We have now reached the last teaching on the Names of God. Of course there are many other names that we have not covered, but I hope that the ones we have covered have been helpful to you all in your walk of faith. I pray that they have brought you to a better understanding of our Mighty and Amazing God. I hope also that you have noticed how each name leads on to the next. It’s as if God is saying, ‘Now that you know Me as this Name, let Me lead you on to the next so that you can learn more of Me and know Me more.’

There is no doubt that He supplies all our need and there is not one area of our existence that is not covered by these wonderful characteristics of God. Last time we looked at Jehovah M’Kaddesh, the Lord Who sanctifies. We saw how God had to remove His presence from His people because of their disobedience and sin. I thank our Father God that we as believers in His Son Jesus, are forgiven our sin through Him, and that He is there with us and in us by the power of His Holy Spirit.

We were reminded that we are on a pilgrimage, a walk of sanctification, that one day will bring us into the very presence of God. In this teaching we will see how our God is with us, leading us and guiding us as our Shepherd. So let us begin by looking at sheep.

Whatever kind of sheep they are, wherever they come from, I think you’ll agree that they are rather silly creatures. They all run in the same direction; once one goes, the others follow, you will rarely see a single sheep going against the flow. Everyone else is doing it so it must be right. They like as a group to be left alone to graze and ruminate, they rarely rush at anything, unless that is, they are pushed to it and then they show how fast they can move. They are easily frightened and can even die of shock. They like to be together in a flock, all moaning and complaining in unison. Baah- meh! Baah-meh! When one gets into trouble, the others just walk off and leave it to its fate. Tough luck chum! They are plagued by pests which get into their skin and cause pain and inflammation. They have foot problems and ear problems and eye problems. Pretty sickly really! They need doctoring and dipping to rid them of their pests. They have to be sheared once a year to keep them cool in Summer and because wool is useful to us. They need water, they need grass. Funnily enough, when they are sheared or treated and are turned on their backs, they go quiet and passive and give up resisting and struggling at being held down.Funny animals, sheep!

They are the only domestic animals that cannot survive on their own. They are totally dependent on their shepherd for protection, water, food and shelter. Sheep won’t last long without a shepherd. I think that we can agree that looking after sheep is difficult.

In this country we are all familiar with white, or dirty grey, woolly sheep. We see shepherds on quad bikes, driving their flocks before them or walking behind them with a sheep dog or two herding them back into line at the shepherd’s bidding. We see the cute little lambs in Spring, gambolling about, having fun, all playing in green, rolling meadows beside a gently flowing stream. I think of West Dean Gardens in West Sussex and all the sheep you can see there grazing on the other side of the river. A pretty sight, a pastoral view, and we have those lovely peaceful scenes in our minds.

In Israel however, things are quite different, both for the shepherd and for the sheep. The sheep there look different. They are generally brown and black as well as a creamy colour, and they have horns, big horns, which can be used to make shofars, the Jewish trumpet. They are a much tougher type of sheep physically, though still prone to the the same sort of problems, infections and illnesses as sheep here.

In Israel the shepherd leads his sheep and the sheep follow him. They know their master and follow his lead, because silly as they are, they know he will take them to a place where they can eat and drink.

The terrain in Israel is very different too and that is important for us to understand as we continue this study.

I am sure that when you knew the subject for this study that you immediately thought of Psalm 23, probably the most well known of all the psalms . It was written by David as we all know, and it describes the qualities of a good shepherd, comparing him with our God, Jehovah Rohi….The Lord Our Shepherd.

David was a shepherd long before he was a king. He knew all there was to know about sheep and I believe that he could clearly see, as can we, how like sheep we all are.

Go with the flow!

Follow the leader!

Focus on myself!

Forget about others!

Eat, drink, I need food, take me to it!

Leave me be, don’t rush me!

Love to be with the crowd!

Everybody else is doing it, so it can’t be wrong!

I’m too hot, I’m too cold!

I’m sick, I need a doctor!

I’m scared, I’m on my own!

Where can I go?

Which way now?

What do I do?

How can I cope?

Baah-meh, baah-meh!

We need the shepherd! Oh, how we need Him!

Isaiah 53 V 6 “All we like sheep, have gone astray…….”

Yes, David knew sheep. He knew the land too. He killed a lion, he killed a bear to protect his flock.

1Samuel 17 v 34-36a “But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear….”

It was tough country, not at all like the pleasant green fields of England. Bethlehem was David’s home which is not far from Jerusalem. Indeed the flocks of sheep were in that area to provide for the sacrifices required in the Tabernacle and later the Temple.

Remember how the angels appeared to the shepherds at Bethlehem when Jesus was born? (Luke 2 v 8-18) They were the shepherds who raised the sheep for the Temple worship. They knew the requirements, that the sheep had to be spotless and clean. Their sheep were precious and constantly needed care and attention. Why these shepherds? Poor, despised, illiterate, dirty and probably very smelly, as indeed shepherds were in David’s day and are even today 3000 years later. Shepherds have always been despised in Israel and also in Jacob’s days when he brought his family to Egypt to be reunited with Joseph. Pharaoh would only allow them to live in Goshen which was far away from the dwellings of the rich and privileged, because they were shepherds. Yes it was rich land there, but shepherds were despised in Egypt even more than in Israel. (Genesis 46 v 31-34)

So shepherds were looked down upon, but God did not look down on them, He blessed them. He blessed David. David was a shepherd. Imagine God choosing a despised shepherd to be the King over His people Israel. He blessed the Temple shepherds. He blessed the family of Jacob.

Shepherds are actually very skilful people. There is nothing about sheep that they do not know, they are highly trained professionals. They recognise their sheep individually, and they know the land that they walk.

The land around Bethlehem that David was so familiar with is located on the central mountainous spine of Israel on the edge of the Judean wilderness. It is dry and barren, with scrubby plants, rocky and dangerous with many gorges and deep wadis that flow with torrents of water in the rainy seasons and are bone dry the rest of the time. There seems to be nothing for sheep to feed on at all. The truth is that for those, like the Bedouins today, who are trained to find it and recognise it, the wilderness is filled with water sources and plant life sufficient to sustain large flocks of sheep and goats. Indeed if you visit the area today you will see these flocks shepherded by Bedouins.

David would certainly have possessed such knowledge in his day.

Please don’t imagine him sitting on a grassy knoll overlooking his quietly feeding flock by a gentle stream. Such a picture is a fairy tale.i Chris and Lindy Hill take tour groups to Israel and indeed have been over 89 times to date. This is what he says in his little booklet called ‘The Song of the Shepherd’ (for which I am grateful for a lot of information) .

‘When Lindy and I take our tour groups to the Holy Land, we are sure to include the Wadi Quelt. The dry riverbed winds through towering cliffs in the Judean Wilderness between Jerusalem and Jericho. Part of it is so deeply carved into the earth thatnit never sees the sun. For as long as anyone can recall it has been known locally as the ‘Valley of the Shadow’.

David must have been familiar with that wadi. Maybe be had to lead the sheep through it when he needed to take them to fresh pastures. Sometimes after heavy rain had fallen on Jerusalem and a flash flood had roared and plunged its way through the Wadi Quelt, ‘cups’ of water were left behind in hollows in the ground. Here the sheep could drink after the flood had passed.’

No! Being a shepherd in that part of the world is not an easy job.sheep fall into ravines or wander into dangerous caves, they get caught up in thorny bushes, they get lost, they get taken by wild animals.

I think that once we understand just how difficult it is to be a shepherd out there in that inhospitable land, then we get a far more balanced idea of the meaning of Jehovah Rohi….The Lord our Shepherd.

The term ‘shepherd’ appears more than 80 times in the Bible and in the Hebrew covers meanings such as, feeder, keeper, companion, friend, pastor, herdsman as well as of course shepherd.

There are a number of shepherds mentioned in the Old Testament, from Abel onwards, and the figure of the shepherd became an illustration of the relationship between a leader and his people.

In Exodus 3 v 1  Moses, who was tending sheep when he saw the burning bush and was appointed by God as the shepherd of His people Israel and of course David who was a shepherd of the sheep and became the shepherd of the people of God.  (2 Samuel 5 v 2).

But the ultimate expression of this name of God is of course Jehovah Rohi….the Lord our Shepherd. Psalm 23 speaks to us deeply of the love of God for His people, for us.

Davis knew the needs of his sheep  and could identify himself with those sheep. He saw the similar tendencies between sheep and people. He knew that he needed a shepherd. It is believed that this psalm was written towards the end of David’s life after he could see how foolish men could be and indeed, how foolish he had often been, just like sheep. He knew that a shepherd provided for his sheep and he knew that God had provided for him in the same way. As I was preparing this, I pondered on this Psalm and this is what I wrote.

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want;

My Shepherd gives me everything I need,  I want for nothing.

I am content and totally dependent on Him.

He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He MAKES me – a bit like the sheep who are forcefully turned on their backs to be sheared and accept it passively after a struggle with the shepherd. He knows what is best for me and sometimes has to make me see His point of view, despite how I fight and struggle to get my own way. He knows where the best pastures are and He knows that I need to accept His provision and not try to find my own way in my own strength.

He leads me beside the still waters;

Sheep’s nostrils are close to their mouths and is they try to drink from a rushing stream they are likely to drown. They need a placid pool to drink from, like the pools of water in the Wadi Quelt.

He wants me to quench my thirst in Him and not drown in the world full of torrents of depravity.

He restores my soul;

Quenching my thirst in Him means that I will be restored and refreshed in my mind by His word and by His presence.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His own names sake;

He knows the paths He has prepared for me and He wants me to walk those paths, so He leads me because if I say I am a believer and live a lie then I am damaging His Name. He wants me to be righteous, even though, like those sheep in the wilderness, the way is rocky, rough and difficult, steep, dangerous and precipitous. If I trust Him completely then He will guide me through the dangers awaiting me on the right path, the narrow path.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;

The Wadi Quelt is dark and dangerous and so sometimes is my life. It’s scary and God seems so far away and the enemy seems so close like a lion prowling around seeking to devour me. But my Shepherd is there despite how I feel. He is protecting me with His rod to beat off the enemy and His staff to keep me on the right track. What a comfort to know that He is with me in times of darkness and trouble as well as in the good times. He leads me into this dark place for a reason. To take me somewhere better, to help me to trust Him more than I did before.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

He is my sustenance in all situations, and I can hold up my head before those who would seek to harm me and know that they can do nothing to keep me from Him and His provision for all my needs.

He anoints my head with oil, my cup runs over;

He fills me with His Holy Spirit to overflowing, like oil poured over my head, like a cup filled up and brimming over. He heals, He protects, He blesses me, He gives me strength, surely I need no more. He is so good to me!

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;

I need never be without Him, I need never be lost for He is always my Shepherd and He will always lead me and guide me and be there for me, whatever happens. My life is filled with His goodness and His mercy even when it doesn’t feel like it.

I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever; And one day I will go home to be with Him for all eternity, part of His Bride, the true church, to,praise and worship Him and thank Him forever.

In the New Testament Jesus is revealed to us as the Good Shepherd of the sheep but we cannot know Him as such until we are part of His flock. He submitted Himself as the Lamb to the slaughter so that He could become our Shepherd. The Lamb of God is also the Good Shepherd, the pure, perfect, unblemished, sacrificial Lamb. He took our place so that we could become like Him. John 10 v 14-18

He knows each one of us by name. John 10 v 3. We bear His mark just as sheep are marked by their shepherd to identify their owner. We are His. He is our example and we follow Him and obey His will. (Hebrews 13 v 20-21).

Do you remember how How Jesus spoke to Simon Peter after His resurrection?

Peter was ashamed and guilty that he had betrayed Jesus so easily, and was all for going back to his trade of fishing; his old nature was kicking in again. Jesus was so loving in the way He spoke to  Peter, Jesus knew his heart, He could see the struggle going on there. (John 21. v 15).

Peter was grieved that he could not rise to Jesus request to love Him as Jesus loved Peter (agapeo), all he could promise Jesus was that he loved Him as a friend (phileo). So Jesus came down to Peter’s level and agreed to love him back as a friend for the time being. You see Jesus knew what Peter would become after he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter would be filled with that consuming, compassionate love for Jesus, so much so that he would give up his life for Him. Peter would indeed take care of the sheep and he would become a faithful shepherd of the sheep. Once he allowed the Good Shepherd to lead and guide him he was able to lay down his wilful and wayward old self and devote himself entirely to Jesus.

I love what Jesus said to Peter, ‘Follow Me!’ The very words He used to call Peter to Himself three years before.

A new start, a new beginning.

So it is for us.

It’s never too late to change our ways and follow the Great Shepherd of the Sheep.

Let us keep our eyes fixed on Him so that we can honestly say Jehovah Rohi……the Lord is my Shepherd.

May the Lord Himself bless you and keep you in His perfect ways.

Linda

The post JEHOVAH ROHI -THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

God created Israel to be a holy nation.

‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ Exodus 19:5-6

We as believers are also considered by God to be a holy priesthood and nation.

‘But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.’ 1 Peter 2:9-10

We are expected to be holy as He is holy.

‘But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” Leviticus 11 v 44

‘For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy.’ 1Peter 1 v 15-16.

That is a high calling indeed, but what does it mean to be holy as He is holy. God is holy…that is a given….He is unique, set apart, sinless, perfect. He cannot be holier than He already is.

How can we possibly expect to achieve such a goal? The answer to that of course is that we can’t.

We know that we are part of a fallen world, we are sinners saved only by the grace of God, there is no good thing in us, our hearts are desperately wicked, there is no hope for any of us apart from Jesus. It is His blood that covers us and makes us acceptable to God the Father.

The plain fact is that we cannot sanctify ourselves, make ourselves holy. It is a work of God by His Holy Spirit.

‘And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.’1 Corinthians 6 v 11

However it is for us a journey, a pilgrimage of faith. We recognise Jesus as our Holiness, our perfect and amazing God, who died so that we could be saved. But salvation is not the main goal, or it shouldn’t be. As soon as we are saved it is not enough to sit back and say, ‘Well, I’m alright Jack! No more struggle!’ Indeed as we all know it is just the beginning of a tough struggle which we understand as the path of sanctification. It takes us through the narrow gate and onto the narrow path, but we still have to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil whilst walking that narrow path. As long as we stick to it we are okay, but so often we stray off it and when we do we find ourselves in difficult places.

As I was struggling to write this piece, and it was a struggle, seeking the Lord for the right way to present it and feeling as if I was getting nowhere fast, Pilgrim’s Progress popped into my mind.

I wonder if you are familiar with this wonderful book by John Bunyan who wrote it while he was in prison in approx 1676. He was imprisoned for his faith in Bedford jail, in a tiny cell which is built into the pier of the bridge over the river and is literally a few feet above the normal water level. I hate to think what that cell must have been like, especially in flood conditions; wet and damp, cold and dark. He was imprisoned for his bold teaching of the Word of God and Jesus truly met him there in that horrible cell. He recorded that his cell was filled with golden light as the Lord came to him to encourage him and to give him hope in his isolation and loneliness. This story is an allegory of his struggle as a believer, and we can relate to it also.

John Bunyan was 47 years of age when he wrote Pilgrim’s Progress and he drew on two main sources, firstly the Bible and secondly his knowledge of the world. He likened his hero, Christian, running away from the City of Destruction to Lot fleeing from Sodom.

Christian met many characters on his journey, such as Pliable, who couldn’t make up his mind about anything and was blown about by any wind of doctrine, and who typifies many of the members of Bunyan’s congregation. Vanity Fair was modelled on Stourbridge Fair, near Cambridge, and the trial of Faithful before Lord Hate Good, was based on Bunyan’s own trial before Justice Keeling.

The story was written as if it was a dream. It all came from Bunyan’s own band and shocked many of his pious friends. They called it ‘an idle tale full of demons and goblins’. But idle it is not and it has become a very famous book. It is a story full of hidden meaning and it is relevant for everyone even today.

We bought a copy of The Dangerous Journey for our son many years ago, and now our grandchildren love it. It is a young person’s version of the Pilgrim’s Progress with amazing illustrations; a true to the story version and easier to understand than the original. So I looked it out and read it again.

Christian leaves the City of Destruction despite the pleading of his family and friends. He is carrying a burden which has become almost too heavy to bear and the question that keeps going through his head and which he can no longer ignore is, ‘What must I do to be saved?’

He reads his book, the Bible, and realises that he and the city and all those he loves are doomed to be burned with fire from heaven. He has to find a way of escape for  himself and his family, but his wife and four sons think that he is crazy. He walks into the fields outside of town to think about what he should do and where he should go and then meets Evangelist who points him in the right direction. As his family and friends chase after him he puts his fingers in his ears and runs.

He meets many characters who seek to deflect him from his desire to find the Endless Kingdom where he will live forever and be safe. He falls into the Slough of Despond and Help calmed to his aid and pulls him out, and he struggles on, his load getting heavier and heavier. He meets Mr Worldly Wise, Mr Legality and gets led astray by such characters often. Evangelist points him back to right path again and he plods on until eventually he arrives at the cross and an empty tomb where to his relief the burden he has been carrying for so long, falls away and he is free at last. He is clothed miraculously in clean fresh garments and is filled with joy.

Is that the end of the story? No!

Like us when we are saved Christian goes on to experience worse things than he did before he was saved, but now the attacks are directly spiritual. He journeys on, he cannot stay where he is at the cross, he has to move on towards the Celestial City. As he travels on his pilgrimage he learns more and more. He meets many who would seek to divert him from his course. Formalist and Hypocrisy who try to get to the Celestial City the wrong way and tempt Christian to go with them. They each go their own way and end up being lost and come to a sticky end. Then there are Timrous and Mistrust who are running away from danger, as they see it. Christian faces the lions who seek to devour him by keeping to the narrow path of light. He is prepared for battle against Appollyon by four lively young women called, Charity, Piety, Prudence and Discretion who give him armour to help him defeat the enemy. Appollyon, the devil, almost overcomes him till Christian wounds him with his sword and the devil has to flee.

Healed from his wounds received from the enemy by leaves from the Tree of Life, he continues on and into the Valley of the Shadow of Death where danger meets him in every side. The path is really narrow and on one side is a sheer precipice falling away and on the other a deep, dark, deadly marsh. One false step and he’s gone. He arrives at the very mouth of Hell itself and is almost overcome by ghosts and apparitions, by hobgoblins and foul fiends, until he is so miserable, low and desperate that he is ready to do away with himself. Until he hears a voice, ‘Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.’ With renewed strength and vigour he carries on till he finally comes out of the valley. He then meets up with his friend Faithful and once again Evangelist points them in the right direction and warns them that the way they are on will be filled with tribulation, but that the Kingdom of Heaven lies ahead. Together the friends go on until they come to Vanity Fair where, because they are different, they are arrested and after a mockery of a trial, Faithful is burnt at the stake and is taken to the Celestial City in a golden chariot. Hopeful helps Christian to escape and together they face more temptations and snares. Christian is now learning discernment, but even so he is deceived and more troubles come against him and his new friend Hopeful. Again they lose their way and end up in Doubting Castle which is owned by the giant Despair and his gross wife, Diffidence. In this terrible place, and almost giving up, Christian remembers he has a key called Promise which will open up the door to freedom. Once free again the two companions struggle on nearly coming to a bitter end as they fall into the net of Flatterer who appears to them as an angel of light. Rescued once more by a real angel they are accosted by Atheist, nearly fall asleep in the Enchanted Ground and despair of ever making it. Then all at once they are within view of the Celestial City, but to get to it they have to cross a wide, deep and dark river, the River of Death.

But Death could not hold Christian and Hopeful and after struggling with him they find themselves safely on the other side. Soon they are climbing the hill to the city and are welcomed in with much rejoicing.

This story is such an amazing picture of the path of sanctification, the journey we must all endure in our Christian pilgrimage to the Holy City of God.

So many things stand in our way, so many circumstances come against us, but each set back only makes us more determined to succeed.

‘Beloved do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgement to begin at the house of God, and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?’ 1 Peter 4:12-17

The Lord who Sanctifies…….Jehovah M’Kaddesh. The Lord who makes us holy is the One who will guide us and help us along the way. The Word of God , the promises of God will keep us focussed on the goal. God sees us as holy because of Jesus, but we will not be holy as He is holy until we enter into His eternal presence in Heaven.

Like Christian, to often we have to confess that we succumb to the error of giving the enemy a foothold in our lives and we so easily fail in our desire to be holy and separated unto God. But we have to remember that we cannot fall into sin and be holy too. We daily need to confess our sins for He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

He offers Himself as Jehovah M’Kaddesh……the Lord who alone can sanctify us.

Who Would True Valour See – John Bunyan – 1628 – 1688

Who would true valour see

Let him come hither.

One here will constant be

Come wind, come weather.

There’s no discouragement

Shall make him once relent

His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.

Whoso beset him round

With dismal stories

Do but themselves confound

His strength the more is.

No lion can him fright,

He’ll with a giant fight,

But he will have a right to be a pilgrim.

Hobgoblin nor foul fiend

Can daunt his sprit.

He knows he at the end

Shall life inherit.

Then fancies flee away,

He’ll fear not what men say,

He’ll labour night and day to be a pilgrim.

In Jesus,

Linda

The post JEHOVAH M’KADDESH – THE LORD WHO SANCTIFIES first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

‘All the way around shall be eighteen thousand cubits; and the name of the city from that day shall be “THE LORD IS THERE.”

This verse is talking about the incredible vision that Ezekiel had of Jerusalem as it will be in the Millennial Age and of the temple that will be there. The detail is amazing from chapter 40 to 48. He saw a magnificent temple and described it even to its dimensions and detailed measurements. God gave him a guided tour and told him to write down all that he saw. The altar is described in great detail, the gates, the walls, the sacrificial offerings, those who can be admitted, the regulations for the priests, the temple’s place in the new city of Jerusalem, the river which will flow from the temple, the borders of the land and the divisions between the tribes of Israel, the land which will belong to the Prince, and last but not least, the new name to be given to this amazing city; Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is There.

It’s very hard for us to even get our heads around this wonderful vision, and to imagine how it is going to be. Interesting too that in Ezekiel’s vision there doesn’t seem to be anyone around. That is because it is a prophecy of what will be in this period of time that we call the Millennial reign of Christ; the time when Jesus will rule the whole world with a rod of iron. David will be His Prince over the city and it will be the base from which our Lord will rule and reign.

Many Bible scholars don’t believe that this description given to Ezekiel is literal, but attempt to allegorise it by coming up with strange ideas like; as we are the temples of the Holy Spirit, so this temple is a representation of all believers, and that the rooms of the temple are the different nations of the world.

I categorically do not agree with this thinking which I believe cheapens the power of God and His ability to do anything He wills. To spiritualise and allegorise this most important prophetic passage of scripture is like saying that we have to do the same with all other prophecies in the Bible, and what would that mean for the first coming of Jesus?

The Shekinah presence of God has always dwelt with His people, firstly as a pillar of fire and smoke as He led them out of Egypt, then in the Ark of the Covenant and in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, and following the death of King David, in the Temple built by Solomon to his father’s specifications, given to David by God.

When the first Temple was completed, Solomon held a service of dedication to God.

2Chronicles 5 v 11-14, 6 v 12-20, 7 v 1-3 and v12-22 As the people celebrated and sang, ‘For He is good, for His mercy endures forever.’, The Temple was filled with a cloud and the priests could no longer minister. The glory of the Lord filled the house of God. Solomon praised God before all the people and fire from Heaven fell to consume the burnt offering and the sacrifices and God’s glory was shown to all who were gathered, and they fell on their faces before Him and worshipped and praised.

The Lord appeared to Solomon that night and spoke to him. “If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

BUT if the people turned away from God then He would uproot them from the land and the Temple that was so important to the people would be destroyed.

God’s presence remained in the Temple until that very thing happened. The people forsook God and turned to the worship of idols.

Ezekiel had an earlier vision than the one we have been looking at. He saw the very Temple that Solomon had so faithfully dedicated to the glory of God filled with abominations. Ezekiel’s heart was broken by what God showed him.

Ezekiel 10 v 1-4, v 18-19

‘And I looked, and there in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubim, there appeared something like a sapphire stone, having the appearance of the likeness of a throne. Then he spoke to the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in among the wheels, under the cherub, fill your hands with coals of fire from among the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” And he went in as I watched. Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the Temple when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and paused over the threshold of the Temple; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory.

Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the Temple and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.”

God removed His presence from the Temple at the East Gate, and did the priests notice it? Did the people see it? No! They carried on as if nothing had happened.

Interestingly enough, after the exile, when Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilt the city and the Temple, the Temple was dedicated to God, the people repented , the priesthood was re-established and the sacrificial system and the law began again, but nowhere does the Bible say that the Shekinah glory of God returned to the Temple.

Not until the vision of Ezekiel and the Millennial Temple do we read again of the presence of God filling the Temple once again, and when the presence of God does return it will enter the way it left, by the East Gate.

There is an East Gate to Jerusalem today, and it is blocked up. Why? Because of this very reason, to allow the presence of God to return to the third Temple which the Jews will build, and for which the implements are all ready now. You can see them, or copies of them at the Bible Institute in Jerusalem. This third Temple will be the place where the Antichrist will attempt to be worshipped as Messiah. This Temple is NOT the Millennial Temple which I believe will be a miraculous building constructed by God Himself.

So to get back the the third Temple and the East Gate. The Muslims who know of the Jewish expectations of the coming Messiah have placed a cemetery slap bang in front of the blocked up gate. As if anyone could prevent God’s glory from doing what God means it to do.But the Jews and the Muslims have it all wrong! The East Gate, or the Golden Gate as it is often called, which is presently there is not the gate that scripture talks about. The present walls of Jerusalem were built during the time of the Ottoman Empire and are, apart from anything else, many feet higher than they were at the time of the second Temple. As Zechariah tells us, a huge valley will open up and split the Temple Mount wide open from East to West as soon as Jesus descends to the Mount of Olives.

Zechariah 14 v 4-5

No the Shekinah glory will not be in the third Temple, but in the fourth, the Millennial Temple, Jesus Himself will be there.

Zechariah 14 v 9

Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the Person of Jesus will rule and reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Wonderful!

The Lord Himself will be there. Jehovah Shammah!

As believers in Jesus we are so privileged to have God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We can truly say the Lord is there……….the Lord is here!

We know that He will never leave us or forsake us. Hebrews 13 v 5 We are Temples of the Holy Spirit.

But sadly, the Holy Spirit, God’s precious presence, can and does leave a church, if indeed it can be called a church, where sin is allowed and is prevalent and which is spiritually dead.

As the blinded condition of Judah’s people caused God’s Shekinah glory to leave the Temple without them even noticing it, so the blinded condition of many churchgoers causes God’s Holy Spirit to leave their churches. Apathy, worldliness and outright sin cause God to withdraw His glory from their midst, but do they notice? No! They carry on as usual with their rituals and traditions and don’t even see the need for the Holy Spirit in their presence. Is it any wonder then, that numbers decline as the true church of God sees what is happening and sadly leave as God calls them to be a part of fellowships where there are people who are living and worshipping in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is devastating to know that God is taking His presence away from a precious and loved group of people, especially when those people were once enjoying His presence in their midst and now they do not even realise He has left them high and dry and desiccated and dead.

That is enough to  make one weep as I believe  Ezekiel wept over Jerusalem and the Temple.

We have something really special awaiting us during the Millennial reign of Christ, so let each one of us make very sure that we are in the right place with God.

There are questions for us to address:

Does the glory of God fill this Temple? (that is ‘me’) Does the Holy Spirit reside within each one is us as individuals?

Would we be aware if the Holy Spirit left our church?

Do we each give God the glory and only Him?

The Lord is There, Jehovah Shammah, is a privilege and a blessing to be realised by each one of us in our individual walk with Him, and I pray that others will be able to see the presence of Jesus in our lives and in our behaviour, as a witness that He is there within us.

May we be willing to proclaim the Name of Jesus wherever we go and whoever we speak to.

Jehovah Shammah is with us?

May I suggest that you read Psalm 139 as a reminder of what an amazing and wonderful God we serve.

In Jesus,

Linda

The post Jehovah Shammah – The Lord is There first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

The word ‘shalom’ means ‘peace’ and is used as a form of greeting in Israel, and also as a form of benediction as in, Peace be to your house,’ or ‘Peace be upon you’. It is a word we are familiar with as believers in Jesus and maybe we have used it ourselves as a blessing. The basic idea underlying this word ‘shalom’ is contentment and satisfaction in life, not just as a feeling, but after completing a transaction to each party’s satisfaction, or the payment of a debt, or the reconciliation of a relationship. It appears often in scripture in these ways.

In its purest form it means being at peace with God, knowing that blessing flows from being in that position with Him. The peace we are talking about here is not the absence of war or strife, or the quietness and stillness that comes from being in a pleasant place. It is the absence of war or strife with God, and the quietness and stillness that comes from being in His presence.

As believers we know that our Heavenly Father is the God of peace and that Jesus Himself is our peace, and that the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of peace. So you can see how pivotal this term is to our understanding of the names of God.

The first time Jehovah Shalom appears in the bible is in connection with eternal peace and is found in Judges chapter 6. Joshua had been dead for many years and after his death the Israelites quickly descended into idolatry and disobedience once again. All the time Joshua lived, things went fairly well except that the tribes of Israel did not drive out the enemy as God had commanded them, and so the Angel of the Lord, or Jesus, had to appear before them and remind them of their covenant with God. (Judges 2:1-19) It is interesting that in verses 4 & 5 it talks about the children of Israel weeping. But these were not tears of repentance, they were self centred crocodile tears. Oh I think that they genuinely felt sorry, but at root they wanted to have their cake and eat it. They wanted to be under God’s protection but still go their own way.

Their conviction didn’t last long however, for they still did not let go of their idols. They thought that they could still be protected by God as well as serve their foreign gods.

There is a lesson here for us too. If we are going to be truly at peace with God, then we have to give up our idols, whatever they might be.

You probably know of TV evangelists who have had their sin exposed in public. They wept and they wailed, they confessed their sin and said they were sorry whilst in private they continued in their sin. They wept tears of remorse, but not of repentance. They were sorry that they had been caught out, but were soon tempted back to their misdeeds.

It is not enough to merely weep over ours sins. We have to turn our backs on our sins, walk away from them and not go back. Outward confession of sin means nothing if it does not mean a change of heart.

The book of Judges is such a sad book in many ways. Consider the last words of the book, ‘everyone did what was right in his own eyes’. Judges 21:25 We can learn a lot from this book which can be applied to the church today and indeed to our own lives. Everyone did what was right in his/her own eyes.

There is widespread apathy towards sin in the churches today. I say churches, because the true church is the body of Christ and is a remnant from all churches, the institutions, the denominations which call themselves Christian.  People are no longer outraged by the things shoved in their faces every day. TV and films bombard us with sexual promiscuity and adultery. The name of Jesus, the name of God are regularly misused, and most don’t blink an eye at it. Swearing and cursing are rampant and we should be offended. Our consciences are being dumbed down by the enemy and we are letting him get away with it time after time. Do we forget that we have the on/off control in our hand?

We have to declare war on the enemy’s seductive ways in this age. So it was for the Israelites. Time and time again they failed, till they were brought to a terrible place.

Judges 6:1-6

Every year the Midianites came and took the crops and livestock from Israel until they were completely impoverished. For seven years these enemies of Israel would come at harvest time and descend like locusts and take the fruits of Israel’s labour. So bad was the annual invasion that the people of Israel took to hiding in caves in the mountains.

This reminds me of the cartoon film ‘Antz’ where the grasshoppers came each year and stole the ants stores and an unworthy champion sorted them out. I wonder if the writers of that story got their ideas from here?

Judges 6:7-10

‘And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, they the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel; ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. Also I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed My voice.”

The Israelites were reaping the consequences of their disobedience before God. They were an unholy people, idolatrous and stubborn and hard hearted. God had to teach them a lesson. He will not be mocked.

Oh yes! They acted in a holy way, they wept and prayed, but as soon as they had finished they went back to their idols and to their kneeling before the altars of Baal. In fact throughout the seven years of distress, Gideon’s father Joash, kept an altar to Baal on his property. Why would he do that? Because he and the rest of the Israelites saw the wealth and prosperity of the Midianites and were jealous. So if Baal could let the Midianites have all these riches then they would try to see if Baal would provide the same for them. How foolish! So they became double minded, wanting the best if both worlds. The unnamed prophet of God told them the reasons why they were in this predicament.

And then;

Judges 6:11-24 a

‘Now the Angel of the Lord  came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valour!’ Gideon said to Him, ‘Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Then the Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from up the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” So he said to Him, ‘O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘ Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.’ Then he said to Him, ‘If now I have found favour in your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.’ And He said, ‘I will wait until you come back.’ So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. The Angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them in this rock, and pour out the broth.’ And he did so. Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel,of the Lord departed out of his sight. Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, ‘Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.’ So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-is-Peace.’

Jesus came to see Gideon, as the Angel of the Lord.

(We don’t know if the unnamed prophet was actually a ‘Christophany’, ie., an Old Testament appearance of Jesus or not. I tend to think that the prophet was just as the word says, an unnamed man of God endowed with the gift of prophecy, also remembering that though idolatry was rife there was always a remnant of Godly people.) Why did God visit Gideon as the Angel of the Lord in the person of Jesus?

Gideon didn’t seem like a worthy man to be used by God, did he? Hiding away like a coward, doing nothing to stop,the Midianites for seven years. Just like all the rest. He didn’t even object to his father’s pagan altar. Yet Jesus called him a mighty man of valour. Funny how God chooses seemingly unsuitable people to do His work.

Who did Gideon think this Angel of God was? He didn’t seem to me to be suitably impressed. He didn’t fall down before Him in worship, he just complained. Why? Because he had a really wrong idea about God.

Jesus was not moved, He didn’t answer Gideon’s complaints. He just told Gideon to go and save Israel from the Midianites. God wasn’t about to change His mind, Gideon was the one who had to change his thinking. God in Jesus was humbling Gideon and empowering him by His Holy Spirit for the huge task that lay ahead of him.

One moment Gideon was a complaining coward, the next, a mighty warrior of God.

Yet Gideon seemed to have no idea of the fact that God was standing before him, and didn’t yet know that the empowering had happened. He still wanted to know who it was who was telling him all these things. His answer is astounding,  ‘Show me a sign!’, as if the mere presence of Jesus was not a sign in itself. God is so patient with Gideon here, who was behaving in rather a ridiculous way.

Gideon even got God to wait for him while he prepared a huge meal. What was he thinking? Maybe he needed time to absorb all that had happened or maybe he thought that if he closed his eyes, when he opened them again it would all be a dream and the Angel of the Lord would be gone.

Anyway, our lovely Jesus patiently waited till, Gideon brought the food and then told him to put it on a stone and pour the broth over it.

Now bear in mind that Gideon, for all his doubts, had very carefully prepared this food. He must have wondered what Jesus was doing there, messing up his lovely meal, I state of eating it. And then, all became clear, Gideon was given his sign as the food was consumed by fire from the rock when Jesus touched it with His staff and then disappeared from Gideon’s sight.

Too late almost, Gideon realised his mistake. What had he done? He suddenly knew that he had been face to face with God and knew he should die, for no one can come face to face with God and live. Then God spoke to his heart, ‘Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.’

So Gideon built an altar of remembrance and called it, the Lord is Peace. Jehovah Shalom!

Gideon’s attitude to God was casual, unbelieving, doubtful.

Our attitude can be the same. We are apt not to fear and reverence God as we should. There is a popular soft image of God in many churches today and from that watered down view comes permissiveness. We hear of churches where things are accepted that should not be, in fact everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

When Gideon realised just who he had been talking to, he was filled with fear. He knew then that Israel was reaping what it had sown as a nation of people. Sin and disobedience had caused the trouble and distress. It wasn’t until he got to that place of understanding that God was able to give him leave.

Not till he was in a place of repentance and acknowledgement of sin, not just the nation’s sin, but his own.

God’s peace -Shalom- cannot be earned nor is it given to everyone who calls themselves Christian. Multitudes of regular churchgoers do nor have Shalom.

Many often go through times of distress quoting the words of peace without actually experiencing shalom.

We each have to recognise God for who He truly is. Perhaps God has led us into these teachings on the Names of God so that each one of us can have a fresh revelation of His power and might.

We use grand words like, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, yet do we really believe that He is all these and more? He is speaking to us, pleading with us not to take Him for granted.

Let each one of us pay attention to what God is saying to us, get rid of our idols, turn our minds to Him and thus truly experience and know His peace in our lives, whatever comes against us to try and steal away our love of God and His desire that we should know Him completely as Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our Peace.

May you know His peace.

Shalom,

Linda

Next time Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there.

The post JEHOVAH SHALOM first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Following on from the previous post…

3) Thirdly they had to experience the Passover

“Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho.” Joshua 5 :10

Passover was instigated by God as He rescued the people of Israel from Egypt, and as a remembrance it was to be celebrated on the 14th of the first month of the year and, surprise, surprise, on the day that the men had recovered from the knife of circumcision at Gilgal, it was that very day.

Just as they were about to do battle against the stronghold of Jericho in the Promised Land, the day came for the celebration of Passover. God’s perfect timing!

There, within the environs of the massive citadel of Jericho, the first Passover in the Promised Land was experienced and the blood of a lamb was sprinkled on the people, to signify their releasing from the guilt of sin by God. God was giving them a fresh start, a new beginning, and reminding them to lay aside all bitterness and rebellion. The old had rolled away. That is the meaning of Gilgal………rolled away!

Moses had spoken to them such a short time before and said these his last words to them: (The Hebrew for rebellion here means bitter, disobedient.)

“For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death?” Deuteronomy 31 v 27

They were a difficult people who were prone to backslide into those very ways they had seen in their parents. They needed to be encouraged to remain faithful and not fall back into their predecessors habits. They had come to the blood to be forgiven by the sprinkling so that they could be cleansed for what lay ahead. Little did they realise that they were heading into spiritual warfare big time, but God wanted them to be in the right place with Him, their Lord of Hosts, Jehovah Tsebaoth.

4) Fourthly they had to face the walled city of Jericho.

The city was, by human standards, impregnable. The walls were so thick that it is believed that chariot races could have been held on them. Remember that Rahab’s house was built in the wall, and it was a home big enough to house her and all her family, and of course if she lived there, then so did many others. It was these formidable walled cities that caused ten of the twelve Israelite spies to return totally disheartened and afraid to go into the land. All except Joshua and Caleb, and from his previous experience Joshua knew what they would find across the River Jordan. As a result of their fear God made that generation wander in the wilderness for forty years until all had died excepting Joshua and Caleb, the only two to believe what God had said.

How did Joshua feel about this city they had to conquer? Did he spend hours trying to work out strategies, how to deploy his forces, such as they were?

“Hmm! Let’s see! Dig under the foundations to weaken the walls? Try to scale the walls? Burn down the gates? No! Nothing like that would work. Ok God, it has to be up to You. There is nothing we can do.

“And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said,  ‘Are You for us or for our adversaries?’ So He said, ‘No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to Him, ‘What does my Lord say to His servant?’ Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, ‘Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.’ And Joshua did so.” Joshua 5 :13-15

Suddenly a man appeared before Joshua. The Commander of the army of the Lord! The Captain of the Lord’s hosts! Jesus Himself!

And we know it was Jesus because Joshua fell down and worshipped Him. No mere angel would allow himself to be worshipped, only God.

Joshua asked if He was for them or against them. Jesus answered in a strange way, ‘No!’, and proceeded to introduce Himself to Joshua, who fell at His feet in worship. Jesus told Joshua to take off his shoes as he was standing on holy ground. Jesus was saying that He was on no ones side and that Joshua’s question was misguided. There was no side for the Lord of Hosts to be on, because the war was between God and Satan, not between Joshua and Jericho.

Jesus said, ‘I Am Jehovah Tsebaoth, the Captain of the Lord’s heavenly army, this is not your battle but Mine.’ What a relief that must have been for Joshua, God was in control all the time.

You see the people who inhabited Jericho were pagan worshippers ruled by Satan and sadly God could not allow them to survive. Satan all through history would try to destroy the people from whom came the promised Messiah. His plan had to be thwarted. It was to be Jesus and His army who would fulfil that need, notJoshua and his people. All they had to do was to follow instructions which on the face of it seemed ridiculous.

“Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See! I have given Jericho I to your hand, it’s king and the mighty men of valour. You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram’s horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times. An done priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.'” Joshua 6:1-5

Israel prepared to follow the Lord of Host’s orders and while they did that Jesus was organising His forces to destroy the walls of Jericho and bring them crashing down at the appointed time.

I wonder what the people thought about this plan. They knew that what they had to do couldn’t possibly bring down those huge, strong walls, but whatever they thought, they carried out the commands in obedience to God’s will.

“Then Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, ‘Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram’s horns before the ark of the Lord.’ And he said to the people, ‘Proceed, and march around the city, and let him who is armed advance before the ark of the Lord.’ So it was, when Joshua had spoken to the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram’s horns before the Lord advanced and blew the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets. Now Joshua had commanded the people saying, ‘You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I say to you, ‘Shout! Then you shall shout.’ 

So he had the ark of the Lord circle the city, going around it once. Then they came into the camp and lodged in the camp. And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. Then seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram’s horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew with the trumpets. And the armed men went before them. But the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets. And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. So they did for six days. But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people: ‘Shout, for the Lord has given you the city! Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated to the Lord; they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.’ 

So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, of and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword. But Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the country, ‘Go into the harlot’s house, and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her.’ And the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel. But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father’s household, and all that she had. So she dwells in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Then Joshua charged them at that time saying, ‘cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho, he shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates. So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country.” Joshua 6 v 6 – 27

Not once during that week did they see any evidence of anything happening. Then on the seventh day (seven being the number of completion), down came the walls. I cannot begin to imagine how awesome that must have been.

It wasn’t the Israelites’ shouting that brought down the walls, it was Jehovah’s heavenly host pushing them down with supernatural strength. Amazing!

Those people plodding around the walls every day behind the priests blowing their shofar so, having to remain quiet, must have wondered what on earth was going on. They couldn’t see the angelic hosts fighting on their behalf.

On the last day, as they shouted out in victory, they saw their obedience rewarded by Jehovah Tsebaoth, the Lord of Hosts.

In His Name,

Linda

Next time Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our Peace.

The post Jehovah Tsebaoth – PT.3 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

THE FALL OF JERICHO

Last time we saw how Jesus is the Lord of hosts and how that title covers the whole hosts of Heaven and Earth, indeed He is the Lord of all, history is His Story from beginning to end.

We also saw how this name of God covers the spiritual forces of Heaven, the angels who serve Him in fighting the principalities and powers of evil, and that is what is at the heart of the Fall of Jericho. This passage illustrates so well the power of our Lord of Hosts.

Joshua was quite a man, he was totally loyal to God and a more than worthy successor to Moses. Moses knew that he was not to be allowed to go into the Promised Land of Canaan, but that Joshua would be the one to lead the people of Israel there after his death. In Deuteronomy 31 v 6 Moses says to Joshua, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

After Moses had died God spoke to Joshua:“Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them – the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1 : 2-9

Joshua acted immediately on the word of God, and gathered the people together, ready to cross the River Jordan. He was determined with all his heart, mind soul and strength, to be obedient to the calling that God had given him in complete and utter trust.

He was so different to the rest of his generation in that his faith was totally in God. He refused to compromise, he refused to be bitter and disillusioned and full of unbelief. He chose to be a soldier for God, obedient and ready to sacrifice himself for God’s cause, ready to bring down all strongholds that stood between him and God’s victory. Remember that all those strongholds that lay before him were in the Promised Land, on the other side of the River Jordan. So often we read or hear songs about crossing the Jordan that intimate that once we are over the Jordan all will be well, or we are crossing the Jordan to the Promised Land of Heaven. That’s all nonsense! The Israelites were crossing the Jordan into a land full of enemies, full of trouble and certainly no paradise.

Joshua was the leader of a new generation of Israelites who knew nothing of life in Egypt. They had all been born in the wilderness and were eager to go with Joshua, eager to serve God and declare war on anything that stood in their way.

What stood in their way?    Jericho!

1) Firstly they had to cross the River Jordan.

“And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap. So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests, who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest) that the waters that came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea or Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.”   Joshua 3:13-17

They were prepared and ready and they knew that God was going before them, but they also knew that as soon as they reached the other side they would be in enemy territory.

Exciting? YES!  Scary? YES!

But God’s promise was there. He held back the waters of the Jordan so they could cross over on dry land. A mini Red Sea experience for the generation who had not seen God’s miracle there. All except Joshua that is.

I was trying to work out how old Joshua would have been at this point and I believe ha had to be at least 60 to 70 years old, because as we remember from before, he had already defeated the Amalekites not long after the Israelites began their wanderings, and he was at Mount Sinai. Ex 24 v 12 – 13 Joshua came out of Egypt, he was with Moses all the way through the forty years of the wilderness wanderings. He was the only one, with Caleb, from the previous generation to go into the Promised Land on the scouting mission and so, because all his generation perished through unbelief, he was now the oldest of all the Israelites, along with Caleb (Numbers 13 & 14).

Back to the crossing of the river.

As they crossed into Canaan they were on the offensive, prepared for confrontation and war. When they were seen crossing into the territory of Canaan, the word quickly spread and fear filled the Amorites and Canaanites. “So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites, who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, that their heart melted; and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.” Joshua 5 v 1

It’s interesting how fear took hold of these Godless people who had had things all their own way for so long. They had not been challenged before, and all the time the Israelites were wandering about on the other side of the river, they presented no threat to those living in the land. Not until this point in time. Up to that time the gates of Jericho had remained open, people could come and go as they pleased. Joshua knew that, because he had sent two spies to Jericho before, and they had lodged in the city wall with Rahab, who had helped them to escape when their presence was discovered.

Now that the Israelites were in the land and fear overcame the people, the gates were shut. Things had changed, now they felt threatened and insecure. They knew how God had dried up the Red Sea for these people, but forty years is a long time for a story to last and it becomes like a fairy tale; but now God had dried up the River Jordan, and things were getting a little too close to home. Now they were faced with a huge number of people and they felt intimidated.

2). Secondly the men of Israel had to go through something totally humbling.

“At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ” Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.”  So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. For all the people who had come out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised.”  Joshua 5 v 2 – 5

Can you imagine the rejoicing of these young people as they set foot in the Promised Land? Joshua had trained the men and turned them from raw recruits into a fighting army. You know what young men can be like when faced with the prospect of a battle. We see it in our own history of WW1 and WW2. The sheer bravado, the ‘we want to join up’ attitude, egging each other on, glamourising war. All the time this was going on amongst the Israelite men however, Joshua was sharpening flint knives.

Circumcision was an important outward sign of the covenant made between God and Abraham so long before.

“Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff necked no longer.  For the Lord your God is God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.” Deut 10:16-17.  Not only did fleshly circumcision obey the command of God, but also signified a spiritual commitment.

“Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”  Deut 30:5-6

This was a prophetic word given through Moses to these young men. This circumcision had to do with spiritual warfare. It signified the end of all confidence in the flesh. God knew how enthusiastic they all were. He saw them straining at the leash to tear down the Satanic stronghold of Jericho, but God commanded Joshua to cut them off short, to put an end to their confidence in their own strength.

We can imagine that after that most unpleasant experience the last thing on their minds was war and victory. They would have been much too sore and possibly feverish. No more dancing and singing right now, only groaning in pain. They were rendered impotent, helpless and utterly vulnerable and useless as soldiers. God was teaching them how powerless they were in the flesh. He wanted them to see that the only way they could be safe was through faith in Him. He brought them to this place of weakness because He wanted to prove Himself strong on their behalf.

Isn’t it strange that the enemy didn’t attack them in their time of weakness? Why didn’t they? Perhaps God didn’t allow them to, because in the heavens unseen forces were at work protecting the Israelites. Perhaps the enemy saw things that the Israelites did not which kept them away.

I remember a true story about a group of missionaries in Africa, who knew they were surrounded by hostile natives who were driven by the devil to destroy them. All night they huddled under a makeshift tent, wondering when the angry men would strike; but nothing happened. Later after some of those devil driven men became believers in Jesus Christ, the missionaries asked why they didn’t attack that night and kill them. “We couldn’t!”  was the reply, “because of the big strong men standing around you with swords in their hands.” I think it might have been like that in this situation. It was the hosts of Heaven who were protecting the people of God and putting fear into the hearts of their enemies. You see, it wasn’t their battle, it was God’s. They were not required at this time to lift a hand in their own power. God was making the way forward for them. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.” Zechariah 4:6. As the men healed and rested, so God calmed their souls so that they could listen to Him.

More next time.

In His mighty name, Jehovah Tsebaoth,

Linda.

The post JEHOVAH TSEBAOTH Pt. 2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This amazing name shows us so much about our God and is a title that reveals Him as the One who is in control of all created things; the heavenly bodies we see at night, all bird and animal life, we human beings and even the satanic beings and of course the heavenly angelic beings, the host of Heaven. It appears often in scripture; in Isaiah and Jeremiah 60 – 70 times, in Haggai 14 times, in Malachi 24 times, in Zechariah 53 times. I could go on, but altogether this phrase, “the Lord of Hosts” occurs 260 times in the Old Testament.

This title is used in particular to the relation of God to His people when gathered together for service or worship. So it is a gathering title and so appropriate for we believers who gather together in His Name. Psalm 46:7 says, ‘The Lord of Hosts is with us!’

This is how Spurgeon describes this name of God;

‘The Lord rules the Angels, the stars, the elements and all the hosts of Heaven, and the Heaven of heavens is under His sway. The armies of men, though they know it not, are made to subserve His will. This Generalissimo of the forces of the land, and the Lord High Admiral of the seas, is on our side and our August ally; woe unto those who fight against Him, for they shall flee like smoke before the wind when He gives the word to scatter them.’

Jehovah Tsebaoth is the one eternal, self existent Being who created and controls all powers that be throughout the Universe, whether these powers be material or spiritual.

1. He controls the host of Heaven, the angelic beings.

There are several references in scripture to these angelic forces which fight on our behalf.

‘Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying; “O Lord of Hosts , God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennecherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands – wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord, You alone.”  Isaiah 37:15-20

When King Hezekiah (one of the few Godly kings of Judah) was threatened by the King of Assyria, Sennecherib, who mocked God openly, Isaiah told Hezekiah to pray. The above is his prayer. Hezekiah saw the Assyrian army encamped all around Jerusalem, a sight that put fear into any heart, but Hezekiah chose to trust God, and God heard his prayer and intervened. In one night, one single angel from the angelic host killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers and Hezekiah awoke, (you see he was at peace with God and able to sleep, despite the threatening forces surrounding the city,) to see them all lying there, dead! That must have been some clean up operation! If God could do that with one Angel, what could He not do with the whole host of angels.

‘Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas my master! What shall we do?” So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said, “Strike this people I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.’ 2 Kings 6:14-18

The Syrians came to Dothan and surrounded the city, seeking to capture Elisha, because he was giving the King all Syria’s movements beforehand, and they wanted to be rid of this man of God, who seemed to know all that they intended to do against Israel. Elisha’s servant was terrified by the sight of the huge army surrounding the city. ‘Do not fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ (v16). Elisha asked God to reveal the true situation to his servant and his eyes were opened spiritually to see the shining host of Heaven surrounding the Syrian army.

2. He is the Lord of the hosts of the heavens that we can see.

“Then God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth.” Genesis 1:16-17

‘Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.’ Genesis 2:1

‘Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.’  Isaiah 40:26

3. He is Lord of the hosts of birds, animals and sea creatures.

‘So it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. . Then he sent out a Raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.’ Genesis 8:6-12

‘So the King gave the command and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. But the King spoke, saying to Daniel “Your God whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.” Then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the King sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signets of his lords, that the purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed. Now the King went to his palace and spent the night fasting; and no musicians were brought before him. Also his sleep went from him. Then the King arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions  And when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The King spoke saying to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually , been able to deliver you from the lions?” Then Daniel said to the King, “O King live forever! My God sent His angel  and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him, and also O King, I have done no wrong before you.” Now the King was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out if the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God. And the King gave the command, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the  den of lions – them, their children, and their wives; and the lions overpowered them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den.’  Daniel 6:16-24

God sent His angel to shut the lions mouths, and to rescue Daniel, but opened them again to devour the enemies of Daniel and his God.

Think too about Balaam’s donkey. God can even make a donkey speak. And there are many more instances in the Bible when animals do the Lord’s bidding.

4. He is the Lord of the hosts of humankind.

‘Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? Psalm 2:1 

“He who sits in the heavens shall laugh: The Lord shall hold them in derision, then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure.” Psalm 2:1

‘Behold the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales.

“All nations before Him are as nothing. And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.’  Isaiah 40 v 15 and 17

Think of Hitler, Napoleon, Mussolini and others like them. Men who exalted themselves and died dishonourable deaths, all their schemes and plans coming to nothing  in the end, responsible for the deaths of millions; and they will have to answer before God for what they have done. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Our Jehovah Tsebaoth is the supreme God of history…… His story!

5. He is Lord of the satanic hosts.

‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.’ Ephesians 6:12

Satan was not able to test Job without God’s permission.

At Calvary Satan became a defeated foe. Jesus cried out, ‘It is finished!’ In His completed victory over Satan and his hosts.

Jesus whilst on earth cast out demons frequently and they knew who He was, the Lord of Hosts, Jehovah Tsebaoth, they knew He was Lord over them and their evil leader.

When we know all this, why should we be afraid? If God is for us then who can be against us.

Next time I will share a remarkable account from the word of God that aptly illustrates this fact.

Until then, may God continue to bless you.

Linda

The post Jehovah Tsebaoth first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

What does being righteous mean?

As we think about this word we probably picture someone who is honest and upright, full of integrity, virtuous, moral, good and kind. He or she doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol, doesn’t party or go clubbing, doesn’t cheat on taxes, doesn’t watch doubtful movies or use filthy or blasphemous language. This person is gentle and quietly spoken, doesn’t gossip or judge others and walks a good straight path of faith. A righteous person? A perfect person? We might indeed think so.

Let’s look at a few scenarios.

1) A little woman gave up everything she had to serve the poor. She gathered like minded people around her and ministered to those less fortunate. She washed their feet and bathed their weeping sores. She did this for years, giving her all for the sake of the poor. Was this a righteous woman?

2) A man who was already married, one day saw a beautiful woman and lusted after her. He took her and got her pregnant. So that he could marry her, he had her husband killed. Was this a righteous man?

3) a man who was highly regarded by his peers, who lived a righteous life according to their standards, keeping to the tenets of his faith and who was extremely clever and learned, believed that those who did not agree with what he believed should be hunted down, put in prison, and even killed. Was this a righteous man?

4) a man, just a rough ordinary sort of bloke, promised to follow the ways of another, and swore he would never let this man down. Soon after he declared in the hearing of others that he never knew his friend. He lied. Was this a righteous man?

1) Mother Theresa lived and worked in the slums in India for many years. She became an icon to many because of her lifestyle. Yet she received a Nobel prize and the praise of men, often. She, sadly, confessed in her later years that she had no certainty in her faith.

2) King David repented deeply of his sin with Bathsheba, and his murder of Uriah her husband. The baby of their illicit union died and David didn’t realise what he had done until it was pointed out to him by Nathan the priest, and then he deeply repented and cried out to God for mercy and forgiveness.

3) Paul the Pharisee of Pharisees, who colluded in Stephen’s death, was changed In an instant from being a legalistic, Orthodox Jew, to being a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ, when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. He became one of the apostles and totally devoted his remaining life to taking the gospel to a needy world.

4) Simon Peter betrayed Jesus, by denying that he knew Him, but was forgiven by Jesus, and went on to become a Holy Spirit filled believer who never betrayed his Saviour again, even dying upside down on a cross for refusing to deny Him.

By worldly standards the first person, Mother Theresa, appeared to be righteous, but was she righteous by God’s standard? On the other hand David, Paul and Peter were obviously unrighteous, but their hearts became right with God through faith and trust in Him. The difference between the world’s ideas of righteousness and God’s true righteousness is vast.

We all know good people who have no faith in God. They appear to be as good as Christians and indeed are better than some believers. They are kind and thoughtful, willing to do anything for anyone, but are they righteous in God’s eyes? There are many people who faithfully go to church every week, pray and read the Bible and do a huge amount of good works. But are they righteous in God’s eyes?

What about us?

It may be that we have been struggling for years to overcome a particular sin that refuses to go, however hard we pray. We just think we have got somewhere and then, Ooops! there we go again. It could be temper, lack of self control, criticism, or whatever becomes a habit, an idol in our life, that we just cannot give up and which takes our attention away from God. It could be an obsession or behaviour trait that is in control of our lives, no matter how hard we try, we cannot conquer it. What we need is a true understanding of God’s righteousness.

In Jeremiah 23:5-6 we read: “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgement and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. “

Understanding Jehovah Tsidkenu – The Lord our Righteousness, is absolutely crucial to the church’s survival in these last days. We talk about wearing the breastplate of righteousness (Ephesians 6), but do we really understand what it means to wear it? We are living in times of rapid moral decline, in fact it’s so fast we can hardly draw breath from gasping at one appalling item of news before we are hit by another. This Information Age has it’s good points, but it’s also riddled with evil. So we need to understand how to be truly righteous in these dark times.

Jeremiah, the prophet, lived during the reign of King Josiah. Josiah was a righteous king, a man who walked humbly before God. Israel. The Northern Kingdom, had already been taken into exile by the Assyrians. Judah however, failed to learn anything from this and was well on the way to becoming even worse that Israel.

2 Chronicles 36:16 states: ‘But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.’

Josiah tried to clean things up, he removed the idols, and the high places where people worshipped, and when the temple was being restored the books of the law were discovered, (2Chron 34). Josiah was shocked that they had been forgotten and worked hard to reinstate the law, even to having it read aloud to the people. Subsequently a sort of revival occurred, but the change of heart that was required for it to real work was not there in the people, there was no true repentance. As soon as Josiah was killed in battle the people of Judah went back to their old ways. Jeremiah was overwhelmed with grief at what he saw. Adultery and homosexuality were rampant.

‘For the land is full of adulterers; for because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, and their might is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane; yes in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the Lord. “Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery ways; in the darkness they shall be driven on and fall in them; for I will bring disaster on them. The year of their punishment,” says the Lord. “And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: They prophesied by Baal and caused my people Israel to err, also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit adultery and walk in lies; they also strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.”  Jeremiah 23:10-14

False teachers and false prophets were prolific and told the people what they wanted to hear. Poor Jeremiah could only weep as he saw the wickedness, evil and darkness all around him.

“Let my eyes flow with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.”  Jeremiah 14 v 17

The reign of Josiah could not make a long term difference unfortunately. The fate of Judah was already sealed, for God could not forgive the sins committed by former kings, especially by  Manasseh, who was responsible for the shedding of the blood of his own people including children and babies. (2 Kings 24 v 3 – 4)

As it was then so it will be with us. God relented while Josiah reigned, but after he was gone God’s wrath fell. Jeremiah however, received a revelation from God which showed hope for the future. (Jeremiah 23 v 5 – 6)

This talks of Jesus Christ who would secure His people’s salvation by the shedding of His own blood. The Lord our righteousness  – Jehovah TSIDKENU  – Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

The law could not provide the righteousness that comes with Jesus. It was all a work of the flesh and could not succeed. We are so blessed to know that as believers, God sees us as righteous through the covering blood of Jesus. We have no righteousness of our own, whatever people in the world may think, we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But do we really understand what that means? Is it real to us? Isaiah after prophesying and preaching faithfully received an incredible vision. (Isaiah 6 v 1 – 7)

This man, so used by God, was brought to a place of understanding how unclean he really was in the sight of God. He knew his human frailty, and until God purged his sin away with the live coal, he could not be free of his sin or acceptable to God. The point of this is that he could not make himself righteous, no matter how hard he tried, and neither can we.

It is God who purifies us, and only then after we come to the end of ourselves and confess our unrighteousness to Him. He makes us righteous, it is His gift to us, undeserved, unmerited and unearned. Be certain if this one thing – their is no good thing in us, all our righteousness is as filthy rags.

George Whitfield said, ‘Self righteousness is the last idol that is rooted out of the heart.’

In our own strength we can do nothing, we cannot please Him by our own efforts. We have to be in that place, like Isaiah, of giving up hope once and for all, of ever finding anything good in ourselves that we can bring to the Lord.

We can sing, ‘I surrender all’, but do we really mean it?

Righteousness is believing the promises of God.

Romans 4 v 3 and 20 – 22

V3 ‘For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’

V20 – 22. “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

Unrighteousness is unbelief, doubting that He will do what He promised and trying to do it ourselves. Let us not judge righteousness by outward appearances and standards, but by God’s standards. The truth is that some who led lives of sacrifice remained sinful in God’s eyes, because they never fully trusted that He would be their righteousness. Instead they relied on their own works and goodness.

David, a righteous man? He had a repentant heart! He did great wrong, but he had a heart after God, and recognised his sin. (Psalm 51)

Peter a righteous man? He was weak, hasty, foolish, and God made hi a person useful in His Kingdom, confounding others who seemed to be wise and mighty, because he was totally sold out for his King.

Paul, a righteous man? A scholar, intellectual, legalistic and certain he was right until Jesus met him and changed him forever so that his gifts could be used for the Kingdom and for the glory of God.

All these men were broken before God could use them. Each one of them came to a place of realising that they could do nothing without the guidance and direction of God, that when they tried to do anything in their own strength it just would not work out right. That’s where we need to be too. We need to be patient, to rely on our Jehovah Tsidkenu, to wait upon Him and not rush ahead because nothing seems to be happening.

He is our righteousness, He only waits for us to realise what that means.

In His love,

Linda.

The post JEHOVAH TSIDKENU first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

“Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly block out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called its name, The Lord is My Banner, for he said,  “Because the Lord has sworn; the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”   Exodus 17:8-16

Every four years at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games all the competing teams from around the world parade around the arena. Each country’s representatives march behind their nations flag or banner as a mark of loyalty and pride in the nation they are competing for. Historically flags or banners have been rallying points for armies at war. As long as their banner was still being held aloft, each side had hope that they would be the victors, but as soon as it fell at was captured, it was a sign of defeat.

During World War Two the Nazis would enter a country, march through the towns, tear down that nations flags and replace them with their own. The hated swastika was seen everywhere as a symbol of fear and domination to Germany’s enemies, but as a sign of triumph to the Nazis.

We can see from this how important flags are to us, and always have been as an expression of loyalty to a particular country or cause, with people prepared to defend them to their last breath because of what they represent.

It is interesting to note that another word for banner is standard, a word that is used to relate to morals. As believers God expects us to live to His standard, with His word ad our guide as to what that standard is. He doesn’t want us to lower that standard, because the lower the standard, the lower the living. We can see how in the world this is so true, as morals decline and anything goes.

Let’s look at this strange account in more detail.

Firstly we shall look at the origin of the Amalekites and why God said He would utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, and also why He said that He would have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Who was Amalek?

Gen 36 v 12 tells us that he was a grandson of Esau by Eliphaz, Esau’s son, and his concubine Timna. Amalek became the leader of the people who were born of that union who were called after him, the Amalekites. God obviously wanted them to be destroyed without trace. Why? Who were these people, what had they done to offend God so much?

Certainly they were long term enemies of Israel and a constant thorn in their flesh, inasmuch as they picked off the weakest of the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. A nasty way of reducing their numbers. Like guerrilla fighters!

They came from Esau, as we see, Jacob’s brother. Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew, clearly showing how cheaply he valued his inheritance, and he worshipped idols, and had low standards in every way. He didn’t value God’s standard and lowered his own.

“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.”  Malachi 1 v 2 – 4

The Edomites were also descendants of Esau and were equally depraved in their behaviour.

It’s not that God had lost His mercy or His grace, His wrath was against these people because of their refusal to uphold Him as their God, their worshiping of idols and their pride in their own worth. Amalek was a type of Satan and his demonic power. Because the hand of the Amalekites was against the God, His wrath was against them. All through the history of Israel, right up to the time of Jesus’ birth, Satan put his hand against God by trying to destroy the lineage that would give birth to the promised Messiah. The enemy did everything he could to wipe out God’s people and he used the Amalekites to try to achieve that goal. Satan knew all that had happened in the past, he was there in the Garden of Eden and heard of the promise of the coming One who would crush him. He knew what God meant when He told Abraham that all humankind  would be blessed through his seed. He knew what happened at Mount Moriah as Jacob offered up his only son Isaac. He knew how Jehovah Jireh had provided a ram, representative of Jesus, the Lamb of God and His sacrifice.

That’s why Satan declared war on God. He was determined to attempt to destroy the coming Messiah or any hope of His coming.

We know that he is still trying to destroy the Jews by any means he can, to prevent Jesus’ second coming. As he sees it, get rid of the Jews, destroy Gods land and there is nowhere for Jesus to return. His hand is against the true church, trying to destroy us too if he can. But we know that he cannot, and will not destroy the Jews, or the land, or us.  Gods word  will be fulfilled, and whatever plans Satan has, and whoever he uses to implement them, he will not get his way.

That doesn’t mean that terribly satanic things don’t happen. As long as Satan is the prince of this world, we will see troubles and tragedies. The things that are happening around us in the world today are a constant reminder of what Satan can do. So his warfare continues against Gods throne and the war that God declared against Amalek is an ongoing conflict.

Here in Exodus 17 the enemy was readying himself to attack the people of God. If Satan could cut off the Israelites before they entered Canaan, he would. He knew the prophecies, and he wasn’t about to let them enter the land where one day Jesus would be born So although we see here a physical battle against Israel, the true significance behind it was spiritual. It was a war between Heaven and Hell.

That is why in scripture we see Israel involved in war after war against Amalek,  who were a Satan controlled nation of people. Of course they could never succeed, even when Saul, 400 years later, failed to destroy them all as God had commanded him, and though Samuel had to kill the Amalek king,  Agag, still a remnant remained. It is not until the reign of King Hezekiah that the Amaleks were finally destroyed. But even generations later, a descendant of King Agag, an Agagite named Haman nearly managed to destroy the Jews in the Diaspora. You will that account in the book of Esther. A wonderful account of God’s faithfulness to His people.

So back to Rephidim, which means, Resting Place. Amalek came to attack the Israelites with the sole aim of annihilating them. Moses sent out men to fight them, headed up by Joshua, whose name in Hebrew is the same as Jesus in the Greek, that is Saviour.

The army Joshua gathered, must have been a sorry sight, and makeshift at best. These men were not trained soldiers, they had few weapons and little skill in fighting. The odds were totally against Israel. Remember that this huge crowd of people were constantly moaning and complaining, miserable and murmuring, ungrateful and wavering, unbelieving and faithless; indeed a weak army to be used by God to fight the forces of evil.

Moses, Aaron, meaning Light Bearer, and Hur, meaning White Linen, went up to the top of the hill. Light Bearer represents Truth, and White Linen represents Purity.

Moses held up his rod in his hands, and as long as his hands were upraised, Israel prevailed, against all belief, but when his arms dropped in fatigue, Amalek prevailed. Moses raised hands represented prayer and intercession. Aaron and Hur saw what was happening and held up Moses arms for him, so that Israel would again prevail.

What a beautiful picture we have here. Truth and Purity holding up the arms of intercession and prayer. What a wonderful illustration of Gods holiness opposing evil.

Also these two faithful men provided a stone for Moses to rest on so that he could prevail in his prayer. The stone represents judgement, Gods judgement on the works of evil.

Jesus is the Rock, He is the Judge of the whole world. I just love the truth that lies behind this amazing happening.

It can’t have been easy watching the fighting and bloodshed, Moses heart must have been in anguish as he cried out to God. The battle was very physical, very real, and Moses would not have fully understood the significance of it all. In a sense, Moses, though he didn’t realise it, was upholding the authority of Gods word.

Joshua and his rag tag army won the day and defeated Amalek, at least for the time being, and God spoke to Moses concerning his enemy Amalek. Moses built an  altar there in commemoration of the victory and called it Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is my Banner. Moses was saying in effect, “We have won the battle here today, but we cannot forget that we were victorious because we serve Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our Banner. This victory had nothing to do with our strength or ability, or any great works we promised to do for God. We did nothing to earn Gods favour today, God Himself is our Banner and our victory is totally the work of His hands.”

There is a wonderful insight in this account for us as believers. As Moses interceded for the people, so Jesus interceded for us, now upholding us before the throne of God. The evil one who would seek to accuse us before that very throne, cannot succeed, because Jesus has covered our sin by His once and for all sacrifice on the cross.

Jesus Christ is our Banner!

However that does not mean that the battle is won for us still living on planet Earth. The eternal battle is won through the cross, but Satan still seeks to destroy us, and prowls around like a lion seeking his prey. We are therefore still engaged in spiritual warfare. We have to battle daily against the principalities and powers, because the devil wars against Christ in us. That is why Paul instructs us to put on our spiritual armour in Ephesians Chapter 6.

We are to fight the good fight of faith while we still remain on this earth and not fear the works of the devil We have Jesus Christ as our Banner to rely on, to trust. he is Truth, He is Purity, He is our Intercessor and nothing can separate us from His love.

In His love,

Linda

The post JEHOVAH NISSI first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Last time we saw how the Israelites had allowed bitterness to pervade their lives,  and and how their subsequent behaviour was causing God to have to teach them and reveal to them how much He wanted to heal them and be their provider. He did provide, time after time, but their grumbling and moaning grew and grew until, having given them all they wanted, they came to a place where God could not condone their behaviour any longer.

They were now settled in the Land of Promise, they had all they needed and yet they disobeyed God again and again. God sent the prophets, and they largely ignored them and mistreated them. They followed their own ways, worshipped pagan gods, turned their backs on God and did their own thing. God gave them Judges who ruled the land, some good, some bad, and so the people swayed one way then another according to the leading of these men. The bible tells us that they all did what was right in their own eyes. Then came the Kings. Everything seemed to be okay at first, then Saul fell from grace, followed by David who was a man after God’s own heart and ruled in the wisdom of God. But after David everything went downhill and apart from a few Godly kings who led the nation well, the rest brought the country down to rock bottom and God was forgotten, put to one side, just remembered when desperation set in. By this time of course, the kingdom was divided into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. In Israel every one of the kings was corrupt, and Judah apart from the reigns of the kings who tried to rule according to God’s ways was just as bad.

God had warned them time and time again of the consequences of their foolish disobedience, yet still they carried on until God had to act and carry out the promises He had made if they failed to worship and follow Him.

This is what He warned through His prophet Ezekiel;

Ezekiel 7 :9

“My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will repay you according to your ways, And your abominations will be in your midst, Then you shall know that I am the Lord who strikes. I am the Lord who strikes, or I am the Lord who SMITES”.

JEHOVAH MAKKEH!

God doesn’t smite easily. His patience and long-suffering are unending, but His wrath is just and certainly we can see that Israel deserved all that came upon them.

But for all God’s fury, His heart was for His people and a faithful remnant remained.

Ezekiel 6:8-10

“Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which plays the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.”

Even among all the wickedness there were those who remained faithful to God, and He saved them. When God strikes or smites, He always does so for a good reason, and He withholds His fury for as long as He can.

In the people of Israel we see the eventual decay and rot that comes from a deliberate refusal  to deal with bitterness and resentment. They fester and grow and turn into pride, wickedness and Godlessness. But God will not allow it to continue, because it contaminates. Then He has to reveal Himself as the God who smites. It doesn’t seem very loving or gracious does it? But it is because of His love and grace that he acts in the way He does.

For instance we read in Proverbs, “Spare the rod and spoil the child!” That doesn’t mean don’t spank your child, just allow the child to do whatever he wants. We all know where that ends.

No, it means that children who are not properly disciplined, but allowed to have all they want, and to do what they want, will grow up, at the very least, as irresponsible adults. We discipline our children in love and grace because we care about how they grow up, and we know what can become of them if we don’t.

So it is with God, His discipline or smiting is part of His loving grace.

Jehovah Makkeh says, “I’ve got to discipline you in order to correct your ways, otherwise you are headed for trouble.”

So it was for Israel and Judah. God sent them into captivity into the nations whose gods the people were serving already. Israel was taken to Assyria and later Judah to Babylon. Why did God act so harshly? Why did He smite them so hard? All He wanted from them was repentance! All He wanted was to pardon and restore His people. He hit them hard to wake them up, to heal them, to bring them back to faith in Him; to peace and to joy instead of shame and confusion.

It is interesting to note that God began His judgement at the Sanctuary.

Ezekiel 9:3-6 “Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s ink horn at his side; and the Lord said to him, ” Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it. To the others He said in my hearing, “Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the temple.”

But note that first a mark was placed on the foreheads of those who did not go along with the majority, and they were saved from God’s judgement. This reminds us of 1 Peter 4:17

“For the time has come for judgement to begin at the house of God, and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

Judgement always begins with the house of God, and rightly so, for the people of God should know better. We can see the same situation in the larger church today, things which are against the word of God, abominations and perversions being permitted in the very place where such things should never happen. We need to be so careful in our walk of faith, remembering that we are all sinners saved by grace, and remembering too that we can be deceived if we forget the word of God and go along with the world in the church.

Do not forget, only dead fish go with the flow!

We have to be so careful how we live our lives before God. We are living in dreadfully wicked and lawless days, and we see the evil around us more and more clearly as things get worse. We want to be those people of God who have His mark on our foreheads, working and living for Him in the midst of a depraved and Satan driven world.

Briefly turn your minds to Jonah. His disobedience to God’s command led him to run away. He went ‘down’ to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish and went ‘down’ into it, and when the storm broke Jonah went ‘down’ into the bottom of the ship to sleep. Three times Jonah went ‘down’ and the third time he was asleep to what God was saying to him. So God had to smite him by sending him ‘down’ once more into the depths of the sea where the great fish swallowed him. Jonah was bitter and resentful that God would choose to save the people of Nineveh who were pagan idol worshippers, so he chose to go down and down and down till God sent him down. In the belly of the fish, Jonah repented and did what God had told him to do and the people of Nineveh were saved from God’s judgement as they repented of their sins.

It is a great pity that Jonah, although he reluctantly did what God had asked of him and thereby saved the lives of thousands of people, still sulked and stamped his feet at what God had done, and even wanted to die believing that he was right to be angry with God.

Can you see how resentful and bitter Jonah had become? God had to judge him and deal harshly with him because he was only thinking of himself and not the thousands of people who might have died. We don’t know how Jonah responded to God ultimately because the Bible doesn’t say, but I hope he was chastened and repentant and obedient to God thereafter.

But you see why Judgement has to begin with the house of God? He will smite where He needs to in the desire to bring us back to Him, closer than before, like a loving father who smacks his child. He hates to do it, but if his child is repentant, grieves and learns respect for his father because of the punishment then it has served its purpose and the child can be received into his father’s loving embrace.

Hebrews chapter 12:5-11 tells us that we are not to despise His chastening, or smiting, or ignore it. It is for our own good, to help us to grow and learn. Everything we go through should bring us closer to Him, strengthening our faith always bearing in mind that Jehovah Makkeh is our loving Heavenly Father who did not spare the rod of correction from His own Son who was smitten by God for us.

Jesus took the punishment that we deserved. We have no excuse for bitterness, for complaining, for disobedience, for unlike the Israelites and Jonah, we know that Jesus is our Saviour and Lord, we have the completed truth in Him. So praise God in all circumstances, good, bad or indifferent, for every rebuke, every chastisement, every chastening brings us one step closer to Him as long as we are ready to change and be changed.

Blessings

Linda

The post JEHOVAH MAKKEH first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This week we are thinking about the Israelites after their amazing and miraculous escape from Egypt across the Red Sea and God’s provision of a dry passage between walls of water on either side. The Egyptian army had floundered in the tumultuous waters as the sea returned to its place and they were safe. As they all congregated safely on the Arabian shore they began to sing and dance and rejoice in what the Lord had done for them. At the beginning of Exodus chapter 15 we can read the song that they sang to God, giving Him all the glory and all the praise for their incredible rescue from their slave drivers. How they celebrated, how they sang and danced; but it didn’t last long.

They began their journey through the desert toward the Promised Land. They travelled for three days and in all that time found no water. No doubt they expected to be able to replenish their water supplies en-route, but at this early stage of their journey they found none.

Out of interest, if they crossed the Red Sea at the foot of the Sinai Peninsula, as seems very likely, then where was Marah?

I put Marah, Saudi Arabia, into Google Earth, and up it popped. Amazingly it seems that there is still a place called Marah, same spelling too, in Saudi Arabia and it is North of where the people might have crossed over the Red Sea. To my inexperienced eye it seems likely that this is still the same Marah. It is on the coastal plain, not too far east of the sea and it could well take three days to walk there from the crossing point. Very interesting! Check it for yourselves. It’s all desert, brown and dry and boring and hot!

Anyhow, there they were, thirsty and tired, this great gathering of people, and already they had forgotten the rejoicing of a few days earlier and the reason for it.

We are so quick to forget good things, aren’t we? As I was thinking about this I realised that we are creatures of the moment. If we are tired and thirsty and in a hot, dry desert, desperate for sustenance to keep us going, very aware of our physical needs, watching for any sign of water, any that’s fit to drink, swallowing dust and sand, breathing it into our lungs, with red and itchy eyes from all the dirt that’s being stirred up by the feet of around two million people, then we are going to be pretty miserable. All the memories of what happened just three days before are going to fade pretty quickly in the present misery and discomfort. They were so miserable that they forgot about Jehovah Jireh and just wanted water and rest. So they complained and moaned against poor Moses. He must have been so irritated by this thankless mass of people. I would have been! But then again I probably would have been one of the moaners. I don’t do hardship too well!

However you do wonder how they could so easily have lost their joy at God’s miraculous intervention on their behalf.

The thing is that signs and wonders and miracles do pass, they don’t last. Even today so many Christians rush here and there, chasing after signs and wonders they have heard about, looking for healings and happenings. But that is not the way to know God and indeed very often these so called works and wonders are false and lead many into deception, then into disillusionment and sometimes into a loss of faith in God.

Paul had it right, ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’  Romans 10:7

Faith never comes by witnessing supernatural works or miracles, and it never did even when Jesus walked the earth. Faith comes by meeting the Master and choosing to follow Him when He calls.

So back to the Israelites. Here they were, this massive crowd of people desperate for water.

Then they arrived at Marah and thought that there their thirst would be quenched. But Marah was the place of bitter water; Marah means bitter. It didn’t take long for the word to pass through the mass of people that the water was undrinkable. ‘What shall we drink?’ they cried.

What was God’s purpose in leading them there, why didn’t He provide another miracle and just give them the water they so needed? After all wasn’t He Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides? But He is also the Lord who sees, and He saw each individual heart as well as the huge crowd.

He brought them to Marah to deal with them, to teach them, to reveal more of His nature to them.

What did He want to teach them?

He wanted to show them the bitterness of their hearts; and they were a bitter people. Bitter against God because of their ill treatment in Egypt, reduced to making bricks out of mud, used as slaves for Pharoah’s building projects. They had lost sight of God, not believing in Him, and despite all God’s provision for them, despite seeing all the miracles performed through Moses, as God hardened Pharoah’s heart and rescued them, they were filled with resentment towards Moses and thus God.

Bitterness and resentment are terrible things and closely related to them is unforgiveness. They kill faith in God and bring with them an inability to worship and enjoy God. Bitterness always has it’s roots in a crisis in life of whatever kind and sometimes to a false belief that God doesn’t see, hear or understand.

I knew a lady who was wracked with bitterness towards another person, and she used to moan and complain about up this person frequently and whatever the other person’s behaviour, in the light of God’s grace, she behaved unjustly. There was no forgiveness whatsoever in her heart. She ended up with appalling arthritis which twisted her hands and feet terribly. It was as if the arthritis was a physical manifestation of her twisted bitterness and unforgiveness. So very sad!

So it was with these people, their background of suffering caused a root of bitterness to grow in them and God wanted it dealt with. But our amazing God did not show anger towards them, he treated them so gently. He wanted them to understand how life threatening bitterness was. It was destructive and poisonous just as the waters of Marah were. Being Jehovah Jireh He determined to reveal this further aspect of His nature to them to teach them a lesson. He showed Moses a tree, and told him to cut it down and throw it into the undrinkable water. As soon as Moses obeyed God’s command the water became sweet and drinkable.

As Jehovah Jireh provided for their need, He revealed Himself as Jehovah Rophi – the God Who Heals. He came to them in their time of crisis and need and healed the waters of bitterness and proclaimed to them, ‘If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.’  Verse 26 I AM Jehovah Rophi!

He wanted them to be healed of their bitterness just as the waters had been healed. He wanted to repair them completely, body, soul and spirit.

But they had to remain constant to Him, obey Him and hear Him.

It is lovely to see that after that experience God led them to a place of healing. He took them to Eliminate, the place of palms, an oasis of shade and provision, where they rested and were restored before they set out again.

Jehovah Rophi wants to bring healing to our lives too and He has promised wholeness for us through Jesus.

It’s interesting that the bitter waters of Marah were healed by a tree.

Jesus hung on a tree. 1Peter 2 v 24 and Isaiah 53 v 5 Jesus was the purchase price for our spiritual health.

Our salvation is our spiritual healing paid for by Jesus as He hung on that cross of wood.

Trees figure largely in scripture. It was the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that caused bitterness to come into the world.

At Marah God dealt with the bitterness of His people.

On the cross Jesus took away the bitterness of death.

In Revelation 22 we read of the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.

God has been in the business of healing since the Fall and will continue to be until the time comes when all things are healed.

Our journey through life is not all sweetness and light, we are faced with trials, broken promises, wounds that hurt, words that sting, things that deeply affect us. Things go wrong, people we love are hurt, are lost, get ill and die and all the time bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness are lying in wait to catch us out. People who give in to those enemies lose their hope, their trust in God. It is so sad to see this happening to someone, as I have seen, and to see how fruitless and hopeless their lives can become.

This is not what God wants for us; He wants to be our Jehovah Rophi, to heal our hurts, to restore our faith and renew our hope in Him.

Sometimes people are bitter nape cause they are not healed physically. Yes, Jesus heals, we know that, but it is more important to be healed spiritually than to be healed physically. Oh it would be good to be physically whole, of course it would, but God knows what He is doing, and if He chose not to heal Paul and He chooses not to heal me, then glory be to His precious Name, because I am spiritually whole, healed from sin and death.

That’s the most important healing of all!

Richest blessings,

Linda

The post JEHOVAH ROPHI first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This is another powerful name for God. Jehovah Jireh…….the Lord our Provider!

We could say Yahweh Yireh, but somehow Jehovah Jireh trips more easily off the tongue. Y and J are interchangeable in Hebrew. Let us look at Genesis 22:1-19

“Now it came to pass……....that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am. Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” and he said, “Here I am my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, side you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The Lord Will Provide; as it is said to this day, ” In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham  a second time out of heaven, and said, “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son- “blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the sea-shore; and you descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.”

Abraham is at this time about 130 years of age and Isaac is about 30 years old. Abraham, in his old age, had the joy of seeing his son Isaac, grow and flourish; all seemed to be well and to be settled, all was at peace. Then out of the blue, as is usual with God, Abraham received a word from the Lord. God commanded him to take Isaac to the land of Moriah, which means, ‘chosen of Yahweh’ and there to offer him as a sacrifice. This was a call to Abraham to show the supreme act of faith and obedience.

Now you or I would immediately say, ‘No way!’ But not Abraham. How Sarah reacted to this command we can only imagine, if indeed she even knew.

Abraham immediately prepared for the journey, taking the wood he had cut and chopped for the altar of sacrifice and giving it to Isaac to carry. He, his two servants and Isaac set off. It was a three day journey to the mountain that God had chosen for the sacrifice. That’s a long time to think about what lies ahead. The amazing thing about this is that Abraham had learnt that when God said,  “Go!” He went and when God said, “Do this!” He did it. No sign of questioning, no doubts. But all the same he must have been full of anguish as he faced this trial. What agonies did he go through on that journey? He knew in his heart that God had told him six times already that his descendants would be as the sand on the shores and as plentiful as the stars in the heavens, and he knew that this had to come through Isaac, and yet here was God commanding him to kill his only son of promise.

Did he believe that God would really carry it through? Did he wonder if Isaac would be supernaturally raised from the dead? We don’t know.

But whatever he was thinking the fact remains that he purposefully went on. His actions, whatever his thoughts and feelings, were based on his faith and trust in a god, and what he already knew about Him. Where did Abraham get such faith to obey such a hard command? It came directly from the revelation of God’s name. He must have been constantly reminding himself how God had told him that He was El Elyon and El Shaddai.

Yes, God could raise Isaac from the dead. Yes, God could provide a way of escape. Nothing was out of God’s control, He could do anything. He had seen God’s work firsthand, seen His provision, seen His power. Hebrews 11:17-19

So they arrived at the foot of Mount Moriah. This is the hill on which Solomon built the temple. David, his father, bought the threshing floor there from Araunah and built an altar on the site, fully intending to erect the temple there himself, but the duty was passed to Solomon because David had too much blood on his hands.

Having left the two servants at the foot of the mountain, after telling them that they would return, Abraham and Isaac began their climb up to the top. Isaac then asked his father where the lamb for the sacrifice was. ‘God will provide a lamb!’ was Abraham’s reply. Abraham’s faith was truly amazing.

Isaac the sacrificial, son carried the wood up the hill, just as God’s own Son Jesus would carry His cross of wood to the site of His sacrifice. Abraham offered his only son Isaac as a sacrifice just as God the Father would offer His only Son. It took three days to get to the place of sacrifice, three days of Abraham considering his son to be already dead and that God would raise him up. Jesus was dead for three days before He was raised from the dead. Indeed Isaac did, figuratively speaking, return from the dead. This narrative is an amazing type and shadow of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Why, you may ask, did God ask of Abraham what He did when it’s clear from the Old Testament that God hated human sacrifice. It was to show that animal sacrifice could never fully atone for sin. One day Someone would have to die to save the world from sin and death.  Someone would have to willingly lay down His life, Someone who was pure, Someone who was holy and sinless, someone who would atone for all the sin that has ever been once and for all time.

Abraham was about to make a huge discovery about God. He was going to learn a new name of God.

As Abraham bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, it’s obvious that Isaac consented. After all he was around thirty years old, (the approximate age of Jesus at His crucifixion, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were exactly the same age) an adult, and strong too. He must have been to carry all that wood for the altar. Abraham would never have forced Isaac to be bound and could never have forced him, he wasn’t strong enough. So it would seem that Isaac was acting in faith as well. He would have learnt about God from his father and he too had faith to believe that God could intervene and raise him up. He knew the promises of the covenant that God had made with Abraham of coming generations from himself. He was willing to be sacrificed just as Jesus would be in the future. Abraham prepared to kill his only son, he lifted the knife, ready to end the life of Isaac.

Suddenly a voice called out to him. The Angel of the Lord spoke out, “STOP!” What a cliffhanger! Have you noticed how God always does everything at the last possible minute?

The Angel of the Lord had to be Jesus Himself. He knew He would have to be the ultimate sacrifice eventually.

There tangled in a bush was a ram caught by the horns. A ready sacrifice suddenly seen, not spotted before. God provided! Isaac need not die! Abraham’s faith was tried, tested and proved. So Isaac was saved and the ram was sacrificed in his place. And Abraham called the place, ‘The Lord will provide!’ or, ‘The Lord Who sees!‘ In our language we could say, ‘The Lord will see to it!’ It’s interesting to note that the substitute sacrifice was a ram and not a lamb. In God’s agenda there can only be one Lamb of God, and that is Jesus Christ.

It was Abraham and Isaac’s willingness to do what God commanded that points forward to Jesus, and Jesus was the only One who could die for the sins of the world. It is also interesting to think that even as Abraham was preparing to plunge the knife into Isaac’s heart, his nephew Bethuel was bringing up his daughter Rebekah, the girl who was to become Isaac’s wife. God was seeing to things. He was preparing the way forward for Isaac. You see, even before we cry out to God, He answers. Long before we were even born, He was at work, forming and shaping the circumstances of our lives and He provides all we need to help and sustain us. All He requires is our faith, trust and obedience, and we will see His provision time after time in our lives.

Philippians 4:19

Psalm 9:10

Genesis 22:16-18

In these verses from Genesis God again states His promise to Abraham and in fact this is the seventh time God does this. Seven is the number of completion and rest.

In verse 19 we see that Abraham returns to the young men waiting at the foot of Mount Moriah, but there is no mention at this point of Isaac and we don’t hear of him again until God provides Rebekah for him as his wife. Isaac is not in the picture for a season, just as Jesus ascended to heaven and waits there for His bride the church. He is alive, but not seen. Rebekah the type of the bride of Christ is taken away to Isaac’s home and we will be taken away by Jesus to His heavenly home.

Wonderful, isn’t it to see how God completely provides? He sees the end from the beginning, not just for Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah but for each one of us.

Praise be to His holy Name, our Jehovah Jireh, our Provider.

May you be richly blessed and may you know His provision in your lives.

Linda

The post Jehovah Jireh first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This time we are going to look at the name El Shaddai, which means Almighty God and again we shall look at this name in relation to Abram. El Shaddai, the Almighty, all sufficient God is a precious name showing the goodness and grace of our God. This name occurs 8 times in the Old Testament. It talks of the God of miracles for Whom nothing is impossible.

‘He who dwells in the secret place of El Elyon shall abide under the shadow of El Shaddai’ (Psalm 91). The whole Psalm bears testimony to El Elyon and El Shaddai.

Shaddai on its own means ‘Almighty’ and comes from the root SHAD which means breast. Those of us who are mothers know all about the usefulness of our breasts to produce milk to feed our babies and we know that no formula produced by man can come near to providing the goodness that breast milk can. This picture depicts the all sufficient, all bountiful nature of God. We can rest on His breast, we can feed from His goodness, we can receive spiritual nourishment for our satisfaction. It’s a lovely picture, and one that very meaningful to us as women. As I watched my daughter feeding her babies and remember feeding my children, I see contented and satisfied babies nestling close to Mummy, receiving all they need for their well being.

Now we return to Abram who began to doubt that God was ever going to fulfil His promises.

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” The Abram said, “Look You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” The He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:1-6).

God reminded Abram of His promises and made a covenant with him to seal those promises. But as he got older Abram wavered in his faith that the promises would actually came to pass. The promised son had never arrived and now he was old, and Sarai, his wife, was past childbearing age, well past. We can understand why he began to doubt, we would too. So Ishmael was born to Hagar and we all know where that led. Abram was 86 at that time, but still God made him wait. He got to 99 years of age, and still he waited, and then after all those years, God gave Abram a fresh revelation of Himself. We shouldn’t get impatient with God. He will reveal His ways to us in His own time, not in ours. We can try to order our lives as Abram and Sarai did, and if we do then we shouldn’t be surprised when things go pear shaped. Ishmael brought trouble with him, which still survives to this day. No, it is much better to allow God to show us His way, for it’s always best. We say, we will do this, we will do that, we will plan this, we will plan that, but when will we learn to wait upon the Lord? Why do we always think that we know better?

Well so it was with Abram, but God had a better plan!

“When Abram was ninety nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I AM Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.The Abram fell on his face , and God talked with him, saying, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you” (Genesis 17:1-11).

“Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name, and I will bless her and also give you a son by her, then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, ” Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” Then God said, ” No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year” (Genesis 17:15-21).

I AM El Shaddai – Almighty God – all powerful, all sufficient!

What an amazing revelation for Abram, can you imagine being spoken to like that by Almighty God? It’s as if God was saying to Abram, “I’ve already shown you that I am El Elyon, that I am in control of everything, now I am going to show you another aspect of My nature that you need to understand to help you continue in faith. I always keep My word and nothing can keep My promises from coming to pass. I AM Almighty God, nothing is impossible for Me. I AM All Powerful, All Sufficient, Keeper of My promises and Guarantor of My Word. I AM El Shaddai!”

Abram was being human! He only saw the impossibility within his knowledge of having a child at his age, and his past child bearing aged wife being able to give birth to a baby boy. He even found the idea of it all amusing, and laughed. But God showed Himself as the One who is control of life and death and can do anything. Abram would be the father of the child who was to be born to Sarai and he would be the father of many nations through his son Isaac. God would do all that He said He would. Abram believed, and God changed his name to Abraham, from ‘exalted father’, to ‘father of a multitude’, and Sarai became Sarah, from ‘dominant one’, to ‘princess’. Both had an ‘h’ added to their names, symbolic in Hebrew of the breath of the Holy Spirit.

As God revealed Himself to Abraham as El Shaddai so He wants reveal Himself to us. We can walk in faith with our God, not because we’ve got the faith thing all worked out and sewn  up, not because we have will power, not because we are knowledgeable. No, we can walk in faith because we know that El Shaddai is our Almighty God, and know that He always keeps His promises and that there is nothing too difficult for Him.

Abraham live in a time of great cruelty and evil, his neighbours led wild, pagan and dissolute lives, God’s judgement was coming on them. The same is true for us today, all around we see society crumbling into dissolution and it is our faith in El Shaddai that keeps us going.

Don’t focus on your personal faults, failings and weaknesses, but keep your focus on Almighty God! Stop looking at the problems and turn your eyes on the One who can do anything. No problem is greater that El Shaddai! He is the One who holds you in His hands, He is the One who guides you, He is the One who leads you along the path of your life by the power of His Holy Spirit at work in you. Trust Him!

May God bless you,

Linda.

The post EL SHADDAI first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Last time we looked at how amazing our Great and Mighty God is. We discovered. How our Great ‘I Am’, Yahweh or Jehovah has myriad names throughout the Bible. We saw how the Creator of Heaven and Earth is God in three persons, working together to form the Universe and all there is in it, so much of which is beyond our capability to understand or to get our heads around.

We looked at some of the titles attributed in  scripture to Elohim and the Bible references that mention them. I don’t know about you, but I had never known before some of these names or their meanings, and I only covered a few of many of those names.

This time we are going to look at the name El Elyon.

El Elyon means God Most High! This name occurs early on in the account of Abram, when God reveals Himself to Abram in a most remarkable way, a way which brought Abram into a closer relationship with his Lord. This title El Elyon, appears four times in Genesis and occurs frequently throughout the Old Testament…..Psalm 18, Numbers 24, Deuteronomy 32, 2 Samuel 22, and others. It is a name that also points forward to the Millennial reign of Christ as we shall see.

I will focus on one account which is a great illustration of this title and of the character of God.

“And the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela went out and joined together in battle in the Valley of Siddim against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of nations, Amarphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar – four kings against five.” (Genesis 14:8-9)

This is the first war ever recorded in history. This confederation of kings declared war on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the two armies fought each other in the Valley of Siddim. The attackers won and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled to the mountains. The victors looted the two cities and took everything including the people and amongst them Lot, Abram’s nephew, who had foolishly chosen to live in a city called ‘Burning’, that is Sodom, ruled over by a king called ‘Son of Evil’ that is Bera.

 –  As an aside here, we recall that Lot through his daughters became the founder of two tribes of people, the Moabites, who became known for their sexual indulgence and who worshipped Baal and Ashteroth, and the Ammonites who worshipped Molech, and were known for their human sacrifices, not least of their own children. These two people became enemies of Israel and of God. Our choices make a difference. Lot was tempted by riches and from there on it was a downhill slide. He lacked wisdom and he lacked faith in El Elyon. –

So back to our account. Off went the victors with loads of loot. But someone who escaped the battle came to tell Abram what had taken place, and Abram, ever loyal, was determined to get Lot and his family back. I think most of us would have left Lot to stew in his own juice, but not Abram. Off he went with his household militia, 318 me trained to fight. In those days I guess that if you were wealthy and part of a large family group or tribe, then you needed protection and Abram had certainly made sure that he had that. They had to travel a long way, around 100 miles north to Dan, and those who chased the fugitives to Damascus had to go another 200 miles. But Abram’s army routed the enemy kings and rescued all the booty, the captives and Lot and were returning home when something very interesting happened. Remember here is Abram returning south with all the goods and people of Sodom and Gomorrah. We know the future awaiting those same people…..utter destruction by God because of their immoral ways. Why did God allow Abram to take them back? Why didn’t he just let them go north to whatever destiny awaited them there? Was it all for the sake of Lot? Or was God foiling Satan’s purposes and plans? Did Satan know God’s plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Did he try to get in the way of those plans?

Who knows…..we can only guess! Only God has the answers to these questions, but it does make you think. What we do know is that God had to put an end to the dreadful and obscene perversions being practiced in those cities.

Now we come to the most interesting part of the story. Abram is met by two kings: The King of Salem and the King of Sodom; the King of peace and the king of evil. What a contrast! The King of Salem (from which comes shalom), Salem becoming much later the city of Jerusalem, was named Melchizidek (v18). He brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of the Most High God, El Elyon. Carrying the symbols of the Last Supper and now our Communion, this priest and King was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ Himself.

In the history of the people of God, from Abram onwards, there is never a priest who is king or a king who is priest. Some tried, like Saul, and paid the price for their temerity. Only Melchizidek and Jesus are known for their dual role of Priest and King. Jesus is the fulfilment of Melchizidek and more, for Jesus is the Great High Priest and He is also the King of Kings.

Melchizidek, in his role of priest served Abram with the bread and wine, pointing forward to The Passover meal, in turn pointing forward to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our High Priest and ultimately to the fulfilment of the words of Jesus when He said, “But I say to you, I will not during of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom.” (Matt 26:29).

Then in his role as King, Melchizidek accepts a tithe from Abram.  Melchizidek as a type of Christ accepted tribute from Abram, a type of the people of God who issued from him. (Hebrews 7:1-3 and Hebrews 7:17) Melchizidek vanishes from the continuing account as if he had never been. He is mentioned in Psalm 110 v 4, 1000 years later by David as he speaks prophetically of Jesus and of course in the letter to the Hebrews, 1000 years further on again. This ancient king’s continual priesthood does indeed represent Jesus’ priesthood which is everlasting and He will reign and rule as High Priest and King of kings throughout the Millennial reign and on for eternity.

Then the King of Sodom, who had fled from the conspiracy of attacking kings, approached Abram and offered him all the recovered booty from the battle that Abram had fought up north in Dan. A bit of a nerve, don’t you think?

He had had to see Abram succeed where he himself had failed and being evil in heart he wanted to tempt Abram. It seems that this black hearted king was jealous of Abram’s hard won success and so offered all the spoils to him, as long as all the people were returned to Sodom. These riches Abram was offered must have been huge, gold, silver, precious jewels, livestock, clothing, furnishings, etc. But Abram could see what lay behind this seemingly generous offer.

“But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High (El Elyon) the Possessor of Heaven and Earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’.” (Genesis 14:22-23)

All Abram wanted was Lot and his family safe and sound. Temptation always comes from the enemy and this is no less than that. Satan’s plans had been foiled and this was a last ditch attempt to catch Abram out and cause him to fall.

It is like that for us too. When we become believers the powers of Hell are defeated in our lives and Satan can no longer have his spoils in us. But along the way we meet two kings, one to tempt us away, the other to draw us closer to Him and show us His glory.

Abram did not get caught in the trap prepared for him, he resisted temptation, indeed he didn’t even have to think twice about it. He was faithful to God in every way and the foul king of Sodom was unable to boast that he had given Abram all the prizes in his abundant generosity, because there is no doubt that if Abram had accepted then that man would have held it over Abram and demanded some sort of recompense for the so called gift. Abram knew that El Elyon owned everything anyway and God had blessed him so much already with all, and more than he needed, but Abram didn’t want to be beholden to his enemy in any way so that evil King could brag about what he had done and how he had made Abram rich. Abram had been given a new revelation of God’s power through Melchizidek. (Genesis 14:19-20) El Elyon, God Most High, possessor of Heaven and Earth. What could tempt Abram? What can tempt us when we know that El Elyon is in control of everything?

He had known the God who called him out of Ur, but not then as El Elyon. Now he did, so why should he want anything else? El Elyon would meet all his needs. Have we discovered God as El Elyon? Have we begun to see Him with new eyes? Are we convinced that He holds our entire lives in His hands? There is no area of our lives that He is not interested in. All is in His more than capable hands.

Perhaps we need to take stock of our lives, review what we believe and maybe alter our perspectives and our ways of seeing our God Most High, El Elyon.

Blessings,

Linda.

Study Tip:

     When preparing a study like these, one has to look for helpful resources, for guidance and instruction and I have found David Wilkerson’s book ‘Knowing God by Name’ to be a              most useful tool in this respect and would recommend it for further insight.

http://www.eden.co.uk/shop/knowing-god-by-name-paperback-book-4279795.html

The post El Elyon first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

The Hebrew for God here is Elohim. It is like a mark of authorship, ownership, His signature if you like.

For example… ‘Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen’.

‘The Bible written by God’!

Elohim is a plural form of El or Eloah and is understood to mean ‘a plurality of persons in the Divine nature’. (Adam Clarke).

‘El signifies the strong God; and what less than Almighty Strength could bring all things out of nothing?’ (Matthew Henry).

Elohim or Elohay (as it is sometimes translated) means ‘strength and power’. In the first two chapters of Genesis alone it is used 35 times in relation to God’s creative power. It is found frequently in the Psalms and in Deuteronomy, in fact in the whole of the Old Testament it is used over 2,300 times.

Right from the start, this plural form for the name of God is used to describe the One God, a mystery that is uncovered throughout the rest of the Bible.

Here in Genesis 1:1 the Trinity is first revealed. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, all one, yet separate, working together to form all there is. The first suggestion of the Trinity acting in unity. In Genesis 1:26 God said, ‘Let Us…’ etc. Almighty God spoke the heavens and the earth into existence by the Word (John 1:1-3). The Holy Spirit brooded over all till creation was complete (Genesis 1:2).

God in three persons, Elohim, created all that there is, and He created mankind so that He could be in relationship with us.

Elohim can be interpreted as ‘One who stands in a covenant relationship for the out working of His purposes’. His words to Abram show that relationship. Genesis 17:1-8 ‘I will be their Elohim!’ Throughout scripture Elohim is combined with other words to describe certain characteristics of God.

Elohay Kedem –  Eternal God (Deuteronomy 33:27)

Here God reveals Himself as the God of the beginning. If He is eternal, then the refuge we can find in Him is eternal, His arms are constantly there to support us and are also there to protect us from the enemy.

Elohay Mishpat – God of Justice (Isaiah 30:18)

Our God is a God who is concerned with justice, in fact we could say that He is a Judge of justice, incorruptible, unlike the judges of this world. We may not see justice this side of Heaven, but this passage promises that He will bring justice to those who wait for Him.

Elohay Selichot – God of forgiveness (Nehemiah 9:17)

He is a God who is ready to pardon. Reading the previous verses we can see the stiff necked and stubborn people of Israel. They disobeyed God and we’re ready to return to their bondage and yet we see that God is still ready to forgive.

In her Christmas speech a few years ago the Queen said to the nation, ‘Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian Faith.’

In a sense she is right, it is at the heart if our faith because we have come to know the God of forgiveness. We have seen Him forgive our hard hearted rebellion. When we come to Him in repentance, He is ready to forgive. It is only because He has forgiven us that we have the power to forgive those who sin against us.

Elohay Marom – God of Heights (Micah 6:6)

He is the High God, far above us in holiness and righteousness. He is superior in every way and seems unapproachable for Micah says that there is no sacrifice that we can give Him in order to approach Him. It is good to be reminded of this truth for we at times over familiar with God and take for granted that we can approach Him at any time through Jesus. He is the High and Almighty One. It is only because of His great mercy that we can approach the God of Heights.

Elohay Mikarov – God who is near (Jeremiah 23:23)

God is also the One who is near. He sees us from close up. Unlike the song popularised by Bette Midler and Cliff Richard He is not watching us from a distance! He is close and involved and sees what His creation is doing in fine detail.

Elohay Mauzi – God of my strength (Psalm 43:2)

He is the source of our strength when all other sources have run dry. When we re weak, then He is strong!

Elohay Tehilati – God of my praise (Psalm 109:1)

Tehilati comes from the root ‘halal’ meaning praise. He is the reason for our praise, He is the theme of our praise, He is our song, our hymn.

Elohay Yishi – God of my salvation (Psalm 18:46)

He is the One who brought our salvation with His own arm because we cannot save ourselves (Isaiah 59:16).

Elohim Kedoshim – Holy God (Leviticus 19:2 / Joshua 24:19)

God is holy, the characteristic sung before His throne by the seraphim. Holy, holy, holy is the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit. Like Isaiah He alone can make us holy by cleansing us of all our sin, our lips, our hearts and minds through Jesus.

Elohim Chaiyim – Living God (Jeremiah 10:10)

He is alive! He is the source of all life! All idols are dumb and deaf and blind, but not our God. He sees and hears us and He speaks to us. He acts according to His own will, not ours. That is why we should at all times pray within His will, according to His word. He is listening, He wants to hear from us.

Elohay Elohim – God of gods (Deuteronomy 10:17)

He is above all other gods. There is no God like our God! There is no authority that can be compared with Him. He is the summit, the highest and He will no other god to be above Him. He will not share His glory with another.

What gods do we have in our lives that we need to destroy before Him. Self, money, ambition, family, reputation, pride, entertainment and many others.

What a wonder that the God above all gods would desire to be in fellowship with us. It is we who disappoint Him, never the other watch round.

Hopefully our response to Him will be as in Psalm 91, ‘My Elohim, in Him will I trust.’

In His glorious Name,

Linda.

Next time… El Elyon – God most high.

The post ELOHIM first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

I am sure you will agree that a name is important, vital even. Some names are better known than others. Some are famous, some infamous!

If I mention Henry VIII for instance, what do you immediately think of? How about Hudson Taylor? Martin Luther? Jack the Ripper? Marilyn Munro? David Cameron? Winston Churchill? Gregory Peck? Judy Dench? Maggie Smith? Judas Iscariot?

Some names we know and others we don’t. Most people are remembered by name, only by their nearest and dearest, but we all need a name. I would hate to be known as ‘Hey you!’

My name Linda means ‘beautiful’ in Spanish! My married surname Bennett comes from the French for ‘blessing’ or ‘good’.  When my husband and I went to California several years ago I discovered that many places had Linda as part of their name. It was merely attached to a place name to describe it. So I’m just an adjective! Seriously though, our names are how we are known . They are not simply appendages, they are expressions of who we are, our characters. There are lots of Lindas around, even Linda Bennetts,  but each Linda Bennett is different from the others. Each one of us is known by the things we do and by the way we are, so our name is associated with the person people see, what they know of him, how he speaks, what kind of person he is.

As we know, in the Bible many of the names of characters very aptly describe the kind of people they were, some good, some bad. There is no doubt that God knows each one of us by name (Ex 33:12 / John 10:3), but do we know His?

Only by knowing His names (for He has many) can we come to that place of truly knowing who He is, for His names reveal His character. These studies which will take a few weeks are by no means exhaustive, God has more names than we can ever hope to cover in these teachings. Hopefully however, they will give you an appetite to discover for yourselves the myriad names of our amazing God.

Only once did God actually declare His name. That of course was to Moses at the place where God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush, where he was told to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground.

“Then Moses said to God, ” Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me,’What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses , “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:13-14)

I AM WHO I AM! An incredible name. The all becoming One! Eternal, past, present and future! The One who was, who is and who is to be! That name is totally amazing and yet mystifying. It is the ineffable name of God! Ineffable means unutterable, too great for words, and indeed even to this day the Jewish people do not write the whole name of God but leave out a letter. There is power in the name of God!

That one name covers all the characteristics of God which we will learning about over the coming weeks. YHWH, Yahweh or Jehovah, the Tetragrammaton , the sacred name written in four letters.

David Pawson wanted to get his head around the depth of meaning in this name of God and so he prayed that the Lord would give him an English word that would help his understanding. The answer that came to him was, ‘always’! Think about that! The God who is always here, always trustworthy, always true, etc. But if someone was to ask us who God is and what He is like, if all we could answer would be to say that God is the great ‘I AM’ who is ruler of Heaven and Earth, then that wouldn’t satisfy the questioner because it doesn’t speak of His relationship with us and indicates that we don’t really know Him with heart knowledge.

We can only intimately know someone if we live with them and learn all there is to know about them and understand their character. But if we, even within family relationships, choose not to reveal our true selves, then the relationship cannot flourish as it should.

So it is with our amazing God. Our relationship cannot be one-sided, it must be reciprocal. God has generously revealed His character to us in the most intimate way, through His word, through His Son, but if we try to hide our true selves from Him (which is impossible, by the way) then our relationship with Him can never be what it should be. And that’s our fault, not His!

So He has revealed Himself to us as the I AM, Yahweh, Jehovah, our great and wonderful God.

Blessings,

Linda

Next time……..Elohim!

The post What’s in a Name? first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Nagmeh travels widely to fight for her husband’s freedom and to bring an awareness of the persecuted church to people who do not realise how bad the persecution is for so many. She is an amazing lady upheld and enabled by God. She is often downcast, often weeping, often discouraged, but through it all the Lord is her strength and her shield. She has met many prestigious people, she has spoken at UN meetings, to Congressional gatherings, to churches, to the EU, and at every meeting she tells people about Jesus, without fear. Yes she is afraid in the flesh, but in the Lord she is strong.

This is what she wrote on Facebook some months ago while she was fasting and in prayer:

“Today as I found myself wanting to complain about having to do another twenty days of fasting (she was fasting from some of her favourite things each day), I could see Saeed and the tens of thousands of Christians who are imprisoned because of their love for Jesus. They have given up their basic rights and freedoms as human beings (food, water, home, family) for months and days and years, because of their love and passion for Jesus. Many have given their lives. Suddenly my fast did not seem difficult at all. My mind was on Saeed. In a cold dark cell with no believers to encourage him. With minimal food and water. With no bed. I could hear Paul writing from his prison cell, ‘I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.’ The word ‘learned’ caught my attention. Paul had learned to be content. It did not come to him naturally. But he had learned it, and how well he had learned it! To write such encouraging letters to those on the outside. For Saeed being content means, being content in his cell. For me it is learning to be content with having a husband who is suffering in prison. In being a single mum. In letting go of all timelines and expectations of Saeed’s release and praising God despite the circumstances and how long that might take or how things might turn out.”

Heartfelt words from a lady whose life has been turned upside down. She has found herself in a position she never, ever expected to be in. The life she knew as a wife and mother, happy at home bringing up her children, has been snatched away from her. Saeed’s life is not his own, his freedom, his health have been taken away by vindictive men, full of hatred towards him because he turned from Islam to Christ. He has been labelled traitor, enemy of the state of Iran. Yet both he and Nagmeh, in their separate worlds of suffering are learning to be content. Nagmeh is right, such contentment has to be learned.

Paul expressed that himself. His life was a roller coaster of ups and downs. He was tortured, he was beaten, he was imprisoned, he was ill, it is believed too, that he died and was restored to life. He had experienced more in his life as a believer than most of us ever will in our walk with Christ. Yet he could say that he had learned to be content whatever state he was in.

Do you recall the time he was in prison with Silas?

“And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptised, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.

Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”  And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.

But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place to the authorities. And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, ” These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tor,e off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, ” Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

And he brought them out and said, ” Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptised. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household”. (Acts 16:13-34)

Paul and Silas had made a nuisance of themselves by casting out the evil spirit from the slave girl who was pestering them, but speaking the truth about them. After that she was no more use to men who were using her to get money from fortune telling and they were angry, their source of income being gone. So they were beaten and thrown into prison.

Can you imagine it? These two men of God were beaten with rods. They must have been in agony, totally helpless after such a flogging and yet they were thrown in the most secure part of the prison and secured by their feet in stocks. Did those who threw them in prison really feel so threatened that they had to go that far? Do those who threw Saeed into the worst and most secure prison in Iran, wounded and in great pain from torture and beatings, feel so threatened that they had to go that far?

And yet, through all the pain and suffering, Paul and Silas sang hymns of praise. Now I think this is so interesting… the other prisoners listened! I would have thought that at midnight, most prisoners would have yelled out for them to shut up because they wanted to sleep. But no, they listened!

Then suddenly, the earthquake. Coincidence? No way! This was all God ordained. The prison doors flew open, everyone now had the opportunity to escape. But did they? No!

Wonder of wonders! When the keeper of the prison arrived, he was certain that the prisoners would have all escaped, in fact so sure was he, that he was about to kill himself, knowing that death would be the penalty anyway if it was true. Paul shouted out to him not to harm himself for all were present and correct. The poor jailer must have been awestruck… no wonder he was trembling.

He recognised that this had to be God at work in these remarkably unusual circumstances for he asked what he must do to be saved. How wonderful that he said those words. He could so easily have killed himself.

Paul and Silas gave him the good news of Jesus Christ as he tended to their wounds and he and his whole household gave their lives to Jesus and were baptised.

Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:6  “Now Godliness with contentment is great gain.” He had learned through all his experiences how to be content in any situation, even to being able to sing praises to God whilst in great pain and what a reward resulted from that situation?

Saeed and Nagmeh, and I am certain many other brothers and sisters in Christ, are learning that same lesson, and I believe that is what God wants us to learn too; that whatever our situation, whatever is happening in our lives, good, bad or indifferent, we should learn how to be content. There is nothing that can happen to each one of us that God has not allowed in each individual life for learning and for growth. If we can live out these situations, knowing that whatever happens, whatever the results we are in God’s more than capable hands, trusting Him, loving Him, praising Him, even when in adversity, then we will truly learn what it means to be content. He is the answer to everything. Remember this life is short, even though it doesn’t feel like it most of the time. This world is not our home; but while we are here let us ‘bloom where we are planted’, making the most of every opportunity that is placed before us. Seeking to serve the Lord wherever we can, however we can and whenever we can. As long as we remain within His will, He will be our strength, our enabler, our guide and direction.

We may not find ourselves in such extreme conditions as those we have been thinking about in this series, but having said that, none of us know what tomorrow may bring in the light of what is happening in the world around us today. So may we be like Esther, Daniel and Paul, who found themselves in unexpected and difficult circumstances, yet bloomed where they were planted by God, for they were all within His will and part of His plan that reaches forward to today. We don’t know how our lives may affect future generations, maybe they never will, but never forget, God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things for Him!

God bless you,

Linda.

The post I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This week I want to take you back to the exile of Judah to Babylon. Imagine how it must have been for the families of those first noble young men like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, whose names were changed by king Nebuchadnezzar, in honour of the pagan gods he served, to Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These people knew that is was probable  that  they would never see their children again. They had no idea as to how they were going to be treated and they were being taken against their wills to Babylon, so very far away. How grief stricken those young men must have been, to be torn away from all they knew, everything they were familiar with, to live the rest of their lives in a land where God was not worshiped.

Daniel, because of his refusal to live as the Babylonians did, to worship their gods, to eat their food, and because he remained faithful all his days to the one true God, prospered. His faith and his integrity shone through. God anointed him and enabled  him alone to know the king’s dream and its meaning. He was never passive, he was active, he bloomed where he was planted, despite his circumstances, despite, dare I say, his feelings. He had facts, faith and feelings in their right order. Like Esther, who lived after him, he found himself where he didn’t want to be, but because of his obedience and faith, God prospered him as He did Esther, and he was used mightily against all human expectations.

Sadly it was not so for many of the exiles. They could not , or would not, settle. They kept longing to go back to Jerusalem, they mourned for the temple where God’s presence dwelt; but of course the temple didn’t exist any more, Nebuchadnezzar pillaged it of all its treasures and razed it to the ground. How could they worship God in a strange land? (see Psalm 137).

The exiles were mocked and made a fool of, and their hearts were filled with a desire for the people of Babylon to suffer as they had. Of course eventually Babylon did fall and the people did suffer greatly. God used Nebuchadnezzar to fulfill His plan and purpose for disobedient Judah; but Babylon was judged by Him nevertheless for their cruel and harsh treatment of God’s chosen race and for the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

All the time that the exiles kept looking back, they were standing still. Yes, there was a time for mourning over their loss, but life had to go on and they were getting nowhere. That is why, I believe, God prompted Jeremiah to write to them.

‘Thus says the Lord of hosts; the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters – that you may be increased there, and not diminished.’ (Jeremiah 29:4-6)

Make the best of it, was Jeremiah’s advice. Don’t stand still, move on, make lives for yourselves. Of course eventually they did just that, they had no choice. It took them a while, but in time they were dispersed throughout the Persian empire, firmly established where they found themselves, still yearning for Jerusalem, but not weeping and wailing as they once had done, and indeed finding that they could still worship God in a strange land. It was during this time that the synagogue system came in to being. Of course Mordecai and Esther were just two of those people.

Many of the Jews never returned to Jerusalem, because after seventy years there were settled, they had good lives. Some however did return and Psalm 137 was written after their return, as the psalmist remembered what it had been like in Babylon.

It is wonderful to think that after all the years since these events, in the main, the Jewish people still have Jerusalem in their hearts. Indeed the last words of their Passover feast each year are, ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’

Since 1948 they have been flocking back to Israel in their thousands from all over the world, and Israel, despite the harassment from the nations surrounding them, is blooming as it has never bloomed before. Beset on all sides, nevertheless Israel is the centre of technology, science, medical discoveries and education. Their fruit and vegetables can be bought in our supermarkets. We still see God’s hand upon His people and upon His land. His will is being fulfilled.

I am sure that you will agree that in our lifetime we have seen great changes in the world and not least in our own nation. No longer is Britain a Christian nation and in some instances Christians are being persecuted by the state system, losing jobs because they refuse to accept the promotion of homosexuality and other gender issues, being arrested for street preaching, being forced to teach evolution to junior school children, and the list goes on. Christians are ridiculed by the media, time and time again. Jesus is mocked and blasphemed openly. There is no fear of God.

Also we are seeing changes in the churches. Biblical knowledge and understanding had decreased even in churches that weren’t too biblically literate anyway; replacement theology is widespread even in some evangelical circles; emergent practices are becoming more and more popular. Many people are being led astray with no good teaching, just tickling of the ears, and we can clearly see the coming together of the one world church as Roman Catholic, Muslim, New Age and even emergent, evangelical leaders get together to supposedly bring about world peace and so solve the world’s problems.

Antisemitism is spreading rapidly and more and more Jews are going home to Israel.What is amazing is to see how God will use anti semitism to bring His people home. 25,000 Jews returned last year, many from France and Ukraine. You can see why! So that is where our focus should be, on Israel, for Israel is the centre of this world.

Now obviously none of us have any idea how things are going to work out for Israel outside of scripture and prophecy in the days to come; but it is certain that Jesus’ return is imminent and things definitely appear to be ‘hotting up’. Even those who do not believe as we do, can see what is happening and I believe that many people are going to get very worried, very soon, as they watch events unfold.

So our chance to bloom where we are planted is now. Our chance to talk to people about Jesus, our chance to stand up and be counted in the place we find ourselves right now. Give out tracts, have conversations with unbelievers when you can, love and serve the Lord and spread His precious word to those who are on the fast track to Hell. Who me? Yes you!

Casting Crowns, a well known Christian band, had an article on their web page a while ago. They have written a song about ordinary people just like you and me, who never wanted to be thought of as heroes, but who are serving the Lord right where they are. Sometimes we have big ideas of how we are going to serve God, sometimes not, and as the article says, David never set out to be a giant slayer, he was following God and a giant got in his way. Peter never planned on walking on water, that’s just where Jesus was. Nehemiah didn’t set out to build a huge wall, he just loved God and his heart was broken for his city.

If we love God so much then we do anything He says no matter how crazy it seems. The writer then cited several people from his church who do things for God right where they are, taking every opportunity to lead others to Christ because their hearts are breaking for them  The article ended with these words, ‘Being a hero is blooming where you are planted and loving the people you are with.’

Jesus is coming soon, it won’t be long, time is getting very short.

Come Lord Jesus!

In His love,

Linda

The post God can use you where you are! first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

We started by giving a temporary home to a young lady from Scotland who wanted to work at the church as an intern for a while, and that was just the beginning. We gave a home to several young people over the years, some for a few days, some for months. Sometimes things went well, sometimes they didn’t. We learnt a lot during those years. We became known as ‘the Bennett Hotel’.

It has been amazing the way God has used the home He provided for us, and it has been very well used over the years. So you see, my desire to help others did come about, but in the home we already had, not in pastures new. Our friends’ word from the Lord came about too, because in the main, our visitors were young people who looked on us as substitute parents while they were with us.

So I share this with you all, with some experience of what it means to ‘bloom where you’re planted’. Now I can only speak from my own experience, I cannot speak from yours. You each have your own individual experiences,, but perhaps you can relate to where I’m coming from. Perhaps you can more easily relate to Esther’s experience in that she found herself trapped in a situation not of her own making, or perhaps, because of choices made before you were a believer, you find yourself in a position that seems inescapable. Whatever your situation, every experience we have as believers becomes part of the learning curve of life. If we do not learn from those experiences, then something is wrong.

Maybe like I was, you are restless and feel dissatisfied with the way your life is going.

Maybe your life is full of difficulties and problems which sometimes you feel are too hard to cope with.

Maybe you are tired and drained because you feel that too much is expected of you.

Maybe you feel unfulfilled in your life.

Maybe you feel unworthy to be used by God.

Maybe your life is just fine, you feel happy with the way things are, change would be an inconvenience.

I could go on; but do you see that every example I’ve used depends on feelings?

Now let me emphasise that feelings in themselves are not wrong, but very often our feelings can lead us in the wrong direction. It’s when we depend on our feelings that we tend to go off on a tangent and do our own thing, or try to, instead of depending on God. Rushing ahead of God, trying to organise Him, trying to get Him to think the way we do, instead of the other way around. Then when things don’t work out as our feelings wanted them to our faith can falter and we can believe that God doesn’t care, when all we needed was to go to the facts, the Word of God, and seek His guidance, His direction, and follow His lead.

Here is a little rhyme that says it all:  Three men were walking on a wall – Feeling, Faith and Fact; When Feeling took an awful fall and Faith was taken back; So close was Faith to Feeling, he stumbled and fell too, But Fact remained and pulled Faith back and Faith brought Feeling too. Feeling was leading the way with Faith close behind him and Fact at the rear. Feeling had nothing to focus on, so he stumbled and fell off the wall. Faith was following Feeling, hugely influenced by him and when Feeling fell, he fell too, because his focus was on Feeling. Fact only had his eyes on the goal and when he saw his friends fall, he rescued them. From then on Fact led the way with Faith behind and Feeling bringing up the rear, and all was well.

That’s how it is when we let our feelings take over, our faith is damaged too; but if we keep focussed on facts, on truth, on the Word of God, then faith and feelings fall into their proper place. We can only ‘bloom where we are planted’ when we get this sorted out in our hearts and in our minds.

The following scripture is one of those passages that stays with me and I turn to the words frequently for sustenance when I am in need;

 ‘You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in YAH the Lord is everlasting strength.’ (Isaiah 26:3-4)

May God bless and keep you in His perfect peace.

In Him,

Linda

Next time,  God can use you where you are.

The post Facts, Faith and Feeling first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

When I first presented this talk I asked this question; ‘Why are we gathered here today, ladies from different backgrounds, different experiences of life, meeting with those who, if we were not believers, we would normally never come across or befriend?” The answer is that we were gathered together in that place and at that time because God had ordained it from the beginning. In God’s agenda there is no such thing as coincidence, no such thing as happenstance. Make no mistake about it God intended for each one of to be present at that time and on that particular day. I think that is amazing.

Having said that however, nobody forced any of those ladies to be there, they chose to come, and there may have been ladies who were unable to be there for various reasons. Thank You Lord that we do have the freedom to choose. Life is all about choices, but sometimes it seems as if there is no choice and we are forced into things we don’t want to be a part of.

Think about Esther and the position she was forced into. Her freedom to choose was taken away. There is no way that she could ever have imagined the circumstances she suddenly found herself in.

“After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus subsided, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what had been decreed against her. Then the king’s servants who attended him said: ’Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king; and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather all the beautiful young virgins to Shushan the citadel, into the women’s quarters, under the custody of Hegai the king’s eunuch, custodian of the women. And let beauty preparations be given them. Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.’ This thing pleased the king, and he did so. 

In Shushan the citadel there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamiite. Kish had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been captured with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. And Mordecai had had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. So it was when the king’s command and decree were heard, and when many young women were gathered at Shushan the citadel, under the custody of Hegai, that Esther also was taken to the king’s palace, into the care of Hegai the custodian of the women.

Now the young woman pleased him, and she obtained his favour; so he readily gave beauty preparations to her, besides her allowance. Then seven choice maidservants were provided for her from the king’s palace, and he moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the house of the women.

Esther had not revealed her people or family, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it.

And every day Mordecai paced in front of the court of the women’s quarters, to learn of Esther’s welfare and what was happening to her.

Each young woman’s turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after she had completed twelve months’ preparation, according to the regulations for the women, for thus were the days of their preparation apportioned: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women. Thus prepared, each young woman went to the king, and she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the women’s quarters to the king’s palace. In the evening she went, and in the morning she returned to the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who kept the concubines. She would not go into the king again unless the king delighted in her and called for her by name.

Now when the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter, to go into the king, she requested nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all who saw her. So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.” (Esther 2:1-17)

The account you’ve just read hardly does justice to the sorrow and pain caused to all those young women rudely snatched away from their families and homes. All hopes of a future with a husband and family were denied them, albeit that most marriages would have been arranged. All of them, and it’s hard to imagine, would be used once and then relegated to the royal harem, rejected and ignored for the rest of their lives. Some, who knows how many, would have become pregnant as a result of their night with the king; at least they would have earned some prestige……if their child was a boy!

A life spent only with women and eunuchs. Can you imagine the bickering, the quarrels, the complaining? And Esther was one of them.

It seems, however, that she was held in high regard by those appointed to prepare her for her night with the king. I imagine her quietly and with dignity accepting her fate. It would seem that Esther was not only beautiful to behold but was beautiful inside too. She certainly won the king’s approval. We are told that Ahasuerus loved her, more than all the others. So she became his wife and queen, but still, it must be remembered, at the expense of her personal freedom and at the king’s beck and call. Not for her the excuse that she be left alone because she had a headache. He could use her or not as the fancy took him. The bible doesn’t tell us if she loved him. We just don’t know, but she did respect him.

Mordecai her cousin and guardian, who loved her and mourned her departure from their home, was able to get word to her of Haman’s plot to eradicate every Jew in the Persian empire. Thousands upon thousands of innocent people were destined to be murdered because of this sycophantic man, who had managed to wheedle his way into the king’s favour, and gained for himself the position of prime minister. He hated the Jews because he hated Mordecai the Jew. But there was more to than that simple fact. Haman was a type of antichrist in that he desired to do Satan’s work and wipe out the Jews so the Messiah could not come. He was descended from King Agag of the Amalekites whose life was spared by King Saul against God’s command and was then killed by Samuel. Saul was to have destroyed all the Amalekites and he did not. It would seem that children of King Agag survived and thus here we have Haman, one of his descendants, filled with bitterness and hatred towards the people who were responsible, as he saw it, for what had happened all those years before.

Samuel’s words to King Saul at the time say it all, ‘Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.’

Saul’s disobedience led to this horrible situation with Haman. Consider that if Haman’s plan had worked and all the Jews had been wiped out then the destiny of the world would have been vastly different, no Israel, no Messiah, a lost world. Every action has a consequence.

Esther, though she probably would never have realised it played a huge part in paving the way for the coming of Jesus. Mordecai pointed out to her that she was in her position, ‘for such a time as this!’ Esther ch 4

Her courage in coming into the presence of Ahasuerus the king, even though she was his wife and queen…..positions which actually held little status apart from the king’s permission, was huge. Even she had to be accepted and acknowledged by the king holding out his golden sceptre towards her. He hadn’t asked for her for thirty days.We don’t know why, but we do know that he could certainly call on other women to please him and possibly did. A man like him, indulged, fawned upon, having everything he wanted at a whim could certainly have rejected her as he had Vashti, the queen before Esther. No, there was no certainty that she would be accepted; but thankfully she was and her plan to expose Haman was successful. Remember she fasted and prayed for three days before she approached the king. She went prepared for whatever happened, to live or to die, for death was the penalty for anyone who came before the king without being acknowledged by him.

As a result of her actions the Jewish people were saved and the Feast of Purim is still celebrated by the Jews today in memory of Esther, Mordecai, Haman and Ahasuerus and how the lot, or pur, was cast to decide the fate of the Jews.Also because of Esther and Mordecai, who became the prime minister after Haman was executed, the way was paved for Ezra and Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and begin the building of the temple and the city.

Can you see how despite being put in a position which was anything but what Esther would have chosen for herself, she was used by God in a way that saved her people from the works of the evil one and ensured her memory forever. She didn’t look for it, she simply, ‘bloomed where she was planted’.

God’s plan is so much better than ours. If we are faithful then He will use us wherever we find ourselves, whatever our circumstances happen to be.

God’s richest blessings,

Linda

Next time, Facts, Faith and Feelings

The post Bloom Where You’re Planted! first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

“In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jereboam, the son of Nebat, the the took as his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshipped him. Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” (1 Kings 16:29-33)

Jezebel brought her pagan worship to Israel and Ahab was enslaved, indeed her name means ‘Baal exalts’. She was responsible for the massacre of many of God’s prophets at that time. She was a wicked and manipulative and controlling woman, determined to get her own way. Ahab was king of Israel when Elijah set up an altar to God in opposition to the prophets of Baal. Fire fell from Heaven to consume the offering on Elijah’s altar even after it had been thoroughly soaked with water. The prophets of Baal called on their god to do the same with absolutely no result. Ahab ran home to tell Jezebel all that had happened and Jezebel was furious. She threatened Elijah and all the remaining prophets of God with death. Notice that it wasn’t Ahab who swore by the gods to destroy Elijah, it was his controlling wife. She was the power behind the throne. Ahab was weak and childish, and she took advantage of that.

I am sure you know the account of Naboth’s vineyard. Ahab wanted it for himself, because he wanted to plant a vegetable garden there, next to his palace. He made an offer to Naboth who immediately refused and so Ahab went home to bed, turned his face to the wall and sulked. So in stepped Jezebel and assured her husband that she would get the vineyard for him. Using her husband’s name she wrote to the elders of the city where Naboth lived, and basically commanded them to betray and kill Naboth.

I get the feeling the elders were terrified of this woman, because they did what she asked, and Naboth was stoned to death for doing nothing wrong other than being brave enough to stand up against the wimpish king and his wicked wife.

You can just imagine, after this wicked act, that Jezebel went to her husband and said, “Here you are sweetheart, I got it for you as I said I would. The vineyard is all yours and Naboth is dead. Go and plant your vegetables to your heart’s content and enjoy yourself, after all you are the king and you deserve it.”

“But there as no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up.” (1 Kings 21:25)

It is interesting to see that God held Ahab responsible for the death of Naboth, for it was he who should have controlled his wife and prevented this evil deed. To Ahab’s credit, he did repent in sackcloth and ashes and God’s wrath against him was allayed for a time. However, both Ahab and Jezebel died the deaths that God had foretold for them; Ahab in battle, and Jezebel thrown from her window. Ahab died some time before Jezebel and after his death she continued in her interfering and controlling ways, this time through her son. But her evil caught up with in the end and she met her grisly end.

She was not submissive to her husband, she took authority upon herself, she wanted her own way, in short she was the exact opposite of the way a Godly woman should be. Yes she was a pagan woman of the world and didn’t worship the God we know, but she is a good example of a wilful and controlling woman married to a man who allowed her to do what she wanted to.

She was not under authority!

See the contrast between Jezebel and Ruth, see the difference between her and the Proverbs woman?

The spirit of Jezebel is the spirit of control and witchcraft. In Rev 2 v 2-18 we see o type of Jezebel being mentioned by Jesus in His letter to the church at Thyatira: “Nevertheless I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel  who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds.” (Revelation 2:20)

Whether this was the true name of this controlling woman or not is a matter of debate, but whoever she was and whatever she represented, she seems to have had control over the city of Thyatira through the pagan worship of Apollo and she was successfully drawing people away from the Christian faith. Whatever the truth about her, it’s clear she was evil and Jesus was comparing her to the Jezebel of the Old Testament . It was the same spirit that controlled both of these women, and the same spirit is alive and well today, both out of the church and within it.

Although this letter is linked with the mediaeval period of history and the rising control of the Roman Catholic Church , it is also true for us today. These women wanted control, they wanted authority, and they gloried in their so called power. There is a sentence that has going through my mind whilst preparing this teaching, ‘A woman who is not under authority is dangerous!’

I have seen it again and again throughout my walk of faith. That’s why God has ordered things the way He has. He made us, He knows us, He knows our temptations and our weaknesses and also our strengths. We are different from men. God never intended us to be the same. He never intended for us to attempt to control others.

We all need to honestly look at ourselves in the light of God’s word.

Do we who are married truly abide under the arm of our husband and allow him to be our head? Do we truly, ultimately dwell under the authority of God?

“Wives submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is  Saviour of the body. Therefore just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:22-24)

“Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so live his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” (Ephesians 5: 33)

For those without a husband, this is the way we should be towards Christ Jesus. A submissive woman, under the authority of her Saviour and Lord is a beautiful woman, inside and out.

Whatever our situation, whatever our lifestyle, each one of us needs wisdom. God desires us to have wisdom, it is His gift, it’s not earned, learned or merited. It is this wonderful gift that helps us to be what God wants us to be. Oh, we all fail. We can be bad tempered and moody, we can say damaging things, opening our mouths before we engage our brain, but in the end we all have a choice as to how we will respond in any given situation. We need the precious gift of wisdom to help us hold our tongues when we need to and not strike back in anger when someone upsets us. We need wisdom to see how feeling sorry for ourselves is not what God requires of us. We need God’s wisdom to show us how to deal with the difficult situations we all face in life from time to time.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5)

God gives His wisdom liberally as a gift, but first we must ask for it.

A while back I saw a quote from Dave Hunt: “Many of the social, family, economic and spiritual problems that exist today, may be traced to the failure of women to properly understand and carry out their scriptural roles. Sadly, even many Christian women, deceived by the temporal and often illusory status that they may gain in the world, have forfeited fulfilment of their special and pivotal place in God’s plan. It’s so easy to exchange the truth for a lie.”

Let each of us pray for that special gift of wisdom from the Lord to help us understand our rightful place in our marriages, in the church and in the world, always looking to the word of God as our help and guide.

“And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone, I will make a help meet for him.” (Genesis 2:18)

God’s blessing be upon you all,

Linda

Next time: ‘Bloom where you’re planted!’

The post The Epitome Of Evil first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

When I think of Ruth I naturally think too of the Proverbs 31 woman. Although the Proverbs woman seems to be too good to be true, she is the epitome of what it means to be a Godly woman and a submissive wife. She is a helpmeet to her husband, but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t capable, busy, productive and fulfilled. She blesses her husband and her family by being orderly, organised and thrifty. She does everything she can to take care of her husband, her children and her household.

‘Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain, she does him good and not evil all the days of her life.’ Proverbs 31 v 10 – 12

Faithful, constant, dependable, putting her husband’s needs above her own, seeking every way she can to bless him, in short, loving him and serving him with all her heart. We can all be like that, whatever our circumstances. It’s a choice!

She, however is no doormat, she is an absolute asset to her husband. Notice in verse 26 it says, ‘she opens her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness.’ Look at Titus 2 v 1 – 5 again, and let us apply it to ourselves.

We who are older should be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that we should admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to our own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

Can you see the link between this passage and the Proverbs woman?

Can you see how this biblical advice is totally opposite to the world’s view?

As women God calls us to be well equipped and able, otherwise we cannot pass these qualities on to the younger women. How can we be an example to others if we are not living a Godly life, if we are not practicing these qualities ourselves? Also young women, you will not be young forever and so it is your responsibility to take the admonition from the older women on board and prayerfully consider what they say.

If any of us are naggers, moaners and complainers, if we want to wear the trousers and take control of our husbands, or if we are lazy and indolent and expect our men to do everything for us, how can we possibly be in the right place to help other women? We cannot just be spiritual and know all the right words to say, we have to be able to demonstrate that we put these words into practice in our own lives.

We should be continually asking God for wisdom in all our relationships so that we might be kind to others. Otherwise we might just come over as bossy and controlling. We should be discreet and careful in our speech and actions. It is too easy to gossip or criticise and so cause untold damage thereby.

We should be chaste. That means dressing modestly and not as women of the world with their low slung tops and skirts around their thighs. If a top is too low wear it with a camisole, or throw it away, if a skirt is too short wear it over thick tights, or throw it away. Be modest, the world is watching. We don’t want to be accused of putting temptation before men, the Godly woman will never do that.

We should be thoughtful how we run our houses, keeping them clean and tidy, making them a place that our family is glad to live in, a home, a place of safety and sanctuary. We should be hospitable, always ready to welcome friends and family with a smile on our faces, always having cake in the tin, tea at the ready, arms ready to embrace and love.

Being a Godly woman means so much more than just knowing scripture and saying the right things. Godliness should be seen in every area of our lives. Being a woman after God’s own heart means making moment by moment choices, and doing everything as unto the Lord. We need to be aware that there is a warning attached to all this, did you notice it?

‘That the word of God may not be blasphemed.’

You see if we do not live up to these qualities, then we are guilty of blaspheming the word of God, that is, taking the word of God in vain, not living up to the standards He has set before us, and yet claiming to do so. In fact claiming to be something that we are not. That is the danger of preaching at people about how they should be, but not living that way ourselves. God takes the way we live very seriously, and we must be aware of this and practice what we preach, or be seen as being hypocrites like the Pharisees who accused Jesus of being from Satan, when in fact it was they who were whited sepulchres full of dead men’s bones, it was they who were being used by the enemy. Jesus was guiltless of their accusations. What about ourselves?

May God cause us to be honest with ourselves and the way we live our lives. May we humble ourselves before the cross and confess our sin, for He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Love and blessings,

Linda

Next time:    Jezebel, the epitome of evil!

The post A Virtuous Wife first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Submission, respect; two very important words for us as women, and not just if we are married. These qualities are so denigrated in the world today, but for us as believers they should be the norm. Paul was speaking to believers, not to the world. What is acceptable in the world is not acceptable for believers; we are to be separated from the world, though we have to live in it. Our behaviour should be an example of Godliness to everyone we encounter, in particular to our loved ones, to our church family, but most of all to our husbands even if their behaviour towards us is not as it should be. Some of you may have husbands who do not follow Christ as you do, some of you may have husbands who do things that you know are not good or even sensible, but does that mean that you despise them and disrespect them? No! Despite the difficulty of your circumstances, unless your spouse is breaking the law of God or indeed of the nation, you are expected by the Lord to behave as His word tells you to.
This is a very emotive subject for all of us, but especially for those of you in difficult and unequal marriages. I believe that for some, this is one of the hardest tests of your faith in God and your trust in His word.

Let us look at the wonderful account of the life of Ruth. Her life is such an example of submission, respect and trust in God. I love the way that God can turn around bad circumstances and wrong choices to show His glory and that can be true for any one of us.

During the times of the judges, Moab was defeated by Israel and many of the Moabite men were killed.

‘And at that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valour; not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.’ (Judges 3 v 29 – 30)

Elimelech, which means, God is my King, Naomi, which means Pleasant, and their two sons, left Israel and went to live in Moab, which is called God’s wash pot (Psalm 60:6 / 108:9). They came from Bethlehem, which means the House of Bread. Now why would they ever think of leaving the House of Bread for God’s wash pot. They went because there was famine in Israel. Famine was not an uncommon thing in Israel, but nevertheless Elimelech decided that they would go to Moab because there they could be fed. I think it must have seemed to him that the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. Now of course we don’t know if Naomi totally went along with her husband’s ideas, but as a dutiful wife she followed his lead into this pagan land. One certainly has to wonder if Elimelech was living up to his given name of ‘God is my King’, because it seems that the whole family got caught up in the idol worship there, for good Jewish boys should never have married Gentile girls. That was decidedly against God’s law, though of course in the time of the judges anything seemed to be permissible. Mallon, which means ‘Unhealthy’ and Chilion, which means ‘Pining’, married Orpah and Ruth. Why their parents called their sons such awful names I do not know, but they certainly both seem to have been less than healthy for they both died, their father having already predeceased them.

So the three women all became widows and then Naomi heard that the famine in Israel was over and she decided to return to Bethlehem. We know that originally Orpah said that she would go with Naomi, but changed her mind and Ruth who had said she would go stuck to her decision and did go with Naomi. It can’t have been easy for her to stay faithful to Naomi and leave all her family behind. It would seem that the worship of God had not been entirely forgotten by Naomi, (indeed it may well be that she had quietly worshipped God all through those years in Moab),
Because of Ruth’s amazing words to her mother in law.

‘But Ruth said: Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more so, if anything but death parts you and me.’ (Ruth 1 v 16 – 17)

Beautiful words of faithful submission, which show that not only did she want to be with Naomi, but she desired to follow God. It is interesting to note that Naomi said to the women of Bethlehem, when she returned, that she had left for Moab full, but had returned empty. Yet she and her family had left Bethlehem empty, looking for food. It’s strange how our perspectives can change with our circumstances. Naomi was bitter because of all that had happened to her, and who did she blame? God!
It is so easy to blame God for the results of our own bad choices. Although Naomi obeyed her husband, did she really think that they were doing the right thing when they left Israel?

 ‘In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.’  (Judges 21 v 25)

But our gracious God can turn things around and I believe more for Ruth’s sake and her offspring than for Naomi’s although Naomi was ultimately blessed by Ruth’s right choices. Ruth chose to obey Naomi even though she was in a strange place. She gleaned in the field that God led her to, she obeyed Naomi’s instructions and went to lay herself down at the feet of Boaz, covering herself with the hem of his robe and thus signifying her acceptance of his authority over her. Boaz, which means strength, redeemed her and she became his wife. As a result of her humility and willing submission, Ruth found herself as wife to a Godly man. She became the mother of Obed, the father of Jesse whose youngest son was to become King David.

The book of Ruth is a beautiful picture of Christ’s relationship to the church. Boaz, a type of Christ, took Ruth, a Gentile bride after paying the price of redemption to the Jew who did not want her. Take time to read and study this amazing book.
Can you see how, through Ruth’s obedience and submission and faithfulness to her first husband, then to Naomi, and then to Boaz, she was blessed bountifully by God? She could have stayed with her family in Moab, God’s wash pot, but instead found her God given destiny in the House of Bread.

I’m so glad she chose to go with Naomi, for she has become a wonderful example of a woman who had a fulfilled life through submissive and obedient behaviour.

God bless you.
Linda

The post Ruth: A woman after God’s own heart first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

So what about Eve? Did she fulfil the above criteria? What do we know about her?

She was the first woman, she was created by God from Adam’s rib, she was deceived by the serpent, she desired what she should not have.

Adam was created by God from the dust of the earth and was given a job. He was to look after the Garden of Eden, to tend it and to keep it. He was provided with all that he needed by God, food and drink and a beautiful place to live, with the proviso that he should not eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, lest he die. Adam was created to be in relationship with all that God had made, but the animals and birds could not provide the kind of relationship he needed.

I wonder how long he lived in the Garden on his own? Suffice it to say that he was there in the garden before Eve was created, and the commission that God gave Adam, and the commandment to avoid the fruit of the tree were given to him alone, before Eve was made. Then God made Eve from one of Adam’s ribs and she was presented to Adam by God as a helper comparable to him. I would love to have been there to see Adam’s face when he first set eyes on the ‘perfect woman’. She was innocent, beautiful to behold, perfect in every way, designed by God to be Adam’s wife, his helpmeet. This was the perfect relationship…..God and Adam and Eve!

William McDonald in the Believer’s Bible Commentary said this, ‘Woman was taken not from Adam’s head to dominate him, nor from his feet to be trodden down, but from under his arm to be protected and from near his heart to be loved.’

Isn’t that lovely? That’s how it’s supposed to be. How did it all go so wrong?

The serpent, the enemy, worked on the weakness of Eve. Note what he said to her, ‘Has God indeed said….’ and here’s the twist……..‘you shall not eat of EVERY tree of the garden?’

By asking her this the way he did, he focussed her thinking on that one tree. Very subtle! Eve replied, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it lest you die.’ Do you see what Eve did here? She added to God’s word. God did not say to Adam not to touch the fruit, only not to eat it. Why did she do that?

Of course it was Adam who told her what God had instructed him…….so who got it wrong? Adam or Eve? The serpent took advantage of Eve by casting doubt into her mind. He questioned God’s word and he revised it. Eve I think, longed for that forbidden fruit, was drawn to it and wanted it, even in her innocence. Satan took advantage of that weakness and played on her desire. You have to wonder if Adam had said to her NOT to touch the fruit BECAUSE she longed for it. She was driven by temptation which showed itself in three ways.

‘So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.’ (Genesis 3 v 5 – 6).

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The temptation trinity is still alive and well today.

Adam loved Eve, he didn’t want her to leave him, and he gave in to her craving and they both ate the forbidden fruit, and their innocence immediately left them. They died spiritually and their special link to God their Father was broken and they were cast out into the fallen world to fend for themselves. God had to make them leave the beautiful Garden of Eden and He also had to make sure that they wouldn’t try to get back in, and so He appointed cherubim and a flaming sword to prevent their return in case if they did happen to get back in, they might eat the fruit of the tree of life. This was a merciful act of God, because if they had eaten the fruit of the tree of life they would have lived forever in their sin…..there would have been no way back to God.

It’s a sad, sad happening, and we are the recipients of their fall from grace. I am so thankful that God has given us the way back to Him.

The point of all this is that it was the woman who was deceived, not the man. He knew, to a degree, what would happen, but she just blindly followed Satan’s lead, because she wanted something more than she already had and she wanted her man to be a part of if too. Satan knew that approaching Adam would not work, he targeted the weaker vessel. ‘For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.’ (1Timothy 2 v 13 – 14)

Eve was meant to be Adam’s helper, but she helped herself to spiritual knowledge and acted independently, becoming his downfall instead of his helper. At best she was naive and trusting and therefore ripe for deception.

The man was stronger and not so easy to deceive, he knew where he stood with God and was happy to remain there. It seems that in general men question first and believe later….that was certainly the case with my husband when he came to be saved. They are more objective and often less intuitive and sometimes seem to be less spiritual than women, who are generally speaking more sensitive.

Men are more mindful than we ladies, we are more controlled by our feelings. We ladies are made to stand alongside our husbands, covered by their protection, shielded by them. But when we leave the place we are supposed to be in then we are far more easily deceived and led astray. Why are we more sensitive and, dare I say it, vulnerable? Perhaps because we are the ones who bring our children into this world after carrying them within us for nine months, we are the ones who nurture and care for our children. But those very qualities which are such a great asset can also become our greatest weakness.

A woman, because of circumstances or even choices can become tough and hard, sceptical and cautious, just like a man. She can become guarded and cynical, and thus in danger of losing her femininity. Feminism teaches that women can be like men. It teaches that we should be independent of men, considered equal to them, in short totally the opposite of what the bible teaches and what God expects of us as women. This problem which sadly affects all of us in some way or another, needs to be biblically addressed. Really tragically the church in general has been infected with this plague. The damage that has been done by this anti-Christian philosophy is immense.

Now please don’t get me wrong here. Some of you are single, some of you are widowed and some are divorced. Am I saying that you should all have a husband? No I am not! God has a plan for each of you, but it’s His plan, His ways, His will, His word that each of us must be subject to, and not the ways of the world. Ask yourselves, why do so many lesbian women so often dress like men? Why do they and rampant feminists want to shed their womanly qualities and be like men? The enemy wants them to believe that they have every bit as much right to be treated the same as men. They lose their beauty and their charm and becomes very poor excuses of men, it’s so sad and not at all the way God meant it to be. Women find themselves in all sorts of places where they have to be alone and in difficult circumstances, but that doesn’t mean that they have to lose their femininity, that doesn’t mean that they have to be equal to men. Perhaps ladies, our motto should be, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, ‘Be guided by the word of God!’

May God our Father lead us into all wisdom and discernment.

Linda

I recommend ‘Created to be His Helpmeet‘ by Debi Pearl.

I also acknowledge the help that this book has been to me in preparing this teaching.

The post What About Eve? first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

When I first gave my life to Jesus and was born again, I didn’t have a clue about what being a believer really meant. I foolishly thought that my experience was commonly shared by people who went to church, as I had done all my life, that they had all come to a point of understanding the truth about Jesus and had given their lives to Jesus as I had done. Oh my! I had a lot to learn!

I was in a mainstream church at the time, and now it seems to me that it was a miracle that I was ever saved whilst in that church. I received no discipling whatsoever and after a while, because women preach in that church, I soon believed that God was calling me to do just that. After all public speaking was something I had been trained to do from a child. Elocution lessons, with recitations in competitions, amateur dramatics, pantomimes and the like had shown me that I could do it and I was on fire for the Lord and ready to offer the gifts God had given me. So I volunteered my services and off I went. I enjoyed it very much, at least to begin with, though it was very hard work studying with the needs of husband, children and home to cope with as well. Whilst training and preaching I encountered a type of persecution very quickly, which was utterly miserable to endure. Liberal ‘Christians’ who were tutors and the like ridiculed me for my ‘simplistic faith’, as they called it. They seemed surprised when I did well in my exams; I think they thought that I was academically challenged. Well, I refused to be beaten and I eventually made it, only to realise that God was telling me to give it up.

During those years I went with my husband to a talk by David Pawson entitled ‘Leadership is Male’. I hated what he said, it made me really angry. Who was he to tell me that I was in the wrong?

BUT he was right and I was wrong!

I just wasn’t ready to take on board what he was saying. He was coming from a totally biblical perspective and I was not. He was listening to what God was saying, I was listening to what the world and the church were saying and also listening to what I wanted. However I think in retrospect, that on that day a seed was sown, however much I tried to deny it…….and I did.

There are so many damaged people in the churches today because of bad teaching.

Eventually after years of more struggle, God led us to leave that church and He graciously brought us to Calvary Chapel. His timing was perfect. It was in 1996 that I first became aware of Calvary Chapel, funnily enough, through their Women’s ministry and in 1999 we began to attend regularly. Gradually I began to learn the truths of God’s precious word. I had always believed the word of God to be the truth since becoming a believer, but I had never been encouraged to study it in the right way. It soon became apparent to me that God had already been leading me to the understanding that leadership is male and that everything that David Pawson had said was right. Everything clicked into place at last. I had a lot of repenting to do, there were a lot of things I was sorry for, but I also realised that everything I had gone through, everything I had experienced had been allowed by God for my learning and my growth.

The next step was understanding what it meant to be a submissive wife to my husband. Like most women I liked to be in control, I liked having my own way; I thought I was okay.

One day, out of the blue, when my husband and I were praying together, I was compelled to kneel at his feet, to put his hand on my head and to repent to God before him of my lack of obedience towards him, my lack of submission to him as my husband and thus to Jesus as my Lord. I felt very silly, as you can imagine, but the compulsion was so strong that I knew I had to do it. That was a beautiful, tearful moment in my life. My husband was rather taken aback, but we both knew that it was of the Lord and necessary for our ongoing relationship with Jesus and with each other. Don’t think that everything has been perfect since then. Yes, it was a changing point, and yes, things in our marriage improved, but I still stumble and fall and get things all wrong, but the difference is that now I know, now I am aware, and now I can come before God and confess my failings and know that I am forgiven and restored. Before I no idea that I was in a wrong place!

It has been a long and slow learning process and it will never be finished this side of Heaven, but I love the gentle way the Lord leads us on, the way He instructs us and guides us through the pitfalls of this walk of faith.

Why have I told you all this? Because I don’t want you to think that I have it all sorted, that I am perfect or have all the answers. I am not, I do not!

What I do have is a burden to encourage other ladies, (whether they be young or older, whether they be married or single, widowed or divorced), to be Godly women according to the word of God.

‘ the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behaviour, not given to much wine, teachers of good things…..that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.’ Titus 2 v 3 – 5

Blessings to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Next time……’What about Eve?’

The post Above Rubies first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.