Death and Resurrection Hosea 13:4 I have been the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and no Savior exists besides me. 5 I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.
“Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. God’s bread is the man who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Now after a considerable walk from somewhere beyond Judea, Jesus arrives in Bethany.
Jesus walks into a scene of death visited by mourners who loved Lazarus but also religious officials from Jerusalem who sought to accuse their Messiah of blasphemy for previous signs on the Sabbath.
As reminder of both heavy hearts and hard hearts in the crowds:
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem (less than two miles away).
He arrives at the funeral of Lazarus. No talk of death and resurrection here, just wailing and mourning his loss.
19 Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Yeshua was coming, she went to meet him.
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”
Lord God
Ἰησοῦν κύριε – Iēsous kyrios – Jesus Lord
Martha addresses their Messiah and friend.
“I know that God, theosin greek referring to any gods, but for Jews and followers of Christ (a Greek word for Messiah), Martha’s confidence in God includes a mysterious relationship between this Son of Man and the HOLY SPIRIT of the LORD God!
“God with” – ὁ – ho – with the Holy Spirit, the very breath of life which hovered over creation.
Jesus, God with us, frequently answered religious critics with personally relational replies like,
“God is spirit, and those G3588 who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Now, out of compassion for a deceased friend and love for the family of Lazarus, the Messiah Jesus returns to Judea with nothing more to prove. (For the Lord had already raised others from death and healed some near to death of likely life-ending ailments to a cleansing of the flesh with life!)
Death and Resurrection
Death and resurrection always have connection. Will you rise again from the grave?
For Jesus’ friend Lazarus, temporary restoration of health and life in his case. Yet all understand judgment by the Lord God requires a raising of the spirit of your soul to life.
After flesh fails and bones decay to dust and ashes will the Lord also breathe life into a new body of each soul?
“..even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”
23 Yeshua told Martha, “Your brother will come back to life.”
24 Martha answered Yeshua, “I know that he’ll come back to life on the last day, when everyone will come back to life.”
25 Yeshua said to her,
“I am the one who brings people back to life, and I am life itself. Those who believe in me will live even if they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
The Messiah of God!
Do you believe that?”
Pause to think:
“I am life itself!” Those who believe in Jesus ( יְהוֹשׁוּעַ ) will live even though we die. The Lord God IS our Salvation!
27 Martha said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who was expected to come into the world.”
She has said this – that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God – with witnesses surrounding her home — Jews who believe and Jews looking for excuse to kill Jesus.
… she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly,
“The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”
When Mary heard this she sprang to her feet and went to him.
30 (Yeshua had not yet come into the village but was still where Martha had met him.) The Jews who were comforting Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and leave. So they followed her…
The Messiah approaching death and resurrection
Compelling drama! – with much expectation.
Those who loved this family and mourned the loss of Lazarus would not have expected Mary’s sudden joy.Rather, they followed her to continue their expected public mouring for the death of a fellow Jew.
Imagine their surprise at the scene about to unfold.
33 When Yeshua saw her crying, and the Jews who were crying with her, he was deeply moved and troubled.
34 So Yeshua asked, “Where did you put Lazarus?”
They answered him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Yeshua cried.
36 The Jews said, “See how much Yeshua loved him.”
An appropriate witness of the true personal compassion of the Lord Jesus. Yet listen to the dissent of hardened hearts.
37 But some of the Jews asked, “Couldn’t this man who gave a blind man sight keep Lazarus from dying?”
Jesus hears our complaints and the Messiah hears our kind words. All those comments of the crowds did not matter to the Son of Man sent to this place to weep – sent here to suffer for our sins.
Sometimes when we read the Bible, especially the Old Testament and specifically the true Prophets of Scripture, we fail in the imagery of the language of centuries and millennia long past. Amos uses a word “לַעֲנָה” we translate into English as wormwood and most of us naturally ask, “whatever is wormwood?”
Truly, we also don’t really understand idioms such as ‘justice in the gate’ much better from Amos’ opening indictments listed previously in Not immune from judgment. If you missed summary of these first four chapters of Amos you might want to take a look through the secure link above.
As for wormwood, we’ll get to a definition after introducing his lament for Israel. We may also point ahead to more obvious application of his warning to the church of these last days.
China Walmart
Empty Hong Kong street
continuous media updates by media
Churches ordered closed
family masked coronavirus
Vatican Square 2020
NYSE March 2020 crash & close due to fear from coronavirus
Worldwide pandemic – Chinese Coronavirus – winter 2019-20
“Seek Me that You May Live”
Setting aside current 21st century events, let’s look back to the prophecies of Amos concerning Israel and its middle east neighbors in the 8th century Before Christ, introduced previously in Amos – Not immune from judgment.
2 She has fallen, she will not rise again— The virgin Israel.
“The city which goes forth a thousand strong Will have a hundred left, And the one which goes forth a hundred strong Will have ten left to the house of Israel.”
This prediction laments a judgment to come, a warning of consequences more devastating than slight tremors of these past weeks.
A Call to Repentance
4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
“Seek Me and live…
Through Amos, the LORD God warns those called as his faithful people to repent! Give up worship of your idols on the mountaintops and look to the Lord your God.
6 “Seek the Lord that you may live, Or He will break forth like a fire, O house of Joseph, And it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel…
The LORD led the house of Joseph by Moses from slavery in Egypt
… it will consume everything with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.
Amos 5:6b CSB
You cannot hide from the LORD, Creator of the universe!
Don’t say you worship at Bethel – “the house of God.” And do not come to Gilgal, the gathering place of the Prophets. Nor cross over to Beersheba, well of your sevenfold oath (which Israel has transgressed).
Later Amos will preach [8:14]:
They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
Those who turn justice into wormwood also throw righteousness to the ground.
Amos 5:7 CSB
These unjust leaders literally have set righteousness aside in the dirt.
Wormwood – לַעֲנָה
It is a metaphor for bitterness, a noxious aroma of a poisonous herb such as hemlock. Something about the judgment of Israel’s leaders stinks before the LORD who they claim to worship.
We have heard this from other Prophets of the LORD who likewise warn of sin and call to repentance. Amos warns Israel prior to its fall, but two centuries later (~ 586 BC) Jeremiah uses it in asking how this could happen to Judah and Jerusalem.
He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
The LORD who judges
Amos 5:8
He who made the Pleiades and Orion And changes deep darkness into morning, Who also darkens day into night, Who calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the surface of the earth, The Lord is His name.
It is He who flashes forth with destruction upon the strong, So that destruction comes upon the fortress.
They have led their country astray, a people pledged to the LORD to a path of their own destruction. And how do these erring leaders receive the warning of the Prophet Amos?
Indeed how do the sinful always receive truth from the Lord unvarnished?
It will remind us of how their Savior was later received in a rebuilt Jerusalem under Rome. We have just foreshadowed it from the Gospel of John. The Gatekeeper & the Shepherds
= to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, be right
They hate him who reproves in the gate, And they abhor him who speaks with integrity.
They hate the one who convicts the guilty at the city gate, and they despise the one who speaks with integrity.
Amos 5:10 CSB
Sentence of the JUDGE
The LORD makes a few points to the leaders who have misled His people. Amos, who was not a Prophet but called as a shepherd of Tekoa, serves these convicted their just cup of wormwood.
Therefore because you impose heavy rent on the poor
And exact a tribute of grain from them,
Though you have built houses of well-hewn stone,
Yet you will not live in them;
You have planted pleasant vineyards,
yet you will not drink their wine.
12 For I know your crimes are many and your sins innumerable.
You who distress the righteous
and accept bribes
And turn aside the poor in the gate.
(the place of justice *and your poor judgment)
Therefore the prudent keep silent at that time, For it is an evil time.
Amos 5:13 NKJV
Does this scene seem strangely familiar?
14 Seek good and not evil, that you may live; And thus may the Lord God of hosts be with you, Just as you have said!
Hate evil,
love good;
Establish justice in the gate.
Perhaps the Lord God of hosts May be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Hoping for mercy
We still have NOT heard the sentence of the Judge. But here it comes. after Amos urges Israel’s leaders to bow down before the Lord in repentance.
Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, the Lord, “There is wailing in all the plazas, And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They also call the farmer to mourning And professional mourners to lamentation.
Amos 5:16 NASB
Wormwood for the church in this time?
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As for the judgment of the LORD imminent for Israel warned by Amos…
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?
