Exodus Reloaded

From the archives...

You don’t usually need a TV guide to know what films are on over Christmas. Every year, without fail, there are some classic films that return to our screens. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, or It’s a Wonderful Life.

There are two seasonally shown films that strike a chord with the events recorded in the second chapter of Matthew’s gospel. They are The Great Escape and The Italian Job. The latter is that classic British movie with Michael Caine and Noel Coward, but starring three Mini Coopers. More recently another film with the same name, loosely based on the original, was released.

A remake rarely lives up to the original. That observation, however, does not hold true for Matthew chapter two. In fact we will miss Matthew’s point unless we see that the events surrounding the birth of Jesus are in fact a remake of Old Testament events that surpass the originals.

A lesson in history

The connections between the OT Matthew 1-2 are obvious if we take a bird’s eye view of these chapters. We start off with a lesson in history. Matthew shows us the fulfilment of a promise made to Abraham and the descent of the crown through the line of David (1:1-17). We need to know that Jesus is descended from this particular family, a royal family. Matthew tells us about the birth and infancy of Jesus in five sections. Each section has a passage from the OT that is being fulfilled. The sections are:

Matthew 1-2	OT passage
1:18-25	Isaiah 7:14 ‘all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet’ (v22)
2:1-12	Micah 5:2 (2 Sam 5:2) ‘for this is what the prophet has written’ (v5)
2:13-15	Hosea 11:1 ‘and so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet’ (v15)
2:16-18	Jeremiah 31:15 ‘then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled’ (v17)
2:19-23	‘So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene”.’ (v23)

With this overview in place we can focus in on some of the details.

The king who opposes God’s Son (Matt. 2:1-16)

When Matthew shows us what happened when the Magi met Herod we are witnessing a remake of the opening chapters of the book of Exodus.


The remake has some surprising reversals. For one thing the OT has consistently portrayed the magicians and wise men of the nations as the bad guys who always come second when they clash with God’s people. Witness the power encounter between the magicians of Pharaoh’s court and Moses and Aaron (Ex. 8:7,18). Fast forward to the time of Daniel and we see the same outcome (Dan. 2:1-16,25-28). Yet here in Matthew 2 the Magi have greater insight than the Jews. They are coming to worship the Christ. Herod, even with the knowledge he has of the Messiah’s birth, seeks to destroy him.

A further reversal of roles unfolds in Herod’s decree to slaughter all the male children in Bethlehem aged two and under (2:16). Whilst this may ring true to what we know of Herod’s character we are also meant to see in his attitude and actions an echo from the OT. Herod, king of the Jews, is playing the part of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. This takes us back to Exodus 1:15-22. Herod is doing what Pharaoh did in opposition to God and His people.

But there is more. Even though Matthew has five sections where the prophets, or the words of the OT are said to be fulfilled, these do not exhaust his OT references. Some of the connections are subtle. We have seen in the actions of Herod an echo of the actions of Pharaoh. We can also see a further reference behind the words in verses 19-20:

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead’. So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

Compare Matthew’s account with the words of Exodus 4:19-21:

Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, ‘Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead’. So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

In the original it was Moses who had to flee Egypt and was later told to return. In the remake it is the land of Israel, not Egypt, that they have to flee from, and the land of Israel that they are eventually told to return to. Everything has been reversed. Israel has become Egypt, and Herod has become Pharaoh.

This is a shock and a warning. This is a sign of judgement on Israel. This is also a sign of things to come. We see here the pattern of rejection for Jesus who will deliver His people. Indeed Moses the redeemer was rejected by Israel and welcomed by the nations (Ex. 2:1-22; Acts 7:35) foreshadowing what would happen when the true Redeemer would come. This is also a sign of hope. God is safeguarding the Saviour, just as he did with Moses.

We Three Kings

From the archives

Matthew 1-2 tells the story of three kings.

These kings are not however the ones known in the West, from the eighth century on, as Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. The visitors from the East were Magi, not kings. No, Matthew 1-2 tells the story of King David, King Herod and King Jesus. They are the three kings in the narrative.

King Herod may well be the king of Israel but he acts like Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph must flee Israel for Egypt, and later return there just as Moses did in Exodus 4. There is a great reversal theme in Matthew 2 as Israel and Egypt swap identities, and as we realise that Israel is a nation under judgment.

This reversal theme extends itself to the Magi. The wise men and magicians of the nations always come off badly in the Bible in comparison to God's people. Witness the court of Pharoah in Genesis 41 and the inability of the magicians to interpret his dream. It was God who gave Joseph the understanding of the dream. Fast forward to the contest between Moses, Aaron and the magicians, and the same story is told.

This unfavourable comparison continues with Daniel in Babylon. Again we see that God gives his people insight. The magicians, sorcerers and enchanters are unable to gain access to Nebuchadnezzar's undisclosed dream (Daniel 2:1-11). Daniel, however, seeks God and God, in his mercy, reveals the dream and the interpretation. No wonder that Daniel then confesses that to God belong wisdom and might, for:

he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;
he reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what is in the darkness,
and the light dwells with him.

What does this have to do with Matthew 2 and the Magi? The situation has now been reversed. The pattern established in Scripture has been turned on its head. We find Gentile magicians behaving like Israelites, and Israelites behaving like Gentiles. The Magi have more insight, more wisdom, and they come to worship Christ the King.

Christmas and the Providence of God

Yesterday morning I preached from Ruth 1 on the time when Christmas seemed to hang by a thread and how God by his providence was providing, upholding, governing and directing people, nature, and history in order to bring his Son into the world. 

We never preach in a vacuum.  The personal context is always significant as well as the experiential context of the congregation.

You can download it here

A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud

On 3rd April 1758 Sarah Edwards wrote the following words to her daughter Esther to break the news of the death of her husband Jonathan:

What shall I say: A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness that we had him so long. But my God lives; and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left to us! We are all given to God: and there I am and love to be.

It is clear that she knew the deep resources of a truly God-centred view of suffering, grief, and providence.

This is the same kind of Scriptural realism and comfort that you find in the Heidelberg Catechism. It boldly proclaims, on the basis of the Word of God, that our God is sovereign and good, being both Almighty God and a Faithful Father. Moreover "all things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand" (HC 27).

There is much of God's goodness that we take for granted, much of his kindness that we respond to as if were the only proof of his providential rule. But his sovereign rule and providence are much greater than that.

In the book of Ruth we see God's providence on the macro and micro levels.

• The harvest happens according to his will, "the LORD had visited his people and given them food" (1:6).

• The birth of Obed too is under his sovereign will, "the LORD gave her [Ruth] conception, and she bore a son" (4:13)

Even the seemingly chance occurrence of Ruth being in the right field at the right time, what is delightfully referred to in chapter two as "she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz" (2:3), is also under God's providential guidance.

Yet there are also dark providences. Death, the grave, an uncertain future, bitterness, are all realities in the narrative. There would be no happy ending without these times of pain and sorrow. It is Naomi who gives voice to this sense of anguish, the hopelessness of the hand of the Lord being against her (1:13). She has felt deep wounds. And yet she still acknowledges that her God is sovereign (1:21).

From the vantage point of the end of the book it is clear that these mundane events have served the greater purpose of being part of that story of King David's history (4:17-22). Unknown to all the dramatis personae caught up in the sorrows and joys (1:13, 19-21; 4:14-16) is this greater divine purpose hidden from their view, but strong and sure and real and good and true.

There is, of course, an even greater vantage point from which to survey the struggles of life in the book of Ruth. As the first page of the New Testament is turned we see that God's purpose through this family, and this line, was to bring to realisation the coming of his Son into the world.

And Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king...and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. (1:5-6, 16-17)

There were great purposes of grace at work even during days of dark providences. There was a mighty hand guiding all events according to the counsel of God even when the coming of Christ appeared to hang by a thread, and rested on the turn of a conversation (1:7-17).

What should this evoke from us?

• Deep and heartfelt thanks for the outworking of God's gracious sovereign plan in history that culminated in the incarnation.

• Confidence in our covenant God and his providence.
  

In the words of Heidelberg Catechism 28:

What does it profit us to know that God created, and by His providence upholds, all things?
That we may be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and for what is future have good confidence in our faithful God and Father, that no creature shall separate us from His love, since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.

The Word of God matters

Last year I had the great privilege of speaking at the Lakeland Bible School, held at the Keswick Convention Centre. 

Some of those sessions have ended up on the Gospel Coalition site, and you can listen to the session on 2 Timothy 3:14-17 "The Word of God matters" here

Seeking the Spirit's help as we study his words

The opening paragraphs of Dale Ralph Davis' The Word Became Fresh: How to preach from Old Testament narrative texts are enough to stop every preacher dead in his tracks.

Ralph Davis mentions that as he was reading Richard Pratt's He Gave Us Stories, Pratt cited these words from John Owen:

For a man solemnly to undertake the interpretation of any portion of Scripture without invocation of God, to be taught and instructed by his Spirit, is a high provocation of him; nor shall I expect the discovery of truth from any one who thus proudly engages in a work so much above his ability.

And if that were not enough to send you to your work with your complacency shaken, Ralph Davis adds:

We are guilty of arrogance, not merely neglect, when we fail to beg for the Spirit's help in the study of Scripture. We may even have such arrogance even when we seem to be seeking the Spirit's aid--I think of those times when in a light-headed tokenism we utter our slap-happy prayer that the Lord would 'guide and direct us as we study this passage.'

One shudders to think how flippant we are. But how many more times we neglect any overt seeking of the Spirit's help! The pressure is on. The passage must be studied for the sermon or lesson. We pull out our exegetical notes; we grab several of the better commentaries off the shelf; make sure that one Bible dictionary of choice is close at hand.

Deep into our study time the thought occurs to us that we have not looked--nor did we think of looking--to the God who breathed out this Scripture to give us an understanding of the Scripture.

He will likely give that understanding through the tools we use, but when we use tools while neglecting him the tools have become idols.

We may have a high view of the Bible; we may be distraught because large sectors of the church seem to ignore its authority. Yet in our own Scripture work we easily ignore its chief Interpreter.

Professionalism rather than piety drives us. We needn't be surprised at our sterility and poverty if we refuse to be beggars for the Spirit's help.

These words are well worth reading again, and reflecting upon at length, and acting on daily. Who knows, this may be the most important thing that you read today.

The Word Became Fresh is published by Christian Focus. You can find out more about it here

Zechariah: A book you can't afford to neglect

On Sunday mornings I'm currently preaching my way through the book of Zechariah. This coming Sunday, God willing, we will begin to consider the first oracle in chapter nine. Admittedly, Zechariah may not appear to be an obvious choice for a main expository series.

In fact the very strangeness of the book, with its seemingly oblique night visions, may well prompt us to think that it is going to be difficult to interpret, too demanding to preach in an accessible way, and too complicated to apply. Preachers feel the pressures of congregational needs. Will a series on Zechariah really meet them? Would this not be greeted with some wondering thoughts about its relevance and appropriateness?

There is, however, one substantial deciding factor in assessing the relevance of Zechariah for an expository series. Before you ask whether your congregation will find it relevant, weigh the fact that Jesus did.

Don Carson touches on this point in the second volume of For the Love of God: A daily companion for discovering the treasures of God's Word:

However difficult they may be, chapters 9-14 constitute the Old Testament section most quoted in the passion narratives of the canonical Gospels, and the second most important source (after Ezekiel) for the countless Old Testament allusions in the book of Revelation.

I think that the clear implication of this, that these difficult chapters were so pressingly relevant to the self-consciousness of the Son of God at the very point where his earthly mission reached its climactic crisis, and so deeply instructive for his disciples as their Master's life reached its dénouement, ought to make us realise that this book is overwhelmingly valuable and relevant if we want to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Sabbath: An opera in seven parts (Iain D. Campbell)

My friend Iain D. Campbell gave a majestic overview of the Sabbath at the Banner of Truth ministers conference this week. His subtitle, for what was a biblical theology of the Sabbath, was "an opera in seven parts" (the music by the way, Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, is sublime).

I did not expect a message on the Sabbath to be so profoundly moving and had to wipe away tears as Iain spoke of the Lord of the Sabbath resting in his grave and then, beheld by angelic eyes, rising from death so that we may enjoy a better Sabbath.

I would highly recommend that you get hold of the recording, which you will have to buy, but which I can assure you will be worth every penny.

To do so it would make sense to contact the Banner of Truth UK office at info@banneroftruth.org.uk and they can then point you to the professorial looking Rev. Ian Densham who does the recordings (and who in fact looks like the professor from the Weetos advert...)

Sinclair Ferguson: Thy Word is Truth

Thanks to Nick Batzig at Feeding on Christ for drawing my attention to Sinclair Ferguson's sermon at the 2009 Ligonier Leadership Conference.

You can watch and listen to it here

Losing perspective

I love those photographs of people with famous landmarks behind them, where instead of looking into the camera with a cheesy grin they hold out their forefinger and thumb so that it looks like they are holding the Eiffel Tower. Something so great is made to look so small.

But it reminds me that we can so lose perspective on the greatness of God and his Kingdom that everything else seems big and God and his kingdom appear small. Do you know what I mean? Does that describe you? Has that happened to you?

The book of Zechariah, it seems to me, is the perfect remedy for Christians who have lost perspective on God and his kingdom in a world where they can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the opposition and underwhelmed by the state of the Church as they look around.

This condition is encapsulated by the vivid wording in 4:10 about not despising the day of small things. The book of Zechariah is thick with descriptions of the expansive reign of the kingdom, the global reach of the mercies of God (2:11; 8:20-23), and the coming rule of the LORD as king over all the earth (14:9).

You can afford to rejoice in these things now. Consider how the people of God, the Church, the temple where he dwells, is multi-national. Consider the spread of the gospel throughout the world, far, far beyond anything known in the day of small things back in 520 BC.

You can also afford to rejoice in advance of the total fulfilment of Zechariah 14:9. Every word of God proves true. The Word of God is directing the course of history, as some have found to their bitter cost when they disregarded it (1:1-6).

Quite simply the book of Zechariah is intended to recalibrate our vision of the work of God.

Exodus reloaded (2)

The king who opposes God’s Son (Matt. 2:1-16)

When Matthew shows us what happened when the Magi met Herod we are witnessing a remake of the opening chapters of the book of Exodus.

The remake has some surprising reversals. For one thing the OT has consistently portrayed the magicians and wise men of the nations as the bad guys who always come second when they clash with God’s people. Witness the power encounter between the magicians of Pharaoh’s court and Moses and Aaron (Ex. 8:7,18). Fast forward to the time of Daniel and we see the same outcome (Dan. 2:1-16,25-28). Yet here in Matthew 2 the Magi have greater insight than the Jews. They are coming to worship the Christ. Herod, even with the knowledge he has of the Messiah’s birth, seeks to destroy him.

A further reversal of roles unfolds in Herod’s decree to slaughter all the male children in Bethlehem aged two and under (2:16). Whilst this may ring true to what we know of Herod’s character we are also meant to see in his attitude and actions an echo from the OT. Herod, king of the Jews, is playing the part of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. This takes us back to Exodus 1:15-22. Herod is doing what Pharaoh did in opposition to God and His people.

But there is more. Even though Matthew has five sections where the prophets, or the words of the OT are said to be fulfilled, these do not exhaust his OT references. Some of the connections are subtle. We have seen in the actions of Herod an echo of the actions of Pharaoh. We can also see a further reference behind the words in verses 19-20:

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead’. So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

Compare Matthew’s account with the words of Exodus 4:19-21:

Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, ‘Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead’. So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

In the original it was Moses who had to flee Egypt and was later told to return. In the remake it is the land of Israel, not Egypt, that they have to flee from, and the land of Israel that they are eventually told to return to. Everything has been reversed. Israel has become Egypt, and Herod has become Pharaoh.

This is a shock and a warning. This is a sign of judgement on Israel. This is also a sign of things to come. We see here the pattern of rejection for Jesus who will deliver His people. Indeed Moses the redeemer was rejected by Israel and welcomed by the nations (Ex. 2:1-22; Acts 7:35) foreshadowing what would happen when the true Redeemer would come. This is also a sign of hope. God is safeguarding the Saviour, just as he did with Moses.

We three kings

Matthew 1-2 tells the story of three kings.

These kings are not however the ones known in the West, from the eighth century on, as Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. The visitors from the East were Magi, not kings. No, Matthew 1-2 tells the story of King David, King Herod and King Jesus. They are the three kings in the narrative.

King Herod may well be the king of Israel but he acts like Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph must flee Israel for Egypt, and later return there just as Moses did in Exodus 4. There is a great reversal theme in Matthew 2 as Israel and Egypt swap identities, and as we realise that Israel is a nation under judgment.

This reversal theme extends itself to the Magi. The wise men and magicians of the nations always come off badly in the Bible in comparison to God's people. Witness the court of Pharoah in Genesis 41 and the inability of the magicians to interpret his dream. It was God who gave Joseph the understanding of the dream. Fast forward to the contest between Moses, Aaron and the magicians, and the same story is told.

This unfavourable comparison continues with Daniel in Babylon. Again we see that God gives his people insight. The magicians, sorcerers and enchanters are unable to gain access to Nebuchadnezzar's undisclosed dream (Daniel 2:1-11). Daniel, however, seeks God and God, in his mercy, reveals the dream and the interpretation. No wonder that Daniel then confesses that to God belong wisdom and might, for:

he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;
he reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what is in the darkness,
and the light dwells with him.

What does this have to do with Matthew 2 and the Magi? The situation has now been reversed. The pattern established in Scripture has been turned on its head. We find Gentile magicians behaving like Israelites, and Israelites behaving like Gentiles. The Magi have more insight, more wisdom, and they come to worship Christ the King.

The Great Escape: Matthew 2 as the remake of a classic story

The following article of mine was recently published in The Evangelical Magazine.

Here's the intro...

You don’t usually need a TV guide to know what films are on over Christmas. Every year, without fail, there are some classic films that return to our screens. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, or It’s a Wonderful Life.

There are two seasonally shown films that strike a chord with the events recorded in the second chapter of Matthew’s gospel. They are The Great Escape and The Italian Job. The latter is that classic British movie with Michael Caine and Noel Coward, but starring three Mini Coopers. More recently another film with the same name, loosely based on the original, was released.

But a remake rarely lives up to the original. That observation, however, does not hold true for Matthew chapter two. In fact we will miss Matthew’s point unless we see that the events surrounding the birth of Jesus are in fact a remake of Old Testament events that surpass the originals.

Read the rest here

(Thanks to Scott Clark for the link, I had no idea it was online)

You may also be interested in reading David Robertson's article The impact of On the Origin of Species

David Robertson is the author of The Dawkins Letters

Great providence of heaven: Ruth and the sovereign purposes of God

I love the Scriptural realism and comfort of the Heidelberg Catechism. It boldly proclaims, on the basis of the Word of God, that our God is sovereign and good, being both Almighty God and a Faithful Father. Moreover "all things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand" (HC 27).

There is much of God's goodness that we take for granted, much of his kindness that we respond to as if were the only proof of his providential rule. But his sovereign rule and providence are much greater than that.

In the book of Ruth we see God's providence on the macro and micro levels.

• The harvest happens according to his will, "the LORD had visited his people and given them food" (1:6).

• The birth of Obed too is under his sovereign will, "the LORD gave her [Ruth] conception, and she bore a son" (4:13)

Even the seemingly chance occurrence of Ruth being in the right field at the right time, what is delightfully referred to in chapter two as "she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz" (2:3), is also under God's providential guidance.

Yet there are also dark providences. Death, the grave, an uncertain future, bitterness, are all realities in the narrative. There would be no happy ending without these times of pain and sorrow. It is Naomi who gives voice to this sense of anguish, the hopelessness of the hand of the Lord being against her (1:13). She has felt deep wounds. And yet she still acknowledges that her God is sovereign (1:21).

From the vantage point of the end of the book it is clear that these mundane events have served the greater purpose of being part of that story of King David's history (4:17-22). Unknown to all the dramatis personae caught up in the sorrows and joys (1:13, 19-21; 4:14-16) is this greater divine purpose hidden from their view, but strong and sure and real and good and true.

There is, of course, an even greater vantage point from which to survey the struggles of life in the book of Ruth. As the first page of the New Testament is turned we see that God's purpose through this family, and this line, was to bring to realisation the coming of his Son into the world.

And Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king...and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. (1:5-6, 16-17)

There were great purposes of grace at work even during days of dark providences. There was a mighty hand guiding all events according to the counsel of God even when the coming of Christ appeared to hang by a thread, and rested on the turn of a conversation (1:7-17).

What should this evoke from us?

• Deep and heartfelt thanks for the outworking of God's gracious sovereign plan in history that culminated in the incarnation.

• Confidence in our covenant God and his providence. In the words of Heidelberg Catechism 28:

What does it profit us to know that God created, and by His providence upholds, all things?

That we may be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and for what is future have good confidence in our faithful God and Father, that no creature shall separate us from His love, since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.

What is stated so well in the Catechism was also movingly expressed by Sarah Edwards as she wrote to her daughter Esther on the 3rd April 1758 to break the news of the death of her husband Jonathan:

What shall I say: A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness that we had him so long. But my God lives; and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left to us! We are all given to God: and there I am and love to be.

Shut your mouth

Last Sunday evening I preached on Romans 3:9-20. The effect of Paul's argument ought to be the shutting of our mouths and the realisation that we are, personally, on account of our sins, liable to prosecution. Paul has presented the witness of creation, the witness of our moral constitution, and the witness of God's revealed commands to demonstrate that we are all guilty and without excuse before God and therefore all in need of the gospel.

I began the sermon with a series of questions that are vital to think through. Until we do so we will never understand ourselves, our Maker, and where we stand before him. I think that they are important evangelistic questions, and I first heard them asked ten years ago by a friend in a kebab shop:

One of the most important questions we can ever ask is “What does God think of me?”

What does he think about my life? My attitudes? My actions and reactions? The way I treat people? The way that I treat him? Have you ever asked those questions? Do you think that he approves of you? Does he consider you and your ways acceptable? Have you ever seriously thought about those questions?

Actually most people spend their time considering what other people think of them (what they wear, how they look, what they think of you as a person). We want to know how we measure up in the eyes of others. In fact for some people that is a major source of tyranny, the concern with having someone else's approval.

But, when you think about it rationally, how could that compare with knowing what God thinks of us? Shouldn't that be of much greater concern to us?

What does my Maker think of me? What is his assessment of my life?

The elephant and the mouse

Some people think that they are too good to come to Jesus Christ. They never think that they, or their sins are so bad that they need a Saviour. Some people, however, know that they are so bad that they are afraid to come to Jesus. They feel so ashamed that they think that he will reject them and turn them away.

You know what, I preach to both of those types of people every Sunday. And every Sunday I point both groups to Christ crucified, so that both groups will really learn to see how ugly their sin is in God's sight by gazing at the cross, and that both groups will see that there is more grace in Jesus Christ than sin in them.

Preaching on the "grand old text" 1 Timothy 1:15 C. H. Spurgeon used this illustration:

If a bridge is strong enough to bear an elephant, it will certainly bear a mouse. If the greatest sinner who ever lived has entered into Heaven by the bridge of the atoning Sacrifice of Christ, no man who has ever lived may say "My sin is beyond forgiveness." Today no mortal has just pretence to perish in despair.

(More on Spurgeon here and here and here too)

John Owen expressed the same rich truth in this way:

...when the conduit of Christ's humanity is inseparably united to the infinite, inexhaustible fountain of the Deity, who can look into the depths thereof? If, now, there be grace enough for sinners in an all sufficient God, it is in Christ.

And on this ground it is that if all the world should (if I may so say) set themselves to drink free grace, mercy, and pardon, drawing water continually from the wells of salvation; if they should set themselves to draw from one single promise, and angel standing by and crying, "Drink, O friends, yea, drink abundantly, take so much grace and pardon as shall be abundantly sufficient for the world of sin which is in everyone of you;"--they would not be able to sink the grace of the promise one hair's breadth.

And Samuel Rutherford in this way:

If there were ten thousand, thousand millions of worlds, and as many heavens full of men and angels, Christ would not be pinched to supply all our wants, and to fill us all.

Christ is a well of life, but who knoweth how deep it is to the bottom?

We must live with an eternal perspective

Last night I preached from Romans 2:1-16 on the coming day of judgement. Whilst preparing to preach I was struck by the words of C. S. Lewis spoken to a group of students at Oxford University in the opening months of World War II. He asked them how they could take an interest in their studies whilst the lives of their friends and the liberties of Europe were in the balance:

Is it not like fiddling while Rome burns?...But to a Christian the true tragedy of Nero must not be that he fiddled while the city was on fire but that he fiddled on the brink of hell.

(Quoted by Robert Peterson in Hell Under Fire, p. 223-4)

The great issues of life that cast the ease of academic study in a poor light were not the threats of war but the realities of eternity, not the intrusion of the miseries of this life but the looming prospect of eternal sorrows.

To read of, and to contemplate, such matters ought to fill us with what J. I. Packer onced called a "traumatic awe." It is one aspect of the dual eternal perspective that we must hold to if we are to live aright in the present. The other aspect is that expressed in the words of J. Gresham Machen (thanks to my friend Jeremy Walker for drawing my attention to this):

The responsibility of the church in the new age is the same as its responsibility in every age. It is to testify that this world is lost in sin; that the span of human life – no, all the length of human history – is an infinitesimal island in the awful depths of eternity; that there is a mysterious, holy, living God, Creator of all, Upholder of all, infinitely beyond all; that he has revealed himself to us in his Word and offered us communion with himself through Jesus Christ the Lord; that there is no other salvation, for individuals or for nations, save this, but that this salvation is full and free, and that whoever possesses it has for himself and for all others to whom he may be the instrument of bringing it a treasure compared with which all the kingdoms of the earth – no, all the wonders of the starry heavens – are as the dust of the street.

(HT: The Wanderer)

The Trinity is everywhere

Over the summer holidays, while we were in South Wales, we visited Big Pit Blaenavon. It closed as a working coal mine thirty years ago. Now it is a museum. But the winding gear still works, and kitted out with a miner's hat and a lamp, they take you down 300 feet underground and give you a tour of the history of the coal mine.

Back in the days before deep mining people dug the coal that they found in outcrops on the hills. Here and there, sticking out of the ground, would be outcrops of coal. You may have thought that all the coal there was was just there on the surface visible to the eye. But that was just an outcrop. Beneath the ground lay millions of tons of coal. Coal was everywhere.

It is like that with the doctrine of the Trinity. Some people read the Bible and they can see that the Trinity is hinted at in a verse here, and a verse there. Perhaps a passage like the baptism of Jesus where the Son is baptized, the Father speaks from heaven, and the Spirit descends in a dove like form. Or the ending of Matthew's Gospel, or Paul's benediction from the end of 2 Corinthians 13. That's where you can see the Trinity. It is in this verse, and that verse, sticking out as it were.

But that is what you see on the surface. In the opening words of Galatians, and as he does throughout his epistles, Paul is praying to God to bless his readers in such a way that he clearly considers the Lord Jesus Christ to be equal to God the Father. He prays to the Father and the Son as equals, and as equally the source of the blessings of grace and peace that the Galatians, and you and I need.

In that economy of words, words so well worn and familiar at the beginning of each of Paul's letters, lies the very foundational reality of Christian theology. Like the coal at Blaenavon you begin to realize that the Trinity is everywhere. Not just here and there in some special verses, but undergirding the whole reality of what it means to know God and to have dealings with God. The Trinity is everywhere.

Let me give you an extract on this point from B. B. Warfield's magnificent article "God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (The Princeton Theological Review, v. xv, 1917, pp. 1-20):

Clearly, the phrase "Jesus Christ and God the Father" denotes something purely Divine. It is in effect a Christian periphrasis for "God." And in this Christian periphrasis for "God" the name of Jesus Christ takes no subordinate place.

Paul places God and the Lord absolutely side by side, as joint source of the blessings he seeks for his readers; addresses his prayers for benefits he desires for his readers to them in common; treats them, in a word, as one.

The Scapegoat: the gospel according to Leviticus

A sermon on Leviticus 16 preached at Christ Church Deeside

My understanding of how to preach the text, as well as being shaped by the commentaries, has been significantly helped by Justin Mote.

The paining is by Holman Hunt and is exhibited in the Lady Lever Art Gallery (just thirty minutes from our home). Two texts are inscribed on the frame. They are:

'Surely he hath borne our Griefs, and carried our Sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of GOD, and afflicted.' (Isaiah LIII, 4)

'And the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a Land not inhabited.' (Leviticus XVI, 22)

This inter-canonical connection would no doubt have pleased John Owen.

The following is from John Owen's Vindicae Evangelicae:

For a man to "bear his iniquity," is, constantly, for him to answer for the guilt and undergo the punishment due to it. (455)

He set us an example in his obedience but he was not punished for an example (442)

As the high priest confessed all the sins, iniquities, and transgressions of the people, and laid them on the head of the scape-goat, which he bare, undergoing the utmost punishment he was capable of, and that punishment which, in the general kind and nature, is the punishment due to sin,--an evil and violent death; so did God lay all the sins, all the punishment due to them, really upon one that was fit, able, and appointed to bear it, which he suffered under to the utmost that the justice of God required on that account.

He took a view of all our sins and iniquities. He knew what was past and what was to come, knowing all our thoughts afar off. Not the least error of our minds, darkness of our understandings, perverseness of our wills, carnality of our affections, sin of our natures or lives, escaped him. (447-8)

Christ looked on the church through the window of the promise and the lattice of the Levitical ceremonies. (450)

And the "surety" of the covenant is he also...such a surety as paid that which he never took, made satisfaction for those sins which he never did...being made liable to them, he was punished for them. (449)

"Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?"

The arrest of Jesus in the Garden, as recorded by John, is one of the most deeply moving passages in the gospel. Here we see the sovereign power, the shepherd's heart, and the sacrificial obedience of the Son of God.

What an awesome privilege it was to preach from that text. Here, including the reading, is the sermon from John 18:1-11 that I preached at Christ Church Deeside last Sunday.