BIG PICTURE QUESTION & ANSWER WHAT IS GOD LIKE? God is holy, good, and loving. No one is like God. God is holy, good, and loving. Jesus shows us what God is like and gives us hope. God can make us more like Jesus. We can trust Him and live joyfully for Him. MEMORY VERSE READ THE STORY:
Peter began his first epistle by reminding believers that we are not of this world; our true citizenship is found in God’s kingdom. As such, we live in the present world as exiles and ambassadors—representatives of our true King. With this reminder established, Peter explained how Christ’s ambassadors are to live, which can be summed up in God’s words recorded at the end of 1 Peter 1:16, “Be holy, because I am holy.” Peter draws this imperative from Leviticus 11:44-45, where God had told the Israelites this twice in rapid succession. To be holy is to be set apart, to be different in a good way. As such, holiness is at the core of the Old Testament law. The reason behind many of God’s commands that may make us scratch our heads is holiness. These commands were to teach Israel what it means to be holy and to model holiness to the watching world. All of this points us to the even greater idea of God’s holiness. God’s people—His image bearers–are to imitate God. So far so good, right? But this is where the wheels fall off of the cart. When we turn our attention to God’s holiness, we quickly come to the point of recognizing that this is an impossible standard. God is perfectly holy. There is absolutely no sin in Him. He is perfectly loving, kind, and good without an ounce of hate or evil. How are we supposed to be this holy? Why would God command us to do something we cannot do? The answer to that last question is that God gave this command exactly because we cannot do it. We cannot be holy enough—not even close. Not on our own, that is. But the beauty of the gospel shows us another way. We can indeed be holy as God is holy because Christ is holy. And when we trust in Christ, our sin is removed and in its place we are credited with Christ’s perfect righteousness. (2 Cor. 5:21) We obey this command of God by trusting in Christ! But it doesn’t end there. We are holy in our identity in Christ, but each day we are to strive to live out our new, true holy identity. Every day, our goal is to live as who we now are, rather than who we were. Even this though, is done not in our power, but in Christ’s power. No one is like God in His fullness, but in Christ, we as His children are called and empowered to be like Him in many ways. GOSPEL APPLICATION
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BIG PICTURE QUESTION & ANSWER WHAT IS GOD LIKE? God is holy, good, and loving. God sent snakes to punish the people, but anyone who was bitten could look at the snake on the pole and live. We deserve to die because of our sin, but anyone who looks to Jesus on the cross and trusts in Him will live forever with God. MEMORY VERSE READ THE STORY:
If there was one thing the Israelites were good at, it was grumbling. They weren’t just good; they were experts: “We have no food. We have no water. Why are we in the wilderness left to die? The land has big people in it.” And on and on and on. We have to wonder how Moses put up with it all. In Numbers 21, we encounter another time when the people grumbled—once again about food and water. Each time they doubted God’s goodness and truthfulness, God had shown them mercy and grace. But on this day, He sent serpents into the Israelites’ camp to strike them for their unfaithfulness. Many people died. We might not like to think of it, but this is what the Israelites deserved all along. Their sin earned them judgment and death. God was perfectly just and righteous to give His people what they deserved. Yet, as we have seen so often in the Old Testament and will continue to see throughout the rest of Scripture, God extends grace and mercy along with judgment. When the people pleaded for Moses to intercede on their behalf, God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it on a pole. Whoever looked upon it would be healed. Notice two things. First, God’s response was not to remove judgment but to provide salvation through judgment. This is another theme we have seen throughout the Scriptures (e.g. Noah, the plagues). Second, God’s instructions made little to no sense. Imagine you are an Israelite and were just bitten by a serpent. Although other serpents are all around still, you are to take your eyes off of that threat and turn them upward to look at a bronze serpent on a pole—an image of the very thing that has brought death to your door? This detail in the story is a foreshadowing of what God has called us to do in Christ. While our faith is far from blind, it always has an aspect of not making sense, at least to the world around us. But this is how we are saved too: by taking our eyes off of the sin in and around us, and looking upon Christ lifted up on the cross— He who became sin (2 Cor. 5:21). We too are saved through judgment, for our judgment has been placed on Christ. GOSPEL APPLICATION
BIG PICTURE QUESTION & ANSWER WHAT IS GOD LIKE? God is holy, good, and loving. Moses disobeyed God and did not enter the promised land. We all have disobeyed God by sinning. But God gave us His Son, Jesus. Jesus always obeyed God. When we trust in Him, Jesus brings us into God’s kingdom forever. MEMORY VERSE READ THE STORY:
Many of us categorize sins, whether we intend to or not. There are the major sins—the really bad ones like murder that are clearly wrong. Thankfully, few of us are prone to commit these sins, so we are pretty safe from them. Then there are the significant sins, like getting angry or lying. We know these are harmful, but we don’t see them on the same level as the major ones. These are the sins that trip us up. If it weren’t for these sins, we would be such good people. Then there are the little sins, like jaywalking or taking some paper clips from work. We know these are wrong, but they are so innocent and do so little harm that we tend to excuse them. In fact, we often live as if these sins are not really sins—they don’t feel wrong to us. Sound familiar? There’s a big problem with this though. While sins might have different consequences, the Bible teaches that all sins are serious because they are rebellion against a holy God. Even if all we ever did was jaywalk, God would be just to pour out His wrath on us. If we approach Numbers 20 with a flawed categorization of sin, we will likely walk away from this passage confused. What did Moses do that was so wrong? All he did was hit a rock instead of speaking what God said, right? And for that, God would not allow Moses to enter the promised land. After all that Moses had been through, this was how his story would end? But we must remember that all sin is rebellion against God and is therefore serious. Moses’ rebellion here is quite serious. Notice what Moses, with Aaron standing next to him, said just before striking the rock: “Must we bring water out of this rock for you?” Who was Moses crediting for the miracle that would transpire? Surely not God. That water flowed from the rock even in Moses’ disobedience shows once more that God is a God of mercy and grace. But there is another way we see God’s mercy and grace in this account, only we need to turn to the Gospels to see it. God graciously allowed Moses to enter the land long after this generation had died off. At the Transfiguration (Matt. 17), Moses stood in the land—along with Elijah—and Jesus, the One who had come to provide living water to God’s people. GOSPEL APPLICATION
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December 2023
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