Under His Wings

Ah, the fall. Time for beginning school, increased activiy, filling appointment calendars. This is the time of year when everything seems to kick off, ministries at church, homeschool groups, etc. The lazy, hazy crazy days of summer come to an end. Structure becomes the order of the day. Our calendars fill quickly and it becomes difficult to juggle everyones appointments at times.

God has an appointment calendar, too. We find in Leviticus 23:1-2 "The LORD spoke again to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD'S appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations--My appointed times are these:'" These are the LORD'S appointed times--the times in which the LORD wants to meet with His people. They are also known as the Biblical holidays and each has historical, as well as, messianic significance.

There are seven Biblical feasts, three in the spring, three in the fall and one in between. God set them in place as remembrances. He is such a romantic. He wants us to take time to remember what He has done in the lives of His people. He has also set aside one day every week--the Sabbath to rest in Him and remember the work of His creation and redemption. His desire is to dwell with His people.

The spring Feasts begin with Passover. Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt, the redemption from slavery. Jesus was crucified on Passover paying the price for our redemption from the slavery from sin. He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a seven day feast in which all leaven is to be removed from the home. Leaven is a symbol of sin. Only unleavened bread is eaten for seven days. It is a remembrance of the Israelites fleeing Egypt in haste. Jesus was crucified and buried during the feast of Unleavened Bread taking our sin upon Himself.

The Feast of First Fruits is a celebration of the barley harvest. A sheaf of barley was waved in the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was resurrected on the feast of First Fruits being the first fruit of those raised from the dead with the promise of our resurrection to come.

Fifty days after the Feast of First Fruits is the Feast of Shavuot or Pentecost, which is the Greek word meaning fifty. Fifty days after the Israelites went through the Red Sea the Torah was given on Mount Sinai. The Feast of Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah. It is also the wheat harvest. How wonderful that at the celebration of the Torah the Spirit wrote the Torah on the heart of the disciples in Acts 2!

After Shavuot there is the waiting for the fall feasts. First is the Feast of Trumpets. The spring feast have already had a messianic fulfillment to be celebrated. We celebrate a future fulfillment in the fall feasts. The Feast of Trumpets is about gathering the people in preparation for the Day of Atonement. When we see in the New Testament references to the Trumpet being blown it is talking about this day.

Next on the calendar is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This is the High Holy day in God's calendar. It is a day of fasting and repentance. This is the one and only day each year that the high priest went into the Holy of Holies to atone for the sins of the nation of Israel. In the future Messiah will come and set things right. Israel will again, as a nation repent and look to Messiah.

The last feast is the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. This is an 8 day feast and commemorates the children of Israel living in booths in the wilderness after the Exodus. This is a wonderful feast of celebration of God dwelling with His people. The Scripture tells us that all people will celebrate this feast one day when Messiah comes again to dwell among us forever.

I have only given a brief sketch of the Biblical holidays. There is so much more to be learned. The study and celebration of God's appointed times greatly enhanced my study of Scripture, my understanding of who He is, and changed my life. I would encourage you to begin to look into the Biblical holidays for yourself. A good place to begin is www.biblicalholidays.com Robin Sampson has written an excellent book on the holidays which is wonderful for family friendly celebration and education. But, she also has tons of information on her site. If you have any other questions I love talking about the holidays and how they fit into Scripture, but it was way too much to fit into one post.

More pondering the law to come.

For His Name's Sake.

Covenant. Like many terms today we tend to throw this one around at whim. However, Biblically covenant is crucial, sober, and at the same time that which is to be celebrated. Historically there have been covenants between individuals, families, and nations. There have been covenants between kings and their subjects. There have been covenants between God and His people.

God has made several covenants: with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with Moses at Sinai, and with David. But all of these covenants had one Promise--Messiah.

Elements of Covenant
Living in a Western society we don't get a full understanding of the culture and context of the Bible and covenant. When we search the Scripture with eyes to see and a heart to know our God He will give us insight. We must continually lay aside our 21st Century mindset and put on new glasses as we open the pages of Scripture.

In each of the covenants are elements that were common to all covenants. In the covenant with Abraham there was the separation of the animals and the firepot that walked through the blood. This is called "cutting" a covenant. The covenant with Abraham was done while Abraham was asleep and is a picture of our salvation by grace.

When Jonathan made a covenant with David he gave David his robe, his armor, and his weapon. He was saying to David, "I give you my name, my strength, your enemies are now mine. I stand with you."

Names are exchanged in a wedding ceremony. When I go in my husband's name in a sense I have his authority behind me. Names in Scripture held much more meaning than today. God often changed a person's name. He holds His own name in high esteem and if we are in covenant with Him, His name is on us for we are His temple. We must not profane His name.

In covenant there is also the fellowship over a meal with bread and wine. A covenant was also sealed.

The Covenant at Sinai
Fifty days after the children of Israel were saved out of Egypt God met Moses on Mt. Sinai. He said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel:'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do!" And Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD. " (Ex. 19:3-8)

God's desire in saving His people was to have a people for Himself. The covenant did have stipulations, however. "IF you will obey, then you shall be My own possession." The stipulations are stated again in Deuteronomy 30 where God summarizes the Torah for the sons of Israel. (Deut. 30:15-20) God is our Father who tells us there is blessing for obedience and punishment for disobedience.

The giving of the Torah is like a wedding ceremony: the LORD drawing us to Himself, the covenant, the meal, the "I will's, and even the ring. Yes, a ring. In Exodus 31:13 God says that the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant throughout the generations. The covenant made with all who were rescued out of Egypt, the sons of Israel and the mixed multitude who accompanied them. (Ex. 12:38)

The Torah includes how to walk before a holy God and how to dwell among His people. There are commands for the priests, the temple sacrifices, for living in the land, and for the LORD's appointed times. The are commands for the bondslave, the widow, the orphan, for eating, and for caring for animals.

We so often misjudge God in the Old Testament and say that the Law was harsh and now done away with. However, James tells us it is a perfect Law, a Law of Liberty and we are blessed if we do it.

Next time I will look at the Biblical Holidays.

For His Name's Sake.

Psalm 101 held me captive this week. The Psalm is written by King David, however, it is a psalm about how the Lord manages His house.

David begins by saying, "I will sing of lovingkindness and justice." The Hebrew word for lovingkindnes means "grace". This is God's grace in the Old Testament. God is perfect grace and perfect justice at the same time, just like the plague of the hail that burned in Egypt in the book of Exodus.

There is a theme that runs through the Psalms. That of a longing to dwell with God in His courts, in His tent. God longs to dwell with His people, too. He brings people into covenant with Himself by grace and then He gives them grace, or power, to live in covenant with Him. He wants them to be holy. The teachers of old would say, "A holy (or blameless) man sins 7 times daily, but he gets back up." Seven is the number of perfection. Yes, we will sin.....we will even sin perfectly. But, we are to daily get up and "go and sin no more." We are to walk in repentance.

Look at this Psalm. How does God manage His house?

He looks at the heart. We can't just follow rules and not have a pure heart, a heart of faithfulness. Faithfulness is the way we walk out a pure heart. Faithfulness includes our deeds.

He wants us to mind what we watch. To "set no worthless thing before our eyes"

He wants us to be faithful, to desire what He desires.

He will not tolerate those who slander their neighbor. We actually put a spiritul leprosy on ourselves when we speak evil of others. Leprosy makes us unclean and we cannot come into God's house when we are unclean.

He cannot endure those who are proud.

Those who are deceitful shall not dwell with Him. Those who speak falsehood shall not maintain a position before Him.

But, He watches over those who are faithful, who obey Him, that they may dwell with Him. "He who walks in a blameless way (walks in repentance) is the one who will minister to me."

"And I will dwell in the house of the LORD........forever." (Psalm 23:6)

For His Name's Sake

The task of writing this third installment of "Pondering the Law of God" has been daunting. My heart overflows when I think of all that is in the Torah regarding the character of God and the things He has had written down for our instruction. I haven't quite known where to begin and I'm not sure where this post will take us, but I guess the best thing to do is just to jump in.

God's desire has always been to dwell with His people. He did this with Adam and Eve--He fellowshiped with them in the Garden. Their disobedience brought death to that relationship and God immediately began the task of showing them that it would take blood to atone for sin.

He chose Abraham, making a covenant with him, which we are still reaping the benefits of today. In Genesis 18:19 God says, "For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him." God wanted someone who would teach his children to walk in the ways of God. He promised that all the nations would be blessed through Abraham's seed. God keeps His promises.

In Exodus God reveals Himself to Moses as YHWH. Moses had doubts about going back to Egypt and said, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you ' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations. Exodus 3:13-15

God was revealing Himself in a way that He had never done before. He would be known by what He would do. We need to remember that all He is, He is to each one of us when we enter into covenant relationship with Him. This is His memorial Name to all generations.

God redeemed His people out of Egypt and all their enemies were washed away in the Red sea--all by grace. What was God's purpose in doing this? 'Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." Ex. 6:7
And again in Ex. 29: 46, "They shall know that I am the LORD their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am the LORD their God." God desires a people set apart for Himself that He may dwell among them for He cannot dwell with sin. His desire over and over again is for a people to know Him. This a covenant term--"to know", as a husband knows his wife, as a parent knows his child. It speaks of relationship.

God desires to make Himself known and He describes Himself in Exodus 34:6-7. Just think, the King of the Universe describing Himself. This is what He says, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

God describes Himself as compassionate and just, abounding in grace and truth. This description is so different from what we so often hear of the God of the Old Testament being an angry, wrathful God. He is the Ancient of Days. Forever the Same.

In the next post I will continue looking at the Torah and the character of God by looking at the covenant.

For His Name's Sake.

“If we get our own way we nurse a hideous idol called ‘self’, but if we give up our way, we get God.” –Janet Erskin Stweart

”We love our own way and ourselves much more than we love God.”— Valerie Shepherd

I have been seeing a lot of my self-love lately. My self-love that tries to fix everything in the flesh instead of waiting for the Master. My self-love that tries to get my opinion across and make sure everyone knows I am there. My self-love that wants my agenda instead of His. I need to loose my life in His.

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.” 2 Tim. 3:1-5

For His Name's Sake