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 The Cornerstone 

This is the Stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the Chief Conerstone." Acts 4:11

Pulbished to Support the Work of the West End Church of Christ, Richmond, Virginia

Volume 6 *   Number 29*   July 16, 2006

Destroyed for a Lack of Knowledge

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I (God) will also reject thee,…" Hosea 4:6

What a very sad statement from the mouth of God regarding His own people. Destroyed because they failed to know God’s will. Had God hidden it from them? Of course not! Had they misplaced the old law somewhere? No, verse six says "seeing thou hast forgotten the law of Thy God." Plainly stated is the fact that God’s people had forgotten His law.

As they increased, the more they sinned against God. (verse 7) They ate up the sins of the world around about them, and set their hearts towards perversities. (verse 8) They were far to busy with other things, and were all wrapped up in the material things and pleasures of this life. God’s people had moved away from Him, and were being destroyed for their lack of knowledge of the law of God.

God’s people, (the Lord’s church) in this day and time can also be destroyed for a lack of knowledge of the will of God. Jesus understood this and said "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6 A Christian must open his Bible daily and study the Scriptures to know the will of God. Be prepared for Bible studies, ask questions and give answers regarding Bible things. The alternative is to close our Bibles and drift off as Israel on the waves of sin to be destroyed for our own lack of knowledge.

May it not be so! Stacy Crim

The Women
by: Dale Smelser

Jesus chose 12 men to be his apostles. He needed someone to bear the rigors of travel in spreading the news of the kingdom, and later to be leaders in it. They would falter at his surrender and yielding to abuse and crucifixion. They were accustomed to seeing him in control of any situation, raising the dead or calming a raging sea, or casually and safely walking away from enemies intent on destroying him. Now their faith is shattered in seeing his surrender and violent abuse. They do not understand that his will is still being done. They better understand the fight in the garden where they were outnumbered and under armed, yet Peter wounded the servant of the high priest. But how to take Jesus' rebuke about that? And his enemies in seeming control of him? The apostles would recover. But there were others who did not falter. The women.

There have been men and women who have let Jesus down since. But the women who followed Jesus in his life did not. The work of Christ needs men. Real men. But they are not the only ones with strength. Always, it seems, there is the irrepressible faith of resolute women who stick with him through the most difficult of circumstances. Their faith and love are compelling.

We see this group of women involved with Jesus and the twelve first in Galilee: "Certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary that was called Magdalene...and Joanna the wife of Chuzas, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for Him from their substance" (Lk. 8:2-3). Their monetary support followed their faith. If he was worth their money, it was because he had worth beyond that.

They have now followed Jesus to Jerusalem and we will see them at the cross, and thus conclude they are in proximity to the group agonizing with him in his struggles bearing the cross to Golgotha: "And there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him" (Lk. 23:27).

And there at the very foot of the cross, as the soldiers railed and gambled for his garments, standing there with John, were "His mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene" (Jn. 19:25).

Then after the ominous pervading darkness, the earthquake, and the damage to the temple, as Jesus breathed his last, with the Centurion crying, "Surely this was a righteous man, the son of God," the multitude retreated beating their breasts, but "all his acquaintances, and the women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance , watching these things" (Lk. 23:49).

The women were present at the tomb after the body of Jesus was removed from the cross, and laid away there: "And the women who came with him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid" (Lk. 23:55). "And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the tomb" (Mt. 27:61). One recalls the old hymn, "I'll go with him, with him, all the way."

As faithful Jews they then kept the Sabbath. Then,"Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint him, very early in the morning" (Mk. 16:1-2). They do this, either ignorant that Nicodemus had already extravagantly provided such, or just wanted to express their love. It did not seem to occur to any of the 11 to provide such nicety. And here is one of the finer qualities of womanhood. They regard and provide many of the nicer, enriching little things that really loom large in the pleasantness of life, unless they are those who have swallowed the hollow advice of the feminists who want women to be like men, and not the best of men at that.

Thus it is the women who come to the tomb, enter it and discover its emptiness and receive the angelic explanation, "He is risen." And while the eleven would doubt when they heard this news, the women "remembered his words and returned from the tomb and told these things to the eleven....Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; and the other women." And the apostles? "And these words appeared in their sight as idle talk; and they disbelieve them" (Lk. 24:8-11). Peter and John did run to investigate. Mary Magdalene must have followed, and after Peter and John left, she lingered and was the first to whom the Lord appeared (Jn. 20:11-18). A woman.

Jesus certainly was not doing things by human ways and values. His first appearance was to a woman. A woman, and thus one whose testimony in that day would lack the weight of that of a man. But the women, and especially this one, had been there through it all, unwavering. To whom would you have appeared first? I think I might have found Caiaphas and watched his face as I awakened him. But no need. The soldiers would tell him soon enough. Then after Mary tells the disciples she has seen the Lord, he appears to them. And as far as we know, he confined his appearances to such. The work was now up to them. He had done his part.

These women have been succeeded by some worthy sisters. And as the faith spread, the renewed apostles were followed by some worthy brothers. But the question is, where do I stand in relation to this Christ, who is the necessity of every man and woman? If I put myself in the midst of all those horrible events, where would I have been. We know about the women.

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