April 13

Leviticus 17; Psalm 20-21; Proverbs 31; 1 Timothy 2

Daily Catechism

QUESTION 72: WHAT IS THE REASON ADDED TO THE FIFTH
COMMANDMENT?
Answer: The reason added to the fifth commandment is a promise of long life and prosperity (as far as it shall serve God’s glory and their own good), to all who keep this commandment.
Scripture: Exodus 20:20; Ephesians 6:2, 3.

Leviticus 17

In this chapter the Lord directs Moses in not allowing sacrifices to be made other than to the Lord and he also commands them to never eat the blood of any creature.  The point is made that sacrifice and devotion belongs only to the Lord and to bring our worship and devotion to something other than him is idolatry and cannot be tolerated.  Those who offer sacrifices to anything but the Lord are to be “cut off” from among the people…this means killed.  Then the blood.  The life is in the blood.  God says that he has given the blood to them to make atonement by the life (Rom 5:9-10).  Here in Leviticus, God speaks of the indestructible life of his Son whom he offered up for our atonement, by the blood of the Son who willingly chose the cross (Rom 3:23-25; Gal 2:20).  Jesus will tell us in John 6 that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood and it becomes apparent then that this prohibition against drinking blood has to do with respecting the fact that the only life we are to be united to by blood is the life of the Son.  We are to be united to Christ and are to feed on his flesh alone.  We do this, symbolically, in the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper and we do it more realistically when we wake and when we seek the Lord in his Word and when we accept suffering in our flesh for the sake of others and for the cause of love.  May we not offer sacrifice to the god of consumerism or the god of security or the god of comfort or the god of leisure or the god of accomplishment or the god of acceptance…but may we offer our sacrifice to the Living God who gave his Son for our life and who calls us to live radically in surrender to his Son and to love others and lead them to find their gladness in God.

Psalm 20-21

These Psalms seem to be a pair and this is helped along by reading some commentary in the ESVSB.  Israel here prays for their King and we see the Lord answer and the celebration and thanksgiving to God.  I not that they ask that the sacrifices and offerings of the King will have been regarded with favor and I presume this means that they are praying that the King has been true and that he has walked uprightly and has not been held under the dominion of willful sin, but that his heart has been indeed devoted to the Lord and that he came with true offerings from the heart in worship and thanks and in dependence (Prov 15:8; Gen 4:3-7).  The Lord desires out hearts and not our sacrifices (Hos 6:6).  Trust in the Lord and not in the strength or might of man (Psalm 20:7)!  Be glad in God and desire his presence…trust in him and you will not falter (Psalm 21:6-7)!  May our lives demonstrate the mighty hand of God (Psalm 21:13)!

1 Timothy 2

     v1-2. Paul urges (pretty serious) us to pray for all people.  This is also to include kings and those in authority in order that we might live peaceful and quit lives.  God wants us to live with dignity and godliness.  Adding the insight from below I see that he wants us to pray for all because we know not whom God will save and we see that he desires all to come to repentance.  Thus we pray indiscriminately for all people and not for the ones only whom we think "fit the mold" or seem like they would become a christian.  This is God's- ours is to be faithful.  Exclude no one!
     v3. This quiet and peaceful life is pleasing to the Lord.  So we need not see great wars and battles and such.  Trials are not mandatory but useful and here he seems to indicate the Lord delights to provide peace and tranquility.
     v4. This verse can be seen as a challenge to the Calvinistic viewpoint as it indicates that the Lord desires all to be saved and to understand the truth.  Yet not all do.  So what is the message here?  There is some kind of desiring that God can have that does not result in the fulfillment of the desire.  Ultimately I relate this to his revealed will in the form of the law.  He desires that all would worship him alone, yet not all do this.  So therefore I glean that God allows for what he does not desire.  This is perfectly harmonious as he is not the author of sin and he is pure and lovely and has mercy even on the non-elect.  God here indicates that he would receive all if they would but come.  Yet, sadly, due to the depravity of man only those whom he calls will come.  Therefore God does not desire their destruction, which would be a supralapsarian view of God creating man neutral and then causing them to sin.  But rather, I see here that God is beneficent and he created man with a knowledge of their innate inability to be holy on their own and that anything less than himself would ultimately fail and he therefore makes man with a view of their fall and his allowance of sin does not indicate a desire for their destruction but rather a desire for their freedom and their knowledge of his mercy and love.  No doubt a mystery at the outset of evil (by the fall of the angels and how we get there) but his thoughts are higher than ours. Cross-reference to Ezekiel here indicates that God does not delight in the death of anyone but that it is not their start that indicates whether they have new hearts and His Spirit within them but their finish.  This harmonizes with Paul's concept of endurance of the faith and holding fast to the end etc.  Ezekiel 18:31 suggests that repenting makes yourself a new heart and a new spirit.  So either it causes the new heart or it evidences its presence.  Perhaps as peter writes of confirming your election this too is confirming your new heart.  Further, the fact that God allows something to over-rule his desire that none should perish points to a higher desire within God.  Does he limit the fulfillment of this desire for the sake of his glory in his purpose of election (Rom 9:10-13) or for the sake of his glory in his purpose of man’s autonomy?  Who’s freedom is God seeking to glorify by not causing universalism in condemnation…or in salvation?
     v5. I should study this more regarding how it correlates to the preceding verse but not enough time or energy now.  But knowledge of the truth surely includes this truth that there is but one God and one way to be at peace with him.  There are not multiple paths for people to follow so do not assume that some may be excluded because they already have their own path.  Nope- Islam, Judaisn, Hindus…they all need Jesus and do not exclude them.  Pray for all of them.
     v6-7. Paul indicates that Christ was a ransom for all of these whom we need to pray for.  This was a testimony by God at the right time to vindicate his righteousness and to indicate that it is his work and to his glory-  Rom 5:6-9, Rom 3:25-26.  Paul is engaged in this ministry of delivering this message.
     v8. So men everywhere should be praying and should be holy and not fighting amongst themselves.
     v9-10. Women also should be holy and should not be making themselves desirable with adornment but should be doing this with good works instead.
     v11-12.  Women should learn and submit to the authority of the man of authority (pastor-husband). 
     v13-14.  The reason for this arrangement is in following of the design and pattern that God has made evident.  And because the story of our first parents indicate that the women is more prone to deception and the man must stand for the truth.
     v15.  Tough verse here about her being saved through childbearing but perhaps it refers to all mankind being saved through Mary bearing Jesus.  Adam called Eve the mother of all the living.  They had children after the fall and so without a redeemer they would remain forever separated from God and expelled from the garden.  But through her childbearing (Seth) they begin the redemptive clock of delivering Jesus unto mankind for our ransoming.  But like men also- the women, including Eve, would need to continue in faith and evidence her new heart and spirit as referred above in verse 4 in the Ezekiel reference.

Soli Deo Gloria!