April 28

Numbers 5; Psalm 39; Song of Solomon 3; Hebrews 3

Daily Catechism

QUESTION 83: WHAT IS REQUIRED IN THE NINTH COMMANDMENT?
Answer: The ninth commandment requires that we maintain and promote truth between persons and that we preserve the good name of our neighbor and ourselves.
Scripture: Zechariah 8:16; Acts 25:10; Ecclesiastes 7:1; 3 John 12; Proverbs 14:5, 25.

Numbers 5

Interesting passage here dealing with jealousy and potential infidelity in the marriage.  Our God is a jealous God and we are his bride.  May this sense of conviction and heart check come to un when we run from him.

Psalm 39

This is an interesting Psalm.  The commentaries and notes all seem to put David resisting expressing his sorrow perhaps in the form of speaking out against God and the impact this would have before unbelievers would be plainly damaging.  But I also wonder about this merely being a broader example of white knuckling and resisting the expression of sin by binding (muzzling).  I can setup restrictions upon my actions that keep me from outwardly sinning but this does nothing to address my heart and the turmoil and burning that can still well up and if only the muzzle fails then my sin breaks out.  This is the picture I see here and I see David cry out to God that he would have an eternal perspective and a heart change so that he would not sin on account of a new desire and not on account of a physical restriction.  He wants to hope in God and find deliverance from his sin from God and not from his own efforts of self help.  Toward the end after this prayer he seems to acknowledge now that he holds his tongue not by his power but he says that the Lord has done it!  In the end it looks like he comes back to a request for reprieve from whatever is brining him to this sin that would break out.  He is hoping for the lifting of the discipline of God.  Let us learn out lessons swiftly Lord!  Teach us to fight sin at the source and not just muzzle ourselves O God!

Hebrews 3

This chapter is about evidencing one’s self to be part of the body of Christ by the perseverance of faith.  Just like the Israelites were all part of the visible people of God but only those with faith in the coming offspring were saved (circumcision of the heart according to Deut 30:6; Rom 2:29-29), so too there is a visible church and an invisible one.  The pugs may be filled with unregenerate hearts that are still far from God.  My take is the the chapter here is not suggesting a falling away from God in a true individual sense of losing a salvation once had, but rather it is speaking of a falling away from the visible church by evidence that one was not part of the invisible church to begin with.  So the falling away is like a weed being plucked or a circumcised Jew coming to know that his heart remains yet uncircumcised and he finally splits.  We do not want to see this.  We want all the professing Christians around us to prove true and to hold fast and to evidence in the end that they indeed do have the Spirit of God.  Let us be part of God’s sustaining work by the power of his Spirit in the lives of our brothers and sisters!
     v3. he makes very clear to them that Jesus created Moses.
     v6.  We are the house of God (the church or the individual or both?)  If we hold our confidence to the end…individual!  See John 14:23 and Hebrews 3:12-14.
     v7-11. A reference here to the rebellion where God did not allow those whom were among his own people to enter the promised land due to their rebellion and disregard for his command.  They did not trust God and they were more interested in their own opinion and comfort.  God shows that this results in being outcast- eternal damnation for those who disregard him and do not obey. This is now paralleled to the one who hardens his heart among us…
     v12-14.  “Brother” here I take to be within the visible church or outwardly circumcised people of God.  He is addressing professing Christians even though some may not be true believers.  We must know that a profession of the mouth that does not come from a newly justified heart is not a saving confession (Rom 10:10; Matt 7:21-23).  Here the writer makes it clear that perseverance is a community project (Piper sermon title) and that we need one another.  It is clear that the one who does not hold fast to his faith until the end was not a believer in heart at all and so since we do not know hearts we are to encourage and exhort one another daily to avoid seeing this hardening happen.  Let us confirm our election!  It is the deception of sin that causes the hardening of our hearts.
     v15.  Do I have a hard heart that does not do but merely hears?  Do I have a hard heart that assumes I need not comply with God’s commands and instructions?  Do I have a hard heart that lives under the cheap grace of license rather than transforming grace of godliness?  Do I live in surrender or rebellion in my heart and in my mind…in my desires and drive and motives and hope…where is my real hope?  Search me O God and lead me in the way everlasting!
     v16-18 Ties the sin in with the reason for condemnation…unbelief is tied to disobedience.  These are hand in hand and so we have a warning and a clear reference to the opposite of fruit in the believer. 

Soli Deo Gloria!

April 27 (late entry)

Numbers 4; Psalm 38; Song of Solomon 2; Hebrews 2

Daily Catechism

QUESTION 82: WHICH IS THE NINTH COMMANDMENT?
Answer: The ninth commandment is, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
Scripture: Exodus 20:16.

Numbers 4

This chapter covers the listing of all the Levites among the sons of Kohath, Gershon, and Merari.  These three clans were given specific items of the tabernacle that they were responsible to carry when they packed up.  Aaron and his sons will cover all the holy things very carefully as directed by God here in this chapter and once the ark and all the holy things are covered, then the Kohathites may come in to carry them but they must only touch the poles and not the actual items.  There seems to be a message that it is a holy calling to be in the service of the Lord and yet there is an accountability and a responsibility to God in it.  It seems that the Lord does not take a time out and set his holiness aside during the move of the tabernacle.  Following these directions are a life and death matter as you would see in 2 Samuel 6:6-7 that Uzzah paid his life when he touched the ark rather than let it fall to the ground.  It seems there that we cannot decided when it OK to break God’s law based on our perceptions.  It has also been offered that Uzzah was wrong to think that the ground would defile the ark more than his hand would.  May we fear God and honor him in all we do!

Psalm 38

David confesses to God and laments the state of his mind and heart that his sin has caused.  He is very affected by the conviction of God and he desires to be rescued from this weight.  He is asking for help from the pain of sin.  May we hate our sin and feel its impact so much that it would be like poison to our bones and it would drive us to Jesus like this and may we seek repentance like water in a dry desert. 

Hebrews 2

There is a lot in this chapter and there are a couple ways to look at it also.  One proposition made at the outset is very applicable.  We must listen carefully, observe carefully, let we fall away from the truth.  We cannot be flippant about our beliefs and about what we hear in the Word of God, but we must search the scriptures and we must know the message.  Let us not neglect such a great salvation.  If this is real, if God came as a man and made a way for us to have fellowship with him by the blood of his Son, then let us seek him and know him and be confident of his teaching to us.
     v3.  Declared first (resurrection or Mosaic law?), attested to by those who heard (apostolic teaching or prophets?), God bore witness by signs and wonders (apostolic miracles or those of Jesus?), gifts of the Spirit (apostles or us?).
     v6-8. Man is so small and yet you love us.  Not only this but you took on flesh and became as lower than the very angels you created for a time to save us!  Jesus is now crowned with glory and honor and he rules but yet there is a battle that evidences not all is perfectly subject to him yet.  He announced that he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth at the great commission so this verse must indicate that perfect subjection is different than authority.  You have given Jesus authority over all things and in the end of redemptive history you will put the final rebellion under subjection to man in the person of Jesus!!!  So in putting everything under Jesus’ authority, you leave nothing outside the control of the Son of Man.  Our big brother is king and it will be perfectly evident in heaven when we see all things subjected to him!
     v9. By the grace of God and due to our common humanity you have given that Jesus should suffer and die for the sake of, and in the place of, his bride (Heb 9:15).  He only tastes death because death no longer has dominion over him once he tastes it.  He spits it out defeated and he wins.  Rom 6:9.
     v10.  God had used suffering and discipline in the history of Israel leading up to the cross and so it is fitting that this too is the way of perfection for the Son of Man.  The sacrifice and the plan or redemption are completed or “perfected" in suffering.
     v11. Jesus and us all have one source…Hmmm.  The feeling here is our common humanity clearly so I may incline to the source being Abraham.  No Adam because he speaks of us being brothers and we now that Rom 9:8 tells us that it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God.  Yet at the same time God is also our common source since we are created by him in his image.  Jesus not being created but for his flesh…his flesh was indeed created by the Spirit of God in the womb of Mary.  Jesus sanctifies by his blood and those whom he sanctifies are the elect children of God.  He is not ashamed to call us brothers because we are children of promise…counted as offspring by God himself.
     v13.  The children given to Jesus by the Father will put their trust in the Father.
     v14. Since we have physical bodies that suffer and die, he too took this on that he might effectively destroy the devil who holds the power of death (deception is his only power) until he is finally subjected to christ.  It is the power of God that judges and condemns and this is to his glory…make no mistake here.  Clarified in v15
     v15. Here we see the power spoken of is of deception to get us living in fear of death, thus keeping us from trusting God.
     v16.  He does not help the angels but the offspring of Abraham (another hint at the common source being humanity or God’s image).
     v17. In order to serve as our representative (priest) and to make payment for our sins (propitiation) he needed to be one of us (human).
     v18.  Because he suffered and understands our body and human soul directly, he is able to help us who are tempted as he was.  Now it would seem that nothing could stop him from helping us but somewhere it is on our end that our knowledge of his common experience helps us to trust or see or recognize his ability to relate to us and to help us from a point of common experience.

Soli Deo Gloria!