​GOD'S OBLIGING LOVE

He said to him, "I grant your request: I will not overthrow this town you speak of."  Gen. 19:21, N.E.B.

A young Christian once told me that she secretly was terrified that God might let something terrible happen to her so as to test her faith in Him!  God does not condemn us for such fears.  He just tenderly comforts us and sets about to better win our confidence.

We find an example of this in the story of Lot, Abraham's nephew.  God counted Lot a righteous man despite the fact that he evidently was not resting wholly in God's providence.  Even though Lot basically cared about God and others--otherwise he would not have put himself in such dire circumstances to protect two strangers from degradation at the hands of the local townsmen--he felt a need to watch out for himself.

Nonetheless, when it came time to destroy Sodom, the city in which Lot lived, God sent two angels to lead Lot and his family to safety.  He was directed to flee quickly to the hills.  Lot replied, "You have shown your servant favour and you have added to your unfailing care for me by saving my life."  Sadly, though he finished, "But I cannot escape to the hills; I shall be overtaken by the disaster, and die" (Gen. 19:18, N.E.B.).  He pleaded to be allowed to escape to a nearby town ("it is a little one" [verse 20]) in order to save his life!

God knew that condemning Lot wouldn't solve his problem.  It never solves anyone's problem.  So God's obliging love met Lot where his felt needs were.  "I grant your request," the angel said.  Then, trying to nudge Lot out of his misconceptions concerning God's intentions toward him, the angel again told him to hurry, "because I can do nothing until you are there" (verse 21, N.E.B.).  In other words, "God isn't playing games with you!  He wasn't going to have me do anything, anyway, until you were completely taken care of."

God was not indulging Lot.  He was pointedly seeking to win Lot's confidence and, by doing so, encourage him to allow his relationship with God to deepen.  God understands that only as we come to know that His loving ways for us are altogether adequate will our fears finally be resolved (1 John 4:18).

JUDGED FOR TRUTH-REJECTING

There is a judge for the man who rejects me and does not accept my words; the word that I spoke will be his judge on the last day.  John 12:48, N.E.B.

So often we are prone to think of the final judgment in terms of God's examination of our sinful acts.  We think of the books of record in heaven as having noted every wrong deed of our lives, with the intent that none of them will escape God's righteous reckoning on that fateful day.

But some are puzzled by the promise that God has forgiven our sins, casting them into the depths of the sea.  That seems to be a contradiction with their view of the final judgment.  Why bring them up again if they've already been forgiven?  The dilemma is so distressing that some reject the idea of final judgment altogether.  Others, feeling that it is only right that God condemn actual wrongs, doubt that God has indeed forgiven sin.

The problem, however, stems from assuming that the judgment (indeed the whole plan of redemption) is focused upon the deed done, the act of sin.  In today's passage Jesus is seeking to shift our attention from the deed to its cause.  Jesus sees the sinful deed as being caused by people who have rejected Him, and thus His Father.  He knows that people have rejected Him because they are enshrouded with darkness--the darkness of Sataan's deceptions about God.

And so Jesus says, "I have come into the world as light, so that no one who has faith in me should remain in darkness" (John 12:45, N.E.B.).  Jesus wanted to turn on the lights, because "when a man believes in me, he believes in him who sent me" (verse 44, N.E.B.).  Obviously Jesus' interest was not in keeping track of deeds but in healing the cause of those deeds.

Jesus offered forgiveness, not only for sinful deeds but even for the broken relationship that led to the sinful deeds.  But when people reject His revelation of truth, truth about His Father, which alone can heal the broken relationship, they are now guilty of a new offense.  They are confronted in the judgment with the question of what they have done with truth.

And since Jesus is the light that lights every man (John 1:9), each person shall identify how he has responded to Jesus' gracious, reconciling revelations of His Father.  Should the judgment reveal that I have rejected winsome truth, Jesus needs to say nothing more.

​POWER TO TEACH

Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.  Matt. 28:18, 19.


The morning newspaper states that a very criminal person has been "let off the hook" because of some legal technicality.  And taxes have been raised again, to support government spending.  You do not approve.  Under your breath you mutter, "If I were in control, things sure would be different!"

Each of us has experienced, to one degree or another, such sentiments.  In the days of Christ it was the overriding consensus of the Jewish nation.  Roman control was galling.  But God had promised a Deliverer!  He would rid them of their heathen rulers!  He would come with power!  Yes, things surely would be different then!  So they waited, and they hoped.  And One walked among them in the common garb of the day.  His feet were as dusty as were theirs.  He paid taxes.  His hands were the hands of a lowly workingman.  Yet...

In His eyes were the fires of nobility.  His voice was strong, certain.  He neither flinched from the piercing reproaches of the Temple priests nor recoiled from daily contact with the Roman guards that ever intruded into Jewish affairs.  His unstated authority was worn as naturally and as unpretentiously as was His homespun mantle.  Excitement mounted among the people.

When would He assert Himself?  When would He take over?  Even as He rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, such questions were exploding in the heart of those who shouted and praised God along the way.  The disciples felt it all.  Perplexed, they whispered among themselves.  What was He waiting for?  And then came Gethsemane.  Then Calvary.  "Use Your power!"  He was taunted.

Beloved Master, You were using Your power!  In the most prudent ways, You revealed God's choicest use of power--to enlighten darkened minds and heal the sin-weary spirit of mankind.  Rather than simply controlling the sin problem with divine firepower, You revealed that God desires to resolve it by giving us truth.  The truth about Himself.

Later, just before You left this earth to take up Your continuing ministry in the courts above, You made it absolutely clear.  As if to dispel any lingering doubts as to the quality or quantity of the power available to You--and, in turn, to us--You assured Your disciples that all power had been given unto You.  Then You said, "Go ye therefore, and teach..."

​COMMANDING RELATIONSHIP

"Which commandment is first of all?"  Jesus answered, "The first is, '...Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' "  Mark 12:28-30, N.E.B.


There is such an incredible contrast of ideas in this verse that most people just don't grasp it in the first reading!  So try to imagine the setting for this dramatic encounter.

Jesus was talking with a group of devoutly religious people.  They were awesomely intent on doing absolutely everything that was required of them lest they miss out on salvation.  And since the list of required actions was becoming quite long, allowing the chance that something might fall through the cracks, they wanted to make sure they at least mastered the most important requirement.  So they asked Jesus which one that was.

Jesus' reply was completely unexpected.  He said, in essence, "Your most important focus is not upon a thing to be done, but upon an intense, total, all-consuming relationship with a Person, whom one could indeed love."

Behavior versus relationship.  We are still too often hung up on that distinction.  For example, we might enter into a brisk discussion on the question Is it a sin to go hiking on the Sabbath?  Some might want to consider how far we would walk, what we might wear, where the walk would take us--wanting carefully to avoid doing a wrong act.

But I suspect that Jesus would want us to ask, "Will it add to, or detract from, my relationship with my Friend?"  And I am sure that Jesus would want us to be so enthralled with our heavenly Friend that we wouldn't regard the protecting of that friendship as an imposition upon our desires.

From Jesus, a "command" is not a do-it-or-else threat but rather an expression of His very strong desire for His people.  And that desire is not just for actions we can "paste on" the outside of our lives.  Rather it is for a relationship with Him that will produce an inner change--which in turn will produce the right outward actions.

When God "assembled" Adam in the garden, He breathed right into Adam's soul an intense longing for his Creator--a longing rich with trust, love, and dependence.  Then God woke Adam and entered his life as the fulfillment of that very desire.  Jesus now admonishes each of us to return to that original, rightful state for all mankind.

WHEN GOD LAUGHS

When our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them."  Ps. 126:2, R.S.V.


Somewhere, somebody started a rumor that God doesn't laugh.  Once I heard some astute Bible students heatedly discussing this issue.  In all earnestness one young man solemnly declared, "The only time God laughs is when He scorns the wicked!"

I could easily have dismissed his statement but for the haunting awareness that there are probably many others who share his opinion.  And I'm just not convinced that if you trade the "stern judge" image of God for a straight-faced Redeemer you gain much ground.  Either concept leaves one feeling nervous about actually meeting Him face-to-face someday.

Nothing stifles laughter more than being in the presence of a power figure who is straight-faced.  Often these figures use their solemnity to control situations.  There is the high school teacher who is sure that if he mingles mirth with instruction his classroom will become unruly.  And there is the board chairman who feels that any levity will hinder progress in getting through the agenda.

In other words, to keep control, don't laugh.  So, since God has to keep us in control, He doesn't dare laugh  Wrong!  God's preferred method of "keeping control" includes our coming to feel absolutely comfortable in His presence again.  He doesn't need to manipulate us by His solemnity.  He transforms us by His love.  And (ask any child) laughter is that warm canopy that allows two hearts to tug the relationship closer and closer because they are so secure.

When God's people reflect that security, the nations will know it!  One of the "great things" God has done for us is to restore in us that secure and joyful friendship with Him that our first parent knew in Eden.  And we won't be the only ones who will be filled with laughter and shouts of joy!  Listen: "The Lord, your God, is in your midst...; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing ["a shout of joy." N.E.B.] as on a day of festival" (Zeph. 3:17, 18, R.S.V.).

Renewed in His love!  Rejoicing and singing!  Mouths full of laughter at the sheer pleasure of knowing God not only as our redeemer but as our friend!  And it's mutual!  Restored into His image, we will once again reflect His joy.

​GOD'S DISCIPLINE


They disciplined us for this short life according to their lights; but he does so for our true welfare, so that we may share his holiness.  Heb. 12:10, N.E.B.

Imagine a father about to spank his misbehaving son.  The distraught boy pleads for his dad to explain why this is necessary (probably more as a stalling tactic than as a quest for understanding).  But Dad takes him seriously and tries to explain.

What would you think if the father were to say, "Son, I'm spanking you because you deserved it"?  Or, "The law of the household requires it...and you have it coming"?  Or worse yet, "You really annoyed me, and I'm getting it off my chest"?

Though we suspect that many parents do indeed spank their children for those reasons, we intuitively know that they aren't adequate.  None of them relate to the needs of the child.  True discipline is done for the sake of imparting righteousness to our children--to help them walk in the paths of wholesomeness and blessing.  It is not done for the sake of retaliation or merely upholding some abstract code of justice.

And since God is so much wiser than any of us, wouldn't we expect that God is redemptive and educative in all that He does as well?  In all His dealings with us as His "misbehaving children," there is no hint of His being merely punitive or retaliatory.  His actions are not spurred on by His annoyance with us or with our attitudes.  Nor is He indignantly upholding "justice."

God's every action is specifically designed for our benefit.  Righteousness (or rightdoing), embraced within our hearts, is His goal for us, and He wisely sets out to teach us how to live in harmony with His very real world.  He is not content only to legally pronounce us as righteous; He wants us to think and choose and act in harmony with the principles of righteousness.

The central core of the sin problem is that we have turned God out of the center of our lives.  Any remedy that does not restore that is just not equal to the problem.  Our wise heavenly Father is not interested in "settling accounts" or "defending His dignity."  He is interested in restoring a relationship with each one of His children.  Discipline rises to its highest form in His hands: "disciple-ing," winning our free, thoughtful allegiance to Himself.

Should we be content with anything less?

NEW COATS FOR OLD WOUNDS

He provided each of them with a change of clothing.  Gen. 45:22, N.E.B.

It is human nature for us to retaliate when we feel that we have been mistreated.  Even as Christians, we might find our hearts struggling against "forbidden" emotions such as anger and defensiveness.  To withdraw from the offender provides, at best, only temporary relief.  And it leaves us to deal with the guilt we experience at having felt such negative emotions in the first place.

Does God understand?  Or does He merely "keep score"--grimly noting when we fail or stoically approving our stiff-upper-lip "successes"?  After all, He's God!  What can He know of our miseries?  Plenty!  Acted out in the life of His Son, we behold our mistreated, misunderstood, and maligned God not just telling us how we should behave, but showing us Himself.

Another portrayal was through Jacob's son Joseph.  Joseph had a beautiful coat of many colors.  That coat was taken from him by his brothers, who callously sold him as a slave.  Later they dipped his coat in blood and presented it to his father as proof of his demise.  Far from dead, however, Joseph grew to be second only to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt.  Years later famine forced his brothers to unwittingly seek sustenance from the very one they had so mercilessly mistreated.  Joseph held no grudge against them.  He not only gave them the food for which they asked, but he arranged for all their needs to be supplied in the coming years.  And he "provided each of them with a change of clothing."

For the beautiful coat that had been taken from Joseph and dipped in blood, those brothers received coats, as it were, for themselves.  Joseph could have supplied them with funds to purchase their own garments.  Instead, in a gesture of sublime forgiveness, he himself clothed them.  It was more than they had asked for, more than they expected or deserved.  But by doing so, Joseph demonstrated his unconditional acceptance of them.  They did not have to deal with his offended feelings.  And so their relationship was healed.

What wondrous love!  What inspiring sensitivity displayed in service of restored friendship!  When I realize that this is exactly how God relates to me, my heart is tempered toward those who do me wrong.  In them I see myself; and in me, I can only desire that they might see God.

​WHAT IS GOODNESS?

Whoever wants to be first must be the willing slave of all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give up his life as a ransom for many.  Mark 10:44, 45, N.E.B.


The noted German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche defined goodness as that which enhances the sense of human power.  Something is good if it gives one strength to dominate another.  This is what enables one to survive in the evolutionary contest.  The weak who are dominated and destroyed by the strong have no right to survive, according to the evolutionary scheme.  Thus their destruction, said Nietzche, is good.

Jesus Christ held that goodness is found in serving the weak, in ministering to the struggling, and in nurturing the hurting.  Jesus regarded people as of great value--products of His own creative act, not of mindless evolutionary processes.  To neglect or downgrade the disadvantaged not only hurts these persons, but also dehumanizes the ones who so treat them, for it shreds our common humanity.

The philosophy of Nietzche laid the foundations for Dachau, Auschwitz, and Ravensbruck.  The philosophy of Jesus Christ laid the foundations for hospitals, orphanages, and schools.  People like Hitler and Goebbels counted themselves as disciples of Nietzsche.  People like Willian Carey and Albert Schweitzer count themselves as disciples of Jesus Christ.

We read our history books, and we find it easy to loathe the spirit of domination when we see its excesses and extremes.  No one would defend the extermination of millions of Jews.  Yet television violence is based on the same philosophy, and it has millions of devotees during prime time every week night.

What is more, the spirit of competition is one that prizes the domination of the weak by the strong.  Rivalry leads one to care far more about the thrill of winning than about the hurt in the heart of the loser.  As such, it is alien to the spirit of servanthood.

Jesus was not content just to sound a warning against the spirit of conquest and domination whenever He saw it happening.  He spent His lifetime acting out the spirit of servanthood.  Knowing full well that He was the King of kings, He knew also the spirit of His kingdom.  He knew that He wanted the struggling to be aided, the injured to be healed, and the bashful to be made bold.  And so, He came as the servant of all.

Aren't you glad that He did?

GOD SPEAKS WORDS OF COMFORT

It was God who sent me ahead of you to save men's lives.  Gen 45:5, N.E.B.

One of the most familiar stories in the Old Testament is that of Joseph.  Though sold into Egyptian slavery by his older brothers, his integrity dominates the narrative.  He demonstrated unbudging allegiance to the living God and epitomized the triumph of good over evil in the face of insurmountable odds.  In his tumultuous life is portrayed the essence of who God is and how He relates to fallen mankind.

As our text today expresses, Joseph, as a type of Christ, was sent by God into Egypt to act the part of savior to His people.  It is important to note, however, that physical relief, welcome as it may have been, was only the most obvious evidence of God's marvelous dealings with Israel.  For in the person of Joseph was expressed some of the most sublime characteristics of our great God.

With all the power of the Egyptian monarchy behind him, Joseph's attitude toward his brothers, those hateful betrayers of his youth, was extraordinary.  Certainly he would have had every reason, every "right," to extract from them at least some retribution for their treacherous act in selling him to Ishaelite merchants.  At the minimum, he could have justly reprimanded them severely for their heartless wickedness.  Instead, Joseph comforts them!  He invited them to "come closer" to him, to be assured that he did not want them to fear him because of what they had done.  "I will take care of you," he told them with tears of gladness.


Joseph deemed it a privilege to nurture those that he undeniably could have counted as his enemies!  Why?  And in the same breath we might well ask why God would ever consider it a privilege to nurture us, rebels and conivers that we are!  Why has God chosen humility instead of the potential use of His power?  The answer is simple: love.

Love is its own reason.  Why does a mother treasure any opportunity to look after the needs of her wayward teenager?  Would she not speedily forget all past grievances in favor of a renewed relationship?  Similarly, God joyfully counts our restored friendship with Him of supreme value.  Like Joseph, He speaks comfortingly to us: "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jer. 29:11, R.S.V.).

THE LONGINGS OF JESUS' HEART

"I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am."  John 14:3, N.I.V.


Our understanding of heaven takes its first shapes from the stories and pictures of childhood.  I can recall the time when heaven seemed attractive to me for three reasons.  I would be able to fly without effort, I would be able to play with a lion without fear, and I wouldn't have to pull weeds.

As I grew older and faced a few more of the realities of this sin-damaged world, I began to be drawn toward heaven because of its promised relief from pain and death.  I have found that heaven can be craved as an end of poverty, war, prejudice, and even taxes!  Unfortunately, our desires for heaven often fixate at these rather materialistic levels, and we fail to let God stir in us greater longings.  We seldom even know what those desires should be.

So let us listen with our hearts to Jesus' own longings about heaven.  What about heaven stirred Him to look forward to it with such eagerness?  In His well-known farewell conversation with His disciples Jesus told them that He was returning to heaven to make preparation for His friends.  But then He made a very personal promise.  He said that He Himself would return for us, to "take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

In Jesus' mind the most satisfying joys of heaven are not centered in its lovely architecture, its economy, or even its ecology.  For Jesus, heaven is a great place to be with His friends--with us!  Jesus knows that the greatest need of our hearts is not for a tame lion, quick transportation, or even a weed-free garden.  Our greatest need is for a loving, trusting relationship with a close friend.  We are, after all, made in His image.  Those needs are a reflection of His own heart.

Of course, heaven will be a marvelous exquisite place, with nothing to mar its perfect joys and beauties.  But that's just the way He does things for His friends.  He did not intend that the tearless bliss of heaven should be a sop for our selfishness.  Rather He intended that nothing should be in heaven that would detract from the enjoyment of its truest essence: loving, growing friendships.

Wouldn't you love to spend eternity with such a Savior?