The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, Classic Version, 2017Sample

How to Live in a Hostile Environment

Hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled Iraq and Syria in the midst of Islamic extremism and conflict. Christians face the threat of systematic torture and mass executions. Daesh declared Christianity as the number one enemy.

Millions of Christians live in countries where they are persecuted for their faith. Many governments try to control the growth of the church. Even in traditionally Christian countries there is increasing hostility towards vibrant Christianity. Hostility to the people of God is not something new. People are often threatened by success, growth and large numbers.

Perhaps you are facing hostility in your workplace or even in your family because of your faith. The passages today not only highlight the reality of living in a hostile environment, but they also point to how we can survive and thrive in the midst of such hostility.

Psalm 19:1-6

1. Study God’s revelation

God has revealed himself to the whole world through creation. David says that when you look at the universe it is obvious that there is a God: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge’ (vv.1–2).

Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, led a team of over 2,000 scientists who collaborated to determine the three billion letters in the human genome – our own DNA instruction book. He said, ‘I cannot see how nature could have created itself. Only a supernatural force that is outside of space and time could have done that.’

God’s revelation in creation is available to everyone. No one is excluded from this. ‘There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world’ (vv.3–4).

As we look at the world we see God’s footprint – ‘his eternal power and divine nature’ (Romans 1:20). Yet, although God has revealed himself to the entire world, much of it remains hostile to him.

Take time to study God’s creation and thank him for who he is, and enjoy all the beautiful things God has made.

Lord, thank you that you speak every day and every night through creation, and that there is no speech or language where your voice is not heard.

Matthew 26:1-30

2. Understand God’s solution

Have you ever been falsely accused or betrayed by a friend? Have you had people plotting against you? Or have you ever experienced some other form of personal hostility? Jesus experienced all these things.

God has revealed himself in creation. However, his supreme revelation is in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.

God himself has come to be part of this hostile world, to do something about it. In this passage we see a glimpse of God’s solution, which he achieved through coming in the person of his Son Jesus Christ and dying for us. Yet the world was hostile even to Jesus.

• Plotting
  We should not be surprised by the world’s hostility to Jesus and to Christians today. Jesus knew he would be ‘handed over to be crucified’ (v.2). The chief priests and elders ‘plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him’ (v.4).
  
  Jesus says to the Twelve, ‘One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators’ (v.21, MSG).

• Accusations
  When a woman came to Jesus ‘with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head’ (v.7), even the disciples regarded what was done for Jesus as a ‘waste’ (v.8).
  
  There is something deeply moving about this incident. Jesus is given for us. The cost is beyond anything we can ever imagine, and his death is imminent. A jar of expensive perfume is only fitting, and yet the disciples are fussing about waste.
  
  Most people understand your works of social action (for example, in response to poverty) but they find it harder to understand your worship of Jesus and all the things associated with it. They regard these things as a ‘waste’ and think that surely there is a better use of your time and money (v.9), but Jesus sees things differently: ‘She has done a beautiful thing to me’ (v.10). She showed her extravagant love for Jesus.

• Betrayal
  What people will do for money! Judas waited for an opportunity to hand over Jesus for ‘thirty silver coins’ (v.15). It is hard to imagine just how painful this must have been for Jesus. Judas was one of his closest ‘friends’, one of the inner circle, one of the twelve he had chosen. He knew – ‘one of you will betray me’ (v.21).

Yet Jesus in his extraordinary love, rather than rejecting them all, dies for them. During a meal together, he begins to explain the meaning of his death. He explains through the breaking of the bread and drinking of wine that his blood is to be ‘poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’ (v.28). Jesus’ answer to a hostile world was to be crucified in order to make forgiveness and redemption possible.

Every time you receive communion, you are reminded both of the hostility of the world towards Jesus and of his love for that same world.

Lord, thank you for your extraordinary example of how to live in a hostile environment. Thank you that you died to make forgiveness and redemption possible.

Exodus 1:1-3:22

3. Know who God is

Moses asked God, ‘Who am I, that I should go?’ God replied by telling him who He is. In the end, the answer to all our questions and problems is not to be found in who we are but in who God is.

If you asked a Jew in the first century who was the greatest person whom ever lived, they would have replied, without doubt: ‘Moses’. He was the supreme figure in their history. He rescued them from slavery into a life of freedom. He gave them the law. The book of Exodus presents us with the constitution of a new nation and introduces us to the man who was responsible for it.

A ‘new king’ came to power who ‘did not know about Joseph’ (1:8). The ‘new king’ was ignorant of the fact that Joseph had saved Egypt. People quickly forgot the good that the people of God had done in the past. The government started to oppress them ‘ruthlessly’ with forced labour (vv.11–14). They cried for help and ‘God heard their groaning’ (2:24).

People have tried throughout history to get rid of God’s people – but it has never worked. ‘The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread’ (1:12). Even today, when the church is persecuted and oppressed, it often multiplies and spreads.

Moses was Pharaoh’s adopted grandson – a powerful prince. Money, sex and power would have been at Moses’ disposal in abundance. But he chose to endure hostility instead. He obeyed God’s call and chose to identify himself with God’s people – a group of people whom those with an upbringing like Moses’ would have regarded with contempt, a slave nation – Israel.

Through the lens of the New Testament, we see that Moses ‘chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward’ (Hebrews 11:25–26).

It was not an easy choice to make. However, in the end he obeyed God’s call and took on a hostile world.

At the heart of his obedience was the recognition of who God is. God revealed himself in various ways to Moses in these verses, and promised, ‘I will be with you’ (Exodus 3:12). The revelation of his name was particularly significant, as names were understood as a declaration of a person’s character or nature: God reveals himself as, ‘I AM WHO I AM’ (v.14). The only way in which God can be fully described is with reference to himself.

This name declares the unique greatness and eternal nature of our God. This name (in a contracted form) then becomes the name by which God is known throughout the rest of the Old Testament. In Hebrew it is Yahweh, normally translated into English as ‘the LORD’. Moses’ subsequent obedience to God was rooted in his understanding of who God is.

In effect, God tells Moses not to worry about the hostility he will face. All that matters is that ‘I AM WHO I AM’ is with him. He is sufficient for all your fears, anxieties and challenges. When you know ‘I AM WHO I AM’ is with you, you can relax and be at peace.

Lord, help me to follow the example of Moses and ‘choose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time’. Help me to ‘regard disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value’ than anything this hostile world can offer.

Pippa Adds

Moses owed his life to five brave women:

Shiphrah and Puah defied Pharaoh and saved the lives of hundreds of male babies.

Moses’ sister (Miriam) acted cleverly in fetching Moses’ own mother to nurse him.

Moses’ mother passed on great faith to her three children (Moses, Aaron and Miriam).

Most surprisingly, Pharaoh’s daughter had compassion on Moses and rescued him.