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ELIJAH: THE RE-ANIMATOR

Published July 17, 2010 Uncategorized 2 Comments
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Elijah restores the widow's son

1 Kings 17:17—24

So far in our in study of Elijah’s life, we have witnessed God’s gracious provision.  The Lord kept the prophet safe when the King of Israel was out to get him.  The Lord kept the prophet well fed during a terrible drought that ravaged the whole nation of Israel.  The Lord’s care for Elijah was so great that it actually overflowed and impacted the life of a lonely, poor widow; she and her family were blessed on account of Elijah.

You may never know how God’s care for you affects the lives of those around you.  His blessings are so abundant that your life cannot contain them all!  This is just one way a child of God may be a blessing at his place of work or to the rest of his family.

There were, according to Jesus Himself, many widows in the days of Elijah, but the man of God was sent to just one of them—

I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.  (Luke 4:25)

What was Jesus’ point?  He was illustrating that salvation is through the grace of God; God is delighted to lift up the lowly and despised and to exalt them to a seat in the heavenlies with His Son.  What God did for this widow was a singularly marvelous work, not only in supplying her whole household with food for the duration of the drought, but also in the raising of her son from dead.

It is wonderful to live in the grace and blessing of God.  But it is by no means easy.  You may be the recipient of great blessings from God, but that doesn’t mean you are exempt from pain and tragedy, as this story illustrates.

1.  Another trial, verse, 17, 18

Sometime later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill.  He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

If these verses teaches us one thing it is simply this:  God’s presence is no guarantee hard times will never come.  Elijah was a man who lived and walked in God’s presence.  Scholars believe that Elijah had been staying with this widow for almost a year before the boy became sick.  Apparently the sickness was lingering until it finally took his life.  We may well imagine how Elijah prayed for the boy to recover, yet recovery was not part of God’s plan.

The comment of the young lad’s mother is often misunderstood, leading many to conclude that she was crying out in angry bitterness to the prophet; that she was blaming him for the death of her son.  But her response in faith later seems to indicate this may not have been the case.  She clearly saw the hand of the Lord in this terrible situation and she clearly recognized her position in God.  She was a sinner, and it seems as though the death of her son revived some memories of her past; bad memories, full of regret and embarrassment.

Very often tragedy does this to us.  For example, when we get into financial difficulties all of a sudden nothing in our life is right; we never made a right decision, and we have a warped view of our situation.  This is how this woman was reacting.  But she did recognize that God had something to do with this.

2.  A special request, verse 19

“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.

Elijah was calm in the face of the widow’s anguish.  It was not that he was uncaring it was that he was a man of faith, and all believers need to remember this—

We live by faith, not by sight.  (2 Corinthians 5:7)

We can’t risk basing our faith on what we see because what we see is a mere fraction of reality.  There is a spiritual realm completely hidden from us; we are incapable of seeing what is going on round about us.  This is why we need to live by faith; faith in God’s Word; faith in what He has promised to us.  Regardless of what we see, God’s promises are settled.

For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.  (Psalm 119:89, KJV)

Your word, LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.  (Psalm 119:89, tNIV)

Nothing can shake God’s Word!  A true child of God will always act and react differently than someone without faith.  What is it that looms on your horizon?  Do you see a tragedy?  Or do you see God?  Do you see the precipice or the possibility?  It all has to do with your perspective.

Elijah’s perspective was spiritual, and so he faced a very difficult situation with a calm spirit, taking the corpse of the boy his upper room.  This would have been a kind of small, humble, attic room, converted into a guest room for the prophet.  There was nothing special about this room, other than it was out of the way and it was private.  What Elijah did illustrates what Jesus taught in Matthew 6:6—

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

God wants us to pray in secret!  Most of us are quite adept at doing other things in secret, but if we want God’s undivided attention, then He deserves ours.

The question arises; did Elijah know what God was going to do?  For that matter, what was in the widow’s mind when she handed her dead son over to him?  Did they suspect the boy would be raised to life?  When we consider when this story took place in history, we must realize that there was no precedent for such an occurrence.   In the entire Bible, only nine individuals were ever raised to life, and this boy was the very first.

  • Elijah raised the son of the Zarephath widow from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-22).
  • Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite woman from the dead (2 Kings 4:32-35).
  • A man was raised from the dead when his body touched Elisha’s bones (2 Kings 13:20, 21).
  • Many saints rose from the dead at the resurrection of Jesus (Matt. 27:50-53).
  • Jesus rose from the dead (Matt. 28:5-8; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:5, 6).
  • Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain from the dead (Luke 7:11-15).
  • Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead (Luke 8:41, 42, 49-55).
  • Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44).
  • Peter raised Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-41).
  • Eutychus was raised from the dead by Paul (Acts 20:9, 10).

So, neither the prophet nor the widow had anything to “hang their faith on.”  They both seemed to believe something would happen, though.

3.  Powerful prayer and strange actions, verses 20, 21

Then he cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

The first thing that must be noted is that Elijah was not angry with God nor blaming God for the death of the boy, he was simply stating something he believed in because he had witnessed it:  the sovereignty of God.  Even though it is phrased as a question, it was really a statement of belief.   Life and death are in the hands of God.  Elijah was acknowledging what we all know.  The boy was dead, and it seemed as though this was the Lord’s will.

But that didn’t stop Elijah from asking God to revive the boy.  Elijah’s prayer was brief but to the point.  Regardless of what he saw with his eyes, and the fact that nobody had ever been raised to life before, Elijah asked God for exactly what he wanted.

All too often our prayers are like rambling requisitions that go on and on, unfocused and dull because we don’t know what we are praying for.   This must surely be the main reason why Christians feel like God doesn’t hear their prayers; He hears them, He just doesn’t understand them!   Before we pray, we must settle in our hearts and minds what we need.  We must know God’s Word and pray according to it.  God’s character is revealed in His Word and when we know it, we know God, and will always ask according to His will.

Not only did Elijah pray, but he also did a very strange thing:  he stretched himself out over the boy three times.  Why did he do that?  What Elijah did was full of symbolism.  First, as it applies to the Church, there is a great principle at work here.  Today, the Church must be in full contact with its Head, Jesus Christ.  Right now, large segments of the Church are not in contact with Christ and are spiritually dead.  When the Church is out of contact with Jesus, it does bizarre things; it makes unscriptural decisions; it wanders in spiritual wasteland; the blind leading the blind.

Secondly, on a personal level, when Elijah prayed he prayed with his whole being, mind, soul, spirit, and body.   His whole being was concentrated on reviving the boy.  A lot of people pray for spiritual revival, but they don’t go beyond their words; they don’t stretch so much as their little finger to revive one soul in the ditch of sin, even if that soul is their own.  In stretching himself out over the boy, Elijah gave himself wholly to the work at hand.  Paul did exactly the same thing when he raised Eutychus to life—

Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!”

Prayer must be more than words.

4.  Confession of faith, verse 24

Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”

When Elijah brought the boy down stairs to his mother she uttered a great confession of faith in God and in God’s man, Elijah.  But this is a curious thing.  The miracle of provision—the miraculously materializing flour and olive oil that never ran out—apparently didn’t do it for this woman!   She needed something more to tip the scales in Elijah’s favor, and God provided it:  the death and reviving of her son.  It was that tragedy and subsequent miracle that finally convinced this immature believer that Elijah was a man from God and that God could be taken at His Word.

Out of the deepest trials of life often come the greatest blessings from God.  Faith that is tested is faith that is vindicated, and of all the blessings a believer may receive, the vindication of his faith must surely one of the most encouraging.

Don’t fear the inevitable testing of your faith.  Recall the experience of Job.  At his lowest point, he looked and looked for God and it seemed as though God had all but deserted him.  In spite of how he felt, Job held fast to what faith he had and uttered one of the most moving confessions of faith ever–

When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.  (Job 23:9, 10)

(c)  2010 WitzEnd

FREEDOM FROM SIN, Part One

Published July 16, 2010 Uncategorized 2 Comments

Romans 6

Nobody likes to talk about sin these days.  In fact, the popular preacher seldom mentions it anymore.  A great many Christians would have trouble listing the “seven deadly sins” enumerated in Proverbs 6:16—19.  In case you’re one of them, to refresh your memory, here are they are:

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

According to Oxford University Press, these “seven deadly sins” are not only a matter of faith, but are important to a society’s moral and psychological health.  This should come as no surprise to Christians, who know the damaging effects sin has a person’s entire being.

It is because of sin that man needs salvation.  Up to chapter 5 of Romans, the apostle Paul had dealt with this “sin problem,” and answered some pressing questions regarding how God has made salvation possible and what man must do to lay hold of it.  As you read this section of this great epistle, you note all that Christ has done, namely, His death, burial, and resurrection.  In these actions, man had no part; Christ’s work was done on our behalf; His was a substitutionary death that did not involve our participation, although our salvation wholly depended on all that He did.  His work on the Cross was not just substitutionary, it was also representative.  Exactly what that means is spelled out in eight simple words—

…one died for all, and therefore all died.  (2 Corinthians 5:14b)

From Heaven’s vantage point, then, Christians are completely identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.  Not only that, death and sin have no claim on Christ because He literally died to them, so also they have no more claim on the believer, who is in Christ.  That is what Paul meant when he wrote the stunning declaration that should be memorized by every Christian—

We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  (Romans 6:2)

And so, Paul moves from the topic of justification to sanctification.  Justification is an expensive theological word that takes in all the work that Christ did for us; the work that makes us appear before God “just as though we had never sinned.”  Sanctification takes in all the work that we need to do for ourselves in order to live up to what Christ did for us.  In other words, since we appear as Christ appears before God, we need to strive to be that way here, in the world in which we live, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

What chapter 6 of Romans deals with, then, is practical sanctification that leads to holiness and complete freedom from sin.  Wesley’s comments are helpful at this point:

Justification is not the being made actually just and righteous.  This is sanctification, which is, indeed, in some degree, the immediate fruit of justification, but nevertheless, is a distinct gift of God, and of a totally different nature.  The one implies what God does for us through His Son; the other what He works in us by His Spirit.

1.  The problem, verses 1, 2

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Paul begins his discussion on sanctification and holiness by asking a question that relates back to what he had been discussing in chapter 5.   At first that question sounds ridiculous, but he is addressing a very real threat to the church’s continued existence at that time.  Antinomianism was the heresy then and it is common even to this very day.  Paul alluded to this heresy earlier in his letter—

Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—”Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!  (Romans 3:7—8)

The warped view is this:  the more I sin, the better God looks and the more grace He sheds on me.  This thinking is all too common during times of revival where God’s amazing and free grace is emphasized.  A nefarious by-product of that preaching takes the form of an acceptance of immorality or a tolerance of sinful behavior because God will forgive the person anyway.  Often this kind of preaching encourages one to “repent and get saved” without ever explaining what is involved in repentance and offering little or no meaningful discipleship in the days and weeks that follow the “conversion.”  What is true today was true in Paul’s day.

Paul was positively exorcised at such a thought; the very idea was an offense to him and an affront to God’s holy character!   A Christian can no longer be influenced by sin than Jesus Christ could be because they both have died to it.  Notice, however, Paul does NOT say that sin is dead to the Christian, but that the Christian is dead to sin.  That’s why sin keeps coming back time and again and we sometimes exclaim, “I can resist anything except temptation!”

What must be remembered and celebrated is that death to sin is NOT a future blessing or something to be hoped for.  It is the present possession of the believer.   Something very decisive has taken place in the life of the believer:  by God’s grace, we have died to sin.  Our bondage to sin has come to an end.   Paul, writing to the Colossians told them something similar—

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  (Colossians 3:3)

Christians, then, are hidden with Christ and from sin.  But, that doesn’t stop sin from seeking us out!

2.  The Promise, verses 3, 4

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

These verses explain how our death to sin was made possible.  When he writes of being baptized here, Paul does not primarily have in mind water baptism, although that is certainly alluded to.  He uses the phrase “baptized into Christ Jesus” to mean “identified with Christ.”  Why does Paul use the word “baptize” then?   Bible translators, instead of translating the Greek word baptizo, chose to transliterate it; they merely spelled out the Greek word into English.  Baptizo has about 20 meanings, in fact, and here Paul is using it to identify, or link, believers with Christ.  One of Paul’s favorite words, he also used baptizo in 1 Corinthians 12:13 in slightly different, though complimentary, way—

For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

So, to be “baptized into Christ Jesus” also suggests being brought into personal relation to Him.  It was also used that way to describe those who had a connection to Moses (1 Corinthians 10:2) and with Paul (1 Corinthians 1:13).  In Paul’s mind, then, baptizo or its English equivalent, baptize, carried all those meanings.  It’s a powerful way to describe the Christian’s position in Christ!  This is why water baptism is such an important ordinance, for it demonstrates precisely what happened to a believer in a dramatic fashion.

In verse four there is a “negative/positive” aspect to the believer’s conversion given.  As Christ died physically on the Cross to, was buried, and then rose again, so we go through the exact same process spiritually thanks to this identification with Him.  Godet:

In consequence of this death to sin undergone in Christ, we have therefore been buried with Him in order to rise with Him.  ‘Buried with Him,’ not with the aim of remaining in the tomb or issuing from it to return to the past life, but to penetrate into a new life, whence a return to the old is definitely precluded.

Just as Jesus’ physical body underwent a change after His resurrection, so we undergo a spiritual change after our spiritual resurrection.  The old laws of this world no longer applied to Jesus after His resurrection; He walked through walls and suddenly appeared to people, for example.  After our spiritual resurrection, similarly the old laws of this world no longer apply to us, namely, the old laws of spiritual death and bondage to sin.  The world no longer has any claim on our souls; we are no longer obliged to sin.

3.  The provision, verses 5—7

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Verse 5 is not without some controversy.  Some scholars believe Paul to be referring the future bodily resurrection of believers, taught elsewhere in Scripture.  In the Greek, the verse is written in the future tense, and generally that always refers to something yet to happen.  This is why verse 5 is often recited during the funeral service, usually at the graveside.  There is nothing, however,  in the context of the entire chapter relating to the future bodily resurrection of believers, so it seems unlikely that Paul would slip in one, single verse dealing with a topic not under discussion!

The use of the future tense doesn’t always refer to a future event, sometimes in the New Testament it refers to events that occur in a logical order.  We may paraphrase Paul’s thought like this, then:  Just as Christ experienced a bodily death followed by a bodily resurrection, so the believer, in Christ, experiences a spiritual death followed by a spiritual resurrection.

How certain is this spiritual resurrection and new life?  We have been “united with Him.”  This is a powerful Greek thought meaning “fused into one.”   This fusion is not a gradual process; it happened at the moment of conversion, which is why Paul exclaimed to his Galatian friends—

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20)

This brings us to verse 6, the great “verse of liberty” for the Christian!

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin…

Here Paul introduces a subjective truth: “we know.”  The truth of this verse is something each and every believer should know because each and every believer has experienced it.  As noted by E.F. Harrison, our spiritual history began at the Cross; in God’s sight we were there, joined with Christ while He suffered on it on our behalf.   Some people have difficulty wrapping their minds around the time element.  How could we have been present with Christ on the Cross when that event happened 2,000 years ago?  If we accept that “we all sinned in Adam,” then we ought to no issue accepting that we died with Christ!

“Our old self,” which means literally “our old man,” is a way of describing the person we used to be; our human nature apart from God’s redeeming grace.  Another way of describing the person we used to be is “the body of sin,” this is Paul’s way of describing our old selves, completely under the control of sin.  In simple terms, the part of us crucified with Christ on His Cross was our unsaved, unredeemed human nature.

And yet, though our old human nature is dead to sin, sin keeps coming back to tempt our new nature.  Born again people do not have a dual nature—a white dog and a black dog fighting for dominance—but sin is still after us.  We are, as Paul noted elsewhere, a “new creation,” no longer in bondage to sin.

Does our new position in Christ mean that may live sinless lives?  Of course not!  Scripture does not teach this nor does our experience.  Sin is just as real to the believer today as it was before his salvation.  However, now, because of a new nature and aided by the Holy Spirit, the believer may resist sin.  Peter taught this—

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.  (1 Peter 5:8, 9)

Conclusion

The first seven verses of Romans 6 are among the most profound and powerful verses in all of Scripture.  They are packed with meaning and full of encouragement.  Christ’s death was, as noted by Richardson, “potentially the dying of the whole human race, just as His resurrection was potentially the re-creation of all mankind.”

Through faith in His finished work, we are participants in that great work.  We are the beneficiaries of redeeming grace and all that goes with it:  forgiveness of sins, past and present, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, who enables us to live up to new life we have laid hold of.

(c)  2010 WitzEnd

JOHN, PART 19

Published July 13, 2010 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Jerusalem as seen from the Mount of Olives

John 7:14—52

Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.  (John 7:14)

All of a sudden, Jesus appeared at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.  You will recall that instead of traveling up to Jerusalem with His brothers, Jesus let them go on ahead and followed later, hoping to slip into town, unnoticed.  The religious leaders were out to get Jesus, maybe even kill Him, and Jesus was such a lightening rod, His public presence would have been a distraction, taking away from the solemnity of this important Jewish feast.

On God’s calendar, this Feast of Tabernacles is symbolic of the Second Coming of Christ and all the events leading up to that event.  This particular feast speaks of the consummation of all these things.  Our Lord will appear as suddenly when He returns as He did when He walked into Jerusalem midway through the festivities.

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.  (Malachi 3:1)

Even though Jesus was past the apex of His ministry, there were so many pilgrims in Jerusalem for the feast that when He found a quiet place to sit down to teach, the crowds found Him and listened.  Among His listeners were the religious leaders, who were forced to admit Jesus’ acumen and wisdom.

The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?”  (verse 15)

These men were astounded because unlike them, Jesus had no formal rabbinical training, and yet He could speak as clearly about theological issues as they could.

1.  Jesus sets them straight, verses 16—24

Jesus’ response to His critics shows that they had closed minds; they were not open to even the slightest possibility Christ’s teaching could come from a place other than a Jewish seminary.

Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.”  (verse 16)

Jesus gave complete credit to God for His teachings, in contrast to the Jews.  If anybody in the crowd had problems with His teachings, the teachings themselves could be put to the test—

If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.  (verses 17, 18)

What Jesus really did in these verses was to establish a basic principle:  before anybody could hope to evaluate or understand His teachings, he must do two things:

  • He must be actively engaged in seeking to do God’s will.  The use of the word “chooses” indicates a definite act of the will; a person hoping to understand the Gospel must be determined to know God’s will and purpose within themselves to fulfill it (verse 17).
  • The other prerequisite for grasping the Word of God is obedience to it.  As observed by Tenney, “Obedience to God’s known will develops discernment between falsehood and truth.”

Knowledge of God’s will and doing His will are inseparable; belief must always lead to action.

But Jesus’ words mean even more.  Implied is the notion that the one who speaks and acts on the authority of another reflects the character of the one whom he represents.  Jesus was sent by God and therefore reflects the character of God; Jesus could not be a liar because the One who sent Him is not a liar, He is God.

The religious leaders criticizing Jesus were, in truth, teaching their own version of God’s law, hence they were the ones misrepresenting God, always seeking to promote themselves and their own glory.  These men could not wrap their minds around all the interest in the teaching of Jesus.  But Jesus’ teachings were completely reliable and truthful and not at all deceitful; the religion of the religious leaders was nothing but a show; a false pretense.  Jesus confronted this hypocrisy head on with His rhetorical question—

Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”  (verse 19)

In other words, Moses’ teaching came from God and it was reliable and truthful and was not at all deceitful, but these religious leaders were not keeping that law.  How were they not keeping the law?  Simply this:  they would not think twice about circumcising a male child on the 8th day even if the 8th day happened to fall on the Sabbath.  These same men, who seemed to be able to make a right judgment where conflicting laws were involved, could not seem to a right judgment where values were concerned—

Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath?  (verse 23)

The Jews, in trying to keep the letter of the law, limited the freedom of all men; Jesus, however, in performing one miracle on the Sabbath, liberated not only the paralytic He healed, but all who believed in Him.  Those people whose morality is based on legalism easily make wrong judgments about people and things that lead to the destruction of real values.  This is why Jesus sums up his argument like this—

Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.  (verse 24)

In the broadest sense, Jesus told the religious leaders to stop making superficial judgments because merely seeing a thing cannot reveal all the facts of a matter, and therefore the resultant judgment would be flawed.  In the narrowest sense, verse 24 is Jesus’ advice about Himself:  the Jews needed to stop judging Him by mere appearances.  A right judgment in the case of Jesus would end all the controversy that currently surrounded Him.

2.  The people respond, verses 25—31

At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”  (verses 25—27)

Obviously, the general population of Jerusalem was confused about Jesus and opinion was sharply divided.  If he was such a threat, then why hadn’t the religious authorities censored Him?  Truth be told, Jesus was still popular enough to cause the authorities to be extremely cautious; act too harshly toward Jesus, a riot may ensue.  However, within 18 months almost all of Jerusalem wanted Jesus crucified.  When things change, they change quickly.

Of interest is the people’s statement that they knew where Jesus came from and their belief that nobody would know where the Messiah would come from.   Again we see ignorant people making wrong judgments, this time based on something as flimsy as an old Jewish saying that “three things come wholly unexpected, Messiah, a god-send, and scorpion.”

As only Jesus could do, He ridiculed the crowd—

Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”  (verses 28, 29)

Our Lord’s first sentence may be read as a kind of ironic question:  “So you think you know me?  You think you know where I come from?”  Jesus slammed the Jews for daring to think that they, legalistic, biased, and filled with wrong notions about the Messiah, could know anything about Him.  They thought they knew all about the Messiah, yet they knew nothing at all.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, Jesus again asserted His divine origin and restated His divine mission and unequivocally told those listening that they did not know God.  This was no meek and mild shepherd speaking here; His words inflamed many in the crowd so much so that they reacted in extreme violence—

At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.  (verse 30)

But still, there were some who, though not fully convinced of Jesus’ claims, saw something special in Jesus; enough to almost convince them that He could be the Messiah (verse 31).

3.  Persistent unbelief, verses 32—52

The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.  (verse 32)

It was the ambivalence of the crowd that moved the Pharisees to action.  This was the first organized attempt to seize and silence Jesus, probably at the behest of the Sanhedrin.  Jesus diffused this tense situation by a very enigmatic statement that hinted about His coming Crucifixion.   Of course, the Jewish leaders had no idea what Jesus was talking about and so, as they were in the habit of doing, jumped to yet another wrong conclusion—

The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”  (verses 35, 36)

Notice the arrogance!  As far as they were concerned, there was nowhere Jesus could run where the tentacles of their influence couldn’t find Him.

Remember what Jesus once said back in Matthew 7:7—

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Is that a blanket promise?  Of course not!  One must seek Christ for the right reason in order to find Him.  These arrogant religious types could never hope to find Jesus because their motivation was worldly and wrong.  To such, Christ hides Himself.

Not only would the Jewish leaders never be able to find Jesus, they were worlds apart from Him in every way—

You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”  (verse 34)

While some have taken the phrase “where I am, you cannot come” to mean they can never enter  “heaven,” a close examination shows that Jesus had even more in mind that that.  The word “cannot” means literally “lack power” or “be unable.”  In other words, these unbelievers would be unable to be with Jesus where He is and where He will be because they lack the inherent power or ability.  If we compare this idea with other verses in John (like 6:53, for example), Jesus is implying that holiness of heart and spiritual separation to Christ is what is necessary to be with Jesus both now and in the future.  Lightfoot wrote—

When the Lord is standing before His opponents, they cannot come where He is, because they do not share His mind…Separation from Him is caused not by distance in space, but by likeness of heart and mind and spirit.

Persistent unbelief is what separates a person from Christ.  One who stubbornly refuses to believe will never be able to find Christ.  It is one thing to have honest questions about Christ, but unbelief is something Christ can never tolerate.

4.  Pentecost prophesied, verses 37, 38

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

The climax of the controversy occurred on the “last and greatest day of the Feast.”  The power of Jesus’ words can only be realized when we understand what happened on this great day.  The last day of the Feast of Tabernacles was really the eighth day, which was a day of spiritual observance, including a great offering to God.  Remember, the Feast of Tabernacles commemorated the wilderness wanderings of the Jews after their exodus from Egypt.  For forty long years they wandered about the desert, living in tents, and experiencing a scarcity of food and especially of water.  When at last the people finally entered the Promised Land, they were met with bountiful crops and regular rainfall.

Each day during the Feast, a procession of priests journeyed from the Temple to the Pool of Siloam; they drew out a bowl of water which was then poured out upon the altar in remembrance of the blessings of the Promised Land; the abundance of food and water.  This celebration was accompanied by a reading of Isaiah 12:3—

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

This whole scene drives home several important ideas:

  • Siloam literally means “sent,” which reminds us that Jesus was sent by God to establish Heaven’s new order on earth.  Jesus fulfills everything symbolized by the pool and the water-pouring ceremony;
  • In this celebration, we see that what was external and limited—the seasonal rainfall of the Canaan, symbolized by a daily  pouring out upon the altar—was to be replaced by something dynamic and internal, flowing from within a redeemed person outward.
  • This is the Spirit-filled life, characterized by abundance, both as to its Source (Jesus Christ) and to its impact (reaching the entire world).
  • Finally, the celebration prefigures the fact that what Jesus did made Pentecost possible.

Commenting on this part of the Feast of Tabernacles, Edersheim wrote—

The whole symbolism of the Feast, beginning with the completed harvest, for which it was a thanksgiving, pointed to the future.  The ceremony of the out-pouring of water was symbolical of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

God’s ultimate blessing to the Israelites was the Promised Land; a land of abundance.  Imagine the awe the people were struck with when they stepped out of the desert and into a lush, green rainforest where there was no shortage of water!  But all earthly things are temporary and eventually give way to other forces.  Lush plants wither and die as seasons change or insects eat their leaves.  The rains stop during times of drought.  Anything in the natural is subject to change.

This is where Jesus excels as Messiah:  His blessings are not natural; they are supernatural and spiritual in nature and are therefore not subject to any force existent on this planet.  Nothing can stop the flow of the Holy Spirit as He descends, fills, baptizes and overflows out from the lives of believers to touch others.  No church or church leader or worldly force can stop this from happening.  It is a supernatural force of God’s Nature.

Little wonder the religious leaders of Jesus’ day felt threatened by Jesus.  His coming signaled the dawn of a new age that liberated all people from the pursuit of fruitless religions founded on man’s flawed ideas.  True liberty can only come from a relationship with the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

(c)  2010 WitzEnd

ELIJAH: MAN OF FAITH(FULNESS)

Published July 12, 2010 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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1 Kings 17:7—16

Elijah had a long rest in the Lord’s secret place—maybe up to a year.  During his stay there, the Lord cared for the prophet and he was kept safe from the evil king and He provided for his every need.  During the national drought, Elijah had all the food and water he needed, at least as long as he remained in that secret place.

But Elijah was human, just as we are.  Though we are not told so, both the prophet’s faith and patience must have been tested.  Nobody likes to wait.  Nobody likes to be left “out of the loop.”  But we, like the prophet Elijah, must learn to wait on God before we can hope to “walk by faith, not by sight.”  Moses, if you will recall, had to wait 40 years in the deserts of Midian before God could use Him to deliver the Israelites from Egypt.  One reason so many Christians today seem to fail in living by faith is because they refuse to sit still and wait on the Lord.  The curse of the 21st century is that we want everything right away.  Service is everything; we want our phones fixed fast.  We want our cable installed right away.  We want our food immediately.  But God is not our servant; we are His.  If we would “stand in God’s presence” as Elijah did, then we must learn to be patient as He speaks to us through His word.  We must realize that we did not receive everything the moment we were saved—God wants us to grow in our faith and work out our faith, and the requires, among other things, waiting on Him.

Faith, like gold, must be refined in the fiery furnaces of life.  After these many months in hiding, Elijah was about to receive another call.

1.  When the call came, verses 7, 8

Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.  Then the word of the LORD came to him.

How Elijah must have been surprised the morning he got up and saw his brook no longer flowed!  Had we been in his shoes, we might have gone off on some kind of tangent, railing at God.  Why would God lead a person to live by a flowing brook, only to take that brook away from him?  We might accuse God of playing some kind game.  But God does not play games.  Remember what happened to another prophet?

Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.  But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.  (Jonah 4:6, 7)

As we say during the funeral service, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.” God gave both prophets something and then He took them away.  But He did so for a purpose.  In the case of Jonah, we read this—

But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.  But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”  (Jonah 4:10, 11)

In other words, Jonah was all concerned about something he no part in.  He was all concerned about a plant when he should have been concerned about what God was concerned about:  sinners and their need for salvation.  Jonah needed perspective and God gave it to him as only He could!

Elijah no doubt had gotten comfortable in his seclusion.  He was completely safe there; safe from the evil king out to get him and safe from the drought that was afflicting everybody else in the country.  But while Elijah may have been obedient to God in staying by the brook, there was work to be done and God needed to prod the prophet out of his comfort zone.

People who are comfortable will seldom put themselves out for anybody, even God.  God understands this quirk of human nature, so He has a way to move us:  He makes us uncomfortable!  God might take something away, like He took Elijah’s water away; whatever door God may close, we may be sure He will open another.  God may dry up our brooks of prosperity or health or the brook of self-confidence in order that He move us along in His will for us.   The old saw holds true:  Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.

2.  God’s command, verse 9a

“Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there…”

When the water became silent, God spoke.  This incident might be considered the “second stage” of Elijah’s preparation for what was to come.  It is noteworthy that God would want Elijah to go to a place called “Zarephath,” which means “place of fiery trials or furnaces.”  Here God’s man would undergo a fiery time of testing; his faith being purified.  This was also Jezebel’s homeland—the wicked wife of the evil king!  It must have taken some faith indeed for Elijah to walk purposely into the land of Jezebel!  Think about it;  would you walk headlong into a fiery trial if God asked you to?  Before you answer, remember what you’d be giving up to do that.

Zarephath was about 100 miles from the Kerith Ravine; Elijah would have to walk through 100 miles of famine and drought stricken land, possibly encountering representatives of the king just to get to his fiery furnace.

Elijah must have been a remarkable man of faith, even at this early stage of his career.  God had asked the prophet to something that, on the surface of it, defied common sense and seemed to go against the plans God had already revealed to Elijah.  If keeping the prophet safe was the plan, then walking 100 miles out in the open made no sense; if hiding the prophet from the king was the plan then making him live in enemy territory certainly made no sense either.  Elijah could have dickered with God like Lot did back in Genesis 19:20—

“Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

But Elijah was not like Lot; Elijah was a man of God and he simply obeyed the Lord and got up and went to his fiery furnace.

3.  God’s promise, verse 9b

I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.”

God is ever gracious, and to help Elijah out, He gave the prophet this promise.  We may be sure that when God moves on our hearts to step out in faith, we may given a promise of provision, as well.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 4:19)

We may also be sure that when God calls us to a task, He has not called us alone.   Somehow, we are not told how, God must have communicated to this widow her part in His plan.  And, of course, she had to be obedient in order for God’s plan to work out.  There is a real lesson here.  Not all believers are called to “front line” ministries.  In fact, most of us will probably serve the Lord in a “support” capacity all our lives, like the widow helped to support the prophet.

When he heard God’s promise, Elijah must have felt a sense of relief.  Surely this widow must be wealthy if she is going to keep him for a time!   Another surprise awaited the prophet.

4.  A test of circumstances, verse 12

“As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

Once Elijah arrived in town, he was led to the widow God had mentioned.  Immediately, he put her to the test—

“Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?”  As she was going to get it, he called, And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”  (verses 10, 11)

Circumstances must have appeared confusing to the prophet.  A widow out gathering sticks couldn’t be rich!   Why would God send him to her?  And her response to his request for food and drink must have appeared as though either Elijah had made a mistake or God did!  How could this woman take care of Elijah when she couldn’t even take of herself?

But Elijah was faithful to his God and his mission, just as Abraham was.  Life’s circumstances didn’t affect his faith—

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God.  (Romans 4:20)

Stepping out in faith is what strengthened Abraham; it strengthened Elijah; and stepping out in faith will strengthen your faith, too.

5.  Obedient faith, verses 14, 15

For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.’ ”  She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.

The widow’s response to Elijah indicated that she was a believer in Yahweh, so Elijah gave her this astounding promise.  The promise was astounding, yes, but before the promise could be fulfilled, she had to submit to simple test:

“Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.” (verse 13)

For a woman on the brink of starvation, this was quite an audacious request to make!   But the promise was unmistakable:  God would honor her faith with a supply of flour and oil as long as the drought would last only after she took God at His word.  She had neither precedent nor example for such an act of faith, but she had hope and she had faith in the Word and power of God.

As Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”  (John 20:29).

6.   God keeps His promise, verses 15, 16

So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.  For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.

For at least a year, this was the case.  Like the manna that miraculously appeared and sustained the Israelites, and like the ravens that fed Elijah, so God made sure this woman, her family, and the prophet were looked after.  But remember:  God provided after they had stepped out in faith and obedience.  There is nothing quite as rewarding as living by faith!

The problem with modern believers is that they want the miraculous provision with first offering to be obedient.  God has not changed and He is more than willing and capable to meet all our needs, but the cost of such divine provision is our complete obedience.  Sadly, that is too high a price to pay for so many believers in need.

What happened to this widow must have been a source of great comfort to her, this simple, godly non-Jewish woman.  It also served to strengthen Elijah’s faith in God’s ability to both keep him safe and provide for his every need.  It reminds us of what Isaiah wrote—

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

(c)  2010 WitzEnd


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