Fri, 30 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

Ezekiel 33:7-11

⁷ “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. ⁸ If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. ⁹ But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

¹⁰ “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ ¹¹ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Today’s passage from Ezekiel is very familiar, at least to those of us who grew up having missionary conferences every year. This passage of the watchman was always a favorite for those meetings as it encourages us to think about our own personal responsibility for bringing the gospel to those around us. It is a sobering passage when we think of how we have failed so many times to tell people the gospel message.

In the passage is an interesting statement where God has Ezekiel tell Israel that I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. This statement is one of the proof texts used by those who believe that people are sovereign in salvation and not God. “Look,” they will say, “if God is sovereign in salvation, and He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, then He will save all the wicked. None will perish. Since God doesn’t desire the wicked to perish in their sin, but experientially we see that most of the wicked do perish in their sins, therefore God must not be sovereign in salvation. God wants them to be saved, but He either can not or He chooses to not force them. People make their own choices, and often those choices are contrary to what God desires. Therefore people are sovereign in salvation.”

The short answer is that they are reading something into the passage to interpret it that way. Clearly, the point of the passage is that God calls for all to repent of their sins, and He does not get any evil pleasure from damning people who do not repent. The point is not to tell us how much God is involved in changing the hearts of people to enable them to come to saving faith. The point God is making through the prophet is that people are responsible before God to repent of their sins and turn to Him in faith, and that God uses people to bring that message to the lost around them.

Scripture is clear that people can only come to God in saving faith if He enables them to do so. And God for His own reasons does not chose to cause all to have saving faith. He is sovereign in salvation.

What do we learn from this?

We are commanded to tell people about the holiness of God, the punishment due upon sin, and what God has done in Jesus Christ to save His people from their sins. We are to warn people of the coming wrath for their sins, and call them to repentance and faith. God has given us both the privilege and the responsibility of bringing the gospel to the people around us.

People will not all listen to this warning, but they will bear the responsibility for not listening. And as we neglect to warn those around us, we are responsible before God.

God is sovereign and will bring His people to salvation. But He has chosen to use people as the instrument of sharing the gospel. We are to take the gospel to the people around us. As we neglect to do that, we are unfaithful watchmen, failing to carry out our duty before God to the people around us. We are to point the people around us to Jesus Christ the Savior.

Where is Christ in this passage?

We warn people to turn from their sins and to turn to the substitute God has provided for their salvation. As watchmen we are to point people to Christ the Savour.

Thu, 29 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

Galatians 5:2-4

² Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. ³ I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. ⁴ You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Paul has been arguing against those who add conditions to the Gospel. They were requiring people to become Jewish and follow the ceremonial law to be Christian, adding rule upon rule as conditions for salvation. This is summed up in the requirement that men to be circumcised.

In today’s passage, Paul comes directly to the point: if you expect to be saved by getting circumcised, there is no salvation for you. You are severed from Christ.

What do we learn from this?

We are saved by grace through faith, and not by any works we do. If we are trusting in something we have done for our salvation rather than trust in God, we are damned, because as soon as we are trusting in our own works, we are trusting in ourselves rather than in God.

As Paul puts it, when you trust in in yourself Christ will be of no advantage to you. Because if you rely upon yourself, you must completely keep the law always. Since no one can keep that standard, there is no salvation for you if you are trusting in yourself. You are severed from the Christ who can save you.

Where is Christ in this passage?

To trust in yourself is to be severed from Christ. He is the one who has perfectly kept the law that we have all failed to keep. He is the one who pays the penalty for the sins of His people, and He gives His righteousness to those who come to Him in faith.

But if we come to Him dressed in our own righteousness, trusting in what we have done, we are separated from Christ and are in our own sins. We are damned.

The command here is to trust in Christ and Christ alone for our salvation, and not to trust in anything that we have done, no matter how good or pious it might be.

Wed, 28 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

2 Samuel 24:18-25

¹⁸ And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up at Gad’s word, as the LORD commanded. ²⁰ And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. ²¹ And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be averted from the people.” ²² Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³ All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “The LORD your God accept you.” ²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵ And David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.

Today we come to the end of Second Samuel. In this closing chapter we have the strange and disturbing story of how David took a census of Israel and in response God brings a plague.

There are some things that are hard to understand in this. In the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 21, we are told that Satan incited David to number Israel, and here we are told that God did. So which was it? The answer to that lies in how we look at it. Since God controls everything that happens, it was ultimately done according to His will and can be attributed to Him. We know that God is not the author of evil, but even in this He is sovereign.

As 1 Chronicles makes clear, the instrumental cause was Satan, and so it can be attributed to Him. Satan could not have done so apart from God’s allowing and sanctioning the action, and so it is in accordance with God’s will. But Satan acted in his own right and according to his own motives, and he bears his responsibility for the action.

Another difficulty is understanding what was wrong with David numbering the people. There have been numerous times when God had the leaders number the people. What was wrong with counting them this time? We are not told other than that this angered God. Perhaps David was growing secure in the size of his nation and was trusting in the people and his army. In numbering the people, he was showing a lack of trust in God. But this is speculation.

At the conclusion of the plague, while the angel of the Lord is still standing over Jerusalem, David purchases the thrashing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, where the angel is poised. There David offers sacrifices, and God is appeased. The plague is over, and the chapter and book end.

It is important to note that this thrashing floor is where the temple will be built.

What do we learn from this?

This is a difficult passage, but it shows us that God is in control, even in the distressing times we see in this chapter. God is not the cause of evil, but even in the midst of sin and wrongdoing, God is still in control and nothing outside of His control happens. When David numbers the people, he is acting just as God has ordained. He bears his own guilt, and must suffer the consequences, but God achieves His purposes even in the midst of our sin and disobedience.

We also see that when the leaders of a people sin, the people will suffer for the sins of the leaders. In this unusual case, God allows David to choose between three different punishments for the people: Three years of famine, three months of defeat in war or three days of plague. David chooses the plague with the intent of throwing himself on God and pleading for mercy upon the people. It is incumbent upon the leaders of a group to realize the punishment for their sins can be meted out upon the people they lead.

Where is Christ in this passage?

The plague that was destroying the people was stopped at the spot where the temple would be built. David then offered sacrifices there, and God was appeased. The plague was finally over when the sacrifices were accepted.

For generations to come, sacrifices would be offered in that place so that people could be right with God. It was not that the animals had any power to bear the sins of the people, but they pointed to the coming Substitute who would bear the sins of all who come to Him in faith.

These sacrifices pointed to Jesus Christ. He is the one who has freed us from the plague of sin. Because of His perfect life and substitutionary death, we are granted eternal life and will not face the punishment due for our sins.

Tue, 27 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

Psalm 78:38-39

³⁸ Yet he, being compassionate,
atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.
³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.

Yesterday in the first half of Psalm 78, the Psalmist reviewed how Israel was blessed by God, yet was not faithful. Today, the Psalmist continues by telling us that in spite of Israel’s unfaithfulness, God was compassionate with them, remembering their weakness.

What do we learn from this?

God is also compassionate with us. This doesn’t excuse our sin, and we need to strive to obey God in all areas of our lives. But God knows that we are weak and so He spares us from His wrath.

This is such a comfort to us. When we read about Israel, we see how much we are like them. We doubt God will do what He has promised. We disobey. We have such little faith in Him. But yet, God remembers our weaknesses and has compassion upon us. He does not destroy us in our sins, but He spares us and provides atonement for His people.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Because of God’s compassion for us, He provided atonement for our iniquities. Jesus Christ is our atonement. He died as a substitute for all those who trust in Him for salvation. It is because he paid the price of the sins of His people that God can have compassion on His people. Their sins have been atoned for, and the atonement comes from God.

Mon, 26 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

Ezekiel 29:17-20

¹⁷ In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: ¹⁸ “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had performed against her. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. ²⁰ I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, declares the Lord GOD.

This oracle occurs in April 571 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar began the siege of Tyre in 585 B.C. and the islands of Tyre fell in 572 B.C., thirteen years later. So this prophecy comes just after the fall of Tyre. It was a long and difficult siege, and it was not cost effective for Babylon. They did not get back what the siege cost them. And so Ezekiel prophecies that God is going to give Babylon victory over Egypt as payment for their unrewarding work at Tyre.

What do we learn from this?

Once again we see that God is in charge of the rising and falling of nations. In this chapter, we see the punishment meted out upon Egypt and how God uses Babylon as his instrument. Babylon was an aggressive nation seeking places to conquer, and so they were just doing what came naturally to them. But in executing their own plans, they end up doing exactly what God ordains. They do no more than what God ordains, but also no less.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. As we have quoted from Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 a number of times recently, we will not do so again here. But we see that not only is the Second Person of the Trinity given the role of Savour, but He also is the Judge of the nations, ruling with a rod of iron.

In Ezekiel we see God judging and punishing the nations. He is smashing nations and ruling with His iron scepter. But this is not something that is simply academic for us. This is as personal as it can be because the day will come when we will all stand before God and be judged by Jesus Christ.

Matthew 25:31-46

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? ³⁸ And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹ And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Let him be accursed

Sun, 25 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

Galatians 1:1-9

¹ Paul, an apostle–not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead– ² and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵ to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel– ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Today we begin Paul’s letter the the Galatians. After the briefest of introductions (not much more than a quick “Dear Galatians,”) Paul proceeds to let them have it right between the eyes.

Remember all the problems in the Corinthian church? A man is sleeping with his mother. People are getting drunk at the communion service. There is chaos in their worship services. In dealing with all those bizarre and extreme problems at Corinth, Paul is never as severe with them as he here is with the Galatians.

What do we learn from this?

Bad conduct within the church is a big problem and must be dealt with. Because he loves them and is concerned about them, Paul doesn’t let the Corinthians continue in their sin without his disciplining them. But in the Galatian church, the issue is how they have corrupted the gospel, and so Paul is much more severe in his confrontation.

There were people in the Galatian churches who added conditions to the gospel message. They taught that people had to do certain things before they could be saved. Specifically, they taught that people must become Jewish and observe Jewish ceremonial law before they could be saved.

Paul is adamant in his condemnation of this teaching. He insists that people not add any requirements to the gospel message. He even goes so far as to call down curses upon anyone who adds conditions to the gospel. He calls for the damnation of anyone who corrupts the gospel.

The gospel message is that important. Adding requirements to the gospel is changing it so that it is no longer the gospel. It no longer is the good news of what God has done for us, and it becomes the way that we can save ourselves (with a little help from God). And once the gospel becomes what we do to qualify for salvation, it ceases to be saving. It is no longer the gospel. It becomes our own work, and we are trusting in ourselves rather than God.

That’s why Paul was so upset about what was happening in the Galatian church. If people believe these false teachers, they are going to continue in their sins and be forever damned. They must be dealt with quickly and sternly, because people’s salvation is at stake.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Paul’s message is the gospel of Christ. Paul preaches about the holiness of God, our sin, how we are unacceptable before God, and what God did to make us acceptable. He sent Jesus Christ to live the perfect life, and to die on the cross. His perfect righteousness is credited to those who come to Him in faith, and their sins are credited to Jesus Christ and punished upon the cross.

Salvation is for those who trust in this message, and not in anything they have done. Salvation is for those who come to Him by faith in Jesus Christ.

That is the true gospel. It is all about Jesus Christ and what He has done for us.

Sat, 24 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

2 Samuel 20:1-6

¹ Now there happened to be there a worthless man, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. And he blew the trumpet and said,

“We have no portion in David,
and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse;
every man to his tents, O Israel!”

² So all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah followed their king steadfastly from the Jordan to Jerusalem.

³ And David came to his house at Jerusalem. And the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to care for the house and put them in a house under guard and provided for them, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as if in widowhood.

⁴ Then the king said to Amasa, “Call the men of Judah together to me within three days, and be here yourself.” ⁵ So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he delayed beyond the set time that had been appointed him. ⁶ And David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord’s servants and pursue him, lest he get himself to fortified cities and escape from us.”

Absalom’s rebellion is crushed and David is now restored as King over Israel. But now a new threat arises as Sheba, a man from the tribe of Benjamin (Saul’s tribe) questions David’s authority and urges the people to rebel against the king.

David orders swift action against Sheba, but Amasa (appointed as leader of Israel’s army in Joab’s place) is unable to act in the timeframe established by David. So David turns to Abishai, Joab’s brother, to get the job done. By the end of the chapter, Joab has murdered Amasa, and he is firmly back in the position as commander of the army of Israel. Obviously there are political undertones to this chapter as we see Joab’s return to power and David’s refusal to confront Joab head on. Joab is too powerful, and David is too much in his debt, and so David ignores this murder, just as he ignored Joab’s murder of Abner.

What do we learn from this?

David did not aggressively act against Absalom’s rebellion, and he openly mourned when Absalom was defeated and killed. But here, David mercilessly sends out the troops to find and kill Sheba. What is the difference?

David saw that Absalom’s rebellion was directly related to his own sin. Had David not set such a bad example for his own family by committing adultery with Bathsheba and murdering Uriah, Amnon might not have raped Tammar. But even if he had, David could have dealt with it instead of ignoring it. Obviously David felt he could not discipline his own sons after what he had done. But had David acted to punish Amnon as he should have, whole chain of events that led to Absalom’s rebellion would never have happened. Since he was the ultimate cause of the rebellion, and his own son, the rightful heir, was the rebel, David was reluctant to act.

However with Sheba, David feels free to act. Sheba is rebelling against God’s anointed. Sheba has no claim to the throne, and is acting against the law. Therefore, David can, without restraint, use the full force of his God given governmental authority to crush this uprising.

Paul tells us the same thing:

Romans 13:1-7

¹ Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, ⁴ for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ⁶ For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ⁷ Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Just as we see David not abiding this affront to his authority, Jesus Christ is ruling on the throne of David, and all His enemies will be brought into submission to Him.

Psalm 110:1

¹ The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

---

Psalm 2:7-9

⁷ I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹ You shall break[b] them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Fri, 23 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

Psalm 74:12-17

¹² Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
¹³ You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.
¹⁴ You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
¹⁵ You split open springs and brooks;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
¹⁶ Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
¹⁷ You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you have made summer and winter.

Psalm 74 appears to have been written in the context of the Babylonian captivity, although we don’t know for sure. Verses 4-8 describe how enemies have destroyed the temple, and so I presume that is referring to the Babylonians. Whenever it was written, the circumstances are very bleak.

Right in the middle of the Psalm, in the midst the Psalmist’s cry about the great calamity and destruction going on around him, the Psalmist pauses in verses 12-17 to praise God before returning to his lament over the circumstances. It is an interesting and instructive interlude.

What do we learn from this?

Notice how verse 12 begins: Yet God…. What a wonderful transition from thinking about the terrible things of life to then turn to God. The Psalmist doesn’t deny or minimize the difficult times. Things are truly bad. Yet God is acting in the midst of things. It is as we consider God that we can find hope in the worst of circumstances, and find the courage to continue on despite them.

For our own good and for God’s glory, even in the depths of our despair, we can and should find time to praise God. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us, our chief purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That includes the times of our greatest distress and trouble. Even then, we are to glorify God since there is no exemption for when we should glorify Him.

One way to do enable us to praise God whatever the circumstance is to look at the history of what God has done for His people. We see the Psalmist doing this in verses 12-17 when he reviews what God has done in the past. Here’s the logic: If God has been faithful to His people in the past, we can be confident that He will also be faithful to His people today, and in the future. Reviewing the past encourages us to trust in God now. This doesn’t mean that God will remove us from all of our problems, but it does mean that He will bring us through our problems and difficulties.

The Psalmist found comfort in thinking of what God has done in the past, and so can we.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Verse 12 tells us that God works salvation in the earth. Our salvation comes to us through the Savour God has provided: Jesus Christ. It is through His perfect life lived in our place, and His death on a cross paying the price for our sins that we are saved. Jesus Christ is the way that God worked the ultimate salvation for all those who come to Him in faith.

Thu, 22 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

Ezekiel 25:1-7

¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² “Son of man, set your face toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them. ³ Say to the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord GOD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Because you said, ‘Aha!’ over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and over the house of Judah when they went into exile, ⁴ therefore behold, I am handing you over to the people of the East for a possession, and they shall set their encampments among you and make their dwellings in your midst. They shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk. ⁵ I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon [a] a fold for flocks. Then you will know that I am the LORD. ⁶ For thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within your soul against the land of Israel, ⁷ therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand against you, and will hand you over as plunder to the nations. And I will cut you off from the peoples and will make you perish out of the countries; I will destroy you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

In today’s passage, Ezekiel begins a section where God speaks against Judah’s neighboring nations. The first nation in this list is Ammon.

Ammon’s punishment is coming because of the way they reacted to God’s judgment of Israel and Judah. They gloated over the downfall of the Children of Israel. When the Babylonians took Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, the Ammonites according to God’s condemnation of them clapped [their] hands and stamped [their] feet and rejoiced with all the malice within [their] soul against the land of Israel…. Therefore their condemnation is coming and they will be over run and displaced by a foreign power.

What do we learn from this?

God’s punishment fits the crime. They rejoiced to see a foreign power over run Israel, therefore a foreign power will over run them.

It is clear that with God’s righteous standard, the punishment is appropriate to the crime. (As a side note: It is instructive for us to consider our own legal system where pretty much every crime is sentenced to time in prison. But many crimes, prison is not an appropriate punishment. An embezzler shouldn’t be in prison. They should make restitution for the money they took, even if that means working for the rest of their life to make it right.)

Where is Christ in this passage?

The Ammonites mocked Israel when the sanctuary was defiled by foreigners. They rejoiced to see such disturbing things happen to the place where people would gather to worship the one true God..

But God promises that He will reveal himself as the LORD in the way He will act against Ammon.

Jesus Christ is our savour. But here we see Him as the King who will protect His own people and right the wrongs done against them. He brings judgment against Ammon and He will bring judgment against all those who are not trusting Him fully for their salvation.

Wed, 21 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

2 Corinthians 10:13-18

¹³ But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. ¹⁴ For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. We were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵ We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, ¹⁶ so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence. ¹⁷ “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” ¹⁸ For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

In this chapter, Paul begins to defend his apostleship against false teachers at Corinth who have been questioning Paul’s authority. They have accused him of being a poor speaker and timid when with them, but then sending harsh letters when he is far away.

In the passage above, Paul is saying that God has given him authority over the Corinthian church. He is an apostle, and this church is one to which he has the responsibility of ministry.

Paul was instrumental in the founding of the church at Corinth, and he spent a year and a half there building up the people in their congregation. He felt personally responsible for them, and so he took action to confront the problems in the congregation. Thus he will deal with those who try to undermine his authority.

What do we learn from this?

There are people whom God place into positions of spiritual authority within the local body of believers. They do not have unlimited or unregulated power over the congregation. Paul says that his authority is limited to the area of influence God assigns. Paul’s power over them was no more than what God assigned, but also it was no less.

Since Paul was used in founding and nurturing this church, the spiritual issues with in the Corinthian church were within his realm of spiritual authority. This doesn’t mean that Paul can abuse them or make use of them for his own personal gain. But it does mean that Paul must act to confront the problems within the church, for their own good. Paul would be negligent before God if he did not do so.

The spiritual leaders in the local church are responsible before God to confront sin and error within the congregation. They are to build up and encourage the weak. They are to spur the congregation on to good works. They are responsible for monitoring and promoting the spiritual health of the congregation. And as they are not faithful to this call, they are abusing their call and are neglecting their duty.

We should honor the spiritual leaders within our own local church and seek to make their job easier in dealing with us. We should listen to them, pray for them, and encourage them in their efforts to build up the believers in our congregation. They are Christ’s representatives to us, and so we should honor and respect them in their work.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Paul’s authority over the Corinthian church was linked to the fact that he preached the gospel of Christ to them. And as such, Paul had a responsibility before the Christ of whom he spoke to nurture, guide, discipline, and protect them. Paul, like the spiritual leaders in our own local church, was Christ’s representative.

Paul’s authority is the authority of Christ, as he is Christ’s representative in bringing them to faith, and then building them up in the faith.