2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Long ago, David wrote PS 40: 6-8, “You do not want sacrifices and offerings; You do not ask for animals burned whole on the altar or for sacrifices to take away sins. Instead, You have given me ears to hear You, and so I answered, ‘Here I am; Your instructions for me are in the book of the Law. How I love to do Your will, God! I keep Your teaching in my heart.’” How curious! God had given David an understanding about not sacrificing animals this early in Jewish history, right in the middle of the OT! What this shows is that our Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness, had to have held David in great esteem. For that is the only time he grants a believer the foresight to see what is in the future. Like Jeremiah and Daniel, who came later, David was being allowed to have some idea of the new covenant that was to come when Christ died on the cross. Of course, the picture of this wasn’t as clear as we have it today, but it was there all the same. David’s humility and his willingness to obey God are all through this passage. Those are qualities in believers that are never lost on God when they are genuine. What a great lesson for us!
This notion about not needing to have animal sacrifices because of the new covenant instituted by the work of the cross is enlarged upon in HE 10: 5-10. “For this reason [purification from sin], when Christ was about to come into the world, He said to God: ‘You do not want sacrifices and offerings, but You have prepared a body for Me. You are not pleased with animals burned whole on the altar or with sacrifices to take away sins. Then I said, ‘Here I am to do Your will, O God, just as it is written of Me in the book of the Law.’ First He said, ‘You neither want nor are you pleased with sacrifices and offerings or with animals burned on the altar and the sacrifices to take away sins.’ He said this even though all these sacrifices are offered according to the Law. Then He said, ‘Here I am, O God, to do Your will.’ So God does away with all the old sacrifices and puts the sacrifice of Christ in their place. Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted Him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering that He made of His own body once and for all.” Therein is found the very point which reveals why Christ’s death on the cross is the most profound manifestation of Jehovah Tsidkenu’s love that has ever happened. Our righteous Lord will punish the unfaithful by allowing their ungodliness to prevent them from the salvation He offers to those who genuinely repent and confess their faith in Christ.
There are nine words, the meaning of which is expressed in both of these citations: “Here I am, O God, to do Your will.” They convey the same attitude expressed by Isaiah at the time of his commission as a prophet in IS 6: 8. “Then I [Isaiah] heard the Lord say, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger? I answered, ‘I will go! Send me!’” The message is clear. Those who offer themselves as Paul taught them to do in RO 12: 1-2 honor the enormously life-giving and crucial sacrifice that Christ made. “So then, my brothers, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him. This is the true worship that you should offer. Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you by the renewal of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God-what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect.” That, Dear Ones, is the paradigm that Christ gave us in His own faithfulness for us to follow.
Above I mentioned that Jehovah Tsidkenu punishes those who reject Him. This is done as a demonstration of His righteousness. Now, look at what he does for those who are faithful to Him. JN 1: 12, “Some, however, did receive Him and believed in Him. So He gave them the right to become God’s children.” In other words, God adopted them as His own children to care for, teach, and protect them for eternity. We became the sheep cared for by the Good Shepherd. MT 5: 6, “Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God [Jehovah Tsidkenu] will satisfy them fully.” Every care will be attended to; every threat will be driven off. That, is God’s love for us in action.
I know that some churches have approached Lent as a kind of time of deprivation. Frankly, I think that is missing the boat. Instead, I see it as a prime opportunity to reflect on the grace that Jehovah Tsidkenu has shown us by offering His Son’s life on the cross for us. It is a time to appreciate the magnificence of this act of love and its significance to our lives. Consider the wilderness our lives would have been without it. A dear friend who is also our former pastor and his wife in GA sent me a bulletin from their Ash Wednesday service so that I could read a paragraph of reflection that was included in it. I would like to end my series on Jehovah Tsidkenu by citing this for your prayerful consideration:
“No quit your care and anxious fear and worry; for schemes are vain and fretting brings no gain. Lent calls to prayer, to trust and dedication; God brings new beauty nigh: Reply! Reply with love to love Most High! To bow the head in sac-cloth and in ashes, or rend the soul, such grief is not Lent’s goal; but to be led to where God’s glory flashes, His beauty to come near make clear! Make clear where truth light appear! Then shall your light break forth as doth the morning; your health shall spring, the friends you make shall bring God’s glory bright, your way through life adorning; and love shall be the prize. Arise! Arise and make a paradise!” We can do this; we can make a paradise when we will say to Jehovah Tsidkenu, “I thank and praise You for giving us Your Son on the cross, and here I am, O God, to do Your will.”
PRAYER: O Lord, we do not always understand Your ways. We struggle to understand why the traditional Jews have access to David’s words in PS 40: 6-8 and do not understand them at this time. Without the hindsight that history has given us, we who believe might have been like Christ’s own disciples not understanding the significance of His words about His impending crucifixion when they were first spoken. And yet, Dearest Jehovah Tsidkenu, Your righteousness and wisdom in perfect timing always prevail. The greatest manifestation of it is in the death of Your Son, that perfect incarnate Being, who always said, “Here I am, O God, to do Your will.” You gave Him over to suffering and death on the cross for us when we hardly deserved it. Because of this, salvation was made open to us. He is the ideal Model for us to follow in His attitude and actions. It was He Who followed Your command and sent us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, so that we could understand Your word and eventually follow Him to glorification and eternal life with You. You are truly Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness. Today, we dedicate ourselves to saying, “Here I am, O God, to do Your will.” We humbly offer You our worship, adoration, trust, obedience, loyalty, honor, glory, praise, and thanks. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we begin looking at Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there. Many citations reveal our Lord’s presence at crucial and ordinary times in our lives. They help us to focus on the enormity of the blessings He has for us, how mankind has responded to them in the past, and how we are challenged to respond to them in our personal lives today. Meditate on the righteousness of our Lord as it impacts our individual lives today and note the great helping of love that is our daily nourishment from Him. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn