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Exodus 17:1-7; Testing and Being Tested

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20110501_exodus17_1-7.mp3

05/01 Exodus 17:1-7 Water from the Rock

Intro:

God has come to the rescue of his people. They groaned and cried out because of their slavery in Egypt. God promised to bring them out from under their burdens, to deliver them from slavery, to redeem them with mighty acts of judgment, and to take them to be his own people. God ruined Egypt and laid the pride of the Egyptians low, but he preserved and cared for his people. The presence of the invisible God was demonstrated to them in the visible form of a column of fire and cloud. He caused the army to pursue, and when there was no possible escape, he made a path for his people in the middle of the sea. He emboldened their enemies to follow, and he crushed them under the waters. Three days into the wilderness, and there was no water to drink. God tested his people, and when they came to Marah, the water was bitter. The people grumbled, and God made bitter waters sweet by the application of a tree. One month into the wilderness, and they were running out of food. The whole congregation grumbled, wishing to be back enjoying the good life of Egypt, rather than starving to death in the wilderness. God responded to their grumbling with abundant provision; quail for meat and bread for each day covering the ground. He gave them a day of rest each week, where their souls could be refreshed in God. God is testing his people to see if they would be obedient or not.

Here in chapter 17, we see God again testing and training his people, teaching them about himself, and they respond by putting God to the test.

Exodus 17:1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

My Perceived Needs

The people are following the cloud-fire manifestation of God as he leads them in the wilderness. Each day they are gathering and eating bread from heaven that God supernaturally provides. God again guides them to a place where there was no water. They have seen God turn water to blood, part the sea and cause dry land to appear; God has turned bitter water sweet, and he has created bread for them out of nothing in the desert. Now they are thirsty. They can’t see any water. So they protest against their leaders. Again they grumble. They are controlled by their own perceived needs. They are entirely self-centered. The world should revolve around me, even God should revolve around me. God should hurry to respond to my every demand. Doesn’t he love me? Everything else takes second place to what I feel that I need right now. Good is defined by what I think I need, when I think I need it.

God has already stated that he is testing his people. He is proving them. He has shown decisively that he is for them, on their side, fully capable of defeating their enemies and providing for their every need. God has good in mind for his people, but the good God has in mind is sometimes different than the good we think we need. ‘I’m thirsty and I want a drink.’ God says ‘I can use your thirst to create character in you, character that is much more valuable than what you think you need right now. You have a physical need that is real and it is urgent. But you have a spiritual need that is just as real and even more urgent that I want to address. Do you trust me?’

Instead of trusting God, the people make their demand. “Give us water to drink. Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us with thirst?” They are not walking by faith in a God who has over and over and over proven himself faithful. They are not trusting God to provide for them. They are not willing to allow God to refine them and develop character in them. They are not willing to allow God to be God and determine what is best for them. They are not loving God more than their own needs. They lack faith and patience and joy. They are not humbly making their request to God. They refuse to depend on God and instead make demands of God.

Putting the LORD to the Test

Moses asks the people “why do you test the LORD” and verse 7 concludes by Moses naming the place ‘quarreling and testing’ because they tested the LORD by saying “Is the LORD among us or not?” The people need to be tested by the LORD because testing demonstrates the areas in which they need to grow and change and be transformed. Testing reveals the character flaws that desperately need attention. But God is perfect. He has no character flaws. He cannot improve. God does not need to be tested. By their complaining and grumbling, the people are implying that God is failing to take good enough care of them. He must not be loving, or he would provide for their thirst. Maybe he is not powerful enough to give them water to drink. He is not faithful to meet their needs today like he did yesterday. He is not wise enough to lead them to the right places. By their grumbling they are putting God on trial, forcing him to prove himself to them. God’s character is being questioned, and they sit as judge to see if God will live up to their expectations or not. They are attempting to manipulate God to get him to perform for them, to blackmail him into doing whatever they ask.

In Deuteronomy 6, Moses is giving God’s commands to his people. Love God with all heart and soul and might. Do not forget the LORD who has delivered you. Fear the LORD your God and serve him only. Do not go after other gods. Do not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah (v.16). Jesus quotes this passage from Deuteronomy when tempted by the devil to force his Father’s hand and make him prove himself (Mt.4; Lk.4). We are not to put the LORD to the test, because he does not need to be tested. He needs to be trusted. We need to be tested. We can put our confidence in his proven character and promises that when he tests us it is for our good.

Moses’ Self-Interest

Moses doesn’t do much better than the people he is supposed to be leading.

Exodus 17:4 So Moses cried to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

Moses is demonstrating that he is also looking out for his own interests. He is afraid for his life. He is not trusting the LORD. God tells him to stop following the people and start leading them.

Exodus 17:5 And the LORD said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

Moses Strikes the Rock

Moses is instructed to take the staff of God with which he had struck the Nile river and caused it to flow with blood, and he is to strike the rock, and water will come out of it. Moses follows the instructions. Numbers 20 records a very similar event, but toward the end of the wilderness wanderings. In that event, Moses is told to speak to the rock and it will bring forth water. Moses arrogantly disobeys and strikes the rock twice, and disqualifies himself from entering the promised land. What is the big deal? God said that Moses and Aaron rebelled against his command, that they did not believe in him or uphold him as holy in the eyes of the people. The big deal is that the rock was only to be struck once. Paul gives us a hint on the bigger picture in 1 Corinthians 10.

The Rock was Christ

They drank from the spiritual Rock, and that Rock was Christ. Moses is an actor pointing to a bigger reality, and when he strays from the script and makes up his own lines, he does violence to the message that the drama is meant to communicate. The Rock was Christ. The Rock was to be struck once, but only once. The word here translated ‘strike’ in the majority of its uses in the bible means to kill. It shows up a couple times in Isaiah, clearly talking about Jesus:

Isaiah 50:6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

Isaiah 53:4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

The Rock was Christ, smitten by God, once for all.

Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Moses is to take the same staff that brought judgment on Egypt, the same staff that made the river Nile flow with blood. In Exodus 4:20 and again in verse 9 of this chapter, it is called ‘the staff of God.’ God says ‘I will present myself on the rock and you shall strike the rock.’ The staff of God’s judgment coming down on God the Son, the sin-bearer. This was to be done in the presence of the elders of Israel. In Matthew’s account of Jesus on the cross, he records:

Matthew 27:41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him

The elders of Israel were witnesses of the Rock being struck to give life to the people.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Living Water

When Jesus spoke to a sinful Samaritan woman beside a well, he said

John 4:10 … “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John records:

John 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

Jesus said:

Matthew 26:28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Is the LORD among us or not?

God knows our true need. He hears our self-centered grumbling and diagnoses our heart condition and provides himself as the cure. Jesus addresses our true need, our need for our sins to be forgiven.

In the face of irrefutable evidence, God’s people put God to the test. Supernatural rescue from Egypt, the visible pillar of fire to guide, bread from heaven that was at that very moment meeting their needs, and the people question “is the LORD among us or not?”

John sent his disciples from prison with a similar question for Jesus:

Matthew 11:3 … “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Is the LORD among us or not? Is there evidence? Is Jesus Emmanuel, God with us?

John 20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The Rock was Christ, smitten by God, once for all. Believe and have life in his name.

Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

May 1, 2011 Posted by pastorrodney | Exodus, podcast | Jesus, salvation, Sanctification, substitution, suffering, testing, trials, will of God | Leave a Comment

Exodus 15:22-27; Bitter Waters Sweet

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20110327_exodus15_22-27.mp3

03/27 Exodus 15:22-27 Bitter Waters Sweet

From Worship to Discontent

Last time we watched as the Lord saved his people. They saw his great power, they feared the Lord, they believed in the Lord, and they sang his praises. God is victorious; he is the source of strength; the theme of worship; he is rescuer; proven faithful; warrior, fighting for us; he is self-existent; all powerful; conqueror; he is rightly proud; he is justly angry; he is unrivaled; incomparable; totally set apart; awe-inspiring; he is active in power; he is our faithful lover; our purchaser/ redeemer; our caring guide; he dwells with his people; he is the perpetual king. 72 hours after they see their enemy crushed by God at the Red Sea, after they had praised his awesome attributes in song, now they are grumbling. It did not take God very long to get his people out of Egypt. As we will see, it takes much longer to get Egypt out of his people. But God is faithful. God saved his people by sheer undeserved grace. Now they must learn to walk by faith in that same grace. Here we see an amazing example of his grace toward undeserving people.

15:22 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.” 27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

The first observation we can make in this passage, is that Moses made the people set out from the Red Sea. They had just seen great victory, and we often want to camp out in the place of victory. But God was guiding by fire and cloud. And he was guiding into the wilderness. The people were understandably reluctant to follow. But God’s purpose was that they move from bondage to Pharaoh into glad service to their true King. They must learn what it is to walk with God and serve him, and that is a lesson that must be learned in the desert. God’s aim was that his people know him, that they know the LORD, and some of God’s attributes are only taught through difficult circumstances. This day they will learn a new name for their God.

We must not be too quick to judge the Israelites. Three days in the desert with no source of water would be disconcerting. They were traveling with families and flocks to water, and a three day supply would be a lot to carry. When water came into sight, they would drink whatever remained and prepare to refill. When they discovered that this water was undrinkable, they panicked. They targeted Moses, the visible representative of God, and they grumbled. They complained. They murmured. The root of this word means ‘to stay the night, to remain, abide, or dwell’. They camped out on their problem. They focused on their situation. They dwelt on their lack and it consumed them. All they could talk about was what they didn’t have.

Ruth and Naomi

The place was named Marah because the water was bitter. Marah is the Hebrew word for bitter. And bitter circumstances made bitter Israelites. There is another naming in the Old Testament, not of a place, but of a person who named herself ‘Mara’

Ruth 1:19 …And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20 She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

Naomi’s name meant – ‘my delight, beauty, or pleasantness’. She asked that her name be changed from ‘delight’ to ‘bitterness’. She said:

Ruth 1:13 … for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.”

Ruth and her family had moved from Bethlehem in Judah to Moab because of famine. They remained in Moab for about ten years. Her husband and both her married sons died. Her life was bitter, and she blamed God. ‘The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. The LORD has brought me back empty. The LORD has testified against me, the Almighty has brought calamity upon me. The hand of the LORD has gone out against me’. She dwelt on her painful circumstances and delight was changed to bitterness. But this was not the end of her story. When she began to see the big picture, she exclaimed ‘…the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!’ (Ruth 2:20). Out of Naomi’s bitter circumstances comes the most beautiful picture of redemption we have in all of the Old Testament. The women whom she asked to call her ‘bitter’, by the end of the story say to her “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.’ (Ruth 4:14-15). Bitterness was turned to beauty again as Naomi became the great great grandmother to David the King.

Hebrews and James

The author of Hebrews argues that God’s discipline is evidence of his love toward us, and that ‘for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.’ (Heb.12:11) He goes on to say:

Hebrews 12:15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

Bitterness is a highly infectious cancer that spreads rapidly and brings death. God provides bitter circumstances to train us in his grace. We can be teachable and allow it to blossom into righteousness, or we can allow bitterness to fester and erupt in a rottenness that contaminates those around us. Painful circumstances are evidence of God’s grace, an undeserved kindness to keep us looking to him, trusting in him, depending on him. Bitter circumstances can keep us from becoming self-sufficient and complacent and unbelieving. This is how James can write:

James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Will you look at your bitter circumstances, or will you look through you bitter circumstances? God provides us with circumstances to train us, to test us, to prove us. We can be patient and teachable, keeping our eyes on God and believing that he loves us and has good in store, or we can focus on the circumstances and putrefy in our own bitterness to the harm of those around us. Bitter circumstances do not cause bitterness. They only bring the bitterness that is already in our hearts to the surface so that we can see it and deal with it. Amy Carmichael, missionary to India (1867-1951) wrote:

“For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.” (Amy Carmichael, If p.46 cited in Jim Wilson, How To Be Free From Bitterness, p.15)

This is what Jesus told us:

Luke 6:45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

This was a test

God had saved them and they had seen and believed in him, but now he was sending them into the wilderness, sending them a test to shake them, to see what was really in them.

15:25 …There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”

This was a test. You just sang that God is victorious, that God is sovereign over his enemies, that God is sovereign over the waters. Now will you live like you sing? Will your deeds and your attitudes match your words? They were self-centered, and focused on their own needs and what they could see. They had been three days in the desert with no source of water and they began to fear. They saw water and put their hope in what they saw. The water was bitter and they lost all hope and grumbled. God is gently lifting their eyes to look at him. Get your eyes off yourself and your problems and look to me! Your problems are simply a stage for me to show myself strong on your behalf. Listen listeningly to YHWH your God, do what is right in his eyes, give ear to his commandments, keep all his statutes. Get your focus off of you and your perceived needs and get your focus on God and what he wants. Become God-centered in your thinking and feeling. God allows our needs to go unmet to teach us that what we really need is him. He gives us wants to teach us to want him more.

Amazing Grace

God gives his people a promise. If you remain in relationship with me, I will not judge you like I judged the Egyptians. I will not give you what you deserve. I will deal with you out of my grace.

God’s grace is amazing in this passage. So quickly after God’s sovereign rescue of his people at the sea, they are grumbling and complaining, hearts filled with bitterness rather than praise. There is not a word of rebuke here from God. God met their grumbling with provision, with promise and with revelation. God provided for their immediate need. God showed Moses what to do and the bitter water was made sweet. God met their grumbling with a promise. He promised escape from judgment based on relationship. He met their grumbling with self-revelation. He responded by teaching them a new name for himself. He said ‘I am YHWH-Rapha or Jehovah-Rapha, the self-existent one, our Healer; our Physician. This is not the name I would expect in this context. God provided them with a basic need. I would expect ‘Jehovah-Jireh’, the Lord our provider. He is promising exemption from judgment; I would expect YHWH-El-Rakhoom, the Lord our merciful God. Instead we have Jehovah-Rapha – the Lord our healer, our doctor. In Ezekiel 47 this same word ‘rapha’ ‘heal’ is used to describe bitter water becoming fresh. The water is healed of its bitterness. God promises to put none of the diseases on the people in relationship with him that he put on the Egyptians. When we look at the ten mighty acts God unleashed against the Egyptians, most of them would not be described as diseases. Only the sixth plague, boils, and possibly the tenth, the death of the firstborn, could be described as sicknesses or diseases. But what God said he would do throughout the narrative was to cause their hearts to become hard. This fits well with the bitterness we see in this passage. God is the healer of bitter waters, and he is the one who heals our sick hearts that are callous toward God and are consumed so easily with bitterness and self-centeredness. Praise God he is a physician of sin-sick souls! He has the wisdom to properly diagnose my condition, and he has the power to apply the cure. We see this so beautifully in Jesus, the Great Physician.

When some people carried a paralyzed man on his bed to Jesus, Jesus responded ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven’ (Mt.9:2). When a religious leader in Israel came to him under cover of darkness impressed by his miracles, Jesus saw his heart and said to him ‘you must be born again’ (Jn.3:7). When a disreputable sinner came to a well to get water, Jesus pointed her to himself as the source of living water that would satisfy her deepest longings (Jn.4). He confronted the unbelieving Jews who refused to hear him, to honor him, to come to him, to believe in him, to set their hope in him so they can have life (Jn.5). Jesus confronted the crowds who were following him for a free lunch “do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” (Jn.6:27). To the Jews who boasted in Abraham he said “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin… if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn.8:34-36). To a woman grieving the death of her brother, Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn.11:25-26). When a condemned criminal who was being executed confessed his own sins and recognized the sinlessness of Jesus and cried out to him, Jesus said “Today you will be with me” (Lk.23:43). When Thomas was wrestling with doubts about the resurrection, Jesus said to him “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe” (Jn.20:27). Jesus, the Great Physician, can see right into the sin-sick condition of our heart and give us himself as the cure.

The Tree

Did you notice how the bitter waters were made sweet?

15:24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

The Lord showed Moses a log. In Deuteronomy 21:22-23, this same word is translated ‘tree’ and it is a means for execution of someone convicted of a capital crime. This verse is quoted by Paul in Galatians:

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us––for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”––

Moses threw a tree into the bitter waters and they were made sweet. Jesus became a curse for us by being nailed to a piece of wood. He redeemed us from the curse of the law by paying the death penalty we deserve with the price of his own perfect life. He turned God’s curse into a blessing for us. Peter puts it this way:

1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

The tree that brings healing to hearts bitter with the guilt of sin is the cross. Jesus, the Great Physician, bore our sins, sins of hard heartedness, bitterness, self-centeredness, pride. He bore our sins in his body on the tree. Because of his wounds he is YHWH-Rapha, the Lord our Healer. When the cross is applied to us, it brings death to the bitter bondage of sin, and makes us alive to God in his righteousness.

Galatians 2:19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Oh, let Christ the Great Physician cure your heart today!

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

March 27, 2011 Posted by pastorrodney | Exodus, podcast | bitterness, cross, forgiveness, grace, healing, heart, Jesus, perseverance, salvation, Sanctification, trials | Leave a Comment

Exodus 5:20-6:5; Accusations Fly – Avoiding the Cross

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20100919_exodus05_20-06_5.mp3

9/19 Exodus 5:20-6:5 Accusations Fly; Avoiding the Cross

Introduction:

Moses is God’s chosen instrument to deliver his people out of Egypt and into the glad service of their true King. Moses has reluctantly gone to his people. They responded by hearing, believing, and worshiping God. After this positive reception, Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh and demanded release. They were met with a less than favorable response. Rather than belief and worship, the king of Egypt disrespected God by discounting his power and authority.

2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

‘Your so-called God has no right to tell me what to do with my slaves.’

Then this shrewd pharaoh institutes a plan that will discredit Moses and Aaron and dishearten his Hebrew slaves. And his plan works. He demands the impossible: gather stubble wherever you can find it in place of the previously provided cut straw, but still meet the same quota of finished product each day.

The Hebrew foremen are beaten because their work crews have failed to meet the impossible demands. In desperation the foremen cry out to the Pharaoh, acknowledging repeatedly that they are his servants, and appeal for relief. But the Pharaoh is a cruel taskmaster and will not listen to their cry for help. He accuses them of laziness and demands them to accomplish the impossible.

5:15 Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16 No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” 17 But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ 18 Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.” 19 The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.”

After their appeal to the Pharaoh fails miserably, they turn on Moses and Aaron.

The Accusation of Moses and Aaron by the Foremen

20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

This is a stinging rebuke. Their wording is the typical wording used in the Psalms as a prayer to God for justice. Someone who is being unjustly treated by a superior would cry out ‘The LORD look on you and judge’. ‘I am not in a position to defend my own rights, but may God bring down on your head everything you deserve for treating us so badly’. They assume that Moses and Aaron are guilty because the outcome was not what they had hoped it would be. Their false assumption is that a good God would never allow bad things to happen to his people. They use graphic colorful language – ‘you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us’. They are in a hopeless situation and they only see it escalating to the point where their very lives are at stake.

The irony of this is that in chapter 7, God will make the revered river Nile stink in the sight of the Egyptians, and ultimately, the hands of the Egyptians holding the swords will be washed up on the shores of the Red Sea. But for now, the people who were believing and worshiping have now lost hope and faith and are slandering the leader God has sent to help them.

So what is a leader to do when the people he is called to lead attack him for doing what is right? Things got hard for the people and they turned to Pharaoh for help. Moses steps out in obedience to God and now the people hate him. Look where Moses turns when things get hard.

The Accusation of God by Moses

22 Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O LORD, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

Moses says some hard things here. He accuses God of doing evil. He accuses God of not knowing what he is doing. He basically says ‘I told you so – I knew this was a bad idea’. And he accuses God of laziness – doing nothing when something must be done. These are serious accusations. But take note, in spite of all these accusations that he brings to God, he does bring them to God. He doesn’t run, like the Hebrew foremen ran, back to their old taskmaster. He turns to the Lord and brings his complaint before the Lord. Moses turns to the right place. He has some very hard things to say, but he goes to the right place. And notice, God doesn’t strike him dead for asking hard questions. God is not threatened by hard questions. In fact, God honors him by responding to his questions. God could have gotten his feelings hurt and given Moses the silent treatment. He could have gotten angry and started throwing thunderbolts. Instead he responds. But before we look at God’s response to his questions, let’s look at the questions.

Moses asks ‘why have you done evil to this people?’ Before we get down on Moses for asking such a question, let’s try to get into his sandals. Moses has done what God asked him to do. The result is that the foremen have been beaten. That’s evil. The Pharaoh has responded ruthlessly to reasonable requests. That’s evil. The people are now required to do the impossible. They’re sent chasing after stubble blown by the wind in a fruitless effort that is bound to result in failure. That’s evil. The foremen quite possibly might resort to beating their fellow Israelites in an effort to meet the quota and avoid a beating themselves. That’s evil. The people’s spirit has been crushed and they are losing faith and without hope. That’s evil. They are driven to the point of cursing their God given leader. That’s evil. So Moses is looking at the situation, feeling the pain of the situation, and he knows that all this is a direct result of God’s command. So he says – ‘why have you done evil to this people?’ Moses feels that he is more compassionate toward the Hebrew people than God is. He is saying ‘if I were God, I would do things differently’. God, I know how to handle this whole exodus thing. This is amazing in light of the fact that just a few chapters earlier, Moses is coming up with every excuse imaginable to weasel his way out of the call that God is giving him. Now he suddenly feels that he cares about the people more than God does.

Then he says ‘Why did you ever send me?’ His same old argument is still in his mind. I’m not qualified. I’m not the right man for the job. I told you so. Remember, I said ‘who am I that I should go to Pharaoh’ (Ex.3:11). Remember, I told you they wouldn’t believe me or listen to my voice (Ex.4:1). Remember, I told you I am not eloquent, but slow of speech and of tongue (Ex.4:10) Remember, I said ‘please send someone else’ (Ex.4:13). God, your plan isn’t working because you chose the wrong guy. Now I’m taking the heat from the disgruntled people. Why me?!

Then he says ‘since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all’. God, I’m being obedient. I’m doing my part of the deal. I spoke in your name to Pharaoh. But he’s done evil to the people and you have not delivered your people at all. God, you’re not holding up your end of the bargain. You promised deliverance for your people but instead they are experiencing evil at the had of the Pharaoh. It would have been better for them if we had just kept quiet. God, you’re making me look bad. You have not delivered your people at all. Not even a little bit of deliverance. God, I’ve done my part, but you have done nothing at all.

Moses has vented. He’s laid it all on the table and told God how he feels. Now the Lord responds.

The Apology of God

6:1 But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” 2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.

God responds to Moses’ accusations. He says ‘Now you shall see what I will do.’ Now is the time. Now, because now nobody is on my side. The Pharaoh is decisively and publicly against setting his slaves free. The people responded with initial excitement and worship, but when adversity came, they gave up hope. They want things back the way they were – a more comfortable slavery. And Moses, my chosen instrument, you are accusing me of evil and laziness and a lack of compassion. Now that nobody is on board with my program, now I can act in such a way that no one will try to steal my glory. God is the hero of this story. Not Moses, not the people, not the Pharaoh. Pharaoh didn’t believe God was capable of setting the people free. The people had given up hope and cursed the man God had sent to help them. Moses accused God of evil and questioned his motivation, wisdom and compassion. Now that no one is on my side, I can act alone. He says ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh.’ I will act. After I am done with Pharaoh, he will use all his power to drive you out, to be rid of you, to expel you from his land.

God does not take Moses’ list of questions and answer them one by one. In fact, he doesn’t directly answer them at all. God doesn’t defend himself against Moses’ accusation that he has brought evil on the people. He doesn’t defend himself against the charge that he picked the wrong man for the job. He doesn’t defend himself against the charge that he has done nothing to deliver his people at all. Instead, he communicates to Moses who he is. Moses’ main problem is that he needs to know God better. So God responds to Moses’ challenges by revealing who he is and what he is going to do. “God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am YHWH’”. Moses, you need to know who I am. I am the I AM. The self-existent one. The independent one. The uncaused cause of all that is. I am the active one. The one who is being and doing. I am the God who makes promises and keeps them.

God connects himself with history. This is not a new god on the scene. This is the God who has been active in history. This is the same God who appeared to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai – God All-Powerful. He is the God who made covenant with his people. He made promises to them. But Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had not experienced the fulfillment of those promises. The author of Hebrews tells us:

Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

The people of the exodus generation would experience God in a new way. They would get to see how God keeps his promises. God made staggering promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Now God is going to display himself in power and fulfill these promises to this generation. God reiterates that he hears – even the accusations of the people toward Moses, he knows, he remembers, and he cares.

Application

We will all face hard things in life. Our tendency is to run back to our old taskmaster. Our false assumption is that because I am a King’s kid, I should be exempt from suffering. We tend to shrink from the cross. The good news of redemption and rescue sounds good until we hear Jesus say:

Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

We want to enjoy the crown without enduring the cross. The cross is strong medicine. We would rather die a slow death under the anesthetizing effects of sin than feel the piercing pain of God’s remedy for our desperate and sick condition.

Romans 6:5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Galatians 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

What we need to be told, again and again and again, is who the hero of the story is. I am YHWH. I will do it. It will be painful. It will cost you your life.

Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

(cf. Matt.10:39; Matt.16:25; Mk.8:35; Lk.9:24; 17:33)

Things may get worse before they get better. It may feel like I have abandoned you. You may feel that I have wronged you. You can come to me with any questions. I may not answer all your questions, but I want you to bring them to me. I am good. You can trust me. I will keep my word to you. I will carry you safely through to the other side. What you need to know is me. You need to know who I am. I am the hero of your story. You need to know me.

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

September 19, 2010 Posted by pastorrodney | Exodus, podcast | cross, crucified, doubt, justice, leadership, questions, suffering, trials | Leave a Comment

Exodus 1:15-22; Hebrew Midwives and the Fear of the Lord

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20100425_exodus01_15-22.mp3

4/25 Exodus 1:15-22 The Hebrew Midwives and The Fear of the Lord

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. 18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

We’ve seen that God has made promises to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; promises to bless them and cause them to be fruitful and multiply and through them to bless all the peoples of the earth. We’ve seen the faith of God’s people tested as they have had to wait for what seems like inordinately long periods of time and endure painful adversity and trials as they waited for the fulfillment of God’s promises. God promised to make Abraham into an innumerable multitude and he was childless until he was almost a hundred years old. When he attempted to help God keep his promise by having a son with his servant girl, God said no, his barren wife would be the one to give him the promised son. After Isaac was born, God told Abraham to kill him as a sacrifice on the mountain. Abraham learned that nothing could prevent God from keeping his promise, so he set out in faith to obey, but God prevented him. God chose Isaac’s younger twin Jacob to be the heir of his promises. Jacob was a schemer and bargained for the birthright and stole his father’s blessing, so God kept his promises to Jacob through the scheming trickery of his wily uncle Laban, who swapped the older ugly sister for the younger one that Jacob loved on his wedding night. Jacob was in hard service to Laban for many years, but it was during this time that God increased his family. Jacob’s sons hated Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but it was through this hardship that God intended to save the family of Israel. God put Joseph in charge of Egypt, and brought the family together in Egypt. Now, 400 years later, they are increasing in number as God had promised, but they are slaves in Egypt under a cruel Pharaoh who wanted to reduce their population.

God was blessing his people. The Pharaoh had tried plan A and it had failed. He ruthlessly oppressed the nation of Israel and made them work as slaves. He made their lives bitter with hard service, but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied. Now the Pharaoh is moving to plan B. He calls the Hebrew midwives into his confidence. If ruthless oppression was not effective in controlling the population, he would add to their affliction the selective secret murder of all the male infants. The picture we have here of Pharaoh is desperate – desperate because in that culture, the monarch of the most powerful country of his day would never hold audience with women, especially women of an inferior race.

We see how depraved and black the heart of this Pharaoh was. Pharaoh’s command is completely contrary to nature. Women are the carriers and givers of life, and he was calling on them to become destroyers of life. The role of a midwife was to assist in the life giving process of birth. And he is asking them to slaughter the ones they are bringing into the world.

It is not hard to make application of this today. Doctors and nurses, who have taken an oath to preserve life are called on to become executioners and mercenaries to kill the elderly and the unborn. Brothers and sisters, this ought not to be. We each must do what we can to protect the lives of those who cannot protect themselves.

It is interesting that we have the names of these two midwives. Shiphrah and Puah. Shiphrah means something like ‘Dawn’ or ‘Fair’; Puah means ‘Fragrant’ or ‘Splendid’ [Stewart, p.75, cf. Strongs]. They are introduced in a way that carefully identifies them as prominent characters in the events that unfold. This is a striking contrast to the Pharaoh. Pharaoh is not a name but a title, like ‘king’, and good scholars continue to debate and work hard to identify which Pharaoh this refers to. There have been some good guesses, and some seem to make more sense than others, but the bottom line is that although we know much about ancient Egypt and we know the names and history of many of the Pharaohs, we don’t know for sure which Pharaoh this was. Moses could have given his name, but he didn’t. It is deep irony that we have carefully preserved for us the names of these two Hebrew midwives, but we don’t know the name of the most important and powerful monarch of his day. To cause someone’s name to be forgotten is the utmost dishonor. To remember someone’s name forever is extreme honor. God tells Moses how his own name is to be remembered:

Exodus 3:15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

All those who seek to make a name for themselves will not be remembered:

Isaiah 2:17 And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

This is a principle we see in scripture:

James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (c.f. 1 Peter 5:5)

In the context of another birth – the birth of the promised deliverer:

Luke 1:46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

God moved the mighty Pharaoh off his throne and caused him to not be remembered, but the names of two humble midwives have been remembered for almost 4000 years! Why? Look at what is written of them:

17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.

This is the first time God is explicitly mentioned in the book of Exodus. Genesis opens with ‘In the beginning God’, but in Exodus, God is strangely absent in the opening chapters. God is certainly there and certainly at work, as we have seen, keeping his promises and moving sovereignly and providentially in the lives of his people, but he is unmentioned, behind the scenes. This is the first thing said directly about God, and the fear of God is commended. As the Psalms and Proverb says:

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

Psalm 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Proverbs 15:33 The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.

Lest we think that this is merely an obsolete Old Testament principle, we see it again as foundational in the New Testament:

Acts 9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

If we’re looking for a biblical New Testament church growth model, here it is: walk in the fear of the Lord. The result: the church multiplied.

In the Proverbs, there is a promise connected to fear of the Lord:

Proverbs 10:27 The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.

Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.

Proverbs 19:23 The fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.

The fear of the Lord results in life. Life, satisfaction, rescue. But what is the fear of the Lord?

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, learning to hate what God hates. The fear of the Lord is knowing that God rules all things and will bring a just reward to each person. The fear of the Lord presupposes life after death. The implied threat if the midwives disobeyed the Pharaoh would be physical death. But instead of fearing the king of Egypt, Shiphrah and Puah feared God. They knew that one day they would stand before the God of the universe and give an account. It was more important to them what God thought of their action than what any man thought, no matter how powerful he was. Their chief aim was to please God, even if it had severe temporary consequences.

The fear of the Lord is not theoretical. It has direct practical implications on life. The text doesn’t say that they feared the Lord so they did not fear Pharaoh. That is implied, but what it says is that they feared the Lord so they did not do as the King of Egypt had commanded them. Their fear led to action, and their action had consequences. In their case, fear of the Lord meant direct disobedience to the dictator of the land. Rather than killing the male Israelite infants, they helped them to thrive. As this was an undercover plan with the midwives, it would have taken some time for their obedience or disobedience to his command to become evident. But it would inevitably be known.

18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?”

This is the interrogation that precedes execution. When the sovereign king of all the land summons you before his royal court and says ‘why have you done this? Why have you disobeyed my command?’ there is good reason to believe that your life is quickly coming to a close. This would be akin to asking for any last words.

19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”

This sounds like a bold slap in the face to the king and his culture. This is like saying ‘your women are weak. The Hebrew women are strong’. This may have been similar to the prevailing opinion in our culture that you can’t have a baby without a doctor, an anesthesiologist and an epidural. The high society Egyptian women have to be pampered and babied and they were so out of it that they wouldn’t know if their babies were stillborn. These Hebrew women are tough – they deliver their own babies without any help.

Even if these two women hadn’t been habitually and consistently disobeying the king’s command, saying this sort of thing would be the kind of thing that would get you killed for sure. But with the Pharaoh’s plan being an undercover one, this story may have had just enough reality to it that the Pharaoh couldn’t rightly condemn them. Apparently, his plan was for them to deliver the baby, check the gender, and strangle it if it was a boy before he had the chance to cry, so the mother would think it was stillborn. The Pharaoh couldn’t expect these midwives to show up after the mother was holding her baby, take it out of her arms and kill it without blowing the secrecy of the whole operation. Remember, the Pharaoh had said ‘the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them…’ (v.9-10)

20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

This is the first action God takes in the story of Exodus, action on behalf of Shiphrah and Puah. Because of their fear of the Lord as the giver of life, God dealt well with them. Again it is re-affirmed that God was keeping his covenant promises. The people multiplied and grew very strong. Pharaoh’s plan B had also failed. In fact, even the Hebrew midwives, who were probably midwives because they couldn’t have any children, now had families of their own. So rather than a successful reduction of the Israelite population, now even the barren women are bearing their own children and the population is exploding. But the story does not end here with ‘and they all lived happily ever after’. Pharaoh moved on to plan C. As I said before, God’s blessing is not always sweet to the taste. God’s blessing does not make everything pleasant. God’s blessing is fruitfulness in the midst of affliction with the hope of future redemption. God’s blessing was on the Hebrew midwives and God was multiplying his people and making them strong, but opposition intensified.

22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

Pharaoh moves here from undercover operations to overt hostility. He calls on all the Egyptians to take action against the Israelites. First taskmasters, then God-fearing Hebrew midwives, now all his people. In the midst of God’s blessing, persecution intensifies.

This is but another chapter in the drama of redemption. Ever since Genesis 3:15, when God said:

Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Satan has been seeking to destroy the promised offspring of the woman. From Cain and Abel, to Pharaoh and the male children, to Herod and all boys under 2, culminating at the cross of our Lord Jesus.

Revelation 12:4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.

Satan continues today to try to swallow up God’s people:

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

But we have the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

We can persevere under affliction because this is not all there is! We have been called to his eternal glory in Christ!

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Jesus prayed:

John 17:24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

The fear of the Lord for us today is humbly recognizing what we justly deserve from a holy and righteous God:

2 Thessalonians 1:7 …when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death…

And embracing with joy what we have been given in Jesus Christ!

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

April 25, 2010 Posted by pastorrodney | Exodus, podcast | faith, fear, humility, perseverance, suffering, trials | Leave a Comment

Exodus 1:1-14; God the Sovereign Promise Keeper

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20100418_exodus01_1-14.mp3

4/18 Exodus 1:1-14 God the Sovereign Promise Keeper

Exodus is a book that moves from bondage to redemption, into relationship characterized by worship. Throughout God shows himself to be the sovereign promise-keeper. That will serve as an outline of the book:

Outline (Longman, p.34):

Redemption: Exodus 1-18 God saves Israel from Egyptian bondage

Relationship: Exodus 19-24 God gives Israel His law

Worship: Exodus 25-40 God instructs Israel to build His Tabernacle

The first word in the book of Exodus is not translated in most English versions. The first word is ‘and’. Right from the beginning, we are told that this is not a stand-alone book, but really chapter two in God’s history of redemption. Exodus continues the story that started in Genesis. The first eleven chapters of Genesis give God’s sovereign working in the ancient world, and the last 39 chapters focus on God’s sovereign working through one man and his family. God chose Abram and made huge promises to him, and he confirmed those promises to his son Isaac and to his son Jacob. God promised that he would make them into a great nation and bless all the nations of the world through them.

The last 13 chapters of Genesis chronicle God’s action in the history of Joseph, favorite son of Israel, who was hated by his brothers, stripped of his clothes and sold as a slave into Egypt. He was falsely accused and imprisoned, but in time God raised him up through his integrity, gifts and wisdom to be the second in command of all of Egypt. God used him to rescue the land from a severe famine, which also brought his brothers down to Egypt from Canaan looking for food. Joseph recognized the sovereign hand of God acting even in his suffering to keep his promises to his fathers.

Genesis 45:5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

God used Joseph to preserve the lives of the family of the promises, and bring them under the provision and protection of Egypt. In Genesis 46, we have a genealogy of the sons of Jacob or Israel, listing seventy descendants at the time they moved to Egypt. In the original, the first six words of Exodus are identical to the first six words of Genesis 46:8, another reminder that this is the continuation of God’s redemption story which began with creation:

Genesis 46:8 Now these are the names of the descendants of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons…

What we have in Exodus is an abbreviation and summary of this chapter in Genesis.

(chart: family tree)

Seventy would be quite a family reunion, but it was not even close to the innumerable multitudes that God had promised. Most of us in this room can count to seventy. God had promised:

Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God made his covenant with Abram and said:

Genesis 15:5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

After God provided a substitute for Isaac on the mountain, God said:

Genesis 22:17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed…

To Isaac he said:

Genesis 26:4 I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,

To Jacob he said:

Genesis 35:10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel. 11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.

So Exodus begins with the descendants of Israel numbering seventy, and Joseph and his brothers died and all that generation to whom God had made promises died. But the promise of God still stands. God had reassured Jacob:

Genesis 46:3 Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. 4 I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”

God promised himself to go down with Jacob to Egypt, to make of him a great nation, and himself to bring him up again. Even in the midst of pain and adversity, God is making good on his promises. It says:

7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

This language clearly points to the fulfillment of God’s promises to multiply the offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to become a great multitude. But it points to more than that. The language points back to the creation mandate that God gave to man at the very beginning:

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God restated this to Noah after the destruction of the flood:

Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. …7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, teem on the earth and multiply in it.”

This is the language used to describe the exponential growth of the people of Israel in Egypt. Jacob clearly articulated that this growth was the work of God himself.

Genesis 48:4 and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’

God commands that we be fruitful, but God is the one that makes his people fruitful. Exodus 1:7 could be more literally translated:

“As for the Israelites, they grew, they were fruitful, they swarmed, they increased, they got powerful more and more, and the land was filled with them.” (Stewart, p.61)

God was fulfilling his promises to his people. He was making them fruitful and strong and filling the land with them.

Enter the new Egyptian dynasty:

Joseph had rescued Egypt from natural disaster by preparing wisely for the promised famine. The Pharaoh honored him and extended generous hospitality to his family. Now, with a new dynasty in place, old ties were broken and he felt no obligation to honor old agreements. That the new king did not know Joseph does not mean ignorance of his national history so much as lack of a special relationship. He chose to act as though the Israelites were a threat rather than an asset. So he launches a public campaign against the foreigners. He spins things a different way and paints Israel as an internal threat to national security. He says they are too many and too mighty. God had made them fruitful and powerful, but God’s blessing is often perceived as a threat to an unbelieving society. Up to this point in the narrative, Israel was the name of a family. This Pharaoh uses the term here in a new way. He refers to them as a distinct people or nation within a nation. The new king is afraid of the potential threat this people group could pose to his power and position. So he decides to take action to keep them from multiplying and to reduce the potential threat to his dynasty.

God had commanded his people to be fruitful and multiply. Pharaoh, in seeking to keep them from multiplying, will find himself fighting against Israel’s God. He says ‘Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply.’ His language again brings us back to Genesis, where the people gathered on the plains of Shinar in rebellion against God

Genesis 11:3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

The people wanted to make a name for themselves by building a city and a tower in opposition to the name of God. They did not want to be dispersed and fill the earth as God had commanded, rather they gathered themselves together against God. Another detail that ties these two stories together is that they both involved making bricks and building cities. And in both accounts, God directly intervenes.

But God does not instantly make things better. Here’s what the Pharaoh does:

11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.

At the time of Joseph, the Israelites maintained their identity as shepherds, and were even employed by the Pharaoh as contract herders for his royal flocks in the grazing lands of northeast Egypt. The logic seems to be that if we reduce them to meaningless cogs in the machinery of the empire, they would lose heart and cease to be a threat. If they were afflicted with heavy burdens they would have neither the time nor the strength to procreate. They would likely require long periods away from home for the laborers, which would take them away from wife and family, weakening the moral fabric of their culture. Virtually working two jobs, their agriculture would suffer, and they would become more dependent on Egyptian society for the basic necessities to sustain their existence. The Pharaoh’s plan was a brilliant one.

12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

The plan was logical and should have been effective, except that Pharaoh had picked a fight with God. When you find yourself fighting against God, you are on the losing side. Notice that it does not say that they multiplied in spite of the oppression; rather it indicates that increased oppression led to increased fruitfulness. This has been true of the church throughout her history. In times of peace, God’s people get lazy and take for granted his gifts. As Tertullian (ca. 160-220 AD) observed so long ago, ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church’ semen est sanguis Christianorum [Tertullian Apologeticum ch. 50, 13]. Oppression directly resulted in increased fruitfulness. The Egyptian people bought into the propaganda of the Pharaoh, and they became terrified of this internal threat to their great country. But things often get worse before they get better. God’s blessing resulted in greater intensity of persecution.

13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

God’s blessing is not always sweet to the taste. The Israelites were being blessed by God. He was making them fruitful in spite of the oppression. God’s blessing didn’t mean freedom from oppression; rather it meant fruitfulness in the midst of affliction with the hope of future redemption. God’s blessing can sometimes be painful in the short term. God’s blessing is not always what we would choose for ourselves. Notice the words that are used:

11 … taskmasters ..afflict … heavy burdens. … 12 … oppressed, …. 13 .. ruthlessly … work as slaves 14 … bitter … hard service, … work… work … ruthlessly … work as slaves.

All this should make us long for deliverance. For rescue. For release. Not that work or service is bad. The repeated demand of God to this Pharaoh was ‘let my people go that they may serve me’ (3:12; 4:23; 7:16; 8:1, 20; 9:1, 13; 10:3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 24, 26; 12:31). We long to be transferred from a harsh and cruel slave-master to the service of a kind and generous king.

Paul puts it this way:

Romans 6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

We have been purchased:

1 Corinthians 6:20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

We are transferred to a new Master:

Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And that new Master is Jesus:

Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

April 18, 2010 Posted by pastorrodney | Exodus, podcast | blessing, God, Hope, promise, redemption, salvation, suffering, trials | Leave a Comment

2 Peter 2:3-10; God’s Rescue and Punishment

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20100131_2peter2_3-10.mp3

01/31 2 Peter 2:3-10 God’s Rescue and Punishment

2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

************

Peter is warning his readers against the dangers of false teaching. He says at the close of his letter:

2 Peter 3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Peter has contrasted the reliability of God’s word and the apostolic witness with the false prophets of old and the false teachers of today. Their heresy was moral. They would argue that there is no coming judgment and we will not be held accountable for our action, so we can indulge the flesh any way we like. In effect, this false teaching was denying the authority of Jesus Christ over all those he bought with his own blood. Peter warns that these heresies are destructive- they will bring swift destruction. And he gives us three Old Testament examples of the certainty of God’s judgment on those who live ungodly lives as a guarantee that it is coming. As Paul said in Romans:

Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Paul points the Corinthians to the Old Testament events as motivation for holy living:

1 Corinthians 10:1 I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

Peter points us to the Old Testament history of God’s dealing with his creation to give us confidence of the coming judgment and encouragement to stand firm against false doctrine that would tell us that morality doesn’t matter. God does not change. What God hates, he always hates. He is the same yesterday, and today and forever [Heb.13:8; cf. Heb.1:12; Jas.1:17]. He will certainly punish those who do evil just as he has been faithful to do in the past. God has consistently judged the wicked throughout history. It may seem that God is letting sin slide, but Peter warns that condemnation has been pronounced on those who do evil, and that was not an idle threat. Their destruction is not asleep. God will surely do what he promised to do.

Peter’s three Old Testament examples are the angels that sinned, the ancient world God destroyed with the flood, and the sin saturated cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that were destroyed by fire..

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

Peter here refers to the traditional understanding of Genesis 6:1-4. The Genesis text reads like this:

We are told that the sons of God mated with human women and produced a race of mighty men. “Sons of God” appears to be a reference to angels in Job [1:6; 2:1; 38:7]. Some angels sinned by violating the boundary between species and taking human wives and producing superhuman children.

Jude gives us more detail on his understanding of this event when he compares the sin of these angels with the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, who “likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire” [Jude 7]. Peter simply states that God did not spare these angels when they sinned, but imprisoned them in hell to be held until the final judgment. He summarizes the sins of his three examples in verse 10 as “those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.”

The word translated ‘cast them into hell’ in our text refers to being sent to ‘Tartarus’, the lowest part of the underworld in Greek thought. Peter’s point is that even their position of power and prestige did not spare angels from God’s justice. The false teachers may have claimed exemption from judgment because of their prosperity and popularity. But this would offer no safety to them. Even angels were not spared when they sinned.

The narrative in Genesis continues:

Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor [grace] in the eyes of the LORD. …11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Peter uses this as his next example:

5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

He did not spare angels, who are powerful privileged beings, and he did not spare the whole ancient world. Often we feel there is safety in numbers. If everybody is doing it, God surely grades on some sort of a curve. God would not destroy everyone, would he? God did not spare the ancient world. Only 8 people were preserved when God brought the flood on the world of the ungodly. We are inclined to presume on God’s grace and love – a loving God wouldn’t really send anyone to hell, would he? Jesus said:

Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Peter gives his third example from God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:

6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;

We find the record in Genesis 19:

Genesis 19:24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

In Genesis 18, God had visited Abraham and

Genesis 18:20 Then the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”

Two angels visited Sodom and found hospitality in the house of Lot.

Genesis 19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down.

Even after this, the angels literally had to drag Lot and his family out of the city so they could destroy it. This was in response to Abraham’s prayer in chapter 18:

Genesis 18:23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? …25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

And this answers another objection of the false teachers. They could say that God cannot judge the world, because the righteous would be punished along with the wicked. But from the examples of the flood and Sodom we see that God can and does distinguish between the righteous and the wicked.

7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);

It is staggering that Lot is called ‘righteous’ three times in this text. This is a grand demonstration of the unmerited grace of God. Reading Lot’s story, we see him selfishly choosing the best land for himself, we see him living in Sodom without making even one convert, we see him offering his two virgin daughters up to appease a sex-crazed mob intent on homosexual gang rape, his sons-in-law to be don’t take him seriously, he literally has to be pried away from Sodom by angels, and even then he bargains for compromise with his rescuers, his own wife is so enamored with the Sodomite culture that she turns back to her own destruction, and after their escape his own daughters get him drunk and sleep with him because they think the end of the world has come. This is the man Peter describes as ‘righteous’ three times. This can only be the imputed righteousness of Christ, not the intrinsic moral character of Lot himself. Peter started his letter pointing us to this:

2 Peter 1:1 …To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: 2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you…

We receive a righteousness not our own as a gift by the grace of God through faith. Paul describes us as:

Romans 5:17 …those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness …

This is truly abundant grace to give Lot [and us] the free gift of righteousness.

Romans 3:21 …the righteousness of God has been manifested… 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Even in Lot’s life there is evidence of God at work transforming him. We may question when we look at his choices and his witness and his family, but Peter points us to the conviction of the Spirit and his inner turmoil over sin:

Lot was saved as through fire, and all his works were burned up, but he was saved [1Cor.3:12-15]. His born-again conscience was tormented daily by everything he saw and heard. He was in the world but not of the world. There was genuine evidence of God’s new creation work in his heart.

Peter has laid out these three Old Testament proofs in an extended ‘if – then’ statement. He says ‘if God did not spare angels, the world, or Sodom in the past…’ and we might expect him to conclude ‘then the Lord will not spare these immoral false teachers today’. Instead he interjects the great mercy of God in rescuing sinners before he describes the certainty of divine judgment.

9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

As in the case of Noah and Lot, God is able to rescue the godly today. Jesus told his disciples:

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

And he taught his disciples to pray:

Matthew 6:9 Pray then like this: …13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

But the conclusion is certain. Just like the angels and the ancient world and the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

His judgment is particularly certain against those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. The words translated ‘who indulge in the lust of defiling passion’ can literally be translated ‘those who go after flesh in defiling passion’. The phrase ‘those who go after’ is a common phrase to describe those who go after other gods or pagan deities. These teachers turned desire into their god and devoted themselves to a pursuit of their passions. And they despised authority. They disowned the Master who bought them.

This is sobering truth. God did not spare angels when they sinned. God did not spare the ancient world. Romans 11:21 tells us that God did not spare the unbelieving branches of natural Israel and he will not spare the gentiles grafted in if they are proud. But there is one more that God did not spare, and this brings us great hope:

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

January 31, 2010 Posted by pastorrodney | 2 Peter, podcast | Bible, God, Holiness, justice, punishment, righteousness, scripture, trials | Leave a Comment

1 Peter 4:17-19; The Reason for Suffering

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20090614_1peter4_17-19.mp3

06/14 1 Peter 4:17-19 The Reason for Suffering

4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

Intro: Peter is writing to encourage the saints in suffering. The ultimate purpose of humanity is to bring glory to God, as Peter stated at the end of verse 11:

1 Peter 4:11… in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

And suffering is a stage on which we can most eloquently magnify our great God and Savior. In verse 16 he tells us ‘if anyone suffers as a Christian… let him glorify God in that name’.

Peter has warned us against a wrong response to suffering: don’t be surprised. We are not to be surprised because Jesus prepared us for suffering by his teaching, and because we know what suffering is for – just like precious metals need the impurities to be burned away in the furnace, so our faith must be tested in the furnace of affliction to prove its infinite worth. Martin Luther put it this way:

“When faith begins, God does not neglect it; he lays the holy cross upon our back in order to strengthen us and make our faith mighty.” Luther, p.192

We are warned against a wrong response: suffering is not unusual – expect it. Then he gives us the desired response: suffering is fellowship with Christ – delight in it! The weightiness of intimacy with a God who is glorious beyond our comprehension far outbalances any temporary pain that we must endure.

In verses 17-19, Peter gives us reason for our sufferings, and he brings us comfort by drawing inferences from our situation, and finally he concludes with a summary directive for how we are to live in light of this truth. He says:

17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

+The Reason for our Suffering

He starts with the word ‘For’: Peter is giving us reason for suffering. We might ask ‘what is going on in the world? Why are God’s people suffering and evildoers are going unpunished?’ Peter’s answer is that we suffer as Christians because it is time. Take courage and be faithful to endure, because even the timing of the trials is God’s own appointment and does not come from our enemies. We live in God’s appointed season for judgment. Judgment -(krima) is not necessarily condemnation (katakrima); this can be a judgment that results in good or bad evaluations. The results could be approval, or discipline, or condemnation.

Our God is described as a consuming fire:

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

And no one will be untouched by his consuming fire.

Isaiah 33:13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge my might. 14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”

When I read that, I assumed it was a rhetorical question, with the expected answer ‘no one!’. But then I read the next verse and found Isaiah’s inspired answer:

Isaiah 33:15 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, 16 he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure. 17 Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar. 18 Your heart will muse on the terror: “Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute? Where is he who counted the towers?”

‘Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings? He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly’; in a word, only he who is clothed in the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ! Our eyes will behold the king in his beauty! What a thought! And our heart will muse on the terror – where is he? Where is he? But for the grace of God, that is where I would also be.

Believers are strengthened and purified by God’s refining fire. Sins are being eliminated, holiness is being developed and trust in God increases.

It is time for judgment to begin from the household of God

Peter has told us that we as the church are:

1 Peter 2: 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ

And although this is a privileged position, it is also a vulnerable position. We see in scripture a pattern for God’s judgment to begin within his own house There are three passages that Peter probably has in mind: Jeremiah 25, Ezekiel 9 and Malachi 3

In Jeremiah 25 – (God tells disobedient Judah that he is bringing Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon against them to judge them for 70 years. Then he will punish the king of Babylon for their iniquities.)

15 Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16 They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.” 17 So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink it: (notice where he starts) 18 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse, as at this day;

(then he goes on to list the other nations; Egypt, the Philistines; Arabia, and finally down the list to Babylon; he says:)

26… And after them the king of Babylon shall drink. 27 “Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword that I am sending among you.’ 28 “And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink! 29 For behold, I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of hosts.’

30 “You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them: “‘The LORD will roar from on high, and from his holy habitation utter his voice; he will roar mightily against his fold, and shout, like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. 31 The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against the nations; he is entering into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword, declares the LORD.’

God will judge the nations, and he begins with his own people. In Ezekiel 9, God is pouring out his wrath on the rebellious people of Israel and he commands

Ezekiel 9:5 And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. 6 Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house.

God being infinitely holy cannot condone sin; even his own family stands under his judgment. He proves himself impartially just in correcting the sins of his own. In Malachi

Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. 5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. 6 “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed….

God begins by purifying his house, then he moves to judge the evildoers. But there is a distinction; he goes on:

Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.

Remember, the suffering of the Christian is not God’s vindictive wrath, but his fatherly discipline.

1 Corinthians11:32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Romans 5:9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews makes this abundantly clear:

Hebrews 12:5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

He goes on to contrast the discipline of God with our physical parents:

Hebrews 12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

+Comfort and Caution from the Implications

This is an argument for fearful joy. It is fearful to think about the end of those that reject the good news of Jesus. It is fearful to think of the pain we experience in the refining fire and think of those for whom it is not redemptive but vindictive. And yet there is a sense of comfort and joy knowing that we will only endure the beginning of what will make an end of God’s enemies

He describes the ungodly as ‘those who do not obey the gospel of God’. Notice he does not say ‘those who do not believe’, but ‘those who do not obey’. The gospel is not only a set of facts to be believed. It is a God to be obeyed. We obey the gospel of God by coming to him on his terms and submitting to his authority. The good news is that there is one God, and there is one way for us to find favor with him – through the great exchange at the cross of our sin for the righteousness of Jesus Christ:

1Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God,

The good news is God himself; that we will be brought into the consuming fire of his absolute holiness and our eyes will behold the king in his beauty! That our senses will be ravished by the one who is ultimately satisfying and we will bask in the radiance of his glory and gladly worship at his feet.

Peter draws from the wording of Proverbs when he says:

18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

The righteous – no one is righteous on their own – he is speaking of those who are counted righteous in Jesus Christ, because their sins are washed away by his blood and they are given his perfect record of righteousness. These righteous, Peter says, are ‘scarcely saved’. They are saved, but it is with extreme difficulty. This does not imply that there is a question as to the outcome – whether those who trust in Christ will be saved or not; all who trust Christ will be saved, but it will not be without persevering through great difficulty. The great reformer John Calvin described it this way:

“But when he says, that a righteous man is scarcely saved, he refers to the difficulties of the present life, for our course in the world is like a dangerous sailing between many rocks, and exposed to many storms and tempests; and thus no one arrives at the port, except he who has escaped from thousand deaths. It is in the meantime certain that we are guided by God’s hand, and that we are in no danger of shipwreck as long as we have him as our pilot.” ~John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Peter

Saving sinners is probably the most difficult and personally costly thing God has ever done. To overcome justice with mercy at the cost of his own beloved Son was infinitely more than we will ever be able to appreciate. Forgiving sinful man left a question mark on God’s righteousness that could only be removed by the blood of an infinite and holy sacrifice. If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

Hebrews 10:29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The author of Hebrews goes on to encourage his readers based on their joyful endurance of suffering

Hebrews 10:32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

+Concluding Directives

19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

A main theme of the entire letter summarized here – Christians do not suffer accidentally or because of the irresistible forces of blind fate, but we suffer according to God’s will. The world is not out of control; God is working out his plan in our lives. Peter explicitly states this because suffering is not normally perceived as God’s will. Because this is true, because we know that suffering is purifying for us, it must affect the way we suffer. We are commanded to ‘entrust our souls‘ to God. To entrust is to hand over something of value to the care of another. Paul said to Timothy

2 Timothy 1:12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

Our future salvation is secure if we have placed it completely in the hand of him who is able to save, who made us and everything out of nothing, and has engaged his faithfulness in his promises to us! We have no ability in ourselves to preserve our souls. We place ourselves securely in his strong hands and relinquish control. Notice God’s name in this passage: ‘a faithful Creator’ God’s authority as universal judge rests on his role as creator of all people; the one who created the world is also sovereign over it. Not a ruthless sovereign, but a faithful Creator – God is faithful to his people and to his promises. He who created the universe out of nothing by his word surely knows how to care for those that he created. We can have confidence in his ability; and confidence in his faithfulness.

Our part is: ‘while doing good’ We trust God to care for our souls and we keep on doing what we know is right; living in such a way that ‘they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation’ 1 Peter 2:12; living to ‘proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light’ 1 Peter 2:9; serving ‘by the strength that God supplies – in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ’.

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

June 14, 2009 Posted by pastorrodney | 1 Peter, podcast | faith, God, judgment, justice, perseverance, salvation, suffering, trials, will of God | Leave a Comment

1 Peter 4:12-16; Delight in Suffering

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20090607_1peter4_12-16.mp3

0607 1 Peter 4:12-16 Delight in Sufferings

Intro: Peter is dealing with fiery trials in the life of the believer. He warns us of the thinking and attitude we are not to have toward our suffering, and then he tells us the attitude we are to have in the midst of our suffering, and he gives us weighty reasons for this kind of attitude. He has just finished giving us instructions in light of the imminent end; pray, love, practice hospitality, and user your gifts, and he burst into worship…

4:11… -in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Now he begins a new section:

4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Peter starts by prohibiting the wrong response to suffering. But he starts this new section by reminding us who we are. As he said in 2:11, he now repeats here – we are beloved. This is a term of affection, a term of endearment. And I’m sure Peter felt warmly toward his readers, but he is reminding us of God’s love toward us. We are beloved! Peter began this letter pointing us to God’s work in our salvation. We are the privileged recipients of God’s great mercy. He caused us to be born again to a living hope, the promise of resurrection and an imperishable inheritance, which he is keeping for us, and he is guarding us for it. Trials prove our faith genuine so that we indeed obtain the outcome of salvation. Our salvation was the focal point of the Old Testament prophets, it is the goal of the New Testament proclaimers of the good news, and the Holy Spirit who empowers their message, and the Father who sent the Spirit. Even angels are fixated on the great mercy and grace that has been extended to us sinners.

Sinners, beloved by God, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

We are not to let suffering take us by surprise. Back in 4:4, Peter used the same word to tell us that our old friends will be surprised when we no longer sin with them the way we used to. They are freaked out that we won’t do what we used to do. Now we are not to be freaked out by trials as if something freaky were happening. Why?

1. Jesus warned us suffering would come:

Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Mark 13:9-13 “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. 10 And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. 11 And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
John 15:18-20 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

Suffering should not take us by surprise because Jesus warned us that it would come. In fact, he promised us that it would come.

2. We should not be shocked and bewildered when suffering comes because we know what trials are for. Peter tells us right in this verse: the fiery trial is coming upon you to test you. Back in chapter 1 he told us:

1:6-8 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith––more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire––may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Trials are necessary to prove our faith genuine like the refining fire is necessary to purify precious metals. We should not be surprised by trials because we need the refining process so that our faith will shine. Peter has adopted this picture from the Old Testament:

Proverbs 27:21 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.

Psalms 66:10 For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.

Zechariah 13:9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.”’

Malachi 3:2-3 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.

The goal of the refining process is to create purity by burning off all the impurities. It is when the heat is turned up that we realize the limits of our own strength and we are forced to cling to God’s grace. And it is in the midst of the fire that we realize the strength of his grace to comfort and keep us. We have God’s promise:

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

That’s the negative – what we are not to do – we are not to think suffering is unnatural – because Jesus predicted our suffering, and we know that suffering produces a positive purifying effect.

Now let’s see what he does tell us to do:

13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Suffering is not unnatural; expect it. Now he tells us: suffering is fellowship with Christ; delight in it. This is a strange command. I can understand suffering is inevitable, so brace yourself, grit your teeth and get through it. I can even understand the motivation that future good will come out of the present suffering, so hang in there and focus on the light at the end of the tunnel. But what Peter tells us is shocking. He tells us not just to tough it out now so that we can enjoy future blessing, but he tells us to delight in the suffering right now as you go through it. That is completely unnatural. Only someone who has been through the deep waters of suffering with Jesus can really understand this. Do you believe that Jesus can meet your needs? Yes. Do you have any needs? No, not really. But those who are profoundly suffering will say ‘yes, Jesus is meeting my needs. I am clinging to him. He is all that I have.’ And in the middle of suffering, there is communion with Christ. The word translated ‘share’ is the rich Greek word ‘koinonia’ – fellowship, intimacy, communion. When we suffer like Jesus suffered, we experience an intimacy with him that is sweet beyond degree. Listen how a woman who spent 10 months in Nazi concentration camps for hiding Jews puts it:

“Life in Ravensbruck took place on two separate levels, mutually impossible. One, the observable, external life, grew every day more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory.

“Sometimes I would slip the Bible from its little (sack) with hands that shook, so mysterious had it become to me. It was new; it had just been written. I marveled sometimes that the ink was dry…I had read a thousand times the story of Jesus’ arrest–how soldiers had slapped Him, laughed at Him, flogged Him. Now such happenings had faces and voices.” ~Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place

‘Life (in the concentration camp) took place on two separate levels, mutually impossible. (as the daily life grew every day more horrible), the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory’ This is a woman who knew suffering – suffering for doing what was right. And in that suffering, she found an intimacy with God that grew daily better and richer and deeper and more glorious. Here’s what she said later:

“Looking back across the years of my life, I can see the working of a divine pattern which is the way of God with His children. When I was in a prison camp in Holland during the war, I often prayed, ‘Lord, never let the enemy put me in a German concentration camp.’ God answered no to that prayer. Yet in the German camp, with all its horror, I found many prisoners who had never heard of Jesus Christ. “If God had not used my sister Betsie and me to bring them to Him, they would never have heard of Him. Many died, or were killed, but many died with the name of Jesus on their lips. They were well worth all our suffering.

‘many died with the name of Jesus on their lips. They were well worth all our suffering.’ The horror was real. The suffering was unimaginable. But ‘they were well worth all our suffering’. That is an eternal perspective.

13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Rejoice now in sufferings so that later when his glory is revealed you may be overjoyed. Peter goes on to explain how it is possible to rejoice inside of and because of suffering.

14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

This is what Jesus taught about suffering:

Matthew 5:10-12 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.;

Luke 6:22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

The apostolic verdict on those who suffer for the name of Christ is ‘you are blessed’ – you are fortunate, so rejoice. And this is why he can say that: ‘you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.’ When you suffer, God’s Spirit and God’s glory rests upon you. Peter is borrowing language here from Isaiah:

Isaiah 11:1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

The Spirit of the LORD was prophesied to rest upon Christ. When we suffer for the name of Christ, his Spirit also rests upon us.

It says ‘the Spirit of glory and of God’. The glory of God is an awesome thing in scripture. The word ‘glory’ (kabod) literally means weighty or heavy or dense – to have mass and substance – gravity. When Solomon completed the temple in Jerusalem, we are told that ‘the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD’ (1Ki.8:10-11) so that the priests could no longer enter the temple. But in Ezekiel 10-11, the glory of the LORD is seen withdrawing from the temple because of the sins of the people, and God sent them into captivity and allowed Jerusalem and the temple to be destroyed. But then, after the return of the Jews to Jerusalem from their captivity, God said to Zerubbabel who rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem:

Haggai 2:5 …My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 6 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. … 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.”’

That was the promise, but the glory of the LORD never descended on that temple like he had on the first. At the end of the Old Testament, God promised:

For 400 years the Jews waited for the Lord to come to his temple. Then a young couple, Mary and Joseph brought their child to be dedicated at the temple, and Simeon recognized Jesus as the fulfillment of that prophecy. The presence of Jesus is the greater glory of the temple.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Colossians 1:19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…

That is truly awesome! Jesus is the glory of God – the weightiness of God. And in your suffering, Peter says, the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you! If we understand who God is – his reputation, his fame, his weightiness, there is nothing that we could experience that compares to having his glory and his Spirit resting on us. Fellowship with Jesus is true joy in the middle of suffering.

But Peter must clarify:

15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.

Some might say ‘I’m in prison suffering for Jesus’ – no, you’re in prison because you’re an evildoer and you belong there. You put yourself there by your own stupidity. There’s no merit in that. I’ve got lung cancer – I’m suffering for Jesus. No, two packs a day, you did that to yourself. Your nose got bloodied because it was poking around in somebody else’s business. That’s nobody’s fault but your own. That is not the kind of suffering that Peter is talking about. That is not fellowship in his sufferings. Jesus didn’t suffer for any of his own sins – he didn’t have any!

16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

This is the third time in the whole bible that the name ‘Christian’ is used (Acts 11:26; 26:28). Every time, it is on the lips of unbelievers as slander toward those who are followers of Christ. There is no shame associated with suffering simply because you are a Christ-follower. You can be ashamed of yourself if you were stupid and are suffering for it. But if you are suffering because of your identification with Jesus, if you are suffering because in some small way you resemble Jesus, if you in your sufferings are faithful and joyful and meek like Jesus was, that brings glory to God. Peter ended the last section of his letter by saying:

4:11…-in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

If you suffer as a Christian, suffer in such a way that in your actions and in your attitudes and in your words God is honored. That in everything God may be glorified as you act in the name of Christ, as one who represents Jesus to others. That by your joy, even in the middle of suffering, those around you see your fellowship with God as all-satisfying and substantial, outweighing any pain.

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

June 7, 2009 Posted by pastorrodney | 1 Peter, podcast | glory, Jesus, joy, suffering, trials | Leave a Comment

1 Peter 4:1-6; Victory Through Suffering

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20090510_1peter4_1-6.mp3

05/10 1 Peter 4:1-6 Victory through Suffering

1 cristou oun payontov sarki kai umeiv thn authn ennoian oplisasye oti o paywn sarki pepautai amartiaiv 2 eiv to mhketi anyrwpwn epiyumiaiv alla yelhmati yeou ton epiloipon en sarki biwsai cronon 3 arketov gar o parelhluywv cronov to boulhma twn eynwn kateirgasyai peporeumenouv en aselgeiaiv epiyumiaiv oinoflugiaiv kwmoiv potoiv kai ayemitoiv eidwlolatriaiv 4 en w xenizontai mh suntrecontwn umwn eiv thn authn thv aswtiav anacusin blasfhmountev 5 oi apodwsousin logon tw etoimwv krinonti zwntav kai nekrouv 6 eiv touto gar kai nekroiv euhggelisyh ina kriywsin men kata anyrwpouv sarki zwsin de kata yeon pneumati

Peter is encouraging suffering believers that it is worth it to suffer for Jesus’ sake. Suffering is the pathway to victory in the Christian life. There is no need to fear, because Jesus also suffered and he was ultimately victorious. He will ensure that we who are suffering for him will be brought victoriously to God. The rescue of Noah and his family illustrates the triumph of Christ and the preservation of his people. We looked at the goal of Jesus in his death as our substitute to bring us to God:

3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, …

And we ended up last time with a view of Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father having conquered every spiritual power by his resurrection from the dead.

21 …through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Peter now goes on to draw practical instruction for us:

1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

We are at war. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you are at war. You are in a war with sin. Happy Mother’s Day! Here’s how I’m going to tie this passage in with Mother’s Day. My mother recognized the battle that is raging for my soul and she engaged in the war. She wore out a pair of knees praying for me and my siblings. And during some critical years in my life when she saw the spiritual forces of temptation and sin that were seeking to destroy me, she did battle every morning. She would get up before school and fix my breakfast, and then, while I sat to eat, she would take up the Sword of the Spirit and read me a Proverb – whether I liked it or not. This passage deals with how to obtain victory in the war with sin. So, although this would probably not be my first choice of a passage for Mother’s Day, this is where we are in our study of 1 Peter, and I think that it has some important things that we need to know as we wage war for our souls and for the souls of our children.

Peter is drawing instruction from the example of Jesus, and he puts it in military terms.

The military metaphor for the Christian life is common in Paul’s letters:

Romans 13:12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

2Corinthians 6:7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;

2Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil…

1Thessalonians 5:8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

Here, the weapon we are to take up in our spiritual battle is a mindset, a resolve or intention. Peter has given us a similar idea in:

1Peter 1:13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober–minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

This is something we decisively do. We are to arm ourselves with this way of thinking. That means that we need to study, to ask ‘what was the mindset of Jesus?’, and ‘how practically can I resolve to think the same way?’

Here, the mindset we are to have is the mindset of Jesus toward suffering.

Luke 9:44 “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”…51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem….53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

Jesus was resolved to go and suffer.

Matthew 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”

23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Jesus knew that suffering was a necessity. He had his mind set on the things of God, in contrast to Peter, who was setting his mind on the things of man.

John 12:27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour‘? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

Jesus kept his purpose in mind.

Luke 22:42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Jesus was willing to set aside his own preferences for the will of God.

Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus looked past the suffering to the ultimate goal.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

The suffering was once. It had a definite end, and there was a good purpose.

We arm ourselves with the resolve to suffer the way Jesus suffered, recognizing the purpose of God in our suffering, knowing that it is the plan of God and it is necessary, knowing that our suffering will be short, that it is the pathway to glory and it will result in victory over sin.

Peter gives us great encouragement here. He tells us that ‘whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin’. Peter is not holding out the possibility of sinless perfection; there are too many clear passages of scripture that rule that out (1Ki.8:46; Pr.20:9; Ecc.7:20; Jas.3:2; 1Jn.1:8). What he is saying is that someone who has resolved to obey God even when it means physical suffering is engaged in a mindset where obedience is even more important than our desire to avoid pain. We must abhor sin so much that we would willingly suffer for righteousness – like Jesus did. When we come to this place – where there is no more enjoyment left in sin – then we are done with sin. We will no longer live for sin. We will stumble. But we have made a clean break with sin. We live for a higher purpose. Peter draws the contrast in verse 2:

…whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

We are no longer driven by human passions. Peter has already told us:

1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

We are no longer motivated by what motivates the rest of humanity. Our fleshly cravings lead us in many different directions to find satisfaction. We now have a single unifying goal. We live for a higher purpose. We live for the will of God. Our driving purpose and passion is what God wants, not what we want. Our desires fall in line with his desires.

…whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

The Psalmist expresses the thought well:

Psalm 119:65 <TETH> You have dealt well with your servant, O LORD, according to your word. 66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. 68 You are good and do good; teach me your statutes. 69 The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts; 70 their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law. 71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. 72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

Peter goes on to give us reasons for our willingness to suffer for righteousness.

3 The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

Parties, alcohol and sex. A shameless lack of personal self-restraint; trying to satisfy the inward cravings in things that leave you empty. If I become a Christian, will I have to give up _______? I’d like to follow Jesus, but I’m not sure I’m ready to give up ______. Stop filling your mouth with gravel and come to the living water and drink, drink, drink. You’ve wasted enough time and energy and life in pursuit of worthless things. Don’t spend any more days building future regret. Social parties, drunkenness and sexual gratification – Peter concludes his list with ‘lawless idolatry’ – worshiping, pursuing, loving something that is not God, pouring out your affections on anything beside God. Stop wasting your life! Wherever you are today, the time that is past was more than enough. Don’t continue in it; don’t look back; don’t go back. It’s all idolatry.

4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;

Your old friends are shocked at the change in you. The community is offended that you no longer participate in the status quo. There has been a clean break from your old lifestyle. You no longer plunge with them into the torrent of pleasure seeking. This is the word that described the prodigal’s living in Luke 15:13. The word is ‘a-sotia’ [aswtiav] – the negative of saving. They plunge into everything that is devoid of any saving quality. When you refuse to join them, they defame you. The word here is literally ‘blaspheme’ – they slander your name, and insofar as you are following Christ, they are blaspheming God himself. No-one slanders God’s holy name and escapes punishment. Peter goes on:

5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Just as Peter has pictured our salvation as ‘ready to be revealed’…

1 Peter 1:5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

…So the One who is to be the Judge of all mankind stands ready to call all people to give account for every careless word:

Matthew 12:36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,

The living and the dead is a way to say that no one is excluded. Those who slander and persecute the believers will give account to the Judge. Even the dead cannot escape the final judgment. Peter takes his phrase ‘the living and the dead’ and expands on it to give further encouragement to us to persevere.

5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

Your former friends do not understand the change that has taken place. It is a continual surprise why you no longer join them in their fun. ‘Come party with us!’ From their perspective you are missing out on a great deal of enjoyment and you have nothing to show for it. Christians die just like everybody else and they end up as worm food pushing up dandelions just like everyone else. ‘You say you have received new life. What’s the great advantage of following Jesus? You give up all the fun and have nothing to show for it in the end.’ This is why the good news was preached (past) to those who are dead (present). People who heard the gospel and believed it, are now dead, and according to human judgment – in the flesh – they are just dead; they wasted their life; but according to God – in the spirit – they have real life – eternal life. Those who received the gospel are not just dead – they are the ones who have real life. Even though the immediate result of receiving the good news is condemnation and disapproval in the eyes of the world, the ultimate result is eternal salvation.

-summary

Jesus has suffered for sins once in order to bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. Resurrected, he is now seated at the right hand of God with angels, authorities and powers having been subjected to him. Since he suffered in the flesh and conquered sin once for all, our battle with sin is a battle against a defeated foe. We can fight against sin by taking the attitude of Jesus toward suffering – we can resolve to face the suffering that comes to us knowing that it is the will of our loving father and it is for our good. We know that it is temporary and will soon be replaced by inexpressible joy. And we know that our suffering is the pathway to joy and will result in victory over our sins. We no longer live chasing our own desires; we live the rest of our few short days pursuing the will of God. We’ve wasted more than enough time already chasing pleasure in things that don’t satisfy. We are slandered by our old companions who feel condemned when we refuse to join them in wasting life. The judge stands ready and everyone will answer to him for how they spent their life. Believers who have died already and seem to have gotten nothing for their faith have been brought successfully to God and are enjoying their reward. It is worth it to suffer for Jesus’ sake! Life is our reward. Peter has quoted Psalm 34:

Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! 10 …those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.’ 11 Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 12 What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. 15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. [1 Peter 2:3; 3:10-12]

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

May 10, 2009 Posted by pastorrodney | 1 Peter, podcast | Jesus, joy, perseverance, sorrow, substitution, suffering, trials, will of God | Leave a Comment

1 Peter 3:18-22; Christ Triumphant!

http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20090503_1peter3_18-22.mp3

05/03 1 Peter 3:18-22 Christ Triumphant!

18 oti kai cristov apax peri amartiwn apeyanen dikaiov uper adikwn ina umav prosagagh tw yew yanatwyeiv men sarki zwopoihyeiv de pneumati 19 en w kai toiv en fulakh pneumasin poreuyeiv ekhruxen 20 apeiyhsasin pote ote apexedeceto h tou yeou makroyumia en hmeraiv nwe kataskeuazomenhv kibwtou eiv hn oligoi tout estin oktw qucai dieswyhsan di udatov 21 o kai umav antitupon nun swzei baptisma ou sarkov apoyesiv rupou alla suneidhsewv agayhv eperwthma eiv yeon di anastasewv ihsou cristou 22 ov estin en dexia yeou poreuyeiv eiv ouranon upotagentwn autw aggelwn kai exousiwn kai dunamewn

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Today we’re going to tackle a difficult passage. I Peter 3:19-21 is one of the most difficult texts to interpret in the bible. Martin Luther said “A wonderful text this is, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.” [Luther, p.166]; I have to say ‘Amen’ to Luther. In studying this passage I changed my own view at least four times. But I’m excited for the opportunity to study this text with you today. I’m excited because ‘All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable’ [2Tim3:16] so this text is profitable. All scripture is profitable, but not all scripture is equally clear. Peter himself said:

2 Peter 3:15-16 … as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

And I’ve got to ask ‘Peter, have you read your own stuff?’ Paul is sometimes hard to swallow, but most of it is not hard to understand. People don’t like what Paul says so they try to explain it away, but this passage is just plain difficult to understand.

But here’s where we can profit from a passage like this. It teaches us we don’t have to understand it all. I’m not 100% sure what Peter is talking about here, and that’s OK. I don’t need to understand everything the bible has to say. I will be helped the more I understand of the bible, and you should:

2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Part of rightly handling the word of truth is being able to discern the primary teachings from the secondary teachings. The part of what Peter says here that is open to various interpretations is definitely secondary in importance – it doesn’t have anything to do with who Jesus is, the nature of God, or salvation by grace. We are free to hold different opinions on issues of secondary importance. I’m not going to call someone a heretic or question their salvation because they disagree over who ‘the spirits in prison’ in verse 19 are. I will raise serious questions if someone disagrees over verse 18 which teaches the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the cross paying the penalty for our sins to reconcile us to the Father. Another aspect of rightly handling the word of truth is the ability to discern the obscure from the clear. Maybe Peter’s readers knew exactly what he was talking about, but living 2000 years later, we have to piece together as best we can what he meant by what he said. But there are certain things this passage cannot mean, because there are clear teachings elsewhere in the bible that contradict that interpretation. Here’s an example: Some interpret this passage to mean that after Jesus died, he went and preached the gospel to people in hell, offering them a second chance for salvation. That interpretation contradicts the clear teaching of scripture.

Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

2 Corinthians 6:2 …Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Romans 2:4-5 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Jesus described the rich man who was in torment in Hades

Luke 16:24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’…

26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’

Jesus described hell:

Mark 9:48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

Matthew 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels….46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Revelation 14:11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, …

The clear teaching of the bible leaves no room for a second chance at salvation after death. We cannot take an obscure passage and make it say something that contradicts the clear teaching of the rest of the bible.

Here’s what we’re going to do today. I don’t want to miss the forest for the trees, so we’re going to look at the big picture of the context of this passage to see what Peter is doing. Although some of the details can be variously understood, the big picture is clear.

Then we will look at some of the different views and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. And we’ll finish up by coming back around to the big picture and seeing how the details contribute to what Peter is saying.

The Big Picture

Peter is writing to encourage believers who are suffering because they are following Jesus. There is no need to fear, because Jesus also suffered and he was ultimately victorious. He will ensure that we who are suffering for him will be brought victoriously to God. The passage concludes with a view of Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father having conquered every spiritual power by his resurrection from the dead. He uses the situation in the days of Noah and the rescue of Noah’s family to illustrate the triumph of Christ and the preservation of his people. The questions come when we try to understand the details of the illustration.

The Different Views:

The main questions we have to answer are: Who are the spirits in prison? What did Christ preach? and When did he preach? There have been various answers to these questions. Here are some of the main ones:

1. Some understand the spirits in prison to be the evil angels who sinned in Genesis 6 before the flood, and Jesus after his resurrection made a proclamation of victory over them.

2. An old interpretation going back at least to Augustine is that Christ ‘in spirit’ was preaching repentance through Noah to the unbelievers who died in the flood and are now ‘spirits in prison’ in hell.

3. Others have understood the spirits in prison to be Old Testament saints who were kept in a place of waiting until Jesus went and liberated them between his death and his resurrection.

3. The Descent into Hell

This last view finds support in the apostle’s creed, an early creed which gradually took shape from around 200 A.D to 750 A.D.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead….

It is interesting to note that the earliest forms of the creed did not include the line ‘he descended into hell’. Even though this is very old, it is not infallible scripture. But some see support for this in passages like:

Ephesians 4:8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

But the descent mentioned in these verses most likely refers to the incarnation, not a descent into hell. Jesus told the thief on the cross:

Luke 23:43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Jesus died around 3pm. The two thieves died later, after their legs were broken. That day ended at sundown, about 6pm. If Jesus went to hell between his death and his resurrection, it was a very short trip!

The other two views are much more plausible.

2. Christ Preaching through Noah

We could paraphrase the passage to explain this view: ‘in the spiritual realm of existence Christ went and preached through Noah to those who are now spirits in the prison of hell. This happened when they formerly disobeyed, when the patience of God was waiting in the days of Noah while the ark was being built’ [Grudem, p.239]

In support of this view, 2 Peter 4:5 mentions Noah as a ‘herald of righteousness’, using the noun form of the same word we find here translated ‘proclaimed’. We find support for the idea that the pre-incarnate Christ could be seen as empowering Old Testament prophets in:

1 Peter 1:10-11 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

But this doesn’t fit well with Peter’s phrase that Christ ‘went and proclaimed’. If he is talking merely about the spirit of Christ in Noah preaching, it would seem out of place to picture him as ‘going’.

Another major obstacle of this view is ‘spirits in prison’ is not a normal way to refer to unbelieving people now in hell. ‘Spirits’ in the plural in the New Testament almost without exception refers to angelic beings, not human beings. The term used for ‘prison’ is used in scripture for evil angels, but it is never used to refer to the place of punishment for human beings after death.

1. Victory over Fallen Angels

Genesis 6 describes the time leading up to the judgment of the flood:

Genesis 6:1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. 5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

These ‘sons of God’ could be the angels that Jude refers to:

Jude 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day––

Peter may also be referring to the same incident when he says:

2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;…9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

This understanding fits the language ‘spirits in prison’ much better. This view fits the time sequence well; Jesus

18 …put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

And it fits the conclusion:

22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

The question with this view is ‘what did Jesus preach?’ This word is not the word ‘evangelize’ that is common to the New Testament. This is the word for a herald to make proclamation. It is also used of the preaching of the gospel in the New Testament. But this cannot be an invitation for the fallen angels to repent.

Hebrews 2:16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.

Rather, the same message – the message of good news of eternal life in Jesus – is a message of death to those who are perishing (2Cor.2:16). In this context, Jesus after his resurrection would herald his victory at the cross to these fallen angels imprisoned and awaiting their final condemnation.

Parallels between Noah and the Readers

Regardless of which view you take, the illustration Peter uses of the days of Noah would hit home with Peter’s readers. They, like Noah are a small minority of believers surrounded by hostile unbelievers. Noah witnessed boldly to those around him; Peter’s readers are encouraged to give reason for the hope that is in them, even suffering if necessary. In the days of Noah, God was patiently awaiting repentance; God is now patiently waiting for the repentance of unbelievers, but he will surely bring judgment on the unrepentant. Noah was finally saved with only a few others. Even if the majority does not convert, we will be saved because Christ has triumphed and we will share in his victory.

Baptism Now Saves You

Peter now draws a parallel between the waters of the flood and the waters of baptism. The flood waters represented God’s judgment and fury at sin. Noah and his family were rescued from the judgment of sin because of God’s grace. The waters of the flood brought death. Baptism pictures that immersion into the waters of death and judgment on sin. We have been crucified with Christ. Our sin nature has been put to death. But because we are united with Christ, in his resurrection we come safely through the waters of judgment. Because Jesus triumphed over death, we can now walk in newness of life.

Peter is careful to clarify so that he is not misunderstood to teach that the outward act of baptism has any saving effect. It is NOT the removal of dirt from the flesh. It is the appeal to God for a good conscience. Facing the waters of judgment and wrath against our sin we cry out to God as sinners in need of a savior and he wipes away our guilt through the substitution of Jesus for us. It is the spiritual reality that the outward act pictures that is significant. Because of our resurrection with Christ, we are empowered by the Spirit to live new lives. It is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But that is not all. Jesus suffered to bring us to God.

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Jesus is now at the right hand of his Father. He was victorious over everything. His work finished, he sat down:

Hebrews 10:12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

And yet he never tires of applying his work to us sinners day after day after day:

Romans 8:34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died––more than that, who was raised––who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

And his victorious resurrection power is at work in us who believe:

Ephesians 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us–ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

May 7, 2009 Posted by pastorrodney | 1 Peter, podcast | evangelism, gospel, Jesus, justice, punishment, salvation, suffering, trials | Leave a Comment

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About

Hello, I’m Pastor Rodney. I’m glad to have the opportunity to introduce myself. Rodney & Deanna

I was called to pastor Ephraim Church of the Bible on February 27, 2005. My wife Deanna and I resigned from our jobs, sold our home, and packed up our four girls Jessica (6), Abigail (4), Emily (3) and Hannah (1) to move to Utah at the end of March. We arrived in Ephraim on April 6, bought a house and began to settle in (as you might notice in the pictures, God has since blessed us with another girl, Aliyah and a son, Isaiah).

I was born and raised in Minnesota, and attended Emmaus Bible College in Iowa, where I met Deanna. She was from Washington State, and when I graduated from college I followed her to Washington and married her. She is a nurse and shares a passion to serve and follow Jesus Christ.

I served as youth pastor for 8 years at a church in Mount Vernon, Washington, while working in the engineering department for a manufacturer of marine propulsion control systems. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there, but through a variety of circumstances we felt God directing us to Utah. We decided to stay put and be faithful doing what God had given us to do until it was unmistakable that God wanted us elsewhere. He made that unmistakably clear and we now are delighted to call Ephraim home.

Zedicher Family My passion has always been to teach the Bible as God’s Word, and see lives transformed as a result (including my own!). I believe God has the power to radically alter our lives through His truth. My goal is to study and understand what God has said, and communicate that in such a way that you are brought into contact with Jesus, who is alive and well today. We welcome all visitors, and our style is casual because God is more concerned with what’s in your heart than with what you wear. We emphasize worship of God because in worship we are fulfilling our design. When we declare to each other and to the world that God is our greatest treasure, He is honored, and we are satisfied. My desire is to teach the Word of God and give a firm foundation to your faith, so that you can grow deep and be fruitful and bring pleasure to our awesome God.
~Rodney Zedicher

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Preaching from the Pulpit of Ephraim Church of the Bible

Exodus 17:1-7; Testing and Being Tested

Exodus 15:22-27; Bitter Waters Sweet

Exodus 5:20-6:5; Accusations Fly – Avoiding the Cross

Exodus 1:15-22; Hebrew Midwives and the Fear of the Lord

Exodus 1:1-14; God the Sovereign Promise Keeper

2 Peter 2:3-10; God’s Rescue and Punishment

1 Peter 4:17-19; The Reason for Suffering

1 Peter 4:12-16; Delight in Suffering

1 Peter 4:1-6; Victory Through Suffering

1 Peter 3:18-22; Christ Triumphant!

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