Devotion.al

Tag: sacrifice

  • 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 least or loved most.

    In the agricultural world, inheritance what truly critical, as which land (or how much of it) could mean success or , 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 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 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 ‘ 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 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 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 ?

    ※Prayer※

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

  • Whose Crown?

    Whose Crown?

    1 Samuel 8:1–22; Mark 10:35–45; 1 Corinthians 1:20–25

    One cannot say the beginning of the fall of Israel was at the point they demanded a king. God pointed this out to disappointed Samuel. Israel’s “desire” for a king showed that Israel’s heart continued to not focus on God.

    Samuel’s sons were a mess. In no way did they honor God or their . Just like many of us, and the world, the Israelites were looking at humanity rather than God.

    The failure of the Israelites wasn’t that they didn’t want Samuel’s sons in charge. That was actually . What they didn’t want, apparently, was a spiritual leader like Samuel. They wanted a “normal” king.

    When God tells Samuel that the Israelites were against God, God makes it clear that it isn’t Samuel’s fault. The hearts of the Israelites are at fault. What happens, though, is that while they get want, they want, it does eventually become a “be careful what you wish for.”

    The path of king never really ends for the Israelites. Eventually, the splits into 2. The Northern Kingdom (confusingly also called, Israel) eventually disappears. The Southern Kingdom (called Judah) remains, but over the years of exile and conquest never really stops having a king.

    By the time of Jesus, the “king” (Herod) really is just a governmental flunky of Rome. The and their quests for power (a constant theme of the Roman Empire) are what Jesus is likely referring to when he talks to the disciples. His point being who wants to live like that. Jesus had a better way.

    The better way was the way of God’s (not just generic human love) of both and discipline. What need of worldly government and power would such a person have?

    When we focus too much on worldly power, we miss the reality that Jesus turned power upside down. If we focus on the world’s ways, we succumb to the foolishness of the world, rather than in and through the wisdom of God.

    When we rely on the world, we make the same mistake the Israelites did…we choose a king (even if it’s only for 4 years).

    ※Prayer※

    Lord Jesus, as we try to live out being citizens of this world, help us to remember our deeper and truer citizenship in the . Amen.

    ※Questions※

    1) What are some reasons you think the Israelites wanted a king “like the other nations”?

    2) In what ways does the US political scene look at the president as King? What does that teach us about our (and our ‘s) heart?

    3) How might you live out the upside-down kingdom that Jesus brought to us?

  • Want

    Want

    Exodus 20:1–21; 1 Kings 3:16–28; 1 Corinthians 13:1–13

    The tale of envy and spite in the story relayed in 1 Kings is abominable to most of us. How could any person ever do that, even if it is not their child?

    Yet, there are far too many tragic stories of people treating their children—their legacy—with something beyond contempt. The children don’t meet a “need”, or even worse, the death of the child meets the “need”.

    The amazing depravity of humanity is often overwhelming.

    In the story in 1 Kings, there is probably much more than the visible story. Why it was significant to the writer that the women were prostitutes was significant is a matter of conjecture. With something like that we can only guess what else might have been going on.

    One possibility is that the “wise men” didn’t want to deal with the “dirty” prostitutes on a case with no evidence or witnesses (like those who might have been present at the birth or circumcision). So, they handed it off to the new king to test him. This would be well within the norm even today when new figures come into , they are tested by ally and alike.

    To our ears, Solomon’s solution is over the top. Kill the child? However, some commentators believe that Solomon had discerned who the real mother was and was looking for a justifiable pretext of her son to her.

    The story also shines a on one of the big issues: envy. There is a reason that this was on the list of Commandments. It can often be one of the most destructive emotions in human relationships.

    Envy drove a grieving woman to grasp for another’s baby and then be open to the child’s death instead of “losing”.  Envy drove a person to a child to hurt another person.

    Envy drives people to do things that are often not rational. Sometimes people will put themselves into so much debt so that they can be just like . Other times they will hurt themselves, as long as they can hurt others.

    No one is immune to the pull of envy. We often think envy is only for big things, but envy is even more dangerous regarding small things. It is easy to excuse or justify the envy of little things. However, once we succumb, envy gains momentum, and our hearts turn toward darkness, and away from .

    —prayer—

    , guard our hearts against envy. If the shadow of envy had taken hold, we ask for your saving work to preserve your love in our hearts. Amen.

    —questions—

    1) What is the first “don’t” of love, according to Paul? Why do you think Paul mentioned that first?

    2) What was the strongest feeling of envy you’ve ever had? What happened?

    3) What is the “flip” side of envy? Or, how is one driven to envy? (hint: see Paul’s list)

  • Red or White?

    Red or White?

    Genesis 18:16–33; Jeremiah 5:1–9; Romans 3:5–24

    God hates me. God would/could never me. God doesn’t care about me. No one can measure up to that standard.

    Any of those sound familiar?

    When we read stories such as Sodom and Gomorrah it is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of destruction. Yet, there in the story there something important to read.

    Abraham’s questions about the 50, 45,40, 30, 20, 10 and the to the question gives us some insight. From all appearances, there was one righteous man…Lot. Even Lot’s “righteousness” might have more to do with Abraham’s and not Lot’s (see Genesis 19:29).

    From our human , what happened seems out of proportion. The ways of Sodom and Gomorrah were obviously long wrong.  God did not do this on a whim. Yet, in the middle of all the wrong, 10 righteous people would have prevented disaster.

    As the of the of Judah approached, there, too, was an opportunity to change everything. All it would have taken is one righteous person. As the Scriptures show, however, that was not to be.

    What does this say about us? Paul tells us that it is the very unrighteousness of humanity that displays the righteousness of God. Even in that, there is grace.

    There is a long list that is part of Paul’s words. It is a list (Romans 3:10–18) condemning humanity for its response to God. Why would God want such creatures?

    If you had someone who constantly said bad things to you, tossed your gifts at your feet (or the garbage), and gave credit everyone but you about the good things you’d done for them, what your response be?

    God’s answer was through the cross. Truth? We aren’t by any measure of that . Truth? God did it out of love.

    ※Prayer※

    Jesus, thank you for the cross. Father God, thank you for your on us. , thank you for drawing us to you. Amen.

    ※Questions※

    1) When you read Paul’s list, how does it feel? To you feel condemned or judged? Or, do you feel something else?

    2) How does grace and feel in the face of that list?

    3) What do you think your ongoing response should be as a result?

  • Clean Up

    Clean Up

    Zechariah 3:1–10; Matthew 9:1–8; Revelation 22:7–17

    Most parents have to tell their children to clean their rooms. There are those rare exceptional (weird) children who clean up their rooms on their own. There are also those parents who have conditioned their children to behave in a manner contrary to their nature, and the children are very clean. There there is the last group of parents, who don’t bother (for various reasons).

    Part of the walk is a that resembles Christ more and more. There are highs and lows. There are backslidings. There is a lot of hard work, and then there are miraculous leaps .

    Joshua the high priest (not to be confused with Joshua, Moses’ successor) stood before God with dirty clothes. They were reflective of the “dirty” condition of the Israelites. Now the dirty need to be contrasted with the holy part. The Israelites were called to be holy because they were the people God called by , and God was Holy.

    The Israelites always seemed to struggle with this. Whether it was Moses, or the time of Judges, even during Samuel’s life, the latter part of Solomon’s reign, and all the kings that followed Solomon. The Israelites often left God and pursue other gods and other ways that were not God’s. They were not holy. They were not clean. They were dirty.

    Note that neither Joshua nor Zechariah did anything. In fact, even Satan didn’t have (so it seems) even the opportunity to accuse Joshua. God just commanded…and it was so.

    In Hebrew, often when Satan is presented in English, we should know that “the” accuser is the more literal meaning. This is particularly interesting when we come to the story of the paralytic, the accusers are the scribes.

    While the scribes didn’t say anything, Jesus still knows their hearts well enough to know their accusation. Jesus declares the man clean. Just like that. Oh, and just in case they didn’t get it the first time (they didn’t), he cleansed the man’s clothes (being the body).

    Yet, the reality is that we, and our clothes, still get dirty. Perhaps there is one person that you “know” is a saint (and they might be). That person, however, probably would see their own stains that you cannot. “Bless those who wash their robes(!)”

    We’re going to get dirty in this life. Usually through our own faults, but undeniably there are times when people will chuck the muck at you to make sure you look dirty. Why that might be is irrelevant to this message. What is relevant is that our clothes are not us. Through the of Jesus Christ, and our submission to his authority and our submission to the work of the Holy Spirit, we are made clean!

    ※ Prayer ※

    Merciful , you have declared us clean through the of your . Lord Jesus, we thank you for your work on Earth and the words that you have given us. Holy Spirit, allow us to see our stains clearly. Help us to understand your conviction of us while knowing that you do not condemn us, but call us to a (w)holy deeper life. Amen.

    ※ ※

    1) Are you an accuser? If someone with “dirty” clothes comes to a small group, a gathering, or even (gasp) church, what do you do?

    2) Ask someone who you deeply admire (or, again, think of as a saint), and ask them if they still see their spiritual stains?

    3) How are you working through the stains in your life? Do you have an partner (or better, 2 or 3)?

  • Holy Grounding

    Holy Grounding

    Exodus 3:2–6; Exodus 20:22–26; 2 Chronicles 3:1–2 (read online ⧉)

    The concept of “ ground” has a long-standing history. In popular imagination, church buildings and their lands are—by their very nature—holy ground. Whether it was vampires (or other unholy creatures) or Immortals (e.g., Connor MacLeod) or something else, the concept was powerful.

    While popular imagination puts holy ground more in the realm of something magical (or a convenient plot device), it does not deny or invalidate the reality of holy ground.

    So, what could holy ground be? The simplest one is where God says so. The only place where holy and ground are together in this way is here in Exodus (This passage is quoted in Acts, so that mention doesn’t count). However, the concept of a place set apart as holy is not unique to this verse.

    Sometimes, as later in Exodus 20:22–26, is a place set aside as holy (in this case, an altar), but it is not, in and of itself, holy ground. Yet, it is.

    The burning bush in Exodus is pretty simple. However, this holy ground, that God said was holy ground…we don’t even know where it is. Perhaps, then, it wasn’t so holy.

    David had a confrontation with God. The place where he offered a to remove his sin, which was causing the destruction of the people, was a threshing floor. It was a place of work.

    Using it, though, for a holy , it became a holy place. So holy, in fact, that the was built there. We know where that place is right now. It wasn’t called holy ground, though.

    What made the former threshing floor holy ground was the acts that would occur there. It wasn’t just praising and worshiping God. It wasn’t just praying to God. It was the place where God “set his foot”. This was the formal Godly residence on earth.

    Just as the (not-so) burning bush (miracle notwithstanding) was holy ground, so were the uncut rocks, or piles of dirt, or a beautiful temple. It wasn’t the place per se that was holy, but the encounters with God that made that space, for a time, holy.

    For generations, for example, the sanctuary of the church was holy ground. As the megachurch rolled in, however, it transformed into a worship center. It’s not that God was not encountered, it was just a in the understanding of how it worked.

    Even now, as we “gather” online, there are places (hopefully) of Godly encounters. They just happen to be living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, other rooms, cars, even backyards. This is one of those things that mystics can teach us…any place is holy when we are knowingly, purposefully, seekingly in the presence of God.

    ※ ※
    Lord, help us to seek your presence so that we are overwhelmed by your . Help us to find holy ground wherever we are. Amen.

    ※ ※
    1) Other than a church building, what are some other “holy grounds” for you?
    2) What makes a place consistently a holy ground?
    3) Why is it critical to our theology, our with God, and our Christian growth to understand that holy ground is not just at a church building (especially right now)?

  • 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 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 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 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 and 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 of Billy Graham ※
    …, we thank You for the promise and hope of [the future], and we look forward to it with expectancy and . This [we] in the name of our Lord and Savior, who by His 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?

  • Is Swearing Bad?

    Is Swearing Bad?

    Leviticus 5:4–6; Numbers 30:10–16; Deuteronomy 12:29–32; Judges 11:29–40; Matthew 5:37 (read online ⧉)

    No, we’re not talking about bad language. We are talking about making and “taking” oaths.

    All elected politicians take oaths regarding following the law and upholding the respective (state or US) constitution. Peace Officers, Military service people, doctors all swear oaths when formally taking the position of their training/office.

    Oaths are not small. Oaths are not equal to promises. Oaths tend more toward the covenantal side of things. This means that there should be a depth to them of body, mind, and soul that is far more than just a promise. Some people do take promises to the oath standard, but most people do not.

    Oaths will often also have a penalty that goes with breaking them. Promises generally do not (except for the diminishment of your “good” ). Also, oaths will usually invoke a greater power. In the States and even in a number of “post”-Christian countries, that greater power is still God.

    God. The “special” ingredient of an oath.

    Oaths (or swearing, the right kind) are not a bad thing. Rash (or emotional or reactive) oaths, however, are. As the first passage indicates, there is a kind of guilt associated with a rash oath, and that is whether it is to do good or to do bad. That, in and of itself, should indicate the weight God holds for oaths.

    While Numbers makes a wife’s or daughter’s oath the responsibility of the husband/, it is still an oath. Part of it is a cultural assumption that the man would indeed ultimately bear the responsibility of the oath anyway. The wife and daughter are of his household, and thus his responsibility.

    Even how the man is supposed to deal with their oaths is important. He has to be quick and discerning about voiding them or owning them. He is responsible. He would also likely make the oathmaker bear some responsibility, too. The point is that oaths are not to be taken lightly.

    Jephthah provides the stunning example of why rash oaths are a really bad idea. The prologue to Jephthah’s story is the passage in Deuteronomy about sacrificing children, and that God really hates it. Think about those who would run out of the city to greet the victorious Jephthah…it would probably be someone from his .

    Jephthah made an oath. His daughter paid the price for his oath. This was not a God-honoring oath, nor a God-honoring . That Jephthah was a judge for Israel makes this tale even that much more tragic, and even less God-honoring.

    When Jesus says to say yes or no, he is referring to a practice whereby oaths were binding based upon what they were sworn on. Money won. Forget the sacrificial offering. Forget the altar (that made the money sacred). It was the money.

    It’s not that Jesus says there is no space for oaths, it’s that the space for oaths is much smaller than it used to be. Invoking God really should be between you and God, and not a third party.

    There is also another small lesson, and it is good to keep when we are all in a state (pandemic and stay-at-home) where emotional responses are likely to result in rash oaths. This is a time when many people will turn deeply to God (and we celebrate it). In so doing, however, they often become (positively) overwhelmed and make rash oaths.

    Many of these rash oaths are made to God. God wants – and -filled oaths. Rash oaths might be faith- and trust-filled at the moment. It is over time that the extent of faith and trust is tested. These are the oaths that God values.

    ※ Prayer ※
    Gracious God, may the words of our mouths and hearts bring and to you. May these poor words of ours warm your heart as we follow the path you guide us. Amen.

    ※ ※
    1) Have you ever sworn an oath? Why? What was it’s result/consequence?
    2) How would you define the difference between promise, oath, and covenant?
    3) What is the most rash decision you have made? What was the result?