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Spiritual Drink

8/17/2015

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1 Corinthians 10: 1 - 13


It is always a joy for the believer to discern intimations of Christ in the Old Testament. These are by no means rare but often the Christian eye is not trained to  detect them.  We have his warrant to scan every page in search of references to him.  “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:44).  That is wide-ranging territory over which to search for knowledge of the Lord Jesus and it encompasses every department or class of biblical literature conserved in the book of divine revelation to Israel.  The narrative, the poetry, the wisdom, the prophetic oracles and instruction, all have something to say about Jesus, our need of him and his answers to our needs.


The Old Testament is abundantly rich with references to Jesus and the key themes of his Gospel.


“This is what is written:  The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24: 46-47).


These assertions of the Lord maintain the perpetual currency of Israel’s ancient writings regarded as canonical.  In the sense that they point with accuracy to him and his completed work they are up-to-date descriptions of the mission of the Messiah published before his time on earth.  The ultimate thrill of Bible study is to fit the expectations to the fulfilment that Christ would achieve - to connect the pieces as it were.  Put them together and you view the visage of the Lord Jesus.  It is exquisite delight.


The apostle Paul endorses the ongoing, indisputable validity of the heritage we gain from Israel’s ancient authors.  He brings all his Jewish learning and expertise to bear upon the commendation of constant attention to the former writings of his nation:  “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).  The Old Testament announces Jesus with more clarity and detail than many believers suspect, and it flows into the New, its confirmatory evidence, as the basis of the apostolic testimony.  The two Testaments merge in witness to Christ and they should never be wrenched apart by our commencement of the reading of the Word of God at the Gospel of St. Matthew.  This evangelist plundered the truths of former divine disclosure as the Lord Jesus himself indicated that he would:  “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old” (Matthew 13:52).  We have one Bible with two sections of equal value.  Christ combines the treasures of each in his wondrous self.


And so Paul warns the Corinthians of the lingering evil tendencies within believers and the latent lusts that can be aroused through spiritual carelessness by taking converts, Jewish and Gentile, back to the episode of Israel’s wanderings through the wilderness, prolonged by their constant departures from the holiness the Lord conferred upon them (external consecration) and wrought within the elect among them (interior conversion). “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel” (Romans 9:6).  This last insight explains the falling away of nominal professors.


Jesus Christ was the contemporary of the people of Moses and both leader and  led offended him in rash and rebellious behaviour.  The Redeemer is presented metaphorically as the Rock that satiated the thirst of the escapees from Egypt and followed them on their disciplinary journey to Canaan.  “They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.  They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ (vv2-4 cf Numbers 20:1-13).  Through the word of Moses and the spiritual presence of the pre-incarnate Christ the Lord Jesus was the guide of the Old Testament version of the people of God (a fact also exhibited in the cloudy and fiery pillar).  Early manuscripts of Jude state that it was Jesus “who delivered his people out of Egypt (v5).  And Moses was the tutor who was leading his folk to an apprehension of Christ (Galatians 3:24).  The psalter develops the motif of the divine Refresher whose saving grace gushes out upon the spiritually dehydrated meandering through the desert. “He opened the rock, and water gushed out; like a river it flowed in the desert” (Psalm 105:41).


The grand and stupendous truth of the pre-existence of our Saviour is established in the Mosaic record, the rejoicings of the psalmist, and a preferred reading of Jude (F.F. Bruce) in his knowledgeable witness to his brother.  These are glimmerings of the greatness of the One who reinstates us to the favour of the Father, who mediates between us and our Maker.


The notion of miraculously provided water culminates in the claim of Christ, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said (e.g. see above and other places), streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37b-38).  This is the fulness and flow of the Spirit who proceeds from the Son as the pre-eminent spiritual donation.  Christ is the rock from whom gushes the Spirit of regeneration, effective proclamation of the Saviour, and eternal life.  The Old Testament is the indispensable trigger to all these marvellous things contained in Christ and poured upon chosen mankind, summed up as saving knowledge of the dear Son of God.


Paul deftly moves from the accompanying rock of old to the cup of the Lord in the new administration of the continuing covenant considered as the will and testament of the incarnate One who died for his people.  We of this aeon drink from the same Christ as our forbears in Israel en route to the Promised Land.  Their gaze upon him was distant and dim, through the screen of desert dust storms as it were.  Our view of him is plain and clear through the reports of eye-witnesses.  The rosy red cup of the Lord, drunk by faith, is a sensible means of confirming our derivation of forgiveness and everlasting life from the atoning blood-shedding of Jesus Christ.  Our physical partaking of the memorial wine signifies our spiritual drinking - the slow imbibing and savouring of the fact of the Redeemer’s death, its meaning and benefits for us.


The Lord’s Table is an awesomely holy place and the occasion of his Supper is to be observed with deep reverence and righteously obedient disposition free of known offence and in peace, joy, trustfulness, and gratitude of heart for the intervention and intercession of Jesus on our behalf.  We are cautioned by Paul not to be casual in approach or condoning of any evil within, or conflict with others we may reasonably correct.  The judgment on errant Israel makes us wary.  Our due judgment meted out to Christ our Substitute qualifies us to come and encourages us to be willing.


Lovely John “Rabbi” Duncan, administering the cup during a great service in Edinburgh, noticed a lady courteously declining to take the wine.  Sensing her doubt and consciousness of unworthiness he returned with the chalice, proffering it to her with the consoling words, “Take it.  Its for sinners’.  The water of life; the blood of Calvary - our spiritual drink all the way home.


RJS
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The Day of Small Things

8/9/2015

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Zechariah 4 : 1 - 10


The prophecy of Zechariah is colourful, intriguing, and magnetically Messianic.  It deserves close inspection, close comparison with the New Testament, and circumspection in conclusions drawn.  Rich symbolism can lead to ridiculous speculation in the interpretation of prophecy.  Rather than look for sensational events, calendar dates,  and spectacular visible occurrences in this and similar writings, such as Daniel and Revelation, the reader should anchor research in figurative biblical literature in the area of Christology - what is the text indicating about the magnificent Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, his lofty status and lowly service in providing salvation for those anxious to find it.


Key biblical themes are treated in Zechariah’s graphic instruction.  His pictorial preaching and use of imagery bring out the profundity and beauty of God’s saving design through Jesus Christ.  It is the creation of the divinely unequaled ingenuity.  If our minds were to brood over Scripture we would all find it breathtaking.


Compacted in this brief passage we discover an array of arresting truths...


*God’s surprising providence:  Zechariah cautions us in our easily arrived at assumptions.  Man is readily impressed by appearances.  Brightness and largeness bedazzle and mesmerise us.  We need to probe more deeply for the factor of quality in anything we survey; we cannot measure the strength and success of the divine purpose by what we sense and see.  The angel, the envoy of encouragement, reminds us that all things are presently in the making.  The end will disclose the magnitude of the divine mission on earth, and the consummation of his course of secret and steady action will bring joy to his people (v10).  Whether men despise the day of apparent small things in a spirit of ridicule, or whether they mourn the day of seemingly small achievements or none, God is working incessantly and tiny things will eventually tower over us.


*Divine revelation is always an awakening:  Our distance from God and dullness of understanding always demand the presentation of a sharp shock to human minds.  We would never dream of God’s wondrous disclosures as to himself, his wisdom, and will.  He astounds us with his truth.  With his intimations of his nature and mind insight is always a gift.  His intentions and actions require his own explanations, and these he freely gives (v1).  His words inevitably evoke our enquiry and by his Spirit he stimulates investigation in which he acts as our guide and mentor.


*The word of the Lord is supreme in its power and wisdom:  We are lifeless and uncomprehending without it - adrift in a sea of inherited and self-invented illusion.  God’s speech in Holy Scripture conveys comprehension.  His dual explanation (Word and Spirit) is supernatural.  The angel arrives before Zechariah as divinely commissioned messenger and in this role he represents the Holy Spirit who effectually addresses heart and mind.  The Spirit is the power of perception into the word, of progress in the word, and performance of the word.  How marvellous is the progress of God’s orchestration of his word.  He inspires it, intimates it, and instils it (v6).


*The Lord counters all opposition to his people in their obedience to the word:  We find opposition within and without.  Our drooping spirits often defeat us.  Distractions divert us.  Destroyers assail us.  The internal and external enemies who seek to foil the word of the Lord constitute a high mountain that the Lord will eventually level.  For Zechariah the reconstruction of the temple was a stalled project.  For ourselves in this generation the resurgence of truth and holiness in the Church seems distinctly unlikely.  We are in a day of small things and huge opposition.  But the word of the Lord informs us that no hindrance to the kingdom can prevail.  Every obstacle however huge, however formidable, firmly fixed and established, however daunting, can succeed in preventing the triumph of God.  His omnipotence reigns and all combative competition will crumble.


*The kingdom of God will will continue and gain completion:  Hostile forces face annihilation and all their threats and attacks will accomplish nothing except their utter extinction as effective forces.  Great powers arrayed against God will be ground to powder.  Resistance and the routing of the enemy is assured and all resources and accomplishments are the Lord’s through his human agents (v9).


*Absolutely all is of grace:  Grace is the greatest word of the Bible when you examine its context and content.  It encapsulates all that the Triune God intends and achieves on our behalf.  His fabled might and majesty display themselves in mercy - the mercy embodied in the Messiah.  This is the apex of Biblical revelation.  The glorious secret and subject of divine disclosure is Jesus Christ.  He is the foundation of our saving faith and the finisher of our faith inasmuch he initiates our rescue and brings it to perfect fulfilment (Hebrews 12:2 - “the perfecter of our faith”, “source and finisher” - Amplified Version).


The excellence of the Lord Jesus is captured in Zechariah’s reference to the capstone, the last stone to be cemented into a completed structure (v7).  Zerubbabel’s hands are illustrative of the saving hands of the Lord Jesus.  Finalization of the divine enterprise of human redemption will be achieved by the Messiah - “this temple”. Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”  The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”  But the temple he had spoken of was his body.  After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.  Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (John 2: 19-22).


The final touch in the project of human restoration is that of Jesus the Christ.  He is the expression and end of God’s grand design for the recovery of our race.  What a colossal assignment he has kindly undertaken.  The “plumb line” that proves his competence and endurance in his task is the gospel vindicated by assessment of history and the massive record of conversions to God.  Believers rejoice exuberantly in him (v10).


As the Lord’s folk we are never to despise the day of small things - the days of small significance and the things that scarcely count in our estimation.  All circumstances of whatever dimension are used of the Lord in his sovereign might.  We are not to yield to hopelessness, nor to be overcome by our weaknesses and failing.  We should never be cowed from any cause.


The sole and successful power of our faith-life is of God through his Spirit.  His power is all-conquering, all-enabling, and incontestably supreme.  And the predicted moment of triumph is Jesus Christ’s.


And he shall bring forth the capstone

With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”

Zechariah 4: 7b



RJS
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