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Today: Proverbs 5:15-23; Mark 6:6-29; Exodus 29 & 30
Proverbs 5
“He will be held by the ropes of his sin. He will die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his foolishness he will go astray.” Proverbs 5:22-23
Sin is its own punishment. A lot of folks believe that God is this stern father in the sky who punishes us whenever we break the rules. It is difficult to love that sort of God. Fortunately the God of the Bible is not like that. The God of the Bible loves and forgives us.
Yes, He is holy and pure and we are cursed and fallen (because humanity is currently under a temporary contract with Satan). Holy and pure cannot commune spiritually with cursed and fallen. So God provided a way for us to commune with Him anyway.
This way that God provided, Jesus, is the greatest gift ever given to us. And God has poured out many gifts upon us — life itself, laughter, sex, procreation, beauty, nature… too many gifts to list! He gave us guidelines to navigate through this life in harmony and spiritual communion with Him. He doesn’t need to punish us when we stray outside of these guidelines. We punish ourselves. Look around at this wretched world, all the pain and misery, and you can see the undeniable truth of this.
Mark 6
“Any place that does not receive your or listen to you, as you go out from there shake the dust off the souls of your feet as a testimony against them.” Mark 6:11
Notice that it doesn’t say stick around and argue with them on Facebook. It doesn’t say to verbally bludgeon them over the head with your Bible and tell them they are going to hell. It says shake the dust off your feet. Move on. There will always be people who disagree with your message. Don’t worry about it. Your message obviously isn’t for them. God may be working on them in some other way. But that is none of your business. Keep on moving on to the place where God IS sending you, to the people who do want to hear your message. Find these places and stay there until God moves you on to the next town.
Exodus 29-30
This elaborate ceremony God describes to Moses is a foreshadowing of the coming atonement of Jesus Christ. It is so ostentatious and detailed to show the Israelites that it was to be set apart, something completely separate from their normal physical lives. Their communion with God was to be honored, revered, considered precious and holy.
