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Doing what is right in your own eyes

By on April 1st, 2011

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George Carlin once observed a universal rule of the road: every driver slower than you is an idiot.  And every driver faster is a maniac.

You on the other hand…  You are the golden mean.  And you are, because you say you are.  And who would dare contradict.

We all naturally “do what is right in our own eyes.”

This saying is an important one in the book of Judges.  The first 16 chapters describe the 13 Judges who ruled Israel in between Joshua and Saul.  There’s a cycle: oppression from foreign rulers; prayer to God for a deliverer; the raising up of a Judge to rule; a generation or so of peace; and then falling back into sin and oppression.  The cycle is repeated again and again.

These little rulers – miniature portraits of Christ like Samson – gave a foretaste of the righteous rule of King Messiah.  But these little christs would sin and would die – they could not deliver.  Not finally.  And when they went, the society fell down into even deeper chaos.  Without such a judge above them, the people would judge themselves.  And their self-declared verdict was always “not guilty”.

In the final four chapters of the book we read of the results, and it’s not pretty.  Rank idolatry, warfare, adultery, brutal rape and murder.  Finally there is a near total genocide.   These chapters are like a kick in the stomach.  We are left reeling by this vision of christlessness.

And the phrase which bookends the whole sorry tale is this:

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.  (Judges 17:6; 21:25)

Here is humanity in its natural state: christless man, if you like.  And what is so chilling is that moral justification, so readily self-bestowed, is married to utter wickedness.  It’s not just breaking the speed-limit that they deem “right in their own eyes.”  It’s rape, murder and genocide.

Yet who can deny that the very worst atrocities of history have not only been committed but justified by their perpetrators.  It turns out that sin does not make us more likely to confess our badness, but less.  To sin is to love the darkness and therefore to be even less prepared to “come clean” in the light.  Sin and self-righteousness go hand in hand.

This is well portrayed in the film, The Talented Mr Ripley.  Unbeknownst to his friend, Matt Damon’s character has committed a terrible murder.  But he explains how a murderer can “make sense of it” as a “good person.”

“Whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense doesn’t it?  In your head.  You never meet anyone who thinks they’re a bad person,” said the murderer.

And it’s not just the monsters of history and the murderers is it?  I know in myself an incredible capacity for self-righteousness that’s not dampened by sin but actually enflamed!  Without turning to Christ, the more I do wrong the less likely I am to face my badness.  Instead I dwell in the basement and declare all I do “right in my own eyes.”

The solution?  We need a Judge above us to pass an objective verdict.  But the question is, how could that verdict ever be favourable, given what we’re like?

Well this Judge would have to take our well-deserved judgement rather than dispense it.  Rather than crush us, He’d have to be like Samson, crushed for our deliverance.  He’d have to shine His light in, without condemning.  He’d have to be a Judge that the guilty can befriend.  A Judge who justifies the wicked.

Then we can throw open the doors, come clean and confess to who we are.  And here’s the irony – when we come to Christ, acknowledging that we’re not right in our (or anyone’s) eyes, then we are justified by Christ.  To put it another way, we become right in His eyes.  The story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector gives a great worked example of this (Luke 18:9-14).

And so the world divides: there are those right in their own eyes, who are wrong in His.  But this is the miracle of the Judge who justifies: those wrong in their own eyes, become right in His.

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Samson

By on April 1st, 2011

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Ever since Adam, humanity has craved a good king to set the world to rights.  Adam was set over creation to rule but dragged it down to death and curse.  But from the beginning the Messiah was promised – in Greek it’s the word “Christ.”  It just means Spirit-filled King.  He would raise this world up to life and blessing.

And in Genesis a line of kings are promised to come from the tribe of Judah.  Each of these human rulers would be a throne-warmer for the Messiah:

“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”  (Genesis 49:10)

The sceptre would be passed from king to king to king, until the Messiah came.  Which meant every earthly king was a foretaste of the Messiah to come.  Either his goodness would inspire their hope, or his badness would make them desperate for the true Righteous Ruler.

Samson is a brilliant mixture of the good and the bad.  You can read his story in Judges chapter 13-16.

On the bad side, Samson is a firebrand who wants what he wants when he wants it.  He quickly flies off into rages with foreign men.  At the same time he’s brought low by more than one foreign woman (the most famous being Delilah).  No man could mess with Samson.  But he was easily undone by the pretty ladies.  Though the LORD uses his life for good, his choices appear impetuous in the extreme.

On the good side, Samson’s name means Sunshine.  And the Messiah’s reign is meant to be like sunshine, chasing away the darkness (2 Samuel 23:4; Isaiah 9:2; Luke 1:78-79).

From the earliest time Samson is filled with the Spirit (Judges 13:25).  And Messiah means “Spirit-filled King.”

Samson is famous for his strength but of course that strength is not a natural endowment.  It is power from on high.  And those around Samson are constantly puzzled by it.  They repeatedly ask Delilah:

Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth  (Judges 16:5)

Of course such puzzlement would never arise if he were a barrel-chested gym-junkie.  No, pictures of Samson which depict muscles on his muscles don’t get at the Scriptural truth.  Samson’s power is Spirit-dependent, God-ordained power. Just as Jesus claimed to do nothing by Himself, so Samson gives us a picture of the true strength that comes not from the flesh but from the Father and by the Spirit.

Samson has a kind of wisdom too.  He is a teller of riddles which no-one can explain but he alone (Judges 14:12-20).  In this way he is a forerunner to wise king Solomon whose unanswerable wisdom was itself a picture of Christ’s.

His determination to win a bride at all costs – though pursued foolishly – is also a picture of Christ, who goes to every length to win His bride, the church.

And Samson was a ruler who saved his people and defeated God’s enemies.  Ultimately he brought victory through his own death.

Samson’s demise was a kind of tragic victory (Judges 16).  His beloved, Delilah, turns traitor.  His wisdom is defeated.  His strength is turned to weaknesss.  The lights go out for this man called “Sunshine” as his eyes are put out by the enemy (Judges 16:21).  And he is bound and taken away to the pit.  There he becomes an object of scorn – as they mock him and “make sport” of this once mighty man (Judges 16:25).

Yet in this tragedy comes the victory.  One day they bring out Samson from his prison cell to humiliate him in the midst of a great banquet:

28And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. 29And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. 30And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.  (Judges 16:28-30)

We may choose to read Samson’s story as a whirlwind of passion and pride.  Perhaps we read it as an historical text, informing us of an ancient barbarism.  We might see it as a morality tale, perhaps cautioning against shady ladies… or haircuts.  But we won’t understand this story, and we won’t understand the bible, unless we see it as a testimony to Christ.

He is our Spirit-filled Ruler, Sunshine in our darkness, Strength in dependence, Wisdom beyond compare and Lover of His bride.  Yet, just as with Samson, the greatest accomplishment of this King of Kings was His death.  It was as He was mocked and despised, cast into darkness and death that He defeated His enemies.  He bowed Himself on that cross and submitted to an unimaginable crushing.  And He did it for us.

Let every king – good or bad, or good and bad – lead you to Jesus.

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Shibboleth

By on March 31st, 2011

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Yesterday we saw the way God had opened up for the people to cross the Jordan river.  In a Red-Sea-like miracle, the new Israel “passed over” with Joshua (meaning “Jesus”) at their head.  This event proclaimed the way sinners can enter God’s rest.  Only through His initiative, only through a Passover-like salvation, only with Jesus at our head.  But in this God-ordained way, sinners freely cross from wilderness to rest – from earth to heaven.

In our story for today we again see sinners attempting to cross the Jordan.  But when this crossing is patrolled by humans we see a very different policy of border control.

It all comes about in the book of Judges – the book following Joshua.  The people have entered the land, fought many battles, shrank back  from others, more or less settled down and then Joshua dies.  Following his leadership, Israel is ruled by “Judges”, and the book of Judges tells us of 13 of them.

One of them is called Jephthah from Gilead.  In Judges 12, men from the tribe of Ephraim pick a fight with Jephthah and the Gileadites.  That wasn’t smart.  The men of Gilead fight back ruthlessly and put many to the sword.  Crucially, they also control the escape routes back across the Jordan.  Fleeing Ephraimites would try to pass themselves off as locals, but the men of Gilead had a cunning test:

when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over…  the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand. (Judges 12:5-6)

We are shocked by the juxtaposition.  Such a simple test.  Such dire consequences.  Such immense blood-shed.  The river would have flown red with the blood of Ephraimites.  See here for more modern examples of “Shibboleths” being used to distinguish friend from foe.

But you can’t help but feel for the Ephraimites.  Put to the sword because of their accent.  They couldn’t say “sh” even if their life depended on it.  And they paid a terrible price.  What a very different policy for border crossing!

But when it’s humans who take charge of entrance requirements – to anything! – it will operate according to the “flesh”.  That is to say, we will look for human abilities and identities to qualify or justify ourselves.  The in-crowd will be distinguished from the out-crowd by something in them: Nationality, Race, Tribe, Family, Gender, Achievements, Money, Looks, Status, Brains, Braun, Something.  This being the case, the entrance requirements will simply have to be discriminatory.

And if this was God’s recruitment policy there’d have to be some kind of ism – whether racism, sexism, intellectualism, accentism, etc.

But what if safe passage was granted not on the basis of something in you.  What if we get safe passage on the basis of Someone Else?  Someone freely given to all?  What would that in-crowd look like?

Well the book of Revelation shows us the multi-national multitudes in heaven.  They have been saved by Jesus the Lamb and brought through to the promised rest:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;  And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.  (Revelation 7:9-10)

Or to put it another way: Jesus is the end of all Shibboleths.

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Jordan

By on March 29th, 2011

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The story is told of a wealthy man’s funeral at which “Guide me O thou great Jehovah” was the opening hymn.  It may have been a typo or it may have been requested as the deceased’s last laugh, but the final verse read as follows:

“When I tread the verge of Jordan
Bid my anxious fears subside
Death of death and hell’s destruction
Land my safe on Canaan’s side.”

What is it to “tread the verge of Jordan”?

In the song it’s about going from this life to the next.  That’s because in the bible it’s about passing from the time of trial (wilderness) to the time of promise (Canaan).

In the book of Joshua, the one whose name is “Jesus” (Joshua) leads the people across the Jordan and into the land of milk and honey.  To tread the verge of Jordan is to enter God’s rest.

When the Israelites do it in under Joshua it recalls the great Red Sea crossing.  Once again the waters are miraculously parted.  Through waters (which often symbolise judgement in the bible) the people are brought through and kept safe.  In fact many times in Joshua chapters 3 and 4 it is described as the Israelites “passing over”.

It’s an act of salvation to go from death to life with Jesus at their head.

But as the Old Testament unfolds we see a bad people ruining a good land.  They had been called God’s son – His pride and joy (Exodus 4:22).  But far from living the life of God’s son, they “rebelled and vexed God’s Holy Spirit” (Isaiah 63:10).  They earned His curses – just as Moses had predicted they would (Deuteronomy 4:25-28).  But beyond the exile would come the true salvation (Deuteronomy 4:29-31).

1500 years or so after Israel went through the Jordan, there was another gathering of Israelites on its banks. They had all come out to hear a wild and woolly preacher called John.

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.  Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,  And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.  (Matthew 3:1-6)

At this stage the Israelites are technically in the land – though under Roman oppression.  But John is telling them, “You need to pass over the Jordan again!  You’re not really in God’s promised rest.  Your sins still estrange you from His holy habitation.”  And so great multitudes come to John to be baptized, confessing their sins.

But John’s key role is not so much moral reform – he’s preparing the way for the LORD.  All of this is preparation for an earth-shattering (indeed heaven-shattering) event: the LORD shows up!

His name is Jesus (of course His name would be Jesus/Joshua).  Wonder of wonders, this promised LORD shows up at the sinners convention.  And if that wasn’t stunning enough He numbers Himself with the rest of the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12) and He cuts to the head of the queue.

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.  (Matthew 3:13)

Jesus will be baptized!  How incredible that the LORD of Glory would identify with sinners like this.  But Jesus is baptized into our kind of life.  He sums up our humanity and takes our place.  When Jesus “passes over” into God’s rest He will do so at our head, as our Representative.

Where we have failed to live the life of God’s son – the Son of God lives it for us.  And where we deserve the guilty verdict… just listen to the verdict Jesus gets as He comes through the waters of the Jordan:

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:  And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  (Matthew 3:16-17)

We don’t deserve to come through the waters of the Jordan.  Those waters ought to close over our heads in judgement.  We don’t deserve to come through the closed door of heaven either.  Neither our safe nor ourselves deserve to land “on Canaan’s side.”   But Jesus is the true Son of God, full of the Spirit, beloved of the Father.  Heaven is open to Him.  And He has identified with us, taking up our plight and passing over on our behalf.  If we identify with Him then He is at our head.  Therefore His life, His Spirit, His Father’s verdict, His heaven are all ours.

So then, as death draws near – as it does to us all – we can take comfort in this: the Son of God joined us in our predicament.  And He came through the waters for us.

When I tread the verge of Jordan
Bid my anxious fears subside!

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Our hearts did melt

By on March 29th, 2011

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Think of “heart melting” today and you think of something from a pop-tastic love song.  But just as “going weak at the knees” can denote love or fear so it is with this phrase.

Here’s the context.  The Israelites are about to go in and take possession of the land.  Once again they send out spies– this time two of them.  Given that last time there were two good spies – Joshua and Caleb – we have high hopes for this expedition.  As it turns out, they’re not exactly a special forces crack unit.  As soon as they get to Jericho they head for the brothel!  (Read about it here).

But the LORD turns things to good.  As it happens, the prostitute, Rahab, has heard of the Israelites and the God of the Israelites.  In fact all the Canaanites have.  This is what she says:

I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. 10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. 11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.  12 Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token: 13 And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.  (Joshua 2:9-13)

The Canaanites could not claim ignorance of the true God and His people.  He had proved Himself unmistakeably to the whole world.  And any of these foreigners who ever approached the Israelites for terms of peace met with a favourable response (e.g. Joshua 9).  Rahab and her household were no exception.

She is given a “true token” by which the invading Israelites would know to spare her.  It was a “scarlet thread” which was to hang from her window.

In Egypt, judgement passed over the Israelites when the LORD saw the red of the lamb’s blood painted on the door-frames.  So here in Jericho, the Israelites would pass over Rahab’s house when they saw the red of the scarlet thread.  Rahab was being taught just what it takes to be spared judgement.  There needs to be the death of the Lamb to avert destruction.  And Rahab not only learns this truth, she becomes a part of this story.

Having been adopted into the LORD’s people (because adoption always comes with salvation) Rahab becomes an ancestor of the true Lamb that takes away the sin of the world (Matthew 1:5)!  Rahab’s story is not simply one of “shady lady” come good.  She goes from an object of wrath, to a saved soul, to adoption into the covenant people, to royalty in the family of King Messiah!  This is the story of any who turn to the LORD Jesus and trust in His blood: salvation, adoption and enthronement!

All the Canaanites’ hearts melted with fear.  But very few of them turned to seek terms of peace.  Rahab did and found grace upon grace.  May our hearts not simply melt with fear but with a trusting devotion to Christ the Lamb.

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I've been to the mountaintop

By on March 28th, 2011

Speaking of Moses going up Mount Pisgah…

Fifty years ago, this biblical allusion was used in the most dramatic way imaginable:

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Kiss of death

By on March 28th, 2011

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We can’t credit the Authorized Version with this one.  But it is from the bible.

And it goes back a lot further than people think.  Its origins don’t lie with Mafia bosses, nor even with Judas but with Moses.  Here’s how it happened…

Moses has finished the last of his Deuteronomy sermons to the Israelites.  Now it’s time for him to die.  You see, at a key point in the life of Israel, he “had not believed” in the LORD (Numbers 20:8-12).  Therefore, like the rest of his faithless generation, he had to perish in the wilderness.  Mr Law would fall short of the promised rest because of unbelief.  It would be Joshua (whose name means “Jesus”) who would bring them in.

But even though his death in the wilderness is a sign of the law’s inability to save, Moses himself is very dear to the LORD.  Moses himself is saved even if he symbolizes faithless perishing.

We’re left in no doubt about the LORD’s love for Moses when we read the details of his death in Deuteronomy 34.  Before he dies, the LORD allows him to see the promised land from the top of Mount Pisgah.  Just as the law pictures the Good Life but can’t produce it, so Moses can see the Good Land but can’t enter it.

And once he has surveyed the land of milk and honey, he dies “according to the word of the LORD.”  (Deuteronomy 34:5)  That’s the King James translation.  Here’s a more literal translation: Moses died “by the mouth of the LORD.”  It’s this that the ancient Rabbis picked up on.  They claimed that the LORD gave him a “kiss of death.”

Therefore kisses bookend the writings of Moses.  His five books are called the ‘Pentateuch’ or the ‘Torah’, meaning ‘Law’.  They begin with the kiss of life (Genesis 2:7).  But they end with the kiss of death.

If you have to die, it’s a nice way to go.  It’s the best death imaginable.  But still, it’s death.  It’s still a terrible tragedy that those created to share in the life of God, should perish in the wilderness.  But this is where the Law takes you – Pisgah but not Canaan.  It might get you a kiss of death, but it’s still death!

Where’s the hope here?

Well back in Deuteronomy 18 there was a promise of a Prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-20).  He would accomplish what the law never could.

And now, at the end of Deuteronomy, we see the demise of Moses.  So who will this Prophet be?

Could it be Joshua?  Well Deuteronomy 34:9 reminds us of Spirit-filled Joshua.  But even though Joshua would picture the work of the Messiah, he was not the One.  You see the Law ends with this assessment:

there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face (v10)

So clearly Joshua wasn’t it.  He was not the promised Prophet, the Accomplisher of the Law, the Bringer of Rest.  The Messiah was still to come.  And the people were still to look for Him.

When He finally came in the flesh, He retraced the steps of Moses in many ways.  And He too perished away from His community.  He too went up a mountain to die.  But it wasn’t a kiss for Jesus.  He would taste the full bitterness of death.  Curses were promised for our disobedience to the law.  And Jesus took the curses.  He drank down the cup of God’s wrath to its dregs. There was no face to face fellowship for Jesus as He called out to a black and silent heaven, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

If Moses’ death was the best way to go.  His LORD’s death was the worst.

But through it, we gain a face-to-face that is beyond death, and beyond imagining.  He took the death.  We get the kiss.

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The apple of his eye

By on March 26th, 2011

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It’s one of those sayings that trip off the tongue.  It’s said by a doting father to his son; a protective husband to his wife; perhaps even a musician to their favourite instrument: “You’re the apple of my eye.”  We know that it means “my beloved”.  But for most of us, we’re not really sure why it means that.  And what exactly the “apple” of the eye is!

The phrase occurs a number of times in the King James Bible and in fact it was a phrase that was already used in English translations prior to 1611.

It translates a Hebrew phrase that would mean more literally “little man of the eye.”  You could possibly also translate it “dark spot of the eye”.  And there you understand that it refers to the pupil.

In Old English the pupil was called the apple of the eye as far back as the 9th century.  So between this Old English idiom and the Old Testament phrase we get “apple of the eye.”

Whatever you treat as the apple of your eye is something about which you are massively protective.  Our own eye sockets, eye lids and eyebrows surround this extremely sensitive part of us.  To lose an eye is not only incredibly disabling, but horribly shaming also (e.g. Judges 16:21; 2 Kings 25:7).  We protect our eyes at all costs.

So what does God treat as the apple of His eye?

“For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.  He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.  As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:  So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.  He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.”   (Deuteronomy 32:9-13)

[O LORD] Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings  (Psalm 17:8)

He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye.  (Zechariah 2:8)

God’s people are jealously loved, protected and honoured.  We are the apple of His eye!

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Man does not live by bread only

By on March 26th, 2011

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At the end of the 40 years of wilderness wandering the people come to the brink of the promised land.  This is the setting for the book of Deuteronomy.  Moses will not be going with the people into the land of milk and honey.  He is the leader of the old Israel and the bringer of law.  He will fall short of God’s “holy habitation.”  It will be Joshua (whose name means Jesus) who will bring a new Israel to the promised rest.

But before he dies, Moses will preach to the people.  And the book of Deuteronomy consists of his sermons.  He tells the new generation where they have come from and what God has called them to.

In this famous passage we get a wonderful insight into the reasons for the wilderness years.  As we’ve discussed before, we are in that same position spiritually.  We too have been saved out of slavery and await entrance to the promised rest.  We too are in a wilderness time.  So what is the LORD doing?  As Moses looks back on Israel’s experience, he will tell us the reasons behind it:

And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.  And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)

Let’s consider the verbs here.

Led – We must remember that the LORD is still guiding His people.  Though He judged them for their unbelief, He did not abandon them.  Even under the LORD’s chastening the people still had His presence.

Humbled – this verb is repeated in verse 2 and 3.

It’s not pleasant to be humbled.  It’s a word that can sometimes be translated “afflicted.”  It’s sometimes associated with bruising, with violation, with oppression, with bringing calamity upon someone.  And here the bible says that the LORD leads us through the wilderness to humble us! Why?

Proved – the LORD wants to know “what’s in their hearts”.  As we saw yesterday, He wants a heart-to-heart with us.  And a wilderness is a place where our hearts are revealed.  Of course, what comes out is not very nice.  But, as they say, ‘Better out than in.’

Suffered to hunger – here is a fearful truth.  The LORD suffers His people to hunger.  This is what wilderness times are for.  We naturally crave certain satisfactions.  We demand to be full of certain joys.  We refuse to feel empty.  But we have a LORD who causes us to hunger.  Who sometimes starves us – even of necessities!  Bread is a necessity.  But our LORD sometimes starves us.  Why?  The final two verbs provide the answer:

Fed – the LORD’s ultimate will is not to famish but to feed.  He only starves us in order to provide us with something even better.  In this case it’s manna – bread not baked with human hands; the bread of angels!  This bread finds its fulfilment in Jesus – the true Bread of life.

To make thee know – this discipleship programme is to teach God’s people.  But it’s a deep knowledge – the kind of knowledge you only get in a howling wilderness.  The people are to know that there’s a more basic necessity than bread for the starving.  We need the LORD more than we need food.

In the wilderness, humbled and hungry, every word from the mouth of the LORD becomes precious.  Because we don’t have anything else.  We’re not in Egypt anymore – we don’t have those securities.  Everything is now about dependence.  We depend on daily bread, daily water, daily guidance.  All we have is the LORD Jesus who is with us and His promise of the future.

And so every word from Him is precious.  His words assure us of His presence and love and promise us a better hope.  We eat those words like the starving eat bread.

And so Moses concludes this section:

Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee. (Deuteronomy 8:5)

In our wilderness time we must realize that God is treating us as a loving Father.  He has not abandoned us.  The wilderness is not the sign He doesn’t love us.  It’s the sign He does love us.  And its the opportunity to discover just how precious His Son, the living Bread, really is.

Meditate on these verbs today, and consider how they apply to your own wilderness time:

You are…

Led…

Humbled…

Proved…

Suffered to hunger…

Fed…

and

Made to know the true Bread…

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Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart

By on March 24th, 2011

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“Feelings are feelings, they’re neither right nor wrong, it’s what you do with them that counts.”

How often have you heard this kind of sentiment?  (And interestingly, it is a sentiment!).

You’re probably as likely to hear it in church as anywhere else these days.  Even Christians will say we should only put acts of the will into moral categories.  According to this philosophy, all matters of the heart are ethically neutral.

But that’s not what we see in the bible.  In fact throughout the bible we see all sorts of expectations for our emotional life.  We’re meant to feel contentment  (Exodus 20:17), heart-felt love (1 Peter 1:22), peace (Colossians 3:15), zeal (Romans 12:11); sorrow and joy (Romans 12:12; Philippians 4:4), desire (1 Peter 2:2), gratitude (Ephesians 5:19,20), to name just a few.

And right at the heart of the Old Testament we have the shema.  It’s quoted by Jesus as the greatest commandment.  And it puts a bomb under our cultural stoicism:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

There is a logic to the verse: Because of God’s oneness we are to love.  As we discussed when we thought about “one flesh” – the way God is one is analagous to the way husband and wife are “one.”  They are united in love.  And as this verse says, “the LORD, our God, the LORD” is one.  God is one because God is love.  And God is love because God is trinity.

Therefore “thou shalt love.”  That’s the logic.  To know God is to become godly.  And to be godly is to love.

The first and greatest commandment (as Jesus called it) is directed emphatically at our affections.  We ought to be lovers of God, with our heart, soul and might.

The heart speaks of our innermost being.  It’s about what we treasure.  (Matthew 6:21)

The “soul” is the same word in Hebrew as “throat”.  It’s about what we thirst for.

Our “might” is our “muchness”.  It’s about our whole person given over to God.

The LORD does not want will-driven stoics but warm-hearted lovers.  This is the very essence of the Good Life which God has for us.

Of course commandments can never make us love God.  Yet this is a description of the Good Life.  And it’s not about grim-faced determinations to do right.  It’s about love – heart-felt, thirsty, mighty love!

The law can’t whip up these feelings and neither can we.  It’s only when we see His love for us that our hearts will be won (1 John 4:19).  But this is what the LORD’s salvation births in us.  Not a life in which our feelings are neutral.  The Christian life is an affair of the heart.