The Vision (7.31.20): The Fading Away of the Rich Man

Image: Blueberries with morning dew, North Garden Virginia, July 2020

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on James 1:9-11.

For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways (James 1:11).

James works upon the consciences of the rich by reminding all men of the brevity of this life. See v. 10b: “because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away” (cf. Isaiah 40:80).

He continues in v. 11 to describe how the rising sun with its burning heat soon withers the grass and its flower fades “and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth.” Go to any nursing home, yeah, to any cemetery, and you see the condition of the youth of yesterday. All the beauty queens, all the athletes, all the intellectuals, all the successful businessmen, statemen, and captains of industry have gone the way of all flesh. James speaks directly to the rich: “so shall the rich man fade away in his ways.”

Those words remind me of General MacArthur’s famous speech in which he said, Old soldiers never die. They just fade away.” But MacArthur was wrong. They do die, and then they fade away from memory. And what is more, even their death is not the end. As Paul said in Hebrews 9:27: “and it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.”

All the richest men of past generations have already discovered this, whether Nelson Rockefeller, Howard Hughes, or Steve Jobs. And all the wealthy of the present generation, whether Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos, will find it out soon enough.

Christ ended his parable of the barn builder in Luke 12:20 with the rich man hearing the Lord say to him, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”

The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:7: “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”

The truth also is that you do not need to be a fabulously wealthy to be the rich man who is addressed here. You simply have to be a man who rests in himself and his own ability and who falsely thinks that everything is going to keep going just as it is now forever and ever. It will not.

James challenges us to ask ourselves: Where do I find my greatest contentment and consolation in life? In Christ or in the things of this world?

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (7.17.20): James's "Golden Chain" of Perseverance

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on James 1:1-4.

James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations; 3 knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Last Lord’s Day we began our pilgrimage of exposition through the epistle of James by considering James 1:1-4.

These opening verses introduce one of the key themes of James: the necessity of perseverance in the faith.

James 1:2-4 reminded me of Paul’s teaching in Romans 8:29-30, which we sometimes refer to as the “golden chain of redemption.” In Romans 8:29-30 Paul describes a “chain” of events related to salvation: Those whom God foreknew, he predestinated; those whom he predestinated, he called; those whom he called, he justified; and those whom he justified, he glorified.

We might call the teaching James provides in James 1:2-4 the “golden chain of perseverance.”

The first “link” in the chain: James says that believers will face “diverse temptations” that result in the “trying” or testing of our faith (vv. 2-3a).

Notice that the temptations are diverse. It is not one thing or necessarily the same thing over and over, but temptation is multi-faceted, creative, and diverse. When Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, he made three different attempts to deceive him, not just one (cf. Matt 4:1-11).

The second “link” is patience (longsuffering). James says that this “worketh” or results from the endurance of these diverse temptations (v. 3b).

The third “link” is the attainment of the state of being “perfect and entire” (v. 4). This is parallel to the final state of glorification in Romans 8:30.

This is why the believer meets all these diverse temptations with joy. He knows that the Lord permits these for his own good end and purpose in our lives.

Every athlete knows that when the coach makes you run wind-sprints till you can barely breathe or lift weights till your arms and legs feel like spaghetti, he is not doing this because he is a sadist. He is training you, strengthening you, preparing you, so that you can be more than you ever imagined.

If that is what a coach is doing, think of what the Lord is doing right now in and through you!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (5.29.20): Look at Manasseh, and then look to Christ

Image: CRBC Meeting House, Louisa, Virginia, May 2020.

Note: Devotional is taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 21:

But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel (2 Kings 21:9).

2 Kings 21 is a sad and discouraging chapter. So much potential, so much spiritual promise seems wasted by Manasseh. All the great gains of godly king Hezekiah were rolled back and thrown aside. The result for Judah was national disaster, defeat, and exile.

So, this account is placed before us a warning. We are not to be like Manasseh.

We are not to reverse all the reforms won by our spiritual fathers.

We are not to raise up high places and idols.

We are not to import into the worship of God pagan and foreign practices.

We are not to pass our sons through the fire.

We are not to traffic in the occult or try to turn the faith into some manipulative and pragmatic scheme to get what we want in this life.

May it not be said of us, as it was of Judah when they ignored God’s Word in favor of the folly of Manasseh: “But they hearkened not” (v. 9).

Let us not use our influence upon other to seduce them to do that which is evil, as Christ taught in Matthew 18:6: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

There is one final thing to be said about Manasseh that is not recorded in 2 Kings 21. It is found in 2 Chronicles 33 (see especially vv. 11-17). It describes how at one point during his rule, Manasseh was taken captive by the Assyrians, and in his “affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers” (v. 12). It relays that he prayed to God and intreated him, so that the LORD heard Manasseh and allowed him to be brought back to Jerusalem (v. 13). It adds: “Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was his God” (v. 13). It even says that Manasseh tried in his last days to take away the pagan practices, but the people continued to sacrifice in the high places (v. 17).

The Chronicler seems to take this as a genuine conversion.

The historian of 2 Kings, however, wanted to make sure we heard the warning. There were things that Manasseh could not undo once they had been done. He and the nation deserved judgment that would make the ear tingle (v. 12). He had been measured and found crooked (v. 13a). He was like a dish wiped and set aside (v. 13b).

In the portrait of Manasseh’s sin, we are reminded that this is what we are like apart from Christ. The rap sheet has been dropped to the floor, and it is filled with our misdeeds. But there is one who is a friend of sinners. There is one who was commended toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, he died for us (Rom 5:8). It is Christ, the righteous plumb line, who knew no sin, who laid down his life a ransom for many, who was buried, who was raised again the third day, who appeared for 40 days to his disciples, and who ascended to be seated at the right hand of the Father in glory. The one of whom Paul wrote in Hebrews 10:37: “For yet a little while, and he will come and will not tarry.”

Let us look at Manasseh, and then look to Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (5.22.20): Set thine house in order

Image: Rhododendron, North Garden, Virginia, May 2020

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 20.

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live (2 Kings 20:1).

Notice the ominous beginning: “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death” (v. 1a). We are told later that he had a boil (v. 7). An abscess or infection could, no doubt, be lethal in those days.

There is a sense, however, in which all of us have a sickness unto death. The old saying is that there are only two things certain in life, death and taxes. The mortality rate for healing evangelists is 100%. The great faith healer Oral Roberts, the “godfather of the charismatic movement” died on December 15, 2009. The apostle Paul said, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27).

The Lord’s minister, the prophet Isaiah, came to the king and said to him, “Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die and not live” (v. 1b). This was God’s word, and it is always fulfilled. Many have their lives taken swiftly from them. They leave the house one day and never return. There is an accident or the heart fails and their deaths come unexpectedly. I remember years ago a minister acquaintance then the “ancient” age, from my 30 something perspective, of 52 years of age, thin as a rail and seemingly healthy as a horse, went out for a run on Sunday morning before church and died of a massive heart attack. Others have time to anticipate that which is to come. I remember my father being told by the cancer doctor he had four months to live and, sure enough, nearly four months to the day he passed from this life to the next. It is interesting to ponder which way we’d prefer, but we have no say in the matter. Isaiah’s word came not from doctors, who are not always right (as they had happened to be in the case of my father), but from the LORD.

Whatever prospects we face in life and the circumstances, God’s word to Hezekiah could well be his word to us: “Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” This is what God is saying through his word today to each one of us today.

What is out of order? What needs to be corrected? What needs to be removed? What needs to be added? What must happen for you to set your house in order?

Then, having set our house in order, let us live, without worry of death, for Christ, the one who had a truly “perfect heart” (cf. 2 Kings 20:3), who lived a sinless life for us, who died on the cross for sinners, and who was raised for our justification.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (5.15.20): Hezekiah's Model Prayer

 Image: Leatherleaf  Mahonia, Albemarle County, Virginia, May 2020.

Note: This devotion is taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 19.

And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth (2 Kings 19:15).

2 Kings 19 describes a great season of distress in Judah, as they were surrounded by the Assyrians. Godly king Hezekiah declared, “This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy” (v. 3).

Having received a threatening letter from the Assyrians, Hezekiah went into the temple and “spread it before the LORD” (v. 14). He then offered a prayer (vv. 15-19), which we might well call Hezekiah’s model prayer. It was composed of three parts:

First, he acknowledged and praised God for who he is (v. 15).

The point: Authentic prayer begins with worship.

Some of you know the acronym for prayer ACTS (Adoration*Confession*Thanksgiving*Supplication), where the A stands for adoration. Hezekiah’s prayer does not precisely follow that acronym (prayer does not need to follow a cookie cutter form), but it does begin with A, adoration.

Think of when Christ taught his disciples to pray, and he told them to begin, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name” Matt 6:9). His model prayer also began with adoration.

Hezekiah praised God as being the covenant God of Israel: “O LORD God of Israel.”

He praised the exaltedness of God and the sovereignty of God: “which dwellest between the cherubims.”

He acknowledged the reality of the one true God: “thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth.”

He praised God as the Creator: “thou hast made heaven and earth.”

Second, he called upon the Lord to hear his prayer and to consider his situation (vv. 16-18):

Notice that Hezekiah called upon the Lord to bow down his ear and open his eyes (v. 16). Two things here need to be remembered:

First: The language is anthropomorphic. God does not have ears or eyes. “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24). This is language of accommodation to our needs.

Second: God is omniscient. He knows these things. But God is also pleased to have his children cry out to him, and to rehearse these things to him.

Third, he offered his supplication (request) (v. 19):

His request is a striking, straightforward plea for temporal salvation: “save thou us out of his hand.” And notice the reason is not to preserve Judah or Hezekiah, but to preserve the Lord’s own honor among the kingdoms of the earth: “that all the kingdoms of the earth many know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only” (v. 19b). The best reason for the Lord to hear and answer our prayers is not rooted in our merit but in God’s own glory.

Let us read and consider Hezekiah’s model prayer, as we also continue to learn how to pray.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (4.24.20): And Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 16.

And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead (2 Kings 16:20).

2 Kings 16 describes the reign of wicked king Ahaz in Judah, who “walked in the ways of the kings of Israel” and even “made his son pass through the fire” (v. 3). Ahaz was a descendent of David and Solomon. He had been given great spiritual benefits and blessings, but he threw it all away.

What are the wages of sin (Rom 6:23)? Death. In the end, he went the way of all flesh and slept with his fathers (v. 20a).

What a depressing chapter! There does not seem to be one redeeming feature in this entire passage.

I want to suggest to you, however, there is one tiny sliver of hope in the very last line of this chapter. It is as though we were lost in a dark cave and saw a little pin prick of light ahead in the distance.

The chapter ends in v. 20b: “and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.” Just as sometimes wicked men come from godly parents, sometimes godly men come from wicked parents.

Hezekiah would be a godly king. Look ahead to 18:3 where it says Hezekiah “did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David did.” Hezekiah would not be perfectly righteous, but he would be better than Ahaz. Dale Ralph Davis observed: “How merciful that [the LORD] usually does not give us Ahaz-upon-Ahaz” (2 Kings, 240). God was not through with the people of God. Wicked king Ahaz was not going to snuff out the lamp that God had given to David. Hezekiah was coming!

There is no evidence of any hope for Ahaz, but there was for Israel. Hezekiah was coming. But, in the end, Hezekiah was not the real hope. The real hope, the real sliver of light was the Messiah who would come from the line of David. It is going to get even worse for Judah in days to come, but the light is still going to come.

Isaiah will prophesy of Christ: “The people that have walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:2). And Christ, when he came, declared: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

It was dark in Ahaz’s day, but Christ was coming. It is sometimes dark in our days, but Christ has come. He is present with us now by the Spirit. And he will one day come again. That is our hope.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (4.10.20): Living in Unsettled Times

Image: Empty hand soap shelves at Kroger, Barracks Rd. Shopping Center, Charlottesville, Virginia, April 2020

Note: Devotion take from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 15.

2 Kings 15 describes the unsettled times that fell upon Israel during its last days as a nation (see vv. 8-31). In the course of but a few decades, no less than six kings sat on the throne of Israel. One (Zachariah) reigned but six months (2 Kings 15:8) and another (Shallum) but a month (v. 13). Four of the six kings of this time were conspired against and assassinated.

These unsettled times did not fall upon Israel for no reason whatsoever. They came about because of Israel’s sin and because of the just wrath of God. He brought temporal pain for their spiritual gain. Psalm 11:3 says, “If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?” No doubt, many of the godly were dismayed.

There is, however, an unstated but controlling thought that underlies the whole of this chapter. Though the times are unsettled, God’s Word is settled, God’s character is settled, God’s plans and his purposes are settled, and, indeed, God himself is settled. All the turmoil in the world does not change for one second that God is.

James 1:17 says that with the Lord there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”

Even in all this confusion and despair God’s plan was being worked out. As I read the history of these kings, I could not help but think of Christ, the King of kings, betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, abandoned by everyone, crucified among thieves, coming to his own but his own receiving him not (John 1:11).

Nevertheless, God’s perfect plan was being worked out. In Luke 24, the beloved physician tells us that some of Christ’s disciples fled Jerusalem for Emmaus after his death. They thought the unsettling crucifixion was the end of the road for their hopes for Jesus. When the risen Jesus met them on the road, they did not recognize him, complaining, “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel” (v. 21).

Christ then said to them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (v. 25). He then “expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (v. 27).

The point we can take from both 2 Kings 15 and Luke 24: In the midst of all the unsettled times, God was working out his purposes and revealing the glory of his Son.

Is he not still doing that even today?

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Image: Azalea bush, North Garden, Virginia, April 2020

The Vision (2.21.20): Yet the LORD would not destroy

Image: Winter sunset, February 2020, North Garden, Virginia

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 8.

Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give him always a light, and to his children (2 Kings 8:19).

2 Kings 8 is not an easy chapter to preach. As far as dynamic, easy to perceive spiritual truths, this chapter offers slim pickings. I am very doubtful that many Christians would list 2 Kings 8 as their favorite chapter in the Bible or claim that any verse within it is their favorite verse, or their “life verse.”

It is an overall depressing and discouraging chapter, because it describes the degeneracy, the depravity, and the wickedness of the circumstances into which both Israel and Judah fell during the time of the kings.

The thesis statement might well be found in v. 1: “for the LORD hath called for a famine.” 2 Kings 8 describes the spiritual wasteland that results when men walk away from the Lord and his ways.

The brightest point of light comes in v. 19, which begins, “Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant’s sake….”

The remainder of the verse makes clear the reason for this mercy. It was because of the covenant promise that the LORD had made to David: “as he promised him to give him always a light, and to his children” (v. 19b).

The Lord had promised, through Nathan the prophet, “But my mercy shall not depart away from him” and that David’s house and his kingdom would be established forever (2 Sam 7:15-16). David became known as the “light of Israel” (see 2 Sam 21:17).

Despite Judah’s faithlessness, the point is that God remained faithful. The promise that was made to David would not be broken. But how was that promise ultimately fulfilled? Not in national Israel, but in spiritual Israel. Not in the kings of Judah, which would fall, but in a descendant of David, from the tribe of Judah, who would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David.

The apostle Paul in Galatians 6:16 would write to the churches of Galatia, “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” The promise would be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ to the new “Israel of God.”

2 Kings 8:19 points then toward the mercy of God given to sinners for the sake of Christ. In 2 Timothy 2:13, Paul wrote: “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” NKJV: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”

This is God’s Word to his people today. We do not have faith in our faith. We have faith in a God who will not destroy us when we are faithless, for the sake of his faithful Son. Thanks be to him.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (2.14.20): Windows in Heaven

Image: Winter sunset, February 2020, North Garden, Virginia

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 7.

Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, Behold, if the LORD make windows in heaven might this thing be? (2 Kings 7:2a).

Israel was besieged and starving. What meager food remained was astronomical in price. A donkey’s head sold for 80 pieces of silver and a handful of dove dung for five pieces of silver (2 Kings 6:25).

Elisha, however, prophesied that by the next day, fine flour and barley would sell for a mere shekel in the gates of Samaria (2 Kings 7:1).

The king’s counselor was incredulous. How could this be, even if the Lord opened “windows in heaven” (v. 2a)?

Think about this reference to windows in heaven. What does it mean? Clearly it is figurative language. It is a way of expressing the providential blessings of God, that which falls from above. In Malachi 3:10 the Lord challenges Israel to bring the whole tithe into storehouse to see if he would not open “the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

This counselor’s protest was not only a challenge to Elisha as God’s prophet, but also to the character and goodness of God, as well as the sovereignty of God. He’s not good enough to want to do this. He’s not powerful enough to do it.

We might consider our own state at times to be like that of Samaria in those days. Perhaps we feel we are beset, besieged, beleaguered. And God’s Word promises a tomorrow that seems out of reach.

He promises that he will supply all our needs. “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

He promises to satisfy our deepest longings. “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

He promises to work all things for your good (Rom 8:28).

He promises that present distresses are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us (Rom 8:18).

He promises that those who trust in him will one day experience the resurrection to life (1 Cor 15:51-53) and that there is land fairer than day where there will be no more tears (Rev 21:4).

The challenge: Will we believe the promises of God? Will we believe that he is all-good and all-powerful, and he can open the windows in heaven to pour out such blessings on us that there is not room enough to receive it?

Elisha’s word was fulfilled, and the unbelieving counselor was trampled in the gate and died (2 Kings 7:20). Let us be warned, fear, and believe.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (1.31.20): Be like Spurgeon, not Gehazi

Image: Elisha punishes Gehazi with Naaman's leprosy, by Augustin Hirschvogel (1503-1553)

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 5:20-6:7.

“But he went in, and stood before his master” (2 Kings 6:25).

Gehazi is an intriguing character in the Biblical narrative. He was a man given incredible privileges and advantages. He was the servant of the prophet Elisha. But sin crouched at the door, and Gehazi squandered all the advantage he had been given.

His demon, as it were, was lust for material gain. He lied to Naaman in order to get silver and raiment for himself.

The apostle Paul warned Timothy that “the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through many sorrows” (1 Tim 6:10).

There are modern day Gehazis in the church. For every Gehazi, however, there is a day of reckoning.

Gehazi perhaps thought no one knew what had happened. He got away with it. But we all know that you cannot fool God. Numbers 32:23 says, “And be sure, your sin will find you out.”

Adam found this out in the garden when the LORD asked, “Where art thou?” (Gen 3:9).

Cain found this out when he struck down his brother, and the Lord asked, “What hast thou done?” (Gen 4:9).

Saul found this out when he kept back the best of the flocks and the spoils of the Amalekites, until the prophet Samuel confronted him, saying, “What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” (1 Sam 15:14).

David found this out when Nathan said to him, “Thou art the man” (2 Sam 12:7).

Ahab found this out when he took the life and vineyard of righteous Naboth, and Elijah confronted him, saying, “I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD” (1 Kings 21:20).

And Gehazi had his moment of reckoning too.

It begins in v. 25a: “But he went in and stood before his master.” Elisha asked him, “Whence comest thou, Gehazi?” (v. 25). And when Gehazi lied, Elisha said, “Went not mine heart with thee…” (v. 26). In the end, there was also for Gehazi a just temporal punishment, as the leprosy of Naaman clung to him (v. 27).

Contrast Gehazi with Charles Spurgeon, one of the most popular and prolific preachers and writers of the Victorian era, whose printed sermons and books sold millions, which would have made him a millionaire. It is said, however, that when he died, he left behind only a small sum. Why? Because he had given almost everything he had made to Christian causes, to his church, to a college for training pastors, to an orphanage, to an almshouse, to a book ministry, and others.

We should be like Spurgeon, not Gehazi.

Know that God is omniscient (all-knowing). Know too that he is a God of justice. Fear him. Let us learn from this inspired narrative, and let us also remember that there are worse punishments than merely temporal ones.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (1.24.20): Wash, and be clean

Image: Contemporary view of the Jordan River

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 5.

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable… but he was a leper (2 Kings 5:1).

And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth and went away… ( 5:10-11a).

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? (5:13).

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God…and he was clean (5:14).

Naaman was an honorable man, “but he was a leper.” His humility and his obedience were tested by Elisha’s command to wash seven time in the Jordan. This is usually true when we are asked to do something we do not want to do. It is easy to be obedient when we are simply doing or not doing whatever we want.

Naaman was “wroth”, angry, and went away. He explains that Elisha’s command did not fit his expectation. It is said that most of us have in our minds a mental script, and we expect our lives to go according to this script, the way we want It to go. But when it does not turn out the way we want, and we are asked or forced by circumstances to face a different reality, we become “wroth.”

Naaman’s servants intervene and speak wisdom to him. They challenge him by asking him to consider how he would have responded if the prophet had asked him to do something he considered to be great or noble. Would he not have done it?

If he had been willing to do some great thing, should he not be willing to do some lowly thing. To wash and be clean?

Think of the script again. Most of us envision great things for ourselves. Making big decisions, leading great movements, tacking great problems, achieving great outcomes and receiving great acclaim.

But what if we are asked only to do lowly things? Simple things? Self-forgetting things?

May we learn obedience to Christ in all things, great or small. Let us wash and be clean.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (1.17.20): Reflections on Government (Elder Jeff Clark)

Image: Capitol Building, Richmond, Virginia

The Christian worldview holds that government is a necessary “evil” because all men are sinners (cf. Romans 13:1-5).

The Challenge of Government

There must also be control of the sinners that govern, as they attempt to govern other sinners.  The powers of the state will necessarily enlarge or shrink in proportion to the degree that the governed are self-controlled. Or, we can say that the less self-control the individual has, the more external control will be required. 

 

Therefore, those who have the responsibility to govern others ought to be among those who exemplify self-control, informed by the basic reality, namely, that God rules and overrules the affairs of men. 

Here is a foundational principle: Human rights come from God, their Creator.  The purpose of government is to protect the rights of the citizens who are governed by it.

In (2 Kings 11:17) we see that human governments are properly instituted as a covenant between God and the rulers; God and the people; and the people and the rulers:

And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD'S people; between the king also and the people. (2 Kings 11:17)

The Consequences of Ignoring Reality

The goal of godless governments is to make government “god” and, thereby, the arbiter of all aspects of human life and death. If government is the dispenser of “rights”, it also can withhold those rights.  It is free to define and invent rights to be given without equity to persons of groups.  The problem comes when such governments require genuine, “God given” rights to be abridged.

These abuses already exist and are but evidence that the foundations have been destroyed (cf. Psalm 11:3). Sometimes it seems that the great edifice of “government by the people, and for the people” is collapsing.  Will it be replaced by a government made up of willful tyrants who rule a mostly ignorant and uncontrolled populace of self-seeking hedonists? A population created by an educational system controlled by those possessed by utopian delusions?

Pray for Those in Authority

As with everything, our only hope is Christ.  Let us heed Paul’s admonition to Timothy to pray earnestly “For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Timothy 2:2).

Elder Jeff Clark

The Vision (1.10.20): The Lord provides for the widow, the barren, and the bereaved

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 4:1-37.

And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? (2 Kings 4:2a).

2 Kings 4:1-37 describes three distinct episodes from the ministry of Elisha:

1.    The Lord provides for a widow (vv. 1-7);

2.    The Lord provides for a barren woman (vv. 8-17);

3.    The Lord provides for a bereaved woman (vv. 18-37).

There is so much here to be applied, one hardly knows where to begin or where to end.

Think of that widow commanded to pour from her one meager pot into all those gathered vessels. She witnessed the miraculous and powerful provisions of the Lord. Consider how are we being commanded to gather up vessels, to be obedient, in anticipation of his pouring out all that we need?

Think of that “great woman” (v. 8) and her passion for ministering to the saints, and especially of ministering to the ministers, as she extended hospitality to Elisha. Think of her discernment. She rightly perceived that Elisha was “an holy man of God” (v. 9). And consider how the Lord acknowledged what she had done and blessed her in this life, beyond what she ever could have asked or imagined, with a son.

Think of that same woman who lost that precious son and how the prophet, at her bidding, was the instrument that brought him back to life. See her as a model of relentless and persistent prayer. In Luke 18:1-8 the Lord told his disciples the parable of the persistent widow, “to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).

We might well see in these episodes from the life of Elisha a foreshadowing of the ministry of Christ, as he was working miracles that showed his mastery over creation, whether in feeding five thousand or walking on water. Elijah and Elisha were great, but Christ is greater!

Think also of Christ going into the room where the Jairus’s daughter had been laid and consider how he raised her to life: “And he took the damsel by the hand and said unto her, Talitha cumi, which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say to thee, arise” (Mark 5:41). Or recall when he interrupted the funeral procession, to raise to life the only son of the widow of Nain, saying, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise” (Luke 7:14). Or, when he raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11). All this anticipates what he will do at the end of the ages, when the dead will be raised to life (John 5:28-29).

And consider how he laid his own life down and then took it up again in the resurrection.

More than anything else, we see in these accounts the heart of God in the face of Christ. He is a God who provides for the widow, for the barren, for the bereaved. He is the Lord who hears the cries of the needy, the desperate, the poor, the weak, the dying, and he gives them life.

This is the God who saves sinners who have come to the end of themselves and know that Christ is not one option among many, but their only hope!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle