Names of God; part 22. Being a son in the house of YHVH.

Title: Names of God; part 22. Being a son in the house of YHVH.

 

 

YHVH roiy [ro-ee], “the Lord is my Shepherd,” Psa 23:1.

 

In verse five, the figure of the Shepherd fades away and the figure of a Host appears who takes the weary traveler into his house with the words of peace, which guarantees that His best will be given and that He will protect his guest to the point of His own death.

 

Psa 23:5 Thou dost prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

Thou hast anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

 

The guest is anointed with perfumed oil, given a magnificent banquet, and his cup is always full to excess. His enemies can only look on; because of the Host, they can do nothing to stop it.

 

Psa 23:6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

Enemies were pursuing the traveler, but now he knows that goodness and lovingkindness, or steadfast love, will follow him wherever he goes, all the days of his life. He knows this due to the banquet of the Host and the promise that he will remain in the house forever in the same blessed state.

 

He knows that though enemies follow, goodness and lovingkindness follow because he has tasted the banquet of the Host, in whose house he will remain forever.

 

The Hebrew word for "house" refers to a permanent dwelling and so should be distinguished from a tent. The house of the Lord is a permanent place and the traveler, weary at times due to the pursuit of his enemy, understands that he always dwells there.

 

Jesus speaks of this house.

 

Joh 8:31 Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;

 

Joh 8:32 and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

 

It must be emphasized that we choose to abide in Him and His word, but it is the Holy Spirit that makes it possible. We do not work on our flesh to make it better. The Holy Spirit empowers us and illumes us in the truth.

 

Joh 8:33 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You shall become free'?"

 

Joh 8:34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

 

Joh 8:35 "And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.

 

This leads us to consider the life of the son in the house. As in every case where our position in Christ is related in the scripture, as we read on it is not long before the call to live and conduct ourselves in the manner of that position is also related.

 

We might ask why was David able to write so many beautiful psalms, like Psa 23? It was because David was a man after God’s heart and after doing all of God’s will.

 

The present active participle of poieo reveals a habitual practice of the perpetual sinner - unbeliever.

 

It would seem like Christ is saying that the son in the house in sinless and perfect, but He is not. He refers to the slave of sin. All sons are slaves of righteousness, whether they acknowledge this or not, or whether they fight it or not. In the scripture the Corinthians reveal to us that believers can act like mere men, meaning unbelievers, but they cannot be the perpetual sinners, without conviction, without discipline, that the believer is always under.

 

Heb 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

 

Heb 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

 

Heb 12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?

 

Heb 12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.

 

Heb 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

 

Heb 12:12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,

 

Heb 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

 

The conflict of flesh and spirit within all of us means that we will be defeated at times and so the reality of discipline when necessary. We pick up the conflict within and the victory over that conflict in Rom 6.

 

It must be remembered, along with the fact that this can only be done by reliance upon God the Holy Spirit, that God doesn’t need us to do His work or to express His gospel, but that He has given us the privilege of doing so. Yet this privilege is not given so that we could have something good to do rather than evil. Goodness, righteousness, grace, mercy, the gospel, etc. are all involved in that which is life indeed. If we do not walk in them then we don’t walk in life, the life that is Christ. Only is that life is there true prosperity of soul and God seeks for all of us to enjoy that life.

 

Rom 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,

 

Rom 6:13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

Rom 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

 

The son in the house is not under law, but under grace. He is gifted with all things for abiding in the word of the Master, including forgiveness.

 

Rom 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

 

Rom 6:16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

 

Rom 6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,

 

Rom 6:18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

 

All of God’s sons and daughters are slaves of righteousness. They can be disobedient slaves, but they can’t get apart from the seed that is in them, and if it takes until eternity to recognize this: we are all slaves of righteousness.

 

This is an extremely important principle to understand and it is often confused in the minds of believers. We are all sinners, but there is something about the believer, courtesy of the grace of God, that makes him/her a slave of righteousness.

 

1Jo 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us [this love is not found naturally in the human race], that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

 

“how great” – potapo,j[potapos] = from what country, from what far realm. The love of God is from heaven; not found on earth.

 

1Jo 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us [perfect tense: it is our permanent possession], that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.