Notes from my Bible Study for March 14, 2010

Today's Reading: Psalm 73, Exodus 19, Ezra 9, Romans 9:1-29

Psalm 73 - Book three of the Psalms opens with a wonderful testimony of the way that God had worked in the life of the psalmist. This psalm was written by Asaph. At first we see a man conflicted. He writes as one who is frustrated by the fact that the wicked not only prosper, but that their life looks better than his. In verses 16-17, Asaph worships God in His temple and his entire perspective changes. The psalm literally turns itself around. Instead of seeing things from a skewed, earthly perspective, Asaph now has God's perspective. Instead of seeing all that he is missing by not living according to the world's standards, Asaph realizes who he is in Christ.

We could learn much from this psalm. Asaph's struggles mirror contemporary culture. Many of us struggle with the desire to be just like the world. God has a plan for us that is so much better than anything that the world can offer us. We can lose perspective when we isolate ourselves from the Lord. We need to spend time with Him in order to see this world with the correct eyes. Praise God for all that He has blessed you with today.

Exodus 19 - This is a crucial chapter in the book of Exodus. It is here that God and the Children of Israel make a covenant with each other. He will be there God and they will be their people. God chose the people of Israel for Himself, and they too chose God. After making the decision that God would be the One that they followed, the Lord made Moses an intermediary between God and the people. Moses and Aaron were allowed on God's holy hill. The people were not. How awe inspiring it must have been to see the power of God displayed on that mountain! The people heard God's voice. The people saw great displays of God's power. God let the people know in no uncertain terms however that to come on the mountain would cost them their lives. Why? He was establishing the concept of His holiness, and being a people who are set apart to a holy God.

I appreciate this note from the ESV Literary Study Bible: The people of Israel reach the goal of their pilgrimage and camp at the foot of Mount Sinai (vv. 1–2). Moses alone goes up the mountain to meet with God, who invites his people to belong to him in the covenant and to be his treasured possession among the nations (vv. 3–6). The people accept this invitation and go through elaborate preparations to consecrate themselves for the holy worship of God. The tension in this chapter comes from the dangerous presence of God, who is so awesome that people may not even touch his holy mountain (vv. 12–13, 21) but can only tremble at the divine glory they see in fire and smoke and hear in the thundering voice of God (vv. 16–18). This dramatic portrayal of divine majesty serves to emphasize the crucial role of Moses as the mediator who goes between the people and God. The dominant literary motif is the *theophany—the appearance of the deity amid spectacular natural displays.

Ezra 9 - God had set the Children of Israel apart to Himself. As such, He had established a number of laws that they were to abide by. Among those laws was that the Children of Israel were not to intermarry with other nations. Somewhere along the line, it had become the cultural norm for the Israelites to intermarry with other nations. In Ezra's ninth chapter, Ezra takes stock of the nation of Israel. The people had drifted so far from God. Drift in one area and you are bound to drift in others. This was just one area that the Israelites were rejecting God's authority in their lives, ultimately allowing idolatry to creep into the land. Ezra pleads on behalf of the people for God's mercy, reminding the Lord that there was a faithful remnant following Him.

Romans 9:1-29 - Paul begins a new section of teaching in Romans 9. Romans 9-11 deal with God's plan for Israel. The Lord is not through with Israel. He still has a special place in His heart for the nation. They are a covenantal people. Paul begins to deal with the difficult question about what God does with a people who have rejected Christ as the Messiah. He teaches about God's sovereignty and the fact that God saves some and rejects others. As he teaches, he raises a series of rhetorical questions, which he answers immediately. In order to understand chapter nine, you must read it in context with chapters 10-11. Some of Scripture's most clear teaching on the doctrine of election is shown in these chapters. Paul shows how God sometimes allows people to reject Him so that He will ultimately be glorified. He uses Moses' interactions with Pharaoh as an example of this.

The Literary Study Bible does a better job of explaining this than me. Here is what the study notes in that Bible say: Chapter 9 marks the beginning of a major new section in the body of the epistle. The apostle has just stated that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. But what about the Jews? Hasn’t God rejected them for rejecting the Christ? The next three chapters will explain God’s purpose for Paul’s fellow Israelites and in doing so will also probe the mysteries of divine sovereignty and the doctrine of election. The main point of the first section is that God is absolutely sovereign in saving some people and rejecting others. The apostle advances this biblical, logical, and theological argument by making the following points, many of them with reference to specific examples and prophecies in the Old Testament: to Paul’s distress, and despite having every spiritual advantage, many of his beloved fellow Jews have rejected the Christ (vv. 1–5); this does not mean that God’s promise has failed, however, because the doctrine of election teaches that God never intended to save each and every person (vv. 6–13); to answer the objection that election is unfair, Paul proves God’s justice by appealing to the example of his sovereign dealings with Moses and Pharaoh (vv. 14–18); to answer the objection that divine sovereignty eliminates human responsibility, Paul shows that it is God’s unquestionable prerogative to glorify himself by showing mercy to the people he chooses to save and wrath to the people he chooses to destroy, whether Jews or Gentiles (vv. 20–29). The rhetorical strategy of raising questions and then immediately answering them continues to dominate the letter.