Jesus the Messiah has just given the Jews of Judea a sign proving that He IS the Son of God. For after traveling some distance on foot to Bethany the Lord arrived to find his friend Lazarus dead. Then to the amazement of all, Jesus calls Lazarus from the tomb.
The Messiah gives back to a man dead in the grave life itself!
We pause once more in the chronological events in Jesus’ journey to the Cross and His own resurrection to look back briefly at Bethany, the town of this miracle, from Luke’s Gospel.
Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come…
“Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
This was Jesus’ caution to seventy disciples following Him. Do not be so innocent as to think that because God will save you that God’s enemies of this world will not harm you.
“The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
Luke 10:16 – Commission of the Messiah Jesus to followers
Jesus travels these roads between Galilee, Samaria and Judea. The Lord’s disciples know the dangers of travel in these places.
Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan to listeners familiar with a distrust of other travelers. The villains, however, turn out to be just the type of religious officials we look up to at church!
Luke makes his point from Jesus’ parable most likely told to crowds coming to Jerusalem, then proceeds to introduce us to the family of Lazarus in Bethany.
Bethany
38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word.
But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said,
“Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.”
But the Lord answered and said to her,
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Luke then moves on with another time and place without providing detail about their brother Lazarus, who presumably is at work somewhere away from this scene.
Returning now to the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha on the Lord’s later journey witnessed by John.
Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.
Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.
And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
The Apostle John adds further description of the fragrance, adding the reaction of Judas with witness of his motives:
“Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”
“Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.”
Dining with dear friends
Jesus and the Twelve have returned to Bethany from the small city of Ephraim in the hills to the north full-well knowing of the plot of Jerusalem’s religious leaders to kill them all.
Yet for a brief evening, they share precious mortal time together. No man knows the value of this more than Lazarus, their host and the Son of Man who must soon depart for Jerusalem one last time.
How they must have discussed the experience of DEATH.. and of RESURRECTION…
Ephraim was the second child of Zaphnath-Paaneah and Asenath. His father’s high position second only to Pharaoh gave Ephraim every advantage as he was brought up with all the riches of the palace.
You may recognize him as brother of Manasseh and both brothers known as sons of Joseph, son of Israel (Jacob).
He was much like the church we know in the US now. These sons and their families grew up with practically everything a man could desire. But one change in leadership would relegate them to lesser roles before they lost faith in the wilderness.
Even though they had followed the Lord when Moses returned to save Israel from slavery, during forty years in the wilderness each year of yearning for former days turned their hearts from the Lord.
Think about their roles as followers of God in the way Asaph contemplates years later. Think also closer to home, considering your own push-back from faithfulness from the Lord who would save you.
God’s Kindness to Rebellious Israel
A Contemplation of Asaph.
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle. 10 They did not keep the covenant of God; They refused to walk in His law, 11 And forgot His works And His wonders that He had shown them.
How like US
Forget for a moment your own heritage.
Perhaps your forefathers came to a land of promise or a home of the free. They may have bought passage to new hope in a land of milk and honey, a hopeful homeland of riches.
Or perhaps they fled in huddled masses from persecution, slavery and imminent death. Oh, the hope of our poor and tired aliens embarking on a pilgrimage of promise.
Who will you trust if not the Lord?
Of Ephraim’s blessing
Note centrality of Ephraim & Manasseh, Joseph’s sons to the promised land and a divided people of the LORD
12 Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
Do you, even in your days of difficulty, remember what the Lord has done for you and your fathers in days past, how the Lord has saved you?
13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; And He made the waters stand up like a heap. 14 In the daytime also He led them with the cloud, And all the night with a light of fire. 15 He split the rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink in abundance like the depths. 16 He also brought streams out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers.
Here is Asaph’s embrace of the Lord’s blessing many years prior to his own life in the Kingdom of David.
How like the blessings thousands of years later of the ‘new world,’ a new land to conquer and colonize. Ephraim was one blessed by the Lord, but the promise of the Lord was long forgotten.
Sin and Rebellion
Egypt or England will call it rebellion, or course. But your journey of hope from oppression must remain in the hand of the Lord.
We know in your heart that our forefathers were not without sin. The cause of our exodus from a former existence was not so righteous as our national celebrations would have us believe.
Though Asaph laments of his founding fathers, we could well apply their rebellion to our own hearts.
But they sinned even more against Him By rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.
Psalm 78:17 NKJV
18 And they tested God in their heart By asking for the food of their fancy. 19 Yes, they spoke against God: They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? 20 Behold, He struck the rock, So that the waters gushed out, And the streams overflowed. Can He give bread also? Can He provide meat for His people?”
The PERSON of GOD
If God IS a Person, then how does He feel about your sin?
How does God the Father react to the sin of His child?
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com on Psalm 78
21 Therefore the Lord heard this and was furious;
So a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also came up against Israel, 22 Because they did not believe in God, And did not trust in His salvation.
I’ll own it – I’m a rebel like Ephraim. Lord forgive me.
And remember this, along with His many blessings to our forefathers, your own faithful or rebellious children, and what the Lord does for you.
23 Yet He had commanded the clouds above, And opened the doors of heaven, 24 Had rained down manna on them to eat, And given them of the bread of heaven. 25 Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full.
Do you remember the miracles of the Lord’s blessings?
Here we are so blessed more than most, yet craving the past and coveting the riches of others. Are we not like Joseph’s sons – Ephraim, the most blessed, whose rebellion failed to trust in the Lord?
The Father’s wrath
29 So they ate and were well filled, For He gave them their own desire. 30 They were not deprived of their craving;
But while their food was still in their mouths, 31 The wrath of God came against them, And slew the stoutest of them, And struck down the choice men of Israel.
How like the children of Ephraim we are!
We plea to the Lord our God, ‘Father, give us this one thing we must have.’ Then, we think, because our Father has blessed us we will tell him of our next desire for blessing.
32 In spite of this they still sinned, And did not believe in His wondrous works.
33 Therefore their days He consumed in futility, And their years in fear.
34 When He slew them, then they sought Him; And they returned and sought earnestly for God.
Have you taught your children?
SPOILED CHILDREN
A meditation of J.C. Ryle 4 min. 23 sec.
John Charles Ryle was born of well-to-do parents at Macclesfield England, 10 May 1816, appointed first Bishop of Liverpool. "His successor in Liverpool described him as ‘the man of granite with the heart of a child.’ - source
Have you told your children of blessing that God our Father, the Lord, must be their Lord or they will suffer His wrath?
Do you fear death and judgment (or even judgment, then death)?
In fear have you promised God one thing, then in your comfort forgotten your Father?
Psalm 78: (cont.)
35 Then they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, And they lied to Him with their tongue; 37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
A Father’s love
Exodus 34:6 Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, 7 maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.
Yet He will by no means excuse the guilty; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
Do you, forgetful unfaithful claimant of the Lord, remember your repentance?
Have you returned to the way of your sin, though your fathers repented and told you the faithfulness of the Lord?
But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
52 But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness. 53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies. 54 And so he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken. 55 He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
Testing the Lord
56 But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes. 57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow. 58 They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
Does any sin of ours deserve the wrath of God our Father more than our worship of idol after lifeless idol, while we fail to remember our Father and Shepherd?
Consequence of the Sin of Ephraim
When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men..
Psalm 78:59-60 KJV
The Very Presence of God left the Tabernacle of worship for Israel, because of their rebellion.
Psalm 78: (CSB)
67 He also rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. 69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has founded forever.
God then chose Judah
70 He also chose David His servant And took him from the sheepfolds…
… He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance. 72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands.
Are we children of Ephraim?
Children of Moses or of David?
WHO HAS THE LORD CHOSEN?
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: yes Israel was chosen and blessed.
Joseph, who came to be known in Egypt as Zaphnath-Paaneah, was blessed over his eleven brothers who finally bowed down to him.
Then the LORD through a final blessing by Joseph’s father Israel blessed his sons, Manasseh the eldest, but giving the greater blessing to Ephraim.
Yet through disobedience of the sons of Ephraim Israel’s blessing fell upon Judah.
God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness – Psalm 78
And after this all of Israel and its ten tribes were given over to their enemies Judah remained.
But in time by their own wickedness, refusal to hear the Lord’s Prophets and turning against the Lord their God, the LORD also gave Judah over to its enemies.
A Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem, and Prayer for Help – Psalm 79
Another Psalm of Asaph – a short reading of 13 verses
Then the Lord brought back a remnant to Judah. They again discovered the Law of Moses in the Temple the Lord had abandoned.
Yet again after a short time they again turned against the Lord their God. And for a time no word of the Lord was heard in all Israel. Again as Israel, Judah failed to listen to the Lord’s Prophets.
“Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say, ‘The LORD is great, even beyond the borders of Israel.’
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of me? says the LORD of Armies to you priests, who despise my name.”
He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.
Do you, sons and daughters of blessing, sons and daughters of great blessings through the Lord our God, believe in the Son of the Father, the Messiah Jesus, the Son of Man and only Son of God in whom you have eternal life rather than God’s wrath, as we well deserve?
