The Rambling Disciple

A couple of weeks ago I posted a discussion about what the Law is. The goal of that post was to show just how important the Law is to us today and to put the New Testament conversations about the Law in context. I ended that post with this statement; knowing that the Law is important doesn't necessarily help us study it. Today's post is aimed to help with just that issue; how do we study the Law? We have reached a place where we don't even know how to read the legal codes in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. When we do read them we skim through as quick as possible to get back to the narrative. Well today we are going to look at how we, who are no longer under the Mosaic Law, can study it. Before that there is an important clarification that needs to be made. When the New Testament refers to the Law, it can mean one of two things. It can refer to the legal codes found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, but it can also mean the first five books as a whole; aka the Torah . It is impo...

We've won. The battle is over. Love has triumphed. Sin has been crushed. Death has been beaten. We've won. We've won. God has acted. Evil has been obliterated. Life flows freely. Righteousness has overcome. We've won. We've won. Jesus has fought the fight. Jesus has carried the cross. Jesus has died. Jesus is alive. We've won. We've won. Death is no longer our destiny. Hell is no longer our home. Sin no longer reigns. The world can finally heal. We've won. We've won. Hope now runs rampant. Joy now springs forth. Love now floods the world. Life flourishes. We've won. We've won. Though we did not earn it. We did not even fight. Jesus earned the victory. Jesus is why We've won.

Finally the Israelites have arrived at the Promised Land. They are camped on the east side of the Jordan River, waiting for God's command to conquer Canaan. The thing is this isn't the same group of people as before. With the exception of two men, Joshua and Caleb, this is a new generation of Israelites. This is a generation who was probably born during the forty years of wandering, so very few of them would have witnessed the Exodus or the events at Mt. Sinai. Moses, now very old, is at the end of his life. He will not lead the people into the Promised Land, Joshua will do that. But Moses saw a need in the nation of Israel; a need to hear God's Law anew. So, in his final act as God's prophet, Moses gathered the congregation of Israel and reiterated the importance of following God. This is what we now call the book of Deuteronomy. Background The book of Deuteronomy is a set of speeches Moses gave to the people of Israel just before they entered Canaan. As such it...

The Israelites have been freed from slavery. They have been rescued from the hand of Egypt. God has given them his Law and has pitched his tent among them. They have a righteous leader in Moses who continually points them to God. They are now ready to enter the Promised Land. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right? Well, the Israelites manage to mess it all up. Repeatedly. Welcome to the book of Numbers. Background The book of Numbers was written, once again, by Moses. It was probably written as the Israelites wandered for forty years and when they camped at Shittim near the end of Moses' life. It records the journey from Mt. Sinai to the banks of the Jordan River; the border of the Promised Land.  This book gets its name from two censuses that occur within it; one at the beginning and one at the end. Since God commands a count of the people two times, it is called Numbers. As with the last three books this is the Greek name for the book. In Hebrew the name comes from th...

Perhaps one of the most confusing subjects in the Bible is the relationship between Christians and the Law given in the Old Testament. The New Testament seemingly gives mixed messages about this, at times calling the Law not so great while other times calling it a very good thing. Our response has largely been to avoid studying the Law since we don't really know what to do with it. Some argue that we as Christians are still required to follow the Law, but Paul debunks that (Romans 3:21-22). Still others would say that the Law is now useless and void, but once again Paul refutes that claim as well (Romans 3:31). There are plenty of other passages where Paul talks about the Law, but this chapter from Romans illustrates the point well. We, as Christians, don't know what to do with the Law. I think that this is a subject that is very important to us as the people of God. Ignoring the Law is not a solution to the confusion; in fact that creates problems. What we must understand ...

Ah, Leviticus. Probably the single most ignored book in the Bible. While there are other books that people avoid more than Leviticus (I'm looking at you Song of Songs), it is mainly because we don't know what to do with them. Leviticus isn't avoided because we don't know what to do, it's because too often we think that Leviticus isn't worth our time. Have you ever heard this phrase, "the canon within the canon?" Well the Bible is what we know as the canon of Scripture; meaning that the sixty six books of the Bible are universally recognized by Christians to be the divinely inspired Word of God. This places these sixty six book above all other documents. So the canon within the canon is the idea that certain books of the Bible are more important than others.  While you may not have heard the phrase "the canon within the canon," you have probably encountered the idea that some books of the Bible are more important than others. The most ...