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June 3, 2024

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LAST WORDS

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. [John 19:30 (ESV)]

It’s been said that Leonardo da Vinci’s last words were, “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.” A scientist, painter, architect, mathematician, musician, sculptor, geologist, botanist, historian, cartographer, and inventor, da Vinci was a true Renaissance man and it’s difficult to understand how he could feel he failed God or anyone else.

I hope my last words won’t be as depressing as da Vinci’s or as foolish as those of Major General John Sedgwick who, just moments before he was shot and killed during the Civil War, said, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance!” I’d like to think my last words will be as faith-filled as those of blues singer Bessie Smith’s, “I’m going, but I’m going in the name of the Lord!” or Harriet Tubman’s, “Give my love to the churches. Tell the women to stand firm. I go to prepare a place for you.”  Nevertheless, my words probably will be as mundane Elvis Presley’s, “I’m going to the bathroom to read.”

While Nostradamus correctly predicted his death when he said, “Tomorrow, at sunrise, I shall no longer be here,” most of us won’t know when the words we speak will be our last ones. Jesus, however, knew his earthly life was ending when He spoke from the cross. He’d been hanging there for several hours and the weight of his body pulling down on his arms meant he could barely breathe. John tells us Jesus said, “It is finished!” and then died. After hearing those words, can you imagine the heartbreak of His followers? This was Jesus, the man who calmed storms, fed thousands, and healed lepers! This was the promised Messiah! How could it be finished? Everything His disciples believed and hoped for was gone! Was this how their story would end?

Last words, however, aren’t always what they seem. Jesus’ words and the crucifixion were only the end of the first act. What the disciples didn’t understand on that dark Friday afternoon was that the story was just getting started. Three days later, the resurrection opened the second act. Forty days after His resurrection, the second act closed with Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Although He spoke to the disciples and blessed them before His departure, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John included different portions of Jesus’ final words. Nevertheless, His message was the same: our sins are forgiven, we are to go out into the world and make disciples, and the power of the Holy Spirit is promised. When Jesus physically left the disciples with His ascension into heaven, the second act ended, but the words He spoke were not His final ones. Because He promised both His presence and His return, we know there’s more to come!

The third act began with the Spirit’s presence on Pentecost and continued when Jesus spoke to Saul on the road to Damascus and revealed Himself to John on Patmos. While probably less dramatic than Paul’s encounter and less graphic than John’s, the Lord continues to speak to us today through His living word (the Bible), prayer, and in the Holy Spirit’s beautiful whisper. The only last words to be spoken in the third act will be ours when we depart the stage—whether they are as mundane as those of Elvis or as memorable as da Vinci’s. Nevertheless, when the curtain closes for us, the story still is not over!

The glorious fourth act begins when we come home to Jesus and hear His voice again. This final act has no ending and there will be no last words spoken. It never is finished and the curtain never will fall!

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. [John 14:1-3 (ESV)]

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. [John 5:25 (ESV)]

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May 30, 2024

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UNICORNS

God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. [Numbers 24:8 (KJV)]

ancient mosaic of aurochSome believers insist that unicorns actually existed because they are mentioned nine times in the Old Testament. Claiming the Bible is completely without error, they insist that you must believe the same thing—including the unicorns! On the other hand, some people disparage believers and discount all of Scripture because of those same unicorns! Do we blindly believe or do we “throw out the baby with the bathwater” because of one word?

While the Bible is infallible, that’s not always true of translators. The Hebrew word used for this wild animal was re’em and seemed to mean a beast with a horn (but not necessarily only one horn). It’s found in Numbers 23:22, 24:8; Deuteronomy 33:17; Job 39:9,10; Psalm 22:21, 29:6, 92:10; and Isaiah 34:7. When looking at the context, re’em always refers to someone or something with great power. In Numbers, we find God comparing His strength to that of the re’em and, in Psalm 22:21, David refers to his formidable enemies as re’em.

By the third century BC, the language and culture of Greece had spread throughout the world and the Jewish knowledge of Hebrew was declining. The Jewish community in Egypt (along with the Hellenic Egyptian ruler Ptolemy II) initiated the translation of the Torah into Greek. During the next two centuries, the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek in what is called the Septuagint. At that time, the Hebrew re’em (wild beast with a horn) was inaccurately translated into the Greek monokeros (one horn). When citing the Hebrew Scriptures, the epistle writers quoted from the Septuagint and, since Gentile Christians knew nothing of Hebrew, the Greek Septuagint became the Bible of the early church.

Fast forward to the fourth century when Latin began replacing Greek as the language of the people. In 382 AD, Pope Damasus I commissioned his secretary, Jerome, to produce a new Scripture translation in Latin. Written in the Latin of the day, St. Jerome’s translation is known as the Vulgate. It is from this translation that we get English words like scripture, salvation, justification, and regeneration. In Jerome’s translation, the Greek monokeros became the Latin unicornis (a one-horned beast).

Fast forward again to the 16th century and the first English translations of Scripture—William Tyndale’s and the Geneva Bibles followed by the King James version in 1611. Although unicornis was rendered as unicorn in these Bibles, it’s unlikely the translators believed it to be the mythological unicorn. Not knowing what it was, they simply transliterated the Latin word into the English “unicorn.” Closely associated with chivalry, by the 1600s the unicorn was a symbol of purity and grace that could be captured only by a virgin. The horse-with-a-horn of myths and fairy tales doesn’t sound much like the untamable, ferocious, and powerful wild re’em of the Old Testament!

Nowadays, only a few Bible translations continue to use unicorn. I found only six (out of 62) and all of those are based on the Wycliff, Geneva, or King James translations. While most other versions translate re’em, monokeros, or unicornis as wild ox, a few use wild bull, rhinoceros, or buffalo. Since no one knows absolutely for sure, Young’s Literal translation returns to the original with reem! The Orthodox Jewish Bible uses wild bull, wild ox, and “re’eim (wild ox).”

So, what was the re’em? While it could refer to rhinoceros, buffalo, or antelope, it probably refers to aurochs, large cattle which once roamed Europe, Africa, and Asia. Ancient Assyrian and other Middle Eastern texts refer to this this wild ox-like animal with a similar word. Because ancient art usually depicted the auroch from a profile view (as does the ancient mosaic pictured), it appeared to have just one horn. Ancestors of domestic cattle, aurochs stood over six-feet tall and weighed over 2,200 pounds. Julius Caesar described them as “a little below the elephant in size,” having the shape and appearance of a horned bull, possessing “extraordinary” strength and speed, and being untamable, even when taken as calves. The auroch became extinct in Poland in 1627.

While we now have an answer to skeptics who mock us for believing in a book attesting to the existence of unicorns (when it doesn’t), we must be cautious in our response. Although Scripture doesn’t speak of a unicorn, that doesn’t mean some creature with just one horn never existed. After all, God created the one-horned narwal and rhinoceros, so who are we to say He never created something like the mythical unicorn? Although we’ve never seen them, we know animals like the wooly mammoth, dodo, saber-toothed tiger, and auroch existed. Having already seen strange creatures like jelly fish, giant anteaters, and the wildebeest, I know better than to deny God’s ability to create any creature He desires. What we can know for sure, however, is that the Bible can be trusted!

There’s no better book with which to defend the Bible than the Bible itself. [D.L. Moody]

God brings him out of Egypt, He is for him like the horns of the wild ox. He will devour the nations who are his adversaries, And will crush their bones, And smash them with his arrows. [Numbers 24:8 (NASB)]

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May 27, 2024

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YOUR ACHILLES’ HEEL (Armor of God – 3)

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. [James 1:13-14 (ESV)]

armor - Castle of SpiezBack in in 1586, during the Eighty Years’ War, Sir Philip Sidney was fighting for the Protestant cause against the Spanish when he noticed another soldier was without leg armor. Believing that he shouldn’t be better protected than his men, Sidney gave the man his cuisses (armor that covered the thigh). During the Battle of Zutphen, Sidney was fatally wounded in his thigh during the final charge and, three weeks later, he died of gangrene from the injury. While heroic, his death was avoidable if the man had worn his complete set of armor!

In Greek mythology, Achilles was the son of Thetis, a powerful sea goddess. When a seer told her that Achilles would be a great warrior but would die young, Thetis dipped her infant son in the river Styx to make him invincible. The boy became invulnerable everywhere but at his heel where his mother held him. Although Achilles was a great warrior, the god Apollo was angry with him. Knowing of his unprotected heel, Apollo directed a soldier’s arrow to the warrior’s one vulnerable spot and Achilles was killed in battle by that well-aimed arrow. Because of this myth, an “Achilles’ heel” has come to mean a person’s only weakness.

I tell these stories because both Sir Philip Sidney and Achilles were missing part of their protective covering and the Apostle Paul made it clear that the full armor of God is necessary if we are to defeat Satan. Let’s not fool ourselves, just as Apollo knew about Achilles’ unprotected heel, Satan knows exactly where to attack us! The area we leave unprotected is the place where Satan will strike.

While he doesn’t use arrows, canon balls, or bullets, Satan has an arsenal of weapons at his disposal. After bombarding Job with loss of family, finances, status, and health, he continued the attack with intense pain, depression, and doubts about God’s goodness. Satan mistakenly thought God was protecting Job with a fence of prosperity but the man remained impervious to Satan’s arrows because he was wearing God’s spiritual armor.

Satan may have failed with Job but he was successful with others. Finding a chink of pride and self-reliance in David’s armor, Satan tempted him to take a census. Knowing that David’s Achilles’ heel was his eye for the ladies, Satan tempted him with the beautiful but married Bathsheba. Whether it was Judas’ lust for money or a Zealot’s disappointment in the Messiah’s role, Satan knew where his weakness lay and entered Judas through that missing piece of armor.

We all have a weak spot (or spots). After all, even Superman’s Achilles’ heel was kryptonite! For some of us, it is doubts about God’s goodness, pride, fear, unforgiveness, or a wandering eye. For others, it is love of money, a quick temper, a critical tongue, or chronic impatience. What is your Achilles’ heel? Be alert; Satan knows exactly what and where it is and will do his best to take you out of action with what he hopes to be a fatal shot.

Although God’s armor is tailor-made for us, it does us no good if we fail to put all of it on. Are you missing a piece of God’s armor?

He [the devil] will attack you sometimes by force and sometimes by fraud. By might or by sleight he will seek to overcome you, and no unarmed man can stand against him. Never go out without all your armor on, for you can never tell where you may meet the devil. He is not omnipresent, but nobody can tell where he is not, for he and his troops of devils appear to be found everywhere on this earth. [Charles Spurgeon]

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

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May 23, 2024

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OUR SWORD (Armor of God – 2)

But he [Jesus] answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”… Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” … Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” [Matthew 4:4,7,10 (ESV)]

God’s armor includes the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. No soldier, however, would go into battle without a weapon. While a soldier might go into battle without armor as did David when he met Goliath, he’d never go without a weapon. The young shepherd’s weapon was a handful of stones but the Christian’s weapon is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

The sword Paul describes wasn’t like the nearly six-foot heavy broad sword (rhomphaia) David used to decapitate Goliath or the sword of judgement of Revelation. The sword of the Spirit is a machaira, a small sword, knife, or dagger used in in hand-to-hand combat. While the Christian’s one offensive weapon is small, it is mighty because it can defeat Satan! When Jesus was in the wilderness, He used this powerful sword. The Lord answered each of Satan’s temptations with the words, “It is written…” He needed nothing more than the Word to send Satan packing.

Satan frequently uses his own machaira when tempting people—only his version of the Word is perverted. He’s more than willing to put his words in God’s mouth! When tempting Eve in the garden, the evil one emphasized God’s prohibition rather than His gifts when he asked if God really said she couldn’t eat any of the fruit in the garden. Although Eve corrected him that only one tree was prohibited, she was unsure of God’s words and added that it couldn’t even be touched! When Satan assured Eve that she wouldn’t die if she ate the fruit, the woman was bamboozled; not knowing and trusting God’s word is what brought death into the world!

Long before GPS and cell phones, toward the end of World War II, the allied forces conducted a military campaign to mop up the remaining Nazi resistance in Berlin. When a crucial mission was assigned to one unit, it was essential that each soldier memorize a detailed map of the enemy’s positions in the city. Because each soldier managed to commit the map to memory, the mission was a success. Several years later, the Army conducted an experiment to see if that original feat could be repeated. The participating soldiers were offered an extra week’s furlough as incentive if they could carry out a comparable mission without a glitch. Despite the promise of furlough, this second unit failed to match the success of the first. Could their failure have been because their lives never were in jeopardy? Perhaps one’s survival in battle serves as a greater motivation than a week’s vacation in peacetime.

While I’ve found this story in a variety of sources, I can’t verify its truth. Nevertheless, it makes a great sermon illustration and I found it in a commentary on Ephesians 6:17. As  Christians, we are engaged in spiritual warfare. Rather than holding a map of Berlin and Nazi strongholds in our memory, we need the Bible in our hearts. Paul warned us that Satan “disguises himself as an angel of light.” [2 Cor. 11:14] The only way to spot his falsehoods and perversion of the gospel is to know the truth! The sword of the Spirit—the word of God—is the only offensive weapon in our arsenal. The more we read it, the more we memorize it, and the more thoroughly we know and understand it, the better prepared we are to march into battle. We must study God’s Word as if our lives depended on it—because they do.

The Bible is an armory of heavenly weapons, a laboratory of infallible medicines, a mine of exhaustless wealth. It is a guidebook for every road, a chart for every sea, a medicine for every malady, and a balm for every wound. [Thomas Guthrie]

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. [Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)]

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May 20, 2024

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ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS (Armor of God -1)

Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. [Ephesians 6:11-12 (NLT)]

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before!
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; Forward into battle, see his banner go!
[Sabine Baring-Gould]

armor at Chillon - Lake GenevaAs a young child, I loved singing “Onward, Christian Soldiers” in Sunday school. My enthusiasm for the hymn waned as I grew older and learned about the evil and horrors of the Crusades and the World, Korean, and Vietnam wars. With its mention of war, soldiers, mighty armies, battles, and foes, the hymn seemed to glorify war. Even though the martial imagery comes from Biblical texts, the hymn’s combination of soldiers marching into battle and Jesus (the Prince of Peace) has caused controversy and some denominations have eliminated it from their hymnals.

Originally titled “Hymn for Procession with Cross and Banners,” Sabine Baring-Gould wrote the hymn’s text in 1864 for the celebration of Pentecost (Whitsunday) at his church. The children from his village were joining those from a neighboring one and the hymn was to be sung as they carried banners and crosses while processing to the next town. Baring-Gould set the hymn’s words to a less martial melody called St. Alban (an adaptation of the third movement of Haydn’s Symphony in D, No. 15) but, in 1871, Arthur Sullivan put the hymn’s words to a tune he composed. Calling it “St. Gertrude,” Sullivan’s is the melody we know and love. The son of a military bandmaster, the composer is more famous for his collaboration with W.S. Gilbert and operettas like H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado than the 56 hymns he composed. While the hymn’s martial meter is what made it popular as a processional, it also is what gives the song its militaristic overtones.

This hymn never was about political warfare, seizing land, bloodshed, or uniformed soldiers carrying weaponry into armed conflict. Nevertheless, it is about waging war—spiritual warfare against the powers of evil! Rather than flame-retardant and permethrin-infused clothing, the Apostle Paul tells us to wear the armor of God and, rather than an advanced-combat helmet with night-vision goggles, we are to don the helmet of salvation. Instead of tactical vest body armor, Christians wear the breastplate of righteousness and, instead of a tactical battle belt, we wear the belt of truth and personal integrity. Christ’s soldiers are to carry the shield of faith instead of a ballistic shield and to march in the gospel of peace rather than combat boots. We don’t do battle with grenades, rocket launchers, drones, or assault rifles; we rely on the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God! Paul continues with one last piece of equipment—prayer. The Christian’s version of a walkie-talkie radio, prayer keeps us in touch with Headquarters and our Commander in Chief! While the armor of God may not shield us from bullets, bombs, or shrapnel, it will protect us from our real enemy—Satan.

Let us never err by thinking the Christian life is a resort or playground—it is a training ground and battlefield. There are no spiritual pacifists or conscientious objectors in God’s kingdom and the children for whom this hymn was written were the newest recruits in His army. So, onward, Christian soldiers. Let us put on our armor and go forward into battle!

A Christian life is an unending engagement on the battlefield. [Watchman Nee]

Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. [Ephesians 6:13–18 (NLT)]

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May 16, 2024

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DENYING HIM (Part 2)

But Peter denied it again. A little later some of the other bystanders confronted Peter and said, “You must be one of them, because you are a Galilean.” Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know this man you’re talking about!” [Mark 14 (NLT)]

goatDescribed as a “preaching genius…like no other preacher you have ever heard,” the late Rev. Fred Craddock was well-known for including stories in his sermons. He told one that took place during the early 60s in a diner in the deep South. Although the white Craddock sat in a booth and was served with courtesy and consideration, he silently watched the diner’s manager treat a Black man at the counter with rudeness, disdain, and open contempt. Although offended by the man’s racist behavior, Craddock remained silent. It was when he walked out of the diner after finishing his meal that the preacher heard a rooster crow. A signal of his betrayal, the crowing told the preacher that, by ignoring one of the “least of these”, he’d ignored Jesus! His silence was as much a betrayal of the Lord as were Peter’s denials!

Of course, to understand the impact of Craddock’s story on him and those who heard him tell it, you must be familiar with the story of Peter and his denial of Jesus. After finishing what would be known as the “Last Supper,” Jesus and the disciples went out to the Mount of Olives. When Jesus predicted that all the disciples would desert Him that night, Peter and the others protested saying they’d never deny Him. Outraged at the thought of denying the Lord, Peter insisted, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” Jesus, however, told the overconfident disciple that he would, indeed, deny knowing the Lord three times before the rooster crowed. Within a few hours, the man who claimed a willingness to join Jesus in prison and death denied knowing Jesus three times before the rooster announced the break of day with his crow.

The stories of Peter and Fred Craddock remind us that our faith is more vulnerable than we think. While I’ve never heard an actual rooster crow after denying the Lord, like those men, I’ve denied Jesus every time I’ve ignored His face in the faces of God’s children. While we may not have denied knowing Jesus as did Peter, like Craddock, we’ve denied Him when, like the goats in Jesus’ parable, we fail to be His disciples. We deny following the Galilean whenever we fail to be the hands of Jesus and serve the needy, to be the voice of Jesus and speak for the disenfranchised, or be the feet of Jesus and walk the extra mile for our neighbor.

Although Scripture assures us of God’s provision, presence, and power, when push comes to shove, it’s hard to fully trust a God we don’t see and whose ways we can’t fully understand! That’s when Satan gets busy behind the scenes instilling doubt, cowardice, and shame into our hearts. Rather than trust God’s strength more than our own, we begin to fear failure, rejection, and involvement. Rather than hear His call and cede control to Him, we’re like the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan—we turn a blind eye to the suffering and a deaf ear to their cries!

We are fallen people living in a fallen world and, at times, we will fail to be the people Jesus calls us to be. We will fail to see Jesus in our midst and the cock will crow! Nevertheless, we must never allow those failures to defeat us. Peter—the one who lied three times with his blatant denial of Jesus—did not remain a prisoner to his fear or shame. He became the Apostle who boldly spoke of Jesus to the high council and, despite the threats, continued to speak of Christ until he, like his Lord, was crucified! Craddock didn’t let his failure stop him either. He told his story and others like it and, thirty years later, the man who remained silent when he should have spoken was named one of the twelve most influential preachers in America. Neither man was defined by his failures and neither are we. In nature, goats can never become sheep but, in God’s kingdom, by the power of the Holy Spirit, they can!

All men will be Peters in their bragging tongue, and most men will be Peters in their base denial; but few men will be Peters in their quick repentance. [Owen Feltham]

Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. [John 13:35 (NLT)]

And he will answer, “I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.” [Matthew 25:45 (NLT)]

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