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With Iran and Israel in the news lately, there’s been a lot of hoorah on how the U.S. must support Israel, especially amongst us evangelicals. The claim is that Israel, and the Jews specifically, are God’s people, Abraham’s sons, and whoever blesses them will be blessed, etc. So you hear phrases such as “Support Israel” or “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (not that anybody is against praying for peace).

So the questions are: Who are God’s people today? And is it the Jews of today?

Let’s start with the last question. Jesus Christ was the last true Jew; all genealogies in the New Testament stop with him. Additionally, “for all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Cor 1); Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in the Scriptures (see Luke 24 and Hebrews 1:1-4). Also, the Apostle Paul says that beginning in his day, “there is neither Jew nor Greek…for you all are one in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 3:28). How is that? Because the mystery of God was fulfilled in Christ, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body (Eph. 3). Of what body? Of the Christian body, Jew and Gentile united as “one new man in the place of the two…”(Eph 2). So there is no future for the Jews in God’s word, with regards to them being his people, after the coming of Jesus.

So who are God’s people today? Well, Peter says the church is, using language that used to describe Israel in the Old Testament as now applying only to the church: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession…once you were not God’s people, but now you are God’s people” (1 Peter 2:9-12). Paul does the same in 2 Cor. 6:14-7.1, applying old covenant promises of God to the church (7:1)!

When David exclaims in Psalm 139, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord,” some might claim that it could be a “one off” and David is just showing his surly side. Maybe he had just fled from King Saul or something. But the Psalm itself brings out the continuity of loving God AND hating his enemies.

The very first verse demonstrates that David knows God is with him and all around him at all times: “Oh, Lord, you have known me and searched me.” David cannot be seen as someone trying to hide his “bad side” to the Lord. That’s impossible, he says.

Then he exclaims, “Where shall I go from your Spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence?” David can’t hide anything from the Lord.

David then proclaims in verse 14, “Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it well.” And that’s all in the context of God’s intimate creational knowledge of David, even from the womb!

So when David says “how precious to me are your thoughts (17), and then cries out, “Oh that you would slay the wicked” and “Do I not hate those who hate you…I hate them with complete hatred,” David is not exhibiting any guilt or dissonance or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia! No! Loving the Lord and his nearness is quite at home with hating those who hate the wonderful Lord who is always present and makes wonderful creatures! In fact, being so close to such a great and holy Lord SHOULD lead you to hate his enemies! How can you not side with him who is Love against those who hate him?

“Hate” has gotten a bad rap in our culture lately. If you take a principled position on an issue, that’s considered hateful towards those on the opposite. Then there are “hate crimes,” where a person may voice his position against a group that is protected against such opinions. Hate crimes are usually added infractions on top of already evil, wicked, and hateful crimes such as murder or rape.

So Christians shy away from “hate” and try to remain nice and neutral. The only problem with that is our God is one who hates! David says of God in Psalm 5 “…you hate all evildoers…the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” In Amos 5:21 the LORD declares “I hate, I despise your feasts.” Even Jesus says to his church in Rev 2:6, “…you hate the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Should we follow suit after our God? Of course! In that most famous of Psalms, 139, David exclaims, right after declaring God’s thoughts are precious to him, “…do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?…I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.” In Psalm 119:113, he says “I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.” Or in Psalm 26:5, “I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.” Again, even Jesus said you must hate your family, and even your own life, if you want to be his disciple (Luke 14:26).

Quite shocking, I know, but all easily understood: Christians must take positions against the evil and wicked and side with their Lord. After all, Jesus is not afraid to hate the wicked — he’ll be banishing them to hell, forever, soon enough!

So think about this, and humbly, because I would really hate it if you don’t have a biblical notion of hate. And so would Jesus. He wants you clearly on his side.

Christians often exhibit a low self-esteem when talking about their own faithfulness. They don’t want to brag about holiness, which is fine. But often they are too reluctant to give God the glory and acknowledge what they have done by the power of the Spirit working within them. They have a hard time embracing Philippians 2:12 which says “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that God is at work in you…” They’ll praise the Lord but get really squeamy if you praise them for being faithful and conscientious in the salvation that was given to them.

Psalm 26:1 is a tough one: “Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.” We think, “David is being a little pompous here. Nobody trusts in the Lord without wavering.”

Psalm 7:8 is also tough: “…judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.” My righteousness? My integrity?

Well, yes. If you are baptized in Christ, then you have been washed of your sins and clothed with Jesus, meaning the Holy Spirit also dwells in you to lead you in the ways and teachings and faithfulness of Jesus (Acts 2:38; 1 Cor. 6:11; Romans 6:3-4). That’s who you stand in, and from that standing you move out in obedience and trust and faithfulness in all you do. It’s that simple. It’s like Christian who was given new clothing when his burden rolled down the hill and also given God’s scroll to read and follow on his path to the Celestial City!

I think we always read passages with horror like “Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me” only to find out that these are David’s covenant friends: “I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother, as one who laments his mother” (Psalm 35:4, 14).

Or, “Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me. And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest…,” only to find out that it’s not an enemy, but it is “…my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together, within God’s house we walked in the throng.” Yet David continues, “Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart” (Psalm 55:5-6, 13b-15).

What shocks us is that a brother or sister could fall away from the Lord so much that David is asking pretty heavy judgment upon them: death and Sheol because evil has ensnared them through and through.

While it’s hard for us moderns to sit in any judgment seat, David does not shrink back, and neither should we. People fall away, dearest Christians betray Jesus and others: King Saul, Absalom, Judas, Alexander the Coppersmith.

What are you to do? Remember the cloud of witnesses that surround you, lay aside the sin which clings so closely, and run the faithful race with endurance, all the while looking to Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2). And, taking care there be no unbelieving heart in yourself that falls away from the living God, while exhorting and being exhorted yourself, such that you are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You want to strive to be firm in Christ till the end! (Hebrews 3:12-14).

When you are reading your bible to yourself, or to your children, or listening to it, keep your eyes and ears perked to listen to repeated phrases and words.

For example, we all know from Genesis 3:15 that Jesus is going to crush the “head of the serpent.” But then throughout the scriptures, you read about all these evil people, who get crushed heads: Sisera (tent peg to the head), Abimelech (mill stone head-wound), Goliath (rock to the forehead), Absalom (tree fork head crush), and many others. But they are all consummated in Jesus’ death on the cross, where as King, he crushes the serpent on the head, putting death to death. All the while with his feet over the “place of the skull”! His actual death pictured this victory!

Another theme to listen for is “thorns.” That’s part of the curse upon Adam for not faithfully listening to God’s word. He rebelled. Guess what? Throughout the scriptures rebellious people are linked with thorns and the curse. Jotham gave a story to the rebellious who followed Abimelech after killing the sons of Gideon: they would be led by bramble/thorns to their death. Gideon had whipped 77 elders of Succoth after refusing to help him in pursuit of the enemy kings. Throughout the Proverbs the lazy are surrounded by thorns. But in the end? Jesus has a crown of thorns on his head, in his death, signifying he’s taken the curse for us!

Here’s one more: spears. King Saul is always portrayed as carrying a spear. We are told, though, in 1 Samuel 13:22, that most people are without spears. Later on, the first character with a spear is Goliath, a Philistine, who wants to kill David. David, by contrast, never uses a spear. The spear, in this section of the bible, is an oppressive power tool, and it’s linked with the wicked king Saul, acting like the kings of the nations around him, like a Philistine. So how does this “spear” motif point to Jesus? I’ll let you meditate on that!

May Day, or the International Worker’s Day, was celebrated this past week on the 1st. It’s a day in which communists and socialists commemorate the struggle and gains made by workers and the labor movement around the world. That movement holds Karl Marx as its head, and also attributes great gains to Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. Those three men did a lot for workers, putting almost 100 million in the ground, because they did not “work” the way the state wanted them to.

Marx’s ideology/atheology produced the greatest idol of all, the omnipotent state, which made morality relative under the leadership of ambitious men who became gods themselves. With morality relative, the state party could regenerate men and build the paradise to come, with its power absolute and unquestioned. Hence the “workers paradise” of 100 million dead and two billion more sent to hell.

The point of this is to remind us that ideas and false beliefs do have consequences. Either deadly, enslaving ones, or life-giving, freeing ones. Marx is to blame for what came after him, for he saw God’s invisible attributes, eternal power, and divine nature, yet rejected that and became foolish, refusing to honor God or give thanks to him. He exchanged the glory of God for men (Romans 1:19-23).

But thanks be to God that Christ came to set us free, to give us life and to have it abundantly (John 10:10). Through the Father’s great love, Christ’s sacrifice, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, men can love, protect, rule, provide, and give themselves for others, exercising the Dominion Mandate of Genesis 1 to the glory of God and their fellow man. They can work, not to murder and destroy and wither, but to build and worship and love and bring out the glory of nature and man who is made in God’s image. For that end let us rise and worship the Trinity!

He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed!

There is plenty of joy coming from Easter and the Easter season, and for good reason: our Lord lives, and his word was vindicated, giving great hope, joy, and confidence to all his followers, both then and now.

Not only did his death clear our slate of sins, but by his resurrection, we weren’t left in a “neutral” state as cleansed sinners who have no power to live faithfully. How so? Paul says in Romans 4:25 that Jesus was also “raised for our justification.” Because Jesus is alive, and we are united to him in baptism, we now have and share his resurrected life, and in him, are made right with the Father, even as he is right with the Father: “…just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life” (Romans 6:4b).

Is there more to Jesus’ resurrection? Absolutely! One more obvious point is that Jesus was resurrected as a King, as our Lord. Kings and lords not only save their citizens, but they also judge them. In fact, in Israel, the King was the top “elder” in the gate; he helped all the elders judge the people according to God’s law (see Absalom’s rebellious story).

What does that mean for us? It means that we who share his resurrected life must also live faithfully lest we come under his judgment! In our joy and celebration we can’t forget we were raised for a purpose: a faithful life lived under the watchful eye of our Judge. For the Father has fixed a day when he will judge the world by Jesus, and he gave assurance of that by raising Jesus from the dead! (Acts 17:31).

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5b–6a). We respond: “He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!”

The words above from Luke 24 were the first words spoken by the two angels to the women who had come to prepare Jesus’ body for burial. After telling the disciples, Jesus first appears to Mary Magdalene near the tomb while she is weeping. She supposes him to be the gardener, but after his speaking, recognizes him as the Lord, who then sends her to tell the disciples she has seen the Lord.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus appeared to a woman first? Why is that? The text doesn’t tell us, but we can learn something thinking about it biblically.

We could say that Jesus is the Seed of the woman. He’s crushed the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15), fulfilling his promise to the Woman, and so daughters of Eve are the first to witness it/Him. A great biblical answer, as it honors the Bride.

Another answer is to realize that the first Adam needed a helpmeet, and that the first human person he meets in the garden is Eve. Now we have the Second Adam, Jesus, in a garden, and the first human person he meets is Eve’s daughter, Mary Magdalene, who had ministered to him throughout his ministry in Galilee, (Mark 15:40–41). She had been a “helpmeet” of sorts before his death, and now, after his resurrection, she is presented to him, and she helps! She carries a message to the disciples, as well as being a witness that he is alive! As the first Eve was the glory of Adam in the garden, so Mary is the glory of Jesus as she praises him in a garden, “Rabboni,” and helps by carrying a message. Further testimony, perhaps, that Jesus is the Second Adam, and that he loves and honors his Bride!

“He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed!”

In the book of Ezra, Ezra the Priest is quite appalled to hear that the exiles had intermarried with Canaanites, one of the very sins that sent them into exile in the first place. They had broken faith by taking wives of the Canaanites, so that they mixed the holy race with the peoples of the lands (Ezra 9:1-2). They vowed then to put away their wives and the children of these unlawful marriages.

The people had jeopardized the seed line of the coming Messiah, for these were the remnants of Judah (and Benjamin) involved.

But is there any present day application for the church? For us as Christian couples and our children? At least two obvious ones.

First, Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 7:39 is a reflection of Ezra: “free to be married…only in the Lord.” As Christians, we can only marry Christians. Couples need to keep this in mind, as death or divorce may break up an existing marriage, and Jesus gives his word on how to rectify that, should the remaining spouse desire to do so. That’s wisdom for us, our children, other believers, and believing relatives. We need to give a sure word to those who find themselves single again.

Secondly, Christians ought not to date non-Christians. That’s strong language, but why date someone you can’t marry? That’s only setting up a very strong temptation to disobey Jesus. Yet Paul’s admonition in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 is strong! Paul directly says, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” A dating/courtship relationship with an unbeliever is an unequal yoke, and setting oneself, or our children, up for an unequal yoke: marriage to an unbeliever.

Paul is not hard to interpret here. He goes on: “what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? What portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?” He strongly states the principle in verse 17: “be separate from them.” At least in marriage. In short, don’t jeopardize yourself or your faithful line.

One of the recurring themes that the apostle James returns to several times in his epistle is the sinful nature of the human tongue.

In 4:11–12, he specifically deals with brothers who speak evil of one another. This tendency to speak evil of each other has deep roots in mankind’s sinful nature. Adam spoke evil of his wife, Cain spoke evil of his brother, Miriam and Aaron spoke evil against Moses, Korah spoke evil against Moses and Aaron, Sanballat and Tobiah Slandered Nehemiah… you get the idea. James is addressing a deep-rooted sin within the body.

James says that, “He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.” (4:11b). And so in judging the law, they have ceased to be doers.

What is the summary of the law that Jesus gives? Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself. But when speaking evil of a brother, a Christian is speaking evil of this law, of Jesus’ words and Jesus’ commands — his is not loving his neighbor, his brother. And so in setting themselves up as judges of the law over and against each other, they have failed to do the law.

James goes on to say: “There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?” (4:12). This should make believers very fearful of sitting in judgement of brothers, of speaking evil against those for whom Jesus has died.

So when you are tempted to speak evil of your brothers, remember instead that Judgement is Jesus’ job, not ours. We would be wise to keep this in mind and not attempt to usurp the role of God.

2 Timothy 3.1-9 is another one of those “last days” passages that our Christian brothers often take as applicable here and now, as if we are in the last days. But as I showed in the last Weekly Perspective, “last days” has a wide pedigree in the Bible, such as in Joel 2, Acts 2, Hebrews 1, and it is clear from Acts 2 and Hebrews 1 that Peter and Paul are talking about events in “their” day.

The same is true here in 2 Timothy 3. Paul says that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. Is he warning us, 2000 years later? Well, no he isn’t; he is warning Timothy about their day and time so that Timothy is a better pastor and won’t be caught off guard. Again, the context alerts us to the faithful reading.

Paul mentions in verse 2 that people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, etc. What does he say about such people in verse 5? Avoid them! Avoid them because they will mislead you, Timothy, and pervert your ministry! Then Paul goes on to judge these men, saying they won’t get very far, for their folly will be plain to all. How so? Because these men oppose the truth, men who are disqualified regarding their faith. Paul is speaking in the present tense about these men, warning Timothy to avoid them. In contrast to the men of verse 1-9, Paul praises Timothy for having followed his teaching, conduct, faith, patience, etc. in verses 10-11. Timothy is contrasted with the living wicked of his day who suffer shipwreck of faith.

How do we apply these passages today? Well, there are still wicked people around and they still can and do attack pastors and spoil their ministries. Present day pastors, and their flocks, should avoid them!