Heidelberg Catechism Devotional Q4

Q.4. What does God’s law require of us?

A. Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22 –

            Love the Lord your God with all your heart,

                        And with all your soul

                        And with all you mind

                        And with all your strength.

            This is the first and greatest commandment.

            And the second is like it:

            Love your neighbor as yourself.

All the Law and the Prophets hand on these two commandments.

Christian Parenting - Instilling a heart to serve

Jesus said, "whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27-28).  Serving is what our Lord does.  He serves those who are unable to serve themselves.  Truthfully, no person is self sufficient.  The old axiom, "No man is an island unto himself," is true.  We are not self-contained people.  In fact, we need others. God himself said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18).  

Where's Jesus? the story of Jacob's flocks (Genesis 30:25-43)

In Genesis 30:25-43 the story of Jacob's family continues, this time as it relates to his wealth and the increase of his flocks.  Jacob takes the speckled or spotted sheep and goats and the dark-colored lambs.  But then he engages in some activities that are devious at best, or in some commentators minds, sorcery-like.  He places totems or fetishes in the watering bowls to look like the kind of offspring he wants.  He even engages in selective breeding in order to break his uncle's fortune and build up his own wealth.

Where is Jesus?  There are a few options for where Jesus is in this story.  Here are two:

Thomas Paine and Government Debt

I just finished reading Thomas Paine's Common Sense.  IN it he lays out the case for freedom and limited government at the time of the American Revolution.  Here is a quote that we would all be wise to remember:

Can we but leave posterity with a settled form of government, an independant constitution of its own, the purchase at any price will be cheap.  But to expend millions for the sake of getting a few vile acts repealed, and routing the present ministry only, is unworthy the charge, and is using posterity witht he utmost cruelty; because it is leaving them the great work to do, and a debt upon their backs, from which they derive no advantage.  Such a thought is unworthy of a man of honor, and is the true characteristic of a narrow heart and a peddling politician.

Christ in the Gap - 2 Chronicles 30:1-27

I was reading this section of Scripture while on a prayer retreat in October and the sheer picture of Christ that it contains struck me.  If you are familiar with Old Testament history, you will recall that Judah has been in dire straits, plagued by a series of good and bad kings since the reign of David.  It has kind of been like our stock market this past year or so with some highs and many lows but mostly a downward trend.  Such was the kingship of Judah and Israel and that kingship paralleled the spiritual life and vitality of the people themselves.

Let me rehearse the history for you. After David’s 40 years of reigning over the 12 tribes and the securing of peace by God’s gracious provision, Solomon comes to the throne and the reigns for 40 years, although, unlike his father, Solomon worships idols and erects shrines to them.  Then the great split follows his death, the 10 tribes in the North become known as Israel, and the 2 tribes of Benjamin and Judah however remain under Solomon’s son, Rehoboam and are known as Judah.  Israel in the north, Judah in the south.  Israel erects its own temple at Bethel and Dan in order to show that they are independent.  And rulers like Ahab, Ahaziah, and Omri plague them.  19 of them before being carried off into exile by the Assyrians in 722 BC, 210 years of failing to worship God in Jerusalem.  210 years of apostate rulers. 210 years of spiritual oppression.

This is what Hezekiah is referring to in his plea to Israel to return to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover.  With his simple words, “People of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.  Do not be like your fathers and brothers, who were unfaithful to the Lord…Do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; submit to the Lord” (2 Chr 30:6-8).  Come back and worship rightly.

But was Judah any better?  No, not really.  Following the division of the kingdom, Judah too experienced her share of good and bad rulers.  Where Israel had 19 idolatrous kings, Judah managed to have a few bright lights – men like Joash, Hezekiah, and later on Josiah.  But Judah had been just as apostate; and had worshipped idols too.  In fact, as Hezekiah’s reign begins in the 29^th chapter of 2^nd Chronicles, we find these words, in the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord, and repaired them (29:3).  If we turn back through the pages of scripture we find that 16 years earlier, Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz had shut the doors of the temple (2 Chr 28:24).  And if we continue turning back, we find there is no mention of the Passover being celebrated by the kings since the time of Solomon (2 Chr 8:13).

One of the three great annual feasts, according to the Lord has been neglected.  The people of Israel and Judah have been apostate, they have been without instruction in how to worship the Lord, and it has been for a long time.  This is the history of the people when Hezekiah comes to the throne.  And isn’t that so like us as people.  Some of us spent large sections of our life bereft of any witness of God in our lives.  Some of us have had times when brightness has shown in our lives, illuminating our path and directing us toward God and his temple, but just as quickly as the light appeared, circumstances, like bad kings, arise and snuff out the light.  And if it isn’t snuffed out, it’s at least syncretized so that we can be friends with the world and with God. But don’t we know, friendship with the world is hatred towards God (James 4:4).  There is no living as Israel, overtly hostile to God and his Word, or as Judah – knowing God but failing to submit to his yoke.  Both are wrong, and equally condemnable.

Yet, every one of us, like they, comes from the stock of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.  All of us know about God, as Romans confirms, and all of us refuse to acknowledge and worship God as God.  Although we knew God, for his creation is full of his testimony, we have neither glorified him as God nor given thanks to him… (Rom 1:21).  All of us, even the most saintly among us, have failed to offer our bodies, wholly and completely, as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God.  All of us have turned away.  All of us are guilty of omitting some form of worship from our lives. For some, we fail to worship God with our finances, hoarding our wealth instead of giving it away.  For others, it is offering up our time in service to the poor and needy in our midst, we just never find the time or the motivation.  For still others, it is an inability to forgive the one who has wronged you.  For still others, it is pride, arrogance, lust, gossip, or some other sinful tendency at work in our spirits, keeping us from wholly being devoted to the Lord.  Such is our plight!

This is where the beautiful picture of Grace comes to us through our passage.  Just as Hezekiah calls these sinful people of Israel and Judah to return to worshipping the Lord, so the Spirit calls to us.  And just as those who respond and come to Jerusalem, though not all do as we see that some scorn and ridicule the messengers of the King.  Just as those who respond come unprepared, the word says they were not consecrated, nor were they purified, we too who respond to the Lord are unclean and not able to offer worship that is right, we have seen that already – our hearts, our minds, our lives are always drawn up short of the command to be holy and righteous. 

These worshippers are so bad off ritually, that they can’t even kill their own sacrifices as they were commanded in Ex 12.  In fact the only prescription for being ceremonially clean to eat the Passover, that I could find, is that one must be circumcised according to Ex 14:43-49, and yet again, the Word tells us “Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written.” They defied the very Word of God again in their worship, and so do we, yet Hezekiah realizes something and he expresses it in his prayer.  Listen,

“May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God — the Lord, the God of his fathers — even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.”

Hezekiah intercedes for them, realizing the heart is more important than the action, than the liturgical ritual that is performed.  He prays for God to see the heart, not the liturgy, “And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people” (2 Chronicles 30:18–20).  Isn’t this the same with Christ, isn’t Hezekiah a picture of Jesus, the Messiah for us?  Aren’t the grace of God the Father, the work of Jesus the Son, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit pictured beautifully in this story?

The Holy Spirit summons us to the King to worship, and we respond because that same Spirit prompts us to go instead of ridiculing and scorning the Lamb of God.  But we show up just like these people, we aren’t sanctified, we aren’t clean, we are in fact sinners who bring all our sinfulness with us and try to participate in the act of worshipping a holy, righteous, magnificent, victorious Lord.  But Jesus intercedes for us and calls upon the Father to see not our actions, but our hearts, hearts that have been indwelt by His Spirit. Jesus calls upon the Father, interceding on our behalf that he sees the heart of flesh, which has replaced our heart of stone.  Though our lives do not yet conform to our new reality. 

Jesus calls on God to overlook our sin, and to allow himself as our Great High Priest to not only perform the sacrifice, but also to be the sacrifice restoring and maintaining fellowship with God Almighty.  He asks God to allow us to join in the worship and rejoice and give thanks to the Lord for his mercy and compassion, his provision and sustenance.  And God hears his prayer according to Romans 8:34 for, “Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” and accepts us because of his work according to Hebrews 10:12-14 “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” 

Jesus is our king and our priest, the door that re-opens communion with God.  Just as our sin blocked us from entering the temple, so his life is the door that opens that temple to us again. 

Now it would be easy enough to stop here and not go on, but the story gets even better, after the first 7 days of celebrating the Passover, the people agree to worship for another 7 days and it is during this seven days that more of the priests consecrate themselves and more joy flows, as do more acts of worship.  Such is our life in Christ after his intercession; we too are consecrated as a holy priesthood, built into a true temple of worship.  While I alluded to the struggles we all face as Christians earlier on, now I will focus on our sanctification following the intercession of the Son.  Where God looked and saw the finished work of Christ when we arrived broken, now this same God forms Christ in us by the ministering power of the Holy Spirit.  Now this same God disciplines us in order to make us obedient. Now this same God gives us gifts to use in order to serve one another so that the body of Christ is brought to maturity.  Such is the story of Hezekiah and the grace of God.

Heidelberg Catechism Devotional Q3

Q.3. How do you come to know your misery?

A. The Law of God tells me.

Christ to crush the serpent’s head - Gen 3:14-15

 Merry Christmas.  The Savior is come.  The King of Kings, the prince of peace, the Mighty God is with us. This advent season we have been exploring the promised children of Scripture.  We have looked at Abraham’s promised child, Isaac; we have explored Elizabeth & Zechariah’s promised child, John the Baptist; we peered into the child Hannah promised back to God, Samuel and today we are going to look at the Savior who has come in the flesh, Emmanuel – God with us.

You may think that the natural place to go is to the child promised to Mary, the mother of Jesus.  But this Christmas morning we are going to look at the child promised to Satan.  What, you may ask, a child promised to Satan?  I didn’t know that Satan had been promised a child.  Truly, he was, although not as you think. When most of us think of a promise given to someone, it is a good promise.  Especially when we think of a child being promised to someone, that is a blessing, a gift, someone who will come along and continue the line of the one who has received the promise.  But not Satan. 

In Genesis 3:14 God begins to speak to the serpent, after Adam and Eve have sinned, and he makes a promise to Satan, point of fact, he makes 6 promises to the serpent, and one of these promises includes a child who will come and destroy Satan and his work. Gen. 3:14 begins with these words, “The Lord God said to the serpent…” There are a few preliminary considerations we should address, to make sure that everyone is on the same page. 

Firstly, The Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, the great I am (Ex 3:14), the creator of the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1).  The One God (James 2:19) who is above every other God (Ps 95:3), the ruler of all creation (1Chr 29:12-13), the sustainer of life (Heb 1:3), the author and perfecter of faith (Heb 12:2), the amazingly holy One (Lev 11:45, 1Pt 1:16), this God, of whom there are no others (Isa 45:18) in comparison, is speaking and is in utter control of the situation.

Secondly, this God who is in control, is speaking to the serpent.  The serpent, not humanity, is being addressed directly. The serpent is receiving the words of the Lord, although humanity definitely is included in them, as we will see.  But the very statements spoken are for the serpent.  Who is this serpent? There are a lot of ideas about this passage.  There are many who downplay evil, or personify it as an invisible force, but what does this scripture say about this serpent?  In Rev. 12:9, the apostle John records this revelation from the Lord writing about the great cosmic battle between God and Satan and the Lord’s plan for humanity’s redemption.  This is what he writes, “The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him…¹⁷Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.”  God is addressing His archenemy, the one who attacks his children and his people

Thirdly and finally, when God speaks, his words are true and must come to pass.  For this I turn to Heb. 6:17-18. In context, the author of Hebrews is arguing the certainty of God’s word to Abraham and hence his promise to redeem us. In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things (the oath and promise), in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us.

Summarizing our preliminary observations, we hold these truths – God is in control, there is none like him and when we speaks, his word is true and comes to pass, and Satan or the devil is the recipient of the particular words of God we are going to explore this morning.  So what were God’s words of promise to Satan?  First is a statement of fact, followed by 6 promises:

The statement of fact is “Because you have done this…” Because you have deceived the woman into eating the fruit, because you lied about the word of the Lord, because you denied God’s sovereignty and instruction, because you have brought shame and separation into the world.  These are all included in the this which Satan accomplished.  Deception is lying and he is the Father of all Lies (Jn 8:44), he calls the Lord’s right of rule into effect in verse 4 saying You will not surely die, God’s words aren’t true, they have no authority over you.  And the shame and separation that comes upon the man and the woman because of their new found “knowledge” actually drives them apart from one another and causes them to hide from God – shame, fear and separation.  All of this is the work of Satan, and all of it is still his work, for God brings redemption, restoration, reconciliation, truth and authority. 

So if you see the other at work in your life.  If you see, shame, fear, separation, rebellion against God’s word, lying and deception, then recognize them first and foremost as the work of Satan and then rejoice in these promises God has made about this kind of behavior.

The first of the promises to Satan – Cursed are you.  Cursed, judged are you.  Another way of understanding a curse upon someone is that the one who is cursing another is saying, “I will bring trouble on you.”  I, God Almighty, will judge you and bring great calamity upon you.  You will not stand, you will not survive, and you will not persevere in these ways.  You are cursed.

The second and third promises are closely related, so I will address them together – upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.  These twin promises of God are symbolic, for no snake eats dust, we are all aware of that; furthermore, the curse is spoken to Satan, not to snakes in general.  So what do these promises symbolize?  In the ancient world, to crawl upon your belly was a form of humiliation and submission.  In fact it is still that way in many cultures in the east today.  In Zambia where we lived, those who wanted to go in to meet with the chief were required to crawl in on their hands and knees to the foot of the throne.  And this corresponds to eating dust as a form of humiliation. Psa. 72:9 May his foes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust.  Is. 49:23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.   The Serpent is promised double humiliation and that he will be in submission to the God who governs all life.

The fourth promise is that there will be enmity between the serpent and the woman, between your offspring and hers.  Literally God will place hatred between Satan and humanity and humanity and Satan.  There will be active hostility between the two parties.  And isn’t that born out in life.  Don’t we, as humans actively abhor those actions of Satan we see in the world?  Don’t we abhor lying and dishonesty?  Don’t we abhor what the Belhar confession calls “the sinful separation of humanity?”  Don’t we abhor those who refuse to submit to their leaders, when those leaders are duly and legitimately elected?  Don’t we abhor these acts of Satan?  But the promise has a flip side, just as we hate these acts of evil, just as we hate the death and destruction which flows in Satan’s wake, so too does Satan hate humanity.  He accuses us before God trying to defame us as the first chapter of Job aptly illustrates with Satan challenging Job’s very character before the King Almighty.  The same truth about Satan’s hatred of humanity is echoed in Zechariah 3:1, Then [the Angel] showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.  In fact he hates and accuses God’s people so much that he makes war against them according to Rev 12:17, which we read earlier.  In fact, he prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1Pt 5:8).  God promises that Satan will be out to destroy us

But this is where the fifth and sixth promises of God come to play.  Let me treat the last promise first, for our sake we will call it the fifth promise of God, even though it is the last promise God makes to Satan.  It is that Satan will strike the heel of the woman’s offspring.  He will seek to inflict damage, but it will be minimal. That doesn’t mean it can’t be deadly, for we all know that a snake bite in the heel by a viper or a cobra is no laughing matter.  He will strike, kind of as a reaction as a defensive posture, as one who has been driven down the food chain and is striking trying to ‘get back’ at those farther up.  I am reminded of a day when we were in the bush learning from my language teacher sitting under the shade of a tree.  Morgan was walking around in the sand when Jen started yelling “Snake, snake.”  I was lost in another language and didn’t respond until she cried, “Linyoka.”  Up I ran, with my teacher as this little twig snake slithered away and the eyes on my instructor grew large, it was a poisonous snake, a very poisonous snake, responsible for more deaths in our province than any other snakes.  As we got it out and started to kill it, beating its head into the ground and crushing it, he said repeatedly, “This is Satan.”

That picture stands in my mind, as we look at God’s final promise to the humiliated, subjected, cursed enemy. Here is God’s promise of a child to the Serpent, “[The woman will have a child and] he will strike your head.”  You are going to be hostile to one another, you are going to hate one another, you are going to war against one another, you Satan are even going to be able to inflict pain upon him, but that will be nothing compared to what the woman’s offspring will do to you.  He (singular) will strike your head, he will crush your head, and he will damage you in the most important part of your body, and you will strike back from and inferior position trying to defend yourself.  That is what happened that day in the Zambian desert.  The snake tried to defend itself, but it was of no comparison to the skill of my language teacher who beat it into submission and eventually into death.

God has made a promise to Satan that he will be destroyed.  And the disciple John paints the same picture again but in different inspired words when he writes, Rev. 20:1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let out for a little while…7 When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison8 and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, in order to gather them for battle…9 They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from heaven and consumed them. 10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

This is the reason we gather this Christmas morn, for the seed of the woman has come, the one to crush the head of the serpent was born to a virgin named Mary some 2000 years ago and his name was Jesus = he saves.  And the Scripture tells us that of his kingdom there will be no end.

In Conclusion, this is the Christmas message, the promises of God to Satan  - his humiliation, his submission to God, his hatred, all of it will be destroyed for his head has been crushed, and the Savior of the World, the seed of Eve has come, and we are now endowed with the same power as Christ, contemplate this final verse as we enter into Communion:

Romans 16:20 The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.