No Favoritism!

"...since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him."
Ephesians 6:9

This is not a new idea.  God does not accept bribes or look at us and think, "Hmm, he has a lot of gold; I should be nicer to him."  No, He is maker of all and owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  And this has been taught from of old.

"For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes."  Dt. 10:17

"For God does not show favoritism." Rom 2:11

 We see also from scripture that God doles out punishment justly:

"It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism." Col. 3:24-25

In James we are given a greater glimpse as to why we also should not show favoritism.

"My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism." Jms 2:1 NIV
"My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality." Jms 2:1 New KJV

First of all we are not to show favoritism.  We are not to hold this faith in our Lord and show partiality.  It is in view of the Lord that all distinctions disappear.

Now the Greek could actually be translated (according to some experts) as "of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Glory"!  James is making an incredibly strong statement that this Jesus is Divine—He is the Shekinah Glory that filled the tabernacle in Moses' day.

But see that it as we come to the Lord Jesus, in the Light of His Glory, that all our distinctions evaporate and become as nothing.  It is in His Light that we see light (Ps. 36:9).  We are not to look at the outward appearances and the trappings and baubles that glitter and glint.  No, we are to look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.  Then we will have the mind of Christ.

It's not as though we never make distinctions or judge things.  Remember how the Lord judges things?  He looks at the heart, not the appearance (1 Sam. 16:7).  We have to look upon things the way that the Lord looks upon them, and that is not through favoritism.  Remember that the only thing "that counts is faith expressing itself in love" (Gal 5:6).  We must remember that we are all one in Christ; all earthly distinctions that divide us are gone.  (Gal. 3:26 - 29).

Consider Peter in Acts 10.  He had the Old Testament, he was able to quote from it and had already preached powerfully from it.  But he still didn't understand this point.  But suddenly he was confronted with what God really thought:

"Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.”" Acts 10:34

We need to be confronted with the Glory of the Risen Lord and then we will see our place in His body correctly.  Then we will be useful to Him and to one another.

October!

October!
Fair month of a thousand scents and memories,
Laden with the weight of a night that presses in
             pressed down and squeezes the daylight
                                      into less
                                              and less.
Then warms the days and frosts the nights,
   turning leaves to transient jewels:
       marveled masterpieces of ruby, amber, opal, topaz;
Chill that crisps the air and makes it catch upon the breath,
    that holds the breath as a gossamer phantom before it slowly flies away;
Crunch under foot of a thousand leaves that finished their journey
    from sap of Spring to fragments of Fall.
   
Oh October! 
Hale breath of cooling answering to the smokey, dusty voice of Summer,
Heavy with the promise of moisture,
     renewing rain and moody mists.
Anticipation runs high upon news of your arrival.
Come now and shower us with Autumn's blessings.

D. Benning, (c) 2015

Glade Creek Grist Mill, Babcock State Park, West Virginia

Come See My Zeal

Jer. 35  The Recabites.

Compare this to 2 Kings 10:15 - 16, where Jehu, freshly anointed king over Israel and given the task of wiping out Ahab's wicked family, meets Jonadab.  "Come, see my zeal for the Lord," Jehu exclaims to Jonadab.  But see how far Jehu's zeal lasted.  It flagged.  It was second soil religiosity, springing up at once, but withering quickly thereafter.

Yet Jonadab inculcated something into his offspring so that they were committed to following their fore-father's commands more than 250 years later.  He made his family take a strict Nazarite vow: no wine.  Wine is given to bring joy to men's hearts (Ps. 104:15), but if man finds his joy in the Lord and in His presence and Word, wine is not needed.  Wine used wrongly deadens the mind and the heart to reality.  Jonadab wanted his family to be aware of reality and not rely on worldly things for temporary joy.

He also, beyond the Nazarite vow, made them be nomads and tent-dwellers.  Such dwelling reinforced practical life lessons each and every day (according to Matthew Henry):

• A tent-dweller is seen as a poor, indigent person, teaching them to be humble.
• A tent is not suited to a life of ease with ivory & gold beds, teaching them not to indulge the body & its wants.
• Being nomadic and wandering means they do not own property, teaching them that they should not hold onto things of this earth.

We don't know at what occasion Jonadab instructed his family to do this.  Perhaps it was because of the wicked and opulent life-style of Ahab and the off-spring of Ahab.  Perhaps it was because Jehu said, "Come see my zeal for the Lord" but in the end had not zeal for the Lord but rather trusted in things and relished luxury and pleasure over anything of true religion.

And so the family line of Jonadab continued in this way of living for more than 250 years.  Contrast that with the wicked king Jehoiakim who brazenly defied and despised the Word of the Lord.  The Lord gave each their just reward.  Jehoiakim met death and ignominy; the Recabites were promised there would always be someone in that family line that would serve the Lord.  That means that somewhere today there is at least one who comes from Jonadab who is loving the Lord and serving Him.  No greater joy for a parent than to see their children walking in truth! (3 John 4)

Now who were the Recabites?

In 1 Chr 2:55 we see that they were Kenites: "These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab."

Who then were the Kenites?

In Judges 1:16 we see that they were the descendants of Moses' father-in-law: "And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people."

They remained in Israel and Judah that whole time but distinct.  This is a picture of how Christians are to live in this world: in the world but not of the world.  Notice also that they were not isolated, solitary individuals, but were clans—a body fitly joined together like we read in Ephesians 4 (esp. 4:16).

So make sure you have zeal—that is good.  But make sure it is zeal according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2) and make sure that is it a zeal that burns consistently and constantly unto the end for the Lord.  Don't be a flash in the pan only to turn into ash that is scraped out and tossed away.  Keep feeding the fire of your zeal with the rich word of the Holy Scriptures and let the Spirit fan it into flame.  He is the breath that blows across the smoldering coals of our heart and He is the oil which is fuel for the flame.  Burn brightly and burn consistently, but burn for Him!

His Manifold Wisdom

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Eph. 3:10 - 11

This view that Paul gives us through the Holy Spirit is amazing.  God has so many things going on all at once, all interconnected and contingent upon each other and ultimately upon Himself.  He is working all of them out to His goal.  Here we see that we are not the ultimate.  The church is not the ultimate.  Rather the church and each of us in the church are used as His instrument whereby others are shown the multi-faceted wisdom of God.

Who is He showing this off to?

KJV: "...unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places..."  (Literally in the Greek, "in the heavenlies").
NIV: "...to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms..."

Who are these "principalities"?

• Eph 1:21  Christ is above them all
• Eph 3:10  they are in the heavenlies
• This is where Christ is seated.  Eph 1:20
•  This is where we are blessed in Christ.  Eph 1:3
•  This is our goal, where we are going.  Heb 11:16
• These "principalities" are good angels and evil demons and are thus much more powerful than we are.  Yet God makes the good angels to be ministering servants to us who inherit salvation (Heb 1:14).  And there is nothing that the evil demons can do to thwart God's purpose nor remove us from His Love in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:38 - 39).

This is all sure and secure because He has eternally purposed this in Christ Jesus (Eph 3:11).  See how secure His purpose is and stands?

This is what the Lord says,
  he who appoints the sun
    to shine by day,
  who decrees the moon and stars
    to shine by night,
  who stirs up the sea
    so that its waves roar—
    the Lord Almighty is his name:
  “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”
    declares the Lord,
  “will Israel ever cease
    being a nation before me.”
Jer. 31:35 - 36

This Mighty God works out everything in conformity to His Plan (Eph 1:11) and His Plan is to make us holy and blameless (Eph. 1:4), thus holy and blameless we will be.  Therefore it is in our best interest to get on board and be part of His Plan and submit to His purpose and undergo that work of sanctification and be changed into the likeness and image of His Son!

But just because God is wielding His church as an instrument, showing off to the heavenlies His great wisdom, doesn't mean that God thinks any less of us at all.  In fact Paul emphasized to his readers just how great God's love for us is.  Eph 3:18 - 19 says that the love of Christ is wide and long and high and deep and surpasses knowledge.  What encouragement!  God loves us and is using us for our good and His glory.  And nothing will undo nor thwart His loving purpose for us!

Prelude to Revival

In 2 Kings 23 we read of all the good that Josiah di: so much evil overthrown, so many false gods and idols destroyed and purged.  Even some that had been there since the time of Solomon more than 300 years before.  It's interesting to note that there had already been several kings of whom it was said they "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord," yet Solomon's idol-worshiping place stayed.  How tradition and history becomes a part of everyday life so that we can't see how sinful it really is—until God brings revival.

Note, this was a time that was prophesied about during the early years of Jeroboam I, almost 300 years earlier.  God's word and promises are always true.  But why did it happen in Josiah's 18th year of reign?

There were steps leading up to this.

Josiah became king at age 8.  The summary statement about him was that:

 “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.”
 2 Kings 22:2

So he did a little in the limited knowledge he had and God worked in his heart to seek Him more:

 “In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David.”
 2 Chr. 34:3

Thus when he was sixteen years old, he followed God more.  God blessed that and gave Josiah a heart to start purging the land of all sorts of idols by the time he was almost twenty:

 “In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols.”
 2 Chr. 34:3

God further blessed this further obedience by sending a prophet, Jeremiah, who began preaching, teaching and exhorting the people when Josiah was 20 or 21 years old.

 “For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again...”
 Jer. 25:3

It's obvious that Josiah took the words to heart because he started purifying the land and the temple in his 18th years (when he was 26 years old):

  “In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent [people] to repair the temple of the Lord his God.”
  2 Chr. 34:8

That's when the Book of the Law was discovered.  Notice that obedience is rewarded with further revelation of God and His will.  The proper response is humility and zealous obedience.  In view of the Law being found and read, Josiah is humble and wants to hear from the Lord.  In view of the Lord's response, he goes out and obeys with great joy and zeal.  Suddenly things that had been accepted as normal and tradition for hundreds of years were understood to be detestable in God's sight so they no longer wanted those things around.

The only way to have real revival is to obey the revealed truth that you already know, then humbly ask for more revelation and then obey the new understanding with great humility, joy and fervor.

That is why Josiah served God all his days and had a revival in his time.