And when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh.
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March 20, 2008:Traditions | Just a few more weary days and then... I'll fly away... And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. |
| December 29, 2007:New Year's 2008 | ||
| November 3, 2007:How To Be Successful in Christian Ministry | ||
| October 23, 2007:Salmon |
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| Wrong Choices William H. Haller |
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In this week's lesson, we move out of the era of the kings of Judah and Israel. After Josiah, there came four more kings of Judah. The total length of their reigns was less than that of king Josiah for God prospered neither them nor their kingdom.
As was pointed out in the daily Bible study verses, Jeremiah prophesied that this decline would occur and also prophesied about the exile that was to follow. His prophecies spanned the time of all five of the final kings, starting about 66 years after Isaiah. If you scan through the first part of Jeremiah's prophecy, you see scripture after scripture of promised judgments for the listed sins of Judah. Interspersed with these gloom and doom messages are counterpoints listing what the people can do to prevent the judgments from coming to pass.
2 Chr. 36:16 points out the people kept mocking the prophets that God would send to the people. God's words were despised and scoffed at.
For this, God fulfilled the prophecies of Jeremiah and sent the people into bondage to the Babylonians for a period of 70 years. The quarterly writer points out that the land was allowed to have its 70 years of Sabbath rests (occurring once every seven years) that it had not had for the 490 years the kings and judges were over Israel.
The people are in distress and are remorseful when God's judgment falls upon them. Once again, God did exactly what He said He would do. He's very faithful that way. He keeps His promises. The people cried out to Him. But, much as the generation of people who scoffed at His ability to prevail in Canaan in the first place were condemned to wander around outside the promised land till they were almost all gone, so this generation was condemned to mostly die in exile.
That is not to say that He abandoned His people in captivity. There are great stories that everyone can quote of great things He did for certain individuals like Daniel during this time of slavery. Much prophecy dealing with the empires to come and the final judgment of God upon all the Earth can be found in Daniel's writing. So God allowed long term good to come about even in the midst of the slavery and persecution of His chosen people. But make no mistake, for the vast majority of the people living it out day by day under the Chaldeans, it was very unpleasant slavery away from their promised land and out of touch with God.
There are many similarities between the times of the last kings of Judah and the world today. Christianity as a whole is fair game for ridicule, sport, and jest. Christians, by and large, roll over and turn the other cheek when this happens. The same jests directed toward certain other religions lead to death threats and riots. But Christians are sheep and are easy targets for the scorn of the world. Many Christians are being persecuted, jailed, and executed, simply for their faith, not unlike the final days leading up to Judah's exile.
The thing is, God expected us to be scorned and ridiculed. He said if we were friends of the world, that we should begin to seriously worry. The ridicule, scorn, and scoffing at the Christians of Judah's day - the prophets of God, weren't coming from the world around the tribes of Judah. They were coming from within. They were coming from the people who should have known better.
Is there scoffing coming from inside the church and Christian community today? In many denominations that call themselves Christian, prophets would be and are ridiculed just as clearly as in Jeremiah's day. Those who God has graced with the gifts of the Spirit are flat out not welcome in come Christian circles. They may be mocked. The words of God that they utter are not received. And this is by people calling themselves Christian. Few seek the filling of the Holy Spirit because we don't want the burden that comes with it. Are we any better than the tribes of Judah who dabbled here and there in whatever took our fancy, but neglected to fulfill the plan that God had set out for them?
Even if we are too good a group to actually mock someone who is trying to do Christ's work, we frequently choose to not be bothered to go hear what they are saying where we could judge for ourselves whether they were from God or not. Far too many churches around the country are Sunday Morning churches. People come, do their bit, and go away again largely unchanged. Sunday night services and midweek services are all largely unattended across the country. Special services where people might bring words of prophecy to churches where the gifts of the Spirit aren't active are ignored. This church has an older congregation that doesn't like to get out at night. With the bad weather we have in the winter sometimes, I can't say I blame them. Yet many can make it to the interminable committee meetings if they serve on a committee that has a night meeting. Sometimes there is the disregard for anything that isn't in our denomination (whatever that might be) that keeps us apart, but largely it seems to be inertia. We've always done things this way, so this is the only way it can be done (properly). Everything else is suspicious.
I am well aware that the Bible warns that false prophets will rise up and attempt to deceive the very elect in the last days. And this does happen today and will happen more frequently in the years to come. But the Bible also says that prophets are to be judged, just as in Jeremiah's time, as to whether what they say will happen actually comes about or whether what they say about the condition of an individual heart or a church's heart is true. They are to be judged as to whether what they say lines up with what the Bible declares to be truth, just as in Jeremiah's time.
There hear too many sermons and are glad that it went over our shoulder and hit that fellow two seats back that really needed to hear that message! This is a great sermon - I'll e-mail a copy of it to XYZ cause they really need to read it. Everyone of us needs to hear what God is saying and do what He expects of us. That includes pastors, deacons, Sunday School teachers like me, and each and every person who calls themselves a Christian.
Did God give up on the Israelites? No. He saw them through the captivity and when the 70 years of captivity that He had said would come to pass were over, He brought His wrath down on the Chaldeans who had oppressed His people. Will God give up on His church today? And what will be the consequences if He does?
I believe that God never gives up on a work that He has started. He loves His creation, and has a lot more faith in us than we have in ourselves. He won't give up on the spread of Christianity today, just as He won't give up on the spread of Christianity after the rapture of the Church. After the rapture, the Holy Spirit will still be around touching hearts and trying to convict them of their evil ways and to choose Jesus as their Saviour, just as He does today. That work will still continue without the Christians and in spite of the shell of a church that will be left after the rapture. I hope I'm not being optimistic in saying there will just be a shell left. The post rapture condition of the world and the lesser and greater tribulation that will follow for seven years will make the tribes of Judah's exile to the Babylonians look like a field trip to the zoo. Of that I can assure you.
Just because God will still be trying to convict hearts and lead people back to the proper worship of Jesus Christ as Saviour, doesn't mean that many will accept. Revelation declares that there will be martyrs who are beheaded for not denouncing Christ in those days, the scale of which the Romans never dreamed about. If you think it is hard to get out of bed and come to church, to witness to your neighbors or family, or to those who you work with today, think how it will be when you life is on the line. There are places in the world where Christian's lives have indeed been on the line in times present and past for just this thing in the world today. We have been so far spared that persecution, but it will come. All we can pray is that it comes after the rapture and we are not around to see it.
But before the rapture of the church occurs, the church might go through its own Chaldean exile if it doesn't get back to doing the work that Jesus was about when He walked the Earth. We are the church. Each of us has to go about the work that He has assigned us to do. All of the separate bodies of Christ may not have named prophets around trying to get us back on the right path as in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah, but even if we don't have that direct up-to-the-minute guidance in our particular church of choice, we do have the words that God left for us in the Old Testament and New Testament. The Israelites were to bind portions of that word to their foreheads. They were to study it and follow it. We aren't commanded to wear phylacteries, but we are to study God's word and put it into daily practice.
God's judgment is at the doors of the church. What standard will we be judged against? The New Testament makes clear that although there are laws and regulations written on our hearts that we must not trespass or commit sin against, we are also judged by what comes out of our hearts - either words or actions or the lack thereof. We need to work hard so that we will be considered approved servants of God that Jesus can be pleased with when we stand before Him.
The first chapters of Revelation give some guidance about the state of seven physical churches that existed in John's time to which God was communicating to get them back on the right path. There were some good and bad points to be made. Let's look at some of them.
Although these were specific words to specific churches, they were also words that could resonate with every church that has followed these seven, and every member of every one of these churches. These words, even if no prophets come our way to point out our specific problems, are words recorded just as in Jeremiah's day for his generation, to guide and warn us. Where do our churches fit amongst these? Everyone of the churches are recorded as doing things for God. Some were better than others. Only one received absolutely no criticism. One in seven (14%). Are we much better than that percentage today? We all do works, but there is much that God would label fornication seeping into the church (in some cases at the highest levels). Other churches in those denominations permit this to happen - we are tolerant like the church at Thyatira.
Other churches, in America at least, are rich and self-satisfied, but spiritually bankrupt. They see no reason to change and have no struggles to overcome. They are lukewarm. I would hope our grand total of churches did better than a 14% approval rating from God. It is clear that of all those churches, only one in seven (14%) were likely to be completely disavowed by God. But God wasn't completely happy with 86% of them. I would much rather be in a church that God was pleased with than the alternative.
With each message to each church, there was a promise. "To him that overcometh will I ..." and some special thing God would do. All those things had to do with eternal rewards and a eternal destination place of Heaven itself. Each also ended with an admonition. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches." Each individual Christian today can benefit from the words to those seven churches.
Every person goes through some Chaldean moments when we feel abandoned by God. We all drift away from where God wants us to be. Sometimes we walk away on our own power. Sometimes we are carried away by currents and forces that we don't understand. Everyone stumbles and falls. This includes the lowest and the highest Christians in the land. Sometimes, God must give us a true Chaldean experience to get us back on the right path, and if that is what it takes, so be it. But it is always better to get back on the path He wants us to take instead of having to take those unpleasant detours first.
