Faith and Righteousness

January 7, 2023 Background Scripture: Hebrews 1:1 Lesson Passage: Hebrews 11:1 - 4a, 7a, 8, 17, 18, 20 -23, 32, 39, 40 It can be difficult to discuss simple religious terminology that has been overly spiritualized in the past. Faith and righteousness are basic religious terms that are important in any area considered to be a religion. Faith speaks of trusting whomever or whatever one submits to as a deity. Faith simply says: If you consider something to be your "god", then you will trust it as such. Righteousness prescribes the necessary steps that lead one to being in good standing, or right standing, with that deity. The Law of Moses is a good example of a religion that specifies the steps necessary to achieve righteousness via the Law. Righteousness should be a naturally desired outcome in any form of religion. For Christians, righteousness is not descriptive of some innate human quality that one can achieve through some effort or personal sacrifice. Put another way, biblical righteousness is not about moral decisions and behavior. Historical sketches in the Bible present examples of persons who found favor in God's eyes. It is clear from those passages of scripture that God was pleased with those individuals, It pleases God when a person is in right standing with Him. The Background Scripture for today's lesson states that it is impossible to please God without faith in Him. Therefore, if we are to be in right standing with God, it can only occur because of our faith in Him. For Jews, they were required to follow the precepts outlined in the Law. But what does faith in God look like for Christians? Or how does one become a person of faith? Look at the examples presented in our lesson. We call them heroes of faith, but that may be over spiritualizing it. The Bible presents them as ordinary people with fears and passions common to the human experience, Most of them were Jews, yet they were not slavishly following the Law. They became exceptional individuals because they chose to believe what God had spoken or revealed to them. They acted, or responded, based on what they believed about what God had revealed. In other words, their actions demonstrated what they believed about God. This happened even when God's directions for them defied common sense—or went against what people had experienced while interacting with nature! Aside from the Law, our physical experiences become rules, or standards, in our minds as we mature. We believe we know how nature works because we have experienced it. We trust God and therefore believe what He said about creating everything. So, by faith we understand that God created nature and therefore He can change how it behaves. But faith is more than what we choose to believe about God. Faith is demonstrated when we act, or react, according to those beliefs. Faith begins and ends with what cannot be seen or experienced yet. Indeed, it is our belief in God that allows us to see His handiwork. Faith is not wishful thinking. We don't achieve results by wishing for them. We submit ourselves to God, we follow the directions He gives us to follow, then we see the results that please God. The outcome of faith is always according to the will of God and not the "want" of the person. It is best when we want the same thing that God wants, then we will pray according to His will, and He will answer our prayers accordingly. When we don't know what God wants, then we pray for His will to be done. By faith we accept the outcome after we have submitted ourselves to God in prayer. The individuals in our lesson went through this in their lives. They pleased God because they acted according to His word, and God counted their faith as righteousness. Robert C. Hudson December 28, 2023

The Faith of the Wise Men

December 31, 2023 Background Scripture: Micah 5:2 - 4; Matthew 2:1 - 12 Lesson Passage: Matthew 2:1 -12 Our lesson presents men who traveled from the East to Palestine seeking a baby who was born to reign over the Jews. Who were these men referred to by Matthew? The Gospel of Matthew, written in Greek, uses the word "magi" to describe them. The English phrase "wise men" is translated from the Greek word "magi". In the first century, magi were recognized variously as astrologers, Oriental scientists, and magicians. Two men in the book of Acts are referred to using this word or a variation of it: Simon and Elymas. It seems that the use of this word was very broad in the first century considering its use in the New Testament. The magi referred to by Matthew describe their inspiration in a way that would lead one to think of them as either astrologers or astrological scientists. As astrological scientists, they would have been familiar with the "normal" appearance of the night sky. The alignment of the stars has long been used for navigation at night. Anything unusual about the night sky would have stood out to them. However, their interpretation of the "unusual" change is worth noting. They interpreted the presence of a new star in the night sky as the sign of a king being born in the location indicated by the star. We don't know how they would have come to interpret the presence of the star with the birth of a ruler of that land. Nevertheless, God used them to alert the Jewish leaders (spiritual and political) to the birth of Israel's Messiah. Since God did warn the magi later and gave them directions for leaving Israel, it is quite possible that God directed them to Israel at the start of their journey. Whatever their inspiration was for going to Israel, they went seeking the child to show humility and submission to him as a ruler. It was reasonable for them to go to the political leader of the land supposing that the newborn was a descendant of the current ruler. They went to the capital city of the Jews, Jerusalem, and asked about the child born to rule them. Being dumbfounded, and threatened, by their question, Herod sent for the spiritual leaders of the Jews. He asked them about the Jewish prophetic writings concerning the birth of a Messiah. The Jewish spiritual leaders cited Micah's prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem in Judea. Herod sent the magi to Bethlehem in their quest for the child. I-le gave them instructions to bring back the location of the child to him. Herod was not going to allow a child to grow up to replace him as ruler of the Jews. When the magi started out for Bethlehem, the star that led them to Israel reappeared and led them to the house where the child was located. When they arrived at the location indicated by the star, they saw the child, Jesus, and presented gifts to Him. They gave Him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Those were gifts worthy of royalty. The Bible does not reveal how many magi traveled to Jerusalem. We know there was more than one and that's all. The assumption is made based on the different types of gifts that there were three of them. Again, we don't know how many—it could have been two or it could have been hundreds based on the reference to them. After they had acknowledged the child and presented their gifts, God warned them in a vision to not return to Herod. They returned home using a different route to avoid Herod. If they had not heard from God previously, they certainly heard from Him after visiting the child. The faith of the wise men could very well be ascribed to them obeying God's words of warning. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. The wise men followed God's warning which indicates they believed God's word when He revealed His presence to them in that vision. Robert C. Hudson December 3, 2023