Luke 11:1-13, Deliver Us From Evil (2)

We are still not ready to leave behind Jesus’ teaching us to bring imperatives to the Father.  We noted that all six requests in the Lord’s Prayer are imperatives.   But there are also a couple of differences.

·       The first three requests (hallowed, come, done) are presented in the “third person” while the last three (give, forgive, deliver) are the more typical second person.  What does this mean?  The first three do not ask that God would do something but that something would be done for or to Him.  Hallowed by Thy name … Thy kingdom come … Thy will be done.  The last three do ask the Father to do something: Give us this day … Forgive us our trespasses … Deliver us from evil.  One thing this indicates is that the Greek forms give us a proper way of understanding Jesus’ prayer.  We are to come to the Father first about “His things” and then come with the same confidence concerning “our things.” 

·       One other distinction is between Matthew and Luke.  Concerning our “daily bread” Matthew uses the aorist tense which suggests certainty or finality about something.  Luke uses the present tense which suggests a continuous answering of this request.  Both certainly fit the request, that it be done with certainty on a daily basis.  There are other differences between the two inspired writers.  There are “trespasses” and “debts.”  One ends with the benediction of David (1 Chron. 29:11) and the other does not.  Of course, the historical context of each is different.  Luke says Jesus taught this prayer when asked by the disciples after they had seen Him praying.  Matthew records it as part of the “Sermon on the Mount.”  It is no surprise or conflict that Jesus said these words on both occasions.  And all the words are true, even with the differences.

·       Here are a couple other notes.  In John 17 Jesus seeks many things, but there are two requests He makes that are in the imperative: keep them (17:11) and sanctify them (17:17).  The other requests are “hina clauses” (cf. the previous post).  When the keeping and sanctifying happens, it will produce the unity and relationship and demonstration to the world that Jesus desires to see.

·       We also discovered that the OT Hebrew also has two forms of “imperatives” involving the 2^nd and 3^rd person language.  In Joshua 1:9 we read, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.  “Be strong and of good courage” (also in 1:6,7) are imperatives.  The negatives are “jussive of which the BLB says, Used to issue a command in the third person—that is, the command is given to one person but is concerned with another.  They are negative commands, and they support the imperatives.  If Joshua gives in to fear and discouragement he will not be obedient in strength and courage. 

Our Father, help us to pray, and to pray effectively (Jas. 5:16) as did Jesus.

Matt. 6:5-15, Deliver Us From Evil (1)

We set out to study “ruomai,” the Greek verb “to deliver, rescue.”  But we could not get past the first reference for a lengthy time.  The first use is in “The Lord’s Prayer,” deliver us from evil (same as in Luke 11:4).  What I was reminded of was that often in the NT prayer requests are in the Greek imperative mood.  Does that mean we “command God” to give us what we ask for?  One online person took that to be the case as he sought to tell us to “command” God for healing and other miracles.  Permit me to share some things I discovered in my studies.

·       Each of the six requests in the Lord’s Prayer (hallowed, come, done, give, forgive and deliver) are imperatives.  The Blue Letter Bible description of the “imperative mood” in Greek is this:

Corresponds to the English imperative, and expresses a command to the hearer to perform a certain action by the order and authority of the one commanding. Thus, Jesus' phrase, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mk.1:15) is not at all an "invitation," but an absolute command requiring full obedience on the part of all hearers.

·       That might sound too strong for use in prayer.  Here are some thoughts on this. First, Jesus is saying these words and teaching the disciples to pray.  God the Son would certainly come with confidence to make request of God the Father, and He would encourage His disciples to do the same. 

·       Second, we should also have such confidence since Jesus gave us authority to pray “in His name.”  Third, a study of Paul’s prayers shows that he used other forms.  For example, in Eph. 1:17 (give) and 3:16 (grant) he uses the Greek “subjunctive,” the mood of possibility.  He recognizes that his request has certain conditions attached, primarily that those he intercedes for are walking in faith and thus able to receive what Paul asks God to do. 

·       Paul also uses “hina clauses” (Greek purpose word, in order that) often in his praying.  In Eph. 3:16 “that (hina) He would give you.”  This term indicates Paul’s confidence that the Father desires to do what he asks. 

·       In the end, what is essential in any of this “confident” (free, bold, Heb. 4:16; 10:19; Eph. 3:12) praying is that we are assured that our prayer is “in His will.”  We come with imperatives because we are not coming asking Him to do our will but His will.  All six of the requests in the Lord’s Prayer fit that qualification.  So Jesus comes with assurance.  The imperative indicates we do not come with doubt, because that is never appropriate when we approach the Lord.   Matt. 14:13: Oh you of little faith; why did you doubt.  Mt. 21:21: if you have faith and do not doubt … it will be done. James 1:6: let him ask in faith with no doubting. 

There is more to come, but let us consider our coming before the Lord.  Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is (Eph. 5:17).

Job 4:1-11, Job’s Hope! Get it right!

Today’s reading is part of the first words of Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends.  By the end of the story those friends will need to repent because, the Lord says, you have no spoken of Me what is right (Job 42:7).  As I read this today I was blessed by the fact that God recorded their “not right” messages, which helps us see the wrong so that we trust and obey the right.  I am just wanting today to consider one of several words for “hope” or “expectation” or “waiting” in the Hebrew.  The root verb is qava (5x in Job) and the noun tiqva (12x in Job).  The first use of the noun is translated “chord” and describes the scarlet chord Rahab dropped down the walls of Jericho so as to be saved out of the destruction of the city (Josh. 2:18,21).  The next is used in Ruth 1:12 by Naomi who says she has no “hope” of getting a husband for her daughters-in-law.  In other words, this term has tremendous salvation/redemption significance.  Here are some references to “hope” in Job.

·       3:9 (v): May the day of Job’s birth look for light but find none.  Do you see the “hope” there?  When in darkness we look for the dawning, the light.  In 30:26 (v) Job expresses hopelessness, saying when I waited for light, then came darkness.

·       4:6: Eliphaz says Job’s hope is in his reverence and integrity.  But that is not right.  It should be in his God whom he fears and before whom he walks in integrity.  This is the problem in religion: it counts on the works of the adherents rather than solely in God.  I ought not tell people to have hope because I am praying for them, but to have hope because of the God and the word of the God to whom I pray.

·       5:16: Thus, when Job says the poor have hope it is bec. of the Lord he just described and Whom he seeks and to Whom he commits his cause (5:8-9-15).

·       6:8: What you “long for” is what you hope for.  What are my “yearnings” today?

·       7:2 (v): Job “hopes” like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages.

·       7:6: Yet, the days go by quickly without hope (without seeing an answer).

·       8:13: Bildad warns Job the hope of the hypocrite shall perish.  He is barking up the wrong tree: Job’s suffering is not for hypocrisy. God called him blameless.  Job, in 27:8, recognizes the hypocrite has no hope.  

·       11:18,20: Zophar tells Job he would be secure because of hope if he would prepare his heart and reach out toward God (11:13), whereas the only hope for the wicked is loss of life.  Again, that is not Job’s problem.

·       14:7,19: Job says there is hope for a tree that is cut down because it can sprout again. Job feels hopeless because God has destroyed his hope.  Also, not true.  In 19:10 Job says, My hope He has uprooted like a tree. 

·       17:13,15: Job feels his only hope it so wait for the grave.  Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it?

We cannot live our lives without persevering hope.  It’s a big deal in Job, as it is in everyone’s life.  We do need to think accurately, Biblically, about our hope.

Romans 8:31-39, God is FOR Us!

I have been reading the writings of C. H. Mackintosh, a Plymouth Brethren pastor who lived and ministered in the 1800s.  He was born in Ireland, in the barracks occupied by his parents, his father being in a Highland Regiment (Scottish) of the British army.  He briefly worked in Limerick (where we happen to be at the moment) before settling in Dublin. A recent chapter entitled “God For Us” was a blessing to me and I want to pass on the skeleton of that message.  I was reminded that the LORD, in Ezekiel, on several occasions spoke of being “against” someone, most notably the “foolish prophets” who spoke in the name of the LORD but who had not, in fact, been sent by the LORD (Ezek. 13:8, cf. the entire chapter). That is a terrible thought though it is true.  Here are five “grand proofs” for the believer in Christ, that God is for us! 

·       The gift of His Son, John 3:16.  CHM develops the idea that, while Rom. 8:31 seems to apply to believers, John 3:16 applies to the world, to all people.  He did not say He loved a certain portion of the world, but He loved the world.  He affirms that there is no conflict between the doctrines of predestination, election and effectual calling and “the gracious outgoings of God’s love towards a lost world.”  Both lines of thought are laid out clearly in Scripture.  “The sinner has nothing to do with God’s unpublished decrees” but “he has to do with God’s published love – His proffered mercy – His free salvation – His glorious gospel.”

·       The death of His Son, Isaiah 53:10.  It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him.  He hath put Him to grief.  We would have been left with “the flames of an everlasting hell” if Christ had performed all His earthly ministry but not come to the cross.  “Without shedding of blood is no remission.”  Romans 8, upon telling us God is for us, then says, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all … and then we see, it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him.  Yes, God the Father did this for us all.  Truly, He is for us!

·       The raising of His Son, Rom. 4:25 (v16-25); Heb. 13:20.  Paul, speaking of Abraham who did not waver  but was strengthened in faith and was thus fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform, so that his faith was accounted to him for righteousness, then says that this was written also for us.  What did Abraham believe?  He believed that God could produce the Savior through his, Abraham’s, body that was already dead, unable to produce offspring.  What do we believe?  We believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.  Our sins brought Him to death.  But He is not still dead with our sins.  God raised Him from the dead to the place at His right hand.  And our offences are nowhere to be seen where Christ is now.  God if for us!

·       The descent of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:1-11.  CHM’s thought here is simple: three times in this passage we are told they, people from many nations, heard the word of God, the gospel, in their native language.  In Genesis 11 the languages of the world were created in judgment.  At Mt. Sinai God gave the law in one language.  But in Acts 2 everyone heard the wonderful works of God in their own tongue.  In Rev. 7 every language group will declare the praise of God in one tongue! 

·       The possession of the Holy Scriptures, Luke 16:29.  Jesus said of the brothers of the rich man in hades, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.  So the Scriptures, God’s word written, are with us to this day, Scripture which can make us wise unto salvation (2 Tim. 3:15). 

IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US!

Psalm 115

In another hillel (praise the Lord!) Psalm we have been brought face-to-face with the root question of humanity: in Whom do you trust?  The answer is either God or god because, by definition, that is what we call that in which we put our trust.  The clarity of our choice in answering that question could not be easier to see than in this Psalm.

·         115:1-2: The writer of the Hymn is concerned that God be glorified before the Gentiles.  God is known to the Psalmists for the familiar twin perfections: mercy (chesed, lovingkindness) and truth (emeth, faithfulness).  The people of the nations need to glorify Him as well.

·         115:3-8:  In contrast to the God of Israel, the God who is in heaven and who does as He pleases, are the images that are made by and worshiped by the nations.  These gods (and therefore the object of the faith of the Gentiles) are designed by men to have mouths, eyes, ears, noses, hands, feet and throats; but none of them work.  They have no life in them; they are made of silver and gold.  Pay careful attention to 115:8: those who make the images and those who worship the images are alike; since they trust in something that is nothing they receive no help.  

·         115:9-11: How unlike the God of Israel.  Those who trust in Him find Him to be their help (a general, all-purpose term that simply says God does what is needed in each situation) and shield (He protects them).

·         115:12-15: Again, those who trust in the Lord, that is, who fear the Lord, will be blessed by Him.  Verses 14-15 call upon God to do just that: to cause His people to prosper.

·         115:16-18: The call to praise at the end is very basic.  God who made heaven and earth (the end of v15) has given the earth to mankind.  The Psalmist commits to bless God in response.

Paul said, To this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe (1 Tim. 4:10).  Think of this.  In contrast to the people of earth who trust in things they have made (fortunes, learnedness, status, a multitude of friends, etc.) and who cannot count on these to be merciful and true (remember 115:1), we trust in a God who is, 1) alive, eternal in the heavens, living and giving life to all; and 2) the Savior, the One who will deliver us, who will especially help those who believe in Him.

We have an opportunity to consider: truly, without hypocrisy, in Whom do I really trust?  Is my “god” the creation of my own hands, my own imagination?  Or is my trust in the God who created me?  This is not only a theological question; it is a practical question.  Who is my God according to my lifestyle?

Num. 25, Update on Balaam (2)

·       Num. 23:5: Then the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth … 23:16: Then the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth.  Balaam uttered for messages from God to the king of Moab.  With the first two we see that the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth.  But in 24:1 we see that Balaam willfully tried to get the LORD to change His message.  Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times, to seek to use sorcery, by the set his face toward the wilderness.  Again, he wants the money from Balak.  This is the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness (2 Peter 2:15).  Jude, in a similar context as Peter, equates this to false teachers today who run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit (Jude 1:11).  Yet Balaam knew he could not tell the LORD what to do, so he only told Balak what the LORD said.

·       Note that before the third and fourth messages (which are given without interruption), when Balaam tried to do things differently in hope of a different outcome, that the LORD did not just put a word in his mouth. And Balaam raised his eyes, and saw Israel encamped according to their tribes, and the Spirit of God came upon him (Num. 24:2).  In the first two messages Balaam knew that he could not curse those whom God had not cursed, and that God was not a man that He should lie.  But in the last two messages, Balaam gave mighty prophesies concerning Israel and the Messiah, and for this he had to have the inspiration of the Spirit.  The result is that his eyes were opened, he heard the words of God, he saw in a vision of the Almighty, and fell down in worship with his eyes wide open.  Thus, in message #3 (24:3-9), Balaam prophesies Israel’s success in that age, in entering into the land and defeating the nations.  Then in message #4 (24:14-24) the Spirit takes Balaam into the “latter days,” prophesying of the Messiah and the ultimate victories over Israel’s greatest enemies.  He also prophesies God’s blessing on the Kenites, the family of Moses father-in-law, priest of Midian.  They were not Israelites, but they blessed Israel and thus were blessed by God.  This is yet another reminder that today, in the “latter days,” the promise is still in effect: I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you (Gen. 12:3).  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you’ (Ps. 122:6).

·       Num. 25:3: So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel.  “Baal of Peor” means “lord of Peor.”  They joined themselves to the local “god.”  In 25:14-15, the union of the children of leaders from Midian and the tribe of Simeon, was an attempt to bring the two together.  As when Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter and other foreign women.

This story is pertinent for today, and the prophesies of Balaam, received from the LORD, are certainly pertinent as we live in the “latter days.”

Num. 22:22-32, Update on Balaam (1)

In the past we have written on these four chapters in Numbers but that in a recent personal journey through that section of Scripture we were blessed with a few thoughts which we though we would share.  If there is “redundancy” we still see the value, as Peter said, in not being “negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know the truth and are established in the present truth” (2 Peter 1:12).

·       Num. 23:8: How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?  And how shall I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?  This is a word we need today, as in many places Israel is becoming more and more hated.  But in the USA no politicians will say this.  They might say we should support Israel because they are our friend, or they are the “only democracy in the Middle East,” and other such things.  But Balaam’s words, the words of a prophet who wanted so much to curse and denounce Israel so he might enjoy a great payday, are the bottom line.  We must stand with the LORD, Creator of heaven and earth!

·       Num. 23:19: God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent.  Has He said, and will He not do?  Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?  The character of God, which includes the character of His word, is at stake with respect to the nation of Israel.  God has made promises concerning Israel and these must be, and will be, honored.

·       Num. 23:23: For there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel.  It now must be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’  Again, Israel is a testimony to the awesome, great, mighty ability of God.  You may ask, Balaam was talking to the king and princes of Moab perhaps 4000 years ago.  Is this still applicable?  Has not Israel forfeited the blessings promised by God?  Read the previous two notes.  This is not about Israel; it is about the God of Israel, and His eternal faithfulness.  He will keep His word!

·       22:4-6: … he sent messengers to Balaam … ‘Look, a people has come from Egypt.  …  Therefore please come at once, curse this people for me … for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”  22:15-17: Then Balak again sent princes, more numerous and more honorable … ‘Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me; for I will certainly honor you greatly.’  Balak asked Balaam twice, and Balaam kept listening to their request and promise of honor and wealth.  Balaam had a reputation, likely established by the fact that he spoke for the LORD.  But as soon as he entertained Balak’s second group of messengers Balaam was liable for God’s judgment.  Remember: the first indicator as to whose slave we are is, “to whom do we listen.”  In both the OT (Heb. sama) and NT (Greek hupakouō) the primary word for “obedience” comes from the family of words that involve hearing.  If I am submitted to Christ as my Lord, then all contrary voices mean nothing to me!