July 28 ▪ Day 209

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 20:10
Deuteronomy 5–6
Matthew 28
Jude
Psalms 25

Verse Focus (Proverbs 20:10)

Differing weights and differing measures —
     the LORD detests them both.

Meditation

Proverbs 20:10 says, “Differing weights and differing measures — the LORD detests them both.” Or, as the ESV says, “They are… an abomination to the LORD.”

When I read this proverb, I think of the way items were bought and sold in traditional markets. By weight, and by volume. There would be standard weights that would be used to weigh the goods, and standard measuring cups or baskets or jars — to measure an equal volume of goods for sale. Sellers who substituted a false weight could cheat their customers into getting less than they paid for. The same with false measures — it’s a way to defraud a customer. Perhaps the customer could be the one cheating, too, as I suppose it’s possible that they might also have their own weights and measures.

So, God hates the cheating. He wants honesty and integrity in transactions between people. He desires fairness.

Because this proverb makes me first think about the old ways of buying and selling using weights and measures, it can sometimes get in the way of understanding what this proverb means for us today. Differing measures. God is displeased when the starting salary for a job differs depending on whether the applicant is male or female, white or black. But it’s not just about money and finance. Some of our laws are very discriminatory, too.

Indeed, this proverb is about justice and fairness in all the different ways people interact in society. That’s a pretty tall order. But if we start small — resolving to be honest — we can go on from there. Most of don’t control prices in a store, or what a company offers in the way of salary. But we do have the choice to hide things or to be honest in our taxes. Every day there are opportunities to lie, and the same opportunities to tell the truth. Let us be people of integrity!

Father God, please help us to see how we can apply today’s proverb to our everyday lives. Help us to be fair and honest in our dealings with one another. May we speak the truth, even when it might show us in a less than flattering light. If we are cheating in small ways, bring it to our attention and enable us to stop. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

In Deuteronomy 5, just before Moses recites the Ten Commandments, he says something quite interesting. “The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers,” Moses says in verse 3, “but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive.” Many translations simply use the word “ancestors” instead of fathers, since that can be one of the meanings of that particular word Hebrew word. And it’s true that the covenant made at Sinai differed from the covenant God made with Noah, and the covenant He made with Abraham. At Sinai, God’s covenant was with the entire nation of Israel. And even though the previous generation has passed away, God’s covenant with the nation stands firm even though most of the people present for Moses’ speech on this day were likely not even alive when the covenant was originally made. Still, however awkwardly worded it sounds to our ears, Moses’ point is clear. All of the Israelites standing there are part of God’s covenant with Israel. Indeed, they were born into the covenant, and are bound by its provisions as much as their parents were when they agreed to the covenant a generation earlier.

The generation standing before Moses in Deuteronomy 5 did not personally hear God’s voice as He spoke the Ten Commandments. But they would have heard the stories. And Moses reminds them that the people begged not to hear more of the law directly from the LORD. Verse 25 recalls their words. “If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, we shall die.” The LORD agreed with this assessment (v. 25). And so Moses was given the rest of the law, as well as the responsibility for teaching the law to the Israelites.

Verse 29 records God’s wish. “Oh, that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” the LORD exclaims. But even as God says this, He knows that the Israelites will not always prove faithful. They will receive the blessings for obedience, but they will also receive all the curses for disobedience detailed in Deuteronomy 28.

After reciting again the Ten Commandments that God Himself spoke to the Israelites in Exodus 20, in Deuteronomy 6 Moses now gives the command that Jesus said was the greatest of them all: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might (v. 5).” It follows immediately after the Shema, the most important Jewish prayer: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one (v. 4).” Other ways of translating this prayer into English include The LORD our God is one LORD; or The LORD is our God, the LORD is one; or The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.

Moses reminds the Israelites that they must take special care not to forget the LORD when they are living a life of ease in the Promised Land. “When you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD,” say verses 11 and 12. Indeed, we have this same problem when we are surrounded by plenty.

Verse 16 is the law that Jesus quoted when he was refuting Satan’s temptation to prove he was the Son of God by forcing angels to care for him (Matthew 4:7): “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test.” This is a difficult law to understand in some ways. It’s easy for us to see that jumping off a tall building to claim a promise of protection is testing the LORD in a bad way. And while we understand that grumbling is bad, the Israelites needed water and had none at Massah (Exodus 17). So how, exactly, were they testing God? The Scripture tells us that’s what they were doing. They had followed God’s directions to get to this spot. But there was no water. Clearly, testing God is not just a matter of your actions but your attitude. God had proved Himself able to provide bread and meat not too long earlier, so perhaps it was testing God because they failed to believe that He could or would provide for their needs.

When we rely on one of God’s promises in Scripture, in faith we ask God to fulfill that promise. But if we don’t believe that God will honor His word, and cite it to Him anyway, perhaps we are then testing God. I think when we expect God to bail us out of our own foolishness, that’s also testing God. On the other hand, humbling ourselves, admitting our foolishness, and asking for help and mercy — that’s not testing God.

Matthew 28 begins with Jesus’ resurrection and ends with the Great Commission. The angels tell the two Marys to tell the disciples that Jesus has risen from the dead and that “he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.” As they run to tell the disciples this news, they meet up with Jesus himself. After greeting them, Jesus, too, gives them this same message in verse 10. “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Why did Jesus tell the Marys not to be afraid? I can understand why the angel said that to them, because the angel was clearly a heavenly being and because they didn’t fully understand what was happening. But wouldn’t they have met Jesus with joy? I’ve always imagined disbelief turning into joy when I thought of Jesus’ loved ones seeing him after the grave. After all, the Scripture tells us that they worshiped him. But perhaps I’m the one being naïve. Perhaps they truly did feel fear. Even as they recognized Jesus and knew they loved him, they were also confronted with the reality that he was so much more than they had ever realized.

When we read this chapter six months ago, I mentioned how peculiar it was that Jesus was in such a hurry to get to Galilee. It was, at minimum, a four-day walk away from Jerusalem (not that Jesus was necessarily restricted to walking there in his resurrection body). The only answer I could come up with is that Jesus’ family and his home base was in Galilee. Still, it seems curious that he didn’t even want to wait to see his disciples before heading straight to Galilee. Even though many people saw Jesus in his resurrection body, probably the bulk of those people saw him in Galilee — not Jerusalem. Perhaps it was, in part, a kind of judgment on Jerusalem. The chief priests and Pharisees had conspired to kill Jesus; they did not merit seeing him risen from the dead. Perhaps, too, it was wiser for Jesus’ disciples to get out of town. Better for the various reunions to happen away from the watchful eyes of the religious and civil leaders.

What strikes me most about Jesus hurrying to Galilee is that he now has a completely different priorities than he had previously. Before, so much of what he did revolved around teaching his disciples. But that phase of his life is complete, now. I don’t fully know why Jesus needed to go to Galilee, but Jesus clearly has things that are important for him to do. He keeps his own counsel.

Verse 16 says, “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.” Did any of you wonder when Jesus told them to go to this mountain? Matthew doesn’t mention anything about this. Perhaps it happened on that same day that he first arose. He had taught Cleopas and the other disciple on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24); later he appeared to the disciples after Cleopas and the other man had gone back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples of their encounter with Jesus. But what were the disciples still doing in Jerusalem? Jesus had sent messages for them to go to Galilee. But they did not believe.

The gospel ends with the magnificent promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Did the disciples understand that this was the kind of promise that God gives? We understand the deity inherent in this verse because we live 2,000 years after these events. But I wonder how the apostles interpreted these words. Of course, by the time Matthew wrote this gospel, he probably understood these words the same way we do. Words of comfort; a promise of God’s steadfast and enduring love.

Jude writes a quick letter to the believers to warn them against false teachers who “have crept in unnoticed (v. 4)” to the church. With all the scathing remarks that Jude makes about these false teachers, one wonders how such evil people ever managed to escape the notice of the faithful. These teachers “pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality (v. 4).” Verse 8 continues, “On the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.” They are “grumblers, malcontents” and “loud-mouthed boasters (v. 16).” In verse 12, Jude calls them “hidden reefs” and “waterless clouds.” Submerged, hiding — promising, yet never delivering.

“Woe to them!” Jude says in verse 11. “For they walked in the way of Cain [jealous of their righteous brothers, becoming murderers] and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error [abandoned themselves to materialism, loving money and profit] and perished in Korah’s rebellion [desired to be religious leaders and ended up being destroyed for their presumption].”

Despite calling these false teachers “blemishes (v. 12),” Jude does not counsel any particular action against these ungodly people. He merely exhorts the believers to focus on their own faith, to pray in the Spirit, and to keep themselves in God’s love (v. 20-21). He tells them to show mercy to those who doubt (v. 22) — perhaps those influenced by these false teachers? Others are to be snatched “from the fire (v. 23)” — perhaps these are the false teachers? The ignorant and ungodly? Still others are to be shown “mercy with fear (v. 23)” — although I’m not at all sure what this means. Perhaps it is a reference to remind the ungodly that Jesus will destroy those who do not believe (v. 5).

The letter concludes with one of the best doxologies in the Bible. “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling,” verse 24 begins. Isn’t that a wonderful way to think of God? Not just that He can pick us up and keep us on the right path, but that He can keep us from falling in the first place! Amen!

Psalm 25 is a prayer for grace and mercy, and a plea for deliverance. Verse 8 says, “Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.” Therefore. Because God is good, He teaches us. Because He is righteous, He sent us Jesus to show us the way. The psalm speaks of God’s mercy and steadfast love.

Verse 3 tells us, “None who wait for you shall be put to shame.” Despite “the sins of my youth or my transgressions (v. 7),” those who humble themselves before God will find that He deals with us according to his goodness and steadfast love, rather than by what we deserve. God pardons our guilt, and offers friendship to those who fear Him. This is the One who sent us Jesus. This is the good news of the gospel. Hallelujah!

Father God, thank you that you do not deal with us according to our transgressions, but you forgive us and free us from our bondage to sin. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your mercy and grace. Please help us also to extend mercy and grace to those around us. We pray that your Spirit will guard us from false teachers. May we have insight into your Word so that it will guard us from false teaching. Thank you for working throughout history to teach us and train us in righteousness. Thank you for Jesus. We pray in his name, Amen.