A Message about Arabia

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“This message came to me concerning Arabia: O caravans from Dedan, hide in the deserts of Arabia. O people of Tema, bring water to these thirsty people, food to these weary refugees. They have fled from the sword, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow and the terrors of battle. The Lord said to me, “Within a year, counting each day, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end. Only a few of its courageous archers will survive. I, the Lord, the God of Israel, have spoken!””
Isaiah 21:13-17 NLT

We come to the third oracle that Isaiah wrote about in this, his 21st chapter. This time, the focus is on Arabia, and the references within our verses today contain some local knowledge, with references to Dedan, Tema and Kedar. Arabia was a wilderness territory between Judah to the north and Babylon to the south. The focus is on a group of refugees from a place called Dedan. In Isaiah’s prophecy, these caravanning merchants will be forced off the main roads into hiding among thickets to avoid being captured or killed. Isaiah calls on the people of a town called Tema to bring bread and water for these refugees who have been displaced, likely by the conflict between Assyria and Babylon. Isaiah concludes this chapter by warning that the glory of the people of the Kedar region will be taken away. The Kedar region refers to a powerful northern Arabian desert tribal group descended from Ishmael’s second son Kedar. Known as nomadic tent-dwellers and skilled archers, their wealth and military strength were prophesied to face near-total destruction within a single year. This will all happen because the Lord has deemed it to happen. So Isaiah 21 offers a snapshot that, at least superficially, holds some interest for us pilgrims, but there seems to be little in the way of devotional content that will help us in our own journeys. However, when we consider the human element of this cameo of Middle Eastern life, we can see similarities with world events currently unfolding today. 

There have always been times when people of one region have been displaced to another. In our Western societies, we may move between regions, perhaps for employment opportunities, but most of us have never been forced to move because of famine or war. But such a necessity is with us today, in places in Africa such as Sudan. In the Bible, there is an account of a family from Bethlehem who went to live in Moab. Not far by modern standards, about 50-75 miles, but in those days it would have taken them about 7-10 days to walk it. And we read in Ruth 1:2 that, “The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi. Their two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. And when they reached Moab, they settled there”. This was a family who had little choice other than to move because of famine. 

There was another family flight, the time recorded in Matthew 2:13-14, “After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother”. This was another reason for being a refugee, because Herod was intent on eliminating Jesus, who he feared would challenge his cosy life as king of that part of Judah. 

To consider refugees in the UK today, there is much discussion going on about the immigrants who reach our shores in small boats or in other ways. In the main, these are adult males, mostly from countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran, and Somalia. Without a doubt, these are deprived and fractious areas of the world, and to escape them is a priority for those who have been persecuted or disadvantaged by the local circumstances in these countries. But how should we Christians respond amid the political and antagonistic rhetoric currently dominating news reports? I suppose Christians should respond to immigration by balancing compassion for the vulnerable with respect for the law. Biblical teachings emphasise loving the stranger and recognising human dignity, while civic responsibilities involve supporting orderly governance. Because opinions among believers vary widely on specific public policies, the core mandate remains treating every person with kindness and justice

There is an interesting take on this in Leviticus 19:33-34, “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God”. And then we have Zechariah 7:8-10, “Then this message came to Zechariah from the Lord: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other”.

So, having determined that foreigners (immigrants) are to be treated with kindness and compassion, the challenge for the authorities here in the UK is discerning who is genuinely in need and who is here for more nefarious purposes. And once here, we need to have in place the infrastructure and employment opportunities they need. Prayer is the answer. Prayer for our governing authorities and politicians so that they do what is right for the country as a whole. And we must pray for ourselves, that we respond to those who come to our shores with the kindness and compassion that God has asked of us. And who knows, there may be a practical way we can help, perhaps by volunteering with an organisation that supports those in need after they reach our nation.

Father God. There is much we should be doing to help those in need, particularly immigrants who reach our country. Please lead us, we pray, to make the right response when we have the opportunity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Embracing Justice: A Biblical Call to Action

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.”Isaiah 1:16-17 NLT

Isaiah next comes up with a feature-rich remedy for the Israelites’ apostasy and idolatry. It’s all very well pointing out to a person what they are doing wrong, but without offering a way out, the negative perception just becomes unhelpful criticism. Thankfully, the God we worship always has an answer to our sins, and to fulfil His remedy, He sent His Son, Jesus. God was the same in Isaiah’s day, expressing His love and care for His guilt-ridden people.

“Wash yourselves and be clean!” He said. This didn’t mean go and have a bath, because no amount of water will wash away our guilt and sins. It is only by repentance and ceasing to be involved in evil that a person will become clean and holy before God. The Israelites’ problem was sinfulness with a capital “S”, so great that God pointed out how burdensome and wearisome their religious acts had become to Him. It is the same today because will God listen to the prayers of a sinful person, someone who is living a life of evil? Which is why God’s next instruction was “Get your sins out of my sight”. Nothing can be hidden from God, of course. Psalm 139:1-2, “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away”. So, on the basis that nothing we think or do remains hidden from God, there is only one solution – stop doing things that offend Him. Stop sinning, as Jesus said to the healed man by the Pool, “But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you”” (John 5:14). Jesus also compassionately said the same to the woman caught in adultery. John 8:10-11, “Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more””. 

Next, the Lord said to the Israelites, “Learn to do good”, and He proceeded to point out four things that we pilgrims would do well to follow. “Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows”. Injustices have always been prevalent in human societies. There are always people who are unable to help themselves, whatever the age. The pattern of injustice is wearyingly familiar, and it usually starts with the rich oppressing the poor, or the powerful lording it over the powerless. Even in so-called enlightened societies, injustice still occurs. There will always be people who need help and who are unable to help themselves. Specifically, in the days of the Israelites, the problem was the injustice suffered by orphans and widows. There was no social security safety net, and such people would suffer greatly, unless someone came to their rescue. The Jewish Law put in place safeguards, as seen in the Book of Ruth. “One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it.” Naomi replied, “All right, my daughter, go ahead”” (Ruth 2:2). The custom that encouraged the harvesters to leave some crops behind was recorded in Leviticus 19:9-10,  “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God”. The problem was still around in the first century, and James wrote, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you” (James 1:27). 

We pilgrims today will encounter injustices in our societies, perhaps from evil men and women who find ways to line their own pockets at others’ expense. Perhaps also due to discrimination because of a lack of technological skills (for example, I read the other day that many GP surgeries are forcing older people without the technology or IT skills to fill in an online triage form). Perhaps the discrimination exists because of race, beliefs or sexuality. There will always be injustices in our societies, but we pilgrims are encouraged to look out for them and do good by providing a remedy. 

Heavenly Father. Please help us look out for people in distress, people who are needy and unable to help themselves. We want to do Your will, and we know that You always see the unfortunate people around us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Compassion

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“The Lord is merciful and compassionate, 
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. 
The Lord is good to everyone. 
He showers compassion on all His creation.”
‭Psalms‬ ‭145:8-9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Why is God ultimately so merciful and compassionate? We look around us at our world and wonder why He doesn’t remove all evil and, in particular, evil people. After all they get in His way. They frustrate His will and purposes. But as we muse about how wonderful it would be if God removed the wicked, we get a light bulb moment – He would remove us as well. As Paul said in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” So it’s just as well God is merciful and compassionate. He gives us time. Time to repent of our sins. Time to align our lives to His. Thankfully He is “slow to get angry” with us. 

But that is not to say that God’s mercy will always be there. There will come a time when He can be merciful and compassionate no longer. There is a time of judgement coming. You see, our loving Heavenly Father is also a righteous Heavenly Father. He can tolerate nothing that is evil, and when we pass the Great Divide into a new life, anything that is evil will not be allowed in His presence. And so God has created a place apart from Him where evil will be allowed and confined. We can be assured that all the injustices, all the evil, all the wickedness, all the crime, all the bad things we experience in this life – none of it is going unnoticed by God. It is all being noted down in Heavenly life-logs. And one day God will open the data vaults and will publicly replay the videos before casting judgement. Thankfully there is a remedy for us – read on!

Today, in this life, we enjoy being showered with compassion. All of us, good or bad, live in a time of incredible blessing, a time of God’s patience and goodness, a time of God’s grace. As we take our faltering steps along the roads of life, His compassion helps us. His goodness is with us. His love is unfailing. His grace without limit. But God is not a passive parent. His mercy and compassion is active. He sent His Son, Jesus, to show us the way to a right relationship with Him. When Jesus takes on all our sins, we take on Jesus’ righteousness. If that isn’t the ultimate demonstration of compassion, of love, then I don’t know what is. And covered in Jesus’ righteousness, we today receive a “not-guilty’ verdict from the Righteous Judge. The Lord is surely good to everyone. Even me.

Eternal and Infinite

Posted on by Adrian Clark

For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him
    is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
He has removed our sins as far from us
    as the east is from the west.
The Lord is like a father to His children,
    tender and compassionate to those who fear Him.
For He knows how weak we are;
    He remembers we are only dust.
Psalm 103:11-14 NLT

David is back writing at the Psalmist’s desk. Scratching away with his God-thoughts, recording eternal words through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And once again his thoughts turn to how much God loves His children. In describing the relationship we have with God, he uses the word “fear” but that can have negative connotations. In our world and culture, perhaps a better word would be “respect”, though with a depth far beyond a man-limited meaning. In the Lord’s Prayer, we “hallow” His name. Another good word. And David points out that God’s love for His hallowers is so great that it is unmeasurable. The heavens extend a distance above us, a distance measured in eternal units, with a hint of infinity creeping in. In other words, God’s love is so great that it is unlimited and eternal, unmeasurable and unquantifiable. We must never think that there is insufficient to go around. 

And David then moves his thoughts away from God’s love to our sins. The reality is that once we have confessed and repented of our sins, God removes them. In fact, He puts them a place that is as far away from us as the East is from the West. A wonderful analogy, because we don’t know the start and finish of either place. No sooner then we define a place as being “East” then we know there is another place further “East”. The circular nature of our world, rather than the flat representation on a school room wall, drives the compass points. But what is the implication of all that? God forgets our confessed and repented of sins. They don’t exist anymore. That have been erased from the Heavenly record books. Have we ever been in a situation where we have repented of a past sin again, perhaps from many years ago, just in case we forgot? Well, God takes out His record books and can’t find any mention of it. So He comes back to us and tells us so. He is the perfect Father, divinely tender and compassionate. 

In all the world religions there is only one, Christianity, in which the worshipped god came down to earth as a human being. Jesus, God’s Son, therefore knows what it is like to be human, and he shared our weaknesses when He walked around the Palestinian countryside. He got tired and hungry as we do. He was tempted as we are. And when He returned to Heaven, we read in Romans 8 that He is sitting at God’s right hand, interceding for us. Our loving Lord is the only “god” who knows “how weak we are”.

Today, we have been granted another opportunity from our allotted time span on earth to come before our tender and compassionate Heavenly Father, resting in His presence, feeling His heartbeat of forgiveness, and assured of His love. Let’s not waste the moment.

The Sins of our Ancestors

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“O Lord, how long will You be angry with us? Forever?
How long will Your jealousy burn like fire? 
Do not hold us guilty for the sins of our ancestors! 
Let Your compassion quickly meet our needs, 
     for we are on the brink of despair.”
Psalms‬ ‭79:5, 8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This is not a comfortable Psalm to read, with its references to blood shed and misery, death and destruction. The Psalmist equates the reason for the devastation to God’s extreme displeasure with the Jewish nation, accusing God of acting in anger and jealousy against His people. But in the middle of his lament, is an appeal to God, for His compassion to displace the judgement. Asaph, the Psalmist, obviously believes that God is acting now because of the misbehaviour, the rebellion, the unfaithfulness, of previous generations. And he perhaps questions the fairness of such action. But God was quite clear – in Exodus 34 God said through Moses, “I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations.” Eventually God will act in judgement against guilty people, people who stack up their individual and national sins until He can stand it no more. But nevertheless, Asaph pleads with God to have mercy, to show compassion, on his people in a time of a national disaster, a time of despair. Perhaps the chink of light in this verse of warning is the reference to the guilty. Thankfully God is a God of compassion and love, as well as One of judgement, of anger and jealousy. And Asaph appeals to Him to show compassion, in the process forgiving the people for the sins of their ancestors. And to quickly come and mitigate their guilt and despair, to provide what they need.

So the inevitable question. How relevant is this Psalm in 21st Century societies? It’s a warning to us all. God is “slow to anger, quick to bless”, thankfully. Otherwise the rebellion and sins of our nations would have led to our destruction long ago. I probably wouldn’t even be here, writing this blog. And that is the key – God allows mankind to exist, even when acting sinfully, because of His grace and mercy. He gives everyone an opportunity for repentance, for embracing Him while there is still time, during our lives here on earth.