Category: Noah

Being shut-in under divine protection: an analysis of the dynamics of comfort versus discomfort.

Fr Dr Saji K Mathew5 Comments

The Lord shut him in (Genesis 7:16)

The background of this verse is detailed in Genesis 6 & 7. Accordingly, we get to know that Noah was shut in the ark ahead of the great flood.

As people began to multiply on the face of earth (Genesis 6:1) sin took a parallel course. As a result of the multiplication of sin, the contemporary generation of Noah deteriorated to such a wicked state that the place became a cradle and repository of sin and embodiment of a soul destructive life style. Though, this section of the Bible does not list the type of sins the gravest of them all, sexual perversion is identified. As we know, perversion is the corruption and distorting of something resulting in deviation from the fundamental goal. It could be inferred that the divine gift of procreation bestowed on human beings was demonised to such an extent that people were brazenly in pursuit of (sexual) perversions. Homosexuality, sexual abuses, sex with animals, combining alcohol and drugs with sex etc., are only a few examples of such perversions. Noah’s contemporary generation was depressingly  one step ahead from even the current generation as we are still exploring alien life but during his time the relationship was well established (see Genesis 6:2).

Perversion is adultery at its core and is something intolerable to God – no matter whether it is our personal or spiritual life (though these cannot be separated). For instance, when the sons of Aaron the high priest, Nadab and Abihu, corrupted the ingredients to create unholy fire, they committed spiritual adultery and consequently were consumed by fire from the presence of the Lord (Leviticus 10:1-2).

In a situation where corruption, perversion and adultery are a way and part of life, the righteous are decimated. Noah was in such a situation but he swam against the worldly flow by remaining loyal to God (Genesis 6:9). It might not have been easy for Noah to survive in such a hostile world where perverted pleasures were a way and part of life. He might have undergone name-calling, bullying and other forms of abuses. However, one should be assured that Lord cannot tolerate the sufferings of his children as we read in Exodus 3:7: I have observed the misery of my people. Noah never was bowed down or run over by any of these adversities. Instead his ears were trained only to hear the Lord, and his walks as always directed by the Lord (see Psalms 119:105).

There are two times a righteous person is shut in by Lord, during the earthly life and life after death. When Lord shuts us in we are not simply locked from outside but fully covered by Him. In fact, Lord’s covering is for the entire creation, especially the human beings. But, it is for us human beings to decide whether we want to remain shut-in the divine covering or sneak out of it. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden were covered by Lord. But when they walked out of that covering they were exposed (to evil). Psalms 91:4 says that God will cover us under his pinions and secure under His wings. God’s children are covered with the shadow of His hand (Isaiah 51:16).

There are two types of covering in our earthly life, visible and invisible:

Visible covering is for the spiritually weak and evolving persons. For instance, the people of God led by Moses from Egypt were not spiritually strong as we see that their faith was weak. Therefore, as a sign of His assurance, and to build confidence, God provided a visible covering, with pillars of cloud and fire throughout the days and nights of their journey through the wilderness. As the people were spiritually immature, it is said that Lord physically guided them by being in both the pillars (Exodus 13:21).

 Jesus’s physical presence on earth and His physical leading of disciples could be understood as a visible covering. Jesus said, the wedding guests cannot fast when the bridegroom is present (Matthew 9:15; Luke 5:34; Mark 2:19). The physical presence of Jesus Christ warranted full protection to His disciples and ardent followers. In John 11:21 we read Martha grieving to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But Jesus explains to her the importance of having faith instead of merely seeking His physical presence (John 11:23-27). This statement points to the physical presence as a temporary guiding phenomenon and a helping hand so that one may be strong enough to walk in faith rather than being parasitic on physical presence (of God). In light of this, we may want to rethink on our over reliance on (often) stage managed miracles which has become ubiquitous (sorry no offence please).

Invisible covering is meant for those who do not need visible signs and miracles to believe, but lives by faith. Jesus said, a wicked and adulterous generation seeks for a sign (Matthew 12:39). Those who are spiritually- strong, mature, and entrenched in faith do not need physical signs as they experience the spiritual covering more than seeing with their naked eyes. For instance, when Elisha the prophet and his servant were surrounded by the army of King Aram at Dothan, he was unmoved (unlike his servant) as the prophet saw with his spiritual eyes the Lord’s covering which was invisible to the aid (2 Kings 6: 15-17). Whilst, the righteous (Elisha) saw the invisible covering, the less spiritually mature (attendant) could only see the covering (of horses and chariots of fire) after his eyes was opened following Elisha’s prayer. When Saint Thomas insisted that he will only believe after seeing Jesus physically, Lord appeared and encouraged the saint to practice faith without always depending on physical eyes (John 20:29).

The righteous does not need a visible sign but is covered invisibly by own faith. In fact the righteous live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4). The Psalter says, those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved (Psalms 125:1), for Lord covers them with favour (Psalms 5:12), and will never allow his faithful to see decay (Psalms 16:10).

Having said, the life of a righteous, as mentioned above, is not at all a cake walk on this earth (Psalms 34:19). In fact, Bible witnesses the lives of people who lived for God as miserable, especially in the New Testament. Jesus Himself was nailed within 3 years of His public ministry. The disciples had to endure sword, poverty, hunger, thirst, harassment, stoning and several other hostile situations culminating in brutal death (see 2 Corinthians 4:8-10). One might wonder where the cover was during these horrendous sufferings. In fact, it was the cover that enabled them to boldly undergo those sufferings. And, the cover worked as a protective shell of God’s grace, power and support within which the saints are shut so that they could develop and grow themselves fully, and ready for an eternal life with Lord in heaven. Saint Paul foresaw this with his spiritual eyes and prophesied For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands (2 Corinthians 5:1).

In the course of our preparation for a heavenly life being shut-in helps us to endure and persevere without fail and fall.  Apparently, this contradicts the message of infamous prosperity gospel which demonises suffering and divinises material well being and worldly glory. True followers of Christ have a different message, of that of willingness and ever ready to sufferings, as they are shut in the love of Christ. Hence the bold statement, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

To be shut in may be felt as inconvenient and suffocating, especially for those who are framed in their worldly comfort zone. It is essential to realise the worth of being shut in as a process of disciplining ourselves in preparation for an eternal life. Hebrew 12:11 states No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Successful completion of the discipline process qualifies one to be received in the kingdom of God. Saint Paul said, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Timothy 4: 7-8). Jesus asked Saint John to write to the church in Sardis, if you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life (Revelations 3:5).

The second shutting in occurs in our life after death. At the outset, souls of the faithful departed are sent to rest for a while. As evident in Bible, they are shut in again by Lord, now within the holy of holies, under the altar (Revelations 6:9): I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given. This implies that our departed souls have yet another stage of transition before the revelation of final glory, directly being with God. In response to the query of these souls, God ask them to wait for some more time until the numbers would be complete, and this period is termed as resting in white robes (Revelations 6:10). This shutting in could be discerned perhaps as yet another disciplinary process, this time the final preparation to be with Lord and worshiping Him day and night, non-stop (Revelations 4:8).

Yet another example could be found in the parable of rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Here we see that Lazarus is placed by the side of Abraham whereas the rich man is outside and far away from the divine cover. The words of Lazarus are particularly interesting to this topic …between us and you a great chasm has been set in place…. (Luke 19:26), denoting that Lazarus is shut in and not allowed to go out of the covering, even if he wanted to help the rich man.

Being shut in and covered by Lord is in fact not arresting one’s freedom but a better way of being guided to live a spiritually systematic life. As mentioned above, when Adam and Eve walked out of God’s covering, they felt naked and exposed (Genesis 3:7) and had to seek for cover behind the trees. Divine covering is a covenant that we become a private property of God (Ezekiel 16:8). When Noah was shut in divine protection, though there was flood around and little contact with the outside world, still he and his family were safe. However, the moment he walked out of divine protection, was immediately came under demonic attack; and we see Noah exposed and lying naked in bed (Genesis 9:21). On the eve of the grand exodus, the Israelites were shut in their homes and sealed with the blood of lamb in order to be protected from the final plague (Genesis 12:7&13).

Reflecting upon, at the end of year 2016, God’s children may want to assess how much comfort and discomfort they have felt whilst being shut in divine grace. Depending on individual situations we may have been shut in various different ways, by means of being stopped from doing what we wanted to do; were restricted from achieving our worldly aims and objectives; sometimes or often not getting an answer to our prayers or wishes granted; and so on. From a worldly point of view, we may have undergone a lot of frustrations and disappointments. But, looking at the broader picture and the macro environment, we may want to thank God for protecting us from calamities, accidents, diseases and death, losses and debacles. This does not imply that we are better human beings but it is only the grace of God; and of course for a purpose. For all those who are disappointed and frustrated, including myself, let us remember the words of Saint Paul, For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4:17).

I have used two concepts in this blog, shut-in and covering. This is not to confuse the readers but to convey the message that being shut-in by God is not leaving us in darkness to starve and die. But, whilst we are shut-in, we are powerfully covered by God’s grace, the grace that saw Noah and his family float on the same water which created havoc and destroyed the entire creation. To conclude, being shut-in simultaneously places us under full cover of God.

Let praise be to the Holy Trinity. Jesus is coming soon.

Obedience, worship and peacemakers: Case analysis of the Syro-Phoenician woman

Fr Dr Saji K Mathew7 Comments

Mark 7:27 – ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs’.

Mark 7:24-30 reports an important incident that occurred during the ministry of Jesus Christ. Matthew (15:21-28) also reports this incident and quotes Jesus’s response to the Syro-Phoenician/Canaanite mother.

A brief genealogical background of this woman would help us to better understand the whole context related to this incident. The Canaanites were called Phoenicians by the Greeks, and Syro-Phoenicia simply identifies this region as the Syrian part of Phoenicia, to distinguish from the North African Phoenicia. The origin of Canaanites could be discovered in Genesis 10:15-19. Canaan was the grandson of Noah, and the son of Ham who not only saw the nakedness of his father, but further maligned himself by exposing his father’s naked to his two brothers, Shem and Japheth. By committing this sin, Ham brought the curse on his son Canaan as we read in Genesis 9:25.

Though the sin was committed by Ham, the curse fell on his son Canaan. Exodus 20:5 says that God punishes the children for the iniquity of the parents. This is termed as generational curse descending down through children and grandchildren, continuing until repented. We see the same in the case of Cain as well, where God said to him that ‘sin is lurking at the door’ (Genesis 4:7).

Biblical history reveals that sin continued through generations among the Canaanites. This is why Abraham made his servant to swear by the Lord that he will not get a wife for his son Isaac from among the Canaanites (Genesis 24:3). The curse on Canaanites is sounded apparent in Isiah 23: 1-4, the curse on Tyre and Sidon (the regions where the Canaanites lived). Please also note that Sidon was the son of Canaan (Genesis 10:15). The curses on the Canaanites are further mentioned in Jeremiah 47:4 and Ezekiel 28:21. Apparently, by the time of Jesus, the Canaanites were fully drenched in sin with idol worship and other sinful activities.

Jesus replied to the Canaanite/Syro-Phoenician woman that she did not belong to ‘the children’ (Mark 7:27; Matthew 15:26). By now, I hope it is clear why this woman is not considered among the children. It may not be her fault or sin, but it is a curse continuing through the generations. Let us have a look at as to who is considered as a child of God:

Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God’ (Matthew 5:9). H. G Dr Geevarghese Mar Osthathios of blessed memory describes the cross as a symbol of peaceful relationship in the vertical and horizontal realm. By horizontal realm H.G means peace and harmony among our co-beings in this world; and in the vertical realm- a peaceful relationship between God and mankind.

A true child could be considered as one that has a peaceful relationship with God the Father. Peace with the Father means complete obedience and unconditional surrender to his will. Both these qualities are found in Jesus’ life on earth. Philippians 2:8 states that Jesus was obedient to the point of death. In the prayer at Gethsemane Jesus surrendered Himself to God’s will (Matthew 26:39), demonstrating complete obedience. Even at a tender age of His earthly life, Jesus displayed obedience as is evident in Luke 2:51- ‘Then He went down to with them…and was obedient to them’.

We are made righteous through the obedience of Jesus Christ (see Hebrews 5:8-9). Romans 5:19 states ‘by the one man’s (Jesus Christ) obedience the many will be made righteous’. This means that it is through obedience (to God) that we achieve righteousness. Obedience then, could be discerned as an inbuilt attitude towards Christ, in the same way as Saint Paul expresses- ‘…….and we take every thought captive to obey Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Jesus has shown us through his life and teachings that by complete obedience we establish a peaceful relationship with God, and in turn get marked as children of God (John 1:12).

On the contrary, non-peaceful relationship with God stems from disobedience, which in fact is rebellion (against God). Isiah 14:12-14 tells us how Satan, once a trusted and powerful angel rebelled against God and was thrown out. This incident is further mentioned in Revelations 12:4&7 where Michael the archangel fought against Satan (dragon) and was thrown out.

Obedience is a covenantal relationship with God practiced in the form of worship, whereas, rebellion is disobedience and the breakage of that covenant. Therefore, when we submit ourselves to our heavenly Father in complete obedience we are in a state of worship. In this state, God dwells in us and we in Him (see Revelations 3:20). Worship is the state in which we unite with God. Psalms 22:3 states that God is enthroned on the praises (worship) of Israel. When we are disobedient, we accept Satan as our father, and submitting ourselves as his children (see John 8:44), thereby worshipping him.

We discussed above about generational curses which affected the Syro-Phoenician woman. We may wonder, is there anything like generational blessings as well. Of course yes. In the same way we suffer from generational punishments we can enjoy generational rewards as well. For instance, Levi and his descendants were born years later after Abraham died but still Levi received the blessings which Melchizedek bestowed on Abraham. The Bible says that Levi was in fact present in the loins of Abraham when Melchizedek blessed Abraham (Hebrews 7:10). If so, it could be presumed that Syro-Phoenician woman is also entitled for some blessings as she is a descendant of Noah, and we read that Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation, and walked with God (Genesis 6:9). Moreover, he received blessings from God (Genesis 8:21; 9:1). Therefore, it should be apparent that in the same way as Levi was in the loins of Abraham, the Syro-Phoenician woman was in the loins of Noah.

If this is the case, then why was this woman refused to be heard by Jesus. Noah and his children were in complete obedience to God and hence were in a state of worship. But Ham, his son, rebelled later and fell from the state of worship and was cursed. We should not forget that God’s promises and blessings are eternal (see Isiah 54:10) and, God never changes (Malachi 3:6). It is our sins that clouds God’s presence, promises and blessings. As we read in Isiah 59:1, ‘Lord’s hand is not too short to save………….rather your iniquities have been barriers………and your sins have hidden his face from you……’ Ham was blessed along with Noah but later he sinned and invited Lord’s wrath. The later generation of Canaanites continued in the sins and never desired for the Lord. In Malachi 3:7 God says ‘Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you’. The Canaanite woman decided to return to the Lord and Lord accepted her, keeping His promise.

Most of us feel uncomfortable with Jesus contrasting ‘children’ with dogs (Mark 7:27). The reason could be better understood from Revelations 22:15 which states, ‘Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood’. Thus, it could be discerned that dogs are equated to other satanic activities listed in this verse. Therefore, we may deduct and discern that Jesus is actually bringing out all sorts of sins practiced by the Canaanites. The sinful practices of Canaanites made them worshippers of Satan which was exposed by Jesus.

However, here is an exception that this woman though suffering from pathetic sinful conditions decides to walk out of the clan and return to the Lord. The woman in a way is confessing to Jesus about her generational sins and at the same time refusing to return to her sinful past. She rather prefers to be under the table of the children of God and rely on the crumbs. She realised that remaining humble in the presence of Lord is worthier than enjoying the pleasures of sins back home. We see the same approach in Moses when he preferred to be called a child of God and share ill-treatment with the people of God rather than being called son of Pharaoh, and enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin (Hebrew 11:24-25).

Obedience to God is not only during the time of happiness but even when we are in severe hardship. Jesus’s obedience was visible even when He was crying loud and in tears (Hebrews 5:7). This reflects the true and genuine love of children to Father. The Canaanite woman approached Jesus with a strong and unwavering faith. She did not give up at the discouraging words of Jesus as it sounds to others. Instead she discerned in her spirit the essence of Jesus’ words. And, it was meant for her salvation. She accepts her state as a dog due to the demonic stronghold/s (2 Corinthians 10:4) established due to her ancestors giving entry to them. Entry to demons in our lives occur due to many ungodly behaviours (for example see Ephesians 5:3-4; Galatian 5:20-21). It was Ham her forefather through whom demon gained foothold and eventually became a stronghold down the generation. However, now, after the Canaanite woman receiving Jesus, her daughter is delivered from demon. In other words, through one woman the following generation is blessed.

Jesus said, ‘if you love me, you will obey my commandments’ (John 14:15). Obedience to the commandments makes us children of God, transforms us into a state of worship; and true children of God always have peace both vertically (with heavenly Father) and horizontally, which is fellowship with our brethren.

Are you my beloved readers suffering from generational sins which you may or may not be aware of? Now is the time to repent and return to our Lord Jesus Christ (1 John 1:9). No matter the gravity and age of sins, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us (1 John 1:7). Let us rely on that holy and propitiating blood of Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on me.

God bless you my brothers and sisters in Christ.