Nowhere to go

What do you pack for a road trip into the wilderness?

The Israelites left Egypt like a plundering army, they marched out boldly, but it didn’t last. Very soon their boldness had turned to terror as they realised that Pharaoh was following them with chariots and an army. They cried out: “Were there no graves in Egypt?”

For all those former slaves, leaving Egypt and heading off to the Promised Land meant leaving behind what they knew and entering into the unknown. For generations, slavery was their only life, and now God had stepped in, promised change and a new life, but the question remains: “Can he deliver?”

What does it take to leave Egypt?

1. It takes vision

Vision is the ability to see not only what is in front of you, but into the distance of what lies ahead, into the possibilities. Vision means being able to look beyond Egypt, through the wilderness and into the land of promise.

Vision calls us into a journey that we wouldn’t normally make. It demands of us things we feel we can’t give and it asks questions of us for which we are yet to discover answers. Vision is, as one writer put it, the ability to see the invisible. Or as another said: Some things have got to be believed to be seen.”

2. It takes courage

The generation that left Egypt would not be the generation that crossed the Jordan. Except for two, Joshua and Caleb, they lacked the courage needed to follow God all the way into the land. They reached the border, but that was it. They sent spies but the spies report worried the people, so they turned away and never entered the land.

A vision is important, but without courage, vision remains a dream.

3. It takes faith

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews understood the link between faith and vision when they wrote: Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not yet seen.

What do you need to know if you’re about to leave Egypt?

You need to know that:

1. God has a plan

It can’t have looked much like a plan: leave Egypt, camp on the bank of the river with no way to escape Pharaoh and his angry army. God's plan seemed to be to put the people in an impossible position in order for them to learn to trust him for the rest of the journey.

God’s plan is:

1. Good

for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Phil.2:13)

2. To our benefit

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. (Rom. 8:28)

3. Certain

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. (He.6:17)

2. God will guide

Prov. 3:4-5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart... He will make your paths straight.

Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long. (Ps.25)

The issue rarely is whether we believe that God guides, the issue is usually “Will he guide me, at this time, in this situation?”

In order to be guided you need to be:

Willing

Committed

Patient

The key tools to use for guidance are:

The Bible: tells us everything we need

Prayer: our route into the heart of God

His Spirit: at work in us and in our circumstances.

Properly applied these three things will help you discern God’s call and direction.

A word of caution.

First do not forget that God can and does use those around us to help in the process. You do not have to walk the journey alone. But also be careful about how you interpret things. For example, if you decide to go to some foreign country to serve God as a missionary and that country rejects your visa application, does that mean God doesn’t want you to go or that he wants you to show more determination about going?

Guidance is not an exact science.

Thirdly, God is able to turn our mistakes to his glory. This is important because it means quite simply that there can never be a “God’s second best” for your life because you missed what he really wanted you to do.

3 God tests

After such an amazing turn of events, you’d have thought the Israelites would be ready to follow God anywhere, do anything to serve him and face any challenge for him. After all they had been set free from slavery, left like a conquering army and were headed for a new life in a new country. Faith must have been at an all-time high.

Then comes the first big test, and faith evaporates like the morning mist. They moan, complain, worry, panic, disobey. Nobody ever asks: What is God trying to teach us through this? No one ever asks: I wonder what God will do now?

What Moses tells them to do:

Not to be afraid (have courage)

Stand firm & be still (Have faith)

See the deliverance the Lord will bring (have vision)

In other words, facing the ongoing challenges and tests that come with following God takes the same things it takes to start the journey in the first place.

4. God comes through

God will come through for you. How many times in the Bible does God apologise for being late? Zero. He always comes through because:

He is omnipotent (He is able to do)

He is omnipresent (He is always with us)

He is omniscient (He knows it all)

Conclusion

Where are you on this journey?

Are you just about to leave Egypt? Are you looking at the sea? Are you looking at the chasing army?

Wherever you are, do you trust God? Do you believe he has your best interests at heart, that he is for you not against you?

For God so loved...

History has only one main event. 

Mankind’s time line is dotted with important moments: the first spark from the first flint; the rolling of the first wheel; the treating of the first wound. Who dares minimise these events? But who dares compare them with the cross? History has only one main event. 

Scripture has only one main event. 

Other matters, but only one is essential. The story of Jericho might stir you, but falling walls can’t redeem you. Moses will give you direction through the wilderness, but no solution for your sin. David’s defeat of Goliath might reduce your timidity, but only the cross prepares you for eternity. Scripture has only one main event.

 Even in the life of Jesus there is only one main event. For if there is no cross of Christ, then there is no truth to Christ. 

And, when it comes to your life, the same is true. To remove the cross is to remove the hinch-pin from the door of hope. The door of your hope. For if there is no cross then there is no sacrifice for sin. If there is no sacrifice for sin then how will you face a sinless God? Will you cleanse your own sin? And if there is no cross of Christ then there is no resurrection of Christ. And if there is no resurrection of Christ, how will you live again? Will you push back your own grave? Forgiveness of sin and deliverance from death,  these are the claims of the cross. Let there be no mistake. The cross is not an event in history, it is the event of history.

Whether we believe in Jesus Christ or not, his birth, life, death and resurrection dominate our history. We calculate our dates with reference to him, our justice system reflects upon his teaching. Our systems of government, of education, of social order are all connected in some way to this carpenter from Nazareth.

Abstracted from He Chose the Nails by Max Lucado

Max Lucado describes “3:16” as the numbers of hope, the hope diamond of the Bible. A twenty-six word parade of hope: beginning with God, ending with life, and urging us to do the same. But what does it mean to you and to me?

God so loved: Not an anger filled wrath declaring revenge taking God, but a God who loves.

Loved the world: Not the Europeans, or the wise or the wealthy but simply the world.

That he gave: not words or rules or regulations, edicts or philosophical papers, but his Son, his one and only son.

Why? So that whoever… 

Whoever

Whoever unfurls 3:16 as a banner for the ages. Whoever unrolls the welcome mat of heaven to humanity. Whoever invites the world to God.

Whoever is inclusive. The good news that Jesus brings is an open invitation to everyone, because everyone is a whoever.

Believes in him: Whilst the invitation is wide, the application is narrow. You must choose to believe or not to believe. What comes next is a salutary reminder of the consequences of the choice you must make.

This isn’t about getting ahead in life or a better seat at the heavenly dining table, this is about life and death, about eternal life with God or eternal life without him. It;s about choosing to pay the price for you sin on your own or accepting the price Jesus has paid on your behalf.

So, in the end, it’s up to you to choose whether or not to accept this crown jewel of God’s great love. He won’t force it upon you, he won’t back you into a corner and make you an offer you can’t refuse. But he will remind you that the price you will pay for saying no is a price you won’t be able to pay.

If it wasn’t for the love he has for you, he wouldn’t bother to tell you this, but it’s because he can’t bear the thought of heaven without you that he sent his Son into the world to die for you.

Zacchaeus: If you ask, he will come

The story takes place in the city of Jericho. Zacchaeus, the local senior tax-collector wants to see Jesus. Why? 

  The story happened near a tollbooth on the road through Jericho. Let me explain.  There were two major highways in Israel at that time and one of them went right through Jericho.  

Jews traveling north south would all pass through the city and they had to pay poll taxes on every cow, calf, and camel that came through customs.

It was also Passover time which meant that tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims were coming down from Galilee, going around Samaria because it was unsafe, and coming through the toll booth at Jericho and paying their poll taxes.  Researchers tell us that two or three million people showed up for the Passover.

Circus time.  Jesus had become a circus star.  Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, healed Bartimaus of his blindness and turned the water into wine. If you can turn water into wine, you become a circus star, a super star.  Jesus had superstar status, and the tens of thousands of people passing through customs at Jericho wanted to see Jesus.

Zacchaeus collects taxes. He works for the occupying army of Rome, he is despised and ostracized by every respectable person in town. So, what is stirring in the heart of this heartless man?

Perhaps he’s heard of the way this Jesus accepts all comers. Perhaps he’s reached a point in his life where he know it’s now or never to get his life sorted out. 

What Zacchaeus could not have known was that this would be the last time he would have to see Jesus. 

Jericho was his last stop on the way to Jerusalem. Luke tells us that from this point on Jesus set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem. If Zacchaeus had missed this opportunity, if he’d have thought to himself, “I’ll catch him next time around,” he would never have seen Jesus.

It is a sobering thought that we might miss our last opportunity to do anything, even more sobering to think that we might miss our last chance to meet with Jesus.

Attitudes towards Tax Collectors

Just to get things straight, tax-collectors were not well liked. 

"As one robber disgraced his whole family, so one publican in a family; promises were not to be kept with murderers, thieves and publicans" -Nedar 3:4 

This typifies the Rabbi’s view of a tax collector. They were little more than thieves and treated as social outcasts. They had no right to attend the Temple or the Synagogue. Their testimony was not accepted in a court. As far as the Rabbis were concerned there was no hope for a tax collector.

The people despised them because they often took more money than the actual taxes in order to make a profit for themselves. They were a constant reminder that the people were slaves in their own land.

For the Pharisees, tax collectors were no better than Gentiles and they too despised them. It must therefore have been quite a surprise when Jesus used a tax-collector as a symbol of a more acceptable prayer than the prayer of a Pharisee.

But Jesus saw them differently. He looked beyond what personal choice and societal pressure may have made of a person. He saw their heart. He even told a story about a religious person and a religious outcast, a Pharisee and a tax collector. And the amazing thing about this story is that the person whose prayer is accepted by God was not the religious person but the so-called “sinner” 

And so, as Jesus passes through Jericho on the road to Jerusalem, the scene is set for an encounter between a publicly known sinner and the traveling preacher who was known as ‘a friend of sinners’.

What Jesus knows

He knows his name: Jesus calls Zacchaeus by name, only a prophet would/could do that. For the religious people that raises a difficult question: If he is a prophet how come he doesn’t appear to know what Zacchaeus is, and condemn him for it.

He sees him: Jesus picks out Zacchaeus from the crowd: So many people that it was hard to see, especially for a small man like Zacchaeus. But Jesus sees through the crowd, over the crowd. He is able to pick out Zacchaeus at a distance.

Knows who he is: (is that by reputation or by previous knowledge or is this divinely discerned?) and therefore knows what he is and what he has been doing. But Jesus isn’t about to condemn or reject him. He already has one tax-collector amongst his followers (Levi).

Invites himself to his home: Jesus knows that left to our own devices we might never get around to inviting him, so he invites himself. Not even the most powerful would have the audacity to invite themselves, but Jesus does. Why? Because the grace of God always reaches out, always makes an offer. Zacchaeus had spent a long time hearing that he had no place among the family of God. Perhaps he was wondering if Jesus would reject him too. By calling his name, by inviting himself, Jesus says quite clearly, “Zacchaeus, if you ask me to come to your home, I will come.” Now it was up to Zacchaeus to decide what to do about the offer.  

What Zacchaeus does

Zacchaeus welcomed him gladly

Everyone else, considered Zacchaeus beyond redemption. But not to Jesus. Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.

What does it mean to be a son of Abraham?

Faith not law: Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Rom.4:3). Paul goes to make the point that this is a gift not a right. Zacchaeus can be made righteous precisely for this reason. He was one of the ungodly who trusts God who justifies the ungodly (Rom.4:5)

Son of a promise: Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring–not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. (Rom.4:16)

Zacchaeus responds to grace rather than trying to buy it. His restitution is much higher than that set by the Pharisees for theft.

Conclusion

We are known; We are invited; We are accepted.

It really doesn’t matter how you come to Jesus, what matters is that you take up his offer to come.

Is your sin any worse than the sin of Zacchaeus? If Jesus accepts the tax-collectors and sinners of the first century do you not think he will accept the 21^st century equivalent?

He will, he always will. You are invited, will you come?

Sarah: God keeps his promises

Have you laughed at God’s promises recently? How ridiculous have they sounded recently? Have you reached the point where you wonder how impossible it is rather than the point where the only possibility of success lies in God’s hands?

There’s a big difference. 

We know that some of God’s promises will only be seen to be kept when we stand with him in heaven. There are things about the kingdom of God that we know are “not-yet” but there is plenty about that kingdom that is is “now” too. Being able to live with the tension between the now and the not-yet is a challenge and, like many of our predecessors and antecedents in scripture, we find it hard to discern the difference.

Then there’s another problem. Do you worry that laughing at God’s promises mean he won’t keep them?

Sarah’s story is an example of God keeping his promise despite fears and anxieties, hang ups and errors of judgement, laughter and disbelief. 

Why the change of name?

When God changes Abram (‘exalted father’) to Abraham (‘father of many’), Sarai becomes Sarah, but there is no real difference in meaning. Two possibilities exist for the change of name.

First: Because Sarah is usually understood to mean princess, the change of name makes more explicit the ‘mother of kings’ promise of 17:16. Remember at this point Sarai or Sarah has had no children, so God underlines the promise he makes: I will bless her and surely give you a son by her, and connects it with his covenant with Abraham that I will nations of you, and kings will come from you. 

Second: The second possibility is more sentimental. One possible reading of Sarai is that it means my princess. In other words, it was almost like Abram’s pet name for his wife. Sarai was Abram’s world, he loved her no matter what. He went to great lengths to protect her and, despite her barrenness, he remained faithful to her. She was his princess and her name said it all.

But God has a different plan, so Sarai, the princess who belonged to Abram, become Sarah the princess because God blesses her and keeps his promise to her.

Abraham’s promise was always to love her, but he could nothing about her childlessness. God’s promise was to bless her and he could do something and he did.

Sarai is no longer just Abraham’s princess, she is God’s princess too. 

Sadly the writer of Genesis does not explain which, if either of these possibilities is true, so if you’re in the mood for a nice, romantic approach to the story, that’s okay. If you just want the logical explanation, it’s there too!

Sarah and Hagar

The imperfections of the family are brought to the fore as the story of Hagar and Sarah unfold into the story of Ishmael and Isaac.

Sarah was desperate to have a son, desperate to have a child. So desperate that she persuaded Abraham to take Hagar as a wife.

I suspect Abram told Sarai about the vision and the promise God made to him after he had rescued Lot. About how God had said that a son coming from your own body will be your heir.

But there was no clue how this would happen, and Sarai took responsibility for the solution. There were tests to undergo, no medical investigations to see if it was Sarai who could not have children or whether it was Abram. So together they agreed to try an alternative therapy… a second wife.

It must have been hard for Sarai to do this, but it seemed to her to be the only way of raising a family and fulfilling the promise. It was a very human thing to do, but since when did God need our help to keep his promises? He asks for our willingness, our obedience our trust, but he is the one who keeps the promise.

And hard as it must have been for Sarai to see Abram go into the tent with Hagar, how much harder must it have been to see Hagar pregnant.

Now it truly was her fault that Abram had no children.

And so her frustration and low self-esteem give way to envy and bitterness. She hates the human solution to her problem and takes it out on Hagar who runs away.

Do you have days when the real problem isn’t the real problem? Do you have moments when personal frustration shows up as anger and bitterness?

Is your present bitterness over one issue expressing itself in anger towards someone or something else?

Perhaps, even more pertinent a question is this: Are you angry with God because you think he hasn’t kept his promise to you and are you taking that anger out on someone else?

How do you wait for God to keep a promise?

1. Patiently

We already know that sometimes it can take a long time to see God’s promise kept. 40 years for Moses to become a leader, 25 years for Abraham to have a son, 750 years for Isaiah’s prophecy about Jesus to be fulfilled.

It reminds me of the sign at the golf course I used to play in Lincolnshire: If you don’t like slow play, play somewhere else. 

2. Faithfully

If there’s a recurring theme through the stories of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebekah, it’s that when people try to hurry along God’s promise, the consequences can be disastrous. Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau.

All the problems they faced were created through a failure simply to be faithful to the God who made the promise.

Lack of patience leads to a failure of faithfulness as we try to keep God’s promises for him.

3. Expectantly

Of course the problem with a long wait is that it dulls our hope and raises our doubt.

Did we hear right? Did God really say? Have we missed something?

It’s okay to ask questions. 

4. Graciously

To wait graciously is to wait in God’s hands. It’s to wait in a way that says it doesn’t matter if the promise is kept or not, being in God’s hand is sufficient for me.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (2Cor.12:19)

Conclusion

God is the God who keeps a promise. Number 6 reminds us that God is not a man that he should lie. He is faithful to the promises he makes.

The hard part is waiting and trusting and walking in faithfulness.

This is our part. To wait.

God’s part is to fulfil, we do well to remember that.

Let me finish by asking what promise has God to you that you are still waiting for him to fulfil? Because the truth is we are all still waiting for something.

How will you live differently, act differently, believe differently this week because you know that God does not make a promise he can’t or won’t keep?

Will you live patiently? Will you live faithfully?

Ruth: Living beyond yourself

Ruth sits between the stories of the early Judges and the new era of the monarchy, the times of kings and queens in the life of Israel. As part of the story of transition from one from of leadership to another, Ruth reminds us that God is working out his plan. 

He worked it out in the Exodus through Moses, in the conquest through Joshua, through the early occupation through the judges and he will continue to work out his purposes through tghe newly formed monarchy because he already has a king planned in David the as-yet-to-be-born son of Jesse, Great-grandson of Ruth.

Key things about the story of Ruth:

1. God is always at work. In the seen and the unseen ,God is presented at work through the story of Ruth.

2. Hesed: Loving-kindness; covenant loyalty (7 examples in Ruth). There is a case for hesed being translated as loyalty rather than mercy in Ps. 136 etc. Faithfulness would carry a better sense of the original, but it still doesn’t go far enough. Need to think about what it means for God to be loyal to his covenant.

G-K #2876: 248 times; 

Used to describe God’s love for us: 

Give thanks to Lord for his unfailing love (Ps.107)

Ps 136: His love endures forever

The treaty God draws up with the people is a covenant of love (Deut.7)

Now rethink those verses with loyalty instead of love.

Give thanks to Lord for his unfailing loyalty (Ps.107)

Ps 136: His loyalty endures forever

The treaty God draws up with the people is a covenant of loyalty (Deut.7)

How does that affect the way you see God’s attitude towards yourself?

The story of Ruth is a story about covenant-loyalty, about acts of loving-kindness that reflect the nature and character of God who inspires such acts because he is loyal. It begins with Ruth’s loyalty towards Naomi and it concludes with God’s loyalty to Naomi.

The story opens unpromisingly. There's famine, relocation, death, loss, despair and separation. Not an uplifting picture. And the author never tells us that it's okay because God has it all in hand and Ruth will marry, have children and become David's great-grandmother.

It made me wonder: How many lives are lived in the gloom of chapter 1 rather than in the light of the hope that unfolds through the story? How many people do I know who, because things are not going well, cannot see the loyal hand of God anymore?

I am no different, I have good days and bad days. I have days when life and busyness overwhelm me and I'd rather be anywhere else, doing anything else, than what I have to do. But I am not called to give up, I'm called to persevere.

I’m called to faithfulness, I’m called to be loyal.

As a follower of Jesus I have a hope that ought to infect everything I do. I can live with hope, I can grieve with hope, I can face challenges with hope, I can face failure with hope. I am not defined by any of these obstacles, I am defined by my relationship with Jesus. I am, first and foremost, "in Christ" . That is who I am and that is what defines me.

And what of Ruth? She got on with life, and as she persevered she discovered God's involvement and care, his loyalty as he met her needs and the needs of the despairing Naomi, and then went way beyond just meeting her needs and gave her a fullness of life no one could have predicted when she left her home to travel with her mother-in-law.

Hope in God: loyalty to God, blessing from God

The story of Ruth is a story of love, loyalty and commitment.

And they all begin in the heart of God.