I will post my comments on this second book of the Torah below:
1. God's firstborn son, Israel vs the Son of God; the First Exodus vs the Second Exodus
In Genesis chapters 1-11, God told us His Story from the universal perspective ie How He created the Universe, Mankind, the Fall of Man, the Table of Nations, the Great Flood and the restart of His redemption plan with Noah and his family. Then from Gen chapter 12 (note this very important turn-key chapter) He zooms into the Story of His re-elected agent for His redemption plan, Abraham .... after Adam and Noah had failed Him.
Thereafter, Gen 12 right through to the end of the Old Testament tells the story or history of this ONE elect of God, Abraham, and of his family, the patriarchs of Israel, from the time of Abraham's election / calling to the rise and fall of the nation founded by him, Israel. Gen 12 to Malachi sets out God's actions and responses to His firstborn son, Israel (Ex 4:22), as this idolatrous nation repeatedly and wilfully disobeys and rebels against Him.
The entire Old Testament from Genesis 12 displays the great acts of grace and judgements of YWYH as He disciplines the son He loves, reflecting His awesome justice, love and mercy. And when His firstborn son, Israel, fails Him, He sends the Elect of God, His only begotten Son (Jn 3:16), to fulfil His Plan of Redemption. Where the first Israel fails, the second / true Israel succeeds so that all who are In Christ may be saved.
Which brings us to this concept of First and Second Exodus. The book of Exodus recounts a very historic moment in the history of the nation of Israel, that every Jew and Jewish family will undoubtedly cherish. The 'People of God', Israel, bonded as a slave in Egypt for 400 years is being delivered from Pharaoh's abusive enslavement with a Mighty Hand, with awesome miracles, signs and wonders. But what is more profound is the foreshadowing of this First Exodus led by Moses, Israel's deliverer of the Second or Final Exodus led by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Great Deliverer of our souls from sin and the entrapment of Satan, the Pharaoh of this world we live in.
The First Exodus is from Egypt, the world of bondage and slavery to tyrannical Pharaoh. The Second/Final Exodus is from the world of sin ruled by the Prince/Ruler of this world, Satan (Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor 4:4; Ephs 2:2). Deliverance in the Final Exodus is for FREEDOM ..... freedom from bondage to this world of sin so that we may intentionally make and successfully live out life choices that please our Great Deliverer and bring Glory to His Name! It is for freedom to daily live our lives as a 'reasonable act of worship' unto our Lord and Saviour (Roms 12:1) that Christ died for us.
Water baptism is specifically the sacrament enacted by Christ Himself to remind those that are "In Christ", His church, the true Israel .... that we are truly free from the bondage of sin (Satan's workshop), "dead indeed unto sin" and 'alive unto God' (Roms 6:11). He is our Great Deliverer in the Second or Final Exodus!
Water baptism is paralleled to the Israelites who were 'baptised in the sea' as they crossed the Red Sea, free indeed from Pharaoh and his pursuing army on the other side of the waters (1 Cor 10).
2. Life application of the Exodus narrative
1 Cor 10 reminds us that Israel's "forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea" (pre-figuring New Testament water and Spirit baptisms). Yet, most died in the wilderness; only Joshua and Caleb went into the Promised Land with the next generation of Israelites born in the wilderness. They were killed by God for their lust, idolatry, fornication, testing of Christ, and murmuring (1 Cor 10:6-10).
If there is any single thing that Exodus should do for you and I, it should provide a stark and fearsome reminder that we are not to assume that we are saved 'once and for all' just because we have said the sinners' prayer, and were water and Spirit baptised. These milestone events are critical for getting us started on the Exodus out of Bondage to 'Pharaoh' the 'world of Egypt'. Whether we attain and remain in the Kingdom of God however, will depend much on our journey of faithfulness and obedience in our Exodus journey.
If there is any single thing that Exodus should do for you and I, it should provide a stark and fearsome reminder that we are not to assume that we are saved 'once and for all' just because we have said the sinners' prayer, and were water and Spirit baptised. These milestone events are critical for getting us started on the Exodus out of Bondage to 'Pharaoh' the 'world of Egypt'. Whether we attain and remain in the Kingdom of God however, will depend much on our journey of faithfulness and obedience in our Exodus journey.
The story of Israel's idolatry, disobedience and wilful rebellion is set out in this second book of the bible, the Exodus (and in the next book, Numbers) to be "our examples" to the intent that we should not fall into the same pitfalls as Israel did in their Exodus some 3500 years ago (1 Cor 10:6) . So as we read the narratives in this book of Exodus, let us take particular note of these pitfalls, considering that much of which the Israelites did in provoking Moses and God we often do, wittingly or unwittingly.
For example, we are often quick to respond to God, "Yes, all that you say we will do" (Ex 19:5; 24:3,7) but nevertheless, fail to do, often again and again. We are quick to make promises and commitments but slow to keep them. We often fail to 'walk the talk' especially our private 'talk' with God, taking His grace and mercy for granted.
We are quick to blame others for adversities especially our leaders, no matter how well intentioned they may be or how best they are leading according to their understanding of God's will for His people. And do we not sometimes fall into the trap of challenging and murmuring against godly leadership as the Israelites did (Ex 15:24; 16:2:17:2)?
Are we not often tempted to look back into the world of sin that we have left and remorsefully wonder if we have missed out on its apparent 'goodies' (Ex 16:3; Nums 11:5)? Do we consistently remain grateful for our Exodus .... acknowledging, appreciating and enjoying the benefits of the Kingdom of God, here and now and anticipating with godly hope, the greater eternal benefits to come, "which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, that which God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor 2:9).
Exodus is such a majestic book. It sets out the Mosaic Covenant, cut at Mt Sinai (Ex 19, 24). It contains the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments (Ex 20) which forms the framework and foundation of Constitutions and Civil Law in major continents. And much much more.
You need to read it again and again .... to savour the grandeur of this book.
Love,
A Peggy
p/s I will post my reflection on the rest of Matthew shortly ):
Hi A. Peggy,
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to note that I think there's more literature out there quoting Christ as the second Adam but probably my first time hearing Christ as second Israel. Maybe could be more aptly be Israel vs Kingdom of God if Israel taken in the the context of a nation rather than the person Jacob. I suppose you are quoting in both context?
Hi there, am unsure who is there. Can you pls identify yourself so that I know who I am communicating with?
ReplyDeleteIsrael, as the firstborn son (Ex 4:22) refers to the nation of Israel, the Old Testament 'people of God' whom He delivered from bondage of Pharaoah/Egypt. Christ is probably better described as the 'true' Israel, the founder of the New Testament 'people of God', His Church, whom Christ delivered from the bondage of sin, the workshop of Satan.
The church, the follower of the true or second Israel, can enjoy the Kingdom of God but is not the Kingdom of God. And entering and remaining in the Kingdom of God ushered in by Christ through His Cross and resurrection is not unconditional. My point is that we do not and should not think that once saved always saved.
We cannot take the blood of Christ for granted and treat it as cheap grace that we can tread on merely because we have said the sinners' prayer, have been water and Spirit baptised. I covered this in my previous posting on this blog - see Hebs.
A Peggy
Hi A. Peggy,
ReplyDeleteI would like to share my thoughts about your comment on failure to 'walk the talk'.
To be brutally honest to ourselves, we know what's right from wrong, consequences of certain actions and often say it out loud. But why do we still do what we know its not right. Like Paul says in Romans 7 - "I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway."
I've gone through many hardship in life, many unimaginable hurts & pain. From where I came from, there are many at times that I question why people (including myself) do what they know it's wrong. What comes to my mind is what's in the head vs the heart. I'm going through a season in my life where I'm at war in my head & heart. I shared my thoughts with a friend who's close to God himself. He's the one who brought up the last few verses of Romans 7 which I've read multiple times. His thoughts were there are several things you can do to 'prevent' things from happening such as what we should avoid so that we don't do what is wrong. But until we find out the root cause of the issue, we're not dealing with the issue.
It's easy to say 'walk the talk' and how to 'walk the talk'. I challenge us to look it from a different angle. Why we DONT 'walk the talk'? The answer is within us - ourselves. Seek to understand ourselves and find out who we really are.
Hi there, thanks for contributing to the discussion in this blog. Am so glad that someone is reading the blog after all ):
ReplyDeleteJust to encourage you, you should not stop at Romans chapter 7 but keep reading to Roms chp 8 ! Remember, the original bible did NOT have chapter delineation.
We need to see that whilst chp 7 describes the normal internal warfare that all humans face in battling our sinful nature, those who are In Christ have the Holy Spirit to empower them to be over-comers in this struggle and thus to live for God and His glory! We need not despair in our daily struggles against our carnal/fleshly bent to sin because Christ died but was resurrected and it is by this same 'resurrection power' through the Holy Spirit that we can learn to live as over-comers, more and more each day.
I have extracted the salient part of Roms 8 for your ease of reading here:
Romans 8 (Often referred to as the 'Himalayas' of Romans):
1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2. because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has SET ME FREE from the law of sin and death. 3. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4. in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
5. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires
6.The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7. the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9, You, however, are controlled NOT (my emphasis) by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
10. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.
13. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14. because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship .....
The KEY is not to understand ourselves as much as we need to understand Christ and what He has already achieved for us in this battle against sin. And to understand that we have been set FREE and empowered by the Spirit to live no longer as 'slaves to sin' but as sons of God.
The KEY is who or what is controlling our minds - read again and again Roms 8:5-8. The mind which is controlled by the Spirit produces 'life and peace'. If we only we will turn our minds - our hearts and will, our very being - more and more towards the things of Christ, we will begin on this journey of losing interest in the things of the world that beckons us to sin and to that which saddens our Lord.
We are what we eat. If we feed our spirit man with good spiritual food consistently and faithfully, we will become more and more healthy spiritual beings.
The natural anology is the anaemic or sickly person who lives off junk or unhealthy food. He/she needs to set his/her mind to stop that and to 'repent' (which means do a 180 degree turn-around) from this bad life-style that will slowly but surely kill, and make a COMMITTED start and faithfully continue to take healthy food. There will come a time I assure you when after many months, years of taking healthy food, junk food loses its appeal ): That is the good news.
I dont recollect when I stopped loving mahjong. Our family were all mahjong addicts (and experts i must add) from quite a young age. I recollect at Year 12, I would study for my exams till midnite and then play mahjong through the night then go to school ): It is by God's grace that I passed my exams!
I do know that even after I was born-again, I continued to love and indulge in mahjong but gradually lost the desire for this addiction as my heart's desire turned to reading the Word of God, evangelism and other service in His Kingdom. I do not recollect any uphill struggle to battle this addiction; my mind became more and more controlled and passionate with God's agenda, 'the Father's business'.
You need to be clear on this though.
When we understand God and who He truly is ... as revealed in His Word and in our life engagements with Him ... then ONLY can we truly understand ourselves and find out who we really are ... in Him. We cannot know who we are meant to be - in our utmost potential as God intended when He made us - apart from Christ our Lord and Saviour. We only short-change ourselves.
Dont condemn yourself for your past mistakes. Read Roms 8:1. God understands; He created you and know your struggles. Bring it to Him in prayer and commit your 'mind' (your will, heart and personhood) to the Holy Spirit who is well able to transform you 'from glory to glory' (ie a process) into the image of the Son.
You see, theology is so important to help us live right for Him... which brings me back to my much early post in this blog, which says we MUST be practical theologians. Apostle Paul taught the key is 'knowing Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, becoming like Him in His death ..." (Phil 3:10). As we learn to share in His suffering and death, we ironically gain life and peace.
Someone (dont remember who) said, He did not make us to be happy but to be like Him.
Be encouraged,
A Peggy
Hi A Peggy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement. Trust those who read it (including myself) will keep in mind the "Spirit filled mind" in Romans 8 v5-8.
What would you say to the person on the receiving end - the one who has been hurt multiple times. This person knows that resentment, bitterness, hatred etc are not of God's nature but he/she battling with the grace to forgive both himself/herself & the people who betrayed their trust.
What would you say to them (including myself) ?
This is what I would say:
ReplyDeleteForgiveness is a decision of the will, an act of obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ; it is not a response to feelings. We choose to forgive even when we do not feel love or positive feelings for the one we forgive.
In my walk with God, I have made wilful decisions to forgive those who have offended, betrayed or deceived me when I have come to grasp the following revelations. I hope and trust these will also help you be an over-comer in times of testing:
1. Sin is against God.
Therefore rationally, only He has the prerogative to forgive sins. I had showed in my earlier postings, how Joseph and King David understood this so well. Also in Mark 2:7 the people who witnessed Jesus saying to the paralytic who was lowered through the roof, “Your sins are forgiven, take up your bed and walk” scoffed, “He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” The Jews knew this too well … only God alone can forgive sins.
Therefore it is not in my position to forgive those who have hurt me. Their sin, if any, is against God and it is God who must forgive them; I merely release my resentment and bitterness (if any) so that I can be FREE to live for Christ, without the entrapment of this resentment or even self pity.
2. Resentment, Self Pity and its consequential damage to self, is a totally irrational response to those who hurt us
Why would we (the victim) so foolishly allow the sin of our offender cause us to sin against our beloved Lord? It just doesn’t make any good sense. For a deserving person, one could reasonably understand, but for someone who is not so nice, why ????
If the offender sins, he/she is accountable to God for his/her sin and need to seek His forgiveness. But if we choose not to forgive and thus harbour, or worse, nurse resentment and the pain or self pity it inflicts UPON OURSELVES … then we sin against God as a wilful act of disobedience to Him and His commands (Matt 6:14,15; Mark 11:25; Luke 6:37 and more).
Doesn’t this sound totally irrational and foolish …. to cop a double blow: the pain of the offence AND the self inflicted penalty of the sin of resentment viz., the pain that wells up within us that soon eats into us and cripples our walk and service unto our beloved Lord AND of course, the judgment of God for sin.
Often we take God’s forgiveness of our sins too much for granted. Christ paid a costly price for the forgiveness of our sins. Yet He said, there is no more forgiveness for us if we cannot forgive others (Matt 6:14,15). This is really quite fearsome!
3. Satan knows that Unforgiveness will truly trip us up and everyone we love and value; we better know that too.
2 Cor 2::11 speaks about unforgiveness. Apostle Paul said,
: And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
In my favourite King James version, it says, “ lest Satan should get an advantage over us”.
This single verse has helped me in a very testy time to quickly choose to release all unforgivenss and resentment. There is NO WAY I would let Satan have an advantage over me and everyone that I value, love or have authority/cover over … my children, my grandchildren, the church congregation, my church leaders who report to me etc etc.
Why would I allow my folly and self-gratifying self-pity and unforgiveness hurt those I have accountability for and love so dearly?No way!
This is a long treatise on ‘forgiveness’. I would rather like to label it ‘resentment and the needless pain and sin it causes’. Well, this is what you get when you ask me a question which begs so much biblical truth and common sense.
As for forgiving oneself, forget it. It is God who forgives us. If you can see that, you can forgive yourself because the latter is totally redundant yeah?
Please medidate on the bible verses that I have used in this long-winded reply ):
Dont ask me another question or you will cop another long winded reply): The honest truth is that I have to get on with preparing my materials for the upcoming YA Leaders retreat.
God bless,
A Peggy
Dear Romans7.19,
ReplyDeleteBear with me as I write this as a layperson and A. Peggy, please rebuke any misinformed theology for when you rebuke a wise man he will love you.
"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulation(suffering/pressure/anguish/burden/trouble), knowing that tribulation produces perseverance(endurance/constancy), and perseverance, character(experience/trustiness); and character, HOPE(my emphasis)". Romans 5:3-4
There is hope at the end of the tunnel. Who/where/how/why hope?
Succinctly summarized:
..Christ In You, Hope of Glory..Col 1:27
Though I must readily admit that healing of the heart is most of the time harder to heal than physical wounds. As what the psalmist did, he cried out, "O Lord my God, I cried out to You, and you healed me." Though short it may sound, I am most certain the psalmist wrestle long and hard with his cries throughout the nights. In the darkest moment, the psalmist lamented to himself, "Why are you downcasted, O my soul? and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God!" It's interesting to note that he challenged himself and his soul to hope in God during times of despair, though most likely the circumstances probably look bleak. After perseverance, then and only then, character will emerge which brings forth hope.
When the dawn breaks, we will then be reminded that His mercies are new every morning, and every tear will be wiped.
Take courage my friend and never lose hope. PS. You could hurl all sorts of disappointments to God but please never ever turn away from Him.
Thank you for the word of encouragement. Couldnt agree with you more .... you speak as someone who obviously not only know the Word but have lived it out ):
ReplyDeleteBut I still do not know who you are. This blog is quite funny. We communicate with unknown people. But nevertheless i do appreciate your postings. It encourages me to continue doing my blogs which take up a fair amount of my time. Am enjoying this new communication tool though which is especially useful when I am in Chicago.
Will be returning to Chris and his family on 20 April again and wouldnt be back till 7 July.
It will be summer holidays during the months of May and June but Chris will be very busy with his 'full-time' Summer intensive courses that he needs for his credits. I might also attend some of these intensives.
God bless
Dear Auntie Peggy,
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how it's akin to asking a capped crusader to unmask oneself, though I must say it's far from any acts of gallantry and nobility, and only by the sheer grace of God that hopefully, however remote, that a donkey can speak.
I suppose it will come with a price that anything worded henceforth will need to be of more vigilance and under public scrutiny. So forgive me in advance if there's any slippage of the tongue when I do post in the future for I understood my own weakness.
I guess for the sake of transparency of my life and that I mean what I post and to walk the talk, I will hang my cape with the hope that Christ can be glimpsed through my ordinary life with an extraordinary God.
blessings,
mingfung
PS I believe issues with the likes of hurt is sometimes easy to be treated as a treatise from observation but many times emotional turmoil needs to go through the struggle of the mind, heart, soul and strength, and ultimately God Himself. And that in itself is when you realised that you are actually in the midst of loving God...
Dear Ming Fung
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for revealing yourself. I didnt mean to embarrass you, just teasing you. As you do write well and with good biblical truth, i should know who you are so that I can identify my more biblically equipped "sheep" yeah? Guess, I am also not very accustomed to communicating incognito and must now learn to do so ... with this new tool of blogging ):
Do continue to bless the YAs and many OAs (older adults) who are following this blog, with your input.
We are all learning and growing in the faith together. And there is wisdom in the multitude of godly counsel.
Appreciate you,
A Peggy