Three Superstars

The people of Israel recognized three "superstars" from the time of David through the time Jesus was here on earth and even right up to today: Abraham, Moses, and David. Each of these three men played a key roll in the formation and history of the nation of Israel and each one was involved in a "covenant" with God that points to and identifies their descendant Jesus as the Messiah.

Abraham: Covenant of Faith

Abram (God later changed his name to Abraham) lived with his father and extended family in an area of Asia Minor that was in the southern part of what we call Turkey today. He received a message from God:

“Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household
to the land that I will show you.
Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you,
and I will make your name great,
so that you will exemplify divine blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
but the one who treats you lightly I must curse,
so that all the families of the earth may receive blessing through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

So Abram took all his possessions and servants as well as his nephew Lot, left his home and family, and began a journey as God directed him. Eventually Abraham (formerly Abram) reached the land that God had promised him but, since he did not have any children, he was questioning how God would be able to deliver on the promise of making him into a great nation. God  assured Abraham that he would have a son of his own as an heir. In Genesis 15:6 the Bible says:

Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it as righteousness to him.

Following the tradition of the time, God had Abraham kill some animals, cut them in half, and lay the pieces opposite each other. The Bible puts it this way in Genesis 15:17-18:

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed between the animal parts. That day the Lord made a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I give this land...

The smoking firepot and the flaming torch passing between the animal parts represented God's sealing of the covenant with Abraham.  In this covenant God made a promise to Abraham and Abraham trusted (believed) God to deliver. You can read the details of Abraham's encounter with God in Genesis 15:1-20.

Moses: Covenant of Law

With the passage of over 400 years Abraham's family did grow into a "nation", estimated at about 2 million people when Moses led them out of Egypt and out of slavery. After they left Egypt and as they moved toward the land that God had promised to Abraham (and them), God made a covenant with all the people of the nation with Moses serving as a "mediator". This covenant differed from the covenant with Abraham:

• God made a promise to Abraham but Abraham did not make any promise to God; he simply trusted God to deliver on the promise.
• In the giving of the "Law", God promised the people blessings if they obeyed and curses if they disobeyed; and the people agreed to keep and obey the Law.

A significant part of the Old Testament in the Bible describes how the people of Israel failed to live up to their commitment to the covenant. 

David: Covenant for an eternal King and Kingdom

Hundreds more years pass and the people are not content to have just God as their "King". They want to have a powerful human "king" to rule them and to fight their battles for them "like all the other nations around them".  So God gave them the kind of human king they wanted: a physically strong, attractive, charismatic man. Unfortunately, King Saul was more interested in his own personal well being than in serving the people or upholding God's standard.

As a result, God sent the prophet Samuel to find and anoint another king, one who would be a better servant of  God and his people. God's choice was not what human beings would have expected. He selected David, the youngest son of a sheep farmer who spent his days tending his father's sheep. Some of David's early life experiences remind us of what Jesus experienced during his time here on earth:

• His father left him out in the field with the sheep when the prophet Samuel came to visit.
• He was seen as just a kid
• His brothers did not respect him
• Over 20 years pass from his anointing by Samuel until he becomes king, much of it spent in exile fleeing for his life

Compare this to Jesus:

• His family thought he was crazy
• People of his home town rejected him
• Jewish authorities plotted to kill him

Unfortunately, David was a flawed human being just like the rest of us and in many ways he fell short of God's standard, but God showed compassion to him and provided forgiveness to him. Looking to David's descendants and the future of the people of Israel, and indeed all future inhabitants of the earth, God made a covenant with David: that one of his descendants would be the king of an eternal kingdom.

The Lord said,
“I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have made a promise on oath to David, my servant:
‘I will give you an eternal dynasty
and establish your throne throughout future generations.’”

Jesus: Humble Servant, King of Kings

Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, is the continuation of the Covenant of Faith established with Abraham. God promises a place for us in his kingdom if we will believe in and trust Jesus.

Jesus, as the only human being to ever perfectly obey the Law of God given when Moses was the "mediator"and perfectly live up to God's standard, has "fulfilled"  or completed the Law. Then, as a humble servant, he sacrificed himself to pay the price for our failure to live up to God's standard.

Jesus, as the Son of God and as a descendant of David, is the King of an eternal Kingdom that exists right now and that we can be a part of.

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Scripture quoted by permission. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

This post is the result of my studies based on the book by Mark E. Moore, Core 52: A Fifteen-Minute Daily Guide to Building your Bible IQ in a Year, published by WaterBook (Penguin Random House)

Trade Paperback ISBN 978-0-525-65325-7

ebook isbn 978-0-525-65326-4

The Fall

Sin

What about this word "sin"? Most people who hear the word probably think of it as something bad. Some people may be afraid of it. The use of that word may make some people angry. Some may think there is not such thing as "sin". But from a religious perspective, from God's perspective, what is "sin"?

The English word "sin" comes from the Latin sons which means "guilty". So the English word carries the idea of being guilty of violating some law or standard. In the Old Testament the English word "sin" is a translation of the Hebrew word chata which has the meaning "to miss" or "to go wrong". In the New Testament it is a translation of the word hamartia meaning "to miss the mark" or, in an ethical sense, a fault or a failure. The root word was regularly used in ancient times of an archer missing the target. From a Biblical perspective, then, sin is the failure of human beings to live up to God's standards.

The above statement raises all kinds of questions. What are God's standards? Why does he set standards at all? Why can't we be free to do what ever we want? I'm using the word "standard" here instead of "rule" or "law" because I feel like the latter two words may be viewed as too negative in our culture. I want to suggest that God's standards are intended to be a positive benefit to human beings and to the physical world we live in. The are intended to guide human beings to a peaceful and productive life.

The Fall

Bible scholars and theologians (theos "God", logia "study of") often call the events of Genesis chapter 3 as "the fall" because those events describe how the first two human beings on earth fell short of God's standards. What do we observe as these events unfold?

Freedom

First, we can see from these events that human beings are "free moral agents". That is, we are free to make choices as we live our lives. Even though God and our government establish standards of behavior, we are free for the most part to live by those standards or to violate them. God set a standard that was intended to be beneficial to Adam and Eve and they chose to violate the standard.

Responsibility

Second, there is a third party involved. The Bible says that the devil appeared to Eve in the form of a serpent and deceived and seduced her with subtle lies and half truths into doing something God has told her not to do. When Adam and Eve were confronted by God, they were ready to absolve themselves of any responsibility for their actions by playing the blame game. Note what Adam said, "The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it." Basically he is saying, "it's not my fault; it is your fault, God, because you gave me the woman", and, "its not my fault; she gave it to me." And Eve's response: "The serpent tricked me, and I ate." Basically, she is saying, "It's not my fault; it is the serpent's fault because he tricked me." The fact is, however, that Adam and Eve each made a free moral choice and they are responsible and accountable, regardless of the part played by a third party.

Death

Third, the concept of death is present in this scripture. In the previous chapter, God tells Adam that if he eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will die. In chapter three this comes up in the conversation between the serpent and Eve. But what exactly is death? We have become conditioned to view death as the end of life, but Biblically speaking death for human beings is separation: physical death is the separation of the body which decays from the spirit which continues to exist in anticipation of the resurrection; spiritual death is the separation of the person from God.

Theologians sometimes debate whether the "death" mentioned here in Genesis chapter three is physical death or spiritual death. I think it refers to both. They were spiritually separated from God immediately: after they ate the fruit they heard God in the garden and hid from him because they were afraid. They eventually died physically as well.

Our Hope

Just like Adam and Eve, all human beings have fallen short of God's standard, but I want to end this post on a hopeful note. Anyone who humbly turns back to God, acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Son of God, can be returned to spiritual life and a relationship with God.
Paul says in Ephesians 2:4-7:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!— and he raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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Scripture quoted by permission. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

This post is the result of my studies based on the book by Mark E. Moore, Core 52: A Fifteen-Minute Daily Guide to Building your Bible IQ in a Year, published by WaterBook (Penguin Random House)

Trade Paperback ISBN 978-0-525-65325-7

ebook isbn 978-0-525-65326-4

Our True Identity

In the last post we looked at Creation, attempting to explore God's creation of the universe and life. In this post we explore the concept stated in the Bible that human beings are created in the "image" and "likeness" of God. One might say that we are addressing these two questions:

• Creation: Why are we here?
• Image of God: Who are we?

Can we discover who we are? Are we just another animal on top of the heap of evolution? Or are we something else? Are we something more? What does the Bible say about human beings from a spiritual and philosophical perspective? Genesis 1:26 states:

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all creatures that move on the earth." (NET Bible)

God does not say this about anything else in the universe; not any physical thing; not plants or animals. Human beings are somehow unique in creation. Can we discover from the Bible some of the ways in which we are unique?

To rule, have dominion

First, the scripture quoted above says that God, who is the ruler over the universe because he created it, has appointed human beings to be rulers over the earth and the other life forms on he earth. So in some sense we human beings are rulers like God is a ruler. But what does it mean to "rule over" something? Unfortunately, because of our experience through history, we have come to see "rulers" or "kings" as tyrants who are more interested in their own power and wealth than in taking care of the people over whom they have power. From God's perspective, however, the "ruler" is actually a caretaker. God has appointed us caretakers of this earth. Look at Genesis 2:15:

The LORD God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it. (NET Bible)

 That is the role he has toward us, and that is the role he has gives to us regarding the earth.

Language, speech, writing

Second, throughout this first section of Genesis we see Adam and Eve in relationship with and communicating with God. He gave human beings intelligence and the capability to comprehend and communicate with himself. Of all life forms, only human beings have language, speech, and writing. Further, we have a sense of beauty and the capability to invent and create new things from the raw materials that God has provided us through his creative acts.

Character traits

Third, even though God had character traits that he does not share with us such as self-existence, omniscience (all-knowing), and omnipotence (all-powerful), he does share some character traits with us. Some of these traits are listed in Colossians 3:12-14: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love. God is the perfection of these character traits while human beings possess them in an imperfect way. Even though human beings have failed to fully live out these character traits (sin), all human beings are still "in the image of God" and exercise some of these traits to some degree whether they believe in God or not; whether they are followers of Jesus or not.

It is only in Jesus Christ that we can begin to realize our true potential to live out the character traits that God has shared with us. In Colossians 3:8-11 Paul describes how the image of God can be renewed in us through Jesus:

But now, put off all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. (NET Bible)

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Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET Bible) are from the NET Bible®
copyright ©1996-2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

This post is the result of my studies based on the book by Mark E. Moore, Core 52: A Fifteen-Minute Daily Guide to Building your Bible IQ in a Year, published by WaterBook (Penguin Random House)

Trade Paperback ISBN 978-0-525-65325-7

ebook isbn 978-0-525-65326-4