Newsletter November 2023 Part 1
The Word of life, peace and joy
The Jewish feast of Simchat Torah (Joy of the Torah) is a day of celebration of God’s word given to Moses on Mount Sinai. This year that feast fell on the 7th of October according to our solar calendar and, sadly, what was supposed to be a time of rejoicing in Israel turned into a day of shock and mourning due to the horrific terrorist attack. The very place that God had chosen for a people who would bear His name to bring His peace and joy to all the world has once again become the epicentre of violence and destruction. Instead of God’s law going forth from Zion and His word from Jerusalem to bring peace and justice (Isaiah 2), words of hate and deception are spreading all over the world. Why is it that we humans, whom God created in His image in order to share fellowship with Him and one another, fail to walk in His way of righteousness?
When Moses returned from Mount Sinai with the tables of stone containing the words of God for His people, he would have expected a welcome with rejoicing (simchah). Instead, however, he and Joshua heard what sounded like a noise of war in the camp. (Exod. 32:17) Yes, the people were celebrating, but not the return of Moses from the presence of the true and living God; instead they were carousing around an idol of gold. Moses’ apparent delay in returning from the Mountain of God had caused them to take matters into their own hands, creating for themselves a god they could see with their physical eyes. The very place that God had chosen to reveal Himself to them, to give them His instruction and to adopt them as His people became a place of death and destruction for many of them. (Exod. 32:26-28). Nonetheless, when Moses interceded on behalf of the people, God ended His judgment and showed mercy by replacing the tablets Moses had broken in anger (Exod. 34:1) and allowing Moses to mediate between Him and the remaining people. Moses himself spoke to God face to face so that the skin of his face shone from the glory of God presence; but when he came to deliver God’s words to the people, He put a veil over His face. (Exod. 34:34-35)
God gave His word to the people He had chosen, but they failed to see His glory. The lack of faith during their wait for Moses’ return and their decision to make their own image even though God had explicitly forbidden this, prevented them from seeing God through His word. Therefore God, through the prophet Jeremiah, promised to make a new covenant with His people, putting His law in their minds, and writing it on their hearts, so all could know Him and be in fellowship with Him. This promise was fulfilled in Jesus, the Word become flesh (John 1:14) so that all could see the glory of God in Him. And this is what Jesus was referring to when He said to the religious leaders who rejected Him, You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. (John 5:39)
Later, after Jesus had been crucified, had risen and had ascended to the Father, one such religious leader had an encounter that would change his life forever. As he was travelling to Damascus to arrest the followers of Jesus, this man, Saul of Tarsus, was blinded by a bright light and heard a voice addressing him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4) While his physical eyes were blinded by the light for a season and he had to be led by the hand, the veil that had covered his eyes in the reading of the scriptures was taken away and his spiritual eyes were opened to recognise Jesus.
Later, in his second letter to the church in Corinth, he wrote, now as Paul the apostle of Jesus Christ, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken way. ... But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Cor. 3:15, 18) It was this knowledge of God, revealed in Jesus, that enabled Paul to share the message of God’s salvation despite constant opposition. In the same letter, he wrote (2 Cor. 4:6-8) For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
Has the veil been removed for you? Do you see Jesus, the Word of life (1 John 1:1) in whom alone are found that inexpressible joy full of glory (1 Pet. 1:8) and that peace of God that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7), irrespective of circumstances? Is His Spirit transforming you into His image from glory to glory?