Tag Archives: System

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Deuteronomy 14

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At the end of every third year, gather the tithe from all your produce of that year and put it aside in storage. Keep it in reserve for the Levite who won’t get any property or inheritance as you will, and for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live in your neighborhood. That way they’ll have plenty to eat and God, your God, will bless you in all your work. Deuteronomy 14:28-29 (MSG)

God’s Message talks more about economics than you might think. I’ve come to realize that there is a system that I like to call God’s economy. In the economic system of God’s kingdom each and every individual is called upon to personally set aside provision from their regular income that he/she will then give away to bless those who are less fortunate or in need. The thing that I appreciate about God’s economic system is that it applied to everyone across the board. Those who were more fortunate had larger portions to set aside and share, but even those with little income were responsible to use a portion of whatever small amount they were given to give to others. Everyone participated and the local community benefited.

Somewhere along the way we lost touch with the personal responsibility and management piece and handed it over to our representative government. The government takes it before we even receive our paycheck and so we lose sight and touch with how much of our income is even taken from us to feed the system. The government handles all of the distribution so we lose touch with any personal responsibility for managing it nor do the vast majority of us get the blessing of actually giving it to a person who needs it. Not all who produce share in the responsibility of giving to those in need and who gives what becomes a quagmire of political machinations.

Certainly, we all have the opportunity to save, tithe, and give above and beyond what we are taxed. I get that. The thing that I find really sad is that God’s economy was set up to build individual character along with building up the local community. Neighbors provided for neighbors. There was local accountability and local blessing. There were deep spiritual lessons and the development of maturity that came from the personal responsibility required of each and every person to manage and give away a portion of their income to family, friends, neighbors and strangers in their community who were in need.

I understand that this still happens to varying degrees on a small scale, but I find it sad that our economic system has strayed far from the economic system God prescribed. I believe it has happened to the detriment of ourselves, our communities and our society as a whole.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Numbers 8

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God spoke to Moses: “Take the Levites from the midst of the People of Israel and purify them for doing God’s work.” Numbers 8:5 (MSG)

For me, one of the fascinating things about walking through these ancient texts is perceiving the ways that our culture and thinking are still rooted in the systems and concepts which were established thousands of years ago.

In today’s chapter, the tribe of Levi was singled out among all of the tribes of Israel for carrying out the work of the temple. In other words, “God’s work” was reserved for a special few. In any human system, I have to believe this is going to set into motion certain patterns of thought, creating classes within the culture. The special few who are given the religious tasks are going to think themselves special, even to the point of being better than the others. They will have a hard time not feeling that they are closer to God than those who don’t get this special task. Those who are not part of these special few begin to feel the opposite. They feel left out and dishonored. “God’s work” is not for them, so they dismiss the things of God as something above them. Jealousy, envy and hatred can even set in against those who seem to be “special.”

After Jesus death and resurrection, there was a major shift in God’s prescribed system. God’s Holy Spirit was poured out and into every person who believes and follows. No longer for a certain people or a select few, the Holy Spirit made no distinction. God gave the word picture of one body in which every believer is made a vital part, gifted in some way to help provide for it’s health and functions. Jesus presented a radical new paradigm.

We human beings are silly creatures, however. Once we get used to a system of behavior, we are loathe to go to the work of changing them. Within a short period of time, the followers of Jesus had organized into a system that looked much like what we read about in Numbers. There were special people set apart as priests and leaders to do the religious works of this organization now known as “the church.” Once again this human organizational system created a group of spiritual “haves” and “have nots.” 1500 years later a man named Martin Luther made a 95 item “point-of-order” to correct the mistake, arguing that what God’s Message presented was not a special “priesthood” for the select few but a “priesthood of all believers.” The reformers organized to try to get back to the prescribed organization of Jesus and his followers.

We human beings are silly creatures, however. Once we get used to a system of behavior, we are loathe to go to the work of changing them. For over forty years I’ve attended and been involved in a number of church organizations of all shapes, sizes and names. I’ve even led a few. We still like to treat our pastors and priests as “special” people who are spiritually above us. The common person in the pew still tends to think of “God’s work” as something relegated to the chosen few; it is something from which they are at best exempted, at worst unfit to carry out.

[sigh]

Today, I am reminded at how easily my human condition, culture, and systems can skew my thoughts and behaviors from those which God intended. Lord, have mercy on me.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Leviticus 9

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Moses and Aaron entered the Tent of Meeting. When they came out they blessed the people and the Glory of God appeared to all the people. Fire blazed out from God and consumed the Whole-Burnt-Offering and the fat pieces on the Altar. When all the people saw it happen they cheered loudly and then fell down, bowing in reverence. Leviticus 9:23-24 (MSG)

The sacrifices resulted in God’s glory and God’s presence, which resulted in worship. There was an order to the process. Sin separates man from a holy God. When sacrifice for sin was made, and the price for sin was paid, then the separation between God and man was lifted and the way was made for God’s glory and presence. The people, awed by God’s glory and presence, bow in reverence and worship.

Fast forward 2500 years. Jesus made the sacrifice for sin and conquered sin’s consequence, which is death and the grave. The result was a glorified Christ appearing to his followers and God’s presence in the form of the indwelling Holy Spirit in the hearts of all believers. The result is our grateful worship.

sin>separation>sacrifice>presence>glory>worship

Once again I find that the systematic set of sacrifices and offerings was a foreshadow of God’s ultimate plan. All of the laws, rules, and sacrifices set out in Leviticus serve to remind the human race what an impossible state we were in. Trying to attain perfection in the keeping of every law and the offering of every prescribed sacrifice was a heavy burden. No one could do it perfectly, and that was the point. We don’t earn forgiveness and salvation by systematically and sacrificially doing good things. We are graciously given forgiveness and salvation by what God did for us on the cross.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Leviticus 4

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He is then to take some of the bull’s blood, bring it into the Tent of Meeting, dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle some of it seven times before God, before the curtain of the Sanctuary. He is to smear some of the blood on the horns of the Altar of Fragrant Incense before God which is in the Tent of Meeting. He is to pour the rest of the bull’s blood out at the base of the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. Leviticus 4:5-7 (MSG)

Let’s face it, reading through all of the prescribed sacrifices in the book of Leviticus is a very bloody affair. I have to keep in mind that in all of this blood-letting there is a core spiritual teaching that is central to understanding who Jesus is, why Jesus came, and what Jesus did.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God’s message tells us that sin entered the world. Every one of us, at one time or another, has willfully chosen to do what we knew was wrong. That’s sin. As we learned the other day, that willful disobedience is like yeast which taints the whole loaf. We may be good much of the time, but the fact that we sin at all (sometimes even without knowing it) seperates us from God, who is holy.

How do we, divorced from relationship with God by our own sin, get back into relationship with God? That is the ultimate question, and the ultimate story God authors in the Bible from beginning to end.

God’s message tells us that the penalty of sin is death. Therefore, the penalty must be paid in order for relationship between human beings and God to be reunited. Without the shedding of blood, there is no payment for sin. What we are reading in Leviticus is a methodical (and very burdensome) prescription for payment. The sacrificial lamb atones for the sins of the person sacrificing it. It is a brutal and bloody affair designed to address an eternally serious matter.

When Jesus came, He came on a mission. He was God’s son, sent to be the lamb without defect sacrificed for the sins of the entire human race. His death on a cross was a brutal, bloody affair designed to pay the ultimate penalty for sin once and for all:

The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ: You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year; you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice. It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar that whet your appetite. So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God, the way it’s described in your Book.” When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. Hebrews 10:1-10 (MSG)

All of these bloody sacrifices accomplish two things. First, they reminded us of how impossible it was, and is, to completely atone for sin by ourselves. Nothing we do, in and of ourselves, can atone for sin and please God. I can’t imagine trying to manage this web of offerings and sacrifices on an on going basis. Second, the sacrifices of Leviticus foreshadow the ultimate plan, which was for God to make the ultimate sacrifice for sin on our behalf.

Understanding the sacrificial system of Leviticus, I gain a much greater appreciation of what we celebrate on Good Friday.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and joshuamellin
Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 8

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So why does this people go backward,
   and just keep on going—backward!
They stubbornly hold on to their illusions,
   refuse to change direction. Jeremiah 8:5 (MSG)

It takes little or no courage to continue living in the same unhealthy patterns. We perpetuate cycles and systems that drain life from our souls because it’s what we know and there is fear doing anything different. The unknown terrifies us more than the muck in which we find ourselves wading each day.

Yet if it is Life we wish to experience in abundant and increasing measure, than a change of direction is required. Illusions to which we have firmly grasped must be released, old patterns of thought and behavior must be left behind, and new relational systems must be established.

When we walk with Jesus, old things must surely pass away. New things must surely come.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 16

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Ballot box. "A Ruler you can depend upon will head this government, A Ruler passionate for justice, a Ruler quick to set things right."Isaiah 16:5 (MSG)

While in college, I worked breakfast shift in the kitchen. My friend Claudius, who hailed from Zimbabwe, worked the same shift and we would clean together after breakfast. We talked as we cleaned and the discussion would often turn to politics. Claudius came from a very different experience in Africa and we would talk about the pros and cons of different systems of government. Democracy, Monarchy, and Socialist, we walked through them all in our after-breakfast scrub fests.

There was a lot on which Claudius and I did not agree, but as fellow believers we did come to agreement on a couple of key points. First, every system of human government is ultimately flawed because of our imperfections and sin. Because human beings are self-centered and given to lusts of the eyes, lusts of the flesh and pride, then the power of humans to govern is ultimately corrupted no matter what the system of governing might be. Therefore (and here is the second point on which we agreed), the perfect government is a loving, just, all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present God sitting on the throne.

Compared to having God Himself on the throne, every other government is just shadows, smoke and mirrors.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and blackplastic