(READ 1 SAM 25:2-42. {NKJV})

In Point No 1 in my last Blog, we saw how approachable  Abigail was and how approachability is one of the key characteristics of wisdom.

James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield (approachable), full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.  (NKJV)

Point No 2: When Abigail receives the news that David and his men are on their way to kill Nabal, herself and all their household, she orders her servants to load food and drink onto donkeys. Her intention was to take them to David,  intercept him and persuade him not to carry out his threat. But she did not tell Nabal what she was about to do! (1 Sam 25:18,19)

Question – why did Abigail not first discuss her actions with Nabal. Doesn’t Scripture say that the wife is to be submissive to her husband?

The answer to this question is in two parts:

A) Scripture teaches that trying to reason with a fool is impossible.

Prov 18:2 A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions. (NIV)

Prov 23:9 Do not speak to a fool, for he will scorn the wisdom of your words. (NIV)

Abigail knew from past experience that trying to reason with Nabal was a futile exercise, and that time was of the essence!

B) Part of Abigail’s role as a wife was to submit to her husband Nabal.

Eph 5:22 Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your own husbands as [a service] to the Lord. (AMP)

But Scripture also says that a husband is to love his wife and lay his life down for her.

Eph 5:25,28,29.  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and carefully protects and cherishes it, as Christ does the church. (AMP)

Scripture describes Nabal as ‘harsh and evil in his doings’ (1 Sam 25:3) and as the head of the home he was not taking responsibility for his wife and family. He was excercising selfish unrighteous authority, whereas, when the Bible talks about submission it is always in the context of righteous authority.

Therefore, Abigail was justified in taking independent action without first consulting with Nabal.

There are those who teach that a wife must submit to her husband at all times, and there are husbands who have taken full advantage of this by treating their wives as doormats, abusing and bullying them.

If the husband loves his wife and is laying down his life for her, not only will he treat her with respect but will respect her right to have equal input into family issues. Thus if her input is respectful, wise and right, he will submit himself to her.

Eph 5:21  Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (NIV)

Marriage is two people pulling together: loving, supporting, serving and helping each other.

Eccl 4:9-12 Two can accomplish more than twice as much as one, for the results can be much better.  If one falls, the other pulls him up; but if a man falls when he is alone, he’s in trouble. Also, on a cold night, two under the same blanket gain warmth from each other, but how can one be warm alone?  And one standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.  (TLB)

Not only do husband and wife have each other, they also have Christ, and the Scripture above declares that a triple braided cord is not easily broken.

Wherever this model is lived out, both parties will naturally respect the roles that Scripture ascribes to them and harmony will reign!

When we view Abigail’s actions in the light of this story, we can see just how wise she was. Truly, any man would would count it an honour to be married to such a beautiful and wise woman. Everyone, that is, except  Nabal!

Meditation Prayer: Father, help me take responsibility for my actions. Give me your wisdom to see the big picture of my life.

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Ps 12:6

God’s words are pure words, Pure silver words refined seven times In the fires of his word-kiln, Pure on earth as well as in heaven.  (THE MESSAGE)
Before we get into the subject of God’s promises. We must look at society. When we do, we find that most Christians have been raised in a culture of broken trust.

Politics, business, Media, Family and Church life have been permeated with broken trust. Let’s take Politics as an example: When George Bush Sr was running for the Presidency of America in 1988, he promised the American people, he would ‘not raise taxes.’ 3 times in his speech to the Republican National Convention, He said, “The congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say NO.” This became a famous phrase, and most people believe it helped him win the Presidency.

However, when he came to power, he was forced to raise taxes. Bush’s broken promise added greatly to the prevailing view among common people: ‘Politicians cannot be trusted. The say one thing and do another.’

This atmosphere of broken promises has also infiltrated the Church to an alarming degree. Believers say one thing and do another. This is because we’ve allowed ourselves to become affected by the spirit of the world.

Rom 12:2 Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within. (J.B. Phillips N.T.)

When parents make promises to each other and subsequently break them, their children will mimic and copy their parents behaviour. They too will grow up with a broken promise mindset. Not only that, they will think it is normal behaviour because their parents did the same thing. It then becomes a generational issue.

Families are not only the building block of society, they are the building block of the Church. Therefore, it is the role of Church leaders to model trust. This trust will influence the parents, who in turn will influence their children.

The anointing is poured upon the head first, then flows down to the body.

Ps 133:1-2 Look! How good and how pleasant it is when brothers live together!  It is like fine oil poured on the head which flows down the beard – Aaron’s beard, and then flows down his garments. (NET)

Here we have divine order: Church leaders, Parent leaders, children. When it is pointed out that the key change agent in Church are the leaders themselves, many will scoff and say it involves more than leaders changing. So let’s look at some Scripture:

Eph 4:15-16 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (NIV)

Col 2:18-19 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. (NIV)

Many leaders grumble that their congregations are not growing numerically or spiritually. The above Scriptures hold the key – it is they who have to change first, not their congregants!

In my next Blog we will see why we can trust God 100%.

Meditation Point: Jesus, I ask you to change me from the inside out and teach me how to trust in and stand upon your promises.

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THE DAY OF ATONEMENT

Lev 16:5
From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering
(NIV)

A  ‘type’ in Scripture is a prophetic picture in the Old Covenant pointing forward to an actual event that takes place in the New Covenant. Hence, on the ‘Day of Atonement’ (Lev 16) the 2 goats used as the sin offering point forward to the time when Christ on the cross, fulfilled the 2 stages for the forgiveness of sin.

The whole nation of Israel would gather at the gate of the Tabernacle on this the most important ceremonial day of the religious calendar. The High Priest would be given 2 goats:

1) THE GOAT FOR SIN- He would lay his hands on the head of the goat and confess over it all the sins of the nation that had been committed the previous year. This act transferred the nations sins onto the goat.

He would then sacrifice the goat on the altar and take some of it’s blood through into the ‘Most Holy Place’ and sprinkle it 7 times with his finger upon the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant; When God saw the blood, it was the evidence to Him that the death (punishment) for sin had been carried out.

The first stage of forgiveness had been fulfilled enabling God to release His mercy upon Israel in forgiveness of their sins.

When Jesus died on the cross as our ‘goat for sin’, His shed blood was the evidence to God that the punishment for sin (Gen 2:17) had been carried out. Jesus thus fulfilled the first stage of forgiveness enabling God to release His mercy upon  the world in forgiveness of their sins.

2) THE GOAT FOR ESCAPE – The High Priest now took the second goat and again laid hands on it’s head and confessed and transferred the sins of the nation for that year, upon it; But this goat, instead of being sacrificed was released and allowed to go free and ‘escape’ into the wilderness, never to return.

This fulfilled the second stage of forgiveness which was the carrying away of the nations sins. Signifying that their sins would never be called to remembrance again, ever.

When Jesus died on the cross as our ‘scapegoat’, He took our sins with him (carried them away) when He went down into the grave. When He rose from the dead, He left those sins  behind, buried forever in the grave and rose from the dead in resurrection life; Thus fulfilling the second stage of forgiveness.

Our sins can never be brought back again, ever, to accuse us of our past behaviour. One of God’s promises of the New Covenant, was that, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” Heb 10:17. As Joseph Prince rightly points out, the word NO in the Greek is a double negative, strengthening the denial.

Thus Jesus has fulfilled in Himself the 2 stages of forgiveness. Because of His crucifixion, shed blood, death, burial and resurrection, our sins are not only forgiven, they are taken away for ever.

There are many Christians today who when they received Christ as their Saviour, never received their full forgiveness. They know God has forgiven them their sin, but they don’t know He has also taken away their sin.

Because of this ‘lack of knowledge’ they still carry the guilt, condemnation, shame, rejection and fear of sins they committed before they came to Christ, or  sins they have committed since they came to Christ. Consequently, satan has open access into their thought life and wreaks havoc in their lives.

My friend, if this is you, God wants to give you a revelation that your sin has not only been forgiven but has also been taken away. Our Father does not want you to suffer needlessly.

Meditating on these Scriptures will help you:

John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who ‘takes away’ the sin of the world!  (NIV)

1 John 3:5 You know that Jesus came to ‘take away’ our sins, and there is no sin in him.  (NLT)

Ps 103:12 He has ‘taken our sins away’ from us as far as the east is from west.  (NCV)

2 Cor 5:19 It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, ‘not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses’ [but cancelling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor).  (AMP)

Meditation Point: God has both forgiven and taken away our sins. In Christ we no longer can be condemned (Rom 8:1)

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John 17:14,15,18. They are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

Because of extreme teachings about holiness and separation, the mindset of the Church has been to draw a line in the sand between the Christian and the world. This withdrawal from the world has meant the Church has lost it’s power to connect with the Gospel.

The Scriptures above, tell us that although the Church is not of the world , it is to be in the world; and that Jesus purposely sent us into the world to live out this Gospel message.

Jesus Himself is the model. He bypassed the religious and political institutions of the day and went straight to the common people, to live amongst them. When He was criticised for this, He replied, Matt 9:13 For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The Jewish leaders created sub groups of people they labelled ‘unclean’ so they would not have to mix with them; Prostitutes, tax collectors etc, and when they saw Jesus with them, they called Him ‘A friend of sinners’ (Mt 11:19).

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to follow the example of Jesus and befriend the sinners of this world. How do we do it? We simply connect with the people around us. Family, neighbours, work colleagues. But in today’s world of resistance to Christianity, we have to ‘live out’, rather than preach the Gospel in order to win people to Christ.

When they see the ‘Christ in us’ they will be attracted to Him. To do this we need to stop being critical and condemning and reach out to them in grace and love, and adopt a non religious approach to life.

The world is crying out for authentic people. People of truth, integrity and reliability. Only Christians have the power and motive to be such people. The challenge to day is, ‘WILL YOU BE SUCH A PERSON’?

Meditation Point: Father, teach me how to be in the world but not of it.

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Gen 3:7

Both of them knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.  (NKJV)

In our last Blog we saw how shame entered into the human race. The word ‘ashamed’ means to be embarrassed, worthless, disgraced, guilty; and shame is a feeling, an emotion. Hence , when Adam and Eve knew they had committed sin by eating of the forbidden fruit, they felt ashamed of their actions and covered up themselves with fig leaves.

Shame will always cause people to cover up. That’s why mankind wear clothes, to cover up the shame of the naked body. Unfortunately covering up was man’s way of making himself presentable before God and became self righteousness.

There’s a difference between ‘covering over’ and ‘covering up’. Covering over speaks of protection, shielding and guarding. Whereas, covering up speaks of hiding, avoiding detection, deception, manipulation and lies.

When we seek to cover up shame, we get into all sorts of dysfunctional behaviour to prevent ourselves from being exposed, uncovered, vulnerable and insecure.

When Adam and Eve covered up their shame by covering their bodies with fig leaves, nakedness throughout the scriptures became synonymous with shame. When a country was invaded and conquered, the victors would force their captives to strip naked and tied chains around their necks and feet before selling them into slavery. The nakedness was a sign of their shame: they were a defeated conquered people, stripped of all dignity and respect.

In our next Blog we shall look at how Jesus took our shame on the cross at Calvary and has covered us again by His glory.

Meditation Point: What areas of my life do I feel ashamed about or to put it another way, what areas of my life do I hide or cover up from God and others.

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Ps 29:2  Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.    (KJV)

The subject of holiness has caused considerable debate and division in Church history. We hear many voices today saying such things as, “God needs to call His Church to return to holy living”, or “We need the presence of the fear of the Lord”, or “We need to repent from our sin and turn back to God”.

Are these statements true, is this the kind of holiness that God is looking for today. Over the coming Blogs I want to unpack holiness and show you what I believe is true holiness.

Let’s begin with Old Testament holiness. When man fell into sin He was banished from the presence of the Lord, he was expelled from the garden of Eden. First, because God didn’t want him to eat from the tree of life and live forever and second, if sin is allowed to remain in God’s presence, His righteousness demands that sin is judged and punished. We see this demonstrated when Aaron’s 2 sons came into the Tab of Moses and offered unauthorised fire before God; immediately, the fire of God broke out and consumed them. ( Lev 10:1,2.)

Even before God created man He foresaw that man would fall into sin and would need to be rescued from that sin. He would need to be restored to God’s righteousness and holiness. So God initiated a 2 stage plan. The first stage was called Old Testament holiness and the second stage was called New Testament Holiness. In my view, it’s the misunderstanding between these 2 types of holiness that has caused the debates, confusion and division.

Before The Mayflower left the shores of Britain for the new world of America, a member of that Pilgrim band called John Robinson said, “I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of His holy word” ; and today God is restoring the revelation of true biblical holiness to his church.

Meditation Point: How can I worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Is holiness a set of rules and regulations or does it spring forth from within the believer.

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