Seraiah Spoke

It is wonderful how the LORD chooses and gifts people to contribute to the health and fruitfulness of His kingdom by His grace.  Because we serve the LORD who calls and ordains us for His good purposes, the things He tells us to do may not be our natural inclination.  We can make the mistake of limiting God by our own perceived strengths, and at our best (on our own) we are incapable of doing anything profitable for the kingdom of God.  The almighty God is likely to direct us to do things we cannot do on our own, something out of our comfort zone, so we will learn to seek and rely upon Him for success in faith.

Seraiah the prince is a good example of this.  See how he is introduced in Jeremiah 51:59:  "The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster."  A quartermaster was a royal attendant who aided the king by setting up camp and provided necessary comforts when the king traveled.  The KJV refers to Seraiah as "a quiet prince."  He was the sort of person who diligently went about his business behind the scenes.  Seraiah wore many hats in his duties, but one thing he was not was a prophet.  The word of the LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah who wrote in a book of all the evil God would bring upon Babylon.

Jeremiah 51:61-64 says, "And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, ⁶² then you shall say, 'O LORD, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.' ⁶³ Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. ⁶⁴ Then you shall say, 'Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.' " Thus far are the words of Jeremiah."  Jeremiah was directed by God to write in a book and then gave it to Seraiah with instructions.  He was to pray to the LORD according to the word spoken to him, read the book, bind it to a stone, throw it in the Euphrates and then speak the word of the LORD.  Israel had been brought into captivity, but God would certainly judge Babylon.  Like a stone, the empire would sink and not rise.

This would have been a strange request by the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet to fulfill, something Seraiah would never encounter with setting up camp.  In a sense he was directed to utter Jeremiah's last recorded words of what God would do, and God would be faithful to according to do all He said.  God chose a quiet prince to proclaim the truth of the LORD we read today.  It was a comfort to know their period of captivity would have an end, and God would see to it those who plundered His people would be weary.  God would bring catastrophe upon Babylon from which they could not rise, and God would bring His people out and back to Jerusalem.  Praise the LORD He chooses regular people to do His work and proclaim the truth of His word that will surely come to pass.  By faith a quartermaster does the work of a prophet, and the quiet prince spoke up as the servant of the LORD.

Unexpected Fruit

Years ago we did some composting and was surprised when our pile of scraps yielded a couple of healthy pumpkin vines.  We did not intend for vines to grow from the seeds thrown there, nor had we thought our discards could result in delicious pumpkin pies.  Even as God created seeds to bring forth plants and fruit after their kind, so He would supply salvation and unrighteousness where it was least expected.

In light of the new covenant God would establish through the Messiah Isaiah 61:10-11 reads, "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. ¹¹ For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations."  God sent Jesus to seek and save the lost in Israel, and the Jewish nation would largely reject Him and the Gospel He preached.  From a small group of Jewish believers the message of salvation spread to Gentile nations and many rejoiced to receive it, for they trusted in Jesus Christ as Saviour.

The prophet said as the earth brings forth buds and gardens grow seeds sown in them, so God will cause righteousness to spring forth before all nations.  This miraculous spread of righteousness by faith was seen even in the Old Testament, like when Rahab and her family were spared from the stronghold of Jericho that was doomed for destruction.  The Gibeonites disguised themselves and made a treaty with Joshua because they feared the God of Israel.  Foreign kings like Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus acknowledged the greatness of the glorious God of Israel who does mighty things.  In these last days the salvation and righteousness of Jesus Christ will spring forth, and we can expect this in unexpected places accompanied with rejoicing in the LORD.

I saw an illustration of unexpected growth and fruitfulness during a trip to Israel at the ruins in Caesarea in 2005.  A palm tree had sprung out of a brick structure, and though it was neglected and untrimmed it flourished.  When I visited the spot 10 years later, there it was!  Here is a picture from my earlier trip.

This palm did not grow by itself but from a seed, and the soul that rejoices in salvation and righteousness received them from the LORD most high.  The speaker in Isaiah 61 said of God, "He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness..."  This is true for everyone who is born again by faith in Jesus, for He has imputed righteousness and granted salvation to us when we were dead in sins and spiritually barren.  God clothed Adam with skins at the cost of the life of an animal, and He clothes those who believe in Jesus with righteousness at the price of His only begotten Son.  His word has gone out to all the nations and even in places that appear dry, barren and impossible He will cause His righteousness and praise to spring forth from the nations.  Glory to God for His goodness and for spreading the Gospel abroad.  Let us praise Him today and always!

The New Covenant

At Calvary Chapel Sydney I preached today on Genesis 15, the passage where God made a covenant with Abram who believed in Him.  He believed God would make of him a great nation with descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth and the stars in heaven despite not having an heir in his old age.  He believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness.

Abram brought the requested animals before the LORD and divided the heifer, goat and ram.  The idea was those involved in the covenant would pass between the animals which had been cut in two united before God as witness to do all they had said.  If they broke the agreement, it was with full knowledge their lives would be forfeit, even as the animals which were divided.  In a trance Abram saw a smoking oven and a burning torch pass between the pieces, an emphatic demonstration by God He would keep His word to Abram and his descendants would inherit the land.  By the power and authority of God it would be done without Abram having to do anything to obtain God's favour.

Fast-forward to the new covenant Jesus Christ established with His shed blood on Calvary:  before Jesus breathed His last and died on the cross, the scriptures say the veil in the temple was rent in two top to bottom (Matt. 27:31; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:42).  This was the veil which divided the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant would have been stored, the place where the presence of God dwelt that could only be approached by a sanctified priest on the Day of Atonement with blood of the sacrifice.  The writer of Hebrews shines light on the significance of this occasion in Hebrews 10:19-22:  "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, ²¹ and having a High Priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

God cut a covenant with the only begotten Son of God Jesus Christ who is our great High Priest and KING OF KINGS.  He is the Door through whom we enter by faith to receive forgiveness and eternal salvation, our sins having been washed by His blood.  Like the smoking oven and burning torch that passed through the pieces, Jesus made salvation possible by grace through faith in Him alone.  We cannot do anything to earn the right to become children of God, but He has extended this invitation as a gift to all who will believe and receive Him as LORD.  Jesus has made a new and living way that depended upon Him alone to obtain victory over sin, death and Satan.  What Jesus did in dying on the cross for sinners and rising from the dead in glory gives us full assurance that what He promised He is able to perform.

In His wisdom God has rendered the covenant of the Law of Moses obsolete in establishing a new covenant by Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 10:10-13 says, "By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool."  The Law of Moses demanded blood be shed to atone for sin, and Jesus did so once for all so we can live with a purified heart, conscience and body.  There is not a thing we must do to earn eternal life, but we can enter into the new covenant by faith in Jesus Christ and experience the abundant life He has for us.

The Torch Lesson

Live long enough and you will have experiences that supply beneficial lessons God can use to live wisely.  Today I had one of those moments when a situation provided insight beyond the surface and speaks spiritual truth.

When I went to change the batteries in my favourite torch, I noticed the lack of the familiar rattle of the batteries inside.  To my surprise the alkaline batteries over a year had swollen in size and were stuck fast in the aluminium housing.  Try as I might, I could not make them budge.  Tapping the end of the torch on a piece of wood making use of gravity had no impact, and grabbing the end of the battery with needle-nose pliers popped the circular end off!  I could see the end was blackened and oily, welded tight to the torch all around.  This was not a good sign.

So I did what many people had before me:  look for posts on the internet by people who had the same issue and succeeded in fixing the problem.  This led to me drilling a pilot hole in the battery for a lag bolt to pull it out, using washers as leverage.  All I did was take a core-sample from the stubborn battery.  I warmed the housing with a heat gun:  nothing.  What was very interesting is when I tried to grab the hollowed-out battery with pliers the light flicked on brighter than it had when it was switched on previously.  Ultimately I reached a point where methods of extraction required so much force I ran the very high risk of permanently damaging the torch or injuring myself, so into the bin it went.

Thankfully I had another torch of the same kind stored away that will work nicely for the foreseeable future.  But what occurred to me is the long passage of time I knew the light from the torch was growing more dim and I never bothered to open it up and change the batteries.  I have tons of batteries of the proper size, so that wasn't the issue.  Neglect of doing the simple act of opening up the housing and taking a look when performance began to suffer ended up in the torch being unusable and destroyed.  It reminded me of our need as followers of Jesus to take the time to examine our own hearts.  Just because we are in fine health on the outside does not mean our thoughts or motives are pure or we are free from sin.  Even as the torch was amazingly able to function with a massive hole drilled through the centre of a battery, so we can go through the motions of life, family and ministry when we are in dire need of personal revival and restoration.

The light of a torch shines away from the batteries, and thus it is necessary for someone to use a different light to examine them.  As insightful as we might be concerning ourselves, we are not nearly as discerning as our God who created us.  It is His gaze we must invite and submit to, choosing to heed His voice.  That is why David prayed in Psalm 139:23-24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; ²⁴ and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."  God knows and sees what man cannot, and in love He will point out of sins and worries man tries to justify.  Praise the LORD He knows us and loves us, and the Light of the World Jesus Christ makes us to shine bright by the power of the Holy Spirit according to His grace.  A new heart and a renewed mind is ours when we humble ourselves before the LORD in contrite faith.