Tag Deuteronomy

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps

Todd R Leave a comment

According to Wikipedia, “”Quizás, quizás, quizás”, sometimes known simply as “Quizás”…is a popular song by the Cuban songwriter Osvaldo Farrés.”[1] Translated to English, the song title is “Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps” and the song has been covered by many artists over the years in both English and Spanish since it originally became a Spanish hit in 1947.  The artists covering it are diverse, from Doris Day to Cake.  The song is about someone trying to figure out whether someone else loves them, but they only answer “perhaps, perhaps, perhaps,” leaving the person perpetually wondering.  Being in such a position can be frustrating, but sometimes we can do no better, as the song suggests.  And when we can do no better, maybe we should stop trying.

What’s this doing on a Christian blog?  Well, in a lot of sermons, discussions, and elsewhere, we can find many instances of “perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.”  Or “maybe.”  Or “most likely.”  I see it regularly when I read study Bible notes.  I also find that if I’m not careful, I take something that is “perhaps” true and treat it as Gospel truth.  I base a doctrine on it.  I base an action on it.  I build more “perhaps” thoughts around it.  One unlikely thing grows into more even less likely things.

The temptation to do this comes up more often when reading passages of the Bible we don’t understand.  For example, in Numbers 29, there is a long list of daily offerings to be made during the Feast of Booths.  There are sacrifices of bulls, rams, and lambs.  The number of rams and lambs doesn’t change over the 7 days of the Feast, but the number of bulls decreases by one each day until it gets to 7.  Why?  The Bible doesn’t tell us, but that doesn’t mean people don’t have theories.  In such situations, I think the best approach comes from John Calvin in his commentaries: “why the distribution was so unequal, I confess, is not clear to me, and it is better to confess my ignorance than by too subtle speculations to vanish into mere smoke.”

How to avoid speculation?  Consider these two quotes from each end of the Scriptures:

Deuteronomy 12:32 – “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.”

Revelation 22:18-19 – “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

Photo by D koi on Unsplash

While the first is referring specifically to the law and the second to the prophecy of the book of Revelation, the principle is consistent: don’t add to God’s words or take away from God’s words.  Anything he wanted to say, He would have said it, and anything He said He wants us to take seriously.  Beyond God’s own words, I find “it is better to confess my ignorance than by too subtle speculations to vanish into mere smoke.”

The song “Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps” ends without a resolution.  The singer still doesn’t know the other person’s feelings toward them.  Likewise, there are a lot of unresolved, unexplained things in the Bible, but unlike the song that doesn’t mean we don’t know that God loves us.  God has given us everything we need to know, but He also doesn’t expect us to understand everything.

Therefore, don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know.”  Don’t be overly concerned if you can’t explain everything in the Bible.  This doesn’t mean to just give up and stop trying to wrestle with God’s word, but to insist on answers sometimes can lead us to conclusions we should have never jumped to.  When we read or hear “perhaps” or “maybe,” realize we just might be on shaky ground.  The Bible doesn’t exist to satisfy all of our intellectual curiosity, but it does exist to point us to our Lord and Savior.  When I cling tightly to what I do know about God, what doesn’t come with a “perhaps,” I find everything I need to trust God, yet also everything I need to know that I am far from perfect and have plenty of work to do.  Perhaps I should focus on that.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” – Deuteronomy 29:29

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz%C3%A1s%2C_Quiz%C3%A1s%2C_Quiz%C3%A1s

Freeing Ourselves from the Man in the Mirror

Todd R Leave a comment

In Deuteronomy Moses reviews the giving of the Ten Commandments and reminds us that he didn’t just come down from the mountain with the Commandments written on tablets as we sometimes imagine, but that the “LORD spoke with you [Israel] face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire”[1]  Terrified of this manifestation of God, the people responded “we will hear and do it.”[2]

God was pleased that the people pledged their obedience, but lamented to Moses in Deuteronomy 5:29, “Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!”  In this statement, our Holy, all-knowing God makes 2 points: that obeying Him is in Israel’s best interest, and also that they don’t always do it.  Not only did they not always obey Him, but they often didn’t have “such a heart” for it.  They didn’t even intend to obey Him, whether neglectfully or intentionally.  Like ancient Israel, we often hear the Ten Commandments and the rest of God’s Word and instead of saying “we will hear and do it,” we continue along our own path.

James describes a similar scenario in a New Testament context:

“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.  But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” – James 1:23-25

Photo by Jovis Aloor on Unsplash

James compares hearing God’s law to seeing in a mirror what we really look like: we look like sinners who fall short of perfect obedience and need God’s grace.  God didn’t give us His “perfect law” to condemn us, although because we aren’t perfect His law does condemn us.  He didn’t give the law to make us feel bad, although any of us can struggle with a guilty conscience.  He gave His commands because they’re what’s best for us, and along with them He gave His Son so we could find our way back to Him.  We are blessed when we do what He wants because God gave His commands so “that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever.”  For those with faith in Christ, God’s “perfect law” is a “law of liberty” that frees us to be blessed by acting on God’s will for us.  We have liberty not to sin.

But when we spend too much time looking in the mirror at ourselves, we risk feeling condemned and guilty.  We risk seeing God’s law and our failure to keep it as the end of the story.  Therefore, we must instead focus on our God of grace, who through Christ gives us liberty and freedom from condemnation and guilt.  As Paul wrote in Romans 8:1-2, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

When we don’t feel we have “such a heart” as to follow God always (which is probably often), let it drive us to dwell on the character of our God, who revealed Himself to Moses as “the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”[3]

Don’t start with the man in the mirror.  Start with Him.

“When the outlook is grim, try the uplook!” – Warren Wiersbe

[1] Deuteronomy 5:4
[2] Deuteronomy 5:27
[3] Deuteronomy 34:6b

God is at Hand

Todd R Leave a comment

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah lived in a time full of false prophets, where the true word of God was rarely heard.  It was also a time where idolatry and sin ran wild among the people of Judah, Jeremiah’s audience, a nation headed for destruction by Babylon, God’s chosen agent to discipline them.  Yet the false prophets told the people: “You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’”[1]  Later, “They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”[2]

These false prophets were essentially telling the people they can do whatever they want, so they don’t need a savior since God was not going to judge them.   The false prophets also said that the people don’t need God as Lord, since there would be no negative consequences no matter what they chose to do.

Jeremiah fearlessly confronts these prophets and worked hard to get the people to take him seriously.  At one point, God tells Jeremiah to proclaim: “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away?”[3]  With this question, the LORD lets the people know that they can’t just set him aside as if He doesn’t exist.  While God is a God of love, He is also a God of justice, and sin will not be ignored.

Both the Old and New Testaments warn that those who ignore God can infect the broader population.  In Deuteronomy 29:18-19, Moses wrote: “Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.”  [emphasis mine]. The whole church, the “moist and dry alike” can suffer from the influence of members who cast God aside as irrelevant or inconvenient.  People who stubbornly insist on their own way.

The New Testament picks up the “root” image from Deuteronomy in Hebrews 12:15 – “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled”. This verse is in the context of God’s discipline, of understanding that when He judges His own people, it is not a final judgement, but one that is meant to refine them and make them holy.  But it is also a reminder that we need to accept God as Lord, by His grace, in order for Him to be our Savior.

Like the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day, modern preachers can also teach that we don’t need Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Some of them declare that we are free to do whatever we want because He is a God of love and therefore will never judge us no matter what.  These ministers fail to see God’s loving, disciplining hand in our difficulties, feeding the “root of bitterness”.

Other preachers declare that God is a God of love, and therefore if we follow Him, we will be showered with blessings.  These ministers see suffering not as discipline, but as a failure on our part to love God, thus making God’s love conditional.  This also feeds the “root of bitterness” because there is no way we can meet God’s standard.  We will always fall short and without grace all we can experience is frustration.  There will never be enough material blessing to keep us satisfied under this theology.

However, we do need Jesus as Savior, and we do need Jesus as Lord, and we also have Jesus as Savior and Lord.  We need to live like God is “at hand” and not “far away.”  R.C. Sproul used to say Christians need to live “coram Deo” which means “before the face of God” in Latin.  Always knowing that we live in God’s presence, that He is “at hand” reminds us not only of our need for Him as Lord and Savior, but also that He more than meets our need because He is a perfect Lord and Savior.

So, when Jeremiah tells us that God asks, “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away?” we can reply that we know we always live coram Deo because He is near.  Only then can we pull up bitterness by its roots and experience true joy in His presence.

Live coram Deo today.

Amen.

[1] Jeremiah 14:13b
[2] Jeremiah 23:17
[3] Jeremiah 23:23

The Sovereign Over Our Blessings

Todd R 1 Comment

40 years after God first made a covenant with Israel, promising to be their God and bless them if they would love and obey Him, the covenant had to be renewed.  Israel had been led through wilderness for decades after refusing to enter the Promised Land, but Moses eventually gathered them again to finally cross the Jordan River and take the Land.  Moses prepared them by renewing the covenant, but before that, Moses reviewed blessings and curses from God that would come with obedience or disobedience.

We know that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”[1] and therefore any blessing is an act of grace because only Jesus lived a life of full obedience.  However, the choices of the ancient Israelites, and modern people, have consequences, and these blessings and curses carry a lesson about God’s sovereignty.  God would not make promises or threats that He is unable to carry out and therefore He must have the power and control to deliver on all of them.  Consider these parallel verses in Deuteronomy 28 showing God’s control over…

…all places, rural or urban:
“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.” (verse 3)
“Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.”  (verse 16)

…reproductive and agricultural success:
“Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.”  (verse 4)
“Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.”  (verse 18)

…military success:
“The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.”  (verse 7)
“The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.”  (verse 25)

…the weather and its related benefits:
“The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands.”  (verse 12a)
“And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron.  The LORD will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.”  (verse 23-24)

There are further curses, without parallel blessings, where God is declared as sovereign over…

…disease:
“The LORD will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.  The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish.”  (verse 21-22)

…human psychology:
“The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind.” (verse 28)

…nature, including the smallest worms and crickets:
“You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.”  (verse 39)
“The cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.”  (verse 42)

…and even over the fates of nations:
“The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand.” (verse 49)

As we know, Israel was eventually carried away into captivity by Assyria in 722 B.C., and Judah to Babylonia in 586 B.C. because of their ongoing unfaithfulness to God, however God fulfilled His covenant through Jesus Christ, descended from the tribe of Judah, centuries after they returned from Babylonian exile.  In Christ, people from all nations can be His people, and He will be their God.

We are all in exile, sojourning on this earth, but our God, sovereign over all, has Promised a new Land, a new heaven and a new earth, and we know He is faithful, even if it takes centuries.  Therefore, praise God for the blessings He gives His people in all of the areas under His control, which is everything!

Nothing escapes His notice and nothing is beneath Him to be concerned about.  Pray for His blessings in all areas of life, no matter how large or small.

Amen.

[1] Romans 3:23

When Rights Collide

Todd R 1 Comment

For a time, Moses was the sole judge over Israel, deciding right and wrong in countless cases brought by the people.  This was a massive burden and brought him to exhaustion, until his father-in-law Jethro urged Moses to delegate some of the responsibility.  Jethro tells Moses to find some able, trustworthy men, and in Exodus 18:22, he says “And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.”  Moses was to act essentially as a court of appeal for hard cases.  What kind of “great matter” might Moses get?

Deuteronomy 17:8 might be one example: “if any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the LORD your God will choose.”

What the Bible recognizes here is that the right solution isn’t always obvious.  The Bible recognizes that things can get messy.  Life isn’t always as black-and-white, right-versus-wrong as we might think.  There are complex situations where rights conflict with rights, rather than a simple right versus wrong.  Each side of the case – the plaintiff and the defendant – might be at fault.

For example, suppose one person assaulted another without provocation, but in return the other retaliated in an unjustified way.  Should both complaints cancel each other out, and no judgement declared either way?  Or should the judge enforce the penalty for both crimes independent of each other?  If one penalty is greater than the other, should a judge subtract one penalty from the other and enforce the difference on the person with the greater crime?  Would that be justice for either person?

Sometimes there aren’t easy answers, even based on God’s perfect, revealed law.  All of us are sinful and justice requires we be punished for the times we have violated some kind of legal right, committed come kind of assault, or harmed someone in another way.  What solution can untangle all of these competing claims for justice?

The only viable answer is forgiveness, but forgiveness doesn’t come free, or cheap.  For our violations against God, the cost of forgiveness was Jesus’ suffering and dying on the cross.  For our sins against each other, God demands that we forgive others as we have been forgiven by Him.  We are to bear the cross of not only our sins, but the sins of others.  Forgiveness is hard because it sometimes means not demanding that our rights be respected.  Sometimes it means our sense of justice might be violated.  Yet forgiveness is what our Lord demands.

As Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Moses may have been able to be the court of appeal for Israel, to bear the burden of every “great matter” of the time, but only Jesus could bear the burden of every matter for all time.  He asks us to follow His example, even when we think we have the right to do otherwise.