Not Consumed

Paul's trial before Festus in Acts 25 turned out to be a bump in the road to a more interesting hearing before Agrippa II and his sister Bernice later in the chapter, which turned out to be a bump in the road before he gets sent to Rome in chapters 27-28, where he will appear before Nero (who, if I'm not mistaken, is the same guy who burned down Rome and then blamed Christians for it - although I don't believe that's happened yet at this point in Acts, but I could be wrong).

Agrippa II was very familiar with Jews and their religion, and Paul was much more open with him about what he'd seen and heard than he'd been with Festus. In fact, while Festus was listening in as Paul was talking to Agrippa, he told him: "You're crazy, Paul. You've learned and studied too much, and now it's broken your brain." (My paraphrase).

Paul shrugged and came back with (again, my paraphrase): "Agrippa gets me; he knows our culture, our way of life, and the Jewish religion, so he understands."

Agrippa was in a precarious position, because when Paul had shared about his conversion on the road to Damascus, he asked Agrippa point blank: "Do you believe the prophets?" If Agrippa said yes, Paul would have proven through the prophesies laid out by Isaiah and others how Jesus was the fulfillment of them. If he said no, he would have gotten in trouble with the Jews, who believed that the prophets laid down the letter of the law they followed. So Agrippa sidestepped neatly with: "Do you think with your short little argument that you can persuade me to be a Christian?" And then he and Bernice and Festus left. It does seem he was at least convinced of Paul's innocence, because he lamented the fact that Paul had appealed to Caesar, which kept him in captivity when, if he hadn't, he COULD have gone free.

Stepping back to Paul's speech in the hearing, he told about his conversion on the road to Damascus, which he's done before in a few chapters in Acts. This time, at his account of when Jesus said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Jesus also said: "It is hard for you to kick against the goads."

I didn't know what a goad was (although I've heard of being goaded). Google helpfully informed me that a goad was a spiked stick, looking almost like a mini reaper, that was used to prod cattle in a herd. Also known as a spur.

Spurs are something that my bleeding heart has never enjoyed. As a girl, I watched westerns with my dad, because he loves them, and John Wayne in his big old cowboy boots and spurs jangling with every step was a part of my growing up experience. But I always felt sorry for the poor horses. Who likes sharp objects poked into their sides?

There was no doubt of their effectiveness, though. Their get-up-and-go got up and went anytime the spurs dug in.

Jumping over to Hebrews 10:24-25: "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

This strikes home to me, as our church has given up meeting together. Granted, the circumstances are unusual; we haven't given up meeting as a result of lack of fervor or spiritual staleness, but it could certainly turn into lassitude if we allowed it to, because we don't have that weekly in-person accountability in place. That's why our pastor has mentioned over and over and over on our Youtube services: "Find church where you are." (I'm so thankful for this group, and others similar to it that I've found; my spiritual fervor is strong, and I pray that it continues to be so).

I kept right on reading in Hebrews. I read 10:35-36: "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised." Our confidence is a result of our spiritual fervor, which is a result of meeting together and encouraging one another. We need that confidence, in order to have perseverance through trials, which...

Brought me to Hebrews 11, where we've got the Faith Hall of Fame. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. All of them displayed some incredible faith in their stories, all before Christ brought the new covenant and ripped the veil of the temple through His death.

Whoever the writer of Hebrews is (I don't think anyone knows for sure) built a pretty solid picture of pre-covenant and post-covenant, and how the two knit together to create the perfect picture of redemption.

I kept reading, and in chapter 12, the writer delineates that pre-covenant/post-covenant picture even more by looking at the Mountain of God in the old covenant (see my previous post a couple of days back about that mountain). Verses 18-21 paint that mountain as a great and terrible thing, like a volcano, "burning with fire, darkness, gloom, and storm." The description here is what happened when God gave Moses the ten commandments. The mountain was so holy, no one was to touch it. If even an animal did, it had to be stoned. Moses himself said: "I am trembling with fear."

But then there's that contrast with the new covenant. In verses 22-24, it talks about the Mountain of God (now called Mt. Zion), but in its new form. The new covenant, the redemption. "But you have come to Mt. Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands and thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." What a vivid and shimmering contrast to the original "volcano."

God's covenant is not dismissed in the New Testament; it's made whole through Jesus' blood. God is the God of both the old and the new covenant, and He brings them together in perfect unity.

In verses 25 through 29, it talks about God who spoke the original covenant. "At that time, His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, 'Once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.' The words 'once more' indicate the removing of what can be shaken - that is, created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for 'our God is a consuming fire.'"

I've been seeing and writing about the shaking up of the church, the shaking mountain rising up, and this passage grabbed me: we are shaken as created beings, but our roots are in the Rock that cannot be shaken, and so, in the consuming fire, the Refiner's great fire, we are not consumed. "Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!" Lamentations 3:22-23. (Exclamation point mine; a period just didn't seem fitting for such an incredible concept).

Not consumed, shaken, but not shaken. Our foundation is the Rock. Hallelujah!