Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. [Matthew 5:17-18 (NLT)]
You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! [John 5:39 (NLT)]
Our Colorado church had a large worship center with excellent acoustics so, when the local Jewish congregation wanted to present a concert of Jewish music by a well-known Jewish performer, we were happy to offer our venue to them. The Christians in attendance never expected the evening to end with Jews and Christians joining hands and dancing the hora around the church while singing “Hava Nagilah” (Let Us Rejoice). What the Jews hadn’t expected were the Bibles on the back of every chair. Before the concert began, many intently looked through them and, after the concert, they expressed their surprise at finding their Hebrew Scriptures in our Christian Bibles!
While we call it the Old Testament, it isn’t called that by a Jew. When “testament” appears in the New Testament, it is a rendering of the Greek word diatheke, meaning covenant. While Christians recognize the old covenant God made with the Israelites, we also believe He made a new covenant (or testament) with the followers of Jesus. For a Jew, however, there’s nothing “old” about that covenant because there hasn’t been a new one. As a result, they much prefer the term Hebrew Bible or Hebrew Scriptures. The other term used for the Hebrew Bible is Tanakh—an acronym for its three categories: Torah (Law), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings).
Even though the Hebrew Bible has 24 books divided into those three categories and our Old Testament has 39 books and four categories (Law, History, Wisdom and Poetry, and Prophecy), they both tell the same story, but in a different order. The number of books differs because the Hebrew Bible combines the first and second books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the 12 books of the minor prophets. Instead of ending with the Prophets as does our Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible ends with the Writings and the book of Chronicles.
The 1st century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37/38 – 100 AD) reported that there was an authoritative list of the twenty-two books Jews called “holy scriptures” that was determined by the time of Artaxerxes (464-424 BC). The book number differs because Ruth was attached to Judges and Lamentations to Jeremiah at that time. We know that the Scripture our Lord read, studied, and memorized as a boy in Galilee is the same Scripture we have today.
Jesus made frequent references to the Scriptures throughout His ministry and his enemies soon learned that they couldn’t argue the Word of God with the One who breathed that word! He defeated Satan’s temptations with words from Deuteronomy and, during his frequent confrontations with the Jewish rulers, Pharisees, and Sadducees, He made specific references to verses in Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Exodus, Samuel, Isaiah, Hosea, and Psalms. He quoted from Malachi when speaking of John the Baptist and frequently quoted from Scripture to show how He would fulfill prophecies. He explained the writings of Moses and the prophets to Cleopas on the road to Emmaus. According to Liberty University’s Harold Willmington, of the 1,800 verses reporting Jesus’ words in the gospels, 180 verses are Old Testament quotes or allusions.
While I can understand a Jew’s unfamiliarity with a Christian Bible and surprise at finding the Hebrew Scriptures in it, I can’t understand why those of us who claim to follow Jesus are so unfamiliar with the words our Lord read, studied, quoted, and believed while He walked the earth! If it was important to Him, shouldn’t it be important to us?
The Apostle Peter tells us that true prophecy isn’t a product of the prophet—prophets only speak God’s revelation. Directed by the Spirit, their words communicate the message the Lord wants sent. Sometimes, however, prophecy is difficult to understand and interpretations of Revelation go from one extreme to the other. Some, like that priest in Monday’s devotion, dismiss it as completely symbolic. To them, Revelation is an allegory about the conflict between good and evil with good winning in the end. On the other extreme, we find obscure theories, convoluted correlations, and implausible explanations of every symbol and metaphor along with sensationalism and unchecked speculation connecting Revelation to current events.
During the time of the judges, the Israelites were at war with the Philistines. Following their loss of 4,000 men, they questioned why God had allowed their defeat but never bothered asking Him. Instead, they decided that carrying the Ark of the Covenant into battle would guarantee a future victory. Perhaps they remembered the story of Israel entering the Promised Land—how the Jordan River stopped flowing when the feet of the priests carrying the Ark touched the water and the entire nation crossed the dry riverbed into Canaan. They may have recalled Jericho’s defeat when Israel’s priests carried the Ark around the walled city for seven days and the city’s seemingly invincible walls collapsed. Maybe they thought it was the Arks’ presence that caused those miracles; in any case, they brought the Ark to their camp in Ebenezer.
The Israelites had just crossed the Jordan River and were preparing to conquer Canaan when Joshua came upon an armed man. Joshua was a stranger in a foreign land and, as Israel’s general, he may have been scrutinizing Jericho’s defenses to determine his plan of attack. I wonder if Joshua brandished his sword (while shaking in his sandals) as he queried, “Friend or foe?” The man, however, was neither ally nor adversary. Identifying himself as the commander-in-chief of the Lord’s army, his loyalty was to neither side. His allegiance was to God and the only side he was on was God’s! God wasn’t on Israel’s side any more than He was on Canaan’s. Israel, however, was on God’s side because their conquest of Jericho was part of His master plan of redemption. It was because they were on God’s side that the fortified city’s walls collapsed.
I think Satan chuckles every time he sees another division in Christ’s church. He probably shouted with glee when the Southern Baptist Convention recently expelled five congregations (including the mega Saddleback church) and when the no-longer-united United Methodists lost 1,800 congregations and found themselves embroiled in lawsuits with many of those congregations. Although Methodist Bishop Tom Berlin sadly noted that, “The path of anger and hostility is not the Christian way,” it seems to have become the way of Christ’s church in the 21st century! While today’s issues are different, they are no less divisive than an issue that threatened the very existence of the early church.
Devotions of the Heart 