Majoring in Minor Prophets #3

LET IT POUR:

WHY YOU NEED THE SPIRIT

If Hoshea was a romance, and if Zechariah was a court-room drama, the prophecy of Joel could be called an ecological horror story.

            Imagine a bright sunny day, blue skies and warm weather. Suddenly it turns dark as if a great cloud had banished the sun. You look up expecting to see rain clouds, but instead your eyes grow wide at the sight of millions of locusts. They descend on the land and begin obliterating everything green. In their voracious hunger the locusts even chew the bark off of trees, the wool off of sheep, maybe even human flesh.

            This is not the imagination of Alfred Hitchcock; this has happened many times in the history of the world. In 1915, Palestine endured a locust plague that caused great devastation and hunger. The female locusts were about 2 ½ to 3 inches long and laid hundreds of eggs while feeding on the land. It was estimated that as many as 65,000 to 75,000 locust eggs were concentrated in a square meter of soil.[i]

            We don’t know exactly where Joel fits into the history of Israel; he doesn’t give a lot of clues. What we do know is that he speaks hope to Israel after a severe swarm of locusts ravages the land. After the locusts leave and the people return to God, the rains return, the land becomes green again, and the people are able to grow food and eat.

            When we read the Prophets we find that the stories are mostly about coming back to God and God delivering the people from invaders, exile, or locusts. If that were the whole story, if that is how we perceive God, then we would be like baby birds in a perpetual state of infancy. We get into trouble – God delivers us – what miserable beings we are that we never learn and never progress past our imbecility.

            That’s not what the Prophets wanted their hearers to believe. Joel does remind Israel that the LORD provides food for his people, but when the people’s stomachs are filled he tells them there’s more to life than bread. Joel promised them that one day God would pour out his Spirit on them. If they have the LORD as God why do they need his Spirit? Why do you need the Spirit?

1. I will pour out my Spirit

God wants to give his people more than food, more than land, more than a panic button to call on him in times of trouble. The LORD is a relational being; he wants more from his relationship with humanity than humble servitude. But how does an infinite God relate to a finite being? How does a human begin to understand God?

            Joel foretells of a solution to this chasm between God and humankind, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (28-29).

a) When will this promise be fulfilled? Joel writes “afterward” implying that the blessing of God’s Spirit comes after the judgment on unbelievers in Judah. But the precise fulfillment of this promise does not happen immediately. There is a future tone to the promise that links it to the Day of the LORD, commonly thought of as the “end of time.”

b) What does the promise give the Jews? In the OT era we read of heroes like David suddenly being filled with the Spirit, or Samson having the Spirit “rush upon” him. The Spirit was certainly active in the kings and prophets, but not in a permanent way. At various times the word of the LORD was rare and visions were uncommon.[ii] We might compare the presence of the Spirit to drops of rain in the lives of the saints.

            According to Joel, the LORD will one day pour out his Spirit. These are no longer droplets of water but a waterfall of the Spirit. Joel implies with this “outpouring” that the presence of the Spirit will be permanent as opposed to temporary.

c) Who will receive the promise? This is where Joel gets radical. In the OT era, male leaders were typically the recipients of the gifts of the Spirit, be it Samson’s strength or David’s prophecy. The LORD says “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” Joel and every Jewish reader would understand the Spirit to be poured on believing Israelites. But even here those who receive this outpouring are not only the elite or the leaders or the very smartest. God will not discriminate in pouring his Spirit out – not on the basis of sex, since both sons and daughters will prophesy – not on the basis of age (old men dream; young men have visions) – and not on the basis of class (servants/slaves, men and women). Everyone in the kingdom of Israel will receive the Spirit.

            This fulfilled a desire Moses once expressed. Having called the elders together for a meeting, the seventy elders experienced the Spirit resting on them and they prophesied. Two elders who did not make it to the meeting, Eldad and Medad, were in the midst of the camp and prophesied there. A young fellow ran and told Moses (as if to tattle on their truancy) but Moses replied, “…I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets…” (Num. 11:24-30).

d) How will this promise be expressed? Through prophesying, dreams and visions. Prophecy is often thought of as foretelling (future stuff) but the prophets themselves saw it as “forth-telling.” They saw themselves as witnesses to God’s truth, telling people about the character of God and his truth. Together, these three expressions are about revelation. People will not simply have cool hallucinogenic visions as if on drugs; they will have revelations about God, who he is, what he does, and will discern his work in their world.

            Do you see how God works? Do you see what God wants? Joel reminds me of when Jesus fed the 5000 (John 6). A great crowd was following Jesus because he had healed the sick and cast out demons. Jesus looked up and saw the crowd and he wanted to feed them. They were a long way from any village and were physically hungry. So Jesus performs a miracle to feed all these people. They keep following him because of this miracle, because their stomachs were filled. But Jesus wanted to give them something more – the bread of life, himself, the presence of God.

            Human nature is like that. We are so quickly fascinated by the temporal things that we miss the eternal.

2. I will show wonders

Without the Spirit we will fail to see the deeper things of God. Without the Spirit we cannot begin to understand the difference between judgment and salvation.

            Joel speaks of wonders in the heavens and on the earth in 30-31. Blood, fire, and smoke are symbols of judgment. They send shivers of fear up and down the spine of the bravest people. Fear makes us do dumb things.

            Last week we endured quite a storm; rain, wind, lightning. Our neighbor’s kitten climbed an oak tree and refused to come down for two days, until Sharon rescued the kitten. Even then the kitten wanted to go up the tree or cling to the bark.

            In the face of judgment men and women will not run to God but away from God. Consider how people reacted to Jesus when he healed the man born blind (John 9). Rather than praising God for the miracle and desiring to know more about the Christ, the authorities wanted to prosecute the formerly blind man and hunt down Jesus for healing without their say-so. And because of this unbelieving response men and women bring judgment on themselves. This is humanity without the Spirit of God to enlighten them. 

            On the day of Pentecost, Peter and the 120 followers of Jesus began to speak in tongues, languages that all the visiting pilgrims spoke. They thought these people must be drunk. Peter’s response was a direct quote from Joel. Peter said to them “this is it – this is the fulfillment of the promise.” Consider the parallels with Joel’s prophecy:

When – the last days (Peter begins Joel’s quote with “In the last days…”

What – Only three months before, Peter and the apostles were so afraid they cowered behind closed doors. Now they presented a powerful testimony of the risen Christ.

Who – The 120 were uneducated fishermen, tax collectors, former terrorists and women (Mary, Mary Magdalene, etc).

How – They spoke in tongues previously unknown to them to people from all over the world. Peter spoke boldly about the crucified Christ and how God raised him up.

            How did the crowds respond? They were cut to the heart (Acts 2:37). They felt the judgment of these words. What were they going to do with this experience? That response would make all the difference in their lives.

3. Everyone who calls will be saved

What does it mean to be saved? Salvation is what we have termed a “Christianese” word, a word that means something only to the initiated (those who go to church). If salvation means what it did to Joel’s people, it means God will save us from locusts and other disasters in our present context. There is no greater disaster to the human condition than sin; unrepented sin keeps us from approaching God. If we can’t approach God we cannot be saved. Salvation.

            But isn’t salvation more than being saved from the fire of hell? Considering what Joel was trying to tell his people, deliverance from calamity was just the start of something huge. “And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance…” (32).

            God can save us or deliver us from trouble without pouring out his Spirit. He’s done it before. Why give people his Spirit?

            The answer begins in Peter’s Pentecost message. He presents Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of prophecy, the miracles he performed, the cross on which he bled, all pointing to God’s breaking into our world to show us himself. And when the people realized what God had done in Christ, they were cut to the heart and said “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).

            Peter responds, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (2:38). God saves men and women from their sins through Christ so that they may begin to know God. We are saved to know God. And the Holy Spirit is instrumental in showing us more of God.

            Tim Keller said this, “When I go to the Truth of God, and the Spirit is giving me access, do you see what happens? You can read about the power of God. If you just read about the power of God, without the influence of Spirit, you say, ‘Oh, God is powerful.’ Without the influence of the Spirit, all that can do is make a superficial impression on the top of you, but when the Spirit of God is there, you read about the power, and there’s access. The truth begins to shine. It begins to change you, and what happens is your heart develops courage.

When you read about his goodness, it develops peace in you. When you read about his forgiveness, it develops relief in you. You shake off your guilty fears. When you read about his forgiveness, it develops generosity and mercy in you. When you read about his holiness, it develops conviction of sin and humility in you. Don’t you see? Only when the Spirit of God is doing that do you see real access happening. Only then.”         The prize is Jesus. Being saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, we begin to know God better. And with our eyes on the prize – Jesus – we unwittingly become better people.

When I first thought of how this message would go, I imagined a great response. Preachers have this temptation to see themselves as the catalyst for revival or some such thing. So what I pictured was a crowd of you coming down the aisle to receive whatever the Holy Spirit wanted to show you. I was hoping for an experience that would shake us to our boots.

            I realized suddenly that this was selfish on my part. Not that I would refuse God’s gifts if he decided to do something amazing among us. But to want it in that way was rooted in a selfish desire. I wanted to experience something out of the ordinary, something supernatural.

            In contrast, the LORD led me to think of Ezekiel 36:26-27, which reads, “I will give you a new heart and a put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

            Do you see what I see? God wants to put his Spirit in you so that you can see better what his heart and person are like. He wants us to choose obedience to be like him, to follow in his ways. The flashy stuff is cool – speaking in tongues or having an ecstatic experience – but it is only for a moment. God wants a long obedience in the same direction.

            One fellow put it this way. It’s awesome to pour gasoline over a pile of wood and watch it go whoosh. But put gasoline in a fuel-efficient car and it will travel for near 800 km.

            Why do you need the Holy Spirit? He is the person of God given to you so that you can recognize God in the every day. He reveals the hand of Jesus in your life so that you might know him better.

            Has the Spirit been poured out on you?

                                                            AMEN

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[i] John D. Whiting, December 1915, National Geographic (511-521).

[ii] 1 Samuel 3:1

Majoring in Minor Prophets #2

“OUT, DAMNED SPOT”:

GOD’S SOLUTION FOR THE POLLUTED SOUL

Lady Macbeth could not stop rubbing her hands together.

            She sleepwalks and mumbles a conversation she had with her husband when they conspired to murder King Duncan. Once they had the crown, she tells her husband, there would be nothing to fear. Lady Macbeth did not count on the amount of blood Duncan would produce.

            As Lady Macbeth replays this scene for the eavesdroppers, her doctor and her lady in waiting, she not only incriminates herself, but also reveals the pangs of conscience she had ridiculed in her husband. She rubs her hands as if to wash away the blood. Her maid notes that she does this for fifteen minutes straight, pauses, and then begins again. Lady Macbeth eyes an imaginary spot on her hand, a blood stain, and yells, “Out, damned spot.”

            This is no coffee stain, it is blood. Macbeth himself said how an ocean could not wash his hands clean. Such is the nature of a guilty conscience. Shakespeare keenly observed how the sinful act was impossible to erase from one’s mind.

            Jeremiah noted too, “Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign LORD,” (Jer. 2:22).

            Our world is polluted. We have become fastidious about environmental waste and restoring our ecology. We groom our lawns, wash with antibacterial soap, and are careful to wear clothes without stains. But our hearts have suffered pollution too, the pollution of living in a sinful world. We bear the stains of sin simply by our dwelling here. How can we serve a holy God when our souls are polluted with sin?

            God solves our pollution issue by an act of grace ministered through a perfect priest.

            Zechariah 3 tells us how God solves our pollution problem. Zechariah was a young prophet, born in Babylon but who returns to Jerusalem in 538 BC. Impoverished, without resources and a dim future, the Jews who returned to Jerusalem after 70 years of exile have little hope. Zechariah began to prophesy to the Jews and encouraged them to rebuild the temple. In the eleventh month of the second year of King Darius, Zechariah was given eight visions. This is one of them.

1. Satan accuses while God chooses

In the vision, Joshua, the high priest, stands before the LORD to minister for the people. Satan (the adversary/the accuser) stands beside him on the right side in the place of the prosecuting attorney. Satan’s plan is always to oppose God’s plan to save his people. Joshua, as priest, represents the remnant of Jews who returned to Jerusalem. So Satan attacks them all by focusing on Joshua.

            What is Satan’s accusation? Satan argued before the LORD that the ministry of this high priest was invalid because he was a sinner. How can a sinful high priest atone for the sins of God’s people? If Joshua is unclean, his ministry cannot be effective and so the people themselves are still in their sin and cannot be saved.

            Normally we say that when Satan talks he speaks his native language: he lies. But for a brief moment here, he is right. How can we minister the gospel of grace to people who need to hear the good news of Jesus when we ourselves have a regretful past? We have sinned; we still sin. Where is the victory in that?

            Even the good we do is stained with the blood of our guilt. Isaiah said, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…” (Is. 64:6). Satan has a case against us.

            God knows Satan’s aim is to prevent people from being accepted by God. The LORD rebukes Satan in this vision and utters a proverbial saying, “Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” (cf. Amos 4:11). The LORD has chosen Jerusalem (aka the People) and delivered them from exile in Babylon, he will not abandon them. God has chosen them.

            You know how it is when you grab a stick of wood out of the fire – it is blackened by the soot of the fire – makes your hands dirty. The people have been rescued but they are not without stain from their time spent in a foreign land.

            Believers in God, you have been snatched from the fire, delivered from destruction, but bear the black soot of your past. God chooses you to serve Him, but how do you serve with your past sins staining your person?

2. New clothes make the man…or woman

The Persian king, Darius, allowed the Jews to return to the land of Israel to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. But they were poor and had few resources. Joshua served before the LORD in tattered, filthy clothes. They were all he had.

            Satan no longer appears in the vision. God has dealt with him by the declaration that Joshua was chosen. When God chooses you there is no argument against that choice.

            The angel of the LORD commands some unidentified persons near Joshua to “take off his filthy clothes.” Then the LORD says, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you,” (4b).

            There are two aspects to God’s gracious act. First, he does what Joshua cannot do himself – take off the filthy clothes. Second, he invites Joshua to “see” – “see” means “open your eyes; look at; consider God’s Word.” The LORD said, “I have taken away your sin,” in other words, “I alone have done this; I alone can do this.” He has not taken away a million sins and left one – he has taken them all away.

            These filthy clothes, these are a picture of sin removed. They have taken every piece of his priestly vestments away, everything that was defiled, and there he stands in nakedness. But there is no defilement on him – all filth is gone. So it is with every pardoned sinner who comes before the cross of Christ in repentance. As easily as we take off the barn clothes and put on a suit, so easily does God take away our sin. And not only does the LORD take away our sin, but the consciousness of it too. If you feel that you could not serve God because sin was too heavy on you, look to Jesus who bore all that sin away and hear him say “It is finished.” Yes, you still sin, but know that you are blood-washed sinner, saved by grace, and now wear your Savior’s clothes – holy clothes – clothes that allow you into the presence of God.

            They say that clothes make the man. Shakespeare actually said something of that nature. Woman or man, it doesn’t matter, when you put on good clothes, you feel like a different person than when you wear your dirty work clothes. An internal change takes place. Try going to a banquet in ripped and dirty jeans and see if you psychologically can stand it. The suit or outfit does something to you. God does something to you more powerfully when he dresses you.

3. New clothes, new responsibility

A popular clothing company sponsors a suit drive every year. They invite people to donate their gently used suits for a discount on new suits. The donated suits are then given to men who are re-entering the workforce. I don’t know if they are recently released prisoners or folks who have experienced hard times and homelessness. The suits help them feel good, equipped to work.

            Joshua was given new clothes. And with new clothes came a charge. Joshua was recommissioned to serve in the temple on behalf of the people. “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘If you walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge in my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here” (7). 

            There are two parts to this charge: First, Joshua is to walk in God’s ways. That means committing himself to knowing and living according to God’s revealed character and purposes. Sounds easy, right? Well you know it’s not. Second, Joshua must perform faithfully the rituals of his priestly duty. This was an area of failure for Israel before the exile. Basically, God is asking for faithfulness and obedience.

            What does God expect of the restored servant? To serve. Satan wanted to disqualify you because you bore the filthy clothes of your past – you could not serve. God has put new clothes on you – we are clothed with Christ – to re-enter the workforce of God’s kingdom and serve.

            This part of the vision reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the talents. Each servant was given a charge and the master expected the servant to do something with it. Two servants took this charge and made it grow. The third took his suit, as it were, and buried it. You have been given clothes to serve the LORD with, now what will you do with them?

4. Can we keep these clothes clean?

No! We still live in a sin-polluted world. Do you remember when we used to have wear Sunday clothes to church and then wear them all day? I did. It was hard to watch my friends playing outside our house in the autumn leaves. If I went out and joined them, my clothes would not only be awkward for play but would become dirty.

            In the final scene of this vision, the LORD tells Joshua that his role as priest, and the role of Zerubbabel (the governor/king rep) are but a foreshadow of things to come. While the job of the king is to establish a righteous and just kingdom, the job of the priest is to minister to the souls of the people. These two roles are going to be fully met in one person, something unheard of in the history of Israel.

            The LORD tells Joshua that he will send his servant whom he calls “the Branch,” whom he turns and describes as an all-seeing stone. Through the ministry of this branch/stone, the LORD says, “and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day” (9b). That is an amazing feat. Can you imagine the sins of this land gone in one day? The Jews, with all their rituals and sacrifices offered bulls for days and days for the sins of the nation. One day would have seemed unbelievable.

            The Branch is not identified in this text. The LORD does not give any clues to his person. But we read further in 6:12-13 about this Branch. It is said he will build the temple – this is the dwelling place of God. Where will this temple be located? Then it says that the Branch will rule on the throne like a king and he will be a priest also. And there will be no conflict in his performing both roles. Who is this Branch?

            You know its Jesus. In Hebrews 4:14-16 we read about this dual role. The writer tells us we have a great high priest – the one performs the ritual to remove sin – and he is Jesus the Son of God – “Son of God” is an ancient term for the Israelite king. Jesus is priest and king who clothes us with grace to approach the throne of grace in our time of need.

            Can we keep these clothes clean? No, but he will. “Unlike other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself” (Heb. 7:27). Sin and guilt are covered by Jesus. We can serve God without wringing our hands and worrying over the spots of blood stain. We are free!

“The woman who was caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) and brought before Jesus was viciously accused by a ring of self-righteous finger-pointers. She was torn from the bedroom-caught in the very act-the Scripture says. If she was clothed at all she must have been clothed somewhat like Joshua was in this vision, in some shred of clothing, grabbed at the last moment. Disheveled-certainly guilty-she stood in public before the Lord himself. The servants of Satan ringed her, accusing pointing their fingers, deriding and belittling her, spewing out incontrovertible facts about her. The crowd wanted to stone her and urged Jesus to lead in the judgment of this woman. But his word, his actions, his strength and his power saved her. He was the one who silenced the voices of accusation. No one else could have done so. His understanding of human nature and his authority from God stopped all of her accusers and sent them away in subdued self-examination. The word of Jesus Christ had clothed her in clean garments as well: Neither do I condemn you he said. Because he had the authority to forgive her she was forgiven utterly for what she had done.”[i]

            Zechariah’s prophecy began with the word of the LORD: If you return to me, I will return to you. Joshua, the priest, was standing before the LORD. That’s exactly where he needed to be.

            If you have stood before the cross of Christ and repented of your sin and declared that Jesus is both Lord and Savior, nothing can hinder your service to him. Satan can accuse you, your own conscience can betray you, but Jesus has chosen you and in him you are clothed anew.

            Look at your hands – do you see the cursed spot? It’s not there. Look at your neighbor’s hands – do you see that cursed spot? No, it is gone, covered by the blood of Jesus. Now use those hands to serve the LORD!

                                                AMEN

           

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[i] Steve Zeisler, from a sermon Priest and King, Jan. 23, 1983, Peninsula Bible Church