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DIARY OF THE FATHER OF FAITH – 2

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DIARY OF THE FATHER OF FAITH

Abraham’s journey of faith was never a smooth ride. Like ours, his story is littered with failure, unbelief and sin but that’s the way God taught him the lessons of trust and obedience. Our lessons, like Abraham’s, don’t start with trust. They start with failure, and failure teaches us the consequences that we must avoid the next time we are put to the test.

It seems that Abraham’s disobedience began to cause trouble not long after they settled in Canaan. He has not heeded God’s instruction to separate from his family. Now both Abraham and Lot had become wealthy, owning vast herds of livestock that needed plenty of grazing and water. Their respective herdsmen began squabbling over resources for their animals until matters finally came to a head.

They decided to separate.
Abraham graciously gave Lot the choice of territory, and Lot selfishly chose the fertile plain of the Jordan Valley but, in doing so, he set himself up for trouble, since the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah lay in that direction.

Once Lot has gone his own way, Abraham was ready to receive the next revelation from God. This time, the Lord expanded on His intentions for Abraham’s descendants. The land in which he now resided as a visitor and a nomad, as far as his eyes could see, would become the permanent possession of the nation that would be born through him.

What did Abraham think as he settled into his nomadic lifestyle among a very wicked and idolatrous people? Perhaps “impossible” was the word that hammered in his brain as he contemplated the problem of the resident citizens of the land. How would his descendants ever get rid of them?

However, as he moved around the territory, perhaps looking for grazing for his animals, perhaps for a little peace from his unpleasant neighbours, he set up altars of worship to the living God he was learning to know and trust. Was he silently, unobtrusively, claiming ownership of the land by honouring the Lord wherever he camped?

Hebron seemed to be a pleasant place to live, but soon after he had settled there, trouble came to his nephew, Lot. War broke out between the kings of some of the city states in Canaan. Lot and his family and possessions were captured and taken as loot from Sodom, where Lot had chosen to live. Abraham heard of the situation from one of Lot’s servants who had escaped from the raid, and immediately planned to rescue Lot. He miraculously defeated the kings with only 318 trained men and took back Lot, his family and possessions and spoils from the conquered kings.

On his return from his successful campaign, Abraham encountered a mysterious character called Melchizedek. (I referred, earlier on, to this event) – that God revealed, through this amazing incident, someone who was to be a type of Jesus, the Messiah.

‭Genesis‬ ‭14:18‭-‬20‬ ‭NLT‬
[18] “And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High, brought Abram some bread and wine. [19] Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. [20] And blessed be God Most High, who has defeated your enemies for you.” Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.”

What was the significance of this meeting? There is no explanation in Genesis. However, the writer to the Hebrews, through the Holy Spirit, reveals the meaning of the encounter Abraham had with Melchizedek. Abraham, the great ancestor of the nation yet to come, met the greater priest-King of Salem, Melchizedek who had no ancestry in this record. He would be a type of Jesus, the high priest and King of God’s kingdom who has no beginning and no end.

‭Hebrews‬ ‭7:1‭-‬10‬ ‭NLT‬
[1] This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem and also a priest of God Most High. When Abraham was returning home after winning a great battle against the kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him. [2] Then Abraham took a tenth of all he had captured in battle and gave it to Melchizedek. The name Melchizedek means “king of justice,” and king of Salem means “king of peace.” [3] There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors—no beginning or end to his life. He remains a priest forever, resembling the Son of God. [4] Consider then how great this Melchizedek was. Even Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, recognized this by giving him a tenth of what he had taken in battle. [5] Now the law of Moses required that the priests, who are descendants of Levi, must collect a tithe from the rest of the people of Israel, who are also descendants of Abraham. [6] But Melchizedek, who was not a descendant of Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham. And Melchizedek placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promises of God. [7] And without question, the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed. [8] The priests who collect tithes are men who die, so Melchizedek is greater than they are, because we are told that he lives on. [9] In addition, we might even say that these Levites—the ones who collect the tithe—paid a tithe to Melchizedek when their ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to him. [10] For although Levi wasn’t born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham’s body when Melchizedek collected the tithe from him….
[16] Jesus became a priest, not by meeting the physical requirement of belonging to the tribe of Levi, but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed. [17] And the psalmist pointed this out when he prophesied, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”…
[20] This new system was established with a solemn oath. Aaron’s descendants became priests without such an oath, [21] but there was an oath regarding Jesus. For God said to him, “The Lord has taken an oath and will not break his vow: ‘You are a priest forever.’” [22] Because of this oath, Jesus is the one who guarantees this better covenant with God. [23] There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office. [24] But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. [25] Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

So, God reveals, through Abraham’s seemingly trivial encounter with one of the kings of a city-state, Salem (later to be called Jerusalem), this king as a type of Jesus, who is the king-priest of the heavenly Jerusalem, the kingdom of God.

Abraham was learning, even through his wobbly faith, that God was able to use all of his responses, faithful or unfaithful, obedient or disobedient, to grow and hone his faith in the real, living, and Most High God.

What an encouragement to us who are part of Abraham’s household of faith! Disobedient and faithless as we are at times, God never gives up on us. He knows the end from the beginning. He works patiently and persistently in our lives, through all our circumstances, to bring us to the confidence in Him that is never shaken by trial and adversity.

To be continued….

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – OH, BY THE WAY…

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OH, BY THE WAY…

“One day in one of the villages there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus he fell down before Him in prayer and said, ‘If you want to, you can cleanse me.’ Jesus put out His hand, touched him and said, ‘I want to. Be clean.’ There and then his skin was smooth, the leprosy gone.

“Jesus instructed him, ‘Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed self to the priest, along with the offering ordered by Moses. Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.’

“But the man couldn’t keep it to himself, and the word got out. Soon a large crowd of people had gathered to listen and be healed of their ailments. As often as possible, Jesus withdrew to out-of-the-way places for prayer.” Luke 5:12-16.

Luke had many stories of healings and miracles to draw from. Why did he choose this one? Of course I don’t know! But there are little hints here and there of Luke’s reason. The scholars tell us that Luke’s theme was “Jesus, the Son of Man.” He adds many touches to his story that illustrate Jesus’ humanity; His dependence on the Holy Spirit; the many references to His prayer life; little snippets like His being asleep on the boat; eating fish after His resurrection, for example, things that humans do.

In this story Jesus met a man covered with “leprosy”. He could have had any skin disease, but whatever it was, he was disfigured and, worst of all, unclean. That meant that he was not allowed human contact. Isolated! Ostracised! Untouchable! Unwanted! Probably walking on the outskirts of the village wailing his mournful plight, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’

Instead of moving away, Jesus walked right up to him. The unnamed man fell at His feet, entreating Him, ‘I’ve heard about you, Jesus. I know you can make this stinking, diseased body of mine clean…if you want to. Now it’s all up to you.’

What would Jesus do? What did this man need? Just a word would transform him but he needed more than a word. He needed a human touch. But how could Jesus touch him? He was a rabbi, a holy man who was not supposed to contaminate Himself with diseased or dead bodies. If He touched him, He would become unclean.

There was one thing about Jesus that was different from every other rabbi of His day. His touch worked the other way, made the unclean clean. He made the sick well, the dead live and set the demonised free. Wherever He went, speaking, touching, embracing, He left whole, well and free people in His wake. And it was what He wanted to do. No hesitation.

But, in spite of Jesus’ warning, the healed man could not keep his mouth shut. Would you? Of course everyone wanted to know what had happened. And of course he told them. Wouldn’t you? And of course that made Jesus even more popular, and everyone wanted Him to touch them too. And He did.

That created a problem for Him. He needed time out. He was human, remember. Why did He need time out? Of course He needed rest; He needed to eat; He needed to “chill” like we all do and oh, by the way, He needed to spend time with His Father and for that He needed solitude.

There was no solitude where there were the ever-present crowds but He knew how to find time and place to be alone – out in the wide-open spaces in the night hours when everyone else was asleep. Without time alone with the Father He had no engine and no rudder for His ship. It was in these times of intimacy alone with God that He drew strength, received direction and shared the Father’s love which energised Him for the gruelling times ahead.

And He said, ‘Learn from me.’

Made Perfect Forever

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MADE PERFECT FOREVER

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy (Heb. 10: 10-14).

Don’t you love the finality of the writer’s words? One sacrifice . . . perfect forever. What other man-made religion can make an authoritative and convincing statement like that?

What does it mean for us? Jesus sat down – not literally, of course – but in the sense that, firstly, His work was accepted. When the high priest had sprinkled the blood of the second goat on the Mercy Seat in the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement, he would come out from behind the curtain and sit down, signifying that the sacrifice had been accepted and the sins of the people atoned for, for another year.

Secondly, when Jesus sat down, it meant that His work was complete. Unlike the Levitical sacrifices which had to be offered year after year because they could never do away with sin, the offering of His own blood was acceptable forever, never to be offered again. He took His place in heaven to take up His work as mediator of a new covenant, since the old covenant had now become obsolete.

Thirdly, He sat down at the right hand of God because it is the place of authority and power which He had earned by His victory over the devil, and over the works of the devil. He had conquered sin and death and become the firstfruits of the resurrection. To Him was given the right to rule over His enemies; to make them His footstool.

Fourthly, and this is a part of His work that we find difficult to grasp and even more difficult to accept, He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. There is something awesome going on here. The writer speaks about the work of Jesus as already complete but also as happening now. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, God sees those who believe in Him as already perfect from the perspective of eternity but, at the same time, we are in the process of being made holy, from the perspective of time.

God looks at us through the lens of Jesus’s perfect righteousness which He has attributed to us as a gift. We cannot achieve perfection according to God’s standard by our own efforts because we are already sinners from birth. We are already alienated from God before we take our first breath. No amount of “good deeds” which are tainted because of our sinful, selfish natures, can wipe out our record of failure.

But Jesus met every requirement as a son which He gives to us freely when we receive His gift of forgiveness. We are already perfect in God’s sight. Perfect? Yes, perfect, because His death paid for all people, for all sin, for all time. He can never again hold sin against us because sin has been removed and we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.

But, at the same time, as long as we are in this life, we are to keep walking the path of trust and obedience because we are moving towards a predetermined destination – likeness to Jesus. God puts us through our paces as we live each day in our everyday circumstances. He allows us to face all kinds of challenges to test and strengthen our trust in Him, and to bring to the surface those faults and flaws in our nature which hinder the process of being made holy.

The situations that bring out the worst in us are not attacks from the devil to be resisted. They are God’s way of revealing what is still in us that needs to change. Instead of blaming others or dodging responsibility for our sinful reactions, He wants us to own our ungodly attitudes and reactions, and turn to Him for grace to overcome. Little by little, situation by situation, test by test, as we submit to His correction, we are being set apart from sin to God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified (Rom. 8: 28-30).

Again, it’s a done deal.

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.

Look for my new book “Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart” (copyright 2105 – published by Partfridge Publishing) on www.amazon.com

 

A Mystery Man

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A MYSTERY MAN

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name “Melchizedek” means ‘king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever (Heb. 7: 1-3).

Up to this point, the writer has mentioned Melchizedek several times but given no information about this man. This “mystery man” was to play a brief but important role in Abraham’s life, and would be a part of the prophetic fingerprint of the Messiah.

Melchizedek was a king-priest in the city of Salem, i.e. Jerusalem, an unusual office because, according to God’s instructions, no king was permitted to carry out the office or functions of a priest. On the few occasions in the history of God’s people, kings were judged for burning incense e.g. King Uzziah.

But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in. They confronted the king and said, ‘It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense . . . (2 Chron. 26: 16-18a).

Why, then did God specifically designate Melchizedek to be the head of a unique order of king-priests especially since there is no biblical evidence that anyone else served as a king-priest in the order of Melchizedek except Jesus? Melchizedek was a type of Jesus for several reasons:

1. His name means “king of righteousness”. His name was a prophetic utterance of character – he was a righteous king, i.e. he walked in the ways of Yahweh, doing the right thing in his rule over his people. Jesus was a righteous man – without sin – and a righteous king.

Of the greatness 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 (Isa. 9: 7).

2. He was “king of Salem” i.e. king of peace. His reign also apparently was a reign of 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 . . . Prince of Peace (Isa. 9: 6).

3. There is no record of his parents or his genealogy. This does not mean that he was not human or that he had a supernatural birth. The writer used this lack of information as a type of Jesus whose human birth and genealogy although significant because He has to be a true representative of the people, did not mean that He only came into being at His human conception. He is both God and man, two natures in one person to represent God to man and man to God.

4. Melchizedek’s pedigree did not include a record of his birth or his death. Again he was a type of Jesus who existed with the Father before He came to earth and who returned to the Father after His resurrection. He lives forever as a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

5. Unlike the Levitical priests who could not be kings, and the Davidic kings who could not be priests, Jesus is both king and priest. As our king He rules over His people with justice and righteousness, and a priest, He represents His people to God, presenting His own blood as an atoning sacrifice for sin to God.

Jesus is eminently qualified to be our high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

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.

 

Neighbours

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NEIGHBOURS 

“Looking for a loophole, he asked, ‘And just how would you define “neighbour”?’

“Jesus answered by telling a story, ‘There was once a man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half dead. Luckily a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

“A Samaritan travelling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill — I’ll pay you on my way back.’

“‘What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbour to the man attacked by robbers?’

“‘The one who treated him kindly,’ the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, ‘Go and do the same.'” Luke 10:29-37 (The Message).

This story speaks for itself — a straightforward answer to the religious boffin’s question. The more I read the gospels, the more I am struck by the fact that Jesus was not interested in theological debates. Time and again, when He was confronted with attacks from His religious opponents, His questions and stories always focussed on how people responded to those in need.

The parables He told were designed to make people think and to identify with some person or group in the story. In this case, the man who asked the question, in other words the man who made the Law the subject of study and discussion, would easily identify with the second man in the story, if he were honest, who walked away from the injured man without helping him.

The priest and the Levite had one of two choices — to help the injured man because he was in need or to walk away because they did not want to become “unclean” by touching a bleeding man. Both of them chose the “religious” route because they believed it was the right thing to do. They thought that it was more important to stay on the right side of God than to get their hands and clothes dirty by assisting the unfortunate traveller.

The religion scholar had just correctly answered his own question about what to do to have eternal life. Loving God and loving one’s neighbour is evidence of an inner attitude that cares more about doing right for those in need than doing “right” in a ritualistic sense for oneself. It’s not about how people get into trouble. It’s about helping them get out of it. That is a reflection of the way God treats us.

The Samaritan had no religious scruples about the man in need. He did not care that he was a despised Samaritan helping an injured Jew. He saw him as a human being who needed him. His compassion moved him to do something to rescue him.

Jesus turned the question around — not “Who is my neighbour?” but “To whom am I a neighbour?” I am a neighbour to anyone who needs me and anyone who needs me is my neighbour.

How does one go about “loving one’s neighbour”? Here is a simple definition: Love is meeting some else’s need at your own expense. The motivation is compassion, but how does one become compassionate if one feels nothing for the needy person?

The apostle Paul gives us a helpful and practical answer: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Colossians 3:12 (NIV). These qualities may not be a part of who you are but, Paul says, act as though they are and they will become a part of you.

It’s not how religious we are that will change the world. It’s how compassionate we are to our “neighbour” that will, in the end, make the real difference.

Let’s just do it!