Leviticus 11 - Clean and Unclean

Now we come to various food laws, with definitions of clean and unclean animals. The key distinctions were whether an animal chewed the cud and whether or not it had a divided hoof.

Sometimes people try to explain these rules on the basis of hygiene and food safety. These attempts are really not justified, and while some of the prohibitions had beneficial health effects, others did not. No, the reason for these laws is religious. Wenham says there were three main states: holy, clean and unclean. Being unclean did not necessarily mean sinful either, as one could become unclean through normal bodily functions, and normal, even good, acts. 

The chapter ends with an reminder that the people must be holy and are different from other nations, and an injunction that they must distinguish between clean and unclean.

Among the creatures of the sea the possession of fins and scales was the key point.  They were allowed to eat some kinds of insects such as locusts.

In Mark 7:19 we are told that Jesus declared all foods clean, so what is the point of all this? Maybe it was to show that every aspect of their life had to be lived for God. In Galatians Paul tells us that the Law was given to keep people in check until the fulfilment came. So it was kind of teaching infants what it means to live for God. It was not something one did occasionally and then got on the with the rest of your life, but something that pervaded all of ones life. Now we have true life, and it affects all that we do.

Leviticus 10 - The Lord's judgement

Aaron's two sons died. The reason for this is that they offered "unauthorized fire" to the Lord, Ex 30:9 is the key verse. Our natural reaction may be to say that this is too harsh or unfair, but we say that because we do not appreciate the holiness of the Lord. We need to do things His way, otherwise it just leads to trouble. The root of our rebellion was eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which means taking responsibility on ourselves for deciding what is right and what is wrong. Listen to debates on TV or newspapers or radio, listen to the news, listen to the arguments that your own heart and mind produce. They all come down to "I will decide what is right and wrong", at best we allow God to give advice, but God does not give advice, He gives commands.

Aaron and his two other sons had to obey Moses carefully, and they now seemed to appreciate the gravity of the situation. Again it may seem unfair that they were not allowed to mourn. As leaders we sometimes have to say no to our feelings, even to our "rights".

Notice that God then gives Aaron and his sons further instructions on how to perform their duties. Judgement had been executed, now it was time to move on. Sometimes God needs to discipline us, but we need to understand that it does not mean He is against us. Rather He wants us to learn from it and then to move on.

In the final few verses we see Moses showing some compassion. There is a time to implement rules strictly, and there is a time to be lenient. In this chapter we have seen incidences of both.

Leviticus 9 - The glory of the Lord

Aaron, and all the people were to make an offering to the Lord. The priest had a special function, but all the people were involved as well. In the same way we need to get involved in what Jesus has done. See also that the Lord was going to appear to them. The whole point of the sacrificial system was for the people to be able to meet with God. Through Christ this has now been completed. But note that the point is not just that our sins are forgiven. Rather it is that our sins are forgiven in order that we can have fellowship with God.

Aaron made offering first for himself. Jesus of course had no need to do this, for He was without sin. Then Aaron made offering for the people.

After the offerings had been made Moses and Aaron went into the tent, and when they came out they blessed the people. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. The glory of the Lord was made real among the people.

The sacrifice we have, the blood of Jesus Christ, is far greater than all these animal sacrifices. So if these mere animal sacrifices led to the glory of the Lord appearing, how much more should we expect to know the presence and glory of God because of the blood of Jesus?

Leviticus 7:22-8:36 - Chewing the fat

The people were not allowed to eat the fat of various animals, nor the blood of any creature. The blood is very precious. This should help us to understand what a mind blowing thing it was when Jesus said we should drink the communion wine remembering His blood. All the sacrifices of the OT pointed towards the cross, but Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was many orders of magnitude greater than all the signs that had gone before.

When fellowship offerings were given a portion had to be given to the priests. Giving to the priests was part of offering. Churches can sometimes pay their pastors and leaders with a very grudging attitude. We should not be like this, but should give gladly, and ensure that our churches pay our leaders properly (I have no vested interest in this, by the way!).

Chapter 8 deals with the ordination of Aaron and his sons for the priesthood. Sacrifices were offered, and Aaron was clothed in special garments. In today's terms we need the cross, and we need to be clothed with the new life.

Some of the blood was put on Aaron. Now I know this would go against health and safety regulations, but the point is that there was an intimate identification of Aaron with the sacrifice.

Aaron was also anointed with oil, just as we need to be anointed with the Holy Spirit.

The priests had to serve the Lord day and night, seven days a week (note that on an unthinking literal interpretation of the Sabbath laws, this would break that rule). We are all priests now, and we should all be continually devoted to the Lord.

Leviticus 5:14-7:21 - Unintentional sins

Now we come to the guilt offering, and again there is an emphasis on unintentional sins. We very readily say "I didn't mean to", and often this may well be true. So why were offerings still needed, why are unintentional sins so important? The reason is that sin is more than what we do, it is what we are. Our very nature is corrupted, so we can sin without trying! We need both forgiveness and a new nature, which is why we need to be born again of the Holy Spirit. 

With guilt offerings, as well as the sacrifice, the person had to pay restitution.

Chapter 6 starts to talk about specific sins, deceiving or cheating someone. We can do this so easily, lies can slip out without thinking. Later the person realises what they have done. They must then seek forgiveness, and seek to put things right if possible.

The chapter then moves on to what had to be done with the various offerings. A key point is that it is God who decides how things are to be done. Our human nature is to think that we should decide how things should be done, and no one else has the right to tell us how to do things. If we want to get right with God we need to submit to Him, there needs to be a change of heart.

Leviticus 4:1-5:13 - Sin Offerings

The sin offering was for specific unintentional sin. Different sacrifices were required for different people. High priests brought a young bull, male goats for leaders, female goats or lambs for common people, doves or pigeons for poor people, and a tenth of an ephah of flour for the very poor. 

The system was designed so that everyone could make a sacrifice for their sin. The principle that applies now is that everyone's sin can be forgiven by believing in Jesus. Whoever you are, you are not excluded.

As with other sacrifices, there is a lot of detail about what to do with the blood and various internal organs. 

A young bull also had to be offered if the whole community was guilty of some unintentional sin. 

Sins of omission were important as well as sins of commission. Failing to speak up when they can about a public charge against someone is mentioned specifically.

What can we learn from all this, apart from being glad that we don't have to go through all this rigmarole any more? Unintentional sins matter, and we can become "contaminated" by everyday life. In the Lord's prayer we ask for forgiveness everyday.

Leviticus 2,3 - Grain and Fellowship Offerings

Again we have the emphasis on quality. Grain offerings were to be made of the finest flour. Whatever we offer to the Lord should be our best. That is why tithing has the important principle of giving the first tenth. We give to God first, not after we have decided how much we have left.

Part of the grain offering was burnt, and the other part was eaten by the priests. Burning signified offering to God. There is an important point here. Some of our offerings are obviously useful. Ie money given to the poor, missionaries, the church etc. But offering is not purely utilitarian. Ultimately we are offering to God.

It says that the part that belongs to Aaron and his sons is "most holy". So there is a vital balance here. What is given to the church (and used to pay pastors and other church workers) is as holy as any other part of offerings.

Fellowship offerings signified peace and fellowship. Peace with God is essential if we are to have fellowship with Him. Note also that fellowship with God is a crucial part of the goal of the gospel. There are similarities and differences between fellowship and burnt offerings. Indeed our fellowship is built upon the sacrifice of Jesus.

Leviticus 1 - Burnt offerings

Leviticus is the third book of the Pentateuch and derives its name from Septuagint (Greek translation of the OT). The Hebrew title is "And he called", from the opening line of the book. The book is really about sacrifice and holiness. It is difficult for us to appreciate it as our natural reaction to much of it is "what's all this about", but we will do our best.

The first seven chapters deal with various offerings: burnt, grain, fellowship, sin and guilt. In reading this we should see how it points forward to the one true sacrifice, Jesus Christ.

The first offering dealt with is the burnt offering. Note that all these instructions came from the Lord. Moses met with God in the tent of meeting, and what we read here are some of the things that God told him. We do well to remember that it was God who told Moses all this stuff, so there must be something in it.

The burnt offering made Moses acceptable to God. He had to lay his hand on the head of the animal, ie there has to be a personal identification with the sacrifice. In the same way we must identify with Christ's sacrifice on the cross if we are to benefit from it, we need to believe. The animal was to be completely burnt up, ie it was a complete sacrifice.

The sacrifice was to be without defect. This points forward to the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

Psalm 56 - Rescue me O Lord

Yet another prayer from affliction. Remember that this is from David, and a good number of his prayers are uttered out of distress. David was also king and a warrior. Just because we experience feelings of fear or dread does not mean that we cannot also become victorious warriors for Christ. We need to follow the example of David.

First, he calls upon the Lord to be merciful. The basis for our confidence is not our abilities, but the grace of God. So when he is afraid he puts his confidence in the Lord. Furthermore, he praises the word of God. 

When we do this we realise that compared to the greatness of God our enemies and problems are as nothing.

The enemies continue to conspire against David. They twist his words, and they are proud. 

David also calls on God to record his misery. Often we try to hide the fact that we are struggling, but this is not the way to do things. We should be open with God, He cares about the anguish that we sometimes experience in life.

We become warriors for God not by pretending, but by being open with God and trusting in Him, and walking in integrity.

Psalm 55 - Rescued from the conflict

Jerusalem was under threat from a conspiracy, possibly that led by Absalom. Attacks from within are usually a lot harder to deal with than attacks from the enemy.

The conspirators hailed down insults and accusations upon David. Most leaders will have experienced this at some time in their life, probably on numerous occasions. When this happens our own thoughts trouble us and you can feel horrible inside.

Note that David is open about the fact that he feels beset by fear. Sometimes we can try and pretend that we are coping fine when we know full well we are not. Look, God knows exactly what we are feeling and thinking anyway, so we might as well be completely honest with God.

David longs to flee away, to be far away from the conflict and have nothing more to do with it. He then calls on God to confuse the enemy.

Next he tells God how difficult it is that it is one of his companions who is leading the assault. This is one of the reasons why we should endeavour as much as we can to maintain unity within the church, for attacks from within are the most destructive. Persecution of the church, though very costly, often results in the church growing in the long term. It is internal cancers that destroy the church.

Yet in the midst of all this David still calls on the Lord, and still believes that the Lord will save him. We need to recognise that we can still have faith in them midst of the turmoil. We may experience all sorts of conflicting thoughts and feelings, we must choose the ones that are in line with God's word. God looks for the ounce of faith within our turmoil, not the mountain of doubt.

In fact David's conclusion from all this is "cast your cares on the Lord" (see 1 Peter 5:7). God never changes and is totally dependable, and He will rescue us unharmed from the conflict. 

Psalm 54 - Save me o God

The Ziphites had gone to Saul to tell him where David was, so David's life was once again in grave danger. The first thing he does is to call upon the Lord to save Him.

Then he calls on God to hear his prayers.

Those who attack him are arrogant and ruthless, having no regard for human life or dignity, or for God Himself.

In the face of this his fate may seem hopeless, but this is not the case, for God is on his side. He is our help and the one who sustains us. We have a Helper who is stronger than all who oppose us, and we have a source of strength that is greater than anything that seems to sap our strength.

Evildoers will be destroyed, their evil will recoil on them. Some may say that this is not very Christian, but this is a misunderstanding of the Bible. Jesus made it perfectly clear that judgement would come. We can be certain that in the end justice will be done.

So David will make a sacrifice to God. In the midst of trouble we should make a freewill offering to God. We should give ourselves in some way to the Lord. In doing this we are showing that we know it is God who is Lord of all. 

In the end we will look in triumph on our foes.

Psalm 53 - The fool denies the existence of God

Today the new atheism is very keen on denouncing faith, and Christianity in particular, as being foolish compared to the supposed sophistication of their thinking. The truth is quite different. It is actually foolish to deny the existence of God, and this leads to futility of thinking (see Romans 1:18-31). It also leads to corruption and vile behaviour.

In the OT idolaters are often criticised, people who worship idols of stone or metal, or who worship the sun or moon. We think we are much more advanced than they are, but this is not true. The atheist is saying that it is the universe that gives us life. They say it is the stars and the earth that give us life. This is no different than saying the sun give us life. So atheists are not really so sophisticated after all. The truth is that it is God who gives us life.

However, David's critique is applied to the whole human race. The Bible does not say that Christians are good and everyone else are hopeless sinners. Rather, it says that all people have fallen short of the glory of God. God looked on the earth and there was no one who did good, including among the Israelites.

The godless attacked Israel, as they have done so throughout history, and will do so again. But in the end they will pay for their attacks on Israel.

God is the only source of salvation, not human wisdom or power.

Psalm 52 : The Nature of the Enemy

This Psalm was written when David had  gone to Ahimelek (1 Sam 21, 22). There Doeg the Edomite goes and tells Saul, and Saul goes to kill many of the priests at that place.

David denounces evil, presumably with Saul as the main target.

We need to look at this denunciation in order to be aware of how evil operates, so that when the day of evil appears we can stand our ground.(Eph 6:13).

Evil can appear as a mighty hero. It boasts all day long of its strength. Evil will appear strong and powerful, so we should not be intimidated when it does so.

It speaks deceitfully and plots only destruction. We must never have anything to do with evil, for no good will ever come of it. It delights in falsehood and harm. If we look at the most notorious regimes in history we see that this is always true.

Despite all its boasting, God will bring evil down. No earthly kingdom has ever lasted, it has always fallen at some point. The only way to be truly secure is to trust in the Lord.

The way to respond in evil or difficult days is to trust in the Lord. Then we will flourish. Note that David is fully aware of the reality of evil. He felt and saw its effects, so this is no escapism. But whatever the circumstances, our God is greater. If we trust in Him we are not promised an easy life, but we are promised that we will overcome in every situation.

Psalm 51 - Forgiveness and Restoration

David wrote this Psalm after the prophet Nathan had confronted him with his sin in committing adultery with Bathsheba and killing Uriah (her husband). It is also significant that it comes after Psalm 50 which focused on the attitudes of the heart.

David relies on God's mercy and compassion. We must use the same grounds in seeking forgiveness from God, and the depths of God's mercy and compassion are shown in His sending His own Son, Christ, to the cross to die for us.

David is aware of his sin. Unless we confess and acknowledge our sins, there is no hope for us. Moreover, we have sinned against God. Now someone might respond here that it is actually Uriah who has been sinned against. How does God come in to it? Well, we all belong to God. If someone hurt one of my children, then they have sinned against me. Whenever we sin against someone else we have sinned against God. God counts each human being as precious (including the ones we tend to count as worthless!). 

David then talks about his being sinful from the very beginning. This is the doctrine of original sin. We have all been infected or affected by Adam's sin. When we sin we do not become sinners so much as demonstrate that we are sinners. 

The he refers to God teaching him in the womb. How does this work? Well I don't know, but God's dealings with us go deeper than we imagine.

Next David calls on God to cleanse him. Sin soils us, it corrupts us, but the good news is that through the blood of Jesus we can be cleansed. It is possible for us to be set free from sin, it is possible for our joy to be renewed.

"Create in me a pure heart". We need a new heart. We do not need a new set of rules, we do not need some new spiritual practices, we need a new heart, and that is what the Holy Spirit gives to us. We are being renewed from the inside out.

Once restored we can teach transgressors God's ways. Now this raises a very difficult problem. How should we react if some leader or other sins in some way and then "repents". The first thing to realise is that there is no simple answer. There are two extremes: on the one hand we can say they have sinned against God and are no longer worthy of serving Him as a leader; on the other we can say God is a God of grace so they can be restored to their position of leadership. If we always adopt the first then we will neglect God's grace and reject some people who should not be rejected. If we adopt the second then we will cheapen grace and allow people to lead who should not be leading.

So what should we do? Well first of all look at the case of David closely. He had paid a heavy price for his sin with the loss of his son. The notion that says that grace means sin has no effect is utterly wrong. Secondly look at David's heart. He is clearly contrite and humble. Without these there is little evidence of true repentance. 

So there are no simple answers, and we will get it wrong from time to time, but we need to use wisdom in deciding these matters.

A broken and contrite heart are what God desires. We need to admit our utter dependence upon Him.

Finally David prays for the prosperity of Jerusalem. A further sign of true repentance is concern beyond ourselves.

Psalm 50 - Gratitude, integrity & trust

The Lord calls the people to Himself for judgement. The first thing to learn from this psalm is that God will not remain silent. There are many times when ungodly things are going on in the world. When these are happening we can be sure that God will not remain silent forever. At some point He will act.

He calls His consecrated people for judgement. 

God is calling His people to use some common sense. In OT times they had to sacrifice cattle and goats. Now it should have been obvious to them that God did not really need these things. He owns everything, moreover, He does not need to eat the animals. The sacrifices they were offering were not the problem.

So what were they to do? They were to give thanks to God, to fulfil their vows, and to call upon God in the day of trouble. Note that all three of these concern attitudes of the heart. We are to have grateful hearts, to have integrity, and to trust in the Lord. If we do these things then we will be delivered.

Conversely, the wicked can expect no deliverance. For they had evil in their hearts, and practised evil in their lives. 

So the one who neglects God will suffer in the end, the one who is grateful to God will see His salvation.

Now we are this people, and we have made a covenant with God through sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, rather than the sacrifice of animals. However, we need to nurture the same attitudes within our hearts of gratitude, integrity and trust.

Matthew 7:12-29 - Live the Jesus way

God is good to us, so we must be equally good to others. Verse 12 also shows Jesus homing in on the spirit of the Law, explaining that doing good to others sums up what the Law and the Prophets was all about.

It is easy to go through the wide gate, but it leads only to destruction. Since it is easy, many go this route, but we need to choose a different road. We need to choose Jesus' way, for this way leads to life.

There will be many who seek to distract us from the true way, some will be dressed as sheep, but will in fact be ferocious wolves. The way to tell whether someone is of God or not is by the fruit they produce. The nature of someone determines the fruit they will produce. 

Note that we do not distinguish the good from the bad by doctrine alone. If someone is of God, there doctrine will be sound, and their lives will be good.

Merely calling Jesus "Lord, Lord" means nothing. Never judge someone by their words alone. Never judge someone by their gifts alone. The true test is whether or not someone does the will of the Father.

Doing God's words is what counts. As James says, be doers not just hearers. When we do things Jesus' way we are building upon solid ground, and can withstand many storms. Anyone else will fall when the storms come.

Matthew 7:7-11 - God wants you to ask

“Keep on asking”. This is a clear instruction. So we are to be persistent in prayer. In many ways prayer is a mystery, and it is good to seek to understand the mystery, but at the same time we must not get paralysed by trying to analyse how prayer works.

Sometimes people say that prayer is not just about asking. This is true as far as it goes, but it is clear from the examples of prayer in the Bible, and Jesus’ teaching on prayer that asking is a major part of prayer! So keep on asking, never be restrained in asking. It is impossible to ask too much of God, and God quite clearly wants us to ask Him for things.

Jesus tells us too that our asking, seeking, knocking will be fruitful. One of the subjects I teach at university is mathematics, and there are lots of problem sheets. Now students like to know the answers to the problems, but this really does them no good unless they have gone through the process of working out how to solve the problems for themselves. They need to have spent time struggling with the problem, only then will they truly understand the solution. Prayer is like that. Sometimes we need to have spent time struggling in prayer in order to appreciate the answer.

We need have no fear in prayer. Prayer is part of a relationship with God. We need have no fear that He will give us something that is bad for us. The answer may not always be want I think I want, and may be unexpected, but it will always be good for me. I do not want God to always give me what I want, I want Him to give me what I need, and I want Him to change my heart where it needs changing (which is lots of places!).

So ask for lots, ask boldly, ask often, ask persistently, and look forward to God changing your life!

Matthew 7:1-6 - Sort yourself out first!

When we try to earn our salvation, or prove how good we are, we usually end up trying to prove how bad others are, how we are better than others, or at least how they are worse than us. This is a futile exercise, and is no part of kingdom life.

“For others will treat you as you treat them”. If we judge others, then God will use the same measuring stick against us, and this will inevitably work out badly for us! However, it also affects the way other people respond to us. If we have a critical attitude, then others will adopt a critical attitude towards us as a defensive measure.

Human nature is to find faults in others. Instead our first concern should be to put our own lives right. We may think in a situation that we are 10% responsible and someone else is 90% responsible. Even so, we should focus first on our 10%. The person in this world whom I can influence the most is me! So this is the best place to start. Doing this also puts us in much better standing with God.

Now we need to recognise how much this goes against our human nature (the flesh). So we will have to make a conscious decision to focus on putting ourselves right, before we try to put everyone else right.

The final verse of this section seems a little strange to us. Maybe it is telling us to be careful and wise in how we interact with unbelievers. Just telling them what is wrong with their lives on its own will do no good. It is only the mercy of God that can break through. 

Matthew 6:25-34 - No worries

Jesus gives a radical view of life in many ways. Many of them seem to challenge us to do things we don't naturally want to do, like loving our enemies. Here we come to one that challenges us to get rid of something I am sure that we would all want to be rid of, anxiety. The world spends an inordinate amount of time worrying. Individuals do. Just think how much of your life you have wasted worrying about things. 

Worry is part of the world, but it is not part of the kingdom.

It is interesting that Jesus says "therefore .." He has just told us not to serve money. Our immediate reaction might be, well we have to serve it, because we need to live! So how do we stop serving money? We stop worrying. Life is more than food and clothes. We were not created in order to spend all our time focusing on these things. The only reason we seem to have to is because of the Fall. However, we have now been rescued from the dominion of darkness. 

Jesus tells us to look at nature. Birds do not sow seeds, yet they have food. The flowers of the field are much more beautiful than anything man can come up with. God will provide for us. This needs to be a fundamental facet of our faith. 

We should not be like the rest of the world in worrying about all sorts of things.

So, having saved all this time and energy by not worrying, what are we to do instead? We are to seek first the kingdom, then God will take care of everything else. Notice that it does not say "seek first the kingdom so that all these things will be added unto you". It is easy for us to change this into a get rich quick plan. It is no such thing. The purpose is that we are free to live for God. When we come into the kingdom everything changes.

Matthew 6:19-24 - Treasures in Heaven

All earthly wealth is insecure. We need to face up to this fact. Men are forever trying to do things to make wealth absolutely secure. Governments do it with economic systems. None of them have proved foolproof yet, and none of them will. Individuals do it in all sorts of ways. Insurance is one way. Now insurance can be sensible, and sometimes is a legal requirement. So it is not wrong, but we should never imagine that it is a guaranteed way of safeguarding wealth.

Instead we need to face up to the transitory nature of everything in life, and instead store up treasures in heaven. Now, remember that heaven is the place where God rules, not just a place we go to when we die. We need to seek to please God, to live life His way. This is the only way to store up true and secure treasure. 

Where our treasure is is where our heart is also. What we do with money is a pretty good indicator of what is in our heart. It also works the other way. If we want to change inwardly, then what we do with our money can be part of the process. You may not always be a cheerful giver, but if we give in faith, God will eventually bring our feelings round to be in line with our actions.

What we look at makes a difference too. Now Jesus here is speaking about material wealth, so I think we must assume He is still speaking about wealth here. What is in our heart determines what we focus our life on. We need to focus on the right things.

We cannot serve God and money. Money must never become our master, but must be our servant. We are to love God, not money.

Matthew 6:16-18 - Rewards from the Father

Next we come to fasting, and again the principle of doing this for God and not for show is the key. The habit in those days was for the Pharisees to make it obvious to all and sundry when they were fasting, which they tended to do twice a week. 
Jesus tells us not to make it at all obvious. The bit on putting oil on our head and washing our face is a simple of example of interpreting Scripture properly. It is clear that we do not need to put oil on our head when we fast, it does not make any sense these days. It is still a good idea to wash your face though! It is the principle that matters, and that is what we need to observe.
Yet again there is the phrase about our Father in Heaven rewarding us. We have a tendency to get all coy about God rewarding us. We think it is somehow more noble to do something expecting no reward. Now there is something in this, but Jesus is forever talking about rewards, so we need to listen. The best thing we have is to know God better, to have more of His life within us, that is what we should be seeking, and what we should be expecting.
Our lives will be better the more we devote ourselves to the Lord. Indeed, Hebrews 11:6 tells us that not only must we believe in order to please God, but that we must believe that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Matthew 6:10-15 - Your kingdom come

"Your kingdom come ..." We are to pray for God's kingdom to come on earth. This means that we are to pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. God involves us intimately in the furtherance of His plans. In fact if you look throughout the Bible when God wants to get something done He usually finds a man or woman who will trust Him and works through them. He continued this when He came to earth in person. He did not come as an angel or some kind of super being, but He came as a man. We are all involved in God's plans, and before we pray for our own needs and wants we should pray for His purposes to be fulfilled.
Next we pray for our daily bread. All we need to have is food for today. This does not mean that it is wrong to save, the Bible talks elsewhere of storing things up, but our security needs to be in God's provision.
This pattern of praying for God's will first, then our needs, is reflected later in Jesus' words on "seek first the kingdom ...".
As well as material provision, we also need forgiveness. The kingdom operates on forgiveness. This means we need to forgive others, and we need to receive forgiveness. Both need to happen. If we refuse to forgive, then we will very quickly find ourselves out of kilter with the operation of God's kingdom. If we ever become deluded into thinking that we no longer need forgiveness then we will very quickly be pulled up short.
In fact if you are in a situation where there seems no way forward, maybe it is worth asking two questions: (i) do I need to forgive someone; (ii) do I need God's forgiveness in some area of my life. Forgiveness opens up the floodgates of God's blessing.
Deliver us from the evil one. This can be either "the evil one" or "evil". Both are true. There is evil in the world, and there is an enemy who will from time to time attack us. We need God's protection.

Matthew 6:9 - Our Father

Having told them how not to pray, Jesus tells us how to pray, in the form of what we know as the Lord's prayer. This is often prayed verbatim in churches, but is also valuable as a pattern of prayer.

In follows the pattern of the ten commandments, with the first half being God directed, and the second half being man directed.

"Our Father ..." We are not praying to a distant and remote God, but to God our Father. One of the features of Jesus' teaching was His constant reference to God being our Father. Also He is our Father, not just my Father, not just your Father. Sometimes you can see how God can help you, or has helped you through a situation in the past. Yet when it comes to praying for someone else we can sometimes despair at how God can possibly help them. We need to remember that He is their Father as well. Anything He can do for us, He can do for them too. Even when we prayer on our own, we are praying as part of God's family.

"In heaven" does not mean that God is distant. Heaven is the place where God reigns, and Jesus preached that the kingdom of Heaven is near. 

"Hallowed by your name". We should pray for God's name to be honoured, to be recognised as holy. It used to be that in this country God was largely respected. No doubt there was a lot of hypocrisy and nominalism, but there was still a respect of sorts for the name of God. Now, God is held in dishonour by most. We need to pray for this situation to change.

Matthew 6:5-8 - Praying to the Father

Jesus' teaching on prayer starts in the same vein. People in those days were known to make a big show of praying, standing on street corners making it obvious to everyone how "holy" they were. We can do the same today. Not on street corners, people will just think we are mad, but in church. Again, Jesus says if the praise of people is all they want, then that is all they will get. Their prayers have truly been answered!

But prayer is meant to be much more than this. It is communication between the Father and His children. We have open access to the living God, just think how amazing that is! If we have access to the Lord of All, why on earth would we be bothered about trying to impress men?

So Jesus tells us to pray in private, so it is just us and God. The exercise is only worthwhile if God is really there. Moreover we are not to babble on, thinking our form of words, are endless repetition of a phrase will increase out chances of success.

Now again we need to remind ourselves that Jesus is not laying down laws, He is focussing on the heart. So it is fine to pray in public. There are times when this is the right thing to do. Also, there is nothing wrong with praying eloquent prayers. Indeed in a public prayer an eloquent prayer can be helpful in encouraging everyone to identify with the prayer. But if we start praying eloquent prayers in order to show how clever or holy we are, then we can be sure that God is not impressed. Conversely, we should not be afraid to pray in public fearing our words will not sound impressive. Maybe they won't to men, but it is God we are seeking.

We come to a Father who already knows what we need. Pray is about a relationship with God.

Someone might ask, well if God already knows what we need, why do we have to ask in the first place? Because it is a relationship. With our own children there are times when we know what they want, but it is best not to give it to them until/unless they ask. Indeed sometimes it is not possible to help them until they ask. There are somethings that God will not do unless we ask Him to.

Matthew 6:1-4 - Giving

We need to read these verses in the light of what Jesus said earlier in Matthew 5:16, where he told us to let our light shine. What Jesus is teaching here is the importance of our heart attitude. In one sense it actually does not matter at all if people see what we are giving, what does matter is what is in our heart. But our hearts being the way they are, it is better to do most giving in secret.

The religious types of the day made a big show of giving. The key thing is to whom are you looking to for a reward? If it is to impress men with your so-called "righteousness" then having made a big show of giving, you have received everything you want, so God will not give you anything else. 

You see the frightening thing about God is that He often gives people exactly what they want. If someone wants nothing to do with God, then God may have nothing to do with him, and that is a terrible state to be in.

So it is wise to do most of our giving in private. What about rewards? Should we be giving in order to gain a reward? Well, yes and no. The notion pedalled by some that we should give so that God will make us rich is not what Jesus is talking about. When we give we should be looking for it to have an effect. If we give to the poor we should be looking for them to be made rich. If we are giving to a missionary organisation we should be looking for them to be fruitful. If we are giving to our church we should be looking for the church to grow in influence and in size. 

We should also be looking for our relationship with God to deepen, and the more we give the closer we come to God. For the nature of God is to give, so when we give we become more like Him.
Our focus should be in the person or organisation we are giving to, and seeking to see them or it prosper.

Matthew 5:43-48 - Love your enemy

The "Love your neighbour and hate your enemies" did not come from the Bible. The first bit did (Leviticus 19:18), but the second bit did not and was the saying of religious teachers. In fact it is worth looking at the whole of Leviticus 5:18 which says:

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD

So we see that Jesus' teaching is actually in line with the heart of what the Law said. This is further illustrated by Exodus 23:4 where the command says if you come across your enemy's donkey you must return it.

We are to love everyone. Now note that love is not merely an emotion, it involves actions. The reason we are to do this is that we are to be like God. "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect". Perfect here has the sense of complete. This is amazing, Jesus is saying we are to be like God. But this is not really amazing, for right back in Genesis 1 it says we were created in God's image. We were always meant to be like God, to reflect His character.

We are called to be extraordinary. Everyone is kind to their friends, but God gives good things to all people. We are to be likewise.

Loving our enemies can be very difficult. It can be difficult to do, and even when we do it it can be difficult to know if we truly love them, for there are often a whole load of emotions going on inside us. Here prayer is vital. Keep on praying a blessing on their life. God will then change our hearts.

Finally notice the mention of reward. We will say more about this later, but Jesus is always going on about rewards.

Matthew 5:38-42 - An eye for an eye

We now come to responding to evil. The "eye for an eye" instructions from the Law were not an excuse for revenge, but a limit on judgement. Ie they were intended to ensure that the punishment fitted the crime, but did not exceed it, ie it did not give excuse for an orgy of retribution. This is the way a governmental authority should act. The problem with our society is that all too often crimes do not receive just punishment. Conversely there are some cases where excessive penalty is paid.

However, as individuals, as God's citizens in this world, we are to act differently. "Do not resist an evil person". I think it is fair to take this as applying to ourselves where the price paid is paid by us. If we see someone doing harm to someone else, then, if it is within our power to do so, we should act. All the examples given here are ones where we pay the price.

Roman soldiers had the right to demand that a Jew carry his stuff for one mile. No doubt the people resented this. Jesus says that the response should be to offer to go two miles. This would have the benefit of totally confusing the soldier! There is more than one way to overcome evil. Straight forward opposition is not the only way.

One application to "do not resist evil" is reacting to abortion. There are some extreme groups (mostly in US) who have gone as far as bombing abortion clinics. This is not the way to respond. Proper protest is OK, but reacting to evil with evil is not. 

Matthew 5:33-37 - Always tell the truth

The core of this teaching is "simply tell the truth". Arguments about whether or not we can "swear on the Bible" in court or whatever are missing the point. What Jesus is teaching against is the notion that at some times we should be more diligent about telling the truth than at others. 

We should tell the truth at all times, it should be in our heart to tell the truth, it should be in our nature to tell the truth. 

The Pharisees had developed a whole system of swearing by oaths, hence Jesus' mention of various types. They thought that if they swore by something other than God then they were not fully bound by the oath. This is why Jesus refers to swearing by ones head, or by Jerusalem etc. The whole world belongs to God, all people were created by God, we are always in God's sight. So we must always tell the truth. Anything else tells of deception in our heart, and we need to root it out, not make excuses or cover-ups.
In an earlier post (5:21-26) I talked about it being foolish for authorities to try and judge attitudes and thoughts. This has a wider application, and is why it is vital that we do not treat all this teaching by Jesus as new laws. All of us are guilty of wrong attitudes, lust in our hearts, none of us has always told the absolute truth. When we repent and resolve to change, the change will not come about instantly. There will be times when we fail, at least in our hearts, if not in outward expression. God alone knows all our attitudes and what is in our heart, and He alone is able to handle the knowledge. He knows when we are moving in the right direction and a wrong attitude will eventually be overcome, He knows when a wrong attitude is something that will trigger a serious error. He knows when to be merciful, when to be patient, when to take action, and how to take action. We do not. Indeed if we knew every single thought that ever goes through each others head we probably could not handle it. 

Matthew 5:31,32 - Divorce

Now we come to one of the most contentious issues, divorce. We need to look at this in context, both its immediate textual context (ie what Jesus has just said, and is just about to say), and its religious and social context. 

There were two main schools of thought on divorce, One took a very strict interpretation. The other an ultra lax approach. Under the teaching of this latter group a man could effectively divorce his wife for burning the toast (I know, he should make his own toast). This is not an exaggeration. So advocates of this second school of thought could find, if they fancied another woman, find some flimsy pretext for divorce and marry the other woman. They would at the same time claim they were within the law.

So Jesus is lambasting these hypocrites. 

Laws of the time seemed to be very biased in favour of the man, holding the woman largely responsible for adultery. Here Jesus makes it plain that men are at least as guilty as women.

There is a much larger section on divorce later in Matthew, so I will wait till we get there before saying too much more on divorce and remarriage.

Here Jesus is focusing on heart issues, so I will do so also. You cannot avoid the righteousness of God by inventing rules and spurious justifications for your actions. God sees the heart and knows the evil that resides in there.

On a practical point, it is also worth noting that Jesus has just been talking about hatred and lust, and next will talk about lies. If we dealt with the hatred, lust and lies in our lives then there would be an awful lot less divorce, and an awful lot more happiness.

Matthew 5:27-30 - Lust

Jesus applies the same principle that He has just applied to murder and hatred to adultery and lust. Adultery, and other sexual sins, are the outworking of lust in the heart. So again we see that Jesus is concerned with what is going on inside our hearts. Jesus did not come to give us a new set of rules, but to give us a new life, to give us the new heart that is promised in Ezekiel. The concept of not having lust in our hearts was not new, Job had promised not to look lustfully at a girl (Job 31:1).

Jesus then uses hyperbole (ie exaggeration to prove a point) to demonstrate how seriously we should deal with the matter. He is not saying we should physically gouge out our eyes. Indeed the problem would still remain, for lust lies in our hearts, but we should deal with the matter most seriously. We should not put ourselves in temptations way. Jospeh is an excellent example here. He fled when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him, and this was the best thing to do, even though it meant him being sent to prison.

We need to guard our hearts.

Matthew 5:21-26 - Attitudes of the heart

The "You have heard it said ..." here is not referring to the commandment "you shall not murder", but to the "anyone who murders shall be subject to judgement".  This is made clear by the next verse, "but I tell you ... will be subject to judgement". 

What is going on here? Well, with the "anyone who murders" bit most of us can then feel self-righteous, for most of us have not murdered anyone. So under the rabbinical teaching would not be subject to judgement. However, all of us have been angry with people, most or all of us have either said or thought harsh things against someone else. Jesus is telling us that it is the attitude of our heart that is crucial. The act of murder is the outworking of hatred within, and society must have laws against the outworking of wrong attitudes. Now it is futile and foolish for a society to try and have thought crimes, which our current idiotic society is intent on doing with various "hate crimes". But God can and does judge the attitudes of our heart.

Jesus then gives two illustrations. Remember He gave this teaching in Galilee, a few days journey from Jerusalem. So to leave a gift (probably a sheep or such like) at the altar, and to go back home to settle something would be impractical. But Jesus us making the point that as far as God is concerned it is more important that we have our attitude to others sorted out, rather than any religious rituals.

Then He tells us to settle matters quickly out of court. This is certainly good practical advice! However, that is not the main point that Jesus is making. Our case always seems right, we always convince ourself that we are in the right. Yet when someone else hears the whole story, and hears both sides, they may take a different view.