Psalms 83:9-18 There is not only a great beauty in this appeal and prayer of the church, against all her enemies, but also a great exercise of faith, in divine dependence. We give God credit for all that is to come, when we give him the glory of what is past, in redemptions. The church had many striking and signal deliverances to have recourse to, in the ancient monuments of the Lord’s dealing with her foes. The story of Jabin and Sisera, the captain of his host, who mightily oppressed Israel, was well known; and in the songs of Israel, no doubt, the children were taught from one generation to another. Jdg_4:5. And so likewise was the victory of Israel over Oreb and Zeeb, Jg 7. But what I would particularly desire the Reader to remark upon this occasion is, the strength of faith, and the referring all the glory of salvation unto God. The prayer is, Do thou, Lord, accomplish these things for us; for it belongs not to an arm of flesh. It is blessed to learn where all our mercies are; and from whence to look for salvation. And what a divine thought doth the last verse close with, as the sum and ultimate attainment of all! That men may know Jehovah to be Jehovah. And as it is life eternal to know, God, and God in Christ: so the enemies of God shall, sooner or later, know, to their everlasting ruin and shame, the same sovereignty of his power. For the knee that will not bend to his grace, shall break under his rod. Joh_17:2-3; Psa_2:12.
These nobles and princes in their audacity have said: “Let us possess for ourselves the pastures of God” (Psa_83:12). This is also what the coalition of hostile nations wants. It shows that they hate Israel because God dwells with them. They want to wipe out Israel because they want to wipe out the memory of God. They want to do this by taking possession of the land so that they can have their gods of death dwell there, to whom they will attribute the honor of their victory. What the remnant is asking for will happen in the end time, which is quickly approaching. There is a clear similarity between the events described in Judges 4 and what is described in the book of Revelation. At Megiddo, the enemy armies are defeated and the LORD’s people are delivered. At Har-Magedon – which means ‘mountain of Megiddo’ – something similar will take place (Rev_19:11-21). The armies of the then restored Roman Empire, that is, the united Western Europe that will in the future come to the aid of apostate Israel in its battle against the king of the North, will be annihilated by the coming of Christ. The God-fearing part of Israel will then be saved and is called “all Israel” in Romans 11 (Rom_11:26). The coalition’s efforts to wipe out Israel brings the God-fearing Jew to a prayer in which he asks for God’s judgment on them (Psa_83:13-17). He speaks to God as “my God”. What the enemy wants is directed against his God. Therefore, He asks God to “make them like the whirling dust, like chaff before the wind” (Psa_83:13). A whirling dust and chaff have no power in themselves and are blown willy-nilly by the wind in all directions (cf. Deu_28:7; Isa_17:13).
He prays that their leaders might be destroyed as they had been formerly. The common people would not have been so mischievous if their princes had not set them on, and therefore they are particularly prayed against, Psa_83:11, Psa_83:12. Observe, (1.) What their malice was against the Israel of God. They said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession (Psa_83:12), the pleasant places of God (so the word is), by which we may understand the land of Canaan, which was a pleasant land and was Immanuel’s land, or the temple, which was indeed God’s pleasant place (Isa_64:11), or (as Dr. Hammond suggests) the pleasant pastures, which these Arabians, who traded in cattle, did in a particular manner seek after. The princes and nobles aimed to enrich themselves by this war; and their armies must be made as dung for the earth, to receive the consequences of their covetousness and their unholy ambition, Biden beware. (2.) What their lot should be. They shall be made like Oreb and Zeeb (two princes of the Midianites, who, when their forces were routed, were taken in their flight by the Ephraimites and slain, Jdg_7:25), and like Zeba and Zalmunna, whom Gideon himself slew, Jdg_8:21. “Let these enemies of ours be made as easy a prey to us as they were to the conquerors then.” We may not prescribe to God, but we may pray to God that he will deal with the enemies of his church in our days as he did with those in the days of our fathers. II. He illustrates it by some similitudes, and prays, 1. That God would make them like a wheel (Psa_83:13), that they might be in continual motion, unquiet, unsettled, and giddy in all their counsels and resolves, that they might roll down easily and speedily to their own ruin. Or, as some think, that they might be broken by the judgments of God, as the corn is broken, or beaten out, by the wheel which was then used in threshing. Thus, when a wise king scatters the wicked, he is said to bring the wheel over them, Pro_20:26. Those that trust in God have their hearts fixed; those that fight against him are unfixed, like a wheel. 2. That they might be chased as stubble, or chaff, before the fierce wind. “The wheel, though it continually turn round, is fixed on its own axis; but let them have no more fixation than the light stubble has, which the wind drives away, and nobody desires to save it, but is willing it should go,” Psa_1:4. Thus shall the wicked be driven away in his wickedness, and chased out of the world. 3. That they might be consumed, as wood by the fire, or as briers and thorns, as fern or furze, upon the mountains, by the flames, Psa_83:14. When the stubble is driven by the wind it will rest, at last, under some hedge, in some ditch or other; but he prays that they might not only be driven away as stubble, but burnt up as stubble. And this will be the end of wicked men (Heb_6:8) and particularly of all the enemies of God’s church. The application of these comparisons we have (Psa_83:15): So persecute them with thy tempest, persecute them to their utter ruin, and make them afraid with thy storm. See how sinners are made miserable; the storm of God’s wrath raises terrors in their own hearts, and so they are made completely miserable. God can deal with the proudest and most daring sinner that has bidden defiance to his justice, and can make him afraid as a grasshopper. It is the torment of devils that they tremble. III. He illustrates it by the good consequences of their confusion, Psa_83:16-18. He prays here that God, having filled their hearts with terror, would thereby fill their faces with shame, that they might be ashamed of their enmity to the people of God (Isa_26:11), ashamed of their folly in acting both against Omnipotence itself and their own true interest. They did what they could to put God’s people to shame, but the shame will at length return upon themselves. Now, 1. The beginning of this shame might be a means of their conversion: “Let them be broken and baffled in their attempts, that they may seek thy name, O Lord! Let them be put to a stand, that they may have both leisure and reason to pause a little, and consider who it is that they are fighting against and what an unequal match they are for him, and may therefore humble and submit themselves and desire conditions of peace. Let them be made to fear thy name, and perhaps that will bring them to seek thy name.” Note, That which we should earnestly desire and beg of God for our enemies and persecutors is that God would bring them to repentance, and we should desire their abasement in order to this, no other confusion to them than what may be a step towards their conversion. 2. If it did not prove a means of their conversion, the perfecting of it would redound greatly to the honor of God. If they will not be ashamed and repent, let them be put to shame and perish; if they will not be troubled and turned, which would soon put an end to all their trouble, a happy end, let them be troubled for ever, and never have peace: this will be for God’s glory (Psa_83:18), that other men may know and own, if they themselves will not, that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH (that incommunicable, though not ineffable name) art the Most High over all the earth. God’s triumphs over his and his church’s enemies will be incontestable proofs, (1.) That he is, according to his name JEHOVAH, a self-existent self-sufficient Being, that has all power and perfection in himself. (2.) That he is the most high God, sovereign Lord of all, above all gods, above all kings, above all that exalt themselves and pretend to be high. (3.) That he is so, not only over the land of Israel, but over all the earth, even those nations of the earth that do not know him or own him; for his kingdom rules over all. These are great and unquestionable truths, but men will hardly be persuaded to know and believe them; therefore the psalmist prays that the destruction of some might be the conviction of others. The final ruin of all God’s enemies, in the great day, will be the effectual proof of this, before angels and men, when the everlasting shame and contempt to which sinners shall rise (Dan_12:2) shall redound to the everlasting honor and praise of that God to whom vengeance belongs.
As fire and flame do their consuming work, so God must pursue them with His tempest (Psa_83:15). This will rob them of all their strength to be able to do anything against God or His people. He must terrify them with His storm, so that they will forever lose the courage to do something against Him and His people. God’s action will “fill their faces”, i.e. the faces of the enemies “with dishonor” (Psa_83:16). The nations have said snidely that the name of Israel will be remembered no more when they have carried out their plans (Psa_83:4). Now the remnant says that as a result of the disgrace that will be the portion of the nations, there will be those who will seek the Name of the LORD. The prayerful person realizes that God is a merciful God, Who keeps the door of salvation open also for persons of the nations.
Psalms 83:9-18 The psalmist here, in the name of the church, prays for the destruction of those confederate forces, and, in God’s name, foretells it; for this prayer that it might be so amounts to a prophecy that it shall be so, and this prophecy reaches to all the enemies of the gospel-church; whoever they be that oppose the kingdom of Christ, here they may read their doom. The prayer is, in short, that these enemies, who were confederate against Israel, might be defeated in all their attempts, and that they might prove to be their own ruin, and so God’s Israel might be preserved and perpetuated. Now this is here illustrated, I. By some precedents. Let that be their punishment which has been the fate of others who have formerly set themselves against God’s Israel. The defeat and discomfiture of former combinations may be pleaded in prayer to God and improved for the encouragement of our own faith and hope, because God is the same still that ever he was, the same to his people and the same against his and their enemies; with him is no variableness. 1. He prays that their armies might be destroyed as the armies of former enemies had been (Psa_83:9, Psa_83:10): Do to them as to the Midianites; let them be routed by their own fears, for so the Midianites were, more than by Gideon’s 300 men. Do to them as to the army under the command of Sisera (who was general under Jabin king of Canaan) which God discomfited (Jdg_4:15) at the brook Kishon, near to which was Endor. They became as dung on the earth; their dead bodies were thrown like dung laid in heaps, or spread, to fatten the ground; they were trodden to dirt by Barak’s small but victorious army; and this was fitly made a precedent here, because Deborah made it so to aftertimes when it was fresh. Jdg_5:31, So let all thy enemies perish, O Lord! that is, So they shall perish.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Go back to the place where, for the time being, the Lord has put you, where He has called you to live your life and do your work in all the trial and difficulty and suffering of it, and do not strain to get out of it. Do not lose the present value of it by always living mentally or hopefully in a time when you will be out of it, but go back there and recognize that if you are the Lord’s, if you love God and are called according to purpose (as you are if you are in Christ), God is seeking to do something with you and in you by means of the conditions of your present situation. You will only defeat God’s end if you try to get out, and will fail to recognize and accept what He is seeking to do. I can think of few things more regrettable and grievous than that we should look back upon any part of our life and have to say, “I might have realized some great purpose of God in that period of my life if only I had taken another attitude toward it than the one I did take; I was chafing, impatient, all the time looking for a way of escape; I was rebellious, living in another mental world of my own creating, in which I would do and be this and that; and I missed all that God intended at that time.” I say, there can be few things more grievous than that.
So we must go back to the sphere and conditions in which the Lord has placed us, with this attitude – God has a thought which relates to me as one of His Own; and that thought is, that through the conditions and sufferings of my life He should develop in me the features of His Son. On the one hand, the features of the old creation may be seen to be more and more terrible and horrible, as I recognize them in myself; but over against that God is doing something which is other than myself, not me at all. He is bringing into being Another, altogether other, and that is His Son. Slowly, all too slowly; nevertheless something is happening. That sonship is not very much manifested yet, but it is going to be manifested. What God has been doing will come out into the light eventually – conformity to the image of His Son; “that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” So we look out upon the people of God on the earth amongst whom we are included, and we have to adjust our ideas as to why we are here. There may be things to do, but God is far more concerned with the being than with the doing, and we have to learn all over again what service is.
By T. Austin-Sparks from: Conformed to the Image of His Son
Rev 2:18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;
Rev 2:19 I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.
Rev 2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Rev 2:21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Rev 2:22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Rev 2:23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
Rev 2:24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.
Rev 2:25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star.
Rev 2:29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Verse 19 gives the impression that all is well with this church. But we quickly find otherwise. First the commendation, or praise, then that which needs to be corrected because the Christ will not ignore the faults; a lesson which we all need to take careful note of. …Hello…
Like the saints in Pergamos, the believers tolerated sin in the church. In Pergamos the false teachers were compared to Balaam and Balak. Here the false teacher is compared to Jezebel, the proponent of idolatry and immorality. Idolatry and immorality usually go together, and Jezebel personifies both (1st Kings 16:29-34; 21; 2nd Kings 9:30-37) The teaching was being spread that self-indulgence was better than self-discipline and more.
The story of Jezebel’s reign is the story of the quick corruption and utter downfall of the Kingdom of Israel. Idol feasts were followed by “chambering and wantonness” and corruption spread rapidly among the youth of Israel. In a like manner a love of talk about forbidden things was setting in, regard for the law was being weakened; audacity was taking the place of reason and conservatism.
Notice, however, the angel of this church is not charged with teaching this doctrine but with tolerating it.
The church ruler seems to have had an inadequate sense of the authority of law. Both he and the church are charged with neglect of duty. The woman called herself a “prophetess” and the thinking may have been “Who knows but that God may be speaking through her notwithstanding all that is suspicious in her teaching?” even the “judge not” thing may have come into play. The strong of Christian character may not be prone to succumbing but that does not negate their responsibility to their fellow believers in the Christ.
Not everybody in the fellowship was guilty of sin, and the Lord did not warn them. Instead, He encouraged them to hold to the truth and be faithful.
The minister was not charged with sharing the doctrine but with tolerating it; both he and the church were charged with tolerating it and warned of their neglect of duty. Doubtless, he bore with her because she was a woman. The gracious tolerance of a strong man often takes this form. It is very hard for such a one to assert himself at all; most hard where self-assertion seems most easy. Next the woman called herself a prophetess. Here comes in regard for the freedom of prophecy; the very inspiration of the Church was a hindrance. After all, who knows whether God is not speaking by her, notwithstanding all that is in suspicion in her teaching that was contrary to scripture.
The appeal to reality. Nothing is more needed than occasional plain speech about the foulness which lurks in much that professes to be an enlarged spirituality. They who encourage display of the peculiar charms of womanhood and seek to advance public causes by constant speech of things which nature and piety tell us should be held in strict reserve, degrade the women they supposedly seek to emancipate and brutalize the man. A corrupt doctrine will lead to a corrupt life. Creed and conduct have vital connection with each other, a very vital connection indeed.
Rev 2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
Rev 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Rev 2:3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Rev 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
pastorwardclinton.com
Ephesus is the type of a strenuous Church. There is something singularly masculine in the first part of the description. “I know thy works”—that is, thine achievements; not thy desires and purposes and aspirations, not even thy doings, but thy deeds. This Church in its severe self-discipline affords a welcome contrast to the easily-excited populace amid whom they lived, rushing confusedly into the theatre and shouting for two hours, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” The patience of the Church is twice mentioned; the second time it is patience not as a feature of the workman, but the patience of him who can suffer, and suffer in silence. And this virtue has a threefold delineation—patience, endurance, fortitude. “Thou hast patience, and thou didst bear for My name’s sake, and thou hast not grown weary.” There is another mark of the masculine character in Ephesus, a noble intolerance of evil—“thou canst not bear bad men.” And with this intolerance is the power to discriminate character, the clear judgment which cannot be deceived—“thou didst try them which call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false.” There is no surer mark of a masculine nature than this keen insight into pretentiousness, and fidelity of rebuke. There is so much good in this church that we are surprised to discover that they had left (not lost) their first love. The honeymoon was over (Jer 2:2). No amount of separation, sacrifice, or service can make up for your lack of love for the Lord.
It is love in its largest sense which the Church once had and now has lost; the love of God animating piety undoubtedly, but no less certainly the love of men making service sweet. Nor is it the feeling alone which has changed, it is not that love as a sentiment is lost; but love in its far reach has gone, kindliness and tender consideration and disregard of self, the grace that suffers long and is kind, that beareth all things, hopeth all things, believeth all things. The toilsomeness, the endurance, the stern self-judgment, the keen discrimination of character, are obvious; but the spirit that rises above toil or sweetens toil, the grace to woo and wed, has fled. We can understand the history only too well. Life has many sore trials, none sorer than this—that virtues which are unexercised die out, and that the circumstances which call for some virtues and give occasion for their development seem to doom others to extinction. The Christian character cannot live by severity alone. There were two demands which the Church at Ephesus had forgotten—the demand for completeness of Christian character, never more urgent than when the times are making us one-sided; the demand of God Himself for the heart. There must be impulse in His people if they are to continue His people; there must be love in all who, not contented with doing “their works,” desire to do the work of God.
The warning of the fifth verse must have been very surprising to the angel of the Ephesian Church. The Church seemed to be so efficient. Its works had been so hard, and yet they had been done. Its achieve-merits were patent. Especially its service in the cause of truth was conspicuous; the Church had not lost its zeal, its candour, its piercing vision. Ephesus warns us against the perils of the Puritan temper; it warns us also against the stoical temper, with its tendency to a not ignoble cynicism, of which some of our gravest leaders in literature have been the exponents. Puritanism plus love ham accomplished great things, and will do yet more; for a masculine tenderness is God’s noblest gift to men. But Puritanism, when the first love is lost, drags on a sorrowful existence, uninfluential and unhappy; its only hope being the capacity for repentance, which, God be praised, has never failed it. Perhaps the most solemn part of the message is that in which the Lord Himself declares—“I am coming; I will shake thy candlestick out of its place.” The Lord can do without our achievements, but not without love. He can supply gifts unendingly, can make the feeble as David; but if love be wanting He will shake the noblest into destruction, and remove them out of the way. There is one striking word immediately following this warning, a word of commendation; it is the only one of the messages in which a word of commendation does come in after the warning has been uttered, and it is a commendation of feeling. “But this thou hast, that thou hatest,” etc. Hatred is hardly the feeling we should have expected to be commended: but it is feeling, and any feeling is better than apathy or stolidity. Where men can feel hatred, other feeling may come; love may come where men have not reduced themselves to machines like an “Ebenezer Scrooge”.
The word “Nicolaitans” means “conquer the people.” Apparently, a group in the church lorded it over the people and promoted a separation of “clergy” and “laity” (see Matt 21:20-27; 22:1-12) The priest hood was set up by God, but its purpose is not to “lord it over” the people but to serve and produce high quality disciples of the Christ. Some of the priests and pastors started out good but lost their way somewhere along the pathway. Ephesus had too little of what so many have too much of—sensibility, passiveness, willingness to receive, to be made something of, to be quiet and let the Blessed One save them who had long been striving, and of late so ineffectually, to serve Him. Good as strenuousness is—and of human virtues it is among the chief—even better is the responsive spirit. Why was the one we call St Paul given a vision when none of the other priests, as far as we know, in his day given one? Much of the reason likely had to do with his sincerity and earnestness to do the will of God coupled with a responsive spirit that none but God was able to see during the time when he was a persecutor of those called Christians.
— A preview from my forthcoming book on the Revelation of Jesus the Christ. – pastorwardclinton.com
Keep this Book of the Law on your lips: meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:8-9)
God’s word imparts strength and courage. When we base our lives on His instructions and believe that what He tells us is true, we can have confidence to face great challenges, knowing He is with us. As you might have noticed, God does not usually remove obstacles from our lives, but He helps us as we walk through danger and trouble. In Joshua 1 we are given three keys to success: Obedience, faith and courage. We will need all three of these in great measure as we walk through the difficulties that lie ahead of us.
God bless Israel. If God had chosen any other people group for His special purposes they would have been hated just as much as the Jews have been down through the years.
pastorwardclinton 