Jesus' Challenging Teaching About Vengeance

Introduction
I have a difficult and challenging words to share from Jesus today.  We’ve been working our way through Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus preached how He came to completely fulfill God’s perfect Law.  Then Jesus used specific examples from the Old Testament Law to show how perfect God’s standards are and how completely unable we are to fulfill God’s Law as sinful human beings.  When we are proud because we have never murdered, Jesus said if you’ve ever been angry or insulted someone, you’ve broken God’s Law by murdering in your heart.  If we’re proud because we’ve never committed adultery, Jesus says you’ve committed adultery in your heart and broken God’s Law if you’ve even lusted after someone.  And Jesus points out that if you’ve ever lied, stretched the truth, or misled someone in even the slightest way, you’ve broken God’s Law.  That’s why Jesus came—to fulfill the Law when we could not. 

Jesus gave up His divine rights as God, came down to earth and humbled Himself as if He were a slave, was completely obedient to God, and died for us on a cross as if He were a criminal even though He was completely innocent.  Thus, Jesus paid our penalty, making it possible for us to be reconciled to God.  (See Philippians 2:1-11)

It’s important to keep all this context in mind (as well as the historical situation of the Jews when Jesus preached) as we listen to Jesus preach in this next section from His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38-42.

Matthew 5:38
³⁸ “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’

Here, Jesus reminds His listeners of the Old Testament Law that is spelled out in Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21.  The laws says, “The punishment must match the injury: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.”  Today, many think this is an argument for harsher penalties for criminals.  But the original intent was to restrain people from overzealous vengeance.

In the brutal tribal ways of the ancient world, if you gouged out a person’s eye, they very likely would respond by gathering up a war party and murdering you and your whole family.  Unrestrained human vengeance can be a terrible and ugly thing.  When someone hurts and insults us, we don’t just want the wrong to be made right; we want to make the offender pay!

So God gave the ancient Israelites a Law to restrain their vengeance.  He said, the punishment must match the crime.  If they gouge out your eye, you can only gouge out there’s.  If they take a life, you can take their life (but not their whole family’s). 

But there’s another principle at work in the Old Testament Law.  An individual can’t be a vigilante.  They can’t exact retribution on their own.  They must take the offender to the authorities and prove their case.  Then the officials will judge if the offender is guilty and make a judgment about the appropriate punishment.  This is always important.  You need a judge, who is unbiased, to hear the case and determine a punishment that matches the crime.

The problem for the Jews living in Jesus’ day was they were living under the occupation of the Romans.  And the Romans were quite often guilty of abusing and committing atrocities against the Jews in Israel.  Many in Israel felt they were justified to murder Romans.  “After all,” their thinking went, “these Romans are nothing more than human animals.  And we should treat them as animals.”  Many Israelites thought they could feel justified murdering Romans in cold blood, because their religious law said, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life…”  However, this was a corruption of the spirit of God's Law.  Where does it all end?  Human vengeance only begets more vengeance and never leads to peace or justice or reconciliation.  So Jesus speaks Truth:

Matthew 5:39-42
³⁹ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. ⁴⁰ If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. ⁴¹ If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. ⁴² Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.

Jesus names 3 offences: a slap on the cheek, losing your shirt in court, and carrying a soldier’s gear for a mile.  You should also notice that every one of these is something personal.  That’s important.  What follows is about our own personal rights and selfish pride.  It’s not about laws or policies for the government or society as a whole.  This is about personal behavior.  So often we point religion at others.  But Jesus points it toward our personal attitudes and behavior.  Let’s look at each one of the situations Jesus mentions.

Turn the Other Cheek
The first is Jesus’ famous teaching to “turn the other cheek,” which has raised a lot of eyebrows over the years.  Some even misunderstand and think Jesus rejects fighting back for any reason.  That’s not what Jesus said.  First of all, Jesus’ original listeners knew turning the other cheek was about trading insults, not self-defense.  One of the worst insults a Jew could give in the 1^st century was a backhanded slap.  Notice, Jesus said, “If someone slaps you on the right cheek.”  In order for a right handed person to slap someone on the right cheek (and 90% of the population is right handed), you would have to give a backhanded slap.

A back handed slap was very insulting to 1st century Jews (it still is throughout the Middle East today).  A Jew in the 1st century could sue someone for slapping them.  The suit wasn't about the violence, but the insult (similar to a libel case today where one person sues another for defamation of character).  The financial penalty for a backhanded slap was twice as expensive for a regular slap.

So with this in mind, realize Jesus is talking about a threat to a person's life or limb here.  Jesus is addressing insults.  

What do you do when insulted?  Well, it may depend.  You may react differently if you are insulted by an immature kid or by an adult colleague.  If you have a big ego and the insult hurts your pride, you may feel like you need to defend yourself or take the other person down a notch.  If you’re insecure, you may feel the need to fight back; I mean you’re already feeling inadequate.  You can’t just stand by and let someone take you down even further.

But what if you have no ego?  What if you really don’t care what people say about you, because you don’t care about their lies?  What if you already know God loves you and you are secure in yourself and you only care about what God thinks, not what people think?

Jesus, the Son of God, had way more reason than anyone to have a big ego and demand people respect Him.  I mean, He is literally God’s gift to the world! However, Jesus left the glory of Heaven and His divine privileges, and humbled Himself to come down to our broken world.  He bore physical and verbal abuse, knowing these did not change who He really was.  He turned the other cheek and bore people’s insults and He calls His followers to take up their cross and follow His example. 

The Shirt Off My Back
The second offence Jesus mentions is losing your shirt in court.  Think of it.  You are so poor all you have for someone to take from you in court is the shirt off your back.  And the person suing is so mean they would even take your clothes.  And Jesus says, “Give it to them and give them your coat too!”  Have you ever felt like even the government, the legal system, and courts are so corrupt and they are abusing you?  The Jews in Jesus day certainly did. The Roman occupiers were corrupt and their own government leaders and court system were corrupt.  But Jesus says, “That’s still not an excuse to take matters into your own hands and seek personal vengeance.”

Go the Extra Mile
Lastly, Jesus points out a real-life situation Jews faced regularly.  There was a law in Jesus’ day that required any Jew over the age of 12 to carry a Roman soldier’s gear for up to a mile if asked.  Jesus is obviously pointing to this despised Roman law with His statement in verse 41, “If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles.”  Here is where we get the common modern encouragement to “go the extra mile” meaning go above and beyond what’s required of you.  But would you really be excited about going above and beyond in fulfilling a mean-spirited law made to benefit your enemy while shaming you?

Jesus’ way of living is radical.  He tells His followers not to seek vengeance and even to set aside their personal rights for the sake of God’s Kingdom, trusting God to be the judge and take care of them.  And Jesus goes even further.  Jesus doesn’t want His followers to resent these sacrifices.  No, Jesus wants His people to go above and beyond in their willingness to set aside their ego and pride and their personal rights.  Put it all in God's hands as the ultimate judge.  Vengeance is the Lords, not yours.

Conclusion
If you feel overwhelmed or like this way of living is impossible, you’re not wrong.  That’s part of the point.  As with His previous arguments, Jesus is showing that we really aren’t capable of living up to God’s glorious standards.  When we think we are good enough, the Law shows we all fall short.  We need a Savior—not only to save us from our sin, but also to enable us to live the way Jesus challenges us to live. 

It is a difficult path to follow, but the Lord gives His Disciples the Holy Spirit to help us.  Let us obey Christ and seek to go the extra mile in this endeavor.

Don't Fall Away

Introduction
Do you ever stop to review all God has done for you?  I have lived long enough now that it is quite easy to forget all the wonderful things Jesus has done for me.  It's not that I'm not grateful.  It's that there is just so much my brain is not big enough to consciously contain it all--unless I intentionally sit down and try to recall it.  As I do, I think of how Jesus saved me from a broken, abusive home and from poverty.  I remember how Jesus led me to the woman who would become my wife.  I recall how Jesus inspired me and my wife to get a college education, even though it was very difficult and we didn't have a lot of financial support from our families.  Then, Jesus called me to leave a promising career in engineering to enter the ministry, which was another great unknown and tremendously difficult.  Furthermore, Jesus somehow gave us the wisdom and energy to raise 3 brilliant kids, despite moving around from place to place and living on very little income.  I could go on and on about God's blessings to me and my family.  

How about you? What has God done for you? Some of you have survived strokes, heart attacks, and other devastating injuries.  I know someone who conquered cancer and gone on to be very active in my church.  Others have overcome, with God's help, substance abuse or other terribly difficult problems.  Some of survived losing a child or a spouse or someone else you love deeply, picked yourself back up after a divorce, or coped with mental illness.  We’ve all made it through COVID (so far); do you remember when the world shut down?  Here we are.  We are still alive and living, with God's help!  Let us give thanks for God is good!

This is the last blog in our series about conquering your fears. Through faith in Christ we can overcome our fears because God fights for us and we are not alone.  God is with us and the heroes of the Bible and even our loved ones who’ve died and gone to heaven cheer us on when we have faith in Christ.

We’ve been studying how the Israelites had to conquer their fears in order to enter the Promised Land.  The Israelites started out as slaves in Egypt.  God sent 10 plagues to force the Egyptians to let the Israelites go free.  Unfortunately, the Israelites were too afraid to enter the Pormised Land, so they were stuck wandering in the wilderness for forty years until Moses and all the original generation died (except for Joshua and Caleb).  Then Joshua became the new leader who led a new generation to conquer Jericho and the rest of Canaan.  

Now, as we come to our story for today, Joshua is an old man.  God has done all the major fighting for Israel.  Most of the unbelievers have been driven out of Canaan.  A few remain as a test of Israel’s faithfulness—to see if they will complete the work of driving out all the worshipers of false gods (or if they will be unfaithful to Yahweh, the God of Israel).  And now, Joshua is coming to the end of his life and he has some parting advice for his people. 

Joshua 23:6-13
⁶ “So be very careful to follow everything Moses wrote in the Book of Instruction. Do not deviate from it, turning either to the right or to the left. ⁷ Make sure you do not associate with the other people still remaining in the land. Do not even mention the names of their gods, much less swear by them or serve them or worship them. ⁸ Rather, cling tightly to the Lord your God as you have done until now.

⁹ “For the Lord has driven out great and powerful nations for you, and no one has yet been able to defeat you. ¹⁰ Each one of you will put to flight a thousand of the enemy, for the Lord your God fights for you, just as he has promised. ¹¹ So be very careful to love the Lord your God.

12 “But if you turn away from him and cling to the customs of the survivors of these nations remaining among you, and if you intermarry with them, ¹³ then know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive them out of your land. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap to you, a whip for your backs and thorny brambles in your eyes, and you will vanish from this good land the Lord your God has given you.

Joshua’s 4 Pieces of Advice
Joshua gives the Israelites four pieces of advice:  1.     Be Obedient.  2.     Be Faithful.  3.     Continue the Mission.  And 4.     Love the Lord your God.

 

Be Obedient

God wanted the Israelites to be obedient.  It’s important to point out that God’s grace came before His call to obedience.  In Exodus 1, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt.  Then God does amazing, miraculous things to deliver the Israelites:

He sent ten plagues on the Egyptians to force them to let the Israelites go.  Then God parting the Red Sea so Israel could cross the sea safely on dry ground.  Next God fed the Hebrews in the wilderness with mana from heaven and quail for meat and water in the desert.  

Now notice, all this happens before God gives Israel the Law.  Exodus chapters 1-19 is all about what God does for the Israelites.  It is not until Exodus 20 that God gives Israel the ten commandments and the rest of the Law.  You see, God’s grace and deliverance precedes the requirements He gives, even in the Old Testament.

 

The same is true for you.  God’s grace pursues you, woos you, encourages you, and invites you before you even spend a single second thinking about Him.  Then, when you realize you need God and you turn from your sin and turn to God through Jesus, God saves you and adopts you as His very own child.  Now, you are part of His family forever.  It is only after God has done all this that you don't deserve that God asks you to be faithful and obedient and act as a member of His royal family.

 

Be Faithful

God enabled Joshua and the Israelites to drive out the unbelieving Canaanites from the Holy Land, because the Canaanites had rejected the One True God for generations (for at least 400 years).  So now, God gave the land to the Israelites.  They were to be God’s royal priesthood who would represent God to the whole world.  They were to help all the nations return to God.  They had a special purpose. 

A few Canaanite settlements remained in the land.  They were there to test Israel’s faithfulness.  Would Israel be faithful to God?  Would they become bored with their devotion to God and become intrigued by the exotic foreign gods of the Canaanites who remained in the land?  Would they decide to hedge their bets?  (You know, let’s worship the God of Israel so He will be good to us, but let’s also worship the gods of the Canaanites just in case?)  God wanted Israel to be faithful to Him alone.

Unfortunately, Joshua 23:12 has been used to say God forbids intermarriage between different races or nations because it says, "if you turn away from him and cling to the customs of the survivors of these nations remaining among you, and if you intermarry with them, then know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive them out of your land."  God doesn't have a problem with intermarriage between people of different races.  It is intermarriage between believers and unbelievers that God discourages.  We know this is true because the clues are right there in the Scripture.  Caleb was the only other Israelite (besides Joshua) who left Egypt who was also honored to enter the Promised Land.  Caleb was not an ethnic Israelite. He was a Kenizzite (which were a Canaanites), yet Caleb married and had descendents who were accepted as Israelites who received allotments in the Holy Land.  Furthermore, Rahab was a Canaanite from Jericho. God saved her when she converted and worshiped the God of the Israelites.  Rehab married an Israelite named Salmon.  She became the great great grandmother mother of King David and one of the direct ancestors of Jesus. Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, is listed in the New Testament as one of the great heroes of the Christian faith (Hebrews 11:31).  Intermarriage of different races wasn't the problem. Marrying people who worshipped false gods was the problem.  The person you marry is the person who has the greatest influence in your life.  Therefore, we should chose someone who shares our most important core values, which should be our devotion to God through Christ.

In this life, there are many things that will entice you away from God.  Be very, very careful that you remain faithful to God.  He is the only one worthy of your worship.  He must be the first priority of your life.  Do not turn away from Him for riches, for family, for power, for influence, for nation, for politics, for entertainment, for anything.

 

Continue the Mission

God chose the Israelites for a purpose.  He blessed them so that they could be a blessing.  God had already done the hard work of driving out most of the Canaanites.  All that was left was to mop up the few remaining groups.  This was certainly doable for the Israelites who now had a majority and who occupied the fortified cities of Canaan.  Unfortunately, they lost their focus on being the royal priests of God.  They turned their attention to their own personal pursuits—their families, income, and pleasure.  They forgot the mission of God.  Before long, this led to complacency and unfaithfulness.

 

Christians have a mission too.  We are to go into all the world and make disciples of Christ.  We are to teach people about the love and salvation of Christ and invite people to follow Him as Lord.  We are to baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  When we get distracted, we worry about all the other things in life.  The main mission of Christ becomes an after thought or no thought at all.  Our lives are about what makes us happy and soon we don’t even care about God at all, except that maybe He can be useful to give us what we want or help keep us from losing what we love.  Where are we then?  We've become like the Canaanites.  We are right back where we started—full of fear, feeling lost and alone.  

We must stay focused on the mission of God or we get lost once and consumed by our selfishness, fear, and depravity.

 

Love the Lord Your God

Joshua told the Israelites to love the Lord their God.  Jesus said the same thing.  He said the most important commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  And the second was like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself.  

Love is powerful.  Fear of punishment only goes so far.  It’s an immature and incomplete way of living.  God doesn’t want us to obey Him out of fear.  He wants us to obey because of love.  

 

How is it with your friends, your children, your spouse?  Do you want them to be faithful only because they’re afraid of what will happen or how you will react if they betray you?  No!  We want the people we love to be kind and faithful because they love us. Right?

God is the same way.  God has already loved you with the greatest love of all.  Romans 5:8 – “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”  God wants us to be obedient and faithful—not out of fear, but—out of love.  When you love someone, you try to the best of your ability to do what they want.  Most importantly, you do what they need (even if it's not what they want).  That's love.  

What Christ asks of us is not so difficult.  It is an easy burden to bear and one He helps us carry.  It is love.  Love God with all you are love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Is that so hard?  We are not asked to take up a sword and drive out Canaanite armies.  In America, thanks be to God, we are not even in danger of being tortured or killed for our faith as many other Christians are around the world. So can’t we be obedient and faithful and love?

Closing
As I close, I want to invite you to decide who you will follow.  Have you ever decided to follow Jesus as a Christian? If not, please do that today.  Ask God to forgive you for the ways you've turned your back on Him up until today.  Now make a commitment to follow Christ and ask Jesus to help you keep your commitment.  From this day on, seek to be obedient and faithful to God through Christ.  

Perhaps you are already a Christian.  Maybe you even became a Christian a long time ago.  Have you been faithful or have you drifted from the faith or from your commitment? If so, please chose to recommit your life to Jesus today.  God will forgive you for getting off track.  He will help you to make a fresh start if you ask Him.  So ask Him today.

Imagine A Future Beyond Your Fears

Introduction
Fear is a universal emotion felt by people throughout all times and in every part of the world.  Fear serves a valuable purpose—to help keep us safe when threats arise by motivating us to cope with potential danger.

A fear of heights can be a good thing because if you fall from a great height, you could be injured or killed.  The fear of heights warns you to take care in that potentially dangerous situation.  Other common fears triggers are:

• Darkness or being unable to see your surroundings
• Social interaction or rejection
• Snakes, rodents, spiders and other animals
• Death and dying

Anxiety is a form of persistent fear where people feel constantly worried without knowing why.  It can be an especially crippling form of fear because the anxious person doesn’t know why they’re afraid and can’t address the cause of their fear.

The Grand Canyon
Though unpleasant, fear is not necessarily a bad thing.  We are told many times in Scripture to “Fear the Lord.”  Fear in this sense counsels us to be careful with God, to respect and revere God, for He is holy and awesome.  We should approach God with care, as one might approach the edge of the Grand Canyon because it is beautiful and inspiring, but a careless misstep could be the end of you.  Fear is useful, but when it rules you, controls you, incapacitates you, fear has exceeded its purpose.

The Bible also tells people again and again, “Do not be afraid.”  And this indicates we are often fearful in the wrong circumstances.  It is when there is a guardrail protecting us from the edge of the Grand Canyon, but we still cannot approach.  It is when the snake is securely behind the glass of a terrarium, but we still cannot look and admire the beauty of a creature God made.  Our fear is out of control and keeping us from the blessings God wants us to have.  

There is something wonderful waiting for you on the other side of your fears.  What is it?  Who will you be and what will your life be like if you overcome your fears?  On the other hand, who will you be and what will life be like if your fears conquer you?  The life God wanted to give Israel in the Promised Land was beautiful and prosperous, but they had to overcome their fears to enter it.  Listen to God’s Word to Israel as they were poised to enter the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 6:10-13
¹⁰ “The Lord your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. ¹¹ The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land, ¹² be careful not to forget the Lord, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. ¹³ You must fear the Lord your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name”

Who Should Fear and Who Should Trust?
There are two groups of people to consider in this story.  The first group is pretty obvious, because it's who the passage directly addresses.  The Israelites, had nothing to fear because God was with them.  They are told the blessings they will receive because they trust God.

The other group in the passage is less obvious.  It is the Canaanites.  God is about to take their land away and give it to the Israelites.  The Canaanites had every reason to fear because they rejected God.  They lived in Canaan for over 2,000 years.  Unfortunately, they rejected the one true God and devolved into evil, sexually immoral people who even sacrificed children as part of their religious rituals.  Furthermore, these evils had been ongoing for at least 400 years.  Finally, God was about to punish the Canaanites and give their land to the Israelites.

So the Canaanites who rejected God had everything to fear.  Their day of reckoning was at hand.  A Canaanite woman named Rahab revealed their fear in Joshua 2:9.  “I know the Lord has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror.”  When you reject God, you have reason for real fear.  That’s a dangerous situation.

The Israelites had nothing to fear because God was with them.  They put their faith in God.  He described the blessings Israel would receive as they conquered Canaan.  They would take possession of prosperous cities, homes already stocked with everything a person could need.  There would be wells, city infrastructure, and farmland already cultivated and producing fruit.  The towns God would give them were built by others and developed over decades and centuries.  Everything was ready for the Israelites to live in the Land.  God was with the Israelites.  They simply had to trust God more than their fear and enter the Promised Land.  

In verse 13, God reminds the Israelites “You must fear the Lord your God and serve him.”  In other words, don’t be afraid of the Canaanites.  Don’t be afraid to enter their land and conquer it.  Don’t be afraid of the scary things of this world.  Fear the Lord and obey Him.  For then you will be on God side and God’s side is always the winning side.

God’s Great Plan For You
God has a great plan for you too.  He wants you to live a life of confidence and faith.  He wants you to know He is with you and see His mighty hand at work.  Just as Jesus called His disciples, He calls you, “Come follow me.”  It is an amazing journey for all who answer the call to follow.  We see God’s power at work.  We see lives changed.  We see fearful people find confidence.  We see sinners transformed into saints.  We see the hopeless find hope.  And God supplies all the needs of His people as they embrace the mission of Christ. 

Among the blessings of those who follow Christ is a peace that passed all understanding.  You have peace in your heart.  You are at one with your Creator and His creation.  You know you have nothing to fear, nothing to hide, nothing to lose.  You trust God, not only with your own life, but with the lives of those you care about most.  You know you belong to God’s special family, for God adopts you as His own child.  Regardless of your social status in this world, in God’s sight you are a royal priest—kings and queens in the eternal Kingdom of God.   

There are still storms and trials and troubles.  There may be resistance.  (Look what they did to Jesus; they crucified Him.)  However, Christ is with His followers throughout all the trials of life.  Hebrews 13:6, “So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?””

Because Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave, those who follow Jesus also follow Him through death to ressurection and eternal life.  That means we no longer even need to fear death.  We are free to live with incredible faith and and boldness and confidence! 

Choose Today Who You Will Serve
There is something wonderful waiting for you on the other side of your fears.  What is it?  Who will you be and what will your life be like if you overcome your fears?  On the other hand, who will you be and what will life be like if your fears conquer you?

Whether you live in fear or live in faith all comes down to your choices.  Will you be like the Canaanites who continually rejected God and chose to live for themselves?  Or will you be like the Israelites, whom God chose and they chose to serve and obey God?

If you continue to choose your own way, you are in great danger—eternal danger.  A day of reckoning is coming for you, for we all must face God’s judgment one day.  Those who reject Christ will be rejected by God and cast out of the Good Land into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

But if you repent of your selfish sin and chose to put your faith in Christ, God will save you.  There will be nothing to fear because Jesus has already paid the penalty for your sins.  Now you are free to live in God’s love and share His love with everyone around you.  You didn’t earn these blessings.  Christ earned them for you.  So live a life of grateful obedience.

Who will you choose to serve today?  Will you serve your fear and continue to miss out on the Promised Land God wants to give you?  Or will you choose to serve you own selfish ambitions and reap the wrath of God?  Or will you choose to serve the One True and Living God and be His chosen sons and daughters for eternity?  

As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Take time to pray and chose who you will trust and follow and obey.  Be clear with God and yourself about your decision today.

The Names of God - Yahweh-Nissi

Introduction
There are over 250 flags that represent various countries around the world.

Originally, flags were mainly used for warfare, identifying friend from foe and rallying warriors together during the chaos of a battle.

In the 1600s, sailors started flying flags to show their ship’s country of origin.

Today, a flag is a way for a country to portray itself to the rest of the world. 

The colors and symbols have deep meanings that signify the core values of a nation.

I may be a bit biased, but I think the flag of the United States of America is one of the most beautiful flags in the world.  In 1777, the continental congress established the official flag of the United States. The flag has 13 stripes, alternating red and white to represent the 13 original colonies and a white star for each state on a blue field, representing a new constellation.  When America began as an independence democratic republic, it was something brand new in the world of nations and our flag with it's stripes and a new constellation of stars represents us well. 

Even the colors of the flag are symbolic.  Red symbolizes hardiness and valor. 
White symbolizes purity and innocence.  Blue represents vigilance, perseverance, and justice.

And so the flag represents the nation we call home, The United States of America.  We are a collection of individual states located on the North American continent.  In 1776, the 13 original colonies decided to unite together and separate from the British empire as an independent nation.  Over the years, the number has grown to 50 states who are united together as the United States of America.  The name describes who we are and our flag is the banner under which we rally together.

The various names of God in the Bible tell us about God and what He is like.  As we continue our message series about the names of God, it is fitting that we talk about this particular name of God on the 4^th of July.  The name for today is Yahweh-Nissi, which means “The Lord is My Banner.”

Exodus 17:8-15
⁸ While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them. ⁹ Moses commanded Joshua, “Choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow, I will stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff of God in my hand.”

¹⁰ So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill. ¹¹ As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. ¹² Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on.
Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. ¹³ As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.

¹⁴ After the victory, the Lord instructed Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” ¹⁵ Moses built an altar there and named it Yahweh-Nissi (which means “the Lord is my banner”). ¹⁶ He said, “They have raised their fist against the Lord’s throne, so now the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation.”

Yahweh-Nissi
God chose the Israelites to be His people, to represent Him to the world.  They would be His people and He would be their God.  All the nations of the world would be able to look at the way the Israelites lived and know what God is like.  This was God’s plan, because He wants the world to know Him and have a relationship with Him.

And so, God chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land.
Along the way, while God’s people were still quite unorganized and vulnerable, the Amalekites treacherously attacked them. 

The attack was so despicable because the Israelites were not threatening Amalek.  In fact, they were moving in the opposite direction.  Yet the Amalekites wanted to to destroy God's people.  The Amalekites came to represent for Jews and Christians anyone or anything that is an enemy of God.  Ultimately, the Amalekites represent sin itself—which is the ultimate rebellion in the human heart against the Lordship of God in our lives.

God was with the Israelites.  He protected them when they were defenseless.  Joshua led a group of men out to fight the Amalekites while Moses stood atop a hill.  In his hand, Moses held his famous staff—the one God turned into a snake to show Pharaoh God’s power, the same staff Moses held high when God parted the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape the charging Egyptian army.  It was a staff, much like a pole used to wave a battle flag, only there wasn’t a flag on the staff—it was just the pole.

The battle between Israel and her enemies was fierce.  Yet the staff in Moses’ hand was a rallying cry to Israel’s soldiers.  Whenever they saw it raised high above Moses’ head, the Israelites fought fiercely to win the battle. But when Moses’ arms grew weary and he lowered the staff, God’s people began to lose.  So Moses’ assistants, Aaron and Hur, helped Moses keep the  staff up high for all to see and Israel won the battle to defeat God’s enemies.

There was no visible flag on Moses’ staff.  God Himself is the flag.  Yahweh-Nissi means “The Lord is my banner (or flag)”.

YHWH – Adonai - YaHoVaiH
Now some translations render this name as Jehovah-Nissi.  Jehovah is an alternate way to pronounce Yahweh.  Ancient Hebrew had no vowels.  Yahweh is spelled YHWH.  In some languages, Y has a J sound and W has a V sound.  (In Germany John is pronounced Yan and What is pronounced Vhat.)  In the 12^th century, Jews, wanting to avoid saying God’s Holy Name (Yahweh) interspersing the vowels from the Hebrew word for Lord (Adonai) with the consonants for Yahweh (YHWH).  This rendered the name Ya-Ho-Wai-H or Ja-Ho-Vai-H (depending on how you pronounce the Y's and W's).

The consensus among scholars today is the original pronunciation was Yahweh.[i]   Whether we pronounce the name Jehovah-Nissi or Yahweh-Nissi, the meaning is still the same:  The Lord is My Banner or Yahweh is My Banner.  And a banner serves the same purpose as a flag.

Representing God
It’s an interesting responsibility--to represent God.  God was the Israelites’ flag and the Israelites were to be God’s people.  In other words, the Israelites were to represent God just like the American flag represents America. When people look at Israel (and we’re talking about Biblical Israel not the modern country of Israel; modern Israel is not the same as Biblical Israel adn they are not under the same covenant nor are they God's representatives in our modern world.)  Whenever people looked at ancient, Biblical Israel, they were looking at a people whose whole purpose was to represent God.  The food they ate, the clothes they wore, the religion they practiced, the songs they sang, everything was supposed to tell the whole world what God is like. 

Unfortunately, Israel failed.  Israel became more interested in their own power and prestige in the world than with what God wanted.  They just wanted to live the good life, enjoy pleasure, and live their lives the way they wanted regardless of what God wanted.  Israel became no different than any of the other nations around them.  In their hearts, they threw down their Banner (God) on the ground and trampled it under their feet.

Yet Yahweh-Nissi raised up a remnant to be faithful and represent Him.  God sent Jesus Christ to call God’s people to repent of their sin and return to God.  And all who accept the invitation become God’s holy people and have the privilege of representing God to the world.

In the New Testament in Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus said, ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”

Now, Jesus and His true followers are the flag of God.  Our lives symbolize who God is just as the American flag symbolizes the United States.  As long as Christians lift up God as our banner, we cannot be defeated.  Even when Jesus died on the cross, He was not defeated, but He defeated sin and death and all the forces of evil.

Closing
From time to time, flags on our flag poles become worn and frayed due to the wind and weather.
We replace them when this happens.  Sometimes the way we represent God to the world becomes worn and frayed.  Sometimes it’s due to a particular rough spiritual battle.  Other times it’s just due to the normal wear and tear of living the Christian life.  With God’s help, we can renew our witness to the Lord.  Let’s pray and ask the Lord to help us renew our witness today.

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[i]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah#:~:text=The%20derived%20forms%20Iehouah%20and,and%20the%20King%20James%20Version.

Epochs of Israel - The Conquest of Canaan

Series Introduction

Today, we begin a new series for the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas.  We will consider the four Epochs of Israel.  An epoch is a period in history, typically one marked by notable events or characteristics. 

The Bible is the great story of God’s rescue plan for humanity.  It is marked by many great epochs.  There is the epoch of creation and the fall of humanity when Adam and Eve sinned against God.  There is the dark epoch that followed as humanity descended so far into sin that the most

merciful thing God could do was destroy the whole earth with a flood and start over with Noah.  Then there is the epoch of God’s covenant with Abraham, where God chooses one man’s family to represent Him to the whole world. 

Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, migrated to Egypt where they were enslaved.  God rescued them in the Epoch of the Exodus.  At my church, we used this responsive reading to review that Epoch  and set up the topic of this blog.  

Pastor:  The Lord our God is mighty to save! He rescued to Israelite slaves from Egyptian Empire. 

People:  Through 10 plagues, He judged Egypt’s gods and proved they were nothing. 

Pastor:  Moses led the Israelites to the edge of the Red Sea,

People:  But the Egyptian army came to destroy them.  The Lord rescued Israel again.

Pastor:  He parted the sea so Israel could walk through on dry ground,

People:  But the Egyptian army drowned in the sea.

 

Pastor:  God led Moses and the Israelites to Mount Sinai to make a sacred covenant.

People:  The Lord gave Israel the 10 commandments and the Law.

Pastor:  If they would trust God and be faithful to obey to His Law,

People:  The Lord would protect them, prosper them, and give them peace.

Pastor:  But if Israel was unfaithful,

People:  The Lord would punish them with plagues and war and defeat.

 

Pastor:  The Lord promised to lead Israel into a land flowing with milk and honey,

People:  But Israel still did not trust the Lord to do it. They wanted to go back to Egypt and be slaves again.

Pastor:  So God made them wander in the dessert until that unfaithful generation passed away.

People:  Only Joshua and Caleb were left because they were the only ones who believed the Lord.

Pastor:  Then the time came for the Lord to lead Israel into the Promised Land.

People:  Joshua and Calab and the people of Israel were ready to obey the Lord.

 

All:  And so the first Epoch of Israel begins—The Epoch of Conquest.

The rag tag rabble of slaves that left Egypt has been transformed into an army of God’s faithful, harden by 40 years of nomadic dessert living.  They are thirsty to finally take possession of the Promised Land and begin their life as God’s Kingdom on Earth.  But to do it, the Israelites must first conquer the Canaanites who live in the land.  Moses is dead; so God appoints Joshua as the new commander and chief.  (By the way, Joshua is the same name as Jesus…)  And in Joshua 1:6-9, we read God’s instructions to Joshua.  They will be the war cry of the entire book and the entire epoch of the conquest of Canaan.

Joshua 1:6-9
⁶“Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. ⁷ Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. ⁸ Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. ⁹ This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

The Conquest of Canaan
Canaan was a land full of cruelty and debauchery that had persisted for hundreds of years.  You can be sure, God gave the Canaanites every opportunity possible to repent and be saved.  However, there comes a moment when your time runs out.  That time had come for the Canaanites.

The Canaanites lived in fortress cities, like Jericho, surround by impregnable walls.  Israelite spies had described them as giants who could not be defeated.  But if the Lord can defeat the mighty Egyptian Empire, He can defeat the Canaanites.  And that’s just what God does in the book of Joshua.  

In battle after battle, the Lord God of Israel defeats every king in Canaan.  No one can stand against Him.  But here’s the thing you may miss if you aren’t careful.  The victory in battle is never won by the Israelite army.  It is God who is doing the fighting.  As it says in Joshua 23:10, “Each one of you will put to flight a thousand of the enemy, for the Lord your God fights for you, just as he has promised.”

Perhaps the best example of the Lord fighting from the Israel is the famous Battle of Jericho.  God told the Israelites to march around the city every day for seven days.  Then, on the seventh day, God told His people to march around the city seven times.  Then the were to blow trumpets and shout.  And when they did, the walls of the city came crashing down.  Now this is a ludicrous battle plan.  No military strategist in their right mind would suggest this as a viable plan, but it worked!  And the point is, this is God's work, not the soldiers.  Incidentally, their is archeological evidence in Jericho of an ancient city from around the time Joshua would have been there that shows a walled city where the walls have collapsed outward.  If this is the same city, it would be string evidence for a supernatural defeat of a walled city (walls don't collapse outward if they are being sieged by an army on the outside of the city).

It is God who does the fighting.  The Israelites just have to be faithful and trust God and be obedient.  Whenever they are faithful and obedient, God wins the victory for the Israelites.  Whenever the Israelites lose faith and are disobedient, they are defeated.

Three Important Lessons
There are three lessons we can learn from Israel’s conquest of Canaan.  We learn the first lesson from the sad demise of the Canaanites.  Judgement will come.  God is patient when we sin.  The Canaanites lived in sin for hundreds of years.  In Genesis when Abraham visited Canaan, we read some of the terrible things they did.  In addition to rejecting the one True God for idols, the Canaanites raped and murdered.  They were sexually and morally depraved.  They sacrificed their children to idols.  I was watching a documentary last week about the Canaanites that explained how their kings would defeat and capture a city and skin the defeated people alive and hang their corpses up for everyone to see.  And all this evil persisted in Canaan for well over 600 years until God finally said, enough is enough.  At just that time, the Israelites showed up at the door of Canaan to execute God’s judgment. 

If you are clinging to your sin, refusing to surrender to God repent, you need to understand: time is running out.  God is patient, but He will not delay judgment forever.  You will have to face God’s judgment one day soon.  Jesus is either going to come back for the whole world all at once or he is going to come for you as an individual when you take your last breath.  What will you say when you stand before Him face to face? How will you answer for your sin? 

When Jesus came the first time, he said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” (Paraphrased from Mark 1:15)  And Romans 8:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  The believing that Romans mentions is not mere intellectual assent.  If a person really believes Jesus is Lord and He is coming again. they will act accordingly and it will result repentance and righteous living.  Time is running out.  Repent today.

The second lesson from the conquest is that God fights for those who are faithful and obedient.  When we trust God through Jesus Christ we are in a new covenant with God.  He becomes our Lord  and we become His people.  He promises to fight for us.  As Isaiah 54:17 promises, “No weapon that is formed against you will succeed; and you will condemn every tongue that accuses you in judgment.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord…”  What a great promise we have in the Lord. 

Therefore, the third lesson for us today is be strong and courageous.  The conquest was a test for the Israelites.  God did the fighting, but the Israelites had to step onto the battlefield.  There are tests in our lives too.  God does the fighting, but we still must trust Him enough to show up for the fight.  We must step out on the battlefield.  We must be vulnerable and trust He will be our strength and shield.

Conclusion
What battles lie between you and the blessing God has for you? 

One battle may be fear.  You may be afraid to repent.  You may worry, "What will people think of me if I decide to follow a God you can't even see."  The Israelites were accused of something similar.  Everyone around them worshipped idols.  Now, today we would thin it silly to worship a statue made by human hands. Ironically, the opposite was true in the ancient world.  People looked at the Israelites and said, "Where is your God?" And all they could say is, "Yahweh is invisible. You can't see them." And it was ridiculous to non-Israelites because they could see and touch their statue gods.  Today, few people still worship statues, but non-believers make a similar ridicule of Christians.  "You pray to some invisible God," they think while they trust in more tangible things like science, reason, money, a job, power, and politics.  And some people are afraid to put their faith in an invisible God because it would irrational to trust something you cannot see instead of more tangible things.

Others may be afraid to surrender themselves.  They are not sure if they are willing to trade their life and dreams for the life God wants to give them.  They may be afraid to give up control.  But God vcan't fight your fear--whatever it is--if you are willing to step on the battlefield.

Perhaps the battle is something more specific: an illness or chronic disease, a career change, a new stage of life for you or someone you love.  Perhaps change is coming in your life and the fear is palpable.  But I want to encourage you:  Be strong and courageous!  Do not be afraid or discouraged. For [if you have faith in Him] the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Step out onto the battlefield and trust God to fight the battle for you and you will be victorious.