January 8th, 2009 Bible Blog

Today's Reading:

Psalms 78
Romans 7

My Response:

In today's reading of Psalms 78 we essentially see another very brief record of God's dealings with Israel. The common theme of this Psalms is that God is great and mighty, He did miraculous things for the nation of Israel, yet they continuously turned from Him and rebelled. The nation of Israel continually lived in their flesh and raised the anger of God. It is cool to see in these accounts though just how tolerant God was of them. Sometimes we think of the OT God as different than the NT God. I often have looked at the OT teachings thought God was vengeful and then looked at the NT teachings and seen a God of grace. However when I have reflected on God's Word more this year it is very apparent that God was a God of grace even in the OT. God allowed the Israelites time to turn back to Him. He gave them time to come to a place of righteousness. God even sent prophets and judges to aim the people the right direction. I was also impressed by this portion of the reading:

Psalms 78:38-39
38 Yet he was merciful;
he forgave their iniquities
and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
and did not stir up his full wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
a passing breeze that does not return.

God was merciful, even in His times of anger God could remember that we are mere humans that succumb to our flesh. In these moments God forgave and released them from certain death. If that is not a God of grace and mercy I don't know what is.

In our NT reading I am only going to speak on a portion of the reading because I am suddenly feeling not well. I want to briefly discuss the problem of the Law which Paul discusses. Paul here is telling us that the Law essentially is pure and just yet it is what has caused the very sinful nature that we fight. How can it be both righteous and yet cause us to sin? Well I believe that the purpose of the Law is two fold:

1. The Law was meant to teach us what sin was. We see this in:

Romans 7:7
Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

If we did not have the law we would not know what sin was and therefore we now know. God has given us the wisdom of what He views is righteous and unrighteous. It is to this Law that we are to aspire. We are to live our lives according to all that Christ was, and Christ was obedient to the Law even to the point of death.

2. The Law was meant to point us to a Savior. There has been no man or woman before or after Christ, excluding Christ, that was able to walk free of sin. This means that we all break various different Laws that God has told us are wrong. The Law shows us that there is nothing we can do to attain righteousness and points us to the facts that we needed to be saved.

Because of this Paul knows and we know that the Law is not sin. However, the Law did bring about the revelation of what sin was. In knowing that which is wrong, human nature is to do that which we know is not right. Therefore, while the Law is not sinful, it creates sinful desires as our flesh pushes in the opposite direction. It is similar to that of raising up a child. You can tell an innocent child a rule and there is some human nature that causes that child to test out and see why they have been instructed so. The rule or Law creates some sort of mysterious draw to the very thing that we should not be doing.

That is why when we then read Paul discussing with the Romans the problem that he faced which was the very same problem that we all face:

Romans 7:15
15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

I think that we all feel like this far too often in our life. We know what we need to do and yet we don't do it. And the very opposite is also true. Knowing this we need to always understand that our flesh wants to be opposite of what God's Law is urging us to do. Straying from God's Law brings certain death, but living according to it brings life and life to the fullest. We need to wage this war each day.

My Prayer:

Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. Lord too many times in my life I have done the very things that I know I should not do, please forgive me Lord. Give me the power to defeat my flesh and the temptation that the enemy brings before me. God help me to live out the freedom that You have given me through Your shed blood.

Lord I thank You for all that You have done for me and my family. God I am feeling under the weather and I pray that You would touch my body and make me whole. God bring me good rest and restore me. I pray a special blessings of good health over my family. Lord we serve You to the best of our ability and I ask that You protect us from sickness and disease. Help my family to be healthy and well.

I praise Your mighty name Lord and I worship at Your feet. You are my God. You are my Rock and my Refuge. In You I place my trust. I submit myself to You Lord and ask that You use me for the glory of Your Kingdom. Praise be to Your name alone oh God.