Something significant happened in the time period represented between Exodus 19:5 and Exodus 19:9. Here's the New King James Version of that portion of scripture:
Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. ' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."
7 So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him. 8 Then all the people answered together and said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. 9 And the Lord said to Moses, " Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever."
Notice in verse 5 that God tells Moses to relay a message to Israel. We are all familiar with the promise He lays out: "you shall be a special treasure to Me". We are even more familiar with the promise He makes in verse 6. We totally grasp the whole "kingdom of priests and holy nation" concept. But do we understand what God was actually saying in verse 5? It's a conditional covenant. God lays it out like this: "If you do this, I will do this." It's been translated as "if you will indeed obey My voice". That's His condition, as translated by King Jimmy. But the two words "indeed" and "obey" are actually the same exact Hebrew word: shema.
I have highlighted the parts of the scripture that stand out to me. Notice how God presents this covenant as pertaining to how Israel responds to His voice in verse 5 but then in verse 9 He seems to change it to how Israel responds to the voice of Moses. Why the switch? Why did it go from Israel "shema" the voice of God to Israel believing what God tells Moses? Why did God suddenly make Moses the intermediary "forever"?
The key is in the meaning of the word shema. One of it's meanings is indeed "to obey". But check out the significance of the word in Hebrew tradition as explained here. The Shema is a specific and highly important hebrew prayer that goes like this:
"One Lord Our God The Lord O Israel Hear!"
Shema also means "to hear" or "to listen intently". It also means "to understand" or "to hear for understanding". If we approach Exodus 19 from the perspective that God wants us to follow His rules, then the word "shema" would certainly mean "obey". But if we approach Exodus 19 from the perspective that He wants "a special treasure", as He said was His intent, perhaps "shema" means "to hear". Since both "indeed" and "obey" were both the word "shema", perhaps what God was really saying was "hear me and understand".
Consider the passage re translated with "hear" and "understand":
Now therefore, if you will hear and understand My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. ' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."
That changes things quite a bit, doesn't it? So, why did God then tell Moses, "that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever"? Look at verse 8 in light of my re translation:
"...All that the Lord has spoken, we will do..."
He didn't ask them to DO anything. He wanted their ear. He told them in the previous verses how He lead them out of Egypt "on eagles wings", i.e. with NO EFFORT of their own. And yet instead of listening the very voice of the One who had saved them, they said they will simply do what He says to do. He presents Himself as a lover and they responded to Him like a taskmaster. He called them a special treasure and they responded to Him like a tool (literally and figuratively).
From that very moment, Exodus seems to just go down hill. God showed them that He will do it all for them. He didn't want to give them a set of rules and regulations but it was the only thing they were willing to accept. They wanted to relate to God, not as a treasure, but as peers. They wanted to be righteous of their own accord. God just wanted a people of His own. He just wanted a partner, a lover, a bride.
The Law came as a result of the delusion that Israel could justify itself. This is true of all men. God wants us to sit and listen, captivated by every word. We tend to gravitate toward methods and formulas. We will not take His word for the safety and prosperity He promises us. We tend to want the ability to measure and govern. He wants us to just trust Him.
A war began in the time between Exodus 19:5 and Exodus 19:9. The war between man and God. That war ended when Jesus was born. The angels proclaimed it: "Peace on earth. Good will toward men." We are no longer under law but grace. What if we are still mistranslating the "shema" in our life? What if our eyes are on "obeying God" when we should have had our eyes on "listening" to God. What if when we hear Him and desire to understand Him we can't help but also "obey" Him?
Friday, May 9, 2014
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Whom Shall I Fear?
In pursuit of understanding "the fear of the Lord", I ran across this scripture:
Matt 10:24 " A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! 26 Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.
27 " Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father 's will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
I put in bold the most striking parts. Reading this straight through, Jesus seems to contradict Himself. This always puzzled me. I know enough to know that He'd never do that. The only answer was that I had to be reading it wrong. Let's take a look at His commands here regarding fear:
Matt 10:24 " A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! 26 Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.
27 " Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father 's will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
I put in bold the most striking parts. Reading this straight through, Jesus seems to contradict Himself. This always puzzled me. I know enough to know that He'd never do that. The only answer was that I had to be reading it wrong. Let's take a look at His commands here regarding fear:
- v26 "Do not fear them"
- v27-28 "Preach Me and don't fear them"
- v28 "Fear God"
- v31 "Don't fear"
Huh? Ok, so the "them" here are those who would persecute a Christian for being a Christian. I believe this also extends to men in general. But I also believe He's making a general statement about fear. At the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, there wasn't anything more frightening than being found to be a blasphemer in the eyes of the community. It was an offense punishable by death.
In verses 24 through 26 He's telling them that since men regarded Him to be a liar, they will also regard His disciples (you and me) as liars. But He says, "Therefore do not fear them". Why? I don't get it. Don't fear them because they wanted to kill Jesus before they wanted to kill me? He goes on in the rest of verse 26 to explain that it was always the religious who were under a lie, not Jesus and not us. "There is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known." or in other words: the gospel will be proven true. Those who persecute us for claiming Jesus as the truth will find out one way or another that they were wrong. But there is another meaning here as well.
I believe Jesus is directing our vision to eternity. He wants us to see that while we are persecuted for truth now, it's just a blip on the radar of time. We have to learn to see the big picture. We ought to regard The Father and the truth about His Son with greater weight than anything a mortal man can do to us. Our nature as born-again eternal beings will be "revealed" and "known". It's from this perspective that He wants us to evaluate whether we should fear something or not.
He goes on to make this plain in verses 27 and 28. He commands us to preach what He tells us. But not just preach. No, He wants us to ensure everyone hears us by preaching it from the tops of houses, in plain view of everyone! No doubt this command stung the disciples a bit. I mean, if you're already afraid of the religious stoning you to death for blasphemy, you'd find it a bit troublesome to preach Jesus from the most visible point in the entire town. Then it appears as if Jesus addresses this fear of men by saying, "Don't fear men. They can't destroy your soul. Fear God. He can destroy your soul in HELL!!!!!"
For years that one bothered me. Why would the physical embodiment of love suddenly switch to fear tactics to get us to follow His commands? I mean, that's clearly what He's saying, isn't it? Do what I say so you don't go to hell? A fear-based method of teaching does not mesh well with the character of Jesus revealed in the rest of scripture.
Recently God has been speaking to me about context in scripture. I've heard it said that if a particular verse confuses or bothers you, read the seven verses before it and the seven after it. This will give you a clear picture of the verse that confused you. Funny how true that is. Look at verses 29 through 31. Right after Jesus makes a statement about how we should fear God because he has the power to destroy our very soul he continues to tell us how much attention God gives a sparrow. Not a single bird dies without God noticing it. Then he points out that we are infinitely more precious to God than a sparrow. If God pays that much attention to a bird, imagine how much attention He pays to us. He caps off the entire conversation by saying, "Do not fear, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."
I believe Jesus was making a point, here, by purposely being dramatic. Jesus understands our propensity to fear things, especially things that have the power "to destroy the body". We have trouble seeing past the physical. He combats that carnal perspective by saying, "Look, guys, don't fear men. They can't touch the real you. If you are dead-set on living with fear, you may as well fear the One who has the power to blott out your existence!! But that would be just plain silly since God loves you so much that He would never do that to you. So don't fear anything, ever, you knuckleheads." Keep in mind that Jesus is speaking to those who are His. Having accepted Jesus and resolved to preach Him from the rooftops, they are far from the fires of hell. Please hear Him.
A man can injure you, kill you even, but no man can destroy you. Only God has that kind of power. Notice that Satan isn't even mentioned in this passage. That's because he doesn't have the power to destroy you either. The only entity in either the spiritual or natural realm that has enough power to warrant a fear response from you is Your Father who loves you so much that He would rather die a horrific death than harm a hair on your head. Therefore, do not fear.
In verses 24 through 26 He's telling them that since men regarded Him to be a liar, they will also regard His disciples (you and me) as liars. But He says, "Therefore do not fear them". Why? I don't get it. Don't fear them because they wanted to kill Jesus before they wanted to kill me? He goes on in the rest of verse 26 to explain that it was always the religious who were under a lie, not Jesus and not us. "There is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known." or in other words: the gospel will be proven true. Those who persecute us for claiming Jesus as the truth will find out one way or another that they were wrong. But there is another meaning here as well.
I believe Jesus is directing our vision to eternity. He wants us to see that while we are persecuted for truth now, it's just a blip on the radar of time. We have to learn to see the big picture. We ought to regard The Father and the truth about His Son with greater weight than anything a mortal man can do to us. Our nature as born-again eternal beings will be "revealed" and "known". It's from this perspective that He wants us to evaluate whether we should fear something or not.
He goes on to make this plain in verses 27 and 28. He commands us to preach what He tells us. But not just preach. No, He wants us to ensure everyone hears us by preaching it from the tops of houses, in plain view of everyone! No doubt this command stung the disciples a bit. I mean, if you're already afraid of the religious stoning you to death for blasphemy, you'd find it a bit troublesome to preach Jesus from the most visible point in the entire town. Then it appears as if Jesus addresses this fear of men by saying, "Don't fear men. They can't destroy your soul. Fear God. He can destroy your soul in HELL!!!!!"
For years that one bothered me. Why would the physical embodiment of love suddenly switch to fear tactics to get us to follow His commands? I mean, that's clearly what He's saying, isn't it? Do what I say so you don't go to hell? A fear-based method of teaching does not mesh well with the character of Jesus revealed in the rest of scripture.
Recently God has been speaking to me about context in scripture. I've heard it said that if a particular verse confuses or bothers you, read the seven verses before it and the seven after it. This will give you a clear picture of the verse that confused you. Funny how true that is. Look at verses 29 through 31. Right after Jesus makes a statement about how we should fear God because he has the power to destroy our very soul he continues to tell us how much attention God gives a sparrow. Not a single bird dies without God noticing it. Then he points out that we are infinitely more precious to God than a sparrow. If God pays that much attention to a bird, imagine how much attention He pays to us. He caps off the entire conversation by saying, "Do not fear, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."
I believe Jesus was making a point, here, by purposely being dramatic. Jesus understands our propensity to fear things, especially things that have the power "to destroy the body". We have trouble seeing past the physical. He combats that carnal perspective by saying, "Look, guys, don't fear men. They can't touch the real you. If you are dead-set on living with fear, you may as well fear the One who has the power to blott out your existence!! But that would be just plain silly since God loves you so much that He would never do that to you. So don't fear anything, ever, you knuckleheads." Keep in mind that Jesus is speaking to those who are His. Having accepted Jesus and resolved to preach Him from the rooftops, they are far from the fires of hell. Please hear Him.
A man can injure you, kill you even, but no man can destroy you. Only God has that kind of power. Notice that Satan isn't even mentioned in this passage. That's because he doesn't have the power to destroy you either. The only entity in either the spiritual or natural realm that has enough power to warrant a fear response from you is Your Father who loves you so much that He would rather die a horrific death than harm a hair on your head. Therefore, do not fear.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
It Is Finished
Any who have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ know at least in some sense what He accomplished.
He died at the hands of our fathers in order to free us. It was a gruesome death. Prior to dying on the cross, He suffered torture, humiliation, and shame. Worst of all, He became sin for us.
Here's what the gospel of John tells us about what He did when He realized His mission had been accomplished:
John 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, " I thirst!" 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, " It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
He took a drink and passed into death. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but this passage of John always had a sense of a feeling of relief in it. Not just relief from the physical and emotional pain of the crucifixion, but relief in having accomplished a monumental task. But He was God, in the flesh, so why would He be relieved that it was over for any reason other than being released from the pain?
Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the God-likeness of Jesus that we forget that He was, and is, a man. His favorite title for Himself was Son of Man, after all. That's no coincident. In order for Him to be fully God and fully man, He'd have to have a soul. Perfect in every way, yes, but a soul none-the-less. Jesus was fully lead by the Holy Spirit and obedient in every way, but because of His soul, He suffered like we do.
Don't believe me? Consider the following scriptures:
Matt 26:36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, " Sit here while I go and pray over there." 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, " My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me."
He was in so much intense turmoil, in fact, that He asked The Father if there were any way "this cup" could be taken away from Him:
Luke 22:41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, " Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."
Scripture goes on to mention that Jesus was so completely distressed that He started to sweat blood:
Luke 22:43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
This is actually a real physical condition. It is brought on by extreme levels of stress. Jesus was so stressed by what was about to happen that even an angel that was sent to strengthen Him couldn't relieve the stress.
Have you ever had to face something so stressful that you sweat blood? How about something so stressful that you couldn't sleep or eat? Maybe something that made you sick to your stomach? We all know stress to varying degrees. There are even some who have sweat blood like Jesus did. The closest I've come to that kind of stress is running a 3.1 mile race.
I ran cross country races as a freshman and sophomore in high school. I found that, while I had the physical frame for it (lanky), I wasn't very well conditioned to running. Maybe I was too skinny. I ended up at the end of my sophomore year with stress fractures in both shins yet still able to run a mile on a track in 5 minutes flat. What I lacked in physical ability, I made up for with heart. You see, I never really had any sense of worth until I discovered running. It was the one place, the one sport, where tenacity alone could see you through. I resolved to prove myself worthy, no matter the cost.
I trained hard. I gained in strength and endurance. But it didn't matter how much I had grown physically, cross country running is a mental sport. You can only go as fast as you are willing to endure. The last races of the cross country season are in November. In the north eastern U.S., that's not a good season to be running in short shorts and a tank top. By the first quarter-mile mark, your skin is screaming in pain. Your eyes, nose, throat, legs, lungs, and heart will quite literally burn for upwards of 17 minutes. That's a long time to remain focused on a goal in the face of overwhelming pain.
Passion will push you through pain. When your entire being is saying, "STOP NOW, WE'RE DYING!!!", your heart will respond, "I. WILL. WIN." During a county title race when I was 15, I learned a great lesson about passion and desire. I had about 200 meters left to run, was neck and neck with a runner from our high school's rivals and I was one hundred percent spent. I was beyond spent. I was so wrecked by what I had physically pushed myself to that I literally started to descend into self-pity. I could see the finish line and I could feel the guy beside me start to pull ahead. "Who cares, let him go.", I thought. Then I saw a team mate of mine on the side line of the course, running along side us. As I looked at him, he screamed "DIG DEEP, SIMMONS". I was suddenly reminded that the race wasn't about me or my pain. If I stopped now, it was all for nothing. This got me angry enough to summon strength I didn't know I had. I found myself suddenly in a full-on sprint. I passed the guy who was pulling ahead of me and 2 more before crossing the finish line. Thank God someone was there to catch me. I remember thinking, "It's over. Oh God, it's over." I was relieved, and proud.
For some reason, God related my running experiences with what Jesus did on that last day of His ministry. Being God, Jesus knew what was coming. The anticipation of the race was quite literally more than He could physically bear. Stress hormones were so high in his blood stream that it broke the capillaries in His skin and caused Him to bleed from His pores. The closest I can come to that feeling is standing at the starting line before a big race, knowing the pain that lie ahead. I imagined myself on the side-line cheering Him on: "DIG DEEP, JESUS!!" God showed me that this was Jesus' big race. He pushed beyond His physical tolerance and He finished well. For the first time in my life, I was proud of Jesus, not as the Son of God, but as the Son of Man.
He died at the hands of our fathers in order to free us. It was a gruesome death. Prior to dying on the cross, He suffered torture, humiliation, and shame. Worst of all, He became sin for us.
Here's what the gospel of John tells us about what He did when He realized His mission had been accomplished:
John 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, " I thirst!" 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, " It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
He took a drink and passed into death. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but this passage of John always had a sense of a feeling of relief in it. Not just relief from the physical and emotional pain of the crucifixion, but relief in having accomplished a monumental task. But He was God, in the flesh, so why would He be relieved that it was over for any reason other than being released from the pain?
Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the God-likeness of Jesus that we forget that He was, and is, a man. His favorite title for Himself was Son of Man, after all. That's no coincident. In order for Him to be fully God and fully man, He'd have to have a soul. Perfect in every way, yes, but a soul none-the-less. Jesus was fully lead by the Holy Spirit and obedient in every way, but because of His soul, He suffered like we do.
Don't believe me? Consider the following scriptures:
Matt 26:36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, " Sit here while I go and pray over there." 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, " My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me."
He was in so much intense turmoil, in fact, that He asked The Father if there were any way "this cup" could be taken away from Him:
Luke 22:41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, " Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."
Scripture goes on to mention that Jesus was so completely distressed that He started to sweat blood:
Luke 22:43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
This is actually a real physical condition. It is brought on by extreme levels of stress. Jesus was so stressed by what was about to happen that even an angel that was sent to strengthen Him couldn't relieve the stress.
Have you ever had to face something so stressful that you sweat blood? How about something so stressful that you couldn't sleep or eat? Maybe something that made you sick to your stomach? We all know stress to varying degrees. There are even some who have sweat blood like Jesus did. The closest I've come to that kind of stress is running a 3.1 mile race.
I ran cross country races as a freshman and sophomore in high school. I found that, while I had the physical frame for it (lanky), I wasn't very well conditioned to running. Maybe I was too skinny. I ended up at the end of my sophomore year with stress fractures in both shins yet still able to run a mile on a track in 5 minutes flat. What I lacked in physical ability, I made up for with heart. You see, I never really had any sense of worth until I discovered running. It was the one place, the one sport, where tenacity alone could see you through. I resolved to prove myself worthy, no matter the cost.
I trained hard. I gained in strength and endurance. But it didn't matter how much I had grown physically, cross country running is a mental sport. You can only go as fast as you are willing to endure. The last races of the cross country season are in November. In the north eastern U.S., that's not a good season to be running in short shorts and a tank top. By the first quarter-mile mark, your skin is screaming in pain. Your eyes, nose, throat, legs, lungs, and heart will quite literally burn for upwards of 17 minutes. That's a long time to remain focused on a goal in the face of overwhelming pain.
Passion will push you through pain. When your entire being is saying, "STOP NOW, WE'RE DYING!!!", your heart will respond, "I. WILL. WIN." During a county title race when I was 15, I learned a great lesson about passion and desire. I had about 200 meters left to run, was neck and neck with a runner from our high school's rivals and I was one hundred percent spent. I was beyond spent. I was so wrecked by what I had physically pushed myself to that I literally started to descend into self-pity. I could see the finish line and I could feel the guy beside me start to pull ahead. "Who cares, let him go.", I thought. Then I saw a team mate of mine on the side line of the course, running along side us. As I looked at him, he screamed "DIG DEEP, SIMMONS". I was suddenly reminded that the race wasn't about me or my pain. If I stopped now, it was all for nothing. This got me angry enough to summon strength I didn't know I had. I found myself suddenly in a full-on sprint. I passed the guy who was pulling ahead of me and 2 more before crossing the finish line. Thank God someone was there to catch me. I remember thinking, "It's over. Oh God, it's over." I was relieved, and proud.
For some reason, God related my running experiences with what Jesus did on that last day of His ministry. Being God, Jesus knew what was coming. The anticipation of the race was quite literally more than He could physically bear. Stress hormones were so high in his blood stream that it broke the capillaries in His skin and caused Him to bleed from His pores. The closest I can come to that feeling is standing at the starting line before a big race, knowing the pain that lie ahead. I imagined myself on the side-line cheering Him on: "DIG DEEP, JESUS!!" God showed me that this was Jesus' big race. He pushed beyond His physical tolerance and He finished well. For the first time in my life, I was proud of Jesus, not as the Son of God, but as the Son of Man.
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