This is The Living Word study for Sunday, October 16, 2022
God’s commitment to us and ours to Him
Psalm 119:97-104 — Why we might want to live well
Jeremiah 31:27-34 — The new covenant written on submissive hearts
Luke 18:1-8 — Our persistence in prayer is what God is looking for
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 — How to stay true in the face of difficulty
• See also this week’s linked article which draws out the message of God’s desire for a faith-based relationship and partnership from all of these Bible readings.
• Watch this week’s 15-min. video which tells the story Getting Better at Faith — Learning to Live in Partnership with God
YouTube — for desktop & wide screen
Instagram — better for mobiles
Psalm 119:97-104
97 Oh, how I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long.
98 Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies.
99-100 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on Your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey Your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey Your word.
102-103 I have not departed from Your laws, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.
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Jeremiah 31:27-34 — The new covenant written on submissive hearts
Jeremiah foresees a time when God’s people will find His laws intuitive
27-28 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord.
“The days are coming” — a frequent saying in Jeremiah which underlines the word that follows.
“I will plant… with the offspring” — “plant” and “offspring” are from the same Hebrew root. God will populate both dwelling places and pastures, uniting Israel and Judah again.
29-30 “In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes — their own teeth will be set on edge.
“Sour grapes” — from a popular but misguided saying which claimed that the present generation should not suffer judgment for the sins of ancestors. On person’s sin does affect others; at the same time each person is held accountable for the sin in their own lives, Deut. 24:16, Ezekiel 18:2.
31-32 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke My covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
“A new covenant” — new compared with the covenant with Moses. This is the only explicit OT reference to the New Covenant made by Christ at the Last Supper and realised by Him in death, resurrection and ascension. This important passage is the longest sequence of OT verses to be quoted complete in the NT, Hebrews 8:8-12.
33-34 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
“Put My law in their minds” — the Old Covenant could only point towards a way of living that reflected the character of God. That would be made possible later, by the spiritual rebirth Jesus offered, and the Holy Spirit’s enabling, creating a heart desire for God’s ways.
Reflection
SUMMARY The law was a framework for righteous living, but it could only point to the objective — people in fellowship with God. And external rules create transgressions. What Jeremiah saw in the Spirit was people with changed and renewed hearts, who knew God personally and loved Him and His ways.
APPLICATION In this new covenant, knowing God intimately changes us to the extent of giving us a new identity. We find we have new desire to live for God and, helped by His Spirit, a new capability in doing so. This is no longer about rules and rituals. It is about personal faith and close relationship.
QUESTION How does this reframe Jesus’ expectations and our response in, for example, the Sermon on the Mount?
Luke 18:1-8 — Our persistence in prayer is what God is looking for
Knowing God does not spell instant deliverance, but He won’t let us down
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
“Always pray” — especially in the context of difficult times, Luke 17:20-37. Believers learn to persevere by keeping on praying in faith.
2-3 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
“A judge” — a civil judge notorious for his disdain of righteous justice is the centre of this parable, which argues from lesser to greater. A bad person’s reluctant action is contrasted with the ‘how much more’ of God’s loving and just provision.
4-5 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
“Come and attack me” — more colourful in the Greek which describes giving someone a black eye. The judge had no compassion but would act out of self interest.
6-7 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off?
“And will not God” — quite unlike the unjust judge, compassionate and strongly motivated by a desire for justice.
8 “I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
“Will He find faith” — as the time for Christ’s return approaches, Christians become more marginalised and an increasingly secular society becomes more and more alienated from God, bringing the question into new focus.
Reflection
SUMMARY Some parables are a picture of opposites, like the dismissive judge who represents the corrupt self-interest of the institution. By contrast, approaching God the Father is not about someone’s judgment of eligibility but coming through a relationship — not what you know (how to get action, how much to bribe, how to earn merit) but who you know — through Jesus.
APPLICATION Knowing the Father who is defined by His merciful nature and justice, but also the God of ultimate power, changes everything. How do we know Him in this way? It comes by faith and our way in is faith and this through the Son, Jesus. That is because Jesus, by His self-sacrifice which bore our sin, has made His special way for anyone who trusts in who He is and what He has done.
QUESTION When have you battled with an uncaring and faceless institution? How does this story suggest another means of intervention?
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 — How to stay true in the face of difficulty
We need sound scriptural teaching to keep us close to God and His ways
14-15 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
“From infancy” — a Jewish boy began to learn the Hebrew Scriptures from about the age of five.
16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
“All Scripture” — refers to the OT but includes the growing body of Holy Spirit-inspired NT writing. At this time some of the gospels and letters were in circulation, and in Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he defines quotations from the OT and from Luke’s gospel.
• For further study: 1 Tim. 5:18, Deut 25:4 and Luke 10:7.
4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge:
“This charge” — a weighty command in legal language which invokes Father and Son as witnesses
2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction.
“In season and out of season” — Paul well understood the opposition which Timothy faced and gave him the solemn charge not to be swayed by it, or be tempted to compromise, but to use sound, accurate teaching to put right errors and encourage true faith in Jesus and His Good News.
3-4 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
“Sound doctrine” — may be what people need but not what they want, if it confronts the beliefs they hold. Timothy is to concentrate on Scriptural teaching that builds spiritual maturity.
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
“Do the work of an evangelist” — proclaiming the content of the gospel to those as yet outside the household of faith. This does not categorise Timothy as an evangelist, Eph. 4:11, but as with all Christians, one who will proclaim Christ to those who do not know Him.
Reflection
SUMMARY Any godly person facing into difficulty and injustice, like the woman being dismissed by the judge, or Timothy being dismissed by older and influential church members, has to resolve what they may know in their heads, but struggle to believe in their hearts. The new covenant that was Jeremiah’s prophetic insight bridges that gap. It also points to three important spiritual attributes that Timothy possessed, which are the ‘how to’ ways we work out Jeremiah’s visionary insight.
APPLICATION Timothy in Ephesus faced dismissive opposition — like the woman in Jesus’ parable — but he carried a wisdom beyond his years which came through three essential spiritual attributes, which can also be ours.
- Firstly, he was equipped with a thorough knowledge of the God-breathed truth of Scripture.
- Secondly, he was spiritually renewed through having come into a personal relationship with the Father through Jesus.
- Thirdly, like most of those in the Early Church and especially as one coached by Paul, he knew to place his reliance on the leading and revealing work of the Holy Spirit.
There is always pressure to compromise, to veer to what people say they want, rather than steer for the Lord’s will — and we need to be confident about resisting this. It’s not about readily quoting verses to people, but when what we reason or share comes from a sound believing grasp of God’s word in its entirety, it will have the power of its good provenance. And we will be able to back it up, if that is called for.
QUESTION What can we learn from Christians in that Early Church, facing constant adversity, but confident about taking Word and Spirit to guide their practice?
PRAYER Lord, as we come to You through Your Word we see character redeemed, and heart and understanding renewed. We find Your commitment of love and care affirmed in Jesus’ teaching, and Your Word upheld as our utterly reliable standard.
Forgive us where we have compromised, made accommodations, and veered towards pleasing people before honouring You, our Lord and God.
As You choose to make us Your partners in bringing Your kingdom order, so we ask You to protect and guide and empower us to be those trusting partners You seek.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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SUBSIDIARY STORY: Jacob’s life-changing encounter with God
Genesis 32:22-31 is also set for October 16 as an alternative OT reading,
This is where Jacob meets God in a struggle and emerges a changed man with a new name, Israel (‘God Overcomes’) and a new identity. It is a type, or pre-figure, of the spiritual transformation we experience when we submit to God by trusting Jesus.
In the story, Jacob finds himself at night by the Jabbok river that flows west into then Jordan, and a man wrestles with him until dawn. Jacob shows strong will and endurance until he suffers an injury, but still maintains he will not let the other go until he receives a blessing. The story is ambiguous about whether Jacob is contending with an angel or with an appearance of God, but he later names the place Peniel, ‘Face of God’ because he considered that there, he saw God face to face, yet his life was spared. He stayed true through this severe test, but at the same time his life and identity was transformed by it — as ours is when we meet with Jesus and surrender to Him.
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