THE LORD SPOKE (February 17)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Leviticus 17-19

Ethics cannot be properly founded apart from an understanding of the holiness of God. This section of Leviticus contains the laws of holiness and they are forcefully punctuated with the reminder that “I am the LORD your God”. No less than forty-eight times before the end of the book! Twenty of those are right here in Leviticus 18 and 19. Chapter 18 speaks of holiness in sexual behavior and chapter 19 of holiness in social ethics.

S.H. Kellog has summarized it very well for us:

“...The Church needs to come back to the full recognition of the principles which underlie the Levitical code; especially of the fact that marriage and family life are not merely civil arrangements, but divine institutions; so that God has not left it to the caprice of a majority to settle what shall be lawful in these matters....

“God has declared not merely the material well-being of man, but holiness, is the moral end of government and of life; and He will find ways to enforce His will in this respect. “The nation that will not serve Him shall perish.” All this is not theology merely, or ethics, but history. All history witnesses that moral corruption and relaxed legislation, especially in matters affecting the relations of the sexes, brings in their train sure retribution, not in Hades, but here on earth. Let us not miss taking the lesson by imagining that this law was for Israel, but not for other peoples. The contrary is affirmed in this very chapter (vv. 23, 24), where we are reminded that God visited His heavy judgments upon the Canaanitish nations precisely for this very thing, their doing of these things which are in this law of holiness forbidden. Hence, the land spued them out! Our modern democracies, English, American, French, German, or whatever they be, would do well to pause in their progressive repudiation of the law of God in many social questions, and heed this solemn warning. For despite the unbelief of multitudes, the Holy One still governs the world, and it is certain that He will never abdicate His throne of righteousness to submit any of His laws to the sanction of a popular vote.”

(Kellog, The Book of Leviticus, pp. 430-431)


New Testament: Luke 4

Why did they get so mad at Him? They were mad enough to kill Him. The mob was stirred up to the point of murder and it was all brought about by mere words.

It started out okay. Jesus went to synagogue that Shabbat like any other. He was back in His home town of Nazareth where they were accustomed to seeing Him attend the services (Lk. 4:16). Since growing up there, He’d acquired quite a reputation so upon coming home they quite naturally invited Him to have a part in the Scripture reading that day.

The portion that He read was not random. Isaiah 61 is part of the assigned reading for the 51st week in the yearly cycle. On that day, which came shortly before Passover, the Jewish people read first from Deuteronomy 29-30 for the Torah portion and then Isaiah 61 for the Haftorah reading. Jesus was invited up to read after several others. What quickly caught their attention was the fact that He stopped right in the middle of the reading.

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. They eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.... (Lk. 4:20)

What followed was amazing. He declared, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” The clear implication was that what He hadn’t read - the rest of Isaiah 61 - was not yet fulfilled. If you look at it carefully, the first part of the chapter, the part that He read, speaks of Messiah’s first advent. The remainder speaks of His second advent. In fact, He was making a claim to be the Messiah!

They didn’t get it at first. Their initial reaction was, “He’s such a nice boy. We always liked seeing him in Joseph’s shop - too bad he took off to Capernaum. Maybe he’ll do a nice miracle for us too.” So He turned up the temperature of His commentary a bit. When He got to the part about God choosing to show favor to the Gentiles (Lk. 4:25-27), that was too much. It’s okay for God to be sovereign as long as He doesn’t start condemning Israel and favoring the goyim. That was over the top.

So they tried to throw Jesus over the top of the cliff. Wow! To us His words just sound like a couple of the flannelgraph stories we heard as kids. To the Jewish men in Nazareth they were enough to make their blood boil. Who was he to call them hardened, insensitive sinners in need of a Savior? What made him think he could damn them with his words? Who did he think he was? God?

Verse 30 is going to be one of the most popular DVD’s checked out at the PLH (Public Library of Heaven). How was it that “He walked right through the crowd”? Did they freeze for an instant? Were their hands bound at their sides? One thing is sure - His Word will never be bound. Nothing can stop it.