22 April 2010
Psalm 37:1-18; Exod. 20:1-21; Col. 1:24-2:7; Matt. 4:1-11

All that the Lord commands we will do. That was what the people said in the previous chapter. Now they find out what the covenant requirements are, beginning with absolute loyalty to one God, the one who delivered them from the gods of Egypt. Surrounded by polytheism (belief in many gods), these people were to be submitted to one God in radical obedience and trust, however tempting it might be to hedge their bets when things weren’t going well in one realm of life. The forbidding of making of idols points back to Genesis 1 as it prohibits an idol made in the image of created things. Anything created is less than its creator and we, human beings, are the image of God, nothing else in creation, we are not to worship other humans but are to be reminded as CS Lewis said that there is no such thing as a mere mortal, we are image bearers. The Sabbath is to remind us of Genesis 1 and that on the 7th day God rested and we with Him on our first full day of being. The rest of the commandments are intended to re-enforce the idea of loving the neighbor who was created in the image of God, thus Jesus’ summary of the law to love God and love your neighbor.

After His baptism Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to fast and in that weakened (or strengthened) state, to face temptation by satan. How did He meet each temptation? “It is written” begins every response Jesus gives, even when satan quotes Scripture in the second temptation. There is an important principle here, in order to understand and withstand temptation we need to know the Word of God. We need to know the difference between temptation to sin and following boldly. It sounds right to say that Jesus could throw Himself off the pinnacle and God had promised to protect Him from harm, but Jesus understands the full counsel of Scripture to know how to respond. The other thing to remember here is what Adam and Eve forgot, to whose voice are we responding, the call of the Father or someone else’s. The first couple forgot that the most important word was God’s prior word.

Paul has just said he is a servant of the Gospel and now he says he is the servant of the church but only for one purpose, “to make the word of God fully known.” He is revealing the mystery of the Word as it has been revealed in Jesus. The work of the pastor/priest is the same as Paul’s, to make the word of God fully known. From the start, the apostles knew this and knew that there would be a temptation to many other things and therefore resolved to devote themselves to the Word and raised up others to take care of other things. We have to insist that our pastors and teachers be devoted to the preaching and teaching of the Word so that all can grow into maturity. I never want to have to say to the Lord I am sorry that I didn’t teach my people well enough that they were led astray.

I will trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
I will delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give me the desires of my heart.

I will commit my way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth my righteousness as the light,
and my justice as the noonday.