Light Affliction

"For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison". (2 Corinthians 4:17)

It was the week before this Easter, as I was engaged in my daily reading of scripture, that I came across the above verse. Just before picking up my Bible I had read something in our local newspaper that caught my interest, and it must have still been banging around in my head enough to make it difficult to concentrate on the chapter from 2 Corinthians. When I read "light affliction" my first thoughts were - What type of difficulty does light cause someone? - When I get a faceful of sun it makes me sneeze. Is it like that? - Was there something called "light affliction" in Jesus day? - Do I need to check another translation to figure this out? I actually had to reread the paragraph a couple of times before the "light" went off in my brain. Several days later I went back and read chapters three, four and five to get the full context of Paul's argument. I also read chapters nineteen through thirty-four in Exodus to better understand the analogies that Paul was drawing from. Eventually I understood that, in both 2 Corinthians and Exodus, there is a type of "light affliction" that all mankind has in common, and that the resurrection of Christ, celebrated at Easter, provides us a promise of hope that one day we will be healed from it.

Two verses past 4:17 it says; "For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house (our body) is torn down, we have a building from God (a better body), a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. Inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life".

Our assurance that Jesus actually rose from the dead, and that He will change our earthly tent into an eternal dwelling place with Him, is given to us by the Spirit. By faith we followed the leading of the Spirit and confessed that the death of Jesus on the cross was for us personally, both the punishment and the payment that The Father demanded because of our sins and our sinful nature. This faith allowed that same Spirit to bring Christ into our hearts, changing our spirit nature into a new creation. The Spirit can now dwell within us, and where the Spirit is there is light, a portion of the glory of God. But, although our body will one day be changed and we will be able to more fully abide in the glory of the Almighty, it is now still earthly. We struggle daily to overcome the carnal desires of both the body and the mind, and the tendency of all matter to breakdown over time. And like Paul, we may also endure trials from a fallen world that hates the light, and thus hates those in whom the light abides. It is a struggle to live a life in the light of Christ when the opposition comes from both without and within. We may often long to be released from the confines of our earthly body and soul, to be in the glorious presence of our God. But Paul tells us it is best to follow this simple advice. Our desire should be, both in this life and in the next, "to be pleasing to Him". (2 Corinthians 5:9)

The book of Exodus tells the story of the Jewish people leaving their captivity in Egypt, and the journey to the land promised to them by God. On the first day of the third month they enter into the Sinai wilderness, and camp next to MT. Sinai. The awesome presence of Almight God is made known by the dark cloud and the flashing lightening at the top of the mountain, and later when the top of the mountain looks like it is on fire. When God speaks to the people His voice sounds like thunder. And the physical sights and sounds of God frighten the people. One of the things He tells them is that they are to honor Him alone, and are not to fashion idols. Later on He tells Moses, Aaron, Aaron's two oldest sons, and seventy of the elders of the people to advance up the mountain, although only Moses is allowed to come near to God. When they went up the group "saw the God of Israel, and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself". (Exodus 24:10) The group eat and drink before God, who then calls Moses to come into His presence. At this time the others descend the mountain and wait for Moses. "Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. And the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights". (Ex. 24: 15-18)

Some amazing things happen during those 40 days. On the top of the mountain God gives instructions to Moses concerning His laws, and shows Moses the patterns for the tabernacle, including the materials, the furniture, the priestly garments, and the things that the priest were to do. And God Himself writes down His laws (my sense is that this is much more that the 10 commandments) on tablets of stone for Moses to take back with him. But on the bottom of the mountain, even though there is still an obvious visible presence of the cloud and the fire on top of the mountain, the people grow restless. They forget about the pillar of cloud that was with them every day since they left Egypt, and the pillar of fire that was with them every night. They complain to Aaron whose tribe will become the priests for the nation. They begin to doubt that Moses is going to return, and they ask Aaron to make them an idol to be a god that they can worship. Now the people already knew the will of God concerning idols. Aaron and his sons and the seventy elders had seen God and had eaten before Him. For four months the nation had seen and heard the awesome power of God, had been instructed as to His plan for them, had entered into a covenant with Him. They knew all these things with their brain, but their hearts were still in darkness. They were worried about what to eat. They were worried about being left to die in the wilderness. And they were having an awful time trusting a God whose features they could not describe and who was making them wait. (And are we really much different?) So Aaron collects gold from them, throws it into a fire, and out of the fire is fashioned a golden calf. The people imitate the religious practices of the Egyptian people they had recently been delivered from, and rise up to sing, dance and cavort before a god made in the image of corruptible flesh.

Moses brought down with him from the mountain laws that God Himself inscribed upon stone. When Moses saw what the people were doing, already at the beginning rebelling against those very words the finger of God engraved, he smashed the stones. But the words inscribed on stone were never intended to bring life to the people. It was not God's plan to make a religion where people would be justified by doing everything that was written there. Following the letter of the law instead brought death. God's intent was to drive man to the tabernacle to make sacrifice for his sins, yet even here scripture says often that God took no pleasure in the blood of the animal sacrifices. Instead of works of religion God was looking for obedience because of the desire of the heart. It is the physical part of us, our body and our mind (the soul) that tries to be justified by works. But it is in the heart, the reborn spirt where the Spirit of God resides, that surrenders to God.

Exodus tells us that Moses set up a tent outside the camp, and when he would go into the tent the cloud would descend upon it and the glory of God would reside inside. He would talk to God there, and when he left the tent Moses would put a veil over his face, because the brightness of the glory of God that came onto his face, even though it would eventually fade, was too much for the people to look at. (Maybe the brightness made them sneeze) Paul says that "if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?" (2 Cor. 3: 7-8) The veil over the face of Moses is a reminder of the hardness of the heart of the sons of Israel in that day. and there remains a veil hiding the glory of God for them today, as well as for everyone else, until it is lifted by the Spirit when a person turns to the Lord. "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might n0t see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God". (2 Cor. 4:4)

Trials and tribulations are a part of the lives of believers while we live on this planet in our earthly bodies. And one reason is because "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves". (2 Cor. 4:7) May we live our lives in the strength of the Spirit. And may the light of the Spirit and the truth of Christ shine into the lives of all those we know who struggle in this earthly realm.

Heads Or Tails

The history of the Jewish people shows that it was a constant struggle for them to be obedient to the commandments given to them by God, and for them to trust in God for their needs and for their safety. The Jewish nation would have a righteous king who would honor the house of the Lord, reveal the word of God, and remove the pagan altars and high places, and God would be active in the affairs of the nation. That was always followed by several wicked kings who allowed the pagan altars and priests and ignored the word and the tabernacle, and things would again go sour for the nation. Then again for a short time a righteous king would arise who would attempt to clean out the pagan filth. Although the blessing of God would return for a time, the later glory was never as bright as the former.





Today we hear a lot of preaching about seeking the blessings of God, and it is usually tied into a quid pro quo type of deal. We give to God (or to the ministry in question), and we will receive in turn blessings from God. But while scripture does have a lot to say about God's desire for us to give, and His desire to bless us, it also puts the blessings of God into the context of our being obedient to the commandments that God has given to us. The focus of many churches today seems to be either on what we can get from God, or what we can do for God. But God has revealed to us in His word and through His Spirit a revelation of what the will of God is for us. And He has done that, not in a legalistic sense so we can be justified before Him by obeying the letter of the commandments, but in a context where we can be in a right relationship with a Holy but loving Father who wants to share His life with us. We come into that relationship through the shed blood of Jesus, where our sins are forgiven and our spirits are reborn, making us part of His family. But the closeness of our experience with the Father requires that we daily seek to be obedient to His will, putting aside our desire for the false promises of the pleasures of this world.



In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul compares the experiences of the Jewish nation in the Exodus to the challenges for Christians living in a fallen world today. "For I do not want you to be unaware, brethern, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved . . . Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No tempetation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it." The way of righteousness is not easy. All of us crave evil things and we a good at making compartments in our life where the Spirit of God is not welcome. It's funny, but life for us as God designed it leads to the opposite of what the world promises. Obedience leads to freedom, surrender leads to power, giving leads to increase, and holiness leads to health. We get forgiveness by forgiving, and experience love by loving.



There is a promise that God gives to the nation of Israel in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy. I have heard part of it quoted quite often as a proof text, used by those that preach that it is always God's will for Christians to prosper financially. "And the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail, and you shall . . . be above . . . and not beneath". (v13) The idea of being the head and not the tail sounds good, and it is true that giving God the first of our increase is a concrete way to express our dependence on Him, and God will indeed bless those that put their trust in Him by freely giving. But that is not what chapter 28 or verse 13 is talking about. Earlier in Dueteronomy, God has made a covenant with the Jewish people, as a nation that would one day enter into the land that He had promised them. But in addition to the covenant He also provided for them a place where His presence would reside, and commandments to help them understand that they would often fall short of His perfect will for them. He desired not only their obedience to those commandments but their desire to come to His earthly dwelling place for both worship and restoration. And in chapter 28 He tells them that there would be many blessings for them in that land if they followed His commandments, but also many curses for them in that land if they were not obedient to what He commanded.

"Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city . . . and in the country . . . Blessed shall be the offspring of your body, and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts . . . The Lord shall cause your enemies . . . to be defeated before you . . . The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself . . . all the people of the earth shall see you are called by the name of the Lord and be afraid of you . . . The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens to give rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of yourr hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow . . . And the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail, and you only shall be above, and you shall not be underneath, if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today".

Our Father loves us and wants us to be obedient to His commandments because He knows that is ultimately what is best for us. Our obedience enables His blessings to be poured out. When we reject or ignor His commandments it opens us and the nation up to the curses which come as a result of being outside of the will of God. "But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes whith which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city . . . and in the country. . . . Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground . . . The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you shall go down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail . . . And it shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you shall be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. Moreover, the Lord will scatter you from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth".

Even though they had the scriptures, the temple, the priesthood and the sacrifices, the Jewish people ended up being scattered to the ends of the earth. God's desire is to bless us. But when we disobey what He commands, when we approve the corrupt actions of this world, when we crave evil things, when we hold onto unforgiveness and bitterness, when we don't trust that God is able, we severly limit His ability to pour out His blessing into our life and our nation. The solution is not to ask God to pour forth His blessing, or to find a spiritual principle where we give and then get. Instead we must seek Him, and make daily decisions to be obedient to His revealed will, and trust that He who made us and designed us and saved us knows best.