Faithfulness

Readings for today: Hosea 1-5, Psalms 122

We held my father’s funeral last Friday. It was a special time. Over fifty family members flew in from all over the country. Many friends took time to attend. We were blessed by all who showed up to comfort and care and show their support. After the service, my mom and I were talking about what a blessing it was to see so many that we love. She was surprised by the number of people who came out or who called to express their condolences over the last several weeks because dad wasn’t all that connected to that many people. I told her I wasn’t surprised at all. They didn’t come for dad. They came for her. They called for her. They reached out because my mother is an absolute model of faithfulness and grace. Her unconditional love for my father over fifty-five years - forty of which he battled an addiction to alcohol - is worthy of honor. The sacrifices she made to remain true to her marriage vows is inspiring.

My mom reminds me of the prophet Hosea. Hosea remained faithful though he had every reason to abandon his marriage. His wife was a prostitute. She was an adulterous. By law, he could have had her stoned to death. But Hosea heard from God. He offered his life up as a living witness to the faithfulness of God in the face of the unfaithfulness of His people. People like Hosea or my mom are rare. Most of us, if we’re honest, would cut and run in such situations. Many of us would encourage those we love to walk away if they were cheated on or if they were verbally and emotionally abused. Adultery. Addiction. Abandonment. Abuse. A case can be made that each of these are biblical reasons for divorce. And yet, books like Hosea remind us that though we do all of these things and more to God, He never abandons us. He never walks away from us. He never leaves us or forsakes us. He is faithful. And perhaps there is something to be said for sticking with a marriage for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.

Perhaps that’s why I admire my mom so much. Of course, I admire her for many things but her faithfulness to my dad stands above them all. She loved a man who was often unlovable. She served a man who was often selfish. She continued to forgive a man who didn’t do much to earn such grace. To be fair, my dad had several redeemable qualities as well. Life wasn’t all bad with him. He was a tremendous grandfather and had softened a great deal in his later years. But the decades of addiction took a toll. At the same time, all those years of suffering have revealed a glory in my mother. She has a beauty and dignity and grace that can only come to those who have walked roads filled with great pain. She has endured. She has persevered. She has been faithful and God has honored her as a result.

Each of us has a road to walk. A road marked by suffering to some degree or another. A road filled with challenges to face, obstacles to overcome, and pain to endure. Will we remain faithful?

Readings for tomorrow: Hosea 6-10, Psalms 123

Covenant of Life

Readings for today: Isaiah 28-30, Psalms 115

The heart of the reading for me today is Isaiah 28:15-18. There God confronts His people with a powerful Word. ““For you said, “We have made a covenant with Death, and we have an agreement with Sheol; when the overwhelming catastrophe passes through, it will not touch us, because we have made falsehood our refuge and have hidden behind treachery.” (Isaiah‬ ‭28‬:‭15‬ ‭CSB‬) I think about our own culture. The covenant we too have made with death. Abortion on demand. Suicide. Euthanasia. I think about the lies we believe. Our seeming inability to sift through what’s true and false. Our tendency to naively accept whatever fits our ideological worldview rather than pursue honesty and transparency. I grieve our propensity towards violence. School shootings. Racially-motivated hate crimes. Sexual abuse. I grieve our morbid fascination with self-destruction. Legalization of marijuana and other harmful substances. Addiction to opioids and other pain-killers. All in an attempt to numb our pain. I grieve the fact that we continue to seek refuge in the lies we tell ourselves and in the falsehoods we cling to at all costs. If I were not a Christian, I would despair. 

But then I read these words, “Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable. And I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the mason’s level.” Hail will sweep away the false refuge, and water will flood your hiding place. Your covenant with Death will be dissolved, and your agreement with Sheol will not last.” (‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭28‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭CSB‬‬) Once again, I am overwhelmed. God does what I cannot do. God does what we cannot do. God does what no government or business or church or non-profit agency - no matter how pure and righteous their motives - can do! He annulls the covenant we made with death! He sets aside our agreement with Sheol! He lays a foundation in Zion. A sure foundation built on tested and precious stone on which we can build our lives! He doesn’t ask us to rescue ourselves. He doesn’t ask us to clean up our act. He doesn’t expect us to find a way out of the mess we’ve made. He simply steps in. He restores justice. He restores righteousness. He sweeps away all the lies and falsehoods. He destroys death. He robs the grave. And He grants His people new life...abundant life...in Him!

Will we still sin? Yes. Are we still a rebellious people? Absolutely. Will we still run from God? Crawl off the altar? Try to build our lives on shifting sand? All that and more. But thankfully God is patient with us. “Therefore the Lord is waiting to show you mercy, and is rising up to show you compassion, for the Lord is a just God. All who wait patiently for him are happy.” (Isaiah‬ ‭30‬:‭18‬ ‭CSB‬‬‬) And because God is faithful, we can be sure a day is coming when we will weep no more. We will see Him face to face. We will know His ways and walk in them. We will tear down every idol in our lives. Our brokenness will be bound and our wounds healed. We will sing a new song in the night. We will keep the holy feast. We will witness the victory of the Lord our God.

Readings for tomorrow: Isaiah 31-35, Psalms 116

Relationship before Laws

Readings for today: Exodus 19-21, Psalm 23

“Christianity is not about rules, it’s about a relationship.” I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard this or said this myself over the years. It’s true of course. But too often people make the mistake of thinking this is a New Testament idea when in fact its roots go much farther back. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same God who revealed Himself fully in Jesus Christ, reveals Himself to His people at Mt. Sinai as a God of relationship. A God who brought them out of Egypt on eagle’s wings. A God who delivered them from bondage and slavery. A God who refuses to abandon His people but remains faithful to the covenant He first made with Abraham and Sarah,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.” (Exodus‬ ‭20‬:‭2‬ ‭CSB‬‬) This is where the Ten Commandments begin. Not with a rule but with a relationship. Not with law but with love. “I am the Lord your God…” God has laid claim to this particular people. He has set them apart as a nation of priests in order to bring blessing to the world. They will serve as an example to the nations of what it means to live by faith. To walk in holiness and purity before the Lord. And to help them understand their new identity as God’s chosen people, God gives them a set of laws to govern their lives in an ancient near east context. Some of these laws - like the Ten Commandments - are transcultural, meaning they remain in force in every time and place. Some of these laws will be ceremonial, meaning they govern the worshipping life of ancient Israel and no longer apply in our context. Some of these laws are civil in nature, meaning they apply to the nation of Israel, a theocratic state that no longer exists. Don’t get lost in the details. The main point is to stay focused on what God has done to save and set apart His people.

The Apostle Peter will pick up some of these same ideas in the New Testament. He will call the people of God a “a chosen people” and “a nation of priests” and a “people set apart for God’s own possession.” You and I are grafted into the covenant. Through Jesus Christ, we enter into a relationship with God whereby He delivers and saves us from our sin. Jesus is the greater Moses. He accomplishes eternally what Moses can only do temporally. He secures for us a place in God’s eternal Kingdom and when that great day comes, we too will be lifted up on eagle’s wings to dwell with the Lord forever.

Readings for tomorrow: Exodus 22-24, Psalm 24

Covenant Faithfulness

Readings for today: Genesis 16-18, Psalm 5

I give God so many reasons to walk away but still He remains faithful. If one were to catalog my sins from a single day or week or month or year, one would have more than enough evidence to cut bait but God does not. My life is a series of ups and downs, successes and failures, good and bad decisions and still God is with me through it all. This is what it means to live in covenant relationship with God. A covenant is not a contract. It is not an agreement between two equal parties. It is not transactional in nature. A covenant is eternal because God is eternal. A covenant cannot be broken because God never breaks faith no matter what we say or do. God guarantees His covenant with His very life. He refuses to walk away no matter how bad things get. He never leaves us or forsakes us even if we leave or forsake ourselves.

Don’t believe me? Consider what happens in Abram’s life. Consider all the factors in play that put the covenant God has made with him in jeopardy. Family dysfunction. An illegitimate heir. Strife between Sarai and Hagar. Age considerations. Physical limitations. The shame of barrenness. And what does God do? He meets Abram in the middle of the mess. He sees Hagar in the wilderness. He blesses Ishmael as well as Isaac. He gives them new names and new identities. Abram will now be Abraham - “Father of a multitude.” Sarai will now be Sarah - “Princess.” Both will be blessed. Kings and nations will come from their family line. Through their family and household, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. There could be no greater promise for an ancient near east patriarch than to know the future of his family was secure. And if this were a contractual arrangement, Abraham would have no hope. He’s already proven he can’t hold up his end of the bargain. God would have every right to walk away. But it’s a covenant. An eternal arrangement made by God Himself. All these things will come to pass in Abraham’s life because God is faithful even where Abraham is not. And the same is true for us.

Jesus Christ invites us into a new covenant. A covenant sealed by His own body and blood. A covenant guaranteed by His own life. This covenant involves the forgiveness of sins. It includes the gift of eternal life. Those who enter it will always be part of it. No matter where they go or what they do. Why? Because Jesus is faithful. He chases down every single lost sheep. He searches for every single lost coin. He never rests until every single lost child comes home. This is His promise to all those who believe in Him.

Readings for tomorrow: Genesis 19-21, Psalm 6

Covenant Faithfulness

Readings for today: 2 Kings 12-13, 2 Chronicles 24

God always keeps His promises. He made a promise to Noah never again to destroy the world by a flood. He made a promise to Abraham and Sarah to give them a son and make Abraham the “father of many nations.” He made a promise to Isaac and Rebekah and to Jacob and Leah and Rachel to make their family a people He would call His very own. He made a promise to Moses to deliver God’s people from slavery. He made a promise to Joshua to go before him into the Promised Land. He made a promise to David to always give him a descendant to sit on Israel’s throne. In the ancient near east, such promises were sealed by a covenant. An agreement between two parties outlining their responsibilities. If one party breaks the covenant, the other party is not only freed from it’s obligations but is justified in taking revenge. Not so with God. Though His people abandon the covenant over and over again, though they refuse to obey it’s conditions and live by it’s terms, God remains faithful. He never lets Himself off the hook.

“But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor has he cast them from his presence until now.” (2 Kings 13:23) These are stirring words especially for the Christian. We know God is so committed to keeping His promises that He sent His only Son to fulfill not only His obligations to us but our obligations to Him! Jesus took our place. He became the faithful “covenant-keeper” on our behalf. He paid the price we owed. He died the death we deserved. He carried the full weight of God’s righteous judgment of human sin, turning it aside through His atoning death on the cross. This is how committed God is to us! He will never leave us or forsake us or abandon us or grow impatient with us or cut us off. His grace is eternal. His love never-ending. His mercies new every morning. His faithfulness is greater than we can ever know.

So what about us? How can we show this same faithfulness not only to God but to one another? How can we extend this same grace to those around us? This same love to those who find themselves lost and lonely? How can we be merciful to others as Christ was merciful towards us? There are so many divisions in our world. So many divisions in our churches. So many divisions in our families. We sin against each other. We disappoint each other. We let each other down constantly. And yet the call to covenantal faithfulness remains. To walk with each other through the darkest valleys where life often takes us. To love each other even during those times when we are unlovable. To extend grace upon grace towards each other when we inevitably fail. Only God can give us the strength to do this and the good news is He promises to do just that for all those who would seek Him. All you have to do is ask. Make sure to ask God to give you what you need so you can serve those you love today!

Readings for tomorrow: 2 Kings 14-15, 2 Chronicles 25-27