News from January 2012
Guidelines for reading Job
Posted on January 25, 2012 by Pastor Tom
For this week and next, our Bible reading is directed to the book of Job (pronounced like Joe with a b on the end). The basic story goes like this. Job is a faithful follower of God and has experienced abundant blessing. God points out Job’s faithfulness to Satan. Satan responds that the only reason Job only worships God because of blessings. God allows Satan to afflict Job’s possessions, family and health. Then 3 friends come to “comfort” Job in his misery. The majority of the book focuses on these dialogues along with Job’s complaints to God. In the end, God restores Job with more than he has before.
It is important to keep the following in mind regarding Job.
1) Job’s friends spend most of their time trying to convince Job that he suffers because of his own sin. We know this isn’t true because of the opening chapters. But neither Job nor his friends know about this. The friends shared the prevailing view of the day – If you’re good – God blesses you. If you’re bad – God makes you suffer. The book of Job shatters that simplistic explanation for all suffering.
2) Job resists the invitation to confess something that he didn’t do. He also moves from initial shock and acceptance of what happened to a deep questioning of God. So we must not conclude that Job accepted what happened and just moved on with life. He struggled and the dialogues reveal that struggle.
3) When you get to the end of the book, notice that God does not explain everything that happened. In fact in chapters 38–41, God lists over 60 items that He’s involved in that remain a mystery to man. Yet, we implicitly trust God with these mysteries. The message seems to be “there are many things that are beyond us as humans. We must entrust these to God yet continue to walk with Him through that which confuses us.”
The Bible reading plan places Job here because it looks like Job lived during during the early days of civilization.
I pray God blesses you, speaks to you and comforts you through your investment in the book of Job.
Genesis - a strong case for the authenticity of the Scriptures
Posted on January 17, 2012 by Pastor Tom
As I read through the middle chapters of Genesis, I am struck again with how human these people were. By human, I’m thinking of the “to err is human” part. Abraham lied twice. Isaac and Rebekkah favored one child over another. Jacob was a master of deceit. His uncle Laban matched him scheme for scheme. Rachel took her father’s idols. Jacob’s sons misbehaved and engaged in much misconduct.
We might read these sections with shock over how the “people of God” acted. Yet, the text has a totally different focus. It points out how God was establishing a people through whom the deliverer (Jesus) would ultimately come. If it depended on these people alone to get this family going, there would be little hope. Yet God intervenes again and again despite their sins to keep advancing His plan. So remember, the text is ultimately about God and His work in spite of the failings of the people He works with.
But the other thing that really strikes me; their falleness presents real people. It testifies to the authenticity of these accounts. If Moses (the author of Genesis) wanted to “sell” faith in God, surely he could have doctored up the stories to make the people of God look better. Surely he would have left out the embarrassing episodes and hidden the grave errors. Yet he includes them because that’s what these people really did.
The Bible is not a collection of sanitized stories to get us to follow the example of some heroes. It’s the account of a Holy God who accomplishes His saving work among ordinary, fallen people who show their desperate need of Him in their lives . . . and that includes me.
Genesis 15 - How were people in the Old Testament saved?
Posted on January 11, 2012 by Pastor Tom
How were people in the Old Testament saved from God’s wrath? The penalty for their sin had not yet been paid. They did not know of Jesus Christ so they could put their trust in him. Yet in Genesis 15:6 we read “Abram believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” So Abram believed or had faith in the Lord. Then God regarded him as righteous because of this faith.
But how could God ultimately declare Abram righteous or not guilty before God? The penalty would not be paid for about 1800 years until the time of Christ. Romans 3:23–25 explains it: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and (all who believe) are justified by his grace, as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”
A propitiation is a sacrifice that wipes away sin and satisfies God’s holy wrath. So God could look forward to the sacrifice that was coming and pass over the sins of Abram and other Old Testament believers until the cross. At the cross, the full payment for the guilt of sin would be made. God, in his mercy, passed over the sins of Old Testament believers until the price was paid. We serve a merciful God who already had salvation in mind in the earliest days of the world.
My Mom's in heaven
Posted on January 5, 2012 by Pastor Tom
Hi all: Thanks for the many thoughts of prayer, support and encouragement over the past few hours. We really appreciate it. I also appreciate how many of you connected with my Mom when she came to visit. She really loved SVBC and was thankful God called us here. Thanks again for the many who shared with us on this journey over the past 5 years. It has been difficult but we praise God for the many good times He gave us amidst the valleys. We are truly thankful that Mom’s suffering is done. I’m still trying to imagine what it’s like for her today – such joy and freedom! I received a book at Christmas from Lori called “We shall see God – Charles Spurgeon’s classic devotional thoughts on Heaven.” The first reading is “Dying is but going home.”
He writes “Love surrounds all and conquers grief. Hold your friends lovingly but be ready to yield them to Jesus. Don’t hold them back from the One to whom they belong. When they are sick, fast and pray. But when they are departed, do much as David did, who washed his face and ate and drank. You will go to them; they cannot return to you. Comfort yourselves with the double thought of their joy in Christ and Christ’s joy in them. Add the triple thought of the Father’s joy in Christ and in them.”
To that end we rejoice in Christ’s joy in Mom’s arrival. The last thing Courtney said to her grandma before we left on Sunday was “You’ve run the good race grandma.” Indeed!
Thanks again to you all and I hope to see you next Sunday if not earlier.
Who are the "sons of God" in Genesis 6?
Posted on January 4, 2012 by Pastor Tom
The first 8 verses of Genesis 6 certainly contain a strange story. The purpose is to describe the depths of wickedness that had infected the world. But who are the sons of God? Thee ESV Study Bible provides these possibilities:
Gen. 6:1–8 The Wickedness of Humanity. The very specific list of descendants in ch. 5 is immediately followed by this short passage that explains why God sent a flood to punish the whole of humanity. But this passage concludes by recognizing that, in contrast to everyone else, Noah (introduced in 5:28–32) finds favor in God’s eyes.
Gen. 6:1–8:22 A flood story, included in the Epic of Gilgamesh, has been found in the Mesopotamian literature. It has many similarities to the biblical account of the flood. A certain man named Utnapishtim built an ark, loaded it with animals, and survived a torrential rain. The relationship of the two accounts, if any, is uncertain, although the appearance of a flood story in Mesopotamia gives some support and confirmation to the historicity of the biblical event. That is, the existence of such stories elsewhere indicates that the Bible indeed preserves the memory of a momentous event, as does the Mesopotamian account. There are also key differences between the biblical and Mesopotamian stories, particularly in regard to what motivated God or the gods to bring the flood.
Gen. 6:1–2 man began to multiply. The motif of multiplying is first introduced by God in 1:28, where it is presented in a very positive light and viewed as necessary to fulfill God’s plans for the earth. The present passage, however, reveals that this God-mandated task leads to increasing wickedness on the earth as the population expands. This problem is exacerbated by the coming together of the sons of God and the daughters of man (6:2). The identity of both groups is uncertain, and various solutions have been advocated, although none has gained universal support. Various scholars have proposed that the “sons of God” are (1) fallen angels (cf. Job 1:6; some, however, suggest that this contradicts Mark 12:25, though the reference in Mark is to angels in heaven; see also 2 Pet. 2:4–5; Jude 5–6); or (2) tyrannical human judges or kings (in the ungodly line of Lamech, possibly demon-possessed); or (3) followers of God among the male descendants of Seth (i.e., the godly line of Seth, but who married the ungodly daughters of Cain). Though it would be difficult to determine which of these three views may be correct, it is clear that the kind of relationship described here involved some form of grievous sexual perversion, wherein the “sons of God” saw and with impunity took any women (“daughters of man”) that they wanted. The sequence here in Gen. 6:2 (“saw … attractive [good] … took”) parallels the sequence of the fall in 3:6 (“saw … good … took”). In both cases, something good in God’s creation is used in disobedience and sinful rebellion against God, with tragic consequences. Only Noah stands apart from this sin. (See note on 1 Pet. 3:19.)
Gen. 6:3 God announces that because of the immoral nature of people, their days shall be 120 years. There are two possible interpretations of this number of years: either the lives of human beings will no longer exceed 120 years, or the coming of the flood is anticipated in 120 years. While the latter interpretation is simpler, the former interpretation is appealing, and would be true as a generalization even though some of those who live after the flood (e.g., Abraham) enjoy lives in excess of 120 years.
Gen. 6:4 Nephilim. The meaning of this term is uncertain. It occurs elsewhere in the OT only in Num. 13:33, where it denotes a group living in Canaan. If both passages refer to the same people, then the Israelite spies (Num. 13:33) are expressing their fears of the Canaanites by likening them to the ancient men of renown. Although in Hebrew Nepilim means “fallen ones,” the earliest Greek translators rendered it gigantes, “giants.” This idea may have been mistakenly deduced from Num. 13:33; one must be cautious about reading it back into the present passage. The Nephilim were mighty men or warriors and, as such, may well have contributed to the violence that filled the earth (see Gen. 6:13).
Gen. 6:5 This verse concisely describes the universal intensity and pervasiveness of human wickedness.
Gen. 6:6–7 the Lord regretted … it grieved him to his heart. The Hebrew verb rendered “regretted” (Hb. nakham) is sometimes translated “repent,” and sometimes as “feel sorrow, be grieved.” God is grieved over his creation, which he at first saw as very good (1:31) but which is now filled with sin (see notes on 1 Sam. 15:11; 15:29; Jonah 3:10). The destruction of man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens suggests that this will be a reversal of God’s creative work. The resulting flood reflects this, for the dry land is submerged under water, subsequently to reappear, as in Gen. 1:9. from the face of the land. On the extent of the flood, see note on 6:17.
Gen. 6:8 Noah is distinguished from the rest of humanity. Apart from Noah, the only other person in the OT who is described as finding favor in the eyes of the Lord is Moses, in Ex. 33:17 (and possibly Abraham; cf. Gen. 18:3). Placed on a par with Moses, Noah is rescued from the looming annihilation.
Genesis 3-5
Posted on January 3, 2012 by Pastor Tom
Today’s reading reminds me of the importance of knowing God’s Word accurately. Eve quoted God’s command to Satan. But she didn’t know it well. God said “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Eve repeated God’s command this way: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
God’s command was abundance. “Eat of every tree in the garden.” Eve left out the word “every.” God said nothing about touching the tree. But Eve added another prohibition. By lessening the emphasis on God’s abundance and increasing the emphasis on God’s limitation, Eve was ripe for Satan’s temptation.
Knowing God’s Word completely and accurately can greatly aid us in times of temptation.