422: Tim Badger - Pressed Down, Shaken Together, Running Over

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:03

   Welcome to Good Christadelphian Talks. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. Each week, we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world. Then, we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk.

2. 0:25

   And now, let's talk more about this week's talk. Howdy. This week's class, we're listening to a talk by our brother, Tim Badger, entitled Press Down, Shaken Together, Running Over. Now, if that phrase sounds familiar to you, it's taken from Luke chapter 6, and the wider context will reveal a discourse that the Lord gave on generosity.

3. 0:54

   And that is what this class is on. Brother Tim takes us through some interesting laws that we may have found funny to read in Leviticus, talking about not gleaning the corners of your field and leaving enough for the fatherless and the widow. And we kind of read these and say, well, what was the point of that?

4. 1:15

   Why are we reading this? Well, Brother Tim does a really, really good job at illustrating that actually something that can seem so ritualistic and by the books as just not gleaning a certain cubic feature of your field actually was one of the greatest acts of faith that you could have in ancient Israel.

5. 1:35

   Because what you were showing to God is that by not abusing the crops of your field and leaving it for those that were less fortunate, you were actually putting your trust in God to provide for you even more. Brother Tim also then goes into some of the laws of the Jubilee year, where actually certain parts of Israel's holiday season, they were actually not allowed to plant or to gather their crops.

6. 2:05

   For years, actually, they were not allowed to gather. But God had promised them that if they didn't do this, he would give enough abundance for those years. So it was on the Israelite to decide, am I going to trust God in this or not? And at this point, we can probably see the need of a class like this to where in a life that is so busy, a life that is so anxiety inducing at times, where we can be very questioning of where our meals are going to come from, what our income is going to be like.

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   It's a great reminder just to trust in God. That he can provide, he can give the increase if we step out in faith. So with that, here is our brother Tim Badger with his class entitled, Press Down, Shaken Together, Running Over. Good evening, everyone.

8. 3:03

   Excellent. So can anyone recite the Bible verse on the back of your t -shirts that you've been wearing this week? Everyone's trying to hope that the person in front of them. Yes. All right. Well, it comes from, let's start at least with where it comes from. Where does it come from? Oh, pardon?

9. 3:24

   Close. Psalm 78. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. All right. We're just going to park that for a minute and get into the evening and then we'll come back to it. That's fine. But you will find that this evening ties into the theme from Psalm 78 this week on the back of our shirts that's been printed.

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    Tonight, what we want to do, brothers and sisters, is like, I actually find it kind of exciting. So hopefully as we go through this theme tonight, you can come away from this evening feeling inspired from scripture and also excited because we want to just be impressed with one theme tonight that comes from ancient Israel.

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    And we find it all the way through scripture. And it's also in Psalm 78. That theme is generosity, as we obviously have on the screen. And I want you tonight to really think about generosity for yourself. Generosity is fundamental to the character of God. It's fundamental to the survival of Israel. And it's the core of the gospel message and our calling, or it's one of the key components of that, that issues from the very character of God himself.

12. 4:56

    I just want you to imagine for a moment, the memorial table that we come to when we come together on Sundays together. Now, when you think of the memorial table, each Sunday, when we come to remember our risen Lord and the sacrifice that his father made, that memorial table is not just something that speaks of justice in relation to sin.

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    That table, every Sunday morning, also proclaims God's great generosity. Now, I know, right? And we just had this on Sunday. Often when we share the bread and wine, the portions we have are itty bitty. Like they're teeny. We're not biting into a loaf of bread and breaking off pieces and shutting around. For functional reasons, whenever, we're used to little teeny portions, right?

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    But we can't ever forget that that belies something that's extremely generous and large that's behind those small little tokens and symbols that we take and how important they are. So we want to consider this this morning. God is not just concerned about justice, and he definitely is, but he's also concerned with generosity.

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    He's not just a God who's concerned about being fair, whatever that means by his standards, but also being lavish. God is not just about being honest in our dealings, but also in being liberal with each other. Now, this is an important thing that we see all the way through. And we happened to just sing about it in Psalm 105, right?

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    A number of times, a couple of times in that Psalm, it talks about, or the hymn, it talks about the bounteous God. We all just sang together, oh, may the bounteous God all my life be near. We depend on the fact that God is bounteous and really generous with us. We all know we need that.

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    We'd be dead without it. And so would Israel. And so this is our theme this evening. To dive into this, you're going to need to imagine a little bit. So you're going to have to use your imagination. Because I thought the best way to just see how this works in Israel and how God instilled the spirit of generosity as an important thing, is just by imagining that you are a farmer.

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    Or you don't have to imagine you are a farmer. That might not be a thing. But let's be imagining or let's try to imagine that there is a farmer from, let's just choose the tribe of Naphtali. So we're going to follow this farmer for a second. This farmer, his name, we're going to give him a name, right, to make it personal.

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    We're going to call him Eliab. I think that's a biblical name. He's from the tribe of Naphtali, and he's living on a small hilly village, right over the hill from the tribe of Issachar. So he's just, if you can imagine Israel, he's just south of the Galilee, not far from Mount Tabor. Maybe when Eliab walks out of his house, sometimes he can see in the distance Mount Tabor.

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    He's right on the border to the tribe of Issachar. Now, if you are Eliab, a farmer in Israel, living as you did, governed by the law of Moses, you have a decision to make every year. And every time the harvest season draws near, you would know, as Eliab, that when you or the people working for you head out to reap your grain, you are required to leave the corners of your paddocks, which is what we call them in Australia, or fields, untouched.

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    The reason for that in the law of Moses is that so the poor or even the non -Israelites and even the strangers could take some. This is outlined in Leviticus 19, and we'll go there shortly. These people were around your neighborhood, so to speak, your village. There was poor people. There was people that weren't farmers and couldn't supply.

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    Maybe they've come upon hard times, lost a husband, lost a wife, lost sons, and they've come upon really tough times. And they're down the road in your village or down the ravine or just, you know, just over the way. They're around your village. But there's also people that are strangers that are not even Israelites who have kind of wandered in and they're part of the fabric of Israel.

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    There's even people in your neighborhood that you may not like. You know, that guy who lives down the road that really irritates you because his rooster's crone way too early every single morning. And you don't, maybe you don't get along. But the law of Moses puts all that aside and says, for anyone, there's no selection here.

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    For anyone who is poor or a stranger, anyone, you as Eliab need to leave the corner of your fields. It's so your decision was this, and it's really worthwhile thinking about tonight.

25. 10:31

    Eliab had to decide how big the corner is going to be. That is not stipulated in the law of Moses ever. It just says you need to leave the corners of your fields. The corners were up to your conscience, but also, as you will see, your faith. Now, I don't, like, I just find this interesting because I see this in Australia sometimes.

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    I don't know if it was the Jewish people that invented circular fields, right? But we can see that. But I'm pretty sure that's not what was happening in ancient Israel. Well, there was fields, and there might have been, like, not everyone necessarily had a nice rectangular field. You might have had lots of different corners.

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    So then you'd have to say, does the law mean, like, every corner or just the major corners? I don't know. Like, there's a lot of thinking you'd have to do with your family, talk it through, decide, whatever. Now, just think that through for a second. This is a beautiful example of how a law in the law of Moses was really speaking about a principle that some in Israel really had to think through and to come to have a conscience about and faith.

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    There was a spirit being elicited here, not a precise stipulation. What God was tapping into, O farmer, was your spirit of giving and generosity that you would choose by faith to demonstrate to your local village.

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    What we want to see, brothers and sisters, is that this principle has deep roots in the character of God, and he is at pains to have that character of generosity instilled in the heart of his people. Not just Eliab, but you and me today.

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    But we're not going to let go of Eliab for a second. I just want you to think a little bit more about Eliab. He's in Naphtali. We'll call him a Naphtaliite. The law for Eliab could be actually a little bit more challenging than he anticipated. There's a dilemma. Well, you know, imagine that it's the sixth year in the seven -year cycle and pattern in Israel.

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    Next year is the seventh year, and you've just started planting this year's crops. And you know it's year six. Next year is year seven. Leviticus says you are not allowed to plant next year. Let's go there. Leviticus 25.

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    So Leviticus 25, verses 1 to 7, outlines this. Look what it says in regard to this keeping the Sabbath or that seventh year, special year. Look at what it says, excuse me, in verse 3. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit.

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    But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land. A Sabbath to Yahweh you shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your unintended vine, for it's the year of rest for you.

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    So in the seventh year, you weren't planting, and you also weren't harvesting. Nothing. Now that makes it tricky in the sixth year when you harvest your field, don't you think? Because if you've been inclined to make big corners and leave big corners in year one, two, three, four, five, maybe in year six you're like, I think this is the year to curb back the corners.

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    Because the harvest that we need has to keep us going for year six and year seven and actually into year eight. Because the harvest from the planting, when I can next plant year eight, is not going to be available until the end of that season. So this is really what's going on for Elio.

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    So, right, think about this. In the sixth year, he could plant and harvest and eat the food from that harvest. In the seventh year, he could not, and he'd still have to eat the sixth year's abundance. In the eighth year, planting will resume, but there's still no harvest. He's still eating and his family from the sixth year's harvest.

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    It's not until the ninth year, really, or maybe the very end of the eighth, that he's actually eating the food that he can now resume planting. Don't you think it would be tricky in the year six of the cycle to do the same size corners as normal? If there was any time to be justifying yourself in being a little stingy, it's year six.

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    Don't you think? You'd go out to your corner and look and think, oh, let's just shrink the corners this year. Right? But if you were careful with the law of Moses, and your conscience was at work, and you lived by faith, this is what you would live by. Look at verse 18. Right?

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    It comes back. There's a little kind of bracket from verses 8 to 17 on the year of Jubilee. And then it comes back to this idea of, well, what are they going to do if they don't plant in the sixth year? So let's read it. So you should observe my statutes, verse 18, and keep my judgments and perform them, and you will dwell in the land in safety.

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    Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in their safety. And if you say, like this is classic, all of us would ask this, what are we going to eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow or gather in our produce? Look what God says in verse 21.

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    It's extraordinary. Then I will command, that's really strong in Hebrew, I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. If you really believed, Eliab, when you're planting in the sixth year, and you go to harvest, you will believe, and God will provide enough harvest for year six, seven, and into eight.

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    And so you would not have to worry about what size your corners were, because you completely put your reliance on God. You could even make your corners bigger, because you know God will provide. This is what God is eliciting from his people. He just wants them to be generous by faith, and to show the same spirit that he showed them in bringing them out of Egypt.

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    And that comes back time and time and time and time again in the law of Moses. That's amazing to think about. Where would you be, and where would I be? That's all we want to think about tonight, is where would we find ourselves in this situation? I mean, things get a little bit more difficult, though.

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    It's not over, because it could be even worse for Eliab, and you might know where this is going. Because not only are you not allowed to harvest in the seventh year, you have to release your debts. So Eliab also knows that the local poor man from his village, who asked him to borrow money a few weeks ago to replace his dead oxen, ain't going to pay you back.

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    Because it's the year next year of release of debt. So you'd be like, here's the money, this ain't coming back. Right? And you're also leaving big corners for him. Amazing.

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    But it could be even more challenging. It could happen that Eliab is in year 48 of the agricultural calendar of Israel. And he knows that in the seventh seven, there's also a year of jubilee. So let's imagine that Eliab is at the end of his 49th year cycle, and it's year 48. This is all in the law of Moses.

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    Amazing. 48th year is a normal year. He can plant, yes. He can harvest, yes. The food source, he's going to eat from the 48th year's harvest. But then year 49 comes along, and this is also in Leviticus 25. He's not allowed to plant, and he's not allowed to harvest. So he still has to eat from 48th year's harvest.

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    And then the 50th year, which is the year of jubilee, sorry if I made it sound like the 49th was, the year of jubilee is 50. He also cannot plant in the 50th year. So there's no planting, no harvesting. He's still eating from the 48th year's harvest. So when year 51 comes along, he can plant again, but he's really not going to be eating until the end of that year and into year 52.

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    That's a long time. Imagine how tempting it would be to scrap the corner law in year 48. Don't you think? Man, we all have human nature. Like, we're all the same. It would be really tempting to do that. I've been so generous for the last 50 years of my life. This year, we're holding back because, man, I've got a lot of people to supply food for.

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    It would be really tempting. God put that in there because the only way that's going to work is by faith. And that faith is going to come from an individual Israelite who knew full well that every field they had and every bit of fruit and grain that came off the land wasn't even theirs anyway.

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    It was all God's. It was all his provision. And he gave it to them freely as he brought them out of Egypt. If you didn't understand that, you're less likely to be generous. And if we don't understand, brothers and sisters, what God has done for us, we're less likely to show that character in our life to others.

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    It's a direct correlation. A direct correlation. And this is what God is trying to teach his people in Israel through the spirit of the law. How big are your corners going to be? The other thing that could happen, by the way, in the year of Jubilee is, again, because he was on the border at Issachar in the last 50 years or 49 years, he's been borrowing a paddock from his friends over the border in Issachar, he's going to have to give it back to them.

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    So there could be there could be so many challenges in relation to this. So what we're saying is this, brothers and sisters, your or Eliab's response could embody the entire spirit of the law. An appreciation for the fact that he and his family owe their entire existence to God who pulled them out of Egypt and gave them everything.

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    This would take faith and love. The size of your corner would probably be indicative of the amount of love that you're willing to show other people and put your faith in God. This is to strangers. This is to non -Israelites. It's to everybody. Eliab's calendar, brothers and sisters, wasn't just agricultural. In that sense, it was intensely theological.

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    It had to do with the character of God. Eliab's understanding of who God was and how he operated. His essential character. Every decision was a test. Will you trust God's provision or your own calculations? Would you be generous or stingy? So the encouragement for having a spirit of generosity and of magnanimity was in the law and it was directly related to God's treatment of them.

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    Now, so far, I just want you to think about this. So far, we've walked through the fields of Eliab and we've seen how generosity and trust were required in how much he left behind. But I want to just change our tack a little bit for a moment. And I want to go something more closer to Eliab's home.

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    So we've been out in his paddocks and we've seen how the spirit of generosity works in the law of Moses. But I want to go to what's in his house and his cupboards because back in the time of Israel, many people would share their goods at the market. But also where we understand that people sold things from their houses to like I feel it's actually really similar to what the Mennonites do today.

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    Like they they'll sell things from their houses, but also in local markets as well. So that meant that a lot of people that were doing produce, whether it was basket weaving or dried flowers or jams or pickles, whatever it might be. I don't know what was in Israel at the time, but they had measuring equipment in their cupboards.

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    Right. So what's really interesting when we come to scripture and the law of Moses, the same principles that guided the size of Eliab's corners in his field also governed his cupboards and his shed. The spirit that shapes Eliab's harvesting also shapes the scales that he uses in his house. God is not just interested in the paddocks.

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    He's also interested in Eliab's pantries. If we can put it that way. Let me show you why. Look at this. These are all outlined in scripture. There's there's a few more, but I've just put a few weights and volumes. So there's a gira and a gira we know today is about, well, 0 .6 of a gram.

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    That's not very big. A shekel is 11 .3 grams, which is 20 gigas. As far as volumes go, look at these. These are all mentioned in Exodus, the law of Moses and other places. And Omer was exactly 2 .2 liters. And Ifa, if you're measuring out oil or something like that, an Ifa was 22 liters.

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    A Sia, which I think was a used for measuring a dry grain, like a volume of grain is 7 .3 liters. And a hymn, which you we've probably heard at times and familiar with that, is 3 .8 liquid liters. That sounds a little bit boring to read those out. It's kind of like, but you know what, brothers and sisters, I've come to realize that God is intensely interested in those details.

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    Very, very interested in those details. He is intensely interested to know that an Ifa was 22 liters and not 21 and a half. I don't think, though, as we'll see, that God was concerned if the Ifa was 23 liters.

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    Let's just see how this works. I want you to come to Deuteronomy 25. Deuteronomy 25 says this. This is a beautiful story of everyday life in Israel.

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    Deuteronomy 25, and this is similar to some other passages, but I want you to jump in. This is kind of under miscellaneous laws, as it was, or as it were. Verse 13. Look at Deuteronomy 25, 13. We're just jumping right in. It says, you shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light.

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    You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. So you can imagine some people might have been thinking, well, I'm going to have some measurements like a SIA, and I'm going to have a SIA that's a little bit large for when I'm buying from the market. Fill up my SIA.

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    Ooh, there's a bit more than a SIA in there, but they don't know. And then when I'm selling and when I'm measuring out to my neighbor, I have a different SIA that's slightly smaller. I don't know, right? But it's saving me a little buck on the side. That's exactly what this is talking about, brothers and sisters.

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    Now, it says, you shall not, verse 14, have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a perfect and just weight. A perfect and just measure. And it's connected to your eternal life and well -being.

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    That your days may be lengthened in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you. Now, let's not leave verse 16 in. For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously, are disgusting to Yahweh your God. And that's what that word means. It is a very, very strong Hebrew word. But abomination is probably just a little bit sanitized.

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    It means disgusting. Now, think about that. I'm just a simple guy in Israel. I'm a pretty nice person following the law of Moses. But I've fallen into this trap of being a little stingy. And I have two different SIA measuring things in my cupboard. And God says, that in your house is disgusting to me, Yahweh your God.

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    It's an abomination in your house. Now, why should God speak so strongly, brothers and sisters, about that? And the interesting thing is that this is in the house, right? These are things in your house. Why is God so concerned with this? Well, brothers and sisters, on the first level, it would teach Eliab's kids integrity.

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    If he knew that his dad had differing weights and that's how he operated, that goes against every fundamental principle that God is trying to teach his people. And the dad is responsible for that because of the stuff he's got in his house. Think of what disgusting stuff is sitting in our houses. Is there any?

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    Things that go against the very nature and fabric of the character of God and teach our kids something entirely different than what God was trying to portray and trying to elicit from their hearts. It's just a little thing to think about, isn't it? What's in our houses? What do we have? What could be reassessed?

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    That's so helpful to think about, I feel, for me and for all of us. But behind all this, brothers and sisters, as we said, is God is so concerned about that list because he is a generous God. He's not just, just. Does that make sense? That's just, right? Right? God would love it if we were generous, but you can't go below justice.

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    Think of it this way, right? This is how God is speaking in the law of Moses, I believe. That the bottom floor, the floor, is justice. You can't go below that. You've got to be just. The sky is the limit when it comes to generosity. There's no limit. The floor is justice. The ceiling or whatever, the sky, is the limit for generosity.

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    Go for it. And God will look after you, he says. But you cannot compromise on justice. That's why it says, just come back to Deuteronomy 15.

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    Just see what he says here. Deuteronomy 15 says this. Verse 7. If there is among you a poor man of your brethren within any of your gates in your land, which Yahweh your God is giving you, giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother. but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.

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    That's an incredible statement. If he comes to you and says, I need this, God says, just give it to him. Because I gave all of this to you. Look what it says in verse 11. Again, this whole section is beautiful, but for the sake of time, well, actually, let's read verse 9, sorry, because it's just right on what we were saying.

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    Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, the seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and your eye be evil. And by the way, an evil eye in Scripture, brothers and sisters, is a non -generous eye. It's a stingy eye. That's what's happening here. And your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry out to Yahweh against you, and it becomes a sin among you.

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    So verse 11 says, For the poor will never cease from the land. Therefore I command you, saying, you shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor, to your needy, in your land. Don't you think, like if I read this, and I knew that there was always poor people in the land, and I've actually had this feeling before, so I'm just putting it out there.

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    But if I always knew that there's always going to be poor people, my human instinct would be to say, well, what's the point of being generous? They're always going to be there.

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    God flips that, and says, they are always going to be there, and you always need to be generous. That's what he's eliciting from his people. It's beautiful. When to come to Leviticus 19.

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    We're just looking at a few of these passages tonight. Looking at the theme of generosity that God has very clearly outlined in the Law of Moses.

84. 33:35

    In ancient Israel. Again, this is on the same theme, so let's just have a look. Leviticus 19. Let's come. Well, I just want you to make sure that you know in the context of Leviticus 19. Look at verse 8. This is the corner of the field law again. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field.

85. 34:04

    So this is again like Deuteronomy. Nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Right? You're supposed to, in verse 10, leave them for the poor and strangers. So that's the context. He's talking about all these kind of things about cheating your neighbor, being just, being generous, and all these things in Leviticus.

86. 34:22

    Now, look what it says in verse 30. Let's start at verse 33. And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

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    I am Yahweh your God. And here's the measurement and weights thing. Verse 35. You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. So I just wanted to put that in the back of your mind just for a second. He says, in this order, you shall do no injustice to these people in judgment or measurement.

88. 35:12

    Right? Keep that in your mind for a moment. But I just want you to notice, before we leave Leviticus 19, how important this is. He says the motivation here is love. You shall love even the non -Israelite. Do you know, brothers and sisters, that this word love

89. 35:31

    is only two times in the entire book of Leviticus. Twice. And they're both here in chapter 19. This is one of them. You shall love the stranger among you as if he was born an Israelite. And he's not. That's the first time. That's the second time. The first time is earlier in the chapter.

90. 35:58

    Look what it says and note the difference. Look what it says in verse 18. I'm going to go just back to verse 17 for context. You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against who?

91. 36:21

    Against the children of your people. But you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh. There is the two references only in the entire book of Leviticus to love. And the first one is to love your fellow brother, Israelite. And the second one is to love just the same the stranger that wandered into your village who was not born an Israelite right in the thick of the laws of Leviticus.

92. 36:50

    And it's tied to the corners of your field and it's tied to the measurements and the judgments that you make in your village and in the land. That's incredible, brothers and sisters. This whole chapter is saying like verse 15, don't be unjust in judging others. Don't be partial in verse 15. Don't be tail -bearing in verse 16.

93. 37:16

    Don't take vengeance in verse 18. Don't hold grudges in verse 18. Don't mistreat others, verse 33. And don't judge wrongly or use sketchy measurements, verse 35. And that is towards your brother and the stranger. That's very strong language, brothers and sisters. Do you know that so important are these principles that this becomes the very framework for one of the most challenging teachings of our master, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Luke chapter 6.

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    Come to Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6, verses 27 to 42 or thereabouts, is one of the most challenging teachings of Jesus. Look what he says in Luke chapter 6. And what I want to show you is that Jesus brings all of these principles from deep in Leviticus 19 and brings them into his teaching here in Luke chapter 6.

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    So verse 27, And at the heart of that, brothers and sisters, don't you think that that takes a spirit of generosity? Don't you think it takes a spirit of generousness to bless someone who's cursed you and to pray for someone who has done you absolute evil? Well, it does. And Jesus is teaching exactly the same principles as Leviticus 19.

96. 39:11

    And he goes on and he says in verse 34, right? About giving. And if you lend to those to whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? The word is grace. What grace is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies.

97. 39:34

    Do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return. Your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High. For, why? This comes down to the essential nature of God. His character. For he is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

98. 39:56

    And here is a direct allusion to Leviticus 19, verse 35 and verse 34. Do you notice this? Verse 37. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. That's exactly the first word in Leviticus 19, verse 35. And then Jesus talks about measuring.

99. 40:25

    Remember Leviticus talked about them in that order? In judgment and in measurement you shall do no evil. Verse 38. Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.

100. 40:48

     Now that is a beautiful picture. And anyone reading this, okay, I just think about the imagination here. Anyone reading Jesus' teaching here, sorry, or thinking about it and hearing it, would have to smile. Because people use the markets all the time. And the picture here in verse 38 would be extremely rare to see in a market.

101. 41:09

     Don't you think? Right, so if you can't picture it, we're going to demonstrate it. So I need Rob Cooper. Can I, I need you up here for a second.

102. 41:19

     Just so this is memorable, because it's absolutely beautiful. Rob, this is your tunic. Can you put that on? Put that on. Okay, so I looked into this a little bit. And when you went to the market in Israel, one of the ways you could collect your grain, if you didn't have a basket, is like a little fold in your tunic.

103. 41:41

     You sort of fold out your tunic. So, you know, don't tie it, because that might get awkward. Yeah, so pull out your apron, like this, and then step onto this tablecloth. Yeah. So you might go to the market and just get a little bit of grain, and the person in the market would fill that up.

104. 41:57

     So we'll do that. And if I was a stingy person, how much rice do you want? Say two cups. Two. Two cups, right? So I'm going to do two cups, and I'm going to sting. Yeah, it's a little thing, but you didn't notice. And there you go, Rob. You take that home, right?

105. 42:19

     And you can see a, right? 20 bucks, whatever. But the picture, the picture that's painted in Luke chapter 6 is this. How much did you want? Two cups. Two cups. You know what? Like this is, it's this. It's like, a little bit more. Here you go, Rob. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Just shake that a little bit for me.

106. 42:40

     Yep. Pack it down. Shake it together. A little bit more. That's not quite two cups. Here we go. Press down, shake them together, and press in. There you go. Look at the smile on his face. It's really true about the sisters. What would happen if Rob came to my market and was buying grain, and I treated that like him?

107. 43:02

     He'd be like, what? This is amazing. He's coming back, right? And he's happy. I've been generous. You know, I could choose to not be, but if I have faith in God, I can be generous knowing that God will provide. Right? So just put that down for a second. We'll take it off. All right.

108. 43:20

     You can return. Thanks. So now this is relevant to me because, and probably to you too, we all have this instinctive nature of evaluating whether someone's being generous to us. If there's one thing that really gets under my skin, because I absolutely love ice cream. Right? I love going out for ice cream.

109. 43:47

     And it just gets under my skin. You have to hold back. You're watching like a hawk, the person who's scooping the ice cream. And when they scoop the ice cream and just peel off and it's really hard, and the scoop is like this twirl and you can see right through it. Do you know what I mean?

110. 44:01

     Almost everyone knows. And they put that on your cone and it's sitting there as light of a feather. And I can blow it off. And you paid seven bucks for the ice cream. It's really stingy. But everyone knows that feeling, whether it's Chinese takeaway, whether it's ice cream, whether it's whatever. And you feel like you've been gypped.

111. 44:19

     It leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth. Jesus has flipped that all around in his teaching, drawing on the law of Moses, and says what we need as brothers and sisters, followers of Christ. Christ, obviously ice cream doesn't matter, but is a spirit of generosity. And not just in economics, right?

112. 44:37

     So when you read Luke chapter 6, it becomes very clear, brothers and sisters, that the generosity that Jesus is talking about is not just money, although the brotherhood needs that. And although there are families and individuals and people in our brotherhood who will and do need that at times, absolutely no doubt. But Jesus is not just relegated to financial and economic sort of paradigm here.

113. 45:03

     These are spirits of generosity that are seen in how we treat each other. Right? So this is really all through Luke chapter 6. Sorry. But it maybe helps you stick in mind. This is what's being taught in ancient Israel and also by the Master in Luke 6. When it comes to kindness, we are, brothers and sisters, as disciples of Christ called to dish it out.

114. 45:37

     Thoughtfulness? To lavish it upon our brothers and sisters. Service? Fill up the cup. Esteeming others better than ourselves? A big scoop. Encouragement to those who need it and even those who may not, but we just, that's our general spirit, to pack it in. And even inclusion in Bible schools like this. To saddle up to people.

115. 46:06

     To look after people. All of that comes down to, in Israel and in Jesus' teaching, and now for us, a spirit of whether we're going to be stingy or whether we're going to be generous to each other in the spirit of Christ. Because fundamentally, every one of us are here because of the goodness and generosity of God.

116. 46:31

     You did not come to Bible school on any other terms. And we ought to be greatly thankful for that and to show it to others in how we treat each other, how we think about them, what we say of them. There's been terrible times in our brotherhoods and maybe Eureklesia and different places where the spirit of generosity has all but completely vanished in ecclesial discussions, in friendships between two sisters or two brothers or families or whatever it is.

117. 47:03

     And it really comes down to a check on our own character. And whether we truly believe, brothers and sisters, that what God has done for us, we are undeserving of. And what he has done through his son is extremely generous, just as he has been for Israel. You know, this is where it comes to Psalm 78.

118. 47:29

     Come to Psalm 78. The theme of our Bible school is grounded in the opening verses. Give ear, O my people, to my law and incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

119. 48:10

     which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children. Telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done. Now, there is an implication in Psalm 78 that the works and the praises of Yahweh are passed on from generation to generation.

120. 48:34

     One of the ways we do that is definitely Bible school. It's Sunday school. It's ecclesial teaching. It's all of those things, but it also comes through families. But what I want to impress us with from Psalm 78 is what are those wonderful works that we are meant to impress on the next generation.

121. 48:51

     And if you read Psalm 78, you can't help but think one of the lenses through which we are seeing the history of Israel is through a lens of abundance. This is exactly what you find in Psalm 78. Look what it says about how God treated Israel over and over and over again. Psalm 79 says, this is just two.

122. 49:14

     He gave them drink in abundance like the depths. In verse 38, despite all of their weaknesses, it says, but he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity.

123. 49:32

     Gee, how can we not treat each other like that in our ecclesias, and our families, and our brotherhood? Do you know, brothers and sisters, Psalm 78 says we need to pass this on from generation to generation. And I want to challenge us this evening that one of the ways we do that

124. 49:51

     is by how we conduct ourselves in the spirit of generosity. If you want to show the next generation, and if I want to show the next generation the character of God, we have to demonstrate generosity in the way we treat each other. And if you are a family, like we have all been here, so I say this completely, wow, but I think you're with me on this.

125. 50:17

     If we are a family that rubbishes other brothers and sisters around the dinner table, and if we're more than happy to criticize, and I've been guilty of this, then we're really missing the spirit of what these passages in Leviticus 19 and Luke chapter 6 are saying. I need to hear that, and I need to be challenged by that, and I'm pretty sure all of us do.

126. 50:46

     We live under a God who has always been generous to his people, and we need to declare that to the next generation. That's one of the ways in which we do this, and it's one of the ways in which we have to declare, or one of the things we have to declare to the next generation.

127. 51:05

     The history of abundance is all there. So, back to Elio. So, why aren't you doing the corners this year, Dad? Oh, right? Or how come you sent that man away that just came to the door and looked pretty upset?

128. 51:27

     Like awkward silence, right? Or it could be the other way. Dad, these corners are big. Are you sure? Amazing. Imagine the conversation around a dinner table that has a family that's full of faith and trust in God. It's actually quite beautiful. God designed generosity, brothers and sisters in Israel, so that his past salvation would be visibly reenacted in everyday life.

129. 52:02

     Especially at home. This is a real challenge to all of us, but it's a beautiful challenge. It's something to feel buoyed up by and encouraged to say, let's go do this. Let's examine our families and our hearts and see where we can grow closer to the teaching of Christ. You know, brothers and sisters, it's interesting when we look at the teaching through Scripture of the table.

130. 52:38

     I want to show in Psalm 78, there's a question in Psalm 78 that the people pose to God. Think about how cutting those words are to the God of Israel. It's like this challenge towards his generosity. Can you really do this? You can't do this. Now, flip that and come to the spirit of David in Psalm 23.

131. 53:42

     Psalm 23 is so well known to me that I feel like I didn't really know it. We know it so well, but maybe sometimes we can miss some of the words that are in here. In verses 1, 2, 3, and 4, David describes Yahweh as his shepherd.

132. 54:11

     And David recounts this idea that this understanding that God treats him as a sheep and he takes him by green pastures and he cares for him. He shows him all of this care, right? Restores my soul in verse 3. The valley of the shadow of death, verse 4. Fear no evil because I know you're with me as my shepherd.

133. 54:33

     But did you notice that the imagery completely changes in verses 5 and 6? David is not any longer a sheep out in the fields, in the pastures. In verse 5 and 6, David is an honored guest at God's table.

134. 54:55

     He says in verse 5, You prepare a table before me. This is David speaking to God. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. Now, what does that mean? Well, brothers and sisters, this is what you used to do back then to honored guests.

135. 55:15

     A weary traveler that you esteemed would come into your house. You'd set them at your table and you'd anoint them with refreshing oil after their journey or whatever they've done. And it says, David says, at this table, my cup is running over. Now, that's an incredible description by David, right? That he's at the table and it's God's table and God is treating David as a highly esteemed guest.

136. 55:41

     That's how God treats his people. And David recognizes this even when things aren't going well. He can see that his cup is overflowing. Now, brothers and sisters, that's such an important analogy. I was thinking of doing that one too, but it might make a mess. But if you just picture a cup, and sometimes you can fill up a cup and it's maybe two -thirds full.

137. 56:05

     But the picture here is that the host is filling his cup. Oh, I gave you too much and it's running over. That's the analogy that David uses to try and capture and tell us how he feels God treats him. It's a picture of abundance and generosity. His cup is overflowing, brothers and sisters.

138. 56:29

     No, Uncle Brian Luke said this in his commentary on that song, describing this scene in verse 5. In this case, superabundance is indicated as the gracious goodness, the overflowing magnanimity of Yahweh, our King and host. This portion shall not be ours unless we manifest an equal largeness of heart to our fellow travelers.

139. 57:00

     Luke 6, verse 38. Thank you for listening to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk and brightened your day. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes. We are on all major podcast platforms and also on YouTube. If you enjoyed this particular talk, please share it with someone else who you think might enjoy it too.

140. 57:37

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141. 57:57

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142. 58:24

     God bless and talk to you next week.