Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Mar 2 2020 - Acts 10:1-23 – Bacon sandwich anyone?

I was recently in conversation with someone who told me that they really do not understand the food laws of the Old Testament. They just seem rather odd.

Some have suggested that the food laws were all to do with health and hygiene; it’s best to avoid eating pigs as their meat can easily give rise to food poisoning if not properly cooked. But if it’s all about health, why were the food laws swept away by Jesus (Mark 7:19) rather than with the invention of the refrigerator? This is a classic example of trying to second-guess the reason behind Old Testament Law rather than reading it carefully in context.

The food laws form part of the holiness code of Leviticus. Holiness is all about separation; avoiding mixing things up that don’t belong together: don’t sow a field with two types of crop; don’t wear clothes made of two types of thread. Similarly, animals that seem to be a mixture of two sorts are viewed as unclean. Animals that chew the cud and have a cloven hoof are clean, but if they do one and not the other they are unclean – they are mixed up animals. Animals/fish that swim in the water and have fins and scales are clean but those without fins or scales are unclean – they are hybrids. By these laws, which seem so strange to us, God was teaching his people to be separate. The food laws kept them distinct from the nations around them, and that was important to preserving the revelation God had given them.

But with Jesus, everything changed. God’s people are no longer ethnically and culturally separate. Jesus and Jesus alone is to be our distinctiveness; holiness flows from a heart captivated by him and transformed by his Spirit. God’s purpose is to redeem for himself a people from every nation and culture, and to do so not by removing their distinctiveness but by valuing it and sanctifying it.

This may seem obvious to us, but it was a hard lesson for Peter to learn. He had never eaten anything unclean and he was not in the habit of associating with Gentiles. It required a personal lesson from God himself, complete with visual aids let down from heaven – three times – for Peter to begin to understand the radical nature of the good news about Jesus Christ. But he was beginning to learn. When Gentile visitors came knocking at the door he invited them in and they stayed the night with him – in all probability he shared food with them. A couple of days later, Peter would be entertained in the home of a Roman centurion.

How well do we learn this lesson? We can find it all too easy to live in our own closed sub-culture, the gated estate of our own Christian ghetto. We think to preserve our distinctiveness by physical separation from those who are ‘not like us’. Others may be allowed in to join us only if they give up their own culture and join us in our ghetto; they must become like us. But Jesus came to break down the barriers of mistrust that divide people. Let’s join him in breaking them down rather than rebuilding them. Let’s also celebrate the diversity of human cultures in which Christian discipleship is finding expression.

Lord Jesus, break down the barriers in my mind and understanding through a fresh vision from heaven so that I may be your agent in making you known to people of every background, race and class. Enable our churches to be places where divisions are broken down rather than reinforced. May they reflect the variegated character of your kingdom and celebrate the breadth of your saving purposes.

Mar 2 2019 - Exodus 20:1-21 – The Ten Commandments

At Sinai, God gave Israel his law through the mediation of his servant Moses. The Ten Commandments are both an introduction to the law and a summary of its key principles. The law covers every aspect of human life; the Israelites relationship with God, with one another and even the thoughts of their hearts.

The law is given as a pattern of life for a redeemed people; it begins with the reminder, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" (Exodus 20:2). The Israelites are to live by this pattern not that they might become the people of God but because they are the people of God. Obedience is the response of God's people to his goodness, grace and love poured out upon them.

The law is a revelation of God's holy character and requirements, given to teach Israel to fear their God and to keep them from sinning against him (20:20). More than that, the law is also a gracious provision for God's people. Not only is it designed to create a harmonious society in which every member is able to flourish, it also provides for their rest. The Sabbath is a gracious provision of God which looks forward to the time when God will provide his people with rest from their labours and welcome them into his perfected work of redemption.

A life shaped by God's law would make Israel distinctively different from the nations around about them. They would be a people whose individual and corporate life would reflect and commend the character of their God and enable them to become the envy of the nations and a light to the nations. Their law would commend their lawgiver to an unruly world.

The law is good, but there is something in the human heart that rebels against it. Don't you long to crack open that door that says, "No Entry" and look at what may be inside the forbidden room? So the law becomes a reminder of what we are not – it reminds us that we continually fall short of all that God calls us to be. It easily provokes resentment as, like Adam and Eve, we ask why God should tell us what to do; we want to be gods and lawgivers to ourselves – and, of course, to others.

But there is one who has lived in perfect obedience to all of God's requirements, who has not rebelled against him. Jesus did not remain at a distance from us but came to live among us. He lived the life we are called to live and died in our place that our sin might be forgiven. By his resurrection from the dead and gift of the Spirit he gives us life and calls us to follow him. We are no longer kept at a distance (see 20:21) but are embraced by God. The Spirit of Christ living within us enables us to meet fully the righteous requirements of God's law.

God of grace, I have no other god but you. I thank you for Jesus, my Saviour, my advocate, my example, my strength and my Lord. Thank you that his perfect sacrifice for sin has rescued me from slavery to the gods of this world, freed me from the terrors of the law, sin and death. Thank you for your great love for me. Help me to love you in return and to live to please you in thought, word and deed. May Christ's Spirit shape my life and the lives of all your people so that together we may reflect and commend the character of our gracious God to a rebellious and unruly world.

Peter Misselbrook