The festivals are instituted and the males are commanded to
appear before the Lord three specific times a year. It is part of the Sabbath requirement that
this happen. They will be expected to
set aside their work during those times and come to the Lord. He adds also that He will drive out their
enemies and during those times they will not covet the Land of the people, the
crops in the ground will be safe if they trust Him and obey His command to
appear. Did you catch the little command
regarding offerings of grain? "The best of the firstfruits of your ground
you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God." Genesis 4 says, "In the course of time
Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground…" No
mention is made of best of firstfruits. The
issue concerning what comes from the ground as opposed to what comes from
herding animals is that the working of the ground is cursed and therefore it is
easy to take the credit for what is produced, ascribing to God less than His
share of the credit. Moses' face was
shining when he came down the mountain, proof he had been with God, affirming
that what he told them wasn't his own opinion but the word of God.
Which is worse, committing adultery in the flesh or in the
heart? Clearly there is a difference and
largely because of how many people are involved. David, if he had lusted after Bathsheba but
not had sex with her, would still have sinned but the fruit of his fulfilled
desire led to murder of her husband to cover up David's action. We have to guard our eyes and our hearts. It isn't
necessary to tear out my eyes to keep me from viewing pornography, I can choose
not to do so. With respect to divorce,
Jesus says that if a man divorces a woman for any reason other than sexual
immorality he "forces" her to commit adultery. That doesn't mean you should divorce your
wife for sexual immorality, it has nothing to do with permission, only that if
she has been sexually immoral you haven't forced her to commit adultery, she
has done so of her own volition. How is
divorce forcing anyone to commit adultery?
In that culture women didn't make money so it would be necessary for her
to find a new husband and Jesus says then that she has committed adultery
because she is already married so far as God is concerned. A man wouldn't necessarily need to get married
again after divorce. So far as oaths are
concerned, the argument Jesus makes is lesser to greater but advises that we
simply tell the truth in matters rather than bothering with oaths.
Paul does something very few preachers do today. He tells them first, on the front end, that
there will be suffering and afflictions for choosing Jesus. Our Gospel in the west never says things like
that, we promise a life of ease and prosperity and when suffering comes there
is no theological room for it in our Gospel, the exact opposite from Jesus'
teaching, Paul's preaching, and the experience of most Christians in the
world. Paul was afraid that this reality
would destroy the nascent faith of the church in Thessalonica so sent Timothy
to follow-up and found, much to his delight, that their faith remained
strong. Paul's joy is restored that the
Gospel continues to abound and increase in their lives. Their enemies have not stolen it away. God's presence wasn't contingent on either
Paul's presence or circumstances.
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