About Christopher J Wiles

Hey there. My name's Chris. I'm a teaching pastor at Tri-State Fellowship, and a research writer for Docent Research Group. Thanks for stopping by; be sure to stay connected by subscribing to blog updates and more.

A Shalom Story (Lamentations 3-4; Zephaniah 3)

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

In 1948, Andrew Wyeth painted “Christina’s World,” portraying a woman whose degenerative illness deprived her of the ability to walk. Instead of a wheelchair, she chose to crawl and drag herself across her house and farmland. The painting shows her painstakingly making her way across a vast and barren field. Each of us does this, in our own way. In a barren land, it is a struggle to find our way home again. With trembling hands we claw at the soil, inching our way closer, day in and day out.

Everything is broken. We need look no farther than the evening news to recognize that we live in a world that is marked and marred by suffering.

So when we return our attention to Jeremiah’s laments, we find a picture that isn’t that different than what we’d find on our evening news reports:

How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street. ² The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots, the work of a potter’s hands! ³ Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. ⁴ The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them. ⁵ Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps. ⁶ For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her. ⁷ Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire. ⁸ Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood. ⁹ Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field. ¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people. ¹¹ The LORD gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations. (Lamentations 4:1-11)

What can we possibly do to undo this level of chaos, this level of brokenness? In the 1500 years since these words were written, there have been no political ideas, no social programs, no religious prayers, no clever distractions that have succeeded in untangling the web of hurt in which we’re all suspended.

A SHALOM STORY

To understand this web, we have to go back to the very beginning. The story of the Bible is a story of shalom. The word shalom means “peace,” yes—but it also means more than that. Shalom refers to wholeness, to goodness, to prosperity, to wellbeing. Shalom refers to everything being as God intended it to be. And so when God created man and woman, He created a set of shalom relationships—different spheres in which we exist.

We experience spiritual shalom—a direct relationship with God. We experience social shalom—man and woman were originally “naked and unashamed” (Genesis 2:25). And we experience environmental shalom—man and woman were created to work and keep the garden (Genesis 2:15).

But a terrible thing happened. We decided that God’s plan wasn’t good enough, so we disobeyed. Sin entered the world. Now each of those shalom relationships would crumble, and from their ashes comes all of the pain and brokenness that we now experience.

This means that the primary (though not ultimate) effect of sin is estrangement. Betrayal. Unforgiveness. Divorce. War. These are the fruits of social brokenness. Disease. Natural disaster. Oncology reports. Death. These are the fruits of environmental brokenness. And most significantly, we experience spiritual death. Separation from God. Without intervention, our eternal destiny is death and judgment.

A FUTURE KINGDOM

But even Jeremiah turns his trust over to God:

¹⁹ But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations. ²⁰ Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days? ²¹ Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old– ²² unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us. (Lamentations 5:19-22)

Lament cannot be the end of the story. Do you remember the idea of the Day of the Lord? It meant at least two things. In the days of Israel’s exile, it referred to the judgment of God over His people. But it also referred to the future Day of the Lord, when Jesus would physically return to establish His kingdom on earth.

You see what that means? It means that the story of the Bible—the very plans of God—are about putting the brokenness back together again. Shalom will be restored. Death will be a distant memory.

So now, we can finally return to Zephaniah. Do you remember the message of Zephaniah? Judgment precedes blessing. We finally see that Zephaniah points us toward a kingdom without brokenness and without end:

¹⁴ Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! ¹⁵ The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. ¹⁶ On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. ¹⁷ The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. ¹⁸ I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. ¹⁹ Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. ²⁰ At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the LORD. (Zephaniah 3:14-20)

But isn’t this just wishful thinking? It was Marx who described religion as “the opiate of the masses.” By that he meant that the best way to oppress people was to offer them a fairy tale about future blessings. People are willing to endure unimaginable hardships if they’re promised a reward.

If eternity doesn’t exist, then suffering indeed is meaningless, and in the truest sense hopeless. Christianity becomes reduced to Marx’s “opiate” or a fairy tale. But the the resurrection of Jesus—an event that Zephaniah probably never really even imagined—tells us that these are not fairy tales or fables. They are a reality. And, to quote a writer named Os Guiness, the distance between God’s promise and God’s fulfillment is as close as the distance between the lightning and the thunder.

HEALING OUR WORLD

In the film Spitfire Grill, a young woman bandages the injured leg of her friend. “You suppose some hurts go so deep that healing them hurts just as bad as the thing that caused it?”

Sin created an open wound on our world. Healing this wound would hurt just as deeply. But that’s the beauty of the gospel. Jesus took on the hurt of our world when He went to the cross: “he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Do you hear that? Let’s read it again—with the original Hebrew: “upon him was the chastisement that brought us shalom.”

The gospel tells us that because of Christ’s sacrifice, the world can be whole again. You and I can be new again. And that’s a beautiful thought. In the meantime, our task is to live as sojourners in this broken world. Why? Because sometimes living with the ache is the only thing that reminds us of the healing to come. It’s an ache that points us to a greater physician, a greater world, and a greater healing.

So if you are sick, then live with the ache of sickness.

If you are childless, then live with the ache of childlessness.

If you are alone, then live with the ache of loneliness.

If you are poor, then live with the ache of poverty.

If you are suffering, hurting, bleeding, in any way—then live with the ache of this hurting world. Meet it not with clenched, angry fists but soft, mature tears.

We shall all find our way home again.

Lament breaks in two (Lamentations 3)

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

Many churches have “praise teams.” But how many churches have “lament teams?” This was the question raised by author and musician Michael Card in his book A Sacred Sorrow. Reflecting on 9/11, he came to realize that the church has no language to express its deepest grief, though it overflows with slogans to describe its greatest joys.

“Worship is not only about good feelings, joy, and prosperity, though they are at the heart of it. If this were true, then according to this modern American understanding of worship, the poor would have nothing to say, nothing of value to bring to God. While Jesus would pronounce a blessing on those who mourn, we pronounce a curse. Those who ‘labor and are heavy laden’ can find no place in our comfortable churches to lay their burdens.” (Michael Card, A Sacred Sorrow)

A major part of the reason we strain to understand suffering is we lack the proper vocabulary. So long as the church values happiness over holiness, we will continue to slap band-aids on hemorrhaging wounds. “Everything happens for a reason,” we insist—or, more likely, repeat from somewhere else. “God never closes a door without opening a window.” “Time heals all wounds.” In the absence of the rich language of lament, we’ve come to embrace slogans. And I can’t be kind about this, because we’ve exchanged the deep, mysterious nature of God’s word for a series of cheap, insipid, overly-simplistic bumper-sticker phrases that will not sustain you for the journey ahead.

JEREMIAH’S LAMENT

As we return our attention to Jeremiah’s lamenting speeches, it might at first seem as if we’re looking at more of the same. That’s because in many ways, yes: neither Jeremiah’s nor Israel’s circumstances have changed. And maybe that’s the point. Sorrow—deep, true sorrow—is so rarely a passing thing. It is a fever that settles deeper than skin and settles into your bones.

If you’ve ever experienced anxiety or depression, then perhaps you can readily identify with the way Jeremiah describes the strange way that physical pain accompanies emotional anguish. In Jeremiah’s case, this was a direct result of God’s judgment, but for us today, we don’t always know why we might experience such things. And if you do struggle with anxiety or depression, it could simply(!) be that your own brain chemistry suffers from the same brokenness as the rest of creation.

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; ² he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; ³ surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. ⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; ⁵ he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; ⁶ he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. ⁷ He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; ⁸ though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; ⁹ he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. ¹⁰ He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; ¹¹ he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; ¹² he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. ¹³ He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; ¹⁴ I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. ¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. ¹⁶ He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; ¹⁷ my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; ¹⁸ so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.” ¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! (Lamentations 3:1-19)

SHARED SUFFERING

The language of Lamentations 3 reminds me of yet another passage of suffering: Psalm 22. It was a song originally written by David—roughly 500 years before Jeremiah’s day, and about 1,000 years before the birth of Jesus.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning…¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; ¹⁵ my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. ¹⁶ For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet– ¹⁷ I can count all my bones– they stare and gloat over me; ¹⁸ they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. (Psalm 22:1, 14-18)

It’s hard to read David’s words without picturing the crucifixion scene: Jesus’ bones being pulled from join to be nailed to the wood, surrounded by scoffers who gamble for His clothing, his mouth and strength dried from the intensity of the moment. And in that moment this same psalm finds his dry lips: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).

David couldn’t have possibly known that he was writing a hymn for a funeral. But God did. Christianity teaches that all scripture finds its origin in God’s heart (2 Timothy 3:16). This means that God composed a song that would express the suffering of God himself. A recent worship band—Caedmon’s Call—wrote the lyric: “You planted the seed that grew the tree that grew the cross that saved me.” It’s all part of the larger plan, even though we don’t always understand what it means in the meantime.

JEREMIAH’S HOPE

In Lamentations 3 we see Jeremiah’s lament break in two. He suddenly shifts gears in verse 20, turning his attention from his own infirmity to God’s ultimate sovereignty:

²⁰ My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. ²¹ But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: ²² The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; ²³ they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” ²⁵ The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. ²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. ²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. ²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; ²⁹ let him put his mouth in the dust– there may yet be hope; ³⁰ let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. ³¹ For the Lord will not cast off forever, ³² but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; ³³ for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. ³⁴ To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, ³⁵ to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, ³⁶ to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. ³⁷ Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? ³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? ³⁹ Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? ⁴⁰ Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD! (Lamentations 3:20-40)

For Jeremiah, he could only trust in the larger character of God. Thousands of years later, we have all the more reason for hope. We have the testimony of Jesus and His Church. On the cross, all lament breaks in two. We see the reality of suffering, but we see that suffering was experienced by the God of all creation. No other religion is like that. Islam presents a god who is violently angry with sin—yet never steps into history to experience suffering on his own. Eastern religions teach that existence is suffering—but the solution is to escape suffering by subjugating desire. Only Christianity teaches us that God enters into history to experience suffering on our behalf. And only Christianity teaches us that in our darkest moments, we have a God who leads us not around our difficulties, but through them. We often lack answers, but we at least have the Answer.

And He is enough.

“Everybody Hurts” (Lamentations 1)

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

The thing about life is that no one gets out alive. Live long enough, you bleed a little. Live a bit longer, and you bleed all the more. “Everybody hurts,” sings Michael Stipe of the band R.E.M. For all the disparity of religious belief, political ideology, artistic expression, even physical appearance—could it be that the one thing that truly unites us as a human race, is pain?

Suffering is an affront to our “normal” way of life, and a challenge to our sense of “fairness.” So much so that even before the birth of Jesus, writers and thinkers struggled to reconcile suffering with their own religious beliefs. Even literature from ancient Greece began raising the question: Could the gods really be like this? And in that same period, one writer raised an argument that would echo through the halls of philosophy ever sense. If suffering exists (and it does), then God cannot be both all-powerful and all-loving. Why not? Because if suffering exists, then God is either not powerful enough to end it, or not loving enough to want to.

Fast forward to today. Clearly a good God couldn’t allow suffering. Perhaps there’s no meaning to be found at all. Richard Dawkins, famous author of The God Delusion, says that nature doesn’t answer such questions:

“In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice…DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is. And we dance to its music.” (Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden)

You don’t have to share Dawkins’ atheism for his thoughts to resonate with you. Perhaps we are little more than the flotsam and jetsam washed ashore by the currents of an arbitrary, unfeeling universe.

JEREMIAH’S SORROW

We’ll return to Zephaniah in a few days. Right now we’re turning our attention to another book—one you might have previously only skimmed through. The book of Lamentations was written by Jeremiah—the same prophet of the larger book that bears his name. Jeremiah would describe the conditions of Israel’s period of exile—that 70-year period where Israel found herself in captivity in a foreign land. His prophetic career would not only make him an outcast among his countrymen, but it would rob him of the opportunity for a wife and family. It’s for these and other reasons that history remembers him as the “weeping prophet.” His words read like something out of a personal diary:

How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave. ² She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies. ³ Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress. ⁴ The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the festival; all her gates are desolate; her priests groan; her virgins have been afflicted, and she herself suffers bitterly. ⁵ Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper, because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe. ⁶ From the daughter of Zion all her majesty has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer. ⁷ Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all the precious things that were hers from days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was none to help her, her foes gloated over her; they mocked at her downfall. ⁸ Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away. ⁹ Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; therefore her fall is terrible; she has no comforter. “O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!” ¹⁰ The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom you forbade to enter your congregation. ¹¹ All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. “Look, O LORD, and see, for I am despised.” (Lamentations 1:1-11)

We rarely read words like that. We’ve become far too accustomed to a lifestyle of comfort and security. When happiness is valued more highly than holiness, today’s church becomes too preoccupied with the American dream to waste her time on lament. But who will teach our people to mourn—and mourn well? To grieve—and grieve well? Nowhere in Scripture do we find promises of happiness—but instead we find promises of spectacular joy, even though (like Jeremiah) the path often leads through great suffering.

JEREMIAH’S PLEA

Later in this opening chapter, Jeremiah pleads with God on behalf of both himself and his people:

²⁰ “Look, O LORD, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death. ²¹ “They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. You have brought the day you announced; now let them be as I am. ²² “Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many, and my heart is faint.”

Sometimes this is all we can do. Try and figure it all out, and you’ll drive yourself mad. “Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable?” This is what C.S. Lewis asks in his private journal, after the death of his wife. He suggests that trying to ask questions about meaning in suffering is like asking God “How many hours are there in a mile?” or “Is yellow square or round?” Even our questions make no sense.

“When I lay these questions before God I get no answer. But a rather special sort of ‘No answer.’ It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze. As though He shook His head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, ‘Peace, child; you don’t understand.’” (C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed)

THE GOSPEL AND SUFFERING

Live long enough and you’ll shed just as many tears as Jeremiah—perhaps more. The gospel doesn’t always give us the answers as to why. But the gospel helps us understand what the answer can’t be. The writer of Hebrews tells us that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

You see, if the gospel is true, then we know that the answer can’t be that God isn’t all-powerful and all-loving. The answer can’t be that God isn’t all-loving, because He sent His Son to die. The answer can’t be that God isn’t all-powerful, because He raised His Son from the dead.

We may not always find the answers we’re looking for, but the cross stands as a reminder that sometimes the greatest strength is found in the moments of greatest weakness, and that in a suffering world, only a suffering God can help.

“Catch me if you can…” (Zephaniah 2)

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

It’s bizarre, really—the way that pride can so blind a man. I’m not just talking about the guy who insists that “I’m just big-boned” (as if anyone’s buying it). I’m talking about any of us who allow our self-importance to shield us from reality. In just the past week, Reuter’s published a story about a Texas man who posted his reckless motorcycle antics in a Facebook video titled—get this—“catch me if you can.” Sadly, the Texas state police “can” and did—arresting the man in connection with several outstanding warrants.

Maybe we’re not so brazen, or at least so public. Maybe we think we’ve “gotten away with it” because no one caught us in the “harmless white lie.” Maybe we’ve gotten really good at hiding our internet browser history. Maybe we assume that if even society approves extramarital sex, then God certainly can’t make it a big deal.

Can He?

A CALL TO REPENTANCE (2:1-3)

As we saw yesterday, the message of Zephaniah is simple: judgment precedes blessing. The bulk of Zephaniah 1-2 is devoted to explaining the judgment that would be poured out. Listen to the way God (through Zephaniah) describes His people:

Gather together, yes, gather, O shameless nation, ² before the decree takes effect–before the day passes away like chaff– before there comes upon you the burning anger of the LORD, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the LORD. ³ Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD. (Zephaniah 2:1-3)

They are “shameless,” he says. There was an era when “shame” was built into our legal system. Remember the “stocks?” Chances are you have a family photo (or three) of yourself posing in these outdoor contraptions from a family vacation to colonial Williamsburg. The point was simple: the shame of being publicly identified as a criminal was a deterrent against crime.

More recently, some judges are handing out unusual “shaming” sentences, in which criminals are sentenced to holding signs by the interstate with a description of their crime. Such a “regress” has prompted many in the social sciences to question the value of such tactics.

In the film The Manchurian Candidate (the original, not the remake), the lead character is brainwashed in a government program to become the perfect soldier—dutiful, obedient, and willing to carry out any order with no regard for morals or consequences. “If you can eliminate shame,” the doctors say, “you can get a man to do anything.”

I don’t know if pride and shame are mutually exclusive, but I think we tend to feel one or the other more strongly. When we are proud, we lack shame. The danger—for Israel as well as for us—is that pride can teach us to smile at behaviors that should move us to shameful tears. And that’s what God is saying to Israel, calling them steadily to repentance.

JUDGMENT ON NEIGHBORS (2:4-15)

The Israelites were not uniquely targeted, however. God reminds His people that He is the God of all nations. The next major section describes God’s judgment on Israel’s immediate neighbors:

Philistia (2:4-7)

⁴ For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron shall be uprooted. ⁵ Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, you nation of the Cherethites! The word of the LORD is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left. ⁶ And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures, with meadows for shepherds and folds for flocks. ⁷ The seacoast shall become the possession of the remnant of the house of Judah, on which they shall graze, and in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening. For the LORD their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes.

Moab and Amnon (2:8-11)

⁸ “I have heard the taunts of Moab and the revilings of the Ammonites, how they have taunted my people and made boasts against their territory. ⁹ Therefore, as I live,” declares the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Moab shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a land possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a waste forever. The remnant of my people shall plunder them, and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.” ¹⁰ This shall be their lot in return for their pride, because they taunted and boasted against the people of the LORD of hosts. ¹¹ The LORD will be awesome against them; for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down, each in its place, all the lands of the nations.

Ethiopia (2:12)

¹² You also, O Cushites, shall be slain by my sword.

Assyria (2:15)

¹³ And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, and he will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like the desert. ¹⁴ Herds shall lie down in her midst, all kinds of beasts; even the owl and the hedgehog shall lodge in her capitals; a voice shall hoot in the window; devastation will be on the threshold; for her cedar work will be laid bare. ¹⁵ This is the exultant city that lived securely, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one else.” What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.

PRIDE, SHAME, AND THE GOSPEL

When defining the gospel, I often defer to pastor Tim Keller, who so famously summarizes it this way: “We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” The gospel replaces pride with humility—because I am a sinner. But the gospel also replaces shame with confidence—because I am a redeemed sinner.

Regardless of whether you struggle with habitual sin or feelings of inadequacy, the gospel has one cure: Jesus Christ. The task of the Christian life is—to borrow a phrase from Luther—learning to “preach the gospel to yourself.” In so doing, we replace the cycle of pride and shame with the abiding peace and joy that comes through forgiveness and transformation.

Wishful thinking? (Zephaniah 1)

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Christopher J Wiles

No one likes the image of an angry God. For some, the mere suggestion is downright tasteless. In his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins famously cites such Old-Testament imagery as a reason for his atheism:

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” (Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion)

The more we read some of the prophets, the more we might start to wonder if people like Dawkins might just have a point. How can we believe in a God like this—let alone love a God like this?

But, like many other things, the answer is in the question itself. We’re turning our attention now to Zephaniah:

“The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.” (Zephanian 1:1)

His name literally means “Yahweh hides” or maybe “Hidden in Yahweh.” If Judah was ministering “in the days of Josiah,” it would mean that he was ministering in roughly the years of 640-609 B.C. Some have suggested that Zephaniah may have even been a part of the royal family in some way—though this view has limited support.

His message was simple: judgment precedes blessing. The first part of his book deals specifically with God’s judgment on the world in general and on His people in particular.

JUDGMENT OF THE WORLD

² “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD. ³ “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.

Again, we might be troubled by such harsh language. Why would God be so angry, so swiftly vengeful? Rebecca Pipert, author of Hope Has Its Reasons helps us make a little more sense of this:

“Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers? Far from it….Anger isn’t the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference….God’s wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer…which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being.” (Rebcca Pippert, Hope Has Its Reasons)

Let’s say it another way: God isn’t against sin as much as He’s for shalom—that is, for peace, prosperity, integrity, wholeness. Anything—anyone—that violates that experiences the consequences. In this case, God’s judgment is made quite clear. And it’s not just judgment on the world, but also on God’s own people.

JUDGMENT OF JUDAH

God’s people have a unique privilege and responsibility. They have received the fullest experience of God—which means they are all the more accountable to Him. This is why Paul tells the Romans that the Jews are both at an advantage for their heritage, yet at the same time even more shockingly guilty before the judge (Romans 3:1-2, 9). Here, in Zephaniah, we see that judgment is enacted against God’s own people:

Cause of judgment

⁴ “I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests, ⁵ those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom, ⁶ those who have turned back from following the LORD, who do not seek the LORD or inquire of him.”

Course of judgment

⁷ Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. ⁸ And on the day of the LORD’s sacrifice– “I will punish the officials and the king’s sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire. ⁹ On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud. ¹⁰ “On that day,” declares the LORD, “a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills. ¹¹ Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar! For all the traders are no more; all who weigh out silver are cut off. ¹² At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.’ ¹³ Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.”

The Reality of judgment

¹⁴ The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. ¹⁵ A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, ¹⁶ a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. ¹⁷ I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. ¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

WISHFUL THINKING?

Historically it’s been argued that man created a God to suit his own needs. Sigmund Freud, one of the great fathers of modern psychology, argued that God’s judgment was a way of self-justification. If I believe I am punished for my sins, I am strangely relieved. Think of the last scene of the movie The Godfather. The “Godfather” is in church, receiving communion. But the camera cuts away to scenes of his henchmen, murdering people elsewhere in town. To paraphrase Shakespeare, religious language can indeed “sugar over the devil himself.” Religion can justify a wide range of sinful behavior.

The problem is that this eventually breaks down. It ceases to make sense. If God were a social invention, then why would we create a God so unattractively violent? This is the case made by Mary Eberstadt in her satirical work, The Loser Letters:

“[D]on’t You see the problem here? The very character of the Judeo-Christian god that has given You such a romp with the adjectives actually turns out to be a pretty big problem for the Atheist side. The point everybody’s missing is that this particular god is hard to live with – so hard that the Atheist idea of his having been made up just for the supposed ‘consolation’ of it all is just too LOL. Even at his best, he’s not the sort of supernatural one can easily cuddle up to. As Graham Greene’s fallen whiskey priest puts it in The Power and the Glory, making the point that even this god’s ‘love’ is pretty scary stuff, ‘It set fire to a bush in the desert, didn’t it, and smashed open graves and set the dead walking in the dark. Oh, a man like me would run a mile to get away if he felt that love around,’ and a female Human like me too.” (Mary Eberstadt, The Loser Letters, p. 32-33)

Do you see what she’s saying? No one would invent a God like this, a God who is so powerful, so glorious, and so terrifyingly real. The result is a heart heavy and sick with grief, knowing that we, too, are just as guilty before God’s throne. We can only count on and trust in the sacrifice of Christ to make our trembling hands worthy of resting at God’s feet.

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.

Seriously

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