Isaiah 40:6-14

I don’t really think this section requires a great deal of introducing, so we can dive straight in:

Verses 6-8

Isaiah begins by seeking God’s guidance for his prophetic ministry – rather than rushing headlong in after the command to simply “cry out”, he asks God for more detail. Personally, I find this approach quite challenging: I may catch a glimpse of a command from the Lord, then rush into it without considering how exactly He wants me to execute His will (rather like this blog, to be honest). I think it also comes down to use being afraid to seem as though we have doubts or anxieties – surely God will appreciate our service more if we work unquestioningly like machines. Of course not! God is our Father, not our employer (Rom 8:15), and He has given us the gift of being allowed to work with Him for the advancement of His Kingdom.

These verses bring our attention to a major theme of the Bible, which is what I’ll call ‘the frailty of man’. We humans have subdued nature in all kinds of ways (as we are supposed to – Gen 1:28), and we have all sorts of technologies and social systems in place that protect us from danger. These securities are not inherently bad, but they can often lead us into a feeling of invincibility, a feeling which, according to the Bible, couldn’t be further from the truth. Both the Prophets of the Old Testament, and the Apostles of the New use similes like the ones here to illustrate the fact that we are not so strong after all (Job 14:2; Ps 8:4; Jas 4:14). Rather than looking at how great we are compared to nature (which is in “bondage to corruption” just as we humans are – Rom 8:21), we should instead look to God’s glory, and realise that we could never even hope to compare with Him.

Lastly, God reminds us of His unchanging nature. Peter quotes these verses in 1 Peter 1:24-25, where he speaks of how the Word of God (which “lives and abides” in us as Christians) will raise us not in the frail state that we are currently bound to, but “imperishable” (1 Pe 1:23). We all change our minds all the time, whether about little decisions or big ones – sometimes we regret the choices we make – but it’s truly amazing to know that this never happens with God: “God is not man … that He should change His mind” (Num 23:19).

Prayer: Thank and praise God for His unchanging nature and awesome power, repent of feeling invincible – as if we don’t need God, and ask Him for detailed guidance in everything we do (Prov 16:33).

Verses 9-11

This is God’s answer to the question Isaiah posed in verse 6 (“What shall I cry?”) – He tells the prophet, and all of us, to “lift up your voice with strength”. The saying “preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words” (attributed by some to St. Francis of Assissi) is one that I have heard used quite a lot, extolling Christians to live exemplary lives (which we most definitely should do), but wrongly claiming that this will give better witness of the resurrection than simply telling people about Jesus. Personally, I believe that the Apostle’s technique will be far more effective: “every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus” (Acts 5:42).

And what are we to proclaim? For Isaiah, it was that the LORD is coming, bringing recompense and reward, for us, it is that the LORD has come, and He brought recompense then, and that He is coming again, and will bring reward for the righteous when He does. Jesus is God, and He came to earth to bring a recompense (a payment in return for injury) so that our debt of sin to God could be nailed to the cross and cancelled out fully (Col 2:14), and now the way is open for us – if we have faith in Him, we will receive His promised reward, “the crown of life” (Jas 1:12).

Verse 11 reminds us that God’s not all about might and power (though He is extremely mighty and extremely powerful), He also greatly loves His creation, and would love to tend to us with all gentleness, if we let Him into our lives. Jesus makes extensive use of the whole shepherd-and-flock metaphor regarding God’s relationship with us humans, probably just as much as He uses the Father-and-children metaphor. I think it’s clear that these are rather different kinds of relationship, and neither of them, taken in isolation, is the complete picture of how God chooses to relate to His people – as our Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14), God protects us from danger and allows us to graze upon yummy gifts in the green pastures of His grace (Ps 23).

Prayer: Thank God that He is always watching over us, and that He, as the perfect Shepherd, was willing to lay down His life to save us from death and repay our debt. Ask God for courage, to “fear not” (v9) and to be bold in telling others the good news.

Verses 12-14

These verses follow on from God’s declaration in verses 6-8. Here, like in Job 38-41, God gives us a glimpse of just how awesome He is. We could never “mark off the heavens with a span” (not least because the universe is expanding too darn quickly), yet such a task is nothing for the God who created the whole universe in the first place. I find this phrase in particular quite challenging “who taught Him the path of justice?” We all have some sort of innate sense of justice in our hearts, which I believe to be one of the ways in which all humans are in the image and likeness of God, and one of the blessings of His common grace upon all mankind, but we can wrongly assume that God’s sense of justice is the same as ours – this leads to us accusing God (like Job does), for not living up to our expectations, rather than searching His Word for what His expectations are (Ps 19:7-9), and asking the Holy Spirit to transform our minds into alignment with God’s will (Rom 12:2). God is the ultimate judge, and everything He does is holy, we can try to resist Him (and rest assured that we will fail) or we can submit to Him, and “have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

Prayer: Praise God for His power and justice, repent of thinking ourselves to be morally better than He is, and ask Him to teach us His statutes (Ps 119).

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I think I’ll call it there. Thanks for reading,

Matt.

PS. Please comment!

Isaiah 40:1-5

Before we dive in, I thought I’d provide a little bit of historical background for this part of the Bible, as it’s not always obvious from the text just what is happening contextually. I’ll make it clear right now that I’m no historian, so if I’m making any mistakes here, please correct me.

This section of the book of Isaiah is estimated (by the Life Application Study Bible) to have been written around 680 BC, towards the end of Isaiah’s prophetic ministry, which began some 60 years earlier around 740 BC. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had been conquered by the Assyrians (c. 720 BC), and Manasseh son of Hezekiah was king of the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Manasseh’s reign is described in 2 Kings 21:1-18, and 2 Chronicles 33:1-20. He was not a very good king at all, and he is recorded as having done “much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger” (2 Chr 33:6). Manasseh does eventually repent of his numerous sins towards the end of his reign, but I think it is clear from his biographies that Judah would not have been a place particularly welcoming of God’s Word, as spoken through Isaiah.

I don’t think going into extra detail here is necessary, so we can dive in:

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Verses 1-2

The passage begins with God commanding Isaiah to “speak tenderly”. This follows on from the first section of the book, throughout which God promises His judgement on Israel and Judah for their sins, and fulfils some of them in the reign of King Hezekiah (chapters 36-39). An major theme of the Old Testament (and the New, in fact) is God’s righteous punishment of sin (when God describes Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7, He proclaims His abounding love, forgiveness, and faithfulness, but then He reminds us all, that He “will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex 34:7), but will surely punish them). We believe that “God is not unjust” (Heb 6:10), and His punishments are never excessive or unfair. We all deserve to be punished for our sins, and it is only by God’s grace and mercy that we are spared.

Historically, the people whom Isaiah was supposed to be comforting still faced another 100 years of trouble before the Babylonians would capture Jerusalem, and a further 70 years in exile after that, yet they, as God’s chosen people, could take comfort in the promise, both of what awaited them after this life, and of the daily providence that God would bestow upon them. We Christians, like the people of Judah, have hard times ahead, as Jesus warns us (Matt 10:17,18,22; Matt 24:9), but we can take comfort that our sins have been paid for in full, not through a purgatory-like system by which we suffer as punishment, but because Jesus Christ, our God, put Himself “forward as a propitiation by His blood” (Rom 3:24). He took the punishment which we deserved upon Himself and died in our place, and because of this, we know that our “warfare is ended” and our “iniquity is pardoned” (v2).

Pray: Thank God that “mercy triumphs over judgement” (Jas 2:13), and that He has already paid for all our sins in full, so we don’t have to. Thank God that as well as eternal blessings, He also promises us comfort in this life, in spite of whatever trials we are going through.

Verses 3-5

The prophecy of verse 3 was fulfilled by John the Baptist (Matt 3:1-3; John 1:6-8), and it is our mission as Christians to do likewise. Jesus has commissioned us to go out as His “witnesses” to “the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8), and this may well involve us going through the desert, or even the “valley of the shadow of death” (Ps 23:4) as we prepare for the harvest (Matt 9:37-38). Fortunately, we are not expected to do this in our own strength: God promises that “every valley shall be lifted up” – the obstacles which we see as insurmountable will be levelled by the work of the Holy Spirit in and around our lives.

The end result of this labour is described in verse 5, the Lord Jesus coming again, very soon, and in glory. We who up until now have been called blessed for having not seen, but still believed (John 20:29), will finally see Him, and share in His glory forever as our eternal reward (Rev 21:7). We can look forward to this day, not with the fear that grips followers of other religions, who can never be sure that they have done enough to earn their salvation, but with the eager expectation that the Christians whom Isaiah was to comfort in verse 1 had – faith in God’s future grace.

Pray: Praise God for His glory, and ask Him, in faith, for guidance through the desert by His Holy Spirit and to make level the way for us (Isa 26:7). Thank God that His love cannot be earned, but that it is given graciously and freely, and that we can always trust in Him.

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I think I’ll pause there for today. Thank you for reading, and please, please, comment!

Back In Business (I hope)

Hello everyone,

I started this blog around nine months ago, and haven’t posted anything since then. That’s about to change. After a lot of faffing around, I decided that I should give this whole blogging thing another go. I have wanted to for a long time, but didn’t really know what direction to take it. Until I think of something more original, I’ll basically just post stuff relating to my personal Bible study (or devotion, or quiet time, or whatever you want to call it), with perhaps an occasional post on some topical issue or another…

For now the past couple of months, I’ve been making my way each day, very slowly, through the latter part of Isaiah (chapter 40 onwards), so I’ll essentially just be going through my notes and putting them up here, hopefully with a bit of structure. I don’t really have an agenda for this blog, but I thought it’d be nice to share my thoughts with anyone who’s kind enough to read them.

Importantly, I’d really appreciate interaction of some kind, so if you have anything to say, whether asking a question, answering a question that I’ve asked, or just making an observation, please say it. It really would mean a great deal to me.

I think that’s enough rambling for the time being. The first section of my journey through Isaiah will be posted shortly.

Have a great day,

Matt.

The Law – Part Two

I apologise for the severe delay in bringing Part Two to you, but I struggled a little in trying to remain neutral so I will ask now that you forgive me for any bias that may be present in my writing:  I have tried to present a purely Biblical perspective, but as a fallible human I have undoubtedly overlooked or misinterpreted something.

Therefore, if you read something and think “hold on – that’s just not Biblical!”, please point it out. I would much rather be corrected than continue believing something which is wrong. But I will say this:  if you make an argument against something I have written (or if you make any assertion at all, really), please provide specific references of Scripture which support what you’re saying.

That said, I hope you enjoy Part Two:

Part Two (1657 words):

There appear to be a number of misconceptions about what the Old Testament has to say for the punishment of sin, and it is important for Christians, in the light of the Gospel, to understand what God’s Word (which includes the entire Old Testament) really says about reward, punishment, and justice in general.

The first description of a system of justice in the Bible is in Genesis 2, before sin entered humanity, God had imposed a Law and explained to Adam and Eve that if they broke this Law, they would be punished (Genesis 2:17). The punishment which God chose to fit this crime of disobedience was death – not eternal suffering in hell, or lifelong suffering on earth, but death, the end of life and nothing more.

God knew that His Law would be broken even before He implemented it, and He knew that the people He created would choose to disobey Him, and that He would therefore punish them. It is important to note at this point that God does not detest punishment – He is holy and just (Deuteronomy 32:4), so He hates sin and everything to do with it. He also knew, before Creation, that He would send His Son to suffer the punishment for sin on behalf of humanity (1 Peter 1:20).

So the question here is similar to that of the nature of the law: why did God implement a system of punishment for sin, if He always intended for the ultimate punishment to be taken by Christ instead?

Once again, it is possible to examine the reasons why a system of punishment was implemented at all, and this is explained by a single phrase of Scripture which is repeated nine times in the book of Deuteronomy: “You must purge the evil from among you” (Deuteronomy 13:5, 17:7,12, 19:19, 21:21, 22:21,22,24 and 24:7).

All of these instances describe the punishment for sins against society such as: being a false prophet (punishable by death – Deuteronomy 13:5); showing contempt for priests or judges (punishable by death – Deuteronomy 17:12); being a false witness (directly violating Commandment #9 (Exodus 20:16) and punishable using the “eye for an eye” standard, which will be explained later – Deuteronomy 19:19); rebelling against one’s parents (directly violating Commandment #4 (Exodus 20:12) and punishable by death – Deuteronomy 21:20-21); having sex outside of wedlock (punishable by death – Deuteronomy 22:20-24); and kidnapping (punishable by death – Deuteronomy 24:7).

These sins do not just affect the sinner, but the innocent people around them; and for the sake of protecting the rest of society, God authorised His people to use capital punishment as a method for preventing any more innocent people from being hurt by a sinner’s selfish actions.

Interestingly, the Mosaic Law was not the first instance of God commanding that people were to capitally punish those guilty of murder: as early as God’s covenant with Noah, He explains that because every human is made in His image, murder is completely unacceptable, and to be punished by death (Genesis 9:6). This Law immediately follows from a command not to consume blood (v4), which was a rule that was preserved by the early church even after accepting that the Law was no longer necessary for salvation (see Part One, or Acts 15:24-29). One could argue that because this law was established even before Moses, that it stands firm as a commandment to be obeyed after Christ fulfilled all of Moses’ Law.

Capital punishment was, of course, not the only method of punishment. The other was a perfectly just system implemented in Exodus 21:23-25, and reiterated in Leviticus 24:19-20 and Deuteronomy 19:21 which has been summarised by one phrase: “an eye for an eye”. While it may be easy to misinterpret this rule and claim that God is advocating revenge, the real reason is simple: it is fair.

Excessively punishing lawbreakers was common practice in the nations which surrounded Israel (as an example, in Genesis 40, an Egyptian baker is executed for doing nothing except angering Pharaoh). To keep the Israelites as holy and separate from their neighbours, God decreed that the punishment should fit the crime: if a man maliciously breaks the arm of another man, he deserves to have his arm broken as punishment; if a man steals the sheep of another man, he deserves to have his sheep taken away as punishment; if a man takes the life of another man, he deserves to have his life taken away as punishment.

It could be argued that Jesus explicitly does away with capital punishment during His sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:38-39) although in fact, it was not the rule that Jesus sought to change, but a misinterpretation of it. It would seem that certain people were using this perfectly just system of punishment as an excuse for revenge when in fact, this rule encouraged the opposite of vigilante revenge.

The purpose of the “eye for eye” rule was not so that the person wronged could get back at the person who wronged them, but for society as a whole to carry out a fair punishment. It is not the responsibility of one person to decide how justice should be served, it is God’s decision, and He entrusted maintaining justice to society as a whole, not individuals.

On an individual level however, Jesus encourages His followers to forgive anyone who wrongs them (Matthew 6:14, Mark 11:25, Luke 6:37, 17:3-4), but does this mean that His followers are to dispose of any justice system and proclaim forgiveness to anyone who sins in their entire society? Surely not, for each individual only has the authority to forgive sins against them. To give an example, if one person were to hurt another, would a third person be right to come and say to the first person, “I forgive you”? Of course not, it is the second person’s (the one who was hurt)’s responsibility to forgive.

In the same way, followers of Christ are to be unrelenting in their forgiveness of sins against themselves (Matthew 18:21-22), but against others or against society as a whole, or against the God, are to uphold justice as fervently as God Himself, for holiness requires justice (1 Peter 1:13-16).

An example from the New Testament is John 8:2-11, the famous story of Jesus forgiving a woman caught in adultery. Is Jesus completely doing away with the Law’s system of punishment and condoning immorality? Fortunately not.

Firstly, it is important to look at why Jesus was even in a position to save or condemn this adulterous woman. Verse 6 explains that the Pharisees and religious teachers (who would have violently upheld Moses’ laws on punishment, probably without seeing its true purpose which is to make society more holy) were trying to trick Jesus by asking whether or not they should execute this woman. If Jesus had condoned the execution, the Pharisees would have reported Him to the Roman government, because under Roman law, only the government was allowed to execute criminals (John 18:31). If Jesus had stopped the execution, the Pharisees would have accused Him of turning away from the Law of Moses, which Jesus would not do (Matthew 5:17).

This was not the last time the Jews would try to trick Jesus with questions on the Law (Matthew 22:15-22), and this time, like the others, Jesus saw through their trickery and was able to give an example which was both legal and Biblically right. Jesus prevented any involvement of the Roman government, which would have complicated the issue; Jesus also prevented an execution which would have been illegal under Jewish law too:  Deuteronomy 22:22 explicitly commands that both the man and the woman who committed adultery were to be executed, but in this instance the man is no-where to be seen, and it is likely that he was set free because of his gender.

Far more importantly, Jesus also emphasised the danger of hypocrisy, by saying that only those who were sinless were entitled to execute a sinner, and the importance of repentance and regeneration, by commanding the woman to turn away from her sinful ways.

Whether Jesus would have approved of a more legal execution, it is impossible to tell from this story; however, there is one more example from Scripture of Jesus’ involvement in execution – the crucifixion.

As most Christians know, there were beside Jesus two criminals on crosses of their own (Luke 23:32,39-43). The interesting part of this story is that Jesus forgives one of these criminals, and promises him paradise, but allows the execution to continue. Jesus could easily have saved the new Christian from death and sent him out as an apostle, but He didn’t. He respected the fact that the man was a criminal and deserved to die for his crimes – though because of Jesus’ death, he was given a gift much greater than temporary freedom on earth.

Of course, God’s forgiveness through Christ extends even to murderers and other lawbreakers (1 Timothy 1:12-17), and anyone who commits any crime may rely on God for absolution, if he/she accepts Jesus’ sacrifice on his/her behalf, but that same person cannot expect to be set free from their duty to uphold God’s Law, which demands punishment for certain sins.

Now the church should be wary of becoming judges over the earth and condemning everyone (John 3:17, Matthew 7:1, James 4:11), but this does not have to be the case. As is pointed out in James 4:12, “there is only one Lawgiver and Judge”, God, but God has already given the Law, and He has appointed His people to uphold it, including the aspect of it which deals with punishment.

For if Christians are to obey the moral law of the Old Testament (see Part One), surely the laws regarding punishment of sinners are just as much a part of it as the laws for right living, for loving God and one’s neighbour, and are to be obeyed in the same way.

The Law – Part One

As promised, although slightly delayed, the first real section of my essay on the Old Testament Law. I apologise for its length, but I think going into detail is necessary to fully understand the text. Part two will follow eventually, but will probably be a little while yet.

I hope you enjoy reading, and, of course, feel free to comment:

 

Part One (1896 words):

Upon reading Moses, the first kind of law we find in Exodus 20 are moral laws – the Ten Commandments. These, along with others, serve to illustrate the standard of living which God expected from His people. Jesus, when teaching on the Law, shows that all of these commands can be summarised by two rules: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37 and Deuteronomy 6:5) and “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:39 and Leviticus 19:18).

Again, John says that God’s message from the very beginning was one of love (1 John 3:11), and not just that God commands us to be loving, but that He loves us, for through teaching us the right way, He makes us able to avoid sin and its consequential suffering.

To Christians, it is clear that moral laws such as these should be obeyed, but are they necessary for one to be granted eternal life? Paul would argue not in Galatians 3 and Ephesians 2:8,9, but this is not an invitation to throw away the Law and live evilly. James explains that when one has true faith in God and in Christ, one will naturally seek to obey God’s Word and His Law (James 2:22).

What would happen if one claiming to be a Christian were to stop following these moral laws? Would he/she still be saved? Surely not, for the Holy Spirit who dwells in all believers (Romans 8:9) encourages us to obey Jesus and His Father (John 14:23), so if someone chooses to deliberately disobey, perhaps one could question whether the Holy Spirit was really in such a person, and whether his/her faith was genuine.

Even if one did not actively try to obey each individual precept given by Moses, one who was filled with the Holy Spirit naturally would, for he/she would be motivated by love, firstly love for God, then love for others.

It cannot be stressed enough that mere obedience of the Law; or even love for each other can never save a person from damnation. This comes only through grace, by faith in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:8,9).

Now for the second kind of Law which occupies chapters 25-30 of Exodus, and the first seventeen chapters of Leviticus – the ceremonial law. This deals primarily with the ritual of sacrificing animals to God.

The first three of these sacrifices, the Burnt Offering (Leviticus 1), the Grain Offering (Leviticus 2) and the Fellowship Offering (Leviticus 3) were voluntary acts done by Israelites as a sign of devotion to God, similar to the way we worship God through singing and giving charity and serving others. The other two sacrifices, the Sin Offering (Leviticus 4:1-5:13) and the Guilt Offering (Leviticus 5:14-6:7) were compulsory sacrifices which members of the community had to make to atone themselves of their sin (as well as paying restitution to those they had wronged – more on that later).

The author of Hebrews discusses these offerings at length (in particular, the Sin and Guilt Offerings) and how the entire system of sacrificing an animal life in place of a human life could never sufficiently cleanse one of sin (Hebrews 10:1-4). This is because sacrificing an animal (or a similar modern punishment such as paying a fine) may be able to redeem one from sin, but does nothing to change the nature of a person. The Israelites were merely stuck in a loop of sin and sacrifice, then sin again and sacrifice again, because their hearts were not changed the act of killing lambs.

On the other hand, Christ (who never sinned – 1 Peter 2:22, 1 John 3:5) provided the perfect sacrifice once and for all, His blood was able to provide atonement for every sin (Hebrews 9:28). Not only did Jesus take away the sins of those who believe in Him (John 1:29), but through faith in Him, the Holy Spirit chooses to dwell inside each and every believer, and transform their nature to be like Christ, and hence to avoid sin (Romans 6:6,11,14, 2 Corinthians 3:17,18, 1 John 3:6).

Since Jesus was and is superior in every way to the old system of sacrifice, there is no need for Christians to continue its practice, but what of other ceremonial laws?

The issue of circumcision is discussed at length in Acts 15, as well as Galatians 5, and the Biblical view on it is clear, so there is no need to dwell on it.

(For those unfamiliar with Acts 15: at the time the Jewish Christians believed that to become a Christian, one first had to become a Jew and be circumcised, Paul said that this was contradictory to what Jesus taught about salvation being by grace, not a deed like getting circumcised. Additionally, uncircumcised Gentile believers had already received the Holy Spirit, proving that they did not require circumcision. As a result of this, the church in Jerusalem agreed that circumcision was no longer necessary in any way for one to become a Christian – hence it is not practiced by the Church, and never has been).

Another example which played an important part in the development of the early church was the law of clean and unclean food (Leviticus 11). Should Christians eat the meat of animals which Jews (and Jesus Himself) would not have eaten and would have considered unclean?

 

It is clear from the story of Peter’s Vision in Acts 10:9-20 that the answer is unambiguously “yes”, but little justification is given in that text. Of course, one should demand to know God’s reasoning (Acts 10:15), but it begs a question which is crucial to fully understanding the Law – why did God impose a rule about clean and unclean animals, then later rescind His command?

Essentially, one must understand the reason such a Law was established in the first place. Surely it was not to bring the Israelites into any deeper relationship with God because of what they ate, or to prevent them from sinning in a way which causes suffering in others, for Jesus makes it clear that one is not made clean or unclean by what one eats, but how he/she lives (Matthew 15:11). And if there were any great health risk in eating pork, God would surely have never created pigs.

This Law, like others throughout Deuteronomy 12-20 was given with the purpose of making the Hebrews a clearly separate people from their neighbours (who had no rules about eating anything), and set apart by God. An example of when this was put into practice is Daniel 1:5-15, where Daniel and his companions refuse to eat the food of the Babylonians so as to avoid defilement. Rather than simply join in the customs of their captors, these young men are able to take an obvious step towards living for God and obeying Him, rather than giving into peer pressure, and God rewards them for it (v15).

At the time when these laws were given, they were very important for the people of Israel to remind them that they were chosen by God, but after Christ came for everyone such a separation of Jew and Gentile was no longer necessary (Colossians 1:11).

For the purposes of integration, the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) suggested a compromise between forcing Gentiles to obey the now obsolete (because it had been fulfilled by Christ, according to Matthew 5:17) ceremony and forcing Jews to cast aside millennia of tradition, it was decided that certain key laws such as abstaining from eating blood (Leviticus 17) and avoiding sexual immorality (Leviticus 18) should be enforced across the entire Church, so that all Christians could be “of one mind” (2 Corinthians 13:11).

The next section of Leviticus after the offerings (chapters 12-15) contain a list of regulations regarding personal and communal hygiene. These laws were given not to help one know God better, but simply to reduce the spread of disease (which, as a form of suffering, was a consequence of sin, but not a punishment for it) throughout the nomadic Israelite community.

In today’s society, hygiene is controlled in a very different way to that which is prescribed in the Bible, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Surely God knew that in the future, more effective measures for preventing the spread of disease than permanent isolation (Leviticus 13:46) would exists, and He also knew that describing a course of antibiotics to the Israelites would have been pointless.

In Leviticus 18, a Law which has caused as much controversy today as any other is presented in verse 22: “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman”. Both Testaments explicitly forbid homosexual relations, as they do rape, murder and drunkenness.

What is important to remember, is that being tempted is very different from succumbing to the temptation and sinning – for Christ Himself was tempted (Matthew 4:1-10), yet resisted and was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). For as easily as Satan tempted Jesus with food and power, he could have tempted Him with sexual immorality or pleasure. Since Jesus was fully human and grew up as a normal boy, He would have faced the same temptations every young man faces, yet He proved that resistance was possible, and that the crown of life promised in James 1:12 is attainable, and was first attained by Christ.

It is clear, therefore, that sin exists in the practice, not in the temptation, though this may appear to contradict Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:22 and 28, but it does not. Continuing on the theme of lust, one could easily be tempted to look at a woman and think lustfully of her, but the temptation can be overcome and the sin avoided entirely, the same applies to homosexuality, murder, adultery and jealousy.

That said, practicing homosexuality is no more or less severe a sin than any other (James 2:10,11) and just as God used murderers like Moses (Exodus 2:12), David (2 Samuel 11:15), Paul (Acts 8:1) or doubters like Nathaniel (John 1:46) or Thomas (John 20:24) in His plan, He could also use homosexuals or other sexual sinners, if they turn in repentance to Christ.

Leviticus 19 (similar to Deuteronomy 22:1-12, and 23:15-25:19) is a difficult section of the Law to interpret, for where before there was a clear distinction between moral and ceremonial law, there is none here. In two verses (v26 and 27 of Leviticus 19) is a command to avoid sorcery (clearly a moral law) and a regulation on facial hair (clearly a ceremonial law). So which ones should Christians obey?

It would be a huge feat to examine each individual law in detail, so instead, one should apply the same criteria Jesus did in discerning which commandments were most important (Matthew 22:37-40). For each individual Law, the reader should ask him/herself ‘Is this Law focused on loving God and/or loving my neighbour?’ If the answer is no, it is probably a ceremonial law and its application today may (or may not) be vastly different to its application when the command was given.

Now that the two major kinds of Law have been established, it is possible to progress to the next aspect of the Old Testament Law, as found in Leviticus 20: its consequences. Namely, the rewards for obedience and the punishments for disobedience, and how they should be applied to Christian society today.

 

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Thanks for reading, and God bless,

Matt.

The Law – Introduction

Hello all,

In light of some of the discussions I had been having at Soul Survivor this year, I thought I’d put my thoughts regarding the Old Testament Law down in some sort of essay. It’s not finished yet, but I’ll post it in sections as I go – here’s the introduction, and the first main part of the essay should follow later today or tomorrow.

(Please comment, it will make me feel happy).

 

Introduction (461 words):

It seems to be the case that standard Evangelical doctrine suggests that obeying the Law of Moses as set down in the Pentateuch (henceforth simply “the Law”) would never be sufficient or essential for one’s salvation. Paul argues this in his letter to the Galatians, and in other Epistles that this is the case (for example, Galatians 3:11).

This fact could be accepted easily, and is by many Christians, but it begs one question:  why did God establish the Law in the first place if He had always intended to do away with it on the cross?

One could perhaps argue that the Law was established first, and that only after its futility was realised did God send Christ to redeem those who had inevitably fallen away from it, but this is easily refuted by the following points:

Firstly, that the Son was always present with the Father (Jn.1:1, 17:21-25), long before the Law was established, or even before sin took root in the earth, in fact, the whole Trinity has always been present since creation (Ge.1:2).

Secondly, that a Messiah was promised long before Moses by God to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, for surely no-one before Jesus could be viewed as a blessing for all the people of the world – Moses taught only for the Hebrews, and the prophets usually directed their messages at specific groups – only Christ’s message of grace was truly universal (Jn.3:16, 11:26 to name a few examples). In fact, the plan for a Messiah who would conquer death was revealed as early as Ge.3:15.

The Law itself also points forward to Christ, whose very purpose was to fulfil the Law, not do away with it (Mt.5:17). In Ac.7:37, Stephen argues that the laws concerning a ‘prophet’ (Dt.18:15-19) are applied to Jesus.

As we can see, God’s plan all along was to freely give salvation through His Son, so why not send Him to earth sooner, before even establishing the Law? If the Law served only to add to sin (Ro.5:20), was it wholly necessary? For surely sin existed long before Moses. And if the Law served only to shed light on humanity’s sinfulness (Ro.3:20) then why would God choose to reveal it by means of Moses, a sinner, rather than through His Son. Surely Jesus could have explained the entire Law which God expected people to follow during His ministry, and no-one would be able to dispute Him because He was completely sinless.

The answer to God’s motive in the Law may lie in the nature of the Law itself, as I shall explore in two parts: firstly I shall examine the two kinds of Law (moral and ceremonial) and how they apply to us as Christians today.

 

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Again, please comment with your thoughts/suggestions/questions.

Thanks for reading, and God bless,

Matt.

 

EDIT: Corrected a little bit of grammar, and tidied up Scriptural references.

About

Greetings!

Before diving into some theology, I thought I’d better explain the purpose of this blog, and the sort of thing I’d like to do with it.

Firstly, this blog was created as a way for me to study God’s Word (the Bible) in more depth and in so doing to learn more about God, and then to share what I have learned with you (the readers).

Secondly, this blog was intended as a place for me to pose questions to you (the readers) which I cannot answer myself, and similarly for you as readers to pose questions to me and other readers, so that as a Christian family we can all grow in our knowledge of God.

Now, I think it’s only fair to warn you that some of the content I post will be controversial – anyone who knows even the basics of Christianity knows that our God is a pretty controversial God, and that His Word is a pretty controversial book. As a Christian, I believe in the absolute authority and inerrancy of Scripture (in other words, I believe that the Bible is God’s Word and that it is completely, and literally, true and accurate, and should be obeyed above any other authority (2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 4:12,13, Psalm 119:160), and so I will endeavor to ensure that everything I post is in line with the Bible.

With this in mind, I invite you (the readers) to debate on the issues I post and to present your own ideas; however, I will ask that whenever you make an assertion, you back it up with Scripture (there are enough Bible search-engines on the internet that you should be able to find specific verses quite easily).

Essentially, if you don’t have the Bible to back you up, you don’t have an argument, so I would ask you to not simply make claims such as “Jesus said this” or “the Bible says this” without referencing a specific verse, or at the very least a specific chapter of the Bible.

I’m sorry if I’ve bored you with this, but I think its an important point to bear in mind when discussing any theology in this sort of context.

As an aside, the settings of this blog mean that if you comment, your comment will not appear immediately until it has been moderated (by me) – this is a standard measure taken by most blogs to avoid random people posting spam or certain unfriendly folk posting inflammatory material; however, once you have had a comment approved, you will be free to comment as much as you like without further moderation (I hope you understood that, if not, just make a comment and you’ll see how it works).

Thanks for reading, and God bless,

Matt.