Are You Sure About That?

I get an e-mail feed from the publishers of our church's weekly Sunday school materials.  A few times a week, the publisher/editor sends out some thoughts on the upcoming week's study, so that Sunday school members and teachers can be thinking about the upcoming lesson throughout the week.  Good idea.  Usually pretty good stuff to think about.

This last e-mail talked about Jesus crucifixion and death, as noted in Mark 15, and how the curtain in the temple was torn at Jesus' death, symbolizing how God was now accessable to everyone, not just priests.

But I found this paragraph in this weeks e-mail:


"The people of Jesus' day had access to God only through priests. These guys had to go through quite the cleansing just to approach the Holy of Holies where God’s presence resided. And, even then, they could only enter that place once a year.

What a great thing that we no longer need a human mediator between us and God! Jesus did that for us when He died to atone for our sins. Thank Him for that and keep the lines of communication open!"

I read this, then I read it again.  I scratched my head, and read it again.  Something about it just didn't quite sit right.  Then I saw what was bothering me: "The people of Jesus' day had access to God only through priests....we no long need a human mediator."

Really? Are you sure about that? People had no access to God unless it was through a priest or another human mediator? Are you sure?

Was God hidden or beyond reach somehow? Did the preists have a connection to God that other humans didn't? When people prayed, did God not hear them unless they somehow prayed with a priest, or only in the temple? Was God somehow different in Old Testement times than He is now? What changed?

Hmmmmmmm.

We must be very careful with what we say and teach in our Christian education.  Saying that the people in Old Testement days only had access to God through priests is misleading and wrong.  Yes, Jesus became our high priest, and abolished the old law of Moses which established the priests and temples, and Jesus will now be our advocate before God, but does that mean people during Old Testement times had no access to God but through another human being?

I believe people have had access to God all throughout history.  God has made himself available to those who seek Him from the dawn of creation.  Going back to my blog yesterday, how reasonable is it to say that God is ever beyond our reach, seeing as He is the creator of everything?

Hebrews 11 says, "without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him", then goes on to recount a long list of Old Testament figures who had faith in God without the benefit of a priest mediating their relationship with God, and by their faith were justified and called righteous directly before God. 

King David in his Psalms shows great faith as he cries out to God.   In Psalms 5, he says, "Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing. Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation."

In Psalms 54, David says, "Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth........Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me."

And in Psalms 84, he says, "...the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you."

Doesn't sound to me like a man praying to God through a priest.  Sounds to me like a man praying to God from his heart.  David understood his relationship with God very well.  "Blessed is the man who trusts in you."

It's all about the heart folks.  Faith in God is, and always has been, the ONLY thing which justifies us before God.  God sees the heart, and knows our minds.  Indeed, He says He will write His laws on our hearts so that we would have them with us always.  He will change our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh, capable of pleasing God by faith in Him.

God gave Israel a set of laws to show them  us how sinful they we really were are, and how it is impossible to please God on their our own strength. But in Isaiah 1, listen to how God describes the hearts of the people of Judah while they were trying to follow those laws:

"Listen to the Lord, you leaders of “Sodom.”
Listen to the law of our God, people of “Gomorrah.”
What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?”says the Lord.
"I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fattened cattle.
I get no pleasure from the blood
of bulls and lambs and goats.
When you come to worship me,
who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony?
Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts;
the incense of your offerings disgusts me!
As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath
and your special days for fasting—
they are all sinful and false.
I want no more of your pious meetings.
I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals.
They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them!
When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look.
Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen,
for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.

Wow!  All these things the Israelites were doing because they thought it would bring them close to God, and God was despising them! Why? Because of the condition of their hearts.  The things they were doing, the festivals and sacrifices, were a sham.  They were trying to cover the true condition of their hearts, which was wickedness. God saw right through them.  So God tells them:

"Wash yourselves and be clean!
Get your sins out of my sight.
Give up your evil ways.
Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.

God is saying, these are the things you would be doing if your heart was right with Me!  But, God goes on to bring it to a close, saying just doing good is still not enough:

Come now, let’s settle this,”says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
I will make them as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson,
I will make them as white as wool.
If you will only obey me,
you will have plenty to eat.
But if you turn away and refuse to listen,
you will be devoured by the sword of your enemies.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”

God is the only one who can cleanse us from the stain of our sin.  Always has been, always will be, the only one.  It was the same in the Old Testemant, and it is the same today in New Testement times. Our sins are like scarlet, and only God can make them white as snow.

God has not changed from the Old Testement to the new.  He has never been out of touch with us, or beyond our reach, because he's always been close at hand.  God never has and never will move away or change. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

In 2nd Chronicles 7, God says, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin...."

If anything has changed, and somehow God is out of reach, then the one who moved is us.