Monthly Archives: December 2021

A TIME OF TESTING

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 A TIME OF TESTING

So, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me through the forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ (Heb. 3:7-11).

The period in the wilderness was, for the Israelites, a time of testing, but who was being tested? Both! God was testing His people to see what was in their hearts, and they were testing God’s love and patience by their rebellion and unbelief.

God often deliberately led His people into seeming cul-de-sacs because He wanted to know what was in their hearts. Of course He knew what was in them. He knew them better than they knew themselves, but that was exactly the point. Until they were in a situation where what was in them could come out, it was of no value to them. So, what did He do? He tested them,

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Deut. 8:2, 3)

How did they fare in this test? Their unbelief spilled out in a torrent of abuse and complaint against Moses and against God. Gone was the remembrance of God’s covenant and His promises. Their circumstances blotted out everything except the awareness of what was happening to them right then. They whined; they threatened Moses; they complained against God, and they got it from Him!

How did they test God? They spoke against Him; they failed to understand what He was doing; they negated His promises through their words of unbelief, and they brought His wrath down upon them by their murmuring. Instead of being encouraged by His miraculous intervention time and again, they tried His patience by conveniently forgetting both what He had done for them and what it was really like back in Egypt. They were quite willing to go back there and suffer under a cruel and ruthless Pharaoh rather than trust the God who was doing everything to make their journey as comfortable as possible for them.

Since it was Jesus with whom the writer was comparing Moses and the ‘house’ over which he was a faithful servant, how did Jesus react to His testing in the wilderness? He trusted the Father in those horrific forty days when He had no access to food, water, shelter and protection from the heat of the sun, the cold of the night and the venomous creatures that lived there.

He had to face all this alone without wavering in His confidence in the Father. He made no plans to go it alone. He would not capitulate to the enemy’s insinuations and suggested solutions. He would not break His unity with the Father. He chose to die rather than betray the Father, and because of that, He lived!

He taught His disciples to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’ Those words were loaded with meaning for Him because He had been there. He knew the strength of Satan’s tests and the pull of His human desires. This is not so much about what the devil can do; this is about what we can do when under pressure from the devil. We are not victims. If we were, God could not hold us responsible for falling into temptation.

There is no such thing as ‘The devil made me do it.’ We alone are responsible for the choices we make. Neither God nor the devil can decide for us. All the devil can do is to plant lies into our minds. What we do with them is our choice. If we, like Jesus, are fortified with God’s word and empowered by His Spirit, we will do as He did, ‘live by every word that comes from the mouth of God’.

Jesus, our high priest, is qualified to intercede for us because He was faithful over God’s house as an obedient and trusting Son. When our faith in God is put to the test through hardship and suffering, we have both His example and His Spirit to see us through if we are willing to trust Him instead of, like His ‘house’ over which Moses was a servant, revealing rebellion and unbelief by our bitter murmuring.

When God tests us, let us not test Him. His tests always have a miracle and a blessing in store if we trust Him and live in the gratitude of His presence and His provision. If we endure with faith and patience, we shall inherit the promises (Heb. 6: 12).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE SON OVER GOD’S HOUSE

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THE SON OVER GOD’S HOUSE

‘Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,’ bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory. (Heb. 3: 5-6)

The origin of the writer’s thought lies deep in the language and culture of God’s ancient people. For forty years, they were nomadic shepherds, on a migration from Egypt to the Promised Land. They lived in tents and had to adapt their lifestyle to the uncertainties of their precarious existence, being totally dependent on God for their protection and provision. Their pictographic script and language reflected this period of their history.

The concept of a son and his role in the family pictures this time in their lives. The Hebrew word for son is ben, hence, for example, Jacob named Rachel’s second son, Ben-jamin, son of my right hand. Written in Hebrew, the word ben is made up of two letters, b and n, the vowel being understood. The letter b – beth – is a picture of the floor plan of a tent meaning ‘house’, and the n – nun – is a picture of a seed, which means ‘to multiply’ or ‘to continue’.

A son, then, is one who ‘continues the house’. It is the son’s role not only to continue the family line in natural descendants but also to perpetuate the beliefs and values of the family to the next generation so that the heritage of the family will not die out. This concept is captured in God’s instruction to Israel in Deuteronomy 6.

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that give you today are to be on your hearts, Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deut. 6: 4-9)

In a real sense, Moses’s house was limited to his wife and family although he was a ‘father’ to the nation. He was not God’s appointed son, but a servant in God’s ‘house’ – His people Israel. Jesus was appointed by God’s decree to be a Son at a specific moment in time, called ‘today.’

I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ (Psa. 2: 7)

As God’s Son, therefore, it is Jesus’s role to ‘continue the house.’ Through supernatural birth by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in those who receive Him, who believe in His name, He restores to the family of God every wayward and alienated son or daughter who returns to the Father.

Through the work of the Holy Spirit who is Jesus’ counterpart on earth, He leads them back into His truth and teaches them the values and practices of the kingdom. Moses could do no more, as a servant, than give God’s people His instructions. He could not internalise them by writing them on their hearts. He could not remove their stony hearts or give them a heart after God.

Only the Son, through His perfect obedience to the Father even to death, could be the atoning sacrifice which paid sin’s debt and satisfied the Father’s justice, making it possible for them to return to the Father’s house.

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Heb. 2: 10, 11)

Through HIs work, Jesus both taught and demonstrated the way of life God intended for His family, and He provides the power for returning children to be true sons and daughters of the Father through the Holy Spirit who lives in them.

How, then, could anyone think of going back to the old religion which did nothing for them but bring them into bondage again to a system which told them what to do but could not provide the power to obey? Only Jesus, God’s Son, can enable His brothers and sisters to become like Him. Only He can actually ‘continue’ God’s house. We have the evidence of His power to deliver on His promises by the family He has brought home over 2000 years.

Is He faithful over God’s house? Has He continued the house? Has He reproduced Himself in His spiritual descendants? Has He passed on the values of the family? In spite of the many who, down the centuries have twisted and distorted the values and teachings of the kingdom until they are unrecognisable as reflecting God’s character and His ways, there is still the remnant who are faithful, and are true sons who  ‘continue the house.’

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

GREATER THAN MOSES

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GREATER THAN MOSES

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. He was faithful to the one who appointed Him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. (Heb. 3: 1-4)

Of all the great characters of the Old Testament, Moses is the most revered by God’s ancient people. Jesus’s opponents constantly flung Moses in His face. ‘Moses this’ and ‘Moses that’ was their argument against Him and they would not accept that He was greater than Moses. ‘But,’ said this writer, ‘Jesus is greater than Moses just as the builder of a house is greater than the house itself.’

These Jewish believers were obviously still not convinced at this point that Jesus was greater that all the things they revered the most in their historical role of honour. He is greater than angels because He is the Son while angels are servants. He is greater that Moses because He is the builder of the house while Moses was part of the house.

The writer has already presented Jesus to his readers as the exact replica of the Father with the same honour as He, and the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He occupies the place of authority at the right hand of the Father. He lived on earth as a perfect son and qualified to be both high priest and atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. No angel was worshipped as He was worshipped at His birth, and no angel was appointed to be the Son as He was appointed by the Father.

It behoves us, therefore to give Him all the attention He deserves rather that debate about whether to keep on being loyal to Him rather than to go back to the old ways when the pressure is on. To these tentative believers, it was a matter of life and death because, to be a part of the population who refused to bow to Caesar as Lord, and to offer sacrifices to him in order to qualify for the right to buy at the local market, meant a very precarious existence, to say the least.

No one would be fool enough to choose a life that could be snuffed out, and very painfully through the evil imagination of the emperor, at the drop of a hat unless one were thoroughly convinced that it was worth risking one’s life for one’s faith. That was exactly what the writer was trying to do. To go back, though, was worse than dying for one’s conviction because it affected one’s eternal destiny. It was up to the author of this letter to prove to his readers that Jesus was worth trusting because of the eternal benefits of holding on to Him.

There are five little words in his presentation that hold the key to this life he was urging them not to abandon. ‘Fix your thoughts on Jesus.’ Our lives always go in the direction of our thoughts. Everything we are and do begins in the mind. ‘As a man thinks, so is he,’ said the writer of many of the proverbs. How true this is! James explained how the process of sin begins in the mind. Desire stirs, and the more one dwells on the desire, the stronger the pull is towards it.

How then, does one overcome the temptation to draw back when life gets tough and Jesus doesn’t seem to feature in our topsy-turvy circumstances? Where is He when we need Him? Is it worth the struggle to keep Him in mind and to trust Him when He appears to be MIA – missing in action? Why is He so silent when I scream for help and He does not appear?

Jesus is not about magically lifting us out of trouble. He assured us that trouble is an integral part of this life (John 16: 33). He doesn’t always appear to do miracles when we call, just to bring us back onto even keel. But He promised that He has overcome the world and that He will never forsake us in our troubles. He is always there to accompany us and to see that trouble does not overwhelm or destroy us.

Trouble is not always a bad thing. It helps to strengthen our confidence in God; it teaches us patience and perseverance and gives us an opportunity to see what God can do when we run out of options. ‘So,’ said this writer, ‘fix your thoughts on Jesus, not on the rough seas around you.’ Jesus put it like this: ‘Remain in me, and I will remain in you.’ (John 15: 5). Be so anchored in Jesus in your thoughts and in your confidence that there will be no temptation strong enough to make you quit when the going gets tough.

Cling to Jesus and He will cling on to you. When the storm subsides and everything around you is in chaos, you will still be safe with Him because He is indestructible. Moses can’t help you, but Jesus can!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

A FAITHFUL AND MERCIFUL HIGH PRIEST

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A FAITHFUL AND MERCIFUL HIGH PRIEST

For surely it is not angels He helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason He had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people, Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. (Heb. 2: 16-18)

Those who deny the humanity of Jesus destroy everything He came to do as both high priest and sacrifice. Take for example the Roman Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary. If Mary was conceived without sin, and Jesus was so-called born of a sinless mother, then He could not have been made like us, fully human in every way.

To be fully human is to carry the potential to sin, as Adam did. But He was without sin, not because He was born of a sinless mother, but because He suffered and overcame temptation so that He could be our faithful and merciful high priest.

Jesus was not conceived by a human father but by the Holy Spirit. He had the nature of God and was fully God, but He was born of a human mother, which gave Him the nature of man. She carried Him in her womb for nine months, and gave birth to Him as does every human mother. He was suckled at her breast and nourished with human food. He had to learn from infancy to be a human being as does every other child.

In the course of His growing up, He had to learn the power of temptation and suffering in order to qualify as our faithful and merciful high priest. How much more intense it must have been for Him, as the son of Mary and the Son of God, to withstand the subtleties of Satan’s deception from a tiny child onwards! He could not give in to the temptation to follow the example of His peers and react as they did in the rough and tumble of life, not even for a moment in His thoughts, attitudes and actions.

He did not just suffer (experience) temptation; He suffered when He was tempted. That made temptation far more intense to Him than for us because He had to resist to the end. Our temptation ends when we give in. His temptations never ended because He did not give in.

Listen to the testimony of His Father after thirty to years of growing up from infancy to manhood in a normal human family, through the ‘terrible’ twos’, the teens and early adulthood, with awakening hormones coursing through His veins, and sinful people all around Him and pressing in on Him:

As soon as Jesus was baptised, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’ (Matt. 3: 16, 17)

Jesus had no one to mentor Him, not even an earthly father and mother who were without sin. He was wholly dependent on His fellowship with His heavenly Father, of which He was aware from His earliest years, and the union He had with Him, to take Him through His growing-up years without faltering.

His own conscience bore witness to His perfect record. In the heat of debate with His ever-present opponents, the religious leaders, He challenged them:

Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? (John 8: 46)

Much to their frustration, no one could! No sin, Jesus? Not even a stray thought? Not an under-your-breath threat or insult? Never an attitude of hostility – never? Always, always, nothing but perfect love? Yes! With a perfectly pure conscience, He could challenge them and be met with . . . silence! This must have angered them even more, because their own consciences screamed at them and refused to be silenced.

No need then, ever, to replace Jesus as our high priest. He does the job to perfection because He is one of us; He succeeded when every other high priest failed, and died; He qualified as both a sinless human and a perfect sacrifice. He fulfils the office of high priest perfectly and forever. He didn’t just offer blood to atone for our sin; He offered His own blood, once and for all. No other sacrifice and no other high priest is needed.

And, what’s more, because He is also God, He helps us – with the power of His own Holy Spirit, to overcome just like He did. He understands the inner strength of the temptations we face because He’s been there. He knows how to ‘succour’ (King James Version) those who are tempted. The Free Dictionary defines ‘succour’ as ‘giving help or assistance, especially in times of difficulty.’

That’s it! That’s what He is able to do because He was made just like us. . .

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

NO FEAR OF DEATH

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NO FEAR OF DEATH

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says:

‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.’ And again, ‘I will put my trust in Him.’ And again He says, ‘Here I am and the children God has given me.’

Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Heb. 2: 11-15)

No fear of death! Wow!

Why does the believer in Jesus no longer need to fear death? Because he no longer fears punishment! Jesus shared our humanity and took our punishment so that we are free to come home to the Father and to His perfect love.

There is no fear in love. But perfect loves drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4: 18)

Death has lost its terror since Jesus faced death for us and overcame. Death was the devil’s trump card because he knew that death was final and sealed the fate of all humanity. There was no escape and no return from death. Jesus took death on the chin for us and came back in a resurrection body that can never die again to tell us that He conquered death once and for all.

The devil went one step too far by having the Son of God put to death. He thought he would destroy Him forever and the chance for mankind to be rescued from his clutches. Death is the penalty for sin, but Jesus did not sin. Therefore, death could not hold Him forever. He passed through death and returned to declare that God’s estranged children were free to return home. The Father’s wrath against sin had been satisfied. Satan no longer had the power to hold us in death.

This was God’s final and most powerful act of perfect love. What seemed to be folly and weakness was the most powerful power in the universe – the power of love. Love accepted the worst that sinful people could do to an innocent man without His retaliating. Jesus bore the injustice, the insults, the physical agony and even the horror of being abandoned by the Father with nothing but perfect love. He forgave in the midst of His pain and died without a murmur or a word of rebuke or a threat of revenge.

When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2: 23)

Everything Jesus accomplished through the cross culminated in one thing – God’s children are free to return home. The implications are huge. Home! That means back to the Father’s dwelling place where we are safe in the Father’s care and eligible to participate in all the benefits and blessings of family life together with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

God is a family. He made us to be part of His family. He gave us His name; we are free to live with Him in His home; we have an inheritance with the Son; we share in all the resources, privileges and blessings of life in the family of God and we have the responsibility of representing the Father to the unbelieving world by demonstrating what it is like to live in God’s kingdom.

How amazing that we are actually brothers and sisters of Jesus and, what’s more, He’s proud to call us His brothers and sisters! How can that be? Because, through His death He has made us holy! Holy? Yes, holy, set apart for and belonging to God. We have a share in the nature of God (2 Peter 1: 4). We have the same nature as the Son. We are part of a new race made in the image of the last Adam, our elder brother, Jesus.

And we are free! Free to live life to the full because we have no fear of punishment or death. When death comes, we go home to the Father’s house to dwell with Him forever. And we die in the hope of resurrection because our Brother, Jesus, rose from the dead – and He is the firstfuits of the resurrection and the guarantee that we, too, will rise again.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.