To Be or Not to Be

 

“Jesus said to them (Pharisees), ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’” (Mark 2:27, ESV)

When we study Mark 2:27, we must first understand what was happening at the time the Pharisees confronted Jesus. Jesus and His disciples were walking through a grain field. The disciples were hungry, so they grabbed a handful of grain seeds to eat as they followed Jesus. The Pharisees challenged Jesus and His disciples about breaking the Sabbath law of not working on the Sabbath. Jesus reminded them what their venerated King David did when he and his soldiers were hungry. They went into the house of God during Abiathar’s leadership as high priest. David and his men ate the bread of the Presence, which Sabbath laws allowed only priests to eat.

With Jesus’ reasoning, the Pharisees would feel challenged if they agreed with Him. so, their acceptance of Jesus’ teaching would mean they accused their venerated king of breaking Sabbath law. If so, then why could not other hungry men eat on the Sabbath? They would not be eating sacred food, just grain. With Jesus’ reminder to the Pharisees, they may have believed if they decided the disciples had not worked on the Sabbath, they would lose power and authority among the people. Yet, if they agreed with Jesus, then that would say their beloved King David broke the Sabbath law. Never back a caged lion into a corner. Let us now learn more about Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees.

The first thought that comes to mind in seeking to understand this verse is that God created the Sabbath day before He created the Sabbath law. God’s intent of the Sabbath laws was to help people remember and focus on God and to rest. The priests of God interpreted the thirty-nine Sabbath laws God gave. Upon writing the priestly interpretations of God’s Sabbath laws handed down through the oral tradition (the Mishnah), The Pharisees codified over six hundred Sabbath laws by which the Israelites were to live. The priests’ interpretations aimed to help people follow God’s Sabbath laws closer. Their Sabbath laws ended up becoming a litmus test by which to compare themselves to one another and to the rest of the Israelites.

Like the first thought, God commanded the Israelites to keep a Sabbath day as holy, just as Moses recorded in the Ten Commandments (the Mosaic covenant). Remember, God created humanity before He gave laws about the Sabbath. so, the relationship between God and people is more important than the Sabbath laws. Recall, the Sabbath laws occurred to help the Israelites remember and focus on God and to rest. Because God called the Sabbath a day of rest, He put people’s needs as more important than Sabbath laws, because people are more important than laws. If someone is hungry, drowning, ill, or anything else, caring for God’s people became more important to God than following laws. Caring for a neighbor is obeying God. God created people for relationship with Him and other people. Relationship means we care for each other. By caring, we show love to and for God, which He intended for the Sabbath laws. Again, God’s intention for His Sabbath laws was to cause humanity to remember and focus on Him and to have a close love relationship with Him.

As we continue to study this verse, we must understand what the word “Sabbath” means. It comes from the Hebrew word shabbat, meaning peace: to rest or cease. Our minds cannot rest and focus on God if we are concerned about a person for whom we cannot care because of the fear of breaking Sabbath laws. Again, a person cannot rest or focus on God because of urgent circumstances. This makes the laws counter to God’s purpose for the Sabbath day.

God created the Sabbath as a day of rest that He set apart and commanded for worship, reflection, and rest. The Pharisees cared more about the institution called the Sabbath. Their rituals were more important to them because they wanted people to see their own piety. The Pharisees cared more for themselves than for other people. They did not focus on God in their worship, but on what people saw them do. The Pharisees broke the first covenant (the Adamic covenant) the intent for which God set aside the Sabbath day on the seventh day of creation. Their intention for the Sabbath was not God’s original intention. The Pharisees' intention focused on themselves, their power, and their authority among the people.

The question Jesus answered, though the Pharisees did not recognize it, was: Who made the Sabbath? If the Pharisees instituted the Sabbath, then the Sabbath laws would be valid in overruling caring for other people on that day. Yet, the Pharisees did not create the Sabbath. God created the seventh day and rested from His work.

Genesis 2:3 states, “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it, God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.” God blessed the day. He invoked His divine favor, which creates a covenant relationship with humanity, by instituting a day of rest on the seventh day, which He called the Sabbath day. God blessed the Sabbath day as His creation for humanity. He did more than just establish a seventh day and establish it as a day of peace, shabbat. God blessed the day for humanity to rest. With God’s blessings comes rest because His people know God is faithful. This allows people to have peace in mind, heart, and soul, hence, shabbat.

Genesis 2:3 records God sanctified the day. God blessed the day and the people in the day by sanctifying it. Calling something sanctified (holy) means setting it apart as special for significant persons for a purpose. Here, the significant persons for whom God set apart the Sabbath day is humanity. (See the Adamic covenant.) Genesis 2:3 states God’s significant purposes for the Sabbath. God blessed the day and blessed humanity with it by making it a rest day. God set apart the day—He consecrated it—for a sacred purpose, too. He made it holy and dedicated to Himself.

God, by making the seventh day a consecrated day, made the day of peace (Sabbath-shabbat) into a day of worship and devotion. He separated the seventh day from the first six days of the week, so people would use it for His purpose. God gave to Adam, who represents all humanity, a consecrated Sabbath day of rest (from the blessing) and worship (from the sanctification). The seventh day became a day of peace in body, heart, mind, and spirit. God’s seventh created day is a day to rest the body from work and to rest in heart, mind, and spirit as humanity communes with God in worship and meditation, leading to complete peace.

Understanding this makes it easier to understand God made the Sabbath long before He gave the thirty-nine Sabbath laws. From God’s thirty-nine Sabbath laws, the Pharisees created almost six hundred other Sabbath laws. Neither the Pharisees nor any person in humanity created the Sabbath. God created the seventh day, blessed it, and consecrated it for His purpose to bless humanity. Humanity is to rest on the Sabbath and focus on God in worship, praise, meditation, and prayer.

If, while focusing on God, He causes someone to remember a good that person should do to help someone else, even on the Sabbath, then, in doing that good, shows love for God. A person’s action based on impulses/convictions from God, even on the Sabbath, is obedience to God. Obedience to God is an act of worship. In obeying God by doing good for someone, a person is fulfilling the first and second greatest commandments, as Jesus taught in Matthew 22:36-40. The greatest and second greatest commandments are the summation of the Ten Commandments. We love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength when we obey Him, that which God requires.

God created the thirty-nine Sabbath laws to help people abide by His overarching and original intent for the Sabbath: to be in relationship with Him. That overflows into caring for other people (being in a relationship with them). God’s original and primary intent for creating humanity was so He could be in a relationship with them, like the three persons of the Trinity relate to each other. His intent was to be in a loving and holy relationship with people. That is the overarching theme of the Bible and of all time.

Since the Adamic covenant is the primary covenant of God with humanity, every other covenant builds from it to lead people back to a good and holy relationship with God. The covenants appear circular. They each aid humanity by leading them to God—to becoming closer to God and letting Him make them more in His image.

God making people more into His image is a growth process. It involves becoming more perfected, which can only happen when people believe in Jesus and He saves them from sin and death. Merely existing on earth is stagnating and then dying when the body dies. God’s making people more in His image is His growing and perfecting them until death. At death, Jesus perfects the believer—makes him or her sinless and holy, like Himself.

God, who comes from eternity, made the Sabbath. He created the Sabbath and placed it in time, a finite part of eternity. The Sabbath did not always exist. Time did not exist in eternity until God created sun, moon, light, and darkness and called the light and darkness day and night. Because time is a subset of eternity, so the Sabbath day is a subset of time, which God created. so, God’s intent for the Sabbath day, which He stated in Genesis, is the overriding ruler of the Sabbath. Humanity’s intent and laws are not. Hence, God should be the focus of the Sabbath, not humanity or its created Sabbath laws.

Who was the direct object of God’s gift of the Sabbath, shabbat? Humanity. Humanity did not create the Sabbath and has no power to change the original intent of the day. Additionally, humanity is not more powerful than God; they cannot usurp God’s role and rule.

God did not first create the Sabbath, then create humanity and all living things. No, God created humanity before the seventh day, then He declared the seventh day as the Sabbath, a peaceful day blessed by God with rest and consecration. Man sits in time, but man does not sit in one day of time continually. Days rotate within time to come upon humanity, so they may do what God commanded: care for creation. On the blessed and consecrated Sabbath day, God gives rest and reminders so humanity can focus on and worship Him. Work and renewal, a created rhythm God knew that our bodies and our relationship with Him would need for balance and peace.

Adam did not need for God to tell him to walk with Him in the Garden of Eden. That relationship happened because God established it as part of the essence, the inner yearning, of people for connection, closeness, and union. Because God made humanity for His purpose (to be in a relationship with Him), God created His Sabbath laws to cause His initial and overarching purpose. God’s overarching purpose is to have a close love relationship with humanity and to provide rest for them after six days a week of caring for creation.

God created the days and nights for man to give Him a cycle of people, objects, and places to enjoy. He created them for humanity to sustain them while they walked with God daily. God’s love was so comprehensive, He took care of the needs of humanity to work, create, rest, and relate. Why did God create humanity with these innate needs? First, God created people in His image. Just as God enjoyed a close relationship with the three persons of the Trinity and just as God loved to work and create, He created humanity to desire a love relationship with Himself and with other people.

With these understandings, Jesus took the Pharisees in Mark 2:27-28 back to the overarching theme of the Bible. God created humanity to be in a close relationship with Him. Closely following this, He created one day of the seven, which He created, to be a Sabbath day of rest, worship, and meditation for humanity. God did not create humanity for the Sabbath’s enjoyment. Inanimate cannot feel. Hence, the Sabbath laws dictated by the Pharisees take a backseat to God’s original intention for humanity—to be in a loving relationship with God.

To make that possible, God created the Sabbath day for physical rest and to allow the mind of each person to focus solely on Him and his or her relationship with Him. God’s Sabbath laws were an aid to humans for that purpose. The Pharisees Sabbath laws did not always have the love for God as their intention. Plucking grain from the stalk while walking through a field was not work. It allowed the disciples to have nourishment as they followed Jesus. Jesus allowed it because of His love for them of their body, spirit, heart, and mind. His disciples hungered; Jesus loved and did not hinder their plucking grain.

God’s commands/laws give freedom and show His love. The Pharisees’ laws and other laws, which leaders created throughout history, sometimes hinder the wellbeing of people. They steal freedom and leave fear and failure in their place. Human leaders made these laws sometimes just to make the leader feel superior and to make others experience inferiority. Caring and loving other people were not what the impious Pharisees intended with their Sabbath laws. God’s laws give freedom to find and focus on the Father.

The Pharisees did not change or remove their Sabbath laws. Some came to believe in Jesus and He saved them. What personal laws have you created that keep you or others from feeling loved by God and you?

Choose as Jesus taught.

Choose freedom over fear and failure.

Choose a loving relationship with God.

“And Jesus said to them (Pharisees), ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So, the Son of Man (Jesus) is Lord even of the Sabbath.’” (Mark 2:27-28, ESV)

Thoughts on Prayer and Its Necessity

 

The Bible is filled with hundreds of passages on prayer. Because communication is so important for any relationship and people were created for relationship, prayer is integral to our being and to being in a relationship with God. 

Without daily prayer, we are like a plant that has no source of nutrients. We wither, turn inwards on ourselves, die, and become dust tossed about by every wind.

Prayer is the source of our nutrients, a channel of food, that grows us upward in our relationship with God, inward in our estimation of ourselves, and outward in our relationship with other people. 

Without relationship with God grown through prayer, we gain no guidance in our purpose of being alive. 

Our redemption by Jesus comes from His relationship with the Father and His sacrifice to have relationship with us. 

Our hearing God’s voice and being saved comes because of prayer and through our prayer of acceptance and confession of sins.

If we don’t pray, we cut off that which Jesus gave His life for—relationship with Him, and we negate the meaning and method of our salvation. Then we die a martyr to this world and have an eternal destiny without God.

Prayer is vital to our lives as Christians.

In Stillness Comes Knowing

 

“Be still and know that I am God! I will be exalted by every nation. I will be exalted throughout the earth.” (Psalm 46:10)

Note in this verse the verbs: be still and know. One is a verb of being and the other verb leads to action. Let us consider them as we study this verse.

First, as you read Psalm 46, you recognize that the voice—the person from whom the words came—changed. David spoke (wrote) through the first nine verses and the last verse of this Psalm in praise and worship of God. He invited listeners and worshippers to join him with this psalm.

The next thing we should consider is what God said in verse ten. The first part of this verse tells us God gave two commands. These commands are “be still” and “know.” God commands our innermost being—heart, mind, spirit, and soul. If these parts of ourselves are in conflict, frustration, or turmoil figuring out how to end the difficulty or get through it, then we cannot be attuned totally to, be with, and love God with our whole being. Our being is distracted and unable to be with God. Remember, God said we are to love Him with our whole being—heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Mark 12:30). If we are in turmoil for whatever reason, we cannot love God with our whole being; it is being occupied by other matters. God deserves and, in this verse, commands that our relationship—genuine relationship—with Him be with our whole being.

The next command God gives, an in the same breath, is “know.” This command God gave about knowing makes us ask three questions. What or whom are we to know? How are we to know how or by which ways to know God in heart, mind, or spirit? What did "know" signify initially?

Let's tackle questions in reverse order. This English verb, “know,” comes from the Hebrew word of yada’. Yada’ means to perceive, hear, listen to, and obey (act upon what you heard from the speaker). Anything we hear calls us to an action/reaction. We think about what we heard and either agree or disagree with it. This then leads us to talk about it as good or bad; that is an action. This may prompt bodily action by saying or doing something, such as doing what the person, in this case God, said to do. Yada’ involves intentional relationality.

God, in Deuteronomy 6, and Jesus, in Mark 12, tell us how we are to relate to God, to be in a relationship with Him. They tell us we are to love Him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Matthew records Jesus’ teaching on this as loving God with our heart, soul, and mind. Luke records it as loving God with our heart, soul, strength, and mind. This means we are to love God with our whole being. To be related to God requires all our selves. That requires willing ourselves to attune to God with our whole being. We are to know God in the same way we are to love God.

Carrying this thought further leads to answering the final and supreme question. Who or what are we “to know”? Psalm 46:10a, tells us the whom or what we are to know, God. In this verse, God says we are to “be still and know that I am God.” Knowing God, being in a relationship with Him, requires intentionality, determination, faithfulness, and love. This relationship requires knowing each other, which requires intentionally getting to know, then loving the other person. From this devotion, who we are changes; the relationship changes us. Here, God changes us as we become still and know He is God. Intentional relationship leads to love that leads to actions and reactions that change us. The relationship with God, the getting to know and knowing God, leads us to change within our selves and act based on the relationship and change in our being from that relationship.

Now, returning to the entire command in verse ten, we must acknowledge who gave the command. We recognize the “voice” of the command changed from the rest of this psalm. David did not speak these words. God spoke through David in his worship of God. Verse ten comes from almighty, sovereign I AM God, the One whom no other can reach or attain to be. The sovereign I Am, the God who was, is now, and will be after time, commands anyone who perceives, hears, and listens to His voice to obey Him. God has authority. We have 100% relationship with Him as worshippers alongside of David. God speaks to us. His commands cause us to choose to listen and obey Him. Or, if we walked away from Him, we hear God and disobey Him either with inaction or counteraction. No matter how we choose to act after hearing Him, it remains an action caused by hearing God. Hearing always causes action-obedience, inaction, or counteraction.

In verse ten, what did I Am, God, tell His people to do? God commanded them then and us. He commands our hearts, bodies, minds, spirits, and souls, by which we totally have a relationship with God and by which we worship Him, to “be still in heart, mind, body, spirit, and soul. God commands us to know Him with our full being. Work to know Him better so that your whole being is involved in a relationship with Him can perceive, hear, listen, and obey Him and be still—have complete and perfect peace.

What was God’s impetus for intervening in David’s worship of Him in verse ten? David was proclaiming about God, then God reminds him, when David faces assumed unmovable mountains, earthquakes, storms, enemies, and wars, that He is still God. God still stands there with Him amid those tumults. He reminded David to still his entire being, sink into God’s peace, and remember, perceive, hear, and listen to/for God’s voice and take heart. Obey God’s voice, then you will find and return to peace because you are rightly related to God.

Finally, at the end, God foretells and reminds His people of the certainty of life…God will be exalted among the nations. He will be exalted in the earth. God did not say He would probably be exalted or that He may be exalted. He said He, God, will be exalted. That is future tense. David proclaimed what God had done in verses one through nine. God spoke and commanded him and all His people in the present tense. Then, God proclaimed the certain eventuality in the future. Truly God is I AM, existing before time, in time, and after time ends.

Why does the third part of verse ten sound as if God said the same thing twice? God just said he would be exalted among the nations. Why did He say He would be exalted in the earth/world? First, Bible writers and other writers through the millennia repeat a line with a slight change to emphasize a point. In God’s first “exalt” sentence in this verse, He spoke of humanity. In this second one, He said the whole earth/world would exalt Him. That includes all people, mountains, oceans, rocks, plants, animals, and all creation exalting him. The psalmist who wrote Psalm 98 spoke of this in verses seven and eight. Isaiah 24:14-16, 35:1-2, 42:10-12, 44:23, 49:13, and 55:12, Luke 19:40, Romans 8:19-22, and Revelation 5:13 speak about nature exalting God. The third line of Psalm 46:10 emphasizes and expands on what God said in the second line of verse ten. All creation will shout for joy and exalt the Lord.

In one verse, God gave a command that reminded people who He is and that He is greater than anything they may face. He reminded them of the perfect peace He gives them. God reminded David and all others of His children after that time how to being in a close relationship with Him.

Be still in your heart, mind, body, spirit, and soul.

Know this in your entire being because you are rightly related to God and will obey His voice.

Then watch and participate with David, the nations, and the world in praising and worshipping Me (God).

The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress. (Psalm 46:11)

Never Without God

The Dawn of the Light

 

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2, BSB)

At the beginning of Isaiah 9, Isaiah prophesied about the northwestern tribes of Israel—Zebulun and Naphtali. These tribes were two of Israel's three northwestern tribes. Isaiah’s prophecy was not exclusively for the Israelites. For whom was and is this prophecy intended? What was the prophecy? What did it mean? As we gradually go through Isaiah’s prophecy in verses one through seven, we will learn what the prophecy meant and means for Israelites and Gentiles then and now.

In Isaiah 9:1, Isaiah specifically mentioned Zebulun and Naphtali. Isaiah 8 was prophesied to the northern kingdom, too. By mentioning Zebulun and Naphtali specifically, Isaiah meant the prophecy was for every person living in the northern kingdom of Israel then. Why include all the people? Since the Zebulun and Naphtali tribal lands were the borderlands of Israel, people from other nations traveled through and/or made their homes there. The foreigners who came into these lands became intermixed with the Jews in marriage, thought, religion, and culture. Recognizing this, when Isaiah prophesied to Zebulun and Naphtali, he prophesied to the Jews and Gentiles in Israel. When Assyria overthrew the northern kingdom, the Assyrian king captured people, regardless of their nationality. The apostle Matthew used this prophecy in Matthew 4:13-17 to tell the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those verses reiterated that the prophecy of Isaiah was and is for Jews and Gentiles.

Because Isaiah 9:2 speaks of people, we had to understand to whom Isaiah spoke and wrote to consider what Isaiah’s prophecy meant in Isaiah 9:2. Likewise, to understand well the whole prophecy, we must understand its parts. Verse two introduces the metaphor of dark and light God gave to Isaiah to prophesy. Verse two says, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.” What did Isaiah mean by the metaphor of light and dark? What message did God want the people from Israel to know?

God’s metaphor of light and dark runs throughout the Bible. Generally, light refers to God and darkness refers to evil. Just as darkness keeps people from seeing reality (its good and evil parts), so spiritual darkness in this passage kept the people in Israel from seeing, hearing, and worshipping God. Darkness continued to confuse the people of Israel, so they did wrong instead of right.

Light represents Yahweh God. He reveals all things (good and evil). Darkness does not. Darkness enshrouded the people of Israel and tricked them into believing lies. Those lies led to the Assyrian enemies capturing the people of Israel. The people for decades had not sought the light and wandered wearily through the darkness of warring empires, raiding bandits, and enemies from their families and tribes. Decades and centuries of guiding themselves into the dark mists led God to discipline them by using their feared enemies.

The people living within Israel did not walk only in darkness. They lived in “the land of the shadow of death.” Assyria, in their battles against Israel for three years, caused thousands of people to die and captured thousands. To ensure obedience to the Assyrian king, the king ordered the blinding or killing of some of their leaders and the castrating of others. This king enslaved the people of Israel. He put rings in their noses by which to lead them. The educated and/or talented, the king used for his benefit. He had them learn the Assyrian language and acquire their knowledge. The Assyrian king did not allow the captives to worship Yahweh God during the first years of their captivity.

These happenings more fully encompassed the “shadow of death” about which Isaiah prophesied. The people of Israel forcefully died in their will because they had no choices. The Assyrians broke the wills and spirits of the people they captured. Israel’s people lived in Assyria, the “land of the shadow of death.” They lacked hope. God, through Isaiah, wanted the people to experience the depths of darkness that would enshroud them as His disciplining them. Yet, He wanted to give them hope. The light, about which Isaiah prophesied, would shatter the darkness. God shatters the darkness. His light would shatter the darkness Assyria put over the people of Israel as Isaiah prophesied.

God would not leave them in Assyria. He did not disinherit the people of Israel. God is faithful to Himself (His promises) and to His people. Their captors would not overpower and enslave them forever; God would not allow it. He does not call people His own and then leave them as captives. God promised, then gave them the Promised Land—a place to call home and to have freedom. The land was theirs forever. Understanding that God is faithful, even when He must discipline, helped hearers then and readers since have hope and keep their faith in God. They would/will not dwell in “the shadow of death” forever.

The people of Israel would know personally what David meant when he sang, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). Living in Israel and worshipping God in His temple gives freedom from “the shadow of death.” It comes because of the person’s seeking, finding, revering, and obeying God. God would raise His light upon the people. He would give them freedom in areas of their lives that the Assyrian king overpowered and removed. On the day the Israelites received freedom from captivity, the light of God would have dawned anew in their hearts, minds, and spirits. Living in the land of Israel would bring them refreshment in their beings. Israel's refreshment would be living in the land of God and dwelling in His house forever. Still, they would yearn for a deeper relationship with God because they would not be as close to Him as they desired. Sin created a chasm between God and them.

Understanding that Isaiah spoke this prophecy of chapter nine to all people in Israel—Jew and Gentile—the Bible student can surmise why Matthew used this prophecy to share the gospel. Matthew taught about Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, and resurrection—the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the Israelites taken into captivity, the dawned light was their release from Assyrian captivity. Jesus is the Light that banishes darkness. Living in Israel and worshipping God did not provide pardon for sins and a personal relationship with God. Their freedom from captivity just gave them again a seeking, finding, and revering Him. What more did the Israelites need to be closer to God? God alluded to it in the prophecy of Isaiah 9:1-7.

A nation had been groping for any light and hope onto which to hold. God sent Isaiah to give them hope with His prophecy to all the people from Israel. These people received a hint of hope. This hope was not merely about return the people to the Promised Land.

God intended more, an ultimate Hope—the Light—whose kingdom and power never end. He intended to fulfill His promises completely. Jesus, Light of the world (John 8:12), became human to live among them. He lived sinlessly, taught powerfully, healed mightily, showed great wisdom, and died at the hands of scared people.

Yet, Jesus did not remain dead. No manmade vault or conceived idea can box the Light of the world. Jesus conquered death when He rose from it three days after His death. His light never ends. Jesus is the Son of God, the true Light of all lights and the true Hope of all people. He ushered forth from the northern tribes’ lands, and, from there, God fulfilled His prophecies. Jesus’ Light is unquenchable. No darkness changes or contains Him. Instead, Jesus commands and contains the darkness.

Like the prophecy of Isaiah occurred, and the people returned to the Promised Land, Jesus came to earth as Victor. The restoration of the relationship of God to human that began in Genesis 1 had its penultimate ending with Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus provided the sacrifice for people to be restored to a right relationship with God. The ultimate ending will occur upon Jesus’ return to earth to bind Satan and take the God’s children to be with Him in glory. The dawn of the Light came to earth at Jesus’ birth and forever eclipses darkness and evil. Jesus’ provision of salvation—a restoring of people to a right relationship with God—is the “what more” the Israelites and Gentiles needed for the close relationship with God they desired.

God includes people around the world as those to whom He calls to receive light—permanent freedom from the darkness. He alluded to it in Isaiah 9. Matthew told about it in Matthew 4. Instead of striving hard and never escaping the darkness that imprisons each person, seek the Light of lights and the King of kings. This light is the Savior whose power is greater than any person, life, death, angel of demon (Romans 8:38-39). Satan, the father of darkness, did not trick Jesus or ensnare and enshroud Him. Jesus’ power is greater than all other powers. His Light is eternal and never dims. Why seek the darkness in the mist? Seek the Light that dawned about two millennia ago, which darkness never can dim.

(Note: Jesus’ ministry time of proclaiming Himself as the fulfillment of the prophecies began when Herod imprisoned John. Because the time had come for God’s Light, Jesus went to Capernaum in Naphtali. From Naphtali, Jesus began teaching and preaching in Galilee of the Gentiles. Mary and Joseph raised Him in Nazareth of Zebulun. These two tribes are the ones Isaiah spoke of in his prophecy when he meant every person living in Israel.)

Fruit or Fire

 

“He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.” John 15:2

This metaphor of pruning branches that Jesus used has an overarching idea most people would understand. God removes unfruitful people. He grows fruitful people so they will become more fruitful. God enables fruitful people to advance His purposes more.

To understand this verse better, we must understand why a fruit farmer would cut tree branches. Jesus plainly explained the first reason. Farmers cut off dead branches from a tree to cause healthy growth of the rest of the tree. Without cutting off the dead branch, the tree will continue to send nutrients toward the dead branch instead of extending its nutrients to parts of the tree that will grow. Cutting off dead branches leads to more growth in other parts of the tree. This illustrates the metaphor's beginning.

Pruning the healthy parts of a fruit tree has several benefits. First, it strengthens the tree. Where before the tree’s sap was to grow fruit, pruning allows the tree sap to make the branch harder and stronger. Instead of sap going to grow fruit, it goes toward growing the branch. Going through hardships can cause a person to grow stronger in his faith and relationship with God.

Second, pruning a healthy branch can improve fruit production and fruit quality. Pruning stimulates new growth—offshoots—so more branches grow. As a result, each of those branches produces fruit instead of just the unpruned branch growing fruit. God’s pruning of His child causes that person to grow in many areas, so new spiritual fruit and Christian offspring grow from that believer. Pruning grows a person’s relationship with God. The deeper relationship with God causes growth of spiritual fruit, like patience, wisdom, compassion, joy, and peace. The deeper relationship with God grows the quality of that fruit, causing a deeper faith, greater peace, etc. Growth from a closer relationship with God leads to sharing the gospel and a personal testimony about God more. These lead to other people believing in Jesus and His saving them. Pruning may cause brief pain mental, heart, and/or physical. This pain is worth it to see more people saved by Jesus and experience a deeper relationship with God.

Third, pruning a branch helps a tree become more pest and disease resistant. Pruning causes growth in strength and resilience. Like a person’s health, outside influences can cause a tree to grow stronger so the tree can withstand forces that would cause it to shrivel, produce less fruit, and/or die. God allows a person to confront challenges for growth, not destruction. By going through trials, like the burnishing of metals, God removes impurities from His children. His strength alone is how they withstand adversity. Christians can progress despite adversity. James, Peter, and Paul wrote about perseverance, endurance, testing, patience, and building Christian character in James 1, 1 Peter 1, and Romans 5:3-5. Trials, though unwanted, have benefits just like pruning healthy branches has benefits.

Fourth, pruning trees opens the tree canopy so sunlight can reach more limbs and fruit. For this reason, fruit trees are wide and not very tall. More sun causes more fruit to grow on the tree. Also, by pruning the canopy, fruit does not grow higher in the tree. This makes it easier to reach all fruit during harvest season. A person who knows the Bible can only withstand some storms or temptations. A person whom Jesus saves and who grows in his relationship with God through daily prayer, Bible study, meditation, worship, and obedience to Him has a faith that has grown deep and wide. Temptations, trials, storms, and disease might assail a believer and might cause him to stall in his growth, but these can cause growth in his relationship with and faith in God. These occurrences can strengthen a believer, cause new growth on branches, and result in the growth of new and larger fruit. The outcome of God's gospel is evident in one's life. People see the gospel’s impact on people around the strengthening and growing Christian as he shares his testimony and God’s gospel.

Without removing dead limbs on a tree, diseases and/or pests kill the tree or cause it to become stunted and produce minimal fruit. By pruning healthy branches, trees become stronger and produce more and better fruit. Pruning stops the spread of diseases and pests that could harm the fruit or the sap (testimony) in the tree. It allows more sunlight, which causes more fruit to grow and makes the branches more accessible to harvesters.

When we face trials and hardships, we can grow stronger and produce more and better fruit. Instead of growing stronger through trials, we can freeze up and then get hurt or killed. God prefers us to grow stronger and bear more and better fruit. He allows or causes things to grow our relationship with Him and our trust in Him. God allows hardships to confront us to prune the dead branches from our lives. We should aim to grow, so we ask God what He wants us to learn from our situations. God wants us to grow to trust Him more, to have a deeper relationship with Him, and to become more Christlike. He will send you through fires to remove impurities and strengthen you. When strengthened by God, you, too, can say, “No weapon formed against us will prosper” (Isaiah 54:17).

Fruit or Fire.

Faith or Fruitlessness.

Which do you choose? I pray you choose to grow in your relationship with God and to produce more and better fruit within you that leads to more fruit—Christians—for God’s kingdom.

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17)

 (Bible verse picture from You Version Bible app)

One Thing I Have Asked

One thing I have asked from the Lord,

that I desire (seek) to serve Him,

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord (be in His presence) all the days of my life,

to gaze on the beauty and pleasantness of the Lord (seeing His glorious face) and

to contemplate on Him in His temple.

Psalms 27:4

 

Only a pure (righteous) person, made so by God, can look at the Lord. In the Old Testament, the Israelites understood when an unrighteous person looked at God, that person would die. Moses understood this. He learned it from God when God covered Moses’ face on the mountain so he would not see His face and die. 

David expressed his greatest desire was to seek to serve the Lord. He stated one desire then expounded on it. To serve the Lord, David wanted to be with God in His house—the temple. He wanted to be where he knew the presence of the Lord resided. Why? Because in the presence of the Lord is holiness, peace, understanding, and the fulfillment of our greatest desire—to be in a right relationship with God. 

While in the house of the Lord seeking to serve Him, David could get clarity of thought with one purpose, without being pulled in the many directions a king is asked to make decisions. He could focus on God without the world pulling on him. David could hear the voice of God’s directions without clamor. That brings peace and understanding. 

Being with God and gazing on His face brings stillness, quiet, and fulfillment of our most inborn desire, to be in relationship with the Lord and to see and to serve Him.  No fear of death. No fear from the world. Just peace, joint purpose, and reverence. That’s what David meant when he wrote he wanted one thing: to seek to serve the Lord by being in His temple, gazing on Him, and contemplating Him. 

How can we serve the Lord now? Do we truly want to be in God’s presence, or do we only want His approval for what we want to do or already do. We can only truly be in God’s holy presence by being made righteous by His Son Jesus. We can feel the pull towards God and go to a quiet place seeking Him—in the forest, by the sea, in a church—but until we believe in Jesus and, thereby, are made clean from sin (be made righteous), we cannot be in the presence of God. We cannot behold the beauty of His face. His Spirit pulls us towards God with the conviction to follow Him to quiet places. Until we heed that pull and recognize and submit to God’s calling us to be in a righteous relationship with Him by believing in Jesus, we cannot see His face, only be drawn to Him. 

Following the convictions placed on your heart, the pulling of the Holy Spirit on you, and submitting yourself to God by believing in Jesus to be saved, leads you to want more than God’s approval for what you do. It leads you to do what God wants done.

So, how can you serve the Lord now? Believe in Jesus and be saved. Seek God in His quiet places; seek His face. Seek to know and do His will. Dwelling in the house of the Lord daily is being with Him like this. Seeking and being with God. Revering Him. Listening for His will and commands. Praising Him for His direction and what He has done. Going from there but not from Him to show Him through your being to the people with whom you meet that day. 

Do you go into your day without having seen God’s face? I encourage you to be with Him first so people will experience God through you. Without that time, there’s a greater chance people will only experience you not God. 

Your Acceptable Sacrifice

 

“Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

Romans 12:1 BSB

 

Fellow believers, because of the mercy and grace God gave you from His love and because it cleansed you, offer your consecrated (set apart by and for God) bodies as living sacrifices—ones revived, cleansed, and given of your free will because of your love of God. 

 

Your offering of this sacrifice is holy (because God consecrated you when you believed in Jesus for salvation) and pleasing (because you willingly offer your living [not dead] and rejuvenated [by Christ] selves) to God. 

 

Your offering of your redeemed self to God out of love for Him is your spiritual service of worship. 

 

Remember God redeemed you. He consecrated you. Therefore, you can go into His presence. Your offer of yourself to Him is accepted because He cleansed you through Jesus’ redemption of you. God did the work so you could be with Him and so your service and offering would be acceptable to Him. 

 

God asks for nothing greater than your whole being because of your love and obedience of/to Him. That is relationship. That loving obedience is worship. It is spiritual and service to/for God. 

Your worship of God should occur as your response to His loving mercy and forgiveness of you.

 

Give your redeemed self lovingly and in obedience to God for His purposes. Love Him with your redeemed offering of yourself.

Abundant and Pure

 

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,”

— Philippians 1:9-10

 

Abound means to exceed beyond what is normal. It is to have an overabundance that pours out of the storehouse. In this case, Paul means a Christian. He prayed that the pure love God gave to them would be so great it could not be contained in themselves, but would pour out on people who were around them so they would be blessed, too.

 

Paul also prayed the Christian’s’ pure agape love from God would abound so that they would have godly knowledge from their continual and growing relationship with God. God’s love won’t be evident and overflowing in a person’s life without a growing relationship with Him. 

 

Along with knowledge, Paul prayed the Christians would have a “depth of insight.” He wanted them to have a profound understanding/insight/discernment of their situation through their intellect and by their senses. By this, they could size things up correctly and understand it rightly because of their growing relationship with God. That growing relationship with God brings growth in having His wisdom and knowledge so they can have His understanding/insight and act, speak, and think correctly. 

 

By having a continual and growing relationship with God, a Christian can have overabundant pure, godly love, knowledge, and insight. With these three things, he/she can know what is best, may be pure, and not stumble into sin. All of these can only occur when we have a close relationship with God. They only come from God because only He is pure and sinless.

Being Not Babbling

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”

— Matthew 6:7

 

This can describe prayer that is mechanical; you just say the words, but they have no depth from your being. They are like saying the doxology or Hail Mary prayers.

 

It can also describe praying repetitiously an idea or thought so as to be considered by others as deep and profound instead of actually drawing closer to God.

 

The “babbling” prayer can speak about the  so called prayer of a person who just wants to appear holy. 

 

It can be from a person who prays a sermon or must pray every time he/she is in a group because he/she wants people to notice. 

 

Notice, three of these possibilities arise from vanity and pride. The prayers of these people are manufactured for performance—to be seen and noticed. The first, though different, is also to be noticed, but by God, not people. Rote, memorized, going-through-the-motions praying just to get the “chore” done is the person’s attempt at gaining God’s favor by deception, though God sees through deception. He knows the person’s heart is not in it.

 

Each of these four prayers is to gain undue attention and favor, to be seen as a child of God in good standing. Notice, what happens begins in the heart—a desire to be seen as more godly than other people—then moves to the mind—reason—to deceive people and God. It then becomes action with the actual praying. Jesus taught what contaminates the person is not what he/she puts in the mouth, but what comes from it resulting in thought, words, and action unacceptable by God. Since this is so, why even pray if God already knows your heart’s deceptive intention? People often recognize the deception, too.

 

Instead, let your mind, heart, and spirit seek God and desire to truly speak to Him. Pray because you desire to be with God and have a deeper relationship with Him. For God already knows your needs. He knows your heart. Be with God. Seek Him above anything you can say, you want to be, you what to have, and you want to be considered. Seek first God AND His righteousness. Don’t seek to manufacture your own righteousness.

 

Father, it is so very hard to decide to be still and quiet and to seek only You. We have a list of requests for ourselves and other people. We want to get through that list and get to the next part of our day. We’ve made prayer a chore—a task on our to-do list. Help us to understand what prayer is. Help us to desire to be with You, to desire time with You, to be closer to you, and, thereby, to be made more into the image of Christ by you because of this. 

 

We are taught to make lists, to make prayer lists, and how to pray. Somehow, it’s rarely taught how to be with You. Oh, reading the Bible is easy, but that can become another of those to-dos to be done, then checked off. 

 

Lord, it’s the “to be” part of praying that’s hardest. Teach us how to just BE with you. Teach our hearts how to teach our minds that it’s okay just to sit and be with you in silence, in listening, in thinking on Your words, and in seeking Your heart. Create a stillness in us that teaches our minds to allow our hearts and spirits to take time to BE with You. Just BE with You. Calm our breathing. Calm our minds. Calm our heartbeat and lead us to relax and BE with You. Lord, so many people need prayer; they need You to intervene. How can I still my mind when they need to be prayed for? Ah, Your Spirit knows what needs to be prayed for and will speak with groaning to deep for words. 

 

May the words, which my mind requires me to pray, come through Your Spirit’s groaning so that I don’t focus on words, but on You. Compel me for what and how to speak to You as I am still and quiet before You. Be my next breath. Be my next heartbeat. Be my every thought. All so I focus solely on You, Lord. I am Yours, O Lord. I want to hear Your voice. Draw me to You to just BE with You.

 

Turning Troubles

 

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.”

— 1 Peter 5:8-9

 

“Stay alert” means be free from the illusions (influences) of sins. Be always cautious, watchful, and on guard, always alert for Satan’s trickery, deceit, trouble. Be calm about it and know he is out there wanting to tempt God’s children away from Him. Satan walks around you like a lion encircles sheep, looking for the weaknesses of one or more of them. He is waiting to devour you and your testimony about God to discredit you and your faith so others will not believe in Jesus. Satan wants to disconnect your close relationship with God so you live in misery and despair. 

 

The first two commands—stay alert and watch out—could be passive activities, just watch and take care. Or they could include action, like a soldier walking on top of a city’s walls continuing to see if an enemy approaches. In verse eight, Peter meant the latter. Actively stay alert and watch out for Satan. How does a Christian actively stay alert to Satan’s attempts to intrude into his/her life? Keep growing in your relationship with God. Keep listening to and obeying Him. 

 

Peter wrote commanding believers in Christ to stand firm against Satan. What did he mean? Standing firm means resisting and opposing, refuse to be moved from your faith in God—Father, Son, and Spirit. Publicly and conspicuously declare your convictions about Jesus. Don’t let go of those convictions and the faith and salvation God gives you. Be faithful to God remembering He is faithful to you. Remember who He is, what He’s done, and how He’s intervened in your life. How does one remember this in the heat of the battle? By being so closely connected to God that you know Him and cling to Him with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This close relationship comes by prayer, reading the Bible and studying, and meditating on it. A close relationship with God also comes by worshipping God and fellowshipping with other believers and by listening to preachers and teachers who rightly proclaim the word of God.

 

Standing firm is active opposition and requires daily preparation in anticipation of Satan’s attacks. Satan will attack, undoubtedly. So prepare yourself by growing stronger in, by, and through the LORD. Remember, you are not the only one Satan will or has attacked. All believers worldwide face his relentless attacks. Jesus did not fall to the temptations Satan put before Him. We each can stand firm as Christians knowing we are not battling on our own. God gives us His wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and strength to endure. His hand never leaves His child; no one can snatch us away from Him. Look to your believing brothers and sisters and recognize they, too, battle Satan. He is not choosing only you to attack. 

 

Use the opportunity of attack to grow closer to God. Use it to grow your faith. Use it to testify to onlookers about God’s love for you and them and the salvation God gives through the death of His Son, Jesus. Spin the attack to be a positive experience and let your life proclaim about Jesus.

 

Stay alert! Be always watchful! Stand firm! Actively prepare and fight, then your relationship with God will grow stronger and other people will hear about His love and the salvation He offers.

In His Presence

“You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shade of the Almighty, Say to the Lord, “My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust.””— Psalms 91:1-2

 

This psalm is written about the psalmist who chose to be near (make your residence/habitat) God, even as near as in His dwelling place (for the Jews this meant within God’s temple in Jerusalem). He wrote it to describe the relationship he had with God because he abided in the shadow of the Almighty (so close to God and in position lower than Him so His shadow falls upon you, like that of the shadow provided under eagles wings) [This imagery connoted for the Jews being in the Holy of Hokies below the seraphim wings and the mercy seat upon which God’s presence rested (1 Kings 6). It gave the sense of absolute shelter and protection from anything and anyone to any person who had a close relationship with God that the person chose/desired to be with God above all else.]

 

The psalmist had such a close relationship with God that his daily habit and life put him always in God’s presence while considering himself lower than God. This relationship and his recognition of God’s greatness and his own smallness put him under God’s wings and at His mercy. He knew he was sheltered because of God’s mercy and love. We each can have this relationship with God, too.

 

Because of this, the psalmist could and did proclaim to/about God and others saw/heard, like the he wrote in verse 2,

 

 “My refuge and fortress,” the place where my heart dwells, the place where I always know I’m safe, where an impenetrable wall surrounds and protects me, that is my God, Elohim (supreme, all-powerful God). Elohim is the One I absolutely trust and before Whom I lay down my life. 

 

Each of us can proclaim this about God if we chose to know God like David did.

 

What kind of relationship do you have with God? Do you run to God in crisis or are you already in His presence? David loved God with all he was. He was in God’s presence while in the pasture, in the temple, and on the battlefield. David did not have to go be with God; he was always with Him. He recognized his small stature and placed himself under mighty God. David recognized who God is and who he, himself wasn’t. 

 

Running to God in crisis is a good and right action. When you do that, you show God you realize He is Elohim, almighty, and you have finite power and strength. You display who you absolutely trust. 

 

When you dwell in the shelter of Elohim, you never leave His presence in thought, word, action, or attitude. You acknowledge Elohim with your whole being. You choose to be with Him throughout each day. When you live this way, you never have to ask for refuge and fortress because you are already resting in it, in the shadow of God almighty.

 

I want to dwell with Elohim. I want to be in a close, intimate relationship with God. Lord, grow me so I do and be this. Teach me how to be under Your wings (in Your presence) whether I’m at church, in my quiet time, working, driving, or at home. Let my every breath breathe in the incense of Your presence.

Treasured

 

Now therefore, if you will obey My voice in truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession and treasure from among and above all peoples; for all the earth is Mine. (Exodus 19:5 [Amplified Bible, Classic edition]) 

    People read this verse and often wonder what an odd word choice God used to speak about people. In today’s understanding, “peculiar” means odd. In the Hebrew language, this word does not mean that. It comes from the word segullah meaning to earn and to acquire. This adjective describes something or someone valuable by which the owner acquired or earned through his or her own exertions. The owner worked for it; he gave something for it. With this understanding of that definition, it might seem unusual for God to say He exerted Himself to possess the people about whom He spoke. 

    Consider these people and through what they went. These people were the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To these men, God promised descendants greater than the stars of the sky and the sand of the earth. When God spoke to the Israelites through Moses, He called them His “peculiar possession.” In considering the definition of “peculiar” as the Israelites understood it, we realize He meant He exerted Himself to acquire or earn the deliverance of the Israelites to be His own people. This statement takes the hearers and readers to what God did in the Israelites’ lives.

    What did God do before He made this statement? He reminded them of this in Exodus 19:4, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself.” God reminded the Israelites and us about what He did to the Egyptians. He caused the crashing of the Red Sea waves to swallow the bodies of Pharaoh and his army. God dried a passage across the Red Sea bed by which Israelites could escape from Pharaoh. His action for them was like eagles’ wings that bore them to safety. God revealed Himself again to the Israelites as I AM, the one and only God, the almighty One and only One whom they should worship.

    With verse five, God spoke to the Israelites using a conditional statement. “If you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession.” He gave the Israelites a choice to be His people. When God created humanity, He made them in His image. He gave them the freedom to choose things for themselves. This means people can choose their own way or the best way, God’s ways. Sin occurs when a person chooses contrary to God’s will. Sin, which separates people from God, is the reason humanity needed salvation from the time God created them. With this conditional statement in Exodus 19:5, God, because of His love, allowed the Israelites to exercise their freewill to choose Him for their God or to go their own way. If they chose God, they would obey Him and be faithful to their covenant with Him and He would make them His peculiar possession. Being God’s possession means anything they needed-safety, provisions, shelter, deliverance, redemption, etc.-God would provide. A covenant is a two-way promise by each party to the other party. God chose the Israelites for His own to show His glory to other people and nations. God wanted to be in a relationship with humanity when He created Adam and Eve. At that point, He provided a way for them to receive cleansing from their sins, so they could be holy (see Genesis 3). God did this because He wants a relationship with each person. God’s faithfulness to His covenant with humanity began at creation. His bringing the Israelites out of Egypt continued to show His faithfulness to the promise He gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Just as He gave these patriarchs a promise, and they believed in and worshiped Him, He gave the descendants of these patriarchs the choice to covenant with Him. God chose them to be His peculiar people. He gave them the option of joining with Him in covenant. Would the Israelites be faithful to Him by obeying and keeping their promise that He would be their only God?

    One last statement by God in this covenant needs understanding. He said if they kept their covenant with Him, He would do more than provide for and protect them. God said the Israelites would be a kingdom of priests to Him (Exodus 19:6). That may seem like an odd phrase and a big goal to set before any person. Still, we should realize one thing; the calling and ability to be priests for God comes from God. If the Israelites would stay faithful to their covenant with Him, He would be for and do for them what they needed. What did the Israelites need in Exodus 10? Continued deliverance. These two words take us back to the Hebrew word segullah. In its first usage in the Old Testament, in Exodus 15:16, this word meant God purchased them. God said it again in Deuteronomy 7:6 when He told the Israelites they were holy and set-apart to the Lord. The Lord is the one who makes a person holy and set apart. Nothing a person can do gives them deliverance from the stain of sins in his or her heart, mind, and spirit. No one can make themselves holy. In Exodus 19:6, God’s exertion of Himself for the deliverance of the Israelites is what made them holy. In the New Testament, the meaning stays the same, God delivering/redeeming people. The Greek word for redeeming is lutroo. Titus wrote in Titus 2:14, “God gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” Peter stated the same in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light” [NIV]. Deliverance (segullah in Old Testament) and redemption (lutroo in New Testament) mean essentially the same thing, as these verses show. God delivers and redeems people from the sins and people who make them captives. He makes them holy and His peculiar/special possession. God’s faithfulness to His covenant with people spans from creation into eternity. In looking at the past, we notice people proved faithless to their covenant with Him. God has always been faithful to people.

    These three verses hold the nuggets of truth about God and His relationship with humanity. The nuggets are three-fold. First, God makes Himself known to people in several ways, through creation, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, the testimony of other Christians, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and biblical teaching and preaching. God wants each person to know Him and has made Himself known to people. The second nugget is God gives people the choice and opportunity to covenant with Him. He calls people to come to Him, to make them holy and call His children. Jesus said in Matthew 7 people should ask, seek, and knock, then they will receive, find God, and have His door opened to them. Romans 10:13 states, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Peter said, in 1 Peter 1:15, that the Holy One calls people to Himself. Psalm 55:16 says those who call upon God will receive His salvation. Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 1:2, people answer God’s call to them. God said, in Isaiah 65:24, before people call to Him, He will heed and answer them. Many more passages in the Bible speak about God calling to people. He calls them to come to Him and be in a relationship with Him. The third nugget of truth in Exodus 19: 4-6 is that when people covenant with Him through the new covenant Jesus provides, God makes them holy and part of His “peculiar people”. He redeems them and makes them His own. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:7 that Jesus gives redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins. He wrote in Galatians 1:4 that Jesus gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this evil age. In Hebrews 9:15, the writer says, “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance-now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” In Isaiah 44:22, God said He swept away the offense of the Israelites and told them to return to Him because He redeemed them.

    God did not choose only the Israelites to be His peculiar people. He chooses each person He created. He wants to deliver and redeem each person. John said Jesus came to save anyone who would believe in Him in John 3:16. 2 Peter 3:9 states, God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 1 Timothy 2:4 says, God wants everyone to receive salvation. The new covenant, given through the death and resurrection of Jesus, is God’s never-ending and perfect covenant offered to people. The Israelites often proved themselves unfaithful to their covenants with God in the Old Testament. With the passing of time and because of God’s mercy, some Israelites returned to their covenant with Him. Still, without the perfect sacrifice for sins, each of them became stained again with their sins. The legal requirement was to offer another imperfect sacrifice to atone for their sins. Jesus, being the perfect sacrifice, need never sacrifice for the sins of humanity again. The holiness of the sinless Son of God gave the perfect sacrifice for humanity’s sins. People need never offer another sacrifice once he or she repents and confesses of his or her sins and trusts in Jesus for salvation.

    The covenants in the Bible have the same basic format. God makes Himself known to people. He gives them a choice to join with Him in covenant-to worship and serve only Him. God provides everything a person needs for life and makes him or her His peculiar (acquired and treasured) possession. With the Old Testament covenants, God acquired the people as His possession by His delivering them from servitude and difficulty. He showed His covenant faithfulness to them. In the New Testament, God acquired believers as His treasured possession through the greatest cost, the crucifixion and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.

    God gives each person the opportunity to recognize Him, turn to and choose Him, and receive salvation through Jesus, be made holy by Him, and be His child (His “peculiar people”). Today, He has shown Himself to you. Will you recognize Him? Will you turn to Him, repent of your sins, and confess Jesus as the Son of God who died for your sins? Once you recognize, repent, and confess Jesus as God’s Son and your Savior, God will make you one of His peculiar people, His treasured child. 

You no longer have to be odd.

You can become treasured. 

The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what he promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 [AMPC])