Praying all the time demonstrates what’s really important…to you.
While common to all major religions, prayer is viewed differently by different belief systems. Prayer is typically viewed as requesting something from God, and therefore prayer becomes an instrument of communication only when some desired object or situation arises.
Biblical prayer should be something that sets believers in Messiah apart from others; this is a dynamic of the holiness of believers. There are many different biblical aspects to prayer, and one of the main facets that is encouraged is an idea of constancy; we are to pray continually.
Luke 18:1 – “Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up.”
Yeshua provides the example of the “persistent widow” who continued day after day to bring her request before the judge. When we pray for some need we may have or situation that arises, do we have the perseverance to continue in prayer, or do we simply give up after mentioning it once or twice in an off-hand way? I believe Yeshua desires our prayers to be genuine, and genuine prayers that remain at the forefront of all of our thinking and actions. These are the requests that demonstrate real needs exist. Flippant or careless prayers for this or that only show that whatever that issue is must not be a real need, otherwise urgent prayer for that thing would continue. So the persistence is not a demonstration to God of how important something is (since he already knows), but it is a demonstration to ourselves of what we consider important enough to bring before him day after day.
Ephesians 6:18 – “Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.” Colossians 1:3 – “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you…”
Whew, that is a lot of praying! Again, the emphasis is on the constancy for every and all situation that can relate to the kingdom of God in our daily lives, and the lives of our brothers and sisters in Messiah. Praying in the Spirit of God implies that those things that are prayed about relate to the kingdom of God, since that is God’s overarching purpose in the world: seeing the kingdom manifested in all things. When our prayers align with God’s purpose all the time, we will find that God’s Spirit will enable us to better accomplish his will, and it will happen all around us in real time!
Constancy in prayer is one of my personal challenges, and I hope that by highlighting these few examples, you are challenged to review your own prayer practices, as well. If we can unite in prayer for one another as brothers and sisters in Messiah, then we can both experience his kingdom coming to pass in our respective circles of influence!
1 Thessalonians 5:17 – “…pray constantly…”
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
Psalm 127: 1 – “If Yahweh doesn’t build a house, the work of its builders is useless. If Yahweh doesn’t watch over a city, it’s useless for those on guard duty to stand watch over it.”
Yeshua encourages us to be vigilant over what spiritual doctrine we imbibe, and to guard our steps with severe discipline to ensure we stay on the true and narrow path. Yet sometimes we become vigilant over things that have no bearing on our spiritual life or the kingdom of God and these things can consume us. In this psalm, we are reminded that unless the foundation of our vigilance is rooted in the things of God, there is no need for us to continue to guard and protect those things that are not of him.
Psalm 127:2 – “In vain you get up early and stay up late, to eat the food of painful labor – yes, he gives sleep to the one he loves.”
The Psalmist continues that we can become consumed with our work to the point of losing sleep, yet God knows how to provide us the rest we need along with the food we need. We can only guard and protect so much, and then we need to ultimately rely on God’s provision.
It is a fine line and in our day and age of being “on” 24/7 where any distinctions between the essential and the unnecessary can get blurred or simply erased in the stream of digital overload. Yet, we must remember that our roles should never overstep their boundaries, even within the kingdom of God. Paul speaks to this in the ministry of himself and Apollos:
1 Corinthians 3:5-7, 9 – “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. … For we are God’s coworkers…”
While we have roles to play within the purpose of God, we must remember that it is God who ultimately gives the increase in all things. We must be vigilant primarily in the things that concern the kingdom, and then allow him to work through us. If he builds the house, if he founds the city, if he tells us to plant and water, then it is appropriate to continue and watch over these ventures with extreme vigilance. We are then appropriately his co-laborers. However, if we instead spend the bulk of our time protecting and guarding that which is not of him, we may be watching over empty borders that never needed protecting in the first place.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
Meditating on these qualities carries much benefit.
In putting together these daily articles, I am typically attempting to highlight one of the main principles of the Sermon on the Mount inclusive of kingdom, integrity, vigilance, holiness, trust, forgiveness and compassion.
The focus of this article is on integrity, and in all honesty, I have little to add to one of the finest definitions of integrity within the entire Word of God that is contained in this little psalm below. All I have done is broken up the phrasing to emphasize each of the characteristics of integrity for your meditation.
Psalm 15:1-5 – “Yahweh, who can dwell in your tent? Who can live on your holy mountain?
The one who lives blamelessly,
practices righteousness,
and acknowledges the truth in his heart
— who does not slander with his tongue,
who does not harm his friend or discredit his neighbor,
who despises the one rejected by Yahweh but honors those who fear Yahweh,
who keeps his word whatever the cost,
who does not lend his silver at interest or take a bribe against the innocent
— the one who does these things will never be shaken.”
I believe anyone would be hard-pressed to find a clearer definition of integrity.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
When we act disobediently, God appears to reciprocate in kind by providing negative experiences, or what can be called his curses.
Core of the Bible podcast #49 – Is there a biblical curse in withholding forgiveness?
Today we will be exploring the topic of forgiveness, and how the forgiveness we extend, or don’t extend, toward others will likely be evidenced within our own relationship with God.
John 20:23 – “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
The context of this passage is the day of Yeshua’s resurrection, in the evening of that very day. The disciples were still trying to understand what had happened since their Teacher had been crucified a few days before. A strange report of Messiah’s appearance had come from Mary, and Peter and John had both been to the tomb and found it was empty.
Suddenly, Yeshua is among them all, proclaiming peace and wholeness (shalom), and providing an admonition to remain receptive to the holy Spirit of God and to exercise the privilege of forgiveness with others.
Most commentators view this as a special privilege, anointing, or commissioning of the twelve disciples (or, in this case, the ten disciples, since Thomas and Judas were not among them). However, there is no indication this admonition was just to Yeshua’s closest circle, but it was conveyed to all of those present.
How much value should we place on these words? Let’s put this in perspective. If you were to die and then to be raised back to life and to visit once again with your closest friends and confidants, what words would you say? Do you think those words would be considered important words by those who were were seeing you alive again? I believe wholeheartedly, yes, they would be extremely important words!
And this is why I believe the significance of what Yeshua is teaching here cannot be minimized: the first collective teaching Yeshua provides his followers after being resurrected is to remain receptive to God’s Spirit and to be mindful of how they exercise forgiveness, because to whomever forgiveness is not extended, then the state of unforgiveness remains.
In reality, this should not be surprising to us, since Messiah consistently taught of the importance of forgiving others, and how the believer’s use of forgiveness with others will be an indicator of God’s forgiveness with them.
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. … “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. “But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.”
Mark 11:25 – “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”
Luke 17:4 – “And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Therefore if we withhold forgiveness from someone, for whatever reason we may have, we may in a very real sense be creating a situation where God withholds his forgiveness from us. It is not that our actions can restrict the workings of the all-powerful God, but only that he has chosen to align himself with the human ideals as a means of communicating his love and mercy to us.
Charles Ellicott has the following to say in regards to this idea of forgiveness and unforgiveness:
“In the very act of prayer we are taught to remind ourselves of the conditions of forgiveness. Even here, in the region of the free grace of God, there is a law of retribution. The temper that does not forgive cannot be forgiven, because it is ipso facto a proof that we do not realise the amount of the debt we owe. We forget the ten thousand talents as we exact the hundred pence, and in the act of exacting we bring back that burden of the greater debt upon ourselves.”
I believe this is a critical, yet often-overlooked aspect to the forgiveness of God. In all things God desires us to be true and honest, and he abhors dishonesty and hypocrisy. If we are withholding forgiveness from someone for some offense they have committed against us, what should be God’s logical reason for continuing to provide us forgiveness that comes from him?
This seems to create a bit of a paradox for us. Yeshua appears to be teaching us that we hold within our grasp the key of forgiveness or the lock of unforgiveness toward others, and our experience with God will mirror how we apply this privilege.
God, it seems, desires that we model ourselves after his characteristics, such as holiness, mercy or compassion, and forgiveness.
Leviticus 19:2 – “Speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them: Be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.
Psalm 145:8-9 – Yahweh is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love. Yahweh is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made.
Colossians 4:6 – Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.
1 Peter 3:8-9 – Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing.
He has made us in his image, and yet when that image becomes marred through our own selfish ambition and disobedience God appears to reciprocate in kind by providing negative experiences, or what can be called his curses.
Here’s an example of how this principle is exhibited with personified Wisdom in the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 1:22, 25-26 – “How long, inexperienced ones, will you love ignorance? How long will you mockers enjoy mocking and you fools hate knowledge? … “since you neglected all my counsel and did not accept my correction, “I, in turn, will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you…”
Notice, the mockers who rejected the knowledge of God would be mocked by personified Wisdom as their own calamity would befall them due to their rejection of God’s instruction.
In the apocryphal book of the Wisdom of Solomon, there is a passage which identifies this type of thinking of the Hebrew culture in the time of 2nd temple Judaism. Speaking in the narrative about the Israelites wandering in the desert, it says:
Wisdom 11:15-16 – “In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts, which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals, you sent upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them, so that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which one sins.”
This is the state of those who live in rebellion against God. It becomes a natural course of events due to their unwillingness to abide by God’s righteous ways, and the things through which they sin against God become the very things that plague them later on.
This idea of retributive justice is all through the Bible. The apostle Paul also presents a view of the fleshly life vs. the spiritual life as he encourages the Galatian believers to be sure they are sowing seed in the appropriate place:
Galatians 6:7-8 – Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
I tend to believe this retributive justice of God is this ancient biblical principle from which the Eastern concept of karma has been derived. That’s certainly my opinion and one that would require a whole other group of research to fully substantiate, but I believe the biblical principles were at one point understood by all mankind and other religions have since become corruptions of these truths over the millennia.
Let’s take a closer look at this idea of the retributive justice of God in some of the final words of Moses to the Israelites.
One of the most glaring passages to illustrate this concept of retributive justice is in Deuteronomy chapter 28. Moses is reminding the people of all that God has done for them from Egypt up until the eve of their entering into the promised land. In this chapter he lays out blessings that would be evident for their obedience, and also curses for their disobedience. When viewed together, we can see that the curses are essentially the opposite of the blessings.
28:3 – “You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.”
28:16 – “You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.”
28:4 – “Your offspring will be blessed, and your land’s produce, and the offspring of your livestock, including the young of your herds and the newborn of your flocks.”
28:18 – “Your offspring will be cursed, and your land’s produce, the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks.”
28:5 – “Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.”
28:17 – “Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed.”
28:6 – “You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”
28:19 – “You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.”
28:7 – “Yahweh will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you from one direction but flee from you in seven directions.”
28:20 – “Yahweh will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning me.”
On and on it goes through the whole chapter. It would appear that curses for disobedience are essentially corrupted and inverted blessings for obedience. This implies that God desires our obedience in righteous actions. When we do so, he demonstrates we are acting in accord with his purposes by providing certain blessings towards us. However, when we choose not to do so, then he matches his actions towards us by our actions towards him. And those actions meant to be blessings then become inverted and appear to us as curses.
Here’s another example from the book of Daniel. Daniel appears to be well aware of how they were living out the very warnings and curses that Moses had provided 700 years earlier:
Daniel 9:11 – All Israel has broken your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against him.
Yes, Daniel is lamenting the curse that Moses warned them about had come to pass! Specifically, here again from Deuteronomy 28.
Deuteronomy 28:36-37, 49-52 – “Yahweh will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone. “You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh will drive you. … “Yahweh will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you won’t understand, “a ruthless nation, showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young. “They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land’s produce until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, fresh oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to perish. “They will besiege you within all your city gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout the land Yahweh your God has given you.”
Daniel has these warnings in mind as he continues his admonition to the people of God in captivity.
Daniel 9:12-14 – He has carried out his words that he spoke against us and against our rulers by bringing on us a disaster that is so great that nothing like what has been done to Jerusalem has ever been done under all of heaven. Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of Yahweh our God by turning from our iniquities and paying attention to your truth. So Yahweh kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for Yahweh our God is righteous in all he has done. But we have not obeyed him.”
Daniel recognized that the Israelites were experiencing the fruit of that which they had sown. They rebelled against God and he responded in the way that he told them he would. This resulted in a horrific overthrow of the city of Jerusalem, and the final remaining Israelites to be carried off to Babylon. Daniel connects the two concepts in no uncertain terms, and this is a clear demonstration of how God’s curse, the opposite of the blessing in the land, came to pass.
It seems to me that people today enjoy talking about blessings and how much God has blessed them, but curses are viewed as medieval superstitions. While there is in truth a measure of superstition to the idea of people placing curses on other people, if we understand that biblical curses are essentially blessings of God that have been inverted due to disobedience, it helps to make sense of some of the struggles non-believers face as they live lives in rebellion against God.
If, for example, we choose to live lives of treachery and deceit for our own pride and selfish gain, there is a good likelihood that our lives will be filled with not knowing who to trust, and being fearful of being taken advantage of at every turn. This is the natural result or consequences of those decisions. Yet if we choose to live humbly with integrity and honesty, it is more likely people will interact with us in similar ways, and we will have friends we can trust and experience less stress overall.
Proverbs 3:33-34 – Yahweh’s curse is on the household of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous; He mocks those who mock, but gives grace to the humble.
Now I’ve kind of gone off into the weeds in regards to retributive justice of God, but if you’ll remember, it was not without reason in light of Yeshua’s teaching on forgiveness.
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. … “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. “But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.
If we truly believed this was the case, then we would never remain unforgiving toward anyone. If we desired God to be forgiving toward us, we would do everything we could to ensure there was no form of outstanding unforgiveness among any of our relationships.
We saw that when Yeshua returned from death, he exhorted his disciples to receive the holy Spirit, and to extend forgiveness to others, otherwise, unforgiveness would remain. If we can cautiously peel back the prejudice of our religious orthodoxy regarding the historical commentary of John 20 and simply consider the Messiah’s words for what they say, the importance of forgiveness in the teaching of Yeshua cannot be understated.
So, is there a biblical curse in withholding forgiveness? I think a case can be made to demonstrate that God actively resists those who resist his will, and I’ve included a few examples here to illustrate this idea. If we are allowing the Spirit of God to guide our lives, then we need to always be mindful of how important the role of forgiveness plays in our interactions with others. For to whomever forgiveness is not extended, then a state of unforgiveness remains. And if we are to maintain a consistent view within the larger context of Yeshua’s teaching during his life and ministry, that state of unforgiveness can be measured against our own standing with God.
The fact that the operation of the Spirit and forgiveness are knit together so closely should cause us to evaluate how recep
Today we will be exploring the topic of forgiveness, and how the forgiveness we extend, or don’t extend, toward others will likely be evidenced within our own relationship with God.
John 20:23 – “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
The context of this passage is the day of Yeshua’s resurrection, in the evening of that very day. The disciples were still trying to understand what had happened since their Teacher had been crucified a few days before. A strange report of Messiah’s appearance had come from Mary, and Peter and John had both been to the tomb and found it was empty.
Suddenly, Yeshua is among them all, proclaiming peace and wholeness (shalom), and providing an admonition to remain receptive to the holy Spirit of God and to exercise the privilege of forgiveness with others.
Most commentators view this as a special privilege, anointing, or commissioning of the twelve disciples (or, in this case, the ten disciples, since Thomas and Judas were not among them). However, there is no indication this admonition was just to Yeshua’s closest circle, but it was conveyed to all of those present.
How much value should we place on these words? Let’s put this in perspective. If you were to die and then to be raised back to life and to visit once again with your closest friends and confidants, what words would you say? Do you think those words would be considered important words by those who were were seeing you alive again? I believe wholeheartedly, yes, they would be extremely important words!
And this is why I believe the significance of what Yeshua is teaching here cannot be minimized: the first collective teaching Yeshua provides his followers after being resurrected is to remain receptive to God’s Spirit and to be mindful of how they exercise forgiveness, because to whomever forgiveness is not extended, then the state of unforgiveness remains.
In reality, this should not be surprising to us, since Messiah consistently taught of the importance of forgiving others, and how the believer’s use of forgiveness with others will be an indicator of God’s forgiveness with them.
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. … “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. “But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.”
Mark 11:25 – “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”
Luke 17:4 – “And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Therefore if we withhold forgiveness from someone, for whatever reason we may have, we may in a very real sense be creating a situation where God withholds his forgiveness from us. It is not that our actions can restrict the workings of the all-powerful God, but only that he has chosen to align himself with the human ideals as a means of communicating his love and mercy to us.
Charles Ellicott has the following to say in regards to this idea of forgiveness and unforgiveness:
“In the very act of prayer we are taught to remind ourselves of the conditions of forgiveness. Even here, in the region of the free grace of God, there is a law of retribution. The temper that does not forgive cannot be forgiven, because it is ipso facto a proof that we do not realise the amount of the debt we owe. We forget the ten thousand talents as we exact the hundred pence, and in the act of exacting we bring back that burden of the greater debt upon ourselves.”
I believe this is a critical, yet often-overlooked aspect to the forgiveness of God. In all things God desires us to be true and honest, and he abhors dishonesty and hypocrisy. If we are withholding forgiveness from someone for some offense they have committed against us, what should be God’s logical reason for continuing to provide us forgiveness that comes from him?
This seems to create a bit of a paradox for us. Yeshua appears to be teaching us that we hold within our grasp the key of forgiveness or the lock of unforgiveness toward others, and our experience with God will mirror how we apply this privilege.
God, it seems, desires that we model ourselves after his characteristics, such as holiness, mercy or compassion, and forgiveness.
Leviticus 19:2 – “Speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them: Be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.
Psalm 145:8-9 – Yahweh is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love. Yahweh is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made.
Colossians 4:6 – Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.
1 Peter 3:8-9 – Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing.
He has made us in his image, and yet when that image becomes marred through our own selfish ambition and disobedience God appears to reciprocate in kind by providing negative experiences, or what can be called his curses.
Here’s an example of how this principle is exhibited with personified Wisdom in the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 1:22, 25-26 – “How long, inexperienced ones, will you love ignorance? How long will you mockers enjoy mocking and you fools hate knowledge? … “since you neglected all my counsel and did not accept my correction, “I, in turn, will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you…”
Notice, the mockers who rejected the knowledge of God would be mocked by personified Wisdom as their own calamity would befall them due to their rejection of God’s instruction.
In the apocryphal book of the Wisdom of Solomon, there is a passage which identifies this type of thinking of the Hebrew culture in the time of 2nd temple Judaism. Speaking in the narrative about the Israelites wandering in the desert, it says:
Wisdom 11:15-16 – “In return for their foolish and wicked thoughts, which led them astray to worship irrational serpents and worthless animals, you sent upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them, so that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which one sins.”
This is the state of those who live in rebellion against God. It becomes a natural course of events due to their unwillingness to abide by God’s righteous ways, and the things through which they sin against God become the very things that plague them later on.
This idea of retributive justice is all through the Bible. The apostle Paul also presents a view of the fleshly life vs. the spiritual life as he encourages the Galatian believers to be sure they are sowing seed in the appropriate place:
Galatians 6:7-8 – Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
I tend to believe this retributive justice of God is this ancient biblical principle from which the Eastern concept of karma has been derived. That’s certainly my opinion and one that would require a whole other group of research to fully substantiate, but I believe the biblical principles were at one point understood by all mankind and other religions have since become corruptions of these truths over the millennia.
Let’s take a closer look at this idea of the retributive justice of God in some of the final words of Moses to the Israelites.
One of the most glaring passages to illustrate this concept of retributive justice is in Deuteronomy chapter 28. Moses is reminding the people of all that God has done for them from Egypt up until the eve of their entering into the promised land. In this chapter he lays out blessings that would be evident for their obedience, and also curses for their disobedience. When viewed together, we can see that the curses are essentially the opposite of the blessings.
28:3 – “You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.”
28:16 – “You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.”
28:4 – “Your offspring will be blessed, and your land’s produce, and the offspring of your livestock, including the young of your herds and the newborn of your flocks.”
28:18 – “Your offspring will be cursed, and your land’s produce, the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks.”
28:5 – “Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.”
28:17 – “Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed.”
28:6 – “You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”
28:19 – “You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.”
28:7 – “Yahweh will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you from one direction but flee from you in seven directions.”
28:20 – “Yahweh will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning me.”
On and on it goes through the whole chapter. It would appear that curses for disobedience are essentially corrupted and inverted blessings for obedience. This implies that God desires our obedience in righteous actions. When we do so, he demonstrates we are acting in accord with his purposes by providing certain blessings towards us. However, when we choose not to do so, then he matches his actions towards us by our actions towards him. And those actions meant to be blessings then become inverted and appear to us as curses.
Here’s another example from the book of Daniel. Daniel appears to be well aware of how they were living out the very warnings and curses that Moses had provided 700 years earlier:
Daniel 9:11 – All Israel has broken your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against him.
Yes, Daniel is lamenting the curse that Moses warned them about had come to pass! Specifically, here again from Deuteronomy 28.
Deuteronomy 28:36-37, 49-52 – “Yahweh will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone. “You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh will drive you. … “Yahweh will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you won’t understand, “a ruthless nation, showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young. “They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land’s produce until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, fresh oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to perish. “They will besiege you within all your city gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout the land Yahweh your God has given you.”
Daniel has these warnings in mind as he continues his admonition to the people of God in captivity.
Daniel 9:12-14 – He has carried out his words that he spoke against us and against our rulers by bringing on us a disaster that is so great that nothing like what has been done to Jerusalem has ever been done under all of heaven. Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of Yahweh our God by turning from our iniquities and paying attention to your truth. So Yahweh kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for Yahweh our God is righteous in all he has done. But we have not obeyed him.”
Daniel recognized that the Israelites were experiencing the fruit of that which they had sown. They rebelled against God and he responded in the way that he told them he would. This resulted in a horrific overthrow of the city of Jerusalem, and the final remaining Israelites to be carried off to Babylon. Daniel connects the two concepts in no uncertain terms, and this is a clear demonstration of how God’s curse, the opposite of the blessing in the land, came to pass.
It seems to me that people today enjoy talking about blessings and how much God has blessed them, but curses are viewed as medieval superstitions. While there is in truth a measure of superstition to the idea of people placing curses on other people, if we understand that biblical curses are essentially blessings of God that have been inverted due to disobedience, it helps to make sense of some of the struggles non-believers face as they live lives in rebellion against God.
If, for example, we choose to live lives of treachery and deceit for our own pride and selfish gain, there is a good likelihood that our lives will be filled with not knowing who to trust, and being fearful of being taken advantage of at every turn. This is the natural result or consequences of those decisions. Yet if we choose to live humbly with integrity and honesty, it is more likely people will interact with us in similar ways, and we will have friends we can trust and experience less stress overall.
Proverbs 3:33-34 – “Yahweh’s curse is on the household of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous; He mocks those who mock, but gives grace to the humble.”
Now, let me be quick to add that Yeshua provides additional perspective on what a blessing from God may look like. Based on what we have seen so far, blessings are good things and curses would be bad things. However, Yeshua also mentions how some things that can look bad can actually be blessings when based on the truth of God and viewed from his perspective:
Matthew 5:3-4 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Being poor in spirit doesn’t appear to be a blessing, yet Yeshua says it is. Mourning in and of itself does not appear to provide a blessing, yet Yeshua says there is a certain type of mourning that does. For those who are of humble heart and circumstance (poor in spirit) and who mourn for righteousness to be expressed will have those yearnings fulfilled.
Matthew 5:10-12 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Certainly, being insulted and persecuted and having false and evil things said against you cannot possibly be considered a blessing, could it? Yeshua confirms that they are, but ONLY IF those things are being conducted against you specifically because of your expressed faith in Messiah, who is the truth of God revealed.
Psalm 5:11-12 – “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them shout for joy forever. May you shelter them, and may those who love your name boast about you. For you, Yahweh, bless the righteous one; you surround him with favor like a shield.”
Consistent with all blessing is that those who exhibit righteousness are blessed by God. To have faith in Yeshua was to have many negative consequences for the believers, and may still to this day; however, those negative consequences could be considered as blessings because they were and are based on the truth of God.
So returning in summary to our topic of forgiveness, you may have noticed I have kind of gone off into the weeds in regards to retributive justice of God. But if you’ll remember, it was not without reason in light of Yeshua’s teaching on forgiveness.
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. … “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.”
If we truly believed this was the case, then we would never remain unforgiving toward anyone. If we desired God to be forgiving toward us, we would do everything we could to ensure there was no form of outstanding unforgiveness among any of our relationships.
We saw that when Yeshua returned from death, he exhorted his disciples to receive the holy Spirit, and to extend forgiveness to others, otherwise, unforgiveness would remain. If we can cautiously peel back the prejudice of our religious orthodoxy regarding the historical commentary of John 20 and simply consider the Messiah’s words for what they say, the importance of forgiveness in the teaching of Yeshua cannot be understated.
So, is there a biblical curse in withholding forgiveness? I think a case can be made in the affirmative to at least demonstrate that God actively resists those who resist his will, and I’ve included a few examples here to illustrate this idea. If we are allowing the Spirit of God to guide our lives, then we need to always be mindful of how important the role of forgiveness plays in our interactions with others. For to whomever forgiveness is not extended, then a state of unforgiveness remains. And if we are to maintain a consistent view within the larger context of Yeshua’s teaching during his life and ministry, that state of unforgiveness can be measured against our own standing with God.
The fact that the operation of the Spirit and forgiveness are knit together so closely should cause us to evaluate how receptive we are to the influence of the God’s Spirit in our lives. In my estimation, a life guided by the Spirit is, by default, a life of forgiveness. And forgiveness always brings a blessing.
tive we are to the influence of the God’s Spirit in our lives. In my estimation, a life guided by the Spirit is, by default, a life of forgiveness. And forgiveness always brings a blessing.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
The kingdom of God is based on the people of God following the Ten Commandments of Yahweh. This was dramatically demonstrated in Exodus 19-20 as God was preparing to reveal himself to the assembled congregation.
Exodus 19:4-6 – “‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. “Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, “and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”
God was urging the people to listen to what he had to say and then to keep these commands as his covenant. If they did so, they would be his kingdom of priests and his holy, set apart nation.
Exodus 20:1 CSB – Then God spoke all these words: [the ten commandments]
Deuteronomy 4:13 – “He [Yahweh] declared his covenant to you. He commanded you to follow the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two stone tablets.
The people only had to listen to God (the Words he had pronounced as the Ten Commandments) and then to keep them as his covenant in order to be his kingdom of set apart people.
The Ten Commandments had at least three distinguishing characteristics:
They were spoken directly by God to millions of people at once. Everyone assembled at the foot of Sinai heard the voice of God for themselves. He spoke the commandments to them directly so there would be no mistaking what he intended to say. This group included not only Israelites but a “mixed multitude” that also came up with them from Egypt. This was not an exclusively Israelite covenant, but for everyone there who would listen and obey.
They were written in stone as an everlasting memorial. The ten commandments were not written on parchment like the rest of the law of Moses, but were carved into stone to demonstrate the permanence of their nature. Even when Moses broke the first set, God had him make two more stone tablets which he then engraved a second time with his commandments.
They were written by God himself. God’s own finger inscribed the tablets with the commandments; this was not the mere writings or philosophy of men.
I can think of no other way for God to ensure that he is making clear the permanent nature of some instruction: he spoke it himself to masses of individuals at once, and wrote it himself in stone.
This is why the Ten Commandments are so critical to the gospel of the kingdom. It remained only for Yeshua to emphasize the attitude of the heart in truly keeping the ten commandments. Not only was it wrong to kill, but no one should think evilly of another. Not only was it wrong to commit adultery, but no one should even consider lusting after others.
This is why the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments are tied together. God’s unchanging standards for his kingdom were brought to life by Yeshua demonstrating how the heart attitude should be toward keeping them. The good news of the kingdom was that the instruction of God was now able to be kept from the heart through the indwelling Spirit of God.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
Putting aside our self-righteousness to share the good news of the kingdom.
Matthew 9:10-13 – While he was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came to eat with Yeshua and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? ” Now when he heard this, he said, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. “Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Clearly, Yeshua had a different view of those who were in need of hearing the good news of the kingdom, and who were also willing to listen. In his response, Yeshua tells the Pharisees to “go and learn what this means.” The “this” he speaks of here is a quote from Hosea 6.
Hosea 6:6 – For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
In this passage of Hosea, God is expressing his frustration with all of the tribes, and how their passion for him was only as a “morning mist” or “a dew that vanishes.” Their constant rebellion was only ritual-deep; whenever they transgressed, they assumed all they would have to do was to present the appropriate offering to get back into God’s good graces. Yet God says that what he truly desires is mercy (faithful love) and the knowledge of God over any sacrifices and offerings.
Yeshua tells the Pharisees to “go and learn what this means.” They were just as guilty of the shallow, ritual-deep commitment to Yahweh, when he really desired them to share their knowledge of God and faithful love and mercy with those who were in need of it most.
True compassion or mercy is in sharing with those who have nothing for themselves, whether worldly goods or spiritual sophistication. The message of the kingdom of God is not for an elite population only but for all people everywhere. True compassion and mercy is in providing the thirsty the water they are looking for, the food they are hungry for, and the peace that they so desperately long for.
I believe the example of Yeshua cautions us from focusing so strongly on our personal righteousness before God that we exclude the very individuals he is wanting us to reach for him.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
The fruit of righteousness is borne of peaceful actions.
James 3:18 – And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
James writes that peace is a necessity among the believers. Taken in the context of to whom this letter was written, this is bold exhortation, indeed. These were the twelve tribes scattered among the nations, and believers who were currently undergoing persecution for their faith in Messiah.
James 1:2-3 – Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
To these believers undergoing harsh testing and being judged and challenged by their brothers and their families, James encourages peace. It was not the believer’s place to reflexively react to oppression and disunity around them. James encourages calmness at every turn as a demonstration of the righteous actions of God.
James 1:19-20 – My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
The righteousness of God, according to James, is based on the wisdom of God.
James 3:13-14, 17 – Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. … But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense.
James is encouraging gentleness in the pursuit of righteousness. God’s wisdom is “pure and peace-loving.” This is an echo of the words of Yeshua when he pronounced how the peacemakers would be considered children of God (Matthew 5:9). Contextually, Yeshua’s teaching on peacemaking is also in the context of persecution:
Matthew 5:10-12 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. “Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
As believers, we can only exhibit true peace and gentleness when confronted with their opposites. When all is peaceful and calm, there is no admonition needed to peacemaking. However, when all is chaos, bitterness and unforgiveness, to remain a peacemaker in these environments becomes a testimony to the inward righteousness one has from God. This is where the believer becomes a witness to the truth of God’s wisdom. This is why James can say that “fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.”
To be able to sow peace in tumultuous circumstances, one must be a cultivator of peace. This is a bedrock of the believing life, since there is no need to exacerbate chaos further. If we are looking for ways to bear fruit for God, we should be looking for ways to sow seeds of peace into the fray of the daily culture we live in. Thereby, God’s wisdom is shown to be the pure truth that it is, and he will be glorified in those cultivators of peace that obey his word.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
Holiness is not accomplished in 30-second or one-minute devotions.
Joshua 1:8 – “This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.”
In our current age of instant information we many times are guilty of seeking to understand God on our own limited terms, not his. Browsing recently through a bookstore I noticed a title that was called the One Minute Bible. I had the sense that this was oddly irreverant; I mean, what can we really learn about God in one minute? Then to my dismay was a title a few shelves away called the Thirty Second Bible. Thirty seconds, really?
Those who would be set apart for the purposes of God must meditate deeply on the things of God. This is not a thirty-second or one-minute proposition by any means. A believer’s life is a lifetime of deep consideration and thoughtful contemplation. What sets believers apart is an ongoing desire to be in God’s word, to understand it, and to apply it in all situations.
Psalm 1:1-3 – “How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in Yahweh’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
God’s torah, his instruction, sets believers apart by its very nature. Yeshua mentioned that the words of the Father that he had faithfully represented to his disciples helped them recognize who he was.
John 17:7-8, 17 – “Now they know that everything you have given is from you, “because I have given them the words you gave me. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. … “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
The truth of God’s word sets believers apart from the rest of the world. This is not being set apart to become the world’s judges, but to plead with them for the sanctity of God’s word and encourage others to come to him by leading with righteous example.
Meditating deeply on God’s word includes the idea of groaning and muttering, as one who ponders the depths of truth, reciting to oneself the concepts and ideals under consideration. I liken this to the apostle Paul’s description of one who is praying within the Spirit of God.
Romans 8:26-27 – “In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
A meditative life in the word is one in which the deep groanings of God percolate to the surface in times of trial and weakness. In strength, the groanings of God illustrate a consuming passion for God’s torah, helping us maintain a righteous life amidst the darkness of each generation.
These are indications of being set apart, of being truly holy. We would shun ideas of one-minute or thirty-second encounters with God and strive to be in his presence always. In holiness, we could join with the psalmist when he writes:
Psalm 84:2, 4 – “I long and yearn for the courts of Yahweh; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God. … How happy are those who reside in your house, who praise you continually.”
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
God has demonstrated himself as being faithful and completely trustworthy through his actions with Israel.
Core of the Bible podcast #48 – God’s historical resume of faithfulness
Today we will be exploring the topic of trust, and how God has demonstrated himself as being faithful and completely trustworthy through his actions with Israel as revealed in the Bible. The story of Israel is a story about God’s faithfulness. He has demonstrated himself as worthy of trust because whatever he has committed to his people has come to pass. Time and time again he has proven himself as fulfilling what he has promised, whether in blessing or in judgment. In essence, the Bible story of Israel is a type of historical resume that God has provided us.
From a quick online search of definitions, we find that a resume can be defined as “a formal document that provides an overview of your professional qualifications, including your relevant work experience, skills, education, and notable accomplishments.” Now let me quickly add that it certainly isn’t necessary for God to provide us all of that information, since, well, he’s God and can do whatever he wants. It’s not as if he is encouraging us to hire him to be our God from among the choices of other gods that are out there. But isn’t that kind of how we look at this information contained in the Bible? We evaluate it critically against the claims of other beliefs and religious systems out there to see if it is a reasonable system of faith.
Since God certainly has nothing to prove, and yet we still need some sort of understanding of who he is, how does the Bible stack up as a demonstration of God’s “skills and notable accomplishments”?
Well, if we review the story of Israel as related in the Bible books, we find a consistent narrative that has a logical beginning, middle, and ending that has been borne out in time. We can see that there is a flow and a lasting evidence to how God has worked with the nation of Israel within history to help us understand who he is.
The story of Israel begins most notably with the events in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as related in the book of Genesis. After Abraham leaves the Ur of the Chaldees to go to a special place in which God is calling him, his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob, carry the story forward to the twelve sons of Jacob. In the course of time, they needed to temporarily leave the area that God had called them to due to severe famine. However, God had promised that they would be returning in fulfillment of what he had promised them.
Genesis 28:15 – “Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
In this vision that Jacob experiences, God recounts the promises made to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. He promised that they would receive the land, that his descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth, and that all the tribes of the earth would be blessed through him and his descendants.
Genesis 28:13-14 – “I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying. “Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.”
Of course, the story reveals that in traveling to Egypt for salvation from the famine, they became a numerous people that began to be a threat to the Egyptians, so they were forced into slavery. God then sent Moses to deliver them, and separate them to himself as his own people.
After the events of the Exodus and the receiving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai, they are relegated to the wilderness in preparation for returning to the land that God had promised them.
As Moses and Aaron pass from the scene, God raises up Joshua to be their leader in purging the land from its pagan atrocities so the land can prosper under the auspices of the torah of God.
Deuteronomy 9:5 – “You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, Yahweh your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
After the battle campaigns, we find that everything had come to pass just as God had promised. On his deathbed, Joshua recounts God’s faithfulness:
Joshua 23:14 – “Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know with all your heart and soul that not one of the good promises Yahweh your God made to you has failed. Everything was fulfilled for you; not one promise has failed.”
So we can see, at least as far as Joshua was concerned, God had demonstrated himself worthy of faith based on everything that he had promised to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In reviewing God’s resume in relation to the Israelites, we find another historical aspect that has been borne out in time, and still exists to this day. Just prior to the nation entering and taking the land of Canaan, God had set some pretty strict covenantal standards in place. You may recall the blessings and the curses that were pronounced upon them if they were to keep the conditions of the covenant, or if they were to fail in doing so.
Deuteronomy 28:1, 15, 63-65 – “Now if you faithfully obey Yahweh your God and are careful to follow all his commands I am giving you today, Yahweh your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth. … “But if you do not obey Yahweh your God by carefully following all his commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you: … “Just as Yahweh was glad to cause you to prosper and to multiply you, so he will also be glad to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be ripped out of the land you are entering to possess. “Then Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. You will find no peace among those nations, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot. There Yahweh will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despondent spirit.”
Again, we find that both of these examples, the blessings and the curses, have come to pass in the life of the nation.
As they demonstrated faithfulness and maintained worship of the one true God, the nation rose to power in the ancient world, coming to a pinnacle in the lives of David and Solomon. At that time, Israel was not only bountiful within the borders of its own land, but David had also won the peace of surrounding nations who became subservient to Israel, from Egypt all the way to the Euphrates river. This was a monumental territory that was a fulfillment of all that God had promised to Abraham.
Genesis 15:18 – “On that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River…”
Solomon lived to enjoy the fulfillment of that promise.
1 Kings 4:21 – “Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt. They offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.”
Sadly, Solomon also lived to see the beginning of the curses of the covenant fall upon the nation, as he himself was the catalyst of events that would lead to the removal of Israel from their territory that God had promised them.
1 Kings 11:4, 6 – “When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to Yahweh his God, as his father David had been. … Solomon did what was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and unlike his father David, he did not remain loyal to Yahweh.”
In his later years, his heart went after foreign women and their gods. He began to compromise with the religions of the surrounding nations, and due to his unfaithfulness he triggered the activation of the covenant curses, beginning with his own son.
Upon his death, Solomon’s son Rehoboam inherited the kingdom and infuriated the people with his obstinance. As a result, Jeroboam, a servant of Solomon, rebelled and began to rule over ten of the tribes, leaving Judah and Benjamin to Rehoboam. A civil war was to commence that would never be physically healed.
Over the next several hundred years, the country would degrade further into idolatry and rebellion against God, until the ten tribes were finally overpowered by Assyria and removed from the land. Less than two centuries later, Babylon would rise to power and remove Judah and Benjamin from the land. The prophecy that Moses had given to their forefathers came to pass in horrifying reality.
Deuteronomy 28:63-64 – “…You will be ripped out of the land you are entering to possess. Then Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.”
Assyria invaded in 721 BC and Babylon in 586 BC. The Israelites were indeed “scattered among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other.” Even when the Jews in Babylon were allowed to return to Jerusalem 70 years later, many of them chose to remain in Babylon. The ten northern tribes that had been taken by the Assyrians were so widely spread and co-mingled with the nations that they also never fully returned.
Once again, the truth of God and his faithfulness to his word were demonstrated with Israel. Yet there remained a significant and enduring promise that was still to come to pass.
Long after the physical blessings and curses of the covenant had come to pass, there was still a work that God had committed would happen. Beyond the physical promises of a land and numerous people stood God’s promise to the forefathers of Israel that all the families or tribes of the earth would be blessed through their descendants. God had brought a small remnant of his people back to the land to ensure that the final stage of his drama with Israel could still be fulfilled.
One of the other major prophecies that God had declared to Moses was that of a prophet who was to come, who would faithfully speak God’s words within his generation.
Deuteronomy 18:18-19 – “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. I will hold accountable whoever does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name.”
Additionally, God had yet to fulfill a prior prophetic commitment that he had made to Abraham.
Genesis 18:18 – “Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.”
The good news of the Bible is that God fulfilled these promises in the person of Yeshua. As God’s Son, the anointed One, he spoke the words of the Father to his generation of brothers and was appointed the judge who was to hold them accountable to the truth of God’s torah.
John 12:49 – “For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said.”
John 8:16 – “And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.”
Additionally, as a true descendant of Abraham’s lineage, he fulfilled every promise and prophecy for the nation, and became the springboard of faith to the rest of the world.
Genesis 21:12 – But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and about your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your seed will be traced through Isaac…
Galatians 3:28-29 – “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua. And if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”
Just as Isaac was a miraculous son of promise, so Yeshua was a miraculous son of promise. We see the fulfillment of these promises made to Abraham and to Israel through Moses that came to pass in the days of Yeshua. The early believers recognized these promises being fulfilled, and came to faith in Messiah.
Additionally, in recognition of these fulfillments, the apostle Paul reached out to the Israelites everywhere who were still scattered among the nations with the hopes that they would be restored to the one true God, and that as lost sheep they would be restored to the fold. Many did return to the faith of God, thereby fulfilling the torah by becoming a faithful remnant through whom God would reach out to all nations. In the process of these lost and scattered Israelites coming to faith in Messiah, many others of the nations did so also, demonstrating how all nations would be blessed through him.
Every faithful life needs a narrative, otherwise the Bible merely becomes a collection of stories and platitudes. The Bible stands as God’s resume of faithfulness, a narrative corroborated through the annals of history. Through this brief recounting of God’s faithfulness with the nation of Israel, we can see how God has provided us a resume of his accomplishments within the history of his people. We know historically that they were brought dramatically out of Egypt, how they flourished in the land that God had promised them, and yet were ultimately scattered among all nations, even down to this day. We see through these inner workings that God has done all things in wisdom by caring for his people, yet holding them accountable to their covenant. All of this was so that his glory would be made known to the whole world, and that all nations would be able to recognize him for who he is.
Like Paul, we can hold all of this in amazement when we realize the intricate care and detail in how God works all things to his own glory:
Romans 11:33, 36 – “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways! … For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.”
The promises that were made to Abraham and Moses were recognized by the earliest believers in Messiah as coming to fulfillment in Yeshua. They have continued to come to pass up to our day, multiplying believers in the one true God and blessing all of the tribes within each generation of the earth into the future. As we honor God by trusting in him and his Messiah, we demonstrate we are participating in the ongoing consummation of his faithfulness to all people.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
Living faithfully according to God’s instruction at all times.
Psalm 26:1-3 – Vindicate me, Yahweh, because I have lived with integrity and have trusted in Yahweh without wavering. Test me, Yahweh, and try me; examine my heart and mind. For your faithful love guides me, and I live by your truth.
This psalm is attributed to David, and when reading it, it seems as if David is almost lifting himself up in God’s eyes, saying, “look how good I am, Yahweh.” In a sense, he is. He is conveying how his conscience is clear before God, and because this is the case, he is requesting that God vindicate him or judge righteously in his favor against those who would come against him.
Psalm 26:9-10 – Do not destroy me along with sinners, or my life along with men of bloodshed in whose hands are evil schemes and whose right hands are filled with bribes.
This is brought out more vividly in another psalm of David where he declares his innocence, and then pleas for God’s protection due to his own faithfulness and virtue.
Psalm 17:3, 8-14 – You have tested my heart; you have examined me at night. You have tried me and found nothing evil; I have determined that my mouth will not sin. … Protect me as the pupil of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who treat me violently, my deadly enemies who surround me. They are uncaring; their mouths speak arrogantly. They advance against me; now they surround me. They are determined to throw me to the ground. They are like a lion eager to tear, like a young lion lurking in ambush. Rise up, Yahweh! Confront him; bring him down. With your sword, save me from the wicked. With your hand, Yahweh, save me from men, from men of the world whose portion is in this life…
While believers in Messiah are commanded by Yeshua to have pure hearts (Matthew 5:8) and walk in the light and not in the darkness of this world (John 8:12) these cherished qualities are by no means insulation from all wickedness in the world.
Consider the plight of Job, a man who was considered righteous before God.
Job 1:1 – There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.
And yet disaster upon disaster came upon him. One of his companions, Eliphaz, even related this confidence as Job’s hope within himself:
Job 4:6 – Isn’t your piety your confidence, and the integrity of your life your hope?
The issue is not how righteous a person is, whether imagined or in reality, but in how faithful they are in the face of all adversity. David had a clear conscience before God, and yet was persecuted by Saul and the nations surrounding Israel. Job was a man of complete integrity and yet suffered so much trouble that his very name has become synonymous with the concept of adversity.
Yeshua himself suffered the highest injustice of all, and maintained, to the death, his focus on the higher purpose of God. All of these men persevered in their integrity and faithfulness, never losing hope in the God who would ultimately vindicate them, and he did.
We are expected to walk in pureness of heart and in the light of God’s instruction, yet we should never assume that because we do that we are then somehow immune from adversity in this life. Granted, the way of the righteous is ultimate design for those who bear God’s image in this world. And yet due to the wayward passions of those around us, we can expect that this way of righteousness will be resisted and pushed back on.
2 Timothy 3:12 – In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Messiah Yeshua will be persecuted.
This reality should not dissuade the believer from doing what’s right at all times but should only establish and encourage this conduct in the face of it. We must rebel against the wickedness of this world by living faithfully according to God’s instruction at all times and in all situations. This behavior then becomes the rebellious way of righteousness.
If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
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