2012-07-27
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week we looked at Israel’s troubled covenant relationship with God. The very name, Israel, means “He/she struggles with God.” Certainly, that is both her past and present. As David and Jonathan were cutting their covenant of friendship [1 SAM 18: 1-3] before God, they knew of Israel’s past, through studying the Torah. They also knew the significance of the Covenant of the Law and the Ark of the Covenant through the writings of Moses. DT 9: 9-11, “When I want up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.”
David and Jonathan remembered the stories about the tabernacle in the wilderness, especially the Ark of the Covenant, the exacting description of which was found in EX 25: 10-22, EX 37: 1-9, and 2 CH 6: 11. The Ark was a special cabinet or box which housed three significant symbols of commitment and of the covenant. They looked back on the history of the Jewish people with God in understanding their significance. EX 16: 33-34, “So Moses said to Aaron [his brother and the Jewish high priest], ‘Take a jar and put an omer [unit of measure] of manna [food from heaven for the Jews wandering in the desert] in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.’ As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna in front of the Testimony [another name for the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on them], that it might be kept.” NU 17: 8-10, “The next day, Moses entered the Most Holy Place or Holy of Holies [also referred to as the Tent of the Testimony] and saw that Aaron’s staff which represented the house of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed, and produced almonds. Then Moses brought out all the staffs from the Lord’s presence to all the Israelites. They looked at them and each man took his own staff. The Lord said to Moses, ’Put back Aaron’s staff in front of the Testimony, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die.’” Later in the NT, we have HE 9: 3-4 as a Scriptural restatement that confirms the history of worship in the earthly tabernacle. “Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place [Holy of Holies], which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered Ark of the covenant. This Ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.”
The story of how the Ark of the Covenant was taken across the Red Sea, the day it was parted by God, was also known to David and Jonathan. It is found in JS 3: 3-5, 15-17. This story begins with Joshua’s officers giving orders to the people. “’When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests who are Levites carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the Ark; do not go near it.’ [This was most probably out of reverence for the Lord]. Joshua told the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.’” All of us know what those amazing thing are, but there is nothing like the Biblical description to evoke understanding of the Lord’s great and sovereign power. JS 3: 15-17, “Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the Ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down in the Sea of Arabah [the Salt Sea] was completely cut off so the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the Ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.”
David and Jonathan also knew the Ark would be kept at a tabernacle in Shiloh for awhile. However, because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, it would fall out of and back into Israelite hands. Jonathan’s untimely death at the battle of Gilboa [1 SAM 31: 1-6] didn’t stop the impact of David and Jonathan’s covenant of friendship, because it continued afterward between their two families. The story of Saul’s relative, Mephibosheth, is a great example [2 SAM 9: 1-11]. Even more important is the on-going impact of the Covenant of Grace, the new covenant which Jeremiah prophesied would come to replace the old Covenant of the Law [JER 31: 31-34]. This is the one which is a part of the life of every believer and potential believer in the Lord Jesus, David’s Descendant [IS 6: 9; IS 11: 1; GA 3: 16-17]. We must truly understand the past to move forward in Christ in the present.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your mighty throne today to celebrate the 64th anniversary of Israel’s rebirth as a nation [in 2012 Israel Independence Day is celebrated on April 26th, which is 4 Iyar 5772 on the Hebrew calendar; on our calendar, it’s celebrated on May 14th]. The innate sinfulness of mankind has led to many problems coming from without Israel from Arab fundamentalist and other anti-Semitic enemies and within Israel from spiritual disobedience over the years. Yet, You love those who believe and live according to the Covenant enough to watch over us. It was Your decision to turn from those who made sin their lifestyle and to “graft in” believing Gentiles who entered into a covenant relationship with You along with obedient Jews [RO 11: 17]. You have made the ultimate sacrifice of Your Son on the cross, so that we who listen to and believe His message of salvation and peace will be saved [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. Gentile believers must understand the connections between the history of Israel’s patriarchs and the need for a covenant relationship with God today, just as Messianic Jews do. GA 3: 7-9, “Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture [GN 12: 3] foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the Gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Once we are justified by faith in the Lord, our responsibility to our covenant relationship with You doesn’t stop, nor do Your blessings. We can go back to the story of Abraham’s obedience to You in GN 22: 9-10. Your loving compassion is seen in GN 22: 12, as Abraham passed a difficult test of his faith. In RO 8: 32, we can see the connection between this great story from GN 22 and our own lives now. “He Who did not spare His only Son, but gave Him up for all—how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things? You are a God to be forever praised and thanked! We pray to You in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The Holy Spirit guides me to write about the time when the Ark of the Covenant was at Shiloh and why our covenant relationship with God should never be taken lightly. In the meanwhile, we need to let today’s history be carved out from a greater understanding of the past. Israel’s story helps us understand that, as we learn it through all these Torah verses and passages. It is not enough to simply come to faith, but we need to do an even harder task, which is to live up to our end of the Covenant of Grace. Our God is rooting for us to do that. Through Christ’s half-brother, James’s, little book toward the end of the NT, He reminds us of how to go about it from Abraham’s example. JAS 2: 21-22, “Was not our ancestor, Abraham, considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son [of the promise], Isaac, on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.” We should and can examine our own lives and our thoughts/actions. This is not said to evoke guilt for our imperfections, but to alert all of us to the need to make improvements. It is something that God has equipped us to do through prayer, study of His word, faith-strengthening friendships and activities, regular worship, service to Him and our fellow man, and witnessing to the truth of the Gospel. The blessings of coming to faith are eternal forgiveness [1 JN 1: 9], justification [RO 4: 3], the gift of the Holy Spirit [RO 8: 14-16, 26-27], and salvation [JN 3: 16]. The blessings of living that faith and honoring our covenant relationships are too many to enumerate here, but well worth the effort. 1 PET 2: 9, “But you are a chosen people, royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him, Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” Praise and thanks be to God!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15