OT DAY 201 - Why Severe Punishment? (Please click here for English podcast)

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Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.   Open your heart to praise the Lord

       Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
                            to dwell in your courts!
        We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
                             the holiness of your temple!

                             Psalm 65:4

                                                                       

Confession and Repentance

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gift to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word (Leviticus 24:10-23)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus 24&version=ESV

16 Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.17 “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. 18 Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.

                              Leviticus 24: 16-20

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

My Listening
     Today's passage might cause lots of questions and arguments. It seems not compatible with who God is and it seems doesn't make sense. 

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

     It is appropriate both that a person who has been assaulted should resist any temptation to get his or her own back and that the community should be concerned that a person who has done wrong should "pay or it." As Jesus points out, the principle of an eye for an eye is not one that we are entitled to claim when we are assaulted by someone (Matthew 5:39). The point about that principle is to provide the community with guidance when it is seeking to deal with the consequences of wrongdoing.  For us as individuals, Jesus also points out, the judgment we apply to others will be the one applied to us (Matthew 7:2)…

     Losing his life for cursing God is not the ultimate tragedy. The ultimate tragedy in a murderer's life is the committing of the murder, not the execution that may follow.  The ultimate tragedy for the curser is not his execution but his actual uttering of the curse.

John Goldingay. Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.177, 179.

      That's how God taught His people to live their daily life through very straight and severe rules to hold each one and the community to be accountable for each others wrongdoing. They needed those rules and severe punishment so that they could live out a community of listen and obey. But, Jesus gives us a new command and understanding for us to follow. Are you willing to follow His new command to love God and His people?

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Help us to be able to understand the consequence of wrongdoings so that we are willing to live a holy life.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

Reflect on these questions:

1. Do you understand now why God used all those kind of severe punishment? 

2. How can you follow Jesus' new command to love God and His people? 

Praise and Thanksgiving

Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:

10,000 Reasons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

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Daily Devotion on Fire: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

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