A Sovereign God and Death

Let’s talk about it. I just finished watching the story, “Flame On”, about the death of the son of J.J. Jasper on KLOV radio. It is a compelling story and it speaks of the sovereignty of God. I believe in the sovereignty of God even more than the sovereignty worshippers. To me, God is so sovereign, in His Word, that He can use His foreknowledge of man’s response to Him to make a decision about what to do with that man before the man is even born. For some, that means that God was dependent on the man to show Him what to do. But we know that God made the man and gave Him a free will, just like Adam and Eve. Yes, God knows what the man or woman will do, but He does not make the choice for them. He is powerful enough and so omniscient as to be able to sovereignly work His will while still giving us a free will. My God is bigger than their God.

So, God knows the length of our days. I know that is true. But J.J. and his wife tell of a friend that says that it would not have mattered if they had carried there son around on a feather pillow all day, he still would have died. Is that true? 2 Kings 20:1-11 is one story from the Bible where God’s prophet tells the king: God says to get ready for you are about to die. Look at these verses-

“In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ”

2     Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying,

3     “Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4     Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

5     “Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.

6     “I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” ’ ”

7     Then Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

8     Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?”

9     Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”

10     So Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.”

11     Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

So, God was so sovereign that He knew that Hezekiah would pray and cry out to Him; or God is not all knowing. Without this prayer and crying out to God by Hezekiah, he would have died. God knew that he would cry out and pray and so God sent the prophet back not only to let him know about the additional 15 years, but to even give the king a verifying miracle for his miracle. Somehow God changed the natural path of the sun or the earth to make the sun go back on the steps. If asking for the miracle was not enough, Hezekiah also asked for a miracle to prove that what God had promised would come to pass. Now all of this comes from an Old Testament king that does not have Christ in his life or the power of the Holy Spirit. Hezekiah prayed to a sovereign God that had already announced his impending death and he was granted two miracles- 15 more years and a confirming miracle that required the alteration of the laws of nature. God knew about the additional 15 years that would come because of Hezekiah's prayer and weeping. This is not a surprise at all for an all powerful, all knowing, sovereign God.

March 1st Jerusalem Part Two

After Jesus had been taken by the temple guards to the home of Caiaphas for the mock trial that would happen there, it is believed that Jesus was taken to the basement of the home while the counsel made a plan to do Him in. In the Psalms and in Zechariah there are messianic verses about being alone in a pit while He would wait to die. This pit was a cistern in Caiaphas’ basement. The picture is from the floor of the cistern looking up through the hole they used to lower Jesus in and then take Him out. You might be able to see a Byzantine era cross carved on the side of the hole. He would have been waiting here after His disciples had abandoned Him, and His back had been beaten with sharp reeds, splashed with salt water, and then covered with olive oil. All of this before the Romans ever got to see Him. The last picture is the floor inside Antonio’s Fortress at the Temple mount. This is the actual floor layer where Jesus would have been beaten by the Roman soldiers. As we stood on this spot, away from the crowds, in the silence of the moment, it was easy to imagine the scene from the Passion of the Christ when Jesus was beaten, had His beard ripped out, and was mocked by the Roman soldiers. His blood was spilled on this stone floor, and all along the path to Calvary. Why did He do it? He did it so that you and I could be redeemed from the penalty of our sin. He did it because He loves us. He did it for His Father in Heaven to restore the fallen creation. Jesus is coming again to receive His reward for what He has done to save us. He will come in the air with His bride, and make His true triumphal entry- and if you are a true believer, you will be there too.

Jerusalem March 1st Part One

Today we left our hotel for the old city and started in a graveyard on the Mount of Olives cross from the Temple Mount looking over toward the Eastern Gate. It is the famous picture that includes the Islamic site of the Dome of the Rock (not included). The picture is of the wall on the eastern side, where Jesus is going to come when He returns in the sky with His bride and the angels. His white robe will be bloody with the wrath He has poured out on those that have persecuted and martyred the Jews and Christians who belonged to Him. He will stop His horse on the Mount of Olives and when He dismounts the mountain will split in have from north to south creating a new valley and a new river. In the picture you may notice all of these white things on the ground by the gate. Those are the graves of Moslems that were put there to make the site unfit for a holy man like Jesus to come through. How foolish to think that if Jesus is truly the Messiah that this will be able to stop them. Notice that they have also blocked the eastern gate shut. That was foolish as well since Saladin the Magnificent who had the city walls restored in the 16^th century did not put the gate back where the original gate was placed. If you look to the left there is a small structure with two Islamic arches. It is believed that the original gate is right about there and from 11 to 18 feet underground. You might be looking on from your horse as the Mount of Olives splits apart and a river gushes across washing away the cemetery and removing the dirt down to the original eastern gate- just a thought.

On the Mount of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane. You will notice that these old trees have new branches on them. The trees were dead as far as anyone knew, since they had been dated back to the time of Christ. The new growth started in 1948 when Israel became a nation again. It sounds kind of unlikely, but good miracles always sound unlikely; don’t they. We had a special time as a group in the garden with singing and scripture readings. We divided up to pray by the olive trees in a private garden area that our tour had the honor of using. It was very moving for everyone to think that we were praying where Jesus had prayed on the night before His crucifixion. Even the clover that grows in the garden area is special. If you take a close look when you pick it, it has little random red specks on it like it had been splashed with the blood that Jesus sweat as He prayed about the cup He was about to bear for you and me.