God was honored by the Israelites obedience, even if it meant they looked foolish for a little while.
Tag: freedom
The forty designated stops in the wilderness afforded the Israelites time to learn live as sons and daughters of the living God. Similarly, we are transformed along our trek.
The woman at the well with Jesus was a shameful lady, living in a shameful city, amidst a shameful country. She was buried alive beneath layer upon layer of shame and could hardly lift her head under the weight of it.
Hating evil has nothing to do with hating people. Our world has falsely entwined the two. Hating evil is abhorring the affliction that plagues humanity and in the same breath, fighting tirelessly to extricate souls from sin’s deadly grip.
Shame is the apparel of the enemy – it’s how he identifies his own. It’s part of his indoctrination. Hitler issued brownshirts and Satan issues shame. And shedding the enemy’s attire takes effort; it takes time and it requires the power of God in our frame.
If Jesus, with full knowledge of His terrible fate, was still able to staunchly march forward into a challenging future, what about us?
Jesus sets us free from the heavy burden of our own righteousness. His love and goodness allows us to set down the basket of effort: of doing it in our own strength. With hands finally free of this impossible burden, we instead can lift them in praise. We can finally, fully walk in worship.
When the cold, hard light of morning comes and our iniquity is on full display, the enemy will accuse and Jesus will absolve.
Sin glimmers like Egypt from the wilderness: the far-off promise of something easier, but when we get close enough to lay hold, it’s something altogether different than we expected and it’s too late to turn around. Sin is a trap and we are creature caught in it’s clutches. Egypt is not as it seemed.
Paul may have been referring to an ancient Roman form of capital punishment.