Category: Monthly Message

“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2)

Dear friends,

Trembling is usually a sign that something is wrong; maybe a neurological disorder, an alcohol problem or perhaps fear or shock;  or just feeling very cold!  But something’s wrong.  And yet there is a form of trembling that is not only right but even warrants God’s esteem – see Isaiah 66:2 quoted above.

Alec Motyer (‘The Prophecy of Isaiah’, p534) points out that “trembles” denotes a sensitive longing to obey, and that “This is the one I esteem” means “to this one will I/do I look…”.  So we might say that God loves to look upon those who are eager to obey his word.  He quotes a 19^th century theologian:  “One object in creation, amid suns and stars, secures the gaze of the great Creator”.   Our eagerness to hear and obey the Word of God is not just an evangelical duty, and more than a delight: it “secures the gaze of the great Creator”!

“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made” (Ps 33:6) and the Lord sustains “all things by his powerful word” (Heb 1:3); by that same word he deigns to speak to us, his creatures: words of authority, of judgment, of mercy, of grace, of wisdom, of comfort, of guidance, of truth, of holiness, of eternity.

It is so easy to read the Bible lightly or even lay it aside until a more convenient time.  But here none other than the Creator and Sustainer of all speaks to us, words that are “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (II Tim 3:16).  His word is truth, it gives life, it utters judgment and grace, it has power. Barry Webb (‘The Message of Isaiah’, p247) points out that where the recognition of the greatness of God and a heartfelt contrition before God (vv1,2) “is lacking, worship…becomes no better than pagan superstition, angering God and calling forth his righteous judgment”. (3,4).

May we be among those whom God sees as humble, contrite and trembling to obey his word.

Your brother in Christ

“I have set my rainbow in the clouds”  (Genesis 9:13)

Dear friends,

What does the rainbow, or its colours, symbolize to you?  For many today it indicates LGBT ideology or, during the Covid pandemic, it appeared in some way to represent the NHS.  Some children’s nurseries also like the rainbow.

But was does it really mean?  Scientifically, we know that when sunlight hits rain droplets, an electromagnetic spectrum is formed.  This is made up of light with many different wavelengths, and each is reflected at a different angle producing a rainbow.  And we call it a rainbow because it is shaped like an archer’s bow.

In Genesis 6:5 we are told that “the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time”. Such total wickedness deserved the utmost judgment of God and so he determined “to put an end to all people” by sending a devastating flood.  But in his anger he remembered mercy and chose to save a remnant (Noah and his family) through whom he started afresh with the human race.  But more than that, he made a promise and entered a covenant with mankind.  “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (8:21).  He then went on to confirm that covenant with a lasting sign.  In v13 he declared: “I have set my rainbow in the clouds”.

God saw the rainbow as symbolizing his promise: “Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life” (9:15).  It is a bow!  And God has hung up his bow for within his covenant of peace, hostility is over!.  When God hung up his bow it was like a foreshadowing of the cross, with Jesus’ cry: “It is finished!” Revelation 4 describes a throne in heaven, encircled by a rainbow and the unceasing worship of the One seated upon it: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come”.

How the devil loves to distort the truth.  The rainbow is God’s sign of peace through his grace and mercy to rebellious men and women, if only they would turn back to him.  It is emphatically not the symbol of Human Pride but of Divine Redeeming Grace.

In Christ,

PS   Have you booked in for September 16^th?  swbible.focus@gmail.com 

“He came and preached peace to you…”  (Ephesians 2:17)

Dear friends

In some churches, what used to be referred to as the ‘sermon’ is now called the ‘talk’? The word ‘talk’ suggests to me an interesting discourse such as might occur at a meeting of a local Historical Society or the W.I., whereas ‘sermon’ suggests something altogether different.  Am I quibbling over a word?

In Ephesians 2:17 Paul writes that Christ “came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near”.  Jesus never went to Ephesus at any point during his earthly ministry, and yet Paul asserts that he came to those Ephesians and preached peace!  So,  what he is saying, in effect, is that when men came to Ephesus and preached the gospel it was actually Christ himself who was preaching through them.

Preaching is a noble and holy calling; and so it matters what we call it because it matters how we regard it.  It matters that we realize that when the Word is preached, it is the Lord himself speaking through his chosen instrument.  What power there is in preaching!

The sermon is more than a talk.  It is that event when our Lord Jesus Christ deigns to use the earthen vessel of a preacher to give to his people the priceless treasure of his truth.  The Thessalonians seem to have understood this when Paul wrote of them: “when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers”.

Writing around 1658 the Puritan Paul Bayne observed: “…Paul preached to the ear, but Christ to the heart of Lydia.  This must teach us to look upon Christ as the chief Prophet among us, and the chief Preacher whosoever speaketh”.

May this encourage us as we pray for Jonathan Lamb and for all who will gather at Bible Focus on September 16^th.  I look forward to seeing you there!

In Christ,