Category: Weekly

…and they spoke to Moses, saying, “The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the LORD commanded us to do.” So Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, “Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary.” And the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient for all the work to be done—indeed too much.
(Exo 36:5-7)

What a wonderful problem!  Moses had called for the people to bring an offering to the Lord of items that could be used in the construction of the tabernacle.  God had given very specific requirements as to the materials that were to be used for the tabernacle and the things in it.  When Moses called for this offering, it wasn’t an offering like others described in the law of God.  Some offerings were very specific as to who should offer, what they should offer, and when they should offer it, but not so when it came to these provisions for the tabernacle’s construction.  In this instance, the instruction was, “Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the LORD…” (Exo 35:5)

As the supplies for the tabernacle began to pour in, it became evident very quickly that there was a problem, but it wasn’t the type of problem we’re accustomed to having.  How many churches today have hounded the people week after week to give more in support of whatever project they were trying to fund?  No one needed to be poked and prodded to give.  In Exo 35:21 we read, “Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the LORD’s offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments.”  God had stirred the heart of this people so that the problem was not that they brought too little.  They had brought too much!

Much is made of giving this time of year, and much is given.  People rush to and fro to catch the latest sale and find the perfect gift for their loved ones.  But, what about the One we are called to love above all else?  Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Mat 22:37) I pray we are far more concerned about what we give Him than what we give one another.  In fact, the love that prompts our giving to each other must flow from our first and foremost love for Him.  Only then can we perform properly the commandment Christ gives next, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mat 22:39)

God has given each of us unique opportunities to serve Him by serving others.  That service is especially important when it comes to the Lord’s people, for what we do to the least of His brethren, we do to Him. (Mat 25:40) “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Gal 6:10) We may do the bare minimum in certain areas of our life, but may we never skimp in what the Lord has called us to do.  God has gifted each member of His church with certain abilities to uniquely serve each other.  In this calling, may the accusation never be that we do too little.  May the only rebuke we ever hear be the same one that Israel heard in our text: “That’s enough.  You’re doing too much!”

Jamie

 

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers…”
Acts 7:51-52

What tremendous love is displayed in Stephen’s message above! Sadly, few today would view such words as loving. Stephen has been preaching for fifty verses, laboring to expose the false confidence of his accusers. He has taken them through Israel’s history, showing them they are making the same mistakes as their forefathers. I wonder if he looked on the crowd at this point and saw disinterest and boredom in their eyes. Was it clear to him that they weren’t really getting the point at all? Whatever the reason, in a burst of emotion in v. 51, he makes the message as plain as he possibly can, leaving them with no doubt regarding the point he’s making!

We know Stephen wasn’t motivated by hatred when he preached these words because a few minutes later, as they threw stones to murder him, he interceded on their behalf and begged God to forgive them (v. 60). Stephen’s bluntness was clearly an act of love! Sometimes, the most loving thing we can do is give a strong rebuke. If a car is barreling down on someone standing in the middle of the road, it is an act of love and mercy to scream, “Look out!” The tone may be harsh, but it’s warranted given the gravity of the situation.

There is no greater danger than to be in rebellion against God and abiding under His wrath because you’ve rejected His Son! The crowd may have been becoming complacent, but Stephen had a sense of urgency regarding their need. We see a similar pattern with Christ in Mat 23:13-30 as he exposes the sin of the religious elite of His day. Seven times He cries out, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” He was the best friend they ever had because He told them the truth! We see the same love Stephen shows when Christ a few verses later laments, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Mat 23:37)

This kind of love is increasingly rare in our day. It’s this love that prompted Paul to recommend that the Corinthians correct the adulterer among them by delivering, “such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1Co 5:5) If we will care for men’s souls as the Lord Jesus did, then we must also be willing to speak the truth in love even when we know our words will cut the hearers deeply. Remember Pro 27:6: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”

Jamie

“Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen…”
Acts 7:44

I’ve recently gone through Exodus as part our family devotions at home. One of the things that amazed me as we read about the tabernacle mentioned in our text today was how meticulous God was in the instruction given to Moses regarding its construction. No detail was overlooked. He was specific as to the items in it, the people allowed in certain areas of it, the materials to be used, the types and frequency of sacrifices, etc. As I read about the rigid structure set forth in that time under the law, I rejoiced in the contrast with what we have today in this new covenant of grace!

There are sadly those today who are still bound in the legality of the law. Paul encouraged the Colossians to embrace the fullness of what Christ had done in freeing us from the boundaries set by the ceremonial law, Jesus “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Col 2:14) As ministers of the gospel have pointed out in ages past, there is surely a difference between what we often refer to as God’s ceremonial law and His moral law. The ceremonial law had to do with the sacrifices, days, feasts, washings, etc. set forth in God’s law. These things were given to point us to Christ, but now that He’s come and fulfilled the law, they no longer continue. (Mat 5:17) For this reason, Paul asks the Colossians, “Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—’Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,’ which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?” (Col 2:20-22)

To continue in such things now suggests that Christ’s work was insufficient. The Galatians particularly struggled with this fact, prompting the apostle’s strong warning in Gal 5:1-4: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”  To maintain the law now is to abandon grace, to enter back into bondage! Pretty serious stuff, isn’t it? Paul used that glorious word “liberty” as he addressed the Galatians. What freedom we have now apart from the law! We don’t build church buildings per the exact dimensions given by God because He didn’t give any. He hasn’t told us which instruments with which to praise Him. We should be rejoicing in the great liberty now given!

But what about basic right and wrong? Does that matter anymore? While the ceremonial law has fulfilled its purpose, God’s moral law still applies. Paul addresses our liberty in Christ in the following way in Gal 5:13-14. “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” God’s moral law is an expression of His character. It’s still wrong to lie and steal! Our liberty never extends so far that we are permitted to act apart from love, and love is the fulfilling of God’s moral law. So we are not without law, but the experience is so different compared to that of the old covenant that it is called now the perfect law of liberty in Jam 1:25! “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” Thank God for liberty in Christ!

Jamie

“And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven…”
Acts 7:41-43

“Then God turned and gave them up…”  What a fearful thought–that God would turn from a people and give them up to follow their fleshly desires unrestrained!  Here, God is saying, “I’m not going to deal with your heart any more in conviction.  I’m just going to let you go and fulfill those sinful lusts unhindered.”  God stepped back and let them go!  We know God doesn’t change.  “For I am the LORD, I do not change…” (Mal 3:6) “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Heb 13:8) If God would react this way to a people then, He will do the same today to a people who continue to refuse the truth and run after the idols they’ve established in the place of God.

In Rom 1:20, we find that God’s creation declares enough of Himself to render man inexcusable for refusing to acknowledge Him.  V. 21 speaks of a people who knew God because of the creation’s witness, yet “they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”  The reaction of God is then the same as that which our main text declares.  Rom 1:24 says, “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness,” and so they spiral down, deeper and deeper into sin.  V. 26 repeats this pattern because as they exchanged God for their idols, “God gave them up to vile passions,” and in v. 28, “even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind”.  God gives up and steps back.

It’s a fearful thing to think there will be no more gospel warning for such a people.  Even a hardened prophet like Jonah, barely warning Nineveh of their pending doom, would be a mercy to this people.  But there is no conviction.  No word of rebuke.  God just walks away.  If God walks away from a people, they have no hope!  Joh 16:8 tells us that part of the function of the Holy Ghost is to “convict the world of sin”.  What a merciful act of a righteous God!  But if God steps back from a people and gives them up, there is no longer this influence in their life.  They are left to their own devices, and they cannot save themselves for, “Salvation is of the LORD.” (Jon 2:9)

2Th 2:3 says during the last days there will be a great falling away from the truth.  But you’ve got to know the truth in order to fall away from it!  When the children of Israel were in the wilderness and made the golden calf, they had been eye witnesses to God’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea.  They had eaten manna in the wilderness and drunk water from the rock.  They were a people who knew God.  They were inexcusable!  Such is the picture set before us in 2Th 2.  The people of this day have the truth, but in v. 10, “they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”  The pattern is thus the same, and in v. 11 we read: “And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2Th 2:11-12)

If God sends the delusion, you are at the point of no further opportunity to the love the truth!  Similar to the way God temporarily removed King Nebuchadnezzar’s sanity in Dan 4:29-37, God permanently removes any and all understanding of the truth from this people who rejected it.  They will believe the lie!  These people are still living and breathing, but they have sinned away their opportunity to know God.  If God turns away and gives a people up, they are without hope!  No wonder the instruction is to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”! (Php 2:12) May we approach this God with the respect, reverence, and fear of which He is worthy, and seek the LORD while He may be found. (Isa 55:6)

Jamie

“And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘I AM THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS—THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look.
Act 7:30-32

We know the Son of God to be eternal.  Heb 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  When Jesus spoke of Abraham as if He knew him, the Jews questioned, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus responded, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (Joh 8:57-58) Not, “I was”, but “I AM”, the very name God gave to Moses in Exo 3:14 when asked His name (“I AM WHO I AM”)!  Since Christ has always been, it should be no surprise to us that at times He manifested Himself in a visible way to men and women in the Old Testament.  One of these times seems to be in the account that Stephen references in our text today.  When Moses saw this “Angel” (or “Messenger” as it’s also translated) manifesting Himself in the bush, Exo 3:6 says that “Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God“!

This Angel is referred to again in Exo 23 as the One who would lead and keep the children of Israel in their journey to the Promised Land.  God made some glorious promises to Israel in that passage, but all of these promises were dependent on their proper relationship to this Angel!  “Behold, I send an Angel before you…Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will…” (Exo 23:20-22) We know Israel rebelled against God, breaking this covenant (Jer 31:32), and thus did not enjoy these benefits that could have been theirs.  However, the promises of Exo 23 still apply for those who properly relate to the Messenger of the Lord, our glorious Savior Jesus Christ, for “all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” (2Co 1:20)  Just listen to what belongs to you church!

1) “I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries” (Exo 23:22)
“But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You. For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.” (Psa 5:11-12) “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31)

2) “He will bless your bread and your water” (Exo 23:25)
The church has no lack of sustenance for Christ Himself is our Bread and Water, satisfying every longing!  “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (Joh 6:35)

3) “I will take sickness away from the midst of you” (Exo 23:25)
Not a single spot of sin will remain in the bride of Christ.  She will be whole and without sickness!  “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph 5:25-27)

4) “No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land” (Exo 23:26)
Everything the church does in Christ will succeed and prosper!  We are encouraged to press on “in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Co 15:58) “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Rom 8:28)

5) “I will fulfill the number of your days” (Exo 23:26)
They were promised long life if they followed the Angel before them.  I’d say “eternal life” qualifies as long, wouldn’t you?!! “So He said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.'” (Luk 18:29-30)

Beloved, we are the most blessed people on the face of the earth!  Don’t let this world get you down when such an inheritance is yours.  Quit looking around and keep looking up!  “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2Co 4:17-18) Thank God for every blessing that is ours because of our blessed Redeemer.  He is worthy of our honor, glory, and blessing! (Rev 5:12)

Jamie