R.P. Nettelhorst's Blog, page 48
March 13, 2015
House of Prayer
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?
But you have made it a den of robbers.”
And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. (Mark 11:12–18)
Jesus quoted from the prophet Isaiah when he said that the temple would be called “a house of prayer for all the nations” (Isaiah 56:7). In context, Isaiah’s prophesy predicted that a time would come when foreigners—gentiles—would bind themselves to God and love his name.
When Jesus cleansed the temple of the money changers and those selling doves, his purpose was not to level an attack on making money. Jesus was not against capitalism. He was not even suggesting that selling things for religious purposes was wrong. Instead, he was attacking people who were taking advantage of the poor and the foreigners who were coming to the Temple for the purpose of worshipping God. He was attacking criminal behavior. The system that the religious establishment had created around the temple was keeping those who wanted to reach God from getting to him. Rather than facilitating worship and prayer, the religious leaders were standing in its way. They were making it harder for people to find the kingdom of God.
God is not about putting up roadblocks to faith. He is about removing all the barriers that stand between him and people. He wants nothing to distract us from worshipping him, talking to him, and spending time with him. Jesus has gotten rid of everything that could keep us away.
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March 12, 2015
March 11, 2015
More Rules
The Pharisees and teachers asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples obey what our ancestors taught us to do? Why do they eat without washing their hands?”
Jesus replied:
You are nothing but show-offs! The prophet Isaiah was right when he wrote that God had said,
“All of you praise me with your words,
but you never really think about me.
It is useless for you to worship me,
when you teach rules made up by humans.”
You disobey God’s commands in order to obey what humans have taught. You are good at rejecting God’s commands so that you can follow your own teachings! Didn’t Moses command you to respect your father and mother? Didn’t he tell you to put to death all who curse their parents? But you let people get by without helping their parents when they should. You let them say that what they own has been offered to God. You won’t let those people help their parents. And you ignore God’s commands in order to follow your own teaching. You do a lot of other things that are just as bad. (Mark 7:5–13)
The religious leaders carefully counted all the commandments of God and came up with a list of 613. To help make sure that no one would every violate any of those 613 commandments, they devised additional rules to serve as a hedge to protect them. Exodus 23:19 commanded that a calf should not be boiled in its mother’s milk. So the Pharisees decided that meat and milk products should never be consumed together. In Exodus 20:7 God said that his name should not be taken in vain. So they decided that God’s name could never be spoken.
The extra laws could also be twisted to personal advantage. The Pharisees dedicated their wealth to God so that it could only be used for him. But since they considered themselves to be in God’s service, the Pharisees could continue to benefit from their wealth, even as their parents were left destitute.
It is easy to drift far away from God’s will even as we claim to follow him. Jesus wants us to obey God and discover his will from him, rather than obeying people who claim they know God’s will for us.
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March 10, 2015
Power to Help
They came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes. As soon as He got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met Him. He lived in the tombs. No one was able to restrain him any more—even with chains—because he often had been bound with shackles and chains, but had snapped off the chains and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. And always, night and day, he was crying out among the tombs and in the mountains and cutting himself with stones.
When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down before Him. And he cried out with a loud voice, “What do You have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God, don’t torment me!” For He had told him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
“What is your name?” He asked him.
“My name is Legion,” he answered Him, “because we are many.” And he kept begging Him not to send them out of the region.
Now a large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside. The demons begged Him, “Send us to the pigs, so we may enter them.” And He gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd of about 2,000 rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned there. The men who tended them ran off and reported it in the town and the countryside, and people went to see what had happened. (Mark 5:1-14)
Jesus’ first recorded words were not addressed to the possessed man, but to what was inside of him. He told the “evil spirit” to depart before he ever asked it for a name.
The evil spirit’s answer is worded oddly. “My” name is Legion for “we” are many. Rather than the single spirit which began the passage, the remainder of the account describes “demons” in the plural. Did Jesus and the author of the gospel make a mistake at the beginning that they corrected as they went along?
Indeed not. The poor man was not possessed by an unruly mob of demons, but rather by an organized group. In the Roman army, a legion was strictly organized, with a commander and subcommanders. The demon speaking to Jesus was their commander, the leader of the evil congregation.
Jesus easily and quickly healed a man from perhaps thousands of demons. Therefore, we can be confident that Jesus can easily free us from whatever evil may have us in its grasp, if we only ask him.
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March 9, 2015
The Twelve
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. (Mark 3:7–19)
Jesus called twelve men to be his apostles—that is, his “ambassadors.” Though some of those apostles would become famous, most of them remain obscure. They are nothing more than names on a list. No stories appear in the New Testament to tell us what James son of Allphaeus, Simon the Zealot, or Thaddaeus might have said or done. Jesus never singles them out for praise. No other author of the New Testament even mentions them. Yet these obscure men were among Jesus’ closest friends while he was on Earth. They were individuals that Jesus specifically called, who served a role that Jesus needed. They were with Jesus to see his miracles and they received the Spirit at Pentecost.
Not many of us will be famous. Few of us will be remembered by anyone other than our friends, coworkers and family. Within a generation or two, no one will even know our names. But whether our fame shines like the sun, remembered by the human race for as long as it endures, or whether we vanish in obscurity, like these unknown apostles, we are important to Jesus, serving a role that he intends, changing the world even if no one else knows what we did. We live for Jesus, not for fame.
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March 8, 2015
March 7, 2015
March 6, 2015
Coming Attractions
He said to me, “These words are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place.
“Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.
Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” (Revelation 22:6–11)
When John received the visions that made up the book of Revelation, he was living in exile on a tiny island of Patmos in the Mediterranean Sea. Christians of the Roman Empire were suffering severe persecution from the Roman government. In the midst of this suffering, Jesus offered the hope that he was “coming quickly.”
Nearly two thousand years later, we might wonder about Jesus’ definition of “quickly.” Many lives have come and gone since John recorded Jesus’ words. But perhaps we’re missing part of what Jesus meant when he said that he would come “quickly.’ While we rightfully look forward to Jesus returning someday in the clouds, he also comes to us every day. In fact, he lives within our hearts. He walks beside us and he suffers with us. When we hurt, he hurts.
Jesus also told us that those who keep the words of John’s prophesy would be “blessed.” That is, they would be happy! How can we “keep” the words of John’s prophesy? By reading them and believing them. They tell us that Jesus will be victorious over the kingdoms of the world and that his kingdom, the Kingdom of God, will ultimately triumph.
Jesus urges us to recognize that we belong to the kingdom of God now. And the kingdom of God is near, so near that Jesus comes quickly whenever we call for him.
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March 5, 2015
Cornerstone
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation,
A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastily.
Also I will make justice the measuring line,
And righteousness the plummet;
The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will overflow the hiding place.
Your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
Then you will be trampled down by it.
As often as it goes out it will take you;
For morning by morning it will pass over,
And by day and by night;
It will be a terror just to understand the report.”
For the bed is too short to stretch out on,
And the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.
For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon—
That He may do His work, His awesome work,
And bring to pass His act, His unusual act.
Now therefore, do not be mockers,
Lest your bonds be made strong;
For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts,
A destruction determined even upon the whole earth. (Isaiah 28:16-22)
God overflows on his people, whether in blessing or chastisement. The “waters will overflow” and the reference to Mount Perazim echo David’s words when he had his victory against the Philistines at Perazim right after he had became king of a unified Israel (2 Samuel 5:20). The Valley of Gibeon refers to the time David chased the Philistines from Gibeon to Gezer (1 Chronicles 14:13). God told the Israelites that just as Israel had defeated the Philistines, so the Assyrians would defeat the Israelites. As God had once fought against Israel’s enemies, so God would now fight against Israel.
Sheol is merely the Hebrew word for “grave” and the covenant with it and death refer to the Israelite’s mistaken notion that somehow their treaty with God precluded the possibility of anything bad ever happening to them. They forgot that God’s treaty promised them not just prosperity, but also great disaster if they failed to keep it.
Nevertheless, God promised that his people would be his people no matter what. Therefore, like a parent, he was responsible for them, and like a parent, when they misbehaved, he had no choice but to discipline them. Disciplined or pampered, God’s people remain his.
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