“But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.” Exodus 14:29
Liberal theologians, always seeking naturalistic explanations for biblical miracles, have attempted to explain this Red Sea crossing as a shallow fording of what they call the “Reed Sea,” at the extreme northern end of the Red Sea. The biblical description, however, is clearly of a mighty miracle - not merely of a wind driving the shallow waters seaward. Instead, it describes a great path opened up through deep waters, supernaturally restrained as a wall on both sides of the wide freeway, deep enough to drown all the hosts of Pharaoh when the waters later collapsed.
The crossing was, of course, over a narrow norther arm of the Red Sea, enabling the Israelites to cross into the wilderness of Shur (Ex. 15:22), but it was nevertheless a great miracle. Such a miracle required nothing less than the creative power of God, creating some unknown force, or energy, powerful enough to hold the deep waters as stationary walls against the force of gravity which was straining mightily to bring them down.
Later generations always looked back on this event as the great proof of God’s divine call of Israel. The “song of Moses,” composed after the deliverance, noted that “At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters stood up like a heap; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea” (Ex. 15:8).
Fifteen centuries later, the apostle Paul recalled the mighty miracle in these words: “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea....Now these things happened...and they were written for our instruction...” (1 Cor. 10:1, 11).
Friday, November 8, 2013
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Those who Wait for the Lord
“Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.” Isaiah 40:31
This is one of the best-loved promises of the Bible, for it is easy to grow weary and faint in our mortal bodies, even when doing the work of the Lord. The answer, we are told, is to “wait for the Lord.”
But what does this mean? The Hebrew word (“gavah”) does not mean “serve,” but rather, to “wait for” or “look for.” It is translated “waited for” the second time it is used in the Bible, when the dying patriarch, Jacob, cried out: “For Your salvation I wait, O Lord.” (Gen. 49:18).
The first time it is used, surprisingly, is in connection with the third day of creation when God said: “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear” (Gen. 1:9). That is, the all-pervasive waters of the original creation, divided on the second day of creation, now are told to wait patiently, as it were, while God formed the geosphere, the biosphere, and the astrophere, before dealing again with the waters.
Perhaps the clearest insight into its meaning is its use in the picture of Christ foreshadowed in the 40th Psalm. “I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1).
“The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired” (Isaiah 40:28). His gracious promise is that we can “gain new strength” (literally, exchange our strength - our weakness for His strength!) by waiting for Him. We wait patiently for Him, we gather together for Him, we look for Him, we cry to Him, we trust Him, and He renews our strength!
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.” Isaiah 40:31
This is one of the best-loved promises of the Bible, for it is easy to grow weary and faint in our mortal bodies, even when doing the work of the Lord. The answer, we are told, is to “wait for the Lord.”
But what does this mean? The Hebrew word (“gavah”) does not mean “serve,” but rather, to “wait for” or “look for.” It is translated “waited for” the second time it is used in the Bible, when the dying patriarch, Jacob, cried out: “For Your salvation I wait, O Lord.” (Gen. 49:18).
The first time it is used, surprisingly, is in connection with the third day of creation when God said: “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear” (Gen. 1:9). That is, the all-pervasive waters of the original creation, divided on the second day of creation, now are told to wait patiently, as it were, while God formed the geosphere, the biosphere, and the astrophere, before dealing again with the waters.
Perhaps the clearest insight into its meaning is its use in the picture of Christ foreshadowed in the 40th Psalm. “I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1).
“The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired” (Isaiah 40:28). His gracious promise is that we can “gain new strength” (literally, exchange our strength - our weakness for His strength!) by waiting for Him. We wait patiently for Him, we gather together for Him, we look for Him, we cry to Him, we trust Him, and He renews our strength!
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
The Turning of the Day
“As the day began to dawn, the woman came and fell down at the doorway of the man’s house where her master was, until full daylight.” Judges 19:26
This tragic story took place in Israel in a time when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). The woman was of the tribe of Judah, concubine to a Levite dwelling among the tribe of Ephraim. Although she had been unfaithful, he had taken her back and they were traveling to Ephraim, staying overnight in a city of Benjamin. The “sons of Belial” among the Benjamites, however, had abused the woman throughout the night, leaving her dead “as the day began to dawn.”
The whole sordid story illustrates the depths of depravity to which even men among God’s chosen people can descend under cover of darkness. We are commanded, “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret” (Ephesians 5:11-12).
In the midst of this dismal record, however, there is an interesting scientific insight which should be noted. The evil events of the night terminated at what the writer calls, “as the day began to dawn.” But the Hebrew word used for “dawn” (Hebrew: “panah”) is not the normal word for dawn. Instead it is the word for “fuming.” Thus it is not referring to the rising of the sun, but the rotation of the earth which, after a dark night of evil, once again turns its face to the “light of the world.”
Note also Job 38:14: “It [i.e. the earth’s surface] is changed like clay under the seal,” again suggesting the earth’s axial rotation each day/night cycle. There is coming a glorious dawning, however, when we shall dwell in the presence of the One Who is the true light of the world, and “for there will be no night there” (Rev. 21:25).
This tragic story took place in Israel in a time when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). The woman was of the tribe of Judah, concubine to a Levite dwelling among the tribe of Ephraim. Although she had been unfaithful, he had taken her back and they were traveling to Ephraim, staying overnight in a city of Benjamin. The “sons of Belial” among the Benjamites, however, had abused the woman throughout the night, leaving her dead “as the day began to dawn.”
The whole sordid story illustrates the depths of depravity to which even men among God’s chosen people can descend under cover of darkness. We are commanded, “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret” (Ephesians 5:11-12).
In the midst of this dismal record, however, there is an interesting scientific insight which should be noted. The evil events of the night terminated at what the writer calls, “as the day began to dawn.” But the Hebrew word used for “dawn” (Hebrew: “panah”) is not the normal word for dawn. Instead it is the word for “fuming.” Thus it is not referring to the rising of the sun, but the rotation of the earth which, after a dark night of evil, once again turns its face to the “light of the world.”
Note also Job 38:14: “It [i.e. the earth’s surface] is changed like clay under the seal,” again suggesting the earth’s axial rotation each day/night cycle. There is coming a glorious dawning, however, when we shall dwell in the presence of the One Who is the true light of the world, and “for there will be no night there” (Rev. 21:25).
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
The First Love
“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:24
This is the very heart of the moving prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ before His arrest and crucifixion. As we hear Him pray, we are translated back in time, before time began, and there we encounter the indescribable love within the counsels of the triune Godhead - Father, and Son, and Spirit - three persons, yet one God.
Then, after speaking of this love, Jesus prayed - in the final words of His sure-to-be-answered prayer - “that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).
This love - the love within the Trinity - was the primeval love and, therefore, is the spring from which flows every other form of true love - marital love, mother love, brotherly love, love of country, love of friends, love for the lost, or any other genuine love.
It is appropriate that the first mention of love in the Old Testament refers to the love of a father (Abraham) for his son Isaac (Gen. 22:2), and then, that the first reference to love in the New Testament (Matt. 3:17) speaks of the heavenly love of God the Father for God the Son. The Son is called “beloved,” yet the father and son are prepared to go to the alter of sacrifice, that the will of God might be done, and a way of salvation be provided for lost sinners.
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). One day - as He prayed - we shall be with Him, see His glory, and even experience His own eternal love in our hearts.
This is the very heart of the moving prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ before His arrest and crucifixion. As we hear Him pray, we are translated back in time, before time began, and there we encounter the indescribable love within the counsels of the triune Godhead - Father, and Son, and Spirit - three persons, yet one God.
Then, after speaking of this love, Jesus prayed - in the final words of His sure-to-be-answered prayer - “that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).
This love - the love within the Trinity - was the primeval love and, therefore, is the spring from which flows every other form of true love - marital love, mother love, brotherly love, love of country, love of friends, love for the lost, or any other genuine love.
It is appropriate that the first mention of love in the Old Testament refers to the love of a father (Abraham) for his son Isaac (Gen. 22:2), and then, that the first reference to love in the New Testament (Matt. 3:17) speaks of the heavenly love of God the Father for God the Son. The Son is called “beloved,” yet the father and son are prepared to go to the alter of sacrifice, that the will of God might be done, and a way of salvation be provided for lost sinners.
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). One day - as He prayed - we shall be with Him, see His glory, and even experience His own eternal love in our hearts.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Strive Not About Words
“Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers.” 2 Timothy 2:14
This command emphasizes the necessity to avoid “word fights.” The apostle Paul has much to say about this in other passages. “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29). Our words should be “sound words” (1 Tim. 6:3), “that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10).
We are not to “pay attention to myths and endless genealogies” (1 Tim. 1:4), but are to “have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women” (1 Tim. 4:7). We are not to pay attention to “commandments of men who turn away from the truth” (Titus 1:14), and we must “avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law” (Titus 3:9), “knowing that they produce quarrels” (2 Tim. 2:23).
According to 1 Timothy 6:4-5, those who love “word fights” are “conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words.” Such a person is a “questionaholic.” Here is a short list of the biblical warnings about such fights:
It brings ill will toward others; wrangling, bickering.
It produces “railing” defamation or dishonor of others.
It encourages private plots to hurt.
It produces an incessant meddlesomeness.
It ends up rotting the intellect and robbing truth.
It equates personal gain with godliness.
May God protect us from those who are driven to strive “to wrangle about words.” May God increase our love for “delightful words and to write words of truth correctly” (Eccl. 12:10).
This command emphasizes the necessity to avoid “word fights.” The apostle Paul has much to say about this in other passages. “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29). Our words should be “sound words” (1 Tim. 6:3), “that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10).
We are not to “pay attention to myths and endless genealogies” (1 Tim. 1:4), but are to “have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women” (1 Tim. 4:7). We are not to pay attention to “commandments of men who turn away from the truth” (Titus 1:14), and we must “avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law” (Titus 3:9), “knowing that they produce quarrels” (2 Tim. 2:23).
According to 1 Timothy 6:4-5, those who love “word fights” are “conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words.” Such a person is a “questionaholic.” Here is a short list of the biblical warnings about such fights:
It brings ill will toward others; wrangling, bickering.
It produces “railing” defamation or dishonor of others.
It encourages private plots to hurt.
It produces an incessant meddlesomeness.
It ends up rotting the intellect and robbing truth.
It equates personal gain with godliness.
May God protect us from those who are driven to strive “to wrangle about words.” May God increase our love for “delightful words and to write words of truth correctly” (Eccl. 12:10).
Sunday, November 3, 2013
No Darkness at All
“...in Him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5
Some have suggested that the gospel message is the most important truth in the Bible - and, perhaps, from a temporal human standpoint it may well be. However, there is another more frequent message throughout all of Scripture here summarized by John: “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
In the Bible, God’s “light” is clearly focused on intellectual and moral holiness. That unique, holy nature both drives and limits the revelation of Himself to His creation.
In the intellectual sense, God is the source of “understanding”...“in Your light we see light” (Psalm 119:130; Psalm 36:9). The holiness of God requires truth and because of His holiness, God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Whenever God reveals anything, He must reveal the truth about Himself and His nature.
The opposite of truth, even though it may contain some truth, is the active agent which opposes God’s truth as it is revealed to His creation.
Lies (darkness) oppose the revelation of that truth:
In the created things (universe).
In the written Word (Scripture).
In the new creation (salvation).
The incarnate Creator God must reveal truth and cannot be untruth. When God speaks, He must speak truth. When God acts, He must do truth. God’s holiness demands that the creation not distort anything about God - or about the creation itself.
God could not create a lie - He could not make anything that would inexorably lead us to a wrong conclusion. God could not create processes that would counter His own nature - or that would lead us to conclude something untrue about Him.
Some have suggested that the gospel message is the most important truth in the Bible - and, perhaps, from a temporal human standpoint it may well be. However, there is another more frequent message throughout all of Scripture here summarized by John: “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
In the Bible, God’s “light” is clearly focused on intellectual and moral holiness. That unique, holy nature both drives and limits the revelation of Himself to His creation.
In the intellectual sense, God is the source of “understanding”...“in Your light we see light” (Psalm 119:130; Psalm 36:9). The holiness of God requires truth and because of His holiness, God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Whenever God reveals anything, He must reveal the truth about Himself and His nature.
The opposite of truth, even though it may contain some truth, is the active agent which opposes God’s truth as it is revealed to His creation.
Lies (darkness) oppose the revelation of that truth:
In the created things (universe).
In the written Word (Scripture).
In the new creation (salvation).
The incarnate Creator God must reveal truth and cannot be untruth. When God speaks, He must speak truth. When God acts, He must do truth. God’s holiness demands that the creation not distort anything about God - or about the creation itself.
God could not create a lie - He could not make anything that would inexorably lead us to a wrong conclusion. God could not create processes that would counter His own nature - or that would lead us to conclude something untrue about Him.
Friday, November 1, 2013
Son of Man
“Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.” Revelation 14:14
This is the last of some 87 New Testament references (84 in the four Gospels, one in Acts, none in the Epistles, two in Revelation) to Christ as the Son of Man. Here we see the Son of Man coming on a white cloud from heaven (just as He had ascended into heaven after His resurrection) as the conquering King of all the earth.
What a contrast this is to the first New Testament reference to the Son of Man. “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). From humility and poverty on Earth to power and riches in heaven, and for all eternity - this was His journey when Christ left His heavenly glory to join the human family.
In between the poverty and the power lay the whole human experience, for He “has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Finally, as Son of Man, He must die for man’s sin, for “the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men” (Luke 24:7). Even in heaven, he is still the Son of man, for Stephen saw Him thus: “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).
There is, indeed, a great man in the glory! Christ called Himself “The Son of Man” much more often than “The Son of God,” though He will eternally be both, the God/man. He delights to identify with those whom He has redeemed, for “He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11). “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” asked Jesus (Matt. 16:13).
Then we say, with Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16).
This is the last of some 87 New Testament references (84 in the four Gospels, one in Acts, none in the Epistles, two in Revelation) to Christ as the Son of Man. Here we see the Son of Man coming on a white cloud from heaven (just as He had ascended into heaven after His resurrection) as the conquering King of all the earth.
What a contrast this is to the first New Testament reference to the Son of Man. “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). From humility and poverty on Earth to power and riches in heaven, and for all eternity - this was His journey when Christ left His heavenly glory to join the human family.
In between the poverty and the power lay the whole human experience, for He “has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). Finally, as Son of Man, He must die for man’s sin, for “the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men” (Luke 24:7). Even in heaven, he is still the Son of man, for Stephen saw Him thus: “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).
There is, indeed, a great man in the glory! Christ called Himself “The Son of Man” much more often than “The Son of God,” though He will eternally be both, the God/man. He delights to identify with those whom He has redeemed, for “He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11). “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” asked Jesus (Matt. 16:13).
Then we say, with Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16).
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