April 22

LEVITICUS 26
It is the nature of children to test the limits of their parent’s parameters for obedience. Different kids approach it differently. But basically every child tests the limits. Knowing where the boundaries are is part of how they find security. It is also part of how they learn right and wrong. It is also part of how they gain their family identity. You might even say, “Their family glory.” I listened to a testimony of a friend of mine the other day. In their family upbringing, attending movies at a theater was a sin. While in college, he and some friends went to see Ben Hur at the theater. When he went home to visit, his mother said, “The Lord showed me that you went to the theater.” She was angry. He was convicted. Is there anything inherently sinful with attending the theater? Well, no, but it is a gray area. Within his family identity it was wrong all the time.
Have you ever considered that it is the glory of the Lord that He should bless us and curse us in obedience and disobedience? We like the idea of blessing. We don’t want to think about the idea of cursing. It is indeed something to think about. Perhaps it would motivate me more toward obedience if I thought more deeply about the principles of blessing and cursing as it relates to God’s people. How far will a holy God allow His people to walk in disobedience before their disobedience clouds His glory to the rest of the world, and He does something about it? How far will He go in discipline in order to protect the family glory? Pretty far, just read this passage. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

PSALM 112
I asked my mother about her paternal grandfather, Maxey. He was a simple farmer, but he seemed to have an inordinate number of descendants who were ministers, doctors, lawyers and educators. “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who delights greatly in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth; The generation of the upright will be blessed.” I never met him, but from what I have learned from my mother and my grandmother, my great grandfather left a mighty legacy concerning the glory of the Lord. It passed to my grandmother, my mother, and to me. Now that is not to say that all his descendants are saints; indeed, I have at least one scallywag for a cousin. Of my grandmother’s children 3 were educators, and one was a doctor. The fifth married an educator. Of my grandmother’s 20 grandchildren there are 4 pastors, one missionary, one college professor, 4 teachers, a lawyer, a medical field professional, a fireman, 2 accountants, a shoe salesperson, a shop owner, and 2 oil field workers. I would say that at least in that line of my great-grandfather’s descendants, there are a number of “mighty on earth” people.
My grandmother prayed constantly for her grand-children. I still possess a letter she sent me when I was in college. She wrote of how she prayed for me in particular and all her grandchildren in general. I have often wondered what the relationship was between her death and the plethora of bad things that happened to her children and grandchildren in the year after she died. I conclude that our prayer covering was gone, and until we awakened to that fact and began taking up the prayer slack, we suffered. I don’t pretend to be able to completely understand the relationship between a man fearing the Lord and his descendants being mighty in the earth, but it is clear that there is a principle (to which there are always exceptions) between the two. That is part of the glory of the Lord that He would honor his relationship with one person to extend to their descendants. And I, for one, am thankful for it. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

ISAIAH 22
I have never had a safety deposit box because I have never possessed anything of great enough value that I felt I needed to have that kind of security in order to possess it. I have seen the TV shows and movies where people have used them. I have been at the bank when people have come in to request to open their safety deposit box. There is a great amount of security that is required to access those boxes. It requires keys. Without the right keys it is near impossible to gain access to the box. At the bank one must approach the keeper of the vault, show the proper identification to access the box and sign to enter. The keeper of the vault can then give you access to the box. Finally, you must have a key to the box in order to open it.
The May/June 2009 issue of Biblical Archeological Review has a fascinating article concerning Shebna, Tracking Down Shebnayahu, Servant of the King by Robert Deutsch. It is quite possible that his tomb, referenced in this passage, was found in the Kidron Valley in 1870. Its inscription was translated in 1950 as, “This is [the sepulcher of ...] -yahu who is over the house. There is no silver and gold here but [his bones] and the bones of his slave-wife with him. Cursed be the man who will open this.” Also clay bullae (a clay seal put on documents to verify authenticity) have been found elsewhere which probably were used to seal documents sent by Shebna. The article is worth the reading.
Shebna was a man of great power as the servant of Hezekiah. As the chief chamberlain of the king, he bore the keys to the important rooms of the palace, including the treasury. As the door keeper, he possessed great power in Judah. Yet he abused his power. He was not content to be just a servant of the king. Instead of using the power to open doors for people to see the glory of the Lord, he sought to build for himself a sepulcher that would memorialize him as if he were a king. He sought to increase his own glory. The Lord does not put up with our seeking our own glory, so He replaced him with Hilkiah.
Hilkiah became a type of the Messiah, of Christ. In this prophecy the Lord first calls him His, “servant.” It is common particularly in Isaiah for the Messiah to be referred to by the Lord as, “My servant.” The Lord clothes him in garments worthy of the office. Notice in John’s vision of Jesus in Revelation that John makes special note of the clothing of Jesus (Rev. 1:13). The Father gives Him great authority by giving him all the keys of the King’s household (Rev. 3:7). What he opens, no one can shut. What he closes, no one can open. Open for what? Close to what? Open and close for that which belongs to the King. What belongs to the King? First and foremost it is His glory found in His offspring and His posterity.
The Father is looking for doorkeepers. He is looking for doorkeepers who don’t want their own glory, but who want the glory of the Father to hang on them. The Father hung upon Jesus all of His glory (John 1:14 and Colossians 1:19). Now He is looking for others through whom the glory of Jesus can shine. In Jesus all the riches of deity dwells. We can participate in those riches! As we do we can share those riches with others! He wants us to be able to open close doors with Him. He wants us to be door keepers to others. He wants us to open doors to others to experience His glory. He wants us to shut doors to others, doors which would subvert lives away from following him. As we do this, He receives ever increasing glory. In Jesus we the key to the best safety box in the Universe! Lord, I want to be doorkeeper! Use my life as a way of opening doors to others to Your Glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

A plaque on the West side of the Kidron Valley in the Old City of David.
A view of the village where the tomb is.
Another plaque.
A view from the plaque.
Zoomed in on the tomb entrances.

LUKE 17:1-19
I admit it. I was a Home Improvement fan. Tim the tool man Taylor was so much fun to laugh at and with because he was such a good caricature of men in general. He was always endangering or hurting himself in his quest for the best. We want our tool to be bigger and better than the next man's tool. We are always striving to show that we are the best. We are very competitive at heart. It is especially true in the ministry. I was the janitor of a large church for a year. One Monday morning while getting a cup of hot chocolate in the office, the secretary hung up the phone. She was really put out. I asked her what was wrong. She said the phone call was another pastor in town. He had a habit of calling every week to find out how many people they had in worship on Sunday morning. There were several churches that he called frequently to find out. Often times when I tell people I meet that I am a pastor, one of the first questions that I am asked (particularly by men) is, "How many members do you have?"
The disciples were concerned about the size of their faith. Rightfully they come to the Lord to ask Him to increase their faith. For some reason they felt their faith was too small. Now, these are men who have cast out demons, healed the sick and preached the good news of the kingdom, all in the name of Jesus. They are requesting to have their faith increased. Jesus gives a response that does not seem to fit the request. First He tells them if their faith were the size of a mustard seed (an exceptionally small seed) that they could remove trees by speaking to them. Hhmmm. . . Then He launches into a discourse about duty. Jesus, did I miss something?
The comment about the mustard seed implies that the size of one's faith is unimportant. Perhaps Jesus is saying in a nice way, "That's a dumb request. The size of your faith doesn't matter. What matters is the object of your faith. What matters is where you place your faith." Then the next question would be, "What is the object of your faith? Is it your Lord or your goal?" People have a difficult time differentiating between the two. Since we can't see our Lord, we tend to think that if we are promoting what we think that He wants, then we have our faith in Him. In actuality our faith remains in ourselves or what we are trying to accomplish. When we have real faith, it is not that we can order the Lord around to do things for us. He is not a genie in a bottle. A Lord does not come home from a long journey in order to cook his servants a meal. The Lord did not go on a long journey to the earth and to the cross and back to heaven so that He could wait upon us hand and foot to see what we might request of Him. He accomplished that journey so that we might have our focus fixed upon His glory and when He makes a request, we jump into action. And when this life is over, we will be so overcome with the greatness of His glory that when we look back at the things which we did in faith, it will only be things which we should have done anyway in light of the glory of our Lord!
When the disciples asked for greater faith, whose glory were they seeking to increase? I don't know, but I know when they get to heaven and when you and I stand in the glory of the Lord Jesus, we will not be able to say anything but, "We have done what was our duty to do." Why? Only because of the greatness of the object of our faith, our Lord Jesus Christ, were we able to do it. Even if we have uprooted mulberry trees with verbal commands, in light of who He is, we only did what should have been done anyway. Now that is glory I don't fully grasp, and maybe never will. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john