It’s been hard for me to adjust, but 36 hours ago Judy and I were in Paradise – on Vancouver Island.
About 10 a.m. we drove onto a BC ferry, sailed across to Tsawwassen and started south toward Seattle.
During the drive down to Highway 405, we passed & were passed by cars that I recognized from the ferry.
We were playing auto-leap-frog for nearly a hundred miles.
Eventually I had to get some gas, so we stopped in Moses Lake and a car from B.C. pulled up behind me.
I didn’t recognize the vehicle, but I started chatting with the driver anyway.
I thought that it would be really funny if we had been on the same ferry and had gotten that far down the road together.
But hat wasn’t the case, because the man was moving from Vancouver to Boston.
We chatted for a few minutes, and when we parted I said, “Have a safe journey.”
I wish, however, that I had said what he said: “God bless you.”
From time to time I say those words, but it’s not very often that I say it to a stranger. Shame on me.
“God bless you.”
That incident came back to me this morning as I was reading this scripture.
And as I was reading, I was struck with the obvious.
I hope that you are not angry with me for being very simple, very short and very obvious tonight.
Paul was on an intellectual and verbal journey, and when the details are removed, it’s all about God.
A blessed vacation is all about God.
A sunny day, a rainy day, a happy day are all about God.
And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying,
Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
Then Paul stood up, & beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.”
It was of God that these missionaries went to Perga and then into Pisidia.
I don’t suppose that we’ll ever know for sure, but I wonder how the Holy Spirit directed them.
It could be that He told them before they ever left Syria that they were to go to the Island and then north.
I personally think that God specifically directed them to Cyprus, but then they prayed for daily direction.
It was probably through the impulse of the Spirit upon their hearts, not the audible voice of God, that they went to Paphos and then to Perga and Antioch.
But it was still the Lord Who was directing them.
Every mature saint of God should know the feeling of this kind of Divine leadership.
As was their custom, the first place that Paul and Barnabas went was to the Jewish synagogue.
As usual the proper scriptures were read, but then these visitors were given the opportunity to speak.
I don’t know if the missionaries took turns speaking at the various cities or if Paul had become the primary spokesman,
But on this occasion he stood and invited the attention of the people who were there.
Notice that he spoke to two separate groups: “men of Israel” and “those that fear God.”
Technically speaking, there was a clear and well understood division between these two:
There were Gentiles who had learned that Jehovah is God, and they had learned to fear Him.
It’s like addressing the members of the average Baptist church, and then more specifically those members who are actually serving the Lord.
I wouldn’t be surprised that many of the proselytes were actually closer to the Lord than those who were raised in Hebrew homes.
Isn’t that true about new converts compared to the children who are brought up in church?
It’s all about God and nearness to the Lord, isn’t it?
“The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers,
And exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt,
And with an high arm brought he them out of it.”
Who was the first of these people whom the Lord chose?
First there was Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob, although their names are not mentioned.
Remember that Abraham was a man whom the Jews dearly loved.
But Paul didn’t mention any name but God, because it’s all about God, not Abraham or Israel.
Don’t we see sovereign elective grace in the Lord’s choosing of Abraham?
Don’t we see national election and personal redemptive election as well?
It is all about God, isn’t it?
And then the Lord exalted the people when they were but slaves in the land of Egypt.
In circumstances where you’d think that they prosperity would be difficult, the Lord prospered Israel.
Of course, I’m not talking about economic prosperity, even though when the nation left Egypt it was with great spoils.
It was under the yoke of Egypt that the Lord made Israel a great nation; He exalted them.
Even when the edict of Pharaoh was that the boy babies of Israel were to be slaughtered.
Eventually, Egypt was forced to let Israel leave, but it was with great reluctance.
In fact the Lord delivered Israel with an high arm – by displaying His great strength.
It wasn’t Israel who delivered themselves from Egypt, and it wasn’t their second greatest national hero.
Notice once again that Paul didn’t mention the name of “Moses” in his little history lesson.
Do you suppose that he was just being neglectful?
I think that the Lord just wanted to remind them and us that “it is all about God.”
If we want to be exalted, then we need to look to the Lord.
If we want to be delivered then we need to fear God.
And as far as election is concerned, we simply need to learn to praise God,
Because it’s all about Him.
And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.”
The Greek word “suffered” is found only one time in the Bible and means that God “put up” with Israel.
Remember that they were moaning, groaning, bickering, backbiting and belly-aching for four decades.
But God endured with longsuffering their constant rebellion and complaining.
If some of us had been the Lord, Israel would have been nothing more than a grease spot in the sand.
But it’s all about Jehovah, and not about Moses or Israel.
And how were the Canaanites removed so that the Lord’s promise to Abraham could be fulfilled?
Was it the exceptional military strategy of Joshua? Joshua isn’t even named.
Was it the training of the Israelite warriors?
It wasn’t that Joshua wasn’t a good commander or that Israel wasn’t trained for war.
It was the Lord who decimated the Canaanite armies in a handful of decisive battles.
The exodus and the arrival of the pilgrims was all about God.
And it was the Lord who divided the land between the thirteen tribes.
He gave to each of the sons of Jacob and Joseph the property that He wanted them to possess.
And as far as Levi was concerned theirs was different from all the others.
Levi didn’t occupy a single state, but rather small pieces of property throughout all Israel.
The dividing of the land and the occupation of the land was all about God.
But even when they are mentioned, they are not in the spot-light.
It is still about the Lord.
“And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of 400 and 50 years, until Samuel the prophet.
And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.
And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king;
To whom also he gave testimony, and said,
I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.”
It was the Lord who gave Israel their heros to deliver them from their enemies.
Some of them did spectacular and almost miraculous things.
Some were ordinary or even less than ordinary men, who were especially called and empowered to bring glory to the Lord.
Some were short and others were head and shoulders above their peers.
None of those judges were elected officials or appointed by their governments; they were appointed by God.
Eventually Israel yearned for a king, so that they could be like the wicked heathen around them.
The Lord granted their request, but He had David in the wings, ready to take center stage.
God gave Israel King David, a man especially chosen, prepared, protected and established.
Do you remember how the Lord showed to Samuel that David was to be king?
Jesse was ordered to bring his sons before the Lord, and he basically complied,
But he left his youngest, the least worthy of the bunch, out tending the sheep.
That was the man that the Lord had chosen.
It was all about God.
He was not sinless, but his desire was basically after the Lord.
The Lord had made a promise to Abraham about that man’s seed, which proved to be the Lord Jesus.
And God had made a promise to David about his throne and a descendent to sit upon that throne.
And “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
Mary didn’t choose to be mother of the Messiah.
And her fiancé was reluctant even to take Mary as his wife because of the hand of God.
But this too was of the Lord.
Among the things that Paul tells us here in these few verses, is that God is in control; He is sovereign.
He had learned to say, “God bless you,” just as easily as he might have said, “Have a nice day.”
After all, it is all about God, isn’t it?