So, here is a little quiz: Below are the word clouds for Genesis, Exodus, Matthew and Mark. Click on one to enlarge it and then try to guess which is which (no prizes for guessing which is Old or New Testament), then click on the link  below to find the answer (and lots more of these word clouds). Got them all right? Check the answers out here…

[Hints: key words to distinguish Genesis and Exodus (apart from the many biblical characters) are the relative weights of the words used for God - LORD is God's "proper name" YHWH (Yahweh, Jehovah) revealed to...? Matthew or Mark? Only one of them uses the distinctive phrase "kingdom of heaven"...]

By the way, if you want to create your own word cloud from a document or a talk you have given, go to Wordle – endless fun!

And here’s what Aaron’s garments may have looked like:

For an extended New Testament commentary on all of this, the best place to look is chapters 7-11 of Hebrews. Christ is both the perfect High Priest and the perfect sacrifice, the fulfilment of the whole sacrifical system under the old covenant. We’ll be reading a lot more about that system in the weeks to come. It’s a system that graphically represents a number of theological truths: (1) God is holy, (2) sinful people cannot approach a holy God without their sins being dealt with first, (3) this is done through sacrifice.

Unlike the sacrifices made by priests under the old covenant, which had to be made repeatedly, Christ’s sacrifice of himself needed only to be made once. In the words of Hebrews: ‘… he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. … The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves.’ (Hebrews 9:26b and 10:1, NIV).

In the New Testament we come to the end of Matthew’s gospel, with Jesus’ death and resurrection. And just to drive home the point that Jesus’ death has dealt with the separation from God caused by sin, notice 27:51 – at the time of Jesus’ death the curtain in the temple is torn in two, from top to bottom. This curtain is the equivalent of the one that hung in the tabernacle, separating off the Most Holy Place, where the ark of the covenant was and where God’s symbolic presence dwelt. We read about it in Exodus 26:31-33 last week. If you tear down that curtain it means that you have access to God. And that’s what Jesus’ death has done for us.

Today I am one day closer to eternity than yesterday. How do I live my life today in the light of Christ’s return?

The Law that follows, with the Ten Commandments at its heart, defines for Israel how they are to live in this special relationship with God. Some of it will sound strange to us, because it is shaped to suit the conditions of its time. But if we look at the big picture, we see a holy God, full of love and justice, showing his people how to be a holy people who reflect his character in the world. This is how they can be a people ‘in his image’.

Chapters 25-31 will contain instuctions for the people’s worship, and the various materials required. It would be easy to get bogged down in the detail. But perhaps we can focus on two things: (1) it is a remarkable privilege for this people to have God dwelling in their midst, and (2) he deserves the very best that they can bring him in worship. Of course, the same things are true of us.

Matthew 24 has caused much scratching of heads over the years, as you can imagine. The language is highly poetic and uses a lot of imagery taken from the Old Testament. At least some of what Jesus is predicting was fulfilled in AD 70 when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans after a Jewish revolt. But how much, if any, is about Jesus’ Second Coming and the final judgement? In verse 3, Jesus seems to imply that he is going to talk about two things: (1) the destruction of the temple, and (2) ‘the end of the age’. Dick France, author of the IVP Tyndale commentary on Matthew, thinks that Jesus is talking about (1) up to verse 35 and (2) from verse 36 onwards. If he’s right, then the disciples can expect warning signs leading up to the destruction of the temple, but about ‘that day’ (the Day of Judgment and of Christ’s return), no-one knows, not even Jesus himself. That’s why his followers should be ready for it to come at any time.

And maybe it is not a coincidence that the passage preceding Jesus’ teaching on marriage talks about forgiveness: Forgiveness is not an option, it is a necessity – if we want any relationship to endure. Jesus offers us unconditional forgiveness and he is asking us to follow his example – not at all easy and quite countercultural.

Who do I need to forgive today?

Reading about the Israelites’ experience of slavery in Exodus 5, being forced to make bricks without straw, I wonder how people would describe their experience of slavery to sin. On one interpretation, that is what Paul is describing in Romans 7:7-24, a struggle to live right that is constantly messed up by sin.

Some great Psalms this week – 22 with its foreshadowing of the cross, 23 with the wonderful image of God as a guiding and protecting shepherd, 24 with its assertion of God’s ownership of the world.  As fuel for prayer, look out for Psalm 25:4-5:

Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Saviour,
and my hope is in you all day long. (NIV)

In Matthew we’re heading towards the last days of Jesus’ life on earth, with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem in chapter 21 at the end of the week. There’s some meaty teaching in here, perhaps especially in the parable of the unmerciful servant in 18:21-35, and Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man in 19:16-30. These are two passages where familiarity may work against us. Let’s not underestimate the challenges they pose.

In some ways Joseph foreshadows Jesus. Here’s a paragraph from Edmund Clowney’s book The Unfolding Mystery (subtitled Discovering Christ in the Old Testament):

‘Joseph was God’s righteous servant, suffering because of his faithfulness to God. Yet the path of suffering led to a throne and to the fulfillment of the word of God, given by the revelation of his dreams. God had made the life of Joseph a sign of the way in which his blessing would come. By the word of God and the servant of god, the mercy of God would be made known to the nations.’ (p. 82)

In Matthew this week we have a whole chapter of parables (chapter 13 – Matthew likes to group Jesus’ teachings together in chunks). Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, in their excellent book How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, argue that the main function of parables is to call forth a response from the hearer. Here is what they say about the parable of the Sower:

‘… the point of the parable is the urgency of the hour: “Take heed how you hear. The word is being sown, the message of the Good News of the kingdom, the joy of forgiveness, the demand and gift of discipleship. It is before all, so listen, take heed, be fruitful soil.”‘ (p. 131 in 1982 edition)

This week’s chapters in Matthew give us several links back to the OT. The story of the (Gentile, i.e. non-Jewish) centurion in chapter 8 from yesterday’s reading,  is an example of God’s promises to Abraham being fulfilled. Look especially at verses 11 and 12 and compare with Genesis 12:1-3. The irony here in Matthew is that many of Abraham’s descendants in the time of Jesus are missing out on the promised blessings because they don’t recognise God at work in Jesus. The result is opposition to Jesus’ mission, which makes life difficult for the disciples he sends out. For some other OT links, watch out for the Micah quote in 10:35-36 and John the Baptist as the ‘new’ Elijah in fulfilment of Malachi’s prophecy in 11:7-14 (See Malachi 3:1 and 4:1-6). I’ve always found it rather neat that the OT ends with a prophecy that is fulfilled early in the first book of the NT, with Malachi and Matthew sitting next to each other in our Bibles.

At the same time, the ministry of Jesus Christ was prepared by God through the centuries and was always part of his overarching plan to bring us back into a relationship with him: “God’s faithful, changeless love is manifested in changing, surprising ways.” (Daniel Migliore)

During these first six days I have already been amazed at how reading the Old and New Testament in parallel helps me to see connections, and I look forward to many more of those moments.

What are the new things God wants to do in our lives and in our church in 2010? Some things we know, others we are beginning to grasp. But there will be many surprises. Are we going to be ready, when God says: “Go!”? Can we say to Jesus today: “I am ready for the new things you want to do in my life this year. I am excited about your plans with me – even if I don’t know where I will be in a year’s time. Bring it on, God!”

And let’s look back with thankfulness, trace God’s activity in our lives and – based on God’s story with us so far –  take bold new steps in 2010: He is the same faithful, creative, loving, challenging God that Jesus proclaimed!

Bring it on, God!

But first, thank you to those who have already written comments on my first blog post. It’s great to get a conversation going. And thank you to Andrea for pointing out that www.eden.co.uk seem to have some One Year Bibles in stock. I had several conversations yesterday with people who have started the Bible in a Year Adventure. It seems there’s a good buzz going already. I know of one couple who are using the iPhone app to access the day’s readings in audio, which seems to work well.

… so to the most important section of Genesis, which Gordon Wenham believes is 11:27 – 12:9. This short passage looks back via Abram’s family history to what has gone before and looks forward eventually to the nation of Israel and the Davidic monarchy. Since the Fall in Genesis 3 we have witnessed the spread of sin, a (sort of) new start with Noah and the scattering of the nations after the Tower of Babel incident. (For more on Noah, there was a sermon series preached at Nexus last year) Here with God’s covenant with Abram we see what looks like the beginning of a permanent solution – God’s blessings to the world through Abram and his descendant(s). In a sense, the rest of the Bible tells us how God went about fulfilling the promise he makes here to Abram.

In Matthew we read about the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, one of preaching, teaching and healing. The core of his message is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew prefers this phrase to ‘the kingdom of God’, probably because of Jewish sensibilities about using God’s name) and the response Jesus calls for is repentance. What might the life of repentance look like in the kingdom of heaven? Cue the Sermon on the Mount. The kingdom is good news for all those who have been longing for it (see the Beatitudes – 5:1-12), but its ethics go far beyond the letter-of-the-law-keeping of the Pharisees. Does Jesus really expect his followers to live up to the ideals of the Sermon on the Mount? Or are the unachievable standards merely intended to get us to ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness because we cannot live up to them by ourselves? Is it both? Note how Jesus is very clear that he is fulfilling, not tearing up, the Scriptures. The ethics of the the NT are not something brand new, but the fulfilment of the OT, rightly understood.

Hopefully more to come later in the week, but that’s all for now.