House of God.

Genesis 35-36, Matthew 18

Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.  – Genesis 35:3 ESV

Israel has returned to the land that had been promised to Abraham and was destined to be his dwelling place. This was all part of God's divine plan, not only for Israel, but for the future of mankind. There were three important elements to God's promise to Abraham: a land, a seed, and a blessing. The land was just as critical to the equation as any of the other two. So it was essential that Israel return to the land because it was to play an important role in the fulfillment of God's provision of the seed or offspring who would eventually bring the ultimate blessing to all mankind. And it was also going to be important that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Israel be a people set apart – the people of God. They were to be different and distinctive. They were to be followers of God and live in the land provided for them by God. They were to remain set apart from the people groups all around them, refusing to intermarry with them or worship their gods. This would be a lifelong challenge for Israel and his descendants.

What does this passage reveal about God?

After Israel's own sons brutally murdered every male in the city of Shechem as payback for the rape of their sister, Dinah, Israel feared for the well-being of his family and possessions. He knew that news of this event would get out and they would be a target for every other people group occupying the land of Canaan. The sheer magnitude of what his sons had done was going to give Israel and his descendants a less-than-flattering reputation among their neighbors. But God was there, and He met with Israel in order to assure him once again of His presence and His promise. God called Israel to return to Bethel, the place where He had visited him just prior to his flight to Paddan-aram. God had some unfinished business to conduct with Israel, and Israel had a vow that needed to be kept. So as they traveled, God sovereignly protected Isaac and his family, causing a supernatural fear to fall on the nations through whose territories they had to pass. No one would lay a hand on them. In spite of what Levi and Simeon had done and the damage their actions had done to Israel's reputation, God was with them. And God would reaffirm His covenant promise to Israel. "I am God Almighty:be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.  The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you" (Genesis 35:11-12 ESV). God was not done yet. His promises would be fulfilled. His plan would be completed, just as He had promised. He was going to make of the descendants of Israel, this sin-prone people, a great house – the house of God.

What does this passage reveal about man?

The world was a dangerous, sin-saturated place, even in the days of Israel. Chapter 36 provides a detailed lineage of the descendants of Esau, Israel's brother. This man, a son of Isaac who had sold his birthright, was going to be prolific, filling the land with his descendants, just as Israel would. But his children would end up being in constant conflict with those of his brother. The Edomites, the descendants of Esau, would prove to be a thorn in the side of the nation of Israel for generations to come.

But this passage reveals a slow, but steady change taking place in Israel's life. Ever since his wrestling match with God, he has been a changed man. He seems to have a new nature and outlook to go with his new name. When God calls him to return to Bethel, he immediately obeys, telling his household, "put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments" (Genesis 35:2 ESV). He realized that they were going to have to live differently as a people. Their love affair with the world was going to have to end. He was headed back to Bethel, the very place where he was going to have to fulfill the vow he had made all those years ago. It was at Bethel that God had told Israel, "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you" (Genesis 28:15 ESV). And God had kept His end of the bargain. Now it was Israel's turn. Because he had also made a vow that day. "Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you’” (Genesis 28:20-22 ESV). It was put-up or shut-up time for Israel. God had fulfilled His part. Now it was Israel's turn.

He was going to have to make God his God. He was going to have to worship God and Him alone. His covenant was a commitment to obedience, allegiance, faithfulness, and unwavering loyalty as God's possession.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

I don't know that Israel fully understood the significance of what he did that day in changing the name of the place called Luz to Bethel. He had met God face to face and received a promise from Him, so he called the place House of God. But there was far more significance to that decision than he could have ever imagined. While the place was important to Israel, it was the people who were important to God. From this flawed, faith-challenged man would come the Savior of the world. God would end up blessing the nations through Abraham through his "seed," through the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the son of David and the Son of God. And through Jesus, God would produce a people who would be His own possession. But not only that, they would be His house.

Peter tells us, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5 ESV). The apostle Paul echoes that them when he writes, “Do you not know that youare God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17 ESV). As those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, acknowledging Him as the Son of God and the only solution to their sin problem, we have been made into a house for God. We are His dwelling, where He has chosen to place His Spirit. For Israel, the house of God was a place. For God, His house is His people. He dwells among us. He protects and empowers us. He fights on behalf of us. He extends His grace, mercy and love to us. And while it is true that God dwells among all men, He has chosen to make His home within those who have placed their faith in His Son as their sin sacrifice. Jesus Christ was Immanuel, God with us. He came to dwell among us, but offered His life so that His Spirit might live in us, setting us apart as His own, imparting to us His power, and imputing to us His own righteousness so that we might be acceptable to God. We are His house. We are his people.

In Jesus' discourse recorded in Matthew 18, we get a glimpse into His view of the Kingdom of God. It is a place marked by humility, not pride. It is a place of reconciliation and restitution, but also a place of repentance and rejection of sin. Jesus paints a picture of a new age occupied by a new kind of people, the people of God who have been transformed by the Spirit of God so that they might live in obedience to God. The church represents a place of forgiveness, restoration, repentance, grace, mercy, holiness, distinctiveness, and love. We are God's dwelling place among men in these days. He has chosen to place His Spirit among us and in us so that we might reflect His glory and be testimonies of the life-changing reality of the Good News. We are the house of God, a spiritual house where God lives, works, ministers, and manifests His presence and power among men in our day.

Father, it is hard for me to fathom that we are Your dwelling place. I still tend to think of the church building as the house of God. But You live among and within men. You have chosen to place Your Spirit in the hearts of men, not houses made of bricks and mortar. You sent Your Son to be God among us. He lived among us and died on behalf of us, so that we might be made right with You. And He has made His home in our hearts, setting us apart as His own. Show us how to live as His possession. Give us the strength to live lives that are truly set apart and honoring as His dwelling place. Help us live as His holy temple, where His Spirit dwells. Amen.

Forgiveness Should Be Contagious.

Matthew 18:1-35

"Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt." – Matthew 18:27 NLT

Leave it to Peter to ask the question that everyone else is probably thinking, but no one is brave enough to ask. "Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?" (Matthew 18:21 NLT). Now we have whether this was just a hypothetical question or if Peter had someone in mind. Chances are, as much as he and the other disciples argued about who was the greatest, there could have been more than a few of them he felt like he needed to forgive. But regardless of his motivation, Peter pops the question to Jesus, and I feel pretty certain that he thought he was going to get an affirmative response from Jesus, along with a commendation for his forgiving spirit. After all, Peter probably thought seven times was way more than enough times to forgive anybody.

But Jesus surprised Peter by saying, "No, not seven times, but seventy times seven" (Matthew 18:22 NLT). By my math, that is 490 times and that's an awful lot of forgiving! And before Peter can recover from his shock and ask another question, Jesus launches into a parable about the Kingdom. He tells the story of a king who had a servant who owed him a great deal of money. So much so that the servant was totally incapable of paying back the debt. The king, operating fully within his rights as king, ordered that the servant be sold into slavery in order to satisfy at least a part of what he owed. On top of that, the king ordered that his wife and kids be sold as well, and everything he owned be liquidated to pay against his debt. Of course, the man was beside himself and begged the the king for time. He vowed that he would somehow pay back the debt, in spite of its insurmountable size. Jesus says that the king was "filled with pity for him." The word he uses literally means "to be moved as to one's bowels, hence to be moved with compassion, have compassion." The king looked at the man's hopeless situation and his complete incapacity to do anything about it, and instead of doing what He was totally justified in doing, he ordered the man's debt completely paid. He forgave him of his entire debt. He walked away a free man. What a relief. What a burden lifted. What an incredible, gracious, unmerited gift. This guy should have been on cloud nine. He should have run home and grabbed his wife and kids and shouted for joy.

Instead, Jesus said, "he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He basically owed him the equivalent of about three months wages. About this time in the story, you would expect that this servant is going to excitedly and eagerly offer this man the same treatment he had received from the king. But no. He "grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment" (Matthew 18:28 NLT). Shocked and surprised, the fellow servant begged for more time. He vowed to pay the debt in full. But the first servant refused to listen (and forgive), having him arrested and thrown in prison until the debt could be paid in full. At this point, Jesus has the disciples hooked. They are totally engaged with the story and enraged with the actions of the ungrateful servant. So when Jesus continues the story and says that a group of fellow servants witnessed all that had happened and reported it to the king, the disciples were probably nodding their heads in agreement. And then the king called the servant back into his presence, they were probably beside themselves with joy. He was going to get exactly what he deserved! But Jesus was reserving the real message of this story for the end. The king addresses the man and says, "You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Should you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?" (Matthew 18:32-33 NLT). Then the king had the man thrown into prison where he would be tortured until the day his debt was paid in full. And the inference is that, because of the size of his debt, that day never came.

Jesus concludes his story with the following statement: "That's what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart" (Matthew 18:35 NLT). Like Jesus had done so many times with the Pharisees, He had used a simple story to point out a major truth to the disciples. He was exposing a principle of the Kingdom. We are all debtors to God, owing Him a debt we could never pay. We owe Him righteousness and complete holiness, and it is beyond our ability to come up with. And the penalty is death. But when we come to Him, acknowledging our debt, confessing our sin, and accepting the payment of His Son's life in place of ours, we receive complete forgiveness. Our debt is wiped clean. He showers us with undeserved mercy and grace. And as a result, we should be willing to do the same to those whose debts to us are miniscule in comparison. This passage is not teaching that we can lose our salvation if we refuse to forgive others. It is simply stating that those who have been forgiven much and recognize the magnitude of the gift, will automatically be willing to forgive others. Their hearts, transformed by the presence of the Spirit of God, will want to extend to others the very grace, mercy and forgiveness they have received.

Father, we can be so unforgiving at times. We act as if what others do to us is of earth-shattering consequences. And as a result, we withhold forgiveness from them. We seem to want to make others suffer for what they have done to us, when we have received nothing but forgiveness from You. Never let us lose sight of the sheer size of the debt we owed. It was insurmountable and we were totally incapable of ever paying it back. But You forgave us. Not only that, You paid it in full by offering the life of Your Son in place our place. May we learn to forgive as we have been forgiven. Amen.

No Place For Pride.

Matthew 17:24-18:35; Mark 9:33-50

He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, "Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else." – Mark 9:22-35 NLT

This is a fascinating section of Scripture. It is filled with powerful words from the lips of Jesus which are directed at His disciples. As they were journeying back to Capernaum, the disciples had gotten into an argument among themselves about who was the greatest. What makes this so mind-blowing is that Jesus had just told them that He was going to be betrayed into the hands of His enemies, be killed and raised from the dead. And yet, all they could think to discuss along the way was which one of them was the greatest. I would have loved to have heard that discussion. I'm sure Peter, James and John argued that they were because they alone got to witness the transfiguration of Jesus. Peter probably make a point of referencing the episode where he walked on the water (at least for a while). Each of them probably had ample reasons to vote themselves into the prime spot and just as many reasons for discounting the greatness of one another. Embarrassed at Jesus' questioning about what they had been arguing about, they refused to answer. But Jesus knew. So He sat them down and gave them a lengthy lesson on the reality of life in His Kingdom. First, He rocked their world by telling them,  "Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else" (Mark 9:35 NLT). So all their talk about greatness was misplaced and a waste of time. In His Kingdom, humility was the key to greatness, not pride. Servanthood was of greater value in God's economy than leadership. True greatness began with an attitude marked by humility, dependence and need. To further illustrate His point, Jesus invited a little child to sit down among them. In that day, children were of little value. Other than male children who could carry on the family name, children were a burden. They had no rights. They were obligated to obey and honor their parents. They were worked hard and often taken for granted. But Jesus took this little child, placed him in their midst and said, "I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:3-4 NLT). This child was weak, defenseless, unimportant, completely dependent, and had not Jesus called him over, would have gone totally unnoticed by the disciples. Jesus' point? That's the attitude required of every citizen of His Kingdom. When Jesus called this little child over, he came. He obeyed. He did as he was told, no questions asked. The disciples were constantly questioning Jesus and doubting His methods. They were self-consumed and prideful. They truly believed that because they were followers of Jesus, they would play a prominent role in His coming Kingdom.

Even after hearing Jesus' words, John seems to still be promoting his own greatness when He informs Jesus that they had stopped some arrogant outsider from casting out demons in Jesus' name. I'm sure John was expecting a commendation, but instead he got a rebuke. Jesus responded, "Don't stop him!" (Mark 9:39 NLT). Jesus seemed to be saying, "This is about the Kingdom, not getting credit for what you've accomplished." John saw this man as competition. But Jesus said, "Anyone who is not against us is for us" (Mark 9:40 NLT). Rather than worry about getting recognition for what you've done, willingly serve any and all who are helping the cause of Christ. Interestingly enough, this outsider was doing what the other disciples were unable to do while Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration – cast out a demon. Whoever this individual was, he had enough faith in Jesus to use His name to cast out demons. But the disciples had commanded him to stop what he was doing. Jesus made it clear. In doing so, they were causing this man to sin. "But if you cause one of these little ones who trust in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck" (Mark 9:42 NLT). This man was waging war against the enemy in Jesus' name, but the disciples, due to their own pride, had told him to stop. Their own pride had done harm to the Kingdom of Christ and caused this man to sin. That was a dangerous thing to do. The key issue here is pride. Jesus wanted the disciples to examine their hearts and get to the root of the problem, then cut it off. "If one is characterized by pride rather than humility, and if one consistently acts in pride so as to offend those who believe in Christ, he is demonstrating that he does not belong to Christ and such a one would consequently ‘be thrown into hell’" (J. Dwight Pentecost, The Words & Works of Jesus Christ). Pride is a powerful force in the life of the believer – for bad, not good. We must watch for it and do everything in our power to remove it. We must be as little children – humble, dependent, recognizing our own weakness and turning to God for all our needs. Our lives should be marked by compliance and complete submission to the will of the Father. There is no place for competition in the Kingdom of Christ. We all serve the King.

Father, pride is a constant reality in my life. It raises its ugly head on a regular basis, and sometimes it becomes to familiar that I fail to see it for what it is. Open my eyes and examine my heart. Show me the pervasive presence of pride in my life and help me remove it. Replace it with an attitude of humility and service. Give me the heart of a child. Amen.