2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
As I promised yesterday, I will continue in the context of living in the oneness of covenant to share stories from the Scriptures that will hopefully reveal more to us about our own covenant relationship with God. Yesterday I mentioned what I believe to be an important relationship between the Jewish festival of Shavuot, commemorating the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai [EX 24: 7-11] and Penecost [AC 2: 1-4], commemorating the giving of the Holy Spirit to the believers. Shavuot represents a part of the old covenant, was sealed by animal sacrifices, and brought temporary forgiveness of sins. Penecost, which it foreshadows, is a part of the new covenant and is the consummation of Christ’s promise made in JN 15: 16-17 to send the Holy Spirit (God’s Helper) to dwell within us. Today, we need to look at another pair of events which have that same kind of relationship in that the one in the OT foreshadows that in the NT, and both are parts of the covenant relationship that mankind shares with God. I am, of course, referring to Passover and Easter here.
EX 12: 3-14, which I hope you will read, gives a run down of the instructions that God gave to the Jews leading to their exodus from Egyptian slavery under Moses’ leadership. EX 12: 7, “The people are to take some of the blood and put it on the door posts and on the lintels of the houses in which the animals [lambs without spot or blemish which have been sacrificed] are to be eaten.” EX 12: 11b-14, “It is the Passover Festival to honor Me, the Lord. On that night I will go through the land of Egypt, killing every first-born male, both human and animal, and punishing all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood on the door posts will be a sign to mark the houses in which you live. When I see the blood, I will pass over you and not harm you when I punish the Egyptians. You must celebrate this day as a religious festival to remind you of what I, the Lord, have done. Celebrate it for all time to come.” In looking at this remarkable set of commands, we can see God offering protection to the faithful people, as well as blood shed to seal the covenant and, in this case, grant them temporary forgiveness. We also see the foreshadowing in the old covenant event of a greater one to happen that will usher in the new covenant, that of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross to make salvation possible for all those who believe in Him. That, off course is followed three days later by His resurrection, the event that Easter commemorates. Here the protection is salvation, and the forgiveness is eternal. As we read through these stories, we must not allow the patterns in them and the elements they all share to be lost on us. They impact our spiritual lives every single day, not just once a year when these festivals are celebrated.
One story that helps to illuminate the oneness of the covenant relationship believers have with God is that of Job. Job, as you probably already know, was the subject of a wager between Satan and God where Satan claims that he can get Job to lose his faith. God agrees to let him try on the proviso that Satan may do anything to Job, except take his life [JOB 1: 8-12]. As Satan brings more suffering and loss upon Job, the latter enters into a lengthy dialog with his four friends, Eliphaz, Elihu, Bildad, and Zophar about it. These friends see everything that is being done in terms of God rewarding or punishing Job. The very righteous, faithful, and obedient Job sees it another way. Job knows that he has been a good man and that God, Who is just, would not be punishing him. He acknowledges God’s greatness and wisdom in humility and repents of the angry, sometimes wild words he has used in response to his pain and loss. In a response to Eliphaz’s comments, Job makes a comment in JOB 17: 3 that reveals something of the nature of the covenant relationship. For illumination on why it’s so important to study from more than one version of the Bible, let’s look first at this verse from the Good News version and then from the King James version. “I am being honest , God. Accept my word. There is no one else to support what I say” [GNV]. “Lay down now, put me in a surety with Thee; Who is He that will strike hands with me?” [KJV]. Job, broken in spirit, teeters on the edge of the grave here. He is mocked by his friends who are incompetent critics. He asks God to judge him.
Now, you might ask: what is meant by “Who is He that will strike hands with me?” The Greek word for “strike” is “taqa,” [pronounced: taw’-kahee] from the primary root, meaning “to slap hands together.” This could surely be a derivation for the common practice of shaking hands with someone to seal an agreement. We will come back to this definition in tomorrow’s message, but for now we shouldn’t ignore the truth of Job’s spiritual maturity in recognizing that the Lord is both a Source of protection and of fair judgment. Job feels reassured about these two things, because of his understanding of Who God is, God’s righteousness, and the security he has in his covenant relationship with God. I have no reason to assume that one set of rules applies to Job and different ones apply to everyone else. Therefore, if Job enjoys the security of God’s protection in the oneness of covenant with God, then we, too, should enjoy the same security and protection from it. Our part is to obey God’s commands. We may safely assume that God, Who has never been anything but a consistent Keeper of promises, will take care of the rest. Meditate on how that impacts your individual lives today.
PRAYER: O Lord, Your even-handedness in judging us and Your faithfulness to those of us who keep Your commandments is a fact that is revealed in the history of Your interactions with mankind. Often, we are taken to the brink of our ability to endure as the Jews in Egyptian slavery were and as Job was. And yet, in You have never broken the promise that You made to us in 1 COR 10: 13 that You will never give us a challenge that, with faith on our part, we can’t overcome. We might wonder why You allow these challenges to our faith to happen. But, if we know You well, then we know that they are Your way of accomplishing Your will to bring us to brokenness, so that our pride and flesh can’t get in the way of us using our untapped potential to grow in our faithfulness. By insisting that we work through these challenges, You forward our sanctification while at the same time revealing Your own glory. Repeatedly, You have kept promises and protected those who trust and obey You. Through the death of Your Son, You provide protection, also called salvation, as part of Your participation in oneness of the covenant relationship. In the story of Job, You showed us how Job’s maturity of faith was manifested by His belief that You were not punishing him when he hadn’t disobeyed You and his belief that You would protect him in the end. He also recognized You as the fair Judge that You are. For all these lessons which apply to us today, we humbly offer You our adoration, worship, trust, obedience, glory, honor, loyalty, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ’s name, amen.
I’m finding this examination of people’s lives who lived in the oneness of covenant an effective light in my path to understanding of God’s nature and His will. I hope you are too. Tomorrow, there are more stories to discuss, and I hope you will be right there with me to learn from them. God’s love for each of us is so apparent in this. Take comfort in it. In fact, revel in it. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn