I have two thoughts on waiting for Jesus to return: 

• I'll die, and see Jesus

• Or - I won't die, and I'll see Jesus

Meanwhile, the book of Titus talks about things that God's graces teaches us.

God’s grace has appeared to teach us how to live.  (Titus 2)

to say "No" to:
ungodliness and
worldly passions,

13 while we wait
for the blessed hope
the glorious appearing

Everything in these couple of verses falls under the verb "teach."  God's grace teaches us all sorts of things about how to live - but is summarized by two things.  God's grace shows us how to deny the things of the world, but also teaches us how to wait patiently for Jesus to come back.

It seems that too often the focus is on one while ignoring the other.  Either Bible studies focus exclusively on the end times, or exclusively on spiritual warfare (denying the flesh, satan, etc).  There's a balance - and God's grace teaches us both at the same time.

Thoughts?

Five gifts from God that no one wanted (Amos, Chapter 4)

There are gifts God gave the Israelites in the book of Amos – and only one thing wanted in return.  These are not normal gifts, nor easy to comprehend, but God is sovereign and his desires are often different from our desires.  The single thing God wanted in the book of Amos (but didn’t get) was the hearts of his people turned toward him.  Sadly, that did not happen, much like in the world today.

Gift #1 – Hunger

These gifts are all difficult to understand, but not in context of scripture.  God cares about one single thing – hearts turned toward him, glorifying him alone.  God took away much of the food in the Israelite cities, “yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord.”  Hunger alone is not enough to turn hearts toward Christ (4:8).

Gift #2 – Thirst

God then shows his power over the weather by choosing some fields to have rain, and others to go barren.  “People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord” (4:7-8)

Gift #3 – Fear of the Future

With very limited food and limited water not working, God takes away their future crops – thus creating fear and uncertainty of the immediate future.  Not only can they barely find enough to eat, but they also see next year’s crops dwindling away by the hand of God.

As if that was not enough, not just once but many times God sent blight and mildew, and locusts to eat off their trees.  This was not enough because, “you have not returned to me, declares the Lord.” (4:9)

Gift #4 – Plagues

God sent plagues, killed many of their young men, many of their horses, and the plagues smelled wretched all around them.  This was not enough to sway their hard hearts because, “you have not returned to me, declares the Lord.” (4:10)

Gift #5 – Destruction

God says that he has overthrown some of the Israelites as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah – a familiar story.  The key word is “as” because it is a metaphor – it refers to a very recent event.  Israel’s main captivity is often called the Babylonian captivity, but before that and during the time of Amos the Assyrians captured Israel.  This was a very recent event, and it probably provoked a lot of anger by saying God was behind their destruction!  “…yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord.” (4:11)

What God wants – our hearts

The dominant theme throughout the Old Testament is that God jealously and intensely desires the hearts of his people turned toward him.  He cares about this so much He is willing to do whatever it takes – famine, thirst, curses, destruction – whatever it takes.

What will it take us to repent and turn toward the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength?

^ESV  Amos 4:1 "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, 'Bring, that we may drink!'

 ² The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.

 ³ And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon," declares the LORD.

 ⁴ "Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days;

 ⁵ offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!" declares the Lord GOD.

 ⁶ "I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

 ⁷ "I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;

 ⁸ so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

 ⁹ "I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

 ¹⁰ "I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

 ¹¹ "I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.

 ¹² "Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!"

 ¹³ For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth-- the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!

 (Amo 4:1-13 ESV)

Ten Commandments – Third Time’s the Charm (Deut. 10.1-5)

Like the majority of Americans, if asked about the Ten Commandments, I would say something like… Moses was on a mountain, God spoke them, then Moses went down from the mountain.  After a closer reading of Deuteronomy though, I have recently come to realize that’s not the complete story.  It’s sort of like many Bible stories we’ve heard so many times – true, but often not the whole truth. 

First of the Ten
The first time the ten commandments were given, it was by the divine audible voice of the Lord, from a mountain “ablaze with fire” which is described in Deuteronomy 5.22-33.  The Israelites, out of fear, suggested Moses go up intermediate for them, and then they dared to say “Tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you.  We listen and obey” (Deuteronomy 5.26).  Of course, as usual, they talked about obedience more than actually obeying.

Second of the Ten

This time, the Ten Commandments were given to Moses on two stone tablets.  He went up to the mountain, and stayed 40 days and 40 nights.  These Ten Commandments were “inscribed by the finger of God” (Deuteronomy 9.10).  Then, God tells Moses to hurry down the mountain, because the Israelites are already breaking the one about having false gods.  In addition, in verse 12 God tells Moses that “your people” who “you” brought down out of Egypt have become corrupt.  The Israelites are God’s chosen people he delivered, but at the same time there’s a layer of frustration with God about how quickly they turn away from such a divine, miraculous deliverance with such obvious signs of God’s power and authority.  The Israelites have seen the true God firsthand, yet yearn in their hearts for visible representations of false gods.  The heart of the Ten Commandments is that God yearns for the hearts of his people above all else.

Moses was furious, and in his rage, he smashed to pieces the Ten Commandments.  Remember the significance - God himself wrote these with his finger.  Yet Moses illustrates passion for complete obedience is more important to him than even something written by God’s finger and handed to him.

Third Time’s the Charm

In the third time God gave the Ten Commandments, Moses has to put a little effort into it this time (Deuteronomy 10.1-5).  God speaks to him, and tells him he has to make the tablets this time around.  God isn’t going to just hand them to him as before.  In addition, he’s told to make a wooden chest to put the tablets in.  God still does the actual writing though!  “I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.  Then you are to put them in the chest” (Deuteronomy 10.2).

Did you catch the emphasis here?  On first writing of the Ten Commandments, “which you broke,” emphasizes the reality here – God wrote them, Moses broke them.  It’s God not very subtly reminding Moses about the last time.  There’s no indication it was wrong of Moses to break them though.  This reminds me of Jesus in the New Testament asking which was the greatest law in the Old Testament, which is to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength.  Moses typifies a godly man who, despite having something written by the finger of God, put concern for the hearts of his people far above all else.

Think about this:  One of three times in the Old Testament God wrote something with his finger, and Moses smashed it because he was confronting Israelites in their sin.  (The first Ten Commandments, and the other was in Daniel, on a wall).  Scripture is vastly important, but scripture written with the finger of God on tablets God himself gave to Moses?  Here this emphasizes the heart of the Old Testament – scripture itself is not enough, but is only a shadow of greater truths.  The spirit of the Law is vastly more important than the letters of the law.

So, the third time, God re-writes the ten commandments with his finger, again!  He also directs Moses to keep them in a chest to preserve them for future generations.  And, at the time Deuteronomy was written, they were still there in that chest. 

Applications?  Definitely.

Obedience is more important than scripture

Coming from me, I value scripture incredibly highly; it is difficult to say that anything in this world is more important.  Yet, the giving of the Ten Commandments three times shows that the Word in our heart along with obedience is more important than the Word on the page.  Pages and Tablets of Stone can be broken, but God desired his people to follow the spirit of the law, even before the Word was written.

Obedience and soft heart, even before God speaks

Hard to believe, but think about the timeline here.  The scripture the Israelites had may have only consisted of the book of Genesis.  That book has the heart of the law, without the letters clearly spelled out like the ten commandments.

But even before Genesis was written, there were only mere glimpses of the law that showed the spirit of the law.  With only pieces of Genesis and oral tradition, people were still righteous or wicked in God’s sight.  How?  Because the spirit of the law was prevalent, and God demanded obedience and a heart turned toward him despite not having a whole lot of specific details.  Of course, there was no expectation they should believe in Jesus Christ, because the spirit of the law only vaguely pointed toward that direction.  Obedience to the spirit of the law matters more than obedience to the letter of the law.

Thoughts?

So, lately I've been going through Deuteronomy, which will probably take a long, long time.

The next post I have planned is in 2 Peter 1, and is a sermon I hope to preach some day at my local church.  It's about 7 things we should be continually be working on in our lives.  It starts with our faith in Christ, when we first become a Christian and ends with loving other believers, then the world around us with the love of Christ.  These 7 things take a lot of work though, so perhaps it will take more than one post.

Other than that, I'd like some feedback!  I know a few of my friends read this every so often, so I'm asking three things of anyone reading this.  1)  Tell me what you like 2)  Tell me what you want more of 3) Actually tell me!

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