Israel-Hamas War: a pastor’s reflection

23 May 2024 Leave a comment

A few months back, I was preparing a sermon about the Old Testament book of Habakkuk. As I studied the text, I was surprised at how the truths about God and his ways with Israel and its enemies may be relevant to what is happening in the ongoing Israel-Gaza War. Let me explain.

The prophet’s lament

Habakkuk was a prophet who lived in a dark period of Israel’s history. He ministered during the reigns of the last three kings of the southern kingdom of Judah. The nation was rotten to the core: violence, destruction, injustice, idolatry, strife and wickedness. The prophet was deeply affected and lamented to God in prayer. It seemed God was deaf to his pleas for God to intervene and reform society. Here is his honest complaint to God (Habakkuk 1:1-4 NLT):

How long, O Lord, must I call for help?
    But you do not listen!
“Violence is everywhere!” I cry,
    but you do not come to save.
Must I forever see these evil deeds?
    Why must I watch all this misery?
Wherever I look,
    I see destruction and violence.
I am surrounded by people
    who love to argue and fight.
The law has become paralyzed,
    and there is no justice in the courts.
The wicked far outnumber the righteous,
    so that justice has become perverted.

I like the honest lament of the prophet. Perhaps we need to lament over the tragic wars in Myanmar, Ukraine, Israel-Gaza in our prayers.

I also like that Habakkuk actually bothered to patiently wait for God’s answer. I admit I speak more and listen less in prayer, in most of the decades that I have been a Christian. I am learning more and more to listen, to watch, to discern God’s notifications. I am learning to unmute my spiritual notifications button.

God’s inconceivable reply

God’s reply got Habakkuk puzzled and upset! God said to him: “I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the land and conquer other lands. They are notorious for their cruelty and will do whatever they like” (Habakkuk 1:6,7).

Habakkuk must have thought, “Did I hear God correctly?” Is God going to discipline his chosen people, with whom he made a covenant of love, through a more violent, cruel, and unrighteous nation?

O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal—
    surely you do not plan to wipe us out?
O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us,
    to punish us for our many sins.
 But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil.
    Will you wink at their treachery?
Should you be silent while the wicked
 swallow up people more righteous than they? (Habakkuk 1:12,13)

God’s ways are usually different and higher than our ways. What is unthinkable, unfathomable to the prophet is a real possibility with God! How can a holy God use an unrighteous people to punish a more righteous people? How can God allow this to happen to his chosen nation, his covenanted people?

9/11 a judgment of God

I was at home when 9/11 happened. I remember it vividly. After a tennis game, in the master bedroom, cooling down before I bathed, on the TV, before my eyes, I saw a plane ploughed into one of the World Trade Centre towers. What movie was this? I then noticed that a news reader was relaying news of the Al Qaeda attack on the New York buildings. I was shocked.

In the aftermath of this terrorist attack,  a few preachers proclaimed that this was God’s judgment on America for its idolatry and sins. There were major reactions and objections to the message of judgment: how can a righteous God use a violent, cruel, terrorist instrument to punish a nation that believed in God. Same reaction as Habakkuk’s. In the light of what we have read in Habakkuk, why isn’t it possible that those preachers may be speaking God’s word?

What about October 2023?

What about October 2023? Was God using Iran and its proxy, Hamas, as an instrument to discipline a nation he has chosen and loves? Is not this unthinkable thought a possibility? Hasn’t modern Israel broken its covenant with God too? Israel is very much a secular nation that has left its holy roots to pursue its idols. Even if half the population claims to be Orthodox, they practice a form of religion that doesn’t please God.

God clarifies Habakkuk’s ethical dilemma

It did not take long for God to shine his light on Habakkuk’s ethical dilemma. God’s reply to Habakkuk was that the Babylonians would also be punished for their violence and cruelty – in due time. God’s judgment will come upon the Babylonians for their aggression, greed, pride, sadistic humiliation of people, and idolatry. God assured Habakkuk that this would definitely happen even if the vision awaited fulfillment for a long period (70 years later the Medo-Persians would topple the Babylonians).

In the meantime, the righteous will have to keep faith in God, and if they do so, they will live: “the righteous will live by faith”. The answers of God to Habakkuk’s complaint and protest brought him out of his doubts and distress to a place of peace and contentment. He was now convinced that God was Sovereign over all nations, small or superpower. His ways were higher than his ways or thoughts. He is worthy of complete trust and he would rest in him.

Even while the wars around us continue to increase in intensity and tragedy, and it angers and frustrates us, we will do well to remember the book of Habakkuk, and learn to lament and finally to trust in God to act in sovereignty, holiness, and justice. Take comfort in this apt song by Lauren Daigle: “Look Up Child”

Where are You now
When darkness seems to win?
Where are You now
When the world is crumbling?

Oh I, I hear You say
I hear You say

Look up child, Look up child,

Where are You now

When all I feel is doubt?
Oh, where are You now
When I can’t figure it out?

Oh I hear You say
I hear You say

Look up child,
Look up child,
Look up

You’re not threatened by the war
You’re not shaken by the storm
I know You’re in control
Even in our suffering
Even when it can’t be seen
I know You’re in control

A Prayer of Hope

My heart cries out to you Papa for the conflicts in the U.S., the war in Ukraine and Myanmar and Gaza. Come Oh God, and save your people and cause wars to cease when your Son returns in glory and power to judge the world and establish the new heaven and the new earth. Fill your people with hope Father. Whenever we read or watch the news, our hearts are broken at the fake news, this fallen world, all the confusion and conflicts. There is no peace, but we do not want the external stormy world of hopelessness to control the temperature of our faith and the stability of our deep peace. So Father, send your Spirit afresh, the dove of heaven to fill our hearts with peace and the purity of worship. Let no one say that you have abandoned the church or this rebellious world. Let no one say you are unrighteous and untrue. Let the world know that you are sovereign and there’s no other God in all the universe. Amen.

(a tongues & interpretation prayer excerpt from my journal entry on 18 May 2024, a day before Pentecost)

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Christ’s Finished Work: Zion

8 February 2024 Leave a comment

This final portion of an e-book that I am writing has been a long time coming. With this final deposit, I have completed the first draft of my e-book titled: “A to Z of Christ’s Finished Work”. I will need to edit and refine and knit them all together before publishing the book. 

Z could easily be “zest” or better still “zeal” both of which are certainly fruits of the finished work of Jesus Christ. However, what appeals to me more is “Zion”. 

No, we do not mean “Zionism” which is defined by Collins English Dictionary as “a political movement for the establishment and support of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine, now concerned chiefly with the development of the modern state of Israel”.

I am talking about Zion, a geographical location, an emotive symbol and spiritually significant motif. In the Old Testament, we first hear of Zion as the fortress of the Jebusites that David conquered and made into his capital, Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:6-7). Zion came to be synonymous with the city of Jerusalem, and and its inhabitants. Later, through its association with the Temple it took on spiritual significance as God’s dwelling place on earth with his people. During Israel’s captivity in Babylon, it became the pivot of their hope. Isaiah 65:17-19 states: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress”.

There will be a new Jerusalem at the heart the new creation at the end of this age. This is confirmed in Revelation 21: 1-3 where Isaiah’s vision will be finally fulfilled. “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God”. This end of the age fulfilment could not have come apart from Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead. This is the final purpose and ultimate vision of the Holy Trinity: to dwell with his beloved children in new Jerusalem, in eternal Zion.

The writer of Hebrews talks about Zion as “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb 11:10). It is the eternal city “for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come”(Heb 13:14). The writer sees Zion as a city in the afterlife, a physical reality, and part of the new heaven and new earth that God will create. 

Interestingly the writer also refers to Mount Zion as a existing spiritual reality too. His purpose was to dissuade Jewish converts to Christ from backsliding into Judaism because of the persecution and pressure they encountered. So in Hebrews 12:18-24 he compared the old and new covenant, the Mount Sinai and Mount Zion experience. On Mount Sinai what they experienced were tangible, terrifying and threatening so much so that even Moses feared for his life. 

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Heb 12:22-24)

The new covenant Mount Zion experience would be totally different because of the mediator Jesus Christ. Note that “you have come” is in present perfect tense, which refers to a past action that has continued into the present. While Revelations sees Mount Zion as a future hope, the writer of Hebrews present another dimension, the here and now, which followers of Christ have entered into.

Through Christ’s blood which speaks the better word of forgiveness rather than the blood of Abel crying out for revenge, we who are followers of Christ, have come to Mount Zion where God dwells. We are in fellowship with God the Judge, and Jesus the Mediator, and with angels though we do not see them, and with the universal church (including past Old Testament believers that are described as “the spirits of the righteous made perfect”). The writer of Hebrews is saying that under the new covenant, all followers of Christ are experiencing a foretaste of the new Jerusalem of Revelations 21. This is Mount Zion. There is much mystery here in this spiritual reality that we cannot fully grasp this side of eternity. But thankful we should be. Made possible by Christ’s finished work.

This is part of a planned series of writings on the topic, “The A to Z of Christ’s Finished Work”. I am writing it alphabet by alphabet. Thus far the others that I have written can be found HERE.

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Christ’s Finished Work: Yes and Amen

11 January 2024 Leave a comment

The death and resurrection of Christ was foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament. Alfred Edersheim found 456 Old Testament verses referring to the Messiah. J. Barton Payne found 574 verses describing Jesus’ coming. Conservatively Jesus coming fulfilled at least 300 prophecies about him. God keeps his promises. He is faithful. This is proven in Christ.

No wonder then that the apostle Paul could write to the Corinth church: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Since the death and resurrection of Christ confirmed, manifested, and established God’s faithfulness in keeping the promises he made in the past, we can be doubly assured that he will keep all other promises he made for our present and future. All the many promises of God are “Yes”, are guaranteed, are 100% foolproof, and we should be agreeing and rejoicing with a resounding, heartfelt “Amen!” This is indeed a great blessing springing forth from the finished work of Christ.

This means that all the promises from the lips of our dear Master about prayer, about the Holy Spirit, the abundant life, our resurrection to life, the end of this age, about our eternal home will be fulfilled because God has already proven that he keeps his promises. What a great bonus it is that by believing God’s promises, we can live our life by faith. We can enjoy peace, joy and join God in his fulfilling mission. No matter what trials, difficulties and challenges life throws at us we are up to them because God promises to us are “Yes” in Christ. To this we shout from the rooftops, “Amen!!”

This is part of a planned series of writings on the topic, “The A to Z of Christ’s Finished Work”. I am writing it alphabet by alphabet. Thus far the others that I have written can be found HERE.

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Christ’s Finished Work: X Factor

6 January 2024 Leave a comment

Everyone has heard of the popular X Factor programme created by Simon Cowell, where contestants with musical talents compete with each other to win over judges and TV audience who vote. The winner is the one with the x factor (an outstanding special talent or quality) and receives the prize of a record contract. 

I believe “x factor” was involved in the confrontation between the Jewish religious council and Peter and John in the wake of a remarkable healing of a man lame from birth (Acts 4). The council questioned the authority of Peter and John to perform that miracle. In their answer, Peter and John pointed out that it was not they, but Jesus, whom the leaders had crucified, that had healed the lame man. The council observed and noticed the poise, power and boldness of Peter and John. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13 ESV) The disciples resembled Jesus. They had lived with Jesus 24/7 for about three years and had observed and imbibed his teachings, absorbed his spirit, and imitated his actions. This was the “x factor” that stunned the religious council.

Today, through Christ’s death and resurrection and the outpouring of the Spirit in our hearts, Christ lives in us. His presence, power and purpose permeate our being from one degree of glory to another. We are being transformed into his likeness and image by the Spirit who dwells in us. “And we all with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.“ (2 Cor 3:18 ESV) 

As we live our daily life keeping ourselves connected to him, dependent on him, open to receiving notifications from him, and communicating with and responding to him at any time of the day, we will become more and more like Jesus. It is the work of God within our soul. Ours is to abide, to stay, to remain in communion with Christ. His part is to transform and change us into his likeness. All this is made possible because of Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension and outpouring of the Spirit upon us followers. Thanks be to God!

This is part of a planned series of writings on the topic, “The A to Z of Christ’s Finished Work”. I am writing it alphabet by alphabet. Thus far the others that I have written can be found HERE.

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Christ’s Finished Work: Worship

29 December 2023 Leave a comment

I remember that in the days of paper dictionaries the word before and after “worship” is “worse” and “worst” respectively. Worship keeps the “worse” from getting to “worst”!

Worship of God under the old era was a tedious, costly and bloody affair. The sheep, goat or bull had to be taken to the priests for checks. Those who cannot afford can offer doves instead. Once they pass muster, they will be sacrificed and the best parts were burnt as an offering to God to atone for one’s sins. The innocent life of animal sacrifices paid for and covered the sins of the worshipper.

Under Christ’s new era, we do not worship in order to attain peace with or right standing before God through animal sacrifices. Instead, because of the finished work of Jesus in his ultimate and final sacrifice of his life, right standing and peace with God has been achieved for us who put our faith in him. Instead our worship is a grateful response to the finished work of Christ that secured our salvation. 

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy (Christ’s finished work), to offer your bodies (instead of animal sacrifices) as a living sacrifice (instead of dead animal sacrifices), holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1 NIV– my comments bracketed)

True and proper worship springs from Christ’s death and resurrection. It is never to gain acceptance or favour before God, but a grateful thankfulness that Christ has already obtained, earned, and deserved these gifts for us. It is not mainly singing songs of praise to God and thanking him in prayer which is one of many expressions of gratitude to God. In essence, worship has to do with fully surrendering our whole lives to God. We do not strive to worship; we surrender to worship. We separate our lives from all sins and devote our whole selves (all that we are and have) to living for his praise and glory. When I live to do God’s will whether it be studying, serving National Service, working in the marketplace, raising a family, or serving among God’s people, I am a true worshipper.

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit and his worshipers must worship in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23,24 NIV). When the good news of Jesus’ finished work is preached and people respond in faith to the message, they are born again by the Holy Spirit, and will be able to worship in the Holy Spirit as they ponder over the wonderful truths of salvation. Without the finished work of Christ, there is no true worship!

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