14 March 2012

14 March 2012


Imagine our observance of the law making us the envy of our neighbors.


"'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'"


If we follow his ways we will not only "live, and ... enter in and take possession of the land" but we will have something different about us which makes other people also want to draw near to the LORD.  I think I'm not the only one who doesn't usually relate to the law in this way.  I am not often counting my knowledge of the law as a blessing at all.  But it is.


"He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them."


And the reason I discount such a great gift is that I allow my relationship with the LORD to become impersonal.  This is what Moses warns against:

"However, take care and be earnestly on your guard
not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,
nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,
but teach them to your children and to your children's children."

If we remember that God is not distant and that he cares about and intervenes in the specifics of our lives we will be able to trust his laws are a blessing.  We will remember that they have been for us in the past.  We will know that they aren't just abstract but are designed to bring joy to the specific circumstances in our lives.  The LORD uses the law to make room for himself in us.

"Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place."

We think that nothing which is so generally applicable as the law could apply to us personally but it does.  The same is true of God's word.  Without Jesus all of this can be obscured.  Without the human face of God's love made manifest it is a little easier to doubt that the law is personal.  Without gazing into the eyes of the eternal made flesh it seems burdensome and abstract.  Without the grace Jesus brings to "fulfill the law" being manifest in us we remain trapped in sin.  The law definitely seems still more burdensome then when we can't fulfill it.  But even then it is not truly a burden.  It is personal and teaches us of our need for him and prepares us for his grace.

Since we have the law and Jesus who fulfills it let us not complain or be sluggish in obedience.  Instead let us rejoice!

"Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you."

13 March 2012

13 March 2012


"[H]e found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
'Pay back what you owe.'"

This man was unwilling to live at the mercy and generosity of another.  He had to be self-sufficient.  He was desperate not to be indebted to his master.  He didn't just demand the smaller amount he was owed.  He resorted to violence to get it, not realizing that it would never be enough to pay his master back.  Even when his fellow servant begged him for mercy in words which should have been familiar he was unsympathetic.  He hurt his fellow servant and took away his freedom all for the pretense of owing nothing to anyone.  

We owe the LORD more than any analogy can convey.  We have to be watchful that we stay close to the LORD in a personal way.  If we do not then the mercy we have received will just seem like something we owe which we will have to try to earn.  Our relationship will have changed from one of family to one of transaction and business. This may lead us to hurtful desperation since we can never earn the mercy of God.  At the very least it presumes that we would have any standing to negotiate with the LORD (as if we were equals) but how could we?

An attitude of trying to square our debt to God can render our sacrifices ineffective.  They will just be trying to pay back what can never be repaid instead of being grateful for his mercy.  That is why we should ask him to receive us with "contrite heart and humble spirit".  That is why such a heart can mean more than "burnt offerings of rams and bullocks or thousands of fat lambs".

"He guides the humble to justice,
he teaches the humble his way."

Humility is the antidote to delusions of self-sufficiency.  We remember that we are creatures for whom every breath is a gift.  We ask the LORD to remember his mercies.  At the same time we resolve to walk in his ways and to follow the path he sets before us.  Even though we are stubborn and often try to go our own way we can be confident of his mercy.  We know that if he tells us to forgive 77 times it is because it is in his heart to forgive infinitely more.

"So let our sacrifice be in your presence today

as we follow you unreservedly;
for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame."

12 March 2012

12 March 2012


"Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place."

Not being from Israel are we off the hook?  They rejected him because they thought they knew him.  They had certain expectations which he didn't meet.  They thought that he had no right to impose his expectations on them because they had been near each other for so long before that.  How could it be that one of their own  should be elevated in this way and not they themselves?  Maybe, they thought, if someone showed up suddenly out of the blue with might and glory they would listen.  More probably they wanted the exultation themselves so that they could be untroubled by the expectations of one who sees the heart in all its depths.  Naaman had a problem with expectations as well:

"I thought that he would surely come out and stand there

to invoke the LORD his God,
and would move his hand over the spot,
and thus cure the leprosy."

It is fortunate that Naaman was humble enough to listen to the voice of his servants who convinced him to heed the prophet.  He wasn't from the prophets native place but his expectations almost got the best of him anyway.  His humility was the crack in the armor of his set expectations that let the LORD shine his light into his life.

 "Send forth your light and your fidelity; they shall lead me on"

We have the blessing of having more appropriate expectations of Jesus.  Yet we face the danger that our expectations are probably far more fixed.  We must be on guard to be humble so that we can take the LORD at his word.  If we do then we too can be made once more like little children.  Our expectations can lead us to a prideful anger when our problems aren't solved in our way.  If we can only forget these expectations and discern our true longing.  We want the LORD as the hind wants running waters.  We want the cleansing waters of the Jordan.  We want the power of baptism unleashed in our lives.  We want to know what Naaman came to know from his heart.

"Now I know that there is no God in all the earth,
except in Israel."

11 March 2012

11 March 2012


"The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple."

His word is simple but we are complicated.  Christ himself is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  We don't recognize him day to day because he is a stumbling block and foolishness to us because we are complicated.  We are complicated in that we want more than the perfect gift God gives us.  We want more than it is helpful for us to have.  We want signs to tickle our senses and distract us from the simple invitation the LORD offers.  We want wisdom that doesn't penetrate.  We want wisdom that gives solutions to abstract puzzles rather than solutions to sin.

He will tell us that the temples of our lives must be destroyed so that they can be remade in him.  If we can come to trust that he "has the words of everlasting life"  we can come to know him as "the power of God and the wisdom of God" which rebuilds us from the dust and sustains us with he himself as the cornerstone.   We can learn that his ordinances are true and see them so clearly that they will enlighten our eyes.  Normally our eyes need to be enlightened to see clearly but with him it is the opposite.  His command is so clear that it enlightens our eyes to see everything else clearly.

Only this can prepare us for the radical cleansing that our lives need.  He dwells in us.  Zeal for his house, for us, will consume him in us and he will drive out sinfulness from our hearts.  When he tells us that the centrality of the old temple must give way to him being central we will finally be ready to hear it.  We will come to believe the words that he has spoken which are "more precious than gold; sweeter also than syrup or honey from the comb."

10 March 2012

10 March 2012

"This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."


Thank goodness that he does.  He has given us such a great inheritance.  Haven't we squandered it?  We certainly want our Father's wealth.  We want all the treasures and blessings he offers.  We want this without letting him act as our Father.  We want this without living our whole lives in his presence.  We can't bear to have him watch, knowing that he sees every selfish use of what he gives us.  But even though we've freely spent everything he has given us and find ourselves in the famine of pride all is not lost.


"He will not always chide, nor does he keep his wrath forever."

He will again show his wonders "[a]s in the days when you came from the land of Egypt".  We will again be moved to the wonder and awe befitting our Father.  He is kind and merciful, and treads our guilt underfoot.  

This can be so if we just return to him.  Even as we begin to accuse ourselves before him he will run to embrace us. He will tell the angels:  

"Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been found.'"

And if we are the elder son, watching the younger come home, let us not be jealous.  Let us be grateful to a Father so generous.  All of his blessings have been ours all along even if we have begun to take them for granted.  Let us celebrate as more and more of our brothers are welcomed back to his house and let us see his blessings anew through their eyes.

9 March 2012

9 March 2012


"Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons"


Hearing that, we are already jealous on behalf of Israel's other sons.  It isn't fair, we think.  Though we may be repulsed by the actions this leads Joseph's brother to carry out it nevertheless causes the same initial impulse in us.  They didn't realize that his blessing was meant to be a blessing to them all.  That's why his father sent him to them.

"Your brothers, you know, are tending our flocks at Shechem.
Get ready; I will send you to them."

We must guard our hearts against jealousy.  The Father in heaven sent his beloved son to us just as the landowner in the parable did:


"Finally, he sent his son to them,
thinking, 'They will respect my son.'"

But in our jealousy, we desire his power and benefits without his lordship.  We want the fruits and we reject the sacrifice.  In a sense, we say with the tenants "[c]ome, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance."  Why do we think that we can do better with the fruit than he will?  We horde it.  We want more than we need and others go hungry.


If we remember the marvels the LORD has done we will not mistakenly reject his cornerstone.  We will see that his desire is for our good.  We will see that he blesses others to make them blessings.  We will see his word proven true.  His fruits will be superabundant for all who are hungry.  If we remember the marvels he has done in the past  it will be the greatest marvel of all in our eyes to see Jesus, the cornerstone, exulted above all things.


"The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes"

8 March 2012

8 March 2012


"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD."

It is easy to say that our hope is in the LORD.  It is one thing to say it and another to mean it.  One who truly hopes in the LORD also "delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night."  He delights in it because he trusts the LORD.  Even when a rational assessment of the law might make it seem burdensome he knows to trust the LORD like a father who knows best.  It isn't simply a matter of acceptance.  He seeks out and desires his Father's wisdom, knowing the benefits therein.

"He is like a tree planted beside the waters

that stretches out its roots to the stream:
It fears not the heat when it comes,
its leaves stay green;
In the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit."

How the seasons of life affect us.  We are tossed and turned by every wave of life.  We can see in our lack of stability that our trust isn't fully in him.  But rather than be discouraged why don't we let this call us back to him.  Let us seek the blessings of those who hope in the LORD.

"He is like a tree

planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers."

We hear that when we trust in him whatever we do will prosper and we just dismiss it because it is so foreign to us.  It seems like it is too good to be true.  Nevertheless, in him it can be so. Lazarus seemed to have failed but "now he is comforted here" with Abraham.  Likewise success that isn't in God quickly passes away "like chaff which the wind drives away".  

Let us listen to Moses and the prophets so that when we die we too may be carried aloft by angels and comforted with our forefathers.  Let us come before the LORD with open hearts so we don't miss the gift of the LORD's resurrection from the dead.