Wise Words from a Wicked King

“Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off.” 1 Kings 20.11

That sentence may sound like it would fit perfectly into the book of Proverbs … but it was actually spoken by Ahab, king of Israel. He was one of the worst kings that God’s people ever knew – establishing the worship of Baal, shedding innocent blood, and setting himself up as the arch-nemesis of that mighty prophet Elijah. But, as the saying goes, ‘Even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day.’ And so it was with old king Ahab! He gives us, in 1 Kings 20, one of the great pithy statements of wisdom in the Bible: “Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off.”

Those words were spoken to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram. He had besieged Israel’s capital city and was quite certain that he would overrun it with minimum difficulty. So great was his self-confidence that he sent messages to Ahab proclaiming: “Your silver and your gold are mine; your most beautiful wives and children are mine also.” And, to all outward appearances, Ben-Hadad’s boasts seemed legitimate. Ahab and Israel had no legitimate hope (humanly speaking) of breaking through the siege and winning the day. But Ben-Hadad forgot one thing – God loves His people, and the honor of His own name! And perhaps Ahab had at least a hint of faith in this God behind his pen when he wrote what is surely one of the classic war-time messages ever recorded: “Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off.”

‘Do not boast,’ in other words, ‘simply because you have put on your Kevlar suit and are well-prepared for the battle. Boast, rather, when you have returned to your barracks alive and victorious, and have the wherewithal to actually take that armor back off again.’ Such a jab must have infuriated Ben-Hadad! But it was wisdom indeed … and ought to serve us better than it evidently served the Aramean king!

It is not the flash with which we begin a task that is so important, but whether or not we are actually able to carry that task to completion. The diploma is not handed out on the first day of college, but on the last. It’s not what your wife says about you on the wedding day that is the measure of your character, but what she says about you after 50 years. It’s not the score in the first quarter that finally counts, but the numbers on the board at the end of the fourth.

More vitally – and completely contrary to our cultural values, often even in the church – it is not so much the glitz and flare of youth that is worthy of our celebration, but a life lived well all the way to the finish. When we are young (or young in the faith), we are really just putting on our armor; readying ourselves for the fight. And there is no great cause for boasting in that. Many people gird on their armor; but far fewer actually finish the fight and are able to remove it. Many people set out on the Christian journey; but not all of them finish well. Many of us younger people are (praise God!) gung-ho and eager to 'do something for God.'  But being gung-ho at the beginning, and being faithful to the end, are two different things. We need both! But it’s the latter, Ahab reminds us, that is really praiseworthy! So let’s be thrilled when our young people begin to gird on their armor. But let’s rejoice even more exceedingly at the old saints who have fought well enough, also, to take it off!

Remember

Today is not just a day for hot dogs, lemonade, and cornhole … but a time to remember those who have gone before; those who sacrificed their youth, their blood, and even their lives so that we might enjoy the freedoms we have today. Tomorrow is also, most importantly, a time to thank God for these men, and women, and freedoms. As Israel periodically set up stones and pillars in various places, reminding them of the kindnesses of God in times past, so it is good that we deliberately remind ourselves of His blessings. Memorial Day, therefore, is one of our national Ebenezer stones, if you will – a marker that we pass by once a year, which urges us to pause and give thanks.

But these thoughts of our national day of remembrance got me thinking: ‘Wow! The Bible is actually filled with calls to remember various things’ – mighty acts of God; commandments; warning signs; and so on. Let me remind you of a few of these calls to “remember”:

Remember the sabbath, to keep it holy (Exodus 20.8). Every Sunday is a kind of Ebenezer stone, set up to remind us of God’s work in creation … and particularly of Christ’s resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week. This is why we rest and worship on the Lord’s Day … so that we have time to “remember” all that God has done for our souls!

Remember your creator in the days of your youth (Ecclesiastes 12.1). How easy it is for young people to ‘sow their wild oats,’ and to think that following the Lord is something they will begin to do in middle age. But what if you never reach middle age? And what of the fact that, at middle age, your energies for serving the Lord will be significantly depleted? And what of the fact that the wild oats we sow in youth may be very difficult to root out, once we finally decide to serve the Lord? Rather than waiting to serve the Lord, then – and filling our past with all sorts of bad memories – let us “remember” our Creator while we are still young!

Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you (Hebrews 13.7) … “and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.” Do you ever stop to do that … to thank God for parents, Sunday School teachers, elders, and pastors who consistently pointed you to the cross, and down the narrow path beyond? And do you remember them, specifically, so that you might “imitate their faith”? That is not the express purpose of Memorial Day, of course … but it might not be a bad addendum to your plans!

Remember Lot’s wife (Luke 17.32). So said Jesus. Remember how God offered her rescue from the destruction about to rain down on Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember how reluctant she was to leave her home and her worldly pleasures. Remember how she looked back at the world, longingly (as we are so sorely tempted to do). Remember how she was turned into a pillar of salt. And don’t look back yourself. “Remember” her fate, and put your own hand to the plough, and follow Jesus with all your heart!

Remember the prisoners (Hebrews 13.3). Specifically, “remember the prisoners” who are in prison because of their faith in Jesus. Don’t forget, this Memorial Day, that there are nations in the world where Christians do not have the freedoms we celebrate, and where pastors are taken from their churches and fathers from their homes for preaching the same things I preach, and sitting in the same kinds of services you sit in. “Remember” them, pray for them, and help them!

Do this in remembrance of Me (Luke 22.19). That was Jesus’ command regarding the broken bread and the poured wine of the Lord’s Supper. This is the great Ebenezer Stone of the Christian faith! This is the great, Christian Memorial Day – recalling and thanking God for the one who sacrificed His blood and even His very life so that we might enjoy freedom from sin and condemnation! The Lord’s body was broken so that we might be free! His blood was spilt so that we might be set at liberty! And so we must never fail to “remember” Him – in the Lord’s Supper, and in every moment of every other day!

So this Memorial Day, as you rightly remember God’s kindnesses to our nation (and thank Him for them), let this day of remembrance also be a reminder of just how much we really have been given, on so many different fronts; and how important it is, on so many levels, that we “remember”.

Fake Love, Fake War

An intriguing article by Russell Moore ... on addiction to porn and internet gaming.

The Nine Commandments?

How might your co-workers look at you if, in sharing your faith with them, you began explaining 'the nine commandments'? Don't even the most ardent pagans know that there are not nine, but ten?  And yet, in our day, many Christian live functionally as though the fourth commandment may have been somehow scratched off the stone tablets.  But if we scratch out the idea of a whole day (not just 2-3 hours of it) set aside completely for worship and rest ... what else might we be scratching out with it?  Perhaps a great many things we might rather enjoy!  So listen in as we think these matters through in this past Sunday's sermon from Isaiah 58.13-14.

"Prepared at the quarry"

“The house, while it was being built, was built of stone prepared at the quarry, and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool heard in the house while it was being built.” 1 Kings 6.7

So we are told regarding the building of God’s temple in Jerusalem. King Solomon wouldn’t have any clanking, or banging, or hammering sounds interrupting the peace that prevailed at the temple sight. So all the sawing, and cutting, and chiseling, and shaping, and reshaping had to take place elsewhere. The stones had to be just right before they could be brought to Jerusalem and hoisted into the walls of the house of God.

An interesting tidbit, to be sure. But why was Solomon so particular? Would the noise of hundreds of saws and chisels simply have created too much commotion in the capital city? Or was it that Solomon believed that peace and calm should adorn God’s house, even while it was under construction? Maybe it was a little bit of both. But I wonder if, perhaps, the Holy Spirit didn’t record this little nugget about the silence in God’s house and the work at the quarry for another purpose, too. I wonder if we should not see something of the difference between heaven and earth as we compare the two worksites in 1 Kings 6.

Doesn’t Solomon’s quarry remind you of God’s work, in His people, while we are on the earth? Before we are ready to be fit into the walls His heavenly house, we (like Solomon’s stones) must undergo quite a lot of reshaping. God must apply the hammer of His word, and the saw of His discipline, and the chisel of trials and sufferings to our lives, shaping and reshaping us, until we are molded so as to fit into His house.

All of this work takes place, of course, only in the quarry of this world. The sound of chisel or hammer would be totally inappropriate in heaven! God does not admit any into His house on high whom He has not already chiseled into the likeness of Jesus (Heb. 12.14)! Thus, as in Solomon’s day, there is no commotion or cutting away of sin in the heavenly temple. No! That work takes place while we are still in the quarry of this world, and is completed when, on our way to God’s house, we are smoothed out like stones as we cross the final, raging river of death. And the result is that when the stones finally arrive at the house of God, they are quite ready to be plugged into place!

Isn’t that wonderful to think about? Someday the chiseling and cutting will finally be over! Someday, in God’s timing, the rough edges of your life will all be smoothed away, and you will be ready to dwell in the house of the Lord forever! And in that place, the hammer blows of sanctification and the chiseling away of sins will be no more. All will be perfect peace!

But in the meantime, while you are still in the quarry, there is shaping left to do. And sometimes that shaping is noisy work! Sometimes it elicits loud clanks and groans from us living stones! Sometimes it makes church life seem messy. Just like the rocks in Solomon’s quarry, we are all merely works in progress – complete with all the commotion and dust that is kicked up as God chisels away on our lives; and calling for a great deal of patience as we do life together. But, as we live in the construction site, let us be patient and hopeful – with ourselves and one another. Soon we, like Solomon’s stones, will be transported to our resting place, and there will be “neither axe nor any iron tool heard” anymore!