Chapter
3 Forerunners and Outworkers
When we make an assessment of a situation we think
in rank. We default to hierarchy
instinctively. Have you ever noticed
that? It's really hard to not do
it. What we find with the Lord is a
different way to arrange function tasks and roles. Our way of seeing roles tasks and function
is a Western trait. It is in our psyche
and how we operate in developed countries.
There are complexities about where this comes from that would take us
from the aim of this book. Suffice to
say, Great Britain, its history and how it was schooled to become a productive
imperialist state has taught a way to succeed among the nations. This includes rank / hierarchy across its
entire length and breadth.
Beyond
value systems
God seems to do things differently. When we see the Transfiguration we could
perceive that Moses and Elijah were the big hitters, the big cheeses, and the
‘Master class.’ It won’t kill you to
think like that, after all, the Lord is there and he is the Lord of all
creation! However, those that came after Moses and Elijah were the ones who walked out
that which they ushered in. We imagine
because of how we see seniority and authority that Moses and Elijah were the
executives and Joshua and Elisha did some less important role. If we think that we would be entirely
wrong. Each outwork of what had been
ushered in by the forerunner was of absolute critical importance. A vital element in this is that regardless of productivity or impact,
the outworker must walk out that which they have been sent to do. So whether they see results is secondary to
the fact that they have to walk it out. God's
people cannot have their eye on results because their obedience to walk out the
Lord's command may well be part of a plan that has little to do with results
here and now. 'Just doing it' has merit
in itself. This is the DNA of
faithfulness. Faithfulness and the
emerging fruit of it is what we are rewarded for.
The
'faithfulness offset'
If all we did reaped results there's no 'faithfulness
offset.' When we are led to do something
and it appears that we see nothing in terms of 'productivity' but keep on doing
it anyway there is a faithfulness offset.
You stick with what the Lord has said regardless. Unfaithfulness is when we depart from the
program and do what we think is a good idea.
Tricky area, especially in the Western mindset where we only ever do
anything for 'wages' or some sort of results-based reward. "But surely the Lord wants to win the
lost etc?' Think of it this way... while
Moses was in Midian for 40 years the Egyptians were still under oppression. If Moses resisted the process it would have
been either longer or another would be raised up to set the captives free. In Midian he was a shepherd. Moses had the finest upbringing on
earth! He was a 'son' in the biggest
Empire on the planet. All he was doing
was tending sheep. How many days went by
when he wondered if he had been abandoned or forgotten? Still... he kept doing what he had been
assigned to do. No productivity, no Key Performance
Indicators. No self-affirming colleagues
to tell him everything was alright. Just
barrenness and ordinary work.
This is faithfulness. During this time he was emptied of self. If the
kingdom of God means the Lord's dominion over all that submit to him, the conquering
part is to conquer our hearts. If we are
too bust serving in areas we only think we should serve in our eye can go off
the ball on the number 1 on the agenda... our demise at His hand. We can stop the faithfulness offset that the
Lord uses to deal with us when we are busy doing church work. The church sets up a counter-kingdom with its
demands and expectations. The believer seems busy and 'tasked' but does not
attain much in the way of growth. How can the Lord conquer a heart that defines
its walk by service that brings productivity?
Chapter 3 examines those that came after the
forerunner. 'Joshua' and 'Elisha' are at
root meaning the same name. They both mean
‘God is Salvation.’ What we also find
is ‘Jesus’ also means the same thing. In
this pattern we have Moses giving rise to Joshua and Elijah giving rise to
Elisha. It was Moses who renamed Joshua
in Numbers 13:16 and Elijah anointed Elisha.
I see something in the fact that as Jesus followers we are given a new name
and an anointing. Our new name is
established as we are then adopted as sons and our anointing is the indwelling
Spirit of God.
To set the final piece into place of 'Foreunners'
and 'Outworkers' we must place Jesus’ Forerunner in place – John the Baptiser.
|
Forerunner
|
Moses
|
Elijah
|
John the Baptiser
|
|
Outworker
|
Joshua
(God is Salvation)
|
Elisha
(God is Salvation)
|
Jesus
(God is Salvation)
|
Jesus
followed after John!
All the outworkers have the same root meaning in
their names. Because of our perception
of rank we find it hard to accept John as seemingly ‘above’ Jesus. In God’s economy it doesn’t work like
that. Hints to how Jesus saw this are
clear. In Luke 7:28a we see a staggering
statement:
For
I say unto you, among those that are born of women there is not a greater
Prophet than John the Baptist:
Jesus told us that John was greater than Moses and
Elijah! We will discover that Moses and
Elijah are not present at the Transfiguration because of rank. They are there because they are part God’s ‘Prophetic
Theatre,’ components in the saving plan for Israel and then to all who would
access salvation through Jesus Christ.
Their occasion and especially
their exits from the earth are to demonstrate how the salvation plan works
out. This was laid out as ‘seeing the
Kingdom of God’ so Israel could perceive the coming events in detail. Why is it placed in such a way? Why can’t it be spelled out in clear
terms? The answer to that is - God shows
people things who really want to know!
There are layers; someone once said it is like an onions skin of
progressive illumination of his Word.
Astoundingly, as God reveals his will to us we are ‘required of’ in
increasing ways. This is not service
but increasing abandonment, yielding and submission. He wants us to be entirely calibrated to his
design. This is the subject of the next
in the Cogs of the Kingdom Series so I will leave it there for now.
God arranges things so that when we look back at
something we can see that we are clearly implicated in what is being said. What is vital about this is that we are
absolutely sure that what is being said to us through the event was what was going on at the time it
happened. Patterns can be drawn from
Scripture but we cannot impose them. We
will see in the next Chapters what was happening with these Bible characters
and draw out some themes.
First we need to see a further implication of the
Joshua, Elisha and Jesus 'name' phenomena.
Luke 7:28 has a part ‘b.’
For
I say unto you, among those that are born of women there is not a greater
Prophet than John the Baptist: but he
that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.
Where
you fit…
Wait. Did he
just say….? Yes he did! Because John was
the forerunner of Jesus he trumps Moses and Elijah. Jesus mentions the forerunner motif by saying
John the Baptiser was ‘their Elijah.’
Matthew 11:10-15 has Jesus clearly stating John comes in the spirit of
Elijah which implicates the one who came after him also. John was the forerunner of Jesus and his
message was ‘Repent and be baptised for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.’ Jesus then came and was the actual outworking
of that which John had spoken of. When
Jesus had finished the work of Salvation on the cross, had resurrected and
ascended, he becomes the fulfilment of both Moses and Elijah and therefore
becomes a forunner.[1] But in the same way those that come after him
do so in the same way as Joshua and Elisha:
|
Forerunners
|
Moses
|
Elijah
|
John
TB
|
Jesus
|
|
|
Outworkers
|
Joshua
|
Elisha
|
Jesus
|
You!
|
|
When we believe by faith in Jesus Christ we become
walking, talking ambassadors[2] of
‘God is Salvation!’ We are the Redeemed of God… those who ‘come after’
Jesus. Joshua was following Moses[3] as
Elisha was following Elijah.[4] Jesus was following John the Baptiser causing
John to ask why he baptised Jesus.[5] Jesus was clear… this had to occur “to fulfil
all righteousness.” Jesus had to have a
forerunner in this pattern God had designed and when we get with God’s program
we are fulfilling righteousness. From
that point however Jesus was directly under the leadership of his Father in
Heaven. He had followed John and did
what John was commanding all of Israel to do… be baptised. That done, John had no more for Jesus to do
for John was limited to a specific role of harbinger, forerunning the message
of ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near.’
‘Followship’
In Jesus’ day a Rabbi would have the understudies
following after them. Wherever they went
Rabbi Junior would literally follow him around!
As time went by the Junior may replace the senior Rabbi after he
died. So having literally followed him,
he ‘follows him’ or comes after him. In
this way, those who place their faith in Jesus and his finished work pick up
their cross and follow Jesus. In doing so they ‘come after him’ as in
‘represent him while he is absent.'
The church age is a preparation for the coming
Kingdom on earth. How we represent Him
in His absence is the subject of rewards in that Kingdom. You
may not be aware of this but right now Jesus is you Lord and King yet you have
never seen him! We as church-age believers are considered greater than John
because we have absolutely no evidence in day to day life that God is
real. Yet we choose to have faith that
God would come as Messiah, the anointed one and become sin. While we are enabled to discern this truth by
the Holy Spirit, that fallen sinners choose to walk this out daily is something
even angels cannot fathom.[6]
In the Millennium Kingdom people will be born who
will see the church age and look on it as we look on the Old Testament age. For
us we see a time when Messiah had not completed the work. What was
that like? Millennial generations
will learn of your faith, that you discerned things spiritually. You chose to not
feed the sensual desires of the flesh in favour of the invisible Lord who loved
you. You chose God's love over self, you
overcame! They will hear about how Satan, chained in the Abyss for most of the
Millennium, attacked you through his proxies and tried to lure you away from
following your King. To them who are
born into the Millennium Kingdom it makes perfect sense that 'the Lord God of
Creation lives on Earth on His Glorious Throne'... duuuh! But you and I lived in a time when we chose
to follow the Lord God against incredible odds.
This is why you will be reigning with Christ on Earth for a Thousand
years.
To further establish the role of Moses, Joshua,
Elijah and Elisha we will explore why Jesus said believers are ‘Light’ and
‘Salt.’
