We'd appreciate you allowing the use of cookies. They are anonymized while allowing us to see how the site is used.

Devotion.al

Tag: chosen

  • What’s The Matter?

    What’s The Matter?

    Numbers 3:44–48; Numbers 18:20; Deuteronomy 10:8–9; 1 Peter 2:3–10

    Inheritance wars have long been a genre of popular fiction. Whether the fights were over business or titles of nobility or who will take over the family criminal enterprise. Sometimes, battles are fought over who gets what, or who got the most. That last one may even destroy family ties as one person feels loved least or loved most.

    In the agricultural world, inheritance what truly critical, as which land (or how much of it) could mean success or death, with success often being just making it to the next season.

    The Levites were given cities and surrounding land, but that land and city was always within the domain of another tribe. In some respects, we can view them as embassies. Due to agreements and treaties, the land within an embassy is treated as if it belongs to the ambassadorial country.

    However, the embassy being another country is a matter of treaty. It is not absolute. The perpetual tension of an embassy is that it can be revoked. In fact, “breaking off” of diplomatic relations usually went along with embassies being closed. The land of that “country” returned to the holding of the host country.

    Upon the entrance to the Promised Land, the immediate response was fulfillment. In other words, there wasn’t an issue with the Levites and the allocations.

    God was the inheritance of the Levites. That’s a pretty big inheritance. When the people, however, don’t respect or love God and thus don’t bring the first fruits or monetary replacement, then what?

    From a modern perspective, it seems that the goal was for the Levites (certainly of the Temple service) to be sustained by the faithful sacrifice. The extended purpose of the Levitical cities was to guard against a people who forgot about God. At the Levites would have food.

    Did the Levites fulfill God’s intent for them? It would seem not, but to put all (or even most) of the blame on them would deny others’ choices.

    A number of years ago, I heard a quip, “Christianity is one generation away from vanishing.” In many respects, this is a true statement. If the faith is not passed down, it will not survive outside of the work of God. The same could be said of the Levites of the Jews.

    In many respects, what the Levites experienced (and continue to) is what Christians should expect, too. Now, this is not because we aren’t good enough sharing the Word of God. It’s not that we’re bad about talking about the love of God (though there are many loud people who are awful at it).

    We really need help at living it out well. This is the muddle, though. We think we are. We might even be. The world, however, doesn’t see it that way.

    ※Questions※

    1) Do you think the world is more or less correct that we Christians (as a whole) do not live out the Christian life of love?

    2) Do you think the Priesthood of all Believers (1 Peter 2:3–10) is equivalent to the Levites?  Why or why not? If yes, what does that mean for you?

    3) Levites’ primary purpose was the work of the Temple. Families taught the faith. Today, our “priests” (pastors) seem to be expected to be the only teachers. What can the Levites’ place teach us about pastors and families in regards to faith and discipleship?

    ※Prayer※

    Father, you called a certain people to facilitate relationship between you and your chosen people. Help us to be facilitators of your dream for the world to reconcile itself to you. Amen.

  • Drink or Eat

    Drink or Eat

    Judges 6:25–32; Hebrews 5:11–6:3

    Supposedly, the Israelites were the People of God. Their lives after their entrance into the Promised Land was certainly not a testimony to that. The worthless gods and idols of the land became the focus of their lives. God became a second thought, if that.

    Weak Gideon (his own thoughts of himself) was being asked to stand up to his father (leader of a weak family), which would then stand up to the tribe around them. That sounds encouraging.

    While we might knock Gideon for doing it at night, it does make sense. Gideon was first approached as he hid in the wine vat squashing grapes. Fear was ingrained in Gideon.

    In the end, Gideon did what God required.

    As we learn, however, Gideon did not have to fear his father. Even though Gideon had sacrificed two bulls (not a small loss) without permission, and incurred the wrath of the tribe, Gideon’s father stood firm. Despite the fact that Joash (Gideon’s father) had an altar to Baal and an Asherah pole, Joash still asked, “who defends Baal?” This implies that Joash may have been outwardly compliant to the culture, but was, in fact, loyal to God. This would explain why Gideon was chosen.

    For whatever reason, the people of Israel became lazy in their faith and followed the easy path of the people that remained. They followed the idols. Despite the forging of the Israelites in the desert, and even their forging in war to take the promised land, the heart of their culture had not yet turned to God.

    The author of the Hebrews is facing a similar situation with the recipients of that letter. The lazy way of the “rules of the ancestors” rather than the harder Way of Christ was still not being overturned.

    The author of Hebrews was, in some ways, mocking the recipients by calling them unweaned children. They weren’t even receiving pre-chewed meat from their “parent”. Of course, the author of Hebrews implied that this was an active choice of will. They chose to set aside the good “meat” of Christ for the milk of the Law.

    This was a cultural momentum that needed to be overturned.

    Whether it was the stories in Judges, to the reforming of the Law into the way of grace and mercy, to today as people are not even interested in God, it all revolves around the same issue/concern: self over the revealed ways of God.

    While we are often quick to point the finger at the culture around us, it must not be denied that “Christian” culture is actually very similar to the culture. In fact, it can be reasonably argued that the culture we see around us is a result of the Christian culture of years past.

    As we experience the disruption of COVID, perhaps we can see where the cultural Christianity, of which we are a part, can and must be changed to change we Christians and to bring people into the Kingdom of God.

    ※Prayer※

    Jesus, help us to walk your path and not our own. Holy Spirit, nudge, and convict us to put our feet where Jesus walks. Father God, thank you for your mercy and grace as we all too often think of ourselves first, others second, and you third. Amen.

    ※Questions※

    1) What similar scenarios might be happening around the world right now for Christians that are similar to Joash?

    2) What does Joash’s example teach us about what we see about others?

    3) What milk are you seeking rather than meat? What might the meat of today be?

  • Who Makes You

    Who Makes You

    Romans 9:14–33 (read online ⧉)

    A vignette from a family life…

    “It’s your fault,” said the child.

    “How so,” asked the parent.

    “You knew, and you didn’t stop me,” responded the child.

    “Except I warned you before,” the parent replied.

    “So, what,” retorted the child. “What’s that got to do with stopping me?”

    Or, a different vignette…

    “It’s your fault.”

    “You were warned.”

    “You made me so mad, though, that I wasn’t thinking, and I did it. So, it’s your fault.”

    Paul’s use of Old/First Testament imagery causes many modern people to struggle with these verses. In the Wesley/Arminian tradition, these words are a particular struggle, as they appear to not to be free will, a core belief in the tradition.

    However, what we miss is the rhetorical questioning that is going on in the Greek. A rhetorically adequate translation would be more along the lines of, “Yes, while God can make you, that does not make it God’s fault that you still chose your path.” One theologian argues, with some decent reasoning, that even when God hardens hearts (sometimes called judicial hardening), it’s not that the hearts weren’t already hardened. It is that God firms their already stubborn and ungodly hearts so that their immediate action will result in the display of God’s glory.

    In other words, God helps them be more firmly where they have already decided to be. Their decision was made first.

    Now, unlike some other Christian traditions, this is not a one-way road. God is in the redemption business! Even when God hardens the heart for one action, there is often a redemptive action waiting in the wings. It is here that a person will choose to continue to harden their own heart or not.

    The potter and the clay? An analogy, not a description. This passage, too, is often confused as that Israel (and thus the rest of us) are lifeless clay. Paul asks, what if? Paul is not concluding that God made some people for wrath and some are not.

    God did not make us that way. Just as the passage of the Potter’s House, Paul is not saying that God did it so that people are separated from God. God made is so people choose to be separated from God.

    This, too, is hard. For those of us who know God, and have a saving relationship with God, it is beyond our comprehension that people would choose anything other than God. Be grateful that you have chosen.

    Paul’s ultimate conclusion is that God set out works for the people of Israel to do. They believe that is was the works (the tasks) they did to fulfill the Law that made them righteous. This was all while the lesson of Abraham was right there in the Scriptures…following and choosing God through faith.

    ※Prayer※

    Gracious God, we thank you that we have been gifted the freedom to choose you in love. May you shape our hearts and guide our lives that we can help others also choose you. Amen.

    ※Questions※

    1) Do you think you have ever experienced a time when God “hardened” your heart? Why or why not?

    2) Why do you think people believe that God designs people and plans for people to be inflicted by God’s wrath?

    3) What is the hardest thing to realize and feel about knowing that you have to daily choose God?

  • Oath Busting

    Oath Busting

    Genesis 13:1–18; Numbers 13:30–14:4; Numbers 14:36–45 (read online ⧉)

    God had made a promise to Abraham. As God is the make of the promise, following yesterday’s devotion, it was an oath. Abraham’s descendants would flourish in the land that Abraham would walk.

    At the time of Lot’s and Abraham’s separation, the land that Lot had chosen was the better land. The lesser, more difficult land was Abraham’s. Yet, it was on this lesser more difficult land that God would build a nation with God’s name on it.

    After many years, Abraham’s descendants had finally arrived to “take” the land. The tribes that had flourished with the absence of Abraham’s descendants certainly weren’t going to be willing or eager to just hand the land over. As far as they, the current inhabitants, were concerned this was their gods’ land. The Israelites were nothing.

    Even those technically related were just as harsh to the Israelites. Yet, there was an oath made by God. Perhaps the oath was no longer valid. Perhaps God broke the oath.

    This is where it gets interesting for us, too. When God made the oath, there was no promise of easy living or being able to just get the land. The Israelites had to work for it, too.

    This is also the case for us. God calls us to be his people. God made an oath to always be with us. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. In fact, part of being with us was part of telling us that things would be hard.

    The Israelites, just like us, weren’t going to have anything to do with this difficult stuff. They wanted the easy street. At one point, God tells the Israelites about when they will worship and sacrifice with produce they didn’t plant, with labor they didn’t spend. They had to value the fulfillment of God’s oath.

    Instead, they decided that they were going to break the oath. It might sound a tad harsh. However, it wasn’t God that decided that the oath wouldn’t be fulfilled. They decided it.

    So, God “accepted” their decision, and gave the consequences. And they decided to try to break that, too. Moses also makes a point to them, that is also for us. God wasn’t with them. They would fail. If only they hadn’t tried to break the oath (that wasn’t theirs to break) in the first place.

    ※ A Prayer of Billy Graham ※
    …Father, we thank You for the promise and hope of [the future], and we look forward to it with expectancy and faith. This [we] ask in the name of our Lord and Savior, who by His death and resurrection has given us hope both for this world and the world to come. [Amen]

    ※ Questions ※
    1) Have you ever had someone try to break the oath or promise of another person? What was the situation? How did it work out?
    2) Why would a person try to break the oath or promise of another person?
    3) What can the short-, medium-, and long-term consequences of promise- and oath-breaking?

  • Serving Service

    Serving Service

    Acts 6:1–7; 1 Corinthians 12:4–11; 2 Corinthians 9:1–15 (read online ⧉)

    One of the struggles that the church as in this day (without COVID-19) is people to serve. The seven that were chosen by the people and deputized by the Apostles had a particular service to the widows of the community.

    The Apostles set out some expectations. They would not wait on tables. We, probably, think that it’s obvious that the Apostles wouldn’t be waiting on tables. However, that they used that wording tells us that at least some of the people had that exact expectation.

    Once we all return to “church” (as in the building), all the patterns that make for a worshiping and serving community will be ready for a change. This is not because anything in particular was bad, but because it is a time for renewal, and all the habits that were built up have been destroyed.

    Each person has a particular calling or two for the church. It doesn’t mean that we can’t or won’t do multiple things, it just means that there are one or two that are our sweet spot between God’s call on our lives and our talents and our gifts.

    Caring for one another, however, is very important, and for many, it is quite difficult. This is not necessarily because they are bad people (or even introverts), it is because they have developed habits that are less gregarious than others. The whole COVID-19 for them is probably making these habits worse. They may well be the ones that struggle the most when we get back together.

    The other interesting and frustrating part about COVID-19 and physical distancing is that creates an uncomfortable, and almost irreconcilability to the call to serve one another and to stay away from each other. Many people need service, but yet to be responsible we are to stay away.

    Some have found a balance. Some haven’t. Yet, it is something we all need to wrestle with, and this will still be the case when we come back together. When we come back together may indeed be the hardest to find a way to serve each other and yet maintain our distance.

    ※ Prayer ※
    Lord Jesus, you commanded us to love one another. Help us to figure out what that means when we are torn between things that seem to be opposed. Let the Holy Spirit guide our hearts and minds so that we are able to share and experience the loving grace and mercy of God the Father. Amen.

    ※ Questions ※
    1) What is a new thing you could do to serve others? What is a new thing you could do to serve the church?
    2) Are any of the above something you could do now? Why or why not?
    3) When you think of church, are you primarily serving, or are you primarily being served? What can you do to “flip the script”?

  • Loving Intercession

    Psalm 51:1-12; Exodus 30:1-10; Hebrews 4:14-5:10 (read online ⧉)

    Incense was used as part of the priests’ daily worship of God. It was a prescribed practice. Priests had a number of prescribed practices that they were regularly responsible for. They were constantly doing their tasks before God, both to honor him and be the representative of the Israelites before God.

    Before a priest could do their duties, they had cleansing rituals that had to be completed. By virtue of their post, they didn’t get to be cleansed. They are imperfect beings, too, just like us. This remains the case today, whether they are in the other Christian traditions where the priestly role retains much of the intercessory nature of the Israelite priests, or in ours.

    This is where the author of Hebrews gives us pause and hope. The author informs us that Jesus Christ [perfect, Son of God, Son of Man, Eternal, begotten of the Father] has now taken the role of the ritual priest, and by his very nature and sacrifice is the eternal offeror of the sacrifice he was.

    The author of Hebrews goes so far as to elevate Jesus to the High Priest (highest person of religious authority in both culture and law), and then tie Jesus to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17-14), who was the first person scripture calls “priest”. The author, then, is tying Jesus into the priestly realm before ever the person called Israel (let alone the tribes) even existed. By doing so, it is being established that how and what Jesus does in regards to priestly things overcomes, is superior to, and is the ultimate expression of the priestly sacrificial system.

    While the author of Hebrews is showing Jesus’ rightful place as (ultimate) priest and intercessor, the author also speaks to Jesus’ humanity. Jesus was fully human. Jesus was and is fully divine. The two natures of Jesus laid bare for all to see. God as fully human. God who knows and lived with all our weaknesses and temptations, stands with us and for us.

    1) How do you understand Jesus as God and human?

    2) If you could avoid punishment, would you?

    3) What does it mean to you that Jesus—who could have chosen not to die—chose to die to take your punishment, death?

  • Salvation Praise

    Psalm 107:1–3, 17–22; Genesis 9:8–17; Ephesians 1:3–6 (read online ⧉)

    Destined to be a child of God. This is such a comforting phrase. As in all comfortable things, there is a danger. This comforting phrase is often, and understandably, taken as being directed toward individuals. Yet, if we use both Old Testament and New Testament phrasing, it is better (and more safely) understood as a corporate destiny.

    As part of Noah’s covenant, we are corporately covered insofar as God will never flood the entirety of the earth again. Just as the 12 Tribes of Israel were the Chosen of God, corporately, so too is the Church. How an individual behaved and responded toward God was, and remains, separate from the corporate selection.

    We are all part of the corporate destiny, and we have our place in it (accepting the gift of redemption and salvation). To be clear, accepting the gift does not mean that the act required (Christ’s death on the cross) for salvation was anything but God’s.

    There is a tension here. Salvation is also quite personal and individual. Salvation is best expressed and the saved life best lived within the community of believers. There is a balance, and we don’t want to be overly weighted to individual or corporate salvation.

    We testify and give thanks through our worship and praise of God. As part of both our corporate and personal activity (our “liturgy”) is to praise “… his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us….”

    The psalmist declared…

    1O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
     for his steadfast love endures forever.
2Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
     those he redeemed from trouble
21Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
     for his wonderful works to humankind.
22And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices,
     and tell of his deeds with songs of joy

    1) When thinking of your salvation do you tend to think of yourself as an individual?

    2) Have you ever thought of your salvation as being part of the Body of Christ (the Church)?

    3) Why do you think there is a difference? What difference does it make to you?

  • Is It All About the Experience?

    Psalm 19; Exodus 19:16–25; Mark 9:2–8 (read online ⧉)

    Spend enough time in (at least) Christian circles, and you will likely hear the phrase, “mountain-top experience.” This is usually described as a deeply powerful encounter with God that emotionally and spiritually separates someone from the “real” world.

    Moses, the Israelites, and Aaron have different experiences with the same event. Moses is personally interacting with God. The Israelites are repeatedly told to stay away during this time. Aaron, after a time, is called up the mountain to be with Moses and God. This event is not the same kind of mountain-top experience that we usually speak of. Moses was there because God told him to be, and this was also God’s testimony to the Israelites that Moses was God’s chosen leader of the Israelites.

    The Israelites, on the other hand, were a ways away. Culturally, they didn’t want to be anywhere near any god, let alone the God that was in fire and cloud. This was on top of the warning they also received to not step foot on the mountain or they would die. This is definitely not the mountain-top experience we would think of positively.

    Lastly, Aaron was called up. Partially, this is to set the groundwork for his role as head priest. With Moses, he would stand before God. Yet, it was Moses who was first. While Aaron was still called up, it wasn’t quite the same.

    The disciples had a different experience altogether. They saw Jesus transformed into something wholly, then they saw Moses and Elijah, the two traditional great prophets of the Jews. They wanted to capture the experience and to maintain it by building lodging for Moses and Elijah, but it was not to be. Jesus was restored to normal, the two prophets vanished.

    1) Have you ever had your own mountain-top experience? Have you ever shared it with someone?

    2) If you, or someone you know, has had a mountain-top experience, how did that affect you (them) a day, week, a month, a year later?

    3) Was that experience a springboard to a deeper and more fulfilling spiritual life, or did it become just another event (even though powerful) in life?

  • Child Identified

    Exodus 3:1–12, 1 John 2:28–29, 1 John 4:7 (read online ⧉)

    Moses was not a shining example of humanity. He was…human. He had a temper. He certainly had a confused identity. He was a child of the court of Egypt. How he fit (or didn’t ) into the courts of the Pharoahs is an unknown. A Pharoah’s daughter pulled him from the Nile, knowing he was a Hebrew. Then she gave him to a Hebrew to be a nurse. We don’t know anything that really occurred in his life from his assigning to a Hebrew nursemaid to the day he killed an Egyptian overseer. We can reasonably assume that Moses dealt with two identities, one as an adopted child of the Pharoahic court, and one the blood child of a Hebrew. Moses was, in many respects, destined to be forever confused and torn by his two identities. This is much the same with us. We have our human earthly identity, and we have our heavenly identity. We often become confused between them.

    John writes, “ Everyone who does what is right, has been born of him.” Most of us look at these words and ask, “What about me?” We see them in the light of our own weaknesses and failures. With that perspective, it’s hard for the words to bring us comfort. Knowing to whom John was writing (people he loved, cared for, and wanted the best for), we can be assured that it wasn’t his goal. Our identity in Jesus Christ is something far different than our identity on earth. It is to that identity that John writes. That identity has done what is right and has been born of him.

    When John speaks later about everyone born of God loves, we are again tied back to the one of whom we are born…Jesus Christ. So much of who we are is our identity. Some of our identity is nothing we can control (i.e., family of origin, birth nation, native tongue, etc.). Other things we can identify with. Hopefully, you have chosen—at this point—to identify as a Child of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Holding onto and affirming this identity is what creates the space in our hearts and lives to be right and (Godly) loving.

    Moses, like us, had two identities, Hebrew and of Pharaoh. In many respects, both are earthly identities prone to failures and flaws. Yet, Moses did choose to be a Hebrew. Then he accepted (granted, somewhat grudgingly) the prophetic leadership of a people taking them from earthly nation to Godly nation. Moses made mistakes before and during the journey. The Hebrews made plenty of their own mistakes. Despite all of that, however, God still identified them as his chosen people.

    1) What do you see as your earthly identities? How do they coexist, and how do they conflict?

    2) While God calls us his children, why do we tend to undermine that identity by identifying with our failures, mistakes, and tendencies?

    3) Say out loud, “I am a loved child of God.” What was your emotional and physical reaction to that? Why do you think that is?

  • Another Test?

    Nehemiah 8:1–6; Luke 24:18–27; Acts 17:10–15 (read online ⧉)

    The Israelite Exiles have returned home, sort of. As Ezra reads the Scriptures, the remnant of Israel learns what it means to be God’s chosen people. Generations had already wandered away emotionally and spiritually. Then they went into exile in a foreign land with various gods and practices and unlearned even more. The confrontation with God’s Word was probably startling to many, and heart-wrenching for others.

    Even when theoretically well-established with the Scriptures, and even being (outer) disciples of Jesus, disciples such as Cleopas still needed to have things explained further to him. Perhaps, like many of us, it needed that “one more time” to get. Perhaps Jesus said it the “right” way this time so that Cleopas understood. Maybe for Cleopas, it took the report of the Resurrection and Jesus’ explanation and the breaking of the bread to “get it”. We just don’t know why it took so much for Cleopas (and we really can’t forget Cleopas’ companion) to get it, but each of us has had a similar experience, where we just need to go over it and over it and over it (whatever “it” is).

    This is what makes the Bereans a good example. They eagerly dug into the Scriptures to validate what they were told.

    1) When was the last time you eagerly dug into the Scriptures?

    2) The Israelites needed to test things against the Scriptures but didn’t. How is your habit of testing things against the Scriptures?

    3) Do you recall that we are to test the Scriptures through the lens of God’s love for us as displayed by Jesus Christ? In what ways is this displayed by Jesus’ explanations to Cleopas and his companion?

    Action: take one opinion or commentary regarding or from the world and test it against the Scriptures.