Tag Archives: Obedience

Day 89: Fulfillment fulfilled!

Joshua 22-24; Luke 6:27-49

Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel (Joshua 24:31).

And so ends the patriarchal history. It ends with God fulfilling His promises to Abraham of 1) blessing, 2) becoming a great nation and 3) possessing a land. Fulfillment… at least partially.

Jesus would come and bring the next stage of fulfillment – the ushering in of his Kingdom – but we will not see the consummate fulfilling of all the promises until the end of the age with the dawning of a new heaven and a new earth. Until that glorious day, we wait…

In Luke, we read of how we are to live as members of God’s Kingdom – but Jesus’ teaching is not only an instruction manual for a life-well-lived in the present day, but it paints a picture of life in the new earth… A life that is not tainted with sin – a life where everyone loves and lives for the sake of Another. We will live as a great nation, under blessing with the new earth as our land. There will be fulfillment. Complete and glorious fulfillment!!

Day 87: We have to follow to lead

Joshua 18-19; Luke 5:17-39

Joshua exemplifies leadership. I’m sure someone has written an entire leadership training course based on Joshua’s life! I think he is such a good leader because he is an even better follower. Joshua followed Moses as his assistant for most of his life. And after Moses died, Joshua followed God.

In this section of Scripture, we read as Joshua allots land to the remaining tribes and their clans – and at the very end, Joshua receives his allotment. It’s a conservative plot – located away from the major cities. You can tell his job is almost complete and he plans to enjoy the rest of his time in peace.

Joshua, like many of the Old Testament figures, points forward to Jesus. Jesus exemplifies leadership in today’s passage from Luke. We see him teaching, healing, forgiving and serving. We see him spend time with “sinners” and endure criticism from the religious leaders. Jesus followed the will of his Father. He was the perfect leader because he followed perfectly.

We, like Joshua, are called to follow. We are called to follow in the steps and ways of Jesus. In order to follow, we must humble ourselves and lay aside our own agendas. We must admit our need for spiritual healing. Jesus tells us…

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32).

In order to be an effective leader, we must first be a humble follower.

Day 86: For our own good!

Joshua 15-17; Luke 5:1-16

But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive out, so the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day (Joshua 15:63).

This sentence is tucked in the middle of lists of newly occupied cities and almost seems like an aside. But it spells trouble. The people were to drive out ALL the inhabitants of the land. This lack of obedience is evidence that the people were not whole-heartedly devoted to the Lord. This small misstep will fester and multiply so that after only two generations, the people will have turned away to worship other gods. God’s command to drive out all of the inhabitants was to protect the people from idolatry. God calls us to obey for our own good!

Meanwhile, in Luke’s gospel, we read of Jesus calling his first disciples by the Sea of Galilee (or Lake of Gennesaret). This is the third time this event is recorded in the gospels; it is also found in Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20.

In each of the three Gospels, it seems as if these men barely know Jesus – and they just suddenly decide to leave their professions and livelihood to follow a virtual stranger (albeit a famous stranger!) But in reality, they had spent almost a year with Jesus prior to this scene. The first four chapters of John occur chronologically before this event. So these men had plenty of opportunity to witness Jesus’ ways and work. It is only after they have spent considerable time with Jesus that He asks them to make such a drastic commitment.

In the same way, Jesus gives us time to learn his ways and work. But be careful… eventually he will ask for your whole heart. As we struggle to surrender, we must remember that all He asks of us is for our own good!

Day 70: Faithfulness

Deuteronomy 11-13; Mark 13:1-13

The past two days, we have studied the first half of Moses’ 2nd speech to the people. It began in Chapter 5 and has been a general plea for obedience… He winds down this part of his speech at the end of chapter 11 and begins a more specific point-by-point review of the law in Chapter 12…

Moses uses the 10 commandments to structure this review of the law. He introduces Chapter 12 by instructing the people how to worship (1st commandment: you shall have no other gods before me). And by the end of chapter 12, he is pleading passionately for the people not to chase after idols (2nd commandment) and to honor the Lord (3rd commandment). The directions given to purge the nation of idolatry seem extreme, but the harsh consequences for idolatry highlight the severity of the offense.

Moses warns the people of the consequences for both obedience and disobedience…

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).

Idolatry exists today. We might not worship carved images but that doesn’t mean we don’t chase after other gods…. comfort, success, security, love… pick your poison. We all have idols. We need to heed Moses’ warning and consider the seriousness of our wandering eyes.

But don’t think you can root out the idols of your heart by sheer will! Even recognizing your idols is a work of the Spirit, so how much more should we depend on the Spirit to help us overcome the idols of our hearts!!

Jesus exhorts his disciples in Mark 13 that faithfulness is a mark of a true believer (vs. 13). It’s tough to be faithful while we’re chasing after other gods…

Oh Lord, forgive my adulterous heart. Help me look to you alone for joy and satisfaction in this life. Show me where I depend on other ‘gods’ to fulfill me and help put them to death in my heart. I can’t do this alone. Please God, help me to persevere… Please, help me be faithful.

Day 69: Circumcise your heart!

Deuteronomy 8-10; Mark 12:28-44

The Israelites were chosen by God. God’s choice was not based on righteousness – in fact Moses goes into great detail outlining the stubbornness of Israel’s heart.

“Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people” (Deuteronomy 9:5).

“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn” (Deuteronomy 10:16).

Moses’ emphasis on the heart is extraordinary. The internal motivations of the heart are of utmost importance to God. Here is Moses, the law giver, ordering the Israelites to circumcise their hearts – to cut away the stubbornness and sin. The law could never root out the sin within their hearts. Moses was pointing forward to the day when the Spirit would baptize the heart (transform it through the dying of self and being raised to newness of life).

Yesterday, we read Moses summarize the whole law in two commands… Today, Jesus follows suit. Obedience must originate from a love of God that comes from a changed heart – otherwise it is not counted as righteousness…

“‘…And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31).

Where is your heart? Do you obey from habitual duty – or from a passion for the Savior? Ask the Spirit to make the gospel fresh in your mind and let God’s love be the motivation of your heart!

Day 67: Moses’ great passion

Deuteronomy 3:12-4:43; Mark 11:20-33

Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him (Deuteronomy 4:33-35).

In Moses’ first speech to the people, he reminds them of the Lord’s faithfulness and trustworthiness. You can almost sense his desperate desire for the people to obey. He reminds them that the land east of the Jordan has already been given. And he implores the men of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh to go with their brothers to secure the rest of the land west of the Jordan (3:12-22).

He encourages them to remain obedient.. reminding them of how their brothers who worshiped Baal of Peor (Num. 25:1-5) were killed by the Lord “but you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today” (4:4). He also warns that if they disobey “that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed” (4:26).

Moses knows that his death is imminent. We’ll continue to see his passion for the people’s obedience and trust in God’s word to build – culminating in his great song of faith in Deut. 32…

Moses was the great mediator between God and Israel. He pointed forward to Jesus – who is the ultimate mediator between God and the nations. I imagine Jesus’ passion for our obedience and trust surpasses that of Moses’! I pray I don’t disappoint him…

Day 65: The final discipleship lesson

Numbers 34-36; Mark 10:32-52

Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. He is resolute in his mission. You can almost see the crowds pulsing behind him – amazed and afraid. If anything is going to happen, it will happen in Jerusalem. If he’s going to become King, it will happen in Jerusalem. Yes. He would be King.

Jesus takes the twelve aside and tries this third and final time to explain that he would not be crowned King in Jerusalem, but rather he would die. He tries to paint a vivid picture of his suffering…  using words like “mock,” “spit,” “flog” and “kill.” But they remain spiritually blind.

James and John reveal their misunderstanding by choosing this moment to ask to sit at his right and left hand in “his glory.” The other disciples become “indignant.” They are filled with ambition and jealousy… The Spirit had not yet come. Their eyes remained closed.

But Jesus knows his time is short. He trusts that the Spirit will bring understanding.. later. He endures their misunderstanding and presses on with his teaching – the all-important teaching…

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45).

He would become King… but not with the usual fanfare… only by enduring great suffering. His life was and is our ransom.

The disciples’ would not remain blind… the change would come. But only after his death and resurrection… Then the Spirit would be sent and they would understand the call to suffer…. the call to sacrifice. Their eyes would be opened. Understanding would come. The Spirit would not fail.

Just like the disciples, we require the Spirit to understand and obey this hard teaching. Sacrifice does not come naturally, rather it is a slow, painful work of the Spirit that brings great reward. Ask the Spirit for understanding and the power to obey. The Spirit will not fail!

Day 62: The 1st discipleship lesson

Numbers 28-29; Mark 8:22-38

Many scholars teach that Mark’s gospel can be split into two sections… The first 7 chapters show Jesus in action… healing, teaching, traveling and performing miracles. We are now entering the 2nd half of Mark’s gospel where Jesus narrows his focus to the training of his disciples.

We see Jesus begin this hard work in his disciples, and just like us, they are blind, hard-hearted and not easily changed. As I mentioned yesterday, today’s passage begins a section in Mark that contains a pattern. We see Jesus predict his death three times. Each time, the disciples refuse to believe, and Jesus responds with a discipleship lesson. This section in Mark is book-ended by two episodes of Jesus healing a blind man… highlighting the disciples’ spiritual blindness.

Let’s look at Jesus’ lesson in Mark 8:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:34-36)

This is the essence of discipleship… of being a follower of Jesus. He demands our all – our very lives. This isn’t just a one-time surrender. Rather it is a daily battle with the self. Will you follow your self’s desires or Jesus’? Will you walk in the way of self sufficiency and self satisfaction or will you give up your rights and freedoms to walk in the way of the Savior?

This battle is impossible to win alone. We need the power of the Spirit to do something as gut-wrenchingly hard as sacrificial obedience. But let me tell you something. Something that isn’t intuitive – that’s paradoxical and hard to believe unless you’ve lived it…

At the bottom of the deep well of obedience is inexpressible, unquenchable – JOY. A joy that is other-worldly and powerful. It wraps you up in its warmth and lifts you effortlessly. It sustains you and fills you in a way that following your own will can not. But it takes work to find it…hard, painful sacrificial work. “Is it worth it?” you might ask… Oh yeah. It’s worth it.

Day 60: The man who tried to outwit God

Numbers 22-24; Mark 8:1-21

The King of Moab was scared. He watched as his neighbors were destroyed by those people – the Israelites. He knew he couldn’t defeat them in battle because He had heard of the power of their God. Instead of doing physical battle, he chose to do spiritual battle… He called upon the great pagan seer, Balaam. Surely, the seer could curse those people, and he, Balak, King of Moab, would stand victorious….

Ha! This king actually thought he could outwit the living God as he tried to manipulate the circumstances to his favor. The story that follows in Numbers 22-24 mirrors the absurdity of the Moabite king!

What do we learn from reading about God opening the eyes of the donkey and closing the eyes of the seer? Or opening the mouth of the donkey and watching the seer grovel on the ground? What do you think about God using the pagan seer, Balaam, to speak truth and blessings upon Israel?

Now contrast Balaam’s spiritual insight to the disciples in Mark 8. Their eyes had not yet been opened! They failed to see the spiritual truth in Jesus’ words about the leaven. How do we make sense of all this?

I’ll tell you what I learn… God can and will do whatever he wants whenever he wants. God also has ultimate control over spiritual understanding. He opens eyes to see and ears to hear. He does this in His own time and in His own way to accomplish His own purposes.

I’ll be frank… I’m sympathetic to the Moabite king… because just like Balak, I don’t like my circumstances! My days are spent caring for my brain-injured daughter. This is not the life I signed up for – but what can I do about it? Can I outwit the living God? No. The only thing I can do is throw myself at his feet and beg for mercy. I ask him to open my eyes to see his purposes. I ask him to give me ears to hear his Word. I ask for spiritual understanding and grace to serve my daughter with patience and compassion. I am at his mercy. And thankfully, He is a merciful God.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones (Proverbs 3:5-8).

Day 59: On the move

Numbers 20-21; Mark 7:24-37

Three days ago we read at the end of Numbers 14… that because of unbelief, the people would have to wait 40 years to enter the land. Numbers 15 begins with, “When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you…” In other words, God is gracious and reaffirms that despite the 40 year delay, He will, in fact, give the people the land.

The next 5 chapters (15-19) describe how the Israelites should observe the law – in the land. Their life in the promised land would be different from life in the wilderness – the changes in the law reflected this change.

Now we come to Numbers 20. And the 40 years are almost complete. The people gather together in the wilderness of Zin – which is just south of Canaan and happens to be the same area the spies first crossed on their way into Canaan years earlier. But that generation has passed away and we see that their children – though still rebellious, are not quite as bad as their fathers… Rather, the focus switches to Moses’ and Aaron’s rebellion. The consequences for their disobedience are severe, as Aaron dies and Moses is prohibited from entering the land.

We also read of the Israelites marching northward through the Transjordan (the land East of the Jordan River) and we see God’s favor return to His people as they defeat the kings of the Transjordan.

It’s an exciting time :) We are on the verge of seeing God fulfill a promise He first made to Abraham hundreds of years earlier!

But ultimately, all of God’s promises are fulfilled in the person of Jesus – who we find traveling to Jews in the outer most regions of Tyre, Sidon and the Decapolis in today’s reading from Mark. This may sound trite, but I love Jesus. I love watching his movements and actions. I LOVE reading about his healings. I can almost imagine myself being pressed on all sides by the crowds – hoping to catch just the glance of his eye…  When I read Mark’s gospel, I feel like I’m watching personified compassion on the move :)

Until tomorrow… when the plot thickens ;)