Tag Archives: rebellion

mmmm 1 samuel 8 mmmm

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Mmmm spicy Chinese beef with Italian Farfalle & Parmesan Mmmm

I love cooking Fusion Food that mixes my Asian heritage with Aussie flavours!

But that’s not the only food that is mouth-watering.

At Bible College, I’m eating mouthfuls of Old Testament this semester.

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, ‘You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to leadus, such as all the other nations have.’ 6 But when they said, ‘Give us a king to lead us,’ this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.’

1 Samuel 8:4-7

The book of 1 Samuel talks about Israel’s first king.

The elders of Israel don’t want a repeat of the anarchy when Israel was led by Judges.

So they ask Samuel for a king just like the neighbouring nations have.

This idolatrous request is a slap in the face of God as we read in the verses above.

Israel has rejected God as their king.

In the rest of chapter 8, God warns that a king will enslave and tax them.

The elders refuse to listen to wisdom and stubbornly repeat their request for a king.

Like other parts of the Old Testament, God gives the Israelites over to their sinful desires.

God is still sovereign: He uses kingship as a mechanism to judge and bless Israel.

So what does this mean for us today?

Verse 7 above reminds me of the popular Gospel tool: 2 Ways To Live.

God created the whole universe and is rightfully king over all peoples on earth.

But all humans reject God as their king.

Instead, we appoint ourselves as “king” and try to rule our own lives without God.

But we fail to rule the world properly and control our own lives.

God will punish us for our rebellion with death and judgement.

God sent Jesus to die in our place and take God’s punishment that we deserve.

God raised Jesus to life as King of the Universe and He will return to judge all people.

So we now have 2 choices:

1. Accept Jesus as our king and rely on his death to pay for our rebellion.

2. Continue as “king” and suffer the consequences of our rebellion: death and judgement.

Which way do you choose to live your life?

mmmm Bible mmmm

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mmmm genesis 8 mmmm

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Mmmm Enjoyed delicious Indian Tandoori Chicken and Naan Bread last weekend Mmmm

I thank God that I live in multicultural Sydney with a huge variety of authentic Asian food!

But that’s not the only food that is mouth-watering.

I’m being nourished at Bible College with tantalising morsels of Old Testament this semester.

“So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark, one kind after another.Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”

Genesis 8:18-21

Genesis sets up this incredible unfolding plan of God.

We have the tension of sin and Man’s rebellion contrasted against God’s love for his people.

We are left asking, “How will this all end?”

God knew that Man would rebel against him well before he even created anything.

The amazing thing is that God decided to go ahead and create the whole universe anyway knowing that Man would rebel against him.

He lovingly created a beautiful world knowing that we would pollute it with our sinfulness.

As a result we now have major environmental problems because we have failed to care for the world:

  • We have chopped down all the trees
  • We have killed all the animals
  • We have thrown rubbish everywhere
  • We have polluted the air with greenhouse gases.

We only have ourselves to blame for Climate Change.

As we read about Noah and the Flood, we see that God is a God of Second Chances.

He could have wiped out all Mankind but he chose to spare Noah and his family.

God knew full well that every inclination of Man’s heart is evil from childhood.

He knew that we are naturally evil from birth. It is in our nature to sin.

Inexplicably he allowed Noah to survive knowing that Man would continue to sin after the Flood.

We see a repeating pattern emerging in Genesis that will continue throughout the whole Old Testament

  • Man rebels against God
  • God warns Man to stop rebelling
  • Man ignores God’s warning
  • God rightfully judges Man for his rebellion
  • God gives Man a Second Chance and lessens the punishment
  • God restores Man

Then the cycle begins all over again showing that we haven’t learned anything from our mistakes.

The whole Old Testament is leading to the climax in the New Testament.

Through Jesus, God has dealt with Man’s rebellion once and for all.

Jesus has taken the punishment that we deserve upon himself.

Jesus has restored our relationship with God and stopped this pointless cycle of hopelessness.

Jesus gives us real food and real hope for the future.

mmmm Bible mmmm