The Purpose of This Blog

In response to the challenge by the Southern Baptist Convention that churches take on the task to share the gospel with unengaged unreached people groups, the missions team of Harmony Pittsburg Baptist Association felt the need for a way to focus prayer on the task. This blog is intended to facilitate prayer for those contemplating their role in fulfilling the Great Commission. This on-line prayer guide may prove useful to those exploring a call to missions involvement as well as to those who have sensed a call to pray for those who will go to the front lines.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Reading Our Bible Like Jesus Read His

Jesus' Bible was our Old Testament.  The Jews organized it a little differently than we do.  It consisted of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.  The Law corresponded to our five books of Moses.  The Prophets included our historical books (Joshua - Kings) plus the major and minor prophets (Isaiah - Malachi).  The Writings took in the rest, especially the Psalms.  So when Luke writes that Jesus opened the disciples' mind to all that was "written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms," all the Scriptures were included.

Jesus enabled the disciples to understand that their thinking was wrong on two main issues.  First, the Messiah was not to be a political or military conqueror, but one who would suffer, die, and be resurrected.  Second, God's focus was not on the nation Israel but on all the nations of the world (starting with Israel).  With hindsight, we can now see these truths clearly in the Old Testament if we look for them through a Jesus focus.

For example, God's covenant with Abraham has often been used (even in our day) to teach that the nation of Israel must receive special consideration.  The quote "I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you" is the one we most frequently hear.  But looking at the promise the way Jesus did, we see that the emphasis should be on the phrases "I will bless you ... and you will be a blessing" and "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).  On two subsequent occasions God repeated the covenant with Abraham with the same emphasis.  On the first, Abram's name was changed to Abraham because he would be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:5) and in him "all the nations of the earth" would be blessed (18:18).  On the second, the offer to sacrifice Isaac, the Lord said, "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen. 22:18).  The Apostle Paul later noticed the importance of the singular "seed" rather than the plural as a prophecy of the Christ (Galatians 3:8 - 16).  Paul would argue vehemently that Gentiles (nations) did not need to become Jews to be saved and become God's people.  God's plan was not for one people but for all peoples.

When God confirmed the covenant with Abraham's heirs, both Isaac and Jacob were told that the focus was on the nations.  The wording was the same to both: "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen. 26:4; 28:14).  Goerner, the author I have mentioned in previous posts and whose book is the source of these thoughts, writes concerning these passages in Genesis, "It is difficult to understand how the Jews could have overlooked or virtually ignored these statements, which literally dominate the book of Genesis and give the reason for their existence as a nation."  They focused on the promises to make them a great nation while forgetting the basic purpose of it all -- that all nations should be blessed.

Perhaps the Jews forgetfulness or ignorance is more understandable if we examine our own thinking and inclinations.  It is so easy for our thoughts to center on our family, our church, our community, our nation.  Years ago as I was helping a church develop its budget for the coming year, one of the committee members insisted that the percentage of missions giving should be cut so that more "local missions" could be done.  It took a while, but finally he was able to see that the church was already spending nearly 90% of its budget on local missions when it spent the money on the church's programs and personnel.  He agreed not to cut the allocation for missions, but not to increase the missions percentage.  Do we really understand the Bible the way Jesus did?

Pray today that God will open our churches' understanding of God's plan and purpose.  Pray that we will align our priorities with His.

No comments:

Post a Comment