December 2022 – The Way of Christ Ministries

Luke 13:34 Tough Love

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

Ref: Luke 13:34; Zechariah 2 Chronicles 24:20; Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51

While the Lord says that he has sent prophet after prophet to lead Israel to repentance time and time again they would not listen and continued in their idolatries. Jesus has someone specific in mind when he is talking about the prophets they killed. He has a bold example of the killing of a prophet the exemplifies his meaning. Both Matthew 23 and Luke 11 elaborate on this prophet. His death is quickly mentioned in 2 Chronicles, almost as an incidental circumstance that many Jews dismissed as a part of their checkered past. The death of this prophet would seem to be insignificant in Gods plans, however, we see that God did not forget him. Jesus is giving testimony of what King David wrote, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:15). If not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Almighty God knowing, and the blood of the righteous cry out to God day and night, surely the death of his loved ones echoes through his heart at all times. Here in Luke 13 Jesus tells us that, not only does he remember, but this very generation will be held accountable for the blood, of all the saints, including this one unremembered prophet.

This generation thought of themselves as more enlightened than their predecessors. They told themselves that they were better then their forefathers, that they would not have killed the prophets of old if they were sent to them. They are far superior in understanding and more fearful of God then their generations before them. But Jesus says, no.. I have sent you prophets, and you have killed them also. One such prophet that we know of is John the Baptist who was beheaded. Jesus also knew that they would soon kill him. Not only that Jesus knew that they would also kill those who follow after him, in his name. Here Matthew’s version of this event:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:29-37).

The prophet Zacharias was slain in 2 Chronicles 24:20 because the princes of Judah pleaded with the king to allow them to let them worship other Gods. The king consented and this led them to trespass against God and to violate their covenant relationship with God. The LORD in his mercy sent them prophets to warn them of their trespass and to have them repent and return to him. But they rejected the words of the LORD sent by his prophets. Then the scripture says, “Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them. And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass. Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear. And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it.” (2 Chronicles 24:17-22).

Just six short verses and the fate of the nation was sealed, by their own actions, not Gods. But did you catch the last verse? It says, “The LORD look upon it, and require it”. For those who do not understand plain English, it says that the Lord saw this and held them accountable for the death of his servant Zechariah. Now here in the New Testament passages we read we see that God has not forgotten the death of Zechariah. We find a truth about God that many want to ignore. God does remember. God does hold us accountable.

We all love to hear about the love of God, but many want to ignore the part where God requires that all sin be accounted for. The distorted Gospel of Love and Prosperity has mislead millions into a watered down Christianity. Many Christians in western society do not even see the need for Christ to be involved in their salvation. They believe that God forgives all and that they can do as they please with no fear of death or judgement. They do not understand that it is the love of God that sent his son, Jesus (Emmanuel – God with us), to come and to sacrifice his life so that we might have eternal life. Might is the operative work that Jesus himself uses, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:17). That is that salvation is made possible though Jesus Christ, but it is ONLY through him that a man can be saved. (Acts 4:12) Faith in Jesus as the Son of God, and the Lamb of God, who came to sacrifice himself for us, is the only way, by trusting in this grace of God, can a man be saved. It is FAITH in Jesus.

Unfortunately, many in this world have been so lied to that they don’t even know what they are being saved from of why it is necessary. They think that just saying they believe in Jesus and getting baptized has saved them. But this in not according to scripture, they have believed a half-truth. They do not know that salvation comes by true repentance, and faith. This real repentance and faith in who God is, what his wrath is, and the mercy he has shown in Jesus Christ requires a change in our hearts and in our lives. They do not understand the scriptures that say we have not been delivered from sin, so that we might sin more. That is because the church of the west has failed to keep its own doctrines. We are not so different from the Jews of their time who say that they would not have killed the prophets yet could not see that they are just as guilty. So, we say, if we were alive when Jesus was here, we would have believed, and changed, and would not have killed him. We would have listened to God. Yet here we sit with all out 20/20 hindsight, and yet we still act as if Jesus does not really exist, and we don’t listen to God, and remain in our sin.

The western church sees confession of Jesus as a means to bind God into their selfish desires. They wish to remain in their sins, to enjoy the freedom of sinning as they please and require that God just accept them as they are. If he is loving, then he must accept them and their sin. Surely, he wants them to be happy. In addition, since they sometimes show up at church, God is expected to bless them for giving the time of day. They recite promises of God and expect that he his honor bound to keep them, even though they have not met the scriptural basis for the promised blessing. In truth, they have not even read, much less studied to see the conditions of the promise. Yet every man that walks today is an authority on God.

By way of example, did you listen to what Zechariah told the princes of Judah? “Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you.” (2 Chronicles 24:20) There it is plain as day. The blessings of the LORD come from obedience to the will of God. God is not a god among many gods. Jesus is not a way among many ways to God. The Word of God is not a truth among many truths. God says I am the LORD thy God, there is no other salvation. (Isaiah 43:5; 45:5) Thou shalt have no other Gods. (Hosea 13:4; Exodus 20:2-3) Thou should not make unto the any graven image, or any likeness… not bow down to them. (Exodus 20:4-5)

This is the same thing that every prophet has ever said, this is what Zechariah said, and this is what Jesus said. God is merciful and loving. He reaches out in love to be your God. He rewards those who love him with his loving kindness, his presence, and all the benefits of him being their God. Their only God. Those who love him and keep his commandments. Those who say they love him and demonstrate their love for him, he will be their God. Those who do not keep his commandment, obviously do not love him. The LORD does not want lip service. He does not want divided loyalties. Those who do not follow his commandments with their heart, he will visit their iniquity upon them and their descendants. That is serious stuff.

Now in this passage, Jesus is talking to the children of Israel. He says, “O Jerusalem”. Jesus is in mourning over the judgement that they have continuously brought upon themselves. God did not want to pronounce judgement, he desired to protect them from their enemies, and most of all from themselves. We who have children can certainly understand this dilemma. Sometimes, you must make the call you dread the most. Sometimes the only way to teach a child is with tough love. So if God would not spare the judgement of his own chosen people, the ones he called his first son, then what keeps him from judging his adopted children, or even more so, those who have rejected him? You see the same commandments he gave to Israel are what he gave to us. That we should love the LORD and love one another.

Mark 12:29-31 – And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
John 13:34 – A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
John 14:15 – If ye love me, keep my commandments.

You see the things of this world are perishing. People’s opinions are never important. Money never lasts. Values are lost or waisted on things that are destroyed by rust, or moths, or eventually buried in dust. “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2:17) This is not an Old Testament scripture. It is important to see that the will of the LORD must be adhered to in order to be saved. You see, in order to know the will of the LORD, you must first acknowledge that God does exist. Then you have to know that he let us know what his will is. That means that you have to accept the bible as the Word of God. In it contains the plan of salvation from cover to cover. This plan points indirectly and directly to Jesus Christ as the way the LORD desires that men should be saved. It is his WILL than all should be saved. But they must come to him though his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus says if you love me… This means that you have to believe on him, that he first loved you, and that he gave his life for you. You must believe that he is God and there for LORD. If he is LORD then you are his servant. Servants love their LORD and are obedient. Servant can only serve one LORD. Jesus says, If you love me… keep my commandments. Love the LORD your God with everything in you and love one another has he, the LORD, loves us. How much does he love us? He loves us enough that he died for us, in our place. How much should we love God? How much should we love one another? We can put aside of selfishness and piety now. We can just rest in our love and trust of Jesus and love one another because the LORD loves us.

The Story of Samson

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The ministry of God’s Judgement through Samson (1085-1065 B.C.) is found in the seventh book of the Old Testament. It is in chapters 13-16 of the book of Judges where we find the story of the last judge of Israel mentioned. The story of Samson is also the longest narrative of a judge in this epic volume. It takes place in a time where God had delivered Israel into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years prior to his appointment of Samson to “begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines” (Judges 13.5). The completion of the Deliverance would not be until the reign of King David (2 Samuel 5:17-22). It is like the beginning of our deliverance from death in Jesus Christ. Jesus began his redemptive work on the cross, but it will not be completed until the final chapters of Revelation when the wrath of God has been poured out, Israel is delivered and after the final judgement, where death and the hell are cast into the Lake of Fire.

This is an interesting position in history to consider for a moment because Samson is from the Israeli tribe of Dan. When God originally led Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land, God told them to go and conquer the people of the land and take possession. The tribe of Dan failed to do this in the lands that they were given. In fact, the land that they were originally given was in possession of the Philistines. If they would have been in obedience to God, then the oppression and long wars with the Philistines would have been avoided. (Tribe of Dan Facts, History & Descendants | What Happened to the Tribe of Dan?, n.d.)

Samson is the 14^th in a long line of Judges covered in the book so named. In the 13^th chapter we see that the birth of Samson was announced to his parents, prior to his being conceived, and that Samson was set aside by the Lord for a specific purpose. The purpose was to be a deliverer for Israel. Because of this, his mother was not to pollute her body with “wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing” (Judges 13:4). This would show the importance of how an expectant mother should be careful of what she exposes her yet born baby to while she is pregnant. Anyway, Samson himself was to be a Nazarite his whole life. The Law of the Nazarite is a very serious and particularly holy law of separation of oneself to the Lord. It is detailed in the book of Numbers 6:1-21 and involves special sacrifices and ceremonies. In addition, it has a strict code of sanctification that involves abstaining from drinking anything made from the vine, cutting of the hair, and not touching anything that is dead. You cannot even be in the presence of a dead body, even it by accident. As we read the story of Samson, we see that he violated every condition of the Nazarite vow. We see that even though you have strength, it is nothing without fellowship with God, and that God resist the prideful.

While Samson was set to be the example of a righteous deliverer, he failed to live up to the expectations. Samson breaks vows, marries outside of his people, visits harlots, drinks to drunkenness, engages in vengeance, and is prideful, arrogant, and self-centered. Yet we also see that God’s will is not thwarted concerning his mission for Samson. The story of Samson in the bible jumps from his birth to his adulthood. We find then that he is asking his father to arrange his wedding to a Philistine woman. Despite the objections of his parents, he persists until his father makes the arrangements. On the way to the wedding Samson is found to be in a vineyard. There Samson is attacked by a lion and he kills the lion with his bear hands (Judges 14:5-6). Later as Samson is in route to claim his bride, he sees the carcass of the lion and in it is a honeycomb that bees have built. Samson takes some of the honey and tastes that it is sweet and then brings some to his mother and father. Samson does not tell them about the lion, nor about where he got this honey. Remember the conditions of the Nazarite, he cannot be in the presence of the dead, much less touch a dead animal, especially eat from the cavity of one. Samson has made himself unclean, and worse he has made his mother and father unclean without telling them. See how fast our secret sins can affect those we love?

Samson it seems has desired this wedding to have an opportunity to come up against the Philistines. Now for those who are unaware this is the third mention of Samson being around wine. First was in the vineyard with the lion, then he passed back through the vineyard, and now at the wedding feast. Now it does not say that he was doing any drinking, however he at the least is demonstrating a dangerous pattern of exposing himself to the availability to drink. This pattern would continue and eventual assist in the painful downfall of Sampson. The availability and expectancy to drink is especially assumed at the wedding feast. These were weeklong feasts where alcohol was consumed liberally. Remember how Jacob was deceived into consummating a wedding to the wrong girl because he drank to much at his wedding feast (Genesis 29). It would seem likely that Samson would have drunk wine at such a festive occasion so far from home. Especially because Samson sought an occasion to start an incident with the Philistines.

However, instead of consulting God, Samson has come up with his own plan on how to start a fight with the Philistines through this marriage. In the process of marrying this Philistine woman, Samson has disregarded the wishes of his father. Still, he has decided to make a wager with the guests at this wedding party to solve a riddle that they would not be able to solve. He has decided to use this event with the lion and the honey as the answer to the riddle. “out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness” (Judges 14:14). He knew that they could not possibly know the answer to the riddle, as the lion. He also knew that they would not be willing to pay the debt of the bet. Then when they refused to pay up to their end of the bet, he would have cause against them.

But the Philistines have told his bride to find the secret to the riddle or they will burn down her father’s house with them in it. Instead of confiding in Samson, she tricks him into the answer to the riddle and tells the Philistines. They tell Samson the answer and then Samson must live up to his end of the bet. His end was to deliver 30 sheets and 30 changes of garments (Judges 14:12). Samson was angered at the double-cross. Once again Samson does not consult God. To live up to his debt, Samson goes to another Philistine camp and murders them and takes their belongings and give it to his wedding party and then leaves without taking his bride. Later Samson cools of and returns to collect his bride, but the father has given her to another man.

Samson again, fails to consult God. Instead, Samson, in anger, traps 300 foxes and ties firebrands to their tails and sets them free upon the Philistines fields. The foxes burn up their fields, vineyards, and olive groves (Judges 15:4-5). This infuriates the Philistines. The philistines then burn to death Samson’s bride, and her father. Samson avenges himself against the Philistines, without consulting God, by murdering them (Judges 15:7-8). This leads to the Philistines coming against the Israelites and demanding that they turn over Samson or deal with the consequences. After some convincing from his brethren, Samson nobly agrees to be bound and handed over to the Philistines in order to protect his people.

Once in the Philistine encampment the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Samson, and he breaks his bonds and picks up the jawbone of an ass and slain a thousand Philistines (Judges 15:14-19). This was a good turning point for Samson. He has waited upon the Lord and the Lord delivered him out of the hands of his enemies. Samson judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years (Judges 15:20). But this is not the end of the story on Samson.

Samson falls for another woman who would be his undoing. The scripture does not say if she is a Philistine, but she is clearly in cohorts with them. She is offered a large sum of money by the Philistines to gather the secret behind his strength and to report it to them, so they can take him. Samson’s playing with her is very similar to us when we play with sin. Samson was with a woman who he should not have been with and played with her on the things that God had given him and what God had forbidden. That is his exceptional strength was dependent on his obedience to God with his Nazarite vow. As we have seen Samson violated the first part his commitment (Judges 14:8-9,19; 15:8,15), likely ignored the second, and now he would end up betraying himself into the violation of the final responsibility (16:13-17). Samson would toy with this gift of God and it would cost him his freedom, and his health, and his relationship with God. Scripture tells us the Samson “knew not that the LORD had departed from him.” (Judges 16:20). Samson had crossed the line in his sin and God abandoned him to his sin. (1 Samuel 15:23; 16:14; Romans 1:26; Hebrews 10:26). The result of Samsons life of sin had slowly led him into more and more bondage, until he had become a slave to those who he was sent to conquer. He had been deceived, weakened, bound, and blinded by his sin both physically and spiritually. How many Christians today live in poor health, weekend, and blinded physically and spiritually by their disobedience and lack of sanctification?

Still Samson is seen as an example of faith in the book of Hebrews (Hebrews 11:32). So then, Samson was redeemed despite his life of prideful disregard for the will of God and the Vow and Calling he had received. Samson in seeing the error of his ways and the life he waisted had repented and turned to God in faith. Samson prayed to God for the will of God to be done in him, even though he knew it would cost him his life. Here is yet another parallel we can see in our savior who prayed in the garden for the will of the Father to be done, even though he knew that he would have to die to complete it. God granted Samson his strength one last time and Samson destroyed the Philistine’s temple to Dagon and killed thousands of Philistines in sacrificing himself for Israel. Samson died a hero, but more importantly he died in faithful obedience to God.

We learn many things from Samson. We see that sanctification protects us from our own evil desires. We can see that toying with sin leads to sickness, blindness, away from fellowship with God, and eventually death. Sin always leads to death in the end. Here is what James writes to us, “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:15). If we would only listen to the words of wisdom in the epistle of James, and the example of Samson.

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We also see that God will leave us to our sin if we continuously reject him. (Isaiah 59:12) We see that God expects us to honor our vows before him. We also see that God gives us strengths and abilities that should be used to glorify him, but often we use them to glorify ourselves. We see that having a great gift from God does not make us godly. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:1 “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” It does not matter what our gift is, if we abuse it in self glorification then we have waisted the gift God gave us. Like Samson, his great gift of strength meant nothing until he matched it with obedience in faith in God. God was the deliverer of Israel; Samson was the servant of God in the end.

This gives us hope in Christ. We who have accepted Christ and yet have squandered the gift of life that he has given us and disobeyed his commandments to be sanctified, sin no more. Perform our duties of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ; We who have failed to teach and Baptist in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is this, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). His purposes will be fulfilled, and we can partake if we just humble ourselves and submit to his will.