My Times Are In Your Hands

In earlier posts we began to look at various believers recorded in the Bible as examples for us to imitate. The latest of those is Abraham, a man who went out, not knowing where he was going. I'd like to consider that last phrase. 

Who of us really knows where he is going? In that connection I always find myself thinking of Robert Burns' poem To a Mouse, 1786. While he was plowing a field, he upturned a mouse's nest. His resulting poem is an apology to the mouse:

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren't alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.

As a pastor I'm often called upon to comfort people whose carefully laid plans have gone awry. A young man planning to go through college on an athletic scholarship breaks his leg on a skiing trip and finds that his leg no longer works to play football and basketball. Young parents are devastated when their six-year-old daughter comes down with cancer and dies. A middle-aged couple's plans are completely overturned when the company that the husband works for is bought up by a larger corporation that has no need of his services. A senior couple planning their retirement is overwhelmed with grief to learn that the wife has an inoperable brain tumor and will probably be dead in two months.

So it goes, again and again, month after month and year after year. . . "An lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, for promised joy." Surely these times test our faith. What can we learn from Abraham?

You probably know the story of how the LORD told Abraham in a vision that he would be the father of a multitude, the progenitor of an entire nation numbering like the stars above. I mentioned that promise in my previous post. But no children came until Sarah, his wife, was beyond child bearing years. And then the wonder of wonders. She became pregnant and gave birth to Isaac, according to the promise of the LORD who personally visited Abraham (Gen. 18:1-15; 21:1-8).

One would think that the story might end there with a phrase like "And they lived happily ever after and Abraham died a contented old man." But it does not. God put Abraham's faith to the test, a most severe, irrational test.

He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." - Gen 22:2 ESV 

The amazing fact is that Abraham did not question the LORD. He simply trusted that even if Isaac were dead the LORD could raise him from the dead. In faith he went to the land of Moriah and would most certainly have offered Isaac but for the LORD intervening at the last moment.

He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." ... 

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." 

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, "The LORD will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided." 

And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, "By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." - Gen 22:2, 10-18 ESV

In this way Abraham has become for us and thousands before us the example of a man of faith. We join with them to pray, regardless of how the LORD allows our faith to be tested,

But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love! - Psa 31:14-16 ESV 

Complete Rest Awaits All In Jesus

When you read the Gospels carefully you note that Jesus did some in-your-face things on the Sabbath. For instance, he said nothing when his hungry disciples plucked heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. But that was work and God had strictly forbidden anyone to work on the Sabbath (Exod. 20:9-12). So the proud fundamentalists, the Pharisees, challenged him and his followers. "Hey! your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. They're working!"

Jesus' replied,

"Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." - Mat 12:3-8 ESV 

The David story comes from that time when David and his men had to flee for their lives from the wrath of King Saul. Being hungry and without food, David begged Abimelech the priest for bread. All Abimelech had to give was the so-called "bread of the Presence." This was 12 loaves of bread baked each week and placed on a special gold-inlayed table in the Temple as an offering and memorial before the LORD (Lev. 24:5-9). Only the priests were allowed to eat it, but Abimelech broke that rule by giving it to David and his men.

Beyond that, Jesus continued, if you really want to talk about people not working on the Sabbath, consider the priests. They work every Sabbath, offering sacrifices and leading the congregation in worship in the temple. And yet they are not condemned. Two things were overlooked and rejected by the Pharisees—and the bulk of Israel's religious leaders.

• Something greater than the temple is here. What is at stake here is an understanding of what all the rules and laws about the temple and the worship of God were all about. These were all summarized by the prophet Hosea when he condemned the hypocricy of the priests and their sacrifices. Speaking for the LORD, Hosea said, "For I desire steadfast love (or mercy) and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." - Hosea 6:6 ESV

• Some-One greater than the temple is here. Standing before them was the Son of Man, the promised Messiah, sent by the Father in heaven to bring the mercy of God to all men. He is the One who correctly interprets the meaning of God's command about the Sabbath. From the beginning, the Sabbath day with all its demands to rest pointed to that Day when God would bring final rest to all His children. On that Day God will give His people total and complete rest, rest that includes forgiveness of all sins and the fulfilled promise of a new heaven and a new earth—all because of what Jesus was to accomplish by His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. 

It is to this that the Hebrews letter points. 

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. - Hebrews 4:9-11 ESV 

To strive here does not refer to rushing about trying to prove to God that you are such a righteous and holy person. Absolutely not! Instead it refers to humbly confessing your sins and throwing yourself upon the endless mercy of God now revealed in Jesus. And this you may do with utter confidence.

More about our great High Priest and the grace He brings next time.

Forgive As You Are Forgiven

What a huge topic forgiveness! So many to forgive, so much for which to be forgiven. And yet here we go, praying each day, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."

Just a bit later our LORD says,

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. - Mat 6:14-15 ESV

Strange. Sounds almost as if we might convince our heavenly Father to forgive us, based upon how we have forgiven others. How could that be, especially in light of what we learned in the previous post about the impossibility of ever paying off the debts we owe because of our own sins?

And does it mean that our forgiveness depends upon the intensity of our own forgiveness? In Psalm 103 we learn about the kind of forgiveness we can expect from our merciful and gracious LORD.

He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. - Psa 103:9-12 ESV

It appears to me that no matter how far east you travel you will never get there. No matter where you stand on our planet the east is totally separated from the west. That is, of course, the Spirit's way of saying that our sins are totally and completely removed from us. THIS is the kind of forgiveness He expects from us.

Joseph's Coat Of Many Colors

In this connection it is helpful to study the story of Joseph in Genesis. Joseph's brothers despised him for two reasons when he was but a teenager. His father favored Joseph as the child of his old age and gave him the so-called coat of many colors (Genesis 37:3 KJV). It may have been a coat with long sleeves or with stripes. No matter. His brothers were jealous. Their jealousy was increased when Joseph shared his dreams about how he would one day be their ruler. The upshot was that his older brothers allowed their jealousy to control them and lead them to sell him into slavery. Then they lied to their father about it, telling him that Joseph had probably been killed by a lion and his body dragged away and devoured. All they could find remaining was Joseph's bloody and torn coat.

Long story short, Joseph, as you probably know, ended up as the Prime Minister to Egypt's Pharaoh. Acting with wisdom and inspiration he saved the nation of Egypt from starvation caused by a many-years drought. As the famine persisted Joseph's brothers came to Egypt hoping to buy grain from the Egyptians (Genesis 43:1-44:34). In the process Joseph recognized his brothers and with a little trickery forced them to return with their youngest brother Benjamin who had been born after Joseph's disappearance. When Joseph finally revealed himself he spoke these wonderful words of forgiveness:

And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." And they came near. And he said, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. - Gen 45:3-8 ESV

Joseph acted in faith, trusting the guiding hand of God. He believed in God's mercy toward himself and rejoiced in it. It did not matter what his brothers had done. He simply let it go. All this was God's plan. And so he moved his entire family to Egypt and cared for them. When his father Israel died his brothers thought he would finally get his revenge. In fear they came to him, asking for mercy.

But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. - Gen 50:19-21 ESV

What a lesson for us all. We have seen by faith how much our heavenly Father cares for us, even to the point of giving His only Son to death to ransom us and pay our debts. How can we not then follow the example of Joseph as we pray and promise, "So will we also forgive those indebted to us?"