Feb 3rd 2002
Hebrews 11: 21 "By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff"

Tong did one of his usual last-minute switch-around. While at the side room, he told me that he would preach on verse 23, and mumbled about not having enough time to finish Jacob and Joseph... then on stage, he suddenly went back to verse 21 to introduce more insights.

The evening started with the introduction of a guest among the audience. Tong called up a Rev Lim Jun Chai from Kuching East Malaysia. He said that Rev Lim is a student who has attended all 6 semesters at the Reformed Institute at Washington DC (this is a seminary set up by Tong at the USA, essentially conducting intensive summer theological courses every year for 4 weeks in a row per year). Tong said that Rev Lim is from a small church, and have to save and scrape just to save enough money to attend the courses every year. And his wife cannot afford to go, so every year she has to stay home for 1 month, but she is cheerful as ever (she was there too). During one of the lunch breaks, Tong walked by Lim's room, and discovered that he was in there, eating plain bread and tap water. When asked, Lim replied that he is trying to save money so that he could buy some of the books to bring back home. It was very moving.

Tong then said that because of his commitment, Tong asked him to head his ministry in East Malaysia. The earlier gospel rallies were all organised by a major denomination there, and since Tong asked Lim to organise the rallies, immediately the denomination boycotted the rally. Rev Lim said that one charismatic pastor even publicly prayed that the rally will be rained out, but nothing happened. Tong said it is so shocking that a pastor would pray that a gospel rally not succeed...

Then Hao-hao, the autistic young man took to the piano and rendered a flawless Mozart Concerto no. 24... for about 10 minutes. Tong then publicly praised his mother and him for always trying to evangelise his professors in China, who are all not Christians. Although in poverty, they spend most of their time praying and singing hymns of praise while in Shanghai, and strive hard to complete his studies.

Tong told me once that he felt that it is important to acknowledge and 'promote' gifted people or committed servants of God, so that they can receive a boost in their ministry and be encouraged.

Then came Hebrews 11:21. Tong said that he needed to return to this verse because there was just no time to finish all this verse has, and that there is a relationship between this and the next verse that he needed to address. The main emphasis this time around was on the blessing that Jacob gave to Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph wanted his father to bless the elder one, as per common custom, but Jacob crossed his hand and gave Ephraim the larger blessing instead. Jacob was half-blind, but he was clearly instructed by the LORD to do so. This action displeased Joseph, who protested. Tong then placed emphasis on Jacob's answer: "I know, my son, I know." (Genesis 48:19).

Tong played around with the two "I know" in the statement (not too correct an interpretation but quite clever). He said the first "I know" is that Jacob knows what Joseph is talking about, that he knew the common expectation and common practice. But Jacob also knew the will of God (the second "I know"). Tong went on to expound on how the will of God must always be higher than anything that we humanly know. He said that we are all so good at human knowledge. We bring in organisational studies in church, we go to seminaries to learn all sorts of things, we are able to do great administration. That was what Joseph was like. He was afterall, the prime minister of Egypt. In contrast, his father was a mere refugee from famine. Yet God spoke through his father Jacob, and not through Joseph.

Tong said the problem with the church is that we have administrative skills but no spiritual power. We make graduates of many seminaries, but they cannot lead the church well. We go through all sorts of training sessions, but we have no victory in our lives. Like Joseph, we may have all the human knowledge, but we do not have knowledge and power from above. It is not a simple question of whether God is for us or against us. Tong said that God is not normal, but neither is He just normal. He transcends normalcy. He illustrated this with the example in Joshua 5:13 and 14, when Joshua met the messenger of God while he pondered about taking Jericho. Joshua asked the man, "Are you for us or for our enemies?". The reply from the messenger was that he was neither for Joshua, or against Joshua. He was there to lead Joshua and his people instead.

This, said Tong, is a very important realisation. That we should not be so concerned about whether God is for us, or against us in our lives. We are to submit to His leadership, and His will alone. We are to elevate ourselves from our petty lives, and live for a higher purpose, and higher calling, that many a times is beyond our usual understanding of normalcy.

He then gave an illustration which I am still having problem understanding. He said that in his church, he recently ordained 5 pastors. During the interview, the pastors were asked what they would do if Tong should die. 2 pastors replied that together as a team, they will work towards the expansion of the kingdom of God, which seems to be the right answer. Tong however, said that the answer he is waiting for is that they will work towards completing the vision that started with Tong and the group. This is because the vision is from God, not from man, and cannot simply disappear just because someone who started it died.

I got a little confused about this portion, and after the session, went to talk to him in the side room, clarifying what he meant. Tong said that as a servant of God, he has been given a vision and direction from God, and those who acknowledge him as a leader ought to see through the same vision. I was more interested in his operation while he is still alive, and engaged him in a comparison between the Presbyterian understanding of priesthood of all believers, versus his system of "I am the leader, follow me." He said that the problem with denominations and traditions is that we think we are 'producing' pastors for God. In reality, when he ordains someone, he is acting for God. He does not produce pastors; he simply identify them through the insights that God has given to him, and acts on God's command to ordain these people. So a true servant of God is called by God, and acknowledged by man. His stance really is, if you agree that he is the true servant of God given a certain vision, follow him. If not, go follow someone else. Behind all these of course is the requirement for the servant to be truly biblical in everything.

I told him that his method would surface a Stephen Tong, but also a Jimmy Swaggart (the disgraced American tele-evangelist). He said that is fine, let the true servant of God and his ministry stand the test of time (in fact, during the sermon, he spoke about the prophesies of Jacob being proved accurate in due time, particularly the prophesy on the lion of Judah - Jesus Christ). I would want to spend more time figuring this thing out with him. His emphasis is that our life-time is very short, and our resources limited. The true servant of God should not spend his time milling around with clowns, entertaining silly customs and traditions, working with beuracracy and answering to the less spiritual, when the urgency is to preach the Word and win souls. He said Jesus Christ came to set up churches, not to start fellowship groups to entertain man.

I am still pondering about all these, but I must admit that the Presbyterian system is set up to prevent the emergence of a Jimmy Swaggart among us, but at the same time, we will block a Stephen Tong as well. His idea throws in a dynamic uncertainty to our established 'rules and regulations' (again bearing in mind that he is still strictly biblical at the end of the day).

He ended the session by reiterating the Peniel experience of Jacob (Genesis 32). He stressed the fact that the Jacob's limp illustrates that not all diseases or disabilities are the result of sin or the fall of man. In this case, it was God who made Jacob a cripple, to rid him of his reliance on his own resources so that he will rely wholly on God. This is why Hebrews 11:21 spoke about him leaning on his staff. He ended the session with a rather unusal prayer of asking the hand of God to be upon us if need be, to chastise and rebuke us so that we will always look upon Him for guidance.

One little side note is that the caretaker of Newton Life Church is this burly looking man (looks like a short version of the gangster in Money No Enough). From stage, I can see that he participates in every single session, sings all the hymns joyfully. Even when he goes upstairs to inspect the place, he is singing and listening. Quite a blessed departure from the usual long-faced church caretaker...

Disclaimer: This summary does NOT represent the official position of STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministry International), and is the personal opinion of the author, expressed without prejudice. Expressed opinions are meant for academic discussions only.