⁷ Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works…

Titus 2:7a

Observations:

Paul entreats Titus, as a minister, to be a role-model for the others in his community.

Questions:

What’s the point of doing good works? If I’m saved and my sins have been forgiven, why should I bother doing good things?

Meanings:

Much of Paul’s letter to Titus concerns proper behavior and lifestyle for followers of Christ. He urges Titus to life such that those around him will have a good model to follow. As Christ commands that we love one another (John 13:34-35) and even that we love our enemies (Matt. 5:44), the Apostle here rearticulates that teaching, instructing Titus to act with love in all of his works. While this is appropriate behavior for all Christians (and truly for all people), Paul makes a special point of instructing Titus to be a model of good works that the community might have no opportunity to accuse him, and that others might look to him as an example, similarly to how we all should look to Christ as an example.

Application:

Christianity is a ministry of believers. In all my dealings with the world and with other Christians, I have been called to be a model of Christ’s love. Sharing love and joy with the world is one of the greatest evangelism tools I have, giving the best example God’s transforming power. To be believable as a minister, though, I must make every effort to live according to these principles continually, spreading Christ’s love through the world and giving a strong example for others to follow. While I realize that I’ll never be perfect this side of death, I also know that God will guide me in his appointed path as long as I am honest in my prayers, open-minded enough to see the path he sets before me, and willing to follow that path.

I recently watched the James Cameron film The Exodus Decoded, written and directed by Simcha Jacobovici. I found it very interesting, and would recommend it to you if you’re interested in knowing a little history of the story of the exodus of Israel from Egypt. I certainly don’t agree with all of Jacobovici’s assumptions and conclusions, but it did give me cause to delve deeper into a particular issue, namely the length of time that Israel spent in Egypt, from the time of Joseph till the time of Moses.

The Bible gives seemingly contradictory information on this point. In Exodus 12:40-41 Moses states:

The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

That seems very clear and direct, and the four-hundred-year timeframe was foreshadowed in Genesis 15:13, and echoed in Acts 7:6 and Galatians 3:17, so it’s not just a slip of the translator’s pen. However, looking at the genealogy of Moses and Aaron in Exodus 6:14-27, as well as other pertinent information, it seems that Israel spent somewhere between 120 – 352 years in Egypt, well short of the 430 years of 12:40.

Adding up the years of the genealogy requires some research into the timeline of the history of Israel. To begin with, I looked at the children of Jacob (Israel) as written in Genesis 29:31 – 30:24. Jacob had 12 sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin) and at least one daughter (Dinah) by four different women (Leah, Bilhah, Zilpah, and Rachel). While the text doesn’t specifically state that these sons are born in the order listed, it does strongly suggest as much in that it states that Leah bore four sons first, then ceased bearing, then conceived again at a later point, bearing a fifth son, and then later still a sixth. The text is clear that all of the sons of any particular woman were born sequentially (i.e. none were twins).

The children of Jacob, as written in Genesis 29:31 – 30:24, are:

While it’s possible to infer from this passage alone that Dan and Naphtali were born prior to Judah, or even prior to Simeon, it’s reasonable to assume that the sons were born in this order. What’s more, when comparing this text with that of Genesis 49:3-27, in which Jacob blesses his sons, it seems clear that Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah are the first four sons born to Jacob. I infer this from the fact that Jacob is passing on the mantle of the family to his preeminent son. Typically this would go to the firstborn, but Reuben had proven himself unworthy by lying with Bilhah, his father’s concubine (Gen. 35:22). The mantle would normally be passed to the next-born son, and Genesis 49:5 mentions Simeon and Levi next, but again states that they were passed over due to their excessive violence (Gen. 34:25). Next in line, then, by traditional order of birth, is Judah, fourth-born of Leah.

Finally, the fact that Leah, in Genesis 30:9, saw that she had ceased bearing children, implies that someone else had begun bearing, namely Bilhah. Therefore, all the evidence tends to support the theory that the children were born in the order listed.

What, then, should we make of this? The point I’m trying to make here is that Joseph is very likely at least nine years younger than his brother Levi, and perhaps as many as fifteen or twenty years younger.

Keeping that in mind, we now turn to Joseph’s life. Having been sold into slavery by his brothers, he rose to a position of power in Egypt. Genesis 41:46 states, “Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” While the text does not state it explicitly, it is reasonable to assume that the seven years of plenty began immediately upon Joseph entering Pharaoh’s service. Then, following the seven years of plenty, the seven years of famine began.

It was in the second year of famine that Joseph called his family to join him in Egypt. This marks the time that the descendants of Israel came into Egypt, when Joseph was 39 years old. From this we can then infer that his older brother Levi was between 48 – 55 years old.

In Genesis 46:8-27 the author lists the names of those of Israel’s descendents who came into Egypt with him. Among these is Levi’s son Kohath. With Levi being in his upper forties / early fifties, it would be reasonable to assume that Kohath, Levi’s second son, was a teenager at the time the family traveled into Egypt. This passage does not mention Kohath bringing children of his own on this journey, so we can safely assume that his children were not yet born at that time.

With passages like Genesis 46:8:

Now these are the names of the descendants of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons.

and Genesis 46:26-27:

All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own descendants, not including Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons in all. And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two. All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.

it’s safe to assume that those persons listed in this passage actually traveled from the land of Canaan into Egypt. So Kohath was born before the Israelites came to Egypt.

This brings us to Exodus 6:14-27, the genealogy of Moses and Aaron. The following significant verses stand out:

¹⁶ These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the years of the life of Levi being 137 years.

¹⁸ The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, the years of the life of Kohath being 133 years.

²⁰ Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father’s sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years.

If Kohath was a teenager when he arrived in Egypt, he very likely sired Amram, his firstborn, within 10 years of their stay. Amram, then, would have married Jochebed, his aunt (which agrees with Ex. 2:1), probably before his 30th birthday, and fathered Aaron in short order, then Moses three years later.

Finally, Exodus 7:7 states that, “Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.” This brings us to the following scenario, as discerned from reasonable interpretation of the times listed in the text:

Alternatively, it would be possible to use the maximum possible time span for each of the listed dates, giving us the following scenario:

Either way, we end up with the Israelites being in Egypt from 120 – 352 years, a far cry from the 430 years mentioned in Exodus 12:40.

Without further information from the original sources, any explanation of this apparent discrepancy is pure conjecture. My best guess at this seems to me to be quite a shaky interpretation. Still, I’ll offer it up as a possibility, since I have no other explanation.

In my opinion, the clear mention of a four-hundred year span in four places qualifies it as the most likely actual span that Israel spent in Egypt. This means that the genealogy of Moses in Exodus 6 could be using the word “son” in the generic sense, meaning “descendent.” In this case, it would be possible to assume that there are generations between Kohath and Amram or between Amram and Moses, or both. However, neither of these seems likely when examining the wording of the relevant passages. For example, the book of Numbers gives very precise genealogies of all the tribes of Israel, and in several places mentions Kohath as the son of Levi and Amram as the son of Kohath. It even specifies in Numbers 26:59 that Jochebed, Amram’s wife, was the daughter of Levi, which is consistent with the statement in Exodus 6:20 that Jochebed was Amram’s father’s sister. Both passages explicitly state that Jochebed bore Aaron and Moses, making Levi both their grandfather and their great-grandfather. Still, however unlikely it may be, the unmentioned generations theory still seems to me to be the best interpretation that bridges the seeming inconsistency of these two statements.

Surely there will be people who would cite this as a specific point at which the Bible is self-contradictory and therefore basically unreliable. I prefer to assume that my interpretation of the text is imperfect, lacking the details that would tie all these pieces together. Of course, feel free to write your impression or interpretation of these passages; I’d be very happy to discuss this with you at your leisure.

How long will they be incapable of innocence?

Hosea 8:5b

Observations:

God desires that we should be free of guilt.

Questions:

Is it possible, once a man be guilty, for him to return to innocence?

Meanings:

God knows that all men are guilty (Rom. 9-18), that none save Jesus himself have or even can live within His law. How, then, can He call us to innocence? Certainly He’s aware that on our own we will continue to transgress His covenant, that we will multiply altars for sinning, and that we will regard His laws as a strange thing. Our natural inclination is to hire lovers, to turn to kings for our salvation.

Why, then, would he expect us to return to innocence? In the modern judicial system, once a person is guilty he can no more become innocent. New evidence may come to light after a conviction showing the person to have been innocent all along, but if a man be truly guilty of a crime, innocence can never be restored.

However, that is exactly what God requires of us, that we sinners return to innocence. The guilty cannot enter heaven (Heb. 3:18), but deserve only death (Gen. 2:17). True righteousness is necessary to join the Father (Matt 5:20, 48), and even by attempting to follow God’s laws we can never cleanse ourselves. Fortunately, God provides the way for us to meet his standards, to be restored to innocence, through faith in His Son (Heb. 9:13-14, Rom. 3:28). By placing our trust in Christ, he will present us to the Father in His own righteousness, having died to completely pay the penalty for our sins (Heb. 10:10), thereby removing them from us entirely and returning us to innocence.

Application:

I can never restore myself to innocence through works of the law, nor by any other means available to me in this world. Only by placing my faith entirely in the finished work of Christ will I find hope of true salvation.

⁶ For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Hosea 6:6

Observations:

God prefers that we should do right rather than come to him in contrition seeking forgiveness.

Questions:

Why would God set up the sacrificial system if He doesn’t want us to use it?

Meanings:

From the time of Adam’s first sons, we have a record of sacrifice as an appropriate worship of God. When God instituted the Law through Moses, He gave very detailed instructions of a variety of sacrificial practices that would be required of His people. These sacrifices would atone for the sins of the people, sins of all types, sins of commission, sins of omission, accidental sins and purposeful sins, sins of individuals and sins of the nation. Without these sacrifices the sins would not be forgiven, and people could never be reconciled with God, who is perfect, holy, without sin, and unwilling to accept sin in any aspect.

By the time of Hosea, though, God begins making statements to the effect that he does not desire sacrifice. This is repeated elsewhere in the prophets, notably in Isaiah’s first chapter. The message seems to be that God would much prefer that we be holy rather than seek forgiveness after we sin. Reading God’s indictment against Israel, it’s clear that the nation and its leaders had given up on trying to follow God’s law, and were by that point simply going through the motions of the sacrifices and feasts with very little if any attention paid to the point of the sacrifices, perhaps even making God’s appointed feasts themselves into licentious parties (2:8-11).

Application:

God is willing to forgive the repentant (Luke 24:47, Zech 1:3, Acts 2:38). Still, He would much prefer that I live in obedience to His will (Matt 5:48) than that I go on sinning (Romans 6:1-2, 1 Cor 15:34) in expectation of his forgiveness. While I will be unable to follow his will perfectly this side of heaven, I am called to do God’s will in obedience (Romans 16:26, 1 Peter 1:14-15) with the power of the Holy Spirit to guide me, through repentance from dead works and faith towards God in his grace, love, and forgiveness.

⁶ Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,
     and I will build a wall against her,
     so that she cannot find her paths.
⁷ She shall pursue her lovers
     but not overtake them,
  and she shall seek them
     but shall not find them.

Hosea 2:6-7

Observations:

God makes the sinful life difficult.

Questions:

What is the purpose of the hedge of thorns? Why does God keep Israel from finding her paths?

Meanings:

Israel chose to follow other gods, and to look to them and other nations for her protection, her livelihood, and her treasure. God has been clear from the beginning that He will provide all these things, and that only in Him will they be truly found. By trying to wrest happiness and security from this world, and worshiping creation rather than the Creator, Israel was in fact destroying her chances of finding any true or lasting peace.

God chose Israel to be his people before the foundation of the world. He knew from the beginning that she would repeatedly fall away into apostasy, but elected to make his everlasting covenant with Abram in spite of her faithlessness. This, I believe, is clear evidence of God’s love for His chosen people.

This love, then, is the reason that God hedge’s up her way with thorns, and builds a wall against her. God does this not simply as a punishment for misbehavior, but as a guardrail against much worse sin. When Israel is on a path leading to destruction, God makes the path difficult to find with the intention that she might give up on the pursuit of those lovers and return to the true source of felicity, God Himself. If God were to allow Israel to walk smoothly down the path of her sinful desires, she’d end up in a much worse situation, the results of unbridled sin being more dire than the pain of attempting to travel the path leading there. When Israel finds that she cannot overtake or find the lovers she’s seeking in her selfishness, she may turn back to the God who loves her and wishes to provide her with all good things, in this life and the next.

The hedge in this passage calls to mind the hedge God put around Job and his house and all he had. The hedge held back Satan and evil from Job, allowing him to prosper though Satan wanted to destroy him. As long as God kept the hedge between Job and the evil around him, Satan could not touch him. The hedge of God is not there to harm Job, nor was it there to harm Israel. Rather, it was meant to keep evil from them and them from evil.

Application:

I must keep in mind that God makes the way to sin difficult. When I’m facing great difficulty, I need to check my motives, check the path that I’m on. If it’s a path of selfishness then the difficulties I face are likely put in place by God, a guardrail to keep me from falling off the cliff. Running into the guardrail is painful, but it’s not nearly as bad as the fall that it’s keeping me from.

I’m aware that I will also face difficulty in trying to do God’s will, in working towards the kingdom. Satan will attempt to put a hedge between me and God’s work. There is a difference in the quality of the difficulty though, one that I need to be aware of. When I’m on the path of sin and God blocks my way, in the midst of difficulty I’ll be aware of my sin and find hope and peace in the other direction. When blocked by Satan on the path of God’s work, however, I’ll likely be driven to despair at ever being able to accomplish anything worthwhile. Certainly the differences are subtle, and in the midst of the pain the differences are difficult to sort out. Regular contact with accountability partners and trusted friends can help me determine which path I’m on, and whether I should be persevering in the face of opposition from the enemy or repenting of a bad path I’ve been on.

In the end, I know that God loves me, and that the hedges he sets up are out of His love. He desires the best for me and wants me to follow the path towards Him, so He makes difficult the ways of sin and destruction. I pray that God never removes the hedge between me and Satan.

But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.

Hosea 1:7

Observations:

In the midst of the rejection of the northern kingdom, God will continue to have mercy on Judah, the kingdom which has not yet blatantly turned away from God and towards other gods. God’s salvation shall be directly from him, and not through an intermediary power.

Questions:

What does God mean by saying he will save Judah by himself, and not by war?

Meanings:

God wishes to show clearly to Judah, and indirectly to all who were then watching or are now reading this story later, that salvation is from Him, and not from our own power. Israel, the northern kingdom, had turned away from God, worshiping the Ba’als and other idols, which God knew to have no power to save or to harm, or to do any other thing at all. When trouble arose, the people and the king would turn to neighboring nations for protection, for they had lost all faith in the true God for salvation.

God chose to use Judah as an example. He would show that salvation comes only from him, and not from any power in creation. The obvious example of this, from the context of Hosea, is an event chronicled in 2 Kings 19, the miraculous deliverance of Judah from the Assyrians, some 50 years after Hosea prophesied. However, God, through Hosea, may also have been referring to his delivery of Judah from the depths of idolatry to which he allowed Israel to sink. God, having all power, certainly would be able to keep Israel from idolatry had he chosen to do so. Instead he allowed them to fall, then brought the appropriate judgment upon them for their whoredom in forsaking the Lord.

Application:

I must remember that God is my only true salvation. I might feel like a wife will save me from loneliness, or a job will save me from boredom, or my friends will save me from isolation, and I might even believe these things are sent from God. Ultimately, though, my loneliness, boredom, isolation, and all other problems, will only be fixed in a real way by God. He might allow me to find a temporary solution to my problems in creation, but until I drink of the living water given me by Christ, I will find myself thirsty yet again.

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Hebrews 12:5-6

Observations:

God disciplines us, his children, in order to guide us towards a more perfect reflection of Christ. We should be grateful for that discipline and strive to learn and grow in light of it.

Questions:

Does God’s discipline mean that he intends to exclude me from his blessings?

Meanings:

As a human, still living in this human body and in this fallen world, I will continue to be imperfect. Christ’s finished work has paid the price for my salvation, and God loves me as much as he ever will. Still, as long as I live I will not be perfected. One of the ways that God guides me towards an ever-increasing reflection of Christ is by discipline and reproof. I will continue to feel the pain of sin in my life, and will experience hardship in my daily work.

My natural reaction to pain and hardship is to assume that God is punishing me, that he has rejected me, that I don’t deserve and won’t receive his blessings. This passage shows me that just the opposite is true. God is not punishing me, he’s disciplining me. Let’s look briefly at the difference between those two terms, as defined by Merriam-Webster:

Punish

1a: to impose a penalty on for a fault, offense, or violation

1b: to inflict a penalty for the commission of (an offense) in retribution or retaliation

2a: to deal with roughly or harshly

2b: to inflict injury on: see HURT

Discipline

1: to punish or penalize for the sake of discipline

2: to train or develop by instruction and exercise especially in self-control

3a: to bring (a group) under control <discipline troops>

3b: to impose order upon <serious writers discipline and refine their writing styles>

We see that the word punish has no expectation of improvement. It is simple retribution for a past violation. Discipline, however, looks toward the goal of improvement of the one being disciplined. In the context of verse 6, definition #2 seems most appropriate: The Lord trains or develops the one he loves, especially in self-control. He desires for us to live within the bounds that he knows to be best for us, and he uses discipline to train us to stay within those bounds.

This brings me to another concept: God knows better than I do what’s best for me. Left to my own devices I’ll seek immediate sensual pleasure every time, ignoring the greater good of service both to God and to other people. I’ve proven this to myself in decades of debauchery. However, God’s discipline has trained me to see the immeasurably deeper joy of working towards His good, of bringing his light and love into the lives of others in the world.

I compare this to how I’ve had to train my dogs. When they were puppies and first came to live with me, they knew nothing of the dangers of walking out into the street. Every time they set foot into the road I immediately made a very loud scene, dragging them forcibly to the curb, throwing them to the ground, yelling, and spanking them. Over time they learned that the street is not safe, though they are only vaguely aware of the real danger: the cars which will kill them. They are much more familiar with my discipline. Knowing the danger of the road, I’ve taken steps to protect them from it, even if that means I have to discipline them in dramatic fashion.

Similarly, God knows of the spiritual dangers lying in wait beyond the bounds he’s set for us. For our own protection he disciplines us. From our perspective the discipline is severe and unpleasant, but God knows that the discipline he imposes on us is much better than the real depths of pain we know if he let us go.

Application:

God disciplines me because he loves me. He wants the best for me, and he knows that I won’t find the best he has in store for me on my own. His discipline is meant to direct me towards God’s ultimate blessings: ultimate personal communion with Him in Eternity. (John 17:5, 24; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Revelations 21:3-4)

My part is to accept God’s discipline with thanksgiving. When I hurt, it’s likely because God is protecting me from something much worse. I should give thanks to God for the suffering in my life, just as I should be thankful for the joys that he gives me as well.

In addition, I need to take my own inventory. When I’m feeling disciplined, it’s important that I spend some time in reflection to try to understand my part in the situation. In order for the discipline to result in some true improvement, I must attempt to understand how I set myself up to be hurt, then try to apply that knowledge to my life so I can grow from the experience. In my own life, I find that talking to a trusted friend about the experience can help shed light on aspects of it that I will miss because of my perspective of being hurt at the time.

So the goal then is to accept God’s discipline with thanksgiving, and to apply that discipline to my life so I can grow from it. Over time, this process will inevitably draw me closer to God, and thereby increase my joy and serenity beyond understanding! (2 Corinthians 7:4)