Home thoughts from abroad.wordpress.com

So why did you show up here today? Are you spoiling for a fight with me?”

⁴ So Jephthah got his Gilead troops together and fought Ephraim. And the men of Gilead hit them hard because they were saying, “Gileadites are nothing but half breeds and rejects from Ephraim and Manasseh.”

^5-6 Gilead captured the fords of the Jordan at the crossing to Ephraim. If an Ephraimite fugitive said, “Let me cross,” the men of Gilead would ask, “Are you an Ephraimite?” and he would say, “No.” And they would say, “Say, ‘Shibboleth.’” But he would always say, “Sibboleth”—he couldn’t say it right. Then they would grab him and kill him there at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two Ephraimite divisions were killed on that occasion. (The Message)

See where pride can lead. How cruel it was; all so unnecessary. Our pride may not lead to cutting people up as such, but to cutting them off, and cutting them through with piercing words. The ‘Bible Gateway’ notes say: ‘The dispute turns deadly, and the Lord’s non-involvement shows that this is an intertribal feud that God has not sanctioned.’

Referring back to the previous trouble with Ephraim (ch.8), Warren Wiersbe says: ‘Jephthah was not as patient and tactful as Gideon, and the result was a civil war that took 42,000 lives. ”See how great a forest a little fire kindles!” (James 3:5).’

He goes on to make this excellent point: ‘The word shibboleth is in the English dictionary and means ”a test for determining if you belong.” If you do not conform exactly to what a group demands, you are rejected. Some Christians make these minor matters a test of spirituality and fellowship and bring division to the church.’

Wiersbe highlights the relevance of Prov.17:14:

”Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam;
so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.”

I also think about James 3:13-18:

”Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

¹⁷ ‘But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸ Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”

‘The chapter closes by contrasting two kinds of wisdom: true biblical wisdom manifests itself in virtues that foster peace rather than division.⁷ Practically, learning to use words wisely comes from focusing more on the inner life than on the tongue itself, more on the source than its outflow.’ Bible Gateway notes

PRAYER: ‘Make me a channel of your peace…”

”What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.” (James 4:1,2)

The men of Ephraim mustered their troops, crossed to Zaphon, and said to Jephthah, “Why did you go out to fight the Ammonites without letting us go with you? We’re going to burn your house down on you!”

^2-3 Jephthah said, “I and my people had our hands full negotiating with the Ammonites. And I did call to you for help but you ignored me. When I saw that you weren’t coming, I took my life in my hands and confronted the Ammonites myself. And God gave them to me! So why did you show up here today? Are you spoiling for a fight with me?”

⁴ So Jephthah got his Gilead troops together and fought Ephraim. And the men of Gilead hit them hard because they were saying, “Gileadites are nothing but half breeds and rejects from Ephraim and Manasseh.”

^5-6 Gilead captured the fords of the Jordan at the crossing to Ephraim. If an Ephraimite fugitive said, “Let me cross,” the men of Gilead would ask, “Are you an Ephraimite?” and he would say, “No.” And they would say, “Say, ‘Shibboleth.’” But he would always say, “Sibboleth”—he couldn’t say it right. Then they would grab him and kill him there at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two Ephraimite divisions were killed on that occasion.

⁷ Jephthah judged Israel six years. Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city, Mizpah of Gilead. (The Message)

Three short quotes from Matthew Henry have wormed their way into my thinking about this passage:

‘Pride was at the bottom of the quarrel. Proud men think all the honours lost that go beside themselves…’

‘Those resentments that have the least reason for them have commonly the most rage in them.’

‘He does not take take the glory of the success to himself but gives it all to God: ”The Lord delivered them into my hands. If God was pleased so far to make use of me for his glory, why should you be offended at that?” ‘

The Ephraimites had a bit of a track record in this area (see ch.8). Their pride was insulted. They felt their position as the leading tribe was undermined. Warren Wiersbe comments: ‘The men of Ephraim could never rejoice in another’s victory as long as they were left out.’

The question for today is simply this: ‘Can I?’

PRAYER: Lord, how deadly, how insidious is pride, and how pervasive in our sinful hearts. Equip us in this fight, and enable us to humble ourselves under your mighty Hand (1 Peter 5:6)

For the director of music. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” Of David. A miktam. When Saul had sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him.

¹ Deliver me from my enemies, O God;
be my fortress against those who are attacking me.
² Deliver me from evildoers
and save me from those who are after my blood.

³ See how they lie in wait for me!
Fierce men conspire against me
for no offense or sin of mine, Lord.
⁴ I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me.
Arise to help me; look on my plight!
⁵ You, Lord God Almighty,
you who are the God of Israel,
rouse yourself to punish all the nations;
show no mercy to wicked traitors.

⁶ They return at evening,
snarling like dogs,
and prowl about the city.
⁷ See what they spew from their mouths—
the words from their lips are sharp as swords,
and they think, “Who can hear us?”
⁸ But you laugh at them, Lord;
you scoff at all those nations.

⁹ You are my strength, I watch for you;
you, God, are my fortress,
¹⁰ my God on whom I can rely. (NIV)

Once more, in this psalm we find David in very real danger. The heading of the psalm provides the context (see 1 Sam. 19:11). So David’s affirmation that God is His ”strength”, and that he ‘relies’ on Him (9,10) is truly wonderful. We note the definite requests scattered throughout these verses, and we realise that this man was asking for very real help from the God he knew to be very real, and very powerful.

Matthew Henry points out that in these dire straits, David nevertheless maintained his composure and communion with God (No doubt he maintained the latter because of the former). He goes on to write:

‘And thus earnestly should we pray daily to be defended and delivered from our spiritual enemies, the temptations of Satan, and the corruptions of our own hearts, which war against our spiritual life.’

‘Deliver us from evil…’

After this, many of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?”

^68-69 Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”

^70-71 Jesus responded, “Haven’t I handpicked you, the Twelve? Still, one of you is a devil!” He was referring to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. This man—one from the Twelve!—was even then getting ready to betray him. (The Message)

‘The preaching of the Word of God always leads to a sifting of the hearts of the listeners.’ Warren Wiersbe

Recently, I heard an interview with some well-known Christian leaders/authors. They were pointedly asked, ‘In a time of declension from the faith, with a number of people ‘deconstructing’ their Christianity, what keeps you going?’ One or two of them came back to Peter’s great words in verse 68:

”“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

One of the men said, ‘It’s not that I don’t have some doubts and unanswered questions, but if I ask myself who I would follow if not Jesus, I can’t think who. There is no credible alternative.’

‘Christ and believers know one another too well to part on every displeasure…

…Let those who find fault with this religion find a better before they quit it.’ Matthew Henry

Many among his disciples heard this and said, “This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow.”

^61-65 Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, “Does this rattle you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.” (Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, “This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.” (The Message)

What a sermon! It cost Jesus most of His congregation. With it He virtually ’emptied the church.’ He started out the service with 5000 or so, and ended the day with 12 (or 11, if truth be told). This shows that we cannot necessarily measure ‘success’ by the increase of numbers.

‘Bible Gateway’s summary of chapter 6 includes these words:

‘The chapter’s heart is the “bread of life” discourse, in which Jesus claims that he himself is the true manna, the living bread that we must eat to satisfy our souls. His startling language about eating flesh and drinking blood is not literal; the parallel with v. 40 suggests that these terms are metaphorical for believing in Jesus as the Son of God.

For application, to “eat” and “drink” Jesus is to depend on him in every aspect of our lives. Many disciples leave because his agenda must become his followers’ agenda, and that is unacceptable to many would-be disciples.’

The words of Jesus are ‘Spirit’ words; they are life-giving. But we can refuse them; we can resist Him.

‘…just as Jesus said, many of His disciples turned away. They had thought that the Messiah would be like an earthly king. Perhaps they had thought they would get some worldly advantage by following Jesus. Now they saw that being a disciple of Jesus was different than they had expected. Therefore they left Him.’ Tom Hale

PRAYER: Lord, cause my heart to kneel, and humbly receive ALL your life-giving words

“I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”

⁵² At this, the Jews started fighting among themselves: “How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?”

^53-58 But Jesus didn’t give an inch. “Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always.”

⁵⁹ He said these things while teaching in the meeting place in Capernaum. (The Message)

Jesus had a habit of using shock language, stark phrases, to wake people up: to arouse interest, arrest attention. Think, for example, of when He said: ”If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:29,30).

Again: ”“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

Was He talking about literal decapitation and actual hatred? No. He was wanting to challenge, to make His listeners think, and discover the deeper truth.

So, in John 6, Jesus was not advocating cannibalism. Nowhere else in the gospels does He do that. But all who come to know Jesus, who receive Him into their lives as ”the living Bread” know what it is to enjoyably ‘feed’ on Him by faith, to be nourished by Him spiritually. It’s not something we can properly explain intellectually, but we intuit this reality spiritually. We possibly experience it in a most focussed way when we partake of communion.

When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He spoke of the bread being His body, and the wine His blood, and they were to be eaten and drunk in remembrance of Him. ‘Flesh’ and ‘blood’ in separation point to death – violent death at that. We are brought to the centrality of the Cross, where we find the meaning of the universe, and of our own little lives.

At this, because he said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven,” the Jews started arguing over him: “Isn’t this the son of Joseph? Don’t we know his father? Don’t we know his mother? How can he now say, ‘I came down out of heaven’ and expect anyone to believe him?”

^43-46 Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people , setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, ‘And then they will all be personally taught by God.’ Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, since I have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father—and you can see me. (The Message)

When Jilly and I pray for those within our circles to come to know Christ, we often ask that God will bring Christians around them who will impress them, and impact them – that they will be an influence on their lives. This is certainly one significant way that the Lord may work, but it isn’t His only way. Who can say how He will work? He has so many ways to reach the human heart. One thing is for sure though, He is able to draw to Himself all those whom He is calling. We can be confident of this. F.B. Meyer writes: ‘Notice that every soul which is taught of God will recognise Christ, v.45!’

I came down from heaven not to follow my own agenda but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.

^39-40 “This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed—not a single detail missed—and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.” (The Message)

There can be no doubt that Jesus brings positive good into people’s lives, in time, and for etenity.

Why then do they run from Christianity and Christ? Why is it that some take evasive action with their first sense that a believer is about to share their faith. How many times do we witness this? We see the shutters come down; we hear the click of the lock as the door of a life is being barred and bolted. We can even feel anger, and lots of suspicion.

What’s the problem?

I don’t suppose there is just one simple answer. Many factors may be at play. But here is one thing I definitely feel is happening: people believe Jesus is going to ruin their lives, whereas He makes those who come to Him and believe in Him whole, alive and complete.

But as someone said, ‘The devil is always telling us it is dangerous to get too near to God!’

Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own agenda but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me. (The Message)

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (King James Version

I remember reading a book in which the author said that,when David Livingstone was battling with loneliness in the jungles of central Africa, he recorded the above verse in his diary, saying, ‘That is the word of a Gentleman of the most strict and sacred honour. He would never break His word.

But in trying to locate the quote, I discovered that he said it about another verse. Ted Camp quotes him as saying:

“Shall I tell you what supported me through all those years of exile among a people whose language I could not understand and whose attitude towards me was uncertain and often hostile? It was this statement from the Lord Jesus Christ, ”Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” He said, “It is the word of a Gentleman of the most strict and sacred honour, so there’s an end of it!”

So Livingstone said it, but not about today’s reading. However, his statement surely applies to every promise Jesus made. John 6:37 is ‘the word of a Gentleman.’