TFTBR - January 2014

[Resource Manager]

26 January 2014

Genesis 42; 43
Psalms 46; 47; 48
Matthew 28

"HE IS RISEN"

‘Fear’ and ‘Joy’ do not usually mix together, but they did for that group of women who came to the tomb in which they had laid Jesus “after the Sabbath” was over ­ as we read in today’s final chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. It is desirable to put together the testimonies of all four gospels to get a full picture of events on that incredible morning of the resurrection.

Matthew tells us “toward dawn … Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb” [Matthew 28:1]. Mark’s Gospel tells us the same thing, adding that Salome was with them [Mark 16:1], which is indicated in Matthew 27:56 as “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” - but it seems only the two Mary’s witnessed the burial [Matthew 27:61]. Mark says they “bought spices so that they might go and anoint him” and “it was very early” [Mark 16:1,2].

Luke’s record is similar, that it was “early dawn” and that previously “the women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how the body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.” [Luke 23:55,56; 24:1] John only mentions Mary Magdalene in his Gospel coming “early while it is still dark” [John 20:1] and she then runs to tell Peter and himself that the stone has been taken away from the tomb. These slight variations help to convince us that these are independent testimonies.

This is the greatest event in their lives and they give considerable detail, which is very understandable.

Imagine being there yourself. Sense the emotion of “fear and great joy” that unfolded. We usually understand the Bible use of the word fear in this context as a sense of overwhelming awe - rather than being terrified.

Matthew told us in yesterday’s reading that “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting opposite the tomb” [Matthew 27:61] as Joseph of Arimathea “took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb” [Matthew 27:59,60] John adds the information that Nicodemus helped him [John 19:39,40] The women waited with no doubt great impatience until the Sabbath(s?) were over so they could embalm his precious body, touching it, so they thought, for one last time. The events that followed the next morning (and did they sleep at all that night?) makes us think that the words “with fear and great joy” after the angel told them “he has risen as he said” [Matthew 28:6-8] and they saw the tomb empty - are inadequate to describe their emotions! And what is adequate to describe our emotion when he returns?
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- DC

[Resource Manager]

27 January 2014

Genesis 44; 45
Psalms 49
Romans 1; 2

"GIVE EAR"

The opening verse of Psalm 49 says, "Give ear, all inhabitants of the world" Well, those who believe that they have an immortal soul or spirit that will always exist should take note as to how it bluntly contradicts that belief.

From verse 5 to verse 20 [Psalm 49:5-20] it provides one of the most appropriate messages in the Bible to every individual in the world. Take note "those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches" [Psalm 49:6] "their graves are their homes forever" [Psalm 49:11] "Man … is like the beasts that perish. This is the path of those who have foolish confidence …" [Psalm 49:12,13] It seems to us that the world lives on foolish confidence as it serves the God of money.

The Psalmist continues, "Be not afraid when a man becomes rich … when he dies … his glory will not go down after him. For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed … his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light. Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish" [Psalm 49:16-20]

But this is NOT the future for everybody, which is what the atheist would have you believe is wrong. The Psalmist says, "the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning … God will redeem (resurrect) my soul from the power of the grave, for he will receive me"

Note the words early in the Psalm, "My mouth shall speak wisdom ; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding" [Psalm 49:3] This is the kind of mind the "upright" possess - the only real source for such wisdom and understanding is the Bible.
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- DC

[Resource Manager]

28 January 2014

Genesis 46; 47
Psalms 50
Romans 3; 4

"HIS INVISIBLE ATTRIBUTES"

Yesterday, we started reading Paul's letter to the Romans. It contains so much that is relevant to life today. Paul writes of how humans, "claiming to be wise, they became fools" [Romans 1:22] He says, "what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them" [Romans 1:19] He says, "his invisible attributes … have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made" [Romans 1:20] In other words, although God himself cannot be seen by human eyes, the evidence of his existence should be plain to humans through all the remarkable things which he has created. Paul continues, "they became futile in their thinking and their foolish heart was darkened." [Romans 1:21] The foolishness of those days, which still continues among some nations, is to believe God is represented in animals, such as elephants, and to worship them.

But today, throughout what we call the Western world, "claiming to be wise" many believe there is no God of any kind, that everything that exists kind of created itself. This came about, they reason, given enough millions and billions of years, through an endless series of "accidents."

Yet the more man discovers the wonders of the world in which he lives, the more incredible he finds it to be, all the wonders of DNA being one of the latest examples. As a result, the more foolish their claims to be wise appear to be! Marvellous designs - but no designer!

The tragedy is that, having convinced themselves there is no God, the words of Paul which follow are more true today than ever before. He wrote "and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice … haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless …" [Romans 1:28-31]

It is becoming clearer that there is no middle road, we either believe or we do not - and if we believe, we must not be half hearted about it.
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- DC

[Resource Manager]

29 January 2014

Genesis 48; 49; 50
Psalms 51; 52
Romans 5; 6

LIVING BY FAITH

The readings today all challenge us to think and meditate on their application to ourselves. Much personal meditation is called for. Genesis 48 contains Jacob's reflections at the end of his life, his relationship with "the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day" [Genesis 48:15]. Psalm 51 contains David's outpourings of remorse over his failures, pleading, "according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions" [Psalm 51:1] saying to God, "Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart" [Psalm 51:6] The secret heart is the hidden heart he had not been conscious of, which was in desperate need of repair. The Hebrew implies this.

Today we would probably talk about inner integrity. The central point is that we fail to truly sense how God sees how we think, as well as hearing what we say.

This is the point Paul has been making in writing to the Romans "if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness … you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? [Romans 2:19,21] The Jews lacked wisdom in their inward being, their knowledge of God was in the head, but not in the heart.

"The Jews", writes Paul, "were entrusted with the oracles of God" [Romans 3:2] Many, especially their leaders were proud of this. But Paul asks, "Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all", he answers, "all … are under sin, as it is written, 'None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God … there is no fear (awe) of God before their eyes" [Romans 3:9,10,18] Paul is quoting this from David's Psalms [Psalms 14; 36], how appropriate! It is essential that we train our hearts into ways of thinking in which our God delights - and we can only do that if we are totally conscious of his all seeing eye. This is pivot on which living by faith revolves.
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- DC

[Resource Manager]

30 January 2014

Exodus 1; 2
Psalms 53; 54; 55
Romans 7; 8

"THE WORDS THAT I HAVE SPOKEN"

What does Paul mean? We are all made of flesh! Yes, but he is writing in a spiritual sense, he says “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit” [Romans 8:5]. The word “spirit” in this context is not difficult to understand, it is the opposite to “flesh.” We live in a world where more people than ever set their minds, their desires, mainly or entirely in living for the pleasures of fleshly enjoyments.

The opposite, is to see ourselves as being adopted by God, through Christ. We use the word ‘adopted’ because Paul writes, “you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry ‘Abba, Father” [Romans 8:15]. Abba, is the Aramaic word for ‘father.’ Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” [Matthew 7:9] By saying this we acknowledge we have been adopted out of the world and now have a heavenly father and are now “children of God.” How many speak these words ignorant of the this meaning! Paul then says that God’s Spirit “bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” [Romans 8:16]. Note also verse 17 and 21. We pray to our Father having no doubt he hears our prayers because of this relationship.

This spiritual relationship is a special source of strength; Paul says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” [Romans 8:13]. That must mean, live eternally. We recall that Jesus said to his disciples, “The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and life” [John 6:63]. This gives us a foundation for our spiritual relationship with the Father and our Saviour and each other.

So, seeing we, in a sense, receive the spirit as we read God’s word we must ask, how do we read it? This is a key question because the religious leaders surrounding Jesus read God’s word; but Jesus said to some of them, as we read a few days ago, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” [Matthew 22:29] It is obvious they read the Scriptures with closed minds. Let us follow Paul’s advice to Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” [2 Timothy 2:15].
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- DC

[Resource Manager]

31 January 2014

Exodus 3; 4
Psalms 56; 57
Romans 9

"NEW NAME"

We have now moved on to read about the dramatic life of Moses. Exodus 3 is about his first real encounter with God at the burning bush. For 40 years he had been living as a shepherd in Midian after fleeing from Pharaoh when the fact he had killed an Egyptian became known. Now suddenly 'the angel of God appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush" [Exodus 3:2] We notice this is "the" specific angel that represents the Almighty; the rest of the chapter is written as if God himself is speaking. "Then the LORD (Yahweh) said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt … Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt." [Exodus 3:7,10]

One of the intriguing things in this remarkable conversation is the question Moses puts to God. "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" Think about this question, why would Moses expect the people to ask the name of the God of their fathers? Well the word 'name' in certain contexts means reputation - such as when David 'made himself a name' [2 Samuel 8:13] and in some contexts in modern versions is translated it as 'became famous' and similar.

We think that Moses anticipates that the present generation of Israelites, having to some extent forgotten about the God of their forefathers would want to know about his reputation. After all, they were surrounded by the religious thought of the Egyptians and the legends about their gods, Osiris, Mont, etc and their reputations.

God answers Moses by saying, "I AM who I AM". How is that an answer? We note the footnote in the ESV and RSV versions give the alternative of "I will be what I will be" This is better, it directly relates to YAHWEH, which as the ESV footnote, states 'is here connected with the verb hayah "to be".' So God is saying, he is a God who becomes, he will establish his reputation by what he is going to do, not by legends of the past. We will see, as we read the Old Testament that this point is made quite frequently, for example, Isaiah 63:14 "so you led your people (through Moses) to make for yourself a glorious name" Those who follow the God of the Bible are expected to make for themselves a name, that is, a reputation that is pleasing to God - and at the end, that is at the climax of the ages, God will give them a "new name" [Revelation 3:12]
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- DC