Sent to the Difficult Crowd

Yesterday I read this from Ezekiel 3:4-9, “And God said unto Ezekiel, ‘Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.  For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel; not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words you can not understand.  Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have hearkened unto you.  But the house of Israel will not hearken unto you; for they will not hearken unto Me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.  Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads.  As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.’”

Woah!  Did you catch that?  God told Ezekiel that if He had sent him to prophesy to the Gentiles, they would have been receptive.  That is, if… IF Ezekiel had preached to the ignorant heathen of his day, then they would have listened and would have humbly submitted.  But… BUT, God did not send Ezekiel to them. (Maybe He sent someone else to them, I don’t know.  The Bible doesn’t tell us). 

God did NOT send Bro. Zeke to the nations who would listen.  God sent Bro. Zeke to the Jews who wouldn’t listen.  God sent Ezekiel to the hardhearted folk.  God sent Ezekiel to the difficult crowd.  God sent Ezekiel to the impudent children; to the rebellious house.  God sent Ezekiel to his own people, despite the fact that He knew that they would continue to resist the truth.  God was aware of the negative outcome and yet He chose to proceed with the effort anyway.

By the way, the account in Ezekiel 3 is not the only case like this in the Scripture.

Please consider patiently the story recorded in Matthew 11:1 (edited for brevity)…

When Jesus had made an end of commanding His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.  When John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto Him, “Are You He that should come, or do we look for another?”  Jesus answered and said unto them, “Go and show John again those things which you do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.  And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.”  And they departed…

And Jesus said, “Whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, and saying, ‘We have piped unto you, and you have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and you have not lamented.’  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a devil.’  The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.’  But wisdom is justified of her children.”

Then He began to upbraid (that is, reprimand) the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not: “Woe unto you, Chorazin! Woe unto you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.  But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.  And you, Capernaum, which are exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.  But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”

At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes.  Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Your sight.”

“All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.”

I hope you read that carefully.  This is incredibly intriguing.  Even though the people were resistant against the truth, Jesus did mighty works in places like Chorazin, Bethsaida and His hometown of Capernaum.  However, He didn’t do mighty works in Tyre and Sidon, even though (according to Him) they would have received the truth.  Go figure that?! 

Now, I’ve no interest in attempting to discern the “why” behind these two scenarios today.  Truly, the ways of God are interesting and infinitely valuable to study.  And admittedly, I do frequently dive into that bottomless pit in search of answers.  Instead though, today I want to simply draw encouragement from Ezekiel’s call.  Of course, Jesus of Nazareth was under a similar (though more intense) call Himself; but personally, I struggle to identify with His transcendent perfection.  I identify well with Bro. Ezekiel though because he was imperfect like me.  Like me, he sometimes found God’s expectations to be very difficult to stomach (read Ezekiel 4 for details).  I guess Jesus did too in the garden (you know, “Let this cup pass,” etc.), but I still find His example to be so highly elevated that I prefer to examine Ezekiel instead.

 Anyway, consider Ezekiel’s call and commission.  He was sent to proclaim the truth to a hard audience.  What can make an audience hard anyway?  Here are some causes: affluence, education, privilege, activity, familiarity with the message, and there are others…

Let’s be more detailed about these potential causes.  Affluence can make a people group complacent and disinterested.  Education can produce an attitude of cynicism that is impenetrable.  Privilege can harden hearts with such pride that the truth can’t find soil for its roots.  Entertainment can dull people’s senses until the truth looses its appeal.  The diversity and multiculturalism of a pluralistic society can desensitize people until they lose their appetite for absolute truth.  Abundant activity can rob the attention of a congregation.  The failures of past and present leaders can drive individuals to self-reliance and distrust of the man of God.  A thorough saturation of a church body with biblical knowledge may even lead to a familiarity which drains the members of their capacity to be impressed even by the revelations of God.  Past failures among the people might prohibit them from being motivated again.  I suppose the list might go on and on… yet, God has still called certain of His servants to preach to such assemblies.

Yesterday I heard an evangelist say (on a recording) that he had no desire to ever preach in a western culture again.  I do not fault this man for that statement.  After all, his call from God is primarily to third world cultures in Africa.  Such a perspective is to be expected from a man in his type of ministry.  However, the reason for his comment was not due to his call.  Instead it was very pragmatic (I still don’t fault him).  His reason had to do with receptivity.  The people he preaches to are poor, uneducated, underprivileged, oppressed and very open to the gospel.  When he hand’s out truth, the audiences are eager, hungry, interested and responsive.  That kind of experience in ministry would naturally intoxicate a spiritual man with joy and motivate him to continue on the road he is on.

What about us though?  What about me?  God has called me to preach His truth in (what I consider to be) a very comfortable setting and to a relatively cordial society.  However, the aisles of our church are not flooded.  The alters are not full.  Not many are being saved.  Our baptismal pool is seldom filled.  The townspeople aren’t beating down my door for spiritual help, (and they aren’t interested when I try beating on theirs).  The church’s numerical growth is slow.  We don’t exactly have a revival going on here.  In summation, we aren’t winning the battle for souls in Hurlock.

Now, maybe the problem is me.  Or, should I say, maybe the problem is US.  Then again, maybe the problem is the hardness of the hearts in our target population.  Or, perhaps it is a combination of all of those things.  I don’t know for sure.  I do know this much, I have knocked on most of the doors in this town and have found very little interest in God’s gospel truth.  Yet, if God’s commission to me (and to those of you who are here with me) is to proclaim His truth here in the USA, then regardless of whether other people elsewhere might be more receptive or not, we are supposed to preach.  In a way, their response is irrelevant.  We are called to obedience, not to success.  I know, we should never excuse ourselves by blaming the lost for our practical failures.  But, neither should we give up on our mission just because it seems to be difficult, or because a different mission might be more productive by human standards.

God sent Ezekiel to the rebellious house of Israel.  God sent His Son to insensitive Capernaum.  God has sent many of us to the satisfied and aloof field of America.  Surely it isn’t as bad here as it was there.  There ARE still people being saved in America.  The progress may be slow, but it is progress.  But, even if the process of rescuing souls grinds to a complete halt here… our call can still be valid.  Cheer up dear fellow-ministers of God’s grace.  We serve the Living God.  Whatever He commands us to do, we should do it with thanksgiving.  In fact, we should pray even as Jesus did in Matthew 11, “I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes.  Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Your sight.”  The fact that God uses us to reveal truth is enough.  What a privilege!  What a thrill!  Maybe people like to hear it, and maybe they don’t.  That’s not our concern (not primarily at least).  Our responsibility is to be faithful, diligent and passionate in our obedience to herald the Word according to God’s command.  He said sow the seed.  The harvest is God’s business… sowing is ours.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not trying to sooth my conscience.   If you want my honest self-evaluating opinion; the main reason we aren’t seeing more Christian fruit can found by looking in the mirror, not by looking out the front window.  My biggest hurdles to successful evangelism are a lack of concern, a lack of holiness, a lack of discipline, a lack of effort and sadly misplaced priorities.  True, these stumbling blocks would hinder us in the fulfilling of the great commission in any environment.  Yet, I’m just saying, if this is where God has placed us, and if we ever do get our own house in order, and if we still find that the people we’re attempting to reach aren’t receptive, then these passages should encourage us to continue in the gospel ministry anyway… our audience’s attitude notwithstanding.  If God is pleased with us, well… that’s all that matters really.

 

   

Remembering 9/11

“On the sunny morning of September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists, working in teams of 4 or 5, hijacked four commercial jetliners and turned them toward targets chosen for destruction.  Two of the planes, loaded with fuel and passengers, were flown at full speed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in the financial district of New York City.  The buildings burst into flame and then collapsed, killing thousands.  A third terrorist crew smashed their plane into the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. military in Arlington, Virginia.  The hijackers of the fourth airliner apparently intended to hit another target in the Washington, D.C., area, but passengers on the plane realized what was happening and fought back.  This airplane crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania.”[1]  So reads the opening paragraph in an Encyclopedia article chronicling this horrible event that ruined so many things 8 years ago today. 

A small group of militant Muslim terrorists sent over 3000 people unexpectedly into eternity.  Our world was changed.  Wars are still being fought as a result of the events of that day.  Untold billions of dollars have been spent as a direct result of those events.  Fears still abound.  Freedoms have been forfeited.  Politicians still play Machiavellian games with the threat that this (or something worse)could happen again.  Due to unavoidable stereotyping many Arabs among us face constant looks of suspicion from many of their own neighbors (regardless of their actual religious, philosophical or patriotic loyalties).  The violence of that day made life on planet earth one degree uglier.

However, despite all of the emotions and passions that being reminded of that day still evokes in you and me, the destruction and trauma of that day in no way even measures a wiggle on the Richter scale of chaos and catastrophe when compared to the deluge of damnation that is yet in the future.  I'm not saying that 9/11 was no big deal.  It was.  I still remember where I was and who I was with on 9/11.  I remember the first words out of my mouth when I heard the news.  I remember the exact setting when I saw the second plane crash into the second tower of the World Trade Center.  It was surreal.   It was horrifying.  I wanted the day to begin again so that somehow those events could be changed and avoided.  But that day was mild and sanguine when placed beside the great and terrible day that is to come.

In Joel 2:30-31 the great and only living God said, “I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.”

Without taking the time to wade through all of the many eschatological texts describing the coming Tribulation upon this earth, let me say this… I’m so thankful that I’m going to miss that terror.  When God removes His glorious church and His gracious Spirit from the world in an instant at the rapture, this planet is going to be plunged into a 7 year period of demonic domination accompanied by an outpouring crescendo of violent justice.  The pseudo-savior (known to us as the son of perdition and Antichrist) will unleash his satanic wiles upon the nations.  Through a deceptive peace, through domineering politics, through dangerous spirituality and through blasphemous unity, he will open up the way for God’s furious anger against sin; a manifestation of His furor like nobody has ever seen or even imagined.  Economic, medical, psychological, religious and civil bedlam will literally bludgeon humanity into a frenzy of desperation that is utterly incomprehensible to my modern civilized mind... and to yours too, right? 

Many of us are so incredibly removed from any concept of this future reality.  The reality that God sees and attempts to reveal to us is conveniently smothered by our own affluence.  It is lost in our surrogate lifestyle (as we experience life through the mediums of our comfortable technological tools).  It is dulled by our self-inflicted segregation from deep poverty.  It is inaudible due to our own ability to disassociate ourselves emotionally from the superabundance of bad news that we constantly encounter.  The certainty of the coming trouble is hidden from us by the god of this world; the prince of the power of the air; Lucifer.  He has blinded the eyes of men until most of us live like we have no clue that morbid damnation is hovering just over the horizon.  We have been inoculated by painless stories of some strangers suffering somewhere else until prophecies about The Danger don’t even faze us anymore.  The threat of universal tribulation doesn’t even register. 

But, brother… it’s coming nonetheless. 

When the Son of God returns to put His human and divine feet upon this earth again, He will not be a meek sacrifice here to save the world from condemnation… no, He will be here as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, treading the winepress of the wrath of the Almighty.  The blood of His enemies will run deep.  Don’t ever forget the heart binding (yet eternally inspired) descriptions of God’s holy might (found in the Bible):

“Our God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24 & Hebrews 12:29).

The “LORD God of heaven, [is] the great and terrible God…” (Nehemiah 1:5).

Oh, the “enlightened” man will deny these visions of our Creator in exchange for some neutered version, but God’s eternal justice remains unaffected by any fool’s rose-tinted meanderings in speculation.  Luke 20:17b-18 does indeed show us a softer side of the Divine nature.  The passage shows us a God who loves to forgive and is willing to forget.  But, it also points distinctly to the demise of anyone who fails to yield willingly to the loving Savior’s offer of salvation through His blood: “The Stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?  Whosoever shall fall upon that Stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever It shall fall, It will grind him to powder.”

In summary, Paul said it best, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men...” (II Corinthians 5:11a).  The prosperity gospel is not for the age of grace.  Feel-good Christianity can wait until the Millennium.  In the mean time, we had better get serious about the rescue effort.  There’s joy in serving Jesus, ‘tis true.  But there is also a profound gravity in it as well.  We must be ever mindful of the price that was paid on Calvary, the potential loss for a rejecting soul, the limited time that we have to evangelize and the certain fiery end for all unbelievers… 

Pretending that 9/11 x 10^10,000 isn’t coming (or that it won’t be as bad as the Bible predicts) doesn’t change the verity of its impending arrival one iota.  It just makes us less likely to help others prepare an escape. 

Jesus is coming again!  Twice!  He’s coming in a rendezvous in the clouds to deliver His children from the impending fury of the Father.  Then He’s coming again to the Mount of Olives to destroy His enemies and to set up His kingdom.  Only those of us who believe His Word and receive His spirit are safe.

Are you ready?  Are you safe?  Have you been born again?  Do you love the truth?  Is your confidence in Jesus Christ alone?  Do you have an invoice declaring that your sins have been forgiven?  Is your ticket to heaven valid?  Are you sure that you will ascend with the rest of the saints in a moment when the inviting shout from heaven is heard?

The cost of being left behind is infinite.  The events of September 11^th, 2001 don’t even begin to scratch the surface of what you will face if Jesus comes and you remain here without the rest of us.

“Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves” (II Corinthians 13:5a).

  

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What is a firmament?

Truth: I’m no scientist.  In fact, I didn’t take any science classes in college.  However, there are certain terms used in the Bible that have a distinctly scientific ring to them, so science has become both interesting and important to me in ministry.  One such term that drives me to science is the word “firmament.” 

We read in Genesis 1:6 that God created a firmament on that first Monday.  Taking that verse at face value it would make perfect sense even without a dictionary, without any scientific expertise and without any Hebrew lexicons.

Read it here: “God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.’  And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.  And God called the firmament ‘Heaven.’  And the evening and the morning were the second day” – Genesis 1:6-9.

God called this firmament thingy-ma-dodger… “Heaven” – seems plain enough then, right?  If all we had to go on was our own observations of the physical universe and along with the various references to the material heaven(s) in the Scripture, I think we would arrive very much where God intended for us to be… that is, looking into the sky.

My common secular dictionary defines firmament as follows:

1.  sky: the sky, considered as an arch (literary) 

2.  where stars are: the world occupied by all the stars in a particular field such as the theater or sports

3.  originating ultimately from the Latin word, firmus: “firm, strong.”[1]

Strong defined it thusly: “an extended surface (maybe solid), an expanse, the vault of heaven supporting waters above.” And finally, the marginal alternative in several of my Bibles is the word “expansion” – so, I take all of this to mean the God caused there to be an opening or shall I say simply… some space above us.  This area is the firmament; heaven; the sky.

On a smaller scale, I imagine myself under the water in a deep swimming pool.  As I look up from the bottom of the pool I can see the surface of the water above me.  All of the water between my eyes and the visible surface of the pool above me would be a firmament of sorts; i.e., the area separating me (and the air in my lungs) from the air above the surface.  Of course it’s just the opposite in the case of the actual firmament.  The water is below and above separated by a mass of air.

Perhaps you have heard postulations concerning this water which was above the firmament back then as a result of God’s intervening division.  In Genesis 7:11 Moses recorded that “in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened…”  If the windows (floodgates) of heaven were opened at that time for the first time and the whole earth was covered with water as a result, then perhaps there was more water high in the atmosphere before Noah’s flood than there is now.  I’ve heard it called the canopy theory.  It sounds plausible.  Either way though, there is still water above and below today too.

Simply put, as everyone knows, H₂0 comes in three forms: solid ice, liquid water and gaseous vapor.  Indeed we find it in the ground, on the ground, in the air and on the air.  What then would the firmament be today except the space between us and the water filled clouds that float mysteriously above us.  It seems simple enough to say that on that second day of creation God brought into place the elements, molecules, and forces necessary so as to make this phenomenon (which we usually we take for granted) into existence.  I speculate that He either pronounced the chemical and physical principles necessary to get the desired effect or maybe He created substances which would behave in accordance with the desired effect that He had in mind (based on laws that He had already put into place).  Who knows?  None of us were there.  We have to take His account and make the best sense out of it that we can using the intellect and the Spirit that He has given to us.  Either way… however
He did it; He did it.

Surely we can agree that when we walk outside on a clear day there seems to be a particular depth and a perceivable distance connected with the blue expanse above us.  Maybe at night the black surface seems to draw somewhat closer to us (so that we feel as if we could “reach out and touch the stars,” as some say), but still, it too seems to have a particular depth to it despite the fact that our eyes may be looking into outer space at stars placed and unfathomably varied distances from us.  It seems to me that this is the effect that I’m flailing to describe is the exact product of that which God brought into existence on day two.  And, He did it for a reason. 

We read in Psalm 19:1-6, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handywork.  Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge.  There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.  Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.  In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.  His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it…”  Nature declares the glory of our God.  We may fall far short of His glory (beauty), but He is in the business of revealing it to us again and thereby drawing us back into it and to Himself too.  Romans 1:19-20 reiterates this truth: “That which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse…”

“What good is all this to me?” you ask.  I know, this isn’t science class or Sunday School.  Indeed I’ve likely made some glaring errors in the technical details and analysis of the skimpy knowledge I have about the natural world.  All of this about the firmament may not seem to be so significant on the surface.  But friend, I tell you that there is no higher purpose for you and me than to pause and worship our Creator today.  What better thing to draw that worship from your heart and mine than by looking momentarily at the artwork of the infinitely almighty artist and architect of this universe.  Look now!  Meditate upon the God who caused that blue sky to set consistently outside your window.  Allow yourself to be momentarily mesmerized by the wisdom and kindness of our magnificent Creator as seen in His works.

Our God is an awesome God.  The firmament tells us so.