While reading a biography of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, I was struck by the words of his “Chance for Peace” speech delivered in 1953. Eisenhower grasped that the necessity for nations to spend money and resources on arms necessarily deprives citizens of the world of the things that would improve life for all people. Eisenhower was not an unrealistic pacifist. He understood that militaries were required for the safety of the nation and the world. But he rightly recognized that we should, as a race, long for peace and its benefits.
As a believer, I find Eisenhower’s words as an interesting secular spur toward praying for the coming of the kingdom of the Lord in full. Only when Christ reigns without opposition will we truly see a world at peace that will reap the benefits of peace for all. Of course, this is a conquest of the world which must come without military means. This is a conquest of the world that must happen as the Lord turns the hearts of men to himself as his servants take the gospel to the nations.
Eisenhower spoke of the chance for peace. I can speak of the certain hope of future peace. Jesus will reign. The Lord’s kingdom will be consummated. May we, the people of God, be about taking the gospel of Christ to the nations and giving our all to this cause until that glorious Day when Christ is hailed as Lord by all to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:10-11).
The following is from Eisenhower’s speech:
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. These plain and cruel truths define the peril and point to the hope that comes with this spring of 1953.
. . .
The peace we seek, founded upon decent trust and cooperative effort among nations, can be fortified, not by weapons of war but by wheat and by cotton, by milk and by wool, by meat and by timber and by rice. These are words that translate into every language on earth. These are needs that challenge this world in arms.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “The Chance for Peace,” speech delivered to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 16, 1953 (Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission) [on-line]; accessed 5 Mar 2010; available from http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/speeches/19530416%20Chance%20for%20Peace.htm; Internet.
Apathy & Atheism Both lead to Destruction (Matthew 22:1-9)
Matthew 22:1-9 (ESV)
1 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
If you are a student of the Bible, the above text is fairly familiar to you. In a parable about the kingdom of God, Jesus illustrates by using a feast. A feast is prepared, but the invited guests fail to come at the summons. IN the context, the Jews were the original invited guests who rejected their invitation to the feast by rejecting Christ.
What catches my attention this morning is the two ways in which people made themselves unworthy to attend the banquet, making themselves unworthy to enter into the kingdom of God. One group fought against and mistreated and murdered the servants of the king. Obviously, those evil guys were wiped out by the king’s army and made unable to attend the feast.
It is the other group, however, that has my attention. There is a group of people who were invited to the feast who simply ignored their invitation. There were those who, upon hearing the summons to the banquet, just turned and went back to their lives. Do not miss that ,just like the violent persecutors, these too eventually found themselves outside of the kingdom.
In our modern mindset, we do not have a great deal of trouble saying that those who are cruel and violent might not find themselves in God’s kingdom when all is said and done. However, we have trouble realizing that the apathetic, the folks who just don’t care about religious things, will also find themselves out of the kingdom. God is just as insulted by those who ignore him as he is by those who actively oppose him. In fact, one might argue that apathy toward God is more of an offense than is aggressive atheism. At least the aggressive atheist acknowledges that God is a concept to be dealt with. The apathetic person simply shrugs his or her shoulders and acts as though God is totally irrelevant.
Let’s be clear about this: God will not leave the apathetic unpunished. He will not allow himself to be dishonored by being ignored. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (Phil 2:10-11), even those who want to pretend that God does not matter at all. If those knees do not bow in life, they will bow in death before suffering God’s wrath for eternity. Make no mistake, that wrath will be well earned by those who constantly reject God and pretend he is a non-factor.
I do not write this from a position of superiority. I would do the very same thing, ignoring or battling against God, had God not done a miracle in my heart. God, by God’s own sovereign power, made me alive together with Christ so that I might have his gift of salvation by grace alone through faith alone (cf. Eph 2:1-10). I write this post, however, as a way to encourage readers and the friends of readers to take seriously the fact that God will not ignore the apathetic. Jesus made this fact plain, and it cannot be ignored.
Are you living in a battle against God? Are you pretending that God does not matter at all? Hear the truth that God commands all men everywhere to repent and to turn to Jesus before it is too late. Stop fighting. Stop ignoring. Be reconciled to God.
God’s Word on Courthouse Walls? (Psalm 50:16-17)
Psalm 50:16-17
16 But to the wicked God says:
“What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips?
17 For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.
Should Christians fight to have the Ten Commandments posted in public places such as schools, courthouses, and other such locations? As you know, many Christians have gone to great lengths to battle for the display of God’s covenant rules in prominent places in our nation. However, I wonder if these verses of Psalm 50 might make us look at this topic from another angle.
God, in Psalm 50, tells the wicked, those who live in opposition to his laws, that they have no right to recite the words of his covenant. If the people who would speak the words of God’s law are at the same time those who have no interest in following God’s law, God wants them to keep the words of his law off of their lips. It is highly presumptuous to place the laws of God on the walls of buildings where men and women have no concern for such laws and who break those laws every day.
Of course, I recognize that many Christians who want the commandments displayed wish to do so as a convicting testimony. There are those who would say that the law of God needs to be on public display so that the wicked will recognize that they are living and adjudicating in direct opposition to the commands of the Lord. To such a group I have no objection. But let’s be sure that we are honest about why we want the word of God on the courthouse wall. IF we want that word there as a witness against the evil of the godless courts, let’s say so.
Perhaps some want the law of God displayed on the walls of buildings in order to battle for a continued religious freedom in the US. It is possible that, allowing the courts to sanitize their walls of Scripture could be a step in allowing the government to violate our constitutional freedom to worship. Again, if this is the motivation of those wanting the words on the walls, let’s be sure that this is made plain in our demands.
It is also possible, to a point , that the law of God made public will help to hold the nation back from sinning to the fullest degree it is capable. In Galatians 3, Paul talks of the law being given because of transgressions (Gal 3:19). It is possible that this verse means that God gave Israel the law to prevent them from sinning to a point of destruction until the promised one came. It is possible then, that putting the law on the courthouse walls can have a governing influence on our sinful behavior in the nation. But again, let’s be sure that we know what we are doing when we fight for that outcome.
With those possibilities mentioned, let’s be sure that we recognize that God is in no way honored when lost people who neither know him nor love him recite his word. He does not speak well of this action in Psalm 50. This is because, as Hebrews 11:6 reminds us, it is impossible to please God without first having faith in God. Thus, we should be very careful wanting to put the words of God in the lips of faithless individuals.
Adding to the mix and stirring the pot, why are Christians so eager to put in writing laws that many of us are unwilling to follow? Let’s face it, many in our churches are not the most upstanding folks when it comes to keeping God’s top ten list. ?What kind of testimony to Christ do we give when we put up words about lying, adultery, coveting, and putting nothing before our God when we are not the best at keeping those rules ourselves? Yes, we have grace in Christ; but that grace is not license to dishonor and disobey God. So, if you are going to fight for the commandments being posted, you’d better be under the grace of Christ and still obeying the clear commands of God.
Should Christians fight to have the Ten Commandments or other religious displays in public places? Maybe and maybe not. For sure, however, Christians need to know exactly why they want such things in the public eye, and be honest with the world as to why it is that they are wanting what they want. Christians’ let’s be thoughtful about what we demand and be sure that we are well reasoned in our petitioning.
Why Guard the Tabernacle? (Numbers 3:38)
Those who were to camp before the tabernacle on the east, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrise, were Moses and Aaron and his sons, guarding the sanctuary itself, to protect the people of Israel. And any outsider who came near was to be put to death.
In the Book of Numbers, as God lays out the way that the Israelite camp was to be set up, he placed guards around the sanctuary. Now, generally, when you place guards around the sanctuary, you would assume that the purpose would be to protect the sanctuary. Perhaps these guards were placed to prevent intruders from stealing some of the gold or silver that was used in the construction of the tabernacle? Perhaps the guards were posted simply to keep curious tourists from getting too close to the precious equipment?
But a look at the verse above tells us that the guard around the sanctuary was for a different reason than you might have thought. God placed guards around the sanctuary in order to protect the people. “Protect the people from what,” you ask. God placed guards to protect the people from, get this, God.
It might sound ridiculous to you to think that people would need God to post guards to protect them from God, but it is not. if you think that people, in their natural state need no protection from God, you do not have a grasp of the holiness of God and the consequences of his holiness.
God is holy. Part of what that means is that God is absolutely, without exception, perfectly pure, right, clean, faultless. Add to this fact that God is just, and you end up with a holiness that is deadly. If we, in our sinful state, were to trespass into the concentrated presence of God, his perfect holiness would consume us in an instant and we would die on the spot. Why? We would be consumed because God’s perfection cannot be tainted by our sinfulness. Since none of us are holy as God is holy, none of us could survive exposure to his glory.
The fact of the deadliness of God’s holiness is why he posted guards around the tabernacle to protect the people. Those guards kept foolish men and women from traipsing into the presence of God and losing their lives. Like a sign that warns people to keep away from high voltage wires, the guards warned the people that, in the tabernacle was the holy. The guards warned the people that they must not, under any circumstances, foolishly walk into the holiness of God, for to do so would mean immediate and certain death.
The concept of guarding the people against the holiness of God does much to open for us an understanding of the glorious kindness of Christ. Jesus Christ, the Holy God himself, came to earth to make a way for us to enter into God’s presence. He came to receive the punishment for our sin. HE also came to purify us, to make us holy, so that we might be able to stand in the presence of the divine without being consumed. Ponder the glory of this statement: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). In Christ, God makes sinners clean, so clean that we might stand before him without being destroyed.
It is certain to me that Christians today have lost much of our grasp of the danger and deadliness of divine holiness. We have believed the false teaching of the world that depicts God as willing to tolerate anything, any sin. But we have forgotten that the only way that God can accept us into his presence is through the shed blood and imputed righteousness of his Son. Were we to attempt to enter his presence in any other way, we would rightly be destroyed, burned up like dross by the utter purity of God. It would be right for us to think this issue through, and to give Jesus Christ thanks for doing for us what we could never have done on our own. Jesus, God in flesh, came to, like the guard around the tabernacle, protect us from the deadliness of God’s holiness. What a wonderful and amazing Savior!
Families Devoted to God (Nehemiah 10:30)
We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.
In Nehemiah 10, we see a set of commitments on the part of the people of God. They had not been following the laws of God, but now they are committing themselves to obey the commands of the Lord. In the first clear declaration of repentance, the people of God declare that they will obey God by not intermarrying with the people of the land any longer. In Deuteronomy 7:3-4, God said, “You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.”
You can’t get much more simple than this command. God told the people never to allow their children to be married to the pagan people of the land. If this happened, God warned that the pagans would lead the believers astray, and this would bring the judgment of God down on the people. This was not a command about color of skin, but rather about hearts devoted to or twisted against the Lord. Thus, you would think this to be an easy command to get people to obey. But, the people did not obey this command, and they suffered for it. So, here in Nehemiah 10, they agree that they will start doing what God has said.
We have a parallel command in the New Testament that applies to all Christians. God said in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” Thus, God strictly and clearly forbids Christians from marrying lost people. There is no exception listed, no excuse allowed. Christians are not to intermarry with the lost.
Now, I’m guessing that you are not deeply troubled by that command. Either you are a Christian who is already married, and thus you can’t change anything, or you are a Christian who is not married but is not really thinking about marrying a non-believer anyway. So, let’s take a step back at the larger principle at stake here.
God forbade the intermarriage of his people with pagans because he did not want his families to be led astray into idolatry and worldliness and pagan religion. So, even if your marriage is not the question today, what about your family life? Are you doing what you need to do in your family life to see to it that your household is a house of faith?
Dads and moms, grandmas and grandpas, are you directing the affairs of your homes in such a way that the children in the home are taught the ways of the Lord? Are you preventing your sons and daughters, perhaps even your grandchildren, from being corrupted by the influences of evil forms of music, books, TV, web sites, and video games? Are you protecting your children and grandchildren from the false beliefs of a world that does not know God, that declares it does not believe in God, yet which shows that it hates God? Are you making it plain that, in your home, there is no fellowship between light and darkness, between God and evil?
Christians, if we are going to repent of our sin just like Nehemiah’s people repented of theirs, we are going to have to make a move to show that our homes are places where God is honored. This may require you to make actual changes in what you do, how you schedule your lives, how you are entertained, what you allow, etc. Do what is necessary to have a household devoted to God.
A Ransom for Many (Matthew 20:28)
Matthew 20:28
“…even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Why did Jesus die? What did he accomplish with his death? These questions are absolutely critical for the Christian’s understanding of his or her faith. If you miss the answers to these questions, you will miss something crucial in your understanding of the cross.
Why did Jesus die? He told us in this verse that he died to give his life as a “ransom for many.” A ransom is a payment made in order to rescue someone or to spare them a punishment for something. IF Jesus died as a ransom, he died in order to have his death serve as a payment that would rescue others from someone and something.
From whom was Jesus ransoming many? While some theologians have posited that the devil was the one to whom Jesus paid the ransom, such a view cannot be sustained biblically. The devil has misled, deceived, and murdered, but he has never been the one into whose debt sinners fell. No, sinners are in the debt or under the wrath of God for their sin (Eph 2:3). It is God’s standards we have violated and God’s holy justice which must be satisfied (cf. Isa 53; Rom 3:20-26). What Jesus accomplished in his death was to lift from us the curse that we should have born because of our violation of the law of God (Gal 3:13; 2 Cor 5:21).
If the ransom was paid to God, the death of Christ was in order to rescue the children of God from the justice of God which we richly deserved. Did Jesus accomplish his mission? Was the ransom properly paid to the Lord? Without question, Jesus accomplished his mission. This truth is made clear by Christ’s cry of “It is finished” along with the ultimate divine stamp of approval, Christ’s resurrection. The price was fully paid and fully accepted by the Lord. The ransom was properly paid, and redemption was properly accomplished. Because of this, no further debt must be paid for the children of God to be forgiven. It was accomplished once and for all time when Jesus ransomed many (1 Peter3:18). Jesus did not fail in any way.
Are you a believer in Jesus Christ? IF so, you should grasp the facts of his life as your ransom. Jesus died to pay the proper price to rescue you from the judgment that you had earned. You had earned for yourself hell because of the way that you have sinned against God. Jesus, the infinitely perfect Son of God, took your infinite punishment upon himself to purchase your pardon. He paid it all, every bit. Thus, if you have entrusted your soul to Jesus, you can know that your sin was not forgotten by God or simply ignored. No, your sin was fully paid for, fully atoned for, fully punished in the suffering of the Son of God. You should cry, in the words of the hymn, “Hallelujah! What a Savior!”
If you are not a believer in Christ, and if you die without ever entrusting your soul to Jesus, here is what you must know from Scripture and from theology. Jesus did not ransom you. You will pay the full penalty for your sin. You will suffer the infinite wrath of an infinitely holy God for violating his perfect standards. You will never cry foul. You will not accuse God of wronging you. You will see him in his terrible holiness, and you will understand that you have merited his wrath. On that day, you will wish that you had asked Jesus for mercy, but then it will be too late. You will know that, in your lifetime, God commanded you as he commands all people to repent and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. You will know that you willingly refused this command, and that you are thus destined for an eternity apart from him because of your free rebellion.
If you are reading this post, it is not too late to run to Jesus for mercy. God made it plain that all who receive Jesus, who believe in his name, will be made the children of God (John 1:12-13). If you will run to Jesus, you will be one of those who have already been ransomed by his death on the cross. Thus, my call to you is that of the word of God, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
You Can’t Pray without the Word
In Nehemiah 9, the people give themselves to the reading of God’s word and to prayer. Below is what H. A. Ironside had to say about the need for the word to prompt prayer:
The first quarter of the day is spent in hearing the Word. Then the next quarter is given up to prayer: “They confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.” It is unwise, and may be hurtful, to reverse this order. The Word and prayer should ever go together—but it should be the Word first; then prayer follows intelligently. The believer should be a man holding the even balance of learning from the Word and cultivating the spirit of prayer. We need to hear God speaking to us that we may speak rightly to God.
One who gives himself pre-eminently to the Word, neglecting prayer, will become heady and doctrinal—likely to quarrel about “points,” and be occupied with theoretical Christianity to the hurt of his soul and the irritation of his brethren. On the other hand, one who gives himself much to prayer while neglecting the Word is likely to become exceedingly introspective, mystical, and sometimes fanatical. But he who reads the word of God reverently and humbly, seeking to know the will of God, and then gives himself to prayer, confessing and judging what the Scriptures have condemned in his ways, and words, and thoughts, will have his soul drawn out in worship also, and thus grow both in grace and in knowledge, becoming a well-rounded follower of Christ. Apart from a knowledge of the Word, prayer will lack exceedingly in intelligence; for the objective must ever precede the subjective, but not be divorced therefrom.
H. A. Ironside, Notes on the Book of Nehemiah. (New York: Loizeaux Bros., 1913), 97.
A Significant Date in History
Two things of major significance happened on this date in history. According to a post I recently read, it was February 18 when the wonderful Christian allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress, was published. This book has impacted millions all over the world, and still stands as one of the great works of literature that every student, Christian or not, should read.
But there is something even more significant that happened on this date. IT was ten years ago. On February 18, 2000, Mitzi agreed to marry me. The story is a cute one that I might tell someday. It involves a cleverly concealed ring, a fancy dinner, several surprises, and sappy songs on guitar. But, we’ll leave that for another post.
What I wrote in this post on our 9th anniversary is very much still true. God has blessed me with a godly woman who is willing to serve, to share, to sacrifice, to give, to work with me regardless the cost. Mitzi has shown me a great devotion to God, to me, to our children, and to the work of the ministry. She is a genuine helper and a person that people simply want to be around. I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that Mitzi is the one of us that people like and keep liking, even if I don’t always have that effect on people.
Yes, I know that Pilgrim’s Progress is one of the most widely-read works of literature in history. I know that it is a book that can dramatically open the eyes of people who have a difficult time understanding very important things. And with that said, I still know that, in my world, the far more significant February 18 occurred when my wife-to-be finally told me “yes.”
An Unbelievable Giving Request (Exodus 36:2-7)
2 And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. 3 And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, 4 so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, 5 and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.” 6 So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing, 7 for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.
Some of my best friends in the world are in a church that is currently working through a building project. The sanctuary in which they are meeting is too small to accommodate the people who would come to worship. Their parking lot is too small to hold the cars of the people who would come to worship. The leadership of the church simply knows that the size and location of their current building is a hindrance to the ministry that they are doing.
Thus, the church I’m speaking of is in the process of trying to get a new building started. They have a glorious location, much better than their present spot, with lots of land and room for building and parking and much more. They have a design all done. The people of the church have agreed that the new building is the direction that they should go. It sounds like everything is going wonderfully, except for one thing—money. The building that this church plans to build to expand their ability to reach people in their community will not be built until the people can give enough to get the project rolling.
Why bring this up today? I can assure you it is not because I want to build anything where I currently am. No, but it does bring to mind an interesting thing that is happening in churches all over the world. Because of difficult economic conditions and differing patterns of commitment, churches all over the globe are finding themselves in financial need. People just are not giving like they used to. People are frightened for their futures, and they are less open-handed. Even the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has found itself unable to send as many missionaries as are willing and qualified to go simply because of a lack of funding.
Contrast this modern state to the time of the building of the tabernacle in Exodus. When it was time for the people to all chip in for the building of a portable temple of God to be carried with them through the desert, there was no begging required in the building campaign. No, the leadership put out the call to the people, and the people gave. They gave, and gave, and gave. In fact, the people gave so much toward the work of the Lord that we have what may be the strangest building campaign call we have ever heard. Moses and the leaders sent a message out to the people, saying, “OK, we have way more stuff than we can ever use. Please stop giving.”
Now, my heart in this post is not to make you feel guilty about your giving to your local church or mission agency (though if that happens, I won’t feel too bad either). My purpose is to ask, “What is the difference between the people of Israel and our people today as it regards giving?” Those people had the wealth to give, that is true. But they also were wandering through a desert with no visible means of provision. They had to rely on God from day to day in order to be fed. They may have been given some gold by God, but they were not so wealthy as to not have to worry about starving to death if God were to remove his hand of provision.
We have also been given provisions by God. God is taking care of us. It may seem like we are only living from day to day, but we are certainly still being taken care of by God. Here then is the question: Why do our hearts not move us to give as did the hearts of the people in the desert? Think carefully about the answers you might want to give.
· You might say, “They gave more freely because they saw the provision of God every day.” Are you, then, going to say that you do not see God’s provision daily?
· You might say, “They had a clear cause to give to in the tabernacle.” Are you then going to argue that you do not have a clear cause to give to in the giving of your tithes, your general offering, your special mission offerings, and the general maintenance of the church? Is obedience to the call of God and giving to the glory of God not enough of a cause for you?
· You might say, “We are having hard times and we just can’t afford to give at present.” Are you then going to argue that the God who fed the Israelites in the desert and who promised you that he knows and will meet your needs (cf. matt 6:33) cannot take care of you today?
· You might say that God moved the people’s hearts to give. Are you then going to say that God’s call for you to give freely, generously, regularly, and proportionately to the cause of Christ is not enough to move your heart?
We could go on and on here, and I would in fact start bordering on unfair, guilt inducing practices. I don’t’ want to do that. I do want us to see, however, that our giving is a reflection of our hearts. God has given his people enough to accomplish all the ministries he calls us to do—I totally believe that. The problem is not that there is not enough money to do what needs to be done, but that we are not trusting enough in our God to give as he has called us to give.
Lord, I see how you moved the hearts of your people to give with such joy and freedom. I pray that you will move my heart in just the same way. Help me to stop wasting my funds. Help me to stop trusting only in myself. Help me to give freely, cheerfully, faithfully, joyfully, sacrificially, proportionately, and for your glory. Where I am tempted to refuse to give freely, root out that sinful heart and replace it with one that is totally given to you.
Dining with the Divine (Exodus 24:9-11)
9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
In the same scene where the people of God agreed to be his people, to join in covenant relationship with him, the leaders of the people were given an unimaginable privilege. After Moses gave the 10 commandments, and after God explained further the terms of the covenant with the Israelites, Two major events took place—two events that bear a striking resemblance to a New Testament reality.
At the beginning of Exodus 24, Moses purified the people and the book of the covenant with blood. Then, after that ceremony, the leadership of Israel ascended the mountain of God. There they beheld the glory of God, and by God’s grace they did not die. Instead of being punished for looking upon the holy with their unholy eyes, God allowed them to eat a meal in his presence. Such meals were common in the ratification of covenant relationships (cf. Gen 26:26-31; 31:44-46)
Can you imagine participating in a meal, eaten in the presence of the Lord, in which you affirm together your good intensions to be in covenant relationship together? If you are a Christian, such a meal ought not be so difficult to imagine. Every time you share in communion, you are doing that very thing.
Matthew 26:26-29
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
When Jesus and his disciples shared in the original Lord’s Supper, his disciples were in the presence of God the Son. At that meal, they ate and drank in consecration of the New Covenant that would be sealed by the blood of the Lord Jesus.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (ESV)
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
As often as we now participate in the Lord’s Supper, we participate in the very covenant meal that Jesus shared with his disciples. We, in the presence of God, reaffirm our desire to be connected to God in covenant love that was made available through the shed blood of his Son. We look back at what Jesus did and look forward to the final consummation of the kingdom of God.
Too often, communion Sundays are not special enough to us. We get so caught up in the busyness of Sunday morning activities, and we tack the ceremony of communion onto the end of a service as empty ritual. But we need not think of this activity as empty. Christ himself has invited his followers to eat and drink in his presence as they remember and reaffirm their covenant relationship with him. This is an opportunity for genuine fellowship with our Lord, and need not be just one more thing we do.
How might this thought change how you view communion? Will you be able to see your time in the pew as dining with the Divine? Will it not make you treasure Lord’s Supper Sunday’s? Will it not make you want to take advantage of this beautiful event more than once a quarter or once every couple of months? Christians, let us learn to see the magnificent opportunity that we have been given in the communion celebration.
Pastor Travis Peterson 