Sunday Night, May 31, 2020 PM

Do rejoice in the blessings of being able to fellowship, to catch up with one another, and to spend time in encouraging conversation and clarification of how things are going for each one of us. Father, I pray that you give us insight into your word.

Help us to hear from you about your son, that you would take this message by your Holy Spirit and do your work in us. We pray these things for Christ's sake, amen. I need to make an extra clarification about our Sunday school announcement.

I know everyone's very excited about that. This next Sunday, which will be June 7th, all of the adult Sunday school classes who can are very welcome to go ahead and start back up. As far as the children's Sunday school classes, those will be starting on the 14th, on June 14th, and that includes nursery.

We'll have nursery available for the Sunday school hour, and Brian, correct me if I'm wrong, but also for the morning worship service. We won't have nursery starting back for Sunday night and Wednesday night yet, but we will be having it for Sunday school hour and Sunday morning, and that begins June 14th.

Okay, so, and if there's still questions, feel free to email, and we'll be clarifying it through some mail-outs or emails this week, okay? All right, well, I did have another question come in, and as I said, I'm okay with the late entries.

The Meaning of James 4:5

So before we get to Genesis 49, in James chapter four, James chapter four in verse five, there is an interesting verse. As I tried to answer the question that was offered, and as I studied, various commentators said something to the degree of renderings of this verse or interpretations of this verse are endless, and that means that the person writing the commentary has a headache, because they have had to expend far more labor than they anticipated on a single verse.

So let's read from verse one, and read all the way through verse six, and that way we'll get the context of verse five, and then I'll relay the question for us. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?

Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us, but he gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

So the question is about verse five, as it is variously translated, is the spirit about this, which this verse speaks, is the spirit in view, a human spirit, lowercase s, he breathed the breath of life into us, making us not just a physical being, but also a spiritual being.

Is it that spirit that, as some translations render, is it that spirit which lusts with envy, speaking to our depravity, speaking to the brokenness of who we are, fallen in Adam? Is it that that he's saying the scripture says, the scripture speaks and says that the spirit he has made to dwell in us lusts with envy?

Or is it saying, the scripture says, that God jealously desires the spirit, capital S, Holy Spirit, whom he has made to dwell in us. And so that he is jealous for the Holy Spirit, who he has made to dwell in us.

So the question is, which one is it? And of course, there's a variety of opinions on that and all sorts of reasons why. And so as usual, when you come to a passage in scripture that is unclear, you always try to move from what is most clear in the scriptures to what is less clear, to see if you can, you know, come to a better conclusion.

And in the case of James four and verse five, we see that James is saying that the scripture speaks something. It's kind of like Paul saying that the scripture is saying beforehand that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel to Abram, preach the gospel to Abram.

The scripture preached the gospel to Abraham. And the words speaking to the liveliness, indeed, making a scripture personified, but ultimately pointing to the word, one mediator between God and man, who is the revelation of God, Jesus Christ,.

Who is the word.

Here as well, the scripture speaks. And so the question is, well, what's it quoting? If we could know where this quotation comes from, maybe we could be able to solve the riddle. Is the saying, you know, we all, the spirit that God gave to each one of us is jealous with envy, is yearning with envy, it's a bad thing, we're depraved.

Or is it saying that God is a jealous God and does not desire what is holy, the Holy Spirit whom he put in us, he's jealous to guard the name, his own name, and does not want us to be mixing holiness with unholy.

I mean, so that's the question, which one is it? And so it's very difficult to ascertain any particular kind of quotation. But in the context, it's hard to make a decision one way or the other with definitiveness.

My own reading would be that it is referring to God as a jealous God, drawing on the language in the text that, yes, indeed, we have wrong desires, wrong motives, and that when we seek to love the world in the sense of that system of rebellion against God, that we are called adulteresses, adulteresses.

And you remember in the Old Testament that when Israel goes astray and desires the idols of the nations and the ways of the nations, that God reminds them that he is a jealous God, that he is jealous for her because she is seen as his bride, and that when she goes off to worship idols, God always calls it adultery.

He always calls it adultery. And he is moved, and he's very upset with his wife for going off and committing adultery against him, and that he acts and speaks with jealousy, and God is a jealous God, as we have seen throughout the Scriptures.

Well, I think that that is the reference that James is talking about here. He's saying the Scripture says this. So he's not saying here's a particular reference you can go look up. He's saying this is throughout the writings of the Scripture.

And, of course, James, writing at this, we think James has written pretty early, like most of the New Testament was written pretty early. He is saying, look, the writings we grew up with, the holy writings, the Bible is saying, all the way through the law and the writings of the prophets, the whole Tanakh, we have God being a jealous God.

And so I think that's what he's referring to. But if someone thinks the other, then I'm not going to make a big fuss about it. Because the other side does make sense, doesn't it? That no, Scripture also say that the spirit which God made in us, which is good, yet because of the fall, we desire the wrong things.

But in any case, I've done my best there to answer that question, and I hope it's helpful to those of you studying the book of James and to the person who asked the question. Let's turn our attention now to Genesis chapter 49.

Jacob's Last Words and the Tribes of Israel

As we continue, the last words of Israel, the last words of Jacob. In this chapter, we hear Israel bestowing prophetic words on all of his sons, and his last words need some evaluation from our readings so we can do our best to understand.

He is speaking of his last sons, and not only in terms of recalling the way they have been and the things that they have done that have impacted him one way or the other, but also he speaks prophetically about how things are going to turn out for their descendants, for their tribe.

He already knows, he already knows they're going to be tribes as he had called Joseph to his bedside as he was nearing the end of his life, and he had Joseph bring his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and he blessed them.

Ephraim the younger, he blessed above Manasseh who was the older, and he told Joseph, you see, I've given you the double portion. When you, I'm giving you a double portion in the land which God has given to me.

So he knows that that land is going to be apportioned, that whole land, the whole entire land of Canaan is going to be divided up amongst his sons. But it's not just going to be his sons, it's going to be their sons, and their sons, and their sons, and so he already knows how it's going to work.

And so he has some prophetic words now for the other tribes, not just Ephraim and Manasseh, but for the other tribes as well. Last words seem to carry a lot of weight with us. We were always kind of wondering about the last words, perhaps, of some of our, some people of interest in history or perhaps our favorite preacher, our favorite theologian, what were their last words?

Jacob's last words were uttered in a sober time as his sons listened to him. He was very certain about where he was going. He knew that he would rest with his fathers before his body was ever buried in the land.

He's already made that clear. He would be resting with his fathers before his body was ever buried next to them. So he knew where he was going. He was clear on the substance of what he believed in and made that clear to his sons.

And he was practical and sane at the last, speaking the words as a prophet of God. Now, it's interesting that in many last words, there are no such values as I've just mentioned with Jacob. Sometimes there's no sobriety.

Dylan Thomas was a poet who died in 1953. His last words were, I've had 18 straight whiskeys. I think that's the record. Last words. Often there's no certainty in last words. Colonel Charters was an infidel who at the end was not so blatant in his denial of the afterlife.

He said as he died, I would gladly give 30 ,000 lira, it's the old Italian currency, to have it prove to my satisfaction that there is no such place as hell. And often there's no substance. Aldous Huxley was a humanistic author who lived from 1894 to 1963.

And he said, it's a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than try to be a little kinder. No substance.

And often there's no sanity. And I know you've heard of Oscar Wilde. He lived 1854 to 1900. His last words were, my wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go. And the wallpaper won.

Now, what about the words, the last words of Jacob? Now we've seen him speak about the disgraced tribes. Reuben and Simeon and Levi are disgraced in his sight because of their crimes. We've thought about the dominant tribe, Judah, who has been said from him shall come the ruler.

Shiloh comes from Judah. The brothers will give honor to Judah. Judah will reign. And we are reminded of the messianic figure coming from Judah, whose name is Shiloh, the one to whom all of it belongs.

And so now we come to the diverse tribes in verses 13 through 21. We'll look at a couple of them tonight. 13 through 21. Zebulun will dwell at the seashore and he shall be a haven for ships. And his flank shall be toward Sidon.

Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between the sheepfolds. When he saw that a resting place was good and the land was pleasant, he bowed his shoulder to bear burdens and became a slave at forced labor.

Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned snake in the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward. For your salvation, I wait, O Lord.

As for Gad, raiders shall raid him, but he will raid at their heels. As for Asher, his food shall be rich and he will yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a doe let loose. He gives beautiful words. Now, in all these different ways, all these different tribes have something about them that is significant.

And we're gonna consider tonight the contrast between Zebulun and Issachar. How one was productive and diligent and made ground. How one was lazy, apathetic, and lost what he had. Zebulun is called a sea dweller.

Zebulun will dwell at the seashore and he shall be a haven for ships and his flank shall be toward Sidon. The three succinct prophetic words about Zebulun which really tell us a lot when we put them into conversation with the rest of the information we have about this tribe.

And the lesson is really to be learned from that portion that we have a very difficult time reading through in our yearly Bible reading, Joshua 19. You know, the geographical portions, the githography of Joshua where just hardly anything makes sense at all.

A good Bible atlas might help you out a little bit but still it's tough plowing. Nonetheless, we learned something significant about Zebulun, Joshua 19, 10 through 16. Now, the third law came up for the sons of Zebulun according to their families and the territory of their inheritance when as far as Sarid and their border went up to the west and to Marallah and then it touched Dabasheth and reached the brook that is before Jachniyim.

Then it turned from Sarid to the east with the sunrise as far as the border of Chisloth-Tabor and it proceeded up to Dabaroth and up to Japhia. From there, it continued eastward toward the sunrise to Gath-Hefer, to Eth-Kazin and it proceeded to Rimon which stretches to Nia.

The border circled around on the north to Hanathon and it ended at the valley of Iftihel. Included also were Ketah and Nahalal and Shimron and Idlah and Bethlehem, 12 cities with their villages. This was the inheritance of the sons of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.

Not the Bethlehem of Christ, it's a different one. Different house of bread, the northern one. Now, that passage is not gonna be on your list to memorize or even really study but it does give us some valuable information.

It tells us that none of Zebulun's borders touched any body of water. None of Zebulun's borders touched any significant body of water. Not the Sea of Galilee and not the Mediterranean Sea. So, how do we reconcile that with the blessing that Jacob gave about Zebulun that he would be a haven for ships and dwell at the seashore?

How does that work? Well, there's several clues that help us and they teach us a lesson about diligence. Zebulun was one of the larger tribes when counted in Numbers 2 and in Numbers 26 and the size of their land was one of the smaller allotments.

So, they were one of the larger tribes but they had a smaller allotment of land. And that tells us that they would have been probably expanded beyond their original borders because they had so many people.

They would have expanded to the east, they would have expanded to the north, they would have expanded to the west, they would have moved closer to the Sea of Galilee and to the Mediterranean. But the term that Israel uses about Zebulun is that they will dwell at the seashore but it's a nomadic term.

It's not build a house and live in it, it's strike a tent and hang out in it. So, it's a nomadic term, meaning they're probably going to be going out to the seashore and trade caravans in a very active kind of way.

And although Zebulun's tribal allotment was small in several ways, there were many important trade routes that conjoined in its territory including the way of the sea, the Via Maris. The way of the sea went right through their territory.

And so, they were able to trade at the seashores and bring it back to their territory along the trade routes. And Moses prophesied of this in Deuteronomy 33, 18 through 19 when he also spoke of each tribe.

Of Zebulun he said, rejoice Zebulun and you're going forth and Issachar in your tents. They will call peoples to the mountain, there they will offer righteous sacrifices for they will draw out the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.

And they're drawing it out. And by doing that, they're bringing people from outside to their area in trade. And these outside people are coming in and they're learning the ways of the one true God. And they're beginning to offer righteous sacrifices there in the land of Zebulun.

This is what Moses is prophesying about this tribe. And Israel said that Zebulun's flank or border would be toward Sidon. Now this is interesting because Sidon is a good 70 miles to the north of Zebulun's border.

70 miles north of their northern border. But their flank would be towards Sidon. What does that mean? Well, that means they had a special connection to Sidon that they were able to expand north and trade with Sidon.

And Sidon was a Phoenician city. And the Phoenicians were the renowned seagoing people of that time of the ancient Near East. And so Zebulun probably learned a lot from them. So in summary, you find that Zebulun, although dealt a small portion of land, they did not sit on their hands, but they worked hard to be as productive as possible.

And a landlocked tribe became known for its connection to the sea and famous seaports. Now there's some diligence there, isn't there? What about Issachar, the strong donkey? Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between the sheepfolds.

When he saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant, he bowed his shoulder to bear burdens and became a slave at forced labor. Issachar was the ninth born of Israel, fifth born of Leah.

He was compared to a strong donkey. Now that's not an insult, not in that culture. It was actually a compliment. Donkeys were valuable beasts of burden. Men of high rank rode upon donkeys. A string of donkeys were given to David as a coronation present.

So there was a lot of great potential recognized and great profit recognized in a strong donkey. And the tribe of Issachar did indeed have a great deal of potential. Their numbers were more even than those of Zebulun.

And they had a good apportionment of land. However, donkeys are also known for their stubbornness as well as their potential. And as Balaam discovered, if a donkey does not want to move, there is very little you can do to persuade it otherwise.

It says that Issachar the donkey lies down between the sheepfolds. I love this expression. It's one of the funniest expressions in all of scripture. Lying down between the sheepfolds is a colloquialism based off a more literal translation, which means two dunghills.

Why then is it translated between the sheepfolds? Why was that the meaning that was brought out in the Hebrew? Well, let's just put it this way. If you're not wanting to be found, right? If it's chore time and you don't want your number wrong, it's your responsibility to do something, but you don't want anybody to find you.

You're playing hooky, right? In the best fashion of Thomas Sawyer.

What do you do?

You hide somewhere. And where did people generally hide from work and responsibility in that day and age? Between the sheepfolds. See, the thing about the sheepfold is you get all the sheep into the sheepfold overnight, you keep them there, and they've been out eating all day long.

Well, they get into the sheepfold and they make it a dump. They make it really bad. And so when you bring the sheep out, well, what do you do? You start shoveling out the sheepfold. Where do you throw all of the manure?

You throw it behind the sheepfold, right? You clean the sheepfold out. You throw all the manure behind the sheepfold. Now, if you have a few sheepfolds put together for all of your sheep, what's that alley like between those sheepfolds?

Pretty nasty place, isn't it? Pretty nasty place. Well, nobody will look, think of the look, find me there, will they? This was used when Deborah sang her song about the victory that she and Barak had had, but she and Barak mocked, in the book of Judges, they mocked Reuben for sounding big and bold, but he actually laid down between the sheepfolds and didn't go and fight.

And they mocked Reuben for having the ability to fight, but then hiding out away from responsibilities. And that's what's being said about Issachar here. He laid down between the sheepfolds. He's got all this potential.

He's strong.

He's got all this going for him, and yet he lies down between the sheepfolds. He saw that a resting place was good. He saw the land was pleasant. He decided to coast. He decided to rest. He decided to just enjoy what was there, but not really do anything to expand.

He didn't take what he had and do more with it. He just kind of, like, okay, this is good. I'll just enjoy it. And the result of his apathy was what? That he bowed his shoulder to bear burdens. He became a slave.

He became a slave and forced labor. In fact, we find him later on in the tents of Zebulun because he had become so degraded in his condition. So Zebulun was constructive. Issachar was not. Zebulun was diligent and expanded.

Issachar was lazy and became dominated. And this really brings to mind the question, these two visions of these two tribes of Israel. What was it that God wanted them to do with the land? Did he want them just to show up and say, wow, look at the size of those grapes.

Wow, it's flowing with milk and honey. Break out the hammock. We've hit the good life. Just sit back and enjoy it. Or to make something of it. To take it up and do something with it. Think about the way in which God spoke to Adam and Eve.

God gave them a beautiful garden. And you read the descriptions in Genesis and man was it beautiful. It was productive. Fruit was everywhere. But what did God say to Adam and Eve? Hang out, enjoy my garden.

Now what did he say? Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Take what is here, expand. Make progress. Expand my glory. Manifest my name farther. Do something with what I have given you. And this was exactly what God wanted the children of Israel to do with the land of Canaan.

Zebulun did that and Issachar did not. Well, the cultural mandate that we have out of Genesis one, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Post-resurrection sounds like all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth.

Go therefore and make you disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you. Baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. That's what the cultural mandate sounds like post-resurrection. And God has given us a lot. He's given us a lot. Now we can sit on our haunches and say, wow, that's really nice.

Thank you, oh, generations prior to us who have sacrificed and have done so much to hand us all that we have in terms of our richness of understanding, the amount of materials that we have to understand the scriptures, the copies of the Bibles that we have for which our ancestors shed their blood and risked their lives and lost their lives.

We have been given so much by the previous generations of Christians in doing what? In pursuing obedience to Christ, not sitting back and enjoying the blessings that they have from previous generations, but taking up what they have and doing more, doing more, taking up the talents that the Master has entrusted to them and making five more talents or two more talents and not being satisfied to bury it in the backyard and say it'll be somebody else's problem someday.

It's a reminder to be diligent, I believe. We're gonna be diligent. We've got to be diligent in a variety of areas. What about in terms of the self? What has God given to you as an individual? Well, you can try to make everybody else responsible for you.

It's everybody else's fault, right? Nothing I do is ever my fault, so on and so forth, or we can take responsibility for who we are, made in God's image, held responsible, and do what we can to make as much of an impact as we can for Christ individually.

What about our families? What about our church? What about the community in which we live? Do we not have responsibilities? Do we not have stewardship on various levels to be diligent with? And we could make excuses.

Everyone could have made excuses. I'm a landlocked tribe with not much potential. We've got too many people and too little land. You know, we've been dealt a bad hand, you know? And then give up on that, or we can be diligent.

And Issachar, Issachar was given a pretty good deal, but then they wasted it away. So, and considering the last words of Jacob, we're considering the evaluation of these two tribes as their trajectories would be going in different ways.

So, we have the same kind of evaluation to make of our own choices, our own selves. What are we going to do with what God has given to us? Will we take it up and do our best to make something more of it?

Or are we going to say, there's no point in that. I'll bury my talent in the backyard and Jesus can collect when he gets back, right? But we know how he feels about that already, don't we? So, I hope that's helpful to you and encouraging to you to take assessment of what God has entrusted to you.

Let's close with a word of, oh, wait. We could sing doxology.

It's been a while.

Let's close by singing the doxology together.

Praise God.