The Still Small Voice

1 Kings 19:8-18

The prophet Elijah is a both an exciting and tragic figure of the Old Testament. His power and position are unquestioned, as John the Baptist would come sharing the same spirit and power, and Elijah himself would be with Jesus on Mt. Transfiguration. It is this dreadful 19th chapter that shows us a side to Elijah that is far too close to our own actions and attitudes from time to time.

The tragedy of Elijah is found in his perception of God. He runs from the evil Jezebel when she puts word out that she wants him dead for his actions against her prophets on Mt. Carmel. After journeying for a day, he finds himself at Mt. Horeb, “the mount of God” (1 Kings 19:8). It is called this because another name for the mountain is Mt. Sinai, which is the place that Moses received the law. By journeying to Sinai, Elijah is looking for God; and what he finds does not excite him.

God asks him why he is there, to which Elijah responds that he is the only true prophet left, and that everyone is against him (1 Kings 19:10). God invites Elijah to stand at the mouth of a cave while three separate natural wonders occur in front of him. The wind blows, breaking boulders to pieces; the earth trembles; fire falls. In all three instances, the Lord was not speaking, until the sound of a “still small voice” (verse 12).

The three miracles indicate three ways that God functioned under law. The breaking of rocks to pieces is indicative of the Word of God smashing the hard rock of man’s heart (Jeremiah 23:29); the earthquake is “quivering” in the Hebrew, like the tail end of a dart or an arrow that has struck through its victim (Hebrews 12:20); and the fire is always an indicator of the judgment of God. Elijah wants the mad, vengeful, angry God to appear, but God is in none of these things.

After this show, God asks the same question that He asked at first, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:13). Instead of seeing the still small voice as a softer side of God, Elijah answers with a word-for-word rendering of his earlier response. Nothing has changed, though he has heard the voice of God!

When a person is in a place where not even the voice of God can change them, then they are incapable of being used for the kingdom. God tells Elijah to go and anoint his successor, Elisha; a task which Elijah never really does. He throws his cloak at him in verse 19, but then asks Elisha why he is following him (1 Kings 19:20). This prophet has grown weary with those whom he is prophesying to, and God moves on to someone else.

Heed the still small voice in your life. God speaks to us as sons, not as slaves, and He always ministers His love and favor. His default position is mercy, not judgment; thus His voice will always sound merciful and loving. Be prepared to embrace His loving grace for you today, and then share that with those around you, whether they seem worthy or not.

Will You Be Made Whole?

John 5:1-9

Only the Apostle John shares with us the story of the man who was waiting for the moving of the water. Near the sheep market, where people would purchase a lamb for sacrifice before going into the temple, was an open-air infirmary. Many of the sick and paralyzed from Jerusalem had taken up permanent residence there, for there was a legend in Israel that an angel would come and stir the waters, healing whoever jumped in first. This is a picture of the law, which rewards the strong over the weak, and guarantees healing to those who can help themselves.

The place is called Bethesda, which means “house of mercy” in Hebrew (John 5:2), and when Jesus walks in, it truly lives up to its name. He goes directly to a “certain man” which indicates that Jesus came looking for him (5:5). This man has had an infirmity for 38 years, and is unable to get himself to the pool when the angel stirs the water. He has trusted in his strength for healing for 38 long years and has never been able to get to the angel, but on this particular day, the Angel has come to him! Law demands that you get on your feet and do your best, while grace and truth come walking towards you.

Jesus poses a crucial question to the man, “Wilt thou be made whole?” (John 5:6) This is an interesting thing to ask someone who has been sick for 38 years, but it shows us an important thing about the human condition. Some people have grown accustomed to what they are and who they are. They think that the bad things that are happening to them are just their “lot in life”, and they are no longer truly looking for victory or for good things to happen. The question is not just for the lame man, but for all of us. Do we really want to be made whole? Are we defined by our down-days and our discouragements? Are we using our failures and our problems as a crutch?

The shocking thing about the story is that the man does not scream, “YES!” when he is asked if he wishes to be healed. His answer is, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steps down before me” (John 5:7). Our heart is so tuned to works and performance that when asked if he wants to be healed he begins to give reasons as to why he hasn’t already earned it. Jesus is there to do a great work of grace and mercy and he is leaning on his inability to get into the pool.

Jesus tells him to do the impossible when He says, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk” (John 5:8). If the man says, “Sir, I cannot rise because I cannot walk” then healing would have passed him by. Instead, he must believe that what Jesus is saying is true because, “immediately the man was made whole” (John 5:9).

Do you wish to be whole of everything that ails you? Rise, take up your bed and walk. This act of faith is still relevant for us today as we trust that the healer is in the house. He loves you and He has paid a great price for your healing in both body and soul.

The Two Ways

Matthew 7:13-20

There are two paths that every person in the world is walking on: the broad way that leads to destruction and the narrow way that leads to life. You must make a decision in your life as to which way that you are going to walk, and this must be done frequently.

The reason that I say it must be done frequently is that it is easy to find yourself on the wrong path far too often. These verses have been used to tell people that there are few people going to heaven (“few there be that find it”) and that salvation is hard (“straight is the gate, and narrow is the way”). Actually, these verses are not speaking of your eternity, because you don’t find Jesus; He finds you!

Jesus does not say that the straight gate leads to “eternal” life. We have thrown that word in to try and explain what Jesus was talking about, but we need not put words in His mouth to have a marvelous meaning from this text. Jesus is saying that there are two paths on which to walk. If you follow after the narrow way, where Christ’s finished work serves as the lone gate, then you will walk a path that few people find. There are millions of Christians who continue to operate in their day-to-day walk by their own works and efforts instead of resting in Christ’s finished work. They are walking exactly like the lost, on a road that will lead to destruction in so many areas of their life.

This is the cause of many Christians seeing so many disasters in their life and family. They are attempting to live out “religion”, while not resting in relationship. Notice that Jesus goes on in this text to explain who you should look out for, because it is the “false prophet” of verse 15 that causes so many people to choose the wrong path.

The Bible never says that you will know if someone is a Christian or not by their fruit, though that is often said. It does say, “You shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16), with the “them” being the false prophets of the previous verse. The false prophet will bring forth “thorns” and “thistles” (verse 16), and it is incapable of bringing forth good fruit (verse 18).

We must be on guard for the false prophet because they are ravening wolves inside. Wolves feed on sheep, so a good indicator of whether or not you are near a false prophet is not what they act like or look like, because they are wearing “sheep’s clothing” (verse 15). An indicator of a false prophet’s nature is the fruit of their ministry. Are the sheep being whipped and scattered? Are there many who have run from the church because of that ministry? Are the people sitting in the church producing the fruits of the Spirit? The answer to these questions will indicate whether you are near a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Decide to go the path of the finished work of Christ. There is but one door in, as you must labor to enter into the rest of the Lord (Hebrews 4:11), but the abundant life that is found on that path is truly a product of the good shepherd (John 10:10). Only His Finished Work works, so guard the Finished Work!

A New Heart & A New Spirit

Ezekiel 36:25-27

This three verse passage in Ezekiel is an answer to a three verse passage found earlier in the same book. God ordered Israel to change their ways earlier, only to promise to change them from the inside out in this passage. The first is a clear type of Old Covenant philosophy, were man works to change himself by a system of laws and rules, while the second is a picture of the New Covenant, where God does the work and man reaps the benefits.

Look at a sampling of the things that Israel is to do in Ezekiel 18:30-32, “Repent, turn yourselves away from all your transgressions…Cast away from you all your transgressions…make you a new heart, and a new spirit…turn yourselves, and live”. Everything in this passage is the responsibility of the individual. They are to make themselves a “new heart and a new spirit”. How can a man possibly do this? Is God being unfair? Actually, God is showing man that there is no way that he can change himself, thus he will see his need for a redeemer.

Now, take the same type of sampling from our key text, Ezekiel 36:25-27, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness…A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you…I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes”. In this passage, God is the one doing all of the work, while we get all of the benefits. Any reference to us doing anything is preceded by “cause”, meaning that whatever we do under the New Covenant we do it because He is working in us.

Paul said, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). God is working in us, so whatever comes out of us is because He has done it first inside of us. We are the beneficiaries of a perfect work; which Christ accomplished for us at the cross.

Before you disqualify the preceding verses in Ezekiel from applying to you because they were written of Israel, remember that Jesus has fulfilled all promises in the Bible and given them to you. Paul wrote, “For all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Corinthians 1:20). All promises have been fulfilled in the finished work of Jesus, so they are available to the believer. Do you want these promises? Say, “Amen”!

Do not worry about how you will walk once you accept the perfect love and forgiveness of Jesus. God’s grace causes you to walk better than your works ever will. He will “cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27). He does not mention a daily repetition of those statutes, for that would denote a need to memorize them and apply them on the part of the believer. Whether you know of them or not, the Holy Spirit in you will bring out the fruit of righteousness as you accept His perfect love for you.

You have a new heart and new spirit because Jesus has paid for them, and God has implanted them. You are not who you used to be because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Rejoice that the promises of God are yours and you belong to Him!

That Which Cost Me Nothing

2 Samuel 24:21-25

It is so easy to slip from trusting the grace of God back into trusting your own works. If you do not feed on His goodness and His finished work, you will find that your natural instinct of law and works will begin to surface again. This is because our first father, Adam, ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and we have been trying to do the good and shun the evil every since.

David was a man that thought forward toward the New Covenant. His prayer following the sin with Bathsheba is a New Covenant prayer, “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities…For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:9, 17). Each one of these requests cannot be accomplished under the Old Covenant but only under the New. He was looking forward to the cross and a man named Jesus.

This is why David wrote in Psalm 32:1, 2, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile”. Paul was so moved by this being a New Covenant passage that he quotes it in the middle of a sermon on justification by faith (Romans 4:5-8).

How could this man David, who obviously understands the righteousness that will come by faith in Jesus Christ, independent of works, ever return to a system of works for his redemption? When Chronicles retells the story of Israel, there is no mention of David’s sin with Bathsheba; the murder of Uriah; or the cover-up of these crimes. It should fall near the end of 1 Chronicles 20:1, but it is not there, as if it never happened. When we place faith in Christ’s finished work for our redemption, it is as if our sin never happened, and God does not record failures in heaven.

When that same book of Chronicles tells of David’s sin in numbering the people, it goes into even more vivid detail than the original telling of 2 Samuel because when David sinned that time he returned to the system of sacrifice with a little added twist. Aside from simply offering a sacrifice for his sin, he refuses any grace at all, as Araunah offers him his threshing floor for free. David refuses, saying that he will not offer “of that which cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). He wanted forgiveness which cost him nothing when he failed with Bathsheba, but not now? It is so easy to go back to our own performance for our righteousness and to feel like we must invest in it somehow.

Be careful of this in your own life. This will sneak up on you in various ways and will come out of nowhere. You can be trusting in God’s grace and mercy for all of your goodness and then you might slip and fall and before you realize it, you will be trying to “pay God back” with goodness and reading and praying and going to church. When this happens, the sense of guilt and condemnation will be thrust upon you, and sin is soon to follow all over again.

Calvary cost you nothing, so do not try to pay God back with good works. Let the Holy Spirit in you bring out good works through the finished work of the cross. Only the finished work works, so let it!

The Name of the LORD

1 Samuel 17:45, 46

The story of David and Goliath is one of the most famous of all time, all literature included. It appeals to the underdog in all of us; how an undersized boy could face off with an oversized warrior and defeat him using a tiny rock and sling-shot. It gives us the feeling that anything is possible and that the odds are never too long. This story is great for motivational purposes, but it is even better when you know what really happened, and why it happened.

Goliath was the champion of the Philistines and he stood just over 9 feet tall. He had probably never lost even a skirmish much less an actual battle, and he had come to the valley everyday to challenge the Israelites. If he lost the battle, the Philistines agreed to serve Israel, but if he could defeat Israel’s champion, then Israel would belong to the Philistines. Every day he shouted the same threats, and every day Israel cowered in fear.

Along comes young David, a 17 year old boy who tends his father’s sheep every day. He is a soft-hearted kid who has never killed a man in his life and who spends his free time writing beautiful songs. When he arrives at camp to bring his brothers some food from home, he is struck by the lack of fight within Israel. He sees this giant mocking God everyday while no one stands to defend the Lord. David has seen it, and he has had enough!

He goes before Goliath with only a sling and a five stones, while Goliath comes with so much armor that he has another man carry most of it out to the battlefield. Goliath mocks David from the start, cursing him by the name of his gods. David calls Goliath an “uncircumcised Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:36), invoking the truth that Goliath has no covenant, while the circumcised Israelites are living under the covenant of God’s protection. Notice that David points out Goliath’s lack of divine protection which is key in understanding why David took this fight in the first place.

“I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts…” (1 Samuel 17:45). The text spells out LORD with all caps because that is the translators’ way of showing us which Hebrew name for God that David used. By saying LORD, he is using “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”, both meaning, “Covenant God”. David is not out to defeat Goliath with strength but with Covenant. God had agreed to honor those that honored Him, and David is taking Him up on it.

When you face off with the Goliaths of this world, don’t face them using your own goodness or morality. Face these giants with knowledge of what Christ has done for you. He has defeated all enemies and placed them under His feet. Know that He loves you and that you are His righteousness. Satan is powerless against the child of God that knows who they are in Christ. In truth, any member of Israel’s army could have had this victory if they had appealed to the same Covenant that young David did. This is why David was a man after God’s heart.

You have opportunity to trust the New Covenant which Jesus cut with His Father, or to trust your own works. Goliath is too big; I suggest you stick with Jesus.

Roast With Fire

Exodus 12:8-10

When is the last time that you observed Communion? God gave the church this glorious ceremony as a way of remembering the perfect price that His Son paid for us at Calvary. Each time that you partake properly, you are showing forth the Lord’s death, while exercising your faith in His finished work. Miracles never come by our works, but they do come because of His finished work.

On the night before Israel was to come out of Egyptian bondage, God gave them instructions for what would come to be known as Passover. They were to kill a spotless lamb and mark their doors with its blood. Then they were to roast the lamb with fire and eat all of it. These two were the shadow of a future substance (Hebrews 10:1); the blood on the door being the shed blood of Jesus, applied to the heart of the believer and the roasted body being the body of Christ, judged at Calvary by the fire of heaven, broken for our wholeness.

It was crucial that the Israelites follow the instructions to the letter. Each step in this ceremony is a perfect type of the work that Jesus would accomplish at Calvary. The roasting by fire was symbolic of Jesus receiving into His own body, the judgment of heaven. He was made to be sin for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:17). They were told, “Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water” (Exodus 12:9) because we must always see Jesus as crucified and judged for us, not as a baby in a manger. Any reference to Jesus as deliverer that excludes the finished work of the cross is partaking of Jesus raw and soaked with water.

They were also told to eat “his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof” (verse 9). This meant that the Israelites were to consume everything, leaving nothing until the next day. The “purtenance” includes the kidneys, liver and intestines, meaning that God was serious about this lamb! Each part that they ate was a type of Jesus, with them taking His strength for their needs into their own bodies.

Psalms 105:37 says, “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes”. It seems impossible that of nearly 3 million slaves, there would not be one person who was sick or feeble, but the text bears it out. How might this have been accomplished? It was the roasted lamb!

If their intestines were hurting, they ate the intestines of the lamb. If their head was wounded, they ate the head of the lamb. If their eyes were failing, they ate the unfailing eyes of the lamb. When Christ died on Calvary, His appearance was so marred that no one could look upon Him (Isaiah 52:14). The reason for this was that Jesus took upon Him all of our cancers and tumors and diseases while He hung on Calvary and died. Matthew said, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:17).

When you partake in communion, see your sickness and your disease in the body of Christ. He said to His disciples, “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26). Don’t wait for your local church to have communion again, partake on your own. Paul said, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup…” (1 Corinthians 11:26), so there is no such thing as too much!