EXTENDING GOD’S KINDNESS

EXTENDING GOD’S KINDNESS

2 Samuel 9:1-7 NET.

¹ Then David asked, “Is anyone still left from the family of Saul, so that I may extend kindness to him for the sake of Jonathan?” ² Now there was a servant from Saul’s house named Ziba, so he was summoned to David. The king asked him, “Are you Ziba?” He replied, “At your service.” ³ The king asked, “Is there not someone left from Saul’s family, that I may extend God’s kindness to him?” Ziba said to the king, “One of Jonathan’s sons is left; both of his feet are crippled.” ⁴ The king asked him, “Where is he?” Ziba told the king, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar. ⁵ So King David had him brought from the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar. ⁶ When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed low with his face toward the ground. David said, “Mephibosheth?” He replied, “Yes, at your service.” ⁷David said to him, “Don’t be afraid, because I will certainly extend kindness to you for the sake of Jonathan, your father. You will be a regular guest at my table.”

We are reading through the Bible, two chapters a day, and our calendars have brought us to the story of Mephibosheth. This is a fantastic story from the Bible, and it is so relevant for us. I have prayed that God would give me the ability to open this story to reveal all its significance because, as we read the text, it is possible to recognize some of what is going on but miss so much.

The story of Mephibosheth

The story begins when King David asks if there are any members of Saul’s family left. That question was not unusual for a king to ask. In that period, when a new king gained the throne, one of the first things he did was to seek out all the family members and supporters of the previous king and put them to death. No one would have been surprised if David had asked that question for that purpose. It would have been the politically appropriate choice for David in that position. He had spent a significant portion of his life being pursued by Saul. The former king had been envious of David and fearful of him, and that led to Saul taking aim at David and seeking to destroy him on numerous occasions.

There were even some occasions when it appeared that God had miraculously handed Saul over to David. We read about one such time when David and his men were sitting in the recesses of a cave. Saul had taken three thousand soldiers and set off to capture David. They had come to the sheepfolds by the road, and Saul had to relieve himself, so he decided to duck into this cave. David and his men were watching. The men told David that this was a fulfillment of God’s promise to give his enemy into his hand. But all David did was sneak in and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe.

That was one such incident, and there was another later on. Saul was again out with his 3,000-soldier army seeking to kill David. He and his men set up camp on a hill. David and one of his men (Abishai) came into the camp and found everyone sleeping. So they went all the way up the hill to the top, and there, in the center of the camp, they found Saul sleeping, with his commanding general Abner at his side. Abishai said, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me drive the spear right through him into the ground with one swift jab! A second jab won’t be necessary!” But David would not do it. It wasn’t because David was afraid of Saul. It was because David knew that he did not have to be the one to destroy his enemy. He trusted God to do that.

That fateful day for Saul came during a battle with the Philistines at Mount Gilboa. Saul was severely wounded and chose to take his own life by falling on his sword. His sons, including Jonathan, also died in that battle. Jonathan had been a very close friend of David. He had protected and defended David.

Mephibosheth was five years old on the day his father, Jonathan, and grandfather, Saul, died. When they heard the news of that tragic battle, the members of Jonathan’s household panicked. His nanny picked him up and started to run. But she tripped, and Mephibosheth was injured in the fall. From that day on, Mephibosheth was disabled. He would live the rest of his life that way.

Our text indicates that Mephibosheth was living in hiding. He escaped destruction only by keeping his whereabouts secret. He did not announce his family history. Only a few knew where he was hiding. David interviews Ziba to find out. Ziba had been one of Saul’s slaves, but he had made a good life for himself after the death of his master. Ziba knew the secret, but he was reluctant to tell anyone. You get the sense that he was not exactly trusting David’s motivation. He reveals the fact that the man is disabled and where he is living, but he does not tell David his name.

David’s men find Mephibosheth at he house of Makir in Lo Debar. He is brought before the king, and he bows low with his face to the ground. He had every reason to expect to be put to death that day. But David says to him, “Don’t be afraid, because I will certainly extend kindness to you for the sake of Jonathan, your father. You will be a regular guest at my table.”

David showed kindness to Mephibosheth for three reasons. First, as the text says, David wanted to repay Jonathan’s kindness. He misses his friend and wants to bless Jonathan’s family.

Second, David had promised Saul that he would not eliminate all of Saul’s family when he gained the throne. David was being faithful to Saul even though Saul had not been kind to him. David was acting with integrity.

But David chose to bless Mephibosheth for a third reason, which is also in today’s text. Look more closely at verse 3, where David asks Ziba, “Is there not someone left from Saul’s family, that I may extend God’s kindness to him?” The word for “kindness” in Hebrew is very significant in the Old Testament. It is the word חֶסֶד, a word that suggests loyalty to a covenant, mercy, and loving faithfulness.

It was the word Lot used to explain why God had mercifully saved him from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:19).
It was the word that Abraham’s servant used when he prayed that God would be loyal to Abraham by blessing him with a daughter-in-law (Genesis 24:12).
It was the word Jacob used when he praised God for all his faithful love (Genesis 32:10).
When the LORD passed by Moses, he proclaimed his own identity by giving himself this title: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in חֶסֶד and faithfulness, keeping חֶסֶד for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

David learned that one thing is always true of God: He is always faithful to his covenant. That attribute made it possible always to approach God and get forgiveness when needed. David knew failure, but he also knew forgiveness. He knew that he could trust God to correct any of his failures. He knew that he had a friend in heaven who would never turn him away.

What David wanted to do for Mephibosheth was to bless him with the same kind of faithful love that God had blessed him with. That is why David said that he wanted to extend God’s kindness to this young man. He did not know Mephibosheth. The man had never done anything to deserve his kindness. David wanted to bless him because God had blessed David.

We can learn some things from how Mephibosheth was blessed by David. Mephibosheth is an example of How to Receive God’s Kindness.

The man is damaged goods, and he knows it. Someone made a mistake, and he has spent his whole life paying for that mistake. His grandfather was a king, but he never felt like a king. His legacy was failure. Saul failed at being a king. He failed in battle. He failed God. He failed his family. Mephibosheth was alive, but he was not intact. He was a broken man.

The man had lived his entire adult life in hiding. He was the son of Adam and Eve, who thought that they would find freedom by transgressing God’s commandment. But as soon as they sinned, they came to know that their sin did not bring them glory, but shame. So, they hid. By one act, we are all forced to be separated from the source of life.

The man was weak. He did not function properly. He needed others to do for him because he could not manage his protection and provision.

The man was poor. He had lost all his resources, and the means to correct his poverty were out of his reach.

Mephibosheth is forced to receive David’s kindness passively, and every one of us who has come to Christ came to him the same way. We could not save ourselves, bless ourselves, or rescue ourselves.

Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace:
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Savior, or I die.[1]

Receiving God’s kindness and forgiveness is not difficult. However, it does require letting go of one’s pride and sense of accomplishment. Repentance happens when we realize that we are like Mephibosheth—our greatness is nonexistent, our power is weakness, and our wealth is poverty.

If you are listening to my voice today and you have not come to God for forgiveness, you may think you have a life, but you are missing out. Mephibosheth was ready to give up his life in hiding because he stood to gain a life at the king’s table. A life of blessing awaits all those who humbly come to God and receive his kindness.

We also learn some things from David’s actions in today’s story. He had been a recipient of God’s kindness, and he chose to extend that kindness to Mephibosheth. He showed us How to Extend God’s Kindness.

David was blessed, and he decided to be a blessing. This was not an arbitrary decision. He chose to bless Mephibosheth because he knew that God expected him to extend the kindness he received to others. When we were studying the commands of Christ, we learned that. We learned that Jesus taught his disciples how to live, not because they needed to do those things in order to be saved. They were already saved because they had put their faith in Christ. No, Jesus began his sermon on the mount by pronouncing a blessing on his apostles. He blessed them because they were already the light of the world. Then he taught them how to shine. They were not to shine in order to become the light of the world. They were to shine in order to bless others so that they could know salvation as well. They were not to be obedient in order to get saved. They were to be obedient so that others could get saved.

So, Jesus taught us to love our enemies and do good to those who abuse us. By so doing, we extend God’s kindness to them, and it might result in their recognizing their need for God’s salvation in Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:20-21). The Apostle Peter wrote, “Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but instead bless others” (1 Peter 3:9). The Apostle John wrote that “love is from God, and God has fathered everyone who loves and knows God. The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).

This theme, revealed in the story of David and Mephibosheth, reverberates throughout the entire Bible. It tells us that people who are saved will pass on the blessing of their relationship with God by blessing others so that they also have an opportunity to be blessed. That is extending God’s kindness because it all began with a loving God who decided to save sinners by his grace when we all deserved his wrath.

My challenge to you, brothers and sisters, is to extend God’s kindness. If we do so, miracles will happen, but they might not be the miracles we expect. David blessed Mephibosheth, but he remained disabled all his life. The miracles in that story happened in the hearts of both David and Mephibosheth.

We can extend God’s kindness by reacting to hurt and being agents of healing, helping the needy when we are able, and befriending the people that everybody else ignores. We can extend God’s kindness by taking down some of the walls that we have built to protect ourselves from other people’s problems. Our Lord himself is the master at doing this. He told his disciples to spread his gospel to every nation. There are Mephibosheths everywhere. It won’t be hard to find them. The hard part will be loving them out of hiding and giving them a place at our dinner tables. That will take a kindness greater than any natural inclination. It will take the supernatural blessing that David called “God’s Kindness.”

[1] Rock of Ages, cleft for me

LISTENING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

LISTENING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

1 Samuel 25:32-38 NET.

³² Then David said to Abigail, “Praised be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you this day to meet me! ³³ Praised be your good judgment! May you yourself be rewarded for having prevented me this day from shedding blood and taking matters into my own hands! ³⁴ Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives — he who has prevented me from harming you — if you had not come so quickly to meet me, by morning’s light not even one male belonging to Nabal would have remained alive!” ³⁵ Then David took from her hand what she had brought to him. He said to her, “Go back to your home in peace. Be assured that I have listened to you and responded favorably.” ³⁶ When Abigail went back to Nabal, he was holding a banquet in his house like that of the king. Nabal was having a good time and was very intoxicated. She told him absolutely nothing until morning’s light. ³⁷ In the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him about these matters. He had a stroke and was paralyzed. ³⁸ After about ten days the LORD struck Nabal down and he died.

We have committed to reading through the Bible, two chapters a day. Our calendars have brought us to today’s text, in which David responds to Abigail’s appeal to him not to attack and destroy her husband and his men, even though he had acted foolishly and provoked David. Abigail listened to the Holy Spirit and saved her husband and David from making a rash decision. I’m going to approach today’s text by first looking at the background that helps explain what is going on. Then, I’m going to explore Abigail’s character by asking what made her such a wise person. Finally, I’m going to walk us all through the process of applying today’s lesson to our own lives by outlining how we should follow Abigail’s example of listening to the Holy Spirit when we face trouble.

The background to the story

In last week’s sermon, we learned that Samuel was an older man who promised to instruct the people in living God’s way. However, they wanted a king, and Samuel was allowed by God to give them one. The king’s name was Saul. Despite starting well, Saul proved to be a disappointment, both to Samuel and to God. So, God promised that he would tear the kingdom away from Saul, just like Saul accidentally tore Samuel’s robe.

In today’s chapter, Saul is still king, but Samuel had already anointed David and was biding his time before God’s promise would be fulfilled. At the beginning of this chapter, we learned that Samuel had died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him. Having just experienced the death and funeral for Pope Francis, we have some idea what that would have been like. After this period of mourning, David went with his men to the open country. It was there that he started planning for the coming holiday. He had remembered that his men had protected the property of a wealthy man named Nabal while they were in Carmel.

David sent ten of his men to request that Nabal provide what they needed to celebrate the coming feast. This was not an unreasonable request since David’s men had protected his property in the past. Also, Nabal had thousands of animals, so meeting the request would not have harmed him. But Nabal was in a mood. He absolutely refused the request and spoke harshly about David. When David’s men returned and told him what Nabal had said, David was incensed. David decided to visit Nabal himself – fully armed – with four hundred of his men (to-thirds of his army)!

In the meantime, one of Abigail’s slaves had witnessed Nabal’s bad behavior and rushed to tell Abigail. The slave knew that Nabal had done something both foolish and dangerous. The slave did not appeal to Nabal’s sense of propriety. Apparently, Nabal did not have any common sense, and the slave knew it. Instead, the slave went to the one person in the household who could make a difference: her mistress, Abigail.

When Abigail heard about her husband’s insult, she assumed David would respond in anger. She quickly gathered 200 loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep, five seahs of grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 fig cakes and loaded them onto donkeys. She determined to intervene to keep Nabal’s foolishness from destroying him. She took the gift and met David’s army on the road. She bowed to David and apologized, accepting all the responsibility and seeking to make reparation for the insult. What we read in today’s text is the result of that act of wisdom.

That day, Abigail saved two men who were acting on their emotions. Her actions demonstrated wisdom, and David rightly commended her for rescuing both her husband and David himself.

What made Abigail a wise person

Abigail showed that humility is wise. She was beautiful and intelligent, but she approached David with humility and wisdom, acknowledging his authority and the fact that he could rightly bring harm on her husband and his men. She used her intelligence not for pride but to discern the situation and act appropriately. Abigail’s story demonstrates that wisdom and humility are not weaknesses but powerful virtues that can be used to overcome adversity, bring peace, and ultimately glorify God.

Abigail gave the soft answer that the Bible says turns away wrath. All too often, we have been led to believe that the only way to fight fire is with fire. But ask a firefighter. A firefighter will tell you that the proper way to fight a fire is with water. It puts out the fire. Abigail teaches us that in a volatile situation, you don’t need to strap on your swords. Sometimes, what you need is to bring a present.

Abigail showed that peacemaking is wise. The first act of peacemaking was not to run to Nabal and explain to him how foolish he had been. Instead, she snuck out without going to Nabal because he had made a mess that had to be cleaned up. Later, there would be time to approach Nabal, not while he was still in a drunken rage.

Her gift to David and his men effectively diffused a potentially deadly situation by offering a peace offering and acknowledging her husband’s wrongdoings. Her words and actions prevented a bloody confrontation and spared her family and servants.

Later, Abigail showed constraint when she returned and found Nabal drunk. She waited until he was sober to reveal what she had done to save him and his men. Sometimes peacemaking means knowing when to wait for the right time to act.

Abigail showed that Intercession is wise. Some think that Abigail’s story prefigures Jesus’s sacrifice, as she placed herself between David and Nabal, just as Jesus placed himself between God and humanity. Abigail showed wisdom by taking the blame for her husband’s actions and making reparation even though she knew he was wrong.

Even if Abigail’s story were not intended to teach about the coming Messiah, we can see him in her actions. He was a man of peace in a time of violence and anger. He taught his followers to be peacemakers. He came to die in our place to keep us all from receiving the punishment that we deserve.

Abigail showed that following God’s will is wise. She could have told her slave to go away and mind her own business. She could have said that her husband was a fool and he deserved whatever would happen to him. But Abigail was wise enough to realize that what was happening was her prompt to get involved. God’s will would not work itself out without her involvement.

We need to realize that as well. God has a plan to make a difference in our community, our homes, and our church. But his plan requires that we get off our easy chairs and make things happen. The message came to Abigail, not somebody else. If Abigail had decided to pass the buck, the story would have ended badly for everyone.

Abigail’s actions are a powerful reminder of the importance of choosing righteousness and aligning oneself with God’s will, even when it’s difficult. She decided to align herself with David, the future king, and did not let her husband’s actions dictate her behavior.

How we can act as wise people.

We can take our debts seriously. Abigail realized that her family owed David for his protection. When she found out that her husband had offended David by not helping out his men, she took it on herself to pay that debt. Paying our debts is a spiritual matter. The Apostle Paul told the believers to owe nobody anything except the continuing debt of love. Wise people determine to live with integrity. That means never skipping one’s obligations.

We should never hide behind anyone else. Abigail could have left everything to her husband, but that was not the wise approach in this situation. Wise men know they sometimes make mistakes, and are grateful for wives who will not let those mistakes go uncorrected. We should be correctors of problems. Passing the buck and leaving the problems for others to fix is not wise.

We should think and act beyond ourselves. When she did what she did, Abigail undoubtedly acted outside the expectations of others. That does not make her a rebel; it makes her a hero. As a wise person, she looked outside the box when staying inside the box would have ended in disaster. She demonstrated insight when she was moved to action. She could not remain passive. She did not say, “It’s not my place.”

Abigail was the precursor to Queen Esther. Both women recognized that they were placed into their circumstances by God because God had a mission for them. If either of these women had not taken the initiative, innocent people would have died. Neither of them was a person of violence. But if they had not acted, violence would have been the result.

We don’t know whether Abigail was a mother, but she probably was. It would have made sense for her to intercede to try to prevent the deaths of some of her sons. Today happens to be Mother’s Day here in this country. Some of the most outstanding leaders the world has ever known owe their greatness to the wisdom they acquired by following their mothers. Those mothers might have had a reputation for being passive and unassuming. But watch out when their children are in trouble. As a hiker, I learned the most dangerous thing you can encounter on the trail is a mother bear with her cubs.

It will not be every day that you and I are called on to do such extraordinary things. When the time is right, we will know it. Then, it will be up to us to listen to the Holy Spirit and make the wise decision, like Abigail did. It will be a decision that we must make because God wants to use us to accomplish his will. When the people most capable of making peace choose to do nothing, that will be our prompt to do what must be done to make peace.

EMPTY THINGS

EMPTY THINGS

1 Samuel 12:19-25 NET.

¹⁹ All the people said to Samuel, “Pray to the LORD your God on behalf of us — your servants — so we won’t die, for we have added to all our sins by asking for a king.” ²⁰Then Samuel said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. You have indeed sinned. However, don’t turn aside from the LORD. Serve the LORD with all your heart. ²¹You should not turn aside after empty things that can’t profit and can’t deliver, since they are empty. ²²The LORD will not abandon his people because he wants to uphold his great reputation. The LORD was pleased to make you his own people. ²³As far as I am concerned, far be it from me to sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you! I will instruct you in the way that is good and upright. ²⁴However, fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Just look at the great things he has done for you! ²⁵But if you continue to do evil, both you and your king will be swept away.”

We started reading 1 Samuel on Tuesday. We read about Hannah, who prayed so desperately for a child that the priest thought she was drunk. But the LORD answered her desperate prayers, and she gave birth to Samuel. When the boy was old enough, she gave him to be raised in God’s presence permanently.

In a sense, all of us who are believers experience what Hannah did. We knew the fruitlessness of a barren life until we met Christ and were born again. But our vow to God is to give the life he gave us back to him. We can do so with joy because life came from him in the first place.

Samuel lived with the elder priest, Eli. Samuel grew up respecting God and the priesthood, but Eli’s sons did not. They sinned and brought shame upon the land. But the LORD spoke to Samuel, and Samuel listened to his voice. So many of us put our spiritual cellphones on “do not disturb” because we cannot be bothered with a vision from God. Like it was in Eli’s day, the word of Yahveh is rare. We have God’s written word, but we often ignore that.

On Wednesday, we read about the Philistines capturing the ark. This battle resulted in the deaths of Hophni and Phineas, Eli’s sons. Eli died as well. This was a reminder that even those who profess faith in God will not always live in victory, especially if there are areas of our lives that we do not surrender to him.

This week, we read through most of Samuel’s narrative, and by this time, we notice that he is already an older man. Under his leadership, the people had gotten tired of God working out his will among them. They wanted a king and demanded that Samuel appoint one. The LORD told Samuel to relent and give them a king, and also to warn them of the price they would have to pay.

The people turned aside after empty things (21).

Samuel told the people that they should not turn aside after empty things. The Hebrew word he used was תֹּהוּ, a word that we had encountered in the first chapter of Genesis. We are told that when God first created the planet, it was formless and void. The word for formless is תֹּהוּ. It means something that doesn’t matter: a something that is a nothing.

The Israelites’ pursuit of a king and executive leadership did not seem like nothing to them. It looks like our modern society here in the USA is obsessed with the same thing. People talk, fight, plan, and scheme to get their person elected or to get who they think is the wrong person out. All the network news services join in the fight. It seems like every segment has to mention the President’s name somehow. The United States has over 300 million people, but somehow, no one matters but POTUS.

The Israelites decided that they needed a king. Samuel initially rejected their request, but the LORD told him to go along with it. The LORD sometimes refuses to give us what we want if we ask for the wrong thing. But sometimes, he gives us what we ask for to reveal the selfishness behind our asking.

We have just finished the book of Judges. The Judges were a special group of temporary and local leaders that God gave the Israelites before the monarchy. Samuel was the last of the Judges. He presided over the transition, and it must have hurt him deeply to be the last. He felt the sting of rejection behind the people’s request for a king. But he was also upset because he saw what the kings of all the nations around Israel were doing to their people. The kings led their people to acts of sacrilege and violence. The kings led their people away from God and his word. This is why Samuel called the desire for a king turning aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver. The real power of any nation is not in its executive branch but in its relationship with God.

Samuel warned of the consequences of seeking empty things (25).

Samuel saw that a king could only make a selfish people more selfish. He warned his people that if they continued to do evil, both they and their precious king would be swept away. The people did not want to hear that. They suffered under the delusion of permanence. They assumed that they would always be around and keep doing what they were doing. But God, through Samuel, was warning them that they were not as steady as they thought they were.

Jesus teaches us the same thing. He warns his readers that they are building their houses on the sand. But he warns us that when the rain falls and the flood comes, the winds will beat on those houses and they will collapse and be utterly destroyed. We love our houses. We spend our time cleaning them, repairing them, remodeling them, and beautifying them. But if those houses are not built on the rock, then none of our efforts will matter. The house itself is just another empty thing that we have turned aside from God and run after. There are consequences of seeking empty things. Even when the empty things seem like important things, we need to keep them in perspective. We need to seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness first. All other things are empty things.

Samuel offered God’s good things (22-24).

He challenged his people to review their history and consider the great things God had done for them. We have been reading about those great things this year. I hope that we have done so, realizing that God expected his people to respond to his miraculous acts of love by returning the love. Samuel challenged his people to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all their heart.

When I meet a stranger and that person shows disrespect for me, I may be confused, but I don’t let it bother me. I tell myself that if that person actually knew me, they would not treat me that way. But if I get the same disrespect from one of my children, it makes me angry. Why do I get angry at the same behavior from one of my children? The reason is apparent. My children know how much I love them. They have decades of evidence of my care and concern for them. For that reason, if they disrespect me, it hurts more.

History would reveal the people’s response to Samuel’s offer.

Samuel makes a bargain with his people. He commanded them to stay faithful to God despite their past failures and to fear and follow him faithfully without getting caught up in trivial pursuits. For his part of the

bargain, Samuel promised to pray for them consistently, which is what they asked for. But he also promised to teach them the good and proper way to follow God. As we continue reading the Old Testament, we are going to see evidence that a few leaders got it right and brought reform and revival to the land and its people. But many failed to stay focused on God and his word. When that happened, God stayed faithful to his covenant. He brought punishment to his people because he had to remain faithful to his covenant with them.

Holy Communion service:

Colossians 2:14 NET

He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

I want to confess. I like to pay bills. I get a satisfactory feeling every time I sit at my computer and transfer funds from my account to pay my credit card bills. Before you volunteer to give me some of your bills to pay, I have to explain that I like paying my bills.

This month, I encountered some bills that were charged against me that I had not incurred. I didn’t want to pay those bills because they were not mine. I didn’t deserve them. So my bank reimbursed me for the false charges, and got the company that defrauded me to reimburse them.

Today, I want to remind you that you once had a charge against you in heaven’s court: a court that is even higher than any human supreme court. You deserve to answer all of those charges, but our Lord chose to take the punishment for them on himself. He took away your certificate of indebtedness and nailed it on the cross with his body. His blood cleansed you from every stain of every sin you committed. That is why we celebrate Jesus with these emblems of holy communion. It is all about him and what he did. It had to be him because only he was qualified. Only he was sinless. He became a sin offering for us. Every time we come to this table, we celebrate the forgiveness of a debt. We celebrate the freedom we now have to live without the condemnation we deserve because of the love and grace of God in Christ.

Thank you, heavenly Father, for the loving gift of your Son. His death on the cross has taken away our indebtedness and nailed it to the cross. Because of him, we can live free of the guilt and shame of sin. Thank you that our Lord Jesus Christ is not an empty thing. He is worth our faith and loyalty, and devotion because he has delivered us. Amen.

WHAT BOAZ SAW

WHAT BOAZ SAW

Ruth 2:4-17 NET.

⁴ Now at that very moment, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “May the LORD be with you!” They replied, “May the LORD bless you!” ⁵ Boaz asked his servant in charge of the harvesters, “To whom does this young woman belong?” ⁶ The servant in charge of the harvesters replied, “She’s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab. ⁷ She asked, ‘May I follow the harvesters and gather grain among the bundles?’ Since she arrived, she has been working hard from this morning until now — except for sitting in the resting hut a short time.” ⁸ So Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my dear! Do not leave to gather grain in another field. You need not go beyond the limits of this field. You may go along beside my female workers. ⁹ Take note of the field where the men are harvesting and follow behind with the female workers. I will tell the men to leave you alone. When you are thirsty, you may go to the water jars and drink some of the water the servants draw.” ¹⁰ Ruth knelt before him with her forehead to the ground and said to him, “Why are you so kind and so attentive to me, even though I am a foreigner?” ¹¹ Boaz replied to her, “I have been given a full report of all that you have done for your mother-in-law following the death of your husband — how you left your father and your mother, as well as your homeland, and came to live among people you did not know previously. ¹² May the LORD reward your efforts! May your acts of kindness be repaid fully by the LORD God of Israel, from whom you have sought protection!” ¹³ She said, “You really are being kind to me, sir, for you have reassured and encouraged me, your servant, even though I am not one of your servants!” ¹⁴ Later, during the mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and have some food! Dip your bread in the vinegar!” So she sat down beside the harvesters. Then he handed her some roasted grain. She ate until she was full and saved the rest. ¹⁵When she got up to gather grain, Boaz told his male servants, “Let her gather grain even among the bundles! Don’t chase her off! ¹⁶ Make sure you pull out ears of grain for her and drop them so she can gather them up. Don’t tell her not to!” ¹⁷ So she gathered grain in the field until evening. When she threshed what she had gathered, it came to about thirty pounds of barley!

We are continuing to read through the Bible, two chapters per day. Our reading has brought us to the period of the judges, and today’s text describes events that happened during that period. This was a time when the Israelites were not known for their loyalty to the LORD. There was no king, so people pretty much did whatever they wanted, with very little to prevent wickedness. It was a time and a culture much like that of our own. If you asked anyone whether what they were doing was right, they would say yes. But they were doing what was right in their own eyes. They had been given God’s law through Moses, but they paid very little attention to that law. If they wanted to do something, they did it. They did not stop to ask if what they were doing honored God. Most of the people during this time lived like that.

But there were exceptions. The life stories of some of those exceptional people are recorded in Scripture. The book of Ruth represents the islands of light in the sea of darkness. People like Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz were reminders that even during times of rampant wickedness, one can still choose to follow the Lord and be the light of the world. Many sermons have been preached that highlight the way Ruth and Naomi pierced the darkness by their faith and the actions brought about by that faith. For today’s message, I have chosen to look more closely at Boaz. The reason I want to focus on Boaz is that he had a character quality that very few in his time possessed. He had insight into the things that really mattered. He discerned how to make the right choices based on an awareness of what was significant and what was not.

I want to focus on how today’s text identifies Boaz’s insight. Each part of the passage introduces a new way of thinking that Boaz understood, but few around him did. He was set apart as an example of someone who could see opportunities where others only saw problems. He could see God at work where others only saw the mundane—the ordinary.

Boaz saw an opportunity to honor God in everything he did (4, 12).

The easiest facet of Boaz’s insight to recognize is what we see in these two verses. In verse 4, Boaz is greeting his harvesters. He does not begin by barking out orders, or even by requesting a report on the progress of the harvest. No, he starts with a formal greeting. It looks like this is a tradition with Boaz. We don’t see too many examples of this kind of greeting in Scripture, particularly not in this period. But Boaz is an exception. The first thing out of Boaz’s mouth is a blessing. He invokes God’s presence among his workers. He says, “May the LORD be with you.” They respond in turn, “May the LORD bless you.” They put the LORD first in their conversation. This is a clue that they have put the LORD first in their lives. They are harvesters, but they prioritize the LORD over their harvest. Boaz is the master of the harvest. He puts the LORD first over himself.

Jesus teaches that we should prioritize the LORD first. He taught us to pray, “Our Father… hallowed be thy name.” He taught us to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. If we seek God’s kingdom first, then everything we do can be in his name. Boaz was not about making himself look great. He was not even about making Israel great. His priority was making the name of God great.

Later in the text, Boaz reflects the same insight when he asks the LORD to reward Ruth’s efforts (vs. 12). Boaz saw Ruth as someone who had taken refuge in the LORD. He asks God to repay her for seeking the LORD’s protection. She was not depending on Naomi or Boaz. She was showing dependence upon God himself, and Boaz praised her for it.

Boaz saw beyond national and ethnic prejudices (5-6).

He had asked his servants who Ruth was. Their answer seems to indicate that they had written Ruth off because she was not a natural-born citizen of Israel. They said, “She’s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab. Their answer focuses on only one aspect of Ruth’s personality: her ethnic lineage. To them, the most important thing about Ruth was that she was one of them. Her ancestors were children of Lot, not children of Abraham.

The Moabites were very different from the Israelites. They claimed a different territory. They worshipped and served other gods. They sometimes clashed with and fought against the Israelites. But even beyond that, the Israelites often viewed the Moabites with suspicion because Lot’s daughters had gotten their father drunk and become impregnated by him to preserve his family line. So, when Naomi came back to Israel, tongues wagged because of that Moabite girl she brought with her.

Boaz had the spiritual insight to see beyond Ruth’s physical background and see Ruth for who she was on the inside. Of course, it helped Boaz that he himself came from a mixed family. His father was Salmon of the clan of Elimelech. But Salmon had married Rahab. Yes, the Rahab who had been a citizen of Jericho until she took a leap of faith and protected the Israelite scouts. After that, she became one of them. Before, she was one of them – the outsiders. Since Boaz probably grew up with tongues wagging all around him about his foreign mother, he was sensitive to what prejudice can do to a person.

Boaz saw potential where others saw a problem (8-9).

He invited Ruth to stay close to his workers and not to stray to other fields. He told his men to help her out and not to harass her. He did this because he recognized that she could be an asset, not a liability. Some property owners might have told their workers to shoo away the foreigners, but not Boaz. He looked beyond her background and responded only to her actions as a hard worker.

Boaz saw faith where others saw mere kindness (10-12).

When Ruth asked Boaz why he was being so kind to her, even though she was one of them, Boaz answered her. He said that he had been given a full report of all she had done for Naomi. Naomi had given both of her daughters-in-law permission to leave her and go back to their people. Orpah chose to do that. But Ruth chose to stay with Naomi. She decided to remain loyal to Naomi, even when that meant leaving her people and going to live among Naomi’s people.

Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi is so well-stated that it is often used to express marital fidelity even today. She was the one who first said, “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16 KJV). Ruth was not just being kind to Naomi. She had decided to be all in. Boaz recognized that choice as an act of faith.

Boaz saw Ruth’s heart and sought to encourage her (13-17).

It was one thing for Boaz to appreciate Ruth for her loyalty to her mother-in-law. It was another to go beyond that and actively show deference to Ruth. Boaz was hooked. She had won his heart, and so he went out of his way to encourage hers. From that point on, it was Boaz who was going out of his way to pay attention to Ruth and bless her beyond what was expected.

When Ruth arrived home that night, she had about thirty pounds of barley with her. That was way more than your average yield for a day’s gleaning. Naomi knew right then that Ruth had caught Boaz’s attention.

We can learn from Boaz a thing or two about making a difference in the lives of those around us. He had been blessed, and he returned the blessing. This is more than just a love story. This is a story about a man who decided to live by the covenant that he had inherited from his family. Everything Boaz did was in obedience to the commands of God through Moses. We learned in our study of Deuteronomy that God expected his people to show deference to the poor, the foreign resident, and the widow. Ruth was all three of these. Boaz looked at this woman, and he saw more than a potential wife. Their courtship began because he chose to obey God’s word.

Jesus said that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. There is a reason God wants us to do that. He wants us to show that he loves the world and demonstrate that love. We demonstrate love by loving. We demonstrate that God cares by caring for people ourselves. There is a planet full of Ruths just waiting for someone to care. They are amazing people, but most of the world does not see their potential because they are different from us. Boaz challenges us to look at others with love in our hearts. The Good Samaritan challenges us to take the time to help the needy. Maybe the next Ruth is gleaning in our fields today. Will we dare to care for them?

MADE ALIVE

MADE ALIVE

1 Corinthians 15:20-26 NET.

²⁰ But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man.²² For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.²³ But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ comes, those who belong to him.²⁴ Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power.²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.²⁶ The last enemy to be eliminated is death.

We are reading through the Bible – two chapters a day – and our Sunday morning messages have usually been based on one of the passages we have encountered in our reading. But we have been taking a short break from that practice these past two Sundays. Because last Sunday was Palm Sunday and today is Easter, we are taking a detailed look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, which is Paul’s presentation of the gospel message. For Paul, the gospel message is focused on the reality of Christ’s resurrection. That is what Easter is all about. When we take away all the cultural traditions and external wrapping, Easter is the holiday of the resurrection. But our holiday does not simply celebrate the hope of resurrection in general. As Paul makes it clear in this chapter, our hope of a future resurrection is forever linked to who Jesus is and the fact of his resurrection.

If we take Christ away from Easter, we will still have all the external celebrations and rituals, but they will have been robbed of their true meaning. That is why we need to focus first on what happened to Jesus on Easter Sunday morning. Before we jump to some other focus, we should be sure what the Bible says about that empty tomb as it relates to the man who was inside that tomb.

Christ is the first to be made alive (20).

The Scripture says that Christ has been raised from the dead. That tells us that he was not merely pretending to be dead, nor was he only partially dead. There is a category of human beings that we refer to as “the dead,” and for a brief period of days, Jesus Christ was in that category. All of us are familiar with the concept. We have enjoyed the company of friends and family members, but we have also lost some of them to the enemy dead. To use Paul’s analogy, death is reigning over us. Even if we are perfectly healthy and completely alive, the spectre of death hangs over us all like a dark cloud, predicting dark days and final defeat by that enemy.

But it is not all bad news. In today’s passage, the Apostle Paul describes the significance of Jesus’s resurrection by painting three different pictures. This first picture is that of a planting and a harvest. Death is compared to the planting of a seed. There is a natural similarity. When we plant seeds, we bury them in the ground. Later, the seeds germinate and sprout, eventually becoming a whole crop of new plants, alive and fruitful. Planting involves a period of dormancy. The seed is there in the ground, hidden from our eyes and sleeping. It is inactive.

Paul describes Christ as having experienced that period of dormancy. Before Easter Sunday morning, he was among the dead, asleep in Hades, but Scripture says that he was not abandoned there. He was among those who had fallen asleep in death. But then he was wakened to life again. He had been planted, but all was not lost. He was planted with a view of experiencing new life again. He did not immediately experience that new life. His death was not an illusion. It was a real death. But it did not end his life permanently. He has been raised from the dead.

The planting analogy continues as we examine the title Paul gives Jesus in these early verses: He is the firstfruits, the first harvest of all those planted. All the other dead continue sleeping in their graves, but not Jesus. It is not simply the fact that he has been resuscitated. Many die and are revived, either by a miracle (like Lazarus was) or but jump-starting their bodies again. But Jesus’s resurrection was different. He was revived, never to experience being planted again. The life he lives now is a different kind of life that the lives you and I live. We live with that dark cloud over us. Even on our best days, our mortality slips through and spoils our joy of living. But Jesus was raised never to die again. He is the only person who has ever experienced what the Bible calls the resurrection unto life.

The word “firstfruits ” offers hope. It speaks of a larger harvest yet to come. It says that Jesus is the first of a larger group of seeds, planted, dormant, and then sprouting to life. The life he is living now is the life we will inherit from him. Every Easter, we have the opportunity to look on our Savior as the first of a new category of human beings. Eternal, immortal, perfected human beings. Human beings free of our present imperfections and made anew into the image of Christ himself. He is the firsfruits, and there will be a later harvest. We can live in expectation not only of living again but of living his kind of life. As John the Baptist went before and prepared the world for Jesus, so Jesus went before us, tasting death for us, but also tasting the new life for us. That is something to celebrate! Jesus is our firstfruits!

Christ is the second Adam (22).

The Bible tells us all about the first Adam. He failed God, and because of his failure, all of us die. We die because when our first ancestors rebelled against God in the garden of Eden, that failure was passed on to everyone that their union would produce. All of their descendants die like they did. We are all born mortal and will all eventually die. That is what it means to be in Adam. We share the characteristics of our first parents. Many of us share characteristics of our immediate parents. We can see and hear the parents of our friends and family members in their children. We sometimes suffer ailments because we inherit deficiencies in our DNA. We are linked to those who have gone on before us through our bloodline. But what is true on that level is also true on the global, planetary level. We inherit things from Adam. He is the first, and we are next down the line. Mortality is one of those things we have inherited from Adam.

But Jesus is the second Adam. All of us belong to Adam, but verse 23 says that some of us also belong to Christ. Because we who have put our faith in Christ now belong to him, we will experience the same kind of resurrection that Christ did when he comes again. There is a resurrection unto life, and there is a resurrection unto condemnation that will end in the second death. Jesus was the second Adam because his resurrection was the first in the chain of resurrections unto life. Today’s text even gives us the order of the resurrections. Christ’s resurrection came first, and our resurrections unto life will happen when Christ comes. The second Adam is alive today in heaven. He wants all of us to experience the fantastic immortal life he is now living. He knows that will happen. But he also knows that it has to happen in the proper order. So, the Lord said that he is coming, and his reward is with him. He does not pass on that reward to people when they die. Death is not graduation day. His return is when all those in Christ will be made alive.

The phrase “second Adam” offers hope. We all know how fantastic it is to be part of the human race. We are amazed at the potential power, beauty, and wisdom that human beings are capable of. Even the lowest of us can think amazing thoughts and overwhelm others with our actions. An unassuming person comes to the auditorium, and the judges of the contest are introduced to the contestant. But for a brief moment, nobody knows what is coming next. Then, the contestant starts to sing or dance or do some acrobatic stunt. All of a sudden, people realize that this is no mere average human being. This is a star. This is a winner. This is exceptional among all us normals.

But the phrase “second Adam” tells us that God plans to create a new category of human beings. We are currently in the normal first-Adam generation. But we will inherit a world of stars, a world of winners, a world of people who are patterned after Christ himself. He is the next big thing, and we have the opportunity to be like him. That is why Paul said that he made it his aim to know Christ and to experience his resurrection. He was not satisfied with simply living out his first-Adam life. He wanted more. Easter reminds us that God wants more of us as well.

So, if you have ever asked yourself, “Is this all there is?” or “Is there nothing more?” you were getting at the question that Easter answers. God has much more in store for you and me than we can imagine. The second Adam has begun a revolution that will spread throughout the universe. We are invited to be part of that new thing.

Christ will end the reign of death (25-26).

Another way of seeing the reality that Easter reveals is that God plans to undo all that is wrong with this reality. Paul teaches in today’s text that God will not be satisfied with simply collecting all the believers and transporting them to a good place. He plans to cleanse the impure things and make new the old things. He plans to make an end to all the things corrupted by sin. Those things are currently reigning over us. They dominate us. And the worst of all is the enemy death. Paul teaches here that Christ intends to put an end to all rule, authority, and power. Those are all the things in this life that dominate us and keep us from walking in freedom. Not only will Christ free us from the bondage of Hades, but he will also put all these other enemies under his feet. He will eliminate them from the universe. They are his enemies, and they are also our enemies.

The last and most potent of these enemies is death itself. Today, we have no choice but to welcome this enemy into our lives, our homes, and our families. But it will not be welcome in Christ’s new universe. Its reign has peppered our landscapes with monuments and memorial stones. But there will be no such thing on the Earth made new. The last battle will be fought, the last coffin emptied, the last flag rolled. The second death will be the last death. The lake of fire will be the last place of destruction.

Verse 22 says that everyone in Adam dies. We know that from experience. But the verse also says that everyone in Christ will be made alive. This is an easy text to misinterpret – especially as it reads in the NET. The clause “all will be made alive” only applies to the prepositional phrase “in Christ.” The promise of the resurrection unto eternal life only applies to those who are in Christ. Believers will live again never to die again. That is a promise worth living for. That is a hope worth celebrating.