The story is told of the Roman emperor Charlemagne, and the rather unusual request he had made concerning the details of his own burial. He asked to be buried sitting upright on his throne. His crown was to be on his head, his scepter in his hand, and his royal cape draped around his shoulders. He would also have an open book placed on his lap!
That was in 814 A.D. Almost 200 years later, Emperor Othello was curious if those very explicit directions were followed. So he ordered the tomb to be opened, and, lo and behold, they found it all just as the ruler had requested. Only now, the scene had become quite gruesome, and even disgusting. The crown was tilted on the skeletal head, and the scepter was quite tarnished. And not only that, his mantle was moth-eaten, and his body was totally disfigured!
But there, open on his lap, was the very book that Charlemagne had requested—the Holy Bible! One bony finger pointed to a very specific passage—"What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mt. 16:26) In one of the nursing homes we minister to, this was the very text with which we began our Lenten preaching series, "The Call to the Cross." You see, immediately prior to this verse, Jesus began telling His followers about His upcoming death, burial, and resurrection. Quite frankly, the call to the Cross will draw us away from a focus on our own lives and what we can gain in this world. Instead, if we truly answer God's call, we will soon have an eternal perspective that sees far beyond death and the grave. Paul wrote, "It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him." (2 Tim.2:11) You see, what goes around, comes around! All through Lent, we have been delving into the plagues that God sent to Egypt in order to get His own people set free—a freedom that can ultimately be found at the Cross and the empty tomb. One plague that truly struck me was the one concerning the boils. We read in Exodus 9:8-9, "The Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt."
The ashes, in the Hebrew, "piyach," refers to a powder that is easily puffed away. Virtually, a dust that was produced in the furnace—the furnace of affliction. For over 400 years, the people of Israel "slaved" away making and baking bricks for the Egyptian building projects. Now the tables would be turned—the by-product of their captivity would now be used to produce their freedom. Following God's specific direction, Moses tossed the ashes to the wind, and it blew over all of Egypt—settling on man and beast alike in the form of boils. Before long, those sores were seeping and painful. Disgusting, huh? It was meant to be, and so were all of the plagues.
They were all difficult times—on purpose—to draw Pharaoh, in particular, and all of the Egyptians, in general, away from a focus on themselves, and onto eternity. What goes around, comes around! This plague was a direct attack on their god, Isis, the goddess of medicine and peace. You see, cleanliness was paramount in Egyptian society, and this plague pronounced all of the people to be ceremonially unclean. The same would have been true for the people of God, if they had been afflicted—but they were not; only the Egyptians. Verse 11 tells us, "And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all of the Egyptians." These sorcerers and healers, being unclean themselves, could not help anyone else. If only they had seen the plague for what it was—a call to the Cross of the Great Physician, the pure and holy One. As it was, the magicians are never heard from again!
Remember Job? One day, God came to Satan and asked him if he had considered His servant Job. To prove Job's loyalty to God, He allowed him to be tested with great losses in his life. Job's response? "...the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." (1:21-22) When this attack failed, Satan was allowed by God to go after him physically—"So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes." (2:7-8) And this wasn't even for punishment or to bring him to repentance, like with Pharaoh, for God, at the very beginning, had declared Job to be perfect, upright, and one who truly feared God. So, what was it all about? The whole thing would take this godly man even deeper in his faith and trust. What goes around, comes around! Later, he would declare, "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." (19:25-26) And even at the end of it—"I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (42:5-6)
Dust, ashes, and boils—it is the call to the Cross of repentance, surrender, and submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ—not just in words, but in every aspect of life. So many today have chosen a different cross, and therefore, a different church. As A.W. Tozer once put it, "...the old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it." The late David Wilkerson, the founder of World Challenge, had called it "the Church of Forgiveness Only." He referred to the illustration in Isaiah 4:1—"And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." Pastor Wilkerson suggested that, "The seven would-be brides...are clearly a type of many in the last-days church. They are seeking to lay hold of one man, whom I take to be Christ. Yet these brides are not interested in loving Him. They do not want intimacy with Him, but rather, to only get relief from the guilt and condemnation of their sin. They want nothing more than forgiveness, to have the reproach of sin removed. These self-centered, would-be brides have no desire to submit to the authority of a husband. They do not want to know His heart, nor do they desire to obey." I agree!
You see, the church has made up some new definitions—forgiveness is just claiming to be O.K. without any real heart change. In fact, newer versions of the Bible have even cut out "remission of sins," and replaced it with a wimpy "forgiveness." Remission, in the original Greek, speaks of hating sin, standing against it, and turning from it. This, my friends, is at the core of true forgiveness, and without it, there is no forgiveness at all! So many today are only wanting to feel peace, but without a true experiencing of it—as God Himself defines it. They want to feel free from guilt, without actually dying to self and being free from it. Henry Blackaby once wrote, "Don't discount the power of God as described in Scripture simply because you have not experienced it. Bring your experience up to the standard of Scripture; never reduce Scripture to the level of your experience."
Oh, and there is also something else—"And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh..." (vs. 12a) Previously, the king had hardened his own heart; now God does it for him! All along, he had wanted to have his own way—to save his own soul, so to speak. God wasn't about to let him do the right thing, but for the wrong reasons, and thereby, think he was O.K.—born again. Without a true repentance and a turning from sin, there can be no true freedom. What goes around, comes around! Being buried sitting on a throne, with a crown, a scepter, and even a Bible, doesn't make one a Christian. Years of pointing to a Scripture doesn't do it either. Its a matter of the whole life—changed because of the blood of Jesus! Three days after the cross, Jesus was not found with a tilting crown, a tarnished scepter, or rotting flesh. No, on Easter Sunday, the Lord of all was found very much alive—He had been very dead, but now, He is alive forevermore. Yes, alive to live the resurrected life in you and me, through the power of the Holy Spirit! Indeed—what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? I, for one, know that my Redeemer lives, and that even after death and the grave have done their worst to me, I will see my Lord—in the flesh! Praise God—what does go around, comes around!!!
