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Jehovah looked out at all the nations and families of the world and chose one to be his wife. He made a contract with his bride Israel and promised her all of his blessings and favor if she would just subject herself to Him and be faithful to him by carrying out all his laws.
He fulfilled everything he promised even though she was not the perfect wife. And then one day his wife Israel started looking and lusting after foreign gods. She committed adultery with them and made them her lovers.
Her husband Jehovah was incensed and angry and reminded her of her vows and reminded her of all that he had done for her, but she would not listen. After a while Jehovah decided that if his wife loved these foreign gods so much then fine… she could have them.
So he allowed the gods of Babylonia and Assyria to have her. They raped and abused her.
Jehovah still longed for his wife of old and continued to send messengers to her in an effort to change her behavior. At some point Israel took a long look at her condition and remembered how well she had it with her husband Jehovah and repented and came back to him in great sorrow.
Jehovah took her back and cleaned her up but had a bigger plan for her which she didn’t even begin to understand.
Jehovah made the ultimate sacrifice… He allowed himself to be killed to dissolve his marriage with Israel so that he could remarry her under new conditions.
Jehovah allowed himself to be killed by allowing the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ and issued the call to the whole world, including Israel, to be in an intimate relationship with him best described as a marriage. This marriage would have better laws and conditions than the first and was designed to make her better and to create a better appreciation of him as a husband.
The church is the bride of Christ. Jesus Christ loves and cherishes her so that she will love and cherish him and be in subjection to him. Let’s not repeat the mistakes of the first wife.
I was reading in Luke chapter 4 the other day about Jesus fasting and being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days.
At the first temptation by the Devil of Jesus, Jesus quotes Deut. 8, “Man shall not live by bread alone”. The casual reader of the Bible might miss what the Jewish reader of the day must have seen very clearly. Jesus was referencing the 40 year wandering of the Jewish people in the wilderness. The fuller quotation goes like this…
“…you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
And He humbled you, and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”
Let’s look at some similarities between what Jesus was doing and what the Israelites had done.
- Jesus was baptized prior to the 40 days in the wilderness.
- Israel was baptized prior to the 40 years wandering in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:2)
- Jesus ate nothing during his 40 day fast (God sustained him).
- Israel ate nothing during their 40 year fast except for the manna which God provided.
- Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit (which he received at his baptism) and was led in the Spirit into the wilderness
- Israel was led into the wilderness by God after Israel was baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. 10).
The 40 years wandering by Israel in the wilderness was a punishment by God for believing the bad report of the spies they sent into the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy we find that its purpose was not strictly punishment but was also to humble them and test them to see whether they would keep his commandments and to teach them that their priority was not to serve their physical appetites (with bread) but to live by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
So what does this say about Jesus’ purpose in his 40 day fast and temptation?
Let me suggest that his 40 day fast was similar to his baptism…. It was to fulfill all righteousness. He wasn’t baptized because he needed his sins washed away and he didn’t endure the temptation to because it was possible for him to sin
His 40 day fasting and temptation by the devil was to demonstrate his humility, to demonstrate passing the test of temptation and to demonstrate that he didn’t live by bread alone but by following God.
When Israel after 40 years humbled themselves and passed their test they could move on into the Promised Land.
The message for Christians today is that we also are undergoing testing and passing that test starts with humbling ourselves and living by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of our Lord. And if we do that we can join Jesus in our promised land.
I went to Glenn Torno’s funeral the other day. I try to make every funeral of church members and their families that I can. It was pretty easy to attend this funeral. Glenn attended at Borden Street Church of Christ in Sinton, Texas. I had come to know him on a casual basis because of my relationship with his family. When we first moved to Corpus Christi in 1982 we met Ray and Linda Torno. Our kids grew up with their kids. Of course Glen’s other son Tim was at Parkway too but I had known him since college days.
Even before I met Glen I felt like I knew him because I knew his sons. Anyone who raised godly men like Ray and Tim must also be godly.
When I first met Glenn I sensed we had something in common… Glenn liked people. He was very gregarious and welcoming and Julie and I were even invited into their home. I was impressed.
I was also impressed to learn things about Glenn. Things like when he was 14 years old during the Depression he would drive a truck across the state delivering pipe. Farm raised kids aren’t like city raised kids. I also learned that he set the 440 record in Track and Field at Sinton high school. That record lasted until 1964 when his son Ray broke it.
I really enjoyed hearing what Keith Miller his oldest grandson had to say. Keith and his Paw Paw would leave Sinton in Glen’s old truck and his Paw Paw would start a story and that story wouldn’t end until they pulled up into the driveway in Bayside 30 minutes later. As a kid he used to be so bored with those stories. As an adult he wishes that he could hear them one more time. Keith said they would drive around looking at the cotton fields. As a kid he thought… all these cotton fields look alike. As an adult he wished he could just drive with his Paw Paw just one more time.
Of course those close to the family knew that Glenn developed Alzheimer’s and I guess he knew the progression of that horrible disease and kind of quit talking.
Keith said Alzheimer’s took everything from Glen but it couldn’t take his soul… powerful words.
I hear Christians say frequently that “we just need to get to know each other better”. One of the best ways to get to know people is to go to the funerals of their families.
This was an easy funeral for me to go to for a lot of reasons. The truth is that if they had charged admission I would have been happy to pay it.
Rest in eternity Glen Torno, you did well.
Jesus was, of course, crucified between two thieves… one on his right and one on his left. They not only suffered the same brutality as Jesus suffered but also witnessed all the emotional abuse he suffered.
The Rulers “scoffed” at Jesus. The word “scoff” means literally to “hold the nose up”… to sneer and to show contempt.
The Soldiers “mocked” Jesus. The word “mock” literally means to make sport or to jest.
One of the thieves after witnessing this joined in and “railed” at Jesus. The word “rail” means to literally blaspheme which is “speech defamatory of divine majesty”. A sin punishable by eternal death.
The other thief didn’t join in with the crowd. He had witnessed all the things the first thief witnessed and had witnessed what his fellow thief said and “rebuked” him for it. He stood up for Jesus.
It’s never wrong to stand up for Jesus or to stand up for anyone else being abused wrongly. The thief was guilty of being a thief and accepted his punishment for that crime but he was smart enough to know that the door to eternity was about to open for him and the one hanging on the cross next to him held the keys to that door.
In Matthew 20, the mother of James and John asked that her two sons be permitted to sit at the right and left of Jesus when he became a King. Jesus replied that was not his honor to give.
I guess that if you can’t be honored by sitting on the right or left side of Jesus in his Kingdom… it might be very honorable to be on his right or his left when he was crucified.
One thief is in Heaven right now wearing that honor. The other thief is in Hell lamenting his foolish mistake of blaspheming God as he hung on a cross. Be careful not to scoff, mock or rail (by speech or by action) at Jesus. It could be a fatal mistake.
Ephesians 5 states that Jesus cherishes and nourishes the church. Nourishment is necessary for growth.
Ephesians 4 states that we as Christians are to grow into the exact image of Jesus Christ.
Jesus nourishes us so we can grow into him and be just like him.
Usually nourishment means food so it shouldn’t be surprising that Jesus uses food in the Lord’s Supper to represent himself and that in eating that representation we turn into him.
Of course the Lord’s Supper is just a figure for what Christians should be literally doing… consuming everything we know about Jesus (as found in the scriptures) and transforming ourselves into him by thinking and behaving just like he did.
When we take the Lord’s Supper we are proclaiming to the world two sacrifices. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice of our old selves.
The Lord’s Supper should never be just some mundane thing we do by rote but should be a reminder as we eat the bread and drink the cup that we need to transform ourselves.
Thanksgiving is a feast that celebrates God’s bountiful care in providing food and sustenance for us.
The Lord’s Supper feast is also a feast of thanksgiving. It celebrates God’s gift of life for us.
I read somewhere that the average cost per person for Thanksgiving is about ten dollars.
The bread and the wine of the Lord’s Supper in comparison cost just a few pennies. The real cost of the Lord’s Supper however is much, much higher. It’s the cost of our lives.
If someone told you they were going to kill you but would spare your life for whatever money you had in the bank and for whatever you could sell your goods for you would pay it.
If you had a million dollars in the bank you would empty it out and give it to spare your life. If you had properties and possessions that were worth another million you would sell those too.
The real cost of the Lord’s Supper is whatever you value your life at because Jesus traded his life for yours.
So whenever you are taking the Lord’s Supper you remember that and remember that the life Jesus gave was far more valuable than yours and mine and thank God with all your heart for the bounty he has blessed us with.
Thanksgiving celebrates things that preserve our physical life. The Lord’s Supper celebrates the death of Jesus Christ and the preservation of our eternal spiritual lives.
I was messing around with my mother the other day and I told her that I had talked to the Lord and found out what the entrance requirements were to get into Heaven. I told her that she didn’t have to worry about doing good works because it was going to be a 100 question Bible knowledge test and you had to get them all right and there was no grading on the “curve”.
Mom said… Oh?
I continued that I knew one of the questions… what were the names of Isaiah’s sons? She said she didn’t know and I told her she better start studying for that test.
Bible study is good and profitable but at some point it has to translate into action and providing a light to others through unselfish living.
One of the questions I have is how much Bible do you have to know to be a good Christian? It probably varies from person to person according to their ability.
I know people who have been Christians all their lives and just can’t seem to retain many Bible concepts but they live incredible lives interacting and caring for the needs of others.
I thought about that 100 question test thing because sometimes I think I see an over emphasis (if that’s possible) on Bible study and an under emphasis on daily living as a Christian. We need to have balance in our spiritual lives.
When I was in Veterinary School I was taught a lot of things and took many, many, tests but my real education started when I started applying that knowledge in the practice of Veterinary medicine. Someone told me one time that my greatest teacher was that little dog looking across the exam table from me. Think about that.
Let’s study our Bibles and use that knowledge to interact with others. That’s a combination that will make you wise.
