The Zeal of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

18 November, 202317 November, 2023Marissa

God is emotional. Not in the negative sense so many people mean when they describe another person as “emotional” (i.e. too sensitive or overly expressive), but in a positive sense. He’s not an unfeeling robot or someone only guided by logic (though logic is certainly part of His character and thought process). He feels emotions, including passionate, strong emotions.

I’m amazed when I think about God’s emotions. The type of emotions He has and the way they’re described in the Bible prove He cares deeply about us. He even has emotions that people tend to be warry of. Jealousy, for example, is something humans tend to think of in negative terms. The Bible, however, uses it in both positive and negative senses for human beings, and God experiences jealousy in a right way as well. Sometimes, jealousy or zeal (which are both translated from the same Hebrew word) is the correct emotion to feel in a situation. And sometimes, God’s zeal is what drives Him to accomplish incredible things for His people.

Zeal and Jealousy

In Hebrew, the word translated “zeal” or “jealousy” is either qana (H7065) or one of its derivatives. This word family represents “very strong emotion whereby some quality or possession of the object is desired by the subject” (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament [TWOT] entry 2038). The TWOT suggests the best way to understand this word is by relating it to the English word “zeal” for the basic meaning. Uses of qana in the sense of “envy” is “zeal for another’s property” and the “jealous” use is “zeal for one’s own property.”

We likely already have ideas of what “jealous” means based on our experience with its uses in English. For example, we might think of someone suspicious, unreasonable, and controlling. We need to set those connotations aside when we’re approaching a study of jealousy in the Bible. Much like anger, jealousy in scripture is presented as the right response to certain situations; it only becomes sinful if we act on it wrongly. Also like with anger, God’s expressions of jealousy are always right. He is righteous all the time, and He is perfectly in control of Himself and His emotions.

In scripture, “jealousy” is frequently used in relation to marriage. Unfaithfulness in one spouse (or suspected unfaithfulness) leads to jealousy (TWOT 2038). In the Old Testament, adultery was a death-penalty sin. We have at least two examples of God lifting that penalty even before Jesus’s sacrifice for our sins (see 2 Sam. 12:13 and John 8:10-11), but the severity of this law highlights how serious God is about adultery. Keep in mind that God describes Himself as Israel’s (i.e., His chosen people’s) husband. He has a right to be jealous over her affections, and He would have the right to execute her for adultery (i.e. idolatry; unfaithfulness to Him). He doesn’t do that, though. His jealousy may inspire Him to wrath (i.e. just punishment for sin), but it also inspires zealous, “arduous love” that brings about salvation (TWOT 2038).

Image of a woman reading overlaid with text from Exodus 34:14, WEB version: “you shall worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” — Image by Pearl from Lightstock

What Makes God Zealous?

The title for today’s blog post comes from a phrase God repeats a couple times in the Bible: “The zeal of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will accomplish this” (NET), “The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this” (WEB), or “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (NKJV). What sort of things is the Lord of Heaven’s armies so eager to accomplish that it rouses His zeal?

During the reign of King Hezekiah, Yahweh promised to accomplish deliverance for Judah from an attacking army and says, “Yahweh’s zeal will perform this” (2 Kings 19:31, WEB; see 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37). In Isaiah 9, this phrase appears when God promises a Messiah will come to sit on David’s throne forever (Is. 9:6-7). Similar sentiments show up in other prophet’s writings. In Zechariah, Yahweh proclaims Himself zealous or jealous over Zion as He promises mercy, comfort, prosperity, and salvation (Zech. 1:12-17; 8:1-8).

The word of Yahweh of Armies came to me. Yahweh of Armies says: “I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.”

Yahweh says: “I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called ‘The City of Truth;’ and the mountain of Yahweh of Armies, ‘The Holy Mountain.’” …

Yahweh of Armies says: “Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they will dwell within Jerusalem; and they will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.”
Zechariah 8:1-3, 7-8, WEB

Remember that the TWOT says qana in the sense of “jealousy” is “zeal for one’s own property” or spouse? God is zealous about protecting and defending His people from outside attackers. They belong to Him and He has a strong, zealous desire to keep them His own. He is zealous about protecting them and their relationship with Him.

When God made a covenant with the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai, and later when Joshua reminded the people of that covenant, God and His followers warned the people that Yahweh is a jealous God who does not accept rejection and disobedience (Ex. 20.5; Josh. 24:19). Despite this warning, Israel repeatedly turned their backs on God and worshipped idols, rejecting Him as their husband and bringing His just wrath on the nation (Ezk. 5:7-13; 16:38-43; 39:21-29). God is jealous because He cares. When He brings punishment or allows the consequences of sin to affect people, it’s because He is zealous about justice and He jealously guards His relationship with His people. His goal is to bring them back into right relationship with Him, as evidenced by God’s plan for Jesus to come as the Messiah.

Image of a man reading overlaid with text from Isaiah 9:6-7, WEB version: “For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the
government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.” — Image by Creative Clicks Photography from Lightstock

Messianic Zeal

When we did our in-depth, two-month study of the final section of Isaiah last year, one of the themes we looked at was Messianic prophecies called Servant Songs. The first of those songs is located in Chapter 42:1-9, but what comes after is also related and God returns to talking about “my servant” in 42:19. In between these statements from Yahweh Himself comes a passage about human response to His activity.

Sing to Yahweh a new song,
    and his praise from the end of the earth,
    you who go down to the sea,
    and all that is therein,
    the islands and their inhabitants.
Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices,
    with the villages that Kedar inhabits.
    Let the inhabitants of Sela sing.
    Let them shout from the top of the mountains!
Let them give glory to Yahweh,
    and declare his praise in the islands.
Yahweh will go out like a mighty man.
    He will stir up zeal like a man of war.
    He will raise a war cry.
    Yes, he will shout aloud.
    He will triumph over his enemies.
Isaiah 42:10-13, WEB

Image of a woman looking up, overlaid with blog's title text and the words, ""Zeal" and "jealous" are translated from the same Hebrew word, and the Bible shows God experiencing both of these strong emotions." — Image by Brightside Creative from Lightstock

So, God promised to send the Messiah, “my servant” who “will bring justice to the nations” and be “a covenant for the people,” and then Isiah responds by calling for people to praise Yahweh who will “stir up zeal like a man of war.” In their entry on qana, the TWOT writers point out that we can read this Messianic verse in connection with the idea of God marrying His people. They write, “God’s jealousy when offended issued in just retribution, but when stirred by His grace it resulted in eternal love. Hence, the church is called the bride of Christ” (TWOT entry 2038).

That brings us to the New Testament. Jesus displayed zeal, too. Like Elijah, who was “very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant” (1 Kings 19:9-18), and the Psalmist who said, “My zeal wears me out, because my enemies ignore your words” (Ps. 119:139), Jesus was filled with zeal about ensuring God’s people had a right relationship with Him.

He found in the temple courts those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting at tables.So he made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple courts, with the sheep and the oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold the doves he said, “Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!”His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will devour me.”
John 2:14-17, NET (bold italics mark a quote from Psalm 69:9)

We often talk about this passage as an example of righteous indignation, but the Bible writers present His response as zeal rather than anger. Seeing people turning God’s house in to a place for merchandising made Him zealous to set things right.

We’re made in God’s image, and that includes our emotions. Unlike Him, we don’t always handle our emotions correctly because we’re not perfect. But He is, and He does. His zeal/jealousy is good and right, and it moves Him to set things right between Him and His people. We can be very thankful for the zeal of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Featured image AI generated with NightCafe

Song Recommendation: “I Am Zealous Over Zion” by Ted Pearce

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Thinking About How Jesus Interacted With The Torah

11 November, 202311 November, 2023Marissa

Recently, I realized that The Bible Project, which I follow on YouTube, also has a podcast hosted by co-founders Tim Mackie and Jon Collins. I started listening to their Deuteronomy series, which is the end of their walk through the Torah (first five books of the Bible) that spanned all of 2022. It’s been fascinating. I’ve never sat down with the Torah and meditated on it the way they describe doing, though I have read those five books of the Bible several times over the years.

Today, I want to talk about something mentioned in “Deuteronomy Scroll Episode 6: Jesus, Marriage, and the Law.” In this episode, they compare Deuteronomy 24:1-4 with Matthew 19:1-12 and take that as an example of how Jesus read and used the Law. This is a section of the Torah dealing with divorce and remarriage.

Then some Pharisees came to him in order to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful to divorce a wife for any cause?”He answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female,and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?”Jesus said to them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hard hearts, but from the beginning it was not this way. Now I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another commits adultery.”
Matthew 19:3-9, NET (bold italics mark OT quotes)

In this podcast episode, Tim and Jon point out that Jesus went back to Genesis to reveal God’s original ideal for marriage. In this particular situation, the Law (given through Moses) isn’t representative of what God wanted from the beginning. It is God’s concession for hard-hearted people living in a fallen world. In other words, God intended marriage to be permanent but in a world where that doesn’t always happen He gave guidelines for divorce. Here, Jesus says infidelity is a justifiable reason for divorce. Later, Paul says that if a believer has an unbelieving spouse who wants a divorce the believer isn’t “bound” to stay married (1 Cor. 7:15). As the Bible Project points out, this hints that Jesus’s statement in Matthew 19 wasn’t taken as a full expression of His views on divorce and remarriage, but rather as the proper way to interpret the specific law in question from Deuteronomy.

My purpose today isn’t to examine divorce and remarriage as a topic, but to use this as a jumping off point for meditating on Jesus’s relationship with the Law. I did something similar in my post “What Happens When God Takes Justice to the Next Level?” In that post, we went through the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus reveals that He came to fill up the Law to a spiritual level, not destroy it. For example, He said it’s not enough for His followers to obey the command “thou shalt not murder;” He also expects us not to despise or condemn other people (Matt. 5:21-22). That’s very similar to what He does in Matthew 19. It’s not enough to follow the instructions for divorce; Jesus said that, ideally, God doesn’t want divorce to happen at all (though there are some times it can/will).

If you read a Bible that calls attention to Old Testament quotes in the New Testament (NET, for example, puts direct OT quotes in bold italics and allusions to OT passages in italics) then you’ll see that Jesus quoted from the Old Testament extensively. The Blue Letter Bible’s website has a list of quotes and allusions, which you can click here to view. They list 258 quotes or allusions to the Hebrew scriptures in the four gospel accounts, including many from Psalms, Isaiah, and the Torah (especially Deuteronomy and Leviticus). To make things more manageable for today’s post, we’ll just focus on Matthew. This book contains 102 of the quotes and allusions noted by Blue Letter Bible, though not all are quotes from Jesus; many are Matthew linking Jesus’s life to Old Testament prophecies (which is a different, though fascinating, topic).

Image of five bibles on a table for a study overlaid with text from Matt. 5:17, 19, NET version: “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. ... So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” — Image by Inbetween from Lightstock

Useful for Everyday Living

The first time Matthew records Jesus quoting the Old Testament is during the temptation in the wilderness. Here, Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days and nights after His baptism. Then, Satan shows up and tries three times to tempt Jesus into sin. Jesus counters each of these temptations with a quote from Deuteronomy (Matt. 4:1-11).

This account highlights and reveals a couple interesting things. First, Jesus had these verses memorized. There’s a good chance, given what we know of first-century Jewish education, he could have had the whole Torah memorized. Second, Jesus’s main counter for an attack by Satan was to quote God’s law. Clearly, He found value in memorizing and living by these verses.

Similarly, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy when He gave practical instructions for resolving a disagreement between brothers in the faith, and may also have been alluding to Leviticus (Matt. 18:15-20; Lev. 19:15-17; Deut. 19:15). He uses principles from the Laws God gave for interacting with other people and upholding justice to show how we should resolve disagreements as His followers.

Additionally, Jesus told a young man who asked Him about eternal life, “‘if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ ‘Which ones?’”’ he asked. Jesus replied, ‘“’Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself‘” (Matt. 19:17-19, NET). There’s more to that story (Matt. 19:16-26), but for the topic we’re studying the main thing I want to point out is that Jesus taught familiar commandments from Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy as guides for heading toward eternal life. In short, He treated God’s laws from the Old Testament as something we should still follow that are useful for everyday life.

Back To God’s Intent

As I mentioned in the intro, Jesus quotes several Old Testament laws in the Sermon on the Mount. He does not say these laws are wrong or that we shouldn’t obey them. Rather, He counsels His listeners to pay attention to God’s intent behind the law and obey at a higher level. He expects more of us than simply keeping the Law. He expects us to become like God, who gave the law, and “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48, NET). Later, He boils the Law down to the most important points.

And one of them, an expert in religious law, asked him a question to test him: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:35-40, NET

Here, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Love is the essence, or fulfillment, of God’s law (Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14). The other commandments in the Law are details; instructions on how to love God and love your neighbor. And based on Jesus’s conversations about the Law, we really should be doing even better than simply obeying the letter of the law. We need to obey God in the spirit and intent behind the law.

Be Wary of Human Ideas

Image of a woman reading the Bible, overlaid with blog's title text and the words, "We can study God's law, and Jesus's example of interacting with God's law, to learn more about Him and our role as His followers." — Image by Anggie from Lightstock

Now, thinking humanly, we might conclude that if Jesus wants us to keep the law even better, maybe we should put some extra guards around it. That’s a mistake people in Jesus’s day made, too, and He condemns the practice. People do not have the right to elevate human traditions to the level of doctrine, and they especially don’t have the right to replace something God commanded with anything else (Matt. 15:1-20).

Another error that Jesus pointed out was misinterpreting scriptures. One day the “Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to him and asked him” about the levirate marriage law of Deuteronomy. He knew they really wanted to ask about the resurrection rather than that law, and He replied, “You are deceived, because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God” and He quoted from Exodus to backup the truth of the resurrection (Matt. 22:23-33). In this case, human reasoning got in the way and these people tried to use one of the laws recorded by Moses to prove a point that law had nothing to do with.

When we read the psalms, especially Psalm 119, we see people meditating on God’s Law, loving His commandments, and praying for deeper understanding. We need to continue following that example. In many ways, obeying God is very simple: love Him and love your neighbor. But we’re not yet perfect; we aren’t yet fully “grown up” to be like Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:14-16). We are, however, being conformed to His image and having His mind formed in us (Rom. 8:28-29; 1 Cor. 2:15-16). We can study God’s law–and Jesus’s example of interacting with God’s law–to learn more about Him and our role as His followers.

Featured image by Matt Vasquez

Song Recommendation: “Thy Word” by Amy Grant

Psalm 25: A Friendship Covenant With God

21 October, 202320 October, 2023Marissa

I love reading through Psalms, as I’m sure many of you do. They’re among the most beloved passages of scripture. You probably have several at least partly memorized. Many are set to music, and people of God have been singing them for thousands of years. As familiar as they are, there’s still more to learn from them. As we read the Psalms, we might notice something we hadn’t thought of before or the Lord might grant us a deeper understanding of truths we’ve read over and over.

Today, I want to look at one of David’s psalms. We don’t know when he wrote Psalm 25, but there is a note that tells us he was the author. From the psalm itself, we can assume that David was facing some sort of trouble when he wrote it because he asks God for help. It’s not one of the more desperate sounding psalms, though; David seems to have peace in this trouble and confidence that God will hear His prayer and respond.

To you, Yahweh, I lift up my soul.
My God, I have trusted in you.
    Don’t let me be shamed.
    Don’t let my enemies triumph over me.
Yes, no one who waits for you will be shamed.
    They will be shamed who deal treacherously without cause.
Psalm 25:1-3, WEB

In these opening lines, we see David coming to Yahweh (God’s proper name, see Ex. 3:14-15) in prayer. In a respectful, conversational poem, David states his trust, makes a request, and says that he knows Yahweh responds to these types of prayers from His people. David was confident that God can be counted upon to keep His promises, and he also knew that God wants us to ask Him for things. Prayer keeps lines of communication open and builds relationship, even though God already knows exactly what we need.

Image of a woman's hands clasped in prayer, resting on a Bible, overlaid with text from Psalm 25:102, NET version: "O Lord, I come before you in prayer. My God, I trust in you. Please do not let me be humiliated; do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me." — Image by reenablack from Pixabay

Forgiveness and Faithfulness

I find it interesting that even though David opens the prayer with a specific request (“Don’t let me be shamed. Don’t let my enemies triumph over me”), he immediately shifts from asking for deliverance to asking for instruction. He wants God to teach him because he’s confident in the God of his salvation.

Show me your ways, Yahweh.
    Teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth, and teach me,
    For you are the God of my salvation,
    I wait for you all day long.
Psalm 25:4-5, WEB

David doesn’t spend the whole prayer asking for God to rescue him from a physical situation. The bulk of the psalm is spent on discussing relationship. There’s teaching, and covenant-keeping, and claiming the Lord as “my God.” David also discusses his sin, likely because that damages relationship with God. Jesus hadn’t died for our sins yet when this psalm was written, but David knew about the promised Messiah (Acts 2:22-31) and he knew that God is merciful and gracious to forgive. Then, as now, God deeply desires a relationship with His people and He is eager to forgive sins and mend broken relationships if only we’ll turn to Him.

Yahweh, remember your tender mercies and your loving kindness,
    for they are from old times.
Don’t remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions.
    Remember me according to your loving kindness,
    for your goodness’ sake, Yahweh.
Good and upright is Yahweh,
    therefore he will instruct sinners in the way.
He will guide the humble in justice.
    He will teach the humble his way.
All the paths of Yahweh are loving kindness and truth
    to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
For your name’s sake, Yahweh,
    pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
Psalm 25:6-11, WEB

If you read my new Armor of God study guide or a blog post that mentioned battle prayers of Biblical kings, you might remember that these types of prayers acknowledge God’s power to help, make a request for help, and claim the Lord as their God (2 Chr. 14:9-12; 20:5-12; Is. 37:14-20). The praying person may also remind God of His previous faithfulness, asking that He will continue to guard the people He made a covenant with. We see those elements in David’s battle prayer as well, alongside his request for instruction and restored relationship.

Image of a man reading the Bible, overlaid with text from Psalm 25:12-14, NET version: "The Lord shows his faithful followers the way they should live. They experience his favor; their descendants inherit the land. The Lord’s loyal followers receive his guidance, and he reveals his covenantal demands to them." — Image by Matt Vasquez from Lightstock

Covenant Kindness

Earlier in the psalm, when David prays, “Yahweh, remember your tender mercies and your loving kindness,” the phrase “loving kindnesses” is translated from the Hebrew word chêsêd (H2617). It’s challenging to translate this into English. Often translators choose words like “kindness” or “mercy,” but those miss the word’s deep connection with covenants. There is scholarly argument over whether chesed is faithfulness to covenant obligations, or mercy/kindness as a character trait of God that underlies His covenants, but either way this word is inextricably linked in scripture to the formal relationships God makes with people (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament entry 698).

What man is he who fears Yahweh?
    He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose.
His soul will dwell at ease.
    His offspring will inherit the land.
The friendship of Yahweh is with those who fear him.
    He will show them his covenant.
Psalm 25:12-14, WEB

In this psalm, David delights in God’s goodness and faithfulness to the covenant, and also asks for God’s gracious forgiveness so David could be counted as one who keeps covenant with God. Even the most faithful human beings–David himself being called a man after God’s own heart–miss the mark. We sin, which damages relationship and breaks covenant agreements with God. That’s one reason He planned on a New Covenant through Jesus Christ; He knew the Old Covenant wasn’t enough on its own to fix humanity’s rebellion and establish eternal relationships (Heb. 8:6-12). It is His grace that makes it possible for us to keep covenant with Him, and Jesus’s sacrifice that makes it possible for us to be considered righteous.

Verse 14–the one about friendship and covenants–is the one that made me want to look at this psalm more closely. When we receive grace, we have a responsibility to live faithfully with God as His loyal friends. In this psalm, David connects friendship with God to hearing Him and heeding His instructions. Friends of God like Abraham, David, and Jesus’s disciples share a special relationship with God (Isa. 41:8; James 2:23; John 15:14). There’s something precious about loving God in this way, and sharing a covenant relationship with Him.

Emotional Plea for Aid

Image of cupped hands reaching toward light with the blog's title text and the words "While we pray for deliverance, we can also follow David's example of focusing not only on our immediate physical needs but also on spiritual ones." — Image by Avelino Calvar Martinez from Pixabay

As David wraps up this psalm, he returns to his plea to God for deliverance from enemies. He’s still confidently looking to God, but he admits to being “desolate and afflicted” with a troubled heart. I like these sorts of psalms, because they reassure me that God wants us to express our honest emotions in our prayers.

My eyes are ever on Yahweh,
    for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
Turn to me, and have mercy on me,
    for I am desolate and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged.
    Oh bring me out of my distresses.
Consider my affliction and my travail.
    Forgive all my sins.
Consider my enemies, for they are many.
    They hate me with cruel hatred.
Oh keep my soul, and deliver me.
    Let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in you.
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
    for I wait for you.
God, redeem Israel
    out of all his troubles.
Psalm 25:15-22, WEB

As I write this blog post, there’s war in Israel following recent terrorist attacks. Around the world, “More than 360m Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith” and 5,621 were killed for their faith last year (Open Doors World Watch List 2023). Even those of us not facing physical persecution fight spiritual battles that take many forms. We can think of many reasons we might want to pray this prayer alongside David today.

While we pray for deliverance for ourselves and God’s people, we can also follow David’s example of focusing not only on our immediate physical needs but also our spiritual ones. We can pray for rescue from enemies and from our own sins. We can pray for God’s friendship, express respect for His covenant and His teachings, and praise Him for the deliverance we confidently expect.

Featured image by Pexels from Pixabay

Song Recommendation: “Psalm 25 (Show Me Your Ways)” by The Psalms Project

Living in Temporary Shelters

14 October, 202313 October, 2023Marissa

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.

Image of a woman by a tent in the desert overlaid with text from Neh. 8:14, 15-17, WEB version: “They found written in the law how Yahweh had
commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month … So the people went out ... and made themselves temporary shelters … There was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read in the book of the law of God.” — Image by Tania Dimas from Pixabay

Why Keep this Particular Feast?

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.

Image of tents by a mountain overlaid with text from 1 Peter 1:15-17, NET version: “like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct, for it is written, “You shall be holy, because I am holy.” And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence.” — Image by Kanenori from Pixabay

Our Temporary Shelters Today

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.

Tabernacles in the Future

Image of a tent with the blog's title text and the words "God’s Feast of Tabernacles provides a comforting reminder that our physical lives and the world we live in are temporary, and that God is preparing a permanent, wonderful kingdom for His people." — Image by Terje Ansgar Eriksen from Pixabay

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.

Featured image by Pexels from Pixabay

Song Recommendation: “You Are Holy (As for Me and My House)” by Joshua Aaron

Learning God’s Law So We Can Love The Way He Loves

7 October, 20236 October, 2023Marissa

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).

Image of a man reading a book overlaid with text from Jeremiah 31:31, 33, NET version: “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ... I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people.” — Image by Creative Clicks Photography from Lightstock

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.

Image of two women Bible studying overlaid with text from Psalm 119:97, 165-167, WEB version: “How I love your law! It is my meditation all day. ... Those who love your law have great peace. Nothing causes them to stumble. I have hoped for your salvation, Yahweh. I have done your commandments. My soul has observed your testimonies. I love them exceedingly.” — Image by Shaun Menary from Lightstock

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

Image of a man studying the Bible with the blog's title text and the words "As we move ever closer to Jesus's return or the end of our lives, we would be wise to consider if 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." — Image by Anggie from Lightstock

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.

Featured image by Pearl from Lightstock

Song Recommendation: “How I Love Thy Law, O Lord” (one of my favorite hymns that my church has in their hymnal)

Keeping The Feast As God’s Covenant Community

30 September, 202329 September, 2023Marissa

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.

Chart illustrating the ways Paul outlines for Jewish and Gentile Christians to both enter the New Covenant community with God. — 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.

Infographic illustrating the "grafted in" analogy Paul uses for how Jewish and Gentile Christians enter the New Covenant community with God. — Image by Marissa Martin, created with Canva

The Things We Do In God’s Family

Image of ___ with the blog's title text and the words "By celebrating God's Feasts, we're honoring Him as His covenant-keeping people." — Image created with Canva

One of the things that stood out to me when I was reading Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes by 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).

Featured image by Claudine Chaussé

Song Recommendation: “Am Echad” (One People) by Ted Pearce