Month: December 2024

Posted on

Not To Be Forgotten

During this season we are reminded of prominent people who have died during the year just past. Their names and photographs appear briefly in news reports before our attention is drawn to the Rose Parade, football games and the crowds gathered in Times Square for the celebration of the new year.

No matter now famous or infamous they were, it seems that they are soon forgotten by most of us. Do you remember the people on last year’s list?

Knowing how forgetful we are, the writer of Psalm 136 drives home a refrain to remind us of the love of God. He repeats it 26 times. It is a great theme to take with us into the new year: “His love endures forever.” Like a hammer hitting a nail, he pounds it into our consciousness: “His love endures forever.” This is how he wants us to think about God.

Why is this theme repeated so often in this single Hebrew poem? The most obvious reason is that the writer wants to help us remember what God is like. Repetition is an aid to learning. Isn’t that how we learned the alphabet, or the multiplication tables, or the periodic table of the elements when we were in school?

Another reason the theme is repeated is that it represents a form of congregational worship. Imagine two choirs, one singing, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good;” the other choir answering antiphonally, “His love endures forever.” Worship is to be participatory and we are being invited to join the refrain, “His love endures forever.”

The psalmist does not want us to think of God as we think of the celebrities who appear for awhile on the world stage, then pass away, forgotten. He intends for the Lord to remain the center of our thinking and of our worship. This is a good reminder for us as we begin a new year.

Remember God’s goodness

The word “love,” used here, appears over 250 times in the Old Testament. It is sometimes translated “lovingkindness,” or “mercy.” It is God’s steadfast love, or covenant love. It is the unchanging goodness of God which binds him to keep faith with his people. We will need to remember that in 2025, in seasons of change or uncertainty, or trouble. God is always good. His love never fails (Psalm 136:1).

Remember God’s greatness

Psalm 136:2-9 reminds us of God’s sovereignty. He is “Lord of lords” (a title the New Testament ascribes to Jesus!). He is the creator of the heavens and the earth, the sun, moon and stars. The psalmist invites us to look around at creation and see it as a work of God’s steadfast love.

Then he recounts, in poetic fashion, some facts of Israel’s history which reveal the Lord’s intervention on their behalf (Psalm 136:10-20). He rescued his people from bondage in Egypt, led them safely through the Red Sea, and gave them victory over their enemies. All of this is evidence of God’s covenant love, so he repeats the theme, “His love endures forever.” The greatness of God is not to be forgotten!

Remember God’s generosity

Psalm 136:21-26 tells how the Lord generously provided a homeland for his people. The Promised Land was to be their inheritance in perpetuity. When Israel sinned against God, and he judged them by removing them from the land, they could know that in his covenant faithfulness, he would someday liberate them and restore them to the land (Psalm 136:23-24). The prophets often wrote of Israel’s ultimate restoration.

The fashions and the famous of the world fade and pass away. But we may be sure that “God’s love endures forever.” We must never forget this. Through the coming year we will need to remind ourselves of this, just as the theme punctuates the psalm.

J. A. Motyer said of this psalm, “From the beginning of creation, to the climax of redemption, from the first making of the heavens to the final inheritance of the saints, all is to be seen against the background of the love of God. That love is both indestructible, because it is covenant love, and boundless, because it endures forever.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

Posted on

The Quiet Strength of Faithful Man

Joseph is described in the Bible as a righteous man who sought to follow God’s law. This means that his life was regulated by the moral standards of the Word of God. I think it is safe to say that he lived every day in the awareness of the will and guidance of God.

When an angel brought a message from heaven, he was obedient to God’s call. He was to assume his role as the fatherly provider and protector of the infant Jesus and his virgin mother Mary. Joseph was faithful.

Caleb Saenz has written, “Joseph is to be Jesus’ earthly father, but his choice to receive that calling is less a one-time acceptance and more a daily choice to follow through with his new identity and the responsibilities it entails.” There can be no doubt that Joseph took seriously those responsibilities. His influence was a righteous influence.

The degree to which Joseph’s influence shaped the human life of Jesus is a mystery. The Bible is silent on this matter. But since Jesus was also a carpenter (Mark 6:3), we may assume that he learned this trade from Joseph. Like Joseph, our Lord was a “righteous” carpenter. May not the quiet strength, the healthy masculinity, and the courage we see in the human Jesus be, in some sense, attributable to the faithful example of Joseph?

Hebrews 5:8 tells us that Jesus “learned obedience.” How can it be said that the Son of God needed to “learn” anything? Yet in his humanity Jesus experienced the developmental stages of childhood in submission  to his parents (Luke 2:39-40, 51-52). And the man whom God appointed to be the human guardian to the child Jesus was a faithful, humble, righteous man, a carpenter named Joseph, the husband of Mary.

It seems likely that Joseph died before Jesus began his public ministry. He is absent from the references to Jesus’ family we find in the gospels. His earthly work was done. He was faithful to his calling. It was a big task — to provide, to protect, and to teach. The extent to which Joseph taught Jesus by passing on his beliefs is unknown. But he fulfilled his fatherly role as a faithful man.

Joseph is an example to us. Like him, we want to say “yes” to God’s will for our lives, whatever that means. The U.S. Army recruits thousands of volunteers every year with such challenging words as these: “As a soldier . . . you’ll experience things you never thought possible and go places most people only read about.” Joseph said “yes” to God. If we do that, God will use us too.

Joseph’s example also reminds us to evaluate our lives. Joseph was “a righteous man.” He navigated his way through a world of sin without being stained or polluted by it. When we are tempted to make moral compromises, we need the grace of God to resist temptation. “God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Joseph was a man of influence. He doubtless had a significant influence in the life of Jesus in his youth. You and I have influence, too. God is calling us to use it to influence others toward his Son and the salvation he offers to the world.

Joseph was not a theologian, a priest, or an apostle. But as a humble working man, a decisive man, a courageous man, and as a man of faith, he had a role in changing the world.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

Posted on

The Quiet Strength of a Courageous Man

Living quietly as a craftsman in Nazareth did not require much of Joseph in the way of courage. No defiant acts of political intrigue. No insurrection against the Roman occupation. Joseph is not described in heroic terms.

Yet when he faced the greatest crisis of his life, he displayed unusual courage. I think he behaved as a hero.

Joseph was required by Roman edict to travel to his hometown of Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7). It was not a good time for him and his wife to make such a journey. Mary was well along in her pregnancy. This must have been disruptive and inconvenient. The journey must have been slow and unpleasant.

When they arrived, Bethlehem was filled with visitors who were there to comply with the Roman registration. The homes were crowded with relatives. The inns were overrun. There was no place for them to stay other than a stable for animals.

“While they were there the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger” (Luke 2:7).

We may assume this happened not long after their arrival in Bethlehem. There is no mention of a midwife, and no description of Jesus’ actual birth. Did Joseph deliver the baby?

They stayed in Bethlehem several months after Jesus was born, perhaps as long as two years (Matthew 2:16). Then a second dream came to Joseph as a message from heaven (Matthew 2:13-15). Hurry up! Escape while you can! Flee to Egypt! Herod the king is going to try to kill the child.

Joseph acted courageously and left Bethlehem during the night with his little family. This was the second of three journeys in the Christmas story. It must have been slow going with a baby, travelling through the wilderness the hundred miles to Egypt.

Historians tell us there were over a million Jews living in Alexandria at the time. Joseph and Mary may have lived as refugees among this expatriate community. In Egypt they found temporary protection from the evil despot who was motivated by Satan to destroy the baby Jesus. The fate of humanity and God’s plan of salvation hung on Joseph’s heroic obedience to God.

We do not know how long the holy family stayed in Egypt. We are told that it was until the death of King Herod (Matthew 2:19-20). The stay in Egypt had been prophesied in the Old Testament (Matthew 2:15), “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

This is an allusion to Hosea 11:1, which refers originally to the exodus of the Hebrew nation from their slavery in Egypt. Matthew applied this prophesy to Jesus, who was the typological fulfillment of all that the nation Israel had failed to be in the divine plan. Hosea wrote more than he knew. His words had a deeper significance, pointing beyond the nation Israel, to the Lord Jesus Christ. The exodus of the children of Israel in their infancy was a pointer to  Joseph’s heroic rescue of Jesus in his infancy.

After the death of king Herod, Joseph received another message in a dream. He was instructed to return with the child and his mother to the land of Israel. An additional dream guided him specifically to Galilee. Once again, Joseph obeyed. Once again, they travelled. Once again, prophesy was fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matthew 2:22-23).

Nazareth was a small, obscure place. All his life our Lord was referred to as “Jesus of Nazareth.” It was there that Joseph taught his adopted son the trade of carpentry (Mark 6:3). It was there that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). This was due in large measure to the courage and heroism of Joseph.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

Posted on

The Quiet Strength of a Thinking Man

During this season of Advent I am thinking of Joseph. He was the man God called to be the foster father on earth of Jesus. His call came unexpectedly from two sources, from news that Mary gave him, and from a dream God sent him.

We might imagine the scene: Mary, his betrothed wife-to-be, approaching him, eyes to the ground. “Joseph, I have something to tell you.” She was pregnant. He knew this was not his doing. This seeming betrayal was the greatest disappointment of his life. The shock was beyond words. His sadness inconsolable.

As a faithful Jew, he knew enough of the Torah to know that he could either publicly expose Mary’s apparent infidelity, shaming her, and possibly risking her life, or divorce her privately. The gospel of Matthew gives us the story (Matthew 1:18-20).

Joseph was a thinking man. “He considered this,” the text says. His mind ranged back and forth. On the one hand, guided by his heart, he loved Mary and felt a need to try to protect her from public scandal. On the other hand, guided by his head, he had a reputation as a righteous man, and he must have felt a duty to safeguard his own good name. The law of Moses permitted divorce in cases like this. That is what he was inclined to do. Until . . . he received a message from heaven.

We call it divine intervention. An instance when God shows up and speaks with unmistakable clarity. The Bible is full of instances like this. When life is at its worst, when people are pulled in opposite directions and they don’t know what to do, or when they are overwhelmed with sorrow, the Lord reveals his will. God sent a messenger to Joseph with gentle guidance.

“After he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins'” (Matthew 1:20-21).

“A son,” not “your son.” Matthew adds the interpretation from the prophet Isaiah, “They will call him Immanuel — which means God with us” (Matthew 1:23). He will be conceived by the Holy Spirit, a miraculous conception and birth. He will be “God with us,” divine and sinless. He will be a male child, fully human.

In Bible times, dreams were reliable media for transmitting divine guidance. This was the first of four dreams Joseph would receive from the Lord. In this respect he is like the Old Testament Joseph for whom he was named. He responded to the message with faith and obedience.

He knew what to do. “He did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25).

As a thinking man, Joseph was open to divine guidance.. He accepted by faith the message from heaven. The holy angel confirmed what Mary had already told him, that she was a virgin (Luke 1:34). He did as he was directed and gave the baby the name Jesus, which means “savior,” or “deliverer.”

As you and I contemplate this, let’s be like Joseph, obedient to God’s revealed will. Let’s be like Joseph, thinking things through and responding with faith in God’s word.

Pastor Randy Faulkner