Old Testament for March 17, 2024

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem in an extremely difficult time.  Israel (the Northern Kingdom) had long before been swept away by the Assyrian empire in 722 B.C.  But now a new “bully” had arisen — the Babylonian empire. The Babylonians actually invaded Judah and Jerusalem three times between 597 and 582 B.C.

Poor Judah (the Southern Kingdom) was wedged between two mighty superpowers — the Babylonians and the Egyptians. And the kings of Judah vacillated between throwing their lot in with Babylon or Egypt.

It was in this context that Jeremiah was trying to warn the king and the people that destruction was coming.  A big part of the reason for that is that they have been guilty of idolatry, oppressing the poor, and seeking security in false alliances.

Jeremiah accuses his people of having broken the covenant that God had put into place at Sinai:

Yahweh said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear the words of this covenant, and do them.  For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.  Yet they didn’t obey, nor turn their ear, but walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn’t do them. (Jeremiah 11:6-8).

But here’s the good news. God will make a new covenant between himself and his people. Jeremiah uses the image of marriage to describe the relationship between God and Judah:

I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

This imagery of marriage between God and his people is used often by the other prophets as well, especially Hosea. But it’s not necessarily a happy image.  In fact, the people of Israel have been unfaithful to their divine husband and the covenant has been broken.

Hence the need for a new covenant.  Only this time the covenant won’t be an external set of laws.  Instead, God says:

 I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

This law will be internal.  And God will once again “marry” them.  In other words, this law will be based not on external do’s and don’ts, but on relationship.  The people will know the Lord in their own hearts and minds, and their previous sins will be forgiven.

APPLY:  

It’s easy to see why New Testament writers apply this passage to the New Covenant introduced by Christ.  2 Corinthians 3:6 suggests that this New Covenant is the Covenant of the Spirit at work in our lives. Paul writes of God:

 who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The external law, delivered by God to Moses, can tell us what holiness and righteousness are, but that law does not make us holy and righteous.  Only the inner law, written on our hearts through the Spirit, completes God’s saving work.

And it is all God’s Spirit that accomplishes this, not human works of righteousness. Paul points out that the Mosaic law had only a fading glory, because it could not deliver glory but only condemnation.  But the ministry of the Spirit brings true righteousness, because it comes from the Lord:

Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

RESPOND: 

So, God is changing me from the inside out rather than the outside in.  My relationship with him isn’t based on how well I keep the list of do’s and don’ts, but on what God is doing in my life through his Spirit.  Rather than trying to clean me up on the exterior, he is cleaning me up from the interior.

God has performed heart surgery in my life, and now is completing the work that he has started.

Lord, by my faith in Christ you are already rewriting the “code” in my heart.  Deliver me from legalism and phony self-righteousness. May your Spirit make you known to me more deeply, and may I live out the law of love in my life.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"jeremiah 31 verse 33" uses the following photo:
“Vapour trail heart” by audi_insperation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for March 10, 2024

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Numbers 21:4-9
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Once again, the Israelites are complaining.  Here is the backstory — the Israelites had been complaining even before they crossed the Red Sea.  Later, the Israelites were deterred from taking the more direct route into Canaan because of their fears.  They are now taking a more circuitous route around Edom.  But they are no happier now than they were so many years before.

We might find it curious that they complain about the fear of dying in the wilderness and having no bread.  In fact, they had just been victorious over the Canaanites of Arad; and the Lord was still supplying them with manna.  It wasn’t that they had suffered defeat, or were hungry.  They were simply not satisfied with things the way they were.

So Yahweh sends the venomous snakes among them.  And, true to form, they cry out to Moses to intercede for them.  This is a typical pattern in Scripture — success, followed by hubris and arrogance, then dire consequences, and finally crying out to God. This pattern is cyclical, repeated again and again.

The solution seems to be “the hair of the dog that bit ’em” — meaning that the cure to the ailment is what caused the ailment in the first place. God tells Moses to make a bronze image of a snake, place it on a pole, and instruct the people to look upon it.  When they do, they are healed.

We may find this puzzling, when the second commandment of the Decalogue expressly forbids the making of “graven images.”  However, this purpose is therapeutic, not devotional. They are not instructed to worship the bronze serpent, only to look at it.

APPLY:  

This is a tough passage to apply to our lives without additional help with interpretation.  We can certainly understand what it is like to complain when things aren’t “just so” for us, even though God has blessed us with success and provisions. Most of us probably have some experience with our own ingratitude, if we are honest.

What is difficult here is the punishment in the form of venomous serpents. And there is the odd solution of a bronze serpent as a kind of totem.

What is even more interesting is the subsequent history of this bronze serpent.  In the reign of King Hezekiah, some 600 years after this event, this same bronze serpent had become an object of worship.  King Hezekiah was a reformer who sought to obey God’s law:

 He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4).

So why the command to make the bronze serpent in the first place, if such an object might become a temptation?

One possible answer is in the biblical method of interpretation called typology.  From the Christian perspective, there are multiple Old Testament stories that seem to forecast the dawn of the Christian revelation, particularly in the incarnation and ministry of Christ.  Such stories in the Hebrew Bible are often referred to as “God’s Picture Book.”

This is especially so in this passage, because Jesus himself will apply this passage to his own ministry in John 3:14-15:

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

In Jesus’ interpretation, the lifting up of the snake in the wilderness is analogous to his own experience when he was to be “lifted up” on the cross.  Those who look to the crucified Jesus with faith are similarly healed of sin and death.

Of course, this doesn’t explain what this bronze serpent meant to the Israelites in the first place, other than a kind of sympathetic magic.  But for people who are at this time just one generation removed from slavery, and who are unlikely to be literate, what seems to be needed is a dramatic sign that makes clear what God is doing for them.  God tends to speak to us in language that we can understand at our particular level of spiritual maturity.

RESPOND: 

God has been so very gracious and generous to me on so many levels.  And yet, I am often like the Israelites.  I complain that I’m not “successful” enough, or that my current situation may be unpleasant, or even that my cravings and preferences aren’t being satisfied.  How shallow and ungrateful I can be!  I’m grateful that God in his mercy doesn’t send metaphorical serpents to bite me!

E. Stanley Jones, the great missionary to India, was once asked to fill out a comment form after a long flight, giving feedback on the food, the service, and so on. He wrote simply this: “All too good for a ransomed sinner like me.”

Lord, please turn my complaints into praise.  May I look to the cross and see there the answer to all of my weaknesses and foolishness.  And may I understand that I have already received from you far more blessing than I ever deserved.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“No Complaining!” by Jean Browman (a.k.a. cheerfulmonk)  is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for March 21, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem in an extremely difficult time.  Israel (the Northern Kingdom) had long before been swept away by the Assyrian empire in 722 B.C.  But now a new “bully” had arisen — the Babylonian empire. The Babylonians actually invaded Judah and Jerusalem three times between 597 and 582 B.C.

Poor Judah (the Southern Kingdom) was wedged between two mighty superpowers — the Babylonians and the Egyptians. And the kings of Judah vacillated between throwing their lot in with Babylon or Egypt.

It was in this context that Jeremiah was trying to warn the king and the people that destruction was coming.  A big part of the reason for that is that they have been guilty of idolatry, oppressing the poor, and seeking security in false alliances.

Jeremiah accuses his people of having broken the covenant that God had put into place at Sinai:

Yahweh said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear the words of this covenant, and do them.  For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.  Yet they didn’t obey, nor turn their ear, but walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn’t do them. (Jeremiah 11:6-8).

But here’s the good news. God will make a new covenant between himself and his people. Jeremiah uses the image of marriage to describe the relationship between God and Judah:

I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

This imagery of marriage between God and his people is used often by the other prophets as well, especially Hosea. But it’s not necessarily a happy image.  In fact, the people of Israel have been unfaithful to their divine husband and the covenant has been broken.

Hence the need for a new covenant.  Only this time the covenant won’t be an external set of laws.  Instead, God says:

 I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

This law will be internal.  And God will once again “marry” them.  In other words, this law will be based not on external do’s and don’ts, but on relationship.  The people will know the Lord in their own hearts and minds, and their previous sins will be forgiven.

APPLY:  

It’s easy to see why New Testament writers apply this passage to the New Covenant introduced by Christ.  2 Corinthians 3:6 suggests that this New Covenant is the Covenant of the Spirit at work in our lives. Paul writes of God:

 who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The external law, delivered by God to Moses, can tell us what holiness and righteousness are, but that law does not make us holy and righteous.  Only the inner law, written on our hearts through the Spirit, completes God’s saving work.

And it is all God’s Spirit that accomplishes this, not human works of righteousness. Paul points out that the Mosaic law had only a fading glory, because it could not deliver glory but only condemnation.  But the ministry of the Spirit brings true righteousness, because it comes from the Lord:

Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

RESPOND: 

So, God is changing me from the inside out rather than the outside in.  My relationship with him isn’t based on how well I keep the list of do’s and don’ts, but on what God is doing in my life through his Spirit.  Rather than trying to clean me up on the exterior, he is cleaning me up from the interior.

God has performed heart surgery in my life, and now is completing the work that he has started.

Lord, by my faith in Christ you are already rewriting the “code” in my heart.  Deliver me from legalism and phony self-righteousness. May your Spirit make you known to me more deeply, and may I live out the law of love in my life.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"jeremiah 31 verse 33" uses the following photo:
“Vapour trail heart” by audi_insperation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for March 14, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Numbers 21:4-9
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Once again, the Israelites are complaining.  Here is the backstory — the Israelites had been complaining even before they crossed the Red Sea.  Later, the Israelites were deterred from taking the more direct route into Canaan because of their fears.  They are now taking a more circuitous route around Edom.  But they are no happier now than they were so many years before.

We might find it curious that they complain about the fear of dying in the wilderness and having no bread.  In fact, they had just been victorious over the Canaanites of Arad; and the Lord was still supplying them with manna.  It wasn’t that they had suffered defeat, or were hungry.  They were simply not satisfied with things the way they were.

So Yahweh sends the venomous snakes among them.  And, true to form, they cry out to Moses to intercede for them.  This is a typical pattern in Scripture — success, followed by hubris and arrogance,  then dire consequences, and finally crying out to God. This pattern is cyclical,  repeated again and again.

The solution seems to be “the hair of the dog that bit ’em” — meaning that the cure to the ailment is what caused the ailment in the first place. God tells Moses to make a bronze image of a snake, place it on a pole, and instruct the people to look upon it.  When they do, they are healed.

We may find this puzzling, when the second commandment of the Decalogue expressly forbids the making of “graven images.”  However, this purpose is therapeutic, not devotional. They are not instructed to worship the bronze serpent, only to look at it.

APPLY:  

This is a tough passage to apply to our lives without additional help with interpretation.  We can certainly understand what it is like to complain when things aren’t “just so” for us, even though God has blessed us with success and provisions. Most of us probably have some experience with our own ingratitude, if we are honest.

What is difficult here is the punishment in the form of venomous serpents. And there is the odd solution of a bronze serpent as a kind of totem.

What is even more interesting is the subsequent history of this bronze serpent.  In the reign of King Hezekiah, some 600 years after this event, this same bronze serpent had become an object of worship.  King Hezekiah was a reformer who sought to obey God’s law:

 He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4) .

So why the command to make the bronze serpent in the first place, if such an object might become a temptation?

One possible answer is in the biblical method of interpretation called typology.  From the Christian perspective, there are multiple Old Testament stories that seem to forecast the dawn of the Christian revelation, particularly in the incarnation and ministry of Christ.  Such stories in the Hebrew Bible are often referred to as “God’s Picture Book.”

This is especially so in this passage, because Jesus himself will apply this passage to his own ministry in John 3:14-15:

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

In Jesus’ interpretation, the lifting up of the snake in the wilderness is analogous to his own experience when he was to be “lifted up” on the cross.  Those who look to the crucified Jesus with faith are similarly healed of sin and death.

Of course, this doesn’t explain what this bronze serpent meant to the Israelites in the first place, other than a kind of sympathetic magic.  But for people who are at this time just one generation removed from slavery, and who are unlikely to be literate, what seems to be needed is a dramatic sign that makes clear what God is doing for them.  God tends to speak to us in language that we can understand at our particular level of spiritual maturity.

RESPOND: 

God has been so very gracious and generous to me on so many levels.  And yet, I am often like the Israelites.  I complain that I’m not “successful” enough, or that my current situation may be unpleasant, or even that my cravings and preferences aren’t being satisfied.  How shallow and ungrateful I can be!  I’m grateful that God in his mercy doesn’t send metaphorical serpents to bite me!

E. Stanley Jones, the great missionary to India, was once asked to fill out a comment form after a long flight, giving feedback on the food , the service, and so on. He wrote simply this: “All too good for a ransomed sinner like me.”

Lord, please turn my complaints into praise.  May I look to the cross and see there the answer to all of my weaknesses and foolishness.  And may I understand that I have already received from you far more blessing than I ever deserved.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“No Complaining!” by Jean Browman (a.k.a. cheerfulmonk)  is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for March 18, 2018

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem in an extremely difficult time.  Israel (the Northern Kingdom) had long before been swept away by the Assyrian empire in 722 B.C.  But now a new “bully” had arisen, the Babylonian empire. The Babylonians actually invaded Judah and Jerusalem three times between 597 and 582 B.C.

Poor Judah (the Southern Kingdom) was wedged between two mighty superpowers: the Babylonians and the Egyptians. And the kings of Judah vacillated between throwing their lot in with Babylon or Egypt.

It was in this context that Jeremiah was trying to warn the king and the people that destruction was coming.  A big part of the reason for that is that they have been guilty of idolatry, oppressing the poor, and seeking security in false alliances.

Jeremiah accuses his people of having broken the covenant that God had put into place at Sinai:

Yahweh said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear the words of this covenant, and do them.  For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.  Yet they didn’t obey, nor turn their ear, but walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn’t do them. (Jeremiah 11:6-8).

But here’s the good news – God will make a new covenant between himself and his people. Jeremiah uses the image of marriage to describe the relationship between God and Judah – I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

This imagery of marriage between God and his people is used often by the other prophets as well, especially Hosea – but it’s not necessarily a happy image.  In fact, the people of Israel have been unfaithful to their divine husband and the covenant has been broken.

Hence the need for a new covenant.  Only this time the covenant won’t be an external set of laws.  Instead, God says:

 I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

This law will be internal.  And God will once again “marry” them.  In other words, this law will be based not on external do’s and don’ts, but on relationship.  The people will know the Lord in their own hearts and minds, and their previous sins will be forgiven.

APPLY:  

It’s easy to see why New Testament writers apply this passage to the New Covenant introduced by Christ.  2 Corinthians 3:6 suggests that this New Covenant is the Covenant of the Spirit at work in our lives. Paul writes of God:

 who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The external law, delivered by God to Moses, can tell us what holiness and righteousness are, but that law does not make us holy and righteous.  Only the inner law, written on our hearts through the Spirit, completes God’s saving work.

And it is all God’s Spirit that accomplishes this, not human works of righteousness. Paul points out that the Mosaic law had only a fading glory, because it could not deliver glory but only condemnation.  But the ministry of the Spirit brings true righteousness, because it comes from the Lord:

Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

RESPOND: 

So, God is changing me from the inside out rather than the outside in.  My relationship with him isn’t based on how well I keep the list of do’s and don’ts, but on what God is doing in my life through his Spirit.  Rather than trying to clean me up on the exterior, he is cleaning me up from the interior.

God has performed heart surgery in my life, and now is completing the work that he has started.

Lord, by my faith in Christ you are already rewriting the “code” in my heart.  Deliver me from legalism and phony self-righteousness. May your Spirit make you known to me more deeply, and may I live out the law of love in my life.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"jeremiah 31 verse 33" uses the following photo:
“Vapour trail heart” by audi_insperation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for March 11, 2018

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Numbers 21:4-9
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Once again, the Israelites are complaining.  Here is the backstory — the Israelites had been complaining even before they crossed the Red Sea.  Later,the Israelites were deterred from taking the more direct route into Canaan because of their fears.  They are now taking a more circuitous route around Edom.  But they are no happier now than they were so many years before.

We might find it curious that they complain about the fear of dying in the wilderness and having no bread.  In fact, they had just been victorious over the Canaanites of Arad; and the Lord was still supplying them with manna.  It wasn’t that they had suffered defeat, or were hungry.  They were simply not satisfied with things the way they were.

So Yahweh sends the venomous snakes among them.  And, true to form, they cry out to Moses to intercede for them.  This is a typical pattern in Scripture: success, followed by hubris and arrogance,  then dire consequences, and finally crying out to God. This pattern is cyclical,  repeated again and again.

The solution seems to be “the hair of the dog that bit ’em” — meaning that the cure to the ailment is what caused the ailment in the first place. God tells Moses to make a bronze image of a snake, place it on a pole, and instruct the people to look upon it.  When they do, they are healed.

We may find this puzzling, when the second commandment of the Decalogue expressly forbids the making of “graven images.”  However, this purpose is therapeutic, not devotional. They are not instructed to worship the bronze serpent, only to look at it.

APPLY:  

This is a tough passage to apply to our lives without additional help with interpretation.  We can certainly understand what it is like to complain when things aren’t “just so” for us, even though God has blessed us with success and provisions. Most of us probably have some experience with our own ingratitude, if we are honest.

What is difficult here is the punishment in the form of venomous serpents. And there is the odd solution of a bronze serpent as a kind of totem.

What is even more interesting is the subsequent history of this bronze serpent.  In the reign of King Hezekiah, some 600 years after this event, this same bronze serpent had become an object of worship.  King Hezekiah was a reformer who sought to obey God’s law:

 He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4) .

So why the command to make the bronze serpent in the first place, if such an object might become a temptation?

One possible answer is in the biblical method of interpretation called typology.  From the Christian perspective, there are multiple Old Testament stories that seem to forecast the dawn of the Christian revelation, particularly in the incarnation and ministry of Christ.  Such stories in the Hebrew Bible are often referred to as “God’s Picture Book.”

This is especially so in this passage, because Jesus himself will apply this passage to his own ministry in John 3:14-15:

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

In Jesus’ interpretation, the lifting up of the snake in the wilderness is analogous to his own experience when he was to be “lifted up” on the cross.  Those who look to the crucified Jesus with faith are similarly healed of sin and death.

Of course, this doesn’t explain what this bronze serpent meant to the Israelites in the first place, other than a kind of sympathetic magic.  But for people who are at this time just one generation removed from slavery, and who are unlikely to be literate, what seems to be needed is a dramatic sign that makes clear what God is doing for them.  God tends to speak to us in language that we can understand at our particular level of spiritual maturity.

RESPOND: 

God has been so very gracious and generous to me on so many levels.  And yet, I am often like the Israelites.  I complain that I’m not “successful” enough, or that my current situation may be unpleasant, or even that my cravings and preferences aren’t being satisfied.  How shallow and ungrateful I can be!  I’m grateful that God in his mercy doesn’t send metaphorical serpents to bite me!

E. Stanley Jones, the great missionary to India, was once asked to fill out a comment form after a long flight, giving feedback on the food , the service, and so on. He wrote simply this: “All too good for a ransomed sinner like me.”

Lord, please turn my complaints into praise.  May I look to the cross and see there the answer to all of my weaknesses and foolishness.  And may I understand that I have already received from you far more blessing than I ever deserved.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“No Complaining!” by Jean Browman (a.k.a. cheerfulmonk)  is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for March 22, 2015

Start with Scripture:

Jeremiah 31:31-34

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem in an extremely difficult time.  Israel, the Northern Kingdom,  had long before been swept away by the Assyrian empire in 722 B.C.  But now a new “bully” had arisen, the Babylonian empire. The Babylonians actually invaded Judah and Jerusalem three times between 597 and 582 B.C.

Poor Judah, the Southern Kingdom, was wedged between two mighty superpowers: the Babylonians and the Egyptians. And the kings of Judah vacillated between throwing their lot in with Babylon or Egypt.

It was in this context that Jeremiah was trying to warn the king and the people that destruction was coming.  A big part of the reason for that is that they have been guilty of idolatry, oppressing the poor, and seeking security in false alliances.

Jeremiah accuses his people of having broken the covenant that God had put into place at Sinai: Then the Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: ‘Hear the words of this covenant and do them.   For I earnestly exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, “Obey My voice.”   Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done.’” (Jeremiah 11:6-8).

But here’s the good news – God will make a new covenant between himself and his people. Jeremiah uses the image of marriage to describe the relationship between God and Judah – I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

This imagery of marriage between God and his people is used often by the other prophets as well, especially Hosea – but it’s not necessarily a happy image.  In fact, the people of Israel have been unfaithful to their divine “husband” and the covenant has been broken.

Hence the need for a new covenant.  Only this time the covenant won’t be an external set of laws.  Instead, God says, I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 

This law will be internal.  And God will once again “marry” them.  In other words, this law will be based not on external do’s and don’ts, but on relationship.  The people will know the Lord in their own hearts and minds, and their previous sins will be forgiven.

APPLY:  

It’s easy to see why New Testament writers apply this passage to the New Covenant introduced by Christ.  2 Corinthians 3:6 suggests that this New Covenant is the Covenant of the Spirit at work in our lives: not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The external law, written by Moses, can tell us what holiness and righteousness are, but that law does not make us holy and righteous.  Only the inner law, written on our hearts through the Spirit, completes God’s saving work.  And it is all God’s Spirit that accomplishes this, not human works righteousness.

Paul points out that the Mosaic law had only a fading glory, because it could not deliver glory but only condemnation.  But the ministry of the Spirit brings true righteousness, because it comes from the Lord:  the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

RESPOND: 

The promises of God aren’t new.  They have been attested to long ago: that righteousness is received by faith (Genesis 15:6); that the Spirit writes his law of love on the heart (Jeremiah 31:31-34); that this Spirit will be poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28-29).

So, God is changing me from the inside out rather than the outside in.  My relationship with him isn’t based on how well I keep the list of do’s and don’ts, but on what God is doing in my life through his Spirit.  Rather than trying to clean me up on the exterior, he is cleaning me up from the interior.

God has performed heart surgery in my life, and now is completing the work that he has started.

Lord, by my faith in Christ you are already rewriting the “code” in my heart.  From legalism and self-righteousness, may your Spirit make you known to me more deeply, and may I live out the law of love in my life.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
The background photo: “Vapour trail heart” by audi_insperation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for March 15, 2015

Start with Scripture:

Numbers 21:4-9

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Once again, the Israelites are complaining.  Having been thwarted in the original, more direct route  into Canaan by their fears after the scouts came back from the Promised Land full of reports about giants, they are now taking a more circuitous route around Edom.  But they are no happier now than they were so many years before.

We might find it curious that they complain about the fear of dying in the wilderness and having no bread.  In fact, they had just been victorious over the Canaanites of Arad; and the Lord was still supplying them with manna.  It wasn’t that they had suffered defeat, or were hungry.  They were simply not satisfied with things the way they were.

So the Lord sends the venomous snakes among them.  And, true to form, they cry out to Moses to intercede for them.  This is a typical pattern in scripture: success, followed by hubris and arrogance,  then dire consequences, and finally crying out to God.

The solution seems to be “the hair of the dog that bit ’em.”  God tells Moses to make a bronze image of a snake on a pole, and instruct the people to look upon it.  Thus they are healed.

We may find this puzzling, when the second commandment of the Decalogue expressly forbids the making of “graven images.”  However, this purpose is therapeutic, not devotional. They are not instructed to worship the bronze serpent, only to look at it.

APPLY:  

This is a tough passage to apply to our lives without additional help with interpretation.  We can certainly understand what it is like to complain when things aren’t “just so” for us, even though God has blessed us with success and provisions. Most of us probably have some experience with our own ingratitude, if we are honest.

What is difficult here is the punishment in the form of venomous serpents, and the odd solution of a bronze serpent as a kind of totem.

What is even more interesting is the subsequent history of this bronze serpent.  In the reign of King Hezekiah, some 600 years after this event, this same bronze serpent had become an object of worship.  King Hezekiah was a reformer who sought to obey God’s law:  2 Kings 18:4  He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

So why the command to make the bronze serpent in the first place, if such an object might become a temptation?

One possible answer is in the biblical method of interpretation called “typology.”  From the Christian perspective, there are multiple Old Testament stories that seem to forecast the dawn of the Christian revelation, particularly in Christ.  Such stories in the Hebrew Bible are often referred to as “God’s Picture Book.”

This is especially so in this passage, because Jesus himself will apply this passage to his own ministry in John 3:14-15 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,  that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

In Jesus’ interpretation, the lifting up of the snake in the wilderness is analogous to his own “lifting up” on the cross.  Those who look to the crucified Jesus in faith are similarly healed of sin and death.

Of course, this doesn’t explain what this bronze serpent meant to the Israelites in the first place, other than a kind of sympathetic magic.  But for people who are at this time just one generation removed from slavery, and who are unlikely to be literate, what seems to be called for is a dramatic sign that makes clear what God is doing for them.  God tends to speak to us in language that we can understand at our particular level of spiritual maturity.

RESPOND: 

God has been so very gracious and generous to me on so many levels.  And yet, I am often like the Israelites.  I complain that I’m not “successful” enough, or that my current situation may be killing me, or even that my cravings and tastes aren’t being satisfied.  How shallow and ungrateful I can be!  I’m only grateful that God in his mercy doesn’t send metaphorical serpents to bite me!

Stanley Jones, the great missionary to India, was once asked to fill out a comment form after a long flight, giving feedback on the food , the service, and so on. He wrote simply this: “All too good for a ransomed sinner like me.”

Lord, please turn my complaints into praise.  May I look to the cross and see there the answer to all of my weaknesses and foolishness.  And may I understand that I have already received from you far more blessing than I ever deserved.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“No Complaining!” by Jean Browman (a.k.a. cheerfulmonk)  is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
“Cristo Resucitado” by Pedronchi is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
“Zig Ziglar  The more you complain about your problems, the more problems you will have to complain about” by BK (a.k.a. symphony of love)  is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for Nov. 9, 2014

Start with Scripture:

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25   

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Observe:

This passage is the culmination of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites.  This is a time of consolidation and control for the tribes who now inhabit the land. Now, the aging Joshua will challenge them to commitment.

He gathers the people at Shechem in the hill country where their ancestor Abraham had been given the promise that this land would belong to his offspring, and built an altar there to commemorate that moment.  It is also a place rich with stories of  their tribal patriarchs.  Place matters in the Bible.

Joshua then begins by rehearsing the history that they all know – how God delivered them from slavery to Egypt, and guided them to this land, and gave them the power to conquer the native peoples who were there.

But the bottom line is his challenge to them: either choose to serve the gods that your forefathers served in the days before Abraham, the gods of the Chaldeans; or choose to serve the gods of the Egyptians; or serve the Lord, the God of Israel.  There was to be no “both/and” about this.

Joshua himself is very clearly self-differentiated.  He knows who he is and whom he serves – the Lord.  But he also makes it clear to the Israelites that it is impossible for them to serve God half-heartedly.  It is either all or nothing.  If they start out serving God and turn away, the results will be disastrous for them.

Like Abraham, who built an altar for worship, Joshua also creates a symbol of remembrance: the stone that will serve as a remembrance to them that they have made a commitment this day.

Apply:  

We live in a pluralistic age of diversity.  Some might even say we are among the most syncretistic cultures in history, choosing a little from this world-view, a little from that religion, a little from another culture.  We use words like karma, namaste, jihad without even thinking about their religious implications.

Surely it can’t be such a bad thing to learn from other religions?

Certainly not!  How can we possibly understand the world view of others if we don’t engage them in conversation? And how can we possibly hope to have influence if we don’t listen?

The catch comes when we begin to realize that we must make a choice.  All paths do not lead to truth.  In fact, many belief systems are absolutely in conflict with one another.

So, it is imperative that we are confronted with the claims of the biblical God.  These are claims that are grounded in history, and reveal a God who has entered into time and even become one of us, as the New Testament reveals.  That is either true or it is not.

Ironically, Joshua appears to be one of the worst possible evangelists, or salesmen, for his faith.  He warns the Israelites that they can’t live up to God’s demands, he is holy and jealous and there will be serious consequences if they turn away.  Not much of an “open mind, open heart, open door!”

I believe this passage reminds us of something that is absolutely vital to the survival of the nation, the church, and the family: we are the sum of our commitments.  If we say we believe in God, but we worship other “gods” such as materialism, success, pleasure, we will find ourselves looking to those things for meaning, security and the good life rather than to God.  And if our commitment to God is weakened, as in our vows of church membership, what about our vows to country, or our marriage vows?

Choose this day whom you will serve!

Respond: 

This classic passage reminds me again that I am the sum of my commitments.  If I am committed to the God revealed in the Bible, then I am committed to the pattern of life revealed in that same Bible.  And that means that there are certain things I will do – and certain things that I won’t.

You gotta serve somebody.

Lord, you set before me life and death, and the choice between them is clear.  Choosing you is the way to life.  I am also aware that I am incapable of following your ways without your help.  I thank you that you have chosen me, and I choose to follow you – only give me the grace and strength to do what you command.  Amen.

Old Testament Reading for Nov. 2, 2014

Start with Scripture:

Joshua 3:7-17    CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

Observe:

One can only imagine how difficult the “changing of the guard” must have been for Israel after having been led by the legendary Moses for forty years. And how daunted Joshua must have felt when he thought of taking over from the greatest leader the Israelites had ever had, or would ever have!

Therefore the Lord intends to give Joshua a clear “mandate” for his new role as the new leader of Israel.  Ironically, it will follow a familiar pattern: just as Moses led the Israelites through the dry land with the walls of water of the Red Sea on either side, so God intends to lead Joshua and Israel through the dry river bed of the Jordan – when the river is at flood stage!

This will be the illustration to the Israelites that God is with Joshua as he was with Moses, with a nearly identical wonder. And Joshua is very quick to tell the Israelites that this miracle will be sign to them that the Lord of all the earth is with them as well.

Joshua asks the people to choose a representative from each of the twelve tribes to go into the river bed first, along with the levites who are carrying the ark of the covenant.  This seemingly democratic act is actually a way of letting them know that the entire nation participates in this act of God. And all Israel is entering the Promised Land, even if some of the tribes are taking possession of the land to the East of the Jordan River.  There is a sense of solidarity as one nation. They are fulfilling the promise of God together.

Apply:  

Transition in leadership is difficult even under the best of circumstances.  But taking over from a charismatic, powerful leader like Moses would be overwhelming!

Perhaps the best application to our own situation when we are faced with having to take on the mantle of authority from a strong leader is to look to the ultimate Leader. The only way that we will ever experience real success is if the Lord is with us.  If the Lord isn’t in it, we’re not going to win it!

So, when confronted with difficult situations in leadership, the answer is prayer, prayer, prayer and then proactive obedience to God’s guidance.

Respond: 

When I face a challenge in leading the church through a time of recession and staff changes, I do well to remember Joshua’s challenges.    Certainly not as challenging as crossing a river on dry land, and conquering a nation, but perhaps even above my abilities! So I will need to look only to God for a sign about where he is leading.

Our Lord, leading your people across the River, to take on the work of discipleship and mission, is daunting.  Show your strength and your direction; for without that I am helpless.  Amen.