Prophecy

This Ain’t That…

/ pastorlynnmalone / Leave a comment

Okay, so by now you’re aware that there was an assassination attempt on the life of Donald Trump on July 13, 2024. You’ve probably seen the soon-to-be iconic photograph taken that day at the fairgrounds rally in Butler, PA.

I’ll say with a fair degree of certainty that photograph sealed Joe Biden’s fate as far as the Presidential election is concerned. Regardless of what one thinks of Donald Trump, one must admit it is a compelling picture.

I continue to be amazed how some in the Christian community can try to make something out of current events that there is simply no evidence to support. Donald J. Trump may be a character of biblical proportions, and he may, in fact, be God’s man for God’s time (that remains to be seen), but please, let’s stop trying to tie biblical images to the man. We might just be opening a can of worms that we don’t need to open when we do that.

What do I mean?

Not too long after the assassination attempt, Donald Trump was tied to an obscure passage of scripture in Leviticus noting that Trump was somehow being anointed for God’s service (click here for an example).

The photo on the right also started hitting my Facebook feed shortly after the assassination attempt, and one prosperity preacher, Rev. Jentezen Franklin, made the connection while making remarks before the Faith & Freedom Coalition breakfast during the Republican National Convention. I searched the internet for the video, but it has apparently has been taken down.

Let me just say: This ain’t that!

Here’s the passage in question:

 23 Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 24 Moses also brought Aaron’s sons forward and put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Then he splashed blood against the sides of the altar.  Leviticus 8:23 – 24 NIV

In its context, Leviticus 8 is clearly Moses’ anointing of Aaron and his sons to the Old Testament Aaronic priesthood. It was a consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests for the nation of Israel. We must read it and understand it as we seek to understand what God was doing with His people in that time. To attempt to make a contemporary application is to open ourselves to several problems.

The Problems

Exegesis

Exegesis simply means the critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture. To take out of the text that there is a connection between the Aaronic priesthood of the Old Testament and Donald Trump is blatantly false. To suggest that the assassination attempt on Donald Trump is God’s anointing of him as some sort of priest or prophet for the United States of America is to have a completely wrong understanding of the Old Testament.

Connecting this passage of scripture, even as allegorical or metaphorical, is to make a very crass interpretation of scripture. We must be careful doing this…or tying any American President (or any person for that matter) to events in the Bible. We must be careful because two can play that game.

Here’s what I mean:

3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.  Revelation 13: 3 NIV

Could Donald Trump be the beast of Revelation? I don’t know! I guess it depends on your interpretation of scripture (or your political party!).

Devil in the Details

Honestly, there are just too many details missing for Leviticus 8 to be in any way associated with Donald Trump. First, the blood applied to Aaron and his sons came from a sacrificial ram. That means something else had to die to provide the blood for the ceremony (think New Testament…think Jesus here). The blood applied to Aaron’s ear (and thumb and toe) was not his own.

Second, the Levitical instructions are specific in what was to be done with the fat and the entrails of the sacrificial animal. As best I recall, there was no fat or entrails (blood and guts) involved in the assassination attempt of former President Trump.

Third, as far as we know, none of the blood made its way to Trump’s big toe. We do know that he lost his shoes when he was tackled by the Secret Service, and he had the presence of mind to want to retrieve his shoes before departing the platform.

I’m going to say, as an aside, that wanting to get your shoes while someone is shooting at you is either the most narcissistic thing in the world, or the bravest thing in the world. There’s probably an element of both involved, but I’ll let you be the judge of it. Maybe they were just expensive shoes!

Lessons Learned

Let me be the first to say that I also think my Christian brothers and sisters who dispute God’s providence in the protection of Donald Trump through that attempt might also be hasty in their response. There is nothing wrong in acknowledging that God could very well have been provident in those circumstances, the fact that someone else was killed notwithstanding. One lesson in all of this is for us not to become extreme either way.

Another lesson to be learned is that the Bible is not a political prop and we shouldn’t seek to use it for political gain. It is the revelation of God the Father designed and given to lead us to repentance in Jesus Christ, the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit. Shame on us for using it any other way.

One final lesson we can learn is that Jesus Christ is our hope and the Savior of the world. We have so much hope and truth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we have no need of taking an obscure passage of scripture and misapplying it to our current situation to find hope. Jesus is the Savior who forgives sinners, saves them by His grace, invites them into His Kingdom and will one day come again in glory to reign eternally. That’s enough!

I’m telling you…this thing with Donald Trump…it ain’t that!

Until next time, keep looking up…

God with Us…

/ pastorlynnmalone / Leave a comment

My wife, Vanessa, and I like to get away to L. A. as often as we can. No, I’m not talking about Los Angeles. I’m talking about lower Alabama. Driving across southern Mississippi we go through a lot of little towns on Highway 49. One in particular is Mt. Olive, Mississippi. Driving into town there is a prominent sign that says “Birthplace of Steve McNair.” Steve McNair was a professional football player who played quarterback, and spent most of his career with the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans.

A little further down Highway 49, you enter Collins, Mississippi, and again, at the entrance of town there’s a sign that says “Birthplace of Gerald McRaney.” Gerald McRaney is an actor who played in series such as Simon & Simon, House of Cards and more recently, This Is Us. I don’t know how many of you have driven through Mt. Olive or Collins, Mississippi, but there isn’t much happening in either of those places. They are simply little towns nestled between the bigger cities of Jackson and Hattiesburg. Their claim to fame is who was born there.

Now, picture in your mind, riding your camel across the Judean desert southward out of Jerusalem in the first century. About five miles out of Jerusalem, you start to enter a sleepy little town called Bethlehem, and as your camel glides into town you see a sign that says, “Birthplace of King David.”  

Bethlehem’s claim to fame was that it was the birthplace of the nation’s most famous and popular king. One scholar says, “’At the beginning of the first century AD, Bethlehem was a village with not more than a thousand inhabitants: a small set of houses scattered along the side of a ridge and protected by a wall that was in a bad state of repair.”

We sing the Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem with the emphasis on “little.” It was not where anyone was expecting anything special to happen. It certainly wasn’t where anyone was expecting God to show up. Sure, there had been this prophecy from Micah that said,

 “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    are only a small village among all the people of Judah.
Yet a ruler of Israel,
    whose origins are in the distant past,
    will come from you on my behalf.”

Micah 5:2 (NLT)

Micah’s prophecy was long since buried in the recesses of the nation’s mind. Even the nation’s king, Herod, had to call on the experts to be reminded of Micah’s prophecy when the wise men showed up looking for this “new” king that was born. 

Nobody really expected God to show up, or for God to do anything special in Bethlehem. If God was going to show up, God was going to show up in Jerusalem. That was the happening place for the nation of Israel. Of course, God might show up in Rome, or even Athens, Greece. Those places were the center of first century culture, politics and power. If something is going to happen, it would surely happen in one of those places, not sleepy little Bethlehem.

That’s what we expect, too, and we have the benefit of bible stories and an annual celebration to remind us that God shows up in unexpected places. What do I mean? God is a big God, and if God is going to make a difference, it’s because He’s going to do it in a big way. Right? Sure, like in New York City or Washington, D. C., or maybe Paris or London. Those are the seats of power. We certainly don’t expect God to show up in places like Minden. But, He does, and isn’t that Good News? Sure it is…sort of…

If God shows up in Minden (or wherever you live), that brings Him awfully close to home, and we’re just not sure we want God that close. We like having a little space between God and us. You know how we like our space. Don’t get too close. Don’t believe it? Notice what you do next time you’re waiting on the elevator and the doors open and it’s got more than four people on it. Most of us will wait on the next one. Let me tell you, Bethlehem is evidence that God doesn’t really respect our space, and we don’t quite know what to do with a God like that. 

What do we do with a God like that? What do we do with a God who shows up in the most unexpected places? I tell you what we do—we build places where we will COME and meet God. We’ll come, sit down, listen for an hour or so, get our God fix, talk a little bit about how it’s been going for the last week, be reminded of the things we need to work on, resolve to do better and ask God to help us out. Most of the time we’ll leave saying, “Hey, this has been a good session. We’ll do this again.” We leave and we expect that God stays, but…that’s not the evidence of Bethlehem. That’s not Emmanuel—God with us. That’s not the point of Christmas at all!

The point of Christmas is that God is with us in all the unexpected ways and all the unexpected places of our lives. That’s what we sing in the words to the third verse of the song Phillips Brooks wrote in O Little Town of Bethlehem: 

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given;

so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.

God imparts to human hearts. God is born in us. Christmas is God being born in us—you and me! And, that is an even more unexpected place than Bethlehem. Christmas means that God goes with us to work. When we’re standing on Monday morning at that blasted copy machine that never works the way it was designed to work.

God is with us at home with our families, around the dinner table, and God is with us when we’re living at the homeless shelter. God is with us when we’re going through the divorce and when we’re battling the addiction. God is with us when we’re shopping at Wal-Mart and when we’re driving our cars. God goes with us on vacation.

God is right there with us when we’re confronted with choices that challenge our values, and God is right there when our co-workers, or friends, or children make lifestyle choices that challenge our sensibilities, and who don’t understand who Christ is because we’re the only definition of him they see. 

Yes, God is with us in the great, high and holy moments of our lives, but God is also with us when we’re struggling with the difficulties of life. Christmas is God giving Himself to us, to be with us, to invade our time and space for one purpose and one purpose only—to have a relationship with us, to save us from our sin, and to give us life through His Son, Jesus Christ. That’s the evidence of Bethlehem. That’s the point of Christmas!

That only leaves one question: Will we allow Him to be born in us today? The last verse of O Little Town of Bethlehem becomes our prayer this Christmas and every Christmas. Listen to Brooks’ prayer again:

O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!     

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

Merry Christmas, y’all!

Until next time, keep looking up…

A Question Not Easily Answered…

/ pastorlynnmalone / Leave a comment

I have been asked many times over the past two weeks what I think about the situation in the Middle East. My staff, who know I’m a pastor, and customers who come in the shop, upon finding out I’m a pastor, will ask my opinion on the situation. I will always answer, “In what regard?”

I answer that way because it matters in what regard we look at the situation in Israel and Gaza. In one regard, the conflict is nothing new. It’s as old as the Bible itself. There have been wars in the Middle East since there have been people in the Middle East. Go back to chapter 14 of Genesis and you’ll read of a war in which five area kings were at war with four area kings. It is the first recorded war in the Bible, and dates back to 1800 BCE. That war would eventually draw Abraham into it, so conflict in the Middle East is not a new phenomenon.

Of course, everyone really wants to know what it means in regard to the end times. That’s a tougher question to answer because I really don’t know. There were prophets and prognosticators who were certain the end was near when Israel became a nation in 1948. And, they might be right. Scripture seems to indicate that Israel would re-form as a nation. 

The OT prophet Zechariah indicated the Jewish people would turn to God, through the Messiah, only after returning to Israel (Zech.12:10; 13:1). Likewise, the prophet Ezekiel stated God’s promise, “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land” (Ezek. 36:24). The passage continues, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean…. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:25–26). Note that the spiritual regeneration of Israel follows the restoration of the Jewish people to the land. Thus regathered, Israel will, as a nation, turn in faith toward the Messiah.

I think the nation of Israel’s existence is biblical. Is it the end? It could be. It could not be. I could be the beginning of the end, or it could be another conflict in the region that needs to be settled. I won’t speculate either way. I don’t claim to be a prophet. There are plenty of people who do claim to be a prophet and you can read 427 different interpretations of the current situation. You might be equally confused by all of them. I know I certainly am.

Let me share what my thoughts are on the current situation, though. First, Israel is not responsible for what happened two weeks ago. No amount of verbal gymnastics or woke ideology can ever make Israel responsible for the murder of innocent women, children and elderly persons. None! What Hamas did is evil and atrocious and there is no justification for their actions. There is no moral equivalency between Hamas’s actions and Israel’s prior acts or current reactions. To make it so is to reveal one of two things: either your ignorance of history or your hatred of Jews.

Has Israel committed prior bad acts? Certainly. Read the Old Testament. It’s filled with instances of bad choices, terrible decisions and wrong actions. Why would it be different today. We’re all still human and human nature hasn’t changed. Have civilians suffered as a result of Israeli actions? Unfortunately, yes, but civilians have never been targeted as participants of war. To draw a moral equivalency between Hamas and the nation of Israel is, at best, disingenuous.

Second, I believe Israel will ultimately prevail in the current conflict. And, I think the church is right to affirm Israel’s right to self-defense and self-determination, and from a political standpoint, the United States should stand with Israel (yes, I do!). 

I’m not so sure that people don’t hate Jews because they are God’s chosen people. They are the physical representation of God upon the earth. The same thing could be said about the church and is said about the Church. For the same reasons, the Jewish nation and the Church are both hated in the world because they are both the physical representation of God on the earth. We should expect evil to attack the nation of Israel and the Church. Until Christ comes again, unfortunately, it will likely continue. Remember what Jesus told his disciples? John 16: 1-2 says, “I have told you these things so that you won’t fall away. For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing God a service.”

The reaction of many in the West comes as a result, I believe, of the “woke” culture that sees oppression as the great sin of the culture. There are levels of oppression and the more degrees of oppression you are able to claim, the more of a victim you become. It’s a terrible philosophy.

History changes the oppressor and the oppressed. How often throughout history has Israel been oppressed. Let’s see, there’s the Egyptian slavery, the Babylonian captivity, the Assyrian captivity, the Roman occupation, the Holocaust. We could name others. Throughout history, the oppressed have often become the oppressor. I suspect that current “woke” culture, with its stress on oppression is simply history’s latest attempt to have the oppressed become the oppressor.

I say all that to note the irony of many on the left in the West that have called the Jews Nazis. Literally the same people who were exterminated by the Nazis are being called Nazis. Again, that is a reflection of people’s ignorance of history and of their pure hatred for God’s people.

So, what should we do? First, we pray and work for peace. Jesus said in Matthew 5: 9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” The Church should be involved in the peace process from a prayer perspective. No, we won’t be invited to sit at the negotiating table, nor should we, but we should pray that peace would come to the Middle East by whatever means the Lord deems necessary. We should pray for our national leaders as they work to bring peace to the region, and we should stand behind their efforts, whether we agree with them or not. The end goal is peace, not revenge.

We should also be praying for the Palestinians and Hamas. Praying for them will help us not lose sight of their humanity. The civilian populations of both Israel and Palestine are in harm’s way, and that not of their own doing. They are suffering, and the Church is called to enter into the suffering of others (that’s what the word ‘compassion’ means) to suffer with them. Why? Because Jesus died for all men. No matter how evil we believe Hamas or the Palestinians have been, we shouldn’t wish them dead, we should wish them saved!

If you or I are part of the crowd that seeks revenge on Hamas and relishes in waiting for Israel to exact her revenge, then we’re not in the correct crowd. We need to check our discipleship. We might need Jesus as much as those in Hamas. I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words to the Roman Church: 

19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12: 19 – 21

I think that would be quite revolutionary in and of itself. I need to remind us that we are called to be disciples by one who, himself, was a revolutionary. 

I remind us that Jesus has a disciple named Simon who was also known as the Zealot. Do you know what a Zealot was in the first century? Zealots were pretty much the terrorists of their day. They were prone to starting fires over here and starting fights over there to get at their Roman oppressors. They were known to attempt assassinations and to kill Roman soldiers. Yes, Jesus called one of those people as a disciple, but it wasn’t for a political revolution. It was for a spiritual one. As confusing as it was then, it seems to be equally confusing today.

Secondly, we should live as if the end is now. Jesus tells a great parable:

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Matthew 25: 1 – 13

We need to live as though Jesus is coming back today or tonight. We live obediently today in light of his imminent return. No one knows when He will come back—not even the Son, Himself (Matthew 24:36). It may be fun to play in the sandbox of end times prophecy, but it is a completely pointless endeavor if it distracts from the ultimate purpose of the Church, and that is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that all men might be saved.     

That’s sort of what I tell staff or customers who ask whether what is happening in the Middle East is fulfilling prophecy in the Bible. I don’t know if it satisfies their curiosity or answers their question, but I know it’s the only answer I can give.

Until next time, keep looking up…