...and the shimmers of a new birth. part two of three.

-----The following is part of an ongoing discovery that has taken place inside my mind for the past five years, before which I couldn't have possibly cared any less about any of this religion talk.  That said, these topics are still being wrestled out in my mind and heart and are in no way definitive.  This particular three part series has been written with much wrestling and reading, and I have no doubt that some of the statements contained herein will be tuned and transformed over the course of my life with God.  If you have anything to add or comment, I would appreciate it greatly; even if you disagree with the whole thing, tell me that too.  Wrestle with the truth alongside me.-----


Read Part One Here

God's just and loving character went uncompromised through the whole story of Israel.

Here's a little pop culture button-art.  Did you know--MLK had a PhD in Theology from Boston University?

mlk

After the exodus from Egypt, led by Moses and his brother Aaron, God called Moses to a mountain top (mount Sinai) where he gave him a list of commands.  The "Ten Commandments" or "Decalogue" made up only a small portion of these commands.  The books "Exodus," "Leviticus" and "Deuteronomy" contain hundreds of them...


In Deuteronomy 28 the final language of the covenant is laid out.  Paraphrased, it looks like this:  "If you don't worship any other gods and if you obey all these commands then I'll prosper you in the land.  Your crops will grow richly, you'll have many healthy children and you'll conquer your enemies (these all represent peace and prosperity in the language of the Hebrew Bible).  If you don't follow these commands then your crops will die, your children will die, and you'll be conquered.  You'll fail as a people and be exiled (those all represent backward mobility in the language of the Hebrew Bible).

The trouble was, more often than not, the Israelites failed to keep these commands.  They were sick with that creeping death.

They didn't know how to receive love and grace.

They were spiritually dead--they had severed their relationships with God--each of them as individuals, just like you and me--through a selfish act, which produced shame and fear into them with no way of return.  It was all that they could do to offer animal sacrifices for their mistakes and to follow the laws.  They were supposed to be the love light of God in the wicked world.  But, like us, these people couldn't do it.

At this point we must segway to Paul's first century letters to the churches in Rome and Galatia.  Here's what he wrote about the law and evil: "Why the law then?  It was added for the sake of defining evil deeds" (Gal. 3:19), "by the works of the law no human will be invited into his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of evil" (Rom. 3:20-21), "I would not have come to know wicked deeds except through the law; for I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said 'Thou shall not covet.'  But evil, taking the opportunity through that commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind" (Rom. 7:7-8); "the law came in to increase the wicked acts" (Rom. 5:20).

Wow.

So here we have these Israelites trying to keep an externally enforced law that only inflamed their rebellion.  Each time they fall and are wiped out, they swirl into the depths of regretting.  They just can't seem to stop doing the very thing they want to avoid.  We want to stop the bad habits, but they just seem to come back, and often the harder we try to get rid of them the more menacing their return.  "The law came in to increase the wicked acts."

For hundreds of years this went on.  And it's still going on in most of our kind.

to be continued