11 August 2015

Scriptures:

• Mark 7:1-8:26
• Jeremiah 37
• Judges 21
• Psalm 9

Observations:

In the Mark passage, we see Christ talking about uncleanness and defilement, the pharisees' adherence to their law above God's and how it's not what goes into a body that defiles it, but what comes out. We also see Christ healing a Phoenician woman's daughter, feeding 4000, and denying the pharisees a sign/teaching the disciples. In Jeremiah, we see a new king who did not honour God and only inquired of him in times of stress. As such, Jeremiah prophesied Jerusalem's downfall and, when leaving the city, was arrested for deserting. In Judges, we see the other tribes of Israel coming to regret their rash actions and going to extreme lengths to supply the Benjaminites with women to be their wives, lest the tribe vanish, but done in such a manner that they not break their own vow. In the Psalm, we see David praising God for his justice, his sheltering of the righteousness, and his punishment of the wicked.

There's a rather abstract thread that I can see winding its way through these passages. What is true obedience? What is true righteousness? It is not our own external actions, the following of our own external laws, the keeping of our vows, regardless of how rashly they were made, but the contents of our hearts, the stuff of our character. As Christ was alluding to in Mark, true righteousness is not something put on externally, but something which begins on the inside and seeps out. This righteousness can only come from God, from the Holy Spirit which dwells within all who call on Christ as saviour and master. Only God is righteous, after all. Any of man's attempts to put on a sense of righteousness is just that - a sense, a shadow, for man is not perfect. As Paul writes in Romans, "There is no man who is righteous, not even one." Man cannot make himself righteous. All of man's attempts to do so are like whitewash on the outside of a tomb - everything looks good but the inside is filled with death. Such were the pharisees. Such were the men of Israel in their rash vow and exploiting of a loophole in their vow.

Application:

Let us come and praise God for his righteousness given to us, that we may take shelter under Him. I know I can become legalistic, I can rely on my own perceived goodness and become the equivalent f a whitewashed tomb. Instead, I must continually humble myself and turn to God for His righteousness to dwell within me, that true change may be effected and genuine righteousness be grown in me.

Prayer:

Lord, I praise you for your justice, which shields the righteous and punished the wicked. Lord, I also stand humble, knowing that it is only because of you and not by any work or action of mine that you count me as righteous. I ask that you would grow in me, that I would grow in righteousness from you. Keep me humble, that I would not grow proud in my actions and become as the pharisees or the Israelites during the time of the judges. Keep me from becoming a whitewashed tomb. 

I thank you for the sacrifice of your Son, that enabled me to come to you in the beginning and for the righteousness imputed to me on His account.

Amen