February 7, Reading Notes

Today’s comments will be short and sweet, well, short. Being on the road like this is catching up with me…

Exodus 26-27

Notice how much detail and “art” God is putting into the Tabernacle. This would be a major project for the people. They would give all of the jewels and precious metals and their best craftsmen. The skins had to be cured, cut, dyed and sewn. These are the people who built the cities for the Egyptians, so I’ll bet they had skills.

My bent is not to go overboard when building buildings for churches, but the people who criticize churches for doing a good job and making the inside and outside look nice, have never spent time reading how God designed His “tent of the meeting.”

The Tabernacle would prepare Israel for its national identity. In addition to only worshipping Yahweh, they would only worship Him in one place, not all over, under every tree and on every high place, as Israel will do later in idolatry.

By the way, you’re in for a surprise in your “Tabernacle Construction” reading in a couple of days.

Matthew 25:1-30

Yesterday I mentioned that I thought the “unfaithful” servant could be a believer. I do, but to be fair to the text and to a normal interpretation, “the weeping and gnashing of teeth” club would put him into the unbelieving category. My problem is that I think we play too much with grace. Yes, we are loved and totally accepted and don’t have to do anything to be absolutely accepted and welcomed into the arms of God, yet God wants us to work in the harvest with the passion of our Savior.

One of the points of Calvinism is the perseverance of the saints, that is, that they will remain faithful and confessing to the end. I wonder if this perseverance is only quietly, privately, invisibly “confessional” or has it also something to do with the Spirit in us being able to allow that love and grace we’ve received in Christ, to keep us active and burning and passionate in doing what we were told to do.

The first parable has to do with readiness for the return of Christ. What I’ve appreciated about the Plymouth Brethren is the healthy biblical emphasis they put on our expectant return of our Savior “for His own.” Hardly anyone today mentions regularly our expectant waiting, but Jesus taught it and it is all through Paul’s writing. The first Awana verse I memorized as a new Awana leader was Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

The five unprepared virgins don’t get in and their condemnation is similar to those religious persons we found in Matt. 7 who did mighty miracles in His name, but to whom Jesus said, “I never knew you.”

The parable of the talents is interesting because it is told in two different places, not only in Matt. and Luke, but the slight difference in the telling gives you the idea that Jesus used it in a different context. In Luke, Jesus tells it at Zacchaeus’ house, before He enters Jerusalem.

The point is the same, God expects us to invest the truth he has given us to gain interest or we would say, to bear fruit. Fruitlessness by hiding the truth is the only crime here.

This certainly applies, like the fig tree, to the unfruitful nation. They have the truth of God but did not bring Him the fruit of a believing nation nor of many nations coming to worship in Jerusalem.

The other application that we can apply to us, is that the life of Christ in us is to bear fruit. John 15:8 is important. One sows, another reaps, all work together, but to slide through without trying is not living in accordance to the love and grace we have been shown.

So, if the unbeliever is in view, he goes to eternal punishment. If the believer is in view, his life’s work is burned away and he stands in shame before the one who endured the scourging and spitting of men and the wrath of His Father to bear our sin and give us His righteousness and life. Heb. 12:1-13

Psalm 31:1-8

So, if Jesus’ final words on the cross are from this Psalm, imagine reading it from His perspective as He is nailed to, and hanging from, and taking His final breath on the cross.

Proverbs 8:1-11

When I read this every year, I wonder if my striving to follow and understand and gain wisdom and hear the Spirit is increasing. I know it is, but if I would have known how much grief it would have saved me, and how much more enjoyable it is to follow after God like this now, I would have made a bigger point of it back when I was 20. Passion is great, but it can get you into a lot of trouble without the wisdom the Spirit gives. The trouble is, even with the Word sitting in your lap and the Spirit living in your heart, you have to want to dig and hear and submit.

If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.” 

I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.

The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.

I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.

Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.