Feb 20, 2022
EXODUS 40:
Yesterday in Exodus we read about Bezalel making the outside articles for worship— like the altar for burnt offerings. There was a listing of materials used, and then we heard of the making of the priests' clothes— all according to how Moses was instructed by God. Moses inspected everything and blessed the people. The stage is set for the start of worship according to God's instructions.
PSALM 9:
Psalm 9 is a song celebrating God sitting on his throne and judging justly.
LUKE 7b:
Yesterday we read about Jesus healing a favorite slave of a Roman officer and the raising of a widow's son from death. We start today’s rereading where Jesus was speaking about John the Baptist.
In our reading today at the end of Luke 7, Jesus says to a woman who has been forgiven many sins, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Jesus said, “Your faith has saved you.” I want to emphasize again: Jesus did NOT use ‘faith’ to mean such things as inner fortitude, vague hope, blind trust, denominational faith, or many other meanings. Remember that in Greek, ‘faith’ is simply the noun form of ‘believe’. So Jesus’ statement can be translated, “It is because you believe in Me that you’ve been saved.”
Then Jesus told the woman, “Go in peace.” Have you ever thought of what ‘peace’ means in a place like this? Jesus wasn’t telling her that she would have absence of war. You would be right in telling me that this is a spiritual peace. But if you told someone, ‘Go with spiritual peace’, it kind of sounds hollow. What we’re talking about is an inner peace that one can have even in the midst of the world falling apart all around you. After much discussion, what we came up with for the Indonesian language is, ‘go with the feeling of calm in God’s protection’ or another way to say it, ‘go with the calm assurance of being sheltered by God’. This is the realistic kind of inner peace that we who love the Lord have according to Romans 8:28.