Last
Things: Jesus and the Saved
By Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the December 22, 2012 Sabbath School Lesson
“Enoch
walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”
Genesis 5:24, NIV
For thousands of years before the first words were
written for what would come to be known as the Bible, God communicated with man
heart-to-heart. He spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 1-3)
He continued to speak to their children after the fall and expulsion from the garden.
(Genesis 4) Our verse from Genesis 5, quoted above, shows how very close and intimate
this communication could be. We rarely hear about such a relationship, today.
Why is that?
Perhaps the Bible contains the answer. One of those that
God repeatedly spoke to was Abraham. Sometimes this conversation took place
while Abraham was awake. (Genesis 18) At other times, God spoke to him in
visions and dreams. (Genesis 15) In each instance, Abraham understood he was hearing
from God. It is this knowledge that allowed him to have no doubts when God told
him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. No one needed to show Abraham
anything from the Bible to justify his course of action. God spoke directly to
him, and he knew God’s voice well. He may have doubted what God told him from
time to time, but he never doubted that it was God speaking to him.
Doubt is a seed sown in the Garden of Eden by the
Serpent, which is none other than the Devil. (Revelation 12:9) He caused Adam
and Eve to doubt the truthfulness of what God had said to them. He did not try
to convince them to doubt that God existed. After all they could speak with God
and walk with Him in the garden. Since that original doubt, distrust spread
through humanity to the point where only eight people still believed what God
had to say. Those eight entered the ark, but even then, doubt entered with
them.
It seems strange that after seeing the Noachian flood
that anyone would continue to question anything that God would say to them, but
they did. Even Abraham doubted that God could provide him an heir when he and
Sarah were far beyond normal child bearing age. Nonetheless, in spite of the
black thread of doubt woven throughout mankind’s interactions with God, there
were shining moments of faith that shone all the more brightly because of their
rarity. Of course Enoch was one, but we might also consider Joseph. He doubted
nothing that God revealed to him. Betrayed by his brothers, and even left to
languish in an Egyptian prison for a crime he was not guilty of, he never
questioned God or doubted His purposes. This was all the more remarkable for
much of the world had become people who “…exchanged the truth about God for a
lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…just as
they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God…” Romans 1:25, 28
NIV
Joseph brought his father’s family into Egypt, and they
and their descendants dwelt for four centuries in a land that worshipped images
and individuals that were considered gods. It seems remarkable that humanity
could place greater faith in these things that cannot speak, but built upon a
foundation of doubting God’s promises, it became possible. As a result they stopped
listening to God, religion became about power and control rather than simple
faith and a direct relationship with God. Powerful priesthoods arose that were
more concerned about consolidating earthly power than humbly seeking divine
guidance. We can see an example of this power in the special exemption granted
to the Egyptian priesthood during the time of Joseph. (Genesis 47:22) Perhaps,
as the Israelites descended further and further into servitude, the Egyptians
saw this as confirming their choice for idolatry instead of the living God. As
they pointed this out generation after generation to the Israelites, many may
have succumbed to this argument and even chosen idolatry for themselves in an
attempt to escape their loathsome lot. Maybe these individuals were rewarded
with positions overseeing their fellow Israelites which further confirmed the
desirability of abandoning the Hebrew faith for the idolatry of Egypt.
In any event, faith in God may have been nearly
extinguished among the descendants of Jacob. Even Moses, the great deliverer,
was at first tempted to see salvation in the strength of his own ability rather
than through any divine intervention when he slew an Egyptian taskmaster. Later,
in a moment of weakness, he even succumbed to this belief on the borders of the
Promised Land and was then not allowed to enter in with the rest of Israel. He
spent 40 years tending sheep in Midian under his Father-in-law’s tutelage
before he was ready to hear the voice of God at the burning bush. Even then,
when God spoke, Moses could barely overcome his doubts. The Word was no longer
enough for mankind. Instead, men sought miracles to confirm the Word. In a
concession to this lack of faith, God granted Moses some miracles he could
perform to verify divine endorsement of his mission.
The opening chapters of Exodus are about the mighty
confrontation between the power of God and that of the idolatrous Egyptians. Described
as the Ten Plagues, some of the earlier miracles were replicated by the Egyptians,
but eventually those same miracle workers admitted defeat and begged Pharaoh to
free the Israelites. Pharaoh, who had been raised to believe in his own
divinity refused to submit. Not until the death of his own son, who of course
was also seen as divine, could he see where divinity truly was. But the door of
his heart that had briefly opened to God was quickly shut again, and he
attempted to reclaim the Israelite slaves with disastrous results.
After leaving Egypt, Moses was charged with returning
the nation of slaves the Israelites had been to a nation that could hear and
respond to God’s voice. To that end, he set in place the Aaronic priesthood
which would replace the image and functions of the Egyptian priesthood in the
minds of the people. He erected the wilderness tabernacle and wrote out the
order of the sanctuary service which would re-orient the thoughts toward God
and away from the sacred temples of the Egyptian panoply of gods. He also began
to compile a written record of historical information, rites, and rules that
would be instructive not just for the present generation but for future ones as
well. Of all of these written records, the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, came
to be venerated above all the rest, perhaps because of a common understanding
that these words were actually written by the finger of God.
Year by year, as the yearly liturgy of the sanctuary
service was performed by the priesthood, the knowledge and understanding of God
began to return. However, it would be over a thousand years more before the
pervasiveness of idolatry as an integral part of worship was to be completely
eradicated. It would take exile and rescue from another foreign land, Babylon,
before the remnant finally had enough of worshipping these things. Having finally
learned this lesson, they continued to struggle with another one that arose in
Egypt as well.
Jesus encountered this particular problem during His
ministry. While the people no longer worshipped carved idols, they continued to
see the priesthood not as it was meant to be, but as a vehicle for power,
domination, and political influence. This problem appeared early on in the
ministry of Phinehas and Hophni, Sons of Eli and priests of the sanctuary. (1
Samuel 2:12-36) By the time of Jesus’ ministry the priesthood’s hold on power
had become so important and so strong that they would sacrifice even the
Messiah to maintain it. For this reason, they closed their hearts, minds and
ears to God. Jesus spoke of these as being “…like children sitting in the
marketplace and calling out to each other: ‘We played the pipe for you, and you
did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’” Luke 7:32, NIV In other
words, they could not approve of a Spirit they could not control. Only if the
Spirit danced to their tune would they acknowledge it.
Even today some try to define God politically for the
purpose of power and control. For these, the power and authority of the priesthood
is more important than the moving of the Holy Spirit. They cite the authority
of the same Aaronic priesthood that confronted Jesus not in an honest search
for truth and understanding but simply as a means to find substantiation for
maintaining power and control. They find there a powerful political
organization with a model for channeling vast resources into its control. The
priesthood is often idolized as the only recognized channel of interpreted communication
from God to man. Controlling the selection process for the individuals to be in
that priesthood has resulted in a politically powerful and almost unassailable organization
in many denominations that stands between mankind and God as gatekeeper and adjudicator
of orthodoxy.
How can this be? Could it be simply because we doubt our
own ability to come directly into the presence of God, covered with the grace
of Christ, to speak with Him heart-to-heart as the saints of old? Does our
doubt cause us to abdicate this relationship in favor of one imposed on us by those
who may not have our spiritual welfare at heart as much as their own desire for
control? As God delivered the Israelites
from the priesthood of Egypt, the Spirit is challenging this religio-political control
as He seeks to speak directly once again to the hearts of men. Perhaps this
time, there will be more than eight who are left who do not doubt their God or
His promises and will faithfully respond to His still, small, but loving voice.
This Commentary is a Service of Still
Waters Ministry
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