Leviticus 2:11-16 - You shall season your grain offerings with salt

2:11-13

It is stressed that the grain offerings were to be made without yeast. This was a reminder of the deliverance from captivity in Egypt. It was also to be made without honey. It is not clear why honey was to be excluded. However, a possible interpretation of the absence of honey and yeast is that the gifts were not to be elaborate, in which case the focus can start to be on the gift and on what we can do for God. Instead the emphasis was to be on what God had done for them in setting them free from Egypt. Conversely, salt was to be added. Possibly because of salt’s preservative properties?

2:14-16

Offering the first fruits to the Lord is a common feature of true worship of the Lord, knowing that we are completely dependent upon Him, and so giving our first and best to Him. The crushed heads of new grain is perhaps looking forward to entering the Promised Land, when the grain would replace the manna.

Romans 5:3-5 - We rejoice in our sufferings

5:3

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings ...” This is a common theme of the New Testament (James 1:2-4; 1 Pet 1:6,7). Indeed, chapters 5-8 can be looked at as a section, and the end of chapter 8 concludes with Paul’s statement that nothing will separate us from the love of God, and the specific things he mentions include difficulties of various sorts. We are to live a victorious life, but it is not the vacuous prosperity of the so-called prosperity gospel. So we rejoice in our sufferings. There are two key messages here, one is that we will experience hardships and difficulties, the other is that they are achieving a purpose.

5:4,5

The purpose achieved by sufferings is the development of a Christlike character within us, and we get a list of the various aspects of that character. The first characteristic is endurance, the ability to keep on going. This produces character, a strength of character that can cope with anything. This then produces hope, and this hope does not disappoint us. If we have a hope that transpires to have been utterly groundless then we “put to shame”, but this will  not be the case with our hope. What are our grounds for this? It is “the love of God that has been poured into our hearts”. It is not based on a philosophy, but on a relationship with the living God. And He has poured out this love through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes known to us the love God has for us.

Leviticus 2:1-10 - When you bring a grain offering

2:1-3

Chapter 1 dealt with burnt offerings, and these were offered for atonement (Lev 1:4). This chapter deals with grain offerings which were an expression of gratitude. There were three main elements: the grain, the olive oil and the incense. A key element, as with the burnt offerings, was the quality of the offering. The grain was to be of the finest flour. The priests were an essential part of the process.  With us it is only through Christ that we can come to God and make offerings to Him. The oil was an anointing of the offering. Part of the offering was presented on the altar as a memorial, a reminder that it was God who provided all that they had. The rest was to be eaten by the priests. “It is a most holy part”, it was to be treated as holy by the priests.

2:4-10

The previous verses set out the general system for making grain offerings, we now get details for various sorts of grain offerings. The offering could be baked in an oven, or cooked in a pan. In either case it was to be made of the finest flour and cooked with olive oil. Some of it was offered on the altar, and the rest was given to the priests. As with the burnt offerings, “it was an aroma pleasing to the Lord”. 

With all the religious practices of Israel there are often similarities with the general religious practices of the time, but there are also fundamental differences. The most general is that the beliefs of the surrounding nations essentially so humanity as a slave labour force of the gods. Indeed, we still see this today. Consider environmentalism and “net zero”. The picture presented by the world is that we have to serve the planet, we are slaves to net zero. Under the Biblical understanding God created us out of His love. He cares and provides for us, we give back to Him out of gratitude. With regard to the environment, we are indeed to take care of it, but the world was created for us. We are not its slaves.

Romans 5:2 - In hope of the glory of God

5:2

We have gained access into the favour of God by faith. All religions seek in some way to achieve some sort of favoured or desirable position, the means of achieving this are always by works of one sort or another. With the gospel obtained access into this grace by faith. Our privileged position is entirely unmerited, we have not achieved it based on merit. Instead it is by grace, undeserved favour, and we have entered this state by faith.  We now stand in this position of grace. When we look at our lives and our circumstances, and our future, we need to realise that we stand in the grace of God. Our natural approach is to assess our lives and situations by our abilities or our goodness. What can we manage to do? This is a mistake. We need to assess our lives based on the undeserved favour of God, and His goodness towards us. “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God”. The gospel affects our present and our future. Without the gospel the only future we have is death. With the gospel our future is the glory of God, the glory that God intends for us. This is no worldly glory which at best lasts only a moment, but the glory of Christ (Rom 8:17). Glory includes concepts of splendour and significance.

Leviticus 1:10-17 - An aroma pleasing to the Lord

1:10-13

Having dealt with bulls, we now come to “offerings from the flock”, sheep or goats. These would be the more common sacrifices. It is not clear why it had to be sacrificed on the north side of the altar. Like the cattle, it had to be male and without defect. The instructions are very similar to those for cattle, and it ends with “an aroma pleasing to the Lord”.

1:14-17

We now come to birds, these were the offerings that would be made by the poorest people. But note that the section ends with “an aroma pleasing to the Lord”. Everyone had responsibility, and everyone was pleasing to the Lord if they did what they could. There is then also the point that none of these were the true sacrifice. There is one true sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Son of God. There are practical differences in the way the offering was to be made, these being due to the much smaller size of the offering.

Romans 5:1 - We have peace with God

5:1

So far the emphasis has been on how we are justified by faith in Christ. The next few chapters take us on to the implications for this justification. In this chapter the emphasis is on our reconciliation with God. The broken relationship with God has been restored in Christ. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The “we have peace” could be “let us have peace”, but the former tends to be favoured. Whatever the case, the key point is that we have peace with God. People tend to think of God as being distant, this is not the Biblical view. Right from the beginning we find God having fellowship with Adam and Eve, and throughout the Old Testament He chooses various people and develops a relationship with them. In the gospel all can know God, as was promised in Jer 31:34. If we view God as being distant then we will have a wrong view of life. 

We need to understand that the only reason we can have peace with God is because we have been justified. Without the problem of our guilt being dealt with there could be no peace with God. But in Christ the problem has been comprehensively dealt with, and this changes everything.

Leviticus 1:1-9 - If the offering is a burnt offering

1:1

God speaks to Moses from the tent of meeting, Numbers 1:1 is the only other reference to God doing this, this “bookends” Leviticus from Exodus and Numbers. In Exodus we had the instructions for the construction of the tent of meeting. In Leviticus we get the operational instructions.

1:2

“Speak to the people of Israel”. The instructions were to be made known to all the people. This is in contrast to the religious rituals of Mesopotamia and Egypt, where only the priests knew details of the ceremonies. Indeed this is a common distinction between Christianity and other religions and sects. A hallmark of a sect is that there will be secret things, in the gospel the mystery is made known.

1:3-9

We get instructions for various types of offerings, starting with bulls, then sheep and then birds. This section deals with bulls, offerings from the herd. The type of offering depended upon the wealth of the giver. The offering was to be male and without defect. Without defect is a matter of not offering faulty goods to the Lord! The male part has two aspects. One is that the male was probably of greater value, however, in a herd the females were of importance because they gave birth to the next generation. The laying on of hands signified you were offering the bull on your behalf. The preparation details such as the cutting and washing may seem strange to us, but it was like offering the animal as a meal to the Lord. At the Last Supper the Lord essentially presented Himself as the sacrifice and the meal.

Romans 4:23-25 - Raised to life for our justification

4:23,24

The Jews knew that the Old Testament, although written hundreds of years before, was intended for them. Paul points out that “it was credited to him” are intended for us. Abraham and the words God spoke to Him showed that righteousness was attained through faith. And God will credit righteousness to all who believe. Abraham shows us the way. And this belief is believing that God raised Christ from the dead. If we believe this then we are believing in God, if we don’t then we are calling God a liar.

4:25

The death and resurrection are intimately linked. One without the other makes no sense at all. You can never place too much emphasis on the cross, and you can never place too much emphasis on the resurrection, but if we emphasise one over the other then we are mistaken. Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins, we needed Jesus to pay the price for our sins and sinfulness. And He was raised from the dead for our justification. If Jesus was not raised we could have no assurance that our sins have been paid for (1 Cor 15:17). Indeed, the evidence would then be that His death was not sufficient to pay for our sins. But Jesus has been raised, and we know our sins have been paid for in full, and that we too will be raised from the dead.

Leviticus - Introduction

Introduction

It is probably true to say that Leviticus is not the most popular of books, and not much preached upon, with the possible exception of chapter 26. Indeed, when I did my work through the Bible, producing far less detailed notes than I am currently doing, I was not looking forward to doing Leviticus! However, I was pleasantly surprised at how rewarding I found it. There is a lot of stuff on sacrifices, and it points ahead to the supreme sacrifice of Christ. There are also rules about the priesthood. This occurs in the first third of the book. We then have a few chapters on the distinction between clean and unclean. The final third of the book deals with rules for holy living. Having said the book is rarely preached upon, an exception to this is James White, who has preached extensively on the holiness code in Leviticus.

The name “Leviticus” comes from the Greek translation, the Septuagint. The Hebrew version takes as its title the first word in the text, which means “And He called”.

Typically many theologians argued that the book wasn’t written until the fifth or sixth century BC. However, the Bible clearly locates it in the second century BC, and an increasing amount of evidence has been found showing that its literary form is consistent with such a date. The book follows on naturally from Exodus.

Bibliography

Leviticus (The Expositor's Bible Commentary), Richard Hess, Zondervan Academic, (2017)

Romans 4:21,22 - Being fully persuaded

4:21

“Being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised”. We can sometimes think that having faith, or being “fully persuaded”, means that we have no doubts or struggles. The life of Abraham manifestly shows that this is not the case. What it does mean is that when our feelings and the reality of what we are like is taking us in one direction, and the word of God tells us to go in another direction, we choose God’s direction.

4:22

“This is why it was credited to him as righteousness”. The Jews were concerned about righteousness, and were proud of their Abrahmic ancestry, but they were going about it in the wrong way. They had a complete misunderstanding. Abraham was not counted as righteous because of circumcision, but because of his faith, as Genesis clearly states. It is possible to be wanting to achieve the right thing, but to be going about it in the completely wrong way.

Exodus 40 - The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle

40:1-19

So we now reach the end of Exodus. The chapter started with the people in slavery in Egypt, it ends with the people on the way to the Promised Land with the Presence of God leading them. All the work on the various items described in the previous chapters had been completed, and so the articles were to be placed in the tent of meeting. Detailed instructions had been given on how the articles were to be made, now instructions are given on how they are to be placed within the tent. All the items were to be anointed.

40:20-33

At the heart of the tent were the tablets of the covenant law, with the atonement cover over it. At the heart of worship of the Lord are His commandments, and the atonement for our sin. People lazily think that commandments are an Old Testament thing, this is nonsense. If we read the gospels we find that Jesus was very keen on commandments. See, for example, John 14:15, “If you love me you will obey my commandments”, and the Great Commission involves us teaching people to obey all that Jesus has commanded. Commandments are at the heart of the gospel. But we cannot come close to God without our sins being atoned for.

40:34-38

The glory of the Lord filled the tent and even Moses could not enter. Earlier on Moses had said he would not go unless the presence of the Lord was with them. Now we have the presence of the Lord. They only moved on when the presence of the Lord moved on, and the presence was with them on all their travels. We have the presence of the Lord with us through the Holy Spirit, we too should stay in situations until He moves on.

Romans 4:19,20 - Without weakening in his faith

4:19

“Without weakening in his faith ...” Abraham and Sarah faced up to the reality of the situation, namely their inability to have children. Faith is not fantasy, it faces up to the realities of the situation, most specifically to our innate sinfulness. All salvation by works religions are living in a fantasy, the fantasy being that we can make ourselves good. We should also note that while it says “without weakening in his faith” Abraham’s journey was not an easy one, and was one in which he had many struggles and got things wrong. This is made clear in the Genesis account. 

4:20

“Yet he did not waver ...” So, given the struggles and mistakes that Abraham and Sarah had, what does this mean? Not wavering does not mean never finding things difficult, it does not mean never struggling. What Abraham did do was continue to follow the Lord. “Strengthened in his faith”. In the midst of the struggles God came to him and reaffirmed the promise, indeed, He strengthened the promise. God works in our lives to increase our faith. Abraham gave glory to God. He faced two realities: his own doubts and weaknesses, and God’s promises and strength. He chose to go with God’s promises.

Exodus 38 & 39 - So Moses blessed them

38:1-31

We continue with the parallel passages, or rather the enactment of the commands given in earlier passages. In chapter 38 we have:

38:1-7 27:1-8

38:9-20 27:9-19

There are two additions here, Ex 38:8. The mirrors of the time were made of highly polished bronze. 38:21-31 gives details of the amount of various materials that were used.

39:1-43

39:2-7 28:6-14

39:8-21 28:15-28

39:22-31 28:31-43

39:32-41 35:10-19

The chapter, and this long section, finishes with Moses inspecting the work. Moses finds that all the work had been carried out according to the Lord’s instructions. So Moses blesses them. There is a parallel here to the creation account (Gen 1:31).

Romans 4:17,18 - Against all hope

4:17

As well as the promise on Gen 12:2,3 later on God said to Abraham “I have made you the father of many nations” (Gen 17:5). It is God’s purpose that salvation can come to all. So anything that excludes people or does not maintain righteousness is not the gospel. Abraham is our father if we believe. The Jews had a pretty low view of the Gentiles, but God gives life to the dead “and calls into existence the things that do not exist”. We may look at our society today and despair at the increasing godlessness. We should remind ourselves that our God is the God who gives life to the dead, He is the God who changes things, including the hearts of men.

4:18

Paul has just talked about God calling into being things that are not. He now gives a concrete example of this with Abraham. Abraham and Sarah were barren and old, naturally speaking there was no way that they could have children, let alone Abraham becoming the father of many nations. In the same way, the Jews or the Gentiles becoming righteous is, naturally speaking, impossible. Yet God had made a promise to Abraham, and the promise came to be. It worked! All the Jewish righteousness by works efforts had failed, the righteousness by faith works.

Exodus 37:1-29 - Bezalel made the ark

37:1-29

Once again in this chapter we have a number of parallels with earlier passages, with the difference that before instructions were given, and now the instructions are being carried out. The parallels are:

37:1-9 25:10-20

37:10-16 25:23-29

37:17-24 25:31-39

37:25-28 30:1-5

Apart from that I really don’t have a great deal to say on this chapter. One thing that does puzzle me is that they made images of cherubim. Now these were just models and were in themselves useless, and God had strictly commanded the Israelites not to make any graven images. So why were they told to make these models (images?) of cherubim?

Romans 4:15,16 - The Promise comes by faith

4:15

The Law brings wrath not life. For the Law highlights our guilt, and justifies no one. Paul then says “that where there is no law, there is no transgression”. What does this mean? It cannot mean that where there is no law people haven’t sinned. Man has sinned from the beginning, all have sinned. Paul would be contradicting himself (and the Bible) if he was saying that without the law people have not sinned. I have read one or two commentaries and haven’t found a wholly satisfactory answer, with some ignoring the issue! It could mean that faith does away with the Law, Christ has fulfilled and completed the Law. So Law is no longer an issue in terms of justification. The moral stipulations and principles of the Law were always valid, and are still valid.

4:16

Paul had a much bigger sense of the vision of God than the Jews had. A Promise resting on the works of man was doomed to failure because of the sinfulness of man. In order for the Promise to succeed it had to be built upon grace, and to be received by faith. Then all of Abraham’s offspring could receive the blessing. It is so important that we grasp what Paul is saying. Today when we want something to be “inclusive” we think that means relaxing standards, or abandoning them altogether. That is why so much of the church is willing to abandon clear Biblical teaching on sexuality, mistakenly thinking that this will lead to growth, or at least stop decline. This is a futile exercise. The gospel is utterly different. It is far more inclusive and diverse than anything the world comes up with, but at the same time it maintains standards, God’s standards. There are two key elements to the gospel, one is that it is open to all who will believe, the second is that it calls us to righteousness.

Exodus 36:1-38 - The Lord had given skill and ability

36:1-7

The work of Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person is mentioned again, with emphasis on the fact that the Lord had given them the skills. 36:2 says “and who was willing”. God gives abilities to all sorts of people, but not all are willing to use them for the glory of God. In this case the people as a whole were very willing, bringing so many contributions along that the craftsmen asked Moses to stop them, they didn’t need any more. So Moses gave the command to the people, “and so the people were restrained from giving more” because they already had all they needed to do the work. Cole in his commentary talks about those who delayed giving and says they must have felt left out and regretted not giving sooner. However, there is nothing in the text to indicate this. The picture presented is one of everyone giving freely. There is often a sad state of affairs in churches that people are unwilling to give sufficiently. When the grace of God is poured out it produces a generosity of spirit within the people.

36:8-38

This is a virtual repetition of Ex 26, except for a change in tense. In Ex 26 it is about what God told the people to do. Here we have the people carrying out these instructions. So the people were carefully following the commands of the Lord. In the history of Israel there are times, such as these, when they do obey the Lord, but these times are relatively rare, and it is much more common for them to be in rebellion against the Lord.

Romans 4:13,14 - Righteousness that comes through faith

4:13

Paul has dealt with the “local” problem. God never intended that the Jews be justified by works, indeed such a thing was impossible because of their inherent sinfulness. God’s intention was that the Jews would be justified by faith. Now Paul expands this. He has already spoken of the uncircumcised being justified by faith, he now explains that this was always God’s intention, and God’s vision was far greater than the vision of the Jews.The promise to Abraham (Gen 12:2,3) was that all peoples would be blessed through him. Abraham was to be heir of the whole world. This promise would not be fulfilled through the Law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

There are a number of points worth considering here. The first is that Israel had proved herself utterly incapable of keeping the Law. The Old Testament is a record of this, and the Law and Prophets declare that she could not keep the Law. A second point is that the promise presumes a righteous people. Being saved does not just mean being forgiven, but being made righteous. The Law could not achieve this, but faith can.

4:14

Paul then expands on the impossibility of the promise being fulfilled through the Law. If it was adherence to the Law that was going to be the means of achieving the Promise, then faith was null and the promise void. God declared Abraham justified by his faith (Gen 15:6), so what was the point of this? Moreover, if someone can be made righteous by observing the Law, then they have earned their righteousness and there is no need for faith. But no one can observe the Law perfectly, and perfection is the required standard. Not even, indeed, especially, the Jews could keep the Law. So if adherence to the Law is the means, then the Promise can be discarded and forgotten about.

Exodus 35:20-35 - He has filled him with the Spirit of God

35:20-29

The people then withdrew from Moses and those who were willing brought their offerings to the Lord. Note the importance of being willing. All the giving was directed towards the building of the tabernacle. The skilled women are also mentioned. The offerings were freewill offerings.

35:30-35

Bezalel and Oholiab were mentioned at the beginning of chapter 31. The wording is very similar here. Bezalel has been given various types of skills and wisdom by the Lord, and these were given in order for him to do the work of the Lord. Oholiab is named alongside him. As well as being given skills and wisdom, they were given the ability to teach others. So we learn two important aspects related to the gifts we have. They are given in order to enable us to serve the Lord, and so that we can teach others. 

Romans 4:11,12 - Father of all who believe

4:11

Circumcision was a sign of what had taken place by faith. Likewise, baptism does not save us, but is a sign of our salvation, of what has taken place through faith in Jesus Christ. So Paul draws the conclusion that this happened so that Abraham was the father of all who believe without being circumcised. When God called Abraham He said all nations would be blessed through him (Gen 12:2,3). God had always planned that salvation would come to the uncircumcised.

4:12

But one might argue that accepting that this is all true, Abraham was circumcised afterwards (Gen 17) so Gentile believers should also be circumcised. But this is to misunderstand. Circumcision was not the “real thing”. The “real thing” was the giving of the Holy Spirit, the putting off of the old nature, the change in our nature. The “real thing” is “walking in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised”. God is concerned with real change, not outward form.

Exodus 35:4-19 - Whoever is of a generous heart

35:4-9

We now have instructions on offerings. As before, and as in 2 Cor 9:7 there is an emphasis on willingness. Now if our hearts are sinful we can take this as meaning we don’t have to give. In the same way, some people say that tithing is just for the Old Testament and doesn’t apply anymore. This is actually a legalistic approach. If our hearts are right then we should delight in giving to God, it should be a joy. Equally, some teaching on tithing which encourages it is legalistic and misses the point. Gifts of all sorts are listed here, a common factor is that they are all high quality.

35:10-19

Giving is not restricted to material giving, but also giving of our time and skills. God is the one who gives us abilities, and His plans require the using of those gifts and abilities, as the parable of the talents demonstrates. It is very important to the Lord that we use our abilities well.

Romans 4:9,10 - Is the blessing only for the circumcised?

4:9

Paul now turns to the question of the place of circumcision. The Jews saw circumcision as being an essential aspect of being justified by God. Paul takes us to the example of Abraham, and will show that he is the father of both the circumcised and the uncircumcised. It was faith that was counted to Abraham as righteousness, not circumcision. Circumcision was the sign of being righteous.

4:10

Paul has already quoted Gen 15:6 where it says Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now he points out that this took place before Abraham was circumcised. So an uncircumcised man was counted by God as being righteous. And this was not just any man, it wasn’t a special case, it was Abraham the father of the nation!

Exodus 35:1-3 - Sabbath regulations

35:1

Chapters 35 to 39 are a near repeat of chapters 25 to 31. However, they are not an exact repeat and there are some key differences. Even so, we are led to ask why is there a virtual repetition of earlier material? Repetition can be used as a means of emphasis, seeking to make sure people get the message and appreciate its importance. It also stresses Moses’ faithfulness in carrying out God’s instructions. It is perhaps significant that the first telling was before the golden calf incident, so maybe this is stressing that the “rules” remain the same. Just as the ten commandments have not changed, neither have the rest of the commands.

35:2,3

The first instruction regards the Sabbath. The Sabbath receives a lot of attention in both the Law and the Prophets, and while I don’t think going all legalistic about it is fruitful (see Jesus and the Pharisees in the gospels, where so many disputes centred around the Sabbath), we do need to have a greater appreciation of the Sabbath principle. They were about to receive commands on building the tent, even during this building period the Sabbath was to be observed. The prohibition on lighting a fire could be related to cooking, or possibly (but less likely) to metalwork.

Romans 4:7,8 - Blessed are those whose sins are covered

4:7,8

Paul then quotes from Ps 32. As an aside, it is worth noting that the Psalms are often quoted in theological arguments by Paul, as they are in Hebrews. The Psalms, which are variously outpourings of praise, cries for help, cries of anguish at one's sinfulness, and expressions of emotion in various ways, are significant in establishing theological points. Here Paul is quoting from Psalm 32:1,2. In this Psalm David rejoices in the fact that his sins are forgiven, there is no mention of works. The Psalm as a whole is highly relevant here, and it may well be that Paul had the whole Psalm in mind. The psalm speaks of David groaning with relief coming only when he acknowledged his sin to the Lord. He then calls on everyone to do the same, to confess their sins to God. Towards the end of the Psalm (32:9) David calls on people not to be stubborn. This psalm sums up Paul’s feelings about the Jews. As long as they refused to admit to their sinfulness and persisted in their stubborn path they would find no joy or peace with God. But if they would confess their sins, peace and joy would be theirs.

The Nature of Sin

This is a series of short talks on the Nature of Sin, working through Romans 7.

The YouTube playlist can be found here: The Nature of Sin

Exodus 34:31-35 - Whenever he entered the Lord's presence

34:31,32

Moses called to Aaron and the others and they came back to him, having run away in fear beforehand. Eventually all the people came to Moses and He gave them all the commands of the Lord. It is the duty of a Christian minister to give the word of the Lord, not just to give our own opinions. In the Great Commission Jesus said we are to teach people to obey all that He has commanded us.

34:33-35

After speaking to them Moses put a veil on his face. He removed the veil whenever he went to meet with the Lord. When we meet with the Lord we should be completely open. After meeting with the Lord he would communicate the words of God to the people. If we want to have anything worthwhile to say we need to spend time with God and His word. It seems that Moses only left his face uncovered when he was teaching the people, at other times his face was veiled.

Romans 4:5,6 - His faith is counted as righteousness

4:5

Contrary to earning salvation, which in fact no one can do, we are saved by grace through faith. We put our trust not in the work that we have done, but in who Christ is, and the work that He has done. Through Christ, God justifies the ungodly, and counts our faith as righteousness. If God did not do this, then no one could be saved, for, as Paul has shown in chapter 3, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

4:6

Abraham, Moses and David are the three most significant figures in the Old Testament. In Paul’s reasoning Abraham is the example of faith, of being counted as righteous through faith. Moses brought the Law which kept us in check, and demonstrated our sinfulness. David highlights the need and joy of forgiveness, and Paul now turns to David and forgiveness. David, like Abraham, speaks of the blessing of being one to whom God “counts righteousness apart from works”. In putting forward these arguments, Paul is not merely trying to win a debate, but he wants the Jews to enjoy the blessedness of being forgiven. Trying to get their salvation by works was a futile exercise, one doomed to failure. This was all the more tragic because there is a much better way, one that works, one that is God’s way!

Exodus 34:27-30 - His face was radiant

34:27,28

Moses was to “write down these words”. It isn’t clear whether these are the words of the ten commandments, or just the extra instructions, though 34:28 would seem to imply that it was the ten commandments.. It actually isn’t very important. What is important is that God has made a covenant with Moses and with Israel. We should note that it is God who sets the terms of the covenant. Too often men think that they can set the terms of any relationship with the Lord. Moses was up there for forty days and nights. This is an idiomatic term and just indicates a reasonable and significant amount of time. Jesus spent forty days and nights in the wilderness during His temptation.

34:29,30

As a consequence of his encounter with the Lord, Moses’ face was radiant, though Moses was initially unaware of this. Paul makes play of this fact in 2 Cor 3:13ff. Aaron and others were afraid of Moses because of his radiance. While our faces may not physically glow, we should be affected by the time we spend with the Lord. And the fact that we spend time with the Lord should be noticeable to others.

Romans 4:3,4 - Abraham believed God

4:3

“For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’”. Now the language used here about “counted” is accounting language, i.e. Abraham’s faith has been credited to him as righteousness on the “moral balance sheet”. Paul here is quoting from Gen 15:6. So God reckoned Abraham as righteous because of his faith, not because of his works.

4:4

Paul then emphasises the difference between a gift and a wage. We need to appreciate that the Jews would say that they were relying on the grace of God. If asked “ do you believe in the grace of God”, a Jew would have said yes. But their attitude towards works of the law, and circumcision in particular, were not consistent with such a statement. For the one who works earns his wages. If his master did not pay the wages then the master would be in the wrong. It was not that the Jews did not understand this, but they did not realise how it applied to salvation. Human nature is very subtle and will do anything it can to claim credit for us, saying we deserve to be saved.

Exodus 34:22-26 - Bring best of the firstfruits

 34:22-24

Having trusted the Lord by observing the Sabbath, the people were to celebrate the harvest. Even if we start off trusting the Lord, it is very easy for us to start claiming credit for ourselves. There were three festivals that the people were to observe every year. The Lord would “drive out the nations before you”. The people might fear that “the nations” would cease the opportunity afforded by the festivals to come and take back the land. God assures them that this will not be the case. “No-one will covet your land.” 

34:25,26

The sacrifices were not to be contaminated with yeast. The sacrifices were to be consumed by the end of the day. Their offerings were to be from the best of the flock, not an afterthought. Remember Cain and Abel. The instruction about not cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk may have had something to do with pagan practices of the surrounding nations.

Romans 4:1,2 - What then shall we say

4:1

Paul now turns to the question of how does Abraham fit into all this? This is particularly poignant with regard to circumcision, as the covenant of circumcision came in with Abraham (Gen 17). Moreover, the Jews were very proud of their Abrahamic ancestry (John 8:39). So how did things work for Abraham? Paul will go on to show that Abraham was justified by faith and is the father of all who believe.

4:2

Paul is still talking about boasting, and says that if Abraham was justified by works then he had something to boast about, though quickly adding “but not before God”. You see, if a Jew had been asked “can anyone boast before God” he would have given an emphatic no! Yet by holding to the “Jewish position” they were in fact boasting before God. For if we base our claim for being justified on anything that we have done we are saying we are good enough, and are in fact boasting before God.

Exodus 34:18-21 - Six days you shall labour

34:18

On a more positive note, having been warned about things they must not do, we now get some things they must do. First they had to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they were to remember the time they were set free from captivity in Egypt. Today we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper, doing this in remembrance of Christ’s work on the cross. It is also useful to remember the time when we first came to know the Lord.

34:19-21

The firstborn of every womb belongs to the Lord. This applied to both sons and livestock. “No-one is to appear before me empty-handed”. Our salvation is entirely the work of the Lord, but we must still give to the Lord. It is a sign of our allegiance to Him, and our trust in Him. Observing the Sabbath is also a sign of our allegiance and trust in the Lord. This was to be observed even during the ploughing season, i.e. even during the busiest time of the year, and when the pressure to get things done would have been greatest. Even when the pressure is on us, we must maintain our devotion to the Lord.

Romans 3:29-31 - We uphold the Law!

3:29,30

“Is God the God of the Jews only?” One of the recurrent themes in the Old Testament is that God is God of all the earth. He is not a “regional deity” with a limited sphere of influence! Every Jew would acknowledge this, indeed proudly acknowledge it. So God is God of the Gentiles as well as God of the Jews, so the implication is that God’s salvation is for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews. So God justifies both the circumcised and the uncircumcised through faith. The Jews reacted against the Gentiles being saved because they thought that it went against the Law and the Prophets, but they were mistaken. The salvation of the Gentiles, through faith, was entirely consistent with Law and the Prophets.

3:31

So far from overthrowing the Law, the gospel is entirely consistent with the Law, and is the true fulfilment of the Law. The gospel upholds the Law, it was actually the Jews who were denying the Law. The gospel acknowledges the rightness of God’s commands and standards, it proclaims the universal sinfulness of mankind, as does the Law. It says that only God, through Christ, can provide salvation for us. The Prophets all pointed towards Christ. 

Exodus 34:12-17 - Do not make any idols

34:12-14

The people were to be careful not to make a treaty with any of the peoples. The reason was that they absolutely had to avoid adopting any of their practices, for these practices would involve the worship of idols and would drag the people away from the Lord. Instead they were to completely destroy all vestiges of the people’s religious practice. Now this no doubt offends the sensibilities of some people, but that is tough. All religions are not the same, all practices are not of equal value. The Israelites were not to worship any other god, for God is a jealous God. God is not one god among many, rather He is the only true God.

34:15-17

The command not to make a treaty with them is repeated, with the reasons made more explicit. Note the use of the term “when they prostitute themselves to their gods”. Israel was not meant to worship any other gods, but neither were any other peoples. In worshipping false gods they were not doing what they were created for. If Israel did make a treaty it would not end with Israel being invited to take part if pagan worship, but their sons would take pagan daughters for wives and this would lead to them prostituting themselves to false gods. These injunctions on being careful who we marry exist throughout the Bible, Old and New Testament. “Do not make any idols.” Making idols is a very dangerous thing to do, it means we will start to put our trust in the idol, and this does not need to be a physical idol. John finishes his first letter with the words “Keep yourselves from idols.”

Romans 3:27,28 - What becomes of our boasting?

3:27

This chapter finishes with Paul raising and answering several questions. The first of these is “where then is the boasting?”. The Jews took pride in their Jewishness. As I have said before, Israel can be seen as a microcosm of humanity. The characteristics that we see described in the Bible about the Jews apply to all of us. We are all prone to taking an inappropriate pride in something, be it “going to the right church” or whatever. Going to the “right church” is of no value unless we are living by faith. Conversely, there may be some who go to the “wrong church” but are actually living by faith. At present the Church of Scotland is in a mess and has recently approved the “blessing” of same-sex marriages, thus going directly against clear Biblical teaching. Many have left the Church of Scotland in recent years over its clear movement away from believing the Bible. There are also Bible-believing Christians (you cannot be a true Christian without believing in the Bible!). There will be Christians in both these groups who are acting in obedience to Christ. However, back to the text! Boasting is excluded. There is no place for pride in the gospel. For we are saved by the unmerited grace of God in Jesus Christ. No one is saved by “a law of works”, rather we are saved by a law of faith. Paul here is using the term “law of faith” in opposition to “law of works”, we should not read too much into the term “law of faith”.

3:28

“We hold that one is justified by faith apart from the Law”. Most strongly in Galatians we see that there those who insisted that Gentile converts needed to become Jews, needed to be circumcised, in order to be fully members of the kingdom. Throughout his letters, but especially in Galatians, Paul is counteracting this, and we also read about it in Acts 15. We are justified by faith, not by works of the Law. Garland points out that Paul does not say we are saved “on account of faith”, rather faith is the means by which we receive salvation. Just as you cannot boast about your works, neither can you boast about your faith!

Exodus 34:8-11 - I am making a covenant with you

34:8,9

Moses bows down and worships, this is the right response to the revelation of the Lord. Moses is still very concerned about whether or not the Lord would travel with them. He makes the basis for his prayer his having found favour in the eyes of the Lord. This plea is not made on the basis of any rose-tinted view of what the Israelites were like. He knows full well that they were a “stiff-necked people”, and seems to include himself in that “forgive our wickedness and our sin.

34:10,11

The Lord then declares that He is making a covenant with the people. God does not enter into casual relationships, but only serious ones. The Lord does not expect blind faith. They have already seen many miracles, but He declares that He will “do wonders never before done”. “The people you live among”, this could refer to the Israelites, or to the surrounding peoples. The various peoples would be driven out from the Promised Land. However, the covenant was not one sided, the people had to obey what God commanded them.