Post 21-Summer Is Over

                                          

 On Oct 29, 2016 at 5:33 PM John Wrote

Hey Dana

            We're down the shore this weekend. I've been formatting the next post (Part 2 to ...A Bigger Vision of God http://foxholecowboysblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/post-11-part-2-cares-of-this-world-job.html ), and editing the forthcoming post on the relevance of the church today. http://foxholecowboysblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/post-14-part-1-relevant-or-business-as.html Whew. We have a lot of convicting stuff (both personally and universally) in the Relevance post. There was so much to take in I had to put it down and do something else. So I walked into the bedroom to make the bed and I saw the pink scalloped, decorative dish on the old dresser. In it are five pool tags to our condo's pool for summer 2016, last summer. That reminded me that summer is over. Which the Holy Spirit then reminded me of the terribly poignant comment by Jeremiah,  "Harvest is past, summer is ended, And we are not saved." Jer 8:20 NASB) 

            Did you know that in addition to poignant meaning touching, moving, or sad, according to Dictionary.com, it comes from the late 14^th Century., "painful to physical or mental feeling", from Old French poignant "sharp, pointed" (13c.), present participle of poindre "to prick, sting," from Latin pungere "to prick" http://www.dictionary.com/brow se/poignant . Certain things prick our senses or conscience. This, once again, is pricking my conscience.

             The view out our condo windows is that of the marsh and bay beyond. In the fall, some of the various grasses slowly turn red as the warm days of summer pass and the shortened sunny days and autumn chill become prevalent. . When the wind blows across the dying grass, there is an undulating motion like waves on the ocean, which is just a few blocks away. There is an often audible sound here as those waves break on the distant beach. Soon, all the remaining green of all the marsh grasses will be gone, turned brown, dead for another season.

            I am once again overcome with the thought that harvest is past, summer is ended, and people are not saved...and I am playing church.    

            I went back and clicked on the entire Chapter 8 of Jeremiah. https://www.biblegateway.com/p assage/?search=Jeremiah+8&vers ion=NKJV   It never before hit me as it did this morning. God is warning through Jeremiah that His people will be "like refuse on the face of the earth."  He states that "the things I have given them shall pass away from them." Why? He tells us, "Because we have sinned against the Lord."

            God continues, in Chapter 8, through the weeping prophet,

 21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.
I am mourning;
Astonishment has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead,
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no recovery
For the health of the daughter of my people?

             Here are the words to the hymn (really a Negro spiritual) "There Is A Balm In Gilead.”  

       Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my work’s in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again.
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.

        If you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot pray like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus and say, "He died for all."
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.

       Don’t ever feel discouraged, for Jesus is your friend;
And if you lack for knowledge, He’ll never refuse to lend.
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.

Hello again.

            We’ve been out for the day. Now I'm once again sitting at the dining room table looking out at God's creation. The sky has turned grey and the water has the leaden look of winter on-set. The wind is, literally, whistling through a crack in the seam of the new, eight foot slider.   
            Summer is over.

            Harvest is past. 

            People are not saved.

            And the church is snuggled down for the winter.

            If God's people didn't listen to Jeremiah and if His words didn't prick them to repentance and action, why will they listen to us?

            You and I both know there is a Balm in Gilead who makes the sin sick whole. He did it for you and He did it for me. He is knocking on the heart of the Church to not only open the door for Him, but He is knocking for the lost, the diseased, the heartbroken, the forgotten, the once on fire for Him but now grown cold, and, and, and, and....

Yours for the Harvest

 

John

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                                                                                                  A cemetery in winter

 

On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 9:48 AM Dana Wrote

 

     Hi John,

     You wrote:

      “If God's people didn't listen to Jeremiah and if His words didn't prick them to repentance and action, why will they listen to us?”

      Sadly, they may not.  Read 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2:9-12 lately? 

 “⁹ The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, ¹⁰ and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹ Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, ¹² in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (ESV)

      As I read Jeremiah 8, I am faced with something much more terrifying and sobering in its nature, rather than a sense of melancholy at potentially missed opportunities in evangelism by the Church of today.

     From the very beginning of Jeremiah 8, God, through His prophet, has, if you will, taken the gloves off.  This is no longer a gentleman’s sport regulated by Marquis of Queensbury rules.  No, this is bare knuckles, in the dirt, trench fighting. 

  “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. ² And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ³ Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.”  Jeremiah 8:1-3 (ESV)

       The act of desecrating either the remains or the memorials of the deceased had much more threatening implications to pagan cultures of Jeremiah’s day than today.  And, God is speaking to His people as if they were pagans, because in fact, that’s how they were living and acting. We 21^st century Christians would do well to take note of that.

      Today we see such actions as disrespectful, repulsive, and even criminal.  In that day and time in that part of the world (among others), to desecrate the dead was to actually cause injury to the dear departed’s spirit, and initiate all kinds of dire consequences to one’s afterlife, not limited to, but including the annihilation of the very soul itself. It was the ultimate insult.  And when that particular “day of the LORD” was to occur, if even the dead were going to get it, just imagine what the living offenders had to look forward to.

     In revisiting the idea of God’s people being pagans, note in verse two, which says,

     “And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped.” (ESV)

      Interesting, isn’t it, that these desecrated remains are displayed to the heavens?  Heathen deities were often associated with, and believed to be impersonated by heavenly bodies.  It should be no surprise that the pagan nations would do such a thing, but this isn’t being aimed at the “nations;” it’s directed at God’s own people who have committed this blasphemous and treacherous act.  And the heavenly deities who they find it so cool to worship, just what will they do to deliver their devoted followers?  The time for deliverance, it is clear, has passed, and God in His righteous indignation certainly does not intend to offer it.  Instead, He mockingly rubs it in their faces that the sun, moon and stars will provide no relief or protection when the whip comes down. 

     Brother Hobart Grazier, my Bible, Greek, and Theology Professor at VFCC, in teaching on Romans chapter 1, and in particular, verse 28 (“ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”( ESV)) used to say it’s like a man on the shore holding a rope that goes to a boat on troubled seas, bearing another man.  The man on the shore is trying to pull the boat back to safety, but the man in the boat is rowing with all his strength heading out to sea.  Eventually, the man on the shore will give up and let go of the rope.  In Romans 1:28, God lets go of the rope.                                

     We humans are so much smarter than God.  I mean, He just won’t get with the program, will He? All those antiquated notions of right and wrong.  We all know that a little bit of sin won’t hurt anything, and, while we’re on the subject, who’s to say that it’s sin anyway? Sin is such an unkind term. It makes people feel bad, and we can’t have that. If God was any kind of decent God at all, He would bless us, and make our lives wonderful, and then He would mind His own business and let us do that which feels good, and that which we know will make us happy. After all, we created Him in our own image. Right?

     Well…I hate to be the one to rain on your parade if the attempt of sarcasm above happens to be your sentiment, but Romans 1:28 and Jeremiah 8 among myriad other passages in the Bible are the no bones about it answers to that.      

     Again I find myself indebted to my betters, in that I have been helped mightily by the preaching and teaching of many godly ministers whose messages from God’s Word have blessed and enlightened (and even reproved and convicted—ouch!) me.  The Reverend Thomas Swanston, one of Scotland’s wonderful expositors, late of what we (rightfully) term the “greatest generation,” stated once that God, in Jeremiah 8, speaks in three voices. In verse 7, we hear the voice of nature, or God’s created order calling out. In verse 20, it’s the voice of man calling out, and in verse 22, it’s the heart of God that is doing the calling. 

      Now is not the proper venue for lengthy exegesis, so breathe a sigh of relief, Y’all.  However for those interested in seeing this for yourselves, let me exhort you to look this chapter in Jeremiah up and study it, as opposed to taking my word for it only.

     The point is that God is speaking through many voices in Jeremiah 8, shaming and condemning His unrepentant people. The seriousness of what is being prepared for them up north in Babylon is going to be awful.  The brutality and humiliation they are about to face is almost unimaginable.  We read it and gloss over it as we hurriedly move on the next chapter and verse, but we’d do well to sit for a spell, and thoughtfully ponder Deuteronomy 28:15-68 in light of Jeremiah 8.  Like an old Texas minister one time said, and I’ve found it to be true, “Watch out; God’ll mess you up.”  Amen and amen.

     The reference to the “balm in Gilead,” can be viewed in two ways. The question regarding it is rhetorical in both views, in that the answer is obvious (to those being addressed) and not really expected from the same.

     Gilead was known for its physicians and medicines, in particular its “balm” traditionally thought to be made from balsam. The idea is first expressed in Genesis 37:25, and likely again in Genesis 43:11 where Jacob/Israel sends some “balm” as one of the gifts his sons are to take to the ruling “man” in Egypt, who had yet to be revealed as his long lost son Joseph.

     The answer to the “balm in Gilead” question according to the more spiritualized view (as in the song), is that yes, of course there is a balm in Gilead.  The old “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” principle applies to the Jeremiah 8 citing in that sense.  The spiritual remedy for all of their ills certainly exists, but they, quite frankly, want none of it.  Those with sun, moon, and stars syndrome, as previously mentioned in an earlier paragraph, had crossed a line, and at the point of the writing, the balm was no longer being offered.

     In another, perhaps more literal view, the point may be being made by the rhetorical nature of the question, that in fact, there really is no “balm in Gilead” as far as the residents of the Kingdom of Judah were concerned.  The region of Gilead had been claimed by Assyria who conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and was well on its way, if not already becoming Babylonian territory, at the time of Jeremiah’s writing.  Either way, the answer in reality was that there was no balm.

     In my opinion, and I’m sure to be disagreed with, but I think we’ve reached the point where tears wept over lost sinners are mis-spent.  What? Heresy of heresies! Oh my!  Are we wringing our hands yet?  Are we sharpening the knives; rounding up the old torches and pitchforks?

     But, whether you are or you’re not, you know what? That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  I’m just not going to cry one tear for those who reject Christ and worship foreign gods. Worship foreign gods?  Oh, come now, you cannot seriously mean the funny guy in my office who isn’t saved, or the little old lady down the street who isn’t saved, or the (you fill in the blank) who isn’t saved is actually worshipping foreign gods like those reprobates in Sodom and Gomorrah, or those who were about to be sacked in Judah at the time of Jeremiah’s writing, or the “nations” so frequently mentioned are worshipping foreign gods, are you?

      Well, I don’t mean to imply that old unsaved Uncle Fred, or the unsaved clerk at the grocery store, or any of the aforementioned unsaved are literally and ritualistically bowing down before a carved heathen idol enshrined in their living room.  But in a real sense, they really are.  I find that when I’m in righteous Old Testament king mode, that I spend a lot of time destroying the high places and the pagan altars in my own life.  No, I don’t worship Baal, or Dagon, or Moloch.  When I’m out destroying the asherah poles of my own life, they all have “Shrine to Dana” written all over them.  And if we’re being honest, we will have to admit that many times the idol who we most worship in place of the Living God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is…ourselves. 

     What was Adam’s and Eve’s real temptation and subsequent sin?  Wasn’t it the temptation and sin of wanting to be God in place of God being God?  Genesis 3: 4&5 relates:

      “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (ESV)

      Pass the apples, please.  Yep, we all like to bow before our own image in every sin of omission and commission in which we engage.  We are constantly, or at least I am constantly in need of repenting from worshipping my own image in all the thoughts and deeds that are not 100% in submission to Christ.  Yes, it’s that serious.  Ask the inhabitants of Judah in Jeremiah’s day when the first clouds of dust rising from Babylonian chariots became visible on the horizon.

     And why not rather than shedding tears for the poor lost, shed a few for the fact that the Name and righteous reign of the King of all Glory is ignored as trivial, and crudely maligned by those poor lost souls for whom we feel so sorry.  David didn’t take on and slay Goliath out of some sense of righteous patriotism.  No, David’s indignation towards the Philistines and Goliath in particular, was over the fact that they insulted the name of the God of Israel. 1^st Samuel 17:45 relates: “Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied….’” (ESV)

       David’s zeal was for the Lord, His Name, and His Glory.  Whether or not he felt any compassion in his heart for the poor Philistines who didn’t know God wasn’t even in the picture.  Should we not feel more angst over the treatment of God in and by our society (and many of our churches) than we do over those who defy Him?

      I’m not saying we should rise up, get out our slingshots, and go slay a sinner, because by his very nature, that sinner defies God. We are not radical extremists who kill anyone not in line with us.  But I am saying that perhaps we should be more concerned for God, His Name, His Glory and His Holiness than for the fate of one who opposes Him.  Am I decrying evangelism?  Certainly not!  But perhaps our evangelism might be more effective if our motivation was based on holding God’s Name in its proper and exalted place, and not  based on our sympathy over the fate of the lost soul, who, if he persists in his rebellion will get just what he deserves (and what we all deserved).

     It’s all about the Kingdom.  It’s what Jesus spoke about the most in His earthly ministry.  It’s the lesson Israel and Judah had to most painfully learn.  Nearly a century later, in Babylon, Daniel would have a vision of the throne of Ancient of Days, and the Son of Man (Jesus’ favorite self-designation) given reign, and His Kingdom’s endurance forever.  Daniel 7:13-14.  

      Might our evangelism be more potent if, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have the righteous fear of Jeremiah 8 in mind, and go out, not as sheepish beggars, but as emissaries of The King, with messages both of impending righteous judgment, and hope in that while there is yet time, (that one day will surely run out), this same King offers the only remedy for said judgment? 

      Lord, we humbly ask, that you increase our vision, so that we may see and having done so, actively participate in bringing the “nations” to you as your rightful inheritance, not because we feel sorry for them for the fate they deserve, but because they are Yours by right, and beg that becomes the motivation for our zeal.

      And like Dr. Brown used to say, “Amen and amen.”                      

 

Dana