The Sovereign Over Nations

March 9, 2024Todd R 2 Comments

Fellow travelers,

Jesus said in Luke 14:11 – “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah used striking word pictures to show that God does this with entire nations, not just with individual people.

First, Isaiah describes the ancient nation of Babylon as a woman, who exalted herself but will be humbled, in Isaiah 47:1-3:

“Come down and sit in the dust,
            O virgin daughter of Babylon;
sit on the ground without a throne,
            O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
            tender and delicate.
Take the millstones and grind flour,
            put off your veil,
strip off your robe, uncover your legs,
            pass through the rivers.
Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
            and your disgrace shall be seen.
I will take vengeance,
            and I will spare no one.”

Ancient Babylon exalted themselves above all nations, claiming to be the greatest power ever in the world. Here Isaiah says Babylon will be publicly disgraced, called down from the throne, and made to do menial labor. While God had used Babylon to judge His people and bring them into exile, Babylon would not escape being humbled before God.

Then Isaiah gives a contrasting picture about the future of God’s people in a humble woman who will be exalted in Isaiah 52:1-2:

“Awake, awake,
            put on your strength, O Zion;
put on your beautiful garments,
            O Jerusalem, the holy city;
for there shall no more come into you
            the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Shake yourself from the dust and arise;
            be seated, O Jerusalem;
loose the bonds from your neck,
            O captive daughter of Zion.”

Here the “daughter of Zion,” God’s family, will be freed from bondage and put on beautiful garments. Spiritually, this means His people will be freed from slavery to sin, which will not exist in the new heaven and earth to come. What a glorious future we have!

Therefore, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” – James 4:10

Of Love and Forgiveness

March 8, 2024Todd R 1 Comment

Fellow travelers,

Have you known Christians who love well? Not ones who know the Bible well, or who know all the right doctrines, or who are involved in many church activities. Not even a person who writes (or reads) a great blog. These are not bad things, and they may help someone become more loving, but they aren’t the same thing as being a person who loves as Christ loved. Who loves well.

Not everyone like this gets there the same way, but Jesus mentioned at least one specific way: the more we know how great God’s forgiveness for us is, the greater is our love.

This comes from Luke chapter 7, in the story about “a woman of the city, who was a sinner.” This woman broke an expensive flask of ointment over Jesus’s feet, then wiped the ointment on His feet with her hair and tears. What a bold statement of devotion to Jesus she made!

However, Jesus was criticized by a Pharisee for not refusing this act of worship: “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”[1] To the Pharisee, an upright, respectable religious person should have nothing to do with this sinful woman.

In response, Jesus tells a parable about a man who was forgiven a very large debt, and therefore loved the one who forgave him more than another man did who was forgiven a smaller debt. Jesus contrasts the actions of the Pharisee – who didn’t treat Jesus with nearly as much honor as the “sinner” – with the woman, and says: “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

We don’t know much for sure about this woman’s sins, but we know the Pharisee was aware of them and hated her for it. He thought her sins were worse than others and should exclude her from any social interactions. We also know that she was aware of how great her sin was, but she also knew that Jesus loved and forgave her anyway, even though her sin was great. Jesus tells us her devotion is proof of that.

In this story, those with “checkered” pasts, full of sin, pain, and suffering, can become the most passionate believers, as they know what the gospel is capable of overcoming first-hand, in themselves and in others. Jesus and his early followers went to these outcast people, and the faith of that first generation of Christians changed the world forever!

So, who is willing and able to reach out to sinners in the same way God reached out to them in Christ? Those who have a very real sense of how great are the sins God that has forgiven them. Often the greatest “sinners” are the ones who learn how to love well.

[1] Luke 7:37-39

Give Up Your Lists

November 8, 2023November 5, 2023Todd R 1 Comment

Today is part 3 of a series on the first Beatitude from Matthew 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Monday covered how the statement could make both the “proud” and the “ashamed” humble and be blessed by God. Tuesday was about the rich young man who was fully set on earning his own salvation to see that it was impossible, all while Christ was right before him, loving him and offering him salvation by grace.

Today begins with Luke 18:10-14 –

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Similar to Monday’s post, this passage is a rebuke to the proud, while comforting the ashamed, which is made clear at the end of these verses. This passage also plays on stereotypes of the Pharisee as one who would have been perceived as religiously superior, versus the tax collector, who was under the ban, or that time period’s rabbinic version of excommunication^[1]. At the end of the first sentence, the audience would have been expecting the Pharisee to pray well – after all, they were the “experts.” But as an “expert” in the law, the Pharisee prays (and thinks) in terms of lists of good things and lists of bad things. As a result, he is able to credit himself with all good things and the tax collector with all bad things because his lists aren’t complete.

The Pharisee manages this level of pride in spiritual accomplishment by narrowing down his list of sins to “things that other people do.” He also excluded more subtle or internal manifestations of sin from his lists. For example, at other times, Jesus said Pharisees “devour widow’s houses,”^[2] which may have been a form of extortion. Also, in his heart he may have been unjust and an adulterer just by making this prayer – judging the tax collector and misrepresenting God. God’s justice on the tax collector was poured out on Jesus – who was this Pharisee to say who that justice applied to? Also, in over-emphasizing the law, the Pharisee was “cheating” on God by idolizing the law as a way to salvation.

By narrowing the list of sins to “what others do,” and reducing those sins to the external evidence of them, rather than the heart level, this Pharisee blinded himself to his own need, and therefore missed the blessing of the Beatitude. The only way to feel rich in spirit before God is to lower the standard, or to humbly accept Christ’s righteousness – the riches of His spirit – in place of your own.

In Psalm 51, King David wrote of his repentance after committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband Uriah killed in verses 16-17:

“For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

This broken spirit and contrite heart recall the first Beatitude’s promise of blessing and the ability to follow God’s will, which David prayed for back in verse 12 of Psalm 51:

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

We can’t constantly compare our record of our sins with our record of the sins of others if we want to receive God’s blessing. Our records are always incomplete and biased. Doing so is only likely to destroy our ability to love those who God loves and to whom He offers His grace, including ourselves. We are poor in spirit, but we only realize it when focusing on Him, and we only are blessed when we decide His standard and opinion are the ones that matter. If we are Christians, the standard is Christ and through our adoption as children of God, He sees Christ’s righteousness when He gives His opinion of us.

Humbly knowing this, we can go to our house justified, and in eternity be exalted by Him, the only one we should compare ourselves to and the only one whose judgement matters. For now, this humility enables us to love God and love others as we love ourselves.

To find joy, give up your lists of sins and replace them with Christ.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:3

[1] See an earlier post, Found! A Man in Need of an Ally, for an explanation of the ban as applied to tax collectors, and for Jesus’ striking decision to forgive Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector.
[2] Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47

The Cost of Being a Good Samaritan

November 2, 2023October 29, 2023Todd R 4 Comments

Years ago, I heard a sermon illustration about a parent looking out the window and seeing their kids playing with a skunk. Naturally, they yelled out to the kids “get away from there and come inside!” The kids quickly came inside but brought the skunk with them! The point of the story is that when we want to help others, sometimes their problems become our problems. There is a cost to truly loving others.

The same principle comes out of the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the well-known parable a man is robbed, beaten, and left for dead on the side of a road. First a priest, and then a Levite, passed him by. But a Samaritan, a member of a group despised by many Jews, stopped and helped the man. This help had a significant cost, as described in Luke 10:34-35:

“He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’”

Here’s a list of what the Good Samaritan provided for the man in these two verses:

Likely some kind of cloth to bind the wounds. He likely tried to use the cleanest cloth he had with him and ripped or cut it as needed.
Oil and wine, which he “poured” on the man’s wounds. He is more concerned about treating the man than about pouring out too much.
A ride on his own animal. The Samaritan walked alongside, giving the man the more comfortable trip to the inn.
Money. Denarii is the plural of denarius, which was about a day’s wages for a laborer. The Samaritan spent at least two days wages (“two denarii”) and promised to pay more if needed.
Ongoing care and concern. The Samaritan promised to pay “when I come back.” He was going to make a return trip to the inn to check up on the man.

Contrast this to the priest and Levite, who both “passed by on the other side” to avoid being contaminated by the man, who appeared dead. The Samaritan was more concerned about providing help than about whether he would become ceremonially unclean.

Loving people often has costs, including significant ones and ones we don’t anticipate, like the skunk that ended up in the house in the opening example. While we can’t help everyone in need that we come across, and we’re unlikely to come across someone beat up and left for dead, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” – James 2:15-16

“No one can do everything, but everyone can do something” – Max Lucado

He Humbles and Exalts Nations

September 7, 2023Todd R Leave a comment

In a parable about humility, Jesus said in Luke 14:11: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” While the parable is about individual people, elsewhere God also makes clear that he can humble or exalt entire nations. While Luke 14:11 may contradict much of what we see in our world today, at the final judgment the truth of the verse will be made manifest, and God promises it will be so.

As an example, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah spoke of God’s power over the nations. Around 605 B.C., Babylon invaded Judah and carried them into captivity, and about 70 years later, Judah was allowed to return home by Cyrus the Mede, who had defeated Babylon. Over a century before Babylon’s invasion, Isaiah prophesied their entire rise and fall around 700 B.C., when Babylon was not yet even a world power. Isaiah described the final destinies of both Babylon and of God’s people in startling images.

As recorded in Isaiah 47:1-3, God’s vengeance on Babylon was described, probably before they even considered capturing Jerusalem:

This is contrasted to the future of God’s people in Isaiah 52:1-2:

Did you notice the parallels? In Isaiah 47, Babylon is disgraced, cast down from the throne and made to do menial labor. Babylon is stripped of their beautiful clothes and publicly shamed, sitting in the dust.

Contrast to Isaiah 52, which describes the daughter of Zion as rising up from the dust of disgrace under Babylon, from whom she has been freed. She dwells in peace, awakening and dressing herself in beautiful clothes. What a beautiful future!

However, note that God removes Babylon’s temporary throne but does not put His people on a throne. That honor belongs only to Him, and Babylon’s presumption in taking that place is the reason they need to be humbled. By humbling themselves before God’s throne, His people follow the example Jesus gave at the wedding feast in verse 10 of the Luke 14 parable: “But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.” God will honor the humble.

By demonstrating power over entire nations in history, He has proven He has power over nations now and in the future. And if He has power over nations, He has power over whatever frustrations we have with the state of the world. He alone is on His throne.

So, if you are frustrated with the powerful and influential who puff themselves up in defiance of God, or if you wonder whether being humble is really a better alternative, remember:

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

For people as well as nations.

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