Yesterday we looked at how the Bible is a book of Endurance for all ages and generations of man. To day I want to look at how it is also Food for the Soul. And has become a simple practice I will draw from the writings of Pastor Hoekstra and my E-Sword program and then make use of the ESV translation in our study together.
"The Message of the Law: Be Perfect"
"Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)
"In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus provides a startling summary of the law (Will) of GOD: "be perfect." Our LORD had just been teaching about GOD's Law. His instruction was offering a much deeper understanding of the (spiritual side of the) Law (as it pertains to GODS Will, mans returning to the spiritual nature which he had at the first but had been lost to him) than the teachers of Jesus' day had grasped. He was showing how the law goes far beyond external behavior alone.
The format Jesus used was "You have heard that it was said . . . But I say to you." In Matthew 5:27-28, He addressed the commandment on adultery in this fashion: "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." When lustful imaginations are entertained in our thoughts, adultery has already been engaged in, as far as GOD is concerned.
In Matthew 5:21-22 Jesus had used this same pattern of instruction to reveal GOD's perspective on murder: "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder,' and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment." When vengeful anger floods our thoughts, that is harboring a murderous spirit within the heart. Actual murder and vindictive anger both deserve the same judgment. Clearly, the commandments of the Law of GOD can be transgressed by the unseen attitudes of the heart, as well as by the visible actions of the body.
Again, Jesus summarized such teaching on the Law by saying: "be perfect." In the Law, GOD is requiring a perfection that measures up to the perfect character of the Father Himself. The Law is saying that we are to hold within our hearts and manifest through our actions a character that matches GOD's. "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."
The Law and the Word being Food for our Soul:
Deuteronomy 8:1-10, 11-17 "The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your GOD has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your GOD disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your GOD by walking in His ways and by fearing (by reverencing) Him. For the LORD your GOD is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your GOD for the good land he has given you.
"Take care lest you forget the LORD your GOD by not keeping His commandments and His rules and His statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your GOD, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, Who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, Who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.'"
Job 23:8-17 "Behold, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive Him; on the left hand when He is working, I do not behold Him; He turns to the right hand, but I do not see Him. But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold. My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my portion of food. But He is unchangeable, and who can turn Him back? What He desires, that He does. For He will complete what He appoints for me, and many such things are in His mind. Therefore I am terrified at His presence; when I consider, I am in dread of Him. GOD has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; yet I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face."
Mem.
Psalm 119:97-104 "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep Your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep Your word. I do not turn aside from Your rules, for You have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way."
Jeremiah 15:15-18, 19-21 "O LORD, You know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your forbearance take me not away; know that for Your sake I bear reproach. Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O LORD, GOD of hosts. I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because Your hand was upon me, for You had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?
Therefore thus says the LORD: "If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before Me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as My mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them. I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the LORD. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless."
Ezekiel 2:7, 8-10 "You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.
"But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you." And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. And He spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woes."
Ezekiel 3:1-3 "He said to me, "Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and He gave me this scroll to eat. And He said to me, "Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it." Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey."
Matthew 4:1-4 "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But He answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
1Peter 2:1-3 "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the LORD is good."
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