Leviticus 16:21 Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send [it] away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. This is an interesting verse. When Aaron lays his hands on the live goat (aka. the scapegoat) the Hebrew text says he cast the punishment for the sins of the children of Israel on it. It wasn’t just the sin that was transferred, it was the guilt and punishment for those sins. The goat was then sent into the wilderness (where it was probably eaten by lions or other animals in short order). The symbolism is that their sins were removed, and they never saw them again. This is what Jesus did for us on the cross, too. Our guilt and our punishment for our sins were placed on Him (our scapegoat). He was killed in the wilderness of our world and our sins were completely removed from the eyes of God. I once read somewhere that the Israelites would place a scarlet thread outside or inside the temple and that after the scapegoat was removed it would miraculously turn from red to white. However, once Jesus died, the miracle no longer occurred. Jesus removed the need to offer continual sacrifices. I think God has a remarkable imagination and an amazing way of using symbols to help us understand what He does in our lives. Sometimes this makes it a little tricky, but maybe that makes the search more satisfying.
2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. This seems to me to go against what Jesus said about loving others, and doesn’t make sense in light of the fact that Jesus walked in the world and touched the dirtiest people society had to offer. So, what does it mean? Here’s Chuck Smith’s (a pastor) take on it: So, God’s call for His people to separation. You are to be different from the world. You cannot have real communion with the world. You have no common ground of meeting. You’re trying to bring two diverse situations together. You’re trying to join together the life of the flesh with the life of the Spirit. They cannot co-mingle. It’s an unequal yoke. So, God’s call for you is to come apart. “Be separate, saith the Lord. Don’t touch the unclean thing. And God said, I will be a Father, and ye will be my sons and daughters.” As a child of God, you do live different than a person who is not a child of God. You’re expected to live differently. This makes a lot of sense. As children of God, it’s not that we’re physically going to separate ourselves and live in little communes. Jesus didn’t do that. He lived among us and walked among us and talked to people, ate with sinners, played with children, and healed the sick and dying. He didn’t get away from people and live all by himself in the wilderness. Instead, he lived differently than the people. He didn’t sin the way people sin (even the righteous sin). He didn’t lie or cheat or steal. He wasn’t violent (remember how he healed the man’s ear after Peter cut it off with a sword?). He lived differently and that set Him apart from the world. So we are to follow Jesus’ example and live differently. We should try to live like Jesus did – loving others and doing what is right. My husband has to struggle with that a lot. Yesterday he felt like he was being asked by a client to do something that he didn’t feel was right or moral, and while he was discussing the situation with the people he is working for he offered to give up the contract even though we really do need the money. When they saw how serious he was about doing things right, they decided to back him up against the client that was asking him to be dishonest. I was so proud of him!!! That’s not an easy choice to make! Anyhow, God doesn’t want us to never associate with lost people. If we never talked to them or walked among them then how will they ever know who Jesus is? How will they hear if we don’t go (it says that somewhere in the Bible)? So, it’s not about staying away from people who don’t know Jesus, it’s about doing life differently and being set apart in our morals and actions. Chuck Smith does make a good point, though, about not making an unbeliever our best friend. Our best friends tend to have a lot of influence in our lives because we tell them our deepest thoughts and listen to their counsel. So, that’s a good point. But it doesn’t mean that you don’t ever associate or hang out with non-believers. You just have to be wise and thoughtful in your actions.
2 Corinthians 5:16 So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now! The first part of this verse caught my attention. It’s a good reminder that we are called, by Christ, to stop judging people by the way others see them. Jesus loved people. He loved them whether they were good or bad, whether they were tax collectors (who were horribly hated) or adulterous women (a crime that carried a death penalty) or everyday citizens. The world judges people by what they look like or what they do or how they live. Even if we totally disagree with that part of their lives, Jesus still loves them. And we should to. We don’t have to love their actions or their lifestyle, but we should love them and accept them and try to be Jesus with skin on (showing them His love). Jesus never condemned people (except for the religious leaders – isn’t that ironic?). We shouldn’t either. I can hear you now – but Jesus was God! He was super-human. It was easy for Him to do that. Maybe. He was in a human body with human emotions. And even if he did have an easy time doing that, it’s His strength that He gives us that help us to be like Him. We’re not in this alone. God loves us. We should love others. The end.
I was reading Skip Moen’s blog this morning, and instead of the usual digging into a particular verse or concept, he addressed a concern by one of his readers about simplicity and losing the simplicity of salvation and grace in the complexity of the Old Testament life. You can read the post here. It’s really interesting. In a lot of ways I agree with the three points that the gentleman made to Skip. But at the same time I’m fascinated by the complexity of Jewish life and love seeing the connections between their lives and the symbols used by God when He speaks to His prophets, or when Jesus tells His stories. What do you think? Have we lost the simplicity of the message of Christ by burdening it with our own set of rules and regulations? Do we encumber ourselves with Old Testament law when it should just be about the love and sacrifice of Yeshua? If that’s the case, what role does the Old Testament have for us today (why did God think it was important to include books like Deuteronomy and Numbers?)? I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’d be interested in your thoughts.
Romans 13:10 Love does no wrong to anyone, so love satisfies all of God’s requirements. Love. It pretty much sums up the entire Bible and all of Christianity in one word. Not that Christ followers are always very good at loving others. Clearly that’s not true or we wouldn’t have a somewhat tarnished reputation (tele-evangelists anyone?). Christ followers are human and therefore, flawed. But we are all called to love the people around us. That’s not always as easy as it seems. There are a lot of people in this world that it’s really, really hard to love. Like that woman at work who lied about what she did, blaming you for it. Or the husband who cheated on his wife. Or the child molester or murderer. (I struggle here, especially since I have children.) No matter who the person is, no matter what he or she has done, we are called to love. We aren’t called to love what he or she DID or DOES. We are called to love the PERSON. Jesus doesn’t love our actions. More often than not, they hurt Him. However, He loves us more than words could ever say. And that is the point of it all.
Romans 10:3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Instead, they are clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. They won’t go along with God’s way. Man! Isn’t this the human way to do things? God has a way for us that is good (and maybe difficult), but we stubbornly persist in doing it our way! We don’t go along with God’s way because, of course, our way makes more sense or seems easier or we “have a good feeling about this”. I know I’m guilty of this. So often I do the same thing over and over and over, ignoring God’s way because I’m too busy doing it my way. I think that’s called tunnel vision. Maybe it’s called pride, too. Sometimes we don’t do things God’s way because we think it can’t possibly be that easy. For example, here it’s talking about salvation. Just believing seems so ridiculously easy that it can’t possibly be the right way. But it’s that simple. It says so just a few verses down – Romans 10:10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. And later in Romans 10:13 For “Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. We must like to complicate things… which could be partly because of our guilty consciences and the whispers of the Enemy of our souls, “you’ve got to do more, be better, to be saved.” But Jesus did all the work, and because He loves us so incredibly much, we reap all the benefits simply by believing that His hard work made us right with God. And, yes, it’s that simple.
Romans 6:11 So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus. Today’s my first day back at work/school after 2 beautiful and wonderful weeks of vacation. Man! I’m so not ready for this! And of course, my time this morning is all about sin and forgiveness and the role they play in our lives. Heavy stuff for my mind this early and this distractable. Romans 6 starts with that famous question, “should I keep sinning so that God can show his mercy and forgiveness through that? Should I sin more so I can be forgiven more?” That’s kind of like asking if you should cut yourself to get a bandaid (granted God’s forgiveness is more like a healing miracle than a bandaid, but hopefully that makes the point of how silly that question is). Paul goes on to talk about how Jesus conquered death and sin and since we believe in Him and have new life through Him we no longer are subjected to continually doing the wrong thing. Does that mean that we’ll be perfect? No. But since we are no longer required to do what sin tells us to, we can live in a way that brings glory to God through our love and kindness. And if you’re like me at all, you’re thinking “that’s a tall order! I make mistakes all the time!” Yup. You’re human, too (I hope, unless you’re a robot or strangely intelligent something else). But its okay, that’s why we have forgiveness. And, the more we get to know God, the more able we are to live like Him and act in a way that reflects His mercy, grace, and love. And I think that’s the point of it all.