Each day, each moment, with each decision, we are given an opportunity to choose from good and evil or as the Bible describes, life or death, tov or ra.
To think of our moment to moment decisions having the power to create life and death may seem lofty, but I’m hoping an understanding how often the Exodus story is seen throughout the lens of the Bible helps bring clarity to what is means to be covenantally faithful to God or to choose our own way.
Whether we believe in God is much different than being allegiant to God. Our allegiance is tested in each decision we make and in each thought we ponder.
There is no middle ground. It may seem too rigid or black and white, but this has been the call of God to humanity since the beginning pages of the Bible.
The two trees in the garden of Eden that are described in the beginning pages of the
Bible represent good and evil or life and death. The way we experience life is dependent on which tree we eat from. The one represents a purposeful, fulfilled, sutstatained, and complete life, while the other path is that of discontentment, fear, disalusionment, and disconnectedness.
To eat from the tree of life Jesus uses an interesting analogy of complete consummation to describe what it means to eat from the tree of life.
In John 6:53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Ancient cultures believe there was life in the blood of living creatures. The Lavitical law forbade eating of any meat that had blood in it as a way to be completely set apart from any other pagan traditions that believe if they could receive the spirit of an animal if they consumed it’s blood.
God has simply been seeking for loyalty, in all areas of life, as he has so humbly and graciously given all of himself to us. It is that black and white, as challenging as it may be to stay that course.
In Eden, God said to Adam and Eve that everything in the garden was theirs and it was good for consumption, except for fruit from one particular tree. In Genesis 2:17 is states: “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”Jesus came preaching the need for people to repent and believe in the coming of his Kingdom.”
The tree of good and evil represents the freedom to make choices outside of God’s will and his good order for our lives. The ability to choose has been the downfall of humanity and has created the destructiveness and evil that we all experience. The choice to choose life with God and apart from God was also given to spiritual beings as well, who many similar to mankind made a decision to see after existing without God. Getting into the spirit realm gets a little tricky for people, but most people would agree of the tension that felt between good and evil. Clearly it's as if there is more going on than we can see.
The gospel of Jesus is the good news of the establishment of God’s kingdom here on Earth. His enthronement seated to the right hand of God provided a victory over the spiritual forces that try to entice us away from producing life. One thing we know about God is that what God has done and continues to do expands, it grows. Dead things stop existing, but living organisms give life as they receive life. At times is may feel like humans only know how to make things worse. It doesn't mean that people don't, or even you or I don't do good things, but at as whole it can appear we are not headed in the right direction.
So what's the answer? For me, I believe it is completely dependent of our knowledge and awareness of Jesus. I don't simply make that statement uninformed. I'll allow you to do your own research, but every interaction Jesus had with another person or spirit in the Bible had a profound impact on that being. It wasn't always positive for that person or being, but profound, impactful, and often supernatural.
For us, one encounter with Jesus can have an impact to change our lives forever. the openeness of our hearts has a big impact on how we may see and experience him. If we are close minded, analytical, sceptical, and full of pride, his presence in our lives will seem invasive and threatening. He is complete truth and that truth will challenge all of our pride and the excuses that have kept him at a distance. Yet, to those with an open heart, he's the one we've been longing for. We can find ourselves in awe and wonder at the splendor of his presence.
When Jesus came, he came preaching of the need for repentance, or to turn from the ways that bring forth death. His is proclaiming the establishment of his Kingdom. It may seem odd to us, but in his time Kings ruled the land. To have a Kingdom, kings need a land, a people, and a rule or “ways of doing things according the kingdom statutes.” When he came preaching about the coming Kingdom of Heaven, he was stating that he is the true king and he was bring back to reality the ways his people are supposed to live and rule the land as representatives of that kingdom.
For us thankfully, Jesus lived out Kingdom attributes. And he did it as an example of not only what to do, but how to do it. For us, this is a heavy weight of what we are supposed to try and do, but my contention is that living in accordance to the kingdom of God is what we are designed to do.
We’re going to start with some of what Jesus lays out as Kingdom attributes described in the Sermon in the Mount. The gospel is so much more than salvation. The gospel is purpose. The gospel requires a response. Our belief in Jesus is exemplified by our allegiance to Jesus. the Bible refers to this as reverence. To revere God is to know him as God, as King, as ruler and creator over all of creation, yet to know him at the same time as friend.
Israel’s story was that of exodus, redemption, order, provision, and an opportunity at real sustainable life. They squandered the opportunity to know God at that level and often we are not much different. We have in our hands redemtion out of the things that bind our heart. The frustration and pain and discontentment don't need to exist. God is seeking to bring us to a place in life and an understanding of people and purpose that only he can. This level of compassio and understanding can only be found by the guiding of his spirit in our hearts, meaning only he can reveal at a deeper level truly how to live in complete transparency and authenticity. Living this way will allow us to see, hear, feel and experience life that was unavailable on our own and what we know about Jesus is often seen in how we live each day.
This week, let’s focus on just the first 4 verses of Matthew 5 and consider these questions.
What does life and death mean?
What does blessed mean and how is it different than the word happy that’s used in some translations?
What does it mean to be poor in spirit?
What does it mean to mourn?
What is the Kingdom of Heaven?
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (niv)
What is the opposite of living according to the ways of the Kingdom of Heaven?
Listed below are additional scriptures depicting what choosing death may look like and the results of those choices.
- Proverbs 16:18: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
- James 4:6: "But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'"
- Revelation 3:17: "For you say, 'I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,' not realizing that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked."
- Luke 18:11-12: "The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all
- Matthew 6:19-21: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven..."
- 1 Timothy 6:9-10: "But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction..."
- John 15:5: "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."
- Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through him who strengthens me," often misinterpreted as self-sufficiency instead of reliance on God.
