What would you do if you won the lottery? Maybe you’re wanting to say to me “but Dave that’s gambling I’d never play it.” I did know of some Christians who used to write down their numbers every week and they would sit in front of the TV to see if they guessed it right, just for fun! he risk with that, seems to me, that one week your numbers might come up. Then how would you feel having not entered?
The National Lottery and lots of similar competitions invite you to put your numbers in to the mix for a chance to win eye wateringly amazing prizes from posh houses in the country or fast cars through to multi-million pound cash pay outs. It is based on “drawing lots” which is a method of deciding things that we find people using in the Bible. There’s one such example in Nehemiah 11.
Forming and filling, providing and protecting
The city of Jerusalem has been rebuilt. The Temple works were long completed and the city walls had now been repaired. The rulers of the people had taken up home in the city. However it remained sparsely populated. Ten percent of the people were chosen to settle there. Verse 2 als talks about volunteers. It is possible that the 10% were made up both of those who volunteered and those conscripted by lot or that the 10% were made up from those who willingly put themselves forward.
There is a Biblical image here that is rooted in God’s creation purposes. In Genesis 1, God blessed the first man and woman then told them to “fill and subdue the earth.” They were to bring order and structure, just as Nehemiah and the people had done by rebuilding the city walls but they were also to multiply and fill the whole earth, to populate it and to enjoy it. This still needed to happen in Jerusalem (v1-2)
We are then given a list of the people who go to live in Jerusalem. They are descendants of the three tribes that had formed the pre-exile southern kingdom: Judah, Benjamin and Levi (v3-23), meanwhile, the rest of the people spread out and settle in the land (v4-26).
More than structures
I want to pick up on two simple things here. First, we can focus on all the “structural things” to do with church. We can make sure we have leaders appointed, that we have ministry programmes in place, these are all good things of course. Indeed, if the walls were there to protect the people, then careful teaching of God’s Word to guard against false teaching might be considered part of the structure, to do with putting the walls up. However, this is no use if we have an empty city.
So, on a side point, if you are involved in preaching and teaching, make sure that you provide as well as protect, that God’s people are fed so that they grow, not just protected by sound doctrine.
When it comes to the church, if we do all those structural things then we are only half way there, In fact, it may be worse than that. An empty city is no true city. If we build structures but there isn’t fullness then we too fail. I think we got a bit of a warning shot about this during the COVID pandemic. Many churches enjoyed lively, busy programmes that filled up the week. Indeed, many people came along to events in the week and perhaps to church as well. When the lockdowns came, our programmes shut down and we began to see the difference between people attending events, the fringe of the church and the real health in terms of those who belonged because they were hungry and thirsty for God.
So we need to keep checking what we are doing. Are we simply creating structures and programmes or is there real life and fullness as people come to faith in Christ and join his family?
Draw close to Jesus
Secondly, I don’t know about you but I feel like if I’d been part of the ten percent then it would have been like winning the jackpot. To be in Jerusalem was to be in a safe city protected by the walls. It would have been to be at the centre of action. More importantly it would have meant living right up close to the Temple that represented God’s presence. It was also the place where sacrifices where offered and so the place represented the good news of forgiveness. Why would you not want to be there, as close to the symbolic representation of God’s presence with his people as possible.
Surely, we should want to be as close to Jesus as possible, to be living in his presence, to be continuously aware and delighting in knowing him. Surely we should want to have strong, visible, intimate reminders of his grace and forgiveness.
The good news is that this is the invitation for all of us. Unlike in Nehemiah’s day, we don’t need to be chosen as part of a small percentage. We don’t have to win the equivalent of a lottery. All who belong to Jesus are welcomed and invited to draw near to him regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, class or anything that we might think would exclude us.
How do we draw closer?
So, the invitation is to draw closer to Jesus. It’s also about drawing closer to each other because there’s a link between the two. What does that mean practically? Here are some suggestions.
- It means being filled with the Holy Spirit. We do this by allowing the Holy Spirit to rule, influence and shape the whole of our lives. Jesus is present in your life, with you through the Holy Spirit indwelling you.
- It means listening to him and talking to him. We listen by becoming saturated in God’s Word. We talk to him by cultivating a daily prayer life.
- It means growing our trust in him, our faith in him, proving him as we step out in obedience and seeing him keep his promises.
- It means loving the church and prioritising our relationship with our church family both because our relationship with Jesus is something that we grow in together and because this is the result of our relationship with him. It’s the Church together that is the bride of Christ, not each of us individually in a kind of “Jesus is my boyfriend sort of way.” This means that Jesus unites us together as members of his body.
- It means enjoying the benefits of baptism and communion, designed to enable us to see and experience what God’s grace in the Gospel is like more tangibly.
- It means being ready to fight for this relationship. We are to engage in Spiritual warfare. How do we do that? Paul tells us in Romans 8 that it is by putting to death sinful desire.
Here’s an invitation that is bigger and better than winning the lottery. What will you do with it?
Faithroots 