UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES!
“Sons of Issachar”
I Chronicles 12:23&
32
Introduction: Charles Dickens begins
his historical novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859) with these words. “It was the
best of times, it was the worst of times,…” It looks like to me in some way
Charles Dickens, was prophetically talking about the 21st century. Are
we not “living in the best of times as well as the worst of times? We have the best
of everything that was ever available to mankind since the creation, yet we are
living in the worst kind of deception and moral depravity.
In
our pastors group the other day, we were discussing and lamenting over an
article, titled, “Five reasons Spirituality is No Longer important to the
American Church.” Here is one reason, “Mainline
Protestantism has often had no more than a situational interest in
spirituality.” The spiritual but not religious asked themselves if there were
people and pastors in the church who could help them and declared, “No, no help
there, but Oprah, Oprah is interested in the spiritual life.” When the “cool
kids” on the American landscape declared themselves “spiritual, but not
religious (SBNR),” it was embarrassing for the church to find itself out of
step with the culture around it.
A
class of seminarians were asked, “whether they would want to go to heaven, if
it meant contemplating the glory of God. Most of them voted no.” Really? That
doesn’t make sense, does it? If the seminarians, those who were training to
become pastors, teachers, evangelists and Christian ministers were not excited
about glorifying God in heaven, who else will get excited? You may wonder in times
like these where Church seems to have lost its significance and to most people
appears to be irrelevant, why would I not prefer to stay home on Sunday
morning, read the Boston Globe or watch Patriots food ball game on the TV?
Why
would I still bother to commit myself to the tedious process of working
together with other fellow Christians? Why bother trying to come to church, be
involved in the worship team, share the gospel, going on a mission’s trip, when
everybody else is happy to do their own thing? Why? Why? Why? In
order to find answers to these questions let me introduce you to a group of
people In Chronicles 12:32, who understood their times and knew what they were
to do. I like to title this message, “UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES.” Background to
this story.
During 1050-1010
BC, the kingdom of Israel, went through similar crisis as our world is facing
today in the 21st century. Saul was reigning over Israel as the
sovereign King. Due to his several acts of disobedience and impatience he
brought judgment of God upon himself. God was about to tear down Saul’s kingdom
and hand it over to a man after his own heart. But not before a gruesome
encounter between Israel and the Philistines. The war was intense.
The
Philistines not only killed Saul, but they cut off his head, send it throughout
the Philistine territory to the people and their “idols” as a trophy of war,
and strapped his body to the city wall. The mood in Israel was one of terror
and of fear. They just lost their king. Now this was a time of transition and
change. The mantle of Kingship had fallen on David the son of Jesse, who was
not only appointed but also anointed by God.
Tribe
after tribe came together, bringing their troops to support and fight for David
incase of another war. Among those tribes there was a small tribe, the whole
tribe amounted to only 200. These were called “the men of Issachar. Though they
were the fewest of all, they were ready to serve David and his purposes of the
Kingdom. What do we know about the sons of Issachar? What can we learn from
them?
I THE
SONS OF ISSACHAR
We
know that Jacob had twelve children out of them came the twelve tribes of
Israel. Issachar was the fifth son of Jacob born to Leah. Issachar means, “God
has rewarded” When Jacob blessed his children, this is what he said of
Issachar, “Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down among the sheep folds.”
Genesis 49:14 This blessing suggests, that through their hard work they will
bring forth a reward. Just like a strong donkey, they will be able to carry the
burdens of those whom they serve, and become obedient, faithful and loyal
servants.
Another
interesting thing was said of them when they came to join David in Jerusalem. I
Chronicles 12:23 & 32, “These are the numbers of the men armed for battle
who came to David at Hebron…from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” How do we
understand this and what does it mean for us today? This is what I see in this
verse. When everybody else in Israel only saw gloom, doom and destruction, the
sons of Issachar saw something beyond the political, geographical, and economic
crisis.
They
saw the hand of God upon David, so they came to support, strengthen and fight
for David to establish his Kingdom. They understood the covenant that God made
with David. We read about Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7 9-16. Part of the
covenant reads, “God will raise his “seed” and establish his kingdom (vs
12-13). God will be a “father” to David’s son, and he will be God’s “son” (v
14). David’s house and his kingdom will
endure forever (v 16)
It
was an everlasting covenant that God has made not only for David but keeping
all of us in mind. In Psalm 89:3-4, “You said, I have made a covenant with my
chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, I will establish your line
forever and make your throne firm through all generations.” Our God is not only
a covenant making God but also a covenant keeping God.
Most
of the covenant has already been fulfilled by the first coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ who was referred to as, “the son of David” and the rest of it is
being fulfilled through us and it will be completed when our Lord returns for
the second time. Coming back to our test, “the sons of Issachar understood the
times and they knew what Israel should do.”
You
might be wondering what does this have to do with me? Well it has everything to do with us, I
believe, that the followers of Christ are to be like the sons and daughters of
Issachar. As they have understood the times and advised or warned their then
known world, similarly we are to understand our times, we need to understand
where do we fit in the larger scheme of God and his movements in the History of
the Church.
II
UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES
It seems like the political and corporate
world better understands the times we are living in than the church. The
current election results are a clear example, where the president elect and his
team understood the pulse of the people, and what people really wanted and
that’s brought about a dramatic change in leadership. Giant profit making
companies study their consumer’s likes and accordingly come up with the
products. Take for example, “Apple” The company has enjoyed a revenue growth
from 2004 to 2014 — $8 billion to $180 billion. What is the key for their
success? They understand what the
customers like, and they create cool products like the iPod, the iPhone, the
iPad. http://neilpatel.com/blog/
How
do we Christ’s followers understand the times we are living in? When I look at our modern society what do I
see? In the past 100 years, the Christian faith has come under severe attacks
by several Isms such as: Skepticism, Nihilism, (the rejection of all religious
and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless), Hedonism (the
pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-indulgence), and Atheism: disbelief or lack of
belief in the existence of God or gods.
While
Christianity is on the decline in the western world, it is flourishing and
thriving in Africa and Asia. For example, in China. “China's Protestant
community, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated
with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants
in China. Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that
number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China
ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in
2010 but whose congregations are in decline. By 2030, China's total Christian
population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above
Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in
the world.”[1]
This should give us a reason to celebrate.
Here
we are a small number of us at Hope Church still committed to gather on Sunday
for worship, to study the word and for fellowship. Why do we do that? We do it because we belong to Christ and we
are called and set apart to serve the purposes of God in our generation. Too often we forget who we are as sons and
daughters of the most high God as we go about our regular day to day life. Wilma
had an eye-opening moment the other day.
She supports people with mental illness, Wilma overheard a person struggling
with paranoia and psychosis say to another person. There must be poison in the meatloaf today,
it is Friday the 13th. Wilma
chipped in and said: “No way Patricia we wouldn’t dare do that” Patricia looks
up, smiles and says to the other person “Whenever I think of Wilma I come back
to normal.
In
closing, Romans 8:19-20 “for the creation waits in eager expectation for the
children of God to be revealed. For the
creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice but by the will of
the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated
from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the
Children of God. Amen
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.html
