Plan of Salvation -4
As we saw last night quite clearly - the plan may be unfolding and the people chosen. But the people are not so happy about it all and are inconstant rebellion against God. They have erected Golden calves and sunk into paganism and have on many other occasions doubted God's ability to care for them in all their needs and to fulfil his promises. The next stage of the Plan is therefore quite clear, the people not only need to be taught, but they also need discipline in their lives if they are to serve the living God.
And so we see that during their time in the wilderness the people were taught the laws of God. From the ten commandments down to the minutia for building the Ark of the Covenant. They were taught in intricate detail how to build the portable tabernacle where God was to be worshipped. Laws were given to cover every eventuality - both ceremonial and civil and they were taught by various means to trust God. If they disobeyed they were swiftly punished. When they obeyed they were rewarded. And so we see the whole process being developed in generation after generation. Laws are given, instructions issued until even the temple in Jerusalem is built. And in this way the plan of salvation is put into place.
Let's recall those steps again: Firstly there is perfect creation followed by a cataclysmic and cosmic fall caused by man's disobedience. God then begins his plan of salvation - he calls Abraham to be the Father of his people and then many years later he calls Moses to lead the captive sons of Abraham to the promised land and then in the centuries that follow, God moulds this proud and rebellious people. He teaches them his laws and ways, he gives them various ceremonies and ways to worship and deals with them lovingly but with discipline until the time comes for the next stage of the plan to come into operation, for that which was implicit in all his dealings with people to be made quite explicit.
But before we touch this subject I want to digress for only a moment to deal with the nature of the laws that God gave. To the young and inexperienced Christian these Old Covenant Laws can seem strange if not barbaric in some of their outworkings. Let it be understood clearly however the absolute necessity of moulding this people into being obedient children of the Living God. We see how easily they slip from the path. These were also radically different days from our own - so we must not judge all these things with the jaundiced eyes of the late 20th Century. Moreover we must marvel at the constancy of God. This arose in discussions in the Tuesday afternoon Bible Study - something I would commend to you if you do not work on Tuesdays - we were discussing Jesus' command to Love the Lord Our God with all our hearts minds and souls and to love one another as we love ourselves what wasn't realised by some in the Bible Study group and probably not realised by many of you is that this was not a new teaching! This was exactly the came teaching as Moses passed on to the people while they wandered in the wilderness. This teaching permeates the whole of Deuteronomy.
Listen to the very words of Moses from verse 6, "These are all the laws that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. Obey them in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. As long as you live, you and your descendants are to honour the LORD your God and obey all his laws that I am giving you, so that you may live in that land a long time. Listen to them, people of Israel, and obey them! Then all will go well with you, and you will become a mighty nation and live in that rich and fertile land, just as the Lord the God of our ancestors has promised. Israel, remember this! The Lord - and the Lord alone - is our God. LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. Never forget these commands that I am giving you today.........•
Do you see how clearly Jesus teaches what had been already revealed! Do you see how clearly the plan is laid before us even from the days of Moses!
Now let us return to our theme more closely. In the due process of time as we have seen the chosen if not always faithful people are established in the promised land. Many centuries pass with many adventures, conquests and and defeats and then at last as I have already said that which had always been implicit began to be made explicit. No greater treasure house can be found than the Book of Isaiah - written about 800 years before Christ. Here we find the promise of the Messiah plainly laid out. For this is the next part of the plan to prepare the generations of the chosen people for the day when the Messiah will come. We read on Sunday for example as part of the sermon that great passage from Isaiah Chapter 11 about the new King who will come from David's line and will establish a kingdom where even the lions and the lambs will lie down together. Then of course there is the wonderful passage in Chapter 9 that we use at Christmas time in particular: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful Counsellor,Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.• Or again in Chapter 11, "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him........•
But the greatest of all these prophecies of which there are many and all seem so clear to us now but certainly weren't at the time can be found in in the Chapters from 52 onwards - here are words that burned in my heart when I discovered them about the age of 20. Today they burn just as much in my heart as they did all those years ago.
How I wish we had all the time in the world just to read these words together slowly and lovingly and savour the great truth that is in them - however listen to just some of them:
"For he grew up before him (that is the Lord) like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief......surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows....he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole and with his stripes we are healed.......•
Isn't it marvellous - and all this written 800 years before they crucified our Saviour and it doesn't end there ....there's more!
"all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth..........•
The Prophets had many messages for the people and not all concerned with the coming of the Messiah, it was Amos who put it this way: " Do two men start travelling together without arranging to meet? Does a lion roar in the forest unless he has found a victim? Does a bird get caught in trap if the trap has not been baited? Does a trap spring unless something sets it off? Does the war trumpet sound in the city without making people afraid? Does disaster strike a city unless the Lord sends it? And here for us is the important verse: "The Sovereign Lord never does anything without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets. When the Sovereign Lord speaks who can avoid proclaiming his message?•
And so in the due process of time the people are prepared - they know there will be a messenger sent before the Messiah - they reckon it will be Elijah.... they know some of his characteristics....... time passes and they wait, wait patiently..... sometimes they think the Messiah has come but each time it proves to be false ... but God has placed in their hearts the expectation of deliverance..... even when they are crushed beneath the feet of the invading armies of Rome they do not give up... surely the Lord will send his Messiah to deal with these invaders.... but God's plan in bigger than the Roman Empire, bigger even than the troubles of a few years or centuries for his chosen people.
And so the Roman Empire grows and spreads and a common language arises, there is great ease of communication, it is safe to travel and safe to walk the streets, two hundred years without a war......all is set after thousands of years for the Plan to be fulfilled and in the Emperor's Palace in Rome he decrees, under the hand of God if he but knew it, that a census is to take place in all his Empire ...............