Jesus Came to Save the Sick and the Dead

The Healer of Those Who Are beyond Hope
(Mark 5:21-43, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, August 27, 2017)

²¹ And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. ²² Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet ²³ and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” ²⁴ And he went with him.

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. ²⁵ And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, ²⁶ and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. ²⁷ She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. ²⁸ For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” ²⁹ And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ³⁰ And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” ³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” ³² And he looked around to see who had done it.³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

³⁵ While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”³⁶ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” ³⁷ And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James.³⁸ They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹ And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” ⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” ⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. ⁴³ And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Wherever there is life and health, it is the gift of God.  Wherever true healing takes place, it is the work of God.  He is the source of life, both physical and spiritual.  This is always true, but most obviously so when we have come to the end of our own resources, when our own efforts have failed, and then into the apparent hopelessness, God works renewal and salvation.  Jesus, the Son of God, has come as the Great Physician, the Healer of those who are beyond the hope of healing, the Savior of those who are beyond the hope of salvation.  Mark is reinforcing this point throughout the series of miracles he records in 4:35-5:43.  In 4:35-41, the disciples are at their wit’s end as their boat is beginning to fill with water.  The storm is threatening to drown them all and their efforts appear futile in the face of the violent wind and waves.  Yet Jesus commands the storm to be still, and it becomes still.  In 5:1-20, Jesus encounters a man whose soul is hopelessly bound and oppressed by a Legion of demons.  All anyone ever tried to do to help him was keep him restrained, but all attempts have failed and the man runs wild, alone among the tombs where he cuts himself with rocks.  Yet Jesus commands the demons, and they leave the man, who becomes a joyful believer in the Lord.  Now in 5:21-43, Mark writes of two more situations in which all human effort has proven useless to save.

The account of Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead sandwiches the story of his healing the woman with the flow of blood, for Jesus was on route to Jairus’ house when he encountered the woman.  Mark brings out clear connections between the two miraculous deliverances in the way he tells the story.  Jairus asks Jesus to make his little daughter well, while Jesus calls the woman in the crowd “Daughter” and tells her that her faith has made her well.  Jairus’ daughter is twelve years of age, and the woman has had this flow of blood for twelve years.  Both situations appear hopeless.  These two woman, both old and young, are beyond the help of men.  The woman with the flow of blood has suffered much and has spent all her income to pay doctors who have accomplished nothing.  Yet she has heard reports about Jesus’ power, and she believes his power is sufficient to heal her.  She is right.  When Jairus comes to Jesus, he says that his daughter is at the point of death.  The Greek here means she has reached the end.  After the encounter with the woman along the way, someone comes from Jairus’ house to inform him that his daughter is dead.  There is nothing more anyone can do.  A person cannot be more beyond hope than when they are dead, right?  Yet this limitation does not apply to Jesus’ power.  He encourages Jairus’ faith, continues to his house, and raises the girl from the dead, giving her back to her amazed and overjoyed parents.  Peter, James, and John were also quite amazed.  This miracle must have been emblazoned on Peter’s memory, for Mark records the exact Aramaic words Jesus spoke to the girl, translating it then for his readers into Greek.  Tradition tells us Mark got the information for his Gospel from Peter.

Mark emphasizes not only the hopelessness of both woman’s conditions, but the need for faith in Jesus’s power to save when all appears hopeless.  The woman on the road tries to sneak away after being healed, but Jesus calls her out.  She falls before Jesus, telling her story, and Jesus tells her that her faith has made her well.  Of course, it was Jesus’ power that had made her well, but she had received that healing power because of her faith in him.  Jairus also had fallen down before Jesus, pleading with him to come heal his daughter.  He clearly has faith that Jesus can do this.  When someone comes with a discouraging word, Jesus tells Jairus, “Do not fear, only believe.”  Jesus was calling Jairus to faith in his power to raise the dead (cf. Mt. 9:18).  His words tie this story back to Jesus’ rebuke of his disciples in 4:40, “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  When we are up against that which for us is impossible to face, this is an opportunity for us to trust in Jesus, for whom all things are possible.  As Jesus says later in 9:23, “All things are possible for one who believes.”

There is another theme throughout these two miracles: physical touch.  Jairus tells Jesus to come and lay his hands on his daughter so that she will be made well.  The woman tells herself that if she could just touch Jesus’ garments, she would be made well.  She does touch Jesus’ garments, and she is made well.  Later Jesus touches the deceased child, taking her by the hand, and she also is made well.  One of the reasons touch is so significant is because both the bleeding woman and the dead girl are ritually unclean according to God’s laws for Israel (cf. Lev. 15:25-28; 22:4).  When the woman touched Jesus, this would normally have made him ritually unclean, although if the woman had remained anonymous, nobody would have known.  Yet Jesus did not become unclean through the encounter, rather the woman became clean.  Likewise, when Jesus took the dead girl’s hand, this would normally have made him unclean.  Yet instead, he made her clean by restoring her life.  We find a deeper spiritual lesson here, for ritual uncleanness represents moral uncleanness.  This is why an unclean person was not allowed to come into the temple, which represented God’s presence.  Every one of us is spiritually sick with sin and thus defiled and unfit for the presence of God.  Indeed, every one of us is born dead in sin (Eph. 2:1-3).  No earthly remedy will help our condition.  We can do nothing to help ourselves, nor can anyone else except Jesus alone.  When the Pharisees complained that Jesus ate with “tax collectors and sinners,”  Jesus said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mk. 2:17).  There are, of course, none righteous (Rom. 3:10).  Jesus came to save helpless, hopeless sinners.  As long as the Pharisees considered themselves outside this group of people, they kept themselves outside the possibility of true salvation from the penalty and power of their sin.  Yet many whom they despised, such as unpatriotic swindlers (tax collectors), drunkards, and the sexually immoral, recognized that they, like the bleeding woman, needed someone who could heal them on the inside.  They saw that they, like Jairus’ daughter, needed someone to raise them from spiritual death to newness of life.  They saw that they needed to be cleansed, not of ritual uncleanness, but of their guilt and defilement before God.  Do we recognize that our spiritual condition is hopeless apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ to make us well?  This is still true if we have been followers of Christ for decades.  No matter how much sin-sick we are, no matter how unclean, we must reach out to Jesus.  In doing so, we find not that we cause him to be defiled, but that he makes us clean and whole.  He is always our only source of spiritual life and health.

Jesus Came to Set Captives Free

The One Whom Demons Fear
(Mark 5:1-20, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, August 20, 2017)

[1] They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. [2] And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. [3] He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, [4] for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. [5] Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. [6] And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. [7] And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” [8] For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” [9] And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” [10] And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. [11] Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, [12] and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” [13] So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

[14] The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. [15] And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. [16] And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. [17] And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. [18] As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. [19] And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” [20] And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

We learn here of a tormented man who lived among the tombs away from other people.  The only contact he had had with the outside world in recent times were the attempts of others to bind him and keep him subdued, likely for both their protection and for his own.  Their efforts had failed, and he had broken free from all restraints with super-human strength, the strength of the Legion of demons who had taken control of him.  People had given up trying to help him.  His only companions now were the unclean spirits that possessed and oppressed him night and day.  He cut himself with stones and yelled out.  This man lived in the worst kind of prison imaginable.  No one had been able to bind his body, for he had always broken free.  Yet his soul was imprisoned, and no one was able to set him free.  How had he ended up like this?  How had he become open to this possession?  Certainly he did not know the true God, for God would never abandon his children to demonic possession like this.  Yet we are not told about his background and what led to his present state.  This man’s state, however he had gotten this way, was greatly to be pitied.  Can we even imagine the absolute horrors he lived through, at all times, with no relief in sight?

Does demon possession still occur in our day?  There is no reason to believe that it does not occur.  I feel that I understand very little about this, but I am sure there are individuals under the control of unclean spirits.  Furthermore, there are other kinds of bondage.  People are in bondage to alcohol, to heroin, to meth.  We have not been called to sit in judgment on those who find their lives in shambles with no apparent way out.  We are called to love and offer hope.  Many people live through daily horrors, with no relief in sight.  Should we not have compassion?  And surely we realize that in our very midst are brothers and sisters who feel trapped by chemical dependency, by pornography and lust, by fear, by craving the approval of those around them, and the list goes on.  Indeed, we might be ashamed to admit that we ourselves feel trapped in these or other destructive habits that do not bring glory to our heavenly Father.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn. 8:34).  We all have sinned.  Sin is bondage and it leads to death.  The man possessed by a Legion of demons needed radical deliverance, but so does each of us.

Jesus had the previous night shown his authority over the wind and sea when he calmed the storm.  His disciples had responded with fear of him who held such power over the forces of nature.  Now Jesus will exercise his authority over an entire Legion of demons, which would inspire fear in the people of this pagan region called the Gerasenes.  As soon as he stepped out of the boat, Mark tells us the demon-possessed man met him.  Jesus began to command the demons to come out of the man.  Unlike the forces of nature, however, these demons did not immediately obey the command of Jesus.  Rather, they asked Jesus what he and they had to do with one another.  They fully recognized who Jesus was, the Son of the Most High God, and they begged him not to torment them.  Jesus asks the man, “What is your name?”  The demons responded, “My name is Legion, for we are many.  A Legion in the Roman army could have up to 6000 soldiers.  This does not mean there were necessarily 6000 demons controlling the man, but certainly there was an army.  This man’s condition was worse than any other demon-possessed person we see in the gospels.  The demons begged to be sent into a nearby herd of about 2000 pigs.  Luke, in his account, tell us they begged not to be sent into the Abyss (Lk. 8:31).  Jesus granted their request.  The demons left the man, entered the pigs, and the entire heard rushed into the sea and drowned.  The herdsman saw what happened, and ran to tell the locals.  People came and were astounded to see the wild man sitting with Jesus, clothed and sane, and when they heard what Jesus had done, they were terrified of Jesus.  They begged him to leave their region.  Sadly, they did not know that they also were in need of salvation from this Savior who had authority over the powers of evil.  They sent away the only Savior for sinners.  This still happens today.  People sometimes out of fear of God disrupting their lives will refuse the salvation offered in his Son.  They might think life without Christ, although not great, is at least what they are used to and comfortable with.  Yet life without Christ is slavery to sin and ends in eternal death.  All who ask Jesus to leave do not see the chains on their own hearts, nor the key in Jesus’ hand, or they do not want to see.

Despite the rejection he experienced in this region, Jesus still showed them love.  While he departed at their request, he left himself a witness there, the man whom he had delivered.  There is irony here.  Mark uses the word “begged” three times in this account.  When the demons begged Jesus to send them into the pigs, he complied.  When the local people begged Jesus to leave their region, again he complied.  But when the man Jesus had saved begged Jesus to take him with him, Jesus refused him.  Instead, he commanded him to tell his friends and family what the Lord had done for him.  The man shared throughout the Decapolis his testimony of what Jesus had done for him (notice that the Lord, or “God” in Luke’s account, is equated with Jesus).  The Decapolis was the region to the southeast of the Sea of Galilee.  It consisted of over ten cities which, although under Roman authority, were largely autonomous.  The region was highly pagan and mostly Gentile.  Mark records that everyone who heard this man’s testimony marveled at what Jesus had done for him.  Thus the man’s testimony was clearly used by God.  One day we will know how many became believers as a result.

If you are in bondage to sin and any manifestation of the powers of darkness, even if not outright demon-possession, there is One who makes the darkness tremble.  Demons fear him, for he is their Lord.  He is a mighty Deliverer, and he can deliver each of us.  It is amazing in this story that Jesus saved this man when nobody, including the man himself, had asked for it.  Sometimes Jesus comes into our lives in dramatic ways when we had not even asked, but there is no guarantee of that.  Yet we have his guarantee that if we call upon him, he will deliver us (Ps. 50:15).  He came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn. 3:8), and to set the captives free (Lk. 4:18).  If the Son sets us free, we shall be free indeed (Jn. 8:36).  When those of who are Christians find ourselves getting caught up in sinful patterns, it may feel that we have fallen back into slavery.  Yet if we are in Christ, we have been set free from sin that we might now serve God (Rom. 6).  Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4).  We must rely on our Deliverer at all times, for we can easily slip back into the things from which we have been freed when we get our focus off of Jesus.  Christ alone is our Savior who has set us free.  Now, like the man whom Jesus set free from such great demonic oppression, let us tell us others what the Lord has done for us.

Jesus' Authority over the Storm

The Sleeping Sovereign
(Mark 4:35-41, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, August 13, 2017)

[35] On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” [36] And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was.  And other boats were with him. [37] And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. [38] But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.  And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you care that we are perishing?” [39] And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace!  Be still!”  And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.  He said to them, “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?” [41] And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

On that day Jesus had been teaching the people in parables about the kingdom of God, and explaining their meaning in private to his disciples.  To the disciples had been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but to others it was as yet hidden (verses 11, 33-34).  Jesus’ intent was that in time, these same disciples would proclaim with clarity the truths of the kingdom of God (verse 21-22).  In order to fully proclaim the kingdom, they would need to experience firsthand the power and authority of the King, who was Jesus himself.  It was toward this end that on that same day, when evening had come, Jesus told his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.”  He was referring to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  We shall learn in chapter 5 of Jesus’ visit to the Gentile region on the other side of the sea.  Even Gentiles would have the opportunity to learn of the saving power of God’s King.  Yet the disciples’ would first get to witness Jesus’ power over the wind and sea itself as they travelled to this Gentile region.  Their journey to the other side of the sea became an experience they would never forget.

With Jesus’ first disciples, we have the privilege of witnessing through Mark’s account aspects of his glory as King.  We see both his humanity and his divinity in this story.  Jesus’ humanity is shown in the simple fact that he fell asleep in the stern of the boat.  Jesus was exhausted from that day’s ministry efforts.  He must have been a sound sleeper, because when a violent windstorm came down upon the sea, he apparently did not wake up.  This also reveals that his soul was at perfect rest.  He knew all would happen according to his Father’s plan.  The peace of God in his soul enabled him to rest in the midst of the growing storm.  For the disciples, however, peace was the furthest thing from their minds.  They struggled to keep the boat from sinking as it began to fill with water.  The fact that Jesus slept while the rest of them struggled was maddening.  They woke him and asked him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  Their question is rather accusatory.  Yet now they, and we, get to see the divine power of the Teacher.  The Teacher’s words not only tell us of the kingdom of God.  The Teacher’s words are the words of the King himself, and they carry the very power and authority of God.  Mark does not tell us a lot of details, but we can imagine Jesus standing up, squinting his eyes from the wind-driven spray.  He looked out across the billowing waves, and his stern voice pierced through the howling of the storm.  “Peace!  Be Still!”  Immediately, the wind and the waves obeyed.  What had been a great windstorm became a great calm.  Jesus then turned to his disciples.  “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  Yet the disciples were too dumbfounded to feel ashamed by this rebuke.  They looked at one another and said with great fear, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”  They had been afraid of the storm, but now they realize that they are in the presence of the One who has power over the storm.  This makes them even more afraid.  Who is this man they thought they had been getting to know?

In the Old Testament Scriptures, it is clear that God alone has power over the sea and the storm.  He created the forces of nature, and he controls them.  Even in the case of Job, when Satan employed a windstorm to bring a building down upon Job’s children, killing them all, God had granted Satan that permission.  Hear the LORD’s words to Job:

“Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” (Job 38:8-11)

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you?  Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are?” (Job 38:34-35)

Or hear God’s words to the prophet Amos:

“For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!”  (Amos 4:13).

Read also Psalm 107:23-32.  God alone is the Creator and Sovereign Ruler over the forces of nature.  In Mark 4, when Jesus commands the storm, it obeys his immediate authority, showing us that Jesus is God.

The disciples initially thought Jesus didn’t care whether they all perished in the storm.  They found out that Jesus had total control of the storm.  Indeed, it might just be the case that it was his very care for them that motivated Jesus to lead his disciples into this frightening situation.  He had been teaching them about God’s kingdom.  Now he wanted them to see a demonstration of his power and authority as God’s King.  Jesus showed that he had authority over the forces of nature.  Of course, his authority does not stop there.  In chapter 5 we will see that Jesus has power over the spiritual forces of evil, over sickness, and over death itself.  Jesus has power and authority over every possible storm his people might face.

Sometimes in our lives we face storms of various kinds.  The winds swirl around us and the rain drives into our face so that we can hardly think a coherent thought.  The waves churn beneath us and crash over us, tossing us every which way.  Our boat may be filling up with water among the waves of depression, marital troubles, financial crisis, the death of a loved one, addiction, or other troubles.  It may feel to us that Jesus is asleep in the boat while we are about to drown.  We may want to ask him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  If we doubt him, he asks us, “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  Jesus has complete control over the storms we are facing.  We do need to be careful, however, how we attempt to apply this passage of Scripture.  The main point is that Jesus has power and authority over the storm.  That should be enough to cause us to trust him through the storms we face.  If we trust him, he will bring us safely through.  What we should not conclude from this story is that whenever we face a storm, if we call upon Jesus, he will always immediately calm that storm.  That is simply not true.  Jesus will not lose any of those whom the Father has given to him.  All who call upon him he will in no way cast out.  Those who believe in him will never perish but have eternal life.  Nevertheless, he certainly permits storms in our lives for his good, loving, and wise purposes.  Maybe he is giving us an opportunity to grow in our knowledge of him, and grow in trusting him.

Some of us may be reacting to the storms we are facing in an unbelieving way, much like the disciples did in this story.  We need to hear Jesus’ stern rebuke, and once again rest in his power.  God wants us to have the same peace Jesus himself had that enabled him to sleep in the stern of the boat in the midst of the storm.  Would not this bring greatest glory to Christ, if we could trust him not only after he has made the storm cease, but in the midst of the storm?  Should we cry out to Jesus in the storm?  Yes!  But let us do it with confident trust in him, not with fearful, unbelieving panic that accuses him of not caring.  Nobody cares more about us than does Jesus, and nobody else has authority over the storm.  Here is one final comforting thought.  God knew Jesus’ disciples would react to the storm in unbelief.  Yet he was patiently teaching them to trust him.  Likewise, God knows already when we will react in unbelief.  Yet he still loves us and is patiently teaching us to trust him.

Victorious Over Sin and Death with the New Joshua

All the Rest of Israel – Part 4: The Rest of the Family – The Northerners

(1 Chronicles 7:1-40, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, August 6, 2017)

[1] The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron, four. [2] The sons of Tola: Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam, and Shemuel, heads of their fathers' houses, namely of Tola, mighty warriors of their generations, their number in the days of David being 22,600. [3] The son of Uzzi: Izrahiah. And the sons of Izrahiah: Michael, Obadiah, Joel, and Isshiah, all five of them were chief men. [4] And along with them, by their generations, according to their fathers' houses, were units of the army for war, 36,000, for they had many wives and sons. [5] Their kinsmen belonging to all the clans of Issachar were in all 87,000 mighty warriors, enrolled by genealogy.

[6] The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, and Jediael, three. [7] The sons of Bela: Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, and Iri, five, heads of fathers' houses, mighty warriors. And their enrollment by genealogies was 22,034. [8] The sons of Becher: Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth. All these were the sons of Becher. [9] And their enrollment by genealogies, according to their generations, as heads of their fathers' houses, mighty warriors, was 20,200. [10] The son of Jediael: Bilhan. And the sons of Bilhan: Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar. [11] All these were the sons of Jediael according to the heads of their fathers' houses, mighty warriors, 17,200, able to go to war. [12] And Shuppim and Huppim were the sons of Ir, Hushim the son of Aher.

[13] The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer and Shallum, the descendants of Bilhah.

[14] The sons of Manasseh: Asriel, whom his Aramean concubine bore; she bore Machir the father of Gilead. [15] And Machir took a wife for Huppim and for Shuppim. The name of his sister was Maacah. And the name of the second was Zelophehad, and Zelophehad had daughters. [16] And Maacah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she called his name Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh; and his sons were Ulam and Rakem. [17] The son of Ulam: Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead the son of Machir, son of Manasseh. [18] And his sister Hammolecheth bore Ishhod, Abiezer, and Mahlah. [19] The sons of Shemida were Ahian, Shechem, Likhi, and Aniam.

[20] The sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, and Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son, [21] Zabad his son, Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead, whom the men of Gath who were born in the land killed, because they came down to raid their livestock. [22] And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him. [23] And Ephraim went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son. And he called his name Beriah, because disaster had befallen his house. [24] His daughter was Sheerah, who built both Lower and Upper Beth-horon, and Uzzen-sheerah. [25] Rephah was his son, Resheph his son, Telah his son, Tahan his son, [26] Ladan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, [27] Nun his son, Joshua his son. [28] Their possessions and settlements were Bethel and its towns, and to the east Naaran, and to the west Gezer and its towns, Shechem and its towns, and Ayyah and its towns; [29] also in possession of the Manassites, Beth-shean and its towns, Taanach and its towns, Megiddo and its towns, Dor and its towns. In these lived the sons of Joseph the son of Israel.

[30] The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah. [31] The sons of Beriah: Heber, and Malchiel, who fathered Birzaith. [32] Heber fathered Japhlet, Shomer, Hotham, and their sister Shua. [33] The sons of Japhlet: Pasach, Bimhal, and Ashvath. These are the sons of Japhlet. [34] The sons of Shemer his brother: Rohgah, Jehubbah, and Aram. [35] The sons of Helem his brother: Zophah, Imna, Shelesh, and Amal. [36] The sons of Zophah: Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri, Imrah. [37] Bezer, Hod, Shamma, Shilshah, Ithran, and Beera. [38] The sons of Jether: Jephunneh, Pispa, and Ara. [39] The sons of Ulla: Arah, Hanniel, and Rizia. [40] All of these were men of Asher, heads of fathers' houses, approved, mighty warriors, chiefs of the princes. Their number enrolled by genealogies, for service in war, was 26,000 men. (ESV)

Introducing the Northerners: Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Asher +

The Lord's people included tribes that had long been moved abroad and seemingly destroyed by the Assyrian Empire since 722 BC. We have met Judah and those associated with them in the south. We have met the tribes on the wrong side of the Jordan River, the easterners. We have also met the Levites, the guardians of the religion and ethics of the entire nation, who were scattered throughout the other tribal territories for that purpose. In 1 Chronicles 7 we have the rest of Lord's ancient people, the northern tribes. These northerners are part of the group that the author of this book views as warriors in a holy cause, the reclaiming of God's territory and religion. When the Jews come marching back into the Promised Land, he wanted descendants of these various northern tribes somehow included in that number of the faithful.

Commanders, warriors, believers in a promised inheritance

In the midst of all the names of the northerners, there is frequent mention of leaders and the mighty warriors who stood ready to follow them into battle. The Chronicler understood that progress in their godly goal was going to be a fight. He knew that the history of the northerners had included some great men, and that the returning Jews would need to find courage from the best examples from previous generations.

The best of the best in the northern tribes was a man named Joshua and his genealogy is given prominence in this chapter as we follow ten generations after a very sad disaster to get to his birth. He continued and extended the work of Moses after the author of the Law was gone. One of the best brief episodes for understanding Joshua comes at the end of chapter 5 of the book that bears his name. Just prior to the conquest that began in Jericho, Joshua met a mysterious mighty man who was either an angel of the Lord representing God, or God Himself dressed for war.

[5:13] When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” [14] And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” [15] And the commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Joshua was not the leader of the conquest, God was. The name given to our Savior when He came to do battle for us and to win for us an eternal Promised Land was “Joshua,” the English translation that comes from the Hebrew name, which from the Greek translation gives us the name “Jesus.” Our identification with this great Warrior could cost us our lives. It certainly cost Jesus everything. We also need to know that He wins, and we win with Him.

Also included among all the fighting men are significant women who learned that they had a place in the Lord's good plan for His people. Most notable of these were the daughters of a man named Zelophehad. They had the courage to come before Moses and to ask for ownership in the Promised Land. Moses took their case before the Almighty and discovered that they were right!

Brothers and Sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ in Truth and Love

The tribes in the north included these inspiring people. With hope, the Chronicler includes them in his genealogical story of true Israel. Far above this heritage from ancient days stands the Man who grew up in the north, even though he was a descendant of the southern tribe of Judah. Jesus, our Joshua, is the Son of the Father in truth and love (2 John), and we are in His family. When His Father called on Him to serve, Jesus went. When He calls us, we must obey. Those who will not give their lives for this kingdom do not yet understand what the true Israel is or the great glory of their inheritance won by the Captain of their Salvation. The risen Jesus wins.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 25 – The Waiting Saint Can Say: “Bring me out of my distresses.”

Gospel Reading—Matthew 9:1-8 – [1] And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. [2] And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” [3] And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” [4] But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? [5] For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? [6] But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” [7] And he rose and went home. [8] When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.