The following is a list of this month's articles.

Editorial - Vision

Editorial - The Blessing of Trials, Hannah

Exhortation - At the Lord's Table - Watch

Learning from Moses

This Month's Puzzle

An Unusual Visitor

Editorial
Vision

There are three sorts of vision. There is natural vision; mental vision or imagination; and spiritual vision, which the apostle Paul describes as "the eyes of the heart." The most important is the third, but our familiarity with the KJV unfortunately blinds us to its existence, as the translators present it as "the eyes of the understanding." In addition, the false contention that when the New Testament uses the word "heart" it really means "mind" blinds us even more.

Blessing of sight
It is a wonderful blessing to be able to see. The amazing mechanism by which light penetrates our brain through two eyes, giving us stereo-vision, flooding our whole inner being with consciousness of the world around us, is a marvel of itself, a testimony to the God who designed it.

The man born blind tells this story perfectly. As he knelt by the pool Siloam and splashed water upon his mud-caked eyes, and looked up, he must have been overwhelmed as light flooded into his being and color became an astounding reality for the first time.

Perhaps we fail to realize that Jesus did more than cure a diseased retina or lens. There is a schoolboy in one of the West Indian islands who has perfect eyes, ears, nose and tongue. But his brain does not process or interpret stimuli from those organs. The only sense he can use is touch. Amazingly, special teachers helped him to be literate and numerate by the age of five using tactile devices. With the man born blind, Jesus must have healed his brain as well as his eyes.

Blessing of imagination
Mental vision is a marvelous thing. How drab conversation would be without it. Imagination brings us to places where we could never have been. With it we can see fearlessly -- challenging that mountain of flesh Goliath and demolishing him with a slingshot. With it we can peer with Nebuchadnezzar into a blazing furnace and marvel to see "four men" walking around unscathed after only three went in. With it we can enter a bedchamber and see a little dead girl lying, and hear a voice, "Little one, it is time to get up," and see her run into the arms of her overjoyed parents.

That, indeed, is the greatest blessing of mental vision -- with it the Bible and its personalities come alive. Even the man born blind possessed it. With it God becomes real, and Jesus especially makes a powerful impact. We can even dimly perceive the glories of the Kingdom which is coming. What a blessing is mental vision!

Seeing with the heart
To the Ephesian brothers and sisters the apostle Paul wrote about "the eyes of the heart." What is he saying? A careful perusal of the whole chapter (Ephesians 1) reveals some of the most exalted language about the lofty calling of the saints at Ephesus -- and by extension, ourselves. It climaxes in a prayer which begins "that the Father of glory may give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him (the Lord Jesus), having the eyes of the heart enlightened." What is it that demands this special spiritual insight? It is found in what follows (vv. 18-23) which briefly summarized is: the immeasurable greatness of God’s power in us, as a result of God’s mighty act in allowing his Son to die, in raising him from the dead, and exalting him to his right hand as head of the community of saints. How are we expected to understand how Jesus Christ can work in us? The apostle wrote we do this through "the eyes of the heart" -- that is, spiritual discernment affecting the emotions and the conscience. That is what he says and means.

Responses of the heart
Let us illustrate. She came resolutely into a place where she was held in contempt, a Pharisee’s house. Unhesitatingly, she threw herself at the feet of Jesus, lavishing the precious ointment she carried on his head and his feet. She wept copiously, drenching his feet with her tears. She covered his feet with kisses. Why? We are mistaken if we think that her’s were tears of contrition. They were tears of gratitude and love. As Jesus made clear, her sins had been already forgiven, and she loved much as a consequence. The eyes of her heart were wide open in contrast to the blind intellectual Pharisee. She could see what he could not, and appreciate with all her heart the death, resurrection, and glorification of her precious Lord.

The chariot came to a halt. An excited Ethiopian said, "See, here is water, what prevents me from being baptized?" The answer was: nothing, if you believe with all your heart. On that basis the man was baptized. What caused his heart to respond so eagerly to baptism? It was the story of a suffering Savior as outlined in one of the most vivid biblical prophecies. It impacted his heart that one should suffer so much for his salvation, and the knowledge that the simple response of dedication to him in baptism could effect the bearing away of his sins (as in the type or figure of the scapegoat) moved him deeply. He grasped his opportunity with open heart, and went on his way rejoicing.

Does the mighty work the Lord God has done in giving His Son to us, so that he might be a mighty power in us, move us as it did this woman and the Ethiopian?

Are the eyes of our hearts open?

Walter Draper

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Editorial
The Blessing of Trials, Hannah

Nobody likes hardship. But we, the children of God, have to learn that it is good for us. It is a lesson we do not like to learn. "All things work together for good," declared the apostle, and then he listed the "bad" things which happen to us (Rom. 8:35-39).

The reason is character. God wants men and women of superlative character, and He knows the best way to produce it. He is very wise.

A good illustration is the experience of Hannah, mother of Samuel. Note carefully how God treated her: "The LORD closed her womb" (I Sam. 1:5). She had a good husband for, "he loved her" (v. 5). They would normally have had a happy married life, but God frustrated all that. And worse was to come.

Elkanah, her husband, took another wife, Peninnah, and had a number of sons and daughters by her. Peninnah provoked Hannah sorely and irritated her deliberately. Day after day this went on, but particularly at the annual visit to the tabernacle was Hannah hurt. She was deeply distressed; she wept and would not (or could not) eat.

"Am I not better to you than ten sons?" Foolishly Elkanah tried to console her, not appreciating Hannah’s desperate yearning for a son.

Hannah had reached her limit. She had prayed before, many times, but never like this occasion. She went as close to God as she could get. Words would not come, though her lips moved. Silently, but powerfully, she prayed within. For the first time her prayer became a vow, a vow to dedicate a son, should the Lord grant him to her, totally to the Lord’s service. Was she influenced by the fact that the courts of the Lord were trodden by two of the most ungodly priests in Israel’s history?

The response of God was immediate. Though Eli, the aged high priest, misjudged her as a drunken woman, on learning the truth he was inspired to give the answer of God: May God grant your petition.

The transformation was immediate and dramatic. With smiling face she went to Elkanah. She sat and ate heartily of the food she had recently rejected. What had so greatly changed her? She shared the great news with Elkanah, and he rejoiced with her. No doubt that night they would come together in love, absolutely confident that, as Jesus would later say, that her prayer had already been answered. It was a happy company which returned to their home in Ephraim.

Hannah’s womb was opened. Samuel was conceived and eventually born. There was no happier mother, then and since, apart from Mary mother of Jesus. What loving care and attention was lavished on this special son, training which would never leave him to his dying day.

Hannah did not forget her vow. How could she? He who was asked of God, a special gift from the Almighty, grew up until the age when he could be independent of his mother. Then Hannah gave him back to God. What a sacrifice! And yet Hannah learned the blessing of giving to God. As Samuel developed into the great spiritual leader that he became, Hannah received much more than she gave. That is a wonderful truth which God wants us all to learn. Moreover, Hannah went on to have three more sons and two daughters. The more we give to God, the more we get.

Walter Draper

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Exhortation
At the Lord's Table - Watch

I am moved to echo one word of Jesus almost two thousand years ago. At this moment it is no less significant than when first uttered: "Watch!"

The word is frankly a military term. It does not mean "stargaze" or "keep your eyes open." It means "be on your guard" like a night watchman or a security guard -- significantly the only category of employment in the Caribbean that just keeps on expanding!

What are we to watch for?

I would implore you to watch world news. Coming out of that news is prophecy fulfilled before our very eyes. A world combining religious fanaticism with mindless hate and genocide. A world combining expanding witness to gospel truth with increasing persecution of the godly. A world combining vastly increasing wealth, consumerism and materialism with vastly increasing multitudes in poverty and despair.

The utterly selfish immorality of most Caribbean movies today, such as "The harder they come..." and even more so the popular video shows, is ominously similar to what we read of in Genesis 6,11, and 19, Exodus 32, and Judges 19. Did not Jesus tell us to watch for days like the days of Noah and Lot? If our days are still the days of the green tree, what will it be like in the dry?

The United Nations recently stated that in absolute terms there are more human beings, especially women, in absolute slavery in the year 2000 A.D. than ever before in history. And there are millions more in abject economic oppression and enforced destitution. Quoting Exodus 3:7-8, I am sure that soon the Lord Jesus will say, "I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them."

In I Kings 12:1-19, we are introduced to a young autocrat who is so like the many self-seeking tyrants of today who stash away billions in European and Cayman banks and chastise us with scorpions. No wonder people revolt and demonstrate! But God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.

Luke 21 records Jesus’ words giving, according to the modern chapter heading in my Bible, "Signs of the end of the age." Jesus describes two "Age Ends:" the Jewish and the Gentile. Some of those signs are all around us today: cosmological events, national and international turmoil, anguish, perplexity (v. 25); terror, apprehension (v. 26); Israel sprouting leaves (v. 29).

Jesus is emphatic. "My words will never pass away." They certainly have not.

But Jesus would not have us just watch world events. "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life" (v. 34). Those are the very things that even the unbelievers tell us universally characterize our age as almost no other.

So Jesus concludes his Olivet discourse: "Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man" (v. 36).

In the spirit of the prophet Ezekiel, we must be the world’s watchmen. Let us "be careful" ourselves and bring pressure to bear on others to avoid the awful "trap" (v. 34). Once it snaps shut it will be too late for regrets.

One of these days we will gather as we do today to break the bread of God, but unknown to us, it will be last in the mortal pilgrimage. The "trap" will spring, and it will be next week in Jerusalem.

Be careful! Watch!

Martin Shirley, Free Hill, Jamaica

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Learning from Moses

Joseph invited his father Jacob to go down into Egypt with his family and possessions. God had to reassure Jacob that he would come back to the land of promise. Although he was glad to see his long-lost son whom he thought to be dead, he was not too willing to relocate. However, with God’s reassurance, he went.

There was a population explosion. There were Hebrew people everywhere. Pharaoh saw the multiplication of these Hebrews and he thought of a means to control the birth rate. He gave them brutally hard task masters so that they would be too exhausted and debilitated to engage in expanding their families. But God strengthened them, so his plan did not work. Instead, they multiplied more and more.

The midwives were then instructed to kill the males. But male infanticide did not work either. So he instructed the police to kill all the boys in their homes.

Cries had gone up to God in heaven earlier than this, but God did not do anything until the prophesied 400 years had expired. Then He provided a deliverer in the person of Moses. He was not thrown in the river to die as was planned, but was rescued by God’s mysterious hand of Providence. The cry of the baby was meant to touch the heart of the princess -- the hand of Providence at work again.

Moses’ first 40 years
Though Moses was dressed as an Egyptian, he was a Hebrew at heart. At the age of 40, after being educated in the house of Pharaoh, he was equipped with many abilities. But he killed an Egyptian and had to run away to Midian.

Moses’ second 40 years
Moses needed to learn how to shepherd God’s people. He learned by being a shepherd of sheep, so he could acquire "pastoral" skills. He had to learn to exercise patience -- as we all do. God himself waits on time and acts at the time of His choice.

Moses’ last 40 years
At last, Moses was mature and ready. Human planning would never have waited that long, but God is wiser than men. God was now going to use Moses to deliver His people, which He did eventually after many encounters and pleadings with Pharaoh. The hand of Providence worked marvelously through Moses’ life to deliver His people.

Moses had three great qualities that God worked for years to develop in His great servant. They were in fact His own holy qualities.

Moses was always accessible to his people.

He was never aloof, haughty or domineering. Moses was deeply sensitive. He was moved by human need and suffering. His "bowels of compassion" were constantly evident. Moses was kind. Kindness is not natural. Moses was kind because he came to see that God is kind, even to the unworthy.

He learned to put himself out for people, and truly "serve" them. One thinks of "leaders" and "servants." But Moses combined both in one great heart.

As the prophet greater than Moses, Jesus was accessible, sensitive and kind. And he showed by his life that his Heavenly Father is accessible. Once you are baptized you have open access to the Father. He showed that his Father is sensitive -- to all our needs, and that God is kind, even to the unthankful and the unholy.

So let us remember these things and see to it that we also develop the traits of accessibility, sensitivity and kindness. Then we will be totally and ultimately delivered.

Paul Kinlocke

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This Month's Puzzle

An Unusual Visitor

Recently a most unusual visitor registered for a Christadelphian "Learn to Read the Bible Effectively" seminar and has been attending ever since. He is the teacher or "rabbi" of a surviving group of the sect mentioned in John 3:25, Mark 2:18 and Acts 19:1-3 – "John’s Disciples."

Before the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, when the Jewish Christians ("Nazarenes") fled to Pella in the Decapolis, John’s Disciples went even further, into Parthian lands, now Iraq. They took with them precious scrolls very similar to the Dead Sea scrolls found at Qumran and of similar age.

As a sect, they survived in northern Iraq for over nineteen centuries, until Saddam Hussein sought to destroy them. Many were massacred. Taking their old scrolls with them, they escaped on foot to Amman in Jordan. They became homeless refugees in a world that had long forgotten that they existed, little imagining that "John’s Disciples" could ever have survived to modern times.

Now known as Mandaeans, they still speak Syriac or Aramaic, the ancient mother-tongue of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. One of them saw an advertisement for a Bible Seminar organized by the Christadelphians, and decided to attend.

We found him an absolutely fascinating individual, with a unique perspective on ancient times and with many interesting folk memories of biblical personalities handed down from ages past by sages and holy men. He claims that Israeli spies are hunting him to steal the ancient scroll which is his most treasured possession.

We checked his story with Edwin Yamauchi, the leading authority on the Mandaeans, and he confirmed it in every particular. - The Editors

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