How Great a Salvation- Hebrews 2

Have you ever wondered why there is such a difference between the way God portrays Himself in the Old Testament and the New Testament? After all, there is a clear difference, and you don't have to go very far to find examples of it. Take for example Hosea chapter 13. Written around the time of the Assyrian capture of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Samaria in 723 BC, the words of the LORD are instructive. In verses 7 and following, God compares Himself to a lion that will devour Israel because of their unfaithfulness. He says things like "...I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs...I will tear open their breast..." in verse 8. As if that is not enough, in verse 16 God says "...Samaria shall bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by their sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open." It's hard to imagine a more graphic description of rage expressed against a group of people. It's even more meaningful when we realize that these events actually occurred against the people of Israel.

A clue for me is when the writer of Hebrews asks in chapter 2, verse 3 how we will escape if we ignore such a great salvation. After all, if God really isn't angry with our sin, than our salvation from sin is little more than a quick little reprieve that says "OK...just don't do it again". Our salvation through Jesus Christ truly is a GREAT salvation because God is truly angry at us because of our sin. The anger and wrath He expresses in the Old Testament illustrates this vividly for us.

While our God is a loving God, He is also a jealous God. He wants and deserves our worship and obedience. He also knows that the only way He could close the chasm between us and Him was in sending His son to die as the sacrifice for our sins. The penalty for sin had to be paid to show how horrific it is. We could never pay the price, only He could. When you stop and think about it, this salvation provided for us is truly great and should never be ignored.

The Future

During my devotions this morning, I was reading in Daniel Chapter 9, which of course is the chapter that contains the famous seventy sevens or weeks passage. It got me thinking about future events. Dispensationalists believe this chapter lays out the time-line for future events beginning during the time of Daniel. They also believe that there is one remaining 'seven' which has yet to be fulfilled which will be a period of seven years just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Of course there is much debate around this issue and many different opinions as to what events will occur and in what order. The only thing that is clear about this whole debate is the reason for it...the Scriptures that deal with future events are particularly unclear. They are unclear for a reason...God doesn't want us to know too much about the specifics of the future.

But there are things of which we can be certain. First of all, Jesus is returning again. When He does return, it will be in a completely different capacity than during His first coming. He was disguised in His first coming as a lowly carpenter hailing from a city of little regard...Nazareth. But His Second Coming will leave no doubt in anyone's mind who He really is. It's manner will be such that every person alive on the earth will know immediately they are witnessing the appearance of God.

Another thing we know for sure is that once the Lord Jesus returns, things on the earth will be very different from that point on. His Kingdom will be established in a very real and evident way. Only those who submit to Christ will be allowed to remain in this Kingdom, while those who have rebelled and continue to rebel will cast into a different place so that Christ's reign and control of the earth will be complete.

This new Kingdom is what Christians today should be focused on...our hope is in Christ alone, and He will accomplish His will. The earth will be cleansed from evil, and everlasting peace and joy in the presence of the Lord will be ours. With this in mind, I'm always puzzled at the degree of acrimonious debate that goes on today about the little details of the future. Far better that we simply agree to disagree over the minors, and focus our hope and joy on the majors!

The Unnamed Prophet

There are stories within the Old Testament that when you read them, you're left with a series of questions. What does this mean? Why did it turn out this way? What is God trying to tell us? Chapter 13 of 1 Kings contains one of those stories. It is the story of an unnamed prophet to prophesies against the altar of Jeroboam located at Bethel. Not only do we not know his name, but know very little about him other than what is found in this chapter. He is told by God to come and prophesy against this altar, and then leave immediately by a different route without eating or drinking anything while in Bethel. As we read this episode, we learn that another prophet lies to the original prophet and draws him back to eat and drink in Bethel, and thus the first prophet is killed by a lion on his way home. A very strange story...but the other question that must be addressed is why does God include this unique story within the Scriptures? He has a purpose, and it is up to us to look further into this.
I'm struck by several observations. First of all, the lion that attacked the original prophet didn't eat him, nor did he run away. In fact, he stayed by the body until the second prophet came to take it, not attacking anything or anyone else. In other words, this was not a random lion attack. Second, the prior instructions to the prophet were very clear, and had he obeyed them, the lion attack would not have happened. Third, the penalty for disobedience falls completely on to the original prophet because the prophet who lied and tricked the first prophet to return to Bethel was not given any obvious punishment. My natural tendency in reading this is to feel sorry for the first prophet who is betrayed by the prophet from Bethel who lied and said that the Lord had told him to bring the prophet back to Bethel. The first prophet's disobedience to the original command occurred because he thought he had new instructions from the Lord, not out of willful disobedience. Yet he suffered the ultimate penalty for disobedience...death, while the prophet who lied and deceived received no penalty. Thus my first reaction...this is unjust. But God is not unjust. He is holy and righteous. So why did this happen this way? My thoughts...God had spoken directly to the original prophet and had given him clear instructions. His mistake was in accepting second hand instructions that were contrary to the original first hand instructions. He should have maintained his obedience to the original first hand instructions until he received contrary instructions...again first hand. We can fall into the same trap today, though thankfully we usually don't have to worry about being killed by a lion. Those who are walking close to the Lord often get a sense of a calling from Him to a certain type of ministry. It is clear, and it is first hand, i.e. something we sense directly from God. But as we share that calling with others, we may be told that the calling makes no sense, that God would never call us to something like that, or that we're making a huge mistake by following that calling. We may even get advice along the lines that a person feels from common sense that God has instead made us for a different calling. All too often, we forget the original call, and follow the advice of the many "prophets" around us, living and pursuing a calling that is different than what God had planned. What a loss and how tragic that truly is. Let us recall to mind and hold tight to any direct call from the Lord, and pursue that no matter what the prophets around us may say...

The importance of suffering

Living in the United States, I find that there are two related characteristics of our culture here that work against us as Christians drawing close to the Lord. The first is our rampant materialism, and the second is our resulting self-sufficiency. It is expected of everyone living in the U.S., including Christians, that we will work to be self-sufficient. As Christians then, how do we learn to rely on the Lord? This was brought home to me again by a recent trip to Calcutta India, (now called Kolkata), and my ingrained need, (and at times demand), for comfort. We simply do not know how spoiled we are until we go to another culture where comfort is not so accessible. Here in the U.S., I know that most of us seek to avoid suffering, but that keeps us from experiencing what Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. While Paul doesn't go into detail about what his sufferings were, we can tell that they were significant, because in verse 9, he tells us that they were beginning to think they were going to die. But Paul goes on to give us the jewel in this section when he points out that the purpose God had for the suffering they experienced was to make them rely more on God and less on themselves. That's a lessen we all need desperately here in the U.S. Yes, I know there is suffering of many different types here in the U.S., but we're not surrounded by it like so many places in the world. Our suffering is isolated and insulated, so that we're less often taught that we need to rely more on God. While Paul saw suffering as a necessary tool to draw him closer to God, I'm all too quick to see it as a punishment from God. It requires a paradigm shift in how we look at suffering...one from looking at suffering in completely negative terms, to seeing it as having the ability to teach us things that can't be learned any other way. It's a slow process, and one in which I have a long way to go.

Muscle Building

We live in a busy world, occupied with all kinds of activities that drain our strength from us. Add to that the inevitable bad things that happen, and we will have episodes when we are left without strength and hope. David had that happen, and his response is instructive to us. In 1 Samuel 30, while David is off getting ready for battle, the town in which he and his men were living at the time was attacked by his enemies. All of their belongings including their wives and children were taken from them. Clearly, this was a low point for David since verse 6 tells us that he was "greatly distressed". There were several options before David at that point. He could have lost all hope and lived in defeat from that point on, or he could have pursued his enemies filled with anger and rage, risking defeat. David however made a different choice. The second part of verse 6 tells us that he strengthened himself in the Lord his God. We aren't told exactly how he did that, but we can assume that it involved spending time in prayer, and perhaps even praise to God. No doubt he also spent time reviewing in his mind the stories contained in the writings of Moses. In essence, David took his struggles and loss to the Lord, and found strength. I've noticed that as I have times during which I'm in need of strength, I will often go to things other than the Lord such as a good book, or a popular movie or TV program. Yes, it might take my mind off of things, but true strengthening is lacking. I get finished with that activity and I'm still in need of strength. I'm slowly learning that during those times, I'm far better off if I spend time in prayer and reading of the Word. True strength comes only from the Lord. Another instructive lesson from David is that when he had found new strength, he sought the Lord's direction as to his next step. He didn't arise in that strength and pursue his own agenda. He asked the Lord if he should pursue his enemies. The Lord gave him direction and David was able to recover his lost wives and children. In similar fashion, as we gain our strength from the Lord, we should be careful how we use that strength by seeking His will and direction for our lives.

Gospel Amnesia

I've been a believer for over 36 years, but I still struggle to apply the Gospel (or Good News) of Jesus Christ to my life in certain ways. An example of this are the pangs of guilt I feel when I read certain passages. On the one hand, I recognize as Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23 that I have sinned along with the rest of humanity. I further recognize as Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8,9 that I have been saved by grace. Yet, in the strange contortions of my mind, I still expect myself to somehow earn salvation by works through achieving a certain level of righteousness. It is not at a conscious level that I do this, but rather subconscious. The result is that when I read a passage like Romans 12:1 which states that we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, I am assaulted with guilt knowing that I am incapable of doing that. My thinking has shifted away from having my righteousness depend on what the Lord has done for me to having my righteousness depend upon my own performance. I have developed Gospel amnesia. What I am learning to do now, still imperfectly, is to preach the Gospel to myself on a daily basis so that I instead can read passages like Romans 12 and realize that all that is required of me is the presentation of my body to God as a living sacrifice, and He is the One who makes it holy and acceptable. The Gospel really is Good News in that Jesus came to make us righteous and holy, and He does so as we place our faith in Him, and not on the basis of our performance. There is nothing we need to do to make that happen, nor is there anything we can do to make that happen. It is His free gift to us, accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection. It is thankfulness that I should be feeling...not guilt!

False Prophets

In Jeremiah 28, there is an interesting story about a false prophet named Hananiah. Hananiah is prophesying peace for the nation of Judah while Jeremiah is predicting more war, famine, and defeat by the Babylonians. Hananiah is telling the people what they want to hear, while Jeremiah is doing just the opposite. Naturally, Hananiah is the most popular. In fact, if you read the book of Jeremiah, you soon discover that he was not well liked at all, and there were even several attempts on his life. However, the bottom line is that Jeremiah was right, and Hananiah was wrong. It's a historical illustration of being popular and official, acting as if you are speaking the words of God, but in the end, totally wrong. Who looking back would want to be Hananiah rather than Jeremiah? No one. Yet, during their life, most would choose the popularity and message of Hananiah. The story brings out the fact that it is more important to be right than to be popular. Yet, I can't help but think that Hananiah was convinced that he was right as he was speaking peace and prosperity. It's also an illustration of how we can fool ourselves as to what is right. We can be absolutely convinced we are speaking truth, yet in the end be dead wrong...literally. In verses 7-9, Jeremiah gives us a clue to help us find our way. In verse 6, Jeremiah responds to the words of Hananiah by stating that he hopes they come true. My personal belief is that he meant those words. But he goes on to point out that the words of previous prophets agree with Jeremiah, not with Hananiah. Therefore, the burden of proof is upon Hananiah. There are those today who still preach a message of peace and prosperity. Naturally, they are very popular. But the real question is...are they right? Only by looking at the whole of Scripture can we see that God often uses difficulties in various forms to bring us to the place where we are fully dependent upon Him.