Tangent

Kickoff

Hmm. It seems some of my friends have found this blog without me ever inviting them to view it. Ah well. This was supposed to be more like personal memoirs but you guys are welcome to view it if you want.

Anyhow, I’ve been going through the Old Testament recently from start to finish. I just finished Judges. So far, here are my reflections on the read through.

Biblical masculinity is much more than I thought it was.

The Israelites had just violated one of God’s Ten Commandments and made an abomination of Him and worshipped it at Mt. Sinai. God’s anger was kindled by this. He intended to destroy the whole Israelite nation and make Moses into a great nation as he had promised Abraham before him.

Moses’ response to this was completely selfless and completely self-sacrificing.

Exo 32:11 But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

Exo 32:12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.

Exo 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

…

Exo 32:31 So Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Alas, this people have sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold.

Exo 32:32 But now, if you will forgive their sin--but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written."

*shudders*. This is what a godly man is supposed to do? Moses decided to reject his own personal glory of being the father of a nation so that God’s glory would be most glorious. Much more than this, Moses was willing to bear the consequence of the evil that his people had committed. I cannot help but seeing Christ in this. Just as Moses was willing to take the penalty for the sins of God’s people, so Christ was willing to sacrifice himself as a substitute for our sins.

That is who biblical masculinity is modeled after: Jesus Christ. It means I am to be completely self-sacrificing for God’s glory and the good of his people. Would I be willing to take consequences for something that I didn’t do? Am I even able to be that kind of man?

“Be strong and Courageous.”

These exact words were repeated four times in the first chapter of Joshua. I can’t remember a time when these words have meant so much as now. I’m standing on the edge of manhood and am faced with decisions which could define where the rest of my life is going to go. What am I going to do in college? How am I going to get enough money for college? How am I going to get enough money to raise a family? All these questions are things that I need to be thinking about now.

These decisions require a lot of courage for me (I don’t know if this relates to anyone who may be reading this). I need the courage to make the decisions and the strength to carry them out.

My sin is underrated.

*sigh*. Yep. No matter how much I make of it, I know that I can’t come close to it’s real implications before God.

After reading Exodus, Numbers, and most of Deuteronomy, it was hard to imagine that Moses would ever be denied a blessing by God. But sure enough Moses’ sin of disbelief caused God to deny him the blessing of setting foot in the Promised Land.

In the book of Judges I am reminded that my sin will never go away. Even after Israel had experienced God’s mercy through a deliverer from their enemies, their sin persisted. My temptation is to think that once God shows mercy to me I will never forget it and the sin will lose all is charm. I tend to think that sin is somehow absent from my life.

If I were honest with myself, I wonder how many times I would say that I sin per day. Five times? Twenty times? A hundred times? Do I just live in sin?

I confess that I make way to light of my sin and that I daily forget its presence and its power.

Reading the Old Testament truly gives me a better context for the gospel both historical and spiritual. Israel continues to sin before God and one has to wonder ‘when will this come to an end?’ It begs the question, “When will sin be destroyed? When will God’s salvation come?”

Thank God I know the answer to those questions.

posted by pedro del piero at 10:45 AM