dogs in the manger

removing leaven from the children’s bread

part One

WE The Church, have been extremely careless. I don’t say that some have been. I don’t say that you have been, or indeed, that I have been. I say we. Our lethargy has left The Church’s serious condition, unchecked. Not saying or doing anything under these circumstances, has allowed some of the worst uses & abuses of power, trust, influence & resources ever perpetrated among & upon those of us who claim & name the Name of Jesus Christ, within His Church. Moreover, I have found that a significant portion of believing Christians are blissfully unaware of, or moved by this state of affairs. For multitudes, it is simply business as usual. This sorry state of affairs is both bad & sad.

Where, some have asked me, is my evidence of the decline, decay & demise that I constantly speak of? Turn your television on & watch mainstream christian programming. Turn on your radio & listen to national & international christian broadcasting. Open up any social media platform of your choice & find tailored christian content. The contamination of the faith once delivered is both deep & wide. We have strayed from the orthodoxy that is so very clearly laid down for us in Scripture & have opted instead for anything bright & shiny that catches our attention. We have been busy, perhaps unwittingly, but most definitely, scratching our itching ears.

Of course, this is not true of every church fellowship, christian ministry or minister of The Gospel & for this we can be thankful.

For two millennia, The Church that Christ bled & died for has been systematically squeezed. Our evil adversary wants true believers out of the picture, only to replace them with a false church & false ministers, preaching a false Gospel. However, Jesus emphatically & enthusiastically told His disciples & us by extension that he would build his Church & that the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). No one that I know would argue with The Lord on that point, but some have acted as if it’s perfectly acceptable for them to add their own particular extensions onto the temple of which Jesus Christ alone is the one & only foundation & cornerstone.

The Apostle Paul warned the saints in Corinth along these lines, saying to them, “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him” (2^ndCorinthians 11:4). Again, Paul tells the saints in Galatia, “ I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.  But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.  For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ ” (Galatians 1:6-12).

Have we taken our eyes & ears away from The Gospel of Christ & set them on personalities, on their oral delivery, on their tall tales, wealth & on their charm? Have these distractions led us away from the path of the truth & into the way of error? Have we embraced damnable heresy because it was more attractive than biblical orthodoxy? I believe that a significant number of us may very well have, or are in grave danger of doing so. As Paul said when writing to the Colossians, “And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words … Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:4&8).

As well as our observations concerning the path that certain parts of The Church is on, we have also to consider those particular individuals who are leading the way along said path. In this respect, we have to look very conscientiously at biblical leadership, in both Testaments. The writer of Hebrews says, “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron” (Hebrews 5:1-4).

Notice the distinction that the writer makes here. He says for men, not by men. Paul makes the same distinction, saying, “Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)” (Galatians 1:1) & again, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; ”(1^st Timothy 1:1).

Paul tells Rome & us by extension, “[that] whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4). He tells Corinth, “Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1^stCorinthians 10:11-12). As we move through The Law, The Prophets, The Writings, The Gospels & Apostolic Doctrine, we will have a clear picture of God’s dealings with men through the ages, both naturally & supernaturally. Bear with me a little.

Do you remember Moses shepherding Jethro’s flock in the backside of the desert. There he was, dressed in his immaculate, pristine white suit, reflecting the glorious sunlight, followed by his obedient, indoctrinated sheep. Perhaps they were singing gently in a whisper before the white suited Moses took of the fat, wool & of the milk of the flock to satisfy his personal needs. Suddenly, there was a familiar sight in the wilderness. A burning bush. The quartz crystals that form part of the landscape had reflected the sun’s rays onto a dry area of shrubbery & it was set ablaze. This was a common occurrence. The bush burned & it burned & it continued to burn, but was not destroyed. Moses decided to take a look. I imagine he straightened his tie, brushed the dust from his glistening lapels & checked the time on his diamond encrusted gold watch.

⁴ And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. ⁵ And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground (Exodus 3:4-5).

Moses must have carefully removed his hand made shoes & laid them to one side. After making sure that his portion of fat, wool & milk was secured, Moses hears more from the unexpected voice.

⁶ Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. ⁷ And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; ⁸ And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰ Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 3:6-10).

A shiver must have raced down Moses’ spine, along with several beads of sweat. He pops his designer sunglasses on against the glare. Afraid to see God. Oh, if only more men were fearful to encounter YHWH, The living God. Instead, modern men recount their apparent visions & experiences with The Lord as if they had popped out on a Friday night to grab a portion of fish & chips. Anyway, I digress. Perhaps this event could be turned to some advantage, once it had been embellished a little & sprinkled with humour & subliminal cues to raise much needed funds. Moses takes a deep breath, ready to shoot the breeze with The King of the universe & confidently assert himself because of his importance. What a story he is going to have for the sheep when he gets back to them, as well as Jethro & the girls. Good goshamighty!!

¹¹ And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? ¹² And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. ¹³ And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? ¹⁴ And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you. ¹⁵ And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations (Exodus 3:11-15).

The Lord goes on to tell Moses where to go, who to speak to, what to say & what will happen thereafter. What an event was about to unfold. What a story was about to be told.

¹⁰ And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue (Exodus 4:10).

¹² And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips? (Exodus 6:12).

³⁰ And Moses said before the Lord, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me? (Exodus 6:30).

Forgive my poetic licence, but we in the modern church would not be interested in listening to Moses unless he was pithy, funny & a bit of a raconteur. I don’t imagine for one minute that Moses went to the elders or indeed to Pharaoh in his Sunday best, with the arrogance of some of the gnostic peacocks who have the front & audacity to call themselves ministers today. No, Moses had to go back to the very place he had run from, with a murder charge hanging over his head. Moses had to go back to the people who had suffered under the cosh while he had been spoilt with the very best that Egypt had to offer. Moses had to go back, perhaps with shame, definitely with humility & with an absolute faith in God. No glitz, no glamour, no lights, no camera & only the action that God can bring. He had to be the real deal. This man was no dog in the manger.

Do you remember Isaiah. Perfectly manicured hair. Stiff collar. Tweed jacket. Razor sharp seams in his trousers & Ostrich skin boots. He must have cut a fine figure as he glided through Judah, flame thrower in hand, receiving the word of The Lord. As you go through the 1^st 5 chapters of the book that bears his name, it’s quite a read. I imagine he received his message while looking down his nose & over the top of his glasses. But then we come to chapter 6.

¹In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. ² Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. ³ And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. ⁴ And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. ⁶ Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: ⁷ And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. ⁸ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me (Isaiah 6:1-8).

Again, my approach is tongue in cheek, but I repeat the question that I asked earlier. Have we taken our eyes & ears away from The Gospel of Christ & set them on personalities, on their oral delivery, on their tall tales, wealth & on their charm? Have these distractions led us away from the path of the truth & into the way of error? Have we embraced damnable heresy because it was more attractive than biblical orthodoxy? Gone are the days when men will recognise their innate inability to perform any task that The Lord sets them, without Him. No amount of natural ability, slick delivery or well-oiled vocabulary will ever take the place of God’s hand on a life turned over to Him. As I have said before & will doubtless say again & again, it is better for us as individuals to say woe is me, than to have The Lord say, woe to you.

Chapter 1 of Isaiah begins with the words, “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” (Isaiah 1:1). Chapter 2 begins with similar words. “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:1). This is before he began to prophesy & make one of the largest contributions to the Hebrew Scriptures. This preceded him saying anything or seeing The Lord. This is before he uttered a single word. Isaiah was humbled by the highness & holiness of God, in a way that few of us are today. Isaiah was no dog in the manger.

I could go on & talk about the prophet Jeremiah, the prophet Ezekiel or the prophet Daniel, et cetera. All of them had genuine encounters with The Lord. None of them had popularity, personality or professionalism lighting their pathway. There was no material affluence or human power greasing the wheels of their respective ministries. All they had was The Lord & their choice to obey His will & His voice.

Malachi brings The Law, The Prophets & The Writings to a close. Before the emergence of John The Baptist & The Lord Jesus Christ, there is what I call a Divine silence, said to have lasted approximately 400 years. Those better versed than I in theological matters call this the inter-testamental or deuterocanonical period & it is during this time that those who inspired the title of this article emerge. Due to my lack of a formal historical education, allow me to quote from some supporting documents.

“^{The time between the Testaments was one of ferment and change — a time of the realignment of traditional power blocs and the passing of a Near Eastern cultural tradition that had been dominant for almost 3,000 years. In biblical history, the approximately 400 years that separate the time of Nehemiah from the birth of Christ are known as the inter-testamental period (c. 433 – 5 BC). Sometimes called the “silent” years because of the absence of prophetic revelation, they were anything but silent in terms of historical significance and cultural change. The events of these years would shape the world of the New Testament. With the Babylonian exile, Israel ceased to be an independent nation and became a minor territory in a succession of larger empires. With Alexander the Great’s acquisition of the Holy Land (332 BC), a new and more insidious threat to Israel emerged. Alexander was committed to the creation of a world united by Greek language and culture, a policy, called Hellenization, had a dramatic impact on the Jews. At Alexander’s death in 323 BC, the empire he won was divided among his generals. Two of them  founded dynasties — the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria and Mesopotamia — that would contend for control of the Holy Land for over a century. The rule of the Ptolemies was considerate of Jewish religious sensitivities, but in 198 BC the Seleucids took control and paved the way for one of the most heroic periods in Jewish history. The early Seleucid years were largely a continuation of the tolerant rule of the Ptolemies, but Antiochus IV Epiphanes (whose title means “God manifest”) changed that when he attempted to consolidate his fading empire through a policy of radical Hellenization. While a segment of the Jewish aristocracy had already adopted Greek ways, many Jews were outraged. Antiochus’s atrocities were aimed at the eradication of Jewish religion. He prohibited some of the central elements of Jewish practice, attempted to destroy all copies of the Torah (the Pentateuch) and required offerings to the Greek god Zeus. His crowning outrage was the erection of a statue of Zeus and the sacrificing of a pig in the Jerusalem temple itself. Opposition to Antiochus was led by Mattathias, an elderly villager from a priestly family, and his five sons: Judas (called “Maccabeus”), Jonathan, Simon, John and Eleazar. Mattathias destroyed a Greek altar established in his village, Modein, and killed the man Antiochus sent as his emissary. This triggered a 24-year war (166 – 142 BC) called the Maccabean revolt which resulted in the independence of Judah until the Romans took control in 63 BC. Pompey, the general who subdued the East for Rome, took Jerusalem after a three-month siege of the temple area, massacring priests in the performance of their duties and entering the Most Holy Place. This sacrilege began Roman rule in a way that Jews could neither forgive nor forget. The Judaism of Jesus’ day was, to a large extent, the result of changes that came about in response to the pressures of the inter-testamental period. The Diaspora (dispersion) of Israel begun in the exile accelerated during these years until a writer of the day could say that Jews filled every land and sea. Jews outside the Holy Land, cut off from the temple, concentrated their religious life in the study of the Torah and the life of the synagogue. The missionaries of the early church began their Gentile ministries among the Diaspora, using the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint). During the Babylonian exile, Israel was cut off from the temple, divested of nationhood and surrounded by pagan religious practices. The nation’s faith was threatened. Under these circumstances, the exiles turned their religious focus from what they had lost to what they retained — the Torah and the belief that they were God’s  people. They concentrated on the law rather than nationhood, on personal piety rather than sacramental rectitude and on prayer as an acceptable replacement for the sacrifices denied to them. When they returned from the exile, they brought with them this new form of religious expression, as well as the synagogue (its center), and Judaism became a faith that could be practiced wherever the Torah could be carried. The emphases on personal piety and a relationship with God, which characterized synagogue worship, not only helped preserve Judaism but also prepared the way for the Christian gospel. In the Holy Land, the Greek world made its greatest impact through the party of the Sadducees. Made up of aristocrats, it became the temple party. Because of their position, the Sadducees had a vested interest in the status quo. Relatively few in number, they wielded disproportionate political power and controlled the high priesthood. They rejected all religious writings except the Torah, as well as any doctrine (such as resurrection from the dead) not found in those five books. As the party of the synagogue, the Pharisees strove to reinterpret the law. They built a “hedge” around it to enable Jews to live righteously before God in a world that had changed drastically since the days of Moses. Although they were comparatively few in number, the Pharisees enjoyed the support of the  people and influenced popular opinion as well as national policy. They were the only party to survive the destruction of the temple in AD 70 and were the spiritual progenitors of modern Judaism. An almost forgotten Jewish sect (but referred to by Philo and Josephus) until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes were a small, separatist group that grew out of the conflicts of the Maccabean age. Like the Pharisees, they stressed strict legal observance, but they considered the temple priesthood corrupt and rejected much of the temple ritual and sacrificial system. Though they are mentioned by several ancient writers, the precise nature of the Essenes is still not certain, though it is widely held that the Qumran community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls was probably an Essene group. Because they were convinced that they were the true remnant of Israel, these Qumran sectarians had separated themselves from Judaism at large and devoted themselves to personal purity and preparation for the final war between the “Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness.” They practiced an apocalyptic faith, looking back to the contributions of their previous leader, known as “Teacher of Righteousness,” and forward to the coming of two Messiahs: a priestly one from the line of Aaron and a royal one from the line of David. In the Jewish War of AD 66 – 73, the community at Qumran was destroyed, and the Essenes dropped from history. The experience of the nation and people of Israel between the writing of Malachi in the Old Testament and Matthew in the New Testament set the stage for the fulfillment of the coming of the long-prophesied Messiah.}”

^{Drawn from the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible.}

Let’s fast forward to the time of Christ. The Sadducees had established themselves with a few quid & were busy running The Temple, for profit. The Pharisees championed The written & oral Law & their reputation for looking down on the people was very firmly intact. The Herodians were pretty well cosied up to & sympathetic with Herod, Antipas. The Scribes recorded everything meticulously & oversaw legal matters. When Jesus stood up in The Temple to read, it was not a chance event. The Torah portion due to be read on that day & at that time in the Synagogue, was from the book of Isaiah. God makes no mistakes & His timing is second to none. It is perfect!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                

¹⁴ And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. ¹⁵ And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. ¹⁶ And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. ¹⁷ And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, ¹⁸ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, ¹⁹ To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. ²⁰ And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. ²² And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? … ³² And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power (Luke 4:14-22&32).

We see the same phenomenon when The Lord had finished teaching what we refer to as the sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:29-29). With the Jews under the heel of imperial Rome & significant parts of the religious leadership in their pocket, the regular people had become meat in the sandwich. When Jesus began His public ministry, it was abundantly clear what His mission was (Luke 5:27-32, Matthew 9:35-38). It was also an answer to the prayer Moses prayed before he died (Numbers 27:15-17).

⁶ Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. ⁷ And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. ⁸ Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? ⁹ Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? ¹⁰ Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? ¹¹ How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? ¹² Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees (Matthew 16:6-12).

The Pharisees, the Sadducees & their doctrine in particular, set them at odds with The Lord Jesus. His ministry was always diametrically opposed to theirs, with few exceptions & in their pride & arrogance they lifted themselves up above the common people, who heard Christ gladly (Mark 12:37). In the modern church, do we too have those whose self-importance, haughtiness & blind ambition cause The Lord to set His face against them & give grace to the humble? (James 4:6) Jesus constantly warned the religious leaders of His day that they were on thin ice & that they were rubbish at skating. Sadly, this is also true of parts of His Church.

 

End of Part One

 

copyright Ó by david Samuel Parkins mmxxiv all rights reserved.

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