Here are links to a few short posts on God’s love that I wrote some time ago for the website ‘Understanding the Gospel.’
Category: General
ARE YOU A SAINT LIKE ST. PATRICK?
Sometime around 430 CE a sixteen year old Briton was kidnapped by Irish raiders near his home on the west coast, probably close to Dumbarton in Scotland. He was carried away to the north of Ireland and sold to a warrior chief, for whom he worked as a herdsman on the slopes of Slemish mountain near Ballymena, Northern Ireland. Although brought up in the faith Patrick had just been a nominal Christian up to that point in time. Poorly fed and badly treated by his master he began to think about God again and to pray to him regularly. Regretful that he had had little time for God before his capture he repented of his sins and turned to God with all his heart.
After six years of slavery Patrick became convinced that he heard a voice telling him that it was time to leave. He therefore made his escape and travelled to a port two hundred miles south where he boarded a ship bound for Gaul. Details are sketchy but it seems that he trained for the ministry on an island near Cannes before returning home to his family in Britain some years later. There, in a dream reminiscent of the one in which the Apostle received the Macedonian Call, Patrick received his own call to evangelize Ireland. In his dream he encountered a man called Victoricius who carried letters, one of which he read to Patrick. It began with the words: ‘The Voice of the Irish.’
Heeding the call, Patrick arrived in Ireland to find the country in a poor spiritual state. It was steeped in paganism and magic. Patrick travelled throughout the land preaching and teaching; concentrating his evangelistic efforts on the many warrior chieftains. Much of the opposition his mission encountered was from the Druids, a Celtic priestly caste. Having been a slave himself, Patrick was one of the first Christians to speak out against slavery and it is said that shortly after his lifetime the Irish slave trade came to an end. Patrick’s work as a missionary is significant for he was one of the earliest to take the gospel outside the bounds of what had been the Roman empire.
It is hard to separate fact from fiction as regards St. Patrick. Stories about him chasing the snakes from Ireland and illustrating the Trinity with a leaf of Shamrock may be myths but one thing is certain: Patrick was a saint. He has never been canonized by the Roman Catholic church, but that is not how one becomes a saint anyhow. Sainthood is not attained because of what we have done for others and because of what others think of us. We do not have to wait until we are long dead in order to achieve sainthood but we become saints while we are alive. Many of the New Testament epistles were written ‘to the saints.’ The authors were not writing to dead people but to congregations of Christian believers who were very much alive at the time. St. Patrick, like every other Christian believer, did not become a saint because of his good deeds but because he humbly acknowledged his state as a sinner in God’s sight and received Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Patrick wrote;
‘I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many…I was like a stone lying in the deep mire; and He that is mighty came and in His mercy lifted me up.’
Patrick journeyed throughout Ireland as an itinerant preacher of the gospel, not to become a saint but because he already was one. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ and wanted to share the good news of salvation with others. His prayer was: ‘Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me…! Are you a saint like St Patrick? If not, then cease from trying to save yourself by your own efforts and instead receive as Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who died for your sins. That is exactly what a sixteen year old boy in Ireland did almost sixteen hundred years ago, and immediately became a saint!
THE DEATH OF KING JOSIAH OF JUDAH (640-609 BCE)
THE UNEXPECTED END OF A GOOD KING
Since King Josiah of Judah (640-609 BCE) is unknown in secular history, records of his death are only to be found in three religious texts. These are the canonical books 2 Kings (23:29-30) and 2 Chronicles (35:20-25) plus the deuterocanonical book 1 Esdras (1:25-32). The accounts differ in some details but all agree that Josiah met his end as the result of an encounter with Pharaoh Neco of Egypt.
The biblical record of Josiah concentrates mainly on internal affairs and gives us neither the big picture as regards geopolitics, nor a summary of Josiah’s foreign policy and his manoeuvres in response to the power plays between the superpowers of Assyria, Egypt and Bablylonia. One therefore has to form a conjecture of the sequence of events from information about the period available in external historical sources.
The might of the Assyrian empire had been declining for many years, certainly since before Josiah came to the throne. The Egyptians, the Elamites, the Arabian tribes and others had all revolted, and internal power struggles further weakened the massive empire. Under Ashurbanipal (669-631 BCE) the Assyrians had some success in quelling revolts but things worsened after his death. By the end of Josiah’s reign the Babylonians, under Cyaxares the Mede (625-585 BCE) and the Chaldean Nabopolassar (626-605 BCE), father of Nebuchadnezzar, were coming into ascendancy. It would seem that the Egyptians under their new Pharaoh Neco, although traditionally hostile towards their Assyrians overlords, preferred a weak Assyria to a strong Babylonia, and had committed themselves to helping the Assyrians against the Babylonians.
‘While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. ‘ 2 Kgs 23:29a (NIV)
NB. There has been ongoing controversy over the translation of this verse. The KJV has ‘went up against’ while modern translations like the NIV and ESV say ‘went up to.’ For a technical discussion arguing for a retention of the KJV translation and maintaining that Egypt did not help Assyria see F. N. Jones, 1993, The Chronology of the Old Testament:
A Return to the Basics pp. 184-188. He contends that ‘the king of Assyria’ refers to the Neo-Babylonian Nabopolassar (‘the new possessor of the title “King of Assyria” p.188) who had recently defeated the Assyrians. This article, however, proceeds on the basis that Neco went up to help the Assyrians against the Babylonians, as per the modern translations.
The Babylonian Chronicle for 609 BCE confirms the information given in 2 Kings 23:29 that an Egyptian army crossed the River Euphrates in order to help the Assyrians under Asshur-uballit fight a last ditch attempt to retake Haran from the Babylonians. The Babylonians had taken and destroyed Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire in 612 BCE. The Assyrians had set up a refugee government in the town of Haran (in modern day Turkey) but had fled from there when it too was captured by the Babylonians in 610. They needed an Egypto-Assyrian victory in order to survive.
It is probable that Josiah, who is thought to have been an unwilling vassal of Egypt for some years before then, had foreseen that the Babylonians would emerge the superior power and had thrown in his lot with them. Some reckon that he therefore went to Megiddo with the express intention of engaging in military action against Neco and the Egyptian army in order to detain them on their way north to help the Assyrians retake Haran. The delay Josiah intended to cause would hinder the progress of the Egyptian reinforcements towards the Assyrians and make a Babylonian victory more likely.
‘King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Necho faced him and killed him at Megiddo.’ 2 Kgs 23:29b (NIV)
2 Chronicles makes no mention of the Assyrians but does say that Neco was heading for Carchemish in great haste (2 Chron 35:20-21).
Some scholars think that Josiah had been summoned to Megiddo by Neco. Neco had ascended the Egyptian throne just the previous year (610 BCE) and may have wished to meet and receive homage from his Judaean vassal. This type of request was standard procedure (e.g. Ahaz’s trip to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser, 2 Kgs 16:10) and, as Neco assured Josiah, was not an occasion for hostilities (2 Chron 25:31; 1 Esdras 1:26-27)
Whatever the motive, Josiah went to Megiddo with war in mind. Various reasons have been proposed:
a) he was filled with religious and nationalistic fervour as a result of his reforms. He was so keen to fight the old enemy, Egypt, that he was blind to reason.
b) he overestimated his military capabilities.
C) as has already been suggested, he calculated that there would be a change in the balance of international power in favour of the Babylonians and hoped to curry favour by obstructing the Egyptian armed forces on their way to assist the Assyrians.
According to 2 Kings 23:29-30 Josiah was killed at Megiddo and his dead body transferred from there by chariot to Jerusalem for burial.
According to 2 Chronicles 35:23-24 archers shot and mortally wounded him at Megiddo. His officers transferred him into another chariot which brought him to Jerusalem, where he died and was buried.
According to 1 Esdras 1:30-31 he was not injured or killed in battle but was overcome by a weakness, transferred to a second chariot and taken to Jerusalem, where he died and was buried: ‘The king said to his servants, “Take me away from the battle, for I am very weak.” And immediately his servants took him out of the line of battle. He got into his second chariot; and after he was brought back to Jerusalem he died, and was buried in the tomb of his ancestors.’ 1 Esdras 1:30-31
Pharaoh Neco went on to the Euphrates to help with the assault on Haran. Near Carchemish his forces were routed by the Babylonians. Neco and his army retreated and, on his way back to Egypt some three months later, Neco summoned Josiah’s son and successor Jehoahaz to his camp at Riblah on the Orontes (near Lebanon). He took Jehoahaz captive and transported him to Egypt, installing his brother Jehoiakim as an Egyptian puppet and vassal. Although he paid dearly for it, Josiah’s delaying action may have successfully caused Neco’s failure to save Assyria.
One might wonder how Josiah’s untimely demise squares with the oracle of Huldah the prophetess which appeared to promise him a good death (2 Kgs 22:20; 2 Chron 34:28). Upon closer inspection, however, Huldah’s prophecy only promised him a peaceful burial (‘thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace’ ) i.e. his country would not be at war.
Huldah’s prophecy provides one of the explanations given in the Bible for Josiah’s unexpected death. In those days in Judah the death of a king in battle would not have been regarded as heroic. Nor would it have been attributed to bad decision-making on his part or just plain ‘bad luck’. It would have been regarded as part of a chain of cause and effect. Evil behaviour resulted in punishment, righteous living was rewarded with prosperity and long life. According to this system of retribution Josiah must have done wrong! How could such a thing have happened to a righteous and godly young man whose life was marked by ‘goodness’ (2 Chron 35:26) and warranted the glowing assessment of 2 Kgs 23:25?
‘And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him’
Three possible explanations (reading between the lines) were given:
1) Josiah did not listen to the word of God spoken through a foreign king – Pharaoh Neco.
‘Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo’ 2 Chron 35:22
2) Josiah died because of his grandfather Manasseh’s sins.
‘Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.’ 2 Kings 22:17
‘Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.’ 2 Kgs 23:26
3) Josiah’s death was a mercy.
According to Huldah’s prophecy (2 Kgs 22:20; 2 Chron 34:28) Josiah would have a peaceful burial. His country was not on a war footing and he was spared the distress of the forthcoming Babylonian invasion.
LESSONS:
a. Do not involve yourself in conflicts that do not concern the Lord’s people. Neco’s battle was with Babylon, not Judah.
b. Be open to the prompting and leading of the Lord through personal circumstances. Josiah died because he failed to recognize and heed God’s word through Pharoah Neco. Often God prompts through people and circumstances as well as through his written word.
See my posts:
King Josiah of Judah in 2 Kings
ARE YOU READY?
No-one knows what lies ahead in 2021 but Christians need not be taken unawares. How prepared are we in the following areas? Are we:
I. READY TO ANSWER (1 Peter 3:15)
‘But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear’
II. READY TO PREACH (Romans 1:15)
‘So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.’
III. READY TO DISTRIBUTE (1 Timothy 6:17-18)
‘Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy: That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate:’
IV. READY TO SUFFER AND/OR DIE FOR THE LORD (Acts 21:13; 2 Tim 4:6 )
‘Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’
‘For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.’
V. READY TO FEED THE FLOCK (1 Peter 5: 2)
‘Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof , not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;’
VII. READY FOR HEAVEN (Matthew 25:10)
‘the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.’
What know I of the coming year
Or what ’twill bring to me
Whether it’s close will find me here
Or in eternity?
OUR DAYS ON EARTH
JOB 14:1-14
During the late 1960s and early 70s I attended an afternoon Sunday School in the old Harryville Gospel Hall, Ballymena, where we were encouraged to learn a memory verse every week. These were not usually random verses, but from a chapter of the Bible. Of all the chapters, for me, the most memorable of all was Job chapter 14. Mr. Wilson, our teacher, did not listen to us repeat the words of each verse just for the sake of it. He also explained the meaning, pressing home the truth that life is transitory; that we are not here to stay. Job chapter 14 reminds us that:
OUR DAYS ON EARTH ARE FEW
‘Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.’ (14:1)
This is a reality that we all must face. Psalm 90:10 tells us: ‘The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.’ This, of course, is neither a guarantee that everyone will live to seventy, nor does it teach that one must die on his or her seventieth birthday. Many never make it to seventy and also many live beyond that age. The point is that we are all going to die. Using the ballpark figure of seventy calendar years that God has given us we can each expect to live for 25,550 days. Having turned sixty-one in April I have already (as I write this) used up 22,300 of those days. You can do the calculation for your own age or, easier still, ask Google: ‘How many days since ? (Your date of birth).’ If you have already reached the age of seventy you are on borrowed time. In that case do not despair! Psalm 90:10 adds ‘and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years’. Again this figure is a generalisation making the point that those who live longer can still be productive after the age of seventy. Psalm 92:14 says of the righteous: ‘They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.’ Nevertheless, when we consider our life in terms of the number of days this sobering fact emerges: our days are few.
OUR DAYS ON EARTH ARE FLEETING
‘He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.’ (14:2)
Life is uncertain, and it passes away quickly and unexpectedly. We can plan as much as we want but our plans may never come to fruition. At the beginning of 2020 who would have thought that by May the whole country would have been in lockdown for at least two months and thousands of our fellow-citizens gone into eternity as a result of COVID-19? Proverbs 27:1 reminds us: ‘Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.’James 4:13-14 says: ‘Go to now, ye that say, To day or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.’Not one of us knows what is going to happen later today. Those who will die today, like all who have died in recent weeks, will have expected to live longer. Life is:
Like a vapour (James 4:14)
Like a weaver’s shuttle (Job 7:6)
Like the wind (Job 7:7)
Like a shadow (Job 8:9)
Like a royal carrier delivering a letter (Job 9:25)
Like a swift boat or an eagle in flight (Job 9:26)
Like a flower. (Job 14:2)
OUR DAYS ON EARTH ARE FIXED
‘Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;’ (14:5)
Only God knows the number of days that each of us will spend on earth. The Psalmist (31:15a) said: ‘My times are in thy hand.’ Each of us has an allotted span of time. God knows when our souls and spirits will leave these bodies. He also knows the circumstances surrounding these departures. We do not. Yet those appointments have already been made. They are in his calendar and they are unalterable and unavoidable. Hebrews 9:27 tells us: ‘And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.’
OUR DAYS ON EARTH ARE FINAL
‘If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.’ (14:14)
We have only one life on earth. A few days! How shall we spend them? There are no reruns, no second chances, no reincarnation. No more opportunities to serve the Lord. That makes life very serious. It is sacred, too, because it is given to us by God (Acts 17:25). ‘He gives to all life and breath and all things.’ Life is a wonderful thing; a blessing from God. We must give account to him for the use we make of it. We should therefore spend it wisely. Moses wrote in Psalm 90:12: ‘So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.’Our time here is limited. The years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds that we have left are counting down. We have several options: waste them, spend them or invest them (Mt 6:19-20). Which will it be?
THE PSALM OF JONAH
‘I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.’ Jonah 2:2 ESV
The book of Jonah is a strange and unusual little book that is well-known and loved by children and adults alike. It has always been classed as one of the prophetic books but the only prophecy it contains consists of just five Hebrew words which in English read: ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown’. Otherwise it is the story of Jonah, a prophet from Gath-hepher near Nazareth who ministered early in the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel (northern kingdom), possibly around 775 BCE (2 Kings 14:25). He was called by the Lord to go to Nineveh and preach a message of repentance to Assyria; Israel’s greatest enemy at that time. Full of prejudice Jonah did not want the Assyrians to experience the love and grace of God so he fled in the opposite direction, with no intention of completing the task (1:3).
The book divides into two parts. Chapters one and two deal with the Lord’s command to preach to Nineveh, Jonah’s flight from God and his submarine experience in the belly of a great fish. This came to an end following his prayer three days and nights later. Chapters three and four record the sequel to his delivery from this ordeal; including a renewed command to preach and his still-grudging attempt to accomplish his mission.
One might ask why Jonah waited in his distressing situation for three days and nights before praying but, whatever the reason, we have in chapter 2:3-10 a lovely poetic psalm (hymn of praise or thanksgiving) in which Jonah acknowledged that ‘salvation is of the Lord’ (2:9). Jonah’s psalm is full of scripture, there are many allusions to the Book of Psalms itself, which shows us that Jonah was familiar with, and greatly influenced by, the word of God that was available to him at that time. It is a pity that he was unwilling to share it with others.
So often we are like Jonah in our disobedience, in our lack of concern for friends and neighbours, in our dissatisfaction at how God works, and in our selfishness and pride. After correcting us, however, God is patient and quick to forgive.
‘Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:’ Job 5:17
Jonah was afflicted because he was disobedient, stubborn and selfish.
- God afflicts us because He is faithful. ‘I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.’ Psa 119:75
- God afflicts us when we go astray. ‘Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.’ Psa 119:67
- It can be profitable to be afflicted. ‘It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.’ Psa 119:71
This Psalm of Jonah was a very personal prayer of recognition, repentance and request. He was close to death, and knew it. In the midst of his anxiety and fear and in his desperate situation he realized that God’s plan for his life was better than that. In our current situation we too might see no future and no hope. Our circumstances leave us feeling exhausted or defeated. We ask: ‘What can we do?’ ‘Will things ever get better than this?’ ‘Is this all that lies ahead for us?’ ‘Where can we find deliverance from the struggles we are having now?’
Jonah must have been asking himself questions like these. How did he find the solution?
Jonah realized that he was in trouble. ‘There is a problem here.’ Jonah realized that he needed help. ‘Fixing this myself is impossible.’
Jonah turned to the only one who could help him. ‘Salvation is of the Lord.’
Jonah prayed with a sense of urgency and deep need. He realized that he had no hope of escape from his dreadful situation, that he was unable to save himself and that if he was to be saved, only the Lord could bring it about. He said, “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord.” What was the result? Twice in verse 2 we read that the Lord heard him. May we be encouraged by this today.
CASTING
‘Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.’ 1 Peter 5:7
It is interesting that the apostle Peter employed a term from his former occupation as a fisherman to advise Christians how to handle the cares and worries of daily life. What does ‘casting’ involve? It calls for ‘throwing away’ and ‘letting go.’
This verse falls naturally into two sections; each emphasizing a responsibility. Our part: ‘casting all your care upon him’ and God’s part: ‘he careth for you.’
As the ravages of Covid 19 intensify, ‘lockdown’ continues and anxieties increase let us follow Peter’s advice, bearing in mind those two parts. We do the casting, God does the caring.
INTRODUCING ROMAN NAMES AND LATIN LOANWORDS IN THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT
Palestine during the lifetime of Jesus Christ was controlled by the Romans. They were the latest in a series of world powers (Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome) to invade and conquer that area over many centuries. Each occupation of the land had a major impact on the spoken language of the people and this was especially true of the rule of the First Persian or Achaemenid Empire (c. 559 -330 BCE). The language of international trade and diplomacy during this period was Aramaic and as the dominant language it, rather than Hebrew, became widely spoken by the Jews throughout this empire. In the Province of Yehud (formerly Judah) Hebrew continued as the language of the Jewish religion.In 333 Alexander the Great (356-323) of Macedon conquered the Achaemenid Empire under Darius III at the Battle of Issus and ushered in the Hellenistic Age during which Greek culture and language were promoted throughout the empire for about three hundred years. His Argead dynasty was succeeded by others such as the Ptolemies and Seleucids and under them a common language, Koine Greek, developed and became the trade language of the empire.
In 63 BCE the Romans took over the East, later appointing Herod the Great as a client king (37-4 BCE). In 6 CE the Romans annexed Palestine; creating the Roman province of Iudaea with Caesarea as its capital. The new rulers brought with them their Latin language.As a result of Persian, Greek and more recent Roman influence the Province of Iudaea was multi-lingual at the time of Christ, with the majority of its population able to speak at least two of four languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin. The native language was Aramaic, with the more conservative Jews also speaking Hebrew. The official language of the ruling power was Latin but Koine Greek remained the trade language. Latin was mainly spoken only by the Romans to one another; they communicated with subject peoples in Koine Greek.
As the language of the Roman administration, Latin did inevitably impact Greek literature of that time, and its influence on the Koine Greek of the New Testament took several forms; which we call ‘Latinisms’. These include:
1) Translations of Latin phrases or grammatical constructions into Greek. They occur mainly in the Gospel of Mark and Luke-Acts. We shall not be considering them.
2) Adjectives that have been formed by adding a Latin-style ending (suffix) to the Greek word e.g. Herodians (Mt 22:16; Mk 3:6,12:13 Herodianoi). We shall not be considering these.
3) Latin words that have been transcribed into Greek, i.e. Latin words in Greek characters. These nouns mostly relate to government, the military, the judiciary, trade, or to everyday items in the home. There are about thirty of these loanwords in the New Testament and most of my studies will centre on passages in which one of these words occurs.
4) Roman names. There are approximately forty Roman names in the New Testament; some place names but most are the names of people. I hope to include a short character study featuring one of the New Testament Christians, or non-Christians, who bore a Latin/Roman name.
Written Exposition 