27 July 2010
Psalm 61, 62; Judges 2:1-5,11-23; Rom. 16:17-27; Matt. 27:32-44

The book of Joshua closes with the statement that in the lives of those elders who outlived Joshua the people kept covenant with the Lord. The book of Judges begins in chapter 1 with details of the further conquest of the land and the reality that some failed to complete the conquest. In this chapter, the proper opening of the story of the time of the Judges, we find the people have not kept covenant and that they are now following after the Baals. Because of their unfaithfulness the Lord has given them over to their enemies to plunder them. The story of the Judges seems to be that of following leaders. When a good judge was in place, a godly person, the nation was one nation under God but when there was no identifiable leader or when the judge was not a godly person, they would lapse into national apostasy. The people of God have always needed an individual, a representative of God to them and them to God. We have that in Jesus, the Word became flesh who dwelt among us and now has taken our humanity into heaven as our representative before the throne.

The crucifixion. All those present, the soldiers, the passers-by and those who came to watch the spectacle, even those being crucified with Him, hurl insults and taunts at Jesus, mocking Him and the claims He made. The reality is that He could have come down from that cross in anger and all would have been undone, it was love, for even these, which kept Him there on the cross in agony until the work was finished. Here we see the depth of God’s love for us and at the same time, the strength of a human will given over to God’s purpose, not allowing human desire to overcome the desire to please the Father, no matter the cost. It embarrasses me in the extreme to see how quickly I am willing to walk away rather than suffer pain on His behalf.

Lately there has been talk in some parts of the church that heresy is preferable to schism. Paul’s words here to the Romans absolutely give the lie to that idea. It is not simply dissensions that are condemned, it is dissensions caused by teaching in opposition to the Gospel that is condemned and Paul links that teaching with human appetite. Some things never change. Most of the teaching causing dissension in the church today is centered around the fulfillment of some human appetite or desire, just as it has always been. Nearly all heresy is rooted in human wish fulfillment, whether for special knowledge as in Gnosticism, the desire to see ourselves as greater than we are as in Pelagianism, or the sexual fulfillment of our own day that drives the church to condone what Scripture condemns. Where is it that our own desires overwhelm us?

Sing to God, sing praises to his name;
lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds
his name is the Lord—
be exultant before him.
Blessed be the Lord,
who daily bears us up;
God is our salvation.