Good morning. So here is that motivation, rearing its beautiful head on my second day of my journey. I'm now only 7 days behind, so I'm gonna knock one out before I leave for work, and then maybe one during lunch.
Reading for January 5
Genesis 11:1 - 13:4
So there's a couple interesting things packed into these chapters. First is the tower of Babel. This is when everyone got together to build a great tower and settle in one spot. God didn't like this because the goal here was for the Jews to spread out and populate the land. So he gave them all different languages so they couldn't communicate with eachother and it says that they did spread out amongst the land.
The other half of this reading focuses on Abram, or Abraham - who is a descendant of Noah. God calls Abram to leave his land and go to "the land I will show you." He also says that He is going to bestow great blessings on on Abram and that he will be protected and will "make [Abram's] name great."
Again, thinking about how God felt before the flood, having a human be something he can hold up and make great among the people must have been very comforting for God. This is generations later, too, so God was very patient with his people.
Matthew 5:1-26
Jesus begins to set up the idea of the impossibility of being a perfect human being. He says that the law is the law and you must follow all of the laws of the old testament. But not only that, Jesus adds another layer of difficulty here - he tells everyone
"you have heard...'Do not murder. Anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, anyone who is angry with his brother is subject to judgment."
Now it may be easy to go through your entire life without murdering someone, but to go 80 some years without ever getting angry at someone? Impossible. I think what Jesus is doing here is showing the religious leaders of the time that their 'good works' will not get them into heaven, and that it is impossible to lead a perfect existence. He's making them nervous before he tells them that he came to die for them.
Psalms 5:1-12
Verse 5 and 6 stand out here:
"5 The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. 6 You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors."
So, I'm trying to not ignore or pass off parts of the bible that don't fit my "cool Christian guy" code. "You hate all who do wrong" really bothers me though. Is Psalms divinely inspired like the rest of them, or is this just the rants of a man who has reached the end of his rope with humanity like God had in Genesis?
Perhaps this is showing how a human would react to humanity's awfulness, but by contrast, God reacts by sending his Son to die for the bloodthirsty and deceitful men whom He "abhors".
Proverbs 1:24-28
I don't think this is God talking here, but rather the person who wrote Proverbs. He says that since the jerks he mentioned in the previous passage ignored his advice he will "laugh at [their] disaster; [He] will mock when calamity overtakes [them]." Again - human response is complete and utter action movie vengeance. God response is sending his son to be killed. Unless this is God talking - then I don't know what to think...
Day 5 done. I will try to do one more at lunch and then another tonight after work. Thanks for reading.
Dear God. Thank you for the motivation to continue the process of reading Your word this morning. I pray that it would influence my thoughts and actions today as I interact with your precious creations. I pray for continued motivation and to take responsibility for my faith and not cop-out to look like a cool guy. I also pray that I don't let this blog get to my head and start thinking 'I'm so awesome for writing a blog about this' - let my work here glorify You and no one else.
In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
"First is the tower of Babel. This is when everyone got together to build a great tower and settle in one spot. God didn't like this because the goal here was for the Jews to spread out and populate the land. So he gave them all different languages so they couldn't communicate with eachother and it says that they did spread out amongst the land."
ReplyDeleteI think the most important thing here is that the people were arrogant -- rather than follow God, they thought they had the solution to live and be successful by themselves, and built a tower to show their might -- and pride.
"I think what Jesus is doing here is showing the religious leaders of the time that their 'good works' will not get them into heaven, and that it is impossible to lead a perfect existence. He's making them nervous before he tells them that he came to die for them."
I disagree. I think Jesus is actually telling people in the Sermon on the Mount that's actually how people should live. He's using rhetoric and exaggeration to prove His point. When it says "when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you rmemeber your brother or sister has something against you, leave your give and go," that's actually super ridiculous. The way their societies were set up, it took a whole day trip to get to the altar. So to drop a day trip at the altar to reconcile, that would be absurd, but it proves Jesus' point -- that's how important it is to reconcile.
The Sermon on the Mount is not simply a set of rules but a declaration of the way life was meant to live. It is also explicitly a manifestation of the Kingdom of God, which Jesus would bring to earth through his death and resurrection. It is not a trick to show them that life is impossible with just rules, but that this way of life, which is better and what we were meant for, is what Jesus is bringing and offering people through Himself.
It makes the gospel's message both a heck of a lot harder and so much more fulfilling.
"So, I'm trying to not ignore or pass off parts of the bible that don't fit my "cool Christian guy" code. "You hate all who do wrong" really bothers me though. Is Psalms divinely inspired like the rest of them, or is this just the rants of a man who has reached the end of his rope with humanity like God had in Genesis?"
A good God MUST hate all who do wrong. A good God must want to destroy evil and inflict JUSTICE on wrongdoers because he is disgusted by evil.
But the beauty is that God DOES inflict judgment and destruction on evildoers. Except he puts all that wrath on Jesus Christ, sparing us from that rightful judgment.