by Marcus Herbert
19 July 2015 at Bedfordview PM
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Elijah. A man like us. A call like ours.
We’ve launched a new series on Elijah, who you can read about in Kings 1 and 2. Elijah was a normal person just like the rest of us and had a call just like we do. The Church is called to be God’s voice in this world. His name in Hebrew means “My God is Yahweh”. At one of Israel’s darkest hours, he comes to declare exactly what his name means, calling Israel back to their true God from idolatry.
There are many things we can learn from this man’s life that show us what God’s call is and how we can live it out. But the biblical narrative never leaves out the humanity and weaknesses of this prophet, which is also a great encouragement for us.
You may be wondering why this little book, tucked in the back of the Old Testament, comes next in our reading plan. This is because the internal evidence of the book suggests that it was written in the sixth century B.C., although there are seven schools of thought on exactly when it was written.
The book is an oracle against Edom for rejoicing in Jerusalem’s fall at the hands of the Babylonians and possible attacks at that vulnerable time. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau. They inhabited a large piece of land south of Israel and south and south east of Judah.
Relations between God’s people and the Edomites were always antagonistic and violent. Edom refused to let Israel move through their territory along the King’s Highway when they left Egypt (Numbers 20:14-21). King Saul fought the Edomites. David conquered Edom with considerable force. He planted garrisons in Edom sending Joab there for six months until ‘he had cut off every male in Edom’ (1 Kings). It must be that all the men weren’t killed as the Edomites join with the Ammonites and the Moabites to attack Judah under Jehoshaphat’s rule (2 Chronicles 20:1).
There was a time when Judah and Edom formed a coalition, but the Edomites rebelled and could not be subdued for forty years (2 Kings 8:20-22). After Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, Edom rejoiced and planned small raids and attacks to gain more land. In the third century the Edomites were taken over by the Nabateans (famous for their buildings at Petra). Some Edomites settled in southern Judah and became known as Idumeans. Interestingly, the Herods of the New Testament were Idumeans.
Obadiah is unknown to us other than his name means ‘servant of Yahweh’. He wrote for us the shortest of the Old Testament books. There are two mains parts to the letter – the future doom of Edom (v.1-16) and the sure deliverance of God’s true people (v. 17-21). We see here that Yahweh is indisputably the God of every nation in the world, no matter which god they take as theirs. We can assume that Obadiah actually went to Edom and read to them the word from the Lord. It seems they didn’t listen at all. Further, Yahweh is a God who keeps his promises. Abraham was promised a land and in due time neither Edom nor Babylon will keep them out of it.
Probably the greatest message for Christians and non-Christians is verse 3: “The pride of your heart has deceived you.” If we think that we could get along just fine without God we could never be more wrong. A day is near when this will be proved true.
by Marcus Herbert
19 July 2015 at Bedfordview PM
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by Bill Taylor
19 July 2015 at Bedfordview PM
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by Jonathan Warmington
12 July 2015 at Bedfordview PM
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by Craig Herbert
12 July 2015 at Bedfordview AM
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The book of Ecclesiastes is, funnily enough, the furthest you can get from ‘meaningless’ – the most common word people remember from the book.
Ecclesiastes has received bad publicity from modern Bible readers. There are reasons for this. Modern charismatics, quite frankly, generally don’t seem to care too much about anything that is outside of the “devotional” genre (ie. “a nice thought for the day”). To get the deep message and argument from Ecclesiastes, background work is required, which many seem unwilling to do. We are worse off for it.
Ecclesiastes is a masterful apologetic. King Solomon, under a pseudonym ‘Qohelet’ – “Preacher” or “Teacher” in modern translations – is the writer. Some people like apologetics more than others. Apologetics is the task of trying to give a solid defense of the reasons why you believe in something. The Preacher is doing this very activity for us, looking at his life and efforts.
It is helpful to understand that the person ‘under the sun’ is the non-believer in the book. He is the epitome of a person who hasn’t found God and simply lives under the sun and not ‘the son’.
The Preacher is presenting a basic argument which goes along the lines of: “Trust me, I have tried it all. I have given myself to everything there is in this world. I have come to the conclusion that nothing satisfies outside of God. All of life is meaningless and depressing without God in it. Trust me, I have tried. Don’t waste your time. Turn to God now and the fulfilment you are looking for will be yours”.
A brief overview of the argument’s structure may be helpful:
Chapter 1
The preacher jumps right into his material. “It’s all vanity” he says, listing a few examples to back up this statement. Verses 12-18 tells us that he decided to gain as much wisdom as he could to find answers. This failed, according to v.18, because wisdom only leads to more questions.
Chapter 2
The Preacher tells us he tried to solve his meaninglessness in other ways. In Verse 2-11 of this chapter he tells us he gave himself every single pleasure his heart desired, whenever it desired it. Verse 12-17 shows us that both living with wisdom or obeying every passion is a dead end when it comes to actual fulfillment.
In verse 18-26 he considers his hard work in the world. He again becomes disconcerted – it has no meaning. Verse 24 tells us his conclusion on this matter: “enjoyment in work comes only from God”. Can you see his apologetic working itself out?
Chapter 3
Here the Preacher is considering the independence of man. He can’t decide anything in terms of time. Man can’t make anything last, he can’t even control his own life. Man’s life is “dust to dust” he says – only God can make something of it and the coming afterlife.
Then with the same overarching theme in mind, the Preacher continues to argue his case until the end.
Hopefully you can see the purpose of the book. It’s important to note that the book does not discourage us to seek wisdom (that would contradict the book of Proverbs) but is saying that wisdom in itself does not lead to fulfillment. It cannot give life outside of God. If you couple this with the book of Proverbs and Job you find something interesting emerge: God is not some cosmic, impersonal, balancing force (like karma) that we can manipulate through righteousness or wisdom or law or principles of some kind. We cannot treat him that way and he will not be treated that way. While God upholds wisdom and the moral order, he is personal and relational about it. He rewards righteousness but yet we do not justify ourselves before him by our righteousness – rather He justifies us (in Christ) and we live wisdom out because of that. All things are for God to decide and work and only in Him is there fulfillment. Chapter 12:13 sums it up: “The end of the matter: Fear God and keep his ways, this applies to every person”.
Pic: “Ecclesiastes” by John August Swanson. It represents Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, “There is a time for every purpose under heaven.” See calnewman.org for more details.
by Nathan Gernetzky
28 June 2015 at Bedfordview AM
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by Francois van der Merwe
28 June 2015 at Bedfordview PM
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