I just finished the book "Tortured for Christ", by Richard Wurmbrand. What a fabulous book and I certainly recommend it to anyone reading this. In fact, you can get this book for free at The Voice of the Martyrs website. Please order a copy and read it. This book will inspire you to share you faith in a tremendous way. Let me read you an excerpt from the book about a girl who loved Christ more than anything on earth:
"One of our workers in the Underground Church was a young girl. The Communist police discovered that she secretly spread Gospels and taught children about Christ. They decided to arrest her. But to make the arrest as agonizing and painful as they could, they decided to delay her arrest a few weeks, until the day she was to be married. One her wedding day, the girl was dressed as a bride-the most wonderful, joyous day in a girl's life! Suddenly, the door burst open and the secret police rushed in.
When the bride saw the secret police, she held out her arms toward them to be handcuffed. They roughly put the manacles on her wrists. She looked toward her beloved, then kissed the chains and said, 'I thank my heavenly Bridegroom for this jewel He has presented to me on my marriage day. I thank Him that I am worthy to suffer for Him.' She was dragged off, with weeping Christians and a weeping bridegroom left behind. They knew what happens to young Christian girls in the hands of Communist guards" (Wurmbrand 37-38)
What happened in those camps?
"I have seen Christians in Communist prisons with fifty pounds of chains on their feet, tortured with red-hot iron pokers, in those spoonfuls of salt had been forced, being kept afterward without waters, starving, whipped, suffering from cold..." (Wurmbrand 55)
I warn you the next story is graphic, but it demonstrates the horrible persecution endured, and the beauty of the suffering Christians:
"A pastor by the name of Florescu was tortured with red-hot iron pokers and with knives. He was beaten very badly. Then starving rats were driven into his cell through a large pipe. He could not sleep because he had to defend himself all the time. If he rested a moment, the rats would attack him.
He was forced to stand for two weeks, day and night. The Communists wished to compel him to betray his brethren, but he resisted steadfastly. Eventually, they brought his fourteen-year-old son to the prison and began to whip the boy in front of his father, saying that they would continue to beat him until the pastor said what they wished him to say. The poor man was half mad. He bore it as long as he colud, then he cried to his son, ' Alexander, I must say what they want! I can't bear your beating anymore!' The son answered, 'Father, don't do me the injustice of having a traitor as a parent. Withstand! If they kill me, I will die with the words, "Jesus and my fatherland."' The Communists, enraged, fell upon the child and beat him to death, with blood spattered over the walls of the cell. He died praising God." (Wurmbrand 34)
What a story. I will be blessed to meet that boy in heaven. This entire book is a hard call to love God, spread the Gospel, and pray and support your brothers and sisters around the world. Please read this book, it will have a positive effect on not only your spiritual life, but hopefully the lives of persecuted Christians all over the world.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Beatitudes, Part 3
This third part of the beatitudes are a sad reality that leads to a glorious end. It brings us face-to-face with our biggest fears, telling us that we will be persecuted, but Jesus reassures us that we will gain a reward in heaven.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
-Matthew 5:10-12
We are not so quick to pray for these qualities. I admit that, will reading and praying over this I felt a reluctance to pray for persecution. It doesn’t seem to make sense to pray for persecution. Yet persecution is listed right along with a pure heart, meekness, and peacemaking as attributes a Christian should be. So how does persecution benefit a Christian?
People have spent whole books trying to answer the above question. My personal favorite is John Piper’s Desiring God, in the chapter entitled “Suffering”. The bottom line is that suffering drives the Christian to Christ. Job, a great sufferer in the Old Testament, saw God as never before after his suffering: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5). Job saw God in his suffering. Humans throughout the Bible have realized this truth. “Count it all joy, my brothers, why you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2-3) “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12-13)
We as Christians will suffer, but this suffering brings us closer to Christ our Savior. Remember that this life is all about Christ. “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
Why do we as Christians want to suffer? For the glory of Christ our King. It is through him that we can “rejoice” in suffering, for we share in what he has done, and he will reward us for it.
I encourage you to read Desiring God for a more in-depth look into why we suffer. Great passages on suffering in the Bible are 2 Corinthians 12, Hebrews 12, 1 Peter 4, James 1, Job, Psalm 6, and Philippians 3. (There are many others)
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
-Matthew 5:10-12
We are not so quick to pray for these qualities. I admit that, will reading and praying over this I felt a reluctance to pray for persecution. It doesn’t seem to make sense to pray for persecution. Yet persecution is listed right along with a pure heart, meekness, and peacemaking as attributes a Christian should be. So how does persecution benefit a Christian?
People have spent whole books trying to answer the above question. My personal favorite is John Piper’s Desiring God, in the chapter entitled “Suffering”. The bottom line is that suffering drives the Christian to Christ. Job, a great sufferer in the Old Testament, saw God as never before after his suffering: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5). Job saw God in his suffering. Humans throughout the Bible have realized this truth. “Count it all joy, my brothers, why you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2-3) “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12-13)
We as Christians will suffer, but this suffering brings us closer to Christ our Savior. Remember that this life is all about Christ. “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
Why do we as Christians want to suffer? For the glory of Christ our King. It is through him that we can “rejoice” in suffering, for we share in what he has done, and he will reward us for it.
I encourage you to read Desiring God for a more in-depth look into why we suffer. Great passages on suffering in the Bible are 2 Corinthians 12, Hebrews 12, 1 Peter 4, James 1, Job, Psalm 6, and Philippians 3. (There are many others)
Friday, November 6, 2009
The Beatitudes, Part 2
After laying down the essential to the Christian life in the first three beatitudes, Jesus gets more specific. A real quick recap on the first three beatitudes: Jesus wants us to realize we are poor of spirit, that is, we are totally lost away from Christ. Along with this realization comes a godly mourning of our sins and our inability to reconcile with God, this mourning, however, drives us to repentance and acceptance of Christ. Finally, we must be meek. A very misunderstood word, being meek is not being a weakling, but it is a total acceptance of God’s sovereignty. Trusting that He is in control and accepting that all His dealings are good. Jesus now gets into more specifics for a Christian to practice; being hungry and thirsty for righteousness, being merciful, having a pure heart, and being a peacemaker.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be comforted”
Matthew 5:6
This an amazing metaphor Jesus uses. We all know what it feels like to be hungry, so hungry that all we desire is food. You’ve been on a road trip where all you want to do is eat at the next McDonald’s; we complain and grumble and the hunger infects our entire attitude. Same goes for a time where you were just thirsty, you can’t think of anything but a cool glass of water. Your dry mouth affects your speech, your mindset, and even your money, if bottled water is near. Now imagine having both of those extreme feelings at once. Your stomach is roaring for food, your mouth is as dry as a desert, and your head can only think of water and food; a mighty meal. This would affect your entire life. You would put off anything you were doing, you would forget about the cost, you would go any distance. You would get a meal. What if we had this feeling for righteousness?
To hunger and thirst for righteousness is a longing to conform to the will of God. A sincere desire to do what is right in God’s eyes. One Psalmist explains it like this: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1) Do not rest until you are righteous. Just like you are desperate for food when you’re hungry or water when you’re thirsty, be desperate for God. Put off all that you are doing that opposes this supreme desire and really long to conform to the will of God. A funny thing about this is that only God can allow us to do it. John Piper says it like this: “Only God can make the depraved heart desire God.” (“When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy” page 14). If you want to desire God and righteousness like you desire food, honestly ask God for it. Only by the help of the Holy Spirit can we achieve this deep desire.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”
Matthew 5:7
When I think of mercy I think of the middle ages. I imagine a king who caught a thief stealing from the market and mercifully does not chop off his arm. That is not the type of mercy Jesus is talking about here. This mercy is not just pity. When used as an adjective in greek, the word mercy is “not simply possessed of pity but actively compassionate” (Vine 404). An active compassion. A pity that strives towards an action towards a person. Being compassionate is hard. We are wronged every day by people, even if it is a small thing. You see, Jesus made it perfectly clear that our love and mercy should not just extend to those who are good to us (Matt. 5:43-48). We are to extend this mercy to all; even those we bitterly hated. I say hated because, as a Christian, we no longer hate, but love. God has already given us the greatest mercy the universe will ever know. Why do we find it so hard to extend such small mercies such as forgiveness or acceptance?
Jesus tells a story later in his ministry to deliver this point in greater detail (Matt 18:21-35). It is a story of a servant who owed a king a fortune. He owed back more than he possibly could pay back; the language Jesus uses implies that the servant could never, ever pay back such a debt. He was hopeless. Yet the king had mercy on him and, instead of sending him to prison until he could pay it back, cancelled his debt. How great a mercy!That same forgiven servant then goes out to another servant who owes him money. This is small amount of money, about what a man would make in a day. However, the man who owed this small amount couldn’t pay back the forgiven servant. Furious, the forgiven servant has the poor servant thrown in prison. When the king finds out of this he summons the servant he forgave and rebuked him. So mad is the king that he throws the forgiven servant in prison until he could pay back his debt. His fate is prison until he can pay back a debt he can never pay back. Prison forever all because he did not show mercy. The king says an eerily similar thing to this condemned servant that Jesus said in the beatitudes, “And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” (Matt 18:33) God has given us the ultimate grace, it is a small thing for us to extend mercy to others. Pray to God you may be merciful as He is merciful.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
Being pure in heart is impossible by man. We are all lost and our hears are black with sin. Having a pure hear is to be cleansed by God from your sinful nature. This is impossible for a man to do. Peter realized this once and asked Jesus “Who then can be saved?”, Jesus answered by saying “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25-26). Pray to God to create in you a pure heart. A heart that is cleansed from its old ways, and only desires God. This heart is imperative for all of the other beatitudes to be possible. David says, after he sins with Bathsheba “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10). As a side note, Psalm 51 is a great example of the beatitudes being manifested in David’s life. He realizes his own poor spirit, mourns for his sin, and asks for a pure heart. The Psalm illustrates that we must rely on God to create a pure heart in ourselves, we cannot create it on our own. No matter how much we volunteer at church, read our bible, or pray, only God can create a pure heart. I pray daily that God would give me a pure heart, as I hope you do.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”
Matthew 5:9
Again, this peacemaking must be spread to our enemies, as well as our friends. Jesus says to not only love our enemies, but “do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). This means keeping peace with not only friends but enemies. Remember that this will not be easy. The word peacemaker suggests that there was not peace before, until you make it. First examine your life and make sure you are at peace with everyone; if you are not peace make. After you set yourself in order, then you can help others do the same. Many times we think peacekeeping is only for others, not in their own life. Set yourselves in order first.
An interesting point in this verse is “they shall be called sons of God”. For a long time this stumped me. I didn’t know what that meant. After a long time of meditation a light bulb went off. It says “be called”. Called means that someone has given you that title. Like an avalanche of thought a realization came to me: our peacemaking should be so amazing and outstanding that the only explanation to those around you is that it is by God! Francis Chan once said “Live you life in such a way that it demands an explanation”. Does your life demand an explanation? Do you live in such a way that the things you do can only be explained by a faith in God? If not, then ask yourself why. Are you living just like everyone else, and just saying your a Christian? Where is the faith in that? Be a peacemaker to the point where it demands an explanation. Live like a Christian to the point where it demands an explanation.
So I encourage you to pursue these four areas in your life. Ask God for a desire for righteousness like your desire for food or water. Be merciful to those who don’t deserve mercy because God gave you mercy when you didn’t deserve mercy. Ask God for a pure heart, that you may follow God completely. Be a peacemaker to the point where it demands an explanation.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be comforted”
Matthew 5:6
This an amazing metaphor Jesus uses. We all know what it feels like to be hungry, so hungry that all we desire is food. You’ve been on a road trip where all you want to do is eat at the next McDonald’s; we complain and grumble and the hunger infects our entire attitude. Same goes for a time where you were just thirsty, you can’t think of anything but a cool glass of water. Your dry mouth affects your speech, your mindset, and even your money, if bottled water is near. Now imagine having both of those extreme feelings at once. Your stomach is roaring for food, your mouth is as dry as a desert, and your head can only think of water and food; a mighty meal. This would affect your entire life. You would put off anything you were doing, you would forget about the cost, you would go any distance. You would get a meal. What if we had this feeling for righteousness?
To hunger and thirst for righteousness is a longing to conform to the will of God. A sincere desire to do what is right in God’s eyes. One Psalmist explains it like this: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1) Do not rest until you are righteous. Just like you are desperate for food when you’re hungry or water when you’re thirsty, be desperate for God. Put off all that you are doing that opposes this supreme desire and really long to conform to the will of God. A funny thing about this is that only God can allow us to do it. John Piper says it like this: “Only God can make the depraved heart desire God.” (“When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy” page 14). If you want to desire God and righteousness like you desire food, honestly ask God for it. Only by the help of the Holy Spirit can we achieve this deep desire.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”
Matthew 5:7
When I think of mercy I think of the middle ages. I imagine a king who caught a thief stealing from the market and mercifully does not chop off his arm. That is not the type of mercy Jesus is talking about here. This mercy is not just pity. When used as an adjective in greek, the word mercy is “not simply possessed of pity but actively compassionate” (Vine 404). An active compassion. A pity that strives towards an action towards a person. Being compassionate is hard. We are wronged every day by people, even if it is a small thing. You see, Jesus made it perfectly clear that our love and mercy should not just extend to those who are good to us (Matt. 5:43-48). We are to extend this mercy to all; even those we bitterly hated. I say hated because, as a Christian, we no longer hate, but love. God has already given us the greatest mercy the universe will ever know. Why do we find it so hard to extend such small mercies such as forgiveness or acceptance?
Jesus tells a story later in his ministry to deliver this point in greater detail (Matt 18:21-35). It is a story of a servant who owed a king a fortune. He owed back more than he possibly could pay back; the language Jesus uses implies that the servant could never, ever pay back such a debt. He was hopeless. Yet the king had mercy on him and, instead of sending him to prison until he could pay it back, cancelled his debt. How great a mercy!That same forgiven servant then goes out to another servant who owes him money. This is small amount of money, about what a man would make in a day. However, the man who owed this small amount couldn’t pay back the forgiven servant. Furious, the forgiven servant has the poor servant thrown in prison. When the king finds out of this he summons the servant he forgave and rebuked him. So mad is the king that he throws the forgiven servant in prison until he could pay back his debt. His fate is prison until he can pay back a debt he can never pay back. Prison forever all because he did not show mercy. The king says an eerily similar thing to this condemned servant that Jesus said in the beatitudes, “And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” (Matt 18:33) God has given us the ultimate grace, it is a small thing for us to extend mercy to others. Pray to God you may be merciful as He is merciful.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
Being pure in heart is impossible by man. We are all lost and our hears are black with sin. Having a pure hear is to be cleansed by God from your sinful nature. This is impossible for a man to do. Peter realized this once and asked Jesus “Who then can be saved?”, Jesus answered by saying “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25-26). Pray to God to create in you a pure heart. A heart that is cleansed from its old ways, and only desires God. This heart is imperative for all of the other beatitudes to be possible. David says, after he sins with Bathsheba “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10). As a side note, Psalm 51 is a great example of the beatitudes being manifested in David’s life. He realizes his own poor spirit, mourns for his sin, and asks for a pure heart. The Psalm illustrates that we must rely on God to create a pure heart in ourselves, we cannot create it on our own. No matter how much we volunteer at church, read our bible, or pray, only God can create a pure heart. I pray daily that God would give me a pure heart, as I hope you do.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”
Matthew 5:9
Again, this peacemaking must be spread to our enemies, as well as our friends. Jesus says to not only love our enemies, but “do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). This means keeping peace with not only friends but enemies. Remember that this will not be easy. The word peacemaker suggests that there was not peace before, until you make it. First examine your life and make sure you are at peace with everyone; if you are not peace make. After you set yourself in order, then you can help others do the same. Many times we think peacekeeping is only for others, not in their own life. Set yourselves in order first.
An interesting point in this verse is “they shall be called sons of God”. For a long time this stumped me. I didn’t know what that meant. After a long time of meditation a light bulb went off. It says “be called”. Called means that someone has given you that title. Like an avalanche of thought a realization came to me: our peacemaking should be so amazing and outstanding that the only explanation to those around you is that it is by God! Francis Chan once said “Live you life in such a way that it demands an explanation”. Does your life demand an explanation? Do you live in such a way that the things you do can only be explained by a faith in God? If not, then ask yourself why. Are you living just like everyone else, and just saying your a Christian? Where is the faith in that? Be a peacemaker to the point where it demands an explanation. Live like a Christian to the point where it demands an explanation.
So I encourage you to pursue these four areas in your life. Ask God for a desire for righteousness like your desire for food or water. Be merciful to those who don’t deserve mercy because God gave you mercy when you didn’t deserve mercy. Ask God for a pure heart, that you may follow God completely. Be a peacemaker to the point where it demands an explanation.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Beatitudes, Part 1
I've recently begun a personal study on Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. The first section of this sermon is found in Matthew 5:2-12 and is commonly known as the beatitudes. I have read this passage countless times in my life, whether in Sunday School, church, or even other personal reading. But I never realized the sheer beauty of the passage till recently. I always thought it was simply a shout out to those who suffer for God. A kinda “at a boy” to those who would suffer for God. Jesus was talking about missionaries in Africa, Christians persecuted in communist Russia, or the Apostles being thrown to the lions; not about me. Yet it is aimed at every believer. John MacArthur said “In the beatitudes Jesus describes the character of the Christian faith.” (“The MacArthur New Testament Commentary”, page 39). In other words, the beatitudes describe what a Jesus says a Christian should be. That sheds a whole new light of importance on it doesn’t it. So I decided to delve deeper and really understand what each of the attributes mentioned are and how I can apply them. I have divided them into three sections. I call the first three beatitudes the humble beatitudes.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
Matthew 5:3
I always thought this was an odd thing for Jesus to say. Doesn’t God want those strong of Spirit? The heroes, like David and Moses. He doesn’t want some weakling who mopes around all day saying “woe is me”. But that is not what Jesus is saying at all hear. This one verse, in essence, describes the whole Gospel. The poor in spirit are those who realize the depth of their own depravity, in other words, the ones who realize they are evil. The ones who realize they need God, or will die. If you are a true Christian, you are poor of spirit. Are you sure that you are? Being poor of spirit is the opposite of self-sufficiency. Are you reliant on God for everything, are you no longer self-sufficient, but God-sufficient? Do you hope in nothing but Jesus Christ? Do you trust in your job, your money, your family, your friends, your spouse, your car, you drink? Or do you trust in your God? Those who solely rely on God are the poor in Spirit. Jesus says that these receive “the kingdom of Heaven”, that is, salvation.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”
Matthew 5:4
This beatitude I flat out did not get. Why did God want sad people? I don’t want to mourn, that would be a horrible life. This is not a normal type of mourning however, it is a holy mourning. The difference is best explained by 2 Corinthians 7:10: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, wheras worldly grief produces death.” This verse helped me understand this beatitude on a whole new level. Jesus didn’t mean worldly grief, the hopeless sadness type of grief that “produces death”. He was talking about a godly grief, a grief over our sins that leads us to repentance. A grief that brings realization to our ugliness before a Holy God and drives us to salvation. A grief that allows us, once we find salvation, to throw off all regret. It is a grief that separates us from our own life and brings us into a life dedicated to Jesus. This is greatly tied to the first beatitude; the elect mourn for they are poor in spirit, so they turn to Jesus, who comforts them and bring them to His Heavenly Kingdom. What a glorious mercy.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”
Matthew 5:5
I admit, when I read this, I had no idea what the word “meek” meant. I envisioned an old, weak man who had to walk with a cane. I thought of weakness, both spiritual and physical. But being Biblically meek is actually an amazing quality. Meekness is mentioned throughout the Bible in a positive light, although many times is translated differently. The greek word Jesus uses here can also mean humility, or gentleness. In Colossians 3:12 meekness is listed in attributes that help with forgiving and bearing with other Christians; 1 Timothy 6:11 talks of it in the sense of fighting “the good fight of the faith”; James 3:13 talks of the “meekness of wisdom”; Jesus describes himself with the same word in Matthew 11:29 when He says he is “gentle and lowly in heart”. So what is the underlying definition of meekness? “It is that temper of Spirit in which we accept his (God’s) dealings as, and therefore without disputing or resisting is.” (W.E. Vine “Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words”, page 401) In other words, it is a complete acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty. God is in control, who are we to say how things ought to be; this is the attitude meek Christians should have.
What is the reward for this? Jesus says that you will inherit the earth. What does this mean? If you are completely meek you will take over the world with an army full of fellow meek people? Of course not. What I think it means can be found in the Old Testament reference Jesus was quoting from. Psalm 37:11 says “But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace”. What will meekness get you? Abundant peace. You know God is in control, so why should your life be in turmoil, stress, and pain? Your life is in the hands of a loving and sovereign God, why should you fear? Christ has overcome the world. Be meek, and inherit peace.
So what should we do about this in our own lives. The most important would be to make sure you are truly poor in spirit. Have you realized your own inability to achieve fulfillment? Only Christ can give you that fulfillment, you simply must realize your own poorness of Spirit. Also mourn for that poorness of spirit. Mourn to the point where it brings you to repentance. Check yourself Christian, that you are still mourning. We do not become perfect once we repent. Keep godly mourning alive in your life, make your mourning turn you to repentance, and there you will find comfort. The last application is perhaps the most important. Be meek. This is so hard. Look in detail at your life, where are your troubles? Once you have found them, realize that God is in control of all of these situations. He knows about each trouble in your life, he has put you where you are at this exact moment. Find peace and surrender to God. I encourage you to pray about all three of these things. Ask God to make you realize you are poor in spirit, ask that you might mourn your sin, and that you might be meek. I can speak from experience that praying over these things will give you an amazing peace, and a new understanding on life. When I prayed I realized God had saved me from my poor soul, that He would comfort me when I mourned to Him, and that He was in control of all the world, I have nothing to fear. God is Good.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
Matthew 5:3
I always thought this was an odd thing for Jesus to say. Doesn’t God want those strong of Spirit? The heroes, like David and Moses. He doesn’t want some weakling who mopes around all day saying “woe is me”. But that is not what Jesus is saying at all hear. This one verse, in essence, describes the whole Gospel. The poor in spirit are those who realize the depth of their own depravity, in other words, the ones who realize they are evil. The ones who realize they need God, or will die. If you are a true Christian, you are poor of spirit. Are you sure that you are? Being poor of spirit is the opposite of self-sufficiency. Are you reliant on God for everything, are you no longer self-sufficient, but God-sufficient? Do you hope in nothing but Jesus Christ? Do you trust in your job, your money, your family, your friends, your spouse, your car, you drink? Or do you trust in your God? Those who solely rely on God are the poor in Spirit. Jesus says that these receive “the kingdom of Heaven”, that is, salvation.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”
Matthew 5:4
This beatitude I flat out did not get. Why did God want sad people? I don’t want to mourn, that would be a horrible life. This is not a normal type of mourning however, it is a holy mourning. The difference is best explained by 2 Corinthians 7:10: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, wheras worldly grief produces death.” This verse helped me understand this beatitude on a whole new level. Jesus didn’t mean worldly grief, the hopeless sadness type of grief that “produces death”. He was talking about a godly grief, a grief over our sins that leads us to repentance. A grief that brings realization to our ugliness before a Holy God and drives us to salvation. A grief that allows us, once we find salvation, to throw off all regret. It is a grief that separates us from our own life and brings us into a life dedicated to Jesus. This is greatly tied to the first beatitude; the elect mourn for they are poor in spirit, so they turn to Jesus, who comforts them and bring them to His Heavenly Kingdom. What a glorious mercy.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”
Matthew 5:5
I admit, when I read this, I had no idea what the word “meek” meant. I envisioned an old, weak man who had to walk with a cane. I thought of weakness, both spiritual and physical. But being Biblically meek is actually an amazing quality. Meekness is mentioned throughout the Bible in a positive light, although many times is translated differently. The greek word Jesus uses here can also mean humility, or gentleness. In Colossians 3:12 meekness is listed in attributes that help with forgiving and bearing with other Christians; 1 Timothy 6:11 talks of it in the sense of fighting “the good fight of the faith”; James 3:13 talks of the “meekness of wisdom”; Jesus describes himself with the same word in Matthew 11:29 when He says he is “gentle and lowly in heart”. So what is the underlying definition of meekness? “It is that temper of Spirit in which we accept his (God’s) dealings as, and therefore without disputing or resisting is.” (W.E. Vine “Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words”, page 401) In other words, it is a complete acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty. God is in control, who are we to say how things ought to be; this is the attitude meek Christians should have.
What is the reward for this? Jesus says that you will inherit the earth. What does this mean? If you are completely meek you will take over the world with an army full of fellow meek people? Of course not. What I think it means can be found in the Old Testament reference Jesus was quoting from. Psalm 37:11 says “But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace”. What will meekness get you? Abundant peace. You know God is in control, so why should your life be in turmoil, stress, and pain? Your life is in the hands of a loving and sovereign God, why should you fear? Christ has overcome the world. Be meek, and inherit peace.
So what should we do about this in our own lives. The most important would be to make sure you are truly poor in spirit. Have you realized your own inability to achieve fulfillment? Only Christ can give you that fulfillment, you simply must realize your own poorness of Spirit. Also mourn for that poorness of spirit. Mourn to the point where it brings you to repentance. Check yourself Christian, that you are still mourning. We do not become perfect once we repent. Keep godly mourning alive in your life, make your mourning turn you to repentance, and there you will find comfort. The last application is perhaps the most important. Be meek. This is so hard. Look in detail at your life, where are your troubles? Once you have found them, realize that God is in control of all of these situations. He knows about each trouble in your life, he has put you where you are at this exact moment. Find peace and surrender to God. I encourage you to pray about all three of these things. Ask God to make you realize you are poor in spirit, ask that you might mourn your sin, and that you might be meek. I can speak from experience that praying over these things will give you an amazing peace, and a new understanding on life. When I prayed I realized God had saved me from my poor soul, that He would comfort me when I mourned to Him, and that He was in control of all the world, I have nothing to fear. God is Good.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
Lots of books are good, some books are great, and then there are a few books that effect your life on a daily basis. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, by Donald Whitney, falls into that last category for me. The book goes into detail on the spiritual disciplines in such a real way that it really challenges you to evaluate your own habits. The disciplines that he explained that were of most value to me in my spiritual walk were the disciplines of meditation, memorization, evangelism, fasting, solitude, and journaling.
When we think of the discipline of meditation we normally think of Hindus or Buddhists sitting in a weird indian style position with their eyes closed and humming along to a silent song. This is why most Christians don’t practice meditation, it sound too, well, weird. If you think about it though, we are called scripturally to practice it. Psalm 1 says of the blessed man “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). We don’t have to sit in a special position or even hum to really meditate. Meditation “involves filling your mind with God and truth” (Whitney 47). Yet just thinking about it, or filling your mind with knowledge isn’t the only facet of meditation: “The outcome of meditation should be application” (Whitney 54). This is of course true with any activity. If you don’t use your knowledge to change something in your life, then your knowledge is useless. Meditation is essential for effective Bible reading as well. In fact, meditation is so important that Whitney goes so far as to say, “Read less (if necessary) in order to meditate more” (Whitney 55). The bottom line is that you must not just read the Bible, but meditate and apply what you learn from it throughout your day. I can tell you by recent experience that by doing this everyday you will far advance your chances in spiritual warfare.
Memorization is a thing that is admired but rarely practiced. For a long time I had thought the same way; it would be nice to memorize lots of scripture, but I just can’t do it. Whitney claims rightly that this is absurd, we memorize thousands of little things. We memorize song lyrics, social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, food prices, and yet we can’t memorize the words of the living God? The real problem in memorization is discipline and action. These are essential. This discipline is also linked hand and hand with meditation. Whitney points out that a good place to start is passages that deal with a struggle you have in your life. That way, the verses that you memorize can be found useful in your life fairly easy. From there you can branch out to verses about God glory, beauty, mercy, etc. Because of my reading of this book I have now undertaken the task of memorizing one scripture verse a week. This week I successfully memorized Ephesians 4:29. It can be done, by discipline.
Evangelism is a spiritual discipline that I have struggled with for a long time. I’ll be honest, I love God with a passion, but I have never flat “evangelized” a person. I have never sat down and explained the gospel to a single person. I’ve spoken to a crowd about the gospel, and hopefully my life style has shown the gospel to nonbelievers, but I want to be able to evangelize in a one-to-one basis. Whitney has encouraged me in this assignment and I pray daily that I might have an opportunity to talk to someone about Christ.
Fasting is another of those disciplines, like meditation, that we shy away from for its “fanaticism”. Yet if we look at almost every Biblical hero (Jesus, Paul, Peter, Moses, Elijah to name a few) they fasted. Whitney explains the reasons for fasting and why it shouldn’t be the a thing we fear but something we embrace to deepen our spiritual walk. Please read the book to do it justice, but the main points that Whitney points out is that fasting can be done to strengthen prayer, to seek God’s guidance, to express grief, to seek deliverance or protection, to express repentance to God, to humble oneself before God, to express concern for the work of God, to minister to the needs of others, to overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God, and to express love and worship to God. After reading the chapter I decided to have a fast sometime in the next few weeks for one of the reasons stated above.
Monks use to spend full months, years, or lives in silence. Although Whitney doesn’t call for this type of dedication (in fact he calls these extremes severely mislead, if not down right sinful), he does call for a time of silence in the life of a christian. Both short periods of time, maybe only a minute or ten, and longer periods, like a day, or sometimes a weekend retreat. This discipline is tightly tied to memorization, meditation, prayer, and Bible reading. In fact, one of the most profitable effects of silence is creating the best possible environment for those four disciplines. In response to this chapter in the book I make sure everyday that my daily time with God is in complete silence and I plan to take a day in the future to be alone with God in silence for an entire day.
One of the unexpected disciplines that I have adopted as a result of reading this book is journaling. In a sense, journaling is simply a written record of your other disciplines. The benefits of this are obvious; if you can organize all your thoughts into a single journal entry, your understanding will only deepen. Also, you can revisit the lessons you’ve learned in the future. A benefit Whitney pointed out that I didn’t realize was that you leave your wisdom for the next generation. So compelling was Whitney’s rationale for a journal that I have now undertook a daily journal of my own spiritual progress. I encourage you to read the book and do the same.
Reading this book has been a most profitable experience for me and I enthusiastically recommend the book to anyone. It will open your eyes to disciplines you didn’t realize you needed, restart your passion for disciplines you’ve been neglecting, and enhance the disciplines you do practice. This book has inspired me to memorize, meditate, be silent, and journal regularly, all things I did not do before reading. I want to thank Donald Whitney for this amazing book and once again encourage anyone who is reading this to read this book and undertake some new spiritual disciplines as I did. You will not regret it, I promise you that.
When we think of the discipline of meditation we normally think of Hindus or Buddhists sitting in a weird indian style position with their eyes closed and humming along to a silent song. This is why most Christians don’t practice meditation, it sound too, well, weird. If you think about it though, we are called scripturally to practice it. Psalm 1 says of the blessed man “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). We don’t have to sit in a special position or even hum to really meditate. Meditation “involves filling your mind with God and truth” (Whitney 47). Yet just thinking about it, or filling your mind with knowledge isn’t the only facet of meditation: “The outcome of meditation should be application” (Whitney 54). This is of course true with any activity. If you don’t use your knowledge to change something in your life, then your knowledge is useless. Meditation is essential for effective Bible reading as well. In fact, meditation is so important that Whitney goes so far as to say, “Read less (if necessary) in order to meditate more” (Whitney 55). The bottom line is that you must not just read the Bible, but meditate and apply what you learn from it throughout your day. I can tell you by recent experience that by doing this everyday you will far advance your chances in spiritual warfare.
Memorization is a thing that is admired but rarely practiced. For a long time I had thought the same way; it would be nice to memorize lots of scripture, but I just can’t do it. Whitney claims rightly that this is absurd, we memorize thousands of little things. We memorize song lyrics, social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, food prices, and yet we can’t memorize the words of the living God? The real problem in memorization is discipline and action. These are essential. This discipline is also linked hand and hand with meditation. Whitney points out that a good place to start is passages that deal with a struggle you have in your life. That way, the verses that you memorize can be found useful in your life fairly easy. From there you can branch out to verses about God glory, beauty, mercy, etc. Because of my reading of this book I have now undertaken the task of memorizing one scripture verse a week. This week I successfully memorized Ephesians 4:29. It can be done, by discipline.
Evangelism is a spiritual discipline that I have struggled with for a long time. I’ll be honest, I love God with a passion, but I have never flat “evangelized” a person. I have never sat down and explained the gospel to a single person. I’ve spoken to a crowd about the gospel, and hopefully my life style has shown the gospel to nonbelievers, but I want to be able to evangelize in a one-to-one basis. Whitney has encouraged me in this assignment and I pray daily that I might have an opportunity to talk to someone about Christ.
Fasting is another of those disciplines, like meditation, that we shy away from for its “fanaticism”. Yet if we look at almost every Biblical hero (Jesus, Paul, Peter, Moses, Elijah to name a few) they fasted. Whitney explains the reasons for fasting and why it shouldn’t be the a thing we fear but something we embrace to deepen our spiritual walk. Please read the book to do it justice, but the main points that Whitney points out is that fasting can be done to strengthen prayer, to seek God’s guidance, to express grief, to seek deliverance or protection, to express repentance to God, to humble oneself before God, to express concern for the work of God, to minister to the needs of others, to overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God, and to express love and worship to God. After reading the chapter I decided to have a fast sometime in the next few weeks for one of the reasons stated above.
Monks use to spend full months, years, or lives in silence. Although Whitney doesn’t call for this type of dedication (in fact he calls these extremes severely mislead, if not down right sinful), he does call for a time of silence in the life of a christian. Both short periods of time, maybe only a minute or ten, and longer periods, like a day, or sometimes a weekend retreat. This discipline is tightly tied to memorization, meditation, prayer, and Bible reading. In fact, one of the most profitable effects of silence is creating the best possible environment for those four disciplines. In response to this chapter in the book I make sure everyday that my daily time with God is in complete silence and I plan to take a day in the future to be alone with God in silence for an entire day.
One of the unexpected disciplines that I have adopted as a result of reading this book is journaling. In a sense, journaling is simply a written record of your other disciplines. The benefits of this are obvious; if you can organize all your thoughts into a single journal entry, your understanding will only deepen. Also, you can revisit the lessons you’ve learned in the future. A benefit Whitney pointed out that I didn’t realize was that you leave your wisdom for the next generation. So compelling was Whitney’s rationale for a journal that I have now undertook a daily journal of my own spiritual progress. I encourage you to read the book and do the same.
Reading this book has been a most profitable experience for me and I enthusiastically recommend the book to anyone. It will open your eyes to disciplines you didn’t realize you needed, restart your passion for disciplines you’ve been neglecting, and enhance the disciplines you do practice. This book has inspired me to memorize, meditate, be silent, and journal regularly, all things I did not do before reading. I want to thank Donald Whitney for this amazing book and once again encourage anyone who is reading this to read this book and undertake some new spiritual disciplines as I did. You will not regret it, I promise you that.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Meditations on Ephesians 4:29
I’ve recently been reading a book on spiritual disciplines entitled “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, by Donald Whitney. One of the disciplines that this author stresses is memorization and meditation. These two things I have greatly neglected in my spiritual life. I’ve memorized verses in AWANA and Sunday School, but I’ve never memorized simply for my personal benefit and growth in my relationship to God and my battle against sin. This author emphasizes that a few key Bible verses are not enough. He references Ephesians 6, where it talks about the sword of salvation, that is the Word of God, the Bible, in saying that one of the reasons we fail in many spiritual battles is that we are ill-equipped for battle:
“The Word of God is the ‘sword of the Spirit,’ but the Holy Spirit cannot give you a weapon you have not stored in the armory of your mind. Imagine Yourself in the midst of a decision and needing guidance, or struggling with a difficult temptation and needing victory. The Holy Spirit rushes to your mental arsenal, flings open the door, but all He finds is a John 3:16, a Genesis 1:1, and a Great Commission. Those are great swords, but they’re not made for every battle.” (Whitney 44)
So I decided to equip for battle. But simply putting to memory is just not enough. I want to meditate on it day and night, like the Psalmist in Psalm 119. I want to have these swords polished and sharpened for the days that they are needed. One of the important things in starting out on memorization is to find verses that will pertain to your struggles. I picked Ephesians 4:29 as my first verse to memorize. I struggle with saying things that are stupid, or mean jokes, or taking things too far. So, I decided to memorize a verse that would remind me to not do these things. Below is the verse, and my meditations on it.
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Ephesians 4:29
The first thing I noticed when I meditated on this verse was the usage of the word “Corrupting”. This word appears to be important, it describes the type of talk we should stay away from. Some translations use the word “unwholesome” or “harmful” (the version above is the ESV), but I like the word corrupting. The word suggests that there was something that worked, something that was good, and then got messed up somehow. It implies that the sin of “harmful” talk is something that has corrupted what was good. This shows us the attitude we should have toward Christianity. The Bible is not about do’s and do not’s, it is about restoring what sin has corrupted, the human soul. Only God can slowly restore what has been corrupted, first through the shedding of blood (Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross), Salvation, and then the work of the Holy Spirit, Sanctification. This verse deals with the second aspect, the Holy Spirit will help us throw off any corrupting talk from our mouths.
The next phrase in the verse is also interesting: “but only such as is good for building up”. This leaves no doubt about what kind of talk is corrupted: something that tears down. How hard is it to always build up? This seems like an impossible command if you look at it like always having to complement, or always having to be cordial. It doesn’t mean what you say always has to be nice, or soft. Building someone up can sometimes be hurtful for a while to the other person. Wouldn’t you say that a parent being stern with his son after he has stolen something from the market is a good thing. What about the best friend who tells her friend to break up with her boyfriend because he is not a christian? These situations are not compliments, but they are building up. Building up can be done in so many ways other than compliments, that is where the second part of this phrase comes in.
“...as fits the occasion...”. Another great phrase. We must be sure that our building up fits the occasion. Whether we need to be stern, kind, loving, tender, tough, brotherly, fatherly, motherly, self-controlled, angry, or any other attitude is reflected by the occasion. We must be sure our building up fits the occasion. How do we know if it fits the occasion? If it is helpful. Some translations say “profitable for building up”. This might emphasize the point better; we must build up in a profitable way. I think the best way we can prepare for this is to pray that the Holy Spirit might give us wisdom to discern profitable building up in all sorts of occasions we might find ourselves in. (See James 1)
Why do we do all this? “...that it may give grace to those who hear.” We should build up to show grace. Grace is a most unusual thing, an amazing and glorious thing! Jesus showed us the most amazing grace in history with His death and resurrection, all to redeem us from our sin. For nothing we did; we did not deserve it to any extent. We were lost, ugly in our sin, whores and slaves to unrighteousness, a dead people. God loved us however, and he saved us from ourselves. He showed us the most amazing grace that has ever and will ever exist. This is the beauty of Christ. We are recipients of a Divine Grace that we do not deserve, why should we not pass along this great gift through our mouths. Let no corrupting talk come out of the mouths of those who have been given a grace that has restored their souls! Give grace because you have received it! What a beautiful way to talk, what a beautiful way to live, what a beautiful Savior to give us the chance!
“The Word of God is the ‘sword of the Spirit,’ but the Holy Spirit cannot give you a weapon you have not stored in the armory of your mind. Imagine Yourself in the midst of a decision and needing guidance, or struggling with a difficult temptation and needing victory. The Holy Spirit rushes to your mental arsenal, flings open the door, but all He finds is a John 3:16, a Genesis 1:1, and a Great Commission. Those are great swords, but they’re not made for every battle.” (Whitney 44)
So I decided to equip for battle. But simply putting to memory is just not enough. I want to meditate on it day and night, like the Psalmist in Psalm 119. I want to have these swords polished and sharpened for the days that they are needed. One of the important things in starting out on memorization is to find verses that will pertain to your struggles. I picked Ephesians 4:29 as my first verse to memorize. I struggle with saying things that are stupid, or mean jokes, or taking things too far. So, I decided to memorize a verse that would remind me to not do these things. Below is the verse, and my meditations on it.
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Ephesians 4:29
The first thing I noticed when I meditated on this verse was the usage of the word “Corrupting”. This word appears to be important, it describes the type of talk we should stay away from. Some translations use the word “unwholesome” or “harmful” (the version above is the ESV), but I like the word corrupting. The word suggests that there was something that worked, something that was good, and then got messed up somehow. It implies that the sin of “harmful” talk is something that has corrupted what was good. This shows us the attitude we should have toward Christianity. The Bible is not about do’s and do not’s, it is about restoring what sin has corrupted, the human soul. Only God can slowly restore what has been corrupted, first through the shedding of blood (Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross), Salvation, and then the work of the Holy Spirit, Sanctification. This verse deals with the second aspect, the Holy Spirit will help us throw off any corrupting talk from our mouths.
The next phrase in the verse is also interesting: “but only such as is good for building up”. This leaves no doubt about what kind of talk is corrupted: something that tears down. How hard is it to always build up? This seems like an impossible command if you look at it like always having to complement, or always having to be cordial. It doesn’t mean what you say always has to be nice, or soft. Building someone up can sometimes be hurtful for a while to the other person. Wouldn’t you say that a parent being stern with his son after he has stolen something from the market is a good thing. What about the best friend who tells her friend to break up with her boyfriend because he is not a christian? These situations are not compliments, but they are building up. Building up can be done in so many ways other than compliments, that is where the second part of this phrase comes in.
“...as fits the occasion...”. Another great phrase. We must be sure that our building up fits the occasion. Whether we need to be stern, kind, loving, tender, tough, brotherly, fatherly, motherly, self-controlled, angry, or any other attitude is reflected by the occasion. We must be sure our building up fits the occasion. How do we know if it fits the occasion? If it is helpful. Some translations say “profitable for building up”. This might emphasize the point better; we must build up in a profitable way. I think the best way we can prepare for this is to pray that the Holy Spirit might give us wisdom to discern profitable building up in all sorts of occasions we might find ourselves in. (See James 1)
Why do we do all this? “...that it may give grace to those who hear.” We should build up to show grace. Grace is a most unusual thing, an amazing and glorious thing! Jesus showed us the most amazing grace in history with His death and resurrection, all to redeem us from our sin. For nothing we did; we did not deserve it to any extent. We were lost, ugly in our sin, whores and slaves to unrighteousness, a dead people. God loved us however, and he saved us from ourselves. He showed us the most amazing grace that has ever and will ever exist. This is the beauty of Christ. We are recipients of a Divine Grace that we do not deserve, why should we not pass along this great gift through our mouths. Let no corrupting talk come out of the mouths of those who have been given a grace that has restored their souls! Give grace because you have received it! What a beautiful way to talk, what a beautiful way to live, what a beautiful Savior to give us the chance!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Picking Flowers
Most people would agree that parenting is defined in the large crimes of a child; I would disagree. Now, sure it takes great parenting to deal with the times you find pot in a ziplock bag under her pillow, or a Playboy magazine under his bed, but these moments might never come if you are a champion parent in the small crimes. My dad taught me this lesson one Sunday in early April.
I was nine or ten, a kid. We lived in a town called Apple Valley, my dad was the pastor of a small Baptist church. You’re probably picturing some town in Vermont with hills filled with the scent of freshly grown apples as a cool wind blows north from the orchard. You would be wrong. The name Apple Valley is a lie. Located in California’s Mojave Desert, probably the only Apple tree in Apple Valley was grown by an eighty-something lady in her last years. The San Gabriel mountains separated us from the palm trees and beaches of Southern California; we were the nowhere outside of somewhere. Instead of wooded hills we had fields of dirt and sand filled with tumble weeds and Joshua Trees. Nothing green grows in Apple Valley except by costly irrigation and constant care by a green thumb. Flowers are rare.
On a particular April Sunday the service had contained my youthful energy to a breaking point. Once the final song had been sung, me and my gang trotted out of the sanctuary into the spring sun. I had three main friends back then. Tim was the tall one in the group; he had black hair and a five o’clock shadow by the time he was ten. Kevin was skinny and was the fastest, also the most full of energy. Kev could run a mile and not even return winded. Troy had a hilariously high pitched laugh and was the rebel of the group. I was the hands down leader of our little group; I usually came up with the things we would do to fill up time.
That particular day we just sat in the front of the church building. The church’s concrete courtyard was surrounded by a blacktop parking lot on one side and the upside-down dixie cup-like church building on the other. Flanking the entrance doors were two squares of dirt, supported about three feet from the ground by four walls of stone slabs. On these small walls is where we found ourselves that Sunday; probably talking about Star Wars.
Temptation entered our little minds when the desert wind began blowing across the courtyard. Like the apple to Eve was a strong desert wind to four bored boys. A weird trick of architecture created a swirled wind against one side of the church. If you threw something into this whirlwind, whatever you threw swirled up to the heavens before flying out to desert. We had plenty of time to kill before our parents finished their after-church conversation hour, so we began looking for things to throw.
Now to understand the depth of our rebellion you have to know two things. First, remember what I told you before; we lived in a desert where green things are discouraged. Two, you have to know Ray Harris.
The first thing you noticed about Ray Harris was that he was big. Maybe over 350 pounds. He had a grey and black peppered beard that might have belonged to Abraham, and his breath always stank. His voice was deep and raspy when he taught the mysteries of Revelation to my Sunday School class. Ray Harris was a great and old man. He cleaned and gardened the Church and the Christian School for next to no salary, or maybe for free; I can’t remember. What I do remember is the many times I would be in my dad’s office and hear Ray coming in from watering what plants the church had, heaving his bad breath all over the hallway. Everyone in the church loved Ray Harris.
Going back to that windy Sunday afternoon in April. Ray had just planted beautiful pink and purple flowers around the single bushes that grew in either plot of the dirt flanking the church doors. He had probably spent his whole Saturday afternoon crouched over, the desert sun beating down on his old body, raking those plots of dirt into submission. The same plots of dirt that four bored boys sat around after church, looking for something to throw into the gusty wind. The flowers were the obvious choice; bright so you could easily follow their flight and light enough that the wind could easily give them wings to fly away. I can’t even remember if I had a second thought about Ray Harris, or about his hard labor or his lost Saturday; I just picked those flowers right out of their prepared soil. The flowers did indeed take off on the whirlwind, swirling around and around and around until flying high into the cloudless sky and disappearing towards the mountains. We picked and picked those flowers till nothing was left of Ray Harris’s handy work but a few roots and tilled soil.
And that was it, I thought.
Once the fun of flowers and wind had been exhausted, we probably played tag or some such game till our parents took us one by one into vans and SUV’s back to our homes. I was taken home in our green van without having a second thought of my crime. The Sunday afternoon then progressed normally: football and food. Until, that is, my dad asked me the question. I don’t know if he noticed the flowerless garden or someone saw us in the act and ratted us out. All I know is that my innocent Sunday was disrupted by the question my father asked me: “Did you pick the flowers out front of the church today?”
I was truthful. The story spilled out of my mouth; from picking to whirlwind I told all. I don’t know if any of my friends got in any trouble over the flower incident, but I sure did. My dad rarely got mad at me, rarely. I didn’t get in trouble much, but I got in trouble that Sunday. I believe it was the last time I was ever spanked.
It wasn’t that I had picked and thrown flowers, that wasn’t the crime; it was that I had picked Ray Harris’s flowers and thrown them. Respect. It was all about respect. My dad wanted me to have respect for everyone I ever met. Ray Harris had worked hard at those flowers, and I had destroyed them for my own pleasure. I had placed my interests above Ray Harris’s. That little flower picking was an expression of a selfish soul. My dad saw this and put a stop to it. Put other’s needs ahead of your own and respect others; these values my dad made sure I remembered.
For years afterward I wondered why my dad was so heated over such a small thing. He never got mad at me, but something about that flower incident got him worked up. Later, though, I recognized the beauty of my dad’s parenting; he solved big problems at little times. My dad understood that if I could respect something as small as Ray Harris’s flowers, I could respect my mom enough to be back by curfew; I could respect my teachers enough to do my best in class; I could respect myself enough to decline an offered bag of weed. My dad understood this. Ray Harris’s flowers may have saved me from many a sinful path.
Parents listen up: enough small crime lessons learned, and the big crimes might never come.
I was nine or ten, a kid. We lived in a town called Apple Valley, my dad was the pastor of a small Baptist church. You’re probably picturing some town in Vermont with hills filled with the scent of freshly grown apples as a cool wind blows north from the orchard. You would be wrong. The name Apple Valley is a lie. Located in California’s Mojave Desert, probably the only Apple tree in Apple Valley was grown by an eighty-something lady in her last years. The San Gabriel mountains separated us from the palm trees and beaches of Southern California; we were the nowhere outside of somewhere. Instead of wooded hills we had fields of dirt and sand filled with tumble weeds and Joshua Trees. Nothing green grows in Apple Valley except by costly irrigation and constant care by a green thumb. Flowers are rare.
On a particular April Sunday the service had contained my youthful energy to a breaking point. Once the final song had been sung, me and my gang trotted out of the sanctuary into the spring sun. I had three main friends back then. Tim was the tall one in the group; he had black hair and a five o’clock shadow by the time he was ten. Kevin was skinny and was the fastest, also the most full of energy. Kev could run a mile and not even return winded. Troy had a hilariously high pitched laugh and was the rebel of the group. I was the hands down leader of our little group; I usually came up with the things we would do to fill up time.
That particular day we just sat in the front of the church building. The church’s concrete courtyard was surrounded by a blacktop parking lot on one side and the upside-down dixie cup-like church building on the other. Flanking the entrance doors were two squares of dirt, supported about three feet from the ground by four walls of stone slabs. On these small walls is where we found ourselves that Sunday; probably talking about Star Wars.
Temptation entered our little minds when the desert wind began blowing across the courtyard. Like the apple to Eve was a strong desert wind to four bored boys. A weird trick of architecture created a swirled wind against one side of the church. If you threw something into this whirlwind, whatever you threw swirled up to the heavens before flying out to desert. We had plenty of time to kill before our parents finished their after-church conversation hour, so we began looking for things to throw.
Now to understand the depth of our rebellion you have to know two things. First, remember what I told you before; we lived in a desert where green things are discouraged. Two, you have to know Ray Harris.
The first thing you noticed about Ray Harris was that he was big. Maybe over 350 pounds. He had a grey and black peppered beard that might have belonged to Abraham, and his breath always stank. His voice was deep and raspy when he taught the mysteries of Revelation to my Sunday School class. Ray Harris was a great and old man. He cleaned and gardened the Church and the Christian School for next to no salary, or maybe for free; I can’t remember. What I do remember is the many times I would be in my dad’s office and hear Ray coming in from watering what plants the church had, heaving his bad breath all over the hallway. Everyone in the church loved Ray Harris.
Going back to that windy Sunday afternoon in April. Ray had just planted beautiful pink and purple flowers around the single bushes that grew in either plot of the dirt flanking the church doors. He had probably spent his whole Saturday afternoon crouched over, the desert sun beating down on his old body, raking those plots of dirt into submission. The same plots of dirt that four bored boys sat around after church, looking for something to throw into the gusty wind. The flowers were the obvious choice; bright so you could easily follow their flight and light enough that the wind could easily give them wings to fly away. I can’t even remember if I had a second thought about Ray Harris, or about his hard labor or his lost Saturday; I just picked those flowers right out of their prepared soil. The flowers did indeed take off on the whirlwind, swirling around and around and around until flying high into the cloudless sky and disappearing towards the mountains. We picked and picked those flowers till nothing was left of Ray Harris’s handy work but a few roots and tilled soil.
And that was it, I thought.
Once the fun of flowers and wind had been exhausted, we probably played tag or some such game till our parents took us one by one into vans and SUV’s back to our homes. I was taken home in our green van without having a second thought of my crime. The Sunday afternoon then progressed normally: football and food. Until, that is, my dad asked me the question. I don’t know if he noticed the flowerless garden or someone saw us in the act and ratted us out. All I know is that my innocent Sunday was disrupted by the question my father asked me: “Did you pick the flowers out front of the church today?”
I was truthful. The story spilled out of my mouth; from picking to whirlwind I told all. I don’t know if any of my friends got in any trouble over the flower incident, but I sure did. My dad rarely got mad at me, rarely. I didn’t get in trouble much, but I got in trouble that Sunday. I believe it was the last time I was ever spanked.
It wasn’t that I had picked and thrown flowers, that wasn’t the crime; it was that I had picked Ray Harris’s flowers and thrown them. Respect. It was all about respect. My dad wanted me to have respect for everyone I ever met. Ray Harris had worked hard at those flowers, and I had destroyed them for my own pleasure. I had placed my interests above Ray Harris’s. That little flower picking was an expression of a selfish soul. My dad saw this and put a stop to it. Put other’s needs ahead of your own and respect others; these values my dad made sure I remembered.
For years afterward I wondered why my dad was so heated over such a small thing. He never got mad at me, but something about that flower incident got him worked up. Later, though, I recognized the beauty of my dad’s parenting; he solved big problems at little times. My dad understood that if I could respect something as small as Ray Harris’s flowers, I could respect my mom enough to be back by curfew; I could respect my teachers enough to do my best in class; I could respect myself enough to decline an offered bag of weed. My dad understood this. Ray Harris’s flowers may have saved me from many a sinful path.
Parents listen up: enough small crime lessons learned, and the big crimes might never come.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Rob Bell Conversation
I’m currently having a very intense conversation with one of my old youth leaders about a controversial pastor Rob Bell, I though I would show you. Below are both my and his letters without edit:
Mike-Hey Andy, this is Mike, I have been researching Bells ministry and I have some serious issues with his ministry. I just finished reading his book Velvet Elvis (I dont know if you have read it?) He writes " I embrace the need to keep painting, to keep reforming, By this I do not mean cosmetic, superficial changes like better lights and music, Sharper graphics, and new methods with easy to follow steps. I mean theology, the beliefs about God , Jesus, the Bible, Salvation the future."
SCARY,
He also writes " Heaven is full of forgiven people, Hell is full of forgiven people Heaven is full of people Jesus died for Hell is ffull of people Jesus died for, the difference is how we choose to live"
If going to heaven or hell isnt based on forgiveness but on how we choose to live isnt that salvation by works? that does directly opposes Christ. Why he came and what he did on the cross and above all else lies to people about what salvation is, which is a free gift from God that we do nothing to gain or earn and do not deserve. And that belief can lead people to Christ on the last day and he says to them "depart from me I never knew you" because they spend there lives working to earn Gods favor.
He also uses bad historic info and tries to imply that the new Testament writers conformed there theology to fit in with pagan religions of there time to make "there God" more appealing to the people of that time and in that way justify himself rewriting theology.
He also qoutes Joshua "They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys". than he questions the Bible "God was with Joshua when he killed all those women and children? is God really like that? what does a thinking person do with a story like that?"
he qoutes Matthew "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heave, and whatever you loose on earh will be loosed in heaven".
and than translates this verse "WHat he is doing here is significant. he is giving his followers the authority to make new interpretations of the Bible. He is giving them permission to say "Hey we think we missed it before on that verse, and weve recently come to the conclusion that this is what it actually means".
is that rediculous or what? this also directlly opposes Jesus, changing Gods word because "we missed it before"? He said in an interview in Christianity Today "we are discovering the Bible as a human product rather than a divine fiat" and his wife in the same interview said " I used to know what the Bible meant now I have no idea what most of it means and yet life is so much bigger"
dude I could go on and on but I will stop.
see ya Mike
Me-Dear Mike,
i have to start this by saying two things very clearly; one, i am not a die-hard fan of rob bell and will not defend him to the grave, yet i think we are to fast to make small theological issues a base for bashing men who are trying to reach people for the faith. Many great theologians had bad theology in one area or another; Martin Luther thought the bread and wine of communion physically turned into the body and blood of Christ when a priest prayed over them; in fact, this belief caused him to have much conflict with other reformers. Origen thought that there were errors in the Bible that God wanted us to discover and correct ourselves. Pelagus believed it was possible for a human to be perfect, and Christ was an example of that. I don't know if these views tempered with these men's faith in Christ, only God knows that, but these men did some great things for God with what we would say is slightly faulted theology. Two, i'm not trying to be mean or disrespectful in anyway with these messages, i'm just stating my point. If i ever seem to cross the line, please let me know.
Now, on the point of changing theology, there is not doubt it has changed over the course of history. Early church fathers didn't address several key doctrines we have today, such as the trinity. In fact, many held what we would consider today heretical theology. Such as the ransom to satan theory, which states that satan owns all human souls, and Jesus' death was a payment to satan; that is obviously not in the bible. Again, God is the one who judges the heart; i do not know how much these beliefs affect rob bell's heart. But theology has definitely been effected by time. remember that, although the bible was done being written in the first century, the holy spirit always lives, and can give new illumination to any he wishes. By illumination i mean from the already written word of God, the Bible; i am no Joseph Smith. One of my theology professors observed that God normally tends to work in jagged, hard to see lines, rather than straight, foreword lines; why else would he use biblical writers to write the bible, instead of just making it fall from heaven. Jesus spoke in parables so that "those who had ears would hear"; he purposely made it confusing to weed out the unfaithful! All that to say that the theological views most evangelicals hold today are not necessarily what christians held throughout history. So be careful to critic bell when he says we may view God differently than we did before, i would add however, provided that this new view is upheld by scripture. This doesn't mean we throw out everything we believe; just that we must not be closed to learning something about God in the Bible that we didn't know before. That is my view, at least, and maybe that is what rob bell was trying to say.
Now, heaven and hell is a tricky thing, because we don't have a lot on either in the bible. Hell is obviously not a good place, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth; and heaven is obviously a good place, in the Glory of God. The debate over limited atonement, however, can be seen since John Calvin, even before. Did Jesus die for just believers's sins, since that is all that his atonement pays for; or did he die for all sins, and only some accept? I tend to explain my view like this; Christ's death is sufficient for all, efficient for some. meaning, Jesus's death was for all, but is only accepted by some. Now i think saying there is forgiven people in hell is going too far, and would disagree with bell there, but how we live is a HUGE indicator of which of these two extreme places we end up. Remember James, where it says faith without works is dead. What saves us is faith in Jesus Christ, too often faith is thought of as a one-time thing. a prayer, that is what saves us. Completely wrong! it is faith! i think many people that say the sinner's prayer will be in hell. Faith and Love for Christ are expressed through our lives. Of course we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and have faith, but these things, if sincere, will propel us to live differently. The bible talks repeatedly of worthless sacrifices of "religious people" (1 Samuel 15, Hosea 6:6, 8:13, all thru the gospels with the pharisees, etc.), God looks at the heart. We are not working to achieve God's forgiveness, we accept it, and out of love and faith we obey what God commands. Maybe Rob Bell meant something completely different than what i said, if so tell me, but that is at least something to think about.
Also, Paul definitely used the greek's religion to explain the gospel to the athenians at mars hill in acts 17:16-34. Now, he didn't change any salvation doctrine to do so, but he did say some things that seem a little odd. Yet God used it and it worked, because some said they would listen to more about this new message. Saying, though, that they did it to make God "more appealing", is completely wrong, God is the most appealing thing in existence, and doesn't need help from the apostles. Plus, God does the work to call Christians anyway, the human really does nothing but be used by God. That is wrong on bell's point.
Also, i think that Mrs. Bell's comment is, honestly, ridiculous. A healthy believer should always be learning more about God and the bible, wanting knowledge of there redeemer. God does not want to be mysterious, he wants us to love him, because he first loved us. It is out of his love, he wishes us to love. Why would he send Jesus if he wanted to be a mystery.
anyway, i hope this has helped you, please send me back your thoughts.
Wishing California weather is treating you better than Chicago weather is treating me,
Andy Smith
I’ll keep you posted on our conversation.
Mike-Hey Andy, this is Mike, I have been researching Bells ministry and I have some serious issues with his ministry. I just finished reading his book Velvet Elvis (I dont know if you have read it?) He writes " I embrace the need to keep painting, to keep reforming, By this I do not mean cosmetic, superficial changes like better lights and music, Sharper graphics, and new methods with easy to follow steps. I mean theology, the beliefs about God , Jesus, the Bible, Salvation the future."
SCARY,
He also writes " Heaven is full of forgiven people, Hell is full of forgiven people Heaven is full of people Jesus died for Hell is ffull of people Jesus died for, the difference is how we choose to live"
If going to heaven or hell isnt based on forgiveness but on how we choose to live isnt that salvation by works? that does directly opposes Christ. Why he came and what he did on the cross and above all else lies to people about what salvation is, which is a free gift from God that we do nothing to gain or earn and do not deserve. And that belief can lead people to Christ on the last day and he says to them "depart from me I never knew you" because they spend there lives working to earn Gods favor.
He also uses bad historic info and tries to imply that the new Testament writers conformed there theology to fit in with pagan religions of there time to make "there God" more appealing to the people of that time and in that way justify himself rewriting theology.
He also qoutes Joshua "They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys". than he questions the Bible "God was with Joshua when he killed all those women and children? is God really like that? what does a thinking person do with a story like that?"
he qoutes Matthew "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heave, and whatever you loose on earh will be loosed in heaven".
and than translates this verse "WHat he is doing here is significant. he is giving his followers the authority to make new interpretations of the Bible. He is giving them permission to say "Hey we think we missed it before on that verse, and weve recently come to the conclusion that this is what it actually means".
is that rediculous or what? this also directlly opposes Jesus, changing Gods word because "we missed it before"? He said in an interview in Christianity Today "we are discovering the Bible as a human product rather than a divine fiat" and his wife in the same interview said " I used to know what the Bible meant now I have no idea what most of it means and yet life is so much bigger"
dude I could go on and on but I will stop.
see ya Mike
Me-Dear Mike,
i have to start this by saying two things very clearly; one, i am not a die-hard fan of rob bell and will not defend him to the grave, yet i think we are to fast to make small theological issues a base for bashing men who are trying to reach people for the faith. Many great theologians had bad theology in one area or another; Martin Luther thought the bread and wine of communion physically turned into the body and blood of Christ when a priest prayed over them; in fact, this belief caused him to have much conflict with other reformers. Origen thought that there were errors in the Bible that God wanted us to discover and correct ourselves. Pelagus believed it was possible for a human to be perfect, and Christ was an example of that. I don't know if these views tempered with these men's faith in Christ, only God knows that, but these men did some great things for God with what we would say is slightly faulted theology. Two, i'm not trying to be mean or disrespectful in anyway with these messages, i'm just stating my point. If i ever seem to cross the line, please let me know.
Now, on the point of changing theology, there is not doubt it has changed over the course of history. Early church fathers didn't address several key doctrines we have today, such as the trinity. In fact, many held what we would consider today heretical theology. Such as the ransom to satan theory, which states that satan owns all human souls, and Jesus' death was a payment to satan; that is obviously not in the bible. Again, God is the one who judges the heart; i do not know how much these beliefs affect rob bell's heart. But theology has definitely been effected by time. remember that, although the bible was done being written in the first century, the holy spirit always lives, and can give new illumination to any he wishes. By illumination i mean from the already written word of God, the Bible; i am no Joseph Smith. One of my theology professors observed that God normally tends to work in jagged, hard to see lines, rather than straight, foreword lines; why else would he use biblical writers to write the bible, instead of just making it fall from heaven. Jesus spoke in parables so that "those who had ears would hear"; he purposely made it confusing to weed out the unfaithful! All that to say that the theological views most evangelicals hold today are not necessarily what christians held throughout history. So be careful to critic bell when he says we may view God differently than we did before, i would add however, provided that this new view is upheld by scripture. This doesn't mean we throw out everything we believe; just that we must not be closed to learning something about God in the Bible that we didn't know before. That is my view, at least, and maybe that is what rob bell was trying to say.
Now, heaven and hell is a tricky thing, because we don't have a lot on either in the bible. Hell is obviously not a good place, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth; and heaven is obviously a good place, in the Glory of God. The debate over limited atonement, however, can be seen since John Calvin, even before. Did Jesus die for just believers's sins, since that is all that his atonement pays for; or did he die for all sins, and only some accept? I tend to explain my view like this; Christ's death is sufficient for all, efficient for some. meaning, Jesus's death was for all, but is only accepted by some. Now i think saying there is forgiven people in hell is going too far, and would disagree with bell there, but how we live is a HUGE indicator of which of these two extreme places we end up. Remember James, where it says faith without works is dead. What saves us is faith in Jesus Christ, too often faith is thought of as a one-time thing. a prayer, that is what saves us. Completely wrong! it is faith! i think many people that say the sinner's prayer will be in hell. Faith and Love for Christ are expressed through our lives. Of course we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and have faith, but these things, if sincere, will propel us to live differently. The bible talks repeatedly of worthless sacrifices of "religious people" (1 Samuel 15, Hosea 6:6, 8:13, all thru the gospels with the pharisees, etc.), God looks at the heart. We are not working to achieve God's forgiveness, we accept it, and out of love and faith we obey what God commands. Maybe Rob Bell meant something completely different than what i said, if so tell me, but that is at least something to think about.
Also, Paul definitely used the greek's religion to explain the gospel to the athenians at mars hill in acts 17:16-34. Now, he didn't change any salvation doctrine to do so, but he did say some things that seem a little odd. Yet God used it and it worked, because some said they would listen to more about this new message. Saying, though, that they did it to make God "more appealing", is completely wrong, God is the most appealing thing in existence, and doesn't need help from the apostles. Plus, God does the work to call Christians anyway, the human really does nothing but be used by God. That is wrong on bell's point.
Also, i think that Mrs. Bell's comment is, honestly, ridiculous. A healthy believer should always be learning more about God and the bible, wanting knowledge of there redeemer. God does not want to be mysterious, he wants us to love him, because he first loved us. It is out of his love, he wishes us to love. Why would he send Jesus if he wanted to be a mystery.
anyway, i hope this has helped you, please send me back your thoughts.
Wishing California weather is treating you better than Chicago weather is treating me,
Andy Smith
I’ll keep you posted on our conversation.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
They are Dead!
I recently wrote about speaking out against unethical government action while still having hope and peace in God's sovereignty. Here is an example how:
Monday, September 21, 2009
What Samaritans?
Many words in the Bible we look at and think they are a thing of the past. Words like Samaritans and idols and lepers are not our problem. They were things “in Jesus’ day”. I think that today most, if not all, of these words still apply. I have already explained my views on idols in the article “Hosea and our Idols”. I would like to focus on the Samaritans. On the surface, this is perhaps the easiest of these biblical words to apply in our lives. A different ethnic group hated by another ethnic group; we know all about that. Yet I would like to take it deeper. Let’s apply it not only to our different ethnicities, let’s apply this word to all groups we would identify as different than ourselves (when I say “ourselves” I mean the American church).
I want to talk about the group that perhaps we hate the most. A group that possibly brings out more hate and slander from the American Church than any other. We call them liberals; democrats. I’m talking about our picket lines, our t-shirts, our posters. Think of election time; about the only time we ever hear “evangelical” on the news. It seems this argument, Democrats versus Republicans, liberals versus conservatives, quickly gives us an excuse to throw out “love your neighbor”. Think how much we let our political views affect our social circle. There are left or right churches, not churches that accept both. If you’re one, you don’t associate with the other. It’s just how its done. But did Jesus do it like that?
Don’t think to yourself that Jesus didn’t have these social issues in His day. Are you kidding me? Politics in Israel in 33 A.D. were way worse than politics in America in the 21st century. Rome had divided the nation into two factions; those who hated the romans, the Zealots, and those who were submissive to Roman rule. The pharisees tried to get Jesus entangled in this debate in Matt 22:15-22. Without going into detail, it is sufficient to say that Jesus shuts the pharisees down. Among Jesus’ twelve disciples both groups were represented. Simon was a Zealot, he hated the Romans; Matthew was a tax collector, a man who worked with and profited from the Romans. Yet in Jesus these enemies became friends. Why can we not do the same in our day?
Don’t get me wrong; there are issues in politics that Christians need to speak out against. Abortions is one of these critical issues; so is any immoral behavior by our government. John the Baptist died for speaking out against Herod’s immoral marriage (Matt 14:1-12). Yet remember that Paul tells us that all authorities have been appointed by God, for one reason or another (Romans 13:1-7). “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1). I am not arguing against political stands for the right reasons; I am speaking out over hate of the other side.
Our Christianity should affect our politics, not the other way around. We are commanded to love. Not if’s or who’s. “But their sinners and what they believe is wrong!”. Well, so were the samaritans, but Jesus didn’t leave them behind. The Samaritans had disobeyed God and intermarried with the other nations around Israel; they also worshiped God at different places than the temple at Jerusalem, a hated thing at the time. Jews hated Samaritans; but Jesus didn’t. He spoke to the samaritan woman at the well (who was also quite the partier) in John 4:1-45. Also in John 4 it tell us “many Samaritans from that town believed in him” and that “the Samaritans came to him (Jesus), they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days”. He obviously didn’t have a problem with samaritans in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus loved the hated, but we hate those who are slightly different.
My underlying theme I want to pound into your head is this: don’t hate the enemy. Don’t create a group you despise. Jesus continually talks about loving those you can’t stand; your enemies. Luke 6:27-36 is a hard passage. Love your enemies. Do good to your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Jesus doesn’t just say “Don’t do bad to people”; he actually says to do good to them. Are you really doing this? Taking this to the extreme? Do you love Barack Obama? George Bush? Bill Clinton? Oprah? Your friend down the street who voted agains propositions (insert number)? We are to love all; no matter what side of the fence you are on.
Who are your Samaritans? Liberals, conservatives, Ellen watchers, rockers, the poor? Find your samaritans, and I challenge you to go out of your way to love them today.
I want to talk about the group that perhaps we hate the most. A group that possibly brings out more hate and slander from the American Church than any other. We call them liberals; democrats. I’m talking about our picket lines, our t-shirts, our posters. Think of election time; about the only time we ever hear “evangelical” on the news. It seems this argument, Democrats versus Republicans, liberals versus conservatives, quickly gives us an excuse to throw out “love your neighbor”. Think how much we let our political views affect our social circle. There are left or right churches, not churches that accept both. If you’re one, you don’t associate with the other. It’s just how its done. But did Jesus do it like that?
Don’t think to yourself that Jesus didn’t have these social issues in His day. Are you kidding me? Politics in Israel in 33 A.D. were way worse than politics in America in the 21st century. Rome had divided the nation into two factions; those who hated the romans, the Zealots, and those who were submissive to Roman rule. The pharisees tried to get Jesus entangled in this debate in Matt 22:15-22. Without going into detail, it is sufficient to say that Jesus shuts the pharisees down. Among Jesus’ twelve disciples both groups were represented. Simon was a Zealot, he hated the Romans; Matthew was a tax collector, a man who worked with and profited from the Romans. Yet in Jesus these enemies became friends. Why can we not do the same in our day?
Don’t get me wrong; there are issues in politics that Christians need to speak out against. Abortions is one of these critical issues; so is any immoral behavior by our government. John the Baptist died for speaking out against Herod’s immoral marriage (Matt 14:1-12). Yet remember that Paul tells us that all authorities have been appointed by God, for one reason or another (Romans 13:1-7). “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1). I am not arguing against political stands for the right reasons; I am speaking out over hate of the other side.
Our Christianity should affect our politics, not the other way around. We are commanded to love. Not if’s or who’s. “But their sinners and what they believe is wrong!”. Well, so were the samaritans, but Jesus didn’t leave them behind. The Samaritans had disobeyed God and intermarried with the other nations around Israel; they also worshiped God at different places than the temple at Jerusalem, a hated thing at the time. Jews hated Samaritans; but Jesus didn’t. He spoke to the samaritan woman at the well (who was also quite the partier) in John 4:1-45. Also in John 4 it tell us “many Samaritans from that town believed in him” and that “the Samaritans came to him (Jesus), they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days”. He obviously didn’t have a problem with samaritans in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus loved the hated, but we hate those who are slightly different.
My underlying theme I want to pound into your head is this: don’t hate the enemy. Don’t create a group you despise. Jesus continually talks about loving those you can’t stand; your enemies. Luke 6:27-36 is a hard passage. Love your enemies. Do good to your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Jesus doesn’t just say “Don’t do bad to people”; he actually says to do good to them. Are you really doing this? Taking this to the extreme? Do you love Barack Obama? George Bush? Bill Clinton? Oprah? Your friend down the street who voted agains propositions (insert number)? We are to love all; no matter what side of the fence you are on.
Who are your Samaritans? Liberals, conservatives, Ellen watchers, rockers, the poor? Find your samaritans, and I challenge you to go out of your way to love them today.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Summary of the Pentateuch (College Paper)
Here is my paper for Old Testament Survey; in it I summarize the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. The works cited page is at the end. It is also good for the reader to know that I don't summarize by books, but by biblical periods: Primeval, Patriarchal, Exodus, and Wilderness.
Primeval Period:
“Genesis 1-11 sets the stage by describing God, his created universe, and the fallenness of humankind” (Arnold and Beyer 78). The book of Genesis, true to its name, starts at the ultimate human beginning; creation. Bill Arnold and Brian Beyer observe that the creation account is “the sad universal story of all humankind” before “the personal story of national Israel” (Arnold and Beyer 78). God creates the world in six days. On the first day he creates light and dark, calling them day and night. The sky followed on the second day. Then land and plants, sun and stars, water animals, and animals and man follow on the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days respectively. Then the Lord rested on the seventh day. In Genesis 2 Adam, the first man, names all the animals and, seeing that Adam needed a companion, God creates the first woman, Eve.
The next nine chapters of Genesis are dedicated to “the moral failure of humankind” (Arnold and Beyer 82). First, sin enters the world when Adam and Eve fail to obey God by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. After being punished by God and banished from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve follow God’s command to “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth...” (Genesis 1:28). Yet humanity proves its capacity for evil again in Chapter four, when Cain kills his brother Abel out of jealousy. God warns Cain, along with all mankind, “If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door” (Genesis 4:7). This verse is a theme verse for the Primeval Period (Arnold and Beyer 83).
In the years that follow Cain and Abel, the earth becomes so evil and disgusting to God that He decides to destroy it altogether by flooding the earth. He commands Noah, a righteous man on the earth, to build a boat. This boat would ensure the earth’s survival by protecting Noah and his family, along with two of every unclean animal and seven of every clean animal. When the boat was completed and Noah, his family, and all the animals were safely on the boat, God sent the flood. “All the springs of the great deep bust forth and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.” (Genesis 7:11). “Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out” (Genesis 7:23). Yet Noah, his family, and the animals on the boat survived, and at the end of the flood, repopulated the earth.
In Genesis 11, mankind once again rebels against God. Filled with pride and a desire to “make a name” (Genesis 11:4) for themselves, the people of the earth begin to make a tall tower in the plain of Shinar. God, angered by “the pride and arrogant rebellion of humanity” (Arnold and Beyer 85), confused mankind by giving them different languages and “scattered them over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:9). “The Universal situation is nothing but despair. But here the line of Shem continues and narrows to a single family, that of Terah, father of Abram.” (Arnold and Beyer 86). So begins the Patriarchal Period.
Patriarchal Period:
In as much as Genesis 1-11 sets the stage, Genesis 12-50 begins the play. While the first eleven chapters has showed the total depravity, the next set of events begins God’s plan to restore mankind to righteousness.
The first character to enter stage right is a man from Ur named Abram. God calls Abram to leave his home and “go to the land I (God) will show you (Abram)” (Genesis 12:1). Abram’s response is recorded in verse 4 “So Abram left, as the Lord had told him” (Genesis 12:4). God also makes a covenant with Abram. God promises to make Abram into a great nation, to make Abram’s name great, to bless those who bless Abram, curse those who curse Abram, and that “all people on earth will be blessed through you (Abram)” (Genesis 12:3). This covenent, therefore, had three different levels; personal, national, and universal. First, personal promises were made to Abram, such as “I will make your name great” (Genesis 12:2) and will “curse those who curse you” (Genesis 12:3). Also, promises specific to a nation, eventually Israel, such as “I will make you a great nation” (Genesis 12:2). Lastly, God promises “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 2:3), a promise to all mankind (Marty 20). Abram’s trust in this promise and to God is evident throughout his life; to the point where he would have sacrificied his only son if God asked him (Genesis 22). God promises a son to Abram in Genesis 15, “one of those important passsages in the Bible that demands our careful reading” (Arnold and Beyer 93). It is here Abram cries out to God that he has no hope of reward, for he has no children, yet God reassures him that he will have a child, and his decendents will be like the stars in the sky. In “one of the most important verses of the Bible” (Arnold and Beyer 93) it says “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). In Romans it tells us that, through such faith, Abraham became the forefather of all Christians (Arnold and Beyer 94). In Genesis 17 God once again calls upon Abram to follow him. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, and then orders him to circumcise himself and all males in his household, for “it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you” (Genesis 17:11). After having a son named Ishmael thru his slave girl, Abraham and his wife Sarah are finally blessed with the promised son in Chapter 21. They name him Isaac. Yet God choses to test Abraham one last time. God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Abraham’s only hope for the promises made to him by God. Abraham, however, passes the test; as Abraham’s knife is in the air the angel of the Lord calls to him to stop. “This event is the climax of Abraham’s spiritual journey” (Arnold and Beyer 97). Isaac, although the promised son, quickly fades to the background of the story after the birth of his twins; Jacob and Esau. Although Esau is the firstborn, it is apparent that “Privilege of position by birth has little to do with our standing before God” (Arnold and Beyer 97). Jacob is chosen to continue the covenant and promises made to Abraham. Yet Jacob’s road to blessing is not easy. First, a confrontation with his brother Esau, brought on by Jacob’s own decietfulness, forces Jacob to run to Haran, a far away land. There he meets his uncle Laban, and marries both Laban’s daughters: Leah and Rachel. He works fourteen years in Haran and is decieved by Laban many times. God, however, does not forsake Jacob in Haran. God blesses him with 12 sons (although with four different women; Leah and Rachel and their slave girls, Bilhah and Zilpah). In Genesis 30:43 is says “In this way the man (Jacob) grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants, and camels and donkeys.” Jacob eventually reconciles with Esau and returns home to Canaan.
The story then continues with one of Jacob’s sons, named Joseph. Joseph is interesting in that he is the only patriarch who is not “in the direct line of the covenant promises (Arnold and Beyer 98), that is, he is not a direct descendent of the Messiah. Yet Joseph is important in two respects; his faithfulness to God in the face of the hardest of circumstances and how the Israelites ended up in Egypt (Arnold and Beyer 98). Joseph is favored by his father because he is one of two sons birthed by Jacob’s most beloved wife, Rachel. As a result of this favoritism, especially in Jacob’s gift of a “richly ornamented robe” (Genesis 37:3), his brothers hated him. Genesis 37:11 tells us that the root of this hate is jealousy. The brothers’s hate grows to the point where they wish to kill him, but at the last second change their plans; instead, they sell Joseph as a slave. Joseph is taken to Egypt and is purchased by Potiphar, a high ranking man in Pharaoh's government. God looks over Joseph, and he rises to the rank of head servant in Potiphar’s house. Yet Joseph’s life takes yet another turn for the worst when Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him, and when Joseph refuses, Potiphar’s wife claims he tried to rape her. This charge sends Joseph to prison. Even in prison God did not abandon him. “While Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness” (Genesis 39:20, 21) In prison Joseph soon rises and gains the trust of the warden of the prison. One day, the chief baker and wine taster in Pharaoh’s palace are thrown in Joseph’s prison. Joseph, by the power of God, correctly interpret dreams for these two, and begs the wine taster, who is to be reinstated, to “remember me (Joseph) and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison” (Genesis 40:14). Yet the wine taster forgets Joseph for two years, until Pharaoh has two troubling dreams. When “all the magicians and wise men in Egypt” (Genesis 41:8) could not interpret these dreams, the wine taster tells Pharaoh of Joseph, and Pharaoh sends for him. Joseph, again by the power of God, is able to correctly interpret the dreams. The dreams foretell of seven years of prosperity in Egypt, followed by seven years of famine in Egypt. Joseph suggests that the food from the prosperous years “should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine” (Genesis 41:36). Pharaoh is pleased by this wisdom and appoints Joseph as second in command in all of Egypt; so Joseph did as he said and stored up grain from the seven years of prosperity. After seven years, the famine came. “All the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the world” (Genesis 41:57). The famine even reached Jacob and his family in Canaan; so Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to buy grain. Through various tests, Joseph finds that his brothers have changed, and are sorry for what they have done. He reveals who he is to his brothers, and the reunion is very joyful. In one of the best verses for those in trouble Joseph says to his brothers “do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” (Genesis 45:5). Joseph tells his brothers to bring his father Jacob, and all of his household, to Egypt, that they might survive the famine. Jacob is overjoyed that his son Joseph is still alive and moves his entire family to Egypt and settles in Goshen. Both Jacob and Joseph live and die in Egypt, yet God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not forgotten. In Genesis 50:24 Joseph says “God will surely came to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. This promise, however, took many years and hardships to come to fulfillment.
Exodus:
The Exodus period, along with the book of Exodus, begin roughly 400 years after Joseph; and things are not looking good for the Israelites. “As the book opens, the patriarchal covenant promises are in jeopardy” (Arnold and Beyer 105). The Israelites are in Egypt, miles away from God’s promised land, and the Egyptians are brutally oppressing the them. The Egyptians have enslaved the Israelites, “and worked them ruthlessly” (Exodus 1:13). Yet God uses this hopeless situation to show His amazing power and grace. God hears the Israelites in their oppression: “The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” (Exodus 2:23-25). “God did not forget or forsake his people” (Arnold and Beyer 105). He sends them a deliverer; his name is Moses.
“Moses is God’s answer to this terrible predicament” (Arnold and Beyer 105). Moses is born during a time when Pharaoh has ordered all Hebrew, male babies to be murdered. To protect her son’s life, Moses’ mother puts Moses in a papyrus basket and, trusting God to protect her baby, releases the basket along the Nile River. By God’s provision, the basket is found by an Egyptian princess. This princess raises Moses in the house of Pharaoh. When Moses is older he sympathizes with his people’s bondage and, in a fit of rage, kills an Egyptian who is beating an Israelite. When this is discovered, Moses flees Egypt and settles in Midian. “Moses found his way to Midian, where he started life over again. He tried to gorget about the terrible plight of the Hebrews by settling into a new occupation, a new family, a new home” (Arnold and Beyer 105). Moses was probably around 40 at this time (Barker 90). God was not done with Moses. “Moses and God were on a collision course. The Lord was determined to save the Israelites; Moses was determined to forget about them. The famous call of Moses at the burning bush is where the two collide.” (Arnold and Beyer 105) At this “burning bush” the Lord calls Moses back to Egypt, to tell Pharaoh to let His people go. Moses resists. “Moses raised four objections, all of which God answered. Finally Moses simply refused to go: ‘please send someone else’ (Exodus 4:13)” (Arnold and Beyer 105). After Moses is done with his objections, he heads to Egypt.
When Moses arrives in Egypt he goes to Pharaoh to demand the freedom of the Israelites. “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Let my people go...’” (Exodus 5:1). Pharaoh refuses and is enraged by the demand. He works the Israelites even harder; ordering them to make the same amount of bricks, but not providing straw. Moses returns to Pharaoh and warns him of “impending disaster if the Egyptian ruler failed to obey God’s command to let the people go” (Arnold and Beyer 105). This “impending disaster” came in the form of the ten plagues. “The ten plagues were intended not only to force the Egyptians into compliance, but also to teach the Egyptians and the Israelites about the sovereign character of the God of Israel” (Arnold and Beyer 105-106). God planned these plagues to directly insult the polytheistic religion of Egypt: “I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12). The plagues insult such Egyptian deities as: Hapi, a god strongly tied to the nile river, Heqt, the god of childbirth, who took the form of a frog, the bull-gods Apis and Mnevis, the cow-god Hathor, the ram-god Khnum, and one of the chief deities, Ra, the sun god. The ten plagues appear to have come in groups of three, with Moses talking to Pharaoh between each sequence. First the plagues of blood, frogs, and gnats; followed by the plagues of flies, livestock and boils; then the last sequence of locust, hail, and darkness (Barker 97-101). The tenth and final plague kills all the firstborn in the land of Egypt; “from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well” (Exodus 11:5). It is this plague that finally breaks the will of Pharaoh. This tenth plague also introduces us to a very important first in redemptive history, the first Passover.
God wanted the Israelites to always remember His power and mercy in rescuing them from Egypt; as well as test His people, to see if they would obey his commands. He gave specific commands to Moses on how to instruct the people to prepare for the Passover. They were to kill a lamb, “year-old males without defect”, and “take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses” (Exodus 12). There was to be no yeast in any Israelite house for seven days, and they were to eat the Passover meal with bread made without yeast and bitter herbs. If the Israelites did this, God did not bring this destructive plague upon them: “I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. (Exodus 12:12-13)” The Passover is important in redemptive history because it foreshadowed what Jesus would eventually do for all mankind. “Jesus is our ‘Passover lamb’ (1 Co 5:7), sacrificed ‘once for all’ (Heb 7:27) for us” (Barker 104). Jesus’ blood allows God’s wrath to “pass over” us and onto Him.
Pharaoh finally breaks to the will of God. He summons Moses in the middle of the night and says to him “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.” (Exodus 12:31). The Lord even provided for the Israelites when they were leaving: “The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.” (Exodus 12:36) God even geographically lead them the way they should go: “God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country...so God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.” (Exodus 13:17-18).
Wilderness Period:
At this point, the Israelites have finally left their trouble behind. They should make it to the promise land and live happily ever after; but that is just not what happens. They become trapped by the Red Sea, and Pharaoh, his heart hardened once again, is pursuing them with his army. The Israelites cry out to God, and He provides for them once again. Moses stretches his staff over the water and “all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided” (Exodus 14:21). The Egyptian Army tried to follow and God imposed His final judgement on them: “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen-the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.” (Exodus 14:27-28) God’s victory over the Egyptians was complete. “The Lord saved Israel in that day and they saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. This sight became the concrete sign that God had accomplished salvation and brought a new life for Israel.” (Arnold and Beyer 106)
Now on the other side of the Red Sea, the Israelites travel to Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai God gives Moses the laws that are to govern the Israelite nation; so that Israel could be a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). It is God’s covenant with the nation; if they would obey the Law of the Lord, then He would protect them and allow them to be prosperous. This covenant is known as the Sinaitic covenant (Barker 115). All of the Law is based on the Ten Commandments, stated first in Exodus 20:1-17: Do not have any other gods before God, do not make idols for yourself, do not misuse the name of the Lord, remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy, honor your father and mother, do not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet from your neighbor. Chapters 21-23 are known as the “Book of the Covenant” (Exodus 24:7). “These chapters list specific cases in which the principles of covenant law are applied to life” (Arnold and Beyer 106). This includes laws about idols, alters, servents, injury inflicted on another person, property, justice, Sabbath, and the three annual festivals (the Feasts of Unleavened Bread, Harvest, and Ingathering). Moses confirms this covenant in Exodus 24, with a ceremony “binding God and nation together” (Arnold and Beyer 106-107).
The next seven chapters in Exodus (25-31) are devoted to the details of the Tabernacle and all it’s furnishings. This includes very specific instructions on how to construct the Ark of the Covenant, the table and lampstand for the Tabernacle, and the Tabernacle itself, with all it’s alters and the courtyard. Details are even given for the oil that goes in the Lampstand. Instructions are also given for all Priestly Garments: the Ephod, Breatpiece, Robe of the Ephod, Tunic, and even the undergarments. Other commands pertain to such things as a basin for washing, incense, oil, and atonement money. Israel gives an offering to the Lord to construct the Tabernacle and all it’s furnishings.
While Moses is on Mount Sinai receiving instructions from God, the Israelites have already forgotten the Lord. Aaron had formed a calf idol out of gold and the people “have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt’” (Exodus 32:8). “While Yahweh was creating a nation that would reflect his moral likeness, the Israelites were trying to create God in their image” (Arnold and Beyer 107). Moses is furious and melts the gold, grounds it to powder, and forces the Israelites to drink it in water. The Lord very nearly kills all the Israelites, yet Moses speaks on their behalf, and the Lord permits them to live. The Israelites, however, appear to have learned their lesson, for the next four chapters are dedicated to show how the Israelites obeyed the Lords commands in every detail. “The people were obedient to God, down to every detail of the tabernacle’s curtains, rings, and hooks” (Arnold and Beyer 107). The book of Exodus then ends on a high note for the Israelites; they have fulfilled all of the commands the Lord had given them and “the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34).
Leviticus, the next book that records the Wilderness Period, “describes the offerings, the duties of the Levites, and worship at the tabernacle” (Marty 37). The regulations are given for the five main offerings: burnt, grain, fellowship, sin, and guilt offerings (Barker 148). These can also be called the burnt, grain, peace, sin, and trespass offerings (Marty 39). After these, regulations commands are given concerning representative priesthood. These first seven chapters of Leviticus deal with regulations in the Tabernacle; the rest of the book is dedicated to righteous living outside the Tabernacle, known as the “Holiness Code” (Arnold and Beyer 120). Chapters 11-16 explains “the distinction between clean and unclean” (Barker 160), also known as the “Laws of Purity” (Marty 40). “They (the laws of purity) deal with practical, everyday issues in an ancient life: foods, childbirth, skin and fungus diseases, and bodily discharges.” (Arnold and Beyer 121). These chapters detail for us how a person becomes unclean, and therefore needs to be made clean before God. In other words, these chapters “define the uncleanness that make the Day of Atonement necessary” (Arnold and Beyer 122). The Day of Atonement was one of the most important events in the Old Testament. It was by this ceremony that Israel was made “clean before the Lord” (Leviticus 16:30). This ceremony consisted of the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies, where he would offer the blood of offerings to make an atonement for himself and the nation. Also, the High Priest would send out a scapegoat into the desert: “It (scapegoat) physically symbolized the removal of the nation’s sin” (Arnold and Beyer 122). The rest of Leviticus is dedicated to continuing the Holiness Code. “It deals with topics ranging from sexual purity to observance of sacred holidays to fair treatment of the poor” (Arnold and Beyer 122). It states clearly how to keep the Sabbath holy: “You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord” (Leviticus 23:3). The feast of Trumpets, Weeks, and Tabernacles are once again discussed; the nations “appointments to God” (Marty 40). The Lord also outlines a Sabbath for the land; every seven years the Israelites are not to farm the land. This is called the Sabbatical Year: “The land is to have a year of rest.” (Leviticus 25:5). The Lord also proclaims that every seven Sabbatical years (49 years) there is to be a year of jubilation. This is to be a year of celebration for what the Lord has done for Israel: “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.” (Leviticus 25:8-12) All of the commandments given in Leviticus are give for one reason: “You (Israel) shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).
The physical story line picks up once again in the book of Numbers. The Israelites are still camped at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Lord orders Moses to take a census of the 12 tribes of Israel; “The total number (of men able to serve in the army) was 603,550” (Numbers 1:46).The next four chapters “organize the entire nation, both laity and clergy, around the tabernacle” (Arnold and Beyer 130). In other words, the first ten chapters in Numbers prepare the Israelites for their desert journey. After the census the Israelites finally set out from Mount Sinai toward the promise land. However, the Israelites once again begin to rebel against God. Their constant complaining enraged God to the point where “the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp” (Numbers 11:1). Not learning their lesson, the Israelites once again complain, this time about not having meat. This time the Lord grants their request and sends quail to the camp. Miriam and Aaron also rebel against God by opposing the leadership of Moses. “Moses’ own family was jealous of his unique position before the people as God’s sole spokesman. God dramatically affirmed Moses as his chosen leader” (Arnold and Beyer 132). As punishment for this crime Miriam is given leprosy and must leave the Israelite camp for seven days.
When the Israelites get closer to the promise land the Lord commands Moses to send out 12 spies to explore the land. Among them are Joshua, the future leader of Israel, and Caleb, a man who loved God. After exploring the land for 40 days the spies returned to the Israelite community at Kadesh. They did not bring good news.: “The Canaanites were well fortified in the land and enormous in stature, making the Israelite spies look and feel like grasshoppers” (Arnold and Beyer 132). The spies were so afraid and brought such an alarming report back that the Israelites lost their faith in God and were ready to overthrow Moses as leader and head back to Egypt. However, two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, encourage the nation to trust the Lord: “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (Numbers 13:30). The people of Israel did not listen to Joshua and Caleb; they once again rebelled against God. The Lord is finished with their rebellion and condemn the generation to wander in the desert until everyone over the age of twenty is dead. Caleb and Joshua, for their faith, were permitted to live and see the promise land.
After forty years all of the disobedient generation who had rebelled at Kadesh had died. The Lord lead the Israelites, once again, toward the promise land. When they arrived a second time at Kadesh, Moses sins against the Lord. Commanded to speak to a rock to bring forth water, Moses strikes the rock. This angers the Lord and Moses’ punishment is the same as the rebels at Kadesh forty years earlier: “Because you (Moses) did not trust in me (God) enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Numbers 20:12). “Moses’ sin at Kadesh is a reminder that no human leader, not even Moses himself, is exempt from the consequences of unbelief” (Arnold and Beyer 134).
The Israelites finally make their way to the plains of Moab. On the plains of Moab the Israelites rebel many times, and are just saved from God’s destruction by the actions of Moses or other Israeli leaders. In Numbers 26 a second census is taken of the Israelites. This time the population is slightly smaller than the first population: 601,730 men over twenty. The next ten chapters are reminders to Israel of the Laws to keep and how the land is to be divided once the land is given to them.
On the plains of Moab Moses makes three speeches to Israel before he dies. These are what make up the book of Deuteronomy. In essence, these speeches explain the past, present, and future of Israel (Marty 48). The first speech outlines the history of Israel; it “presents a theology of history” (Arnold and Beyer 143). Moses reminds the people of God’s promises to their forefathers; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He recounts all the events of Israel’s wandering in the desert; both the good and the bad. He reminds them of their foolish rebellion, and the consequences, but he also reminds them of their obedience, and the blessings received. “Moses reminded Israel that God’s blessings are often directly related to submission to his will” (Arnold and Beyer 145). Moses’ second speech is mostly reminding Israel of their Covenant Agreement with God. It is by far the longest of the speeches, reaching from Deuteronomy 5 thru chapter 26. Much of the content is repeated from Leviticus and Numbers. Moses implores Israel to live righteously before the Lord. It is in this speech that Moses gives the Shema, the famous verse proclaiming God’s concept of monotheism: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4) (Arnold and Beyer 145). Moses goes on to explain in more detail the law that has been given to the Israelites: “chapters 12-26 are arranged in four major issues that the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, addresses” (Arnold and Beyer 146). The ultimate theme of this speech is obedience. In chapter 28 of Deuteronomy Moses goes into great detail about the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience. “Moses’ final discourse is actually a combination of speeches pertaining to the covenant and the transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua” (Arnold and Beyer 146). In this third and final speech Moses talks about the future of the nation. He not only predicts that they will be victorious in the promise land, but he also correctly predicts their future disobedience, exile, and return (Arnold and Beyer 147). In chapter 31 Moses does two important things; he gives the leadership of Israel over to Joshua and also “provides for the future of the written word” (Arnold and Beyer 146). He wrote down the law and told the nation to read it publicly every seven years. Moses then constructs a song of Israel’s history, so the nation could remember God’s provision: “By them (the words of the song) you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to posses” (Deuteronomy 32:47). Moses, as his final act of leadership, then blesses the 12 tribes of Israel. After this final speech, Moses climbs Mount Nebo and the Lord “showed him the whole land” (Deuteronomy 34:1). Then Moses, the servant of God, died. This ends the Pentateuch; with the Israelites camped on the plains of Moab, ready to conquer the promise land.
Works Cited Page
Arnold, Bill T., and Bryan E. Beyer. Encountering the Old Testament,: A Christian Survey (Encountering Biblical Studies). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2008.
Marty, William M. A Survey of the Old Testament: Student Notes. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2009.
Zondervan NIV Study Bible. Fully rev. ed. Kenneth L. Barker, gen. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002. Print
Primeval Period:
“Genesis 1-11 sets the stage by describing God, his created universe, and the fallenness of humankind” (Arnold and Beyer 78). The book of Genesis, true to its name, starts at the ultimate human beginning; creation. Bill Arnold and Brian Beyer observe that the creation account is “the sad universal story of all humankind” before “the personal story of national Israel” (Arnold and Beyer 78). God creates the world in six days. On the first day he creates light and dark, calling them day and night. The sky followed on the second day. Then land and plants, sun and stars, water animals, and animals and man follow on the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days respectively. Then the Lord rested on the seventh day. In Genesis 2 Adam, the first man, names all the animals and, seeing that Adam needed a companion, God creates the first woman, Eve.
The next nine chapters of Genesis are dedicated to “the moral failure of humankind” (Arnold and Beyer 82). First, sin enters the world when Adam and Eve fail to obey God by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. After being punished by God and banished from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve follow God’s command to “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth...” (Genesis 1:28). Yet humanity proves its capacity for evil again in Chapter four, when Cain kills his brother Abel out of jealousy. God warns Cain, along with all mankind, “If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door” (Genesis 4:7). This verse is a theme verse for the Primeval Period (Arnold and Beyer 83).
In the years that follow Cain and Abel, the earth becomes so evil and disgusting to God that He decides to destroy it altogether by flooding the earth. He commands Noah, a righteous man on the earth, to build a boat. This boat would ensure the earth’s survival by protecting Noah and his family, along with two of every unclean animal and seven of every clean animal. When the boat was completed and Noah, his family, and all the animals were safely on the boat, God sent the flood. “All the springs of the great deep bust forth and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.” (Genesis 7:11). “Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out” (Genesis 7:23). Yet Noah, his family, and the animals on the boat survived, and at the end of the flood, repopulated the earth.
In Genesis 11, mankind once again rebels against God. Filled with pride and a desire to “make a name” (Genesis 11:4) for themselves, the people of the earth begin to make a tall tower in the plain of Shinar. God, angered by “the pride and arrogant rebellion of humanity” (Arnold and Beyer 85), confused mankind by giving them different languages and “scattered them over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:9). “The Universal situation is nothing but despair. But here the line of Shem continues and narrows to a single family, that of Terah, father of Abram.” (Arnold and Beyer 86). So begins the Patriarchal Period.
Patriarchal Period:
In as much as Genesis 1-11 sets the stage, Genesis 12-50 begins the play. While the first eleven chapters has showed the total depravity, the next set of events begins God’s plan to restore mankind to righteousness.
The first character to enter stage right is a man from Ur named Abram. God calls Abram to leave his home and “go to the land I (God) will show you (Abram)” (Genesis 12:1). Abram’s response is recorded in verse 4 “So Abram left, as the Lord had told him” (Genesis 12:4). God also makes a covenant with Abram. God promises to make Abram into a great nation, to make Abram’s name great, to bless those who bless Abram, curse those who curse Abram, and that “all people on earth will be blessed through you (Abram)” (Genesis 12:3). This covenent, therefore, had three different levels; personal, national, and universal. First, personal promises were made to Abram, such as “I will make your name great” (Genesis 12:2) and will “curse those who curse you” (Genesis 12:3). Also, promises specific to a nation, eventually Israel, such as “I will make you a great nation” (Genesis 12:2). Lastly, God promises “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 2:3), a promise to all mankind (Marty 20). Abram’s trust in this promise and to God is evident throughout his life; to the point where he would have sacrificied his only son if God asked him (Genesis 22). God promises a son to Abram in Genesis 15, “one of those important passsages in the Bible that demands our careful reading” (Arnold and Beyer 93). It is here Abram cries out to God that he has no hope of reward, for he has no children, yet God reassures him that he will have a child, and his decendents will be like the stars in the sky. In “one of the most important verses of the Bible” (Arnold and Beyer 93) it says “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). In Romans it tells us that, through such faith, Abraham became the forefather of all Christians (Arnold and Beyer 94). In Genesis 17 God once again calls upon Abram to follow him. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, and then orders him to circumcise himself and all males in his household, for “it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you” (Genesis 17:11). After having a son named Ishmael thru his slave girl, Abraham and his wife Sarah are finally blessed with the promised son in Chapter 21. They name him Isaac. Yet God choses to test Abraham one last time. God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Abraham’s only hope for the promises made to him by God. Abraham, however, passes the test; as Abraham’s knife is in the air the angel of the Lord calls to him to stop. “This event is the climax of Abraham’s spiritual journey” (Arnold and Beyer 97). Isaac, although the promised son, quickly fades to the background of the story after the birth of his twins; Jacob and Esau. Although Esau is the firstborn, it is apparent that “Privilege of position by birth has little to do with our standing before God” (Arnold and Beyer 97). Jacob is chosen to continue the covenant and promises made to Abraham. Yet Jacob’s road to blessing is not easy. First, a confrontation with his brother Esau, brought on by Jacob’s own decietfulness, forces Jacob to run to Haran, a far away land. There he meets his uncle Laban, and marries both Laban’s daughters: Leah and Rachel. He works fourteen years in Haran and is decieved by Laban many times. God, however, does not forsake Jacob in Haran. God blesses him with 12 sons (although with four different women; Leah and Rachel and their slave girls, Bilhah and Zilpah). In Genesis 30:43 is says “In this way the man (Jacob) grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants, and camels and donkeys.” Jacob eventually reconciles with Esau and returns home to Canaan.
The story then continues with one of Jacob’s sons, named Joseph. Joseph is interesting in that he is the only patriarch who is not “in the direct line of the covenant promises (Arnold and Beyer 98), that is, he is not a direct descendent of the Messiah. Yet Joseph is important in two respects; his faithfulness to God in the face of the hardest of circumstances and how the Israelites ended up in Egypt (Arnold and Beyer 98). Joseph is favored by his father because he is one of two sons birthed by Jacob’s most beloved wife, Rachel. As a result of this favoritism, especially in Jacob’s gift of a “richly ornamented robe” (Genesis 37:3), his brothers hated him. Genesis 37:11 tells us that the root of this hate is jealousy. The brothers’s hate grows to the point where they wish to kill him, but at the last second change their plans; instead, they sell Joseph as a slave. Joseph is taken to Egypt and is purchased by Potiphar, a high ranking man in Pharaoh's government. God looks over Joseph, and he rises to the rank of head servant in Potiphar’s house. Yet Joseph’s life takes yet another turn for the worst when Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him, and when Joseph refuses, Potiphar’s wife claims he tried to rape her. This charge sends Joseph to prison. Even in prison God did not abandon him. “While Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness” (Genesis 39:20, 21) In prison Joseph soon rises and gains the trust of the warden of the prison. One day, the chief baker and wine taster in Pharaoh’s palace are thrown in Joseph’s prison. Joseph, by the power of God, correctly interpret dreams for these two, and begs the wine taster, who is to be reinstated, to “remember me (Joseph) and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison” (Genesis 40:14). Yet the wine taster forgets Joseph for two years, until Pharaoh has two troubling dreams. When “all the magicians and wise men in Egypt” (Genesis 41:8) could not interpret these dreams, the wine taster tells Pharaoh of Joseph, and Pharaoh sends for him. Joseph, again by the power of God, is able to correctly interpret the dreams. The dreams foretell of seven years of prosperity in Egypt, followed by seven years of famine in Egypt. Joseph suggests that the food from the prosperous years “should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine” (Genesis 41:36). Pharaoh is pleased by this wisdom and appoints Joseph as second in command in all of Egypt; so Joseph did as he said and stored up grain from the seven years of prosperity. After seven years, the famine came. “All the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the world” (Genesis 41:57). The famine even reached Jacob and his family in Canaan; so Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to buy grain. Through various tests, Joseph finds that his brothers have changed, and are sorry for what they have done. He reveals who he is to his brothers, and the reunion is very joyful. In one of the best verses for those in trouble Joseph says to his brothers “do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” (Genesis 45:5). Joseph tells his brothers to bring his father Jacob, and all of his household, to Egypt, that they might survive the famine. Jacob is overjoyed that his son Joseph is still alive and moves his entire family to Egypt and settles in Goshen. Both Jacob and Joseph live and die in Egypt, yet God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not forgotten. In Genesis 50:24 Joseph says “God will surely came to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. This promise, however, took many years and hardships to come to fulfillment.
Exodus:
The Exodus period, along with the book of Exodus, begin roughly 400 years after Joseph; and things are not looking good for the Israelites. “As the book opens, the patriarchal covenant promises are in jeopardy” (Arnold and Beyer 105). The Israelites are in Egypt, miles away from God’s promised land, and the Egyptians are brutally oppressing the them. The Egyptians have enslaved the Israelites, “and worked them ruthlessly” (Exodus 1:13). Yet God uses this hopeless situation to show His amazing power and grace. God hears the Israelites in their oppression: “The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” (Exodus 2:23-25). “God did not forget or forsake his people” (Arnold and Beyer 105). He sends them a deliverer; his name is Moses.
“Moses is God’s answer to this terrible predicament” (Arnold and Beyer 105). Moses is born during a time when Pharaoh has ordered all Hebrew, male babies to be murdered. To protect her son’s life, Moses’ mother puts Moses in a papyrus basket and, trusting God to protect her baby, releases the basket along the Nile River. By God’s provision, the basket is found by an Egyptian princess. This princess raises Moses in the house of Pharaoh. When Moses is older he sympathizes with his people’s bondage and, in a fit of rage, kills an Egyptian who is beating an Israelite. When this is discovered, Moses flees Egypt and settles in Midian. “Moses found his way to Midian, where he started life over again. He tried to gorget about the terrible plight of the Hebrews by settling into a new occupation, a new family, a new home” (Arnold and Beyer 105). Moses was probably around 40 at this time (Barker 90). God was not done with Moses. “Moses and God were on a collision course. The Lord was determined to save the Israelites; Moses was determined to forget about them. The famous call of Moses at the burning bush is where the two collide.” (Arnold and Beyer 105) At this “burning bush” the Lord calls Moses back to Egypt, to tell Pharaoh to let His people go. Moses resists. “Moses raised four objections, all of which God answered. Finally Moses simply refused to go: ‘please send someone else’ (Exodus 4:13)” (Arnold and Beyer 105). After Moses is done with his objections, he heads to Egypt.
When Moses arrives in Egypt he goes to Pharaoh to demand the freedom of the Israelites. “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Let my people go...’” (Exodus 5:1). Pharaoh refuses and is enraged by the demand. He works the Israelites even harder; ordering them to make the same amount of bricks, but not providing straw. Moses returns to Pharaoh and warns him of “impending disaster if the Egyptian ruler failed to obey God’s command to let the people go” (Arnold and Beyer 105). This “impending disaster” came in the form of the ten plagues. “The ten plagues were intended not only to force the Egyptians into compliance, but also to teach the Egyptians and the Israelites about the sovereign character of the God of Israel” (Arnold and Beyer 105-106). God planned these plagues to directly insult the polytheistic religion of Egypt: “I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12). The plagues insult such Egyptian deities as: Hapi, a god strongly tied to the nile river, Heqt, the god of childbirth, who took the form of a frog, the bull-gods Apis and Mnevis, the cow-god Hathor, the ram-god Khnum, and one of the chief deities, Ra, the sun god. The ten plagues appear to have come in groups of three, with Moses talking to Pharaoh between each sequence. First the plagues of blood, frogs, and gnats; followed by the plagues of flies, livestock and boils; then the last sequence of locust, hail, and darkness (Barker 97-101). The tenth and final plague kills all the firstborn in the land of Egypt; “from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well” (Exodus 11:5). It is this plague that finally breaks the will of Pharaoh. This tenth plague also introduces us to a very important first in redemptive history, the first Passover.
God wanted the Israelites to always remember His power and mercy in rescuing them from Egypt; as well as test His people, to see if they would obey his commands. He gave specific commands to Moses on how to instruct the people to prepare for the Passover. They were to kill a lamb, “year-old males without defect”, and “take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses” (Exodus 12). There was to be no yeast in any Israelite house for seven days, and they were to eat the Passover meal with bread made without yeast and bitter herbs. If the Israelites did this, God did not bring this destructive plague upon them: “I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. (Exodus 12:12-13)” The Passover is important in redemptive history because it foreshadowed what Jesus would eventually do for all mankind. “Jesus is our ‘Passover lamb’ (1 Co 5:7), sacrificed ‘once for all’ (Heb 7:27) for us” (Barker 104). Jesus’ blood allows God’s wrath to “pass over” us and onto Him.
Pharaoh finally breaks to the will of God. He summons Moses in the middle of the night and says to him “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.” (Exodus 12:31). The Lord even provided for the Israelites when they were leaving: “The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.” (Exodus 12:36) God even geographically lead them the way they should go: “God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country...so God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.” (Exodus 13:17-18).
Wilderness Period:
At this point, the Israelites have finally left their trouble behind. They should make it to the promise land and live happily ever after; but that is just not what happens. They become trapped by the Red Sea, and Pharaoh, his heart hardened once again, is pursuing them with his army. The Israelites cry out to God, and He provides for them once again. Moses stretches his staff over the water and “all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided” (Exodus 14:21). The Egyptian Army tried to follow and God imposed His final judgement on them: “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen-the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.” (Exodus 14:27-28) God’s victory over the Egyptians was complete. “The Lord saved Israel in that day and they saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. This sight became the concrete sign that God had accomplished salvation and brought a new life for Israel.” (Arnold and Beyer 106)
Now on the other side of the Red Sea, the Israelites travel to Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai God gives Moses the laws that are to govern the Israelite nation; so that Israel could be a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). It is God’s covenant with the nation; if they would obey the Law of the Lord, then He would protect them and allow them to be prosperous. This covenant is known as the Sinaitic covenant (Barker 115). All of the Law is based on the Ten Commandments, stated first in Exodus 20:1-17: Do not have any other gods before God, do not make idols for yourself, do not misuse the name of the Lord, remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy, honor your father and mother, do not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet from your neighbor. Chapters 21-23 are known as the “Book of the Covenant” (Exodus 24:7). “These chapters list specific cases in which the principles of covenant law are applied to life” (Arnold and Beyer 106). This includes laws about idols, alters, servents, injury inflicted on another person, property, justice, Sabbath, and the three annual festivals (the Feasts of Unleavened Bread, Harvest, and Ingathering). Moses confirms this covenant in Exodus 24, with a ceremony “binding God and nation together” (Arnold and Beyer 106-107).
The next seven chapters in Exodus (25-31) are devoted to the details of the Tabernacle and all it’s furnishings. This includes very specific instructions on how to construct the Ark of the Covenant, the table and lampstand for the Tabernacle, and the Tabernacle itself, with all it’s alters and the courtyard. Details are even given for the oil that goes in the Lampstand. Instructions are also given for all Priestly Garments: the Ephod, Breatpiece, Robe of the Ephod, Tunic, and even the undergarments. Other commands pertain to such things as a basin for washing, incense, oil, and atonement money. Israel gives an offering to the Lord to construct the Tabernacle and all it’s furnishings.
While Moses is on Mount Sinai receiving instructions from God, the Israelites have already forgotten the Lord. Aaron had formed a calf idol out of gold and the people “have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt’” (Exodus 32:8). “While Yahweh was creating a nation that would reflect his moral likeness, the Israelites were trying to create God in their image” (Arnold and Beyer 107). Moses is furious and melts the gold, grounds it to powder, and forces the Israelites to drink it in water. The Lord very nearly kills all the Israelites, yet Moses speaks on their behalf, and the Lord permits them to live. The Israelites, however, appear to have learned their lesson, for the next four chapters are dedicated to show how the Israelites obeyed the Lords commands in every detail. “The people were obedient to God, down to every detail of the tabernacle’s curtains, rings, and hooks” (Arnold and Beyer 107). The book of Exodus then ends on a high note for the Israelites; they have fulfilled all of the commands the Lord had given them and “the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34).
Leviticus, the next book that records the Wilderness Period, “describes the offerings, the duties of the Levites, and worship at the tabernacle” (Marty 37). The regulations are given for the five main offerings: burnt, grain, fellowship, sin, and guilt offerings (Barker 148). These can also be called the burnt, grain, peace, sin, and trespass offerings (Marty 39). After these, regulations commands are given concerning representative priesthood. These first seven chapters of Leviticus deal with regulations in the Tabernacle; the rest of the book is dedicated to righteous living outside the Tabernacle, known as the “Holiness Code” (Arnold and Beyer 120). Chapters 11-16 explains “the distinction between clean and unclean” (Barker 160), also known as the “Laws of Purity” (Marty 40). “They (the laws of purity) deal with practical, everyday issues in an ancient life: foods, childbirth, skin and fungus diseases, and bodily discharges.” (Arnold and Beyer 121). These chapters detail for us how a person becomes unclean, and therefore needs to be made clean before God. In other words, these chapters “define the uncleanness that make the Day of Atonement necessary” (Arnold and Beyer 122). The Day of Atonement was one of the most important events in the Old Testament. It was by this ceremony that Israel was made “clean before the Lord” (Leviticus 16:30). This ceremony consisted of the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies, where he would offer the blood of offerings to make an atonement for himself and the nation. Also, the High Priest would send out a scapegoat into the desert: “It (scapegoat) physically symbolized the removal of the nation’s sin” (Arnold and Beyer 122). The rest of Leviticus is dedicated to continuing the Holiness Code. “It deals with topics ranging from sexual purity to observance of sacred holidays to fair treatment of the poor” (Arnold and Beyer 122). It states clearly how to keep the Sabbath holy: “You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord” (Leviticus 23:3). The feast of Trumpets, Weeks, and Tabernacles are once again discussed; the nations “appointments to God” (Marty 40). The Lord also outlines a Sabbath for the land; every seven years the Israelites are not to farm the land. This is called the Sabbatical Year: “The land is to have a year of rest.” (Leviticus 25:5). The Lord also proclaims that every seven Sabbatical years (49 years) there is to be a year of jubilation. This is to be a year of celebration for what the Lord has done for Israel: “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.” (Leviticus 25:8-12) All of the commandments given in Leviticus are give for one reason: “You (Israel) shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).
The physical story line picks up once again in the book of Numbers. The Israelites are still camped at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Lord orders Moses to take a census of the 12 tribes of Israel; “The total number (of men able to serve in the army) was 603,550” (Numbers 1:46).The next four chapters “organize the entire nation, both laity and clergy, around the tabernacle” (Arnold and Beyer 130). In other words, the first ten chapters in Numbers prepare the Israelites for their desert journey. After the census the Israelites finally set out from Mount Sinai toward the promise land. However, the Israelites once again begin to rebel against God. Their constant complaining enraged God to the point where “the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp” (Numbers 11:1). Not learning their lesson, the Israelites once again complain, this time about not having meat. This time the Lord grants their request and sends quail to the camp. Miriam and Aaron also rebel against God by opposing the leadership of Moses. “Moses’ own family was jealous of his unique position before the people as God’s sole spokesman. God dramatically affirmed Moses as his chosen leader” (Arnold and Beyer 132). As punishment for this crime Miriam is given leprosy and must leave the Israelite camp for seven days.
When the Israelites get closer to the promise land the Lord commands Moses to send out 12 spies to explore the land. Among them are Joshua, the future leader of Israel, and Caleb, a man who loved God. After exploring the land for 40 days the spies returned to the Israelite community at Kadesh. They did not bring good news.: “The Canaanites were well fortified in the land and enormous in stature, making the Israelite spies look and feel like grasshoppers” (Arnold and Beyer 132). The spies were so afraid and brought such an alarming report back that the Israelites lost their faith in God and were ready to overthrow Moses as leader and head back to Egypt. However, two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, encourage the nation to trust the Lord: “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (Numbers 13:30). The people of Israel did not listen to Joshua and Caleb; they once again rebelled against God. The Lord is finished with their rebellion and condemn the generation to wander in the desert until everyone over the age of twenty is dead. Caleb and Joshua, for their faith, were permitted to live and see the promise land.
After forty years all of the disobedient generation who had rebelled at Kadesh had died. The Lord lead the Israelites, once again, toward the promise land. When they arrived a second time at Kadesh, Moses sins against the Lord. Commanded to speak to a rock to bring forth water, Moses strikes the rock. This angers the Lord and Moses’ punishment is the same as the rebels at Kadesh forty years earlier: “Because you (Moses) did not trust in me (God) enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Numbers 20:12). “Moses’ sin at Kadesh is a reminder that no human leader, not even Moses himself, is exempt from the consequences of unbelief” (Arnold and Beyer 134).
The Israelites finally make their way to the plains of Moab. On the plains of Moab the Israelites rebel many times, and are just saved from God’s destruction by the actions of Moses or other Israeli leaders. In Numbers 26 a second census is taken of the Israelites. This time the population is slightly smaller than the first population: 601,730 men over twenty. The next ten chapters are reminders to Israel of the Laws to keep and how the land is to be divided once the land is given to them.
On the plains of Moab Moses makes three speeches to Israel before he dies. These are what make up the book of Deuteronomy. In essence, these speeches explain the past, present, and future of Israel (Marty 48). The first speech outlines the history of Israel; it “presents a theology of history” (Arnold and Beyer 143). Moses reminds the people of God’s promises to their forefathers; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He recounts all the events of Israel’s wandering in the desert; both the good and the bad. He reminds them of their foolish rebellion, and the consequences, but he also reminds them of their obedience, and the blessings received. “Moses reminded Israel that God’s blessings are often directly related to submission to his will” (Arnold and Beyer 145). Moses’ second speech is mostly reminding Israel of their Covenant Agreement with God. It is by far the longest of the speeches, reaching from Deuteronomy 5 thru chapter 26. Much of the content is repeated from Leviticus and Numbers. Moses implores Israel to live righteously before the Lord. It is in this speech that Moses gives the Shema, the famous verse proclaiming God’s concept of monotheism: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4) (Arnold and Beyer 145). Moses goes on to explain in more detail the law that has been given to the Israelites: “chapters 12-26 are arranged in four major issues that the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, addresses” (Arnold and Beyer 146). The ultimate theme of this speech is obedience. In chapter 28 of Deuteronomy Moses goes into great detail about the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience. “Moses’ final discourse is actually a combination of speeches pertaining to the covenant and the transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua” (Arnold and Beyer 146). In this third and final speech Moses talks about the future of the nation. He not only predicts that they will be victorious in the promise land, but he also correctly predicts their future disobedience, exile, and return (Arnold and Beyer 147). In chapter 31 Moses does two important things; he gives the leadership of Israel over to Joshua and also “provides for the future of the written word” (Arnold and Beyer 146). He wrote down the law and told the nation to read it publicly every seven years. Moses then constructs a song of Israel’s history, so the nation could remember God’s provision: “By them (the words of the song) you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to posses” (Deuteronomy 32:47). Moses, as his final act of leadership, then blesses the 12 tribes of Israel. After this final speech, Moses climbs Mount Nebo and the Lord “showed him the whole land” (Deuteronomy 34:1). Then Moses, the servant of God, died. This ends the Pentateuch; with the Israelites camped on the plains of Moab, ready to conquer the promise land.
Works Cited Page
Arnold, Bill T., and Bryan E. Beyer. Encountering the Old Testament,: A Christian Survey (Encountering Biblical Studies). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2008.
Marty, William M. A Survey of the Old Testament: Student Notes. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2009.
Zondervan NIV Study Bible. Fully rev. ed. Kenneth L. Barker, gen. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002. Print
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The Gospel
Want a picture of God's Justice? Read Deuteronomy 28. God lays down what will happen to His people, Israel, if they disobey or obey His commandments. How great are the blessings and how horrible the curses. You have to read the entire chapter to fully realize the immense gap between these two actions. How serious God is about righteousness. Remember when you read that Jesus paid the price, He took that punishment. Because of our awesome Savior we are saved from the wrath of God. It is impossible for us to achieve God's law; Romans 8:6-8 says that "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, NOR CAN IT DO SO. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God". All humanity is destined to God's righteous wrath. Yet, as the hymn says, the wrath of God was satisfied. It is satisfied by the perfect blood of Jesus Christ. He took all that wrath upon Him; all He asks in return is for you to give Him your life. You will lose it anyway. That's what Jesus means when He says in Matthew 16:25 you must deny your life to gain it. For if you keep your life for yourself you will run into God's wrath. Read the second half of Dut. 28; the wrath of God is not a good place to be. Yet if you lose your life to Christ, your whole life, having faith that He will save you, you will gain life. He gave his life as your ransom: "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45). Doesn't it make sense now. So many people are confused with what Christianity is. Martin Luther calls it the Great Exchange: “This is that mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ’s, and the righteousness of Christ not Christ’s but ours. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us with it and fill us with it; and he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them.” (Matin Luther). Not only to do you gain the life you would have lost, but it is a far better life than you would have had. John 10:10 says "...I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." We call this the Gospel. How is there any reason left to not have faith in Jesus? I beg you to come to Him, save yourself from the wrath of God, for it is just. Have faith in Jesus. Links are below for more information.
Deuteronomy 28
More about the Gospel
*If anyone has any question about anything on this article please leave a comment and your e-mail and I will be glad to talk to you about it.
Deuteronomy 28
More about the Gospel
*If anyone has any question about anything on this article please leave a comment and your e-mail and I will be glad to talk to you about it.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Overcoming My Idol
My biggest struggle is acceptance. I love to be liked. I love to have friends and family who love me back. I love to be the center of conversation. I love to be the one that everyone loves. I have loved this love of like more than God, and that is my sin. Of course, with this sin came my other crowning sin, pride. I was proud of my Christian walk. I have never smoked a cigarette or drunk a beer. I never touched drugs and curses never flew from my mouth. I was proud of my “success” as a Christian. Yet I was sinner through and through. My life was based on acceptance. I would sometimes do my devotions purely so I could tell people I had done my devotions. I would sometimes tell jokes to friends that I knew I shouldn’t have for laughter. It is so funny how we chastise bible characters like Esau for doing something so stupid as selling his birthright for a bowl of soup, then we turn around and do the same thing. I would sell my birthright for a laugh. In fact, I would sell more, my very soul. Praise God he has redeemed and saved me from such a worthless trade. I now realize how foolish I was (and still am). I used God to feed my pride and need of acceptance. I turned the best good the world has ever known into an avenue to gain popularity and privilege. Jesus pinned me in Matthew 23:25: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean”. Francis Chan once said to his church: “God doesn’t want you hear singing ‘hallelujah’ if your life screams ‘crucify him!’”. I was a Pharisee. My cup was clean as could be on the outside, but filthy inside. I sang loud and well “Hallelujah!” on Sunday, yet deep in my heart I yelled “Crucify Him!”. Yet God forgives; even such evil as I have done. Finally broken by God, I laid all my life bare before Him (as if it all was not already). I surrendered everything. I prayed for the Holy Spirit’s help with my addiction to pride and people pleasing. I had to give up my ambition, my strength, and all the wisdom I thought I have. It was all God’s. I prayed that He might take my life and do with it what He will. Like the song says, I got to the point where it was well with my soul. Everything God could will was well with my soul. Whether I pastored a church of 40,000 or 4. Whether I married a beautiful wife or lived alone. Whether I was hated or loved. I realized God was the only one I needed to please. God is the only thing I must have pride in (Jer 9:23-24). I deny life that I may gain real life (Matt 16:25).
Let me be clear, I have not conquered my sin; yet with God’s help I am improving. I struggle daily with the reasons I do the things I do. Also, realize that I did not begin improving by praying and then going back to what I was doing before. One of my favorite verses is Exodus 14:15. The Israelites are trapped by the Red Sea and cry out to God, and He says to Moses “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.” The Israelites knew God’s promises, they saw His power in Egypt with the plagues. They should have had hope and faith in God, prayed to Him for help, then moved on. We have God on our side, why are we afraid to do anything? Of course, God doesn’t need our help, but He wants us to truly love Him, so he gives us choices to make. In fact, trials and temptations are suppose to create perseverance in us (James 1:2-8).
So what did I do specifically to “move on”? I have to always ask myself if my reasons for doing anything is for man or God. Even while writing this article I asked God if I am writing this so others will think better of me, or if I am writing so others may avoid my mistakes. I don’t volunteer to pray aloud as much as I used to; to avoid the temptations of “babbling like the pagans” or praying “to be seen by men” (Matt 6:5-8). When I sing praises to God I do so softly, or sometimes don’t even sing, but listen to those around me, or pray. So that no one can praise my voice, for it does not deserve to be praised. I don’t raise my hands or kneel, so I do not draw anyone’s attention to myself. I praise my God silently. In theological discussions I listen more than I speak (although there is always a time to speak). I don’t ask questions I know the answers to. I have devotions in secret, so no one will find me. And I do not hope that someone finds me while in my quiet time with my Savior. Don’t misunderstand me, most of these things are not evil, it is simply that I have found that in my life these restrictions help me avoid temptation.
What are your struggles? What do you put above God? What can you do to truly put those idols behind you? Identifying your idol is the hardest part. Once you know your enemy, attack it. Take it fully from your life if you can, run like Joseph ran from Potiphar’s wife. Pray to God for help, He is faithful and will always give you a way out of your temptation (1 Cor 10:13). With God’s help, you can do it. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength (Phil 4:13). You are never lost to God; He can bring you back from your sin. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26) Give up your life, that you might gain real life!
Let me be clear, I have not conquered my sin; yet with God’s help I am improving. I struggle daily with the reasons I do the things I do. Also, realize that I did not begin improving by praying and then going back to what I was doing before. One of my favorite verses is Exodus 14:15. The Israelites are trapped by the Red Sea and cry out to God, and He says to Moses “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.” The Israelites knew God’s promises, they saw His power in Egypt with the plagues. They should have had hope and faith in God, prayed to Him for help, then moved on. We have God on our side, why are we afraid to do anything? Of course, God doesn’t need our help, but He wants us to truly love Him, so he gives us choices to make. In fact, trials and temptations are suppose to create perseverance in us (James 1:2-8).
So what did I do specifically to “move on”? I have to always ask myself if my reasons for doing anything is for man or God. Even while writing this article I asked God if I am writing this so others will think better of me, or if I am writing so others may avoid my mistakes. I don’t volunteer to pray aloud as much as I used to; to avoid the temptations of “babbling like the pagans” or praying “to be seen by men” (Matt 6:5-8). When I sing praises to God I do so softly, or sometimes don’t even sing, but listen to those around me, or pray. So that no one can praise my voice, for it does not deserve to be praised. I don’t raise my hands or kneel, so I do not draw anyone’s attention to myself. I praise my God silently. In theological discussions I listen more than I speak (although there is always a time to speak). I don’t ask questions I know the answers to. I have devotions in secret, so no one will find me. And I do not hope that someone finds me while in my quiet time with my Savior. Don’t misunderstand me, most of these things are not evil, it is simply that I have found that in my life these restrictions help me avoid temptation.
What are your struggles? What do you put above God? What can you do to truly put those idols behind you? Identifying your idol is the hardest part. Once you know your enemy, attack it. Take it fully from your life if you can, run like Joseph ran from Potiphar’s wife. Pray to God for help, He is faithful and will always give you a way out of your temptation (1 Cor 10:13). With God’s help, you can do it. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength (Phil 4:13). You are never lost to God; He can bring you back from your sin. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26) Give up your life, that you might gain real life!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Hosea and Our Idols
So I have recently begun to read Hosea for devotions. This little book towards the back of the Old Testament is often swiftly read over by daily bible readers eager to get to the Gospels. Yet this little book has taught me so much in the past two days. The story is very simple; Israel has fallen away from the one true God and have replaced Him in their hearts with idols. The prophet Hosea, following God’s orders, then marries the prostitute Gomer to represent to Israel what they are doing to God. Gomer, after having three children with Hosea, gives in to her old temptations and returns to the brothel. God uses this illustration to pierce the hearts of the Israelites. In chapter 2 God tells Israel of their evil. He rebukes them and warns that, because they did not turn away He will make “her (Israel) as bare as on the day she was born, I will make her like a desert.” (Hosea 2:3). This chapter is perhaps one of the best pictures of how God works through the trials for “the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Of Israel God says “I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them...I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her nakedness...I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers...I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals...and went after lovers, but me she forgot” (Hosea 2:6-7, 9, 12-13). The first thought many Christians have when they read this is “I don’t worship any idols. I don’t have any wooden statues or incense to deities.” That thought is what many times keeps people from learning things for these Old Testament books. We still have plenty of idols in our day! They just changed their names. Mark Driscoll once said “Idols are normally good things, that we turn into god things, and that makes them bad things”. I’ll give you some examples: a young Christian man who wants to look for a good Christian wife. Obviously, that is not a bad thing, it is a very good thing. Yet if that becomes a quest, a life-consuming goal to the point where the young man loves the idea of this woman more than God, that is an idol. Same thing can happen in a marriage or friendship. Anything we place above God is an idol. Some other idols can include pleasure, pride, jealousy, jobs, family, Christian ministry, sex, people pleasing, knowledge, education, grades, perfection, being spiritual, recognition, leadership, and so many more. The root of all sins are idolatry! That’s why Hosea is such an amazing book; we all are like Israel. We all forget about God, we all cling to other lovers, we all burn incense to our own Baals. So God, in His all-knowing love, blocks our paths, unsatisfies us, punishes us. Takes away our comfort, our security, our money, our lovers. We are left naked like the desert. Yet this is not the end of the story. Gomer is saved by Hosea, who buys her back and brings her into his house and loves her. God uses an even better illustration. “I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her...I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness and you will acknowledge that I am God.”(Hosea 2:15, 19-20) This reunion is so wonderful that the Bible says, “‘In that day’, declares the Lord ‘you will call me “my husband”; you will no longer call me “my master”’”. (Hosea 2:16). This grace is so amazing that any anger or resentment or reluctance we feel melts away. The fear we had because of his punishment, that fear that makes us call him “master”, is gone when His embrace turns our fear into love as we utter through our tears “husband”. We change our name of God from a fearful name to one of affection. How amazing is God’s forgiveness. It changes fear to love, and turns a sinner into a saint. Turn from your idols, and run back to God!
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