Posts tagged as:

means of grace

Take a Cake of Figs

by Eric Holter on April 23, 2011

“Take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil.” Isaiah 38:21

Chapter 38 of Isaiah recounts Isaiah’s delivering the Word of the Lord to Hezekiah, telling him that his sickness was going to lead to death. In response Hezekiah prays, weeps and asks the Lord to heal him. In response to his prayer, God does it, and adds fifteen years to his life.

What are we to make of this? Does God change His mind? Did He not consider the possibility that Hezekiah would pray?

Of course not. The Bible is absolutely clear that God knows all things including the thoughts and intension of the heart (Heb. 4:12), the actions of man (Acts 2:23), and even “random” events like the results of a cast lot (Prov. 16:33).

So why did God say that Hezekiah would die? God sent Isaiah for the express purpose that Hezekiah would know that he was going to die. Hezekiah needed to know this so that he wouldn’t die. It was God’s will to heal Hezekiah from the get go–so He sent Isaiah with some bad news. God knew what Hezekiah would do in response–that he pray! And by the means of that prayer God extended his life for another fifteen years. God brought it about by causing Hezekiah’s prayer through the means of the bad news.

It’s important when reading this story to remember the overall plot at this point in the book of Isaiah. The king of Assyria was threating Judah and would eventually take Judah into captivity, but not while Hezekiah lived (Isa. 39:7-8). The life of Hezekiah was tied to the security of Judah. We see this clearly when God says in response to healing Hezekiah “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.” (Isa. 38:5-6).

God was doing much more than giving Hezekiah an extra decade and a half to live. He was granting a reprieve to Judah, and He was doing this through the means of Hezekiah’s prayer.

I think there are two major things we can learn from this. First, God’s mercy and patience toward His people is amazing. He suffers long with our sins, and constantly is working to bring about our repentance and turn our hearts toward Him. But we also learn that we should always pray. When God informs us about things that will happen–like his impending judgment on the wicked–it is designed to cause us to pray for deliverance. We should never have the attitude, in response to God’s sovereign work, that our prayers are irrelevant. We must pray.

God intended from the start to grant Judah a reprieve. But He did it through Hezekiah’s prayer. Hezekiah had to pray, God granted His mercy in response to his prayer. And He knew that Hezekiah would pray as he did.

God’s sovereignty is greater than we can imagine. He is astoundingly complex in the He weaves His sovereign will in and through our actions our thoughts and our intentions. God didn’t change His mind when Hezekiah prayed. He made Hezekiah the kind of kind that would pray when this news was delivered. God accomplished what He desired through Hezekiah’s prayer.

And then we read this, “Now Isaiah had said, ‘Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover’” (Isa. 38:21). Isn’t that surprising! God was doing big things with nations, He used a prophet to set in motion important events like Hezekiah’s prayer. The effects were huge for Judah in that day. And this story is now a part of Holy Scripture for us to learn from to this day. And after all this weaving of God’s purposes through Isaiah and Hezekiah, they still had to apply some fruit to his flesh so that he would recover.

Doesn’t that seem a bit anti-climactic? God sent Isaiah, God responded to Hezekiah’s prayer, Judah was saved–but don’t forget the figs!

How do you respond to God’s sovereignty in your life? Are you ever tempted not to pray for your neighbor because their salvation is “in God’s hands?” Do we assume God will provide because he says he will, and forget to pray for our daily bread?

And if we pray, do we forget to apply the figs? There are often very simple, basic, and necessary things that we must do, which are part of the means that God has designed to accomplish His purposes. Do we pray for opportunities to share the gospel, and not look for them? (Guilty!) Do we ask for provision but fail to walk diligently? Do we ask for restored health but fail to take our rest? Do we ask for joy and fail to recount the multitude of blessings we live in?

God will do what he says, and he will do it through our prayers–and through the means he appoints. Pray and apply the figs.

{ 1 comment }

Kept by God. Kept for God.

by Eric Holter on July 15, 2005

“But what is the divine response to him? ‘I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL.’”
Romans 11:4

If I were to interview some of those seven thousand men who did not bow their knees to Baal, and ask them to describe instances where they refused to bow, I would probably hear some wonderful stories of heroic faith in the face of oppression and persecution. They might tell of times when a way of escape was opened. They might tell of sufferings they endured. No doubt there would be testimonies of God’s faithfulness and examples of how specific scriptures fortified and bolstered their faith in times of desperate need. I bet there would also be confessions of temptation and wavering – when competing desires between survival and obedience, the acceptance of man and the honoring of God, were at war. There may have been, from the perspective of these men some very “close calls” where it seemed they had barely escaped, or almost succumbed.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

O Poor Pharisee

by Eric Holter on July 10, 2005

“The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?’”
Luke 5:30

O Poor Pharisee, stuck in your old ways of performing righteousness – making much of your displays of prayer and fasting. You think such efforts will make you acceptable to God. You have drunk your old religion of law for so long that Jesus’ words are impossible for you to understand. Your legalistic ways offer no categories for this new wine of gospel grace. You question why Jesus’ followers don’t act like other religious people? The Lord’s answer comes back in riddles, stories, and parables you cannot understand by your categories of duty and performance.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Proverbs and Ecclesiastes on Business

by Eric Holter on February 20, 2005


I enjoy reading. I especially love books that unleash my imagination and inspire ideas. The puritan Richard Baxter once wrote: “It is not the reading of many books which is necessary to make one wise, but the well-reading of a few, could they be sure to have the best.” Books like Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith make my list of the few best business books that should be read often, and read well. But I reviewed that book in a previous newsletter. This month I’m reaching way back. While the books being reviewed in this newsletter are certainly available at your local Barnes and Noble or Borders, you won’t find them in the business section. You’ll have to head over to the religion aisle for these – they are the book of Proverbs and the book of Ecclesiastes.

The first chapter of Ecclesiastes states that “there is nothing new under the sun.” I read business and marketing books for new ideas and perspectives, but while new ways of looking at business realities can be helpful, the realities themselves are always the same. This fundamental truth is reinforced for me when I discover great business wisdom contained in these ancient books. The insights in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes top anything I’ve ever read off the business best seller lists.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Non-Mechanical Means of Grace

by Eric Holter on October 10, 2004

“For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.”
2 Timothy 2:10

Paul endured all things, and he was enduring suffering in prison as he wrote 2 Timothy. Paul deliberately chose paths of difficulty and hardship; he was well-content with suffering because by them the chosen could obtain salvation. Certainly, Paul understood the nature of God’s sovereignty, his unconditional election, and the unchangeable state of God-wrought regeneration in the hearts of His chosen ones. So why wouldn’t Paul say something more like “I relax and rest knowing that the chosen will inevitably end up in eternal glory with Christ?” How is it that the chosen may obtain salvation in such a way that Paul’s enduring hardship had something to do with it? How is it, that Paul’s ability, willingness, and endurance were encouraged, helped and motivated by his view that its effects would result in the salvation of the chosen?

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Good Salt and the Fires of Hell

by Eric Holter on April 25, 2004

“Praise the Lord!
How blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
Who greatly delights in His commands.”

Psalms 112:1

When I think of the blessedness of fearing the Lord I think of Jesus’ words in Mark 9 after he warns that it is better to remove a hand or an eye, if it causes us to stumble, than to enter hell with two hands, or two eyes. He concludes His warning with an analogy of salty fire. Ultimately, for those who do not flee from sin, they will encounter the unquenchable fires of hell. Such thoughts are, and should be, maximally disturbing to us. They should produce a deep dread and fear of hell – and of Him who puts people there. Ultimately, the fires of hell are an awful, dreadful, horrifying thing to contemplate. However, they can also bring a blessing. Jesus equates the fires of hell with salt. He says everyone, in a sense, will be “salted with the fires of hell.” For those who end up in hell, such salting will be an unimaginably and excruciatingly eternal reality. But for those who are turned away from sin by such thoughts, the salt is good, and it is good that we should have such salt in us. He warns that if this salt becomes un-salty that it would be no use to us. This salt, the salty fires of hell, are good for us – they can actually produce a blessing that makes us happy; abundantly happy, as this verse concludes.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

God Reveals Himself In All His Works

by Eric Holter on April 20, 2004

“Great are the works of Lord;
They are studied by all who delight in them.”

Psalms 111:2

God’s works reveal God to us. As we seek out, inquire of, investigate, and carefully study God’s works we will come to rejoice in the glory of God. Such study can never be merely academic. Rather, it is like the investigation of an archeologist who is compelled and captivated by solving an ancient mystery. It is like Indiana Jones risking all to lay hold of a golden treasure. Careful inquiry into the works of God is a doorway to beholding the awesome glory and beautiful wonders of God Himself. God’s works exist for this very reason, to make known His power, His righteousness, His grace, His compassion, His holiness, His justice and His truth. As we examine His works we come to discover Him, and O what an overwhelming delight, to discover the living God!

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

The Mortification of Sin, John Owen. Chapter 4, point number 1

by Eric Holter on January 5, 2004

The Mortification of Sin, John Owen. Chapter 4. point number 1
“The use of means for the obtaining of a peace is ours; the bestowing of it is God’s prerogative.”

John own writes this sentence in the context of waiting on God to restore peace to us, after we’ve repented of a particular sin. His advice is that we do not jump too quickly from confession to restoration. Yes it is blessedly true that we have been fully forgiven even from the time of Christ’s death on the cross. Yet God is the one with whom we are seeking peace, when we turn from our hostile activity of sinning, and so is God who must bestow it. Forgiveness and restoration are ours by possession; they have, in fact, been given to us in their entirety through Christ’s death, once for all. Yet its application, such that we are fully healed and relationally restored to God happens incrementally. God is faithful and dependable. We need not fear his rejection, but we must wait for Him to touch us, and move by his Holy Spirit, thus bring us deep and experiential peace. We must use all the means God has ordained – repentance, confession, restitution, and repudiation, among others, yet God is the one who will decide when it is best for us to obtain what we seek by them, in this case, peace with God.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }