making much of Jesus

NOTE:  Stand in the Rain has come back 'round to its beginning.  We have finished our course with joy, as we pulled no punches, left no stone unturned, and tore every hair out of our heads in an attempt to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.  (Acts 20:24)

Though we will no longer publish these daily articles, the complete three-year course (along with three other extensive Bible courses and supplemental materials) can be accessed by clicking here.

So fare thee well, and until we meet again,

The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you;
The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 15

Stand in the Rain has come full circle. The journey we began on July 9. 2015 has reached its destination.

As you will read below, we have not settled on our next project, but a week of sittin’ on the dock of a bay with fishing pole in hand might bring a bit of clarity to mind.

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We tried to tell you how wonderful He is.

And to some degree, we did. But to a greater degree, as all men do, we fell short of the glory of God.

We don’t know exactly what project we’re going to pursue next. But until such time as we make up our minds, this old house, neglected for a decade’s worth of scripture searching, needs a lot of fixin'; and our brains, which have been poppin’ like a popcorn popper at peak for the last 3 years, need a little rest.

Today, at this very moment, we are literally going fishing -- which we’ve figuratively been doing for the last 1096 days in a row.

Over the course of those days, Shelley and I watched our boys turn into men. I watched myself turn from a runner into the dreaded j-word, which I can’t bear to write. (It rhymes with logger. That’s all I’m sayin’.) Then, just weeks ago, we watched my mother die.

But through it all, we made much of Jesus.

I am glad to have finished this course, but I will miss the new discoveries and the friends we found and lost along the way.

So I’m glad and sad all at once, but I welcome these mixed emotions. They remind me of when I was a boy at summer camp, when – out of all the songs we sang – my favorite was called “Now the Day is Over.”

The problem with my favorite song was that I only heard it once per year—at the closing campfire, where it was the last song sung on the last day of our stay.

I loved that song like no other, but it meant that the summer was gone, somewhere behind us now. It was like reaching the last page of a story that has no equal – the very same thing that, after three years, we’ve just done…

Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh,
Shadows of the evening
Steal across the sky.

Jesus, give the weary
Calm and sweet repose;
With Thy tend’rest blessing
May mine eyelids close.

Grant to little children
Visions bright of Thee;
Guard the sailors tossing
On the deep, blue sea.

Comfort those who suffer,
Watching late in pain;
Those who plan some evil
From their sin restrain.

Through the long night watches
May Thine angels spread
Their white wings above me,
Watching round my bed.

When the morning wakens,
Then may I arise
Pure, and fresh, and sinless
In Thy holy eyes…

Go then, in the fervent power of His Spirit, in mad and desperate pursuit of His heart. Go in any direction that will take you, making much of Jesus along the way.

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strike a match and start anew

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 14

The Bible opens with stark contrast, with darkness preceding the entrance of light.

In the book of 1 Samuel, that contrast is personified. We are first introduced to the dark heart of Saul. Then David, the man after God’s own heart, bursts upon the scene.

Yesterday, we peered into the heart of darkness. But things were about to change...

***

In all of Scripture, only King David is designated by God as "a man after My own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22).

Why David? Isn't he the one who had an affair with Bathsheba, then conspired to have her husband killed? Does God condone such things?

No, God does not condone any form or shape of sin whatsoever. After this episode, David's life was ceaselessly beset with the consequences of sin. Death, treason, incest, rape, and revenge visited his family--just as the prophet Nathan, who had exposed David's sin, had foretold:
Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight?
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house (2 Sam. 12:9-10).

David's beloved infant son fell ill. Though he fasted and begged God for the life of the child, God said No. David had prayed facedown upon the earthen floor for seven days. When he found that the child had died,
he arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD (2 Samuel 12:20).

It may have been there in the house of the LORD that David, broken in spirit, cried out,
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. (Psalm 51)

Later on, he fought a civil war against the forces led by his favorite son, Absalom, who was killed in the war's decisive battle. Soon thereafter, prematurely aged and enfeebled, he relinquished his crown just before his relatively early death.

The Bible records that God did forgive David's sin; he did not lose his salvation (see 2 Samuel 12:13). But the evidence seems clear that God did not restore the joy of His salvation. God chose to let sin's consequences play themselves out in David's life. If He must, God will tether a wayward child to His heart with sorrow -- if there is no other way to keep the child from wandering into further danger.

Given the evidence of his life, how can he be singled out as a man after God's own heart?
It seems that the answer lies in the meaning of the word 'after.' 'After' indicates direction, and not necessarily proximity. 'After' shows the direction of a heart, and not necessarily that heart's current proximity to God's standards.

The Bible's account of King David's life shows us how things might not be as they appear to our sight. When God had chosen young David to be king, the prophet Samuel mentioned that David's older brother looked the way we think a king should look. But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance, for the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." (1 Sam. 16:7)

In the Gospel of Luke, a young man took his inheritance to a far country and wasted it all on a reckless and sinful life. When he had sunk as low as a Jewish man could--feeding pigs as a hired hand--he got back up and sought after his father's forgiveness:
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you.
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. (15:18, 20)

The prodigal son was "yet at a distance," but the father saw the direction of his heart.

Jesus Christ left his Father's house and came to a 'far country,' where he emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7).

There he fell -- under the weight of a cross on his way to seek his Father's forgiveness for my sins, and for yours, for David's, and for the prodigal son's. To all who saw him, he appeared to be a broken, defeated man. He didn't look like a King. But the LORD sees not as man sees.

Then Jesus fell again.
And then He fell again. A man after God's own heart, carrying the sin and sorrows of the world, Jesus got back up.
Forsaken, dead, and buried, He arose and went to His Father's house.

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the heart of darkness

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 13

The Bible opens with stark contrast, with darkness preceding the entrance of light.

In the book of 1 Samuel, that contrast is personified. We are first introduced to the dark heart of Saul. Then David, the man after God’s own heart, bursts upon the scene.

Saul is a complex figure for whom we develop a real sympathy. But make no mistake about it that Saul is Satan’s man.

The Bible student will also develop some sympathy for Judas Iscariot, who is an echo of Saul, who is an echo of Satan. This should not strike us as strange when we consider David’s continuing regard and respect for Saul (even as Saul psychically disintegrated and spiritually degenerated) and Jesus’ compassion towards Judas to the bitter end.

Just as the heart of God leans out to the lost, emotional “sympathy for the devil,” will be found in the hearts of God’s people -- who were, after all, once children of darkness themselves:

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. (Ephesians 5:8)

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.  (Colossians 1:13)

But while emotional empathy springs from the heart of God, any spiritual compromise with the devil and his delegates lands the child of God in a gray irrelevance, a spiritual no man’s land from which the light of the world will neither extinguish nor shine.

According, then, to the biblical pattern -- and the evening and the morning were the first day (Genesis 1:5) – we are introduced to darkness before the light, Saul before David…

The unholy spirit.
To understand the Holy Spirit it is instructive to be able to recognize his opposite:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:1-2)

Saul, the temporary king, was Satan's man. He is a type (a prophetic picture) of Satan, who (at God's discretion) is the temporary prince of this present darkness (Ephesians 6:12/RSV). Satan could offer a crown to Jesus in the wilderness, because it was his to give. (Matthew 4:8-10)

Why does God utilize evil?
He has to. It seems that there is no other way. Evil was the only raw material left to him in re-creation. Evil is utilized at the cross for salvation; Jesus Christ became sin for us in order to defeat sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). This was predicted and amplified throughout scripture, from Genesis 50:20 to Romans 8:28.

Some cosmic justice that we are not entirely privy to (1) forced (2) God to utilize evil to effect his ends. Our sin so tied God’s hands (figuratively, and literally on the cross) that in order to defeat evil, God had to get Satan to swallow his own tail; evil defeated itself at the cross.

*** 

Enough of the darkness. Tomorrow, the man after God’s own heart will strike a match and start anew.

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(1)  see Job chapter 1
(2)  Forced is used here in the sense that God seems to have been constrained by his own sense of justice.  Because he could not wink at evil, our forgiveness had to be purchased by the blood of his only Son.

the government upon His shoulder -- part 3

Jonathan gives David his robe, armor, and weapons I Samuel 18:3-4

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 11-12

Yesterday we learned that Biblical government isn’t about the process, but about the Person. Thus, the only form of government which the Bible endorses is the government upon His shoulder:

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders. (Isaiah 9:6)

Furthermore, we learned that there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace returns to enforce the peace:

And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

***

But what shall we do in the meantime, until the Prince of Peace returns to place the government upon his shoulders? The story of Jonathan (King Saul’s son and next-in-line to be king) and David answers that question…

1. Depose yourself. If you are the king of your domain, it is time to abdicate the throne.

I recommend a literal ceremony. Make a construction paper crown and pretend your chair is the throne. Now (quoting Samuel) depose yourself with these words:

"The LORD has torn the kingdom from you today and has given it to one better than you.” (1 Samuel 15:28)

2. Then, as Jonathan did for King David, step aside for the rightful King:
"You will be king, and I will be second to you." (I Sam. 23:17)

3. Relinquish dominion:

Jonathan stripped himself of the title and the accouterments and proclaimed David the rightful King to come:
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt. (1 Samuel 18:3-4)

***

Other than vote and hope, there is not much any one of us can do about “the government” at large. But we can hand our own little “crowns,” -- our own little domains, our own lives –over to the King.

There is no need to wait for Him to return. We can place the government of our hearts, hands, heads, and homes upon his shoulders right now.

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the government upon His shoulder -- part 2

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 9, 10

Yesterday, we read that Israel wanted a king:

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." (8:4-5)

But Israel’s real desire was less about having a king than it was about replacing God with a human ruler:

But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. (8:6-7)

We, today in the USA, don’t clamor for a king, but for a government that will return our country to the prosperity, peace, and prominence that we see slipping away.

Does the Bible have anything to say about government in general? About the United States in particular?

The answer to the second question should give us pause, because the United States is a non-entity in scripture. Suffice it to say that the vortex of history is Israel; and while many nations will have tangential eschatological (end times) roles, it is unclear whether the United States is among them.

***

About government in general, Scripture has much more to say. I know that parades and picnics and fireworks are calling you, so let’s cut to the chase:

1. The only form of government that the Bible endorses is the government upon His shoulder:

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder. (Isaiah 9:6)

What form that government will take is not spelled out—which is precisely the point! Whether a government takes form x, y, or z doesn’t matter. None of them will work when they are placed on the shoulders of men. But on his shoulder, any one of them could work splendidly. Biblical government isn’t about the process, but about the Person.

2. Whatever form that might take, it will be infinite and infinitely better and better!—

Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end. (Isaiah 9:7)

3. God favors none of the current governments/countries over any other. A very telling passage in this regard is found in the book of Joshua, when Joshua (representative of a governing man) encounters the preincarnate Christ. (We know it’s Him because only God accepts worship in scripture.)

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"
"Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."
Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"
The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:13-15)

“Neither,” he replied -- which means that there is no most-favored-nation status in God’s eyes. God is on His own side, because there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace –the commander of the LORD’s army—returns to enforce the peace:

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

***

But what can we do in the meantime, until the Prince of Peace returns to place the government upon his shoulders? We’ll answer that question tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the government upon His shoulder -- part 1

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 7-8

Israel wanted a king.
So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." (8:4-5)

But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king." (8:6-7)

They wanted a king because “Everybody else is doing it.”
1. They wanted to be like the other nations. 2. They wanted a national judge. 3. They wanted a leader in battle. (8:20)

But these desires contradicted God’s specific purposes:
1. Israel was to be a holy nation, not like any other. 2. God was their ultimate Judge. 3. God fought their battles for them.

Israel’s real desire was less about having a king than it was about replacing God with a human ruler. 1 Samuel 8:4-20 reveals that their motive actually involved a rejection of God. They exchanged an awesome and powerful ruler they could not see for one they could see—who was utterly capable of failure.

***

Today is the 3rd of July, the date on which the climactic battle of Gettysburg was fought. As we anticipate picnics and parades and fireworks, many of us contemplate the questions raised in the Gettysburg Address. We still wonder ”whether this nation, conceived in liberty, can long endure;” and whether “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Most of all we wonder whether our nation is, indeed, “a nation under God.”

Israel wanted a king. We don’t clamor for a king, but for a government that will return our country to the prosperity, peace, and prominence that we see slipping away.

Does the Bible have anything to say about government in general? About the United States in particular? We’ll delve into these questions tomorrow, on the 4th.

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tell it like it is

(Note:  This article was first published on this date six years ago.)

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 5-6

We think of prophets as persons who are visionary; they can see deep into the future and/or they can see right through the now.

But God does not have such a highfalutin or mystical view of his prophets. In God’s eyes, the essential qualification for a prophet is an ability to tell it exactly like it is.

We prize the ability to slickly manipulate words and their meanings. We were treated to a “Supreme” example of this ability just days ago, when the Chief Justice of the United States decreed that a certain statute is a tax except for when it isn’t a tax; and it isn’t a tax except for when it is!

Which drew this already-classic rebuke from his dissenting colleagues:

"That carries verbal wizardry too far, deep into the forbidden land of the sophists."

The prophet of God does not speak with such sophistry. Unlike one of our recent presidents -- who insisted that the correct interpretation of one of his statements depended upon the proper understanding of "what ‘is’ is" -- the prophet of God uses words to express the truth, not to evade it. The greatest of God’s prophets put it this way:

Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:37)

***

While still a boy, Samuel heard God speak:

And the LORD said to Samuel: "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family--from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them. (1 Samuel 3:11-13)

Then, even though Samuel feared to do it, he delivered God’s rebuke to Eli, who had raised him from childhood:

He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called him and said, "Samuel, my son."
Samuel answered, "Here I am."
"What was it he said to you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you."
So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. (1 Samuel 3:15-18)

This was one indication that Samuel was a genuine prophet, for false prophets usually delivered only good news.

So, Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be prophets. Train them instead to use words to mean whatever will advance their careers. Then they might grow up to be the next Bill Clinton!  But no one will ever confuse them for Samuel or Jesus. And no one will ever confuse you for Hannah or Mary.

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“Where have I heard that voice before?” – part 2

"Hannah Presenting Samuel to Eli"

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 3-4

Yesterday, we read Hannah’s Prayer from 1 Samuel 2. Then we read Mary’s Song from Luke 1.

If you read them slowly and carefully, the second reading will sound like an echo of the first! More importantly, and wondrously, you will wonder -- as you read both passages --“Where have I heard that voice before?”

***

Who taught the Word of God the Word of God? Read Mary’s brief moments in Scripture and you'll be able to discern not only who taught the Savior to walk and talk, but also who taught him to fear the Lord, and to trust in God's amazing, unfathomable, tenacious grace.

It is apparent from the song she composed that Mary memorized and skillfully weaved together many Old Testament phrases in her praises to God. Knowing Scripture by heart, leaving Bethlehem with her child in her arms as they escaped from Herod to Egypt, this new Mom was thinking of Hannah -- whose son Samuel, like Mary’s son Jesus, was wholly dedicated to God from the moment of his miraculous birth.

Their situations were alike, their songs were alike, and so were their sons:

And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men. (1 Samuel 2:26)

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52)

***

After a long while of Bible reading, the characters take on distinctive voices. After listening for a long time, it is clear to my ear that the person whom Jesus “sounds” most like (not in tone or timbre but in attitude and essence) is Mary. And the person Mary “sounds” most like is Hannah.

Though I’m not at all sure how heaven works, I have no doubt that Hannah, by now, has been told by many that the Son of God sounds a lot like her!

But how was Hannah to know, way back when, that the Son of God would gather his voice, by and large, from three influencers:

1. His Father in heaven (who has no antecedent influence), and…
2. His Mom in Nazareth – who had inherited her voice from…
3. Hannah, whose situation was so similar to Mary’s situation that Mary must have read the opening chapters of 1 Samuel over and over and over again until the voice she heard there became a part of her own.

To some degree, it will prove to be the same for us. We will pass away, but the Word we speak will not (1). When we speak God's Word to our own generation, its influence just reverberates through time.

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(1) see Mathew 24:35