2014-10-10
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, we saw the relationship between two major Jewish holidays from the OT, Passover and Shavuot, which foreshadow Easter and Pentecost. You’ll remember that Passover commemorates the exodus from Egyptian slavery [EX 12: 1-42] and fifty days later, Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Law at the base of Mt. Sinai [EX 24: 7-11]. These days were to be celebrated from thence, on. The NT holidays they foreshadow are Easter, which reminds us of Christ’s resurrection [MT 28: 1-10; MK 16: 1-8; LK 24: 1-12; JN 20: 1-9; 1 COR 15: 1-8] and fifty days later, the Pentecost, which gives us a reminder of the giving of the Holy Spirit [AC 2: 1-4]. If you are wondering why the Romans passage is included here, it is because that is one of the most concise and compact expressions of the Gospel, and it includes the proof of it’s truth by witnesses. Once the Covenant of the Law had been “cut” and the blood shed by the animal offering, Moses reminded the Jews to go to the Promised Land [then Canaan, which occupies a much larger expanse of land than modern day Israel (mentioned in GN 15: 18-21) was to be occupied. Had the people been completely obedient to God, they would have seen repeated victories over the Gentile inhabitants of that territory and taken it easily. That’s because it was God’s will, and the land was being given to them by divine right. DT 30: 15-16, 19 explains God’s instructions, through Moses, and shows why obedience brings life and prosperity, while disobedience brings death and destruction. Sadly, over her history, Israel has been far from faithfully obedient to God for many reasons, none of which are very tolerable in God’s sight. She and all of us have suffered over our history because of our sinful nature.
We must remember the three elements of the Abrahamic Covenant: people, land, and a King. GN 22: 17, “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies.” If we pay careful attention to GN 22: 8a, we will see the promise of a King, as well. “Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the Lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Upon rereading GN 22, we can see the foreshadowing of both the Davidic Covenant [2 SAM 7: 12-13] and the coming of Christ, God’s perfect and sufficient substitute-sin Offering [JN 3: 16; 1 COR 5: 6-8; RO 3: 24-25]. (If any of these citations are unfamiliar to you, please read them to gain the maximum from this devotion). Our Covenant Partner has never gone back on His promises to us, but sadly, our faithful obedience is wanting.
It’s necessary to bring up the issue of integrity, defined in the American Collegiate Dictionary as “soundness of moral principle and character; uprightness and honesty.” Within the context of these devotions it also can be said to be “in line with God’s teaching and His will.” Let’s allow Moses’ divinely-inspired writing to shed light on that. DT 32: 1-4, “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth the words of my mouth. Let My teaching fall like rain and My words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God. He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God Who does no wrong, upright and just is He.” Our loving and compassionate God understands that we are at war with our fleshly selves, the kind of war between the flesh and the Spirit that Paul describes so aptly in RO 7: 14-25. He knows that, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” [RO 3: 23]. And yet, He is giving us enough time to win that victory over Satan’s evil, in the name of Jesus Christ [2 PET 3: 9]. We must remember that the Lamb of God [Jesus] was sent to the cross, so that all who believe in Him can have everlasting life. Yes, this huge, painful and important Sacrifice was given by God, so that we humans can win the conflict between the flesh and the Holy Spirit in Christ’s name, using the choices made available by it, not to sin, to demonstrate integrity. It’s a choice we never had when all humans were headed for certain spiritual death before Christ’s Atonement. When discussing integrity, we must review MICAH 6: 8, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” We should note just how close the teaching of DT 30: 15-16, 19 is to MICAH 6: 8. Our God’s teaching is applicable at any time in history and to any of His human creation.
We are commanded to hold fast to the Lord, to faithfully obey Him at all times. This is not easy for us sinful humans, but God did create us able to do it-- even if it takes effort. To help us do spiritual warfare with the adversary and his cohorts, the Father, through Christ, passed on to us the same power as He Himself used to raise Christ from hell to eternal life [EPH 1: 18-20]. He also gave us His own armor [EPH 6: 10-18] to use, and explained to us, in 2 COR 10: 3-5, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Remember sinning begins with an evil thought. Stopping it means adhering to “transformation by the renewal of the mind,” which is part of God’s keeping up His end of the Covenant of Grace [RO 12: 2].
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before You once again to face the issue of integrity in our lives. For some of us, this issue may be painful because of behavior we have done in the past or even are still doing. However, we want to honor You by pledging that we will work to reveal and expunge any lack of integrity in our lives. We love You, O Lord, and want to do what is right by You. Fear of opposition, loss of face, or actual material loss has kept us from being faithfully obedient to You. We confess whatever sins we find before You, knowing that You are a loving God and a forgiving One. You have told us, in COL 3: 13, “Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another when any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another as the Lord has forgiven you.” You have also told us, in 2 CH 7: 14, “If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves ands pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” You said this so long ago, to Your chosen people, but the small size of modern Israel tells the story succinctly. We, Your chosen people [Jews and believing Gentiles alike –see RO 11: 17] offer ourselves before You, in humility to reveal, confess, and stop the sins we know we are doing. You are a loving God, and we thank and praise You for the blessings we have. PS 103: 11, “For as great as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him.” We offer this prayer to You, Lord, in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: We will return to Israel’s history, a history which has very important lessons for us today. I’m led to write about the coming consequences that the Israelites were bringing on themselves from serially breaking their covenant with God. The question keeps coming in my mind: why doesn’t mankind learn from their past? I’m sure God asks Himself this question. Each of us who has faith in Jesus Christ has the power to do something about that. But first we, ourselves, must actually choose to be obedient. This implies knowing God, His will, and His teaching through the Scriptures, praying often-allowing God to speak first, and making faith-strengthening friendships with other believers. And yet, that is not all we must do. We must be willing to endure foolishness, opposition, and even disrespect on the part of those who don’t have faith in Him to witness to our faith and find those willing to listen to the truth of the Gospel [MT 28: 19-20]. God gives us each many opportunities to convey His teaching, both by example and by words we say; our job is to look for them and act on them. By our example, we must display God’s love. By our decisions and actions, we were created with the ability to have integrity. Our God is great and majestic. Let me end with PS 139: 14, “I will praise You; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows right well.” Praise, honor, glory, and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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