July 4, 2010
Scripture:
Can we turn back to that passage in Proverbs 8. I’d just like to make a comment, it might be stating the obvious; but it’s worth highlighting. V31. Now we might say, “He was delighting in Adam, before he fell into sin”; but it’s not that. He was delighting in the sons of men, the descendants, those born in sin. How could He delight in those born in sin? He knew that He was preparing to come to Earth to die and pay the price for those sins, and that’s how He was able to delight in us.
Just a thought along those lines. Romans 8:29-31. In His foreknowledge, God knew that man would sin, and He prepared His Son to take their place. We, however, were also purposed for blessing, as the hymn tells us. Here’s the purpose: to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Acts 2:23-24. Here again we see God’s foreknowledge. Jesus’ coming had been determined long before, by the counsel and foreknowledge of God, because He wanted a Bride. He wanted to dwell among men. How precious to have Him before us this morning.
Hymn 10 -
Prayer
Last time, we met Jonathan as he smote the garrison of the Philistines. Today, we’ll start chapter 14.
Vv.1-2. We saw in the last chapter how Saul’s soldiers were deserting him. He has only six hundred men left, and he is sitting under a pomegranate tree. But Jonathan didn’t want to sit under a tree and do nothing. So he says to his armour bearer, “Let’s go over to the garrison of the Philistines.” The Philistines already had more soldiers than Israel. Usually the bigger army wins, and here Jonathan wants to go and fight with just two people! Without faith in God, this would have been ridiculous.
Vv.3-6. Going over to the Philistines wasn’t easy, there were big rocks that Jonathan and his armour bearer had to go over. Here we also read that Jonathan calls the Philistines “uncircumcised”. This is a word that can remind us of our flesh or our old nature. Jonathan was going in the Lord’s strength, but the Philistines were going in their own strength, or the strength of the flesh.
V.7. Was Jonathan’s armour bearer afraid? No, he went willingly with Jonathan.
V8. ‘Discover’ here means to show, or to make known.
Vv.9-10. Jonathan told his armour bearer, “If the Philistines say, ‘stand still’ then we’ll stand still. But if they say ‘come up’, then we’ll go up. This will be a sign from the Lord to us.”
Vv.11-12. The Philistines said, “Come up”, so Jonathan said, “The Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel.” He didn’t say, “The Lord has delivered into our hands.” He was there in the Lord’s strength, for Israel.
V.13-15. We don’t hear much about the battle, but the Philistines fell before Jonathan and his armour bearer. They killed about twenty people over a large area. The host of the Philistines started to tremble, and it seems as though God made a small earthquake to show His power as He fought for Israel. The Israelites got the victory, and the Philistines were defeated.
Jonathan is a good example for us; he had fatih. We can’t win the battles of daily life in our own strength. We need faith in the Lord’s strength, or we’ll be defeated by our enemy.
We’ll go on with this chapter next time, Lord willing.
Last week, we noticed how God responded to the Jews’ question: “Wherein hast thou loved us?” We saw how His answer came in Jacob and Esau. It’s hard for us to understand why He loved Jacob and hated Esau. Why did He choose Jacob? However, we can’t explain why He chose us? The Jews lost sight of the fact that God chose them; because of this, they became lukewarm. We mustn’t lose sight of what God has done for us, but go on in it. We need a passion for it; Edom had a passion in the wrong thing, but God judged them.
V. 6: We now move on to talk about honouring God; the Jews of Malachi’s time were not showing God the respect He is due. Imagine giving God a lame lamb or mouldy bread because you had no use for it; this showed their hearts. But these were the priests, the men who were supposed to stand between God and the people. They were priests by birth and by sanctification, but they still needed to be faithful to God. In this they failed. Today, all those who are saved are God’s priests. Read I Peter 2: 5 & 9. We need to be functional priests and give the Lord His rightful place. Does He have that honour and reverence from us? In Malachi’s time, they despised the name of the Lord. That is the name we gather to when we come together as we did this morning (Matthew 18:20). What is this name? In Malachi, we find it is “Lord,” or “Jehovah.” It is that name that brings us together; we should desire to be faithful and honour that name above everything.
Hymn 354 - Jesus loves the little children
Prayer