Feb. 2 – Thoughts on Ex. 29-30 & Matt. 21:23-46

It’s always fascinating to find Jesus and the gospel stories in the Old Testament.  Today, we get a huge reference to Him as we learn about the dedication of the temple.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus was always comparing Himself to the temple.  For the Jews, the Temple was where God dwelt.  Sure, He was omnipresent, but the place where they could go and be in His presence, in fact were commanded to annually, was at the Temple.  Here was the Ark of the Covenant, and on it the Bema Seat, the place where God lived.

Jesus replaced the Temple for us as the place where God dwelt.  And as we see again and again, the closer you got to Jesus, the wider the welcome.  This was the exact opposite of the Old Testament laws, where the closer you got to the Ark the fewer people were allowed, and was a large part of what kept giving the religious leaders of the day fits.  And even back here in Exodus, we find this reality that Jesus replaced the temple.  In the listing of things used to dedicate the temple, did you see three old familiar friends?  The temple items were all cast in gold (30:3), the formula for the fragrance from the Altar of Incense was almost half frankincense (30:34), and the anointing oil for the priests was mostly myrrh (30:23).  These formulas were to be “holy” which means used only for this single purpose.  Anyone who made this particular recipe for either was to be killed!

When the Magi from the East came to Jesus, it is not coincidence that these are the exact items they presented to the baby.  They were, in effect if unknowingly, dedicating a new Temple, a new dwelling place for Yahweh, and a new means of relationship between us and our God.

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Feb. 1 – Thoughts on Ex. 27-28 & Matt. 21:1-22

How do you make the hard decisions?  Easy decisions are easy to make because if you get them wrong, they generally don’t matter much.  But the real big ones?  Who to marry, what career to choose, where to live, whether to have another child or not… these decisions vastly change your future.

With large decisions looming, we turn to prayer.  We turn to godly people for advice and wisdom.  Maybe we turn to a pastor or parent.  Big decisions require lots of input and deep thought.  They also require a huge amount of faith.

For the Jews we are reading about, the faith required was even deeper.  They had to trust that the priest they approached was chosen by God and would make a just decision.  But they also had to trust the means of making that decision, namely the Urim and the Thummim.  These were two stones or sticks, a black and a white, that were kept in a pocket of the priests garments over the heart.  These were used for the big decisions including whether to go to war or not or who would lead the people.  The stones were tossed or chosen and which came up determined the will of God.  With the proverbial flip of a coin, God’s people would declare that God was sending them to war.

Would you trust a coin, or a pair of stones, to determine God’s will for you?  It seems almost ludicrous today, but it begs the question, how do you make the hard decisions?  What is your Urim?  your Thummim?  Do you ever open the bible at random and point at a verse to hear what God might have to say?  Do you ever take a phrase of a song to be God’s word for you today?  Have you ever prayed and flipped a coin?  If God is truly omnipotent, is there any opportunity He cannot use to share His will?

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Feb. 1 – Thoughts on Ex. 27-28 & Matt. 21:1-22

How do you make the hard decisions?  Easy decisions are easy to make because if you get them wrong, they generally don’t matter much.  But the real big ones?  Who to marry, what career to choose, where to live, whether to have another child or not… these decisions vastly change your future.

With large decisions looming, we turn to prayer.  We turn to godly people for advice and wisdom.  Maybe we turn to a pastor or parent.  Big decisions require lots of input and deep thought.  They also require a huge amount of faith.

For the Jews we are reading about, the faith required was even deeper.  They had to trust that the priest they approached was chosen by God and would make a just decision.  But they also had to trust the means of making that decision, namely the Urim and the Thummim.  These were two stones or sticks, a black and a white, that were kept in a pocket of the priests garments over the heart.  These were used for the big decisions including whether to go to war or not or who would lead the people.  The stones were tossed or chosen and which came up determined the will of God.  With the proverbial flip of a coin, God’s people would declare that God was sending them to war.

Would you trust a coin, or a pair of stones, to determine God’s will for you?  It seems almost ludicrous today, but it begs the question, how do you make the hard decisions?  What is your Urim?  your Thummim?  Do you ever open the bible at random and point at a verse to hear what God might have to say?  Do you ever take a phrase of a song to be God’s word for you today?  Have you ever prayed and flipped a coin?  If God is truly omnipotent, is there any opportunity He cannot use to share His will?

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Jan. 31 – Thoughts on Ex. 25-26 & Matt. 20:17-34

Blindness is one of John’s favorite metaphors for the spiritual life.  Today, we get this same metaphor in Matthew and the message is a painful one.  Jesus predicts His own torture and death, concluding with the promise of His resurrection 3 days later.  Without comment from anyone, Matthew moves on to tell us that James and John’s mom (presumably “the Wife of Thunder” if we read Mark 3:17) approaches Jesus asking that her boys be His right and left hand men.  This deeply thoughtless breach of etiquette is exaggerated by the passage immediately before it.  We can feel the waves of anger coming from the other disciples 2000 years later.

Matthew makes the main statement about this by the final of the three passages, the healing of two men born blind.  While James and John want to drink the same cup Jesus drinks (thinking this will lead to power and authority), the two men born blind simply want to see.  Jesus grants both requests, but has compassion only on the later two.

So what is your request of Jesus today?  Do you seek power and authority, fame and “a seat at the table”, or do you simply want to see Jesus?  I think it’s clear which of the two requests is the more pleasing to Jesus.

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Jan. 31 – Thoughts on Ex. 25-26 & Matt. 20:17-34

Blindness is one of John’s favorite metaphors for the spiritual life.  Today, we get this same metaphor in Matthew and the message is a painful one.  Jesus predicts His own torture and death, concluding with the promise of His resurrection 3 days later.  Without comment from anyone, Matthew moves on to tell us that James and John’s mom (presumably “the Wife of Thunder” if we read Mark 3:17) approaches Jesus asking that her boys be His right and left hand men.  This deeply thoughtless breach of etiquette is exaggerated by the passage immediately before it.  We can feel the waves of anger coming from the other disciples 2000 years later.

Matthew makes the main statement about this by the final of the three passages, the healing of two men born blind.  While James and John want to drink the same cup Jesus drinks (thinking this will lead to power and authority), the two men born blind simply want to see.  Jesus grants both requests, but has compassion only on the later two.

So what is your request of Jesus today?  Do you seek power and authority, fame and “a seat at the table”, or do you simply want to see Jesus?  I think it’s clear which of the two requests is the more pleasing to Jesus.

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