A PUZZLING MIRACLE

Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which means Dorcas or Gazelle.  She was full of good works and acts of charity.  Acts 9:36, R.S.V.

They say that it costs between $250,000 and $500,000 to replace a key corporate executive who has retired or become ill.  This explains why large companies are putting so much emphasis on keeping their top men healthy.  It makes good financial sense.

For reasons far greater than financial, the early church kept their key people working for the Lord for as long as possible.  How could you ever replace the apostle Paul, or John the Beloved, even if you had large sums of money?  Their wisdom, their spiritual maturity, was irreplaceable.

In this light, it seems that Peter came up with a rather novel approach to the problem of leadership attrition.  When Tabitha, who was an important person in the church, became ill and died, he went into her home, prayed over her, and brought her back to life!  As thrilling as this miracle was, I've often puzzled why it happened to this relatively unknown lady, yet no one returned the favor to Peter himself.  Why didn't Peter bring some important preacher or gospel writer back to life to extend his service?

But Peter wasn't working alone; he was taking his instructions from God.  And God sees things that we often miss.  Perhaps the believers in Joppa needed some potent evidence of God's caring activity in their midst, but I suspect there may have been another reason why Tabitha was brought back to life.  That reason is found in the description of the way she lived her life--a life filled with loving acts and caring deeds.

It is when people's lives flow with acted love that they become most effective in portraying the character of God.  More than spoken words, the world has learned to trust what people do in the natural, acted patterns of daily living.  Tabitha was making a powerful impact in favor of God's reputation throughout the whole town.  Bringing her back to life so that her witness might continue to grace that early church was God's way of saying how vital her gift was to His cause.  This should give all of us a new appreciation for those gentle, often unknown saints in the church whose passing may never make headlines but would cause the poor and needy to weep.  They are telling vital truths about God!

DOES SATAN BEAR OUR SINS?

Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel...and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.  Lev. 16:21, R.S.V.

Tucked away in the midst of this rather ponderous Old Testament book is a chapter that, if properly understood, would set the Christian world on its heels.  The Lord has been teaching His people about the plan of salvation through the walk-in symbol of the sanctuary services.  And He has given them many forms of animal sacrifices, all pointing forward to the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.  But in Leviticus 16 a surprising new element is introduced.  The setting is the Day of Atonement ceremony that, coming at the end of the sacred calendar of events, symbolizes issues at the close of the great controversy.  The surprise element is the use of two animals rather than one.  Lots are cast, and one of the goats is designated as the Lord's goat.  As has been done before, this goat is offered on the altar as a type of Christ.

But the other goat is designated as belonging to Azazel, which the people clearly understood to be a name for Satan.  This goat is tied to a stake while the high priest enters into the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary.  There he figuratively gathers up all the sins that have been transferred there during the previous year by repentant sinners.  The priest then takes all those sins out to the Azazel goat and, as it were, dumps them on its head and sends it off into the wilderness, where it surely will die.

The mind-expanding perspective that this vital ceremony tells us is that in solving the cosmic sin problem, God is dealing with far more than the deadly consequences that individual sinners face.  When Israel saw the priest (a type of Christ) place his hands on the Azazel goat's head, they were watching God's promise that someday everyone would know that Satan was ultimately accountable for sin.

Furthermore, when the people saw the goat being led away to die in the wilderness, cut off from every source of life, they knew that ultimately Satan and all who follow him will die the death of separation from God.  Even the enemy will not be slaughtered by the hand of an angry God.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH TRUTH?

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.  John 15:22, N.E.B.

"I don't attend prayer meeting," she admitted sheepishly, "because I don't want to hear more truth for which I will be held accountable.  If I don't know what I am supposed to do, then I can't be counted as guilty for not doing it."

Though the honesty of her frank admission was commendable, her theology was tragically lacking.  She held such an unfortunately dim view of God that she didn't want to hear what He had to say about the beautiful life He offers.  She saw it all as heavy duties and obligations.  Had she seen Jesus' lifestyle as it is, filled with high privileges and opportunities, she would have sought out every chance to learn more.

The people about whom Jesus was speaking in today's text were much the same as this woman.  Having been raised in a steeply religious environment, they thought they knew all about God's requirements.  From all the evidence, they didn't like it either.  They would do the minimum in order to "squeak by" into the kingdom, but they had no interest in learning more.  In fact, they were so closed to it all that they would choose to push Jesus off a cliff, drive Him out of town, or nail Him to a cross, rather than hear Him talk to them.

In an interesting way, Jesus didn't blame them.  He understood how darkened their understanding was about religious things.  He knew that their religious leaders had simply loaded their heads with burdens impossible to bear, threatened them with terrible consequences if they didn't perform, then walked away, offering no help in bearing their load.  Jesus did not blame people for rejecting false religion.  He would not hold them guilty for their attitudes had they not known otherwise.

But the people had heard Jesus.  They had not heard Him stacking large burdens upon their weary shoulders; instead, they had heard Him unfolding gracious truths about a wise and loving Father, whom to know is to love.  Many had listened for hours as Jesus explained a high and heart-oriented religion that could not be faulted.

Pilate asked the crucial question: "What shall I do with Jesus?" (Matt. 27:22, R.S.V.).  To reject false religion is no cause for guilt, but to reject the gracious person of Jesus Christ is the ultimate sin.

THE MERCIFUL HANDS OF GOD

I am in deep distress.  Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.  1 Chron. 21:13, N.I.V.


David had gone against the explicit word of God; he had taken a census of Israel.  Insecure about the military strength of the surrounding heathen nations, he numbered the fighting men of his own nation as if to assure himself that his army could withstand an onslaught from an enemy.  Joab, general over all the armies, tried to dissuade David from taking this action.  " 'May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over.  My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects?  Why does my lord want to do this?  Why should he bring guilt on Israel?'  The king's word, however, overruled Joab" (1 Chron. 21:3, 4, N.I.V.).

David knew God.  He had spent many years trusting in Him for wisdom and strength.  When he realized that he had done wickedly in looking to human armies for security instead of to the Lord, he immediately repented.  "I have done a very foolish thing," he told God (verse 8, N.I.V.).  Perhaps later, as he reminisced about this very time, he wrote, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'...There they were, overwhelmed with dread where there was nothing to dread.  God scattered the bones of those who attacked you" (Ps. 53:1-5, N.I.V.).

God knew that David needed an opportunity to reexpress his faith in Him.  He sent word to David: "I am giving you three options.  Choose one of them for me to carry out against you....Take your choice: three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three day of the sword of the Lord" (1 Chron. 21:10-12, N.I.V.).  Because David did know God--that His justice is always flavored with fairness and mercy--he answered, "Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men" (verse 13, N.I.V.).

Seventy thousand of David's men died of a plague that swept through the land, yet God intervened and stopped its deadly onslaught.  Had heathen warriors been slaughtering Israel, they might have continued until the nation no longer existed.  David chose wisely to fall into God's hands, the hands He knew so well to be full of mercy.

OUR GOD IS SENSIBLE

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right.  Hosea 14:9, R.S.V.

It is never quite satisfying when the editors of dictionaries make theological statements.  Take, for example, this definition of the word faith: "unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence."

My concern, of course, is not with the dictionary editors, for they simply reflect how a word is being used among the general public.  My perplexity is that so many people, including pastors and Bible scholars, insist on using this very definition of faith when it is applied to Christian experience.  They believe that to ask for evidence, for intelligent understanding, is to undermine faith.  They are content with a Christianity that is not required to make sense, and they think that it is a sign of one's devotion to God to believe what indeed is not appealing to one's intelligence.  It has even led some to be suspicious of religious principles that require much thinking.

But Jesus would be unsatisfied with such a definition of faith.  He who went to such lengths to give people abundant evidence upon which to base their faith would not wish them to set it all aside.  Jesus held faith to be one's attitude of love and trust and admiration toward God.  The only way one can ever come to see God in this way is to get to know Him.  Jesus' ministry, then, is to provide evidence of who His Father really is.  And this evidence appeals to that capacity to think and to reason that God Himself placed within us.

If God invites us to come and reason together with Him (Isa. 1:18), then shouldn't we expect that the lifestyle He offers us will also be reasonable?  Once a person's mind has been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, expanded to include spiritual realities in one's reasoning process, then Christianity makes incredibly good sense.  For example, to love one's enemy (as Jesus required of us) would not make any sense at all to a selfish person locked into getting all he can for himself.  But to one who seeks the good of all humanity, loving one's enemy is the most innovative, disarming move one could make.

Hosea calls for the wise and the discerning to recognize that the ways of God are right--that they make incredibly good sense.  Shouldn't we trust such a sensible, reasonable God?

WHO BRUISED JESUS?

Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief.  Isa. 53:10, R.S.V.

Sometime, when the setting is just right, open a modern-speech version of the Bible to Isaiah and read aloud the Suffering Servant passage.  Start at Isaiah 52:13 and read thoughtfully and with emphasis through chapter 53.  As you read this stunningly and complete prophecy of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, notice in particular the role that the Father played in the salvation drama.

Notice, and be amazed, that it was the Father who "laid upon him the iniquity of us all" (chap. 53:6, R.S.V.).  The infinitely gracious arrangement by which the consequences of our wandering should be laid upon Jesus was a plan that the Father Himself endorsed and helped to carry out.  This needs to be emphasized, clarified, and repeated anew, because the belief is so widespread that Jesus offered Himself as a means for appeasing the Father.

The great Reformation scholar John Calvin held that the perfect sacrifice of Christ resulted in us having "in heaven a propitious Father instead of a Judge."  That is, Christ's ministry was to get the Father to change toward us, becoming loving rather than condemning.  Calvin also taught that the Father "finds nothing in man which can incite Him to bless them."  But Jesus' perfect life merits such blessing; and Jesus transfers that merit to us, that the Father might have cause to bless us.  Once again, the Father is being coaxed, or entitled, to express a redemptive attitude toward us because of Jesus.  The result, of course, is that  we view Jesus as a refuge from the Father, rather than a pathway to the Father.  Though I applaud much of the work of this great Reformer, I am dismayed that this view of our heavenly Father has gained such wide acceptance.

On the cross, the Father joined with Jesus in a united endeavor to reach the minds of men, that we might change toward Him.  Equal to the pain of separation that Jesus suffered, the Father endured the pain of separation from His Son, as Jesus gave up the Spirit and slipped into the second death.  Together, They revealed to the universe how deadly it is to rebel against the Source of all life.  Together, They poured out upon mankind the greatest expression of love ever known.  Together, They revealed that God always has been a loving Father!  We love Jesus, not for appeasing God. but for revealing Him.

ARGUING WITH GOD

Bear in mind that our Lord's patience with us is our salvation.  2 Peter 3:15, N.E.B.

The devil is a great pendulum-swinger.  He gloats over being able to entice people into the fire on one side or the ice on the other.  Some Christians are too lax, caring little at all about their spiritual growth and about the details of their lifestyle.  Some swing the other way, constantly uptight and bordering on the edges of despondency because they cannot grow fast enough.

Peter's message in today's text is for this second group.  To be fair, their malady is an understandable one.  They have caught a glimpse of the beauties of Christ's character, and then contrasted them with their own unflattering record.  We can understand their desire to want to lunge into wholeness and joy and to turn steadfastly away from every failing.  They are grief-stricken when their failings hurt others, misrepresent God, and blunt their own peace of mind.  They loathe having to deal again with the same inner problems, and long to get on to higher ground.

The problem, however, is that Satan capitalizes on that very desire for holiness, turning it into a cause for discouragement.  He gets God's children to become fruit inspectors rather than fruit trees.  That is, we become more engrossed with the fruits of righteousness than with the root of righteousness.  We measure our performance, comparing it with the previous day's performance (or worse yet, someone else's performance), then bow in discouragement.  All this takes our attention off the real issue: building a friendship with Christ through beholding His character.

Discouragement is the anesthesia the devil uses before he cuts your heart out.  For the perplexed Christian, failure to be Christlike seems to be such a legitimate reason to be discouraged!  Yet Peter tells us that when the Lord looks at us He is not discouraged.  Knowing even better than we do the long way we have to go, He still looks upon us with patience.  He knows that we grow best with enticements rather than with pressures.

God remembers as well as we do how perplexed and distracted we become when our parents disciplined us by expressing their impatience with us.  And He refuses to do it.  If we are going to be impatient with ourselves, we shall have to argue with God!  We shall have to insist that our opinion of ourselves is more accurate than God's.  Fortunately, our Father's opinion is what counts!

THE SWORD AS PROBLEM-SOLVER

Jesus said to him, "Put up your sword.  All who take the sword die by the sword."  Matt. 26:52, N.E.B.


It was a high-riding four-wheel-drive pickup truck, complete with rifle and shotgun mounted on the rack in the rear view window.  The driver appeared about as tough as the vehicle he drove.  The sticker on the husky rear bumper seemed particularly appropriate: "Insured by Smith & Wesson."  Rather than wait for theft to be repaid by his insurance agent, this driver wanted people to know that he would rely on the weapons of this well-known gunmaker to seek instant retribution on any thieves.

As I followed the truck down the freeway, my mind began imagining various scenarios.  What if a would-be thief simply carried a larger Smith & Wesson, or was more skilled in its use?  Then the driver would have to get his gun-toting friends to help him protect his truck.  But if the thief also had armed friends...

Followed to this absurd conclusion--through armed gangs, extended feuds, border skirmishes, and major conflict--it is not all that different from the deadly arms race that threatens the very existence of humanity.  Each party wants simply to protect what is his by being able to wound or destroy his opponents.  No wonder Jesus warned Peter not even to get started down that path, for it has no rational ending place.  The sons of Isaac and the sons of Ishmael have been trying to settle their differences by taking up the sword for almost four thousand years.  Yet the Middle East is still in flames, with no reasonable peace in sight.

Jesus knew that no problem is solved because a person has been intimidated by force.  Even though criminals need to be forcibly restrained, and the fear of a police officer's gun will lead some to outward compliance, we know that such force has not transformed the inner attitudes of the heart.  In most cases, it even deepens the inner spirit of anger and hostility.

We can be certain that Jesus does not set a lower standard for Himself than He does for His creatures.  If the truck owner is not ultimately secure with his Smith & Wesson, will eternal bliss be secured by the threat of wrathful destruction?  Having told Peter to put away his sword, Jesus will not use it Himself.  The wicked will die only because  they have steadfastly chosen to remain separated from the Life-giver.

IS THE LIFE AFTER BIRTH?

Even though we were dead in our sins God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, gave us life together with Christ.  Eph. 2:4, 5, Phillips.


As you push your way toward the checkout counter at most supermarkets, your eye is caught by the headlines of the pulp press as it hawks its latest piece of "earthshaking" trivia.  At regular intervals you see minor variations on the theme: "Scientist Finds Shocking New Evidence for Life After Death!"  If you venture to read the overstated stories, you find thirdhand reports of "out-of-body experiences" or other supposed sensations of those on the brink of death.

It is interesting that so many Christians are caught up in this concern about life after death when many of them have yet to figure out whether there is indeed life after birth!  In other words, should it matter what happens when one dies unless one is certain that, as Christ had promised, eternal life has definitely begun at the new birth?  If eternal life isn't genuine while we are alive, it doesn't offer much promise beyond the grave.

Jesus, Paul, and John all spoke repeatedly of the new birth.  How else can you describe a change of values and life patterns and attitudes that is so radical that it seems as though life has begun all over again?  Outside of Jesus Christ, one can be said to "live" only in the most basic, primitive sense.  It is not much more than a biological existence, cut off from all the great issues and purposes of life.  It is a narrow, self-centered, fear-ridden shuffle from the womb to the tomb.

But attachment to Christ changes everything!  We receive new capacities for knowing and understanding spiritual truths.  In place of scrambling to protect ourselves, we reach out to care about others.  The cheap and temporary pleasures and treasures of this world are seen for the sham that they are.  Greater themes and higher goals occupy our minds.  Even our personalities, perhaps either flat or bluntly barbed outside of Christ, begin to reflect Christlike qualities of tenderness and poise.

"New life" means more than simply good behavior, for the sin problem is far greater than just bad behavior.  Since the sin problem centers on alienation from Christ, then new life is, most fundamentally, an absorbing, spontaneous devotion to Christ as the natural focus of our life.

A PURSE WITH HOLES IN IT

You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.  Haggai 1:6, N.I.V.

"Where does all the money go!  You'd think there were holes in my pockets!" complained the young husband to his despairing wife.  "We've got to learn to manage our finances better."

It's an area in which most of us could do better.  However, all the techniques of the world will not bring budgetary success without God's blessings.  Israel, in the days of King Darius, was having monetary problems.  God spoke to them through the prophet Haggai, "Give careful thought to your ways.  You have planted much, but have harvested little.  You eat, but never have enough.  You drink, but never have your fill.  You put on clothes, but are not warm.  You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it" (Haggai 1:5, 6, N.I.V.).

The house of the Lord was in ruins, but God's people were busy making nice homes for themselves and seeking financial gain.  They kept saying, "The time has not yet come for the Lord's house to be built" (verse 2, N.I.V.).  What they were really saying was that they did not want to part with any of their profits.  They wanted to prosper themselves, even if it meant leaving their place of worship in shambles.  Their selfishness revealed their lack of commitment to God.  In leaving the Temple in ruins when repairs were possible, they were acting out their inner contentment with a broken relationship with the Almighty.

When we are out of relationship with God, we are out of tune with reality.  Our lives cannot reap the results of right thinking because man, left on his own, is limited in his ability to make valid decisions.  Consequently, the natural results of right thinking are thwarted.  In Biblical language, God "withholds" His blessings.  In actuality, God is committed to teaching us how to live accountably within the boundaries of cause and effect.  This leads Him to allow us to experience deficit and need, rather than interfere as we might wish He would.  Yet we hear His tender and earnest voice from heaven: "Give careful thought to your ways."  Do not be irrational in your analysis of what is really happening.

When we make God the center of our lives, we have access to His vast wisdom.  He speaks His mysteries to us personally.  He "blesses" us; we experience the inherent benefits that surround an expanded reality, a reality of friendship with the Father.