To be set up by others or by our own doing is to lean almost exclusively on our own human understanding.  I have been “set up” to fail when I fall for those who compliment my natural abilities and good nature only as a manipulation so I will do the work they do not want to do.  I fall for it when my pride rears its ugly head and I react to their direction.  The book of Proverbs had it right when it was written, “Pride goes before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)

A set up is also being caught in a situation that people have planned to deceive us or to make it look as if we have done something wrong to others.  Jesus, Himself was set up by the Pharisees to be mocked, beaten, and led to death by the Romans to sustain their religious position and limited power over God’s people.  But here is the difference; Jesus knew the plot of the Pharisees and other religious leaders.  He knew but He loved the world and had compassion on all people who lived in it.  Jesus knew what He must do to save us.  Through it all, God was in control. Jesus knew He must do the will of the Father.  It was the deep, profound love of God and His Son that led Jesus to fulfilled the mission to save us. 

Jesus, set apart, holy and sinless, had the power to stop the nonsense.  But He did not because of His relentless love for us.

To be set apart by God is a calling that begins with our complete surrender to the Holy One who knows that without Him we will not be able to fulfil His call.  God rarely calls the equipped but calls those whose hearts are completely His and who humbly respond first with; “Lord, I love you; but how can I do this?  I just can’t… But because you said it, I will.” 

Hebrews 4, The Message

^1-3 Every high priest selected to represent men and women before God and offer sacrifices for their sins should be able to deal gently with their failings, since he knows what it’s like from his own experience. But that also means that he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as the peoples’.

^4-6 No one elects himself to this honored position. He’s called to it by God, as Aaron was. Neither did Christ presume to set himself up as high priest, but was set apart by the One who said to him, “You’re my Son; today I celebrate you!” In another place God declares, “You’re a priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek.”

^7-10 While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him. Though he was God’s Son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do. Then, having arrived at the full stature of his maturity and having been announced by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who believingly obey him.

Re-Crucifying Jesus

^11-14 I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

From the beginning, God wants us to be different and respond differently.  “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” Leviticus 20:26 tells us to be different. This verse says God chose His people to stand out from others.  Why?  So that others walking in darkness with dark thinking and behaving would notice our difference and be drawn to Him by His Light in us!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

We are all called and set apart as believers to point the way to Jesus who is the Way to God, who is the Truth, and who leads us to Eternal Life with God! 

Accept, believe, grow in faith!

Upon surrender to God, we are set apart to be still and know that He is God before doing anything for God.  In the stillness, we form a habit of listening to God who tells us what to do in Jesus Name, for His glory and the good of ourselves and others seeking Him—a promise of God!  I am reminded of David’s “songs” that are full of remorse when he didn’t listen to God—a lesson to all of us.  But we read the words of joy, right in the middle of a lament, when David’s heart, mind, and soul turns back to who God is and proclaims God’s deep love for us. David praises God with thanksgiving for God.  David, another human who fell, but was forgiven and set apart by God.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Psalm 46:1-3

“Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.  He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:8-11

When we listen, truly listen to God we begin to know God more and grow in our intimately loving relationship with Him.  As we grow, the more we know, and are excited to go and tell others, teaching them all that Jesus has taught to us. This is the solid food of our existence!  This is the command of God through Jesus, His Son. (Matthew 28:20)

Lord,

Thank you for your Word lived out by your life.  You are the Word that came into the world and moved into the neighborhood of humanity to teach us how to love You and each other.  You taught us by your life how to surrender fully.  You surrendered, set apart to die for our sins so that we could be saved for eternity.  I believe.  I’m listening. I’m yours.

In Jesus Name, Amen