2004-06-04
Good Morning Cherished Readers,
As I was writing last week’s message, it occurred to me that I spent lots of time discussing the Law that was given to God’s chosen people, the Jews, and then about how we are rescued from slavery to the sins of the flesh by faith in Christ. However, the one question I didn’t take up is: Why didn’t God send Christ at the time the Law was given? Any answers that I might have come out of the advantage from the 20/20 hindsight history gives me. However, we’ve been looking carefully at the huge job God has been doing in trying to civilize mankind-born into to sin because of Satan’s activity in the Garden of Eden [GN 3: 1-6]. Remember that RO 7: 7 makes the purpose of the Law clear-so that mankind would recognize what is acceptable to God and what isn’t. It says nothing about salvation. My only conclusion, since I have deep and abiding faith in God’s wisdom and perfect timing, is that He must have decided that mankind wasn’t ready for the opportunity to be saved when He first gave the Law. The Jewish holiday, Shavuot, commemorates the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai. Had He sent Christ for His incarnation at that time, the people wouldn’t have been ready to be benefited by Him.
Let’s take a look at Shavuot, the giving of the Law, which is the annual commemoration of Moses’ coming down from Mt. Sinai to give the Ten Commandments to the Jews. It occurs 50 days after the Passover, when God had commanded the Jews to paint the door posts and lintels of their homes with the blood of lambs, so He would pass over them in His act of killing the first born sons of Egypt (including the pharaoh’s). This saved the lives of His chosen people. Shavuot has some clear connections to the Christian commemoration of the Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit to believers 50 days after Christ’s Atonement. While in today’s observation of traditional Judaism, there aren’t any clear-cut symbols for Shavuot, such as the menorah is for Chanukah, Jews will sometimes observe the Tikkun Leil Shavuot (“Repair on the night of Shavuot). This ritual is remaining awake and alert all night to read from the Torah (first five books of Moses) to prepare themselves for the receiving of the Law.
Before the golden calf incident I wrote about two weeks ago, the Lord had commanded Moses in EX 24: 1, “…’Come up the mountain to Me, you and Aaron, Nadab, Abinhu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel; and while you are still some distance away, bow down in worship.’” Then in (3), “Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s commands and all the ordinances, and all the people answered together, ‘We will do everything that the Lord has said.’” EX 24: 7-8 revealed the ritual that followed. “Then Moses took the book of the covenant, in which the Lord’s commands were written, and read it aloud to the people. They said, ‘We will obey the Lord and do everything that He has commanded.’ Then Moses took the blood [of some cattle sacrificed] in the bowls and threw it on the people. (Half of that blood had been thrown on the altar and the other half on the people.) Sadly, this effort to seal the book of the Covenant fell flat when they relapsed into the sin of idolatry in the golden calf incident in EX 32.
In view of this pattern of behavior, we are given some insight as to why God decided the people weren’t ready for Christ to come to serve His three year ministry and to make the greatest sacrifice ever accomplished for mankind. And yes, the covenant was given and renewed a second time, after Moses interceded in prayer and God relented after the golden calf incident. This can be seen in EX 34. When Moses came down this second time from Mt. Sinai, his face shown with the reflected glory of God, at first frightening the people who still struggled to understand it’s significance. That was why Moses had to begin to wear a veil from thence on when he came down the mountain from speaking to God [EX 34: 29-35]. Today, the veil is symbolic of the refusal of traditional Jews to accept the divinity of Christ. However, the promise of salvation and of acceptance of our Lord Jesus Christ is with traditional Jews in RO 11 :25, “There is a secret truth, my brothers, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent, but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God.” RO 11: 26-27 cites what was originally written by Isaiah in IS 59: 20-21, “The Savior will come from Zion and remove all wickedness from the descendants of Jacob. I will make this covenant with them when I take away their sins.” This is a WOW, if I’ve ever read one!
PRAYER: O Lord, our prayer today is that You will make that happen soon. When Your Son, Who never tells a lie, came to this earth, He said in MT 10: 34-38, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the world. No, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I can to set sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law; a man’s worst enemies will be the members of his own family. Whoever loves his father or mother more than Me is not fit to be My disciple; whoever loves His son or daughter more than Me is not fit to be My disciple. Whoever does not take up his cross and follow in My steps is not fit to be My disciple. Whoever tries to gain his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will gain it.” To a non-believer who doesn’t understand those important words, this comes as a declaration of battle. To a believer, this comes as a statement of the reality of our need to put You and the Son first for the sake of our own eternal life. I know the truth of this passage in a real way, as does every Messianic Jew whose family is divided between believers and non-believers in Christ. However, Your words in both Isaiah and Romans above give us the hope that some of these traditional Jews will come to faith in Your own time. Your intentions and actions are always righteous, Dearest Father. They are never to bring evil into our lives. As for the giving of the Law, You have told us in RO 7: 7 that the Law is not sinful. Later in RO 10: 4, You have told us that Christ is the fulfillment of the law. What the Law couldn’t do, Christ did, which was to release those who believe in Him and repent from slavery to sin. Thus, we dedicate ourselves to following Your laws the way You intended right from the beginning. RO 7: 6, “Now however, we are free from the Law [meaning the old legalistic approach to it], because we died to that which once held us prisoners. No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit.” Today and in the future, we acknowledge the great wisdom You have in selecting the timing of Christ’s incarnation and eventual Atonement. We see the enormity of the sacrifice both You and the Son made in His being the perfect, once-for-all substitute Sacrifice for us on the cross. We thank You for the forgiveness belief in Him brings. We praise and thank You for being the unparalleled Source of goodness in our lives. We dedicate ourselves to living holy, sanctified lives with You at the center of them, and we confess our sins openly, knowing You are compassionate and loving. This prayer is our expression of the love we have for You. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
I happen to be writing this message on Holy Week, so it’s very appropriate that next week’s message should be about the giving of the Covenant of Grace and it’s relationship to God’s laws. What an awesome God we have! He has put up with so much sinfulness and disobedience on mankind’s part, and yet, He continues to bring more and more people to faith and its eternal blessings. He warns us that His willingness to put up with sin is not forever. Through verses like MT 24: 36 and 1 THESS 5: 2 He encourages us to get on with the business of getting our spiritual houses in order right now, eschewing procrastination. This week, I hope you will join me in focusing on what Christ’s Atonement means to each of us personally. We are truly a blessed people, a “called out assembly” of God’s children charged with having and strengthening faith. We are also called to convey His wonderful message of salvation to others who need to hear it and are willing to listen. My prayer for each of us, including myself, is that we can empty our spiritual vessels of human agendas and ask the Holy Spirit to fill them with His wisdom, compassion, knowledge of God, and love to share with others. We can take comfort in knowing He has risen as “the first of many brothers” [AC 1: 9; RO 8: 29].
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn