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Next week we begin the New Testament. As I prepared for this, I realized that the Bible is not separated into two equal halves. In fact, it's almost 75% Old Testament. What's the point I'm making? I've heard some people say that the New Testament is the only part of the Bible that is worth using for sermons and serious teaching. I've even heard of people that only want to teach from the writings of Paul.
That is a misguided notion. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 makes it clear that the entire Bible is a worthy teaching aid. The Old Testament is not just a bunch of stories. The New Testament is more than a great guide for living. They are two halves of the Bible and that book is not to be added to or taken away from.
In the reading we've done thus far, we started with the creation of everything, the flood, and shortly after that, the main subject was Abraham, father of the Jewish nation, and his descendants. They are actually a pretty accurate model of humanity. When times are good, the tendency is to bask in the moment and wander off of God's path. When things begin to get a bit bad, most people will try to use their human effort to fix it so they can enjoy their self-reliance. When this doesn't work and the situation is going down the drain, people tend to turn for help to a source that is reliable.
We watched this happen more than once. And time after time, God accepted them back only to see them go their own ways yet again. At times, it felt like we were on a rocking ship, going this way and that. Are we really that different from them? Not one bit. Do we learn from the mistakes of our ancestors? We like to say that we do, but I'm skeptical on that one. The Jews had so many opportunities to embed their faith in the rock that is the Lord, and so many times looked over at the sand of transgression and decided to attach their very lives to the lies of their enemies. And as the generations went on, the people delved deeper into sin. As the Israelites delved deeper, God expanded His base of chosen people.
This brings us to the New Testament, which begins next week. Jesus opened the door wide open for anyone to be His. We will see people of all races championing His word. That is a tradition that is still alive today. All we must do now is keep the faith.
Well, the lesson has been learned and the Israelites are ready to move forward again, right? Wrong. No sooner had they been out on their own, not backed into a corner, than they quickly turned away from the wishes of God. I wasn't even there and I remember the warning that God laid out about the priesthood marrying anyone but a Jewish virgin. Ezra was absolutely shocked by this! His prayer pretty much sums up the situation. I'll sum it up even farther to a Cliffs Notes version. "Our sins have caused us great disgrace." "Your grace has allowed us to prosper even as slaves." "We never have avoided the evils that were in this land, but embraced them." "We deserve punishment far greater than what you've imposed on us. Your mercy has been enjoyed."
This prayer caught the attention of nearby Israelites and they joined Ezra in his grief. Soon a decision was reached to expel anyone that was not a Jew, including spouses and children. I don't like this plan myself. Once a vow has been made to hold someone in matrimony, or a child has come into the picture, there's a responsibility involved. Nevertheless, the foreigners were expelled.
Nehemiah was the cup bearer for King Artaxerxes and managed to use his position for a favor. He got royal permission to rebuild Jerusalem and written orders that he not be interfered with and also that he be given materials and assistance. When he began the building of the wall, though, he was mocked and called a traitor.
Those Israelites sure were good at repairing and rebuilding when they set their minds to it, huh? Of course there was opposition to the rebuilding. It started afresh with taunting from their neighbors and then with threats. These threats were met with armed Jews to guard the building. At first this seemed like a sensible idea, but the more I think about it, the more foolish it seems. God was to be the guard, not man. If the other armies had attacked the building, it would have been a massacre! Nehemiah, however, agreed with this and acknowledged the strength of God fighting for them and told them to carry arms, so it must not have been an insult to God's strength.
I'll be quoting Nehemiah here: Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? NIV That's a question that needs to be asked no matter what time in history you are looking at. Enemies are something that will be found in every era. Many of them are quite fearsome. Isn't that a perfect reason to walk the path God has laid out for you?
When the Jews turned to God, He delivered. Surrounding cities had the intention of destroying Jerusalem, but when they learned that the outer wall was completed in fifty two days, they knew that there was a powerful, living God watching over Israel and their self-confidence wavered. God never left the Jews. They had left Him and were now coming back.
There's a saying that's alive and well in Iowa. "If you build it, they will come." This is shown to be true even now, several years after "Field of Dreams" was in the theaters and it was true for Jerusalem as well. The early settlers asked Ezra to read the Law of Moses to them and he did for hours while the people listened closely to what was said. I've been pretty impressed with them for these last two days!
A little later, the Levites instructed the people in the Law in such a way that it was easy for the people to understand. That's very important for any teacher to do. I refer to this kind of instruction as "placing the cookies on the lower shelf." When someone wants to get to the cookies, and these cookies are of the kind that you want them to be able to get to, you help them get to them as much as you can. That's a good trait for any minister of the faith to have. If you leave church wondering what just happened, its a good idea to visit another church next Sunday.
Every now and then the Israelites turn around to check their back trail and see where they've come from. This usually happens when their fear of the Lord is revived, lest they have to face their grief and shame. In this reading, a revised history of their people is given and at the end of it, they decide to make a binding agreement to follow the Law of God.
They didn't do so well with these rules before, but before they hadn't been through all that their history told. We'll see how they do this time around, though.
This leads us to the lots that were cast to see which people would live in Jerusalem. One of every ten people was to live in Jerusalem while the other nine stayed where they were. I find this to be a curious matter. It says that the people commended all the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem. Does this mean that Jerusalem wasn't exactly the location they were looking for? What I mean is, did they not want to live in Jerusalem ?
Nehemiah 13:7-31, Malachi 1:1-2:9.
This looks promising. The people celebrated the finishing touches with such noise that it could be heard far away and the Law of Moses was being taken seriously once again. Nehemiah also speaks about how he was a very non-demanding governor. He knew that the Israelites lives had been so hard in the recent past and as many breaks that could be given them would be helpful. As governor, he could have demanded taxes of items for his own comfort, but he didn't do that.
He also "cleaned house" a bit with the temple, removing things that didn't belong and replacing them with things that did. That isn't as great as it sounds, though. If the people were as eager to turn to God as they acted, this action wouldn't have been necessary, would it? Let's remember that in our lives. Paying lip service to God is not a wise decision. Either you're devoted to Him or you're not and there is no middle ground on that one. God demands the best from us and that is not too much to ask. Do you expect second-best from Him?
Yesterday's house cleaning shows that though most, if not all, of the Jews were vocal in their faith during festivals. It also shows that in their hearts, many were still prostituting themselves to false gods and worldly desires. The people who had intermarried with people had put themselves in difficult positions. God warned that they not do this as intermarriage had led to the worship of the wife's idols. God also hates divorce. So the choice is to stay with one's wife in a relationship that is not pleasing to God and to divorce her, which is also displeasing. Let's not forget that these people were responsible for their own quandary. Quandaries are the natural result of marching to your own beat rather than following God's path. I've been in them and so have you. Let's work on that, shall we?
Another thing that my wife and I are working on is our tithing. We are attending a new church now and are seriously contemplating membership. Being a member of a church is more than being just a regular to the services and a contributor to the pot lucks. It means putting your money and your time where your mouth is. This is the only time that I know of where God issues us a challenge quite like this one. He is saying to give to His cause and He will reward you many times over. God's promises are ones we can take to the bank!
Weekly LinkThis is the website of Christopher Wright, and is a collection of links to help teachers use the Internet for research and lesson ideas. That's not what attracted me to the site, though. It was the blog. A blog, for those of you that don't know is a web log. A journal (or diary if you prefer) that is kept online for anybody to read. Mr. Wright's blog is found at http://www.whatintarnation.net/blog/. You will find all kinds of interesting posts here about all kind of topics from his students to his church to whatever comes to his mind. And that's the beauty of a blog in one short description. It's about whatever you want it to be. I consider this blog to be required reading every few days. |
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