As
Good As Dead
Ask any successful restaurateur what
his secret is, and he'll likely respond: “Start with the BEST
ingredients!” A reputable building contractor desires the BEST
materials to erect his structures. A small business entrepreneur, who
desires to become a major corporation, will employ the BEST salesmen,
the BEST application developers and the BEST inventory management
personnel he can afford. On draft day, an NFL team may select the BEST
player available in each round with a view to one day winning a Super
Bowl Championship.
You might expect what we know about
human endeavors to be true of divine initiatives as well. But you would
be wrong. When God plans to build something big, he begins with
something insignificant by human standards. He chooses the foolish
things of this world to confound the wise, weak things to
confound the mighty, so that NO FLESH can glory in his
presence (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). When the giant Goliath was
threatening and intimidating Israel, the Lord raised up a young
shepherd boy to win the day. When Jesus began assembling his inner
circle as the foundation for his Kingdom, he bypassed the religious
elites and hand-picked an assortment of nobody's. When
the LORD God decided to build a nation through which to send the
Promised Seed (Genesis 3:15), he started with an old childless couple, not exactly the kind of 'breeding
stock' you'd expect as embryonic to a great nation.
All God needs to accomplish his will
on earth and turn a grain of sand into a mountain are men and women of
faith—ones willing to embrace his promise and wait patiently for him to
perform it. Abraham and Sara are set forth in scripture as examples.
Our text is Hebrews 11:11-12:
“Through faith also Sara herself
received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when
she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as
the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea
shore innumerable.”
In my mind, the First Family of
Israel suffered from double jeopardy. Sara was incapable of
conceiving during normal child-bearing years. That inability extended
into her old age. Abraham, who was able to father children
as evidenced by Hagar and Ishmael, became unable to
procreate during the decade and a half that elapsed between
Ishmael and Isaac. Abraham was “as good as dead” (literally, "one
having been deadened"), which means he was either impotent or
sterile. Combine that with Sara's infertility, and you have a
couple in double jeopardy! Now that
the task of nation building seemed utterly impossible, God had exactly
the right circumstances through which his power could flourish to HIS glory.
Sprang
is γεννάω
(gennaō), “to procreate, beget, father children.” The
verb is past tense, as you'd expect, but passive voice. It
signifies
Abraham was MADE to procreate as a God-given ability. In other words,
God restored to Abraham the procreative prowess old age had taken
from him. After Sara's death, Abraham married Keturah, by whom he
fathered six more sons (Genesis 17). In other words, Abraham became a
baby-making machine. At this point,
we must ask: “Is there anything life has taken from you that you would
like God to restore?” The writer juxtaposes the word “one” with the
words “multitude” (in terms of stars) and “innumerable” (in terms of
sand) to magnify by contrast the potential results when an
infinite God
injects himself into the affairs of finite man.
In this Laodicean Age, there are many
so-called evangelical churches
that are as good as dead. What would you say about any church that goes
month-after-month, year-after-year without a single adult being “born
again” in their midst and joining the fellowship? Can any church legitimately claim to
be alive if no lost sinners are finding life in Christ by virtue of its
existence? If you doubt this analysis, consider the words of Jesus to
the church at Sardis:
“These things saith he that hath
the seven
Spirits of God, and the
seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest,
and art [as good as] dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which
remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect
before God” (Revelation 3:1-2).
The church at Sardis was not
completely dead, as indicated by the
phrase “things that are ready to die.” But for all intents and
purposes, they were a spiritual morgue. While Jesus did not use the
word “dead” in his message to the Laodicean church (3:14-22),
concluding they were “as good as dead” is no stretch considering the
Giver of Life was knocking on the church door, seeking for “any man” to
hear his voice and open the door (3:20). The messages to Sardis and
Laodicea are made the more alarming when you consider they were just
two generations removed from Pentecost, a time at which the church was
vibrant with the life of Christ and Holy Ghost power. Abraham was a man
as good as dead in terms of his inability to reproduce physically. Some
local churches are equally as good as dead in terms of their inability
to reproduce spiritually. The church at Sardis had a name it
was
alive, but Jesus pronounced them as good as dead.
Finally, scripture affirms a man can
be dead and yet be as good as
alive. Such a man was Abel, concerning whom it is said: “By faith Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he
obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts:
and by it he BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH”
(Hebrews 11:4). The
second man to
exit the womb was the first to die. His father Adam lived 930 years,
died of natural causes. Abel was murdered at the hands of his brother
Cain at a young age. But Abel has been preaching now for 6,000 years
and is STILL speaking! His message is the theme of Hebrews: “Sinners
can find acceptance with God and eternal redemption through
the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ!”
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