The Monkey On The Door.

I used to sit and listen to my granny tell me stories of how she used to watch the pictures in the flames of the fireside. It was a thing that earlier generations of older folk did as they pondered their thoughts and their circumstances. I looked into the fireside many times when I was younger but I never saw any pictures. Maybe I just wasn’t old enough to have had any meaningful thoughts on the ponderings or circumstances of my short life.

I also listened to people in later years who claimed to be able to see shapes in the clouds. “Look”, they’d say.” “It’s a horse’s head”. I never saw any horse’s head. Maybe if had hung upside down from the nearest tree and looked at it with one eye closed it might have seen a horse’s head. But I just didn’t see it.

Skip forward many years. I’m sitting in my room pondering my thoughts and circumstances when I saw it. The monkey. It’s on the cupboard door. Plain as day. Looking at me.

I called my wife. “C’mere and see the monkey”. “What?” she replied, looking at me as if I have receded back into the cogwheels of my mind. “What are you talking about? What monkey?” “Look”, I said. “Come and sit here and look”.

She sat down beside me and looked. She tilted her head to one side, and then the other. “What am I looking for? I can’t see anything except a cupboard door”. “There”, I said. “See its eyes, its ear and its nose?”

“I can’t see anything”, she replied. “Maybe if I hung upside down from a tree and looked at it with one eye closed I might see something vaguely resembling a monkey. But I just don’t see it”.

She didn’t see it. But I can see it clearly every single time I go into that room. And there is no one who can convince me that there isn’t a monkey’s face on the door.

It struck me that there are people who read the Bible this way. They have heard a subject or passage preached a certain way for many years and just presumed that that’s the end of the matter and never question it any more. One passage that I discovered some years ago was when some preachers were preaching on the Second Coming of Christ. This is a subject the is fraught with misdirection and misreading as the various doctrinal stances all try to debate with each other as to which is the correct teachings. I’ve heard it said that “The Millenium” is one thousand years of peace which Christians love to argue about. It’s a debate that I try to stay away from.

But one passage that I discovered has been preached on many times but I’ve never heard of it spoken of fully and in a well-read way. It’s the subject of the “Four Horses of the Apocalypse” found in Revelation 6:1-8. And preachers preach on the colours of these horses and what the colours mean to the modern day Church. And the vast number of preachers always talk about the fourth horse not being designated a colour (the Bible just says ‘pale’) and so they preach their views on why this is and what it could mean.

Now, one thing that I have learned over the years is that a lot of these New Testament prophecies have their counterparts in the Old Testament. I have a list of over 30 instances alone mentioned in the Book of Revelation that have their corresponding reading in the Book of Genesis. And it is true on this case also. This particular prophesy was spoken of by the prophet Zechariah. You’ll find his vision in chapter Zechariah 6:1-8. (Get it? Revelation 6:1-8 and Zechariah 6:1-8. Now there’s a coincidence for you.) Here you’ll find the horse referred to as ‘Bay’, which is a reddish brown.

I don’t remember ever hearing a Preacher preach on this. Nor have I ever read a book or expository text that runs these two passages together. The preachers seem to be always just following suit of the teachers who went before them. I don’t think that they have actually read the whole subject matter. And they preach the things that have always been taught or read about before. Some things are just best left alone if they don’t know what they’re talking about.

But Jesus never wanted it this way. I did a deep search through my Bibles and other books, and nowhere did I see the words “what” and “believe” in the same sentence. Not even in the same verse.

However, I did see the words “who” and “believe” together. Several times.

        Nahum ch1 v7 - The LORD is good. A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those                                         who trust in Him.

          2 Timothy ch1 v12 - …for I know whom I have believed in and I am persuaded that He is able to                                             keep which I have committed unto Him until that Day. 

 

Our relationship with Jesus is based totally and solely on the “who” (Jesus), not the “what” (all that other stuff).

Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in His wonderful face.

And the things of earth will go strangely dim.

In the light of His glory and grace.

Or maybe there are just some people who can never see, like the monkey on the door, just what the pure Gospel of Jesus is really all about.