Pillar of Salt

I was just reading an article and mention was made of Lot and his family as they were leaving Sodom. I recalled the part of the story in which his wife looked back and was destroyed. Here, God was saving this family – this one small family of people living a righteous life amid the most detestable evil  – and another one bites the dust. 

He was choosing to save her. She had a get out of jail free card. She must have been considered somewhat righteous in order to be allowed to escape the judgment, and yet, by simply looking back over her shoulder, she reaps judgment with the others. Did this one act make her lose her chance? Apparently!

There are a couple of reasons why this might have happened. 

1. God said to not even look back, so therefore she was immediately in sin when she glanced back.
2. By glancing back, she was double-minded. She was obediently leaving the city in body, but her heart was remaining there, where her home, material possessions and possibly friends were. 

We know that sin has its consequences, particularly before Jesus’ blood covered us, but this double-mindedness is a very dangerous thing indeed. The Bible warns of it several times. Yet, we are most likely all quite guilty of this.

We hear what God wants us to do and rather than obeying immediately, we consider our options. We read a Biblical command and rather than jumping to do it, or avoid it whichever the case may be, we plot it out, consider it, but don’t obey fully. 

When I first was convicted about celebrating the feasts of the Lord, I wanted to obey immediately. However, I didn’t want to give up my other holidays, such as Christmas. I knew there was sufficient evidence in the Bible to warrant me giving up all my Christmas and Easter thingamajigs, but I was sort of sad about doing it. I didn’t know how to address it all with the kids. Fortunately, at least in this matter, I obeyed fully, although I admit I have found still more Christmas stuff that I need to get rid of in boxes from our recent move. Yet, I am certain if I thought long and hard enough about it, I would most definitely be able to list hundreds of areas I have not obeyed fully and/or immediately. 

So that would put me in her shoes, going forward in body with the Lord, and glancing back over my shoulder at my former life, and in some way missing it. Do I long for my material things, family, friends, my old ways, my old selfishness, my old controlling ways… more than I long to follow Jesus? I am sure in some ways I do. There are times, I long for chocolate more than I long for Jesus. How pathetic! While this might sound silly to some, it’s sin! I just might end up a pillar of salt too.

Feast of Weeks

To be honest, this is not a feast I have spent a lot of time thinking about. I guess it has never seemed particularly important to me, but as the day approaches this year, I am left wondering why I’ve overlooked (out of sheer laziness and lack of care) this particular feast. Certainly God commanded it. Certainly significant things have occurred on this day that we ought to want to commemorate it.

Perhaps the importance is not equal to that of Passover. It certainly is not celebrating the Lamb that was slain for my sin! Yet, important it must be.

Jews see this feast, called Shavuot, or Weeks, traditionally as the date the Torah was given. Now, that is significant. It was the date of the First Covenant, then! After the Passover occurred, the Israelites counted seven weeks, starting from the second day of Passover, making 50 days or Pentecost. So Shavuot, Feast of Weeks, and Pentecost are one and the same.

I’ve heard it said that when the Holy Spirit came as tongues of fire and touched down on the disciples they were no longer holed up in that upper room, but rather more likely celebrating this Feast of Weeks, Shavuot as they knew it, in the Temple, where Jews from around the world were gathered as part of this pilgrimage feast. They were in the Temple commemorating the day God gave the Torah, the law and wrote it on stone for Moses, when God sent the Holy Spirit down to write the law on our hearts.

Jeremiah 31:33 says, “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Certainly this was fulfilled on this day, and in this way, and those who knew Jesus as the Lord, received the Holy Spirit in their inward parts and had the law written on their hearts. They received power that day and spoke in various tongues so that those who were in Jerusalem heard the word of God spoken in their native languages (of the countries from where they came).

It also is the end of the grain harvest. The barley harvest which occurs at the time of the Passover is completed and the wheat harvest concludes on this day after 50 days of harvesting grain. There is some conflict around the date of the feast, whether it be the 6th of Sivan or the 15th of Sivan, and each group has its reason, but I find it interesting that the date of the first covenant made in the Bible, with Noah occurred on the 15th of Sivan, which might make this meaningful. Perhaps, as covenants go, this 15th Sivan might be an important covenantal date to God. A date of sealing and promising, gifts of God’s faithfulness to us, given in the form of the Rainbow, then the Torah, and then finally in the Holy Spirit. I don’t know these things for sure, but it’s interesting to think about.

Nonetheless, it is also interesting to note that the Law was a gift. Yes, it was a contract of sorts between God and Israel, but this contract was a gift. The Bible says the Law is sweeter than honey!

Psalm 19 verses:

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.
10 They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

So, if the Law is sweet, why then do we fight it? Why then do we all too often hear in modern Christian churches that we are not under the Law, as if we need not know it or obey it? Certainly we are saved by grace. Do not misunderstand me to be saying that the Law will save us. Surely, the Law cannot save. Yet, the Law is sweeter than honey. So, maybe I am not “under” the law. Maybe I am not bound to the curse of the law, but absolutely, I desire to know and follow the law because the law is sweet.

Psalm 1:2-3 talks about the one who DELIGHTS in the law. He will be planted by streams of water.

Psalm 19:7 says the Law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.

Psalm 119:1, says those who walk according to the Law are blessed.

Surely, then, God did not intend the Law as a burden. He intended it as a blessing.

I admittedly don’t know how to celebrate Shavuot. Little is said in the Bible about it. Nor, do I think I will be cursed for not getting it right, or for having ignored it these last 37 years of my life.

However, I do think that in celebrating this feast this year, I will be opening myself up for blessing. I see it as a golden opportunity to teach my children about the gift of the Law and how God followed that up with the Gift of the Spirit in my life. I know these are precious seeds that will be planted in my family’s life that will bloom and blossom.

So, we will bake loaves of bread to celebrate the wheat harvest. We will talk about the giving of the Law, God’s many covenants of Love with us, and the Gift of the Holy Spirit that allows us to live the Law with power. We will decorate with flowers and rainbows and celebrate God’s loving kindness. That, as they say in the hokey pokey, is what IT is ALL ABOUT!

Happy Shavuot (whether that is an appropriate Jewish greeting or not)!