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1 Corinthians 1:3

Grace and Peace

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 14, 2023

Paul addresses the “saints” who are residing in Corinth. He begins his letter by informing them that they were called by God and set apart for the Gospel. The next verse, 1 Corinthians 1:3, tells his readers what comes from being God’s special people, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The Handbook for Translators suggests that this verse might better be presented as a prayer that Paul prays for his readers. It might go something like this, “May God be kind and generous toward you, May God show his goodness, or May God give you what you need.” Grace in Greek is related to the word for “greeting” that was commonly used at the beginning of Greek letters. Peace was similarly used in Jewish letters.

In the Christian context, however, both words have more significance. The Handbook goes on and says, “In the language of the early Christians, to pray that someone might receive grace was more than an ordinary greeting. Grace, depending on the context, can have any one of three meanings: (a) God’s generosity in giving his love to people who do not deserve it, (b) the total sum of God’s gifts considered as a whole, or (c) individual gifts. In this verse, meaning (b) is the most likely.” In western civilization, the word “grace” has lost much of its meaning in both the believing and non-believing population. Repeated sayings degenerate into the sheer convention and don’t carry the intended weight. Thus, the English “Good-bye” originates from the early form “God be wy you,” “God buy’ye” as a contraction of “God be with ye.” Paul doesn’t want the Greek greeting or the Hebrew greeting to be familiar to the readers of his epistles. Hence, he expands these two greetings by adding, “from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” “And peace for Christians, as in the Old Testament, was more than the absence of war or a peaceful feeling that an individual might have inside himself. Christians understood these terms as related to the nature of God. Grace and peace, therefore, overlap in meaning, both with one another and also with ‘righteousness,’ which Today’s English Version often translates as ‘being right with God.’ Peace in the New Testament refers to a total state of well-being or good spiritual health that God gives to a person.”[1]

The Pillar commentary explains “Grace and Peace” this way, “The two words sum up beautifully Paul’s gospel, drawing attention to God’s beneficence and bounty, grace, the cause of salvation, and the well-being and welfare of those who are saved, peace, the outcome of salvation. As Fee observes, ‘the one flows out of the other.’ When one Christian wishes grace and peace to another, he prays that he may apprehend more fully the grace of God in which he already stands and the peace he already enjoys. Grace and peace are Paul’s shorthand for the eschatological benefits we have received in Christ.”[2] Another commentator puts it this way, “Grace signifies the free favor, mercy, and compassion of God, by which he freely pardons sins without our contribution of good works, accepts us ungrateful sinners, and proclaims us righteous and heirs of eternal life. Peace signifies spiritual and physical blessings; certainly, it includes the gift of the Holy Spirit, peace of conscience, renewed righteousness and life, gladness in God, and the inheritance of eternal life. Further, it includes protection, sustenance, guidance, consolation, and every good thing that we need, both in this present life and in the life to come.”[3]

[1] Ellingworth, Paul, Howard Hatton, and Paul Ellingworth. 1995. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

[2] Ciampa, Roy E., and Brian S. Rosner. 2010. The First Letter to the Corinthians. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

[3] Manetsch, Scott M., Timothy George, and David W. McNutt, eds. 2017. 1 Corinthians: New Testament. Vol. IXa. Reformation Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.

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Romans 1:4

Jesus is Lord!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 13, 2023

Paul informed his readers right from the beginning that the Old Testament carried the overarching theme of the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah came in the person of Jesus Christ, just as the Gospels document. He begins the book of Romans with that assertion in Romans 1:2-3. The Gospel of God was about Jesus, who “was promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures.” Now that Messiah had come, Paul goes on in verse 4 and points out an essential doctrine of Christianity. He writes, “…and (Jesus) was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead….” God proved the identity and character of Jesus through the resurrection.

 After Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, the movement begun by Jesus of Nazareth was over. The fishermen went back to their occupations. The two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus discussed the action in the past tense because, to them, it was over. The women went to the tomb to embalm Jesus’ dead body. You embalm bodies to preserve them for as long as possible in the grave. To them, Jesus’ life was over. But they found an empty tomb! The resurrection changed everything. The church did not begin during Jesus’ life or at his crucifixion. The resurrection started the church that has remained in existence for well over 2000 years and will continue until Christ returns.  It began over the evidence and unwavering confidence in the resurrection. It’s the key doctrine of Christianity. Without it, nothing matters. Paul tells us what it would be like in his first letter to the Corinthians if it were not true. If there is no resurrection, then Christianity is false. According to Paul, if Christ were not raised, then Christian preaching is false and useless because the object of the faith, Christ, is not whom He said He was. If the resurrection is not true, there is no forgiveness of sins, the Apostles are liars for testifying to something that didn’t happen, and those who died believing held on to their faith for no reason. Further, without the Resurrection, it is clear that there is no point for Christianity to exist. “However,” as one blogger explains, “we know that the resurrection of Jesus is true because it was attested to by hundreds of eyewitnesses, and the empty tomb in which He was buried provides irrefutable proof that He is the Saviour of the world.”[1]

There is no escaping this truth. It is the resurrection that sets him apart and authenticates his claim to deity. The claims made in His teaching would seem ridiculous if the resurrection is not true. His miracles of healing, forgiving, and raising the dead would be some kind of “slight of hand” trick. He would remain in history a pitiful figure of a deluded individual remembered only as a Jewish moralist who had some incredibly inflated ideas about His identity. However, if Christ did indeed rise from the dead, then his teachings are vindicated, his miracles are divine, and He has proven himself to be the one and only Son of God with power, as Paul writes. C. S. Lewis wrote: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.” Mounce closes his comments on this verse by saying, “Verse 4 ends with a clear declaration that this Son of God is none other than ‘Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah, God’s anointed Redeemer. He is also ‘our Lord.’ He is our master; we are his subjects.”[2]

[1] https://www.cru.org/sg/en/stories/sharing-the-gospel/the-importance-of-the-resurrection.html

[2] Mounce, Robert H. 1995. Romans. Vol. 27. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

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Acts 1:6-7, Various

Minding our own business!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 12, 2023

Jesus had directed his disciples to return to Jerusalem, where they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which would empower them to be the light of the world. They were to be his “witnesses.” The charge was to let God’s light seen in Jesus Christ shine in and through the lives of every generation of believers until Jesus shall return. The disciples must have thought that with Christ’s resurrection, there would immediately be the fulfillment of all that they expected from the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. They did not seem to understand that the only coming of the Lord in an immediate way would be as they exposed him to the world through their lives and testimonies. In Acts 1:6-7 they ask, “So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.’”

Throughout history, there have been those who have professed to know the timing of the coming of the “end of days” or the return of the Lord. These predictions have been based on some personal ideas, some mathematical calculations, or some individual intuition. There are way too many to post in this article, but As early as the first century, Jewish scholars were predicting the end of the world and the Lord’s return. In 365 A.D., Hilary of Poitiers preached that the Lord would return that year. Martine of Tours said it would surely be before 400 A.D. One theologian calculated that the Lord’s return would be around 500 A.D based on the dimensions of Noah’s Ark. Gregory of Tours, a French bishop, estimated the end would occur between 799 and 806. Many said the Lord would return at the end of the first millennium, 1000 A.D. Pope Innocent III predicted that the world would end 666 years after the rise of Islam in 618 A.D. Hans Hut,  a German Anabaptist, got real specific and said the Lord would return on May 27, 1528. Even Christopher Columbus, in his “Book of Prophecies,” said the world would end during the year 1501. Based on some calculations from the book of Revelation, John Napier argued that the world would end in 1688. When that failed to materialize, he recalculated and said it would be in 1700. Let me skip dozens of others and come to Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who predicted 1914 but revised the date several times when nothing materialized. There have many, many others.

It seems Georg Hegel was right when he said that the only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. The world is still ignoring Jesus’ words to his disciples. According to Wikipedia, “Polls conducted in 2012 across 20 countries found over 14% of people believe the world will end in their lifetime, with percentages ranging from 6% of people in France to 22% in the US and Turkey. In the UK in 2015, 23% of the general public believed the apocalypse was likely to occur in their lifetime.” Now get this: “Between one and three percent of people from both countries  (The United States and England) said ta zombie or alien invasion would cause the apocalypse”[1] If we trust the Bible, we would never have these kinds of fears or predictions. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” There are some things God doesn’t intend for us to know. Man has arrogantly thought he could figure out God’s ways and timing with his meager mind. We must focus on the calling to shine the light of Christ in our lives and words in whatever period we find ourselves. That’s what he’s called us to do. Don’t worry about the future; that’s not ours to know. It’s not for us to understand the times and seasons.

 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events

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John 1:4-5, Various

The Light of Men!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 11, 2023

The opening passage in the Bible speaks to us of the formlessness and void that existed before God’s creative energy was released when He spoke the word. He said, “Let there be light.” It seems the earth was either shrouded in darkness as originally created, or some event took place that made it that way. There are long discussions on which it might be. But whichever, the text tells us that “darkness was over the face of the deep.”  Darkness is the absence of light. Into that murky beginning, the Word came, ‘Let there be light! And there was light. Light secured victory over darkness. It wasn’t the light from the sun because that won’t be created until the fourth day. It was a different source of light. It’s God’s light, the light of Christ. It’s the light that dispels darkness. It dispels the emptiness in the world as well as the meaninglessness of life. The victory was a complete one. John 1:4-5 puts it this way, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John is also going to tell us that the light was the “word.” The word was at the beginning with God, and then the word became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Paul comments on this idea in 2 Corinthians 4:6. He writes, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” There is meaninglessness and emptiness in our lives without God. Jesus came to bring real life to us and to dispel the darkness.

It is God’s word that brings forth all life in the world, and it’s God’s word that brings real life to mankind. His word is Jesus Christ. It’s God’s greatest expression of His love for us. John will later affirm that when he says, “For God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” Paul is on the same page as John again, and he captures that idea in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates His love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Back in the 60s, there was a popular song with a call to “Put a little love in your heart.” Paul says, “God hath shined in our hearts.” Smith explains, “This God-shine in the heart brings with it a double revelation. It shows by way of contrast how dark the heart by nature was and how hopeless it was for it in itself to create such a soul-satisfying light. It is also a revelation of the character and presence of God in the heart. This is not so much a light created by God as it is the light of the presence of God in the heart. Into every dark crevice of the soul, this shining has come. It is the nature of light to cast its influence over everything that is anywhere within its reach. In shining into the heart, this light enters into every act and deed of life, into every thought and feeling and motive of the soul’s activities. God hath shined His light, and wisdom has come to take the place of our darkness and ignorance.”[1]

The light of Christ that shines in our hearts not only brings us knowledge of God’s existence but also an understanding of God’s immense love for us as demonstrated in Christ. It reveals God’s glory as Christ Himself did throughout His life and on the mount of transfiguration. The darkness, sin, is always at war with the light of the truth of Jesus Christ. But we know who will win that battle. John will tell us later in his Gospel that some love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil and don’t want to give them up. Paul again agrees with John. He tells us that the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God. The Word who shone in creation also shines in the new creation to give light and life.”[2]

[1] Smith, James, and Robert Lee. 1971. Handfuls on Purpose for Christian Workers and Bible Students, Series I–XIII. Five-volume edition. Vol. 7. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

[2] Letham, Robert. 2013. The Message of the Person of Christ: The Word Made Flesh. Edited by Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today: Bible Themes Series. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

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Luke 1:8-9, Various

The Flip of a coin!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 10, 2023

Zachariah and Elizabeth have lived childless their entire lives. They have prayed often for a child, especially a son, but God had not answered their prayers. They continued faithful in their religious lives and did not let bitterness detract from their faith in a good and loving God. Then a very special day for Zachariah came. The “lottery” came, and his number was drawn. As we read in various places, the casting of lots was God’s way of making his will known. God chose Zachariah. It wasn’t, as we think, a matter of pure chance. God was about to answer their lifelong prayer. Luke 1:8-9 says, “Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.” Bock explains this well in his commentary on Luke. He writes, “The announcement of John’s birth comes at a high moment in Zechariah’s career. As one of about eighteen thousand priests, Zechariah serves in the temple twice a year, but only once in his life does he get to assist in the daily offering by going into the holy place. This honor had fallen to him by lot. His job was to offer incense, a picture of intercession rising to God (Ps 141:2; Rev 5:8; 8:3–4). Everything about the announcement’s timing points to a moment of high piety. Zechariah goes in while the people are praying. A later prayer from the Targum of Canticles 4:6 may well express their thoughts: “May the merciful God enter the Holy Place and accept with favor the offering of his people.”[1]

The casting of lots to discover God’s will was a big deal in the Old Testament, but it’s not needed for believers today. Lots were used to determine the division of the Land in Joshua’s day. In the book of Judges, it was used to determine the allocation of military duties. In Nehemiah, we read about lots being used to select those to settle in Jerusalem. Lots were used to assign tasks to the priest and the Levites. It appears that lots determined the guilty verdicts pronounced on Achan. It was also used to settle disputes. In the New Testament, we see the soldiers at the cross casting lots to see who gets Jesus’ garments. It was also used to select Mattias as Judas’ replacement in the book of Acts. But Trites is right, “After the coming of the Holy Spirit, lots became unnecessary. The Holy Spirit was available to lead Christians into spiritual truth. In fact, Jesus had promised this special help from the Holy Spirit: ‘He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.’ The book of Acts contains examples where the Spirit of God guided believers in their actions and decisions.”[2]

The casting of lots is called Cleromancy. It’s a process by which an outcome is determined by means considered random. Eerdman’s Dictionary explains the practice from the biblical perspective. It says, “The divinatory technique termed psephomancy or cleromancy refers to lot casting, a prevalent method of divination in the ancient world. In the Bible, however, the casting of lots was one of the few legitimate means of divine revelation (as were dreams and direct communication with the deity). Lot casting is not among the condemned mantic or divinatory practices such as soothsaying, magic, and necromancy (cf. Deut. 18:10–12). Lot casting, therefore, had divine sanction and control. Though the throwing of the lots was a human action, the revelation was a direct message from God (Prov. 16:33).”[3] A web writer rightfully concludes, “The New Testament nowhere instructs Christians to use a method similar to casting lots to help with decision-making. Now that we have the completed Word of God, as well as the indwelling Holy Spirit, to guide us, there is no reason to be using games of chance to make decisions. The Word, the Spirit, and prayer are sufficient for discerning God’s will today—not casting lots, rolling dice, or flipping a coin.”[4]

[1] Bock, Darrell L. 1994. Luke. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[2] Trites, Allison A., William J. Larkin. 2006. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 12: The Gospel of Luke and Acts. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

[3] Bidmead, Julye. 2000. “Lots.” In Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, edited by David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck, 825. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.

[4] https://www.gotquestions.org/casting-lots.html

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Mark 1:4, Luke 24:47

A Change of Mind!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 9, 2023

In his swift movement of the account of Jesus’ life, Mark introduces John the Baptist as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of the forerunner, who will be like Elijah, announcing the coming of the Messiah. Then in Mark 1:4, Mark introduces us to the ministry and the message of John the Baptist. It says, “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” John baptized and explained that his Baptism was for repentance and the forgiveness of sin.

His ministry of Baptism was unique. Many commentators try to connect it to the ceremonial washings practiced by the Old Testament Jews or other sects that have separated themselves from the mainstream of Judaism, like those at Qumran. But Hughes has it right when he says, “The first thing we should note about this Baptism was that it was totally radical. The notable Marcan scholar William Lane says that the Baptism was wholly novel. No one else had ever done it. The only thing that even came close was that Gentile converts to Judaism were baptized. However, that Baptism was a ritual washing from all the heresy of the past. The Jews were now being asked to do something they had never done before in their history! Jews being baptized. Unheard of! This was why John was called “The Baptizer.” There had never been anyone like him.”[1] One of the unique characteristics of John’s Baptism was that he performed it on others. In contrast, the earlier “cleansings” were performed by the individual themselves. From the language used in the New Testament and from early church practices, it’s hard to argue that this was anything other than immersion, as the word “baptize” in the Greek literally means. There were periods when sprinkling or pouring was practiced, but it was usually during times of drought or famine when water was scarce. According to the text, when John baptized Jesus, Jesus “went down into the water.” When he came up from the water, the Father spoke from heaven, commending Jesus as His well-beloved Son.

John preached “repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” His address was to the Jews. This may have been one reason the religious leaders rejected John’s message. They were already part of the family of God by right of being a Jew. They did not consider themselves to be sinners. The godless pagans around them were sinners, but not the Jews. To accept that would require a radical conversion. The idea of “repentance” is a change of mind. It was explicitly a change of mind that ritual, religious affiliation, or physical lineage would procure a right standing with God. France observes, “It is indeed those who are already disciples who are most often called to such reorientation: the ‘new mindset’ for which Jesus calls is not learned in a moment at the initial point of commitment but requires a lifetime of μετάνοια (the Greek word for repentance). But it is to such a revolution of attitudes and values that Jesus will call people when he announces the coming of the kingdom of God, and μετάνοια appropriately expresses the idea. The continuity in this respect between the ministries of John and Jesus (and his disciples) is, therefore, noteworthy.”[2] He is correct, as we see in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus repeats a similar call. Jesus says in Luke 24:47. Before His ascension, He calls His disciples to the great commission and says that the “repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Even today, people look to rituals, religious affiliation, or lineage as their primary mode of connection with God. Many see repentance as being a place we go once, and then we’re righteous. That’s not biblical teaching. Repentance is the place we live! Living with the continual understanding of our sinful state before God leads us to truly worship the glory of the salvation offered to us through faith in Jesus Christ.

[1] Hughes, R. Kent. 1989. Mark: Jesus, Servant, and Savior. Vol. 1. Preaching the Word. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.

[2] France, R. T. 2002. The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.

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Matthew 1:18

The Christmas Celebration

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 8, 2023

After the three sections of 14 descendants of Jesus in each section, Matthew moves to his purpose for writing and recording for us the birth of Jesus. Verse 18 of the first chapter of Matthew gives us the historical document verifying the early teaching that Jesus was indeed born of a virgin. It says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” Jesus was different.  One writer said, “The spermatic matter that ordinarily produces human life was not needed for the birth of Jesus. Instead, the divine spirit entered Mary’s womb and was born as flesh.” The doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus is one of the most fundamental doctrines of the faith.  By means of the Virgin Birth, Jesus had the human nature of His mother and the sinless, divine nature of His Father. This made Him the only acceptable sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.

This has been a well-established teaching of orthodox Christianity. Elwell has documented that well, “From the very beginning, the doctrine of the virgin birth became the foundation of a high Christology. Many have pointed out that the earliest church fathers stressed this more perhaps than any other event as proof of the incarnation and deity of Christ. Justin Martyr and Ignatius defended the virgin birth against opponents at the beginning of the 2nd century, and even at that early date, it appeared to be a fixed doctrine. In the acrimonious debates of the next three centuries, the virgin birth became a prominent issue. Gnostics contended that Christ descended directly from heaven and so was never truly human. On the other hand, those groups which denied his deity, such as the Arians, denied the virgin birth, stating that at his baptism, Jesus was “adopted” as Son of God. The Council of Nicaea in 325 affirmed that Jesus was truly God, and then the Council of Chalcedon in 451 stated that Jesus was at the same time human and divine, a ‘hypostatic union’ of the true natures. These were summarized in the Apostles’ Creed of the 5th century, which declares, ‘I believe in … Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.’ In most of the creeds, the virgin birth is also connected to Jesus’ sinlessness, inasmuch as his incarnate, divine nature is the source of his sinlessness.”[1]

The virgin birth of Jesus, however, is one of the least accepted doctrines of the early Christian faith. What surprises me is that over half of the Christian pulpits in America reject it as well. According to one survey of the ministers in training, 56 percent rejected the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ. Of this same group, 71 percent rejected that there was life after death, 54 percent rejected the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, and 98 percent rejected that there would be a personal return of Jesus Christ to this earth. The three giant pillars of the Christian faith are Jesus’ virgin birth, atoning death, and bodily resurrection. Take away any one of these and the structure of the Christian faith falls. Taken out of the context of all three, any one of them is without meaning. Considered together, they comprise the greatest story ever told.  We have wonderful reasons to celebrate the Christmas season. Without these truths, we’re still lost in our sins and have nothing to celebrate! I just want to celebrate!

[1] Elwell, Walter A., and Barry J. Beitzel. 1988. “Virgin Birth of Jesus.” In Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, 2:2126. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

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Malachi 1:2-3

Receiving God’s Love

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
May 7, 2023

God uses the last prophet in the Old Testament to express His love for His people. But the people want to argue that God’s love is not shown to them as they would like it to be. It’s interesting to me that this last book of the Old Testament is about to be answered powerfully by the first book of the New Testament. God’s love has not been appreciated by His thankless people so he takes another step of displaying His love for them by sending His only Son to die for their sins and ingratitude. Malachi tries to move the Israelites to understand God’s love for them in Malachi 1:2-3. He says, “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”

 God is pointing out how his love for them has been demonstrated in his preservation of them relative to Esau’s demise in the world. During the era of Malachi the Edomites, Esau’s descendants had been routed by the Nabateans who took their homes from them and scattered them in the surrounding communities. There was nothing left for them and eventually, they became a lost civilization. Herod the Great, the Idumean, was the last mention of any of the descendants of Esau. But Israel had been redeemed from their slavery in Babylon, restored to their land, and blessed with the rebuilding of the people, the temple, and its sacrifices, along with the wall around the city for protection.

They ask God “How do you love us?” What they mean is that God doesn’t treat them as they think they should be treated. God asks them back, “how can you experience all that I have done with the people of Israel and still doubt my love?” This is so relevant for us today. We wrap ourselves up with religious ritual without true devotion to God and then question why everything doesn’t go our way like we think it should. If God loves us he wouldn’t allow such and such to happen. If He loved me, I’d win the lottery! We look around our world with ungrateful hearts. We’re not rich. We’re not powerful. We’re not famous. We don’t have the lifestyles we might like. Let’s just think for a moment. God filled the world with color and gave us eyes. He filled the world with music and gave us ears. He filled the world with good things to eat and blessed us with the ability to enjoy them. The older I get, the more I appreciate God’s love simply expressed through the created order itself. That I exist is a miracle! I can lay in bed at night without serious pain. I can still roll over by myself. I wake in the morning and see the sun and have the privilege of seeing my wife and sons and grandsons. How can I ever question God’s love for me? Given that there are things I don’t like to see in the world. There are sounds I don’t like to hear. Not everything tastes that great either. But even in the light of suffering in the world, I see that God suffered on my behalf on the cross. He loved the world, and that includes me, so much that he demonstrated His love for us all, while we were still sinners, by Jesus dying on the cross in our place. How can we not truly appreciate God’s love for us? If God is our shepherd, we have cups that are not half full or half empty, but we have cups that are running over. How can we live in this world and not experience God’s love? We will never be able to return God’s love, or any love for that matter, until we receive His love. Jesus is the expression of God’s love. To all that receive him, God gives the right to become children of God, to as many as believe in His name.

 

 

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