A friend of mine recently asked me, “Why is it that we seem to pick some portions of the law to say that we must obey it, while others we ignore?” That is a very good question. It has an answer that at times is simple and at times is complex. The simple answer is that Christ came to fulfill the law, not to destroy it. The simple answer is that the law came to reveal sin. The complexity of it is that at times different passages seem to be in contradiction of each other. Theologians have tried to explain the answer to my friend’s question for thousands of years. For example, part of today’s passage was used by some Southern pastors prior to the “War of Northern Aggression” as a defense of the institution of slavery. Yet the driving force behind the abolition movement of the north was the pastors who used the Scripture to argue that slavery was an immoral institution. Those two forces added to the heat that produced the Civil War. Did God desire the Civil War? I don’t think so. But His wrath is displayed in the terror it produced.
Part of the problem is that there were different kinds of law. There was ceremonial, moral, and civil law. There is casuistic law (giving case examples) and apodictic (you shall not . . .) law. When the Lord gave the law, He moved in and out of the different kinds of law without telling us, “Okay listen up! Now we are going to talk about ceremonial law,” nor did He say, “Now that we are done with the ceremonial law, let’s talk about civil law.” No, they are somewhat mixed together. In short the ceremonial law spoke of the ministry of Christ. He fulfilled those ceremonial laws in His death burial and resurrection. They are fulfilled in us as we trust and obey His finished work. What about civil law? The civil law was for Israel in the land. It was God’s way of teaching them how His people should live with each other. In a culture of extremism, Israel needed to learn how to moderate her justice as she developed into a new country. Since we are not the nation of Israel living in the land, we do not always follow the literal law. Rather we look for the principle behind the law and look for proper applications of that principle. What about moral law? It seems to me that moral law is binding for all times and cultures and we should observe that moral law. The difficulty is in determining which kind is each and how to fulfill it.
But where is the glory of God in all of this? His glory is seen in that He patiently stoops down to help us understand the depths of our depravity. In today’s passage we see that He communicates that we each have a responsibility to work. If we do not work or handle our finances properly, it leads to bondage. But bondage is not to be permanent! Even in bondage, He makes provision for our freedom! In this passage we see His protective desire for those who cannot protect themselves (the female servant). In this passage we see His demand that we respect and honor our parents. In this passage we see that justice is to be equal. Retribution is not to be greater than the crime. In this passage we see the demand for personal responsibility. Where is the glory of God in this? He is glorious because He wades into the muck of our sin and helps us sort it out. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
PSALM 69
One summer I worked briefly with two other guys trying to clear stumps from the stream bed in a swamp. The objective was to drain the swamp. Frequently we would be up to our necks and water while our feet would seek deep into the mire. It stank. The biting flies were horrid. We even got to the point where we would smear the stinking mire on our exposed skin. The flies wouldn’t bite where the mire was covering our skin. After a week of stinking labor, the boss called a halt to the project. The neighbor, of the land through which the stream would run to drain the swamp, objected to the project and threatened lawsuits. But we were at it long enough to experience what it was like to be in mire.
Sometimes I feel like I am in a mire now. “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me.” Lord, I have blown it with my wife. I have blown it with my children. I have blown it with the ministry in which you placed me. Should I even be a pastor? I am in mire up to my neck. I want to quit, but where shall I go?
“O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You. Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me; Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.”To whom shall I turn?
This Psalm just drips with prophecy of the Lord Jesus! David, writing 1000 years before Jesus, accurately sees in himself things that will belong to his descendant, his Lord. It is quoted no less than 4 times in the New Testament. Plus, there is a clear reference to it at least once and many other veiled references. Look at this!
Psalm 69:4--John 15:25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’When I am stuck in the mire, there is One who has been there before me, so that He could pull me out. There is One to whom I can turn. There is One upon whom I can call. He has been in the mire for me. He was there upon the cross. He drowned in the morass of my sin and foolishness. But that foolishness and sin, He removed. He came alive again leaving the sin and foolishness in the grave. When I die with Him, he raises me up. When I bring it to Him, He washes me clean. I don’t stink anymore, at least not to Him.
Psalm 69:8--Mark 3:21 But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”
Psalm 69:9--John 2:17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”
Psalm 69:9--Romans 15:3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”
Psalm 69:19--Hebrews 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Lord Jesus, I was stuck in the stench and foolishness of my own sin. I was dying in it. You took it upon Yourself. You died because of it. But You overcame it and rose from the dead! You have given me Your righteousness, Your cleansing! You have placed me on the solid ground of a river of living water instead of stinking, stagnant swamp water. Thank You! I love You because of this! I receive You as my King and my brother. I take Your Zeal for prayer as my own. I gladly identify with Your reproaches! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
JOB 39
I feel like I’ve just watched an episode of Wild Kingdom. Mountain goats, wild donkeys, wild oxen, ostriches, horses and hawks are all awesome creatures. I remember the regular opening scene of one nature show that always showed the two rams who ran together and butted heads. Who could ever withstand that kind of shock? It culturally probably paved the way for Dodge motor company to develop the slogan for Dodge trucks, “Ram tough.” I remember being told by grandpa to stay out of the pasture that a certain bull was in. I did not need to be told more than once. The bull was huge, and I had no desire to face him down. I wonder what a wild ox is like. I have not met any wild donkeys, other than a few democrats that I know. I remember taking Brice to the zoo when he was little. I had him on my back. I turned him to the fence to see the ostrich. The ostrich struck at Brice hitting the fence. I was glad the fence was there. There seemed to be a lot of force in its neck. It made me a little nervous in the game park in Senegal when the ostriches came right up to the truck. We were sitting in the open air in the back of the truck. The ostriches did not seem to have any fear of us. I remember going to the county fair as a child and walking through the barn where the draft horses were kept. Some were large enough that I could have walked underneath its girth. Their size and power overwhelmed me. I remember feeding my neighbor’s pet hawk while he was on vacation. I had to enter into the shed in which he kept it in order to change the water. The hawk jumped on to my leg and held on. It scared the life out of me. His talons were quite uncomfortable.
What does any of this have to do with the glory of God? He created each and every species. He thought through how to arrange the DNA so that they would become what they are. He thought through how to arrange their systems both biologically and ecologically so that they would act as they do. He even thought through how the sin of man would change their existence. He controls their unique characteristics. All we can do is study them and make TV shows out of them. Granted, we are learning more about genetics, but we will never be able to create life from the molecular level to the ecological level. It is too complex for us. But God did it by speaking it all into existence. Can we really question Him as we would a human? We can question, but we must always remember that He is God; we are not, and He will always be infinitely greater than we. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
MARK 12:1-27
How often do we make decisions or hold attitudes based upon tradition rather than the glory of God? Levirate marriage was an understood practice where the younger brother would marry the oldest brother's widow when she was childless. It was a practice that sought to ensure that the lineage of the firstborn son was sustained. While the practice had fallen into some discredit at the time of Jesus, the Sadducees sought to use it to insult the Pharisees, and to trick Jesus, and to catch Him in an inconsistency in His theology. Using a hypothetical situation of 7 brothers each in turn marrying the childless woman until they all died and no children were ever produced, they thought they had Jesus trapped. Now, the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection. They sought to use this whole argument as a means of ridicule of Jesus.
Jesus brought them up short by revealing the true problem rather than following the typical lines of debate that would have been followed between Sadducees and Pharisees. The brunt of His argument was, "You do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God!" The Sadducees had fallen into the trap of trying to explain the Scripture by the culture rather than explaining the culture by the Scripture. The whole underlying basis for Revelation itself is a living relationship between God and man. Jesus quotes Exodus 3:6,15, part of the Pentateuch, the only part of the Bible that the Sadducees considered to be God's word, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
Scripture is a real record of the power of God's working in the past in His relationships with real people. He worked uniquely with each individual. The power of God is such that He is not limited to always doing the same thing in the same way every time. Human culture establishes norms that say this is the way life works. He did it this way with Moses; therefore, He will do it this way with us. God says, "I am infinite, to what will you compare Me?" He operates on the principles of His own character, which is the same yesterday, today and forever, but the individual outworking of those principles is often different for individual people. He only called one man to make an ark. He only called one man to leave his home to a land that He would show him. He led only one man through slavery, prison to the height of power in Egypt. He only spoke to one man through a burning bush. We like to cling to methods because they are safe and familiar. He says, "Cling to Me." And He amazes us with His creativity! He often scares us because He is different in His method every time. But that is what makes Him so glorious. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
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