separated

Robbing God of Glory

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1 Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.” 3 Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. 4 I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.” – Zechariah 5:1-4 ESV

In God’s economy, the roles of king and priest were essential for maintaining the civil and moral order of the nation. Together, Zerubbabel and Joshua were responsible for rebuilding the Temple and reinstituting the sacrificial system of Israel. But Yahweh knew that the Temple could not guarantee an obedient people and the sacrifices could devolve into repetitious rituals that held no meaning and made no difference in the people’s behavior.

The reason the people of Judah had spent 70 years exiled in Babylon was because of their sinfulness and disobedience. Jeremiah the prophet had warned them that the Temple could not save them from God’s righteous wrath.

“Even now, if you quit your evil ways, I will let you stay in your own land. But don’t be fooled by those who promise you safety simply because the LORD’s Temple is here. They chant, ‘The LORD’s Temple is here! The LORD’s Temple is here!’ But I will be merciful only if you stop your evil thoughts and deeds and start treating each other with justice; only if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows; only if you stop your murdering; and only if you stop harming yourselves by worshiping idols. Then I will let you stay in this land that I gave to your ancestors to keep forever.” – Jeremiah 7:4-7 NLT

The prophet Isaiah delivered a stinging indictment against God’s chosen people for their faux-faithfulness and hypocritical display of ritualistic and heartless worship.

…the Lord says,
    “These people say they are mine.
They honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
And their worship of me
    is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.” – Isaiah 29:13 NLT

God had warned them of the consequences of their disingenuous displays of adoration and rule-keeping.

“…I will bring disaster upon you,
    and there will be much weeping and sorrow.…

“I will be your enemy,
    surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls.
I will build siege towers
    and destroy it.” – Isaiah 29:2-3 NLT

God expected both heart transformation and behavior modification. His Law was intended to be a road map for righteous living. The sacrificial system was graciously provided as a means for maintaining a right standing with Him when the sins were inevitably committed.

In his role as governor, Zerubbabel was expected to deal with matters related to law and order. He was responsible for policing and enforcement of all civil laws designed to ensure the community’s safety and well-being.

When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily.
    But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability. – Proverbs 28:2 NLT

As the high priest, Joshua was responsible for fostering the spiritual well-being of the nation. He and his fellow priests, along with the Levites, were to care for the Temple and orchestrate the sacrifices and feasts prescribed by God. But they were also to serve as judges, providing legal counsel and judicial decisions on difficult cases.

“Suppose a case arises in a local court that is too hard for you to decide—for instance, whether someone is guilty of murder or only of manslaughter, or a difficult lawsuit, or a case involving different kinds of assault. Take such legal cases to the place the Lord your God will choose, and present them to the Levitical priests or the judge on duty at that time. They will hear the case and declare the verdict. You must carry out the verdict they announce and the sentence they prescribe at the place the Lord chooses. You must do exactly what they say.” – Deuteronomy 17:8-10 NLT

Zerubbabel and Joshua represent the religious and civil leadership of the nation. As God’s appointed caretakers, they were expected to shepherd His flock. This would require equal amounts of love and discipline, something their predecessors failed to provide.

“What sorrow awaits the leaders of my people—the shepherds of my sheep—for they have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were expected to care for,” says the LORD.” – Jeremiah 23:1 NLT

All of these factors provide important background to what takes place in chapter 5. In his sixth vision, Zechariah is shown a giant scroll, measuring 30 feet in length and 15 feet in height. On one side of this massive parchment is a list of all those who have committed theft. The other side contains the names of all who are guilty of swearing. This massive scroll contains only the names of thieves and those who pledge false oaths. But why did God focus on these two transgressions? Aren’t there far worse crimes that deserve God’s attention and judgment?

It seems that these two categories of sin both deal with taking what something that belongs to another. The seventh commandment clearly forbade stealing, and God but in the Book of Leviticus God expands His list of prohibitions.

“Do not steal. Do not deceive or cheat one another. Do not bring shame on the name of your God by using it to swear falsely. I am the Lord. Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not make your hired workers wait until the next day to receive their pay. Do not insult the deaf or cause the blind to stumble. You must fear your God; I am the Lord. Do not twist justice in legal matters by favoring the poor or being partial to the rich and powerful. Always judge people fairly. Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people.” – Leviticus 19:11-16 NLT

Stealing and swearing seem to serve as broad categories that encompass all sins of speech and action. There are a lot of ways to steal from someone else. You can take their property and possessions but you can also rob them of their reputation. An employer can commit theft by failing to pay his workers a decent wage or by withholding payment for purely selfish reasons. However, as the Leviticus passage makes clear, our words can also rob others of their joy, honor, dignity, and self-worth.

Later in this same book, God will expand on this topic of theft and swearing.

“I am determined to bless Jerusalem and the people of Judah. So don’t be afraid. 16 But this is what you must do: Tell the truth to each other. Render verdicts in your courts that are just and that lead to peace. Don’t scheme against each other. Stop your love of telling lies that you swear are the truth. I hate all these things, says the Lord.” – Zechariah 8:15-17 NLT

But there appears to be more here than meets the eye. This scroll and the names of the guilty it contains are meant to get Zechariah’s attention. Its sheer size conveys the number of names that Zechariah saw, and he must have recognized many of them. Perhaps he saw his own name in the list. It seems likely that everyone living in Judah at the time would have found their name written on both sides of the scroll.

In the Book of Malachi, God issues a stern warning to the descendants of Jacob, calling them to change their behavior. He accuses them of stealing from Him and they seem shocked by His words.

“For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.” – Malachi 3:6-9 ESV

The people were guilty of short-changing God. They had repeatedly failed to give the required tithes and offerings, leaving the storehouses of the Temple empty. And God declares the entire nation to be guilty of this crime.

But that wasn’t the only transgression God’s people had committed. According to the Book of Numbers, God outlawed the making of false or fraudulent pledges to Him.

“This is what the Lord has commanded: A man who makes a vow to the Lord or makes a pledge under oath must never break it. He must do exactly what he said he would do.” – Numbers 30:1-2 NLT

The Book of Numbers reiterates this command.

“When you make a vow to the Lord your God, be prompt in fulfilling whatever you promised him. For the Lord your God demands that you promptly fulfill all your vows, or you will be guilty of sin.” – Deuteronomy 23:21-21 NLT

Swearing an oath to God and failing to honor it was a form of stealing. It was to rob God of what was rightfully His. Jesus picked up on this theme of vows and swearing in His Sermon on the Mount. As with all His other saying in this famous sermon, Jesus took the Old Testament teachings on vows, swearing, and oaths and made them even more practical.

“You have also heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the LORD.’ But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne. And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the great King. Do not even say, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.” – Matthew 5:33-37 NLT

Stealing and swearing were common practices among the people of God in Zechariah’s day, and Zerubbabel and Joshua were far from guiltless. All stood before God condemned of robbing Him of glory, cheating Him of what was rightfully His, and offering false assurances of adoration and praise to cover up for their transgressions. But God wanted His people to know that He took their sins seriously and would deal with them harshly.

“…my curse will remain in that house and completely destroy it—even its timbers and stones.” – Zechariah 5:4 NLT

Yahweh wanted true heart change. He would not be satisfied with false piety, faux faithfulness, or fraudulent forms of worship. And God’s expectations remain just as high today. The apostle Paul reminded the believers in Thessalonica that God demanded words and actions that reflected true devotion and a commitment to holiness. Their behavior was to reflect their beliefs.

God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor—not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. Never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. – 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

One nation under God.

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For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. – Ephesians 2:14-22 ESV

To truly understand this passage, one must first grasp the nature of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in Paul’s world. There was a long and deep-seated animosity between the two groups. To put it bluntly, Jews despised Gentiles. They viewed them with contempt and rarely, if ever, associated with them on any level. The Jews viewed themselves as the chosen people of God; everyone else was considered a Gentile, an outsider, and destined to God’s wrath and punishment.

It was forbidden for a Jew to marry a Gentile, and in the rare cases it did happen, the family of the Jewish son or daughter would consider their child as dead, even holding their funeral to mark the day. Paul has just told the Gentile converts in the church in Ephesus, “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12 ESV). Jesus, the Christ (the Greek word for Messiah), had been promised to the Jews and had been born as a Jew.

However, the Gentiles had been born outside the commonwealth of Israel, with no access to the covenant promises made to the people of God. So not only were they disdained by the Israelites, but they were also considered to be without hope and without God in the world. But Paul reminded that Jesus had changed all that.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. – Ephesians 2:13 ESV

The great chasm that separated the Gentiles from the Jews was closed by Jesus. He had made it possible for them to have hope and a relationship with God. But amazingly, Jesus had not just reconciled the Gentiles with God, but He had also reconciled them to the Jewish believers in their congregation. They were now one.

For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. – Ephesians 2:14 NLT

When God called Abraham and promised to make of him a great nation, that was the beginning of the Jewish people. God separated them out from the rest of the nations of the world. He took one man and his barren wife and miraculously gave them descendants “beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore” (Genesis 22:17 NLT). God chose them as His own and revealed Himself in ways He had never done before with any other people group.

He rescued them from captivity in Egypt. He led them through the wilderness and met all their needs along the way. He gave them His law. He provided them the land of Canaan as their homeland just as He had promised Abraham. He fought and won battles on their behalf. He gave them prophets to speak to them. He provided kings to lead them and appointed priests to minister to them. And, as His chosen people, they were to be a light to the Gentiles, a visible example of what it looks like when men live in obedience and submission to God.

But they failed. They couldn’t keep God’s law and were incapable of remaining faithful to Him. They repeatedly rebelled and wandered from the truth of God, seeking after false gods and the fulfillment of their own selfish desires. And as a result, God punished them by sending them into exile. He disciplined His chosen people, but He also redeemed them from slavery again and returned them to the Land of Promise. But things would never be quite the same. They would never have another king or enjoy the peace and prosperity of David’s and Solomon’s reigns.

Then God sent His Son, the Messiah. After centuries of waiting, the long-awaited One arrived on the scene. But John records what happened. “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11 ESV). Jesus, the Son of God and the descendant of King David, was rejected by His own people. Instead of crowning Him as King, they demanded His crucifixion. But it was all part of God’s redemptive plan for mankind.

With His death, Jesus “broke down the wall of hostility that separated us” (Ephesians 2:14 NLT). The law had separated Jews from Gentiles, but it had also separated Jews from God. They could not keep the law. Instead, it exposed their sinfulness and condemned their lack of faithfulness to God.

But Jesus removed the barrier. He reconciled both Jew and Gentile to God “in one body through the cross” (Ephesians 2:16 ESV). He made it possible for men to be restored to God and to one another. Paul claimed that Jesus “brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near” (Ephesians 2:17 NLT). The very same message of redemption was preached to all men, regardless of their ethnicity or religion. Restoration and reconciliation with God would be the same for both. As Paul stated earlier, it was to be by faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. – Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV

Now, believing Jews and Gentiles were one. There was to be no more alienation, separation, animosity, pr hostility. As a result of their shared faith in Jesus Christ, they had become “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19 ESV).

The church, the body of Christ, had been God’s plan all along. It was always His intention to redeem men and women from every tribe, nation, and tongue. That is why He told Abraham that He would make him the father of many “nations,” not just the Hebrew nation. He had also told Abraham that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 22:18), and that promise was fulfilled in Christ.

In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. – Ephesians 2:22 ESV

Together, we form the people of God, reconciled to Him through a common faith in His Son, and living in the shared power of His Spirit. One nation under God.

Day 29 – Matthew 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11

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Hardened Hearts.

Matthew 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11

“He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts.” – Mark 3:5 NLT

Another Sabbath and yet another confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in the village of Capernaum. In the crowd there is a man there with a deformed hand. But there is also a group of Pharisees who are closely watching Jesus’ every move to see if He attempts to “work” on the Sabbath by healing someone, thus breaking the law. In fact, Matthew records the question they posed to Jesus, in hopes that His answer would condemn Him. “Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?” (Matthew 12:10 NLT).

Jesus knows their hearts and so he brings up the man with the deformed hand and has him stand in front of the crowd, in full view of everyone. Then Jesus confronts His antagonists and asks them a simple question in return: “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” (Mark 3:3 NLT). His enemies are speechless, not knowing how to respond.  So Jesus continues, “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:11 NLT).

This exchange between Jesus and these religious leaders causes Him to be both angry and sad. He is angry at their insensitive hearts and their indifference to the needs of those around them. They are more concerned with their rules and regulations than they are for the people under their care. But who exactly were these men and what were their responsibilities. In essence, the Pharisees were a religious sect or order. Their name seems to mean “separated ones.” But what or whom were they separated from? The general consensus is that they separated from the ‘people of the land,’ the ‘am ha’ares. This was a designation of the illiterate and the unrefined people of the land, the peasants, whose illiteracy impeded any careful fidelity to the religious duties such as concerned tithes and cleanness” (Alan Ross, The Religious World of Jesus). They tended to view the common people as ignorant and cursed (John 7:49). They tended to equate their separateness with holiness. That’s why they were constantly shocked by Jesus’ decision to eat and associate with the common people, including all manner of sinners. These men also prided themselves in their refusal to be tainted by the influence of the Greeks and Romans. They considered themselves the few remaining “pure” Jews, who kept themselves untainted by outside influence. They were prideful, arrogant and brutally condemning of all those who disagreed with them.

Jesus is angered by their attitudes and saddened by their hard hearts. In all their religious fervor, they had become hardened to the real point of having faith in God. They didn’t share God’s heart. They were incapable of seeing the world from God’s perspective. In fact, they had attempted to fit God into their own mold, and force Him to operate according to their standards. To them, God was just another Pharisee or rule-keeper. And yet Jesus, as the Son of God, revealed to them the very heart and nature of God the Father. He was compassionate, caring, empathetic, loving, sensitive and responsive to the needs of men – all men. He had a special place in His heart for the condemned, disenfranchised, broken, helpless, hopeless, sinful and needy. It was God’s love for mankind that motivated Him to send His Son in the first place. It was not that God jettisoned His law and replaced it with love. No, God still had exacting standards and His requirement was still sinless perfection. But He knew that no man, Pharisee or other, could ever meet that standard. He gave His law to reveal to man his insufficiency and need. Then He sent His Son to do what no man had ever done before – keep the law of God perfectly and live His life sinlessly. He became the perfect, sinless sacrifice to pay for the sins of man. That is just how much God loves us.

But the Pharisees represent all self-righteous individuals who still believe that it is the keeping of rules that sets us apart from the rest, that our ability to perform earns us favor with God. But this attitude angers and saddens the Savior. It keeps us from recognizing our need for Him, and it prevents us from seeing ourselves as no better than any other man or woman who walks the face of the earth. We too, are sinners saved by grace. We are in need of the mercy of God every day of our lives. Of all people, we should share Christ’s passion for the lost and a heart for those still suffering from the effects of sin.

Father, give us a heart like Your Son had. Help us to see the world the way He did. Don’t let us live our lives or view ourselves as somehow better than everyone else. We have been transformed because of Your grace and mercy, not because we somehow deserved or earned it. Give us the ability to see others the way You do. Motivate us to extend grace in the same way it has been extended to us. Amen.

Ken Miller

Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org