Old Testament Archives - Page 121 of 143

Repentance and Fatherhood (Father Hunger 6)

Joe Harby on April 22, 2012

Introduction

The word repentance means a “change of mind,” but in the biblical vocabulary this entails much more than mere intellectual assent to a different proposition than was held to before. If sincere, it represents an entire turning, and it includes what we would call the heart.

The Text

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Mal. 4:5-6).

Summary of the Text

We know on the authority of the Lord Jesus that this passage is talking about His ministry. We know this because Jesus identified “Elijah the prophet” in this text with the ministry of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:14). Before the great day of the Lord, Elijah will come and in his ministry of repentance (turning the people back to God), he will also have the effect of turning people back to one another—particularly the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers.

In this chapter of Malachi, the day is coming when the wicked will be consumed like dry grass in an oven (v. 1). But for those who fear God, the Sun of righteousness will arise, and there will be healing in His wings (v. 2). The result will be that the godly will tread down the wicked (v. 3). The godly (members of the new covenant, remember) are charged to remember the law of Moses, given at Horeb for all Israel (v. 4). Elijah is coming before this great day (v. 5), and he will be the basis of reconciliation between fathers and their children, and children and their fathers (v. 6).

A Turned Heart, A Given Heart

In Proverbs 23:26, Solomon pleads with his son. He says, “My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.” In our text, the reconciliation is described as a turning of hearts, and here we have the giving of the heart. The parallelism in this proverb shows us that the giving of the heart involves imitation (willingness to observe the father’s ways). Fighting the natural impulse of imitation is what drives estrangement, and surrendering that fight is what constitutes the reconciliation.

When a father asks for this—“give me your heart”—what is he pleading for? He is asking his children to imitate him. This is what children do naturally (Eph. 5:1; cf. 1 Cor. 4:16; 1 Cor. 11:1), unless that natural impulse has been continuously insulted. If a father says, “Give me your heart,” what will he say if the question comes back, “Why?”

Two Kinds of Authority

There are two kinds of authority that a father may have. He always has at least one of them, simply by virtue of being the father, but he may or may not have the other. Think of it in this way.

There is the authority of having a checkbook and checking account. You own it. Your name is in the upper left hand corner. You are the authorized signatory on the account. You have the full authority to write checks from that account. No one questions it. That is one kind of authority. The second kind of authority is what comes from having a good bit of money in that same account. Applying our illustration, the former authority is simply positional authority. The second kind of authority is what we call a moral authority. The former argues, “I am your father.”The latter simply knows, “I am your father.”

Too many fathers want to be able to write checks simply because they own the checkbook, and not because they have made any deposits in it.

What They Need Protection From

We have already learned that a man’s basic marching orders call him to provide and to protect (Gen. 2:15). Since we are imitating God the Father, we should see that before providing “the bacon,” a man must first provide himself. And because we are living in the kind of world where protection is needed, a man’s first impulse to protect should be informed by the realization that he is the first one his family might need protection from. Eve certainly needed protection from the serpent, but prior to that, she needed protection from her abdicating protector.

Remember that when St. George fails to fight the dragon, in that instance, St. George has become the dragon.

Children Included

When this work is accomplished, we see that the healing is done on both sides of the divide. Fathers who have been harsh, distant, demanding, or abdicating are given a heart of repentance, and they turn (with that heart of repentance) back to their children. But if the children have been provoked to anger (Eph. 6:4), if the children have been embittered because their father had not been mindful of their frame (Ps. 103:13-14), the Spirit of God moves in them, and they are able to lay that bitterness down. They are able to forgive. If someone has wronged you, being bitter about it is simply saving a souvenir from that special occasion. But if you hated the play, then why would you save the ticket stubs for your scrapbook?

Healing in His Wings

The call to repentance is the entryway into grace. We are called to surrender our pride, and to come into His grace, in which we are invited to stand (Rom. 5:2).

Returning to the point of the text, we assume that the fathers and the children in it are not where they ought to have been. When the healing of God comes, it is healing where there was sickness. There is restoration where there was ruin. There is reconciliation where there was estrangement. This is what the gospel does. This is why Jesus came.

This is why it is no good despairing—it is entirely beside the point to say that it is “too late for you.” If the preacher declares that Jesus came for those who are all messed up, is it a refutation to say that this cannot mean you—because you are all messed up? Jesus came for those who are sick, not for those who are healthy. He came for the sinners, not for the righteous (Mark 2:17). Don’t argue that this can’t mean you, for you are sick and sinful.

We preach a message of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18). And if we are reconciled to God (Rom. 5:1), then it follows that other kinds of reconciliation will fall into place (1 John 1:7).

What Fathers Are For (Father Hunger 2)

Joe Harby on March 25, 2012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

The fact that God is a perfect Father is a two-edged sword, and we must take care that we not emphasize just one of them—lest we damage our souls . . . and our families. God is a perfect Father, and we are fallen creatures. This means that God is a perfect Father as an example, in front of us, and this means that we always fall short. This is one edge. This is why a series of messages on biblical fatherhood could be filled with condemnation. But here is another edge, cutting and piercing, but not like a sword slash in battle. It is more like a surgeon’s scalpel, bringing healing and restoration. God is not only a perfect Father in front of sinners, He is a perfect Father to sinners. He does for us what fathers ought to do. And so it is that we are not consumed.

The Text

“And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Gen. 2:15).

Summary of the Text

This is of course from the creation account. Just prior to this verse, we have a description of the Garden of Eden, and of the two trees that God placed in it (v. 9). We are told about the goodly rivers that came from the one river flowing from Eden (v. 10), and we are also told of the metals and precious stones to be found there (v. 12). Just after our verse, we have the prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (v. 17), and a description of the creation of the woman (v. 18ff.).

In verse 15, the Lord God took the man, put him in the place prepared for him, and gave him his directions. He was put into the Garden in order to do two things. He was put there to “dress” and to “keep” it. These two verbs describe for us what men are for. The word for dress means to tend, or till, or serve. The word for keep means to watch, keep, protect, preserve. And so Adam was placed in the Garden, and he was told to provide for it, and to protect it. Those marching orders took on a much higher level of significance in the verses that follow, when Eve was created. She was a garden within this garden, and so he was called to provide for her, and to protect her.

The command that is given in verse 17 gives us the sin of commission that Adam was guilty of (Gen. 3:6). But we often overlook the sin of omission that was clearly involved. He was told to provide for his wife, and yet the serpent came to her and provided for her. He was told to protect his wife, and yet he stood by and failed to protect his wife from the serpent. He had been given the prohibition before she was created, and he knew directly from God what he was supposed to do. So be assured of this—when you find yourself doing something you ought not be doing, it is almost always preceded by a neglect of something you ought to have been doing, and yet did not.

Justification and Sanctification

Godly fatherhood (on a day-to-day basis) must absolutely be based on the free grace of God that is offered to us in Christ Jesus. We are justified in Him, which means that when God looks at you, considering whether to deal with you at all, what He sees is the absolute perfection of Jesus Christ. In the free justification that God offers (because of the cross), what kind of father are you? You are a perfect father, because Christ was and is perfect, and His perfection has been imputed to you. This sets you free from the curse of condemnation (Rom. 8:1), and it means that you can set about the work of being a father to your children without fear or guilt. The things you will apply as you and your wife give yourselves to the work of being Christian parents belongs entirely to the realm of sanctification. In being a father, you are not trying to earn anything from God (for all has already been given). You are rather trying to give something to your children, in free imitation of the free gift that has been given to you.

Never forget the gospel in this. You are not a bramble bush trying to grow an apple so that you might be turned into an apple tree as a reward. You are not a coyote going baa baa in order to turn into a sheep.

Provision

All that said, your natural instinct with your children should be yes. Not the yes of a push-over, or the yes of a fearful and craven doormat, but the yes of a father. And when you say no (think ahead to the second category of protection), you are doing it because the yes involved is as plain as anything to you, and is still invisible to your children. All they can see is no, but you should know better. You say no to candy before dinner because you want to say yes with the dinner. You say no to lazing around on the couch because you want to say yes to the productivity of a lifelong work ethic. In this realm, motive is everything.

Fathers who say no simply because they can are being diabolical fathers. What do demons do? They say no just because (1 Tim. 4:3).

A man who does not provide for his household is involved in denying the faith, and is worse than an infidel (1 Tim. 5:8).

Protection

We must not allow ourselves a false and pristine view of the nature of the unfallen world. The first bloodshed was before the fall, when God took a rib from the side of Adam (Gen. 2:21). The sleep that Adam was put into was a type of death, before the fall. Death and resurrection patterns are more violent now (John 19:34), but they nonetheless existed before the fall. And God required an unfallen man to protect an unfallen woman from an enemy, and He required this before either of them had sinned. They sinned because they did not treat that enemy as an enemy. So fighting did not bring in sin. A lack of fighting brought in sin. Had war broken out in the Garden, it would still have been a perfect world. It would have remained a perfect world.

Fathers, what does a protector do? What does a watchman on a tower do? What does a security guard by the doorway do? He looks for enemies. He is suspicious. He is suspicious on behalf of his teenaged daughters (who are as a class not suspicious), and he should do this with a fierce loyalty. When a daughter says that “some boy” is “so nice,” a father’s eyes should narrow. But your model for security should be that of a fierce Levite with a spear guarding the sanctuary, and not a TSA agent full of hassles for everybody. Again, why are you saying no?

Anger

Joe Harby on January 29, 2012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Texts

“Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul.” (Proverbs 22:24-25)

“He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.” (Proverbs 14:29)

Hot Noses

A literal rendering of these two texts would start something like – Prov. 22:24 “Do not be a friend with a lord of the nose . . .” And Prov. 14:29 “A long nose will understand much . . .” These make a little more sense when you understand the Hebrew idiom for anger and patience – a hot nose.

Something doesn’t go your way, seems to be unfair, seems not the way you want it to be, not the way that it should be, and you get hot in the face.

Notice what this heat in the face is inspired by – some perception of injustice.

Anger is an intense and burning urge to see that which we think is wrong, uneven, and unbalanced, to be made right, even, and balanced. It is an urgent sensation that you have been somehow wronged and that justice needs to be done.

Two Kinds of Anger

This means that it is possible for anger to be right and godly. And it is possible for us to be consumed by an ungodly anger.

Most obviously, God is capable of great, righteous anger. Rom. 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men. . .” Throughout the prophets we hear of the coming wrath of God and the day of his wrath. John the Baptist preached about the coming wrath of God (Lk. 3). And the book of Revelation is filled with vivid descriptions of God’s wrath, poured out like bowls of wine on earth or described as a winepress that all the unrighteous will be tread in. Psalm 2 tells the kings of earth to “kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little . . .” God has intended to display his wrath. “What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction . . .” Rom. 9:22). But his wrath is entirely just, directed at the unrighteousness of men.

But then there is man’s anger. The first recorded instance of anger in Scripture is Cain. Cain is convinced that God has wronged him by not giving him the favour that he thought was owed to him.

Other great moments in the anger of men –

Jonah 3:10-4:5. “And it got hot.” Jonah sees that God is having mercy on Nineveh and asks to die because things are so bad. He is convinced that the just thing would be for Nineveh to be nuked. And it gets him hot to see Nineveh get mercy.

Luke 15:28. “But he was angry and would not go in . . .” This is really the same story all over again. In both of these stories a man is angry seemingly on behalf of justice, while the one who truly had the right to be angry has given mercy.

Wrath of Man vs. Wrath of God

So we see God getting angry with a perfect and righteous and holy anger. And then we see men getting sinfully angry, trying to justify their anger as right and good. James contrasts these two kinds of anger – James. 1:19-20.

James corrects here our sinful confusion. When we are heated, we become blinded by the delusion that what we are after is justice. And there are two parts to this delusion. First, we tell ourselves that a terrible injustice has been committed and that is what has provoked our anger. And second, that our anger, the heat of our outrage, is itself the solution to the problem.

Dealing with Anger

So how do we deal with the anger that rages in our hearts? First, we have to understand the difference between the anger of God and the anger of men. Rom. 12:17-19. Vengeance is God’s. In other words, anger does not belong to us. When anger creeps up on you, it does so by making a case that you have a right to feel this way, that your outrage is just. Dealing with anger begins with refuting this. You don’t have a right to wrath. You too are a sinner, in need of forgiveness. Get this perspective and let go of the anger. “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes. 5:9). Through salvation we are saved not only from the wrath of God, but we are also delivered from our own sinful wrath.

Application

If you have a problem with wrath, what do you do?

1. Identify it, and stop justifying it. If you can’t let go of the “demands of justice and righteousness” then you need to step back and honestly assess what the demands of justice and righteousness actually are in your own case. Do you deserve the wrath of God? Are you going to be the unrighteous servant who’s choking the debt out of his fellow servant?

2. Once you’ve identified it, confess it. Let go of it. Name it to God, and then name it to everyone else that saw it. The confession should be as public as the sin.

3. Now that you’re ready to be done sulking under the gourd tree, go into the party. And if you recoil at the thought of this, then go back to step one again and keep doing this until you are ready to go into the party. God didn’t appoint you to wrath, he appointed you to salvation.

The David Chronicles 32: A Study in Failure

Joe Harby on January 22, 2012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

As 1 Samuel comes to a close, the life of Saul comes to a miserable end. As we will see, the manner of his death was a fitting picture of the way he had lived his life throughout the course of his reign. His reign was a long pattern of self-destruction, and in the end, Saul took his own life—the final act of self-destruction. He died the way he had lived, destroying himself.

The Text

“Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa. . .” (1 Sam. 31:1-13).

Summary of the Text

The chapter begins with the Philistines attacking, and they routed the men of Israel. As they fled from the Philistines, the carnage took place on the mountain Gilboa (v. 1). The Philistines were in hard pursuit of Saul and his three sons, and they successfully killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua (v. 2). In the next verse, the battle was going hard against Saul, and he was badly wounded by the Philistine archers (v. 3). The language here indicates an ongoing battle, which means it was not an utter rout. His wounds apparently made it impossible for him to continue the fight. Saul then told his armor-bearer to kill him, to keep the Philistines from abusing him. The armor-bearer refused, and so Saul fell on a sword, taking his own life (v. 4). When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he followed him, doing the same thing (v. 5). And so Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and a number of other men with him, all died on the same day (v. 6). The men on the other side of the Jordan (not very many miles away), when they saw that the battle had gone badly for them, evacuated their cities, which the Philistines then occupied (v. 7). The Philistines came around the next day to strip the dead, and it was then that they identified Saul and his three sons (v. 8). They decapitated Saul, stripped his armor, and sent the armor to their homeland in triumph (v. 9). They displayed his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth—similar to how the Israelites kept Goliath’s sword at the house of the Lord. Saul’s body was then hung on the wall of Beth-shan (v. 10). When the men of Jabesh-gilead heard what had happened, their valiant men went there and recovered the bodies of Saul and his sons, brought them back and burned them (vv. 11-12). After that, they took the remaining bones, buried them under a tamarisk tree, and fasted for seven days (v. 13).

We should say a quick word here about the story of the Amalekite at the beginning of 2 Samuel who tried to ingratiate himself with David by falsely claiming to have killed Saul. The story was false (conflicting with this narrative), and David convicted him on his own terms. We should rather trust the author of 1 Samuel than a self- aggrandizing (and not very smart) Amalekite.

Burial and Cremation

The customary biblical approach to the dead is that of burial. The customary pagan approach is that of burning the body in cremation. The difference has to do with making a good testimony about the hope of resurrection, and not because it is somehow harder for God to raise someone who has been burned than one who has been buried. The resurrection is not threatened by any degree of decomposition, however it happens.

For example, Joseph gave instructions about his bones, and he did this because he wanted to make a declaration of his faith (Heb. 11:22). In this passage, the heroic men of Jabesh-gilead burned the bodies of Saul and his sons because wanted to prevent any further dishonor to the bodies. This was the whole point of their mission. Jonathan is not going to be short-changed on the day of resurrection. Later in the story, David has the bones of Saul and Jonathan (and presumably the others) moved from this place to the family tomb (2 Sam. 21:12-14). Among the Israelites, there is one other mention of burning bodies (apart from unique penal or sacrificial situations), and it is found in Amos 6:10, where the concern is apparently to stop the spread of contagious disease. Under ordinary circumstances, though, the biblical pattern for dealing with the bodies of the faithful is through burial—in sure and certain hope of the resurrection.

A Study in Failure

The trajectory of Saul’s life had certainly been one of spiraling failure. He was characterized by his stiff-necked and close-fisted jealousies, and it was by this that he destroyed himself. By the end of his life, it could not be said that the Philistines had killed him—he had done it himself. It could not be said that David had removed him from the throne—he had done it himself. It could not be said that anyone other than Saul was responsible for the disaster of his final days. Saul did all of this by his own hand or, more specifically, by his own devouring envy. His end was decisive—he was struck with arrows, pierced in his belly, had his head cut off, and then he was burned.

He was buried under a tamarisk tree. The last time we saw him there, he was holding a tyrant’s spear in his hand, and lying about David (1 Sam. 22:6).

And yet, despite the fact that Saul fell to his death in this great catastrophe, we see even in this tragic conclusion, the height from which he fell. The men of Jabesh-gilead who retrieved his body were the first Israelites whom Saul had delivered from their enemies (1 Sam. 11:5-11). They were still grateful for what Saul had done in his better days. This is true also of David, who delivers one of the noblest eulogies ever (2 Sam. 1:17ff).

40 Years for Nothing

This book begins with a leader of Israel dying, along with his sons, as the result of a disastrous battle. The book ends the same way. The book begins with the Philistines in the ascendancy, and the book ends in the same way. The book begins with a great Philistine victory in battle, and it ends the same way. And yet, Saul’s appointed mission had been to deliver Israel from the Philistines (1 Sam. 9:16).

Saul did not do what he was commissioned to do. We are devoted to good works that God has commissioned us to do (Eph. 2:8-10), but our lives will go exactly as Saul’s did—unless we trust in the greater David, the Lord Jesus. He is the only one who perfectly fulfilled the mission that was entrusted to Him. Therefore God has highly exalted Him—as He did with David in a type—and this is why we can walk in the good works that God prepared beforehand for us to do.

The David Chronicles 31: The Open Hand Rules

Joe Harby on January 15, 2012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

This chapter recounts a victory that David has over the Amalekites, a battle that occurs at the same time that Saul is being overcome by the Philistines. David comes into a great victory on the third day, and his persistent adversary Saul dies at the same time. Although this passage tells of David’s victory, a large portion of the text deals with David as the gift-giver, David as a generous-hearted king.

The Text

“And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way . . .” (1 Sam. 30:1-31).

Summary of the Text

David and his men took three days to get home, and when they got there they found it had been burnt by the Amalekites (v. 1). They had not killed anybody, but took all the women and children captive (v. 2). David and his men came back to devastation (v. 3). They all wept until they had no more ability to weep (v. 4). David’s two wives had been taken as well (v. 5). David was in great trouble; his men were talking about stoning him. But David encouraged himself in the Lord (v. 6). He summoned the ephod that Abiathar had (v. 7). The prophetic word told him to pursue the Amalekites and that they would recover everything (v. 8). And so they took to the chase (v. 9). When they got to the brook Besor, 200 men had to be left there (v. 10). Remember they had all been on the march for three days already.

As they continued their pursuit, they found an Egyptian in the field, and they fed him (v. 11). When they did this, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten for 3 days and 3 nights (v. 12). David found out who he was, and why he was abandoned there (v. 13). He outlined the course the raiding Amalekites had taken (v. 14). David asks if he can lead them to the Amalekites, which he agrees to do upon the condition of being spared (v. 15). When he led them there, they were spread all over the place, celebrating (v. 16). David attacked them immediately, and the fighting lasted into the next day (v. 17). Only 400 of them escaped (the total number that David had with him to begin with). David recovered everything and everyone (vv. 18-19). David was given all the spoil (v. 20).

On the return, they came to the men who couldn’t cross the Besor, and they came out to greet David (v. 21). The men of Belial that David had with him wanted to give them their own wives and children only, and send them off (v. 22). David answers in terms of the Lord’s generosity to them (v. 23). David rules in terms of the law (Num. 31:25-31), but he also legislates in the spirit of it (vv. 24-25). When David returned home, he distributed from the spoil to the elders of Judah, in all the places where David and his men were accustomed to go (v. 26-31).

The Third Day

Paul tells us that Jesus rose on the third day in accordance with the Scripture (1 Cor. 15:4). But how was this in accordance with Scripture? It was not so much a specific prophecy as it was something in agreement with the motifs of Scripture, in harmony with some repeated themes. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days (Matt. 12:40). On the third day the Lord will raise us up (Hos. 6:2). The first sign of life in the creation week was on the third day (Gen. 1:11-12). Isaac “died” and came back to life on the third day of their journey to Moriah (Gen. 22:4). The Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel at Sinai on the third day (Ex. 19:11,15-16). These days are not just counters; they signify.

On the third day, Saul dies. On the third day, David weeps, seeks encouragement from God, and is raised up. And what a resurrection! On the third day, David finds an Egyptian slave who had been without food and water for three days. On the third day, the Amalekites are scattered. On the third day, David takes plunder from the adversary. On the third day, David gives gifts to men. On the third day back in Ziklag, David receives news of the death of Saul.

David Honored

David had sought encouragement from God, and God had granted it. When confronted with an obstacle, unlike Saul, David did not conclude that God had abandoned him. An obstacle was simply and opportunity to trust. He seeks God’s direction, and when he gets it, he follows it. When he follows it, what does God do for him? The one who honors God, God will honor. David smote them (v. 17), David recovered all (v. 18), David rescued (v. 18), David recovered all (v. 19), David took (v. 20), and so it was all David’s spoil (v. 20).

All of Scripture ties together. Moses was also in the wilderness for a time, and had to deal with the people wanting to stone him (Ex. 17:4). And Moses had to deal with this right before a victory over the Amalekites (Ex. 17:8). God loves to put on the same play over and over again, casting different actors in the same role. And they picked up stones to throw at Jesus (Jn. 8:59).

The Kingly Heart

A despot knows how to work with bribes and influence peddlers (1 Sam. 22:7). This is not the same thing as imitating the generosity of God. The cosmos works according to the laws of reciprocity without being a vending machine. You can trick a vending machine.

When 200 of his men grow faint, David is an understanding leader (vv. 9-10). When they come upon an Egyptian slave, they feed him—before knowing if he can be a help to them or not (v. 12). When they return to the men who had been left with the supplies, David makes a law for Israel—the supply corps shares in the spoil (v. 23). Compare this to the sons of Belial who thought they were being generous (v. 22). And David then gives gifts throughout the region (vv. 26-31).

The key principle is found in v.23, and in the heart of David. Freely we have received; freely let us give (Matt. 10:8).