Jeff Andras's Blog, page 4

Walking Off The Map

 

This week’s Torah reading is from Genesis 12:1-17:27. Within this section of scripture we come to the point in salvation history where God first speaks to Abram.  During this initial discussion God tells Abram to leave the country where he was living and the family that he had there to go to a new land.  God promised him that in this new land He would make him into a great nation, that He would bless him, make his name great, and that through these things he would be a blessing to others.  

This section of scripture takes us on the early journey of Abram’s life with God.  

There are many things that I gather from this story that I find relevant to our journey with God and the calling that He has upon our lives.  I find a lot of comfort reading about Abram’s challenges with fear, about his times of questioning, and about when he got out in front of God and decided to take matters into his own hands.  It is comforting to read about how God blessed Abraham in spite of these errors and how God used all of the mistakes to grow Abram, transform Abraham, and prepare him for what He would ultimately call him to be (and do). 

With that said, the thing that really struck me this year was this; The calling to a journey. 

As I read this my mind went immediately to Jesus picking His disciples and telling them to walk away from the lives that they had known and to follow Him.  I thought about Mary and Gabriel telling her that she was to be pregnant out of wedlock and that her son would be the Messiah.  As my mind continued to be filled with scripture and images, I landed on Jesus telling us that those who lay down their lives will find life and those that try to hold on to their life will lose it. 

When we think about laying down our lives we tend to think about physical things.  But how about the emotional and/or spiritual?  And of the emotional/spiritual, what is the greatest and most difficult to lay down? 

As I think about Abraham, Mary, and the disciples that followed Jesus, I see a common theme of death and re-birth.  The common theme is identity.  Abram was called to leave the land he had grown up in, the family he identified with, and the people he had come to know and who knew him.  He was sent to a new land where he would have to learn a new way of life, encounter God, enter into a covenant with God, and become the father of a great nation.  The change for Abram was so drastic that even he and his wife were given new names.  What do you think that would have been like at family reunions? 

Mary was kind of the same but in a different way.  The concept of being with child while not married was not on Mary’s list of how to make a good impression with the new neighbors list.  I have to believe that her image of what life would be like with Joseph did not include the persecution, judgement, or even challenges of raising the Son of God.  Life for Mary got a whole lot more complicated and probably only a very little of what she had thought her future would hold ended up being the reality of her life. 

The same holds true for the disciples that heard Jesus utter the words “come and follow me, I will make you fishers of men”.  They had spent their adult lives in the family dynamic that they had become accustomed to, they were settled into their careers, and they were a part of the religious scene in the magnitude that they believed would remain reasonably consistent for the remainder of their lives.  In the blink of an eye their entire destiny changed.  Everything became different. 

How many of us understand that when God calls us into this relationship with Him, we too are called to die to the old and step into the new in a very similar way?  How much of our old lives and the images of the future that we have built our hope on is He asking us to walk away from?  How much of what we don’t understand is waiting for us on the horizon whereby all of it will be asking us to let go of who we have known ourselves to be so that we can start identifying with who He knows us to be? 

In all of this there are some things that I know and some things that I believe.  As I look at Abram’s life, I see Abraham being more courageous and having a greater faith in God.  When I look at Saria verses Sarah, I see a woman who is no longer Abram’s sister, but Abraham’s wife.  As such, I no longer see Isaac as the product of an incestual relationship that would be dishonoring to God, but I see him as the son of a man and a woman who God gave new identities to and who He defined as husband and wife.  In all of these things I see a man who allowed himself to re-identify himself with being the child of God as overwhelming the physical relationship of being the son of his physical father Terah. 

I know that God is calling each of us into this aspect of identity.  In the journey of identifying ourselves as His children we are free to see Him as a good father, full of love, and abounding in loving kindness.  In this we are capable of growing in our trust of Him and regardless as to what things we have done wrong, we are free to grow into the understanding that what we have done does not define us, but instead who we are becoming will establish who we are. 

Torah gives us a way of life that teaches us to walk in this confidence, to let go of the self-condemnation, and belief that our past does not define us.  Torah teaches us about the love, mercy, kindness, and selfless nature of what it is to be a child of God.  Torah gives us the tools and instructions that we apply to our lives and through the process the belief that our new identity is real.  As we live lives aimed at walking out God’s nature of holiness, mercy, justice, and love we begin to grow in our understanding of who we really are capable of being as we grow into our belief that this really is who we are. 

All of these things I know to be true.  These are the aspects of the new identity that we are called into and every aspect of the old identity that is contrary to this new nature is to be put to death.  Now for the part I can only say I believe.  This would be the dying to other aspects of life that would separate us from the understanding of being one of Abraham’s children. 

All of the covenant promises were made to Abraham and those that would identify themselves as being a part of his family through the covenant promises extended through God.  As the covenants expanded down through Moses and ultimately Jesus, I simply do not see this changing.  The reality is, the hardest thing to let go of is how others see us.  How many of us take on our old identities of how we interact with the world and become who we used to be when around those that knew us in our old lives even though we have died to those natures in our new life with Him?  How much easier would it be if everything about us changed?  How much easier would it be if on first sight those old friends would immediately be able to distinguish that we have changed, that we are not the same old person, and that we are no longer identifying with the old person that we have let die? 

As I look at where God’s covenant ultimately takes us, and what it looks like to associate our identity with being children of His first, descendants of Abraham second, and then the children of our natural parents third, I see an interesting dynamic being created. 

As His children we step into the belief that living His ways will ultimately lead us into becoming more like Him.  This would be more loving, more just, and more holy.  At the same time, it leads us into the belief that we will have more power over the spirit realm and a greater confidence that He will lead us, guide us, and protect us.  In this we see ourselves as His children and Him as a loving God.  The entire dynamic of the relations shifts to one of truth and grace, it incorporates the understanding of forgiveness alongside punishment, and encouragement alongside the challenges of testing and refinement. 

As children of Abraham we take on the identity of a people living in covenant with God.  We establish our lives based on that covenant with the belief that the promises of that covenant are extended to us just as they are to the natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  This association leads us into honoring God through the same holidays that He gave “our ancestors” to honor Him, to embrace the same notions of holiness that He provided to “our ancestors”, and that we embrace the same life style that He gave “our ancestors”.  In doing this we change our secondary identity to that of our family of birth toward that of a family in covenant with God. 

Finally, God does not want us to all look the same, act the same, cook the same, and live lives that look like cookie cutter replicas of each other.  Showing our first two loyalties as children of God and then Abraham still allow us to show loyalty to our natural parents.  This demonstration of loyalty to our natural parents is a beautiful thing when put under the loyalty of our relationship to God and Abraham.  God does not want us to stop identifying with our natural parents, the lands from which we grew up, or the aspects of life that make us uniquely who we are.  He simply asks us to run every aspect of who we have been through a filter that will tell us if holding onto it will will keep us from becoming who we are in the new life that He has given us. 

In the simplest form I think most of us can relate.  Before I came to know Jesus, I watched particular movies, told all kinds of jokes, spoke in particular ways, and generally lived in a form of life that had been greatly influenced by my childhood years.  After coming to know Him, I started dying to these old ways of life, was reborn into some new patters, and have been growing in this way every since.  At the same time, there are things that I have not changed while at the same time allowing the underlying motivation behind these aspects of life to change.  In this, I have moved my identity with God above my identity with my past wile still holding onto that identity where possible without compromising my identity with God. 

Over the last ten years I have allowed my identity with Abraham and being one of his descendants to have a similar impact on my life choices.  Now I run my decisions through two filters.  First, does this old pattern of life stand in contract to my new identity as one of God’s children?  Second, does this old pattern of life stand in contract to my new identity as one of Abraham’s children walking in covenant with God as an heir of the promises made to Abraham and his descendants? 

If in either case I hear the Spirit telling me that some aspect of the “old me” is in contrast to the “new me” that He is creating, I ask what aspect of the “old me” needs to die.  What I have discovered is that almost every area of life has aspects of the “old me” that needs to die to allow room for me to become the “new me”. 

The cool thing is that once I work through how other people will view these changes, the changes themselves are not overly demanding or too hard.  I still cook with the same recipes that the “old me” came to love, I just don’t use ingredients that would contradict my identity with God and/or my identity as one of Abraham’s descendants.  The same holds true for celebrations and what clothing I buy and wear.  In both of these cases I can still express myself in a way that is uniquely “me” while simply dying to those aspects of the “old me” that would contradict this “new me” identity.  The pork and shellfish are removed from the recipes, the celebrations that show loyalty to false gods have been removed, and I wear the tsit-tsit on my belt loops.  At the same time, I eat in the same basic ways I have always eaten, I still get to have friends over for great celebrations, and my clothing is still uniquely me.  The major change is that in each case, I have allowed God to take me on a journey of transformation in each of these areas of life.  I do believe this is the journey that we are all called to and I pray that each of us consider this and seek the Spirit's directive in how to incorporate such changes into life. 

Whatever your journey, I am sure we can all relate to the death/new birth journey of those called by God.  I pray that this has been a blessing and a challenge.  Amen. 

Growth Through Others

Last week I was involved in two discussions that ultimately came together to form the foundation for what I feel like God is putting on my heart to discuss today.  The first discussion is an extension of a blog I wrote a few weeks back.  The second referenced Isaiah 54 and how to apply prophetic scriptures of this nature to our lives.  Later that day I saw that Isaiah 54 was the haftarah portion for last week.  This sealed the deal and I knew that this is what I would be writing on. 

The overarching message I feel God is calling me to share is again one on unity and getting along with others who may not see things exactly in the same way we do.  A few weeks back I shared how some people are strong in comprehending the giving and receiving of love in particular ways.  As such, they are more prone to extend and receive love in those ways.  At the same time, they may be weak in comprehending the giving and receiving of love in other ways.  As such, they are less likely to extend or receive love in those ways.  What I shared, is that it is very easy for us to judge people as “unloving” if they do not extend and receive love in the same ways we do.  This is simply not true.  Our responsibility is to understand the other person and recognize who they are and see and comprehend in what ways they give and receive love.  This accomplishes two things.  First of all, it allows us to embrace another person for who they are while allowing them to remain who they are and not pressuring them to become just like us.  Secondly, this gives us the opportunity to grow as we learn and comprehend new ways to give and receive love that we may have not understood before.  In doing these two things we become more spiritually whole people capable of giving and receiving love in more ways while holding onto our own sense of identity. 

This week I want to take that same principle and apply it in a much broader sense.  Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who was going into incredible depth about something that you just were not interested in?  Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who just didn’t seem to care about details that you find incredibly relevant?  More than likely, most of us can answer yes to both of these questions.  The reason is that there are things that each of us are really passionate about.  On the other hand, we all have lots of things that we are simply not that interested in.  At the same time, some of us just naturally have a tendency to want to research things and “go deep” while others do better in life seeing what is on the surface. 

The challenge is again to allow other people to be who they are and not “judge” them based on our own personal approach to life based on what we think is and is not important.  One person may have a great desire to talk about guns.  On the other hand, someone else might not.  The tendency for the one who does not is to judge the one who does for being fanatical.  This judgement blinds the second person of their ability to see and understand why the other person may be so passionate.  The reality is, there are many reasons that someone may be fanatical about guns.  Maybe, they are concerned with home safety.  Maybe they feel a strong responsibility for being prepared to protect the lives of others.  Maybe they experienced some things that led them into a pattern of fear.  The point is, in our judgement of them based on a superficial assessment we miss the opportunity to get to know the other person AND create the opportunity for what they see as important to become something that we can agree is important too.  Maybe that person who wasn’t so passionate about guns might become a bit more passionate if they asked a few questions and truly tried understanding the person who they previously judged. 

The concept of this acceptance leads us straight into the Word of God.  God’s Word is filled with opportunities for people to become fanatical about its various aspects.  Some people are fanatical about creation and exactly how old the earth is.  Some people are fanatical about prophecy and how end time events will ultimately unfold.  Others are fanatical about God’s involvement in pain and suffering while others may tend to be fanatical about the power of healing.  Some people read scripture from the context of how it applies to our lives today.  Some people read scripture strictly to gain a historical context.  Others may read scripture to understand patterns of God’s interaction with mankind while others may focus more on learning about what He says about His character and what drives Him to interact in the ways that He does. 

Herein is where Isaiah 54 comes into play.  Isaiah 54 can be read and understood from many different angles and as such be important to people for a variety of reasons.  I will not attempt to share all of the ways in which this scripture may be seen as important for all people, but will share what my limited view provides.  For me, Isaiah 54 is important because it is, what I believe to be, a prophetic summary of a discussion that God will have between Himself and the Jewish people at some point in the future.  There are many reasons that I believe all believers should open their hearts to being passionate about this concept.  Notice, I did not say that I believe that all believers should open their hearts to agree with me about the context of Isaiah 54.  I simply expressed a belief that all believers would benefit from being passionate about the concept that this scripture is about a future discussion. 

Let’s just take a moment and do a quick gut check.  Do you agree with me?  Why or why not? 

Now, let’s take another approach.  Isaiah 54 is a beautiful section of scripture that every believer can lean on.  The entire chapter is all about hope, redemption, and a knowing that God will never leave us or forsake us.  Isn’t this what this is all about?  Who cares what discussions might take place in the future, life is hard, sometimes I feel like God has abandoned me, and in those moments, this scripture gives me hope?  Isn’t this what the bible is all about? 

OK, how are you feeling now?  Do you agree with this last paragraph?  Why or why not? 

The point is, just like understanding how others give and receive love makes us more spiritually whole, so does understanding why others are so passionate about what motivates them to research, study, and discuss the things they invest their time and energy into. 

There is no doubt that in the day to day life of most people, I would probably agree that the second summary of how to approach Isaiah 54 is gong to be of greater value.  However, let’s take a minute and go a bit deeper and present an opportunity for growth. 

I am going to take a minute to layout a foundation of how I see several chapters of Isaiah.  I will also share why I believe all believers would benefit by opening their hearts to the concept that these prophecies may be unfulfilled discussions between God and the Jewish people.  In doing so, I am in no way minimizing what I said in the last paragraph.  In actuality, I believe that going the full mile will not only provide a greater understanding of the scripture, but will even provide the opportunity to expand the hope spoken of in the second view.

From how I see it, Isaiah 53 to the end of Isaiah are prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled.  Don’t get me wrong, Isaiah 53 definitely talks about Jesus and His crucifixion.  However, I do not see the main prophecy of Isaiah 53 as being about the crucifixion but more so, I see it as a future discussion between God and the Jewish people when we (as a people) are coming to see Jesus for who He was (as a man).  You will notice that the writing style of all of these chapters of Isaiah are in the form of discussion between God and a people.  Isaiah 53 is written in a past tense for.  In other words, it is a discussion between two parties about something that happened in the past.  This is why I see this scripture this way.  From there, Isaiah 54 through the next several chapters are all written in future tense.  As such, I see this section of Isaiah as a set of discussions that will take place during the next transition between dispensations.  If I am correct, this discussion is between God and the Jewish people and will take place right before He returns to set up the millennial kingdom.  This would put the fulfillment of this prophecy at the end of the dispersion which is also the end of the “time of the Gentiles” which is the dispensation that we are currently in. 

Isaiah 54 has particular imagery and language (Isaiah 54:8 “I hid My face from you”) that references back to the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32.  Not only does this chapter provide imagery and language, but the promises that are being made are the very promises that have yet to be fulfilled and according to all prophecy will only be fulfilled at the end of the dispersion and during the messianic kingdom.  These sections of the Song of Moses are the same references that Jesus, Paul, Peter and the other New Testament authors referenced in giving us a prophetic timeline as to where we are in God’s plan of salvation through the Jewish people. 

So, why is this important beyond just proving that I am right and anyone who disagrees is wrong? 

First of all, knowing that God still has these promises in store proves what we believe to be true really is true.  It is easy to read that God will never forsake us.  However, we can’t forget that He is talking to Israel.  Up until 60 years ago there was no proof that He hasn’t really given up on us.  Afterall, it has been over 2,000 years since we were sent into exile and dispersed across the face of the earth. We have been the most persecuted people ever to exist and antisemitism is again on the rise.  This time period of his “hiding His face” from us still continues to this day.  What proof do we have that He won’t forsake us if He hasn’t proven to not forsake Israel?  The proof comes in the prophecy.  From how I see it, Jesus, Paul, and Peter along with all the other New Testament authors and the Old Testament prophets all provided prophecy that date stamps us to right where we are today.  It is in the prophecy that has come to pass that we can rest assured that what is still to come will come and that ultimately Israel will be redeemed.  Our hope rests in the belief that their redemption will come.  Understanding that these verses are speaking of a redemption still due provides that hope. 

if I am correct in how I am viewing these scriptures, Isaiah 56 moves into an aspect of the discussion that is applicable to every believer who is not from the bloodline of Abraham.  In Isaiah 56:6-8 NASB we read ““Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, To minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD, To be His servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the sabbath And holds fast My covenant; Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”  The Lord GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.” 

Understanding that there are promises and conditions set aside for the gentile believers who want to be a part of Jesus’ 1,000 rule here on earth is a critical concept to consider.  This scripture again points to the gathering of the dispersed but promises that the gathering will include those not of the blood line of Abraham.  In this, gentile believers can find promise that they too will be part of the kingdom while also coming into an understanding of what conditions God will be looking at when culling through those who will and will not be a part of that dispensation.  This provides the opportunity for hope alongside belief and decisions as to how to go about our relationship with Him.  All of these could prove to be very important if what He says really is true.  It is scriptures like this that help us make the right decisions today so that we will be properly prepared for what will come tomorrow. 

At the end of the day, the point is not about who is right and who is wrong.  The point is that we need to be open to not only what other people are passionate about, but probably even more importantly, why.  It is in the asking of why something is important to someone that we can truly see who they are, what drives them, and where their greatest strengths may be.  In this, we can grow as we start seeing the world through the eyes of others and in the process, become more complete. 

I pray that this has been a blessing to all of us and that in and through what has been shared we have all been challenged to be more loving, more accepting, and more thought full in posing the right questions when we just don’t understand where someone else is coming from. 

Maintaining Balance

The scroll has been rewound and it is time to begin.  Time to begin a new year’s journey through Torah.  Time to start a new year’s spiritual journey with God.  Time to start anticipating what this year might bring.  For me, the past several weeks were all about looking back.  Looking back over my previous year.  Thinking about what God showed me.  Remembering my growth, the relationships, the blessings, and even my failures.  Remembering those moments when I wish I could have taken back my words, reactions, or even the things that I had done.  The last few weeks were about closing out last year’s spiritual season right and thanking God for the love and grace He extends to us each and every day.

With the Torah rewound and the festivals behind us, it is time to start back at the beginning.  With that said, I find no better place to begin our journey for this year than with John 1:1-5 NASB “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” 

I firmly believe that understanding the concept of Spiritual Yeshua changes everything about how we view each of the covenants, God’s interaction with the world, and ultimately God’s plan of salvation. 

When we read scripture, like Romans 9, that talk about the Jewish people stumbling over the stumbling stone, it should lead us into a place of contemplation.  In this place of contemplation, we might ask ourselves:

What was the character of Spiritual Yeshua before He was physical Jesus,What was the role of Spiritual Yeshua before He was physical Jesus,Is Spiritual Yeshua the same today as He was before He was physical Jesus, andCan we stumble over physical Jesus just like the ancient Israelites stumbled over Spiritual Yeshua?

In all reality, the vast majority of the letters written by Paul to the early churches are all addressing this exact problem.  Church after church was stumbling over Christ.  One group was connecting salvation to particular festivals, another to not drinking alcohol, another to circumcision, others to food sacrificed to idols, and the list goes on and on.  In Galatians 5:4 NASB, Paul goes as far as to say that “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace”.  In this example, the stumbling comes from a spirit of religion that simply can’t accept the concept of Grace.  In Romans 9:32 Paul explains that this was the issue that caused the stumbling for the Jewish people.  He says that “Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works” they stumbled over Christ.  This would be the most common way of stumbling over Him.  However, I believe there are a few more that are not quite so obvious.

In John 3:14 Jesus tells Nicodemus that He must be lifted up just like the serpent that Moses lifted up in the desert.  This scripture comes right before the famous John 3:16 and sets the stage for what Jesus is attempting to communicate.  In what Jesus is saying, He is referring to an event that happened when the Israelites were traveling through the desert.  The story is told in Numbers 21.  In the story, the people were grumbling and wanting to return to Egypt.  In short, they had come to the place where they had lost belief that the difficulties of the desert experience and all that they were learning and growing into were less desirable, less profitable, and less promising than what life in Egypt promised.  They had lost faith that the promised land would be worth the difficulties of the desert and they were willing to let go of what they had not experienced to return to what they had always known.  In this, God sent serpents to bite the people, Moses sought God’s favor, God told Moses to make a bronze statue of a serpent, and when the people gazed upon the serpent after being bit, they lived.  This is the example Jesus uses for how He would be lifted up and how people who “looked” upon Him would live.

What I find interesting about this is that God had Moses make an image of the very thing that was biting them and causing them to die.  It was this bronze statute of the serpent that they had to look upon to live.  Scripture doesn’t really tell us too much about this but I believe there is something really important for us to understand.  Knowing that Jesus used this very scene to express how people would need to look upon Him puts it into an even more important context.

There are a few things that are important to look at:

The people wanted to give up on the promise and return to the bondage they had known,God sent the serpents,The serpents were bringing death to the people, When the people were dying they knew that they had to listen to God to live, andWhen the people who had been bit looked upon the bronze statue they lived. 

If Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, is it possible for us to see Spiritual Yeshua not only as the one being lifted up, but also in each of the other aspects of the story?  In essence, I believe that all of these things are Yeshua working for us because He is more than a man.  He is the Word made flesh, He is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life.  He was with God in creation and He is with God now.

As I end this a bit shorter tonight, I simply want us to ponder a few questions.  If Christ is in and through each of these things, where might we be stumbling over Him?

Do God's Laws, statutes, and ordinances trip us up?  How about His appointed times?  Has a theology of minimums for salvation led us to stumbling over the gifts of wisdom and the very things that will help give us what we truly seek?Do we let God use the struggles of life to grow us or do we miss the opportunity for growth by complaining and simply praying for the challenges to be removed so that we can go back to our old patterns and the life we are most comfortable in?Do we trust God's sovereignty to the point that we can thank Him by "holding up and gazing upon" those very things that He used to kill something that was dead within us so that we may experience new life apart from that which needed to die?

I pray that each of us have come to see some areas where we too are tripping over Christ.  I pray that as we become more aware of these areas, we find a new strength, a refreshed mind, and a new way of thinking.  I pray that we let Him help us regain our balance, and that we let Him take us by the hand and lead us into a new freedom that can only be found in Him.  Amen Amen

Guilty or Not Guilty? Does it matter?

During our last night of Sukkot, I asked everyone who attended to share a little about what this year meant to them spiritually.  What was God really moving us to see, hear, understand, and embrace.  There were a few reasons for this.  In this blog I am going to present some thoughts on three concepts that are not typically talked about or discussed.

How do repentance and intercessory prayer work together,What is it to be guilty, andWhat is the “unforgivable sin”?

As I ponder the relationship we have with God and the work He does in each of our lives, I thought it important to share a few thoughts, give a little encouragement, and tie together some missing pieces.  For the most part, my intent is to leave each of us with a challenging concept.  Where has God used the circumstance of life, other people, the Holy Spirit, our devotions, teachings, church time, or any other source of speaking into our lives to move us from a place of innocence to a place of guilt.  Going one step further, how important is our response in our demonstration of love?  This is a tough concept for most of us to consider.  At the same time, if what I am seeing in scripture is true, it could be a concept that will change how we view ourselves and even more so, how we see (or judge) others.

In this process I am going to share some concepts that are typically not taught and as such most of us do not spend much time thinking about.  I believe these concepts are foundational in our relationship with God and with others.  In the end, I want each of us to ponder what areas of thought and behavior we tend to hear and respond to what we feel in our souls while also acknowledging those areas where we remain somewhat resistant to change. 

As we move into the new year, let’s all challenge ourselves to really see those areas of our lives that we are more resistant and as such, typically less than proud of.  Let’s take some time to step out from under the shame and accept that not meeting the righteousness of Christ is a normal human condition and that we have a God who loves us and accepts us just like we are.  At the same time, let’s also come to accept that if there are patterns of thought and/or behavior that we are less than proud of, then deep down inside something stands witness to the fact that we are not meeting the righteousness that we have been called to walk out and it is time to let God transform us in those areas.

Over the past few years, I have been hearing a lot of preaching about “revival” for the church and “intercessory prayer” for the world.  Most of the time, these prayers have to do with our observations of the hurt and lost souls who live amongst us and focus on asking God to change the direction of the moral decay the world seems to be transgressing.  A lot of these prayers are directed at things we find unholy, immoral, and in opposition to how we understand God’s ways.

I really like how, in most the situations I have observed, the two concepts (revival and intercessory prayer) are put together because this is rightly the way it should be.  According to 1 Peter 2:9, all believers should consider themselves as a part of a “royal priesthood”.  As a part of a priesthood, we really should understand some foundational principles regarding what it is to be a priest, and how it is that we should go about our job.  In 2 Chronicle 7:14 NASB we read “and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

In this context, I would have to believe that God’s people are aware that their land needs healing and that they, just like those mentioned above, have been calling out to Him to do so.  In this scripture, He clearly tells us where the healing begins.  Notice there are four things that GOD’s PEOPLE must do to move God into the position of “hearing from heaven, forgiving their sin, and healing their land”.  I have to believe that this scripture was given by God during a time very similar to this, and that these directions are as relative to us today as they have always been. 

If you are getting stuck on the “forgiveness of sin” not being extended until all of what God is asking for is met, I ask you to let that go and understand we are not talking about heaven and hell issues here.  We are talking about God’s intervention and the answering of prayers.

Going one step further with this, we need to understand that this was a concept that was introduced from the very beginning.  In Leviticus 16:6 we read that before the priests could make a sacrifice for the people, they would have to offer up a sacrifice for themselves and for their household.  Then, and only then, could they offer up a sacrifice for the people and enter into the Holy of Holies.  In this context, we can consider the offering up of the sacrifices as meeting the conditions God put forth above as these concepts are the proper heart attitude God called the priests into when preparing and offering the sacrifices.

Here is what I believe is happening in the spirit realm regarding these things.  What I believe, is that as the world falls apart around us, we see what is blatantly obvious to us as not being of God.  Our first tendency is to go to God and ask Him to fix what we see and what bothers us.  What we fail to see is the sovereignty of God, and how He may be attempting to use what is obviously disturbing to us to reveal to us what we are thinking and/or doing that is sin but that we are not yet aware of as being sin.  It is only through prayer and the processing of humbling ourselves that we can take what we are observing and expand it to reveal similar areas of unholiness in our own lives.  Maybe our intercessory prayers should start off with a petition for God to show us if there is some aspect of our being that is supporting the immoral behaviors we are observing around us.

Does the thought of sex slavery disgust us while at the same time we have no issue with watching movies that exploit the sexuality of people for the purpose of providing profit to the big companies and pleasure to those watching?  Does the thought of abortion make us sick while at the same time we see countless church going parents sacrificing the spiritual well-being of their children while they chase after wealth, power, materialism, or inappropriate entertainment?  Are we allowing the social decay around us to be a mirror that reveals our inability to love those that persecute us?  I could go on and on, but my job here is not to be the Holy Spirit in each of your lives. 

The point is, the disfunction of the world is only one step further down the abys from where God’s people are living and God uses their sin to reveal our sin to us.  In this process, if we are truly His people, we go to Him, ask Him to use their disfunction to show us ours, and get on our knees and ask Him to heal us.  This is the reality of what “revival is”.  To be revived we must first admit that we are dead and need Him to breathe new life into us.  By definition, being dead is living apart from God.  If the church is seeking revival the first steps are exactly what is outlined in 2 Chronicles 7:14 as noted above.

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at the concept of guilt and innocence.  For most of us who have been brought up in the church this concept and the next might be really tough to reconcile.  The problem is that we have not been taught the depths of the Old Covenant.  As such, it may be a surprise to come to understand these next two concepts.  But again, they are important as we find Jesus re-expressing these concepts in His teachings and knowing the source of what He is sharing is foundational to our journey with Him.  Paul also writes from these same perspectives and as such, understanding these perspectives is critical to understanding Paul in context.

In John chapter 15:24 NASB we read ““If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.”  In this, the word “sin” is actually “guilt” but for some reason it is retranslated a sin.  Understanding what Jesus is saying here is so foundational to our understandings of how God intervenes in our lives.  Before we go to far in thinking about this concept of guilt, I need to share our third concept.  That concept is the unforgivable sin of blasphemes against the Holy Spirit.  We need to keep our minds clear of confusing the concepts of innocence, guilt, and ultimate unforgiveness.

Being guilty IS NOT A PLACE OF SHAME.  It is NOT A PLACE OF CONDEMNATION.  It is simply a state of mind.  This state of mind is defined over and over again throughout Leviticus.  I will use Leviticus 5:4-5 NASB as my example.  These two verses come at the end of a list of things that someone might do unintentionally and then “become guilty”.  This is the last in the list, “Or if a person swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, in whatever matter a man may speak thoughtlessly with an oath, and it is hidden from him, and then he comes to know it, he will be guilty in one of these.  ‘So, it shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned."

In other words, God understands that we will sin and that there are sins that we are unaware of as well as sins that we are aware of.  The fact of it being sin does not change with our awareness.  However, the fact of our guilt does.  When we are found guilty, we are told that we are to “confess that in which we have sinned”.  This is simply the progression of our sanctification.

The way I read scripture and have grown in my understanding leads me to see things as follows:

God works in our lives in many ways all at the same time,In areas where we are in innocent sin, He brings things about in such a way to help us see that sin while giving us the opportunity to judge ourselves regarding it,In areas where we are in guilty sin because He knows that we have already acknowledged that we are in sin we fall under His judgement.  In Paul's letter to the church in Corinth he addresses this reality when they were not properly discerning the body of Christ while taking communion,At any point we are free to humble ourselves, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, and in so doing free Him up to answer our prayers.

The only exception to this is when we absolutely refuse to bend our knee, remain in rebellion, and call what is evil good and what is good evil.  This would be a life dedicated to ignoring all that is going on around us and refuse to accept that God is attempting to move us beyond what we know to be sin.  In Mark 3:29 NASB we read “but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”.

There are two Old Covenant references to Blaspheming the Lord.  They are Leviticus 24:16 and Numbers 15:30-31. I believe that Jesus was referring to the Numbers verse because it ties the blaspheme to being cut off from the people.  Here is how it reads “‘But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people.”

Notice how blaspheme is connected to acting “defiantly”.  This moves us beyond guilt and is exactly what Jesus was talking about with the Pharisees.  In Luke chapter 12 Jesus is talking to a group of religious teachers and pointing out to them their hypocrisy.  He is revealing to them that He knows that they know the truth and yet they continue in their rejection of who He is.  Ultimately in verse 12:59 He summarizes what their afterlife experience will be like because of their blatant defiance.  In Matthew 5:25-26 we have Jesus giving very similar imagery to the people as He gives his famous sermon on the mount.

The point is, God loves us, He wants to set us free, and He wants to walk us through this process of sanctification.  We all have areas where we are moving faster and we have areas where we are moving slower.  In the end there are areas where we are innocent and areas where we are guilty.  How God intervenes in our lives is largely associated with how we respond to what has been made known to us.  How He intervenes within the world is largely a result of how His people as a group are progressing through these same issues.

The questions we must ask ourselves are:

Are there places I claim innocence where the reality is, I am truly guilty (the sin has been made known to me),Are there places where I am in active defiance (refusing to accept my guilt even though the evidence is substantial and convincing),Do I love my neighbor enough to humble myself, seek God’s face, turn from my wicked ways, so that He can heal our land?

I pray this has been a blessing to you and that through the next days and weeks we each allow God to continue to bring areas into our minds that we know He has been speaking into, that we as a body hear what He is attempting to convey, and that we do what we must so that our prayers can be heard.  Amen

The End of Law

 

Last week our pastor shared a teaching on the last few verses of Romans 9 through the first few verses of Romans 10.  After church he, my youngest son, and I spent some time talking and going a bit deeper than the sermon covered.  It was a great discussion that we then continued moving into the other night when he and his family came over to celebrate Sukkot with us at my home.  During the Sukkot celebration my oldest son joined the pastor and I as we again went a bit deeper.  Over the last few days, I have been considering a few things that I felt would be profitable to share. 

The first thing is the love and respect that was shared between all of us as we shared and discussed.  In all reality, for me, this is the big realization of the time we shared.  The funny thing was that we never really talked about it.  It just was. 

Over the years I have come to understand that one of the greatest indications of spiritual maturity is exhibited in how we share our theological views and/or how we respond to others when they share theirs.  Undoubtedly, we all believe that what we see in scripture is “obviously” what the scripture is intended to communicate. 

When discussing issues such as the application of God’s Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances to this dispensation and beyond, eschatology & prophecy, the mystical aspects of spirituality (the spirit realm and how it specifically interacts with humans), what makes something clean or unclean, what is holy and what is profane, and how God may be specifically acting or allowing circumstances to unfold we must accept that these are all areas of ambiguity.  Moving beyond the limitations of the Word we have issues like politics, foreign policy, and how we should respond in day to day life given particular circumstance. 

We must learn to share how we see and understand as a summary of “what I see”, “what I believe God has shown me”, and “from how I interpret what I am reading”.  At the same time, we must allow others to share their views and understandings in a like manner.  It is so easy to become so extreme in our views that other views appear as “obviously” wrong.  But, what would we discover if we gave the people sharing those views the respect of sharing what lead them to believing what they believe?  

The bottom line is, if all we ever do is surround ourselves with people who see and believe in the same way we do, and if when challenged with a different perspective, shut those people down before giving them an opportunity to share, we leave little room for growth and new understanding.  When we live this way, what opportunities do we have to see things in a new way?  What opportunities for growth have we shut down before they ever got started?  And what damage may have we done to another person’s journey with the Holy Spirit and the commission that God has on their lives?  What if that person is fragile, looking for confirmation in something that God really has given them, and respects us enough to trust us with our response?  What if there are other people listening and the very thing that this person is sharing is being brought up through the Holy Spirit for the benefit of all those present?  How might our definitive response impact the ability for those people to ever overcome the setback caused by our overzealous and self-righteous response. 

The truth is, I am working toward being strong enough in my faith that I don’t need to argue with people.  I don’t need to defend my perspectives and my views to such an extent that proving my view correct overshadows my desire to love others and provide them the opportunity to bring new and relevant understandings into my life.  I want to trust my relationship with the Holy Spirit enough to know that if someone brings a perspective that is different from where the Spirit is leading me, He will make it clear and I will not be led astray.  I want to trust that the Holy Spirit will lead people into my life to help me move beyond my blinders, and to the point where I value growth more than victory.  How much different would the world look if we could all listen to each other enough to really understand why others believe what they do?  How much more insight could we gain?  How much more could the Holy Spirit use us?

This leads me back to the discussion that the pastor and my sons and I were having.  During this conversation the concept of Jesus being the “end” of the law came up (Romans 10:4).  This took us to the concept of the Law being a “tutor” as shared in Galatians 3:24. What we began to see is that the word “end” can have two different meanings in this context.  Using a race as an example, the race has two ends.  The end of the race is when all the competitors have finished competing and the race is over.  At the same time, the finish line is the “end” of the race.  It is a physical thing that defines where the competitors are racing to.   

Now let’s take a look at Galatians 3:24-25 (NASB) “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” 

These two scriptures really support each other in a beautiful way.  In one way, we could argue that according to the Galatians scripture, the tutor has been done away with because the point of the Tutor is to lead us to Jesus.  In this case, the “end” in Romans 10 would indicate that the Law is no longer applicable to the Christian faith and that Christ did away with or replaced it. 

But, is this the only way of seeing things?  If we choose to take on the vantage point of the Law being good, the very definition of life, and a gift from God, it is difficult for me to understand why God would take something so wonderful away.  From this perspective the scriptures noted above take on a completely new meaning that also fit into the context of what Paul may be attempting to communicate in both Romans and Galatians. 

Maybe what Paul is attempting to communicate is that Jesus is the end of the law like the finish line is the end of a race.  Maybe what Paul is saying in Galatians is that we need to understand what is unholy, unclean, and profane so that we have something to mediate on to grow us in a deeper understanding of the world around us.  In other words, without an understanding of what is and is not acceptable we can’t ponder why it would or would not be acceptable.  Going even deeper, we would have no reason to ponder why we choose to do what is not acceptable while avoiding those things that are. 

From this perspective, I can see that any physical law of righteousness (be it the Law of Moses or whatever level of righteous behavior is preached in our churches on any given Sunday) is simply a tutor that leads us into a deeper pursuit of truth.  This pursuit of truth investigates the unseen laws that govern our world and the motives of our heart.  This pursuit ultimately reveals if we are truly loving God and loving others as we love ourselves.  It is in this investigation that we come to see the root of our behavior, how our flesh nature, old hurts, or poor influences have led us into self-destructive patters of living.  In this we come to understand why we eat foods that are damaging to our health, why we struggle against activities that we know will damage our relationships with others, and why we chose to do things that will make us feel separate and apart from God. 

In John chapter 8 Jesus is talking to a group of religious teachers and He is telling them that they are slaves to sin and that Satan is their father.  In verses 31-32 He tells them that if they come to know Him, they will come to know the truth, and the truth will make them free. 

From the second perspective I just shared we can go back to Romans and come to see an entirely new meaning to Romans 9:31-32 (NASB) “but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.  Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 

Putting things together, here is what I believe Paul is getting at.  Regardless as to what “law of righteousness” we are embracing, if we are seeing that our righteousness in God’s eyes comes when we are able to walk in accordance with that law, we are stumbling over Christ.  All of the physical definitions and images of what righteous living looks like are only provided so that we know when we are living apart from Him.  Knowing that we are living apart from Him should force us to ask the question “why have I chosen to live apart from God?”  When we ask that question, He will answer us and the answer will be the truth because the truth is at the end of every question just as there is a finish line at the end of every race. 

No matter what area of morality or righteous living we may be struggling with, ultimately there is a truth that when looked at, listened to, repented for, and turned over to Him will set us free.  He is standing at the finish line of every battle we face, He is calling out to us, and He is willing to supernaturally bring us to where He is.  It doesn’t matter where we are on the track, how many times we have gone around and around.  He is the end of the battle, the end of the struggle, and the end of the fight.  He is our rest, our comfort, and our shield. 

I pray that maybe this blog has helped some of us see where we too are making the same mistakes as those that came before us, that we too can pursue a law of righteousness by works instead of faith, and that we too can trip over the stumbling stone (Christ).  I pray that in the areas that this has been revealed that we have the strength and courage to move deeper into self-reflection and seek the truth that awaits us at the end of our own race.  I pray that we seek that truth, and that as He has promised, in that truth we find Him, His love, His peace, His rest, and the freedom that can only be found in Him.  Amen Amen.

Peace In Prophecy

 Deuteronomy 32:1-34:12, Ha’azinu, Give Ear 

This week’s Torah portion starts off with Moses calling out to the heavens and the earth to “give ear” and to “hear the words” of his mouth. 

What an interesting concept.  There are two directions I want to go with this.  The first is in the direct context of Moses calling out to the heavens and the earth to take ear to what he is saying.  There is something very deep about understanding that the heavens and the earth were the very first things that God created and that, in the end, they will be the very last things to be destroyed.  In fact, according to Revelation 21:1, the new heaven and the new earth will be created as the first heaven and the first earth pass away.  It is very interesting to note that the last verses of Revelation chapter 20 present the final judgement.  In other words, the heaven and earth will remain up until the final culling of all humanity has occurred and then, and only then, will their use in God’s redemptive plan be complete so that they can be destroyed to make way for the new. 

How many times have we read in scripture a term consistent with the “heaven and earth standing witness” to what Moses is putting before the children of God?  How many times have we read about the heavens and earth as if they are alive and are capable of seeing, hearing, and speaking?  How many times have we discounted these scriptures and not really consider what is being said? 

Ultimately, according to the scriptures, the heaven and the earth have a personality, they do observe, the do see, they do hear, and they do stand witness.  They cry out and they sing.  They are capable of spitting a people out form their presence, and they are capable of becoming defiled.  

As I ponder the significance of this I could go in a lot of directions.  Instead I want to stick with the concept of the enduring aspect of what Moses is saying.  When we call heaven and earth as witnesses or when we make a vow toward heaven and earth, we are making the statement that what we are saying will surely pass.  I reckon this to something like what Jesus is quoted as saying in Luke 21:33 where He says “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail”. 

In other words, what I hear Moses telling the people is that what he is about to say, will surely come to be.  I hear him basically saying, “I have told heaven and earth that these things will come to be, this is how sure I am that this is what will happen.  Because I have said it to the ultimate witnesses I must be confident that it is true.” 

If I am right in this, how is it that Moses can be so sure that what he is recording in the song is a true prophetic image and that there is nothing that anyone can do to change it?  The answer to that question is really very simple.  Because God said so.  Picking up in Deuteronomy 31:16 we read about God telling Moses that the people would not stay true to the covenant.  In verse 31:19 we read God telling Moses “Now therefore, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the sons of Israel; put it on their lips, so that this song may be a witness for Me against the sons of Israel.”  Skipping forward to verse 31:21 we hear God saying “Then it shall come about, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify before them as a witness (for it shall not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants). 

What I am hearing God telling Moses is this; “Moses, I know that you have walked with these people.  I know that I have commanded you to walk with them, to teach them Torah, to share my Words with them, and to tell them about life and death.  I know that I have commissioned you to do all these things and I know that I am now calling you up to this mountain to die.  I know that this is hard.  I know that you know that just like these people have not been able to honor me in the desert, they will not honor me in the land.  I know that you know these things and I am setting you free from the pain of having to see it.  But what I want you to understand is that it’s all OK.  I am going to give you a song that I want you to teach them.  Once you teach them this song, I will make sure that they are incapable of forgetting it.  This song will live deep in their souls.  At some point in the future, a long time from now, I will quicken this song into the remembrance of their children’s children.  I will do this at the right time.  You can trust me on that.  And, when I do, it will stick.  They will see the error of their ways, they will fall to their knees in humility, and they will finally be broken.  When this takes place, they will be ready to be my people and I will finally be able to honor all that I have promised them.  This will not take place for a long time and after many troubles have come upon them.  But, it’s OK.  This is what it must be.  Trust me.  This is my plan, and it will work”. 

Another scripture that comes to mind when meditating on these verses is Isiah 66:7-9 “"Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.  "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.  "Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut [the womb?]" says your God. 

Isn’t God speaking the same basic concept through the prophet Isaiah?  The reality is, God has spent the last several thousand years creating a people.  This people He refers to as a “nation”.  A nation is not a physical presence but the people who establish the ideals, the beliefs, the way of life, and the atmosphere. The nation God is refereeing to is a very special nation and is one that stands apart from all the ways of the world and lives by heavenly principles.  A nation of this nature simply can not be created in a day, it can not be created without pain, and it can not be created without great struggle.  The way I read scripture; this will not occur through a physical re-establishment of the land but through the spiritual re-gathering that will occur when He comes to establish His 1,000-year kingdom here on earth.  Because of this I will not be troubled if and when Israel falls again.  I simply trust prophecy. 

The assurance comes in the end of these verses and is the same assurance that each of us must stand on each day.  As we look into a future that has great uncertainty there is one thing that we can trust.  “God will not bring to the point of birth and not give delivery.” 

For me this is the point and the assurance of Deuteronomy 31:16-21, the song of Moses, and Deuteronomy 30:1 where God tells Moses that “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you and you call [them] to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you,”. 

One of the most beautiful things about prophecy is the hope that it can provide.  As we read Deuteronomy 27-30, and the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, we can rest assured that some day God’s people will be the people He has called us to be.  We can rest in the confidence of knowing that all of our pride, foolishness, and adultery have not surprised Him.  We can see that His redemptive plan has always taken all these things into consideration.  We can let people be who they are, teachers teach what they teach, and religious institutions be what those institutions are.  We can trust that when the time comes for Him to quicken this song into the minds of His people so that we can fulfill Deuteronomy 30 when we “call these things to mind” in the nations where He has banished us, that the timing will be perfect.  We can trust that He knows when this quickening needs to take place, and we can have faith that He is not delaying longer than He needs to. 

I believe this is the confidence that the New Testament authors had in these prophecies and why they were able to walk in the peace in which they walked.  In 1 Peter 2:10, Peter refers to the Song of Moses when He speaks of a people who are not a people”.  This is the same reference as Paul uses in Romans 10:19-11:12. The spiritual gathering of this “nation” is what is put forth in Deuteronomy 30:4 and is re-confirmed by Jesus as recorded in Matthew 24:29, Luke 21:27, and Mark 13:27.  This is the same even Paul discusses in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and John in Revelation 19-20. 

All of these prophetic scriptures give us the confidence to trust that God is in control.  As we look at Deuteronomy 27-30 and the Song of Moses, we can trace the journey of the Jewish people through time.  What has already taken place gives credibility to what is proposed for the future. 

As we read the New Testament, we are given what we need to know to see exactly where we are in this process and to know that this dispensation will end with all the promises finally coming into fruition.  These prophetic utterances give us the assurance that someday we will be the nation that He has called us to be, we will be the people He has intended us to be, and we will be the blessing that He chose us to be.  I can rest assured of these things regardless as to what I see taking place in the physical, if Israel remains in peace, or if it is overtaken in war.  None of these things change my view, they don’t rock my faith, and they don’t hinder me in my trust of what He said will be. 

For me there is something comforting in this and for that I think Him for providing these prophetic utterances, giving them to the prophets, and having them recorded in His Word.  Sometimes it is hard knowing what the future will hold.  But knowing what comes after the tough times surely sweetens the mix. 

I pray that this has been a blessing to you.  Amen Amen.

Party Time

As we move toward the end of the spiritual year and the start of a new, we come into some important holidays. 

Of these are Rosh Hashana, followed by Yom Kippur, then Sukkot.  Between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is a time period called the 10 days of awe and a time of prayer and contemplation.  After Sukkot is Simchat Torah which is when the Torah scroll is wound back to the beginning.

These are the most widely recognized times of the “High Holy Days”.  Not included in this list is something very important and it is something that I have come to believe is a necessary aspect of really understanding what binds all these special times together and gives them continuity. 

Going back to Deuteronomy 26:1-15 we see the last of the commands Moses charges the people with prior to outlining the "blessing and the curse".  This particular set of commandments really caught my attention this year and I really didn’t understand why.  Now that we have entered into the High Holy Days, I am beginning to believe that I am starting to understand why I believe the Holy Spirit led me to so much prayer and meditation on this aspect of the law. 

What this section of scripture focuses on is the tithe.  Why is the tithe so important that Moses would save it for the very last thing to charge the people with before telling them about the blessing and curse?  Why would God want the tithe to be the last commandment that Moses would share with the people prior to having Moses tell them how He would interact if they did/did not honor what He was asking them to do? 

As we read Deuteronomy 26:1-15 there are a few things that stand out:

The tithe is the first of the produce that comes from the ground and is to be carried in a basket,The tithe is given once a year,There is a 3-year cycle,Two years the tithe is to be taken to “the place where the Lord chooses” (Later God chose Jerusalem to establish the temple) and given to the priest,The third year the tithe is to be distributed in the town where the person lives,In each of the three years the person giving the tithe is to recite a particular prayer before God. 

To gain a full understanding of the tithe we have to go back and read Deuteronomy 14:22-29.  When we read this section of scripture, we gain a little bit of a different picture of the tithe than presented in Deuteronomy 26. 

In Deuteronomy 14 we see:

That the tithe is to include a portion of what comes out of the field, grain, wine, oil, and the firstborn of the herd and flock,The tithe is to be used for a party that the person is to be a part of while not neglecting the Levites, the priest, the aliens who live amongst them, the orphans, or the widows.

A few weeks ago, when I read about the tithe in Deuteronomy 14, I was really moved by the commandment to use the tithe to throw a party that the tither would indulge in.  This is so far from our modern concept of tithing!!  The next thing that hit me was that the tithe is only to be given once a year.  WOW…this too is such a foreign concept to our traditional understanding of the tithe.  This is what led me to my prayer time and seeking heavenly understanding.

As I continued to read, pray, and open up to what I believe God was attempting to show me, I began to see the tithe as all about moving our hearts into a place of thankfulness, our minds into a place of faith, our walk into a place of growth, and our communities into a place of provision and outreach. 

My continued prayer and meditation through the next reading cycles helped the picture become more clear and more beautiful.  Ultimately the prayers the tither is to recite and the image of the High Holy Day festival brings everything into clarity.  The prayers can be found in Deuteronomy 26:5-10 for the two years in Jerusalem and 26:13-15 for the third year when remaining in the home town.

The prayer in verses 5-10, when the people return to Jerusalem, is all about re-confirming our personal connection to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It is all about acknowledging that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves, and that God is with us.  It is all about acknowledging that He has chosen us, blessed us, and that there are promises that He has given us that are in the process of unfolding before us.  In short, it is a GIANT family reunion, in the land of promise, acknowledging that He is our God, that He is our provider, and that we are His people.  At the same time, a small portion of the tithe is to be taken to the priest (a basket full), and the excess from the party is to be shared with the less fortunate and those that have not joined themselves to the people of God through covenant.

The prayer in verses 13-15, when the people remain in their own home town, is all about the person’s personal commitment to remain true to God, true to His commandments, and true to the purpose for which He chose us.  The prayer takes into consideration that times will be hard and that we will not walk perfectly in His ways.  At the same time, the person is acknowledging before God that in spite of life’s circumstances, they have treated the tithe with the highest level of integrity and have again used what God has provided for the purposes He provided it.  This time the party will be in their own home town and the focus will be on taking care of the less fortunate, the ones who have not attached themselves to the people of God through covenant, and the Levites of that town.  In the end, this is a GIANT outreach party where the people of God share the provision He has provided, see the vastness of the land He has provided, and see the potential increase of His flock as they see the impact of the outreach within their own communities.

So, how does this all relate to the High Holy Days?  Well, as it is, Sukkot is the “once a year” referenced in the commandment over the tithe.  Because it is a time of living outside in booths it is a time of remembering the exodus from Egypt and the time when our ancestors spent 40 years in the desert with the presence of God never leaving them.  It is also a time for us to move out of the comfort of our luxurious lives to live outside.  Through the years I have always thought of this time of being outside as a time of thanking God for all that He has provided and a renewed appreciation for so many of the things I take for granted.  I have not dedicated myself to living outside during this time, but have tried to move my heart to comprehend the “spirit” of the holiday.

Over the past four years I have spent more and more time outside and this year will be my first year that I set up a make-shift sukkot on my patio.  I am inviting friends and family to join me for the 7-day festival and look forward to what God might do during this most special season.

As I am writing these words my heart is moving to something I have never before seen.  In addition to remaining thankful for all that He has provided, this year when I move outside, I will look around, see that there is no pillar of fire by night, and no God-cloud by day.  I will look around and take note that I am in a foreign land and that I am not in the land of promise.  This year I will consider my part in what has come, and what my part is in bringing about a shift in the heavens that will quicken the end of this dispensation and transition us into His return.  This year, I will remember that I am a part of a people and I will long for my GIANT family reunion.  I will long to be with them in the land that He promised us.  And I will long for that day when He will return to live with us.  I will long for my family to come into harmony with Him and His ways; to be His people His way, so He can be our God in the way in which He always intended.

This year I will remember that in all reality, this land of plenty is really a land of bondage.  It is my Egypt.  He has blessed me in this land, but it is not the land of promise.  I will remember that He has surrounded me with people I love and various congregations that I can attend and feel welcomed.  I will remember that He has blessed me with beautiful children, a loving mother and father, a brother who truly cares about me, extended family who love one another, and friends that I consider family.

But within all this thankfulness, as I come through Rosh Hashana this year, I will acknowledge that another year has passed.  I will acknowledge that we are living the last of the curses, and that we have not been who He has called us to be.  I will gather my tithe and start making plans for Sukkot and how I will honor the spirit of what God has called me to be.  Because I am looking at my tithe and considering the prayers that He gave us to pray, I am forced to look at how I have walked out the last year of my live.  Did I join God in His story or did I ask Him to join me I mine?  Did I focus on what I thought was important only to be aggravated with everything that seemed to hinder me in my pursuits of happiness?  Or did I see that maybe those very things, and those very people that were such an inconvenience and a delay were really the most important part of what my last year was all about? 

As I move toward Sukkot, I can’t help but realize that I have come again to the end of our reading cycle.  After the party is over and everything is cleaned up it will be time to get back to business.  The Torah will be rewound and I will begin the annual study cycle again back at the beginning.  During the ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur I will have the time to consider how I approached His Word and all that He has blessed me with.  I will consider if I made the most of the Word and if I dedicated the time to allow it to speak to me.  I will consider if I allowed it to bring me new understandings about who He is, who I am, and where I must grow so that He can use me for all that He has called me to be.  I will consider if I have used what He has given me for His glory or if I have used it for my own.  I will consider my outreach and how I have made the most of all of the blessings of my life.  I will consider that another year has gone by and "His people" are still spread out across the world awaiting the fullness of the promises made to our fathers.

I believe bringing the tithe into the High Holy Day cycle provides the foundation to remembering that all of our time, all of our talents, and all of our resources come from Him.  He has given them to us because He has chosen us for a purpose.  The purpose is about being a people He will use to lead the rest of the world to Him while remembering that someday He will gather us to Himself.  This is what the High Holy Days are really all about and the tithe, along with the prayers He has given us surrounding them, force us to acknowledge these truths.

I pray this has been a blessing to you.  Amen.

Ready For Redemption?

 Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30, “You Are Standing”, Nitzavim

This section of scripture picks up with Moses addressing the people.  He doesn’t leave anyone out.  He calls them out by groups; Chiefs, tribes, elders, officers, men, little ones, wives, the aliens who are living with the Israelites, even the workers (the one who chops wood and the one who draws the water).  In Deuteronomy 29:15 he even expands this list to include the unborn children of each of these groups.

What Moses is saying is that each of the people and all of their children and all of their children’s children throughout all of their generations are, by the hearing of the parents, binding themselves to the covenant conditions and promises as a single people.

As I read this, I can’t help of thinking about the first two chapters of Ephesians where Paul is talking about Christ “making in Himself…one new man”.  This entire section of Ephesians is circulating around the promises and the inheritance offered to the children of God as a people.

Going back to Deuteronomy and this week’s readings, from what I see, those promises, and the inheritance are summed up in 29:10-13 (NASB).

“You stand today…..that you may enter into the covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath which the LORD your God is making with you today, in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

The three things I pick up on here are:

This is a cumulative journey,It is inclusive of men, women, teachers, students, natural Jews, gentiles who join Israel, elders, laborers, children, and all future generations, andThe fulfillment of the covenant is the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This re-establishes where we have been going with these blogs over the past few weeks.  This week we are going to take a final look at how this week’s writings confirm that the fulfillment of these specific promises:

Have not passed from Israel to the gentile church,That the fulfillment of these promises is the hope of the New Testament church, andThat none of what has transpired over the last 3,500 years has strayed from God’s plan of salvation.

As we progress through the scripture, we come to the beginning of chapter 30.  Notice in verse 30:1 the Word says “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you,…”

By this point, God is not just giving the people a list of what will happen IF they do or do not keep the covenant promises.  By this point in what Moses is sharing, the Word of the Lord has become a prophetic statement.  This WILL be the journey.  Some might argue that the last of the curses, being the exile, was fulfilled during the time that the Jewish people were captive in Babylon.  Based on scripture this simply is not possible.  This will become far to apparent as we address the three conclusions noted above.

In Deuteronomy 30:4-6 God tells us that after the exile (the last of the curses) He will gather us together to Himself.  The image of this regathering is very specific.  It will be in the land of our fathers which we will possess, He will multiply our family, He will circumcise our heart and the heart of our generations.  He will be our God and we will be His people.  This is a direct fulfillment of all the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  No one could possibly argue that these promises are being made to the people of Israel and all the people Moses is specifically addressing.

For proper context it is important to look at exactly where God says He will be gathering the people from.  In Deuteronomy 30:4 (KJV) we read: “If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee”.  Going back to 30:1 the timing of when this heavenly gathering takes place is established as “it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee”.

From these two verses, we can conclude that the re-gathering:

Will take place at the end of the exile,Will include those living and those in the heavenly realms, andWill be the beginning of a time when the people God is talking to will be supernaturally gathered to Israel and the fulfillment of the covenant promises will be fulfilled.

Now let’s look at a few Testament scriptures:

Mark 13:27 (KJV) “And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.”

Matthew 24:31 (KJV) “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Luke 21:28 (KJV) “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Let’s start with the basics and then I will let you go back and do your own research for the deeper points and understandings.  At the most basic level I don’t think anyone could reasonably argue that Jesus was not specifically referring to same event as outlined in Deuteronomy 30:1-4 when He was telling His disciples about what would happen in these future events.  The terminology and imagery is just too specific and is just too perfect of a match.  As you go back and research each of these sections of scripture you will see that Jesus is specifically talking about when He will return to set up His rule and reign on earth.  He is telling His disciples about these things in the context of telling them that He will be betrayed, turned over to the authorities, and put to death.  He is telling them that the time of gentiles is beginning and as such, this is the transition into the last of the curses.  He is assuring them that after a time of great tribulation, He will return and all the promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will finally be fulfilled.  He is assuring them that Deuteronomy 30 still stands, it is still true, and that they can remain in hope knowing that God is not done with them.  The Luke scripture connects what will be taking place to the "redemption" that is clearly defined throughout scripture as this final ingathering from the heavenly and earthly realms with the establishment of His earthly kingdom.

In 1 Thessalonians Paul shares what he sees transpiring on that day.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NASB) “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

Finally, in Revelation 20:4 we see John sharing what Jesus showed him about end times as he specifically references this same re-gathering from the heavens and the earth and the redemption.  The context of Revelation 19-20 perfectly parallel everything that Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us Jesus taught on His return, the setting up of His Kingdom, and the re-gathering of His people.  Revelation perfectly parallels Deuteronomy 30 in that it is a promise of a 1,000-year physical reign where the “people” who Moses was speaking to will finally live in the promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The scripture is simply overwhelming.  I could quote from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and several other prophets.  I could add quotes from the Old Testament, and I could add additional quotes from the New Testament.  The amount of scripture that supports this understanding is simply overwhelming.

Understanding that Jesus and the New Testament authors all continued to see the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30 as a future event leaves us no choice but to accept that God is not done with the Jewish people.  It forces us to understand that the rejection of Jesus by the Pharisees, the crucifixion, the time of Gentiles, and the exile are all a part of God's plan of salvation.  The New Testament writings force us to look into the future and understand our destiny so that we can start thinking about what we have believed, what we have rejected, and what it really looks like to make "Jesus Lord".

In summary, from beginning to end, the hope of the bible is the restoration of the “people” to the land of Israel, to live in harmony with God, to have Him here on earth with us, to walk with us, and to talk with us, to teach us, and to help us see and understand Him in the way in which He as always wanted to be seen and understood.  In this, we will be His people, and He will be our God.  It will be a time when He is able to fulfill all the physical promises of the covenant, when we will fulfill our side of the covenant,  and when we, “His people”, will finally be a blessing to the nations.

This is the promise that was given to Abraham, it is the faith that the saints of Hebrews 11 believed in, it is the future that Jesus spoke of, it is the understanding and inheritance that Paul wrote about, and it is the vision that John was given.  From beginning to end this is image of things to come, it is the end of our journey here on this earth, and the conclusion of what must take place before the creation of the New Heaven and the New Earth.  It is the image of our spiritual journey before the books of life are opened and the conclusion of all things is established.  It is our destiny.  It is our future.  It has been promised.  And it will take place.  Do you believe?

I pray that this has been a blessing and an inspiration.  Amen amen.

 

What's THE Promise?

 Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8, Ki Tavo, “When Youi Come”

Over the last few weeks, I have been feeling led to spending a lot of time in Hebrews 11-13, Romans 8-10, Galatians, and Ephesians.  My journey has been one of contemplating the “promises” of God and what the New Testament authors are talking about when they discuss the “inheritance” and the fulfillment of those “promises”.  My seeking has been to understand what the fulfillment of those things looks like to both the Jewish people and the gentiles who have been grafted into the family of Abraham.

In last week’s blog I shared the concept of the promises being about a return to the land.  This week I will continue down that path a bit further and hopefully tie together some important concepts.

This week’s Torah Portion is entitled “When you come” and focuses on the prophetic image of what will take place over the next 3,500+ years relative to the people of God, the land, and the journey of the people during that time period beginning with their entry into the “promised” land.  The prophetic picture shared in this parsha begins with their entering the land and ends with the last of the curses (the exile during the time of the gentiles which we are currently in).  Next week’s reading picks up on what will take place when Jesus returns at the end of this dispensation.

At the beginning of this week’s parsha is a bit of scripture that at first glance may appear out of context with the balance of what God is calling Moses to share.  However, on closer examination, it is incredibly relevant to not only what God is telling the people of Israel about their future, but just as important is what He is revealing to us in the prophetic insights of today.

This week’s parsha opens with 15 verses on the first tithe.  What jumped out to me was the prayer that all the people of Israel and the aliens and foreigners who were amongst them were to say when they brought their tithe before the priests.  The prayer begins with a several verse summary of how the person bringing the tithe acknowledges their relationship to Abraham, the people of Israel, the provisions God has provided, and the promises He has made.

I believe what God wants us to take from this is that we are a people.  We are not individuals.  The tithe is for the priest but it is also for the poor, the widow, and the orphan.  It is for the alien and the foreigner.  It is for the Israelite and for the gentiles.  It is for all these people groups and at the same time it is also called as from each of these groups as well.  Even the priest was to tithe on the tithe. 

In other words, there is a spiritual image that “we are all in this together” for and with each other.  At the same time, there is an image that “we are all in this together” in that since we are all spiritual children of Abraham, we are all “together” in the promises made to Abraham.  We are all children of promise and co-heirs.  Taking it a step further, we are all “in this together” through thick and through thin, through blessings and through curses, and through the journey and into the destiny.  Can we let God make the point?  He wants us to see that “we are all in this together”.  He wants us to understand that this is a cumulative experience, a cumulative refinement, and that He is leading us to a cumulative promise.

As I read in Hebrews 11 and work my way through the “hall of faith”, I see the word “promise” come up several times.  What is the author of Hebrews talking about?  For most of my life as a believer I have been under the impression that the “promise” is heaven and eternal life.  However, this isn’t what I read in these verses and I do not believe that this is what the author of Hebrews is getting at.  Once I get into Hebrews 12-13 the image becomes even more clear.

In short, the image I see being painted out is this:  In Hebrews 11 we are given a summary of some of the people who believed the promises that God made to Abraham extended to them.  This summary of people includes both Jews and Gentiles.  The promises that are mentioned are the promise of a great family, of a land of plenty, of being a blessing to the rest of the world, being a joy to God, and being established as His people for His own possession. 

Sadly, by the time Jesus came these promises had not yet been fulfilled because the Jewish people have never been able to hold onto the land.  The reason we have not been able to hold onto the land goes right back to what we are reading in this week’s parsha.  In Galatians 3:15-19 Paul explains to us that the promises made to Abraham were not made contingent upon the Law that was given 430 years later.  However, if the people of God are living in “transgression” they will be at odds with the land, and the land will spit them out.  This is where last week’s blog ended. 

This is also the state of Israel when Jesus came and why the temple was destroyed and why the people of God were sent into exile.  This is what Deuteronomy 29 tells us.  The exile has nothing to do with the Pharisees rejecting Jesus.  It has everything to do with the people of God not living according to God’s ways, living in transgression, defiling the land, and either the land spitting them out, and/or God removing them from the land to protect it (and mature the people of God into His people).

Going back to Hebrews 11-13 we see that at the end of 11 we are told that the saints were not able to see the fulfillment of the promises, but in “us” they may be made perfect.  The next two chapters of Hebrews is a strong word on what it looks like to walk in the fullness of God and the calling that He has upon our lives.  I believe what the author is saying is this:  All these saints had the faith that God would honor the promises, but, as a people, they were never able to walk in a way that would allow them to stay at peace with the land.  However, we, in Christ Jesus, do have the ability to walk in a way that we will not defile the land.  As we come together and live in harmony with each other, honoring God, honoring His ways, and living in accordance with all that He has commanded us, the promises will come to be.  He will make us a great nation, He will allow us to stay in the land, He will allow us to be a blessing to all the people of the world, and we will become His people, and He will be our God.  As such, the fullness of the promises will come to be during our lifetime and as such, the saints and all that they believed in will be perfected through us.”  As predicted by the prophetic insights of Deuteronomy 29, this was not the destiny and the exile came and to this day we are still in this dispensation awaiting what comes next.

This leads me back into this week’s parsha where a few things really hit me.  I have come to realize that, as followers of Christ, our belief should be in the same promises that all the saints of the Old and New Testaments have had.  With this in mind, the next realization is that all believers in Christ are experiencing the same exile as all of Israel and none of us are living in harmony with the fullness of all the promises.  As I share, I ponder how many of us would even want to be a part of the promises that all the saints of the faith have put their faith into for the last 4,000 years?

I ask this question for several reasons.  Even though I hear followers of Christ sharing that they embrace being the bride of Christ, I don’t hear too many sharing the excitement of living with Him during the millennial kingdom.  I don’t hear too many seeking to know what it will be like to visit Him and His priesthood at the temple.  I don’t hear too many talking about what it will be like to honor His Laws, represent Him to the people, and to be a blessing to the nations.  Finally, I don’t hear too many people seeking to understand what they will understand then that they don’t understand now and how they might start coming into those understandings in this lifetime.  

Instead of seeking this future wisdom now, most of those that I talk to are looking more toward the time after the millennial kingdom.  Our Christian theology has left us anticipating the time when things will be returned to a more spirit state, and when the perishable things of this world will give way to the imperishable.  I am beginning to see that our teachings have left out a very important dispensation.  The time period between the end of the exile and the creation of the new heaven and earth are for the most part ignored.  Interestingly, it is this time period that has been the most anticipated by the Jewish people since God first entered into covenant with Abraham and is the fullness of the promises and inheritances spoken of throughout both the Old and New Testament scriptures.

Personally, I think the balance is the fullness of both.  The time period of the millennial kingdom is referred to as the “redemption”.  For thousands of years, the Jewish people have anticipated this time.  Who can blame us for looking forward to a time when the rest of the world will finally see us for who we really are?  After all, we have been the most misunderstood and persecuted people who have ever lived.  At the same time, the millennial kingdom is not about us.  It is a time in which the promises of God will finally be fulfilled.  

From how I see it, of all the promises, the most important is that we will be a blessing to the nations.  Sure, we will be a mighty nation.  Sure, the land will be productive beyond anything we can imagine.  Sure, the persecution will end.  Sure, we will live in harmony with each other and peace for us will abound.  Sure, the riches of the world will flow to us as the people of the world come to bring tithes and to honor Christ.  But all these things are simply a means to an end and not the end unto itself.  This is simply the fulfillment of what we had been called to do from the beginning so that God could use us to bless the nations.  In the end, the millennial kingdom is simply another dispensation that God will use to bring His plan of salvation into full fruition.  It is all about the time that most of my Christian friends talk about.  That time when the perishable gives way to the imperishable and everything is filled with the knowledge of God. 

I agree that this should be a time that we all look toward because this is the ultimate and the eternity.  It is the fulfillment of what everything has been leading up to.  But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and miss what we have been called to.  How about we come together and start looking forward to both dispensations and looking forward to who we will be in each?  How about those that are looking forward to the redemption to look beyond that to a time when ALL things will be redeemed?  And, how about those that are looking forward to that utopic time to slow down a little and get excited about the time when God will fulfill the promises that the entire Word of God focuses on?  The time when all the world will be blessed through Abraham and his seed?  The time when we are all living together in Jerusalem, serving that “seed”, and being a blessing to the nations who do not yet know Him?

I pray that this blog has been a blessing and an inspiration.  Amen Amen

Nothing To Be Afraid Of

 

Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19

Ki Tete “When You Go”

This week’s Torah portion contains a very different feel than last weeks.  As we review the laws that Moses outlines in this week’s portion, we see another pattern being established.  As believers in Jesus, the pinnacle of this week’s Torah portion just might be Deuteronomy 21:22-23 “If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.”

As soon as I read this my mind went to Galatians 3:13 where Paul tells us that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”—”

The concept of what I believe I am seeing here spans across a multitude of scripture.  To help you see how I got to where I am with this, I will share the highlights of the journey.  In Romans 8 Paul shares that in a faith-based relationship with Christ there is no condemnation and that now we do not need to fear death as did our ancestors.  This reminded me of the giving of the Torah and how the people of God were scared to let God tell them the entire law but stopped Him after the first ten commandments.  I pondered why I had been led to these sections of scripture during the time of this Torah portion.  The general flow of the commandments in this section of the Torah portion all deal with the difference between humility and disgrace.  The pinnacle of this is the man hung on the tree.

To understand this, we need a little background.  If you notice, the man is put to death then hung on the tree.  In other words, the hanging on the tree was not for the purpose of killing the man physically.  By this point the man would already be physically dead.  The point for the hanging on the tree is twofold.  To hand on the tree for a short time is to instill a sense of understanding into the people to purge the evil from amongst Israel.  However, leaving the man hanging on the tree overnight and beyond leads to the stripping down of the man’s integrity and reputation utterly destroying any positive aspects of his memory.  This would be like killing him twice.  Once to kill him physically, then to kill him spiritually.  If we stop and think about it in this light, the command not to do this now carries the same general principle as the other laws outlined in this section of scripture.  Even in the situation of war, the men of Israel were not to rape the women they found beautiful. They were to treat them with respect, give them a time of mourning, and properly marry them.  This image of respect and grace weaves its way throughout this week’s parsha.

The interesting thing about this scripture is how God outlines that leaving a man hanging on a tree overnight “defiles the land”.  Over and over in scripture we read about how the actions of the people bring defilement upon the land.  This section of scripture brings that to a head where we see that the foundation of Torah is love.  When we step away from love and start treating other people like the rest of the world treats people we step away from Torah and fall away from our calling in Him.

Moving back to where I felt the Spirit was leading me with this, I ended up reading Galatians over and over again.  Then it hit me.  Disgrace…..dis-grace.  Going back to what we were discussing in Romans and how the people of Israel were under fear, it hit me that the ultimate “curse of the law” is the fear of being rejected by God and coming under His condemnation and falling from His “grace”.  In this, there is a fear of death that paralyzes us in our ability to have a relationship with Him, to hear His voice, and to allow the Spirit to grow us deeper in our freedom and ability to serve Him.  This fear of dis-grace is very closely associated with the concept of disgrace, condemnation, and humility.  This reminds me of the servant in Luke 19 who was scared of the master and saw him as an exacting man and did not invest what the master had given in because of fear.  In return, the master treated him in the exact way he expected to be treated. (Luke 19:20-27)

As God’s people we are called to represent Him.  There is really no other way that we represent Him more than when we are extending grace to others.  This is love.  In this section of scripture God lays down a pattern of how He is expecting His people to live but more importantly, how we relate to others is the greatest indication of how we believe how He relates to us.  It is here in this understanding where we can see how disgracing others brings a defilement to the land.

The point is, when we are in a right relationship with God, we understand that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.  This sets us free to open up our ears, open up our hearts, and to open up our eyes to step into a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit.  In this position we are free to hear the truth and know that no matter what we hear, we have not been dis-graced.  We are simply being told the truth because it is the truth that sets us free.  In this we live lives of peace, joy, repentance, and growth.  This transforms us from the inside where the foundation of the transformation is brokenness and humility.

When we allow ourselves to see TRUTH, be broken, and fall into lives of humility we pass God’s love onto others.  We do not dis-grace them but treat them with the same love we have received.  When God’s people can learn to live like this then the blessings of God are free to follow them where ever they go.

On the other hand, when the people of God fall into religion things become very different.  Instead of feeling safe with our relationship with Him we become fearful.  Just like Adam and Eve, we hid from the truth and just like the children of Israel, we tell God that we don’t believe we are capable of hearing anything beyond a few basic rules.  Without the truth we never become free from Satan and his works.  In this position we miss the opportunities for brokenness and humility and fall into self-loathing and condemnation.  In this place of woundedness we deal with others in a way that is intended to not only kill the sin but, kill the spirit of the sinner.

We must always remember that the end destination of the law is love and that living within the law is not the end unto itself.  I believe this is what Paul was getting at in Galatians chapter 3.  What I hear Paul saying is that the greatest curse of the law is when we become “of” the law.  Paul goes through great pains to help us understand that the Law was not given as a condition of grace but that it was given because of transgressions.  He outlines that God made particular promises to Abraham and that those promises, that were made through covenant, cannot be added to.  As such, the promises to Abraham could not be tied to the law at some later date.  When we start believing that honoring the law is a requirement of God fulfilling His promises to Abraham we become “of” the law.  In this place we move from faith to works where we believe the promises are the result of our godly living.

The point of living in such a way that the land becomes defiled cannot be skipped.  Paul is very clear in addressing that the law was given because of transgressions.  In other words, God is not placing the honoring of the law as a condition of the fulfillment of the promises.  However, living ungodly lives does defile the land, and when the land becomes defiled it protects itself and expels the people from occupying it.  Because the land is a major part of the “inheritance”, this stops the process of the fulfillment of the promises and keeps the promises from coming into fruition. 

So, what I believe Paul is saying is this: “God did not require the children of Israel to honor the law as a condition of His honoring the promise He made to Abraham and his seed regarding becoming a great nation.  However, He saw that the way Abraham’s descendants were living was so unholy that they had no ability to live in peace with the land and as such hold onto it.  Because of this, He gave them the Law to teach them a way of life that would allow them to live in peace with the land so that the land would not become defiled and kick them out.  This is a critical part of God honoring His promises.  However, God’s people made themselves “of” the law and made religion out of what was intended to be relationship.  Through what Jesus did on the cross He nailed the threat of dis-grace to the cross and as such set us free to live lives that are free to see the truth and grow in humility and fulfill Torah as He fulfilled Torah.  As such, it is only in and through Jesus that we are capable of living in such a way that we do not defile the land and as such, the fullness of the inheritance can only come through Abraham and his seed.”

As believer’s in Jesus Christ, we are descendants of Abraham and as such given the same promise of the same inheritance.  One day the Children of Abraham and his seed will live together in unity, in the holy land, be a great nation, be His bride, and be the sparkle in His eye.  This is the image of the one new man that Jesus came to create.  This is the promise that we all await and as such we should all mourn for.  Maybe next year in Israel, in unity, in Him.  Amen, Amen.