the jesus code

8/11/2019 The Jesus Code

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1 Has God Indeed Said . . . ?GENESIS 3:1

W e had a really good start. Life began in a perfect para-dise. The climate was never too warm and never too

cold. We had no aches or pains, heartache or worries. We livedin perfect peace and harmony in the midst of a perfect garden.And we had dominion over everything except the tree of theknowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden us toeat (Genesis 2:17). We were doing wonderfully well . . . until

the devil slithered into our world and asked the rst recordedquestion in Scripture. It was cleverly designed to cause us todoubt God, His word, and His heart: Has God indeed said,You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (3:1). Thatsimple seed of doubt took root in our hearts. From that timeon, we have wondered, Has God indeed said?

Satan entered the scene of life just three chapters into theBible, and the last time we encounter him is three chaptersfrom the end. And the damage he has caused is seen on everypage in between. This cunning creature was smart enough toknow that doubt is deadly. He did not try to force us to eatthe forbidden fruit. He simply tossed a seed of doubt our way,

and we took it from there: Has God indeed said?This cosmic conict has not changed through the millennia.


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Satan is still very much at work causing us to doubt what God

has said to us in His Word. Satans tactic is a clever three-pronged strategy designed to lead usjust as he led Adamand Eveto personal defeat and separation from God.

SATANS DECEIT BRINGS A SELFISH DESIRE

The plan was simple. The devil made a brief appearance inthe garden, and all he did was ask a question: Do you thinkGod really meant that? Come on. Do you think you wouldreally die if you took a bite of that single little fruit? Be real-istic. God knows that if you did, you would become a god yourself; you would know both good and evil. And that is thelast we hear from our enemy. He is gone. That is all he did.And that is all he had to do (Genesis 3:15).

Our minds are like a hotel. The manager cant keep peoplefrom coming into the lobby, but he can keep them from gettinga room. It is the same with our thoughts. It is not a sin when animpure thought goes through our minds. The sin comes whenwe give it a room and let it settle down there.

And Satans deceit brings to the surface our sinful, selshdesires as well as a lack of trust. It was true then, and it is truenow: once doubt gets a room in your mind, Satans battle ishalf won.

A SELFISH DESIRE BRINGS A SINFUL DECISION

Once doubt had its foot in the door, three things happened inrapid succession. Eve saw that the tree was good for food . . .pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise


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(Genesis 3:6). Next she took it . . . and ate. Then she gave her

husband a piece, and he ate. Bam! Did things ever change!Adam and Eve were booted out of the garden, and they ran inan attempt to hide from God.

Once the seed of doubt took root, a downward digres-sion followed. First, Eve saw : she saw that the tree was good(v. 6). Then she coveted : it was desirable to make one wise

(v. 6). Then she took: She took of its fruit and ate. She alsogave to her husband . . . and he ate (v. 6). And nally, they hid :Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of theLord God (v. 8). The pattern had been revealed.

King David walked that same path. He saw a woman on arooftop bathing. He coveted and sent men to nd out moreabout her. He took: he brought her to his palace and slept withher. He hid . . . to the hideous extent of having her husbandkilled in battle in order to cover his actions. All of us walkthis path when we allow doubt to have a room in our minds.We are no different from Eve or David. If we do not breakthe cycle, we also will see, covet, take, and then spend ourlives looking over our shoulder to see if we will be found out.Why does this happen? Because a selsh desire that has beenallowed to take root in our hearts brings a sinful decision.

A SINFUL DECISION BRINGS A SURE DEFEAT

Adam and Eve knew that they were naked (Genesis 3:7).Duh! But before that point, God had been so much the centerof their devotion and attention, they had not realized it. Now,with sin in the picture, they were focused on themselves! So


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they covered themselves with g leaves. God caught up with

them, and the buck passing began. Adam blamed his sinfuldisobedience on Eve: She gave me the fruit to eat. In fact,Adam even shared some of the blame with God: You gaveher to me. Eve said, The devil made me do it! Clearly,human nature hasnt changed much at all. Someone besidesus is almost always to blame for all of our wrong decisions

and all of our defeats.But God, in His grace, intervened. Fig leaves would neversufce. So God took an innocent animal (a foreshadowingof the Lamb of God), killed it, and covered Adam and Evewith its skins. When that little animal took its last breath, itbecame the rst to experience the deadly toll that sin takes.Strange, isnt it, that the whole scenario began with a simplequestion: Has God indeed said? It was designed to cause usto doubt God and His word, and that plan succeeded. Doubtis deadly.

And the bottom line? God placed man in a perfect para-dise; Satan entered briey and sowed a seed of doubt; we fell.God drove our rst parents out of paradise, and you and Ihave been trying to get back homeback into Gods pres-enceever since. The Bible is the record of this heartbreak-ing journey in search of what we once enjoyed: the accountbegins in Genesis with paradise lost, and it ends in Revelationwith paradise regained! Right now we are exiles from Eden.But God has made a way through Jesus Christ who, inciden-tally, is still asking, Why did you doubt? (Matthew 14:31).


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Q & A: Has God indeed said . . . ? Theanswer is a resounding, Yes, He certainly has. Andwhat He says in His Word is true. We can trust Him.Remember this week that doubt is deadly when theDeceiver comes to you in various ways to get you todoubt what God has said in His Word.


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Shall Not the Judge of All the Earth Do Right?

GENESIS 18:25

I n my decades of Christian service, far and away themost often asked question has been something like this:What about the person who has never even heard the nameof Jesus? God will let them into heaven, wont He? This isusually accompanied by such follow-up questions as, Whatabout those devout and sincerely religious persons of other

faiths who spend a lifetime in service and worship? andWhat about our Jewish friends? Are they the other sheepJesus referred to as His own who are not of this fold (John10:16)?

Abrahams Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?(Genesis 18:25) is obviously a rhetorical question. He asked it not

as much to gain information as to emphasize a point. A rhetori-cal question really expects no answer; it is already known. In thiscase, shall God, ultimately, do right? Absolutely! Rest assuredof this. Even Job reminded us that our great God is excellent inpower, in judgment and abundant justice (Job 37:23). David, thepsalmist of Israel, added, The judgments of the Lord are true

and righteous altogether (Psalm 19:9).So who is the Judge going to allow into heaven? There are

three theological persuasions when it comes to the issue of

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who is going to heaven. Inclusivism teaches that men and

women are saved by general revelation and that, when all issaid and done, no one will be left out; everyone is includedin the atonement. Pluralism teaches that there is a pluralityof ways one can get to heaven. The pluralist tells us that weare all going to the same place; different religions are sim-ply getting there on different roads, but all faith claims are

true and valid. Exclusivism teaches that faith in Christ and inChrist alone is the only way to the Fathers house. Or, as JesusHimself put it, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No onecomes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).

There are many issues hard to understand that must be leftin the eternal councils of the Godhead. I will be the rst toadmit there is much we do not know, but there is also muchwe do know. What we do know from Gods Word is the focusof this chapter. Well look at two fatal aws that are prevalentwhen dealing with the question at hand. Those who hold outthe hope that heaven is open to those who simply have neverheard is based on a presumption and an assumption.

FATAL FLAW # 1: A PRESUMPTIONThe presumption on the part of many proponents of inclu-sivism is that those who have never heard have some sort ofspecial dispensation that will provide them a different wayinto eternal life.

But the same Bible that tells us God is a God of love alsotells us He is a God of justice who must punish our sin. Ina reading of Genesis, we nd Gods justice revealed several


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times before arriving at Genesis 18:25. God judged Cain for

killing his brother Abel (Genesis 4). God judged the entireworld with a great ood in the days of Noah (Genesis 7). Atthe Tower of Babel, God judged harshly mans self-relianceand sheer arrogance (Genesis 11). And who can ever forgetwhat happened when the judgment of God fell on Sodomand Gomorrah (Genesis 19)? Gods judgment is always true

and always righteous.Space does not permit us to hear out Paul on this matter.All one must do is read Romans 13 for a complete explana-tion of how we are all guilty before a righteous Judge. Thosewho have never heard the gospel are not condemned becausethey have neglected or rejected Christ. They, like all of us, arecondemned already because creation speaks of Him (John3:18, Romans 1:20) and because our own conscience testiesof Him as well (Romans 2:1516).

If it were possible, however, that men and women could besaved simply by not hearing about Jesus and His plan of salva-tion, then there is something we, as believers, should get busydoing: we should shutter every church, recall every mission-ary, send every pastor/teacher to be a greeter at Walmart, andburn every Bible we can nd. Then, in just a few short years,everyone would be on their way to heaven. Paul, however, said,How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?And how shall they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14).There were two times in human history when the whole worldknew of Gods plan of redemption. Adam and Eve knew, andNoah, his wife, their sons, and their wives knew. Along the way


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to us His justice. Sin cannot go unpunished. In His great love

for us, He poured out His justice on Christ, who took ourpunishment and died in our place. He died my death in orderthat I may live His life. He took my sin so I could take onHis righteousness. It is our response to this justice that deter-mines our eternal destiny.

Interestingly, God did not put me on His Judgment

Committee . . . nor did He assign me to the ElectionCommittee. He put me on the Nominating Committee, and itso happens that many of those with whom I share the gospeland thereby nominate for salvation, He seems to accept intoHis forever family.

Q & A: Shall not the Judge of all the earthdo right? Yes! Absolutely! Certain judgments maynot look right to us, but this question calls for aheart check, a spiritual EKG on the part of each ofus. After all, only God sees and knows what is reallyin the heart of man. Thats why there will be manypeople in heaven some of us never thought would bethere. And there will be some we thought would, butmay not. It is because, when all is said and done, theJudge of all the earth will do what is right!


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to contend with three great enemies to success in life. One

is discouragement : we have a dream about what God wantsus to do, we encounter a few obstacles along the way, anddiscouragement keeps us from our potential. Another enemyto success is diversion: we have a dream, and something divertsus from pursuing and reaching that goal. In Josephs case,it was false charges made by a beautiful older woman. If we

overcome the rst two, then doubt will nd its way into ourpath: we have a dream, and in a time of testing, we too oftengive in to doubt. Joseph faced all three of these enemies.

WHEN TEMPTED BY DISCOURAGEMENT, FACEGOD-ALLOWED DIFFICULTIES

Joseph had a dream, a goal for his life, but nothing was goingright as he pursued that dream. His brothers sold him out.He was hustled out of his country into a strange land andsold as a slave. What a contrast to being his fathers favoriteson, as hed clearly been back home. And what reasons fordiscouragement!

People react to discouragement in various ways. Job feared his difculties, saying, The thing I greatly feared has comeupon me (Job 3:25). Elijah under the juniper tree frowned and prayed that he might die (1 Kings 19:4). The prodigalselder brother in Luke 15 fumed when difculty came: He wasangry and would not go in to the party (v. 28). Moses fussed about his difculties (Exodus 5:2223), and Jonah tried to ee from them (Jonah 1:3).

In sharp contrast, Joseph faced his difculties head on.


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Whatever came his way, whether on the slave block, in his

masters house, or in prison, whenever he was tempted to getdiscouragedhe faithfully continued to trust Gods prom-ises. When we are pursuing a dream, we arent to fear or eeobstacles that come our way; we must face them.

WHEN TEMPTED BY DIVERSION, FLEE GODLESSDESIRES

Once Joseph overcame discouragement, diversion came knock-ing. The masters wife burned with lust and passion for this youngHebrew, and the timing seemed perfect for her to approachhim. Think about it. The master was away from home. Nobodywould know about the rendezvous. She certainly wouldnt tell!Most would have been attered by the attention, but when thisdiversion arose, Joseph got out of there. He ran the oppositedirection. He ed those godless desires of the heart. Hear himsaying to her, How then can I do this great wickedness, and sinagainst God? Joseph knew that all sin is primarily against God;Joseph would not only be sinning against her husband.

Joseph was able to resist because he took a strong stand fromthe womans very rst advance (Genesis 39:8). Many peoplesuccumb to immoral diversion because they dont say no at thevery rst. They irt with it for a while. Not Joseph. He ed. Hedidnt try and ght it. He didnt try and faith it. He ed. He ran.

Remember, God had given Joseph a dream, so Joseph wassingle-minded in his pursuit of that dream: nothing, notdiscouragement or diversion, would keep him from pursuinghis dream.


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WHEN TEMPTED BY DOUBT, FOLLOW GOD-

GIVEN DREAMSIf Satan cant get you off track with discouragement or diver-sion, he will next try to get you to doubt that your dreamcame from God in the rst place.

You may know the story well. Can you imagine what musthave been going through Josephs mind while sitting in that

Egyptian jail cell when he had done nothing wrong?! He hadbeen a loyal and faithful servant to his master, only to berewarded with a false and trumped-up charge of attemptedrape. Now he was in prison, and it seemed the guards hadthrown away the key. Earlier God had told Joseph hed be theleader of a great people, but that dream now seemed so very

distant and its fulllment so humanly impossible. Satan wasbombarding Joseph with arrows of doubt: Had God reallysent that dream? Or was it just some boyhood ambition?

God was testing Joseph. How do we know? David laterrecorded that God sent a man before [the people]Josephwho was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was

laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, theword of the Lord tested him (Psalm 105:1719). Could itbe that when our own goals seem so far away and unreach-able, God tests us to see if we are trusting in the living God ormerely looking to Him to bless us?

So what did Joseph do? He simply kept following his God-

given dream. He didnt say a word. He trusted in his God, inspite of doubtful circumstances.


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Learn from Joseph. Make sure your dream is from God,

then keep following it. Abraham heard Gods voice andobeyed it. Joseph was led by his dream. We dont put our trustin audible voices or dreams today. Why? We have somethingthey didnt have, the nal and complete revelation of God toman: the Bible. We have a God who still speaks to us today, byHis Spirit and through His Word.

Have a dreamand follow it. And when you are temptedto be discouraged, face your God-allowed difculties. When you are tempted by diversion, ee those godless desires. And,again, when tempted to doubt, follow your God-given dream.When you do, and when that dream becomes reality, thenwhat was said of Joseph just might be said of you: The Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it pros-per (Genesis 39:23).

Q & A: How then can I do this great wicked-ness, and sin against God? It would be a much betterworld if each of us asked ourselves this question whenwe arrive at our own temptation fork in the road,deciding which way to turn. The most tragic thingabout our sin is that it is not simply against ourselvesor someone else; when we sin, we sin against God. Itis so serious that it necessitated Christs death on thecross. Face those God-allowed difculties, ee thosegodless diversions, and follow your God-given dream!


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been educated in the nest private schools of the most pro-

gressive nation of the world, forty years of isolation had takentheir toll on his self-condence. Forty years alone will leadanyone to ask, Who am I? Yet Who am I? is an appropriatequestion for each of us to ask ourselves.

Moses epitomizes one who is suffering from a poor self-image and little self-condence. Unfortunately, many believ-

ers today spend their lives posturing from a low self-image.Proverbs 23:7 reminds us that as a man thinks in his heart,so is he. I am not so idealistic as to think that in reading thisbrief chapter a lifetime of low self-image can be translatedinto one that is healthy and positive. However, I am embold-ened enough by my faith to believe that new thought patternscan begin to replace the lies and enable you to nd your self-worth in your position in Christ. So who are you really? Letsnd out.

AN EXPLANATION

Who am I? The Bible reveals that we are a composite of spirit,soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). However, note thatwe dont phrase it in this order. We generally say body, soul,and spirit. This, subconsciously, is because we are so bodyconscious, and that painful awareness too often determinesour evaluation of who we really are. After all, the body isvisible. We pet it and pamper it. We tan it and tone it. Wemeasure it and weigh it regularly. But one day it will go rightback to the dust from which God created it.

We are not just bodies, though. Our soul is the seat of our


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emotions. It is our feelings about ourselves that too often dic-

tate our own self-worth, or lack thereof. Our spirit is that partof us that will live as long as God lives. It is our spirit that con-nects with Gods Spiritspirit bearing witness with Spiritthat we are His children. So who am I? I am a spirit-soul . . . Iam just living for a few short years in a body.

The marketplace is loaded with books and videos on self-

image, and most of these deal only with the physical side ofour being. They tell us how to dress for success. They haveclever formulas for obtaining the upper hand in relationships.They focus on weight loss and other aspects of our physicalappearance. Then there are those that focus on the soul, onthe realm of emotions. These resources tell us things like howto win friends and how to keep hold of our emotions so thatwe can obtain inuence and advantage over others.

But I am not my body, and I only have a soul. I am a spirit.Therefore, the Bible is the best self-help, self-awareness, self-image, self-condence book ever written because it explainswho I really am. Again, who am I? I am a spirit made in thevery image of God.

AN ILLUSTRATION

Jesus illustrated this very point for us in Luke 16 with the storyof a beggar and a rich man who both die. Lazarus, the beg-gar, died and was carried into Abrahams bosom, the Hebrewrepresentation of heaven (v. 22). His body was in the grave, buthe was in the bosom of Abraham. Why? Because Lazarus wasa spirit, not a body.


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And the rich man? Jesus said he ended up in hell. So his

body was in the grave, but his soul and spirit were still alive.He could still remember. He still had emotions. He was tor-mented. And he was troubled about his brothers destiny. Thisrich mans ve brothers did not know God, and now banishedin hell, this rich man knew that an eternity of punishment fortheir sinfulness awaited them.

Our only means of truly knowing God is by our spirit. It isimpossible to have a spiritual relationship with Him based onmere human knowledge. As Jesus said to the woman at a well,God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship inspirit and truth (John 4:24). Without a relationship of spiritto Spirit, you can never know God because the natural mandoes not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they arefoolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they arespiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).

So when you ask, Who am I? know that you are spirit.That is your real identity and the seat of your self-worth.

AN APPLICATION

Since we human beings are in essence spirit, we cannotdepend on the physical for a proper self-image. The clothes wewear and how we look should not determine our self-worth.Neither should our emotionsthe soul part of usdeter-mine our self-worth. All the positive thinking and pumpingourselves up, all our taking hold of our emotions will neverprovide a healthy or accurate sense of worth. Each of us mustdiscover for ourselves who we really are: a spirit being led by


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Gods own Spirit (Romans 8:14). Only in the Person of Christ

in us will we nd true self-worth.Finally, back to Moses. This timid, stammering, reluctantMoses went away from that burning bush to become the greatemancipator of Gods people and the leader of a great nation.This same man who began by asking, Who am I? is lastseen in Scripture on the Mount of Transguration amidst the

glory of Jesus Himself.Understanding who he was because of Gods power andgrace gave Moses condence and strength for the task he wascalled to do. Similarly, when our spirit connects with the HolySpirit, then we will have an accurate and healthy self-image,for Christ in you [is] the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

Q & A: Who am I? No one on the planetever has or ever will have DNA exactly like yours, and you, in all your uniqueness, are indescribably valu-able to God. So remember that you are a spirit . . .simply living in a body for a short time. And I amconvinced that if we fed our spirit as much as wefeed our bodies, we would realize who we really are,and a God-given positive and powerful self-imagewould be ours. Christ in you [is] the hope of glory!(Colossians 1:27).


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Why Have You Brought UsUp Out of Egypt to Die in the

Wilderness?

NUMBERS 21:5

H ave you ever felt like you were on your own journeyof wilderness wandering? . . .

Few people had seen the incredible miracles witnessedby the Israelites. They had been delivered from death on thenight of that rst Passover. They had been delivered fromslavery when they passed through the Red Sea on dry ground.Even as they wandered in the wilderness because of theirrebellion, they were being led by a miraculous cloud by dayand a stunning pillar of re at night. And, as if that were notenough, God was feeding His children each day with breadthat fell from heaven.

But we all have a way of forgetting yesterdays blessings,especially when we become immersed in todays burdens. SoMoses records that the people [in the wilderness] becamevery discouraged (Numbers 21:4). They took it out onMoses and even on God Himself, asking, Why . . . Why . . .Why have you brought us up out of Egypt?then their frus-tration burst forthjust to die here in this God-forsakenwilderness?

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Too often we nd ourselves walking in their shoes. Life has

been moving along pretty well, but we didnt appreciate howgood we really had it. Then we suddenly nd ourselves withno direction. We see problems mounting all around with noapparent way out, and we point our own nger at God andask the same question: Why have You brought us up out ofEgypt to die in the wilderness?

Discouragement can have a devastating and sometimesdebilitating effect on our own life journey toward the prom-ised land. Yet Moses recorded this story for all posterity toreveal that discouragement has its reasons and results, but itcan also have its remedies. After all, in the New Testament,Paul reminded us that all these things happened to [the chil-dren of Israel] as examples, and they were written for ouradmonition (1 Corinthians 10:11). Since that is so, we havemuch to learn from this particular stop on their long wilder-ness wandering.

THERE IS A REASON FOR DISCOURAGEMENT

Its easy to forget not just where we have been but also wherewe are going. When this happenswhen we only have eyesfor the nowdiscouragement comes easily. Then the accu-mulated complexities swirling around us have their own wayof demanding our immediate focus and fueling our discour-agement. The Israelites discouragement boiled down to thefact that they did not like two things: the way they were beingled and the way they were being fed.

These chosen people of God complained, rst, about the


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way they were being led . They began to murmur against

Moses, but the real object of their complaint was God Himself.After all, Moses was simply following Gods lead and relayingGods instructions to the people. But they didnt like Mosesleadershipand they rebelled.

Their other subject of complaint was the way they werebeing fed : Our soul loathes this worthless bread (Numbers

21:5). The manna the people hated, however, was Gods gra-cious gift of sustenance to these multiplied thousands of peo-ple who were without a food supply. The manna fell fresh everymorninga picture, we later learn, of the sustaining life wecan have in Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life.

When discouragement comes, it has a dastardly way ofdiverting our focus from God and His blessings to the cir-cumstances and situations around us. The Israelites situationboiled down to the fact that they did not want Gods Wordthrough Moses to lead them, and they didnt want God tofeed them!

THERE IS A RESULT OF DISCOURAGEMENT

Discouragement left to fester can have devastating results. Askany one of these Jews in the wilderness. They learned that whenwe openly rebel against Gods leadership and provision in ourlives, He often disciplines us for our own benet: The Lord sent ery serpents among the people, and they bit the people;and many of the people of Israel died (Numbers 21:6). Theseconsequences may seem overly harsh, to say the least. But thereis a deeper lesson here for all of us. In the Bible, the serpent is a


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picture of Satan and sin, and the serpent still comes slithering

up to us exactly as it did in the garden.In this Numbers 21 incident, the serpents bites were terrible and, in some cases, terminal. Moses described the serpentsbites as ery (v. 6), and when they bit, apparently every nervein their victims body turned into a burning ember. The painwas undoubtedly excruciating, and the same can be all too

true of the results of sin. I am amazed that some people havethe idea that sin is enjoyable and harmless in the long run. It isnot. Sin always has consequences, and those consequences areoften painful in a myriad of ways. Simply put, the way of theunfaithful is hard (Proverbs 13:15).

These bites were not only terrible, but some were termi-nal . Moses reported that many of the people of Israel died(Numbers 21:6). God revealed hereas He does elsewhere inScripturethat death is the ultimate end of sin and rebellionagainst Him. Paul was very direct: The wages of sin is . . .what?death! (Romans 6:23). James, who centuries laterwould be the leader of the Jerusalem church, went straightto the point as well: Each one is tempted when he is drawnaway by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire hasconceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown,brings forth death (James 1:1415).

THERE IS A REMEDY FOR DISCOURAGEMENT

The people of Israel learned their lesson and changed theirminds in a hurry. They ran to Moses and said, We have allsinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you;


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pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us

(Numbers 21:7). Moses did pray . . . and in response Godmade what seemed a strange demand. Moses was to makea bronze serpent and place it high up on a pole. When thepeople looked upon that serpent, they would live.

This strange-sounding command was a sure remedybecause it was Gods remedy. Moses didnt say, Here is a way

to be cured. He revealed that this was the only way. This wasalso a sufcient remedy. It didnt matter where a person wasbitten or how many times. Gods remedy was sufcient forhealing. And, nally, Gods strange remedy was a sustaining remedy. It never failed. Everyone who looked at the bronzeserpent lived.

Exactly what does this incident with the bronze serpenthave to do with believers in the twenty-rst century? First,remember that when the resurrected Christ spoke to the twomen on the Emmaus Road, His intent was to, beginning atMoses, explain to them in all the Scriptures the things con-cerning Himself (Luke 24:27). Yes, that healing serpent liftedabove the people and bringing healing foreshadowed Jesus,and thus, we nd our Lord right there in the middle of thewilderness.

Fifteen hundred years later, when Jesus spoke to Nicodemusof His crucixion, He pointed back to this wilderness event:As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even somust the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes inHim should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:1415).And so it was. Jesus was lifted high on a Roman cross so that


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all could see Him, and to this day, everyone who looks to Him

for healing from their sinfor salvationlives . . . and liveseternally.How much clearer could the remedy be? The remedy God

has provided for death due to our sin is sure: Christ is not a way; He is the way. The remedy is sufcient : no matter howmuch we have sinned or how little, He is sufcient to provide

forgiveness and to save. Finally, Gods remedy for sin is sus-taining : no one has ever looked to our Lord to be saved andbeen turned away. Look to Jesus and live!

Q & A: Why have you brought us up outof Egypt to die in the wilderness?Are you discour-aged today? Remember from whence you have comeand where you are going. And look to Jesus. He hasbrought you out of your own Egypt to take you intoHis promised land. Look to Him . . . and live!


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If the Lord Is with Us,Why Then Has All This

Happened to Us?JUDGES 6:13

W ho of us has not asked this question? And probablymore than once!

Gideon was about to battle the Midianites against seem-ingly insurmountable odds. The angel appeared and said,The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor! (Judges6:12). To which Gideon immediately replied, Really? If thatstrue, then why is all this happening to us? In times of dis-couragement it is not unusual for some well-meaning angelto come along and say the same thing to us: The Lord is with you. But youve just lost your job. Your husband left. Yourwayward teenager is in trouble. You are sick and your body iswracked with pain. When any of that happens, we might notsay it out loud, but we are prone to echo Gideon: If the Lordis with me, why has all this happened to me?

We dont have to look very far to nd broken hearts, bro-ken homes, or broken hopes. Bills cant be paid. Relationshipsare slipping away. Business is not going well. Single moms aretrying to hold their families together. There are a lot of us ask-ing Gideons question today.

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Centuries after Gideons time the apostle Paul not

only encountered the reality behind this question, but heanswered it for us in his letter to the Corinthians. Listen toPauls situation: We were burdened beyond measure, abovestrength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had thesentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust inourselves but in God . . . who delivered us . . . in whom we

trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping togetherin prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many personson our behalf (2 Corinthians 1:811).

Discouragement that leads us to ask Why? is a modern-day plague. It has a paralyzing effect when we let it becomeour home and we settle into it. But once we acknowledge andface discouragements cause, we can move out of that dis-couragement and move into Pauls answers to Gideons age-old question.

A PARALYSIS

Discouragement can have a paralyzing effect on us as it leadsus to say, I give out. I give in. I give up!

I give out. This was Pauls testimony. He related thattrouble came his way and he was burdened beyond mea-sure (2 Corinthians 1:8). He felt hemmed in. He was in atight place, in a vise, under great pressure. We dont know theexact essence of the problem, but everything was closing inon him and he was about to give out. Discouragementthenas well as todaycan have a paralyzing effect on us.

I give in. Pauls discouragement was turning into despair


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asI believehe was asking himself, If the Lord is with me,

why is all this happening to me? It is just as well that Scriptureveils the real issue at hand for him. That silence enables youand me to insert into the narrative our own point of discour-agement. I have certainly been there, asking Gideons ques-tion, seeing the paralyzing effect of discouragement, and beingtempted to say, I give out. . . . I give in.

I give up! Continuing his downward spiral, Paul con-fessed that he despaired even of life (v. 8). Who would haveimagined this great apostlewho rallied the Romans by say-ing, We are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37)wouldfeel so overwhelmed and so deeply discouraged and despair-ing? Discouragement can leave the strongest of individualsunable to take one more step.

Having lived on the Florida Atlantic coast for a decade anda half, I became well acquainted with many professional life-guards. When they spotted someone in trouble in the ocean,the guards swam out to them but did not immediately layhold of them. Instead the guards would tread water justbeyond arms length. Why? The drowning swimmers kick-ing and thrashing and struggling could well take them bothdown and under. But when the struggling swimmers nearedthe end of their strengthwhen, in essence, they said, I giveout . . . I give in . . . I give up; when they realized they wereunable to save themselvesthen the rescue began, and theywere pulled safely to shore.

Some of us nd ourselves in similarly treacherous waters.We know were going under, but we continue to kick and


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scream. We see the Lord an arms length away. Why doesnt

He do something? He may be waiting for you to come to theend of your self. He may be waiting for you to acknowledgethat you are more in need of a rescue than you realized when you started reading this chapter.

AN ANALYSIS

A good medical doctor will do two things in analysis for treat-ment: look for a cause and then search for a cure.

Look for the cause. Why does God allow such a degree ofdiscouragement that leads us to ask questions like Gideons?Paul indicated it is often to break us down. Why? In order tobuild us up. Paul revealed that his discouragement actuallyhappened in order that we should not trust in ourselves butin God (2 Corinthians 1:9).

Most of us have been there. Some little victory comes ourway, and we begin taking some of the credit and trusting inourselves. Our Bibles remain closed in the morning. Prayeris pushed aside in the busyness of the day. Then somethinghappens that makes us realize once again that we should nottrust in ourselves (v. 9) but in the Lord.

A few chapters later in this same letter, Paul framed thistruth by saying, I take pleasure in inrmities, in reproaches, inneeds, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christs sake. For whenI am weak, then I am strong (12:10).

Search for a cure. The cure is twofold: it is in hope and in help.


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Paul said that his hope and trust were in Christ (2 Corinthians

1:10). And his help? You also helping together in prayer for us(v. 11). The English phrase helping together translates onecompound Greek word meaning that we are in this together; weneed each other. The word picture describes men and womenworking together under the same load and not against eachother. Hope in Christ and help from others is the cure, enabling

us to nd our way out of the paralysis of discouragement.If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened tous? Paul began his response by stating, We do not want youto be ignorant . . . of our trouble (v. 8). Most of us are just theopposite, often a little too proud to let our guard down. So welive with no hope, with little help, and, sadly, all too often, withno healing. Your discouragement can be cured by . . . God whoraises the dead (v. 9).

Remember, the most recurring phrase in all the Bibleappearing on nearly every page is this: And it came to pass.Discouraged? This too shall pass!

Q & A: If the Lord is with us, why then has allthis happened to us? The ultimate answer is wrappedup in the mystery of Gods sovereign, all-loving, andperfect will. He has numbered the hairs of our heads,and He sees the sparrow when it falls. How muchmore does He care for you who are tempted to giveout, give in, or worse, give up? He is with you!


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Is There Still Anyone . . . That IMay Show Him Kindness?

2 SAMUEL 9:1

I s there anyone in your sphere of relationships to whom you could show some kindness?It was King Davids greatest hour when he asked this ques-

tion. At this point in his pilgrimage, there was no blemish onhis character or integrity. In fulllment of the longstandingprophecy, David was nally sitting on top of his worldhe

was on the throne of Israel. King Saul, his predecessor andnemesis, had been slain by the Philistines on the battleeld ofMount Gilboa. Tragically, JonathanSauls son and Davidsbest friendwas also killed alongside his father. Davidgrieved and lamented over their deaths, but sometime later,overwhelmed by Gods goodness to him, the new king asked,

Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that Imay show him kindness for Jonathans sake? (2 Samuel 9:1).

Thats when David heard of Jonathans son namedMephibosheth. Poverty-stricken, unshaven, crippled sincea childhood accident, and living in hiding at a place calledLodebar, this man was totally unaware that he was in a

covenant relationship with the new king.There is no clearer picture of integrity in action than in this

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show you kindness for Jonathan your fathers sake, and will

restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and youshall eat bread at my table continually . . . like one of the kingssons (2 Samuel 9:7, 11). David did not simply remember hispromise to Jonathan; he kept it.

Now try to imagine dinner at King Davids table withall his sons in attendance. The room is ornate and elegant,

graced with oriental rugs and high-back royal dining chairs.A linen tablecloth covers the table and drapes into the lapsof the king and his sons seated around. There is handsomeAbsalom with his owing black hair resting on his shoul-ders . . . and there sits Amnon, the clever and crafty one. Laterthey are joined by Solomon. And then comes the sound. It isthe sound of shufing feet accompanied by the clump, clump,clump of crutches. Mephibosheth is taking his place amongall the kings sons at the kings table.

Continue to use your imagination for a moment. Supposeno one is looking, so you quickly climb under the table. Whatdo you see? Legs! You follow them around . . . one pair ofmuscular legs after another. And then you see two crookedlegs dangling, not quite reaching the oor. That is the exactview Mephibosheth had of himself during those years inexile: he was nothing more than a pair of useless legs.

Now climb out from under the table and take a seat nearDavids at the head of the table. What do you see? Note howthe tablecloth falls into each sons lap, covering their legs.From the kings view, Mephibosheth looks just like all theothers at the table. And this, friend, is the view the Lord Jesus


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has of each of His own children, of you and of me. Let me

explain.The reality is, I was once like Mephibosheth. I too was crip-pled by a fall. I too lived in exile, in spiritual poverty. Then theKings chariots came to my Lodebar, and I was arrested, but notto be imprisoned. I was arrested by Gods forgiving and freeinglove. The Holy Spirit who came to me took me to King Jesus.

At rst I was uncomfortable and wanted to go back to Lodebarwhere I felt at home. But then I heard the good news, the gos-pel. I heard the King say, I want to make you My own child!If you think Mephibosheth had a good deal, it pales next tothe new covenant Jesus offers you and me! And the really goodnews is, there is a place for each of us at the Kings table.

People of integrity remember their promises and keepthem, whatever the cost. Perhaps you made a promise recently,or even long ago, that you need to remember . . . and keep.

Q & A: Is there anyone to whom I can showkindness? People we encounter at the ofce and in thegrocery story, people we live with at home and wor-ship with on Sundays, are in desperate need of kindwords and deeds. Divine opportunities are all around you every day. Make a conscious effort today to showkindness to someone . . . not for Jonathans sake, butfor Jesus sake. Remember promises you have made . . .and do what you need to do to keep them.


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The Joshua Code features 52essential verses addressingchallenges everyone dealswith including: temptation,understanding salvation,prayer, grace, vision, integrity,and more. Perfect for a year-long preaching program, apersonal devotional guide, ora gift to introduce friends and

family to the Christian faith.

100% of the authors royalties and proceeds goes tosupport Mission:Dignitya ministry providing support

for impoverished retired pastors and missionaries.

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