Psalm 90:1-12, Genesis 32:24-29, Ephesians 6:10-20, John 4:46-54.
A). NUMBERING OUR DAYS.
Psalm 90:1-12.
Psalm 90:1. It is remarkable that the children of Israel survived 400 years in Egypt, and for some of that time under unspeakable oppression. Yet despite their hard labour and sorrow, the LORD had been their dwelling place “from generation to generation”. This is an expression of God’s covenant love from Abraham to Moses, and onward to our own days.
Psalm 90:2. The LORD is not limited by time as we are. He is the One who inhabits eternity. His perspective is “from everlasting to everlasting”, where days and millennia are of no consequence (2 Peter 3:8).
Psalm 90:3. The theme of this Psalm is the brevity of human life. Man was formed of dust, and to dust he must return (Genesis 3:19). This is the judgement of the LORD against our sin.
Psalm 90:4. For a while after the Creation, up until the flood, men were living to what we might consider extraordinary ages. Yet even the oldest of them died at less than 1000 years old. This is nothing to God.
Psalm 90:5. Since the fall of man, generation after generation have been swept away in death. Even our life is like a sleep, already under the judgement of God. We are like a dream which disappears with the opening of a new day.
Psalm 90:6. We are like a grass which springs up overnight, flourishes in the morning, and grows up. In the evening it is cut down, and withers. Such is the frailty of life.
Psalm 90:7. Yet there is a reason for all this. Our mortality is on account of God’s anger at man’s disobedience (Genesis 3:17). As the couplet goes, “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.”
Psalm 90:8. Each of us has also aggravated our collective guilt with our individual sins. Every deed, every word, every inmost thought is open to the One who dwells in eternity. He sees it all, and there is no fleeing from His presence (Psalm 139:7).
Psalm 90:9. Our days pass away under God’s wrath. Iniquity already had its hold upon us in our mothers’ womb (Psalm 51:5). We were born already “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), and our fragile mortal lives have been subject to decline ever since.
Psalm 90:10. It is a far cry from the great age of the patriarchs to our mere seventy or eighty years. We have known trouble and sorrow ever since the fall. For the generality of mankind, it all leads down to the grave.
Psalm 90:11. We cannot begin to imagine how angry God is. Our sin is against an infinite God, so He could only be satisfied with the payment of the sacrifice of His infinite Son on our behalf. His anger is in proportion to our failure to reverence Him.
Psalm 90:12. Yet when we do reverence Him, we will want Him to teach us to make a right application of the truth about the brevity of our lives. We need to know ourselves sinners, and to be aware that death is “the wages of sin” (Romans 6:23). And knowing this, our wisdom is to repent.
B). WRESTLING IN PRAYER.
Genesis 32:24-29.
Jacob's wrestling, whilst factual and historical, is nevertheless a metaphor for prayer.
1. The place name, Jabbok, means pouring out, or emptying.
This reminds me of the self-emptying of Christ (cf. Philippians 2:7-8).
It also reminds me of Jesus' prayer life, as portrayed in the Gospels.
Jabbok was a ford, a crossing place, but also, incidentally, a place where God and man met.
There Jacob wrestled with a man: surely indeed, he wrestled with the Lord, in a prayer of disciplined endurance (GENESIS 32:24).
2. When God meets with us, it puts us all out of joint: until Jesus puts us back together again.
For Jacob this was not just metaphorical, but literal: a prayer of painful perseverance (GENESIS 32:25).
3. We need to exercise a certain tenacity in prayer, not easily giving up.
Jacob was persistent in prayer, refusing to let his opponent go until he procured the desired blessing (GENESIS 32:26).
4. Thereby Jacob - whose name means 'usurper' - had power to prevail with God and man.
Jesus the great intermediary, has power with God and man, and empowers us to prevail with God and man.
Jacob received a new name, Israel, which means 'a prince with God' (GENESIS 32:27-28).
There is a new name written in Christ's kingdom for those who overcome (cf. Revelation 2:17).
5. Such outpouring of ourselves, painful perseverance, tenacity in prayer - will cause us also to prevail.
Thus, like Jacob, we will procure the blessing (GENESIS 32:29).
C). A SPIRITUAL ARMOURY.
Ephesians 6:10-20.
“Go on being made strong,” begins the final exhortation of this Epistle. Having been made strong in the past by relying on the Lord, so make your stand now “in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10). Do not yield one inch: do not ‘give place to the devil’ (Ephesians 4:27).
At first sight the language here seems to point us toward a defensive posture. The watchword, after all, seems to be to “stand” (Ephesians 6:11; Ephesians 6:13; Ephesians 6:14). Much of the armor also is protective (Ephesians 6:14-16): but there is no covering for the back, as we are not of those who turn their back to the enemy, or run away.
One other strategy of preparation is to understand what we are up against. This is no flesh and blood struggle (Ephesians 6:12; Ephesians 6:16). We must not make the mistake of the sons of Sceva (Acts 19:13-16). ‘The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,’ but spiritual (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
“Having put on” God’s armor (Ephesians 6:11), we are prepared to make our stand. However, the fact that the 'gates of hell shall not prevail against' the faithful church (Matthew 16:18) puts us more on the offensive than the defensive. As we receive the helmet, and take up the sword (Ephesians 6:17-18), we realise that we are in attack mode, and must keep alert (Ephesians 5:16).
The “sword of the Spirit” is “the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17).
Interestingly the word translated “word” here is not ‘logos’. The ‘logos of God’ normally refers to the entirety of Scripture (Hebrews 4:12). Or to Jesus as the enfleshment of that word (John 1:14).
The word is ‘rhema’ – an utterance which proves to be apt for the particular situation in which it is uttered. It is a ‘word in season’ (Proverbs 15:23). The Lord Jesus uses the same word (rhema) when referring to His sayings (John 6:63).
Having made our stand, pronounced our allegiance, and defended the faith: it is now time to move forward. We have a message to proclaim, a word to preach, and testimonies to declare. We have all power and all might as we move forward together, at the command of King Jesus, and in accordance with His word.
Yet there is one more weapon in our armoury, and one without which we would surely fail. There is no military analogy for “prayer, all prayer, and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18). Such prayers are, unashamedly, for our fellow-believers who share with us in the worldwide propagation of the gospel.
Such prayers are also uttered with the help of the Spirit (Romans 8:26-27). We pray for our leaders, our speakers, to be given “utterance” (the word used here is ‘logos’) that will make sense of the gospel to people of diverse backgrounds and situations (Ephesians 6:19). We pray for all ambassadors of the faith – especially those who are held captive for speaking the truth: that they may continue to speak right words, ‘in season or out of season’ (2 Timothy 4:2), with the same boldness and singleness of purpose (Ephesians 6:20).
The battle is not ours, but the Lord’s (2 Chronicles 20:15). It is not by our own might, nor by our own power, but by His Spirit that we gain the victory (Zechariah 4:6). The war was already won on the day when Jesus cried, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30).
D). THE HEALING OF THE SON OF A NOBLEMAN.
John 4:46-54.
Returning to Cana, where Jesus had turned the water into wine, He was met by a royal official from Capernaum whose son was sick, even to the point of death. The man entreated Jesus to come down and heal his boy (JOHN 4:46-47).
“Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe,” replied Jesus (JOHN 4:48). A delayed answer to prayer may not always be a refusal. We should look at it rather as an exercise in faith and motive. Our belief system has to get beyond the demand for signs and miracles to a trusting encounter with the One who alone knows the heart of man.
This high ranking Civil Servant on King Herod’s payroll was not to be put off by Jesus’ seeming rebuff, however. Like the stubborn persistence of Jacob of old, he was willing to wrestle it out until He procured the desired blessing. The prayer became even more passionate, practical, and focussed: "Sir, come down ere my child die" (JOHN 4:49).
As the man found out, perseverance in prayer does pay dividends. Having suffered the seeming refusal of a delay, he heard the gracious words of Jesus, “Go thy way, thy son liveth” (JOHN 4:50). In a moment he had to graduate from the kindergarten of miracle-seeking to the exercise of a believing, trusting response to Jesus which bore the fruits of obedience in his life.
The miracle had not been witnessed by this father, but he set out for home in the belief that it had happened. As usual, obedience has its payday. Sometimes the capacity to receive an answered prayer lies within our willingness to obey the clear-cut commands of Jesus.
However long it took the nobleman to travel the twenty miles from Capernaum to Cana, it would take him until the next day to get back. God knows what temptations to doubt may have befallen on him on the way, but his servants had the presence of mind - or perhaps orders - to meet him with the good news (in the same words, incidentally, as Jesus had used): “Thy son liveth” (JOHN 4:51). Perhaps his resolve was still being tested until the very moment that he was able to embrace his healed son, and lead his whole household into faith (JOHN 4:52-53).
This, we are told, was the second significant “sign” in John’s Gospel, conducted when Jesus came back from Jerusalem to Cana in Galilee (JOHN 4:54). It is no surprise that John gives details of five more as the early chapters of his account unfold, making a total of seven. These are not miracles for miracles’ sake, but indications of who Jesus is, calling as ever for our response to His claim upon our lives (cf. John 20:30-31).
