The Western Wall and God's Grace

I received an antique book titled The Land of Christ that boasts over 160 photographs "which were obtained by the publishers only after long, arduous and expensive labor."  The book provides a glimpse into the life of people in Israel at that time--and also gives unpleasant insight into the largely antisemitic and bigoted views of the writer towards Jews, Arabs and Bedouins through unflattering anecdotes.  Much of the reprehensible commentary does not bear repeating, yet I found great pleasure in noting how different Jerusalem is now from the time the book was written.  Here is a photo taken at the Western Wall in the book published in 1895, a place I have visited several times myself.

The writer said the Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem at the time were about 5,000, and the writer showed no respect for them in his remarks.  A portion of the blurb reads, "The sight is a pitiable one in many ways.  The abject poverty of most of the mourners excites sympathy rather than derision.  The hope and faith for a restoration to power which animates these people would be sublime if their degradation were not so low as to remove them from a possibility of admiration."  These devout worshippers were seen as the lowest of human debasement and their prayers described as "hopeless supplications."  How I wish the author who penned this disgraceful commentary had read the Bible and observed the Jewish people in Jerusalem today, for he could come to realise the God of Israel gives hope to the hopeless and answers the prayers of His people!  God is moved by the faith of those who cry out to Him, and by His might He restored the Jewish nation to power and prosperity who were once made to be exiles in their own land for nearly 1,900 years.

The glory of God is seen in His deliverance, endurance and prosperity of the Jewish people as the LORD spoke through Moses in Deuteronomy 7:7-10:  "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; ⁸ but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face."  God redeemed the children of Israel from the house of bondage in Egypt, and God was faithful to bring them into the land He promised to give them as an inheritance, driving out nations that were greater than they.  The secret (which is no secret!) of the strength of the Jewish nation is their God, the Creator of heaven and earth who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him.  According to God's promise He has gathered those who were scattered, miraculously doing what was altogether impossible.  As it is written in Jeremiah 31:10-11, "Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, 'He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.' ¹¹ For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he."

Those who assembled at the Western Wall over a century ago, poor people dismissed and despised by men, demonstrate the power of their awesome God to deliver His people as we observe at the Western Wall today.  God has blessed and strengthened the Jewish nation exceedingly, and Christians ought to be inspired by the faithful devotion to God seen in the old photographs and to this day in the holy land.  Here is a picture of the Western Wall I took in 2015, and the unique rock carving can be seen several stones higher on the wall today as further excavations have taken place.  A horizontal darkened line shows the level where the pavement used to be.  Those gathering to pray at the wall are standing just beneath the point their forebears stood above them.  Parts of the wall that were unseen previously have now been revealed, and may it be so with the God of Israel as He opens the eyes of people to His faithfulness, mercy and grace through Jesus Christ.  People may despise and hate us now for our devotion to Christ, but may generations to come joyfully acknowledge how awesome and praiseworthy our God is in part by our faithful prayer and obedience to Him.

God Saves and Transforms

Recently I recalled a boy from my youth who quickly gained a reputation for clumsiness during fishing trips.  The first time we went fishing with him, he let go of the net in the water and stared as it (inexplicably to him) drifted down to the depths.  Then he managed to fall off the dock into the water.  The very next time we went fishing in Mission Bay at dusk he shouted with excitement as he sprinted on the beach, "Where's the water?" and kept running until the water reached his knees, tripped over and fell in.  He spent the rest of the evening wrapped in a sleeping bag by the fire.  Let me tell you, there was never a dull moment with this kid around.  Every time we fished, without fail, somehow he found a way to be soaked to the skin.

The fishing incidents from the past will always be in my mind, and frankly it has been so long I cannot remember the boy's face or name.  He has long since grown to be a man and perhaps far excels me in fishing knowledge and skill.  It would be silly for me to assume he is the same now as I perceived him then because we have both grown up.  I have been in the position of being relegated to how I used to be, and that doesn't feel great--especially when we have experienced personal growth.  When I told my dad my intention to apply for an apprenticeship program, he smiled as he expressed the irony of my choice:  "And this is the kid who hated drywall dust on his hands."  I don't know that anyone enjoys being covered with fine dust, but that childhood aversion was easily laid aside in the desire of a profitable career.

As those born again by faith in God, we above all others should acknowledge the power of God to save and transform people into new creations.  "People don't change," someone recently remarked, and we can likely supply evidence to show people have not learned a lesson or continue to repeat the same mistakes.  Yet we ought to allow for people to have the opportunity to change because of our awesome God who works to sanctify us from within.  I remember a girl years ago at a youth centre I oversaw who often was at the center of drama.  I was convicted by the LORD when I viewed this girl through the lens of her past wrongs and thought to myself, "Here we go again."  Her disrespectful and disobedient behaviour was what I came to expect, but the reality is God can and does change people.  My outlook and our relationship turned around when I started saying instead, "Today is a new day."  Every 24 hours, God graciously gives us a new day that provides the opportunity for a new beginning.

It is wonderful how God used a stubborn girl who refused to change as a means to change me from my stubborn ways of how I viewed her and others, putting them under the burden of the past they could not change.  As sure as this is the day the LORD has made, He is able to transform people into His image.  Some require a long time and an involved process, yet today could be the day they submit to God's transformational love and power and are changed for the better.  We can choose to break the moulds of judgment we have formed of people we know based on how they were knowing God is working to make us more like Him today.  Let us rejoice in our God and the new day He has given us knowing Psalm  74:12 is true:  "For God is my King from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth."  God doesn't change, and praise the LORD He can change us.

Love Without Discrimination

Jesus taught we are not to discriminate concerning loving others, for we are to follow the example of Jesus who loved His enemies.  He commanded His disciples do the same in Matthew 5:45, "...that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."  Jesus used rain as an illustration of God's gracious provision for all, for God does not reserve the rain only for people who please Him.  God demonstrates His love for all by showering rain on the just and the unjust.  Job observed God also causes the rain to fall in the wilderness where no man is, satisfying the desolate places so herbs can spring forth (Job 38:5-7).

I was reminded of God's love and provision for all people by a Bible passage in Judges.  After God empowered Samson to kill 1,000 Philistines with the fresh jawbone of a donkey, he suddenly felt incredibly thirsty to the point he wondered if he would die!  He cried out to God who caused water to spring from a hollow place in Lehi, and Samson drank and revived.  Judges 15:19 goes on to say, "...Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day."  Samson named it "the spring of him who called" and it remained flowing in Lehi to the time the book of Judges was penned.  We read of many times in the Bible God miraculously answered prayers, and we might assume such wonders were only for those specially used by God.  This passage reveals the spring of water which flowed "to this day" was not just for Samson's sake, but for all who were thirsty who passed that way--Hebrews, Philistines, for anyone who was thirsty as a testimony of God's faithfulness and goodness to all.

Wasn't God gracious to hear the prayers of His people and also provide water for His enemies too?  The water that revived Samson could also have refreshed Philistines after a raid upon the land of Judah as they reveled in plundering God's people.  The Philistines had not cried out to God for water as Samson did and perhaps attributed their refreshment to the provision of Dagon, their god.  Yet the fact they drank fresh water in a desolate place from the rock was a testimony of the God of Israel who loves all people, who gives good gifts out of His grace, who makes the sun to rise on the evil and good, who sends precious rain on the just and the unjust.  God knows every soul who is His redeemed possession, yet He does not withhold love from anyone.  Jesus did not die only for the Jews but for the sins of the world so all could come to repentance through Him and have eternal life.  Not all are willing to come to Jesus in faith, but God extends the Gospel to them just the same.

How good it is for us to be like Jesus who loved His enemies like the spring of living water continued to flow and refreshed the parched and weary!  Having been born again by faith in Jesus, God intends the Living Water of he Holy Spirit to flow from us to others so they too can receive the love, grace and forgiveness of Jesus through our witness.  We are not to hinder the flow of God's love and goodness from our lives depending on whether we feel people are deserving of it or are pleasing or acceptable to us.  Before Christ came into our lives we were never acceptable to God because of our sin, pride and stubbornness:  should we arrogantly return to these sins in refusing to love others as Jesus does, having received so great a Saviour and salvation by God's mercy?  May Christ in us be the answer to prayers of others not yet prayed to meet a need presently unknown by others, that they too may be born again and find rest for their souls in Jesus Christ our LORD.

Praying For Others

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?"

Romans 8:31

While it is among the shorter words in this verse, the conditional "if" written here has some of the largest implications.  Reading the passage in context, Paul already established God is for those who are for Him, having provided His only begotten Son to save sinners.  Paul taught there was now no condemnation to those who are in Christ and walk according to the Holy Spirit.  Those who are born again by faith in Christ have the Holy Spirit within them and are children of God.  Paul was so confident of God being for His people, having made us joint-heirs with Christ with whom we will be glorified, he declared in Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

If God is for some people, it follows He can be against them too.  This can be observed throughout the Bible, that God is against those who do wickedly--like prophets who prophesied out of their own hearts rather than the word of God.  God said through the prophet in Ezekiel 13:8-9:  "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you," says the Lord GOD. ⁹ My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD."  The LORD said concerning Babylon in Jeremiah 50:31:  "Behold, I am against you, O most haughty one!" says the Lord GOD of hosts; "for your day has come, the time that I will punish you."  This is entirely consistent with the character of God in the Scripture, that He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).

God is not one of those human fathers who us deluded to imagine his child can do no wrong, one who shows nepotism by willing blindness to our faults and folly:  every one of His adopted children by the Gospel is a sinner who does wrong.  That is why Jesus came to provide forgiveness, pardon, salvation and guidance out of His goodness.  While we were still sinners, God demonstrated His love for all by Jesus laying down His life on Calvary.  What wondrous grace, that when we were against God He was for us.  His longsuffering is salvation, for He is not willing that any should perish but all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  Self-righteousness can lead God's children to feel entitled to God's grace and condemn others, to set ourselves against those who live contrary to God--and assume a posture that is not Christlike.

I have lately been encouraged by Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:43-45:  "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."  Notice Jesus commanded His disciples to pray for their enemies, not against them.  God is clearly against those who do wickedly, yet as recipients of His grace, mercy and love we are to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute us.  This is God's intended path of our sanctification, for Jesus concluded in Matthew 5:48:  "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."  Better than praying against those who oppose God, we can pray for what we know is God's will revealed in His word.  God's people walk in wisdom to pray in alignment with His word rather than against others.