THE LORD SPOKE (April 10)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Judges 9

Looking down as it does on Shechem, Mt. Gerizim has seen a lot of Bible history. Starting with the Patriarch Jacob who settled down there (Gen. 33-34), Gerizim has had a steady parade of biblical characters pass under its shadow. Most of those stories don’t have a happy ending. Just like Jacob. It was here that his daughter Dinah was raped.

Joshua’s story is closely related to Mt. Gerizim. Before his death, Moses twice (Deut. 11 & 28) instructed Joshua concerning a special ceremony that was to take place after the conquest of the Land. The people were to go to the “mountains across the Jordan, west of the road, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of the Canaanites” (Deut. 11:30) for a covenant renewal ceremony. This was to take the form of blessings pronounced from Mt. Gerizim and curses from Mt. Ebal. Blessings for those who obeyed and followed God’s ways and curses for those who didn’t.

This was what Joshua did shortly after entry into the Land. “Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law - the blessings and the curses - just as it is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the aliens who lived among them.” (Josh. 8:34-35).

Today’s story about Abimelech is less pretty. Reverting to the worship of Baal, he goes to the very spot of Joshua’s dedication ceremony and persuades the people of Shechem to make him their “king”. By this he undoes all the good that his father Gideon had done. His youngest brother, Jotham, then climbs to the top of Mt. Gerizim (Judg. 9:7) and spins a fable about an olive tree, a fig tree, a grape vine, and a thornbush. The point of the parable (pun intended) is that Abimelech is the worthless thornbush. In the end (Judg. 9:56-57) God’s judgment was swift and sure.

Centuries later, the Samaritans built a temple atop Mt. Gerizim. The Samaritan Pentateuch claims that Mt. Gerizim, and not Mt. Ebal, was the mountain on which Moses had commanded an altar to be built (Deut. 27:4-6). About 400 BC the Samaritans built a temple there which was destroyed by the Jews under John Hyrcanus about 128 BC. This contributed greatly to the clash between the two peoples and is behind the words of the woman Jesus met at the well near Sychar: “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” (Jn. 4:20).

Today Mt. Gerizim looks down on Nablus, a hotbed of violence against Israel, smack in the heart of the Palestinian Authority’s turf. It would seem that the more things change, the more they stay the same, and we cry out, “How long, O Lord?” Is it too much to imagine that one day King Jesus will go back to visit those spots that have such an important place in the Gospel story? Will John 4 be reenacted with the arrival of the Messiah once again in the shadow of Mt. Gerizim?


New Testament: Acts 11

Gentiles in the church? It must have sounded like cockroaches in the kitchen to those early Jewish believers. They hadn’t had the experience that Peter had. They hadn’t actually seen what God did in the household of Cornelius. They’d only heard about it and they didn’t like what they heard.

So Peter had to go testify and the court was not very sympathetic (Acts 11:2-3). At first. But when they heard the amazing story of God’s grace “they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ‘So then, God has granted even to the Gentiles repentance unto life.’” (Acts 11:18).

Like the proverbial camel in the tent, once it began the numbers increased rapidly. Especially at Antioch (Acts 11:20f). Experiencing God’s hand upon them, the new church that formed there became one of the most important in the book of Acts. Three times (Acts 11:21,24,26) we’re told that “a great number of people” came to the Lord through that ministry. That church displayed the most noble and God-honoring characteristics to be found in Scripture. Peeking ahead through the next chapters you can find all the following - they were:

1. devoted to the Word
2. steadfast in their witness
3. generous with their wealth
4. consistent in their worship
5. given to the work of the Lord

One of the keys to that success was the individual, Barnabas. Such a man of God was he! He was one of the Levites (Acts 4:36) who came to faith. That qualified him to be one of the early teachers but we’re given some of his other notable characteristics (Acts 11:24): “he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, and faith.” His given name was Joseph (Acts 11:36) but his nickname, Barnabas, reveals even more. “Barnabas” means “son of encouragement”.

And that he was on several occasions. We can thank him for nearly half the books of our New Testament for he was the one who brought Saul into the church at Antioch as one of the early teachers (Acts 11:26). Saul, later to be known as the Apostle Paul, wrote 13 of our N.T. epistles under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Aren’t you glad that Barnabas thought it worthwhile to encourage him?

THE LORD SPOKE (April 09)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Judges 7-8

Brave Gideon had three hundred men;
The Midianites had a host.
But Gideon had the Lord with him,
And so he had the most.

So went a little song taught in Vacation Bible School years ago. It celebrated how Gideon “won the fight with the Midianites, for Gideon had the Lord”.

Judges 7 begins with a great sifting (Judg. 7:2-3). With men's hearts already quaking, they watched over 2/3 of the “army” melt away in a day. By God’s judgment, the ten thousand remaining were still too many and the number is further reduced to ridiculous odds. In the end, there are only three hundred to go up against a plague of Midianites so numerous that even their camel herds were too big to be counted (Judg. 7:12).

So begins a gracious strengthening (Judg. 7:9-20) as God prepares Gideon and his little band for the task ahead. Never has there been a greater illustration of the truth that “the battle is the Lord’s” (I Sam. 17:47). Gideon himself is strengthened by the inspired interpretation of a piece of pita tumbling into the tents of the mighty Midianites (Judg. 7:13-14).

A glorious success (Judg. 7:21-25) concludes the story. The Midianites are thrown into a total rout. Quaking Israelites come out of the rocks and pursue them all along the way. They chase them the length of the Jordan Valley, picking up valuable military supplies as they go and capturing two of the Midianite generals. The host skedaddles and God’s people ____________.

The rest of that sentence should read something like, “lived happily ever after”. In fact, they still have some house-cleaning matters to care for. Judges 8 tells the story of Gideon’s necessary mop-up campaign. It concludes by telling us that Midian “did not raise its head again during the rest of Gideon’s lifetime, a total of forty years (Judg. 8:28).

Israel’s national memory was pitifully short. “No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites prostituted themselves” (Judg. 8:33). They forgot Jehovah and made one of their notoriously dumb choices. They decided to follow the Baals. We could almost laugh, if we weren’t reading this script in a mirror.


New Testament: Acts 10

It sounds so easy. We do it all the time. But not Peter! Nor any other orthodox Jew. When the visitors from Cornelius arrived, “Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests” (Acts 10:23).

It happened to me once while living in Jerusalem. An orthodox Jewish friend invited me over to his house. He did his best to make me feel comfortable but it was evident that he was stretching things a bit. His 14-year-old son shouted from around the corner, “Why are you bringing a goy into this house?

But Peter had been prepared for the occasion. Only moments before, he’d had a vision of unclean animals being let down to earth in a sheet. Three times! Then a voice, which Peter recognized to be the Lord’s (Acts 10:13-15), told him to eat of the non-kosher food. Peter’s answer was the expected Jewish response - “No way! I’ve never eaten non-kosher food.” He could have added, “nor had any non-Jews into my house” (Acts 10:28)

That was the point of the vision. God was preparing Peter for something new. The next day the little group returned to Caesarea and Peter met Cornelius. [By the way, what other pope ever said, “Don’t kneel before me. And stop kissing my toe!”] Peter found a “large gathering of people” waiting for him. And waiting expectantly! They believed they were in the very presence of God (Acts 10:33) and were longing to hear His voice through Peter.

The Lord spoke.

First He spoke to Peter.

Then He spoke through Peter.

And so the Gospel began to break out of its Jewish mold. As Peter explained the message that brings salvation, these Gentiles believed and were converted. Somewhat to their astonishment, the other Jewish believers present recognized that these Gentiles received the gift of the Holy Spirit “just as we have”.

How interesting that when Peter addresses the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, he changes that phrase to “we are saved just as they are” (Acts 15:11). It had finally come around full circle. Peter, and through him others, had finally come to understand that “God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation” (Acts 10:34-35).