Certain books of the Bible are often associated in our minds with specific ideas. What sort of picture do we think about in connection with the books we are reading from today? Ezra and Nehemiah remind us of hope, and of rebellion in the face of God's goodness by neglect of his works and association with the surrounding nations. The prophet Amos is heavy with criticism of the people for their inattention to the ways of God. Paul encourages Timothy to be strong for high standards, and not to be weak in requiring them in the ecclesia, associating such standards with godliness. In all cases, the Word is exerting pressure to conform to godliness, and although we may not like this, there is very good reason for it which is clearly demonstrated outside the ecclesia; without guidance and leadership, selfishness and chaos results, leading to insecurity and eventually danger. The often quoted words through the prophet Jeremiah show us this contrast. He says the man who trusts in the Lord is blessed, and reminds us that the Lord searches the heart which is deceitful and wicked. It stands to reason that the word of God will cause conflict in our minds. If it does not, then we have not understood it, or have chosen to ignore it where it directs us in paths other than those we would choose of ourselves.
"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." Jer 17:7-10The Lord Jesus, our example, and the forerunner of our salvation was not exempt from the influence of his nature. He was not protected from the challenges which arose because he chose to obey God rather than follow his own dream. So we can expect to curb things which are forbidden, and restrict our freedom in order that the will of God might prevail.
"Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;" Heb 5:7-8In the long run, if we accept the discipline of the Word of God, we will reap the ultimate reward, eternal life in the Kingdom. It is however the route to the Kingdom which needs to engage our thoughts. Any one can visualize the Kingdom and all of us need to do this, but only those who cooperate with God will realize the kingdom! Cooperating with God requires us to submit to him, not just acknowledge him, but submit to him. This will inevitably lead to conflict between what we desire, and what God requires.
"My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." Prov 3:11-12We can expect the Word of God to challenge us. There is a difference between the Word of God challenging us, and despondency on our part because we feel totally inadequate. We are all inadequate, only Jesus overcame, and we are here this morning in order to reinforce once more the knowledge that God does not condemn us for being people, but rather he will bless us for our faith in his promises! Condemnation is the practice of the churches; in the Roman church penances reinforce this idea. It is not scriptural. It is not edifying. It should have no place in our thoughts.
This morning, and every Sunday morning, it is necessary for each of us to understand the emblems, and it is clear that many do not gain as much from this part of the meeting as they could; this may be when too much emphasis is put upon Christ, and not enough emphasis is made of what he has done for us. The death of Jesus was important, but it happened two centuries ago and is a fact of history, not a continuing situation. What he achieved in his life, terminated by his crucifixion, is very important and relevant today. It is his achievements which give us hope, not his horrible and frightening death!
But we are rambling. We should take some considerations based upon the readings for today.
The reading from Nehemiah reports on people deputed to work in Jerusalem. What is the background to this chapter? If we go back to Nehemiah 7 we find the wall of the city was built, but the city itself was still but a skeleton inasmuch as houses had not been established. The structure therefore was now there, but the city had no life, no activity, nothing which would turn it from an empty monument to hard labour and perseverance, to a thriving, bustling metropolis. This we understand from Nehemiah 7:4.
"Now the city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded." Neh 7:4We might wonder why it was desirable for the city to be populated. If the people were happy living in the surrounding villages, why be troubled with the city itself? Perhaps the reason has to do with the fact the city was God's city, and ordained to be the centre for worship. In order to function in this way, it needed a viable population to maintain it by their commerce, so that the facilities needed for worship would be available.
In the seventh month the people gathered to the city to celebrate the feast, and on reading the law, realized things were not as they ought to have been. This caused them to do something. Before we consider what they did, look at Nehemiah 8:8. Notice the curious reference to reading distinctly.
"So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." Neh 8:8Here is a little gem which illustrates that the record was an eyewitness account, and not a fabrication of later times. Remember that the people were recently from Babylon, where they had been exiled for seventy years. By this time there would be few, if any among the returned exiles who would remember Jerusalem before Nebuchadnezzar's forces destroyed it. The greater part of the people would have been more comfortable with the Syrian language than with the Hebrew of their scriptures, so there was a necessity for Ezra to interpret it, and explain the meaning as he read along. We should also remember that it was in any case the duty of the priests and Levites, of whom Ezra was a member, to instruct the people out of the Law of God.
The result of this reading was great sorrow on the part of the people. In the law they would have read how they would be treated by God for obedience, and for disobedience. They would have read what God required of them, and they clearly realized they had fallen short, very short, of the standard required.
"And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law." Neh 8:9Sometimes the word of God has this effect on us. It makes us miserably depressed because we realize how bad we are, and how great God is, and what an enormous gulf there is separating him from us. The outlook is hopeless. We are filled with despair and can only believe how wretched we are. What did Ezra and Nehemiah say about this?
"Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved. And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them." Neh 8:10-12Is this incongruous? How was it possible that the word of God made them sad, then the priests told them to be happy? This is easy to understand in the context of an idea we expressed earlier in our remarks - God does not condemn us for being people, but rather he will bless us for our faith in his promises. He knows of what we are made, he knows we have limitations, and this is exactly why he executed his plan of salvation, so that absolute and unattainable righteousness should not be the sole requisite for every man. The people regretted their inattention to the Word of God, but this was not to debilitate them by sadness, but rather stir them up to joyful worship, because God had not cast them off after all, evidence of which was their very presence in Jerusalem after the captivity.
"And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness." Neh 8:17What can we learn from this? That while our sins may condemn us, our God does not wish us therefore to go about with long faces, bemoaning our lot. Rather he wishes us to rejoice in his salvation. Why would we not want to do this?
There was another side to this for the people, that is they had to do what the law they now understood required of them. This was not easy, and caused them great distress. Separation was one thing they had to work on. They had to exclude from their company those who were outside the covenants. This is separation from the world, something we seem to do less effectively than separation from other fellowships at times. In this separated condition, the Levites made an appeal to the Lord God.
What was the nature of their appeal? It was to recount their history from Abraham to their own times, pointing out the great mercy of God in spite of their waywardness. They spoke of Abraham being taken out of Ur. They mentioned Israel being taken out of Egypt. They recounted the great miracles by which the people were delivered from Egypt, and lead through the wilderness. They acknowledged the refusal of the people to obey God and rebelliously appoint a captain to return to Egypt, and to build the golden calf.
"...but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not." Neh 9:17This was the God of the Old Testament. An angry God? A hard God? An unforgiving God?
"Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way wherein they should go. Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not." Neh 9:19-21There can be no doubt, God took the greatest care over the people, and when he found it necessary to punish them, it was because he could take their disobedient attitude no more, his patience had run out. They had gone beyond the limit. If we push beyond the limit, we can expect the same treatment, to be cast off by God, but when we put forth our best endeavour to serve him, then it is the mercy of God, not his wrath, which will fall upon us in great abundance. The history of God's people shows us time and time again that this is so. If we have faith in God, if we believe in him, leading us to obedience to his will, then our lives will reflect that, and our failings will not be held against us as we seek forgiveness.
The declaration of the Levites did not stop here. They went on to recognise the reason why the tenure of God's land was not secure. It had to do with being satisfied, having no more needs, no more dependence upon God; their every want could be satisfied without the open manifestation of God on their behalf.
"And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness. Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations." Neh 9:25-26While they were in the wilderness, God openly provided for them, yet still they rebelled. Once in their land, settled and comfortable, they did not even have the deprivations of the nomadic life to help them realise how much they were dependant upon God, so that appreciation waned until they were totally apostate, indistinguishable from the nations around them in behaviour and religion. It was self sufficiency which proved their downfall. Their barns were full, their livestock fecund, what more could they require? Their situation was not altogether different from ours inasmuch as our society is confident in its own ability to continue, and has no need for divine things. Let this be a warning to us. The fact that technically we do not need God means our need for, and view of God could be diminished until for all practical purposes he does not need to exist. We can forget him. If we forget him, as Israel did, will he remember us for good? How much can we count on his mercy if we allow ourselves to become separated from his word and from his works, and from his ways, and from his worship? Not much. Not, in fact, at all. In this case who will be to blame, God?
For Israel the cycle was repeated many times. They lost God, they were punished, they turned to him again and he repented and embraced them. It was not because of them that God turned to them repeatedly, it was his grace, not their righteousness. He provided the catalyst by which they were able to return, and then when they came, he accepted them.
"Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands. Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God." Neh 9:30-31The grace of God is something we find very difficult to understand. Is this because it is so foreign to our ideas of justice? Is it because we are not able to grasp what he has told us in his word about his character? Is it because we have not made the required effort to understand the character of God, preferring to associate our own feeble characters of which we have experience with the Almighty, rather than trying to form our characters upon his, which is difficult to understand? How tiresome are our feeble minds!
When the people, instructed by these Levites in Jerusalem with Ezra and Nehemiah, when they recollected all these things from their past, they made a covenant.
"And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it." Neh 9:38What was that covenant?
"And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding; They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes; And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons: And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt." Neh 10:28-31That covenant was that they would walk in God's law, and not allow the people of the land, those outside the covenant, to interfere with that covenant. No situation, not even the sale of perishables on the sabbath, was to be permitted to interfere with that covenant.
This is interesting for our purposes this morning, for we too have come to make a covenant, to renew one actually, and it is essentially the same covenant! It is a covenant of obedience. We have come to understand that Jesus would not let sin have dominion in his body, and that we are committed to do the same, to purge from our hearts those things which give God displeasure. We come to renew our pledge of obedience. When we take that bread, we associate with the commitment of Christ to overcome sin in his body, to break it and its power. We take that association right into our bodies, so it becomes part of us, not just something we can pick up and put down. This is a complete and irrevocable commitment. So what do we do about it? We take every opportunity to develop the mind of Christ, and to put it into practice. We are feeble minded as regards godliness, so we need regular and frequent reminders in the memorial feast.
Not only do we need to renew the covenant, we also need to renew our understanding of what is involved in resolving this commitment. These chapters provide some ideas for that too, in particular regarding separation from the stranger, from those who are not in this covenant, i.e. the world outside, and regarding how much we will let the outside world interfere with our covenant. Israel shut their neighbours out; should we fraternize with ours? Israel did not allow business to interfere with worship; how well do we fare in this matter?
As part of the covenant, the people made arrangements for the maintenance of the Lord's work, the things required for the temple services and the maintenance of the priesthood. Do we take this into consideration, that the communal work of the Lord even today, which is centred around the ecclesia, receives its proper share of our resources of time and material goods, as well as money. It is a responsibility each of us has, within our reasonable ability, to contribute to the collection, to contribute to the services of the ecclesia be they hall keeping, speaking, teaching, communicating with the needy, or any number of other things. Many of these things should become regular habits, good habits in God's service, so they become second nature.
Then there were the specific needs of the services at Jerusalem which could not be filled because there were not enough residents.
"And the rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city, and nine parts to dwell in other cities. And the people blessed all the men, that willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem." Neh 11:1-2There was a willingness to live in Jerusalem, and the people who willingly offered their services were blessed of the people, imagine that! If this approach was adopted towards those who willingly agree to serve the ecclesia, think how much easier the work of the various ecclesial committees would be. Surely we have a responsibility to support those who have taken on the responsibilities associated with running the ecclesia, instead of the carping and criticising which sometimes seems to erupt. An atmosphere of mutual recognition and co-operative support will go a long way towards the smooth running of any ecclesia, and will make it easier for anyone to do any job in the ecclesia.
Let us turn briefy now to the reading from the prophet Amos to consider one well known phrase, and have it draw us to the emblems. The phrase I have in mind is also a succinct summary of the relationship between the Lord God and his people of old, as illustrated in that recollections of the Levites into which we have dipped this morning.
"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" Amos 3:3The prophet has pointed out the privilege of his people, that they alone were known by God, they alone out of all the nations of the earth. Perhaps he was thinking of the days when Israel was established as God's nation, the days of Moses. This is what is written in Deuteronomy.
"This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken." Deut 26:16-19God chose Israel. He could have chosen any nation, but he chose them, and they and he made an agreement. They agreed to obey him, and he agreed in return to exalt them above all the nations. Part of this was that they were to be a holy people. What is holiness? It is not piety, an association quite frequently made. Holiness is fundamentally separation. God's people were called to be a separate nation, and their history shows so clearly that when they abandoned holiness, when they ceased to be separate, then they also lost their God.
The phrase from Amos 3:3 becomes so meaningful when we see it in this light. Two cannot walk together unless they are in agreement, so Israel lost agreement with their God when they chose not to remain separate from the nations, and could no longer walk with him. God hated what they embraced, so their paths separated. They were no longer in practise his special people, although they could not break the covenant he had with Abraham, so God always exercised his grace to bring them back whenever he could. Finally, when they killed his son, the natural seed lost the right to be called the children of God, and the way was provided for us, who are not of Abraham after the flesh, to become related to the covenants.
We can walk with God by agreeing to go along the same path, to follow the way set out in his word, to overcome the thoughts and deeds of Adam's nature as did Christ. We can become his peculiar, or special people, called out, holy. This is by his grace.
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Titus 2:11-14So we have come back to the Lord Jesus. We come to think of our part as individuals in the plan of God. We appreciate that although our best endeavour may fail, although we are not able always to crucify the flesh as speaks the bread, the Lord Jesus will redeem us from all iniquity by the pouring out of his blood in sacrifice for sins.
Truly, our God is a great God.
We will conclude with a few words from our last reading for today:
"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." 1 Tim 6:12
M.S