Freed In Christ

Joshua Judges Ruth
Part Six
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

Ruth’s message is simple:  circumstances will not Make, nor Mar, a saint.  The book itself is a weavers tale of the difficulties in the life of the wealthy, yet faithful, Boaz, and the impoverished, yet faithful, Ruth.

The difficulties of privilege in the case of Boaz, and the difficulties of limitation in the case of Ruth both speak, in tandem, to the language of Faith.  How?  Because God is the absolute flora & fauna, the background & backdrop of all human life.  Because God is the inheritance, the dominant influence by which all poverty is cancelled, and all wealth is made nickel & dime.  So I’ll repeat my first proposition.  Circumstances will not Make, nor Mar a saint.  If we cannot begin our Faith in the land of Moab, we will never be Faithful in the land of Judah.  If a man cannot be Faithful as a wealthy man, though he lose his wealth, poverty will not make him a man of Faith.  If we cannot be Faithful in poverty, wealth, if it comes, will in all probability ruin us.

As a sequence to my first proposition, I’ll add a second.  The principle of victory is Faith.

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen.”  Faith is the principle that takes hold of God, and appropriates His resources.  Faith takes hold of what we need in God, and enables God to take hold of what He needs in us.  From this truth we learn something of God’s laws of Faith.

Faith is an open mind, a personal decision, a direct application of the things believed in every-day life.  Faith is a persistent courage in the face of difficulty.  Faith is not a sentiment we sing.  Faith is an attitude of life, based upon the conviction of our soul.

Any life that surrenders & follows Him in Faith is of great value to God.  The book of Ruth beautifully portrays and teaches this truth.  Yet, the value in a life of Faith will never be known, until we pass within the Veil.  The sequence with which the book of Ruth closes proves this point:  Obed, Jesse, David . . .  Boaz & Ruth had passed, and David, the king for whom the nation was waiting, had come.  Yet, the sequence does not end with David.  As we read later, when the prophet Micah broke into a striking prophetic song:  “You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall One come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel” (Micah 5:2).  Far down the centuries there came a star at midnight, angelic songs were sung, and in the direct line of the man Boaz, of Judah, and the woman Ruth, of Moab, to Bethlehem came Christ the King of Kings!

Ruth & Boaz could not see the future.  They did not live to see the harvest of their Faith, but God found a foothold in their Faith.  That is the principle of which we need to be reminded.  We talk about results.  But if our results can be statistically written and seen by all, then our results are dismal failures.  “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen.”

Paul was a saint restrained - in “affliction” and “prison.”  It is impossible to read Paul’s letters without being conscious of a certain amount of restlessness in his appeals to, “remember my bonds.”  A man who saw Faith’s horizon, who was forever conscious of the Gospel, who wrote, “I am debtor . . . I am ready,” was a man in the end, restrained, contenting himself with writing letters.  But today those letters are of greater value than all his work.  Did he know his letters would be gathered together, and would constitute the great exposition of our evangelical Faith for all centuries?  I doubt that thought ever entered Paul’s mind.

The English missionary Robert Morrison (1782-1834) wrote, as young man, “This day I entered with Mr. Laidler to learn Latin.  I paid ten shillings and sixpence, and am to pay one guinea per quarter, I know not what may be the end.  God only knows.”   That ten shillings and sixpence was the beginning of Robert’s linguistic education, which made him a translator of the Bible, and opened the way for much of the English evangelical work done in China during the 19^th century.  Little did he know . . . “Faith is the proving of things not seen.”

We should take comfort in the life of Boaz & Ruth.  Knowing that the life we live for God today will one day bear Fruit.  Our life may be lived in a big city, or a small town - small, unknown, never published, never heard from a pulpit, never noticed either in the religious or irreligious sphere, and yet we may be, without ever knowing, God’s foothold for His future work, which if we were told, we could hardly believe.  The one cry of our heart, according to this book of Ruth, should be a cry for out-and-out abandonment to Him, in order that by our Faith, the Lord will win the victories for Himself alone.

Next:  Go Show Yourself To Ahab.

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six)

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 10 November 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Joshua Judges Ruth
Part Five
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

Never measure the value of a book by its size.  The little booklet, entitled Ruth, is one of the rarest and most beautiful idylls in literature.  But to catch its message, it is necessary to have a well-defined outline of the picture it represents.

The background of Ruth is clear, “And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged.”  Ruth chronicles troubled, stormy, & difficult times.  Ruth takes place in the midst of religious apostasy, political disorganization, and social chaos - which is the beauty of Ruth.  God never leaves Himself without witness.  Even in the darkest days, His light has never been totally extinguished.

The foreground presents the persons of Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon, Chilion, Ruth & Orpah living in a alien land (Ruth 1).  The conditions are famine, emigration, and sorrows.  We see the return of only one Israelite, Naomi, to the Promised Land, accompanied by a stranger from another nation, Ruth.  And finally, we read of the wooing and the wedding of that stranger, by Boaz, a faithful Kinsman-Redeemer.

Two figures stand out in bold solace, Ruth and Boaz.  Their illustration is strong, clear, definite - yet full of light and shade.  To read the book of Ruth is to read of Ruth and Boaz.  Ultimately, their union constitutes an ever present high-way for God, through the trials & trust of His people, for Him to accomplish His eternal purpose.

There are two permanent lessons in this book.  First, God is sufficient for trusting souls.  And secondly, trusting souls are instruments of God.

Ruth was a Moabite, who’s ethnic origin, according to the law of Moses, should never have allowed her to enter the congregation of the covenant Israelites.  While this book confirms that no such restrictions exists when faith in God is exercised, we can’t lose sight of the difficulty Ruth faced.  The more she came into contact with the Hebrews, the more she would have sensed the great chasm between the two.  The only Hebrews she’d known had left the Land because of famine.  From them she knew only the jeopardy & sadness of those who had remained in the land.  Ruth, along with Naomi, her deceased husband’s Israeli mother, had entered into a Land of poverty, into a people who in all probability were hostile to them both.  Yet Ruth, because of her unimpeachable character, flourished - surrounded by circumstances designed to crush her.

Boaz was a man of privilege in times of degeneracy.  A hard place to live, for a man of faith.  It’s easier to live a godly life among worldly men & women than in the midst of worldly Church-Folk.  Boaz was a man of wealth, who was able to secure whatever he needed for his material existence.  A condition perilous to a life of faith.  It’s hard to live an out-and-out Christian life confined in ease and luxury.

Ruth was a woman capable of love, set-apart by modesty, exceptional gentleness and courage.  A woman in all the grace and beauty of womanhood.  Boaz was a man of integrity, of courtesy, tender passion and courage.  A man in all the strength and glory of manhood.

In Ruth & Boaz, we see the sufficiency of God for those who trust Him.

Ruth was a woman unrestricted.  A woman who made her own choice against the prejudices of her Moab nationality, against the persuasion of Naomi, transferring herself, her citizenship, and her faith to Jehovah.  Saying to Naomi, “Where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge:  your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16).  A bold move for a non-Israeli woman.

Ruth remained loyal to her choice.  She turned her back on the land of her birth, her associations and acquaintances, and followed Naomi until she put the Jordan waters between herself and Moab.

Boaz was steadfastly loyal to God.  In a time when men took the name of God upon their lips, while their heart was far from Him, stood a man absolutely loyal.  A man of Truth in the midst of pretense.  A man who showed his relation to God in his relation to his fellow men.  A man who took personal oversight of all his affairs, yet he lived a life so godly as to be able to greet his workmen in terms which revealed his relationship to God.  Boaz was a man of caution and of courage - the two things which are never far apart.  Caution is the very soul of courage.  Courage is the true expression of caution.

The grace of Ruth, and the strength of Boaz lay in the fact that they both lived upon the principle of simple faith in God.

Faithful souls like these are instruments through which God is able to move towards the accomplishment of His purposes.  The story of the ultimate values of the faith of Ruth and Boaz is told in the ending of this little book:  From Boaz and Ruth, to Obed, to Jesse, to David, to the birth of the Redeemer.  Throughout the book of Ruth, we see the very footsteps of Almighty God.  Boaz the Hebrew, and Ruth the Moabitess, in union, became the highway for God’s ultimate realization of His purpose.

Next week the conclusion:  The Redeemer.

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six)

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 3 November 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Joshua Judges Ruth
Part Four
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

The apex in the book of Judges is God delivering His people the moment they cried to Him, answering them immediately, at the right time, by the right man, to the right issue.

I don’t want to dwell on the right moment here, because we’ve already seen how the Lord acted immediately, when His people turned back to Him.  What I want us to catch sight of is how God’s deliverance was shaped by the right man, to the right issue.

In Judges 3, the writer paints an eerie word-picture of the pagan nations the Lord left in the Land to test His people.  The Philistines, the Canaanites, the Sidonians, etc., were there “to know whether they (Israel) would hearken to the commandments of the Lord” (Judges 3:4 KJV).  Which they didn’t.

So the Lord raised up Othniel, a judge whose story is a simple one.  “The Spirit of the Lord came on him . . . and he went out to war . . . and his hand prevailed . . . and the Land had rest forty years” (Judges 3:10-11).

But, “the children of Israel did evil again . . . and the Lord strengthened Eglon against Israel.”

So the Lord raised up a righteous, left-handed judge Ehud, then Shamgar . . . A rough, rugged hero, fitted for his time, delivering and correcting the people.  Then there was the wonderful alliance between Deborah and Barak in an age short on enthusiasm & enterprise.  Deborah was a woman of song, foresight & prestige.  Barak was a strategist and adviser.  Without Barak, Deborah would have kindled enthusiasm, but accomplished little.  Barak, without Deborah, would have done zilch.  Together the Land had rest forty years.

But, “the children of Israel did evil again . . .”  So the Lord raised-up Gideon, in Israel’s most strenuous hour, who proved his heroism by his fear.  Never criticize Gideon for demanding proof on proof.  He was a man afraid of himself, but sure of God.  Gideon was a man who’s faith in Jehovah’s words was so complete that he lead an attack on a vast barbarian horde with three hundred men, armed with lamps, pitchers & trumpets.  And won!

The story of Jephthah is full of power.  I always feel sorry for Jephthah.  He was a man with iron in his soul, born out of wedlock, despised by his legitimate brethren.  A man who became both pirate & outlaw.  Unlike Johnny Depp’s corsair, who comically channeled the ghost of a pre-dead Keith Richards, Jephthah remained an honest, rugged Israelite, full of faith & strength.  When God wanted a leader in the days of anarchy, disorder, and outlaws, He took Jephthah, and made him the instrument of deliverance. 

Samson’s tale is full of sadness, revealing a nation utterly deteriorated, and a man unable to deliver:  “he shall begin to save Israel,” yet, he never succeeded.  One of the most tragic statements in the Bible is written of him, “He knew not that the Lord was departed from him” (Judges 16:20).  But don’t look down on Samson.  That same word may come to you, it may come to me, if we play with evil when we should be fighting the Lord’s battles.

Where did God find these people?  Where does He find His people today?  “They who wear soft raiment are in kings’ palaces.”  When God wants a prophet, He takes a herdsman; when needs a leader, He finds a shepherd; when apostles are called for, He picks fishermen.

Why did God raise-up these Deliverers?  It is summed up in, “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).  What does that mean?  Religious apostasy, political disorganization, and social chaos.  The book of Ruth follows Judges.  How does it end?  With David the king.  What is its issue?  The coming of the King, Jesus!  The King who brings an end to religious apostasy, political disorganization, and social chaos in Israel & the world!  So the line runs from Judges, through the idyllium of the kings, to the coming of the King.

The book of Judges is full of teaching for the Church, and for this nation.  It gives a warning as true today, as yesterday.  It reveals the process of deterioration:  religious apostasy, which brings political disorganization, and produces social chaos.  All social failure is rooted in religious apostasy.  The process of restoration must begin with the cause, which changes the course, and removes the curse.  When I’m asked to deal with social propaganda, I say, “No!”  That’s a waste of my time & energy.  It’s meddling with ineffectual scraps.  As Christians we should cry, “Back to God!  Back to God!”  That’s the only cry that will bring, first His people, then a nation, back to political emancipation and social order.

There is a message of hope in the activity of God.  He is forever moving towards His ultimate goal.  His methods remain the same.  He still punishes by war, catastrophe & poverty.  Take up any newspaper, watch any TV, what do we see?  The nemesis of impure man-made methods.  God is making men their own executioners.  Yet, He is forever ready to pardon.  If His people, and this nation would be turned back to Him, He would visit us again with His own salvation & prosperity.

Finally, remember, when the punishment has done its work, and the discipline has brought a sense of wrong in the heart of His people . . . He brings deliverance.  We cannot produce it.  But we need to careful not to stone it when it comes simply because it may not appear where we’re looking.

Next week:  the Kinsman-Redeemer.

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six)

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 28 October 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Joshua Judges Ruth
Part Three
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

The book of Judges tells the story of the journey of God’s people from Joshua through Samson.  Within its 21 chapters, two ever-abiding Truths are laid-bare:  “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34) and “Jehovah executes righteous acts, and judgments for all that are oppressed” (Psalm 103:6).

The book of Judges confirms to the People of God, in every age, how sin degenerates the morals of any nation or people . . . revealing the cause, the course, and the curse of deterioration.

The cause of deterioration is always religious apostasy.  Its course is always political disorganization.  And its curse is always social chaos and crime.

The first development of religious apostasy comes when the People of God tolerate the presence of anything that is out of harmony with the holiness of God.  That’s the first evidence of religious apostasy . . . always is.  Religious apostasy never begins with intellectual query.  I have great respect for anyone who is face to face with intellectual doubt.  They’re hunters, gathers, seekers . . . Let ‘em alone.  They’ll find the way out.

Religious apostasy begins with tolerance.  Compromise.  And compromise is followed by the veneration & approval of the activity or ideology tolerated, until compromise becomes conformity.  And because of conformity, the People of God begin to bow down and erect alters to unrighteousness . . . “Wherefore, come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing” (2 Corinthians 6:15-17).

Religious apostasy is always the first movement in religious & national deterioration, and is unavoidably followed by political disorganization.  This manifested itself in the case of Israel almost immediately after the death of Joshua (Judges 2:10-13).  The people of God ceased to act as one people.  They began to live in their own small territories and fight for their own selfish ends.  Civil war almost wiped-out the tribe of Benjamin.  The people of God, as a People, were broken up into factions, and consequently, became weak and suffered defeat.

Their curse was displayed in civil lawlessness.  Crime was everywhere, and stubbornness marked the people’s heart.  One of the most startling details in the book of Judges is the speed with which Israel forgot their deliverance from Egypt, the taking of Jericho, the victory on the other side of the Jordan, etc.  They were blind - unable to see the present activity of God, and totally incapable of recognizing His hand of judgment on the Nation & His people.  Blindness and religious apostasy are related to each other, as effect is to cause.

Israel’s folly was highlighted by their limited vision & pure selfishness.  For any nation to have Laws & Policies, which forsake God’s Laws & Principles, is to be blind indeed.  The outcome of such blindness is selfishness.  The people of God, Israel, (as the people of God, today), sought only their own personal increase of power, status, and wealth  . . . and forgot God.

Finally, the inevitable outcome of the people of God’s compromise, tolerance & forsaking God, is immorality and social chaos.

The book of Judges proves, beyond a shadow of doubt, that God does directly and definitely, punish sin.  And, the book of Judges also reveals the method & purpose of that punishment.

Israel’s punishment was the result of their own sin.  As they lowered themselves to cut-rate, immoral ideals of religion, they were compelled to bend to the rule of the people to whose immorality they had stooped.  The immorality which they should have driven out of the Land, they instead tolerated & admired.  And thus, the immorality of the people they conformed themselves to, became their tyrants.  And God brought upon His people the scourge of an immoral & unrighteous people . . . because His people had embraced unrighteousness.

I’ve painted a bleak, heart-breaking picture here, but bless God . . . there’s more to this story.  The prevailing activity of God is revealed throughout the book of Judges in three expressions:  punishment, mercy & deliverance.

The punishment of God was, and is uncompromising & severe.  During the years before Gideon was raised up, the People of God, with so great a birthright, were compelled to take refuge in caves, hiding their Birthright for fear.  Yes, but there is another word to be uttered.  Not only was their punishment uncompromising & severe, it was remedial.  God always judges His people with a view of restoration.  God’s aim is always to bring His people back to a consciousness of sin and of Himself.

Through all His processes, Jehovah is seen in the book of Judges as watching and waiting in mercy for His people, hearing them the moment they cry to Him, and answering them immediately with deliverance.  His deliverance at the right time, by the right man, to the right issue.

Next week:  God’s judges in the book of Judges.

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six)

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 20 October 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Joshua Judges Ruth
Part Two
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

“The just shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

God’s opportunity is created by the attitude of His people towards Him, and by the attitude of God towards His people.

The book of Joshua perfectly illustrates this principle.  In it we see, Israel’s conception of the supremacy of God, their conviction of the righteousness of God, their confidence in the mercy of God, and their conformity to the will of God.  God is to man what man is to God.  “The just shall live by faith.”

This truth emerged in Genesis, was clearly expressed by Habakkuk, and enforced by three New Testament references.  The power of the righteous life is faith.  It is by faith in God that the righteous live.  The letter to the Hebrews renders the passage, “My righteous one shall live by faith.”  That is, we, His people, shall live, individually & collectively, the righteous life by faith.  The power of righteousness is faith.  The book of Joshua is an interpretation of that fact.  The writer of the letter to the Hebrews declares, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down,” and that statement touches the keystone of the victories of Joshua.  The first strategic battle was won at Jericho.  Beyond that, the whole Promised Land stretched out before Israel.  That history, of the conquest of the Promised Land by the people of God Israel, teaches us, His Church, how and why, “The just shall live by faith.”  Faith is the acceptance of God’s standard of holiness, the abandonment to the government of God’s will, the achievement in the strength of God’s might .

We must first accept God’s standard of holiness.  In the beginning words of Joshua, there are warnings of dangers & difficulties which awaited Israel, and promptings that they remain Pure & Strong.  In Joshua’s last discourse the same standard is evident:  “ The just shall live by faith.”  Faith, which does not ask for mercy, while being slipshod about holiness.  Faith, which finds its anchor in the holiness of God.

Faith is the underlying secret of the strength and victories in Joshua.  And the strength and victories in His Church, today.  Faith is abandonment to the government of God’s will.  This was revealed in the story of the taking of Jericho.

At first glance, nothing could be more foolish than attempting to take a walled-city by marching & blowing rams’ horns.  But the eloquence of the story is rather an illustration of a heroic people with the ability to march seven days round a city, without striking a blow, after having won a battle by the sword on the other side of Jordan.  They were not foolish!  They were heroes!  And they’re given to us to translate our faith into flesh and blood, incarnations or historical mirrors, of our own struggle to abandon our faith to the government of God’s will.

When the walls trembled at the blast of the rams’ horns & the march of feet around them, they knew, and we know, that these people were being taught that God operates for the accomplishment of His purposes through the obedient and heroic faith of anyone who will obey Him - however foolhardy their action may appear in the eyes of men.

Similarly, during the 1800’s English Revivals, Wesley & Whitefield, while riding through the countryside would sing, “Fools and madmen let us be, yet is our sure trust in Thee.”  That’s heroic faith.  Faith to be willing to do things at which the wisdom of the world scoffs - if God commands.  By faith, God’s victories are won, and in no other.

Faith is success in the strength of God’s might.  All the victories of righteousness testify to this fact.

Today “Jehovah is a Man of war.”  He is the foe of sin in personal, social, civic, and national life.  At this moment He is moving forward in unabated, undeviating, unceasing hostility to sin.  I thank God that He will not make peace with sin in my heart.  I have tried to evade some issue with Him, to plead the excuse, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” to use the difficulty of my circumstance, to plead my infirmity.  But God, as a Man of war, has refused to make truce with my sin or accept my white flag.  He will only except my abandonment of sin . . . because He loves me.  The moment anyone can prove that God will excuse sin, is the moment I cease to believe in His love.  He is the foe of sin in me, in America, in the world.  Just because His methods today are not exactly His methods of the past, let us never forget, that every army that marches is under His control.  He still readies Cyrus, as in the days of old.  He is still fierce & furious in His anger against sin, wherever it manifests itself.

Today, as in ancient days, “My righteous one shall live by faith.”  Individually.

If we are to have a victorious righteous life we must win it by faith . . . Accepting God’s standard of holiness, abandoning our life to the government of God’s will.  Only then will we achieve personal victory.

This is equally true collectively.

To exercise a righteous influence, to produce the result of righteous conditions, we must collectively have faith in God.  Blot the Lord out of our political strategy, refuse to have His name mentioned in our public designs, and confusion & failure will be written across our endeavors.  It is only as God is recognized in His holiness, and obeyed in His laws, that righteous conditions can be obtain in personal, public, or political life.

Next:  “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six)

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 13 October 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Joshua Judges Ruth
Part One
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

History is prophetic, in that, it outlines the method of God, and the principles of human life.

The book of Joshua speaks from two irrefutable truths:  “Jehovah is a Man of war” (Exodus 15:3), and, “The just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

The truth revealed in the song on the banks of the Red Sea, is never lost sight of throughout the whole Bible, “Jehovah is a Man of war.”  In the prophecy of Habakkuk, the truth which appears as a principle in Genesis is crystallized into a explicit statement, “The just shall live by his faith.”  The book of Joshua illustrates these two truths, revealing the intimate relationship between them.

Joshua is criticized, in some circles, as being out of harmony with the truth revealed in the New Covenant.  Criticism with which I disagree.  On the contrary, Joshua, rightly read, interprets the Truth, concerning Jehovah, which we, in the New Covenant, sometimes find difficult to understand.

The concept of, “Jehovah is a Man of war,” runs through the whole Bible.  From the clear statement at the Red Sea, through the history of the Hebrew people, on through the New Covenant.  The people of God, Israel, were commanded to physically battle, under the direct authority of Jehovah.  Strange concept to modern eyes, but it is celebrated by many Old Testament writers:  “Jehovah, strong and mighty; Jehovah mighty in battle” (Psalm 24:8).  “By fire and by His sword will Jehovah plead with all flesh; and those slain by the Lord will be many” (Isaiah 66:16).

This concept runs through the New Testament in spiritual, and, when appropriate, physical fervor, as well.  It is manifested in the anger of Jesus (John 2), and in Revelation 19, when material symbolism and spiritual truth merge.  “I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He does judge and make war . . . And out of His mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations, and He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.”

God is perpetually at war with sin - which explains the extermination of the Canaanites.

In Genesis, Abraham was told that the Hebrews would suffer hardship in a strange land for four hundred years, and then be brought back into the land to possess it.  Then God noted, “The iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”  So, as the Lord is, “the God of patience” (Romans 15:5), 400 years goes by, and the Amorite iniquity was “full.”  And, as the Hebrews are about to enter back into the Land, He warns them, “Defile not yourselves in any of these things, for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out from before you . . . therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomits out her inhabitants.”  This was direct orders:  the Canaanites were to be exterminated because of their evil, absolute immorality & atrocious cruelty.  Canaan must be purged.  Surgery must be performed.  And it was surgery, not murder.  The iniquitous cancer had to be surgically removed, so that the Land might Live - which explains why the Hebrews ousted the corrupt, cancerous peoples of the land of Canaan.

Remember, this surgery was done after long probation.  Canaan had witnessed righteous teachings and warnings for at least 400 years.

Melchizedek, king of righteousness and king of Salem, lived in Canaan.  Abraham had dwelt there.  Solemn warning had been given in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  But these people, blind to the light and deaf to the voice of these warnings, had persisted in sin until they became completely immoral & cruel.  For the sake of succeeding generations and the surrounding nations, it was necessary to remove the cancer, and give opportunity to Life.

God is seen in Joshua as a war-like One proceeding to battle, not for capricious purposes, but in order to remove corruption in the larger interests of all Mankind - a conflict as between truth & liberty and lying & licentiousness.  One or the other must go down in the struggle, and God moved forward as a warlike One, using the Hebrews as His scourge to purify the land, and to plant in that little strip, a people who, whatever their faults were, would become the depository of the Truth which would permeate the world, and give men everywhere the opportunity for Life.

God was not merely clearing a land in order to find a home for people for whom He had set His heart.  Solemn warnings were given to the Israelites by word and deed, as well.  If they turned to the sins of the people they had exterminated, they in their turn would be cast out too.  That’s what happened.  In fact they did turn, in spite of the Law, in spite of the leading of God, to the abominations which they found in the land, failed to bear the testimony which they were created to bear, and consequently today are a people “scattered and peeled.”

God is the terrible foe of sin, refusing to make truce with it.  His method & rule is expressed by His righteousness, driven by His love.  Just suppose the Canaanites had been allowed to remain; suppose there had never been a people who were to receive the oracles of Revelation, what would our history be now?  By that purging, by those drastic measures of wrath against iniquity, God gave the human race its opportunity for Life, as He prepared the way for the coming of the One in whom His love & righteousness was to be incarnate, and perfectly manifest.

Next week:  The other truth, “the just shall live by faith”

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six)

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 6 October 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Sin & Redemption
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

In my pantheon of heroes, the best of men are God’s warriors, who are alive with moral outrage and who enter the arena to wrestle with the mystery of evil in its many disguises.  Fierce men, rich in considered judgment, who still have thunder & lightening in them; not dispassionate spectators, or cynics.  Men who call sin, sin.  Men who confirm the way of redemption through the One and only means provided:  “Believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved!”

My heroes believe the Living message of Sin & Redemption.

What is sin?

Sin is unlikeness to God.  We are born excluded from God; contrasting in character, nature & temper.  We were created in the image and the likeness of God, but that image is defaced and unrecognizable.

Sin is distance from God.  We are born excluded from intimate fellowship with God.  We do not know God, do not love God, do not serve God.  We are in a condition of which it is impossible for us to rise out of our sinful state, save by the way of redemption - according to the purpose and power of God, alone.

Sin is wrong done to God.  This is God’s supreme message concerning sin.  The sinfulness of sin is always emphasized in its aspect of relation between mankind and God.  While it is difficult for our finite minds to comprehend the fact that wrong can be done to God, it is nevertheless true that wrong done to our “neighbor” is ultimately wrong done to God.  Thus, all sin is wrong done to God.  If we hold that sin consists only of wrong done to our “neighbor,” it will inevitably weaken our sense of sin, and its degree will be decided by the character of the “neighbor” wronged.  The only way in which the heinousness of sin against our “neighbor” can be kept alive is by the recognition of the fact that our “neighbor” belongs to God.  If, upon every “neighbor” we see the imprint of God, as revealed in Genesis; and if, therefore, we consider that to hurt our “neighbor” is to harm God, the sinfulness of sin against our “neighbor” will be recognized.  On the other hand, if we lose sight of this, any “neighbor” will be seen as a separate unit; and distinctions will be made as between sin against one, and sin against another.  To recognize that all sin is wrong done to God, is to possess the sense of sin’s awfulness, which produces repentance for the Wrong done, and the motive for the doing of Right.  The Lord stated this in a nut shell in His summery of the Law and the Prophets, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  And . . . you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).  Simple.

All sin is Wrong done to God.  David recognized the true meaning of sin in his, “ Against You, You only have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4).  It was that fundamental conviction of the true meaning of sin, which created David’s consciousness of the Wrong that he had done to Bathsheba and Uriah was ultimately, a Wrong done to God.  Take away the truth that when we sin, we sin against God, and we’ll grow careless about any Wrong done to our “neighbors” Bathsheba and Uriah.

What is redemption?

Redemption is founded upon righteousness.  There can be no redemption of mankind to God, unless it is based on Right; and the activity of God’s tenderness is always that of the severity of righteousness.

Redemption is only possible by blood.  The writer of the letter to the Hebrews gathered up the whole message of God’s redemptive economy in the words, “Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).  The shedding of blood is Life given-up.  We can only be saved by life given-up through suffering, not just by blood, but by blood-shedding.  That ancient symbolism is awful and appalling to the modern eye, but our horror ought rather to be that of the Sin, which made such symbolism necessary - revealing sin’s real meaning to God.  There are those who speak of the doctrine of Redemption by the shedding of blood as being objectionable and vulgar.  And they’re right.  The shedding of blood is objectionable; it’s awful, heinous, barbarous & cruel.  But it is the ultimate expression of the activity of our Sin, and the whole meaning of the appalling truth that Sin, in the universe, touches the very life of God with insult, blows and wounding.  Sin is wrong done to God.

 Like me, most of my thunder & lightening heroes realize that some parts of the Old Testament is frightful reading - tragic stories of blood and fire.  But that message needs to be heard again.  Mankind needs to take into account that Sin smites God in the face, and wounds Him in the heart.  That our redemption is the outcome of His tender compassion, in which He receives our wounding and pardons us by virtue of that infinite and unfathomable mystery of which the shedding of blood is the only equivalent symbolism.

Redemption is our means to holiness.  God’s final message is that our redemption does not excuse any of us from holiness, but that it is the method by which we are made holy.  To trust in Jesus for our redemption, and yet continue in sin, is to commit the most heinous sin of all (Romans 6:1,2).

The Bible speaks of the awfulness of Sin in the light of the holiness of God, of the abundant Redemption springing from the love of God, and of the possibility of holiness of life, created by communion with God, “who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 29 September 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Two Doors
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

How did the Hebrew people enter into the Tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness?  They entered through the gate of the Tabernacle - through the front door.  And why did they want to enter through that gate?  They wanted to enter through that gate because they believed there was something inside the Tabernacle - on the other side of it’s front gate - which they needed and which could not be possessed, unless they entered through that gate.

Jesus, parenthetically, is that Gate.

Jesus is revealed in the Gospel of John as a two-fold door (gate).  First, He is seen as “The Sheep Door,” whereby we find access; and second, as “The Door,” whereby we find fellowship.  We can go in and out through Him and find pasture.

The Gospel of John, as the record begins and indicates, is a setting forth of the Tabernacle of God with men.  The testimony of Jesus - God being made man - is the reason John was written.  “The Word became flesh” and literally, tabernacled, or pitched His tent, among us - in us.

From John 1 through John 21, we have a declaration of the Tabernacle of God, which is with men.  The entire gospel of John can be divided into the three divisions, which are found in the Tabernacle of Moses - from the sacrifice, to the place of communion, to the place of fellowship.  But, it is “the doors,” which are located in John 10, that we are concerned with at this point.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.  But he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  To Him the porter opens, and the sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name, and leads them out” (John 10:1-3).

There are three doors in John 10.  Jesus is two of them.  He is not the other.  The first door is the door through which Jesus entered.  “The sheepfold.”

It has been suggested that the one entering through the first door is referring to the believing sinner seeking salvation, to the believer who has entered into the kingdom by the proper door - which is not what this passage is saying; that’s not what’s involved here.

Jesus said that everyone whoever came before HIM was a thief and a robber.  That’s what the text goes on to say, does it not?  Everyone that ever came before HIM was a thief and a robber (Acts 5:33).  All of the others, who came on the scene before the Lord Jesus, had climbed-up some other way.  The Pharisees were climbing-up some other way.  They were coming up over the wall.  They were not coming through the “door of the sheepfold” - through the lineage of David.

The door of the sheepfold is the Levitical law through which the Messiah had to enter.  The One born of a virgin had to fulfill every just requirement of that Law.  Jesus came fulfilling the Law.  He came through the “door of the sheepfold.”  He came through the passage, the door, if you will allow, of His earthly mother, Mary (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38).  He came to fulfill the sacrificial necessity before God.  Jesus came through the first door, the sheepfold, and He is the second and the third door.  He is not the “door of the sheepfold.”  He is the “Door of the sheep” and “the door.”  “Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.  All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them.  I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:7-9).

So we have three doors:  A door into the sheepfold - through which Jesus entered.  A door for the sheep - which He supplied.  And a door - which we, the redeemed, (believing sinners) enter and find fellowship.

This is represented in the Tabernacle of Moses:  One door for entrance, which brought Israel to the sacrificial altar.  Another door, which brought Israel into the Holy Place.  And a third door, which brought Israel into the Holiest of all, which was the place of fellowship, communion, and prayer.

There is a conjoint unity in the Gospel of John with the Tabernacle of Moses:  the altar of incense in the Tabernacle of Moses is a parallel to the high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus; and both are said to “come up before the Father as sweet incense into His nostrils.”

So Jesus is, “The Sheep Door,” whereby we find access and “The Door,” whereby we find fellowship.  Jesus is the Two Doors.  And we can “go in and out through Him and find pasture.”

One more thing before we leave this subject, I think it interesting that through the Law of the Old Testament scripture, the Golden Altar was always seen outside the veil - the veil which separated the Holy Place from the Holiest of Holiest - the dwelling place of God.  But when the apostle Paul deals with the positioning of the furniture in the Tabernacle of Moses, all of a sudden the Golden Altar is on the inside of the veil (Hebrews 9:1-4).  Interesting.  Maybe we’ll look at that next.

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 22 September 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK