I have fallen and I can’t’ get up…The Prescription
We all have gone to the doctor at some point in our lives. Its not something that we look forward to, however, we realize when we aren’t feeling up to par; we go straight to the Dr. office and depending on the symptoms straight to the emergency room. Its easy for us to take care of this natural body, when we feel we are about to lose something precious to us.
You see I believe we really don’t understand the true essence of our being, because if we did, we would not work so hard against its natural flow…I have discovered something amazing about LIFE as we know it to be. What exactly are we searching and waiting for? Let me answer that for you. Aww…for someone to prescribe us a prescription on how we should be living, would that be the right assumption? I’m going to take that as a yes.
Well that's exactly what the good Samaritan did.
The parable of the good Samaritan
Very rarely do we find similar accounts of any event in all four gospels. The birth of Jesus is found in only two gospels. The parable of the Good Samaritan in only one. But all four gospels record the passion and death of Jesus. Biblical scholars suggest that this aspect of the life of Christ was the first to be remembered by the first Christians. Its importance cannot be forgotten.
While we have a commonly agreed upon narrative, there is little discussion of why Jesus suffered and died the way he did. Why did God’s son, the beloved one, the man who went everywhere doing good, end up being condemned, tortured, and crucified, a terrible kind of death by all accounts? So, we are left to figure out for ourselves why Jesus died the way he did. Various theories have been suggested over the years. As scholars and theologians learn more about the historical conditions that prevailed around the time of Jesus, clearer explanations have come forth. Here are a few.
First, we may never know the full story. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is set in the deep mystery of God’s love for us. So, we will never get to the bottom of that great mystery. Therefore, be cautious of those who claim they know exactly why Jesus died as he did.
Next, most agree that Jesus lived in a very tense political climate. Roman occupation and rule over Israel were despised by the Jews. And around 30 AD there were various attempts (always unsuccessful) to rid the land of the Romans. Jesus was viewed by the Romans as a potential revolutionary. When the opportunity came, they took measures to get rid of him. He met the fate of hundreds of other Jews. Crucifixion (because of its public nature) was a favored method of execution by the Romans.
On a deeper level, Jesus lived and experienced the fullness of human life. That included rejection, condemnation, pain, and suffering. And a horrendous death. As Scripture notes, he was like us in all things, except sin.
Finally, he wanted us to know that he gave all “for us and our salvation.” His love for us, for all of us, was limitless. In life and in death, he showed us how much he loved us.
Let’s understand it better.
The Prescription, an instruction written by a medical practitioner that authorizes a patient to be provided a medicine or treatment: synonyms: a recommendation that is authoritatively put forward:
Prescribed, to set down as a rule, law, or direction: prescribed the terms of the surrender. 2. To order the use of (a medicine or other treatment).
"What is the Effective prescriptions for sustaining our communities"
The right diagnostic. Doctors have the authority to recommend the best course of action, especially one put forward by an authoritative body. The Verb, give an authoritative direction or instruction to do something.
Advise, guidance, or recommendations offered with regard to prudent future action:
Mandate VERB
1. Give (someone) authority to act in a certain way:
2. Word, one's account of the truth, especially when it differs from that of another person
3. Intelligence a person or being with the ability to acquire and apply knowledge:
4. Direction, the course which must be taken in order to reach a destination:
5. Permission, His death gave us the authorization, to leave the world behind us and press towards the mark of the high calling in Christ. His death sanction our walk as believers in the body of Christ to walk as one.
We have many direction we can go in however. The Prescription provide by the greatest physician of all times is wrap in several scriptures. I want to just highlight a few:
Divine Diagnosis
The first point we want to examine is the divine diagnosis given to us by God. God looks at us and sees that we have a problem, but we have no idea what it is. What is our problem? Contrary to what we may think, our problem is not the world or our country or our president or our economic system. In fact, it is not even our family–our parents, our spouse, our children–or our bodies or anything else that we may think of.
God’s diagnosis reveals that our problem is our personal iniquity–our wickedness, our rebellion, our apostasy, our arrogance, our self-sufficiency, our independence of God, our autonomy. It is our departing from our great King and his beneficent rule. It is our becoming prodigals, leaving our Father and his home, and, as a result, becoming powerless, ungodly sinners and enemies of God.
This is the problem of all human beings from God’s point of view. And because God is just, He must deal with our problem. In Romans 1:18 we read that the just and well-deserved wrath of God is being revealed against all our ungodliness and unrighteousness.
The Divine Prescription
God has diagnosed our condition as human beings and the diagnosis is not good. Contrary to what we may think about ourselves, we are not okay, we are not good, we are not doing fine. All of those ideas are lies–false diagnoses. Our true state is that we are by nature enemies of God. That and that alone is God’s estimation of us, his divine diagnosis.
We have another problem as well: we cannot heal ourselves of all this wickedness and sin in us. There is no self-salvation, in other words. But God, in his grace and mercy, offers us a divine prescription to deal with our problem, and we must pay attention to it. It is given in the first verse of Hosea 14: “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.”
In the Hebrew the word “return” means to return totally, completely, with authentic and total repentance. We must return as far as our God is, not just taking one step in that direction and thinking we are returning satisfactorily. We must come all the way back to the Lord our God, whom we abandoned.
If we accept God’s diagnosis and return to him in humility, in God’s prescribed manner, you will find a God who will heal you, help you, and cure you of your backsliding, your apostasy, your stubbornness, your autonomy, and your rebellion. (PGM) God will receive you graciously and forgive all your sins, because in God the fatherless find compassion.
Consider this, If you acknowledge the divine diagnosis and freely and willingly take God’s prescription, then you will experience certain divine benedictions, divine healing, divine blessings, divine approval. We read about these blessings in Hosea 14:4-8.
1.“I will heal their waywardness.” The first blessing for those who follow God’s divine prescription is the healing of their waywardness, which means their perversity and iniquity. Oh, what a great promise from our God! To make the crooked straight, to make the rebel a lover of God, to make a sinner a saint–no one can do that but God alone. Here is a promise we can bank on, count on, depend on, trust in and believe on: “I will heal their waywardness.” We find the same promise in Jeremiah 3:22: “Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding.” God promises to forgive all our sins and cure our perversity.
In Exodus 15 we find this name for God, Jehovah Ropheka, which means “the Lord who heals you.” The healing of our souls is the greatest miracle God performs. Even the name of this book, Hosea, speaks to us of our need for salvation and God’s willingness to grant it. Hosea was the name of Joshua son of Nun until God changed his name to Joshua. Hosea means “Save us, O Lord,” but Joshua means “Jehovah saves.” So Hosea can cry out, “What must I do to be saved?” and the answer will come: “Joshua–Jehovah saves.” And the greatest Joshua is Jesus Christ himself.
In Matthew 1:21 we read, “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” The mission of Jesus Christ is to heal our waywardness by granting us salvation.
In 1 Peter 2:24 we find this wonderful summary of the gospel message. Peter writes, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness,” and then he adds, “by his stripes we are healed.”
Paul writes that we were once dead in trespasses and sins, disobedient ones, objects of divine wrath. But in verse 4 he says, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” We must realize this truth: None of us deserves or merits God’s love. And in verse 8 we read, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. . . not by works, so that no one can boast.”
What is the purpose of having God with us? To revive the spirit of the lowly and the heart of the contrite. Let me ask you: What more can you want? God himself promises to come down to be with us, to nourish us, to refresh us, to revive us. In fact, that is the meaning of the name Immanuel–God with us.
Our Fruitfulness Is from God
In Hosea 14:8 we read something in the last part of that verse that should make us extremely humble. What does it say? God is addressing his people, symbolized by Ephraim. “Ephraim, . . . your fruitfulness comes from me.” In other words, Hosea is saying that any fruitfulness on our part is only because of God. In fact, the fruitfulness of God’s people is a direct result of God’s covenant with Abraham. As Paul asked in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you did not receive?”
We must always remember that our fruitfulness comes from God. Jesus told his disciples, “Without me you can do nothing,” and Paul said, “I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthened me.”
Jesus ultimately left us in a secure place in a realm of pureness just to provide an SOP for us to follow Him back to God.
God is putting a choice before us.
The question is, will you be wise or will you act like a fool? If you are wise, you will choose to walk in the way of the Lord and enjoy life eternal. You will listen to the divine diagnosis, take the prescribed medicine, and enjoy the divine healing and divine benedictions we just mentioned. But if you are a foolish person, you will stumble and fall in the way of the Lord. This is your choice.
Moses issued the same challenge in Deuteronomy 30:19-20: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.”
Are you wise? Are you discerning? Then you choose the straight and narrow way. You will pay heed to God’s diagnosis, God’s prescription, and receive the divine benediction.