The Fellowship of His Sufferings

"The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His." 

George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, First Series. Quoted by C.S. Lewis in, The Problem of Pain.

Philippians 3:10; Colossians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 1:3 - 11; 1 Peter 2:21 - 24; 4:1 - 2; 4:12 - 14.

How is Jesus Christ calling us to enter into and experience His sufferings? How is He calling our churches to enter into His sufferings?

Reflections on Nahum

Below is my handout on Nahum for my small group for next week. There may be something here for you to ponder. I think maybe Nahum could use a bit more "press" - there is a lot there.

Good morning brothers,

I’ve chosen to cover the three chapters of Nahum in one morning because they are a comprehensive description of the judgment of God on Nineveh and paint a unified picture. There are numerous Biblical and historical illusions and references in these three chapters, which is to say that we could easily spend more time in Nahum, as we could in all the Minor Prophets, but since we’re doing an “overview” in these prophets we’ll just spend one morning in Nahum.

Nineveh was destroyed in August 612 B.C. by an alliance of Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians after a two-month siege. The first record we have of Nineveh occurs around 2100 B.C.; it became capital of the Assyrian Empire around 722 B.C. By the time of Nahum, Nineveh was a large city with massive fortifications, including a wall 40 – 50 feet high for its inner defenses (I’m not going to get into the weeds about how large it was or how many people because there are different ways to determine that since the city had suburbs).

When reading Nahum’s prophecy of the utter destruction of Nineveh, keep in mind that up until the 19^th century there was no evidence of Nineveh, and some people considered it mythical. Nineveh is in proximity to the city of Mosul. My understanding is that archaeologists have to dig around 40 feet deep to get to the first layer of the Nineveh, and there is more than one layer because the city is so ancient. One of the neat things archaeologists found is they royal library with 22,000 inscribed clay tablets containing history and religious tradition, it’s been a great help in understanding the ancient world.

Here is a glimpse of the brutality of Nineveh, it’s a selection from the annals of Ashurnasirpal II, in the 9^th century B.C. (this is from Robertson’s commentary):

“I built a pillar over against his city-gate, and I flayed all the chief men who had revolted, and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up within the pillar, and some upon the pillar on stakes I impaled, and others I fixed to sakes around the pillar; many within the border of my own land I flayed, and I spread their skins upon the walls; and I cut off the  limbs of the high officers, of the high-royal officers who had rebelled. “

The quotation goes on in a similar fashion, I’ll spare you more. Nice guy, don’t you think?

1:3 Compare Jonah 4:2, Exodus 34:6. God is longsuffering, but a time of judgment comes sooner or later – 2 Peter 3:8 – 9.

1:7 Compare Isaiah 26:20. God promises to be with His people in the midst of His judgment on the nations. I particularly find comfort in Isaiah 26:20 (in context of course) and similar passages. God is our refuge no matter what. This, of course, doesn’t mean that we are spared either suffering or persecution, for we are called to suffer; but it does mean that whatever does happen that our Lord Jesus is with us and He is our shelter, our refuge, our rock.

1:13 Compare Isaiah 10:5 – 34 (see how Isaiah 10:27 compares with Nahum 1:13). Nineveh and Assyria are a major thread in the Bible; the city of Nineveh and the Empire of Assyria represent those powers opposed to the Kingdom of God and the People of God, we find them in every generation. God promises deliverance to His people from our oppressors, in whatever form oppression may take – political, military, religious, economic, sin, false teachers, etc. How this all works out is another matter, and for me pretty much a mystery, at least in terms of our temporal life on earth.

1:15 Compare with Isaiah 40:9; 52:6 – 7; Romans 10:15. In the midst of all the mess of life we have Good News.

Nahum 2:6 – here’s a comment from a commentator (O. Palmer Robertson):

“More likely the gates of the rivers refer to the sluices which first would have been closed by the invaders and then opened so as to flood the wall of the city, breaking it through. This interpretation corresponds essentially with the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, an ancient Greek historian who indicates that in the fall of Nineveh a series of heavy rains swelled the Euphrates (an error for the Tigris), flooded parts of the city, and overthrew the wall for a length of about two miles (twenty stadia).”

In conclusion, Revelation chapters 17 and 18 give us a picture of political, economic, and religious opposition to God and His Kingdom; while in Revelation it is styled as “Babylon” (which we’ve seen in our study of the Minor Prophets), we see the same characteristics in the Bible in Assyria, Nineveh, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt – all of these Biblical threads present the same picture of cultural, economic, military, governmental, and religious opposition to the Kingdom of God and God’s People. In Revelation these threads reach a crescendo.

What begins in Genesis 10:8 – 12 and Genesis 11:1 – 9 reaches its conclusion in Revelation – we are first and foremost engaged in spiritual warfare and we are assured that the Kingdom of our Father will prevail (Daniel Chapter 2) – we are overcomers, we are called to prevail and be a source of light and life to others – we are not called to run away (Isaiah 60, Romans 8).

A closing observation: If we knew the Biblical patterns, such as Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, etc. (patterns found throughout Revelation) and the patterns of God’s deliverance in Christ (patterns found throughout Revelation) we would spend a lot less time chasing our tails on Fox News, CNN, talk radio, and whatever else you’d care to throw in there and be focused on Jesus Christ and His Kingdom – because the forces of this age are opposed to the Kingdom of God…whether those forces are “red” or “blue” or “purple” – or whatever other color you want to throw in. Note that Babylon is described as a “whore” in Revelation, whether an economic whore or a governmental whore or a religious whore – the Great Whore wants to seduce us away from a monogamous relationship with Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 11:1 – 3) – there should be nothing in our lives in competition with Jesus Christ (remember that in Hosea we were Gomer the whore!).

Our Father says, “This is my beloved Son, hear him!” (Matthew 17:5) And we reply, “Yeah but…”

Against All the gods of Egypt

“For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments – I am Yahweh.” Exodus 12:12

“Yahweh had also executed judgments on their gods.” Numbers 33:4b.

The judgment of Yahweh is not only upon the firstborn of Egypt, it is also upon all the gods of Egypt.

Paul, in writing to the Colossians of the Christ of the Cross, writes that, “When He had disarmed the rules and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” (Colossians 2:15).

In speaking of His impending death, Jesus says, “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” (John 12:31).

While we can only see so far, and then through a mist, Christ has not only judged all the gods of Egypt, He has judged all the gods of this world. Jesus Christ has been seated “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21) and all things are “in subjection under His feet” (Ephesians 1:22).

What gods is the world worshipping? God has judged them. What gods do you fear? God has judged them. What gods are you tempted to worship? God has judged them.

God has not only judged all the gods of this world, He has placed them all under Jesus Christ; all things are subjected to the Son of God. Jesus says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore…” (Matthew 28:18 – 19).

Now if we are the Body of Christ, and all things have been made in subjection under His feet, then in Christ we share in this position, for the feet are not only part of Christ’s Body, they are especially that part of His Body in touch with the earth, for we walk upon the earth with our feet.

With the blood of the Lamb on our doorposts and lintels, we not only have safety and refuge in Christ, we not only are spared the wrath and judgment of God as we are in Christ, but we are not judged along with all the gods of Egypt and of this world. Not only that, these broken principalities and powers have been placed under the feet of the Body of Christ, the Body to which we belong as many members.

This does not mean that there is no struggle, for we are engaged in spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10ff), but we engage in this warfare knowing that the gods of this world have been judged and that “greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world” (1John 4:4).

Are we living in the knowledge that Jesus Christ has disarmed the powers in rebellion against Himself? Are we going into all the world knowing that all authority has been given to Jesus Christ? Are we going to work in this knowledge? Going to school? Engaging in community and family and church life?

In Christ, we need not fear the gods of this world. In Christ, knowing that He has all authority, we can confidently seek to rescue others who are slaves to gods who are not gods.

Are you ready to go, in Christ, to rescue some slaves this week?

A Wise Son, A Shameful Son

“He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.” Proverbs 10:5

“Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.” John 4:35b.

When Jesus saw the woman at the well in John 4, he saw his Father’s harvest fields. When Jesus remained in the city at the request of its citizens, he remained to work in his Father’s harvest fields.

There is the son who gathers, and then there is the son who sleeps. The son who gathers is in the fields looking for ripe produce, his eye is on the fields, he is attentive to his surroundings. This son’s mind and heart and soul are alive to the people around him; they matter to him because they matter to the Father.

The son who sleeps cares not for those around him; they are there simply to serve, to function, to perform. They might as well be machines. This son has a mind, a heart, a soul – asleep, insensitive to the need, the pain, the death, the lostness around him.

Can we hear the cry around us? “Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved” (Jeremiah 8:20).

Shall this be the cry in the harvest field in which the Father has placed us?

The Beginning of Months

“This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves…” Exodus 12:2-3a.

There is the Passover, with its emphasis on the individual and families, and then there is the Day of Atonement, with its emphasis on the nation. We have the individual and we have the collective. I can deny neither my individual sin nor the collective sin that I partake of – I ought to confess both, I ought to repent of both.

We ought to have a “beginning of months” – there ought to be a time, or a season, when we can say, “I ate the Lamb and the judgment of God passed over me.” Some of us are blessed to be able to never remember a time when we were not eating the Lamb, but for many of us, perhaps for most of us, there is a time or a season that we can look back to and say, “Ah, that was the beginning of months in my life, that was the first month of the first year of my new life in Jesus Christ.”

Those who can look to such a time ought to rejoice with those who were truly raised eating the Lamb and have never known anything different; and those who were raised eating the Lamb ought to rejoice with those who have come to the Table later in life. Both ought to know and confess that the judgment of God passes over them because of the Lamb, and only because of the Lamb.

Is the blood of the Lamb on the doorpost and lintel of my house (Exodus 12:7)? Is it on my heart and mind and soul and spirit? Is it on the temple of my body? Is it on me? Does it testify that I belong to Jesus Christ, that I was once a sinner under the judgment of God – but that God saw the blood of the Lamb and passed over me?

When was your beginning of months? When was the last time you shared your story with someone?

“For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” (1 Cor. 5:7b).