Jesus Proclaims Peace

"When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it. ¹¹ And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you."

Deuteronomy 20:10-11

God commanded His people to proclaim peace to distant cities, thus providing an opportunity for lives to be spared.  Those who responded to the offer of peace from Israel and chose to open their doors to them would be spared.  Cities who refused to accept the offer of peace would be beseiged and every male would be slain.  The choice of life and death was placed before the enemies of Israel according to God's grace, and this reminds me how God is not willing any should perish.  In light of God's warning that judgment will someday come to this world, 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

About 2,000 years ago, shepherds who kept watch over their flocks by night experienced an angelic proclamation of peace God provided to all the world by sending Jesus Christ.  Luke 2:13-14 reads, "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ¹⁴ "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"  To a world languishing under judgment and death as a consequence for sin, the Light of the World Jesus Christ came to save.  There was no room for newborn Jesus in the inn, yet we are given the opportunity to open ours hearts to Him in faith and surrender our lives to Him.  The well-known carol exhorts all people:  "Joy to the world! The Lord is come.  Let earth receive her King!  Let every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature sing."

When you move into a new house or renovate rooms, there is an opportunity to arrange furniture.  Rooms can be set up to serve as a bedroom, office or theatre.  The pool table can be sold to make room for a lounge, and the cars can be parked outside to convert the garage into a workspace.  It is important we understand that opening our hearts to Jesus at one time does not guarantee He has the place of honour in our lives today.  Like hoarders acquire vast quantities of goods which restrict their movement and access, our hearts and lives can be cluttered with thoughts, ambitions and desires which crowd out Jesus.  In the Song of Solomon his wife couldn't be bothered to rise from bed to let him in!  They shared a bed together, yet his wife was more concerned about the inconvenience of rising to open the door and having to wash her feet again.

This is similar to what happened with the church of Laodicea Jesus addressed in Revelation 3.  They had become self-confident and self-reliant and believed they had need of nothing--yet Jesus revealed to them spiritually they were wretched, poor, blind, miserable and naked.  Jesus Christ said to them in Revelation 3:19-20, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. ²⁰  Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."  Jesus stood at the door and called out to the church to open to Him with the promise of renewed fellowship.  We can open the door of our heart and affections to many things:  have we opened up to Jesus, having made room for Him?  He stands at the door of all our hearts and proclaims peace today, and may we open to Him as humble subjects who serve Him joyfully.

Kept From Stumbling

During my pilgrimage of following Jesus, I have received bad news at times which shocked me deeply.  Most specifically, I have been dismayed over allegations and scandals concerning Christians.  I don't know what is more hard to process looking back:  how a Christian or pastor could be in sin or that I felt the sins of which they were guilty were beyond the realm of possibility.  Many times Christians and I have been left with the broken pieces of a shattered testimony of God's faithfulness by stumbling saints.  How easy it is to assume the ones who have the words of life will always follow them without fail!

One of the blessings that come from these tragic moments is the chance to pause for self-examination:  if a pillar of the faith could topple, who can say that could not have been me?  Peter was quick to say he would not be scattered, stumble or deny Jesus but that very same night he did all three.  No man is without faults, and unless these are recognised and repented of time will only magnify them.  2 John 1:7-8 shows the tension between knowing there are deceivers in the world and to ensure we are not one of them:  "For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. ⁸ Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward."  It is good any faith in ourselves or man would be shaken, no, destroyed entirely, lest we imagine anyone can be righteous apart from Jesus Christ.

Another thing I have observed is how Satan delights to use the fall of a Christian as a blemish upon prior fruitfulness by the grace of God.  He would even seek to employ the fallibility and hypocrisy of those who follow Jesus to claim Jesus is not worthy of being followed or trusted.  I am grateful Jesus Christ stands righteous alone, pure and undefiled from the folly of the saints He delights to save.  When saints fall into sin and scandal erupts, many times the faith of people is exposed as shallow and they fall away:  faith in a pastor or ministry leader cannot comfort or save a soul in those trying times.  Jesus prayed for Peter his faith would not fail, and Jesus prays for all His sheep who can be heavily laden with sin and weights.  We will fail Him, but our faithful Saviour will never fail us.

When we place Christian leaders on pedestals their fall becomes greater and more damaging.  We ought to hold all people in high esteem, and we should hold Christians accountable to walk righteously and godly in this present age.  Proverbs 28:13-14 says, "He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. ¹⁴ Happy is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity."  Judas felt the twinge of guilt and hung himself; Peter was broken for sin and chose to repent and return to Jesus.  Since we are not called to judge another man's servant, we do not need to justify the behaviour of an erring servant to others:  that is for his Master to do.  Our call is look upon our righteous Saviour with eyes of faith and consider Him in all we do, that we might be pleasing unto our LORD and not stumble others.

Instead of being lifted up with pride we have not fallen into sin which resulted in scandal, let us humble ourselves under the almighty hand of God that He might exalt us in due time.  If we keep our feet it is the firmness of our foundation which must receive all credit.  As it is written in Jude 1:24-25, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, ²⁵ to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen."  God keeps us by His grace, so may I keep my eyes on Him with joy and thanksgiving.

The Sin of Suspicion

Suspicion may not be listed among the works of the flesh, but it is certainly a product of the flesh seasoned with the fear of man.  A close relative of Worry and Anxiety, Suspicion causes a person to perceive grave danger which exists only in his own mind.  Those given over to suspicion have lost focus on the sovereignty, protection and power of God, convinced it falls to them to outsmart their enemies.  Praise the LORD He has provided deliverance from this vice that torments all who justify it.  In Lectures To My Students by C.H. Spurgeon, a chapter titled "The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear" contains a wealth of insight on the matter which all circumspect people ought to take to heart for themselves:

"It would be better to be deceived a hundred times than to live a life of suspicion.  It is intolerable.  The miser who traverses his chamber at midnight and hears a burglar in every falling leaf is not more wretched than the minister who believes that plots are hatching against him, and that reports to his disadvantage are being spread.  I remember a brother who believed that he was being poisoned, and was persuaded that even the seat he sat upon and the clothes he wore had by some subtle chemistry become saturated with death; his life was a perpetual scare, and such is the existence of a minister when he mistrusts all around him.  Nor is suspicion merely a source of disquietude, it is a moral evil, and injures the character of the man who harbours it.  Suspicion in kings creates tyranny, in husbands jealousy, and in ministers bitterness; such bitterness as in spirit dissolves all the ties of the pastoral relation, eating like a corrosive acid into the very soul of the office and making it a curse rather than a blessing.  When once this terrible evil has curdled all the milk of human kindness in a man's bosom, he becomes more fit for the detective police force than for the ministry; like a spider, he begins to cast out his lines, and fashions a web of tremulous threads, all of which lead up to himself and warn him of the least touch of even the tiniest midge.  There he sits in the centre, a mass of sensation, all nerve and raw wounds, excitable and excited, a self-immolated martyr drawing the blazing faggots about him, and apparently anxious to be burned.  The most faithful friend is unsafe under such conditions.  The most careful avoidance of offence will not secure immunity from mistrust, but will probably be construed into cunning and cowardice.  Society is almost as much in danger from a suspecting man as from a mad dog, for he snaps on all sides without reason, and scatters right and left the foam of his madness.  It is vain to reason with the victim of this folly, for with perverse ingenuity he turns every argument the wrong way, and makes your plea for confidence another reason for mistrust.  It is sad that he cannot see the iniquity of his groundless censure of others, especially of those who have been his best friends and the firmest upholders of the cause of Christ...

No one ought to be made an offender for a word; but, when suspicion rules, even silence becomes a crime.  Brethren, shun this vice by renouncing the love of self.  Judge it to be a small matter what men think or say of you, and care only for their treatment of your Lord.  If you are naturally sensitive do not indulge the weakness, nor allow others to play upon it.  Would it not be a great degradation of your office if you were to keep an army of spies in your pay to collect information as to all that your people said of you?  And yet it amounts to this if you allow certain busybodies to bring you all the gossip of the place.  Drive the creatures away.  Abhor those mischief-making, tattling handmaidens to strife.  Those who will fetch will carry, and no doubt the gossips go from your house and report every observation which falls from your lips, with plenty of garnishing of their own.  Remember that, as the receiver is as bad as the thief, so the hearer of scandal is a sharer in the guilt of it.  If there were no listening ears there would be no talebearing tongues.  While you are not a buyer of ill wares the demand will create the supply, and the factories of falsehood will be working full time.  No one wishes to become a creator of lies, and yet he who hears slanders with pleasure and believes them with readiness with hatch many a brood into active life." (Spurgeon, C. H. Lectures to My Students: Complete & Unabridged. Ministry Resources Library, Zondervan Publishing House, 1989.pages 327-328)

God Was Pierced

How blessed are the children of Israel, the people God covenanted with on Sinai!  God brought the Hebrews out of Egypt with a mighty hand, revealed Himself in power, destroyed their enemies and spoke to them.  God chose Moses to lead His people out of Egypt as they followed the visible presence of God through the wilderness to the promised land.  After Moses God raised up many judges and priests who upheld God's laws and sent prophets to speak to His people.  Idols and graven images have mouths yet cannot speak, and the God of Israel stands alone as the Supreme Being who speaks.

God has spoken through the Bible, and He still speaks to this day.  Words spoken through prophets who spoke for God are still being fulfilled and provide innumerable insights for how to live today.  I wonder what people thought when the prophet spoke the words recorded concerning what God would do in Zechariah 12:10:  "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn."  I am certain this prophetic utterance prompted many questions:  how could God be pierced?  What this piercing literal or figurative?  Who is this son God referred to, an only son whose loss would be grieved?

Looking to events already taken place, the questions are easily answered.  Jesus was the Christ, the Son of David.  Even a blind man addressed Jesus by "Son of David" so great was His fame, wisdom and grace.  Jesus was the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  Immanuel, God with us, was pierced on Calvary with thorns on His brow, nails through hands and feet, and a spear in His side.  When Moses asked God to show him His glory, God told him no one could look upon His face and live.  Yet God chose to put on human flesh when the Holy Spirit sired the Son of God in the virgin Mary, and thus God's face could be seen; the Lamb of God could be looked upon and all can live by faith in Him.  This is no new revelation, but I pray God would open the eyes of people to see Jesus lifted up and pierced as Saviour so they can mourn their sin and celebrate their LORD and Saviour.

The apostle John mentioned the prophecy in Zechariah in John 19:32-37:  "Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. ³⁴ But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. ³⁵ And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. ³⁶ For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, "Not one of His bones shall be broken."³⁷ And again another Scripture says, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced."  When we look upon Jesus Christ who was crucified, died, buried and rose from the dead, we look upon God who was pierced.  Paul says God has purchased the church with His own blood (Acts 20:28).  God is a Spirit, and the only way He could be pierced or shed His blood was to become a man:  Jesus Christ the Son of God who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

If you will take the words of the prophet of God Zechariah to heart, won't you trust Jesus who is God in the flesh and pierced, the Saviour and Messiah of all who trust in Him?