Deuteronomy Continued from De.1:9-13
De.1:12-15[0011] Leadership. Katsumasa Hirota: As you know Moses had numerous
people that he couldn't control by himself. It was his father-in-law, Jethro,
who gave him the idea to choose leaders among themselves who could work with
him. This is very true of our church also! To be honest, I have known this
fact for years, since the gathering of the "Church Disciple-ship" program that I
attended. I just knew it, but I have failed to put it into action. A certain
pastor who is well-used in the area of building up a church always says that it
is not the pastor's job to reach out to the lost, but the whole church's.
Pastors, he says, must have the responsibility of keeping the sheep. Of course,
they are sent to the people in the World, but their main work is to keep their
church people healthy in their spirits so that they can be sent to the World.
De.6:1-9[9053] Love God first. Katsumasa Hirota: In today's scripture reading,
one of the teachers of the Law came to Jesus and asked a question. Jesus
referred to the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, vv.1-9, and replied to his
question. As you may know, these words of God were given to the Israelites
before they entered the Promised Land. Whether or not they would be blessed
depended on how well they observed the commands of God.
De.8:16-20[9015] Surviving Spiritual Attacks. Katsumasa Hirota: There is
simply no telling whether this person will be alright, simply because he is a
person of prayer, or that this Christian family will last and be spiritually
strong just because they are firm Christians. Satan tries to do everything! He
knows our weak points! He has such sharp eyes! He attacks us through our faults.
When Jesus was tempted, He was exceedingly hungry; hunger is perhaps an
understatement, He had just come out of a forty day fast. Being hungry was
naturally His weakness, but He was not successfully tempted! When Jesus drove
away Satan, He referred to the Holy verses from Deut.8:16-20.
De.11:11-15[0011] Are you listening? Katsumasa Hirota: To enter a new world,
a firm faith in God is necessary. To remain at the foot of Mount Horeb does not
do us any good. We are to stand up and go. No matter how well a person can
fish, if he stays indoors, he will never be able to prove his prowess in fishing.
The same is true with us, unless we start for a new goal with faith, we can't
experience God's works or blessings.
Let's turn to De.11:11-15. God Himself says and encourages us to go out and
stay there, for the place He sends us is full of mercy and grace. You might be
easy going in various areas of your lives; spiritually, in waiting on the Lord
and people around you or in loving people. You may have a barrier in your lives
however, so that people can not step into your lives. You may have a door firmly
shut that others, and God, cannot open.
De.30:30[9084]
Concerning Prophecy. Katsumasa Hirota: Please refer to
Is.11:11, and De.30:30. After the people of Israel wandered in the world for 1900
years, in 1945, they were finally allowed to rebuild their nation again. It was
the fulfillment of a prophecy in the Bible. And, still now in this present age,
many Jews are returning to Jerusalem from all parts of the world.
De.31:6[9091] King Jesus, Our God. Katsumasa Hirota: We know that Jesus is
both King and God. In believing in Jesus that He is our God and our King, He
takes the responsibility of being our guarantor, for the Bible tells us that God
has said, "I will never forsake you."
Joshua
Jos.5:10[9022] NB. Katsumasa Hirota: Jericho is first mentioned to us from
the Bible in Joshua 5:10. Here, we find events that took place during a Jewish
Passover. To the Israelites, this town became an unforgettable place.
Jos.6:25[8123] Christ identified with us to save us. Katsumasa Hirota: Most
people, I've heard, prefer the story in Luke for their Christmas play, for I
think it's very easy to understand and the events are clear. The reason people
prefer Luke is that in the first place [in Matthew] we find a geneology of Jesus,
which is very long and complicated.
But this morning we realize that Matthew wanted to tell us (the Israelites)
that Jesus was a descendant of David, whose ancestor was Abraham, the father of
faith. As you know, people hardly believed in Christ, so Matthew truly wanted
them to know that Jesus was Christ, whom they had long been waiting for.
The first time I read this part, I wondered why there were only four ladies
mentioned in this geneology. Also, why those women!? In Jos.6:25 we find that
Rahab [of Jericho] was a prostitute! Some theologists have strongly criticized
the references to those sinful women, saying that this geneology is not holy.
Just think of Uriah's wife, not directly, but she killed her husband with David.
She was later one of David's many queens, but the author, Matthew, does not
describe her as David's wife, but Uriah's. Well, she was Uriah's wife, it was
just that David stole her from him. We say that all of these women were sinful,
but behind each of them, we find sinful man. [Now, the reason for such
references is to remind us all that God came to redeem us - He loves us and He
has identified Himself with us though He Himself is without sin] No one can blame
others because we are all sinners. To make us free from sin in God's sight,
Jesus was born into our world on Christmas Day (Mt.1:21).
Living in this world, surrounded by many sins, some times we just can't find
goodness! It's hard to tell what is good from what is bad! Naturally, for some
reason, we can tell what is bad -- we have reason, or a mind, that rejects
badness. For we are creatures made by God's hands. Deep inside of us, there is
something very much like what God has.
God always tries to reach us. Christmas is one of those ways He reaches out
to us. On the cross, Jesus bore every one of our curses. We could be a family
of curses, due to our sinfulness, but Jesus took all of our evil with Him to the
cross. Now, we [can be] members of the family of the blessed!
Judges
Jud.7:2-6[8034] To win the battle. Katsumasa Hirota: In the Old Testament, we
find the Israelites had to wander in the wilderness for as many as 40 years.
After this, they finally entered their promised land, where they had to fight
against every single evil power that tried to attack them. They had continuous
troubles in their long life. Now, we also remember the battle between the
Israelites and the gentiles in the new land (this is written in Judges). The
General of the Israeli Army was Gideon, who tested his men of 32,000 [according
to God's instructions; Jud.7:2-6]. He tested and tested them in various ways,
and at last there were 300 men left who had passed his tests. They had to be
cautious enough to win the battle. [But above and beyond that, God wanted them
to see that their victories were clearly not by their own power but by God's
supernatural power, and that those who put their trust in Him would not fail].
First Samuel
1 S.1:1-28[8052] A Faithful Example. Katsumasa Hirota: There are quite a few
women, in the Bible, who can be considered ideal mothers. Hannah was one of
these. Looking back into the history of Israel, we notice that Samuel did a
vital job in leading the God's faithful Hebrew people. At the time of his birth,
there had been chaos among the Israelites. He became a blessing to them in
ruling over them as their Judge. However, before Samuel, his mother and father
had been chosen by God.
In the history of Israel it was customary for a man to have more than one
wife. Husbands who stood between their wives suffered a lot. [So don't go
thinking that polygamy is a wise practice!] Though Hanah's husband, Elikanah,
was a faithful and holy man, he did have problems. It sometimes happens that
very faithful people suffer more than uncaring people. This is because the
faithful can 'see' or recognise problems more clearly, and knowledge of this
causes suffering. [Hence, the european saying: Ignorance is Bliss.]
Hannah, who was also a faithful believer, had a problem, too. She was
crying from the enmity that existed between herself and her husband's first wife,
Peninnah. And also from the bitterness of being unable to bear her husband a
child. Here, through her attitude towards God, we find a good example of a
person solving difficult problems. She went to God, and she was not negative!
See Ro.8:28.
Do not try to solve problems through your own power! Ask for God's help in
solving them. When I think about these things, I always remember a certain
Christian, who used to own a big record company in Japan. He said to me that
whenever he was involved in problems, he asked Jesus, "What would You do, Lord?"
Anyway, back in the story of Hannah, we find that she was patient, even in
Peninnah's meanness, and jealousy. She was patiently bearing her pain. Jeremiah
33:3 says "Call on me, and I will answer and tell you the great and unsearchable
things that you don't know." When you come to God, He will surely provide you
with greater answers than you can imagine. His answers are always beyond our
understanding, imagination, and expectations. Hannah did exactly what Jeremiah
encourages us to do. She was weeping and pouring out her soul to God. When we
pray to God, with full hearts, it leads us into repentance.
Probably Hannah experienced this kind of prayer at the Temple. She prayed
and fasted over her dilemma. After the prayer, she was not what she had been
before. Her faith in God worked perfectly, and was able to grasp the belief that
she would have a son. This belief came directly from her faith in God. In spite
of the same bad situation, her attitude towards God had fully changed. She had a
strong belief that she would have a baby. After the prayer, she received God's
peace. Refer please to Hebrews 11:1. Like Hannah, who kept believing in Him, we
are to continue asking God to help us, without giving up. As she believed, she
had a baby. Although it was only for a short time that she kept the baby to
herself.
After she had weened Samuel, she committed him to God in the hands of a
priest, who had terrible sons. I would very much hesitate to send my children to
such a man. But, here again, I see Hannah's faith in God. She considered and
knew that her vow to God was a priority. It must have been very hard for her to
leave her son. But, she knew that he was from God, and we also need to offer our
children to Him. Parents need to offer their children to God, and then raise
them in faith and prayer. We are to follow the example that Hannah has given us
in placing our faith in God.
First Kings
1 K.17:8-16[7094] Material beings in the Spiritual World. Katsumasa Hirota: --
Here is a wonderful thing that happened to Elijah. Just because this lady
followed Elijah's instructions a wonderful thing happened. In following with
faith, we can see God working and realize what it is we need Him to do.
With faith, we are to be renewed inside. When we believe, we are placed in
a different world than the ordinary world. The spiritual world is so different
from the physical world. Things happen in the spiritual world that are out of
the ordinary. Things which seem impossible in the physical world are not
impossible in the spiritual world. Since birth, we have been learning the
negative way of taking things, being surrounded daily by negative news. But, the
world we Christians live in does not belong to the negative world. With faith,
we can see God's possibility.
Some or lots of Christians have experienced this possibility with faith. Let
us have the wonderful work of God with faith!
1 K.19:1-18[9013] What stays with the Name of the Lord. Toshio Miyawaki: In
the former passages, you can find Elijah winning a victory over the prophets of
Baal. Yet, in spite of the amazing victory he won, he was greatly afraid of the
words of Queen Jezebel.
It is sometimes hard for us to imagine the great man of God, Elijah, being
so weak in spirit. In James 5:17, he is extolled as a very faithful person. When
he prayed, it stopped raining, and there was a great famine. When he prayed
again, it rained, and there was a flash flood! [Certainly in Jesus' time, the
Jews still waited for Elijah - such was his reknown] True, he was a great man,
but -- it was only with the strength of God. Once he was highly praised, but
then he was thought little of later on. I think we also experience these kinds
of things. I, personally, have experienced this. And, when I was down, I felt
that I was nothing at all. It seems silly to be like this, but I believe that we
all need to go through this kind of experience. Probably Elijah had never been
through this kind of experience before, so it was the first time he had fallen
like that.
See verses 4-8. Elijah had run out of strength. He was tired. He wanted
to leave the world. In sharing with those who have problems mentally, I quite
often hear them say "I want to die." In saying this, they are searching for a
better place to settle down. Just like Elijah! However, God didn't answer
Elijah's grumblings. He didn't say anything. Instead, He just listened, and
then He sent an angel down to encourage him. In counselling such people, it is
vital to just listen to them!
After Elijah was encouraged with food and drink, he went to Mount Horeb.
Mount Horeb is something like a home place for the Israelites. He went back to
the home, a starting point. This very much applies to us; whenever we have
troubles, problems, or we feel exhausted, we also need to go back to our starting
points. Read Re.2:3-5.
Elijah might have thought it was his own work that had swept away the evil
work of Baal. He might not have saw it as the Lord working through him. So, he
badly needed to go back to his starting point; to be with God. Every time we are
completely fallen, it's our chance to come back to the Lord. He never leaves us
in such a situation forever.
God asked Elijah "what are you doing here?" Elijah replied exactly the same
way twice, in verses 10 and 14. He kept grumbling before the Lord, saying that
he was too tired. To be zealous, pure and diligent is great, but we've got to be
very careful in being so, it may lead you to judge others who you think are being
lazy in doing God's work. Also, in being zealous, you may become proud, saying
that you have done this and this with your own ability. You may become arrogant.
The reason Elijah had fallen so fast after his great victory was that he had
become arrogant. The key to being a true Christian is that you learn not to do
things in your own strength! Instead, you learn to work with God's Spirit.
Remember that we are each a branch that has been grafted to the living vine of
our Lord Jesus. True people in the world, without God, have done marvelous
deeds, and things that will remain noted down in history. But, our doing is what
stays with the Name of the Lord.
Second Kings
2 K.2:18[9022] God's Promise. Katsumasa Hirota: This is another passage in
which we find the name Jericho, and here we find the prophet Elijah being taken,
while still alive [enraptured], up into Heaven. I am sure that in this place of
Jericho, we can see God's promise starting to be fulfilled. [His promise being
to take His faithful back to Himself -- an idea popularized in European and
American cultures as 'being taken to Heaven'. But think about this, this idea of
'being taken to Heaven': The popular idea that if we are good enough, and this is
a pretty relative self-judgement, we will go to heaven, where we will be angels
with wings and Paul McCartney (only joking).. and halos and harps, on which we
will strum or pluck peaceful chords throughout eternity like we are in some
massive drug-induced hallucinogenic state without any direct interfacing with
God; often the film media has presented us with a corporate machine image.. This
image is so false to that presented for us in the Bible, we have been so duped by
this image that I believe many of us have been led down the garden path to Hell.
Heaven is not at all a given for those who live decent civilized lives, that
is for those who do not or try not to, rock the boat. No, Heaven is the abode of
our Creator, and rapture, such as the rapture of Elijah referred to in this text,
somehow validifies something that is generally out of our reach. This is not a
metaphor! And it forces us to ask a question of ourselves, if we are paying
attention: do we want to go there?
There is only one alternative and that is not to go there, or to go where
God isn't, where His creation isn't, the place designated for the antiGod, the
place that is called the eternal lake of fire. Remember please that Hell is only
temporary; it is a holding place for souls until Judgement Day has come. And on
Judgement Day, the souls that have been held there will be judged as to whether
they may be permitted into God's eternal presence and peace - a vast difference
to the freedom that we find in Christ Jesus. This is in direct contrast to
Christian lives which upon death are transported directly into Christ's presence
and into the eternal presence of God. And, here is some more food for thought: if
being without God is an equitable alternative, why is God taking all of this time
sifting us to spare us from it? Also why does a case of rapture occur at all?
Well, the former question is for you to find out on your own. Meditate on
it. It is worth every brain cell of attention you give it. But, the latter
question can be explained simply, apart from what was first noted above; prior to
the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, there was no Heaven for the common
man, but there was paradise, or shiloah, a place for the faithful to rest until
the Messiah had made a way for them to be taken up to God. Into this place, went
the faithful and repentant, to wait with Israel's Patriarchal Father, Abraham.
However, Elijah was spared the wait. It is further conjectured by many and then
by some that Enoch was raptured, and that Moses was raptured, which is why none
found the bones that God was supposed to have buried.
And so then comes the rapture theory of the New Testament. Note please that
the word rapture is not itself a biblical word, but a theological word derived
from biblical study, it means to be translated into Heaven from earth, and it can
now be compared to many common ideas of science-fiction and fantasy:
teleportation, time-travel, and crossing worlds of alternate reality. Now, I
think the concept of rapture is much easier to grasp than it was before H. G.
Wells' Time Machine. However, in all of the modern concepts, it was a thing for
human beings to do, and not a thing done to them - or atleast there is an element
of this thinking. But, in the Bible, where there is little hint of fiction in
its discourses, this translation did and will occur again, and not of our will
but in accordance with God's. Formerly to a very few, but later to an immense
multitude, in fact to the living kingdom of God. Bear in mind too that this is
not a translation of souls, or minds if you will, but of material bodies. First,
the dead then the living. And in this latter New Testament case, the reason is
to remove first the just from the physical condemnation, or wrath of God, that is
to follow. Truly as we suffer our indignities on earth we, Christians, cry out
"maranatha" or Lord come quickly, and it can not be helped in the
circumstances, but we need to remember that now is the accepted time for men to
be saved, now is the age of grace. This age will be closed when rapture occurs
this last and final time. And so shall we all finally and irrevocably receive
God's promise in all of its bliss and fury. Sid Matheson.]
First Chronicles
1 Chr.16:23[9081] NB. Katsumasa Hirota: Here, King David offers praises to God
with his people, after bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.
Second Chronicles
2 Chr.7:12-16[8010] Restoring the Nation. Katsumasa Hirota: Right now in
Pensacola, in the States, we can see a revival. There, a Jewish pastor is being
well-used for the people. In that town, there are serious sexual problems. Men
love men, and people just leave each other like that. There was no way to save
them. They were so fallen that they committed adultery and became drug addicts.
But, this Jewish pastor and other Christians prayed hard for them, and this led
them to repentance. These people began repenting with tears in their eyes with
the strong work of the Holy Spirit.
There are three definite things that will help us experience a revival: We
are to pray. We are to be thirsty for revival. We are to offer our sacrifices
willingly. Read II Chronicles 7:12-16. This part was also given to me for this
new year.
2 Chr.7:14[9124] The place of humility. Katsumasa Hirota: As most of you know,
I have been suffering both physically and spiritually for about 6 months now. I
couldn't receive inspiration from God at all. I couldn't prepare sermons well
enough to reach out to many people. The same happened to me even on Christmas
Day! I couldn't prepare a satisfactory sermon at all! Even while I was in front
of the congregation, I didn't know what to preach. I don't remember what it is
that I said, but only that at the end of my sermon God seemed to touch me. He
showed me what to say, but it was too late. The time for closing the sermon had
come. How I had wished that I could have had that lost time back.. Through this
I learned that I needed to repent before Him. I don't know exactly what to
repent of. But certainly God spoke to me to repent. Then, part of today's
reading came to me; II Chronicles 7:14.
Job
Jb.1:20-22[8111] Testing. Katsumasa Hirota: Let's cast our eyes down onto
today's scripture passage: Job had no idea why he was suffering all the tragedy
that came suddenly into his life. We tend to think that sin brings affliction,
and so did Job's friends. But, this was not true in Job's case! See Job 1:20-22.
Psalms Next
