Remember God's Commands

Renewing their covenant before entering the land 

Deuteronomy 5:22 The LORD spoke these words to all of you assembled there at the foot of the mountain. He spoke with a loud voice from the heart of the fire, surrounded by clouds and deep darkness. This was all he said at that time, and he wrote his words on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

So far the book of Deuteronomy has been about remembering, God's people need to Remember God's Blessing as his redeemed children and we need to Remember God's Purpose as his redeemed children. Moses wants God's people to stay focused on God and keep on remembering him as they enter the Promised Land.

Now Moses turns their attention to remembering God’s commands, beginning with the foundation found in the Ten Commandments. It seems the commandments had not been applied very well in the wilderness, the people seem to be doing whatever they want as they continued to worship idols, grumble, and refuse to trust and obey. 

The Life Application Study Bible raises a pointed question: 

What good would the Promised Land have been if Israel became just as wicked as the nations they were replacing?

As Israel stands on the threshold of the Promised Land, Moses understands that victory will not come simply because they are God's chosen people. They cannot cling to sin and expect to enjoy God's blessing. 

The judgment that is about to fall on the Canaanites is not evidence of God's favoritism toward Israel but of His holy and righteous character. If Israel forgets the Lord, abandons His covenant, and walks in disobedience, they too will experience His discipline. Two truths that we must also remember: God does not change and his justice is as constant as his mercy.

The prophets, together with the fulfillment of their words, remind us that God is faithful to everything He has spoken. He does not overlook sin because of a person's identity, heritage, or privilege. His dealings with both Canaan and Israel reveal the same unchanging truth: God is holy, and He desires a people who reflect His holiness.

The people’s fearful response leads to Moses becoming their mediator.

Deuteronomy 5:23-24 "But when you heard the voice from the heart of the darkness, while the mountain was blazing with fire, all your tribal leaders and elders came to me. 24 They said, 'Look, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice from the heart of the fire. Today we have seen that God can speak to us humans, and yet we live!

God's message at Sinai was unmistakable. No one doubted who was speaking "from the heart of the fire, surrounded by clouds and deep darkness." The people knew this was God's mountain and these were His commandments. 

 Confronted with His overwhelming holiness, they responded correctly with fear and reverence. Recognizing God's glory and greatness, they asked Moses to go before the Lord on their behalf and promised that they would obey whatever He commanded.

What they did not yet understand was the depth of their own sinfulness and inability to keep that promise. Their fear produced a sincere emotional response, but emotion alone could not produce long lasting reverence or faithful obedience. 

The people’s fearful response isn't always reverence and obedience.

Deuteronomy 5:29 Oh, that they would always have hearts like this, that they might fear me and obey all my commands! If they did, they and their descendants would prosper forever.

Deuteronomy 5:33 Stay on the path that the LORD your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.

God knew that their passion at Sinai would not last. The first generation boldly declared, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do" (Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7), yet they repeatedly chose unbelief and disobedience. And then just before the next generation entered the land, God told Moses they too would turn away and break their covenant with God just as their parents did. (Deuteronomy 31:16-27).

The problem was never God's law—it was the human heart. Sinai revealed God's holiness and man's inability to keep the covenant. That is why in the New Testament the book of Hebrews points us to a better mountain.

A tale of two mountains.

Hebrews 12:18 You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. 

Hebrews 12:22 No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering.

Hebrews reminds us of the terror of Sinai, where the people stood at a distance and begged God to stop speaking. That mountain revealed God's holiness and man's separation from Him. It also exposed a problem that Israel could never solve: sinful people could not keep a holy covenant by their own determination.

Fear can make us back away from the fire, but only a transformed heart can keep us walking on the path. As Hebrews 12:22-24 points us to another mountain of God, Mount Zion. 

Through Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, we are no longer kept at a distance but are welcomed into God's presence. His blood speaks forgiveness and removes our judgment, and through Him God gives us the new heart that Israel lacked.

As Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, they renewed their commitment to obey God. Yet history proved that good intentions were never enough.

Our hope is not in making better promises to God, but in trusting the One who fulfilled the covenant for us and is transforming us from the inside out.

The Priest Govern God's People

God's people need leaders to show them how to be clean and acceptable to God.

Leviticus 10:10-11 You must distinguish between what is sacred and what is common, between what is ceremonially unclean and what is clean. 11 And you must teach the Israelites all the decrees that the LORD has given them through Moses."

Leviticus 18:3-4 So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. 4 You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:1-2, 37 The LORD also said to Moses, 2 "Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. "You must be careful to keep all of my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice. I am the LORD."

Also see: Leviticus 20:23-24, 26 and Leviticus 22:31-33

Malachi 2:5-7  “The purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring life and peace, and that is what I gave them. This required reverence from them, and they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name. 

6  They passed on to the people the truth of the instructions they received from me. They did not lie or cheat; they walked with me, living good and righteous lives, and they turned many from lives of sin.  7  “The words of a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge of God, and people should go to him for instruction, for the priest is the messenger of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies."

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From the very beginning God's people have wanted to do things their own way, man chose to eat what he wanted (Genesis 3:1-19), which led to choosing how he wanted to worship (Genesis 4:1-16), which eventually led to total wickedness and evil until God destroyed the planet. (Genesis 6:5)

But wait, there's more, we are so bad that even after the flood the world rebelled again very quickly. The grand children of Noah are probably around to tell their children and grandchildren about God's judgment yet they still refused to do what God told them to do. (Genesis 11:1-9) 

So God chose one man from out of the millions of people on earth to begin a new people that would be called out of slavery to live by a different set of rules that govern how they worship, how they treated each other and even what they were allowed to eat.

The book of Leviticus tells us about the priest and the rules that they would use to govern God's people. God would be their king and the priest would govern under his authority. The nation of Israel would have a far better king that any other nation but later on they would demand to be like the other nations with their imperfect kings. (1 Samuel 8:19-20)

Deuteronomy 28:9-10 “If you obey the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways, the LORD will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do. 10 Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you.

It may be difficult to read every rule of the book of Leviticus in your quiet time, but don't worry, you don't need to know all of the rules but you do need to be aware of the rules and understand the purpose of them. (The Threefold Use of the Law ligonier.org)

God wanted a distinct people that were set apart, eager to love what he loves, a people that would show their loyalty to him and showed his goodness to the rest of the world. (Psalm 1:2, 40:8, 119:162, Hebrews 8:9-10)

The priest are supposed to use the rules that God gave even though some of them don't make any sense from our point of view. We might wonder:

• Why would it make you unclean to kill an animal to make dinner but killing an animal at the altar in the temple made you clean?
• Why would God say that you cannot eat a pig or a horse but you can eat a cow? 
• Why would God say that normal physical relations between a husband and his wife make them unclean? 
• Why would a skin disease that you did nothing to cause be treated like you were being punished?

God wants us to do what he tells us to do just because he said to do it! The best reason for some of these rules is just so that you can prove your allegiance to the God that saved you from slavery and gave you your freedom. The best way to prove your belief in God and your loyalty to him is to conform your thinking to God's standards even when the rules don't make sense. (John 14:21-24)

God never tells Israel why something is clean or unclean. Think about God’s choice of Israel as a nation. Is there some reason why God chose Israel as opposed to the Canaanites? Did he choose the Israelites because they were so spiritually pure? It was just God’s choice. -The Clean and Unclean on Bible.org

The book of Leviticus helps us know that God's people were supposed to be a peculiar kingdom, their government organization and the ruling hierarchy would be very different, their laws would be peculiar, their worship and even what they would not eat would be peculiar.

God's people would be led by ordinary men that God set apart as holy despite their shortcomings, once again it is a matter of God said so and that should settle it. They had a sacred responsibility that required more of them, they couldn't perform their duties and live to tell about it if they were ceremonially unclean, higher privilege required higher standards. (Luke 12:48)

Jesus came to be our High Priest so that we can all be priest that do God's work, we are to go to the Holy of Holies to ask for forgiveness, we are to carry out the task of revealing God to the rest of the world as a royal ambassador and we are supposed to take a stand for holiness in this unclean world. (2 Corinthians 5:20 / 1 Peter 1:15, 2:5, 2:9-10)

If we live up to the task we have been given then the world around us will take notice and check us out to see why we are not conformed to this world. (Romans 12:2)

If God's people would cooperate with him and live by his rules, then his glory and honor would be seen and praised around the world, just as it will be at the end of time. 

God's people in the church era are all priest that have the awesome privilege to work under the great High Priest, the heart and purpose of the Old Testament priestly ministry should be adopted by each of us. 

RELATED ARTICLES

Why Is Accountability So Important to God? (biblestudytools.com)

Missions Exist Because Worship Doesn't (desiringod.org)

A Tale Of Two Sons

God's first promised son was symbolic of the ultimate promised Son.

Genesis 21:1-7  The LORD kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised.  2  She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would.  3  And Abraham named their son Isaac.

 4  Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded.  5  Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.

6  And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me.  7  Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!”

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A baby usually brings great joy to the family and to their friends, everybody wants to see the baby and bring gifts to celebrate the new life, but imagine the extra amount of excitement that is experienced when the baby's arrival is a long awaited miracle.

When Issac was born, it was the end of a very great sadness that Abraham and Sarah experienced as they failed to get pregnant over and over again for probably 70 or 80 years of marriage. It was even more heartbreaking to be promised a child but after 25 years the promise was still not fulfilled.

Imagine the heartbreak that the couple had when they attempted to help God with the miracle baby through human effort. Hagar became pregnant and Ishmael was born but instead of joy this only brought more trouble and heartache. 

Reactions To The Promised Child

Sarah couldn't be happier, all of those years of sadness and disappointment are over, the promised son has arrived and the pain and stigma of being childless is gone. Over the years, Sarah was reminded every time she saw Hagar and Ishmael of how wrong she was to try to help God.

Ishmael's reaction to the baby reminds me of the way that his mom Hagar reacted to the news that she was pregnant with Abraham's first child. It seems like Ishmael took after his mom, she got herself in trouble for her treatment of Sarah, so it wasn't a surprise when Ishmael began mistreating Isaac.

We can't be sure about Abraham, his reaction to the newborn isn't clear, the Bible doesn't tell us without a doubt that Abraham was as thrilled as Sarah was. Abraham probably had mixed emotions about Isaac, he may have grown indifferent to the idea of another son, he was willing to substitute God's best and accept the son that he already had as the heir to the promise. (Genesis 15:4, 17:15-21)

I think that part of Sarah's desire to get Hagar and Ishmael out of the house was because she could see that Abraham wasn't as thrilled about the new baby as she was. She must have been hurt as she recalled how happy he was to get his first son and wondered why he isn't so happy this time. 

Abraham has already had fourteen years of bonding with Ishmael, he has already taught him how to be a man and he can already see the leadership skills that would make Ishmael the leader of a great nation, the future for Ishmael looked so bright before Isaac came along.

Abraham must have seen the emotional affect that the birth of Isaac had on Ishmael, for fourteen years the boy had the home to himself and his father's love, he may have thought that his mom should replace Sarah, he may have even heard about Abraham's idea to make him the promised son.

Fixing The Past

Genesis 21:10-12 So she turned to Abraham and demanded, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won’t have it!” 11 This upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son. 12 But God told Abraham, “Do not be upset over the boy and your servant. Do whatever Sarah tells you, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.

Abraham's home must of been full of drama and something drastic was needed to settle things down. He became upset at Sarah's demands to send his first born son away but God made it clear that he wanted Abraham to do it. Our flesh can bring us joys that God may need to strip away from us to give us his joy that is much greater. Abraham's home would never be peaceful with both of these boys growing up under the same roof.

Conflict between brothers is a common occurrence in the Bible, it reminds me of the conflict between Cain and Abel, I have to wonder if protecting Isaac is the reason that Ishmael was sent away so abruptly.

So Hagar is sent away again, this time she has her son with her, but just like the last time she leaves without a lot of provisions and finds herself in a desperate situation. Once again, Hagar felt desperate and helpless, she cannot recall God's promises when she learned about the God who sees her.

It seems odd to me that Abraham was so kind and hospitable to complete strangers back in Genesis 18:1-8 but Hagar was treated poorly both times that she left Abraham's household. There doesn't seem to be any reason that Abraham and Sarah didn't show any kindness or hospitality toward Hagar and Ishmael, they could have been more generous in giving them supplies or even an escort to help them get to a safe place. 

I think that it's interesting that Ishmael eventually had twelve sons but his brother Isaac only had two, it would be Isaac's brother Jacob that would have the twelve sons that comprise the tribes of Israel. (Genesis 25:13-15)

It was not through Ishmael the promised seed was to come, but the descendants of Ishmael had every inducement to retain faith in the God of Abraham, who listened to their father’s cry. The fact of being excluded from certain privileges did not involve that they were to be excluded from all privileges.

-Expositors Bible Commentary

God knew the heart of Ishmael when he had Abraham send him and his mother away. It didn't take long to prove that Ishmael didn't have a heart for God. Despite all of the blessings of living in Abraham's household and seeing how intimate his father was with God, and despite the blessings that were promised to him, with all of these advantages Ishmael still walked away from God.

Looking To The Future

Galatians 4:22-24  The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife.  23  The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise.  24  These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where people received the law that enslaved them.

None of the people in this Old Testament story could have understood what was playing out in God's plan and purpose but hundreds of years later the apostle Paul realized the two boys represented the two ways to please God.

God's first promised "son" was symbolic of his real "Son" that would come four hundred plus years later and Ishmael, the son of the servant, is likened to those who are slaves under the bondage of the law while Isaac is likened to those saved by God’s grace and freed from the law through faith in Jesus.

The law is good and living by the law is good but it isn't good enough, virtue and goodness can be lived out for a season but the problem with virtue is that we don't do anything with true virtue and the day will come when we will mess up and the law will be there to show us how bad we are.

Galatians 3:5  I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

I will never follow the law well enough to be qualified to go to Heaven, I can only get there by trusting in Jesus, his work on the cross is far better than any work that I can achieve through keeping the law. 

I must have a miracle birth to become a child of God so that I can inherit the riches that are promised to his children. (John 1:11-13 / 2 Corinthians 8:9)

Mercy Versus Legalism

Mercy is more important than trying harder.

John 5:1-18  Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.  2  Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches.  3  Crowds of sick people--blind, lame, or paralyzed--lay on the porches [waiting for a certain movement of the water,]

5  One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.  6  When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, He asked him, "Would you like to get well?"

7  "I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me."  8  Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!"

9  Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath,  10  so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't work on the Sabbath! The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat!"

11  But he replied, "The man who healed me told me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"  12  "Who said such a thing as that?" they demanded.  13  The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.  14  But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, "Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you."

15  Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.  16  So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules.  17  But Jesus replied, "My Father is always working, and so am I."  18  So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill Him. For He not only broke the Sabbath, He called God His Father, thereby making Himself equal with God.

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People around the world look for help through superstition and religious expressions that don't have any ability to help. In today's verses there are hundreds of people that sit by a pool waiting for the water to move because they believe that the first one in gets a prize. On this day Jesus chooses to meet with just one of them.

It's the same as it was for the woman that was on her way to a well in Samaria, Jesus had a plan to interact with certain people, his plan guided every step that he took. Unlike Nicodemus the woman at the well and this man at the pool were not looking for Jesus and when they first meet him they have no idea who he is.

Jesus Power

Jesus knew how to start a conversation, "Would you like to get well?" The man's response implies that he wants to be well but he is hopeless to be healed at this pool because he is friendless. Nobody is there to help him get in.

Maybe this guy is hoping that Jesus will be nice enough to put him into the pool the next time the water is stirred but instead he received his healing without delay. He was able to walk and he was able to pick up his mat and carry it off with him.

Notice the spiritual condition of this man, he didn't have faith that Jesus could heal him, he still didn't know who was telling him to get up and walk. Jesus choose to work in his life without any prerequisite amount of faith or belief, Jesus choose to work in his life when the man couldn't do anything to earn an intervention from Jesus. It was completely up to Jesus!

If Jesus could stand over this man and speak the recreation of his muscle tissue, then he could easily speak our world into existence.

Jesus Authority

What a shame that this man's story is marred by one fact. It looks like a happy time to us and a celebration is in order but everybody around him probably watched in horror as they saw him pick up his mat. They probably wanted to scream out to him to let it go.

Why couldn't Jesus wait a few hours and heal this man right after the Sabbath ended? Why did Jesus feel that it was necessary to go meet this one particular man and heal him alone? Jesus had a point to make and he would work through this man to make his point.

Jesus wanted to address the area of the religious leaders greatest sin, he wasn't just trying to antagonize them and stir things up for no reason, if Jesus stirs things up it is to show you something that you need to see. It is always disturbing when our sin gets pointed out.

Jesus Knowledge

Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time and besides that he also knew the reason for his illness. Sickness was blamed almost always on somebody making God mad at them. That was a teaching that was true of the pagan gods of ancient times.

We don't know if he straightened up his life and took Jesus advice to stop sinning. We do know that he exhibited some amount of faith when he got up, picked up his mat and started walking. We know that he was in the temple just a few minutes later when Jesus introduced himself to the man. Was he in the temple to praise God for healing him?

The New High Priest
Hebrews 4:15-16  This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

The religious leaders in the temple that day were amazed that someone would dare break their rules about keeping the Sabbath. They didn't realize the the person that made the original Sabbath rules was the one that was breaking their man made rules.The original law about the Sabbath had been expanded by the religious establishment, they had made it impossible to do anything but sit in a corner all day.

Are you passionate about your list of rules? Legalism is usually self serving, whoever is in charge of the list of rules is usually the one that is in control of everything and their passion for the rules is usually for their own benefit.

Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the LORD that He may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for He will forgive generously.

The appeal to Christianity is that it teaches mercy and forgiveness. Every other religious system points to their list and pulls out their scales to see how you measure up. Satan wants to get your focus off of grace and onto performance. His strategy is to beat you up with your inability to keep the entire list of rules.

Thank God we have a new High Priest that doesn't want us to live in fear for twenty-four hours. The old high priest was cold and heartless, instead of mercy and instead of rejoicing that someone is healed he points to his list of rules and lets you know which ones you are breaking.

Hosea 6:6 I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know Me more than I want burnt offerings.

Are you passionate for Jesus? Our new High Priest wants a relationship, he sympathizes with us, he knows how it feels to hurt, and he knows how it feels to be tempted. The new High Priest wants genuine worship, he wants our motivation to obey his teaching to come from love for him and hatred for sin.

Help us Lord to follow your example and become more merciful and forgiving.

Salvation: Made A Reality By Jesus

God's plan of salvation is fulfilled by Jesus sacrifice on the cross.

Ephesians 1:7-12  He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.  8  He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.   

9  God has now revealed to us His mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill His own good pleasure.

10  And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ, everything in heaven and on earth.  11  Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.

Luke 2:11 The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord, has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!

Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

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In yesterday's post from Ephesians 1:1-6 we learned that God has always had a plan. God wasn't caught off guard and he didn't say "Oops!" when Adam and Eve disobeyed him for the first time. The plan was somewhat of a mystery for thousands of years, mankind had a glimpse of God's plan, but we didn't know too much about it until he was ready to reveal the details to us.

The mystery of God's plan started to be revealed in the prophets and then in the announcement of Jesus birth when the angels told the shepherds that the Savior was born. Jesus' teaching continued to unveil the mystery and show us that God planned to save the world, not just the Jews, through Jesus death.

We know that God is loving, merciful and kind but the plan of salvation also reveals that God demands justice and perfection in order to have a relationship with him, we need a sacrificial lamb to purify us and make us right in God's eyes.

Jesus sacrifice is final

Hebrews 10:1, 4 The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. 4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were never meant to forgive sins. They were only a reminder of the fact that they had sin and that they needed the perfect and final sacrifice that God promised to send. There was only one sacrifice that could forgive sins, the only spotless lamb that could be offered was God himself, he knew when he created man that he would have to come down here and die in our place.

The only sacrifice that can cover my sins has been made and now I can enjoy a relationship with God for eternity. I didn't do anything to obtain this great favor with God, it is only because God is so rich in love and kindness that he wanted to make me right with him, what an awesome gift!

More scripture about God's plan: 2 Timothy 1:9-10

Related articles

• Salvation: Planned By God (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)
• He's Alive! Now I'm Alive! (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)
• How Far Will You Go (gracefallsac.tumblr.com)

Sacred Cows Can Stink The Place Up

Scripture

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Acts 15:1-2, 10-11  While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers:

“Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question.

10 So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? 11 We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.”

Observation

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Why does it have to be so hard? Why do we have so many rules about church?

•     It has to start at this time, it has to finish at this
•     The choir needs to sing
•     Why is my favorite hymn being ignored
•     The pastor sure went long today
•     That's the deacons job

Some of the stuff that we dwell on and the rules and procedures that we support need to be changed.

Good news, a group of Pharisees became believers. Bad news: they are still hanging onto the rules. These newly converted Pharisees that could not keep the law are now trying to burden the new Gentile believers with it, didn't they remember how badly the law was being abused and how none of them were able to keep it. How can they succeed when the Pharisees didn't.

Application

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Church shouldn't be a place that is "stinked" up with a bunch of rules. I will remember to do church with an attitude of love and forgiveness instead of a bunch of rules about being good and doing the right things.

Prayer

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Help us to let go of the sacred cows in our thinking on how to do church.

Who Is Your Teacher

Scripture

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Luke 6:1 – 49

39 He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

Observations

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Here are two examples of Jesus being watched by the Pharisees on the Sabbath, but we know that there were many other times that it happened. I imagine that it wasn’t just Jesus although he was watched more closely, I bet that they stood around all over town and inside the temple just waiting to catch a law breaker (you brood of vipers Matthew 3:7).

The Pharisees heart of hardness is exposed in verses 1 – 11 and then Jesus shows us his heart and tells us the better way to live in verses 17 – 39.

Jesus states in verse 39 that the blind cannot be a leader for the blind and then he says that we will be like our teacher. The question is who is your teacher going to be? Is it going to be the teachers of the harsh rules that you must follow or the way of Christ that teaches love, mercy, kindness and forgiveness?

Application

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Since I will become like my teacher, I choose to be taught by God and so I will study his word daily and put it into practice like the wise builder (verse 46 – 49).

Prayer

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I pray that I will be taught by you always and will put your words into practice