The Most Important Thing: A Powerful Example in Luke/Acts

“Identify the most important thing and start with this.”  I remember the presenter saying something like this in a time management seminar.  It is easy to get caught up in things that feel urgent but are not really that important.  Whether it is living healthily, studying regularly, or prayer, it is not unusual for the most important things to feel the least urgent.  In Luke and Acts, prayer is a major theme.  Prayer is not just tacked on as an obligatory act but is central to Christian living and service.  It is the most important thing.

Jesus begins his ministry not with just baptism, but with baptism and prayer.  The text says that while Jesus was praying, the Spirit came down on him and a voice came from Heaven declaring Jesus as God’s beloved son (Lk 5:16).  It is interesting that the one other time God declared Jesus as his son was while Jesus was praying on the Mount of Transfiguration (Lk 8:28).

Even though great crowds of people were coming to hear him and be healed, Jesus would go to a lonely place to pray (Lk 5:16).  Conventional wisdom dictates that staying busy doing the work should take priority.  However the wisdom of our Lord demonstrates that prayer takes priority.  A ministry that is weak in prayer will likely be a ministry that is weak in power.  It will be prone to aimlessness, discouragement, and fear.  But Jesus prioritizes prayer so that he spent the entire night in prayer before choosing twelve apostles (Lk 6:12f).  I sometimes wonder what being in prayer all night would be like.  What happens when you run out of things to say?  Should you try to spend all your time talking, or should you spend some of the time in meditative silence, listening for the leading of the Spirit?  Jesus didn’t always pray alone.  When his arrest and crucifixion loomed ahead of him, he took three of his closest disciples to the Mount of Olives to pray.  He prayed so hard that sweat began to drip off his body like big drops of blood! (Lk 22:39f).  Jesus’s habit of prayer prompted his disciples to ask him to teach them to pray as well (Lk 11:1ff).

In the book of Acts, we see that the early church, following the example of Jesus the Lord, also made prayer a priority.  Several times the text says they were “devoted” to prayer (Acts 1:14; 2:42; 6:4).  Sometimes they weaved the words of scripture into their prayers (Acts 3:24-26).  With discernment, they didn’t pray for comfort or ease, but for boldness to carry on the mission of Christ in the face of persecution (Acts 3:27-31).  As Jesus prayed before appointing people to ministry, the church in Acts did the same (Acts 6:6; 13:2; 14:23).  These and many other examples of prayer in the book of Acts demonstrates that the early church in the first century was a praying church who followed the example of Jesus who was a praying Lord and savior.  If their Lord Jesus needed to have a practice of prayer, then why would his followers not need to have a practice of prayer as well?

I am convinced that discernment, wisdom, spiritual strength, and godly ministry could hardly be possible without the discipline of prayer.  We usually attribute the qualities of the church in Acts to their faith.  However, this faith could not have been sustained without the regular practice of prayer.  At times, they seemed to have set aside a time to meet for no other purpose than for prayer.  It appears that they at times spent hours in prayer (Acts 12:5,12).  

The church today has meeting times set apart for Bible study, eating, worship, fellowship, planning meetings and other such things.  What would it look like for the church today to set aside a meeting time just for the purpose of prayer?  Perhaps, before any energy goes into planning or activity, energy ought to be put into praying together.  This is a collective demonstration of humility, dependence and openness to where the Spirit of God may be leading us.  Here is a question I am meditating on and invite you to also meditate on:  What would it take to be a more prayerful church?

!!! --- DANGER --- !!!

The daily Bible reading brought back memories of technical training when I was in the Air Force.  I still remember the uneasy feeling the first time we opened the lid to power supply for one of the radar amplifiers for the planes.  It was not unusual to see a warning label with something like, “Warning, High Voltage, contact may cause injury or death.”  However, this piece of equipment had a different kind of label.  In very big and bold red letters it said, “Danger!  20,000 Volts.  Contact will cause death.”  Even though we were normally very careful to observe all safety protocols, it was on our mind in a special way that day.  The fear and respect we had for electricity prevented us from having a lax attitude toward it.  Several of our technical instructors had already put a healthy fear of electricity in us with the truth stories of those who ignored safety rules and died because of it.  We were very careful to comply with all limitations, instructions, and safety rules.  This included things like not wearing metal jewelry or even metal framed glasses.

I imagine that what Israel faced was similar when they were in the presence of God at Mount Sinai or at the Tabernacle with his presence burning in a pillar of smoking fire over the sanctuary.  What they had come near to was not a high voltage, but high holiness in the presence of God.  Leviticus 16 gave specific and detailed instructions on how Israel was to approach the presence of God in his most holy place in the sanctuary.  

“The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD and died, 2 and the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3 But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: …” (Lev 16:1-3).

What follows are very detailed instructions on the protocol for entering into the Holy place.  There were very specific kinds of offerings for specific purposes that had to be made in preparation to enter.  It was only to be on the designated day once a year.  Even though Aaron’s two sons were priests, they were previously struck down by fire because they did not honor God by following the detailed instruction he had given on approaching him in his Holy Place (Lev 10:1-11).  The holiness of God that filled the Holy Place was much more than 20,000 volts.  It wasn’t metal jewelry that was the issue for Aaron’s sons who had been struck down, but the “strange/unauthorized fire” that they offered which the Lord had not commanded.

Due to our sin and impurity, it is a dangerous thing to approach divine holiness.  But God wanted his people to come near to him.  He wanted to come down from his holy mountain to live in a tabernacle in the midst of his people.  He wanted them to worship and love him with all their heart, soul, and mind.  Because sin and impurity made it a precarious thing, God provided a holiness protocol by which the priest could purify himself and the people to be near God as his people.

This should help us Christians to appreciate the privilege of being near to God with thankful humility.  Since God is too holy and we were too impure, Jesus came as our High Priest and gave himself as an offering to purify us and make us holy.  Unlike Israel, which was limited to only the High Priest being able to enter the Holy Place once a year, Jesus paved a way for ALL of us to enter into the presence of God through him (Heb 6:19ff).  This is why the final picture of hope we are giving in the Bible is seeing God face-to-face (Rev 22:4), which was not possible before Jesus performed his atoning work on the cross and at the empty tomb.

God's Choice of Judah vs. Joseph

Sometimes the most memorable thing a person will say are his last words.  I can imagine that the final blessing of Jacob to his sons were etched into their minds.  One of the surprising things about his final blessing is some were short, and most were not the most positive of words.   

 

Of his oldest son, Reuben, he said: 

"Reuben, you are my firstborn,
    my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,
    preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,
    because you went up to your father's bed;
    then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!" (Gen 49:3-4).

Of Simeon and Levi he said:

"Simeon and Levi are brothers;
    weapons of violence are their swords.
Let my soul come not into their council;
    O my glory, be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
    and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
    and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
    and scatter them in Israel" (Gen 49:5-7).

Of his youngest son, Benjamin, he said:

"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
    in the morning devouring the prey
    and at evening dividing the spoil"  (Gen 49:27).

Due to the dysfunctional activities in the family over the years, most of Jacob’s final words are either short or negative, or both.

However, this is not true of Joseph’s blessing.  Joseph seemed to be a shining star out of all the sons of Jacob.  He exemplified so many of the characteristics a godly man should have.  Even in the face of extreme difficulties, he lived well and died well in the end.  Here are the final words Jacob passed on for Joseph.

 “Joseph is a fruitful bough,
    a fruitful bough by a spring;
    his branches run over the wall.
 The archers bitterly attacked him,
    shot at him, and harassed him severely,
yet his bow remained unmoved;
    his arms were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
    (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),
by the God of your father who will help you,
    by the Almighty who will bless you
    with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,
    blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
The blessings of your father
    are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents,
    up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.
May they be on the head of Joseph,
    and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers” (Gen 49:22-26).

Based on this, one would think that God’s seed promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be fulfilled through Joseph.  However, this is not the case.  The seed promise would be fulfilled through the tribe of Judah, which later produced Jesus, the Messiah.

This is rather interesting.  Not only does Judah not occupy a lot of space in the stories of Genesis, but his portrayal is less than flattering.  In Genesis 37:26-27, it was Judah that concocted the plan to sell Joseph into slavery to get rid of him.  In Genesis 38, Judah’s first two sons were evil enough that God took both of their lives.  This left him with a daughter-in-law that was a widow.  To take care of her, he promised his third son as a husband when he was old enough to marry.  However, he told her to go back home to her father until he grew up!  It became evident that Judah had no intention of keeping his promise to Tamar.  Later, it was Judah that went to what he thought was a prostitute.  It was Judah that had to be backed into a corner by Tamar to keep his word.  Judah was indeed a very different man than his brother, Joseph. 

However, Judah appears to have become a changed man later in his life.  In Genesis 43:8-10, Judah offered himself up personally as a guarantee for Jacob’s favorite son, Benjamin.  In Genesis 44:14-34, Judah had every intention of keeping his word.  When Benjamin was going to be held captive in Egypt, Judah offered to stay in Benjamin’s place.  That Judah did this for his father’s favorite son shows Judah to be a changed man.  He acted in a completely different way concerning Benjamin, Jacob’s favorite son at that time.

Perhaps this is why the only other long and positive blessing Jacob gives is to Judah.  Of Judah, Jacob offered this blessing:

“Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
    your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father's sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion's cub;
    from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
    and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
    and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Binding his foal to the vine
    and his donkey's colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
    and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
His eyes are darker than wine,
    and his teeth whiter than milk” (Gen 49:8-12).  

In this blessing, Jacob referred to Judah as a brave lion’s whelp.  He also declared that the ruler’s staff would not depart from Judah, indicating that a ruler would come from him.  This ruler would be none other than Jesus, the Messiah (Mt 1:3,16), the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev 5:5).

God’s choice of Judah did not exclude the others from receiving the blessing.  However, only one could have the honor of being the vehicle for fulfilling the seed promise.  Why Judah?  Despite the change in his life, he does not stand out in exemplary character the way Joseph did.  This appears to have changed in Judah’s later life, which is a reminder that a man can choose what kind of man he is going to be.

However, God’s choice is not based on our actions, but his grace and favor.  Romans chapter 9 discusses how God’s choice is based on his grace and mercy, not on how much someone has done right or wrong.  It clearly states, “… it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom 9:16).  Whether it is choosing the younger, choosing the least, or even choosing the one who has less than exemplary characteristics, it is always according to God’s grace. 

We are God’s chosen because of his mercy.  Spending time in meditation on this will help to displace the pride that God is so opposed to.  Prayerful reflection on this should cause our pride to deflate and our humble thanksgiving to inflate.  This should increase our patience, compassion, grace and mercy for others.