Axe to roots

Beloved,

 

Enclosed are two very good comments on Luke 3:9 for your consideration.  But first,

 

Do you realize that Israel, at the time of the Messiah's coming, had been under occupation by a foreign force for three generations?  Do you realize that the Temple had been desecrated by the Romans in 63B.C. and, as Josephus described,

 

"Pompey and his offices entered the holy of holies and gazed in astonishment at a sacred shrine that had no visual representation of the God who was worshiped there." (see Josephus War i. 7. 6 [152])?

 

Do you realize that the first sermons to the oppressed of Israel were not words of encouragement, but of Repentance?  There was nothing to reform in the Roman world, because they never had God with them in the first place.  The only revelation of God to man at that time was the oracle of God's Word to Moses, and that which was set down by the prophets.

 

Do you realize that the government of Israel had been taken over by a foreign force, and that even the priesthood and High priesthood had been given over to foreigners?

 

Do you realize that Jesus, the Messiah, did not come to reform Judaism to what it had been under Moses, or to conquer the world as he did under Soloman and the Maccabees?  Jesus, the Messiah, would have had no trouble at all collecting the nation to go out and rebel against the Roman occupation.  This would have suited Israel to no end.  As a matter of fact, several generations later, a man by the name of Bar Kokhba was pronounced the Messiah when he promised those very things, which led to the further destruction of Israel and the banning of Jews entrance to Jerusalem.

 

Do you realize that the ONLY representation of God on earth at that time was through His people, and that today the ONLY representation of God on earth is through His people?  Is there anyone else out there preaching the Gospel?  Is there anyone else out there hazarding their lives to take the Word of God into hostile lands?  Is there anyone else out there preaching the Love of God toward His enemies?  Is there anyone else that is taking the Gospel to the country of Israel and the Jews there?

 

Think about Corrie Ten Boom, Joni Erickson Tada, Hudson Taylor, Wycliffe, Tyndale, just to name a tiny few.  In all the history of Israel was there ever named or applauded those common people that hazarded their lives, who gave of themselves more completely, who were filled with the Spirit of God, who left everything to go to the lost to tell them about the Mercy of God through His Son, the Messiah?

 

We have work to do, and the time is short.  I am not one for apocalyptic hysteria, but I do see the Hand of God in the events of the day, and one of the things that is most encouraging is the cleansing of His Temple going on.  As the verse in one of my favorite hymns says,

 

"Well, I don't know how soon the Lord is coming, but don't let him catch you with your work undone.  He may not come when you want Him but He's right on time."

 

God be with you this day,

 

~Al

 

 

And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Luke 3:9 

 

THE MEANS WHICH GOD EMPLOYS TO RENDER US PRODUCTIVE OF THIS KIND OF FRUIT,

AND WHICH SHOW HOW REASONABLE IT IS THAT HE SHOULD EXPECT IT FROM US.

 

In the first place, God has endowed you with a capacity to produce this kind of fruit. A stone is not capable of producing the fruits of a tree, because it is destitute of vegetable life. A tree is not capable of producing the fruits of instinct and sagacity, because it is destitute of animal life. And the beasts of the field are not capable of producing the fruits of reason and of conscience, because they are destitute of intellectual and moral life. Nor are such fruits required from them. God never requires from His creatures any actions which they are naturally incapable of performing. "But there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty hath given him understanding." He has endowed us with reason and with affections. You retain the ability, but you have lost the disposition, to exercise the mind aright. You may destroy the eye by which you behold the surrounding universe; you may destroy the link that binds your spirit to your mortal flesh: but your responsibility to God, and your immortality of existence, you cannot destroy, you cannot touch. Secondly: In order to enable you to bring forth this good fruit, God has supplied you with the gospel of His Son. The gospel contains also the motives to fruitfulness; and these motives are the most powerful that can be presented to the mind. And the gospel contains also the promise of that Divine influence by which fruitfulness is infallibly secured! for "He giveth His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." Thirdly: God has visited you with various dispensations of providence, and with various convictions of conscience, all of which have been intended to direct your attention to the gospel, that thereby you might bring forth fruits meet for repentance.

(J. Alexander, D. D.)

 

 This is judgment—destruction. The axe is not for planting, or pruning, or dressing, or propping, or protecting, but for cutting down. The axe against Israel was the Roman host, and many such axes has God wielded, age after age. Every judgment is an axe: pestilence is God's axe; famine God's axe; adversity God's axe. There is a great difference between the axe and the pruning-knife. Yet some of God's judgments are both in one—an axe to the ungodly, a pruning-knife to the saint. It is God's axe, not man's; its edge is sharp; it is heavy; it will do its work well. (H. Bonar, D. D.)