What Does the Lord Require of You? (Mic 6:8 NAS95)

 “What Does the Lord Require of You?” (Mic 6:8 NAS95)

Thinkers and cultures have asked this question throughout human history. We have always had a sense that we owe religious beings something, and are accountable to them. Depending upon how this “god” or “gods” is conceptualized, the answer changes.

But we are not left to the game of “anybody’s best guess.” People and prophets have put themselves forward to claim that they have particular insight into their god(s), and what they demand. We are all dependent upon intuitions or revelations.

As Christians, we have a particular revelation that we depend upon - the Bible, God’s Word. It is unique in that it does not depend upon one prophet, but upon God’s revelation to prophets over the course of centuries and from radically different situations. Further, the Bible attests to itself of its veracity. It explains its inspiration as not from men but from God. Yes, it is accepted by faith, but faith with evidence. And the self-attestation speaks to believers.

So what do we owe the God of the Bible? Yes, He had established a religion with its own liturgy, involving animal sacrifices. But these routines were never ends in themselves, but pointed to something greater, that redeemed people would reflect the character of their Creator and Redeemer in ways that humans were created to do.

Micah 6:8 is a familiar and popular verse that answers this question. The context is specifically about how to please God. Some people have taken this verse as though it is the sum total of all that we owe God. It is not. It is a behavioral summary of how we are to respond to neighbor and to God. But it is one verse in a very large book.

I do not want to discount what this verse says, and I do not believe that many of us, especially in our groups, have obeyed this verse seriously. We tend to be most concerned with justice for ourselves as opposed to people we don’t know. We are better at being kind to people who agree with us. We all have a pride problem, even if we are just a little proud of our humility.

But to take this verse in isolation would imply that a person can be right with God without faith in Jesus Christ. One could belong to any number of religions and espouse these ideals, even while identifying their “god” if very different terms.

But the largest error would be to conclude that I can be “right with God” based upon my own doings, as though what I “owed” Him, I  myself could accomplish. And that misses the largest truth of the Bible, that Jesus paid it all.

O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? (1 Cor 15:55 NAS95)

 O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? (1 Cor 15:55 NAS95)

This quotation at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter in the New Testament of the Bible, is familiar, if not a bit opaque. But there is a back story to it, and it is worth telling.

1 Corinthians 15:55 is a quotation of a verse from the Old Testament, from the prophet Hosea, chapter 13. Hosea 13 is all about the northern kingdom of Israel (they had split, north and south, but hadn’t bothered to fight it out like we did in the States). The Northern kingdom was properly called Israel, but they were also known by their lead tribe, Ephraim. 

The spiritual description of Ephraim in Hosea 13 is all negative. They are arrogant and idolatrous, and therefore, God says they will not last long (and, they didn’t). God had been good and gracious to them, and yet they took the glory to themselves and forgot God. As they had been brutal in their rejection of God, God would be brutal to them. 

It is at this point we come to the quotation in the NT. God asks, from where do you think ransom or redemption will come? Won’t death for you be devastating? And it is coming, soon. “O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight.” It is actually an invitation for death to come and do what needs to be done to this people.

Paul, the author in the NT, flips the quote from negative to positive. Because Jesus is risen from the dead, sinners who believe in Jesus, that is, sinners saved by grace, are now in fact delivered from death’s sting and destruction.We don’t have live in fear of death, because Jesus defeated death. Death as a literal, mortal enemy is destroyed. Our best days are ahead of us.

How could Paul take such liberties with the Old Testament passage, to turn it from a huge negative to a liberating positive? He could do so for two reasons. First, he could do so because Hosea 13 is not the last chapter in the book, chapter 14 is. And in Hosea 14, we see God’s heart and compassion come through, even in what looks to be the end for Ephraim. God says to them, “I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from them.”(Hosea 14:4 NAS95). The second reason that Paul can do this is because of what I have already mentioned above. Because of Jesus. Because of Jesus who died rose from the dead. His sacrifice was accepted; His obedience vindicated; and, we are saved. 

I don’t know where you stand with God, but do you think there could be one last chapter from God for you?

A Royal Priesthood

 A Royal Priesthood

In the United States, we may not have much appreciation for with of the terms in the title, things royalty, or priestly. 

In the Bible, the Old Testament priesthood and the kingship were kept separate from each other. Remember the first king, Saul, who stepped into the priest’s role and performed a sacrifice (a priestly function) just before he was to lead the troops into battle (a kingly function). As a result, God removed him and his family from the throne. Less well-known is the case of the king, Uzziah, who stubbornly offered incense despite the protests of the priests, and was immediately stricken with leprosy. The two don’t go together.

Except with Melchizedek, the mysterious king who appears to Abram after the battle with the kings to recover kidnapped Lot. There is no doubt that Mel- is a king (melech is Hebrew for king). He is king of the city that would later be called Jerusalem. And he brings Abram bread and wine, a priestly function.

Samuel is an interesting figure, his tribal identity a bit conflicted, “donated” to the tabernacle after his miraculous birth (not virgin, but barren). He continues to serve after Eli, the priest’s household is removed from service due to corruption. He rules in the days when Israel has no king. There is a strong flavor or “royal priesthood” in this character who, like Melchizedek, prefigures Christ.

And then there is Jesus, who is Prophet, Priest, and King. He is the One who fulfills all three functions, fully integrated, and in a deeper way than every before. He is the One who speaks the Word, but He Himself is the Word; He functions as priest, but He Himself is the sacrifice. He rules as king for the good of the people, so much so that He gives His life for the people. 

And then, followers of Jesus step into this train. We are called by Peter “a royal priesthood.” We are kings and priests. Now let’s be a bit careful here. Everything we do, we do is in submission to Christ. I am a pastor, a shepherd of the flock, but I must always remember (and you should too) that I am an undershepherd, under the Overshepherd. And so we all, who are followers of Jesus, are kings and priests, under His ministry and rule. We are under-priests and under-kings, and we have no authority apart from Him. But yet, the church is called “a royal priesthood.” He has invested us with this privilege that we might be witnesses/doers of justice and peace; of compassion and truth in a world that has so little of any of these things - a little like Melchizedek, and prayerfully, a lot like Jesus.

Is not My Word like Fire, and like a Hammer that Shatters a Rock? (Jeremiah 23:29)

Is not My Word like Fire, and like a Hammer that Shatters a Rock?         (Jeremiah 23:29)

These words from the LORD may sound threatening. I don’t believe they are meant to be so. They are being contrasted with the words of the shepherds, priests, and prophets of Israel who are talking out of their own heads, not speaking the Word of the LORD. Their words are likened to straw.

Rather, God’s Word is effective. Yes, God’s Word is effective in that it convicts of sin. Paul describes his use of God’s Word in this way: 2Cor. 10:4 “for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. ⁵ We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” And indeed that can be a painful process in the life of an individual. And yet it is the path to being “a new creature in Christ” (2 Cor 5:17). The point of “fire” and “hammer” in our title verse is not that they are threatening, but that they are effective in bringing about needed change in one’s life. The “straw” of the false prophets, even though preferred by listeners, proves to be useless.

But there is another point for us to apply. The Word of God is effective because it is the Word of God. Christians sometimes think their job is to “burn” people with fiery Bible verses or to “hammer” people with powerful rebukes. That is not the meaning of these images. The Bible simply is powerful. Simply and clearly present the Bible’s teaching to people, and the effectiveness of the Bible will do its own work. We do not need to turn the Bible into a weapon, much less a terrorist tool.

This is similar to images that Jesus uses in the sermon on the Mount immediately after the Beatitudes, that Christians are to be salt and light. Some Christians interpret this to mean that they are to go about spitting in someone’s eye with salty spit, or to “light up” someone with a condemning remark. This cannot be right, since it leads the so-called Christian to abandon the very characteristics that were taught in the previous verses, like meekness and mercy, purity and peacemaking. When Christians behave in this way, they are anything but meek.

No, Christians are simply to be Christians, and the effect will be salt and light as people see and hear the difference in their life and love. And, the Word of God is to be taught and shared, and the very character of the Word of God is effective in and of itself to change lives, having already changed the person who is speaking that Word.