Mothers in History

May 12, 2009 in Church History, Meditations

Psalm 113:4-6,9 (NKJV)
4 The Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens. 5 Who is like the Lord our God, Who dwells on high, 6 Who humbles Himself to behold The things that are in the heavens and in the earth? … 9 He grants the barren woman a home, Like a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!

Hagar and her son Ishmael were cast out of Abraham’s tent, forced into the wilderness. Wandering in the wilderness with no more water in her waterskin, Hagar placed Ishmael under a shrub to die and herself fell on the ground and cried out to God. God heard her. He appeared to her, showed her a stream of water, and promised that he would be a protector for the boy, raise him up, and make him a great nation.

Hannah was childless and grieving. Meanwhile her husband’s other wife had many children and was mocking her. She knelt, she wept, she cried out to God – and was accused of drunkenness by the priest. Nevertheless, God heard her. She gave birth to Samuel and presented him to the Lord as a prophet in Israel.

Naomi grieved for the loss of her husband and her sons. She called herself Mara, Bitterness, and groaned for her children. Nevertheless, she found comfort in the presence of Ruth. And when Ruth found the fields of Boaz, it was Naomi who cried out to God and encouraged Ruth to seek out Boaz’s protection. God heard her. Boaz married Ruth and prepared the way for the coming of Messiah.

A widow of one of the prophets of Israel, who had been a righteous man, was facing destitution, anticipating the day her sons would be sold into slavery. She cried out to God and petitioned his servant Elisha to help her. God heard her. Elisha multiplied her oil, she paid her creditors and she and her sons lived on the rest.

The Shunammite woman was full of faith but empty of children. Her husband was old and they had no child. She had given up crying out to God – but God heard her and gave her a son by the word of Elisha. But then her son died. In faith she cried out to God and sought out Elisha His prophet. God heard her. Elisha raised her son from the dead and gave him new life.

Mary was a righteous young woman, pregnant by God’s own power and facing the prospect of a betrothed who was determined to divorce her. She cried out to God and God heard her. He visited Joseph in a dream and Joseph remained with her becoming the human father of our Lord.

The widow of Nain was grieved, shattered, broken by the death of her only son. The funeral procession moved through the town toward the graveyard. She wept, no longer crying for help, crying in sorrow. God heard her. He came to the procession, raised the boy, and gave him back to his mother.

Monica was grieved for her son. He was profligate like his father, determined to scorn the God she served. But she cried out to God. God heard her. He broke through the darkness of her son’s blindness and Augustine became one of the greatest thinkers the Church would ever know.

Brothers and sisters, the love of mothers has prompted God to move and to act from the earliest days of biblical history to today. So mothers – love your children and pray for them. God will hear you. Others – love your mothers and give thanks to God for them. Reminded that we have taken our mothers for granted, let us kneel and seek God’s forgiveness.

Marriage & Trinitiarian Life

May 5, 2009 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Marriage, Trinity

On Sunday delivered a message on marriage and Trinitarian life. It is available here. Since it contained a diagram that I can’t get on the sermon site, decided to put it here. In answering the question how does Trinitarian life relate to marriage, Paul makes a connection for us in 1 Corinthians 11, where he is addressing the issue of a covering of authority for the women in Corinth. In verses 3 and 7 Paul makes two independent but related assertions, assertions which unfold for us how we as husbands and wives can appropriate Jesus’ prayer for Trinitarian fellowship John 17:20-23.

1 Corinthians 11:3,7 (NKJV)
3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God…7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.

I have endeavored to visualize the point that Paul is making in these verses with the diagram below. In verse 3, Paul outlines various lines of submission and authority that exist in the world (this is not an exhaustive list – Paul is merely trying to outline why it is fitting for a woman to have a covering). The “head” – the authority – over every man is Christ, over the woman is a man, and over Christ is the Father. In v. 7, Paul then explains why it would be inappropriate for a man to wear a symbol of authority on his head. Why? Because he is the image and glory of the Father: in his calling as head of his home, he images the authority of the Father. But for a woman, a symbol of authority is fitting. Why? Because she is the image and glory of her man: in her submission to her husband, she images the submission of the man to the authority of Christ.
Hopefully the diagram will help as we ask some questions of the text. First, how can a man learn what his headship, his authority is to look like? He can look at two things – he can look at the way in which Christ treats him as a disciple. But he can also look at the way in which the Father relates to the Son – he can observe the Father’s role in the Godhead and grow to be a faithful head.

Second, how can a woman learn what her submission, her subjection is to look like? She can look at two things – she can look at the way in which her husband responds to the authority of Christ over him – note the burden this places upon husbands to be modeling submission. But she can also look at the way in which the Son relates to the Father and honors Him – she can observe the Son’s role in the Godhead and grow to be a faithful subject.

Notice also that the man is in a unique position. The man is not only the image and glory of the Father in his capacity as head, he is also the image and glory of Christ in his capacity as subject. What does this mean? It means, as we said above, that the man too needs to learn to submit. And where can he learn this lesson? He can learn by observing the way in which the Son submits to the Father and the way in which his wife submits to him.

On a human level, therefore, the mutuality among the persons of the Godhead is a lesson for both men and women. Men don’t look just to the Father, but also to the Son. And, we might add, women don’t look just to the Son, but to the Father. For, in certain circumstances, as for example within the home with children, the woman is an authority and so needs to know what the exercise of that authority looks like. This is why, incidentally, Paul begins his exhortations to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5 with the general admonition, “be submitting to one another in the fear of God” (5:21). God is our Father, he is our Lord, He is our authority, and so as disciples of Christ husbands and wives should be mutually learning from one another the meaning of their separate roles.

Necessary Holiness

May 5, 2009 in Bible - NT - Hebrews, Meditations, Sanctification

“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14

Back when I was in college a nefarious idea was spreading itself through Christian circles. The idea was that one could receive Jesus as their personal savior while refusing to submit to His Lordship; that one could be delivered from eternal destruction and yet have no evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in his life.

The text today belies such a notion and informs us in no uncertain terms that the pursuit of holiness is not optional. We are to pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

Notice first that we are to pursue it. “To pursue” means to strive to do something with an intense effort to a goal, to press forward, to follow in haste. In other contexts this same word is used to describe persecution – to hound someone so that they cannot escape your clutches. And so, Hebrews tells us, this is to be our approach to holiness. We are to hunt it down, seek it out, press forward.

But what is the goal? What is it we are hunting down? What is this holiness? Holiness is dedication to the Lord and, hence, to moral purity. In other places, it is called sanctification, the state of being set apart. In this sense, holiness means to be separated to the Lord’s service. And so the temple in the OT was called holy – a sanctuary, a place set apart for the worship of God. So what is our goal? To be living sacrifices, set apart for the worship of the Lord.

Hebrews tells us we are to pursue this sanctification. We are to hunt it down. Bring out the blood hounds and find it. And he appends a warning to his admonition to prod us in the posterior lest we become complacent – without this holiness, we won’t see the Lord.

So, how are we doing? Are we hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Are we seeking first the kingdom of God? Are we selling everything to buy the pearl of great price? Are we scouring the house to find the coin?

None of us, of course, are adequate for such things. And this is why we stand in such need of the Spirit of grace who creates within us this very holiness, who cultivates within us the desire to pursue.

And so, as we come into the presence of our Lord this day, let us confess that we have not pursued sanctification as we ought and let us kneel and call upon His mercy to receive us and forgive us for the sake of Christ.

The Discipline of the Lord

May 5, 2009 in Bible - NT - Hebrews, Discipline, Meditations, Trials

“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11

Discipline should be a lively topic in families. Fathers and mothers ought always to be reminding their children of the reasons for chastening. And as we explain these things, the text before us today should frequently be on our lips. “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Notice that the author of Hebrews tells us two things about discipline that we can pass on to our children but which we should also be passing on to ourselves. For first and foremost this passage concerns the way in which God trains us; only by analogy does it discuss the discipline of a father with his children. What then do we learn about discipline?

First, we learn that discipline is painful. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time it is administered. Its intention is to be painful. And so, you children out there, when your parents get out the rod or when your parents impose some consequence upon your sinful behavior – don’t expect the consequence to be enjoyable. Hebrews tells us – its intention is quite the opposite. It is intended to be painful. For it is the pain that trains us and fashions us – the pain that teaches us to avoid that pattern of behavior in the future.

Most of us parents are adept at delivering this lesson to our children. But how often do we deliver this message to ourselves? Brothers and sisters, the discipline of the Lord does not seem pleasant at the time. When the Lord puts us through some trial or when the Lord disciplines us for violating His commandments, why is it that we expect things should be jolly? He is sharpening us; disciplining us; chastening us. We expect our children to know what those things mean; so why do we have such a hard time letting it soak in to our own consciousness? No discipline is enjoyable at the moment.

But this is not the only thing we learn about discipline. While discipline is painful, it is not intended to end in pain. The ultimate goal of the Lord’s discipline, as should be the goal of parental discipline, is the cultivation of the peaceful fruit of righteousness in our lives. Our Lord promises to use discipline to make us more lovely people. He is training us. That which He purposes to create within us by means of trials and chastisement is righteousness.

But note that this righteouness is not an automatic biproduct of discipline. If we are to see the fruit of righteousness in our lives then we must, in the words of our text, be trained by the discipline. In other words, we must take the discipline to heart and learn from it. We must not harden ourselves to the discpline; must not complain that we have been treated ill; must not kick against the goads. Rather we must bow the knee before our Lord and learn the lesson.

And so, children, how are you responding to the discipline of the Lord through your parents? Are you bowing the knee? Are you acknowledging the authorities that God has placed over you and submitting yourself to them? Does discipline produce in you the peaceful fruit of righteousness? Or is it instead producing resentment, bitterness, gloom, or depression? And what of us adults? How are we responding to the discipline of the Lord? Does discipline produce in us the peaceful fruit of righteousness? Or does it instead produce resentment, bitterness, complaining, grumbling, depression?

As we come into our Father’s presence this morning let us kneel and confess that we have not received His discipline as we ought.

Receiving the Word

May 5, 2009 in Bible - NT - Hebrews, Meditations, Sanctification, Word of God

22 And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. (Hebrews 13:22)

In the parable of the sower, our Lord Jesus offers a picture of the variety of responses which one can give to the Word of God. In the text before us today from Hebrews, the author urges us to be like the rich soil which yields its increase thirty, sixty and a hundred fold.

Whenever the Word of God is preached and applied, we have the opportunity to respond to it rightly or wrongly. If we respond rightly, then we will, in the words of our text, “bear with the word of exhortation.” When the word of exhortation comes our way we will receive it, consider it, and respond to it in a way that testifies to the world – “This is the word of God. This is the word of my master. He has commanded and I am obeying. Why? Because this is life itself.” As we respond to the word of exhortation in this way we will bear abundant fruit – thirty, sixty, a hundred fold. The word of God will utterly transform us.

Yet how often do we respond to the word of exhortation not with faith but with unbelief. Rather than “bearing with” the word of exhortation, we harden our hearts and refuse to listen. “Today,” the author of Hebrews says elsewhere, “if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts as your fathers did at Meribah.” What are some ways that we can identify that we are being hard of heart and are refusing to listen to God?

Consider the other soils that Jesus described. Some soil was so hard that the seed did not even penetrate the ground but was instead taken away by the birds. Does this picture describe you? When you find your sins being poked and prodded, do you soften under the pounding of God’s word? Or do you instead close your ears? Do you rail against the commands of God? Or perhaps more subtly, do you start critiquing the speaker instead? “I can’t believe he is speaking this way – as though he is immune from sin himself.” “He thinks I didn’t notice the way he spoke to his son before worship.” As long as we point the finger away from our own sins and refuse to bow the knee before our heavenly Father, we are hardening our hearts. And so some, rather than bearing with the word, repudiate it and replace it with their own opinions.

But some soil is not quite so hardened; some soil is very fruitful, for a time. The plant springs up quickly giving quite a show of health and vibrancy – but when the sun arises it quickly withers and returns to dust. The initial joy and enthusiasm is replaced with disinterest as the novelty of the faith fades. Listening to the Word of God becomes hum-drum. And so, rather than bear with the Word of exhortation, we can scarcely even bear it – just waiting to get out of church and to head to the beach.

Still other soil produces fruit and yet as the seed grows it becomes choked and entangled by weeds; the cares and concerns of the world choke it out. This soil recognizes that the Word is important theoretically but it’s just not relevant. It has very little to contribute to the every day realities of life. Indeed, Sunday morning worship and Lord’s Day rest are actually hindrances to the realities of living and supporting a family. How am I going to fix that problem at work anyhow? Perhaps I can get Fred to cover Mary’s spot and then I’ll be able to get all that work done. Soon we are inattentive to the preaching of the Word – for, after all, we reason, there are many things of much greater importance than the Word. And so, rather than bearing with the Word of exhortation, we become inattentive.

The Word of exhortation comes to you this morning: how are you responding? Have you hardened your heart? Have you repudiated the word? Are you disinterested? Are you inattentive? Then give heed and let us kneel together and confess our sin to the Lord.

The Son of God with Power

May 5, 2009 in Bible - NT - Romans, Easter, King Jesus, Meditations, Resurrection

Romans 1:1-4
1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God 2 which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

Today is Easter – the most significant of the various holy days in the Church calendar. More pivotal than Christmas, more central than Pentecost, more crucial than Epiphany – Easter celebrates the single most world transforming event in all human history. Because of the resurrection, we have the Gospel. Because of the resurrection, we have cathedrals. Because of the resurrection, we have computers. All because of the resurrection.

It is this world transformation that Paul points out to us in the introduction to his letter to the Romans. After assuring us that Christ’s advent was proclaimed beforehand by the prophets and that he came as was foretold a son of David, Paul goes on to declare that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead. What does he mean by this turn of phrase?

While many have supposed that Paul is here outlining the two natures of Christ – according to his human nature he was of the seed of David but he was also the Son of God – the text does not support this notion. For how could Jesus’ status as the eternal Son of God undergo a transformation as a result of the resurrection? He has and ever will be the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This is not what Paul is addressing.

What is Paul saying then? He is telling us about the transformation that has occurred in the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as a result of the resurrection. He was born of the seed of David – had indeed the natural right to rule as King. But simply having the natural right to rule does not establish that one does in fact rule. Bonnie Prince Charlie may have had a rightful claim to the throne of England; but a mere claim means little if one does not actually have the throne. And it is this that Paul addresses with the next phrase. Not only was Jesus born to be King – not only did he have a legitimate claim to the throne – by the resurrection from the dead He was declared to be the Son of God, the King of Israel, with power – that is, the resurrection was Jesus’ coronation as King. God, as Peter says elsewhere, made Him to be both Lord and Christ by the resurrection from the dead.

What is the significance of Easter then? On this day we celebrate the coronation of our King. Nearly two thousand years ago he was crowned King of the Universe, the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords. And in His coronation psalm the lesson of His Kingship is driven home:

10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Let us kneel therefore and acknowledge our rightful King, asking His forgiveness for our sins against Him.

The King Enters Jerusalem

May 5, 2009 in King Jesus, Meditations, Postmillennialism

Zechariah 9:9-10
9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’

How often have we heard it stated in the modern church that Jesus came as Savior in His first advent but He shall come as King at His second. If you, like me, once embraced this kind of thinking or, perhaps, still do, then you may have a hard time getting your mind around the text from Zechariah and the celebration of Palm Sunday. For today is Palm Sunday, the day the Church historically has celebrated the Triumphal Entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into the city of Jerusalem – the very thing Zechariah in his prophecy anticipated. But the question is – in what sense was this entry a triumph since He didn’t really enter as a King?

But such a question reveals how distorted our concept of kingship has become and how we have allowed the world to define true kingship rather than allowing our Lord Jesus to define it. For Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, his entry into Jerusalem to suffer and to die for His people, His entry into Jerusalem to serve is the preeminent definition of what it means to be a king. What does it mean to be a king? It means to be humble and lowly, to be a servant, to give your life for the benefit of your people.

And it was precisely this type of King that our Lord Jesus was and is. He came to give his life a ransom for many. He came not to be served but to serve. He came as the prototype for all the kings of the earth – this is what it is to be a ruler.

To our fallen nature this type of kingship seems utterly foreign and ultimately useless. Such kingship, we imagine to ourselves, is utterly ineffective. No king who comes to serve rather than to be served will be respected and honored; no king who acts in this way will really be successful – will really accomplish things. Rather it is those like Alexander who push and prod and grapple for their own glory that are ultimately great and who accomplish great deeds.

But the text before us today gives the lie to such thinking. For immediately after proclaiming the humility and lowliness of the coming King – the one riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey – it declares that this very One will destroy warfare from the earth and will establish universal peace under His rule. How effective shall Christ’s Kingship be? His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’

So what of you leaders out there – what type of kingship have you been exercising? Whether you are a husband, a father, a mother, an employer, a foreman, a manager – what type of kingship have you displayed? Have you demanded, cajoled, manipulated, and wormed your way to the top? Or have you served and given and made yourself the least of all the servants of God? For the first shall be last and the last shall be first.Reminded that we have been unrighteous kings and queens, let us kneel and let us confess our sin to our Sovereign Lord.

Hezekiah’s Folly

May 5, 2009 in Bible - OT - Isaiah, Covenantal Living, Meditations, Responsibility

“So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!’ For he said, ‘Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days?’” Isaiah 39:8

Hezekiah is appropriately remembered as one of the great heroes of the Old Testament era. Last week we mentioned that Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, surrounded Jerusalem with his armies and attempted to destroy the city. In this emergency, Hezekiah entrusted himself to the Lord and the Lord delivered Jerusalem in his mercy. But like all biblical heroes other than our Lord Jesus Christ, Hezekiah had his noticeable faults; and these faults became more pronounced with age.

The text before us today illustrates one of these faults. Hezekiah had just committed a severe sin by kowtowing to the envoys who arrived in Jerusalem from Babylon. Rather than once again placing his trust in the Lord and treating the envoys with appropriate discretion, Hezekiah placed his trust in his riches and gave the envoys a royal tour of the entire palace – including the treasury. For his folly, God announced through Isaiah the prophet, the same Isaiah who wrote the book by that name, that due to his folly the kingdom of Judah would fall into the hands of Babylon.

“Hear the word of the Lord,” Isaiah declared, “‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD. ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

What type of response should we expect from a godly man who received such a pronouncement of doom from the voice of the Lord? Would we not expect contrition, repentance, sorrow, confession of guilt? Even unrighteous Ahab, the husband of Jezebel, knew the importance of contrition when hearing a rebuke from the Lord. When told that he would witness the destruction of his own family, Ahab humbled himself and went about in mourning. As a result, God mitigated the punishment, delaying it until after the close of Ahab’s life.

But how does Hezekiah respond? “Hey – that’s good news. Your words, Isaiah, imply that these things are not going to happen while I’m alive, so what does it matter?” Hezekiah response indicates how self-centered his attitude was. Rather than repenting in sackcloth and ashes, and perhaps averting the judgment of God on his posterity, Hezekiah rejoices that he doesn’t have to worry about it personally.

How often our culture thinks and acts and we ourselves think and act in this same self-centered fashion. The current national debt is approximately nine trillion dollars – and yet our representatives are passing additional “stimulus” packages to tax us into prosperity, money going through their hands faster than water. In addition to the skyrocketing national debt, average household debt has reached unprecedented proportions. But our self-centeredness is reflected in more than our pocket books. It is reflected in our attitudes as well. How often do we consider the way in which our actions today will impact the next generation – especially the next generation of our own family? Adultery and covenantal unfaithfulness are rampant, the educational failure is acute, understanding of God’s covenant blessings and curses is all but lost. And yet we comfort ourselves, reasoning, “Will there not be peace and truth at least in our days?”

As we come into the presence of our Lord today, let us not act like Hezekiah. Let us bow before him and confess that we have often failed to consider the way in which our actions will have ramifications for the next generation. Let us kneel together and ask him to forgive our transgression and grant us godly repentance.

Sennacherib, Satan, and the Nature of Temptation

March 23, 2009 in Bible - OT - 2 Kings, Meditations, Temptation

“31 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; 32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.”
2 Kings 18:31-32

In the text before us today, Sennacherib’s messenger tries to get the citizens of Jerusalem to open the gates of the city by making grandiose promises to the people. For several years now Sennacherib had been laying waste the countryside around Jerusalem and was now laying siege to the holy city itself. The people were understandably frightened. They had no illusions as to their doom – they would be torn from their homes, sent into a foreign land, likely seeing Jerusalem never again. But Sennacherib knew that with such a clear understanding of their future, the citizens would never open the gates. And so he makes them grand promises. You’ve got my intentions all mixed up, Sennacherib declares. I’m really bringing joy and harmony your way. The future under my rule is bright. I’m going to let you stay in your homes for a while and then, when the time is right, I’m going to escort you to another home – just like the one you’ve got, with plenty of land, plenty of food, plenty of drink.

To us the offer of the king of Assyria should seem patently absurd – that is, if we know anything about the Assyrians. Their brutality was legendary. Masters of the most current military technology and ignorant of all ethical restraint, they not infrequently slaughtered entire cities and repopulated them with inhabitants from other lands. Listen as one of their kings boasts of his exploits:

“Many [of the defeated] I took as living captives. From some I cut off their hands and their fingers, from others I cut off their noses, their ears, and their fingers, of many I put out the eyes. I made one pillar [pile] of the living, and another of heads, and I bound their heads to posts [stakes] round about the city. Their young men and maidens I burned in the fire, the city I destroyed, I devastated, I burned it with fire and consumed it.” [As quoted in Don Nardo, The Assyrian Empire, pp. 12,13.]

This is what the inhabitants of Jerusalem could in reality anticipate. But this blunt description is what you provide after the victory is won – in the mean time, Sennacherib knew, promise them the world.

The offer which Sennacherib makes contrasts vividly with the reality which was lying in wait and teaches us valuable lessons about the nature of temptation. All temptation gets its force from twisting the facts and making it appear that satisfaction and joy lie where they in fact do not. Satan is no fool. And like Sennacherib he knows that no one will submit ahead of time to one who promises them raw sewage for supper and dead cat for dessert. And so he couches his temptations in the most plausible of disguises. Whether it is Eve beholding the fruit which is good to make one wise or the children of Israel longing for the leeks and onions they enjoyed in Egypt, the nature of temptation is always the same. Satan endeavors to make it look attractive. He wants to be the one who defines the good life – the life that makes one truly happy.

But note that he has no interest in our happiness – just like Sennacherib had no intention of making the life of the Judahites as pleasant as he promised. Like the pagan gods of antiquity, the demons who owed their origin to his machinations, Satan is selfish and consuming – promising the good life but bringing destruction to all those who succumb to his wiles.

And so, this morning as we enter into the presence of our thrice holy God, let us come confessing the many ways in which our community believes the lies of the evil one. But let us not stop there. What lies do you come believing? What lies have you believed this week? Whom have you allowed to define the good life? Have you listened to the one who promises happiness but ultimately gives grief or have you listened to our Heavenly Father who knows what will truly bring us joy and gladness and who has created us that we might find our joy in Him? Let us kneel and confess these things to Him.