To Stand or to Bow? – Daniel 3

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Randy Buchman

Eric, Chris and I went to the theatre together this week to view the film “Son of God” in order to render opinion on it, take the church youth to see it, etc… and we’ll have more on that in other writings – simply will hint here that it is going to be fairly positive.

But while at the theatre and seeing the trailers for upcoming flicks there was one called “God’s Not Dead.” To be released on March 21^st, it is the story of a young man who chooses to stand alone against a liberal, atheist college professor. He is challenged to a series of debates in class and other ignominious expressions, to which the student stands his ground successfully. Apparently the plot is based upon an unverifiable, but oft-repeated story of such an encounter by someone, somewhere, in some college. Does this happen? I’ve heard that this sort of challenge often happened regularly in our own little college in our own little town by our local most famous proponent of atheism. One of my boys attending a most liberal university did have to stand alone against professorial abuse on the issue of doubting the scientific veracity of climate change. It got ugly.

The courage to stand alone in the face of power or supreme authority – that takes fortitude based upon deep belief and conviction. My first mental picture of such is that fellow some years ago in Tiananmen Square who stood alone, face to face against the Communist tank. Sometimes the tank turns around, sometimes the tank takes a different route, but sometimes the tank runs you over.

Today we see the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who conspicuously on a vast plain surrounded by thousands of people who bowing to the image of Nebuchadnezzar, chose to literally stand out in that throng of people.

The story is a simple one and needs no explanation …

The Image of Gold and the Blazing Furnace

3:1 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. ²He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. ³So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it.

⁴Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: ⁵As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. ⁶Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”

⁷Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and all kinds of music, all the nations and peoples of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

⁸At this time some astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews. ⁹They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “May the king live forever! ¹⁰Your Majesty has issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold, ¹¹and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. ¹²But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”

¹³Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, ¹⁴and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? ¹⁵Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”

¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver usfrom Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

¹⁹Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual ²⁰and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. ²¹So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. ²²The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, ²³and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.

²⁴Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?”

They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.”

²⁵He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

²⁶Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”

So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, ²⁷and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

²⁸Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. ²⁹Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way.”

³⁰Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

A question may arise, and has been asked over the years – where was Daniel? Bowing somewhere? On a trip out of town? At a level of government not requiring the same allegiance? We don’t know; but we do know of his faith and boldness … since, all of us having read Daniel before know that there is a lion’s den story coming up soon.

And who was this fourth person in the fire – identified by Nebuchadnezzar as some sort of divine being? This is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ – like the visitor to Abraham, the wrestler with Jacob, the voice from the burning bush, and the Captain of the Lord’s Host who appeared to Joshua.

I have had a few awkward moments in my life where I’ve had to take a stand – I remember one at age 17 where I walked away from a whole gang of my high school friends at a county fair, when they started picking up girls toward the end of going drinking, etc., etc. that evening. I walked home alone in the dark that evening, and though truly the event held little actual interest or temptation, I remember keenly to this day the feelings of loneliness and isolation of that night. But all to say, I’ve never had to take a stand like these three Hebrews … not yet, that is.

I add that last little phrase, because, it could happen to me, to you, to any who name Christ. In fact, it happens all over the world every day. I tell you the total truth here when I say that mere minutes ago, while writing this, my computer trumpeted and popped up an incoming monthly email from the Religious Freedom Report. This news bulletin highlights the ongoing nature of the persecution of Christians around the world. Here are some headlines:

“Murder of 7 Coptic Egyptians in Libya met with Indifference”

“Pakistan: Two Young Christian Girls Killed”

“Archbishop Testifies on Capitol Hill of Flagrant Christian Persecution in Middle East”

“Persecution of Chinese Christians Continued to Increase in 2013”

Just days ago in his March 4 homily, Pope Francis called persecution a “reality” of the Christian life, challenging the faithful to take up the cross.

There are more Christian martyrs in the world now than at any other time in human history. It is just not happening much here in America, even as we uncomfortably sense some shifting winds and tides … and while we note changes in the culture that give rise to an intolerant hatred of the people of the gospel. But remember, this is normal; this is the common experience of the disciples of Christ over the centuries.

Could you stand? Would you? The three friends were miraculously saved by the Lord. But in the book of Acts, Stephen was stoned. And though Hebrews 11 speaks of the great faith of many, it also talks about those Christians who were sawn in two.

Sometimes the tank turns around, sometimes the tank takes a different route, but sometimes the tank runs you over. And God is in all three situations. Can you stand?

I told you the story last week of my pastor friend’s son – the 30-year-old pastor also, who was killed in a head-on collision. Here is the final written article by that young man – a weekly note to his church where he said, “… later Sunday night, after preaching on Philippians 3, praying and talking with God, the prevailing question was: is Christ enough? Is his work enough, or do I want more, do I seek my own will, or my own desires, or do I make it more about myself than I make it about Him? It’s a tough question, and it is even a harder question to answer. But my prayer is what Paul said earlier in Philippians 1:21 that “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Standing = living or dying = gain

The Revenge of the Vegetarians – Daniel 1

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Randy Buchman

Today we begin a new book in our series with the first of seven selections among the 12 chapters of Daniel. We also with the first of these two readings (today and tomorrow) anticipate the related sermon in the series, rather than reading related passages after the Sunday message.

Daniel picks up with events just a couple of decades after the life of Habakkuk. This is the fulfillment of what that prophet had received from the Lord – that the Babylonians would be the instrument of judgment God used upon Judah.

1:1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.

In history, we are talking about the year 605 BC (again – check the chart in the historical background page listed above). This is the beginning of the Babylonian Captivity – this exile being the reference for prophets being pre-exilic or post-exilic, etc. The northern 10 tribes of Israel had been taken captive by Assyria 117 years before in 722 BC. Every king in the north was evil. The southern kingdom of Judah had at least some good and godly kings – not a majority – but at least a few. So they were preserved by God for a longer time, though finally also falling under His judgment for their disobedience and idolatry.

Jehoiakim was taken to Babylon, though allowed to return later and rule under Babylonian authority. Jeremiah had prophesied to him that he should obey … that this was God’s will. But he rebelled, and after a total of 11 years he was again defeated and replaced.

3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— 4 young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. 5 The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.

6 Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

A method of subjugation of conquered peoples that was used by the Babylonians was to take away some of the cream of the crop of young nobility and those with royal family connections in order to train them at Babylonia State University. The goal was to get them when young, acculturate and educate them in the systems, language, and religion of Babylon, and thus have leadership that would be submissive and productive for the goals of the Empire. Daniel and his three friends in this story were among those selected from Judah for this three-year course of the Harvard / Princeton education of that day.

The process can be seen even by their names. Each of them had a name that was a compound of the name of God, but each was given a new name that was a compound of the gods of the Babylonians.

8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.

This choice food and drink would have been ceremonially unclean according to Jewish dietary law. Daniel understood this and desired, with his friends, to maintain this truth value from their heritage and faith. It was a bold move, based upon conviction and a desire to obey and please God above all else.

9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, 10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”

This last phrase in verse 10 is probably my favorite selection of all time as written in the New American Standard Version – the main text I used in my college and seminary years, where it says, “Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.” OK, I give up, you win, I forfeit – here’s my head.

So, Ashpenaz – the resident advisor in charge of these preppy undergrads – was simply afraid that he would get in trouble if the four Hebrews did not feast on the best food in the school cafeteria, and rather ate only from the salad bar.

11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

So Daniel strikes a deal with the official for a 10-day trial on nothing but veggies and water. And God blesses this in every way.

17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.

18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.

21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

Not only did God bless Daniel and the three friends physically, he prospered them in all that they did. They were beyond their peers, with Daniel also having a unique skill that was not something derived from the occult-like practices of the “wise men” of Babylon, but was rather by God’s divine enablement. His government service extended to King Cyrus – that is the first king of the next empire! That would be like someone working in the administration for FDR, and then all the way through to Obama.

It was certainly not Daniel’s first choice to live through a time of history where his nation was subject to a pagan empire. It was certainly unpleasant in certain ways to have been likely separated from family and homeland. But the point is this: His personal success did not rise and fall on the outer circumstance of his life or because of his connection with the prevailing culture of the day. Rather, his success came because he ultimately lived to obey and please God rather than men. And that is what we call a “timeless truth” that extends to us today.

Trusting God Through Perilous Times – Habakkuk 3

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Randy Buchman

It is great to live in times of prosperity, and by most any measure of the millennia through which mankind has lived on this planet, most of us have enjoyed much comfort and ease.

Yet there are difficult times that cycle throughout human history and God’s dealings with His creation. There are cataclysmic periods, and in those times there are always remnants – be they often small – of God’s faithful people.

If we read the Scriptures accurately – in my humble opinion based upon a lifetime of study – well, it does not end well for mankind. As end times approach along with the impeding hand of God’s judgment, there are going to be difficult days even for God’s elect people. Might we be the people … the generation … that lives through such a time? Yes, for there is nothing special about us that we should escape such an experience; and there is concurrently every reason for God to intervene in the human condition where He is so oft despised by our culture and the bulk of the peoples of the world.

Habakkuk lived in such a time of God’s pending action. Judah was about to be judged for disobedience and neglect. The instrument of God’s wrath upon them was to be the Babylonian Empire. And the period of time was to be 70 years. Why 70? Because, for 490 years the people of Israel/Judah had failed to honor the Sabbath year – where each 7^th year they were to allow the land to rest, as God would provide enough for them in advance. But, not believing, they did not do it. And it is not to overstate anything to say that God is even faithful to keep his word to the dirt!

So Habakkuk now understands that he will be living through this period of time and judgment. And this third chapter is his prayer of praise and submission to God.

Habakkuk’s Prayer

3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth. < This is some sort of musical notation >

2 Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.

Habakkuk prays in awe of God, seeking for God’s work to transpire soon and for God’s mercy in the midst of it all. The following is a reflective description of the prophet as he looks back to what God did in Israel’s history in delivering them from Egypt. It was another powerful time, and this same almighty God was going to use all of nature and His created world to manifest his power once again.

3 God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth.

4 His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden.

5 Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps.

6 He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed—but he marches on forever.

7 I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. <These are neighboring nations who, near the Red Sea, saw God’s mighty power.>

8 Were you angry with the rivers, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and your chariots to victory?

9 You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; 10 the mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high.

11 Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear.

12 In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations.

13 You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot.

14 With his own spear you pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding.

15 You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the great waters.

Habakkuk now finishes his hymn of praise … physically exhausted from the majestic vision he has seen and heard, yet confident in the Lord and in his faith in God.

16 I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.

17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.

For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.

Habakkuk essentially says that no matter what happens – even if everything is upset and the worst of circumstances are to cause the normal sustenance of life to evaporate – he would still trust in God through it all. His confidence would enable him to feel that he could live like the deer – sure-footed even on the perilous places of the mountain cliffs.

In perilous times we don’t need to be undone under the circumstances if we are living in trust under the Lord.

When it seems that injustice prevails and that God is doing nothing, we must remind ourselves that He has done everything. He has given His son to conquer death itself. And He has given us His word that the victory in ours in Christ, and that a final day of righteousness and justice will arise. We are moving toward it; we are not there yet, but it is coming.

Wait for it … wait for it … (Habakkuk 2)

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Randy Buchman

Where does the commonly used phase of anticipation “wait for it … (pause)…” come from? According to my research, though there is much debate, the answer is that it seems to have arisen from the movie … (wait for it) … “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” – coming toward the end of the film when the Merry Men are saving Robin from being hanged at Maid Marian’s wedding to the Sherriff of Rottingham.

Actually, I think it goes back to God Himself!!

As Chris Wiles and I met to discuss upcoming teaching series (as we do regularly), and at the time we settled upon this “Uncharted” series, it was because of the similarities of the times in which the prophets lived and ministered to the times and feelings we have today in our increasingly godless generation. We can all see the resemblance between then and now in terms of the rise of injustice and the scoffing at faith and trust in a transcendent God.

Both then and now, God’s people are in a sort of waiting pattern – living in times where it may not seem that God’s work is very evident. Rather, it looks like evil prospers and goes unnoticed by the loud silence of heaven. But the reality is much different. God is always at work, though it is most often not seen or very obvious.

We must wait, we must live by faith.

That was the answer for Habakkuk, that was the answer for first century Christians, and it is the answer for us today.

As we go to the second chapter of Habakkuk today, the first verse really would have really fit better as the last verse of the first chapter, as it is a continuation of the complaint of Habakkuk to the Lord … with God beginning His answer in verse two. And a first reading of this verse appears to smack of some attitude! …

2:1 I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

The picture is of a person on the city walls, watching out … expectant and waiting for an answer. And that is the main idea here – expectancy – not that he was saying something like, “I’ll bet God can’t give me a decent answer to my grand objections!” In fact, the wording might even be construed to include an attitude of readiness to be rebuked for a lack of understanding.

The Lord’s Answer

2 Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.

This is an odd verse, even in the Hebrew – who is running and reading … the herald, or those receiving the message? In any event, we can say this: God is NOT stuttering!

3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

4 “See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright—but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness

So there you have it in terms of a message to Habakkuk and to any who trust in God: Wait for God and live in faith and trust. God keeps good books; his accounting skills are impeccable. He will rule in justice at an appointed time … until then, live faithfully.

Most of the rest of the chapter is a pictorially descriptive statement of the bad character of the Babylonians and the certain judgment that is to befall them.

—5 indeed, wine betrays him <speaking of the enemy>; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.

6 “Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, “‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on?’

7 Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey.

8 Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

9 “Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, setting his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin!

10 You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life.

11 The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.

12 “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice!

13 Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?

14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

15 “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!

16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed! The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory.

17 The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

18 “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.”

20 The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

This last verse (20) you may have at some point heard used to speak of God being ready to receive worship. Actually, it is saying that God is at a point of preparing to execute judgment.

Notice the fantastic statement of verse 14 in the midst of that condemnation of Babylon (and any others opposed to God and truth). This speaks of an end time – a final end-all scenario of God’s truth and victory prevailing upon the earth and covering it fully … and then finally in the eternal state to come.

Until then … wait for it. This was the message given to those Jewish Christians addressed in Hebrews chapter 10 – remember that these were people who were being severely persecuted for their faith and who were living in perilous times…

³²Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. ³³Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. ³⁴You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. ³⁵So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

³⁶You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. ³⁷For,“In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.” ³⁸And, “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” ³⁹But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

What does the writer to the Hebrews do here to encourage these believers … did you catch it? He quotes the little book of Habakkuk … chapter 2, verses 3 & 4.

Today friends, whatever peril or obstacle befalls, be strong, live in faith, be a person of trust … wait for it!

Is Next To Last Really That Bad? – Habakkuk 1

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Randy Buchman

Over the years of recruiting 8^th grade students to run cross country in high school, I used to encourage those who were fearful and had never done it before that they should not feel like they were going to finish dead last in a race. With hundreds of competitors, I reasoned that there would always be someone worse … although, I stopped using that line after having a few kids indeed finished completely last in a huge race.

It is but small consolation when the only victory to hope for is that there is someone worse at something. But some people find comfort in knowing that, though they aren’t perfect nor even honestly very righteous at all, there are truly evil people in the world who are so much worse, and that God will therefore surely overlook their small-town sinful lifestyle.

Today we begin the first of three days looking at the three-chapter book of Habakkuk. And a theme in this unique prophet’s writing that reflected the viewpoint of the nation of Judah was that “though we might be pretty bad, the Babylonians are far worse!”

I encourage you to click the link at the top of the page to take you to our summary history in order to see where Habakkuk fits into the scheme of all the Old Testament prophets. His writing was probably around 630 to 620 B.C. – just before the beginning of the Babylonian Captivity in 606 B.C. Assyria had been defeated a few generations after their conquest of the northern ten tribes of Israel; the southern kingdom of Judah continued along with a mixed bag of good and bad kings; and the Babylonians were rising to become the world’s greatest empire up to that time.

It was difficult to be a prophet to a bunch of people who had little interest in obeying God or living life in a righteous fashion, and so Habakkuk looks to God to ask how long it will be that He would overlook injustice in Judah at every turn …

1:1 The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

2 How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?

3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.

4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

Habakkuk gets an answer from God, but it is not at all the one that he expected to receive…

The Lord’s Answer

5 “Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.

6 I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own.

7 They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.

8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping to devour; 9 they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.

10 They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them.

11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

Indeed, judgment was coming. God was raising up the nation of Babylon to execute his wrath upon the godless nature of sin and injustice in Judah. This was not good news at all to Habakkuk, Judah, or any other people of that time. The Babylonians were a new gang of nasty characters in the ancient world. The text here speaks pictorially and illustratively of their powerful and ruthless nature.

As an example, the Babylonians would (after Habakkuk’s time) set up a vassal Jewish king in Judah. And when King Zedekiah did not behave properly, the Babylonians killed his sons in front of him and poked out his eyes so that the last thing he would remember seeing was the death of his children. So, there is a personality sketch of the crew that God was going to use to judge Judah – not what you’d expect!

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

12 Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.

13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

14 You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler.

15 The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad.

16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food.

17 Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?

The idea that God would use the Babylonians was incomprehensible for Habakkuk. He begins his plea in verse 12 by rehearsing what he knows to be true about God’s eternality and holiness, but in the next verse he essentially says, “OK, yep, we be bad, but they be worse! How’s it that you be using them to whoop us?”

He further laments that the wicked of the world are like fisherman who wantonly pull their unsuspecting catch out of the water in their nets in great joy; and then they worship their nets … meaning that they worship their own cruel power and ability to destroy without mercy.

God will answer this question “why” in the next chapter.

Finishing next to last in a race where the only way to win is to be perfect is, well, quite short of the goal. To be right with God, we need to have perfect righteousness, which of course can only be gained through faith in the work of Christ. Comparing our goodness as beyond others, or finding solace in our sins being less than many, will not make us a winner whatsoever. The victory is ours only in Christ – who is the victor over everything through the cross. In this way we avert God’s righteous judgment that would fall not on us, but on our substitute – Jesus.

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.

Seriously

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