I keep running into the question of the Law vs. Salvation and how they are connected or not connected. Skip did a post about the link between Moses’ Law and Jesus’ Salvation. I was going to just put a link here, but I know that most of the time nobody ever follows the link…. So, the following is from Skip Moen’s website: For the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (KJV) John 1:17 But – You won’t find the Greek word for this translation in Today’s Word index because there is no Greek word in the original text. The translation adds the word “but” to the sentence. That little addition changes everything. It’s not a slip. It’s deliberate. And it’s deliberate propaganda! About a month ago I got a letter from Boaz Michael. He mentioned this verse in his letter, pointing out that the addition of “but” created a terrible tragedy for believers. It is the tragedy of thinking that law and grace are opposed to each other; that Moses and Jesus don’t say the same thing. When the translators added “but” to the sentence, they implied that Christians and Jews have different gospels. They separated believers into two camps; those who lived under the Mosaic code and those who lived under the free grace of the Gospels. What a disaster for all of us! It’s hard to imagine that men took such steps to break the Word of God in two, but they did. They wanted an unbridgeable gap between the Older Testament and the Newer Testament, and for hundreds of years they have succeeded, convincing millions of God-fearing, humble followers that Jesus did not teach what Moses was given. All those followers struggled to find a clear path of obedience. Some succeeded. Many did not. God always uses what we are able to give, but we certainly made it much harder by believing what the “professionals” told us rather than looking for ourselves. They got away with theological murder – and we let them. The first principle of biblical interpretation is this: God does not contradict Himself. If He tells Moses that there are certain steps to be taken in obedience to Him that will insure our greatest usefulness in His purposes, you can be assured that Jesus did not say something different. This is even more that case when we realize and profess that Jesus is God. When it comes to salvation, God has not changed His mind. Salvation is by grace and grace alone. That was true for Moses and it’s true for us. That is exactly what Jesus taught. But usefulness comes through obedience and obedience is determined by a code of conduct revealed to Moses and endorsed by Jesus. That has also always been the case. Don’t let any translator slip that one past you. You do not serve two gods. You serve only One God and He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. I know that many of us struggle with this truth. We have been hearing the gospel of grace and the evils of the Law so long that we are convinced that Jesus was a radical revisionary. Please look again. You have nothing to lose by asking yourself exactly what Jesus taught about the Mosaic code of conduct, but you have a great deal to lose if you just go on thinking that none of the “Law” applies to you. Don’t become a “yes-man” just because your favorite translation adds a word here or there. Insist on truth. Demand that those who know tell you what words are really in the text and what words aren’t. Pray that God will lead to you someone who will help you know what He said. God listens to those kinds of prayers. I know because I was blind myself before He heard my cry. This is a journey and we are traveling together. Just hold on to the one who is a step in front of you and ask a lot of questions. [1] This clears up a lot of questions for me, making a bit of the confusion clearer. And even if no one ever reads this post, at least some of my issues were sorted out and I have an easy reference next time I get confused again! [1] Moen, Skip. “Theological Propaganda.” Hebrew Word Study | Skip Moen . N.p., 7 Sept. 2008. Web. 7 May 2010. <http://skipmoen.com/2008/09/07/theological-propaganda/>.
Numbers 9:8 And Moses said to them, “Stand still, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you.” Does anyone else think it’s interesting that Moses told the men who had come to inquire about Passover to be still so he could hear from God? The word for stand still here also means to stand firm. In other words, don’t run! But it does mean to stand still. It implies that until they stop and are quiet and rest and listen that Moses won’t be able to hear God’s voice. What does that mean for us today? Maybe we need to stand still, too. I know that I spend a large portion of my day running around like crazy, chasing children, discussing a lesson plan, listening to music or commentary, blaring the TV, etc. I am rarely still. When I am still, it takes all of 5 minutes for me to pass out from exhaustion. My life is often quite non-conducive to hearing from God. I have no idea how to be still. The only truly still time I have is in the morning when I write here in this blog (and even that is often disrupted by a sleepy little monkey who thinks 5am is a perfectly acceptable time to be awake). It’s hard to hear when we’re moving. So many things distract us (like not falling over something, navigation, the wind rushing by, the scenery). I need to learn to stand still so I can better hear what God has to say to me. No one said the lessons of the Bible were easy to apply. Sigh.
Numbers 7:89 Now when Moses went into the tabernacle of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice of One speaking to him from above the mercy seat that [was] on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; thus He spoke to him. Can you imagine hearing the voice of God? Actually, the Hebrew (as I have it in the Blue Letter Bible) says he heard the voice speaking to him…, but it’s implied that it’s God, because who else would be speaking from the ark? Whatever the wording, Moses has an incredible relationship with God. He saw God’s back (basically, saw every place in history where God had been), and he had lived for months on the outskirts of the camp with God regularly visiting his tent! He also regularly hear God speak. He didn’t hear Him the way we think of it, that God speaks through His Bible or through songs or through other people or circumstances. No, he heard that actual voice of God (probably muted and gentled so as not to blow him away). What an experience that must have been! I wonder if there’s anyone alive today who’s heard God’s voice, truly, in an audible way. I wonder if it knocked them off their feet in fear and wonder. I read a book a long time ago and in it the main character had to go and find the name of god in order to defeat the creature who had imprisoned her friend. When she received it she had a hard time concentrating because it filled up her entire being and held so much knowledge and understanding that she could stand for hours just contemplating and thinking and basking in the radiance. Interestingly, even though the story takes place in a fictional place, the implication through the imagery and other descriptions is that the people from whom she receives the name of god are a lost tribe of the Israelites and the god’s name is the name of our God. Anyway, reading this verse reminded me of that portion of her story, and I wonder if the voice of God held the same kind of wonder and overwhelmingness (yes, not a word, I know). That would be incredible! Note: Skip Moen spoke about God as the Word this morning… an interesting connection!
Numbers 2:9 “All who were numbered according to their armies of the forces with Judah, one hundred and eighty-six thousand four hundred–these shall break camp first. Once again I am reminded of how detailed God’s love for us and knowledge of us is. Here He gives instructions for how the people of Israel were to live and how they were to break camp. Can you imagine the chaos of about a million people (well over 600,000 fighting men… so add to that at least the same number of women, plus children, plus elderly, plus any servants…) all trying to pack and leave an area at the same time? That would be nuts! But God’s got a solution to make things orderly, safe, and simple. It’s a good reminder that God’s got instructions for how I should live my life (the Torah and His Word), and His plan has an order and purpose to it. He doesn’t ignore the details of my life. If He had a plan to make moving easier, I’m sure He has a plan for all those other little details in my life. Of course, I have to learn to hear Him as He instructs. That’s the tricky bit. But, even though I have weaknesses, that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t have a plan for everything. It’s kind of like the way that God knows every hair on my head (and at the rate I shed hair, that’s saying something). Nothing is too small for His notice. What a blessing that is!
Numbers 1: The Census I started reading Numbers with the vague notion that it would be SO much fun to read all the genealogies. But within minutes I noticed something interesting. God instructs Moses to take a census and to take with him the head/leader of each tribal family. And then He does something interesting… He names them. I know that seems stupid. But, He didn’t have to name them off. Moses could have called them out and then learned their names. But God knew their names. Out of the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Israelites, He knew the names of each of the tribes’ leaders. Granted, there are only 12 tribes, but I still think it’s pretty darn cool that He just rattles off the names of the leaders of each tribe. He knew His people. He knew everything about them. He knew who their fathers were, and in many cases, he also tells us who their grandfathers were! I think that’s awesome! The implication, obviously, is that in all the millions (billions?) of people on this earth, God knows my name, too. We say that all the time, and while it’s true, seeing God specifically name 12 men (and their lineage) out of the entire nation of Israel makes it hit home a little more. P.S. – it’s also pretty amazing that each person twenty years-old and under could recite their own ancestry.
Ezekiel 44:19b They must leave them in the sacred rooms and put on other clothes so they do not harm the people by transmitting holiness to them through their clothes. I have to admit, this is pretty strange to me. First, I didn’t know holiness could be transmitted through clothes. Second, I didn’t know it could be harmful. But, I think it’s like Moses after he received the ten commandments. His face shone with the holiness of God and the people were frightened. His face transmitted the holiness of God. That can be an overwhelming thing, and if the people were not prepared it could be deadly, maybe… Remember how the priests would die if they went into the holy place without offering a sin sacrifice and being ritually clean? The ordinary people of Israel weren’t clean. They didn’t have the salvation through Jesus that we have today… so to be in the presence of such utter and true holiness could have been deadly. Even the glory shining from a person who had been in God’s presence was too much. Moses had to cover his face because he was so shiny. Similarly, the priests had to leave their clothes behind because they would be too much to behold. I wonder if they shone when they came out of the presence of God the way Moses did? If their clothes transmitted holiness, did their faces and hands transmit it, too? And ultimately, it leaves me with the question: do I transmit holiness after I spend time in the presence of God? I am blessed with His Words and His presence all the time (sometimes it’s more physical than others). Do I transmit holiness?
Lev. 14:33-34The Lord said to Moses… “I may contaminate some of your houses with an infectious mildew.” What?! To put this in context, God’s giving instructions to the people about how to handle different diseases and stuff. And after this he goes on to say how to tell if a house has infectious mildew and what to do about it. However, what?! Why does He say that HE will contaminate the houses? I looked it up in other translations (thank you Biblegateway.com) and it says it in all of them. I have no idea why God would contaminate houses with mildew (also referred to as leprosy in other versions). Any ideas?