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He sits in the dungeon, knowing that before the day is over he will be executed in the most brutal manner that Roman law allows. He’ll be scourged within a hair’s breadth of death, and then nailed to a stake to die slowly and painfully, paying for his crimes of insurrection and murder against the powerful Roman occupier.
Less than a half mile away, a powerful Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, fearing for his own career and life, struggles between the demands of both expediency and justice. An obviously innocent man has been railroaded into his presence. The religious leaders for whatever reason want him dead, a gruesome task that Roman law won’t let them carry out themselves, and hence their invitation to Pilate to do the deed for them.
Over Pilate’s head is a threat. “This man claims to be a king, but we have no king but Caesar,” say Jesus’ accusers. If you don’t do something about him, you’re no friend of Caesar. We’ll make sure Caesar knows that you took no action against one who claims to be a king and is trying to usurp Roman authority. Caesar already has suspicions about you. Do you want to risk this?
Pilate vacillates, but he believes he sees a way out. At the Feast of Passover it is customary to release one criminal, a complete and unequivocal pardon. Why shouldn’t that prisoner be Jesus? Earlier in the week, the people of the city welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with shouts of hosannas and praise. Surely they would demand the release of Jesus called Christ, and not the release of a murderer and thief.
“Whom do you want me to release to you?” asks Pilate. “Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” (Matthew 27:17)
“Barabbas!” they shout back.
“What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”
Less than a half mile away is Barabbas. He is close enough to the activity taking place down the street to hear the rabble yelling his name, but far enough away that he cannot hear Pilate pleading for the life of Jesus. He can only hear one side of the conversation, and when he hears his name on the lips of an angry mob, he has hope that his supporters are coming to rescue him. “Barabbas! Barabbas!” His fellow revolutionaries are coming to his aid!
But the very next words he hears freeze him with fear and dread, because what he hears is, “Barabbas! … Crucify him! Crucify him! … Barabbas! … Crucify him!”
The guards rush into his cell and drag him off the floor. And after the shoving and dragging and struggling is done, the murderer and thief finds himself in the street among the mob, now a free man! But a completely innocent man takes his place on the instrument of death.
Did Barabbas feel any twinge of remorse when he saw Jesus carrying his cross? Did he watch as Jesus and two of Barabbas’ compatriots slowly expired as they baked in the sun? We don’t know. But I do know this. I am Barabbas. I was in bonds because of my crimes. I deserved nothing less than the penalty that had awaited Barabbas.
I am Barabbas because one day I found myself free of the guilt, completely pardoned because Someone for no reason that I deserved stepped forward and took my place. My guilt gone, my life restored, I now have the chance to live, and this time truly live. Life: the gift to Barabbas and to me. For I am Barabbas.
Many of us study the Bible every day. If we’re not, we should be. But why do we study the Word of God? Many of us frankly enjoy learning more “things” about scripture: more data, a fascinating Hebrew word picture, the meaning in the original Greek or Hebrew, some historical tie-in to what we’re reading, and so on. I do, too. But here’s where I caution us as well.
Many of you love the scripture, as I do, that prompts us to “grow in grace and knowledge…” (2 Peter 3:18). Some use the verse that says “Study to show yourself approved unto God…” (2 Timothy 2:15). Actually the word “study” in the King James Version of 2 Tim 2:15 is an old English word meaning “be diligent”. The Greek word there actually has nothing to do with Bible Study directly. But as you’ll see, we must study and we must know why we study. It’s far more than just gaining more knowledge.
Our modern learning system comes from Socrates, Plato and Aristotle – – the Academy, where students were expected to just have new information funneled into their brains while one speaks and everyone else listens. But the learning system in Jesus’ day was far different. Disciples didn’t just learn the words their rabbi was teaching – they watched their actions and copied their reactions to everyday situations. They learned by doing and watching a life. It wasn’t enough to pore over the scrolls by themselves. Their teachers were like a parent running alongside a young child learning to ride his bike for the first time without training wheels. They were in the thick of learning by doing and watching – not just studying documents. The goal was to create a bond between teacher and student. The goal was a deep relationship.
What am I getting at? The goal of Bible study goes far beyond knowing what’s in the Book. It’s about coming to know the Author of the book. Not just coming to know about Him, but to know HIM, directly and personally. Holy Scripture is Yeshua (Jesus) in writing. When we read it, we should be hearing his voice. Everything you read, study or hear should be helping us have a closer walk with our Beloved Savior. To know him, and help as many as possible to come to really know Him, is my overriding mission in life, as Paul teaches us in Philippians 3:
“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).
Notice also these words in the Gospel of John: “And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. [then He tells us the point of searching scriptures] But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:37-40).
Knowledge – in the Biblical sense – should not be knowledge for knowledge sake, but to transform us. We should focus on the transformation, not just on the information. Information is to help in the transformation. Sure, 2 Peter 3:18 says we are to “grow in the grace and knowledge”, but of what? Finish the verse: “Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…” – 2 Peter 3:18.
ALL knowledge from Bible study should result in knowing Him more than ever before. It also should result in having a closer relationship with him and with all those made in his image. That’s ultimately what the two greatest commandments are: to love God with all your being and heart and soul – and to love fellow mankind as your own self. all our learning should be pointing to that goal: greater love, a closer relationship with our Maker and fellow humans – no matter where they live, no matter their nationality or skin color, no matter what they’ve been in the past. If they are a believer, or a potential believer, we are to love them as we love one another and our Maker. When you’re thrilled with new information, ask yourself: how is this helping me draw closer to my Maker and to my fellow humans?
Study to come to Christ. Study to know Him better. Study to love God and mankind better. And so remember: the reason we do Bible study is to come to know Him (Philippians 3:9-11). It is to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). We study the book to come to know its author better. So we search the scripture, for there’s life there, and He is our Life. We study to find Him, to come to Him, to learn about Him and to be like Him as He comes into our lives and lives again in us.
*Condensed, with permission, from the Blog posting of October 26, 2013 on lightontherock.org
I’m not talking about prehistoric Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon “cavemen” here – I’m actually thinking of two men of God who at different times in biblical history both learned important lessons at the back of a cave.
These men were both successful in their own fields – one a warrior and one a man of religion. Both were used to life around palaces and nice homes, but both men lost everything they had and fled in depression and fear for their lives – to the back of a cave.
The first man was King David. 1 Samuel 22 tells us that when the jealous Saul stepped up his campaign to kill the young shepherd-warrior, David finally fled to a mountain cave where he holed up in depression, frustration and fear. The other man was Elijah, and in 1 Kings 19 we see that when the wicked Jezebel threatened his life, Elijah also “caved” under the pressure and ran for many miles, to the back of a cave on Mount Horheb – where he stayed, apparently in fear, frustration and anger.
There are times in our lives when psychologically we find ourselves in the back of a cave, too. We understand that some depression is physically caused and must be treated as such, but sometimes we find ourselves in the dark cave of depression or despair due to discouragement and difficulties. This is because fleeing to the inner parts of our minds is a very human reaction and sometimes seems like the only way to survive. Unfortunately, it becomes easy to stay there. It’s not that we are comfortable in the cave of depression, but the longer we stay there, the harder it becomes to leave. That’s why in both biblical stories of God’s servants who fled to physical caves, the first thing we see in the way God turned these situations around was that he commanded both men to leave the cave they were in.
In David’s case, God sent a prophet to David to specifically tell him he had spent enough time in the cave and that it was time to leave. “… The prophet Gad said to David, ‘Do not stay in the [cave] stronghold’” (1 Samuel 22:5), so, uncomfortable as it was to do, at God’s command David left the cave. We see exactly the same with Elijah. “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord …’” (1 Kings 19:11). God patiently listened to the reasons Elijah gave for his depression, anger and fear, but he nevertheless firmly told him to come out of the cave. It probably wasn’t psychologically easy for them, but both men obeyed in faith. They may not have seen a reason to leave the cave, yet once they realized it was God’s will they obeyed.
So, God understands when we sometimes flee to the cave, but he is just as clear in telling us we must not stay there. And God goes a step further – as the wise Physician he is, he prescribes what we need in order to stay out of the cave. In both the stories of David and of Elijah, God prescribed exactly the same spiritual medicine. When he instructed David to leave the cave, we see the next thing he did was to tell David to go help the people of Keilah who were being attacked by the Philistines: “Go, attack the Philistines and save Keilah” (1 Samuel 23:1-2). And when Elijah obediently stepped out of his cave, God immediately told him to go to Damascus and instructed him: “… When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat …” (1 Kings 19:15-16).
God doesn’t just tell us to pull ourselves together and leave the cave of depression. He tells us to leave – and to go help someone who needs help. Finding ourselves in a “cave” is something that even some of the greatest of God’s servants have experienced, but the way out was the same for them as it is for us. We overcome this problem only when we realize God doesn’t want us to live in the cave and that his prescription for cave fever is often to go help someone. It’s as though God knows that the only way for us to effectively stay out of the cave is not just to get busy, but to get busy serving others.
That is how God helps us get our focus off our own problems – by getting us to focus on and help others whose problems are so often so much worse than our own.
We all know the wisdom of the old saying that we should “forgive and forget” and although that exact phrase does not appear in the Bible, it does summarize Biblical principles of forgiveness.
There are, of course, many scriptures telling us that we should forgive others when they harm us in some way (see, for example, Matthew 6:14, and Ephesians 4:32), but what about the “forget” part of the equation?
There is also clear biblical evidence that we should forget as well as forgive if we are to imitate God. Notice both aspects of forgiveness in this scripture which appears in both the Old and the New Testaments: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34 and Hebrews 8:12).
How do we apply this? It is hard enough to forgive others, but how are we to possibly forget – especially in those situations where it seems humanly impossible to forget things done to us, perhaps truly evil things? We should realize that psychologically, and spiritually, not forgetting keeps old wounds open and means we may suffer endlessly from the actions of others, so we should certainly make every effort to forget – and we can ask God’s help with this, just as we might ask His help to forgive. But I have known people who have been hurt by others so badly that despite their best efforts and sincere prayer, forgetting seems impossible. Such people may say “I have forgiven them, but I just can’t forget what they did.”
The answer to these situations where it seems impossible to “forget” – despite our full desire to forgive – is that we must understand what the Bible means by “remember their sins no more.” In Biblical Hebrew, the word zakhar which we translate “remember” has a broader meaning than just “remember” in the sense of “not forgetting.” Zakhar also includes the results of remembering – the actions we do as a result of remembering. It is in this sense that the Bible tells us God “remembered” Noah after the Flood (Genesis 8:1) or God “remembered” Abraham (Genesis 19:29). In cases like these examples the Bible tells us not that God suddenly thought about His servants whom He had forgotten for a while – it tells us that in “remembering” them God did something about them – causing the flood to recede on the one hand, or rescuing Lot as Abraham had asked on the other.
So God doesn’t expect or require us to do the psychologically impossible. He just requires that we don’t remember the sins of others against us in the sense of not acting on the memory – not holding the sin against them or punishing them in any way for it – just as he does not punish us when He does not remember our sins (Jeremiah 31:34).
God does require that we forgive those that sin against us, and He does require that we do not actively “remember” those sins. But in the same way, He doesn’t want us to act on “remembering” our own sins by painfully reliving them or being “haunted” by them in discouragement. God knows that it is psychologically and spiritually healthier for us to forget our own sins and the sins of others, once forgiven; but even when the memories linger despite our best efforts, He simply requires us not to act negatively on those memories.
The Bible gives us good advice on how to deal with feelings of anger – something that we all experience from time to time. However, perhaps the clearest and most detailed example of this strategy comes from an unexpected source which most people miss in their reading of the Bible: an example from the life of Christ himself. See the short article we have uploaded to our Strategic Understanding page today: “Not Rushing to Anger.”
What do your problems and the spies that we are told God sent into the Promised Land have in common? For that matter, what does a book written fifty years ago by Allen Dulles, the first civilian director of the CIA, tell us about God’s spies and the reason they were sent into the Promised Land? The answer, in both cases, is quite a bit.
If you are going through trials at this time, or if you are just somewhat intrigued by these questions regarding the story in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Numbers, check out the new short article “Why the Spies? Your Trials and God’s Tests” uploaded to our Strategic Understanding page today. It may give you something to think about, and perhaps some encouragement, too.
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