New Thoughts (12/10/10-12/13/10)
Looking back on this event from our perspective, we understand why Jesus wept. He Who knows the end from the beginning was well aware that for all that He was being glorified today, it would do these, His people, no good. I can’t help but wonder how often His pastors feel that same sense of sorrow over their own flocks. A sense of futility, perhaps? Yes, I could see that being an issue for His servants, for the flesh is indeed weak. But, not for Jesus. Jesus knew it wasn’t futile. The effort He was pursuing was God’s effort and could not be futile. But, there would be so many for whom that effort would not bear fruit, and their loss was felt as His own. And so, this great King comes to His throne in tears for those who will never know the graciousness of His reign.
As much as I can understand this, being as I dwell in the future as marked by this day, yet I can imagine the confusion this must have caused for those who were sharing that day. Surely this display must have come as a shock to them. Such tears! Such mourning! How can this be? This is Your day! Look around You! The whole city has come out to rejoice with You. Listen! They have recognized You, they have acclaimed You! How, then, these tears?
You know, I think of that admonishment that was given David when Absalom was slain. If you go about mourning like this, it will demoralize those who have supported you (2Sa 19:5-7). Indeed, the depth of Joab’s frustration in that day are to be heard in his complaint. “I know this day that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased.” Ouch! Easy to suppose that some in this crowd celebrating Jesus were feeling similarly, or would be all too soon. Indeed, when I consider the end of Joab, whose frustration at this aspect of David’s personality so poisoned his spirit that he joined Adonijah in his bid for Solomon’s throne, and for that cause found his life forfeit (1Ki 2:28-33).
For some in this crowd, the sorrow Jesus displayed, the woes He was pronouncing on His own people, and the apparent weakness seen in His capture and imprisonment would be enough to prompt the same sort of rebellion in their hearts. He Who had displayed sorrow in His moment of victory was shown a man of weakness, and not worthy of their support, so they abandoned Him. More than this, and like Joab who so foreshadowed them, they became active enemies of the heavenly state. And all of this Jesus knew would unfold, even as He made this triumph. The sorrow of that overcame Him, even though He knew as well all that would unfold after this ordeal was done. That He had saved the world did not quell His sorrow over those who would not be saved.
Moving on to verse 42, we are privileged to hear the sorrow of God expressed. “If you had known…” Now, we should recognize, in reading that phrase, that they did know, in a very fundamental sense. The whole opening of Romans makes this point very clear. Let me focus on this particular point, though: “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks” (Ro 1:21). While it is the same word that is being translated in both cases, the point made about knowing changes by degree. In Romans 1:21, it is the point that man knows that God is real from his own experience, however much he tries to deny the evidence. The proofs are overwhelming and all-surrounding, but he stubbornly refuses to accept what the evidence makes clear. Here, though, I think we get something of that meaning brought out in Vine’s text: It includes the sense of valuing what is known.
Again, though they would doubtless deny it most vigorously, it remains fact: the most vehement of atheists in reality knows that God is real. Frankly, were that not the case, they would not feel the need to fight against Him so vigorously. Along those same lines, as we see the bulk of their attack directed at one religion specifically, and not quite so much at religion in general, this, too, gives evidence that belies their stated premise. They know. They have the same facts and experience set to work from as we, and they are not stupid, or physiologically prevented from understanding those facts. They simply don’t value what they know to be true. Indeed, they wish with all their heart that it were not true.
So, we come to what Jesus says here. “If you had known…” If you had appreciated the infinite value of what was happening all around you, happening in your very midst! You saw the signs. You know the Scriptures. You surely understand what the two combined must mean, and yet you expend every effort in denying it, in holding it at distance from yourselves. You suppress the truth in your unrighteousness (Ro 1:18), lest the Truth shine a light on your own darkened soul. But, your refusal to value Truth does not change Truth. Truth stands, whether you will believe it or not, whether you accept it or not. Truth is stubborn that way.
And what marvelous matters were set before them to contemplate! Things that make for peace. From birth, this people had been taught of the God of Israel. They were trained from earliest ages to be careful of their ways, and mindful of such prayers and sacrifices and the like as were due Him, lest He be angry with them. And, that last, in the end, was the beginning of their error. They had forgotten how greatly God loved His people, had traded reverential fear for an outright phobic fear of His retaliation against them. Oh, they knew well enough that theirs were wicked ways, but they had lost sight of the chesed, the everlasting love of God towards His people. They knew they needed some way to get back into His good graces, but they had convinced themselves that the way of doing so lay in trying harder and harder. And, when that failed, they began seeking to redefine the standards until their efforts might succeed. In short, they had lost sight completely of any real hope of peace with God. And, they had become so determined in their efforts to make it under their own power that when God set the Answer right there under their noses where they couldn’t possibly miss it, they missed it. No, the stubbornly refused it.
Return with me to the outset of this Journey Jesus was making to Jerusalem. As He was departing Galilee (it seems such a long time ago!) He made this pronouncement. First, He had words for Herod, to make plain that He was going to be heading for Jerusalem on His own schedule, and no threats from that dissolute hireling was going to change the schedule even by so much as a moment (Lk 13:32-33). Then, He turns His thoughts towards this city of Jerusalem, toward which He was making His way, and in sorrow for the outcome that was even then certain He says, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not! You wouldn’t pursue it or even accept it. So, fine. Your house is yours to run as you will, but it is desolate. It cannot be otherwise given your choices” (Lk 13:34-35a).
Now, the final part of His remarks on that occasion foreshadow what we have been seeing unfold in the last several studies. “You won’t see Me until that time when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Lk 13:35). That time has come (Lk 19:38). But, for the majority of this proud people of God, it was too late. They had long since made their choice, and the arrival of this King of kings, which should have been the assurance of that peace they had long hoped for would instead be the assurance of their houses left desolate by their choices.
As Jesus acknowledges this awful fact, is it really any wonder that He was moved to such tears? For this reason He came, not to judge but to save (Jn 3:17). Yet, even from the start, He assuredly recognized that while the will of God, His great desire, was that all might be saved, yet it was certain from the start this such would not be the case. Like Pharaoh before them, there would be those whose hearts had been so hardened, their eyes and ears blocked against the Truth, that nothing could get through to them. “Why do You speak in parables?” His disciples had asked Him (Mt 13:10), and His answer was direct. “It has been granted to you to know and understand the kingdom, but not them. So, I speak to them in parables in which, though they see My imagery, they will not see My point. Though the hear My words, they do not understand the meaning” (Mt 13:11-13). Jesus knew. He knew before ever He came into this life. He knew, quite frankly, before Adam came into this life, before there was a this life to come into.
This is an occasion where it strikes me that the Living Bible really manages to convey the poignancy of the moment. “Eternal peace was within your reach and you turned it down,” he wept, “and now it is too late.” Now, without going off into the ever-repeating debate over the extent of man’s free will, the sentiment brought out here stands. “I wanted…but you would not.” “If only you had known and valued what was on offer…but too late now.” The moment has passed.
Oh! Listen, unbeliever! In His mercy, God has long held this out on offer to you, this possibility of peace with eternal and omnipotent God. Even now, there remains that choice before you: admit of your sins, repent of them, and come with an earnest desire for His forgiveness. It’s right there, waiting only that you might knock and ask openly and honestly. Look, there’s no card you need fill out, no ‘repeat after me’ prayer that needs saying. It’s not like that. That’s just decoration that we have hung on the process because it makes the moment more memorable in our view. But, our view isn’t in view here. It’s God’s view.
Yes, that offer stands…for the moment. But, it is not given to any man to know the point at which that offer will be revoked: not for himself, not for any other. You don’t know how much longer this coupon will remain valid, and once it expires, there shall not be another. There’s a reason why the Scriptures are forever insisting, “Choose you this day.” There’s no guarantee that you can gain from any source that there will be a tomorrow that would grant you time to procrastinate some more. Choose while there is yet time. Come to peace while there remains that possibility.
And, dare I say it, Listen, you believer! You know those who stood condemned by this woe Jesus pronounced, they thought themselves believers, too, many of them. They were so darn certain of their own system of belief that when God Himself stood there correcting them, they shouted Him down as a liar. When everything around them was shouting out the joyful news that the Prince of Peace was at their doorsteps, what was their reaction? They told that Prince to tell His subjects to shut up (Lk 19:39).
Let us not be so confident of our blessed assurance, real though it be, that we become complacent towards our own sins. I am not calling upon you to be guilt-wracked and sin-focused, for that way lies nothing but despair. Yet, for too many of us, the reaction to that excess has become an excessive sin-unconsciousness, not even admitting to the problems, not even seeking the Healer of our sins. We’ll just wait for that heavenly day when He removes all this crap from us, and in the meantime, we’ll just get along as best we can. Not going to worry about it anymore. It’s impossible anyway, right? But, we have been warned against this attitude! “May it never be!” (Ro 6:1-2). No! Our call and command is to live a life that is characterized by being dead to sin. We have been buried with Christ, how then, should it be that we respond to the lusts of a flesh thus dead? And yet, we do, don’t we.
We must be swift to recognize our failings, swift to seek out our loving Daddy God, with a true remorse for our once again having fallen short of His mark, and crying out (with confidence) for His forgiveness, and His strength to do better going forward. Mold me and make me after Thy will, Father. Though I have fallen yet again, do Thou lift me, wash once more my feet, and set me back on the path of Thy Word.
What is on offer here is not a promise of some perfection of being that we should experience, and by which we shall be known. No. Nowhere does Scripture say, “They’ll know you are Christians by your piety, your righteousness, your complete lack of sin.” It says they’ll know us by our love one for another, and our love even for them. That love can only come as it comes to us: from God, in spite of our mess. That confidence we have, that hope which is the evidence of things yet unseen, lies in the assured promise of peace with this God Who created us, Who loved us, Who adopted us into His own household. In that promised peace, every ‘derangement and distress of life caused by sin’ is removed. That is the marvelous description of peace that Zhodiates sets out for us. That’s our destiny! But, until such day as that destiny has arrived, we remain a people in need of what God has on offer. Every day, we need to bring ourselves back to that point of crisis, or to be brought there, if you prefer. Every day, we need to be purposefully approaching that thought of, “Choose you this day.” Isn’t that part and parcel of taking up the cross daily?
[12/12/10] I think it must be recognized that there is a distinct commentary on the question of God’s sovereignty and the bounds of the free will of man in this verse. Up until this day, the calendar in heaven had yet allowed the possibility of this people opting for peace with heaven’s God. Then come two of the most dismal words in Scripture, “But now…”. It is too late. The window of opportunity has been slammed shut, and however much these people might long for that peace in years to come, it isn’t going to happen. They shall never discover what they have missed up to this point. It has been hidden from their eyes.
I would argue that it had been hidden from their eyes all along, else they must surely have realized what was going on. Seriously, they’ve had three years, and reports from all over have again and again spoken of this Jesus and the things that He has said and done. Now, there are many ministries in extent today that one hears rather a lot about, as well, and the question must arise: Why should they not be given credence for these reports even as I insist Jesus ought to have had for His? Were the question to be asked, my immediate response would be that Jesus was not in any way seeking to make a name for Himself, nor to amass His fortune based on His ministry. To be sure, He and His team were supported by the wealth of others, some of whom we are given to know by name. But, there were no displays of bounty in His case. He never took to the period equivalent of limo service and personal jets. This march into Jerusalem is the closest we have seen Him come to that, and even then, He had to borrow the donkey. Besides, look where He is headed with this march, and remember that He knows it. Would some of these starts of the modern miracle movement care to face that same final glory for their ministries? Maybe there are those out there who would, but I find it at least doubtful.
That said, is there a danger in simply writing these folks off as frauds? Well, if the assumption is that at least a portion of them are not, then the least I can say is that I would potentially miss out on the benefits of the miraculous in this life by rejecting them. If that’s also the worst that would come of it, then I would find little cause for concern. Is there, however, the issue of rejecting the Holy Spirit, blaspheming Him, in rejecting their claims? That’s harder to answer, and I think that’s in part why it is so often raised as a defense for such ministries. It’s like the prophetic operators who haul out that one verse about not despising the prophet (which I seem to find impossible to locate this morning). The claimants to prophetic title love this verse because it indicates that if they are for real, then we refute them at our peril. Likewise, all claims to moving in the Holy Spirit. So severe are the warnings against blaspheming Him that one becomes inclined to err on the side of caution. Yet, this is not the way of wisdom!
The side of caution is not found in accepting every claim to being led by the Spirit. The side of caution is found in testing those claims, in validating every word spoken under such claimed leadership against the validated and validating Word of God.
But, what of the fruits of these ministries? Scripture, after all, tells us we shall know them by their fruits, and it tells us that signs and wonders will follow those who are ministering in the name of Jesus. So, hey! Show us your signs and wonders before you criticize those with fruitful evidence! Yes, and I could note that Scripture also makes plain that the servants of the enemy of your soul will likewise be able to demonstrate such signs and wonders as you would find nigh on impossible to differentiate from the real thing. I could note that we are warned that such as these will pose as angels of light so as to mislead such as they may. I could also note that God has oft times used the most unlikely of characters to accomplish His own ends. There are the obvious choices of Balaam, who blessed Israel in spite of himself, of Balaam’s donkey, of course. Then, there’s that Pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the time of Joseph, who showered great bounty upon the children of Israel. That didn’t make Pharaoh a man after God’s own heart, any more than speaking made the donkey an apostle.
So, is there danger in writing off all comers as frauds? I suspect there is. I think if we make a blanket statement that all who claim to speak with the voice of prophecy and all who claim to be working miracles by the power of God are necessarily frauds, then we are as much in error as if we simply accepted every such claim. To reject without due consideration would seem as though it stands at odds with the commandment against bearing false witness (Ex 20:16). There has been no due process, no weighing of the evidence, not even so much as an admission that there could be any evidence. That is no more proper when we apply it to these sorts of things than it is when society applies a similar sort of filtering against the beliefs of the Church.
God, this is a difficult thing. You know quite well what leads me down this path of inquiry. How am I to measure it? When the theology seems unsound and yet the body of purported physical evidence seems so large, what am I to make of that? Which is the path that honors You? It is a maze to me, Father, and I feel lost in finding my way through it. In large part, I feel as if I already know the answer, but as You might imagine, I am greatly discomfited at the thought of having to render such a verdict. Holy King of all heaven and earth, deliver me from this dilemma!
What I do know of Thee, I can surely set my trust in. You are Jehovah Rapha. You are fully able to heal as You choose. You have assuredly heard the many cries from this household, not only from me, not even primarily from me, but also and most often from my beloved wife, the joy with which You chose to bless my life. She, my Lord, is miracle enough to me, were salvation not already so. But, to see her so, to watch the suffering which has been her lot too often, by my judgment: No, I shall not fail of my trust in You, but I ask You: How long, O Lord? How long?
You need no earthly minister with name recognition to do Your work, Lord. Yet, You are surely free to use such men as You desire, and who am I to say otherwise? But, what is wheat and what is chaff, Holy Spirit? Which is the path You are setting before me? I need, my Lord, a particularly clear and unmistakable light on this one, for either way, it seems, must be costly to me, must even break me after its fashion. I can but lay it in Your hands and pray that You will answer right soon, and pry my eyes and ears open to receive that answer, if need be.
God chooses. That is the sum of things. God chooses. I know He chose me. He left me no place to hang any thought that I had had my hand in the matter. Nope. God chose, and here I am. It is harder, I confess, to deal with the fact that God chooses not only who shall be saved, but necessarily by corollary, who shall not. It’s hard to accept. Yet, here it is: those things that lead to peace with Him, “have been hidden from your eyes.” It’s no longer a factor of them refusing to look. It’s now a matter of the things being so hidden that however hard they look from here on out they shall never, ever be able to see them. It has been rendered impossible, this path to salvation. Harsh, isn’t it? But, a sovereign God, to be sovereign, must be so both to the good and to the ill, as the recipient of His sovereign will might measure it. The fact is that it is all to the Good, for He is Good. But, Good requires more than Mercy. Good must also incorporate Justice with its necessary Wrath, else Good is no longer Good. It is only pleasant, or worse, complacent. What wants a complacent God? What would be the point?
Recognizing that His hand is involved in both sides of this equation, how comforting to realize that He takes no pleasure in satisfying the demands of Justice, even though doing so glorifies Him every bit as much as demonstrations of Mercy. But, look at the impact of this duty upon God, as we see it in these verses. Even as He delivers the verdict – and have no doubt, this is the verdict delivered without hope of appeal – He is not only moved to tears by it, He is broken hearted, weeping loudly with chest-wrenching sobs, mourning for the dead, though they are yet walking, for the certainty of the court’s decision is that final.
Don’t suppose that such sorrow is reserved for Jerusalem only. This is but demonstrative of God’s sorrow for every such loss to His kingdom, though it be understood to fall thus by His own decree. I must suppose that He was just as heart-broken by the necessity of crushing Pharaoh’s army under the waters of the Red Sea. I must suppose He was just as heart-broken by the retribution meted out against those who had peopled the land of Canaan and stained that land by their hideous and idolatrous rites.
In this, I find a certain comfort, that my God is thus moved by the necessities of His own actions. That He cares so deeply for each member of this mankind He brought into being that He feels every loss so deeply as to move Him to tears, this but endears Him the more to me. My God cares!
He is the God Who Cares. If I were to sum up all the myriad names by which He has made Himself known, this great Truth emerges. He is my Jireh who provides! Why? Because He cares. He is my Rapha who heals! Why? Because He cares. He is my Immanuel who saves! Why? Because He cares. He is my Tzur, my Rock, steadfast and strong! Why? Because He cares. He Is Who He Is, having mercy on whom He will. Why? Because He cares. Even when the necessities of His office break His heart and confound my understanding, yet I know He is my God Who Cares, and it is enough. It must be. When my heart is overwhelmed by the sorrows of the day, by the futility of all my efforts, let me be mindful that it is not only my heart that is so moved, but His right there alongside me. He cares. Let my soul be ever sensitive to that marvelous Truth!
[12/13/10] Given the recent material from Table Talk it isn’t surprising that I would have considerations of the Exile on my mind as I consider this woe Jesus pronounces. There is, after all, that sense in which the result of the Judgment Day to come is the final exile of all those who insistently reject the Christ of God. There was this statement in today’s devotional: “All that it takes to be saved from exile and restored to a full, blessed relationship with the Lord is to embrace Him as the great Deliverer.” If only you had known… But, of course, they had known. It was right there before them in their own history. It was there in their Scriptures. It was there in their upbringing, instilled from an early age. The sad fact of the matter is that they refused to know.
So it is that we come to this pronouncement of woe upon Jerusalem, and so it is that we will soon hear Jesus giving instruction to His own as to how they are to respond in that time of exile. “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, understand that her desolation is at hand.” That woe I pronounced? This is the mark of its fulfillment. Get out of there! This is the day of vengeance, come to fulfill what is written (Lk 21:20-22). OK, that’s all well and good, and we know that indeed the day came, not so many years after this was said. Titus came and did pretty much exactly as Jesus had indicated and, quite frankly, given the deeds done by those still in Jerusalem, he may have been doing them a favor of sorts. What is recorded of that time is truly reprehensible. Such a total disregard for righteousness, such unbridled lust for power, and such truly inhumane behavior in the desperate battle to survive. Truly, the time allotted to fill the measure of their sins had been used to that exact end. Daniel had spoken of seventy weeks to remove the sin and bring in righteousness (Dan 9:24), but Jerusalem had opted to go the other way. And so, the day of vengeance came, according to the Word of God. Even Ninevah had shown more sense than that!
It’s well and good to consider how this played out for the holy city of Jerusalem, the place upon which God had set His own name. But, that remains little more than a history lesson for us. Let me bring it forward. We could make a stopover at England, which saw itself as the New Jerusalem. There was a time, to be sure, when that nation was a powerhouse not only in terms of its military but also in terms of its faith. Now? A toothless, faithless lion that cringes in its dens while foreign powers overrun its own soil.
That, too, should stand as a warning for us here in America. We are also a nation blessed, or were. We also find the hand of God highly active in our history, in our very founding. As much as faithless historians may seek to erase that fact from the picture, it remains stubbornly present. To look upon the American Revolution and fail to see the role that religion played in stirring the heart’s hunger for liberty is to fail to use one’s eyes. To neglect the majority party that came with the Mayflower because there were also those of a more mercenary nature with them is to purposefully seek to distort the record. You cannot look back on that small colony at Plymouth with eyes open and fail to see the record of faith written there. Nobody’s suggesting they were saints to a man, or even to one man. They were men of flesh such as ourselves, but they were men with the desire to pursue godly worship unfettered; and they were such as sought also to make the God of heaven known to those they encountered.
Look, then, at what has become of this nation. We can cast about for historical reasons to explain the decline. There are those, for instance, who would lay the fault on the way our ancestors treated falsely with those who dwelt here before their arrival, and certainly that record is not one to be cherished. There are those who would place the fault in the history of slavery that persisted here. Yet, that has been redressed, whatever may be said to the contrary. I would be more inclined to look into more recent history, into that era in which I have had my part. The steep decline that we have seen in the moral underpinnings of our society are to be noted as having accelerated has the children of the Sixties became the leaders of the nation. When the training of your youth is that there are no moral absolutes, then the nearly inevitable result is that in your adulthood you are convinced there are absolutely no morals. And this is pretty much what we see around us, isn’t it?
What sort of a nation have we made, that women feel it perfectly reasonable to simply toss out their newborn babies like so much garbage? What sort of a nation have we made when preteens find it the obvious thing to shoot and kill for no more than a pair of sneakers? And, it’s not that they need sneakers. It’s just that those that he has are better, cooler, than the ones I have. What has become of us that parents feel no connection to, no responsibility for, no interest in their children? Or, for those on the other side of the line: How is it that we have become more focused on seeing to it that nothing offends our precious child than in making that child an upright citizen?
Listen! We have gone so far to rot that just yesterday, I was perusing an article regarding the impact of the internet, and the things it has brought to early demise. This article, amongst its list of commercial deaths, places the peep show, the street-side porn vendors, and notes that the much easier (and much more private) access to porn on the ‘net has put these folks out of business. Admittedly, they tried to show some capacity yet to blush, suggesting that hey! Maybe that’s a good thing, right? But, the much more terrible fact is that because of the ‘net, the porn industry is bigger than ever before! There’s so much more darkness for them to scuttle about in. And, what do we learn? Why out on our benighted west coast, they actually have (or had until quite recently) a hospital that catered specifically to those who work in that industry. My, aren’t we the enlightened ones!
We have enslaved the poor to government handouts. We have punished those who do right, and insisted that they transfer the bounty of their efforts to those who could care less about right and wrong. We have enshrined the right of mothers to murder their own children, and are swiftly moving towards the rights of children to do in their aging parents – in the name of mercy, of course. We demand tolerance, and insist that all religions must be seen as equally valid, even when the clear evidence demands that we admit they are not. We call a murderous, demonically inspired perversion a religion of peace, even as the proponents of that system commit atrocities around the globe. Yet, we will tolerate no claim to truth from the likes of Christians. No, tolerate anything but that!
The list could go on, but I suspect if you are reading this, you already have a similar list of your own that you could recite. So, I look around, I see the way things seem to be inevitably spiraling in this once great nation, and then I see that warning given to the disciples. “When you see Jerusalem surrounded, know that her desolation is at hand.” If you had known, even now… but it’s too late.
What, then, is the cause that Jesus lays this judgment against? You didn’t recognize the time of your visitation (v44). There’s a couple of linguistic points that deserve to be made on this verse. First, let me note that the ‘recognize’ of this verse is the same term as the ‘known’ of verse 42. Here, it might be worthwhile to use the Amplified Version to accentuate the sense of the message. “You did not come progressively to recognize and know and understand from observation and experience.” Three years! Three years you had to check out what was happening, to listen to the words of this Man, to confirm the things you were being told about Him, but instead, you used that time to connive and rebel. You had before you the very simple means of obtaining peace, but instead chose to cling to your pitiful little bit of power. You didn’t come to know because, quite frankly, you refused to know. You labored long and hard to ensure that you wouldn’t know.
Moving to the second half of that judgment Jesus has rendered, the NASB might be seen as a bit cryptic. What was it that wasn’t known? “The time of your visitation.” Here, the NLT seems to me to have done a rather poor job of expressing the point being made. “You did not accept your opportunity for salvation.” Yes, there is perhaps a shading of that to be understood from the passage, but to me, that reflects a particular mindset as to the nature and flow of salvation. Perhaps I am reacting too harshly to it, but it seems to lean back in the direction of man in control, not God, and the way the passage opens leaves me quite certain that God is in control not man.
What is this business of visitation, though? Are we to view this like the folks coming up for dinner? Or, like friends dropping by for coffee? Obviously not, but that is the sorts of things visitation might put one in mind of. Or, perhaps we are more attuned to things of the spirit realm, and envision something like the ghosts that came to visit Scrooge, vague and vaporous beings whispering matters of great importance to us, if only we would hear them. In its fashion, that actually manages to draw a little bit closer to the point of the matter. But, it still stops short.
Turning to Thayer’s Lexicon for this term, there is this item to consider. This visitation is “the act by which God looks into and searches out the ways, deeds, character, of men, in order to adjudge them their lot accordingly.” This is precisely the point being made here! This day! Right up until now, you could have done something to clear your record, but now court is in session. This is the day of your inspection. There will be no further opportunities to submit further evidence. There is no appeal process. From this day forward, there shall be nothing that can be done to change the record, nor the verdict rendered. It’s too late!
I think back on the number of times I have heard pastors seeking to stir up a longing in their congregation for a visitation from the Lord. No! Let’s not be satisfied with that! We want an abiding of the Lord! But, do you understand what that must imply? Is your record ready to be assessed? Are you really at a point where you want to come before the Judge of the World and submit your life to the balance? Listen, I don’t care how you understand your salvation. I don’t care how fully you understand and believe that in that day, you will be calling upon the infinite worth of the blood of the Christ as your defense. Yes! And you will have been quite right to do so. But, do you know something? I don’t think it’s going to be something you’re doing with great cheers of joy. I think it’s going to be last, desperate cry of one who knows full well he is guilty, guilty, guilty!
My, oh my! We are forewarned that we will give account of every word we’ve ever said! I don’t even want to give an account of what I said yesterday, and certainly not of what I was thinking! No thank you! I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again anyway. I don’t look forward to that moment, not in the least. The moment that follows after, yes! I long for that with all that is within me. But, I’d just as soon I could just leap over that reading of the charges, even knowing that they are already fully atoned for, even knowing that at the end, my Advocate will pronounce for me, and He will mark all those things ‘penalty paid in full’. Yet, the shame! The shame of standing there before and beside the very One Who paid such great price to make this verdict possible, and realize the full depth of the pain my choices have caused Him! How could I possibly look forward to that?
I am put in mind of that briefest of moments (when measured against eternity) in which Jesus hung there on the cross, with every last sin of every last believer from the dawn of creation until its close upon Himself, and suffered to be separated from Himself. Yes, that’s a weird way to consider it, but that’s really how deep the rending went. He Who had known an eternal fellowship with Himself, as the triune Godhead alone can know this depth of fellowship, was cut asunder from that relationship, had to be because He could not abide sin. For that briefest of moments, He had to taste the horrors of the final exile, that He might have the fullest compassion towards us when He took up His office as our high priest.
What He experienced to the full on that cross is, I think, the amplified, intensified version of what we shall ourselves experience there on the threshold of eternal joy. Jesus, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross (Heb 12:2). In like fashion, we shall surely endure the sorrows of our own day of visitation, knowing the joy set before us, knowing that He Who judges is He Who advocates on our behalf, He Who atoned on our behalf, He Whom we shall soon be joined to in eternal wedlock. Time (or its absence) will soon enough have washed away the tears of that scene from our thoughts, but the scene remains. It is the fire that must be passed through for us to emerge once for all purified.
There is a warning to be found in this message, that anybody who might be reading this ought to take to heart. I suppose it is particularly directed at those who have not consciously come to Christ for the forgiveness He holds in hand. Yet, I would say, the message is equally apt for those of us who have laid hold of Him. The point is simply this: His patience is vast. He has tolerated much. But, His patience comes to an end, and He is not one to advertise the moment when patience runs out. What He does say is that right up to that moment, there is time for you, there is hope for you. But, once that day of your visitation comes, it’s over. The book is closed, the offer withdrawn, and final determination made.
Here’s the bit that ought to concern you more than anything: You may not know that point. You may not even be aware that the case has been closed. Look back at the start of that passage. “Now, they have been hidden from your eyes.” The possibility of coming to peace with God passes away on that day of your visitation, never to return. There remains the day of judgment for you, as well, if this be your story, but there will be no plea you can make. The verdict will come down that you did not choose to know the time, to know the things that make for peace. You will not be able to claim ignorance. Indeed, I don’t think you will even dream of offering such a defense as to suggest that ‘nobody ever told me!’ No. You were told, and besides that you had all of creation to observe around you and recognize the hand of God in that great work. But, you would not. The irrevocable, incontrovertible fact is that you insisted on not knowing.
Listen! That moment comes. That day of visitation comes. God does not want you caught out when it happens. It breaks His heart every bit as much as it broke His heart to contemplate the losses there in Jerusalem because they would not know, insisted on not knowing. “As I live!” declares the Lord God, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back! Turn back from your evil ways! Why will you die?” (Eze 33:11). This could be your moment to make that change, to lay hold of the altar of God, and come to peace with Him. Forgiveness is still held out to you. There is still time, but you can no more know how much longer than can I.
Truly, for myself I would pray that same awareness, that same impetus to move up to a greater love for God, that love finding expression in greater obedience. Truly, I would that I come to that place Peter writes of, wherein I keep my behavior excellent – particularly amongst the unbelievers (1Pe 2:12).
I want to consider that verse briefly. It continues by saying “Then, though they slander you as being evil, by your good deeds which they witness, they may yet glorify God in the day of His visitation.” Interesting, that. My initial reaction leads me to suppose that Peter is saying that our consistent behavior in spite of that slander might yet bring them to salvation while there is time, giving them cause to glorify God when their day of visitation comes. But, I’m not entirely certain that this is what Peter is driving at.
Let me make a couple of quick observations here. Go back to the story of that blind man whom Jesus had healed. He is dragged before the court of the Pharisees, and what do they say, “Give glory to God” (Jn 9:24). The implication of that phrase in this setting is, “Tell the truth, now.” This same sense of things is in play when Jesus stands before the Sanhedrin. “I adjure You by the living God! Tell us whether You are the Christ. Tell us plainly if You are the Son of God” (Mt 26:63). It’s the same point. Don’t lie. Don’t try to hide. You stand before God now, and only the Truth glorifies Him, so give glory to God and tell the truth.
So, again: bear in mind that the day of His visitation is a day of judgment. Court is in session, and these unbelievers who slander you have brought charges. They would come before the God Who is Good and insist that you are evil. You ought to find no place in His courts, let alone His household. So, what is Peter saying here? I would maintain that what he is telling us is that if we have indeed been on excellent behavior before these accusers, then even though they bring these charges, when commanded to speak the Truth, as they surely will be before the All-Seeing God, they will have no choice but to confess that no, your deeds were not evil at all, but of a quality to bring glory to God. Oh, dear! Yes, you will have suffered the slings and arrows of that slanderous misrepresentation, and perhaps for long years on end. But, by your steadfast refusal to respond in kind, by your careful and continuous pursuit of acting in excellence as God defines excellence, the final pronouncement will surely bring repudiation of all those charges.
I have one final line of thought I should like to pursue as regards this message. Seems to me that I have heard it suggested (and have likely suggested it myself) that we being children of a Providential God, we ought to rejoice as much in His justice as in His mercy. In fact, I’m quite certain I’ve made this point. I would immediately turn to the instructions given to Aaron when his sons faced the judgment of a holy God for utterly profaning their office in His service by their offerings of strange fire. Aaron was forbidden to mourn, and this is surely instructive for us, is it not? And yet, here is God Himself, approaching a city He knows He has judged, and what is His own response to His own Justice? He saw the city and wept over it.
Again, I go back to that bit from Ezekiel. “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” Well, if God takes no such pleasure, then surely, we ought not to, either. There is, you see, a rather vast gulf between not mourning and actively rejoicing. Is God glorified both in vengeance and in mercy? Assuredly! Is it rather natural in us to be pleased at the destruction of our enemies? Natural, yes, but not morally proper. You know, we may not know the day of our visitation, but we can rest assured that when death comes to the body, that day is assuredly passed. If hope is not certainly established before then, then it is certain that all hope is gone. Rejoice? Rejoice that here is one of God’s own who will remain in eternal exile? If God Himself cannot rejoice in that, I see no way that His children can.
What, then, is our proper reaction? Dispassionate? No. Not at all. Jesus wept. God wept. His heart breaks to find it needful to render such judgments, but He must. Yet, even as we mourn the necessity, we mustn’t lose sight of the Truth that is upheld in judgment. God is Just. Seeing His Justice exercised, we might more fully appreciate that God is Mercy, and has extended His mercy towards us. That all men are not simply crushed like bugs is a marvel too great for comprehension! But, compassion demands that we not settle for reveling in our good fortune, rather mourning for the loss of those who would not.
We serve the God Who Cares. Surely, we must care as well!
