Jesus, speaking of himself, taught that something greater than the Jerusalem temple, greater than Jonah, greater than Solomon had arrived on the stage of human history.GREATER THAN THE TEMPLE, GREATER THAN JONAH, GREATER THAN SOLOMON
MATTHEW 12
What a rich chapter Matthew 12 is – so dense with with God’s wisdom in Jesus’ teaching! I’ve been going back to it for days now, pondering different parts.
Inspiration: Jesus, speaking of himself, taught that something greater than the Jerusalem temple, greater than Jonah, greater than Solomon had arrived on the stage of human history.
- What were some things that I think made the temple, Jonah, and Solomon so great?
- Spend some time praising God for the ways I think Jesus is greater than these!
- Name one thing I’m determined to do differently today after considering these things
The temple: I think about the temple as the place where you knew you could find God; where God’s presence was guaranteed to be at all times. (I remember what it felt like to be looking for God in all kinds of different places – including searching for him in many different kinds of churches -- and starting to fear that maybe I would never find him!)
In the temple, it was clear what you had to do to please God. You had a priest on duty all the time, able to explain what the law required from you; a worshipper could inquire anything of God and know his prayers were heard because somehow a part of God was right there in the holy of holies. I think it must have been an incredibly reassuring place to be…
Jonah: the turnaround story of all time! From complete cowardice and rebellion, running as far away in the opposite direction as he could go from God, to not just agreeing to share his faith, in principle, but street preaching in the scariest city of his day, and seeing the whole city turn around and surrender to God! I was just looking at the gates from the palace of Nineveh and the bas-relief scenes of Ninevite battle victories on sections of the original walls of Nineveh at the British Museum in London recently – these people were very scary: impaling their prisoners of war on spears and carrying decapitated heads around…I think about all the scary people I’ve been convinced would never ever become Christians. Think if I had the courage to speak the truth to all of them and they all repented! …and
Solomon: the wisest man who ever lived, whose fame and wealth and understanding are beyond what I can imagine!
Prayer: Thank you, Father, that Jesus not only showed me the way to you, but died to reconcile me to you, something I could never have done even if I’d have been able to figure out where you are…that he did that for me when I was NOT worshipping you, in fact, when I was blaspheming you, and running away from you like Jonah. Thank you so much that Jesus’ blood washed me clean and made me holy once and for all, that you made ME into the temple (!!!!), put your mind and Spirit in me and that you will never leave me! I am safe with you no matter where I am. Thank you that I don’t need a priest anymore to intercede for me – Jesus’ washing of me made me completely holy and acceptable to you, once and for all time! I praise you, God, for Jesus’ love and faithfulness, that he never ran away from you as my ancient brother Jonah did and as I do; that not only one evil city of over 120,000 souls was converted because of his life and ministry and death and resurrection, but that millions of impossible-to-convert people over many centuries have become disciples and gained eternal life! Thank you, God, that Jesus stayed completely and perfectly faithful to you, and did not make the same mistakes that Solomon made, though he was completely human and tempted in every way just as Solomon was and just as I am! I praise you that Jesus’ wisdom and reputation remain perfectly untarnished, reminding me every day that it is possible to live the way you ask us to, in complete obedience to the Scriptures.
Challenge: I need to be more daring and confident, expecting greater things, both from myself and from others. I am too tentative in sharing my faith, too slow to call other sisters into the battle with me (knowing it’s a battle and it will be messy). I sense that I waste precious time and energy, having a low-burner worry going a lot of the time about whether or not I’m really pleasing God with what I’m doing. This needs to stop!
Photo: The Gates of a Palace at Nineveh (artist’s reconstruction on display in the British Museum, May 2011)
MERCY, NOT SACRIFICE I
HOSEA 6:6
For a long time these words of Jesus have haunted me, particularly in Matthew 9:13 where he commands the Pharisee in us to “Go and learn what this means”! Clearly, this is important to God, and a concept that is not easily grasped, since the Pharisees didn’t get it. Every time I’ve read these words, somehow I know that I haven’t understood fully what God wants me to. High time that I figured it out.
Hebrew: Hosea 6:6. NASB: “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
The Hebrew here, translated “loyalty,” in other translations (NIV) as “mercy,” is CHECED. The definition is “goodness, kindness, faithfulness.” Gesenius’ Lexicon explains it further as desire, ardour; zeal toward anyone; love and kindness expressed a) among people for one another; b) between me and God; and c) the grace, favour, mercy of God towards me and all people.4
The word “knowledge” here in Hosea 6:6 is the Hebrew word DA’ATH, which means 1)knowledge, perception, skill; and 2)discernment, understanding, wisdom. 5
The definition for the Hebrew word for sacrifice here (ZEBACH), lists 7 kinds of sacrifice this word can denote: sacrifices of righteousness; of strife; sacrifices to dead things; the covenant sacrifice; the Passover; annual sacrifice; and thank offering. 6
The Hebrew word for burnt offerings here is ‘OLAH, which means exactly what the English says, a burnt offering – which, significantly, is a sacrifice of which the whole of the offering was burned, nothing remained. Gesenius’ Lexicon adds that it refers to “what is laid on the altar, what is offered on the altar.”7
- Having read the definitions for deeper understanding of the words in this verse, write out the meaning of Hosea 6:6 in my own words, as many different ways as I can. What is God saying to me here? 8
When I grow in knowledge of God, it makes God happy. If I can focus on learning more about God every day, I’m focused on the right thing and it brings delight to God. In John Maxwell’s book, How Successful People Think, there’s a great tip for really growing in the knowledge of God: “To help me maintain a learner’s attitude,” he writes, “I spend a few moments every morning thinking about my learning opportunities for the day. As I review my calendar and to-do list – knowing whom I will meet that day, what I will read, which meetings I will attend – I note where I am most likely to learn something (about God)9. Then I mentally cue myself to look attentively for something that will improve me in that situation. If you desire to keep learning (about God)9, I want to encourage you to examine your day and look for opportunities to learn.” 10
- Pray through the day’s plans ahead of me and ask God to help me grow in my knowledge of him, naming some specific situations where I think I will have the best opportunities to learn more about him.
4 Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for checed (Strong's 2617)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2011. 20 Jun 2011. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm? Strongs=H2617&t=NASB >
5 Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for da`ath (Strong's 1847)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2011. 20 Jun 2011. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm? Strongs=H1847&t=NASB >
6 Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for zebach (Strong's 2077)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2011. 20 Jun 2011. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm? Strongs=H2077&t=NASB >
7 Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for `olah (Strong's 5930)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2011. 26 Jun 2011. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm? Strongs=H5930&t=KJV >
8 God says, it gives him delight when my greatest passion is for time with him. When I show my love for him by spending time just with him (not in doing things for him, necessarily – I see that as the sacrifices or burnt offerings), in prayer, talking to him, and reading his Word, listening to his voice. God would rather have me invest my time in getting to know him better. (How do I do that? Prayer and Bible study, definitely. Thinking and being still before God, having enough time to meditate on his Word; spending time with people who are close to God and walking strong with God, if I’m not doing that enough -- asking the right questions of them, praying with them, learning from them, following them as they follow Christ. This means I need to observe them in real-life situations, not just at church or in meetings, but in times when they’re upset or hurt or challenged, or spending time with their family, or sharing their faith, or any situation where I feel like I’d love to know better how Jesus would conduct himself if he were living in my skin.) God would be delighted if I would pray more specifically to grow in the knowledge of him and make plans for good progress in this area! It should be a daily goal.
Next, it delights God when I show loyalty, compassion, faithfulness, goodness, kindness, in all my relationships with people. I need to be constantly applying my heart to learn from the Scriptures and prayer and the most mature, wise, spiritual Christians I can find what it means to have discernment and wisdom from God in real life situations, so that I can embody those virtues in all my interactions with other people. This loving heart and godly carefulness toward others matters more to God than whether I feel like I am bending over backwards serving people.
Finally, it delights God when I can freely accept his mercy, lovingkindness, and grace toward me and I don’t try to earn my salvation by doing good things. Even though I feel like I understand this in my head, it is hard for my heart to always grasp that God favours me no matter what is going on in the circumstances around me. Just this week I’ve had some women in my living room talking about how they feel that God must be hugely upset with them because of losses, abuse and tragedies in life. They feel violated, as if God had suddenly, without warning, ripped something precious to them out of their lives and then somehow expected them to regard it as a sacrifice they willingly made to him. No wonder it’s a delight to God when we’re hurt or bereaved or abused in this fallen world and still we trust him and our faith in his goodness is untarnished! God loves it when I perceive him in everything that’s going on, when I understand how God himself feels and thinks about what happens my my life and around me every day.
9 Words in italics added by me.
10 Maxwell, John C., How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, Center Street division, Hachette Book Group, New York, 2009, p. 2.
MERCY, NOT SACRIFICE II
MATTHEW 9:10-13, 12: 7; 1 SAMUEL 21
- First, pray with God over yesterday’s events. Did it help me to learn more about God by stopping to focus in the morning and look for the most likely learning opportunities in the day’s coming events? Is there anything I could have done differently to create more opportunities, or learn more from the opportunities God gave me? Write down anything I could have done differently, and decide to put this into practise today.
Matthew 9:13 and 12:7. NASB translation: “For I desire compassion, not sacrifice.” In the NIV, both verses read, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
The Greek word for mercy or compassion here is ELEOS, defined as kindness or good will toward the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to help them. It’s used of God towards all people; of people toward one another; and of the mercy of Jesus towards true christians which results in eternal life11
- What else does Jesus say in these two verses? “For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners;” “If you had known what these words mean…you would not have condemned the innocent.” What wrong attitude in the Pharisees (and in us today) was Jesus correcting in each case? (Write thoughts down.) 12
- Are there times when I condemn myself, and have a hard time praying or connecting with God because I think he’s not pleased with me, or not going to accept me? (Write down an example.)13
- Pray with thanksgiving about how wrong this attitude is and ask for God to cement this conviction in my heart!
11 Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for eleos (Strong's 1656)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2011. 20 Jun 2011. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm? Strongs=G1656&t=NASB >
12 In Matthew 9, Jesus is exposing the Pharisees’ sinful disdain of the “tax collectors and sinners” (less worthy people) that Jesus was eating with. In Matthew 12, the Pharisees condemned Jesus’ disciples for picking corn to eat on the Sabbath, but Jesus said they were innocent, in the same way that David was judged innocent by God when he did something against God’s law (taking consecrated bread that only the priests should eat, 1 Samuel 21); and in the same way that the OT priests of God were innocent even though they broke the law regularly by working on the Sabbath to bring people’s sacrifices to God. Why did Jesus judge them innocent? I’m thinking, in the case of David, he was God’s anointed, asked God’s priest for the bread and God’s priest gave it to him. David was dealing openly with God’s approved agents on earth and God allowed him to have the holy bread when David asked for it. (Even a cool foreshadowing of Jesus, the Bread of life – God wants us all to have and eat the holy Bread of life – John 6!) In the case of the disciples, God himself was with them and allowed them to eat when they were hungry (it was all God’s corn, after all!). David and the disciples were righteous – in God’s presence, in a right relationship with God, communicating with God and open with God, which was more important than legalistically staying within the usually understood boundaries of God’s law. In both cases they were hungry, and if they’d followed the law the way it was usually interpreted, they would have stayed hungry. But not hiding their real physical need, communicating with God or God’s agents, God satisfied their hunger and judged them innocent of breaking the law. They were trusting in God and their relationship with God more than in what they could have been doing to keep God’s law (which you could do and still be distant from God, not talking to him). They came to God for help. God wants to have compassion on people and foster interdependence between us and him more than he wants us to be focused on religious rites and form (the letter of the law).
13 At this point in my Christian life, I think I talk to God even and especially when I feel like he might be displeased with me – but where I can lack faith and give into fear is in not being immediately transparent in real time with my trusted friends and spiritual advisors, if I feel like I’ve messed up or hurt someone or done something wrong that has bad consequences. A recent example : when I was out of town, I got a message from a third party that someone in the church felt hurt by me after a conversation we had had. I talked to God about it immediately but didn’t really want to talk to anyone else about the burden I felt, having heard that someone was upset with me and didn’t come to talk to me about it herself. I think the issue and the identity of the person needed to remain confidential but I need to let my close friends know when I feel burdened about something.
