Principalities

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against principalities, against powers,

against the rulers of the darkness of this world,

against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Paul, in Ephesians 6:12

At one point, Daniel prayed and sought God for three weeks before an answer from heaven came to him. When that answer came, it came in the form of a visit from an angel. None of us would have expected or even believed what the angel said to Daniel if it were not plainly written in the Bible. He told Daniel that he had been sent to him when Daniel first began praying, but that he had been prevented from arriving for three weeks by an evil spirit. He even identified the evil spirit, calling him “the prince of the kingdom of Persia”. Moreover, he was only able to overcome that spirit’s opposition and finally come to Daniel only with the aid of the great archangel, Michael:

Daniel 10

2. In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks.

3. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks were fulfilled.

4. And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel,

5. I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz.

6. His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

7. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision. The men who were with me saw not the vision, but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.

8. Therefore I was left alone, and I saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.

9. Yet, I heard the voice of his words, and when I heard the voice of his words, then I was in a deep sleep on my face, and my face was toward the ground.

10. And, behold, a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.

11. And he said unto me, “O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto you, and stand upright, for unto you am I now sent.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling.

12. Then said he unto me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to chasten yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I am come because of your words.

13. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days. But, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia.”

There are two unexpected but wonderful lessons we may learn from what the angel told Daniel.

Lesson #1: Nations Have Spirits

We know from experience that individual humans have different spirits. One man may have a spirit of covetousness, another man may have a spirit of lustfulness, etc. An astonishing fact of life in the world of spirits that we learn from the angel is that nations, too, may have spirits. Individual nations have specific evil spirits attached to them, apparently giving them their distinctive characteristics. The angel called the spirit attached to the Persian Empire, “the prince of the kingdom of Persia”. I assume that the prince of that empire gave some sort of aid to the Persian leaders, perhaps increasing their strength and wisdom.

This idea of nations having specific evil spirits over them seems to be confirmed a few verses later in Daniel 10, when the heavenly messenger tells Daniel that he must leave to do battle with the prince of Persia and that, after he leaves, the prince of the Greek nation will come:

20. Then said he, “. . . And now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia, and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Greece shall come.”

This was not a human prince any more than the prince of the Persians was a human prince. Human princes could not have prevented an angel of God from coming to Daniel. This was a spiritual being that was given charge over the Greek nation, to increase the strength and wisdom of the Greeks.

Moreover, the angel revealed to Daniel that there was a “prince” of the Jewish nation! And he told Daniel that the prince’s name was Michael:

21. But I will show you that which is noted in the scripture of truth. And there is none that holds with me in these things, but Michael your prince.

Was this heavenly messenger saying here that no spiritual prince of any nation of earth held to the truth except Michael, the prince of the nation of Israel? That would certainly make biblical sense, for no other nation on earth had a connection with God such as Israel had. In the end of this age, all the nations of earth will be inspired by their princes to follow the beast and gather as one army to do battle with Israel, to try to destroy that tiny, lonely nation (Zech. 14:2; Rev. 16:13-16).

In the last chapter of Daniel, the angel told Daniel that Michael would play a role in the events of the last days, and he described Michael as “the great prince who stands up for the children of your people . . . and then, your people will be delivered” (12:1).

It appears that Michael alone, of all the mighty angels given power over the nations, held to the truth. This would explain why Michael and the angels under him were granted the very great privilege of fighting against Satan and his angels, and of casting them out of heaven after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the Father:

Revelation 12

7. And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels warring against the dragon, and the dragon waging war, and his angels,

8. but he did not prevail, neither was there place found for him in heaven any longer.

9. And the great dragon also was cast down, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil, and Satan, who deceives the entire world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Lesson #2: Rulers

It is impossible to believe that only the nations of Persia, Greece, and Israel had an angel that was their “prince”, or ruler. The kingdom that preceded the Persians, the Babylonian Empire, would have had a demonic “prince” over it, and the Roman Empire which came after the Greeks would also have had its spiritual guardian and guide. I suspect that every nation on earth has a wicked spiritual ruler, including the United States, and that under each of those invisible national rulers are other evil powers which are over provinces and states, and over counties, parishes, and perhaps even over towns.

Jesus did not argue with the devil when he told Jesus that power over all the nations of the world had been handed over to him (Lk. 4:6). Paul himself called Satan “the god of this world” (2Cor. 4:4), and so it seems obvious that Satan rules over the angels who are “princes” of the nations. Jesus mentioned “the devil and his angels” (Mt. 25:41) when he spoke of the everlasting fire that is prepared for them, and he also said that Satan’s kingdom was not divided (Mt. 12:25-26). In other words, Satan’s kingdom is well-organized, and its rulers, from the highest to the lowest rank, work together as a disciplined unit.

There are, as Paul said, “principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). But what we may glean from the angel’s words who came from heaven and spoke with Daniel is that there is order in the realm of angels and demons. That is, there are angels who rule over other angels, and there are demons who rule over other demons. Michael is called an archangel by the apostle Jude (1:9). The Greek word “arch” means “chief” or “ruler”, which is more evidence that Michael ruled over some other angels. Satan is a cherub, and he is also said to have angels over which he rules.

One Mediator

It is the privilege of the nation of saints no longer to be ruled over by the “spirits of this age”. Those who have been “born again” are citizens of a heavenly country. They are free to live according to “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”. For them, there is no longer any fallen angel governing them, for although they are still in fleshly bodies, they no longer live after the flesh but after the Spirit. Jesus said that the children of God are even free from the obligation to pay taxes to earthly governments; though, for the sake of sinners who may be looking for the truth, they should do so (Mt. 17:25-27).

Matthew 17

25. And when [Simon Peter] came into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take customs or poll-tax? From their children or from strangers?”

26. Peter said to him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Well, then, the children are free.

27. But, so that we be no stumbling block to them, you go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you’ve opened its mouth, you’ll find a stater; take that and give it to them for me and for you.”

For the children of God, there is but one mediator between God and them, “the man, Jesus Christ” (1Tim. 2:5). The nations are still held in the grip of demon overlords, but those who believe are delivered from them all, and they will replace those angels when our Lord returns and will reign over the nations with Christ a thousand years:

Revelation 20

4. Then, I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was granted to them. And I saw the souls of those who were beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the Beast or his image and had not received the mark upon their forehead or their hand, and they came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Jesus taught that, in the resurrection, some saints will be given greater authority than others (Lk. 19:12-26), according to the ability of each one. Also in the resurrection, some saints will be ruling over other saints, just as it is now among God’s people in this present life (Heb. 13:7, 17, 24). Even on the new earth, after this heaven and this earth are destroyed, there will be some (Paul, Daniel, Noah, and others) who will be made kings, to reign over certain parts of that blessed world (Rev. 21:24).

Paul told the saints in Corinth that when Christ returns, the saints of God would be given authority to judge both the world and angels (1Cor. 6:2-3). During the thousand-year reign, we will judge the world, and on the new earth, we will judge the world and angels. In this life, man was “made a little lower than the angels” (Heb. 2:6-7), but in the life to come, we will reign over all creation as “joint-heirs with Christ” who is the king of angels and of everyone else, except the Father.

May God grant us the wisdom to learn of His kingdom now, and to grow in grace and the knowledge of God so that we might be found worthy to reign with Christ forever.

Psalm 38

I said, “Hear me! Lest when my foot slips,

they exalt themselves against me.”

Psalm 38:16

The writer of Psalm 38 was in an extraordinarily difficult place. He was suffering in three different ways at the same time. First, God had stripped him of his health because he had committed great offences against God:

1. O Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath; neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.

2. For your arrows stick fast in me, and your hand presses me sore.

3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

4. For my iniquities are gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

5. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

6. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

7. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh.

8. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

9. Lord, all my desire is before you; and my groaning is not hidden from you.

10. My heart pants, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.

Secondly, he is suffering extreme loneliness because all of his family and friends have backed away from him. He does not state why, but it is either that his sins have made them angry with him or that his sickness is so vile that they cannot bear to be around him, or both.

11. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague; and my relatives stand afar off.

Lastly, he is suffering at the hands of those who hate him, who are taking advantage of the opportunity to put him down, now that he has erred and the Lord is chastening him:

12. They also that seek after my life lay snares for me, and those who seek my hurt speak destruction, and plan deception all the day long.

13. But I, as a deaf man, do not hear; and I am as a mute man who opens not his mouth.

14. Thus I was as a man that does not hear not, and in whose mouth is no response.

15. For in you, O Lord, do I hope. You will hear, O Lord my God.

16. For I said, “Hear me, lest they rejoice over me. When my foot slips, they magnify themselves against me.

17. For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow is continually before me.

18. For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.”

19. But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong: and those who hate me wrongfully have multiplied.

20. Those also who render evil for good are my adversaries, because I follow what is good.

So, the Lord is chastening him for the evil he has done, his enemies are rejoicing at his suffering and are trying to finish him off because of the good he has done, and his family and friends have deserted him until they see what happens next.

This suffering man knew he had sinned; he knew no one on earth could help him, or even wanted to help him; and he knew there were many who were determined to destroy him. He also knew beyond all doubt that His only hope was to somehow obtain mercy from God, and he threw himself helplessly at His feet.

21. Forsake me not, O Lord. O my God, be not far from me.

22. Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.

Is there anyone who can doubt that God had mercy on this man who was so completely honest with himself about his sins and who cried out so meekly for help from the Almighty?

Ashamed

Taken from a recent text message from Jammie Curtsinger

Our prayer is to be so full of God's spirit that other spirits are ashamed to be around us! And if are we not full of the Spirit, then we ought to be ashamed to be around others!

God’s Righteousness

For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Paul, in Romans 10:3

When you walk in the Spirit of Christ, you cannot believe a lie because the Spirit of Christ will not allow a lie to enter into your heart. Nobody could lie to Jesus because he walked in the Spirit, and he suffered and died so that we might also walk in it.

As a young man, after he was converted, my father was boasting one day to an elderly mother in Christ of his new way of living. The wise old saint listened patiently as the young convert told of how he used to tell lies, but did no more. Then she replied, “Oh, Brother Clark, there’s something better than not telling lies.”

“What’s that?”

“Not believing them..”

That mother in Christ was actually reproving my father for boasting in his righteousness rather than rejoicing in God’s. What we can do within our own strength and will is our righteousness; what we can only do by the power of God is His righteousness. We can make up our own minds to tell no lie, but no amount of will-power can save us from believing a lie. Only God’s power living within us can do that.

Paul said, “If any man boast, let it be in the Lord.” That means, if we are going to boast about being good, let it be a boast of the kind of goodness that only God can create in us. Sinners can make up their minds not to commit adultery, but they cannot purify their hearts from wicked lusts. They can, with their own will-power, decide not to murder, but they cannot fill their hearts with the love of God for others.

Christ came to make God’s righteousness available to us, through the Spirit. This is another reason why, without the Spirit, no man can please God and be saved in the end, or even belong to God’s family.

Lawlessness, Part 2: Forgiven

Blessed are they whose lawlessness is forgiven!”

David, in Psalm 32:1, and Paul, in Romans 3:4

Moses told Israel that the law God was their life (Deut. 32:47). Later, David said, “The law is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Both these great men understood that God’s law is the light of our lives; that is, God’s law helps us to understand life and to live it as it should be lived. In the New Testament, the Spirit of God has replaced the Old Testament law written on paper. It is the same law, given from the same God, but it is in a different place – within us, rather than in a book that we must read in order to know it. The holy law which God gave to Israel is now written in our hearts by the Spirit, and we are liberated from ignorance of God by “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” which “has made us free from the law of sin and death.”

The apostle John, long after the law of Moses was fulfilled in Christ, still defined sin as “transgression of the law” (1Jn. 3:4). That is because the law that God has written in our hearts by the Spirit is the same law that He gave to Moses and Israel. The law of God given to Israel was not destroyed by Christ; it was fulfilled and confirmed by him! “Don’t suppose that I’ve come to destroy the Law or the prophets; I didn’t come to destroy but to fulfill” (Mt. 5:17).

When Jesus was here, he promised his disciples that he would make a way for them to walk in the “light of life”; that is, he would make a way for them to have God’s holy Spirit within them, guiding them through this life. In fact, that is the very thing that the Son of God came to earth to do. He said, “I am come that they might have life” (Jn. 10:10). He could just as well have said, “I am come that they might have the Spirit” because, as Paul said, “the Spirit is life” (Rom. 8:10).

Through the ancient prophets, God had promised that one day He would write His law on our hearts. That is, He would find a way to put His law within our hearts so that we would sense it when we were going in a wrong direction, or going in the right one, so that we would be able to recognize good thoughts from evil ones, or true words from false ones. And God did this so that He could rescue us from lawlessness, from not having God’s law governing our feelings, thoughts, words, and deeds. God loved us too much to leave us to ourselves to judge what is right and wrong. And He accomplished that great mercy when He sent His Son to die for our sins so that we could receive His Spirit and have His law within us, guiding us every day in every situation and letting us know every moment what is godly (i.e., lawful) behavior and what is lawlessness, or sin.

It is impossible for men without God’s Spirit to live according to God’s law because we are all born lawless, that is, we are born into this world without the Spirit of God within us. That is why Paul said, “The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can it be.” No one without God’s Spirit can obey God’s law because the Spirit is the only thing that lets us know what God’s law is. We are born lawless and we will die lawless unless we are born again by the Spirit of God.

Paul quoted David in Romans 4:7, and said, “Blessed are they whose lawlessness is forgiven!” Amen to that! It is a precious opportunity that we are offered in Christ to be born anew, to have all our former lawless behavior forgiven, to be given a heart that discerns right from wrong, and to be brought under the perfect law of Christ.

Lawlessness, Part 1: anomia

“Who gave himself for us,

that he might redeem us from all lawlessness”

Titus 2:14

“You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the

oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

Hebrews 1:9

When I began to work on my New Testament translation, a particular Greek word, anomia, caught my attention. That word, anomia, is usually translated “iniquity” in the King James Version even though it actually means “lawlessness”, or more literally, “without law”. In the beginning, I followed the example of the King James and other translators by translating anomia as “iniquity”, but something about doing that did not settle with my spirit. The more I worked on the translation, the more I began to think that “iniquity” did not adequately express what the writers of the New Testament intended with the word anomia. In the end, I decided that “lawlessness” is the only word that communicates what they intended to say.

John defined what sin itself is in 1John 3:4, using anomia. He wrote, “Everyone who does sin also does lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness [anomia].” By using the word anomia, John was teaching the children of God what sin really is; that is, sin is whatever is not according to God’s law. If in 1John 3:4, one were to translate anomia as “iniquity”, it would read, “sin is iniquity”. But what good would that statement be? Everybody knows that sin is iniquity. But not everybody knows that sin is living contrary to God’s law! Not everybody understands that sin is lawlessness! One can say “sin is iniquity” or “iniquity is sin”, and nothing is explained because both mean the same thing. But when John said, “sin is lawlessness”, he was educating us in the things of God. Iniquity is defined for us when we accurately translate John’s words.

Law Provides Social Boundaries

All of us need boundaries. We need to live with an awareness of what is appropriate behavior and speech. That is why God gave His law to man. Before God gave His law to Israel, rulers of other nations had devised laws of their own. I have studied several of these law codes, such as the famous Code of Hammurabi, and I am sure that they seemed very good to the people who crafted them. But those laws fell far short of teaching men what is truly right and wrong. God’s law, however, was perfect. It revealed a righteousness that no other law code had shown to mankind. God’s law taught men what kind of conduct was truly appropriate. People could please God and benefit their neighbors by walking in His law.

In our debased culture, we see lawless behavior everywhere we look. It is common now to hear foul language on street corners or in cafeterias, from the mouths of the old as well as the young and foolish, and to see people, young and old, dressed inappropriately in public places. Many people now seem to lack a sense of decency and order. That is lawlessness. That is what sin is. It is behavior that is not governed by the wisdom of God; it is life without an awareness of God’s presence. Lawlessness is to live without being guided by the law of God, without being aware of the boundaries of right conduct. In short, lawlessness is to walk in the flesh rather than in the Spirit because the flesh is lawless.

In this covenant, to be lawless is to be Spiritless. When we receive the Spirit, we receive the law of God into our hearts; God’s feelings, God’s thoughts, God’s will becomes a part of us. This is what Peter meant when he said that the children of God “have been made partakers of the divine nature.” Because God knows what is right, those with His Spirit can feel that knowledge guiding them. Because God loves people, those with His Spirit can sense what is appropriate behavior around people. Because God is wise, those with His Spirit within discern it when an unclean spirit of this age draws near. That being guided by the Spirit, that inner sensing of what is good, that discernment, is living, as Paul said, “under law to God,” and every other way of living is sin because every other way is lawlessness.

The “Self-Esteem” Agenda

“I am a worm, and no man.”

Christ, in Psalm 22:6

“What is man, that thou art mindful of him?

and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

David, in Psalm 8:6

An essay on self-esteem by Token Embry.

Self-Esteem is an important component of society today. Society frowns upon criticism of a child’s character. Yet the gospel teaches that in us, “there is no good thing” (Rom. 7:18) The point of the gospel is that we are born in need of some help from Jesus. We do not know how to choose what is good and right without the spirit to guide us in all truth. We are inherently bad creatures. We are inherently wrong in our hearts because we do not know God. This is opposite of what so many teachers, counselors and even parents will say to children today.

When I was a child in elementary school, the whole school was brought to the auditorium for an assembly on “Self-Esteem”. In an effort to teach us how wonderful we were, we sang over and over a one-line song, “I am special; I’m important; I’m unique.” I and many of my classmates were embarrassed. We avoided the microphone as it was passed around for us to sing into. But our teachers all encouraged us to sing it and sing it loud! This incident shows just how self-focused we were taught to be, and that symbolizes the whole approach to education that I received growing up by well-meaning adults.

In order to reach Jesus at some point, every child who was asked to sing that song will have to come to a different place where they say in their hearts, “No. There is nothing good about me. It is your love, Jesus, that has given me the wonderful life I have. I did not inherently deserve it or even know how to desire what was right. But you do, and I want what you want for me, not my own ways. I need your help to find what is right.” The point of the Gospel is that we need God’s help. We should seek him and pray to get it. It is a “pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:46). But if we are so “special, important and unique” then how can we admit fault and our need of help?

The Gospel teaches us that if there is anything good about us, it comes from above, from God’s life in us. It is His spirit that shows us how to love the ones we love and how to be good, like our Father. While it is God’s “good pleasure to give us the kingdom” (Luke 12:32), we can not forget it comes from him. What we need today is to know that God’s thoughts and feelings in us are not our own. We cannot have right thoughts without God. And we need to stop taking credit for what God gives us, confusing them as our own, but rather to enjoy freely the wonderful gifts they are. We need to esteem them so highly that no man can persuade us otherwise. To be so thrilled that God has rescued us, we do not let go of his instruction. To be so hungry for His Voice, that the sound overtakes any other sound around us. What we need is God-Esteem, not self-esteem.

God’s Chambers

“He brings the wind out of His treasuries”

Psalm 135:7

When the Spirit came upon king David and moved his hand to write out the pattern for the temple to be built in Jerusalem, that pattern included chambers within and around the temple. Into some of these chambers were brought the tithes and offerings for the priests, and into others were kept some of the other things necessary for the maintenance of the temple and cult of Israel. Chambers in which the king’s treasures were kept were referred to as “treasuries”, as in the verse above. Sometimes, prophets or prophetesses occupied some of the temple’s chambers, such as the prophetess Anna who came out of her chamber to greet the baby Jesus when his parents brought him to the temple for the first time (Lk. 2:36-38): “And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (a widow about 84 years old), who departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in at that moment, she gave thanks unto the Lord, and spoke of him [the baby Jesus] to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.”

The author of Hebrews let us know that the temple in Jerusalem was a figure of heaven itself (Heb. 8:5; 9:23), and so, it should not surprise us that the Bible often speaks of God’s chambers, or treasuries, in which He holds things in store. The “treasuries” mentioned in the psalm above is a reference to the chamber in which the wind is held, to be brought out and used when and where it pleases the Lord. God asked Job, “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?” (Job 38:22-23). David said that God “waters the hills from his chambers, and the earth is satisfied” (Ps. 104:13).

Winds, precipitation, sunlight, and whatever other essential elements of nature there may be, are all stored up by God to be used as it pleases Him. “By faith, we understand” that “mother nature” is a fantasy of man’s darkened heart and that this universe is held together and operates by the power and choice of God, not by the so-called “laws of physics”. This universe does not operate by it’s own power but by the power of God, through Jesus Christ His Son: “For by him were all things created, things in the heavens, and things on earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities, all things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and all things are held together by him” (Col. 1:16-17).

Jeremiah understood this. He asked the rhetorical question, “Can the heavens give rain?” (Jer. 14:22). The answer is, no. Rain can no more come from heaven than it can come from rocks. God gives us rain, and when we understand that, we perceive something about the goodness and wisdom and power of God.

Hiding Places

The most touching reference to the chambers of God is found in Isaiah 26. This portion of Scripture is a prophecy of the end of time, when God will strike the earth with merciless plagues – but only after sending His Son to take the saints up into chambers prepared for them in heaven, safely out of the way of the wrath on earth. Isaiah spoke of that wonderful mercy with these words: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity” (Isa. 26:20-21).

God has already prepared a hiding place for us, to keep us in those days when death and disaster will cover the earth. When the time comes, our heavenly Father will send Jesus to take us up, and to cover us with his love until God’s indignation against the wickedness of this world is past. In spirit, David was moved again to sing of that time (Ps. 57:1): “Be merciful unto me, O God! Be merciful unto me! For my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until the calamities be overpast.”

Honoring Children above God

“Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering which I have commanded,

and honor your sons above Me,

to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel My people?”

God, to Israel’s high priest, Eli, in 1Samuel 2:29

The only way to truly honor God is to follow His example and obey His counsel. Merely to agree that God is right about something brings Him no honor. We honor Him by doing things the way He says to do them. And if we are to honor God in all things, that must include the way we rear our children.

We are told by Paul to bring up our children in a caring, godly manner. He said, “You fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” To nurture means “to feed or nourish; to support and bring up to maturity; to rear”. It is to provide a child with a sense of order and goodness. When children are not provided with those things, they are more susceptible to spirits of self-will and lawlessness, as in the case of the two wicked sons of Israel’s high priest, Eli.

Eli failed to set a standard for his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. When they were young, he failed to chasten them, and the results when they were grown men were tragic for everyone in Israel. This same unwillingness to correct disobedient children and teach them how to behave is rampant in our society. On every hand, in public and in private, children, not Jesus, prove themselves to be their parents’ masters. By such ungovernable conduct as we commonly see now, parents everywhere are made to look weak and foolish. And they are. But God has the answer for those who are willing to receive it.

In our time, society has shifted away from the acceptance of spanking as a means of punishment. It is my understanding that children can be legally taken from their homes now if a parent spanks a child. Through Solomon, God said that the blueness of a wound would “cleanse away evil” (Prov. 20:30). But this culture seems to be saying that the blueness of a wound is sufficient grounds to forcibly take your children away from you. Thinking themselves wise, men often become fools (Rom. 1:22), and the tragic results for our society of the present mind set toward punishment of children, especially corporal punishment, has yet to be fully realized.

Solomon’s friend Agur described the spiritual condition of some youngsters of his day: “There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.” But this condition is not the fault of the young people who have not received godly love and guidance. It is almost always the fault of parents who are so self-indulgent that they cannot bring themselves to chasten their children when it needs to be done. Every godly parent feels the pain of a child who is being punished; nevertheless, every godly parent will put himself through that pain if his child demonstrates a need for the punishment. Who wants to see one’s child sad? But better to make them sad now than to deny that correction to the child and let him grow increasingly self-indulgent and rebellious, and then suffer the awful consequences of self-indulgence and rebellion as an adult.

Some people characterize corporal punishment as brutality, and all children who receive such punishment would agree with those fools. I know that, as a child, I certainly would have characterized my spankings as brutality. But that is only because “no chastening for the present seems joyous, but grievous” and because “foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child”. But as Solomon said, “the rod of correction will drive foolishness far from them” (Prov. 22:15). And once that is done, the chastisement children receive “bears the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” I can only imagine now how lawless and self-consumed a person I would have become without my parents’ discipline. I know they loved me because as long as they had me under their roof, they would not allow me to live in a way that was destructive to myself and others. They set a standard in their home and made certain that we children lived by it – for our good, not just theirs.

Foolish parents love themselves too much to spank their children. In refusing to give their children discipline if they need it, they are loving themselves more than their children, and honoring their children above the God who tells us how to bring up our children. The only hope for such ill-trained young people is that God will call them into His kingdom. If He does, He will certainly chasten them, sometimes severely, and He will do so with no fear whatsoever that any government will come and take His precious sons and daughters out of His hand. “For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives” (Heb. 12:6).

Here are a few Scriptures that concern the chastening of children by their elders, and the chastening of the saints by God:

God’s Instructions concerning the chastening of children

Proverbs 19:18:

“Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.”

Proverbs 13:24:

“He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him chastens him betimes [that is, early].”

Proverbs 23:13-14:

“Withhold not correction from the child, for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die. You shall beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell.”

The Way God Deals with His Children

2Samuel 7:14 (concerning David’s young son Solomon, when he would become King):

“I will be his Father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.”

Psalm 94:8-14:

“Understand, you brutish among the people! And you fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? He who chastises the heathen (see Deut. 11:1-4), shall He not correct? He who teaches man knowledge, shall he not know?

“The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are vain.

“Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O Lord, and teach him out of thy Law, that you may give him rest from the days of adversity until the Pit be digged for the wicked. For the Lord will not cast off His people; neither will He forsake His inheritance.”

Psalm 118:18:

“The Lord has chastened me sore, but He has not given me over to death.”

Job 34:31-32: “Surely it is fitting to be said to God, ‘I have borne chastisement; I will not offend any more. That which I see not, teach me. If I have done iniquity, I will do no more.’”

1 Corinthians 11:30-32:

“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world.”

Revelation 3:19:

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.”

Proverbs 3:11-12:

“My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of His correction, for whom the Lord loves, He corrects, even as a father the son in whom he delights.”

Note: Proverbs 8:30 and Hebrews 5:7-9 and 2:9-10.

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Leviticus 26:14-45: In these verses, we see God refusing to give up on His people. He loved them too much not to punish them for their sins.

Isaiah 1:1-9: As with any parent, God at times became frustrated with stubborn children. Here in Isaiah, God says there is no use for Him to continue to chasten them, but He continued trying to help them, anyway.

Jeremiah 31:18-21: God’s heart aches for His chastened people. But He loves them more than He loves Himself, and so, He does for them whatever they need Him to do, including punishing them.

Hosea 11:8: When the time came for God to give His people over to the heathen because He could no longer reason with them, it broke His heart. He knew what horrible suffering they would have to endure at their hands. But for their good, He did it. We can feel God’s pain in these words: “How shall I give you up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver you [to your enemies], Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboiim? [These two cities were destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah.] My heart is turned within me! My repentings are kindled together.”

Hebrews 12:1-17: This portion of Scripture is an exhortation for us to have faith in God’s love for us, even when He chastens us.

Keeping the Sabbath

A thought inspired by a conversation with Brother Earl Pittman

God was determined that His Old Testament people would honor His sabbaths. Not only were the Israelites commanded to rest on the sabbath, but foreigners who sojourned within the borders of the promised Land had to cease from their work on God’s Sabbaths. Even the slaves and animals that people owned were not allowed to work. Indeed, even the land itself was given a sabbath from being cultivated, every seventh year. God said to Israel, “the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord. You shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard” (Lev. 25:2-4). And God warned the Israelites that if they failed to keep their sabbaths, and failed to allow the land to keep its sabbath, then He would send them into captivity so that the Promise Land could at last keep the sabbath days that they had refused to give it.

This came to pass. After centuries of patient forbearance, God sent the Assyrian army, and then the Babylonian army, to conquer the Israelites and carry them away. When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar overwhelmed God’s people, we are told in 2Chronicles 36:20-21 that “those who escaped from the sword, he carried away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia . . . until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths, for as long as she lay desolate, she kept sabbath.”

We who live under this New Covenant are also commanded to keep God’s sabbath, the sabbath of walking in the Spirit and resting from our own works and ways. And God is just as determined that we will keep this new sabbath as He was determined that His Old Testament people keep their form of the sabbath. When the Corinthians failed to keep the Lord’s sabbath by ceasing from their own ways, Paul told them that because of their failure to walk in the Spirit “many are feeble and sick among you, and quite a few have fallen asleep” (1Cor. 11:30).

God is going to get glory from His people. If we give it to Him willingly by walking in the Spirit and keeping His sabbath while we are in these mortal bodies, we will be blessed. But if not, God may force us to cease from our own ways in this world by taking us out of this world altogether.

Let’s cease from our own ways and rest in the Spirit. Let’s keep God’s holy sabbath, and live!

Hating the Judges at the Gate

“All who watch for iniquity are cut off,

who make a man an offender because of a word,

who lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,

and who turn aside the just for a worthless thing.”

Isaiah 29:20-21

Sometimes it happens that a child of God drifts away from righteousness and returns, as Peter said, “to his own vomit”; that is, he returns to the ungodly ways of his past. The good that he learned to love in Christ, loses its appeal, and those whose judgment he learned to respect seem, to him, not so important any more. It never happens overnight. It begins as a seed that, left to itself, grows quietly, almost imperceptibly. But when its fruit finally appears, how very bitter it can be! How much strife and hatred it can engender!

Envy is a seed that can produce such fruit. Solomon said that envy is like “rottenness of the bones” (Prov. 14:30b). This is true. Envy quietly but viciously eats away at one’s spirit like a cancer, whose end can be very painful indeed. Many thousands of people, this very moment, have the disease called cancer, but do not know it. Only when the cancer has grown to a certain size and begins to produce the fruit of bleeding or discomfort and pain will those with cancer learn that it is in their bodies.

Self-will can also produce such fruit. It can also quietly grow until it produces in a soul some of the most bitter of all strife and hatred. Many of God’s dear children suffer from this deadly spiritual disease and do not even know it. But if stubbornness is not recognized and dealt with in its early stages, it will grow and produce such horrible fruit in a life that God compared stubbornness to the sin of idolatry (1Sam. 15:23).

Such things as envy and self-will are invisible sins; they can be hidden in the breast. The thoughts and feelings they produce can be hidden, too, but not forever. If those spiritual weeds are allowed to grow in the heart, they will eventually produce fruit that cannot be hidden. This is why God’s people need pastors and teachers who know God and who have discernment. We all need spiritual “watchmen” who stand on the walls of the city and see things coming that we cannot see, and who warn of us things to come so that we can make the necessary adjustments in our lives to overcome the things that would destroy us.

In the beginning Scripture above, Isaiah mentions those who hate those who “reprove in the gate”. The judicial courts in ancient time were commonly found at the city gates, where respected elders of the city would gather and hear the complaints brought to them by citizens of the city. It happened then, just as it does now, that the guilty sometimes responded to judgments of the courts by confessing their wrong and repenting – and sometimes with anger and hatred. Just as now, sometimes those who are shown to be guilty continue to deny it, and cast aspersions on the character of judges who make right judgments. This evil response to right judgment is the fruit of the deadliest of all those quiet killers of the soul: pride.

Of all the spiritual diseases that can hide in the heart, unrecognized and, so, not cut out, pride is the most deadly because it is the most difficult to admit to. Confession of sin is anathema to pride. Pride would rather kill than confess, and this is why those afflicted with it will “lay a snare for those who reprove in the gate” instead of simply repenting when the judges point out their wrong. The judges who “reprove in the gate” are servants of God who judge without partiality, and historically, they have always been the targets of the wrath of proud people, men and women, whose deeds are evil and whose deeds are reproved.

Isaiah’s description of the proud is perfect. Instead of being healed and restored to fellowship by submitting to life-giving correction from the Lord, the proud turn on the judges at the gate like venomous serpents. They watch them like hawks, looking for anything the judges say or do that can be used to make the judges themselves appear evil. From the moment the proud are exposed by “those who reprove in the gate”, the proud carefully listen to every word that proceeds from the judges’ mouths – not to follow “the instructions of life”, but to see if there is even one word the judges speak that the proud can use to make the judges appear evil. If the proud had listened to the judges that intently when the disease of pride was still small in their hearts, they might have lived forever in peace and harmony with the saints. Now, instead of being healed by words of truth, they listen to those healing words for an evil purpose. How sad!

Pride compels those who are afflicted by it to strive, by any means available, to condemn the judges who reproved them at the gate. Otherwise, the proud themselves have to confess that the judges are right, and pride will never do that. The one goal in life of the proud who are judged is to justify themselves to the world, to win others to a worthless cause: the campaign to condemn those who dare to “reprove in the gate”.

There are a number of stories, old and new, which show that the proud can succeed for while in their craftiness. Sometimes, the proud do manage to move public opinion toward their cause. But I have also noticed, in those same stories, that the gates are never moved. The seats for the elders who sit in judgment remain in their places. And the judges whom God appointed to sit at the gate are still there, patiently doing their duty for God’s people, waiting for and trusting in the great Judge to enforce the judgments they have made.