Reading With the People of God #13 Nicene Creed预览

Focus of the Month: Nicene Creed

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

This Is My Father’s World

Throughout the study of the Kings, we have seen the steady decline of Israel because of poor leadership and idol worship. Of late, Syria has a strong hold on Israel and is oppressing the people, causing rich and poor to suffer. God sees the bitter suffering of His people and sends Jonah, yes, that Jonah, to tell Jeroboam II that He would increase the boundaries of Israel. Jeroboam II would be one of Israel’s most successful kings.

During the reign of Jeroboam II Israel enjoyed relative peace and much prosperity. In the middle of great prosperity was greater spiritual decline. God sent the prophets Hosea and Amos to warn the people to repent, give up their idols, and return to the Law of Moses that they had been violating. God warned the people that they were not immune to His judgment. The message was to repent or be exiled.

We often read passages like this one for the immediate message, the external value. What we must also do is look for God. Throughout His Word, God is self-revelatory but often not in obvious ways. What can we learn about God from this and recent passages? In just this passage, we see He is compassionate, caring, and aware. We also see He is able to take down nations and raise up nations. He was there in ancient days and holds the future. God shows Himself to be slow to anger, tender in mercy, but willing to hold those without repentance to accountability and judgment. Time and again, He calls His people back to Himself.

In the Old Testament, God spoke to His people through prophets. Today, in Christ, God speaks to His people through the Bible. God revealed Himself in the fullest way through Jesus, who said; If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. (John 14:9)

What God has Joined Together

Jesus is making his final trip to Jerusalem, trying to spend more time with His disciples, yet great crowds follow Him. Trying to put a wedge between Jesus and those who followed Him, the Pharisees asked a loaded question, one that caused contention among the Jews and still stirs up differences of opinion today. Verse 3 asks the trick question, a trick because they were not quoting Scripture but a favorite liberal rabbi, Hillel, who had written in the Talmud and Midrash that a man could divorce his wife for just about any reason. He had interpreted “indecency” from Deuteronomy 24:1-4 as just about anything a man thought it to be, including burnt toast.

Jesus zoomed in on God’s original intention using the rule of first mention which established the principle for marriage in Genesis 2:24. He made it clear that it was God who set this standard and man should not interfere with that permanent and sacred bond.

Now, here is the setup. Thinking to set Jesus against the teaching of Moses, the revered giver of the Law, they asked: Why did Moses command a certificate of divorce with the wife to be sent away? Jesus’ reply shows that Moses was not justifying divorce, not commanding it, but permitting or suffering it because of man’s sin-hardened hearts. Before sin, God’s intention for marriage was to be monogamous and permanent. Because of sin, He allowed Moses to make an exception for egregious sins like infidelity.

Jesus makes a firm but sometimes difficult statement to embrace. He says in v 9 paraphrased; It was not so from the beginning, and God still doesn’t like it.