APRIL 6
Deuteronomy
29-30
We are at the end of the sermon and almost at
the end of the books of Moses. These five books are some of the hardest for
people to read, but they are incredibly important to understanding the flow of
God's plan through the Bible and the fulfillment of His plan in Jesus. Even
though I'm living thousands of years since these were written, as I read
Deuteronomy my heart responds to God's love and promises. I feel what God wants
to do with these people. I understand the blessing of it because I've
experienced the spirit of this blessing in Christ. The difference is that I've
been set free from the bondage of sin. I also have the complete Word of God,
and I have the Spirit living in me to help me. Even then I struggle. These
people didn't have that advantage. But they did have some advantages. They saw
miracles daily. They were receiving the same Word. And we'll see today, that
they were saved by faith and told how to express it. Some of these men and
women will be standing with us in the kingdom. I'll want to ask them,
"What was it like?"
Deuteronomy 29
Vs. 1-9 This is a summary of the miracle of
their lives for 40 years. Every day was a miracle, not only in what happened
(the manna) but in what didn't happen (sickness and clothes and shoes wearing
out). But did they understand what was happening and what God was doing?
V. 4 This is a key verse. Even though God had
done amazing things for Israel, they didn't have a heart of understanding. The
blame is somehow on God. He didn't give it to them. It is not that God should
have taken away their free will and "made them understand," but that
God did not subject them to the full rigors of a program that would have led
them to real understanding. They learned a lot in the wilderness in 40 years,
but to lead them to real understanding would take thousands of years. Israel is
still in process. God will not magically induce sudden obedience and
understanding, but the weight of their history, their coming desperation, and
the way things will fall into place in the last days will create a sense of
seeking God that Israel has never possessed.
This is how God works with us too. He doesn't
put us in a spiritual trance and override our wills, but rather molds our
hearts and minds as we follow and as we suffer. Some of us actually get tired
of banging our heads on the wall and hurting ourselves and say, "You know,
I think I'm seeing that God does have a couple of good ideas."
V. 9 In the absence of understanding (taking
to heart) all that God had done for them, and understanding all God was doing
in the plan of redemption for mankind, they were told just to obey. I may not
understand the mechanics of how a circuit board works and I may not understand
all the implications of events, but I can obey, so that if the red light goes
on, I obey and push that button. That's what Israel was supposed to do.
Vs. 10-15 This entire sermon is for the
renewal of the covenant, but here the purpose is stated. The mention of the
promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not an historical reference. It is the
power behind what is happening there. This is the object of their faith. In a
few verses we'll see that this is really driven by faith.
Vs. 14-15 If you want to see an interesting
connection, look at vs. 5 and 6 in our psalm for today. Actually today’s entire
installment of Psalm 78 (4 in all) has to do with the history we are reading
about.
Vs. 16-29 Notice in vs. 18 and 19 there are
two bewares, addressed to two
different kinds of people, one religious, and one unreligious. Notice that
these two people become one person, referred to now by a singular pronoun. This
one person becomes responsible for vs. 22-29. The concept is that one person
can lead to the downfall of the entire nation if they do not beware and obey
the Lord.
V. 22 Notice how important the next
generation is. This is exactly what Asaph says, and laments, in the psalm.
Notice that God's truth will still be
acknowledged by the nations, even in Israel's ruin in vs. 24-28. The nations
will understand that Israel's downfall was caused by their lack of faith and
obedience.
Vs. 26-27 Notice that the evidence of their
disobedience will be idol worship. For our modern, western minds idol worship
seems utterly crazy, but we have just learned to hide and disguise our idols.
The therefore in v. 27 is important.
V. 29 seems to be saying, "Don't try to
figure out God. Just respond to what you know, what He has done, and obey
Him."
Deuteronomy 30
Vs. 1-10 What I find interesting here is that
God already knows they will fail. God will be using them to show all of mankind
the absolute power of sin without God's intervention. But God will honor Israel
for using them like this and He will fulfill all the promises. Not only that,
all of their history and God's working in all their generations will lead them
to understand. Look at v. 6. This hasn't happened yet, but in the Tribulation Israel
will finally submit its heart to God and become God's loving, testifying people
for the next 1007 years.
Do you notice recurring phrases? Notice how
often it says, the Lord (Yahweh) your God.
Vs. 11-14 To understand what Moses and God
are saying here, you need to read this in Romans 10:1-10. Salvation, then and
now, is by faith. Salvation for them, and for us, is a very simple deal. It
happens by believing God's promise and responding in love to Him. Our sin
complicates this, exponentially. It's a good thing God doesn't give up.
Vs. 15-20 This is the climatic end of the
message. Wow! Notice how often love is mentioned. I don't think you can find a
message from God more caring and loving. And to think, as this message was
given, there was a pillar of cloud over the tabernacle, and they had eaten
manna that morning.
What this all inspires in me is the
understanding that I need to live in absolute trust of God and His plan. There
is much I don't understand, but I know His love in Christ and how I've been saved
by grace from this tragedy of lost humanity. I need to cry out and not
complain, understanding that He meets my needs and hears my voice as I follow
Him in the harvest. I need to understand His love and His plan and even when I
don't understand, I need to follow and obey. He is loving, and Jesus did much
more than He will ever ask of me. What an easy life it would be if I really
understood all that and followed. The central point of all of this obedience
and following, even for us as disciples, is not perfection, but the love of
God. We acknowledge His great love and acts of kindness, and then we feebly try
to show our gratitude and love by following our Savior in the harvest to let
others know what He has done for us. Disciples are made, fruit is borne, the
Father is glorified and we are shown to be Jesus' disciples. And it's all out
of love.
Luke
11:37-12:7
Time wise, this is still the November before
Jesus' sacrifice for us.
Luke 11:37-54
Vs. 37-41 I find it interesting that Jesus
was willing to accept an invitation to a Pharisee's house, knowing what kind of
confrontation would arise.
So, why did Jesus react like this? It seems
that Jesus is starting the fight. Didn't He know how to blend with people? I
only say this because we put so much emphasis on meeting people halfway and
never saying anything that would offend anyone. These people were in a special
category, leaders of the people, and Jesus had tried to show them a lot of love
and patience, like in John 5.
I think Jesus' words here are a response to
the deadly influence of the leaders. In the first 36 verses of this chapter
Jesus was confronted by the people, not the leaders, regarding the origin of
His power and His failure to show a sign of His Messiah-ship. Where had the
people learned to explain away Jesus and the signs He did? The leaders had
taught them. They had given the people a lie to hinder them from entering the
kingdom of God, and it was working. Jesus now, understandably, has words for
the leaders.
Vs. 42-44 If you want to underline something,
look at the "woes." Actually, the Pharisees get off kind of easy.
Their main sin was hypocrisy. In light of all we've read in Leviticus, v. 44 is
interesting. A person became unclean before the Lord and unable to worship
before the Lord by walking on graves. Jesus is saying that even by accidental
contact with the Pharisees or their teaching, people became unable to come
before God. That was a huge charge against them, but remember that Jesus is God
the Son. Who better to utter this judgment?
Vs. 45-52 The reason this scribe butted in
was that, aside from their personal hypocrisy, the Pharisees were only
following what they, the scribes/lawyers, had laid out as an interpretation of
the law. This guy should have kept his mouth shut.
V. 46 The scribes were also hypocrites. They
thought the people were "sinners" and damaged goods. The scribes and
Pharisees were OK before God. But they had to make the laws harsh for the
"cattle," of which they were not a part.
Vs. 47-51 This was not just a
"bomb," it was a nuclear strike. Can you imagine hearing that all of
the sins of rebellion to God's Word of all previous generations would come upon
your generation because of YOU. That is what Jesus is telling them, Jesus the
Son of God, God the Son, the Son of Man. This judgment would come when the
temple would be destroyed, in 70 A.D. This is what Paul was referring to in 1
Corinthians 7:29.
V. 49 One interesting note here is that Jesus
says, “Therefore also the Wisdom of God
said…” There is a line of thinking that when it talks about the wisdom of
God creating in Proverbs 3:19 and 8:22ff, it is actually referring to Jesus. In
John 1:3, it says that Jesus was the creator in terms of design and command. Anyway,
it is interesting here that Jesus personifies the Wisdom of God in condemning the scribes. On Wednesday before He
dies, Jesus will pronounce these same woes on the scribes and Pharisees again
in Matthew 23, but when He gets to this pronouncement in v. 34, Jesus says, “Therefore I send you prophets and wise men…."
Pretty interesting, I think.
Luke 12:1-7
V. 1 So, how do you think these two
paragraphs are connected to what just happened? Oddly enough, this section
seems kind of reflected in the Proverb for today.
Vs. 2-3 What is the link between vs. 1 and 2?
It seems to be that the leaven of the Pharisees involved concealing the truth.
Jesus is also telling His disciples to avoid hypocrisy at all costs. God will
always actively bring truth to light, even among His own children. Many men in
ministry haven't taken this warning seriously.
Vs. 4-7 Jesus launches into another training
session for His disciples. Much of this has been said before in the Sermon on
the Mount, but that was 18 months ago. Now the disciples were entering a tunnel
with Jesus and they would emerge, figuratively speaking, in a stadium for a
contest to the death. They would now become, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:9,
like men sentenced to death…a spectacle
to the world, to angels and to men.
The reality was that the Pharisees would win,
temporarily. And in every generation of those working in the harvest, there are
times when the wicked win and the followers of Christ are like sheep for the
slaughter. God is in control of that too, for His good purpose.
Vs. 6-7 If you read this in the Sermon on the
Mount, you'll see the slight difference in the sparrows. It's interesting that
the references to the sparrows and
the hairs of your head (proving that
God can subtract, in my case) are meant to give us confidence to proclaim the
truth in the face of opposition. The song, "His Eye is on the
Sparrow," is a comforting song, and I'm sure it's ok to apply the sparrows to comfort in knowing God
always sees us and that He knows us intimately. Not trying to be pushy, but the
context of the sparrows here in Luke
is comfort in the crisis of trying to reach the lost with the truth of the
gospel in a dying, resistant world. It is easy for us to remove
"mission" and the "compelling love of Christ," and to see
the whole point of God's comfort and love only as it is directed toward us to
help us in our loneliness and need. I don't think that directing all of our
prayer and worship to our personal need makes God happy. Christianity can
easily become all about our needs and not about reaching a dying world. To get the
power of what Jesus is saying here, you have to be in the harvest with your
life on the line to reach the lost and make disciples.
As disciples, we will never be free of fear.
Not only are we tempted to focus on what others think about us, but we think
that our skill in the delivery of the truth is vital. We concentrate so much on
ourselves that we lose the compassion that compels us to follow Christ into the
harvest. In truth, we really fear people and persecution. I don't think we'll
ever get over it. Even Paul had to remind Timothy to be willing to suffer for
the gospel (2 Tim. 1:8, 2:3, 4:5) and Paul himself pleaded with the Ephesians
to pray for him that he would have courage to proclaim the message boldly (Eph.
6:19-20). But love casts out all fear, and guess whose love that would be.
Jesus' discipleship sermon continues tomorrow.
Psalm
78:1-31
This psalm will be spread over the next four
days. This song sounds a little like the sermon of Stephen that got him killed,
the punch line being, You stiff-necked
people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.
(Acts 7:51) But here the message is a little more positive with a
double-pronged agenda.
First: The psalmist is saying to Israel,
"Obey God. Don't rebel like Israel did when He did amazing things and led
them out of Egypt."
Second: He is saying to them, "Obey God
and submit to David (or the house thereof). God decided not to choose Ephraim,
but to choose Judah, and has done amazing things by delivering us and giving us
peace through the leadership of David."
I'm explaining all of this, only because it
will be easy to get lost in this psalm over the next few days and forget the
point of its message. And, since the point of the psalm is revealed at the end,
it would be helpful to know what's going on at the beginning.
It's hard to know when this was written, but
it might have been during the hand off of the kingdom from David to Solomon, or
it might have been written after the civil war with Absalom when there was a
danger that the northern 10 tribes would break away.
Vs. 1-4 Note vs. 2 and 3. Matthew quotes this
in Matthew 13:35, as one of the reasons Jesus used parables. At this point it
seems that God is saying that the history of Israel leading up to the throne of
David was a long determined plan of God. David was revealing some aspect of the
mystery of God's plan.
Vs. 5-8 Notice the references to teaching
children. These verses sound like Moses in Deuteronomy.
Vs. 9-16 The reference to the Ephraimites in
v. 9 will make sense when you get to vs. 67-72. Remember in Genesis that Jacob
gave the firstborn right to Ephraim over his other sons, but even in Jacob's
blessing of his sons, God moved him to give Judah preeminence. Later, in
Numbers, we see Judah being the largest tribe. Of all the men of fighting age
who went into Canaan to spy it out, only two men, one from Ephraim and one from
Judah, were faithful to God. When it came to God's decision, He chose Judah to
lead Israel, not Ephraim. David was chosen and God made a covenant with him and
the Christ was to come from the line of David.
Here, the psalmist is showing that Ephraim
didn't lead the people to obedience to God during the time in the wilderness.
But that is what David (a son of Judah) is doing now.
Vs. 17-31 You recognize this as the event
recorded in Numbers 11.
The rest of this psalm should be very
familiar to you. Notice the alternating of blessing and disobedience. God is
making a case for His steadfast love and amazing mercy.
For us as disciples, I would say the message
is, "Obey God, be amazed at what He has done and submit to what He is doing."
I've wasted too much time complaining about what God has done that I haven't
liked, to the point of, really, forgetting God and missing His love.
Proverbs
12:19-20
The moral of the story is "tell the
truth and plan for peace." Notice too that there is the thought of
longevity of life and influence in all of this. The more you think about these
verses, the deeper they lead your thoughts.
If you’re reading along
and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/every-day-in-the-word/. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these
comments to and for those who are following a One Year Bible and interested in
growing deeper as a disciple, following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see
the growth of a discipleship culture in the church. Groups of 3-4 disciples, meeting
weekly, encouraging each other to follow Christ and work to reach out and make
disciples who make disciples. The Bible itself is the most universal manual we
have and key to our growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us more focused
on why we are here or what we are to be doing. My comments are only meant to
provide some explanation of the events or to show the flow of God's plan of
redemption. My comments are in no way exhaustive, but are designed to keep us
focused on Christ and our role in His harvest. My hope is that the people in
these groups will grow in Christ and be willing, after a year, to find 3 others
to meet with and encourage in their growth as disciples, disciples making
disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a
complete description of this model of being and making disciples you can find
it in my book: Simply Disciples*Making Disciples.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WJIDQA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
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, I read something you don't, die revidierte
Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with
us is welcome to do so and is 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. Send comments or feedback to dgkachikis@gmail.com.
If you would like
documents containing an entire month of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes. You can download these to use on your computer or to
print.
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