Today we start a new book! The book of Judges. This book could be made into a movie, if you don’t believe me check out the story in 3:15-30 or what about the story of Deborah and Jael in chapter 4 those are two tough women!
In today’s post though I want to focus on the first two chapters because they set the stage for the rest of the book. Beginning in verse 27 of chapter 1 we see a pattern begin to take place:
This inspired writing is not just here to instruct us in history. Something very clear is happening, the people of Israel were to remove all the remnants of those who did not worship the one true God, and they did not. By not doing so this decision eventually led to what we see taking place in the rest of the book of Judges, a people constantly waffling back and forth between loyalty and compromise.
I want us to notice something though, the effects of this decision to not drive out the Canaanites at first doesn’t seem like such a bad thing from the perspective of Israel. In fact in several instances the scriptures tell us that the Canaanites were forced into labor as the Israelites servants. For an entire generation the decision to not drive these people out seemed “ok.”
“The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel.” (2:7)
But then…
“All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.” (2:10)
Why was this so?
“they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 So they forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.” (2:12, 13)
Notice the phrase in there
“and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them”
And why were those people around them? Because they had chosen “not to drive them out”
Then in chapter 2 verse 21 God said
“I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,”
God is not being mean He is just not delivering them from their willful choice.
So my summary in all of this is:
From a Spiritual lesson that borderline sin that is hanging around or that slight compromise that might not seem like that big of deal to us at the time, may have great ramifications on the generations below.
I think of the parent that may watch some subjective movies with their kids…maybe no big deal for the parent in the big picture, but what if it opens the door for the kids to desire to explore even greater depths of that subjective material and the next thing the parent knows their children are addicted to pornography.
Or the parents that compromise slightly on their Sabbath afternoon activities, but they still go to church in the morning…no big deal…’till they see their own kids not taking the grandkids to church because they not only compromise Sabbath in the afternoon, they also compromise Sabbath in the morning.
I think it can also happen to us corporately just as it corporately effected Israel:
Just tonight a group of us that love sports (as we watched the Super Bowl I know the irony) were discussing the challenges of interscholastic sports within our Adventist schools (also a concern outside of Adventism as well).
Years ago our schools decided to move away from the counsel of Ellen White in regards to emphasizing or over promoting interscholastic sports,
“I do not condemn the simple exercise of playing ball,” Ellen White said, “but this, even in its simplicity, may be overdone. I shrink always from the almost sure result which follows in the wake of these amusements. It leads to an outlay of means that should be expended in bringing the light of truth to souls.” Ellen White, 2nd Selected Messages, p. 322.
She also states in another book,
“The games that occupy so much of … [the student’s] time are diverting the mind from study. They are not helping to prepare the youth for practical, earnest work in life. Their influence does not tend toward refinement, generosity, or real manliness. Some of the most popular amusements, such as football and boxing, have become schools of brutality. They are developing the same characteristics as did the games of ancient Rome. The love of domination, the pride in mere brute force, the reckless disregard of life, are exerting upon the youth a power to demoralize that is appalling. Other athletic games, though not so brutalizing, are scarcely less objectionable because of the excess to which they are carried, they stimulate the love of pleasure and excitement, thus fostering a distaste for useful labor, a disposition to shun practical duties and responsibilities. They tend to destroy a relish for life’s sober realities and its tranquil enjoyments. Thus the door is opened to dissipation and lawlessness, with their terrible results.” –Ellen Whtie, Education, pp. 210, 211.
By ignoring this counsel at some point years and years ago we now have people that love sports, some of us that played varsity sports all through Adventist Education now asking the questions, “Are we missing something?” “Are we really helping the current generation by endorsing this the way we do?”
This is not a diatribe on sports. I enjoy them very much, we (my family) enjoy watching the games of our school and supporting the youth of our area. But with this passage in Judges in mind and the conversation I was a part of tonight, I just must be honest…I take pause…
Of course could we say the same for the emphasis on classroom academics and our abandonment of more outdoor education, or starting kids in school at 4, 5, & 6 rather than 7, 8, & 9…
What about in the church are our shrinking churches in North America reaping the consequences of abandoning the model of pastor as church planter/evangelist for the more convenient model of settled pastor.
Okay I will save those for another post 🙂
Whether you agree or disagree I hope we will all think and be cautious if not for ourselves, for the sake of future generations in all our decision making.
Tomorrow’s Reading: Psalm 15-17
The obvious topic to write on in today’s reading is the story of God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and then His intervention when He observed Abraham’s trust and faithfulness.
But…
That is not what I am going to spend time looking at.
What I needed to hear and what spoke to me in my devotional today is the story of Abraham and the return of his deceit to not claim Sarah as his wife. I see in this story that Abraham is a repeat offender of the same sin, just like I can be…but that is not what caught my attention…
What truly caught my attention was God’s response to Abimelech,
“But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” -Genesis 20:3-7
God spared Abimelech from unknowingly sinning, but God still calls it sin. “I who kept you from sinning against me.” When I was a child I was taught to pray forgiveness for both the sins I was aware of and the sins I was unaware of. Society has shifted, even within the church, now sin is only sin if “I” think it is sin or know it is sin. Sin to me is no longer defined by God it is now defined by themselves. God clearly shows here that it didn’t matter that Abimelech didn’t know it was Abraham’s wife, if he had touched her it would have still been sin.
The sins we’ve committed both with knowledge and without knowledge Jesus took both on the cross. That is what is said, “I who kept you from sinning against ME.” All sin known and unknown is sin that killed Jesus, let us return to seeking forgiveness for both.
Tomorrow’s Reading: Judges 1-6
In chapters 1-11 Paul has been expounding on our need for and the mercies of God and now Romans 12:1 is a transition statement into the practical response to The Lord’s mercies,
“Therefore (or in light of God’s mercies) I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Paul in verse 2a tells us how to do the previous,
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,”
and to what end 2b,
“so that you may prove (discern) what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
And then beginning in verse 3 Paul lays out the implications of “being right” with God, but please note, the implications of “being right” with God are not to be played out in private or I should say their ultimate value comes not in isolation, but within the context of the “Body of Christ” the church (vv. 4 & 5).
Verses 6-8 then paint a beautiful picture of the gifts that are to be exhibited and lived out within the body of the church.
Something jumped out at me when I read this list I realized it describes most churches expectations of a “singular pastor.”
Biblically though one individual does not likely possess all these gifts, they’re more likely distributed amongst many.
Could this be the problem…or rather I would state this is the problem I believe in many churches. The teacher and exhorter is also expected to be the manager and the merciful one.
When building a team a church or the lead pastor should think to fill in his or her gaps. If we have the opportunity to hire another individual at the current church I serve at I will be looking for someone with the gifts of nurturing and mercy (a flat side for me). I brought in someone “who leads with diligence” (the word “leads” is slightly deceiving for our modern culture as the true translation would be better served as “gives aid to” or “manages.”) another semi-flat side in my ministry. We as pastors must see our weak sides and build a team accordingly…sorry for this ramble…remember this is my response to my devotional along with hopefully a blessing to you. Anyway, back to my point churches I believe suffer when they hire a pastor thinking he or she should possess an abundance of all these gifts, they should be patient knowing that the pastor will always have a flat side or maybe more than one, and hopefully that pastor will acknowledge that flat side and put a team around them to fill the gaps or if there are not the resources for a paid team then a group of elders around them that can fulfill this gift listing in Romans 12.
And while we should all serve primarily in the area(s) of our giftedness sometimes we must be willing to move out more broadly and verses 9-13 tell us how.
And then finally verses 14-21 tell us how to live in relation to the secular world beyond the confines of the Body of Christ. We are to still live and serve and witness in this world and so we must know how to be outside of those most like us.
Romans 12 is a practical chapter that I believe all of us as Christians should read and apply on a regular basis.
Oh and can I go back once more to the listing of the gifts…
Will you pause and ask yourself which one of those gifts most aligns with me (maybe check out also the lists in 1 Corinthians 12 or Ephesians 4), and would others agree. And then ask yourself are you stepping up to use those gifts as God has given you in the context of your local church?
Happy Sabbath!
Tomorrow’s Reading: Genesis 20-23
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
O Lord, You are my God.
I will exalt You,
I will praise Your name,
For You have done wonderful things;
Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For You have made a city a ruin,
A fortified city a ruin,
A palace of foreigners to be a city no more;
It will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore the strong people will glorify You;
The city of the terrible nations will fear You.
4 For You have been a strength to the poor,
A strength to the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm,
A shade from the heat;
For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 You will reduce the noise of aliens,
As heat in a dry place;
As heat in the shadow of a cloud,
The song of the terrible ones will be diminished.
6 And in this mountain
The Lord of hosts will make for all people
A feast of choice pieces,
A feast of wines on the lees,
Of fat things full of marrow,
Of well-refined wines on the lees.
7 And He will destroy on this mountain
The surface of the covering cast over all people,
And the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
9 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.”
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