The One Year Bible - Day 87

There are a couple of cool things today. I love Deuteronomy 9 which reminds us that God does not bless us because of us, but because he wants to. He removes bad situations, not because we deserve it but because He wants to deal with bad people.
Secondly, it is worth noting that the second set of stone tablets on which the 10 commandments were written had to be chiselled out by Moses. He wasn't supposed to break the first set when he was angry so this time, God would teach him how important they were. If you've ever chiselled stone, it takes AGES.

The One Year Bible - Day 86

The first reading is called, "The privilege of holiness", not something we would naturally think. For most of us it would be, "The annoyance of holiness" or the "hard work of Holiness" so why is it a privilege?
The chapter goes on to talk about all the amazing things that God will do on behalf of the Israelites which are related to being a holy people. of course, like most people, we want the privileges without the responsibilities but if we realise that bad things don't happen so much because God sends them but they happen anyway and we only avoid them by following God. The result is called holiness, the effect of us being in relationship with God. That is why we cannot have blessing without holiness and rather than spend most of our lives trying to balance the two, we should understand what God has for us and keep pressing into it, "throwing off everything that hinders".

The One Year Bible - Day 85

Have you ever considered how the OT laws can be understood in NT thinking? We can look, for instance, at the commandment that says, "Do not commit adultery" but what does that make us think of?
For a start, the most simplest view is that it is a simple physical instruction to avoid breaking your marriage vows.
Secondly however, as Jesus elaborated, it is not just a physical thing that makes you guilty of adultery but a heart attitude regardless of any physical wrongdoing.
Thirdly, we can read into the whole area of the flesh and how it drives us to do things that God requires us to avoid.
Fourthly we can start looking at the root of adultery which is unfaithfulness rather than just some physical cheating or even fleshly lust.
Fifthly then, we can understand that we are required to be faithful to God in a way very similar to a marriage that requires total commitment, for better or worse, and that God has created all these physical representations of spiritual things to help us understand that relationship.

The One Year Bible - Day 84

Deuteronomy 4:5 and Moses tells the people to fully obey God so that other nations will notice their wisdom and intelligence along with righteous decrees and regulations.
For us as Christians, the same very much applies. If we stop putting our own wisdom in place of God's then we would have a much more united and powerful image to people who do not know Jesus and who can see a people who are "sorted" even if that image is slightly scary or seems beyond somebody's reach. At one point in Acts it says that people were too scared to join the disciples because of their power, it was not easy following Christ but it was right!

The One Year Bible - Day 83

I wonder if the Edomites in Deuteronomy 2 refer to other denominations of Christians? Even if we do not consider ourselves to have a denomination, we will tend to judge that certain types of Christians are our friends and allies and others are not. God reminds us that even people we might not consider allies are still relatives and have their own relationship with God, in which case we should not interfere or impede their work for the sake of our own.

The One Year Bible - Day 82

If Israel are considered a type of the church (although let us be clear that Israel and the church are two separate things), then it would seem that the various tribes represent the various works of the church. It would seem obvious that Levi represents worship and perhaps Judah, the soldier, represents evangelism or mission - although I don't know what all the others are! We then see this issue with the daughters of Zelophehad who have inherited land in lieu of their dead male relatives. The issue here is that the tribe of Manasseh are concerned that if these women marry outside of the tribe, their land would be passed unfairly to another tribe. God rules that this is not permitted and it makes me think that God is concerned that the work of the church remain in balance. If we end up spending a lot of resources on one area of ministry over others, our work is not fully valid before God. Some things are easier in church life than others - worship for instance, at least physically, is much easier than evangelism so we are likely to spend more time on this. Likewise, we might have a person in the church who is very gifted in a certain area in which case we will spend time in that area instead. We shouldn't do this, balance is good!

The One Year Bible - Day 81

Numbers 33:52 and God tells the Israelites that when they enter their new land, they must destroy everything and drive out everyone there. This is interesting for us because it is talking about when as Christians, we enter into a Christian walk and that if we do not drive out everything of the old life that we have, we will end up having, "thorns in our side". We need freedom from all of it and if God gives us the power to carry this out, it is simply a matter of tackling it head on and moving forwards.

The One Year Bible - Day 80

Reuben and Gad don't want land inside the Promised Land, they are happy in Jordan. Is this a reference to those people who are simply not interested in having all that God has for them? People who are perhaps good and supportive of the leadership but who are happy enough in the run-of-the-mill life that they are happy with "good" rather than "great"? I suppose we can all get to a place where we are comfortable with how it is now and lose the will to pursue God further...

The One Year Bible - Day 79

There is an interesting subject to draw out of Numbers 30 concerning vows. Although we could simply understand the passage to relate to vows (albeit one we would struggle to implement in today's world) we also see something about submission and authority, two massively important but equally under-taught subjects in the church. One of the reasons we might find the passage hard is that we would struggle with the idea that a husband could veto his wife's vows. This is only hard because we don't understand submission and authority. As with many of life's principles we tend to be one of two extremes. Either we understand authority as domination in which case we overplay it or otherwise we decide that submission is totally unimportant and underplay it. As with many things in life, a genuine understanding and a balance are required if we are to represent the Kingdom of God accurately.

The One Year Bible - Day 78

I find with these massive list of offerings and festivals and which animals are required etc, it is easy to glaze over and try and skip over it. As a useful exercise however, it would be worth listing each of these and seeing how many of each animal are required for the various offerings. This might help us understand the distinctions between the various offerings and why some require more of a certain type than others. I was challenged by this when someone pointed out that the guidance for purity laws in Numbers is related to the Garden of Eden and to Jesus' ministry, something that would be easy to miss if we assumed the OT laws are just a pain to be endured!

The One Year Bible - Day 77

I find passages like Numbers 27 and the Daughters of Zelophehad quite unusual. It comes across that God hadn't even considered them until they came and complained to Moses about their lack of land because of their lack of male relatives. After complaining, it is like God says, "oh, I hadn't thought of that..." when this obviously can't be true.
It leaves us asking what is the message here? That God wants us to engage with Him? I guess it is only with engagement and 'thrashing things out' that we truly learn what is true in a relationship whereas one where we nod and agree without any understanding is pretty empty. Hmm...

The One Year Bible - Day 76

On the question of women in 'leadership' and the fact that Anna is called a prophet in Luke 2, we can either conclude that it is OK for women to be in leadership or that being a prophet is not what Paul was talking about in 1 Timothy 2:12 when he said that he did not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man. I guess you could also argue that sometimes God uses women in things that they shouldn't generally do all the time but that is a bit arbitrary!
It does go to show however that we should be slow to be prescriptive in these things and get back to the 'Spirit of the law' rather than the law itself.

The One Year Bible - Day 75

Balaam is an interesting character. In some ways he represents what happens when the spiritual becomes too familiar with the worldly. If he was truly spiritual then he would have known that Israel would be protected by God and would never have entertained Balak in the first place. As it was, even after the first time God told him to refrain from cursing them, he is again telling Balak that he will "see what he can do".
It is hard to tell what motivated him but the most obvious suggestion is money, the downfall of many a human.
We sometimes think that if someone does bad things, their gifting gets disabled by God because we often believe in a direct link between holiness and gifting but the reality is that the gifting is not revocable (because it is a gift - Romans 11:29) we therefore have a responsibility to use gifts in a righteous way and not be like Balaam.

The One Year Bible - Day 74

Balaam said at various times that he could only say what God told him to say. Is this actually true for us? It certainly could be so let us challenge ourselves to find out how this is possible.

The One Year Bible - Day 73

Today Israel are attempting to get into the Promised Land but they need the cooperation of the local kings in order to cross their land. The kings refuse and the Israelites decide to make a detour to begin with but then fight the remaining two armies and defeat them. We have an interesting principle described here since the first King of Edom does not attack the Israelites but only threatens them if they refuse to leave his land whereas the other armies specifically attack and are then slaughtered by the Israelites. The principle concerns attack vs defence. Although we might talk of "attack", in many ways, I believe our Christian life is one of going where we are called to go and only engaging with 'forces' that attack us. For instance, when Jesus moved around, he didn't go and try and find demons or Romans or Pharisees and attack them but he did attack those who confronted Him and perhaps wanted to stop what he was doing. The King of Edom was possibly just as angry and determined as the other kings but the thing he did right was not to attack the Israelites.
People who talk about things like praying against strongholds and the like are possibly being too offensive and cause trouble for themselves. Go where God wants you and do what he wants you to do and deal with issues as they surface. This way you will not incur trouble all the time.

The One Year Bible - Day 72

Again and again the Israelites complain that things are hard and often refer to Egypt, "where we had this and that...". Sadly I think we do the same when we feel in the desert place we often wonder about the "sweetness" of sin or rather what we perceive as sweetness since the reason we were saved in the first place (if we have been) was because we saw the entrapment and pain of sin.
Numbers 20 is also where Moses who has quite a good press up until now decides to mis-represent God to the people and earns his barring from the Promised Land. Jesus said that "to whom much has been given, much will be required". Moses was the one person God could rely on to faithfully represent Himself to the Israelites so if Moses starts getting a big head, "Must we bring you water from this rock" then things are going to go awry. Of course we can understand why Moses acted like he did and perhaps most of us would have done it sooner but nonetheless, God requires us to be holy before Him regardless of the pressures we face from others.

The One Year Bible - Day 71

I wanted to mention something from Psalm 55 today. Verse 10 says, "Its walls are patrolled day and night against invaders, but the real danger is wickedness within the city". If we see the city as the church, it is interesting that despite being 'attacked' from outside by spiritual forces or perhaps a number of militant atheists, the greatest danger to the church is those "within the city". This I think is for a number of reasons. Fundamentally, the danger is from those who do not know God's Will but are in a position to dictate the direction of the church. This might work its way out in various ways. People of poor character, people who are simply not anointed for the position they have been given, people who are reckless, people who put process before people, those who seek glory rather than God, people who pursue the gifts rather than the giver, people whose egos are not in check and who might dominate 'spiritually' or physically and a whole raft of other 'defects'. Yet I think it would be fair to say we are much more on our guard against outsiders when so much harm is done by people. Jesus told us we had authority over the evil forces of the devil yet we are more afraid of them than we are of people who we do not usually have authority over!

The One Year Bible - Day 70

Today we read about a version of Jesus' crucifixion where he is offered Wine with Myrrh in it but refuses. We all know about Wine being drunk to reduce pain reception but Myrrh is also used as an anaesthetic. Jesus refused these things presumably so that we know that he felt the full pain and force of death.
If he had accepted them, people would have accused him of dying an easy death with 'painkillers' and perhaps spiritually questioned the validity of such a death as a sacrifice. If we were to be executed for being Christians and were offered pain killers, presumably we would want to say yes. Praise God that Jesus' thoughts were so in line with God's that there was no danger of that for him.

The One Year Bible - Day 69

Numbers 14 and the Israelites sign their own death warrant. What had they done? They were basically saying it would be better to go back to being sinners since it was easier than the life they were living. As well as an amazing lack of understanding of the freedom they had enjoyed from Egypt (how short their memories are) they are also about to go into a place of blessing. Many of us are not prepared for the testing that produces fruit - our own desert experience if you like. On top of this, it shows a total lack of gratitude to God and an acknowledgement that with His help, it doesn't always have to be hard. "They have all seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they have tested me by refusing to listen to my voice." Is that true for us?
We also see an interesting statement. The OT is quite clear that Israel has a special place before God because of His promise to Abraham but we are reminded here that, "Native-born Israelites and foreigners are equal before the Lord and are subject to the same decrees". This does not decrease the significance of Israel but reminds us in terms of sin and sacrifice, no human is better off than another. All require Christ.
Pslam 53: "Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God." Well said. There are quite a few qualified fools out there. Many people with all sorts of human accolades and qualifications and titles but still fools.

The One Year Bible - Day 68

Numbers 11, another of these interesting passages where things seem a little awry. There is a list of 70 Elders who are supposed to go to the Tabernacle to receive the Spirit of God. Two of them don't go. What would you expect? Punishment? Perhaps. Lose their blessing? Likely. What we actually see is not only God blessing these two people with something that was theirs despite their disobedience but then Moses realisation that what had happened was so good that the legality of it was not an issue, " I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all!".
Numbers 12 and this story of Miriam and Aaron who have criticised Moses and God's famous response, "So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?". Miriam is struck with leprosy and if that represents uncleanness then we need to be very careful who we pass judgement on!
Numbers 13 and one of my favourite passages of the spies sent into the Promised Land to check it out and who return with scare stories. Only Joshua and Caleb believe the words of God who told them they would take the land and only these two ever see the Promised Land in person. So simple yet so profound: If God tells us to do something or that something will happen, how on earth can we ever doubt that He is able to do it? Because we still think it is all about us?

The One Year Bible - Day 67

Sometimes we see the side of God that loses patience with humans as we continue to test Him and his provision. In Numbers 11, the people start complaining that they are bored with their usual food - perhaps an analogy of people being bored with the day-to-day life of the church? God responds by saying that he will provide meat for a whole month so that they get sick of it. I guess we easily crave what we see in some other churches but we usually want the good without the work. Which churches can see the miraculous without a large amount of continuous prayer? If we want that, we simply have to continue to press in and not simply moan to God about how other people have it better.
Mark 14 has this interesting passage that reminds us it is possible to be religious, even if we are Christians and don't consider ourselves "religious". What the disciples complained about with the perfume was quite fair and certainly true but in fact the point was that God has a plan that doesn't involve being a slave to some recipe or list of rules but a relationship where each decision is guided by Him.
Psalm 51 has a fascinating statement that is, at the end of the day, the truth with regards to sin "Against you, and you alone, have I sinned". We are quick to apologise to people but most of what we do wrong is against God and it is Him we need to apologise to. "For I was born a sinner..but you require honesty from the womb"

The One Year Bible - Day 66

There is a phrase used frequently in the OT with regard to the Israelites and it was "cut off". People were cut-off if they disrespected the festivals of God. I wondered if some Christians are cut-off in that they are only Christian by name but whose lives have little or no spiritual significance to the Kingdom! This would be people who only go through the motions or perhaps have had several chances to obey God and have consistently ignored them until they have "gone to sleep". Controversial but a good debate!

The One Year Bible - Day 65

There are a whole load of verses today about being a Nazirite. It all seems pretty formal and slightly complicated but still amazing to be able to say, "I dedicate myself to God". In the interests of being great rather than simply good Christians, this should be a general attitude but it would be interesting if we considered this something a bit like lent where we give certain things up for a period of time and consecrate ourselves to the Lord. I guess people do this sometimes but it is not known as one thing but several: prayer, fasting etc.

The One Year Bible - Day 64

It has been said that Bible verses often have several meanings. There is the obvious physical meaning - something happened at a certain time like God told the Israelites something. Then there are perhaps general principle meanings such as the parable of the talents referring to us using what God has given us, then there are any number of Spiritual meanings that might relate to Israel, the Church or both. The tricky thing and that which requires prayer and study is what meanings are present in what verses.
The verses about purity in the camp are a good example. There were perhaps physical reasons for these laws, something that God did to protect the Israelites from poor health or death but yet at the same time, God is often very strong when he gives these laws and could, presumably, easily have said, "you should do these to avoid illness". Perhaps God knows us too well and realises that if He simply said, "you should do it" then loads of people would think that it would be OK, the human principle of, "what does God know?" so it is easier to promote punishment as a way of people keeping good health. But for us today, there are lots of lessons we can learn about our own purity which is spiritual fundamentally and which teaches us that impurity is infectious and requires direct action to deal with. I'm not sure whether each type of infection mentioned relates to a certain specific issue (i.e. semen discharge relates to sexual impurity) but it is worth studying these things.

The One Year Bible - Day 63

In Numbers 2, we have a passage that is easy to pass over but none of this is accidentally in the Bible, we still need to keep asking what this means for me. A couple of things that I noticed were 1) The need for everyone to have a part in the Kingdom. Although roles were different, everyone needed to do something, it was not enough to simply be part of the community, you had to be involved. 2) God is a God of organisation and strategy. Sadly, churches are too often so fluffy and abstract in their thinking that practical matters are often given short thrift. If we were more organised, we could assign people to look after practical things without interference and power games and have other people to concentrate on Spiritual issues and then along with other churches, we could strategically take on areas of our towns and cities. Sadly we are still FAR too partisan with such things!

The One Year Bible - Day 62

We are told that the Levites are not numbered amongst the army because their role is to look after the tabernacle which represents God's presence. You could argue that this supports the idea of paid church workers (whether ordained or not). However, the NT tells us that all Christians are priests, we are all ordained and we would not all expect to be paid to work for the church since we are the ones giving money to pay them. Does this mean that no-one should be paid by the church (except expenses)? Obviously with larger churches, there is a large amount of operational work to perform ignoring any pastoral work but again this presupposes that large churches are correct and scriptural when in fact if we managed to exist as a network of smaller churches (perhaps up to 200 people) then not only would we be able to handle support work in our spare time rather than be paid, but it would be easier for believers to exercise their gifts. We have a lot of baggage and tradition in the western church including large and expensive buildings and high running costs when at the same time, only a tiny percentage is given to global mission, the most pressing need for the modern church.
Anyone here dare to be different and challenge these things or do we just accept that it is the way it is?

The One Year Bible - Day 61

Today there are a load of verses concerning blessing and punishment. It is interesting to note the active voice in these, "I will...". This is presumably good material for a PhD because God is generous and gracious regardless of our conduct, so why is it that we read about a God who rewards good people and punishes bad people? Doesn't he forgive sins? Is it a case of good things naturally happening when we place ourselves in God's will or literally that he notices the obedience and rewards us?
I think this is perhaps a more useful lesson for whole communities or countries as they consider their corporate response to God. Places where a good number of people have chosen to follow Christ have indeed experience amazing blessing, both physically and spiritually. I will leave the complexities of this discussion to somebody more qualified!

The One Year Bible - Day 60

Today is some real hardcore OT teaching, a few things that we would find hard to accept but which is a challenge that God is who He is and it is our job to find out about this and not to decide that God didn't say that or God doesn't do that any more!
Firstly something that is interesting with regards to property and this idea that Israel worked on a rolling Leasehold program. You buy property or land depending on how long it is until the next Jubilee which happened every 50 years and then when it got to that point, the land or property reverted to its original owner. This is something a lot of us would have an issue with since we like to consider things our property but this rule reminds us that it all belongs to God anyway. Not sure how it would work in the West today although I guess a fair number of people have 99 or 999 year leases.
Leviticus 24 and we see another example of God's holiness and standard for living. A man curses God and is arrested. God's punishment is to have the man stoned for doing what the Israelites were told not to i.e. to take the name of the Lord in vain. We often struggle with this idea that God in any way condones capital punishment because we believe He is loving and "He wouldn't do that" but for this view you either need to completely disregard the OT teaching, assume that God has changed - something that is un-Biblical or we have to decide that this was only for the Israelites, again, something I find hard to justify when we read of the way God dealt with non-Israelites. But it puts us in an awkward position since we are humanly uncomfortable with capital punishment, perhaps because we are afraid of death ourselves and project our fear onto our theology? Anyway, fear of punishment is part of the point of it.
If we consider that God's love is for the whole world, not for any particular person then we can see why God would want to dissuade people from committing certain sins which would infect the society and become common place if left un-checked. We are reminded of a Holy God who says that if people blaspheme God, they should be executed to show that this is not acceptable ever. Because God is insecure and vindictive? No because He knows that un-controlled blasphemy gives our ego too much power and ego is the enemy of the Spirit.
You can disagree but hopefully you will consider this issue and not simply ignore it because it is difficult.