God speaks of those who give thanks offerings, also called the fellowship offering. Those who give these offerings are the ones God honors. They are the ones God will save. The thing about this offering is that it wasn’t for a specific sin or to ask for anything but just a way to be in fellowship with God and others. At the end of the day, I would say that what really matters is being in right relationship with God not just doing religious things (sacrifices).
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It is interesting, that three of the seven feasts God commanded take place in the seventh month. I have been surprised how many feasts God commanded. One would think that the right way to do this would be to spread them out but clearly God didn't think so. It reminds me of the November/December holiday season in the West. When celebrated correctly it is a great time that builds on one another. This is what I believe God was doing here.
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There are two issues that God reminds the people of again. During a sabbath, you aren't supposed to be working and the sacrifices must be unblemished. God had said this before and he reminds it again and again. This may seem repetitive but Israel was learning what it was to be God's people from a culture that was very different. They needed to learn and repetition is one of the best ways to learn.
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I recently heard a group of people talking about pacifism. The main teacher was saying that Jesus was calling us not to retaliate. The discussion quickly went to what if someone breaks into your home or what if we wouldn’t have fought against Hitler during World War 2. There was a lot of back and forth. I won’t say what I believe on the issue of these because I agree with the person who said, “It’s not the guy who might break into my house that I have a problem with it’s the guy who cuts me off in traffic or the grocery store.”
This comment made me realize that often we use extreme
examples to give us excuses to apply the practical truths. People say almost anything
may give you cancer as an excuse to keep doing the things that we know will
probably give you cancer. We use the excuse; I don’t like tofu as an excuse not
even trying to moderate our diets. When it comes to the Bible, they use the excuse
they can’t understand some part of the Bible as a reason not to learn or apply
any of the Bible. This is a problem.
What is the solution? The solution is not to use the extreme
or unknown not to apply what we do know. We may not be able to see with clarity
how we should respond to a Hitler (fight/passivity) but what I can say is the Bible
is pretty clear on how you should respond to your neighbor. Let’s not use the unclear
to justify not following what is clear.
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We see in this chapter the doctrine of creation and the imago deo (Man in the image of God), also the doctrine of sin. Paul will agree with this and we see it in Romans 3 and other places as will many others in Scripture. Yet, despite the sin, Isaiah feels he can call upon God's mercy. The reason is that God does have mercy and that is seen going forward in Isaiah and in all of Scripture, Old and New Testaments.
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God told Moses he was going to die and that he needed to set Joshua in a position to take his place among the people. For am and many other scholars, it does seem that Moses was preparing Joshua to take his place long before now, but Moses waited until God said, "It's time." This was a reminder that Moses didn't just prepare someone he listened to God about who the person was to be. I have heard it said that preparing someone to follow you in your work is as important or more important than the work. We see Jesus taking a lot of time preparing those who would follow him. In the business world it ahs been seen that a good successor can take the business a long way but a bad one ends in disaster. This chapter reminds me that we need good successors, but also we need to make sure they are God's choice.
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There have been many who have said that a generation after Israel was born as a nation was the fig tree budding that Jesus is talking about. The problem with this is Jesus right after giving the illustration about the tree says no one knows. This means no one knows. We don’t know. The timeline people have created is only good, if and that is a real if, the fig tree represents Israel becoming a nation, and not something else: Israel taking all of their lands?, an event in spiritual Israel?, a revival among Jews?. The idea of a timeline that we can know completely breaks down if Jesus is just using the fig tree in an illustration and the fig tree not being an image, type, or figure of a Jewish nation. At the end of the day, what matters is that we are faithful no matter what is happening around us be it noon, night, morning, or when the rooster crows, which if you have been around roosters is anytime they feel like it. Whichever, WATCH!
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