Receiving the Word

If you have raised children, the situation will likely have a familiar ring:  trying to convince a skeptical, picky eater they should try unfamiliar food.  "It has everything you like," one might plead.  Others make it into a game, while others use dessert as leverage to convince a stubborn youngster they are better off eating the food presented to them.  There are times where a child's mind is so made up they will not like the food based on the strange appearance or smell, they will make themselves sick.  Or even better, people will say they enjoy food--until they are made aware of an ingredient it contains they do not prefer.  Just the thought of eating meat can make some people physically ill, while others are put off all green food.

Our habits and approaches to eating are amazingly diverse, but the key component all eaters of food share in common is willingness.  Because the muscles controlling swallowing are inside the mouth and throat, the eater has control over what they will eat or drink.  A young child who discovers this can seize an opportunity to impose a power play of control that can potentially divide and drive concerned parents crazy.  While some children play with their food, in contrast there are children who are downright ravenous.  They are happy to eat what is placed before them and are willing to try mixed concoctions that make their parents cringe.  From infancy I have always enjoyed eating food, and willingness to trust and try different things has been rewarding and promotes the health of the body.

The desire and willingness to eat healthy food can be compared with the faith and willingness needed to receive the word of God.  This quality was seen in the Jews in Berea when Paul and Silas went to the synagogue.  Acts 17:11-12 reads, "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. ¹² Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men."  People went to the synagogue hungry for spiritual nutrition, and notice how they received the word will all readiness, searched the scriptures to confirm the truth of what Paul and Silas said, and as a result believed in Jesus Christ.  Their hearts were prepared and minds open to receive the word of God even from strangers.  The claims of Paul that Jesus is the Messiah looked very different to the standard fare at the synagogue, and after receiving the doctrine went to the scriptures to confirm it.  This readiness to receive resulted in gladness to share the truth with others, for many Jews and Greeks, men and women believed.  All readiness to receive God's word led to the growth and health of the church.

The people of Berea were distinguished from those at Thessalonica because they received the word with all readiness, searched the scriptures daily and therefore believed.  Souls are starving and weak for lack of willingness to receive God's word, even among God's people.  It is easy for Christians to rely upon the fast-food of sermons or books when God would have us come to Him with hearts prepared to receive His word.  A balanced and varied diet is important for the health of our bodies, and let us not avoid certain books of the Bible because we do not find them appealing.  Like the people of Berea, may we receive the word with all readiness and open the Bible ourselves.  When we are willing and faithful to do this we will receive abundantly to joyfully share with others.  We can only eat so many fruits and vegetables before they go off so we share a bumper crop with others, and God's word is able to sustain us all body and soul.  Praise the LORD His word endures forever!

Steps Directed

I am encouraged how faith in God provides insight to look beyond what can be humanly seen and known.  Man   Proverbs 16:9 reads, "A man's heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps."  God is always at work and leads people to do His ways in situations man cannot plan for.  A great illustration of this is seen in the salvation of the harlot Rahab and her family.

Before the children of Israel crossed the Jordan river into Canaan Joshua 2:1 says, "Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went, and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there."  It turned out Rahab previously heard of the God of Israel and believed He had given the city and land into the hand of the Hebrews.  She sheltered and protected the Hebrew spies, and then she asked that her life and the lives of her family members would be spared.  The spies agreed if she kept silent concerning their agreement and if she tied the scarlet rope she let them down to escape from her window, all of her family who assembled in her home would be spared.

After Jericho fell by the miraculous power of God, the Hebrews made good on their promise to Rahab.  Joshua 6:22-25 states, "But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, "Go into the harlot's house, and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her." ²³ And the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel. ²⁴ But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. ²⁵ And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had. So she dwells in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho." 

The two men sent to spy out the country were called "messengers" in verse 25.  This is not a contradiction but a shift of perspective:  they were sent into the country by Joshua to spy out the land secretly, yet they became messengers of a promise of salvation from God to Rahab and her house who believed.  Two Hebrew spies entered a stronghold that was shut up because they feared the Hebrews, and when the city fell Rahab and her whole family were delivered safe.  When the book of Joshua was written Rahab lived in Israel at that time because she hid the spies and gladly received the message by faith in God.  The New Testament affirms the men were messengers indeed in James 2:25:  "Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?"

The spies intended to be secretive and God made them messengers of His grace and salvation.  Isn't it wonderful man's plans can be to have a walk, look around and give a report when God's design is to be a messenger that brings life others?  Praise the LORD His ways are higher than ours, and all His plans and purposes are good.

God's Glorious Grace

It is easy to take God's grace for granted.  The grace of God is given continually and infinitely it is like the oxygen we draw in with every breath without thinking to satisfy our needs.  Being deprived of oxygen for a short while makes us appreciate the ability to breathe freely again, and even in the season of difficulty God's grace still remains abundant.  How good it is to consider all we have in Jesus Christ and to bless His holy name.

As born again Christians in this marvelous season of grace, the Gospel having been revealed to all through Jesus, reading about the past can open our eyes to better appreciate and celebrate the present.  God's grace, kindness and goodness have been extended to all people from the beginning, yet to everything is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.  A season of lawlessness preceded that of the Law of Moses, and now Jesus has ushered in a new covenant by which Jew and Gentile alike are united with God as one by faith in Him.  We are most privileged to live in these exciting times where Jesus is the head of the church and each member of the Body of Christ can be comforted, guided and helped by the Holy Spirit.

Last night I was reading for the conditions which used to exist under the Law of Moses in Numbers 3.  The children of Israel were God's chosen people, and He chose the males of the tribe of Levi to serve as priests and Levites unto Him in the service of the tabernacle.  Numbers 3:10 says, "So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall attend to their priesthood; but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death."  The word "outsider" is a stranger, a foreigner.  No one but the sons of Aaron were to be appointed to the priesthood, and this excluded a lot of people.  Later in the chapter the charge and warning was repeated in Numbers 3:38:  "Moreover those who were to camp before the tabernacle on the east, before the tabernacle of meeting, were Moses, Aaron, and his sons, keeping charge of the sanctuary, to meet the needs of the children of Israel; but the outsider who came near was to be put to death."  No one but the sons of Aaron could minister unto the LORD as priests, and if a curious stranger even came near they were to be executed.

When Jesus cried out "It is finished!" and laid down His life on Calvary, the veil of the temple which blocked the view into the Holy of Holies in the temple was ripped top to bottom.  To venture or even look into the Holy of Holies was reserved for the high priest alone only on the Day of Atonement.  This divine act revealed the way into the presence of God was not only made possible but all people--Jew and Gentile, male and female, free and slave--were invited to draw near to God through faith in Jesus.  After Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven in the sight of hundreds of eye witnesses, the Holy Spirit was sent to fill believers and empower them to be witnesses for Christ everywhere we go.

In light of the death sentence for strangers who approached the sanctuary, consider the impact of what is written in Hebrews 4:14-16 to all Christians:  "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."  Foreigners and aliens in the land of Israel could not approach the sanctuary or holy place which contained no throne:  heaven is God's throne and the earth His footstool!  By the grace of God sinners, born again by faith in Jesus, are invited to boldly come to God's throne room of grace themselves to "obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Drink in the grace, my friends, breathe it all in freely with gratitude!  That God would dwell in us and we in Him!  What better passage to emphasise this than Ephesians 2:11-22:  "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands--¹² that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, ¹⁵ having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

¹⁷ And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

Give God His Due

I am studying the book of James at the moment and the connection is made between faith and works.  We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus and cannot be saved by working to obtain righteousness by the Law of Moses.  The reality is when people are born again and the Holy Spirit takes up residence within them, the lives of people will not be the same because God makes all things new:  a soul dead in sins has been raised to life and forgiven, the eyes of the blind have been opened, the lost has been found, a foreigner has been adopted as a son and made co-heir with Christ.

A point made by James is genuine faith will have supporting evidence of life.  A heartbeat in the womb of a mother is a sign a baby has been conceived and is developing.  There are many who make a profession of having faith without any evidence of a changed life even as there were people who pointed to their  good works as a means of obtaining favour with God.  A wondrous truth of the Gospel is it is all of grace:  it is not by works we have done but by God's mercy He has saved us.  Having been given eternal life, we are divinely enabled to repent of our sin, put off works of the flesh and produce the fruit of the Spirit.

One of the big talking points for believers is our personal responsibility in our own sanctification.  J. Vernon McGee wrote this in a commentary, “A minister once talked to a man who professed conversion, and he asked, “Have you united with the church?”  “No, I haven’t,” the man replied.  “The dying thief never united with the church, and he went to heaven.”  The minister asked, “Have you ever sat at the Lord’s table?”  “No, the dying thief never did, and he was accepted,” was the answer.  The minister asked, “Have you been baptised?”  “No, “he said, “the dying thief was never baptised, and he went to heaven.”  “Have you given to missions?”  “No, the dying thief did not give to missions, and he was not judged for it,” was the reply.  Then this disgusted minister said to the man, “Well, my friend, the difference between you two seems to be that he was a dying thief and you are a living thief.” (McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol. 5, pg. 651)

The point McGee made is a good one, how people can cherry-pick examples from the Bible to justify their own indolence and indifference which exposes their lack of love of God.  I remember talking to a man who declared he didn't need to go to church to go to heaven because his grandmother told him so as a child.  Using the thief on the cross or what grandma said should not discount the commands of our LORD Jesus and the responsibilities we have as believers, things like loving the LORD with all our hearts and loving one another as Jesus loves us.  As children of God He is faithful to guide and correct us, and He uses countless means to communicate His wisdom and truth even to faithless hearts like ours.

Solomon concluded his remarks in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 with this timeless truth:  "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:  fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all. ¹⁴ For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil."  Even in our age of grace a man can rob God, and may we give Him the honour, praise, thanks and obedience He deserves as our loving Father, Saviour and Sovereign, our all in all.