The Onan Christian..

“⁶ And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. ⁷ And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew him. ⁸ And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. ⁹ And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. ¹⁰ And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also.  Gen 38:6-10

Jesus in killing the fig tree in Mark 11:14, passed judgment upon an unfruitful life.
This was in no way unusual because He had seen The Father do just this in the past.
It’s sad that a lot of Christians are quite myopic in our relationship with the Lord. We call ourselves his children and are ever so keen to lay claims to his promises and our inheritance. But we rarely if ever attend to our responsibilities as sons with the same amount of zeal and altruism. Many have to be dragged kicking and screaming and coerced over and over from the pulpit before they would lift a finger for Kingdom pursuits. Yet God has a definete expectatiionfrom our lives .  An expectation which is most often generational.

Retelling the story of Gen 38 from a more relatable perspective, we can see that Jesus is (Er) our elder brother & God’s first born, who was wicked in the sight of the Lord (because He took on our wickedness) and was slain by God on the cross (in your place and mine, bearing the full weight of God’s wrath upon himself). Having been slain by God, he left His bride Tamar (the church) without a husband and no children.

God’s call to you as a younger brother of Christ is simply and directly this:
“go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother”

“Go in unto the church (thy brother’s wife)”:
Get ‘intimately’ involved and committed to the church (the body of Christ as a whole) using your local assembly as your conduit.
Find your place in her and remain there. There is no room for ‘lone-rangers’ who are aloof and prefer to exists on the fringes where you know no-one and no one truly knows you, conveniently being unaccountable to any.

“And Marry Her”:
Meaning don’t just go and romance her, enjoying her embrace, kisses and her breasts.  Don’t be the Christian who keeps the church as a girlfriend/concubine. Satisfied with receiving prayers, been prophesied over, having your needs met and problems solved. After satisfying your flesh, been merely content to drop some change (offerings) like you have lain with a harlot.
Rather marry her! Take a lifetime commitment and become one with her. With a mindset to bearing responsibility and having a very personal stake in her well-being.

“And raise seed to thy brother”:
Deploy the gifts, talents, resources you have been blessed with to edify and engage the church. Focus your energies and talents in such a way that releases life into the church to ensure her continuity and wellbeing by having new souls being continually added to her number and new disciples been raised continually. The seed to be raised aren’t structures & buildings and physical things which churches in the plain are focused on, but other lives that will in turn yield other lives and so on.

^“And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also”
We must understand that we have responsibilities to our older brother Jesus Christ. The closest thing to His heart is sould-winning. We have not been called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light for our own selfish ends but to showcase the glory of God and His kingdom. We are saved so that others might be saved through us also, We are healed to heal others, We have been delivered from bondage and oppression that we also might become God’s instrument in delivering others also. All our personal activities and contributions to our local church or fellowship must amount to real value-added to the kingdom of God (Soul winning and the raising o disciples). But if we engage the church merely from the perspective of using her to advance our personal interests then we are inadvertently spilling it to the ground.

These days too many of us are comfortable with just limiting our involvement to fiduciary considerations alone, and even churches and many ministries have over-exalted the importance of money beyond its true kingdom value: they say “Bring your money and we will use it for the kingdom” (but sadly in many cases it rarely translates beyond buying private jets, luxury mansions and building universities and empires).

Of course you are expected to sow from your wealth willingly, but of far more value to Christ is sowing your very life…which is the seed that must fall to the ground (of his vineyard) and die (death to personal ambition and self) in order that it might bear more fruit (the lives of others).

In the ministry of Jesus, money was the least relevant resource (hence minimal emphasis was placed on it). You should flee from any ministry that reduces your kingdom value to ‘monetary seed’ alone! and places no truly spiritual demand on your life..

The seed that is in you when you become born again is the very life of Christ himself. This is the most precious life giving seed that you have.  It is this life through the ‘overshadowing’ help of Holy Spirit that you must allow to develop you into your God given role to the benefit of the church as a whole.

If your motives for being a Christian and engaging the church cannot rise beyond selfish-desires alone; If your pursuits are more self-focused rather than kingdom focused; If you are the type of brother who enjoys services and ‘tapping into the anointing’ of men of God but will not actually yield your life to meaningful service; If you profess to be born-again but in practice merely accept the salvation of Christ and not His Lordship over your life, then you are in fact Onan.

Many have already have been spiritually slain by God for their wickedness and are dead to Him (having no bearing or relevance in his kingdom objectives) yet like the Church in Sardis rev 3:1 they presume upon their reputation as an evidence to true life but in actual fact they are dead.

Have you gone into your brother’s wife this year?
Did you marry her not just romance her or use her as a concubine?
Have you raised up any new souls or disciples unto Jesus chritst this year?
Or have you been selfishly spilling that life giving seed to the ground?

Think on these things.
Shallom.