A Word about the Greatest Agent

Today we will continue a series of sermons I am calling the Greatest of All Time as I comment on Hebrews 1:3-14 as I share a word about the Greatest Agent.

As the writer of Hebrews continues to teach us about the absolute greatness of Jesus, in this episode, we will see that Jesus is the Greatest Agent.

When the subject of agents come up, we might think of James Bond, the fictional British spy created by novelist Ian Fleming, and brought to the big screen by filmmakers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Those movies are great fun, but James Bond is a parody of what a real secret agent is. Bond is the most famous spy character in the world, a real oxymoron for a “secret agent.”

God also has agents. These are angels who act as the messengers, agents, and attendants of God. Many years ago, Billy Graham wrote a book entitled, Angels: God’s Secret Agents, but angels are not really a secret either. The first angel in Scripture appears in Genesis 3:24, when God posted an angel to prevent Adam and Eve from eating of the Tree of Life. From that point, the Bible mentions angels about 130 times.  While there is much we don’t know about angels, they certainly are no secret, though there are some misconceptions about them.

For example, although the record shows that angels are sent by God to protect His people when necessary, the Bible contains no clear teaching that each one of God’s people has a “guardian angel”. This is a very popular idea that probably came from Jewish writings in the intertestamental period. In fact, my mother-in-law attended the funeral of a family member in which the pastor proclaimed that there were two angels hovering over the casket that that very moment! We never knew how he arrived at that idea!

The Hebrews developed a great reverence for angels, because when they saw them, that was the closest to seeing God as anyone could come. Yet, as we will see in our Scripture for today, Jesus is greater than the angels, and in fact, He is the Greatest Agent of God. Let’s read Hebrews 1:3-14.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So He became higher in rank than the angels, just as the name He inherited is superior to theirs. For to which of the angels did He ever say, You are My Son; today I have become Your Father, or again, I will be His Father, and He will be My Son? When He again brings His firstborn into the world, He says, And all God’s angels must worship Him.  And about the angels He says: He makes His angels winds, and His servants a fiery flame, but the Son: Your throne, God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of justice.  You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; this is why God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of joy rather than Your companions.  And: In the beginning, Lord, You established the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands;  they will perish, but You remain. They will all wear out like clothing; You will roll them up like a cloak, and they will be changed like a robe. But You are the same, and Your years will never end. Now to which of the angels has He ever said: Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool?  Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve those who are going to inherit salvation?

A Greater Name:

What we call something has a great impact on how we conceive it. Sometimes this is a minor thing, like a child calling a chest of drawers, “Chester’s drawers”.  On the other hand, having the wrong name can damage a reputation. For example, would anyone name their child Judas? The website MyNameStatus.com reports that less than 100 people in the United States today have the name Hitler.

Having the wrong name killed a product once. The candy Ayds had existed since the 1940’s as an appetite suppressant that was advertised as helping people lose weight. Whether the product was efficacious or not is hard to say, but the brand collapsed in the 1980’s because of the discovery of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or A.I.D.S. One side effect of this fatal disease was extreme weight loss. Consumers became uncomfortable buying a product whose name sounded like a deadly disease. Executives initially refused to change the name, insisting the disease—not the candy—should rename itself. This stance was widely criticized and deepened the brand’s reputational damage. Despite rebranding efforts, the product disappeared from the market.

In the Bible, names have meaning, and they convey blessing and cursing upon the one who bore that name. For example, Joshua means “the Lord is our salvation”, while Israel means, “he who struggles with God.” Hosea was told to name his third child from his unfaithful wife Gomer, Lo-Ammi, which means “Not My People.” In today’s world we’d say, “He ain’t none of mine!” That’s pretty descriptive, about like the lady who named her dog, Stupid. He was!

Angels in the Bible have some impressive names. Michael means, “Who is like God.”  Gabriel means, “God is my strength.” Lucifer means, “The shining one,” or “The morning star.”  These are all impressive names, but none of them were ever called God’s Son! 

Being God’s Son makes Jesus greater than any angel!

• Angels are God’s spokesmen, Jesus is the Word of God.
• Angels are God’s agents, Jesus is one with the Father.
• Angels are created beings, Jesus is the author of creation.
• Angels are members of God’s kingdom, Jesus is the heir of God’s kingdom and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

One of my most precious memories about my father was when I was speaking with the pulpit committee of the first church where I became a full-time pastor. The chairman of the committee had worked for the company that my father had worked for, although in different divisions. Still, he knew my father by reputation. He told the search committee, “I don’t know anything about Otis, but I know his father. If he is anything like his father, we should talk to him.”

What we call something says a lot about what we think about it. God called Jesus His Son, and that speaks volumes about Him!

A Greater Authority:

No one enjoys being the bearer of bad news, and sometimes it can be dangerous. I was once sent by my boss to tell another employee that he had to come into work to address an emergency situation. It was the other employee’s day off, and he was playing softball. In fact, he was about to come up to the plate to hit, when I told him the bad news. For a moment I thought he might hit me with his bat! I can understand the reason why we say, “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

Messengers, of course, don’t conceive the message, or decide the reason that a message must be dispatched. It isn’t their message, but it is their boss’s message. They are simply the means for transmitting what the boss wants others to know. Their only responsibility is to transmit that message accurately.

It is true that messengers must transmit the message correctly. The infamous charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War of the 1850’s happened because a message relayed to its commander was garbled in transmission. He believed that he was being ordered to charge several batteries of Russian artillery, which made no sense, but he did it because he thought he was following orders. His unit of cavalry was massacred, demonstrating that a reliable messenger is vital. Biblical angels, of course, were totally reliable, but they were not totally responsible. They were only the messenger.

On another occasion, an early nuclear reactor was having a failure, and the supervisor in charge went down into the basement to see what was happening for himself. After diagnosing the situation, he called the control room from a basement phone and told the employee who answered the phone to push certain buttons on the control panel. The subordinate put down the phone to take that action, and then his boss realized he had told him the wrong buttons to push. He was yelling into the abandoned phone when the operator in the control room did what he was told to do. The result was that the reactor was destroyed. It wasn’t the operator’s fault; he did exactly what he was told to do. The responsibility lay with the supervisor.

The centurion who came to Jesus seeking help for his servant understood more about Jesus than many Jews did. Matthew 8:5-10 says,

When He entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible agony!”  “I will come and heal him,” He told him. “Lord,” the centurion replied, “I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. But only say the word, and my servant will be cured. For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following Him, “I assure you: I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith!

The centurion knew that although he was a man under authority, Jesus was the authority!  That is why on the night Jesus was born, the angels announced His birth, not the other way around. That’s why the star shone over Bethlehem, so the magi could come and worship Jesus. That’s why we see angels worshipping Jesus and not Jesus engaged in worshipping angels. Revelation 5:11-12 says,

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands. They said with a loud voice: The Lamb who was slaughtered is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!

Who we obey reveals a great deal about that person. Jesus has the authority of His Father, and that speaks volumes about Him!

A Greater Ministry:

In our first two points, we focused on who Jesus is. Next, the writer of Hebrews transitioned to what Jesus does. Like angels, and like people, Jesus has a ministry. His ministry, however, is much greater than ours, or His angels.

First Jesus’s ministry is greater in its righteousness. Jesus loves justice and righteousness, and He hates lawlessness, which is sin. Everything Jesus does is in perfect balance with God’s will. So, what about the angels and us? 

The Scriptures prove in many ways that people in their natural state are wicked, and that we are helpless to change that pattern of life. Jeremiah 17:9 says,

The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?

Nothing we do comes close to the righteous actions of Jesus, but what about angels? James 2:19 reminds us,

You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder.

Whenever we tell a mother that their child “looks like a little angel” we need to remember that Satan is an angel too! He was called Lucifer originally, but he became proud and arrogant, and before our time began, he led a revolt of a third of the angels of heaven. So, as a group, the righteousness of angels may exceed that of people, but their acts are, as a whole, not as righteous and as perfect as those of Jesus.

Next, we see that Jesus’s ministry is greater than that of the angels, and of ours, because of its scope. Jesus was the agent of creation, and by His ministry everything that exists does exist. The majestic words of the first chapter of the Gospel of John are wonderful, but they barely do justice to the work of Jesus as Creator of all things, John 1:1-5 says, 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created. Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it.

John 1:10-13 goes on to say that, not only did Jesus create for us our earthly life, He also made it possible to have eternal life. 

He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

It is interesting to note that although He created the world, and although He was in the world, the world didn’t recognize Jesus. I think it is safe to say that, at least from John’s perspective, Jesus was the greatest secret agent of all time also!

Another way that Jesus’s ministry was greater than ours, and that of angels is in its joy. When we are at work and a messenger comes to us from the boss, one immediate reaction is, “What did I do wrong?”  

I remember a pastor once describing how much he appreciated a particular leader in his church for the way he would text the pastor for an appointment. The church member would write something like, “Pastor, have you got some time today for a visit from me? Nothing important, I just want to chat.” Too often the folks who want to see a pastor have an issue, but when this fellow sent his pastor a text, there was no reason for him to be concerned.

Human artists often depict angels as chubby little babies with wings. This is not the Biblical depiction of angels by any means. When an angel appears in Scripture people are afraid. They’re like Mary who fell face down before the angel who came to tell her that her son was about to be the Savior of the world. The shepherds in the fields on the night that Jesus was born were, as the King James version says, “sore afraid,” when the angel appeared to them.

The ministry of Jesus, however, is one of joy. That joy stems from the fact that we are reconciled to God through what Jesus did for us on the cross. He did something for us that no person could do and no angel could do. He allowed us to enter into the joy of our Lord. As Psalm 92:4 says,

For You have made me rejoice, Lord, by what You have done; I will shout for joy because of the works of Your hands.

Who we turn to in need reveals a great deal about that person. Jesus has the greatest ministry of all, the ministry of reconciliation, and that speaks volumes about Him!

A Greater Destiny:

Finally, the writer of Hebrews points to another way that Jesus is the Greatest of All Time. Jesus has a greater destiny.

How will the angels end up? Where will they be for eternity and what will they be doing?  

For a third of the angels, the one who followed Satan, they will end up in the Lake of Fire along with Satan and with Hell. This is not an attractive prospect!

The other two-thirds of the angels, according to the passage of Revelation above, will be gathered around the Throne and the Lamb and they will worship Him forever. This will be their highest service and a much more desirable prospect!

What about people? Where will they be for eternity and what will they be doing?  

For those whose names are not in the Lamb’s Book of Life, they will join Satan and his followers in the Lake of Fire. For humans, this is a horrendous prospect.

For those whose names are in the Lamb’s Book of Life, they will join other two-thirds of the angels gathered around the Throne and the Lamb and they will worship Him forever. This will be their highest service and a much more desirable prospect!

What about Jesus? He will be the one sitting on the Throne and He will be the one everyone will be worshipping for eternity!  There is not greater destiny than that!

Who we admire and who we revere reveals a great deal about that person. Jesus will receive our worship forever, and that says volumes about Him!

Conclusion:

There is no doubt that the Bible shows that angels are awesome creatures. They are the messengers of God, the protectors of God’s people, the witnesses of major events in God’s story of redemption. The Book of Revelation even tells us that Jesus will bring a host of angels back with him to execute the last judgment on the Earth. Angels are awesome.

As awesome as the angels in the Bible are there is someone even more awesome. The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus is the greatest agent of God of all time. He superior to every created being and even the whole of all creation. He deserves our loyalty, our devotion, and our worship!

Thanks for visiting with me today. I’ll be back soon with another word from the Bible we can share together.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about the Greatest Revelation

Today I want to share a word about the Greatest Revelation as I comment on Hebrews 1:1-3. 

We are begin a series of sermons I am calling the Greatest of All Time. That’s the assertion of the writer of Hebrews: Jesus is the Greatest of All Time.

Have you ever been the Greatest of All Time at something? I haven’t, though I might have had the opportunity. The main process by which this came my way was through my service as an Army chaplain. Consider these numbers:

• In a nation with a population of 330 million, I was one of a million members of the Armed Forces when I retired.
• I also was one of 3,000 chaplains across the three components of the US Army.
• I was one of 700 National Guard chaplains.
• I was one of 54 state chaplains.
• Before that I was one of 7 Special Forces Group chaplains.
• At that time I was one of only two National Guard Special Forces Group chaplains.

So, I was blessed, but was I the greatest ever? No! By some measures I wasn’t even the greatest chaplain among those with whom I served in the Alabama National Guard. Two of the chaplains who were junior in rank to me were chosen to attend the US Army War College and I was not. I was good enough for government work, I guess, but was I the greatest? No, not at all.

Even if someone is the greatest of all time at something, that doesn’t mean you want to be the greatest at it. The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip, gave up a very promising naval career when Queen Elizabeth took the throne. Reportedly that was a difficult pill for him to swallow, but Prince Phillip threw himself into his royal duties with diligence, including being present at the unveiling of thousands of plaques during the dedication of untold numbers of buildings and the like. In fact, he claimed to be the greatest unveiler of plaques in the world.

In our text for today, we will see that Jesus is the Greatest Revelation of God. Let’s read Hebrews 1:1-3.

Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

The Revelation of God:

The writer of Hebrews begins matter-of-factly with what is an amazingly bold statement: God has spoken to us!  What an amazing blessing!

Conversation has a powerful impact on our lives because it reveals what is in our hearts. When conversation fails, communication fails.

My dad was a powerful influence on my life, but he was not a great conversationalist. I have ridden with him for hours, side-by-side in a car, and he never said a word. Often, when I would call home, he’d answer the phone, and almost immediately say, “Here’s your mother,” and hand her the phone. Still waters run deep, but they also can obscure what is at the bottom. I always knew my dad loved me, but I rarely knew what he was thinking or what he was feeling in his heart.

The Mandinka people of West Africa have many pithy sayings, and one of them goes something like this,

When two people converse, everything hidden under the bed is revealed.

Not only does God speak with us, He works hard at it! In Romans 1, Paul taught us that there is enough revelation in the natural world to tell us that God exists, and that right and wrong exists. That’s probably why, many, many years before the Mosaic law was given, that we see that Job made offerings to God for His family. God had revealed Himself through the natural world to Job.

This same thing happened within my family. I have a brother-in-law who is literally a genius. He qualified for membership in the Mensa Club, but he didn’t bother with applying. He had not been raised in church, and if he was not an atheist, he was at least an agnostic. That is, until he witnessed the birth of his first child, after which he said that there must be a God. Then he became a professing Christian.

Yet, our God leaves nothing to chance. He not only speaks by His actions, but also through His words.

• He spoke with Adam and Eve face-to-face in the Garden.
• He spoke with Abram in the Ur of Chaldees.
• He spoke with Sarah and with Hagar about their children.
• He spoke to Moses from a burning bush.
• He spoke to Elijah in a still small voice.
• He spoke to Samuel in a dream and to Isaiah in a vision.
• He spoke to Mary through an angel.

If we want to know what is on God’s mind and what is on God’s heart, He will not hide from us. James 1:5 tells us.

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him.

God speaks, and things happen. God speaks and He challenges us. God speaks and He comforts us. God speaks, and He reveals Himself to us in a personal way. 

The good news for us is that we don’t have to wonder about what’s on God’s mind and what’s on God’s heart. He tells us!

The Radiant Representative of God:

How can we come to know someone?  One way we can learn about someone is through their writing. When someone writes, they reveal what they want us to know. The subjects that they write on, the words they use, how they turn a phrase, all of these things give us insight into a person. It is a limited insight, but it is insight.

We also can learn about someone through what other people say about them, but that’s not always reliable. James Corden said,

Sometimes you can have a reputation for not being relatable and nice because you had a bad day once.

Coach John Wooden said,

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think that you are.

Historians often have the last word, so much so that one military historian reportedly told a general he was interviewing to be careful what he said, “Because what I write will make you or break you.” To another officer he reportedly said, “What I write about you will follow you for the rest of your career.”

We can learn about someone through observing their work. Scholars will study the paintings and sculptures of artists, and they make conclusions about them. Sadly, this is the same thing that retired Federal Bureau of Investigations criminal profiler John Douglas has said about serial killers. To know the mind of killers, he studied their work at the scene of the crimes.

We can learn about   through their pattern of life. This is the way that hunters find deer to harvest. They observe where and when the deer move, and then they ambush them. Again, the same is true in warfare. That’s why when I was in Iraq, I never felt I was in any real danger, even though we would go “outside the wire,” or leave our secure base, several times a month. We never knew when our commander needed to go see one of his units, and if we didn’t know our own schedule, the insurgents couldn’t know it either!

In today’s world we can watch people on television, or on the internet, and we can hear them speak and interact with others. This can make us think we know them and even think that we have a relationship with them. That’s what John W. Hinckley Jr. thought about actress Jodie Foster, and that’s what prompted him to shoot President Ronald Reagan to get her attention. Of course, he was deluded, and we delude ourselves if we think that we can truly know someone by watching them on video.

The best way to know someone is to meet them in person. I once did a funeral for a former US Marine who was a Vietnam veteran, and to my surprise, Dale Dye, a former Marine and actor was in attendance, He was not nearly as big of a person as he seemed to be on video. On the other hand, I once met a National Football League offensive lineman. I have always been a big boy and one of the tallest people in the room, but this fellow was massive!  Now I know why football officials look so small. They are just normal sized people!

Jesus came so that we might see God more fully. Philippians 2:5-8 tells us about this.

Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage.  Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

Because God wants to know us and to be known by us, He sent His very best to us so we could see Him in person. He sent us Jesus, who the writer of Hebrews said was the exact expression of God’s nature.

From the fall of Adam and Eve to the first Christmas, only a few people ever saw God face-to-face. All that changed when Jesus came, and God Himself walked on the earth. In John 10:30, Jesus said, “The Father and I are one,” and in John 12:45 He said, “If you have seen me, you have seen my Father who sent me.”

Because Jesus was the exact representation of God, He was radiant. 

I remember nervously standing at the altar with my pastor on the day of my wedding and waiting to see my wife-to-be enter the chapel and walk down the aisle. I have never before or ever since seen such a beautiful sight. In our lives together, we have seen many wonderful vistas of God’s creation, from rainbows in Hawaii to the deep blue waters of the Caribbean Sea to the mountains of Scotland, yet even such stunning sights as those pale in comparison to the radiance of God, as witnessed through Jesus.

Acts 1:8 tells us we will be witnesses to Christ, in much the same way that Christ was the witness to the nature of God. The question for us is, are we radiant representatives the way that Jesus is? That’s a tough question.

The good news for us is that we don’t have to wonder about what God is like. All we have to do is look at Jesus!

The Reliability of God:

It is comforting to know that God reveals Himself to us and that what He reveals about Himself is wonderful. But God is not all show and no go. We can rely upon our God to be present with us and active in our lives

Some theologians recognize a creator God, but that is as far as their understanding of God takes them. These people ascribe to the theology of Deism, which says that God made the world and then took His hands off it, the way a child will spin a top, and then stand by to see where it goes and how long it stays up right. This is not an accurate understanding of the God who reveals Himself to us through His creation, His Word, and His Son.

Our God is intimately involved in our world, and He has demonstrated that throughout history. For example:

• He personally walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden and He protected them from eating of the Tree of Life and living forever in sin.
• He confused the languages of people at Babel, and He purified the earth by the Flood.
• He, by His own hand, closed the door of the Ark so that Noah and his family could be saved.
• He called out Abraham, and He walked with Isaac and He wrestled with Jacob, and He made Joseph the prime minister of Egypt.
• He called Moses from the burning bush and sent him to deliver the Children of Israel from slavery and to take them to the Promised Land.
• He gave Moses the Law so that the people would know how to live blessed and attractive lives together that honored God.
• When His people turned against Him, God sent judges to save them from themselves, and prophets to teach this His Word and His way.
• He even allowed His people to have kings, though that had very mixed results. That’s not God’s fault; it wasn’t His idea!
• He sent His Uniquely Begotten Son to save us from our sins, and He sent the Holy Spirit to write His law on our hearts.
• He created the church to finish the job of blessing the world that He started with Abraham, and He promised to be with us until the end.
• Finally, He promised to come for His people and to create a New Heaven and a New Earth for us to live with Him in eternity.

So, is our God distant and detached from His world and His people? No not at all. Just thinking of the partial Biblical record above is exhausting! Yet, God is still active, and He is still with us, sustaining His creation until the end.

What about us? Have we not seen God working in our lives? Of course we have, and what the writer of Hebrews tells us, and what the Bible record tells us, is that we can count on that to continue!

The good news for us is that we don’t have to wonder if God is with us. All we have to do is look at Jesus!

The Restitution of God:

Have you ever searched for a solution to a problem but were frustrated at every turn?  Few of us have the positive attitude that Thomas Edison had when he struggled to invent the light bulb. He famously said,

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Have we tried to solve our spiritual problems and found 10,000 ways that won’t work?  Of course we have. 

Have we tried to solve our relationship problems and found 10,000 ways that won’t work?  Of course we have. 

Have we tried to solve our emotional problems and found 10,000 ways that won’t work?  Of course we have. 

What we need is someone to help us, someone to guide us, someone to solve our problems. Jesus reveals to us that He is the one who can do that, and in fact He is the only one who can. As the lyrics to the worship song go,

God will make a way where there seems to be no way,
He works in ways we cannot see, He will make a way for me.
He will be my guide, hold me closely to His side,
With love and strength for each new day He will make a way. 
He will make a way.

Notice that Jesus is sitting down. That means His work for us was completed. This is revealed in His last words from the Cross in John 19:28-30,

After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, He said, “I’m thirsty!” A jar full of sour wine was sitting there; so they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on hyssop[a] and held it up to His mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” Then bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

A little later in Hebrews we will see this fact again. Hebrews 4:9-11 says,

Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His. Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.

The good news for us is that we don’t have to work to earn the forgiveness of God or wonder if we have done enough to appease Him. All we have to do is embrace what Jesus did for us!

Conclusion:

Do we want to commune with God? Do we want to see God act in a personal way in our lives? Do we want to find rest from our cares, and fears and sorrows? Do we what to find healing and forgiveness? Then we should look to Jesus! We will see all of these things and much more in Him!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about the Son of the Covenant

Today I want to sahre a word about  Jesus as the Son of the Covenant as we look at 2 Samuel 7 and Psalm 89.

Sometimes people have ideas that just don’t work out. In the Army we decided that those folks had been inspired by “the Good Idea Fairy.” The Good Idea Fairy often had “great ideas” that caused a lot of work for people and a lot of drama but then turned out not to be great ideas after all. Those inspired by the Good Idea Fairy have the best of intentions, but their ideas just don’t work out as planned, like the story about the Boy Scout.

This young Scout was walking down the street one day when he saw an elderly lady standing at the corner of an intersection. Seeing an opportunity to do his good deed for the day, he waited with her there until the traffic light changed, grabbed her elbow, and then helped her across the street. When they got there, she started hitting him with her umbrella. Fending off her blows he asked her, “Why are you hitting me?” She replied, “I was just waiting for the bus!

In our main text for today, we will see David being inspired by the Good Idea Fairy, and we will also see God setting him straight. God did not hit David with an umbrella, but He did give him clear guidance, guidance which applies to us also. Let’s read 2 Samuel 7:1-6.

When the king had settled into his palace and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I am living in a cedar house while the ark of God sits inside tent curtains.” So Nathan told the king, “Go and do all that is on your heart, for the Lord is with you.” But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan:  “Go to My servant David and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you to build a house for Me to live in?  From the time I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today I have not lived in a house; instead, I have been moving around with a tent as My dwelling.

God Does Not Need a House:

We have to give David some credit here, because his intentions were good. On the other hand, we can see two clear mistakes being made here. 

First, David fell prey to mirror-image thinking. Mirror image thinking in national intelligence and spying involves the tendency to perceive the intentions and actions of others based on one's own cultural or experiential biases. This can lead to misinterpretations and false biases, which were on full display when American leaders misjudged the capabilities of the Japanese fleet before its attack on Pearl Harbor. In counseling, this tendency is called projection, in which people ascribe to others what they, themselves, are feeling or thinking. 

David was thinking like a person. People need shelter from the elements and to be safe from robbery, theft, and physical assault. People also want attractive, comfortable shelter. People also view their shelters as status symbols, which has given rise to the Mc Mansion phenomena in some fast-growing cities in the USA. Because he failed to think like God, he decided that what was right for David, was right for God. Well, not really.

David wanted to bless God, but he forgot that God Is above the physical. He created our world; He could build His own temple if He wanted one. He did just fine for 40 years in the desert, and many years after. He really doesn't need our help to make Him comfortable. 

The second mistake that was made here was on the part of Nathan. In his role as prophet, Nathan was to stand between God and man. He was a channel of communication, taking the concerns of the people to God and bringing God’s Word back to the people. The mistake he made was that he didn’t do either, He got ahead of God and assumed that he knew things that he didn’t know.  If anyone should have been hit with an umbrella during this event, it should have been Nathan.

God is gracious, however. He interrupted Nathan’s rest with a clear message, and to his credit, Nathan, beginning in verse 17, told David exactly what God had told him.

So, what can we take away from these verses? First, it is a good thing to want to bless God, however, we must not project our human reasoning and human needs and desires onto Him. Next, we must not get ahead of God and ask Him to bless our human ideas. Last, we need to ground ourselves in God's word and let that guide us!

Next, let’s review verses 7-9:

In all My journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever asked anyone among the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel: ‘Why haven’t you built Me a house of cedar?’ Now this is what you are to say to My servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from following the sheep to be ruler over My people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. I will make a name for you like that of the greatest in the land.

God Does Not Want a House:

Our God is an intentional God. When we use the phrase plan of salvation when we speak of the Gospel, we imply the truth that our God is intentional and that He does plan. We see that throughout the Bible, including in the parable about the man who built his house on the sand, as well as in the parable about the man who didn’t count the cost and could not complete his house. That trait of God is also reflected in Paul’s admonition to the church in Corinth that they should do things “decently and in order.”

Because God is an intentional God, He does not hold onto things that are not a part of His plan. Many of us are pack rats. We save everything, regardless of how useful those things are. Others of us never save anything. It is almost impossible for people to find that balance. 

One example of this occurred when I led an association of Baptist churches in south Alabama. The leadership of one of our churches decided that they would no longer have a choir, and they also decided to dispose of a van load of sheet music. They called our office manager who told them that they could bring the music to us, and we’d find churches that wanted to use it. And so they brought us dozens of boxes of materials.

Soon we had a pile of boxes full of sheet music in our meeting room. It turned out that not only did the original church not want the sheet music, but no one else did either! After several months with no interest from churches, we finally had to take that van load of boxes to the dump ourselves. We never should have taken possession of that sheet music, but it seemed a good idea at the time, at least to our office manager. I think that the Good Idea Fairy may have paid him a visit!

Since God does not need a building, He saw no need to encumber Himself with one, because He knew things about buildings that humans often overlook. Things like:

• Once you own them you discover that they own you.
• They tend to become a focus of activity and emphasis.
• It is easier to change walls than to change people.
• A y’all come attitude can prevail.

Ancient peoples believed in territorial gods. The god of the land was not the same as the god of the ocean. The god of one country is not the god of another. The god of the highlands is not the god of the coastlands. That is not the way it is with the Lord God Yahweh. Not only does He not need a house, He also can’t be contained in a house.

I have worshipped God in many different places, from using the tailgate of a truck as an altar, to holding a prayer meeting in a stair well, to worshipping in Haiti in an open-air church, to preaching in two different Church of England churches in the UK. In all those places, and in infinitely more places than that, God was there.

This is why my wife and I are not afraid to go where God has called us. He has led us many places, and what we have always found when we arrived at that new place is that God was already there.

So, what can we take away from these verses? We know that buildings are useful, and God does not prohibit them in this passage. He simply wants us to have the right attitude about them!

Next, let’s see the rest of God’s message to David, which is in verses 10-17.

“I will establish a place for My people Israel and plant them, so that they may live there and not be disturbed again. Evildoers will not afflict them as they have done ever since the day I ordered judges to be over My people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. ‘The Lord declares to you: The Lord Himself will make a house for you.  When your time comes and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to Me. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a human rod and with blows from others. But My faithful love will never leave him as I removed it from Saul; I removed him from your way. Your house and kingdom will endure before Me forever, and your throne will be established forever.” Nathan spoke all these words and this entire vision to David.

God Wanted to Make David a House:

We have seen that God didn’t need a house. We have also seen that God didn’t want a house. In fact, God wanted to make David a house!

Have you ever heard the saying, “If a deal is too good to be true, it isn’t”?   A corollary to that in the 21st Century is the saying about free on-line services, “If something on the internet is free, then you are the product.” This is because these free on-line services sell your customer data. If all of that sounds cynical, it is also true, with one exception: the covenants made by God with His people.

God’s focus is on the relationship between His people and Himself. To cement this relationship, God has created covenants with us beginning with His promise never to flood the world again, continuing with His covenant with Abraham, and extending through this covenant with David.

These covenants were designed to be a mutually blessing relationship, although, to be honest, God is the one who does most of the blessing, because what thrills God is to bless His people. Sadly, we have never fulfilled our part of those covenants.   

Psalm 78:10 says,

They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by His law.

God’s response to this failure by His people was to double down on His commitment to us. Jeremiah 33:31-34 tells us,

“Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”

God has blessed us physically, simply by creating the world and letting us live here and enjoy it. His best blessings, however, are spiritual. David already had a physical house. It was spacious and beautiful. He didn’t need another. What Daivid needed was a spiritual house, and God was going to give him one!

So, what can we learn from these verses? 

• Buildings are tools, not ends. 
• Buildings don't bless, but what goes on inside them should bless.
• God wants us to focus on spiritually blessing His people.
• It is harder to change people than walls, but that is our mandate!
• We should thank God for His physical blessings, and we should commit ourselves to bless Him by how we use them.

Next. Let’s turn to Psalm 89:3-4 and 19-29,

The Lord said, “I have made a covenant with My chosen one; I have sworn an oath to David My servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations.’” Selah . . . You once spoke in a vision to Your loyal ones and said: “I have granted help to a warrior; I have exalted one chosen from the people. I have found David My servant; I have anointed him with My sacred oil. My hand will always be with him, and My arm will strengthen him. The enemy will not afflict him; no wicked man will oppress him. I will crush his foes before him and strike those who hate him. My faithfulness and love will be with him, and through My name his horn will be exalted. I will extend his power to the sea and his right hand to the rivers. He will call to Me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the rock of my salvation.’ I will also make him My firstborn, greatest of the kings of the earth. I will always preserve My faithful love for him, and My covenant with him will endure. I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as heaven lasts.

God Made David a House:

When we talk about a royal household, the most important issue is to have an heir. That’s why King Henry VIII had six wives. Without a prince or princess to follow in the king’s footsteps, chaos would occur. And, because child mortality has been high among royal households, the goal for a king is to have “an heir and a spare.” 

We know David had physical children, and that Solomon became king after him. But God was speaking of a spiritual household, so who might that person be? Jesus of course. He was the Son of the Covenant that came to sit on the throne of the House of David forever.

Remember what Isaiah said about David's line in Isaiah 9:6-7,

For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.

God, in His zeal to bless His people, committed Himself to fulfilling His promises to them. He did this with clear-eyed determination.

God knew what it would cost Him to establish His Son on David’s throne. It cost Him everything, yet He did it anyway, because we were so important to Him. Psalm 15 says that the blameless person is the one who keeps an oath, even when it hurts, and it grievously hurt God for His Son to take upon Him the sins of the world. 

Jesus told the parable of a man who found a priceless pearl in a field. He went and sold all that he had to purchase that field so that he could have that pearl. This is what God did when He sent Jesus to us. We are priceless to Him and He paid everything to keep His promise to us.

Conclusion:

So, what have we learned today from these verses?

First, no one can out-give God.

Second, God has everything that He needs or wants, except the hearts of people.

Third, God will do anything it takes to save us from our sins and restore us to full fellowship with Him.

Also, we learned that God always keeps His promises, even when we don’t!

Finally, God deserves all the love, obedience, and praise that we give to Him, and more!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbtt

A Word about the Son of Salvation

Today I want to share a word Jesus as the Son of Salvation as we consider Jeremiah 33.  Let’s begin with verses 1-7:

While he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time: “The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it, Yahweh is His name, says this: Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah’s kings, the ones torn down for defense against the siege ramps and the sword: The people coming to fight the Chaldeans will fill the houses with the corpses of their own men that I strike down in My wrath and rage. I have hidden My face from this city because of all their evil. Yet I will certainly bring health and healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundance of peace and truth. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times.

Christmas is a time when we give gifts, following the model of the gifts that the Magi gave to the Baby Jesus. Sometimes people receive gifts that they may need, but don’t really want. For example, this story: “I gave my friend a book on how to accept gifts gracefully… He handed it back and said he didn’t need it.” Or this one: “I bought my roommate a laundry basket. He said, ‘I don’t need that.’ His floor said otherwise.” Another one goes: “I bought my friend a portable phone battery. He said, ‘Thanks, but mine is always charged.’ His phone died halfway through that sentence.”

On a more serious note, author Phillip Yancey discovered how much we can grow in our faith through the trials of life. He wrote an article in Christianity Today about that fact called, “Suffering: The Unwanted Gift.” Jeremiah, the prophet, was a man God sent to Israel to give them His Word. The problem that Jeremiah had was that no one really wanted to hear it, even when it was welcome news.

The Promise of Salvation:

When you have dug yourself a hole, the first step towards getting out is to stop digging! Then you need to find someone to help you out of that hole. This is exactly the situation that Israel was in when God sent Jeremiah to them with some good news.

The problem that Israel had was the problem that we all have.  The first part of Isaiah 53:6 tells us that,

We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way . . .

Israel was in rebellion. They had dug themselves a hole, but they were not wise enough to stop digging!

God sent Jeremiah to them with a message of hope. God promised to bring salvation to His people, but His people rejected His messenger, and they rejected Him. In fact, they threw Jeremiah into prison, as if to say, “Out of sight, out of mind.” They may have silenced His messenger, but God’s message was not silenced.

We must avoid the mistakes of Israel. God’s judgment is real, but His salvation is promised to those who turn to Him!

Next, let’s consider verse 8,

I will purify them from all the wrongs they have committed against Me, and I will forgive all the wrongs they have committed against Me, rebelling against Me.

The Purification of Salvation:

When Jeremiah told Israel how God would help them out of the hole that they had dug for themselves, he explained that God would do that through purifying them. The importance of purity is something that cannot be understated. Even in a mundane thing like car tires, impurities can cause great difficulty. 

I remember as a child when my father took me with him to get some new tires put on our car. This was an older car that had tires with tubes in them. My dad took great pains to tell the workers who were installing the tires to clean out the inside of the tire before they put the tube inside it. He specifically asked them to use compressed air to purge the inside of the tire before installing the inner tube. I remember him saying that even something as small as a cigarette leaf could puncture that inner tube when it was under pressure. A cigarette leaf may not be as small as a mustard seed, but it is an exceedingly small object. Still, something that small could ruin an expensive tire.

The same is true, but even more so, for our spiritual lives. Even the smallest of impurities will spoil our relationship with God. Remember, God‘s perspective on holiness is very digital: either you are holy or you are not. 

Isaiah 53, as well as many other passages of scripture, told us plainly that we are not holy and that we are not righteous. We are far from perfect. In fact, Isaiah goes on to say that all our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. In Isaiah 64:6-7 we read,

You welcome the one who joyfully does what is right; they remember You in Your ways. But we have sinned, and You were angry. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?  All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind. No one calls on Your name, striving to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and made us melt because of our iniquity.

Therefore, we need to be purified, but who can do that? The other half of Isaiah 53:6 tells us who that person is. Let’s begin reading at Isaiah 53:1.

Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion,  crushed because of our iniquities;  punishment or our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

We must avoid the mistakes of Israel. God’s standard is perfection, but He has promised to purify those who turn to Him!

Next, let’s see what God’s purification through the Son of Salvation produces in our lives. We can see that in verses 9-12.

This city will bear on My behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I will do for them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them. “This is what the Lord says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without man or beast—that is, in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are a desolation without man, without inhabitant, and without beast—there will be heard again a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying, Praise the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord is good; His faithful love endures forever as they bring thank offerings to the temple of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the Lord. This is what the Lord of Hosts says: In this desolate place—without man or beast—and in all its cities there will once more be a grazing land where shepherds may rest flocks.

The Praise for Salvation:

Whenever someone achieves a goal, a natural response is to celebrate. The ones who celebrate the most, however, are the ones who just managed to make the grade.

During university commencements, some students graduate with honors, such as cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude. The ones who celebrate the most however, are the ones who graduated “Thank the Lordy!” 

Do you know what they call those folks who just made the grade to receive their diplomas? Graduates!

When we are unexpectedly blessed, our response is to celebrate. When someone unexpectedly blesses us, our response is to thank them and praise them. I recently experienced that desire to praise and give thanks for a very mundane, but very welcome, blessing.  I was excited to discover that the parking lot at a local hospital had been restriped to allow easier access to the parking places. That seems like a small thing, but for a pastor, or a patient, or a patient’s family, that was a real blessing!

Only God could purify us and only God could restore our wrecked lives. When that happens to us, our natural response should be to praise Him. For God deserves all the praise for every good thing in our lives!

We must avoid the mistakes of Israel. We are only saved by God’s benevolence, so those who turn to Him should celebrate their rescue!

Next, let’s look at verses 14-17.

“Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—when I will fulfill the good promises that I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a Righteous Branch to sprout up for David, and He will administer justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is what she will be named: Yahweh Our Righteousness. For this is what the Lord says: David will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel. The Levitical priests will never fail to have a man always before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.”

The Person of Salvation:

Our God is a personal God. Too often, our society today embraces the concept of spirituality instead of faith. Like The Force in Star Wars, spirituality is amorphous, and like Jello, it is hard to nail down. Often, spirituality descends into vague concepts or feelings, which differ depending on the person or even the time of day. That is not what we find in the Person of Salvation. 

Jesus was a real person, who came as a real baby, to a real mother, and who lived a real life among us. 

Jesus fed real people and He healed real people, and in the Garden, He shed real drops of blood. 

Jesus, for us, underwent a real and brutal Roman execution. 

Jesus showed Thomas the real wounds in His hands and feet, and His side. 

Jesus also has definite qualities which we have seen throughout this entire series, but which are reinforced for us here:

• He is good
• He is faithful
• He is righteous,
• He is just
• He is powerful to save and to sustain His people
• He is the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

We must avoid the mistakes of Israel. God sent His Uniquely Begotten and very real Son to give His salvation to those who turn to Him! 

Finally, let’s read verses 19-22.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “This is what the Lord says: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night so that day and night cease to come at their regular time, then also My covenant with My servant David may be broken so that he will not have a son reigning on his throne, and the Levitical priests will not be My ministers. The hosts of heaven cannot be counted; the sand of the sea cannot be measured. So, too, I will make the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister to Me innumerable.”

The Permanence of Salvation:

Stubbornness is not usually considered to be a positive trait. In fact, we often say that intransigent people are “stubborn as a mule.” We certainly would never want to offend God by comparing Him to an animal that He never created! And yet, we do know that God is stubborn, though it might be better to use the term, determined, instead.

God loves His creation, and until the Last Days, He will not give up on us. Psalm 136:1 tells us,

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His loving kindness endures forever.

Isaiah 54:10 also says,

Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says your compassionate Lord.

The Hebrew word often used for God’s enduring love in the Old Testament is chesed, and some have translated that term as God’s stubborn love. When all else fails, when all plans are defeated, when all friends abandon you, when there is no hope, when you have come to the end of the line, one thing always will remain solid: God’s love.

We must avoid the mistakes of Israel. Instead of looking for help elsewhere, or instead of giving up, we must look to our faithful God who loves us with an everlasting love.

Conclusion:

When Jeremiah was sharing God’s message of salvation, Israel’s back was to the wall, and they had no way out. Despite this, they ignored God’s way and they chose their own way. This, sadly, led to their destruction.

What we may not realize is that, spiritually, because of our sin, our backs are to the wall also, and we, too, have no way out. We must avoid the mistakes of Israel, and we must choose to embrace the message and the work of the Son of Salvation for our lives.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt