Enoch walked with God

Jones Very wrote a poem called Enoch. After describing the unique life of the ancient partriarch, the one who truly "walked with God", the poem concludes with a reflection on the fact that after Enoch was taken, God had no companion with whom to stroll around the earth:


God walked alone unhonoured through the earth;
For him no heart-built temple open stood.
The soul forgetful of her noble birth
Had hewn him lofty shrines of stone and wood,
And left unfinished and in ruins still
The only temple he delights to fill.


How many things have we built, anticipating that God would be pleased with what we were doing for him? Yet the poem reminds us that what God wants is not what we do, but us. Just like Jesus chose the twelve first to be with him, and only secondarily to go out and do his work (Mark 3:14).

We are so impressed with our actions. But in God's estimation, the human heart, his most intricate piece of workmanship, is vastly superior to the most magnificent cathedral constructed by men. Yet while enormous sums are spent on maintaining heritage buildings, hearts are allowed to rot and crumble.

Paul sensed the same divine priority. He prayed for the church that "Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (Eph 3:17). At first glance this seems a superfluous prayer: is a Christian not, by definition, somebody within whom Christ lives? Why pray for what is already in place? Yes - Christ inhabits every believing heart by his Spirit. But Paul's word is "dwell", not inhabit. And that has connotations of "living comfortably", feeling at home and being at ease. Yes, he lives in us. But then there are people who live in broken-down, ramshackle hovels. He deserves a comfortable resting place, not a dilapidated heart.

In his gracious way he is content to live in a home that is in the middle of a major renovation. He's happy with a work in progress. So long as there is progress! So long as we are genuinely in the process of being built into a Temple fit for God's own dwelling place.

We've got our hands full

The Lord has everything in hand. As we saw last time, in Revelation 5, John watched the destiny of the planet pass hands as the scroll that had been in the hand of him who was seated on the throne was handed on to the Lion-King-Lamb. As heaven erupted with a cry of "Worthy", they were saying it couldn't be in better hands.

Jesus has his hands full - he's holding the scroll! He's got the whole world in his hand. But we must be careful not sink back into fatalism. Don't worry - he's got it all in hand. Relax - he can handle it. That's fatalism rather than faith. Because when we look closer at what John saw, we see that there were others who also had their hands full. Many commentators suggest that the twenty-four elders represent God's people - they are us in an idealized perspective! They too have their hands full. They are holding bowls, harps and crowns.

The Lord really could have handled history single-handedly. But, for our sake, he wanted us to give him a hand - to make our hands available to do what he put in our hands to do. Not because he needed help, but because he wanted to give us the privilege of partnership in the family business. One of the amazing things in the heavenly scene is that there is not simply one isolated throne, but around the throne are twenty-four thrones (4:4). We are not there as spectators in the control centre of the universe, but as participants in the drama. It is wonderful that the Lion-King-Lamb rules the world; but it is remarkable that the redeemed have a role reigning on the earth, for the King has made us to be a kingly priesthood (5:10). Heaven cries that he is worthy to reign, but the revelation declares that we have been renovated to reign.

So how do we know what we are to do? John shows us what's in our hands (5:8). We do what's in our hands to do.

• We have bowls in our hands. 

These representatives of God's people have their hands full with bowls fill of incense. We don't get to hold the scroll, but we do get to hold the bowl. The incense represents prayer. That's what we have to do.

• We have harps in our hands. 

The worship service in heaven, as the Lion-King-Lamb was handed the scroll, was responsive. It was our representatives, the twenty-four elders, who sang the new song extolling his worthiness. When they did that, the four living creatures (representing all of creation) and the angelic multitude responded resoundingly. Eventually everything was resonating in worship. But in this chapter, it took the twenty-four elders to strike the chord and set the theme. It's what we do. We have harps in our hands.

• We have crowns in our hands. 

In the previous chapter, these same beings cast their crowns before the throne. The crowns were no longer on their heads but in their hands. What are we to do? We take off our crown. The crown, in this instance, was the crown given to the winner in the games, or the mark of honour awarded to military heroes. It represented their achievements. To take them off demonstrates the awareness that we have done nothing, we can accomplish nothing. All the glory goes to him. It's in our hands to do. And as we do, the Lamb begins to open the seals; the story-line of his great purposes moves on to the next page. Another seal is broken. A new chapter opens up. That's what we do!

Running the world is a handful

We've all seen kids running riot in the grocery store. "That mom has certainly got her hands full!" we respond. We talk about kids like that as being a handful.

God, the Father, has a lot of kids, and they are a lot more wayward than most problems seen in the grocery store. The whole planet, at first glance, seems like it needs some serious help. When John, in Revelation, found himself on a prison exile, it must have seemed like everything in the Roman Empire was out of control. Life as he had known it seemed as if it was falling apart as persecuting tyrants ran roughshod over churches like his, man-handling helpless victims.

When he saw the scene in heaven, in his vision in Revelation 5, he saw the destiny of the world as a scroll. He broke down and wept because it seemed like nobody could be found who would be competent to take hold of that scroll in the control centre of the universe. Nobody with their hands on the wheel; who could tell where the planet would end up?

But what he came to see was that everything was in hand. The scroll initially was "in the hand of him who was seated on the throne" (v.1). The Father had his hands full - a firm grip on all that was scripted for the history of the earth and its inhabitants. It was in good hands.

And then John saw that there was a Man who was worthy to get his hands on it, qualified to take the future of the planet in hand. And to him, it was not a handful. When the time came for the great handover, he was utterly competent to take it on; his life on earth had earned him all the necessary credentials. He was well prepared to rule the universe. So when John saw the Lion-King-Lamb, his weeping turned to worship.

The Lion-King-Lamb got his hands on the scroll. His seven horns depicted his power to do whatever was necessary to restore order. His seven eyes with their 360-degree X-ray vision depicted his perfect awareness of all that was going on, and his slaughtered frame demonstrated that he had paid the price. He was ready to start opening the seals, taking personal responsibility for the unfolding of history from that momentous moment onward. Nothing that happened on earth could ever get out of hand. He has a handle on it all. The present and the future could be in no better hands than his nail-pierced hands. It is all in hand. His hand.

Riches without Reproach

Continuing our series on The Treasure in the Field, The Kingdom and Wealth

Poverty is not a mark of spirituality. In many instances it is a curse, a promised consequence of disobedience. And wealth is not a mark of carnality. Abraham was a deeply spiritual man, a man of faith. His vast wealth was a direct consequence of the blessing of God on a righteous man.
Certainly Jesus called some to dispose of their wealth. But that was not because of something inherently evil in money. It was because of the heart attitude of the people concerned. Jesus loved the poor, ministered to the poor, and took the good news to the poor. That does not imply that they needed to remain poor. He also felt very comfortable in the company of the rich. He dined with them too, on occasions, and he enjoyed the care of some who were wealthy. There were rich and poor alike among his followers.

Of course, wealth is not necessarily an indication that its owner is walking in the warmth of God’s approval. Neither is its absence a proof of God’s displeasure. But generally and in the long run, we can expect material blessing to rest upon those who are obedient. Its purpose is not primarily personal happiness, but the establishing of God’s covenant. That is why it is part of God’s reward for covenant faithfulness.

And this can be seen at a national, as well as a personal, level. The Bible promises that the wealth of the nations will flow to the righteous (Isaiah 60:5). It should therefore come as no surprise to find that much of the world’s wealth is found in the hands of nations that are built on Biblical foundations.

In the West we are currently living off the capital laid up for us by more godly forefathers. As the world’s spiritual climate changes, we can expect a corresponding re-distribution of wealth reflecting the rejection or acceptance of biblical values by different nations. All of this takes time to filter through, but it will happen. Wealth is given in response to covenant faithfulness so that it will be used for purposes consistent with God’s purposes in the earth

You can download the whole book as a free e-book (or pdf)
Or, you can listen to chapter 10 as audio files: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Ishmael was not delivered by a stork

The Great Commision (Mt 28) stands on the shoulders of the Great Covenant (Gen 12). For us there are two implications. 

One that we saw last time is that “Being” comes before “Doing” if all the families of the earth are to be blessed. The command in Gen 12:2 is to be a blessing; this has the force of an imperative in the original text. 

The second implication is that what God has covenanted to do is foundational to what we are commanded to do. A truly missional focus stresses his mission more than ours, and only so will the success of the gospel be a matter of faith not works. God is not looking for a bunch of activists to get the job done.

How, then, do we approach the “Go – Do” structure of the Great Commission in a way that reflects the “Go – Be” structure of the Great Covenant in Genesis 12:1-3, upon which Jesus words are built? 

·         Do nothing?

There are those who say that because God is sovereign we should do nothing. Does God not promise to Abraham that this is a work that he will do? It is probably an apocryphal story, but it sums up the attitude of some. When William Carey broached the prospect of taking the gospel to the nations at his local ministerial fraternal, an elder pastor responded: “Young man sit down! You’re an enthusiast. When God pleases to convert the heathen he’ll do it without consulting you or me!” That’s the hyper-Calvinistic “do nothing" approach. I call it the stork theology of new birth. The idea that this is where babies comes from: a stork carrying in its beak a baby wrapped in a diaper. It’s as absurd to think we have to do nothing to have spiritual babies as it is to think that natural babies will be delivered under a gooseberry bush. You do have to do something.

·         Do something?

But others have the opposite problem. “We’ve got to do something!’ they cry. “Doing anything is better than doing nothing!” But not so fast. We’re in the story of Abraham here. God had promised him a son. But Abraham said, “I’ve got to do something before it’s too late! If I don’t do something, nothing will happen.” He had no faith in Stork Theology; but his approach can be summed up as “Ishmael Theology”. And in our activism I suspect we give birth to a lot of Ishmaels. The Great Commission becomes a Great Pressure and it’s all down to us having to do something.

·         Do nothing – but what I see the Father doing

What does Jesus say? He is no fan of stork theology, for he knows that spiritual babies won’t just drop out of the sky. You can never say Jesus did nothing. But neither can you say that he said “Just do something! Anything is better than nothing.” What he actually said was that he would “do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does” (Jn 5:19). Do nothing – but what the Father does. Our doing is only participating in what the Father is doing. Which makes it possible to engage in the Great Commission in faith rather than in activism. Resting on what God has done rather than relying on what we can do.