Our God is Sovereign (Deuteronomy 2)

There is a very dangerous idea creeping into the Christian church today known as “open theism”, basically the idea that history is partly open-ended. Or, to put it a different way, that God is making things up as He goes. Perhaps this allows that He foreknew events that were and are to happen, but at any rate He did not plan them. The God who created atoms and chemical combinations and osmosis and stars and the planets and light can not control history, but He’s doing His best to shape it how He wants it.

This is a blatant lie and it completely obliterates God’s sovereignty. Does it really sound like the God who created time doesn’t control the events that happen within it? And on top of that He's not a machine who can simply predict all possible outcomes. God is not a computer that can simply calculate all the different possible events of history from which He chooses the best one, no, God is God and in complete control.

I think this theology is coming about as an easy response to the question of “Why does God allow bad things to happen?” At first this response is comforting: “Okay, God didn’t plan for that to happen, it’s not His fault, He’s trying to deal with it like me.” This comfort grows thing when we realize that in order to accept this we lose the person of God! How can you have a perfect Being with perfect power who can’t control the future? And if God can’t stop bad things from happening, who can?

When suffering and pain happens to us it is much more comforting to know that God is sovereign, God is in control, and He will see me through this. It may be harder to swallow at first (“Why would God allow this to happen to me?”) but in the end we have more hope and a firm foundation if we acknowledge our God is in complete control.

But somehow for us, just like Israel in Deuteronomy 2, its hard to know what God’s up to and its hard to know why He would allow us to face such trials. Here in Deuteronomy 2 the nation of Israel has been turned away from the Promised Land and forced to wander around for many years in the wilderness. This is a trial, and a hard one.

But once again, this is a trial that God is in complete control of – not as a bully who’s simply trying to see who can last or survive, or who can “pass the test”, but as a loving God who wants people with obedient and loving hearts.

When you think about it, if you look to your life or other’s lives you find that we often grow the most in trials, in the most difficult moments of life. We find strength or character we didn’t know we had; if you believe in God you come out the other side of trial with a fuller faith and a stronger conviction in God’s saving hand.

In the New Testament, after Jesus had rose again and the good news was spreading and people were becoming Christians daily, the Apostle Peter wrote a letter to believers who were being hunted and murdered for their faith. The Roman Empire was a little different than the United States and to say you believed in Jesus often meant death. This was largely because Caesar was God and to say Jesus was God was treason. But as Christians, we’re not really allowed to say anything else. So many Christians faced severe trials where they had the choice of leaving the faith or dying, often painfully These Christians were so changed and so convinced that Jesus had died for them and Jesus was God that they chose death over life.

Peter wrote to address such suffering. Imagine Peter, a church leader, a pastor, overseeing churches and seeing people’s lives change, and as his church grows people start getting murdered. Imagine being a pastor and not knowing who would make it to church next Sunday because your people were being hunted and killed – imagine officiating as many funerals as weddings.

Yet Peter does not write about the persecution of the church as a horrible misfortune that is out of God’s hands, but rather, he place their situation right in it. In fact, read how Peter begins his letter:

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (1 Peter 1:1-2)

Look at his language! He doesn’t just call them “exiles”, he calls them “elect exiles”, as in, they had been chosen to be exiles, and Peter emphasizes “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” God appoints where we live and when we live there, and He is in complete control over the location of every one of these exiles. And with the benefit of hindsight we can now see that the gospel would not have spread nearly as quickly as it did if it hadn’t been persecuted and dispersed. So what was a horrible time where it seemed like God had no control, God had complete control.

The letter continues:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Look at what joy and faith Peter had in God even in the midst of persecution!

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise, and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:3-8)

For a letter written to a dying people this is unexpectedly joy-filled. This is not a depressing war-time speech to “Give it all you got” and “Hold on to the end”, no, the persecuted believers are heading towards Christ and His victory, through which they have gained everything! The future is unimaginably glorious and bright for those who believe in God. In comparison to such joy present sufferings are endurable and they will pass. As the writer of Hebrews puts it:

…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Christianity is one of the only religions that can offer an answer to suffering because it will pass. As it says in Revelation:

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Rev. 21:4)

Ever since Jesus rose from the dead and promised to return we have been in a situation much like Israel wandering around in the wilderness. They were longing to settle in the Promised Land, we long to be with Jesus. They faced daily trials in the wilderness and so did the Christians Peter wrote to and so do we.

But this period of waiting is not in vain: Jesus is perfecting our faith and growing us to be in His kingdom, just like He was growing and perfecting Israel’s faith before entering the Promised Land. During this trying time Moses is told by God to tell Israel:

For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing. (Deut. 2:7)

God knows every struggle we go through and He will see us through it. Through struggle and trial we learn things we never could without struggle and trial, such as the beautiful truth that God is always with us, and He is all we need. Come what may tomorrow, should I lose my family, a place to live, food to eat, friends, everything I live by, I still have Jesus; and that can never be taken away from me:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all

the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be

slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, no r height nor depth, no anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)

Jesus is true comfort when pain and suffering strike, not only because He loves us but because He knows exactly what we are feeling, and He gave up His own life in obedience to God:

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. (Hebrews 5:7-8)

And:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

God cares deeply about Israel’s suffering in the wilderness and about our trials today, and He will see us through everything because He Himself has suffered everything for us. In order to stay obedient to God the Father God the Son became flesh and took on all of our weaknesses and allowed Himself to suffer and be murdered in place of us for our sins. It is because of Jesus we have hope and confidence in what is to come, now that we have been made clean and pure by His death. Now we can press into God and long for the Promised Land – that is, to be in God’s presence, with Jesus – and know that any amount of suffering and waiting will be worth it. But even now we are not alone, and I’ll close with Jesus last words in Matthew:

“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

Sin (from my Bible Study notes)

These are my notes from when I prepare for my weekly Bible study. The theme is “Desiring God”, John Piper’s book, which argues that if we are serious happiness-seekers we will pursue God more than anything, because everything else cannot compare. Every week we look at a different topic (e.g. love, sin, truth…) and try to see differences between the way our culture sees it, we see it, and the way God sees it. It’s important to get God’s opinion on everything and realize if we are viewing something like “love” in a less than godly way.

In the beginning, God made us and it was good (Genesis 1:31).

Look at Genesis 3: THE GARDEN

The serpent tempts Eve by twisting God’s word. Compare God’s words to the serpent’s words:

GOD:

“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 3:16-17)

SERPENT:

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1)

Eve’s response is not entirely accurate:

“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (Gen. 3:2-3)

MISCONCEPTION: When I was growing up I thought in Genesis 3 God was pulling the wool over our eyes and that He was holding back “knowledge” and “wisdom” from us, lest we be like Him.

Is what the serpent says in 3:4-5 true?

The tree’s qualities: “good for food”, “a delight to the eyes”, “to be desired to make one wise” – this tree isn’t freaky looking and scary.

Is what Eve wanted a bad thing?

What makes eating the fruit wrong?

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen. 3:7)

What does this mean? Nowadays we think its good to have clothes on (I for one am not a fan of nude beaches!). But here their nakedness is associated with shame. They’re a married couple with no one else around – they don’t need to wear clothes! But apparently they need to cover themselves from each other.

GENESIS 3:8: Sin makes us hide from the Lord.

What does sin do to Adam and Eve’s relationship with God?

With each other?

Both Adam and Eve avoid responsibility. Compare this to Christ, who takes responsibility for that which He didn’t do (taking on our sins).

How would the incarnate Jesus have acted in Adam and Eve’s place?

GENESIS 3:15: The “protoevangelium” (means “first gospel”). God promises to fix the problem. Sin is still the fundamental human problem and will be through all history and God promises to take care of it. We can’t.

GENESIS 3:16-19: Sin brings a curse. In order to demonstrate to us our rebellion against God, God has made creation rebel against us.

Think about technology: do we really have things under control? Stuff always breaks and needs fixing. Computers crash.

We often say “Crap happens”. Does God want it to be this way or does He want to bless us?

GENESIS 3:21: Think about this: God makes the first sacrifice in order to cover up the shame of sin – Noah imitates God when he does the same thing.

What’s the deal with sacrifice?

Why such a bloody system?

What is your reaction when you see blood?

Do you think God is just as repulsed by our sin?

Later in Genesis, God tells Cain: “And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:7)

Look at Cain and Abel: What does sin do to our relationships with the people we love?

HUMAN REACTIONS TO THE SIN PROBLEM

1) Personal atonement (I will read my Bible if…)

2) Physical mutilation

a. "At first, flagellation became a form of penance in the Christian church, especially in ascetic monastic orders. For example, the 11th century zealot Dominicus Loricatus once repeated the entire Psalter twenty times in one week, accompanying each psalm with a hundred lash-strokes to his back"

3) By being religious (Pharisees)

4) Spiritual quest or journey (to the top of the mountain)

5) Emptying your mind of everything

6) Fundraisers/events/political movements

7) Killing people who disagree with you

8) Ignoring it (sin doesn’t really exist)

9) Building up humanity (we can conquer sin, tower of Babel)

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

“For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6)

Jesus’ Crucifixion: Matthew 27:27-56, Mark 15:21-41, Luke 23:26-49, John 19

Love (from my Bible Study notes)

These are my notes from when I prepare for my weekly Bible study. The theme is “Desiring God”, John Piper’s book, which argues that if we are serious happiness-seekers we will pursue God more than anything, because everything else cannot compare. Every week we look at a different topic (e.g. love, sin, truth…) and try to see differences between the way our culture sees it, we see it, and the way God sees it. It’s important to get God’s opinion on everything and realize if we are viewing something like “love” in a less than godly way.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT LOVE?

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. (Proverbs 10:12)

Look at 1 Corinthians 13. Love is patient, kind, it does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice in evil, rejoice in truth, love bears all things, it never ends.

How do we use the word on a daily basis?

“I love crepes” (I say that quite often). “I love that show,” is different from “I love you, mom.”

Love is a good thing, we love to love.

Who do I love the most?

How do I love them? How could I love them better?

Love is built on time. One reason I am closer to my parents than casual acquaintances is the amount of time we’ve spent together. If you love someone you crave to spend more time with them.

Do you only love people who are similar to you or who you easily connect with?

There is more to love than connection or emotion. Love is also an action – I can take in a man off the street, feed him, clothe him; and maybe I have nothing in common with him, but I still love him by feeding him and clothing him.

According to “Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible” love in the Old Testament is “the basic character of the relationship between persons, a relationship with the qualities of devotion, loyalty, intimate knowledge, and responsibility. It is not simply an emotion but is the total quality of relationship.”

One aspect of love is that you delight in the person. It is also about respect and responsibility.

Read 1 John 4:

1) Love is from God. (verse 7)

2) To be born of God and to know God is revealed in love, that is, it manifests itself in love is a sign of being born of God (verse 7).

3) God is love. People who don’t love don’t know God. (verse 8)

4) God’s love culminates and climaxes, reaches its greatest point in the sending of Jesus to earth and His death, burial and resurrection for us that we might be saved (verse 9).

5) God loved us first (verses 10, 19) through Jesus.

6) If God loves us, we should love each other (verse 11). Love should fill us and spill over to all peoples.

7) Although God can’t be seen, He is in us if we love. (verse 12)

8) Perfect love casts out fear. (verse 18)

9) You cannot love God if you hate your brother (verse 20). Also look at 1 John 3:15: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that c no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

10) If you love God you keep His commandments – especially those to love your neighbor as yourself.

CULTURAL LIES AND MYTHS ABOUT LOVE

1) Love is about me and serving my needs.

2) Love can arrive and go very quickly (the Romeo effect).

3) Love is about physical appearance and attraction. This is confusing love with lust. Once again, Romeo “loves” many women. He loves Juliet at first sight. We love the idea of “love at first sight” but consider what it really is: it means you love their appearance, not their person (you don’t know their person yet). For someone who lives by this kind of love it only moves from person to person, one can never satisfy, and each time it is “love”.

4) Love always feels good (and gives me what I want). As a kid I asked my parents for certain things and sometimes the answer was “No.” Do they love me? Yes. Maybe they can see that what I think is good for me is actually bad (or unnecessary).

5) Love works by rules. A lot of things people usually gripe about in romantic relationships is that certain “rules” of love aren’t followed. That is, “I say ‘I love you’, three times and you only say it once!” There’s no rules for love. Love lives outside of rules and not in them.

6) The best kind of love is romantic love. This is what romantic poetry is all about. The greatest pleasures the earth has to offer is in romantic relationships. God’s love is bigger.

7) Physical acts of love equal real love. Not true! Paul says, “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Even if you perform the act of giving your life for someone else without actually loving them, then you haven’t loved! Love is more than action (but also not less than it).

Is love only emotional? Only practical? Is it always both?

DIFFERENT TYPES OF LOVE (IN THE BIBLE):

1) Human love (sexual, familial, friendship, and society)

2) Divine love

a) In Himself (between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)

b) For us

c) Us for Him

Human love does not compare with the love of God. Our love between each other is mangled by sin, hate, jealousy, etc. We are never wholly faithful to someone. Looking to God we are never wholly faithful to Him but He is always faithful. He ahs never sinned against anyone.

WAYS IN WHICH GOD LOVES US

1) He created us (“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” Psalm 139:13).

2) He sustains us, providing food for us every day. Every blessing is a gift from Him. “Every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). He blesses us day in and day out, continuing to bring the sun and life and the seasons. You could look at creation and spend forever listing the things God does daily for us. Right now I’m breathing – I don’t know how I can, but I know God has given me the breath of life.

3) Friends, family, spouses. These too are gifts from God and ways in which He loves us. I can see God’s love in my mother’s care when I’m sick. We are built to be in relationship and our relationships are supposed to be defined by love.

4) Jesus Christ. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

“For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9)

5) The Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). We realize who God is and His love for us by the Spirit: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5). The Spirit “helps us in our weakness.” (Romans 8:26)

6) “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

ASPECTS OF GOD’S LOVE

1) It "endures forever”. (Psalm 136)

2) Nothing can separate us from it. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)

3) He loves whom He chooses (Romans 9), that is, we are not more special than anybody else, God just decided to love us.

4) Complete joy! Knowing God is to love God, to love God is to be full of joy.

5) This list is too short, there are many more qualities of God’s love. Read 1 Corinthians 13 and realize that God does all the things listed in there.

We will love better if we first love God, and God defines love.

God's Promises (Deuteronomy 1)

I wrote this in the middle of the day, and this afternoon I had the fortune of seeing a rainbow, the first full one I've seen in years. I thought it was fitting after reading Deuteronomy 1, which got me thinking about God's promises.

In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them… (Deuteronomy 1:3)

Picture Moses standing in front of thousands of people, all of Israel, which is “as numerous as the stars of heaven” (1:10). I don’t know how public speeches worked back then without microphones or sound amplification but I can see Moses standing in front of his people, crying out with all his might for people to follow the God of all glory and saving power:

You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. (Deut. 5:32)

By now Moses is very old, and led a very long and fascinating life: growing up as Egyptian royalty, then living for decades as a quiet Shepard, then meeting the God who created him and leading his people out of slavery and out of bondage in Egypt, and then for the forty years before this speech wandering around in the wilderness with a bunch of ungrateful people that are too stubborn to enter the Promised Land. And now, finally, they can enter, but he can’t.

Moses was very intelligent, probably formally trained by the Egyptians, the best of the best; one can easily imagine that he was quite eloquent too. Somehow he managed to lead a group of people who were wandering in circles for decades who probably wanted to kill him.

Moses’ speech begins by reminding Israel that they have been on the doorstep of the Promised Land once before, and God withheld it from them because of their cowardice and lack of faith. Moses starts with this event, as if to say, “Remember that? Let’s not do that again.” He’s asking Israel not to rebel against God, and for the next few chapters he’s going to give us several examples from Israel’s history in which they rebelled against God, and we’ll see through all of Israel’s stubbornness and unfaithfulness God is merciful and compassionate and forgiving.

So Moses begins:

“The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.” (Deut. 1:6-7)

It’s easy to see who’s in charge here. God is the on – not Moses – who rescued Israel form Egypt and God is the true Leader. He says what Israel should and shouldn’t do and Israel – and, by extension, Christians – should listen to Him! God is not an impersonal, uncompassionate force imposing His will on us and pushing us to our extremes for His sadistic enjoyment. He’s a loving Father, and even earthly, lazy dads know how to provide for their kids – “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).

God still speaks to us today and we are foolish to ignore His advice. Often His will doesn’t makes sense to us and we ask, “Are You sure, God?” We like – no, we love to feel like we’re in control and when God asks something crazy of us its hard for us to humble ourselves and admit our lack of control. But honestly, who are we to question God? Really ponder that. He made everything. He made up Chemistry. I got a “C” in Chemistry.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,

declares the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The next verses in Isaiah really shows what God’s word and instruction – like His instructions to Israel at Horeb, thousands of years ago, or His instructions to us, today – accomplishes, and it is exceedingly good:

“For as the rain and the snow come

down from heaven

and do not return there but water the

earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to

the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from

my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for

which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

So basically, it is good to do what God tells you to do. Here in Deuteronomy God’s commands are based on His promises. He has promised Israel land and He has promised them children and generations, among other things. Both of these larger promises are emphasized by Moses.

See, I have set the land before you. (Deut. 1:8)

It’s important to see the way God puts this: He has set the land before Israel, Israel has not earned it or worked hard for it – in fact, they didn’t have intentions of going there until God told them He would lead them there!

Since the story of the great exodus of Israel is prototypical for God’s salvation throughout history, it’s easy to see how our situation is the same as Israel’s with our exodus from our slavery and bondage to sin, and how it is God who sets us free, not us! He does it all, we do nothing. We are too spiritually dead to even realize we need saving (or to dream of it!). God puts the greatest dreams of freedom and salvation into our hearts and then achieves it on the cross. God is not one to shrink back from His promises. His words and His intentions are the same – unlike ours are, very often – and if we look back to Isaiah 55 we see just what that accomplishes.

So, standing on the doorstep of its dreams, Israel gets cold feet. God commands:

“Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.” (Deut. 1:8)

Go in and take possession – that means there will be some fighting involved. Israel sends spies into the country before them, and upon hearing their reports many of the people become afraid: the enemy sounds too strong and terrifying.

This is an interesting situation, and I’m not sure whether the decision to send spies was necessarily sinful or an act of doubt, but it certainly leads to both sin and doubt. Before Israel knew the great enemies it was to face God’s promise had been made to Israel – He didn’t promise under the condition that the enemy would be weak, or non-present, God promised it, and Isaiah 55 says that’s going to do something. But even having this promise does not help Israel when they get an idea of the circumstances: they quickly see too many enemies, how could victory ever be possible?

Sometimes in order to be faithful to God we have to focus on His promises and reflect on them even when all circumstances point to failure. God intentionally creates situations that seem impossible for a few reasons: 1) to increase our faith, and 2) to reveal His power and glory.

In Judges 7 (Judges comes only two books after Deuteronomy) is an awesome story of such a situation. God has called a less than manly man, Gideon (“O mighty man of valor”) to lead his people in battle. Before battle God says to Gideon:

“The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand saved me.’" (Judges 7:2)

So God orders Gideon to send home whoever is afraid and doesn’t want to be there. 22,000 men leave and go home, still leaving a reasonable army of 10,000.

And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there…” (Judges 7:4)

God’s test for Gideon is to see which of his men drink their water like a dog, lapping up the water. I wonder if Gideon was praying to see a lot of hands lapping up water, but things turn out a little differently. Only 300 men lap up the water, the rest kneel down to drink. God says:

“With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” (Judges 7:7)

These 300 men win the battle against the Midianites because of God’s power and strength, which has no limits.

Now this event hasn’t happened yet in Israel’s history as Moses gives his speech, but the people have plenty to boast in God about, and plenty to be confident in, but they still rebel. The people, after all they’ve seen God do, say:

“Because the LORD hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” (Deut. 1:27)

Does God hate His children? No. There are certainly situations where we may wonder that but it is no different than the confusion felt by a child who is taken to get a vaccination. A vaccination is painful, and the child has little idea why they are going through that pain – they may even blame the parent or wonder why they would allow them to suffer in such a way, but as we get older we realize that we needed that vaccination in order to stay healthy. It is the same with our heavenly Father, and our present sufferings, which will pass. God does not delight in our suffering, just like a human parent, and He will certainly see us through it.

As the people rebel Moses attempts to stir up faith among them:

“Do not be in dread or afraid of them [the enemy]. The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.” (Deut. 1:29-31)

But Israel chickens out, so God is righteously angry. How can the people who saw Him split the Red Sea not believe in His power? As punishment God commands Israel to go back into the wilderness, where they will be forced to wander until the current generation has passed.

This chapter ends on a really interesting note because it’s a situation we can easily fall into and repeat. With God’s punishment facing them the people of Israel declare they will now do the Lord’s will, even if it’s a little late.

“We have sinned against the LORD. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God command us.” (Deut. 1:41)

Instead of being obedient to God’s will – which in this case would be accepting punishment as well as blessing – Israel tries to work its way out of its punishment by doing what it was supposed to have done in the first place, only now God is not with them.

We do the exact same thing with God’s punishment facing us – punishment for sin that we rightfully deserve. We say, “Sorry, God, I’ve screwed up. Let me make it up for you, I will feed the homeless, I will give to charities, I will read my Bible every day, I won’t fight with or insult my siblings…” We make up lists of good things to do to make up for what we should’ve been doing all along, and are “good” lists are full of things we should already be doing but don’t because our hearts are cold and dead. No, we can’t make up anything to God, which is why He came down as a man to accept our punishment for us.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

If we try to achieve God’s promises on our own – like Israel attempting to achieve the Promised Land without God, or us trying to achieve heaven and salvation on our own – we will fail. Israel, just like us, goes to battle against God’s will and is sorely defeated:

Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you [Israel] and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. (Deut. 1:44)

Sin brings shame and shameful defeat. Sometimes even our attempts to do what is right can be sinful if we go against God’s will.

But for us there is hope in Christ, who bridges the gap between us and God and intercedes for us, and in Him all the promises of God are fulfilled. And Jesus sends the Holy Spirit who by we se God’s saving power not only intellectually, as a fact, but with a changed heart that longs to serve and love Him.

The Importance of the Gospel (Galatians 1)

Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia begins with a staunch defense of the gospel and its truth. The gospel should not, and must not, be changed or compromised.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8)

This is something a lot of people today find frustrating with Paul. We value everybody’s opinions and this sounds like arrogance of the highest degree. Who’s to say that Paul’s idea of God is correct? “Why isn’t mine more valid?” “Or mine?” “Or mine?”

Today it is popular to think that when it comes to religion we must figure out everything for ourselves and form our own opinions, thoughts, ideas, just like we do for everything else in the world. We analyze politics and form our opinions and believe we are right, we do the same with art, movies, books…

I would argue that most people carry more arrogance about their own opinions of, for example, the Republicans or the Democrats, Jackson Pollack or Leonardo da Vinci, than Paul does about the gospel and Christ. If you’ve ever been in a political debate with friends or family before you never see someone admit they’re wrong, or change their opinion (unless they didn’t have much of one before). No, our political opinion is, in a way, a testament to our intelligence and our ability to see and discern the controversial issues of our times. To admit defeat would be to admit we are wrong, that we were not smart enough to figure things out.

We see none of this spirit in Paul. If anything, we see humility. Paul says even if I return to you and modify what I’ve said before do not listen to me! There is no way I can progress or grow intellectually that would present a different gospel! Paul doesn’t care about his opinions, he cares about the truth and giving God the glory.

So back to what we think about God today. In many conversations I’ve had about God a lot of people are interested in God and want more of Him but often say something like “The thing that really sucks about religion is the people who insist that they are right.” I felt this way for a long time too! It looked to me like people who claimed their religion as correct were claiming to have answers to what I saw as unanswerable questions. If God is only something we can conjecture about, something we can only meditate on and then debate about – just like politics or art – then it is extremely arrogant to say “I’m right” on the foundation that you are a superior human being with a greater intellect than most. ‘Everyone but me is wrong’.

Listen to what Paul has to say about the spirit in which he writes:

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? IF I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Gal. 1:10)

Now we say in response, “Okay, okay” and become more sympathetic to Paul. He believes he’s doing what he’s doing for God, and we admire people who stand up for what they believe in. But we still don’t like the exclusivity of what he has to say. Again, we say, “What makes you more right than me?”

If you look at history you see that ideas change. What was believed about the sun and the earth in the 1300’s is different than what we believe today. Ideas of science, culture, ethics, etc., are often fashionable and changeable as time continues. It’s also common for the latest age to believe it is correct in its beliefs – that is, in comparison to ages before it. We have an incredible generational arrogance today because we believe our science is more correct than before – now I’m not knocking science, I love science – but who knows if in two-, three-, four-hundred years we will still believe the same things that we do today? We simply don’t know.

Growing up I saw human history as one of constant progress – every age and generation discovering new things and bringing new light to all areas of knowledge. Now in some ways this progress is true – our scientific knowledge is considerably greater than that of even one hundred years ago – but look at ideas and philosophies and life itself. Those things have not changed in substance – maybe in form, for example, the way a man built a house in the 1700’s is different than today, but the fact that man needs shelter has not changed. It’s the same with our ideas, as “new” as we think they are. King Solomon wrote more than 2,000 years ago that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The “radical” views of the 1960’s were maybe new in form but not in substance or content. Or look at other movements that have seemed fresh and different, like transcendentalism: what is it but a mixture of deism and pantheism and nature worship? We give these ideas new names and call it progress but they are just the last generation’s recycled garbage:

Is there a thing of which it is said,


"See, this is new"?

It has been already


in the ages before us. (Ecc. 1:10)

My point is that we are very tempted to do the same thing with Christianity: to apply our modern ways of thinking and discerning; expecting to find fault with “old” ideas because they are “old” and believed by a more “ignorant” generation.

Paul saw this happening in his churches and fought against temptations to change. He opens his letter with the gospel:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Gal. 1:3-5)

Then Paul warns that people will try to change it:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Gal. 1:6-9)

1) What is the gospel? How can Paul make the claims he does?

2) How do people try to change the gospel today?

3) How should we as Christians respond?

Truth (from my Bible Study notes)

These are my notes from when I prepare for my weekly Bible study. The theme is “Desiring God”, John Piper’s book, which argues that if we are serious happiness-seekers we will pursue God more than anything, because everything else cannot compare. Every week we look at a different topic (e.g. love, sin, truth…) and try to see differences between the way our culture sees it, we see it, and the way God sees it. It’s important to get God’s opinion on everything and realize if we are viewing something like “love” in a less than godly way.

WHY DOES IT BENEFIT YOU TO HAVE A TRUTHFUL VERSION OF GOD?

1) I don’t want my worship to be in vain. Why don’t I worship Ra or Zeus? Because they’re not real. But how do I know that?

2) Because to know God is the most satisfying thing ever. Our lack of relationship with God is the gaping hole in all of our hearts that can only be filled by Him.

3) It lead to true worship (John 4)

4) Because His truth is comfort in pain and persecution. False images of God aren’t: I don’t want to believe in bunnies in the sky and rainbows or a false hope, I want a real hope based in reality and truth.

HOW DO WE KNOW ANY TRUTH ABOUT GOD?

The sum of your word is truth,

every one of your righteous rules

endures forever. (Psalm 119:160)

1) We both know the truth about God and we don’t.

Romans 1:18-25, Psalm 19:1

How can everyone know God but not know Him? If we all knew God wouldn’t that mean we would all worship the same God?

What keeps us from the truth about God?

Does an atheist believe in God, even though he says he doesn’t?

2) Because we’re sinful and mortal we don’t know everything.

Ecclesiastes 8:16-17

How do we know what happens us after we die? (Ecc. 3:21)

How do we know God’s attributes?

If we don’t have knowledge how do we gain it? Piety? Aestheticism?

3) Truth about God comes from revelation – not us speculating about God but God telling us about Himself. We can agree that all philosophies and religions would grind to a halt if God started walking around with us. Which is what He did – why then don’t people believe?

WOMAN AT THE WELL (John 4:1-26)

God comes to earth to talk to a whore – this woman of Samaria who has had five husbands. Jesus is loving to this woman who is ostracized by her culture (a culture which is in turn disdained by other cultures).

What does it mean to worship in “spirit and truth” (John 4:23)?

What is Jesus goal with this woman?

What is true in this passage?

What truths about God can you see?

JESUS ON TRUTH:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) This is why He was murdered and why people still hate Him today.

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)

"If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God." (John 8:39-40)

"But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." (John 8:45)

Truth about Jesus:

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

"For our sake he [God the Father] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me." (John 14:1)

God sends the Holy Spirit to give us truth (John 14:16-17, 1 John 5:6, Romans 8:14-17)

Who tells us about God?

What does the Holy Spirit do?

What does truth do for us?

How do we know it’s true? (Romans 8:26)

Jesus often began his claims about God with “Truly, truly, I say to you…” to stress the difference between His claims about God and everybody else’s. Did Jesus ever lie?

Every time you pick up your bible God speaks to you, that’s (chiefly) how He speaks to us.

Pick up a Bible and read it!