Kosher Laws for Meat --Part 3 ---Chewing the Cud

More on Leviticus 11v3. We have already discussed how the Old Testament Law contains 'types', illustrations intended to show us something about Christ. We have looked at a possible allegory about the Godhead symbolised by the cloven hoof. These illustrations are subjective and personal; use them as far as they make sense to you in the view of the full New Testament revelation.

Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.

Leviticus 11:3

Last time I talked about the imagery of the cloven foot. Now for chewing the cud.

An animal which chews the cud normally feeds on grass or other vegetation. It then swallows it, and part-digests it. It is brought up to chew again, often multiple times. Why? To complete digestion and extract all the nutrient. 

The food is very specific, usually grass. The animal chews it over repeatedly, over a period of time, until it has extracted all the goodness.

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.

Psalms 119:9

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.*

Psalm 1:1-2

The Word of God is a very specific food, a singular input into out psyche, our being. Just like an animal eating only grass. It enters through the 'eye gate', not the mouth. The mouth can then be used to consolidate the Word within us, as we read it out loud.

The entire Word is uniquely God-breathed. It needs repeated reading, combined with meditation. We need to 'ruminate' on it, day and night. We are in a hostile climate, and increasingly so. We need to nourish our souls with real food.

A pig on the other hand is an animal which does not chew the cud. It is not Kosher**. 

The famously-blunt healing evangelist Smith Wigglesworth is recorded as having opened a minister's lunch centred around a hog roast with this prayer:

'Lord, if you can bless what you have cursed, then bless this stinking pig'.

Presumably the ministers were a little uncertain about how to proceed. Correct theology would've resolved the conundrum.

A pig itself will eat just about anything, and gulp it back pretty quickly.

The world offers many forms of reading and audio-visual entertainment. They often offer instant gratification. They are designed to look and sound instantly appealing, to grab our attention. They are easily digested, but not really worthy of prolonged or repeated attention. They do not nourish the deeper parts of the soul, and they may also poison it. The wicked feed from these things, and behave in line with them.

Paul instructs

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

Our minds are transformed by washing with the Word, the Bible. 

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Ephesians 5:25-27

Notes:

*The Law was the Word of God in Levitical times. It is still valuable to meditate on it: that is what I'm doing here. It does need to be seen in the light of the New Testament and of the remainder of the Old Testament. We need to assimilate it into our worldview, but we need to understand the context of of it.
**In the current age, the Church age, we are not forbidden from eating its meat.
We are not under the curse of the Law anyway.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Galatians 3:13
The curse of the Law is recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 27, starting in verse 9, and on into chapter 28. The Israelites cursed themselves if they broke the Law of Moses.

 

Kosher Laws for Meat --Part 2 ---A Meditation on a Cloven Hoof

 Back to Leviticus. Bear with me.

-Whatever (animal) parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.

Leviticus 11:3

In Part One I examined why God gave this demanding set of laws to the Israelites, the rules from the Pentateuch, Exodus onward.

Some people have said they are perfectly reasonable. Well God is a Holy God and we can't usefully argue. But seen as a whole I do think they are very difficult indeed to keep and quite burdensome. These meat laws are some of the easier ones. I like Kosher animals best to eat anyway.

Jesus spoke to the Galileans

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

The Law leaves you weary and heavy laden. It is an exponentially increased version of the cares of this life! Not only must you handle the cares of the world, like everyone else, you must strive to stay in God's good books too!

So Jesus told us to come to Him. He's fulfilled the Law for us, nailing the rules and charges against us to the cross!

(God made us alive with Christ) by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Colossians 2:14

Anyway, why the cloven hoof command?

First, we need to see that the Law is a pointer to Christ. In theological language, it contains 'types', shadows and analogies to truths whose substance lies elsewhere. The truths are the 'antitype', the reality. That reality is Christ.

Now as a Christian, Paul, the once super-orthodox religious Jew, writes about Laws and religious observances.

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Colossians 2:16-17

This dietary law, like all similar laws, is a shadow pointing to Christ. The Jews were in a holding pattern waiting for the Christ. The Law served to gather them and keep them as a people until that time. After the time of the Gentiles, I believe it will do so again, this time with the goal of getting them to acknowledge the One they have rejected.

A cloven hoof is made of one piece of Keratin. But it bifurcates into two 'toes', which contact the Earth. 

The Father and the Son are of one substance. Jesus clearly stated

I and the Father are one

John 10:30

Yet the Son manifested for a time in a mortal body. He was here for about 30 years about 2000 years ago.

The Son existed in Highest Heaven before the incarnation.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

John 1:1-2

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

SO John 1v1 tells us that Jesus Christ the Messiah was with God in the beginning, and that He was God. In other words, he was both separate and of the exact same essence. 

Have a think about the cloven hoof. Two toes, one block of matter. Do I know exactly what God had in mind here? A safe diet? Maybe, in part. I only know what it is saying to me right now!

The Godhead is three, and the Holy Spirit is a servant, and also a person. The Father and the Son show us a cleaving in the Godhead. The aim is to include humanity in the family of God. The consummation of the cleaving is seen on the Cross.

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Mark 15:34

The Father and the Son were willing to be torn into abandonment on the one hand and grief on the other. God did not shelter Himself from the extremity of emotion here.

Jesus was not cool, calm and collected in Gethsemane either, anticipating the Cross.

He returned to prayer three times when yielding to the Father about what awaited in a few hours. He was strengthened by an angel, Luke tells us, and yet he was strengthened so He could return to prayer yet more earnestly.

And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Luke 22:44

At some point shortly thereafter, the matter was settled, and Jesus told the disciples, who had fallen asleep, to move on with Him. Jesus was at prayer for some time here. Then came arrest, sham trial and crucifixion.

And of course, there was resurrection !

The cleft was made so we could be included in the cleft.

 

Consider Moses. He asked to see the Glory of God. What is the Glory of God? It is first and foremost the character of God. It is Love. Not the sentimental, emotion-dependant, temporary sort. The real thing.

And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

Exodus 33:21-22

Moses saw God from within the cleft.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,

Ephesians 1:13-14 (NIV)

The word 'included' is not there, strictly, but it does spell out the implications of the passage. We are incorporated into Christ, we are at one with Him just as He is at One with the Father!

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

Ephesians 2:13-14 (ESV)

We  have been made one with Him. Who? With Christ. And therefore with the Father and the Holy Spirit!

Check a few translations in case you think I'm being selective. 'Both one' is 'amphoteros heis'. It means 'both one'.

We are joined. We are of the same substance. Amazing! Hard to take in, and presently impossible to see the full implications of this!

We have not been joined only, like a joint in a piece of furniture. However good the joint, there are two pieces. We have been made one. With God, with Christ. With the Holy Spirit.

In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

John 14:20

At John 10v30, Jesus said He was one with the Father. In this verse He extends the relationship to the disciples!

The unity has been described as the same sort of inextricable oneness which happens when you peel a pile of potatoes and mash them together thoroughly. You can no longer tell which was which.

Now Jesus was God and Man, Spirit and mortal flesh. So we cannot say there is no separation. There is a very definite individuality about the Father, the Son, about the Spirit, and about us. But the inner essence of who we are is of the same.

Hebrews chapter one concentrates on the deity of Christ. Chapter two focuses on His humanity. 

For both He that sanctifies and they who are being sanctified are all of one: for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren

Hebrews 2:11 (NKJV)

So we can see the essence of the unity in the family of God, and of the completely committed covenant relationship we have when we are Born Again of the Spirit into that family.

Once that amalgamation has occurred, no separation is possible. If a man tastes of the things of God, he can walk away. But once he has been born of the Spirit, he has entered into the eternal realm. The eternal realm is, obviously enough, eternal. It doesn't change. Its inhabitants are permanent citizens.

We are one and yet we are separate, just as the Trinity is One. We will never be the Father, and we will never be the Saviour. But we are in Him, completely and totally. We are of the same eternal essence.

So we see that God is ultimately looking, not for our moral performance, but for Himself in us. Only Himself in us will perform morally to His requirements! We have that treasure in mortal bodies, in Jars of Clay. It often takes a while for the treasure to shine through! 

Kosher Laws for Meat What are these about? Part 1

What can we learn about the heart of God from these obscure dietary rules? First, I want to loom at the Law of Moses itself.

The Law Itself

And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, These are the living things that you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.

Leviticus 11:1-3

As a student and a new believer, I once went to help on a Christian camp for primary school children in Kent, England, run by Scripture Union. The kitchen surfaces were all covered in some form of protective film when we arrived. Turns out an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish group were using the boarding school building the week before. Even the stainless steel sink was 'protected'. Their food was not to be contaminated by the residue from Gentile food.

To this day observant Jews will eat only Kosher food. Even many Jews who would not consider themselves to be religious will still avoid a diet which violates Leviticus! So only Kosher food is acceptable according to the Pentateuch. These are the five Books of Moses and the Law. In the Old Testament they are Genesis through to Deuteronomy. Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 are the relevant passages if you want details.

But the most Orthodox and zealous Jew will not keep all the Law all the time! And God sees that!

Let's talk about the Law and why it was given.

The Law was an all-pervasive set of rules. It constrained all areas of life. Although it was given to the Israelites through Moses, the laws originated from God. Let's not forget that, or deny that. It was not given by a different God, it's the same God who was in Christ. It's hard not to see the laws as being a little intrusive at times! When Jesus came to Earth as mortal man, John noted a difference.

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.    

John 1:17

The Law contained truth. It wasn't especially gracious. Therefore John draws a distinction. He feels the relief personally. God, very literally, turns out to be human! He likes people and accommodates them! He's righteous, certainly. But He's gracious too. Those who are contrite before God find Him attractive. He isn't in a hurry to point out the faults of these people. 

The Law though was a demanding taskmaster. But we can't try to claim the God of the Old Testament is different to the God revealed in Christ. Why did the Israelites get a harsh, unfriendly deal? Briefly, the people under Moses were still full of self-righteousness and self-belief. They thought they had been delivered because of their superior virtue. Anyone with this mindset will encounter God's harshness. The Israelites were actually under a promise, a promise made to Abraham hundreds of years before. God was honouring a promise. He was not besotted of the moral purity of the Israelites. But they assumed their God was making a performance-based selection when He chose them. No. They were selected because God was faithful to Abraham, and so blessed and freed his progeny. Abraham himself was chosen only because he believed God. His character wasn't ideal either, which is obvious when we  read Genesis chapters 12-25 fully.

Abraham's Reward and the Promise to his progeny

And he (Abraham) believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness.     

Genesis 15:6

Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

Genesis 15:13-14

On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates       

Genesis 15:18

So God promises Abraham that his descendant will be captive 400 years and then be delivered into a Promised Land. It's a promise: no conditions are stated. God is faithful and true. That's all you need to know.

But by the time the Israelites are delivered, they are saying

All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD.

Exodus 19:8

Can you imagine that? There's a lot of pride and presumption in this statement. There's a huge wodge of conceit in there. Surely a more appropriate response would be 'what will this awesome and holy God demand from us? How are we ever going to keep Him happy?' 

If they'd approached Him like that, He would've spelt out His merciful nature and reassured them, I'm certain. But they came in conceit and hubris, full of themselves. 

God responds appropriately. He shows them it's no trivial task to please Him, if it's you doing it by yourself. Indeed it's completely impossible. So God gave them an impossible set of rules intended to show His holiness and character, while at the same time intended to demolish their self-belief.

The Law is not a 'because you're worth it' message!

Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Deuteronomy 9:5

This misunderstanding between promise and moral performance continues to this day.

God is not looking for your moral substance. He's looking for Himself in you!

How does that happen?

You must be born again.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:3

Next Time. What is the cloven hoof thing all about?

David, Saul and Authority

Some Christians are probably tired of hearing about Biblical authority, which has been badly abused. People have been hurt and disillusioned. Serious abuse has occurred, along with dishonourable cover-ups. People have got high and  mighty beyond what is real and beyond what they are able to perform to. This happens with politicians, business people and pastors alike. I'm sure I've done it when we pastored in Johannesburg. In the West, authority of any kind is not fashionable or much warmed to. We can learn from the real King of Kings because He is lowly and gentle of heart!

We can also learn a lot from the written Word of God, the Bible, and here I'm focussing on King David, as recorded in 1 and 2 Samuel. King David seems to have wielded his true authority effortlessly and without much self-consciousness or insecurity. For most of his long reign the people were happy to be under his leadership. Why is this? Some things are clear, others less obvious.

David was Israel's greatest earthly king. With his encounter with Goliath, he even made it through into popular culture. We'd probably say he had 'gravitas' and 'charisma' in spades. He had this spectacular early success and the Israelites were delivered. Indeed the Jews still look for a 'Messiah Son of David', a national deliverer. A mighty king. There are many people gifted in the persona of leadership. David was hardly unique in that.

There's reward in teasing out some of the wisdom embedded in God's Word here. Why is David so honoured? Some of that wisdom is straightforward and well-agreed. David was a man of clear and incisive faith. For this reason he faced Goliath, the giant Philistine man of war. We read about this in 1 Samuel 17. He did so with confidence and resolve, free from fear. His focus was not Goliath. It was not on himself. It was not on the Philistines or the Israelites themselves. It was the Glory and Honour of the God of Israel. 

Saul was David's predecessor and the first king of Israel. Samuel the prophet anointed both of them as king. One area for study is how Saul and David handled their status and authority as Kings.

What shines through the books is how Saul tried to force his leadership and authority at various points in his reign. This despite God Himself having anointed him as King. That should've been enough. Saul is initially hesitant to be king, hiding away at his own 'coronation'. Later he repeatedly grows concerned when faced by the enemy. He seeks help and reassurance in places other than God Himself. He doesn't often seek God's will out, and when he attempts to, he disregards God's ordained people and methods. He also tries to shore up his reign by eliminating competition, and here he perceives David rightly as his main rival. When David is praised above him, he grows angry and unsettled. Although he has a God-ordained role, he is not rested and secure in it. He is not afraid to usurp the God-given roles of the priests. His relationship with God seems to be a series of hasty attempts to do what is expected of him by God and man. Having tasted high authority he seems to cling to it using manipulation and intimidation. Most people do. God is looking for those who do not, and who rest in God for their destiny. That doesn't mean they are lazy or passive; rather faithful in small and hidden things as well as visible things. Such people may never 'make it big' in this life, but if they walk sincerely with God in this life, they will have real and everlasting reward in the age to come. David of course 'made it big' in Israel. His status in the age to come we will see in due course! His reward will be great; where he fits in the eternal scheme we don't really know.

David seems to have made few attempts to shore up his authority. He didn't defend himself or his position. On occasion he almost invited his own removal from office. His authority derived from the choice, from the anointing, of God. God chose him, and God's mantle rested on him. It was not something he would ever be able to establish or maintain himself. He held it lightly. When someone mocked and stoned him, he felt he probably deserved it as from God. In the quiet hidden role of shepherd, he had learned to trust God to perform his responsibilities with him. He had learned in places of seeming insignificance to trust and delight in the Lord God of Israel. His perspective didn't alter as his status grew. He made huge mistakes and sinned terribly, but he came back consistently and usually quickly. He was indeed a man after God's heart!

While Saul fretted about his position and status, David held the honour and anointing of God higher than his own part in them. When Saul came after him, he did not strike back even when the outcome was guaranteed to be in his favour. He did not dare to interfere with the choices of God. When He cut Saul's garment to prove he had shown him mercy, his conscience troubled him almost immediately. Even this small act was touching on a man God had chosen, and it was God's job to remove him, based on God's criteria, not David's. It is hard to over-emphasise the importance of this. God decides our position, our role, our stature, the scope of our responsibilities, our authority. He decides when to give us office and when and if to take it away. The angels who decided to leave their ordained place were in due course eternally damned. The same applies to man. We cannot be who we want to be. The recent preoccupation with radically altered identity is actually indicative of a dangerous rebellion against God Himself and He will judge it ruthlessly unless there is repentance.

I see two take-home lessons in summary. One, take God's anointing on a person supremely seriously. This is supremely expressed in Christ, the very word means 'Anointed One'. In this dishonouring, over-familiar, presumptuous age, if someone has an anointing for spiritual office, honour the anointing and honour them. Don't treat them as infallible. Don't be intimidated by them. But do honour them.

Secondly, the person God has anointed and upon whom the anointing still stands, need not throw their weight around. Their authority and recognition is not upheld by intimidation and manipulation. The most they'll have to do is stand firm in their call and identity. Moses and Paul spring to mind as people who defended their stature and calling, but only verbally, without threats or aggression. It seems David didn't even do this. 

David held the anointing and call of God, and His delegated authority, as more important than his own status, his own part in those things.

How Big is Your God? Where do you fit in?

'By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.'  

   - Hebrews 11v3

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man, that You are mindful of him? And the son of man, that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than God, And crowned him with glory and honour.

    - Psalm 8v3-5 

God is the Almighty Creator of All. He is good. There's no darkness, no guile, no malice in Him. His intention toward His creation is always good. The Bible calls this all self-evident truth, in Romans 1. Man is guilty of denial and elaborate excuse, if he professes to be an atheist, or if he denigrates the character of God. If he does it long enough, God will give him over to a powerful delusion. His delusion will start to look convincing to him. Most of the world, for example, inherently knows unguided, atheistic evolution of species is implausible rubbish. But clever people start to believe it. They construe at best very ambivalent information as fully scientific support for it. 

So He's your God in the creative sense whether you acknowledge it or not. Man is called to much more than simply acknowledging he has a Divine Creator though. God has a view on this, on what our purpose is. He has a very strong view and passionate will for us all. 

What is that view and call? The true call of man is the same thing as the Divine creative intent for man. Man was made uniquely to be 'a little lower than God'. The word 'Elohim' in verse 5 of Psalm 8 is often translated 'angels', following the King James Version. But 'Elohim' is translated as 'God' 2083 times in the KJV Old Testament, and only once, here, as 'angels'. 'Elohim' is, interestingly, a plural Hebrew noun, here in the Old Testament, originally the Jewish Tanakh. Think 'Trinity', although orthodox Judaism won't agree with you. He wants you to rule and reign with Him. You are called to be in uniquely close relationship with Him. Humanity, each man and woman, has a high and unique calling. More generally, we are the crown of His creation. We all have unique common capacities by creation, making this manner of relationship with God Almighty possible. We can reflect and analyse and ourselves create, imagine and conceptualise in ways uniquely parallel with God Himself. You are made in a very wonderful way, as David realised in Psalm 139. If you seem to be a wreck, you are a wreck of someone very noble. A restorable, redeemable wreck in Christ. If you're already in Christ, you are in reality a victor, not a wreck. For those who are not, to enter into your Divine identity and destiny He must become your God, in the redemptive and adoptive sense. He holds out such an invitation; He wants you as His son or daughter. He loves you.

The world is subject to a contrary spirit, Satan, or the devil. He has usurped mankind's right dominion, and flipped and distorted our original value and perspectives. As we experience the New Birth described in John 3, and labour in the Word of God, and encounter His presence, our vision and our identity are rectified and restored. The Kingdom starts to come on Earth as it already is in heaven. Satan will be progressively and then finally cast down and kicked out, along with those who cling to his ways.

Creator

God's character and nature encompass our entire existence. I'm a physicist by training so I see the scientific aspect to my statement. Physics is man's attempt to understand the 'nuts and bolts' of the creation. But physics is just the background fabric to how we exist. Man always looks for cause and effect, but God conflated a creation out of nothing we can detect or deduce. What do I mean? I mean He caused many attributes and properties to arise out of nothing. Man cannot evaluate this sort of final cause. We are more than our physical fabric. 

God is more multi-facetted than analytical science. He's much bigger. He frames every facet of our lives. Emotions and relationships didn't evolve, they were ordained of God. They are, along with many things, part of the creative intent, rather than being a meaningless by-product of chance physical processes. Man is the crowning glory of God's achievement in creation. He therefore also had the furthest to fall, and fall we have. 

It's true that this world is now full of the contradictions of love and predation, but not because we got here by the mechanism of Darwinism, riddled with contradictions and cause-effect paradoxes as that 'science' is. It is paradoxical because we fell, and aligned with malicious spiritual intent, with the origin and personhood of evil. If we have a character attribute, or an intellectual or other gifting, we have it because He made it possible for that attribute to even exist. He then granted us a nature able to express it. If we corrupt something, then we can only corrupt it because God first made it good. Indeed everything in the Universe, even the Universe itself, merely reflects a measure of God Himself. He reaches out to a world He made, a world He decreed that man should have charge over. His gift and calling are irrevocable. He then allowed man to become detached from Himself, because man chose to break faith with Him. This occurred in Adam, our progenitor. That is the bottom line of Genesis Chapter 3. This, by birth, is how we now find ourselves. Sinners, out of joint with our Creator. We search in vain for rationalisations and distractions from who we truly are. We try to glorify ourselves, when we need to share in the Divine nature and Glory. We are lost sinners in need of redemption and adoption.

Redeemer

We are now in the church age. What does that mean? First and foremost, it affirms that God is redemptive, because real true church is the people living in the benefit of this redemption. He has made a way for redemption from our sin and failure in Adam, and, more than that, to enter life as He originally planned and wished, what the Bible calls eternal life. The price for entry? He has paid it in Christ in full, so it's a free gift and invitation, open to all. Not only is it open to all, the one who issues the invitation wishes, even yearns, for all to accept. God has made himself vulnerable to the rejection of those he created. A group of people, an 'ecclesia', have responded, and will continue to respond, in good faith, to what God has done in redemption. Translated, the Greek, 'ecclesia' is 'a called out group or assembly, existing and meeting for a purpose'. It is now the focus of God's attention. The members are people who have a very high call. But, crucially, God is the one who nurtures and empowers them to meet it. That sentence bears reading until it sinks in. We are called to share in His Very Nature and Life, not merely to proclaim it. It is God's power and strength, not ours. Otherwise the call to proclaim the Gospel would be an intolerable burden. It is actually a light burden. It's undergirded, supported, financed, overseen, empowered, by God, through the intimately-present agency of His Holy Spirit. We the church are called to represent His nature to humanity at large, individually and as a group. 

The true church is Almighty God's only plan, intention and initiative to raise up the sons and daughters to rule and reign with Him over His vast and wonderful creation.

So it is not that God has left a little quaint old movement on earth to ponder His nature. It is not even that the church represents an attempt by God to help restrain and reform society. It is not that the church of God is seeking to prevail against extremely strong forces which dominate the world, forces which govern how things really are. These are all weak views of church, although some contain truth. They are not Biblical, and they all represent how men, inside or outside the church, see things. His church is not a small, or tentative, initiative. How do we even imagine that Almighty God would have such trivial, secondary and incomplete ambitions? This God who made the heaven and the earth is the God who will also dismantle them. The God of the unimaginable vastness of space is greater even than that vastness. His subtlety and gentleness are only partly conveyed by the equally unimaginably-intricate scale of the sub-atomic particles, quarks, neutrinos and the like. His being, His existence, is not incumbent on even the universe in its enormity. It's not incumbent on the tiny particles and fields of Quantum Theory. He just is. God is great beyond our knowledge and imagining. His glory is 'high above all nations, above the heavens', from Psalm 113v4. Describing his God, Paul endorsed a phrase from the Greek poets of Athens. 'In Him we live and move and have our being'. This God has called and chosen a body of people to work with and live through. They are called to be His Children. It is His call on you, because you are a man or woman or child. I've answered that call. Have you? This call is not a small thing. Nor is the children's present and developing task. Their task is to reign with God. To inherit the Earth. To judge angels. For starters, to mention a few aspects. God is uniquely completely and sufficiently committed to our emancipation. But we must accept the call.

So what went wrong before all this? Ever since the Fall of Adam, it has been the nature of man to exalt himself. Indeed, the very temptation offered him in Genesis 2 was for him to become wise in his own sight. and so it continues. To read the media is to see man seeking to exalt his own wisdom, or to refine his own thoughts, and to argue about who is seeing things right. God's thoughts toward us are not our own thoughts about ourselves. He isn't confused, we are. Our own thoughts about ourselves are rootless, unstable and meandering. They're confused and divided. We make up ways of thinking and legitimise them with academic language, thinking the style imparts reality and substance. It doesn't. Truth is in the Word of God. You humbly receive it. It is not for you even to decide how God is going to express Himself. You can, after the event, try and deduce how He has already expressed Himself. It is certainly worth doing. For example, Genesis Chapters 1 to 3 are what God has given us regarding our origins and inclinations. Man's job is to receive it meekly. You may, if you wish, think about how we are to interpret what he gives as Holy Scripture. But you can't tell God what He needs to tell man and how He is going to do it. The foundational aspect of that has already been done. It's the Bible. If you're going to look at what God wants everyone to know about how and why the world was made, read early Genesis. Read the Bible as a whole, and study it, to determine what God has done for man and what He requires from him. Do you take parts of it as poetry, or allegory, or as literal fact in your present academic idiom? It looks to me like God has left that up to you. The vital truths are accurately conveyed. A fool attempts to dismiss those truths on technicalities.

The person who approaches God looking at how to 'work' Him for their own desires and goals will fall flat on their face. Either in frustration or in worship. God has come as a man. When He did, He picked up on how we were approaching Him.

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’      (Matthew 11:16-17)

Children are seeking to set the mood, and expecting others to play along. Two things. 

First, it's play. It's not for real. For reality, you need God, not what man on his own gets up to. Man's moods and whims do not determine reality. They are play, and evil play at that. Jesus called us evil, in our natural state. He didn't say 'although you do evil', He said 'although you are evil'. Read Matthew 7v11. One Day some will be chosen for Reality. 

Second, from the quoted Matthew 11 illustration, people very often want to set the agenda, and here it's the emotional agenda. In the next two verses Jesus continues the theme. John the Baptist came in an austere spirit, and was criticised. Jesus came with a light heart of celebration, and He was also castigated for that. Man is territorial and manipulative, and wants to ensure he can 'call the shots'. But Jesus is Lord of All. It's best to yield to him voluntarily. Ultimately everyone will have to, but that's not God's preference. He wants hearts won over by love, not coercion.  

He's Creator and Redeemer. He's Almighty, supremely glorious, Lord over realms we cannot currently contemplate or imagine, host to wonders our mortal minds could not yet fathom. Yet He truly desires, enjoys and treasures intimacy with the crown of His creation, mankind. He sees how you are, but He sees how he knows you can be in union with Him. You are not merely another animal. You are made, uniquely in the image of God. In what sense? Certainly in the emotional and relational sense. In many giftings and attributes also. And in the age to come? I'm sure we'll be amazed. But first we need a childhood, as it were. We need to grow and develop into true Sons. We need to go through this often adverse life as discipline and training; as preparation. that's a wonderful thing. God has caused everything, even in this fallen world, to work for your eternal good. We shouldn't be ashamed of the Gospel, quite the opposite.

So how big is your God? Are you meek in your own view? Do you bow before his Lordship? Are you willing to adopt a posture of servanthood? Do you want to reign with Him? Will you come under the shadow of the Almighty? Will you accept the apprenticeship aspect of true sonship? That all comes with knowing Him, so that's eternal life, the only viable future. That's the only thread, the only path, through this mortal existence, making any real sense at all. You'll be sustained in it and through it.

Get on Almighty God's tack through this often stormy mortal existence. If you haven't yet done so, Confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth. Believe in your heart He rose from the dead. Then you'll be saved; Romans 10v9.

When you've done that, He's invested in you more than you understand. He's committed to you as a beloved son or daughter. He has your best interests at heart, and His idea of your best interests is wildly beyond your own, in accuracy, effectiveness and in scope. When you yearn from deep within, it's these things, from the heart of God to you, which you are really longing for.

Dinner and Depth of Forgiveness

The politics of the Pharisees and how they related to Jesus are fascinating. Very early in the public ministry of Jesus, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to see Jesus by night, seeking further understanding of his purpose and teaching. He got a discussion with Jesus which included the very famous verse for evangelists everywhere, John 3v16. The Pharisee consensus turned more and more against him as time went on, of course, ending with the crucifixion. But some time between these events, in Luke 7v36-50, we see Jesus actually went to dinner with Simon the Pharisee. 

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

(Luke 7:36-50)

Jesus was invited but then when he turned up, he was not honoured. We're not told how much effort was made with the food, which might've been a major interest for me! But nice food or not, his feet were not washed on entry to the house, and he seems to have been generally treated as a second-class visitor. He was not anointed or kissed, as seems to have been the custom. Perhaps some other Pharisees heard about Jesus coming and turned up to check him out. Maybe Simon did not want to honour Jesus if his other guests held him in contempt. He went with the flow of his peers. But another visitor had no such inhibitions.

This visiting woman treated Jesus with great honour. Although she was a sinner in the eyes of the Pharisees, there was no sexual element to her outpouring of love and affection on the Lord. She washed his feet with her tears, probably finding the dishonour from Simon inappropriate. Wishing to correct what Simon had not done, she went further and poured ointment on him and kissed his feet. God is not against intimacy and affection, to the right extent in the right context. Rather, He made them possible and enjoys them. He wants to bless us with true friendships, with Himself and with others. The sexual act does not necessitate real intimacy of relationship. Intimacy, in common usage, is a distorted and largely empty word, just as love is. 

After the Pharisees criticise the woman, Jesus tells a parable about debt. The punchline: Those who love most are those who have been forgiven most. 

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

(Luke 7:47)

What can we surmise from this encounter? 

Jesus is not saying that the woman's sins were forgiven he as a result of her great love for him. Rather because she exhibited so much flamboyantly-expressed love for Jesus, it was clear her many sins were already abundantly forgiven. The full-on nature of her love and affection were evidence of the forgiveness she was experiencing. Forgiveness makes room for love to abide and for love to flow. It then flows from God to us, and from us to God, and also out to the people we meet. We do not earn God's forgiveness by our love. We can't love our way into being forgiven. Instead we need to realise that both the forgiveness and the love are graciously granted by God! Isn't that amazing! None of us could love our way into being forgiven by God. When fully received, His forgiveness releases us into love. The second half of verse 47 shows the same flow, but there we see everything diminished:  The one who has been forgiven little loves little. 

Forgiveness needs to be received. It must be appropriated. It is freely offered by God. The woman had seen her need deeply and received deeply.

There is a sense of proportionality in what Jesus said. 

".....her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

The woman had been forgiven much. She seems to have had a bit of a reputation. Was this because she actually was an unusually bad sinner in the sight of God? I don't think she was. She certainly looked to the world like a bad sinner, but we are all bad sinners in the heart. Jesus taught this fact. We can see the attitudes of the heart are as indicting for us as the deeds themselves (Matthew 5v21 and 27). The truth is that we are all totally corrupted by sin outside of Christ (Romans 7v18). Every one of us, therefore, needs deep forgiveness. It's not reserved just for obvious 'sinners'. Sometimes obvious sinners are less furtive and devious than the apparently upright, who may be better at hiding what is going on. So we're all the same (Romans 3v23). (This obviously doesn't mean we can't do right at all, because God has granted something theologians call natural grace. Being evil, we can still love our children, see Matthew 7v11. But it does mean no part of us is completely free from the defilement of sin. So we all need much forgiveness). 

This raises a question about proportionality. Why does Jesus say some have been forgiven little? He seems to be referring to Simon and the other Pharisees here, because they showed little love and honour for him. It's certainly not because God has limited capacity or desire to forgive. It is absolutely not God's desire to hold grudges and to have to punish people. God freely forgives all men, because Jesus would die, and now has died, for all the sins of the entire world.

The answer has to be to do with whether we have received of his forgiveness, and how much? God holds out complete forgiveness to every man woman and child on the planet. But how many people have received it? Our ability to receive forgiveness at all depends on whether we accept Christ. Having accepted him, our awareness and experience of forgiveness comes as we see just how much has been forgiven. Paul had a lot of love for God and for people. He also saw the extent of his own sin, 1 Timothy 1v15. It's hard or impossible to gratefully receive something you don't know you need. Paul was not like that. We experience forgiveness to the extent that we become aware of our sinfulness and of the completeness of God's provision for it in Christ's Blood.

If we think we are basically great people who sin occasionally, we will receive a little sense of God's abundant forgiveness into our souls. If, like this woman, we see ourselves as corrupt and despicable to the core, we will receive a huge sense of forgiveness, and a similar sense of gratitude. Surely this is what Jesus is getting at. 

Both love and forgiveness are made for giving as well as receiving. There's a helpful pun in there. For giving. get it? We can only love to the depth we have received love. We can only forgive to the depth we have received forgiveness.

God has complete love for us and complete forgiveness for our sin. There are no grey areas, for he is Light. The only reason we cannot experience the forgiveness of God is if we reject the means of forgiveness, Jesus Christ and his sacrifice of himself. Supposing we accept that forgiveness, I believe there is often a personal journey for each of us. We further need to be aware of just how much He has had to forgive in us. We may not realise this in the first instance, when we first come to have faith in the risen and ascended Christ. When we are filled with the consciousness of how much he loves us, we will love him and others quite naturally and extravagantly. We will abundantly and totally forgive them in the same way. This woman seems to have been very aware of her own sinfulness and God's graciousness.

If we don't forgive, we will not experience the forgiveness of God. Why? Because love and forgiveness are living things, intended to live in you. If we are harbouring bitterness, let God reveal it and repent. Remove the blockage. It is dreadful to be intimate with God and to lose the living intimacy, and unforgiveness is a major reason for that happening. Can you gladly forgive someone who has hurt or harmed you badly? Who has shown callous indifference and contempt for you? Who has neglected and ignored you when they should've taken responsibility for you? We all do these things, at times, and to some degree, even if we tend to notice the occasions when they were done to us most. Can you honestly desire only the very best for people who do bad things to you? If so, and if it is not an act, then you are practicing the forgiveness of God. May we so press in to God that we are routinely able to forgive like this. 

The Nature of the Fight of Faith

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

(1 Timothy 6:12)

We're called to 'fight the good fight', as the old hymn says. It is a fight of faith. Who or what are we fighting with? In a sense, we are not fighting any sort of offensive fight, certainly not with people. In 1 Corinthians 10v3-5, Paul says we are fighting strongholds and imaginings. These are primarily problems in our own thinking. A stronghold is a way of thinking resistant to the Word of God, and through which the enemy can gain influence. Imaginings are thoughts. Thoughts which may be suggested by the world system, but which are not the final truth in God. The world and the devil will start to tell us we are sick, or poor, or headed for poverty. These are vain imaginings. The facts around us may confirm these imaginings. We need to reject them based on God's promises from the Bible. In Ephesians 6v11-17 we are instructed to put on the armour of God. Faith is part of that armour; the shield. This sounds quite militaristic, and it is. But again, there are no offensive weapons mentioned, apart from the sword of the Spirit, and that is the word of God. The sword pictures the Word of God as a weapon to cut away anything which hinders us, by discerning between flesh and spirit, between what is purely human and worldly and what is of God (Hebrews 4v12). It's not described in Hebrews 4 as an offensive weapon to attack people. The New Testament also tells us to cast out demons, so the Ephesians 6 full armour is offensive in that sense. There's a militant indignation at the devil and his cohorts, and we have authority to drive them out when their presence is discerned in a person or place. We drive them out by using the authority of the Word, because Jesus has already instructed and empowered us to do this. 

Paul's way to describe the fight in 1 Timothy 6 is not by describing the enemy, but by describing the method. The method, of course, is faith. Why is this? It's because the enemy, from God's true perspective, is already defeated. By faith, we simply agree with and enter into Gods' perspective. We should be remaining in that perspective of victory by our faith. There's a great old hymn exhorting us to do fight the good fight. What does it involve, fighting this fight of faith? 

First, what is faith? In the New Testament Greek, faith is the word 'pistis'. It means belief, conviction, credence, reliance. If we have faith in Christ, we believe Him, rely on Him and have conviction that what he says is true. How does faith like this develop and grow? 

God often speaks in pictures. A year or two ago I started seeing pictures in my mind of a man wearing headphones.  Around that time I had bought some, to listen to music without disturbing people in our smallish house in Cape Town. God often speaks using ideas familiar to us. God probably wasn't suggesting I upgrade my headphones. My wife didn't think so either! I decided instead He was using figurative language. Most headphones don't allow much external sound in. They reject unwanted, sound, the sound of the world around you. Many modern models go further and actively counteract extraneous noise, allowing you to concentrate fully on the material you wish to hear.

What did the pictures mean? We need to be tuned in to God, even if that means we remain relatively ignorant of some aspects of the world around us. It's about which voice and language speaks loudest to us. I believe God was prompting me to listen to His voice and His Word, but also to actively avoid too much exposure to hearing about the affairs of this world. We were in South Africa at the time, and there were many troubles, some of them very close to where we lived. I intentionally visited dangerous neighbourhoods at the time, and God is fine with that as we reach out for Him with the Gospel. But we also had a riot outside our complex and some internal crime. Back in the UK there are different issues, as we are reminded now we have returned. It's not necessarily better, just different. Wherever we live though, it's easy to focus in excessively on this world. We might start to think about how secure we are, or how to change the government. We start to think about jobs and income, and whether we can survive financially. In the UK, it's easy to get concerned about Godless values being enforced on people. All this is the way things seem to be. But it's really only how they seem to be. There's a higher truth we can draw from, a truth which over-rules the natural order. The natural order has reality, but there is a higher and absolute truth and reality which will bring the natural order into line with god's Word and promises. 

We cannot escape all persecution, because many people will hate us for our faith. But we can live in the positive promises of God. Even if the world tells us we will fall into sickness, poverty and misery, we can receive and appropriate His over riding promises. We do this by faith. We believe what He has already said and give thanks. You can ask if you like, but it's often not necessary, because we have His Word on issues which concern us. He will then prepare a table of blessing, of health and prosperity, in the presence of the enemies of sickness and poverty. As far a faith is concerned, over-focus on the world can paralyze us and shift us into unbelief. If we listen to the secular media too much, we don't just hear facts about this world, we also tend to pick up the thinking, principles and attitudes of this world. For example, news outlets in many countries seems to thrive on negativity and therefore generate fear. There's a form of excitement involved in this, in generating fearful suspense, but there's death in it too. Faith also has an element of excitement, but it's a different, purer, sort of excitement. It's the excitement of overflowing life. And God has commanded us not to fear. 

Using the analogy of natural hearing, we can see we are called to listen actively to His voice. 

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

(Joh 10:27)

His voice is not always an audible voice. It comes in various forms, including audibly or directly as words spoken to the mind. More usually it comes as a settled conviction or as a desire of the heart, and is accompanied by a sense of deep peace. How do we decide if we are indeed hearing God? It isn't always easy. It is much easier to discern His voice accurately and reliably if we are already thinking in line with His ways. This will happen when we spend a lot of time in prayer, worship and reading the Word. Fasting also helps, and can allow the Word to gain deep entrance by quieting the soul.

What do we mean by this world? Not the planet, that's fine, though it might not last. This world order works in a certain way. It is dominated by control of others, selfishness, and by strife, lust, anger, greed and envy. There are also elements to this world order which are not inherently evil, but which are often used in a Godless way.

Money is an example. It's a dominating factor in purely human thinking. Human learning and Godless ideas and ideals are others. These things certainly have power and some validity, but they don't have final power, God does. And He works through His Word and our faith. In this world order, this natural way of thinking, we may consider ourselves wise. But this is often worldly wisdom. We may consider ourselves good judges of people, or well able to predict the future, what people will do next. But we can be wrong. Sometimes very wrong. We may use natural wisdom, money and learning and other methods to best try to run our lives and make decisions. A lot of the time there is nothing wrong with these methods. But we mostly need to spend time listening for God's voice. What if we believe He is speaking to us about a present situation? If God speaks something not in line with our worldly evaluations, or tells us to do something seemingly risky, will we hear and obey? He will speak in line with his written Word. Will we let God's truths and promises govern how we feel about life, not what external indicators and values might say to our hearts and minds? Will we let His Word, written and spoken, govern our actions?

Our senses 'speak' strongly to our hearts and minds. What our senses perceive is not necessarily wrong, unless we deliberately expose them to sinful influences. But we need to process these sensory inputs with a mind governed by the Word of God. This well help us to act in a Godly way. If God speaks prophetically with a picture or impression, perhaps through another believer, and if we recognise God's voice in it, we should act on that word. We will maintain our peace and joy this way. We will be led in a good path. If we let the strife and uncertainty of the world in to govern our thinking, guess what? Peace will go. Bad decisions are likely.

If we've allowed the world to poison our hearts and minds, our passions and feelings will get corrupted. We will not be satisfied or peaceful within. It may well take effort to press back in to God and get back in harmony with Him. Personally there have been times as a Christian when I have let sin and the devil in, and my heart has even started to grow hostile to God. I've blamed Him for things which are not his fault or doing. This is not good, but there is a way back. If we really get messed up, and drift well away from Him, God will grant us the gift of heart repentance if we seek it and ask. In a sense, we have already repented when we realise we have drifted away, but he can help us return to peace and obedience. God granted the gift of repentance to the Gentiles in Acts 11v18. They wanted God, and God helped them to receive good things from Him. 

It is our souls which are the battleground, our souls get corrupted when we sin and neglect our relationship with the Lord. We become confused and are conscious of defilement. It is within our souls we need to find repentance back toward God. We should always be aware that our Spirits, if we are born again, are sealed for the day of redemption. We have that security. The governing essence of our being, the very core of who we are, is already sealed and perfected for the age to come. Our spirits are ready for that age of abiding, remaining, peace and perfection. They don't need further transformation. Or souls do. And our bodies may need healing too.

In summary, a major aspect of the fight of faith is to fill our minds with Godly thoughts and promises. Reading and understanding His written Word is vital. We can do so much to renew our minds, and thereby stay in the will of God. In this way, we will increasingly walk faithfully with Him. We'll be at peace. We are called to act in line with His Word.

God has given us His precious Word for a good reason. There are so many dependable promises in it. We have to exercise our faith and take hold of those truths, to grasp them with our entire being. This takes effort. Doing these things brings the joy, peace and stability of heaven in to this often drab and miserable present age.