Lessons Learned from Jesus Raising Lazarus from the Dead

Today I read the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11. There are many lessons I can learn from this story.

Firstly, Jesus really cares about his friends. Mary (the one who poured perfume on Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, at the home of Simon the leper in Mark 14 - not to be confused with the unnamed "sinful woman" who did the same at the home of Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7), whose brother Lazarus (not to be confused with the beggar also named Lazarus in Jesus' parable in Luke 16) was very sick. She and her sister Martha sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” These sisters knew Jesus' heart for his friend. They knew they can trust him to do something to help his friend. When their brother was sick they immediately thought of Jesus to get help from him. I can learn to trust Jesus more and more this way. I have been practicing praying for my patients, often right before I walk into the examination room to see them.

Secondly, God's delay in answering prayers will result in God's Son being glorified through it. Here in this story, instead of immediately going to see Lazarus, Jesus deliberately delayed his trip by 2 days because: “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Although Lazarus did die, it gave Jesus the opportunity to raise him from the dead! He explained this plainly to his disciples: "...and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe." When I did the math, it dawn on me that his delay to see Lazarus didn't result in Lazarus' death because when he finally arrived Lazarus had already been dead for at least 4 days (verse 17)!

Thirdly, even though I have been raised with Christ (Colossians 3:1-4), I still have grave clothes that need my brothers and sisters to help remove them! After Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the tomb, he told those with him: "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." (verse 44). I think my grave clothes include the lust of the flesh and the pride of life...

"For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world." (1 John 2:16)

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)

There are other people raised from the dead in the bible. There were at least 3 in the Old Testament and 5 specifically named in the New Testament plus a whole bunch of "saints" following Jesus' death on the cross. This is an interesting record of these people.

Let Him Who Is Without Sin Cast the First Stone

This morning I came upon this familiar story found in John 8:1-11:
but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

At first I thought this would be a wonderful lesson from Jesus on how to deal with impossible questions. Similar to the story when Jesus was asked "Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?" (Matthew 22:15-22), Jesus was caught in "no-win" situations where either a "yes" or a "no" answer would get hm into trouble. The question was a trap by the Pharisees (and the teachers of the law) to either discredit Jesus' moral authority (thus diminishing his popularity), or to get him into trouble with the Roman law (thus landing him in court). In this story with the woman caught in adultery, he diffused the highly charged atmosphere by redirecting the angry mob's focus on his writing on the ground - it is entirely speculative as to exactly what he was writing. Then he addressed the question with a third possible answer: let the person without guilt execute God's judgement on another person. Jesus was not condoning the act of adultery. Adultery was especially addressed in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:14). Moses' law prescribed the severe punishment of death for both the man and the woman (Deuteronomy 22:22-24). Stoning seemed to be the preferred choice of capital punishment. It is worth noting that this law applied to a particular situation where a man slept with a woman already engaged to another man. The purpose of the law was to "purge evil from Israel". Jesus certainly knew that the law was about sexual purity and the sanctity of marriage - both of which was God's design for humanity. However, he also knew that God's greater design for man was to keep from all impurity in order that we may approach the holy (perfectly pure) God. Who is without sin (Romans 3:23)? Who is not under God's condemnation (Romans 6:23)? The accusers of the adulterous woman understood that. They left without casting the stones in their hands. It is sad that they left without knowing the Savior who would eventually bear their sins on the cross.

I also learned this morning that this passage has some controversy whether it should be included in the bible! See this article from Christianity Today. So for the first time I noticed that this section was marked off in the biblegateway.com NIV translation.

So these are my take home lessons:

• Praise God that Jesus has born our sins on the cross!
• When caught in no-win situations, stay calm, ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, love as Jesus loved - even the accusers,  look behind the issue - there is usually a moral dimension to it.
• Forgiveness is always the better way!

Responding to a war stricken world

Yesterday while driving from San Diego to Yuma, my wife and I were listening to a very nice sermon (a podcast by Tim Keller) on Isaiah 6. What was new to me was the fact that Isaiah was not only a great prophet, but that he was possibly King Uzziah's first cousin - i.e. his father Amoz was the brother of King Amaziah according to Jewish tradition (Talmud, Megillah 14b - see wikianswers.com). This piece of trivial fact may be relevant to explain his sense of guilt on behalf of the people of Israel when he witnessed the glory of the Lord in the temple:
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5)

This morning's scripture reading is from 1 Chronicles chapters 1-3. It is full of history of the genealogy of God's chosen people - from the time of Adam and Eve, to the time of captivity of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. What got me interested was the origin of the "enemies" Israel was told  to defeat in order to possess God's promised land. These original inhabitants of the promised land were related to Israel from way back!
“I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. (Exodus 23:27-30)

Who were the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites?
The Hivites and Hitties were all descendants of Canaan, son of Ham! (1 Chronicles 1:13-15).

During the divided kingdom (Judah and Israel) there were other enemies like the Moabites, Amorites, Kenites (Midianites), Edomites, Ammonites, and Amalekites (see Nations of the Bible Land). The Moabites and Ammonites were descendants of Lot (Abraham's nephew) through incest with his own daughters: "Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day." (Genesis 19:36-38). The Amorites were descendants of Canaan (1 Chronicles 1:14). The Edomites and the Amalekites were descended from Esau who is the brother of Jacob and son of Isaac. "Now these are the records of the generations of Esau (that is, Edom)." (Genesis 36:1).

As I traced back to the origin of all these peoples who were fighting each other throughout the ancient history, I was struck by the many wars between essentially related people groups, in Europe and in Asia during the world wars, and today, between related people groups in Africa and the Middle East.

These verses of James came to mind:
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. (James 4:1-2)

And what can I do to be a peacemaker in this war stricken world? Isaiah responded by total humility and total surrender to God's call, regardless of how hopeless the situation maybe. It will only happen when I see God's holiness and glory:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)

Jehoram, King of Judah and lessons on raising children

Not to be confused with the other Jehoram, King of Israel, King Jehoram of Judah was the oldest son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah. Jehoram was 32 when he took the kingdom, and he reigned eight years. Before he became king, he had married Athaliah, the daughter of Israel's King Ahab. Athaliah was evil, brought up by Ahab and Jezebel, and she greatly influenced Jehoram to reject the Lord. He murdered all of his brothers and many of the top leaders, just in case they had any thoughts of overthrowing him. But God had made His covenant with David, and therefore would not utterly destroy his descendants (2King 8:16-24). Jehoram's father (Jehoshaphat) and grandfather (Asa) both followed the Lord during their reign. Why did Jehoram turn out the way he did? This seems to be a recurrent theme in scripture. Good parents don't always produce good children. I am not referring to whether godly parents will always produce godly children. I am simply thinking of characters of the children. Did the parents do something wrong? Did they not follow the wisdom of scripture on how to raise children? Or does scripture provide sufficient tips of raising children?

Openbible.info quoted 29 biblical references on raising children. These are some of the the main themes:

(1) Teach your children God's word:

• "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." (Deuteronomy 6:7)
• "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

(2) Discipline your children (which some have wrongly used to justify corporal punishment):

• Verses on physical punishment come primarily from Proverbs - "Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die." (Proverbs 23:13); "Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." (Proverbs 13:24)
• Discipline can involve the body of believers - “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear." (Deuteronomy 21:18-21). This had to be a very serious situation, i.e. the son must have committed a very serious crime. 
• Discipline should be guided by love in obedience to God's commands -  "Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death." (Proverbs 19:18); "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4); "Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged." (Colossians 3:21)

(3) Love them the way Jesus did, for children are gifts from God!

• But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)
• "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate." (Psalm 127:3-5)

(4) Provide for them and pray for them:

• "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." (1Timothy 5:8)
• "For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there." (1Samuel 1:27-28)

But there is no guarantee. The problem is the same as the problem of evil and suffering. God loves us too much to restrict our freedom to choose - and like our own children, we make wrong choices. But I do believe that God is sovereign. He will intervene from time to time to bring about salvation to those He loves - especially our own children. And just as he was faithful to King David (He did not destroy Judah even though Jehoram was such an evil king) He will keep His promises to me also.

Sins of Jeroboam

The sin(s) of Jeroboam (or its variation) appeared about 25 times in scripture in the NIV translation. Typically it is used like this:

"He did evil in the eyes of the Lord by following the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, and he did not turn away from them."(2King 13:6)

What did he do that was so bad that he continued to have influences on the people of Israel for generations to come?

In my reading of  1King 12-13 today I came across the story that described the first "sin" of Jeroboam. This sermon summarizes it quite well. Firstly, Jeroboam was a man who had been tremendously blessed by God. God, through the prophet Ahijah, gave him his own kingdom made up of 10 tribes of Israel as a punishment for Solomon's sins (1King 11:26-40). God also promised him the same promise he gave to King David: "If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you." (verse 38). But instead of living by God's promise, Jeroboam relied on his political wisdom to keep his kingdom. He made two golden calves, one he put in Bethel (which means House of God) and another one in Dan. He did this to keep his people from worshiping the true God in Jerusalem. He built "shrines" in high places (more idols in convenient locations!) and installed his own priests who were not from the tribe of Levi (whom God had set aside to perform religious duties). He even instituted his own religious festival (the fifteenth day of the eighth month, instead of the Passover which happened on the fifteenth day of the first month on the Jewish calendar) to keep his people focusing on the entire religious experience outside of what Jehovah has established with the people of Israel!

So what does this "sin of Jeroboam" look like today? I can think of churches or religious organizations which provide an entire religious experience without drawing anyone closer to the true God. In fact I can think of even "evangelical" churches doing the same thing! My pastor Bruxy Cavey wrote a book to address this issue:"The End of Religion".  The Meeting House is a church for people who aren't into church. I am well aware that there is no perfect churches. I take responsibility in making sure that my relationship is with the true living God. It takes intentional effort to learn who the true God is and build deep and lasting relationship with Him. The "sins of Jeroboam" serve as a warning...

The story concerning "A Man of God from Judah" in chapter 13 is troublesome. After a quick read, I come up with a number of questions:

• I know that King Jeroboam was entirely corrupt and God needed to intervene to save his people, but the man of god from Judah did not exactly accomplish the purpose. Then what was the purpose for his trip and the prophecy?
• He kept his intention to obey the Lord's command to him (not to eat and drink in Israel and return via another road), but why was the punishment so severe (killed by a lion) after he was fooled by a lying old prophet?

I won't have time to go deeper into this except to accept that he had an important role in sending an incredible prophecy to Jeroboam (which would be fulfilled some 350 years later!). He obviously was not without fault - he succumbed to temptations (food, drink and honour). Aren't we all guilty of that? But praise be to God that his mercy through his son Jesus Christ has been covering us all from not only immediate punishment, but everlasting condemnation!