I used to get beat up a lot in elementary school. Like, a whole lot. I won two of the countless fights. First against one kid, then later against two. From then on, I lost every fight because they typically involved a sizable gang of soccer players against one bookworm. My idea of fights changed from an unpleasant but sometimes necessary confrontation to something I should avoid at all cost.
But it wasn't fights I hated. I hated having people gang up on me. With every essay I wrote throughout this series of The Twelve, I had a growing sense of dread that another crowd of aggressors would soon form to pummel me.
After finishing Malachi, I let out a deep breath and thought to myself, "I made it. On to the next topic." But then I felt the Holy Spirit confront me through scripture in a few passages. He had more hard lessons for me in Matthew 13 and Deuteronomy 8:11-19.
The parable of the sower comes from Matthew 13. Instead of reciting what we may assume as familiar and recognizable verses, I'll paraphrase in hopes we will begin to recognize the hard truth of this passage. A man went into his field to sow, or scatter seed. Some fell onto the hardened pathways and were eaten by birds. Some fell on rocky soil where the plants soon sprouted. But the shallow soil didn't allow for deep roots and the sun caused the plants to wither. Some seed fell among thorns and the plants could not compete with the weeds for nutrients. They also died. But some of the seed fell on good soil. These plants grew strong and their roots went deep. The seed and grain they produced in their growth multiplied many times over.
Jesus later explains this story to His disciples. The soil represents our hearts and how they respond to the Word of God, or the seed. The heart may be so hard that it doesn't at all recognize or accept the truth of God's word, so like birds, an enemy to the farmer, our Enemy steals the seed away.
The heart may have a surface conveniently covered in soil. It may look ready for life to grow in it, but the hardness of the path lies below the surface, preventing firmly established roots. When trouble or pain comes like the inevitable heat of the sun, the showy plants wither away and die. If the farmer didn't know what lay beneath the surface, it may have come as a surprise. Those plants appeared healthy and vibrant, but they had no substance in the soil of the heart.
The heart may have soil where the word could grow, but thorns and weeds also occupy that heart. Jesus explained how the thorns represented "the worries of the world and the deceitful glamor of wealth". They vie for attention in the heart, take its energy, and cause the word planted to "produce nothing". One might look at this patch of soil and think, "Well, there's a plant there. They've obviously accepted Jesus enough to invite Him into their heart. It's just a shame about all those thorns..." But in Matthew 13, it doesn't appear Jesus would agree. What's the difference between a plant growing among stones and thorns if neither produces a yield?
It's the heart removed of harness and worldly cares which grows strong and bears goodness.
Moses warned God's people of the hardness and thorns before they entered the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 8:11-19. "Be careful not to forget the Lord your God by not obeying His commands, rulings, and regulations that I am giving you today. Otherwise, after you have eaten and are satisfied, built fine houses and live in them, and increased your herds, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own, you will become proud-hearted.
"Forgetting the Lord your God - who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves; who led you through the vast and fearsome desert, with its poisonous snakes, scorpions and waterless, thirsty ground; who brought water out of flint rock for you; who fed you in the desert with manna, unknown to your ancestors; all the while humbling you and testing you in order to do you good in the end - you will think to yourself, 'My own power and the strength of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.'
"No, you are to remember the Lord your God, because it is He who is giving you the power to get wealth, in order to confirm His covenant, which He swore to your ancestors, as is happening even today. If you forget the Lord your God, follow other gods and serve and worship them, I am warning you in advance today that you will certainly perish."
God brought the people of Israel through the Sinai Desert for them to learn this lesson: They were weak and helpless. He is their only source and hope for life. That last verse stung like a kidney punch when I thought of the message of The Twelve. If you follow other gods and despise God, who is your source of life, you will die.
So here I sit before you all with purpled eye-sockets, hugging my stomach after getting dog-piled by every minor prophet, Moses, and Jesus Himself. Revisiting the theme of each minor prophet, I experienced heavy, heavy conviction. It was so easy to write as if I were on the side of God and prophet, shaking my head in disbelief at the foolishness and evil pervading God's people. After a few days of prayer and reflection, I realized that I am as wicked and foolish an idolater as any of God's people in the days of the prophets.
When I applied for my job, I went to that particular business because I believed God wanted me there to speak into peoples' lives. He made it clear to me - this job wasn't about the paycheck. Over time, I let little cares, little weed-seeds, take root in my heart. I began to care about my pay. I began to care about career advancement. I was proud of my financial responsibility and strong work ethic. As Moses put it, I began to say to myself, "My own hard work and abilities have given me favor and success."
Ugh. What a load of crap. James 1:17 is clear that every good thing in my life comes from God. In 4:13-16, he confronts my proud attitude. "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city, stay there a year trading and making profit'! You don't even know if you will be alive tomorrow! For all you are is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wants it to happen, we will live' to do this or that. But as it is, in your arrogance you boast. All such boasting is evil."
Why is it evil? Because I have put my trust in myself, in the wealth I could produce, and was frustrated over the wealth I didn't produce because I thought I deserved more. God appears nowhere in that line of thinking. I didn't put my trust in Him. My faith rested on me, on money, on success and a good reputation. Hosea likened this to adultery. Joel warned of God's wrath toward the proud. Amos told many "believers" they deserved this wrath. Obadiah encouraged his listeners to trust God's reputation more than surrounding circumstances. Jonah showed the futility of thinking anyone had the right to call God unfair in His judgment. Micah shattered the idea of acceptable worldliness or "harmless sin". Nahum reminded us that God alone is perfectly able to judge between good and evil. Habakkuk abandoned his attitude of entitlement and humbly, even joyfully, accepted God's judgment. Zephaniah condemned the worship of anyone or anything less than and apart from God. Haggai showed the how focusing on our circumstantial problems took away from worshiping God. Zechariah gave a plea to follow God instead of our own wisdom. Malachi shook us awake with a sober reminder that God wants our whole heart's devotion and nothing less.
I once noted how the pre-exile prophets often spoke against idolatry, serving false gods that promised fertility, prosperity, and security. The post-exile prophets may not have had to compete with Ba'al or Molech in terms of statues or furnaces, but the sin of the people remained the same. They worried over provision and security, failing to trust in God to give them all they needed, and thus living without faith. The writer of Hebrews drew a hard line in saying anything apart from faith is sin.
In the past two months, I have heard a large number of people use variations of this phrase: "Yeah, it's good to have faith, but you have to think about..." That's not to say we should live without thinking or having a plan, but the people who said these things were worried about the practical needs of everyday life. God tells people to avoid laziness and work hard in Proverbs, but Jesus also told His listeners not to worry about what they will eat or wear. Work hard, but know that God provides. Any anxiety takes your trust from Him and puts it in some worthless idol like the economy or your own abilities. One man looked at my fiance and said, "God forbid you get pregnant..." because he thought it would destroy us financially. Yes, it's good to have a stable home in which to bring a child. My future wife and I want very much to prepare before we have a family. Scripture is clear, however, that children are a blessing from God. Why would I want to forbid any blessing and call it a curse just because it didn't appeal to an idol of finance? Where is my trust in God if I carry that attitude?
After hearing from some of these men and women, it horrified me to think that I might have initially agreed with them and bowed to the same idols. In his discussion on Matthew 13, Francis Chan warned, "Don't assume you are good soil". My heart may not have been a hardened path, or full of stones, but I can see how weeds had begun to choke my trust in the Word of God which told me "Be anxious for nothing". I saw myself living and working for reasons other than God's glory.
I read Revelation 3:15-17 and felt the Holy Spirit calling me out on my sin. "I know what you are doing: you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth! For you keep saying, 'I am rich, I have gotten rich, I don't need a thing!' You don't know that you are the one who is wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked!" I was becoming lukewarm because of my growing trust in financial stability and the pride in achieving it. If I continued this drift into lukewarm waters unrepentant of my ways, would God have been right in spitting me out? Does that sound like one receiving salvation?
In this conviction, I read verse 19 and accepted it with resolution. "As for me, I rebuke and discipline everyone I love; so exert yourselves, and turn from your sins!" Even though I may have felt beat up on the playground, it was more like the time my mom tackled my brother to keep him from running away to a dangerous place. It was a hard, violent action, but it kept him from going toward willful destruction. I am sure of my salvation only because the Holy Spirit's conviction brought me to repentance. This isn't to say that my exertion saves me, but it lets me know that He is at work in me. I don't want to be casual about my salvation, so I'm willing to paddle out of these waters with both hands if necessary.
This essay is in part public repentance, but it is also a challenge. I learned a serious lesson. Why wouldn't I want you to examine your heart the same way? I'm asking you to please consider these questions. What makes you think you're good soil? What makes you think that you haven't been an idolater and let the cares of life pull you away from trust in God? If you were to look deep inside yourself and see sin choking the roots of your faith, would you be willing to go through the turmoil of letting God pull it out? Or is your world so precious you would rather go on living like the Pharisees who honored God with their lips while their hearts were far away from Him?
So maybe it wasn't a gang of people surrounding me in this time of conviction. I can see it now as God speaking to me in every passage, wrestling with me, poking His finger in secret places and dislocating joints. Like I said at the beginning, it's so much better when the confrontation is one-on-one, and this is one fight I feel good about losing.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Twelve of the Twelve - Malachi and casual worship.
My friend Abe is probably tired of me ripping him off, but I have to tell this story since I'm writing about Malachi. One day, Abe tells me he can sum up the whole book in four words.
"What are they?" I ask.
He waits a moment for dramatic effect and says, "Don't F*** With God."
We laughed for a solid minute. Giggling. Seriously.
Of the three post-exile prophets, Malachi offers more of a punch in the mouth than a pat on the back. He began his ministry after the death of Nehemiah, Judah's reforming and God-fearing governor. It would seem that the hearts of the people had again grown apathetic, proud, and selfish. The first line of Malachi's prophecy sounds like one of the encouraging words of his contemporaries. "'I love you,' says the Lord." The next line calls the people out on their proud hearts. "But you ask, 'How do you show us your love?'"
This is an important theme in Malachi. God reveals an aspect of His perfect and unchanging character and rebuts the arrogant questions of the people. Like Job, the people have no response. The writer intends for the reader to understand this: God is perfect.
Every believer, including me, you, and your pastor, we've all questioned God in some way by asking, "Do you really know what's best?" I can say that we ask this question with confidence because it lies at the heart of every sin. When we question God's perfection - His perfect love, goodness, justice - we begin to listen to the lie that we know better.
Some food in the temple was considered holy, special and set apart. The priests thought to themselves, "Well, it's all food. We can offer whatever and that should please God." God responds in Malachi 1:6-7, "'A son honors his father and a servant his master, But if I'm a father, where is the honor due me? And if I'm a master, where is the respect due me?' says the Lord of Hosts to you priests who despise my name. You ask, 'How are we despising your name?' By saying that the table of the Lord doesn't deserve respect." The priests at the time ignored God's command to only sacrifice healthy, spotless lambs. They thought it was acceptable for them to offer blind, sick, and lame animals. God cuts through any possible excuse saying in verse 8, "Try offering such an animal to your governor, and see if he will be pleased with you! Would he even receive you?"
It's been fourteen years since I've been in a real fight. Maybe you wouldn't call it a real fight, but it was the last time I actually struck somebody. In 8th grade, I beat up a kid in gym class because he made a remark about my brother going to jail. It was for something minor and he was only in there for a couple of days, but I was heartbroken that week. I loved my brother even though he made a bad choice. So I lost my temper in the middle of class and knocked the kid to the floor. Then he said something that still amazes me. He sat up hugging the stomach I'd just kicked and asked with total sincerity, "What did you do that for?"
In Malachi 2:13-14, the people hug their own stomachs after the beatdown in chapter 1. "Here is something else you do: you cover the Lord's alter with tears, with weeping and with sighing, because He no longer looks at the offering or receives your gift with favor. Nevertheless, you ask, 'Why is this?'"
Here are some sins Malachi addresses throughout the book: giving pathetic offerings (1:7-8), complaining about the "ritual" of worship (1:13), needless divorce (2:14), diminishing the seriousness of sin (2:17), and denying God's goodness (1:2, 3:13-15). Last night, my fiance and I met with a couple for dinner. While we talked, I casually flipped through the Archeological Study Bible and read the introduction to Malachi. The writers noted how the prophet didn't talk about gross idol worship like the pre-exile prophets. Judah hadn't taken on foreign gods like Baal again. Instead, they had given themselves over to a lame form of orthodoxy. They went through the motions. They went to church. They tossed a few dollar bills into the offering (you know, if they had cash in their wallet that morning). They lived as if God didn't care about their day to day lives.
In 3:14-15, the people said, "There is no point in serving God. What good is it to obey His orders or to walk about as mourners before the Lord of Hosts? We consider the arrogant happy; also evildoers prosper; they put God to the test; nevertheless, they escape." I have heard people in the church say similar things. It's easy to look at the world around us and wonder why the wicked have more fun. So maybe, they thought, it's not a big deal if I party like everyone else. Maybe it's okay if I take advantage of a few gray areas at work. Maybe it's okay to justify my flirting because of my wife/husband's lousy attitude. I don't have to give anything to the church. Jesus still loves me. I still pray. I'll go to heaven without having to give up my life or happiness. Right?
If all of that were so harmless, then why does God sound so pissed? Why does He want us to know He won't be effed with? Because He's holy and perfect. He deserves everything. The people of Judah were only giving God their Sabbath and holidays, not their hearts, not their lives. If you think I'm overreacting, read 2:2-3, "'If you won't listen, if you won't pay attention to honoring my name,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'then I will send the curse on you; I will turn your blessings into curses. Yes, I will curse them, because you pay no attention. I will reject your seed; I will throw dung in your faces, the dung from your festival offerings; and you will be carted off with it.'"
Every one of us, to some degree, has casually sinned in these ways. We don't always fear God and show Him the respect He deserves. If this is enough to suffer a curse and a mouthful of manure, then where can one find any hope? Malachi gives this message from God in 3:16-18, "Then those who feared the Lord spoke together; and the Lord listened and heard. A record book was written in His presence for those who feared the Lord and had respect for His name. 'They will be mine,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'on the day when I compose my own special treasure. I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then once again you will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the person who serves God and one that doesn't serve Him.'"
Our hope is found in Jesus, the son of God. Scripture tells us in Galatians how those who accept Jesus die to their old selves and are raised in Him. We are hidden in Christ. When God looks at the heart of a believer, He sees Jesus, and He spares us. In this passage, we also see a promise of a day where we will see who prospers more, the righteous or the wicked. The people of Judah may not have served Baal, but they served other idols. They were idols of money, romantic fantasies (I'm looking at you, Meg Ryan), and comfort. Ultimately, the people of Judah worshiped themselves. They thought they knew best, just as Adam and Eve thought they could be like God. It's only when we give up our lives, offer all that we have and all we are to Jesus, that we will find true life. I wouldn't want to give anything less to the God who created everything.
"What are they?" I ask.
He waits a moment for dramatic effect and says, "Don't F*** With God."
We laughed for a solid minute. Giggling. Seriously.
Of the three post-exile prophets, Malachi offers more of a punch in the mouth than a pat on the back. He began his ministry after the death of Nehemiah, Judah's reforming and God-fearing governor. It would seem that the hearts of the people had again grown apathetic, proud, and selfish. The first line of Malachi's prophecy sounds like one of the encouraging words of his contemporaries. "'I love you,' says the Lord." The next line calls the people out on their proud hearts. "But you ask, 'How do you show us your love?'"
This is an important theme in Malachi. God reveals an aspect of His perfect and unchanging character and rebuts the arrogant questions of the people. Like Job, the people have no response. The writer intends for the reader to understand this: God is perfect.
Every believer, including me, you, and your pastor, we've all questioned God in some way by asking, "Do you really know what's best?" I can say that we ask this question with confidence because it lies at the heart of every sin. When we question God's perfection - His perfect love, goodness, justice - we begin to listen to the lie that we know better.
Some food in the temple was considered holy, special and set apart. The priests thought to themselves, "Well, it's all food. We can offer whatever and that should please God." God responds in Malachi 1:6-7, "'A son honors his father and a servant his master, But if I'm a father, where is the honor due me? And if I'm a master, where is the respect due me?' says the Lord of Hosts to you priests who despise my name. You ask, 'How are we despising your name?' By saying that the table of the Lord doesn't deserve respect." The priests at the time ignored God's command to only sacrifice healthy, spotless lambs. They thought it was acceptable for them to offer blind, sick, and lame animals. God cuts through any possible excuse saying in verse 8, "Try offering such an animal to your governor, and see if he will be pleased with you! Would he even receive you?"
It's been fourteen years since I've been in a real fight. Maybe you wouldn't call it a real fight, but it was the last time I actually struck somebody. In 8th grade, I beat up a kid in gym class because he made a remark about my brother going to jail. It was for something minor and he was only in there for a couple of days, but I was heartbroken that week. I loved my brother even though he made a bad choice. So I lost my temper in the middle of class and knocked the kid to the floor. Then he said something that still amazes me. He sat up hugging the stomach I'd just kicked and asked with total sincerity, "What did you do that for?"
In Malachi 2:13-14, the people hug their own stomachs after the beatdown in chapter 1. "Here is something else you do: you cover the Lord's alter with tears, with weeping and with sighing, because He no longer looks at the offering or receives your gift with favor. Nevertheless, you ask, 'Why is this?'"
Here are some sins Malachi addresses throughout the book: giving pathetic offerings (1:7-8), complaining about the "ritual" of worship (1:13), needless divorce (2:14), diminishing the seriousness of sin (2:17), and denying God's goodness (1:2, 3:13-15). Last night, my fiance and I met with a couple for dinner. While we talked, I casually flipped through the Archeological Study Bible and read the introduction to Malachi. The writers noted how the prophet didn't talk about gross idol worship like the pre-exile prophets. Judah hadn't taken on foreign gods like Baal again. Instead, they had given themselves over to a lame form of orthodoxy. They went through the motions. They went to church. They tossed a few dollar bills into the offering (you know, if they had cash in their wallet that morning). They lived as if God didn't care about their day to day lives.
In 3:14-15, the people said, "There is no point in serving God. What good is it to obey His orders or to walk about as mourners before the Lord of Hosts? We consider the arrogant happy; also evildoers prosper; they put God to the test; nevertheless, they escape." I have heard people in the church say similar things. It's easy to look at the world around us and wonder why the wicked have more fun. So maybe, they thought, it's not a big deal if I party like everyone else. Maybe it's okay if I take advantage of a few gray areas at work. Maybe it's okay to justify my flirting because of my wife/husband's lousy attitude. I don't have to give anything to the church. Jesus still loves me. I still pray. I'll go to heaven without having to give up my life or happiness. Right?
If all of that were so harmless, then why does God sound so pissed? Why does He want us to know He won't be effed with? Because He's holy and perfect. He deserves everything. The people of Judah were only giving God their Sabbath and holidays, not their hearts, not their lives. If you think I'm overreacting, read 2:2-3, "'If you won't listen, if you won't pay attention to honoring my name,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'then I will send the curse on you; I will turn your blessings into curses. Yes, I will curse them, because you pay no attention. I will reject your seed; I will throw dung in your faces, the dung from your festival offerings; and you will be carted off with it.'"
Every one of us, to some degree, has casually sinned in these ways. We don't always fear God and show Him the respect He deserves. If this is enough to suffer a curse and a mouthful of manure, then where can one find any hope? Malachi gives this message from God in 3:16-18, "Then those who feared the Lord spoke together; and the Lord listened and heard. A record book was written in His presence for those who feared the Lord and had respect for His name. 'They will be mine,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'on the day when I compose my own special treasure. I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then once again you will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the person who serves God and one that doesn't serve Him.'"
Our hope is found in Jesus, the son of God. Scripture tells us in Galatians how those who accept Jesus die to their old selves and are raised in Him. We are hidden in Christ. When God looks at the heart of a believer, He sees Jesus, and He spares us. In this passage, we also see a promise of a day where we will see who prospers more, the righteous or the wicked. The people of Judah may not have served Baal, but they served other idols. They were idols of money, romantic fantasies (I'm looking at you, Meg Ryan), and comfort. Ultimately, the people of Judah worshiped themselves. They thought they knew best, just as Adam and Eve thought they could be like God. It's only when we give up our lives, offer all that we have and all we are to Jesus, that we will find true life. I wouldn't want to give anything less to the God who created everything.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Eleven of the Twelve - Zechariah and the attitude of a shepherd.
Since the beginning of this series on the minor prophets, I wanted to explain the main theme of each book and point out where the prophecies look forward to Jesus. In Zechariah, the two goals seem to become one. The book opens with an exhortation. "The Lord was extremely angry with your ancestors. Therefore, tell them that the Lord of Hosts says this: '"Return to me," says the Lord of Hosts, "and I will return to you," says the Lord of Hosts. "Don't be like your ancestors. The earlier prophets proclaimed to them, 'The Lord of Hosts says to turn back now from your evil ways and deeds'; but they didn't listen or pay attention to me," says the Lord.
Zechariah, like Haggai, prophesied to God's people after their return from exile. They are the kinder of the minor prophets. Where the others proclaimed God's coming wrath for sin, Zechariah and Haggai offer a different tone. God's justice is perfect, but He is also deeply in love with those He chose as His own. Zechariah sees a picture of men riding over the whole world to report on its affairs to God. When the men report the world as "quiet and at peace", the angel speaking with Zechariah prays, "Lord of Hosts, how long will you keep withholding mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah? You've been angry with them for the past seventy years!" God replies, "I am extremely jealous on behalf of Jerusalem and Zion; and to the same degree I am extremely angry with the nations that are so self-satisfied; because I was only a little angry at Jerusalem and Zion, but they made the suffering worse." God goes on to promise the restoration of the Temple and all of Jerusalem.
See, God sounded pissed during all those years at the time of the earlier prophets, but it was more like "Dad Voice". He expected the other nations to continue in wickedness like one might expect the trouble-making neighbor kids to egg your house. But if any of you parents were to learn that your kids were involved in the vandalism, you might have an idea of what God felt.
It's true that Zechariah speaks to the inhabitants of Jerusalem regarding immediate issues, but I might sound redundant if I focused on that part of his message. Where Haggai spoke of an attitude of poverty, Zechariah seems to address the spirit of poverty in the heart. For example, in chapter 8, God promises a beautiful restoration of Jerusalem. There's peace there, families, and joy. In verse 6, God dismisses the circumstances. "This may seem amazing to the survivors in those days, but must it also seem amazing to me?"
More than anything, though, I see Zechariah talking about the coming Messiah. Here we read the prophecies foretelling Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on a donkey (9:9), Judas' price in betraying Jesus and what he did with the money (11:12-13), His being a firstborn son killed in public (12:10), His followers abandoning Him at His arrest (13:7), and His triumphal return when one day He comes again to rule (14:4-9). Jesus seems to be everywhere I look in this book. If not in outright prophecy, Zechariah at least describes the attitude of Jesus.
In my first few times through the book, I stumbled over Zechariah's use of the word "shepherd". I knew that they symbolized the leaders of Judah, but there seemed to be two different kinds of shepherds. At times, God is pissed at the shepherds and wants to punish them. Other passages talk of a good shepherd. In 10:3, God says, "'My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will vent it on the leaders of the flock.' For The Lord of Hosts will care for His flock, the people of Judah; He will make them like His royal war-horse." But a subtle change takes place in this verse. The leaders of Israel often had a reputation for ignoring God's law, the message of the prophets, and the suffering of the people. Nehemiah had to correct the nobles of oppressive usury in Nehemiah 5. The second half of Zechariah 10:3 takes the responsibility of Judah's care off of its leaders and onto God Himself.
The prophet further explains this change of responsibility in chapter 11. God tells of ridding Judah from three shepherds in a single month. I can't say for sure, but it sounds to me like a reference to Josiah's three sons, the last three kings of Judah. Here, the flock is "handed over to the power of a neighbor and to the power of his king." At the end of chapter 11, God promises to raise up one more cruel and careless shepherd before punishing him as well.
Chapter 12 tells of God rescuing Jerusalem from calamity. An interesting change in attitude happens here. God says in 12:6, "When that day comes, I will make the leaders of Judah like a blazing fire pan in a pile of wood, like a fiery torch among sheaves of grain; they will devour all the surrounding peoples, on the right and on the left. Jerusalem will be inhabited in her own place, Jerusalem." Here, finally, the leaders would find themselves in their proper place. They would operate in God's power and follow His direction.
In the gospels, Jesus referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd. This claim makes sense of Zechariah 13:7. "Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me." This is the one time that God claims a shepherd as His own. He had already pledged to take responsibility for the flock. His shepherd is Jesus, who became a man, and stayed close to the God the Father. He now acts as king, now in the church and in the future over everything. He is our high priest, praying for us and offering us salvation through his death and resurrection.
Good leadership, those who shepherd the flock under Him, must follow His lead. Jesus said in John 5:19, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." Like Jesus, the Good Shepherd, we can know what God wants through scripture and the revelation of the Holy Spirit. For any of us who lead to any degree, whether in a political office, church responsibility, or as the head of a household, we must have this attitude. Instead of the worthless shepherds condemned in Zechariah, who sought personal gain and prominence, we need to humbly submit ourselves to God and seek His direction.
This sounds like a simple ending, but it comes with a challenge. When making a decision (and I don't mean something like "do I take another sip of coffee or not?"), stop to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give you guidance. If the Bible instructs something contrary to the way you have always done things, decide if you are going to pattern your life after scripture. In our own power, apart from God's wisdom and direction, we are doomed. Without Him, we can make no good decision.
Zechariah, like Haggai, prophesied to God's people after their return from exile. They are the kinder of the minor prophets. Where the others proclaimed God's coming wrath for sin, Zechariah and Haggai offer a different tone. God's justice is perfect, but He is also deeply in love with those He chose as His own. Zechariah sees a picture of men riding over the whole world to report on its affairs to God. When the men report the world as "quiet and at peace", the angel speaking with Zechariah prays, "Lord of Hosts, how long will you keep withholding mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah? You've been angry with them for the past seventy years!" God replies, "I am extremely jealous on behalf of Jerusalem and Zion; and to the same degree I am extremely angry with the nations that are so self-satisfied; because I was only a little angry at Jerusalem and Zion, but they made the suffering worse." God goes on to promise the restoration of the Temple and all of Jerusalem.
See, God sounded pissed during all those years at the time of the earlier prophets, but it was more like "Dad Voice". He expected the other nations to continue in wickedness like one might expect the trouble-making neighbor kids to egg your house. But if any of you parents were to learn that your kids were involved in the vandalism, you might have an idea of what God felt.
It's true that Zechariah speaks to the inhabitants of Jerusalem regarding immediate issues, but I might sound redundant if I focused on that part of his message. Where Haggai spoke of an attitude of poverty, Zechariah seems to address the spirit of poverty in the heart. For example, in chapter 8, God promises a beautiful restoration of Jerusalem. There's peace there, families, and joy. In verse 6, God dismisses the circumstances. "This may seem amazing to the survivors in those days, but must it also seem amazing to me?"
More than anything, though, I see Zechariah talking about the coming Messiah. Here we read the prophecies foretelling Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on a donkey (9:9), Judas' price in betraying Jesus and what he did with the money (11:12-13), His being a firstborn son killed in public (12:10), His followers abandoning Him at His arrest (13:7), and His triumphal return when one day He comes again to rule (14:4-9). Jesus seems to be everywhere I look in this book. If not in outright prophecy, Zechariah at least describes the attitude of Jesus.
In my first few times through the book, I stumbled over Zechariah's use of the word "shepherd". I knew that they symbolized the leaders of Judah, but there seemed to be two different kinds of shepherds. At times, God is pissed at the shepherds and wants to punish them. Other passages talk of a good shepherd. In 10:3, God says, "'My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will vent it on the leaders of the flock.' For The Lord of Hosts will care for His flock, the people of Judah; He will make them like His royal war-horse." But a subtle change takes place in this verse. The leaders of Israel often had a reputation for ignoring God's law, the message of the prophets, and the suffering of the people. Nehemiah had to correct the nobles of oppressive usury in Nehemiah 5. The second half of Zechariah 10:3 takes the responsibility of Judah's care off of its leaders and onto God Himself.
The prophet further explains this change of responsibility in chapter 11. God tells of ridding Judah from three shepherds in a single month. I can't say for sure, but it sounds to me like a reference to Josiah's three sons, the last three kings of Judah. Here, the flock is "handed over to the power of a neighbor and to the power of his king." At the end of chapter 11, God promises to raise up one more cruel and careless shepherd before punishing him as well.
Chapter 12 tells of God rescuing Jerusalem from calamity. An interesting change in attitude happens here. God says in 12:6, "When that day comes, I will make the leaders of Judah like a blazing fire pan in a pile of wood, like a fiery torch among sheaves of grain; they will devour all the surrounding peoples, on the right and on the left. Jerusalem will be inhabited in her own place, Jerusalem." Here, finally, the leaders would find themselves in their proper place. They would operate in God's power and follow His direction.
In the gospels, Jesus referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd. This claim makes sense of Zechariah 13:7. "Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me." This is the one time that God claims a shepherd as His own. He had already pledged to take responsibility for the flock. His shepherd is Jesus, who became a man, and stayed close to the God the Father. He now acts as king, now in the church and in the future over everything. He is our high priest, praying for us and offering us salvation through his death and resurrection.
Good leadership, those who shepherd the flock under Him, must follow His lead. Jesus said in John 5:19, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." Like Jesus, the Good Shepherd, we can know what God wants through scripture and the revelation of the Holy Spirit. For any of us who lead to any degree, whether in a political office, church responsibility, or as the head of a household, we must have this attitude. Instead of the worthless shepherds condemned in Zechariah, who sought personal gain and prominence, we need to humbly submit ourselves to God and seek His direction.
This sounds like a simple ending, but it comes with a challenge. When making a decision (and I don't mean something like "do I take another sip of coffee or not?"), stop to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give you guidance. If the Bible instructs something contrary to the way you have always done things, decide if you are going to pattern your life after scripture. In our own power, apart from God's wisdom and direction, we are doomed. Without Him, we can make no good decision.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Ten of the Twelve - Haggai and the attitude of poverty.
Tons of weblogs in the weblogosphere made Best Of lists for the last decade at the beginning of January. Even if I wanted to join the noise, it's way too late now. But if someone asked, I would gladly name Read Music/Speak Spanish by Desaparecidos as one of my favorite records from the last decade. It's the reason I might never enjoy Bright Eyes ever again. It's a trashy, scathing, unapologetic recording. The theme of the album deals with urban sprawl and hyper consumerism. One song, Greater Omaha, has a line that I still find myself humming. "We can't afford to be generous. There's closing costs and a narrow market." I've thought about that line for years. If a person had enough money to worry about housing costs, contracts, stocks, etc, what stops them from generosity?
Of course the song is sarcastic, but the chorus nails the attitude of poverty. "Just one more mouthful and we will be happy then." It seems that people can act impoverished no matter how much wealth they possess. When Babylon overtook Jerusalem, the invaders destroyed the Temple. Now in exile, God's people were completely brokenhearted. You can hear their sadness in Psalm 137. After 70 years, God brings His people back to the Promised Land but it took many years before they restored the Temple.
It's here we find Haggai prophesying to Governor Zerubbabel, Joshua the High Priest, and the former exiles. In 1:3-4, "'Here is what the Lord of Hosts says: "This people is saying that now isn't the time - the time hasn't yet arrived for the Lord's house to be rebuilt.'" Then this word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet: 'so is now the time for you to be living in your own paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?'"
Some of those hearing him were alive at the time of Judah's fall to Babylon. They saw the Temple in times of glory. When they returned, they saw their land poorly tended, the surrounding nations showed them hostility, and they had to pay high taxes in tribute to the government. They developed a spirit, or attitude, of poverty. Yes, they were poor. Yes, they were despised. But they forgot who God is and what He thought of them.
I've said the phrase "attitude of poverty" a few times now. Here's what I want to communicate when I say those words. When a person gets a dollar, they think, "I should spend this dollar now because I might not have it tomorrow." Sounds silly, but that's a common reaction poor people have to resources.
I work with a few people who grew up in the projects and other destitute neighborhoods. They honestly think this way. Guess how many of them have savings accounts? Any kind of bank account? Zero. None of them. I asked a couple of these co-workers what they do when they get their paycheck. They cash them at convenience stores. They request payday weekends off so they can go to the club or the beauty shop. With the exception of one guy I've found so far, none of them seem to save for anything lasting. Spend the money while you have it. Just one more mouthful.
Coming from people who haven't expressed any solid belief or trust in God, I can see why they think this way. But for God's people in Judah to have this kind of attitude supposes no trust in the One who fulfilled His promise to bring them home. Haggai lists out the different areas of lack and explains the origin in 1:5-9. "'Therefore here is what the Lord of Hosts says: "Think about your life! You sow much but bring in little; you eat but aren't satisfied; you drink but never have enough; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who works for a living earns wages that are put in a bag full of holes."' 'Here is what the Lord of Hosts says: "Think about your life! Go up into the hills, get wood, and rebuild the house (or Temple), I will be pleased with that, and then I will be glorified," says the Lord. "You looked for much, but it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" asks the Lord of Hosts. "Because my house lies in ruins, while every one of you runs to take care of his own house."'"
What do you think would have happened if God's people had achieved success while they had this attitude? They could have easily credited themselves, forgotten to place their trust in God, forgotten to give Him the glory for their restoration, and found themselves in pre-exile arrogance. So God made things hard and kept them at a level of subsistence until they learned to trust Him.
It's not just about money, though. The attitude of poverty is also self-effacing, making the person feel stuck and incapable. A few of the homeless people that sleep under the train bridge by my house feel this way. I've excuses as to why they won't work their way out of this life. They're old. They're sick. They don't have any skills. The one guy who told me he believes in Jesus seems the most downcast.
I pray for him to receive the kind of encouragement the Lord gives His people at the end of Haggai 1, "I am with you." In verse 14, "The Lord roused the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the High Priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people; so that they came and began to work on the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God." This doesn't sound exactly like when God miraculously gave His people the means and ability to build the Tabernacle. From what I see, He merely encouraged them buy His Spirit. They were capable in theory but didn't know it until God roused their spirits to do the work.
Haggai talks to the priests in chapter 2 now that the work has begun to restore the Temple. Soon, they're going back to their jobs and need orientation. God tells Haggai to ask them what makes something holy and what makes it defiled. If something designated as holy like the meat of the sacrifice were to touch a common item of food, it becomes defiled, going from holy to common. If something particularly unclean were to touch either holy or common items, then those items would become unclean. God explains how this orientation also applies to the condition of the people. He called them holy and set-apart. They were to keep a distinction between themselves and the rest of the world. If they tried to mix themselves with the world and its practices, they would become defiled again.
One last prophecy is given specially to Zerubbabel. Haggai relays the message from God, "I will shake the heavens and the earth, I will overturn the thrones of the kingdoms, I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and I will overturn the chariots and the people riding in them; the horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother." At first this sounds like a repeat promise from earlier when God told the people He would restore their fortune from these destroyed kingdoms. But the prophecy continues, "'When that day comes,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'I will take you, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel,' says the Lord, 'and wear you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you,' says the Lord of Hosts."
Chosen him far what? He was already governor of Judah. He was already, in a sense, spirit-filled and doing God's work. We find the answer in Matthew 1:12 where the author gives Jesus' genealogy. "After the Babylonian Exile, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel was the father of Zerbbabel." This prophecy was a promise of the coming Messiah, Jesus. In all the work to be done on this Temple, the one God promised to be more glorious than the last, Haggai reminds Zerubbabel of the point. Yes, the Temple was good. God dwelt among His people there. But there would come a time when God would come as a man and walk among His people. After His resurrection and ascension, then we would experience the ultimate form of "God with us" during our time in this life when the Holy Spirit came.
Think about what this was like for Zerubbabel? "The Messiah is still coming, Mr. Governor, and He'll be one of your descendants." I wonder if this gave Zerubbabel a new perspective on the importance of what he and Joshua were asked to do. I wonder what his relationship with God looked like afterward. If it were me, I'd feel overwhelmed with humility. A short time ago, he was poor and couldn't do anything for himself. God gives him hope for future restoration, "your work isn't in vain. Not only that, but the One who will come and set everything right will be born of your line. You, Zerubbabel, are a part of my plan for salvation."
For those of us who have our trust in Jesus and see the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, we can also be certain of this. Our work for the Kingdom of God is not in vain. Be encouraged! We will make mistakes, we will find times when our energy begins to run low, but God has promised to set everything right through Jesus.
Of course the song is sarcastic, but the chorus nails the attitude of poverty. "Just one more mouthful and we will be happy then." It seems that people can act impoverished no matter how much wealth they possess. When Babylon overtook Jerusalem, the invaders destroyed the Temple. Now in exile, God's people were completely brokenhearted. You can hear their sadness in Psalm 137. After 70 years, God brings His people back to the Promised Land but it took many years before they restored the Temple.
It's here we find Haggai prophesying to Governor Zerubbabel, Joshua the High Priest, and the former exiles. In 1:3-4, "'Here is what the Lord of Hosts says: "This people is saying that now isn't the time - the time hasn't yet arrived for the Lord's house to be rebuilt.'" Then this word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet: 'so is now the time for you to be living in your own paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?'"
Some of those hearing him were alive at the time of Judah's fall to Babylon. They saw the Temple in times of glory. When they returned, they saw their land poorly tended, the surrounding nations showed them hostility, and they had to pay high taxes in tribute to the government. They developed a spirit, or attitude, of poverty. Yes, they were poor. Yes, they were despised. But they forgot who God is and what He thought of them.
I've said the phrase "attitude of poverty" a few times now. Here's what I want to communicate when I say those words. When a person gets a dollar, they think, "I should spend this dollar now because I might not have it tomorrow." Sounds silly, but that's a common reaction poor people have to resources.
I work with a few people who grew up in the projects and other destitute neighborhoods. They honestly think this way. Guess how many of them have savings accounts? Any kind of bank account? Zero. None of them. I asked a couple of these co-workers what they do when they get their paycheck. They cash them at convenience stores. They request payday weekends off so they can go to the club or the beauty shop. With the exception of one guy I've found so far, none of them seem to save for anything lasting. Spend the money while you have it. Just one more mouthful.
Coming from people who haven't expressed any solid belief or trust in God, I can see why they think this way. But for God's people in Judah to have this kind of attitude supposes no trust in the One who fulfilled His promise to bring them home. Haggai lists out the different areas of lack and explains the origin in 1:5-9. "'Therefore here is what the Lord of Hosts says: "Think about your life! You sow much but bring in little; you eat but aren't satisfied; you drink but never have enough; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who works for a living earns wages that are put in a bag full of holes."' 'Here is what the Lord of Hosts says: "Think about your life! Go up into the hills, get wood, and rebuild the house (or Temple), I will be pleased with that, and then I will be glorified," says the Lord. "You looked for much, but it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" asks the Lord of Hosts. "Because my house lies in ruins, while every one of you runs to take care of his own house."'"
What do you think would have happened if God's people had achieved success while they had this attitude? They could have easily credited themselves, forgotten to place their trust in God, forgotten to give Him the glory for their restoration, and found themselves in pre-exile arrogance. So God made things hard and kept them at a level of subsistence until they learned to trust Him.
It's not just about money, though. The attitude of poverty is also self-effacing, making the person feel stuck and incapable. A few of the homeless people that sleep under the train bridge by my house feel this way. I've excuses as to why they won't work their way out of this life. They're old. They're sick. They don't have any skills. The one guy who told me he believes in Jesus seems the most downcast.
I pray for him to receive the kind of encouragement the Lord gives His people at the end of Haggai 1, "I am with you." In verse 14, "The Lord roused the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the High Priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people; so that they came and began to work on the house of the Lord of Hosts, their God." This doesn't sound exactly like when God miraculously gave His people the means and ability to build the Tabernacle. From what I see, He merely encouraged them buy His Spirit. They were capable in theory but didn't know it until God roused their spirits to do the work.
Haggai talks to the priests in chapter 2 now that the work has begun to restore the Temple. Soon, they're going back to their jobs and need orientation. God tells Haggai to ask them what makes something holy and what makes it defiled. If something designated as holy like the meat of the sacrifice were to touch a common item of food, it becomes defiled, going from holy to common. If something particularly unclean were to touch either holy or common items, then those items would become unclean. God explains how this orientation also applies to the condition of the people. He called them holy and set-apart. They were to keep a distinction between themselves and the rest of the world. If they tried to mix themselves with the world and its practices, they would become defiled again.
One last prophecy is given specially to Zerubbabel. Haggai relays the message from God, "I will shake the heavens and the earth, I will overturn the thrones of the kingdoms, I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and I will overturn the chariots and the people riding in them; the horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother." At first this sounds like a repeat promise from earlier when God told the people He would restore their fortune from these destroyed kingdoms. But the prophecy continues, "'When that day comes,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'I will take you, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel,' says the Lord, 'and wear you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you,' says the Lord of Hosts."
Chosen him far what? He was already governor of Judah. He was already, in a sense, spirit-filled and doing God's work. We find the answer in Matthew 1:12 where the author gives Jesus' genealogy. "After the Babylonian Exile, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel was the father of Zerbbabel." This prophecy was a promise of the coming Messiah, Jesus. In all the work to be done on this Temple, the one God promised to be more glorious than the last, Haggai reminds Zerubbabel of the point. Yes, the Temple was good. God dwelt among His people there. But there would come a time when God would come as a man and walk among His people. After His resurrection and ascension, then we would experience the ultimate form of "God with us" during our time in this life when the Holy Spirit came.
Think about what this was like for Zerubbabel? "The Messiah is still coming, Mr. Governor, and He'll be one of your descendants." I wonder if this gave Zerubbabel a new perspective on the importance of what he and Joshua were asked to do. I wonder what his relationship with God looked like afterward. If it were me, I'd feel overwhelmed with humility. A short time ago, he was poor and couldn't do anything for himself. God gives him hope for future restoration, "your work isn't in vain. Not only that, but the One who will come and set everything right will be born of your line. You, Zerubbabel, are a part of my plan for salvation."
For those of us who have our trust in Jesus and see the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, we can also be certain of this. Our work for the Kingdom of God is not in vain. Be encouraged! We will make mistakes, we will find times when our energy begins to run low, but God has promised to set everything right through Jesus.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Nine of the Twelve - Zephaniah's indictment against complacency.
My girlfriend knows this girl who, in my opinion, is a total brat. God help her. One night during a painfully selfish episode, I asked her, "If you could be your own god, would you?"
She gave me the Stink-eye and said, "I don't know." Like I was dumb for asking. I kept my mouth shut and nodded my head. She might not have thought of it to know but her answer was the same as "Yes". Every idol and false religion is just a variation of the serpent's lie in Genesis 3, "You will be like God." Either you serve God, or you serve whatever vehicle promises to fulfill your selfish desires. These vehicles, like money or romance or achievement, become idols when we do not submit our hope and trust to God alone.
Even thought this girl goes to a church, I don't know if she is a Christian. I've never asked. But I do know a handful of people who say they're believers while acting like every other idol-worshiper. In conversation with them, I hear them speak of God not as Lord but as a means for wealth, success, perfect fitness, etc. Not that I'm saying God doesn't want this for us, but there's so much more to Him. A.W. Tozer once said that idolatry is worshiping anything less than God, including a reduced version of God. I've heard this reduced version referred to as "Easy Gospel". It doesn't cost you anything and gives you everything in this life. We'll talk more about this later, but for now, let's look at Zephaniah.
In the first verse of Zephaniah's book, a genealogy notes the prophet as a cousin of King Josiah, sharing Hezekiah as a great-grandfather. Josiah was distinguished in the Bible as a good king who pleased God. He removed official places of idol worship and restored the Temple. This reform came after two generations of wicked kings who worshiped Molech and belonged to a cult devoted to "The Army of Heaven". In my Bible, Zephaniah starts at the bottom of the right hand page and only shows the first verse. My surprised at verse two when I turned the page was probably a distant echo of the shock Josiah may have felt. "'I will completely sweep away everything off the face of the land,' says the Lord."
It would seem that, despite Josiah's reforms, idolatry continued throughout the country and held to peoples' hearts. Zephaniah 1:4-6 names the different idols. "I will stretch out my hand over Judah and all those living in Jerusalem. I will wipe every remnant of Baal from this place, the idol-serving priests and even their names, those worshiping heaven's army on the roofs, also those who worship and sear by the Lord but swear by Malkam as well, those who turned away from following the Lord, and those who haven't sought the Lord or consulted Him at all."
If Zephaniah knew about this ongoing practices, the king most likely had knowledge of them as well. Josiah might not have personally worshiped idols or promoted their worship but we can guess he at least demonstrated a tolerance toward idol worship in his kingdom. Instead of giving this a governmental application, I'll compare the average Western church with Judah and modern versions of these idols.
Baal/Asherah worship was a fertility cult. It ultimately had to do with agricultural (financial) prosperity and implemented sexual perversion as a part of their ceremonies. If you look at the history of something like televangelism, it doesn't take long to find stories of greed and sexual perversion. This problem is obviously bigger than TV preachers. Beau Black, writing for the Baptist Standard, cited a statistic saying between 40 and 70 percent of evangelical Christian men struggle with pornography. It wouldn't surprise me if the real number were closer to 70 than 40. It also wouldn't surprise me if this number reflected the percentage of pastors who struggle with porn. And this statistic doesn't even consider the women who also deal with this issue. I would look further into these statistics but I hesitate to run a Google search including the word "porn". I guess for now, the Press will have to suffer some limits of research. When a friend of mine came to visit me in Nashville, he noticed the city's high number of adult stores and strip clubs. He wondered aloud why there were so many. I answered his rhetorical question, "probably because there are so many pastors." I didn't mean to be cynical but I had that 40 to 70 percent statistic in mind.
The people who worshiped Malkam, another name for Molech, would sacrifice their children by fire to this false god. I won't go into the common comparison to abortion here. Instead, I'll focus on what Zephaniah said about people swearing by both God and Molech. Overall, the way Zephaniah puts it, the very thought of someone worshiping God and aligning themselves with something as evil and wicked as Molech downright confuses me. There are some who belong to organizations and societies that make oaths to a vague, catch-all, "god-as-you-know-him" name. Of all these organizations and societies I've read into, at some level below the surface, one realizes they do not at all serve the one, true God. I know of people who belong or once belonged to these societies and the more I learn, the more I wonder whether they were duped or if they ever truly accepted Jesus as their Lord.
The Army of Heaven cult was a weird version of modern day astrology mixed with pseudo-biblical mysticism. 2 Kings 23 tells of Josiah tearing down the altars to the Army of Heaven that his grandfather Manasseh had built in the Temple and removing its priests, but Zephaniah's words make me wonder if the king had succeeded in completely eradicating its practice from his kingdom. I don't know many churches that promote astrology or biblical mysticism, but I have heard a decent number of church-goers discuss these studies. Our society tends to have a casual view on this sort of thing.
Most of all, in this first chapter of Zephaniah, I can see how much God hated the attitude of false religion masquerading as what I know call Christianity - those who worshiped the Lord and had hope in Jesus, the coming Messiah. Why is it that so many Unitarian churches appear to promote Christian tendencies on the surface when their very message is "god-as-you-know-him"? I've seen the West support a belief in "God", but discourage belief in Jesus. It's culturally acceptable to use what Francis Shaeffer called "the word 'God'" and go to church. This reminds me of Keith Green's story. He used to believe in something he called "God" and looked to Jesus more like a spiritual teacher or guru. Then he came to saving faith, became a genuine Christian, and went on to say convicting things like, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian the same way going to McDonald's doesn't make you a hamburger."
This brings me back to the topic of Easy Gospel and Tozer's definition of idolatry. The Bible teaches that God is holy. Wayne Grudem defines holy as something special and set apart form common or ordinary things, clean as opposed to defiled. The beings who surround God and praise Him in Revelation 4 call Him, "Holy, Holy, Holy." Using the word three times was a Hebrew literary device to describe its perfection. God isn't just holy, He's perfectly holy. In the Temple, there was the Holy Place and then the Most Holy Place. God dwelt in the Most Holy Place. The Holy of Holies. What we see in Zephaniah 1 is an attitude that seeks to reduce God and put Him on the same level of importance as the false religions of the surrounding nations. I think they intended to make God more culturally appealing so they wouldn't look like the weird, backwater country with the un-hip religion. In chapter 2 and 3:1-4, it looks like they succeeded when God angrily compares them to other nations.
God also felt grief for His people. I mean, they were pissing Him off, but it still pained Him. When He took Israel out of Egypt in Exodus, He called them "His people". In Leviticus, He gave the blessing for them to be holy as He is holy. They were supposed to be special as a nation, set apart from the others, dedicated to God and God alone. I know that this essay may sound like I'm grinding and axe for the church. Please don't mistake me. I love the church. I don't intend to make blanket statements. But I do live in the West, see what our culture calls Christianity, and I see many who fit the comparison.
Like that girl I mentioned at the beginning, there are people who may say they're Christians while displaying an exhausting kind of selfishness. Like Zephaniah's Jerusalem, they want all the grace but none of the conviction, salvation but not the life of repentance. There are churches that would are willing to accept sin and ignore God's call to holiness and their responsibility to biblical church discipline. Josiah's family had a history of worshiping both Molech and the Army of Heaven. I wonder if he turned a blind eye to their continued existence (at any level) because of something like family feelings. That's speculation, of course, but I do wonder. The people of Judah might have called themselves holy, but God through Zephaniah exposed their hearts.
Thankfully, the third and final chapter of Zephaniah offers hope. The first reference to Jesus occurs in 3:5. "The Lord, who is righteous, is there among them." The idea of God dwelling with His people first appears in Genesis when He walked with man in the Garden of Eden. Despite the separation caused by sin, God again expressed His desire to dwell among His people when He ordered the Tabernacle (an early form of the Temple) built. The name given for Jesus in the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 7 is "Immanuel", translated "God with us".
In Zephaniah 3:9, God promises, "For then I will change the peoples, so that they will have pure lips, to call on the name of the Lord, all of them, and serve Him with one accord." This is a picture of cleansing, of salvation, of God Himself changing our hearts. The part about pure lips reminds me of Isaiah 6. There, Isaiah sees God and cries out, "Woe to me! I [too] am doomed! Because I, a man with unclean lips, living among a people with unclean lips, have seen with my own eyes the King, the Lord of Hosts!" Then one of the angels takes a glowing coal from the Temple altar and touches it to Isaiah's lips. The angel says, "Here! This has touched your lips. Your iniquity is gone, your sin atoned for."
We can read books like Zephaniah, think about its application to our lives, and wonder like Isaiah if we too are doomed. But God the Son, Jesus, came to live among His people as a man, died to take our punishment, and rose again to offer us new life. Before He returned to Heaven, Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1 to wait in Jerusalem. Again, He promised, God would come among His people in the form of the Holy Spirit. Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit then indwells those who accept Jesus as God. Our bodies become a temple of the Holy Spirit, something like the Most Holy Place.
This should cause some sort of heart change in a person! Paul explains in Galatians that the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control as "fruit" in the life of a believer. Of course one quick prayer doesn't make us immediately awesome and none of us ever reach perfection. The process God uses to make us more holy is called "sanctification". Like God says in Zephaniah's prophecy, this change of heart comes by His power alone.
This raises a few questions. Have you seen this sanctifying work in your life, where by the Spirit's enabling you become more like the holy, set-apart person God desires? Do you see more of the fruit He produces in your life now than in the past? If your answer is yes, God be praised. We can high five and continue to encourage each other. If you see your Christian brothers or sisters struggling , then talk with them, pray for them. Don't be like Jerusalem and tolerate them with an attitude of "I'm okay/you're okay". If your answer is no, please take a moment to pray and ask God to reveal idols you may have in your heart. Open yourself to the Holy Spirit's conviction. Be willing to receive His correction and change.
She gave me the Stink-eye and said, "I don't know." Like I was dumb for asking. I kept my mouth shut and nodded my head. She might not have thought of it to know but her answer was the same as "Yes". Every idol and false religion is just a variation of the serpent's lie in Genesis 3, "You will be like God." Either you serve God, or you serve whatever vehicle promises to fulfill your selfish desires. These vehicles, like money or romance or achievement, become idols when we do not submit our hope and trust to God alone.
Even thought this girl goes to a church, I don't know if she is a Christian. I've never asked. But I do know a handful of people who say they're believers while acting like every other idol-worshiper. In conversation with them, I hear them speak of God not as Lord but as a means for wealth, success, perfect fitness, etc. Not that I'm saying God doesn't want this for us, but there's so much more to Him. A.W. Tozer once said that idolatry is worshiping anything less than God, including a reduced version of God. I've heard this reduced version referred to as "Easy Gospel". It doesn't cost you anything and gives you everything in this life. We'll talk more about this later, but for now, let's look at Zephaniah.
In the first verse of Zephaniah's book, a genealogy notes the prophet as a cousin of King Josiah, sharing Hezekiah as a great-grandfather. Josiah was distinguished in the Bible as a good king who pleased God. He removed official places of idol worship and restored the Temple. This reform came after two generations of wicked kings who worshiped Molech and belonged to a cult devoted to "The Army of Heaven". In my Bible, Zephaniah starts at the bottom of the right hand page and only shows the first verse. My surprised at verse two when I turned the page was probably a distant echo of the shock Josiah may have felt. "'I will completely sweep away everything off the face of the land,' says the Lord."
It would seem that, despite Josiah's reforms, idolatry continued throughout the country and held to peoples' hearts. Zephaniah 1:4-6 names the different idols. "I will stretch out my hand over Judah and all those living in Jerusalem. I will wipe every remnant of Baal from this place, the idol-serving priests and even their names, those worshiping heaven's army on the roofs, also those who worship and sear by the Lord but swear by Malkam as well, those who turned away from following the Lord, and those who haven't sought the Lord or consulted Him at all."
If Zephaniah knew about this ongoing practices, the king most likely had knowledge of them as well. Josiah might not have personally worshiped idols or promoted their worship but we can guess he at least demonstrated a tolerance toward idol worship in his kingdom. Instead of giving this a governmental application, I'll compare the average Western church with Judah and modern versions of these idols.
Baal/Asherah worship was a fertility cult. It ultimately had to do with agricultural (financial) prosperity and implemented sexual perversion as a part of their ceremonies. If you look at the history of something like televangelism, it doesn't take long to find stories of greed and sexual perversion. This problem is obviously bigger than TV preachers. Beau Black, writing for the Baptist Standard, cited a statistic saying between 40 and 70 percent of evangelical Christian men struggle with pornography. It wouldn't surprise me if the real number were closer to 70 than 40. It also wouldn't surprise me if this number reflected the percentage of pastors who struggle with porn. And this statistic doesn't even consider the women who also deal with this issue. I would look further into these statistics but I hesitate to run a Google search including the word "porn". I guess for now, the Press will have to suffer some limits of research. When a friend of mine came to visit me in Nashville, he noticed the city's high number of adult stores and strip clubs. He wondered aloud why there were so many. I answered his rhetorical question, "probably because there are so many pastors." I didn't mean to be cynical but I had that 40 to 70 percent statistic in mind.
The people who worshiped Malkam, another name for Molech, would sacrifice their children by fire to this false god. I won't go into the common comparison to abortion here. Instead, I'll focus on what Zephaniah said about people swearing by both God and Molech. Overall, the way Zephaniah puts it, the very thought of someone worshiping God and aligning themselves with something as evil and wicked as Molech downright confuses me. There are some who belong to organizations and societies that make oaths to a vague, catch-all, "god-as-you-know-him" name. Of all these organizations and societies I've read into, at some level below the surface, one realizes they do not at all serve the one, true God. I know of people who belong or once belonged to these societies and the more I learn, the more I wonder whether they were duped or if they ever truly accepted Jesus as their Lord.
The Army of Heaven cult was a weird version of modern day astrology mixed with pseudo-biblical mysticism. 2 Kings 23 tells of Josiah tearing down the altars to the Army of Heaven that his grandfather Manasseh had built in the Temple and removing its priests, but Zephaniah's words make me wonder if the king had succeeded in completely eradicating its practice from his kingdom. I don't know many churches that promote astrology or biblical mysticism, but I have heard a decent number of church-goers discuss these studies. Our society tends to have a casual view on this sort of thing.
Most of all, in this first chapter of Zephaniah, I can see how much God hated the attitude of false religion masquerading as what I know call Christianity - those who worshiped the Lord and had hope in Jesus, the coming Messiah. Why is it that so many Unitarian churches appear to promote Christian tendencies on the surface when their very message is "god-as-you-know-him"? I've seen the West support a belief in "God", but discourage belief in Jesus. It's culturally acceptable to use what Francis Shaeffer called "the word 'God'" and go to church. This reminds me of Keith Green's story. He used to believe in something he called "God" and looked to Jesus more like a spiritual teacher or guru. Then he came to saving faith, became a genuine Christian, and went on to say convicting things like, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian the same way going to McDonald's doesn't make you a hamburger."
This brings me back to the topic of Easy Gospel and Tozer's definition of idolatry. The Bible teaches that God is holy. Wayne Grudem defines holy as something special and set apart form common or ordinary things, clean as opposed to defiled. The beings who surround God and praise Him in Revelation 4 call Him, "Holy, Holy, Holy." Using the word three times was a Hebrew literary device to describe its perfection. God isn't just holy, He's perfectly holy. In the Temple, there was the Holy Place and then the Most Holy Place. God dwelt in the Most Holy Place. The Holy of Holies. What we see in Zephaniah 1 is an attitude that seeks to reduce God and put Him on the same level of importance as the false religions of the surrounding nations. I think they intended to make God more culturally appealing so they wouldn't look like the weird, backwater country with the un-hip religion. In chapter 2 and 3:1-4, it looks like they succeeded when God angrily compares them to other nations.
God also felt grief for His people. I mean, they were pissing Him off, but it still pained Him. When He took Israel out of Egypt in Exodus, He called them "His people". In Leviticus, He gave the blessing for them to be holy as He is holy. They were supposed to be special as a nation, set apart from the others, dedicated to God and God alone. I know that this essay may sound like I'm grinding and axe for the church. Please don't mistake me. I love the church. I don't intend to make blanket statements. But I do live in the West, see what our culture calls Christianity, and I see many who fit the comparison.
Like that girl I mentioned at the beginning, there are people who may say they're Christians while displaying an exhausting kind of selfishness. Like Zephaniah's Jerusalem, they want all the grace but none of the conviction, salvation but not the life of repentance. There are churches that would are willing to accept sin and ignore God's call to holiness and their responsibility to biblical church discipline. Josiah's family had a history of worshiping both Molech and the Army of Heaven. I wonder if he turned a blind eye to their continued existence (at any level) because of something like family feelings. That's speculation, of course, but I do wonder. The people of Judah might have called themselves holy, but God through Zephaniah exposed their hearts.
Thankfully, the third and final chapter of Zephaniah offers hope. The first reference to Jesus occurs in 3:5. "The Lord, who is righteous, is there among them." The idea of God dwelling with His people first appears in Genesis when He walked with man in the Garden of Eden. Despite the separation caused by sin, God again expressed His desire to dwell among His people when He ordered the Tabernacle (an early form of the Temple) built. The name given for Jesus in the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 7 is "Immanuel", translated "God with us".
In Zephaniah 3:9, God promises, "For then I will change the peoples, so that they will have pure lips, to call on the name of the Lord, all of them, and serve Him with one accord." This is a picture of cleansing, of salvation, of God Himself changing our hearts. The part about pure lips reminds me of Isaiah 6. There, Isaiah sees God and cries out, "Woe to me! I [too] am doomed! Because I, a man with unclean lips, living among a people with unclean lips, have seen with my own eyes the King, the Lord of Hosts!" Then one of the angels takes a glowing coal from the Temple altar and touches it to Isaiah's lips. The angel says, "Here! This has touched your lips. Your iniquity is gone, your sin atoned for."
We can read books like Zephaniah, think about its application to our lives, and wonder like Isaiah if we too are doomed. But God the Son, Jesus, came to live among His people as a man, died to take our punishment, and rose again to offer us new life. Before He returned to Heaven, Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1 to wait in Jerusalem. Again, He promised, God would come among His people in the form of the Holy Spirit. Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit then indwells those who accept Jesus as God. Our bodies become a temple of the Holy Spirit, something like the Most Holy Place.
This should cause some sort of heart change in a person! Paul explains in Galatians that the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control as "fruit" in the life of a believer. Of course one quick prayer doesn't make us immediately awesome and none of us ever reach perfection. The process God uses to make us more holy is called "sanctification". Like God says in Zephaniah's prophecy, this change of heart comes by His power alone.
This raises a few questions. Have you seen this sanctifying work in your life, where by the Spirit's enabling you become more like the holy, set-apart person God desires? Do you see more of the fruit He produces in your life now than in the past? If your answer is yes, God be praised. We can high five and continue to encourage each other. If you see your Christian brothers or sisters struggling , then talk with them, pray for them. Don't be like Jerusalem and tolerate them with an attitude of "I'm okay/you're okay". If your answer is no, please take a moment to pray and ask God to reveal idols you may have in your heart. Open yourself to the Holy Spirit's conviction. Be willing to receive His correction and change.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Eight of the Twelve - A very frank conversation.
It's impossible for me to remember every prayer I pray and every word I hear from God without writing it down. That's why I began to keep a prayer journal back in 2003. In it, I write my words in parenthesis to distinguish my voice from the Holy Spirit. This way, I'm able to see the flow of conversation and remember who said what. If anyone were to read how God and I interact without knowing the purpose or function of the journal, I may be accused of schizophrenia. I can especially see that during the parts where I use the words "Huh? But Lord..."
Journaling prayer isn't a modern innovation, though. Not that I'm putting my spiral notebooks on the same level, but some of the prophets record when God told them to write His words. Among them were Jeremiah, John when he received the Revelation, and Habakkuk.
As a child, I would refer to Habakkuk in Sunday school to see if the other kids knew it was in the Bible. Kind of like that old joke where the preacher opens a message with, "Please turn to the book of Hezekiah," and you laugh at the sound of onion skin paper fluttering around the room. However, in the last few months, I have seen or heard three Bible teachers refer to Habakkuk. It seems times have changed for the journaling prophet. He's at least a little more like Ferris Bueller and a little less like Anthony Michael Hall in the Breakfast Club.
Habakkuk wrote a discussion he had with God in prayer. It started as a complaint and the prophet asked God some pointed questions. After God's response, Habakkuk wrote a humble song of praise. I want to refer to C.J. Mahaney in his book Humility: True Greatness and its discussion of Habakkuk. "I believe we all need to listen intently to Habakkuk so we can emulate his example when our circumstances seem to contradict the character and promises of God. And let me assure you: At some point in your life, you will know circumstances that seem to contradict the character and promises of God, if you haven't already. At some moment in your future, life will not make sense." Mahaney then puts forth an excellent discussion on Habakkuk's transformation from pride to humility. Even though I recommend anyone to read his book, I want to focus on another aspect of this prophet. Habakkuk and God spoke candidly to each other.
I believe this also sets an example for how we can approach God when life doesn't make sense. Chapter 1 begins with Habakkuk's prayer, "Lord, how long must I cry to you without your hearing? 'Violence!' I cry to you, but you don't save. Why do you make me see wrongdoing, why do you permit oppression? Pillage and cruelty confront me, so that strife and discord prevail. Therefore the Law is not followed; justice never gets rendered, because the wicked fence in the righteous. This is why justice comes out perverted."
If this were written in my prayer journal, I may have said it like, "Lord, you told me to pray but it doesn't seem to do any good. People are still sinning wickedly around me and taking advantage of others. They're cruel and quarrelsome. They despise the Bible, the standard of truth, and choose to live their own way. But that affects me and everyone else, God. It's not fair!"
Mahaney points to Habakkuk's prideful tone in this prayer. God does address this, but I want to make note of how He does not reproach Habakkuk for asking the questions. In 1:5-6, God replies, "Look around among the nations! What you see will completely astound you! For what is going to be done in your days you will not believe, even when you are told. I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, who march far and wide over the earth to seize homes that are not their own." God responds in turn with Habakkuk's prayer and goes on to tell him of the coming judgment. To paraphrase, "Yep, I'm pissed about their behavior, too. That's why I'm sending the terrorists in to level the place and take it over. Their army is stronger, faster, and meaner than yours. Diplomacy doesn't matter to them. But before you accuse me of allowing evil for evil's sake, you should know that I'm going to punish them as well."
Understandably, Habakkuk doesn't like this answer. My prayer journal would have read, "Huh? But Lord... that city they're going to destroy? I live there!" So the prophet asks God to explain Himself and in 1:13 writes, "Your eyes are too pure to see evil, you cannot countenance oppression. So why do you countenance traitors? Why are you silent when evil people swallow up those more righteous than they?" This kind of sounds like back-peddling. "Lord, I know I said we were bad, but these guys are worse. This doesn't make sense to me."
This reads like a very frank conversation between people who know each other. I want Christians to understand that we can come before God with this kind of familiarity, though not necessarily with the same attitude. I've met a good deal of people who tell me they want to hear God's voice. After we talk about how to listen, they often return telling me, "I didn't hear anything." My best answer to them is, "Keep praying. Keep listening." When my dad first began learning how to listen in prayer, he said, "I'm not going anywhere until you say something to me, Lord."
Habakkuk says something similar in 2:1. "I will stand at my watchpost; I will station myself on the rampart. I will look to see what He will say through me and what I will answer when I am reproved." He went somewhere by himself and waited quietly until God answered his questions. The rest of chapter 2 chronicles God's answer.
I'm not suggesting we treat God casually. These frank conversations aren't meant to diminish God's glory and majesty. We are, in fact, to respond in praise like Habakkuk in chapter 3. And like Habakkuk, our relationship with God should cause us to thank Him for Jesus. It's through Jesus' death and resurrection we are able enjoy this kind of intimacy. For Habakkuk, he knew God wouldn't completely destroy His people because of Jesus. In 1:12, the prophet said confidently, "My God, my holy one, we will not die." God had promised over and over to bring Messiah, Jesus, through the Jews. In 3:13, Habakkuk's song repeats this confidence and reminds the listener of God's plan for salvation. "You come out to save your people, to save your anointed one (Hebrew: Messiah); you crush the head of the house of the wicked (a reference to the prophecy in Genesis 3:15), uncovering its foundation all the way to the neck."
If I were to let you read my journals, you would see that my frank conversations with God haven't led me to show Him contempt. When He answers me, my love for Him grows because I understand more of His character and promises. I argue with Him less these days and, I'm happy to say, praise Him more.
Journaling prayer isn't a modern innovation, though. Not that I'm putting my spiral notebooks on the same level, but some of the prophets record when God told them to write His words. Among them were Jeremiah, John when he received the Revelation, and Habakkuk.
As a child, I would refer to Habakkuk in Sunday school to see if the other kids knew it was in the Bible. Kind of like that old joke where the preacher opens a message with, "Please turn to the book of Hezekiah," and you laugh at the sound of onion skin paper fluttering around the room. However, in the last few months, I have seen or heard three Bible teachers refer to Habakkuk. It seems times have changed for the journaling prophet. He's at least a little more like Ferris Bueller and a little less like Anthony Michael Hall in the Breakfast Club.
Habakkuk wrote a discussion he had with God in prayer. It started as a complaint and the prophet asked God some pointed questions. After God's response, Habakkuk wrote a humble song of praise. I want to refer to C.J. Mahaney in his book Humility: True Greatness and its discussion of Habakkuk. "I believe we all need to listen intently to Habakkuk so we can emulate his example when our circumstances seem to contradict the character and promises of God. And let me assure you: At some point in your life, you will know circumstances that seem to contradict the character and promises of God, if you haven't already. At some moment in your future, life will not make sense." Mahaney then puts forth an excellent discussion on Habakkuk's transformation from pride to humility. Even though I recommend anyone to read his book, I want to focus on another aspect of this prophet. Habakkuk and God spoke candidly to each other.
I believe this also sets an example for how we can approach God when life doesn't make sense. Chapter 1 begins with Habakkuk's prayer, "Lord, how long must I cry to you without your hearing? 'Violence!' I cry to you, but you don't save. Why do you make me see wrongdoing, why do you permit oppression? Pillage and cruelty confront me, so that strife and discord prevail. Therefore the Law is not followed; justice never gets rendered, because the wicked fence in the righteous. This is why justice comes out perverted."
If this were written in my prayer journal, I may have said it like, "Lord, you told me to pray but it doesn't seem to do any good. People are still sinning wickedly around me and taking advantage of others. They're cruel and quarrelsome. They despise the Bible, the standard of truth, and choose to live their own way. But that affects me and everyone else, God. It's not fair!"
Mahaney points to Habakkuk's prideful tone in this prayer. God does address this, but I want to make note of how He does not reproach Habakkuk for asking the questions. In 1:5-6, God replies, "Look around among the nations! What you see will completely astound you! For what is going to be done in your days you will not believe, even when you are told. I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, who march far and wide over the earth to seize homes that are not their own." God responds in turn with Habakkuk's prayer and goes on to tell him of the coming judgment. To paraphrase, "Yep, I'm pissed about their behavior, too. That's why I'm sending the terrorists in to level the place and take it over. Their army is stronger, faster, and meaner than yours. Diplomacy doesn't matter to them. But before you accuse me of allowing evil for evil's sake, you should know that I'm going to punish them as well."
Understandably, Habakkuk doesn't like this answer. My prayer journal would have read, "Huh? But Lord... that city they're going to destroy? I live there!" So the prophet asks God to explain Himself and in 1:13 writes, "Your eyes are too pure to see evil, you cannot countenance oppression. So why do you countenance traitors? Why are you silent when evil people swallow up those more righteous than they?" This kind of sounds like back-peddling. "Lord, I know I said we were bad, but these guys are worse. This doesn't make sense to me."
This reads like a very frank conversation between people who know each other. I want Christians to understand that we can come before God with this kind of familiarity, though not necessarily with the same attitude. I've met a good deal of people who tell me they want to hear God's voice. After we talk about how to listen, they often return telling me, "I didn't hear anything." My best answer to them is, "Keep praying. Keep listening." When my dad first began learning how to listen in prayer, he said, "I'm not going anywhere until you say something to me, Lord."
Habakkuk says something similar in 2:1. "I will stand at my watchpost; I will station myself on the rampart. I will look to see what He will say through me and what I will answer when I am reproved." He went somewhere by himself and waited quietly until God answered his questions. The rest of chapter 2 chronicles God's answer.
I'm not suggesting we treat God casually. These frank conversations aren't meant to diminish God's glory and majesty. We are, in fact, to respond in praise like Habakkuk in chapter 3. And like Habakkuk, our relationship with God should cause us to thank Him for Jesus. It's through Jesus' death and resurrection we are able enjoy this kind of intimacy. For Habakkuk, he knew God wouldn't completely destroy His people because of Jesus. In 1:12, the prophet said confidently, "My God, my holy one, we will not die." God had promised over and over to bring Messiah, Jesus, through the Jews. In 3:13, Habakkuk's song repeats this confidence and reminds the listener of God's plan for salvation. "You come out to save your people, to save your anointed one (Hebrew: Messiah); you crush the head of the house of the wicked (a reference to the prophecy in Genesis 3:15), uncovering its foundation all the way to the neck."
If I were to let you read my journals, you would see that my frank conversations with God haven't led me to show Him contempt. When He answers me, my love for Him grows because I understand more of His character and promises. I argue with Him less these days and, I'm happy to say, praise Him more.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Seven of the Twelve - Nahum and a question of evil.
I have so many stories and songs that could serve as metaphors in Nahum. I could talk about the first time I saw my dad yell at my brothers. I was eating a PB&J in my highchair. When my large, bearded father began shouting, I froze with the sandwich halfway in front of my gaping mouth. I wondered for a second, "Is he going to kill them?" He told my brothers to go outside and they booked out the door. Dad sighed and put his face in his hands. I sat completely still, sandwich and all, just in case he turned his fury on me. After a moment, he looked up at me and saw my face. "Oh. Sorry, buddy. Did I scare you?" Yes Dad, you did.
There was the time some friends and I tricked a body-builder into letting us duct tape him to a chair. It didn't last. When he realized that we weren't rehearsing a skit about "binding the strongman" for youth camp, he flexed his whole body at once and the tape seemed to melt off of him. Watching that display of power scared me enough to think, "He might actually kill me." My friends and I survived because one roll of tape still held his ankle to the chair. God is merciful.
I was also going to try applying the lyrics of Warren G's Regulate but I think we have enough to work with here.
Reading Nahum, you might think your dad was about to kill your brothers. Or at least the neighbor kids since the prophecy concerns Nineveh in Assyria. I mean, all of the prophets know how to write doom and gloom passages, but listen to this. Speaking to Nineveh, Nahum writes in 3:5-6, "'I am against you,' says the Lord of Hosts. 'I will uncover your skirts on your face; I will show the nations your private parts and the kingdoms your shame. I will pelt you with disgusting filth, disgrace you and make a spectacle of you.'" After reading this last month, I turned to my girlfriend and asked, "How exactly did they interpret this in the Illustrated Children's Bible?"
You might file Nahum 3:5-6 under "verses we don't mention in conversation". The Bible has a few of those. Leviticus, Ecclesiastes, certain parts of Song of Solomon that can't call allegory. That sort of thing. Still, it's in the Bible for a reason. So what is God trying to say?
Nahum stated some foundational points in chapter 1. "The Lord is a jealous and vengeful God. The Lord avenges; He knows how to be angry. The Lord takes vengeance on His foes and stores up wrath for His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, but great in power; and He does not leave the guilty unpunished." Then later in 1:7, "The Lord is good, a stronghold in times of trouble; He takes care of those who take refuge in Him."
God is good, but He knows how to be angry. This is the same, unchanging God who inspired Paul to instruct people not to sin in their anger. Anger in itself isn't sin. Why? Because God gets angry. When it agrees with God, who is perfectly good with no evil in Him, then it isn't sin. It's not always easy to think of it that way, though, because we often attempt to hold God to our faulty and incomplete standards. We compare Him to ourselves and end up with a fuzzy Xerox copy of what anger should look like.
God has every reason to be angry with Assyria. First off, they named the country after their patron deity, a demon named Assur (or Ashur). Their king performed the duties of Assur's high priest. This was no casual religion. King Sennacherib wrote of following Ashur's commands in battle. Second, they were the ones who overtook the northern kingdom of Israel, blended in with the population, and brought their gods with them. This is how God-fearing Israelites became idol-worshiping Samaritans. Micah condemned the Assyrian city of Lakhish for transmitting these pagan elements to God's people. Third, they were ruthless with the cities they conquered. Some accounts talk about brutal rape, gouging out eyes of men so they could tell of Assyria's mercilessness, and maiming men in horrific ways until they died. Pastor Craig Brown of City Church once told of an Assyrian torture where a man would have the flesh on his back peeled off by a metal rake.
This nation existed for something around 1,400 years. We're talking centuries upon centuries of horrors. I think that's why Nahum felt it necessary to remind Nineveh the Lord is slow to anger but wouldn't let them go unpunished. "You guys had well over a millennium and a visit from Jonah. Don't say God didn't warn you."
Remember in the midst of this that God is still good. While the imagery in Nahum spells disaster for Nineveh, it comforts God's people. Nahum 1:15 says, "Look! On the mountain are the feet of him who brings good news, proclaiming peace. Keep your festivals, Judah, fulfill your vows; For the wicked one will never pass through you again; he has been completely destroyed." The book closes with the people celebrating Assyria's downfall in 3:19. Speaking again to Assyria, "Your wound cannot be healed. Your injury is fatal. Everyone hearing the news about you claps his hands in joy over you. For who has not been overwhelmed by your relentless cruelty?"
Another passage of the Bible speaks of God's people celebrating their enemies coming to justice. Revelation speaks of a time when God will punish his enemies. The tone of Revelation 18:20 resembles that of Nahum 3:19. "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her (Babylon)."And in Revelation 19, John describes Jesus' return to punish Satan and his followers. Jesus has a sword, blood-soaked clothes, and is proclaimed as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. An angel calls all the birds of the earth to feast on the flesh of those Jesus slays. This, again, is not from the Illustrated Children's Bible.
This is, however, God's justice. Isaiah 9:7 prophesies of Jesus establishing His kingdom on earth saying, "Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this" (emphasis mine). It might be hard for us to think of this slaughter as justice but the Bible clearly calls it just that.
I had a conversation about theology with a friend of mine recently. He brought up the topic of predestination, which always makes for light discussion. During our talk, he said he used to struggle understanding how evil could exist if nothing in existence didn't come from God's hand. My voice lowered as I asked, "Don't you think that's duelist thinking?" He laughed and said, "I'm not agreeing with the idea. I'm only saying I have a hard time understanding evil. When I die and come into God's presence, all of the tumblers will fall into place and I'll finally see what is truly good and understand what is truly evil."
I walked away from that conversation still unsure if my friend believed God was both good and evil, a ying-yang creator. Something of what he said made sense, though. I believe the Bible is a perfectly true revelation of God and His character. The Bible tells me that God is good. Anything good comes from God. The Bible tells me that there is no evil, no darkness, in God. He hates evil. But I only know of God's goodness and His aversion to evil because of what He has told me in the Bible. My emotions might have at one time told me that Nineveh's destruction sounds awful, that God's command to Saul to kill every Amalekite was as wicked as any other genocide, that any hard act of God is an act of cruelty. But these are just emotional reactions not necessarily based on my standard of truth in the Bible.
All of this has caused me to wonder about God's command to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. He told them not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Was it simply an arbitrary command? Like, "let's see if they can keep this one rule"? Was it because God didn't want them to have knowledge of evil so they could prance around the garden in ignorant bliss? I'm beginning to think (and I might change my mind on this as I continue to learn) that God gave this command because finite humans couldn't understand the full context of God's perfect goodness. And if evil is that which is contrary to God and His character, one would need to fully understand what is good to know evil as its full antithesis. When we make decisions between what we think of as good and evil based on our own understanding, isn't that a recipe for failure? This strengthens my conviction that I need God the Holy Spirit to guide me into all truth.
I believe Nahum knew this while writing about private parts and feces getting tossed in someone's nose. His trust lay in God's revealed character. I needed to know that my dad loved my brothers. I later found out the body-builder was actually a pretty gentle guy. Now when I read the doomy parts of books like Nahum, I am reminded of God's goodness and this causes me to love Him more.
There was the time some friends and I tricked a body-builder into letting us duct tape him to a chair. It didn't last. When he realized that we weren't rehearsing a skit about "binding the strongman" for youth camp, he flexed his whole body at once and the tape seemed to melt off of him. Watching that display of power scared me enough to think, "He might actually kill me." My friends and I survived because one roll of tape still held his ankle to the chair. God is merciful.
I was also going to try applying the lyrics of Warren G's Regulate but I think we have enough to work with here.
Reading Nahum, you might think your dad was about to kill your brothers. Or at least the neighbor kids since the prophecy concerns Nineveh in Assyria. I mean, all of the prophets know how to write doom and gloom passages, but listen to this. Speaking to Nineveh, Nahum writes in 3:5-6, "'I am against you,' says the Lord of Hosts. 'I will uncover your skirts on your face; I will show the nations your private parts and the kingdoms your shame. I will pelt you with disgusting filth, disgrace you and make a spectacle of you.'" After reading this last month, I turned to my girlfriend and asked, "How exactly did they interpret this in the Illustrated Children's Bible?"
You might file Nahum 3:5-6 under "verses we don't mention in conversation". The Bible has a few of those. Leviticus, Ecclesiastes, certain parts of Song of Solomon that can't call allegory. That sort of thing. Still, it's in the Bible for a reason. So what is God trying to say?
Nahum stated some foundational points in chapter 1. "The Lord is a jealous and vengeful God. The Lord avenges; He knows how to be angry. The Lord takes vengeance on His foes and stores up wrath for His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, but great in power; and He does not leave the guilty unpunished." Then later in 1:7, "The Lord is good, a stronghold in times of trouble; He takes care of those who take refuge in Him."
God is good, but He knows how to be angry. This is the same, unchanging God who inspired Paul to instruct people not to sin in their anger. Anger in itself isn't sin. Why? Because God gets angry. When it agrees with God, who is perfectly good with no evil in Him, then it isn't sin. It's not always easy to think of it that way, though, because we often attempt to hold God to our faulty and incomplete standards. We compare Him to ourselves and end up with a fuzzy Xerox copy of what anger should look like.
God has every reason to be angry with Assyria. First off, they named the country after their patron deity, a demon named Assur (or Ashur). Their king performed the duties of Assur's high priest. This was no casual religion. King Sennacherib wrote of following Ashur's commands in battle. Second, they were the ones who overtook the northern kingdom of Israel, blended in with the population, and brought their gods with them. This is how God-fearing Israelites became idol-worshiping Samaritans. Micah condemned the Assyrian city of Lakhish for transmitting these pagan elements to God's people. Third, they were ruthless with the cities they conquered. Some accounts talk about brutal rape, gouging out eyes of men so they could tell of Assyria's mercilessness, and maiming men in horrific ways until they died. Pastor Craig Brown of City Church once told of an Assyrian torture where a man would have the flesh on his back peeled off by a metal rake.
This nation existed for something around 1,400 years. We're talking centuries upon centuries of horrors. I think that's why Nahum felt it necessary to remind Nineveh the Lord is slow to anger but wouldn't let them go unpunished. "You guys had well over a millennium and a visit from Jonah. Don't say God didn't warn you."
Remember in the midst of this that God is still good. While the imagery in Nahum spells disaster for Nineveh, it comforts God's people. Nahum 1:15 says, "Look! On the mountain are the feet of him who brings good news, proclaiming peace. Keep your festivals, Judah, fulfill your vows; For the wicked one will never pass through you again; he has been completely destroyed." The book closes with the people celebrating Assyria's downfall in 3:19. Speaking again to Assyria, "Your wound cannot be healed. Your injury is fatal. Everyone hearing the news about you claps his hands in joy over you. For who has not been overwhelmed by your relentless cruelty?"
Another passage of the Bible speaks of God's people celebrating their enemies coming to justice. Revelation speaks of a time when God will punish his enemies. The tone of Revelation 18:20 resembles that of Nahum 3:19. "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her (Babylon)."And in Revelation 19, John describes Jesus' return to punish Satan and his followers. Jesus has a sword, blood-soaked clothes, and is proclaimed as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. An angel calls all the birds of the earth to feast on the flesh of those Jesus slays. This, again, is not from the Illustrated Children's Bible.
This is, however, God's justice. Isaiah 9:7 prophesies of Jesus establishing His kingdom on earth saying, "Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this" (emphasis mine). It might be hard for us to think of this slaughter as justice but the Bible clearly calls it just that.
I had a conversation about theology with a friend of mine recently. He brought up the topic of predestination, which always makes for light discussion. During our talk, he said he used to struggle understanding how evil could exist if nothing in existence didn't come from God's hand. My voice lowered as I asked, "Don't you think that's duelist thinking?" He laughed and said, "I'm not agreeing with the idea. I'm only saying I have a hard time understanding evil. When I die and come into God's presence, all of the tumblers will fall into place and I'll finally see what is truly good and understand what is truly evil."
I walked away from that conversation still unsure if my friend believed God was both good and evil, a ying-yang creator. Something of what he said made sense, though. I believe the Bible is a perfectly true revelation of God and His character. The Bible tells me that God is good. Anything good comes from God. The Bible tells me that there is no evil, no darkness, in God. He hates evil. But I only know of God's goodness and His aversion to evil because of what He has told me in the Bible. My emotions might have at one time told me that Nineveh's destruction sounds awful, that God's command to Saul to kill every Amalekite was as wicked as any other genocide, that any hard act of God is an act of cruelty. But these are just emotional reactions not necessarily based on my standard of truth in the Bible.
All of this has caused me to wonder about God's command to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. He told them not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Was it simply an arbitrary command? Like, "let's see if they can keep this one rule"? Was it because God didn't want them to have knowledge of evil so they could prance around the garden in ignorant bliss? I'm beginning to think (and I might change my mind on this as I continue to learn) that God gave this command because finite humans couldn't understand the full context of God's perfect goodness. And if evil is that which is contrary to God and His character, one would need to fully understand what is good to know evil as its full antithesis. When we make decisions between what we think of as good and evil based on our own understanding, isn't that a recipe for failure? This strengthens my conviction that I need God the Holy Spirit to guide me into all truth.
I believe Nahum knew this while writing about private parts and feces getting tossed in someone's nose. His trust lay in God's revealed character. I needed to know that my dad loved my brothers. I later found out the body-builder was actually a pretty gentle guy. Now when I read the doomy parts of books like Nahum, I am reminded of God's goodness and this causes me to love Him more.
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