2010-07-23
Good Morning Dear Ones,
I’m sure that God knew all about me, but it took a long time for me to know even partially about Him. He was eager to enter into a two-way promise [covenant] with me, but being clueless about this for so long about this lead me to some rather uncomfortable adventures first. We must understand that without a covenant, the condition humankind was in from their creation until the Law was given via Moses to the people [EX 24: 1-11], the people had no way to know what was acceptable to God and what wasn’t [RO 6: 12-14]. All people, especially people without a covenant, are in a pickle, because they are born with sin due to the original sin [GN 3: 1-6] and add to their sin by their own sinful thoughts and actions. RO 6: 23, “For sin pays its wage-death; but God’s free gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.” But I’m getting ahead of myself with the second phrase in this verse.
There are two main covenants: 1) the old one, which is the Covenant of the Law. This was a two-way agreement between God and the observant traditional Jewish people. God gave them the Ten Commandments [EX 20: 1-17], something He actually did twice. The first time Moses was descending Mt. Sinai after 40 days with God, only to find the people having constructed a golden bull from the precious metals given them by the Egyptians. Upon seeing this idol worship being led by his brother, Aaron, the High Priest, he was so furious that he threw the tablets on to the ground destroying them [EX 32: 1-29]. However, the faithful Moses felt bad about this after he calmed down. He went back to the Lord, praying for His forgiveness for them [EX 32: 30-35]. God gave the Ten Commandments once again to Moses, and this time the people accepted them [EX 34: 1-28]. Over the years, from the time the Covenant of the Law was sealed at the base of Mt. Sinai, Jewish people exercised their sinfulness in blatantly creative ways. They came to believe at the urging of the early rabbis that there are two laws, the written law –which is the OT including the Torah, first five books of Moses and the other books of the OT making up 39 books in all. These are God-generated. In addition, there is a the oral law, a series of writings still going on which are rabbinical commentaries on the law [mostly from the 1st-3rd centuries BCE, and stories which pass down the culture and practices of the traditional Jewish beliefs. The oral law is strictly man-made-the Talmud [explaining the law], the Midrash [stories passing down the Jewish culture], and Mishnah [the law of the land]. The net result of all of this human addition was that traditional Jews are expected to keep what had ballooned up from ten basic commandments to 613! No one but Christ Himself could do this. Another problem came in the commemoration of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. The most any traditional Jew could hope to be forgiven by God was for only one year [LV 16: 24].
Most of my readers have a deeper understanding of 2) the new covenant or the Covenant of Grace, which replaced the old covenant for those who accept the Lord Yeshua [Jesus Christ] as their personal Savior. No doubt there will be much more about this covenant as the Our Covenant series continues, so I won’t spend time on that now. We do know however, that the coming of the new covenant was no accident, and that it was announced in JER 31: 31-34 and even earlier in IS 53: 1-12, important parts of the OT.
I left off in my own story when I was 15 and headed for jail. But, I must say that although I was clueless, God was absolutely in the driver’s seat throughout the journey to faith which is my life. After my overnighter in Juvenile Hall, God used my father to further His cause. My father was a physician in the service of his country who spent most of his later life plagued with serious heart problems which eventually took his life at the age of 59. Dad was a lifetime smoker before it was known how dangerous to one’s health this practice can be. Anyway, God put it on my father’s mind that I must be removed from the group of people I was befriending, and that the best way to do that was to remove me from the junior high school I attended. Furthermore, he understood that some of my bad behavior was due to not having my mind sufficiently challenged. It was then, that he got the idea to try to get me enrolled at an all-academic high school, the only one in the public school district where we lived. It was necessary for me to take a test to qualify and to be retested, as all the students of this school were each year, to remain in it. Once again, God stepped in and gave me the ability to pass those tests. The only problem was that it took four buses each way to get from our home to that school, and later, I discovered I needed to earn money by tutoring others to afford bus/trolly fare and lunches. I spent the next three years working my tail off, and it was exactly what I needed to straighten out my act . As for God’s desires, they are expressed in IS 50: 4-5, “The Sovereign Lord has taught me what to say so that I can strengthen the weary. Every morning He makes me eager to hear what He is going to teach me. The Lord has given me understanding, and I have not rebelled or turned away from Him.” Dear Ones, I was a long way from this! However, I did graduate after those three years high in my class and under the age of 18. My story is to be continued.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have us in Your sights, and we are blessed for it. PS 33: 13, “The Lord looks down from heaven and sees every person.” Even when we are clueless as I was for so long, You don’t give up on Your human creation. Truthfully, there are so many times we disappoint You, and yet you don’t abandon us [PS 9: 9-10]. That is because You are a wise, compassionate, and patient God. You know that at some point You must draw the line on what kind of sin or on making a lifestyle out of sinning we commit. RO 3: 25-26, “God offered Him [Christ], so that by His death He should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in Him. God did this in order to demonstrate that He is righteous. In the past He was patient and overlooked people’s sins; but in the present time He deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate His righteousness. In this way God show that He Himself is righteous and that He puts right everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus.” You also know that we are enduring all kinds of trials, and that some of our behavior you don’t like is due to immaturity in the Spirit. So, You are patient for that, knowing that eventually, we will learn to look to You first in prayer and to rely on Your guidance in tough, painful, or disappointing situations. 2 PET 3: 9, “The Lord is not slow to do what He has promised, as some think. Instead, He is patient with you, because He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.” You are a loving Lord, one Who directs Your Son to join You in the pledge to bring back as many of us as possible to You for eternal life [JN 6: 39-40 and EPH 1: 4-5]. We offer You our eternal thanks and praise for Who You are and what You do for us. In Christ’s holy, mighty name we pray. Amen.
Next Week: I’m pledged to the Holy Spirit, Who directs me to write more about the different types of covenants and to continue sharing my own spiritual journey, as well. In preparing for this study, I realized more about just how blessed each of us is that our God cares about us as much as He does. And still, there are so many people who refuse to place their hope and trust in Him, who disappoint Him with their sinful ways of rebellion, and who simply don’t want to understand that He is offering His help with our trails. PS 138: 5, “When I asked for Your help, You answered my prayers and gave me courage.” “ How many times have we faced what seemed like a mountain to climb, prayed for His help, and He gave it to us?” [from two different versions] Each of us must ask ourselves to look at the status of our faith and trust in Him with openness and honesty. PS 62: 5-8, “He alone is my Rock and Salvation; He is my Fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God. He is my mighty Rock, my Refuge. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our Refuge.” We should be thankful and willing to praise the Lord, because of recognition of the many blessings and protection from evil He gives us. David wrote this passage, which we can use in our prayers. PS 28: 6-7, “Praise be to the Lord, for He has heard my cy for mercy; the Lord is my Strength and my Shield; my heart trusts in Him and I am helped; my heart leaps for joy and I will give thank to Him in song.” It won’t matter if you can carry a tune or not; God will love each of us anyway. Praise and thanks to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15