Servant Song II in Isaiah

“Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother He named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand He hid me; He made me a polished arrow; in his quiver He hid me away. And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” (Isaiah 49:1-3, ESV) [Read Isaiah 49].

Edward Dalgliesh in writing about what scholars call the “Servant Songs” found in Isaiah, writes: “These songs reiterate the role of Israel as the chosen servant of God, the nation that would evangelize all nations, whose endowment by the Spirit would provide the enablement for that mission and the concomitant suffering attendant upon the people of God addressing a sinful society, and the ultimate success of the divine mission by His faithful servants.” [Holman Bible Dictionary, Nashville, 1991, p. 719]. Very closely associated with Israel being the chosen nation and servant for giving the Good News to “the coastlands and people afar” is the very-present anticipation of the Messiah’s coming from restored Israel. Listen to what Spirit-inspired Isaiah writes in 49:26b: “Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” The covenant of Israel as Savior/nation was made with Abraham of old: “…all the people of the earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3b NIV); and again in Psalm 132:12 to David: “If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, then their sons also forever shall sit on your throne.” Malachi 3:1 reveals that God, according to His promise, will send the promised Messenger of the Covenant: “Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, ‘behold, He is coming,’ says the Lord of hosts.” As Jesus instituted the Last Supper the night before His death, He said: “This is My blood of the New Covenant which is poured out for many.” His death on the cross established that all covenants be sealed by blood. It was a restatement of the Old Covenant, but fulfilled in a new and complete way through Jesus Christ. And He gave us, believers and accepters of the New Covenant, the task of being reconcilers and evangelists, of bringing others to the knowledge of the continuing covenant. “Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:7). The Covenant is in place. The Servant Song is strong and inviting. We have a marvelous part in helping to bring those who are afar to the Light of His shining. Isaiah had a word for it in anther place: “Arise, shine, for Your light has come!” (Isaiah 60:1, ESV). What joy is ours to participate in the Servant role!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Parable of the Rich Man’s Meditation

“And He told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21, NIV).

Those who have studied carefully the teachings of Jesus and documented them state that he taught more about money and the use of and love for it than any other subject. Why is this? Because how we live, including how we make our living and how we use our resources, all express our Christian faith. Jesus knew this, and often gave cryptic insights into how we should consider that “unrighteous mammon,” or money, which we are often tempted to set up as an idol. Yesterday’s thoughts on the unjust steward parable showed this concept. That parable was all about the theme of prudence and ingenuity in using property. Today’s parable, which someone has called “The Rich Man’s Meditation” also gets at the heart of man’s attitude about possessions. There’s an old adage, “The more one has, the more one wants.” Paul the Apostle, knowing this, advised his son-in-the-gospel, young Timothy: “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (I Timothy 6:10, NIV).

In the parable of the rich man and his desire to build better barns in which to store his abundance, he suddenly found that he had none to store. Death came upon him suddenly. Someone has said, “You don’t ever see a U-Haul behind a hearse. You can’t take it with you.” Life is tenuous at best. We have assurance of today, but tomorrow is nebulous. It is not that we are to completely disregard money and its ability to help and sustain life needs. Rather it is the love of money we are to guard against, that insatiable desire to put temporal things first in our lives to the exclusion of loyalty to God. We need to constantly check our attitude toward money, earning and accumulating it; and also our attitude to others in terms of generosity toward the needy, and extension of the Kingdom of God.

I believe God made a plan, even for our money. He said, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse” (Malachi 3:10). “But that is Old Testament and the law,” some argue. Jesus did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it, to make it more applicable to the Christian life. Listen to the New Testament admonition: Jesus, in addressing the scribes and Pharisees on their diligent attention to tithing, said, “these ye ought to have done, and not to leave the others undone” (Matthew 23:23). He was talking of their tithing, but also of “weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy and faith.” If Jesus is Lord of our money, how we earn it and manage it, we can gladly practice what Paul taught in II Corinthians 9:7: “Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.” We don’t need bigger barns or more secure depository sources. We need to honor God, first of all. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). God loves us and wants the best for us. But our loyalty to Him is expected as we accept His provision for us. Not bigger barns, but bigger hearts for the things God wants us to partner with Him in doing in the world; that’s the idea behind Christian stewardship!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Saturday, September 4, 2010

Trust in the Lord

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV) [Read Proverbs 3]

Proverbs 3 is an exhortation to the young (addressed as “son”) to be obedient, to practice faith, to pursue wisdom, to be charitable, to avoid evil, and to be righteous. Proverbs teaches that if Gods commandments are kept, if He is sought diligently, long life and peace will be the rewards for the faithful.

Tithing, although not thus labeled, is taught in Proverbs 3:9: “Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.” A result of recognizing God’s lordship even of our possessions will result in enough as indicated in verse 10 with “barns filled with plenty” and “presses shall burst out with new wine.” That was an agricultural day when full yields would indicate a recognition of God in all the elements of good soil, adequate rain and sunshine, and even good health for the work necessary to produce full yields. Now, with a different kind of economy, faithfulness to tithe, or give God the firstfruits of our earnings, is seen in enough to meet the reasonable needs of our lives. This is promised not only in Proverbs but in other Scriptures, notably Malachi 3:10: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

Trust in the Lord involves complete dependence upon Him in all things. When we make Him Lord of our money and earnings, we trust Him with our livelihood, knowing that our needs will be met. In my husband’s experiences in the ministry, I recall many whose trust in the Lord covered fully their considerations about money. There was Joe who would not be baptized until he placed his billfold in his pocket, saying, “I want my money to be dedicated to the Lord.” That was his way of showing his trust in God’s plan of stewardship. And there was Hallie, a dear lady, though beset with dread leukemia for several of her later years, who had reared her children as a single parent. She worked hard as a supervisor in a sewing plant. So faithful in setting aside the tithe and teaching others to do, she was known affectionately as the “stewardship lady” in the church. Leaning on our own understanding is not enough. Trust in the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Acknowledge the Lord. He will make your paths straight. That is a condition with a faithful promise.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, June 30, 2010