Redeeming a Nation (Timeless Teaching)

by Philip Quenby

  False deeds.

  The proof of the pudding is in the eating. When the reply from the Israelites was made known, those who had earlier professed friendship and insisted that they wished to make common cause showed their true colours. They used propaganda, the threat of violence and appeals to the government: “Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. They hired counsellors to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia. At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.” (Ezra 4:4-6). The grudge was kept going for decades and through the reigns of several kings. When one ruler proved deaf to entreaty, the attack was simply renewed under the next. The scene is all too familiar in the present day, with lobbyists and propagandists manipulating and misusing legal and political systems for their own ends. The techniques were the same then as now:

  • A body of the great and the good was gathered to present the case: “the commanding officer ... the secretary ... the judges and officials” (Ezra 4:9).

  • Flattery was combined with readiness to massage facts to produce the desired outcome: “the great and honourable Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the city of Samaria and elsewhere in Trans-Euphrates [people from various other regions]” (Ezra 4:10) – a statement that appears to be at odds with the earlier assertion that “Esarhaddon king of Assyria ... brought us here.” (Ezra 4:2).

  • Events and motives were misrepresented expressly or by implication: “the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are restoring the walls and repairing the foundations.” (Ezra 4:12).

  • Political and budgetary implications were said to be dire: “if this city is built and its walls are restored, no more taxes, tribute or duty will be paid, and the royal revenues will suffer.” (Ezra 4:13).

  • Good faith and honest intent were proclaimed: “Now, since we are under obligation to the palace and it is not proper for us to see the king dishonoured, we are sending this message to inform the king, so that a search may be made in the archives of your predecessors.” (Ezra 4:14).

  • History and precedent were prayed in aid: “In these records you will find that this city is a rebellious city, troublesome to kings and provinces, a place of rebellion from ancient times. That is why this city was destroyed.” (Ezra 4:15).

  • Imagined consequences were exaggerated: “We inform the king that if this city is built and its walls are restored, you will be left with nothing in Trans-Euphrates.” (Ezra 4:16).

  Precisely the same can be expected in modern Britain by any who go about the business of “building the temple of the LORD” (Ezra 4:1). We should not let appearances deceive us. As Shakespeare had King Duncan remark in Macbeth, “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.” This is why we need to look at what men do as well as what they say, at results as well as pious platitudes.

  False thinking.

  Just as in the time of Ezra, we face a situation where law and the establishment are nowadays almost as likely to come down on the side of wrong as of right. The reasons are many, from muddle-headed attempts at pursuing an agenda of fairness and equality to slavish adherence to rules badly conceived or implemented to barefaced political calculation. King Artaxerxes drew incorrect conclusions from the evidence and hence reached a poor decision: “The king sent this reply ... The letter you sent us has been read and translated in my presence. I issued an order and a search was made, and it was found that this city has a long history of revolt against kings and has been a place of rebellion and sedition. Jerusalem has had powerful kings ruling over the whole of Trans-Euphrates, and taxes, and tribute and duty were paid to them.” (Ezra 4:17-20). No opportunity was given for the Israelites to put their side of the story and no proper investigation seems to have been carried out as to the true nature of the facts, nor as to the motives behind the complaint that was made.

  Similarly, the intellectual climate in our land is one in which proper investigation and debate seems more and more to be curtailed and constrained. Increasingly, we fall back on the totems of political correctness rather than looking squarely at the issues before us. The self-censorship that results is no less a form of compulsion than the edicts of a tyrant, no more logical and no more likely to promote good outcomes. The result in Ezra’s case was perverse: “Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order. Be careful not to neglect this matter. Why let this threat grow, to the detriment of the royal interests?” (Ezra 4:21-22). We have perversity aplenty in our land, where systems often conspire to promote the bad and hobble the good.

  When the power of the state is brought to bear against those who seek to do God’s work, the condition of a nation is dire indeed. This was the situation that confronted Ezra: “As soon as the copy of the letter of King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum and Shimshal the secretary and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and compelled them by force to stop. Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.” (Ezra 4:23-24). It takes only a cursory examination of the daily papers to find examples of precisely the same in our country today.

  Conclusion.

  Shackleton faced enormous challenges. Some were external: cold, lack of shelter, shortage of supplies, shipwreck, impassable mountains and sheets of pack ice. Some were internal: the tendency to defeatism, faction or pursuit of self-interest instead of the common good. His experience was extreme, but every individual and each generation faces challenges both within and without. There are obstacles enough without our creating them for ourselves. Hence we should “watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.” (Romans 16:17).

  There are obstacles that are placed in our way and obstacles that we place in the way of others. Each needs to be addressed and overcome after its own fashion. As regards those that are placed in our way, we need the same courage, insight and unwillingness to compromise the truth that Ezra and his companions brought to bear. As regards our tendency to create obstacles for others, we should take to heart the advice of St Paul: “Instead make up your mind not to put any stumbling-block or obstacle in your brother’s way.” (Romans 14:13).

  Above all, the Lord has a job for us to do: “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.” (Isaiah 57:14).

  47. Lost

  Philippians 3:7-11.

  Key word: suffering.

  Even today, after decades of logging, the Brazilian rainforest remains mind-boggling in its extent and largely unexplored. As recently as the nineteen twenties it was almost wholly unmapped. No aircraft had then crossed its widest expanses. Numerous Indian tribes had never been contacted by white men. It was a region of possibility, opportunity and fantasy. Although the legend of El Dorado had been consigned to the realms of mere fable, tales of ancient cities in the jungle seemed plausible: there was much to suggest that both the population and level of civilisation in the Amazon basin had once been greater than in the present day.[107]

  Into this inhospitable region stepped a British officer of engineers: Lieutenant-Colonel P.H. Fawcett. From 1906 to 1925 he criss-crossed the wildest reaches of a hostile landscape, convinced that ruins of age-old splendours were within his grasp. His log books survive, and they give some flavour of the privations he suffered during these explorations. On one occasion rations were gone, no game had been sighted for days and his small party was at the end of its resources. Fawcett describes it thus:

  • “It was a miracle that saved us – at least, for me it was then, and always will be, the nearest thing to what we like to call a miracle. On October 13, feeling that we had come to our last gasp,
I did what I had never known to fail when the need was sufficiently pronounced, and that is to pray audibly for food. Not kneeling, but turning east and west, I called for assistance – forcing myself to know that assistance would be forthcoming. In this way did I pray, and within fifteen minutes a deer showed itself in a clearing three hundred yards away. The others saw it at the same time, and a breathless silence fell as I unslung my rifle. It was almost hopeless range for a violently kicking Winchester carbine; and at the end of one’s tether from hunger or thirst the sight is not reliable, nor is it easy to hold the rifle steady. ‘For God’s sake don’t miss, Fawcett!’ The hoarse whisper came from close behind me. Miss! As I sighted along the shaking barrel I knew the bullet would find its mark. The power that answered my prayer would see that it did. Never have I made a cleaner kill – the animal dropped with severed spine where it stood!”

  The men made it to safety. After a brief respite, Fawcett returned to the jungle again. In due course, it became his prison.

  Profit and loss.

  St Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi is written from prison. It is nevertheless full of hope and cheerfulness. He says: “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.” (Philippians 1:12-14). As well as reporting his own circumstances and thanking the Philippians for sending him a gift, St Paul used his letter to encourage these believers to stand firm in the face of suffering and to rejoice regardless of circumstances. It is an approach that might at first sight seem to fly in the face of all logic.

  The explanation lies in how we assess and value what takes place in our lives and the lives of those around us. The apostle says: “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish” (Philippians 3:7-8). This is something that each generation needs to re-learn. In every age the lure of monetary reward and material things looms large. For each of us, the anguish of privation and suffering can threaten to outweigh and obscure the wider picture of God’s love and care. The issue of suffering remains for many the single most important factor in an inability or unwillingness to believe in the God who is described in the Bible. It is thus worthwhile reminding ourselves that suffering only presents such a problem within Christian theology. Other religions deal with it in quite different ways. Islam treats everything that happens as part of the immutable will of an unknowable and unchallengeable God, in the face of whom man has to submit without question. The primary response which this engenders to suffering is fatalism. Hinduism holds that those who suffer deserve it, for they must have done something wrong in this or previous lives to bring such bad ‘karma’ on themselves. The primary response which this engenders is indifference. Buddhism treats suffering as illusory, like all the things of Samsara (the world of the senses). The primary response which this engenders is denial. Other religious viewpoints posit equal and opposite forces of good and evil, ascribing all suffering to a malign force that the good cannot control. Yet others imagine a Creator who takes no further interest in his creation, in effect making suffering the product of divine inattention.

  All these concepts are alien to Christianity, with its belief in a God who is defined by his loving nature, who is actively involved in human affairs, is all-mighty, all-powerful and all-knowing. Such a God is outraged by suffering, which is a scar on the beautiful world which he created and on all that he desires for mankind. This is a God who permits suffering, but in no way desires it. He permits it because choices must have consequences if they are to be real choices, and bad choices bring wretched consequences. Suffering, in other words, is an inevitable result of the exercise of our free will, and we must have free will for without it we would be mere automatons. To blame God for what we have brought upon ourselves by our stupidity and sinfulness is inaccurate, craven and blasphemous. We need to lay these reactions aside and see things as they really are.

  Along with St Paul, we should “put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3), whether in its power (by relying on what we can bring about in our own strength) or in its lack of power (as our weakness is exposed by suffering). As always, the real issues are spiritual. So is the dimension in which our battles are to be fought and won.

  Knowing Christ.

  The fact that he puts “no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3) leads St Paul away from relying on his own achievements and prowess, and in a quite different direction. His dearest wish is that “I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:8-10).

  Here St Paul goes to the heart of Christianity: relationship. God is not distant and unknowable. He is not indifferent to our suffering, but grieves with us and feels for us. His mercy and the consistency of his character and behaviour are demonstrated by the fact that he continues to show his love and goodness in our suffering even when we deserve what has come upon us. He weeps with us when we suffer through the malice or negligence of others. Jesus himself is hardly a stranger to hardship, being “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.” (Isaiah 53:3). Yet he nevertheless invites us to adopt a different perspective on our pain and promises good things to those who suffer on account of him: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12).

  The remarkable thing is this: through God, our suffering can be turned to good account. St Paul’s experiences are a case in point. These bear out the apostle’s positive viewpoint, as the results of his suffering are seen in their effect upon individual believers and non-believers and, through them, in the wider context of an expanding gospel. The concentric circles of influence and effect eventually spread to all corners of the earth:

  • To believers: “Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.” (Philippians 1:14).

  • To non-believers: “it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.” (Philippians 1:13).

  • Worldwide: “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.” (Philippians 1:12).

  So great is St Paul’s desire “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10) that he also wishes to experience “the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10). This is neither foolishness nor masochism. All people experience suffering. The issue is whether we experience it on our own and for no good purpose, or with God alongside us and in the knowledge that something worthwhile will come of it.

  Suffering and death.

  Suffering has great power. We are all too familiar with its negative side: the capacity to maim and mar, to twist, frustrate, dampen, snatch away, pervert and deny. We reflect less often on its positive side: its impetus to self-sacrifice and courage, its ability to force reflection and growth, the achievements that are possible through it and the example that can be given in it. Both the greatest example in the face of suffering and the greatest achievement through it belong to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It is for precisely this reason that St Paul says: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him i
n death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11).

  This is not the expression of a death wish and nor is it evidence of suicidal tendencies. Earlier in the same letter the apostle says: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.” (Philippians 1:21-26). It is, then, simply an honest recognition that “the power of [Christ’s] resurrection” (Philippians 3:10) was only possible because of the suffering and death that preceded it. This power is replicated in humanity and in nature: “I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24).