February 28, 2013

Exodus 11:1-12:20

            On the one hand, it seems so vicious.  Yet on the other hand, God Himself describes it as “displaying His wonders.”  I mean, really, the killing of probably thousands, or tens of thousands or perhaps even hundreds of thousands of Egyptian-first-born males sounds vicious.  Could not the Almighty do it some other way?  Why did he choose this act?  Maybe He chose this act for several reasons such as the Egyptian god being judged, the meaning and value of physical death versus spiritual death, and God’s own sacrifice to meet our need.

            On previous days we saw that God killed the Egyptian gods with the judgment of each plague. There was one last god to slay.  It was the god of self-worship. In the Egyptian pantheon of gods, Pharaoh was considered to be a god.  As the head of the country, he was deified as the hope of all the people to obtain eternal life.  Thus we have the elaborate burials to assist the dead Pharaoh in his journey in the afterlife.  Normally the succeeding Pharaoh was the firstborn male. The first born male was the one of preeminence. In a sense the elevation of Pharaoh to the status of god was by extension a form of self-worship. It is a message that rings through all eternity that there is one thing God will not tolerate.  It is the worship of ourselves over Him.  It shouts at us through the judgment of the death of the firstborn!  Everytime that I elevate myself above God, I should remember this plague and beware!

            Another reason that he chose this act is that from His perspective our physical death is not as nearly critical as spiritual/eternal death.  Many of those Egyptian first born were probably not at an age where they could understand the choice that God was asking of them, much less make a good moral choice.  They were under the age of what we might call the age of accountability.  If they were to continue to grow up in that culture, they would probably be confirmed in the pagan worship of the Egyptian Pantheon.  They would never trust in Yahweh.  They would eventually die in their spiritual death.  Their spiritual death would then become permanent.  For those children, their physical death before reaching the age of accountability would be a literal blessing.  Sure, their physical life would be cut short, but they would spend eternity with the living God.

            Finally, the Almighty chose this symbol because it represents His own sacrifice on our behalf that we might be rescued from eternal death.  He planned the symbol before He created the world, Paul says in 1 Cor. 2:7, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,” and, in 2 Tim 1:9, “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”  Before time began He determined that God the Son, the firstborn, would become flesh and die in our place. His holiness demands the death of sin.  His mercy demands that He die in our place. Now, that is a wonder!

            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 wonder!  What Glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King.  Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john

February 27

Exodus 10

            Up to this point Pharaoh has hardened his own heart at times.  But now the Lord is going to harden it for him in order to produce acts that will reveal to people for all times that He is Lord.  The Lord has three more gods to slay.  Three more judgment events were coming in order to display that He is truly the only God.  The Egyptians trusted in the goddess Isis to protect them from Locusts.  Every 17 years there is a locust plague in the area anyway.  It was to Isis that they cried out for protection.  The locusts came anyway.  In this instance it was more severe than they had ever known.  They ate all green vegetation.  And when Pharaoh asked for relief, God sent a strong wind that blew them all into the Red Sea.

            Once again after the relief came the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.  This time the Lord slew the Egyptian sun gods.  They had a number of sun gods which they worshipped.  Among them were Re, Khepri, Harakhte, Attum, etc. This definitely displayed the greatness of the Lord over their gods.  The darkness was so strong that they could feel it.  But again the Lord made a distinction.  In the houses of the children of Israel, there was light.

            Have we experienced the Lord yet?  Is His glory increasing?  What gods is He slaying in my life?  What gods is He slaying in the lives of those around me?  Is my heart soft enough so that I will recognize His glory?  Is yours?  Indeed we serve a glorious King.  Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john

February 7

Genesis 40 In 2007 shortly before I left for Senegal, I had a very brief vision. It was rather cartoonish in nature, but it was clearly the Lord speaking to me on the approach to a significant time of ministry. In the vision, the Lord simply asked me with a smile, “So, you wanna be a door keeper? I have often pondered the meaning of it and whether it was just for that trip or for my life as a whole. To this day I am not completely sure what it meant. It is the pleasure of God to speak to the one who will listen and obey. Two things are clear from Scripture: 1) God speaks to people in dreams and visions. Examples? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Pharaoh, Moses, Balaam, almost every one of the OT prophets Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Cyrus. In the New Testament there were Zacharias, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, Peter, John, Phillip the evangelist, the leaders at Antioch, Paul. 2) Those to whom He spoke in dreams and visions seem to be people whom He could trust to be obedient, or who were at a crossroads in history in which He would use them as significant players, whether or not they were obedient to Him. 3) The number of people with who it is recorded that He spoke that way are a significantly small number of people in relation the general population. Joseph’s dad, Grandpa, and Great Grandpa had all been communicated with by the Lord through dreams. When Joseph had his dreams as a teenager and shared them with his family, his father’s argument was not that God does not do such things, but whether Joseph had really interpreted it correctly. Maybe that was why Joseph said, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.” Maybe He was thinking of his father’s response to his early dreams. Maybe he himself was beginning to wonder if those dreams would ever come true. After all at this point, Joseph has been in slavery and/or prison for 11 years. Yet he obviously still believed; otherwise, he would not have insisted that they tell him their dreams. God was with Joseph, and I think Joseph knew and believed it. Do you suppose that Joseph thought that somehow the dream of his fellow prisoners might somehow be related to the interpretation of his own dream which had been rejected by his father and his own experience to this point? Yet he still had the audacity to say, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.” God cannot lie, and Joseph knew it. God gave him the interpretations. Those interpretations led to the fulfillment of his own dreams. Do you suppose that God really wants me to be a doorkeeper? Is there really any sense in which He will use me to unlock or lock doors of spiritual regions for the Gospel of our Lord Jesus? If He does, then it will only be glory for Him. After 57 years of life, I am convinced of one thing: If I accomplish any thing of significance, then it will not be because of me, but solely because of His mighty power. It will be only for His glory and none of mine. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john

January 30

Genesis 31 Here is that phrase again, “I will be with you.” It is associated with one simple condition, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family.” Jacob is certain that if he tries to depart openly then Laban will strip him of all that he has. So he takes an opportune time while Laban is away elsewhere shearing sheep, and he leaves with all of his possessions. Laban is infuriated when he finds out. He catches up with Jacob, but God is with Jacob and appears to Laban at night in a dream warning him not to do anything to Jacob. God is indeed with Jacob. However, Laban is concerned about one thing that seems to him to have no bearing on God’s warning. He wants his household idols back. Apparently Rachel had stolen them without Jacob’s knowledge. Why would she do such a thing? They had plenty of wealth in terms of flocks and herds. She apparently is divided in her heart toward the true God, or perhaps she wishes to reveal to others, who worshipped the idols, the impotence of gods to protect themselves against those who would steal their own images away. Or perhaps she had some emotional attachment to them. Whatever the case, what mercy our Lord has upon Jacob and his family as he flees his father-in-law. God is indeed with him as He has been since he first left Isaac and met Him at Bethel. Jacob has continued to be conniving. His wives have likewise been wrestling for dominance. This is just one large dysfunctional family. Yet God is with Him. Wow! What mercy He shows us even today! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john

January 27

Genesis 28 I tend to be grumpy on occasion, just ask my wife. When my kids started having kids, they asked me, “What do you want your grandchildren to call you?” I told them, “Grumps.” For some reason or other Caedie in particular has attached herself to me. They were with us this weekend. Caedie wasn’t feeling too great. Often she would call out, “Gumps! Gumps!,” (she can’t pronounce the ‘gr’ yet) or, “Gumps, help!” Often times she just wanted to be held. She just wanted to know that I was with her. There is something about knowing that you are not alone that really helps, especially when you are sick or in new situation, or in a situation that challenges you. I am not sure exactly how old Jacob was when he set out for Padan Aram, but consider this: He was 130 years old in Gen. 47:9. Assuming that this occurred shortly after Jacob moved into Egypt, Joseph was roughly 39 years old at this point. That would mean that Jacob was roughly 91 when Joseph was born. Jacob was in Padan Aram 20 years. Joseph was born toward the end of that time. It would appear that Jacob was around 71 when he left home for Padan Aram. Depending upon how one interprets the description of how long Jacob worked for Laban, the youngest that Jacob could be when he left home is 57, most likely he was 71. Not exactly a spring chicken in either case! Hmm. . . So, here we have a single 71-year-old Jacob, who has just embarked on a mission to obtain a wife with whom he may produce heirs to the Abrahamic Covenant. He is leaving because his brother is mad enough with him that he is contemplating killing him, but the official reason is to find a wife suitable for the covenant. Yet in the midst of this horrible conflict with his brother, a conflict caused by his own conniving, being on his own for the first time at the age of 57 or 77, God meets him in a dream. There God promises him, “I will be with you!” I am sure that was welcome assurance. What mercy on the part of the Lord! Jacob in no way deserved such comfort. Yet, God extended it. This same phrase is used to describe Joseph’s lot when he was made a slave and in jail, “God was with Him.” That promise alone should be enough. Often, it is not enough. For this reason the writer of Hebrews tells us, “Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” The God, who created the universe, is with me. That should be enough! But, like Caedie, sometimes I cry out to him, “Help!” Sometimes I just want Him to be there. Sometimes, I need some specific help, but it is to His glory that He is always there. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor John

January 24

Genesis 25 My oldest brother and I had a pretty good relationship, even though he was nine years older than me and out of the home after my ninth birthday. Absent from our culture is the passing of a family birthright from generation to generation through the oldest son. Hence, we often fail to get the significance of the struggle in this passage. Stan and I never struggled with a birthright, or even inheritance from our parents. Stan went to be with the Lord three months before my father died. Mom is still with us. Stan had no children to whom he could pass an inheritance, so there was no opportunity for any competition there. So what is a family birthright, and why is it that Jacob would want to take it from Esau? Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines a birthright as: A right, privilege, or possession to which a person, especially the firstborn son, was entitled by birth in Bible times. In Israel, as in the rest of the ancient world, the firstborn son enjoyed a favored position. His birthright included a double portion of his father’s assets upon his death (Deut. 21:17). Part of the firstborn’s benefits also were a special blessing from the father (Gen. 27:27) and the privilege of leadership of the family (Gen. 43:33). Abraham was 160 and Isaac 60 when Jacob and Esau were born. Jacob and Esau were 15 when Abraham died. I am convinced that whenever Jacob and Esau were with Grandpa that he told them about the occasions when God had appeared to him and the covenant which God had made with him. Surely, one of the ways Moses knew of this story was the oral or written transmission of it through the intervening 400-500 years. The clear implication of the birthright was that it is not only a double portion of financial wealth but that it is also an inheriting of the covenant which God made with Abraham. Clearly Esau and Jacob are adults in this passage, and Esau was a man of simple physical passions. He had never learned to value a future reward over a present desire even in the physical realm. The text specifically says that he ‘despised his birthright.’ Despised is a pretty strong word. He despised having a double portion of Abraham’s wealth? Certainly he felt the desire of a present need to be greater than future wealth. He despised receiving the privilege of leadership in the covenant which God made with Abraham? It would appear so. When an alcoholic cannot quit drinking because he craves the current effect of inebriation over the long term security of being able to properly do his job, it could be said that the alcoholic despises his job. When a porn addict craves the current thrill of his voyeurism over the effect which abstinence produces in his relationship with God or with his wife or future wife, then it could be said that he despises those relationships. My lust for any sin to the point that I do it, reveals that I despise to some degree my relationship with the Lord. Esau despised the privilege of the covenant and the double portion of future wealth. Does this mean that Jacob did not despise them? Well, he at least liked the double portion of future wealth enough to try to extort it from Esau. Because of his lying and deception, it would seem that the verdict on the spiritual aspect would not be so clear at this point. But why would Esau despise the spiritual aspect? Apparently he had never met the Lord. Apparently he was not impressed with what his grandfather had shared with him. Hmmm. . . We know that the covenant included that in his lineage that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. We know that that seed is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Esau despised that possibility. No wonder the Lord says, “Jacob I loved but Esau I hated.” Esau despised the glory of the Lord. Jacob eventually learned of the glory of the Lord. He experienced it many times when the Lord appeared to him. No, he did not become perfect. But he eventually chose to seek the glory of the Lord. Do I? Will you? Because of my own sin, I am not quick to condemn Esau, but I would say that he despised the glory of the Lord. How do I keep myself from falling into the same trap? Daily, moment by moment, I must come to the cross and realize that He came in my helpless estate. He shed His blood on my behalf. He rose on my behalf. He calls me to be united with Him, to claim my birthright in Him. He calls me to not trade it for a bowl of stew. The only competition I have is my shallow desire for the stews around me. I have to gaze on His glory to see how much He outshines stew. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john

January 1 & 2

January 1 Genesis 1 I love studying creation. I love science. Why? As was said by somebody smarter than I, "Studying science is thinking God's thoughts after Him." My wife once came across a Christian who was surprised that we taught science in our home school. The person's surprise was because she thought that one could not truly teach the Bible and still study science. What a ludicrous thought. Where do Christians get these ideas? It is the glory of Jesus that He is our Creator. It is the glory of Jesus that He has given us His word, the Bible. Jesus is always consistent with Himself, maybe not with our logic but always with Himself. The Bible is always true on whatever subject it speaks because it is God's word. God does not use lies to teach us His truth. The Bible, properly interpreted and understood, never conflicts with true science. If there is a conflict, it is either because we have not properly interpreted the Bible or we have not properly interpreted science. You see, it is the glory of Jesus to be consistent with Himself. It is always incumbent upon us to see the glory of Jesus by first properly interpreting the Scripture and then by properly interpreting science. So what happens when science and Scripture conflict? First we make sure that we have properly interpreted the Scripture. Having done that, we make sure we properly interpret science. The glory of Jesus is that His word concerning creation is always true. He was there when it was created. He knows how it was done. He can accurately describe how it was created. He can describe it in a manner that is appropriate for all people of all cultures of all times. We tend to think that what scientists say is without error and the Bible--well let's take it with a grain of salt. Actually, we ought to be thinking the Bible is without error and what scientists say--well let's take it with a grain of salt. If you hold what scientists say above what Jesus has said, you are obscuring His glory. Get out of the way and let God be God! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john January 2 Genesis 2 In Chapter 1 we read, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; . . . 27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Here we get a fuller explanation of how He created them in His image. Part of the image of God is seen in our rule over creation. Part of the image of God is reflected in our marriages. At this time no sin was in humanity. God called it very good. He makes sure that Adam knows that it is very good. He makes Adam name all the animals before He creates Eve. In so doing Adam profoundly realizes his aloneness. When God finally creates Eve and brings her to him, he is really excited, “This is now!” or as the New Living Translation puts it, “At last!” Adam needs this woman to be complete in reflecting the image of God! Did you ever stop to consider that not only you are to reflect the glory of God, but also your marriage is to reflect the glory of God? Hmm. . . What are the relationships like among the three persons who are one essence in what we call the trinity? What is the relationship like with the one with whom I am one flesh? Does it reflect the glory of the Godhead? It should! The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are completely in love with each other. Everything they do, they do out of love for each other. That is the way He wants my marriage to be, so that I may reflect His image. So if I truly understand the glory of God, it will improve how I treat my spouse. Why? It will improve it so that I may reflect His glory. Lord help! Let me love my wife like each person of the Godhead loves each other. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john