Stepping in the Light

“Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” Matthew 26:53-54

Peter had followed Jesus for more than three years. He had left everything, and had become one of Jesus’ most faithful disciples. He had hoped that Jesus would soon set up His new kingdom in Jerusalem and that he might have a place of prominence in this new world-wide empire. He knew that Jesus was completely good and that He was unlike any other person he had ever met. He had been amazed to hear Jesus’ teaching and astounded by the miracles He performed as they traveled from place to place. Peter was convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah and that His kingdom would be more noble and worthy than any kingdom before it. Peter was aware that the religious leaders rejected the idea that Jesus was the Christ, but he had hoped that they would eventually come to their senses and proclaim that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. Peter tried to defend Jesus against the mob that came to arrest Him in the garden, but Jesus corrected him. Jesus’ arrest was something that Peter did not want to happen, but it was unavoidable. Scripture must be fulfilled. The Messiah must be cut off for the people (Daniel 9:26). Jesus had prayed in the garden, “Let this cup pass from me,” but it was the Father’s will. Sometimes God allows unavoidable things in our lives, and we must be willing to let Him use them for His glory.

“Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.” Matthew 26:33-35

 We put a great deal of value on self-confidence. We want our leaders to display a great deal of confidence, and when we see their confidence it often inspires confidence in us and gives us a calm reassurance that they are making good decisions and that everything is going to be fine. Peter was confident that he would never deny the Lord, and so were all of the other disciples; but when it came time to put that confidence to the test, they all failed miserably.

The Bible teaches that our confidence should be in God. “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man” (Psalm 118:8). Our confidence should not be in any person, including ourselves. “For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken” (Proverbs 3:26). “In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge” (Proverbs 14:26). God wants us to be confident people, but He wants us to draw our confidence from Him. The disciples’ confidence in themselves eventually became their downfall. Our confidence as Christians should be placed completely in our Heavenly Father and what He can do.

“To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.” Leviticus 11:47

Have you ever wondered why God gave the Israelites the dietary laws found in Leviticus 11? God allowed Adam and Eve to eat every kind of fruit except one. God told Noah, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things” (Genesis 9:3). Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all of their descendants undoubtedly enjoyed this same broad freedom until God commanded Moses to institute these strict guidelines for His people. If it was permissible for Noah and the whole human race to eat any kind of animal, why were these restrictions made for the Israelites? If it was acceptable for Abraham (the father of the Hebrew nation), Isaac, Jacob, and all of their descendants to eat pork for hundreds of years, why was it suddenly a bad thing for Moses and the Israelites on their way to the Promised Land? The reason is found in the passage above: “to make a difference.” It is all about a process of thinking. God wanted them to have the opportunity to choose to please Him every time they ate a meal. As New Testament Christians who have been freed from the ordinances of the Old Testament by the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, we have a similar mandate. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31). God wants us to choose to honor Him in all that we do.

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:40

In this passage, Jesus gives us a glimpse of how God views us and what it means to Him when we do something for someone else. We are brought upon a scene of judgment, and there are some standing before the King who are surprised that they receive credit for doing good things that they do not remember doing. The King Himself says to them that they fed Him, clothed Him, visited Him, accepted Him, and encouraged Him. Their answer is one of bewilderment. “When did we ever do any of these things?” they cried. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me,” was His reply. For many Christians, the idea of serving God is somewhat mysterious. How can we do something for someone we cannot see? How can we know what He wants? How will we know if He is pleased with our efforts? Of course, there are many ways that we can serve the Lord, but perhaps the simplest and the most tangible way is to find someone in need and do something to meet their need. People in need are all around us. Some have need of food and shelter, some are experiencing emotional difficulties or physical pain, and others just need someone to show that they care. When we reach out to help these people, Jesus sees us reaching out to Him.

“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Matthew 25:21

In this well-known parable, Jesus illustrates the responsibility we have as Christians to invest the resources and abilities that He entrusts to us on His behalf. Most of us like to characterize ourselves as people who do not have very much talent or ability, but I Corinthians 12 teaches that God gives spiritual gifts to each of us. You and I may look at the gifts that God has given us and think that they are few and small, but the Lord expects us to invest them for His glory just the same. In this parable, the Lord commends that servant who was given five talents for being faithful over “a few things,” when he obviously received more than any other servant in the story by more than double. He received five times as much as the servant who was given the least. No matter how much God has given to us, it is small in comparison to the rewards He has in store for us if we invest it for Him. In a financial sense, investing is using an amount of money in hopes that it will yield a profit or some tangible result. In a spiritual sense, investing is using our abilities, efforts, and resources to achieve a positive spiritual result in bringing people closer to God and bringing glory to His name. We may belittle the potential of the abilities and resources that God has placed in our care, but He is excited when we invest what we have for His glory.

“And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him.” Leviticus 5:17-18

As New Testament Christians, we experience the tremendous blessing of living in the Age of Grace. Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary to pay for our sins. Once we accept Him as our Saviour, we are completely forgiven and God no longer sees our sins. Instead, God sees the shed blood of Christ and His righteousness, which has been placed on our account. The truths of forgiveness and justification are certainly wonderful, but if we are not careful, we will begin to take them for granted as time goes by. Paul says in Galatians 3:24 that the law was our school master to bring us to Christ. The law demonstrates the holiness of God. There were so many ordinances in the Old Testament law that it would have been very easy for a person to break one of them without even realizing it. In the passage above, we can see that if that were to happen, the person was still guilty. God’s grace does not negate His holiness, nor does it excuse us from living according to His precepts. We are all guilty sinners before God in desperate need of His great grace.

“And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon: And he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD: And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.” Leviticus 2:1-3

Have you ever wondered what God enjoys? The idea of a burnt offering being a sweet savor (a pleasant smell) to God is mentioned sixteen times in the book of Leviticus. These various offerings were burned before the Lord at the tabernacle. When something is burning, there is usually a distinct odor. Bacon frying in a pan gives off a particularly pleasant smell. Part of the reason that bacon smells so good to us when it is cooking is that we closely associate its smell with its taste. If the bacon is cooked until it begins to burn, it no longer smells appealing. The offerings in Leviticus were totally burned up, so they probably did not smell very pleasant to the people who were nearby, but Moses said that the odor was pleasant to God. These odors smelled sweet to God because of what they represented. The sacrifice was evidence of faith, obedience, and love in the heart of the one who gave it. God enjoys our sacrifice because it shows Him that we love Him.

“Thus was all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished: and the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did they. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold, they had done it as the LORD had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them.” Exodus 39:32, 42-43

The Israelites were a loosely-structured tribal nation recently emancipated from a four-hundred-year stretch of brutal slavery in Egypt. Moses told Pharaoh again and again that God had said, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” When God brought the people out of Egypt, they knew that they were headed for the Promised Land, but they probably didn’t realize that God had a job for them to do. One day Moses came down from the mountain with the instructions to build the tabernacle. The people began working right away. They were all involved in one way or another. They gave of their possessions and scoured the wilderness for the materials that they needed. They gathered, spun, dyed, cut, sowed, wove, hammered, carved, chiseled, and overlaid with gold. They did their very best because they were building a place to worship God. They labored over the tabernacle for about six months, and for their investment they had a place to worship that was in use for the next 450 years. As they continued their journey, they carried with them a sacred place where they would meet with God.

“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” Matthew 23:12

Gravity is a powerful force. We live with it every day. If the law of gravity were altered even slightly, it would fundamentally change the way we experience life. God created gravity and set its powers in place so that it affects the movement of objects and how their movements impact one another. These principles come into play when we try to understand what makes a seesaw work. The end of the seesaw with the heaviest weight goes down, and the other end goes up.

In the scripture above, one person is exalted while the other is abased. In other words, one goes up and the other goes down. It is a little bit like a physical seesaw, but the spiritual seesaw of humility is somewhat mysterious because it seems to work in reverse. The way to dominate on the seesaw is to have the most physical weight. You may have had an experience at some point in your childhood when someone who was older and bigger was on the other end of the seesaw and wouldn’t let you down. They had the advantage, they were in control, and you were totally at their mercy.

The principles that govern our interaction with people are also set in motion by God, and they are just as powerful and absolute as the law of gravity. If you exalt yourself, you will be abased. If you humble yourself, you will be exalted. So, there is only one way that you can be exalted. Humble yourself.

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Matthew 22:37

Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the greatest in the law. From the context, we can assume that the purpose of the question was to give Jesus the opportunity to say something wrong, something that could be used against him in the court of public opinion. The question came from a lawyer who evidently did not believe that He was the Messiah. No doubt, this lawyer had debated this very question with other lawyers and had an answer in his own mind that made sense to him. Evidently, the lawyer expected Jesus to single out a certain commandment as being the most important, and he thought that he would then have the opportunity to argue the point in front of everyone present and show that Jesus was wrong. But rather than picking out one particular ordinance that was significant in its ability to add righteousness to anyone who could keep it, Jesus revealed the purpose of the law by showing how it points us back to our Creator. His answer was both simple and profound. What is the greatest commandment? Love God. Love Him wholly and completely. This one law is the basis of every other command in the Bible.

God loves us, and what He wants more than anything is for us to love Him in return. Most of us begin each day looking for ways that we can please ourselves. What if we replaced our selfish desires with a deeply-rooted passion to find ways to please our Heavenly Father? What if we truly loved God?