New Thoughts (12/9/06-12/12/06)
There is really not much to add to what Jesus says here. His point is clear, and clearly made. In plain point of fact, I find the fact that His point is so clearly made is one of the more important lessons to be learned here. Mark says that Jesus spoke this matter as a parable. He is laying forth examples that are easily understood because they reflect common experience and common sense. He then draws the spiritual comparison, using the common to explain the extraordinary. Well, there is something to be learned from that, isn’t there?
Because creation is something that occurred by God’s design, it follows His ways. However much His ways have been corrupted by the Fall, they are still discernable. Because they are still discernable, they serve to demonstrate God’s ways to us. This is what Paul is getting after when he writes, “since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made” (Ro 1:20). There is no excuse for not recognizing and acknowledging God! His existence should be obvious to us from what we see around us every day.
It is because of this connection that Jesus can teach in the way He does. Here is what you see around you. You know that this is the way it is. Now, understanding how it is with man in the world, recognize that the same principle holds in spiritual realms. Any man or woman in that crowd would understand, either from personal experience or from acquaintances, that when division festers in the household and family members start taking sides one against the other the household is not going to remain long. Every man or woman among them understood what civil war must bring. Israel had been, after all, a nation divided against itself, and had proven the point. It did not stand long in that condition. In fairness, I should say that Israel remained a divided kingdom even in that moment, for there stood Samaria in its midst, brothers disowned and despised.
Following the manner of the parable, I would also declare that Israel was a divided kingdom in a more critical fashion. Spiritual Israel stood divided. Those members of the kingdom of God who were Gentile by birth were divided from those who were Jewish. Even in the Temple this division was codified and enforced. Gentiles could come to worship, but they could only come so far, so close. The house of God was divided. Jesus was coming to end that division, although it would not happen in earnest until His Atonement was accomplished. Even today, we recognize that the people that God declared His chosen nation remain a house divided. Now, the division is between those who have declared fealty to God’s Son as the rightful king, and those that are still insistent on having a ruler like unto the nations that surround them.
What of the Church itself? Doesn’t this same Truth apply to her? Clearly, if all our energies go into battling each other over our differences, then nothing is left to give to the Church’s primary purpose of standing against the enemy. This is not to say that we ought not consider the Truth a matter not worth fighting for. If Truth is not worth fighting for, we might as well let the liar have his way. No. Truth is worthy of our defense. What is not worthy is the tendency we have to factionalize over inconsequential matters.
In any given house of God, the same thing plays out. If a congregation cannot hold to unity, that church will not long remain a church. Here in New England, I can look around and find any number of buildings that used to be churches, but are now something else. What happened? Where is the congregation that could pull together to erect such a church, and how is it that less than a century later, there is no trace of them to be found? Dissonance. Dissonance is the sound of strain, notes that grate against the nerves a little, because it’s clear that one or the other of these notes needs to change. If it refuses to do so, we will (or at least would at one time) quickly discern that this is no longer music, but simply noise. Dissonance in the church is no different. It is the sound of one faction or the other needing to change, and if it refuses to do so, we will quickly discern that this is no longer a church.
A house divided cannot stand. As Jesus taught this message, that was a truth so obvious that anybody who heard it was bound to nod his head in agreement. Yes, we can see that. Of course such a divided household must soon come to a bad end. Of course, a nation wracked by civil war must soon cease to be a nation. In such a situation, the case is obvious: something’s got to give. It will either be one of the component factions coming to its senses, or it will be the organism as a whole. The church must either heal or split. The house must either unite or divorce. The nation must either reconcile or dissolve. There can be no ‘middle road’ outcome.
There is a corollary to this point that should be equally obvious. We cannot take two things that are at odds with one another and force them into some united whole. We might be able to force a cohabitation for a time, but it will not be a whole. There is no actual bond, just a perimeter, a containment. Today, society asks us to pretend to function as a whole. Society insists that we act as though competing faiths with absolutely incompatible tenets were in reality so akin to our own as to be indistinguishable. “We are all marching towards one goal,” they would have us to believe. Yet, it is obviously untrue. We are most certainly not marching towards one goal, any more than the teams in today’s football game are pushing towards the same goal. They are opposing one another and we know it. A football game in which both teams sought the same goal would no longer be a football game. A faith which thinks all religions seek the same goals is no longer a religion. It might still rank as a philosophy, but it’s no longer any recognizable religion.
Look. If we are going to confess that God is Truth, that He has exclusive Truth claims, then we cannot turn around and say that these other religions, which claim things that are absolutely opposed to God’s exclusive Truth, are also true, or at least pursuing the same ends. Yet, this is exactly what we are asked to say. The world applauds the church leader who will declare his god meaningless and his faith an empty article. They don’t demand that he say so directly, but it is implied in what they applaud. The world loves to hear that God doesn’t mean what He says, doesn’t mean anything. Why? Because it leaves them free to do as they will. Oh, but let a man of God stand up and declare the Word of God! He is shouted down, ridiculed, declared a racist, a bigot, a man driven by phobias. These are the words by which the guilty assuage their guilt. These are the words by which the fallen seek to be freed from the bonds of Truth.
Truth has a basis upon which to make demands, but we have become a society that rejects all demands. Life makes demands on us, but even there, society has done all it can to nullify the demands. Life demands that we find a way to provide food and shelter for ourselves. Society gives us every excuse not to. Society wants to think it has us covered. Life demands that we care for our young and for our elderly, but society is pretty sure it can take that burden from us, too. It’s all about leaving us free to do as we please, but what happens when we do as we please, freed from every claim upon us even to behave as members of this so-called society? The evidence is all around us, a living parable played out on the streets of our cities and towns every day. But, like those who heard the parables of Jesus, we are willfully refusing to get the point.
Another point that I have addressed from time to time is the tendency of rejecting logic and reason that seems prevalent within the halls of faith. Yet, when I listen to Jesus refuting the Pharisees, it is an absolutely logical argument that He puts forward. He allows them their claim. They are, as it were, debating a point for which there are but two positions possible. What has transpired is clearly beyond the capacity of unaided man, yet it has happened. At a minimum, then, all who are present are agreed that Jesus did not do this, as we might say, in the flesh. Something else had to be at play.
All present were furthermore in agreement that there is a bifurcation in the spiritual world. There are clearly such forces as work for the good and those which work for evil. There are no neutral forces in the spiritual world. The question to be argued here, is which of these forces has empowered Jesus to do as He has just done.
The Pharisees have taken the position that the only way Jesus could possibly be doing as He is doing is by employing a stronger demon than the one He has cast out. Jesus has taken the position that His works are done not by a stronger evil, but by the opposing power of a good God. The Pharisees, it must be noted, do not offer any basis for their viewpoint. They simply toss out this unsubstantiated accusation against Him.
Jesus, on the other hand, reasons with them. He begins, as we have seen, by pointing out the inevitable outcome of any entity that fights against itself. Simply put, if we fight against ourselves we are guaranteed to lose. However, this is not the only point Jesus makes. He then points out that He is hardly the only one around who casts out demons, and this by their own admission. These are men who come from their own ranks, friends, family and associates. Well, if the only way that a demon can be flushed out is by a stronger demon, then they must also condemn these others, for they must be dealing in the same evil. It is as though He has said, “In condemning Me, you are condemning all these others as well. If you were right about Me, you would have to apply that same conclusion to those others. They, too, must be reviled and dealt with.” Of course, that is only if.
Having shown the inconsistency of their position, Jesus then offers the alternative, and points out the inevitable consequence of that position. Having the foundational agreement that the power which has done this must be either good or evil, Jesus turns to the implications of the power being good. If you are wrong about demonic involvement, then what remains is God’s involvement, and if He is involved, then you must see that the kingdom of God has come, even if you weren’t ready for it.
Notice. He has led them on paths of logic. He has begun by laying out what might be seen as a sort of case law. Here are similar situations to what is being argued, and here’s how we know those situations play out. He then points out some unintended consequences of their own position, a position that the case law He has brought forth already shows is pretty shaky. He has left them with little or no alternative but to accept His own premise in the matter. Then comes the final stroke. Since His own premise is shown the correct one, this follows: The kingdom is here, now, ready or not. The whole argument appeals not to emotion, but to reason. The whole argument is not an insistence upon divine revelation, but a simple appeal to logic.
In that final conclusion, He is really putting His finger on the underlying problem of the opposition. It doesn’t really come through in the English translations, but when He says that the kingdom of God has come, the implication is that it has come before it was expected. That is what really offended the Pharisees. These self-appointed experts were sure that if God was coming, He would have let them know about it before He showed. They were, after all, the pillars of righteousness. Everybody knew that! The idea that God had bypassed them was so offensive that they simply could not accept it. Such is ever the way with religious pride.
I am put in mind, this morning, of a message I heard many years ago. Satan has one avenue of attack, and that is the mind. Whether or not I accept that completely, it makes a valid point. The primary concern of Satan’s battle is to draw the faithful away from Jesus, which is to say that he is forever looking for ways to destroy faith. Doubt is the great destroyer of faith. If he can get us doubting what we know, then he has us.
What draws me back to that thought is another book read years ago which put forth the premise that when Jesus taught by parables, He was joining battle. To borrow from Hollywood, them parables is fightin’ words. Here, I see the battle joined, but now quite in the sense that book’s author had in mind. This might be seen as one of the last diplomatic efforts put forth before the war starts in earnest. Knowing that His true enemy battles by attacking the mind, Jesus launches a counterassault of logic. He gives these men the opportunity to recognize the illogic of their position, and to recognize the implications of their error. He is as much as saying, “look at the lie Satan has planted in your thoughts.”
I hadn’t really noticed that before, but He really is turning the argument fully on its head, isn’t He? You say I cast out demons by the power of Satan, yet who do you suppose has planted such foolishness in your head? If what you say were right, it would have to be equally right in these other cases, yet it is obvious that that is not the case. If Satan were constantly opposing his own forces, then we should have no need to give thought to him at all. Oh! Doubt the doubt! Let reason, reason with the foundation of God’s Word, cast doubt from your minds that you may resist the devil and cause him to flee!
This is no call to blind faith. This is a well-reasoned faith. Understand the implications of the thoughts you think. Think them through to their conclusion. Make sure that your thoughts really make sense. Where doubts have been planted by the sower of tares, you are bound to find inconsistencies if you look hard enough. Where your thoughts are growing in the fields of sound doctrine, no such inconsistencies will be found. Truth is cohesive. Truth does not ever require the denial of Truth. God is logical and reasonable. Though His ways are high above our own, He is not unknowable. As we saw already, He reveals Himself, makes His hidden attributes understood by what can be seen of His handiwork.
To change focus a bit, I want to take a look at the conclusion that is reached in Mark’s account. “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!” He has presently reached the point at which he ceases to be. He has met his final fate. He has fulfilled his purpose. All of these things might be read into that statement. It is, after all, not that far from Jesus’ exclamation from the cross: “It is finished.” There, we can be certain, the meaning is that His work, His purpose had been fulfilled in its entirety. Every prophecy had been fulfilled, every aspect of obedience had been adhered to, every requirement upon Him had been met.
Here, I think we would have to consider a different aspect. I cannot see Jesus saying that this division stands as proof that Satan’s work is complete and his goal reached. Indeed, the whole mission of Jesus and the purpose of His church is to thwart that work completely and utterly, so how could this be his meaning? Well, I can think of one way. It may not be Satan’s goal to fail. He is not seeking to be defeated. However, as with our own lives, Satan’s purpose is really not the purpose that matters. There is an underlying question, one that has bothered many men for many years. What is God’s purpose in Satan? If He is truly God of All, Creator of All, then He is also God of Satan and Creator of Satan. If He is truly omniscient, then He knew at the outset that Satan would turn against Him and would be forever seeking to ruin all His good work.
At a basic level, I have to acknowledge that these suppositions regarding God are true and accurate. He is Creator of All and He is omniscient. Not only that, but His wisdom takes the whole course of what we consider history into account in laying out His plans and purposes. However much we may rail against the evils we see visited upon mankind, however much we may find it unthinkable that a good God created something like the devil, it has to be accepted. If He is sovereign over all, He is sovereign over all. Therefore, the real question is not whether He has done these things, but why He has done these things. What good purpose did He see in this course of events? For He surely did cause all that has transpired to serve His good purposes. Of that we can be certain.
Well, then, if His goal is for good, one thing we might surmise is that Satan’s purpose in this, while annoying in the extreme until it is completed, is to fail. Just as Jesus was born to die, as we say, so Satan was created to fail. He failed of his good purpose and he shall likewise fail of the purposes he aspires to in his own thoughts. In that sense, then, what Jesus says here could be taken as indicating that Satan’s purpose is fulfilled if this division is in his house. Inasmuch as Satan’s purpose is to fail, this is the final failure, as he destroys himself.
I think I need to emphasize this point a bit. Satan’s purpose is to fail. He is the tempter and accuser of the saints, but God has already told you that He will not allow the temptation that you cannot withstand, and He Himself, in the person of His Son, stands as your Defender when the accusations come. This is not to say that your life is going to be free of trials. Not at all. Jesus promises us that in this life we will have trials, great trials, trials fit to crush the human spirit. But, He says, fear not for I have overcome this world. Greater is He who is in me. I may not be able to face the trials in my own strength, but I am not required to do that. I face the trials in God’s strength. He is my Commander and He wars on my behalf. My Champion goes forth to battle, and I am given the task of singing His praises as He goes. That is my part in the fight.
There is a question that must be asked in regards to Jesus’ argument: Is this a general rule for us, or is it something that applies only to this specific case? It seems to me that there are many occasions in the Scriptural record that show the power of God operating through the hands of men who are far from godly. As I am writing this, I think I am beginning to understand something in this regard. What Jesus does not say here is that the power proves the man. He is consistent with the rest of Scripture. Even the servants of God’s enemy and our own can produce all manner of signs and wonders. Clearly, these do not prove them good. But, Jesus does not offer the manifest power of God as proof of His own goodness. He offers it as proof that the kingdom of God is come upon us.
The power of God moved when Balaam prophesied. Yet, this was hardly an endorsement of Balaam. Indeed, Balaam is a byword for deception and poor counsel. Yet, when Balaam prophesied, the power was present, and the word brought forth was God’s blessing upon Israel. The kingdom broke through, though Balaam remained rather unaffected. Would anybody hold him up as an example of godliness? I think not. In spite of that, I recall that the arrival of the magi to pay homage to the Christ child was traceable to the very prophecies that this man spoke.
Here is where we get lost so often. We think that the fact that God is moving proves that the one through whom He is moving is godly. How often do we need to see Him using His enemies to pursue His purpose before we understand that it’s not about us? It’s about Him. He is omnipotent. Do we understand what that means? It means He is all-powerful. It means that His will will be done whether we like it or not. It means that His purposes shall be fulfilled, even if it takes the opposition to do it. It means that Caiaphas, Pilate, Annas and even Judas were serving His purpose as the story of Jesus on earth reached its climactic point. It does not mean that they had chosen to serve Him. It means that God, Who is good, sovereignly moved to make their evil intentions serve His good and perfect will.
Why should we think it any different today? God still uses the imperfect and even the unwilling to promote His desires and to pursue His intentions. Where we see the power of God manifest, we can be certain of this much: the kingdom of God is breaking through. That is not to be taken as a seal of approval upon the place of breakthrough. It may very well be in spite of that place that He is moving. Consider, for example, the first attempt David made to bring the ark to Jerusalem, when Uzzah was struck down. God broke through, but it was hardly in approval. It was for the sovereign purpose of reminding Israel of His holiness. It was for the purpose of reminding them that He makes the rules.
Oh! There is a caution for us today. He makes the rules! It is not for us to define what signs and wonders mark Him out. He has already defined that. It is not for us to define what counts as worship, what counts as fasting, what counts as righteousness. He has already defined that. It is not for us, it’s for Him. Choose whatsoever you will to call ‘it’, and that still holds true. Our labors are not for us, they’re for Him. Our children are not for us, they’re for Him. Our governments are not for us, or even for themselves. They’re for Him. This is a concept fit to change our perspective on everything, if we will let it!
Where the power of God is manifest, it is for one reason and one reason only. It is to make clear to those who will hear and understand that the kingdom whose power is manifest is likewise manifestly present. It’s not about the man. Even when the Man is Jesus, it’s not about the man. It’s about the kingdom whose King that Man is. If there is a general rule laid down in these words, that is the rule. God’s kingdom is always present with His power. His purpose is always advancing. It is proof of God, not God’s man.
