April 6, 2008
Scripture:
Can we look at a verse in Leviticus 17? This is the chapter after the Great Day of Atonement. I just wanted to bring out verse eleven. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” There is one thing that we have to realize: to sprinkle the blood on the altar, the victim had to be slain. So the life of the flesh was brought into death. There is no doubt that the sprinkling of the blood and the death of the victim speak of judgement. That which was precious in life now became precious in death; when on the altar it made an atonement for the soul. Precious in life, precious in death—so Peter speaks of the precious blood of Christ.
EG Hymn 341 – Jesus bids us shine,
Prayer
Today we will look at the fourth day of creation. Read Genesis 1:14–19. On this day, God created the sun, moon, and stars. These were to rule the day and night and to create the seasons. Why do you think God made day and night? Do you like darkness? Did you ever think that God created the night-time as a time of rest? Things get quieter, animals and birds go to sleep; it’s a time to rest and regain strength. God organized the universe so that half the earth receives light while the other half receives darkness. You can watch the sun rise into the sky in the morning; at night you can watch it set. I timed the sun as it set once while on Lake Superior; from the time the base of the sun hit the horizon to the time the last ray of light was gone—the time it took the Sun to go its diameter—was about 3–5 minutes. Did you know the Sun moves that fast? Well, it doesn’t! It’s actually the world turning. The Sun doesn’t move at all. It is the rotation of the earth that creates day and night. What about seasons? How is it that we have hot weather in July and cold weather in February? It’s because the earth axis is on a tilt; the earth rotates on a slight slant. This causes the sun’s rays to hit the earth differently at different times of the year. Then we have years: the earth travels around the Sun, so one revolution is a year. What about the moon? We know it travels around the earth; it takes about 28 days for the moon to revolve around the earth. So we have seasons, days, and years; but v. 14 also mentions signs; what are they? Well, this is mainly talking about the stars. One way to see it is that before compasses were used, sailors used the stars to determine where they were. But the signs could also speak of something else: have you ever heard of Mazeroth? This is mentioned in Job, and could also be translated Zodiac. Is that something good or bad? Well, Satan has taken it and made it something evil. But the stars are grouped into 12 constellations, which God created as a gospel message in the sky. Romans 1:20 says that God left the world without an excuse; this is how it could be. Finally, we have been seeing how creation is a type of salvation; after the Lord was resurrected, He ascended to Heaven. Now, the church is like the moon, reflecting its light from the Son of God to the dark world. The stars are like Old Testament saints, shining as examples to us.
I Peter 4:5–9
Now we have an exhortation to the younger: they are told to submit to the elders. It’s not easy to be submissive. Yet, if the younger are not submissive, it is harder for the elders to do their job. In scripture, parents are told to reprimand their children if they don’t do right; today, parents are told to let their children do whatever they want; this causes a lot of the rebellion we see today. The same thing can happen in the Body of Christ if the younger are not submissive to the elder.
V. 5 also talks about pride and humility. Pride is a wicked thing; sin began when Lucifer was proud enough to want to be above God. Pride is really at the heart of most sin. This verse tells us that God resists, or goes against, those who are proud. But He works for those who have humility. You can be proud of anything, even spirituality. It is even possible to be proud of your humility. Running yourself down is not the opposite of pride; you are still thinking about yourself. True humility does not think of itself at all. Some say we should pray that God will humble us; but that is not what v. 6 tells us to do. If we pray that, God could give us a very humiliating experience. Instead, we are to humble ourselves. If we do, God can exalt us in due time. But if we exalt ourselves, we can be sure that God will humble us.
V. 7 exhorts us to cast all our cares on the Lord. This is a challenge: to leave our worries with Him and have no cares ourselves. But if He is caring about it, why should we? It’s been said, “Let go and let God.” He will do more than cheer us on; He takes our problems and lets us rest. Sometimes it is appropriate to be concerned about issues, but it should be with complete dependence in Him. He will relieve us of our burdens if only we bring them to Him.
EG Hymn 351 – One door and only one,
Prayer