Rahab's Scarlet Cord

Reading in Joshua 2 this morning, the story of Rahab and the spies. Rahab was a prostitute. There is no getting around that fact. Amazingly enough she understood that Jericho was going to fall to the Israelites because their God was the true and only God; or, as Rahab put it: "He is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath." Remarkable. Here is what Francis Schaeffer says about her:

How did she know that? We are not told. Often in Scripture we find that people knew things, though we are not told how they came to know them. But Rahab knew! And what she knew was totally against her culture. She believed in a new God, a God totally and diametrically opposed to the gods of Jericho, but a God above all other gods, a universal God. In the midst of the Canaanites, the Ammonites, the Amorites — in the midst of their horrible, polluted worship, laden with sex symbols and sex practices — Rahab affirmed a true theological proposition about who God really is.

The scarlet thread is, no doubt for Rahab, a sign of salvation, and indeed when Jericho falls, she and her family are saved. The church, going all the way back to Clement, has seen the scarlet thread as a symbol of the salvation coming in Christ. Indeed the term "scarlet thread" has become a metaphor for tracing salvation through the scriptures or through history.

God's grace pops up in the strangest places again and again and often without any real explanation how grace arrived. This is the mystery of God's providence and grace.

The Necessity of Light

Light is weird stuff. Sometimes it behaves as if it is a wave; sometimes light behaves as if it is individual photons. We need light to live. Light, according to Isaiah 60.19, is necessary in the life to come, at least for followers of Christ. However, the light will come from God himself (he INVENTED light after all) so there will be no need for the sun or the moon.

This is not to say that God is nothing other than light. Perfect light is one of his characteristics, not the sum total of his being. However, it is about as close as we are going to get in this life to understand his being. "The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light."

A Day of Salvation, not Judgment

Christ has a dramatic moment in Luke 4.18-21. He takes up the scroll of Isaiah and reads Isaiah 61.1-2a, then sits down. He tells his listeners, "Today is this scripture fulfilled in your hearing." Since both Christ and his listeners understood that the passage was about Messiah, what a moment it must have been when one-by-one the men in the synagogue must have realized, "He is claiming to be Messiah!"

When Christ reads Isaiah 61.1-2a, he ends at "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." He does not continue with the next phrase "and the day of vengeance of our God." Why not? I assume because Christ did not come for judgment he came for salvation. The day of vengeance of our God will come, but this was not that day. Christ came for the cross. He came for salvation.

How Great the Darkness

Reading in Matt 6.23 this morning, "But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness...how great is that darkness."

The eye is such a crucial organ, we walk by it, we depend on it in 100's of ways that we don't even realize (think of peripheral vision and how it is passive until we sense a threat, then the brain takes it active instantaneously with really no effort on our own part). If the eye is giving us bad information then we will act on bad information. If the eye is evil then we will act and live on evil. This causes, as Christ points out, great darkness in a moral sense. Christ is not speaking of the physical eye here, he is using the eye as a metaphorical representative of our moral life.

John Calvin: "The light is said to be turned into darkness, not only when men permit the wicked lusts of the flesh to overwhelm the judgment of their reason, but also when they give up their minds to wicked thoughts, and thus degenerate into beasts."

A House of Prayer

Reading in Isaiah 56.7 this morning where Isaiah quotes God saying, "For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (KJV). Christ will quote this as recorded in Luke 19.46 and John 2.16 as he is casting the guys who sell things in the temple out of the temple. Rather than being a house of prayer they have made it "a den of thieves."

It is a pretty straightforward interpretation from Christ here of the words of Isaiah. God's house is to be a house of prayer and when he saw that it was something else, or something added on—as if it could be a house of prayer AND a place of profit—Christ threw them all out, and in a rather violent manner, one must say. He didn't ask them kindly to leave, he overturned their tables and sent them running.

It might behoove us to have the same zeal that Christ did for the worship of God. I don't know that the application is for a church building per se, but to see God worshipped as he should be and have a grieved heart (and who knows, maybe even overturn some tables) when he is not worshipped correctly.

This Glorious and Awesome Name

Moses calls the people to do all that is in the Torah so that they may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord God (Deut 28.58). I love the ESV translation of this verse. It is a glorious and awesome name and we ought to do all that God calls us to do because it demonstrates that we do fear this glorious and awesome name.

This is the nature of God. He has a glorious and awesome name, meaning that his character and all that he is exists as glorious and awe inspiring and worthy of obedience and trust. When the people did not follow his law, they demonstrated their lack of fear for his name, and of course all of the punishment mentioned in the long chapter of Deut 28 came upon them.

We, no less than Israel, are called to fear this glorious and awesome name in our daily lives.

Equation of Salvation

Reading in Isaiah 53.6 (a favorite verse) today, one finds God's equation of salvation. We = sheep. Sheep = wanderers (metaphorically - sinners). God = judge. Suffering Servant (Christ) = Punishment bearer. We = saved. Yep, seems to add up to me.

Marked with the Brand of God

For everyone who loves tattoos, they will be excited to see that we will be tattooed in heaven...sort of. Rev 22.4 says: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads (KJV). "In" is probably better translated "on." The point is that somehow we will be marked with the brand of God. We will be marked as owned by God, as devoted to him. On the earth we often like to wear stuff that marks us as fans of Michigan football, or the Detroit Tigers for instance. In heaven we will receive something permanent which marks us as God's own people. This will last for eternity. I don't think anyone will be sorry to receive a mark of God.

Remembrance and Dependence

I'm reading in Isaiah 51.10 today where Isaiah calls God to remember his past deeds; specifically to the crossing of the Red Sea—this seems to be the key event to look back on and see God's deliverance for God's people. Isaiah is calling God to remember his great deliverance "a way for the ransomed to pass over" he puts it, and to act again in the same way on behalf of his people.

It's a huge lesson for us. Calling God to remember the great works that he has already done for his people is a way of expressing our dependence upon him and asking him to do the same work on behalf of his people again.

Stooping Down to See the Heavens and Earth

Reading in Ps 113.6 this morning. The KJV translates the passage: "Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth." I like to think of it as God "stooping down" to see what he has created, implying as we certainly believe, that God is far greater than we can even comprehend.

Spurgeon points out that, if God stoops down to see the heaven and earth, what does it further say about him, that he watches even the humblest of his servants: What, then, must be his condescension, seeing that he observes the humblest of his servants upon earth, and makes them sing for joy like Mary when she said, “Thou hast regarded the low estate of thine handmaiden.”

They Soon Forgot His Works

The psalmist describes the generation of the Exodus in Ps 106.13. The people had seen the great deliverance from Egypt; they had experienced deliverance at the Red Sea; they drank water that came from a rock; every morning they woke up they picked up manna off of the ground, but as soon as they were in trouble or difficulty, they forgot everything.

We would like to think that we would be different than the generation of the Exodus, but we are them. We are prone to forget all that God has done for us in the past as soon as the present difficulties get too bad. As one commentator put it (EBC): "They readily gave in to impatience when he (God) did not anticipate their needs." Yep. That's us. That's me.

No Repentance

Reading in Rev 9.20 this morning. Despite one-third of humanity being killed by horses (the identification of which everyone argues about) the rest of humanity "repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils" (KJV). Amazing. One thinks of the judicial hardening of Pharaoh by God. When Pharaoh hardens his heart, then God hardens Pharoah's heart and this is a hardening which cannot be explained on a rational level, for it totally destroyed Egypt's economy and land. The non-repentance of those who clearly see judgment and devastation is akin to that type of hardening.

The dangers of a hardened heart are laid out clearly here. We must work to keep our heart soft to the leading of the Holy Spirit, so that we do not fall away.

Dear Sennacherib:

I like to think of Is 37.22-35 as a letter from God to Sennacherib. Verse 22 might read: "Dear Sennacherib: The Israelites will be laughing at you, thanks to my intervention. - Your mortal enemy, God."

I think that sums it up pretty well. So prophesied. So done.

One Refuge

As followers of Christ we are to have one refuge and one refuge alone. God. The psalmist makes this point in Ps 91.2: "I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust." There it is, the whole Christian life summed up in one verse. God is our refuge. God is our salvation. We will trust in God. And nothing else.

The Ransomed of the Lord

Isaiah 35.10 is one of my favorite verses. "The ransomed of the Lord shall return." That's me! That's you! (if your sins have been paid by Christ at the cross). We shall return to Zion, to God's place with great joy and with everlasting songs. There is no boredom in heaven. None. Zilch. Nada. There is also no sorrow and sighing. Those are gone, replace by joy and songs.

Building Up Yourselves on your Most Holy Faith

I like the way the KJV puts Jude 20: "But ye, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith." What struck me as I read this verse was that one has to work at one's faith.

It is not enough for someone else to build up your faith, though that is certainly a good thing. You must build yourself up. I take that to mean that I must apply myself to understanding and growing in my relationship with Christ. Growth will not come by osmosis, by hanging around other mature Christians and sucking up their maturity. Growth comes when I do the hard work of building myself up by getting into the word daily and by praying.

It is a "most holy faith" we pursue; we ought to pursue it with all diligence on our part.

"Transgress" or "Go on Ahead?"

I'm reading in 2 John 9 this morning and see a conundrum between the KJV and the ESV. The KJV reads: "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ." The ESV translates this phrase: "Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ." Weird. Is it "transgress?" Or is it "goes on ahead?"

BDAG says that when it is used transitively the word παραβαίνω means "to break or transgress." When it is used intransitively it means "to go aside." I wonder why the ESV chose "goes on ahead here." Mysterious.

At any rate, the key teaching here is that the best evidence of whether or not one "has God" or "has both the Father and the Son" is whether or not they abide in the teaching of Christ. This seems to be the gold standard of whether one is truly a follower of Christ or not.

Reversal of Fortune

This is a theme that runs throughout the Scriptures. In Is 26.5 this morning it is reversal of fortune in a negative sense. Those who are lofty will be brought low. So low that God will bring it (here a city, but applicable to all) to the ground, indeed, smother it in dust.

What man exalts, God brings low. Why? Because anything that is exalted tries to in essence take the place of God. Since God is the highest conceivable being in the universe, it is morally wrong for anything else to try and take his place. This would be like trying to call an ant an elephant. It is laughable and offensive to the true elephant.

God must bring the arrogant low because now they are set into their proper place in relation to the one who created the universe, and it is an act of mercy because being made low is perhaps the only way to open one's eyes to the fact that they are not God. Perhaps then they will look for the one who is indeed God.

Behold, This is our God

I love, love, love Is 25.9. When God returns and reveals himself in all of his glory, we who are followers of God will boast, "Behold, this is our God." This is the one about whom we have been talking. We have waited for him and now he has arrived. We have waited for him and now we get to experience his salvation. What a day of joy and praise that will be. One strains to find words in the English language to express the emotions of that day.

Tanks run out of Gasoline and Artillery have no Ammo

Reading in Ps 76.6 this morning. "At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, Both the chariot and the horse are cast into a deep sleep" (KJV). Chariots and horses were much feared weapons of war, especially to the Israelites who were sorely lacking in both. It would be the equivalent today of saying that, at the word of God "tanks run out of gasoline and artillery have no ammo." God speaks and mighty weapons are impotent.

Calvin: We are thus taught that all the gifts and power which men seem to possess are in the hand of God, so that he can, at any instant of time, deprive them of the wisdom which he has given them, make their hearts effeminate, render their hands unfit for war, and annihilate their whole strength.