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A "way" beyond sadness and through the Bible. Luke 24 Week Four Reflections with Hunter Appeal to the One Who can do Something About It. Today’s readings are Exodus 30-32 and Acts 8. We are reading through the New Living Translation. Aaron...
Appeal to the One Who can do Something About It.
Today’s readings are Exodus 30-32 and Acts 8. We are reading through the New Living Translation.
Aaron and the people are getting carried away. In fact, the ink hasn’t even dried yet, on this covenant agreement between God and his people, before they break it. Moses smashes the thing, just to emphasize the fact that this thing has been shattered already. And, boy, do they break it. They break it in such grand fashion that it’s almost comical, if it wasn’t so tragic. In fact, Moses even notes that the enemies of the people, stand at a distance, amused. They saw this dark humor, that these people who had been delivered by God, were abandoning Him so early and worshiping a god made out of their earrings!
The treachery of the human heart is no laughing matter. And Moses pleads with God. He scrambles to become an advocate for God’s people, to stand between God’s wrath and His people. He appeals to the covenant promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He does not appeal to the covenant law given to Moses just moments earlier. He doesn’t remind God of the promise he made to the people in the Ten Commandments. No. He appeals to a previous covenant made between Abraham and reaffirmed to Isaac and Jacob. This was a covenant of faith and not of the law. So, even Moses, a man of the law, appeals to faith for the salvation of the people. This covenant promise was given to Abraham because he believed God, for His blessing. The promise wasn’t there because he obeyed the 10 commandments but because he trusted and knew God. He was called a friend of God.
For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” (Rm 4:3)
Abraham believed that God would make his descendants as numerous as the stars, just like God told him. He believed that all nations of the earth would be blessed through his seed, through his descendants. A champion, a Messiah, would come through Abraham. And this Messiah would transform the treacherous law-breaking, idol-worshiping hearts of every human being who would humble themselves, repent of their sins, and believe. This new heart would be given as a gift to all who believe and trust in the Messiah, because of the agreement that God established with Abraham. Abraham believed that God had an answer to our treacherous hearts, and his answer was a new heart, through his Son. It would be a faithful, restored, and growing heart.
Phillip had a heart like this. We see this in Acts 8. It’s a heart that gets carried away. He is literally getting carried away by God, to share this news of the new heart, to Ethiopians and Samaritans and any who are lost, broken, bruised and wanting to be free. For all these people, Philip is getting carried away and He is sharing the news of this New Heart.
God is faithful to his promise. We too, are made right with God, not on the basis of that shattered covenant of the 10 commandments, the laws of Moses. No one will be justified by the law. We make our appeal to the promise made to Abraham, on the basis of faith. To that Messiah, that Son who would come.
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. (Eph 2:8-9)
It’s all him. Live in the freedom, life and power of this new heart, given to you though an Advocate even greater than Moses - the Son, Jesus. Trust and rest in Him alone.
My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. (1 Jn 2:1)
You are loved!
