Category: Devotional Grist

“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a Kingdom of Priests and a holy nation.”

Exodus 19:5-6

1.) It is interesting here that 19:5 with its reference to “keeping my covenant” we find a reference not to the Mosaic covenant, which has not yet been cut, but rather it is a reference to the Abrahamic covenant. The Abrahamic covenant, as we know, was a royal covenant (treaty), which means that it was established unilaterally and monopleurically by God. The Abrahamic covenant was established at God’s own sovereign initiative as a covenant with an unconditional promise and yet this unconditional promise covenant is spoken of in Exodus 19:5 as requiring God’s people to “Keep His covenant.” This inclines one to believe that that this monopleurically established Abrahamic covenant was dipleurically administered. This is to say that while God sovereignly and graciously did initiate the Abrhamic covenant, He did so in such a way that there was an expectation of a proper human response to this gracious covenant promise. This is seen in Genesis 17 where God calls Abraham to “walk before Him and be blameless.” God’s graciously built upon the Abrahamic covenant by introducing the sacrificial system in the Mosaic covenant. This sacrificial system continued to remind God’s people that the covenant was completely gracious as sins committed within the context of and against the covenant were forgiven and covered upon God’s own provision of sacrifice, propitiation, and expiation. However, no faithful Hebrew would have ever argued that the grace of God’s royal grant covenant, where God does all the saving, was a license to sin against God’s gracious covenantal requirements to “keep the covenant.” Neither would have any faithful Hebrew argued that His desire to “keep the covenant” triggered the faithfulness of God to Him. Rather, he understood that it was God’s faithfulness to Him that triggered his desire to keep covenant.

All of this is to say that the salvation that is graciously and unilaterally given by God in the context of the covenant of grace is a salvation that still has the expectation of a “proper human response.” God does all the saving in Christ. There is no improving God’s gracious salvation. Yet, the effect of grace is always to prompt in God’s people a desire and a beginning to “keep covenant and obey God fully. (cmp. Heidelberg Catechism Q. 114)

2.) Note how God reminds Israel that He owns all the earth and then goes on to specify that covenant keeping Israel will be unto Him a treasured possession — a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy nation.

I wonder if there is a principle we can extrapolate here? Clearly God insists that the whole earth is His. There was not place that a Hebrew could go to escape God’s ownership and presence and yet despite this ownership of God over everything, so that everything is separate unto God, covenant keeping Israel would be the apple of God’s eye. Similarly today the earth is Gods but the Church is a royal Priesthood and a Holy nation (I Peter. 2:9-10) However, all because the Church is a royal Priesthood and a Holy nation that does not mean the rest of the earth should not be decorated with that Holiness. The whole earth is still Gods and since the whole earth remains Gods shouldn’t it be the responsibility of those who are part of God’s royal Priesthood and Holy nation to bring the authority and glory of God to bear upon the whole earth that remains His?

I ask this in particular to those who seem to fear that if everything is Holy then nothing will be holy. I ask this in particular to those who seem to think that if Holiness gets beyond the boundaries of the Church, reaching into what they call the “common sphere” then there is a real danger that Holiness will be reduced since it will have been made to define everything.

What if, instead of dividing things up into a Holy and common nomenclature we divided it up into a Holy and Holy of Holies language? What if we understood that all the earth should reveal God’s holiness but understood that could only happen as long as the fount out of which holiness gushes (the church) is understood as the life source of Holiness? If the earth remains the Lord’s and the Lord remains Holy, shouldn’t the earth reflect some of that shekinah glory? Why should the earth, owned by God, remain common if it were to be occupied by a Holy people serving a Holy God?

Glorified and Magnified Father of our Beloved Lord Christ

We come before you petitioning that you might continue to be faithful in pursuing your own reputation and renown. We confess that our only hope is for you to have as your chief end the establishment of all that makes manifest your character and name. Consistent with this therefore we pray that you would destroy all that would try to diminish your splendor and all that works to make men think low, degrading, and unworthy thoughts of you.

Before we ask for our nation we pray that you would make your people mindful that before we belong to the American tribe we belong to the Christian tribe. We beg of thee gracious Father, that you might make your Church in America aware again that the way we can best serve our country is by remembering that we belong to you before we belong to America.

We confess before you Father that it is because the Christian tribe in America has chased the wind that you have turned this country over to the whirlwind. The sins of this nation that our fellow pastors lament over in their prayers this afternoon are sins that they and we are responsible for, if only because we have not been diligent in knowing you and making you known. We are guilty of the sins we lament in prayer because many pastors in the Church today preach a God that is unknown to you.

We ask again Father that the Church will repent. We ask that you would deliver us from chasing a ethical nation that has little or no connection to an ongoing awareness that ethics only finds any real meaning when ethics are understood in relation to the death of Christ for sinners. As your people we ask that we might bring men to Christ before we shove ethics on them.

As we gather this afternoon to pray for the nation we know that we best do that by praying for the Church. Grant your Church the ability to resist the wickedness of our President, our Congressmen and Senators and our Judges. We ask them that you would favor them by showing them their sin and the remedy for sin. Grant us grace to resist the wickedness of our Governor and state legislators until such time you are pleased to grant them the grace of seeing their sin and rebellion against you and a repentance unto life. For those handful of civil magistrates that are in Christ we pray that you would protect them and give them a spirit of boldness and courage. Most importantly grant these faithful civil ministers of yours a Church where they can attend to hear Christ Crucified proclaimed and the whole counsel of God set forth systematically.

We close Father by imploring once again that in your wrath that is so manifest against us as Americans you might yet remember mercy. Be pleased to destroy your opposition by granting your enemies repentance so that they might be your friends. For those enemies who refuse to repent we pray that you might remove them from their positions as cultural gatekeepers so that men who tremble before you might rule in their stead.

We cast ourselves upon your mercy that is given to your Church for the sake of Christ.

In His name we pray.

AMEN

Dear Tom & Michelle & Tommy J.,

Matthew 6:9-13

9After this manner ought you to pray:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11Give us this day our daily bread.

12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Today we take notice of how Jesus informs His disciple to address God as “Our Father who art in Heaven.”

By teaching the disciples to address God as in heaven what is emphasized is,

1.) The idea that there is a vast difference between the Creator and the creature. God is the Creator and He is “Our Father,” but we must never forget that at the same time that God is completely other than His creatures — His people — who come before Him speaking with Him in prayer. If addressing God as “Father” is to remind us of God’s willingness to receive us, then recognizing that God is in Heaven reminds us that God is great beyond our ability to comprehend. If addressing God as “Our Father,” makes us bold in our approach, then recognizing that God is “In Heaven,” keeps us humble at the same time.

The Scripture reminds us this truth when it teaches that

“God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers…”(Isaiah 40:22)

Tommy J., Jesus puts the idea of God as “Our Father,” together with the truth of God being in Heaven to teach us that God is both approachable and yet majestic. All to often we tend to forget one of those two truths. When we so remember how approachable He is to the neglect of remembering how majestic He is we tend to treat God with a unhealthy familiarity that communicates a lack of respect and awe. When we so remember God’s majesty to the neglect of how approachable He is we tend to forget how ready He is to receive us and how much joy God takes in us as His children.

2.) When we recognize that God is in Heaven it reminds us that heaven and earth are likewise distinct. Tommy J., you may be a little to young to understand this but there are people out there who tend to want to squish heaven and earth and God and man together so that heaven and earth and God and man are synonymous. The big word for this is “Pantheism.” When Jesus teaches us to address God as “In Heaven,” we are reminded that God and Heaven are independent from man and earth. All things are dependent upon God but God is distinct from all of creation.

That second point will become clearer and more important to you as you get older.

Let us close with a prayer that shows how we can pray incorporating this idea that God is in Heaven.

Father in Heaven we are thankful that the Scriptures teach us that you are completely other than us and that you do not depend on us in the slightest for you being who you are. We thank you that you are exalted above the heavens and that you are great above our ability to understand or speak. We ask of you Father that you would give us an understanding throughout our whole lives of how full of majesty and splendor you are. Holy Father, teach us to live all of our days keeping together in our minds and lives both your approachability and your high royalty. Thank you giving us Jesus to die for us so that we can call you Father.

In Jesus name we Pray … AMEN.

Dear Tom & Michelle & Tommy J.,

Matthew 6:9-13

9After this manner ought you to pray:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11Give us this day our daily bread.

12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

When we pray to God as “Our Father” we should realize what a privilege that is. In the Old Testament in your Bible God was very seldom addressed as a Father. However in the New Testament God takes upon Himself more frequently the title of “Father,” and Jesus Himself teaches us to address God as “Father.”

This addressing God as “Father” reminds us that God has adopted us and put us in His family and made us His children. So every time we pray Tommy J., we are reminded that God is to us a Father. As a Father we can be confident that God will always love us, provide for us, protect and defend us, discipline us, guide us, and give us all things necessary for life and for death. When we address God as “Father” we are reminded that God has taken responsibility for us and that we need not fear the devil or any mortal being. God as our “Father” is for us and so nobody of any consequence can be against us. Since God is “Our Father,” who of any import can be against us? Realizing and embracing that God is our “Father” because of Jesus dying for us, makes us a very brave, bold, and confident people.

One more truth that addressing God as “Our Father” reminds us of Tommy J., is that God is not a far away or distant God. God is as near to us as our earthly Fathers. Our relationship with God, because God is our Father can be intimate and tender. Our God is not a God far away but a God near to us.

Tomorrow Tommy J., we will look at why Jesus taught the disciples to recognize that God is in Heaven. Today we have learned of some of the benefits there is in having God as “Our Father.” We have learned of some of the character that creates in us when we know God is “Our Father.”

Let us close with a prayer,

“Our Father, we thank you that you are not a far away God who takes no interest in us but rather you are to us a Father. We thank you that because you are “Our Father,” we no longer need to have any fear except the fear of disobeying you. Father, we thank you that you are for us in all trials and rejoicings. Teach us to trust you and your ways with us knowing that a Father always does what is best for his children. Thank you again for Jesus who is our Elder Brother and whose death for us turned away your displeasure with us so that we might be able to call you “Father.”

In Jesus name we pray,

AMEN.

The role of the Prophets in the Scripture is to serve as God’s prosecuting attorneys bringing covenant lawsuit against God’s people for violating the covenant.