2004-05-28
Good Morning Dear Ones,
I am led to continue writing about the gigantic task that God is undertaking to civilize mankind. I'm excited to think that He is getting our world ready for the end of evil in it. However, it is a bit of a stretch to see this when we look around us and see just how malevolent and evil it can be. That’s where true faith comes in, and that is a force with which Satan will have to reckon. Our loving Abba has told us, through Paul in EPH 1: 18-20 that we have each been given the same power and authority to battle Satan to victory in Christ’s name that He used to raise Christ from death to life eternal. Folks, that’s huge! It’s also a comfort to us. In last week’s message I wrote about the golden calf incident, a picture of the lack of true faith and disobedience that God’s people showed Him after He had guided them with Moses’ help out of 430 years of Egyptian slavery. He had also promised them people, a land, and a King in the Abrahamic Covenant. But, this had not been enough for His own chosen people to have the kind of faithful obedience He commanded of them for their own good.
Moses had interceded for the Jewish people, beseeching God to give them the Ten Commandments a second time. God had done that. Now, we can look at these laws to see the utter brilliance and simplicity of them. The first four commandments deal with one’s relationship with God. The second six deal what is acceptable human behavior toward others. The first four are from EX 20: 2-11, “I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves. 1) Worship no god but Me. 2) Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate Me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. But I show My love to thousands of generations of those who love Me and obey My laws. 3) Do not use my name in vain [for evil purposes], because I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses My name. 4) Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to Me. On that day no one is to work-neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country. In six days I, the Lord, made the earth, the sky, the seas, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That is why I, the Lord, blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.” Observance of these first four laws, if carried out, establishes a relationship between God and the believer where there is no question of what God expectations are.
If we look at these first four laws against the way we are living our lives today, we are challenged to ask the question: How does our observance of them stack up with God’s expectations? Those of us who are true believers have given up worshipping any other god or idol, including material things, other people, and any other idol the evil human mind under the devil’s influence can conjure up. But, how many of us never use God’s name in vain, yes, that means swearing even when we are angry! Oh and yes, how many of us never work at anything on that seventh day of the week and spend the whole day focusing on the Lord? Ooops, I just got convicted! How about you? Now all of us can get the idea of the enormity of the task God has in trying to get mankind civilized to the extent that we are completely pleasing Him. If this isn’t a wake up call for you, it certainly is for me.
The second six laws are found in EX 20: 12-17, 5) “Honor your mother and father, so that you may live a long time in the land that I am giving you. 6) Do not commit murder. 7) Do not commit adultery. 8) Do not steal. 9) Do not bear false witness. And 10) Do not covet (desire what belongs to another).” It’s almost impossible for us to understand what chaos our society would have been in without these Ten Commandments. Most of us have been blessed enough to have grown up in North America where they have existed all our lives. And yet, there are factions of our society that would like to see them discarded in favor of doing what feels good or what is inclusive to all people, even if some of them are committing sins that are clearly outlined as sins in God’s word. Mankind is so creative at rationalizing sin, that he is forgetting what is sin. That is why we are blessed to have RO 7: 7 which tells us the overall purpose of the Ten Commandments. “Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, ‘Do not desire what belongs to someone else,’ I would not have know such a desire.” I once took a class where a very wise participant commented, “Do you know that if you covet, you break every one of the Commandments?” I had to stop and think about that, but this person was absolutely right. Then I had to ask myself: Do I covet anything? Once again I was convicted. Now, before I sound like the situation is hopeless, let me say that we have some magnificent Help with our problems. That is our Lord Jesus Christ and our loving Abba, Who are there to stand in the gap for us. The Father offers us guidance, rebuke when we need it, compassion, patience, encouragement, and everything else we need, if we will only go to Him with our trouble. The Son does the same and even gave His life on the cross for us, so that we find salvation with repentance and faith in Him. RO 7: 24-25a, “What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? Thanks be to God, Who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
PRAYER: O Lord, the question comes up: What about the faithful Jews of old and today’s traditional Jews? Will they be saved? You have not given us a definitive answer on those questions yet, but we have enough in the Scriptures not to feel the answer to those questions is hopelessness. We love you, Dear Lord, for doing that. You have shown us repeatedly how loving, just, and compassionate You are throughout the Scriptures and through the blessings You bestow upon us in our lives. We need to focus on those blessings and their Source, rather than on the evil things that tempt us. You have given us MT 17: 3, the story of the transfiguration, in which Your Son appeared to Peter, James, and John in His glorified state with Moses and Elijah (two faithful and obedient Jews) by His side. You have also told us through Zechariah in ZECH 13: 9, “And I will test the third [the Jewish remnant alive during the Tribulation] that survives and will purify them as silver is purified by fire. I will test them as gold is tested. Then they will pray to Me, and I will answer them. I will tell them that they are My people, and they will confess that I am their God.” Over and over again, Dear Father, You have said that You will write Your laws upon the hearts of Your people, so that they will claim You as their God and You will claim them as Your people [DT 6: 4-5, 28: 13; EX 6: 7; JER 31: 33, 32: 38; EZK 11: 19-20, 36: 28, 37: 23; 2 COR 11: 19-20; GA 3: 29]. We also know that You haven’t given up on the Jews from RO 11: 25, which tells us that their stubbornness will only last as long as it takes for all the Gentiles who are going to come to faith to do so. The veil will be lifted from their eyes. In the meanwhile, we understand that that Your purposes are always wise, just, and righteous. Therefore, we place our trust in You and dedicate ourselves to being Your obedient children who praise, honor, and thank You in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
I cannot leave the giving of the Law without saying more about this momentous event in mankind’s history. So, it will be the subject of next week’s message too. God gave mankind an entirely different perspective than before with His command that they center their lives around Him. We all know this isn’t an easy command, even through it’s the most worthwhile thing we’ve ever been asked to do. How this is to be done is another important part of this whole construct. We know that some people go overboard and become very legalistic in their approach. On the other hand, other people do their best to ignore or alter God’s commands, and that’s the other extreme. Somewhere in the middle is where God wants us to be-obeying His commands with consistency, love, and wisdom. It is my firm belief that God always equips us to carry out His commands, even if it isn’t easy for us. How many of us would give a command to his enemies that is to their best benefit and then help them find a way to obey it? That’s what our loving God does for us every day! Our task is to listen for His commands and follow them. Let me leave you this week with these two pearls from the great treasure trove that is God’s word. PS 119: 93, “I will never forget Thy precepts: for with them Thou hast quickened me.” PS 36: 9, “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.”
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn