The Field is the World (Matt. 13:38)

Thursday SOAP: Is God really that concerned about oxen? Or does this Old Testament Law set forth an important principle for us today? Psalm 1's blessed man doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the way of sinners or sit with the mockers. The differences between the world view of Christians and non-Christians may seem similar on the surface at times. But, like a donkey and an ox, they are profoundly different. Under a load, these differences will begin to cause problems for the relationship and the effectiveness the believer to walk in God's will. S: You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. (Deuteronomy 22:10) O: This, then, is the "unequally yoked" pair to which Paul is referring in 2 Corinthians 6:14. Although it's possible to imagine circumstances in which a farmer might, in desperation, want to hook his donkey up alongside his ox, because of the basic nature of the two animals it would be a bad idea. My family owned both cows ...

Tuesday SOAP: Old Testament prophets and witnesses were held to an extremely exacting standard of faithfulness. Misrepresent God, and you were to die. Bear false witness, and the penalty for whatever charge you claimed would be leveled against you. Wait.. the New Testament believer is a witness who "prophesies," right? (Joel 2:28/Acts 2:17-18; 1 Corinthians 14:1, 39, in the sense of proclaiming God's Word) Where is the continuity? How serious is it if we misrepresent God today? S: But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. (De...

Monday SOAP: God's humiliation program for the Kings of Israel: repeated exposure to the Law they could never live up to. Until "the Son of God, the King of Israel" (John 1:49) no one ever did. Repeated exposure to the holy demands of the Law either brings out a person's hypocrisy or humility. S: “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.” (Deuteronomy 17:18-20) O: God's prescription for the future kings - the authority figures, from a human standpoint, i...

Friday SOAP: So why was it OK for Moses to shatter the Law written by God's own hand, but not OK for him to strike the rock a second time? Like God was doing in Abraham's offering of Isaac, the second son who is called "your only son," (Gen. 22:2), I believe God was picturing something about how He anticipates our fall and lovingly redeems, restores and recreates. S: So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. (Deuteronomy 9:17) “At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten C...

Thursday SOAP: When he first heard the good news that because of Jesus we could go to spend eternity with God, my son pictured it happening right away. Why doesn't God just immediately take us out of this fallen world to eternal bliss? He has a program for us. It has to do with the consequences of sin, but also our own growth. S: And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3) “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. Remember and do ...

Tuesday SOAP: For many offenses, God's penalty for that violation is surrender a person to the result of it. In Israel's case, they ended up having to suffer the logical conclusion of their idolatry: enslavement to idolatrous nations. With no rights and no protection from the excesses of pagan empires, they were stripped of everything, forced to bow down to pagan images or be thrown into a fiery furnace, threatened with a lion's den if they prayed to anyone other than the "god-king," and debased in every imaginable way. As idolatrous as the human heart naturally is, at least the crass worship of empty carved images was purged from them in this experience. S: “When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that ...

Monday SOAP: Two mountains - Pisgah and Horeb - show powerful reasons for honoring God and His Law. Moses, himself the penman of the Law, suffers greatly because he cannot keep the spirit of it. (Deut 6:5; Lev. 19:18) This implies the holiness of the ultimate Source as well as the coming fulfillment and End (telos) of it. (Matt. 5:17; Romans 10:4) S: “And I pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying, ‘O Lord GOD, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.’ But the LORD was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the LORD said to me, ‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again. Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes...

Friday SOAP: The Lord sets forth the bounds of Canaan, both physically (Num. 34:1-35:8) and spiritually. (Num. 35:9-34) The way He does so links the standard with His own nature, a striking conflict with our modern way of thinking. Isn't morality based on whatever we agree is best for a society? As long as it doesn't hurt anybody, you're OK, right? An older version went a different way: "An it harm none, do what thou wilt." Doesn't that sound wise? Where does that quote come from? S: Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. You shall ...

Thursday SOAP: Numbers 33 recaps the wilderness wanderings. Maybe its my time spent meditating on "Pilgrim's Progress" but it seems to also hint at God's development program for walking new believers through and out of this world. Or maybe I should say walking the world out of new believers. ;-) S: then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places... But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.” (Numbers 33:52, 55-56) O: This chapter of Numbers is Moses' record of their journey. The colorful names of the places help to tell the story in many places. Thorn, knocking, kneading, rest, "graves of lust,...

Wednesday SOAP: How many "reasonable," honorable and well-intentioned deals that we make with ourselves keep us outside God's will for our lives? In Numbers 32, such a deal is struck, without seeking counsel of the Lord, which results in apostasy. While it might be presumptuous of me to say I would have done better, I have the benefit of (and resultant responsibility) of seeing the ultimate outcome and learning from it. (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11) S: But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the LORD has given them? Your fathers did this, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. (Numbers 32:6-8) O: The tribes of Ruben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh asked, and ultimately received, permission from Moses to settle outside the Promised Land. Yet Moses is shocked at their reque...

Tuesday SOAP: Moses served as the Deliverer of Israel, a prophetic type of the Messiah, (Deut. 18:18), a mediator between the people and God. It was a very burdensome role which took a great toll on him. He ultimately reacted against the people and failed to sanctify God, so God appointed the limit of his service and his end. What an unsatisfying ending to this amazing life. S: “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.” (Numbers 31:2) O: This is a reiteration of God's statement in Numbers 20:1-12, 27:12-14, that because of his actions at Meribah, he would not be allowed to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, though he would see it. A: At first, I have to smile wryly and wonder a little if Moses may have been ready to go by this time. Certainly he was tired of the rebels. He certainly didn't resist this pronouncement from God as Hezekiah did. (Isaiah 38:1-5) But then again, this was the entire focus of the last ...

Friday SOAP: More reflection on the strange character of Balaam, the self-styled gentile "prophet of the LORD." We are living in a time, sadly, at which it's more important than ever to learn the lesson Balaam provides - not his "doctrine" but the contrary example he makes. (See 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 11, Rev. 2:14, 2 Timothy 4:3) S: "WHEN BALAAM saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as he had done each time before [superstitiously] to meet with omens and signs in the natural world, but he set his face toward the wilderness or desert." (Numbers 24:1, AMP) O: This was a strangely worded verse in the translation I read. It said Balaam didn't go up to seek "enchantments." Looking behind the English to the Hebrew word and its definition, I was surprised to see that the word is bascially the same word as "serpent." It means "enchantment" or "divination," but it has this distinctly sinister ca...

Thursday SOAP: Balaam, an apparently gentile prophet of the true God, makes his way perverse before the Lord. His story illustrates why "technical obedience" is actually gross disobedience, and how it can be particularly destructive to my walk with God, the fruit of my ministry, and what others learn from me. S: And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.” Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.” (Numbers 22:32-34) O: The story of Balaam is a mysterious one in many ways, and not just the part about the angel that's only visible to the talking donkey. ...