BTS: Really quick update 1/20/14

We've added the first part of a new story over at Gorillahead.  It's not a comic, but only the first part of a novel.  I'll update it periodically while Paul's working on the art for Spiritman.

And speaking of Spiritman, Paul has thumbnailed every page and is in the process of fleshing them out.  He hopes to be done by the end of January/early February. 

That's it for now.

Scott
edgiscript3@yahoo.com

Deeper 11: Preparing for the ten commandments

Exodus 19:5-8 (HRV)  “’Now therefore, if you will hearken unto My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be my own treasure from among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be unto Me a kingdom of cohenim, and a set-apart nation.  These are the words you shall speak unto the children of Yisra’el.’  And Moshe came and called for the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which YHWH commanded him.  And all the people answered together, and said: ‘All that YHWH has spoken we will do.’”

Let me set the stage for what’s happening here.  The nation of Israel has left Egypt and they’ve escaped Pharaoh’s chariots by the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea.  The people have not yet received the ten commandments yet.  At this point YHWH is saying, “I want you to be mine, but I’m offering myself to you, not forcing myself upon you.  Will you take me to be yours?”  This is the beginning of a marriage covenant and it is the essence of making Him Lord.  The people of Israel answered by agreeing to keep His commandments before they even knew what His commandments would be.  These are their vows. 

We want an intimacy with God, but too often we want it our way.  God said, “IF you will listen and IF you will keep my covenant, THEN you shall be my own treasure from among all peoples.”  We tend to act as if all God said was, “You shall be my own treasure,” and we ignore the rest of it.  We want the good stuff, but we don’t want to acknowledge that we’ve got to make some sort of effort in this partnership.  No, we’d rather pretend that God is Santa Claus just giving and giving and giving, and all we have to do is sit here like a little baby bird with our mouths open while we squawk away with our complaints about how it’s not coming quickly enough.  When are we going to recognize that this is an “if/then” statement and we need to fulfill our part of this marriage in order to enter fully into this union?

So the people of Yisra’el agreed to the ten commandments before even hearing them.  That’s a picture of what we should be doing when making YHWH our Lord.  You see, the problem is that we need to make Him our Savior AND Lord, but too often we’re only recognizing Him as our Savior.  We do need to accept His gift of salvation.  Absolutely.  That’s vital.  But it’s not over with that.  We’re supposed to make Him our Lord as well.  We’re supposed to enter into a living and vibrant union.  We’re supposed to now take an active role in getting to know Him and letting Him lead us wherever He may take us.  We’re supposed to say, “I don’t know what it is You’ve got lined up for me, but I’ve seen how good You are and I know how much You love me, so I’m going to agree to whatever it is You want from me and for me right now.” 

Other interesting things about this section:

The Ten Commandments are given in the next chapter.  How many of us miss that the ten commandments were not brought down the mountain by Moshe/Moses, but they were shouted down by God.  When Moshe went up Mount Sinai to visit with YHWH and to receive the ten commandments in stone form, the people had already received the ten commandments. 

YHWH said, “For all the earth is mine.”  The earth was not given to Satan with the fall of man.  Authority to rule was given to Satan, but the earth still belongs to God. 

“And you shall be unto Me a kingdom of cohenim, and a set-apart nation.”  Cohenim essentially means priests.  Yisra’el was a nation of priests.  We tend to see the Levitical priesthood as a picture of an elite few that God set aside to do his special bidding while the rest of us just carry on with our own work in our own way.  We use the Levitical priesthood as “proof” that God wants one or two of us to be closer to Him than the rest of us.  But the Levitical priesthood was yet another picture that came later and was essentially a more defined picture of what God was establishing here.  God said the entire nation was a nation of priests to Him and the whole world.  We are ALL prophets, priests, and kings, not just a select few who have been ordained by the world’s system.  We are all meant to minister to Him, for Him, and through Him. 

Scott Snyder
edgiscript3@yahoo.com