Restriction and Release

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.
Philippians 1:12 ESV

Imprisonment must have been a frustrating time for Paul. He was the most effective evangelist of his generation. Traveling from city to city and country to country, establishing churches and seeing the great outpouring of the grace of God. Then it must have seemed as if that was all cut short. He is restricted, unable to continue with his ministry in the same way.

It must have been tempting for him to feel resentment towards those who had put him there. I wonder also if he didn't ask God why, like with Peter, he didn't just send an angel and allow him to walk free.

But if Paul did feel this way he must have taken those thoughts captive, for no hint of resentment comes through in his letters. Only grace and deep concern for the churches under his care. Indeed, he seems to have received insight that rather than being a limitation, his imprisonment was actually part of God's plan to increase the effectiveness of his ministry!

It reminds me of Joseph. He was tested in the same way. A great dream and calling on his life. Yet he found himself restricted in a prison cell. How did he feel towards his brothers who had put him there? How did he feel when the cup-bearer walked free and forgot about him as he remained in prison? What was his attitude towards the restriction on his ministry? It is quite remarkable to see the depth of his maturity and insight:

And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Genesis 45:7-8,50:20 ESV

These examples are a good challenge whenever we feel a restriction in our own ministry. Don't allow yourself to become bitter towards those who seem to be the source or the instigators of your restriction. Don't allow room in your heart for jealousy towards those who seem to enjoy favour and have no such restriction. Rather discern that it is God not man who is in control of your destiny and your ministry. Even if men intended it for harm, God will work it for good.

In every restriction there is a greater opportunity. Embrace it and be fruitful!

Fight the right battles

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 ESV

This verse gave me pause for thought. It seems to me in Jesus' own ministry that he had very little trouble from spiritual powers. He commanded the demons and they instantly obeyed. He had much more trouble from flesh and blood. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Occasionally even his own disciples were the agents of Satan against him!

I like the story that is told of Smith Wigglesworth. One night he awoke after a bad dream and had a sense that there was a presence in the room with him. As he turned over he saw the devil himself stood at the foot of his bed. "Oh," he said, "it's only you!" And he rolled over and went back to sleep.

It seems that king David had a similar estimation over who would give him the most trouble. After he took a census of the people he was given an option over what his punishment should be. Three years of famine, three months of fleeing from his enemies, or three days of pestilence. His answer is telling:

"Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man."
2 Samuel 24:14 ESV

A while ago I was lent a collection of films by the director Guillermo del Toro. Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone and Chronos. Slightly disturbing films, it has to be said; not ones for those of a squeamish sensibility. But all very well made and thought provoking. A theme that ran through them all was that the evil in the corrupted human heart is far more scary than anything in the supernatural realm. I have to say, I think he has a point! Certainly in my own life I've been hurt far more and wounded far deeper by things that have been said and done by flesh and blood people than any rare and fleeting encounter I may have had with the demonic.

So why do the scriptures remind us that our battle is not against flesh and blood (those who seem to trouble us the most) but against the spiritual forces of evil?

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 ESV

We need to remember where the real battle is. Even though our greatest opposition may come from men, we are not in a physical battle with men. It is not for us to engage in wars of words or actions with our fellow men no matter what hurt they may have caused us.

Our battle is not even primarily outward. I've heard a lot about discerning and rebuking the spiritual powers that are at work out in the world and I have to say I think most of it is complete nonsense! Jesus didn't have any such issue with the demonic. One word - job done! That's the same authority he has given us. Demons, I think, have more sense than to mess with the children of God. They'd rather go for the easy targets.

No. The real issue with me, is me. The battle is for the mind and the heart. It is weakness in these areas that gives the enemy a foothold in my life. They give room for his lies, his doubts, his insecurities. The battle is to take these thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ, rather than allow them to make me another unwitting agent of Satan.

Even when a brother or sister does something to hurt me, the real issue is not what has been said or done, but how I respond to it! If I am in control of my thoughts and my heart I can continue to walk in freedom and not be snared by the devil's schemes.

Let us fight the right battles. They are not against our brothers and sisters. Nor against demonic agents. The real battle that we must win is over the unrighteous thoughts and attitudes in our own hearts.

A noble desire

But the Lord said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’
1 Kings 8:18-19 ESV

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
1 Timothy 3:1 ESV

I know from first hand experience how hard it is when you have a desire in your heart to serve in ministry to build the house of the Lord, and that desire is unfulfilled.

When that door is closed it can be a testing time that lays bare many other emotions and desires, not all of them good. There can even be a temptation to respond like Cain when his offering was rejected. Rising up in anger that we have been spurned.

I have seen more than one man do great harm not just to their own life but to the work of God by the way they responded when their ministry desires were declined.

But it's important we hear what the word says over the clamour of our own experience. The saying is trustworthy! It was a good desire to have. Even if it wasn't fulfilled. We are in the same company as David. He had it in his heart to build the house of God, but it wasn't to be. Not because there was anything wrong with his desire. Not because there was anything wrong with him. Just because God had other plans for his life.

Don't allow a good desire to become a root of bitterness. David still had an important part to play in the building of God's house even if it wasn't in the way he first imagined.

Pillars in the house

He set up the pillars at the vestibule of the temple. He set up the pillar on the south and called its name Jachin, and he set up the pillar on the north and called its name Boaz.
1 Kings 7:21 ESV

I wish I had some deep spiritual insight and revelation to share on the significance of the two names Solomon chose. Jachin was a son of Simeon. Boaz was the husband of Ruth and Solomon's great-great grandfather. Jachin's name comes from a root word meaning to establish. Boaz's name is not so clear. Something to do with either fleetness or strength. That's about as much as I've got.

However it is significant that there were two pillars. For forty years in the wilderness Israel has been led by two pillars. A pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. (Of course this could have been the same pillar, with a different appearance by night than by day, but in the scriptures it is always described as if they were two.) So for forty years the people of God has been led out and led in by these two pillars. Now whenever they went in or came out of God's house it would be between two pillars.

It is also significant, because actually Solomon was not the first to build a house for the Lord. Jacob had an encounter with God where he saw the angels of God ascending and descending and he named the place Bethel, meaning, house of God. To mark the spot he raised a stone as a pillar and anointed it. Years later when he returned from his time with his uncle Laban, he had another encounter with God in the same place. This time God changed his name to Israel. In response, Jacob raised and anointed another stone pillar and once gain called the place, Bethel, house of God. So the first house of God was marked by two anointed pillars.

What I think is more significant is that Solomon named them. Whilst I might not have revelation on the names themselves, just the fact that they were given names at all is meaningful. Pillars being described as people is not far removed from people being described as pillars. This reminds me of Revelation 3...

The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
Revelation 3:12 ESV

The named pillars that remain forever in God's house represent those who overcome. That's us!

The pillars were like doorkeepers who remain forever in God's presence.

For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Psalm 84:10 ESV

And the gatekeepers represent the leaders in the church and ultimately Christ himself.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

John 10:9 ESV

Completing the circle, it is interesting then that Paul refers to the leaders in the church as pillars.

James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars... 

Galatians 2:9 NIV

The house of God needs pillars that are named. Anointed leaders. Those through whom the flock come in and go out and find safe pasture.

No clamour in the house

When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.
1 King 6:7 ESV

Solomon built the house of the Lord of prepared stones. We like living stones are being built into a spiritual house where God dwells by his Spirit. (1Pe 2:5, Eph 2:22)

Sometimes for stone to sit with stone there are some rough edges that need to be dealt with. For us to fit together into God's spiritual house we have to get along. This sometimes means dealing with issues and hurts with our brothers when they arise.

It's important though that we realise that there is a time and a place and a proper way.

Just as it was inappropriate for there to be the clamour of hammer and axe in God's house, so too it is not the place for raised voices of disagreement between brothers. 

Prince of Peace

For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates. And he had peace on all sides around him. And Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon.
1Kings 24:24-25 ESV

One of the hallmarks of Solomon's reign was peace. His name 'Solomon' is derived from the Hebrew word for peace, "Shalom."

In Hebrew, the concept of shalom meant much more than the word peace does in English. It was more than just the absence of conflict. It meant wholeness, completeness, health and soundness of body. It represented every part in place and in harmony. It was, and still is, used as a greeting.

We see this in Solomon's reign. The shalom of his rule meant more than just an absence of war with the surrounding nations. It meant every individual was in the right place and functioning properly.

Solomon and his reign, however great, is just a type and a shadow of Christ, our prince of peace, and his kingdom. His shalom means the same to us. Not just an absence of conflict between brothers, but health and soundness in the body: both individually and corporately. 

The greatest manifestation of Christ's peace in the church is when every member finds their place and function.

God is big enough to take our questions

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.

Psalm 22:1-2 ESV

These are emotive words. Made all the more so by the fact that they were echoed by Jesus himself as he hung on the cross.

I wonder if there have not been times in our lives when we have thought like this but not dared to articulate it. As if there are some questions that are too big for God to deal with. Or as if there were some thoughts and attitudes of our heart that are too dark and shameful for us to bring before God. (As if he didn't already perceive them all from afar anyway!)

I love the honesty in the Psalms. The psalmists don't feel the need to put on a brave face, say the right things, take a faith stance, or make a positive confession. They come to God, as they are. Not trying to hide their doubts, their worries, their anxieties, their fears or their pain. They know God sees all anyway and is not fooled by masks or veneers - so why bother! They also seemed to know God well enough to understand that he is big enough to take all their questions, even the darkest and most doubting, and not condemn them for it.

We can only come to God from where we are. So why pretend to be somewhere else? He is big enough to take our questions. He is secure enough to handle our doubts. He is compassionate enough to hear our pain (he records all our tears on his scroll - Ps 56:8). He is loving enough to accept us where we are and not to leave us where we are. Let our positive confession come from this honest and transforming encounter with our loving heavenly Father rather than from an attempt to hide our true feelings and say the right thing.