Leadership in Lockdown

In R.Kent Hughes excellent commentary on Genesis, he tells the story of Robert Dick Wilson one of the great professors of Princeton Theological Seminary.  One of Professor Wilson's students came back to Miller Chapel to preach 12 years after graduating.  The old professor, having listened intently to his former student, came forward after the service and held his hand out:

"If you come back again, I will not come to hear you preach.  I only come once.  I am glad to see that you are a big-godder.  When my boys come back, I come to see if they are big-godders or little godders, and then I know what their ministry will be."  His former student asked him to explain, and he replied, " Well, some men have a little god, and they are always in trouble with him.  He can't do any miracles.  He can't take care of the inspiration and transmission of the Scripture to us.  He doesn't intervene on behalf of his people.  They have a little god and I call them little-godders.  Then, there are those who have a great God.  He speaks and it is done. He commands and it stands fast.  He knows how to show himself strong on behalf of them that fear him.  You have a  great God; and he will bless your ministry." He paused a moment, smiled, said, "God bless you," and turned and walked out.

The last year has tested the best of us. Who hasn't struggled for energy and wisdom during lockdown? Recently I heard of a death every day for a week of people close to me. Social media has become a place of fear, discouragement and the home of every conspiracy theory imaginable. As Michael Reeves says in his new book 'Rejoice and Tremble': 'With society having lost God as the proper object of healthy fear, our culture is necessarily becoming ever more neurotic, ever more anxious about the unknown - indeed more anxious about anything and everything...In ousting God from our culture, other concerns - from personal health to the health of the planet - have assumed a divine ultimacy in our minds. Good things have become cruel and pitiless idols. And thus we feel helplessly fragile. No longer anchored, society fills with free-floating anxieties.'

So how do we respond?  Some Christian leaders seem paralysed by inertia.  It is largely business as usual.  There is no special call to prayer, there is no special love for the people in their care, they can't reach out because they seem immune to people's pain.  There is little empathy, little love and little connection.  Others have risen to the challenge.  They have found new and creative ways to express pastoral care and love.  Many people have rediscovered letter writing and many of us have found the power of a well timed text or email.   Thankfully the gospel is not in lockdown and genuine love will always find a way to express itself.  God's word has been heard and downloaded more over the last year than ever before.  Rather than the gospel being preached to dozens we are seeing millions being reached through online services and new and innovative ways of evangelism. God is at work in surprising and amazing ways.  We all hate lockdown but leadership needs to adapt in such unprecedented times. 

One of the great examples of leadership in very tough times is Joseph in the book of Genesis.  Despite being his fathers favourite son, Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold in to slavery in Egypt.  Little did Joseph know that this would be the start of 13 years of setbacks and discouragements.  But God was preparing Joseph for greatness.  The route to the palace was through the prison.  Joseph didn't rail against his enforced lockdown, he didn't seek to appeal against his false accusation, he accepted that God was at work and as we see in Genesis 41-50 Joseph was just as faithful in times of prosperity and power as he was in poverty and prison.

In Genesis 41 we read that Joseph is finally exalted. In this remarkable chapter we see Joseph plucked from prison and finds himself shaved and perfumed and thrust before Pharaoh to interpret his strange dreams. We see this solitary Hebrew man standing before this Egyptian deity at the zenith of his power. How does he respond? How does he show leadership in a strange and pagan land? Does he appeal to the law? Does he complain about how badly he has been treated and appeal for better human rights? No, he points to the greatness of God regardless of the consequences. Joseph gives us an example of great leadership in a pagan country during testing times. What lessons can we learn?

1. He was foundationally God-centred.

Pharaoh flatters Joseph in chapter 41 v 15 as the great interpreter of dreams.  He is dangling greatness and power in front of a powerless slave.  Who wouldn't take the bait?  Joseph responds with one word.  In our translation it reads 'I am not able to' but in the Hebrew it is one word 'not I'.  Literally it means that 'the answer lies outside of me'.  Joseph is saying 'I can't interpret your dream but the true and living God can'. The stakes are very high.  One wrong word and Joseph's head will be separated from his torso.  Who wouldn't have buckled before such raw power?  

As he stands before this Egyptian deity, Joseph points to ha Elohim - the God.  Through one word of explosive self deprecation Joseph confesses the true and living God at the epicentre of pagan power.  The arrogant, self assured teenager was gone and a more mature, deeper Joseph stands before the most powerful man on earth without fear.  Thirteen years of suffering had made him God centred instead of self centred.  As Hughes says 'Through Joseph, God was advertising and asserting himself in Egypt.'  Christians so often think they need power to exert power and influence.  What we need is trust in a great God.

2. He was fearlessly honest. 

Joseph could have softened his answer to Pharaoh but he didn't.  The prospect of power and favour didn't change Joseph.  He was the same with his fellow prisoners as he was with the most powerful leader in the world.   As Hughes says 'Joseph had not changed one whit in his trip from the pit to the palace.  This thirteen years of preparation were now paying huge dividends.'  Through setbacks and disappointments Joseph had learned a steeliness and fearless honesty all too rare in most leaders.  Most seek position and comfort but not Joseph.  He was like Daniels three friends about to be thrown in to the fiery furnace in Daniel 3 v 16-18.  The true Christian leader does the right thing and leaves the consequences to God.  

But honesty also involves vulnerability.  One of the best things I have heard in recent months was from Jonathan Lamb at Crieff who said; 'the opposite of fear is not courage, but trust'.  Many of us wake up on Monday mornings (or for preachers Sunday) and we don't feel very brave.  We often feel empty and weak.  But so often this is when God will do great things.  God emptied Joseph of himself so he could fill him with the Holy Spirit.  Isn't this what we see time and time again?  In Geneses 39 v 21 - 23 we read that 'the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him.'  Its not talent and bravery we need during a national pandemic but more trust in the living God.  This is what will give us fearless honesty. 

3.  He learned to listen

When we go back to Genesis 37 we read about Joseph telling his brothers about his dreams.  There is no mention of God and we read the word 'me' and 'I' over and over again.  The great sign of immaturity is that we talk a lot about ourselves.  Our opinions are all that matter.  This is seen on social media, the most frequent contributors are often the most immature.  Everything is simple and black and white.  People post without thinking, without praying, without considering.  

As we grow and mature and go through adversity we see that life is painful, complex and often there are no easy answers.  We learn to listen more and talk less.  This is what Joseph had learned.  He lets Pharaoh speak.  He doesn't interrupt him. Pharaoh pours out his dreams from verses 17-24 of chapter 41.  Great leaders are great listeners.  They take an interest in what their team or their congregation think.  They take advice easily, they are easily entreated.  They are constantly learning and reflecting, they are enthusiastic learners.  They read widely but discerningly, they like to have their thinking challenged.  Great leaders are nearly always team players and good delegators.  They hold power lightly because it is a gift from God.

4. He was given Godly understanding 

True wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord.  It was because Joseph truly feared the Lord that he had no fear of Pharaoh and was able to interpret his dreams.  The fear of God is not a popular subject today even in Christian circles.  The Puritan William Bates said 'there is nothing more fearful than an ingenious love, and nothing more loving than a filial fear.' It is only as we fear God in a fatherly way that we are given understanding of things often hidden to the world.  Joseph's interpretation of the Pharaoh's dream was devastatingly simple but it was kept from the magicians and revealed to Joseph.  This is what we see in great leaders. God gives them supernatural understanding not because they are gifted or talented but because they are dependent on God.  They are men and women saturated in the word, humble, prayerful and filled with a spirit of worship.  We are to call out to insight and lift our voice to understanding, to seek for it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure (Proverbs 2 v 3,4).

5. He was given confidence and wise advice

Isn't it amazing after Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream that this pagan deity recognises the spirit of God in Joseph (Genesis 41 v 38)?  Isn't that an encouragement for those of us who lead in secular environments to stand tall for God?  People may not like our Christianity but they see us as people with integrity and wisdom.

Pharaoh now turns to Joseph for wise advice.  Joseph shows one of the great traits of a great leader and encourages Pharaoh to make some very tough decisions.  One of these is to put taxes up by 20% over the next 7 years of abundance.  His other pieces of advice were to appoint a national overseer, appoint regional governors and build more storage facilities to store food in the years of plenty.  What an amazing business plan!  Save up while you can so that when famine and recession come you will have enough to feed society.  Leaders often come up with the most incredible responses to situations of crisis.  People wonder where they get their wisdom from.  How can they come up with solutions so quickly?  As Daniel would say many years later '...the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits' (Daniel 11 v 32).  Joseph was a type of Christ who was prepared and sent to bring redemption to a starving people.  Joseph was a forerunner of the great bread of life who would come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

We are in a new and uncertain landscape. It needs a new kind of leadership. Not the leadership of grievance and conspiracy, but the joy filled leadership that points to a great-God who is always working even in the midst of setbacks and disappointments. Most of all Joseph reminds us that God keeps his promises as we see all of Egypt bowing down to him in Genesis 41 v 43. They cried out with the word 'abreka' which means 'kneel'. Genesis 37 is fulfilled in Genesis 41 and again in Genesis 42 as his brothers kneel before him.

God is able to bring great good out of immense evil and suffering.  Joseph points us to the greater Joseph who died on a cross and accomplished the most incredible act of redemption the world has ever seen.  He too brought great good out of evil and could say with Joseph 'But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.' (Genesis 50 v 20).  

Joseph remained humble because he believed in a big God.  When God called him to lead in extraordinary times he was ready.  He remained God focussed, humble, prayerful and free from bitterness.  We see this in the names of his children: Manasseh (God has made me forget my hardship) and Ephraim (God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction).  God is calling us to lead in extraordinary times.  Leadership in lockdown has been and is very tough.  We need other leaders around us, supporting us and praying with us.  We need to be 'big-godders' like Joseph.  Lets remian faithful in tough times and rather than trying to be brave, lets trust in the God of Joseph who is doing all things well.  

For further study I have particularly enjoyed David C Searle's 'Joseph - His Arms Were Made Strong' by the Banner of Truth.  Also David Kingdon's Mysterious Ways is very helpful.  Joel Beeke's sermon series is invaluable as is Sinclair Fergusons sermons.  

Among God's Giants - Puritan Wisdom in an Age of Superficiality

When my father retired in 2002 and moved to Glasgow, his library had to squeeze into a very small third bedroom.  Many of his books had to go.  Some went to a grateful son while others found a welcome home in many other places.  After his death in April 2020 and with my mothers recent move to Edinburgh, I had to sort through my fathers library.  Much of it went to the Westminster Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Newcastle but I was keen to hold on to at least some of his books.  When my father retired, he couldn't part with the books that were in many ways the three elements of his ministry: 1. Free Church (and particularly Highland) piety - the best of the Free Church fathers - John Kennedy, Moody Stuart, Rabbi Duncan, Prof John Murray and of course Andrew Bonar and Robert Murray McCheyne. 2. The Covenanters.  My father kept a vast range of the best of covenanting history.  He loved the stories of bravery in the midst of persecution and often spoke at conventicles. 3.The Puritans.  My father kept a wide range of Puritan works.  Many were 1-200 years old and were the fruit of his early days in the Banner of Truth in the 1960's.  These books are freely available now thanks to the Banner and many other reformed publishers.  He also had many books about Puritanism and I have been enjoying reading these over the last few months.

One of these books is J.I.Packer 'Among God's Giants'.  This is now published as 'A Quest for Godliness' by Crossway.  I read this many years ago (it first came out in 1991) but I was encouraged to pick it up again after reading 'J.I. Packer: An Evangelical Life' by Leland Ryken.  It is impossible to read a life of Packer without catching something of his passion for the Puritans.  Packer's biography coincided with a very welcome Christmas present of the new set of Puritan Paperbacks from the Banner of Truth which, if you are not familiar with the Puritans, is a great place to start.  I personally think Thomas Watson's 'All things for Good' and 'The Godly Man's Picture' are worth their weight in gold.  It is hard to believe these books can be anything but encouraging and helpful to any Christian that picks them up with a prayerful spirit.  There is more depth and profundity in a page of Watson than whole books of many modern authors.  

The Puritans have been rehabilitated over the last 60 years and J.I. Packer needs to take the credit for much of this work.  Rather than being seen as peevish, censorious, conceited, hypocritical and loveless the Puritans give us a coherent and God centred vision of the Christian life.  As Packer says:

There was for them no disjunction between sacred and secular; all creation, so far as they were concerned, was sacred, and all activities, of whatever kind, must be sanctified, that is done to the glory of God. So, in their heavenly-minded ardour, the Puritans became men and women of order, matter-of- fact and down-to-earth, prayerful, purposeful, practical.  Seeing life whole, they integrated contemplation with action. worship with work, labour with rest, love of God with love of neighbour and of self, personal with social identity, and the wide spectrum of relational responsibilities with each other, in a thoroughly conscientious and thought out way.  In this thoroughness they were extreme, that is to say far more thorough than we are, but in their blending of the whole wide range of Christian duties set forth in Scripture they are eminently balanced.

This quote struck me as we seem to live in a world that is increasingly unbalanced.  Nowhere is this more apparent than social media.  The recent storming of the Congress in America was certainly inspired by a narcissistic and unstable president, but it was in many ways the natural development of the echo chamber of social media that whips people up to a frenzy and perpetuates conspiracy theories that never need to meet with truth or reality.  If there was ever a time for wise and balanced theology it is now and we have so much we can learn from the Puritans.

In his first chapter in Among God's Giants, Packer outlines three groups of evangelicals who would be helped by the example of the Puritans and I think these groups have come in to sharp focus during lockdown:

1. The Restless Experimentalists.  Packer defines these Christians as shallow and rootless.  He says: 'their outlook is one of casual haphazardness and fretful impatience, or grasping after novelties, entertainments and 'highs', and of valuing strong feelings over deep thoughts.'  He continues: 'they conceive the Christian life as one of exciting extraordinary experiences rather that of resolute rational righteousness.' These Christians, argues Packer, have turned the Christian life into a 'thrill seeking ego-trip.'  

Like a skilful surgeon Packer brings the scalpel of Biblically infused Puritan wisdom to the restless experimentalists.  He suggests that they would do well to learn from the Puritans through their:

• God centeredness - this is central to the discipline of self denial.  As Lloyd Jones used to say 'we are on too good terms with ourselves.'  If the modern church was God centred we would be more humble and more prayerfully dependent on the Lord.
• The primacy of the mind - it is impossible to obey biblical truth unless we understand it.  Experience has replaced theological understanding with so many Christians.
• The demand for humility, patience and steadfastness at all times - the Holy Spirits ministry is not to give us thrills but to make us more like Christ.
• Not relying on our feelings - our feelings go up and down and God frequently tests us by taking us 'through the wastes of emotional flatness.'
• Worship as life's primary activity.
• Regular self examination
• The Puritans believed that 'sanctified suffering bulks large in God's plan for his children's growth in grace.'  The Puritans had a well developed theology of suffering largely lacking in the modern church.

Many relentless experimentalists have struggled through lockdown as they have been forced to find God through setbacks and disappointments. Time will tell if this will lead to a refocussing of Christianity in a largely experience-led western church.

The Puritans believed that 'sanctified suffering bulks large in God's plan for his children's growth in grace.'  The Puritans had a well developed theology of suffering largely lacking in the modern church.

2. The Entrenched Intellectuals.  Packer diagnosis this group well: 'Constantly they present themselves as rigid, argumentative, critical Christians, champions of God's truth for whom Orthodoxy is all...There is little warmth about them; relationally they are remote; experiences do not mean much to them; winning the battle for mental correctness is their one great purpose.  They understand the priority of the intellect well; the trouble is that intellectualism, expressing itself in endless campaigns for their own brand of right thinking, is almost if not quite all that they can offer, for it is almost if not quite all that they have.'  We see the entrenched intellectuals on social media.  These keyboard warriors love exposing inferior Christians.  They lob grenade after grenade from their bunkers and accuse other Christians of cowardice, worldliness and compromise.  

The entrenched intellectuals is often how the Puritans are characterised but Packer helpfully show us that the Puritans lived and taught in a way that completely counters arid intellectualism in a variety of ways:

• True Christianity claims the affections as well as the mind
• Theological truth is for practice - William Perkins described theology as 'the science of living blessedly for ever.'  Some of us have attended churches where the preaching is solid and the people know and love the Lord but their brand of Christianity is not portable to the day and age we live in.  Children who grow up in these environments drift away to find a warmer and kinder Christianity or turn their back on the faith all together.
• Conceptual knowledge kills if one does not move on to the realities of which they refer.
• The gospel calls for faith and repentance issuing from a life of love and holiness, in other words gratitude expressed in goodwill and good works.
• The Spirit is given to lead us in to close companionship with others in Christ.  The Puritans fought for church reform and were eventually ejected from the Church of England.  The frosty separatism which is a badge of honour for so many entrenched evangelicals todays was alien to most of the Puritans. 
• The discipline of discursive meditation is meant to keep us in ardent and adoring in our love affair with God.
• It is ungodly and scandalous to become a firebrand and cause division in the church, and it is ordinarily nothing more reputable than spiritual pride in its intellectual form that leads men to create parties and splits. 

I'm afraid I have to confess that I can identify myself with many of the traits of the arid intellectuals.  I have gone through periods in my Christian life where I have relished reading theology rather than the Bible and my social media engagement has been more active than my prayer life.  My love for debate and controversy was greater than my love for other believers - 'winning the battle for mental correctness' as Packer says.  In his seminal book 'Knowing God' Packer teaches that while one church may have much of the truth, another church with less truth can make much better use of it and please God with their zeal for the gospel and love for Christ.  The Puritans contended for a confessionally faithful church and for Scriptural church order but this was never in isolation from spiritual renewal and revival.  Only the Holy Spirit fanning the flames of ardent love for Jesus can keep us from entrenched evangelicalism.

The Puritans contended for a concessionally faithful church and for Scriptural church order but this was never in isolation from spiritual renewal and revival.  Only the Holy Spirit fanning the flames of ardent love for Jesus can keep us from what Packer called 'entrenched evangelicalism'.

3.  The Disaffected Deviationists - I know many people in this group and I like the way that Packer deals with them in 'Among God's Giants'.  He doesn't pretend that evangelicalism doesn't have some culpability in many people turning their back on evangelical orthodoxy.  As he says: 'Modern evangelicalism has much to answer for in the number of casualties of this sort it has caused in recent years by its naivety of mind and unrealism of expectation.'  

So who are the disaffected deviationists?  Packer explains: 'They are people once saw themselves as evangelicals, either from being evangelically nurtured or from coming to profess conversion within the evangelical sphere of influence, but who have become disillusioned about the evangelical point of view and have turned their back on it, feeling that it let them down.'  Many leave for intellectual reasons, others feel betrayed having been promised a prosperity gospel that lets them down.  Packer continues: 'Hurt and angry, feeling themselves victims of a confidence trick, they now accuse the evangelicalism they knew of having failed and fooled them, and resentfully give it up; it is a mercy if they do not therewith similarly accuse and abandon God himself.'  

Again Packer points us back to an older, profounder, wiser evangelicalism of the Puritan era to help with the 'casualties of modern evangelical goofiness':

• The mystery of God - the modern evangelical God is too small.  The God of the Bible is transcendent and inscrutable.  We can never understand God's ways.  Bafflement and disappointment must be accepted as recurring themes in the life of a believer.
• The love of God - a love that redeems, converts, sanctifies and ultimately glorifies sinners.  God's love was unambiguously and gloriously displayed at the cross and nothing will ever be able to separate us from God's love.  While this comforts God's children, no situation in this world 'will ever be free from the fly in the ointment and the thorns in the bed.'
• The salvation of God - the Puritans have much to teach us how Christ has put away our sins and is now leading us through this world to a glory that is even now being prepared for us.  Christ is instilling within us a desire for and capacity to enjoy eternity.  I love Packer language here: '...holiness here, in the form of consecrated service and loving obedience through thick and thin, is the high road to happiness hereafter.'
• The reality of spiritual conflict - the life is a battle against the world, the flesh and the devil and anyone who promises a life of health, wealth and happiness is a charlatan.  
• The Puritans emphasised the protection of God - they believed that God could overrule and sanctify our sufferings. 
• The glory of God - it becomes our privilege as Christ's disciples to further his glory by celebrating his grace, by our proving of his power under perplexity and pressure, by totally resigning ourselves to his good pleasure, and by making him our joy and delight and all times.

The Puritans show us that the 17th century had its fair share of  spiritual casualties.  Then, as now, there are Christians who think simplistically and 'hoped unrealistically' and they became disappointed, disaffected, despondent and despairing.  The Puritans ministry was to seek to raise up and encourage these wounded spirits rather than driving them further away.  The way to win these disaffected prodigals is to return to the Biblical Christianity of the Puritan era with all its depth and richness.  The goofiness of modern evangelicalism may look and sound slicker but if we want to build God's kingdom we need to build it on the right foundations.  Skin tight jeans and stylised worship will only hold people until the next 'brand' comes along.  

Why do we need the Puritans?  In an age of superficiality and gimmicks the Puritans give us a an example of mature holiness and seasoned fortitude  As Packer says they 'shine before us as a kind of beacon light, overtopping the stature of Christians in most era's and certainly so in this age of crushing urban collectivism, when Western Christians sometimes feel and often look like ants in an anthill and puppets on a sting.'  Surely lockdown is a wake up call to the church that the over stylised, gimmick driven Christianity does not meet the deepest needs of our hearts and is far from the God centred, Christ exalting  Biblical gospel.  The Puritans, with all their faults and failings have much to say to us today.  They have things to say through their writings that we badly need to hear.  The 17th century Puritans was a movement for church reform and spiritual revival.  If there was ever a time when we needed a similar movement it was today.

He knows what is in the Darkness

This year I have been challenged to make a few changes in my life.  If last year taught me anything it taught me that life is fragile and unpredictable. I've already posted about my desire to engage much more seriously with prayer (you can read the post here).  I would love in 2019 for prayer to be my steering wheel rather than my spare tyre (I have enough of those already).  At the start of a New Year it is good to be honest.  I waste far too much time, I lack discipline and too often don't achieve what I claim are the goals of my life: to know God, to follow Jesus Christ wherever he leads and to love the people who most people want nothing to do with.  I am too often derailed by circumstances.  Last year I attempted to do less, better.  I'm going to continue that this year.  I want to read more (possibly even finish a book), pray more, say 'no' more often, take care of myself and treasure the relationships that mean most to me.  Being a good brother and son have become really important over the last year, but being a good Dad to 5 boys and a husband remain my full time job.  I am resolved to 'wrestle with Romans' this year and I am really enjoying John Pipers sermon series which is majestic and deeply humbling at the same time.  You can listen to it on Audible or here.  I am reminded of John MacArthur's quote that 'the heart can only go as high in worship as it can go deep into theology.'  I plan to dive deep this year.  

One of the best books I received last year was 'New Morning Mercies' by Paul D Tripp.  I got the book as a gift from Donnie G Macdonald at the end of the Skye Shinty Camp.  I don't use a lot of daily devotional books but there is something different about New Morning Mercies.  Almost every day there is something fresh and different and I come away with a fresh appreciation of God's grace in the gospel.  

The reading for the 4th of January hit me right between the eyes.  Paul Tripp very movingly talks about the day his daughter was hit by a drunk driver.  She had eleven breaks in her pelvis and massive internal bleeding.  When he heard the news he was 6 hours away but when he eventually walked into her hospital room he says 'its as if the whole world went dark.'  I can empathise with his experience over the last 10 months.  Sometimes we experience this darkness for months or even years.  Quite rightly we ask 'where is God?'

Thankfully Paul Tripp's daughter has recovered.  In his devotional he used these interesting words which really stuck me: 'I held on to the thought that our lives were not out of control.  We were comforted again and again with the thought that when it came to Nicole's accident, God was neither surprised nor afraid.  You see, there is no mystery with God.  He is never caught off guard.  He never wonders how he is going to deal with the unexpected thing.'  

Paul Tripp then quotes the verse from Daniel 2 v 22 which I must have read on numerous occasions but this time it just hit me like a train.

20  Daniel answered and said:

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,

to whom belong wisdom and might.

21  He changes times and seasons; 

he removes kings and sets up kings;

he gives wisdom to the wise

and knowledge to those who have understanding;

22  he reveals deep and hidden things; 

he knows what is in the darkness,

and the light dwells with him.

Wow!  What comfort.  As we grope around in our circumstances, disappointments and tragedies, God knows exactly what is in front of us.  To us it is darkness, but not to him.  He sees the end from the beginning and is working all this for his glory and our good.  As Paul Tripp says:

'God is with you in your moments of darkness because he will never leave you.  But your darkness isn't dark to him.  Your mysteries aren't mysteries to him.  Your surprises don't surprise him.  He understands all the things that confuse you the most. Not only are your mysteries not mysterious to him, but he is in complete charge of all that is mysterious to you and me.'

None of us know what this year will hold for us.  But we can take incredible comfort by putting our trust in the one who dwells in perfect light and who know exactly what is in the darkness.

God's loving kindness in tragedy

I recently preached in Stirling Baptist Church on Ruth and the Brokenness of Family Life. You can listen to the sermon here.  The following blog post is a summary of what I said.

I was recently at a course on the 'Power of Storytelling'.  It was a great course and it proved that our brains are wired to respond to stories rather than large amounts of data.  As one of the facilitators said 'storytelling is data with soul'.  Surely this is why God has given us so many great stories in the Bible?  Through these powerful stories God doesn't want us to understand dry data but living truth and exciting doctrine.  He uses rich and powerful stories to teach us eternal truths which point us to our need of Christ.

There can be few more powerful stories than Ruth in the Bible.  It asks some of the big questions like; Where is God in all the suffering around us?  Where is God in death?  Can God still be in control when there is so much evil and chaos all around?

Perhaps, like we often ask in Bethany Christian Trust , you are asking, how does God want us to respond to

the poor?

 to the destitute?

 to the refugee?

 to the widow?

 to the hungry?

These are the questions that are asked and answered in the story of Ruth. 

There can be few Biblical stories more relevant to Europe in 2015 that the story of Ruth;

 A couple face the stark choice of bringing up their family in the midst of a natural disaster (a famine).  They give up everything and travel to a strange country.  They arrive disenfranchised, powerless and with nothing but what they can carry.

While away in this strange land, the tragedy turns into nightmare as Naomi stands at three open graves.  With no tears left to cry, Naomi returns to her homeland bereft, alienated and lonely.

How many millions of people are experiencing what Naomi experienced in this book?

As the church seeks to respond to the challenge of our age, what can we learn from Ruth?

We can look at Ruth chapter 1 under 3 headings.

1. Rebellion

a)  When the Judges ruled

Chapter 1 begins with the words ‘in the days when the Judges ruled’.

What kind of days were they? The last verse of Judges 25 tells us. It was a time of chaos, rebellion and apostasy.

The covenant God Jehovah had promised blessings for his chosen people when they came into the promised land. These blessings were dependent on their faithfulness to God’s law.

Deuteronomy 28 promises that God will bless the people of Israel;

And the Lord make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord swore unto thy fathers, to give thee.  The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, even the heaven to give rain unto thy land in due season, and to bless all the work of thine hands: and thou shalt not lend unto many nations, but shalt not borrow thyself.  And the Lord shall make thee the head. and not the tail, and though shalt be above only, and not beneath.   Deut 28 v 11, 12, 13.

God had laid out the requirements of his people very carefully but they had rebelled.

Doesn't that sum up Scotland today?

We are living in a time of national rebellion.

We see this in family life don’t we?

·        The CSJ published a report in July 2014 stating that while 62% of 15 year old boys in the UK had a smart phone butonly 57% lived with their fathers.

·        1 million kids had lost contact with Grandparents as a result of separation and divorce.

·        Family breakdown cost the country £50 billion per year

·       By the age of five, 48 per cent of children in low-income households are not living with both parents, according to Government data.

We are a nation in rebellion against God.  He is judging us for our unfaithfulness.

b) Looking for help in the wrong place

The book of Ruth tells us that Bethlehem (House of Bread) was now a place of famine and desolation.  Instead of turning back to the Lord, Elimelech and his family turn their back on God.  They travel to Moab. Elimelech means 'my God is King' while Naomi means 'pleasant'.  They were Ephrathites – from the area of Ephrath or Ephrathah – now Bethlehem.  These were true Hebrews – they would have known the law of God.  But Elimelech took his family to Moab – a people God had forbidden Israelites to have anything to do with.  The  Moabites had refused to give Israel food and water in their wilderness journey (Deut 23 v 4).   Balak, King of Moab, called for Balaam to curse Israel (Numbers 23 v 7).  God commanded the Israelites; ‘Do not have anything to do with the Moabites or the Ammonites in all your generation, forever (Deut 23 v 3)

Elimalech had heard God’s voice in providence, in the famine, and he had also heard God’s voice clearly through the law.  So why did he disobey?

Elimelech was addressing the wrong problem.  The problem was not the lack of bread – the problem was the lack of a right relationship with God.  There had been famines before and God had raised up Joseph to respond to that famine (Psalm 105 v 16-17).

The famine wasn’t the issue it was the rebellion that was the issue. 

Isn’t this the problem with our society?

So often we are addressing a whole range of issues when the fundamental issue is a spiritual and moral one.

What Scotland needs more than anything else is a spiritual and moral revival. 

No amount of social work intervention can ever stem the tide of family breakdown, abuse, domestic violence and intergenerational poverty.  Social workers do a heroic job in incredibility difficult circumstances with increasingly limited resources. Of course we need to help people in crisis but fundamentally we need to build a stronger and more caring society and that can only happen through the gospel.

It will only happen as churches in Scotland live out the gospel in their community – touching broken lives and stemming the tide hurt and pain through grace and love.  Only Christ can ultimately heal our broken nation.

2.  Return

a) A change of name

The time that Elimalech and Naomi spent in Moab became a nightmare.

As strangers in a strange land Naomi lost not only the bread winner, but both her sons – she had no living fruit from her womb.  The sons left two widows – Orpah and Ruth.  We see three widows in a patriarchal society with no assets and little hope.  As Iain D Campbell says;

The family had left Bethlehem-Judah and they had come to Moab expecting to find great things; instead all that they found were broken hearts and broken dreams, and sore experiences under God’s hand.

What good could possibly come out of this tragedy?

How could God be at work in such devastation?

Naomi is numb with grief as she says in Ruthe 1 v 13 and 20 – 21.

Naomi is not saying ‘the Lord has embittered me’ or ‘I am very bitter’.  Rather she is saying ‘I have experienced bitterness.’

In the midst of tragedy Naomi did not embrace atheism but rather anchored herself in the God of the Covenant.

b) A change in circumstances

We see in v 6 ‘the Lord had come to the aid of his people.’  Naomi hears that the famine had come to an end and prepares to ‘return.’  Just like the Prodigal Son, while she is in the far country people in Bethlehem are feasting.

Often we see in scripture that words that give signals.  'Return' is used 10 times in chapter 1

Return or go back – v 6, 7, 8,10,16, 22

Return home – v 11, 12

Going back – v 15

This Hebrew word 'shub' is used again and again to illustrate that Naomi and Ruth weren’t just going back to Bethlehem – but they were also returning to God and his covenant grace and mercy.   This was more than a journey for Ruth it was a spiritual transformation as we see in verses 8 – 18.  Orpah returns but how does Ruth respond?

Where you go I will go....

This word ‘return’ is running like a melody line throughout the whole story.  God is at work in the midst of tragedy.

This isn’t just a journey – it about turning back to God, it is about returning to his grace, it is about coming to faith.

Here we see God starting to work out his purposes.  This tragedy was used by God to bring a heathen Moabites to trust in Jehovah.

We see in the passage that all the women wept.  Orpah perhaps wept because she had left Moab and wanted to return.  Naomi wept tears of regret because she had gone to Moab ‘because the Lord’s hand has turned against me’ v 13.  Her decision (along with Elimalech) had brought down the judgement of God.  Ruth wept tears of joy because she had a new life, a new path and new people.  She no longer worshiped the gods of nature – she worshipped Jehovah.

Don’t you see God’s hand as we look back at this story 1000’s of year later?

Out of death God brings life.

As Sinclair Ferguson says It is a gospel secret that death is the way of life.

Think of the death of Stephen – stoned to death.  Yet this was the means to awaken Saul.

3  Redemption

Finally Naomi and Ruth reach Bethlehem.  The city was ‘moved’ or ‘stirred’.

How did God provide for these widows?  What provision was there in the Biblical economy?

Will the Lord answer Naomi’s prayer of verse 8?

a) The law of love for the poor

We often think of the Old Testament laws as harsh and cruel.  But God’s law actually expressed his love, particularly for the poor.  Leviticus 19 v 9-10 and 23 v 22 commanded farmers not to exhaust their crop but to leave it for those in need.  Everyone within the compass of God’s covenant – the haves and the have not’s had provision.  This was the law of grace – the rule of a bountiful father.

The Bible shows us again and again that God is interested in the widow, the orphan and the stranger.  God is concerned for justice for the oppressed and mercy for the needy.  Provision is made for Ruth by good laws from a gracious God.

Notice Ruth’s willingness to work.  Work gives people purpose, dignity, confidence and self-esteem.

b) The ties that bind

Notice also that in God’s providence help is to come through the family.  Ruth gleans in the field of a relative of her father in law – Boaz.

After her first day of harvest she brings back around 30lbs of barley.  See the surprise of Naomi in Ch 2 v 19.  You see what God is saying: ‘Naomi rebelled and came back empty, Ruth put her trust in me and has come back full.’

It was no accident that Ruth gleaned in Boaz field.

Boaz was Ruth’s guardian redeemer or kinsman redeemer.

Boaz showed Ruth kindness or hesed ch 2 v 20.  This word hesed is used 250 times in the O.T. – it means God’s loving kindness.  As Sinclair Ferguson says;

It [Hesed] means God’s deep goodness expressed in his covenant commitment, his absolute loyalty, his obligating of himself to bring to fruition the blessings that he has promised, whatever it may cost him personally to do that.

You see, through all the darkness, death and tragedy, God’s hesed was at work.

Ruth eventually marries her kinsman redeemer (Boaz) and they have a son called Obed, who has a son called Jesse who has a son called David.

As Ferguson says;  What God was quarrying out of the suffering of these two women was nothing less than his purpose to bring his Son into the world in Bethlehem.

God not only provided bread in Bethlehem but he went on to provide the Bread of Life.

The line of Jesus came through gentile woman with a Jewish mother in law.

What is God’s purpose in Naomi, Ruth and Boaz?  He was quarrying for diamonds.

By the end of the book they had all experienced God’s hesed.

The story began with no king in Israel

·        It led to a day when there was no bread in Bethlehem

·        A dark night when there was no children in her family

·        Now this covenant keeping, all sufficient God, Yahweh and El Shaddai, has given her a grandson, and within a few generations will give Israel it’s greatest king.

Do you know this King?  Have you come to know the ultimate Kinsman Redeemer - the Lord Jesus Christ?  This King who loves the poor and the marginalised?

‘Praise be to the Lord who this day has not left you without a kinsman redeemer.  May he become famous throughout Israel’ (ch 4 v 14).

Let's make our Kinsman Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, famous in Scotland.