Closer than ever

The Hope Beyond Josiah

(1 Chronicles 3:15-24, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 25, 2017)

[15] The sons of Josiah: Johanan the firstborn, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. [16] The descendants of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son; [17] and the sons of Jeconiah, the captive: Shealtiel his son, [18] Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah; [19] and the sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei; and the sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah, and Shelomith was their sister; [20] and Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, and Jushab-hesed, five. [21] The sons of Hananiah: Pelatiah and Jeshaiah, his son Rephaiah, his son Arnan, his son Obadiah, his son Shecaniah. [22] The son of Shecaniah: Shemaiah. And the sons of Shemaiah: Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat, six. [23] The sons of Neariah: Elioenai, Hizkiah, and Azrikam, three. [24] The sons of Elioenai: Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah, and Anani, seven.

Before we forge ahead with today's verses, it might serve us well to take a step back and consider for a moment what the Chronicler is doing in this retelling of Israelite history. He is writing for those who are living under the authority of worldly powers who do not share their understanding of God, of life, of the future, and of everything. The immediate recipients of these writings needed to have courage in the face of very difficult challenges. They needed to believe that God's promises were true, and that they should devote themselves to serving the Lord.

The sons and grandson of Josiah

Now back to the specific verses at the end of a section on the descendants of David. After good king Josiah, there were only disappointing rulers in Judah. The sons and grandson of Josiah were evil. They were not faithful in hearing and obeying the Word of the Lord.

The line of David in the captivity - The known

Yet the Lord's promises were not overturned by their wretched reigns. There would still be an eternal King who would one day come from the descendants of David. Who would that king be? When would he come? All the Chronicler could do was record what he knew, leaving these records for the consideration of future generations.

I recently read the unpublished memoir of a great man. At the end of his book he had to add more information to keep his account up to date. A few years had passed and there was more to say. He did that more than once. In the end it was up to someone else to record the day of his death and to make this parting comment in honor of a man who finished well: “A good and faithful servant who went to be with the Lord...” and the date of his death was entered. Inspiring.

Each of us can only say what we know, but the Lord knows everything. The Chronicler knew that the three sons and one grandson of Josiah had finished their years with a whimper. None of them had attained to the greatness of Josiah. One is noted here as “the captive” and his life was probably the best of those listed, though the story of even his immediate children and grandchildren is difficult to sort out. We read about his release from prison at the end of 2 Kings:

[27] And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. [28] And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. [29] So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king's table, [30] and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, as long as he lived.

The Chronicler does not include that kindness shown to the royal captive. He simply records this about the same king in 2 Chronicles 36:9-10:

[9] Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. [10] In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the precious vessels of the house of the LORD, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

He ends his book instead with the proclamation of Cyrus in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23:

[22] Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: [23] “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.’”

The Lord was in charge. He would accomplish all His purposes. It was time to go up. So hear were the names of the people in the line of David that we knew about to Zerubbabel and beyond.

The line of David in the captivity - The unknown - See Matthew 1 and Luke 3

This one had two sons, and another had five. One had six sons, another seven. The Chronicler put down what he knew, but he did not know everything. There were other descendants of Zerubbabel not listed here. Matthew 1 and Luke 3 includes the names of Abiud and Rhesa.

The eternal Son of God – We are closer than ever to the resurrection temple – Don't faint!

Their lines continued on and eventually led to Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. He displayed who He was not only by teaching with authority, but by doing the signs of Messiah recorded for us in the Old Testament prophets. Zerubbabel went back into the land and was important for the building of a new temple, but Jesus healed a leper by touching him and saying, “I will; be clean.” He took the leprosy of our sin on the cross and He rose from the dead. And there's more to come.

The kings of Judah after Josiah were all weak and evil. Yet the Lord preserved the line of David through the entire time of captivity, and far beyond the restoration right through the very unexpected coming of Jesus. Soon after his earliest months, a wicked ruler wanted Jesus dead before He had any chance to establish His kingdom. Yet God's kingdom is unstoppable. Our Savior, the first Man of a new resurrection era, lives. Far beyond anything that man could know or do, the final Son of David reigns forever as the eternal Son of God. Babylon rejects that message, but the citizens of a New Jerusalem believe. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart...”

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 19 – The Heavens, the Scriptures, and Our Plea to God

Gospel Reading—Matthew 8:1-4 – [1] When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. [2] And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” [3] And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. [4] And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

A Most Intimate Tiny House for God through Jesus

David's Royal Descendants

(1 Chronicles 3:10-14, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 18, 2017)

[10] The son of Solomon was Rehoboam, Abijah his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, [11] Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, [12] Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, [13] Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, [14] Amon his son, Josiah his son.

Solomon

It was a great desire of the Chronicler and the returning exiles to see the line of David reestablished with a descendant of David reigning again in Jerusalem. God had promised to bring forth an eternal King from this line who would rule over an everlasting kingdom. The legal line of kings that would lead to the Messiah would go through David's son, Solomon.

Evaluating people is not an easy endeavor. Evaluating those who have been used powerfully by God in an evil world is even harder. Ultimately we must leave it to God, although we need discernment in our relationships with others. When Jesus was called “good teacher” by someone in His day, He responded, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18) Paul also wrote about the universal iniquity of mankind quoting Psalm 14:1 saying, “No one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:12)

Solomon was a great man, but Psalm 14:1 applied to him as well. He was associated with wisdom, riches, and the great accomplishment of building the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. Isaiah commented on the seeming absurdity of a man building a house for God many years later, echoing statements God made to David and that Solomon made to the Almighty in Isaiah 66:1-2,

[1] Thus says the LORD:

“Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is my footstool;

what is the house that you would build for me,

and what is the place of my rest?

[2] All these things my hand has made,

and so all these things came to be,

declares the LORD.

But this is the one to whom I will look:

he who is humble and contrite in spirit

and trembles at my word.

Though David wanted to build a house for God, and Solomon would actually do so, God had something for more glorious in mind. He intended to build up the “house” of David, a royal dynasty that would lead to the Son of God taking up residence in the tiny house of the womb of a Hebrew virgin, Mary. Now the resurrected Jesus abides by His Spirit in the tiny house of the humble souls who tremble at His Word, and they are sons of God in the household of faith.

Josiah

If we may use the word “good” to describe someone other than God—and the books of Old Testament history do so—then we are happy to acknowledge that God's legal line that led to the one perfectly good King of the Jews, Jesus, had several good kings. Solomon was one of them near the very beginning. Josiah was another, coming almost at the very end of the time when Hebrew kings reigned in Jerusalem.

Josiah's name is also associated with the temple. By the days of Josiah, Solomon's temple needed significant repair. The young king ordered that the project be completed. In the process, the Book of the Law was rediscovered and eventually brought to Josiah.

What would the king's reaction be to the Word of God which so plainly explained the consequences of disobedience against Jehovah, thus identifying why the Lord's people were in such significant trouble? God spoke directly to Josiah through a prophetess in Jerusalem as we learn in 2 Chronicles 34:26-28

[26] Regarding the words that you have heard, [27] because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD. [28] Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.

From Solomon to Josiah

In between Solomon and Josiah there were a few bright spots among the sinful men that sat on the throne of David in Jerusalem. The good kings tend to be associated with David and David's God. These included Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah. The bad kings tend to be associated with Ahab and the kings of Israel. Among these were Jehoram, Ahaziah, Ahaz, and Amon. Jehoram was the first of these truly awful kings. He reigned for eight years, and we are told that “he departed with no one's regret.” The largest group of kings fall in the hard to say category, including Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Joash, Amaziah, Azariah, Jotham, and Manasseh. Among these we have some that started out good but finished poorly. Others started poorly, but finished with repentance. Still others were more ambiguous in their faithfulness to the Lord over the course of their reigns.

King of the Jews and Ruler over a Resurrection World of Everlasting Truth and Peace

The story of the kings of Judah from Solomon to Josiah is very engaging, but ultimately unsatisfying. None of these men, even the greatest among them, could defeat sin and death for us. The promise of God would require a far better Son of David who would be the King of the Jews and the Prince of Eternal Peace. Only Jesus could save the day!

Our acceptance is entirely because of our association with Jesus. After He rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven to prepare a house for us. Until then He has taken up His residence permanently in the tiny house of our souls.

Do be discerning in your relationship with others, especially with the rich and famous, but don't waste too much time judging other people. Most importantly, what do you say about Jesus? Will you have a tender heart regarding His Word? Many people found Jesus hard to evaluate in His day, but we don't have to go on our own assessment of Him. God spoke from heaven with an audible voice, and most convincingly, with the Scriptures and a resurrection from the dead. And what does David confess? “He rescued me because He delighted in me.” (Psalm 18:19)

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 18 – He rescued me because He delighted in me.

Gospel Reading—Matthew 7:28-29 – [28] And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, [29] for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

A Trinitarian Blessing

Every Spiritual Blessing in Christ
(Ephesians 1:3-14, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, June 11, 2017)

[3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing the heavenly places, [4] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. [7] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, [8] which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight [9] making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ [10] as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. [11] In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, [12] so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. [13] In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, [14] who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Every verse in this passage is rich with gospel truth.  I think with texts like this, the danger is that some of us have heard it so many times that could easily read over it and tune it out.  This is not a problem with the text itself.  It is a problem with us.  The fact that the eyes of our hearts see the beauty of these things so dimly simply shows how spiritually dull we can be, which is why Paul proceeds in the verses after this passage to pray for the Christians in Ephesus that the eyes of their hearts would be opened to the glory of all that is theirs in Christ.  May the Spirit do the same for us.  It is good news that the truth of these verses is objective reality.  In other words, it is true for all who are in Christ, regardless of the degree to which we feel it at any given moment.

As I studied this passage afresh this weekend, what got me most excited was seeing how God-centered it is.  Paul starts by proclaiming blessing, i.e. praise, to God for how he has so richly blessed us in Christ.  Three times in the passage he talks about how everything God has done for us in Christ is all to the praise of his glory, especially to his glorious grace, since we are underserving sinners and yet he has lavished upon us such awesome love.  Furthermore, this passage is God-centered in a fully Trinitarian way.  This is what I want to focus our attention on today.  I am convinced that for all who are children of God, meditating on his Triune nature and the involvement of each person of the Trinity in our salvation is like looking out from a mountaintop upon a breathtaking sunrise, or like drinking from a clear, cold spring of soul-nourishing water.  Yet we are only glimpsing the outer edges of God’s glory here.  This is why the promise of an eternal inheritance with God is so amazing.  We will have all eternity to gaze into the endless depths of the Triune God’s bottomless grace and love (Ephesians 2:7).

Blessed by the Father

Paul blesses the Father from whom we have received every spiritual blessing in Christ.  What blessings are these?  He lists some amazing things.  We have been chosen by God before he created the world.  He has chosen us in order to make us holy and blameless before him.  In love, he has predetermined that we would be adopted as sons, meaning we are his children and heirs along with Christ of God’s kingdom.  He has redeemed us, having bought us from slavery to sin and death with the precious blood of Christ and completely and totally forgiven all our sins according to the riches of his grace.  And he has revealed to us that this saving, restoring work will one day be extended to all of creation which will be liberated from death and decay.  This is part of our eternal inheritance.  We will be glorified and will live in a glorified creation with Jesus.  Even now we have the Holy Spirit guaranteeing our eternal inheritance.  God the Father planned all of this for us before he created anything.  Before God created time and matter and energy, he already had chosen us and planned out how he would save us.  He is moment by moment sovereignly working all things according to the counsel of his will.  If we have been predestined for this eternal purpose, then it is most certain.  God the Father is the one who lovingly planned to adopt us in Christ.  The Father planned how he would save us through Christ.  The Father planned how he would work out every detail of history for our eternal good.  And because he now is working all things according to his plan, we can put our hope and trust in him totally and know that we will not be let down by our Father in heaven who loves us with an everlasting love.

Blessed in the Son

Repeatedly throughout these verse Paul writes that all these spiritual blessings we have are in Christ.  The Christ is the eternal Son of God, who took on human nature when he entered the world as the God-man, Jesus.  He has been anointed by the Father to carry out the Father’s saving plan for his chosen people.  Outside of Christ, there could be for us no spiritual blessing because we deserve none.  We are sinners.  At the beginning of chapter 2 Paul writes that we were all spiritually dead, enslaved to sin, and under the judgment and condemnation of God for our sin against him.  We were lost.  God’s commitment to his own holiness demanded that he curse us forever, not bless us forever.  Yet in his love God sent his Son to live the righteous life we should have lived and to die on a cross bearing upon himself the condemnation of God for our sin.  In this way is opened to us the door out of condemnation and into God’s eternal blessing.  There is redemption, total forgiveness, reconciliation to God, and adoption into his family to be heirs with Jesus himself.  All of this comes only through being connected to Jesus.  We must be in him.  There is an exclusive party that only Jesus is worthy to attend.  If we are to attend, we must be his guests.  Are you in Jesus?  There is only condemnation outside of Jesus.  There is only blessing in Jesus.  How does one come, as it were, into Jesus?  We see in verses 12 and 13.  When we put our hope and faith in him.  Recognize that you are sinner whose only hope is in Jesus.  Trust him alone to represent you before God.  Trust that only he is worthy of eternal blessing, and that his death on the cross is enough to pay for your sins.  Trust that in him you will be received into God’s family and find all that you could ever need in him.

Blessed through the Holy Spirit

Paul speaks of the Spirit in verse 13.  The Spirit of God is given to all who trust in Jesus.  He is the down payment of our full inheritance.  The fullness of God’s riches are already ours in Christ, but we do not get to experience it all until after this life.  The Holy Spirit who comes to take up residence in us to renew us guarantees that the fullness of the God’s renewal of us and of all things is yet to come.

This is not the only place Paul speaks of the Spirit in these verses.  Back in verse 3, Paul says that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.  What does that word mean?  Is it meant to distinguish the blessings we have in Christ from physical blessings?  I don’t think so.  Our inheritance, which is clearly one of the blessings, includes the very physical experience of living with glorified bodies in a glorified world.  In 1 Corinthians 15 when Paul defends the truth of the coming resurrection, he says that we will have spiritual bodies.  Clearly the word “spiritual” doesn’t necessarily mean the opposite of physical.  I think what Paul means here is that the blessings we have are bestowed upon us through the agency of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit is the one who unites us to Christ and through our union with Christ the Spirit cleanses us of sin, renews us, and begins making us more and more like Jesus until the day when the Spirit completely glorifies us into the image of Christ, and glorifies the whole creation.  The present work of the Spirit in us is the guarantee of the future consummation of that work.  Thus, the blessings we have were planned by our Father, were accomplished by Christ and are now received through being united to him by faith, and are applied to us through the work of God’s Holy Spirit.  All this is for our eternal joy that we might praise the Triune God might be praised forever.

Making sense of a life story...

David's Children

(1 Chronicles 3:1-9, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 4, 2017)

[1] These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn, Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second, Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite, [2] the third, Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith; [3] the fifth, Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth, Ithream, by his wife Eglah; [4] six were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years and six months. And he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem. [5] These were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, four by Bath-shua, the daughter of Ammiel; [6] then Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, [7] Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, [8] Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet, nine. [9] All these were David's sons, besides the sons of the concubines, and Tamar was their sister.

Sons born in Hebron

David's pathway to the kingdom was most unusual. You can think of in terms of places and people as the Chronicler does here, focusing on wives and children associated with two locations, Hebron (currently a significant city in the West Bank) and Jerusalem.

For the fuller picture on the story and meaning of David's life you might begin with Bethlehem, then Saul's royal orbit, then on the run, Ziklag, Hebron, and Jerusalem. The Hebron period began by explicit divine direction after the death of Saul and Jonathon (see 2 Samuel 2:1, 5:1-5).

The first son mentioned in Hebron is Amnon, who will forever be associated with the last name in our passage, his sister Tamar, and also with his younger brother, Absalom, who murdered him in retaliation for Amnon's horrific actions against Tamar. Absalom eventually led a full-blown insurrection against his father. While we would not normally mention David's low-points from 1 Chronicles, it is hard to avoid the idea that the Chronicler is at least drawing our attention to such matters by beginning his list of David's children with Amnon and ending with Tamar.

One more name from the seven and a half years in Hebron during David's thirties should be mentioned—Adonijah, who made himself a rival against Solomon and eventually lost his life. All of this rebellion, murder, rape, and rivalry did not happen in Hebron. David was only there when his children were very little. Like the rest of mankind, David could not have known what would happen in the next 33 years of his life unless God told him, which he did not.

Sons born in Jerusalem

David's sons born in Hebron were older than his sons born in Jerusalem. By the natural order that the world normally thinks about but doesn't really follow, Amnon, Absolom, and Adonijah were more likely candidates than young Solomon to be the second king in the line of David. God had a different plan.

David was anointed as king by his own tribe, Judah, in Hebron. At the end of that seven years and after a difficult power struggle with the remnants of the house of Saul, David was recognized officially by all of the tribes of Israel as the Lord's chosen monarch over the entire nation. He also took Jerusalem, which had long resisted God's conquest.

In Jerusalem he had more children. Two were very important to the future of the line that would lead to the Messiah: Solomon (note Matthew's genealogy that leads to Jesus, probably through Joseph) and Nathan (see Luke's genealogy that fills out the story that brings us our Savior, most likely as seen through Mary's ancestors). Both Solomon and Nathan were the children of David and Bathsheba, called here Bathshua.

Tamar was their sister

It is worth our while to briefly reflect on David's daughter, Tamar, one more time. She surely was not the only daughter of David (see 2 Samuel 13:18). Yet she alone is listed here. Together with the troubling facts known to everyone who knew basic Israelite history, we cannot escape from the truth that what must have seemed idyllic back in Hebron when all the kids were under the age of eight, certainly took a heart-breaking turn in the direction of depravity and tragedy.

The family relationships that these names represent were far from perfect in those Jerusalem years. And yet this was God's man, chosen to start a dynasty that led to the Redeemer of God's elect through both a biological mother, a descendant of David's son Nathan, and her husband, though not the biological father, a descendant of David's son Solomon.

Those in their thirties may finding themselves thinking about their lives. We can all do no better than to trust in Jesus to take us through the decades that remain in our lives and to knit together every year with powerful opportunities to obey Him. Through His apostle, Paul, a single man who also had his own life story, God has assured us that our labor in the Lord is not in vain.

The family of Jesus in the New Jerusalem

All that background of David's complicated family brings us to a much better king with a much more satisfying end. If we were to list the places of His life we would have to include at least these: Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem. Unlike David, He never made it out of

His thirties. He never married, and He did not have any natural children.

Of course, no one could name all of His Father's adopted children! Not one of them could have been included in God's household had it not been for what Jesus did for them in Galilee and in Jerusalem, living a life of unparalleled obedience and then dying on the cross for their sins. We should also add to His list of places an empty tomb, the present heavens, and the New Jerusalem that will one day come upon the earth. His story is now ours through faith. Is this your story?

All kinds of people with every manner of sin have found forgiveness and life in His Name. In Him they have a future and a purpose that help people in their thirties, sixties, nineties—and every decade from a prenatal heartbeat to the long goodbye of dementia. Perspective... Prayer...

Though David's family life was extremely troubled, he was greatly blessed by God, and was able to take Jerusalem and establish it as the holy city of the Old Testament, especially through the work of his son Solomon. Far greater than the family of David is the household of his descendant, Jesus, who has made a way for us to reign with Him in His New Jerusalem.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 17 – When I Awake

Gospel Reading—Matthew 7:21-23 – [21] Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [22] On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ [23] And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’