Partakers Christian Podcasts

The Big Story - Part 2

 

Big Story - Act 2 - The Fall

with Roger Kirby

 

Question: what has been your biggest disappointment, the moment when something really special you had planned, or made, or hoped for did not work out and your dreams came crashing to the ground?

It seems rather extraordinary but that seems to be what happened to God, the Designer and Creator of all that is. He had planned and built the perfect world for Adam and Eve and their descendants, put them in the most perfect garden ever, and they – the two of them – had immediately spoiled it and brought the whole scheme crashing to the ground. I know we say God knows everything including the future but in the introduction to the story of the Flood we read that the LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth and his heart was deeply troubled. God was disappointed – whatever the systematic theologians may say are his attributes.

Adam and Eve were the first to get it wrong and therefore most at fault. Genesis 3: 1 – 11 says: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. ’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

So Paul says: sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people. But that is not the end of the problem. We have 3 more accounts of the sinful nature of people in the next 8 chapters. First: Cain and Lamech commit murder. Second: things get so universally bad that God sends the great Flood. Third: mankind, again in the plural, get so above themselves God has to organize the confusion of languages at Babel. Not a good set of stories!

But we need to start at the beginning. The story of Adam is important for many reasons. The one I would highlight as very significant but often overlooked is the fact that we are being told humankind started in just one place with just one person. Men and women did not become spiritual beings made in the image of God through the slow evolution and development of many people. No. Only one person, Adam, was created as a true fully human being. Because he was male there was a problem! In most ancient stories of the beginning of humanity the first person was female, which made things much easier because then others could be born from that first person. But Adam was male so Eve was made from his side. That is realistic because the human world is a male dominated world simply because men tend to be stronger than women. We may not like that – particularly if we are female – but that is the way it is. Only with Jesus, the way he treated women, and the early church, and the way they gave women an equal status with men, do we begin to see the raising of women towards equality with men. Then in the last few decades with the increasing sophistication of modern machinery needing brains and skills of dexterity rather than strength, women have started to equal men in their work place skills – but that is another story!

When Paul said “all have sinned” he made the most accurate statement ever of the nature of men and women. Sin and evil cover this world of ours as we can see from any daily newspaper or TV news bulletin. Some try to say mankind is getting better and better but there have been more terrible wars and more ghastly treatments of man by man in the last 100 years than ever before.

The Bible story continues with the murder of Abel by Cain. “Am I my brother’s keeper” asked Cain thinking the answer was “no”. Jesus pointed out that the much better answer is “yes” by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.

To emphasize that the problem was, and is, a worldwide problem we have the story of the Flood in Genesis chapters 6 to 8. Although, like Creation, that is much argued over, the message of the story is quite clear: sin and evil are a world wide problem and yet God has promised never again to deal with it on a worldwide basis. Our world will only come to an end when it is replaced by the new heavens and the new earth. Paul says: “the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”

The fourth and final story of the descent of the human world into the mess of sin and evil that became its standard state is the story of Babel. The multiplication of languages is depicted in this striking image. Biblically the reversal of this commenced at Pentecost when we read in Acts 2 : “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God- fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they said we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”

Practically, on a world wide view not much changed – until now – leading to our present dependence on the World Wide Web and the consequent dominance of the English language.
So what?

We live in surprising and exciting days. Babel is not, and never will be, completely reversed. But in our lifetimes one language, English, has become more widely understood than any other ever has been since Babel. More people speak Mandarin or Spanish as their first language – their mother tongue as we call it – than do English. But the effect of the Internet has been that more people can now understand or even speak English than have ever been able to do so with any other language.

A good example of that is what you are listening to or watching right now. Dave Roberts is one of those who have caught the vision of what is possible today, in English, through his Partakers site. Make sure that you make the most of these opportunities. If your mother tongue is not English you may struggle a bit to follow all he, and we, say or write. Persevere – use a dictionary if we get above ourselves and use unusual words. Sorry!

Just one question – who do you share it with? It doesn’t matter if your translation is not perfect. Make the most of it you can. Turn it into the language of those of your friends who have less English than you have. Share the glorious news of the Good news of Jesus as much as you can and the LORD will bless your every word. WOW.

 

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Bible Reading - Psalm 150

Psalm 150

 

(From The Message)
Hallelujah!

Praise God in his holy house of worship, praise him under the open skies;
Praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his magnificent greatness;
Praise with a blast on the trumpet, praise by strumming soft strings;
Praise him with castanets and dance, praise him with banjo and flute;
Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum,
Praise him with fiddles and mandolin.
Let every living, breathing creature praise God!

Hallelujah!

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The Big Story - Part 1

 

Big Story - Act 1 - Creation

with Roger Kirby

Question: which is your favourite television programme?

Very probably your answer is either a “soap” (a series of episodes telling the story of a family or a group of people) or a series of linked episodes solving various crimes, containing the same central characters. Both of these are stories – and we love stories. When a girl meets a new fellow she may well ask “ tell me about yourself”, by which she does not mean the sort of list of accomplishments that would be appropriate in a job application. She wants to hear about things he has been involved in, people he knows or has met, strange things that have happened to him. Quite how we come to understand someone on the basis of disconnected small stories like that is not at all obvious.
In His wisdom God has told us about himself through stories, some connected, some disconnected, some big, some small. Quite how we can come to understand something about God this way is not clear but we do. By story I do not mean some thing that is not true. Scholars call true stories ‘narratives’ but that is too posh a word for us!
The Bible is one huge story, the greatest story ever told. But we tend to read it and hear about it only in small disconnected chunks and have never heard any attempt to put the most important parts of it together as a big, continuous story. This set of studies aims to put that right! (Even although much modern thinking rejects the idea of big stories, thinking they only function as a method of control. But then perhaps God knows better than the moderns.) at best this story will only partly succeed because the Bible is so infinitely varied everyone sees different, hidden depths in it.
There are 5 major parts to the story – I will call them Acts, as in a play, some of them subdivided into Scenes. These are headed: the Creation, the Fall, Israel, Jesus and the Church. I am going to tell the story as I see it. There must be a nearly infintite number of ways the Story could be told. This is mine. I hope you enjoy and learn from it.
Very obviously the first one is Creation. In 5 days God created the non-human world. Here that is in Genesis 1: 1 – 23: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, then a separation on the second day, vegetation on the third day, visible lights on the fourth day, living creatures on the sea and the air on the fifth day and on the ground on the sixth day. And – we are told of all these things that - God saw that it was good..
No part of Scripture has been subjected to more argument than these verses. I am not going to get into that argument. Just let me say that it is not true that we have but one God-given source of information about what happened. We have two: this scripture and the natural world round about us, both God-given as Psalm 19 clearly says: Psalm 19: 1, 4, 7, 8a: It starts off saying “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
But then it goes on to say: “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.”
There is no conflict between Science and the Bible, as is often suggested. There cannot be because they are different sorts of things. Science is man’s understanding of the raw data of the natural world. The Bible is also raw data. Theology and Bible Study are man’s understanding of what the Bible says. Science certainly can, and does, conflict with theology and our understanding of the Bible. The natural world and the Bible are two different types of raw data, both God-given and therefore not in conflict. The natural world is our best source of information about how and when God created. The Bible is our only source of information about by whom and why. Hundreds of years ago they used to talk about the ‘perspicuity of scripture’. By that they meant that it was easy to understand, transparent to everyone, even every ordinary person. You don’t have to be a theological genius to know what it is saying to you. (Obviously the more you know about the context of scripture the better, but you don’t have to go to Bible College to work out what it is all about.) The same thing is true of the natural world. You don’t have to be a scientific genius to know what the world is telling us about God. It is not immediately obvious that we ordinary, created human beings can understand the ways of the Lord, in both his written word and his created world, but it is so. It is important to keep a balance between these two so different lines of thinking about the creation of the world and all that is in it.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them. So the answer to “by whom” is God, though what exactly that means we shall only get a glimpse of even when we have looked at all the Big Story of the Bible. This is emphasized in quite a subtle way when those first few verses refer to the sun and the moon as just ‘those lights in the sky’ not even giving them names. That is clearly done to avoid any least suggestion that they had anything to do with the creation, since they were considered to be gods in most ancient religions.
“Why” is answered in the remainder of Genesis Chapter 1: verses 24 – 31. It is for the glory of God and then, quite astonishingly, for us, for mankind. We are not just specially developed animals who happen to have developed much further than any other creature. We are those for whose blessing and enjoyment everything was created. Wow!
But don’t jump to the wrong conclusion. It is still God’s world. Sadly, mankind seems to have decided that it can do what it likes with it: rip it apart, use it up, dirty it, pollute it, empty chemicals into its rivers etc. in the hope that it will all work out all right in the end. One day the day of reckoning will come.
We, and we alone, are made in the image and likeness of God. That means, I think, many things. We alone can reason, can think, can understand – amongst other things that death lies inescapably ahead of us – can love beyond the bounds of sexual desire, can think a long way ahead of the consequences of our actions – at least when we want to do so.
To put it in very modern language, our brains, unlike those of any other creature on this earth, are, in computer speak, almost completely full of RAM, not the ROM that fills animal heads. RAM is random access memory where there is no information until some is put there; ROM is read only memory where the information has already been put there and cannot be changed or developed much. We humans, on the other hand, have to learn to speak, to walk, to understand just about everything concerning the world around us. Our brains have to learn, to be filled with knowledge. Animals are born with most of the things they need to know already implanted in their brains. That is a huge and wonderfully significant difference.

So what?

Those two words signal my comment as to what the immediate practical implication of the this passage, this part of the Big Story, means for us – for you and me – today.
We are created in the image of God. Sometimes Christians get so excited by the next two chapters of Genesis that they think of everybody as simply “sinners” to the exclusion of these important and thrilling facts. Those who are not Christians, just like those who are, have these two directly conflicting aspects to their lives. We are both made in the image of God and fallen sinners. Sometimes one dominates; sometimes the other. So your unbelieving neighbour one side may be the most delightful, helpful, loving person you could wish to meet. Your unbelieving neighbour the other side may be the most unpleasant character, impossible to carry out any sort of decent conversation with, always getting into arguments and fights and probably a thief. Those are the ways we naturally are. Neither person is acceptable to the LORD God if they have made no attempt to enter into relationship with Him. That is the way we naturally are. We need to hold firmly in our minds our understanding of human beings as both God images and sinners and be careful to understand our world in the light of those two facts.
Only as a consequence of the death, and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who have set out to follow him can we be any different.

 

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Bible Thought - Introducing Romans - Romans 1v1-6

Introducing Romans

The Passion and Depth

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God – 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:1-6)

 

Imagine if you will, that you are a member of this 1st century Roman church. Rome, the beating heart of the great Roman Empire. Now imagine the sense of mystery and wonder that you are feeling at the news that the Church has received a letter from somebody called Paul. Did you know who Paul was? Paul had obviously heard of them, probably through its reputation, which had spread throughout the empire. As well as through personal connections with members of that community who had travelled or moved there.

All roads led to Rome. Paul was patently aware of their faith in Jesus Christ, which was being proclaimed throughout the known world, the Roman empire. Paul commences writing this grand letter to the church of Rome! He starts by initially planting a seed and as his readers work their way through the letter the seed grows in their mind, becomes a seedling and ultimately reaches the pinnacle of its growth and becomes a mighty oak or cedar tree, towering, passionate and with deep roots.

All roads in the Bible, people say, lead to this letter of Romans: a book of passion and depth. Perhaps a new definition of Christian joy – passionate action and depth of thought, working together radiating Jesus Christ and his gospel.

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Bible Thought - A Strategy to Cope Hebrews 3

A Strategy to Cope (Hebrews 3)

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I wonder how you have changed over the years. It is over 45 years now since I first became a Christian and started following Jesus Christ. I haven't fallen away from Him in that time, but I have known some people who have. A question as we start: "How can we, as 21st century Christians, keep from falling away?". The answer I believe, is what I would call it the COPE strategy: Consider, Persevere and Encourage.

1. Keep Considering! (Hebrews 3:1-6)

• Moses was cool
• In Comes Jesus
• How is Jesus better than Moses?
• What about us?

2. Keep Persevering! (Hebrews 3:7-12, 15-19)

3. Keep Encouraging! (Hebrews 3:12-14)

Conclusion

 

If you would call yourself a Christian and you are unsure where you are, then please do look back and remember what Jesus has done for you. Consider Him as you look back to your first profession of faith in Him. Consider that just as He died, you died in the waters of baptism. Consider that just as He rose to physical life, you rose from the waters of baptism and will also rise again when you physically die. Consider that just as Jesus will be glorified, so too will you be glorified before the Father - if you hold out until the end. Be assured of who you are - you are a child of the living God - hold out to the end. He has a firm grip on you, so maintain your grip on Him! Remember who you are! The way to cope with the rigours of 21st century life as a Christian believer is to keep considering, keep persevering and keep encouraging. Thank you...

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 148

Psalm 148

 

(As read by Exploratrice)

 

148:1 Praise Yah! Praise Yahweh from the heavens! Praise him in the heights!

148:2 Praise him, all his angels! Praise him, all his army!

148:3 Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you shining stars!

148:4 Praise him, you heavens of heavens, You waters that are above the heavens.

148:5 Let them praise the name of Yahweh, For he commanded, and they were created.

148:6 He has also established them forever and ever. He has made a decree which will not pass away.

148:7 Praise Yahweh from the earth, you great sea creatures, and all depths!

148:8 Lightning and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling his word;

148:9 mountains and all hills; fruit trees and all cedars;

148:10 wild animals and all livestock; small creatures and flying birds;

148:11 kings of the earth and all peoples; princes and all judges of the earth; 148:12 both young men and maidens; old men and children:

148:13 let them praise the name of Yahweh, for his name alone is exalted. His glory is above the earth and the heavens.

148:14 He has lifted up the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near to him. Praise Yah!

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Bible Thought - Leviticus 18 & 19 Joy Get Its Hands Dirty

 

Joy Gets Its Hands Dirty

Leviticus 18 & 19 & Mark 12:28-34

Introduction

Leviticus 18 & 19 is where the rubber hits the road. Leviticus moves on to the matter of wholeness of life and personal holiness. God gives to His people, Israel, some laws of how they were to live. Laws for such things as: food & diet, foreign nationals, justice, the poor, sex, social etiquette and tattoos. Sounds very relevant for us today in Boscombe, doesn’t it?

 

Let’s briefly take 2 examples. Firstly, concerning the laws regarding sexual activity. The other nations engaged in all these sexual activities as given in Leviticus 18, often as part of their religious devotion and worship but also as an abusive power. But Israel was not to be like that! Sexual activity was to be between one man and one woman within marriage. Tattoos. Look in Leviticus 19:28. Why are tattoos mentioned? Primarily because the other nations tattooed and cut themselves as signs of their devotion, worship and allegiance to their gods. That was their manner of “outward holiness” as it were. Hence their prohibition for Israel who were to be very different from the surrounding nations.

 

Israel were not to be like these other nations in any way, shape or form. Other cultures were not to be allowed to infiltrate them. Israel was to stand out as God’s light to the other nations. These laws were for Israel and also for all immigrants, foreign nationals and aliens who lived among them (Leviticus 18:26). In our second reading from Mark 12, we see that Jesus said that the whole of the Law, including these in our 2 chapters in Leviticus today, is summarised as “Love God and love all other people”.

From Mark 12, we see that Jesus said that the whole of the Law, including these verses from Leviticus 18-19, is summarised as “Love God and love all other people”.

The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “I am the Lord your God. 3 You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. 4 You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. 5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.(Leviticus 18:1-5)

 

1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
3 ‘“Each of you must respect your mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.
4 ‘“Do not turn to idols or make metal gods for yourselves. I am the Lord your God.
5 ‘“When you sacrifice a fellowship offering to the Lord, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. 6 It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day; anything left over until the third day must be burned. 7 If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is impure and will not be accepted. 8 Whoever eats it will be held responsible because they have desecrated what is holy to the Lord; they must be cut off from their people.
9 ‘“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:1-10)

 

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’
29 ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 31 The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’
32 ‘Well said, teacher,’ the man replied. ‘You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:28-34)

 

Repeatedly in this book, God has said “Be holy, for I am holy”. But what is holiness? As we have glimpsed in the last 2 weeks, holiness is what separates God from all His creation. For God alone is holy and full of glory. Remember what Aaron had to do when entering the holy of holies on the day of Atonement? He had to create a wall of smoky incense, so that he wouldn’t glimpse God’s glory and holiness and be struck down dead, like his sons Nadab and Abihu. Holiness is in fact the sum of all God’s attributes. God is holiness and holiness is God.

Holiness is also a moral attribute of God, of His purity, and His freedom from the stain of ALL sin. There is an innate moral goodness about God – an absolute perfection which always seeks creation’s welfare. The goodness of God has several key aspects within His moral attributes. These include the following but they are not an exhaustive listing: Grace, holiness, patience, love, mercy, righteousness and truth. They are part of our God’s moral framework. Have you seen evidence of these in your own life?

 

Let’s keep having a look at our God. God says, for example, in Leviticus 19:2 “I…” That indicates that God is personal. This God is personal and there is an intimacy to be had with a personal God like this. No god of rock or wood like the surrounding polytheistic nations for Israel! Their God is one! God is a God who is personal, and must therefore be capable of having and sustaining relationships. A God who sustains relationships will also want to be known! We know that God is spirit, yet also a personal and infinite being (John 4:24). He is one in substance or nature and incapable of being divided. Even more, as we saw last week, God is love. Love is one of His key attributes. If God was only a single person, then how could love possibly be shown? Love requires more than one Person for Love to be active. If it is not active, then it cannot be love. How can we answer this seeming paradox?

 

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Bible Thought - Leviticus 16 A God of Joy and His people

 

A God of Joy and His people

Introduction

Book of Leviticus

We look again in the book of Leviticus 16. Some of the words and phrases we commonly use come straight from the book of Leviticus. Words such as jubilee and scapegoat are commonly used today. And what husband hasn't offered a form of guilt offering to his wife!Leviticus does have important things to tell us about sin, obedience and holiness. Perhaps most importantly it tells of God dwelling with His people. So today we delve into Leviticus 16, which is the centre and pinnacle of the book.  

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Psalm On Demand - Psalm 74

Psalm 74

A maskil of Asaph.

¹ Why have you rejected us forever, O God? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
² Remember the people you purchased of old, the tribe of your inheritance, whom you redeemed- Mount Zion, where you dwelt.
³ Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins, all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.
⁴ Your foes roared in the place where you met with us; they set up their standards as signs.
⁵ They behaved like men wielding axes to cut through a thicket of trees.
⁶ They smashed all the carved paneling with their axes and hatchets.
⁷ They burned your sanctuary to the ground; they defiled the dwelling place of your Name.
⁸ They said in their hearts, "We will crush them completely!" They burned every place where God was worshiped in the land.
⁹ We are given no miraculous signs; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be.
¹⁰ How long will the enemy mock you, O God? Will the foe revile your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!

¹² But you, O God, are my king from of old; you bring salvation upon the earth.
¹³ It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
¹⁴ It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.
¹⁵ It was you who opened up springs and streams; you dried up the ever flowing rivers.
¹⁶ The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon.
¹⁷ It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.
¹⁸ Remember how the enemy has mocked you, O LORD, how foolish people have reviled your name.
¹⁹ Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts; do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.
²⁰ Have regard for your covenant, because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
²¹ Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace; may the poor and needy praise your name.
²² Rise up, O God, and defend your cause; remember how fools mock you all day long.
²³ Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries, the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually

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Bible Thought - Leviticus 9-10 Obedient Service of God

 

Obedient Service of God

Introduction

How to read Leviticus today? What is the best way for us in the 21^st century to read these ancient laws of Leviticus? Is it just to simply ignore them or are we to slavishly follow them? Perhaps the best way is to simply let Scripture interpret Scripture and see what the New Testament says about the Leviticus laws.

Take for instance the food laws. We know in the New Testament that all food is now permissible, whereas under the Old Testament, certain foods were not permitted to be eaten. In the New Testament, the Apostle Peter had a dream in which all food was declared clean!It is also wise, not to see them as merely a list of "not do" statements, but also as "do statements".

Rather, we should see them as a love letter from a God who wants to save His people from distress and anxiety in order to give them a life of peace, unity, health and a joyful life in all its fullness.All these laws were to lead ancient Israel to be a holy nation. Holiness was about being set apart for a purpose and making wise, conscious decisions about what was right or wrong. It involved being obedient to God and keeping His decrees and regulations.

Being holy, involved having a lifestyle, which was contrary to the cultures surrounding them. To be holy was a lifestyle choice of worship, to reflect their holy God.They were called to be loyal! Called to be distinct! Called to worship! What has all this got to do with us? Where does the Day of Atonement and these laws fit into the life of a Christian in the 21^st century? We will take a look in the third part in al little while!

Outline:

Introduction

1. Great joy Leviticus 9:22-24
2. Great tragedy Leviticus 10:1-11
3. A God of Judgement
4. A God of Wrath
5. So what’s all this got to do with us today?
6. New Covenant?
7. Called to service
8. Judged for our service

Conclusion

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