THE LORD SPOKE (June 13)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: I Chronicles 10-11

"Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord...." (10:13)
"And David became more and more powerful because the Lord Almighty was with him." (11:9)

What a contrast between these back-to-back lives. David's exemplary leadership began in the shadow of Saul and it was years before he was free of that dark legacy. Although he had several opportunities to change that situation in his own strength, he refused to do so. Even though he knew he was the Lord's next choice, he refused to move himself to the front before the Lord's timing.

Look at the lives he impacted as a result. After words like "all Israel", "all the elders of Israel", and "all the Israelites", chapter eleven goes on to list the names of fifty individuals. And that list represents just the military inner circle - one small segment of David's influence. Similar lists could be drawn up of the ordinary soldiers, his 600 devoted companions, the Temple musicians, miscellaneous construction personnel, palace servants, and on and on.

This chapter gives us several examples, but you can be certain that every person on these lists had his own story to tell of his relationship to David - how he met him, something he saw David do, some moving words he heard personally from David's lips. David touched many lives and, through his writings, continues to do so to this very day. That is because he listened to the Lord's call to "shepherd my people Israel" (11:2). He was always sensitive to the Lord's direction in his life (11:19) and those few times when he left the Lord's side, he was quick to repent and return to the Lord. That's what it means when it says "the Lord was with him" (11:9). You know how the saying goes: "If you find yourself a long way from the Lord, there's no question as to who did the moving."

So, is the Lord with you today?


New Testament: Galatians 2

Some have called it “Luther’s book” because the Reformer used it so often to combat the dogmas of his day. In his classic refutation of Erasmus he quotes from Galatians extensively. He titled his book, The Bondage of the Will, because he recognized that any form of the so-called “free will of man” will result in a salvation by works.

Did you hear that? Any form of free-will theology will inevitably lead to salvation by works. If the choice is up to man, he will create some form of law that requires certain steps to climb up to God. He will fashion a system whereby man can make himself more acceptable. Free will leads to salvation by works in every instance.

Three times in Galatians 2:16 Paul dogmatically declares that it is not “ by observing the law” that we are justified and three times he powerfully proclaims that it is only “by faith in Christ”. Can it be said any more clearly than that? Need it be?

Apparently so, for Paul has to call no less than Peter, a pillar of the early church, to question on these issues. Not that Peter had himself fallen into a Judaizing spirit, but Peter had buckled to the demands of others (Gal. 2:11-13). Paul correctly saw this as “not acting in line with the truth of the gospel” and that it would ultimately result in Gentiles being forced to follow Jewish customs (Gal. 2:14). It’s not enough to have your own theology in order, you must demand correct theological practice within the ranks also. This may not be true on certain debatable issues but on something so crucial as the gospel it is not negotiable!

How do you wed such doctrinal fire and religious zeal? The two must not be held in abeyance. The standard has been set by the very Word of God and it is our duty both to proclaim it and to live it.

If with the zeal of the Methodists we can preach the doctrine of the Puritans, a great future is before us. The fire of Wesley and the fuel of Whitfield will cause a burning which shall set the forests of error on fire, and warm the very soul of this cold earth. - C.H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students

THE LORD SPOKE (June 12)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: I Chronicles 8-9

That the author of Chronicles was a priest in Jerusalem is nowhere more evident than in this chapter. Though the theory of priestly perspective has been over-worked and, in some cases, abused (e.g. "deuteronomistic history"), it goes a long way to explain some of the inclusions and exclusions we find in the Chronicles. Jewish tradition attributes the book to Ezra and this chapter contains one strong hint that the final form of the book did come in the fifth century B.C. (vs. 2 - "now the first to resettle on their own property in their own towns were some Israelites, priests, Levites and temple servants").

Notice the joyful return of the priests, Levites, and temple servants to their tasks in Jerusalem:

• I Chron. 9:11 - "in charge of the house of God"
• I Chron. 9:13 - "responsible for ministering in the house of God"
• I Chron. 9:19 - "gatekeepers...responsible for guarding the thresholds of the Tent just as their fathers had been responsible for guarding the entrance to the dwelling of God"
• I Chron. 9:26 - "entrusted with the responsibility for the rooms and treasuries in the house of God"
• I Chron. 9:28 - "in charge of the articles used in the temple service"
• I Chron. 9:29 - "assigned to take care of the furnishings and all the other articles of the sanctuary"
• I Chron. 9:30 - "took care of mixing the spices"
• I Chron. 9:31 - "entrusted with the responsibility for baking the offering bread"
• I Chron. 9:32 - "in charge of preparing for every Sabbath"
• I Chron. 9:33 - "musicians...responsible for the work day and night"

And all of these had been "assigned to their positions of trust by David and Samuel the seer" (vs. 22) over five hundred years before! Indeed, one of their number had much earlier written:

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may have her young - a place near your altar,
O Lord Almighty, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you....
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
Psalm 84:1-4, 10

Are you dwelling in the shadow of The Most High?


New Testament: Galatians 1

Paul is bull-dogmatic about the gospel of divine accomplishment vs. the gospel of human achievement. It was the opposite of what the Judaizers were pushing and he’d come out of just that mind-set. He says he was “extremely zealous” in that former pursuit. Tradition can do that to you!

The Judaizers were Jewish believers who taught that ceremonial practices of the Old Covenant were still binding. Worse, their teaching inevitably led to the substitution of legalistic works for faith-based justification. Rather than being “by grace, through faith” alone, salvation was conditioned upon keeping certain legal requirements, especially circumcision.

Paul, on the other hand, had broken with “the traditions of my fathers” (Gal. 1:14) - that religious system that had developed between the Old Testament and the New Testament. It had come about by generations of oral transmission of rabbinic teachings. By its very nature, it had grown increasingly complex and cumbersome. Paul had been steeped in that tradition at the feet of no less than Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).

That’s what makes his conversion so striking. Judaism is a tight system and its appeal to tradition is very attractive. Paul had advanced well and was set for a major position within Judaism. When God got a hold of him, his turn-around was absolute. He spent the next three years on the back-side of the desert (Gal. 1:17-18) retooling his theology to New Covenant thinking. When he did finally come out the other side, he was a powerhouse preacher of “justification by faith”, plus nothing. This letter to the Galatians and his magnum opus - the Epistle to the Romans - was the result.

He made the choice very clear - either you follow the ways of God or you follow the ways of men (Gal. 1:10). There are no other categories. The gospel came by direct revelation from God (Gal. 1:11-12) and was not something made up by man. Nor can man add anything to it for then it becomes “no gospel at all”.

We can be - yea, must be - bull-dogmatic about this point. Salvation is by grace, through faith alone. There is absolutely no other requirement and any attempt to do so nullifies God’s work.