Genesis 7:1

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and you household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.”

I wonder if God considered Noah’s wife and sons and daughter-in-laws to be righteous.  The verse says Noah alone.  It would seem that the choices the head of the household makes cover the entire household.  So, if Noah was righteous, the blessing and benefits (in this case salvation) extended to his family, too.  If that is the case, then I suppose the decisions that John and I make for our family extend to our children.  Maybe that’s why Joshua could say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Just an observation.

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.

Romans 4:16

So that’s why faith is the key! God’s promise is given to us as a free gift. And we are certain to receive it, whether or not we follow Jewish customs, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe.

Interesting story, well, sort of.  This caught my attention because it goes back to the question that seems to continually come back to me – why do we follow certain OT rules and not others…  and here, Paul is saying that it’s not about the laws and rules that we follow, it’s about faith.  That’s part of the interesting story.

The second art starts on my Facebook page.  One of my friends (thanks Diana!) has posted a link to a blog called Journey Deeper Into God’s Word where the blog author (a pastor) is doing a challenge for 2010 where he’s going to do kind of what I do here – read and post something that he’s studies in God’s word (except he’ll do it every day, hopefully more consistently than I do!).  Very cool.  But that’s not the interesting part.  I go to his January 1 post and here’s the verse:

James 2:23-26 : And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.  Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Sound familiar?  That’s interesting…  we’re reading the same verse in different books…  coincidence?  Probably not.

Anyhow, oddly, here James is saying that Abraham’s belief is a good work and that man is justified by works (instead of by faith as in Romans), which contradicts what Paul just said in Romans.  However, if works are considered different from following customs, then it makes more sense.  Also these works seem to be more a result of faith and not a precursor to God’s justification.  And, Paul talks about a Promise (I’m not quite clear about what the promise is – it seems to be the promise that Abraham’s children will outnumber the grains of sand, but I’m not sure how that would apply to us).  So, maybe it’s two different ways of looking at the same thing?

Now I’ve confused myself.  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments if you have more clarify that I do.  I feel like I’m swimming in circles.

Amos 4:24

Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.

What a great image this is!  A might flood and an endless river!  The endless river especially captured my imagination.  A river is strong, enduring, wide, and generally pretty deep.  It’s not a stream that is shallow, small, and can dry up in a drought.  To have an endless river of righteous living is to live righteously enduringly and ongoingly, with strength and depth.  Right living isn’t something that should dry up when it’s inconvenient or difficult.  Right living should touch every part of our lives, not just the surface.  It’s a choice.  And it makes God happy.  Ultimately it will make us happy, too.

Jeremiah 23:6

And this is his name: The Lord Is Our Righteousness…

My first thought was, “Cool, a name of God.”  My second thought was, “What’s righteousness?”  My third thought was, “Thank goodness for dictionary.com!”  So, I looked up what righteousness is, and it said, “The state of being righteous.”  Uh, ok.  Not very helpful there.  I looked up righteous.  To be righteous is to be upright and moral.  Synonyms include good, honest, fair, and right.  Better.   I also looked up moral and found that it means knowing the distinction between right and wrong.  That makes sense.  God is upright, and He certainly knows the difference between right and wrong.  He loves us, but He is also just.  The Israelites at this time had sunk to horrible levels of wrongdoing, violating God’s law to a huge degree.  God is promising that He will send a new ruler to Israel (once he’s scattered them and then gathered them again) – Jesus.  The Lord In Our Righteousness.

Interestingly, I just realized that the name is The Lord Is Righteousness.  It says He’s Our Righteousness.  Jesus is named for a quality that we will possess.  He is our morality; He is our difference between right and wrong.  He is our ability to be right and good and honest and fair.  His life is a model for what ours should be.  By looking at Him, we learn to be like Him and become righteous, too.  He Is Our Righteousness.  Cool!  That brings a measure of hope into the picture.  Although, truly, we will never be truly righteous until we get to heaven.  But by His love, His grace, His sacrifice, we are made whole and new; and by His power we can be righteous.  Yeah God!