Why only the Parade?

A man by the name of Mordecai once saved the king's life. Naturally, such a consequential event is recorded in the chronicles of the land. However, the king's right hand man, Haman, doesn't care about this good work, when he demands that all of Mordecai's people, the Jews, be destroyed.

Yes, we're going to that book in the Bible, where the name of God is not actually mentioned once. In relationship to it though, I have decided to challenge myself with not saying the name of the book once. This could be fun.

Mordecai is now in fear of his life. He sees a providential hand in allowing his cousin to become queen, so maybe she could act to save the Jews.

During the tale, Haman starts to hate Mordecai so much that waiting for Mordecai to die along with the other Jews is not going to work with Haman. He decides to ask the king in the middle of the night to kill Mordecai now.

Unfortunately for Haman (and fortunately for Mordecai), the king could not sleep that night. He is read from the book of the chronicles specifically where Mordecai pointed out a conspiracy to take the king's life.

And just like that, God has used a case of insomnia to save Mordecai's life. Instead of Haman's visit to the king's court solidifying the hanging of Mordecai, Haman (quite ironically) becomes the reason Mordecai is given the highest honor in the kingdom.

Paraded through the city in royal garments with Haman proclaiming, "Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour," Mordecai was experiencing a rather pleasant time.

But one has to wonder why did Mordecai accept only this temporal parade as reward. Why did not he specifically ask for the salvation of his entire people? Why did he decide to leave it up to the nerve of his cousin?

Instead, in Davidic fashion, he went right back to where he came from, figuratively and literally. Back in the king's gate, Mordecai was still a man with a death sentence carried over him. Why did he leave that death sentence in place?

I know it might be a bit disappointing to hear, but I actually don't have an answer for you. It is a peculiar question that I want to meditate on further, and I thought that you might enjoy such meditation as well, or might have some information that makes it seem absolutely clear in my mind. Thus I have shared it with you today. Feel free to comment, or ignore at your own leisure.

Trials and Persecution 7: Day of Reflection

It is with a sad heart that I write this post today. This post will be the last of the series posts that have been the Wednesday posts over the duration of this blog. It is the first and hopefully only casualty this blog takes from the very soon not as flexible schedule my life will file under. A greater announcement regarding that will come next Wednesday.

But the show must go on; we have business to attend to today that isn't related to that which pertains to these series as a whole.

In life, we are bound to experience trials. There are self-help and encouragement books galore to show us how to survive and thrive through the struggles we find in our lives. Indeed some have gone as far as to say that success happens simply when people are able to overcome those obstacles in their life that would so easily beset them.

If success truly is determined by our abilities to overcome suffering, then we ought to be able to understand all that suffering encompasses. Truly, it makes sense that there are so many books dedicated to suffering. This is just another one of those written types of presentation regarding hardship for the Christian. But I would hope that thus far I have stumbled upon a certain amount of encouraging truth.

Let us review our discussion of the trials and persecution that a Christian will inevitably face by examining the history of suffering throughout the Bible.

Cause of Suffering

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." 

Thus begins the Bible in Genesis 1:1. This is then the beginning of the world as we know it. Through the rest of the chapter, we hear about how the Lord created everything that we know. He declares of course after everything that he created, that it was good. 

Indeed it was perfect in complete harmony and bliss. Adam and Eve were placed in this utopia by the Lord, and the Lord even went so far as to warn them of which fruit was good to eat and which would cause certain death to interrupt their eternal bliss. But Adam and Eve decided they knew better than the Lord did, and ate the forbidden fruit anyway. Since that time, we've seen that the Lord was right, death and suffering of a both temporal and eternal kind were introduced into the lives of humans, all because of sin. 

Now we must be careful here. Just because the ultimate cause of all suffering is sin, does not mean that all individual suffering comes from a direct result of sin. Indeed, hardship can also come as a means of avoiding greater trials, a temptation from the devil, and to increase our faith for greater service to the Lord. 

It is impossible to tell for sure why each trial we see in the world is happening, but we best not assume that it is all because of sin. The book of Job among other portions of Scripture show us that this is not the case.

Cessation of Eternal Suffering

Adam and Eve have now reproduced and the world is populated. Through the seed of Adam, all man has been born evil, with nary a glimpse of righteousness in their minds. Men have a code of morality, and some men appear to live fairly decent lives based on it. But in Isaiah 64:6, we learn that even the good works we do are nothing righteous at all.

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."

We remember that this sin in our lives is going to lead us through a life of suffering into the ultimate and eternal suffering. It is a pretty bleak scenario.

But the Lord is gracious. Just as He didn't give up on humanity after the fall in the first place, He hasn't left them to eternal suffering even now. He uses His omnipotent and sovereign power to supernaturally cause Himself to be born into this world without the evil seed of Adam.

At this point, God Himself calling Himself Jesus is a second and final Adam. He once again is placed in a world with no sin at first, and then was tempted just as anyone else would be. Yet through this all, Jesus did not sin.

Then in the end of it all, he went through the ultimate suffering on the cross, both physically and emotionally, as a penalty for the sins of the world. Jesus' atoning sacrifice promises to eliminate the eternal suffering of those who would accept it as punishment for their actions.

Notice though that Jesus' sacrifice doesn't promise anything regarding the hardship we face in our own world. The temporal trials that we face will not be magically gone once we trust in Jesus. In fact, if we truly trust in Jesus and follow in His words, the persecution we face should increase. Look at 2 Timothy 3:12,

"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."

Salvation and Christianity are not about having a fulfilled, wealthy life here on earth; it is about our eternal life being more abundant in the end. However, Christ doesn't leave us hanging out to dry nonetheless.

Christ's Strength through Suffering

Knowing that serving the Lord would only produce results that are troubling to our lives, we might be tempted to just decide to give up. Trust that the Lord will keep His promises to grant us eternal life. With our eternal suffering taken care of, we should see what we can do about working through that temporal suffering too. 

Before you jump the ship that quickly, ask yourself, are you really prepared to go through trials and persecution without the Lord's presence, and without His strength in your life? Because whether you serve Him or not, hardship will find you. The only difference is, whether you have someone to help you in the crisis. (I'm going to neglect to mention that serving the Lord stores up eternal treasures in Heaven, so you can consider the persecution it beings in this Earth an investment.)

You see, as if the Lord hadn't done enough already by giving us both life and eternal life by His grace, He also decided that He is going to always be there for us to comfort us in all manner of our conversation in this world. Jesus Christ our Lord promises to strengthen us so we can manage to survive through any suffering that may befall us. As Sarah Arthur brilliantly puts it, 

"Jesus fought the war and has come back to help us win our battles." 

Paul explains in much more detail in Philippians 4:11-13,

 "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

After all that the Lord has done for me in relation to His grace, I'd say that I am willing to suffer a little for His sake, knowing that His presence is better than being comfortable in my life. With all the love He has given me, I would like to be able to please Him as I would any other person who cared about me so deeply.

Why we should Put the Death Penalty to Death

In a time of ancient history, the Israelites were setting up what many call today the first representative government. This term paints a picture in our minds that is actually quite different from the reality in my mind.

Now don't get me wrong, there were definitely different tribes who did have certain representatives in place. However, the government was very much a monarchy, where the Monarch led through the representative of men like Moses, Joshua, and so on. 

The Lord leads the Israelites and establishes their system of government through the works of Moses. (Indeed if you ever truly want to know how a government should be structured, I think you should probably follow God's model here.) 

But the key point is that the Lord was leading the Israelites along the way. He established the death penalty clearly at this time, and He administered it with perfect grace. We see this most clearly with the death of Achan after he stole from the Lord Himself. 

So then how could I say that I was against the death penalty with this in mind? Clearly I don't think I'm better than God. 

Indeed I don't. No man is going to execute such perfect judgment. That is actually the exact reason that I am against the death penalty in our world today. 

As I made the distinction earlier, God was the leader of the ancient Israelite government, and when he decides who should live and die, he does do so perfectly. 

Today, we have no government that is directly led by God. Yes, I know that God is sovereign in all he does, but if we use that excuse here, we might as well stop worrying about anything we do because God is in control of everything. 

At the end of the day, I agree with the idea of a death penalty in principle (an eye for an eye), but I do not trust the human errors that come with a government administered by men. Death is a very permanent state that no man can undo. It seems too much for me to trust a justice system administered by men in such a crucial area. 

Indeed our current system admits the possibility of mistake. There are massive initiatives put in place to allow for an appeals process, once again administered by men, to sift through and ensure there are no innocent people who die.

This appeals process probably catches most mistakes, but it too will not be perfect. Yes, I doubt that the United States has put to death too many people who are innocent, but even one would be too many. 

Also, who are we men to decide that certain crimes are worthy of death anyway? We're not God. We don't make those types of decisions. Or we don't until we come together and form governments. 

In conclusion, I leave you with the words of Gandalf the White, 

"Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." 

Except of course the Lord. he does see all ends, and everything entirely, and that omniscience and sovereignty is exactly why we should leave the decision of who lives and who dies up to him.

'Light' Afflictions: Compared to What?

2 Corinthians 4 is an intriguing chapter of Scripture. In it, Paul expresses that if we have the proper focus on eternity that we will have little difficulty battling through our struggles in this temporal world. It culminates in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18,

"For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

As I read this verse, I can't help but hear distressed Christians all over the world scream, "What are you talking about, Paul? You have no right to belittle my struggles! You don't know what I'm going through."

We hear this from those Christians who have been diagnosed with cancer, those who are being tortured and martyred for their beliefs, those whose loved ones have just died.

Hey, no one ever said the Christian life would be easy. Sure, these days we will occasionally hear a Pastor proclaim  that Jesus is the solution to all your life problems, but sadly, those pastors are drastically mistaken. Jesus did not come down to this Earth to solve our temporal problems, but our eternal ones.

Today is Good Friday. It is the day that we celebrate what Jesus did for us on the cross. As previously mentioned on this blog, Jesus underwent complete torture before and during the crucifixion to the point where his entire body was screaming in pain.

But this physical torture is nothing at all compared to what Jesus truly went through on the cross. The words he screamed in Matthew 27:46 highlight torture much different and much more painful.

"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

These words can be confusing at first. Why would Jesus feel forsaken by God the Father on the cross? There is a simple reason for it.

Jesus came into this world to be a substitute for our sins. Because the Lord's holiness requires punishment to be exacted somewhere, He was to face the penalty for our sins, so that His sacrifice would change the eternal destination of all those who would accept it as their own.

We all know this, of course, but sometimes in our analysis, we forget that the punishment for sin wouldn't have been paid by a physical death on the cross. The punishment for the sin of this world is separation from the Lord. That's why Jesus feels - no, is - forsaken by God the Father in this verse. R.C. Sproul explains,

"Jesus didn't just feel forsaken on the cross; he was totally forsaken by God while he hung on the cross because that's exactly what the penalty for sin is. As the apostle Paul elaborates, sin cuts us off from the presence and benefits of God. Christ screamed, 'Why have I been forsaken?' It wasn't just a question; it was a cry of agony."  

Complete separation from the presence of the Lord would cause some agony indeed! Ultimately, we all know that Jesus was raised from the dead 3 days later, and is now on the right hand of the Father.

But for us, the separation would have been for all eternity. Eternity separated from the power and presence of God, from whom all good gifts come.

Well, that makes cancer, persecution, and our other afflictions seem pretty light indeed.

Doctrines of the Christian Faith 5: The Nature of the Atoning Sacrifice

A man in Israel has sinned. He requires atonement for his sins. Thus, he goes out to his flock of and finds his choicest sheep, one without blemish. He brings it to the priest. The man puts his hand on the sheep and in that instance, the sin from the man is transferred to the lamb. The priest will then slit the throat of the lamb, and sprinkle the blood of the dead lamb upon the altar. The man has now been cleansed of his sin, at least until he sins again.

This substitutionary sacrifice is the same that we see in Jesus' life. We have seen in our last two posts in this series, that we, like this Israelite have sinned and need atonement, and that Jesus like this lamb was without blemish. 

We all remember that the punishment for sin was death, or a separation from the Lord God the Father. We know that the Lord has such a wrath for this sin that he must punish it. His holiness demands it. Yet we know that despite our filth, the Lord desires us to be blessed and to be with him and not undergo the punishment. 

That's where the Lamb comes in. Jesus the Lamb of God came down and made the substitutionary sacrifice. 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains, 

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

Jesus became the substitutionary sacrifice that is able to atone for all sins. He was made sin for us, and then the Lord's wrath and punishment for sin was redirected onto him. Jesus went through torture and hell to provide a bridge between the holy God and sinful man.

The love demonstrated in this sacrifice is unheard of today. Think of the most wonderful person you're ever known, would you die for him? Maybe, but would you be willing to die for the annoying people that you've met? As seen in Romans 5:6-8, this is analogous to what the Lord is doing here.

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Here we see that not only was Jesus without blemish, but he also had a transfer of sins onto him, and died as a substitutionary sacrifice, just as the lamb in the Old Testament. It's no wonder that John the Baptist proclaimed in John 1:29,

"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

However, there are two primary differences between the lamb of the Old Testament and the Lamb of God. The first is the permanence of the solution. In the Old Testament, the lamb was insufficient to solve for all past transgression and all future transgressions. Thus, every time an Israelite sinned, he required a new sacrifice. However, Jesus' sacrifice was once and for all. No new sacrifice would ever be needed.

The second difference is the permanence of the death. When the Old Testament lambs were killed, they stayed dead. They didn't have any zombie action going on. Now Jesus did not have any zombie action either, but three days after he died, he rose again. As I Corinthians 15:3-6 states,

"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas (Peter), then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep."

Indeed, Christ died for our sins and was resurrected to be a living Saviour. He is not the Saviour of the whole world, just over those in the world who will accept him. As the great hymn He Lives proclaims,

"I serve a risen Savior

  He’s in the world today.

I know that He is living,

  Whatever men may say.

I see His hand of mercy;

  I hear His voice of cheer;

And just the time I need Him

  He’s always near.

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!

He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.

He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!

You ask me how I know He lives?

    He lives within my heart."

Continue to Doctrines 6: Nature of the Gift 

Doctrines of the Christian Faith 3: Nature of Man

People do some of the strangest things when it comes down to it. However, when I refer to the nature of mankind here today, I am not about to go into deep and weird psychology. No, rather I would like to take a simple history lesson and expound upon the ramifications of it.

After the Lord demonstrated his magnificent sovereignty by speaking the world into existence, He put man and woman, Adam and Eve, into a beautiful garden. The garden is known as the Garden of Eden. The Lord gave simply one rule: 

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."

This death that is referred to is not a typical death. Rather it referred to a more permanent type of death, one of eternal separation from God. Most are familiar with the events that would transpire.

The Serpent came along to tempt Eve. He assured her that should she eat of the fruit, she shall not surely die. Here the Serpent uses a bit of equivocation. When he discusses death here, he is referring to the more physical death we are used to, and referring to a more limited timeframe. The devil as we know him today, is here using half-truths to manipulate the facts and make it seem compelling for Adam and Eve to partake of the fruit. This information is peripheral to my blog post, but you can have it, no charge. One in our society today looks out for direct falsehoods, but how hard is it to catch when someone twists truths in small ways? There is a reason the devil decides to use this technique here.

But back to Adam and Eve. As we know, they falter and eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. They are then pushed from the garden, forced to work to gain food, and are faced with both physical and spiritual death. But that is just the beginning. Their sin is passed down to all generations of this earth, making us all born with a sinful nature. As Romans 5:12 states,

"Wherefore as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." 

Now you may say that it's not fair for me to be punished for someone else's actions; after all, look at all the good I have done. In answer, I would like to provide a short analogy I heard from one of the youth workers at my church.

Imagine a water hose. When you turn on the water, water flows through that water hose. If you put clean water through a dirty water hose, the water is not going to come out clean. Rather all the impurities and filth of the hose are going to pass into the water.

Similarly, in our everyday life, the good works we do are contaminated because they have to pass through us, our dirty water hose. From Adam down, the seed of being a dirty water hose was passed down, and it contaminates all our good works. This is one reason why Isaiah 64:6 proclaims,

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."

Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Anything good we do could never be good enough for God. Whatever we may do, we have to admit that we have broken at least the Ten Commandments, and must need Christ to avoid the eternal death that was brought on by Adam's curse.

To conclude with a bit of hope this morning, I would like to show you Romans 6:23,

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  

Continue to Doctrines 4: Nature of Christ