Ships of the Bible

We love cruising!  We took our first cruise in 2007 and decided that as long as we were able to, that we were going to cruise every year.  And we have, mostly Caribbean but one Alaskan and we are looking at the possibility of a Baltic Sea cruise, maybe in 2019.

And cruising seems to be a natural fit for us, both of my parents and Angela’s mom come from an island and I come from a long line of sea farers, at least my father and grand father and my great grandfather were ship’s captains so maybe it’s not that long.

 I first went to sea when I was fifteen, and after four years of throwing up decided that might not be the best place for me to spend the rest of my life.

 Lord Nelson had advice for people like me, because he reportedly said that “The best cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree.” 

I’ve tried it and it works.

But even with sea sickness it’s hard to break the allure of the of the sea, it’s hard to get the sea out of your blood  my office is decorated in nautical stuff and I have a plaque on my office wall with the words of  Psalm 107:23-24 Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business on great waters, They see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. 

So coming home this week ships were on my mind and what’s on my mind usually ends up beoming a message and so  my first thought was to preach on the ships of the Bible, you know worship, fellowship and discipleship.  But then I thought, “no that’s really stretching it a too much”

And so I came back to the Psalm 107, which is a poem about those whom God has touched and redeemed.  Verse two asks this question Psalm 107:2  Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out!  Tell others he has saved you from your enemies. 

And then David, the author of this Psalm goes on to talk about various ways God delivered his people, the people He redeemed, and one of the things he referred to was, those who went to sea in ships.  And I began to think about different instances in the bible where people of God were on ships, or involved with ships.

Probably the first time a boat of any kind is mentioned in God’s word is way back in the book of Genesis, which is the very first book of the Bible.  It’s a story that most if not all of you are familiar with and that is the story of Noah and the ark.  And the entire story is summed up in one verse in the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament.  It is here that we read this account. 

Hebrews 11:7 It was by faith that Noah built an ark to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about something that had never happened before. By his faith he condemned the rest of the world and was made right in God’s sight.

So the first ship in the Bible was The Ship of Redemption.  The world was going to hell in a handbasket, so to speak and God spoke to the only righteous person on earth, a man named Noah.  And he commanded Noah to build an Ark, which would save his life as well as the life of his wife, his three sons and their wives.  And as a bonus the ark would preserve a sample of each species of animal alive at that time.  You’ve heard the story.  And there are a couple of things we can learn from the story. 

The first thing that Noah had to do and we need to do We Need To Admit Our Need.  It must have been a tough one for Noah to believe, he had never seen a great flood before, and why would a loving God destroy the world?  And besides that, what God was talking about was impossible.

I’m pretty sure that Noah must have had a whole list of objections, but eventually he had to say “Ok, I’m not that good of a swimmer, this is a pretty rotten world that we are living in, so maybe I better do something” 

Each person here today who is a believer, who has come to the point that they have accepted Jesus Christ not only as their saviour but also as the manager of their life had to first come to the place that they acknowledged their need.  That they realized that the Bible was right when it said in Romans 3:23  For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. And tougher yet they had to acknowledge the truth of Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death. . .  

If we are to going to get on the ship of redemption then we are going to have to admit our need, admit that we are drowning and stop pretending that we are only waving.

The second thing was that Noah had to acknowledge that There Is Only One Way.  I’m sure that when God told Noah to build an Ark that Noah must have had a few questions, like “What’s an Ark?”  I mean that would be a fair question considering that Noah had never built an Ark before, or for that matter even seen an ark before. 

And I’m pretty sure that once God told Noah what an ark was, how big an ark was, and what an ark was made out of that Noah had another question “You have to be kidding?”  “Like why can’t I just take my family up on top of a mountain and the animals can all swim? There must be another way?”   But that was God’s way.  And I know all about the impossibilities of the flood and of Noah’s Ark, and how that couldn’t possibly happen.  But we are dealing with a God thing here, and if God can only do the possible then he isn’t much of a God.

And just as there was only one means of deliverance for the Righteous of that day there is only one means of deliverance today, and it’s not a boat.  It is the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ, when he died on a cross for us almost 2000 years ago.  Jesus himself confirmed that when he said in John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

The third thing that Noah had to do was to Accept That Redemption  Noah could have built the boat, filled it with animals and family members and if he hadn’t actually gotten on the ark he would have drowned.  Regardless of how strongly he believed he still had to take that step and actually do it. 

There are people here today, sitting in these seats who know that they need salvation, who know they need forgiveness, and who know they need God.  And they are standing outside the boat looking up at a door that could close at any minute and are not willing to take that next step.  And friends without wanting to be melodramatic, times a running out, it’s starting to rain and you gotta make up your mind. 

To mix a couple of metaphors it’s time to sink or swim, fish or cut bait the word of God reminds us in 2 Corinthians 6:2 For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.”  Indeed, God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation.

If you have never entered into a relationship with God we are going to give you an opportunity to do so at the end of this message.

So you on the ark, have you taken that step?  Have you allowed God to take control?  Some would say that if you have done all those things that from now on it will just be this easy little journey, gently floating down some sublime little river without a ripple or without a care.  Uh-huh, sorry, God still leaves you with your will and you make the choices of what ship will carry you through your Christian life.

The next ship I want to look at from the Bible also comes from a familiar Bible story, you can find it pretty much summed up in Jonah 1:3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the Lord. He went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping that by going away to the west he could escape from the Lord.  This was a Ship of Disobedience    

Here was a man, a servant of God, one of the redeemed and he was asked to do something, something that everyone of us has been asked to do, and that is to tell other people about God. 

God commanded Jonah to go to a city called Nineveh and to preach to the people.  And instead of obeying, Jonah ran in the opposite direction completely.

He Knew What He Was Supposed To Do  This wasn’t a mistake, it wasn’t a slip, it wasn’t an opps, this was a deliberate act of disobedience.  Jonah was fully aware of what he was supposed to be doing. 

God is not a God of unwritten rules.  When I was in Bible College a couple of times I got in trouble, well I actually got in trouble more then a couple of times but a couple of times I got in trouble for breaking an unwritten rule. 

“Denn, actually it was probably Denny you aren’t supposed to do that.” And I’d say “Do what?”  and they’d say “you’re not supposed to do what you’re doing” and I’d say “Why not?” and they’d say “Cause it’s against the rules” and I’d say “I don’t remember reading that rule” and they’d say “It’s an unwritten rule” and I’d say “Aghhhhhh” But that wasn’t the case here at all.  Jonah knew what he had to do.  And if we were willing to admit it we know what we are supposed to do and not supposed to do.

It’s not a hypothetically question, like; You are walking across the bridge that spans a raging river, you look down and see your ex-wife and her lawyer struggling in the water.  You know that you are a weak swimmer and can only save one of them, would you a) go for a coffee or b) go to a movie?

No. When God gives us direction he expects us to respond.   And if we don’t know then that’s why we got the book.

He Didn’t Do It.  Jonah’s first act of disobedience was not doing what he knew he was supposed to do.  In the book of James 4:17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. 

What is it that you know you are supposed to do, but you aren’t doing?  I don’t know, I know some things that Christians are supposed to be doing, spending time in prayer, reading the bible giving to God’s work, loving and caring for one another, going to church. 

But what is it that He has asked you to do, and for whatever reason you aren’t doing it?  I’m just asking.  But it wasn’t enough that Jonah didn’t do what he was supposed to do he also did what he wasn’t supposed to do.

If you know the story then you know that Jonah was supposed to go east and he went west, and not just a little bit west he was heading for the end of the known world.

And you probably know the rest of the story, a storm blew up and threatened to destroy the ship, the sailors pitched Jonah over board, because they presumed, correctly, that he was a “Jonah”. 

Interesting how biblical terms work their way into everyday usage.  It was at that point that he was swallowed by a very large fish, I know it’s impossible but let’s give God a little credit here, ok?   

If this was a common occurrence then we wouldn’t see God’s hand in it.   There’d be the story of how Jonah got swallowed by a fish, and how Bob got swallowed by a fish, and then the one about Sue getting swallowed by the fish.

And so Jonah stayed in the belly of the fish for three days and was then upchucked onto the beach where he decided that maybe Nineveh wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Too bad Jonah hadn’t read Galatians 6:7 at the beginning of the story, you know where Paul wrote Galatians 6:7 Don’t be misled. Remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow! Have you read Galatians 6:7? Are you sailing on a ship of disobedience?

If you have entered into a relationship with God but you are living in disobedience to his will for your life we are going to give you an opportunity to get things sorted out at the end of this message.

The next ship is mentioned in Luke 5:3 Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.  This ship wasn’t actually a ship, it was just a boat, they say the difference between a boat and ship is you can put a boat on a ship but you can’t put a ship on a boat.

But seriously, I worked as a helmsman on a six hundred foot oil tanker and when the crew was ashore, eventually someone would look at their watch and say, “Look at the time we better get back to the boat.”

Simon Peter, who most of us know better as simply Peter owned this fishing boat and I find it interesting that almost every time it’s mentioned in the Bible Jesus is asking Peter to do something and Peter is obeying. If Jonah sailed on a ship of disobedience Peter sailed a Ship of Obedience   

The first command that Jesus gives to Peter is “Push out”.  This is the easy one, nothing tough, just “Hey Pete, I need to use your boat as a floating platform to preach off, could you shove it out a little bit?”  

It’s interesting how God starts us off with the easy ones.  And that’s where you need to start being obedient. Cause if it don’t happen with the easy ones it won’t happen with the tough ones. And they did get tougher.  Just a couple of verses later Jesus told Peter to cast his nets. 

Now you gotta understand, Peter and the guys had fished all night and hadn’t caught anything.  It was one thing for Jesus to ask them to push the boat out into deeper water so that he could use it as a pulpit, they didn’t have to do anything, kick back and lay in the sun and listen to what he had to say.  But this is a whole new kettle of fish, so to speak. 

Now this was going to require some effort, but listen to Peter’s response in Luke 5:5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, we’ll try again.”

The request got a little tougher but Peter was still obedient. If the first command was to Push out the second command was to Cast Out In Matthew 14 We read another incident that happened in Peters boat.  The disciples had gone ahead of Jesus in the boat while he went up on the hillside to pray, and while they were crossing the sea of Galilee a storm blew up that threatened to capsize their vessel, and just when the apostles had given up hope of surviving who should appear but Jesus, walking on the water.  Listen to what happens next  Matthew 14:28-29 Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you by walking on water.” “All right, come,” Jesus said.

So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.

A little tougher eh what?  First it was push out the boat, then it was cast your net, then walk on the water.  And Peter was obedient.  The really tough though one came at the end of Christ’s ministry.  It wasn’t on the boat but it was related to the boat. 

In the days following the resurrection Peter and some of the fellows had gone back fishing and one night after catching nothing a voice called out from the bank telling them to cast their nets on the other side.  Which they did and they caught a ton of fish, more or less. 

It was then that Peter recognized Jesus, jumped overboard and swam ashore.  If you know the story then you’ll remember how they go through the dialogue where Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him and three times Peter said he did, and Jesus told him to feed his sheep, which meant; take care of the believers. 

Now listen to what Jesus tells Peter in John 21:18-19 The truth is, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked and go wherever you wanted to. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will direct you and take you where you don’t want to go.” Jesus said this to let him know what kind of death he would die to glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”

Wow, and even more wow was that Peter continued to follow.  Now Peter would never have gotten to the position of leader of the early church if he had of disobeyed at any of those points.

How many people have heard of the Peter Principle?  It was developed by Laurence Peter, A Canadian, we do that whenever we talk about someone who is even remotely connected to Canada we add, “A Canadian”. 

William Shatner, Celine Deone, Alex Trebreck, it doesn’t matter.  Accept when we mention Justin Bieber.  That was what we call a Tangent.  The Peter Principle basically says “An employee within an organization will advance to his or her level of incompetence and remain there.”

 

Which means of course that you go into the school system as a supply teacher and you do a pretty good job at that so they make you a teacher and you do a great job at that, so you become a vice-principle and you excel at that, and they make you a principle and you really stink as a principle, and there you stay.  By the way that example was used because I had to use an example and for no other reason so if you are a teacher or a principle take a deep breath and relax ok?

I have developed the Guptill Principle of Christian Growth that says that “Every believer will continue to grow in their Christian walk to their own personal level of disobedience” 

You know what happens you become a Christian and you are so excited and as the Holy Spirit leads in your life you are so willing to obey God.  And then you come to an area that you are either unwilling or you think you are unable to obey and you go into rebellion.  And your Christian growth stops. Plateaus, and there you remain bitter, unhappy and miserable.  You’re not a good saint because you’re being disobedient, but you’re not a good sinner cause you know better. 

So there you are.  Three options, the first is that you stay there and stay miserable and make everyone around you miserable, the second is that you regress and become disobedient in those other areas of your life that you once were victorious over until you walk away from Christ.  Or here’s what God’s hoping will happen, you surrender that area of your life and begin to grow again.  And the choice is up to you.

So where you at?   What boat are you sailing on today?  I hope every one of you is on the ship of redemption.  But I kind of  doubt it.  But you can be.   And if you aren’t I would suspect that because you are here today you know what you have to do.

And if you are on the ship of redemption I hope that your Christian walk is one of obedience, and if not than you know what to do to change that.

Let’s pray.

A Tough Promise to Keep

A Tough Promise to Keep

Have you ever made a promise you regretted?  Given your word and then realized the price was way too high but couldn’t find a graceful way to back out?

Happened different times in the bible.  Herod had John the Baptist arrested because John wouldn’t stop harping on the fact that Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife was both immoral and illegal under Jewish law.  And if you remember the story, one night at a big blow out at the palace Herod’s Stepdaughter danced for the men present and in response Herod promised her anything, up to one half of his kingdom, seems a little over the top but he had been drinking.  The media would later say, “Alcohol may have been a factor.”  Well the girl went to her mother and asked what she thought and came back to Herod and demanded “Bring me John’s head on a platter.”  Wasn’t what he was thinking, but what could he do?  I mean besides saying “No”?

Judas promised to help the High Priest’s in their quest to stop Jesus, I’m sure he thought he was simply forcing Jesus’ hand, pushing him to establish his kingdom.  But it soon became apparent that things were spiraling out of control and Judas went back and told the authorities, “I’ve changed mind.”  But alas, it was too late. 

And then there was Peter who when Jesus came to them in the storm walking on the water, Peter calls out and says “Lord if it’s you call and I will join you.”  And Jesus said, “come on it, the water’s fine”  That of course is a rough translation, and Peter had no choice but to get out of the boat.

This is week five of our Skeleton’s in God’s Closet series and we’ve been looking at some stories and doctrines in the bible that some Christians find difficult to explain and some non-Christians enjoy pointing out in an effort to shake our faith.

This morning we are going back into the Old Testament to look at a particular story that has bothered me since the first time I read it and when I was thinking of doing this series this was the first story that came to mind.   

I kind of stumbled on it accidentally the first time.  Years ago I was preaching on heroes of faith from Hebrews Chapter 11,which has often been called the “Faith Hall of Fame”.  And I came upon this section that was read this morning and there are a pile of names that are just kind of tossed in.  Hebrews 11:32  How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets.

And I knew most of the names on the list. Gideon, King David and the Prophet Samuel, they were no brainers great stories, lot of faith.  I’ve always considered Samson a bit of a sociopath but it is what it is, I can understand why some would put him on the list, even though he wouldn’t be my first choice. 

But at first glance I was stumped with Barak and Jephthah.  So I did what you did before Google, I dug some books out of my library and starting researching these guys.  Barak turned out to be a commander in Israel when Deborah was the Judge of Israel.  Being a Judge was kind of like being royalty without the palace and perks.  So three thousand years ago Israel had a female ruler, kind of cool.  And you can read her story, which includes Barak in Judges chapter 4. And you’ll want to read all the way to the end.  Now if I had to pick I think I would have put Jael on the list instead of Barak but again, not my list. 

And then I read the story of Jephthah and it nearly knocked me over, I went back and checked, thought maybe I’d spelt his name wrong in my research, but nope, same guy.  And I thought that is just wrong, so I did what we usually do when we find something we don’t understand, don’t like or can’t explain in the bible.  We stuff it back in the closet and slam the door shut. 

But if there was ever a time to heed the advice of George Bernard Shaw who said. “If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance.”  This was it.

So let’s start with the story.  You will find it in Judges Chapter 11.  And it is an interesting story.  Jephthah was the result of a dalliance between his father and a prostitute.  But apparently he was raised by his father because we read in Judges 11:2  Gilead’s wife also had several sons, and when these half brothers grew up, they chased Jephthah off the land. “You will not get any of our father’s inheritance,” they said, “for you are the son of a prostitute.”

It seems there might have a little sibling rivalry there, and Jephthah ends up in a place called Tob where we are told he was soon followed by, and I quote, “a band of worthless rebels”.  And if you are known by the company you keep, and you are, that’s not the best reference. 

But things change, the area that Jephthah was from came under attack from an outside group called the Ammonites and the elders sent for Jephthah to come back and lead their army, kind of a “Who you gonna call?” scenario.  And Jephthah says, “Seriously guys?  Aren’t you the same people that drove me away?  And now you come knocking at my door, what’s up with that?  Why now?”

And I love their response.  Judges 11:8  “Because we need you,” the elders replied.  And then they make him an offer he can’t refuse, “If you lead us in battle against the Ammonites, we will make you ruler over all the people of Gilead.”

And that is the way the story goes, Jephthah first approaches the Ammonite leader to see if they can reach some kind of an accord and when the doesn’t work he leads his people into battle, but before he does he prays this prayer.  Judges 11:30-31  And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD. He said, “If you give me victory over the Ammonites,  I will give to the LORD whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

Man you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know this is going to end badly.  But maybe the fix was in, maybe he had texted home and said “when you see me coming up the driveway send a goat out through the front door.”  Or maybe everyday when he came home his wife’s annoying poodle would come out the front door barking at him.

Regardless of what the plan was, Mister Murphy stepped in with his infamous “What can go wrong will go wrong.”  My father always said that Murphy was an optimist, but that is a story for another time. 

Well, if we keep reading we discover that the Ammonites were indeed defeated and Jephthah returns home victorious.  I’m not even sure if Jephthah was thinking about his vow, or if he was thinking the fix was in and a goat or yapper was going to come out the front door, but it this story had a sound track the music would now be in a minor key.   And we pick up the story in Judges 11:34  When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. She was his one and only child; he had no other sons or daughters.

Oops.  Not the goat and not the poodle, but his daughter.

We continue to read in Judges 11:35  When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish. “Oh, my daughter!” he cried out. “You have completely destroyed me! You’ve brought disaster on me! For I have made a vow to the LORD, and I cannot take it back.”

They say that hindsight is 20/20 so what is it that Jephthah should have known before he made his vow?

You Don’t Have to Make Deals With God  We all do this don’t we?  “Lord, if you heal my child I’ll do whatever you ask.”  “Lord, if you help save my marriage I’ll be the best spouse ever.”  “God if I win the Lottery I’ll give half to the church, or maybe 10%, but I’ll give some.”

The summer before I committed my life to Christ I was still fishing with my Dad and uncle Clint, and my best friend had been sharing his faith with me and I was really struggling with whether or not I wanted t make that commitment.  We were herring seining and my job was to pull the lever.  Most of our fishing was done at night and if you don’t know how a Seiner works, it’s a big fishing boat and on the stern, that’s the back of the boat, there is a big net called the seine.  And on top of that net is a little boat called the tow boat. 

And when you are fishing there are different people, in different places doing different things.  The engineer is in the engine room, the skipper and mate and in the wheel house, where it’s warm and dry.  There are two guys in the tow boat and there is a guy under the what was called the gantry with the lever, that was me. I’m not sure what the rest of the guys were doing. 

And when the skipper and or mate saw fish on the fish finder they would yell into the PA “let her go!”  And the guy under the gantry would pull the lever that would launch the tow boat which was connected to the seine and the seiner would make a big circle setting the seine.  And so that summer I spent many an hour by myself in the dark waiting to pull a lever.  And many of my discussions were with God trying to make deals.  God, if you do this I’ll become a Christian.  God, if you do that I’ll go to bible college.   And I discovered that God wasn’t all that anxious to make deals with me. 

  Instead of trying to bribe God Jephthah would have been further ahead to just commit to figure out God’s will and obey it.  Which is why we are told in the bible, 1 Samuel 15:22  But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.”

If God wanted the Ammonites defeated, and it appeared that he did, and if Jephthah was willing, and it appeared that he was then that in theory should have been all that was needed.

If God didn’t want the Ammonites defeated and Jephthah was working outside of the will of God did he really think that offering a goat or poodle would do the trick?

The most difficult part of the Lord’s prayer is not the part about us “forgiving those who trespass against us.”  The toughest part of the Lord’s prayer is when we tell God “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Because that means that we are acknowledging that God is smarter than us and that we are surrendering to his will, even if we don’t agree with it.

The second thing that Jephthah should have known was There is Never a Good Reason for Doing the Wrong Thing  Jephthah may have had the best of intentions, but as my favourite Auntie used to tell me “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”.  Which according to my cousin my aunt would have heard from my Great Grandmother who used to say it all the time. 

Jephthah may have had the best of intentions, but that wouldn’t have given him licence to break the law of God.  We many justify bad behaviour, our government may justify bad behaviour, but God doesn’t justify bad behaviour.

30 years ago Randy Travis had a song out called “Some of the reasons I cheat.”  And the lyrics said in part,

“A working day to long when everything goes wrong
And a boss who don't know I'm alive

I once had a notion I'd get that promotion, but now I barley survive
A wife to demanding with no understanding
Of why I stay dead on my feet

A dimly lit tavern a willing young woman
Are some of the reasons I cheat
The hair that I'm losing and a women who's choosing
To lay sound asleep by my side
The bills they are mounting that’s when I start counting
On someone to help sooth my pride

A lady that knows me affection she shows me and a smile so easy and sweet
The dreams that I've buried the load that I've carried
Are some of the reasons I cheat”

 Seriously, you cheat because you want to cheat. 

Every once in a while you hear about someone shooting an abortion doctor.  And they try to justify it.   I am pro-life.  I think abortion is wrong.  And if you talk to a person whose parents had considered aborting them, they would mostly likely be glad that their parents chose not to kill them, even if their parents felt they had good reasons.    

But I’m prolife, not just anti abortion, and I think killing abortion providers is wrong as well and I think capital punishment is wrong and I think that someone will have to answer for innocent lives lost in the war on terror because the West was so intent on revenge for 9/11.  Have I managed to offend everyone yet? 

Rob mentioned in his message on the Israelite conquest of Canaan that one of the reasons that God commanded that the Canaanite culture and religion be wiped out was that the Canaanites sacrificed children to their gods Baal and the god Molech. 

The people of Israel are told in Deuteronomy 12:31-32  You must not worship the LORD your God the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods.  “So be careful to obey all the commands I give you. You must not add anything to them or subtract anything from them.”

And again in  Leviticus 18:21  “Do not permit any of your children to be offered as a sacrifice to Molech, for you must not bring shame on the name of your God. I am the LORD.”

And the prophet spoke for God in Jeremiah 32:35  They have built pagan shrines to Baal in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing. What an incredible evil, causing Judah to sin so greatly! 

So the question remains, why would God permit Jephthah to sacrifice his daughter and then include him in the book of Hebrews as someone whose faith should be celebrated? 

Let me tell you a funny story told to me this past week.  A friend of mine was at a Christmas party this year and was talking to a young lady he had never met before, as they were chatting the man playing piano started to play “Silver Bells”. 

When the lady heard this she told my friend, remember they had never met before, “Whenever I hear this song it reminds me of Great Sex!”  My friend was a little taken back and he replied “All the times I’ve heard this song I’ve never thought of Great sex.” The young lady jumped to her feet and said “Grade six, it reminds me of grade six” and she stalked away.

I tell that story for two reasons, the first is it is hilarious, the second is it illustrates that people aren’t always saying what we think they are saying, which leads us to this last point, Jephthah Probably Didn’t Do What You Think He Did

Let’s go back to Jephthah’s vow, we find it in Judges 11:30-31  And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD. He said, “If you give me victory over the Ammonites,  I will give to the LORD whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”  In the other translations a lot hinges on this part of the sentence.  In the NLT there is a period, but in the NIV it reads this way,  Judges 11:30-31  And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: "If you give the Ammonites into my hands,  whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."  And in the Judges 11:30-31  And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,  Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. 

And maybe you still aren’t seeing the distinction.  I’m not a scholar, but many of those who are scholars tell us that the Hebrew word that is often translated “and” is actually more inclusive and can mean “and/or”.  Adam Clarke writes “The translation of which, according to the most accurate Hebrew scholars, is this: I will consecrate it to the Lord, or I will offer it for a burnt-offering; that is, "If it be a thing fit for a burnt-offering, it shall be made one; if fit for the service of God, it shall be consecrated to him.”  Clarke goes on to write “That conditions of this kind must have been implied in the vow, is evident enough; to have been made without them, it must have been the vow of a heathen, or a madman.”

Which of course leads us back to what Saul was told in  1 Samuel 15:22  But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.” 

And so most scholar believe that while Jephthah did give his daughter to God that day, it was not as a burnt offering, instead she would serve in the tabernacle, she became the equivalent of today’s nuns.  And now Judges 11:39  makes a little more sense When she returned home, her father kept the vow he had made, and she died a virgin.   

In my 35 years in the ministry I have met too many people who have had to bury a child, and that is not the way it’s supposed to be, children are supposed to buy parents, parents aren’t supposed to bury children.  But it happens.  And I’ve heard people tell me about when their child died, they have told me their age, or the circumstances of their death.  He was a child, she was a teenager, had just gotten married.  Knew one family whose daughter was killed in a car accident while she was pregnant with her first child.  And so they told me they lost a daughter and a granddaughter that day.  But no one has described their child based on their lack of sexual experience. 

Let’s go back into the story again, Jephthah has returned home and out comes his daughter, he breaks down and confess his vow to her, to which she replies in Judges 11:36  And she said, “Father, if you have made a vow to the LORD, you must do to me what you have vowed, for the LORD has given you a great victory over your enemies, the Ammonites.”  But she asks that she can do one thing before he fulfils his vow.  Judges 11:37  But first let me do this one thing: Let me go up and roam in the hills and weep with my friends for two months, because I will die a virgin.”   Interesting, if her main concern was dying a virgin I can think of at least one way that could have been solved.   

In Wesley’s commentary he read, “We read, that she bewailed not her death, which would have been the chief cause of lamentation, if that had been vowed, but her virginity:”

If we continue to read in Judges 11:38 “You may go,” Jephthah said. And he sent her away for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never have children.”

The sacrifice that was made was that Jephthah in effect gave up his family.  There would be no children for his only child and no grandchildren to carry on the family line.  And for the record he wouldn’t have been able to sacrifice his wife’s poodle, because dogs were considered unclean and unworthy as a sacrifice. 

So, not nearly as creepy as we first thought but still tragic.  And what do we learn?  I think the first thing is we need to be very careful about what we promise God.  It’s not something we should casually do; you aren’t promising a child they can have dessert if they eat their carrots,  you are making a vow to God the creator of the Universe.

And if you make that vow you need to make sure you do your best to fulfill it.  Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 5:4-5  When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him.  It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it.  And we read in Deuteronomy 23:21  “When you make a vow to the LORD your God, be prompt in fulfilling whatever you promised him. For the LORD your God demands that you promptly fulfill all your vows, or you will be guilty of sin.

Jephthah was honoured in Hebrews not for his military prowess, and not because of the vow he made, he was honoured for keeping the vow, even when it cost him his future family. 

Have you made promises to God?  Have you ever prayed “God if you do this I’ll do that.”?

 Have you kept your promise?  Maybe that something that needs your attention, either in keeping the vow or asking for forgiveness for breaking your vow.

We All Need Grace

And here we are at the end of Moments of Grace. Over the past seven weeks we have seen how Grace has been experienced and expressed throughout the Bible and we’ve looked at Grace displayed in an unlikely person, in an unlikely place, at an unlikely time and two weeks ago we saw how Jesus displayed grace at the table when he invited his 12 closest friends to celebrate with him at the last supper even knowing that those who were there would betray him, deny him and doubt him. 

And then we looked at Grace in an Awkward Situation, when even after Peter had denied him three times Jesus didn’t give him what he deserved, he didn’t deny Peter, instead he embraced him and forgave him. 

And last week we watched as the thief on the cross stepped over the line of salvation with his dying breath.   And all he had to do was the same thing each one of us has to do, accept the gift of grace, a gift that was summed up in 2 Corinthians 5:21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.  And that is the Scandal of Grace

And through all of Paul’s preaching on Grace he seems to anticipate the response from some folks in the church because he asks the question in Romans 6:1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?

This seemed to be an ongoing discussion in the church at Rome because Paul had addressed it earlier in Romans 3:7-8 “But,” someone might still argue, “how can God condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty highlights his truthfulness and brings him more glory?” And some people even slander us by claiming that we say, “The more we sin, the better it is!” Those who say such things deserve to be condemned.

It is a twisted logic that leads us to the rationale that our sinful behaviour actually becomes a public service by introducing more of God’s grace into the world.  And so Paul asks the question: Romans 6:1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?  And then he answers it in the very next verse by stating Romans 6:2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

This type of argument and debate was common in the era that Paul was writing and was referred in Latin as: Reductio ad Absurdum  And the definition of that term is: The process of refuting an argument on the grounds that absurd – and patently untenable consequences would ensue from accepting the item at issue. In other words reducing it to the absurd. 

For example, sometimes someone will say something that just doesn’t make sense or is unlikely to happen.  “If I won the lottery, all my money problems would be over.”  And I will respond one of two ways, both of which fall into the class of Reductio ad Absurdum.  So I will either say “And if wishes were horses beggars would ride.” Or I will respond “And if my grandmother had wheels she’d be a wagon.”

So taking it to the extreme, if we do continue to sin it is an opportunity for God to demonstrate his grace over and over again, however we are told that God hates sin and the ultimate consequence of sin is spiritual death and so while it provides the opportunity for grace it ultimately leads to our destruction. 

But what is this grace of which Paul speaks and which others would use as a licence to continue in their sinful behaviour?   Well we have defined it before as God’s unmerited love.  That is love that we don’t deserve and that we can’t earn.  It is spelled out in Ephesians 2:8-9 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

  

You’ve heard me define it time and time again by saying Justice is getting what we deserve, Mercy is getting less than we deserve and Grace is getting something that we don’t deserve.

For example, if a certain cleric was stopped by the local constabulary for speeding, remember this is just an example, justice would be getting a speeding ticket for doing 73 in a 50.  However if the office said that instead of issuing him a speeding ticket he would simply issue him a ticket for failing to obey a traffic sign which would mean the fine would be over a hundred dollars less and there would be no loss of points and the imaginary cleric would not lose his licence for a week, that would be mercy. 

However if the officer had of said, “Hey don’t worry about it and I’m on my way to Tim Horton’s, follow me and I’ll buy you a coffee.”  That would have been Grace.   In the story the fictional cleric would have been shown mercy.

For those who like numbers in the New Living Translation the word Grace is used 88 times in bible, only 5 times in the Old Testament and 83 times in the New Testament.  Of the 83 times the word grace is used in the New Testament 13 of those instances are in the book of Romans.  And the word Grace is not used in any of the four Gospels.   

It is easy to define grace but that doesn’t always bring us any closer to understanding it. So let’s look at Grace in action.

His Name was Joseph and he began his life with a silver spoon in his mouth.  His father was Jacob, Abraham’s Grandson, who had become a wealthy land owner and farmer and Joseph was his favourite son.  From the time he was just a child it was evident that he was favoured, and perhaps a little bit spoiled, or actually perhaps a lot bit spoiled, actually there was no perhaps about it, he was daddy’s favourite and Daddy wasn’t afraid to show him or his other children how he felt about Joseph. 

I don’t know what the final straw was, maybe it was the beautiful coat that his father bought him, or maybe it was when he had the dreams about his brothers bowing down to him and worshipping him.  Maybe it was when the rest of his brothers had to tend the sheep out in the field and Joseph stayed at home.  Or maybe it was just that opportunity presented itself.  Joseph had gone out to the fields to check up on his brothers for his father, and the brothers saw their opportunity.  They threw Joseph into a dried up well and then to add insult to injury they sold him into slavery.

From favourite son to slave and the story doesn’t end there.  Joseph was taken to Egypt and was sold to a man named Potiphar.  If we follow the story along we discover that Joseph was able to gain the trust of his master and eventually became manager of everything that Potiphar owned, but when he refused to give in to the advances of his master’s wife she framed him for rape and he ended up in prison.

From favourite son to slave, from trusted servant to prisoner, you really know the path to downward mobility don’t you Joseph?  And to be fair, Joseph’s problems began because he wasn’t very gracious.  Well it’s pretty obvious that if anyone needed God’s grace it would be Joseph.  But he’s not alone.  Some Need God’s Grace Because of Their Attitudes you know, the way we speak to people and treat people.

If Joseph started from the top and worked his way down Moses started from the bottom and worked his way up.  The people of Israel had become slaves to the people of Egypt and when the pharaoh began to feel threatened by the growing number of Israelites in his country the Bible says he decided to make their slavery even more bitter, kind of the old “I’ll give you something to cry about”.  When the harsh working conditions didn’t break their spirits he issued an order to the midwives to kill the baby boys of Israel as soon as they were born.  When the midwives refused the Pharaoh ordered all the newborn boys to be thrown into the Nile River.  And it was into this climate that Moses was born.

His mother hid him for three months and when it became apparent that she could hide him no more he was put into a floating basket and placed in the reeds at the edge of the Nile in hopes that someone would find him and take pity on him.

And don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?  Because that’s exactly what happened and the story gets better because he wasn’t found by just anyone he was found by the daughter of the Pharaoh.  Who promptly feel in love with this beautiful little baby boy. And the story gets better and better, Moses was adopted into the royal household and enjoyed all the perks and privileges of growing up the adopted son of the most powerful man in the country.

What an opportunity to help his people, to make a difference in his world, to impact society.  There was so much that he could do, but did he?  No.  As a matter of fact we find no indication that Moses even acknowledged his roots until he was forty years old and on that one occasion he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite and he killed the Egyptian and buried his body in the sand.  Nasty temper Moses, obviously you never read anything by James Barrie because he said “Temper is a weapon that we hold by the blade.”

Moses, what were you thinking, you had the power the prestige and the position to make a difference in your world and you blew it.  Obviously you weren’t thinking were you? You ever feel like Moses?  You had it all and then you blew it, and all because you couldn’t control your temper.  Some Need God’s Grace Because of Their Temper, we say and do things in the heat of the moment and hurt those around us.

Some called him King, others said he was a man after God’s own heart, she called him honey. David was Israel’s greatest King.  He had taken the Jews from being nothing more than a collection of Nomadic tribes to being one of the most powerful nations in the known world.  It was under David’s leadership and direction that Israel reached the high point of her history.  Economically, politically and spiritual Israel was at its peak. And David was riding high on the crest of popular opinion.

Now I don’t know if David got bored or if he was going through a midlife crisis thing or what happened but one day when his troops had all gone off to war, David stayed home.  And you know what they say, “Idle hands are the devil’s hands.”  Well David should have kept busy doing what he was supposed to be doing.

The bible tells us that one afternoon that David has just gotten up from taking a nap, a nap, must be nice to be king.  And as he’s strolling along the roof top of the palace he notices that one of his neighbours is taking a bath in the buff in the backyard. Well this lady was not hard to look at all and David sent someone to find out who she was.  The answer came back that she was Bathsheba and that she was the wife of one of David’s soldiers, a man named Uriah.  

David didn’t waste any time, he had Bathsheba brought to his home, I don’t know what he was thinking, perhaps he didn’t know what he was thinking, perhaps he wasn’t thinking.  Maybe it was all innocent and he wanted to compliment her on her beauty, or maybe warn her that when she bathed in the buff in the backyard that it wasn’t nearly as private as she thought it was.  Or maybe he knew all along where this would lead.  It was Scottish Writer Margaret Oliphant who so wisely pointed out “Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought.” 

Well it may have started out innocent but it didn’t end innocent, I think David must have been a fan of Robert A. Heinlein who wrote “Always yield to temptation, you never know when it will pass your way again.” The bible says they slept together and if that is all they did there wouldn’t have been a problem, but the next time David sees Bathsheba she had some news for him, she said something like “Hi Daddy.”  David, David, David.  What have you done?  Well we know what he did, but why did he do it.

Well David begins to think, and scheme after all he didn’t get to be King for nothing.  And he sends for Uriah thinking that Bathsheba could seduce her husband, although he had been away from home for a while so there probably wouldn’t need to be a lot of seduction, and Uriah would think the child was his, he must not have been real good with math.

But that isn’t the way it happened.  Uriah refused to go home; he said his fellow soldiers were out defending the country it wouldn’t be right for him to be spending the night with his wife.  Oh drat, it’s on to plan “B” then so David invited Uriah to dinner, proceeded to get him drunk and then sent him home, but still Uriah refused.  Well if you can’t blame hubby then get rid of hubby, and that’s what David did, he had Uriah’s commander send him deep into enemy territory and Uriah was killed.

So let’s see, David, you slept with another man’s wife, and then you had her husband murdered.  Hope she was worth it.  David you were thinking with your hormones and not your head.  And if you were to get what you deserved under the law of your kingdom and your God you would be killed, you are in serious need of God’s grace. 

 Some Need God’s Grace Because of Their Actions.  How many of us have done what we knew we shouldn’t be doing?  Because we going to enjoy it for the here and now regardless of how it might affect our future or the future of those we love.

It was a great gig, and if he played his cards right someday he would take the place of his boss.  But then it was over.

His name was John Mark and the first part of his career is summed up in eight verses in the book of Acts.  The story begins in Acts 13:5  There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogues and preached the word of God. John Mark went with them as their assistant.   And pretty much finishes in Acts 13:13  Paul and his companions then left Paphos by ship for Pamphylia, landing at the port town of Perga. There John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem.

John Mark just quit and walked away, and we don’t know why, although there has been all kinds of speculation through the years.  What we do know is that it caused a huge rift not only in the relationship between John Mark and Paul but eventually between Paul and Barnabas. 

If we pick up the story in Acts 15:36-40  After some time Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord, to see how the new believers are doing.”  Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark.  But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work.  Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus.  Paul chose Silas, and as he left, the believers entrusted him to the Lord’s gracious care.

Wow.  I wonder how John Mark felt? He was young and he blew it, and now it was coming back to bite him.  He was rejected by his mentor and basically declared untrustworthy and unreliable.

Some Need God’s Grace Because of Their Quitting.  One day they are on board and the next day and they quite and just walk away.  

Have you ever felt like you had blown it in your Christian walk?  Have there been times that your behaviour has been less then admirable?  Perhaps like Joseph you just can’t seem to get it right, and you know that God must be angry at you or you wouldn’t have such rotten luck.  But the story hasn’t been finished yet.  Joseph eventually became the second most powerful man in Egypt and because of his position he was able to save his entire family during a famine that affected entire Eastern Mediterranean.  He summed up his life in a conversation that he had with his brothers in Genesis 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

Maybe like Moses you have a temper that needs to be brought under control, and let there be no doubt about it, if you have a problem with your temper it will need to be brought under control.  But Moses story didn’t end with him on the lamb, instead God brought him back to Egypt to deliver the people of Israel from slavery to freedom.  That was where the original Passover celebration came from.    When the writer of the book of Hebrews was listing all the heroes of faith in the bible he gives Moses five verses, more space than anyone else on the list.  This is only part of it Hebrews 11:27 It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.

Have you struggled with moral failure like David?  Figure that you’ve blown it and there is no hope for you?  Don’t know if you can fall much further than David fell, and yet in Psalm 51 we read David’s prayer of repentance Psalm 51:1-2 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.

And?  Well in 2 Samuel 12:13 David is talking to Nathan the Preacher who confronted him with his sin, and this is a part of that conversation:  2 Samuel 12:13 Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “Yes, but the LORD has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin.

The story wasn’t over.  In the New Testament Jesus is referred to as the Son of David on at least 15 occasions.

Do you ever feel like Mark?  But that wasn’t the end of John Mark’s story.  God hadn’t given up on him and neither had Paul apparently.   Eventually his name would be shortened to just plain old Mark and we read in Paul’s second letter to Timothy 2 Timothy 4:11  Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you when you come, for he will be helpful to me in my ministry.   And then Paul writes in Colossians 4:10  Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, sends you his greetings, and so does Mark, Barnabas’s cousin. As you were instructed before, make Mark welcome if he comes your way.

Grace has such a wonderful way of giving second chances.  Do you ever feel like Mark?  In your life, or your behaviour or your words have you quit when you know you should have gone on?  And you can’t believe that you will be trusted with anything ever again. 

And then you are given a brand new future and yes, this is the same Mark who wrote the second gospel words  that have been read by billions of people over thousands of years. 

And maybe you have nothing in common with Joseph, Moses, David or Mark but here is the reality:  We All Need God’s Grace Because We Are People

Each of us is far from God, and according to his word justice for us would be to be separated for eternity from God and goodness, and light and love, and compassion.  In our tradition that is called hell.  Mercy for us would be annihilation, to simply cease to exist at death.  But instead God offers Grace, the thing we don’t deserve, eternal life in his presence. 

Why did Jesus come?  It was the tax collector Matthew who recalled a prophecy from the Old Testament that speaks of the coming messiah, the one we call Jesus Matthew 12:20-21 He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. And his name will be the hope of all the world.”

It was that great American Philosopher Yogi Berra who said “The game isn't over until it's over.”  If you feel like you’ve failed in your Christian walk Jesus isn’t going to crush you or put out your flame, even if that is what you deserve, he is there to pick you up.  

Which is why Bob Goff, Author of “Love Does” wrote this great definition of Grace  “Grace is a painting God's still completing over our torn canvases.”

Listen to the promise of the Bible, this is for you this morning, I don’t know where you are on your spiritual journey but this promise is for you. 

Ephesians 2:8-9 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.