May 8, 2011
Scripture:
Can we refer back to the Song of Solomon 1? We know that this book is a conversation between a bride and bridegroom: primarily it is a conversation between the Lord and His Jewish people, but we can also see it as a conversation between ourselves and the Lord.
Read v. 2: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” These are the words of one whose heart was captured; she wanted to be assured of His love. “for thy love is better than wine.” Wine is a symbol of that which brings joy to man; however, His love is better.
v. 3: “Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.” This is the name of Jesus, which we have been thinking of this morning. His name was hidden in the Old Testament. The Jews know there was a coming Messiah, but it was not until the New Testament that they learned that His name of Jesus. And He began to be poured forth. Remember that love isn’t knowledge, or a feeling: it is an action. He was doing His Father’s will. What an action that was! Those who look at the cross may just see a dreadful sight, but God sees the Lord doing His will, an action of love that sent up a sweet savour.
As we gather and sing His praises, we are showing our love, and a sweet savour is ascending, all because of Him. But love is personal: it is between two people. So, we should ask ourselves, what is the state of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ? What action is our love creating? It should be drawing us away from the world, so that we are saying, “let him kiss me.” May there be a sweet savour ascending from us to Him.
Hymn 282 - What a friend we have in Jesus
Prayer
Genesis 39: 1 - 6 & 17 - 23
Last time we looked at the trick that Joseph’s brothers played on their father. They made him believe that Joesph had been killed. Today we are going to look at two stories about Joseph. Let’s see if we can notice any similarities between the two.
Read Genesis 39:1 - 6. Joseph was brought down to Egypt and was sold as a slave to Potiphar, who was the captain of Pharaoh’s guards. I don’t think I would be very happy if I were in Joseph place, do you? However, Joseph didn’t get bogged down by what had happened to him. He continued to live for God. The Lord blessed all that he did and was with him.
Read Genesis 39:17 - 23. In the second story, Potiphar’s wife played a dirty trick. She told Potiphar that Joseph had done something that he had not. Potiphar believed his wife and threw Joseph into prison. Here again, the Lord was with Joseph and made all that he did to prosper.
In looking at these stories, the similarity that sticks out is that the Lord made all that Joseph did to prosper. What does it mean to prosper? To prosper means to succeed. Here, Joseph was a slave, and then a prisoner. And in both cases, he prospered and succeeded. However, we don’t think that you have to become a slave or a prisoner to be successful. Joseph didn’t pick those situations and you don’t have to be in those situation to be successful. The key was that the Lord was with him.
Joseph was sold into slavery and then he was put into prison unjustly. With the Lord Jesus, it was pretty much the same way: He was brought before Pilate and was sent to the cross to die when he had done nothing. As we go through our lives, things might happen to us that we think aren’t fair. Joseph was able to go through this type of thing because he had the Lord with him. He wasn’t angry and he wasn’t trying to get back.
Joseph had been wronged twice, but this didn’t keep him from being successful. We can learn from the way Joseph acted. We remember that Joseph is a type of Christ and when we act in this type of situation like Joseph did, we are acting as Christ would have. A person can prosper when they have the Lord with them.
Last time we saw how our Lord closed the book of Isaiah when He came to the part about judgement. Later in the gospels Jesus tells us that He is “the door”. Right now, the Door is open and the book is closed; but Revelation tells us that the day will come when the Door is closed and the book is opened. Judgement will then start.
In v22. the people wondered at the gracious words that came from our Lord’s mouth. The synagogue was a symbol, if you will, of the law. That’s where the people read the law and the commandments. Jesus, however, spoke words of grace. The crowd thought, “This is different”. They didn’t recognise Him, except for being a local. He grew up, probably, helping His dad as a carpenter and so it must have been hard for those people to see Him as the Messiah. They saw Him as Joseph’s son, but He wasn’t really. He was God’s Son, but they didn’t believe it when He told them. They were like the people at the cross who said, “If you be the Son of God, save yourself!”.
The two examples of grace that Jesus gave are interesting. They both tell of grace in the Old Testament. The first is of Elijah. He prayed that it wouldn’t rain, and during the drought God hid him by the brook Cherith. When the brook dried up, God sent him to the city of Sarepta. That was Gentile land, the land of the false god Baal and the land of Jezebel; but God’s purpose was for Elijah to help a widow. This widow had no resources. She was down to her last loaf. She was without strength. Then the prophet came, and the barrel of meal never gave out, and the cruse of oil never failed. Her people were never given any promises, but it seems as if God reached over the wall and showed this woman grace. Elijah didn’t know that he was doing this so that Jesus could use it as an example; but our Lord needed it, so God put it into the pages of history.
The next story is in v.27. Naaman was a leper. He had strength, because he was the captain of the Syrian army. As such, he was the enemy of Israel. In fact, his men had captured a Israelite maid who served Naaman’s wife. This maid was sure that the prophet Elisha could heal her master. Our chapter tells us that, “No lepers were cleansed but Naaman”, and yet that little maid knew that Naaman could be cleansed. Naaman went and, in spite of himself, got healed. None of the Israelites got healed, but he did.
A weak, destitute woman, and a strong enemy were shown grace. The people at the synagogue knew that Jesus’ words were gracious, and He told them, “God is gracious”.
What was the people’s reaction? They got angry, grabbed our Lord, and wanted to throw Him over a cliff; possibly because, in both stories, God had shown grace to Gentiles. We know that Jonah couldn’t stand God showing grace outside of Israel. Israel needed grace too, but they rejected it. Everybody in heaven will be there because of grace. Jesus’ time had not yet come, however, and He wasn’t going to die by falling over a cliff; so He made His escape. The people’s reaction to grace had made them mad enough to become murderers.
Jesus just passed right through the midst of them. We gather where He is in the midst. He passes through the midst of those that hate Him, and He gathers in the midst of those that love Him. He then went His way, not their way. He went the way that was determined of old. And He didn’t go hide, He just went on to the next town. We can’t be sure if our Lord made Himself invisible, or unrecognisable, or if He blinded the crowd’s eyes; but we know that He never did a purposeless miracle. He could have done any one of these things - could even have called twelve legions of angels - to help Him escape the cross, but instead He gave His life.
Hymn 326 - To Israel’s land, when Israel sinned
Prayer