The Two Sides of God (Nahum 1)

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Randy Buchman

We have all known people over the years who are a mixed bag of extremes – kind and loving one moment, yet in a short time triggered by some event into a violent rage. What makes such people difficult to deal with is the unpredictable nature of their personalities and expressions.

God’s character is expressed in two vastly different ways. Some people wrongly see God as merely a Father of love, love, love … who just loves everyone so much no matter what they do or values system they adopt – he just can’t help himself. Yet others see God as a nasty and vindictive despot who is always just waiting to zap the next person who steps off the straight and narrow. Both views are wrong … wrongly understanding love and wrath, or how God’s grace and justice work as two sides of the same coin.

Today and tomorrow we turn to the obscure little book of Nahum, and we have scheduled it for this week of study along with Jonah – the two books belonging together in their prophesies regarding the Assyrian Empire.

However, these prophets were not contemporaries and wrote about a century or more apart from each other. Jonah wrote in the mid 700s B.C. The fruit of his ministry was a short-term revival, but about 40 years late, Assyria conquered the northern 10-tribe kingdom of Israel. Another 20 years later in an attack upon the southern kingdom of Judah, God miraculously saved the nation by the deaths of 185,000 in the camps of the Assyrians. By the time of Nahum’s writing in the mid 600s B.C., Assyria was at its peak of power – having defeated the Egyptians, while also receiving tribute from Judah. Nahum predicted the demise of the proud Assyrians, which would happen at the hands of the Medes and Persians in 612 B.C. – with Jerusalem being taken by the same about seven years later, beginning the Babylonian Captivity of Judah.

1:1 A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies.

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade. 5 The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.

6 Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.

So these opening verses display God’s anger, wrath, and great power to judge. God will judge his enemies and those who stand up against him through evil lives. His anger is slow – to allow repentance; but his power is beyond the most powerful displays of nature … like tornados, droughts that wither the most fertile areas of the Near East, and volcanoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. But here is the flipside …

7 The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him,

But then again, the prophet returns to the first theme, identifying exactly whom God is particularly angry with – and it’s Nineveh …

8 but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness. 9 Whatever they plot against the Lord he will bring to an end; trouble will not come a second time. 10 They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine; they will be consumed like dry stubble. 11 From you, Nineveh, has one come forth who plots evil against the Lord and devises wicked plans.

The varied and powerful kings of Nineveh all had designs upon totally conquering Judah. There was the one particular incident of the 185,000 killed by God in one evening – sending Sennacherib back home. But they continued to threaten – and even held Judah’s King Manasseh in chains for a time. But the Assyrians were not to be the people to conquer Judah.

Here the Lord speaks through his prophet to the nation of Judah …

12 This is what the Lord says: “Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be destroyed and pass away. Although I have afflicted you, Judah, I will afflict you no more. 13 Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away.”

And now the word is directed toward the Assyrians …

14 The Lord has given a command concerning you, Nineveh: “You will have no descendants to bear your name. I will destroy the images and idols that are in the temple of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are vile.”

It is not a good thing to have God say that he is going to prepare your grave! Nineveh was so completely destroyed and buried, that when Alexander the Great fought a battle near there a few hundred years later, he did not realize he was at that site.

15 Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, Judah, and fulfill your vows. No more will the wicked invade you; they will be completely destroyed.

So there is judgment against Assyria – demonstrating God’s wrath, and grace toward Judah – demonstrating God’s mercy. Those are the two sides of God.

It is a terrible thing to be on the wrong side of God, and that is where we are in our natural condition under the curse of sin. But God’s grace, and Christ’s provision as the substitutionary object of God’s judgment, makes it possible for our adoption as his own people on the good side of God’s mercy.

Would you want a God who ignored sin and injustice and was simply love, love, love? No! And would you want a God who was angry and vindictive? Of course not. The difference between God’s two sides and the multiple personalities we know to mark the behavior of certain damaged people is that God’s two sides are predictable and work in perfect harmony. He is angry and will judge sin, but he is gracious toward those who repent and trust in the provision for sin that he has provided.

Less Like Jonah, More Like Jesus (Jonah 4)

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Randy Buchman

Though our published schedule calls for us to turn today to the book of Nahum, let’s cover that the next two days, while we add an additional thought on Jonah today.

God gets a bad rap sometimes from Bible readers – particularly about the Old Testament. There is just so much judgment and wrath against people groups and nations. And it is certainly not as if his own chosen people get off the hook. To the simple mind, God seems so angry and vindictive – nothing like this God of love that Christians talk about. And so, even scholars will sometimes talk about the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament, as if they are two people.

God cares about lost people. And that is not just something God stumbled upon in the New Testament. He has always cared about lost people… way more than His own redeemed people (in any era) have ever cared about the unreached. Telling Jonah to go to Nineveh was a tough assignment. Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire – the big bad boys on the block, and the enemies of Israel. The Assyrians were bad people. They were famous for doing things like impaling their enemies on a giant stick and making human popsicles out of them. Going to Nineveh would be like being sent to Tokyo in 1943! Or maybe like being told to have an evangelistic rally in Tehran or Baghdad today (or Mosul – the modern name for Nineveh!). Or possibly, it might be more like the difficulty of taking the Gospel to that ungodly foreman at work who does not deserve God’s grace!

The fact of the matter for Jonah was that he did not really desire the repentance of the Ninevites. Their destruction was cool with him… let ‘em toast! When he saw that God had relented upon His plan to destroy them, Jonah was angry and basically said, “See, didn’t I tell you that this is exactly what would happen?”

So Jonah sat down to watch what would happen to the city. It was blistering hot! And God provided a fast growing plant with large leaves to provide shade for Jonah, which pleased him immensely. But when a worm ate the plant and a sirocco (the actual word) came along and caused the plant and Jonah to dry up, he was immensely displeased. God rightly pointed out to Jonah that he cared more about the plant (his creature comfort) than he did about the grace of God displayed to 120,000 people!

Is it possible for creature comforts to limit the zeal for outreach in our generation? I think so. We fear the repercussions of what people will think of us if we seek to speak intimately with them about their faith. We may worry how it will impact our job relationship, or our standing in the community. Who wants to be seen as a fanatic, or to be viewed as making judgments upon others’ beliefs? Fear of not having enough material resources for our pleasures may prevent us from generous and greater involvement in the worldwide cause of Christ.

Maybe for you it is like what a famous person in Texas told me about pastors. He said “Preachers are good, and I love them; but I love them in someone else’s family.” I’m afraid a lot of Christians think, “Evangelism is good, and I’m glad it happens; but I’m happier if someone else does it.” However, we all have a command to do it! Let’s not be Jonahs who run in the opposite direction!

Contrast Jonah with Jesus, and not just the statement that Jesus made in Matthew 12 …

“A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.”

Beyond Jesus referencing the story of Jonah, consider the contrast of the characters themselves. Jonah set up shop outside the city of Nineveh to see it destroyed, whereas Jesus went outside the city of Jerusalem to give his life that others may live. And the heart of Christ is seen when he says of his city, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

As in all things, it is our goal to become more like Christ. Yet on the matter of outreach, it is so much easier to be more like Jonah – only doing it if you simply have to, and not possessing any compassion for people who are, in a word, lost.

This Thing Called Repentance – Part 2 – (Jonah Chapters 3 and 4)

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Randy Buchman

Yesterday we read and talked about the first two chapters of Jonah, so we will finish this short four-chapter book today.

Again, here are four chapter headings to help you remember the story:

Chapter 1 – Jonah makes the sea sick.

Chapter 2 – Jonah makes the whale sick.

Chapter 3 – Jonah makes the Ninevites sick.

Chapter 4 – Jonah makes God sick!

The theme of our series through Jonah has been to talk about repentance. The prophet repented of his disobedience in running from God, and in chapter three we encounter the surprising result of the repentance of the heathen city of Nineveh.

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

3:1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.

Indeed, by ancient standards Nineveh was a huge city. The walls were 50 feet thick and 100 feet high. The diameter of the main city was two miles with a circumference of eight miles. A lower wall was extended out farther from the city, so the metropolitan area was quite sizeable with a six-digit population. To cover the city with his preaching took Jonah three days, saying …

4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

So why would the Ninevites believe and repent? Well, there is the work of God involved in this, of course. Beyond that, we know from history that there were two large earthquakes in years just before Jonah’s arrival; and we know from science that there was a solar eclipse on a specific date at this same general time. Ancient people saw such events as divine omens.

6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

So, in a different sense, God repented – changed from one disposition to another. We know from history that this revival must not have had lasting effect for successive generations. It would only be about 37 years later that the Assyrians would indeed conquer the Northern Kingdom. Their attempt to capture the Southern Kingdom of Judah was unsuccessful due to the intervention of God destroying 185,000 of the Assyrian army. The prophet Nahum – our readings for Thursday and Friday of this week – spoke a prediction of judgment against them because of their wickedness.

So the message Jonah shared made the Ninevites sick, but finally, Jonah’s reaction to this entire story makes God sick …

Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s Compassion

4:1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

Have you ever prayed to God like Jonah did here? I have – as I’ve several times shared with you the story of my anger at God earlier in my life, when, living in Texas and training for ministry, I did not receive a ministry position in a church that sure looked like a no-brainer at the time … and it still does. I should have gotten the position by all measurements … but God came along a few months later with a far better opportunity that has impacted my entire life since then.

Jonah is a guy you’d want on your Bible trivia team… he gets all the right answers. Verse 2 is a perfect definition of the revealed character of God. Jonah knows the truth, he just hated God’s application of it in the real world.

3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

So Jonah finds a high spot that overlooks the city, and he there sets up shop to see what is going to happen – hopefully that God will destroy the place!

Along the way in this place of a dry dessert climate, God caused a large leafy plant to grow and provide shade, but also a worm to eat this overgrown vegetable. Jonah’s joy for his creature comfort far exceeded his joy for seeing people repent and turn from evil.

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

The juxtaposition of Jonah’s attitude about a silly plant with God’s perspective on many thousands of people stands as a stark contrast with its own lessons (that we’ll talk about tomorrow).

But today, what else may we continue to learn about repentance? Here are three more points to add to those shared yesterday …

5. God often does things in his sovereign wisdom that we do not understand and that do not make sense to us, but his desire for repentance / blessing is greater than his desire to judge.

I cannot tell you why God does what He does, nor can I explain why He does not do others things a whole lot faster! But I can tell you that God is more interested in our obedience than our accomplishments. God allows things to happen to us, so that things will happen in us, that things may happen through us; and when you get that 3-point thing understood and accept it in faith – you’ve really accomplished something!

6. Though repentance for salvation is a once and done thing, repentance in the life of discipleship needs regular vigilance.

We talk about repentance in the issue of our salvation, and that repentance and change is a once-and-for-all life-changing directional shift where we move from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Light. But in our present human condition on this side of Glory, we will have failings that require us to be vigilant about making matters right with God by turning from sin, and trusting in Him.

7. Our constant need is a view of the sovereign work of God, that we may be blessed by being in alignment and agreement with it.

We constantly need to be looking to see what God is doing around us … in our homes and families, through our work, and together here through our church … that we may align with it. In the midst of routine faithfulness and service, we may not always see God’s plan – which may not at times look like much – but we persevere, and in the end are able to look back at His good work.

Summary – So what is repentance? It is a change in us where we agree with God about sin (we call this confession) and then we turn from it in repentance and go in the other direction – not like Jonah away from God, but rather away from sin and toward truth.

This Thing Called Repentance – Part 1 – (Jonah Chapters 1 and 2)

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Randy Buchman

We are all generally familiar with the story of Jonah the Prophet, who was called of God to go to Nineveh and preach God’s truth there. Instead, he went in the opposite direction toward Tarshish (Spain) and ended up creating a bellyache for the whale. Eventually, he got to the correct destination and completed his assignment, though with more than a wee bit of a grudging attitude.

The book of Jonah is filled with the concept of “repentance.” And we asked in the sermon yesterday, “What does it mean to repent?” While certainly a biblical word, repentance often concurs up in our modern minds some wide-eyed, hair-disheveled, twang-tongued, sweating, Bible-pounding evangelist yelling “REPENT, or burn in hell!” Is it about fear? Is it about emotion?

When disciplining children, we want to get them to a point where they turn away from whatever attitude of rebellion that led to an altercation needing correction; and we want to see them genuinely break and understand what they did wrong, and therefore desire to not do that deed again and now behave in a proper way. And that is essentially what it means to repent. More on that in a moment (actually tomorrow), but let’s go to the story of Jonah.

Jonah was one of the earlier prophets, being a contemporary of Amos and Hosea – whom we have recently studied. Though these two were prophetic voices to the nation of Israel, Jonah was called by God to speak to the big, bad boys on the block in the ancient world at that time – the Assyrians. These were bad, bad people. They were brutal to captured foes in particular – known to impale people on a pole – making a human popsicle of them. The Assyrians were the enemy of Israel, and though they would later be used by God to punish Israel, their power to do so had not yet reached sufficient strength.

It was not as if Israel had her own act together as a nation – recall the messages of Hosea and Amos. Though this was the peak of their territorial expansion and material success under the reign of Jereboam II, there was nothing that really set them much apart from the heathen nations around them in terms of the true worship of God rather than idols and materialism.

So for Jonah to be called of God to go preach to these people seemed extraordinarily odd to him. Who would want to go to the center of such a place and tell them they were in trouble with God? If they did not like the message, they could make a popsicle out of Jonah. And if they repented, that would not be good for Israel. To Jonah, the whole thing looked like a lose/lose.

Over the years, I’ve used this slick little outline of Jonah to help remember the big idea of each of the four chapters of this short little Old Testament book…

Chapter 1 – Jonah makes the sea sick.

Chapter 2 – Jonah makes the whale sick.

Chapter 3 – Jonah makes the Ninevites sick.

Chapter 4 – Jonah makes God sick!

Jonah Flees From the Lord

1:1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

Nineveh was a huge city by ancient standards. It was seven times larger than the old city of Jerusalem for example. From Israel it was about 500 miles to the northeast – in modern Iraq near the border with Turkey … in fact, it is the modern city of Mosul, which we heard much about in the Iraq War.

Jonah essentially went in the opposite direction – catching presumably a Phoenician boat sailing to the coast of Spain to Tarshish – about 3,000 miles in the wrong direction!

4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”

7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)

11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.

It is interesting to see that these pagan, idolatrous men had more compassion for Jonah than God’s prophet had for them or the Ninevites. This whole story is filled with counter-intuitive elements. But Jonah’s sin had caused the sea to get sick, so reluctantly they tossed him overboard.

Jonah’s Prayer

1:17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

2:1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.

So Jonah has a personal revival in the belly of the whale (or whatever large fish it was). There have been accounts of whalers who have been swallowed by whales and survived the ordeal, but without doubt, this was a God-ordained intervention, as are many other elements of the story. We don’t need to have natural explanations.

Jonah continues with his prayer of repentance …

3 You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.

4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’

5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.

6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.

7 “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

8 “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.

9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

So, chapter 2, Jonah made the whale sick, but the fish did his job, presumably depositing Jonah again on the eastern Mediterranean coast where he could resume his trip to Nineveh, now in obedience to God, even if grudgingly done.

Let me share some application thoughts from these first two chapters …

1. Obeying and serving God may often go against our natural sensibilities and desires… and we may foolishly just go the other way.

We may not personally like the paths that God chooses for us. We may resent his calling and want to do what we would rather do. There is no shortage of people who can testify from their lives how for so long they resisted what God wanted them to do, until finally finding peace and satisfaction by doing what he directed and desired.

2. We may often find ourselves in denial or justification of our desires over obeying God’s call… and just sleep through reality.

Again, there is no shortage of stories of people who knew God wanted them to do something, but they fought it and denied it and went their own way. Is there something – large or small – that you know God has put in your heart to do … but you are fighting this thought / idea / feeling / open door out of fear or resistance?

3. You can know all the right answers, but still not be in obedience to God.

This is a real warning for those of us who like the academic side of things … believing that all is right because we are thinking the correct things theologically… Jonah knew all the right answers for the seaman who questioned him.

4. God may chose to bring an unpleasant experience into our lives to get us back on track with following him.

Unpleasant experiences are not always God getting our attention. Bad things happen because we simply live in an imperfect world. But there are times when in light of God’s work in your life and what the Spirit is telling you through the Word, that God intervenes to get you turned to a new and proper direction.

Check back tomorrow to finish Jonah and to gain some final, additional thoughts on repentance.

Gated Community (Jeremiah 29)

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

I grew up in Hagerstown, and so to me the idea of a “gated community” seemed like something out of a movie. Then I moved to Texas. In Dallas, gated communities were everywhere. Visiting friends—whether in a home or just an apartment—required navigating an elaborate set of security checkpoints. Alarm codes, razor wire—things that once seemed excessive were now matters of geographic necessity.

But in time it hit me. The gates and locks and fences weren’t merely physical. They also existed in our minds and in our hearts. Growing up in Church, I was always warned about the “culture war.” Christianity was a lonely underdog in a hostile world. Our task was twofold: (1) Stay “safe,” and (2) “fight back.”

It’s hard to argue. After all, there’s a lot of truth to this image. Following Jesus will certainly put you at odds with the values of other cultures. But what I saw developing—both in me and around me—was a culture based on fear. Safety and security became our greatest values. We retreated behind the walls of Christian culture, emerging only occasionally to lob a few “gospel bombs” at the evolutionists, the liberal democrats, or whoever our common enemy happened to be. In other words, the word “culture” became a way of distinguishing “us” versus “them.” We were the good guys. Why weren’t we doing a better job at reaching the bad guys?

SEEK THE SHALOM OF THE CITY

Israel had a similar experience. During Jeremiah’s ministry, the people experienced the pain of exile. They were removed from the security of their land. They were surrounded by a hostile, pagan culture. What was their solution? Apparently their only solution was one of isolation. They stuck together. After all, there’s safety in numbers.

As a young person, I grew up in a world of “Christian” alternatives. There were Christian schools. Christian bookstores. Christian coffeehouses. Christian books. Christian music. In recent years, I’ve even seen Christian versions of the Nintendo game “Dance, Dance, Revolution.” Granted, there are times, places, and even seasons of life when it’s refreshing to have a “Christian” alternative to pop culture. But my question is: since when did “Christian” become an adjective? To be a “Christian” is to be a follower of Jesus. It’s a term that refers to people—not things. Jesus prayed that future followers would be “in the world but not of the world” (John 17:14). We’ve reversed that. Christian culture has allowed us to remove ourselves from the world while enjoying all the same things. I believe God is challenging us to think differently—to think missionally—just as He did with His people long ago:

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ² (This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.) ³ He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said: ⁴ This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” ⁸ Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. ⁹ They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 29:1-9)

Do you hear what God is saying? He’s telling His people to seek the shalom of the city (v. 7). The Hebrew word shalom (translated above as “peace and prosperity”) refers to overall goodness and wholeness. It’s easy to point our finger at the brokenness of the world. It’s far more challenging to seek its restoration.

In Dorothy Sayer’s excellent book Creed or Chaos she has an entire essay entitled “Why Work?” She writes:

The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. Church by all means, and decent forms of amusement, certainly—but what use is all that if in the very center of his life and occupation he is insulting God with bad carpentry? No crooked table legs or ill-fitting drawers ever came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. Nor, if they did, could anyone believe that they were made by the same hand that made Heaven and earth.

Is it possible—just possible—that the best way to see our world improved is not by merely “being good” but through creativity and engagement? Is it possible that the best way to get prayer back in public schools is to send our kids there? Is it possible that the best way to reach our coworkers and neighbors is to not only invite them to church, but to also share our lives and hearts with them? The gospel tears down the fences of our “gated community,” and provokes us to love those outside them.

GOD’S PLANS FOR YOU

God next reveals His plans for the nation of Israel. Their exile would last for seventy years, after which they would return. They are there for a season—His desire for them to “settle down” and seek the good of the city is motivated by the narrow window of influence His people would have.

¹⁰ This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:10-14)

If you’ve been in church for a while you have verse 11 on a coffee mug somewhere. But let’s be clear about something: God wasn’t talking to you or me. He was talking specifically to Israel. God has phenomenal plans for all people—we just can’t claim this verse as applying to our lives. Sometimes God can be glorified even when you and I don’t prosper, and even when you and I come to great and often terrifying harm.

This was true of a young pastor named Kyle Lake. Lake wrote a powerful sermon for a Sunday in October of 2005. He concluded with these words of encouragement:

Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun….

If you’ve recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well. At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift.

Kyle never preached this sermon. These words were in his notes, tucked into his Bible. He was performing a baptism that morning, and while standing in the water he touched a microphone that wasn’t grounded. The electricity killed him instantly.

We don’t always know what the Lord’s plans are. But we can look at His dealings with Israel and count on God to always do what’s best for His kingdom even if it comes at the expense of our own empires. And as we leave our own gated communities, we are reminded that our lives are to be marked by a different set of standards than even our own Christian culture might suggest. Courage—not necessarily security. Compassion—not necessarily offense. Love—not necessarily safety. Because the gospel tells the story of a God who stepped away from security and safety, and calls His people to follow Him in doing the same.

“As the Father has sent me,” Jesus said, “so I send you” (John 20:21).

Fashion Statement (Jeremiah 13)

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

If it’s true that actions speak louder than words, than some of the prophets’ most powerful messages came through object lessons and demonstrations. Isaiah, for example, went naked for three years to show Israel what it would look like to have her comfort stripped away (Isaiah 20:3).

Jeremiah was no different. He would show the people the consequences of their sin through an elaborate fashion statement.

This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” ² So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist. (Jeremiah 13:1-2)

The Hebrew word is ‘ezor, which refers to some sort of linen sash. By not washing it, Jeremiah could be sure the belt wouldn’t wear out. The point is obvious, right? God was asking Jeremiah to show off. To go down to Abercrombie and Fitch and purchase a really nice belt from their lineup of the latest fashions, and then show it off to all his friends. Maybe even leave the pricetag on it so everyone could see just how fine a belt this truly was.

ISRAEL’S DIRTY LAUNDRY

But showing off was only part 1 of God’s message to the nation:

³ Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: ⁴ “Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.” ⁵ So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD told me. ⁶ Many days later the LORD said to me, “Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.” ⁷ So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.

⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to me: ⁹ “This is what the LORD says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt– completely useless! ¹¹ For as a belt is bound around a man’s waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,’ declares the LORD, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’

Do you see the point becoming clear? Israel was intended to be just like this belt. Their whole lives were designed to glorify God—that is, to reveal His significance to the whole world. But they chased after lesser things. Like the linen belt, over time they became completely worthless. This is the truest outworking of Jeremiah 2’s promise—that when I pursue worthless things, I become worthless myself. In short, I waste my life.

“LOOK, LORD. SEE MY SHELLS”

John Piper has an entire book on this very subject. In Don’t Waste Your Life, he tells the story of a couple who retired to spend their life on the beach—nothing short of the American Dream:

I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider a story from the February 1998 edition of Reader’s Digest, which tells about a couple who “took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn’t. Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: “Look, Lord. See my shells.” That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Over against that, I put my protest: Don’t buy it. Don’t waste your life. (John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, 45-6)

Did you know that one of the fastest growing markets in the U.S. is the sale of “virtual goods?” These are products that you can purchase in an app, or a video game, but don’t exist in the real world. For example, if you’re playing a video game, you might be offered a special item, such as a sword or other item. The sword may only be digital, but the money you pay for it is real. Most of the money is spent on small purchases–$0.99 here, $4.99 there. But how much would you bet is spent on “virtual goods” overall? Try 2.9 billion dollars a year. Analysts estimate that the number will climb to roughly 11 billion by 2016.

This attracted attention when Forbes magazine ran a story about a man who “acquired” and “lost” a spaceship valued at—wait for it–$9,000 dollars. When it was destroyed by the other players, it was reported on as if it were a tragedy. But isn’t the real tragedy that a grown man would spend his money on nothing? He never acquired a spaceship. He never lost a spaceship. The spaceship doesn’t exist. Imagine that scene on the Day of Judgment: “Look, Lord. See my spaceship.” That is a waste.

It’s easy to slam this as simply a bunch of computer geeks with more money than common sense. But really, does it really matter? I mean, do you think the things you spend your time, money, and energy on are that superior in the eyes of God? Maybe it’s not seashells, or a spaceship. Maybe it’s fashion, or sports. “Look, Lord. See my designer handbags.” “Look, Lord. See my fantasy football stats.” And that’s a tragedy equal in magnitude to the loss of an imaginary spaceship.

THE GOSPEL’S TRUE FASHION

The lesson of Jeremiah’s belt is that on our own we can take God’s greatest gifts and turn them into rags. But the beauty of the gospel is that Jesus set aside the royal robes of heaven for the tattered rags of our humanity—He “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7). The result is that by trusting in His sacrifice on the cross, we can receive God’s forgiveness and a new reputation.

Paul writes that “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Do you see both sides to this word picture? The clothing is a free gift. It’s pure grace. But Paul says “you…have clothed yourself.” In other words, I have a responsibility to clothe myself in the gospel, to live out the good news every day of my life.

In Christ, I trade in my tattered rags for a robe of glory. And in Christ I stand complete.

“Work Spouses” and Spiritual Fidelity (Jeremiah 2)

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

Have you ever heard of a “work spouse?” It’s someone of the opposite sex with whom you develop a close connection in the workplace. It might start because of a mutual project, or even an unspoken alliance against a common adversary. You become close. You become connected. Soon you find you’re sharing things with this person you usually only share with your husband or your wife.

It’s called an “emotional affair.” It’s easy to think of this affair as less damaging—as long as it doesn’t “lead to other things.” But many are starting to see the real damage that these types of relationships can bring. A writer for The Huffington Post suggests that emotional affairs can be just as damaging as sexual affairs—if not moreso. She relates a story from her husband:

“When my husband was in his first marriage, his wife would stay up late into the night talking to her best friend’s boyfriend on the phone. He would wake up and hear his wife laughing and talking about things she’d never shared with him before. He longed to share this kind of connection with her, but it wasn’t there… and it never would be, as long as she was confiding in another man. My husband told me that he was more hurt by his ex-wife’s emotional infidelity than if she’d had sex with this other man.” (Lisa Shield, “Emotional Infidelity: Worse than a Sexual Affair?” Appearing on The Huffington Post, September 28, 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/28/emotional-infidelity_n_3977058.html)

We are created for relationship. Nothing cuts us more deeply than betrayal. In our selfishness, we pursue things that promise happiness but deliver disaster. And we do the same thing to God. Think of the idols in your life. What do you spend your money on? What do you daydream about? What stirs your emotions the most readily? Chances are there are things in your life—and mine—that promise us joy, comfort, and security. They become our “work spouse;” rather than trust in God we trust in these idols.

And like a wounded lover, God responds with an unquenchable grief.

THE WEEPING PROPHET

It seems fitting, then, that Jeremiah would be called “the weeping prophet.” He was something of a folk singer—a “Bob Dylan” for his generation. He faced opposition from the “establishment” of the royal authorities, and he wrote a message of brokenness and betrayal. His ministry began in 627 B.C., but it would span into the year 586 B.C., where he would witness the crumbling of the city of Jerusalem when the nation went into exile.

THE BETRAYAL

The first and largest section of the book of Jeremiah contains God’s judgments against the nation of Israel, primarily because of their unfaithfulness. As with other prophets—most famously Hosea—God describes His relationship to His people as one between husband and wife:

The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ² “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. ³ Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 2:1-3)

Therefore Israel’s unfaithfulness is described as an act of infidelity:

⁴ Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. ⁵ Thus says the LORD: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? ⁶ They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’ ⁷ And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. ⁸ The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit. (Jeremiah 2:4-8)

Do you hear the emotion in God’s voice? “What wrong did your father find in me?” In Jeremiah, the same God who made mountains quake and causes the seas to roar lowers His head and weeps with the pain of betrayal.

To love someone is to give a part of yourself away. No one becomes “one flesh” with their spouse without giving them a piece of yourself, and to lose that love is to lose that piece forever. Ask anyone who’s been through the pain of divorce and adultery. One of the questions that hangs heavy in their conscience is the very one that God asks: What did I do wrong? What more could I have given you?

The obvious answer—at least in God’s case—is: “nothing.” By this point, God had shown His people hundreds of years of faithfulness, the most notable is His rescuing them from Egyptian slavery. Why would they run back to the nation that He saved them from?

The painful truth is this: what you embrace you become. The people “went after worthlessness and became worthless” (v. 4). Pursue idolatry and you become an idolater. Pursue adultery and you become and adulterer. Pursue self and you become selfish. Worship anything other than God, and your soul will collapse. So why pursue it?

FALSE PROMISES

Idols—much like our “work spouses”—serve a function. Think about it. What are some reasons a person might turn to a “work spouse?” Is there something wrong with their real spouse? Maybe they feel distant. Disappointed. Unappreciated. Undesired. Suddenly the “work spouse” finds new, subtle allure—and before you know it things spiral out of control.

So if I feel distant from God, if I feel disappointed or disenchanted—then I find it easier to medicate my hurts through the idols that surround me. Money. Sex. Power. Surely these are more immediately satisfying than any of God’s promises—but will their promises sustain me?

Through Jeremiah, God speaks of this shocking exchange:

²⁰ “For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. ²¹ Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? ²² Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD. ²³ How can you say, ‘I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done– a restless young camel running here and there, ²⁴ a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her. ²⁵ Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go.’

²⁶ “As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, ²⁷ who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’ ²⁸ But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.

One of my own professors summarizes Israel’s choices this way:

“The people had long ago rejected the Lord’s authority over them and prostituted themselves to other gods, especially the Canaanite fertility [god] Baal (v. 20). There were like a grapevine that yielded wild, bitter fruit, even though it came from high-quality domesticated stock (v. 21). Their guilt was obvious, like a stain on a garment that even soap cannot remove (v. 22). In her wild pursuit of Baal, the nation had acted like the typical young female camel that exhibits total lack of discipline (v. 23) or the typical female donkey in heat that frantically seeks a mate (v. 24). Searching for her false gods, the idol-obsessed nation ran, as it were, until her sandals were worn out and her throat was dry (v. 25). Israel’s idolatry ultimately proved futile and humiliating, especially to the leaders of the community (v. 26).” (Robert B. Chisholm, Handbook on the Prophets, p. 157)

We’ve all been there. We’ve all done this. We’ve all found our “work spouses,” things that satisfy us more readily than the relationship God seeks to build with us. Thankfully, there is good news.

THE GOSPEL

If you remember reading the gospel of John, then you also remember the setting of Jesus’ first public “sign” about Himself. It was at a wedding—turning water to wine, showing that in His kingdom the best is yet to come. I can’t help but think that this was in some way connected to the fact that in Christ, we each have the future promise of sharing in a far greater wedding feast known as the “wedding supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:6).

To love someone is to give a part of yourself away. On the cross, Jesus gave everything. Though our attitude toward God is one of repeated betrayal, His attitude toward us is one of unfathomable mercy. God is profoundly wounded by your sin—and mine. But in His love we have the opportunity to change our attitudes, and once again tune our hearts to sing His grace.

The Trial (Micah 6)

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

Guilt is one of the easiest things to pick up but one of the hardest burdens to carry. In the last century, an author named Franz Kafka wrote a novel called The Trial. The book centers on a man named Josef, who is imprisoned by men from an unknown agency, and put on trial for an unknown crime. One of the guards tells him simply: “the law is attracted to guilt.” Kafka was saying that we’re all outlaws underneath. We all violate the law in some degree or another. And we all carry some secret burden of guilt and shame.

The same is true of Israel. The difference, of course, is that Israel was about to learn the true reason for her guilt: her violation of the laws of God.

THE CHARGES (6:1-5)

In the final chapters of Micah, God’s court case against Israel reaches a fevered pitch:

Hear what the LORD says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. ² Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel. ³ “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! ⁴ For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. ⁵ O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.” (Micah 6:1-5)

God had been nothing but good to His people. They had returned His goodness with complaints and rebellion. Do you hear the emotion in God’s voice? He pleads with them—what have I done to you?…Answer me! But God’s relationship with His people had been one of love and generosity—the only problem was that it was tragically one-sided.

In verse 5 God reflects back on the incident from Numbers 22-24. Balak was the king who wanted to curse Israel, so he contacted a hired gun named Balaam to do his dirty work. But on his way, God spoke through Balaam’s donkey, opening Balaam’s eyes to the truth. What truth? That God could never be counted on to curse his people. He had treated them only with love and kindness—acts that had gone with neither gratitude nor returned affections.

MICAH’S RESPONSE (6:6-8)

Micah responds on the people’s behalf. In light of all God has done, what could the people possibly be expected to do in return?

⁶ “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:6-7)

But God wasn’t interested in these outward expressions. Religion is cheap. Devotion can be fabricated. No, what the Lord truly wants is a lasting commitment to the covenant that He had with His people, a covenant summarized in verse 8:

⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

Israel had failed to do this. They couldn’t possibly hope to pay back the Lord’s goodness with some fast obedience. And so their guilt remained.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (6:9-16)

In the next section, God outlines Israel’s crime and her worthy punishment.

Crime (6:9-12)

⁹ The voice of the LORD cries to the city– and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it! ¹⁰ Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? ¹¹ Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? ¹² Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. (Micah 6:9-12)

As we saw yesterday, the problem that Israel faced was one of idolatry. They looked to surrounding nations for objects of comfort, joy, and security. And now they were reaping what they’d sown. The country was in ruins. How could this be fixed?

The same could be said for us. When we allow an idol to control our lives, we will soon find ourselves sitting in ruin. For instance, if lust is my god, then I may soon find myself a victim on my idolatrous addiction to pornography (or worse). If wealth is my god, then I may live a lonely, miserable life trying to climb the corporate ladder. If God is against me, then who can be for me?

Punishment (6:13-16)

¹³ Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins. ¹⁴ You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. ¹⁵ You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine. ¹⁶ For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.” (Micah 6:13-16)

Omri and Ahab had been some of the worst kings the northern kingdom had ever known (1 Kings 16-22). They were an integral part of what had led the nation into ruin. But in truth, the whole nation was worthy of God’s fierce anger.

HOPE (7:7-20)

But Micah concludes with a note of hope.

⁷ But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. ⁸ Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. ⁹ I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. (Micah 7:7-9)

Have you ever felt beaten down? Struggled with past guilt? Worried about your worthiness before God? Then Micah’s message is simple: Don’t waste your guilt. It can’t be hidden. It can’t be swept under the rug. It can’t be hidden beneath a life of religious obedience. It must instead be dealt with. It must instead de erased with the swift blow of God’s justice.

Micah concludes with confidence that God would execute judgment for him. And the beautiful thing is that this is exactly what God did through Jesus. On the cross, Jesus receives the blows of justice that we deserve so that we can receive the verdict of “not guilty.”

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ² He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)

Jesus is the “propitiation for our sins,” meaning that He received God’s anger so that we may receive God’s mercy. Micah’s name means “Who is like God?” And so it is only fitting that his closing words echo his namesake:

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. ¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. ²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. (Micah 7:18-20)

Who is like God, indeed?

Regime Change (Micah 4)

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

It’s like a string of dominoes. Only worse, because when a set of dominoes fall it’s much easier to pick up the pieces and rebuild. But when you endure a cultural collapse—that’s another thing entirely. Most busy themselves with the blame game. Fingers are pointed. Wrongdoers are called onto the carpet. And all the while CNN continues to roll footage of the smoldering cinders of society, as the rest of us are left to ask why?

The Bible tells us that the problems of this world are the by-product of man’s corrupt heart. Did we know, back then? In the garden, I mean. Did we know that when we ate the forbidden fruit, when we felt its juice roll down our chins—did we know the set of dominoes that would tumble into our children’s future? Or did we even care to ask such questions, held captive by the tyrannical regime of self.

God, in His unfailing wisdom and love, had a plan. He would reach into this broken world of ours to lift a man’s gaze away from self and toward the horizon. Abraham would be the father of the nation of Israel. His innumerable descendants would reap the benefits of God’s unconditional blessing. A few hundred years later, Moses came into the picture. After rescuing His people from slavery, God gave them a set of laws to follow. God would never take back His blessings, but the only way for Israel to enjoy life with God was to do things God’s way. The book of Deuteronomy is essentially a series of sermons—something of a revival meeting before the people entered the Promised Land.

Time shifted for the nation of Israel. The people had allowed something of a regime change to take place. They had turned from the worship of God to dependence on foreign idols. And so when we open the book of Micah, the scene has shifted. We have abandoned the big tent revival for a courtroom drama. God is now taking the stand against His own people.

Micah’s name meant “Who is like God?” The people were about to get a very personal answer to this question. If you were with us in Sunday’s message, one of the points that we brought out was that personal choices have public consequences. Sin rarely impacts just the individual. In Micah 1-3, we see that the idolatry and corruption of man’s heart had something of a ripple effect, impacting the religious and political landscape of Micah’s day.

NEW HORIZON

But here’s the good news. The gospel represents something of a regime change. In Micah 4, we see that the tables turn. God would be in control again, so long as we fix our eyes on His horizon:

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, ² and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. ³ He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; ⁴ but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. ⁵ For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever. (Micah 4:1-5)

Micah 4:3 is one of my favorite verses—“swords into plowshares.” There’ll be a day when we turn our M-16’s into farm tools and our Abram’s tanks into tractors. What man means for destruction God can use to cultivate life.

The name “Zion” is used here to refer to Jerusalem. But Zion has other, lasting implications as well. Zion and Jerusalem refer to God’s Holy City, a city that endures even in God’s new creation:

²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering… (Hebrews 12:22)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:1-2)

TOTAL REVERSAL

The future looks rocky for the nation, but God promises that a faithful remnant will be held together by His grace:

⁶ In that day, declares the LORD, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted; ⁷ and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore. ⁸ And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem. (Micah:4:6-11)

Are you beginning to see what’s happening here? God’s reversing the effects of idolatry. He’s healing the wounds the people have inflicted on themselves. That ripple effect we saw earlier? Sin’s worst effects became evident at the cross. The worst of it has been dealt with—paid by the blood of Jesus. This means that God now reaches back through the ravages of sin and heal every raw wound—effectively setting the dominoes back into place.

FINDING STRENGTH

God has a massive plan for total regime change. And with this change comes renewed strength:

⁹ Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pain seized you like a woman in labor? ¹⁰ Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. ¹¹ Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, “Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.” ¹² But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor. ¹³ Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and shall devote their gain to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth. (Micah 4:9-13)

God wants us to be far-sighted. He wants us to see the grandeur of a city that far outshines the greatest of our monuments. And He wants to forever be our true, exalted King.

In Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings series, we see an elaborate snapshot of this same shift. The people of Middle-Earth have finally dealt with the evil Lord Sauron, and now the kingdom is presided over by her rightful king:

“In his time the City was made more fair than it had ever been, even in the days of its first glory; and it was filled with trees and with fountains, and its gates were wrought of mithril and steel, and its streets were paved with white marble; and the Folk of the Mountain labored in it, and the Folk of the Wood rejoiced to come there; and all was healed and made good, and the houses were filled with men and women and the laughter of children, and no window was blind nor any courtyard empty; and after the ending of the Third Age of the world into the new age it preserved the memory and the glory of the years that were gone.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King: “The Steward and the King,” p. 266)

This is what the whole world will look like. The gospel promises a day when God’s city descends to earth, when Jesus comes back to rule and reign, when you and I are able to rest in the peace of God’s eternal kingdom. And until that day, there is no amount of suffering, no amount of injustice, that can rob us of the joy of this promise.

A Woman with a Past (Hosea 12)

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

The church is a “woman with a past.” You know the type. For all our social “progress,” our world still frowns on sexual promiscuity. And this is precisely what the church has become. Sure, we’d like to live under an assumed innocence, but the concept of sin simply won’t let us escape the gravity of knowing that we are all have “a past.” In his book Reagan’s America, Gary Willis writes:

“We are hostages to each other in a deadly interrelatedness. There is no ‘clean slate’ of nature unscribbled on by all one’s forebears….At one time a woman of unsavory enough experience was delicately but cruelly referred to as ‘having a past.’ The doctrine of original sin states that humankind, in exactly that sense, ‘has a past.’” (Gary Willis, Reagan’s America: Innocents at Home, p. 384)

In Hosea 12, Israel’s past comes back to haunt her. Like Gomer, Israel was a “woman with a past.” And now, we’ll see how God deals with this.

LESSONS FROM HISTORY

The passage opens by looking at the history of Jacob:

Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt. ² The LORD has an indictment against Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways; he will repay him according to his deeds. ³ In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. ⁴ He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us– ⁵ the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD is his memorial name: ⁶ “So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” (Hosea 12:1-6)

If you have a background in church, you probably remember the story of Israel. God had first made a promise to Abraham—that his many descendants would possess God’s promised land. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac had two twin sons: Jacob and Esau. Esau was technically the firstborn, but Jacob came out clutching his brother by the heel. Even the name “Jacob” means “heel-grabber,” what became a self-fulfilling prophecy as Jacob grew to become a shrewd manipulator and con artist. He scammed his family out of his brother’s share of the inheritance, and took off. Later, worried that Esau would exact revenge, he tried to buy him off by sending cattle and livestock ahead of him. Then, when the sun had set and he was all alone, he was hurled to the ground by a powerful force (Genesis 32). Though he’d lived a life of conning his family and manipulating his way into success, he could not best his opponent, and his hip was torn out of joint. Only when he admitted his name was Jacob did the mysterious opponent let go. We’re left to believe that this man wrestled with God himself. Jacob would never be the same. His encounter with God would leave him with a permanent limp—but also a new name. Do you remember what name he was given? Israel. It was a name that literally meant “God fights.” Returning to a place called “Bethel,” Jacob/Israel made good on a former vow of obedience.

So Israel was a nation that had emerged from a checkered past. We all do. Forget even your family for a moment—though I’m sure you’d find plenty of “nuts in your family tree” (to borrow Randy Buchman’s phrase). Think about your own past. Any secrets? Any regrets? Any skeletons in your closet? Chances are there are things in your life that you’d rather not be there. And this is why you need the gospel.

MISPLACED PRIDE

The irony is that Israel wasn’t remorseful over her past. In fact, she’d seemed to have forgotten all about it. Instead, their response was one of misplaced pride:

⁷ A merchant, in whose hands are false balances, he loves to oppress. ⁸ Ephraim has said, “Ah, but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.” ⁹ I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast. ¹⁰ I spoke to the prophets; it was I who multiplied visions, and through the prophets gave parables. ¹¹ If there is iniquity in Gilead, they shall surely come to nothing: in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls; their altars also are like stone heaps on the furrows of the field. (Hosea 12:7-11)

No one likes to feel guilty. In today’s world, the message is consistently one of “What have you done for me lately?” You’re only as good (or bad) as your last performance. I may have sin in my life, but as long as I’m maintaining a good public image, I’m fine. That’s what Israel was doing. Sure, Israel was oppressing surrounding nations, but she looked so good doing it.

THE UNLOVED BRIDE

Jacob would later serve as a shepherd—probably one of a larger staff—in order to marry Rachel:

¹² Jacob fled to the land of Aram; there Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he guarded sheep. ¹³ By a prophet the LORD brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was guarded. ¹⁴ Ephraim has given bitter provocation; so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him and will repay him for his disgraceful deeds. (Hosea 12:12-14)

You remember this story, right? Not exactly Hallmark channel material. Jacob served for seven years for Rachel, but the night after their wedding, he awoke to discover that it wasn’t Rachel, but her older sister Leah. He was forced to work another seven years to marry Rachel, a woman he loved because he found her more beautiful. So now Israel had two wives. One was beautiful and loved—yet infertile. The other was unloved—yet fertile. God would continue the line of Israel through Jacob’s unloved bride.

And so the rest of Israel’s history was marked by God’s faithfulness in the midst of man’s failings. And that’s the real nature of the gospel. Like Leah, we are not loved because we are beautiful. But in the gospel, we become beautiful because we are loved. God is in the business of reversing our histories in order to provide for our futures.

Paul writes:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. (Ephesians 1:3-4)

When were we chosen? Before the foundation of the world. Before time itself even began. What’s in your past? Failure? Sin? Regret? The gospel tells us that because of God’s love, we can look at our past and see the word chosen. And for what purpose? To be “holy and blameless before him.” For some of us, this means that like Jacob, we walk with a limp. But it also means that like Jacob, we receive a new name and a new promise of life.

This is why the whole book of Hosea concludes with a call for the nation to repent—to change their attitude and to once again experience the life that God provides:

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. ² Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. ³ Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” ⁴ I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. ⁵ I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; ⁶ his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. (Hosea 14:1-6)

The same experience can be yours as well. Are you ashamed of your past? Do you long for a better future? Perhaps today is the day for you to believe the gospel—to tell God that your life is damaged but that you trust in the work that Christ has done for you. Consider contacting one of our pastors today; we’d love to hear from you.

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