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“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron and his sons, “This is how you are to bless the Israelites.
Say to them: ‘The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.’”’”
—Numbers 6.22-26 (NIV)
In ancient Israel priests served a dual function. In most of what is described in the text of Numbers the orientation is Godward. That is, the priests stand between the people and God, offering various gifts and sacrifices in behalf of their countrymen and women. These are acts of literal intercession. But occasionally they had opportunity to turn around. Acting in behalf of God, they faced their neighbors, friends and families and bestowed his blessing upon them.
What a wonderful privilege! To be able to speak in God’s name, with God’s authority and so to convey his bounty on their fellows: “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
The New Testament makes it clear that God has entrusted these functions to Christians, as his new kingdom of priests. It is our privilege and responsibility to bring the cares, needs, concerns, sacrifices and offerings of our neighbors, friends and families before God, in their behalf. At the same time we have the obligation also to convey his blessing upon them. When was the last time you or I did that?
We can begin simply, by using the text above as our model: “The LORD bless you and keep you....”
“When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying,
‘So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.’”
—Acts 11.18 (NIV)
In context, this verse describes the final reaction of the Jewish objectors to Peter’s visit with Cornelius. When they discerned that God had bestowed his Holy Spirit upon these Gentile believers their concerns evaporated—If God found them fit for his blessing, on the basis of their faith in Jesus, who were they to interfere? Here is cause for rejoicing!
But equally striking are two other observations. The first is the Bible’s insistence that eternal life follows repentance. Unless we agree with God that our direction has been wrong; unless we turn away from our rebelliousness; unless we lay down our arms; unless we stop the activities of self-justification; unless we genuinely repent and turn to God, the Bible says we will not enjoy his times of refreshing, our sins will not be forgiven (Ac 3.19).
The second observation is more humiliating: God must grant repentance. The point here is that unless God opens our eyes to our sin and rebellion we remain blind, self-absorbed, unable even to recognize our need. But the good news is that he does, he has. Even Gentiles, even the least likely—the furthest from grace, those whom we might write off may be the recipients of God’s gift of repentance. How good to know that God decides and not some committee.
How good that he has extended his grace and mercy to the likes of you and me!
“But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if
you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
—Deuteronomy 4.29 (NIV)
Moses has been reiterating the consequences of turning away from the LORD to idols. Israel’s God is jealous! He will scatter the idolaters to the four winds where they can worship manmade gods of wood and stone to their hearts content. But when that sours, when the survivors recognize that wood and stone cannot see or hear or eat or smell or save, then, if they seek the LORD with a whole heart he will be found.
This is good news for the prodigal!
There is no country so remote, there is no competing religion so powerful, there is no sin so contaminating that repentance and faith cannot provide a passport out. God is near us. He can be found when we genuinely seek for him. In fact, the thrust of Moses’ message here is that God permits people to reap the consequences of their rebellion in order to drive them to their knees before him. But when justice expects a decisive finishing blow, as the condemned plead for mercy—God is merciful.
Many exclude themselves from being numbered among the children of God, supposing they aren’t good enough. That’s true. But mercy triumphs over justice when repentance and faith converge in a desperate soul that turns and cries out to God: “Have mercy on me—sinner that I am!”
He does.
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation
of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”
—Romans 1:16 (NIV)
Ashamed of the gospel?
In America today there is often a self-conscious rejection of religious and spiritual values that are perceived as discriminatory or segregating. Because traditional Christianity separates people into believers and non-believers and because it makes categorical assertions about what is true and not true, adherents are at times viewed with disdain. We are told we should be ashamed of ourselves.
But how is it possible to be ashamed of the one book that accurately diagnoses the human heart? How can we feel shame for being the recipients of God’s grace in Christ? Why should we have any embarrassment over accepting the claims of him who declared himself to be “the way, the truth, and the life?” What is the problem with publically acknowledging that we have believed and that by believing we have found living water, cleansing, and hope of eternal life? God was not ashamed to tell us about his salvation. Are we bigger than God?
Over the past several years my face has reddened numerous times: In an airplane from India I was embarrassed to have a businessman tell me of our President’s shenanigans. It is humiliating to acknowledge my state as the only one to sanction “Civil Unions.” But there is no shame at all to join St. Paul and exuberantly declare that in the gospel God has made his salvation known to any and all who believe.
I am not ashamed!
“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth;
meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
—Joshua 1.8 (NIV)
The secret of Joshua’s success was prescribed from the outset. It was not in making sure that he had the best intelligence reporting available about the defenses in Jericho, Ai, Azekah or anywhere else. It did not require that his troops endure the Bronze Age equivalent of SEALs training. He was not instructed in the development of novel weaponry or ingenious tactics.
No.
Joshua was simply to make sure that what God had spoken through Moses was known and practiced. The moral and spiritual condition and relationships between the leader and God and the leader and his people mattered most if there was to be success in the conquest of Canaan. When God’s Word was consistently in his heart and on his lips, Joshua could expect success. Conversely, when God’s Word and God’s ways were neglected, ignored, and set aside failure ensued—as in the debacle with the Gibeonites (Josh 9).
Today the same conditions apply. It is when we make God’s thoughts our thoughts, when his words guide our words, when his priorities become our priorities we can expect his blessing. Jesus said, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (Jn 15.7 NIV).
It’s the secret of success, then and now.
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?...
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified,
you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
— 1 Corinthians 6.9,11 (NIV)
While it is precarious for me to pick a “favorite” Bible passage, this is close. It ranks with John 3.16 and Ephesians 2.3,4 as expressions of God’s lovingkindness in the face of our sinfulness. What is impossible from our perspective and by our means God did.
The intriguing picture here is not the catalogue of vices listed in verses 9 and 10—notice that slander is included with other more “serious” moral faults. It is the statement that the names of Christians in Corinth used to be included in the list: “that is what some of you were.” But now, they aren’t. There has been an epoch changing event in their lives; they were washed, sanctified and justified. Sins were purged in the blood of the Lamb; they were consecrated, set apart for God’s service; the Father declared them to be in the right with respect to his standards. All this because of the work of Jesus Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
Two more quick points should be registered. First, did you notice that the verbs in verse 11 are all past tense?: were, washed, sanctified, justified. These are completed actions in the past, with ongoing results in the present. Christians are no longer wicked, no longer excluded from inheritance of the kingdom. Second, my name, my deeds could have been included in catalogue...
But I was washed, sanctified, justified! Hallelujah!
“Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD.
And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.”
—Judges 10.16 (NIV)
Judges is a strange book. In the “Promised Land” Israel repeatedly forgets who brought them there and turns to worship and serve idols and false gods and flirt with the occult and fertility religions. Never mind that the gods they adopted had not been successful in preserving their predecessors from being dispossessed. The demonstrably living God is abandoned for the inanimate creations of their hands and pallid phantasms of their imaginations. It’s depressing.
Repeatedly God calls them to repentance by permitting hardship—famine, oppression, enslavement, etc. This has the salutary effect of showing up the poverty of the foreign gods. The LORD expostulates: “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!” (10.14 NIV).
But God is rich in mercy! His heart is tender. When the people turn, when they rid themselves of the idols, when they cry out to him in desperation and agony of soul for deliverance recognizing that there is help in none other, he cannot deny himself. “He could bear Israel’s misery no longer.” Then he sent deliverance. When the people recognized that apart from God they could do nothing and called upon him to act, he responded to their pleas. It is astonishing to see that God so identifies with his own that he literally feels our misery and it moves him to action.
What if you and I, your church and mine were to do the same today?
God has not changed.