The extreme detail and exquisite design of the tabernacle and everything that went in it is something to marvel. They used the very best materials (gold, bronze, silver, acacia wood, and the best essential oils known to man) to create a place of worship for the Lord God. But as I read today’s OT reading, I couldn’t help but think, “All of the splendor and majesty of the tabernacle was still not good enough for true worship. Christ still had to come. In fact, He was already slain and waiting for the Father to dispatch Him at the time when they were actually building the tabernacle!” We must keep this in mind as we are sifting through the Scriptures this year in order to understand the depth and severity of the Messiah and His redemptive work.

Speaking of redemptive work…

In our NT reading, we are in the middle of Passion Week. Christ is coming closer and closer to death, but before He dies He has to set the Pharisees straight once and for all. Now, let me pause right here to say this: The Pharisees were NOT “bad” men! In most teachings they are depicted as some rebellious God-hating sinners when in fact these guys were morally upright. They kept all the laws, were well-versed in the Scriptures, kept all the holy holidays, and were keepers of the temple ordinances. These were nice men with good intentions, but as the saying goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” and that’s exactly what Jesus was saying.

Jesus repeatedly calls them hypocrites because all the good that they were doing outwardly didn’t amount to a hill of beans because their hearts had not been transformed. They knew the Scriptures—they TAUGHT the Scriptures—yet they did not know the One to whom the Scriptures were about. He accuses them of being clean on the outside but dirty on the inside. He tells them that their proselytizing is worthless and that they make it harder—if not impossible—to enter the Kingdom.

Whoa, Jesus! What are you trying to teach us here?

The implication of the word hypocrite has everything to do with the condition of the heart. You can know the Word, teach the Word, be the first one in the church and the last one out, pass out tracts and evangelize on the street corners, pay your tithe, fellowship with the brethren, and do all the things that make you look righteous on the outside…But if your heart has not been transformed by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you do not understand that worshiping God is not restricted to a majestic place or merely something that we do but that it starts with a transformation of the heart, you are a hypocrite and no good will come from you. And on that Day, He will say, “Depart from me. I NEVER knew you…”

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In the OT, we open with the Lord telling Moses that He has filled a man with His Holy Spirit to empower him to do the work that He called them to do. He graced them with the ability, intelligence, knowledge, and craftsmanship to worship Him.

God does not leave us to ourselves to figure out how to worship Him. He has given us a specific way (in Christ) and endows us with His Holy Spirit to do so.

Moses has been up on that mountain for quite some time getting instructions from Lord, and the Israelites get very impatient—so impatient that they convince Aaron to build them an idol god so that they could “worship” Him. The ink on the Ten Commandments hasn’t even dried yet, and they are already SERIOUSLY violating the first one! God’s sees this and gets angry enough to want to destroy them. However, Moses intercedes for them and God spares them from His wrath.

We must ALWAYS wait patiently on God and refuse to settle for a cheap idol to fill our desire for worship. Ours may not be a golden calf. Maybe it’s our car, gadgets, children, or spouse…Also, let us never downgrade the power of prayer—especially intercession. Because of Moses’ faithfulness to God and willingness to intercede for His people, Moses was able to see the glory of God—so will we. Chances are He’s not going to side-slide by you on a mountain while you hide in a rock, but His glory will be revealed in others ways, namely His Son and the fruit of your regenerated heart’s work for Him.

In our NT reading, the Sadducees have approached Jesus in an attempt to disprove Him, and He throws a wrench in their plans with one of His classic moves: the double entendre (ambiguity of meaning arising from language that lends itself to more than one interpretation). He tells them that they do not know the Scriptures or the power of God and that God is not the God of the dead but of the living.

The Sadducees could recite Scriptures but they didn’t know the Scriptures. Jesus counts that as not knowing God at all because if they did they would have understood the things He was trying to teach them. Jesus also tells them, “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” Jesus meant that literally to validate the resurrection, but He was also trying to convey that God is not the God of those who are spiritually dead and stuck in their religious traditions. He is the God of those who are alive IN CHRIST. Only those alive in Christ can rightfully say they belong to God and He to them. The spiritually dead are not in Christ; therefore, He is not their God.

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Today’s reading has us listening in to the conversation God had with Moses. God is giving details on how He is to be worshipped and not only that, who is allowed to approach Him. We have before us the purification of the priest, the instruments of worship, how God is to be approached and what must be offered to Him as acceptable. You see God gave CLEAR details and nothing else will be accepted. The result of approaching God wrong, offering something unacceptable, using the wrong instruments and even substituting something else for what HE has commanded resulted in only one thing. DEATH!

Today; however, many believe they can worship God however they please. You hear “come as you are” or even worse, many teachers in the body of Christ feel that anything and everything is acceptable. Others say “don’t judge”, this my friend is in a specific context and it is not that we don’t judge, we don’t judge wrongly or hypocritically. But we MUST make a judgment call on what God calls acceptable worship and what He does not. As ambassadors of His word we have no choice. And just in case we believe that God only kills in the Old Testament we only need to read Acts 5:1-11 and 1 Corinthians 11:27-32.

But why we must ask? Because God is Holy, Righteous, Just and Perfect and He is not to be played with. God is not a nice cosmic teddy bear that you can hug whenever you are feeling down, nor is He like Santa Claus, big jolly with a red suit bringing gifts and candy to good little boys and girls. Nor is He like a jolly ol’ grandpa who allows the children to behave unruly when they are with Him. God is not like us and any God who does not look like the God of Numbers 16:25-35 is a god of our imagination. However….

God has provided a way. We will see a High Priest who does not need to offer up atonement for Himself  (Hebrews 9:11-28). He will be the all sufficient, ram, lamb and bull. No need for bells to be tied to Him, no need for Him to kill a bull at the opening of the tent, no need for Him to slay a young ram and poor its blood on the alter, nope! He is all sufficient 100% God and 100% Man. We will see the blood of bulls and goats can never atone for the people. It will tell us in Romans that God only winked at our sin, but every year more bulls, more goats, more doves, more lambs had to die. More incense, more perfume, more anointing oil, had to be burned and poured. Thank God of Jesus Christ.

Finally in our NT reading we see this “come as you are” also being rejected. There is a parable about a great wedding. The original invitees not only rejected the invitiation but killed the King’s servants. You see what the response to that was right (Matthew 22:7). He then went out and called those who were not invited and many came; however, one “came as he was”. And the results were tragic for that fella.

God will only be worshipped on His terms. He is too Holy to negotiate with man. Do not be fooled that you can come as you are, you must come, covered with the blood of Christ or you will hear on that day “depart from me, I never knew you”. Don’t be numbered in that number friend. Trust wholly in the Lord Jesus, He has approached God on your behalf, you only need to be sprinkled in His blood.

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Today’s OT reading God is still giving out His very precise instruction of the pattern and layout of how He wants the tabernacle to be set up. So far God has explained and described very specifically how He wants the ark of the covenant, the showbread table, the lampstands of gold, curtains of linen, curtains of goats’ hair, the boards, and sockets, the veil and the screen the, bronze altar, the court of the tabernacle as well as the what the priest should wear. God is not quite finished with giving His instruction on the tabernacle layout, we will continue to follow.

This brings us to our new testament reading. Jesus is in the temple teaching and while teaching He is interuppted by the chief preists and the elders. They approached Jesus questioning his authority as if the authority was their’s to give. What’s incredible is that after they ask Jesus who gave Him the authority to teach, once He answers they are now under the very authority they question. The lesson plan has now been directed to them about them. In the parable of the two sons (Matt. 21:28-32) one of the sons says no to the father, later regrets it and does what the father asked of him. The other son says yes to the father and does nothing. Jesus tells these religious leaders that prostitutes and tax collectors will get into the kingdom of God before they do. He explains by saying that when John came and preached to them repentance the tax collectors and prostitute believed John, but the religious leaders did not. He then says that not only did you not receive John, but you didn’t feel remorse afterwards either and still didn’t believe him. My question is this: Have you really grabbed hold of the gospel? Have you allowed the gospel of Jesus Christ to come in change your life and renew your mind? Or  have you decided to reject the gospel and just “do church”? Are you just dressing up on Sunday, carrying your bible, rembering a scripture to impress those that we see?  If you have not allowed the gospel to change your life, no matter how righteous you may seem, Jesus was talking to you in this parable. Allow His words to penetrate your heart and change your life.

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January 30, 2010 Daily Reading

After the children of Israel refused to listen to God for themselves and asked Moses to serve as a mediator, God began to give them rules and regulations for living as a unique kingdom among the kingdom of the world. These rules cover everything from how to treat animals to how to treat other people. They were told how to approach God and how to stay away from other gods.

But, in the midst of the rules and regulations, we get a glimpse of what could have been, as God dines with Moses, Aaron, Aaron’s sons, and 70 other leaders from among the children of Israel. (Exodus 24:9-11) In the midst of exclamations of God’s holiness and the people’s sin, God make himself known in a person way and to serve a meal to some of those sinners… “and he did not lay his hand” on them.

God had every right to stay away from them… to not allow them in his presence. He had every right to destroy them. They deserved to be punished for their sin… for their grumbling… for their complaining… for their lack of faith. But, instead of punishing them, God chose to serve them dinner.

Could this be a glimpse of how God desires to relate to people? Unfortunately, these people had rejected God and refused to know him personally. (Exodus 20:18-19)

As we turn to Matthew, we remember that God has now come to man… not in lightning and thunder and smoke and fire, but in meekness… in the form of a servant. (Philippians 2:5-11) Jesus never lost sight of who he was or what is purpose was. And, so, he once again reminds his followers that he would suffer, die, be buried, and rise again.

And how do his followers respond? The began seek power and position for themselves. Still thinking that Jesus would be an earthly king, James and John’s mother asked Jesus if her sons could rule with him.

In response, Jesus tried once again to teach them about his “upside down” kingdom. “Do you want to be leaders?” Jesus asked, “Then serve one another.”(Matthew 20:25-28)

Did Jesus mean that leadership is a new type of service… a super-service? No. Jesus meant that servants are the real leaders, and those who follow will be serving right alongside of them. Or, to put it another way, do you want to know who to follow? Jesus would say to follow those who serve.

Jesus demonstrated exactly what he meant. As he was walking along the road, he stopped to serve two blind men… two blind men who had nothing to offer him in return.

God continues to serve others… and calls us to serve others along with him.

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Today’s OT reading has us focusing on of the greatest miracles in scripture, not to mention one of the most popular stories in human history. The parting of the red sea, the Israelites going across on dry land while the Egyptians were swallowed up. Not only did God take the heir to the throne, he also took the throne and showed the world just how great He was. This was catastrophic for Egyptians because now someone else not of the direct offspring of the Pharaoh would assume authority, but God has often showed that He will not share His glory with another. But, we know that story and today I want to focus on our NT reading.

Our reading today starts off kind of odd. It doesn’t seem to appear to be anything in the text that would have caused the Pharisee to ask such a question. He asks “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause” this is shortly after many came to Jesus and He healded them.

So Jesus answers the question, and what a shocking answer it is. He says unless for sexual immorality. Now, this is a very debatable topic. But I think I may have adopted Piper’s view on marriage, though I am not 100% there, my thoughts would most likely fall upon those lines. You can find that here, so I will not focus on what I think Jesus meant, I want to speak to the culture today.

Today we have songs that are chart topping pop and R&B charts. The name of the song is called “Papers” by Usher. It is song in which the hook says “I am ready to sing them papers, papers”. I would not be concerned if Mr. Raymond were not a Christian as he is not bound by the New Covenant; however, he is bound by the New Covenant, thus his song ignores Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and the righteous requirement that is to follow those who say they are in Christ. But not to get sidetracked….

“Singing them papers” is the disposition of most today in our culture. Even among “conservative” evangelicals the divorce rate has hovered aroung 50% or so for the last 15-20 years. This is a disgrace and an outright rebellion against Christ and His teaching found in Matthew 19.

Because Eve was taken out the side of Adam, she was “flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone” and God gave the command even then (penned by Moses himself) that “the two shall become one flesh”. There is a strict permanence in mind here. Paul then goes on to use this in describing our relationship to Christ. Christ is permanently married to His bride and we have become “one flesh” with Him.

You see before sin so clouded our judgement and obscured the face of God, marriage was to be permanent. One man and one woman were to live forever, a sign of that covenant may be sexual intercourse. It is funny that Avatar catches this theology when Jake and Neytiri choose each other as mates. However, we have failed to acknowledge such a theology. The one flesh comes before the fall and thus is the standard of God! Sin interrupted that fellowship, but today we are not slaves to sin but to righteousness and because of this we are to restore and repair and reconcile what has been broken by the fall.

One way to do this is my Christian marriage. Christian marriage is one of the most beautiful witnesses we can portray to the world; however, we find ourselves persistently and even wrecklessly disobeying our Lord, because “God wants us to be happy”. I have even heard such false teaching from pulpits and even from “conservatives.

I don’t want to dig deeper, but I do want challenge you in an area. We have to take this more seriously than we do. This is not just another cultural thing. The marriage union for those who are in Christ is a picture of Christ and His bride. The way we love and submit, serve and give, sacrifice and live for, will show the world how Christ relates to His bride. For those who are “pastors” and constantly remarry those who have been divorced disobediently, maybe should ask who are they trying to please.

In closing we love to fight against gay marriage but will not fight for Christian marriages. I think we are more concerned with the image of marriage versus the purpose of marriage and who marriage actually belongs to. Let the world do what they want, God will judge them. But as Paul said we are to judge those in the church (I guess that “who are you to judge” is a bit overkill).

Divorce, Gospel, Marriage, Matthew, remarriage

January 23, 2010 Daily Reading

God has chosen to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt by using Moses. Huh? Moses? Are you serious, God? You want to use a murdering shepherd who can’t speak well and who doesn’t want the job?

Yes, apparently that is exactly who God decided to use. And, God even manages to persuade Moses. Apparently, the whole burning bush scene didn’t convince Moses of God’s power, so God had to persuade Moses that he was powerful enough to accomplish his goals through Moses.

Now that Moses and Aaron have agreed, everything is fine, right? No. Apparently, the people don’t like God’s choices of leaders, and they’re not too sure about leaving Egypt. (But, I’m sure that once the miracles start up everything will change… yeah, right.)

God, are you sure you know what you’re doing?

Which brings us to our New Testament reading. The twelve are still having problems understanding Jesus. They can’t get their mind off of their physical circumstances long enough to understand that Jesus is talking about more than (bread).

But, there is a flash of hope! Peter does understand that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God”! Great for Peter! Jesus even says that he is going to build his assembly based on people like Peter. What joy! What a blessing! What success!

Then Jesus has to start talking about dying. That just ruins everything. I mean, how can Jesus rule a kingdom if he dies? Peter sets Jesus straight… and apparently, in spite of Peter’s misunderstanding, Jesus still plans to build his church around people like Peter… Peter… who sounded more like the devil than like God.

Jesus, are you sure you know what you’re doing?

Yes. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Why? Because he is able. That’s all it takes. We will fail. We will lack the abilities. We will be rejected. We will make mistakes. We will disappoint and be disappointed.

But, God’s plan does not depend upon us being perfect. God’s plan depends upon him, and how he chooses to work through us. Are we willing to allow him? Or are we going to keep giving him excuses like Moses did?

A Little Greek

Ἀπὸ τότε ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς δεικνύειν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ ὅτι δεῖ αὐτὸν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα ἀπελθεῖν καὶ πολλὰ παθεῖν ἀπὸ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων καὶ ἀρχιερέων καὶ γραμματέων καὶ ἀποκτανθῆναι καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐγερθῆναι. (Matthew 16:21)

This sentence marks an important transition in Matthew’s Gospel. First, we see that it is at this time that Jesus begins to tell his followers about his death, burial, and resurrection (Ἀπὸ τότε ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς δεικνύειν – “From that time, Jesus began to tell…”).

Also, there is a very small word in this sentence that is very important. The word is δεῖ, which is usually translated “it is necessary” or “one must”. It is a very strong imperative – command. Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection were not just good ideas… no, it was necessary.

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The last few chapters of Genesis and the opening of Exodus looks to be the climax of the children of Israel. Jacob has become Israel, his sons reconciled,  they escaped famine, the offspring has the fertile land (important?) in Egypt they have integrated and permeated Egypt, they have lived their for a generation and it seems like everything is going fine but…..

Their blessing is their curse. Egypt as beautiful and enticing as it may be, will soon become a constant thorn in the side of God’s people. To be clear we will see Egypt as a picture of sin and we will see the only deliverer who can free God’s people will be God Himself. As we read through Exodus we should view this experience from the lens of the New Testament. The metanarrative (grand-story) of the bible is found in the promise of Genesis 3. God will deliverer His creation through the seed of the woman. Who this seed is, is the unfolding theme of our bible (Romans 4:13-16; Galatians 3:10-29).

So we find the Israelites being “fruitful and multiplying” in a land that does not know their God nor their covenant. To be even more direct, this land is ruled by a god who’s name is Pharaoh,  he will not acknowledge the true God and because of this brings God’s people into slavery. If we see the progression of Israel’s slavery it looks much like the progression of sin. First is starts off as an enjoyment, though you know you shouldn’t be there. Then it moves into a burden (Exodus 1:11), then it moves into ruthless oppression (Exodus 1:12-14) and eventually it moves into death (Exodus 1:15-22). James 1:15, has a similar progression of sin.

So now the Israelites have moved from fertile acceptance to ruthless death (“throw them in the Nile” Pharaoh says). We see this early in Matthew with a king who does not want Israel to have another king and many times Romans leaders were viewed as deities. Pharaoh was threatened by the male children much like Herod was, yet God will call His son “out of Egypt” (Matthew 2:15).

In spite of this God, hears the cries of His elect and provides a deliverer! A male child goes into Egypt (he is accepted as an Egyptian) by a miraculous event, guided by the hands of YAWEH and God now calls this son to deliver his elect. He will go in the power of YAWEH, and will deliever the people out of bondage into the land promised (the promise land is a picture of what will be known as the New Jerusalem where Mt. Zion is and God dwells). 

Jesus says “anyone who sins is a slave to sin”. Every human being is in bondage but God has provided a deliverer. The task master is tough, the burden is hard, yet God’s deliverer is loving and has a light burden and just as the Israelites need rest so do we, God’s deliverer provides rest (Matthew 11:28-30). Lets see how the story unfolds

Deliverance, Motif, Picture, Shadow