Tag Archives: I am the Lord your God

THE GOD WHO NEVER DIMINSHES US

Christian Life, ,

THE GOD WHO NEVER DIMINSHES US

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery,” Exodus 20:2

God was about to give His people the Ten Commandments, which were His basic instructions for living the best kind of life. Before He told them how He wanted them to live, there was something important He had to tell them which would help them to understand why He wanted them to live this way.

When they were slaves in Egypt, their slave masters treated them like property. The Egyptians could do what they liked to them because they were slaves. They had no dignity and no rights as human beings. They could steal their belongings, steal their wives and children, and even take their lives if they wanted to. The Israelites were beaten and abused, and they could do nothing about it. This was something God hated. He made us in His image, and He wants us all to treat each other with respect and dignity because that is how He treats us.

Most of the Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language. When God said, “I am the Lord your God,” in the Hebrew it means, “Because I am your God, your authority will increase in the protection of praise and submission.” David put it this way in Psalm 23: 1, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (or be diminished).” When we choose God as our God and love and trust Him and stay loyal and obedient to Him, He promises us that we will always increase.

God is not a thief. The devil is a thief. God loves to bless us and to increase us. Even when we give to God by being generous to people, He always gives back much more than we can ever give to Him.

All the false gods that people worship make demands. They want sacrifices of food and animals. They keep people in bondage to them through fear. They are not givers. They are takers. That helps us to understand that idols are only ways in which the devil can control us and keep us in slavery to him.

God is a giver. He loved the world so much that He gave us His Son. This is what the Apostle Paul said about Him, “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32.

God asks us to give Him our lives and, when we do, He fills us with so much blessing that it overflows to the people around us. Everybody serves a god. Those who choose to serve idols or any other god than the God of the Bible will slowly lose their lives. Those who choose to serve the living God, the God of the Bible, will keep on enjoying God’s blessing because of and in Jesus. The most precious gift is everlasting life with Him.

GOD’S MARRIAGE COVENANT – THE PURPOSE OF THE KETUBAH

Christian Life, ,

GOD’S MARRIAGE COVENANT – THE PURPOSE OF THE KETUBAH

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery,” Exodus, 20:2

The Ten Commandments or God’s Ten-word Ketubah was prefaced with the words, “I am the Lord your God”, in Hebrew “Anochy Yahweh Elohim “.

The letters in the word A-N-CH-Y are pictures, each of which has a meaning:

A = an oxhead going into a yoke, signifying authority,

N = fish multiplying

CH = a hedge or fence

Y = upraised hand, implying worship or submission

The word anochy, then, literally means, “Your authority is multiplying inside the hedge of praise and submission.” This was God’s promise in the preamble to His ketubah. “A relationship with me will increase you, not diminish you.” Unlike the gods of the pagans, God did not make demands but promises based on the kind of behaviour that promoted unity within the nation.

In Hebrew thought, life is hell in any area where there are no boundaries. The significance of the ketubah was to set boundaries around a couple’s marriage relationship so that, within those boundaries, their lives would be happy and free. If they crossed the boundaries, they would be committing marital unfaithfulness and there would be consequences for both. If one partner persisted in transgressing the boundaries without repentance, that would be reason for divorce.

We cannot dismiss the Ten Commandments as irrelevant for us who live in the era of the New Covenant. God’s ketubah was not intended to be set of rules which, if we keep them, will guarantee the continuation of our relationship with Him. They are a protective boundary fence within which we will experience the greatest amount of freedom, peace, happiness, and the best kind of life. They were not given to make us good but to set us free. This is not a check list for Brownie points. Each commandment contains a deeply embedded principle which exposes more than behaviour. It uncovers the heart.

God’s purpose in giving the Ten Commandments was to teach the people of Israel, who were in covenant with Him, the best way to live in order to show the world what He is like. The purpose of the Ten Commandments is to protect love, to preserve unity and to promote contentment. Each one of the commandments fits into one of these categories.

In His ketubah, God was saying to the people, “This is who I am and this is the way I want you to relate to me and to one another. If you stick faithfully to these instructions, you will experience a full, free and happy life. I am not giving you these rules so that I will love you because I love you already. I am giving you this ketubah so that you live the best kind of life to show the world what I am like.”

God knows that we have the power to destroy ourselves. He made provision in His ketubah to save us from disaster.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS – A MARRIAGE CONTRACT

Bible Study, ,

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS – A MARRIAGE CONTRACT

And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Exodus 20:1, 2

Dr Bill Bright, founder of “Campus Crusade for Christ”, formulated a simple way of witnessing to people about Jesus. It is called the Four Spiritual Laws and begins with “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”. Unfortunately, what follows is a very narrow view of God’s plan.

What is God’s plan for His people? It began with one man, Abraham, who became a family which became a large group of people during their stay in Egypt. Pharaoh was afraid that the Israelites would join Egypt’s enemies and attack them, so he made them slaves. When they were demoralised and helpless, God stepped in and, through Moses, led them out of slavery into freedom.

God’s plan was to “marry” them and to teach them how to live with Him and with each other in a marriage bond. He told them His plan through Moses, in the language of courtship and marriage to show them how He wanted to relate to them and them to Him.

There were 5 stages in the Hebrew courtship and marriage protocol. During their courtship, when the man was sure he wanted to marry the woman, he would tell her “lachah” which meant “I want to make you mine”. God told the Israelites through Moses before He rescued them from slavery: “I will free you from being slaves to them …I will take you as my own people and I will be your God.” Exodus 6:6,7.

The next step was to confirm his choice, telling her “segulah” which meant “I want to make you my treasured possess.” In Exodus 19:5, God told Israel, at the foot of Mount Sinai, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession.” This is wedding talk!

The third step took place three days before the man’s formal proposal of marriage. He would tell her to prepare herself by washing – “mikvah” – to make herself ready. In Exodus 19:10 God instructs Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day…” Again, wedding talk!

The fourth step was to draw up a marriage contract, called a “ketubah”, setting up the boundaries within which they would relate to each other in a way acceptable to both of them The ketubah dealt with all the aspects of living together and was witnessed and signed by the couple’s fathers. The “Ten Commandments” is a 10-word ketubah setting out God’s requirements for living with His people in the intimacy of a marriage relationship.

The final step was the marriage ceremony under a canopy called the “chuppah” which represented the presence of God, and the consummation of their marriage in the bridal chamber prepared by the bridegroom.

The ketubah forms the heart of this relationship.

DID YOU KNOW (9)…THAT REVELATION FOLLOWS GENEROSITY

Christian life, ,

DID YOU KNOW (9)

…THAT REVELATION FOLLOWS GENEROSITY

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. Malachi 3:10

Yesterday we began to explore the concept that God’s instructions for the way His people were to use their wealth is not “law” in the sense of a military command. It is His ageless wisdom which helps us to break out of our greed and selfishness to take responsibility for four groups of people who need our support. 

The first is our spiritual authority or “high priest”, the one who, according to Paul, teaches us the Word. To him must go the firstfruits of our increase. Since we are not farmers who gather in an annual harvest, our increase is our monthly income of which we are to give one-fortieth to our spiritual leader.

Our second area of responsibility is called the “storehouse” which, in Bible times was the tabernacle and later the temple. Every householder was to bring one-tenth of the remainder of his harvest after terumah to the temple where it was stored and used to support the priests and Levites who served in the temple. They, too, had no land of their own and depended on the annual tithe of the people’s crops, including the oil and wine, to take care of their families.

We know that the physical building which accommodates the church whenever it meets, i.e., the people of God, needs money to maintain the property and those who work in it. There are staff members who work there, cleaners, gardeners, maintenance, and office staff who also earn their living by functioning in and around the building. From the income of tithes, the church also supports missionaries and other Christian workers and ministries.

As new believers, we were taught to “tithe”, if our church leader taught us to be “legalistic”. If not, we learned that we must give “as the Spirit leads us”. This sounds spiritual but the problem lies with our natural tendency towards selfishness and greed. What we hear, supposedly from the Holy Spirit, is not generosity but need – our need. We give less and less as our “needs” become more. We justify our failure to give by the age-old I-cannot-afford-to-give excuse.

God taught His people to give by percentage under the old covenant. This principle makes sense because it does not matter how much or how little we earn. Giving by percentage means that we will always have the same percentage of what we earn to live on. By being obedient to God, we become participators in His supernatural supply.

It may appal us to know that God’s percentage of giving was twenty-one percent! No, not just a tithe as some of us were taught, but 21.5% of our monthly income. God instructed His people to live in a circle on a square. Let me explain. 

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges (or corners) of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your harvest a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God (Lev.19:9-10).

This is the principle of living in a circle on a square. If you have a field that is 100m x 100m, the area of that field would be 10,000 square meters. A circle with the diameter of 100m, which would fit exactly into the square, would have an area of 7,850 square meters. The area of the corners of the square which are outside the circle would be 2,150 square metres which is 21.5% of the area of the square. All this is to say that God asks His people to give away 21.5% of their income to those who need it and for them to live on the balance of 78.5% without guilt.

So far, we have identified two areas for which God’s people are responsible – our spiritual authority (i.e., our pastor or spiritual leader) and the storehouse where we worship with God’s people and are fed God’s Word.

Malachi recorded God’s complaint against His people.

“Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord. But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.” But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’

“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house…(Mal.3:7b-10a).

The Hebrew word for tithes and offerings are masher and terumah, two different words meaning two different things. The first, masher, refers to the tithe to be brought to the storehouse, and the second, terumah, refers to the portion that belongs to God and is given to the high priest. When we fail to give God what belongs to Him and to the storehouse which also belongs to God, He regards it as theft! Ouch! How many of God’s people are guilty of theft?

Please stay with me because we are going somewhere. Tomorrow we will discover the significance of generosity.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.