A Great Assumption

You know what God is ‘doing’ in your life, don’t you? What lessons He is teaching; what models He is proposing you follow? My hardship must mean He is teaching me patience; my struggle must mean I am learning to be content; my success, that I am His child and He loves me. After all, you are an astute learner, you have observed that God is one whose lessons are ‘between the lines.’ Maybe other people come to you to help them see what the Almighty is up to in their lives; you’re one who gets it.

Life is hard. Live long enough and you’ll get burned by someone or something. Some hope will be ruthlessly dashed in an unforeseen nightmarish fashion; some damsel will douse your desires while laughing; some strapping cologne-wearing man will find it foolish that you ever thought you had a chance with him; you’ll get cancer; your child may be not what you had hoped; your lone does not go through; the job you excelled in and worked honestly for is taken from you and given to some brown-nosed punk; friends say goodbye; other friends refuse to forgive or are the reason you have knives in your back; your car is smoking from the engine; your baby is crying and you have zero energy already . . . and this is God’s method for teaching?

Friends, there is little doubt that we can wonder why and come to some reasonable conclusion. But does He love you with such enthusiasm that he breaks your bones? For what? To tell you what you already know, that you need help; that you’re not perfect; that you have moral and character flaws?

Something more is afoot. God’s word, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, already show us our needs. God’s words also show us who He is. But life shows us that God exists.

We assume God is revealing to us and prodding us by life’s events. The book of Job corrects our thoughts: God is not a hyper-spiritualist having us look at the grass and wonder why it is folded the way it lies; God is real and the thunder and fireworks of life boisterously announce, ‘Look at me!’ God is saying, ‘Look at me!’ Our troubles and tears are echoes of His voice, ‘Look at me; look at me; I am life itself. More real than your broken wrist; more real than your chaos and hurt.’

We must not think God full of remedies for life’s problems. Nor that He is ambiguously teaching us lessons if we only look for them. We must know that He exists and that He is good and what He has taught us we find in His word. We can complicate—and frustrate—our relationship with God by thinking He, as our Father, must order the confusion of life: peace does not always mean tranquility. I know that God loves His children and I know that He, more than any other, cares for His children deeply. God is unconstrained, like His methods.

07.05.2011 (A Poem)

Help seems always
only on the way.
The golden ray
with no star
scraping the horizon’s edge.
Hedged,
a buffer,
anticipations,
nerves dead.
Give no more
breath for my sighs to breathe;
ground for the wealth of weeds.

Leviticus Full of Grace: Why I Love the OT

‘I’m glad I don’t have to worry about doing those anymore.’ Let me guess, if you could even get THROUGH the book of Leviticus that last sentence sums up most of what you learned from reading it. I mean, exempting a few bits here and there of narrative where some died, the book is an eye-lid closing 27 chapters of seemingly worthless, old, Eastern regulations for worship. You may second guess if you still WANT to know the God who would ‘inspire’ such writing!
Well, as seems the normal case, after reading the book over and over, consulting smarter people who can give historical, cultural, and Biblical context, and praying—often in confused frustration—I have come to appreciate and even . . . yes . . . genuinely ENJOY this ridiculous book.

We must first understand that Leviticus is part of a story: it is squished between Exodus—which ends with the glory of God descending on the tent of meeting, showing God’s presence with the people—and is succeeded by Numbers—which has more regulations and laws, some narrative of astounding things and people wildly and frequently complaining… and a huge census. So Leviticus is not a Maverick book sitting alone at the bar of the Bible smoking a cigarette with a half-empty pint in front of it; it is no rogue, but a thread in the fabric of, not only the first 5 books of the Bible (called the Pentateuch), nor the whole Bible, but a glimpse into the character of God Himself.

So we should conclude, then, that God is full of rules and is killer at making us bored? No. Prior to Leviticus God approached people, and not many of them it seems. He CAME to Noah, Abram, Jacob, Joseph, Moses; no mega-churches by this time in the Bible. Culturally at this juncture in history such lack of interaction between the common man and the divine was not abnormal. If you can remember some Egyptian history or maybe the movie Stargate, the ruler of a people either considered himself entirely or in part divine but he was the mouth, the between-man of the normal people and the divine entity. So when God, who created everything, decides to not only dwell among His people, but give direction on how the poor bum who’s always asking for change can worship Him, as well as everyone else in Israel, this would have blown everyone away; this is like Steve jobs saying, ‘But wait, there’s one more thing’ near the end of his keynote speech of new Apple products, when that ridiculously crazy thing comes out; this was beyond tweet worthy info, beyond really our understanding: it was brand new on the Earth and it was historically and culturally and socially and personally new and different and counter. Now the people, the everyman, can GO to God and worship Him.

Along this same thread, Leviticus is rigorous about social equality in worship; as the New Testament (NT) book of James points out, it is easy to say, ‘oh, that guy with lots of money gives more, he must be a better person.’ Leviticus says no; we see that if people are not able to give a bull, they can give a goat, if not that then something less expensive all the way down to some grain. We see this played out as Jesus’ parents in the NT were only able to give 2 birds for an offering—they did not have much money. So not only was worship not exclusive to the rich, but standing with and before God was not for the wealthy, it was for all who joined God. Interestingly enough too God did not order the people to go into debt, asking always for the most lavish of gifts from everyone. He wanted worship not things.

Leviticus also teaches that sin is costly. We find it very hard, but we must understand that for many people—and those who grew up on farms have a leg up here—giving their lamb or bull or any of their animals for sacrifice was almost equivalent to giving up your pet dog or cat. When you went to offer gifts to God, it would be sad and hard; this would be a reminder to the people of Israel that sin not only meant something, it took away life, it caused pain and made you uncomfortable; there is a price to sin, namely death. Making it even more clear—and as my generation would say, ‘real’-- In Leviticus God lays it out that the person who gives will himself participate in the act of worship, which was again, not normal for the time—it was always the priest who would perform the sacrificing. The farmer literally had a hand in worship.

It is easy to read the section where God says, ‘Be holy for I am holy’ as a negative and impossible claim; but again, it was not an impossible hoop to jump through to get to God, rather it is a GRACE that GOD HAS MADE A WAY TO HIMSELF WHERE PREVIOUSLY THERE WAS NO WAY. When He says be holy, we should hear: join in doing what I do, come along WITH me.

Leviticus gives a context for understanding what is going on in the NT. Without Leviticus and other regulations and laws we miss how significant and outlandish many of Jesus’ acts were, from the lady who was hemorrhaging, to Jesus’ interaction with unclean lepers, to, as mentioned already, Jesus’ parents. Without understanding Leviticus, much of the NT is a dark room which we can only get a vague sense of what is present in it.

There is SO much in this book that is admittedly hard to understand and can be boring. But it is the Christian’s book to know: it further substantiates and reveals the character of the Almighty to us. We cannot sell the book short by saying it is outdated and all we can glean is that Christ fulfills this stuff. LEVITICUS IS ABOUT THE GOOD NEWS, THE GOSPEL WHICH HAS BEEN AROUND FOR CENTURIES: God chooses to love and allows Himself to be worshipped by those who will follow Him and love Him with their all. He makes a way where there is no way, He tumbles the wall of previous impossibilities, so that we may know Him.

Much more can be helpfully said but hopefully this will draw you into curiosity for this great book, and will lead you further into understanding the character and heart of the God of the Bible.

I was greatly helped by John Milgrom’s commentary and Gordon Wenham’s commentary and Mark Dever’s manuscript found in this book, as well as by audio from Jay Sklar; but AS ALWAYS, nothing can trump constantly reading the book of focus and praying for understanding.

With every post I hope that if you have questions, concerns, complaints, caveats, or anything else that starts with a ‘c’ you can feel welcome to pose them.

It May Cost You Your Neck: Romans 16.3,4

The Apostle Paul authored the New Testament (NT) book of Romans. He wrote this book to those who were gathered as a community to help one another follow Jesus Christ. Many reasons exist as to why Paul wrote this letter, but chiefly he wanted to encourage the people to whom he was writing and to refresh them to the extent that they would, as it were, get wind in their sails and find new vigor to continue following Christ—or remember why they do.

In the final chapter as Paul, in the fashion of his time, was making his shout outs, we come across his words ‘[Prisca and Aquila] risked their necks for my life.’ In the NT book of Acts we are given some accounts of these two helpers of Paul’s but we are not entirely sure as to what Paul is specifically referring to here. We cannot, however, assume that this is some exaggeration by Paul as he embellishes some of his buddy’s work. Paul talks often of his own physical hardships—getting beat up, getting lost at sea, having physical ailments. So I think it is safe to conclude that these two were put or put themselves in legitimate, physical danger.

Why does Paul mention this? I believe he slyly inserts this mainly so we can be reminded of Jesus’ words that all who desire to follow him will have a rough time of it. When one follows Christ it is a joyful, hopeful road, but one with many robbers and murderers lurking. To follow Christ is to invite physical harm. This is not to discourage a Christian but to make him aware of the risks he is taking in making such a stance. It is easy to forget, especially for those living in the US of A, that it is normal for a believer in Christ Jesus to meet hard times—emotionally and physically. And therefore it is easy to forget that the same belief is worth the trouble it incurs.

Treasuring Christ above all else will make you feel that all else is always against you.

A missionary in Iraq during the time of the recent US invasion was killed, not because she was an American but specifically because she was a Christian. She had written a letter to her pastor back in the States only to be opened upon her death; the conclusion contained these words:

‘To obey was my objective
To suffer was expected
His glory, my reward.’

Hawaiin Volcano

So What Is Sin?

Someone once explained sin to me as ‘doing the don’ts and not doing the dos (not to be confused for the Spanish word meaning ‘two’).’ This is a wildly simplistic and unhelpful definition for a few reasons.

First, sin is an offense against God. As a Christian I understand God to be the Creator of everything—from a piece of dirt to every galaxy—and One who is still actively involved IN all of life, watching over and orchestrating the events of all life. In sum, He is both alive and powerful therefore to give some cheapish definition of the things which offend Him is not only a poor practice but a deadly one, and, to a degree, an enslaving one.

Second, not everything we are instructed to do in the Bible, if ignored or rejected, is considered an offense against God--sin. Take for example the one which the book of Proverbs calls the sluggard. The sluggard, in the English Standard Translation, is mentioned 12 times in Proverbs: he is called a fool, a disappointment and pain to his master, he is warned that poverty will be his companion. I do not want to be a sluggard and I think it unwise for anyone else to be such. God, in his kindness, inspired these true words for us to give us guidance and to help us prosper on earth, but I do not think that enjoying sleep too much nor working too little is SIN--something which incurs the eternal wrath of God. To clarify AGAIN, it is extremely unwise for an individual to practice such things for many reasons and the absolute extreme of these things can become sinful, but the sluggard is not to be deemed unfit for the kingdom of heaven only based on the fact that he does not want to get out of bed.

I hear some of you saying, ‘Yea, but Jesus instructed his followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.’ That he did, as I would tell anyone the same for their own good; as I hope everyone would tell anyone! Just because it came out of the inspiration or mouth of the Almighty does not mean neglecting it equals sin. Some things, for example the sacrifices in the Old Testament Law are obsolete now. God said them at one point, we are not doing them today, are we sinning by not offering them today? No. And we see that other things God gives as general wisdom for all of mankind—it is always helpful and profitable and good to do this or that; certainly though there are certain instructions that if rebelled against ARE sin.

So what IS considered by GOD—that’s essentially what we only care about here—to be sin? Glad you asked. The blanket answer is anything that is contrary to his nature. Where in the world could we figure out God’s nature? The Bible. The Bible, in its entirety brings us sharp images of God’s character. One big and obvious one is that He is life. In general then, killing of other soul-filled human beings is sin, take the even of Cain killing his brother Abel.

Not only is rebelling against God’s character sin, also rebelling or disobeying His commandments. This part sometimes does not seem to immediately flow from God’s character but most of the time does: In the book of Hosea God tells the prophet to go marry a prostitute, which is something in Leviticus God clearly instructs the people not to do. But at the end we see that Hosea, being a prophet, followed God’s instruction and in so doing became a picture for the entire nation of Israel of God’s love for them in that though Israel, like the prostitute, was continually unfaithful to God; God, though, would not leave them or break His promise and covenant with them. God was showing His love and grace in His faithfulness even when Israel was overtly UNfaithful.

There is more and many objections abound and caveats overflow but I think generally WE CAN DEFINE SIN AS: REBELLION AGAINST THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF GOD, AND DISOBEYING HIS DIRECT COMMANDS TO US.

Making the definition of sin too broad is wrong and bad, for how can we call evil which God Himself does not? No need to add burdens to our conscience, for Jesus said his instructions are easy, his burden is light.

'The OT Law Makes Me Sing'

The Law in the Bible’s Old Testament (OT) usually sprouts negative sentiment. This is not only true because we sometimes misunderstand the New Testament writers—we too readily assume they bash the OT Law or pigeon-hole the Law by thinking its only use was to show us our sin—but, for Americans, we who were derived by a spirit of gun-slingin’ freedom and large plots of open land, there is an even greater frown, for laws mean burdens, burdens which get in the way of progress.

So what do we make of Psalm 119? This, the largest chapter in the book of Psalms, celebrates the Law of God, the Law of the Old Testament. The Psalmist asks to be taught the law, he asks to be fed the law, to walk according to the law; he says he will never forget the law because they are a good guide to him; he will willingly and gladly declare the law; he's happy about the testimonies of God AS IN GREAT RICHES; he clings to the law; with his whole heart he will obey the law; he wrote this very long song about the law.

Few, I think, can be found today who have such great joy with regard to the OT testament law as the writer of Psalm 119. The Psalms are songs, poems composed by individuals who were well known and some who were never known. These were not forced writings but truthful, genuine, and full of feeling.

So what the heck is THIS writer so happy about? Doesn’t Paul put the kaputs on the Law when he wrote to the churches in Rome? There either must be something wrong with this guy writing Psalm 119 or something wrong with us and our understanding of the Law. I think the problem is a current one.

Sure, you can conceive of the Psalmist as some over-zealous religious koo-koo who maybe like some superstitious monk felt if he did not write songs about the Law was going to get the heavenly bolts of lightning sent down on his being… or we could understand the OT Law for what it is and what it brought to the people at the time.

We must remember that prior to God giving the Law to the people of Israel the individual could never approach God in worship—this was left for Moses and maybe Aaron--that’s if he wasn’t melting gold into the image of a calf. But now, with the giving of the Law, the poor farmer with 20 kids can bring a turtle dove or some grain to the Lord who brought his family out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt and gave them the good land he freely lives in and on and personally partake in WORSHIP TO HIS GOD! This is amazing! Joe shmoe, this nobody schmuck who schleps around Israel--much like you and I--, can worship the God who Created all things and bring offerings willingly and joyfully to Him!

Secondly, God is expanding His holiness with the Law. A person becomes unclean before God when he sins or is defiled in various ways but with the sacrifices the unclean can be made clean again and the formerly unclean can partake in the holiness of God. This is gracious and kind of God; the Law was not making God impossible to approach but rather making a way for reconciliation even for those who sinned! Sin no longer made an individual forever unable to worship God but through the Law made the individual able to be made clean and enter not only communion with God but with his community again.

The Law of God then is a great thing to the Psalmist. The Law of God was a display of God’s patience, kindness, forgiveness, and also a reminder of His eternal covenant which He never broke with His people! We now see how the Law of God made the Psalmist sing.