How God makes a leader

When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, "Because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."

Exodus 2:10

God uses even the worst actions of an evil tyrant to His advantage in raising up a leader. God took a man’s lifetime to develop Moses. And He used the very Egyptian system that oppressed Israel to raise up the leader to deliver them. Moses was providentially developed over the course of his lifetime to become the deliverer of the Exodus.

God used the Pharaoh’s own daughter to save Moses from the infanticide order that threatened all young Jewish males. You have to think that the Jews resisted this everywhere they could. I am sure Moses’ parents were not the only ones desperately trying to hide a male child from watching Egyptian eyes. Eventually in desperation, his mother hid him in the floating baby boat in the Nile, where he was discovered by the very daughter of the king, embraced as a human whose life was precious, and saved from his fate by the love of the enemy! This is the way God works.

Then Moses was handed over to Pharaoh’s own daughter and raised as her son in the finery of Egyptian royalty. He was given the best education, raised to be a prince, and became so identified with the culture that when he ran into Midian after murdering a cruel taskmaster, he is described as an Egyptian. He was the only Jew who could confront Pharaoh in his own courts, and God had made him just for that opportunity.

But first, God had years of desert living ahead for Moses. He would learn to lead by shepherding flocks, just like Israel had done before coming to Egypt. He would survive the desert and learn to teach others to do so. His impulsiveness would slowly fade in the life of a gentle shepherd in hiding… until God would call him to His purpose, and then all the experiences would come together in God’s providence. And this all took an extraordinary amount of time. An entire generation was slowly waiting, praying to God, groaning in need and waiting.

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Multiplication in opposition

So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

Exodus 1:13-14

The book of Exodus is about two very clear things: 1) God’s ability to deliver people and 2) God’s ability to raise up leadership among His people. In order for those two realities to be seen, there must be circumstances of dependence upon God. Chapter 1 sets the scene for the reader. And it is a scene of definitive need. Yet, God is in control.

Israel had gone to Egypt under God’s plan. The severe middle eastern famine had driven Jacob and his sons there. God had prepared them for this by sending Joseph ahead of them, putting him in charge of the land and food management, and taking care of His people. But then a generation changed. And eventually a pharaoh arose who did not remember Israel’s past with Egypt. And fear and ethnic prejudices began to control Egyptian policy. The result was oppression for God’s people. They became slaves. This eventually escalated to a governmental policy of control, eventually leading to a decree of infanticide for Hebrew male children. This was bad. The official policy toward Israel was slavery, persecution, and government mandated infanticide. Yet God sovereignly allowed His people to continue multiplying.

In the midst of these circumstances and despite these circumstances God began to work. He took forty years to begin to deliver Israel. Seems like a slow process, but it was God’s plan and wisdom and not human impatience. The situation lasted at least two generations. And it would begin in the worst circumstances. But deliverance would come through a plan God devised. He would show Himself strong to His people, through a leader He had prepared, to a people who would resist Him. But God always delivers on His promises.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Persecution,Providence,Sovereignty

Better Days Coming

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

Malachi 4:2

One of the underlying themes of Malachi is contrast between God’s disobedient people and God’s obedient people. This chapter provides the final picture of that contrast in the future “day of the Lord”. God’s picture in strong. In Malachi 4:1 the disobedient are set ablaze like stubble in a field, burning in the oven of God’s judgment. Malachi 4:3 sees them as nothing but ashes under the soles of the righteous. Pretty rough language.

Those who fear God’s name are encouraged to see that future time as a new refreshing day. Righteousness rises with a new sun and healing comes to those who have suffered for doing right. They are giddy and playful like calves set free from overnight stabling in a barn stall. God longs for joy to mark the lives of His people, and judgment alone is not the vision God has for Israel. He also wants them to know unspeakable joy in His work and presence.

The prophet ends with a call for Israel to return to obedience to the law of Moses. They were showing horrible contempt for it, mixing the outward forms of it with inward disdain. God wants His people to love His Word and His decrees again. That is how they will love Him. He is after their hearts, and the final admonition of Malachi shows this. God would capture their hearts by sending “Elijah” with a generationally stirring message to them (Malachi 4:5-6). He will turn families toward each other, and toward God. This is promised before the day of reckoning to God is at hand. Of course, this was clearly answered in the first advent in the ministry of John the Baptist. I believe it will be strongly shown before Christ’s second advent, possibly with the direct ministry of Elijah in Israel again. God will keep His Word.

This little prophet of Malachi has had a lot to say about the heart that truly should turn to God. I have been surprised at its relevance to my own. God always is concerned for the heart, and I should not be surprised that my heart is the target of His word and His Spirit’s work. It is where He does His most important work. And better days are coming when a final move of God in calling people to Him and judging those who reject His work will make a world where the best work of His in all hearts will mark everything everyone does.

Technorati Tags: Malachi,Heart,Judgment

An Entry in God’s Journal

Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name.

Malachi 3:16

God keeps His journals. Scripture makes this sort of statement as a matter of fact. Revelation takes about “the books” being opened at the last judgment. And the most important of those books is the “Lamb’s book of life”. I know that I tend to journal about the things I see in God that make me take notice. It seems from this passage that God journals about the deeds of His people.

Malachi 3:6-18 shows two contrasting groups of people. The first group, represented by the majority in Judah, are going through the motions of spirituality. They are led by corrupt priests and leaders. Their hearts are not in their worship. They have no problem offering diseased animals on the altar of sacrifice. They hold back tithes an offerings. They accuse God of being unfair.

The second groups is faithful. They fear God, and they encourage one another in the truth and in the right way. And God takes notice of them. It is this second groups that makes an entry in His “book of remembrance”. Their faithfulness to obeying and following and believing in Him is known by Him. He accepts their worship. He rewards the faithful remnant, even as He seeks to turn that first group back to Him.

I want to make an entry into God’s “book of remembrance”. I am afraid that I get caught up in the line of thinking of the ones who question God and only give him a half-hearted worship. I am reminded that faithful following is rewarded, and repentance from my turnings away will lead to renewed blessing if I return to former faithfulness.

Technorati Tags: Malachi,Judgment,Journal

23 Years of Sanctified Marriage

Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

Malachi 2:15

God brings husband and wife together. He makes two one. And Malachi tells us there is something deeply spiritual going on “with a portion of the Spirit in their union”. I am not sure of all that phrase means other than I do know that the Spirit of God hovered over the creation of the world. God’s Spirit must attend and guide and stay with each marriage bond as a couple enters into that relationship.

This verse also gives a “why” behind godly marriage: to produce godly kids. Holy marriages produce a generation of believers. And God desires that marriages do just this. There is a deep commitment to God, to one’s spouse, and to one’s children in God design for marriage.

God was upset with Judah for the casual profaning of the marriage covenant. Divorce was becoming easy. Casual infidelity seems to have been prevalent. It was destroying the future of any godly offspring. It was destroying what He had uniquely created. God equated a casual disregard for the marriage covenant with the worst sins of violence (see Mal 2:16).

Marriage is a holy place. I recently finished reading Gary Thomas: “Sacred Marriage”. I was struck by the reality that the goal of my marriage is not my happiness, nor is it the happiness of my wife. The goal of our marriage is holiness. Marriage is a path to sanctity. It is not just another indulgence in my selfishness.

Sunday June 14th, Joni and I will celebrate 23 years of marriage. I thank God for my wife. God has used her to change me, to encourage me, to make a real man of me. I would not be anything today without her wisdom and friendship. I know that God joined us together and I pray for our continued lifetime of mutual love and sanctity to continue. It is what gives my life so much perspective and purpose… God brought us together and made us one with a portion of His Spirit in our union.

Technorati Tags: Malachi,Marriage,Divorce,Fidelity

A Big God in a Big World.

For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 1:11

Two distinct observations come to me from this first chapter of Malachi. The first has to do with the overwhelming use of the phrase “Lord of hosts” throughout this small prophetic book. Why does this description of God overshadow and emphasize the message of this book? It is used in this little book more than any other OT Book. Look…

The ESV Study Bible provides some insight:

In the postexilic period of Malachi, the postage-stamp-sized Judah, as a tiny province within the vast Persian Empire, had no army of its own. It is precisely in such times, when God's people are painfully aware of how limited their own resources are, that there is no greater comfort than the fact that the Lord has his invincible heavenly armies standing at the ready. It is like the comfort that Elisha prayed for his servant at Dothan when they were surrounded by the Syrian armies: “‘O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17). Perhaps it is like the comfort felt by Jesus before the cross: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53).

God was using this description to comfort a nation that had all its securities ripped away. They still had their problems. Their worship was stale, not from the heart, ritualistic, and only going through the motions. But they needed to know God was on their side. He is a big God… the Lord of the hosts of heaven’s armies.

The second observation has to do with the phrase at the beginning of Malachi 1:11. What significance does this description of the rising and setting and sun have to the context of Malachi? Again, the ESV Study Bible provides some clear exegetical insight…

Surprisingly, Malachi refers to the presentation of incense and pure offerings in many places, even among the nations, rather than exclusively in the temple in Jerusalem as Deuteronomy 12 requires (cf. Mal. 3:3–4; 4:4). A key to this controversial verse is to recognize that from the rising of the sun to its setting is standard predictive language regarding a future age of great blessing (e.g., Ps. 50:1; 113:3). Isaiah 45:6 and 59:19 include with this phrase a reference to the ultimate engrafting of the nations, suggesting that a similar meaning is implied in Malachi. This finds further definition in such texts as Isa. 19:19–25 and 66:1–21, where the nations will be made to be “Levites” and will offer acceptable offerings on approved altars to the true God. For the engrafting of converted Gentiles into Israel, cf. Ruth 1:16–17; Est. 8:17; Psalm 87; Isa. 56:6–8; Zech. 2:11; 8:23

The last phrase has a twist of Covenant Theology in it, but I am going to let the discerning person deal with that. It is clear that Gentiles are “grafted in” to God’s plan to call a people to Himself (see Romans 9, 10, 11). So in this last book  of the OT canon, God left clear indicators that He was reaching not just Israel, but the world. Malachi really does serve as a fitting bridge to the New Testament in many ways. This is just the first observation I will make about that bridge.

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Why Expectant Living is Important

He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Revelation 22:20

The book of Revelation ends with this commitment to expecting the return of Christ. I think it is something that we have not paid as much attention to as we should have. I grew up during a tumultuous time (the 1960’s and early 70’s). The culture changed dramatically in a ten year period, and my parents and I came to faith in Christ in the middle of all that social change. And the Baptist church we attended preached A LOT of eschatology. With war in Vietnam, radicalism redefining culture, the vivid daily threat of nuclear holocaust, drug culture going mainstream, and political corruption, it all seemed to be lining up. As a kid, I fully expected Jesus would return before the 1980’s were upon us. That really bummed me out, because I wanted to at least graduate high school!

The one advantage of all those sermons on Christ’s soon return was that I lived with a sense of urgency and expectancy. I knew that when the church was raptured and the events of biblical prophecy began to unfold, one of them would be the judgment seat of Christ where I would give account of myself. And being aware of the immediate possibility of that happening kept certain clear spiritual priorities in front of me. This is why I believe that good eschatology ought still be preached, maybe not with the newspaper headlines that it had in the 70’s but at least with some conviction that it is imminent!

And 2009 has been already a year of sweeping change. Old threats are re-emerging. North Korea has gone from sounding like a toothless old man, to flexing some serious nuclear muscle. Iran is leading radical Islam dangerously toward a hellfire confrontation with the West. Despite eight years of effort, the war on terrorism continues unabated in threats against American life. And America transformed in the 60’s and 70’s by a culture war is now leaning further toward Sodom than ever. Gay marriage, family redefinition, government bailouts of the largest corporations and banks, and a weird new socialistic ethic have seized the culture. And the evangelical church looks like the 1960’s again with social gospel, liberal theology, cutesy inspirational talks, and political liberation displacing the gospel in many churches. Time to remember that Jesus is coming soon. It never was time not to remember that truth.

Technorati Tags: Revelation,Second Coming of Christ,Eschatology