As is often the case I could blog a dozen or more points from the Gospels. Reading the Gospels is such an affirmation of Jesus’ Lordship! But rather than making a dozen different points, what I was most focused on in my reading was the pericope of Matthew 11:1-19. In this passage there are a number of challenging thoughts, statements and maybe what I’ve learned or how I understand things can be of benefit to the readers.

The very first challenging thought I have when reading this text is, “How can the forerunner of Jesus who baptized Him and heard the voice of God and saw the dove come down out of heaven, now doubt Jesus?” This question is based on John’s question in 11:3.

The question becomes understandable when we think of John’s own prophesying of the “judgment” of the Messiah (Matthew 3:7-12). To all that John hears there is very little judgment taking place, in fact he’s sitting a jail for standing up for morality and Jesus is out speaking of the “good news.” Also, we see here as we’ve seen in Job that just because someone was righteous did not necessarily mean they possessed the correct world view of the Messiah…again something we should note as Seventh-day Adventists and that should give us pause before we condemn those with “wrong” views outside or even inside our church…the worldview of the Jews was that the Messiah would come as a great warrior king like David, “Saul slays his thousands, David his ten thousands.” That the Messiah would through force free Israel from her oppressors. If this was John’s world view, which I think it would be safe to say it likely was, we can then better understand why he is sitting in jail wondering, what is going on. While his question is,

“Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” -Matthew 11:3

That could be code for…

“So are you going to get me out of here or do I need to try and figure out another way?”

John’s world view did not match Jesus’ actions and thus John had doubts.

That leads us to the second difficult statement in Matthew chapter 11. Jesus begins to defend John’s ministry and he references Exodus 23:20 & Malachi 3:1 to confirm that John was the chosen one by God to be the forerunner for the Messiah. Jesus then states matter-of-factly,

“Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! -Matthew 11:11a

How was John the Baptist the greatest? Well part of that is pretty obvious, he is greatest in that he was the one who would point to Christ more clearly than anyone else. He was greatest in that his mission was to set the stage for the immediate presence of Jesus…the last pre-messianic prophet.

But then comes the really hard statement,

“Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” -Matthew 11:11b

To understand this lets first forget about the way we use the term “least.” We think of this as valuable. There is the Most Valuable Player and then there is the Least Valuable Player…when a player says “it was a team effort it took all 12 of us to win this game”, do any of us believe that? Or when coaches say, “everyone on this team is of equal value. We are going to win or lose together as a team.” Do we believe that? No because we know what least is and put any 12th man on the Chicago Bulls and they still would have won 6 championships in the 90’s, take away Michael Jordan and they would have won zero! Why? Because there is the Most Valuable and they matter and the least valuable and they can be replaced. This is not what Jesus is saying at all. John actually could not be replaced he was the most valuable…so what does “least in the Kingdom of Heaven” mean?

John was a prophet he spoke looking forward but without a clear picture. He did not fully perceive or understand truly who Jesus was and what He would do on this earth. His mission was to speak about Jesus (the coming Messiah). I believe what makes the people “greater’ that are part of the messianic kingdom moving forward is that those who are after the life of Jesus, after the cross, after the resurrection these individuals can look back and give a more profound explanation of Jesus than John could. So the “least” concept is addressing directly his full understanding of all things Jesus. I would say this then affirms also the position that John would question Jesus, because he was living under the banner of the old motif, the old perspective of the Messiah, but all those that witnessed the life of Jesus, saw the cross, and had understanding of that perspective, including us even in 2016 could give better explanation to the mission of Jesus than John.

Matthew 11:12 is another puzzling statement for some,  

“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.”

This is Jesus simply summarizing what he is about to say in verses 18 & 19. That through the human race there are those used to wage spiritual war against the cause of Christ trying to discourage people from following Jesus. I could give you half-a-dozen names right now of just such individuals, but i will let you think of those on your own.

Then verse 14 has been troublesome to some,  

“And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.”

This is not speaking in the literal sense of Elijah returning in the form of John the Baptist, how do we know this? Well on the basis of the rest of scripture, but even beyond that we have a text that clearly explains what is being said here,

 “It is he (speaking of John the Baptist) who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah,” -Luke 1:17a

Maybe you’ve never had any curiosity about some of these texts or maybe this was review for you. But hopefully for a couple this was helpful in their journey with the Lord.

Keep reading the scriptures daily and may we all continue to grow individually and corporately in knowing and loving Jesus more!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Romans 11 & 12

 

 

In today’s reading of Isaiah 23-28 there was some really great insights. I wish the one who structured the reading plan had placed chapter 28 with chapter 29-33 as it is the first of six woes and fits better within that context and structure. Due to that I won’t be addressing chapter 28 at this time…not that I always address all the chapters, but I at least wanted y’all to know I don’t think it is with the right group in our reading plan J

I really appreciated chapters 24-26 but I want to focus primarily on chapter 24

These chapters are dealing with the final and eternal judgment and cleansing of the world. When all things are made right and order is restored!

On those final days all things will be equal. Myself as a pastor will have no advantage over the laymember (24:2a), the CEO will be equal to the janitor, the rich will be equal to the poor. The devastation of the judgment will affect all classes of society—not one of them will be spared by position or wealth, religion or nationality. This is the first aspect of the judgment.

The second aspect of the judgment is that the whole earth mourns because the “everlasting covenant” has been broken. What is the “everlasting covenant” According to some it is the Sabbath according to others it is the full Gospel as was presented by EJ Waggoner and AT Jones in 1888 

(The links may show us it can be both/and rather than either/or)?

The third aspect of the judgment is that we see there will be a believing remnant. This is seen in Isaiah 24:14-16a

We also see in judgment there will be punishment of the host of heaven (24:21a), which host? I believe the angels that followed Lucifer in his rebellion (Revelation 12:4) but not only the angels that followed Lucifer in his rebellion but the governments on this earth that then followed Satan and those same angels in transgression at the end of time (24:21b).

Then I want to say a word quickly about chapter 25 verses 1-9

While many in our the Christian world speak negatively of the judgment, Biblically people looked forward to it, they longed for it, they had hope in the judgment.

It is not because they were callous and longing to see people destroyed. I believe it is because the people that long for the judgment are those that have a true grasp of the true depravity of sin and the destruction there of.

“And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;
We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him;
We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”” Isaiah 25:9

God’s people don’t want the destruction of the wicked they want the destruction of sin. Even they have had to suffer through the effects of sin. Think of our reading yesterday, Job, oh how he longed for the judgment, because the judgment meant the end of suffering for humanity both the righteous and the unrighteous. Judgment is not the punishment of the wicked—well it is—but this is not the ultimate purpose, it is not God saying, “Didn’t I warn you the wages of sin is death? You got what you deserved.” No I believe the judgment is ultimately an end to all sin which means and end to all suffering, for both wicked and righteous. In other words the judgment is ultimately an act of mercy, when the suffering becomes so great and God finally says “enough, my children both those who see Me as their true parent and those that don’t have endured this world long enough” and He allows sin to take its natural course…eternal death. The righteous are suffering but they are suffering with hope, “We have waited for Him, and He will save us.” The wicked are suffering but they are suffering without hope. The judgment will end all suffering and give both groups what they ultimately chose…

I hope that string of thoughts made sense. Let me know your thoughts.

Tomorrow’s Reading: Matthew 11-13

This may sound like a copout, but I feel as if I must repeat here what I have stated in the past Job’s theology is slanted. The full revelation of God through Jesus Christ had not taken place. He was seeing things only partially, but he was truly living by the text, “The just shall live by faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38).

The one idea as I searched a commentary to see if there were points I missed in my own study that caught my interest is nothing of a devotional nature…well maybe it is, it is a reminder that some Adventist folk should be a little less sensitive about individuals using non-Adventist material,

“God will not turn back His anger;
Beneath Him crouch the helpers of Rahab.” Job 9:13

Honestly I would have thought again and again this was somehow a reference to Rahab the harlot in the story of Jericho…I would have thought this though that would have been a very ignorant thought since most believe Job lived long before that time and also because it is believed in most conservative circles that Moses is the author of Job which would also mean this book predates Rahab the harlot. But without study I would have just rushed through and not even thought of it…maybe that is the devotional lesson…don’t rush through you’ll miss something!

So then who is this Rahab individual. It turns out this is a reference to “a sea monster in Babylonian myth who was defeated by Marduk, who then captured her helpers. Rehab is another name for Leviathan.” (Moody Bible Commentary, p. 712)

So it seems inspired writ here in the book of Job allowed for a pagan mythology reference to be included…

I’ll just leave it at that 🙂

Tomorrow’s Reading: Isaiah 23-28

Psalm 12:

Seems like an appropriate Psalm for the day we begin the 2016 political voting cycle.

We see a group described as having flattering lips & a double heart, meaning people who may say and do the right things, but not with the right heart. Is that too cynical of me to relate that to our political system? I am not actually one that believes that all politicians are that way, it just seems many that get ahead are.

Probably many of us though are just as double hearted in our own worlds as well, we just don’t have it displayed on TV. Have you ever said and done the right things for the wrong reasons? Me too! So this Psalm is also describing us.

On the other hand there is the Lord. His words are pure described here in the Psalm as being like silver tried in a furnace seven times. This means the purity of His words are of the highest degree possible and it is on this that we trust the promise that we can be kept in the care of our God, that we can be preserved from the wickedness of the generation we are in.

Psalm 13:

David lives out the journey of a Christian. The beauty of the Psalms to many are how relatable they are.

1. David felt God had forgotten him and it makes him sad and feels almost picked on, persecuted.
2. David then starts to feel like God will consider what he is saying and there seems to be some glimmer of hope.
3. David then realizes had God does care and now David is singing.

From sorrow to singing the journey of the faithful.

Psalm 14:

Almost this exact same Psalm with only minor alterations is repeated in Psalm 53.

Calling someone a fool in the Bible is strong language (v. 1)

Fool: Biblically defined, “refers to someone who is morally deficient.”

We can believe there is no God not only by literal denial, but also by living in such a way as if there were no God. In other words you don’t have to be an atheist to be a fool. You can be a card carrying Christian and still be a fool if we live as if there is no God.

Those are my thoughts today in my reading of Psalms 12-14

Tomorrow’s Reading: Job 9 & 10

You may recall on Day 24 we read about the cities of refuge where someone whom killed another individual unintentionally could escape to, in order that they may be protected and have a fair trial. I find it of intrigue that in chapter 21 of Joshua we see the cities of refuge were cities that were allotted to the Levites—the priests—the pastors. Is this in order that judgments against individuals might be dealt with or mitigated in a merciful way? Or could it just be that these cities were within just a short distance of everyone and thus this put the Levites within a short distance of everyone? Or maybe both? The latter would make sense in that the dispersion of all the cities the Levites received (48 total) on a map we can see the dispersion of them indicates that the rest of Israel was never far from the Levites who were responsible for the religious education of the people. God wanted Israel to remain connected to His Spiritual leaders.

Chapter 22 is a positive example on how to solve conflict. The tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh did something that offended the rest of Israel. Israel was ready to go to war against them and destroy them, but before they did they sent messengers to let Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh know what they believed their grievance to be. When these tribes heard of this, they did not become defensive instead they gave explanation, a logical, and reasonable explanation at that. Such that the rest of the tribes were happy to hear the explanation and rejoiced that there would be peace.

Imagine that: We’re upset, let’s go explain why we are upset. Oh we’re sorry we didn’t mean it the way it was taken. Here is what we meant. Oh that makes sense. Well let’s not have conflict then.

Amazing how proper conflict resolution tactics can save all of us from a world of hurt!

Joshua 24 is a review of the history of Israel. We saw Moses do similar and it is done often throughout the Bible. Reviewing history is a good way of teaching truth. And I believe the reason Joshua did it and others can be summed up in the statement that Ellen White wrote,

“We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.” Life Sketches p. 196,

Oh that we would remember such a truth!

Finally at the conclusion of Joshua we find one of the great verses in scripture,

“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (24:15)

And with that we will close this post and the book of Joshua with one of my favorite all time songs:

There are so many things that struck me about today’s reading I am going to go chapter by chapter.

Chapter 16:

I believe 16:2c is phrased the way it is for a reason,

“And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai” (italics/bold mine).

This phrase “listened to the voice” conveys more than just the meaning of hearing the words, it means to also pay attention and embrace the thought, the concept, the way of acting.

God said to Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife” (Gen. 3:17)

And you can find many other instances of this phrase in the Bible and it always involves an action related to or inaction in response to a specific concept/belief.

What is the “voice” or belief Abram listened to in this case?

“Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.” (16:2a).

The worst thing Abram did was not the act of sleeping with Hagar, yes this was bad, but it was the belief that lead to this wrong action that was really the sin. The belief that God could not do what He had promised He would do for Abram without the help of alternate methods, in this case Hagar. Most of our sins are not the great wrong we do, the great wrong we do is “listening to the voice” of the devil that leads to those wrong actions. We often focus on the actions, but just like in Genesis 3 God doesn’t say to Adam “because you ate the fruit from the serpent.” No the action is what happened outward, God cares about what took place inward, and so He said to Adam “Because you listened to the voice (the untruth, the doubt, the lie) or your wife” So when Genesis 16:2c tells us “And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai” rather than getting caught-up in the question, “How could she even suggest this?” or “What is Abram thinking he is a fool.” The bigger lesson for us is don’t listen to the lies that ultimately lead to the illicit acts of sin.

I am slightly hesitant to make this next point but…

Ishmael for those that may not know is the Father of the people that became Islam in the Middle-East, why I am hesitant to point that out is because of the prophecy that then comes to Hagar about her unborn son,

“He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.” (16:12)

The conflict in the Middle-East should not surprise us, it was prophesied. Nor should we think that man made ways are going to overrule the prophecies of God. They may bring temporal peace, which is good, but eventually the turmoil will stir again. Also I want us to understand the prophecy is stated in both ways,

• “His hand will be against everyone” = sometimes the conflict will be because of Ishmael’s offspring.
• “And everyone’s hand will be against him” = sometimes the conflict will be because of us!

We can’t blame it ALL on Islam!!!!

Chapter 17:

This is a giant testimony of grace…Abram gets what he doesn’t deserve.

• God does not give-up on Abraham even though he had doubted God and tried to “help Him out”
• God does not give-up on Abraham even when He LAUGHS at God! (17:17)

What a patient and long-suffering God we serve!

Circumcision (17:10-14)—just the thought of circumcision at the age of these individuals sends chills down the spine of every man!

I want to make a separate point about this, besides just the pain.

Of course this outward sign takes place in relation to the male reproductive organs because Abram doubted that God could give Him a baby, in this sign there is a constant reminder of this idea, “God is the creator, He is the one that ultimately gives life.”

Now I want us to think about that for a moment.

In the Garden of Eden there was an outward sign of trust in God as Creator, “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” “I the Lord have made all this and since I made this and you  trust Me to know what is best for you. But so you have choice I will put in the garden a tree. Trust your Creator, or…”

The outward sign of loyalty to God in the garden was in relation to creation.

Then came circumcision which we already saw is in relationship to physical creation, but now jump past circumcision to the outward sign of loyalty in the New Testament…

Baptism…

And what did baptism symbolize?

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:1-7)

Baptism is a symbol of rebirth or recreation.

When we are baptized we are saying more than just we accept Jesus, we are saying, “I trust that Jesus can make me knew, He can recreate me!”

Baptism is therefore us trusting The Lord to be our Creator or rather our ReCreator.

Now jump ahead to Revelation 14—

“And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; 7 and he said with a loud voice, “Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.” (Revelation 14:6, 7)

There is in this end time message a direct allusion to the 4^th Commandment. Why is this significant? Because Revelation 14:12 then tells us what the outward sign will be of those that will embrace this message in the last days,

“Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.” (Revelation 14:12)

The outward sign is in relation to keeping the commandments of God. And what commandment was specifically referenced in Revelation 14 that would have context to Revelation 12? The 4^th Commandment, which is the commandment of what? The Sabbath Commandment, and what is the Sabbath Commandment to remind us of according to Exodus 20?

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Ex. 20:8-11)

It is to remind us of our Creator.

Throughout history God has given to His people an outward sign of an inward understanding of our trust in Him as the Creator and ReCreator.

1. The tree in the garden
2. Circumcision
3. Baptism

And in the last days the outward sign will be…

     4. The Sabbath

Chapter 18:

18:26-33 we see Abrahams negotiation with God for Sodom and Gomorrah and what struck me in this negotiation is how just a few righteous folk can impact an entire city…

They don’t in this case, but God is willing to protect (bless) the entire city just based on a few. Imagine the impact then we could have on our city if we truly walk with God?

I sometimes think about the questions I want to ask folk when I get to Heaven. In this chapter one of them is developed, “Abraham why did you stop the negotiations at 10? Why not ask, ‘but for just one Lord?’” I wonder what he will say.

Chapter 19:

This chapter actually shows us no ones heart was totally sold out for the Lord and yet the Lord shows mercy. Even as Lot needs to leave the city, “he hesitated” (19:16) but the angels took him by the hand and the wife and the daughters and dragged them out of the city. But here is what is so fascinating and again shows the power of our spiritual influence that may even safe as place of safety for some ‘till they figure out their need for the Lord,

“Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.” (19:29)

It was not Lot’s goodness that spared his life…it was Abrahams righteousness! Can I tell you this motivates me to ask Jesus to take all of my heart, not just for me, but for my children potentially someday. Not that their eternal destiny can be decided by me…each one must choose that for themselves…but maybe my life and my prayers and my appeals to God will have some protection over them if they wander close to a place they should not be.

19:26 has a very interesting phrase in it,

“But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

“From behind him” in my mind this just struck me. As spouses we need to walk together, to protect each other. “The two shall become one” this is not just for companionship, it is also for protection. The Bible could have phrased this, “But his wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” In fact this is how I thought it was phrased. But no under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Moses, the writer of Genesis…who wasn’t there to see it so he wouldn’t know these very fine details, but he’s inspired to add, “his wife, from behind him” Lot was not being a good husband, a strong spiritual leader in his family!

Which is seen and taken to an entirely higher level in the last verses of chapter 19. Verses 30-38 I hope make all our stomachs turn, and out of this act there was forever a reminder of this despicable sin, Moab and Ammon the countries were forever a thorn in the flesh of God’s people…sin has far reaching consequences.

So those are my thoughts. Sorry this was so much longer than normal, but I was seeing things I had not seen before in these chapters and wanted to share them with y’all!

Tomorrow’s reading: Joshua 21-24