The Heaton File

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

The Halo

There is nothing new under the sun, and the empty traditions of men have been around since the beginning of time. What makes an error sometimes difficult to clarify is the long assumed acceptance of a truth that is, in fact, false. Truth does not change but creating a false narrative can be believed to be truth if enough time passes and the falsehood is not examined closely. Such is the case with the question of the halo. A halo is an image found in religious art depicting a globe of light surrounding the head of a holy or sacred figure. Using a light around the head predates Christ, as Greek artists would embolden the figures of their heroes with a ring or crown of light. This distinction is also found in Asian art. The halo began to be used by artists in the Christian age around the fourth century.

The Bible never mentions a halo or suggests the heads of saints glowed. Jesus was transfigured on the mountain where His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as the light, but this was not a halo. Artists old and new suggest the face of Jesus glowed or shone as He walked among men. Isaiah, the prophet, described the image of Jesus as less than attractive. The truth about the image of Jesus is that in a crowd of twenty people, no one could pick out the Son of God from others as He looked as average as the common man of His day. God never allowed images of His Son to be produced by the whims of men. There is no evidence of what Jesus looked like (how tall he was, the length of His hair, His body size, etc.). Jesus did not come to leave a totem that men would worship.

A halo is a popular icon to describe “saintly people.” Angels are shown in art with haloes. The halo is a misrepresentation of a principle found in scripture that never suggests an image of light shining around the head of God’s people. This would also indicate that the person is not good or saved without a halo. Regardless, a halo is an invention of men that is accepted as a part of the religious world. It may come as a surprise to some that the halo is non-Biblical. The acceptance of a man before God is based on the heart, not a glowing head with a halo. Instead of trying to live to attain a halo, seek to follow the will of God where truth resides. Always be careful to measure the teachings of men with the word of God and reject what is clearly an imagination of human fantasy.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)

Jesus Returns With A Lot Of Noise

The first time Jesus came to earth, He was conceived in the womb of a woman. There was no fanfare, no trumpets blowing, and only one person who knew He had come. It would not be until later that Joseph found his wife pregnant. The angel Gabriel had told Mary she would be with child of the Holy Spirit, and Joseph was told by an angel the pregnancy of his wife was according to the divine will of God. During the first thirty years of His life, Jesus lived in obscurity, with few people taking notice of Him. He was the son of a carpenter with brothers and sisters. When He began His ministry, the religious leaders began to take note of Him as multitudes flocked to Him for teaching and healing. At Golgotha, the only noise came from the mockers who hurled insults at Jesus hanging on a cross. As far as the world was concerned, the man in the middle of the two thieves was a criminal and deserved to die. The soldiers bartered for His garments with no knowledge that He was God’s Son. Few people cared that Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross. No mournful trumpets blew at the death of Jesus, and the world continued as it always had.

When Jesus died, the veil of the Temple rent from top to bottom. It was during the offerings of midday Jesus died, and the priests would have heard the incredible sound of the huge veil ripping. An earthquake shook the earth, and the rocks were split with graves opening of the saints who had fallen asleep. Then the world went silent. Life continued as usual. There have been loud noises piercing the world, but only in a local sense. What may happen in one part of the world will not be heard by someone in another. Life goes on. And one day, all of that will change.

A day will come when there will be a noise that will fill the vacuum of space and time. It will echo in the heart of every human being living on the face of the earth. Those in the northern hemisphere will hear what those in the southern hemisphere will hear. Every person in every country will hear the sound. The cities filled with millions will hear as well as those villages tucked away in the Amazon jungle. Those on the top of mountains will recognize the same sound as those in the lowest valleys. It will be instantaneous. The earth will seem to shrink to an atomic level when every man, woman, and child hears the same sound at the exact moment. This is the day Jesus returns a second time; and His final time.

Jesus Christ will ascend from heaven with a shout. No definitive human reasoning can describe what the shout of deity will be like. Every inch of the earth’s circumference (24,901 miles) will reverberate with the sound of God. It is unclear what the voice of an archangel sounds like, but it will be something everyone will know. On one occasion during the ministry of Jesus, God spoke to His Son to glorify Him, and those who heard said it was like thunder. The voice of an archangel is going to be louder than thunder. As if the shout of Jesus coming and the voice of an archangel would not fill the earth with a sound beyond imagination, the trumpet of God will also be heard. A trumpet is a shrill and loud sound piercing into the souls of men. Every human being on earth will hear God’s trumpet.

The coming of the Lord will not be a quiet affair. For those who follow the false teaching of the rapture, they will hear the same sound. Jesus is not coming back to establish a kingdom on earth but to bring a noise all humanity will hear. And then, as quickly as the noise blasts across the depths of the universe, it will all go quiet. Judgment begins, and another sound is heard in eternity. For the saved, the sound is rejoicing, praise, and honor to the Lamb that was slain. To most souls, it will be the crying, gnashing of teeth, and horrific cries of torment as they languish in an eternal flame. The sound of the lost will fill the emptiness of eternal darkness. Heaven will burst forth as saints sing the praise of the day Jesus returned and took them home. You will hear that sound. Are you ready?

These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren. (Proverbs 6:16-19)

The Lord Hates

It is inconceivable to view God as hating anything. The picture of the Lord is one of beauty, glory, and full of love. These attributes are true of the character of the Heavenly Father but to accept these as the only traits of the Holy God is to misplace loyalty to His true nature. The proverb writer ascribes seven things the Lord hates but does not suggest the list is complete. Using poetic prose to draw attention, the writer shows there are things the Lord detests. Pride, liars, murderers, evil hearts, mischief, and discord are highlighted as things God hates and sets apart from righteousness. The seven things listed summarize the nature of the Lord to despise those things that defile His holiness. Men must realize that God is a wrathful God full of vengeance and recompense against those who disobey Him.

The hatred of God is based on His own righteousness. Hatred in the heart of man comes from an evil heart. God hates because it impugns the holy character of what is right and wrong. A lawgiver establishes law, and as the Creator of the universe, the Lord God has the divine right to determine what is right and wrong. Pride is a sin because God hates a proud look. The righteousness of God is what makes sin detestable. Adam and Eve were given a law forbidding them from taking the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and they ignored the righteousness of God when they took its fruit. What is immoral about eating fruit? Nothing. The reason they were punished was that they challenged the authority of God and followed their own path. Sin brought consequences because God hates rebellion.

Disobedience to the will of the Lord puts man in disfavor with God through the righteousness of the law. Everything contained in the word of the Lord is for the benefit of man’s well-being. When the will of man rejects the word of God, he conflicts with the purpose of law. Idolatry is detestable to the Lord because man worships a worthless object. Man falls down to a god he created. God hates idolatry and views it as an abomination. The wicked do not accept the grace of God. Living for the lust of the flesh and the desires of the eyes, rebellious men reject the word of the Lord to consume themselves in their passions.

God hates the wicked and those who love violence. His holiness is the reason for His hatred. God hates divorce because of its consequence. The holiness of God establishes what is right, and only by keeping the will of the Lord can men find true peace and happiness. The Lord God is full of love and has shown His love through Jesus Christ, His Son. The other side of the Lord God is his wrath and hatred for wickedness. No man should deny the hatred of the Lord. There is a place prepared by God for those who rebel against the word of the Lord. God prepared this place. It was not His desire, but His holiness demanded it. Hell is real. It becomes the fulness of the hatred of God.

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. (Galatians 5:13)

Celebrity Or Servant?

One of the oldest ailments in human history is the need to be famous. This generation is called the “me-generation” as if it is a new moniker; labeling the spirit of the modern age focused on self to the exclusion of others. Sin, at its root, is bedded in need for self-exaltation. Lamech was one of the most narcissistic, self-centered, and egotistical men of his time and was only six generations removed from Adam and Eve. Throughout Biblical history, men like Pharaoh, Saul, Ahab, Nebuchadnezzar, and the Herods of the first century sought to find their place in history as celebrities of note. The gospel of Jesus Christ attacks the need for self-exaltation with fervor and piety to show that greatness is found in slavery, power in humility, and glory in bowing down.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, yet the divine nature of Jesus did not keep Him from becoming the greatest servant of all time when He emptied Himself and became His creation. Throughout His ministry, Jesus told the people He came to serve, not to be served. The day would come when Jesus would be served as King of Kings and Lord of Lords but not before sacrificing himself as the eternal servant as a lamb led to the slaughter. Through the example of servitude dying on the cross, the principles of servanthood are demanded of those who follow Jesus. No one can be a disciple of Jesus without bearing a cross. Crucifixion was not only a most painful experience but the humility of the process was experienced by Jesus as an example of being a servant.

Slavery is never a popular subject in the woke world of failed human wisdom, and yet the nature of service is at the core of the Christian life. Paul reminds the brethren of Galatia that to be a child of God was to be a servant or slave to others. Liberty brings freedom, and freedom in Christ brings servitude. Every child of God has been called to be free in Christ so that one can serve others through love. The admonition of Paul describes the work of Jesus. God asked His Son to bring freedom to mankind. Jesus, as the lamb, took the scroll from the hand of His Father and became the lamb of sacrifice. He did not use His glory for His own glory but for the glory of the Father. Through love, Jesus served humanity by dying on the cross without sin. He could have called twelve legions of angels to deliver Him, but He died to save the world.

The focus of the Christian’s life is not on himself but on others. Like Jesus, the child of God is concerned for others more than themself. Servitude is fulfilling the law of God. Becoming a slave of Jesus Christ is being exalted to the glory of the Father. Freedom in Christ removes fear, doubt, despair, and hopelessness because the focus is turned from self to serving others. The Christian life is not about being a celebrity but a servant. Servitude is found in helping, teaching, supporting, and finding ways to serve others in their daily walk.

It takes courage to be a servant. When a man humbles himself before the throne of God, he will find the glory of servitude as an eternal blessing of God’s love. It is not about me and my needs and my wants. Being a Christian is about the will of God and serving others. Life is short, but there is so much service to provide during this short life. Servanthood will change the heart and make more willing the hands to serve. To be like Jesus, we must be servants.

And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.” (Mark 4:26-29)

Growth In The Kingdom

Creation has its own powerful testimony to the creative hand of God. Science has unlocked many of the world’s mysteries, but the answer behind creation escapes those who deny God created the world. Jesus uses many illustrations in His teaching to point out the character of the kingdom. The sowing of seed, wheat and tares growing together, shepherds and sheep, and workers in a vineyard are the subjects of the parables of Jesus. In a parable only found in the gospel of Mark, Jesus describes the kingdom as a seed growing in the ground that comes to perfection and is harvested by the farmer. The nature of a seed buried in the ground and then one day a man harvesting a crop of grain defies the knowledge of man. He knows it happens but cannot fully explain how it happens. Science can describe the process, but the life in the seed remains outside the realm of scientific discovery. This belongs to the mind of God.

Jesus tells the parable of the growing seed to demonstrate the power of the kingdom of God. By its nature, it is a process that begins slowly but then comes to full fruition. The design of the kingdom of God is not as human wisdom would assume. When a man plants a seed in the ground, he goes to sleep, and during the night, the seed sprouts. An orderly pattern of growth begins when the seed turns into a blade, then a head, and finally the full grain in the head. There is nothing the man can do about the growth. He can water, fertilize, and weed, but ultimately, the seed grows on its own. Such is the kingdom of God. There is an eternal seed of growth in the kingdom of God that is not accomplished by the will of men. A spiritual kingdom comes from the spiritual power of God.

Paul writes about the work of the church as accomplished by different kinds of men. He and Apollos worked in the kingdom, but each had a different part. One would plant and the other water. Ultimately, the kingdom grows because God gives the increase. Like the man who plants a field of wheat, he buys the seed and plants it in the ground. Others may water the seed, and it grows to harvest. While the men accomplish much in helping the field be ready for harvest, the power of growth comes from the hand of its Creator. No man can take credit for the harvest of souls as God gives the increase. The farmer cannot claim to have grown anything by his own power. He plants the seed and works the soil, but the power of the harvest is contained in the seed by God.

People are like the parable of the growing seed. An amazing thing happens when the kingdom of God reaches good soil. Like the parable of the sower, the good ground will yield a crop that sprang up and increased and produced. Good hearts readily accept the will of God as truth and grow thereby. Three thousand devout Jews had good hearts on Pentecost and obeyed the word of God. The city of Samaria found joy in the message of the gospel, and many souls were added to the church when they obeyed the gospel. Philip preached to a man from Ethiopia, and it was the man from a foreign land that asked Philip if he could be baptized. Saul of Tarsus changed his heart and served Jesus Christ to his death. Myriad of stories are told of those who served the wiles of the devil until that day the gospel changed their hearts. How does that happen? Paul said the feet of those who preach the gospel are beautiful, but no man ever converted another – the gospel changed the heart. The gospel is the power to salvation as the creative power of the seed is given by God. Growth comes individually when men see the need to change their lives. It is a marvelous and wonderful experience to behold. Seeds become wheat. Lost souls become saints of the Lord God.

Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:1-2)

Spiritual Leadership In The Church

Over the centuries, the wisdom of human pride has attempted to change the organizational structure of the Lord’s church. The apostles would be shocked at how churches of men have established spiritual leadership far from the pattern of the New Testament. Roman Catholicism began the march of apostasy by creating an incredible hierarchy of man-made organizations corrupted by the whims of carnality. The Protestant response has followed the same pattern of apostasy as men changed the leadership of the church to represent a false narrative of authority. There is a pattern given by the Holy Spirit showing the world the spiritual leadership of the local church that is divine in nature, simple in construction, and complete in the organization.

Jesus is the head of the church, and no man can take that role from Him or usurp a role of authority through Him. The church’s spiritual leadership is found in men called pastors, bishops, elders, overseers, and shepherds. They have the authority of Christ to exercise oversight of the local church alone. Each man (plural) chosen to serve as a pastor must be of a certain character, as Paul outlined to Timothy and Titus. These are spiritual men shepherding the flock and overseeing the local church. In the New Testament, there was always a plurality of men who led the church in the work of the Lord. As spiritual leaders, elders guide the affairs of the church by the authority of the word of God.

Deacons are spiritual leaders in the church as men who must have certain qualities (similar to those of an elder) that separate them as spiritual leaders. The work of deacons is found in the meaning of the word describing a servant’s heart. Elders have targeted characteristics that must be met before they serve as elders. Deacons have spiritual qualities that set them apart to serve in the spiritual leadership of the church. The local congregation comprises men who live spiritual lives doing spiritual work to further the kingdom of Christ.

Preachers must be spiritual leaders. Paul instructed Timothy and Titus to bear the characteristics of spiritual leadership in the quality of their life to lead by example in word, conduct, love, spirit, faith, and purity. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be kind to others, able to teach and learn patience with difficult people. There is much work for the evangelist to do in the work of the church and his spiritual leadership is key to church growth. The shepherds of the church working in tandem with the work of the deacons and the preacher will bring about growth to the flock of God.

In the early church, the apostles chose seven men to care for the widows of the Jerusalem church. These were spiritual leaders with a vital task of church growth. The seven needed to be men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and men willing to take on the work given to them by the apostles. The word of God spread, and many people were converted to Christ through the work of the First Century spiritual leaders working together to teach the lost, care for the needy, and build up the saints’ faith. This pattern must be followed today for the growth of the church.

Many others are spiritual leaders in the church when men take on the role of leading singing, offering public prayers, serving on the Lord’s table, and teaching Bible class. These roles cannot be filled with those who are not spiritual or devoted to the Lord. Women are spiritual leaders when they teach the young people in Bible classes and support their husbands, who serve as shepherds, deacons, preachers, and teachers. Paul illustrated the work of the church by what every part does its share. Spiritual leaders in the church have different roles and – for some – specific requirements that must be met. Everyone must strive to be a spiritual leader in their home and use their talents to be spiritual examples within the church’s work. The church will grow when everyone sees their potential for leadership in the spiritual work of the kingdom of Christ.

Those who make an image, all of them are useless, and their precious things shall not profit; they are their own witnesses; they neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed. Who would form a god or mold an image that profits him nothing? Surely all his companions would be ashamed; and the workmen, they are mere men. Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, they shall be ashamed together. (Isaiah 44:9-11)

Our Precious Things Are Useless

Idolatry is as old as the world. Worship is innate in men, but the object of worship is a choice. Whom men choose to revere determines the character of the man. There are only two choices when it comes to worship: man will worship himself or acknowledge a higher being and worship Him. Pride does not allow a man’s heart to accept the will of his Creator to direct his steps and his ways because there are restrictions prohibiting desired lusts. If a man subjects himself to the will of God, he is not free to live as he chooses. To placate the guilt of denying the eternal God, the wisdom of man creates his own totem to form in his own desire. The result of idolatry is rooted in the greatest of follies when men create their own gods to fall down and worship, and man must deliver their gods.

Israel was destroyed because of idolatry. Isaiah warns the people of God to reject the gods of men returning to the one true God. A logical approach to idolatry shows how useless idol worship can be. A man cuts down a tree to build a fire and warm himself and uses the same tree to carve an image that becomes his god. The idol does not speak and has no understanding, and yet man worships their precious creation. Idolatry is the greatest of follies for the vanity it creates in the void of human wisdom. Man’s pride will not allow him to admit what he holds in his hand is a lie. What is precious to him is what he has created with his own hand. Man creates his god instead of accepting that God created mankind for worship.

There are many places throughout the world that still worship idols. Great carvings stand in temples worshipped by people who carry home small idols to treasure in their homes with daily worship. To the Christian mind, this is folly. What is remarkable is that while it is easy to see the foolishness of falling down to an idol, one of the greatest problems in the church is found in those who allow the trappings of the world to become their idols of choice. No child of God would believe that falling down to an idol of Buddha would be acceptable before God and yet fill their hearts with the pride of materialism in the kinds of homes, cars, boats, and recreational equipment they possess. An idol is anything considered precious that takes the heart away from God.

It does not have to be a carved image of a creature to be an idol. A job can be an idol that takes precedence over service to God. Living in lovely homes and driving certain vehicles can become the heart’s idolatry. Pride exalts the spirit to trust in the riches of life. Idolatry is alive and well in modern-day America. Those who make treasures of earth their gods worship things that are useless and vain. A man and woman will spend all their life gaining stuff and leave all their stuff when they die. What is sad is they never laid up treasure in heaven. Jesus calls them fools. All the things of life profit nothing. What is precious is lost. Souls are destroyed. Eternity is filled with idol worshippers who sit in torment and darkness and have given up everything for something worthless.

God created man for His glory. All men are formed by the hand of the Lord. The Creator demands His creation honor Him through worship, acknowledging the one true God. Do not be fooled into believing idol worship is only bowing before a carved image. Look around you. There may be more idols than you know. What is more precious – your eternal soul or the useless trinkets of a wasted life? They shall be ashamed together.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (James 1:2-3)

Thank You For The Hard Times

Life can be a difficult journey filled with sadness, heartache, trial, and despair. Sin is the agency that has brought such misery to the world. Adam and Eve enjoyed perfect peace without disease and heartache when they were in the garden. It seems impossible to imagine a world so void of the pressures of life that everyone endures. The great consequence of sin brings death, and with death the disease of the body and the corrupt hearts of sinful men. Humanity lives under the daily burden of trouble, and there is no relief. Hard times are real times, and life is often measured by how far apart these troubled times are and to what level the soul sinks in the despair of the tragedy of life. Jesus did not come to take the troubles of the world away. He came to allow men to know how to be thankful for the hard times.

It must not be overlooked that when hard times come, Jesus experienced the same burdens. The Son of God took on human flesh, which was a remarkable change from his state of deity. Jesus had to learn to walk like all children must learn, and He grew up with toothaches, skinned knees, and the maladies of childhood. Somewhere in the thirty years of His earthly life, his adopted father, Joseph, died. This filled the heart of Jesus with great sadness. There is no doubt before Jesus began His ministry, He stood at the graves of many people and wept. As His mind grew in the knowledge of the Father’s word, He saw the misery of sin and its burden on the hearts of men. Jesus experienced hard times in His life as Satan sought to tempt Him with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. What made a difference in the life of Jesus was He used the hard times to draw Him closer to His heavenly Father.

If the author of the book of James is one of the half-brothers of Jesus, he would know more than most the impact of hard times in the life of Jesus. Writing to the saints scattered abroad, he begins his letter by exhorting the people of God to rejoice in their trials. James reminds the disciples when troubles of any kind come upon them; they were to consider it a time of joy. That seems counter to how most view hard times. Yet, the spirit of the Christian recognizes that while hard times are not desired, they can be fruitful for building up the godly character. Faith tested is faith triumphant. The purpose of hard times can be used to produce an enduring heart of faith in God. Facing hard times becomes bearable when the character of life is understood. The Christian knows that sin is at the heart of the world’s misery. They also know that God offered His only begotten Son as the remedy for the difficult days of life. Solomon declared in the book of Ecclesiastes that life is hard and life is never fair. The realization for the child of God is that life is short, and God is eternal.

The Lord does not look at the hard times of a man’s soul without compassion. There are many who have carried heavy burdens of sorrow in their lives. What is found in the child of God is the solace of God’s love to be thankful for the hard times to increase their strength, will, and purpose in life to serve God. Blaming the Lord for hard times is accusing the wrong person. Thanking God for the hard times is knowing the love of the Father. No one wants heartache in life, but when it comes, increasing faith and trust in God will be the eternal salve to calm the storms, ease the pain, and find joy in the place of sadness. Thank you, God, for your love. I pray dear God, when I awaken to hard times, I will harden my faith in you to allow your grace to give me peace.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” (1 Corinthians 3:18-20)

When A Man Thinks He Is Wise

Pride is one of the triads of foolish mistakes all men make when they look at themselves in the mirror. Charles C. Colton wrote, “Of all the marvelous works of the Deity, perhaps there is nothing that the angels behold with such supreme astonishment as a proud man.” The apostle Paul reminded the carnal hearts of the Corinthians that their division of human wisdom was folly compared to the majesty of Jehovah God. Wisdom is much sought out worldwide as men seek to exalt themselves beyond measure. The world’s knowledge has built great monuments, achieved remarkable accomplishments, unlocked secrets of the unknown, and explored the vast universe as no generation before. There is much for human wisdom to boast but compared to the wisdom of God, there is not even a comparison at the atomic level. God’s wisdom is so far above the foolishness of human wisdom.

Men deceive themselves when they boast of their wisdom. Great men declare monumental truths. In every age, the wisdom of the world seeks to exalt itself above the nature of the Divine. And in every generation, the exaltation of human wisdom fails – without exception. The greatest wisdom a man can possess is when he sees himself as the fool that he is compared to the Creator and Maker of the world. What can man create or accomplish that can apex the work of God? Where has the vaulted wisdom of humanity made the plight of man one whit better than the smallest fragment of divine wisdom? Could the Shakespearean wisdom of man create the divine story of Jesus of Nazareth? What principles of human wisdom can find greater worth than the pages of holy writ?

Eliphaz the Temanite was correct when he answered Job that God’s and man’s ways are not the same. God can frustrate the plans of humanity, defeat their schemes, make void the counsels of human wisdom, and do so without any effort. The wisdom of the world is nothing but foolishness as the Divine potter forms the clay to His will. When can man make himself taller than God? The psalmist answers the highest thoughts of men are fruitless and vain. When a man thinks himself wise, he becomes a fool.

The wisdom of the world seeks to destroy the wisdom of God. For two thousand years, the world has rejected the final revelation of the Lord as useless. The Bible represents the complete mind of God revealed to all men for every generation in every place. Nothing can compare to the message of the sixty-six books of divine knowledge filling God’s heavenly library. Anything written by men is foolish and empty. There is only one divine truth, and that is contained in the Bible and the Bible alone. Adding to the divine word will fail. Taking away from the word of God will fail. All men will fail when they embrace the wisdom of the world over the knowledge of God. In the end, men are found to be foolish and God divine.

Now the rest of the people—the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nethinim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge and understanding— these joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes. (Nehemiah 10:28-29)

The Nethinim

There is little known about a class of people called the Nethinim, which appear in the post-exilic books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Hebrew tradition suggests that Ezra wrote the books of 1 & 2 Chronicles, which reference the Nethinim. Appearing only eighteen times in scripture, the Nethinim are included with the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, and singers of temple worship. The function of the Nethinim was the menial tasks of servitude in helping the priests and Levites carry out their work. These were the lowly servants doing the common labor jobs in temple worship. Someone had to do the undesirable jobs, and the Nethinim were tasked with the work.

The Bible tells the stories of great men like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Isaiah. Families like the sons of Jacob fill the pages of holy writ. Everyone knows the stories about the flood, the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea, God giving the commandments to Israel, and the conquest of Canaan. David’s courage before Goliath is imprinted in the minds of everyone. Great prophets like Elijah, Elisha, and Jeremiah stir the souls of the people of God with power and victory. The return of Israel from bondage, the building of the temple, and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem complete the story of the people of God in the Old Testament. In the midst of all these great stories are a people called the Nethinim that God chose to preserve in the divine record. Their work was menial, hard, and lowly, but God knew them, and He kept their name for all generations to read and take note of.

Nothing escapes the eyes of the Lord. Without the divine record, the Nethinim would have never been known. Their knowledge in the world is firmly established in the record of God’s word. The work they did was not glorious or rewarding. It is doubtful that many Hebrews aspired to grow up and become a Nethinim. There were probably as many Nethinim who longed to be a Levite, priest, or someone of notable character. The lot of Nethinim was to serve, and God took note. Reading the Bible always brings fascinating revelations, especially when the nuggets of God’s hand strike across a page with a simple reference to the Nethinim. Who were they, and what was their story? So little is known about them, but after 2500 years, their names are still on the lips of those who read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

There are a lot of Nethinim in the church today. They may not have the more visible works in the church or names to be remembered. What is a joy to find are the quiet servants working in the kingdom doing what they can to help. It may be menial jobs of cleaning the building, printing and preparing class material, setting the Lord’s Supper in its proper place, working the vast array of electronics to carry the message to the world, mowing the grass, or sweeping off the sidewalks. There are many Nethinim that take food to the needy, help others make their doctor appointments, write cards and letters to the downtrodden, and show the glory of God by finding their place in the assembly every time the doors are open. God remembered the work of the Nethinim through the ages and knew the names of all His faithful who quietly go about their work in the kingdom. These modern-day Nethinim will not have their names listed in the Bible, but they do have their names written in the Book of Life. God knows who you are. Thank you.