March 1, 2010

Exodus 11-12
There was one last god to slay. It was the god of self-worship. The firstborn male of every household would die. There was only one remedy. Only if a perfect and innocent lamb was slain, and his blood applied to the door of the house, only then would the firstborn be saved. When the blood was applied, the death angel would see it and pass over the household. The Lord had more than this one incident in mind. He was broadcasting for every generation for the next 1,450 years what He was planning to do for the human race. He would supply the Lamb whose death would be accepted for all who would come “under” the blood of the Lamb. We, who had made our own lives gods instead of submitting to the true God, would have opportunity to receive pardon and life! What a picture! What grace! What Glory!
For 3,450 years Jewish people have celebrated Passover. I know of no other ritual that has endured for so long. Why has it endured? It has endured because it speaks of the glory of God in how He has and He will deliver His people from their sin. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

Mark 7:24-37
Something in me likes tunnels. On the way through the Smokies on I-40, there are a couple of tunnels. It is amazing to me to think, "Wow, I am inside a mountain. Somebody dug all this rock out so that people like me could drive through the inside of this mountain." Why I like it, I don't know. I mean, there is nothing to see in a tunnel, just walls and lights. There is just something cool about driving through the inside of a mountain or driving under the bay on I-95 in Baltimore. There is just something cool about driving in a tunnel knowing that you are far underneath the ground and that this is the closest way to get from one point to another. But there is nothing to see in the tunnel, just car lanes, round walls and lights. It is where we get the term tunnel vision.
The people around Jesus suffered from tunnel vision. Their tunnel vision caused them to exclude the Gentiles. Jesus designed an excursion to show them their tunnel vision. He purposefully entered the region of Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile region. He was approached by a Gentile woman who pleaded with Him to deliver her daughter. He almost seemed cruel toward her. He ignored her at first and then, when she persisted, He implied that her daughter was a little dog. What kind of glory is that? It is not glory when you have tunnel vision. But our Lord does not have tunnel vision! He sees the big picture. However, His first coming had specific objectives in mind that He saw and His disciples did not. With those objectives fulfilled, He could redeem mankind. Oh the disciples thought they saw them, but they did not. This action was for His disciples. He sought to break them out of their tunnel vision. Matthew's version tells us that the disciples were annoyed by her. But Jesus wasn't annoyed.
After delivering this woman's daughter, He left the region. It is again reminiscent of the Gadarean demoniac. He traveled all this way in order to reach just one person, a non-Jew at that. Jesus had told her (as recorded in Matthew), "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." That was one of the objectives of the first coming. But the disciples were tunnel visioned. They only saw the people of Israel. Even after the resurrection, it took a persecution to drive them out of the country. And then it took the dramatic vision of Peter and the conversion of Paul to reach out of the Jewish communities outside of the country. His apparent rudeness was for dramatic effect--upon the disciples. It was to break the curved walls and lanes of their tunnel vision.
The woman persisted. She even permitted herself to be compared to a little dog under the family table to receive crumbs that accidentally fall off of the table. You see healing is for the family of God. The disciples tunnel vision was that only the descendants of Abraham could be part of the family. Yes Jesus was sent to the lost house of Israel. But ultimately the big picture was for people of all ethnic groups to eventually sit at the table of the Family of God. He gave her the children's bread. He healed her daughter. She became part of the family. Jesus was breaking the disciple's tunnel vision.
He left the northwest in the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon and went back south east to the Gentile region of the Decapolis. Do you remember the Gadarean demoniac? This is the region. Jesus had left the former demoniac behind to tell what great things the Lord had done for him. The former demoniac did his job. The multitudes came. Jesus is ministering to Gentiles!!! The tunnel is collapsing. Thank God, for I am a Gentile by physical birth but grafted into the family of God spiritually! When we finally gather around the throne of Glory, there will be people from every tribe and tongue and nation there worshipping Him, the King of glory. The variety of people found in that multitude will be rich indeed. We won't be limited to our little way of doing things. His glory will be enriched by the variety of ethnic groups present at the throne. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John