The Whole Bible is Good

We live in a day of having the great privilege of being able to hold God's word in our hands and read the full revelation of God in the 66 books of the Bible.  We can read God's promises and see how they were fulfilled in due time.  This is one reason we ought to continuously make a pilgrimage of reading through the Bible, and once we have read it there remains much for us to glean and grow from by reading it again.  The Bible isn't just a book we read and "know" like a movie, book or comedy sketch, but one through which we learn of God's character, our need for Him, and His worthiness of being trusted.

As we read through the Bible and become increasingly familiar with historical events and people therein, there remain gaps in our understanding that provoke questions other parts of the Bible explain.  For instance, God promised to drive out all the inhabitants of Canaan before the Hebrews.  But as we read through the books of Joshua and Judges, we see God's people did not drive out the inhabitants of the land, nor could they.  After the Hebrews were established in the land, they provoked the LORD to anger by their idolatry.  Judges 2:20-22 says, "Then the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He said, "Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice, ²¹ I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, ²² so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not."  On the surface this seems like God went back on His word, but if we go back to an earlier book of the Bible we see God has doing exactly as He said.

God said in Deuteronomy 11:22-23:  "For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do--to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him--²³ then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves."  God's promise to drive out all the nations before His people was a conditional upon their obedience, on their faithfulness to keep God's commandments.  They forsook the LORD and His commands, and thus God fulfilled His word to not drive out all the inhabitants of the land.  God is not obligated to reward His people for their disobedience and unwillingness to remain faithful to Him.  God did not give His people the silent treatment, disown or cast them off, but He explained the reasons why the Hebrews were unable to drive out nations they assumed God would help them drive out.

Joshua told the children of Israel in Joshua 23:13, due to their lack of love and obedience to the LORD ,"...know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD your God has given you."  While God's people were unfaithful to Him, He remained faithful to them and the covenant He made with their fathers:  they remained His people, and He remained their God.  Their unwillingness and inability to drive out the Canaanites was redeemed by God because He made them like scourges on their sides and thorns in their eyes.  Being scourged or being blinded by a thorn in the eye leads to a person seeking medical attention, and the LORD allowed Canaanites to remain with the purpose of chastening His people to repentance, to prompt them to turn to Him as deliverer and saviour.  Those who remained in the land were thus evidence of God's love, grace and faithfulness to them in an unexpected way.

While the Bible may not answer every question we have (as our questions often miss the mark), God has provided us the entire Bible to help us better understand God's purposes.  It reveals not only historical events but our need to change the way we think and live to better align with God's wisdom and ways.  We can better recognise conditional promises God has given us, and reading leads us to examine our hearts to see if we have been faithful and obedient to all God requires of us, to love Him with our whole being.  We should not be surprised when we are unwilling to do what God has commanded we end up being unable to do what only He can do for us.  Even our failures and pains can be evidence of God's grace and faithfulness to us, for our struggles and troubles prompt us to seek the LORD with increased urgency.

United with Christ

Jesus said in His message to the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:19-20, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."  After Jesus exposed the lukewarm condition of the Laodicean church and how they were full of themselves, He bid them to repent and open up to Him instead.  He stood knocking at the door of their fellowship, at the hearts of each individual member, and Jesus calls out to everyone:  if anyone hears and opens the door, Jesus promises to come in to him so they could enjoy fellowship together.  This is wonderful, for it shows us even in a lukewarm church there never need be distance between us and Jesus Christ.

Having received Christ and His love, we are to walk worthy of the Gospel by repenting of sin He brings to our attention.  Jesus says His sheep hear His voice, and since we have received Jesus as Saviour we ought to receive His correction as LORD and open the door to Him.  Cain provides an example of one who did not respond to God's correction, for he was enraged when Abel and his sacrifice were accepted by God and Cain was rejected.  Genesis 4:6-7 reads, "So the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."  God stands at the door of our hearts in the person of Jesus, and God explained how sin also lay at the door.  Envy, anger and pride were sins conceived in Cain's heart that when full grown manifested themselves as murder--an illustration of how sin literally brings forth death and accursed separation from God.

Those who hear the word of God, respond in repentance to God's rebukes and chastening, and choose to walk in obedience to God supply evidence they are His.  Even as young children want to be with their parents they know love them, Christians desire to be in God's presence and commune with Him in prayer, to hear His voice and obey Him, and to do what is pleasing in His sight.  It would be to our shame to be influenced by sin lying at the door when we are at the table in fellowship with Jesus.  Can you imagine choosing to open the door to sin to pollute and corrupt us when Jesus has demonstrated His love to die to atone for our sins and wash us clean?  We should rule over sin as human beings created in God's image, but in our flesh (like Cain) we cannot.  When we repent of our sin and are born again, the Holy Spirit guides and helps us to walk righteously.

I am greatly encouraged by Philippians 4:5:  "Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand."  Despite our faults and failings, Jesus is never far from us:  our LORD Jesus is at hand.  Psalm 145:18 says, "The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth."  We also read in Psalm 34:18:  "The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit."  The Shulamite was slow to open the door to her beloved who called out to her because it was an inconvenient hour (Song of Solomon 5:2-8).  Finally, after questioning the timing of her husband and complaining of the extra labour it caused, the wife opened the door to find her husband gone.  Praise the LORD this is never the case with Jesus when we call upon Him in truth with a broken and contrite heart.  Jesus is always at hand ready to forgive, deliver and save us.  He wants to come in to dine with us, to unite with each of His beloved as one:  so we might share His love, heart and mind.

God Does as He Pleases

There is no comparison between the living God of Israel and all other images, objects or people worshipped as God.  In contrast to idols designed, crafted and venerated by men, Psalm 115:3-8 says of the God who spoke all that is into existence:  "But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.
⁴  Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. ⁵ They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see; ⁶ they have ears, but they do not hear; noses they have, but they do not smell; ⁷ they have hands, but they do not handle; feet they have, but they do not walk; nor do they mutter through their throat. ⁸ Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them."

People mocked the Jews because their God was not presented in the form of an image--something He plainly forbade them in the Law of Moses which were written upon tablets of stone by the finger of God.  Unlike idols that were molded or carved by the hands of man, God was able to do everything by Himself by the power of His word alone.  Images resembled human beings in that they shared features of anatomy, but the men created in the image of God had more ability than the useless objects they sanded and covered with precious metals.  They had eyes that could not see, ears that could not hear, noses that could not smell, hands that could not handle, feet that could not walk, and mouths that could not speak.  The Psalmist spoke the truth concerning all who trusted in idols:  those who craft or worship idols are like those images, powerless to know or do anything.

God commanded His people in Deuteronomy 7:25-26 what to do when they encountered idols of the people they defeated in battle:  "You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. ²⁶ Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing."  The Hebrews were to destroy any idols they found and to completely destroy them--without melting down the precious metals or salvaging anything of value.  Those heathen gods were accursed things that were to be utterly hated and detested as abominations to the LORD.  God warned those who brought idols into their homes would be doomed to destruction like those powerless idols before a holy, righteous God.

It is interesting that when God appeared on Mount Sinai, He did so shrouded in fire, smoke and lightning as the earth quaked under Him.  Fire was His garment and He was not consumed, for He is a consuming fire Himself.  God's word has made it clear those who make or worship idols are like them and are also accursed and doomed to destruction by the living God.  It is the fear of God that purifies us from the love of silver, gold and gain.  When God appeared on the mount in fire and the people were terrified, Exodus 20:20 says:  "And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin."  The fear of God was a deterrent to idolatry, greed and covetousness for the children of Israel, and the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom for us today.  Knowing God has redeemed us sinners who were doomed to destruction by His love for us compels us to demonstrate our love for Him by keeping Christ's commands.

What good does it do to cling to an image of silver and gold that is accursed and doomed to destruction?  May God's people heed the exhortation of Psalm 34:9:  "Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him."  Praise the LORD He is faithful to supply all our needs in this life and also provides the true riches that will endure forever in His presence.  Psalm 31:22-24 also says, "Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints! For the LORD preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person."  The fear and love of the LORD beautifully harmonise in the lives of God's people who trust and obey Him, and He will be faithful to preserve us by His grace.  It pleased God to redeem lost sinners by grace through faith in Jesus, and may all Christ's redeemed live worthy of the Gospel.

Brought Out to Bring Us In

This morning I read Deuteronomy 6:20-23:  "When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you?' ²¹ then you shall say to your son: 'We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; ²² and the LORD showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. ²³ Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers."  God gave the children of Israel the responsibility to teach their children of the living God who chose them as His people out of all the nations of the earth.  The living God revealed Himself to them, gave them His laws and guided them to walk righteously.  As they recalled their miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt in the past, they were to be loyal to God moving forward.

Verse 23 reveals God did not bring the children of Israel out from the iron furnace of Egypt so they could go their own way with the purpose to bring them into the land He promised to give them.  Whilst the Hebrews suffered in bondage, they cried out to the LORD for deliverance.  They knew it was terrible to be oppressed and afflicted; they understood the horror when Pharaoh commanded their male infants be thrown in the Nile.  They rejoiced to be delivered from what they knew to be evil, yet they did not believe God to enter the promised land God gave them!  God's judgment against the Hebrews was the generation 20 years old and above would perish over the course of 40 years in the wilderness, and then the following generation would be brought into Canaan.

The Hebrews knew slavery was awful, but what they did not comprehend was God intended to bring them out from bondage to idolatry they believed was good.  Over the course of hundreds of years of bondage in Egypt, the children of Israel began to worship images they believed benefitted them.  God desired to bring them out of spiritual idolatry and into the worship of the one true God, the LORD who proved His supremacy over all the idols of Egypt as it says in Numbers 33:4:  "For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the LORD had killed among them. Also on their gods the LORD had executed judgments."  It proved easier to deliver the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt (though they did at times long to return) than free them from idolatry, for even after they took possession of the land Joshua rebuked them for continuing to carry the idols of their fathers in Joshua 24.

This principle of bringing people out from slavery to bring them in rings true concerning the Gospel.  Many of us were well-aware of the evils of sin that held us bound, and we are glad to be free of wickedness that was our ruin:  yet there are also things we can believe benefit us that God also wants to deliver us from.  God's desire is to free us of bondage to sin and self so we can enter into the abundant life Jesus promises us by His grace.  It is good for us to consider what God delivered us from and the new way of living and thinking He commands us to embrace in obedience to Jesus.  There are things that are not bad in themselves that do not edify us, and it is good for us to be increasingly reliant and dependant on the LORD to supply our needs as He guides us by faith.