NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Last week’s teaching focused on Exodus 19 and 20, starting with the fact that the Law was God’s covenant requirement for his chosen people – the Israelites. The Siar were blown away to realize that A- they aren’t Israelites, and B- the Law was not intended for them as a rule of life nor as the means for salvation. It was the first time they had ever realized that the Israelites were indeed the literal offspring of Abraham and were an actual distinct ethnic group apart from all others. It was the first time that the Siar saw clearly, through genealogical evidence, that they were not a part of the nation of Israel, and it was the first time for them to understand the true intent and purpose of the Law. Understanding that the Law was given as a means to show man’s sinfulness for what it truly is in the light of God’s holiness, was indeed a massive shift from the worldview assumptions that the Siar had been living by for decades.

The team used a number of skits and illustrations to try to make these distinctions clear and understandable for them and they seemed to work well. One skit showed the faultiness of misinterpreting God’s word and misapplying texts that are not intended for you. Another was examples from the village life there to illustrate how effective the Law is at showing the sinfulness of man. We used a number of everyday examples of “bearing false witness” to try to clearly outline the fundamental principle of honesty and truth in all areas of life. This definitely hit the right chord with the Siar and they got a good laugh out of us missionaries acting out their lives in such great detail.

Our “Oscar Worthy” skits weren’t the greatest thing about this week though. The exciting thing was watching the overwhelming majority of the people completely embrace this new perspective on the Law. The real encouraging thing was listening to them recount what they had already learned and testify that God had already shown them so clearly that “law-living” and self effort would never restore them to God. They had already seen God make that point so clearly and they were already convinced that it could only be faith on God’s Promised One that would restore them back to God. They are already convinced that it MUST be God’s work and NOT their own that will redeem them back to God. Most are now waiting somewhat impatiently now for the revelation of this “Promised One”, and they are very excited to understand who He is and what He did to save them.

All of this sounds so good, but don’t be fooled; this teaching on the Law was not without incident. Some, who have been taught differently had difficulty with what was being taught, and publicly voiced their disapproval. As hard as it is to see those choosing to remain confident in the flesh to make them right before God, it did provide an opportunity for us to be gracious yet purposeful in our standing up against false teaching and heresy. We still pray that many of them will see the truth and allow God to expose their faulty thinking and believe in Him.