Posted February 17, 2008

Genesis 12:1-8       Abraham’s Call
Psalm 105:4-11        Heirs to Abraham’s Call
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17       Spiritual Forefather
John 4:5-26     Woman at the Well

Genesis:
 
The Lord God called Abraham (Abram) to leave his home in Haran (25 miles southeast of Urfa, Turkey*) and his extended family, and go to a new land God would show him. God promised to make him the father of a great nation and to bless Abraham (and his descendants), so that they would be a blessing, and to make Abraham famous. God promised to bless those who bless Abraham, and curse those who curse him, and bless all the people of earth through Abraham.
 
Abraham went, taking his wife Sarah (Sarai) and his nephew, Lot, and their servants and all their possessions and set out for Canaan (to the south). When they came to Canaan they went on south to about the middle of the country and came to Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the land was occupied by Canaanites.
 
At Shechem, between Mt Ebal and Mt Gerizim, the Lord appeared to Abraham and promised to give the land to Abraham’s descendants. Abraham built an altar to commemorate God’s appearance to him there, and then moved south and camped on the mountain between Bethel and Ai (in the hill country of Judah), and built another altar there.

Psalm:
 
Let us seek the Lord, his strength, and presence, continually! Let us, the descendants of Abraham, the sons of Jacob (Israel), God’s chosen ones, remember his great works and miracles, and his wise counsel.
 
The Lord our God is judge of all the earth. He never forgets his promises and is faithful to his Word to thousands of generations. The covenant which he made with Abraham, promised to Isaac, and confirmed to Jacob (Israel) is an everlasting covenant to give us a portion in the Promised Land as an eternal inheritance.

Romans:
 
If Abraham, our forefather, had been justified by works (keeping) of the law he would have had something to boast about to other people, but not to God. The scripture says that Abraham believed God and his faith was accounted as righteousness (doing right and good in God’s judgment). A worker’s wages are not a gift but payment for his labor. One who trusts in God, who justifies (attributes righteousness to) the ungodly, is accounted as righteous by faith.
 
The promise to Abraham and his descendants that they would inherit the world came through the righteousness of faith rather than keeping the law. If the inheritance were by keeping the law it would not be a promise, and faith would be worthless.
 
That is why God’s promise depends on faith, so that the promise is a gift based on God’s grace (unmerited favor; a free gift) guaranteed to all Abraham’s descendants, not just the Jews under the Covenant of Law, but to all (including the Gentiles), who share Abraham’s faith in God’s Word. So Abraham is the father of us all, fulfilling God’s Word that Abraham would be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5). The promise is by the Word of God, whose Word restores to life the dead, and creates the things that exist out of nothing (Genesis 1:1-3).

John:
 
Jesus was going from Judah to Galilee and passed through Samaria, stopping at noon at Jacob’s Well outside of Sychar (Shechem*). Jesus was tired from traveling (on foot) and sat down at the well to rest while the disciples went into the city to buy food.
 
A Samaritan woman from Sychar came to the well to draw water and Jesus asked her for a drink. She was surprised that a Jew would speak to a Samaritan, and Rabbis do not speak to women in public (see John 4:27). Jesus said that if she knew God’s gift and realized who she was speaking with she would ask him, and he would give her “living water.”
 
She addressed him as “Sir,” and asked where he would get living water, since the well was deep and he had no rope or bucket. She asked if Jesus was greater than Jacob who drank from the well and gave it to his descendants.
 
Jesus told her that the water from Jacob’s well only temporarily satisfies physical thirst, but the living water Jesus was referring to was eternally spiritually satisfying, and gives eternal life. The woman asked Jesus to give her the living water so that she wouldn’t thirst or need to come to the well any more.
 
Jesus told her to go and fetch her husband, and the woman replied that she had no husband. Jesus revealed that he knew all about her; she had been married five times and was now living with a man to whom she was not married. The woman realized that Jesus must be a prophet, or he could not know those details of her life, so she asked him to settle a religious controversy between Jews and Samaritans.
 
Samaritans worshiped God on Mt. Gerazim, but Jews said that one could worship only in Jerusalem. Jesus replied that from now on it didn’t matter where, but how one worshiped God. “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
 
The woman declared her belief in the coming Messiah (Christ) and said that when he comes he will reveal all things. Jesus answered that she was speaking with the Messiah.

Commentary:
 
God has had a plan for this Creation from the very beginning. With Abraham, God began revealing his plan, and that plan began to be recorded in the Bible. God asked Abraham, who was then seventy-five years old, to trust and obey God’s promise, to leave home and family, and go to a strange place which God would show him. God promised to give him descendants, although Abraham was already old, and had none.
 
Abraham responded to God’s call in faith (trust and obedience). He and his household went to Canaan, and in the middle of the land God appeared to Abraham at Shechem, near Mt. Gerizim, and Abraham worshiped God there.
 
The psalmist’s commemoration of the history of Israel is also prophetic. Christians are the “new (spiritual) descendants of Abraham,” the New Israel,” the “new chosen ones” through faith. Christians are the heirs of the promise made to Abraham, to be a great nation, and have an eternal inheritance in the eternal Promised Land of the Kingdom of God in Heaven. Christians are the ones who are blessed through Abraham and his descendants.
 
Abraham is the spiritual forefather of all Christians. He trusted and obeyed God’s Word. God’s promise was not conditional upon works (keeping) of the Law, but upon faith (obedient trust). The giving of the Law occurred some four hundred and thirty years later (Galatians 3:17), to Moses, at Mt. Sinai (Mt. Horeb).
 
God has designed this Creation so that all of us are guilty of sin (disobedience of God’s Word), and none of us deserve forgiveness and salvation (Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:5-8). The penalty of sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23), and salvation is a free gift to be received through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians, 2:8-9, Romans 5:8; John 3:16-17; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).
 
Samaritans were of mixed race and religion, as the result of the conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the ten of twelve tribes, by the Assyrians. The remnant which avoided deportation by the Assyrians intermarried with aliens imported from other conquered Gentile nations, and their religion was a mixture of Judaism and that of the aliens.
 
Jesus could have avoided passing through Samaria on his way from Judah to Galilee, but he chose to go through it. He foreknew all about the woman at the well and arrived at the right time to meet her.
 
Jesus opened the conversation by asking her for a drink of water. Then he turned the conversation from physical to spiritual water.
 
The woman’s understanding of who Jesus is was growing as she talked with Jesus. At first he was a Jew and a rabbi, who didn’t have dealings with Samaritans, and women in general (John 4:9). When he did not respond with a rebuke, she addressed him as “Sir” (John 4:10-11). She asked Jesus if he were greater than Jacob (Israel) the patriarch who had dug and used the well and left it to his descendants (John 4:12. Then she realized that Jesus is a prophet (John 4:19. Finally she expressed her faith in God’s promise of a Messiah (John 4:25), and Jesus revealed himself to her (John 4:26; compare John 14:21).
 
Jesus is indeed greater than Jacob, because Jesus gives “living water” which quenches spiritual thirst eternally and gives eternal life. Living water wells up from within one’s soul, and is received by faith (obedient trust). All we need to do to obtain it is to ask Jesus in faith. Jacob only gave physical water, which only satisfies thirst momentarily, is of no help in gaining longer life, and requires exertion and equipment to obtain.
 
The gift of God is forgiveness of sin (disobedience of God’s Word), salvation from eternal condemnation and eternal destruction, and eternal life in God’s kingdom in heaven (unblemished paradise). Jesus is the only way, truth and life (John 14:6), God’s only provision for the forgiveness of our sin, salvation, and eternal life (Acts 4:12).
 
The “living water” which Jesus was referring to is the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39), which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
 
True worship is not an issue of where to worship, but of how. God is spirit and truth and those who worship him must do so in spirit and truth. Only by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit are we able to call God our Father. When we worship God, the indwelling Holy Spirit prompts ecstatic praise (Galatians 4:6) and enables us to call God our father in worship in spirit and truth, bearing witness that we are God’s children,  (Romans 8:14-16).
 
Abraham had worshiped the Lord at Shechem, in the pass between Mt Ebal and Mt Gerizim. He also worshiped the Lord wherever Abraham went, because he trusted and obeyed the Lord. We can worship the Lord wherever we are, if we seek the Lord, his presence, and strength continually.
 
God incarnate (in human flesh) appeared in Jesus Christ to the Samaritan woman at Sychar at the place where God had appeared to Abraham at Shechem. The promise to Abraham of an eternal inheritance in the eternal Promised Land of God’s heavenly kingdom is fulfilled in Jesus Christ by faith (obedient trust).
 
People who claim to be Christian, without being obedient and trusting disciples of Jesus Christ, cannot not worship in spirit or truth. Their “worship” is merely tradition and ritual.
 
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

*Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, David Noel Freedman, ”Haran,” p.551, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids Michigan, 2000, ISBN 0-8020-2400-5
 
**ibid, “Sychar,” p.1260; “Jacob’s Well,” p. 667

Some authorities associate Sychar with Shechem. Others associate it with a town about a mile north of Jacob's Well. Archaeological evidence indicates that Shechem no longer existed in the First Century A.D. In any case it is close to Jacob’s Well.

Posted February 18, 2008

Psalm 142      Prayer for Deliverance
 
This psalm is attributed to David, when he was hiding in the cave at Adullam from King Saul who was seeking to kill David (Psalm 142 superscription, RSV; 1 Samuel 22:1-4).
 
When David was in danger he called to the Lord. He told the Lord his distressing circumstances, although trusting that the Lord already knew (see John 1:48-49; John 4:18-19, 29). David felt surrounded by enemies seeking to trap him. He looked around but there was no one to care, or help to deliver him and provide refuge.
 
David declared that the Lord alone is his refuge and his portion “in the land of the living” (Psalm 142:5 RSV). In the depths of despair David called out to the Lord. David asked the Lord to deliver David from his enemies, who were too powerful for David to resist and overcome in his own strength. David felt trapped in prison, and asked the Lord to set him free, so that David could praise and give thanks to God. Then David will be surrounded by the righteous (instead of evildoers), because he trusted the Lord to deal generously with him.

Commentary:
 
The Lord does indeed know all about us before we even ask, but he wants us to seek and trust in his help, instead of trying to rely on our own resources or the help of other humans. Often when we find ourselves in distress, our friends seem to disappear. Often it is not until we come to the end of our own resources that we turn to the Lord.
 
Trust in help from any source other than the Lord will ultimately disappoint and fail. David committed his life and circumstances to the Lord. When the Lord is our refuge nothing can happen to us that the Lord cannot shelter us and deliver us from, even physical death, because in him we have an inheritance in the eternal land of the living (Hebrews 2:14-15).
 
I can personally testify that I have been where David was spiritually. I had not been walking daily with the Lord, so I had no previous personal experience with the Lord’s power and faithfulness. I did turn to the Bible seeking deliverance, and I did begin to experience the Lord’s goodness, power and faithfulness as I began to walk in daily obedient trust in his Word. (See Personal Testimonies, sidebar, top right.)
 
The historical Biblical record of King Saul is also intended by God as a symbol and metaphor for Satan. King Saul was still in worldly power, but had been defeated and supplanted by God’s anointed King, David, who is the forerunner of the Christ.
 
Satan, the ruler of this present world, is our real enemy. He still rules, but he was defeated at the Cross by Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 Corinthians 2:6-8; Matthew 28:18; Revelation 20:7-10; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10). He is too powerful for us to resist and prevail against in our own human strength and ability. He surrounds us and sets traps for us, hoping to destroy us eternally. He enslaves and imprisons us by temptation and sin (disobedience of God’s Word).
 
Only Jesus can set us free from bondage to sin and death (see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right). Then we will be surrounded by the righteous (those who do what is good, right and true, according to God’s Word) and will receive the abundant blessings which only the Lord gives.
 
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

2 Lent - Tuesday

Posted February 19, 2008

Isaiah 42:14-21      Blind and Deaf Servants
 
The Lord has been patient and restrained with Israel for a long time but now he will cry out like a woman in childbirth. The Lord will dry up rivers and pools and plants. The Lord will lead the blind in a way and paths they haven’t known. The Lord will turn their darkness into light and make rough paths smooth. The Lord will not forsake them. Those who trust in idols will be defeated and put to shame.
 
Listen, you who are deaf; look, you who are blind! Who is more blind and deaf than Israel, the Lord’s servant, the messenger whom the Lord has sent? He sees but does not observe; his ears hear but he does not listen. The Lord has exalted his law (God’s Word) and made it glorious for his righteousness’ sake.

Commentary:
 
God’s Word is eternally true and is fulfilled over and over as the conditions for its fulfillment are met. It applied to Israel in the time of Isaiah, and it applies to the Church and Nation, particularly, of America, today. The Lord has been patient with his people, but the time is coming soon when the Lord will cry out in judgment. It is the Lord who blesses the land with fertility and prosperity, and the Lord, also, who takes them away and replaces them with drought and barrenness.
 
The Lord will lead his blind people in the new and right direction which they hadn’t found on their own. He will turn the darkness ahead into light. He will smooth the path, and he will not abandon them. But those who follow and trust in idols will be turned back and suffer eternal shame.
 
The Lord calls to his blind and deaf people to see and listen to the Lord. The Lord’s people have been chosen and dedicated to be the servants and messengers of the Lord, but they are more blind than the nations to whom God sends them. God’s people see and hear but without comprehension and application. God has made his Word exalted and glorious for his righteousness’ sake.
 
Are we willing to acknowledge our spiritual blindness and deafness? Are we using our eyes and ears to know and obey God’s Word? Are we committed to serving the Lord, or are we serving other “gods,” of wealth, power, pleasure, success, home, family, and self? Are we disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ, or are we merely church “members?”
 
The Lord can heal our spiritual blindness and deafness. He can show us a new and better way to live. He can lead us through the darkness and give us light. He can smooth the path and keep us from stumbling. He will never forsake us. But we must be willing to be his servants and messengers.
 
We will all either serve the true Lord God or we will serve false “gods.” There is a Day of Judgment coming when everyone who has ever lived on the earth will be accountable to the Lord for what they have done in this lifetime. Those who serve any thing or person other than the Lord will be turned back from God’s eternal paradise in heaven, and will suffer eternal punishment and shame in Hell (Matthew 25:31-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).
 
God has given us his Word in the Bible and in Jesus Christ, the “living Word,” the fulfillment embodiment and example of God’s Word lived in this world in human flesh (John 1:1-3, 14). God has exalted and glorified Jesus because God is right and good in every way.
 
Jesus is God’s one and only designated eternal Savior and King. There is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:12). Jesus is the only way, eternal truth and eternal life (John 14:6; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right). Jesus is the light of righteousness, of divine truth, and eternal life (John 1:4-5, 9; 3:19-21; 8:12), whom God has given us to lead us through the spiritual darkness of this world.

Jesus opens our minds to understand God’s Word (Luke 24:45), through the gift of the Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
 
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?

Posted February 21, 2008

John 9:13-17, 34-39       Spiritual Blindness
 
Jesus encountered a man born blind (John 9:1). Jesus made clay from spit and dirt in the manner of healers of that time, and anointed the man’s eyes. Jesus told the man to go to the Pool of Siloam (the name means “sent;” John 9:6-12) and wash.
 
The man did as Jesus had commanded, and came back healed of his blindness. Since it was the Sabbath the Pharisees (legalistic religious leaders) asked the healed man what had been done and by whom, that he had been healed. When the man did, the Pharisees told the healed man the healing was not of God because Jesus had broken the Sabbath by making clay. Others said that a sinner could not have healed the man, so it must be of God. The Pharisees asked the healed man what he said about the healer, and the man declared him a prophet.
 
The Pharisees tried to convince the man that they were righteous and had religious authority above Jesus. The healed man refused to accept their judgment of Jesus, and the Pharisees refused to accept the healed man’s testimony to the contrary. The Pharisees excommunicated the healed man from the temple.
 
Jesus went to the healed man, who he knew had been cast out. Jesus asked the man if he believed in the Son of man, and the healed man asked who the Son of man was so that he could do so. Jesus told the man he was looking at the Son of man, who was speaking to him, and the healed man addressed Jesus as Lord and declared his belief. “Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind” (John 9:39).
 
We are all born spiritually blind (and spiritually dead). All have sinned (disobeyed God’s Word; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10) and the penalty for sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). Jesus is God’s only provision of a Savior for our forgiveness and salvation from eternal condemnation (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; see God’s Plan of Salvation, sidebar, top right).
 
The blind man believed Jesus and trusted and obeyed Jesus’ word. He went to the pool and washed as Jesus had told him, and his blindness was healed. He “saw” that Jesus was the Savior. That’s what the Lord wants to do for us! As we begin to trust and obey him our spiritual eyes will be opened; our spiritual blindness will be healed (Luke 24:45).
 
The religious leaders had created a religious empire for themselves. Note that it was “their religion,” not their “faith” in God and God’s Word. They believed in their “tradition.” They wanted to be in charge. They wanted to be “god,” the original sin of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:5).
 
The religious leaders hated Jesus because he threatened their status and careers. Instead of rejoicing that the man had been healed, they criticized Jesus for breaking their religious tradition. A religious argument ensued. The religious leaders denied that the healing was God’s work because it was done on the Sabbath. Others accepted it as the work of God because a sinner could not have healed the man. The Pharisees asked the healed man, and the healed man declared that the one (Jesus) who had healed him was a prophet.
 
The Pharisees asserted their authority and their righteousness above that of Jesus, and the healed man refused to accept their authority. The Pharisees became more spiritually blind because they refused to accept the healing and the man’s testimony. They condemned the healed man as an ignorant sinner, and they excommunicated him from “their religion.”
 
The healed man’s spiritual sight was being healed. He had trusted in Jesus, had experienced healing, had come to personal knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ, and he refused to submit to the worldly authority of the Pharisees.
 
The healed man had experienced healing from Jesus and he grew in faith (obedient trust) in Jesus. He perceived that Jesus was a prophet, although religious authorities did not. Jesus found and came to the healed man and revealed himself fully to him because the healed man was willing to trust and obey whatever Jesus asked.  The healed man had lost his “membership” in the Jewish “religion,” but it was no longer the congregation of God’s people. Those who trust and obey Jesus are the new people of God.
 
Isn’t the nominal Church today divided by controversy over the role of “tradition” versus Scripture? Aren’t there Church leaders for whom “ministry” is just a career choice? Aren’t there people within the Church who regard it as their personal “empire?” Aren’t there Churches which are making “members” instead of “born-again” disciples, and building “buildings” instead of building the kingdom of God?
 
Jesus’ coming is the judgment of this world. Those who believe (trust and obey) Jesus will be healed of spiritual blindness and raised from spiritual death and “reborn” (John 3:3, 5-8) to new spiritual life through the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which only Jesus gives (John 1:31-34), only to his disciples who trust and obey Jesus (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit is the seal and guarantee that one is in Christ and has eternal life (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9b, 11, 15-16).
 
Those who reject Jesus and refuse to trust and obey him remain in spiritual blindness and become more and more spiritually blind, cutting themselves off from the only source of healing. Jesus is the only way to forgiveness and restoration of fellowship with God, the only way to know divine eternal truth, and the only source of true eternal life (John 14:6). By rejecting Jesus and denying their spiritual blindness and need for spiritual healing, the Pharisees condemned themselves (John 3:16-21).
 
Jesus has promised to return on the Day of Judgment. Every one who has ever lived will be accountable to him for what we have done in our lifetime on earth. Those who have trusted and obeyed Jesus and have been “born-again” (John 3:3, 5-8) will receive eternal life in God’s kingdom in heaven, but those who have rejected Jesus and have refused or failed to obey Jesus will be contemned to eternal destruction and death in Hell (Matthew 25:31-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).
 
Is Jesus your Lord? Are you Jesus’ disciple? Are you trusting and obeying Jesus? Have you received the indwelling Holy Spirit since you first truly believed (Acts 19:2)? Are you making disciples of Jesus Christ and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commands (Matthew 28:18-20)? Do you know with certainty where you will spend eternity (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)?