Chapter 18: Church’s Mandate
“If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, why should you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but must drink it.”{cdxc} This is a prophecy to Moab. Those who do not deserve to drink it are those of whom it is true, “There is no condemnation in Christ.” Why do we deserve the cup of God’s wrath? We’ve been saved from God’s wrath. So, we take of Jesus’ cup, but not because we deserve it. We lay down our lives willingly. And because we lay our life down willingly, just as was true for Christ (through the eternal Spirit), it is ours to take back up again.{cdxci} By the power of God the Father,{cdxcii} and through the eternal Spirit,{cdxciii} we are imitators of Christ.{cdxciv}
In this manner we make known the manifest wisdom of God to the principalities and powers.{cdxcv} We love not our lives even unto death,{cdxcvi} and because we display God’s “secret wisdom”,{cdxcvii} the power of the resurrection is released through our death. It takes an eternal perspective to see this. It is through our death that we bring life to the dead. Those that are dead are they who “follow the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air”.{cdxcviii} This command to die, as propitiation, on behalf of others is “not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.”{cdxcix}
I know that this is a rather bizarre way of putting forth these verses. What I guess I’m trying to convey is that it would seem as though when the righteous die, there is a redemptive quality to it. Something takes place in the heavenly realm. That demonic blindness and stupor, which was put there by the Lord,{d} is the very thing that we are trying to set Israel free from. The veil that blinds the nations equally blinds Israel. This sense does not only heighten our awareness of the importance of our lives during the time of the Tribulation, it also heightens our attentiveness to the weight and significance of every moment.
This moment, even now, is once and for all. Either I am spending time doing that which I believe engages those powers and tears down strongholds, or I am wasting my time. If it is not something that builds up the Kingdom of God, then it is not important. Our engagement of those powers is based upon prayer and fasting.{di} Prayer is constituted by our life lived as a devotion to the Lord, and fasting is any kind of sacrifice of luxury and convenience for the sake of God’s glory. I find that the times when I have an elevated awareness of the severity of a situation, I am fasting one way or another. If I cannot fast my food, then I will lose sleep.
In regard to wrestling the principalities and powers while Israel is in our care, I would like to point to Matthew 25:14-30. This is the parable of the talents. To one man ten talents were given, to another man five talents were given, and to a third man one talent was given. From the context of Matthew 24-25 being about the end times, I don’t think it is extravagant to say that this parable is given in relation to the Jews that are fleeing into the wilderness for refuge (especially Matthew 24:45-46).
In the ancient Hebrew culture, to take someone into your home was to place them under your protection. At any and/or all costs, you protect that person that has come under the “shadow” of your roof. The word shadow is used as a symbol for the “shadow” of the Lord’s wings, which is distinctly a term used to display God’s protection. When we bring them in, we protect them with everything in us. Lot brought in the angels and offered his own daughters in their place.{dii} I’m not advocating this; I only make the point that the culture of the Hebrews was such that you did not allow anyone to harm your guest.
Jesus seems to already have in mind the question that will be asked: “What about us? How do we defend ourselves? What do we do if we’re discovered?” Jesus replies with, “Make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict”.{diii} It is actually to also be made up in our mind that we are in the Lord’s hands. We need to be content that whatever happens is to His glory, and if it weren’t He would rend the heavens and come down “riding upon a cherubim” and “shooting flaming arrows”.{div}
In point of fact, our message to Israel will be one of hope: “You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a should, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’”{dv} We read in Isaiah 35 about a people that the wilderness will be glad for. The people who are being scattered through that wilderness are being addressed by a message that God prompts upon the hearts of His servants saying, “Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong and do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.’” The people being addressed to speak a message are not the same as they that have feeble hands, shaky knees, or fearful hearts.
God is addressing the church in the wilderness that has been prepared for that people to give a word that would actually cause for hope when hope has been diminished. As it says in Romans 10:14-15, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Our witness to them is one of hope. Even if we are called upon to give a hard word, and to explain that they are being judged for their sin, and to explain to them why this God that they don’t even believe in is interested in them, we are producing hope. The hope does not come from the words in themselves. The hope comes from the Spirit that is being communicated through those words.
Jesus said, “My words are spirit”,{dvi} and our words will also be Spirit and life. It doesn’t matter what exactly those words are, as long as they are not our words, but are instead the words of the Father, then we will be communicating life and not death. The man is the message. We cannot separate the one from the other. If our words are of a God that will save, but we show forth in our characters and livelihood anything other than that salvation, our words will bring death instead of life. However, if we give words of condemnation, all the while we don’t show the severity of the words in our daily lives – that we have truly wrestled with such terrible words – then the words will be a mock and slander, no matter how true. For our words to be the whole truth and nothing but the truth, they need to be more than mere sentiment or quotation of the Scripture. Neither constitutes truth alone. Unless the words have gripped us and shown themselves true in our lifestyles, they are only words. Truth is reality, and not mere fact.
Uncle Tom
There is a word to the African American saints that I think actually applies to all of God’s saints. The term “Uncle Tom” is used as a racial slur to mean a weak, fearful, timid, rat that sells out his brothers. When you read the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, you come to a different notion. An Uncle Tom is not a weak person that was afraid of being beaten or in trouble, nor someone that sells out his brothers, but instead a submitted servant with costly submission. The spirit of the Uncle Tom is one of humility. They place themselves under the rod of bondage for the sake of submitting to authority. This is not a weak person, but in actuality, a strong person.
The amount of strength and moral grit that it takes to be able to endure that kind of mistreatment, and to not rise up against it but to submit under it, is more than words express. This patient endurance of oppression and exploitation show forth a stronger character than many of us are willing to consider. To be called to be an Uncle Tom to the Jewish people seems like an insult. How dare I say that we should be an Uncle Tom at all – and especially to the “Christ killers”? Yet, that kind of character of submission and love are throughout the Scriptures, but especially in the New Testament.
In Luke 2:41-52, Joseph and Mary leave Jerusalem without their son Jesus. Jesus remains at the Temple debating the teachers of the law. He impresses even the most intelligent and outstanding of the Pharisees. When Joseph and Mary realize that they are without Jesus, they go back to Jerusalem to find him. When they find him, there is a stern rebuke, like many mothers give, “You had me worried sick!” Jesus’ reply is, “How did you look for me? Didn’t you know that I would be of my father’s business?” They didn’t understand. Yet, Jesus submitted to them. He went down to Nazareth with his parents and was obedient to them. Little wonder we find the next verse saying, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and men.”
You would think that in this episode there would be a legitimacy for Jesus to say something like, “Hey, mom and dad… You guys just don’t understand me. You know, I am twelve after all. I know what I’m doing, and you guys are a hindrance to my ministry! I’m supposed to be the messiah, and to sit upon the throne of David. But you guys want to raise me up like I’m the same as all the other kids. Don’t you know that I have a calling?” This is not the spirit of Christ. While we are often too much in that character to stand up for ourselves, and to give credence to why we’re important, Jesus submitted himself unto them, and obeyed them – even though they did not understand him.
We find in Ephesians 6:5-8 words to slaves. “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”
Have you ever paused and considered these words? What manner of a man is this? We can even use this in application to our employment. Everything of ambition and carnal desire bulks against this. Obey your master? Sincerely serve wholeheartedly as if we’re serving the Lord? What about me? What do I get out of this? What did they ever do for me? They don’t deserve that kind of respect. It is all the more amplified if our employment does not treat their employees with respect and kindness. Yet, here is the word of God. Submit to that authority without bumping it. Serve them wholeheartedly. Pull out the stops. Give everything. Don’t hold back. Even in the times when your master is not looking, work for them with intensity and passion and fervor.
Isn’t this amazing? Slaves are to submit to their masters without begrudging. There doesn’t seem to be a hint of, “Well if I have to…” That kind of submission is one that entails wholehearted surrender with joy, knowing that God is sovereign. We don’t grit teeth, nor do we allow for something within us to rise up in rebellion, but we instead submit with everything in us. I can only think that if that were the heart of the slaves in the 1800’s, we would be living in a different America. If the Christian workers worked like that at their jobs, we would have a different kind of stereotype. The truth is that we are all too much like the rest of the world: full of pomp and greed.
To submit in that sort of manner chafes our hide. We still want to be recognized. We still want to be patted on the back. Yet, this kind of submission rejoices in being unrecognized and hidden. We rejoice in being in the place of obscurity. Submission is more than agreeing to do something. It is more than simply saying, “Well, you’re the boss.” Submission would require being at their dispense. If they abuse and use you, you continue to submit, knowing that it is working in you a character suitable for the end of the age. When the Jewish people come to our homes and communities for refuge, we will be required to wait on them with submission and love that is almost impossible to describe. If we have something inside that will rebel and get agitated, we have lost the battle.
God is placing everything in this. We must reflect His heart and attitude. Like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so too do we remain silent. Though they might mock, though they might ridicule, though they might seek to catch us in our words, and though they might do everything to expose our faulty hearts, we do not speak against them, but humbly submit to them. As if they are fathers of our faith, we submit to their authority. We willingly take in their insults. We swallow down their accusations. We don’t combat it when they believe that it is because of 2000 years of Christian persecution against the Jewish people that they are now being persecuted yet again. We simply submit ourselves in love unto it, and we do not lend ourselves to a spirit of dissention.
“Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.”
As the Bride of Christ, we are to have this kind of beauty and submission to Him and His purposes, all the more because it is more than we’re able to bear. Let us not shrink from this call to Israel. It is something that we would not choose, but it is necessary in order to fulfill all righteousness in us. If we are to become the Bride that comes down out of heaven, and has such purity that the streets of gold are like glass, we need this kind of costly surrender to the purposes of Christ. Let Christ give us the difficult situations now, so that we might reflect Christ ultimately when the time comes to take in the Jew and provide for them.
This is how we manifest the wisdom of God to the principalities and powers. That kind of humility is unrelenting. God alone has displayed that kind of unrelenting humility, but He desires to display it through His people. It says in Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
The call to lay down our lives might be much more literal than we have before thought. Likewise, we find in Matthew 23:2-3, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” Maybe this is what Paul was saying when he wrote in Romans 13:13, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against he authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.”
This point is noted quite poetically when Psalm 102:13-15 says, “You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come. For her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity. The nations will fear the name of the Lord, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory.” The servants are the Church, and the favor/compassion is priestly identification with Israel. That identification is what brings the compassion to Zion, and so the nations will fear the Lord, and all the kings will revere God’s glory.