Who am I trusting?

2 Samuel 7:1–8:18, 1 Peter 4:12–19, Psalm 137:1–9

In trying to look at the big picture of the life of Israel’s King David, I see ups and downs, but mostly a rise in God’s blessing on him, up to a point. The promises and covenant made to him was a far cry from God’s relationship with Saul, the king who went before him.

Part of this covenant was eternal, pointing to Jesus Christ as the greater king and as the ultimate descendent of David who would rule forever. However, God also spoke through a prophet to David, telling him what would happen to his son and the king who came after him . . .

“I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. ” (2 Samuel 7:14–16)

David’s attitude could have been pride. After all, the Creator of the Universe had given him a prominent place in His kingdom, but David was not proud. He sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God!” (2 Samuel 7:18–19)

It excites and thrills me to read that David knew that the Word of God was not just for him and his descendents; it was for mankind. This small nation began with Abraham and the promise that through him the whole world would be blessed. Now the promise was narrowed to the descendents of David, yet David remembered the covenant with Abraham. His attitude was never “us four, nor more, shut the door” but a great desire that God would be glorified and all people would be blessed.

David was not perfect. Most of us know about Bathsheba, and how his rule and kingdom deteriorated after that grave sin. David failed. Today’s warning from the NT applies to this ancient king as well as to me: “But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And ‘If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?’ Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” (1 Peter 4:15–19)

God kept His promise to David. Even though David failed, his end was not like that of Saul because he did not have God’s steadfast love taken from him. Why is that? David, in faith, believed the promises of God. Saul continually took matters into his own hands. These men both demonstrated by their lives who they were really trusting. David’s faith included obedience to the gospel of God. He knew he was a sinner (read Psalm 51), yet he also knew that God was a Savior. Saul continually came up with ideas on how to save himself, revealing where his faith was placed.

It would be a horrible thing to have God’s love depart. It would be nearly as bad to be taken into captivity and removed from safety. Whoever wrote Psalm 137 knew the horror of being displaced, not out of the family of God, or away from His love, but out of the homeland God had given His people. Not only was he in emotional distress, his captors mocked him to sing songs about Zion. Yet the psalmist responded in faith:

“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!” (Psalm 137:4–6)

If he was there and could get his hands on a spear, Saul may have thrown it at the mockers. David was not like that, but more like this psalm. He trusted the Lord to rescue him and he set the city of God as his highest joy. Had he been in that place of distress and mocking, I can see him smiling in total trust and hear him humming a psalm.

God saves sinners of whom I am chief…

My devotional book is written by several great preachers. The editor of this book assembled them according to the Scripture reference each one used. Today’s verse is used nine times with nine approaches to the importance of its truths.

Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power. (Psalm 106:8)

For today, Ralph Erskine focuses on the power of God to save for his name’s sake no matter how much sin a person may be guilty of, or how many grievous provocations and impediments have been put in God’s way. Most of what Erskine writes is repeated here, for no other reason than it is such a great encouragement, first to my own sorry state, but also when applied to the not yet saved people on my prayer list.

God can save for His name’s sake even those in gross darkness and fearful ignorance. “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God’ ” (John 6:45).

He can save for His name’s sake even those who have refused Him, resisted His many calls, and slighted many opportunities. “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people” (Romans 10:21). After many refusals, the Lord still stands with open arms to receive all comers.

He can save for His name’s sake regardless of unparalleled wickedness. What if there is no sinner like me? What if I call myself the chief of sinners as did Paul the Apostle? No matter, for He can save for His name’s sake —because there is no Savior like Him. Should any unbelieving heart suggest there is no salvation for someone as bad as I am, Micah 7:18 is the answer:

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18–19)

Our God can save for His name’s sake in spite of high mountains of sin or misery that seem to block His saving power, even hardness of heart and innumerable barriers like atheism, unbelief, deadness, and security placed in other things, even other gods. Our God who blesses for His name’s sake can take away any heart of stone and give the heart of flesh. He can out of stones raise up children for Abraham. He can save for His name’s sake despite nameless afflictions, nameless objections that nothing in the world can address or even mention, far less remove. The obstacles standing in the way of salvation might be out of sight as far as I am concerned, but God can see them. He is omniscient, knows all – and omnipotent, can do all and save anyone — for His name’s sake.

He saves by faith, but what of those who doubt? God says in His Word that He can save, even remove negative thoughts of Him and make known His goodwill toward doubters. He is more willing to save than anyone is willing to be saved. It is the will of Almighty God to save sinners, pushing aside thousands and millions of objections, that He might make known His mighty power and His great love for us.

Level ground at the Cross

Yesterday, my sister drove from where they are staying into Calgary, twice driving past High River. She could hardly look. The northeast part of the city is still under water, with only the tops of the trees visible. There is no place for that water to go. If pumped out, it will just flow into the basements in other parts of the town.

A few days earlier, a facebook video shows people stranded on the roof of a downtown business. There were men, women, people in business suits and in coveralls. The video showed everyone climbing into the muddy bucket of a front-end loader and riding to safety. This disaster and the rescue efforts level all distinctions.

Today’s devotional links that with the Cross. When Jesus died there, He also leveled all distinctions. The Cross, like that flood and rescue effort, disregards our human-raised barriers of nationality, gender and occupation. The Cross considers neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but makes all one in Christ. The wildest savage can come to the cross pleading for mercy, as can the proudest Jew who is a child of Abraham.

I understand how the Cross obliterated national distinctions and social barriers of worth and created angst in Jewish hearts. They were set apart, a chosen nation. The covenants and promises of God came to them. The knowledge of the one true God was theirs. It seems logical that pride would arise in their minds, but along with it came contempt for all other nations. They envied none for the others were mere Gentiles.

For a Jew to turn to Christ would be a further insult to those who rejected Him. No wonder these early Christians were persecuted. By embracing the Cross, they were heaping a grave insult on their national pride. Therefore, when some came and told these believers that they must keep the Law and be circumcised, hold on to at least something of their old religious ways, they were tempted.

Paul told them they had it wrong. The Cross was supposed to be offensive, not watered down by mixing in the rules that they had left behind. They were supposed to feel insulted and defenseless because the Cross did level distinctions. To turn back to rites and rituals was terribly wrong.

But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. (Galatians 5:11)

This leveling of differences does not mean that God disregards our personal distinctions. Those who come to Christ do not get the same treatment. He is strikingly original in the way He deals with each person who believes in Him. He has an individual understanding of our hearts and specific needs, skills and abilities. Yet in spite of all that, there is a “scandal” in the Cross because every distinction is also obliterated.

That flooding river put everyone in the same situation, and while God is caring for each one in different ways, they are all victims of the same disaster. The Cross puts everyone in the same situation too. While God cares for each one in different ways, we are all guilty of sin. The Cross declares that everyone is either saved as a lost sinner or not saved at all. The brightest heart needs pardon and peace with God as much as the wildest sinner; there are no distinctions at His feet. There are also no distinctions in His offer.

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Revelation 22:17)

Jesus freely bids everyone to come to His Cross. Just as “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” so also does He declare that “whosoever will may come” and participate freely in the water of life, for “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 3:23; 10:13) 

My Kinsman-Redeemer

In North America, our understanding of family responsibilities falls short of the Old Testament idea of a “kinsman redeemer” or a “goel.” By law, this person was responsible for at least three things that we do not practice, at least to the degree of legislating them to happen.

Forfeited Inheritance. If an Israelite sold part or all of his estate, any of his near relatives who were able to do it, were commanded to purchase it. Then when the trumpet announced the year of Jubilee, that estate reverted to its original owner.

And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year… the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession. (Leviticus 25:10, 27:24)

Forfeited Liberty. If an Israelite owed a debt or was in dire want, he might sell himself to a stranger or another Israelite. In the latter case, he was treated like a hired servant and freed in the year of Jubilee. If he became the slave of a foreigner, any of his kinsmen was permitted to pay the price of his redemption and set him free.

He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. (Leviticus 25:53–54)

Forfeited Life. A “goel” could also avenge wrongs. In a complicated set of laws, family members could seek and destroy those who had killed their kin, yet to prevent feuds and wars, the guilty one could flee to a ‘city of refuge’ and be safe if the killing was accidental and not a murder. (Space here is limited to explain the justice in this strange arrangement.)

When the Hebrew woman Naomi returned home with her widowed daughter in law, the kinsman-redeemer law became part of her and Ruth’s story. First, Naomi said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?” (Ruth 3:1)

This signaled Naomi’s intention to find a near relative of her son who could marry Ruth and raise children in the name of her son. She sent Ruth to the gleaning fields of Boaz, the man who would be a “goel” for her, and gave her instructions. Eventually Ruth had this conversation with him…

He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” (Ruth 3:9)

Ruth is a fascinating story, but it isn’t the whole story. It points forward to the One who would be the Kinsman-Redeemer for the entire human race.

Years later on the day that Jesus rose from the dead, He walked on the road to Emmaus with two of His disciples. They were confused and grieving over His death and had not yet recognized Him. However, an important thing was happening…

Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27)

The account in Luke does not tell us everything that He said, but it is not difficult to see how Jesus is our Kinsman-Redeemer. The word “goel” means “one who unlooses”—sets free whatever has been bound and restores it to its original position. Boaz was such a person for Ruth and even Naomi. Jesus Christ is such a person for sinners.

Those who are alienated from their original inheritance picture  or typify fallen humanity. Everything was ours, but by sin we forfeited all into the hands of our enemy. Through sin, us and all creation is subject to death and decay. Yet Jesus, the Word who became flesh, has redeemed and restored the inheritance we lost. By grace, all things are ours (if we are His) and when the trumpet announces that last Jubilee, even creation will be delivered from its “bondage to decay… into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

When we became sold under sin and led captive by the will of an alien and adverse spirit, our freedom was gone also. In bondage to sin, we cannot escape or purchase our own redemption. Christ became our “goel” by giving Himself a ransom for us and redeeming us from slavery to sin with His own blood.

It is a little harder to see Jesus in the avenging function of the Hebrew “goel” yet He did come to destroy as well as to redeem. He pursued that great enemy of our souls and for him there was no city of refuge. Jesus avenged the world for all that has been suffered at the hands of evil and the evil one. As our Kinsmen-redeemer, He disarmed the powers of Satan.

Even though I cannot relate to this ancient custom, I can think of Jesus as my nearest kin, and understand these laws and conditions of redemption. I know that I could not do any of the work of a “goel” for myself, nor could anyone else. Only Jesus could do that, and this is why the Son of God became the Son of Man, that He might draw near and be all that sinners need.

Further, the loss of property or freedom or safety in the lives of ancient Israelites is nothing compared to the loss of righteousness because of sin, or the bitter bondage of my own selfishness. Nothing the ancient “goel” did can be compared to the redemption Christ made possible either. Like the friends of Naomi, I can also say, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left (us) this day without a redeemer, and may His name be renowned…!” (Ruth 4:14) 

Does everyone have eternal life?

The parables of Jesus, I am told, have one basic meaning. These parables are like an extended metaphor in which Jesus is saying one thing (often the kingdom of heaven) is like something familiar to His hearers. Not every detail in the parable refers to some great truth, but the entire parable makes one point about the topic. 

For instance, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, or that the joy in heaven over sinners who repent is like the joy of someone who has found a lost coin.

Jesus also told stories, such as the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) and the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) that served as parables yet sounded as if they came out of the daily news. One of them is about a man who died…

There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment. (Luke 16:19–28)

When I read this, I find it difficult to restrict the meaning to one point. Is Jesus describing the reality of life after death? The reality of heaven and hell? Or is His emphasis on the fact that once a person is dead and in one of these two places, there is no hope of getting out and going to the other one?

Jesus sometimes explained the meaning of a parable to His disciples later. For this one, He gives a bottom line in the words of one of the characters in the story.

But Abraham said (of the five brothers still living), ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ (Luke 16:29–31)

When some hear the Gospel and their need for repentance, they say, “I will wait and see what happens” or “I will let God decide my fate” not realizing that God has already spoken. He says that “the wages of sin is death” and although “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23) that gift is for those who are living. As the story says, those who are dead will not repent; repentance is for the living.

The ‘rule’ about interpreting parables cannot dismiss all the other parts of this story on the grounds that they are not the main point. That is, we cannot dismiss the parts about hell. The Bible teaches elsewhere about eternal punishment in a place of torment, such as this most sobering passage…

… when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might… (2 Thessalonians 1:7–9)

Some people describe hell as a void in darkness. They say that whatever sins a person enjoys now, that will be their occupation forever. That is, a liar will lie for eternity. Those who curse will curse non-stop. Those who covet will be envious forever. Anyone who refuses to hear Jesus now will never hear Him again.

It is also suggested that hell will be everything that Jesus is not. Instead of peace, stability, light, a good Shepherd, redemption, answered prayer, love, kindness, self-control, and incredible goodness, imagine the opposites. This makes me shudder.

No one needs to go to that place. It was “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41) and everyone who makes Jesus their choice can avoid that eternal torment. He says, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).

Those who follow Jesus eventually will say goodbye to all things physical and material, but death cannot take away the love of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, as everything else fades away, He and His goodness will be magnified.