April 14th 2012

Earlier this week we talked about some of the other man-made laws of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. Today we are going to look a little deeper into what this was like.

Read Mark 7:1-4 and journal your thoughts

Notice in Mark 3, how they refer to the “Tradition of the Elders”, what is that? The Tradition of the Elders is a part of the Oral Law, which is a sort of interpretation of how to live the Law. What had happened is that the Tradition of the Elders became a sort of safe guard to sin, so that it became wrong to do things that weren’t sinful, because they could lead to sin. For example, lust is sinful, use of the internet could lead to lust, therefore you shouldn’t use the internet.

The problem with these Traditions was not only did it make the Law almost impossible to uphold but the religious leaders were able to use it to create loopholes from doing other parts of God’s Law. If you read Mark 7:5-13, you see that Jesus calls them out on just that. Here Jesus talks about how “Corbin” keeps them from honoring their mother and father. So what’s that about?

In their culture, when someone got older they didn’t have a retirement package, or anything like that, instead they worked to provide until they couldn’t anymore. When this happened they became dependent on their children to provide for them. The other part of this piece of Scripture is in their traditions; one could designate their money as “Corbin” which meant it was devoted to God, or that it wouldn’t go towards secular or personal uses. Instead it was consecrated to the service of God in the temple. This of course raises the question; who is in charge of the temple money? They are.

As you think about this today, ask yourself if there are any traditions that we do today that keeps us from the things God wants us to do?

April 13th 2012

When reading the Scriptures, one thing we have to understand is that we are talking about a people who have the Torah (First 5 books of the Old Testament) memorized, and when we’re talking about the Rabbis and the disciples they would have had the entire Old Testament memorized. Because of this they debated, argued, and taught by only quoting a small piece of Scripture, but referring to the entire context of that piece of Scripture. Sometimes they would quote just by using certain words

Read Matthew 25:31-32 and Ezekiel 34:17 and journal your thoughts

Did you catch it? Jesus refers to Ezekiel 34:17 just by talking about judging sheep and goats. In our culture it is like talking about an entire TV show by saying “you know the one where…” and all of a sudden we begin to think about the entire episode.

The problem is for people like us, who do not have the entire Old Testament memorized how in the world are we supposed to recognize that? The key for us when it comes to trying to figure out what’s going on is to look for words that seem a bit out of place. For example a reference to sheep and goats, we key in on those words and do a quick Google search on times that phrase is used in the Old Testament.

With this in mind, what Jesus is saying in this piece of text? According to Ezekiel 34:17 who is the one who judges the sheep and the goats? (Answer: God) So, what is Jesus saying about himself? (Answer: Jesus links himself with God). In their culture this would have been not only a bold claim, but it would have been outrageous, Jesus is essentially referring to himself as God. Remember, this is a group of people who would even say the name of G-d, let alone claim to be him.

Today take some time to read the Scriptures and meditate on words and discover if there is more there than meets the eye.

April 12th 2012

In order to help us understand what is happening in the Scriptures we have to understand how they used certain words.

Read Matthew 11:28-30 and journal your thoughts on what the word “Yoke” means

Traditionally when we look at the word “yoke” we are reminded that a yoke is a piece of farming equipment that binds two animals together. Since the people of ancient Israel were farmers, this must be what it means, right? Problem is so often when we are reading Scripture it’s easy for us to get lazy with words like that and stop there. The way we use words change depending on their context. For example, 30 years ago the word “cool” meant “cold”, but then it began to evolve to mean “awesome”.

This piece of Scripture is no different, yes “yoke” does refer to a piece of farming equipment, but the Rabbis also used this term to mean something else. For the Rabbi the word “yoke” referred to their teachings. For example how a given Rabbi interpreted Scripture was their yoke, while another Rabbi may have a different interpretation or yoke. Think about it like different denominations today, Baptists have one set of beliefs (yoke) that they are trying to spread, while the Methodists have another.

Now re-read Matthew 11:28-30 with this in mind think about the yoke of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and other religious groups of the time. Think about the heavy burden of trying to keep all those commands that went above and beyond Torah (God’s Law). Now think about the words of Jesus saying his heart is humble (compared to the religious leaders – Matthew 6:5). Think about when Jesus talks about his teaching being light, wait there is a way to follow God that is actually possible by someone other than the super religious? Jesus is offering a new way to follow God’s Law that gets rid of all the legalism and the showing off.

Today meditate on the legalism in our denominations today and how the way of Jesus would be different.

April 11th 2012

Sometimes when uncovering a piece of Scripture the key to understanding is knowing who wrote it.

Read Revelation 21:1-4 and journal some thoughts.

There is a lot about this verse I get. I get the idea of the old heaven and old earth being transformed into this new place. I get the image of the bride and the bridegroom, and I get the image of no more tears or pain, or sorrow. What I don’t get is this little line thrown in verse 1 where John says “there will be no more seas.” Why not?

When most of us think of the seas we think of relaxing on a beach, and warm weather. When we stand at the edge of the world and look out into the seas some of us may be struck by the awe and wonder of the expanse of God’s creation. Maybe some of us look out into the seas and sense that there is something out there beaconing us to a great adventure.

What about John, how would he have viewed the seas? From what we know about John, when he wrote the book of Revelation he is exiled on the island of Patmos. With this in mind, what do you think the seas represent to John? You can imagine that for John the seas represent a great divide, a wall that separates him from everyone he knows and loves. We can understand this today when we have our loved ones scattered all over the country (if not the world). Right now we could probably close our eyes and imagine loved ones hundreds of miles away that we would love to be with right now.

This is what John is saying when he says there will be “no more seas” he’s saying all those things that keep us apart, whether its seas, roads, highways or byways will be gone. We will be with the ones we love and care for the most forever.

Today may you dream of a place where there will be no more tears, no more pain, or sorrow, may you dream of a place where we are no longer separated from those we love the most, and may you discover that dream will someday become a reality.

April 10th 2012

When we study the Scriptures we have to keep in mind how the time period impacts their story.

Read 1 Samuel 13:19-22 and journal why you think they had this problem

Have you ever read this piece of Scripture and asked yourself why didn’t they have any blacksmith’s? You would think in that culture, under constant threat of invasion, that a blacksmith would be a pretty important piece to your society. This raises the question, why didn’t they have one?

When we take a step back and look at the timeline of events we discover the events in 1 Samuel are happening as the world begins to transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The ability to work and manipulate iron was something totally new to them, and so some people groups had the ability and others didn’t. We see the same sort of thing today with the use of nuclear weapons, so countries have the technology and others don’t. In today’s Scripture, the Philistines had the technology and Israel didn’t.

Ask yourself this question; how does this change the way you view their battle? How does this change the way that they were dependent on God? All of a sudden we see the story in a whole new light, on one side we see this massive army with full armor and swords and on the other side farmers with nothing but their tools to fight with. Now we can see how dramatically the odds were against Israel, and yet God was faithful and fought with them and defeats the Philistines.

Today as you are reading Scripture, take a step back and ask how does the time period help define what’s happening.

April 9th 2012

Have you ever been reading the Gospels and sometimes Jesus will talk about the Kingdom of God and other times he talks about the Kingdom of Heaven?

Read Matthew 5:3 and Luke 6:20 and journal your thoughts

So what’s that about? Are there two different Kingdoms? If there are then, what’s the difference between them? How are we supposed to know?

What we are experiencing here is the importance of understanding who a given book of the Bible was written to. When we begin to discover who the book was written to, we begin to uncover the context in which the book was written. In today’s Scripture Jesus is saying the same thing but uses different words; why?

What we know is that the Gospel of Matthew is written to the Jews. Now, within the Jewish culture they have a very serious reverence for the name of God. So much so, that even today when they type the name of God they type it G-d. In Jesus culture the name “Yahweh” was not allowed to be spoken because of their reverence for God. Because of this, whenever Jesus talks about God’s Kingdom in the book of Matthew we see this phrase “Kingdom of Heaven”. Now, the book of Luke is totally different, it is written for the outcast, so we see Luke using “Kingdom of God” to help his hearer to better understand what he’s trying to say.

This is why it’s so important to understand who the audience is of a given piece of Scripture. When we begin to hear the words of the Bible through the lenses of the original hearers, all of a sudden the Biblical world comes to life and we begin to see the story with clearer eyes.

Today as you study Scripture, begin to ask yourself the question; how would the original audience have heard this?

April 8th 2012

This morning is a special morning, today begins the Feast of the Firstfruits! Read Deuteronomy 26:1-10. The Feast of the Firstfruits is when the farmers of Israel would take the first fruits of the field and offer them to God as a way of showing their trust in God’s provision.

Read John 12:23-24 and journal your thoughts

This was the context for Resurrection Sunday, imagine once again how Jesus’ followers must have felt yesterday as they attended Sabbath services. How they listened to Ezekiel 37:5, about how God raises the dead, all the while their Messiah is dead. All hope is lost. The next day, they would bring the very first of their crops as an offering to God, which was a way of showing their trust that God provides. Just like when God provided the ram when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, so God was going to provide for his people again.

But little did the people know, this Feast of the Firstfruits was going to be very different from the ones before it. God had provided again, just not in the way they were expecting. Firstfruits represented not just giving their first, but their best. A sheep’s first sheer was its softest or its best, the first crops of the year was considered to be the best. On this Firstfruits, God gives his first, his best, as a way of providing for His people.

Today meditate on the ways that God provides for you, and take some time to thank God for His provisions.