2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Yesterday when I wrote about JER 22: 1-9, the passage that deals with judgment against evil kings, you will remember that Jeremiah was being prompted by God to issue a very unpopular warning to the Jewish people and their leaders. They were to stop their disobedience and refusal to live up to their part of their covenant with God, or they would suffer dire consequences. Jeremiah actually lived long enough to be taken into Babylonian captivity at the very end of his life. There is one aspect to this story that I didn’t take up, but should. God had long before handed down the laws as they were discussed in the Torah, the first five books of Moses. Everything God told the Jews and did was in accordance with those laws. For example, His commands were in keeping with the original Ten Commandments found in EX 20: 1-17, which I hope you will review. They also complied with the laws of holiness and justice found in LV 19: 9-11. “When you harvest your fields, so not cut the grain at the edges of the fields, and do not go back to cut the heads of grain that were left. Do not go back through your vineyard to gather the grapes that were missed or to pick up the grapes that have fallen; leave them for poor people and foreigners. I am the Lord your God. Do not steal or cheat or lie.” While I don’t have space to share the entire chapter of LV 19, I would urge you to read it, because it gives a clear presentation of God’s will for the ancient Jews that you will find revealing. DT 15: 11-18 is a passage that deals with being generous to those in need and rules concerning the treatment of slaves. These, too, were consistent demands from God for participation that would please Him in the old covenant.
All of this conversation about legalities is not designed to emphasize the legalistic attitude that Jews displayed, but it is to point up that God was consistent in His commands and followed through on them with that same consistency. The real truth here is that God set an ideal example for the Jews to follow, and they were supposed to do their best to follow it. That is important to us today, because He does the same for us through Jesus Christ. While we aren’t perfect as Christ is, we are still to strive to be as “Christ-like” as we can to participate actively in the Covenant of Grace in way which pleases God. Just how important is it to us to please God? I would venture to say, it is the most important thing we can do! While mankind no longer must live under the old covenant, they do have the choice to live under the Covenant of Grace. It’s a choice that all believers who are observant have made, a live-giving choice for salvation made available by the work of the cross.
As you already know if you have been reading my messages, I firmly believe that it is important for Christians not raised in the Jewish tradition to know about the Jewish roots of their own faith. That means knowing about the Jewish culture and belief system in which the Messiah Himself was raised. It puts the Scriptures in their real context and allows us to have a deeper understanding of their implications to us. That is why I spend as much time as I do sharing OT Scriptures with you. DT 30: 15-20 is a passage that reveals principles regarding life and death that still apply today to keepers of the Covenant of Grace, despite the reference to the “land across the Jordan” in verse 18. “Today, I am giving you a choice between good and evil, between life and death. If you obey the commands of the Lord your God, which I give you today; if you love Him, obey Him , and keep all His laws, then you will prosper and become a nation of many people. The Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are about to occupy. But if you disobey and refuse to listen, and are led away to worship other gods, you will be destroyed-I warn you here and now. You will not live long in that land across the Jordan that you are about to occupy. I am now giving you the choice between life and death, between God’s blessing and God’s curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Choose life. Love the Lord your God, obey Him and be faithful to Him, and then you and your descendants will live long in the land that He promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Today, the promised land is what we refer to as heaven or the New Jerusalem. But if we examine the principles from this passage given to Moses by God as long ago as 1500-1250 BC, we can see its application to our lives today and God’s remarkable consistency. The lessons that the history of the Jews and our modern history teaches us are in complete compliance with this critical message. That is why we need to make it our business to understand God’s commands and their place against the backdrop of human history to be motivated to take our covenant agreements seriously enough to live up to them.
PRAYER: O Lord, You repeatedly take us back to the OT Scriptures, because You want us to understand the roots of our modern faith. It is critical that we see Your consistency in both Your commands and Your interactions with us. Because You give us this remarkable opportunity and intelligence to understand what happened in the past, You are also making us see how just, compassionate, and loving You are. Your consistency in the messages You bring us through the Holy Spirit help us to know that we can rely on You and turn to You when we are troubled. It also helps us to know how very important pleasing and keeping our covenant agreements with You are. The Covenant of Grace made available to us through the sacrifice of Your Son on the cross opens the way to eternal life while at the same time accomplishing Your work through us on earth. The brilliance of Your light in our lives can be seen when we trust and obey You. That is why we dedicate ourselves to doing that. You deserve our worship and adoration, nothing less. It was You Who gave us all that we are and all that we have. We acknowledge that and give You the glory and honor that is rightly Yours. For us to keep our covenant agreements, we pledge You, this day, our eternal loyalty. For our very lives, we offer You heartfelt thanks. For Your continuing and consistent presence in our lives, the purpose and direction to them that You give, we offer You utmost praise. In Christ’s name, amen.
The Lord leads me to return to the subject of the sacraments in my next message. We need to look at them as they apply to the covenant agreements we are to keep as participants in the Covenant of Grace. It should be emphasized that every time we return to a familiar topic like this, it is because God has something new to reveal to us. Therefore, we are not wasting our time. The basis of every message God has ever given me to share is His profound love for each of us. He reveals this love to each of us in countless ways. Nothing has ever been truer than this most comforting fact. God loves us beyond measure. I take pleasure in repeating that daily for myself and for each of you. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn