Reading the Bible in 2014 - Day 148: Romans 1-3 - Guilt

Today, May 29, marks the first of three catch-up days.  I love catch-up days.  Life is so busy.  Having no reading on these days allows us to catch our breath and maybe make up some readings without getting further behind.  The title of my post is not a typo.  Yes, I know that Romans was our reading from early May.  Although I am caught up with my reading (whew!), I will publish these in order for the benefit of those who are at least a little behind.  If you are really behind, I can't help you. I will post devotional material on several of the biblical books we’ve read recently: Romans, Ephesians, 1 Samuel, and 2 Samuel.  Are you still in Romans from earlier this month?  Maybe you're thinking, "I wish I were as far as Romans!"  Well, maybe in the next few days you can get there.  Here is the first of three posts on Romans:

Guilt

 

We gain a clear picture of what is wrong with the world in verse 1:18.  “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.”  I consider the truth that God is Lord over all.  That he has created the stars and planets (Psalm 33), that he spoke all creation into being (Genesis 1:1-13).  All of these, and more, are truths about God.  They are as plain as day.  But they are not acknowledged as true.  Their truth is ‘suppressed.’  Just considering it should make us weep.  How could the love, righteousness, and might of such a God be ‘suppressed?’  How could we miss it and cause others to miss it as well?  The answer cuts us all to the heart.  The wickedness of the ungodly suppresses it.

It is certainly true that God alone is worthy to be worshiped.  This is the truth that humans exchanged when we fell from our original purity and innocence with God.  We “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” (1:25)

It is a truth that we have cast aside, like it was nothing.  When Paul talks about truth, this is what he means: God alone is Lord of all.  He created all things.  He alone is worthy to be glorified and worshiped.  But this is what does not happen.  God is not enthroned in human hearts.  He is not enthroned in their lives.  He is not enthroned in their relationships or families.  We shouldn’t be surprised then, that he is not enthroned in our nations.

It is suppressed.  It is hidden by all the false gods which have taken the Lord’s place in our lives.

Have you ever gone through a bad break-up?  We call it being "dumped".  It is hard enough to deal with.  But what makes a bad break-up even worse is when that person has traded you in for someone far worse.  It is extra hurtful because it doesn’t only hurt us now.  We hurt for the other person who has made this bad decision.

We have dumped God.  And we traded the most beautiful, joyful, creative being in the universe for a lie.

Now, you've probably heard someone say, "Excuse me?"  Well, with sinful humans it isn't even a question.  We direct it at God like a command: "Excuse me!"  We all love excuses.  We love to avoid blame.  Paul makes the case that Gentiles and Jews alike are without excuse.

 

Gentiles are without excuse.  Gentiles may not have had God’s law.  But God’s power and nature are seen in what he has made, so they have no excuse. (1:20).  So Paul can say, “All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law…” (2:12).

Do religious people have an advantage here?  After all, who has known the beauty, faithfulness, and holiness of God better than his people, the Jews?  Don’t they get a leg-up on the rest of humanity by being the chosen people?  Paul says no.  Jews also are without excuse.  They have God’s law.  But do they obey?  The Old Testament testifies that they don’t.  What then?  Can the law save them?  Absolutely not!  Paul says, “All who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.” (2:12)  Religious hypocrites who say they know God but don’t obey him suppress the truth about him just as much as those who don’t know him at all.

Paul closes his account in chapter 3 by maintaining that Jew and Gentile alike are “under the power of sin.”  We are imprisoned under God’s judgment and wrath.

I know this is hard to hear.  It feels like you’ve been knocked down a peg, that you’ve fallen down a flight of self-esteem stairs.  But the step down in this case is really a step up.  You will not be able to hear the good news unless you hear it from down there.  When we think we’re doing ok, we are still living a lie.  Why isn’t the truth of God seen in the world?  Because of us. It is because our words and our lives don’t testify that God is Lord.  Our words and our lives, then, are one big lie.  If this truth hits home for you, know this: even when our sin is clear to us, it is always clearer to God.  God knows more than you can imagine.  But remember this too.  If God says in his Word that he will be gracious, we can trust that it will be enough.  It is true that if we assess ourselves by God’s standard, we find “nothing to lift our heart to self-confidence.” (John Calvin).  But salvation does not come from us.  It comes from God.  “I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where will my help come?  My help comes from the Lord.” (Psalm 121:1-2)  We can’t count on ourselves.  If we cling to God’s grace, we’ll find that it is enough.  In the next post, we will move on in our Romans road to the next chapter, the chapter of grace.

Reading the Bible in 2014 - Day 123: Judges

Have you ever read a positive review of a movie? Then, when you watched it, your own experience didn't live up to the hype? You wondered what you were missing.

I once went to see a movie with a friend. We were already late so we weren't surprised when the movie was already occurring when we entered. The movie was total chaos, a total shambles. My friend and I looked at each other, puzzled. We mouthed, "Do you understand what's going on at all?" Shaking our heads. Then, 40 minutes later, the movie ended. Later, it hit us - there were two screenings playing that movie. We went into the screening that had already been playing for an hour. No wonder it was terrible, we thought.

Later, I saw the whole movie. It was stunningly well-made. The ending was still chaotic. The difference was that the story was well-told. Tragic, yes. But a masterpiece.

Filled with accidents itself, the Book of Judges is no accident. It is tragic. But it is a brilliant book with a strong point.

It is difficult reading though, isn’t it? Reading Judges, I turned to a commentary for some serious guidance. I was worried. "Is there something I'm missing here?" "Is this book supposed to be such a downer?" I was relieved to find that I wasn't missing the point of Judges. I wasn't missing the reason why it wasn't inspiring. It's about the sinfulness of humanity.

 
We must face it head-on: without God's guidance, we are lost. How can these sad stories of Judges serve us? They invite us to repentance. Most of us think that a good religious life will protect us from the terrifying consequences of the book of Judges. But a good religious life can lead us into the same blind self-confidence which kept the Israelites from seeking God's will in the first place. Our lives are sad stories too. They are full of self-confidence. As with Jephthah, our un-checked vanity can have disastrous consequences for our families, for our kids. As with the Levite, in Judges 19, using others without any regard or love can result in tragedies for which we are not strong enough to take any of the blame – blame which we ought to take. As with Samson, our pride in being religious can bring us to greater humiliation than we ever thought possible.

In short, if we listen to these sad stories of Judges with the right heart, we will come away from them humbled, ready to listen to God, to our neighbor, to consider others better than ourselves, and to see the need to live our lives by the light of a true authority. This book can change our lives.

Judges shows us what went on in the days when Israel had no king. There was no king to govern the lusts, ambitions, jealousies of Israel. Not having had the strength to take the land, they have settled into a state of geographical and also spiritual compromise with the powers that be.

But we have a King. He leads us not only with all the protection, governance, and solid instruction of a powerful king. He also loves us. He prays for us. He stoops to save us. He even gave his life as a substitute for our sinful lives. He has borne all of the punishment and wrath for what we have done. Our lives don't have to look like those in the time of Judges who had no king. With our King Jesus on his throne, we will find great strength to live as we ought.

Judges shows us human history growing worse and worse. Only God can intervene.  And He has!  Nowhere is this point made stronger in the entire Bible than in the first three chapters of our next book: Paul's Letter to the Romans. As we read Romans over the next week, look for the three pillars of Paul's letter: guilt, grace, and gratitude.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 86 - Navigating Numbers v. 3 - Atonement: An Unlikely Marriage

The first reflection on Numbers was about the tribes of Israel who camped and journeyed together through the wilderness.  The second reflection was about whole-hearted vs. half-hearted following.  We have several examples of whole-hearted following in Caleb and Phineas.  We have plenty of examples of half-hearted following which I shared in that reflection.  This third reflection will be about the idea of atonement.

Atonement is easily understood by looking at the word itself – at-one-ment.  Atonement takes parties that have been separated and reconciles them to new unity, bearing the cost of whatever caused the division.  A sinner and a holy God.  They are ‘one’ again.  At-one-ment.  Atonement.

Have you ever seen an unlikely marriage – he’s a slacker and she’s type A…she’s athletic and he’s clumsy…he’s short, and she’s tall (or maybe the other way around : - )… and you wonder, “How did they ever find each other?  They seem like such opposites.  What an unlikely marriage!”

Justice and mercy are an unlikely marriage.  Justice is severe with no exceptions made.  Mercy covers over sins.  Throughout history, it has been downright impossible to keep the two together.  Mercy without justice is too lenient.  Justice without mercy is too severe.  Where do we find them both?  In Christian worship.  In atonement.

Atonement is a miracle, really.  It is the marriage of God’s justice and God’s mercy.  God alone is 100% just and 100% merciful.  Consider two examples from Numbers.  In Numbers 16, Dathan and Korah have just rebelled against Moses and against God.  They tried to usurp the priesthood by offering unauthorized fire with censers.  Those are like torches.  The Lord’s wrath goes out against the sinners like a plague.  It is basically moving person to person!  This is God’s holiness and justice – his anger against sin.  This is the same justice that you rarely see married to mercy in the world.

Look what happens next.  Aaron goes out with his censer and rushes out into the plague as it sweeps peoples’ lives away.  How scary!  But the plague stops.  The rightful priest stands in the gap between the living and the dead.  He makes atonement.  This is God’s mercy on his people. 

That’s not all.  Consider the censers – the torches I just mentioned.  These disastrous instruments which have caused such awful death are brought into the tabernacle, the most holy place of worship.  What is such a sinful thing doing in the house of worship?  Look at the passage: “For the censers of these sinners have become holy at the cost of their lives…Thus they shall be a sign to the Israelites.” (16:38)  Do you see what has happened?  The censers are now a reminder.  It is a reminder of God’s holiness.  They remind everybody of the terrible sin that Dathan and Korah did.  To look at it is to say, “I fear God, so I will obey him.”  But that is not all.  It is a reminder of his mercy as well.  To look at it is to say: “God has been merciful to protect me from danger in this way.”  God’s ways alone are life for us.  In this way, atonement creates in us the vivid and authentic, whole-hearted worship of God that he desires.

This is atonement – a marriage of justice and mercy.  To remove one of them obliterates the concept.  It is a miracle.  It is at the heart of the Christian faith.  We must keep this in mind as we read.

Here’s another example.

In chapter 21, the people sin and “speak against God”.  God sends poisonous serpents into their midst.  We are told that many died.  The people repent.  God instructs Moses to make a serpent out of bronze, to put it on a pole.  If an Israelite had been bitten, it took only a glance at the bronze serpent and they would be healed.  The bronze serpent made atonement for the punishment of sin.  They would live.

In John 3:14-15, Jesus speaks about the bronze serpent of Numbers 21.  He says, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  He would be lifted up.  On the day he died, he was lifted up on a cross. 

In this lifting up, he accomplished our atonement.  We can see Jesus in these stories from Numbers.  Although the censers of Dathan and Korah were unholy, they become holy through the sinners’ death.  The serpents brought death to the Israelites’ camp.   Redemption came when their eyes fastened upon the image of the serpent.  Even though this is the Old Testament, we see that our atonement in the New Testament is similar.  Jesus died a long time ago.  But when we see through the eyes of faith that he bore our sin on the cross, we receive eternal life as God’s gift.  We see our judgment fall on our divine substitute.  We are cleansed.  At-one-ment.  We are ‘one’ with God again.

Do you believe this?  Isn’t it powerful to know that another has made atonement for you?  Justice and mercy are married together in him.  Death to sin, and alive to Christ in his new life.  This is his gift to you.  Your chains are gone.  This is the heart of Christian worship.  It is an old truth – as old as Leviticus and Numbers!  But it isn’t old-fashioned.  The atonement we see throughout the book of Numbers in these examples and others is “lifted up” by Jesus.  It is fulfilled when he is lifted up on the cross to make atonement for us.

Are you thankful that God’s judgment has fallen on another instead of you?  Are you grateful for the mercy that has given you new life?  Spend some time thanking God for Numbers, for Jesus Christ, and for how the marriage of God’s justice and mercy in Jesus has changed your life.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 74 - Whole-Hearted or Half-Hearted?

The book of Numbers teaches us about holiness.  One of the best examples of holiness is the whole-hearted following of God shown by Caleb of Jephunneh. Caleb takes an expeditionary journey into the promised land with other representatives of the twelve tribes.  Everyone else is intimidated by the size of the people there.  Only two have enough confidence in the Lord to go in.  One of them is Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ apprentice.  The other is Caleb of Jephunneh.  And here is what God says about Caleb: “But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me whole-heartedly, I will bring into the land...” (14:24, emphasis mine)

What does it mean to follow God whole-heartedly like Caleb?  It means to take a public stand of trust in God.  It means to be courageous in standing alone.  It is hard to be the only one standing strong.  Moments like these prove not only to God but to the other people that there is one present who whole-heartedly follows the Lord.

We can also learn what it means to be ‘whole-hearted’ by looking at its opposite.  We can learn from the failures of others in their half-hearted following.  There are a number of examples of this in Numbers:

1)      Queasy Over Quail.  The Israelites grumble for food in chapter 11.  What does God give them?  He gives them way more quail than they could ever want.  The sin is not their hunger.  Their punishment comes “because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” (11:20)  They have scorned the favor God has shown them.  In the same way, we can scorn God’s deliverance by ignoring what he has done for us and say “take us back to our old lives!”  This is half-hearted.

2)      Aaron and Miriam – Seditious Siblings.  Moses’ family – his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam – question whether God has actually called him.  They are angry at him for marrying a Cushite woman.  Don’t buy it – that’s a red herring.  The real issue is this: “…and they said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?  Has he not spoken through us also?” (12:2)  It is not a bad thing to be an ‘Aaron’ in God’s plan – it is a great thing.  It is not a bad thing to be a ‘Miriam’ in God’s plan – it is a great thing.  To compete with one another to be God’s mouthpiece – this is half-hearted.

3)      Ignorant Israelites.  After the spies’ bad report, the people rebel and they refuse to go.  Their punishment: to die out in the wilderness.  But now the Israelites change their minds: “Here we are.  We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.”  Moses warns them: “Why do you continue to transgress the command of the Lord?  That will not succeed.  Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you…” (14:40) They suffer disaster.  This is half-repentance – they say they are sorry, but they ignore all that God has just said in verses 26-35.  Half-listening  to God is not enough.  His grace is not cheap.  It demands a changed life.  This is half-repentance.  It is half-hearted.    

4)      Tribes in Tumult.  The revolt of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in chapter 16 brings the tribal competition to crisis pitch.  The twelve tribes were made to worship God together.  Now the Reubenites and Levites have rebelled against Moses.  Chapter 17 illustrates the moral of the story.  God has chosen Aaron’s family to be priests.  Everyone else has to be content with that.  Competing with others for muscle, power, and leverage in God’s family is tragic.  Rather than facing the Lord in the center of the camp, they face each other in rebellion.  It is half-hearted.

5)      Moses’ Mistake.  Even Moses fails in a critical moment.  Instead of his usual precision, to-the-letter obedience, Moses tries to obey the ‘spirit’ of what God is saying.  This is not whole-hearted Caleb-style following.  In his half-hearted devotion, Moses turns away from God’s commandment.  His half-hearted devotion is an insult to the holiness of God: “But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” (20:12)

6)      First Commandment Failure.  Moments like Moses’ failure at Meribah and Dathan and Korah’s idolatry in the wilderness are memorialized so that the people would walk in the fear of the Lord and not consider their own ways to be wise.  But this all comes crashing down when the Israelites commit idolatry and sexual immorality with Midianite women.  It seems a compliment to even call this half-hearted worship.  Are their hearts in it at all?

Imagine walking with God and then rejecting him on the scale they have by Numbers 25.  Phinehas the priest kills Zimri the Simeonite, who has yoked himself to a Midianite woman.  God applauds this killing.  What are we to make of this?  It is a difficult scene.  There are many scenes in this book in which the solution seems harsh.  And yet the same words will be there – whether this is your first reading of Numbers, or your 25^th.

And yet from our end of history, we see that Israel’s pursuit of holiness has failed.  Phinehas is not always there.  The disease can’t just be cut out.  Israel ultimately failed at holiness.  But God’s mission – to put holiness in his people – has not failed.  Rather than execute us, God allowed himself to be executed.  Rather than impale sinners, God allowed his own wrists to be impaled, and pinned to a cross.  The passage with Phinehas reminds us that the quest for holiness is a whole-hearted affair.  It tolerates no compromises.  But thanks be to God that the cost for all our half-hearted compromises have been born by God in Christ.  His Spirit lives in us.  He is whole-hearted.  He is holy.  Because he is, we can be too.

I’ll write tomorrow on our third theme: on how sin is atoned for in Numbers.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 70 - Navigating Numbers 1...The Twelve Tribes of Israel

Over the next several days, I’ll write on three themes from Numbers.  Today, it is the twelve tribes that make up these long lists of names that we call “genealogies.”

Twelve Tribes

I recently went camping with some folks from MPC.  Ah, camping…it’s the best, isn’t it?  Sleeping under the stars, meals over the fire, talking into the night.  Actually, we skipped the whole ‘overnight’ part because daylight savings time was the next morning and we would lose an hour.  Ouch!  Of course, as we read Numbers, the Israelites have been traveling in the wilderness.  They’ve been camping as well.  Just like us, although I doubt daylight savings time was a concern of theirs’.  They grumbled a lot, but at least they didn’t grumble about that.

 In Numbers, chapter three, we receive a picture of the way the Israelites camped: the twelve tribes circled around the tent of meeting, facing it in the center.  In other words, the people of God circled around the presence of God at their center. 

This is not the only time in the Bible that this happens.  When Jesus called his disciples, we saw in Mark 3 that he appointed twelve disciples to be with him.  Do you think Jesus randomly decided he would choose twelve?  I don’t either.  There is a connection between the twelve tribes of Israel and Jesus’ twelve apostles.  The twelve tribes ultimately fail.  They fight with each other rather than working together.  They turn from God.  But God is merciful.  He continues with them.  Likewise, although the twelve disciples also fail constantly, Jesus continues with them.  Ultimately he and his disciples fulfill the mission of the twelve tribes of Israel.  Across the two testaments of the Bible, the two grand salvation stories mirror one another: God led his people out of Egypt and the twelve tribes journeyed from the wilderness to the Promised Land.  Jesus led his people out of sin through his cross and resurrection and the twelve apostles lead God’s people, the church, into a new wilderness of discipleship and into a new Promised Land.  There is a great biblical link between the twelve tribes and twelve apostles.

The twelve tribes of Israel and Jesus’ twelve disciples are not only linked in our Bibles.  They are also linked in the vision of eternity in Revelation 21:9-14.  The vision is of a city shaped like a square – the new Jerusalem.  It has three gates and walls for each of the four sides, adding up to twelve total gates and twelve total walls.  The twelve tribes are written on the gates.  The twelve apostles are written on the walls.

I’ll say that again: their names are written on the foundations of the heavens themselves in God’s coming new creation!

The lesson here is that we are not islands – standing unconnected from one another.  We come from the twelve apostles.  The twelve apostles come from Jesus.  And Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah, one of the twelve tribes.  These aren’t just themes connected in the Bible.  This is history.  We are connected to all of this!  This is our heritage, given to us in Jesus.  This is where we come from.  But this is also where we are going.  In Christ, our destiny is the city of the eternal God – the city with the tribes on its gates and the apostles on its walls. 

If our real heritage is with the twelve tribes and apostles of God, this idea challenges the way we normally think about identity.  What is our identity?  In his book The Real American Dream, Columbia University professor Andrew Delbanco says that from the time of the earliest American settlements, American identity was found in God.  Then as that confidence dimmed, our identity was found in the sacred nation-state.  Now, in our time, our identity is found in ourselves.  The Scriptures reveal human life to be filled with divine significance.  Without it, life and history can seem meaningless.  We have nowhere else to turn.  The great 20^th century German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer put this search for meaning well: “It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to His Son Jesus Christ, than to seek what God intends for us today…only in the Holy Scriptures do we learn to know our own history.” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 54) 

Our heritage is in these genealogies of the people of God camped around the tent of meeting.  Sure, the genealogies of Numbers 1-2 are boring.  They’ll be boring later in the Bible too.  But they are there for a reason.  They show us a heritage that runs deeper.  Deeper than our broken and bruised family tree.  Deeper than our American citizenship. 

We have a deep need to be connected to something. It is really hard to make it through the day without that sense of purpose that you can connect to.  What will it be for you each morning?  Will you find your identity in our country?  Will you find it in yourself?  Or will you find it in the heritage of God’s people that goes back thousands of years and that will extend into eternity?  If you do, you will find in your time with God and in your Bible study what Bonhoeffer found to be true.  What he found is that our heritage with God has unlimited resources for rich, abundant, joyful life.  The reason for that is simple: God has created us for this.  He made and re-made us to orient ourselves and all of the stuff of life around God.  Just like the twelve tribes so long ago, we were made to set up our camps facing the tent of meeting, facing the place where God lives.  In the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, God is above us, before us, and within us.  God’s face shines on us.  Jesus is the way laid out before us.  The Holy Spirit lives inside us.  We are surrounded on all sides.  God camps around us.  This is so that we might set up our camp – our jobs, our families, our homes, our communities, hopes and dreams – all around God.

The Israelites camped around God.  Thanks be to God that he also camps around us.

Tomorrow, I’ll write on the holiness of God that we’ve seen in this great book called Numbers.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 57 - Loving Leviticus

As of today, we are close to the end of the book of Leviticus.  Are you loving it?  Some people find it difficult to read.  I have found in the last few years that the book retains my attention for one simple reason.  God is speaking.  When God speaks, the words that are said are authoritative for us.  And it is impossible to miss the authoritative tone of Leviticus.  I experience what I would call a healthy fear of God when I read Leviticus.

But how can we truly say that Leviticus is authoritative for us when we don’t do everything the book tells us to?  Whether it’s mixing fibers, stoning people to death, or not eating seafood without fins or scales, there are a number of laws we don’t obey.  In fact, there is a lot of confusion in our society when Christians refer only to Leviticus.  The reason is that there are so many laws in Leviticus that we don’t follow.

So how is it authoritative?

Christopher J.H. Wright is one of the great Old Testament scholars.  He wrote a fabulous article for Christianity Today last summer called “Learning to Love Leviticus”.  I want to provide three keys to reading Leviticus that he discusses in his article.  These will help us to see Leviticus as truly authoritative even as we don’t keep all the rules it gives us.

Principles

Did you know that London taxi cab drivers are still required by law to have a bale of hay and a bag of oats for their horses?  Do they follow that law?  No, because taxi drivers no longer ride horses, but drive automobiles.  But the principle still stands: provide sufficient food for your horses.   In the same way, we find principles for Old Testament laws that it no longer makes sense for us to follow.  Wright includes another example.  Paul in the New Testament is writing to the Corinthian people.  He quotes from a Deuteronomy passage about how oxen that are grinding corn should be fed from the product of their labors.  The urban Corinthians would not have had oxen.  So what is Paul’s point?  The point is in the principle.  Just as the oxen deserve the reward for their labor, so do people.

Notice that just because an Old Testament law like the one I just mentioned is not addressed to me (I have no oxen) does not mean it is not authoritative.  If I had oxen, it would be.  This is what it means to see the principle behind the Leviticus laws.

Finding the Principles

Wright lists a number of helpful questions for finding principles.  We can ask ourselves these to help engage imaginatively with the book of Leviticus.  1) What kind of situation was this law intended to promote or to prevent?  2) What change in society would this law achieve if it were followed?  3) What kind of situation made this law necessary or desirable?  4) What kind of person would benefit from this law, by assistance or protection?  5) What kind of person would be restrained or restricted by this law, and why?  6) What values are given priority in this law?  Whose needs or rights are upheld?  7) In what way does this law reflect what we know from elsewhere in the Bible about the character of God and his plans for human life?  8) What principle or principles does this law embody or instantiate?

These questions won’t make sense of all the laws, Wright claims.  “Some laws are just plain puzzling.”  Even just looking over these questions helps us to understand that the most important thing about the laws isn’t what they are preventing.  Sometimes we need to look further and imagine the kind of life these laws are creating and protecting.

Why We Don’t Keep Certain Laws

There are certain laws that we don’t keep because they are fulfilled in Christ.  We find cause to keep levitical rules, or see them as fulfilled, depending on how they are treated in the New Testament.  The food laws and the sacrificial laws are fulfilled in Christ the New Testament.  For the food laws, see Acts 10.  For the sacrificial laws, see…wait for it…the next book we’re reading!!  The Letter to the Hebrews is the next book on our reading list.  Its entire subject is the finished work of Christ.  There is no sacrifice that can improve upon it. 

I hope these three points from Wright’s article help you to learn to love Leviticus.  

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 42 - Unanswered Questions, Running Partners, and Finding Jesus in the Book of Acts

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

We’ve been through Genesis, Mark, Exodus, and we’re currently making our way through Acts.  I’ve heard from a few people who are still in Exodus.  Maybe some of you are still in Mark!  I encourage you to press on.  As hard as it is to imagine, I believe a day will come when you will get a heaping portion of time to read Scripture.  And that will bless you.  In the meantime, I’ve decided in this devotion to speak about how our questions and running partners can humble us and also bring our reading to life.  This will allow me to look back at some of what we’ve covered so far, of which I hope to do more in future devotions.  Then, I’ll write about seeing Jesus through what we’ve read - and what we will read - in the Book of Acts.  This will be our way of looking ahead.

Allies in Our Reading: Questions and Running Partners

Fun stuff happens while reading the Bible.  Especially since my wife, Jessica, is reading it with me.  I was reading Exodus 16:13-36 and thinking about the manna that God provided.  The Israelites only got a certain amount – an omer.  This was to last each person a day.  I was wondering whether this really filled them up.  I should admit that eating too much has been a struggle for me lately.  “Could I make it on an omer?” I thought to myself.  “How much is an omer anyway?”  If I’d had a Bible dictionary, I could have found out.  But then as I read, the Bible told me: small enough to fit in a jar. (16:33)  So I’m bragging to my wife about my close Bible-reading.  Now, I know how much food is in an omer – a jar’s worth.  “Well, how big were their jars?” she asked.  I answered, “you know, like one of our mason jars probably.”  She gave me a look that was like, “Really, Chris?”  I understood the look immediately.  I started to laugh at the presumption that the Israelites were marching through the desert 3000 years ago with jars the exact same size as the ones in my food pantry.  I didn't know as much about omers as I thought I did.

All sorts of questions come up as we read the Bible.  I’ve collected quite a few so far.  Here are several:  “It seems like the midwives lie to the Egyptians in Exodus 1:17.  Do they really though, since they are doing the right thing?”  “Exodus 12:40 tells us that ‘this was for the Lord a night of vigil.’  What does it mean for the Lord to keep vigil if he never sleeps?”  “In Exodus 14:13-14, I love the verbs ‘do not be afraid,’ ‘stand firm,’ and ‘see the deliverance the Lord will bring you’.  Do other translations express this phrase like this?”  I’m sure you’ve collected some too!  Are unanswered questions obstacles in our reading?  In answer to this, I prefer to think of our questions as opportunities into deeper reading and reflection.

I mentioned Jessica in the paragraph before last.  Twice over the last several weeks, she has made a comment on the scriptures that has led me into serious thought and prayer.  Once, she shared that she thought the Gospel of Mark often spoke of what real faith was.  That really shaped the way I read Mark.  Another time, she read me the passage from Exodus 14 in which God tells the trembling Israelites, stuck between the angry Egyptians on the one side, and the Red Sea on the other, that all they have do is "be still." (Exodus 14:14)  (I’ll write more about this line soon).  It surprised me in looking over my reflections how much I’ve thought about these two passing comments Jess made from her reading. Allow your running partner (if you have one) to lead you into deeper reading and reflection.

Seeing Jesus’ Mercy and Power in the Book of Acts

Some of you may still be in Mark.  Some of you may be up to date as of today and are at Acts 12.  Acts has given us scenes of preaching, judgment, exorcism, healing, opposition, and danger.  Does this sound familiar?  It sounds a lot like the Gospel of Mark.  This is no accident.  When Jesus ascends into heaven at the beginning of Acts, he tells the disciples that they will be his witnesses and they will receive his Spirit.  Their work will continue his work.  We can begin to see the connection in the way the books begin.  In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is baptized and begins his ministry.  In Acts, the disciples are “baptized in fire” at Pentecost and begin their ministry.  As we see the church develop in Jerusalem, Damascus, Antioch and other places, we are often reminded of why we call the church “the body of Christ”.  Their lives are shaped by devotion to Jesus.  They look more and more like Jesus’ life.  Moved by the Spirit, they continue Jesus’ ministry.  We do too! 

 

As we continue to read Acts over the next week, reflect back upon the themes that stood out to you in the Gospel of Mark.  We have seen in Peter’s numerous speeches that the mighty acts that occur are linked to the name of Jesus. (Acts 10:36, 5:29, 3:13, 2:22)  When Saul gained his sight, Jesus spoke to a man and said about Saul, “I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:16)   Jesus is intimately involved in all that happens in Acts.  He is intimately involved in our lives as well.  When something happens to Peter or to Paul, ask yourself, “where is Jesus’ power or mercy reflected in this scene?” 

 

We have seen a lot of Peter in the previous few chapters.  Starting tomorrow, we’ll really be introduced to the ministry of Paul.  As we continue, we will get to know his ministry better through reading his many letters over the course of this year.