Jeremiah 22: 1-17

When God called His people he told them that they would have a covenant together – a bit like a contract – that would bind them to each other.  God would bless them and make them a blessing and all they needed to do was be faithful to him.  Here in Jeremiah we see again God’s people unable to live up to their side of the bargain.

 One of the purposes of the Covenant was to show the world what it looked like before the Fall.  It was the job of Abraham and his descendents to model right relationships with God, with each other and with the larger world.  They were to be a living example of Shalom – a deep sense of peace and rest that comes only in God’s presence.  One of the ways this was to happen was that they were to “do justice and righteousness.”  They were to be a shining example to the world that looking after each other – and even strangers was at the core of faithfulness to God.

 What is equally important to see in this passage is that it is only one generation from a good king – Josiah – to the bad king – Shallum.  Each and every generation must make their own choice as to whether they are going to be faithful to the Covenant or not.  Today, each and every generation must make its own choice whether it will embrace the true King and be faithful to Him and His call as well.  The blessings to us and to the world are immense when we choose a life of faithfulness and righteousness.

1 Samuel 15:17-23

The Israelites asked Samuel to give them a king so they could be like everyone else.  Not only did they get what they asked for but this simple request drove them deeper and deeper into themselves and away from the living God.  They already had a king – the Lord God – the just did know it or didn’t want to live with that fact.  They wanted something more familiar, more comfortable.  One of the reasons people hesitate to come to the Lord  - even when the weight of their sin is unbearable – is that they are more comfortable with the known quantity of their pain than the unknown quantity of freedom in Christ.  As Ecclesiastes says, “there is nothing new under the sun.”

 The question that the Israelites should have asked themselves – and the one we should ask ourselves everyday – is who do I want ruling my life?  Do I want someone who sees the end from the beginning and who is unaffected time and tide, or do I want someone like me – broken, selfish, fearful?  When the Israelites rejected Yahweh as king, they got Saul.  When we reject Jesus as king we get ourselves.  In neither case do we get what we need – thought usually we get what we deserve.

 When Saul is confronted over the behavior of his people he responds by laying the blame at their feet.  He takes no responsibility for them ignoring God’s directives.  The truth is that the people would have misbehaved anyway, but it is clear from Saul’s behavior that they are not seeing a life of faithfulness and righteousness being modeled from the top.

 When Jesus is king of our lives we will still misbehave but at least we know we have a King we shows us the right way and who has the power to forgive us along the way.  The only real question is will we follow in His way?

1 Samuel 8

This scene from the final days of the ministry of Samuel are so sad and yet so indicative of the fickle nature of the human heart.  We are prone to forget God and all he has done for us and go after whatever our heart says is right.  After all, considering how all of this mess started in Genesis it really isn't that surprising is it...

There are three things to take note of in this passage.  The first is how starts.  Remember why God put judges in place?  Because a generation arose that didn't know who God was or what He did for them.  Now we see Samuel's sons, who we must assume were taught about the living God and all his wondrous deeds, turing away from Him and from leading the people in righteousness.  Instead they turned to personal gain.  What this tells us is that just being taught about God doesn't mean that one's life will reflect that knowledge in action.

The second point to take away is that Samuel couldn't do this alone - nor could he be responsible for the outcome.  He work diligently for years to teach the people and even warned them of the consequences of the path they were choosing; all to no avail.  Samuel did his part and then he left it in the hands of God.  Sometimes we do our best and then we have to let people crash into walls if they so choose.  We just need to be sure they aren't crashing because we didn't warn them.

Finally, the call to Israel was to be a beacon to the rest of the world.  To show the surrounding peoples the truth of the living God through how they lived their lives.  It's the same call to God's people today.  It's a call to be in the world but not of the world.  To engage with the world but to demonstrate a different way that is not focussed on ourselves but on His glory.  But as the Israelites drifted away they asked for just the opposite.  They wanted a king so they could be like everyone else.  So God obliged them so they could learn the painful lesson - again - of what it is like to live outside of His plan.  Beware what you ask for because God might give it to you.

Judges 2: 10-19

As we move through the various books of the Old Testament we come face to face with the reality of the human heart after the Fall – we are all about ourselves.  Our tendency is to tell ourselves that we are okay, that we are good people.  We compare ourselves with someone “really bad” and then declare that we are doing all right.  But the Bible paints a different picture.  It paints a picture that shows the downward spiral humanity finds itself on once we rejected God’s sovereignty and decided we should rule our own lives.

 The book of Judges shows us what kind of relationship we were intended to have with Him.  It is supposed to be like a marriage covenant – a relationship of fidelity, loyalty and trust.  In an effort to restore this relationship – that He had done nothing to damage mind you – God puts in place a series of judges to help lead His people.  But as the book of Judges makes it clear, humanity’s response was to “whore after other gods.” In fact, as verse 19 points out, each time a judge died the people behaved even worse than they had previously.

The cause of this downward spiral was simple.  In verse 10 we are told that a generation arose that did not know the Lord God and what He had done for them.  They had no context for their lives other than themselves and what was running around inside their heads.  The same is true for us so many years later.  When we forget what the Lord has done for us – either because we are too focused on ourselves or because we have failed to actively open His word – we lose perspective.  We lose a nuanced sense of time and so we lose the ability of seeing the difference between what is truly important and what is simply tugging at our sleeves at that moment.

The call to God’s people has always been to keep the memory of His saving actions to forefathers at the front of our minds and hearts; and of course to teach them to the coming generations.  When we keep this perspective of life, everything else has a way of falling in to place so that we have the ability to see the world in a more realistic way.

Deuteronomy 11

There is no doubt that God is loving.  In fact we are told in the New Testament that God is love – that love is one of his main characteristics.  But often we seem to mistake the kind of love that God embodies with some sort of Hallmark sentiment.  God shows His love by never leaving His people, by always offering grace and forgiveness at the foot of the cross, by never changing His rules or softening them for us.  This last part seems a little counter intuitive doesn’t it.  But it’s not.

If you have ever been a parent, are a parent, have had a parent or have had to act in any way shape or form like a parent (i.e. teacher, uncle, boss, older sister, whatever) you have enforced rules.  In general those rules were in place to maintain some semblance of order and to keep people safe.  They were a tangible way of expressing love.  You didn’t soften them – at least I hope you didn’t – for one child over another or because someone was having a bad day.  Generally there were probably consequences for breaking those rules as well.

 Most of us would never argue with the need for rules and consequences.  But when it comes to God we either don’t want to believe that it works the same way or we have simply misunderstood grace.  God shows His love by establishing standards and then saying He expects us to live up to them.  He also says that there will be consequences for us if we fail.  If we actually love God and want to know the fullness of His love in our lives, we need to show our love by being obedient.  That’s what we expect from our children – so why would God be any different.  When I punish my daughter I still love her – in fact that is one of the ways I show her that I love her.  No matter what we do God will love us – but He will also punish us and potentially exclude us from His presence.  It’s a heavy idea I know, but unless we recognize that then we simply paint a picture of God worthy of a cute greeting card – soft, pliable and sentimental.  And I would never describe the creator of the universe in those terms.

Leviticus 5:14-19

Ah Leviticus.  The book which stops so many well intentioned people in their tracks as they attempt to read through the Bible from front to back. It seems like it so chock full of things that have little to do with life in the 21^st Century.  It seems in many ways so dark, so negative.  In reality, however, without Leviticus the entire New Testament doesn’t make any sense.  More than that, there are actually lots of very practical aspects for our lives to be found within the pages of this book.

What we see in Leviticus is the process of God putting in place the rules and regulations for people to be restored to righteousness – to right standing and wholeness – before God.  It was through these varying and different sacrifices that people were able to know forgiveness and sense God’s grace.  No sacrifice, no forgiveness.  This reality points us back to Genesis where God said that the result of eating from the tree at the center of the Garden would be death.

Out of an abundance of grace God allows those who are repentant to avoid that death by offering an animal sacrifice in their place.  God is also giving humanity the opportunity to see how futile it is to try and get themselves back into God’s good graces – even with animal sacrifices to help them.  The whole point of the sacrifices wasn’t really the animal being sacrificed; it was the attitude of the one coming to the altar.  Even this part humanity couldn’t get right.  They came offering sacrifices without offering their hearts or lives – that’s often not much different from today really.

In addition to pointing us backwards, Leviticus also points us forwards to the person and work of Jesus.  The trouble with the animal sacrifices was that they needed to be done year after year; and, as we’ve seen, they needed to be accompanied by a repentant heart to actually be effectual.  If you couldn’t make it to the Temple or have the resources for a sacrifice then you would have felt as though you could not know God’s grace or forgiveness.  So Jesus offered himself as the once and for ever sacrifice.

God said, “Now can you see that you can’t do this by yourselves, do you see how big the gap is between my holiness and your brokenness?  So just bring your hearts and I’ll do the rest.”  And he did.  Alleluia!

Exodus 20: 1-17

If you’re a parent or have ever been around kids (or frankly have ever seen a movie involving young kids) you are all too familiar with the constant “Why?”, “Why?”, “Why?” that follows almost every statement that an adult makes to a young child.  While it is a little annoying at times – alright, a lot sometimes – this is how little children process the world.  They want to know the reason and context for the rules and advice that they are being given.  It’s when they stop asking “Why” that we are really in trouble….

When we understand the context for things it becomes easier to integrate them into who we are and into the pattern of our daily living.  As we read the Ten Commandments it’s important to pause and see how God begins them.  I don’t mean just that the first Commandment is that we should have no other gods but God, but I mean verse 2.  Here God sets the context in which the Commandments are supposed to be seen.  These are not just random rules or the ramblings of an overprotective or dictatorial parent.  These guidelines arise from a much larger context – from a much larger story.

God says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”  God is not some inanimate idol upon which our pleas and supplications fall in vain.  God is a living and active being who can deliver His people from bondage.  He doesn’t angrily demand our worship and loyalty – thought he certainly could – he simply reminds us of his inherent nature and then points to an appropriate response.

By setting the Commandments in this context, God is also reminding us of the larger narrative.  He is reminding us of the displaced nature of our lives – we are separated from Him, from our home and from each other.  God has continued to work His plan of restoration and redemption by releasing the Israelites from bondage.  The Ten Commandments are part of that plan as well.  They outline simple ways that we can be involved in the work of our restoration.  They speak to a holistic approach to our relationship with God and with each other that is intended to supplement His work in bringing us to a new and restored home.

Too often the Ten Commandments are seen simply as a set of rules or boundaries.  But when we see them in their true context they both remind us of God’s plan to restore the world and they give us practical ways that we can embody that restoration.  Of course, God also knows that we will fail; so thank God for the grace we find at the foot of the cross.