October 22, 2017
Read Psalm 21: 1, 3, & 6. We have had crowns before us this morning: the crown of thorns and the crown of glory. The crown of thorns represents the curse that He took for us. The crown of glory represents His divine righteous. This crown of pure gold represents His holiness, purity, and piety. Think of everthing put on His head and everthing He did for us. Oh, how the glory shines forth!
Hymn 332 – Christ the Saviour of sinners came Prayer
Proverbs 25:21-22. This passage is similar to one on revenge that we looked at a while ago. There we found that we were not to get back at people for bad things they do to us. Here, Proverbs talks about enemies. An enemy is someone who is against you; someone who hates you and you maybe hate them. We are told here that if these enemies of ours have a need, that we should show them love and provide that need. If they’re hungry, feed them. If they’re thirsty, give them a drink. Most of the time this won’t be easy, but we need to give them grace and compassion, even if they don’t show love to us.
The Bible teaches this in a lot of places. Even as far back as Exodus 23:4-5 we are told to help our enemies; even if we don’t feel like it. Jesus Himself taught that we should do good to those who are mean to us. If we see these people in need, we should help them, even though they treat us unkindly.
There’s a story that illustrates this. II Kings 6:8-20. Syria was Israel’s enemy. God told the prophet Elisha the King of Syria’s war plans, and Elisha warned the King of Israel. This protected the king several times. The King of Syria began to think that he had a spy working for him; but his servants explained that it was Elisha who was causing the trouble. He could tell the King of Israel what the King of Syria said in his bedroom! So, the King of Syria decided to capture Elisha. He surrounded Elisha’s city with horses and chariots. Elisha’s servant got scared, but Elisha prayed, and the Lord opened the servant’s eyes to see the heavenly army that was on their side.
Elisha prayed again, and the Lord struck the whole Syrian army with blindness. They couldn’t see to catch Elisha, and so Elisha led them right into the middle of Israel’s capitol city: Samaria. He prayed yet again, and the Lord opened the soldiers eyes.
Vv.21-23. The King of Israel wanted to kill the Syrian soldiers, which is sometimes a natural response to your enemies. However, Elisha showed them grace and told the king to give them bread and water. He had an opportunity to hurt his enemies, but instead he fed them and sent them home. And they never came back again!
Proverbs said that being nice to your enemy is like heaping coals of fire on their head. It should change the attitude of their heart toward you. We are to heap love upon them, just as God has heaped love upon us. Colossians 1:21. He has provided for our needs. He used Elisha to show grace and love to those soldiers, and it turned their hearts. Joseph did the same thing with his brothers: he helped them when they came into Egypt looking for food, even though they had sold him into slavery.
There is a story told from back in the days of the slave trade. There was a master who had a head slave that he would take to the auctions and help him decide what new slaves to buy. One day, they were at the auction, and this head slave asked the master to buy an old, bent-over slave.
“Why?” asked the master, “He’ll be cheap, but it doesn’t look like he’ll do much work.”
“I’ll make sure that the work gets done like usual,” said the head slave, “But please buy him.”
The master agreed, but this made him curious. Some time later he asked his head slave, “Who is this man? Is he your father?”
“No,” said the slave.
Later the master asked, “Who is that man? Is he some relative of yours?” “No,” again replied the head slave.
But the master still was curious. A while later, he asked again, “Who is he? He doesn’t seem to do much work.” The slave replied, “Many years ago this man killed my father and sold the rest of my family into slavery. I have become a Christian since then, and wanted you to buy him so that I could show him love and forgiveness.”
We’ll probably never be in a situation like this; but may we take the opportunities we do have to show others the love that the Lord has shown us, and thus be a light for Him.
James 1
Here we are introduced to James as a servant of God. We know of more than one James in the Bible. We also know that Herod killed the James who was John’s brother.
The epistle of James tends to be practical. It is generally written; it isn’t written to someone in specific. He’s writing to the twelve tribes. We don’t know where the other ten are. Anna in the beginning of the gospels was from the tribe of Asher. It might just be James’ way of saying, “To all the Jew”. It sounds as if the Jews had been distributed through out all the nations.
Peter also wrote to the Jewish people; those who were elect or saved. Both James and Peter mention that the Jews are scattered, but James calls them brethren. His topics, though, would lead one to believe he was writing to those who were saved.
When Paul opens an epistle he tells his readers he was a chosen apostle. James just states, “I’m a servant of God”. We’ve been mostly reading epistles directed to Gentiles. The books of Peter and Hebrews are written more specifically to Jews, and we find it’s that way with the book of James as well. So, there will be a different slant on things.
Darby puts verse two as, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations,“. It is something to try your faith. Both Peter and James start their epistles on this subject. We could beginning to see more trials. When Christians make a conscious stand against something against scripture they’re getting in trouble with the law. I’m wondering if there will be a day when it will be illegal for us to meet like this.
Our normal reaction to a trial isn’t, “Ah, wonderful. Another chance for God to work”. But it’s to help the spiritual development in a Christian. If we need patience that means we need trials. You can take a trial three ways; despairingly, you could faint under it, or trust the Lord with it. We aren’t very perfect.
Hymn 366 - We are little children, very young indeed
Prayer