Tag: relationship with god

Our Roles As Keepers

Our Roles As Keepers

Marissa

Two weeks ago, we examined God’s role as our keeper, focusing on Psalm 121. Part of that examination included looking at the definition for the Hebrew word shamar, which is translated “keep” or “keeper” in this Psalm. As with many Hebrew words, shamar includes a range of meanings depending on the context. The Complete Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament states, “The basic idea of the root is ‘to exercise great care over'” (TWOT entry 2414). As we looked at in the previous post, the TWOT breaks the nuances of meaning into these broad categories:

Today, I want to look at our roles as keepers. We are told to keep covenant with God, to keep ourselves in the right way, and to keep care of other people.

Image of a woman reading the Bible overlaid with text from Psalms 103:17-18, WEB version: But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children; to those who keep his covenant, to those who remember to obey his precepts. 
Image by Pearl from Lightstock

Keeping Covenant

God faithfully keeps covenant with us. We don’t have to worry that He’ll change His mind, forget about us, or decide His commitments aren’t worth honoring. He’s absolutely faithful and reliable. The same can’t be said about human beings, but with God’s help we can commit to covenant keeping and keep coming back and recommitting when we miss the mark.

You shall do my ordinances. You shall keep my statutes and walk in them. I am Yahweh your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.

Leviticus 18:4-5, WEB

The obligation to keep God’s laws as part of our covenant relationship with Him isn’t just an Old Testament thing. It’s also part of the New Covenant. It’s actually even more important in the New Covenant because now, keeping covenant with God sinks in at a heart level. God wanted this sort of heart connection under the Old Covenant, but didn’t get it (Deut. 5:29). Now, with His holy spirit inside us and Jesus’s sacrifice to reconcile us to God, we can more fully obey the command to love God with all our hearts, minds, and souls and to keep His commandments because of that love (Matt. 22:36-40; John 14:15, 21; 15:10-12).

I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. 

Ezekiel 11:19-20, WEB

When we think of shamar as “to exercise great care over,” we might then ask how we can do that to the covenant we have with God. For one thing, it involves knowing what the covenant obligations are. At the most basic level, it’s to fully love God and to love our neighbors. All the other commands hinge on those two (Mark 12:28-34). That doesn’t mean the other commandments aren’t important–it just means that our keeping of the other commandments happens because we love God and others. Sabbath keeping, for example, it something that God instituted at creation, that Jesus did, and which God describes as “a perpetual covenant” for His people to keep (Ex. 31:13-16).

Image of a man reading the Bible overlaid with text from Ecclesiastes 12:13, WEB version: This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
Image by Matt Vasquez from Lightstock

Keeping Ourselves

As people in covenant with God, we have a responsibility to “exercise great care” over our own conduct. We see one example of this in Deuteronomy, when Moses warns the people of ancient Israel to “keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you” then to “be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children” (Deut. 4:2, 9, WEB). This involves carefully guarding our conduct, soul, and words (Prov. 13:3; 21:23) to make sure we’re following God the way He tells us to.

I said, “I will watch (shamar) my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue.
    I will keep (shamar) my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”

Psalm 39:1, WEB

Doing things according to God’s instructions is key to this: we must be careful to keep ourselves from breaking covenant with Him or following other Gods (Deut. 4:23; 11:16). It’s actually a matter of life and death. On a broad scale, our choice between living in covenant with God (which involves obedience, righteousness, and repentance when we miss the mark) or walking contrary to Him is a choice between life and death (Deut. 30:19).

We can see the seriousness of keeping ourselves in God’s instructions in phrases like, “Be very careful (shamar) if you value your lives! Do not carry any loads in through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day” (Jer. 17:21, NET). The NET footnote on this verse notes that the Hebrew phrase used here could also be translated, “Be careful at the risk of your lives.” In the context leading up to this, God talks about the grave sins of His people, the curse associated with trusting your human heart verses the blessing associated with trusting Him, and the healing available in Yahweh (Jer. 17:1-18). Then, He goes into Sabbath keeping as a key example of the commandments His people broke and that they must begin keeping again if they value their lives and their relationship with Him (Jer. 17:19-27).

The Hebrew word shamar obviously doesn’t appear in the Greek New Testament, but how people “conduct themselves in the household of God” (1 Tim. 3:15, NET) still matters. For example, Jesus told people, “Keep yourselves from covetousness” (Luke 12:15, WEB), the apostles wrote to new Christians that they should “keep themselves from” things like eating blood and committing sexual immorality (Acts 15:28-29), and Paul told Timothy, “Keep yourself pure” (1 Tim. 5:22, NET). When we enter a covenant relationship with God, we’re also committing to keeping ourselves by a certain standard of conduct that He expects from His people.

Keeping Others

Image of a woman sitting at a table reading the Bible, overlaid with blog's title text and the words, "The Hebrew word shamar is often translated “keeper,” and it means “to exercise great care over.” The Bible tells us to keep covenant with God, keep ourselves in the right way, and to keep caring for other people."
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The final application of shamar that we’re going to look at today involves heeding, guarding, or attending to something important. The word can also be used to refer to the person who is guarding or keeping watch (Josh. 10:18; 2 Kings 11:5-9; Est. 2:21; Is. 21:11-12). The most famous use of shamar in this sense is a negative example.

The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man with Yahweh’s help.” Again she gave birth, to Cain’s brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. …

Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

 Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?”

He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Genesis 4:1-3, 8-9, WEB

Yahweh warned Cain before all this that sin was crouching at his door like a predatory animal ready to pounce if he didn’t subdue it (Gen. 4:6-7). Cain knew he failed in that task, yet when Yahweh asked him where his brother is, he shot back this question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Perhaps it’s to hearken back to Abel’s profession, i.e. “Am I responsible for keeping my brother the way he’s responsible for keeping his flocks of sheep?”

The obvious answer should be yes, you are responsible to take care of the people around you. I find it very interesting that Cain, who “was a tiller of the ground” was no longer allowed to “cultivate and keep” the earth after he killed his brother (Gen. 2:15; 4:10-12). Failing in his familial duty, he was not entrusted with other shamar duties.

God makes it even more clear in the New Testament that He expects us “to exercise great care over” other people, especially those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ (Gal. 6:10) but also our neighbors (i.e. anyone we’re aware of and able to help [Luke 10:25-37]). Caring for each other and loving each other is the responsibility of every Christian (John 13:35; Phil. 2:1-5). There’s a particular responsibility, though, laid on those who are leaders in the churches to “keep watch” over people’s souls (Heb. 13:17).

As those who follow the God who keeps covenant with and keeps watch over His people, we should follow His example. That includes keeping covenant with Him, keeping ourselves held to His standards, and acting as “keepers” for the people around us. These three things are aspects of our lives that deserve our careful attention and the effort that it takes to exercise great care over them.

Featured image by Jantanee from Lightstock

Song Recommendation: “An Irish Blessing (May the Road Rise to Meet You)” by Celtic Thunder

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When God Does (and Doesn’t) Share His Glory

When God Does (and Doesn’t) Share His Glory

Marissa

Almost two weeks ago, I was reading my devotional for this year when the author, Chris Tiegreen, made a point that I’d never thought about before. He pointed out that God once said He doesn’t share His glory with others, but He does share His glory with His children (The One Year Hearing His Voice Devotional, June 17). In the first case, God is being zealous for His reputation and relationship with His people, refusing to share the glory due to Him as Yahweh with idols or anything else. But in the second case, He’s inviting people to become part of His family and share in the glory that belongs to Him.

It’s really an amazing thought. Our God is great and powerful, almighty and sovereign. He has absolute and ultimate authority that no one else can check. He’s truly glorious and inherently holy. It’s incredible that He pays attention to us at all, let alone that He invites us to become part of His family and wants to make us like Him.

Image of a man sitting on a beach watching the sunset overlaid with text from 2 Cor. 3:18 version: “But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
Image by Aaron Kitzo from Lightstock

Our Jealous God

There are two places, both in Isaiah, where God specifically says “I will not share my glory” or “I will not give my glory to” anyone else (phrasing depends on translation). Let’s take a look at those; they’re both part of the final section of Isaiah, which we studied extensively here on this blog a couple years ago.

“I am Yahweh.
    That is my name.
    I will not give my glory to another,
    nor my praise to engraved images.

Isaiah 42:8, WEB

For my sake alone I will act,
for how can I allow my name to be defiled?
I will not share my glory with anyone else!

Isaiah 48:11, NET

Notice the emphasis God places on His name. In Hebrew thought, names are linked with reputation. God cares about how people see His name; it should be regarded as holy. He won’t allow people to defile His name, and He doesn’t share His glory with anyone else. I think this links back to some of God’s warnings in Exodus. When He made a covenant with ancient Israel, He made sure to let them know that He would not tolerate them worshiping other gods. It’s right there at the beginning of the 10 commandments.

 God spoke all these words, saying, “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God

Exodus 20:1-5, WEB

Later in Exodus, God reinforces this command. He warns Israel not to make covenant relationships with the other nations in the promised land and to destroy all their altars, places of worship, and idols because “you shall worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Ex. 34:14, WEB). We often think of jealousy as bad, but God feels it as a right and proper emotion. His jealousy is “zeal for one’s own property” or spouse (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, entry 2038). Just like a husband or wife doesn’t want to share their spouse with someone else, God doesn’t want to share His people with another god or anything else they might prioritize above Him.

Image of two men sitting across a table from each other with books on the table overlaid with text from Heb. 2:10, NET version: “For it was fitting for him, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
Image by Claudine Chaussé from Lightstock

Shared, Familial Glory

In the New Testament, most of the time when “glory” is mentioned, it’s in the context of glorifying God or acknowledging the glory of Jesus Christ. That’s no surprise–they’re the ones who deserve glory, and if we see them correctly we’ll know to glorify Them rather than something or someone else. What’s surprising is that there are moments when God chooses to share His glory.

“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one—I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.”

John 17:20-23, NET

There’s so much just in this little section of Jesus’s prayer before His death that should make our jaws drop. He prayed for us, looking ahead to think of all the people who would believe in Him because of what His disciples would teach. He prayed for oneness between us and Him and the Father–that we’d actually get to share in the same relationship They have with each other. He says He gives glory to them–all those who believe in Him–just like the Father gave Him glory. He even says that the Father loves us the same way He loves Jesus.

This should blow our minds. Our jealous God, zealous to guard the glory of His name and keep an exclusive relationship with His people, decided to share His glory in a very specific way. Even though all human beings “have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23, NET), He’s inviting people to join Him in His family and thereby receive His glory. It’s not like we’re earning glory on our own; we get to have glory because He is glorious and He’s making us like Him.

Called To A Glorious Future

Image of two girls studying a Bible, overlaid with blog's title text and the words, "God doesn't share His glory with just anyone, but He wants to share it with us. He won't tolerate rival deities, but He's making us part of His family."
Image by Ryan Klintworth from Lightstock

God called us for a purpose. He wants to grow His family. That’s been His plan from the beginning: to make more god-beings who will be the Father’s children, Jesus’s younger (adopted) brothers and sisters, and who will make up Jesus’s bride. In other words, He wants to share His glory by making us like Him (2 Thess. 2:13-14; Heb. 2:9-10; 1 Pet. 5:10-11).

As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his own children, exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you live in a way worthy of God who calls you to his own kingdom and his glory.

1 Thessalonians 2:11-12, NET

We’ve been called to glory now, but it’s not fully shared with us yet. That’s happening in the future, just like we are already the children of God but we’re still waiting to see exactly what it means that we will be like God (1 John 3:1-2).

But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.

Philippians 3:20-21, NET

In the future, after Jesus’s return, we’ll be transformed into glory (Rom. 8:18-21; 1 Cor. 15:41-43; 2 Cor. 3:18). It’s one of the blessings associated with the promise of eternal life. God doesn’t share His glory with just anyone, but He wants to share it with us. He won’t tolerate rival deities, but He’s making us like Him as part of His family.

Reading that God won’t share His glory with others, but that He does share His glory with us, reinforces the high value God places on His people. It also helps us understand our relationship to Him. It’s not just that He likes us the way we like our pets. He’s literally making us part of His family, meaning we get to share in the things that are part of His family including His glory.

Featured image by Pearl from Lightstock

Song Recommendation: “Glorious” by Ted Pearce

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What An Incredible Privilege To Have A Relationship With God

What An Incredible Privilege To Have A Relationship With God

Marissa

After I posted last week’s article, “What Happened to the Ritual Uncleanness Laws After Jesus’s Sacrifice?” I continued meditating on the ramifications of the changes we talked about in that post. I find it especially amazing to think about the difference in how easy it is to access God now.

For example, let’s say I lived during a time in the Old Testament history when Israel was mostly faithful to God and there was a temple with priests serving in it. Something wonderful happens, and I want to thank Yahweh for this gift. I can just pray, but I’m not King David or a prophet and probably don’t have the gift of the Holy Spirit and so maybe it doesn’t feel like that’s the best way to get God’s attention. But I know that the Torah says people can offer an offering to Yahweh with thanksgiving as the motivation (Lev. 7:11-15). I get everything ready to take that offering to the priests, but then my period starts. Now, I’m ritually unclean for at least the next 7 days and I can’t go into the temple or touch any holy thing. If I bled longer than that, I’d have to count 7 days after the bleeding stops, then go to the priest with “two turtledoves, or two young pigeons” as an offering to become ritually clean again. There are actually quite a lot of things that can make me “unclean,” blocking my access to God. Even when I’m clean, I don’t have the same access that a priest would or even a prophet. God doesn’t talk with me, unless I find myself in very unusual circumstances.

Today, if I want to thank God for something, I can do so very easily. I can approach the Father directly in prayer through the name of Jesus Christ whenever I want, and it’s as if I’m stepping into the most holy parts of the temple to come into God’s presence (John 16:23-27; Heb. 10:19-22). There aren’t restrictions on when I can do that, or things that make me so unclean I can’t come to Him in prayer. Even if I sin (which results in a type of defilement that still damages relationship with God), I still get to go to God directly through Jesus to repent and ask for forgiveness (1 John 1:5-10; 2:1-6). I don’t have to go through any other person or do any rituals in order to access God.

I think we take that level of access to God for granted. It doesn’t seem unusual to us; that’s just how it’s always been because we’ve only experienced a relationship with Him under the New Covenant and not under the Old. But when we study Old Testament believers, even considering all the things we have in common with them, it also highlights how much changed with Jesus’s sacrifice. This sort of study can give us a greater appreciation of everything that God the Father and Jesus the Lamb have done for us.

Image of a group of people holding hands to pray overlaid with text from 2 Cor. 6:16-18, NET version: For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” ... I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the All-Powerful Lord.
Image by Claudine Chaussé from Lightstock

A New, More Relational Covenant

If you’re reading this the day that it posted on my blog, then tomorrow night (the evening of April 21/beginning of Nisan 14) is when we’ll be keeping the Passover this year. When we keep the Passover as New Covenant Christians, it’s in remembrance of Jesus’s pivotal sacrifice and the commencement of the New Covenant.

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and after he had given thanks he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26, NET

We’ll be gathering together to remember Jesus and what He did to enact a new covenant, which we’ve agreed to participate in. Passover commemorates the major turning point in God’s plan. For thousands of years, He’d promised His people that He would fix the relationship between them and replace the covenant that they broke with one that was even better. When Jesus died, that happened. The promised Messiah became the once-for-all-time sacrifice that forgives sin, the only High Priest we’ll ever need, and the Head of the body of believers that is the temple where God dwells.

But now Jesus has obtained a superior ministry, since the covenant that he mediates is also better and is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one. But showing its fault, God says to them,

“Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
“It will not be like the covenant that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.
“For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people.
“And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.
“For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.”

Hebrews 8:6-12, NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Jer 31:31-34)

God wants a deep relationship with His people. Notice His focus when describing the New Covenant. He’s writing His laws inside their minds and hearts (not just on scrolls they could hear someone else read). He’s inviting them to call Him their God and claiming them as His people. He promises, “they will all know me.” He also says He’ll be merciful to them and forget the sins that they should justly be punished for. He wants a new kind of relationship with people, one where they know Him at a heart-level and experience relational intimacy with Him. We have that new relationship now, or at least the opportunity for it, and we should appreciate what a great blessing that is.

Image of a man pushing open doors and stepping outside overlaid with text from Psalm 42:1-2, NET version: As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God! I thirst for God, I say, “When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?”
Image by Pearl from Lightstock

Longing For God’s Presence

In the Old Testament, people placed a very high value on the privilege of encountering God’s presence, perhaps because it was more difficult for an average person to do that. They marvel that they’re able to visit God’s tabernacle or temple. They express delight in having any contact whatsoever with Yahweh. If God actually talked with them, they were awestruck and terrified.

David, one of God’s closest friends in the Old Testament, placed a very high value on the unique relationship he had with Yahweh. Speaking of himself, the king, he sang to God, “You make him glad with joy in your presence” (Ps. 21:6, WEB). When he committed a grave sin, he prayed, “Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11, WEB). David knew not to take God’s presence in his life for granted. It was precious, something to hold onto and value highly. Other psalmists had similar responses (Psalm 42:1-4; 73:28; 84:1-12).

How lovely are your dwellings,
    Yahweh of Armies!
My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of Yahweh.
    My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. …

Blessed are those who dwell in your house.
    They are always praising you. …

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand.
    I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God,
    than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Psalm 84:1-2, 4, 10, WEB

When was the last time you genuinely longed for God this way? When you cried out for Him because you wanted to be in His presence, not because you wanted something from Him? When you wanted to be near Him, praising Him alongside His other covenant people? When you’d rather be at God’s house or temple (in the New Covenant, that temple is His people) for even just one day than have a thousand days anywhere else?

I’ve sang this psalm before (“Better Is One Day” and “Doorkeeper“), but I think I’ve been guilty of leaving the sentiment in the psalm behind after the music ends. Sometimes I forget to ask God to be with me unless I’m feeling lonely or hurt or in need of something from Him. I’m not always excited to go to church services and sing to God, at least not so excited that it overshadows how much I look forward to anything else.

Better To Walk With God Than Any Other Way

Image of a woman with her hand raised, overlaid with blog's title text and the words, "Rather than take the close, personal relationship we have with God for granted, we should be incredibly thankful for our access to Him."
Image by Anggie from Lightstock

In the New Testament, expressions of thankfulness for the privilege of a close relationship with God seem quieter than the ones we find in the Old Testament. The New Testament doesn’t record new psalms or songs that highlight enthusiastic praises. Most of the New Testament is letters, and if we’re not paying close attention we might miss the passionate emotion behind those letters. But look at how Paul talked about his feelings regarding Jesus’s relationship with him.

 If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials, I have more … But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:4, 7-11, NET

Paul is expressing a very similar sentiment to what we see in Psalm 84, it’s just not as poetical. His main goal is to know Jesus and become like Him. Nothing else can possibly compare to the great honor of being “found in Him,” no matter how impressive it might look from a human perspective.

See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is.

1 John 3:1-2, WEB

When we really let it sink in that God is making us His children, we should marvel at the greatness of His love. We’ll even get to be like Him in the future and “see him just as he is.” This is a level of closeness and relationship that the people in the Old Testament could only dream about; the psalms rarely mention God as a Father-figure (Ps. 2:7; 68:5; 89:26; 103:13) and the promise “I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters” wasn’t explicitly clear until the New Covenant (2 Cor. 6:18, NET). The faithful Old Covenant believers will get to experience the same future that we do–they’ll “be made perfect together with us” (Heb. 11:39-40, NET)–but we have a fuller taste during our human lives of the relationship that God wants to have with His people.

Rather than take the close, personal relationship we have with God for granted, we should be even more thankful for our access to God than the people writing Psalms were. It’s incredible that we can talk to and spend time with the creator of the universe, and that He wants us to call Him our Abba, Father (Rom. 8:15). What an incredible privilege to have such a relationship with God!

Featured image by Pearl from Lightstock

Song Recommendation: “Better Is One Day” by Matt Redman

Click here to learn more about these books or to order a copy.
5 Ways That We’re Just Like Old Testament Believers

5 Ways That We’re Just Like Old Testament Believers

Marissa

A lot of times, I think we assume that Christianity is a New Testament religion and the Old Testament (OT) is just history or a book that the Jewish people use as their religious text. But if you read a translation of the New Testament (NT) like the New English Translation (NET) that highlights the times when Jesus and the NT writers quote the OT, you’ll see that the believers writing the NT were deeply connected to the OT.

When Jesus died and rose again, He didn’t invent a new religion and name it “Christianity.” He was there as the next step in God’s plan that stretches from Genesis to Revelation and beyond. Our faith is a continuation of what came before. Because of that, we have much more in common with Old Testament believers than we might initially assume. For one thing, we serve the same God. There are some major differences between the Old and New Testaments, but those differences have to do with updates and changes that God made to His relationship with people (and which He prophesied in the OT). God didn’t change, and His basic expectations for people as well as His preferred type of relationship with us didn’t change either.

Image of an open Bible with sunlight shining on it overlaid with text from Romans 15:4, NET version: “For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope.”
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1) We Are In Covenant With God

If you want to understand how God relates to human beings, you have to study covenants. That’s the structure that God uses for His relationships with people in the Old and New Testaments. They are binding agreements with expectations for both parties. Those expectations–the terms of the relationship agreement, if you will–are established by God. We get to decide if we agree to enter the covenant with Him or not, but we don’t get the option to change how the covenant works.

There are multiple covenants in the OT, but the ones we discuss most often are the Abrahamic Covenant and the Sinai Covenant. The “Old Covenant” usually refers to the Sinai Covenant. The laws given alongside that covenant are part of that covenant agreement, but in many cases also pre-date it (e.g. Noah knew about clean and unclean meats and how to build an altar to Yahweh [Gen. 7:2; 8:20]; Abraham and Jacob knew about tithing [Gen. 14:19-20; 28:20-22]; Joseph knew sleeping with Potiphar’s wife was a sin against God [Gen. 39:7-9]).

Just like us today, Old Testament believers were in covenant with God. Some were in multiple covenants (David, for example, was under the Old Covenant and he received a kingship covenant we call the Davidic Covenant). They couldn’t perfectly keep the covenants, though. God always holds up His side of covenants perfectly, but human beings aren’t that reliable and He knows it. That’s why He promised the Messiah would come, end the Old Covenant, die to free everyone from their sins by taking the penalty for them on Himself, and establish a New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8). We’re part of that New Covenant, which was one of the promises contained in the Old Covenant.

2) We Fall Short of God’s Standards

Like Old Covenant believers, the covenant agreement we’ve made with God includes expectations for our behavior and the way we properly relate to Him (Rom. 6; Gal. 5). But we’re human, and we all fall short of God’s perfect standards. The only human being who ever perfectly kept covenant with God is Jesus Christ. We might look back at ancient Israel’s example and think we’d never be as unfaithful and ungrateful as them, but NT writers have some stern warnings against such an assumption.

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers … were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were cut down in the wilderness. These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did. …  These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall.

1 Corinthians 10:1, 4-6, 11-12, NET

By and large, Old Covenant believers didn’t have the holy spirit or a personal relationship with God like we do (though there were exceptions, like David). But they weren’t unaware of God’s law or the covenant agreement they made. Two NT writers even go so far as to say they had the gospel preached to them just like we did (Heb. 4:1-2; 1 Pet. 4:5-6). Yet they still fell short. We have the same human tendencies, and we need to be on guard against making the same mistakes. And when we do sin (“miss the mark,” in Hebrew), we need to repent and ask for forgiveness.

Image of an open Bible and notebook overlaid with text from Deut. 10:12-13, WEB version: “Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep Yahweh’s commandments and statutes, which I command you today for your good?”
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3) Our Sins Are Purified by Blood

In the Old Covenant, God’s law commanded blood sacrifices of animals to atone for sins. God had very specific requirements for these sacrifices, and they needed to be repeated every time someone became aware of their own sin (see, for example, Leviticus 4:22-35). There was also a yearly sacrifice offered by the high priest on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) to cleanse the people. God promised that if they did these things as commanded, “You shall be clean from all your sins before Yahweh” (Lev. 16:30, WEB).

The writer of Hebrews tells us that those sacrifices were not actually capable of perfecting the people worshiping God in the OT (Heb. 9:9; 10:1). In fact, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:4, WEB). That does not mean God was lying when He told OT believers that He would forgive them. It means their forgiveness depended on something other than the animal sacrifices. Some of the OT believers even knew that; David wrote that sacrifices weren’t what God really desired (Ps. 40:6; 51:16-17) and Job knew that the Lord was his redeemer, not sacrificial offerings (Job 19:25-26).

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled consecrated them and provided ritual purity, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

And so he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, since he died to set them free from the violations committed under the first covenant.

Hebrews 9:13-15, NET

The NT writers often treat us New Covenant believers as if we were once under the Old Covenant and are now free from it to live under the New Covenant. Paul in particular often talks about us previously living under that Old Covenant law even when he’s writing to Gentiles. He’s including us in the story of the plan of God, like we personally participate in the narrative of making a covenant with God, breaking it, needing redemption, being freed from sin by Christ, and entering a New Covenant with Him (e.g. Rom. 7:1-6). This connects us with the whole plan of God, and indicates that those who died in faith before Christ’s sacrifice are also set “free from the violations committed under the first covenant” by His redemptive work even though it happened after they’d lived and died.

But when this priest had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are made holy.

Hebrews 10:12-14, NET (italics mark allusion to Ps 110:1)

In Greek, “for all time” is translated from the phrase eis to dianekes. Eis (G1519) is a preposition meaning “into, unto, to, towards, for, among” (Thayer). To is the definite article (i.e. “the,” not always translated because Greek uses it more often than English). Dianekes (G1336) is an adjective meaning “continuously, continuous” (Thayer). The phrase only appears in Hebrews 10:12, 14 and it highlights that Jesus’s sacrifice is “continual, perpetual, protracted” (Zodhiates). Most certainly it covers from Jesus sacrifice onward into the future, but His sacrifice also covered those in the past to whom God had promised forgiveness.

4) We’re Called Out to be Different

We’re likely familiar with the New Testament instruction that Christians should be different from the world around us. We’re supposed to stand out like lights in a world of darkness (Matt. 5:13-16; Phil. 2:15). We’ve been chosen by God to belong to Him, to be different from the world, and to be visible examples of His way of life.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:9-10, NET

The NET Bible marks allusions to OT passages with italics and direct quotes with bold italics. Here, Peter uses “various allusions and quotations from Exod 19:5-6; 23:22 (LXX); Isa 43:20-21; and Mal 3:17” and quotes “from Hos 1:6, 9; 2:23” (NET footnotes). He’s making the point that New Covenant believers are called out as God’s special people who belong to Him, and he’s doing that using Old Testament passages like this one:

For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 7:6, WEB

In addition to being chosen as God’s own special people, OT believers were also intended to shine as lights in the world. The OT just uses different phrasing to make that point.

Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him? What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you today?

Deuteronomy 4:5-8, WEB

People were supposed to be able to look at ancient Israel living in covenant with God and marvel at their wisdom, understanding, and greatness. We see this happening only very occasionally in Israel’s history (the reign of Solomon is the only example I can think of [1 Kings 4:34]). God’s not giving up on this goal, though (Isa. 62:1-2). People should be able to recognize us as God’s people. Jesus specifically says they’ll know we’re His disciples by the love we have for each other, and Paul says the same thing can happen when someone witnesses us prophesying in church (John 13:34-35; 1 Cor. 14:24-25).

5) The Greatest Thing We Can Do

Image of on open Bible with sunlight shining on it, overlaid with blog's title text and the words, "Modern Christians might not think we have much in common with Old Testament believers, but the New Testament writers had a different perspective."
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God’s expectation and purpose for us haven’t changed that much since the time of His very first interactions with human beings. Jesus highlights this by pointing back to the Old Covenant when someone asked Him about the greatest commandment.

Now one of the experts in the law came and heard them debating. When he saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

The expert in the law said to him, “That is true, Teacher; you are right to say that he is one, and there is no one else besides him. And to love him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered thoughtfully, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Then no one dared any longer to question him.

Mark 12:28-34, NET

The NET footnotes on these verses say they’re quoting Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4-5; Leviticus 19:18, and Joshua 22:5. Because the expert in the law properly understood these commands from the Old Testament, Jesus told him he wasn’t “far from the kingdom of God.” That kingdom is what we’re striving toward as NT believers. We might not think that looking back to God’s commands from the Old Testament would help with that, but Jesus says that they do.

In the Old Testament and the New, God wants a relationship with human beings. Since the very beginning, He’s been working with groups of people that He chose and called out from the world. He welcomes them into covenant with Him, makes provision for when they fall short of His expectations, purifies them from their sins through sacrifice, and asks them to follow Him with their whole hearts. Many of the things that He asks of us today are the same things He wanted in His relationships with people in the Old Testament. Indeed, one of the reasons for the change of covenant was so that He could get closer to achieving that relationship (Eze. 11:17-20; 36:22-28; Jer. 31:31-34; 2 Cor. 6:16-18). Now, just as back then, He wants to be our God and He wants us to be His people, His sons and daughters.

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

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Getting A Heart Transplant from God

Getting A Heart Transplant from God

Marissa

One of the many things consistent through the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, is that God is deeply concerned with the state of His people’s hearts. As early as the flood, “it grieved Him in His heart” to see “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil” (Gen. 6:5-6, WEB). The heart-state of mankind didn’t get much better as the years went on. Later, of ancient Israel, God said, “Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!” (Deut. 5:29,WEB). He’s longed for a heart-level relationship with people since He created us, but for centuries our hearts weren’t in it.

One of the big promises about the New Covenant was that God said to His people, “I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh” (Eze. 36:26, WEB). The author of Hebrews talks about this happening in us today as God writes His laws on our hearts because of Jesus mediating the New Covenant (Heb. 8:6-11; 10:14-16). Interestingly, this discussion of new hearts and new spirits is deeply connected to the change in how New Covenant believers relate to the law of God compared to Old Covenant believers.

Image of an autumn leaf with a heart shapecut out of it overlaid with text from Jer. 31:33-34, WEB version: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” ... “they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says Yahweh.
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The Whole Inner Person

We often think of the mind as associated with thought and the heart only being emotion, but in Hebrew the heart symbolized all of a person’s inner workings. While leb has the same concrete meanings that it does in English, it is also “the richest biblical term for the totality of man’s inner or immaterial nature” (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament [TWOT], entry 1071a). This includes the personality and mind, with leb standing for “emotion, thought, or will” (TWOT).

That has some interesting implications for how we interpret key Biblical passages. Take this one, for example: “The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt” (Jer. 17:9, WEB). This does not, as I’ve heard some say, simply mean you can’t trust your emotions or “follow your heart” in the modern sense of the phrase. It means humanity’s whole inner nature–both emotions and thought–is corrupt. At least, it’s that way until our hearts are healed and transformed by God.

“I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.”

Ezekiel 11:19-20, WEB

We need a “heart transplant” to make us more like our heavenly father. Remember in Deuteronomy, when God said, “Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always”? When He established the New Covenant, it included a way to fix that heart problem. And because there’s a change in our hearts–our entire internal makeup changing from human and fleshy to godly and spiritual–the way we interact with God and His way of life changes as well.

“It’s one thing to do good because we’re told it’s good and therefore we obey. It’s quite another to do good because we’re good deep down inside and goodness is what naturally flows out. That’s the new heart we’re promised and the new nature we’re given by God’s spirit.”

Chis Tiegreen, One Year Hearing His Voice devotional, Day 29

I came across this quote in my devotional for this year, and it’s what prompted me to write this post. The topic of God working in us and changing us is one we talk about often, but I liked the idea of looking at it from this perspective. It helps us understand a lot of the New Testament writers’ perspectives when we think of this change in heart involving a change in our inner nature. The goal is to become perfect like our “heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48. NET). When that happens, we’ll be good inside the way that God is good.

Image of a heart with light shining out of it overlaid with text from Heb. 10:21-22, NET version: "and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water."
Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay

Paul’s Struggle With the Carnal Heart

Of course, the process of becoming perfect like God doesn’t happen all at once. It doesn’t even fully happen in any human lifetime. Jesus authors or begins our faith and He is in the process of working with us to bring it to completion, but that won’t be fully realized until His return and our change from flesh to spirit (Heb. 12:2; 1 Cor. 15:42-53). But we get to begin that change now, and that’s something Paul talks about in several of his letters, particularly Romans and Galatians.

In Romans, Paul talks about how we needed the law “when we were in the flesh” with active “sinful desires” because the law lets us know what sin is and the grave consequences of it (Rom. 7:1-12). Now, though, we have “died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God” (Rom. 7:4, NET). Now, if we stopped there, we might conclude there’s no law now under the New Covenant because we have Jesus and we don’t need anything else. But Jesus Himself said He wasn’t here to destroy the law but to fulfill it (i.e. to fill it up to its fullest extent). Paul’s actually talking about a struggle here between the flesh, which needs to obey God’s law, and the spirit, which should just be good because it’s like God.

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual—but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want—instead, I do what I hate. But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

Romans 7:12-20, NET

Paul is talking about the same problem that God identified with so many people in the Old Testament. Their hearts are corrupt, they are “unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.” They might even agree that the law is good, but when “nothing good lives in” your “flesh” then you’re not going to be truly good even if you obey the law most of the time. As Paul said earlier in Romans, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23, NET).

So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 7:21-8:4, NET

Now we see Paul discussing God’s solution to the problem. Through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, the Lord is transforming us so we can walk “according to the Spirit” instead of “according to the flesh.” In other words, He’s replacing our heart of stone and giving us a heart like His. Circling back to the Tiegreen quote about obeying because we’re told to do good vs obeying because we are good, I think Paul’s statement, “I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” applies. The part of Paul being transformed and made perfect has God’s law written on his heart; he serves God in the spirit and doesn’t need an external law to make him fulfill “the righteous requirement of the law.” But the part of Paul that’s still human needs that “law of sin” (i.e. God’s law that pointed out what sin is and condemns it) to show him the difference between right and wrong.

Working With God to Build Relationship

Image of a crown-of-thorns ring on a Bible casting a heart-shaped shadow, overlaid with blog's title text and the words, "God wants a heart-level relationship with people, but our hearts on their own don't want to connect with Him or follow His ways. We need new hearts."
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Because of the heart-work that God is doing in us, we can choose to “live by the Spirit and … not carry out the desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16, NET). In this passage in Galatians, Paul then goes on to detail the “works of the flesh” (sins) and the “fruit of the spirit” (godly character) so we can make sure we’re on the right track (Gal. 5:16-6:8). Remember, we’re still not perfect yet. While we can trust our hearts more and more as they’re transformed by God (see 1 John 3:21), we still need to examine ourselves and ask for God’s perspective on us to make sure we’re not getting off-track (1 Cor. 11:28-32; 2 Cor 13:5-6).

So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort—for the sake of his good pleasure—is God. 

Philippians 2:12-13, NET

God invites us to work with Him on transforming our hearts. We get to work on our salvation as He’s working in us. We even get to participate in purifying our hearts (Jas. 4:8). It’s part of the relationship He longs to build with us. If He just did everything for us–or if we could do everything on our own–we wouldn’t be building relationships with Him. And that’s His ultimate goal: to grow the God-family by welcoming new family members into the oneness that the Father and Jesus already share. The “heart transplant” He offers us is just one step toward that goal.

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Song Recommendation: “Heartbeat of Heaven” by Jean Watson

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How Do We Learn From God’s Judgements?

How Do We Learn From God’s Judgements?

Marissa

As I wrote last week’s post about “Seeking and Learning Righteousness,” I kept mentioning the connection between learning righteousness and paying attention to God’s judgements. The key scripture we looked at in that post reads, “Yes, with my spirit within me I will seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness” (Is. 26:9, WEB). 

It’s clear from this and other verses we looked at last week that we can learn righteousness from God’s judgements. But how? That was a question I thought of while writing, but didn’t really have the time to address. To answer this, we first need to understand what Isaiah means by God’s judgements.

More than Simply “Judgements”

The word translated “judgement” in Isaiah 26:9 is the Hebrew mishpat (H4941). Common translations include “judgement, justice, ordinance” (Brown-Driver-Briggs). This word is not confined to what we think of as the judicial function of government. The root word shapat means “to exercise [all] the processes of government” (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament [TWOT], entry 2443). Furthermore, ancient understanding didn’t really separate the law from the lawgiver–“the centering of law, rulership, government in a man was deeply ingrained” (TWOT 2443). This makes perfect sense when we think of God as the Lawgiver and Ruler. The Bible treats His Law as an extension of His character.

For mishpat specifically, there are “at least thirteen related, but distinct, aspects of the central idea, which if to be rendered by a single English word with similar range of meaning ought by all means to be the word ‘justice'” (TWOT 2443c). These 13 meanings include “the act of deciding a case of litigation,” “a sentence or decision issuing from a magistrate’s court,” “an ordinance of law,” and “one’s right under law,” among others.” One other key meaning is “sovereignty, the legal foundation of government in the sense of ultimate authority or right.” People today expect this to be centered in laws and governing documents, but in scripture “The mishpat is God’s” (TWOT 2443c; Deut. 1:17). He has all authority, and when He exercises judgement/justice He does so as head of everything (not just a single branch of government).

When we speak of learning from God’s mishpat, that includes learning from His sovereign authority, His ordinances of law, and His just legislative rulings. Mishpat appears 421 times in the Old Testament so obviously we can’t look at every verse right now, but we can look at some examples of how God expected people to interact with His mishpat.

  • God chose to share His plans about Sodom and Gomorrah with Abraham before it happened because “I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice (mishpat)” (Gen. 18:19, WEB). One of the reasons the Lord trusted Abraham is because he kept Yahweh’s mishpat and would teach the people under his care to do so as well.
  • The laws/rules/ordinances/commands revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai are called mishpat: “Moses came and told the people all Yahweh’s words, and all the ordinances(mishpat); and all the people answered with one voice, and said, ‘All the words which Yahweh has spoken will we do'” (Ex. 24:3, WEB). (See also Lev. 18:4-5; 20:22; 25:18; 26:46).
  • The people of Israel had to keep all the Lord’s mishpat if they wanted to inherit the promises He made. They were warned not to add to or take away from God’s commands, nor to forget them. They also had a responsibility to pass on the mishpat to their children, as Abraham did to his. If they kept the mishpat, God would give them great blessings (Deut. 4:1-14; 5:1-22, 31-33; 7:12-13; 11:1; 26:16-19).
  • David, whom God described as “a man after my heart, who will do all my will” (Acts 13:22, WEB), said, “I have kept Yahweh’s ways, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his ordinances (mishpat) were before me. As for his statutes, I didn’t depart from them” (2 Sam 22:22-23, WEB).
  • We often say Solomon asked God for wisdom, but the specific wording when God responds is, “Because you … have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice (mishpat); behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and understanding heart” (1 Kings 3:11-12, WEB).
  • Judgement came on ancient Israel because they forsook God and stopped keeping His judgements/ordinances (1 Kings 11:31-33; Neh. 1:4-7; 9:28-29; Ezk. 5:5-8; 11:10-12; 20:11-24; Dan. 9:4-5). Notice that not keeping God’s mishpat is a sin and is linked with forsaking God Himself.
Image of a man watching a sunset overlaid with text from Deut. 11:1, WEB version: “you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always.”
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Lessons from Ancient Israel’s Relationship With God

I want to spend a little more time looking at ancient Israel’s relationship with God’s mishpat. When God instituted the Sinai Covenant with Israel, it was like a marriage ceremony. The laws and ordinances that He delivered are like the marriage vows that couples make. Both God and the people bound themselves together in a formal relationship–a covenant–and agreed to live by His mishpat (Ex. 24:3). As co-inheritors with Jesus Christ of the covenants God made with His people in the past, His mishpat are still relevant for us today and we can learn from the ways that God’s people in the past related to Him and His justice/ordinances.

There’s a passage in Ezekiel where God summarizes His relationship with the people of Israel thus far, and He pays particular attention to how they related to His mishpat. Ezekiel records that “some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of Yahweh,” and Yahweh responded by telling Ezekiel, “Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers” (Ezk. 20:1, 4, WEB). As we read the history of Israel from the Lord’s perspective, keep in mind that He uses the word “abominations” to describe what the people did. The actions they took against Him and His mishpat were very serious.

“So I caused them to go out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes, and showed them my ordinances (mishpat), which if a man does, he will live in them. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.

“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances (mishpat), which if a man keeps, he shall live in them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.  Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;  because they rejected my ordinances (mishpat), and didn’t walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I didn’t destroy them. I didn’t make a full end of them in the wilderness. I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Don’t walk in the statutes of your fathers. Don’t observe their ordinances (mishpat) or defile yourselves with their idols.  I am Yahweh your God. Walk in my statutes, keep my ordinances (mishpat), and do them.  Make my Sabbaths holy. They shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.'”

“But the children rebelled against me. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and didn’t keep my ordinances (mishpat) to do them, which if a man does, he shall live in them. They profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out. Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse them through the countries; because they had not executed my ordinances (mishpat), but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols.”

Ezekiel 20:10-24, WEB

This tragic story is not just ancient history. Paul told New Covenant Christians in Corinth, “These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall” (1 Cor. 10:11-12, NET). We need to learn from the lessons of Israel’s history in the Old Testament so that we don’t make the same mistakes, such as rejecting the mishpat of our God. Then and today, God wants people who have a relationship with Him to live in and walk in His justice/ordinances/judgements. We’re supposed to become holy as He is holy, and doing what He tells us to is part of that process.

Image of two women reading Bibles overlaid with text from 1 Peter 1:13-15, WEB version: "“Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ—as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior”
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Trained in Righteousness Today

Talking about the ordinances of God from the Old Testament makes some modern Christians uncomfortable. This is due to misinformation about how New Covenant believers relate to God’s laws. For example, Paul is often misread as doing away with God’s law. He preempted that reading by asking and answering a question: “Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31, WEB). This sentiment echoes something Jesus Himself 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. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place. 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. For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!”

Matthew 5:17-20, NET

The scribes, or “experts in the law,” and Pharisees were a group of people that Jesus called out for putting on a righteous show while neglecting the true spiritual meaning of God’s laws and leaving “justice, mercy, and faith” undone (Matt. 23). Jesus wants His people to follow His words faithfully from the heart, not to put on a righteous show. Aligning ourselves with Jesus is how we become truly righteous.

That’s how the mishpat of God help us learn righteousness. The Law is an expression of God’s character, and keeping it aligns people with Him. Paul compared the Law to a “tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24, WEB). Even today, the mishpat of God (which we’re to keep on a spiritual and literal level as New Covenant believers with the law written in our hearts) point us to our Savior and help us learn righteousness.

You, however, must continue in the things you have learned and are confident about. You know who taught you and how from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:14-17, NET

When Paul wrote these words to Timothy, the “holy writings” and “scripture” he refered to are what we now call the Old Testament. Over and over in those scriptures, we learn that righteousness and justice are something that God loves and that those who love Him will keep His mishpat (Deut. 11:1; 30:16; Ps. 33:5; 37:28). God pleads with His people to walk in and follow His mishpat and practice righteousness because that’s the way to life (Lev. 18:5; Neh. 9:29; Ezk. 18:9). Then, just as today, God “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4, NET; see also 2 Pet. 3:9 and Ezk. 18; 33).

There are no human beings who can claim to be perfectly righteous on their own, “for all have sinned” (Rom. 3:10, 23, WEB). It is Jesus Christ’s act of righteousness that makes it possible for us to really become righteous (Rom. 5:17-18). Now that He has called us, we are obligated to obey God our Savior as servants of righteousness (Rom. 6:12-23). We’re not justified by our own righteousness, but having been justified by Jesus we must choose to live according to His righteousness. God’s mishpat train us in how to do that.

Called To Holiness

Image of a man praying with the blog's title text and the words "Scriptures say we can learn righteousness from God's judgements. How?"
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Like Timothy, we need God’s word “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” so that we who are “dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17, NET). God has called us for a purpose, which involves becoming part of His family. We’re literally supposed to become like Him. This is a process that won’t be completed until Jesus Christ’s return.

When Paul tells his readers they are “called to be saints,” the word translated “saints” literally means a holy thing/people (Rom. 1:7; G40 hagios). Peter expands on this idea when he says we must be “obedient children” who, “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‘” (1 Peter 1:15-16, NET [bold italics a quote from  Lev 19:2]). God expects holiness and righteous conduct from those He calls into a relationship with Him.

The simplest way to put this is that we’re to follow Jesus’s holy and righteous example (Acts 3:14; 1 Cor. 11:1; Eph. 5:1-2). Expand on it a little more, and you get the two greatest commandments–love God and love your neighbor (Mark 12:28-34; Rom. 13:8-10). For more detailed instructions on how to be holy and righteous, we go to the Lord’s words, laws, ordinances, and teachings (those mishpat we’ve been talking about). God’s word shows us what people who are becoming holy do and do not do. As we obey His commands out of love for Jesus and the Father, we are training in righteousness and becoming holy like He is holy.

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Song Recommendation: “Refiner’s Fire” by TWP Band & Brian Doerksen

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