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The David Chronicles 10: Samuel and Saul

Joe Harby on May 29, 2011

Introduction

We are now introduced to the first king over all Israel, a man who began well and ended poorly. There are signs of trouble from the very beginning, but there is also grace from God that is clearly present. The fact that we know there will be a fall does not prevent the goodness bestowed from being true goodness. God showed great favor to Saul.

The Text

“Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people . . .” (1 Sam. 9:1-27.

Summary of the Text

Kish, the father of Saul, was a great man (v. 1) in a tiny tribe. This man Kish had a son named Saul, who was both handsome and strong (v. 2). Now a herd of donkeys belonging to Kish were lost, and Kish told Saul to take a servant and to go and find them (v. 3). They obeyed, making a wide circuit without locating the donkeys (v. 4). Saul suggested returning before his father started worrying about them instead of the donkeys (v. 5). But the servant responded by saying that there was a man of God (Samuel) in the city were they now were, and perhaps they could ask him about the donkeys (v. 6). Saul’s only objection was that they had nothing to offer the man of God (v. 7). The servant had a quarter of a shekel of silver, which was sufficient (v. 8). In the old days, prophets used to be called seers (v. 9). And so Saul agreed (v. 10).

As they approached Ramah, they met maidens who came to draw water, and asked after the seer (v. 11). They replied yes, he was ahead of them, approaching to bless the sacrifice in the high place (v. 12). The maidens say where to find him, because the people will wait for his blessing (v. 13). And when they came to the city, they ran into Samuel (v. 14). Now God had prepared Samuel for this the day before (v. 15). God had heard the prayers of Israel and was going to answer them through Saul (v. 16). And when Samuel first set eyes on Saul, the Lord spoke to him again. This is the man (v. 17).

Saul approached Samuel in the gate and asked where the seer lived (v. 18). Samuel identifies himself, and tells Saul to ascend up to the high place ahead of him (v. 19). As for the donkeys, they are found (v. 20). When Samuel says that Saul is the desire of Israel (v. 20), Saul responds modestly (v. 21). Samuel took Saul, and seated him prominently among about 30 men (v. 22). And Samuel told the cook to give Saul a choice portion which Samuel had set aside previously (v. 23). So Saul was given a shoulder portion and ate it (v. 24). They came back down from the high place and talked on the top of Samuel’s house (v. 25). Saul spent the night there (v. 26). They walked together to the outskirts of the city (v. 27), where Samuel had the servant go on ahead. And then he anointed Saul as a prince (10:1).

Let God Sort it Out

The text makes it clear that establishing a king like the other nations was going to be a bad deal (1 Sam. 8). In asking for a king the way they did, they were rejecting God (1 Sam. 8:7). This is one of the great themes of the whole book. In the very first chapter, Hannah asks for a son (1 Sam. 1:20). She later says that she named him Samuel because she had asked for him (1 Sam. 1:27-28). But Samuel means “His name is El,” and not “asked for.” The word for ask is sha’al, from which we get Saul. Hannah had Sauled for Samuel. Samuel was all the Saul that Israel needed, and we are told this on the first page of the book. And of course, Samuel labors to keep the king from being a disobedient king (Dt. 17:15-16).

But at the same time, Samuel anoints Saul and kisses him (10:1). He doesn’t say, “take your stupid monarchy.” He gives him a choice portion of the sacrifice, thus adopting him (v. 24; Lev. 22:10-16). That portion was probably for the priest and the priest’s family (Ex. 29:27), but in any case was a portion of high honor. And the text explicitly says that God was giving them Saul “to save my people out of the hand of the Philistines.” God says that “their cry is coming unto me” (v. 16). Saul begins with manifest princely virtues (v. 2), and in genuine humility (v. 21). What is coming is a fall.

A Foreshadowed Trouble

When Saul asks the maidens drawing water about the seer, the way they answer is interesting. They tell Saul where Samuel will be found, at the high place (v. 12), but they also add the information that the people will wait for Samuel, not partaking until he has arrived (v. 13). But this is precisely the way in which Saul failed as a king. He did not wait for Samuel to come to bless his sacrifice (1 Sam. 13:8-10)

In the Midst of Sin

Samuel labored for grace in the midst of sin. God showed grace in the midst of sin. Sin can be individual, and sin can be corporate. When the godly are placed in the midst of corporate sin, what do they do? They do not have the option of a “do over,” going back to the point of failure and making the right choice this time. We have to start making right choices in the very middle of very bad downstream consequences. God does not call us all to make the same choices, or to take the same stand. Ehud was called to assassinate Eglon in a way that Obadiah was not called to assassinate Ahab. When Nehemiah’s men were told to surrender their arms, their right response amounted to “come and take them.” But Jeremiah required the people to surrender to the Babylonians. But we are all called to take the same kind of stand, responding faithfully to the Word of God.

Counter-cultural obedience is not a “one size fits all” sort of thing. But it is a “one heart fits all” sort of thing. But make special note of this. “The heart must be right” is not intended to be an all-purpose excuse for whatever it was you already wanted to do.

The David Chronicles 9: Like All the Nations

Joe Harby on May 22, 2011

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Introduction

The Lord provided a great deliverance at the second battle of Ebenezer, and Israel was greatly blessed by it. But blessings are like manna—they must be replenished daily. They go bad over time; they don’t keep well. Yesterday’s grace stinks by the time today’s troubles set in. Grace must be replenished constantly. Now Samuel was an adult at the time of the battle, and he was a great blessing for many years as he judged Israel. But when this chapter opens, he is an old man—probably about 30 years later. So Israel did not stumble over this point three weeks after the battle, but they did stumble over it.

The Text

“And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment . . .” (1 Sam. 8:1-22).

Summary of the Text

When Samuel was old, he provided for the succession by making his sons judges (v. 1). They lived in the far south, in Beersheeba, and judged Israel there. Their names were Joel and Abiah (v. 2). But they were not upright like Samuel; they took bribes and bent justice (v. 3). The elders of Israel came to Samuel in Ramah (v. 4), and they said that Samuel was old, his sons were not like him, and so they asked for a king like the other nations had (v. 5). Samuel was displeased about this, but prayed to the Lord (v. 6). And God said that Samuel should do it, and encouraged Samuel by saying that it was not Samuel they were rejecting, but rather the Lord (v. 7). They were now doing to Samuel what they had done all along to the Lord (v. 8). So, the Lord said, give them what they ask for, but warn them about the consequences (v. 9). And so Samuel warned them with the words of God (v. 10).

This is what a king like the other nations will be like—he will conscript sons for his army (v. 11). He will build a fancy and impressive infrastructure, and he will staff it (v. 12). He will take daughters to be confectioners, cooks, and bakers (v. 13). With this last reference, there may be an allusion to a harem (2 Sam. 13; Job 31:10). He will seize the best fields and lands, and give them to his favorites (v. 14)—eminent domain is older than the Kelo decision. In order to fund all this, he will take a tithe of your produce (v. 15). He will conscript servants (v. 16). He will take a tithe from the flocks, and reduce Israel to servitude (v. 17). Israel will cry out because of this internal oppression, but the Lord will not hear (v. 18). Samuel said all this, but the people refused to listen (v. 19). They wanted a king for three reasons—that they might have status like the other nations, that he might be a judge over them, and that he might go out before them to fight their battles (v. 20). Samuel heard what they said and reported it all to the Lord (v. 21). And so the Lord said to Samuel that he should comply with their request (v. 22).

The Coming King

Gideon had been used as a deliverer of Israel, but when he refused the crown he did so in stark either/or terms. Either Gideon would rule or the Lord would (Jdg. 8:23). In the period of the judges, there was one man who was proud enough to try to be king, and that was Abimelech (Jdg. 8:31), Gideon’s son by a concubine. That was a short-lived experiment. And yet the author of Judges indicates that some of their lawlessness arose from the fact they did not have a king (Jdg. 18:1; Jdg. 19:1). The added comment that “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” indicated there was some sort of problem (Jdg. 17:6; Jdg. 21:25). Deuteronomy anticipates the sin of wanting a king like the goyim have (Deut. 17:14-16), but then charges them in the law to prohibit the kind of thing that Samuel said would certainly happen. The law allowed for a king, but not for a king like the nations had. He could not be a foreigner, and he could not multiply in a 3G fashion—guns, girls, or gold. When the moment came, Samuel knew they were off on the wrong foot, and his words of warning were prophetic. They were the words of God.

A Pattern of Sons

Eli was a good man, a leader in Israel, and he had two natural sons, both of them corrupt. His adopted son, Samuel, was an upright man. Samuel was a leader in Israel, and he had two natural sons, both of them corrupt. His adopted son, Saul, began humbly and well, but the temptations of his office soon turned him aside into corruption. Saul was a leader in Israel, a corrupt man, and he had two of the noblest sons found in Scripture— Jonathan and Ishbosheth.

The Rule of God

Samuel bore some responsibility for this. He appointed two corrupt judges, related to him, which gave Israel the excuse they needed to seek for a king like the other nations had. At the same time, this was just a convenient excuse. They had two judges who corrupted justice at the Little League level, so what sense does it make to demand a king who would do it at a World Series level? Israel didn’t like getting her feet wet at the beach, and so they swam out to sea.

The dire warnings given by Samuel seem modest when set alongside the claims of the modern overweening state. What we wouldn’t give to get back to a ten percent level of taxation! The significance of this number lies in the comparison, not in the amount. When the king claims as much as God does, or more, this is a (sometimes thinly) disguised claim to Deity. But the solution is not this party or that one, this protest or that one, this politician or that one. The solution is repentance, a repentance that works its way out into Christian self-government. Self- control, a fruit of the Spirit, is the foundation of all political liberty. Without that, your choice is the tyrant in the red hat or the despot in the blue one.

The David Chronicles 8: The Second Ebenezer

Joe Harby on May 15, 2011

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Introduction

The reformation we see here in this passage was slow in coming, and did not last very long. But at the same time, it was real. Reformations are messy, and cannot be understood by the tidy-minded. As we live in a time that is desperate for real reformation, there are many things for us to learn here.

The Text

“And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD. And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD . . .” (1 Sam. 7:1-17).

Summary of the Text

So the ark of the covenant was taken to Kirjathjearim, a predominantly Gentile town, and it was kept at the house of a man named Abinadab. Abinadab’s son was named Eleazar, and he was consecrated to take care of the ark (v. 1). The ark was there for twenty years, and the entire house of Israel lamented after the Lord (v. 2). We know from other chronologies that this was the time when Samson destroyed the temple of the Philistines, and so Samuel judged that the time was right for reformation. The Israelites were suffering at the hands of the Philistines (v. 3), and Samuel told the whole nation to do three things, which all amounted to the same thing. He told them to wholeheartedly return to the Lord (v. 3), to put away their idols (v. 3), and prepare their hearts to serve the Lord alone (v. 3). And so this is what Israel did (v. 4). Samuel saw this, and so he mustered them at Mizpeh so that he could pray for them (v. 5). This they did, and consecrated themselves (v. 6).

The Philistines heard about this, and went up against them. The response was one of fear (v. 7). They turned to Samuel, asking him to pray for them (v. 8), which is why he had called them together in the first place (v. 5). Samuel offered up a lamb as an ascension sacrifice, and God heard his prayer (v. 9). The Philistines arrived just as he was sacrificing, the Lord thundered from the sky, and the Israelites routed them (v. 10), and pursued them to Bethcar (v. 11). And so Samuel set up a memorial between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer (v. 12).

The Philistines were set back all the days of Samuel (v. 13). The Israelite towns controlled by the Philistines, from Ekron to Gath, were returned to Israel (v. 14). And there was peace with the Amorites as well. Samuel judged Israel to the end of his life (v. 15). He was a circuit judge, traveling between Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpeh (v. 16), and his hometown of Ramah (v. 17).

A Lament for the Lord

Israel has the ark back from the Philistines, but everything is still unsettled. There is not a place of worship, like there was at Shiloh, and the ark is being kept was a consecrated man at somebody’s house. This was the state of affairs for twenty years, and the entire nation felt it. It tells us that “all the house of Israel” lamented after the Lord.

Reformations are real solutions for real problems. As William Tyndale once put it, God is “no patcher.” He doesn’t fuss around the edges. His approach is a root and branch approach. Jeremiah once spoke of the tendency of false prophets to “heal the wound of the people lightly” (Jer. 8:11). When someone rushes in to address the people’s “felt needs,” or to tell them “how to have their best life now,” the message is a light daub. Israel’s worship here is in raggedy tatters, and this is the way it is for twenty years—recognized as such for twenty years.

Samuel’s Message

One might argue that Israel’s real god here was their fear of the Philistines. Even after their repentance, they fear (v. 7). God is gracious, and responds even when men cry out to Him with mixed motives. Think of how God even responded to Ahab, for example (1 Kings 21: 27). Their trouble was the Philistines (v. 3). Because of it, they cried out to the true God (v. 2). The victory of Samson had just happened, and Samuel decided that it was time to call for a decision.

As mentioned before, Samuel calls them to three things. The first is to return to the Lord with all their hearts (v. 3). Having done so, they were to purge their lives of the strange gods and Ashtaroth. These baals were the male deities, and the others were the female fertility figures. Get rid of them all, Samuel said. And the third thing was to prepare their hearts to serve the living God only (v. 3). Here they are again: 1. Return wholeheartedly; 2. Purge out all idolatry; and 3. Pursue God only.

Now the fact that the Israelites listened to Samuel, and got rid of their baals and Ashtaroth (v. 4) means that their twenty year lament for the Lord (v. 2) was compromised.

Reformation and Worship

If Israel had gathered at Mizpeh, and had gone to war with the Philistines without repenting, what would have happened? They would have been soundly defeated again. The actual battle here is what we might call an instrument. If they had not repented, they would have used that instrument, and when they did repent they used that instrument. But when a repentant heart picks up an instrument, the attitude is entirely different. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord (Zech. 2:6).

We are surrounded by Philistines, and we are beleaguered by them. The ancient Israelites had to deal with Ekron and Gath, with Ashkelon and Gaza, and with Ashdod. We have to deal with predatory taxation, and abortion on demand, and sodomy exalted. We have to deal with corruption in the highest places, and with moral stupidity in the lowest. We see this, and go out to battle, and what happens? We get our tails kicked. Why is this? It is because of that little god shelf we have at home. It is because the gods we serve do not want to go to war with their fellow idols. We must return to the Lord, we must throw down the idols, and we must pursue the Lord, and the Lord alone.

Easter Sunday 2011: A Rest Remains

Joe Harby on April 24, 2011

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Introduction

We are celebrating Easter, the day on which we commemorate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead. But not only did He rise, but all things were restored in Him, which is something we model, not only annually, but also on a weekly basis. We worship on the first day because we are privileged to have a weekly Easter, a weekly memorial of life from the dead. Eventually we may be able to shake the name Easter (a Germanic fertility goddess, for crying out loud), but in the meantime we can rejoice that the names of the baalim don’t mean much to us anymore (Hos. 2:17). Thursday is Thor’s Day, and who cares anymore? This is an endearing quirk of English- speaking peoples—everywhere else Christians have the good sense to speak of Pascha. During the transition, if someone objects that Easter used to be a pagan name, we can reply that this seems fitting—we used to be pagans. But now we are Christians, and Christ is risen.

The Text

“There remaineth therefore a rest?? to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his” (Heb. 4:9-10).

Summary of the Text

The Scriptures in the older testament speak of different rests—all of which the believer is invited to enter into on the basis of faith. God created the world and He rested. God promised Abraham the land of Canaan, which was another rest. And God promised that Jesus would come to bring an ultimate salvation rest. This means that believers throughout history were invited to enter into the antitypical rest of Jesus by approaching every lesser rest with the eye of true and living faith. But now that Jesus died and rose in history, this does not mean that we have no tangible rests to work through any more. No, God helped the Old Testament saints look forward to the resurrection, and He helps us look back to it. There remains a Sabbaath-rest for the people of God (v. 9). But why? Verse 10 often throws us because of the dense cluster of pronouns. We still have a Sabbath-rest because “he” has entered a rest, and has ceased from “his own works,” in just the same way that God did at the creation (v. 10). We need to fill this out.

It is sometimes assumed that the he here is a repentant sinner, ceasing from the futile labor of trying to save himself. But why would we compare the ungodly labors of self-righteousness to the godly work of creation? Why would we compare a foolish sinner to a wise God? Why would we compare an incomplete and botched work to a glorious work that was fully completed? It seems like a really bad comparison.

But what if the He is understood as Jesus? Jesus has entered a rest, just as God did. Jesus recreated the world, just as God created the world. Jesus said it was finished, and God looked at what He had made and said that it was very good. Jesus ceased from His labor of recreating the heavens and earth, and entered into the reality of the new creation. God labored for six days and nights and rested. Jesus labored for three days and nights and rested. Therefore, the people of God still have a Sabbath rest. Therefore, we worship God on the first day of the week (the day He entered His rest) instead of on the seventh day of the week.

A Regulative Reality

First, some background. We do not have the right to worship God with whatever pretty thing comes into our heads. The apostle Paul elsewhere calls this tendency “will worship” (Col. 2:23). In Reformed circles, the desire to honor this truth has been called the “regulative principle”—that which God does not require of us in worship is therefore prohibited. All Protestants need to be regulativists of some stripe, and the best expression of this principle that I have found is this one: “Worship must be according to Scripture.”

But there is a strict version of the regulative principle which is impossibly wooden, and it is not surprising that there are many inconsistencies. We can’t have a piano, because they are not expressly required. We can’t sing songs by Charles Wesley because he and other hymn-writers are not authorized. You get the picture. But we also have no express warrant for serving communion to women, or . . . worshiping God on Sunday.

A Few Hints

The most we have are a few hints. John tells us that there was a specific day that he called “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10). The apostle Paul tells the Corinthians that they should set money aside “on the first day” (1 Cor. 16:2). We are told of an instance where the disciples gathered on the first day of the week to break bread and Paul taught them (Acts 20:7). But if we are looking for express warrant, this is thin soup.

The Real Reason

How does God require things of us? What does He do to get the message to us? Are His actions authoritative? Well, yes. The material universe was created on Sunday (Gen. 1:5). The Jews had been observing the seventh day Sabbath for centuries. God appears to have told the Jews that the seventh day observance would be an everlasting covenant (Lev. 24:8). But then the day shifted from the seventh to the first without any notable controversy. How could that be? What could account for this? Nothing less than the total recreation of all things. Behold, Jesus said. I make all things new (Rev. 21:5; 2 Cor. 5:17). He came back from the dead on the first day of the week (Mark 16:9; John 20:1), meaning that this was the day on which the reCreator entered His rest. Jesus made a point of appearing to His disciples on this same day (John 20:19). His next appearance to them was a week later, on the following Sunday (John 20:26). The Holy Spirit was poured out fifty days later, also on Sunday (Acts 2:1). And in the main, the Christian church has never looked back.

Not one Christian in ten thousand could give a decent biblical defense of our practice of worshiping God on the first day, and yet here we all are. Look at us go. Can we account for this through an appeal to the stupidity of blind, inexorable tradition? No—we should actually attribute it to the fact that two thousand years ago God overhauled everything, raising His Son from the dead in broad daylight. Jesus entered His rest, and consequently we may rest and rejoice before Him.

Palm Sunday 2011: A Plot Twist Triumph

Joe Harby on April 17, 2011

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Introduction

The triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem is the prelude to His crucifixion, and so it is odd that it has come to be called the triumphal entry. But it actually reveals a good understanding of what was actually happening there. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly (Ps. 118:16), but it turns out to have been the left hand. That it was a left-handed triumph did not keep it from being a triumph. No one thinks that the Greeks lost the Trojan War because the Trojans hauled what they thought to be a trophy of their victory inside the city walls.

The Text

“The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death. But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses” (Psalm 68:17-21).

Summary of the Text

The Bible is filled with many descriptions of triumph. Many of them are of the straight up the middle kind, as here. But when God overcame the rulers of that age, who did not know what He was doing (1 Cor. 2:8), the language of these right-handed triumphs is applied straight across. The psalmist pleads with God to arise and scatter His enemies (v. 1), which the Lord then proceeds to do. The Lord is among myriads of angels, in the holy place (v. 17). He then ascended on high, prefiguring the ascension of the Lord Jesus into Heaven (v. 18; Eph. 4:8). The Ascension looks like a triumph ought to look, but it was prefigured (accurately) by a march of death in faith. God is the God of our salvation, and He daily loads us with benefits (v. 19). The God of our salvation holds all the issues of death in His hand (v. 20). God shall win a complete victory, wounding the head of his enemies (v. 21).

A Most Unusual Triumph

Christ entered the conquered city in triumph before He had conquered it. Usually you have the battle and after that the victory parade. Jesus, the model of all faith, reversed the order. He held a triumphant procession before the battle. This had all been laid out in Scripture beforehand, and Scripture cannot be broken. Jesus knew that, because He saw Scripture rightly. And it did not matter how explicitly He spoke of this plan, spiritual blindness— attached as it is to the wisdom of the world—cannot comprehend it, and cannot overcome it (Jn. 1:5).

But we can understand how it is that they could not understand. Not only did Jesus conduct the victory parade before the victory, but His victory, when He came to it, was accomplished by dying, and not by killing. He crushed the serpent’s head by allowing Himself to be bruised by a crushing blow (Is. 53:5). And so being crushed was actually the crushing blow.

But the lack of spiritual understanding was not because the words were unclear.

“From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Matt. 16:21)

When God Speaks in Code

As Christ entered into His victory, so should we. We are Christians, imitators of Him. What then is your triumphal entry? Have you been demoted, insulted, wronged, or badly handled? Has the Lord of all affliction assigned a portion of that peculiar blessing to you? Do you chafe because Lot pushed ahead of you and chose the choice portion, right next to Sodom? Are you mystified because after Samuel anointed you the next king, all the promotion memos resulted in you hiding from Saul in the wilderness? Why does God persist in thinking that down is the way up?

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matt. 5:11-12).

This is how God speaks in code; this is how He hides the purloined letter. He says what we would rather not hear, and does so bluntly, overtly, plainly, and with all clarity. If we receive it in faith, the promise is apportioned to us in accordance with our faith. If we say, sorry, we “can’t do that, not after what they did to” us, then the first thing we ought to do is consider the possibility that what they are saying is not false. The promise does not belong to those who reject the terms of it. When we take up our cross to follow Jesus, as He required of us, the process includes exulting in a great victory by faith beforehand.

The Righteous Shall Enter

But Christ is righteous, and we are not. Of course He knows how to do this kind of thing. But how can we approach the “gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter” (Ps. 118:20)? “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in” (Is. 26:2). How do we enter those gates? Because Christ defeated the devil in this “upside down” fashion, it is possible for sinners to respond to His invitation. Left to our own devices, we would have entered the wrong gate, taken the wrong entry ramp. We would have done the obvious thing. He made it possible for us not to.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matt 7:13).

In order to do this right, we have to stop thinking like scholars, and start thinking more like little kids.

“And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:3).

“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:14).