Did you know that in the King James Version of the New Testament, the word “ordain” is found in 21 verses and it’s translated from 14 different Greek words? I had no idea it was such a complicated subject. It’s related to the blog post I was working on for this week, but between recovering from a horrible stomach illness and traveling for the Feast of Tabernacles, I did not have time to complete a study that turned out to be more involved than I expected.
So instead today, I’m just going to share a reflection on one verse that is pivotal to understanding the Feast of Tabernacles (also called Sukkot). It’s one that describes something that ought to be easy, but was surprisingly difficult to do this year.
You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates. You shall keep a feast to Yahweh your God seven days in the place which Yahweh chooses, because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful.
Deuteronomy 16:14-15, WEB
I remember growing up and thinking of the Feast as the highlight of the year. It’s not that way yet for a 1-year-old, though, who doesn’t understand why she had to sit in the car for a whole day and have her routine upended for a week then spend another whole day driving home. Plus, everyone in our cabin got sick. There was a lot more feeling altogether miserable than feeling altogether joyful, at least from our perspective.
“Joy” is an interesting subject in the Bible. It’s not just a happy feeling; it’s a conscious choice. Joy is an enduring quality that people can have even when things are going bad and there’s no apparent reason for happiness. We grow to have joy-filled lives as we walk with God through life’s trials and see His consistent trustworthiness. I saw that this past week in my dad, who was so glad to be spending the Feast with his family and grandchildren that none of the bad things that happened affected his peace or joy. I realized this past week that I have a lot more growing to do before I have that kind of inner peace and joy, but maybe I’ll also manage to learn that lesson by the time I’m a grandparent.
I just got home from celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) with my family and many other believers around the world. My family was in Tennessee this year for the Feast, and the fall colors on the trees made for a beautiful backdrop to this joyful festival season. If you’re not familiar with this Feast as one of God’s holy days, check out my post “Understanding the Days that God Calls Holy To Him.” If you are familiar with this day, then you probably know that we believe it pictures the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ after His second coming.
Then what happens? What are we going to be doing during the Millennium in God’s kingdom, and even into the future after that?
Reign With Him
The main thing we know about our role in the Millennium is that we’ll be working alongside Jesus Christ. We’re told in Revelation that the faithful believers who died (i.e. “fell asleep” in Jesus) and rise again in the first resurrection “will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years” (Rev. 20:6, NET). We know from other passages this will be a resurrection to spiritual life (1 Cor. 15). If we’re in this group, we’ll be like God and death will no longer have power over us (1 John 3:2; Rev. 20:6).
So I endure all things for the sake of those chosen by God, that they too may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus and its eternal glory. This saying is trustworthy:
If we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him.
2 Timothy 2:10-12, NET
Salvation is a process that culminates in our change to spirit beings as part of God’s family. As God-family members, we’ll reign alongside Jesus Christ, seated with Him on His throne (Rev. 3:21-22). Most of the other things that we know we’ll be doing are part of this role.
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Serve as Priests
We already read the verse that says, “they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years” (Rev. 20:6, NET). This is actually a role that God’s people were supposed to start filling all the way back in the time of Exodus. When ancient Israel arrived at Mount Sinai, Yahweh told Moses to tell the people, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5-6, WEB). Israel never lived up to that goal, but that’s still something God wants from His people.
you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. … you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaimthe virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
In the introduction to Revelation, John says Jesus Christ “loves us and has set us free from our sins at the cost of his own bloodand has appointed us as a kingdom, as priests serving his God and Father” (Rev. 1:5-6, NET). Note that there is a slight discrepancy in the Greek here: some manuscripts use the word basileia (kingdom) and some use basileus (king). That’s why you’ll see “kings and priests” or “kingdom of priests” or “priestly kingdom” depending on the translation. Either way, we’ll have a duty to serve within God’s kingdom as priests.
Rule as Judges
Though it’s unclear whether anyone in the resurrection will be called a “king” other than David (Ezk. 37:24), we will be filling a ruling role as we reign alongside Jesus. It seems that this role is closely linked with that of having authority to judge.
Then Peter said to him, “Look, we have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth: In the age when all things are renewed, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Matthew 19:27-28, NET
This verse is specifically about the 12 Apostles, but Paul tells us “that the saints will judge the world” and even that “we will judge angels” (1 Cor. 6:2-3, NET). How to judge righteously is one of the things we should be learning now, in this life (1 Cor. 6:1-11), partly because it’s an aspect of God’s character that we need to develop to be more like Him and partly because it’s a skill we’ll need in the future.
“And to the one who conquers and who continues in my deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations—
hewill rulethemwith an iron rod and like clay jars he will break them to pieces,
just as I have received the right to rule from my Father—and I will give him the morning star.The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Revelation 2:26-29, NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Ps. 2:9)
God places a high value on righteousness and justice. He prioritizes those things when He uses His authority as judge, and we will be following that pattern of judging righteous judgement (John 7:24) with the authority He’ll give us in the Millennium. Sometimes, righteousness and justice demand punishment as consequences for wrongdoing, but we’ll also get the chance to exercise godly mercy.
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Serve As Jesus Does
It’s vital that we remember God’s idea of a reigning, ruling, authority figure is very different than what the world typically thinks of. When humans have a lot of power, they almost universally abuse it. God will not tolerate such a thing from His people, now or in the Millennium.
But Jesus called them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. It must not be this way among you! Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant,and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:25-28, NET
We’ll rule the same way that Jesus does–by serving the people under our authority. Pride, arrogance, and lording it over others has no place in a godly ruler. In fact, treating other people like that now can disqualify us from being in God’s kingdom (Matt. 24:45-51). This brings us to an important point. God is watching us today and making a judgement as to whether we can be trusted with the roles He plans to give His people in the future (1 Peter 4:17). If we can’t show Him now that we can become humble, service-oriented, teachable people who will faithfully follow His will, then He’s not going to entrust us with the true riches (Luke 16:10-11).
Teach People
We’ve been talking about how we’ll be ruling, but who will we be ruling? When you read through Revelation, you’ll notice that there are people who aren’t included in the first resurrection and who aren’t killed during the tribulation. There will be human beings alive in the Millennium who survive the end times leading up to Jesus’s return and live on into the Millennium. By the time Satan is released at the end of the 1,000 years, there are whole nations on earth for him to attempt to deceive (Rev. 20:7-8). Coupling that information with Old Testament prophecies (for example, Is. 11:1-9; 65:17-25), we can piece together that when the saints are ruling with Jesus as spirit beings who are part of God’s family, there will also be physical human beings on the earth.
For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers; and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”
Isaiah30:19-21, WEB
If we’re worthy to be in the first resurrection and rule with Jesus as kingly priests, it’s very likely that we’ll be the teachers saying, “This is the way” and showing people how to walk with God. God wants His people to “obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations” now and there’s no indication that will change in the future (Ezk. 36:27, NET). We will continue to serve Him and keep His commands and we’ll teach others to do so, including the command to keep His Sabbaths and holy days like the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16-19).
Live Forever With God
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Once God transforms us into spirit beings, death has no more power over us . We’ll be immortal (1 Cor. 15:50-54; 1 Thes. 4:16-17). For those in the first resurrection and those who are written in the Book of Life following the end of the Millennium and the second resurrection, life continues on after the Millennium. We don’t know much about what we’ll be doing as we live forever with God, but we know that there will be a profound change in the earth and that humanity will live more closely with God than ever before.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them.He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”
Revelation 21:1-4, NET
It can be fun to speculate about the details of what we might be doing in this incredible future, but God evidently didn’t want to tell us too much. I suspect the long-term future He has planned is so wonderful we couldn’t wrap our minds around it. We just need enough of a glimpse to know that we want to be there, and to motivate us to keep growing toward the goal of spending forever with God.
God’s plan is so beautiful, and at the end of the story told in the Bible He promises a “happily ever after” greater than we could possibly imagine. Satan and his influence will be done away with. Peace will fill the whole earth. And, assuming we are among the faithful holy people of God during our human lives, we’ll be transformed into spirit beings who are part of God’s family. As God-family members, we’ll be ruling with Jesus Christ and doing the things that Godly rulers do: serving humbly, judging righteously, and teaching truthfully.
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My husband and I recently got back from our road trip down to Texas to spend the week of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) with a group of believers in Galveston. If you got my newsletter this past Wednesday, then you’ve already read some of my musings from a morning I spent on the balcony of our condo watching the sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico. I had my devotional book, a notebook, and my Bible app opened on my phone. It was a gorgeous sunrise, and a perfect quiet moment for reflection and prayer.
I hope you all aren’t getting tired of me talking about the Feast of Tabernacles, because I want to share one more thing that this festival prompted me to think about more deeply. It’s a lesson God wanted ancient Israel to remember, and it’s also one that the New Testament writers made sure Christians would keep in mind.
One of the things I hear from Christians who don’t observe God’s feast days outlined in Leviticus 23 is that they’re not relevant for us today. I assume that would be easier for me to understand if I’d never observed these days, but having kept them with my family for my whole life I just can’t imagine living without them. And I know my relationship with God would not be as deep if I didn’t have these rhythms of worship built into my weeks and years. There are still lessons to learn from keeping the days God calls holy, and I want to share one with you today about temporary shelters.
When God outlined His holy days for the people of Israel, He told Moses, “These are the Lord’s appointed times which you must proclaim as holy assemblies—my appointed times” (Lev. 23:2, NET). That’s the primary reason to keep the holy days–they belong to God and He calls His people to assemble at His appointed times. He further elaborates on them as He goes on, and explains the symbolism for some of them. The one He spends the most time on in Leviticus 23 is the Feast of Tabernacles (also called the Feast of Booths or Festival of Temporary Shelters). Let’s take a look at that passage.
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of booths for seven days to Yahweh.On the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you shall do no regular work. …
“‘So on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruits of the land, you shall keep the feast of Yahweh seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. You shall take on the first day the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God seven days. You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations. You shall keep it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in temporary shelters for seven days. All who are native-born in Israel shall dwell in temporary shelters,that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in temporary shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.’”
Leviticus 23:33-36, 39-43, WEB
Here, the reason God gives for keeping the Feast of Tabernacles forever is so “that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in temporary shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” In Deuteronomy, Moses adds that we must rejoice in this Feast “because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands” (Deut. 16:13-15, WEB). So we have this reminder of deliverance and this emphasis on joy because of God’s blessings. This Feast was a time to remember and to celebrate.
The point that struck me this year was that people kept this Feast before they arrived at the Promised Land. I find that really interesting. God set it up as a reminder that they dwelt in temporary shelters before reaching the promised land, but for those 40 years they wandered in the wilderness, they were still living in tents while keeping this Feast. For those people, it was a reminder that their current living conditions were just temporary and God would bring them into a permanent, better situation soon.
Today, we are like the Israelites who kept the Feast of Tabernacles while still living in temporary shelters and heading toward the Promised Land. Our physical bodies are temporary while we wait for our spiritual bodies. Our dwelling places on earth are temporary as we wait for God’s kingdom–our true homeland–to arrive on earth.
For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens. For in this earthly house we groan, because we desire to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed, after we have put on our heavenly house, we will not be found naked. For we groan while we are in this tent, since we are weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
2 Corinthians 5:1-4, NET
Paul isn’t the only one to use tents/tabernacles/temporary shelters as a metaphor for our physical lives. John says Jesus “tabernacled” among us when He became human (John 1:14). Peter talks about it being his duty to continue teaching “as long as I am in this tabernacle” (2 Pet. 1:13-14, NET). We have temporary, physical lives for now. We know that life isn’t permanent; we’re heading toward our own promised land, the Kingdom of God fully realized on earth after Jesus’s return.
By faith Abraham … lived as a foreigner in the promised land as though it were a foreign country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were fellow heirs of the same promise. … children were fathered by one man … like the number of stars in the sky and like the innumerable grains of sand on the seashore.These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth. For those who speak in such a way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. In fact, if they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. …
And these all were commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised. For God had provided something better for us, so that they would be made perfect together with us. …
For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
Hebrews 11:8-9, 12 (italics an allusion to Gen 22:17); 11:39-40, 13:14, NET
When we keep the Feast of Tabernacles now (just like Jesus did when He lived on this earth [John 7]), we’re reminded that we are strangers and pilgrims here. We also remember that just like God delivered ancient Israel from slavery, then had them dwell in booths for a while, then brought them into the Promised Land, He is doing the same for us. He delivers us from sin, but we still have to live our physical lives for a while before He brings us into His kingdom as His spiritually reborn children.
The Feast of Tabernacles invites us to look to the future, anticipating God’s kingdom while reminding us that our lives today are temporary. In messages during the Feast, we often spend a lot of time reading millennial prophecies like those in Isaiah. One of the really interesting things about the Feast of Tabernacles is that those prophecies tell us people will still be keeping this Feast after Jesus Christ’s return. We learn this at the end of Zechariah’s prophecy.
It will happen in that day, that living waters will go out from Jerusalem: half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea. It will be so in summer and in winter. Yahweh will be King over all the earth. In that day Yahweh will be one, and his name one. …
It will happen that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh of Armies, and to keep the feast of booths. It will be, that whoever of all the families of the earth doesn’t go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Yahweh of Armies, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up, and doesn’t come, neither will it rain on them. This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the feast of booths. This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that don’t go up to keep the feast of booths. In that day there will be on the bells of the horses, “HOLY TO YAHWEH”; and the pots in Yahweh’s house will be like the bowls before the altar.
Zechariah 14:8-9, 16-20, WEB
We don’t have a huge amount of detail about what exactly will happen after Jesus Christ’s return. God gives us an inspiring vision for the future (Rev. 19-21, for example), but there are quite a few things He doesn’t spell out clearly. I find it fascinating that one of the details He wanted us to know is that people will still keep the Feast after He is “King over all the earth,” and that there will be consequences for not observing this festival. It’s got to be important–and the lessons it teaches us must be important–if Jesus risked His life to attend the Festival (John 7:1-13) and God wants people to continue keeping it even after Jesus’s return.
With Sukkot now finished, we’ve completed another yearly cycle of God’s holy days and look forward to starting again next year, with Passover. It’s comforting to approach next year with the reminder that our physical lives and the world we live in are temporary. The struggles we deal with, the dangers we face, and the heartbreaking news stories we hear all the time aren’t going to last forever. God has a plan, and it involves a new heaven and new earth where there will be no more sorrow or death. He’s bringing us into His kingdom and into His family, moving those who faithfully follow Him from temporary here on earth to forever with Him.
Every seven years, at the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), God commanded ancient Israel to read the Law to the entire assembly (Deut. 31:10-13). This festival was one of three pilgrimage feasts during the year, and so most of the people would have gathered together to worship God for eight days (Lev. 23:33-43). That made it the perfect time to ensure as many people as possible heard the reading of the law. Remember, back then people wouldn’t have had personal copies of the Bible to read for themselves. They would (when the nation was working as God intended) learn from their parents as they grew up and from hearing the law read by priests. Eventually, by the time Jesus was growing up, many local synagogues had a copy of the Law and there was formal education for all the young people to learn God’s words and way.
Now when we observe the Feast of Tabernacles (at least the way we do things in my church), we hear sermons every day. We don’t read through the Torah every seven years, but we do hear from God’s word every day and because we all have Bibles, we can read the law for ourselves. But this week, I started wondering if I take full advantage of the opportunity I have to read God’s law. I spend most of my Bible study time looking at topics, and though I do read through the Bible cover-to-cover and then start over again it takes me a long while to do that. I might average going through it every 7 years or less, but it’s hard to say.
When Moses delivered the command to read the Law at the Feast of Tabernacles, he said, “you must read this law before them within their hearing. Gather the people—men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners in your villages—so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law” (Deut. 31:11-12, NET). Notice the imperative here: you must read the law. It’s not optional, and everyone was included. There was a good reason behind this command. The people needed to hear and learn so that they would fear the Lord and carefully obey His commands. God’s people had a choice between living in covenant with Him and enjoying abundant life, or disobeying and walking down a path toward death (Deut. 30:11-20). He wanted them to have all the information they needed to choose life, just like He wants for people today (1 Tim. 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9).
Today, though, many of us aren’t sure what our relationship should be to God’s law. First-century Christians had these questions too, and Paul addresses the topic in many of his letters. We looked at part of his discussion related to how New Covenant believers inherit God’s law in last week’s post. The New Covenant doesn’t come with a brand new law, but rather a deeper, spiritual, and heart-level relationship with God’s laws (Jer. 31:31-33; Matt. 5:17-48). There are certain aspects of the commands in the Old Testament that don’t apply today (e.g. the temple sacrifices are fulfilled by Jesus’s sacrifice) but the rules God gave for living as His covenant people (e.g. the Ten Commandments) are still relevant because they teach us how to become “perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48, WEB).
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No Love Without Law
While listening to a sermon at the Feast of Tabernacles this year, one verse caught my ear in a way I’d never quite thought of before. It’s part of the Olivet prophecy where Jesus answer His disciples’ question, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matt. 24:3, NET). It’s interesting that rather than directly answering their “when” and “what” question, He gave them warnings and things they’d need to know as the time for His second coming drew closer. One of these warnings concerns the persecution of Jesus’s disciples. That started happening pretty much right away, is still happening today to Christians in many parts of the world, and will keep happening more and more as we get closer to Jesus’s return.
“Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations because of my name.Then many will be led into sin, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many, and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold.But the person who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Matthew 24:9-14, NET
Today, I want to focus on the line, “because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold.” You might be more familiar with a translation like, “Because iniquity will be multiplied,” but “lawlessness” is the more accurate translation. The Greek word is anomia (G458). It is derived from a (used to make a word negative) and nomos (G3551), which means law. In a Biblical sense, that mostly refers to the Law of God. Therefore, anomia means “the condition of without law” either “because ignorant of it” or “because of violating it” (Thayer G458). It can also be translated “contempt,” “iniquity, wickedness,” or “unrighteousness” because that’s the result of living lawlessly.
This statement from Jesus might seem odd to some. Why would a lack of law mean that there’s no love? Depending on your background, you might think that laws are oppressive and restrictive rather than loving. Or you might already see laws in a more Biblical sense, as guards to keep us from hurting ourselves and others. As Paul says, “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good” (Rom. 7:12, NET). God reveals His laws to us as an expression of His divine character and a guide for how to live rightly in the world He created. If we obey those commands and laws, we’ll be developing His character in us.
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Learning to Love Like God
“God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), and it comes as no surprise that we’re instructed to make His love an integral part of our character. Paul calls love “the more excellent way,” excelling even faith and hope (1 Cor. 12:31-13:13). He also says that if we’re truly loving one another, then we’re fulfilling God’s law.
Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,” (and if there is any other commandment) are summed up in this, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Romans 13:8-10, NET (BOLD ITALICS IN ORIGINAL TO MARK OT QUOTES)
Over and over throughout scripture, we see God’s love paired with His law. Loving God and loving your neighbor are the two greatest commandments, according to Jesus Himself (Matt. 22:36-40). God gave us His laws because He loves us and He expects us to obey His laws if we love Him. The apostle John expands on this idea, saying that we can tell whether or not we genuinely love God by how well we’re following His commandments.
(My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.
Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments. The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person. But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he resides in God ought himself to walk just as Jesus walked.
1 John 2:1-6, NET
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We’re not saved by keeping God’s commandments, but when we have a saving, transforming, relationship with Jesus and the Father we will be keeping their commandments. We’re saved by God’s grace, and then the proper response to that grace is to faithfully keep covenant with God and do as He says. If we don’t want to obey God, then we don’t really love Him or know Him. That might be a hard truth to swallow sometimes, but that’s what John teaches us here because he learned it from Jesus (John 14:15, 21; 15:10-12).
Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; indeed, sin is lawlessness. And you know that Jesus was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. Everyone who resides in him does not sin; everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him. Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Jesus is righteous.
1 John 3:4-7, NET
Here once again, we see that word anomia. People who are genuinely part of God’s covenant don’t live lawlessly. As John pointed out earlier in his letter, we might sometimes sin (and when we do, we have Jesus as Advocate to help us repent and return) but we shouldn’t be living habitually sinful lives. One of the key reasons that Jesus came to this world and died was “to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good” (Titus 2;14, NET). We need to take this seriously and not dishonor Him, or treat Him in an unloving way, by living lawless lives.
When Jesus comes back, He will tell the lawless, “I never knew you” (Matt. 7:21-23). That’s certainly not what we want to hear! Rather, we want to be those who’ve responded to His love by loving Him and our fellow Christians so much that we obey God’s word as a result of our transformative relationship with Him. As we move ever closer to Jesus’s return or the end of our lives (whichever comes first), we would be wise to consider whether our relationship with God’s law shows Him our love, or if something else is going on that we might need to repent of and correct.
Jesus warned that “because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold.” We need to be careful that the lawlessness in the world around us doesn’t cool our love, and that we are not living lawlessly ourselves. John treats loving other people and keeping God’s commandments as something we can look at to see if we’re sincerely loving and following God, and we can follow his example when we examine ourselves and study our Bibles. The more we love God, spend time with Him, and internalize His words, the better we’ll know how to love the way that He loves.
If you’re reading this when it posts, then today (Sept. 30, 2023), is the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). As we made preparations to keep this Feast, I’ve been thinking about a book of the Bible that, at first glance, you might think doesn’t have much to do with the holy days. Usually when talking about God’s holy times, we turn to some place like Leviticus 23, which outlines all the days God says are holy to Him. This year, though, I’ve been thinking about Romans.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that Paul’s letter to the Romans is one of my favorite books in the Bible. There’s so much depth to it; I think I could spend a lifetime studying it and not fully understand everything. While reading Romans 10 and 11 a few weeks ago, I sketched out some notes trying to visualize the olive tree grafting analogy that Paul uses when discussing how New Covenant Christians and Gentile believers (those who were not ethnically part of Israel) become part of God’s community of faith, and what happened to the Jewish people who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. Earlier, I also sketched out a chart trying to illustrate the different ways that Paul speaks to Jewish and Gentile converts about God’s law. I turned one into an infographic and one into a sort of flowchart. These visualizations helped me, and I’m sharing them in hope they might be useful to others as well.
Two Paths to Get to Christ
Often, I think Christians make the mistake of thinking that Christianity was a new religion started by Jesus and that the Jews today are still keeping the faith described in the Old Testament. What we ought to realize is that Jesus came as the next step in God’s plan for His people. He was the promised Messiah, and those who accepted Him continued along the path God laid out for His people from Genesis onward. Assuming you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, then those who didn’t believe in Him are the ones who broke off and went a different direction. That’s what Paul is addressing in this section of Romans.
Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites is for their salvation. For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not in line with the truth. For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law, with the result that there is righteousness for everyone who believes.
Romans 10:1-4, NET
Paul was a Jewish man who had zeal for God that originally didn’t line up with the truth. He persecuted Christians at first, but when Jesus dramatically revealed Himself to Paul as the Messiah, Paul aligned His zeal with God’s truth. After that, he wanted all of his fellow Israelites to have a similar awakening. At this point, rather than aligning themselves with God’s truth, the way that they were trying to follow His law involved doing things their own way. Christ brings an end to trying to keep the law as a way to establish your own righteousness.
The Greek word for “end” here can mean the end or completion point, but it also means “the end to which all things relate, the aim, purpose” (Thayer, G5056, 1d). Now, remember that when we’re interpreting Paul we need to keep in mind that, as a faithful apostle, he would not contradict one of Jesus’s teachings. Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17, NET). Here, He’s saying that He came “to fulfil, i.e. to cause God’s will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be, and God’s promises (given through the prophets) to receive fulfilment” (Thayer, G4137, 2c3). Therefore, Paul is not saying that Jesus got rid of the law. He’s pointing out that we don’t become righteous by keeping the law.
Paul taught both Jewish and Gentile Christians. These two groups had different relationships to the law of God as they came into the church. For Jewish Christians, “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24, KJV). For Gentile Christians (particularly those who weren’t already “God fearers” who’d aligned themselves with the Jewish faith), they came to Jesus by faith first and learned about God’s laws afterwards. You’ll often see Paul telling his Jewish readers that it’s important to keep God’s law on a heart level now and to understand they can’t make themselves righteous, and teaching his Gentile readers to obey God but not accept extra Jewish traditions they’d added on top of the law.
Image by Marissa Martin, created with Canva
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is by the law: “The one who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says … “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we preach), because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Romans 10:5-6, 8-13 (bold italics in original to mark OT quotes)
Paul uses quotes from the Old Testament to support his thesis that Jewish and Gentle Christians are part of the same spiritual family. God wants all His people in community together, joined into one covenant relationship with Him. For many of the Gentiles, this is the first time they’ve been in covenant with God. For the Jewish believers, the New Covenant was a promise contained in the Old Covenant. Whichever way they came into the family, they’re now both part of that New Covenant with God.
Grown or Grafted into One Tree
So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!”
But what was the divine response to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal.” So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. …
I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous … Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
Romans 11:1-7, 11, 13-15, NET (bold italics in original to mark OT quotes)
Through His prophets, God revealed that He always intended to open up salvation to all nations after the Messiah came. Even before that, He allowed people from non-Israelite nations to join the covenant community if they really wanted. As Paul was writing, though, this broad preaching of the good news to all the nations was a new and exciting thing.
This doesn’t mean God started a brand new family/community, though. He transitioned His family to a new and better covenant, and welcomed new members in. Those who didn’t want to come with Him into the New Covenant got cut out of the community (at least for a little while). I find this easier to wrap my head around with a visualization. If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you’ve already seen this infographic. I sent it out on Wednesday to give newsletter readers a sneak peak and to ask for feedback on the design.
Image by Marissa Martin, created with Canva
The Things We Do In God’s Family
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One of the things that stood out to me when I was reading Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyesby E. Randolph Richards and Richard James was the way they described Paul’s letters discussing Jewish and Gentile believers. One of the things Paul is doing when writing to believers, including in his Romans letter, is telling them they are part of a new community. In collectivist cultures, people get their identity from a group. Before conversion, Jews and Gentiles were part of different communities with different expectations, beliefs, and codes of conduct. Now, though, they are part of God’s covenant community.
When we’re in God’s community as part of His family, there are certain expectations that come with that. For example, we’re expected to treat God’s name with respect and honor Him with our words and conduct. He expects us to come to Him when we need help rather than turn to something else first. We’re to love the Father and Jesus, and Jesus said if we love Him then we will keep His commandments. Most Christians today already know that this includes the 10 Commandments, but those aren’t the only aspects of God’s law that transfer to the New Covenant. They’re more of a summary.
As already mentioned, Jesus said He came to fill the law and the prophets to their fullest extent, not to abolish them (Matt. 5:17) In some ways, more is expected of us in the New Covenant rather than less. We don’t need to do all the sacrifices since “by one offering he [Jesus] has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14, WEB), but we are expected to obey the law on a heart level and not just a letter level (Matt. 5:17-48). God’s laws and commands describe the things that we do as part of God’s family; the things that He expects from people who have a covenant relationship with Him. His Sabbaths and Holy Days are a key part of that for Spiritual Israel today. They are times when He calls for His children to come together, rejoice with each other and with Him, and learn more about Him. That’s what we’ll be doing for the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eight Day that follows, just as Jesus did when He kept this Feast (John 7).
If you’re a fan of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxyyou probably recognize today’s title. It’s also a quote from the Bible (and ironic in how I’m using it, given Douglas Adams’ views on religion), but as a sci-fi fan that phrase jumped out at me when reading Joshua precisely because of Hitchhiker’s Guide. In Adams’s novel, this phrase is written “in large, friendly letters on the cover” of the in-universe Hitchhiker’s Guide. Though it’s played humorously, in an interview with Sci Fi Weekly, Arthur C. Clarke (another sci-fi great) said he thinks “don’t panic” is “the best advice” he could give if addressing humanity as a whole.
While I suspect we could come up with better advice for the whole world than “don’t panic,” it is good advice. Panicking doesn’t do anyone much good. I’ve had many panic attacks, and when you’re panicking it’s hard to focus on anything else. For me, it’s like my chest is closing up, my stomach feels ill, and I start shaking all over. I just want to freeze or run. If it gets really bad, my skin starts prickling and I can’t stand being touched. Many people end up in the hospital with their first panic attack because they literally think they’re dying.
My anxiety has improved and panic attacks lessened significantly in more recent years. It’s still something I track carefully, though, and pray about regularly. I think C.S. Lewis is right when he says our anxieties are “afflictions, not sins” and that we should take them to God rather than feel paralyzed with guilt about them. Even so, there are many indications in the Bible that God doesn’t want us to live with panic, anxiety, and fear as part of our daily lives. It isn’t helpful to feel guilty about experiencing those things, but it’s also not good to just accept them as a normal part of life. God wants to help free us from the burden of panic. And that is good news for us and the whole world.
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Courage to Live as Kingdom-Citizens
We just got home from celebrating Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles/Booths). This week-long festival that God commands us to observe (Lev. 23:33-43) reminds us that our lives here on earth are temporary. It also invites us to look forward to a future when “our earthly house of this tabernacle” will be replaced with a spirit body (2 Cor. 5:1, KJV) and the kingdom of God will be here on earth at last (as we looked at in our recent Isaiah Study).
Today, we are citizens of God’s kingdom but we’re not living in it yet. We’re still here on earth, like expatriates whose native land is the kingdom of God and who live in foreign countries. Sometimes those countries are nice places to stay. Other times, they’re actively hostile to people following God. When the world around us opposes us for being citizens of heaven, it would be easy to get scared. But Jesus encourages us to do something else.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give it to you as the world does. Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage. …
“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have conquered the world.”
John 1427; 16:33, NET
Jesus doesn’t mince words here. He promises peace, but He also says there’s going to be trouble for us in this world. We live in a place that’s war-torn, subject to natural disaster, faces famines, and is full of diseases and danger. There are many beautiful things in this world, but creation is fallen and captive, groaning as it awaits the future kingdom when Jesus will set all things right (Rom. 8:12-25). And on top of those troubles common to all people, many Christians in the world today face persecution for their faith.
If that were the end to the story, it’d be a wonder anyone wants to be a Christian. But the benefits far out weigh the temporary downsides. For one thing, “our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18, NET). In addition to the future we anticipate in God’s kingdom, we enjoy His presence, comfort, blessings, and aid right now. We can ask Him for help, confident that He will respond, just like the first-century church did. When they were threatened, they prayed for courage to keep teaching (Acts 4:18-31). God didn’t stop all the persecution, but He did answer their prayers. He even turned one of their most feared enemies into a highly effective apostle (Acts 8:1; 9:1-31; 1 Cor. 15:9-10). We can have both peace and courage as followers of God, even in a dangerous world.
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Courage to Keep Going
I promised in the introduction that “don’t panic” isn’t just a sci-fi reference. It’s also a quote from the Bible. After Moses’s death, God entrusted Joshua with leading the Israelite people into the promised land. Joshua had seen all the things this people put Moses through in the 40 years since they’d left Egypt. He’d also spied out the land they were heading into, and knew the dangers they’d face there. The last time they’d tried to go into this land, Joshua had been confident that God would fight for them (Num. 14:6-8). Still, it’s understandable that he might have some worries now. God makes sure to address those worries when speaking with Joshua.
No one will be able to resist you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not abandon you or leave you alone. Be strong and brave! You must lead these people in the conquest of this land that I solemnly promised their ancestors I would hand over to them. Make sure you are very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep. Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do. This law scroll must not leave your lips. You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper and be successful. I repeat, be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.
Joshua 1:5-9, NET
What an incredible message of reassurance! Look how many times God says, “Be strong and brave,” and the reasons He gives for that courage and strength. “Don’t be afraid and don’t panic,” God says, “For I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.” And this wasn’t just a one-time promise to Joshua. We’ve also received promises from the Lord, saying, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you” (Heb. 13:5, WEB).
In Romans, Paul asks the rhetorical question, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The answer, obvious to anyone whose been paying attention to the Old Testament record, Jesus’s gospel message, and Paul’s writings so far is that nothing can stand against us when God is with us in all that we do (Rom. 8:28-39).
Courage Thinking of the Future
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Remember near the beginning when I said the Feast of Tabernacles reminds us there will be a time when “our earthly house of this tabernacle” will be replaced with a spirit body (2 Cor. 5:1, KJV)? Paul also talks about courage in this section of scripture. We live in temporary bodies, just like the Israelites lived in temporary shelters while traveling from Egypt to the Promised Land. We need courage to keep heading toward our own promise of a better future.
For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens. … For we groan while we are in this tent, since we are weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord— for we live by faith, not by sight. Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So then whether we are alive or away, we make it our ambition to please him.
1 Corinthians 5:1, 4-9, NET
Our hope for the future contextualizes our present worries. If I’m worried about what someone might think of me, it helps to remember that ultimately God’s the one whose opinion matters most. If I’m worried about a health concern, it’s a comfort to remember that my body is temporary and God plans to give me a better one. If I’m worried something’s going to go horribly wrong, it’s encouraging to remember God won’t let me go through anything by myself.
When it comes from God, “Don’t panic” is advice we have good reason to follow. He’s the Creator, the Sovereign Lord, the God of armies in heaven, the One in charge of how the whole story ends. He promises He’ll be with us. If we can remember that–if it really sinks in and feels real to us–then panicking will be the farthest thing from our minds. That doesn’t mean we’ll never feel worry or even panic, but it does put us in the mindset to welcome in the peace Jesus and Paul promise will guard our mins.
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Like An Anchor 