A. B. C. NEW YEAR’S DAY.
January 1st, All Years.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13, Psalm 8:1-9, Revelation 21:1-6, Matthew 25:31-46
A). THE RELENTLESS RHYTHMS OF TIME.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13.
‘Turn, turn, turn’ is the refrain of the old pop song based upon these verses. However, time is not circular, but linear: it is more like a river relentlessly, but always, running downstream. It is our subjective experience of time that gives us the loop-de-loop illusion of a roller coaster ride.
1. The Roller Coaster (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).
Times and seasons may trundle inexorably onwards under the watchful eye of God, but not without “purpose under the heaven” (ECCLESIASTES 3:1). It is God who has set these things in motion, and it is He alone who knows the end from the beginning (cf. Isaiah 46:10).
ECCLESIASTES 3:2-3 contrasts between constructive and destructive actions: birth and death, planting and plucking up; killing and healing, breaking down and building up.
“To kill” here probably presupposes the death penalty, which is taken for granted throughout the Bible. Or it might refer to livestock, which might be offered on the altar as a sacrifice to God. In this sense, there was a ‘fullness of time’ for even God’s own Son to be killed (cf. Galatians 4:4-5)!
Weeping and laughing, and mourning and dancing (ECCLESIASTES 3:4) are emotional opposites. The circumstances which lead to these reactions are often beyond our control.
We “cast away stones” (ECCLESIASTES 3:5) when we prepare the land for agriculture, and we “gather stones together” to prepare for a building. However, this might be a euphemism for having or not having intercourse: it is paired with ‘embracing and restraining from embracing.’
Getting and losing, and keeping and casting away (ECCLESIASTES 3:6) sounds financial. For example, knowing when to earn and when to spend, and when to save and when to withdraw.
ECCLESIASTES 3:7. People used to “rend” their clothes during a time of mourning (cf. Genesis 37:34). “A time for silence” is appropriate when we sit in solidarity with our mourning friends (cf. Job 2:13). But there is also a time to cease from mourning and getting on with life. And a time to speak out.
ECCLESIASTES 3:8. Loving our ‘neighbour’ includes loving our ‘enemies,’ says Jesus (cf. Matthew 5:43-44) - a fact illustrated by the history of the good Samaritan (cf. Luke 10:30-37). This is not just what we must do - it is who we are. Christians should not “hate” anyone personally, but there is a time to give expression to our hatred of evil.
Christians are engaged in a spiritual warfare throughout our lives. There may well be a time, too, when a peace-loving people might find it necessary to engage in war. Happily, the writer changes the order of the parallelism so that “Peace” might have the last word.
2. Making the Most of Life (Ecclesiastes 3:9-13).
ECCLESIASTES 3:9. “What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?” This is a question expecting the answer ‘None!’ (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:10-11). The writer has “seen” the cause of this in the Fall of man (ECCLESIASTES 3:10; cf. Genesis 3:17-19).
ECCLESIASTES 3:11. Prior to the Fall, God “made everything beautiful” (cf. Genesis 1:31). He has also set “eternity” (NKJV) in the hearts of the sons of men. However, we cannot comprehend the whole picture from beginning to end as God does.
The writer speaks now of what he has come to “know” (ECCLESIASTES 3:12). There is nothing better for us than to “rejoice” (cf. Philippians 4:4) and to “do good” (cf. Galatians 6:9).
ECCLESIASTES 3:13. “That every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, is the gift of God” (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:24; 1 Corinthians 10:31).
B). A PRAYER OF PRAISE.
Psalm 8:1-9.
This is the only praise Psalm which is addressed entirely to the LORD. No call to worship like Psalm 95:1, ‘O come let us sing unto the LORD.’ No asides to the congregation like Psalm 107:2, ‘Let the redeemed of the LORD say so.’
Psalm 8:1. The vocative brings us straight into the presence of the LORD (Yahweh): “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” That presence is maintained throughout the meditation, right down to the repetition of the same line in the final verse (Psalm 8:9). This brackets the whole Psalm with the awareness of the One to whom our address is made. Thus we may ‘boldly approach’ (cf. Hebrews 4:16) the LORD, the Sovereign, the maker of heaven and earth.
Although bold, the very use of the vocative suggests a sense of awe in this approach to the LORD. Yet it is not cold fear, but an approach to One who we can call “our” Adonai, “our” sovereign - ultimately “our” Father! The approach celebrates the excellence, the magnificence of God’s great name “in all the earth!” and reminds us how He has set His “glory,” his ‘weight,’ as it were, “above the heavens.”
Psalm 8:2. Jesus quoted “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings” as a challenge to ‘the chief priests and scribes,’ who wanted to silence the children from singing ‘Hosanna to the son of David’ (Matthew 21:15-16). The babbling of “babes and sucklings” is better than the bitterness of the unbelief of ‘religious’ people! The “babes and sucklings” represent the ‘babes in Christ,’ new disciples (Luke 10:21; Mark 10:15; John 3:3), or maybe even all disciples (1 Corinthians 1:27).
Such babbling “stills the enemy and the avenger.” One faltering lisping prayer from faith-filled trusting lips has more value, more weight before God than all the litanies of unbelief. The Psalm’s “thou hast ordained strength” becomes ‘thou hast ordained praise’ in Matthew 21:16. I would suggest that that is where our ‘strength’ lies - in ‘praise’!
Psalm 8:3. The glory of the LORD has already been recognised as “above the heavens” (Psalm 8:1). Now we turn to the heavens themselves, the visible heavens.
I learned this Psalm by heart, in the Scottish metrical version, under the tutelage of a Free Church Minister, the Chaplain of my High School days. This verse in particular remained with me even in my unbelieving years in my late teens and early twenties. It seemed only apt since the Apollo missions were just getting under way.
“When I look up unto the heavens,
which thine own fingers framed,
Unto the moon, and to the stars,
which were by thee ordained…”
Psalm 8:4-6. At the centre of the Psalm is a meditation on the question, “What is man?” Man in his first estate, in paradise, was given a certain dignity and authority within God’s creation. That dignity and authority, though marred by sin, is not entirely eradicated.
Psalm 8:4. “Man” is a singular noun, although it might indicate a gender inclusive collective (cf. Genesis 1:27). What can “man” be, that the LORD should be “mindful of him?”
“Son of man” - literally “ben Adam” - is also singular, but it cannot refer to the man Adam in his first estate, nor the man Adam after the fall, since the man Adam was no man’s son! We must keep the translation “son of man” in the singular to see what is ultimately meant: not ‘mere mortals,’ as some would have it, but Jesus Christ, whose preferred name when referring to Himself was, ‘the Son of man’!
Psalm 8:5-6. Well, everything about “man” is significant because of what God has done: “thou hast made him…,” and “hast crowned him.” “Thou made him to have dominion…; thou hast put all under his feet.”
Psalm 8:5. The New Jewish Publication Society of America translates this verse, ‘For thou hast made him a little less than divine.’ The Hebrew word is doubtless, “Elohim” which reads as God, or gods, or even ‘heavenly beings.’ ‘Angels’ is the preferred translation of Psalm 8:5 in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. This appears to be the translation quoted in the Greek New Testament (Hebrews 2:7; and Hebrews 2:9).
Psalm 8:6. There is only one way that mankind has “all things under his feet,” and that is mankind in Christ, mankind in the risen Lord Jesus, ‘the church’ (Ephesians 1:20-22). This is where ‘church’ is: ‘sitting together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2:6). It can be said of Christ, as it can be said of man, even redeemed man, ‘But we see not yet all things put under him’ (Hebrews 2:8). ‘For He (Jesus) must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’ (1 Corinthians 15:25-26).
Psalm 8:7-8 lists the earthly limits of man’s original stewardship. Perhaps we should learn to look after life here before we spend our fortunes trying to find life elsewhere in this magnificent universe?
Psalm 8:9. Which brings us back full circle to the repetition of the psalmist’s adoration: “O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
C). THE PRESENTATION OF THE BRIDE.
Revelation 21:1-6.
We can imagine John in Patmos, only too aware of the sea which separated him from his congregation in Ephesus. “Sea” had come to represent not only primeval chaos (Genesis 1:1-2), but also all that is wrong in this now fallen world (Psalm 74:13-14). (Pictures are brought to my mind of uncharted waters in medieval charts: ‘Beyond here there be dragons!’) As ransomed, redeemed, renewed Israel well knew, only the true and living God can overcome the sea (Isaiah 51:10; Isaiah 51:15).
1. Now the Lord was doing a new thing. A new heaven and a new earth came into John’s view, in which there would be “no more sea” (Revelation 21:1), no more pain of separation.
2. “John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God” (Revelation 21:2). Old Jerusalem had once been compared with Sodom (Isaiah 1:9-10). New Jerusalem is identified as the “holy” city. Unlike Nineveh or Tyre, Babylon or Rome, this city is not built by human endeavour. Instead, new Jerusalem descends out of heaven from God.
Just as the LORD God presented Adam with Eve (Genesis 2:22), so now new Jerusalem is seen “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2). This is the moment anticipated in Revelation 19:7, and in turn anticipates Revelation 21:9-10.
3. “God dwelling amongst His peoples” (plural) (Revelation 21:3). New Jerusalem is where God is, so in this descent GOD comes to set His tabernacle with us (Leviticus 26:11-12). There are echoes of the incarnation, when the Word came and “dwelt amongst us” - literally ‘set His tabernacle’ in our midst (John 1:14).
One name of the city is: “The LORD is there” (Ezekiel 48:35). Another motif is: “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee” (Zephaniah 3:17).
4. The introduction of “new Jerusalem” (Revelation 21:2), pictured as the presentation of a bride, heralded a new dawn when God would wipe away all tears (Revelation 21:4): death would at last be vanquished, mourning would cease, crying and pain would be no more (Isaiah 65:17-19).
It was ‘out with the old’ (for the former things have passed away) and ‘in with the new’ (for He that sits upon the throne is making all things new) (Revelation 21:4-5).
5. The trustworthiness and truthfulness of the Word (Revelation 21:5-6) - see also Revelation 22:6; Revelation 22:10. The authentication of the Word comes from the “I am” - who is the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” “It is done…” (Revelation 21:6) echoes Creation (Genesis 2:1), and the Cross (John 19:30).
6. “The fountain of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6), which has hitherto been seen ‘issuing’ out from under the house of God (Ezekiel 47:1), now ‘proceeds’ out of the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1)
Jesus promised the woman at the well “living water” (John 4:10; John 4:14). Jesus also said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37). This is an offer open to “whosoever will” (Revelation 22:17).
D). ACCOUNTABILITY BEFORE JESUS.
Matthew 25:31-46.
This passage speaks to us of our final accountability before Jesus. Many people will acknowledge our accountability before God, whatever that may mean to them: but there is no reckoning with God without Jesus (John 14:9). This is not just for those who believe in Him: “all peoples” shall be gathered before Him (Matthew 25:32).
As is usual in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus refers to Himself as “the Son of man” (Matthew 25:31). The name means ‘human being’ - and may well cause us to wonder at the amazing grace of God in sending forth His own only begotten Son ‘that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16). God became man in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ with the express purpose of drawing unworthy sinners into the family and kingdom of God (Matthew 25:34).
The Old Testament vision of the enthronement of the “Son of man” by the ‘Ancient of days’ (Daniel 7:13-14) is replicated here (Matthew 25:31-32). God’s judgment does not take place without reference to our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus first identifies Himself as a shepherd (Matthew 25:32-33), then as the King (Matthew 25:34; cf. Matthew 2:2; Matthew 21:5; Matthew 27:37) - and, incidentally, as the unique Son of God (Matthew 25:34).
Jesus elsewhere refers to Himself as the good Shepherd, who gives His life for the sheep (John 10:11; John 10:14). I thank my God that Jesus is the One who seeks out the one who has gone astray (Matthew 18:12-14). I would not be here today if that were not true.
Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between sheep and goats, but those who run their flocks together know the difference, and separate the one from the other at the end of the day. In today’s passage, Jesus shows Himself separating the “sheep” from the “goats” at the Great Assize (Matthew 25:32). The one He sets on His right hand, the other on the left (Matthew 25:33).
What makes the difference? How we treat “one of the least of these my brethren,” says Jesus (Matthew 25:40; Matthew 25:45). Jesus has referred to this before: we must not ‘offend one of these little ones which believe’ in Him (Matthew 18:6).
This is not justification by works, as a superficial reading might suggest. According to Paul, we are ‘saved by grace through faith… not of works, so that no one can boast.’ Those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ are seen as God’s workmanship, ‘created in Christ Jesus to do good works’ (Ephesians 2:8-10).
James agrees. Faith is only really evidenced where there are works following (James 2:17-18). Ultimately the difference between the “sheep” and the “goats” lies in the way that we receive the ‘little ones’ - i.e. the disciples and their message (Matthew 10:40-42).
There is still a place for works of mercy in our style of life. We are called to ‘do good to all’ - but ‘especially to those who are of the household of faith’ (Galatians 6:10). We share Jesus’ compassion for the multitudes (Matthew 9:36-38), but it is love of the brethren that more thoroughly characterises Christians (1 John 3:14; Hebrews 13:1).
Remember that Jesus was speaking to His disciples (Matthew 24:1-2). However, the inclusion of this passage in Matthew’s Gospel universalises the message. It stands as an encouragement to those who have done right by Jesus and His disciples, and a warning to those who have done them wrong.
We must judge ourselves. Are our good works based upon humanitarian considerations? That would make us a philanthropist, a ‘do-gooder,’ not a Christian.
Are our good works an attempt to manipulate God, to earn ‘brownie points’ for heaven? ‘Oh, I do harm to no man, and help when I can.’ That is justification by works, not the faith of Abraham.
‘We must examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith’ (2 Corinthians 13:5). On this depends our eternal salvation; nothing else will suffice. Our good works will then naturally and instinctively arise out of our faith.
