Year 2 Day 315


Pray (ACts)


Read - Romans 3:12


Message - Alan Burke


Most people think that they are good, moral, law abiding citizens. I like to think I’m one and this week I think I’m doing pretty well, I haven’t broken the speed limit once and I’m cutting down my carbon footprint because I haven’t driven the car all week (only because I have to self isolate), once more the recycling bin is full and the black bin won’t have to go out likely for another 4 weeks. These things thou, they may be good, moral in the worlds eyes, they may mark me as law abiding they are but what is known as acts of civil righteousness. Many people think that this is enough to merit them salvation but the scriptures are clear, there is not one good before God (Rom 3:12), there is nothing that we can do that God considers good, moral or law abiding. 


Working through the Ten Commandments in the evening service, the extent of our sinfulness for all there has bee clear. If we thought that in some way we had been doing a pretty good job before we come to them we were soon confronted with how we each one of us, have left the commandments of God in shatters. We all try to belittle our failings but none of us are able to say or claim that we have kept even one of them, none of us. Maybe if we took the the Ten Commandments and we reduced their demands to simply what we do we would have a chance. But then let me ask you the following and let your yes be yes and your no be no instead of trying to sugar coat the truth. Have you ever taken a pen that didn’t belong to you whether by intent or by accident? Yes or no? Have you ever told a lie about another, to save face, to help another, or embellished a story? Yes or no? Thieves and Liars, all of you!


Even if we reduced their demands of the Ten Commandments to simply what we do, we still fail miserably. As Romans 3:12 makes clear, “no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin”. The Moral Law of God summarised in the Ten Commandments was given by God, not in order that we might think that we could some how keep it, that we could merit our own salvation. No, the law was given that we would become conscious of our sin. That we would know or God requires, know his very character and nature and ultimately to show us our need for a redeemer. 


For the law is not there to save us but it is there to act like a mirror that reveals our sinfulness, it acts as a spotlight that shines upon our sin. As it does this it points us to how we need God to do something and that something is bring us salvation, the salvation that is freely offered through the Lord Jesus Christ. As the moral law in the Ten Commandments was given it was to help his people and all people see that what they needed was someone outside themselves, they needed the new and better Adam, they needed the promised seed of Eve, the serpent crusher, the one through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed, the one who would fulfil the law perfectly, the one who paid the penalty that is due for our sin and it is through faith in Christ alone that we have salvation nothing else, for the righteous shall live by faith. 


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Q72 What is forbidden in the seventh commandment?
The seventh commandment forbiddeth all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions.
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Year 2 Day 313 


Pray (ACts)


Read - Genesis 50v22-26


Message - Scott Woodburn
As Genesis comes to a close, the years roll on. Joseph lived until he was 110 spending the rest of his days in Egypt (v22). Additionally he was blessed by seeing multiple generations of his family (v23). But as each of us knows, death cannot be avoided. Joseph knew that his death was about to arrive and so he spoke words of truth to his brothers (v24).


The family at this stage were well settled in Egypt but Joseph reminded them that God’s promise still stood. Joseph said “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Joseph had done well in Egypt. The Lord had blessed him with much favour and yet in his bones, Joseph knew that God’s plans for his people would not be fulfilled in the land of the Sphinx. One day God would visit His people in Egypt and bring them home.


Joseph wouldn’t live to see the glorious day but regardless he looked to it by faith. He made his brothers swear that they wouldn’t leave him in Egypt. After his death he was embalmed and placed in a coffin (v26) but one day Jospeh wanted his remains to go to the land of promise. He impressed upon his brothers “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”


We can only imagine what Joseph’s life was like. The Scriptures paint a vivid picture but our minds are limited and time travel to see for ourselves is impossible. Regardless, we have much in common with Joseph of which we can be sure. Joseph was a man of faith who died without seeing the fulfilment of God’s promises. He died in a foreign land without setting foot in the land of promise ever again. Yet his faith did not waver and he was filled with a righteous anticipation that all things would be as God had promised.


I have no idea about the when, where or how of my death. I could currently be in the final year of my life or I might see my 100th birthday. Equally, the Lord may return before I breathe my last. As we gaze into the future we do not have all the information but with eyes of faith we can be sure that the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ. At death we can be sure that our souls will be made perfect and go to be with Christ. During the intermediate state (the time between our death and resurrection) we will know unspeakable joy. At the second coming of Jesus we can be sure that our bodies will be raised imperishable and reunited with our soul. In eternity we can be sure that we will dwell with Christ forever in a world without sin. None of this is “pie in the sky” nor should we be pitied for believing idle tales. God has promised it and it will be so.


Like Joseph, we believe even though we do not yet see in full, but a day is coming when our faith will be turned to sight. Until then we cling to the promises of God. On occasion we will cry “I believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9v24) but even so the Lord will remain faithful and He will preserve us until we cross the finish line. What a day that will be! Come quickly Lord Jesus!


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Q71 What is required in the seventh commandment? The seventh commandment requireth the preservation of our own and our neighbor’s chastity, in heart, speech, and behaviour.

Year 2 Day 312


Pray (ACts)


Read - Mark 7:20-23


Message - Alan Burke


Have you ever seen the film “What Women Want” (2000) staring Mel Gibson, if you haven’t, don’t bother. I bring it up because I remember going to see it in the cinema back when it came out. It was awful, but maybe you’re really inquisitive now and want to watch and judge for yourself. If that’s so, then it’s on amazon Prime Video but trust me, just do something worth while instead like counting how many baked beans are in the tin in your cupboard. The premise is that the character played by Mel can hear what women want. In it there are some laughs, some awkward stuff but I remember watching it thinking how truly awful it would be, not because he could hear what women thought but hearing what anyone though would be awful. Like really, how awful to know what anyone and everyone was thinking. Would you really, I mean really want to know what someone or anyone was thinking all the time? Or would you want anyone else to know what you were thinking all the time? Of course not! We would be mortified and the reason of course is because even though we might make a good show, our hearts are unclean. 


Here Jesus makes that point, for out of a man (women or child included) is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of a men’s hearts comes evil thoughts. The list that is given does not pertain to actions, no for the the actions are a result of first the evil thoughts. So have you ever had evil thoughts? Thoughts of sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,  greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. We could go through them all, and all these things come from inside, they begin with us, they don’t come about because we didn’t was our hands, because we ate something, because we came in contact with someone, no these are all things that spring from the heart. They are things that are common to all of us to a greater or lesser extent, they are things which every human heart experiences for our hearts, by our nature are sinners, we are unclean. Because of this we are unable to come before a holy God, we are unclean, we are defiled, we are unable to come before him because how our hearts are evil, we cannot hope of coming into the presence or dwelling with the living God because of our nature. 


What we need to know and understand, each and everyone of us, is that we have by our nature a problem, and the problem is a heart problem. There is nothing that we can do to make our hearts clean, it’s one of those things that if we are honest we know, no matter how moral we think we are, no matter how hard we try we have failed to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed. 


The good news about the gospel is that it doesn’t matter how dirty the world says you are, how filth stained you believe yourself to be, it doesn’t matter if people cross the other side of the street than you for what ever reason, the good news of the gospel is that Christ died to make us clean. If we recognises our sin for what it is, if we repent of it and believe in Christ Jesus the sinless saviour, then you will be forgiven. Then we are made clean, not by efforts but through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that we can become a new creation, where the old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17), what we need is the power of God to work in us by the Holy Spirit, it is the gospel that we need, unless we are born again, we cannot see the kingdom of God (Jn 3:3).


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Q70 Which is the seventh commandment?
The seventh commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exod. 20:14)
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Year 2 Day 311


Pray (ACts)


Read - Genesis 50v15-21


Message - Scott Woodburn
Sometimes a family has someone who holds everything together. Perhaps it is a mother who keeps peace among her children or maybe it is a brother who always seems to know the right thing to do. But what happens when that person dies? Sadly families can often descend into a war over property or they can drift apart once the family leader has gone.


Joseph’s brothers were worried. Their father had died and now they wondered if Joseph would take his revenge upon them (v15). We had previously seen growth in Joseph’s siblings but now, in light of Israel’s death, they seem to shrink back. They had come to understand their wickedness in how they had previously treated Joseph and now they think that Joseph might show them wickedness in return. Joseph no longer has his father to hold him back so perhaps he’ll now take his revenge?


The brothers decided that a message was to be sent to Joseph saying “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.” This message was supposedly from their late father but John Calvin amongst others suggests that they made this up! Surely if the issue had been so important then Israel wouldn’t have left it until after his death?It appears that the brothers are so nervous about the future that they put words into their dead father’s mouth and because they don’t want to face Joseph themselves, they send servants with the message!


No wonder Joseph weeps when he hears this report. After everything that has happened his brothers assume that their brother will act with wickedness. It would seem that they don’t know him at all. To further calm the supposedly wicked and vengeful Joseph, his brothers fall before him and offer themselves as his slaves (v18).


But the brothers had made false assumptions. Joseph had no hunger for revenge. He tells his brothers that they are not to fear because Joseph is not God (v19). The Scriptures are clear, vengeance is to be left to the Lord alone (Deuteronomy 32v35). Joseph understood this important truth and he also understood that God guides our every step with a loving and kind providential hand.


In a beautiful and often quoted verse Joseph says “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (v20) Here is a wonderful summary of the sovereignty of God. The Lord rules over the plans and wicked schemes of men. God’s people can comfort themselves with the knowledge that even if all the armies of hell stood against us, God would overrule and bring good from calamity. As far as Joseph was concerned, the issue with his brothers was finished. He wouldn’t be seeking revenge and he would work towards nothing but their good (v21).  


Brothers and sisters, may we learn from this well known passage. We would be fools to think that we will never know hurt in this life. We live in communities, churches and homes where sinful people will act in sinful ways towards us. They will gossip behind our backs. They will assume that our motives are always the worst. They will do all that they can to avoid speaking to us. They may even seek to cause us physical harm. How should we respond? By loving our neighbour even if they refuse to love us in return. By seeking our neighbour’s good even if they don’t seek the same for us. By refusing to take revenge even if the opportunity arises. Vengeance belongs to the Lord and even the plans of the wicked will be used by Him for our good. Therefore praise God and rest in Christ. 


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Q69 What is forbidden in the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment forbiddeth the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbor unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto.

Year 2 Day 310


Pray (ACts)


Read - Mark 7:17-19


Now be honest with yourself, I’m not looking for you to submit your answer so you can be. Have you ever been in the situation that you just didn’t get it? The it might have been a joke, it might have been what the teacher was teaching and I felt like that a lot, it might have been something you were being told by a friend, it could have been any number of things at numerous times. We can all face times like that and it can happen to the plain teaching of scripture, think to these disciples for as the crowd are left behind on entering the house the disciples ask what was the meaning of what Jesus had taught (v17). They had not understood the significance of what Jesus said. Look at the words of Jesus to the disciples at their question, v18 the KJV and ESV put it as “are you also without understanding”, I like the NIV for this, “are you so dull?”(18) although I’d advise against ever saying that to someone!


Now as Jesus explains it to them he does so by using how the digestive system works. Food is of course one of those necessities of life, the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law had seen the disciples eat with unclean hands. Therefore the food that they ate was unclean and they were unclean. Whereas Jesus here makes the point once more that nothing that comes from the outside can make him unclean. The reason why is that it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach. Now the word heart here is the innermost self, the, the source of the spirit and emotional life. Like figuratively today in many love songs it’s all about how the heart feels. Food of course even with a basic understanding of autonomy, we know goes not into the heart, but the stomach. The disciples eat with unclean hands and therefore the food is unclean but it goes not to their heart but their stomach. 


How can a physical thing like food make one make the heart unclean, spiritually unclean, for uncleanness has to do not with our stomach, but with our heart. Our cleanliness or rather our uncleanness, or defilement has to do not with our stomach but with our heart. The closing of v19 is, “in saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean””. In the book of Acts the apostle Peter who had been there with Jesus, who was there when the Pharisees and the teachers of the law had challenged Jesus for his disciples behaviour, he was there when Jesus gathered the crowd around him and told them to listen, he was there in that house as the disciples asked about this parable. 


Well in Acts 10, we are told of the vision of Peter and in it the Lord spoke to him and told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven (Acts 10:10-16). This vision of Peter’s led to his ministry to the unclean Gentiles, but it also revealed that years later, even though he had been taught this, he still hadn’t grasped its significance. So incredible were the words of Jesus that even those whom he explained them to, still had trouble believing that they were not made unclean with what went in and they had trouble adjusting to a new way of life. 


It is hard for us to come to something with fresh eyes, to examine what we do in all ways against the scriptures. There are things that we all hold dear to that we struggle to let go because that’s what we have grown up with rather than it being what the scripture teaches. We should all be desiring that we are teachable, praying that we are teachable, that the Lord would conform us more and more into his image, rather than us being conformed into the image of our culture or of someone else.


Message - Alan Burke


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Q68 What is required in the sixth commandment?
The sixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, (Eph. 5:28–29) and the life of others. (1 Kings 18:4)

Year 2 Day 309 


Pray (ACts)


Read - Genesis 49v28-50v14


Message - Scott Woodburn
I remember vividly where I was on the 1st July 2005. It was a beautiful summer’s day and I found myself conducting a funeral in the Co-op funeral home in Larne. I was so nervous that I barely slept the night before. I read my notes and re-read my notes. I wrote the name of the deceased on every page so I wouldn’t get it wrong. It was my first ever funeral and I doubt I’ll ever forget it.


I’ve done countless funerals since then and I sleep much better these days, but in the midst of death I now face another challenge. I’ve done so many funerals and stood at so many gravesides that my new challenge is to never take death for granted. I never want to get into the position where death is just normal. It isn’t. It is the enemy. It was not part of God’s original creation. Sin entered the world and death followed with it. I pray that funerals will always be physically and emotionally draining. They are visible reminders that this world is not as it should be, that one day all will die and that each one of us needs to be ready to meet the Lord.


As Genesis comes to a close, death abounds. Israel would soon die but before he breathed his last, he commanded his family to take him home and bury him in the family tomb at Machpelah (v30). Abraham had bought this cave and Israel’s descendants had all been buried in that place (v31-32). Jacob had a hope that would not be defeated by the grave. With his final wishes made clear, Jacob breathed his last (v33).


His death was followed by much mourning. Jospeh wept over his father (50v1) and the Egyptians wept for 70 days (v3) which in itself was a great honour. Jacob was embalmed by the Egyptians (v2) - this is the same process used on Egyptian mummies - and a large funeral cortege made its way from Egypt to the land of Canaan (v9).


When they arrived home they lamented Israel’s death once more, this time for seven days (v10) and their mourning was so powerful that the locals named the place “Abel-mizraim” which means “the mourning of the Egyptians” Finally, Israel’s body was taken to the cave at Machpelah and placed in the family tomb (v13) after which the cortege returned to Egypt (v14)


As we consider the reality of death in this passage we see that even Christians will mourn. Paul tells us that we do not mourn as others do who have no hope (1 Thess 4v13) - but although our mourning is different, we still mourn. We see this clearly in the life of our Lord who wept at His friend’s tomb (John 11v35). Death will sting us and we do not need to act like robots detached from the enemy of death. Christians will mourn and that is a perfectly acceptable response to death. We weep and rail against the tragedy of sin and its wages of death.


Yet we do not mourn as others do for we have the sure and certain hope that Christ has defeated death. He died but rose again and so all who believe in Christ will be brought to everlasting life. Jesus is the death of death. Death is our enemy but one day it will be put under the feet of Christ. He died but stood again on this earth and is alive forever more. In Christ death has been defeated - praise God!


I hope you and I never get so familiar with death that it becomes routine and just a little bump on the road. May it drain us and cause us to loosen our anchors in this harlot world. May it put zeal into our evangelism and prayers as we remember that many live around us with the wrath of God abiding upon them. May funerals not be filled with the false gospel of Frank Sinatra but instead the glorious Gospel of Christ. May funerals give us pause and cause many to flee from hell and run to Christ - REPENT & BELIEVE THE GOSPEL FOR YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN 


Thankfully I have never forgotten the 1st July 2005 and I hope I never will.


“For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15v21-22) 


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Q67 Which is the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.
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Year 2 Day 308


Pray (ACts)


Read - Mark 7:14-15


Message - Alan Burke


Cleanliness is next to godliness, ever heard that? I have plenty of times, more often than not though it was when I was a wain and the dirt was being scrubbed from behind my ears. It is an idiom that strongly encourages and promotes neatness and personal hygiene. Well last week we heard how some of the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law had taken issue with how the disciples were eating with hands that were unclean, for the Pharisees followed the traditions of the Elders, they had let go of the commands of God and were holding on to the traditions of men (v8), they saw what mattered as what was seen outwardly. Whereas here Jesus teachers what it is to be clean, it’s not about having dirty hands, or having the dirt scrubbed from behind your ears, it’s not about ceremonial washing, it’s all to do with our hearts. For it is the heart that matters above all else and Jesus is the only one that can make us clean. 


Here Jesus continues to teach what that being clean means as he calls the crowd to him. Look at what he says there in v15 “Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’” (V15 NIV). This simple and profound truth lets us see what really matters, for all those who heard this from Jesus, or rather those who surrounded him who understood this, it would have been profound. The reason why is this, that which was unclean whether it was a thing or a person, was excluded from the presence of God and the worship of Him. If a person was unclean then they were required to cleanse themselves in order to be able to come before God, into his presence, to worship him. The Pharisees and Teachers of the Law had traditions that were to be observed, the problem was that almost anything at any time could make you unclean. 


The laws of clean and unclean were intended to show the people that their lives were unclean, because it was almost impossible to get through a day without contracting some kind of uncleanness that would mean you would have to go through a ritual washing and purification. These laws were to show that our lives by our nature were unclean. Jesus here teaching this parable knocks the idea on the head that what comes from the outside makes us unclean. The pharisees had failed to understand that true holiness is not to do with the outward appearance but the heart, the internal. The source of defilement, what makes us unclean is our hearts. 


None of us are clean, none of us deserve the grace of God, none of us can hope to come into his presence because of our uncleanness, our sin. But by the work of God the Father, though Jesus the Son, worked in us by the Spirit we are given a new heart, a new life. What we needed was the LORD God to do what he had promised long ago, in Ezekiel 36:26; “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh”. This is the only way that we can come before a Holy God as sinners who are unclean.


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Q66 What is the reason annexed to the fifth commandment?
The reason annexed to the fifth commandment, is a promise of long life and prosperity (as far as it shall serve for God’ s glory and their own good) to all such as keep this commandment. (Deut. 5:16, Eph. 6:2–3)
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Year 2 Day 306


Pray (ACts)


Read - Genesis 49v1-27


Message - Scott Woodburn
Did you know that there is controversy over the final words of Admiral Horatio Nelson? As he lay dying from a French sniper’s bullet he either asked his friend Captain Thomas Hardy for a kiss - “Kiss me Hardy” OR he used a Turkish word meaning fate or destiny to explain the inevitability of the situation - “Kismet Hardy” OR he urged Captain Hardy to take a kiss to Nelson’s lover Emma Hamilton - “Kiss Emma, Hardy” What did he actually say? Probably the first option but you pay your money and you take your choice. No such controversy exists over the final words of Israel for the Lord has given them to us in His Word.


Israel calls his sons together to bless them before he dies - but it isn’t all good news. Rueben was the first born and should have been preeminent over his brothers (v3) but he had proved to be as unstable as water. Much to his father’s astonishment, Rueben had slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah (Genesis 35v22) and so he would not receive the place of honour (v4).


Simeon & Levi would serve no better (v5-7). They had acted in bloodthirsty anger (Genesis 34) and so Israel pronounced a curse upon them. They would be scattered and divided in Israel (v7) and their father wanted nothing to do with their violent ways (v6).


Judah on the other hand was described as a lion’s cub (v8) and Israel told his son that from him would come the rulers of Israel. Indeed the sceptre wouldn’t depart from Judah until the arrival of one called “Shiloh” (v10). What a blessing! Later Scripture would tell us that Christ was the One promised by Israel. He was the lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5v5) and to Him would be the obedience of the peoples (Daniel 7v13-14). Christ would come and bring abundance (v12).


Zebulun’s descendants would know the blessing and benefit of seaborne trade (v13). Issachar’s people would be strong (v14) but would prefer comfort to work eventually becoming slaves of the Canaanites (v15). Dan’s mother was the concubine Bilhah but he would still take his place among his brothers (v16). Dan’s family would be small but would act like a serpent in the path of their enemies (v17).


Gad’s descendants would know trouble but would act valiantly nevertheless (v19). Asher’s family would be fruitful and eventually provide delicacies for the royal family (v20). Naphtali’s people would be surefooted and would deliver good news or perhaps (the verse is debated) beautiful children (v21).


Joseph was well favoured by his dad who called him a “fruitful bough” or a "fruitful branch" (v22). Joseph was a righteous man who had been hated by his brothers (v23) but had remained steadfast by the enabling hands of Almighty God (v24). Jacob spoke this word of prophecy and declared that the God who had blessed Joseph’s ancestors would now bless Joseph beyond anything that his ancestors had seen. Joseph would be set apart from his brothers (v26).


Finally Israel declared that the tribe of Benjamin would be like a hungry wolf (v27). The future for the Benjamites would see violence with much spoil and from them would come men like King Saul and the Apostle Paul.


Israel’s words are not empty vain hopes from a dying father. Here he takes on the role of a prophet and declares the God revealed and appointed future for His children. These verses would be unfolded throughout the rest of Holy Scripture and we see the triumphs and tragedies of the people of God.


We are not prophets and the future has not been revealed to us, but just as the Lord knew the path of the children of Israel, so he knows the path of our own little clans. This knowledge gives us hope for we trust a covenant God who promises to be our God and the God of our children.


Before we heed God’s upward call we have a responsibility to our children. May we entrust them to the Lord in prayer. May we worship with them among God’s people. May we listen together to God’s Word read and preached. May we discuss sermons over Sunday lunch as a family unit. May we teach our children to love the church of Christ. May we show them that nothing and no one compares to Jesus. May we sow good seeds into their young hearts that the Lord will harvest in years to come. All of this seems like an extraordinary task but as Israel prayed, so do we, “I wait for your salvation, O Lord.” (v18)


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Q65 What is forbidden in the fifth commandment? The fifth commandment forbiddeth the neglecting of, or doing anything against, the honor and duty which belongeth to every one in their several places and relations.
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Year 2 Day 305


Pray (ACts)


Read - Mark 7:9-13


Message - Alan Burke


We all know the commandments, the fifth commandment to honour your father an mother is the first and foundational commandment in how we love our neighbour and for all the commandments that follows. The reason why it is foundational for how we love our neighbour and all the commandments that followed, is that if we lived in this way, if all people sought to honour their father and their mother then we would live in a radically different world. Just as our relationship with the Lord God underpins how we love our neighbour, the commandment to honour your father and mother underpins and is foundational for all of society.


It is a weighty one just like the rest, because the parent child relationship is the first relationship that we have, it is the beginning of society, it is the foundation for society. The first people we know are our parents, it is our first hospital, school, it’s where we learn, it’s where we learn how the world work and it is our first church. In telling us how to love our neighbour, with God as our starting point, the family then follows, for there is no more fundamental relationship than this one. And honour your father in mother means more than just showing them respect it also means providing them with physical necessities. Yet these Pharisees and Teachers of the Law had by their traditions overruled the word of God. 


How so, well though Corban (that is, a gift devoted to God). Corban worked in this way, you could devote your property, investment, home what ever it was not to someone but to God, like signing over what you have now to the church. Corban meant that you continued to benefited from it all the days of your life, you still received the rental income of the property, investment income, could still live in your house but as it was devoted and when you died it went to God. 


The thing is that Corban wasn’t a bad thing, how could you say that giving to the work of God was a bad thing, after all it ain’t going to matter who falls out over your stuff when your dead. The problem was that they were allowing this man made rule, this tradition to allow people to escape the obligation that the Law of God placed up on all his people. This Corban tradition, this rule, meant that if you had given a gift to the temple then you were free from having to support your elderly parents and you could claim that you were doing no wrong. I hope we see the horror in this, your parents struggling no matter how bad a parent or parents they had been or how good a parent or parents and the command to honour your father and mother still applies but here they had made their tradition nullify it. 


They had set aside the will of God for our protection, for our parents protection, for the benefit of society all because of their tradition. But Jesus calls them out for the hypocrites they were, they were on the face of it devoted to God but their hearts were hardened. To violate the word of God for the sake of the traditions of men is always wrong, this is why we look to the word of God, everything we do must be examined against the word of God alone, Scripture alone is our final authority, we have creeds and confessions, they are a bond of unity but they should always be examined against what the word of God teaches, for it is the word of God that is contained in the Old and New Testament that should be what we look to, all that we believe must be founded upon and agreeable to it. 


When we do not obey the Word of God we are implicitly saying that Scripture has no authority over us, we are saying that we know better than God and it is just another outworking of our sinful rebellion. If that is you today then repent of your sin, turn to Christ and know the forgiveness he offers.


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Q64 What is required in the fifth commandment?
The fifth commandment requireth the preserving the honor, and performing the duties, belonging to every one in their several places and relations, as superiors, (Eph. 5:21) inferiors, (1 Pet. 2:17) or equals. (Rom. 12:10)
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Year 2 Day 304


Pray (ACts)


Read - Genesis 48


Message - Scott Woodburn
There will come a day that every one of us will die. I do not state this fact to annoy you or to ruin your day - I state it because it is true and it is essential that we face death by faith. Jacob knew that his day was coming and stressed to his son Joseph that he was not to be buried in Egypt. Jacob wanted to go home to Canaan and be buried in the cave at Machpelah. This in itself was an act of faith. Jacob was away from the land and his family had not yet possessed it but still Jacob wanted to be buried in home soil. He knew in his bones that the Lord would be faithful to His Word and one day the descendants of Israel would inhabit the land of promise.


Jacob’s eyes may not have grown dim but they still shone with faith. He told Joseph of the promises of God, how the Lord had appeared to him at Luz and promised to multiply his descendants and give them the land as an everlasting possession (v4). Such was his confidence in this promise that Jacob wanted the sons of Joseph to share in it. He claimed Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh as his own and although the land was far away, Joseph’s sons would have share in it (v5).


This was a bitter sweet moment. Jacob’s life was coming to a close and he remembered his beloved Rachel whose death caused Jacob much sorrow (v7) but at the same time he had once believed that he would never see his son again and yet in this moment Joseph and his two sons were at his bedside (v11).


Jacob invited his grandsons near to receive a blessing and so Joseph brought his sons to his father with the eldest Manasseh to Jacob’s right and the youngest Ephraim to his left (v13). Years before Jacob had also drawn near to his near blind father. In that moment he had used deception to receive the blessing. He had taken matters into his own hands despite the promise of God that the older would serve the younger.


There would be no deception in Jacob’s tent, he crossed his hands and laid his right hand on Ephraim and his left hand on Manasseh. This displeased Joseph for Manasseh was his firstborn (v14) and custom dictated that he should have the place of prominence, but Jacob had come full circle. Gone was the trickery of his youth and now he understood that the ways of the Lord were not our ways. Israel with eyes of faith gazed into the future seeing that Manasseh would be great but his younger brother would be greater still.


All of this would come to pass. The descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh would be great in number. They would have a share in the land. Joseph’s descendants would have the town of Shechem (v22) and he himself would one day be buried there. Every promise of God was yes and amen.


It had been a long road for both father and son. Many years of heartache, imprisonment, strife, sadness and death had come upon them both but in this tender scene of blessing we see a mature and wise Israel blessing the sons of righteous Joseph. Israel’s life was coming to a close but his tired old eyes were filled with faith.


Brothers and sisters each of us will one day die and it is of vital importance that we face it by faith. Israel summed up his life in this way “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.” (Genesis 47v9) Perhaps you feel the same? Life has hurt and bitterness creeps upon you. Child of God, may the Lord soften your heart. His ways may seem beyond our comprehension but the Lord is working out His plans in our lives. Every promise of God is yes and amen in Christ and the one who believes in Jesus knows the richest of blessings. Live and die by faith regardless of your troubles for the one who gains Christ, will lose nothing.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q63 Which is the fifth commandment? The fifth commandment is, Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
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