How to Enjoy a Lifetime of Favour
Introduction
When I was at university I was taken to hear a talk entitled, ‘Where will you be in ten years’ time?’ It was intended to be an encouragement to us to persevere in our faith in spite of all the challenges that life would hold after university. All that I can remember is thinking at the time, ‘Ten years! That is a lifetime away.’ I could not even begin to imagine that far ahead.
Now, by contrast, I look back at my life and ten years ago seems like yesterday. Life has flown past. It seems to be accelerating at an alarming rate. I now understand the wisdom of those who encouraged us early on to take a long view.
We live in a society of instant gratification. Instant meals. Instant messaging. Instant cash. Instant loans. Instant fake tans. Instant fortunes won. There is a great danger of short-termism. The passages for today remind us that God is the ‘everlasting God’ (Isaiah 40:28). God views things through a wide-angled lens: he takes a long view and he wants you to enjoy a lifetime of his favour (Psalm 30:5).
Psalm 30:1–5
1 I will exalt you, LORD,
for you lifted me out of the depths
and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
2 LORD my God, I called to you for help,
and you healed me.
4 Sing the praises of the LORD, you his faithful people;
praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favour lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.’
Commentary
The long view of life
Are you going through a difficult time? Do you wonder whether it will last for ever?
God’s ‘favour lasts a lifetime’ (v.5). As David looked back on his life, he was filled with thankfulness and ‘praise’ (v.4). Yes, he had been through some very difficult times. But God ‘lifted [him] out of the depths and did not let [his] enemies gloat over [him]’ (v.1). When he called to God for help, God ‘healed’ him (v.2).
‘God, my God, I yelled for help
and you put me together.
God, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life
when I was down-and-out’ (vv.2–3, MSG).
David had times when God was angry with him (v.5) and where God hid his face from him (v.7b). (After all, David did commit adultery and murder.) Yet, as he looked back on his life he was able to see that the moments of trial and testing were in the context of a lifetime of God’s favour.
Prayer
Father, thank you that your anger lasts only a moment but your favour lasts a lifetime. Thank you that you are the same yesterday, today and for ever and I can trust you.
Mark 12:13–27
13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.
14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
And they were amazed at him.
18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
Commentary
The long view of eternity
What happens to people when they die? Is death really the end? You may have lost a family member or close friend and you wonder whether you will ever see them again. Where are they now? Are they gone for ever? Are they just asleep? Or are they, in some way, alive?
Jesus’ opponents were constantly trying to catch him out with their questions (v.13).
First, they tried to trap him over money. However, even they recognised that Jesus was ‘a man of integrity’. They knew that Jesus spoke the truth whether or not it was popular (v.14). Jesus avoided the trap and gave an amazing answer (vv.15–17). (See BiOY Day 34.)
Next, they asked Jesus a hypothetical question to test him. This one was about life after death. There was an internal debate in Judaism between the Pharisees and the Sadducees about whether or not there was life after death. [The way I remember the distinction is that it was the Pharisees (‘far I see’) who did believe in the resurrection, whereas the Sadducees (‘sad you see’) did not.]
Jesus pointed out that the Sadducees were wrong for two reasons: First, they did ‘not know the Scriptures’, and second, they did not know ‘the power of God’ (v.24).
- The Scriptures
Jesus affirms the absolute certainty of the resurrection of the dead. Since the Sadducees only really believed in the authority of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) Jesus bases his argument on them and quotes from Exodus 3:6: ‘Now about the dead rising – have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living’ (Mark 12:26–27). In other words, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still living now!
- The Power of God
In 1 Corinthians 15, there is the most sustained and in-depth argument of the New Testament on the subject of the resurrection of the dead. Paul emphasises again and again the power of God, which the Sadducees denied. He writes that the body is sown ‘in weakness’, yet it is raised as a resurrection body after death, ‘in power’ (1 Corinthians 15:43). God ‘gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (vv.56–57).
The wonderful truth is that the same power that was at work in raising Christ from the dead is at work in you now, bringing you more into the likeness of Christ (see Ephesians 1:19–20), and also in the future, in bringing your body to be a resurrection body in the new creation.
Therefore, everyone who has died in Christ is still living now. You will see them again. Even though the separation is so hard, all the struggles of this life have to be seen in terms of eternity. God takes the long view.
Prayer
Thank you so much, Lord, that this life is not the end. Thank you that the dead will rise. Help me to see all the struggles of this life in the light of eternity.
Leviticus 11:44
44 ‘I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.’
Commentary
The long view of history
What on earth is the point of all the regulations in Leviticus? Why are they in the Bible?
As always, we understand the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament and, in particular, through the lens of Jesus. God had a long-term plan. He was preparing the world for the coming of Christ.
The New Testament tells us that all these seemingly strange regulations are only ‘a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ’ (Colossians 2:17). The purpose of the regulations was to teach about holiness – ‘I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy’ (Leviticus 11:44).
Peter quotes this verse in his first letter when encouraging holy living amongst the early Christians. He writes, ‘As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy”’ (1 Peter 1:14–16).
Yet the New Testament also tells us that God has now made us holy through Christ. Therefore, the apostle Paul also says, ‘Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink’ (Colossians 2:16). All these regulations have now been superseded through the coming of Jesus.
Many of the regulations were probably there for very practical reasons. For example, the eating of pigs (as carriers of disease) may well have been banned chiefly as a danger to health. Similarly, the rules of decontamination, strict as they are, take account of practical necessities. God wants you to eat wisely and healthily!
Purification after childbirth was not about moral uncleanness but ceremonial uncleanness (Leviticus 12:2). The cleansing was from the ‘flow of blood’ (v.7), not from any guilt attached to marital intercourse or childbirth. These regulations may actually have been a great blessing to women who had recently given birth. The extended period of separation from wider society would have protected her from having to return to the hustle and bustle of normal life too quickly after childbirth.
This passage also gives us a clue to Jesus’ background. It shows the poverty from which he came; Mary could not ‘afford a lamb’ (v.8). When Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem ‘for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses’ they offered ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons’ (v.8; Luke 2:22–24).
God had a long-term plan for the birth of his son under these laws. God was working all the way through history to prepare the ground for Jesus. Jesus was born under the law. He fulfilled the law and brought all these regulations to an end on the cross. He rose from the dead and made it possible for us too, one day, to rise from the dead and to become, along with Jesus, heirs of God (Galatians 4:4–7).
Prayer
Lord, thank you that I am no longer under law. Thank you that I have received adoption as your child and that you have sent the Spirit of Jesus into my heart. Thank you that I will spend all eternity with you. Help me to take a long view and to enjoy a lifetime of your favour.
Pippa adds
In Psalm 30:7 the psalmist says,
‘When I felt secure I said, “I shall never be shaken”’
I know that feeling when faith is riding high and I feel nothing will knock the confidence I have in the Lord.
However sometimes, through problems, difficulties or sickness, that confidence is rocked, and it feels like, as it says in verse 7, ‘When you hid your face from me I was dismayed’ (v.7b). Then the only answer is return to verse 2 and pray ‘O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me’ (v.2).
Thought for the Day
The same power that was at work in raising Jesus from the dead is at work in you now.
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References
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.
Scripture marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.