ResponsiveReiding

Proverbs 3:1–3 (ESV) My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, ² for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. ³ Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

“Kiss me you fool!” When my wife says that – I light up like a roman candle. That’s one command I just can’t get enough of. I LOVE to obey it – every chance I get. And that is the very premise of this 3rd chapter of Proverbs.

Solomon, in instructing his son – bids him to be sure not to “forget” his teaching, and to “keep” (to treasure up) his commandments. And what commandment is he referring to? To never let his heart and mind operate apart from a full awareness of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. To live, luxuriating in the reality that God’s love toward Him is steadfast – unmovable and unchangeable, and that He is absolutely faithful to all of His promises and in the fidelity of His divine love.

It is no mistake that these words copy the core of God’s self-disclosure on Sinai: Exodus 34:5–6 (ESV) “⁵ The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. ⁶ The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…” One immediately thinks of Jude 21a “keep yourselves in the love of God.” The idea there isn’t to keep yourself lovable BY God, but keep your heart and mind fixed on the reality of God’s love FOR you!

So here – Solomon knows that the issues of life are all wrapped up in the individual knowing the nature of God’s nature and love for them in Christ.

Believer – do YOU know it? Do you live here? Or are you secretly living the life of performance? Underneath it all, do you find your heart’s repose more located in whether or not you’ve done well today (reading the Word, praying, worshiping etc.), than in the knowledge of HIS steadfast love and faithfulness? If so, you are denying grace, and looking for self-justification. It is so subtle, isn’t it?

So our Writer by the inspiration of the Spirit calls us to “bind” these realities around our necks – more! To carve them into the very seat of our affections and understanding. For apart from this – we will fall into mere religion. But to live here, is to live long, savory days of life and peace.

What a Savior!    

Mark 11:12–14 (ESV) On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. ¹³ And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

Sometimes, a little background information can go a long way. If Bishop Lightfoot is correct (along with a number of other commentators) part of the enigma of this account of Jesus approaching and subsequently cursing this fig tree would not have been such to Jesus’ contemporaries.

In Lightfoot’s “A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica”, he notes that there were several different kinds of fig trees common there and then. One kind – bore leaves all year round. And, it produced fruit which took 3 years to mature. Thus it would have been normal to expect some fruit on this kind of fig tree – even as Mark reminds us that it was not the season for figs – the regular cultivated figs that is.

So what’s the problem? If Bishop Lightfoot is correct in identifying this particular fig tree as one which bear its leaves every season, and has fruit on it which takes 3 years to ripen – then it is easy to see that Jesus’ pronouncement has more to do with the wicked generation which stripped this tree bare of its fruit. They could not and would not wait for it to serve its design, and robbed it bare. It is not a pronouncement against the tree, as much as it is against Israel’s leadership who in their greed and lust, took Israel’s glory to themselves, and left nothing for the Messiah. See Mark 12:1-11.

So it is, immediately after, He casts the money changers out of the Temple. Those picking the “fig tree” bare and leaving the people destitute and bearing the name of God only, and nothing of His substance in their traditions. In about 40 years – they will no longer be able to strip the “tree” any more.

Mark 12:38–40 (ESV) And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces ³⁹ and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, ⁴⁰ who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

It is a frightening thing to take what belongs to God.

Mark 14:3–9 (ESV) And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. ⁴ There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? ⁵ For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. ⁶ But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. ⁹ And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

No other act among people evoked such a response from Jesus: “wherever the Gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Why? What is so special about this act that Jesus should respond to it so strongly?

It seems to me that the words of Jesus in the first part of verse 8 hold the key. So simple, and yet so profound: “She has done what she could.” Herein is my failure so often – I do not even do what I can.

He asks no more of us than what we can do – not what we cannot. He does not ask us to amass great wealth to finance the entire evangelism enterprise, or to reach each individual with the Gospel personally: He asks only that we do what we can.

And how was this demonstrated here? That answer is in verse 3 – “she broke the flask.” She did not uncork it so as to use some to anoint Jesus and retain the rest for herself or others – she wasted it all on Him. With careless abandon. She didn’t worry (apparently) about getting more later, or that once it was gone, it was gone. It was used to bless her Lord and that was all that mattered. She did what she could – and she didn’t hold back.

Heavenly Father, how I long for this same heart in myself. How small must my conceptions of your glory be that I hold back a thing – that I do not even do what I can often? Forgive me. Let me see Jesus’ glory in such a way that this cold, dark stingy heart of mine be warmed and enlightened and set free. For what do I have, that does not belong to you? And what is anything to me, accept to bless you with? Let me do all I can, and not worry about what I cannot. Set me free from clinging to anything in this world that can instead be used to glorify the King who have His dear life a ransom for my wretched soul.  

2 Timothy 2:16–18 (ESV) But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.

It is rare that Paul addresses a false teaching directly in his epistles, and rarer still to attach names to such teachings. But some things call for unusual treatment due to their impact. And here, Paul identifies what makes the actions of Hymenaeus and Philetus so problematic: a spreading ungodliness, due to a subverted faith which is the product of false teaching. In other words, false teaching which damages genuine faith, ultimately results in an ungodly lifestyle in those damaged by it. They give up the simplicity of trusting and walking with Christ.

There are two prevailing views on what form this gangrenous teaching that the resurrection had already passed, took. First, is that the resurrection is simply one’s salvation. They have been “raised from the dead” in Christ, and therefore no literal, physical resurrection is to be looked for. Second, was simply that resurrection was merely when those who died passed into Heaven. Both views though hold the very same error at their core – the “spiritualizing” of the resurrection. And in this way, they “upset” or overturned the faith of some, in turning them away from looking for Christ’s literal return, the resurrection of the dead, and the putting of the universe right.

Enter Harold Camping.

I’ve been pretty silent so far on Mr. Camping’s wackiness. I’ve done everything I can (since the 80’s) to chalk up his strange preoccupation with eschatological arithmetic to a mere harmless fancy, and then increasingly to the onset of an age related lack of Biblical lucidity. But no more.

Listening to his live press conference last evening evening in the aftermath of his failed prediction of Judgment Day arriving in global earthquakes and the rapture of all true believers – I lost my ability to ignore it. Why? Because his entire defense last evening was the Hymenaeus and Philetus tack: Judgment Day DID come, but it was all just spiritual – so he said.

He took not one iota of responsibility for what he incited in others by teaching his own misguided interpretations (if they can be called that: better, self-delusions) as absolutely and unequivocally what the Bible teaches. His gangrenous false teaching will injure the simple , pure faith in Christ of many – as the admitted raising of (and thus fleecing God’s people of) over 100 million dollars to get the warning out. Whether it was for personal gain or not is irrelevant.

This is shameful, wicked, unconscionable and indefensible. And to say “well, it really DID happen, just spiritually” is as much of a lie and destructive to faith in the Bible as it can be.

Whether self-deluded or a pure sham (I make the assumption of self-delusion) – the damage is none the less. And the whole Church suffers from the weight of it.

Let me not mince words here: Harold Camping is a false teacher of the highest degree, who has perverted the Gospel by drawing people away from following Christ, to following his predictions in order to be truly saved and right with God. This, is damnable. And it is not to be excused, winked at, ignored or explained away.

God has used Harold Camping and Family Radio in wonderful ways over the years to truly be a vehicle for the Gospel. But that is no more a means to excuse this present crime against the Gospel than the fact that Peter declared Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” and was an apostle – freed him from public confrontation by Paul in Antioch when Peter’s public weakness led to a practical denial of the Gospel.

I have but two things to say in closing:

a. Do not listen to Harold Camping. Shut him off. Period. Do not give an ear to false teachers. Avoid this “irreverent babble” – it only leads to ungodliness, for it takes our eyes off of Christ.

b. Pray for Harold Camping and those who have listened to him and been so woefully harmed. They are in serious trouble. they have “swerved from the truth.”

Mark 9:33–37 (ESV) And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” ³⁴ But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. ³⁵ And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶ And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Note how humble our Savior is. It is why He wants us to become humble too – that we might be like Him.

And the truth is, you cannot have your eye set on your own greatness, and at the same time be willing to stop and receive those who can add nothing to your quest for personal greatness.

Loving the least among people, will marginalize you from such grasping after status yourself.

Receive, be identified with, take up in your arms those who are not capable of helping you achieve such a goal – do it for MY sake – and you will receive both Me and My Father; He seems to be saying.

And I am forced to ask myself – who is it I am afraid to be identified with – lest I lose status in the eyes of others? Who are the “those people” who do not quite measure up to my standard? What group is it I am afraid others will imagine that I’m “one of them”?

Am I afraid to be thought of as a sinner? A friend of the uneducated, or uneducated myself? A pal to the socially inept? The rednecks or the tree-huggers? The indigent? The broken? The addicted, convicted, helpless, needy & bound? Or do I want to be among the beautiful, the comfortable, the respectable and the un-cumbersome only?

Children are lacking knowledge, context, self-control, the ability to contribute much to their care and upkeep and will be noisy and bothersome. Welcome to me! And as the Savior scoops such up in His arms – He calls us to do the same.

What a lover of souls He is! What a Savior!

Matthew 13:3–9 (ESV) And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Note in this parable that the “soil” in all four cases is exactly that – soil. There is no fundamental difference in the composition of the four soils. They are all dirt. The parable doesn’t make the point that seed fell on concrete, and then on steel, a mountain side and then soil. In each case, the seed fell on soil. The problem, was the condition of each soil.

The soil on the path has all the inherent properties of the other soils – but it’s condition was that it was hard. It would not receive the seed easily. Many a person, even in the Church is unfruitful because of hardness. They receive nothing from the outside. Everything is on their terms. Their hearts and minds have been solidified into a thought process that lets no one, and no thing ever to really enter in. They do not want to be disturbed from the way they have everything figured out. They’ve got their point of view, they are unwilling to be changed. Their favorite songs are: “I’ve got to be me” and “I did it my way.” If they remain hard, if they do not hear the Word of the Lord calling to “break up the fallow ground” (Jer. 4:3 and Hosea 10:12) they will die fruitless, and lost. The hearers of Jesus’ words here should have connected them with God’s former rebukes to such hardness. But that is the nature of hardness, nothing gets through.

The rocky soil is simply shallow. Nothing gets deeper than the skin. There is “no depth.” This person lives for the visible – the surface things of life. In truth, they never really think about anything very deeply. They flit from relationship to relationship. They change jobs often. They are constantly – and but for a micro second – absolutely enthused about whatever has caught their attention – right then. And then it is off to something else. They’ve tried everything, and been everywhere, and think they are really broad in their experience. But in truth, they know only the slightest bit about a thousand things – nothing really about anything. They’ll respond to the Gospel the same way they buy into every other new fad. But stay with Christ? Endure the hardness of staying put and persevering to actually bear fruit in Christ’s likeness? Nope. The people are too difficult, the circumstances not accommodating enough, the preacher boring, the music is the wrong style, the building is too old or too new or too bright or too dark and, and, and…

Then we come to the fatally distracted. The thorns are the very same encumbrances which threaten us all. But for them – they take priority over everything else. God is good. Religion is fine. Christ and Christianity is great – as long as you don’t go overboard. After all, life is more than serving Christ, isn’t it? I mean, there’s a LOT of other priorities. So worship is second to sports or other involvements. Studying God’s Word is for the Bible nerds. Prayer? – I pray, sort of, when I think of it or something is really pressing. But the thought of actually arranging one’s life around the priorities of Heaven seems too extreme. They want the religion piece in place, but certainly don’t want it to dominate the landscape – just dress it up. And these too will die fruitless and lost.

Then of course there is the soil which hears and receives and endures and brings forth fruit.

So the question arises, which soil are you?

Proverbs 29:18 (ESV) Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.

With the advent of the GPS, stopping for directions is nearly a thing of the past. But is that necessarily a good thing in all cases? I don’t think so. Neither it seems, does God’s Word.

The truth is, life is meant to be lived in direct relationship to God’s purpose and plan. We are supposed to be asking questions like: Where is all of this going? How will it end? What happens after death? And the good news is – there are answers! These are things God has told us about. Things He WANTS us to know about with certainty.

Prophets, those simply who declare God’s mind us – constantly remind us of God’s program. They don’t make it up on the fly either. They get it from God’s Word. So it is John can come near to the close of his own revelation and mention that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Rev. 19:10) Everything that God is doing – all that is going on, has something to do with Jesus Christ – God’s eternal plan and purpose realized, unfolded and playing out in and through His person and work.

And it is in this context that lives get ordered well. Only in this context. Everything else is smoke and mirrors. When these cease to be realities, when we lose sight of what it means that we will all stand before the judgment bar of God and give an answer for the things done in these bodies – whether good or bad – when we fail to address sin and God’s remedy for it in Jesus Christ, and just let things be, we will cast off all restraint. Everything is up for grabs. Ethics and morals and justice are mere human conventions to be shaped and molded by the whim of the times.

Father, deliver us from lives that do not live with eternity in view. That neither strive after your promises, nor fear your judgments. Save us from the sucking vortex of the existential moment. Save us from ourselves.

Proverbs 28:19–20 (ESV) Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty. A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.

Hard work is NOT a dirty word. Yes, it is true that due to the Fall, there is pain and opposition in our labors – but these are not the natural attendants of labor. God made us to “keep” the Garden, to tend it and subdue the Earth. Sin made these labors painful in their fruitfulness. But there is an original joy and reward in labor and accomplishment that is inherent in labor as God gave it to us. A genuine sense of satisfaction in completion of a task we are meant to enjoy.

There are several quick observations on this passage worth noting.

First – Work with what God HAS given to you, rather than pining after and chasing what He hasn’t. There is fruitfulness in His appointments.

Whoever works “his” land, will have plenty of bread. Remaining faithful to what God has providentially given you, in the situations He has placed you – WILL bring forth solid sustenance for your soul. Neglect of these, or even worse – running after things which bear no real fruit or result – will nevertheless bring a result – barrenness. Has your soul been lean as of late? Is it possible you’ve been giving your time and effort to what has nothing to give you back? Wastes of time and effort? Eyes made to behold the beauty of Christ, are filled with images that are pleasant, but fleeting and useless. Ears filled with sounds that don’t do a single thing to enrich the heart or mind. The mind occupied with foolish, empty things – more tuned into celebrity gossip and commentators commenting on anything and everything – but not concentrating on anything with eternal spiritual value.

No wonder our souls are lean.

Second – Get rich schemes are anything but. They are contrary to God’s normative means of giving us prosperity WITH character. To want to be rich by means of a shortcut, is to reveal our greed. To want to waste our time in things which hold no true value – is to prevent our own selves from the very things we need and desire. These two always go hand in hand.

Again, this is not restricted to material things. It is just as true in spiritual matters. The one who will not apply him or herself to know the Word and seek God’s face will have a lean soul – period. We cannot ignore spiritual disciplines, and the hope to walk in the benefits of such as though they are somehow just dropped upon us from the sky. If we work hard at it, we’ll enjoy the fruit. If not, we will be impoverished.

Don’t “wish” you knew your bible better – study it. Don’t repine that you’re prayer life is dry – pray. If worship with the saints is boring – ask yourself – what am I putting into it? Give to the needy so as to check your own greed. Deny yourself something legitimate to live in freedom over the tyranny of self. Find a need and fill it. Seek out someone to share the Gospel with. Seek out other Christians for the specific purpose of discussing the goodness of Christ together and the nature of your growth in the Savior.

Such are the things that make for a fruitful, satisfying Christian walk. It will not come in instantaneous jolts from the heavens. It comes from consistent plowing, planting, watering, weeding, tending and then – harvesting. Get your hands dirty – and you’ll get your heart full. 

Matthew 4:1 (ESV) Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Three short lessons from the temptation of Jesus.

1. Matthew 4:3–4 (ESV) And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

Lesson: There is more to “life” than physical existence. One may die and yet live (John 11:25), and remain living, while dead to the life of God. The power of the temptation is in the threat of the loss of immediate and temporal life while obscuring the real danger – the loss of spiritual life.

2. Matthew 4:5–7 (ESV) Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

Lesson: Nothing is more demonstrative of our faithlessness, as when we yield to trying to get Him to prove His love and care for us above the reality of His nature, and His Word.

3. Matthew 4:8–10 (ESV) Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”

Lesson: When we value anything God gives or promises above He Himself, we have become idolaters.