July 23, 2006

Submission
Genesis 16: 7-14

Someone once asked George Mueller the secret of his service to God.

Mueller replied," There was a day when I died, utterly died;" and as he spoke he bent lower and lower until he almost touched the floor-"died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will-died to the world, its approval or blame even of my brethren and friends-and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God."

As I read this passage of scripture last Sunday, I had planned to move on to the next exciting chapter. But something crept out and snagged me, snagged me where I most needed snagging. It was the Words of this "Angel of the Lord" to Hagar.But before we investigate what it was that snagged me, I want to dash of on one of those lovely side roads that provide excellent scenery on the Bible teaching road.

I want to note here the first appearance in the Bible of a being called "The Angel of the Lord". Notice who this "Angel of the Lord" is, Hagar knows, Hagar tells us who it is in verse 13. Look at it," Thou Lord"

Look at some other appearances of this specific angel: Gen 22:11 -18 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here [am] I.

And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son] from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind [him] a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh: as it is said [to] this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son]: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which [is] upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

That ain't all babe: Look at Exodus 3: 1 -7 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, [even] to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush [was] not consumed.

And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here [am] I.

And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest [is] holy ground. Moreover he said, I [am] the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

And the LORD said, ...

Judges 13: 1-23 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name [was] Manoah; and his wife [was] barren, and bare not.

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou [art] barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean [thing]: For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance [was] like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he [was], neither told he me his name: But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean [thing]: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. Then Manoah entreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.

And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband [was] not with her.

And the woman made haste, and ran, and showed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the [other] day.

And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, [Art] thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I [am]. And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and [how] shall we do unto him?

And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware.

She may not eat of any [thing] that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean [thing]: all that I commanded her let her observe.

And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee.

And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he [was] an angel of the LORD.

And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What [is] thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honor?

And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it [is] secret?

So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered [it] upon a rock unto the LORD: and [the angel] did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on [it], and fell on their faces to the ground.

But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he [was] an angel of the LORD.

And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

But his wife said unto him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have showed us all these [things], nor would as at this time have told us [such things] as these.

In these passages it is abundantly clear that this specific Angel, the angel of the LORD, is God. Now keep in mind one other thing, has any man seen "God?" NO, but in the new testament, there is one who is called "The express image of his person" and Isaiah calls Him "Emmanuel, God with us"

Jesus, in the new testament is the physical appearance of God, God in human form. But here this "Angel of the Lord" is the appearance of God in human form.

I submit to you that these appearance are understood to be "Christophanies" Pre incarnate appearances of Jesus Christ, the bodily manifestation of God. Now the actual "Jesus" as a flesh and blood human being born as a vessel for the spirit of God obviously didn't appear until Christmas, but we understand that God, the spirit, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is now and always was and ever shall be. Here the "Son" appears pre incarnation.

We have dealt with that in the past and will more in the future, but now for the main thoughts for today. Look at verse nine for a second and consider the circumstances of Hagar: “ And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.

Now This passage brings several questions to mind that need answers. It probably outrages your sense of justice as an American to have this woman returned to such a harsh climate as God is sending her to.

It also raises some other questions that I think need answering so you do not misunderstand God's perfect ways.

By and large we are what Walter Smith called "Burger King Christians/have it your way." But we need to understand that "our way" is not necessarily God's way.

Submission is a hard thing for believers and there are areas where God says," Return to your master" Go back and be submissive to your mate," Be subject to those who have the rule over you. Submit to one another, and we rebel. This rebellion is against God and therefore sin.

But there are several points that need clarifying.

First look with me at first Peter chapter three and we will see what Peter IS saying and what He is not saying.

1-2 Likewise, ye wives, [be] in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;

While they behold your chaste conversation [coupled] with fear.

These verses may cause you to cringe sometimes, especially of you are one of those ladies who live with a forward man, one who "obeys not the word". But God says the way to win that man is by being in subjection, an attitude here of letting God be God.

Peter IS saying that you need to be in submission and even if the guy is a non believer that does not change the facts.

But I need to look at another scripture here and help you to realize a very important fact: Though you are to be in subjection with a godly attitude, that does not mean that God is saying "Stay and be abused"

Turn over to Acts 16, and 17 a moment and lets see a principle:16: 25ff And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.

Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed [their] stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

And when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying, Let those men go. And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.

But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast [us] into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and besought them, and brought [them] out, and desired [them] to depart out of the city. And they went out of the prison, and entered into [the house of] Lydia : and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed.

Here Paul sets a very important precedent for proper submission and it has ramifications for today that can relieve stress and give some direction.

Paul here stands on his rights as a citizen of Rome and unabashedly asks for those rights to be applied. Listen, if you are in an abusive situation in the home , you do not have to live with it. I see two avenues of escape from that and they have some precedent in scripture.

Now I am not talking about normal "guff". If you act like a jerk feller, then do not think her reaction is without reason, and vice versa.

Guys or ladies, there is a lot of sinful. speech that you shouldn't really be doing in marriages, you deride and cut down and that is wrong, and I think that the first avenue you need to take is Christian counseling, then, if you are a believer, and you refuse to repent from this sin, you may be in line for discipline from your church. You have that recourse from abuse, even if it is verbal, because God is VERY clear that "no unwholesome speech should be allowed from your mouth, but rather that which is good and edifying.

But listen and listen well. Paul establishes a precedent here by appealing to the law of the nation. I see that if you are married to a non believer, or if your church cannot make a difference, then you have a right as citizen to hold this man or woman responsible to the law of the land. So do not move to an Islamic nation or all bets are off.

The principle of submission is very difficult, and I believe in a marriage it places STRONG responsibility on a man to do his proper part to LOVE as Christ loved, but get this straight, God ordained a senior partner, a place where he expects the buck to stop, and if you want to obey God you will have to surrender to Him and practice biblical submission.

This submission to a harsh mistress involved real trust in Hagar, trust that God would really exalt her son and protect him and make of him many nations. The submission of a wife to a husband involves trust , trust that God will work things out in order to gain glory for himself.

There are another areas of submission, submission to duly constituted national authority in Rom 13, Submission to the church leaders who God places in authority. In Hebrews 13. All this involves trusting in God to work things out. All this involves a death to doing things MY WAY, and a death to self and a new life submitted first to Christ. You can't properly submit to The laws of the land if you will not submit to Christ.

Servants are instructed to submit unto harsh masters "as unto Christ". Wives are to submit to your husbands as UNTO CHRIST.

So if in this generation submission to authority is lacking, it is because there is little submission to the one we call Lord.

There are some people who actually rebel at the thought of having Jesus be LORD. This is indication of the spiritual condition of that person. If you know your bible you know that Rom 6 :17 plainly states "The one you yield obedience to is the one you serve.

Listen , : Grace is God's free gift to us, bought on the cross by the sweet savior Jesus, and he died to take away sin, bought us with a price and since HE died at a young age, it follows that we then will live out his life on earth in the way he would have us do it. HE gave us eternal life, but we become His agents here and are to live in such a way as to honor him. Surrender to Christ and the word "submission" becomes not a drudgery, but a glory, a crown to lay at the feet of he who loved us and washed us from our sins in HIS own blood. How about it? Are you surrendered to Him?

Abraham Bininger was a young Swiss boy from Zurich who came to America on the same ship that brought John Wesley. His parents both died on the voyage and were buried at sea and it was alone that he stepped off the ship onto these strange shores where he knew no one. When he grew to manhood he asked to be sent to St Thomas island to tell the story of the cross to the Black slaves there after hearing of their misery and degradation.

When he arrived there, he found out that it was illegal for a free man to preach to slaves as their masters wanted to keep them in darkness, in ignorance and superstition. Shortly after this the governor of St Thomas island received a letter signed Abraham Bininger in which the writer begged to be allowed to become a slave for the rest of his life so that he could bring the gospel to these people. He promised to work hard and faithfully if in his free time he could preach the cross to fellow slaves.

The governor sent the letter to the king of Denmark, who was so touched by the request that he sent back an edict empowering Abraham Bininger to tell the story of the Messiah when and where he chose, to man or woman, black or white, slave or free.

I do not know if I have that devotion, the devotion of submission of my very freedom to the Christ who bought me, and I am not sure I could say with Paul in Romans 9, "I would spend eternity in Hell if only my people could be saved" That is total submission...That is what God asked of Hagar....what does he ask of you?

You think about that, Amen.