Bible

I find it difficult to understand the word “nation”. The modern world seems to have turned to the individual, rather than the nation, as its cornerstone. It doesn’t help that the way nations are talked about in the Bible shift from a specific group of people, circumscribed geographically, to a much larger meaning, referring to all of God’s people.

Image credit: Suttonhoo reused under CC license

This makes it harder to find talk about nations relevant. It seems distant. When we talk of other nations, we translate it directly into “other countries”, other states, geographically distant, and therefore not tangible, not real to us. How we react to our own country depends heavily on which country we consider as ours.

So I have a tendency to overlook those bits. A tendency to not let those words sink in.

But the malleability of the word “nation” through the Bible makes me think that we should, perhaps, modernise our understanding of it, turning it towards, for once, the individual. Not to celebrate the individual, but to let that individual be transformed through and through.

So now, when I see the word nation, and when it makes sense to do so, I think of the different “nations” within me – of the different parts of my identity which may not all be yet under God, and I take the Great Commission also inwardly: to make disciples of all the nations in me. Re-reading the Psalms under that new light can be challenging (118 in particular).

With great power comes great responsibility.

The converse is just as true and far more challenging. The Bible is full of such encouragements:

Joshua 1:9 (ESV)
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Isaiah 41:10 (ESV)
“Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Philippians 4:13 (ESV)
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

God equips those He calls.

Do not be afraid. Do not consider, for even one second, that you don’t have the skills necessary to your calling. Because you’d find it’s true – you don’t. But with reliance on God, you will put skills which aren’t yours to use.

Image credit: D.B. Gaston, modified and reused under CC license

In the beginning, it was easy. One command – do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Then sin crept in, and suddenly things became more complicated. We started to have a law written on our hearts, and yet transgressing it.

Cain’s sin is exactly that – he knows that he shouldn’t have killed his brother, and therefore tries to hide it; and that’s what gets him exiled. That he knew he had done wrong.

Then the Law came. But without knowledge of the Law, it is nothing. Let us remember that we all have the knowledge of the law that’s written in our hearts, and not try and twist the written Law.

Yet, a little knowledge is a very dangerous thing. Recognising the Devil’s temptation (Matthew 4) as Biblical truth would have made devout people yield to temptation. The difference was – Jesus’s knowledge was perfect. He could know right from wrong – easily, too, and instantaneously.

We can’t know the fullness of the Law and have it in our mind constantly. That’s the difference.

But after the Law, Jesus came. And there is a difference between knowing an object, and knowing someone. We can know Jesus, and through knowing him and following him, we can follow the Law too.

Biblical knowledge is important, but it must not supplant personal relationship.

Otherwise, the scholar’s pride comes knocking at the door.

How do you get this across in your Bible studies?