Tag: killing

Paradox of responsibility

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 12 – Launching the church

Paradox of responsibility

[Bible references: Jeremiah 3:1-9; 31:1-4; Zechariah 8:16; Ephesians 4; Philippians 2:1-18]

This then is our paradox; we are given the responsibility of correctly handling the Truth of God even when we cannot completely understand what that Truth is. For instance, how can we understand that there is one person, God, and yet have God revealed in three personalities:  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit? How can the God who exists outsides the confines of time and space, confine Himself to a particular space and time and come to be born and then to live and die as a normal human being? How can these things be?

As we look across the breadth of the history of the church, we see the church wrestling with these paradoxes and others. The result of that wrestling sometimes has gotten downright ugly with the church sometimes quite literally killing each other about it, not only with those outside the church but within it. In fact, if one were to look across the world at the state of Christianity, it might seem to one of the most fractious and divided groups ever.

How can it be that God would entrust this church with the task of bringing that His Truth to others and from one generation to the next, the church that has from time to time seemed to fail the apostle Paul’s challenge to be “one in the Spirit.”

Reflect

When children are not compliant as they grow up, do we just give up on them?

Observe

Read Zechariah 8:16; Ephesians 4; Philippians 2:1-18. What should the church look like as it handles its responsibility to presenting the truth of God to each other and to the world?

Law and Love

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 6– A nation emerges

Law and Love

[Bible references: Exodus 20:1-17; Leviticus 1-7; 19:18, 34; Deuteronomy 4:27-31; 6:1-6; Matthew 22:37-40; John 13:35; 1 Timothy 1:5]

The amount of killing carried out in the tabernacle to fulfill the necessary sacrifices would be a constant, grisly reminder of the cost of our sin. There were sacrifices to be made for many types of occasions: burnt (or ascension) offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings and others. There was much bloodletting from the many animals sacrificed on the altar, a constant reminder of the cost of our sins.

In addition to the rules of the tabernacle, God also gave other rules that covered other areas of life. Most of us are familiar with the moral code we know as the ten Commandments, but there were many other laws that covered other situations as well. Of the 603 other rules (mitzvot) that can be found,[1] they can all be summarized in the commands: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; Love your neighbor as yourself. Whether in the ten commandments or in the other 603 mitzvot, all the rules are predicated on love, thankfulness and pleasing one another. All the instructions point to practical ways for us to love God and one another.[2]

[1] Judaism 101, “List of the 613 Commandments” Judaism 101 www.jewfaq.org/613.htm

[2] Isaacs, Ronald H. “Rabbinic Reasons for the Mitzvot” myjewishlearning.com www.myjewishlearning.com/article/rabbinic-reasons-for-the-mitzvot/; Messianic Jewish Bible Society “Love and the Hebrew language” Messianic Jewish Bible Society free.messianicbible.com/feature/love-and-the-hebrew-language/; Levinson, John D. “The Shema and the Commandment to Love God in its ancient context” The Torah www.thetorah.com/article/the-shema-and-the-commandment-to-love-god-in-its-ancient-contexts

Reflect

If you had to live through the experience of seeing many animals slaughtered as sacrifices for the sake your sins and others’ sins, how would that affect your thinking?

Observe

Read Leviticus:19:18, 34; Deuteronomy 4:27-31. What practical things do these passages suggest about how to love?

Discipline, Miracles, and Death

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 6– A nation emerges

Discipline, Miracles, and Death

[Bible references: Genesis 15:13-14; Exodus 7-11; 12:31-36; 13:17-22; 16; 17:1-7; 20; 32; Numbers 13-14]

Miracles abounded.

There were the ten plagues that God brought upon the Egyptian captors to show the Pharaoh that Yahweh was not just a local God in Canaan but that His power extended over all creation, even in the land of the Egyptian gods. In the process, the Pharaoh’s own heart continued to harden against Yahweh to the point where God would seal the Pharaoh’s fate and further harden the Pharaoh’s heart. In the end, it took the killing of the firstborn of Egyptian families, including the family of the Pharaoh to convince the Pharaoh to let people of Israel go. And even more, the people of Egypt also supplied the people of Israel with great wealth as they left. Some Egyptians even joined the people of Israel in their flight.

Then there was the miracles of the pillars of cloud and fire, which would continue until the nation entered the Promised Land, and the miracle which let Israel cross the Red Sea on dry land followed by the drowning of the Egyptian army. The pattern of punishing a nation that was used to discipline the people of Israel would be repeated throughout Biblical history.[1]

Once on their way, the Israelites experienced more miracles: a mountain enshrouded in a cloud where Yahweh talked with Moses and gave Moses the Commandments and other rules; manna and quail falling from the sky; springs of water in the desert. Despite seeing all those miracles, Israel wasn’t ready to have Yahweh lead them into the Promised Land to face the obstacles there, so God had them encamp in the wilderness for 40 years until all the adults who refused to trust Yahweh died. So many deaths must have happened, but scripture barely mentions them. Here we will see, not for the last time, that seeing miracles not only did not change hearts but that, even now, despite all the evidence that we see, that all our hearts seem predisposed to turn away from God.

[1] Ex: Egypt (Genesis 15:13-14), Babylon (Isaiah 13, 21,23),  and Assyria (Isaiah 10, 14; Zephaniah 2) were all used by God to discipline Israel

Observe

Read Exodus 8-10. In the narrative of the 10 plagues, several times we are told that Pharaoh hardened his heart, but then there came a time when Yahweh reinforced that trajectory and Yahweh hardened the Pharaoh’s heart. What kind of warning might that be?