It’s been a couple of weeks since I wrote something from the book of Ezra, and Ezra himself is worth a look. One of my life verses, which I quote here from time to time, is this:

Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord and do it and teach his statutes and rules in Israel. (Ezra 7.10, ESV)

Ezra lived it out. We see two examples of this. Here’s the first:

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty. (Ezra 8.21 – 23, ESV)

I memorized verses 21 and 22 decades ago. “I was ashamed to ask the king for protection because I told him the hand of our God will protect us.” (Paraphrase) That’s putting your money where your mouth is!

It’s not a hard and fast rule to do as Ezra did. In the very next book, Nehemiah asked the king for protection (Nehemiah 2.7, 8), and he says the king granted his request “because the good hand of my God was upon me.” To Ezra, the hand of God meant he didn’t need anything from the king. To Nehemiah, the hand of God meant when he asked the king for something, the king would respond favorably.  

Then in Ezra 9 and 10, Ezra lives out his view of the prohibition against intermarriage by making all the Jews get rid of their foreign wives and children. Dr. Willie Peterson of Dallas Seminary told me when I asked about Ezra’s action that Ezra was wrong.

Ezra was motivated by his pledge to do the will of God. But sometimes it’s not clear what that will is. It was certainly clear to Ezra in both chapters 8 and 9. And foreign wives can turn your hearts away from God as Solomon’s did. But they also have the option to turn their wives to the true God.

For the rest of you who are in mixed marriages—Christian married to nonChristian—we have no explicit command from the Master. So this is what you must do. If you are a man with a wife who is not a believer but who still wants to live with you, hold on to her. If you are a woman with a husband who is not a believer but he wants to live with you, hold on to him. The unbelieving husband shares to an extent in the holiness of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is likewise touched by the holiness of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be left out; as it is, they also are included in the spiritual purposes of God. On the other hand, if the unbelieving spouse walks out, you’ve got to let him or her go. You don’t have to hold on desperately. God has called us to make the best of it, as peacefully as we can. You never know, wife: The way you handle this might bring your husband not only back to you but to God. You never know, husband: The way you handle this might bring your wife not only back to you but to God. (1 Corinthians 7.12 – 16, MSG)

If you’re looking for a comprehensive list of things to do and not to do, you won’t find it in following Jesus! We commit ourselves to do the will of God and carry that commitment out with increasing skill and accuracy.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12.2, ESV)

My friend John Schmidt, pastor of Centerpoint Church in Prattville, AL, has posted seven things we can pray for Afghanistan. It’s a good list, and I present it without further comment.

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… (Matthew 5.43, 44, ESV)

Joy is something we seem to miss in some of our traditions. The older brother in the Parable of the Two Sons (Luke 15.11 – 32) certainly missed it:

The father said, “My son, you are always with me by my side. Everything I have is yours to enjoy. It’s only right to celebrate like this and be overjoyed, because this brother of yours was once dead and gone, but now he is alive and back with us again. He was lost but now he is found!’” (Luke 15.31, 32, TPT)

Everything I have is yours to enjoy… The son had complained about not being given a goat to celebrate with his friends. Had he asked? It was all there. But he did not serve the father out of relationship or joy but out of duty. “I’ve never disobeyed one of your commands.” But did he know the father’s heart? His heart for his wayward younger son AND for his duty-bound older son? 

These things I have spoken to you that my JOY may be in you and your JOY may be full. (John 15.11, ESV, emphasis mine)

The fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace… (Galatians 5.22)

We’ve been looking at Luke 15, the chapter that contains the parables:

• The Lost Sheep
• The Lost Coin
• The Two Lost Sons (most of the time called the parable of the Prodigal Son, but that’s much too narrow a look)

We opened by observing that the parables were designed to get the attention of the self-righteous religious leaders. For as many powerful sermons that have been preached (and rightly so) about the graciousness of the Father toward the younger, wayward son, many of those sermons have missed the true point of that story: the Father’s graciousness toward the older wayward son! Remember, the sheep was lost outside the fold and knew it was lost. The coin was lost inside the house and didn’t know it was lost. The religious leaders are the older brother. The brother who was:

• Angry

But he was angry and refused to go in. (Luke 15.28, ESV)

• Arrogant

But he answered his father, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” (Luke 15.29, 30, ESV)

“Never disobeyed your command.” Really? But did he know his father’s heart? The father had servants to work in the field. Who would go search for the younger son?

• Alienated

His father came out and entreated him… (Luke 15.28, ESV)

The story ends with the older brother still outside. Alienated from the Father. Alienated from the restored younger brother. Alienated from the joy. (I want to write more about that tomorrow.)

Which one of them left for home that day made right with God? It was the humble tax collector and not the religious leader! For everyone who praises himself will one day be humiliated before all, and everyone who humbles himself will one day be lifted up and honored before all. (Luke 18.14, TPT)

The Apostle Paul was once an angry, arrogant, and alienated older brother.

As the Jewish leaders are well aware, I was given a thorough Jewish training from my earliest childhood among my own people and in Jerusalem. If they would admit it, they know that I have been a member of the Pharisees, the strictest sect of our religion…I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene. Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death. Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus. I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased them down in foreign cities. (Acts 26.4 – 11, NLT)

For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. (Philippians 3.3 – 9, NLT)

We’ve been looking at the parables of Luke 15, and we noticed one difference in the parable of the Two Lost Sons: no one goes to look for the younger son as the shepherd looked for the sheep, and the woman looked for the coin. I observed that perhaps the father hoped/expected that the older brother would do that. 

More about the older brother tomorrow, but I was struck by an essay by Andrée Seu Peterson who writes in World Magazine. In “Talks we never had” (well worth the read in its entirety), she talks about people she knew that died before she shared the gospel with them. Here’s a poignant section:

Mary B. was not a Christian when I knew her. And if I can read obituaries well, she wasn’t one in the end either…

An unusual number of people die of cancer on my street. My first husband started the fashion in 1999. Since then, Marie across the way succumbed, then Catherine three doors to my right, then Steve two doors to my left, then Kathy to my immediate left. And now the lady down the street is battling it. Some say it’s the power lines running like a spine along the railroad tracks behind our houses. I looked it up:

“There is no known mechanism by which magnetic fields of the type generated by high voltage power lines can play a role in cancer development. Nevertheless, epidemiologic research has rather consistently found association between residential magnetic field exposure and cancer” (Environmental Health Perspectives, 1995).

So knowing he had cancer, I invited 50-year-old Steve to dinner, shared the gospel with him, saw him come to faith in Christ, and was present as he passed into the arms of the Lord.

Except no, that didn’t happen. I never invited him to dinner. I kept dithering till it was too late…

What would have happened if last summer, or the summer before, or 10 summers before, I had thrown fear to the wind and cast my bread upon the waters and tracked down my old friend Mary B. and told her about Jesus?

Ours is not to know the endings of the roads we never ventured on. – Andrée Seu Peterson, Talks We Never Had, August 12, 2021

God through Ezekiel speaks to the matter, and the Apostle Paul took it to heart. (I’m writing to myself – I’m very much like Andrée Seu Peterson in this respect.)

If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. (Ezekiel 3.18, ESV)

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. (Acts 20.26, 27, ESV)

Yesterday I started writing about the Luke 15 parables:

• The Lost Sheep
• The Lost Coin
• The Two Lost Sons (often called The Prodigal Son)

After yesterday’s introduction on the Listeners, I intended to spend one blog on each parable, but I can’t do that. They form a set. So let’s consider them together at least one more time.

Yesterday, I offered this summary:

Jesus attempts to reach the religious leaders with these three stories, which we’ll explore briefly over the next few days.

• The sheep was lost outside the house and knew he was lost.
• The coin was lost inside the house and didn’t know it was lost.
• Of the two sons, one was lost outside the house and knew he was lost; the other was lost inside the house and didn’t know it.

Today’s let’s notice that the three stories contain common elements:

• Something is lost (the sheep, the coin, the younger brother)
• Someone searches (the shepherd, the woman)
• Something is found
• There is a party

EXCEPT in the third story, no one searches. The Father waited expectantly, but no one searched. I believe it would have been the older brother’s job to do his Father’s will by searching, but he doesn’t. We’ll explore that third parable in more detail. Remember, the Bible doesn’t call it the “Parable of the Prodigal Son:”

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons.” (Luke 15.11, ESV)

If more of us were searching, maybe there would be more celebrating.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19.10, ESV)

One of the fun things of reading the Bible through in a year is coming across “old friends.” For example, I’m back in Luke 15, the chapter that contains the parables:

• The Lost Sheep
• The Lost Coin
• The Two Lost Sons (most of the time called the parable of the Prodigal Son, but that’s much too narrow a look)

Let’s spend a few days with these old friends, beginning with another “L”: the Listeners. Knowing who the listeners are is critical to understanding what Jesus is saying.

Many dishonest tax collectors and other notorious sinners often gathered around to listen as Jesus taught the people. This raised concerns among the Jewish religious leaders and experts of the law. Indignant, they grumbled and complained, saying, “Look at how this man associates with all these notorious sinners and welcomes them all to come to him!” In response, Jesus gave them this illustration: “There once was a shepherd with a hundred lambs… (Luke 15.1 – 4, TPT)

“In response, Jesus gave them this illustration.” Who are “them”? The Jewish religious leaders and experts of the law, who are indignant that Jesus is hanging around with the people listed in verse 1. But I’ve written before that this is a ridiculous matter to be indignant about! If you are a teacher, whom should you be teaching? Shouldn’t you be teaching people who need the teaching?

…Anyone who does not know the Teaching, you teach them. (Ezra 7.25, MSG)

And how can you teach people if you’re not around them? I’ve written before that if I want to teach mathematics, I have to hang around non-mathematicians! The horror of it all.

Jesus attempts to reach the religious leaders with these three stories, which we’ll explore briefly over the next few days.

• The sheep was lost outside the house and knew he was lost.
• The coin was lost inside the house and didn’t know it was lost.
• Of the two sons, one was lost outside the house and knew he was lost; the other was lost inside the house and didn’t know it.

Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riff-raff?” Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.” (Matthew 9.10 – 13, MSG)

OK, THIS is the final blog in the Olympic series: the Fiji 7-man rugby team singing a hymn after they won the gold medal:

Here is BreakPoint’s description, posted August 5:

Normally when an Olympian wins the gold, we see happy tears. We see families back home cheering. We see the pride in carrying the national flag around the field. It’s such a pure moment. It never gets old. So, when the Fiji men’s rugby team recently won the gold over New Zealand, there was something about this that was even more pure and enjoyable.

This was the second Olympic gold for the Fijians. They got on their knees, they prayed to God in thanksgiving, and sang a hymn of praise. It was so beautiful. It’s a traditional tune that contains these words,

“We have overcome, by the blood of the lamb, and the word of the Lord, we have overcome.”

It was a wonderful moment, and a wonderful reminder, that whether we win in rugby, or anything else, the most certain thing in the world is what Jesus Christ has done for us, not what we will ever do. – Breakpoint, August 5, 2021

Click the picture, the caption, or the reference to the hymn in BreakPoint’s narrative. It’s a 12-second loop, well worth listening to a few times!

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12.11, NKJV)

I close this series of observations from the Olympics with two athletes/teams giving glory to God. I’m sure there were more.

Here’s the first: Sydney McLaughlin earned gold with her record-breaking run in the 400-meter hurdles, just ahead of her rival and sometime training partner Dalilah Muhammad, who also broke the existing record. They have described themselves as “iron sharpens iron.”

An article on SportsSpectrum is explicit about her giving glory to God. Here are a few snippets:

• Sydney McLaughlin ‘giving the glory to God’ after earning Olympic gold, another world record (headline)
• “Just trusting the process. Giving the glory to God,” McLaughlin said… 
• And I think the biggest difference this year is my faith, trusting God and trusting that process, and knowing that He’s in control of everything. As long as I put the hard work in, He’s going to carry me through. And I really cannot do anything more but give the glory to Him at this point.”
• In November, she posted a video her getting baptized in the ocean at a beach in L.A., and said, “For twenty-one years I was running from the greatest gift I could ever receive. And by His grace, I have been saved. I no longer live, but Christ in me. My past has been made clean because of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

I’m saving the second example for tomorrow’s blog. Both these stories are too good to combine!

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2.20, NKJV)

I can’t leave the Olympics without talking about teamwork. The story of the Austrian cyclist was thrilling, but she is an anomaly. Many events require not only great individual athletes but also athletes that can play together. The US sends some of its best basketball players, for example, but they don’t always do well as a team, especially in the beginning. This year the US team lost several of its warm-up matches before the Olympics and their first game in the Olympics to France before getting its act together and winning the gold medal.

In some events, you don’t get a second chance. The 4 x 100 relay race, for example. The American sprinters are always among the world’s fastest – not so much the Chinese. But in the first qualifying heat, the Chinese team won, and the US team came in 6th, out of the running for the final. Why? Because the Chinese team knows how to pass the baton, and the Americans don’t. It’s as simple as that. You don’t have to know much about relay racing to know that this is a really bad exchange.

You can see the entire coverage of the race here:

The Americans throw a team of fast guys together and hope for the best. The Chinese pick their guys in advance, and then they train – not just sprinting – but the baton exchange. In the 4 x 100 there is no room for error.

The Message captures beautifully this idea of teamwork:

…moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. (Ephesians 4.13, MSG)