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.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 28 - The Bible...points to God

What if reading the Bible was like the burning bush scene in Moses?  And instead of a coffee cup, a robe, and a pen, my reading involved a terrifying voice, a mountain top, and real flames?

Reading Scripture surrounded by four walls as opposed to whipping mountainous winds can’t hedge us off from God.  The power is in God’s Word.  God’s words are powerful.  Some people hear them and can’t get enough.  Others hear them and say “enough!”  One way or another, God’s words stir things up.

The Bible is obviously a very old book.  Why do we read it?  One of the most refreshing things we can do is to stop reading and take a few minutes to ask God to speak.  There is nothing more important than that. 

Isn’t the Bible the “word of God”?  Why should we ask God to speak to us if the Bible already does?

The best part of the Bible is not the Bible itself.  The best parts are the eternal God, all powerful and glorious, and his amazing plans for people like us who really have no idea who he is and have no idea who we are.  Without God, it doesn’t matter how many times we read the Bible, or how much Bible trivia we know.  The Bible is not our savior.  Jesus is our savior.  The Bible doesn’t talk about itself much.  It is focused on God.

Chris Webb puts it well: “Moses was not changed by a text.  He was utterly transformed by a direct encounter with God…When Moses heard the voice of God, he shook with terror and hid his face in the folds of his robe?  Why?  Because he was about to receive a couple of chapters of the book of Exodus?  No!  He was awestruck because the voice he heard made real and immediate the presence of the Holy One of Israel.” (The Fire of the Word, p. 21)

John Calvin tried to articulate what it is that makes Scripture the Word of God.  He used a helpful metaphor: spectacles, or glasses.  The Bible isn’t what we look at.  It is what we look through, like glasses.  Calvin taught that, without our glasses, the world looks fuzzy.  Sinful humans look at the beauty of creation, and they don’t ascribe its beauty to God, nor do they worship him.  Through God’s gift of the Holy Scriptures, we are given the gift of glasses.  This helps us see God.  But notice what else it does.  It helps us see the world!  The Bible teaches us that all of creation points to God.  We learn to love people, birds, trees, water, caterpillars, and sunshine even more because God made them.  As C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”  We don’t look at Scripture.  We look through it.

When we look through it, we are led into an encounter with an amazing God – so near to us that we could easily be distracted from his presence in the burning bush, and yet so holy that he claims to be the only God.  The Scriptures point to God.  Jesus himself learned from these Scriptures.  In Colossians, we learn that everything “is created through him and for him.”  In Luke 24:27, we learn that the Old Testament speaks to us of him.  The Scriptures are trustworthy because they lead us to Jesus for everything we need.

If your reading feels dry, ask God to focus your heart on responding to him, and not on your “Bible-reading plan.”  There is no hurry.  As we venture into a few reflection days at the end of January, I’ll post again about where we’ve been so far.  Feel free to comment or to send any questions you have.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 21 - Well-Defended

I watched Denver play New England on Sunday.  As always, I enjoy the signs people bring to the games.  The classic sign is the defense sign, and the footage repeatedly included two fans who had a letter ‘D’ and the picture of a fence that might be around a house.  “D-Fence!” 

Our first two Mark passages included a number of passages about demons.  They are cast out of people.  Jesus tells the healed persons to keep it a secret.  He wouldn’t want people to mis-interpret him as some sort of magician.  But word gets out.  And crowds come from near and far.  Jesus’ exorcisms play an undeniably big role in the gospels.  This can be awkward for everyday Christians, for whom the big enemies each day tend to be personal sins like impatience, anger, and loving things of this world more than God.  What do we believe about demons?  What “D-Fence” do we have against them?

Mark 1:21-28 shows us two typical qualities of demons – 1) they recognize Jesus’ authority, but 2) they hate him and his authority.  The demon, when confronted by Jesus, responds: “Have you come to destroy us?”  They recognize that he can destroy them.  But unlike the Christian, they think he probably wants to destroy them.  That’s different.  Jesus is their feared enemy.  This has always scared me.  How can someone see Christ in all his glory and then still oppose him?  I don’t get it.  But this has always been the mystery of evil.  It defies explanation.

If we believe in these satanic forces, does this make us strange?  Not in the least.  Spiritual warfare against satanic forces is firmly biblical and is firmly rooted within the Christian tradition.  New Age philosophies, the occult, Satanism, and pagan religions often present this battleground as something natural for the universe – that there has always been a war between good and evil.  This is not what Christians believe.  We believe that God is sovereign.  Evil is not part of him.  Nor is it a part of his creation.  Rather, it is an alien force that has corrupted the goodness of his plan. 

Seeing “The Exorcist” might have kept you awake at night when you were young, but no Christian should have sleepless nights about evil spirits.  Demons hate Jesus because they fear him. (Mark 1:21-28)  Victory over evil is already assured in the cross.  This is contained in Christ’s “It is finished.” (John 19:30)  We are not fighting a losing battle.  World War II lasted for another year after D-Day.  But D-Day made victory inevitable.  Jesus’ cross and resurrection is our D-Day.  God’s battle against evil will restore the universe to the beauty, righteousness, and fruitfulness with which he created it.

Thoughts of spiritual warfare are scary because to acknowledge them seems to put us on the defensive.  It’s scary to be ‘on defense’ against evil because we understand so little about it.  But we are ‘on offense.’  One of the more famous things Jesus says about his church is that “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)  When I hear this, I always instinctively picture hell not on defense, but on offense, trying to beat us but ultimately failing.  But that isn’t quite right.  Gates only prevail if they keep the enemy out.  Gates aren’t helpful for offense because they are a protective, defensive measure.  If the gates of hell won’t prevail against us, then it must be the church which is on offense.  In our worship, prayer, and fellowship in the name of Jesus, we are taking the battle to the gates of hell.  We are on offense.  They should be worried.  Not us. 

But even if we feel bothered or, indeed, possessed, by temptation, anxiety, fear, or an evil spirit, we are well-defended in Christ.  We should pray, and learn to trust him.  He is our shield.  Psalm 23 reminds us to “fear no evil”, even in the valley of the shadow of death.  Jesus has won.  What we should fear is our own indifference to evil, that tendency of Christians to sit on the sidelines in the midst of this great, and real, battle.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 14 - Never Letting Go

The story of Jacob wrestling with the mysterious stranger in Genesis 32:22-32 has always fascinated me.  I’ve never been any good at wrestling.  I recently saw an old friend from Dallas who had wrestled in high school.  I remember how easily he could pin me to the ground.  Now he has a son of his own.  I wonder if his son will ever pin his papa.  How good was Jacob?  Was he a good wrestler, or did he just know enough to never let go?

Jacob’s new name honors the striving he has endured and the way he has prevailed.  He has become wealthy with a large family, many children, and livestock.  He has striven with men and has prevailed.  He has striven with God and has lasted.  He has not given up. 

Jacob's life has been filled with suffering: “It was like this with me: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.  These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.  If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.  God saw my affliction…” (Genesis 31:40-42)  Jacob isn’t perfect.  He is even wrong about the household gods that his wife Rachel slipped from her father.  But he has held onto God through the difficulties of life with Laban.  He has prevailed.  And when he wrestles with the mysterious man, he endures.  He never lets go.

Never letting go of the God who never let them go – this is Jacob’s legacy.  It is the way of his future generations.  This is what links Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Job, David and all the rest together.  They don’t let go of God no matter what.  This is the way of following God today.  We aren’t perfect.  We suffer for our sins.  We also suffer through no fault of our own.  God is with us through the suffering.  He will never abandon us.  The story of Jacob reminds us that life is often something to be endured.  Do you trust that God is with you, even if for decades you’ve had to endure life rather than enjoy it?  How is your striving going?

Jacob gave God all the fight he had.  Was the mysterious wrestler of the night actually God?  He is a messenger of God to be sure.  Still, let’s face it – God took it easy on Jacob to let him get out of that fight with just a sore hip.  Jacob prevailed.  But there was a man who strove with God, who wrestled with him, who suffered throughout his life, who didn’t prevail.  He did not walk away with a limp.  He was flattened upon a cross.  Jacob received the name of “Israel.”  A passing centurion called Jesus “the Son of God.” (Mark 15:39)  Jacob wrestled with God at night.  Jesus wrestled with God while praying in a garden at night.  He came to God with all of our sin though he had none of his own.  In this ultimate battle on the cross, Almighty God defeated sin and death through the sacrifice of Jesus.  He established a new life for us in his resurrection. 

In the course of this battle, Jesus held onto God through the worst night ever.  He never let go, even though it appeared God had entirely abandoned him.  Even in the times when we lose hold, when we aren’t as strong as Jacob, and struggle to hold onto God through the long night of job loss, of death before its rightful time, of loneliness or depression, Jesus is holding onto us.  Jesus never let go of God, and he will never let go of us.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 7 - Reading and Living

Jessica and I had a restful week in Seattle with her family.  Her mother has a wonderful collection of books and I often will find a book that fits me right where I am spiritually at the moment.  This book was called Shaped by the Word by Robert Mulholland.  As I looked ahead to our year of reading through the Bible, Mulholland’s book filled me with anticipation.  In the midst of our time there, it was wonderful to ask, “how do I allow myself to be shaped by the word?”

Picture us seated on God’s lap as though we were three years old, and God were our parent.  We’re all reading the same big storybook together.  Now picture Jesus’ disciples walking beside him on a road – perhaps the road he took into Jerusalem to be crucified for our sins.  He is speaking and they are listening.  Are the two pictures really so different?  This is Bible-reading.  They are both pictures of being shaped by the word. 

I know we are used to thinking of reading as more of an intellectual activity.  We probably all know ‘readers’.  They might be more like ‘thinkers’ instead of ‘doers.’  More abstract, analytical, and contemplative.  But they don’t have to be.  The way we read should be the way we live.  Down the centuries, words have come to us side by side with the real people who lived them.  They are best kept together.  Words and deeds.  Reading and living.

Two passages from our reading thus far can teach us how to keep our reading and our living close together.  On Day 1, we read Psalm 1, which imaged this life to be like “trees planted by streams of water.”  Let’s think about that.  What is so great about this tree?  That it is planted by the water.  The water takes care of everything.  This is a happy tree.  A happy human life is planted in the words of God and reads them, meditating on them day in and day out.  The disciple can grow anywhere, in whatever circumstances…as long as there is water.  Reading God’s word well is the same as living it well. 

But what about the tree that isn’t planted by these streams?  What about the person who isn’t happily contented in God’s word?  Genesis 3:7 gave us a picture of this on day 2.  Adam and Eve both ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and their ‘eyes were opened’.  They realized they were naked.  This is the opposite of trees being planted by streams of water.  This is trees uprooting themselves from the water.  Their eyes weren’t turned outward to what satisfied them.  Their eyes were turned inward to what they were now missing.

Of course, this describes each of us.  Every one of us is part of the ruinous heritage of Adam and Eve.  We have all sinned.  We all die.  But, the way of Psalm 1 is still open to us.  It was lived by Jesus Christ.  He shares it with us.  Peter says a remarkable thing.  He says that Jesus bore our sins in his body “on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24, ESV), meaning the cross.  Even though we cast our life away in sin, Jesus has become our tree planted by living water.  Through his sacrifice, we gain access to the happy way of life Psalm 1 describes.

Reading the Bible in 2014

Greetings readers,
It has been a little over a year since this blog began.  I'm excited about a new phase for it.  I want to use this post to briefly describe the shift we'll be making.

The blog began over a year ago.  I called it "New Beginnings" to help keep my writing focused on the difference that Christ makes for us.  Trying to live a distinctly Christian life is difficult.  It requires not only a new beginning with Christ.  In addition to this, we must begin again and again with him.  What does this mean?  That is what I have sought to explore.  In the moment when we wake up, or go to sleep, or sit down to pray, or sit down to write a reflection on how great or how poorly the day went, what does it mean that "in Christ there is a new creation." (2 Corinthians 5:17)?  I intentionally framed this to allow for any number of types of written reflection, not knowing what the blog would become half a year, or a whole year down the road.  As you know, the blogs have all been responses to preached sermons at Mandarin Presbyterian Church this past year.

Now, the blog will enter a new phase.  During the year of 2014, this space will be used to reflect at least weekly on MPC's Bible reading plan.  I am very excited about this.  In fact, it's all I have been able to think about for the last several days!  The Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testament is the fountain for our lives of worship and service in the name of Jesus.  It is the authoritative word on everything for the Christian life.  This blog will reflect on the Scripture this coming year.  To keep the clarity of this in mind, the blog will focus on the Bible reading plan, and not on the preached sermons.

If you already receive the blog and would be interested to follow the Scriptures, you can find it online at this site: http://www.mandarinpres.com/readingplan/  Read along with us.  Oh, and don't be intimidated because you are already a few readings behind.  If you take a look at the plan, you will notice that we aren't reading through the Bible sequentially.  I won't go into the reasons now, but we have reason to think this will be helpful for prayerful, Christ-centered reading as opposed to reading just to catch up and be up-to-date.

Thanks, and I look forward to reading the Bible with you!
Chris