Those who sow in tears

....Shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him (Psalm 126:5, 6).  As verse 1 makes clear,  the Psalmist had experienced God's faithfulness in this Biblical principle,  as in the long exile in Babylon they had doubtless sown in prayer and in tears, waiting for the promised return to Jerusalem (Zion). Indeed when the Lord had brought back the captives to Jerusalem they were “like men that dreamed,” scarcely able to believe the reality of the fulfillment of their prayers. Like the disciples on the Emmaus road,  they were hard pressed  to believe “for joy” that Jesus was alive (Luke 24:41).

In many ways the Psalm is a parable of salvation, and the joy thereof. Many of us only came to the Lord through deep pain, and many times,  like Israel, it was pain of our own making. In verse 4 the Psalmist prays for God to bring back the rest of the captives who were scattered,  and not yet brought home to Zion. Likewise in the aftermath of our salvation,  there are many things that need to be cleared up. There are loved ones still not saved,  there are relationships that need to be reconciled and restored, and then there is the ongoing need for our sanctification, that is our deliverance from the power and the pollution of sin.  None of this is automatic, and our part,  many times,  is to sow in tears, continually going forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, as we deal with the issues that need to be dealt with.

The Lord had promised that the Babylonian captivity would end after a “mere” seventy years (Jeremiah 29:10). Likewise the Lord has given the believer many great and precious promises of deliverance (2 Peter 1:4),  that we need to press into. One that I cling to, is that “when a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7). Another relates to the word “continually” in this morning's verses. It is about persistence, faith and being fully engaged in prayer (walking and walking and weeping and sowing seed - verse 6 in the Hebrew). Faith comes in here, because we need to believe and to make our own,  the principle in these verses. The weeper and sower will “doubtless” come again with the harvest, which is the fruit of our prayers.  And it stretches us to continue to believe when the answer is delayed,  but let not the man who doubts think that he shall receive anything from the Lord (James 1:6).


Lord Jesus, You told the father who had brought his child for healing that all things are possible to those who believe. He answered with tears “I believe help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).  He was being stretched as we are at times too Lord. Well meaning friends,  have asked “What if it does not happen?” But Lord I would, with Patricia King, rather get to heaven and ask why You did not come through for me, than You ask me why I gave up.  You have promised Lord, and You are not a man that You should lie.  I want the World, for Your glory,  to say “The LORD has done great things for him” (verse 2). One thing is for sure Lord,  joy comes in the morning. And for this and many other things,  I give You thanks and praise in Your precious Name Amen

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

.... Sexual immorality, wine, and new wine enslave the heart. My people seek counsel from their piece of wood, and their diviner's rod speaks to them. For a spirit of promiscuity leads them astray; in their immorality they desert their God (Hosea 4:6a, 11, 12). There is an interesting book entitled “None of these diseases.”  It is about the  “Extraordinary medical benefits are available to those who follow the Bible's teachings.” The authors deal with stress, sex, anger, circumcision, tobacco, and more!  The thing that stands out to me are the cleanliness regulations given thousands of years before we understood about bacteria. Apparently in the ancient world well meaning doctors killed millions by deliberately infecting their wounds.  The  book is inspired by Exodus 15:26 "If you .... keep all My statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians.”

The Bible is a remarkable book, and it's things like the above that give me confidence that it is indeed the Word of God.  And we are indeed destroyed if we do not know and obey it. Having said that,  we also need wisdom to know what Old Covenant regulations are required under the New Covenant dispensation, for not all of them are (see for example Acts 15:19, 20).  But coming back to this morning's verses, and leaving aside the multi billion dollar annual cost of sexually transmitted diseases and the abortion industry, our sexual immorality messes up our minds and our hearts. Paul puts it this way “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:28).   And that was me, but I am now washed, sanctified and justified (1 Corinthians 6:11).

You might be saying surely the bit about idols is not relevant. But we have many modern idols that are just as foolish as wooden ones. It seems that if we do not believe the truth, we will believe anything! A man can be a woman,  and we can jump in and out of bed with this one or that one without emotional, relational or spiritual consequences. But He made us male and female, we reap what we sow,  and “sexual immorality, wine, and new wine enslave the heart” (Genesis 1:27; Galatians 6:7; John 8:34).

 As regards to deserting our God, the Lord illustrated this to me years ago. I was sitting in the caff talking to this young woman and she told me “I don't think adultery is wrong.” I looked her in the eye and said (not unkindly) “That's because you want to do it!”  She was hitting on me of course. But the point is that if God says “no adultery” (Exodus 20:14), and you want to do adultery, you do just one of two things, you either desert your adultery, or you desert God.

Lord Jesus, I want to thank You this morning, for the wisdom of Your Word. If all else fails read the instructions (2 Timothy 3:16). Thank You for Your promise that if we abide in Your  word [continually obeying Your  teachings and living in accordance with them, then]  we are truly Your disciples. And
we will know the Truth, and the Truth will set us free (John 8:31, 32 AMPC).  Help us to do our part Lord, knowing that You will then do Yours, and we will give You the glory in Your precious Name Amen

Then she will say, 'I will go and return to my first husband

.... For then it was better for me than now’ (Hosea 2:7). The whole book of Hosea is a parable of Israel as an unfaithful wife,  and the Lord as the long suffering husband. The Lord commands Hosea “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD” (1:2). Hosea  knows of the adultery in advance of the  marriage, and yet marries her anyway. After having given Hosea children,  she leaves him for other lovers.  Then suffering the consequences of her decisions comes this morning's verse. Like the prodigal son, she comes into her right mind realizing it was better then than “now” (Luke 15:17). How many of us had to come to the devastating result of our own rebellion (Galatians 6:7), before we too realized that His ways are best?

And in spite of her adultery,  Hosea buys her back from the slave market of her sin (3:1, 2).   The Lord also knew the faithlessness of humanity in advance. And the book of Hosea testifies clearly of His willingness to buy us back from our spiritual adultery. Indeed He  is not willing that any should perish, but all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). It does however require repentance and turning to Him in faith (John 3:16).  Ezekiel explains repentance. To repent is to “Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!" ( 14:6 ).  It is to "Turn! Turn from your evil ways" ( 33:11 ).

There is a secondary application to Hosea's parable (apart from salvation). It has to do with the casual modern attitude to marriage both in society,  and in the church.  I speak here neither from self righteousness, nor to bring condemnation. For one thing I have utterly failed in this area, and for another “there is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ” (Romans 8:1). The point is, that marriage among believes, is a parable of the relationship between Christ and the church, and it is something of a mystery (Ephesians 5:28-32). In other words when the world looks at Christian marriages, it is  intended to see the love of Christ for the World, and to motivate them to want in! Part of this is that He intends marriage to be permanent, with the primary exception Matthew 19:9) being marital unfaithfulness (including pornography – Matthew 5:28).  Even then it is by permission (19:8), and if we are to be imitators of God, then, as  Hosea's parable suggests, we might even then go the second mile. This is to love our spouse as Christ loved the Church,  and gave Himself for her (Ephesians 5:25).

Father, thank You for Your amazing,  extravagant healing love and tender mercy. As Paul says the only reasonable response is to present our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1,2). I want to repent this morning Lord, in identification repentance  (Daniel 9:5) for myself,  for your church and for our culture, for the casual way we have treated marriage.  In this, according to Your Word,  the church has failed to demonstrate the love of Christ to the world, a love so great that You sent Your beloved Son that whosever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Forgive us Lord and help us to live lives worthy of repentance (Matthew 3:8).  And we will give You the glory in Jesus Name Amen

There is no fear in love; but perfect love

... casts out fear, because fear involves punishment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:18, 19). The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7), but perfect love cast out fear.  There are many who have come to salvation through fear of hell, and there is wisdom in this. But as these verses imply, we are not intended to stay there! In particular, for the believer, the fear of judgement needs to be cast out (verse 17).  Those of us who have heard and believed have passed from death to life and will not come to judgement (John 5:24).  This fear is cast out by “perfect love, ” and if we are still in fear, it is because we “not been made perfect in love.”  You may be objecting that you will never be perfect, let alone perfect in love.  But actually in the very same context of loving others, Jesus tells us to be perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

But that we will never be perfect in this life is true, for “in many things we all fail” (James 3:2). The point though, is that we are to aim for perfection. In particular, we are to aim to love others as Christ has loved us (John 13:34). It's not about striving, it's about abiding, that is about staying in moment by moment intimate communion with the One whose very essence is love (God is love verse 16).  Love is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and Jesus tells us “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). In particular, whether we acknowledge it or not,  our ability to love at all is a ultimately a response to His initiating love (verse 19).  To abide in Him is to abide in love.

Certainly we have a part to play in our abiding in love, in our being perfected in it.  This love of which John speaks is not primarily an emotion.  Abiding in love looks like something. It moves us towards sinlessness (3:6), it does no shut up it's heart to those in need (3:17), it keeps His commandments (3:24), it loves the brethren (4:12, 13),  it testifies that Jesus is the Son of God (4:15). And it gives us the authority to ask what we will, with the assurance we will receive it (John 15:7).  The primary focus of this passage however is loving one another, and it is what being perfected in love is all about. Verse 12  reads “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.”

Lord Jesus, I thank You for verse 10 in this passage “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the substitutional sacrifice for our sins.”  We love Lord,  because You first loved us. Help us, help me, to abide in Your love, so that we may be rooted and grounded in it, and that it may naturally flow out of us to our brethren,  and to this wicked and hurting world for whom You died. Continue to perfect Your love in us Lord, in me. And we will give You the glory in Your precious Name Amen

Those who do wickedly against the covenant

.... he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and firmly resist him (Daniel 11:32).  Some have attempted to identify the “he” of this prophecy with later historical figures, but this passage is very difficult to identify in history. The principles however are not difficult to understand.  In every age there are those who “do wickedly against the covenant,”  that is who throw out the commandments and principles of God.  And it is more than easy to lead those who have done so into further corruption. I have often said in jest “flattery will get you everywhere!” Flattery of course is excessive or insincere praise. Paul admonishes  everyone to not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Well I have not arrived in this area, how about you?

Paul tells us those who have done wickedly against  the covenant have been taken captive by the devil to do his will (2 Timothy 2:26). “But the people who know their God ...”  The “but” indicates that the people who know their God are different.  But what does it mean  to know God?  There's a huge difference between knowing about Him,  and knowing Him. To know Him is to love Him and others. John tells us that He who does not love, does not know God, for God is love  (1 John 4:7). Our ability to love at all is because He initiated love.  He is the very source of it, all of it, even if we don't acknowledge this fact  (1 John 4:19 NIV). If God did not exist, neither would love. I used to think I had a lot of love, but I came to realize that I have not arrived in this area either!

It is a process, learning to love and learning to know Him are inseparable, and we need to have a realistic sense of where we are in this.  Paul again tells us clearly that we may profess to know God, but by their actions deny Him being “detestable and  disobedient” (Titus 1:16). If we know God we will truly want to serve and be obedient to Him. Knowing God is about being in ongoing relationship with Him in this way. It is to no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who love us and gave Himself for us (2 Corinthians 5:15). To do this, is to be in the process of becoming “strong, and firmly” resisting the enemy of our souls. The last part of  this morning's verse in the NKJV talks about doing “great exploits.” The World has yet to see what God can do with someone who is fully committed to Him! There are some who come close to showing us! I am thinking of Roland and Heidi Baker (Google “Iris ministries”).

Father, over and over I keep coming back to the recovery saying that it is progress that we aim for not perfection. I am not what I want to be, but thank You Lord I am not what I once was.  Thank You that though I am flawed,  I am fully accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6),  and that You who began a good work in me will keep right on working in me until that Day I see You face to face (Philippians 1:6). For this, and many other things, I give You thanks and Praise in Jesus Name Amen

Seventy weeks are determined

.... for your people and for your holy city ... to make an end of sins..... to bring in everlasting righteousness .... Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks .... And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself ... And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary (Daniel 9:24 - 26). There is much debate about the meaning of these verses, especial among those who wish to eliminate the supernatural from the Bible, or from who want to deny  Jesus is the Christ (Greek), the Messiah (Hebrew).  And  490 years (= 70 x 7) from the  decree to rebuilt Jerusalem (verse 25, Nehemiah 2:1) brings us to the time of Christ, and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (the sanctuary).  And after 69 weeks (7 + 62 verses 24,  25) Messiah is cut off.  Some have  deduce that Jesus was 33 when He was crucified.  

The word Messiah occurs many times in the Old Testament,  and can refer to the coming Messiah for whom the Jews are still waiting.  It also refers to Cyrus for example (Isaiah 45:1). The word simply means anointed one, as does the Greek equivalent Christ. But this Messiah is the Prince,  and Jesus Prophet and priest and  King and Priest. Also this messiah is cut off, but “not for Himself,” and it is “to make an end of sins.”  So then the atonement – the making of us “at-one-ment” with God,  is already established (Hebrews 19:12). But this leaves one week (seven years) left. What's that about?

Again there's much debate, and very little agreement. Here are some thoughts. Jesus Himself seem to see a gap in God's timetable  between His coming,  and the bring in of “everlasting righteousness” (verse 24). I mean in quoting Isaiah 61 in Luke 4:18, He stops at a comma. He ends with “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” comma. Isaiah continues “and the day of vengeance of our God (Isaiah 61:2). There's a theory, and some evidence for it,  that God does not count time when Israel is in exile. But what if it's when there's no temple? There is much talk right now about rebuilding the third (Ezekiel's) temple (Google third temple Jerusalem). The seventieth week also seems to be connected to the seven year tribulation period “Even in troublesome times” (verse 25). Much of this is speculation and again there is great debate as to whether the church will go through the tribulation,  or will be raptured before, in the middle or after it. Some things are sure, the Bible gives us enough to be confident that we have not believed cunningly devised fables (2 Peter 1:16),  that Jesus is coming again (acts 1:11), and that in the end good triumphs over evil (the book of Revelation).

Father, it has been with some fear and trepidation that I followed Your leading this morning,  and wrote about these things. I am so aware that we should not be many teachers (James 3:2), and that “he who thinks He knows something should acknowledge that he knows nothing as he aught to know” (1 Corinthians 8:2). Lord if I have written anything that is not of You,  let it fall to the ground. But Lord let the certainly of what is certain comfort,  and  help establish Your saints, in Jesus Name Amen

Now by this we know that we know Him,

.... if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:3, 4). Some would say we don't need to keep His commandments, because keeping His commandments is a work,  and we're not saved by works (Ephesians 2:8, 9). But John is not saying here that keeping His commandments saves us, rather that keeping His commandments is evidence that we are saved. Conversely, if we don't keep His commandments, this is evidence that the truth is not in us (verse 4), i.e. that we are not saved! If we are saying we are saved and don't keep His commandments we are fooling ourselves.  But,  you might ask, who truly keeps His commandments?

Well nobody, for if we say we have no sin we are also fooling ourselves (1:8). And there is provision for that for “if we confess our sins He is faithful to forgive” (1:9). This mornings verse is part of the context of that verse, and the assumption therefore,  is that the confession includes forsaking the confessed sin.  But again, you might ask how can we then be sure we are saved? We Biblical assurance is about doing our best to walk in the light, and as much as possible with us, to be keeping His commandments. And if in the midst of sincerely seeking to do this doing we sin, then Jesus Himself is the atoning sacrifice (2:1,2).  It is presumption (God will forgive me, that's His job), not weakness that is the problem here!  We must not play games with God!

Keeping His commandments (Christ's commandments verses 1,2) is about keeping His Word (verse 5). It is about loving one another (John 13:34), about walking in the light and in the ongoing process of being cleansed from all sin (1:7). If we hate our brother we are walking in darkness (2:11). Walking in the light is about by the Spirit putting to death the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (Romans 8:13; 2:16). The lust of the flesh is that which pampers our sinful nature, the appetites we develop when we continue to sin. The lust of the eyes, is that which delights the eyes, the things money can buy, bigger and better cars, houses, material possessions etc. It is the love of these things which is the problem, not the things themselves (verse 15)! Our first love must be to Him. The pride of life is about vain glory, it includes thirsting for knowledge that  puffs us up (1 Corinthians 8:1),  for honour and applause from man, rather than from God.  It's about putting too much importance on titles and position.  It is wanting to feel better than others,  and it was Satan's problem (Isaiah 14:14), and that of the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:6).  

Father, You truly want us to know that we are saved  (1 John 5:13), and as John is telling us in these verses,  true assurance comes as we walk in the light as You are in the light (1:7).  Nobody can do this perfectly Lord, and  I want to thank You this morning for Your provision for when we fail (1:9; 2:1,2). Thank You Lord it's not all up to us, for it is You who keeps what we have committed to You (2 Timothy 1:12) in Jesus Name Amen