2 changes of clothes, please.  Naaman gave them willingly, and went on his way.  Elisha, however, knew the heart of Gehazi, and said that God would punish him for his greed and his deception.  The leprosy that had been on Naaman, now was on Gehazi.  He was sick with leprosy the rest of his life.

Now that we know the back-story, let's look together at 2 Kings chapter 8.  Elisha told the Shunamite woman to leave her home, as a severe famine was coming.  She left, and lived among the Philistines for seven years.  Seven years later, when the famine had lifted, the woman came back home.  Someone else had taken her husband's property.  "And she went out to appeal to the king for her house and for her field." (2 Kings 8:3).

Can you imagine what was going through her mind?  Shunem was a small village in the Jezreel Valley, in the territory of the tribe of Issachar.  The law of Moses did not give much protection to widows.  Perhaps she was thinking about pleading for possession of the land on behalf of her son.  Maybe she was counting the years until Jubilee, when the land could legally be restored to its family of origin.  Whatever her strategy, she was probably steeling herself for a long, drawn-out battle.

2 Kings 8:4 says, "Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying 'Please relate to me all the great things that Elisha has done'."  Now, there is no space between verse 3 and verse 4, but it makes you wonder what was going on in this situation.  Gehazi had leprosy, and no self-respecting Israelite (much less a king) would willingly go up to a leper and start a conversation.  And why now?  What prompted the king of Israel to inquire about the history and the signs and wonders of Elisha?  And just as the Shunemite woman was coming to plead her case?

Gehazi was in the middle of telling the king all about the miracles of Elisha.  Just as he got to the part where the boy had been raised from the dead, here comes the boy's mother.  "My lord, O king," Gehazi exclaimed.  "This is the woman and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life." (2 Kings 8:5).  The king verified it with the woman, then appointed an officer of the court to see that justice was done, and more.  "Restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land until now." (2 Kings 8:6, emphasis added).

Friend, God knows what you need.  He is able to do abundantly more than we can ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20).  When you are in a situation that looks impossible, God can work it out.  "For we know that God caused all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

To Be Resurrected, We Must Die

I recently had dental surgery.  A tooth had to be pulled, and the tooth must be replaced.  I cannot spontaneously regenerate a tooth, so one must be implanted.  I could not do the implant on the same day that the tooth was pulled, so a bone graft had to be inserted into the void left in the jaw.  When it is healed, fused together with my jaw, then a post can be inserted so that a permanent replacement tooth can be attached.

When the dentist took the bone chip out of what looked like a medicine bottle, I asked her what it was and where it came from.  I wanted to know if it was bone from a cadaver, or if it was man-made.  She checked the invoice, and confirmed that it was cadaver bone.  That means it once belonged to a living, breathing person.  That person is now dead, but a part of them lives on in me.

Modern medicine has given us many examples of reusing tissue from deceased donors to prolong the life (or the enjoyment of living) of those in need.  Organ transplants are pretty routine nowadays.  Every once in awhile you hear of a parent who has lost a child, but because the child was an organ donor, the mother can hear the heartbeat of her child in another person's chest.

Even before organ transplants were pioneered in the 20th century, grafting has been done in agriculture for centuries.  Farmers and fruit growers know that you can cut off a branch from one type of tree and graft it onto another, and it will continue to bear fruit according to its kind.  A cherry tree branch will continue to bear cherries, even after it is grafted to a peach tree.

After my dental surgery, where another person's piece of bone was implanted into my jaw in hopes that it will graft together to form a solid base on which to do further surgery, I came away with this thought: out of death, life.  Jesus said in John 12:24, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls ito the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."  He was speaking of His resurrection, which would not have been possible without His death.  If Jesus had come to Earth, waved His hand over us and blessed us, and then was immediately transported back to Heaven, His mission would not have been complete.  It was only in His death that He could say, "It is finished."

Some say that the Resurrection was not necessary, that the death of Jesus was all that was needed to atone for our sin.  Some even question whether the Resurrection even happened.  The Apostle Paul argued that the resurrection of the dead is only possible because of the Resurrection of Jesus.  "For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins." (1 Corinthians 15:15-16).  He goes on to say that we must put ourselves to death in order to be raised with Him, and not only once, but every day.  "I affirm, brethren, by the boasting n you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." (1 Corinthians 15:31).  What does he mean there?  Paul explains it in his letter to the Church in Galatia:  "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

We must die to ourselves daily, in order to be used by God living in Christ Jesus, His Son.  In case we slide back into sin, we must crucify the flesh each day.  Just like the person who donated the bone chip for my dental surgery, or the one who donated the heart, liver, kidney or lungs transplanted in other living body, a death had to occur to be useful in the resurrection of another.  In the same way, we must die to ourselves in order to one day be resurrected into the presence of God, the One who made us.  The only way that can happen is through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the One who died for  us.

God is my Pastor

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  --Psalm 23:1

Hi, God.  How are you?  I, um, just wanted to come talk to you a little bit about, well, about everything.  You see, things aren't going so well for me.  I guess You know that.  My job is so stressful.  And when I come home, my family--well, let's just say it's been better.  Our finances are in free-fall, and whenever we try to discuss it we always end up fighting.  It's affecting everything, even the bedroom.  I don't know, I've just always wanted more than this.

I don't know, it's like we are hurtling down these class V rapids in a leaky boat with no way to steer or stop.  If we do struggle to shore for a brief rest, it's like we're in a desert--no shade, no respite from the blazing sun, until we're sucked back into the water, over our heads and heading for class VI rapids just around the corner.

Who stole my joy?  My soul is so empty, God.  It seems like every temptation known to Man is hitting me from every side.  Under this constant barrage of fire, it's no wonder I fall.  There, I said it.  I have failed, over and over again.  Why, in God's Name, do you still love me?

I'm afraid.  Every night I lie awake in bed, afraid to die, but dreading life.  Each morning I think, "What fresh Hell is this?"  I feel so insecure, like Evil has no boundary, nothing to keep it from swallowing me up.

I just want to hide myself from everyone and everything.  They all expect me to smile and act like nothing is wrong.  I try, I really do.  More often than not, however, I don't have it in me.  I got nothing.

There is nothing good in me, no love in my life.  I don't want to be here any more.

Have you ever felt like that?

A couple of days ago I was reading the Bible, and I came to Psalm 23.  For some reason, I tried to understand it better by thinking of how it might be different if God was not my shepherd.  I read it opposite of what it says, as if I were going through life on my own, in my own way.  Apart from God, each of the six verses would read something like the six short paragraphs above.

The thought occurred to me that another word for "shepherd" is the word "Pastor".  The Spanish translation actually says it--El Señor es mi Pastor, literally "the Boss, or Lord, is my Pastor, my Guide, my source of encouragement and moral teaching.  I was mulling this over in my mind for a couple of days, wondering how I could write about the alternative meanings of the 23rd Psalm.

Then the Lord really blew my mind.

There was a guest speaker at our church this weekend.  He said something simple yet profound.  He said that you sometimes have to give up what you want, so that God can give you what you need.  Sometimes you have to set aside what you think you know, so that God can reveal His truth.  He referenced Genesis 22:1-18, where God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

We all know the story.  Abraham goes up the mountain with Isaac, takes wood for a fire, and builds an altar.  He must have been thinking that God was asking the impossible.  Wasn't this the son of promise?  Wasn't this the child that he and his wife had dreamed about for 70 years?  Wasn't this the boy that the angel was sent to prophesy about, and about whom God Himself had said he would have descendants that would outnumber the stars in the sky?  When Abraham obeyed, it must have taken an extraordinary amount of faith.  What relief there must have been when, as Abraham raised the knife to kill his own son, that the angel of God stayed his hand.  God provided an alternative, a ram that got caught in a nearby thicket.

When David said, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want," most people translate it as a promise that His children will not lack for anything.  I don't think it would be too much of a stretch, given the command of Jesus in Matthew 16:24, to give a new meaning to this verse.  Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."  That is, you must set aside your own wants and desires, and follow close to Him.  "I shall not want" has a double meaning.  "I will not lack for anything," only because "I will lay aside my own desires" and allow God to speak in your life.

The guest speaker at church said this:  How can you expect to hear from God if you are consumed with your own goals, desires, wishes, and needs?  A friend of mine confessed that sometimes he longs for that time in his life when he didn't have anything.  He had no steady job, so he filled his days with serving God only.  He didn't have a car, so he didn't have to worry about a car payment, or gas, or insurance.  If he needed anything during that season of life, he would work a temporary job until he had the money to get it.  It was as if God provided all his needs.  Now that he is older, he has a family, so he has to have a steady job; he needs a car to get to the job to provide for his family; he needs gas and insurance to operate the car to get him to the job to provide for his family; and on and on it goes.  This is how consumerism can consume you, and destroy your relationship with God.

If we really believed Philippians 4:19, "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus," it would relieve us from the worries of the world.  We would no longer be focused on making a buck and we could focus more on being used by God to accomplish His will.  We would be more attuned to hearing His voice.

When Adam conversed with God in the Garden, what do you think they talked about?  God gave Adam a job to do (name all the animals for one), so part of the conversation was a job review of sorts.  "And what did you name that animal, Adam?"  Part of the conversation had to be Adam asking questions, and then hearing God respond directly to him in an audible voice.  While we don't live in anything resembling Eden, we can still converse with God.  We can still bring Him our problems or our questions.  He can still be our Pastor.  Just like a Pastor, we don't have to wait to see Him at weddings or funerals.  His Pastoral ministry would be more effective if we talked with Him daily, and if we set aside our own agendas and really, really listened.

Truth or Consequences

For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity.  --Proverbs 24:16

In life we are taught to learn from our mistakes.  Marilyn Monroe said, "I believe that everything happens for a reason.  People change so that you can learn to let go; things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right; you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself; and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."  I don't know whether she ever trusted Jesus in her life, but I do know she died young of an apparent drug overdose.  That one mistake, or series of mistakes leading up to that decision, proved fatal for her.  It was a decision she could not learn from.  Her words sound good, but they proved shallow.

Don't you sometimes wish that God would give you such wisdom that you could avoid all those costly mistakes you keep making over and over again?  Calvin Coolidge said, "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.  It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity."

I want us to look today at three examples of people in the Bible who lacked wisdom, or discipline, or both.  All three of these people are introduced to us in the book of 1 Kings.

We all know the first one.  Solomon is known as the wisest man who ever lived.  Just before he took the throne from his father David, he spent a day making sacrifices to God.  A thousand burned offerings were made by Solomon that day.  That night, God spoke to Solomon, and promised to give him whatever he asked.  Solomon said he was a mere child, not knowing how to go out or to come in (1 Kings 3:7).  He was about to undertake a huge task, one that he felt ill equipped for.  His simple request pleased God:  "So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil.  For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?" (1 Kings 3:9).

Solomon's wisdom was known far and wide.  People from all over the world would come to hear him speak, to hear his answers to difficult questions.  These foreign visitors would bring with them gifts of gold and silver, which Solomon would put into the Temple treasury.  Speaking of the Temple, Solomon spent seven years and billions of dollars (in today's money) to build the Temple.  When he was finished, he spent thirteen years--almost twice as long-- building his own palace in Jerusalem.  Despite his God-given wisdom, there seemed to be a little skewing of his priorities there.  Sure, at the dedication of the Temple, Solomon had made sacrifices to the Lord of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep over 14 days (see 1 Kings 8:63-65).  Nevertheless, his heart was set on his own house, and expanding his influence.

He started marrying the daughters of the surrounding kingdoms, in order to form alliances with them.  It made perfect sense--the king of Egypt would not make war against Israel if Pharaoh's daughter was wed to Solomon.  The same with the kings of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and others.

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, "You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods."  Solomon held fast to these in love.  --1 Kings 11:1-2

Solomon was apparently a very loving guy, because he had 700 wives, all of them princesses.  This was to show his superiority to other nations.  He also had 300 concubines, to show his superiority to the people of Israel.  His house was so big, and his family so numerous, can you imagine what it cost to feed and clothe the king's household, including servants each year?  Much more, I would think, than the value of what he had sacrificed to God.  His heart was turned away from God and toward the foreign gods all of these princesses brought with them.

If only Solomon had been disciplined enough to follow God's laws, then he could have avoided the traps that God had warned him about.  God was not pleased, and in 1 Kings 11:9 and following, He let Solomon know about it.

So the Lord said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.  Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.  However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen." --1 Kings 11:11-13

Consequences.  Even the wisest man in all the world suffered consequences from disobeying God.  I have two other quick stories about men who faced consequences for their actions.  But first, a quick side-story.

I met a man last week whose name is Caleb.  I immediately recognized it as a Bible name, and told him it was a name he could take pride in.  Almost apologetically, he explained that the original meaning of the name was loyal or faithful, but now it refers to a dog (because of the characteristics of a dog, e.g. loyalty and faithfulness).  He said that over time, the meaning of the name has changed.  So he could be proud of the original meaning, but the contemporary meaning not so much.

I mention this because Solomon had a servant, a mighty warrior in his army, named Jeroboam.  His name could mean "whose people are many."  Perhaps he was born to a servant of the king and was named in honor of Solomon.  However, the name also came to mean "the people will contend."  It is this second meaning that has significance later in his life, and will lead to consequences.

Solomon chose his son Rehoboam (meaning "a people has enlarged" or "who enlarges the people") to be the heir to the throne.  Rehoboam's first act as king was to ask the people what they wanted.  Their answer was simple--they wanted tax relief.  Sure, being ruled by Solomon was a great thing, and the treasury of the temple was enlarged by gifts from all the dignitaries who came streaming through.  But building the Temple with stones hewn from quarries in Israel, lined with cedars imported from Lebanon, then overlaid with gold--all that was expensive.  Not to mention the building of the palace, and the upkeep of the royal family.  There were over 30,000 forced laborers serving the king, and it must have been very costly.

Rehoboam sought counsel with the elders in his cabinet.  They agreed, and advised him to lower taxes.  If he did, they told him that the people would love him and would serve him with all their heart.  Not content with that advice, he sought out counsel from his posse, younger men who had little experience and less sense.  They told him that acquiescing to the people would be a sign of weakness.  Unless he wanted to appear vulnerable, he had to make a stand.  "Tell them they ain't seen nothing yet.  If they thought Solomon's taxes were too high, just wait." (my loose translation).

This is where the ten tribes of Israel split from the two tribes of Judah.  Just like God had promised, Jerusalem and Judah had a king in David's family to rule over them.  But the bulk of the Israelites rebelled against Rehoboam, and set Jereboam as king over them.  But Jereboam knows that Jerusalem was not only the civic capitol of Judah, but also a religious center.  So he set about building civic and religious centers in the Northern Kingdom that were cheap copies of what God had set up in Jerusalem.  He told the people it was not necessary to go all the way down to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to God--they could do it locally.  He set up a temple in Bethel, at one end of the country, and one in Dan, at the other end.  Unfortunately, he set up idols, golden calves, for the people to worship and to offer sacrifices.  Jereboam also knew that the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe, was loyal to Jerusalem and to the temple there, so he appointed his own priests who were not of the tribe of Levi.  Finally, since the people were used to holy days, he set up similar holidays to coincide with the days of feasting in Jerusalem.

Whenever agnostic or atheist people talk bad about religions and holidays, they say that there is no difference between the Christian holy days and the pagan holidays.  They create a false equivalency. God will deal with them the same way he dealt with Jeroboam.  Here is the consequence of Jeroboam's sin.  An unnamed prophet, a man of God from Judah, who showed up at Bethel during this ersatz feast.  This man of God spoke out publicly against Jeroboam and the altar that he had built.  Jeroboam extended his hand to point to the prophet, and gave a command: Seize him!  No one moved, because the king's hand was shriveled up and useless. I can imagine an audible gasp going on throughout the crowd.  As this was happening, the altar split open and the ashes from the sacrifices spilled onto the ground, just as the man of God had warned.

Jeroboam immediately sought God's help, asking the prophet to pray for him to restore his hand.  How many people cry out to God when tragedy strikes, only to forget about Him once things return to normal?  The prophet did pray, the king's hand was healed, but he did not change his heart.  He continued to worship the golden calf and to lead the people away from the Lord their God.

The last story of consequences has to do with the prophet, the man of God who had traveled to Bethel (which, by the way, means "house of God") to confront the king of Israel.  Once Jeroboam saw that he had been healed, he invited the prophet to his palace for a meal.  "Come, eat with me," he said.  The prophet declined, saying that he had received strict instructions not to eat or drink anything until he had returned to Judah.  His message had been delivered, so he left Bethel to go back home.

Now an old prophet was living in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the deeds which the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king, these also they related to their father.  Their father said to them, "Which way did he go?"  Now his sons had seen the way which the man of God who came from Judah  had gone.  Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him and he rode away on it.  --1 Kings 13:11-13

This old man, who may have once been a prophet of God, chased down the man of God from Judah, and asked him to break his fast.  The younger man declined, saying that God had told him not to eat or drink until he had arrived back in Jerusalem.  The old man said that God had given him a vision earlier that day, that the young man should come to his house and eat bread and drink water.  Although it was a lie (1 Kings 13:18), the older man persisted.  He said he was a prophet, too.  He could be trusted.  God had given him a message, too, and it would be an affront not only to the old man, but to God Himself to decline the invitation.

No sooner had the young man eaten and drunk that the old man received a word from the Lord.  The young man of God had been disobedient, and he would die for his sin.  Chagrined, the young man got on his donkey and left, riding back toward Judah.  On his journey, a lion attacked him and killed him, leaving the donkey standing there.  Some men passed by, and reported to those in the city that they had found a man's body lying on the road, and a donkey standing beside him, with a lion standing over the dead body.  The older man, the false prophet, went to get the young man and bury him.  The old man told his sons that when he died, he wanted to be buried in the same tomb that they buried the young prophet in, because the word of the Lord had been with him, and the old man realized that all he had said would come true--Jereboam's places of worship would be torn down, his altars dismantled, and the idols would be destroyed.

Okay, so to sum it all up, the wise make mistakes; the foolish make mistakes; and even the holy make mistakes.  All of those mistakes come with consequences.  God will deal with each man according to his works.  However, because of the grace of God, the blood of His holy sacrifice covers those who seek Him, and who are faithful to Him.  At the time 1 Kings was written, it was the blood of bulls and goats that justified men, and covered their sins.  Today, it is the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who was slain for the sins of the whole world.

In a sense, we are all Calebs--dogs who do not deserve to be in the presence of a Holy God.  By His grace and mercy, though, He offers forgiveness to those who are loyal to Him.  It all depends on where your loyalties lie.  If you are given a word from God, do not be deceived by those who claim to have received a contradictory word, because God will not contradict His Word.  If you are given responsibility over the lives and livelihoods of other people, like King Jereboam, stay faithful to the God of your fathers.  Do not try to make cheap copies of the true way that God has shown you--do not fall for the false equivalency of the world.  Finally, after amassing all the wisdom the world has to offer, do not abandon His guiding principles outlined in Scripture.  If He said it, He will bless you for following it.  If not, you will be like the vicious dog guarding the house, chasing away the mailman--you might just drive away someone who is bringing you a blessing from God.