My blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 6 seconds. If not, visit
http://codykimmel.wordpress.com
and update your bookmarks.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Moses' Doxology

““For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.” Deuteronomy 4:32

The book of Deuteronomy could also be called the "The Last Will and Testament of Moses." After seeing the burning bush in the desert, the ten plagues in Egypt, the seas parted, water from the rock, mann from heaven, the cloud by day, and fire by night, Moses was a man who was absolutely transformed by the power of God's presence. Now he has come to the end of his life. God has already told him when and where he is going to die, so Moses speaks to the people one last time and tells them his hopes for them as they enter into the promised land and move forward without him. He begins by recounting all that God had done for the nation of Israel since Egypt and by chapter 4, Moses is overwhelmed with praise. He cries out, "Can you believe the God that we serve?! Is there any other god like him?!" To hear a man so in tune to the heart of God praise is a humbling and transforming thing. Today as we go to church or spend time with the family at home or whatever we are doing, let's take time out of our day to remember all that God has done in our life. I remember how I was a year ago, two years ago, five years ago. I remember the fear and anxiety Lauren and I had moving up to Dallas, the uncertainty of provisions. I remember looking at our feeble plans and timeline for our family. And then I think of how in every way, God has proven to provide more abundantly than we could ever deserve. He has given us a roof and food and joy and friendship. He has grown our marriage continually closer. He has given us a son to be born in the summer. The Lord God is a great God and there are no other gods beside Him! Oh what a wonderful God we serve!

Lord Jesus, help us to stop and remember the wonderful things you've done in our lives. We praise you because you are a God mighty and unique over all of creation!

Friday, February 19, 2010

You Can't Get Away With It

“But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:23

If we sin, it will eventually come out. Too often we as believers fall victim to the lie that sin won't catch up to us. So we spend time managing and fighting against the obvious and outward sins, like drinking or open sexual perversion, but allow the secret sins of pride, of lust, of selfishness, and of malice rule in our hearts because we believe nobody will ever find out about them. God addresses this very issue with the tribes of Reuben and Gad in Numbers 32. Since both of those tribes were herding clans, they saw the area east of the Jordan and asked permission to settle there instead of across the Jordan in the land of the Canaanites. At first, God denied them the request because he thought it was unfair for them to abandon the other tribes in driving out the inhabitants of the land. So as a compromise, the tribes of Gad and Reuben asked if they still fought with the other tribes, could they still settle in the land of Gilead. God agreed but warned them that if they break the deal and don't keep their word, even if it is not initially obvious, their sin would eventually be found out. God's warning is significant, we can be positive that our sin will find us out. What is secret will not remain secret. History has proven over and over that this is true. Secret affairs in congress or churches all come to light eventually, hate manifest in our heart eventually comes to light in the way we begin treating others, marriages that seem great on the outside end up failing because of secret addictions. Sin is of the nature of being ultimately exposed so that it will destroy the thing it inhabits. So we need to stop being naive in believing that we can get away with secret sin...there is no such thing!

Lord Jesus convict us and lead us to repent those secret things that you will ultimately expose. Forgive us for all the horrible ways that we break your heart and your commandments.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Cost of Sin

“But among these there was not one of those listed by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had listed the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the LORD had said of them, “They shall die in the wilderness.” Not one of them was left, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.” Numbers 26:64-65

There are two censuses taken in the Book of Numbers. The significance of the first is to show the fulfillment of God's promise of nationhood to Abraham. The second is to show the fulfillment of a different promise. Between the first census and the second census, the generation of men and women who were lead out of Egypt grumbled constantly, rebelled against Moses and God, and whored after foreign women. Because of their sins God made a promise: none of them, except for Caleb and Joshua, may enter into the promise land. At the close of the second census, I can only imagine the amazement of the Levites who conducted it. No one was left from the first generation. Because of their sins God killed them all or caused them to wander long enough for them to die, and the promise that was meant for them was given to their children. It seems as though when a generation of God's people sin on a whole scale level like they did, God has no problem withholding his promised blessing for later. In the same way, the cost of sin for God's people does not mean the abandonment of God's promise or relationship, but it can often times mean the withholding of blessing for us. God can withhold blessings for a number of reasons: discipline, faith testing, because-he's-God-and-He-wants-to, or because the sin present in our lives would tarnish and make void the blessing he wants to give us. We need to constantly be asking ourselves two questions. What sin is in my life that is keeping me from God's blessing? And what sin in our generation is keeping God from moving the way he wants to in our midst? The cost of sin is death and the withholding of blessing, so let us repent and turn back to God, so that we do not get passed over for the next generation.

Lord Jesus, we repent of our individual and corporate sins of idolatry, lust, greed, pride, and selfishness. Please do not pass us over and withhold your blessing from us!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Speak the Truth

“Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come to you! Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.”” Numbers 22:38

Balaam was a prophet of God who was asked to speak a curse on the people of Israel by an enemy king. Although at first not very stellar in his obedience, so much so that his donkey had to speak to him, in the end Balaam proves to be a great example of a man who speaks the truth of God despite the outside pressures placed on him by his peers. Every single one of us will be faced with the same situation Balaam was faced with. We will be asked by a dear friend who doesn't believe if God would really send him to hell if he died tomorrow. We will be asked how the biblical statements about homosexuality could really have relevance in modern western culture. We will have our friendships and relationships with family members strained by the truth of God and its utter incapability to synthesize with our cultural values and religious ethos. When modern scholars attack over and over again the authority and credibility of God's word, we will have to answer them. As cultural spirituality continues in its path towards tolerance and relativism, we will have to defend the unique and exclusive message of the gospel. And when those times arrive, which they will for every single believer, we must speak the truth and not bow to pressures and whims of our culture. The gospel does not need to change to have relevance to those who don't believe, and we hurt the credibility of God when we change what he says to please the men around us.

Lord Jesus, give us courage to speak the truth no matter what and stand up for what you said in a culture that is contrary!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Moses' Mishap

“And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”” Numbers 20:12

God's lordship and holiness is paramount and his zeal for his glory goes beyond all things, even his fervent love and dedication to his servant Moses. In Numbers 20, Moses makes a mistake that costs him entry into the promised land. It takes up such a short section in the book of Numbers, it is easy to gloss over and miss the significance. Moses, after Jesus, is easily my favorite character in the Bible. And it is hard to read through the Pentateuch and not develop a deep reverence and sympathy for this great man. He put up with an entire nation who most of the time was against him. He was a man betrayed by everyone close to him, who's closeness with God made him an alien to his own people. But in spite of all of that, time and time again, he proved faithful to God and sought him with passion and humility. Because of this, when God tells him he can't enter the promised land because he struck the rock twice instead of speaking to it, it seems rather unfair. If anybody was in a position to get a mulligan from God, it was Moses. But instead, the very land he longed for, the promise he had been assuring all the people of Israel with was snatched from his grasp. I struggle with this story. I even wrote a song about this story. I struggle with the thought of a God who can't look at all that Moses did and pardon that one mistake. Reprimand him yes, but make sure the punishment fits the crime. However, in struggling through this story, the powerful truth of God's zeal for his holiness hit me like a ton of bricks. Earlier God asked Moses to strike a rock and give Israel water, the second time he only asked him to speak to the rock. The first time you must strike the rock to get fountains of living water, the second time you must only call upon it. The lesson intended by God is obvious, and for reasons the Bible doesn't make clear, Moses disregards God's command and in the end ruins a beautiful illustration God had spent forty years developing. God cares about his holiness and Moses should know this. After God had spent years talking with Moses, unveiling his nature through the details of the Law, Moses should have known that God cares about the details, and when he disregards those details, he defamed the holiness of God. Moses was still a man dear to his heart, but his own holiness was dearer. We need to pay attention to this story because if Moses isn't exempt from the discipline of God, none of us are.

Lord Jesus, give us a passion for your holiness and an attention to the details of your word. Let us take your discipline with humility and accept your Lordship in all matters!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

The Land of Giants

"However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there." Numbers 13:28

There isn't one of us who would say that they don't desire to have perfect joy in the Lord, freedom from sin, and rest in his protection. If we have tasted the promise land of God's grace, our hearts are continually longing for it, yearning to taste the fruit of God's blessings and dwell in the power of His presence. Israel was so close to the land of their inheritance that they could send spies in. And the spies saw a land flowing with milk and honey. But they also saw a land filled with giants and fortified cities. So instead of losing everything to gain their kingdom promised to them, they became deeply afraid. Believer, much of our Christian life is spent camped in the wilderness outside of God's kingdom. We want to enter into the land he promised us, but we know to do that we must face the giants and fortified cities occupying the land. Some of us have giants of doubt and pride, others face fortified cities of abuse and addiction. Despite the longing of our heart to be with Jesus, we can't seem to get beyond the fear of facing our own giants. Just as Israel forgot the promise made to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, we often forget that Christ promised us life through him, victory over sin, and joy regardless of circumstance. So let us enter in trusting in his promise, that whatever giants are keeping us from his presence, God can and will overcome them.

Lord Jesus, give us strength in you to face all the things keeping us from your rest. We love you and want to enter into your peace!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Destruction of Jealousy

"Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman." Numbers 12:1

I can't imagine the betrayal Moses must have felt by Aaron and Miriam speaking against him. Moses was a man with few allies in Israel, but when Aaron and Miriam turned against him, he became alone. God was the only one on his side. Part of being called to a position of leadership and God's blessing is other people's jealousy. Although Aaron and Miriam held a high position of power in Israel and with God, they became jealous of Moses' favored status and sought to undermine his influence by attacking his wife. There was no reason for them to not be grateful for God's gift to them, but instead they let their jealousy of Moses fester and it led them to betray him. At some point in time, all of us will find ourselves on one or both sides of this  situation. With God's blessing and favor comes other people's jealousy. And with God's blessing being poured out to other people, the temptation to covet what they have and neglect what we have been given will always be before us. Ultimately, their jealousy led to Miriam's leprosy and being outcast of the camp for a week. But furthermore, it placed a riff between them and Moses that was probably insurmountable to fully overcome. What is interesting about this story is who is ultimately hurt by Aaron and Miriam's gossip is Aaron and Miriam. Although Moses was temporarily bruised by the betrayal of his friends, it was his friends who lost the most.

Lord Jesus, keep us from jealousy and coveting your blessing. Give us contentment in all that you do!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The God of Promise

“These are the people of Israel as listed by their fathers’ houses. All those listed in the camps by their companies were 603,550.” Numbers 2:32

If you are ever in the mood for some interesting reading, avoid censuses at all costs. There are few things more redundant than counting people and listing the results--which is exactly how the book of Numbers begins. God tells Moses to take a census of each of the tribes and record their numbers. Without any context for the book, Numbers could win the prize for most boring book in the Bible. There is list after list of people and clans and tribes and there doesn't seem to be any spiritual food hiding, just a list of names, important historically, but without spiritual consequence. However, I think there is a reason God wanted Moses to list the peoples and have a record of the nation of Israel. In Genesis 12, God calls Abram, "And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." Almost 600 years before, there was only a man, called by God's divine election and given a promise of a great nation. Despite the unlikelihood of Abraham having any offspring, Abraham believed that God would make good on His promise. The book of Numbers is the proof for the world that God made good on the promise he made to Abraham. Within 600 years of the Abrahamic Covenant, a nation of over 600,000 people exists. The moment this dawned on me I was so humbled by the power of God's word and his nature manifest in the Pentateuch. God is a God who keeps his promises! Believers, God may seem distant at times, our lives seem unbearable, our hearts faint within us, but we have no reason to fear. God keeps his promises and He has promised us a place in heaven with him, he has promised new bodies and new minds, he has promised crowns of righteousness and eternity in the joy of His presence. And though we may not see it now, His promise will be kept.

Lord Jesus, we praise you for the promises you made and the promises you will keep! Thank you for the blessed assurance of your word!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Walking Among Us

“And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.” Leviticus 26:12

God longs to walk among us as he did in Eden. As God gives his law he unveils briefly one of the deepest desires and yearnings of his heart, to walk once again amongst the people he created. Oh what a sweet thought! Just as a husband longs for his estranged wife, a parent waits for the return of their runaway son, a best friend looks forward to the next slumber party, God awaits the day he will be with the creation that he loves. He is the dad waiting to run to us and kill the fatted calf in celebration of our return. He is the shepherd seeking desperately for the one sheep who strayed from the fold. He is the groom praying fervently for the day he is united with his bride. God desires to walk among us, to talk to us, to laugh and enjoy the genius of his handiwork, to hold out his finger and watch as our hands wrap around it. God loves our presence and paid everything to get it back. 

Lord Jesus, restore us in your salvation and walk among us as you did before the fall. Return God and bring about your kingdom!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Acceptable Sacrifice

“And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the LORD, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted.” Leviticus 22:29

Leviticus is a nightmare of a book for a non-details person. Every single sacrifice, every offense, the garments, the building structure, the diet, the feasts, and laws, everything is elaborated to account for every detail. At many times it seems as though God is being redundant. However, the book of Leviticus does have a powerful theme that makes the details significant. God wants his people to be holy, because He is holy. God gives Moses so many details about every process because its important the people get it right and be holy. God wants the sacrifices made by the people to be accepted. He doesn't want them to fail at being his people, so he leaves them detailed instructions. While reading this I grew very convicted of my own offerings to the Lord. Are the songs I lead, the bible studies I have, the prayers I pray, the service and tithe I give acceptable to God? The bible makes it clear that God isn't interested in any kind of worship, but in the kind of worship he has prescribed for his people. Chapters before, Aaron's sons are destroyed because they did not worship the Lord the way in which he commanded them. When I lead worship in a way that glorifies myself or lead with a heart of pride and arrogance, it is not acceptable. When I speak of God in such generalities as to not make him distinct amongst other gods, the offering is not acceptable. When I give or serve or sing or pray or do anything under the guise of worship that is not truly intended for the glory of God, it is not an acceptable offering. God wants us to give sacrifices that will be accepted. 

Lord Jesus, examine our offerings and convict us of false worship. We want to give you the praise you desire and the offerings you will accept!


Saturday, February 6, 2010

Do No Wrong

““When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.” Leviticus 19:33

God is the God of the stranger. He delights in taking people who were once far off and bringing them near, and he asks his people to not do wrong to sojourners in our midst. I will not go as far as some in saying that we live in a Christian nation or that God favors America. We live in a depraved culture who's two gods are self and money and we exist in a church who for the most part has been lulled to sleep by the comforts of this world. However, I will say that the church in America has been put in a significant position to be able to bring justice and aid to the needy, poor, and oppressed of this world. Because of that ability God has granted America's church, there are sojourners among us. The mission field is all around us. It's in our fields, our hotels, our restaurants, our apartments, and the harvest is plentiful. As Christians, we need to ask ourselves the honest question of how we view the sojourners among us and if it aligns with God's heart for the stranger. If the poor are seeking the aid of the Christians of America, then we must do them no wrong. The oppressed may be enemies of the state, but they are desired by God to enter his kingdom. They may be illegal by the laws of America, but they are beloved by God. And the church answers to God! We as Christians are called by God to treat the sojourners with love and be a light to those who come to us seeking shelter, food, and help. The justice of God is contrary to the justice of man. So who do we fear more?

Lord Jesus, convict the American church of its sins of hatred and nationalism. Give us the strength to stand against injustice and love the sojourners among us!

Friday, February 5, 2010

For the Purpose of Holiness

“For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”” Leviticus 11:45

The morality that is commanded by God is not arbitrary. While reading through the laws of defilement and purification and of dietary restrictions, I couldn't help but criticize the seemingly arbitrariness of all the laws. We now know that there are no health problems associated with eating pork or shellfish, or sanitation issues dealing with certain discharges, so we cannot find the purpose of God's dietary and defilement laws in health issues. So what is the reason God gives for the Laws he gives the nation of Israel? The law was given so that we might be holy just as God is holy. What this means is that moral laws don't necessarily need to make sense for them to be valid, because the holiness of God's people is sufficient enough reason for any commandment. With the New Covenant of Christ, there is no longer a need for dietary and defilement issues to set us apart as holy. However, the tendency today is still to see morality as arbitrary standards that don't make sense in our cultural climate. Waiting to live together until you're married does not follow with standards set by our culture. Working through a marriage and sticking with it even when it doesn't bring about your own happiness doesn't make sense in today's culture. Forgiving criminals that harm us, forgiving people in general doesn't fit in a culture built around self gratification. Christian morality, if followed completely is seemingly arbitrary to the standards of the world around us. And it is arbitrary if we forget that the purpose of morality is our holiness because God is holy. Brothers and sisters, we need to live moral lives, not to toot our own horns, not for the sake of piety, but for the sake of God's holiness and uniqueness in the world.

Lord Jesus, make us holy as you are holy and give us a passion for your uniqueness amongst the nations!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Sanctify the Lord

“Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said, ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.” Leviticus 10:3

The words spoken by Moses to Aaron in the above verse must have been so difficult, but so profound, for Aaron to hear right after God kills his two sons for improper worship. Instead of words of condolences and sympathy, Moses cuts to the heart of the issue and reminds him of the grave responsibility of drawing near to God and serving him. No matter what, regardless of people's distance, God will be glorified by all the people. Paul in Philippians reiterates this sentiment that 'every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess, in heaven and earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord.' It is the inevitable end of all of mankind to one day glorify God, some joyfully, some fearfully. But for those who draw near to God, for those who serve him, who call themselves Christians, especially those who serve as ministers, there is a higher expectation. We are to sanctify God. Moses tells Aaron and speaks through the centuries to us that we cannot take lightly the commandments of God, the holiness of His name, and to treat his presence with fear and respect. We must remember his holiness and not act in a way that presents him as less holy to the world around us. Oh how often I would have been consumed by God's wrath and fire by my own desecration of his holiness, if not for the Son pleading before the throne on my behalf! We cannot forget that God is holy and must be treated in a way worthy of the glory due his name.

Lord Jesus, search our hearts and destroy in us everything that desecrates your temple. Help us to sanctify your name as we draw near to you and bring the nations to glorify your name!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The Blood of Forgiveness

“Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar.” Leviticus 4:34

With the style in which Leviticus is written, it's easy to miss the absolute bloody mess the system of sacrifices really was for the nation of Israel. Whether it is a sin offering or a guilt offering, the blood of bulls and rams and goat and lambs and pigeons is being spilled out and sprinkled all over the altar. I don't believe I have any true frame of reference for how bloody all of it would be. At first in reading of the sacrifices my eyes began to glaze over, as many eyes do, and I began to 'read without reading' as can sometimes happen when reading Leviticus. After about the fifth description of the various sin offerings, it struck me. This is gory stuff! And then I began thinking of the verse in Hebrews that says, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins." The Israelites knew the price of sin because they saw the gore and the blood sin caused avery single day. Today, however, the bloody consequence of sin is lost. If we only could see the pain and suffering our sin causes, how would we act differently. If we had to kill our dog or our cat every time we sinned, would it changed the way we lived and more importantly, would it change our understanding of what Christ's blood did for us? Christ's blood was shed, just like the bulls and the goats, so that our sins might be forgiven. Our sin has consequences!

Lord Jesus, let us see the blood shed our sin has incurred and lead us to the altar of repentance!

Monday, February 1, 2010

The Fat is the Lord's

“And the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing aroma. All fat is the LORD’s.” Leviticus 3:16

In our generation, fat is typically considered a bad thing. There are multi-billion dollar industries built around weight loss, healthy eating, and fat burning and the wealthy American is now typically seen as a fit man or woman. However, at the time of the giving of the Pentateuch and for most of history, fat and the ability for someone or something to have fat, was a sign of wealth and plenty. Rich people, until very recently, were typically known by their size. So when God tells Moses in Leviticus that all fat belongs to the Lord, the context is key for understanding the significance of that statement. First in a literal sense, the fat in the offering is not to be consumed by the people but to be burned. However, the nature of this rule says something deeper about God and the nature of sacrifice. If at the time, fat was considered the proof of excessive blessing, God's claim that all fat is the Lord's was referring to more than just the fat of the bulls in the offering. All the blessings and excess in our life belong to the Lord and should be offered up to his service. The modern fat is seen less in the fat of our body but in the fat of our paychecks, our belongings, our wealth and our blessings, and God says that those things belong to Him. Are we offering the blessings we have to the service of God? Does our fat belong to the Lord?

Lord Jesus, give us hearts that desire you more than things and give us the strength to offer you the excess we accrue and the blessings you bestow upon us.