October 18, 2015
Scripture:
Let’s turn to a passage that we know well in Song of Solomon. I was thinking of the words in the first hymn, “Love bound thee to the altar.” The Lord was the only perfect sacrifice that could settle the question of sin. Read Song of Solomon 1:2b & 4. Wine speaks of earthly joy and of anything the world can offer; nothing can mean more than the Lord’s love and what it has done for us. Read ch. 2:3b. We have the privilege to meet and remember the Lord and His death and love. May we find joy and express great delight in being in His presence! This is only possible because He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter. Read vv.4 & 6. His left hand was nailed to the cross, as was His right hand. That right hand of power is holding us, embracing us. His left hand (nearest His heart) is drawing us to Him. He seeks our love. David wrote, “I love the Lord because…” and then lists the reasons to love the Lord. In chapter 5 we get such a list by the bride about the groom. Do we have a list of things we find precious to us about Him? Read ch. 5:9-14. She lists the things that she finds precious in Her beloved. His head was crowned with thorns. His eyes were blindfolded while He was smitten; they had that look of love from the cross when He said, “Father, forgive them.” They plucked the hair from his cheeks. Those were the hands that were nailed to the cross, even though it was love that held Him there, His love for us. She goes on with her list, but it is as though she runs out of time. Read v. 16. So He is “Altogether lovely.” May we say that He is “altogether lovely.”
Hymn 215 - Happy, they who trust in Jesus
Prayer
So, we are still in the book of Esther. Last time we finished the forth chapter. Haman, the King’s top man, was invited to a banquet with King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther. He was very proud about this, but still very upset about Mordecai. So, according to the advice of his wife and friends, he built a gallows, fifty cubits high. He was going to go to the king to ask for permission to hang Mordecai.
We have talked about the fact that the name of God or prayer is not mentioned at all in Esther. But we mentioned how we can see how God is in control of all that is happening. He allows or brings to pass His plan.
Haman was all prepared to go and ask King Ahasuerus to hang Mordecai.
Esther 6
The King couldn’t sleep this particular night. He was in control of a large kingdom, but he could not control his own sleep. He could have done anything to help him sleep. He could have had someone play an instrument, for example. But he asked for the chronicles to be read to him. The chronicles were a record of things that had happened in the kingdom. The story that was read to him was about how Mordecai had overheard two of the chamberlains plotting to kill the king. He had saved the king’s life by telling him about it. The two men had been hung for wanting to lay hands on the king. When the king was reminded of how Mordecai saved his life, he asked if anything had been done to honour Mordecai. Nothing had been done.
At this time, Haman had come to the court to talk to the king. The king called him in and asked him, what he should do for the man he delights to honour?
God has allowed this all to come together. There is no such thing as luck. It is God who is in control and brings things to happen at the right time.
Well, Haman was a very proud man, and he thought that the king wanted to honour him. Who else? So he told King Ahasuerus that he should dress the man in royal apparel, let him ride on the king’s own horse, have the royal crown set on his head, and have a noble prince lead him through the streets crying, “Thus shall it be done to the man the King delights to honour.” He did not realize that all he was saying was for Mordecai.
Our lives are in God’s control. He will bring things that work out for good. Sometimes that is through trials. In Psalms, we read “My times are in thy hand.” We can see how He worked out every detail in this story. The king not sleeping, the story read to him, Haman’s hate for Mordecai, and him coming for permission to hang him: all of this happened at the right time.
King Ahasuerus told him to perform all that he had said for Mordecai. Haman had come to ask one thing, but now he has been asked to perform the opposite.
We can see a picture in Mordecai. Mordecai was King Ahasuerus’s saviour. He only sat at the king’s gate and was now being paraded through the streets of the kingdom. Our Lord was made a little lower than angels, but now is exalted to glory and honour.
You can imagine how Haman is feeling now. He was saying that the king delighted to honour the very man he wanted to hang.
Haman was upset when he went home. Everything he had done was the cause of his fall. He had tried to kill the Jews, and now everything was against him. While he was complaining to his wife and friends, the chamberlains came to take him to the next banquet. He was proud before, but now he can see that his plans are all falling around him.
We can know God as our Father. He is over everything. We can turn to Him and ask for His care and keeping. He is always watching over us. He orders every detail of our lives.
Ephesians 4:17-32
We gets lots of practical instruction in this last half of chapter 4. Verse 17 gives us a “therefore”: Paul has given us these examples so we will no longer walk in our flesh, like Gentiles. With our new heavenly position, we should be concerned about our behaviour.
Paul gives a list in verses 17-19, telling what other Gentiles are like. They walk in the vanity of their minds, their hearts are blinded, and their understanding is darkened. It’s like they have a veil over their minds, and the light of the gospel can’t penetrate it. We are blessed to walk in the light. We expect people to understand about God, the truth, etc; but some of them are completely blindfolded. They are still aliens to God, while we have been reconciled to Him through salvation. He loved us, but we ran from Him before we were saved. The unconverted still run, thinking of God as an enemy who denies them the things they want. No! God is for us; who can be against us?
These Gentiles have, “given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (v.19). And nowadays they don’t try to hide it! The Devil just uses and expands the old nature to drive these people away from God. That’s a contrast to us, who are supposed to be fitly joined together. We have been brought into a oneness and truth that ushers us into God’s way of thinking and behaving. We are still Gentiles, but are no longer in the Gentile lifestyle. We are children of God, and need to live accordingly.
Paul brings out what we have put behind us and what we have embraced in other letters, too. He does it 2 Corinthians 4:1-7a, and also shows how the god of this world blinds people to the truth. However, our God causes the light to shine out of darkness into our hearts, and gives us a treasure. It’s such a blessed truth, given to us read and re-read. May we not shun it.
Light makes a difference. The story is told of a unruly sailer that was sent to the ship’s hold as discipline. He was fine and remained defiant until he was given a light. When he saw the rats and other vermin that were down there, he quickly repented! Another story tells of a man in India who, while out walking one night, and was approached by a panhandler. He wanted nothing to do with the man until they came into the beam of a streetlight and he saw the panhandler was threatening him with his pet snake! He quickly gave him some money.
Light makes a difference! The Bible is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, and Jesus is the light of the world. There is nothing that taints this light; it is pure. We are very blessed to have been exposed to it; and now it’s our responsibility to share it with others.
Paul proceeds to give us things that we have to put off and on. Unfortunately, all our behaviour and thinking doesn’t switch when we get saved; however nice that would be. We get a new nature, though, when we get saved and we are responsible to walk in it. We don’t trade or exchange our old nature; we still have it and have to fight to put it off. The more we feed the one, the more we starve the other. Let’s mortify our old nature. It won’t be gone until we leave our bodies, but we need to hold it as dead until then.
We need to read, feed on, and ponder the portions that God has for us. That’s how we renew our minds. Just like you need to plug your phone in to renew its battery, so we need to be plugged into the Lord to be renewed. Read Colossians 3:10. There are behaviours that we have to put on and actions that we have to put off, but we can get so occupied with doing rightful daily things that we forget to plug ourselves into the Lord. May He help us!
One way to think of the difference between the Old and New natures is, the old nature is self-centred, while the new nature is Christ centred. Which will rule us?
Hymn 201 — When we walk with the Lord
Prayer