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In this week’s PODCAST, courtesy of the disciples, we get a rare-yet-precious glimpse into the heart of Jesus, the heart of God.
A truly remarkable glimpse. An ironic glimpse.
Ironic because as you will soon hear, the Gospel writers go to great lengths in this story to show us this side of God’s heart. Yet, it is an aspect of God that is rarely talked about. Inexplicably, it receives scant attention.
But we’ll balance the books in this podcast.
And in doing so, tender and heartwarming as this story is, we will hear Jesus make one of the most severe statements of His entire 3 ½ year ministry. He will trumpet a dire warning and wave a red flag that needs like never before to be waved today, throughout our country and around the world.
You are in for an eye-opening treat, guaranteed.
Let’s begin by reading Mark 9:36-37
He put a child in the middle of the room. Then, cradling the little one in his arms, he said, “Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me—God who sent me.”
In this story, primarily about pride and humility, this amazing child represents humility.It’s told here in Mark, as well in Matthew’s Gospel. But Matthew takes Jesus’ point a bit further – beyond just our need for humility, but also Jesus’ heart toward children.
Jesus told his disciples as he cradled a child in His arms:
6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:6)
Can it get any more severe then that?
To get a better understanding and context for what Jesus is saying here, perhaps we should go back in the Bible a bit further. Back to the writings of Moses. In the Book of Genesis, God made it perfectly clear that He has a sizable place in His sizable heart for children. The story begins in Genesis 12 with three verses that have forever changed and shaped the world as we know it:
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
How true that is! Jesus was Jewish (a descendant of Abraham), every writer of the Bible, except for Luke, was Jewish, and the world’s blessings from Abraham go on and on and on.
Now, clearly, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were going to bare a child. Despite the fact that he was over 75 years old and her womb was barren. Yet, God made this covenant with Abraham, and even repeated it with more detail in Genesis 15:1-6
Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”
2 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. 3 You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”
4 Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” 5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
But, what does this have to do with a little child sitting on Jesus’ lap in Peter’s mother-in-law’s house back in Capernaum? It means EVERYTHING!
Now, kudos to Abraham for believing God… in that moment. But like so many of us, as time went on, and there seemed to be no evidence of a fulfillment of God’s promise, he began to doubt. Now, keep in mind, while as we read this story, only a few minutes pass, but in Abraham and Sarah’s life, 24 years went by! So, as fellow human beings, it’s not much of a surprise when we see the collapse of Abraham and Sarah’s confidence in their understanding of God’s covenant in Genesis 16:1-3. By this point, Abraham was 85, and Sarah was 76-years-old…
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.)
Why did God intentionally draw it out twice in a mere three verses that Hagar was Egyptian? What does that matter?
It matters a lot. But we’ll get to that later.
Now, keep in mind that socially and culturally, this move was permissible. Even popular. However, in God’s eyes, bigamy has never been according to His plan. This goes all the way back to His blueprint for marriage in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 2:24,
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
God made clear, in His creative process, by creating the first family that His plan for marriage is one man and one woman unified for life. And Abraham broke this model.
I know that Abraham wasn’t alone on the list of Biblical heroes who practiced polygamy. Icons David and Solomon immediately come to mind. But the truth is that every person who participated in polygamy y – who took multiple wives – by the end of their story, their story and their marriages ended badly. Not a single one ended well.
Getting back to Hagar’s Egyptian roots. Even today, the way that any Jewish person traces back their genealogy to determine if their are, in fact, Jewish, it is done through their mother. This is due to one simple reality – it’s not perfectly clear who each person’s birth father is, but there is no doubt who their mother is.
Therefore, going by Abraham and Sarah’s doubtful misunderstanding of God’s covenant with them, if Hagar’s son would be the fulfillment of God’s promise, then it would be fulfilled though Egypt… not through Sarah’s Jewish roots.
Now, consider the first verse of the New Testament, Matthew 1:1
This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham
By these words, Jesus carried with Him the royal blood and authority of King David, as well as the Jewish blood and heritage of Abraham. In order to be the King of the Jews, Jesus had to be Jewish, therefore the son promised in God’s covenant with Abraham could not have been born from Sarah’s Egyptian slave. God would have never done that, and shame on Abraham and Sarah for thinking that He would.
Yet, from a slightly different perspective, we see yet another attempt by Satan do derail God’s plan for humanity by tempting and distracting people from His will for us.
Back to Abraham’s story…
4 So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. (Genesis 16:4)
So, we’re talking about a child who should have never been born; out of a marriage that never should have happened. And things quickly went from bad to so much worse, as we read in Genesis 16:
But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!”
News flash: everyone in this story was wrong!
6 Abram replied, “Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.
We see here one of the great truths that has stood firm throughout all of human history: Life is nothing more than an ongoing series of choices – choices you and I make endlessly, every day; and for every choice, there are consequences. Sometimes blessings, sometimes conflicts. Galatians 6:7 tells us,
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
There are certainly times when pain enters into our lives independent of our choices. If an earthquake hits and your home collapses, you would have no control over that. That would not be choice related. That is merely an act of nature. But I would argue that 90% of the pain that we endure are consequences of either our choices, or from the choices of other people in our lives. Needless pain resulting from needless choices.
Yet, when we look at this story about Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, we realize that it’s not really a story about them at all. It’s a story about God. When Hagar was all alone in the barren desert wilderness, pregnant and without hope, did God abandon her? No. He dispatched an angel to tend to her.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. 8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” 10 Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”
11 And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. (Genesis 16:7-11)
This is a story about God. This was an illegitimate child. But, to God, he was a very legitimate human being. So much so, that He sent “THE angel of the Lord”, whom theologians recognize as the pre-incarnate sending of Jesus Christ. This child was so legitimate to God that God, Himself gave him a name and a destiny.
There is, and always has been, a special place in God’s heart for children. All children. Every child. No matter what their backstory.
Both the born and the unborn. That’s what we see in this story. Ishmael is yet to be born, and yet God shows his love and plan for him.
Hagar was so blown away by this that this is how she responded:
“You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” 14 So that well was named Beer-lahai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered. (Genesis 16:13-14)
God sees. God hears. He sees and hears even the unwanted mom, whose pregnancy should never even had occurred, whose marriage should have never had taken place, discarded and thrown away by her mistress. Yet God still heard and saw her and her unborn child.
So, the first book of the Old Testament includes a story as a definitive statement of what God thinks of children. And very possibly, if “the angel of the Lord” is a reference to Jesus, what Jesus thinks of children.
Also, the first book of the New Testament contains this story as the definitive statement of what God thinks of children and what Jesus thinks of children. Back to Matthew 18…
2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:2-6)
Anyone who causes a child to stumble, to sin, to harm them, to scar them physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually… anyone who does damage to a child – it would be better for them to drown to death. YOU DON’T HURT CHILDREN!
Believe it or not, Jesus gets even more graphic than this.
8 So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. (Matthew 18:8)
In other words, if you can’t control yourself from abusing children, you’re better off cutting off your hand than abusing them with it.
It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet.9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. (Matthew 18:8-9)
It’s as if Jesus was speaking of child pornography thousands of years before the Internet ever existed. It’s better to be blind than to subject a child to any of this abuse!
Jesus wrapped up this teaching with these words:
10 “Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father. (Matthew 18:10)
Guardian angels. Mighty angels assigned to the care of children, ready to report to God, Himself, any hurt that is brought upon them. YOU DO NOT MESS WITH CHILDREN!
1 John 3:1 describes us as God’s children,
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
In Jesus’ own words, “If anyone messes with a child, scandalizes a child, causes damage of any sort to a child, it would be better for them to have a thousand pound millstone tied around their neck, and then drown in the depths of the sea. YOU DON’T MESS WITH A CHILD!”
And here’s the kicker: in God’s eyes, as a follower of His Son, you are a child, too! And nobody dare mess with you. Because God has your back.
God says this as clearly as can be in Romans 12:19,
“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
No one better mess with a child. And you are God’s children, so they better not mess with you. Such is the love of God for you.