II Chronicles 33
Manasseh sets up worship of false gods verse 1- 3
Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign
and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem
BUT he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD
like unto the abominations of the heathen
whom the LORD had cast out before the
children of Israel
FOR he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down
and he reared up altars for Baalim – and made groves
and worshiped all the host of heaven – and served them
Manasseh set up worship of false gods in Temple area verse 4- 6
ALSO he built altars in the house of the LORD
whereof the LORD had said
In Jerusalem shall MY name be for ever
AND he built altars for all the host of heaven
in the two courts of the house of the LORD
AND he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the
son of Hinnom
ALSO he observed times – and used enchantments
and used witchcraft – and dealt with a familiar spirit
and with wizards
He wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD
to provoke HIM to anger
Manasseh caused Judah to do more evil then previous nations verse 7- 9
AND he set a carved image – the idol which he had made
in the house of God of which God
had said to David and to Solomon his son
In this house – and in Jerusalem
which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel
will I put MY name for ever
Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out
of the land which I have appointed for your fathers
So that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded
them according to the whole law and the statutes
and the ordinances by the hand of Moses
So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err
and to do worse than the heathen
whom the LORD had destroyed
before the children of Israel
Manasseh humbles himself before LORD in captivity verse 10- 13
And the LORD spoke to Manasseh – and to his people
BUT they would NOT HEARKEN
Wherefore the LORD brought on them
the captains of the hosts of the king of Assyria
which took Manasseh among the thorns
and bound him with fetters
and carried him to Babylon
And when he was in AFFLICTION – he BESOUGHT the LORD his God
and HUMBLED himself greatly before the God of his fathers
and prayed to HIM – and HE was entreated of him
and heard his supplication
and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom
THEN Manasseh knew that the LORD HE was God
Manasseh restores worship of the LORD in Judah verse 14- 16
Now after this he built a wall without the city of David
on the west side of Gihon – in the valley
even to the entering in at the fish gate
and compassed about Ophel
and raised it up a very great height
and put captains of war in all the fenced
cities of Judah
AND he took away the strange gods
and the idol out of the house of the LORD
and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the
house of the LORD in Jerusalem
and cast them out of the city
And he repaired the altar of the LORD
and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings
and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel
The people of Judah still worshiped wrongly verse 17
NEVERTHELESS the people did sacrifice still in the high places
yet to the LORD their God only
Record of reign of Manasseh verse 18- 20
Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh – and his PRAYER to his God
and the words of the seers that spoke to him in the name of the
LORD God of Israel – BEHOLD
they are written in the book of the kings of Israel
His PRAYER also – and how God was entreated of him – and all his sins
and his trespass – and the places wherein he built high places
and set up groves and graven images
BEFORE he was HUMBLED – BEHOLD
they are written among the saying of the seers
So Manasseh slept with his fathers – and they buried him in his own house
and Amon his son reigned in his stead
Amon has evil reign in Judah verse 21- 23
Amon was two and twenty years old when he began to reign
and reigned two years in Jerusalem
BUT he did that which was EVIL in the sight of the LORD
as did Manasseh his father
FOR Amon sacrificed unto all the carved images
which Manasseh his father had made and served them
and HUMBLED NOT himself before the LORD
as Manasseh his father had HUMBLED himself
BUT Amon trespassed more and more
Amon killed by own people verse 24- 25
And his servants conspired against him – and slew him in his own house
BUT the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against
king Amon
And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 3 For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. (7725 “built again” [shuwb] means to turn back, return, to go or come back to a place, condition, or activity where one has been before, restore, or apostatize)
DEVOTION: The contrast between father and son is great here. Hezekiah served the LORD while Manasseh brought back all the false worship his father tried to get rid of in the land.
The people followed their king whether for good or for bad. It seems like the ruler of the land held the religious practices of the people in his hands. He could lead them closer to the LORD or further away from the LORD. They seemed to be fickle in their worship.
So here we find that Manasseh undid all that his father had tried to do to the point where the LORD had to judge him for his actions. The LORD sent him to jail in a foreign land where he repented and returned to try to honor the LORD.
However, his son returned Judah to worshiping false gods again. The ups and downs of this nation depended on the actions of the kings that reigned during a given time period.
This is true of nations today as well. The rulers of nations can either honor the LORD or dishonor HIM according to their convictions. This causes the people in the nation to go alone with the leaders and head in either of two directions.
Those who are followers of Jesus Christ need to know that this is not to happen in their life. They are to follow the LORD no matter what happens. This is causing the deaths of many people who are genuine followers of the LORD today but the disciples of Jesus in the first century were willing to die for their beliefs rather than to change them to please the current rulers.
Our responsibility to honor the LORD today is just as important as the disciples when they faced the rulers of the Roman Empire. It is important that we are obedient to the LORD rather than men.
How are you doing in this area of your life? Are you going along with the crowd or standing up for the teachings of the Word of God. You might lose possession and friends but it is important to please the LORD.
Encourage those who are standing firm on the Word of God in the days we are living in. CHALLENGE: Don’t give in to be politically correct but always try to be Biblically correct even if it hurts.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 6 And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke HIM to anger. (3049 “wizards” [yidda‘oniy] means soothsayers, spirit of divination, one who practices divination by conjuring up the dead, familiar spirit, spiritist, or necromancer)
DEVOTION: Notice that things have not changed regarding the false worship found in the Bible and the false worship that is happening today in our world. We have movies that honor sorcery more than honoring the LORD. We have people consulting bones rather than praying to the LORD. We have witchcraft even being allowed in our schools while those who worship the one TRUE GOD of the Bible are not allowed to teach in our schools.
Many people are looking for psychics to tell them the future instead of reading the Word of God to find out what the LORD has planned for this world in the future. Some people are trying to raise their dead relatives or friends through the use of mediums who are really dealing with fallen angels or demons.
Many countries put these things into practice on a regular basis and think nothing about what the Bible has to say about these actions. Here in this passage we find that God has to judge Manasseh for his actions. HE will just every nation according to their actions regarding obeying or disobeying HIS commands.
It is hard to watch this happen but the LORD is longsuffering. HE is more longsuffering than we would like but we have to remember that HE has always been longsuffering with us and so we need to be thankful for this characteristic in HIS nature.
Our responsibility is to warn those who practice these kinds of false worship that judgment is coming and they will one day stand before the LORD for their actions and beliefs.
Are we doing our part to warn even believers of the sin of these actions? Warning is necessary and we will be judged for our silence. Remember to do everything properly in a proper time when you are alone with individuals who need to understand the truth of the Word of God and the consequences of actions against the Word of God.
CHALLENGE:
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: 12 And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
: 13 And prayed unto him: and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God. (6887 “affliction” [tsarar] means to bind, be narrow, to be in distress, cause distress, tie up, shut up, be cramped, or to be in straits)
DEVOTION: One of the ways that the LORD gets our attention is to cause us to go through hard circumstances. HE wants us to know that HE is in control of our world and that HE has rules we are to follow if we are HIS children. Manasseh had a kingdom to run but he chose to worship false gods. He did it in a wholehearted way and led the children of Jerusalem to follow him. He built altars to the false gods. He built groves to worship the false gods. He sacrificed his own children to the false gods. He angered the LORD.
The LORD sent judgment. In a bound state, he called to the LORD in prayer and the LORD answered in a positive manner. Remember the LORD is not willing that any should perish. HE will listen to the prayers of the worst sinners and forgive them. Isn’t that great news!!
Can we imagine what we would have done if we were God? Would we have given this king a second chance? Do we give those around us a second chance?
God gives us more than a second chance – HE gives us a lifetime of chances to get our act together. HE is an awesome God!!! Remember that all times of distress are not sent because people are out of the will of the LORD. Sometimes HE sends distress to cause us to grow in dependence on HIM. Not because we have done a great sin but because HE wants us to grow.
Manasseh had done great sins. He had killed innocent blood that the LORD said he would not forgive Judah for allowing. There was going to be future judgment on Judah because of this sin. They were going into captivity because of this sin.
However, because Manasseh humbled himself before the LORD it was not going to happen in his lifetime.
Our nation has shed innocent blood and judgment is coming. Can we still repent and delay the judgment? Yes!!! We need a revival. Is that impossible with God? NO!!
Pray for revival in our country. It is never too late. The LORD is long-suffering and not willing that any should perish. Our responsibility is to get the word out. What word???
CHALLENGE: Jesus Christ shed HIS blood for those who will repent and turn to the LORD.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 16 And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. (3559 “repaired” [kuwn] means to bring back into original existence, use, function, or position, be re-established, to arrange, order, or provide for)
DEVOTION: The back and forth of the children of Judah worshiping the LORD. One time they are worshiping HIM and another time they are worshiping false gods. It seems that each king has to make a decision and when he chooses to worship false gods, he finds out that he needs to change direction and worship the LORD.
Here we find that Manasseh found himself in among the thorns that he returned to the LORD and offered sacrifices for HIS help. He learned a lesson from the LORD and worshiped HIM.
Today we seem to find this happening even in some churches. They start out worshiping the LORD and then find that they want more singing and other things besides the preaching of the Word of God. But when things are not going well, they return to the LORD in their worship services.
In some churches this never happens and they continue on the wrong path and end up closing their doors because they didn’t want to honor the LORD in their building.
It depends on leadership to lead the congregation in the right direction and if that is not happening then everyone is hurt.
God wants us to honor HIM at all times. HE sends judgement to help us to start thinking straight as HE did with Israel and Judah. Are we thinking straight today in the local church that we are attending or are we trying to please the people or leadership more than the LORD?
CHALLENGE: Our churches need to make sure that they put God first and foremost in every decision we make. There are many churches in this country that need to return to the LORD!
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: 23 And humbled not himself before the LORD as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more. (3665 “humbled” [kana‘] means to submit, subdued, to be brought low, to behave oneself submissively, state of being conquered or be subjected)
DEVOTION: Here is a son who was raised by a father who worshiped false gods for a majority of his life. He was put in prison in Babylon in fetters. He repented and changed his ways at the end of his life but his son was raised during his heathen years.
Now his son Amon is king and he only reigns in Judah for two years but in the two years he returned Judah to heathen ways. He didn’t repent like his father but continued to sin more and more.
Finally, some servants conspired to kill him. His death brought his son to the throne and we see another change in Judah for the better.
Now we know that the LORD will forgive those who repent as we saw HIM do with Manasseh when he submitted himself to the LORD. He prayed and the LORD forgave him and restored him to his place as king of Judah.
Our God is a forgiving God as long as we are willing to go to HIM in a humble manner after we have sinned. There is no sin that HE will not forgive except the rejection of Jesus Christ as the personal Savior of an individual. That is the first prayer that HE hears.
Once we have become a genuine follower of HIM, we can go to HIM at any time and ask for forgiveness as long as we are willing to repent. HE does chasten HIS children but HE does it for our good.
If someone is not willing to repent of his sin and he is a genuine believer the LORD will judge him with weakness, sickness, and pre-mature death. HE wants his servants to bring glory to HIS name and that is not happening if there is an unrepentant believer living amongst those who are genuinely trying to follow the LORD.
Amon never repented and God had to deal with him accordingly. What is HE doing in yours and my life? Are we repentant sinners who are keeping short accounts with the LORD?
CHALLENGE: As we learn from the history of Israel we need to go to God in repentance when we sin. HE is a loving and forgiving God to those who honor HIM.
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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Manasseh prayed when in captivity verse 13
LORD heard his prayer
Supplication heard of LORD verse 13
Record of Manasseh’s prayers verse 18, 19
Manasseh’s prayers verse 18
Words of the seers verse 18
Sayings of the seers verse 19
Confession of sin by Manasseh verse 19
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
House of the LORD verse 4, 5, 15
House of God verse 7
Altars repaired verse 16
Peace offerings verse 16
Thank offerings verse 16
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
David verse 7
Solomon verse 7
Whole law verse 8
Statutes verse 8
Ordnances verse 8
Hand of Moses verse 8
Book of the kings of Israel verse 18
Written among the sayings of the seers verse 19
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 2, 4- 6, 10- 13,
15- 18, 22, 23
Sight of the LORD verse 2, 6, 22
House of the LORD verse 4, 5, 15
God – Elohim (Creator, Sovereign) verse 7, 12, 13, 16-19
House of God verse 7
LORD his God verse 12
God of his fathers verse 12
LORD he was God verse 13
Altar of the LORD verse 16
LORD God of Israel verse 16, 18
LORD their God verse 17
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Heathen verse 2, 9
King of Assyria verse 11
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Evil verse 2, 6, 22
Abominations of the heathen verse 2
High places verse 3, 17, 19
Altars to Baalim verse 3
Groves verse 3, 19
Worshiped the host of heaven verse 3
Served false gods verse 3
Built altars to false gods in house of the LORD verse 4, 5, 15
Altars to the hosts of heaven verse 5
Children pass through fire verse 6
Observed times verse 6
Used enchantments verse 6
Used witchcraft verse 6
Dealt with familiar spirit verse 6
Dealt with wizards verse 6
Did evil in sight of the LORD verse 6
Provoke LORD to anger verse 6
Carved image in house of God verse 7, 15, 19, 22
Make God’s people err verse 9
Cause to do worst then heathen verse 9
Not hearken to the LORD verse 10
Strange gods verse 15
People did sacrifice still in high places verse 17
Sins verse 19
Trespasses verse 19, 23
Sacrificed to carved images verse 22
Humbled not verse 23
Murdered the king verse 24
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Chosen verse 7
Affliction verse 12
Besought the LORD verse 12
Humbled verse 12, 19
Prayed verse 13, 18, 19
Intreated the LORD verse 13, 19
LORD answered prayer verse 13
Know the LORD is God verse 13
Took away strange gods and idols verse 15
Took away altars to false gods verse 15
Repair altar of the LORD verse 16
Sacrificed verse 16
Serve LORD God of Israel verse 16
Seers spoke in the name of LORD verse 18
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Manasseh reigned from 12 years old
for 55 years verse 1- 20, 23
Did evil in the sight of the LORD
Built high places
Built altars for Baalim
Made groves
Worshiped host of heaven
Built altars to host of heaven in
courts of the house of the LORD
Observed times
Used enchantments
Used witchcraft
Dealt with familiar spirits and wizards
Not hearken to LORD
When in affliction by Assyria he humbled
himself to God of his fathers
Prayed
Took away strange gods
Died
Children of Israel verse 2, 9
Hezekiah his father verse 3
Broke down high places
Jerusalem shall MY name be for ever verse 4, 7
David verse 7
Solomon verse 7
Seers verse 18
Amon reigned in Judah verse 20- 24
from 22 years old to 24 yrs. Old
Did evil
Reigned two years
Sacrificed to carved images
Didn’t humble himself
Trespassed more and more
Servants of Amon killed him verse 24
Josiah reigns in Judah verse 25
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
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QUOTES regarding passage
33:22–23 Just as Manasseh could not go back and undo the damage he had done to his nation, even so he could not go back and change the son he had raised to be a pagan. Amon followed in his father’s footsteps, but not the steps that Manasseh would have liked him to follow. (Thompson, J. A. (1994). 1, 2 Chronicles (Vol. 9, p. 372). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
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33:21–25. Amon, in his brief two-year reign (642–640 b.c.), imitated the wickedness of Manasseh. But unlike his father, he did not repent. So Amon’s top leaders assassinated him. As it turned out this was an unpopular move for the assassins themselves were disposed of and Josiah, Amon’s son, was put in power by the masses. (Merrill, E. H. (1985). 2 Chronicles. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 646). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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Amon’s reign lasted a mere two years (642–640 bc), but he plays a significant role in Chronicles. This emerges particularly from two typical expressions of Chronicles which do not occur in Kings, viz. he did not humble himself and he increased his guilt (v. 23). The former contrasts Amon with his father (unlike his father Manasseh, he did not humble himself; cf. vv. 12, 19), and is regarded as one of the causes of the exile in its only other occurence in Chronicles (2 Chr. 36:12). The distinction between father and son was not that they did evil, for Amon did as his father Manasseh (v. 22; cf v. 2), but that Amon did not repent, even though Manasseh’s example must have been well known to him. The Bible is realistic in acknowledging that ‘there is no-one who does not sin’ (2 Chr. 6:36; cf. Isa. 53:6; Rom. 3:23), but it does condemn those who fail to take whatever opportunity they have to repent (cf. John 3:18–20; Rom. 2:12–16).
Because he did not repent, Amon increased his guilt (v. 23). Though in all its other occurences in Chronicles, guilt is directly associated with God’s wrath (1 Chr. 21:3; 27:24; 2 Chr. 19:10; 24:18; 28:9–10, 13, 25), the consequences were not inevitable. Guilt could be expunged through the temple sacrifices, as exemplified by David’s forgiveness at the site of the future temple (1 Chr. 21:3; 22:1). Alternatively, Amon could follow the ways of Ahaz (2 Chr. 28:9–10) and of the final pre-exilic generation, both of whom suffered God’s wrath through the judgment of exile (2 Chr. 28:5–8; 36:16). Although the cloud of exile hangs over chapters 28–36 (e.g. 29:8–9; 33:10–11; 34:23–25; 36:15–20), Manasseh and Amon in their contrasting ways show that a fatalistic attitude in the face of God’s judgment is quite unjustified. (Selman, M. J. (1994). 2 Chronicles: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 11, pp. 545–546). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
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22 When the Chronicler says that “Amon worshiped … all the idols Manasseh had made,” this seems to suggest either that their removal (v.15a) had not involved their destruction, or that Manasseh’s concentration on bringing about reform in Jerusalem (v.15b) had left intact those relics of his former paganism that characterized the local high places (v.17).
25 Concerning “the people of the land,” who took vengeance on Amon’s assassins and restored order to Judah, see the comment on 23:13. (Payne, J. B. (1988). 1, 2 Chronicles. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job (Vol. 4, p. 546). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
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Vers. 21–25.—Amon’s reign and end. A. re-established the idolatries which his father put aside; met the fate of Joash and Amaziah from his servants, at whose death executive government was suspended. (Wolfendale, J. (1892). I & II Chronicles (p. 300). New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company.)
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21–25. The short, sinful, and unworthy life of Ammon, terminating as it did by a violent death, opens but little subject for meditation. Alas! how wretched and hopeless for the most part are all such men. How hath the Psalmist marked them, and how true a portrait hath he drawn. Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shall diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. Psalm 37:10. (Hawker, R. (2013). Poor Man’s Old Testament Commentary: 1 Kings–Esther (Vol. 3, p. 562). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.)
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FROM MY READING:
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
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Esther 6
Haman must honor Mordecai with acts which Haman himself suggested.
INSIGHT Very few things in the Bible are actually funny. However, taken in isolation, chapter 6 of Esther is probably the funniest event in the Bible. The king asks Haman what he thinks is a good way to honor someone. Haman thinks to himself, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” (6:6). Then he tells the king what he, Haman, would like to have done for himself. The king then responds by telling Haman to do that for Mordecai. The irony is overwhelming–the humor irrepressible. The wrath of man is made to praise God. (Quiet Walk)
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THE LIFE OF THE SOUL
Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. Luke 9:60
Some men and women can see that there is truth in the Christian message, but they are troubled by it and say, “Yes, of course that is what I really must do–but not yet.” Take the prayer of Augustine. He was a brilliant philosopher, but he was troubled. He was listening to the preaching of Ambrose, that great preacher in Milan, and he was disturbed by it. He knew it was right and that he was wrong, but he was living with his mistress. And here, you see, is the fight and the conflict. He knew what was right; so he offered this prayer: “Lord, make me chaste: but not yet.”
Do you know something about that? “I want to be good, but I also want to have this other thing. ‘Suffer me first…'” How many have done this! “Let me make my name first. I do not believe in some of the things I am doing, but they have to be done, and once I have got on, then I will be a thorough Christian. I really will!” And so our Lord confronts this man immediately and shows him that he is all wrong, and He puts it in a very striking manner: “Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.”
Christ says in effect, “The kingdom of God is for live people, not for dead ones. I am not in this world to deal with matters like that. They are all right; there is nothing wrong with a man looking after his aged parents and burying them; but you know, that is not the first thing in life. The first thing in life is the soul! The men and women in My kingdom are alive, awakened to the fact of the soul and its eternal destiny and its relationship to God.”
A Thought to Ponder
The first thing in life is the soul!
(From The Kingdom of God, pp. 129-130, by Dr. Marty Lloyd-Jones )
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Why Parables?
“And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.” (Mark 4:33-34)
There is confusion concerning the parables of Jesus Christ. Was Jesus advocating an alternative form of teaching by using parables? Typically, parables were not the primary method used to impart truth. Look at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7). Our Lord presented truth clearly in 105 verses and concluded with a parable made up of only five verses.
So, what are biblical parables? A simple definition of a parable comes from the Greek word parabole. The meaning of this word is “throwing” (bole) “alongside” (para), as in the words comparison, illustration, and analogy. With parables there is a connection between spiritual truth and common practice. The lawyer in Luke 10:29 asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbour?” Our Lord answered him by packaging a salvific truth in a parable, using a fictitious gracious Samaritan who lived out in practice what the law demanded. Jesus called out this lawyer’s superficial self-righteousness by calling him to repentance and concluded the story by saying, “Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:37).
While parables explain spiritual truths to the followers of our Lord, they also have the purpose of disguising truth to those hardened hearers who oppose Christ. Understanding parables takes careful detective work. As one pastor warns, “It takes care, hard work, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance to help get it right.”
We must always remember that parables reveal precious nuggets of spiritual truth to believing followers and disguise truth to those antagonistic to the faith. On which side of the equation do you stand? (CM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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God’s Restoring WaysPeople will dwell again in his shade; they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like the vine. Hosea 14:7
One of the most moving songs in the musical The Greatest Showman is “From Now On.” Sung after the main character comes to some painful self-realizations about the ways he’s wounded family and friends, the song celebrates the joy of coming back home and finding that what we already have is more than enough.
The book of Hosea concludes with a similar tone—one of breathless joy and gratitude at the restoration God makes possible for those who return to Him. Much of the book, which compares the relationship between God and His people to a relationship with an unfaithful spouse, grieves Israel’s failures to love Him and live for Him.
But in chapter 14, Hosea lifts up the promise of God’s boundless love, grace, and restoration—freely available to those who return to Him heartbroken over the ways they’ve abandoned Him (vv. 1–3). “I will heal their waywardness,” God promises, “and love them freely” (v. 4). And what had seemed broken beyond repair will once more find wholeness and abundance, as God’s grace, like dew, causes His people to “blossom like a lily” and “flourish like the grain” (vv. 5–7).
When we’ve hurt others or taken for granted God’s goodness in our life, it’s easy to assume we’ve forever marred the good gifts we’ve been given. But when we humbly turn to Him, we find His love is always reaching to embrace and restore.
By Monica La Rose, Our Daily Bread)
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THE WORK HAS BEEN DONE It is finished. John 19:30
We need to be delivered from the power of the devil, we need death and the grave to be conquered and our Lord Jesus Christ has done it all. And beyond all that, we need a new nature, because we need not only forgiveness of sins, but to be made fit to have communion and fellowship with God. We need to have a nature that can stand before God, for “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). And Christ has come and given Himself, His own nature, the eternal life of which he speaks in John 17:1-5. So here, looking at it all, He can say, “I have finished the work which thou gave me to do” (verse 4).
He has done everything that is necessary for man to be reconciled to God. Have you realized, my friends, that this work is finished? Have you realized that it is finished as far as you are concerned? You are asked whether you are a Christian, and you reply that you are hoping to be, but that you need to do this, that, and the other. No! Christ says, “I have finished the work which thou gave me to do.” The work has been done, and what proves whether we are truly Christians or not is whether we know and realize that the work has been done and that we then rest, and rest only, upon the finished work of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we see it all in Him and the work done and completed in Him, it means we are Christians.
The way for you to know God and to be reconciled to Him is wide-open in the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work on your behalf. If you have never entered in before, enter in now, rest upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and begin to rejoice, immediately, in your great salvation.
A Thought to Ponder: The way for you to know God, and to be reconciled to Him, is wide-open in the Lord Jesus Christ. (From Saved in Eternity, pp. 105-106, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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Holiness is not expensive. In fact, all the deepest longings of a child of God are met only in holiness. Could we consistently believe this, our lives would be more holy. Like the Israelites, we think that we are missing something by serving God. We are missing no more than the Israelites missed of Egypt. (Daily Walk)
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All Other Ground is Sinking Sand: A Portrait of Theological Disaster
Al Mohler
Theological disaster almost never strikes out of the blue. Trouble builds and disaster is somehow averted again and again, but anyone with eyes to see knows the time is running out. Time has run out for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
The CBF emerged in the early 1990s as churches aligned with the more liberal wing of the Southern Baptist Convention, self-identified as “moderates,” forged a new organization to replace the SBC, in which they no longer felt at home. From the beginning, the CBF was largely funded by congregations that were not necessarily theologically liberal, at least self-consciously so, but nonetheless disagreed with the SBC’s determination to affirm and enforce the inerrancy of Scripture. Other issues were catalysts, including the SBC’s confessional principle against women serving as pastors. The CBF had a more explicitly liberal wing, but the most leftward of the former Southern Baptists had left earlier, forming what was then known as the Alliance of Baptists.
There was a time when the SBC and the CBF were locked in competition for the loyalty and financial support of major churches. In turn, those congregations were often divided internally by the same conflict. Over twenty years later, that competition is long over. The SBC and the CBF have each moved through history according to their chosen trajectories. They have grown steadily apart. The SBC solidified its conservative convictions and commitments, while a younger generation of leaders emerged in the CBF — a generation that did not long for a return to the SBC of the past, but identified with a far more liberal vision of theology and moral issues. The identity crisis of the CBF was evident from the beginning. So was the fact that the LGBTQ revolution would be the fuse that would detonate the CBF and its identity.
In June of 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a revision of its confessional statement, the Baptist Faith & Message. The confessional revision was a first in modern church history — the first time that a major denomination had adopted a more conservative confession than it had previously held. The statement explicitly defined the office of pastor as limited to men, affirmed the inerrancy of Scripture, and a host of other conservative convictions. Daniel Vestal, then coordinator of the CBF, predicted that 5,000 churches were ready to leave the SBC and join the CBF in reaction to the confession. In October of 2000, the CBF was under pressure to answer criticism that it was leaning leftward on the question of homosexuality and its Coordinating Council adopted a “statement of organizational value” that precluded the hiring of non-celibate homosexuals for CBF staff or missionary field appointments. The move was immediately criticized by many within the CBF, and especially those identified with its theological schools.
No such exodus from the SBC to the CBF occurred.
Within a decade, momentum was clearly building for a change in CBF policy. It was well understood that the main factor holding the leadership from such a change was financial. The loss of support from churches outraged by any policy condoning homosexuality would have been devastating. The conflict was largely generational. By 2012, an elected moderator of the CBF would openly call for a removal of the policy forbidding the hiring of non-celibate LGBT personnel. Again, and again, calls for such a change were answered with delay.
Then came the wider LGBTQ revolution, the legalization of same-sex marriage, and open floodgates of moral revolution. More conservative forces in the CBF may still refuse to join the revolution, but others, mostly younger, see the current CBF policy as morally wrong and oppressive. Most of the seminaries and divinity schools serving the CBF joined the LGBTQ revolution long ago, and their graduates have been demanding that the CBF join as well.
David Gushee, perhaps best equipped to observe the CBF over the course of a generation, noted: “Over these 25 years, CBF life has produced far fewer leaders and people who could be described as evangelicals or moderate-conservative Baptists, and far more who could be described as something like mainline Protestants. Meanwhile, the original founding moderate-conservatives–often based in Texas, interestingly enough–are aging out. The CBF has become an uneasy coalition of moderates (who, it must be again remembered, were labeled moderate-conservatives back in the day) and real-life liberals. The latter are mainly, though not exclusively, younger, and among the clergy, most are products of the new Baptist seminaries.”
Some CBF churches have become fully LGBTQ, affirming, some perform same-sex ceremonies, and some have called openly-LGBTQ ministers and pastors. Push came to shove as the CBF announced in 2016 that it would move forward through an “Illumination Project” that would allow for a new direction for the CBF on LGBTQ issues. Last week, that project’s report was released. The fuse was detonated.
The report, “Honoring Autonomy & Reflecting the Fellowship,” has infuriated LGBTQ proponents and alienated more conservative churches. Its recommendations offer a ridiculous and unstable policy. The report and related news reports reveal that the proposed policy will allow for the hiring of openly-LGBT CBF personnel in some positions, but not in positions of leadership or missionary field assignment. The new policy, if adopted, would create a dual morality — one for an estimated 80% of CBF staff and the other for supervisory staff and field personnel. The two moralities, contradictory by definition, would supposedly co-exist within one structure.
With amazing candor, the report states that “global partners (within and without Baptist life) have decisively rejected movement toward hiring or supporting LGBT field personnel or the inclusion of LGBT persons in ordained leadership.” In other words, international churches, with rare exceptions, will not cooperate with the CBF if it sends LGBT personnel to field assignments. The report also acknowledges that “less than a handful of our congregations have called pastors who identify as LGBT.”
Nevertheless, it is hard to see how the CBF can survive with such a house divided and such an incoherent policy. One openly gay woman pastor of a CBF congregation responded over the weekend by accusing the CBF of creating “a tiered caste system where the opinions and lives of wealthy straight people are worth more than anyone else.”
We have seen this same pattern throughout mainline liberal Protestantism. The moral revolutionaries push and push until the denominational middle gives way or dies out. This drama is playing out a bit later on the stage of the CBF, but its end is clear enough. In the meantime, the “Illumination Project” has been truly illuminating.
This is the inevitable result of the abandonment of the full truthfulness and authority of Scripture. The CBF was born of controversy within the Southern Baptist Convention over the inerrancy of the Bible. On July 9, 1991, the CBF (which would adopt that name the following day) approved an “Address to the Public” that included one and only one clear theological statement, and that statement rejected the inerrancy of Scripture. “The Bible,” said the statement, “neither claims or reveals inerrancy as a Christian teaching.” Once the truthfulness and trustworthiness of the Bible are abandoned, theological revisionism is inevitable. The CBF report does not even attempt the exegesis of Scripture.
This is also the logical consequence of adopting a hermeneutic that allows for the service of women as pastors — for many CBF congregations, the key issue of outrage at the SBC. The same negotiation and “reinterpretation” of the biblical text that allows for the service of women pastors will logically lead to the acceptance of the LGBT revolution. How can it not? Individuals and congregations may refuse to take this next step, but they have surrendered the only binding argument that would offer an objective truth claim. Eventually, the revolutionaries will win, and they know it. Clearly, some appear unwilling to wait.
Finally, this is what happens when autonomy trumps biblical authority. The moral revolution was only possible because of a great and unsustainable shift to personal autonomy in the culture. The CBF was birthed in a rejection of stricter doctrinal requirements within the SBC, and one of their cherished principles was congregational autonomy at the expense of confessional unity. Well, in response to the “Illumination Project” report, the married lesbian pastors of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC expressed their moral outrage that more conservative CBF churches and international partners were holding back the full acceptance of LGBT personnel. In a pastoral letter they released, the pastors stated: “Autonomy of the local church is not some mucky individualism that means every church can think and oppress however it wants.” Interestingly, the limits of autonomy as a central doctrine are becoming clear even to some in the CBF, and revealingly so.
The CBF assembly in Dallas this coming June will be an historic meeting, one way or the other. For Southern Baptists and other evangelical Christians, the “Illumination Project” should serve as yet another reminder of what becomes inevitable once the full authority and truthfulness of the Bible are abandoned. There is nothing to celebrate here . . . only sadness. This is an “Illumination Project” that truly illuminates, but in ways its authors surely never intended.
“Honoring Autonomy and Reflecting the Fellowship: The Report of the Illumination Project Committee,” Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, February 9, 2018.
David Gushee, Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelicalism (Westminster/John Know Press, 2017), p0. 112-113).
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