A WHOLE MAN

In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses told the Israelites everything the LORD had commanded him to say to them.  Deuteronomy 1:3  The book of Deuteronomy is a book that has been somewhat misunderstood by the general population. It derives its name from the Latin Septuagint’s translation meaning a copy of the law or second law in the Greek. And so, some have misunderstood this book to simply be a second set of laws that are given to the people of Israel. But this book is not really a new set of laws, but more of an amplification of the laws that already had been given to the nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai. Additionally, secular academia has been misjudged this book as nothing more than an ancient treaty that followed the format of the Hittite (1400-1200 BC) or Assyrian (850-650 BC) treatises. This is partly due to the fact that this book has many parallels to its Ancient Near Eastern treaty traditions, but this book is far more t...

The Lord spoke to Moses,“Execute vengeance for the Israelites against the Midianites. After that, you will be gathered to your people… They waged war against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and killed every male. Numbers 31:1-2, 7  When evangelizing, a common argument that I hear against Christianity is how I could anyone serve a God who would command His people to violently slaughter and kill another people group. In their minds, there is no justification for the taking of another person’s life and because there are several cases for when God does this, it is sufficient evidence that God is not good. There are plenty of ways to respond to this question, and depending on your context some will be more effective than others. For example, for those who condone of abortions the table could be turned on them very easily. But a far more gospel-centered approach is come to an agreeance on a standard for morality. Once there, you can work through whether or not they have m...

In this series I will be highlighting the various types of Psalms that you will encounter in the book of Psalm. This is by no means the ultimate and final arrangement of the Psalms, but it is one that I have found to be very helpful. Article 4 of 11 “1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?  2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”  Psalm 13:1-2  As mentioned in the previous article, and what will be developed throughout this series, the Psalms provide us not only with examples of how we may express all of the emotions of life to God but also provide us with a deeper understanding of who God is, what He has done, and what He is going to do. Similar to the community complaint psalms we discussed in the previous article, you will find that these psalms are much more personal. The Individual complaints are very simil...

13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 1 Corinthians 2:13  Perhaps your story is very much like my own. I had grown up in the church believing that if I did not speak in “tongues” then I had not received a special anointing from the Spirit. I would actively attend special worship services to be “filled” more with the spirit and eagerly joined prophetic word services to receive a “special” word from God. It was not until I heard the Gospel for the very first time (more than 17 years after being in the church) that God saved me in my sins. It was then that I, like Dorothy, finally looked behind the green curtain to see the fraud behind. While it may be commendable that these false prophets are leading people to desire a deeper relationship and nearness to God, it does not excuse the fact that they are leading people to have a superficial desire for God, their method...

11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” 12 And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?” Numbers 23:11–12 Interestingly enough, when most people think about Balaam they do not actually think about Balaam. Nope, they know the name, but immediately they are reminded of Balaam’s donkey. This is quite the unusual story and one filled with irony because the seer could not see, but his donkey could. This account is not ironic only in this sense, but also due to the fact that Balak, the king of Moab, has hired Balaam to curse the people of Israel, but in the end the Israelites are blessed by Balaam. Balak knows that whoever Balaam blesses will be blessed and whoever he curses will be cursed and is hoping to escape the fate of the kings of Sihon and Og (Num 22:6). But this is all in vain because the Lord turns these curses into wonderful blessing...

In this series I will be highlighting the various types of Psalms that you will encounter in the book of Psalm. This is by no means the ultimate and final arrangement of the Psalms, but it is one that I have found to be very helpful. Why have You rejected us forever, God? Why does Your anger burn against the sheep of Your pasture?  Psalm 74:1  As mentioned in the previous article, and what will be developed throughout this series, the Psalms provide us not only with examples of how we may express all of the emotions of life to God but also provide us with a deeper understanding of who God is, what He has done, and what He is going to do. In this article, I will be focusing on a genre of psalms that can be quite troublesome, Community complaints. If God is sovereign and works everything for good, is it ever right for God’s people to raise complaints to Him? Shouldn’t believers just have faith and trust that everything in the end will work out? Well, the psalms pro...

Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. 2 You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message, I proclaimed to you—unless you believed for no purpose 1 Corinthians 15:1-2  Not to reinforce any stereotypes, but growing up with an Asian mother I was encouraged very early to learn the piano. I was in no way forced, but loved to learn new instruments. Eventually, some of my friends at the church and I got together and played in the church band. One of the most important lessons that you learn is that you are not playing a song individually, but collectively as one. And equally as important as playing the same song is the importance for each member to be united in tempo and tone; otherwise the song will be worse than a Duran Duran song. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is a reminder of the importance of unity. He writes to a church that finds itself being influenced by the world around it. Corinth...

Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to die by the sword? Our wives and little children will become plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.”  Numbers 14:3-4  Since Genesis 12 we have been waiting for the promise of God to be fulfilled; for His people to become a great nation. And for that, they needed land. A land that reminds us so much of the garden. But it is not just the physical beauty and the fruitfulness of the land that reminds us of the garden. It is the fact that God will be with the people and that they will have God dwelling among them. This is a paradise that still falls short of the perfect communion that Adam and Eve had with God in the garden of Eden. A communion that Adam and Eve rejected when they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge causing them to be cast east of Eden. And as the people of God are finally led to the land of Pr...

This is the second post in a series of 11 on the Psalms, if you would like to read the first in the series, click here . In this series I will be highlighting the various types of Psalms that you will encounter in the book of Psalm. This is by no means the ultimate and final arrangement of the Psalms, but it is one that I have found to be very helpful. ****************** The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD…Who is He, this King of glory? The LORD of Hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah Psalm 24:1, 10 The first Psalm type I want to highlight are generally classified as hymn psalms and you probably sing these psalms more often than you think. The reason being is that they are so easy to sing to and generally reflect the type of attitude that every present ought to have. Especially in a congregational context, these psalms just scream out, sing me! They are beautiful and rich in theology because they are meant to remind ...

38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”  John 18:38  The purple dinosaur named Barney is loved by millions of children, to include my nephews and nieces. They would have been completely devastated had they been alive on July 15, 1997, when the cooling fan inside the sixty-pound dinosaur suit short-circuited and started to smoke. The news at the time carried the story of the accident and how the actor playing Barney was sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation. You can imagine how many children were deeply distressed by this fearing that Barney had been burned, died, or worse, that he was a fake. They had believed that Barney was real and this fantasy of a talking, singing, and dancing purple dinosaur had brought them joy. But a fantasy is a fantasy, and sooner or later the truth comes out. Sooner or later, we all come face to face with the truth. In today’s reading, we find that the religious leaders had brought Jesus to Pilate under false pretenses with hopes of ...

12 He who offered his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah. 13 And his offering was one silver plate whose weight was 130 shekels, one silver basin of 70 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering; 14 one golden dish of 10 shekels, full of incense; 15 one bull from the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering; 16 one male goat for a sin offering; 17 and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nahshon the son of Amminadab. [1] Numbers 7:12-17 If reading today’s text was tough for you then strap in because you are about to read the exact same gifts being presented to God 11 more times. Could it be that Moses was running out of ideas and so he went on repeating himself for each of the tribes? Was Moses scribing down everything that was happening in real...

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, he meditates day and night.  Psalms 1:1-2   The Psalms. They are beautiful, they are tragic, they can be confusing. Confusing, because when we think about the Bible as whole, we generally describe it as God’s Word to us. And yet the Psalms do not feel as though they are God’s Word to us, but more so that they are our words to God. Many of the songs that the church sings are based on the Psalms and we never sing them to one another, but we orient ourselves, rightly, to giving worship to God. So why is it that the Psalms are included in the Scriptures? Why does it seem that they are all so very different from one another? And how are we supposed to interpret the Psalms? These are way too large of questions to be sufficiently addressed in a 500-word blog so if you will grant me with s...

3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”  John 12:3–5  This week marks the beginning of Lent for 2019 and it is a beautiful church tradition that has been celebrated for nearly 2,000 years; originally lasting only as a 2-3 day fast. Generally, it is thought of as a time of self-reflection, fasting, and denial but the reality is that Lent is so much more than that. At Overflow Church, the theme that we are weaving throughout each week is that Lent brings us to repentance and repentance produces renewed and grateful lives (To see this unpacked check out our first sermon in our Lent series: 3/3/2019 Lent Sermon ). During Lent, we are more acutely aw...

The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Wilderness of Sinai,  Numbers 1:1a  As we are move into Numbers probably one of the first things that you noticed was the mini genealogy of the twelve tribes of Israel followed by the first of several census’ in the book of Numbers. Contextually, the story line follows the book of Exodus. From a Literary perspective, you may want to reread that it does not say literally, it could be read sort of as a diary of the Israelites with census lists. Theologically, it follows the promises given to the patriarchs back in Genesis. Ultimately this book is all about how God is faithful in fulfilling His promises. In the Hebrew Bible, this book goes by the name bemidbar , meaning in the desert . And that is a very appropriate title because we read about how God directs His people to organize themselves, worship Him, and does bring the people from Egypt to the land of Promise. But in chapter 13, the scouts bring a bad report...