42 For seven days you must live in huts. Every citizen of Israel must live in huts 43 so that your future generations will know that I made the Israelites live in huts when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
Reflection
This has been a month of surprise for me leading to a desire to step back and understand more completely who Jesus was, what he wanted to achieve and how he expects us to behave. Reading Jeremiah 29 and seeing how God uprooted his people for 70 years by moving them from Jerusalem to Babylon impacted me in a way it never did before. I never realized how seriously God can take our failures and then take strong measures for our own good all the while expressing great love.
Our Leviticus scripture was meant to remind the Jewish people of having been freed from Egypt but then spending 40 years in the desert. The exultation of Israel at seeing its hated oppressors destroyed at its feet knew no bounds. Its wildest dreams of freedom and achievement had been fulfilled. However, almost immediately, the people of Israel, faced with the problems of the real world, turned sullen and rebellious. Food, water, and shelter were all lacking. Even when God performed miracles to take care of their needs their mood of foreboding and pessimism was not easily dispelled. The desert was a harsh learning place for the Jewish people. However, its lessons were absorbed and translated into Jewish individual and public life, and thus have proven to be of eternal value.
In the big picture it seems understandable that God would place this reminder in the holiness code which commanded the Jewish people to live for one week, once per year, in booths (temporary structures made from tree limbs) as a reminder, for generations to come of God’s provision, during their time in the wilderness.
What does Jesus model and thus expect from us? Luke 19:10 tells us Jesus’ purpose on earth is to seek and to save the lost. Just before this verse Jesus was criticized for going to the house of a “sinner.” Jesus responded by affirming that His mission was to save people who needed saving. Persons with a reputation for sinfulness were not to be avoided; rather, it was a reason to seek them out.
Many times during Christ’s ministry, He sought to forgive those whom the self-righteous leaders of the day shunned. He sought out and saved the woman at the well and the Samaritans of her town as described in John 4 verses 39 – 41, a sinful woman with an alabaster jar, Luke 7:36 – 48 is forgiven, and even one of His own disciples, Matthew, who had been a tax collector, is forgiven in Matthew 9:9 – 12.
Through the Gospels, we see Jesus call to repentance and forgiving the worst of sinners. No one is too sinful to come to Him. In fact, He goes after those who are lost, as in Luke 15:1 – 10 which tells the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. In the story of the prodigal son, Luke 15:14 – 24 and also Isaiah 57:15 – 19, Jesus teaches that God will always welcome, with open arms, those who come to Him with a repentant heart. To this day, Jesus continues to seek and save those who humbly place their faith in Him as shown in Matthew 11:25 – 30 and Revelation 3: 19 – 20.
by Clarence Beverage
For Pondering and Prayer
I am grateful for the scriptures which describe the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and God to each of us and which allow us to be in loving relationship with them and with each other. I am grateful for the honesty of the words and even the fact that it can be challenging to fully understand and apply what the Lord intends to our daily lives.
Did you ever think about the fact that from birth we are learning to do things; crawl, walk, speak, interact with other humans, read, and write in just a few years. Then we enter a period of being taught many things in school, in our home lives, in the groups we become a part of, and we grow in maturity, self-control and become young adults.
Throughout our lives we need to do and understand many things to even function, such as job applications, learning a job or classes, tests for licenses of all kinds, writing and speaking, applications for everything from a gym membership to health insurance to a driver’s license, to years of internship and learning.
We can’t leave out relationships with other people, partners, marriage commitments, being part of a sports team or special interest groups such as a church or so many other things.
With all of the above, much of which we feel we need to do to have a “successful” life, why is it that we can’t seem to include time to nurture a closer relationship with God? Is it because we don’t see that as benefiting us as much as say watching a TV show or movie, going to the gym, or taking a class? What if we do something that involves altruism, something not focused on ourselves, and generous toward another person or purpose? Would that help us to feel closer to God?
Prayer: Lord, as human beings we tend to form patterns of thought and behavior rather than being curious. Help us to seek you as well as to watch and listen for your gentle whisper. We
are thankful for your word which speaks of your great love for us us and shows us the way, the truth, and the life. Amen.
