…you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5, NIV)
“Had an 81 the other day.”
“Really? Wow! Where?”
If you play golf much at all, you’ve found yourself in this kind of conversation. You tell a friend that you shot a very good round for you and their first question is one of context. In other sports, the question wouldn’t much matter. But in golf, where courses can vary significantly in difficulty, asking where one has put up a nice score is the right question. One good score is not like another.
When we read the Bible, we also ask questions of context. When? Where? Who? The answers to these questions allow us to understand what God was doing at a certain point in time, and why he was doing it through a certain group of people.
A significant part of this context is geographical. It has to do with place. When we read the four gospels, we trace Jesus’ footsteps, particularly as they lead him to Jerusalem, then to the Garden, and eventually the cross and emerging from the tomb. Picturing this in our head or seeing it depicted in film gives us a real sense of what we read on the pages. This captures your attention all the more—as many of you can attest—when you visit Israel itself and “walk where Jesus walked.”
But context shifts in time, too. If you were to visit Israel today, you would see traces of the constructed features Jesus saw. There is no temple, but the temple mount remains, and many of the stones that hold it in place. But there are also living stones, human temples of the Lord. These are the people who see Jesus (or Yeshua to the Hebrew tongue) as the Messiah. He is doing the same work in their hearts that he has done in hearts since he called Andrew from his nets, Matthew from his transacting table, Nathanael from beneath the fig tree. When we know this work in our own heart, we delight in seeing in done in the hearts of others, both in the pages of history and in those living stones.
In the West, we are good at comfort. We balk at going someplace “dangerous” or doing something “new.” Israel presents these kinds of obstacles for some people. It’s “expensive,” it’s “strenuous,” it’s “unfamiliar”—add whatever excuse you want. But the truth is that millions visit every year, and nearly every last one returns home not just safe but moved, even changed.
Am I issuing a charge? Maybe. But you can take it as an encouragement if that seems kinder. There are many trips to choose from with many excellent teachers leading them. Go see what God is doing in Israel. And see what he does in you while you’re there.
—
Jeff Hopper
January 27, 2014
Copyright 2014 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.