God’s Foreign Exchange Program

Biblegems #292

Question: I have read many versions and several commentaries on Isaiah 43:4, and what a wide variety of interpretations there are!! Some seemed trivial, some missed the point (I felt), and some were just bizarre.

The immediate context makes it clear that God is talking directly to Israel:

         Is. 43:1  But now, this is what the LORD says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

The broader context (Is. 42:18-25) reveals why God tells Israel not to fear—the nation is about to be ravaged by war because of her rebelliousness against Him. Historically, we know this devastating attack refers to the Babylonian invasion and seventy-years exile of the Jewish population.

                        

Even so, God assures His people beforehand that His covenant love and promises still stand:

         Is. 43:2  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

In other words, Israel will suffer the consequences of her sinfulness but she will not be utterly destroyed. Then, in striking historical accuracy before the fact, Isaiah 43:3b-4 details how Israel will be redeemed from exile (v. 3b; 4b):

         I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. …I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life.

Then in verse 4a God explains why He will deliver His rebellious people:

         Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you…

Through Isaiah, God promised Israel that her return to her homeland would not be accomplished purely out of the goodness of the Babylonian king’s heart. Rather, Cyrus—and later his son Darius I—would be lured by God to expand their empire to the Mediterranean Sea, invading Egypt, Cush and Seba. Transplanting the powerless descendants of the Jewish captivity—second and third generations growing up in Babylon—back into Palestine would provide a friendly stepping stone for such an invasion.

So when God declares in Isaiah 43:4 that He is willing to sacrifice three people groups for the sake of Israel’s return to Palestine He is making a very clear announcement to mankind as a whole: It is far better to be among God’s covenant people (even if temporarily out of favor with Him) than to be outside His covenant.

Those who belong to God by covenant are “precious” to Him. Think of it! God, the Creator and Lord of the universe, loves us and holds us in great honor! Only to His own does He say, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you” (Is. 43:5). All others have every reason to be terrified, for God is in the process of creating a Kingdom people and will not hesitate to eliminate those who refuse Him. As Jesus taught centuries after Isaiah,

         Matt. 13:41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.

        

The Bible & The Handicapped

Biblegems #269

Question: Why does the Bible say in Leviticus 21:17-23 that people with physical handicaps are not allowed to enter the sanctuary to give their offerings?

Here is the passage in question (NIV 2011):

Lev. 21:17  “Say to Aaron:  ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. 18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand,  or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, 20 or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. 21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the LORD. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; 23 yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.

From our contemporary perspective, where concern for the needs of the handicapped in society has rightly come to the forefront, this does seem both unfair and stigmatizing. However, this passage says nothing degrading or disrespectful about people with handicaps. Neither does Leviticus teach that the physically challenged are not allowed to worship God. Rather, the purpose of the instructions in this passage is aimed at highlighting God’s absolute perfection, which separates Him from all mankind, and how God Himself makes people holy (including the handicapped): “I am the LORD, who makes them holy” (Lev. 21:23).

First, this passage concerns only the descendants of Aaron (v. 17), of the tribe of Levi (Ex. 4:14), whose exclusive role was to serve the nation of Israel as priests:

         Deut. 18:1          The Levitical priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the LORD, for that is their inheritance.

Moses placed Aaron as the tribe’s first priest:

         Num. 17:3 On the staff of Levi write Aaron’s name, for there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral tribe.

Second, everything associated with the worship of God in the tabernacle (and later, the Temple) was required to be as free of imperfection of any kind as possible so as to reflect God’s perfect holiness. This applied to the furniture, the equipment, the sacrifices of grain or meat, and to the priests themselves.

         Lev. 22:9   The priests are to perform my service in such a way that they do not become guilty and die for treating it with contempt. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.

Any tool, bowl or item of any kind dedicated to the Lord for use in the Temple worship that became damaged, or used for something other than what it was dedicated for, had to be destroyed. Likewise, only those of the tribe of Levi who represented the healthiest of mankind could serve as priests who entered the sanctuary. The reason for this is explained in the book of Hebrews:

          Heb. 8:5  They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

Just as an architect’s blueprints must accurately foreshadow in two dimensions the completed three-dimensional building it represents, so too the Temple and all that pertained to it formed a blueprint in three dimensions of life in the Kingdom of Heaven. In that future kingdom there will be no more sin, no more physically, mentally or emotionally challenged, no more imperfection of any kind. And that is good news, because it is God’s greatest delight to do for mankind what we cannot do for ourselves:

         Col. 2:17  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

         

Do The Ten Commandments Apply Today?

Biblegems #242

Question: Are Christians as well as Jews equally obligated to obey the Ten Commandments? And what about those of other religious beliefs?

God gave the Ten Commandments to the Hebrew people, specifically the descendants of Israel, during the 13^th century B.C. (Exodus 20:1-23). These statutes formed the foundation of the entire legal, judicial, military, religious and social system that God established through Moses in creating the nation of Israel. In that sense, then, the Ten Commandments were designed specifically for the Jewish people.

However, God’s purpose in creating the nation of Israel was to have a people set apart from all the other people groups on the planet who would serve as God’s representative to the nations, and as an example to all mankind of a lifestyle in keeping with God’s will and design for humanity. In fact, God’s promise to Israel was that a future day would come when that divine purpose would become a permanent reality:

         Is. 51:4   Listen to me, my people;

                  hear me, my nation:

         The law will go out from me;

         my justice will become a light to the nations.

What this reveals is that the Ten Commandments are more than ten laws; the Ten Commandments reflect God’s character and His standard for human desires and human conduct. The Ten Commandments target what we love as well as what we do. So in that sense, the Ten Commandments are universal. What God gave to Israel on tablets of stone He has also imprinted in the human conscience:

         Rom. 2:14-15 Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.

So the Law acts as a spotlight on the person who breaks it. It exposes sin in a very public way, because those who publicly identify themselves as people of the Law come under its judgment when they break it. Either way, Jew and Gentile—no matter what their religious views—all must answer to God for breaking His commandments. And by that holy standard, all mankind stands condemned:

         Rom. 3:10   As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one…

A true follower of Jesus, however, has died to the sinful nature and has been reborn by the Holy Spirit. Such a person is no longer condemned but—under the control of the Spirit of God—willingly obeys the Law.

         Rom. 8:6-9   The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

         You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.