February 14

Journey-through-the-Bible-with-us

READING FOR FEBRUARY 14, 2025: JUDGES 17, MATTHEW 10, PSALM 8:7-17                 JUDGES 17 This chapter begins the story of Micah, a man living in Ephraim. He had taken 1,100 pieces of silver from his mother but decided to confess his sin to her. She, delighted with her son for this admission, consecrated to the Lord a carved and caste image for him. Her under- standing of God’s word is totally confused.  Yes, it is good to consecrate people and items to the Lord. But it is a clear violation of God’s second commandment to carve or caste images: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:4).  As will be seen throughout this story, there will be the trappings and language of biblical content but employed in ways that are idolatrous. Likewise, there can places today called “churches” and people called “ministers,” but what underlies them might be completely at odds with the truth of the Gospel. That’s one good reason to read carefully and obey completely all of God’s word.  

Micah played along with his misguided mother. Although we must obey the command to honor our parents (Exodus 20:12), our primary allegiance must always be to God: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). Micah foolishly made a shrine out of these manmade items and installed his son as a priest—clear violations of God’s law. Verse six sums up the philosophical concept behind all this confusion: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” 

This view connects closely with the late twentieth-century philosophy known as post- modernism. A description from the Encyclopedia Britannica: “No general theory of the natural or social world can be valid or true (all are illegitimate ‘metanarratives’).” Thus, a person or a culture can construct a way of living for a certain context, but that way wouldn’t be considered objectively true for all people or in all cultures, such as what the Bible claims for itself. On closer inspection, though, this approach is self-refuting because it itself is a general theory that purports to be valid and true. Thus, if it is true then it cannot be true. It is nonsense. Yet, this is how many, if not most, people operate today. Something can be true for you but not true for me. Something could be true in the Bible’s cultural but can’t be applied today. It’s in the very air we all breathe, and we all operate this way unless we pause to think deeply. If we accept postmodernism, then the Bible is either useless or just a tool to support our personal agenda.

Micah then hires a wandering Levite to become part of his own homemade religion. The fact of his being a Levite apparently lent some creditability to Micah’s mix and match faith. Levites were set apart by God for service in worship, but not this kind of worship. This Levite is a clergy person in it for money only. Micah may be sincere, but he’s wrong.

READINGS FOR FEBRUARY 14, 2025 CONTINUED: MATTHEW 10, PSALM 7: 8-17       MATTHEW 10 It’s good to know that the human authors of the Bible did not include chapter markings in their manuscripts; it was one document without any divisions. The Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton gave us the chapter divisions, likely around 1200. This was very helpful, but sometimes it’s easy to forget the start of a new chapter is more connected to the end of the previous one than we might think. That’s the case moving from Matt. 9 to 10.  At the end of Matt. 9 we find Jesus worried about the masses of people and seeking laborers to minister to them. At the start of Matt. 10 He prepares the 12 disciples to be those laborers. Their marching orders:  

  • Go only to Jews, not to Gentiles or Samaritans at this time. Jesus was sent to the Jews first. Israel, though God’s chosen people, was lost and needed salvation. Jesus tells his disciples to go to the ends of the earth later. This is our mission, too. 
  • Preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Their Jewish audience knew something big was up: “God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for an- other people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever” (Dan. 2:44).                                  
  • Heal the Sick. It says in Matt. 10:1 that Jesus gave them authority to heal every kind of sickness. After Jesus, healing might be less part of outreach to unbelievers than part of the normal life within the church. In 1 Cor. 12:9 some in the church are given the gift of healing to serve within the body. In James 5:13-15 the James, half-brother of Jesus, tells the sick in church to ask the elders to pray for and anoint them.  Why don’t we see more divine healing today?
  • Don’t take money with you but stay in a worthy person’s house. A husband (Biola grad.) and wife (Taylor grad.) currently spread the gospel in Indonesia. They take their rickety boat down the river to stop at various villages. When they find a “worthy person” they pile into the person’s house, unfurl their sleeping bags, and stay a week or so until they have talked about Jesus to everyone in the usually Muslim village. They are just crazy enough to trust the Bible and put it into practice. It works for them.

The rest of the chapter does not paint an unrealistically rosy picture about being workers for Jesus. Jesus said some would be arrested, which certainly happened to many of the disciples. As Jesus mentioned, though, this would be an opportunity to testify before the Gentiles about Jesus—as Paul later did in Caesar’s own house. Some would be killed, as most traditions say happened to all of them. He told them, if they are persecuted, leave town and witness at the next one. Don’t worry; these people can’t kill the soul or send them to hell.    

It’s in this bleak earthly context Jesus reminds them/us that they/we are worth more than sparrows and all their/our hairs are numbered. Those willing to confess Jesus before men will not be denied by Jesus before the Father. Those losing their life for Jesus will find it. Do we really believe that, whatever rejection we face for Jesus now, for these few earthly years, it’s more than worth it for the joy of His presence now and our eternal joy after our earthly lives? 

PSALM 7:8-17  David declares that God will judge those called wicked and those called righteous. David refers to God as a righteous judge who “saves the upright in heart” but allows whoever has dug a pit to fall “into the hole which he has made.”  The New Testament also teaches this, but in a sense, David might not have fore-- seen. In Rom. 1:16 Paul writes, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of salvation to everyone who believes.”  But a few verses later he writes, “Professing to be wise, they became fools ...Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (Rom 1:22 and 24). If we believe the Gospel of Jesus, our salvation is assured. If we reject the Gospel of Jesus, we will not be rescued from our sins but experience the natural consequences of them.