The One Year Bible

When I was in second grade our class was scheduled to sing in church. The song we sang was called “Everywhere I Go.” Why do I remember such a thing? Well, this song had a big impact on my life. It has a catchy tune and great words and I latched on to this song and sang it everywhere I went. I started singing this song every time I was scared or though I was in trouble. I sang it a lot while riding my bike. This song gave me comfort and security because even as I child I knew that God was there with me. This song came to my mind this week while reading the story of God’s people as they entered the Promised Land. I am sure many of them were scared and fearful of the future. But Moses and Joshua reminded the people that God was with them everywhere they would go, and to be strong and courageous. As we begin today, don’t forget that the same God is with you as well. We begin with the words of that song:

Everywhere I go the Lord is near me

If I call upon Him He will hear me

Never will I fear, for the Lord is near

Everywhere I go.

Everywhere God is there

Tending all in loving care

He is with me everywhere I go

On to the study...

Vicar Seth’s Thoughts

The Old Testament
Let me set the stage for you once again. The people are on the edge of the Promised Land. Moses has gathered the people together to give them a pep talk and remind them of the promises of God and his continued faithfulness. Moses will not be joining the people because of his own disobedience but he is still God’s prophet. At the end of the pep talk he breaks out into song. This last bit of instruction for the people served as a reminder and a comfort for them. Just before Moses gets a glimpse of the Promised Land, he introduces Joshua as the new leader. We see in just a few short verses the phrase, “Be strong and courageous”. This is an important phrase as the people will be doing some difficult things in the next few years. Moses as well as the Lord tells Joshua and the people to, “Be strong and courageous” at least six times. Indeed the Lord will be with them; and indeed he was. The Lord caused the Jordan river to stop as the people crossed it. The Lord delivered the fortified city of Jericho into their hands. The Lord blessed them, but as we have seen and will see again, the people disobey. After Jericho was destroyed someone took some of the plunder that was to be devoted to the Lord. This caused a military defeat of the people and doubt started to creep in. It was just one small action that had big consequences. It seems that is what happens in our lives as well. Just one seemingly small sin causes us big problems. Even after the pep talk from Moses, the people disobey. This will be a theme we will see over and over again. When we look at the world today we see the same theme. We have heard what we should do, we know the right things be we find ourselves doing the opposite or not even listening to God. For the people of Israel this caused problems. Later we will see how sin begins to spiral out of control and eventually the people will be lead off to exile. We are in the exile of sin as well and we are in need of rescue. God sent his son Jesus to rescue us from our sin. Because we could not do it, Jesus did it all for us. Jesus fulfills the requirements of God and we get all the benefits. The Old Testament once again points us to Christ the author and perfector of our faith.

The New Testament
A few things jumped out at me as I read through the readings from Luke this week. After our readings in the Old Testament about washings, the section at the end of chapter 11 (readings for April 6th) where Jesus really blasts the Pharisees makes more sense to me. Jesus really lets them have it for only worrying about the outside things. He tells them in no uncertain terms that God looks at the inside as well and they need to get their act straight. In Luke 7 Jesus says some hard things. Jesus tells us that if we want to be his disciple we need to hate other things. I have always struggled with this statement. In one of my seminary classes we talked about the word “hate” and how it is used in the New Testament. This is another word that we translate the Greek literally but it has some Hebrew meaning. In Hebrew the word we translate as “hate” means that we prefer one thing over the other but not necessarily at the expense of the other. In the Old Testament we read that Jacob “hated” his wife Leah, but he still cared for her, he had children with her and he provided for her. This does not sound like the “hate” we think of. Now it is true that Jacob preferred Rebekah, but he did not “hate” Leah as we see it. I hope this sheds some light on this passage for you. We are to prefer following Jesus over all others. We will still need to carry our cross and count the cost and that will only be possible with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Psalms
One quick comment from one of our readings this week: In Psalm 78:41 (April 7th) a reference to the “Holy One of Israel” is found. We will see this term often when we get into Isaiah and some of the other prophets. This term refers to the promised Messiah and when you see it you can be certain that this is talking about the coming of Christ.

Have a great week and remember that God is with you everywhere you go!!