2218AFC050622 – Read the instructions
Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often. Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.
Psalm 100:3 – 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
John 10:11 – 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep
John 10:27 – 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
Isaiah 60:3 – 3 Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Luke 2:32 – [Simeon said] 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. This coming Sunday is the Fourth Sunday of Eastertide. It is commonly referred to as “Good Shepherd Sunday” because the readings – regardless of the Gospel cycles – focus on Jesus proclaiming that he is the Good Shepherd. You can find details about that idea here (↔ Click Link) and here (↔ Click Link for other names referring to Jesus). We’ve looked into Jesus’ words about being a good shepherd, and that claim is sharply contrasted with the Prophets’ warnings to the Priests of Israel telling them that they are unfaithful, and even brutishly stupid (See Jeremiah 10:21). Jesus called the Pharisees “blind guides” and characterized them as pompous hypocrites. We recall that the word “hypocrite” comes from a Greek word hupokrités – literally under or behind a mask – a pretender, an actor, a two-faced performer whose words are contradicted by their actions. There is a disconnect between what they profess and how they progress. God had definitive instructions on the behavior he expected and time after time after time those instructions were ignored. Let’s go back to the beginning of Israel – to the Promise made to Abraham about the land his seed would inherit.
We can start with Genesis 15:16-21 where God describes an immense area extending from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, from Dan to Beersheba. You can get a sense of that here (↔ Click Link). As you can see from the list in verses 19-21, God instructed Israel to take away the areas of 10 nations. He instructed them to utterly destroy all of those people because they had become so evil. In the promise to Abraham, God said Abraham’s descendants would possess all of that in the fourth generation – roughly 400 years later! They did not follow his instructions. We have the story of Achan who did not follow the “rules of the ban,” and he took some of the treasure of the spoils and hid it in his tent. He didn’t think God would see. When Israel went to battle with Ai, they lost because they were overly confident in themselves rather that trusting in God and what he had instructed them to do. How often do we transgress because we think we know better than God what we should do? The honest answer is “Most of the times that I’m wrong.” We end up in a dark place, scared, uncertain, hoping that somehow God will understand, reach into the mess we’ve made, and save us – AGAIN. Why oh why do we jump into those dark places? What is so attractive about sin that we just can’t seem to avoid it? Why is it so discouraging? (↔ Music Link) Scroll back up and look at the first Key Verse from Psalm 100. Psalm 100:3 – 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture
We know God made us and we are his … until we forget and pretend (actors are we) that we are ours. Like a four-year-old we insist, “I do it myself! No, Belovéd, we needn’t even try to do that; we will fail because we did not follow instructions. Let me share with you an example.
When I was doing Management Training work, I sometimes used “A Test for Following Directions.” You can view the test (and download it) by using this link. The directions say to “read all of the directions before beginning this test.” That instruction is also read orally at the beginning of the exercise. Then there follows a ridiculous series of tasks until you get to the last instruction which says to ignore all the previous instructions and that’s the end of it. The point of the exercise is that many (sometimes “most”) of us will plow right in and start doing these ridiculous things because we are conditioned to start promptly and work hard. When I was a kid, all the “standardized test” instructions included something like “Work quickly and well.” We have to read the instructions. So now it’s time to spring my little surprise!
This is the follow-up message in a so-far-unnamed series. Last week we learned Jesus’ simple but powerful instruction to the Apostles: “Follow me.” (↔ Music Link) That is how sheep work with the shepherd. He leads, they follow; they know his voice. God has established that sort of relationship with his chosen people – he leads, they follow – except they forgot; or more properly stated they chose not to follow. HE is God. WE are not (sounds familiar, yes?), and it is his loving care that guides us. Jesus takes on the role of shepherd because the shepherds God had appointed and anointed failed to lead as God decreed. They didn’t follow his instructions. Oh they read them, memorized them even, but when it came to the nitty-gritty of following them, they failed the test. The Chosen People chose poorly. They chose not to put every structure and living creature under The Ban “The Ban” is God’s order to utterly destroy each nation in Canaan – men, women, children, infants, cattle, buildings, homes – everything absolutely, completely, unreservedly, fully demolished. The people in the Ten Nations under The Ban were too evil to be allowed to exist – much in the same way God looked at the world in Noah’s time and decided to save only 8 of them. In Canaan God decided to save the obedient people in Israel (the disobedient were also to be eliminated), but to wipe out everyone else. They didn’t do that, and we’re still seeing the results of that failure today.
God chose Israel to be “a light to the nations.” By their obedience and Love they would shine like the sun before other nations so that nations not chosen would look at Israel and say, “What other nation has a God so powerful, and laws so fair, or wisdom so fine as the nation of Israel?” (See Deuteronomy 4:31-40 for Moses’ instructions to Israel on this. It’s a great read!) Isaiah said it well in one of our Key Verses – Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. In their humanness, they could not complete that instruction. It would take a human from God to be that light, that Salvation, that fulfillment of God’s intent for Adam and Eve. He not only told us he is the Good Shepherd but also that he is the Light of the World. I’m going to place John 12:46-50 here so you can see how important it is to know and understand what Jesus means (my emphasis added):
46 “I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 47 I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.”
Jesus can, will, and does follow God’s instructions. If we are in him and he is in us, then we are in the Light and the Light is in us; we no longer belong to darkness. In this quote from Camus, where it says “within me,” substitute “in Jesus.” (You Biblicists out there will doubtless want to look at the First Letter of John especially 1 John 2:1 – 3:6. It is a most consoling passage full of good instructions.) I’m going to give you 1 John 3:6 for the edification of those who did not go and read the longer passage: 1 John 3:6 – 6 No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. OUCH!
I do not know any living person in the World who does not sin, but I know of billions who abide in him, whose sins are forgotten, disremembered, g-o-n-e GONE! “How does that happen?” you might ask. They are the ones who follow instructions. “Where do they get these instructions?” you say. In the B.I.B.L.E., a beneficial feature of the APP which is activated each time we repent and believe the Gospel. But, like Israel, sometimes we forget. No worries! God has posted sentinels to watch for the enemies of God. They are our Prophets, and this is how they are instructed and respond:
Isaiah 21:6-9 – 6 For this is what Adonai said to me: “Go, post a watchman to report what he sees! 7 If he sees the cavalry, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be on alert, on full alert!” 8 He calls out like a lion: “My lord, I stand on the watchtower all day long, I stay at my post all night.” 9 Then, as they appeared — the cavalry, horsemen in pairs — he spoke these words: “She has fallen! She has fallen — Bavel*! All the carved images of her gods lie shattered on the ground.” *Babylon Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
You see, Truth will prevail, Love will endure, Virtue will remain unblemished for all who read – AND OBEY – the instructions from the one who is a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to [God’s] people Israel. Little children of the Belovéd, come to the light! It’s shining for us. (↔ Music Link) Come! Let us follow him who made us wholly Holy! He is calling. (↔ Music Link) What will we do? (↔ Music Link) Read the instructions, then trust and obey!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
