Lover Unconditionally - Genesis 28-31

Genesis 29:15-20 (ESV)

Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

The story of Jacob and Laban is legendary to those who diligently study God’s Word.   Laban cheated Jacob.  Jacob cheated Laban.  They both had little respect for each other.   In the above story they are negotiating for Jacob to have Rachel, Laban’s second daughter, in marriage.   They agreed to a price and time and then, in the chapters that follow, Laban cheats Jacob.    But the most important line in the above text was Jacob’s attitude about having to wait to marry Rachel.   His love for Rachel made the seven year wait, seem as mere moments.   Love does that. Love will allow you to even be cheated about something.   This is what love does.  It looks past an offense.   Notice how Solomon said it:

Proverbs 19:11 (ESV)

Good sense makes one slow to anger,

and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

In our Christian walk we are to do the same thing with our brother and sister in Christ.  We are to overlook their offense and love them, despite how they may have injured us.  That is what love does.   It is easy to love those who love you. It is hard to love those who don’t love you.  We are to love so sacrificially that even when someone is trying to hurt us it will feel like but a moment.  

Pay Taxes - Romans 13-14

Romans 13:5-7 (ESV)

Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

I don’t really know anyone who likes April 15 of each year.  That is the day we must pay our taxes from the previous year’s income.    Our country seems to like to tax things.  All countries seem to like to tax their people.  It is almost natural to not like that, however.   In the above passage Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome.  During this time period, Nero was the Emperor of Rome.  He hated the Christians.  History tells us he would burn them alive to light his gardens.   Being taxed by Nero would almost seem like a privilege in comparison.   Paul is not shy about telling the Christians in Rome and around the world and us, today, that God established all forms of government.   No matter the government, we are told, in chapter 13, to obey the rulers over us. That includes the tax they demand from us.   It might seem unfair and it might seem cruel, but that is what God said.   The authorizes are ministers of God.  The tax is one aspect of the fact that God put them in charge.  We are told honor and respect the position that God put over us.  To dishonor or disrespect the authorities God puts in charge is to dishonor or disrespect God.   

The Face of Jesus - Matthew 17-19

Matthew 17:1-3 (ESV)

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

This is a report, by Matthew, about what is referred to as the transfiguration of Jesus.   Peter, James and John, went up a high mountain and what we read, above, happens.   In the following verses, Matthew will write that Jesus had a conversation with Moses and Elijah and a voice was heard from heaven that said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”    Peter, James and John were told not to report this event to anyone, until after Jesus ascended to heaven.   Apparently, this is when Matthew hears of it.   

Matthew reports that Jesus’ face shone like the sun.    It might be well for us to think about how Jesus face is portrayed in the Bible.  Note the following:

• He had no beauty to attract men to him:  Isaiah 53:2-3 (ESV). For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
• Peter would see Jesus’ face after he denied Jesus three times:   Luke 22:60-61 (ESV) But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”
• Jesus’ face would be abused by the guards during His crucifixion:     Matthew 26:67-68 (ESV) Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, saying, “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?”
• John would see Jesus’ face when he was given the Revelation to give to the church:  Revelation 1:14 (ESV) The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, ...

Jesus’ face demonstrates His ministry to mankind.   Like all of us, our face displays our purpose.   In the transfiguration we see the face of Jesus as the sun as He shines light and hope to the world.   Peter saw his pain over sin.   The soldiers saw in His face, His purpose as the lamb of God.  Isaiah saw in His face His suffering.   John, in Revelation saw His coming judgment.  What face do we see Jesus? 

Don’t Compare God to Your Little gods! Isaiah 36-39

Isaiah 36:7-10 (ESV)

But if you say to me, “We trust in the LORD our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”

The King of Assyria sent his envoy to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem.  The envoy’s title was Rabshakeh.  The Rabshakeh had full authority from the King of Assyria.   He came to warn Hezekiah, and the rest of those living in Jerusalem, to surrender to Assyria.  If they did, the Rabshakeh promised them a great life back in Assyria.   That was not true, but such was his verbal ploy to get them to surrender.   To make his point of how powerful Assyria was, as compared to Hezekiah’s army, he makes the above claim and wager.    This is where we see a great lesson from our text.  The non-believing world has no concept of who and what God is about.  They sound foolish when they talk about it as if they do.   The world compares Yahweh and His Son, Jesus Christ, to every other god that man has manufactured in their minds.   They have no sense of the power of God or His sovereign will over mankind.   The Pharaoh of Egypt did this same thing when Moses showed up to deliver the people from Egypt’s slavery.  

Notice what does happen to this Rabshakeh after his foolish talk:

Isaiah 37:5-7 (ESV)

When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

God doesn’t even use a fact based argument to drive him back home.  God uses a rumor.    Notice what happens to the King of Assyria as a result of all this foolish pride:

Isaiah 37:36-38 (ESV)

And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

The world can doubt our God’s power, promises and plans.  But He is the God of the universe and will not be mocked by any form of a Rabshakeh.  Don’t doubt His power!!

Job 14:16-17 (ESV)

For then you would number my steps;

you would not keep watch over my sin;

my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,

and you would cover over my iniquity.

Yesterday day I walked 3,226 steps.  I know this because my watch keeps count.  I am supposed to walk over 10,000 steps each day.  My wife does this easily.   I do not.   Today, in our society, we are obsessed with steps.   We want to know how many.  In the above text, however, Job is concerned that God not only knows how many, but what sins may have occurred along the way.  In my 3,226 steps, what sins did I commit?  And, what did I God do with those sins?  Note what Job earlier mused:

Job 10:14

If I sin, you watch me

and do not acquit me of my iniquity.

Job 7:20

If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?

Why have you made me your mark?

Why have I become a burden to you?

Job 13:26-27

For you write bitter things against me

and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.

You put my feet in the stocks

and watch all my paths;

you set a limit for the soles of my feet.

That was Job’s thoughts earlier about his steps and his sins.  But in the top verses, Job is now dreaming. He is hoping for a time that God would watch his steps, but not to collect his sins to punish him, but to watch him for protection and to take any sins and seal them in a bag and never bring them up again.  To Job this is a dream.   For today’s believer, Job’s dream is our reality:

Hebrews 8:12

For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

and I will remember their sins no more.”

Ephesians 4:30

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

God HAS, for those who put their faith in Christ for their salvation, and not their own efforts, sealed our sins.  

Psalms 103:12

as far as the east is from the west,

so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

David, in this Psalm, knew something Job only dreamed about.   Today we can rejoice because Job’s dream of steps and sin is true.   God counts the steps of the believer (that shows intimate knowledge) and yet does not hold those steps against us.  Rejoice!!!

God Draws Us Out of Dangerous Water - Psalms 18-20

Psalms 18:16-18 (ESV)

He sent from on high, he took me;

he drew me out of many waters.

He rescued me from my strong enemy

and from those who hated me,

for they were too mighty for me.

They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

but the LORD was my support.

This psalm was written by David when he was being hunted by King Saul.   David is seeking refuge and help from God.  And God gives it to him. Are these verses not refreshing to the soul?  If you have ever been on the run, down and out, or under some sort of duress, this is what you would want to be able to say:  He drew me out of many waters.   What a glorious and refreshing and empowering thought.  God draws us out of our trouble and gives us support.  This was written by David.  But think of characters in the Bible would could also have said these words:

• Abraham was drawn out of the waters of fear when God rescued him from Abimelech. 

• Abraham was drawn out of the waters of sacrificing Isaac on the alter when God gave him a ram, caught in the thicket. 

• Noah was drawn out of the waters of the flood. 

• Jacob was drawn out of the waters of hatred by Essau. 

• Lot was drawn out of the waters of the evilness of Sodom and Gomorrah. 

• Samson was drawn out of the waters of being chained up and mocked by the Philistines. 

• Jonah was drawn out of the waters by a fish. 

• Jeremiah was drawn of the waters of a muddy pit. 

• Peter was drawn out of the waters as he tied to walk on water. 

• Thomas was drawn out of the waters of doubt. 

• Peter was drawn out of the waters of denial. 

• Paul was drawn out of the waters of zeal for tradition. 

God draws us out of many waters.    

Break the Cycle - Judges 6-11

Judges 10:6-10 (ESV)

The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the LORD and did not serve him. So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed.

And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.”

This is the cycle of most Christians.  What we read above is an actual cycle that was happening throughout the book of Judges.  But it is also a picture of what happens in the lives of most believers.  The cycle looks like this:

• We forsake God and turn away from obeying His word. 
• We seek after other gods to meet our needs. These are gods that are contrary to the Word of God. 
• We fall into oppression and depression because of these gods we now serve.  They can’t satisfy us and, instead, bind us. 
• As the pain grows greater we are driven to cry out to God.  
• As we cry out to God for deliverance we must repent of our first mistake; turning from God. 
• God sends deliverance to save us from our evil choices. 

This happened over and over and over in the book of Judges.  It does, too many times, also, in the life of the believer.  The way to stop this cycle is to not turn away from God, but to obey, daily, His word and walk in His Spirit.  We don’t have to live in this cycle.  He sent His Spirit to guide us in truth to keep us walking in step with the Spirit.  On our own we fall into this cycle.  With the Spirit of God we are set free from this cycle.