BEARING THE TORCH
By Pastor Jim May
The flame in the Marathon Tower in each Olympic stadium is the most recognized symbol of the Olympics, dating back to the Games of ancient Greece, when athletes competed in a relay race, passing a torch from one to another until the last runner, in a long procession of runners, would sprint to the top of the stadium and light the flame to signal the beginning of the competition among the greatest athletes in the world for the Gold Medal.
For many years the flame was extinguished due to neglect, world turmoil and other events but it was officially reignited in 1928, The idea of the marathon relay, where runners would once again carry the torch, was revived in 1936 for the Berlin Games. The relay began at the location of ancient Olympia and ended in Berlin, Germany after passing through seven countries and covering a total of 3,050 km. The journey of the torch took 12 days and 13 nights, and 3,331 torchbearers each took a turn at carrying it along the way.
From then on, the Olympic Torch Relay has remained an important part of the Olympic tradition and the torchbearer is the person who is honored by carrying the Olympic Flame. The flame carries a message as it passes through each town, city and village. It announces that the games are about to begin; it embodies and spreads the ideals of the Olympics and speaks of the union and peace amongst the people, the allegiance, the courage, the fraternity and solidarity of all of the competitors.
God has handed to each of us a torch to bear for him. That torch is the light of the Gospel, the knowledge of God and His ways, and the Word of God. It is put into our hands and our hearts by the Holy Ghost and the fire is ignited so that we may burn as lights in a sin darkened world. Each of us are to let our light shine that all men can see Jesus in us and then we are told to run with it and to pass it on to the next generation so that we will not forget God.
God gave Israel a torch to bear too.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."
If only Israel had heard these words and kept them, how much suffering and death could have been prevented just by simple obedience and passing the torch to the next generation. But it just didn’t happen. As a result, each new generation had to suffer, and many would die, in the process of learning that God’s commandments never changed. Each generation was forced to walk in darkness until somehow God’s light would be ignited once again.
I want us to examine an incident in the journey of Israel to see why they were unable to pass the torch the way that they were supposed to. Why was it that each passing generation had to so suffer so much? All of the suffering, dying and wandering into idolatry can be traced back to Israel’s failure to do what God said to do in their first place.
Judges 2:1-2, "And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?"
Perhaps we do not remember what happened at Gilgal. It was at Gilgal, when Joshua stood before Jericho and its great walls, that he looked to one side and saw a man standing there dressed in bright armor with a sword drawn in his hand. Joshua asked if the man was for or against Israel. That man was a pre-incarnate Jesus who took on the form of a man and identified himself as “Captain of the Lord’s Host”. He was commander in chief of the army of God. Joshua knew who this was and he feel down and worshipped him. By virtue of the fact that this man allowed Joshua to worship him proves that it was God who stood there, and not an archangel, for no angle would have allowed Joshua to worship him. To God must all the glory and worship be given and no one else.
At Gilgal, which name means, “wheel; rolling; or heap”, we can see a victorious Israel as they roll forward into the Promised Land, rolling right over the heap of stones that once were arrayed against them on the walls of Jericho. It was a place of victory and power because God was with them. But Israel couldn’t stay at Jericho. There were a lot more battles to fight and more enemies to defeat before they could claim their inheritance.
And so they journeyed onward. In the first chapter of the Book of Judges you can see a summary of the battles that they fought. At first they did well, obeying the commandments to drive out their enemies, but then they began to compromise more and more until they stopped driving out the enemy and started making peace treaties with them.
That’s the greatest obstacle we face in our job of carrying the torch to the next generation. It is the obstacle of “compromising with the enemy”. Were the instructions of God too hard to understand? Didn’t they hear what God had said? Why did they quit doing what they were supposed to and drive out their enemies?
It’s the same reason that Christians still do so today. It’s all because they didn’t keep the fire burning brightly and they lost their closeness to the God. The more victories they had, the more they began to rely upon self than upon God for those victories. How often do we think that we won the battle and forget that it is God who is doing the fighting?
Just like Israel we begin to believe that we can coexist with our enemy rather than drive him out like God said to do. We can still enjoy the world, but continue to live for God. We can walk the fence without falling off. I know this is true because I see Christians who are walking the fence, or walking a tightrope between living for God and enjoying the pleasures of sin and the world all the time. Then, when we fall of the fence, it’s always into the side of the world because you can’t fall into God’s path; you have to choose to step into it. The natural draw upon our flesh is to go into the world, not to follow God. If you are going to follow God it has to be because you have purposed in your heart to do so. It will never happen by accident and it will never happen by chance. It always by decision!
From Gilgal, the “angel of the Lord” comes to Bochim. Now that the Children of Israel have left the path of victory where they were commanded to walk and have begun to compromise, they are suddenly finding that they have constant trouble and constant battles all the time and it has brought them great sorrow. That’s what Bochin means, “the place of weeping”.
I’ve seen this in the church. So many people will begin to walk in victory with the Lord, but because they lay down the torch and begin to compromise with the world, falling off of the fence back into the old life, their victory is gone and now there is nothing but troubles and sorrow. God still loves them, but they have lost their love for God and have chosen to love the world instead.
A prime example of someone who throws aside the torch was a man named Demas who once walked with Paul in the early church.
In Colossians 4:14 we read where Demas and Luke are working together for the Lord. Both are carrying the torch of the gospel to the world. But something happens and later we read in 2 Timothy 4:10 where Paul says, "For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica… and then he says; “Only Luke is with me.” We have no record where Demas ever came back. Demas was a man who once preached alongside Luke and Paul, but lost his soul because he went back into the world and cast the torch aside.
Demas didn’t have to go back into the world, none of us are forced to throw down the torch, and Israel wasn’t given more than they could bear either. They simply allowed compromise to sap their victory and then let go of the torch, allowing the light to go out in their souls.
Not only did this generation miss out on God’s best, but their failure to pass the torch to their children would cost the next generation dearly.
God spoke again to Israel in Judges 2:3-5, "Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD."
Israel, why didn’t you drive out the enemy like you were commanded to do? Why did you compromise instead?
There was no answer that Israel could give, no excuse for their actions, other than they had become hard-hearted and rebellious, disobedient children.
We can make all the excuses we want to for our compromises with the world. We can rationalize anything we do and try to make it seem like its always someone else’s fault or just adverse circumstances that “force” us to make the wrong choices, but the reality of it all is that we simply choose to compromise rather than pay the price of obedience. God knows our heart and our motives. We don’t fool him with excuses.
Israel cried when they heard the convicting words of God. They knew that they had done wrong and that they had no excuse. They were caught in their own sin. So they began to cry out for forgiveness and built an altar to sacrifice to God.
At least this generation still had enough of the love of God in them that they were willing to repent and turn back to God.
What about you and me? What about this present generation of Christians in our modern church? I believe that many of us have enough of God’s love in us that we can recognize where we are failing God and we can turn back to him. God will honor our prayer. He will meet us at the altar. And he will forgive us of our sin and help us to win the victory again.
But what about the next generation? What are they learning from us? Are we passing the torch of the gospel and serving the Lord on to them?
Judges 2:6-9, "And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land. And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash."
This rebellious generation found its way back to God and God blessed them by allowing them to take the land in spite of their sin. They had dropped the torch for a while, but eventually they picked it up and started running once again. The generation of Israelite that had experienced the fall of Jericho, and the parting of the waters of the Jordan River, and had seen the cities of their enemies fall, one after another, went on to the serve the Lord until the whole generation passed from this world to the next.
But what legacy did they leave for the next generation? They had made it themselves but had they prepared the next generation to take over? Had they carried the torch and passed it on to their children? Would the next generation be as faithful? Would they serve the Lord as their parents had done in the end?
Sadly it didn’t happen that way. The next generation of Israel didn’t know God in the same way as their parents and they quickly forgot about the things that God had done for the last generation.
Judges 2:10-13, "And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth."
The light of God was cast aside and darkness settled over Israel. Gross darkness covered the land as the next generation began to live even more compromised lives than their parents had done.
That’s the way sin works. The more we compromise, the more we want to compromise, until we are so far from God that we can’t see him, hear him or desire to serve him. It’s just like missing church, not reading the Bible or failing to pray. The more we fail to do those things, the less we care to do them at all, until finally, we are lost in the world of sin once again.
I know that each of us must stand before God and answer for what we have done personally. No one will stand upon the merits of their parents, or grandparents. God doesn’t have grandchildren, just children.
But I wonder how many people will miss Heaven because their parents chose to live in the world? Even though we may raise them right and try to pass the gospel torch on to our children, there is no guarantee that they will choose to carry it. But if we don’t live for the Lord, there is no chance for the children.
I watch youth and children as they come through this church and I am concerned for them. I know that we are trying our best to prepare them. But I fear for those whose parents are setting the wrong example. Some have little or no support at home to serve the Lord. Their parents are more concerned with getting all they can in this life than they are with preparing for the eternity to come. Many even punish kids from coming to church for little or no reason at all. There are a lot of parents who will have to stand before God and answer for not teaching their kids the ways of the Lord.
It’s up to you and me to carry the gospel torch. We are carrying the torch in a lifelong relay race and we must carry it until its time to pass it along. Let’s do all we can do to raise our children to love and fear the Lord. Let’s be a shining example of faithfulness so that they will have a better chance tomorrow.
How could a nation that had experienced all of the miracles that God had done for Israel, and had seen the presence of God in the pillar of fire and cloud, and had known the power of God in such greatness, not pass along the torch of the knowledge and love of God to their children?
It seems so impossible that the very next generation after Joshua’s generation, would completely forget God and not know about anything that God had done in the past. Could it be that Israel failed to talk about God in the home? Were they so worldly minded that they failed to even teach their children that God existed?
I believe that Joshua’s generation tried to turn around. God honored them, but the damage to their children was already done. Though the words of their parents praised and honored God, the children saw their actions. Actions speak louder than words.
We can talk about Jesus, claim to know and love him, and say that we are serving him, but are our actions proving it to be true. The next generation will learn from what we do more than from what we say. Are we passing the torch?
We can’t allow the devil to steal our children. We can’t allow the light of the gospel to be extinguished. We must do everything we can to be a torchbearer and then to try to pass that light on to the next generation as well.
