Last evening our family watched the Sound of Music at East Juniata High School. The students did a great job with the musical performance. During intermission, my mind had time to wander a bit. (imagine that!) I realized how much we all enjoy a good story. Movies and plays are the medium frequently used in storytelling today. However, not only do we utilize movies, the ancient art of verbal storytelling is alive and well. Earlier today I worked at the Farmshow. I had barely clocked in until someone began to tell me a story of something that had happened to another security guard earlier in the month. Grandmothers and athletes, fisherman and shoppers all love to tell the story, and quite frankly, good storytellers are entertaining.
Unfortunately our love of the story almost never gets utilized when we interact with the greatest story of all time. It is a story of God's interaction with us, our creation, our rebellion, and most grand of all, His redemption and the acceptance of love. It is a love story, a story of love spurned and love received. In our efforts to be doctrinally sound, we have diminished the power of the glorious love story and relegated it to the status of a rule book.
As long as the story is understood as the Great Story, it consists of life-giving words, words to guide us, words to both inspire and warn us, words that ultimately lead to Jesus and abundant life. On the other hand, if we reduce the Great Story to a set of rules, confusion and conflict, strife and division occur. As a rulebook, the greatest theme in the Great Story is lost, the theme of relationship with God.
There was a time when I was afraid to embrace the Great Story. I was afraid that to call it a story would mean I was minimizing the power of it. To call the Bible a story seemed sacrilegious. However, I have come to learn that the reduction of the story occurs, not when I understand it as the Great Story, but as I interpret it as a set of rules.
6 comments:
Psalm 119:97 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Is this law that David loves and thinks about all day long a set of rules such as the Mosaic law or was he refering to somthing greater?
Good question! The Hebrew word is "Torah" which we understand the Mosaic law. The Torah is part of the story. David lived in a time when the law and the sacrifices were the God-ordained way of relating to Him.
Ezekiel would later prophesy that the day would come when God would give a new heart. That is the day in which we live today. On a side note, when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He manifested as tongues of fires yet apparently those tongues of fire did not consume the person. The other time in scripture we read of the fire that did not consume was when the I AM came to Moses in the burning bush. The Hebrews at Pentecost would have made the connection. God Himself was now filling the believers. This was a new dispensation for sure!
It is interesting that David willfully broke the Torah when he ate the shewbread in the tabernacle. I wonder if it is possible that he realized that the law was given to benefit man?
Psalm 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul. What law was David referring to?
It is obvious that David violated the Mosaic law when he ate of the shewbread. But apparently he did not violate the law of the Lord. I believe the book of Hebrews brings out the fact that the law of the priesthood of Aaron was subserviant to the law of God after the priestly order of Melchisedek. Jesus Christ was the final High Priest of this order.
I believe this higher law is still in effect today. Jesus came to take away the law of Moses. He did not come the take away the Law of God. He came to fulfill it through love. He came to set us free from the law of sin and death.
Many Christians believe that freedom in Christ is freedom from all law. This would explain the lawless attitude that is carried by so many today.
We need to get an understanding of how that love fulfills the law of God. Love does not remove the law of God it fulfills it!
Once again in Psalm 19:7, the word law is "torah". The "torah" refers to the Pentateuch which is understood as the Mosaic law ( or the first 5 books of the Bible).
These verses help illustrate the problems we have when we make the Bible a "flat" rulebook. (i.e.-the high school soccer rulebook I get every summer that determines how I officiate soccer games.) David clearly writes that the "torah" is perfect or complete. Yet that is contrary to what we know. If the "torah" is complete and converts the soul, there would be no need for Jesus.
If we understand the Bible as a rulebook, we now have a major conflict...the Bible says that the law is perfect and converts the soul. The Bible also says that the law is insufficient. So which is true?
We have to understand the time in which things were written. In David's day, the law was perfect and complete, it was the most complete revelation of Him given to man. Paul talks speaks of "rightly dividing the "logos".
I do agree that there is a law of God (although I am not sure that David was talking about that law). When we violate His ways, we will pay the consequences. God's words to the Israelites before they entered the promised land still apply today - I set before you a blessing and a curse.
When we violate the way of God, we enter into a curse. For instance if we refuse to forgive, the unforgiveness will destroy us. Women who have had abortions frequently deal with post abortion syndrome that can emerge years after the abortion. Greedy people usually are miserable...and the list could go on.
Perhaps the greatest consequence of lawlessness is a love grown cold. When we live in harmony with God, we embrace His priorites. However when we isolate from Him by willful choosing the way of self, our love for God and others grows cold.
Living according to God's ways will always result in love for people and invariably a love for God's ways. However, a love for doctrine frequently leads to a coldness of heart. Jesus said that because of lawlessness (illegality or violation of law) the love of many would grow cold. When we do things outside of God's ways (yes even good things like prophesying, casting out demons and miracles) we cease to love.
You wrote: “Good question! The Hebrew word is "Torah" which we understand the Mosaic law. The Torah is part of the story. David lived in a time when the law and the sacrifices were the God-ordained way of relating to Him. ..)
My reply: The Creator make no mistakes. Neither does He change as it says in Malakhi 3:6.
According to Devarim (“Deuteronomy”) 13:1-6 in Hebrew, any prophet who adds or subtracts a mitzwah (commandment) from Torah is not a valid prophet. So for example, a person who says that it is okay to eat pig meat – he is not a valid prophet. The Creator does not change (Malakhi 3:6).
The fact that the Creator does not change and the fact that according to Torah the mitzwot in Torah origins from the Creator (Devarim 6:4 et. al) implies that the mitzwot in Torah will always be required by humanity.
Since you and many of your readers are Christians I think the website www.netzarim.co.il will be of interest to you. It contains research, previously unknown to most Christians, about Ribi Yehoshua (the Messiah) from Nazareth and what his followers according to a logical research of the historical documents taught. It is very important to learn to be able to follow Ribi Yehoshua.
Have a nice weekend!!
Anders Branderud
Mr Anders
Your comments illustrate a growing deception in the church. There is a segment of the church that requires a return to the Jewish law. The church in Galatia was faced with the same kind of deceptive thinking, hence the letter written to them that we call Galatians.
The destruction of the temple in 70 AD was the final nail in the coffin of the Jewish worship system (law and sacrifices). Hebrews is clear that the way of Jesus is superior to the old way of an earthly priest. Jesus and the new covenant is better than the old covenant.
I would agree that God does not change in nature. However, God does change His mind. We find God relenting of His plans to destroy the Israelites when Moses pleaded with Him.
I would caution anyone to beware when they hear of some new revelation or new discovery that sheds some previously unknown facts on Jesus. I am certainly a "learner", and enjoy hearing new thoughts and ideas, however I have observed that most of the "new" revelations about Jesus are simply deceptions that are masquerading as truth.
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