Oil and Water

A sweet friend of mine commented  to me recently, “I am having a hard time reconciling the God of the Old Testament with the God of the New Testament.”  She was referring to the struggle she was having reading through the Old Testament and interpreting some of God’s actions.

It is a challenging read.  We live in a culture of entitlement and self.  We have  many filters based in the lies that our culture saturates us with about what we read in scripture.  So I implore you, don’t give up.  Here are some thoughts I have about reconciling the God of the Old with the God of the New.

First of all, it is the same God so it is imperative that you read in light of God’s character.  He is holy, which means literally, “different.”  He is different than we are.  That fact alone can make reading about some of his actions confusing.  Second, he is righteous.  That means, literally, “right.”  Not in an opinionated sort of way, just in the reality that “right” had to start somewhere and it started with Him.  He is right.  He is righteous.  Next, God is good.  This is the hardest for most people to read in the Old Testament.  How could a “good God” kill so many people?  Then, God is merciful.  He is not interested in mindless obedience; he wants our hearts to love him of our own accord.  Finally, God is love.  He authored it.  We frequently confuse the original love, which is God, with the confused, mindless substitute of our day also known as lust.  A clear definition of the original love can be found in I Corinthians 13:3-10.

We started out in the Garden of Eden completely connected to God; his goodness, his righteousness, his mercy and love. Life was simple.  Adam and Eve walked and talked with God.  They had his ear for everything.  His presence was assumed.  They were with God.  God was with them.  Everything they could possibly want or need was provided for them.  The enemy showed up and tempted Eve to want something less; to doubt God’s words were true.  She succumbed and brought Adam with her into a new existence under a curse.  The curse, simply, was death.  Having sinned, God in his mercy shortened their lives.  But Adam and Eve had also, in their sin, chosen to separate themselves from God.  The rest of the story in the Old Testament is the unfolding of man’s walk away from God and God’s passionate pursuit to regain their love.

But what about all those rules and those “unreasonable” punishments? Like stoning someone for breaking the Sabbath? (Numbers 15:32-36)

To me, reading the Old Testament is reading about the curse; death.  It is reading about life separate from God.  It is studying the depravity of sin, how it separates us from the truth about God.  God is good.  He is the source of Love.  He is Love.  To be separate from Goodness and Love is to walk with depravity and apathy.  If you are not walking in Life, you are walking toward death.  The consequence for walking away from Life is to walk into death.  The only “gray” area of this distinction is essentially our years alive.  By the time our own mortality runs out, there is no more “gray” area; you are either going to remain alive in eternity or you are not.   To me, the “rules” in the Old Testament are more about measuring God’s righteousness and holiness than they are about anything else.  Breaking the rules sheds light on our walk away from Him.  When we walk away from Him, we walk toward death.  Spiritual death.  We cannot remain alive in Him and his righteousness with any sin in our lives.  It’s simply incompatible; like oil and water.

So I read the Old Testament in light of God’s character and I see more and more clearly how insidious and evil sin is.  God cannot look on sin because it is incompatible with his righteousness.  As I read the Old Testament, I see the consequences play out time and time again of walking away from Him.  I see his mercy in not forcing anyone to walk with Him but loving us enough to continue to pursue us.   The God of the Old Testament is revealing a clear understanding of the incredible work of salvation needed that the God of the New Testament, in Jesus, must do in order to bring us back to Him.

 

Rumor Has It

“They spread scary rumors among the People of Israel.”  Numbers 13:32 (the Message).

I was standing in a group of people a few weeks ago and there were at least three conversations going on around me.  I was connected to two of the conversations when a member of the third conversation asked me my opinion.  I stopped, looked at the person asking and replied, “Well, I was keeping up with two of the conversations going on but got sidetracked from the third when my own conversation in my head got started.”  I was among a group of women and they all stopped and laughed as this resonated with them.  All these conversations we have in our head.  Most of my conversations in my head are battling the rumors going on around me and whispering in my ear.

I am almost convinced that most of my perception of life as I know it is based entirely on rumor.  Bear with me a moment here.  Rumor has it no matter my age I should look like an airbrushed super model.  Rumor has it I can have my cake and eat it, too.  Rumor has it my business is going to fail.  Rumor has it we can’t afford college for the kids and they’ll end up nobodies in nobody type dead end jobs.  Rumor has it that this headache is really a brain tumor.  Rumor has it you can buy happiness.  Rumor has it a little white lie is really okay.   Rumor has it I can fudge on my taxes and get away with it.  Rumor has it God doesn’t really care.  Rumor has it the people surrounding me really don’t care.  Rumor has it I’ve failed.

This just begins an endless list of some of the rumors I have heard from friends and strangers alike.  Some of them I hear from myself.  Moses sent scouts ahead of the Israelites to scope out the Promised Land.  All but two of the scouts returned with dread and terror.  Out of their fear, they began spreading rumors.  Yet, two of the scouts, Caleb and Joshua, knew God’s character.  They saw the challenges of taking over the Promised Land, but they were firmly rooted in a correct perception of God’s call, God’s power and God’s favor upon them.   But the rumors were already flying.  These frightened scouts told the Israelites about the “giants” in the land and how, “…they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.”   The rumors lead the rest of the Israelites to turn on Moses…even to the point of stoning Moses and Aaron!

What are the rumors challenging you today?  What are the subtle mischaracterizations about God that you’ve allowed to creep into your heart and mind and separate you from Him?  Can you take a few minutes and think about them?  Then replace them with the truth.  He is Love. He is all powerful.  He is present.  He sees you.  He speaks.  He has a plan for your life.  He cares about you.  He desires you.  Don’t let the enemy’s rumors derail you from stepping into life in the Promised Land.

 

 

Craving

My children used to love watching a Disney cartoon movie called “Mickey and the Beanstalk.” It was a takeoff on the classic story of Jack and the Beanstalk. In the movie, a famine has devastated the land and Mickey, Donald and Goofy have no more food.  While Mickey is out selling their only cow in an attempt to bring home dinner, Goofy and Donald in their anticipation and craving for what will come sing, “Turkey, lobster, sweet potato pie. Pancakes piled up until they reach the sky. Ooooohhh, I wanna eat and eat and eat and eat and eat until I die.”  And they are devastated when Mickey comes home, not with food, but with magic beans.

The reading in Numbers 11 reminded me of the song Donald and Goofy sang… “I wanna eat and eat and eat and eat and eat until I die.”  Or perhaps if your more of a Rolling Stones fan than a Disney fan, you’ll remember the words of a different Mick(ey); Mick Jagger: “I can’t get no satisfaction, no, no no.”   Those two songs sure seem to describe the people of God in the desert. They are a mess of murmuring and whining and back-biting and craving. Remember, they have JUST departed Sinai where God gave them the law and the tabernacle.  The journey had JUST begun to the Promised Land.  They boldly declared to the outsider Hobab the Midianite, “We are setting out for the place about which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel,” (Num 10:29).  And within a short space, they “complained about their hardships,”  (Num 11:1) and, “the rabble with them began to crave other food,” (Num 11:4). Manna (God’s good provision) was not enough. They wanted what they used to have in Egypt (where they were slaves!).  Clearly there is something powerful within us related to craving and food is one of the primary things for which we crave. Remember that the first temptation and sin (to be like God knowing good and evil) used food as the enticement (pleasing to the eye and good for eating). A good thing corrupted… such is the nature of sin.

We must understand that God’s intention was that he would be the one to fulfill us.  He would be the one to provide for us. He would be the one to whom we look to fill all our needs.  As Lysa Terkeurst writes in her book Made to Crave, “God made us capable of craving so we’d have an unquenchable desire for more of Him, and Him alone. Nothing changes until we make the choice to redirect our misguided cravings to the only one capable of satisfying them.”   As with the people of Israel in the desert, so also with us. Unless we go to God to satisfy our cravings; death in its many forms (whether slow or abrupt) will result. How do we do this? Begin by taking our cue from Jesus. Remember Jesus when later dealing with satan’s attack in the wilderness would quote Deuteronomy 8:3 as his defense from temptation, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God,” (Matthew 4:4).  We begin to recognize that craving is a signal within us that we need Jesus. We ask Him to satisfy us. We learn how to feast on his word. We increasingly live from a place of spiritual fullness rather than spiritual malnourishment. Ultimately, we live dependent upon him.

Following God

Numbers 9 and 10 have to do with learning to follow the Lord.  God spoke to his people with whom he was in relationship. God guided them through the cloud and the fire. When the cloud lifted the people were to move out and follow him. When the cloud remained, they stayed put.  The camp must have been quite a sight stretching out for miles with hundreds of thousands of people and countless tents and the Lord spreading out over them by day and by night.

Here they were in the desert wasteland with little vegetation, scarce water, a lack of food, and no visible means to support themselves. How would they be supplied? How would they find their way through the trackless waste?  God was with them. He would provide all they needed.  God’s intention was to provide for his people. God’s intention still is to provide for his people.  Though they did not know the path through the wilderness, God would see them through to the Promised Land. He would be true to his word. Our Christian life is similar to this today. We live in a world that is a moral wasteland. Those who wander in it unaided end in destruction. We would not know the way to go to arrive at heaven but for God’s guidance and the assurance that Jesus gave us when he said, “I am the way,” (John 14:6). He has promised to guide us step by step but we must follow him, learning from his word, listening to his still small voice (inner promptings), and obediently moving out at his command. Jesus promised, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,” (John 8:12). God guided a step at a time. He did not lay out an advanced plan. He did not lay out an advanced timeline. When he moved, they moved.  Jesus said, “I only do what I see my Heavenly Father doing.”  In this he models the Christian life for us: living cooperatively with God to accomplish his plans in the world.

The One Thing Needed

In Luke 18, the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus describes two kinds of people who approach God. The pharisee is fastidious in his religion.  He goes to church (temple), fasts, and tithes — all good things. He also prays. But verse 11 tells us, “He stood up and prayed about himself: God I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector.” His problem? Himself. The pharisee assessed his status before God not by grace but by what he did or did not do. He falsely assumed he could approach God based on his own merit.   And while he had not committed any of the outward and obvious sins, his heart was full of the worst sin of all: pride.

The second person described — the tax collector — is not in an honorable vocation.  In those days, tax collectors regularly practiced extortion and dishonesty and they were despised by the Jewish people. They dealt with the Roman overseers and thus were considered ritually (religiously) impure. Your average tax collector was not the kind of guy a nice, middle class, suburban family wants to have over for dinner on a Sunday evening.  (Imagine a slick and seedy pawn shop owner and you might come close.) And while we do not know specifically what kind of tax collector this man was, the assumption for Jesus’ hearers would be that he was a scoundrel on the outs with God. And yet, Jesus raises him up as the one who, “went home justified before God, ” (verse 14). And why?  Verse 13 says, “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

The tax collector was broken and he was humble.  Isaiah 57:15 says, “For this is what the high and lofty One says — he who lives forever, whose name is holy: I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”  The lesson is: Be careful not to place your stock in your outward religious behavior.  If you will instead stay humble before God and you will confess your sin, you can approach the throne of God with confidence. Why? 1 john 1:9-2:2 says, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make God out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives…But if anybody does sin we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Whole people

I read a story, recounted by pastor and theologian Bruce Larson, about an immigrant shopkeeper whose son came to see him one day complaining, “Dad, I don’t understand how you run this store. You keep your accounts payable in a cigar box. Your accounts receivable are on a spindle. All your cash is in the register. You never know what your profits are.” “Son, let me tell you something,” answered his father. “When I arrived in this land all I owned was the pants I was wearing. Now your sister is an art teacher. Your brother is a doctor. You are a CPA. Your mother and I own a house and a car and this little store. Add that all up and subtract the pants and there is your profit.”  Accounting principles aside, this is a man who lives with a sense of gratitude.

In Luke 17, the story of the ten lepers, one man returns to thank Jesus for healing him. In the account, Jesus instructed all ten to go show themselves to the priest. Remember from Leviticus that the Law required that a priest confirm that the leper was clean before they could re-enter the community.  No one went to the priest unless they believed themselves to be clean so as Jesus sends them to see the priest, he is asking them to respond in faith.  He doesn’t touch them. He doesn’t say, “Be healed.” He tells them to act as though they were already healed. As they responded in faith and did what he told them to do, they were healed.  However, only one of them came back praising God with gratitude.

Jesus says to the man, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?  Then he said to the man, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” Ten were healed, but only one was made well.  The difference? Gratitude.  The point?  The nine were worse off physically healed with ungrateful hearts than they had been as lepers… Leprosy is worse than ingratitude. Jesus is saying to us, “Without gratitude in your life, you are not whole people.”

Be Shrewd

The parable of the shrewd manager is one of the more difficult parables to understand. It almost appears that Jesus is commending dishonesty. But that is not the message of the parable. He’s actually speaking about operating wisely in this world by bringing honor to God through our wealth, thereby storing up for ourselves true riches.

The steward who was in charge of managing the master’s affairs was accused of wasting his goods (likely he was embezzling.) The master called him to give an accounting of his stewardship because he was going to be fired. The manager realized he was in trouble and because he knew he wouldn’t be able to do manual labor once fired, and because he was too proud to beg, set out to protect and provide for himself. He did this by calling in his master’s creditors and reducing their bills.  This brought honor to both himself and the master in the sight of the community.

In commenting on the story, Jesus said that the people of this world are wiser than the people of the light. His intention is that we realize that we are called to live wisely in this perishing world for the sake of the eternal Kingdom. The fact is, our time here on earth is limited; we are going to die. Many of us are making absolutely no provision for the eternal future. Some of us, who are well off here on earth, are going to be paupers in heaven. How so? Suppose you spend fifty years of your life as a Christian (saved by faith in Christ), and yet you continue to live life squandering your riches on yourself and doing very little for the kingdom of heaven. You will then spend your eternity destitute. (However, be assured that the poorest person in the kingdom of heaven is far better off than the richest man in hell.)

Jesus is telling his disciples (and us as well!), that we are the stewards to whom God has entrusted his goods. We are responsible to use them wisely. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, He has entrusted you with His goods; everything you have comes from Him, and you are responsible for how you spend His money. God will one day call on you to give an accounting. If you are wise, you will take the opportunity that you have now to set yourself up for eternity. How?  By bringing honor to the God by using his wealth for his glory (the growth of the kingdom of heaven).

Math and Murmuring

And so we begin the book of Numbers. You could call it the book of math and murmuring, or as Eugene Peterson describes it in his introduction to the book, its a book of, “counting and quarreling.” Numbers describes the wilderness wanderings of the people of God from Sinai to Canaan, the land of promise. There are a lot of failures in this book — which means it describes people as they are (rebellious and in need of redemption) and not in some romanticized, make-believe version. Likewise, there are a lot of lists in the book! But rather than get bogged down in the details (especially in Chaps 1 and 2), see the big picture: God is numbering and arranging the tribes because he is a God of relationship. He knows every one of his people by name (see here in the census a type of the book of life/scroll of destiny in which is written the name of every  person who belongs to God). Jesus would go further to say that not only are we known by God, but we are known by him so intimately that the very hairs of are heads are numbered.  Likewise, God is a God of order.  God is not haphazard and he knows that chaos is not beneficial to us as people (though our sinful natures often tend in that direction). He knows that individuals and especially communities need structure to thrive. He knows math is a good thing (Math friends, stand tall!). He knows that order and administration bring peace (Listmakers rejoice!).

Remember, as the tribes are being lined up in their camps, they are being arranged around him. He is the center of it all.  He is the source. He is the one that was to be the heart of this community. He dwelt in the center of the camp in the tabernacle and he arranged the people by tribes around him. The Levites camped directly around the court and Moses and Aaron and the priests guarded the entrance whereby God was approached.  Each of the remaining tribes were arranged from there. If you pay attention to the details (math friends and list-makers perk up!), you’ll notice the shape of the camp looked remarkably similar to the cross. Take heart; everything is type and a picture for us to learn from!

More Rest

Leviticus 25 continues the theme of Sabbath — the Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee. The Sabbath Year and the Jubilee provided Israel with the hope of a future and extended rest and also the release from debts. God arranged it so that there was always hope… though a person might have to labor for many years they would eventually have relief.

The Sabbath Year shared the same basic principles as the Sabbath day. But in this case, the 7th year was a year-long rest for the land itself.  In having to cease working the land every 7th year, the Israelites had to trust the Lord’s provision for them and this meant letting go of control of the outcome of their work and lives. It acknowledged that God was sovereign and that He owned the land, that the people were His stewards, and that He provided abundantly for his people. Ultimately, it required the people to trust and obey God’s care for them. While we as Christians do not keep a Sabbath Year, we are called to live according to the principles taught here; namely that everything we have belongs to God and that he has given all that we have to us to steward for his purposes.

The Jubilee Year came after 49 years and it provided a new beginning.  It was an opportunity to start over for those who had failed and it called on those who had benefited from other’s failures to let go of what they had gained. Basically, it was an overhaul of the social and economic life of the people of God. The Jubilee provided freedom to those who were enslaved, oppressed and bound. It also restored all family property as well as allowing the land to rest.  As a type, Jubilee pointed to the future when all bonds will be broken and all debts will be cancelled. For Christians, there are two Jubilees. The first is present and is a jubilee of the heart wherein we are released from enslavement to sin because of the sacrifice of Christ. The second is in the future and is a jubilee of the Kingdom wherein all spiritual and physical things will be made new and whole.

REST!

Rest is more than important. It is necessary. Sabbath (‘to rest’)  is God-given and God-inspired and God-initiated and yet… we resist resting. The word sabbath actually means “to cease” and connotes stopping intentionally rather than resting because of exhaustion. Sabbath signifies a celebration of the completion of the work of creation.  Leviticus 23 begins with sabbath – the oldest of all the holy days and it forms the basis for all the feasts of Israel. Sabbath has it’s introduction in creation itself (Gen 2:1-3) and so to resist sabbath is to go against God’s intended design. Why do we resist sabbath?  Why do we resist rest? Because we are part of the fallen creation… at odds with the way God made us and at war with the way God intended for us to function. Ultimately, we resist rest because we resist intimacy with God.

For the Hebrews, Sabbath was the sign of the covenant made at Sinai (as well as the 4th Commandment) and so to keep the Sabbath holy (set apart for God as a day of rest and worship and fellowship with him) was to testify that they were in relationship with the God of creation. Sabbath pointed both backward and forward.  It pointed backward to the reality before the Fall when God rested because everything he had made was perfect and good. It also pointed to the pre-Fall reality that people rested in perfect and unbroken relationship with their Creator. Sabbath also pointed forward to the time in which Messiah would come through this people whom God had set apart as his special creation in order to restore God’s Sabbath rest to the earth (unbroken relationship with the Creator). Therefore, the Sabbath was symbolic of something greater than one day of resting each week. It anticipated a promised future rest wherein creation was reconciled to its Creator.

The beginning of the fulfillment of this promise came with Jesus the Messiah.  When he invited, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” (Matthew 11:28), he was offering the long-awaited rest that God promised. Jesus claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath and showed himself as such through the many miracles and signs he performed regularly on the Sabbath (much to the dismay of the Pharisees!). As Allen Ross states, “Jesus was offering more than just rest for the body, he was offering spiritual rest for the soul and cessation from doing works in an effort to earn salvation. By faith, we enter into the rest God provided in his Son Jesus Christ.” Through Christ we stop seeking to earn a place with God and enter into God’s Sabbath Rest — a relationship where we cease striving and simply live with God in unbroken fellowship with him.