Spilling Over

A few years back I was assigned 1 John for a Sunday school class.  To prepare I studied 1 John.  I followed my normal practice, overview of the book, section by section analysis, finally summary of the book.

During my analysis of 1 John 1, I was overwhelmed.  After announcements and other pleasantries in the classes there is about 20 minutes left for the content.  Add that to the fact that I do not lecture but engage a class by asking questions about the text, and I despaired of being able to share or lead the group through a tenth of what I was seeing in those ten verses.

The sensation was that of flood waters building up behind a dam.  I was about to burst with what I saw.  But I knew that it was both impractical and impossible to cover it all.  So I started writing.  I did not want to lose what I had seen.  That writing ended up in the workbook that accompanies Your Walk, their walk.

The point of sharing this experience is that as leaders of our families, our churches, or whatever charge the Lord has given you, we are to lead them from the Word.  In the case of my work in prep for the 1 John class, what I did in class spilled over from the flood that was behind the dam.  There was so much more.  My observation is that is not the case in many of the classes I have attended and many of the messages I have heard.

Rather than the individual’s time in the Word spilling over into the lives of those for whom he has been given charge, it seems that the preparation has been focused on the presentation.  Rather than reveling in the presence of God in His Word, work is done to support the points the teacher or speaker wants to share.

Instead of spilling over from their time in the Word, they backfill their message or lesson.  By that I mean that they find verses that they suspect supports the points they want to make.

That seems bassackwards to me.  If I am reading the charge that God has given those who are charged with teaching and speaking to His people, He expects them to come spend time with Him in His Word.  He expects that Word to overwhelm them.  To fill them with such a magnificent vision of His glory that it cannot be shared or contained.  That must spill over into the lives of those with whom they speak.  Check out Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34, see if I got it right.

It seems that is what should be our experience.  Is that yours?

Burnt

This morning I was in Leviticus 6.  In most of my reading programs Leviticus does me in.  This time through I am looking with a different set of eyes.  I am looking for the why of things.  As always in my study or reading I am constantly looking for repetition.  This morning was no exception.  I found some.

Look at Leviticus 6:12 – 13, note that the phrase, “The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it. It shall not go out,” at the first of verse 12 is repeated, somewhat more strongly, in verse 13.  Only the last few words change in my version from “It shall not go out,” in verse 12 to “it is not to go out,” in 13.

That intrigued me.  Why was that fire not to go out?

First I looked at the Hebrew.  I noted first that the changes in the language from 12 to 13 was a decision of the translators and did not reflect the original.  The phrase is essentially identical in the Hebrew text.  The Lord does not want that fire to go out.

The purpose of the sacrifice is atonement.  Atonement for the nation and individuals.  Atonement for the sin of the nation or an individual.  As I thought through that it perhaps the reason for the fire never to be allowed to go out, is the need for continual atonement for both the nation and individuals.

The sin of the nation remains.  The sin of the individual remains.  Even after a sacrifice for sin, the essential nature of the nation and the individual remains the same.  So to atone for that state, the fire could not go out.

Think of it.  On the cross Jesus declared, “It is finished,” John 19:30.  The atonement was complete.  There was no longer a need for a continual sacrifice, a fire that was never to be allowed to go out.  Why?  2 Corinthians 5:17, gives us a clue.  We are made new in Christ.  Our sin nature is crucified with Him, Romans 6:1 – 7.

That is very good news.

What is Glorified

Even a casual reading of the Bible leads one to understand that one of the purposes of God is to glorify Himself and His Son.  In the gospels we find the Son continually speaking of glorifying His Father.  He speaks of glorifying His Father and prays to that end.

For that reason it is not strange that we find that theme in the prayers of the apostles, Paul especially.  Look at 2 Thessalonians 1:11 – 12.  Paul prays that Christ would be glorified in the Thessalonian believers.

But I noticed something this morning as I was working through Paul’s prayers.  In 2 Thessalonians 3:1 Paul asks for prayer that the Word of the Lord would spread quickly and be glorified.  In the context one may assume that he is speaking of the message of the gospel.  But it is not too much of a stretch to extend that to the Bible.  At that time the only Bible available for them was in the synagogues.  You will remember that the Berean believers, checked out what Paul told them in the Scriptures, Acts 17:11.  They had to go to the synagogue to do so, You Version was not on iTunes quite yet.

This got me to thinking about the need to glorify the Word of God.  Sounds almost blasphemous, does it not?  But the more I think about it, I do not believe that it is.  2 Peter 1:1b – 4, tells us that the written Word of God, in the form of God’s Promises, and later in 2 Peter 3:14 – 16, Paul’s letters, is our means of appropriating the nature and character of God into our lives.  If that is the case, then glorifying the Book is essentially glorifying God.

In Psalm 50:1a, Asaph pens a threefold use of God’s name, “The mighty one (El in Hebrew), God (Elohim), the Lord (Yahweh) has spoken.  He has spoken in His Word.  A person’s speech reveals much about their nature and character.  A person’s fidelity to their word, their promise, reveals that much more.

God has spoken. God has promised.  Those words and promises are in our Bibles and on the apps in our phones.  If we wish to know and glorify Him, we probably should do what Paul suggests.  Glorify His Word.