For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Rom. 5
I may be geeking out a bit this morning, but I couldn’t help but think of the second law of thermodynamics when reading this chapter this morning. Let me oversimplify the explanation of this law by saying it means that energy left to its own devices will seek to spread itself out equally across whatever area it has to work with. We see this tendency very easily with heat. Put a cup of hot coffee in a room, and the heat will dissipate out of the cup until the room and the coffee are at the same temperature.
Why did I think of this, you ask? Great question! I was thinking of righteousness as concentrated heat – like in that cup of coffee. So the hot cup of coffee is a righteous person. The room that cup is sitting in is the surrounding world. I was thinking how effortless and natural it is for a righteous person to become like the surrounding world. The righteousness dissipated from that person has very little effect on the world, but the change to the righteous person is dramatic. And I was thinking that the only way for that righteous person to heat back up is through input from an outside source of concentrated energy. It takes much more effort to return that cup of coffee to its original state than it did for it to become cold.
Adam was created righteous. But he ‘lost his heat’, so to speak. Since we are all like Adam, we are no more able to retain our heat than he was. We are all cold cups of coffee. Then God put a microwave in the room; Jesus – pure righteousness! He has enough righteousness to make the entire world as hot as that original cup of coffee. But it doesn’t just happen effortlessly. We have to come to the microwave to heat back up. And if we want to stay hot, or righteous, we need to stay in that microwave. Not everybody will be willing to make that effort.
One last thought with this analogy. Even if you put 100 hot cups of coffee in that room, the room will not heat up significantly. But all 100 cups will become cold. Our job as God’s people of faith is not to heat the room or anything in it, but to bring those cold cups of coffee to the microwave.
Lev. 23-24
What were the purposes of Israel’s festivals? What does this tell you about God? God prescribed Israel’s festivals both for their remembrance of His salvation for them from Egypt and to tell a story of His salvation yet to come for the whole world. I went through a fascinating study on these feasts as God’s roadmap for the redemption of the world several years ago that I would love to revisit. It’s really quite amazing how it all fits together. I would love to understand it better.
For now, though, I can’t help but notice all the sevens and Sabbaths involved in the annual festival process. The annual cycle itself is a seven month process. Then, the first and last festival, as well as the entire series of festivals, start and end with a Sabbath rest. In addition, the Festival of Weeks is seven Sabbaths after the Firstfruits. That’s a lot of sevens and Sabbaths, and it all means something.
Though I don’t remember all of what it means, I remember the study mentioning the Sabbath as “entering into the LORD’s rest.” I think about the context of the labor-intensive laws surrounding these festivals and how Jesus talked about His yoke being easy and His burden light. And I know there is a connection between God’s Sabbath rest and His salvation for us. God repeatedly tells His people to do no work on the Sabbath days and on the Day of Atonement, which seems to be a Sabbath in between regular Sabbaths. This seems representative to me of how salvation is God’s work and not our own.
So with my limited understanding, I’ll say that remembering what God has done is good. Likewise, considering what He has promised to do is good. And for the in-between, we are to trust in His promise and rest in His salvation.
Ps. 25
Pray this psalm. What verse will you use as a prayer all day long today? There are so many good verses in this Psalm! But this one caught my attention. “My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only He will release my feet from the snare.” (Ps. 25:15). I don’t know about you, but if my feet were caught in a snare, my eyes would be studying that snare! David’s words give me a gentle reminder of the futility in that. I am powerless to free myself. So why focus on what can only cause me fear and hopelessness? How much better to focus on God, my hope and my salvation!