Hebrews 12: 18 - 29

Hebrews 12; 18 - 29. This is a great text: we are in such a better position than the ancient Israelites to trust in God's good will towards all who turn to him, and of his ability to save. The flip side is we have so much less excuse if we turn away from him. In the middle I digress a bit to talk about what it means for us that God framed the Ten Commandments to echo a Hittite suzerainty treaty.

Morals & Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments...

It has been a long time since my last 'Morals' post. But at last I think I am ready to say something about the Ten Commandments. More than that, now I think I have something really interesting to say! In this I am much indebted to John Bright's “A History of Israel”.

That the ten Commandments show similarities to treaties of the time is said so frequently that we forget to ask “why?”. It is in the answer to this question using some of the information Bright and others have supplied that I found the really interesting bit.

According to Bright we have examples of Hittite 'suzerainty' treaties. The Hittites built an empire with its capital in what is now central Turkey (I've been there and seen the ruins of it). They got going somewhere around 2,000 years B.C.. Reached their peak about the time of the Exodus when Hittite and Egyptian armies fought each other to a standstill, made a truce, signed a peace treaty and each king went home claiming to have won a great victory (this was political spin possible before iphones, internet, or even TV) Hittite influence waned and their capital was burned to the ground sometime around 1180 B.C..

Apparently the Hittite empire incorporated a lot of little kingdoms where the kings remained in charge, but had to swear allegiance to the Hittite king (and pay taxes). The agreements between these vassal kings and their Hittite overlord were 'suzerainty treaties' Of course other empires had such treaties, in particular we have evidence of Assyrian ones (The Assyrians had Nineveh as their capital city, took over much of the Hittite empire, and were themselves vanquished by the Babylonians – Nineveh fell in 612 B.C.)

The point of this little history digression is to pave the way for two important points: 1. Why the Ten Commandments being like any suzerainty treaty is important; and 2. Why echoing a Hittite rather than an Assyrian treaty is important.

1. The importance of treaty-like format.

OK, we all know the story of the Exodus: God sends Moses toe-to-toe with Egypt's Pharaoh to get the descendants of Israel (aka Jacob) released from slavery. God and Moses then lead this horde out into the desert to Mount Sinai. There God makes a covenant with them, and gives the Ten Commandments to Moses to give to the people. From then on we have this tribal league bound together mostly by having the shared experience of this covenant between them and God.

So when God puts the Commandments in a form that looks (to modern scholars at least!) like a Hittite suzerainty treaty, was that significant?

The Hittite treaty, after a recitation which I will talk about in the next section, laid down the obligations of the vassal king to the Hittite king. Chief among these was that the vassal was not to make any treaties with any other country – they had to be totally loyal to the Hittite empire. So when the Ten Commandments say “You shall have no other gods besides me...” That has a lot more punch as part of a “treaty” between God and this new nation. The peoples around them worshiped many gods, so to serve Yahweh exclusively was unparalleled – but to not make treaties with any king except your own overlord that was a familiar and very compelling concept.

Succeeding parts of a Hittite treaty included relations with other vassal states. One vassal was not allowed to make war on another vassal state. Also if there were disputes between vassal kings they had had to bring their complaint before the overlord, who would decide the case. Thus when the Ten Commandments move to dealing with relations between people this is exactly what a human overlord did in order to keep peace in his empire.

Taken together this makes a lot of sense of why God may have chosen to echo the form of treaties of the time. It also helps us understand the function of these Commandments. They were not a 'law code' they were the terms of the covenant entered into by God and the Israelite tribal league. But as such they did give the guiding principles which could be embodied in laws made to meet what would be ever-changing conditions. This is so much more useful than a law-code which would quickly become out-of-date!

2. The importance of  Hittite rather than Assyrian.

True, the time of the Exodus was also the time of the zenith of Hittite influence. But when you think about how God used the different personality and life-story of  prophets – say Amos and Hosea – to fit the different message he had them deliver, I can't help but think that had an Assyrian type fitted his purpose he would have arranged events to suite. So I am going to take it that the Hittite form served God's purposes.

Now the Hittite treaties stressed personal relationship and persuasion. The Assyrian form stressed compulsion.

So the Hittite treaties started which a recitation of the relationship history of the overlord and the vassal king, often in an “I … thou” form. It enumerated the good things the overlord had already done for the vassal which put him under an obligation to be loyal and obedient out of gratitude.

The Ten Commandments have “I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of slavery ...”. The covenant is based on the fact that God has already done them a great good, to which they should respond out of gratitude. For us Christians there is an even greater covenant with God based on the incalculably great 'good' which God has done for us in Christ Jesus. Like Israel there is no 'good work' we could ever do which would put God in our debt! We are, like they were, always the unworthy recipients of God's bounty.

These elements of personal relationship and gratitude leading to voluntary obedience are so different to the Assyrian ideal of brute force and obedience out of terror that I think it is really significant that God used the former model rather than the latter! It gives a glimpse of his character – one which gives first and then hopes for voluntary loyalty in return, not one which obtains it by force.

Interesting eh?  

Hebrews 11 Part 2: Faith - we can do it!

Hebrews 11 Pt.2.  Faith - it does not mean we don't have doubts and fears - it means we keep putting one foot in front of another despite them. Heaven is worth it!

Heresy : You Can love Sin & Still Be In.

The last heresy I will talk about is this: Telling Christians it is OK to live in sin.

This happened even way back in the Old Testament. I quoted earlier the bible passages where God complains that the false prophets did nothing to turn the people away from their sins, so I will not repeat that here.

The New Testament is also clear that God has standards of behaviour for his children.

John the Baptist preached:  ⁸ Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.” (Matthew 3.8)

Jesus said (just to take one instance out of many): (Matthew 28.19) “¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So there is something to be obeyed, there is a way of life that marks out people who have repented. This way of life is difficult for two main reasons. Our human nature is corrupted and doesn’t want to do it. Our society is corrupted and will put social pressure on us to conform to its ways. Here are some Bible verses on that:

Galatians 5 (it is worth reading through the whole chapter but here are a few key verses)

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ¹⁷ For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever^[c] you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

 ¹⁹ The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Peter 4 : “³ You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.

 ⁴ Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you.⁵ But remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead. 

1 John 2.3 : “³ And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. ⁴If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. ⁵ But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. ⁶ Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.”

2 Timothy 3.12 warns us that it will be hard to live good lives in a corrupt world: “^3 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 

John 15.18: Jesus warned his disciples: “ ¹⁸ “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you: ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’^[a] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”

You will remember that the people who persecuted Jesus were the religious establishment of his day. It is not surprising that in our day anyone who follows Jesus will find that many of the established church leaders are their opponents rather than their friends.

Sadly large numbers of ministers, priests, bishops and archbishops and even whole sections of denominations are acting just like the false prophets of long ago and not turning their own church people, let alone the nation, from their sins.

Tragically when the “acceptable conduct” of the society they live in is different to God’s clear commands repeated throughout the Bible, they side with society and against God. They seek peace with their society by conforming to it, when they should be acting as God’s agents in transforming it. (As I said earlier, they may be ardent crusaders for some political cause but their work is fashioned and empowered by the principles and outlook of this fallen world, not from the Bible. One giveaway will be that they will condone things the Bible repeatedly condemns.)

Worse still they often become propaganda merchants for the things their society loves even though God says he hates them. They will try to silence, sideline or throw out of the church anyone who accurately points out what God’s standard of behaviour is.

Do not be fooled by them! Do not give in to them! Read the Bible for yourself and obey its commands.

Hebrews 11 : 1 - 28 with a reference to Luke 12 : 32 - 34

Hebrews 11 (part 1) what "faith" meant to Abraham, Sarah, Joseph & Moses and what it means for us to be people living by faith 

Heresy: Miracle Healing for All

This is a truth taken to the extreme where it becomes a lie. God can and does work miracles, you won’t read too far in the Bible without discovering that. What he does not do is always cure every disease of every Christian “if they have enough faith”.

This heresy is sometimes called “over-realized eschatology” which is theologian-speak for thinking we have here and now things which the Bible promises we will enjoy in heaven. Yes in heaven we will all be healed eg Rev.21.4 “ ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death^[b]or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Yes God does do some miracles even now to authenticate the message about Jesus and to give us little flashes of heaven. But no, he does not heal every Christian – we are still in this world and it is a world marred by sin, suffering and death.

Let me illustrate some of the pain this heresy causes from some of my own experiences as a priest. 

I was visiting patients in the tiny country hospital in my parish when I and everyone else heard a zealous Pentecostal pastor shouting “In the name of Jesus you are healed!” to a woman dying of cancer. She died some weeks later. But fearful of losing her “healing” by exhibiting lack of faith she refused any pain relief. She still died, but she died in terrible pain. I heard that the Pentecostal pastor explained her death away by saying she didn’t have enough faith to be healed.

About the same time there was a world famous Anglican Charismatic leader Rev. David Watson. He was stricken with cancer. Believers all over the world were praying for his healing. He died. Without missing a beat the Pentecostal spin doctors announced that “obviously” he was not healed because he didn’t really want healing.

It struck me with these and other cases that the people who put out this heresy were simply not honest. Suppose a scientist says: “If my theory is true 'X' will happen” Now suppose 'X' does not happen. T he scientist will say “my theory is wrong”. These people say “you are healed” but when this did not happen even in the clearest way possible- that is by the person dying - they still cling fanatically to their now disproved “theory” and invented spin to cover up the truth.

So my experience was that this doctrine caused great harm. Also because it dealt in lies, it was of the devil, not of God. My experience has also been that once a believer has been hooked on this teaching nothing can rescue them.

There is a saying “Reality bites”. They can shout all they like and claim with total conviction that a person is healed but if the person then dies of the disease that was supposedly healed then reality has “bitten”: what they claimed was not really true at all. Jesus said “I am the Truth ...” and also “the devil is a liar and the father of all lies” So however much there healers take the name of Jesus on their lips, they are actually doing the work of the devil.

Yes, since we long for heaven we would love to have its joys right now. So Yes we would love to believe this doctrine and believe the evangelists who spread it. But it is always better for a person to act on a painful truth than to believe and act on a comfortable falsehood!

Most importantly this teaching like the other heresies is spiritual carbon-monoxide. Our old human nature really wants “religion” that gives health and prosperity. So these teachings that God will heal every disease once we learn the secrets of “faith” to make him do it is one our sinful nature will grab with both hands.

I have not yet trotted out Bible verses for a very good reason. This teaching is a truth taken to an extreme where it becomes a lie. So if the false teacher says “the Old Testament has lots of miraculous healings” I say “True, it does and I believe they really happened” When the false teacher says “Jesus healed all kinds of diseases and ever raised dead people to life” I agree. He did. When he or she continues: “And God did great miracles through the Apostles like Peter and Paul.” I say again “I too believe those accounts in the Bible are true.” When they play their trump card and say: “And God still does miracles today” I say: “Yes indeed, I too have seen many miraculous answers to prayer. I have seen enough genuine miracles believe beyond doubt that God still does miracles today.”

So most of what these 'faith healers' preach, I believe is true. But it only takes a tiny bit of poison added to a healthy meal to kill you. The “poison” in their otherwise true teaching is in three parts:

1. It is a false, worldly view of the Christian life. Jesus never promised a bed of roses (in this life anyway).

2. It is a false “faith”. They turn the real and precious attitude of devotion trust and unshakeable reliance on Jesus into a mind game which soon crosses over into shamanism.

3. It makes a basic error of logic. They confuse God being the same “yesterday, today and forever” with God acting the same when circumstances change. Big mistake!

Lets look at these in a bit more detail:

1. Jesus didn’t promise a bed of roses. Quite the opposite: he made it clear that becoming his follower was the hard choice, that there was a cost, that some believers would fall away when they realized this. He warned of hardships and persecutions in this life, but glory in the world to come. I have already mentioned the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) He warned that some believers would fall away when they found it was hard going. He would not have warned that if he was promising them a trouble free life if they followed him. Another parable was the builder who didn’t figure out the cost before he started (Luke 14.28). Read and think about it for yourself. Jesus is not talking home economics, he is talking about people deciding to be his followers. He is warning them that there is a cost. In this life the easy way is to ignore Jesus. Following him is harder (in this world) – so would-be followers should count the cost up-front. Once again Jesus would not say this if he was offering to magic away all life’s problems. … He never promised that!
   
   The rest of the New Testament is dotted with statements to the effect that while the Christian life is hard now, the heavenly reward far outweighs the cost, and Christ is with us through all our trials and suffering. I will give just a few examples.
   
   Philippians 3 “ ⁷ I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. ⁸ Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ ⁹ and become one with him. The point I wanted to draw from this was that happiness in this life was not the be all and end all, almost the reverse: for Paul all that counts is the joy of knowing Christ as savior.
   
   1 Peter 1 “ ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
   
   2 Corinthians 1: “³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. ⁴ He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 
   These verses were to comfort Christians going through trials and troubles. For Peter the pain is outweighed by the eternal benefit of a faith that has stood the test. For Paul writing to the Christians in Corinth it was that God comforts us in our trials rather than magic-ing them away, and we in turn can comfort others. The common point is that God does not always rescue us from suffering in this life.
   
   The false teacher will say: “Ah, they are only talking about persecution, it does not apply to disease” My answer is that in New Testament times no one was stupid enough to think God would sweep all disease and disaster away from every believer – these were just part of living. So of course Peter and Paul did not talk about these in their letters. What new believers had a problem with, and needed re-assurance about were the extra sufferings that were happening just because they were Christians.
   
   
2. “Faith” is really basic to Christianity. Abraham is the prime example in the Bible of faith “because he believed God”. Interestingly Genesis depicts Abraham “warts and all” and he had as many of those as most people. He wavered, he doubted, he did silly things, he even laughed when God said he would have a son by Sarah. You might say he just clung on to believing by his teeth – but the Bible gives him top marks. Jesus is often calling his disciples “little-faiths” but he persevered with them. Most of them ran away when he was arrested, and Peter swore he didn’t know him – but they go on to be the Apostles. Jesus told them that if they had faith as big as a mustard seed they could move mountains. I think the point he was making, and I am trying to make here is that even a little bit of faith counts a whole lot with God. He will of course want to train us to have a whole lot more over our lifetime, but for a start the teeniest bit will get us going. The “faith healer” uses “faith” in a totally different, and I believe wrong way, and runs the risk of blinding people to what real faith in Christ actually is.
   
   The Bible gives some other examples of great faith. Hebrews 11 is a good example. It lists as heroes of faith with equal praise for people who had the faith to be miraculously delivered and people who had faith to keep trusting in God even when there was no miraculous deliverance. This puts the lie to the “faith healer”s excuse that people “didn’t have enough faith to be healed”. No, the Bible indicates it takes every bit as much faith not to have a miraculous deliverance from suffering and still hold fast to God..
   
   Hebrews 11³² 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. ³³By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received their loved ones back again from death.
   But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. ³⁶ Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. ³⁷ Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half,^[d] and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. ³⁸ They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.
   ³⁹ All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, …”
   
   
   
3. The “faith healer” frequently recounts the miracles of Jesus, stresses with great literalness that he “healed all the sick” (eg Matthew 8.16), then quotes the text “Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever” (Hebrews 13.8) and jumps to the conclusion “therefore Jesus will heal all the sick today!”
   That is a false conclusion. The result of Jesus being unchanging in his nature is that he will in fact respond differently in different situations.
   
   Let me illustrate it this way. Think of a teacher marking “multiple choice” exam papers – you know the sort where for each question you answer by circling (a), (b), (c) etc on the exam paper
   Suppose the correct answers are (a) for question 1. (b) for question 2. and (c) for question 3.
   
   The teacher should mark every student who circled (a) for question 1 “correct” and every student who marked anything else for question 1 “wrong. And so forth down all the questions. To put this in the language we were using about Jesus – the teacher uses the same list of right answers to mark every paper in that exam.
   
   So why do some students get good results and some get bad results?
   
   The answer is obvious: some students knew their subject and marked lots of the correct answers and some students didn't know their work and marked lots of incorrect answers.
   
   The teacher's marking was the same for all students : so he or she awarded good marks to good students and bad marks to bad students.
   In the Bible there are enough examples of God maintaining an unchanging attitude, but changing his actions because people changed their ways. In Nineveh, Jonah tells them God is going to destroy the city because they are so wicked. They repent and stop being evil. God relents and does not destroy them (much to Jonah’s annoyance). God stayed the same, so when the situation changed his response to it changed too.
   
   Jesus is the same “yesterday today and forever”. Yes. But if the situation “today” is different then precisely because he remains dependably the same, he will respond differently.
   
   When he was walking by the shores of Lake Galilee he was claiming to uniquely speak for God. He even said (John 5.36) “the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me.” So miracles were his authentication.
   
   If we are preaching Jesus to people who do not believe and God judges that miracles will likewise authenticate our message, then indeed we would expect God to work them.
   
   If we are not preaching Jesus where the message needs authentication, but would like some miracles for some other reason (to big note ourselves or our church for instance) then we would not expect him to work them.

The crux of the problem is that they are telling people to expect (and demand of God even) what God promises we will enjoy in heaven, not here on earth. Certainly he gives little foretastes of it now just to encourage his people to set their hopes on Jesus and of being with him in heaven. God is always surprising us by his kindness, goodness and generosity. He is an incredibly wonderful being!Also he also sometimes gives a sustained burst of spectacular miracles when he judges it necessary in order to authenticate his message. But to tell people that Jesus will heal every believer every time is wrong! It also has two really, really bad consequences. First it sets them up for the devil to pull the rug from under them and cause them to lose their faith in Jesus. Second it focuses them on themselves and their health and their comfort in this world – that keeps them as spiritual infants and mere worldlings. Grow up!

Yet if you ask: “But should we pray for healing?” My answer is “Yes. It is part of our relationship with God that we can safely ask him for anything.” As it says in 1 Peter 6.7 …

“ ⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

Colossians 3: 1 - 11 Preached 4/Aug/2013

Colossians 3:1 - 11. Human religion looks as though it can change us but it can't. The way that really can change us comes from a better understanding of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Yhis is a great part of Colossians. There is still more in the rest of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 but because I am preaching from the reading set for each Sunday in the lectionary, this will be our last sermon on Colossians for the present. Next week we start on that exciting look at 'faith' in Hebrews 11.