February 11

Genesis 44; Mark 14

Daily Catechism

QUESTION 18: WHAT IS SIN?
Answer: Sin is transgression of the revealed will of God which teaches that we are to act in perfect holiness from a heart of faith to the glory of God.
Scripture: 1 John 3:4; Romans 5:13; 14:23; 1 Peter 1:16; Matthew 5:48; 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Comment: Sin is any attitude or desire or action that explicitly breaks a commandment of Scripture, or comes from a heart of unbelief or is not done for the glory of God.

Genesis 44

Ready:
Picking up where They have finished eating dinner together and the brothers were amazed that Joseph was able to seat them according to birth order.

Seeing What’s There:
I see that after the merry evening of dining together Joseph sets out to test his brothers once more.  He again has his steward return all the money to the brother’s sacks and he also puts a silver cup in Benjamin’s sack.  In the morning the 11 brothers, having received Simeon back, are now headed back to Canaan with the grain they came for and all is well.  But then the steward rides up on the group after they get a little wasps away and he accuses them of stealing money and also Joseph’s cup.  Oddly he mentions that Joseph uses that cup to gain secret knowledge, although this is a ploy to maybe get them realizing that he might know about their sin just like he knew about their birth order.  The cup is found in Benjamin’s sack and they are distressed as they all return to face Joseph and the consequence of this alleged theft.  Judah tries to convince Joseph that they did not steal anything but that God has surely found out there sin, probably talking about their sin of selling Joseph into slavery.  Judah also tries to convince Joseph to keep him instead of Benjamin because he had pledged itself to Benjamin’s safety before Jacob and he feared that the loss of Benjamin would kill Jacob.

Thinking About the Message:
    v1-5.  Joseph seems to test the brothers again perhaps because he has decided that he wants to bring the whole family back to Egypt for their survival during the famine and he wants to see them sacrifice for the love of family when the decision is not prompted by starvation like the last test turned out.  In this scenario they can leave and return with all the grain that was stuffed in their bags and Benjamin, who is innocent, would be left behind.  Perhaps Joseph wants to see if the brothers will again leave the innocent younger brother to be taken into captivity for their gain even though it will crush their father.  This scenario will create a parallel situation where Joseph can see how they react this time.
    v6-13.  Here the ploy by Joseph plays out and the brothers come back to face the music.  They were so convinced that no cup would be found that they offered up the guilty party to death and the remainder as servants.  But since this was a plant, it is found and they are stunned and in anguish.  They can’t understand how this has happened except that God is clearly judging them for their previous sin.
    v14-17.  Here Judah steps up and gives an account admitting that hey have no way to prove their innocence and that God's judgement is upon them and they accept it.  I take this to be an admittance of their original sin against Joseph and not of taking the cup.  Judah asks that they might all remain as servants including Benjamin…basically asking that Benjamin's life be spared.  Joseph does not accept the offer but says he will spare Benjamin and keep him as a servant, releasing the others to go in peace with all their grain.
    v18-34.  Now Judah tells Joseph the bigger story of how they ended up back in Egypt again and some background on Jacob and his love for Benjamin and how Judah has pledged himself to his brother’s safety.  He explains that the brothers returning without Benjamin will kill Jacob and Judah pleads that he be the one to be held back so that Benjamin and the others can return and Jacob will not be destroyed.  I take this as Judah stepping up for the family and passing Joseph’s test.  Unlike last time where Judah failed to defend his younger brother and failed to have concern for his father.  Last time he would not risk himself before his brothers to protect Joseph, but now he accepts the risk and the judgement and he takes a stand for his younger brother who is innocent.  Judah acknowledges that it is the brother’s sin that will be the death of Jacob.  Judah takes responsibility for his family and shows leadership and integrity and love and submission to God.  This is a decent foreshadowing of the fact that it will be Judah who will receive the blessing of Jacob over the firstborn Reuben as well as the second and third sons (Simeon and Levi).

Meaning, Implications, and Significance
    I take the main message to be that God expects us to accept the consequences of our sin and to honor God even in how we receive his discipline in our lives.  The implication is that we aught not to shake our fist as God when when we suffer in some way we don’t think we deserve, but we should remember that we deserve nothing but the judgement of God, regardless of the particular thing we are currently being blamed for or punished for.  I take the personal significance to be that I need to be humble and broken before God and not demanding of my rights but I rather I should acknowledge my sin and my failure to love and honor and thank him in all things.  I need to receive from his hand gratefully.

Valuing the Message:
This message is valuable in life because it keeps me away from entitlement or expectations of all my circumstances going my way.  This message puts life in perspective and helps me to know that God does not put all my actions in separate silos but that all I think and do speaks of how I honor God or not.

Reflecting on the Message:
I need to consider how I react to being blamed for things I didn’t do and for how I tend to defend myself.  I need to reflect upon the arrogance of my heart that thinks I have a righteousness that does not come from Christ.  I need to reflect upon God and his complete authority to rule over all circumstances of my life in order to teach me and shape me and to show me myself.

Responding to God & Reacting to His Lesson:
Tell God about your observations and your thoughts and your struggles with the chapter and determine how it will change or impact your thinking and your decisions.  Be sure to react in some way to the truth rather than remain silent.

Proclaiming the Truth to Others:
Decide who you can share what you have learned with and ask for God’s help in reaching out to love others.

Mark 14

Ready:
I am picking up after Jesus gave a number of prophetic statements and gave an encouragement, or warning, to remain awake and to be ready for his coming.

Seeing What’s There:
This chapter does not contain a great deal of teaching by Jesus and it mostly documents the beginning of the last stage of his life.  The things that jump out at me in this chapter are:

• Jesus alludes to the nearness of his death by allowing Mary to anoint him and describing it himself as an anointing for the grave that will be spoken of around the world in the proclamation of the gospel.
• Judas determines to betray Jesus and joins up with the similar intentions of the Jewish Council to kill Jesus
• Jesus takes the passover meal (last supper) with the disciples and declares that one of them in the room will be his betrayer
• Jesus declares that it has been predetermined what will happen to him but that this does not in the least relieve the guilt from the person who carries out the will of God to take Jesus to the cross
• Jesus institutes the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper with the bread and the cup
• After telling the disciples that they will all fall away Jesus speaks against Peter’s self confidence and he tells him how Peter will deny him 3 times before the night is over
• Jesus pleads with the Father to make another way where he does not need to bear the wrath to come.
• The disciples fail to keep awake and pray when time is short
• Jesus is treated like a violent criminal coming to arrest him with an armed crowd or mob
• Jesus is silent in the face of lies and false accusations against him before the Jewish Council
• He answers once the truth is stated about him being the Christ, the Son of God.  This he affirms, which motivates them to make their determination that he shall be condemned to die as a blasphemer
• As described by Jesus beforehand, Peter faces the challenge of his faith when he is weak and scared and he denies Jesus three times before the second rooster crow resulting in his breaking down and weeping as he remembered what Jesus had said.

Key Verses:
Mark 14:1, 8-9, 10, 18, 21, 22, 24, 30, 34, 35-36, 37-38, 43, 48, 50, 55-56, 61-62, 64, 71-72

Theme:
After giving the disciples an ordinance to remember what is about to occur at Calvary, Jesus resolves to be obedient to his Father and faces all the suffering that awaits him in submission and love.

Thinking About the Message:
    v1-2.  Ironic and sad that as the passover approaches, which was the preservation of the firstborn children of Israel during their exodus from Egypt, they are plotting to kill Jesus.  It is the very death of Jesus that was the sacrifice represented by the passover lamb that night in Egypt.  The God-man they are planning to kill without disrupting the passover celebration is himself the passover lamb.  Clearly God’s hand is at work even through the ignorance and hard hearts and sin of man.  No doubt scripture is to be fulfilled.
    v3-9.  Like the lack of fasting while the bridegroom is here I see that there will also be a time when the perfume should be sold to feed the poor, just not right now.  Right now the king is in our midst and we celebrate.
    v10-11.  Hearing what Jesus says and hanging our with his followers does not make me a true believer as it did not make Judas one.
    v12-16.  An interesting account that might be a bit of an amazement to the disciples who followed his instructions regarding where to setup for passover, but its unclear as to whether this was a supernatural arrangement of the circumstances to lead them to the room or not.
    v17-21.  Jesus reveals that one of the twelve will betray him but it is not clear to them which one.  Another gospel tells me that Jesus leaned over and told John but he did not share the information.
    v22-25.  This is where Jesus transforms the meaning of passover by having them eat of the bread and drink the wine that he gives as representative of his own body and blood that will be sacrificed to secure “the covenant” or as Luke calls it “ the new covenant”.  In this moment the passover was revealed to have been established by the crucifixion of Jesus and rested upon God’s view of the future event.
    v26-31. Here in his description of the disciples falling away and Peter’s denial I see that Jesus knows us and our weakness and we should heed his warnings and instructions and know that what he says indeed will always come to pass.
    v32-42.  In the amazing revelation of his human comprehension of what is to come Jesus prays in the Garden and asks Peter and James and John to stay up and pray as he prays a distance away.  Jesus faces the impending wrath of God that awaits him on the cross and he lays his human temptation of avoiding it before his Father who undoubtedly strengthens his only begotten Son and assures him of his love and the necessity of the cross in serving the glory of God.  This scene is a great reminder of the dual nature that Jesus has as the God-man with a human soul and human weaknesses just like me (but without sin).  It is a sad account that in this late hour as his betrayal is impending the closest disciples he has are falling asleep even as he warns them of their need to be awake and to be in prayerful reliance upon God to keep them from sin.  I hear this as a clue that this is the very thing that Jesus was doing.  He needed to be in prayerful reliance upon his father in order to keep his human weakness from running in fear of the suffering to come.
    v43-52.  Jesus is arrested and everyone splits, as he said would happen.  He is treated like a dangerous criminal even though he has never sinned once and has lived a life of complete love for God and others.  Jesus acknowledges that this treatment is in the fulfillment of what God has planned and intends and he submits to it.
    v53-65.  Here Jesus is tried before the Jewish council and he refuses to debate with the false accusations and twisting of his words and the lies that are cast at him.  He does, however, affirm a true statement that is made about him and this is what settles them in their conclusion that they have adequate cause to kill him as they had already decided needed to happen.  His affirmation of his identity as the Messiah and the Son of God coupled with his statement that he will return in the clouds coming from the right hand of God puts them way over the edge without any doubt.  No question is left in the mind of the council who Jesus is claiming to be as they make their decision to condemn him to death.
    v66-72.  Sadly Peter falls just as Jesus predicted and he weeps remembering that Jesus had warned him of this.  I can only imagine that the fact Jesus told him this was to happen gave him such hope and kept him from having a response more like that of Judas who killed himself.  Jesus had looked into his eyes and told him that he knew he would do this and yet he also said that when Jesus is raised up he would go before them in Galilee…so Peter can rest assured that since Jesus doesn’t seem to get anything wrong, then it’s just a matter of time until they are reunited in galilee!

Meaning, Implications, and Significance
    I take the main message to be that Jesus’ perfect obedience and death is and has always been what protects his people from the duly merited wrath of God (Rom 5:18-19, Rom 3:24-26, Hebrews 10:4, 10-11, 1 Thess 1:10).  This turns out to be the new or everlasting covenant that was spoken of by the prophets (Gen 17:7, Jer 32:40, Jer 31:31) and this covenant does not nullify the law but fulfills it in us (Rom 8:4, Rom 3:31, Rom 10:4).  Without Jesus the law can only condemn, because of our sin nature (Rom 8:3).  The implication is that without being united to Christ in his death (Rom 6:4-5), by faith (Rom 3:22-25) then I am outside of this covenant.  Without drinking his blood and eating his flesh (John 6:53-58) by this faithful trust in his identity and his work (Mark 8:38) with a heart level belief that results in my outward confession (Rom 10:10) and living for him (Gal 2:20), then I am still outside of the family of God (Eph 2:12, Gal 3:7) and the wrath of God remains on me (John 3:36) under the law.  The significance for me is that I know it is Christ’s work that has secured my salvation and not mine.  I can rejoice in the remembrance of his work in the past and I can walk in victory enjoying his current work in me as I am prepared as a member of his bride waiting eagerly for my bodily redemption (Rom 8:23, Heb 9:28).

Valuing the Message:
I am motivated to value this message supremely because it exalts Jesus as the name above all names and as the foundation for all that came before and all that will ever be.  His sacrifice being the covenant of God that makes me a child of God is the most important thing I will ever hope to understand in life.  I should see this as the fact that grounds my existence and purpose in life.

Reflecting to Feel the Impact of the Message:
Reflecting on my life and on what God has done in Jesus should propel me forward in loving obedience and proclamation of his truth to the world if I truly feel the impact of the message.  I need to consider at what level I am trusting in his broken body and blood versus trusting in myself and my own efforts.

Responding to God & Reacting to His Lesson:
Tell God about your observations and your thoughts and your struggles with the chapter and determine how it will change or impact your thinking and your decisions.  Be sure to react in some way to the truth rather than remain silent.

Proclaiming the Truth to Others:
Decide who you can share what you have learned with and ask for God’s help in reaching out to love others.

Soli Deo Gloria!