A Hard Won War

Proverbs 18:19 A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.

The longest known siege in history started in 1648 on the small Mediterranean island of Crete. During the Ottoman-Venetian wars, the Ottoman Empire besieged the city Candia, Crete's capital. The fight to take the city lasted 21 years. It all started when a Catholic organization known as “The Knights of the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem" looted an Ottoman ship carrying treasure to Constantinople. The Ottoman forces attacked in kind and took over the island, all except the capital. But the city was well fortified and protected, and for the next two decades, countless lives and fortunes were lost in the battle until Candia finally succumbed to the never-ending onslaught.

A hard-won battle taking down a fortified city designed to resist attack is the image Solomon has in mind describing the attempt at repairing a busted relationship with a brother. Whether in families or in churches, brothers in the flesh or brothers in Christ, when we are hurt by the wrongdoing of brother, it’s going to leave a mark much deeper than if it were an enemy.

Why? Well, it doesn't take much effort to get the relationship of an acquaintance back to the normal. You aren't that close anyway, so you don't have far to fall, or don't have to far to travel back. But, with a brother, it's different. We love and trust our brothers. We don’t expect the betrayal. When brothers have bonded in struggles, fights, blood, sweat, and tears, there is a bond that develops that is like no other. So when that love is betrayed it shakes us to the core.  We expect our brothers to have our back, not stab us in it. We expect our brothers to walk with us. Why is it sometimes easier to let things slide with an acquaintance than a brother? We show more leniency toward an acquaintance because we are either trying to win them to our side, or don’t expect as much from them. That’s also why we are harder on our friends and brothers than we are those outside the camp.  A brother’s sin is a betrayal of both the relationship both people have devoted so much to and the big part of our life we share with them.

You need to guard your relationship. A small matter can cause irreparable harm, and once the offence has been committed, it’s very difficult to win them back. Because the bond is close, it’s very easy to take advantage of a brotherly bond. Once the brotherhood is broken, it takes great effort and struggle to make it right again. I’ve known brethren at odds a lot longer than Ottoman-Venetian conflict. Though it is possible to win him back, it would be better not to sin against him in the first place or when we sin, quickly ask for forgiveness.

Even so, Come Lord Jesus

“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” Revelation 22:20.  When we say we believe something or have faith in a teaching, how does our belief affect our life?  Believing in something should cause an outworking of that doctrine.  Some have intellectual beliefs about the Bible, but little or no faith in those same beliefs because they have no fruit in their life.  If you believed your house was on fire, you probably wouldn’t sit down with a cup of coffee and discuss the philosophical implications of light, heat, and flame. No, you would grab your family and get out of the house. If you truly believe the Bible, you are going to act like you believe the Bible.

One very common theme in God’s Word, for believers is the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the great hopes of the Christian. We, as it says in Titus 2:13, are, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”  Not a “I hope it happens” but a faith knowing it is going transpire. If you believe the Bible, you confess Jesus is coming again. How does the return of Christ affect your life?

The apostle John was captured and put into exile on the isle of Patmos, banished for preaching the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.  He was persecuted and afflicted for righteousness sake and banished to a rocky island, barren, desolate, and void of anything making Patmos a desirable locale.  Not exactly an island paradise. The apostle was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day and received the revelation of Jesus Christ concerning the end times. John had little reason for hope.  Exiled, hated, persecuted, aged, afflicted; he dedicated his best years to preaching the gospel and teaching the saints only to end it in exile.  But John had hope. Not in changing the government to like Christians. John had no hope of living a normal, peaceable life, but his hope was in Jesus Christ.  John wasn’t wishing to die, but he wanted Christ to come back and get him, and his eschatology (the study of the last days) impacted his whole outlook on life.

Do you take comfort in the return of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18)? Do you desire the return of Christ?  When is the last time you meditated on the soon coming of Jesus Christ, let alone desire it? Can you say, “even so, come Lord Jesus,” and mean it? There is a crown of righteousness in Heaven, waiting for all God’s people who love his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8). Is there a crown waiting for you? Do you live like Jesus may return today? Or, have the cares and concerns of this life taken over your heart and affections? “Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not,” Luke 12:40.

A Better 3G

I worked for AT&T Wireless back when internet on your cell phone just started to be a big deal. Everyone wanted the new and faster 3G (3rd generation) technology. As the technology improved, internet speeds got faster. Now, however, when you see 3G, you may get frustrated because it means download speeds are roughly 10 times slower than 4G. Verizon is rolling out their 5G and it is supposedly 20 times faster than 4G. But I have a 3G you can get excited about again. It’s based on a 16th century Heidelberg Catechism written in a place called the Electorate of the Palatinate (modern day Germany) in the city of Heidelberg. I prefer  the “immersed” version Baptist preacher, Hercules Collins revised called the Orthodox Catechism. 

The answers to the first two questions provide an outline for the whole catechism. “What is your only comfort in life and in death” and, “what must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?” Answer: “First, how great my sins and misery are; second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance.” This is also an outline of the book of Romans, and where we get the better 3G’s.

Guilt. “You must know how great your sin truly is.” In the first 3 ½ chapters of the book of Romans, Paul proves, “all have sinned”. We are guilty before God and have no hope of being justified before the law. Doesn’t sound very hopeful, especially when we want to know the answer to question one, “what is your only comfort in life and death?” That leads us to the second G.

Grace. ”You must know how you are set free from you sin and misery.” Starting at the end of chapter three, through chapter 11, Paul instructs us on the grace of God. We cannot be saved by the law since in only condemns us, but we are saved by Grace. Jesus Christ, the second Adam, died for our sins as the perfect sin sacrifice, the just and justifier. He took the sins of his people, paid their debt, and graciously, imputes His righteousness to our account. Not by our works of righteousness, but by grace and His righteousness. Which leads us to the third G.

Gratitude. “You must know how you are to thank God for your deliverance.” Must we keep the law to be saved? Of course not, but how can a person be saved from their wicked, Hell deserving sins, rescued from an eternity in the Lake of Fire and given eternal life not be grateful and live a life of “reasonable service”? We do not keep the law  to be saved, but a child of God, with a heart of gratitude, lives a life that is pleasing to God, giving our bodies as a living sacrifice, out of love for God saving us.

Next time your phone is slow, and you’ve got the dreaded 3G, praise God, and think of your guilt, His grace, and your gratitude.

Fausset on Leaven

"A lump of old dough in high fermentation. As making it and leavening bread with it took time, unleavened bread was used in sudden emergencies (Gen_18:6; Gen_19:3). It was forbidden in all offerings to the Lord by fire (Lev_2:11; Lev_7:12). The Israelites on pain of death were to have none in their houses or in the land during Passover for seven days, from 14th Nisan (Exo_12:15; Exo_12:19; Exo_12:39; Exo_13:7; Exo_23:18; Deu_16:3-4). Salt was its opposite, and was never to be absent from the altar burnt offering, representing the incorruptible imperishableness of Jehovah's covenant. Honey as liable to ferment also was excluded from the altar burnt offerings. Leaven reminded Israel of the haste with which they fled from Egypt, and of their sufferings, which answer to the insipidity of unleavened bread, "the bread of affliction."

Its prominent symbolical meaning was, it is bred of corruption and corrupts the mass with which it is mixed. Hence it represents "malice" (the evil habit) and "wickedness" (evil coming out in word and deed) as opposed to "sincerity" and "truth" (1Co_5:7). The Jews searched with extreme care their houses, to purge out every particle of leaven. So Christians ought to search their hearts and purge out every corruption (Psa_139:23-24). It also symbolizes corrupt doctrine (Mat_16:6). Another quality is its secretly penetrating and diffusive influence: 1Co_5:6, "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," the influence of one sinner corrupts many (Ecc_9:18); but in Gal_5:9 a little legalism mixed with the gospel corrupts its purity. Though elsewhere used in a bad sense, leaven in Mat_13:33 represents the gospel principle working silently "without observation" from within, until the whole is leavened, just as the mustard tree represents its diffusion externally; so "flesh," though usually in a bad sense, in Eze_11:19 is in a good sense.

The decomposition of social elements, accompanying and providentially preparing the way for the gospel, makes the image appropriate. Leaven was allowed to be offered in the firstfruits and tithes (Deu_26:2; Deu_26:12; 2Ch_31:5), the Pentecostal loaves (Lev_23:15; Lev_23:17), and the peace offering (Lev_7:13). See Lev_2:11 "as an oblation of firstfruits ye shall offer them (leaven and honey) unto the Lord, but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour." In Amo_4:5 the leavened bread was "with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of the peace offerings," not with burnt offerings of animals on the altar. Perhaps however the command is ironical, "offer by burning (margin) a sacrifice ... with leaven" (which was forbidden), your very offerings being open insults to God."

Fausset's Bible Dictionary
by Andrew Robert Fausset