A Loving Plea to Would-Be Sons of Issachar

“...the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times” (1 Chronicles 12:32).

With events in the news, Church, there are many who fancy themselves “sons of Issachar.” Let me plea for care with two points:

• Don’t be a Harold Camping (or even a Hal Lindsey). When we link modern events in the world to Scripture and tomorrow the world hasn’t ended, what have we done to the veracity of Scripture in our pronouncements (until recently one of Camping’s damnable billboards was on the Interstate claiming he was right because “the Bible says so”)? You do realize that every generation since Jesus ascended to His throne has thought theirs was the last generation and that things couldn’t get any worse, right?
• The Six-Day War (June, 1967). Things have escalated before in the Middle East (many, many times in the last 2,000 years, but especially in relatively recent history, with which the would-be “sons of Issachar” should familiarize themselves) and will again. I am not proclaiming “peace, peace,” when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11; Ezekiel 13:10,16). I am saying tumult is the way of this Christ-hating world, even when the headlines are not aflame with rockets.

Can we stand as witnesses to the calm fearlessness, peace, hope, and joy found in Christ alone before the storms of the world?

Let me share some of my favorite verses in the Bible with you: “For thus the LORD spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, ‘You are not to say, “It is a conspiracy!” In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, and you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the LORD of hosts Whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread. Then He shall become a sanctuary’” (Isaiah 8:11-14).

The Last Debate, Foreign Policy, & the Word

I offer a little perspective for the Church following the final Presidential debate of the 2012 election season.

President Obama: “America remains the one indispensable nation.”

The Truth: “...ye have tasted that the Lord is bountiful. To Whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also as lively stones, be made a spiritual house, an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, ‘Behold, I put in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect and precious, and he that believeth therein, shall not be ashamed.’ Unto you therefore which believe, it is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone to stumble at, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient, unto the which thing they were even ordained. But ye [the "spiritual house" and "Priesthood" of believers] are a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy nation, a people set at liberty, that ye should show forth the virtues of Him that hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, yet are now the people of God: which in time past were not under mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:3-10, Geneva Bible).

Governor Romney: “This nation is the hope of the earth.”

The Truth: “And if ye call Him Father, which without respect of person judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your dwelling here in fear. Knowing that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by the traditions of the fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb undefiled, and without spot. Which was ordained before the foundation of the world, but was declared in the last times for your sakes, which by His means do believe in God that raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory, that your [the "redeemed"] faith and hope might be in God. Having purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, to love brotherly without feigning, love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born anew, not of mortal seed, but of immortal, by the Word of God, Who liveth and endureth forever. ‘For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth away.’ But the Word of the Lord endureth forever: and this is the Word which is preached among you” (1:17-25).

Preparing for Sunday’s message to the Church, my mind’s on foreign policy, too: “Peter an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers that dwell here and there...elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father unto sanctification of the Spirit, through obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you...dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which fight against the soul” (1:1,2; 2:11).

Keep your perspective rooted in the Word, Church.

God's Teacher of Hope

Threat of Death as Teacher of Hope in this life: “...we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God Who raises the dead; Who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on Whom we have set our hope” (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).

Threat of Death as Teacher of Hope in the Resurrection: “In the days of His flesh, [Christ] offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety” (Hebrews 5:7). The Father heard the Son’s prayer for salvation from death and answered it because of the Son’s piety...on the third day.

He wastes nothing in the life of His beloved - not even the sentence of death.