Category: Devotional Grist

22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24When Noah awoke from his wine(A) and knew what his youngest son had done to him,

According to one understanding, we see here the first mention of homosexuality. Here Ham “saw [or uncovered] the nakedness of his Father,” and was then cursed by his Father when “Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him.” To uncover nakedness is a Hebrew idiom meaning to have “sexual relations (see Leviticus chapters 18-20). In Call of the Torah, Rabbi Elie Munk cites Hebrew scholars who also interpret Ham’s violation as “an act of pederasty” (p. 220). Thus Ham becomes “Canaan,” for whom the land of Canaan is named.

One school of Jewish tradition holds that the “last straw” of human wickedness which precipitated God’s action of bringing flood upon the earth, was the advent of “homosexual marriage (ibid.), implying that Ham had been corrupted by homosexual sin in the pre-flood society, and carried the vice like a virus into the new world. Significantly, it was Ham’s near descendants who founded and populated the Canaanite cites of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Redeeming the Rainbow
Dr. Scott Lively

In the pages of Scripture we see a connection between God’s creative and redemptive work and the establishing of meaning. The drama of God’s divine work in the Old Testament moves through the creation of the world, the redemption out of Egypt, and the conquest of Canaan. Each of these three acts wrests meaning from meaninglessness: the world emerges from nothing, Israel from the grave of Egypt, and the promised land from the desert. In the New Testament the drama moves through the resurrection in the Gospels, and the need of the Gospel for the nations in Acts. Each of these acts likewise wrest meaning from meaninglessness: the seeming meaninglessness of the Cross is given meaning by the resurrection, and the nations find meaning only as they submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

All these acts thus interpret one another as works of divine power where the coming of salvation means the dissolution of meaninglessness. We see here that the progress of redemption is closely tied up with the progress of meaning. In these historical stages the realm of meaning grows.

What is true in the progress of redemption is true for the individual who is caught up in God’s redemption. The individual outside of Christ is without form and void — he finds no basis for meaning — but when the Spirit of God hovers over the individual in order to recreate by way of regeneration the individual, by way of salvation, is for the first time given meaningful meaning.

It is then, not only the soul that is saved in salvation, but also the mind, for in salvation the mind can find objective meaning and be delivered from the subjectivism that is so characteristic of those who are without God and without hope.

“I AM from above … I AM He” (John 8:23-24) — words very harmonious to the “I AM who I AM” of Exodus 3:14. “I that speak unto thee AM he” (John 4:26) — words similar to how God identifies Himself to Moses. “I AM the bread of life” (John 6:35) — the God given manna without which man dies of spiritual famine. “I AM the Light of the World” (John 8:12, cf. 9:5, 12:35, 46) — words that point to Christ as the I AM who is the divine pillar of fire supplying guidance and illumination to the Gentiles (Is. 49:6) for their exodus. “I AM the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25, cf. 5:26, 17:2) — words that echo the work of the I AM of the Old Covenant promising to bring resurrected life to a valley of dry bones. “I AM the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6, cf. John 5:26, 17:2) — words that every God fearing Hebrew would have ascribed as coming from Yahweh-Elohim. “I AM the Good Shepherd” (John 10:7, 11) — words that Yahweh-Elohim ascribed to Himself in Ezekiel 34:11f. “I AM the true vine” (John 15:1, cf. 15:5) — in contradistinction to the false son of God that faithless Israel was supposed to be but never was.

How many ways does Jesus the Messiah have to proclaim His Deity and consubstantiality w/ the Father?

1 Samuel 22

1David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him.

2And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.

I believe it is safe to say that what we have before us here is a picture of Christ in his humiliation and his Church in the Wilderness. David is being persecuted by a King that God has already determined to set aside in favor of David, a man who, like the coming Christ, was a man after God’s own heart. So, this true King, living in humiliation, holes up in a cave that literally means “refuge,” and the refugees of Saul’s false Kingdom — those in distress, those discontented (Lit. — Bitter of soul) those in debt rally around this little Church in the Wilderness and around this type of Christ in his humiliation.

In the Cave of Adullam they not only find a refuge, but they find a stronghold as well (vs. 4). This is a place of rest, protection, and safety with the true King in their midst.

Now, knowing the rest of the story we know that David finally comes into what God has promised him, but at this time that future promise fulfilled is still future. David is outcast and he is surrounded with an outcast Church.

That the Church is often filled with outcasts and goes through times of eclipse is not a theme we find here alone.

In the book of Hebrews the writer to Hebrews can look back retrospectively at the Church and write of it during some of its epochs

36And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

38(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

The true Church has not always been a organism that has been embraced by the world, nor even by the visible Church. Many have been the times in history when the worst persecutors of the true Church was the visible Church.

There are times then in History when the Church revisits the place of refuge in order to escape from the deadly intent of those who would do her harm.

And the idea that that church is staffed often by outcasts is not only a Old Testament theme. In I Corinthians the Apostle Paul can say of the Church,

26For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

29That no flesh should glory in his presence.

30But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

31That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

I believe we are living during a time when the Church must once again become a Cave of Adullam where those counted outcasts by the elite gatekeepers of our culture and often our Church can find a stronghold. In such times, we should not expect to find a great number of Caves. If there were a great number of caves we would not be in the situation where finding one was such a unique blessing.

It is my prayer that God would be pleased to make Charlotte CRC just such a cave of Adullam. A place where those distressed by the current spirit of the age can come and find rest for their souls. A place where those discontented by the strange Christs offered up by much of the Church today can be fed the Christ of Scripture. A place where those in the debt of sin can be reminded that God has paid the ransom and provided full redemption for them — body and soul. It may be the case that those who would come to this refuge has to drive many miles to do so, but should they make the trip — a trip that has to be made because there are no other caves around — let it be a trip that ended in balm for their souls and the word of life for their encouragement.

This may be a time for Adullam in our gathering but we must be reminded that we are in a different part of God’s story then David was. We are in the part of the story where God has already triumphed in Christ. As such we must not and can not be satisfied with a refugee status. If God has provided this place as a refuge and a stronghold He has provided it so we can scatter out from here back to Howell, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Battle Creek, as well as Charlotte and other points in order to be the elite military teams trained to overturn the current corrupt Church to be a Church that once again heralds David’s greater victorious Brother.

The cave is not to be permanent, as if every generation of Christians are to be cave dwellers. Christ is now in His exaltation and we are to be a Church militant that goes from victory unto victory in extending the crown rights of King Jesus — The Great High Priest who has provided a full redemption for us — into every domain.

We need to keep in mind Samuel Stone’s great lyrics

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song!

We may be in a night of weeping but because Christ is victorious there shall be rejuvenation in history and the Church shall once again have a morn of song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA6vRC1xW_c&feature=player_embedded

“Judaism, since Christ, is a corruption; indeed Judas is the image of the Jewish people; their understanding of the Scriptures is carnal; they bear guilt for the death of the Saviour, for through their fathers they have killed the Christ. The Jews held him; the Jews insulted him, the Jews bound him, they crowned him with thorns, dishonored him by spitting upon him, they scourged him, they heaped abuses upon him, they hung him upon a tree, they pierced him with a lance.”

~Augustine of Hippo

Let us pray also for the faithless Jews: that Almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts (2 Corinthians 3:13-16); so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty and eternal God, who dost not exclude from thy mercy even Jewish faithlessness: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Traditional Good Friday Prayer