10 January 2012

Psalm 5, 6; Gen. 3:1-24; Heb. 2:1-10; John 1:19-28

To whom was the commandment given regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  Was it as absolute as the woman here makes it, they aren’t allowed to touch it?  Adam heard the word and surely was responsible for passing it on to the woman and apparently his fear of this sin was great enough to add to the commandment.  The promise the serpent makes is that this knowledge is all that separates them from being like God.  Life, eternal life, is what separates us from God, not the knowledge of good and evil.  He is and always has been but there was a time when we were not, our life is conditional upon Him who created us.  The first thing the two seem to believe they know about good and evil is that it isn’t good to be naked so they remedy the situation with leaves, harmless enough.  God’s solution to the problem leaves them with no doubt sin is more serious than they presumed, some animal had to die and how horrible that must have been for them to know their transgression caused that death.  Was Eve deceived by the serpent?  Only in the sense that the fruit didn’t deliver what was promised, she wasn’t like God.  This sin caused separation from God they hid from Him, from one another, Adam blamed both God for giving the woman to him and the woman and they hid parts of themselves from one another, and from creation itself, enmity and difficulty in producing a harvest. 

John is a man who knows who he is and who he isn’t.  His primary confession is who he isn’t.  He isn’t the Christ, he isn’t Elijah and he isn’t the prophet from Deuteronomy.  The Pharisees who question him have been sent by another and they have to go back with an answer to who John is so they persist.  John’s answer to who he is certainly makes them sit up and wonder, “I am a voice…”  He is the fulfillment of the prophetic word that one will come before to announce the coming of Messiah and John is simply that voice.  He makes no extravagant claims, Jesus will do that on his behalf.  John understands his mission as preparing the way and his message and his baptism serve that purpose.  We have the same mission as John in our lives, are we as humble as John about it?  Do we seek a name for ourselves or are we content to be a voice?  After the sin in the garden, God no longer walked among them, in Jesus, He returned and will return again.  Intimacy is restored and even more with the indwelling of the Spirit. 

The writer brings in a Psalm that begins with an important consideration, “What is man?”  Further, the Psalm asks, “What is man that you are mindful of him?”  The Message phrases it, “What is man and woman that you bother with them; why take a second look their way?”  Those questions are important for us to know because the story of what happens to creation is completely explained by man’s actions. It is critical for us to see that we are the problem and that responsibility, the fact that God holds us responsible, tells us that we are a different order of creation from everything else.  We are held to a higher standard.  The only solution to the problem of man is for God to redeem us and save us from ourselves by taking on our likeness and living as man  was intended to live, walking with God and obedient to all His commands.  He experienced all that we do, including suffering and death, as a man, in order to save us from death into life.  The curse is being reversed!

Rise up, O men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up and make her great!

Tune

9 January 2012

Psalm 1, 2, 3; Gen. 2:4-25; Heb. 1:1-14; John 1:1-18

Verse four is important to understanding what is going on in Genesis 2.  If we miss that verse we come to a false conclusion, that for some reason God is giving us a second account of creation that differs from and is more detailed than Genesis 1.  Verse four tells us that the story that follows is the story of what happened to creation.  The formula, “These are the generations of…” occurs several times in Genesis after we are told about whatever comes after that phrase.  In order to tell that story requires additional detail be given.  We need to know here for example that we are not created ex nihilo, out of nothing, God took some of the stuff that He had already created and made us but, we alone of all creation received from Him the breath of life.  We also need to know about the two trees in the center of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  We were created to work and keep God’s garden, we always were to be productive.  We were given limitations on what we could do and what we could eat.  There was only one prohibition, eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  We are told why womankind was created, it was not good for man to be alone.  Adam had to agree with God on that important point so the animals were brought before him and then he saw the situation.  He knew good by experience and saw his own situation as “not good.” Good then was restored in the creation of the woman and Adam rejoiced, the first worship.  They were naked and unashamed, innocent.

John finds an extraordinary concept to explain Jesus’ pre-existence, the Word.  The Word of God is truly inseparable from God Himself, and the Word is powerful in that it was through speech, the Word spoken, that all things came into being.  Jesus is the creative force in the universe proceeding from God the Father and bringing first light to the world.  In Jesus, John says, the true light came into the world and yet we, those who are created in the image of God, did not recognize Him, did not receive Him, and did not either want or appreciate the light because we preferred darkness, the original state of the world before light overcame it.  We preferred to continue hiding from God in the mistaken belief that this was possible.  Darkness, however, has never overcome the light and He bids us come to His light in order that we might become more than creatures, to become children of God by believing in Jesus.  We can return to the original state of innocence in the midst of a fallen world.

We may have been created in God’s image but only of Jesus can it be said, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”  The exact imprint of His nature means that whatever God is, Jesus is, without fault.  Recall that when Moses met with God in the tent of meeting he would emerge with a “shining face” and that he would put a veil over his face that the people not see that this glory, the reflection of God, was fading as he spent time apart from God.  Jesus had perfect and constant communion with God the Father and the radiance wasn’t a reflection of God’s glory, it came from within Him, He shared in that glory, think of the Transfiguration for instance when it was fully revealed.  He bids us come that we might be restored to the glory He intended for mankind, that we might be truly human as He intended us to be.  We receive more than the breath of life, we receive the Spirit of the One who is life, He is the true tree of life and we are invited to partake of that tree, the prohibition has been rescinded.

Rise up, O men of God!
The kingdom tarries long.
Bring in the day of brotherhood
And end the night of wrong.

Tune

8 January 2012

Psalm 146, 147; Gen. 1:1-2:3; Eph. 1:3-14; John 1:29-34

Did creation exist before it came into being?  We tend to think of things as being when they are visible and tangible but they existed in the mind of God before they were created and if they existed “in” Him then can we say that all things existed when He thought of them?  He spoke and things happened, and they happened and came into being exactly as He intended, exactly as they had been conceived.  At no point did God say, “Huh?”  Each day as things come into being He says they are “good.”  Good means nothing more or less than, exactly as I intended.  At the end, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”  God rested at that point, in the sense that He did no work, and invited all creation to rest and take it all in before we were given work to do.  Appreciating all He has done is critical to working with Him.  We can’t be true lovers of God unless we take the time to sit with Him and love what He has created.  I know something of who God is by how He expressed Himself in creation.

John says, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.”  That sounds like some kind of Zen Buddhist koan unless you know what John knows.  How could one who comes after John be before him?  John recognized that the Messiah was created in the sense that God had foretold the Messiah through David and the prophets before He foretold the forerunner of Messiah.  Messiah was a concept older than the herald of Messiah so He pre-existed John.  Little did John know how right he was in the case of Jesus who always existed because He is one and the same with the One who told Moses that He is existence itself, I AM, the eternally existing.  Did John also understand the title, Lamb of God?  Could he have known this lamb was to be slain?

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.  Did God know us before the foundation of the world?  What does that say about us?  We have a great and high destiny and that we are incredibly important to God.  We have been given a great gift in Jesus in salvation and in the reception of the Holy Spirit we have been given the mind of Christ but we must cultivate that gift and use it rather than simply receiving and laying aside.  Paul says that in him we have wisdom and insight and He has made known to us the mystery of his will.  In order to know and celebrate this we are required to lay aside that which we think we know already because our reason and intellect are fallen, they are not reliable.  The renewing of our minds is not an option if we are to cooperate fully with God’s plan for our lives and for the redemption of the world.

Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.

Tune

7 January 2012

Psalm 103; Deut. 8:1-3; Col. 1:1-14; John 6:30-33,48-51

The law matters.  Keeping the law will be the key to going into the Land and also to remaining there and enjoying the blessing of God.  They are reminded that the Lord has tested them and tried them these forty years in the wilderness that they might know that man doesn’t live by bread alone but by every word from the mouth of God.  They have been lean years, primarily existing on the manna and water and now they are to enter the land flowing with milk and honey with the understanding that these things aren’t the be all, end all, it is more important to know and experience the presence of God among them.  There will certainly be great delights and joys in the Land as they relate to material things but these are never to be their chief delight. This sounds very much like Jesus’ words from Matthew 6.33 – “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

A couple of days ago we looked at part of the sixth chapter of John and now we see the full scenario.  The crowd has followed Jesus across the lake and now propose that if He wants their attention and support that He needs to give another sign.  Their idea is that He will do as He did the day before, feed them as Moses fed their fathers in the wilderness.  They only care about their stomachs being full, they missed the most important thing about the sign, it points to something else.  The sign pointed to the provider, who also provided for their forefathers, not to the vessel.  It authenticates the vessel but points beyond Him.  They only want food and Jesus offers something far greater.  His offer here is very similar to the offer He made the Samaritan woman in John 4, but here He is even more direct, the bread He offers is Himself.  They, however, are content to eat bread that will leave them hungry again tomorrow.  It is our nature to be materialists, satisfying immediate and carnal desires rather than eternal and spiritual desires.

What is it that Paul prays for the people of Colossae?  He is not particularly concerned their material lives and wants but for their spiritual lives.  He asks that they be: filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding and strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.  His goal is the salvation of their souls, their entrance into eternal life, their fruitfulness for the Gospel, the worthiness of their walk before the Lord.  In all things he and they are to give thanks because of what the Lord has done for us, that He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.  Are these the things that make up your prayer life or are we still primarily concerned with material things?

Holy Jesus, every day

Keep us in the narrow way;

And, when earthly things are past,

Bring our ransomed souls at last

Where they need no star to guide,

Where no clouds Thy glory hide.

In the heavenly country bright,

Need they no created light;

Thou its Light, its Joy, its Crown,

Thou its Sun which goes not down;

There forever may we sing

Alleluias to our King!

Tune

6 January 2012 - Epiphany

Psalm 46, 97; Isa. 49:1-7; Rev. 21:22-27; Matt. 12:14-21

In this prophetic passage we see the trajectory of Jesus’ work on earth.  He is sent as a polished arrow, a specially chosen instrument of deliverance, the servant in whom the Lord will be glorified and yet it seems that He has labored in vain, it has all come to nothing.  His mission was that Israel might be gathered back to the Lord but the announcement is made that this mission was too actually too small a thing, the mission will be the ingathering of the nations to the kingdom of God.  The redemption of all humankind is the actual mission and that will require a different strategy than being the Jewish king and Messiah. 

The Pharisees plot to kill Jesus and yet He doesn’t fuss or fight with them, He withdraws instead, this isn’t the time and they don’t get to choose the place and time, He is in control of His own destiny.  As they are plotting against Him, He is healing all who come to Him.  Isaiah has foretold how this will all go down and Matthew, as the writer of the Gospel for the Jews, points out to us.  This passage fits hand in glove with the earlier passage from Isaiah that Jesus is being rejected by those He came to save.  The ones who plot to destroy Him are those with the most to lose, those who believe they have it their ducks in a row while those who are bruised reeds and smoldering wicks come and receive healing and new life.  Do these same ones come to the church today or do they stay away?  Jesus was a “safe” person for all, particularly those who needed safety.

In the kingdom of God, the city will be lit by the glory of God and the lamp is the Lamb.  He is truly the light of the world and yet in the eternal Jerusalem all will stream to the light, not hide from it or attempt to extinguish it.  All nations will come to the heavenly city as their own, it is the city of the redeemed of the Lord.  In the beginning of creation the Lord called forth light to illuminate the void.  In the new creation there is no darkness at all, no night at all to overcome the eternal light.  We are called to announce this new kingdom and prepare a people for this new creation. 

As with gladness, men of old

Did the guiding star behold

As with joy they hailed its light

Leading onward, beaming bright

So, most glorious Lord, may we

Evermore be led to Thee.

As with joyful steps they sped

To that lowly manger bed

There to bend the knee before

Him Whom Heaven and earth adore;

So may we with willing feet

Ever seek Thy mercy seat.

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