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In Hebrew class we’re translating through the book of Jonah. Yesterday, Jonah 1:7 (”And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us’”) spurred a lively discussion about whether or not it is valid for a Christian today to use lots (which for us would be something like flipping a coin or maybe throwing dice) to discern God’s will about a particular situation.
Granted, the sailors in Jonah were pagans. However, the apostles cast lots to determine whether Joseph called Barsabbas or Matthias would take the place of Judas as the twelfth apostle (Acts 1:24-26). They asked God to show them which one of the two he had chosen, they cast lots, the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the twelve.
The situation we had in mind was a situation in which all other avenues of discernment have been exhausted (prayer, searching the Scriptures, godly counsel, using wisdom) and there are still two viable and equally desirable alternatives on the table. Is it appropriate in that situation to pray that God would make known his will and then flip a coin, casting yourself on his sovereignty as it is described in Proverbs 16:33:
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”
What do you think?
Doug Wilson has an insightful post today about an implication of the story of the widow’s mite:
This last Lord’s Day, something occurred to me in the course of the sermon, something which I mentioned in passing. But then as I was reading the Scriptures this last week, the same point jumped off the page at me, and in a far more explicit way than what I had seen before.
I was making a standard point about generosity, and mentioned the widow who had put her “two mites” into the Temple treasury, and who had been praised by Jesus for the proportions in her generosity. I then went on to point out that she was actually donating to a thoroughly corrupt ministry, one that was going to be judged in a severe way by God in the course of just a few years. Jesus didn’t rush up to the widow, and tell her to save her money for a more worthy cause, or to keep it herself.
I then compared this to the well-intentioned widows today who live in poverty, but who send more money than they can afford off to television stations where the thrones are gold and the women have big hair. God receives the intention, and not just the money.
What do you think? Do you think this could also apply to a believer who gives money in good conscience to a con artist who claims to be in need?
My dog died yesterday. She had to be put to sleep because of old age and failing health. Her name was Mandy and she would have been 13 years old in a couple weeks or so. My brother and I got her as a gift on Christmas Day 1995. She was a fluffy golden retriever puppy and her breath smelled like graham crackers. That was fitting, because that’s exactly how I would describe what Mandy was like. A graham cracker. Brown and sweet.
She was my friend. Actually, she was a friend to the whole family. She nuzzled her way into our hearts with her big wet nose and just kind of laid down there for thirteen years, smiling, patient, gentle. And then she left. It’s hard to explain what that feels like. My heart feels like a couch where somebody’s gotten up after sitting there a spell. You can still feel the warmth and see the depression of the cushions, but no one’s there.
Of course, I wonder if I’ll see Mandy again. I know she was a dog and dogs don’t have immortal souls like humans, but I just can’t shake feeling like Mandy was more than a tomato plant. I tried looking up the word “dog” in the Bible, but I don’t think dogs were highly thought of then. Revelation 22 says that dogs will be outside the heavenly city along with the sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters. I think, though, that the dogs there are people, so I’m left with a hopeful ambiguity.
Will our favorite pets be on the new earth? Perhaps. I don’t think we can know for sure, but I do know that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:21). God will release his saints from decay and he will do the same with his creation. Maybe that will include my sweet smiling friend. I sure hope so. Either way, I can’t wait to be with Jesus. He was the one Mandy was pointing me to all along, anyway.
I’d like to share with you part of a poem by John Piper from the book Future Grace. Whenever I read it, it makes me long for the day when God will restore all things in Christ. Mom mentioned it to me this morning on the phone. Piper is talking from the perspective of someone experiencing the birth of the new creation:
And as I knelt beside the brook
To drink eternal life, I took
A glance across the golden grass,
And saw my dog, old Blackie, fast
As she could come. She leaped the stream –
Almost — and what a happy gleam
Was in her eye. I knelt to drink,
And knew that I was on the brink
Of endless joy. And everywhere
I turned I saw a wonder there.
A big man running on the lawn:
That’s old John Younge with both legs on.
The blind can see a bird on wing,
The dumb can lift their voice and sing.
The diabetic eats at will,
The coronary runs uphill.
The lame can walk, the deaf can hear,
The cancer-ridden bone is clear.
Arthritic joints are lithe and free,
And every pain has ceased to be.
And every sorrow deep within,
And every trace of lingering sin
Is gone. And all that’s left is joy,
And endless ages to employ
The mind and heart, and understand,
And love the sovereign Lord who planned
That it should take eternity
To lavish all his grace on me.
O, God of wonder, God of might,
Grant us some elevated sight,
Of endless days. And let us see
The joy of what is yet to be.
And may your future make us free,
And guard us by the hope that we,
Through grace on lands that you restore,
Are justified for evermore.
(pages 381-382)
I’d like to take this opportunity to let you know about an on-line resource that I think may be a great help to your personal Bible study or sermon preparation.
The name of the website is BibleArc.com, developed by a friend of mine in the TBI program. The purpose of the website is to provide a user-friendly platform for engaging the text of Scripture through a process called “arcing,” which is simply the method of splitting a passage up into individual units of thought (called propositions) and demonstrating how those units of thought relate to one another. You can do this in Greek or in English. Here is an example of what Romans 12:1-2 looks like when it’s arced:
Now it may not look like it, but what you’re seeing is a treasure map. All those curved lines and abbreviated symbols are leading you to Paul’s original intention in writing what he did under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They’re a graphical representation of the apostle’s flow of thought, which is the gold we’re after.
If all of this is new to you and you have no idea where to start, you’ve come to the right place. Along with allowing you to construct your own arcs, BibleArc.com offers a whole section chock full of video tutorials that take you through the process step by step and give you examples of each of the possible relationships that can exist between propositions. The following video from the website explains why a tool like arcing can be invaluable:
Personally speaking, I would say arcing is one of the most significant tools for Bible study I’ve ever learned. One of the benefits of this approach is that it forces you to slow down and ask hard questions about why an author says what he does. It takes some time to learn, but it becomes easier with practice and is worth every ounce of energy you put into it.
Listen to this testimony from John Piper about the influence this kind of approach to Bible study had on him:
It was a life-changing revelation to me when I discovered that Paul, for example, did not merely make a collection of divine pronouncements, but that he argued. This meant, for me, a whole new approach to Bible reading. No longer did I just read or memorize verses. I sought also to understand and memorize arguments. This involved finding the main point of each literary unit and then seeing how each proposition fit together to unfold and support the main point. (”Biblical Exegesis: Discovering the Meaning of Scriptural Texts,” pg. 18)
If you’re interested in pursuing this method of getting inside the Biblical authors’ heads, I would warmly encourage you to check out BibleArc.com.
To see the question more clearly, consider the difference in capitalization between the ESV and NASB in Psalm 95:7:
(ESV)
“For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
(NASB)
“For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
I feel like the issue is not altogether unrelated to the style of clothes a person wears to church. The core of the issue is a tension between the transcendance and the immanence of God. Wearing a suit and tie on Sunday morning sends the message that God is “other than,” that he is high and exalted. T-shirts and jeans proclaim that God is near. He is involved in his creation and meets us where we are. Both emphases are necessary, and I think a lot of friction would be cooled if people could see this more.
The same is true with whether or not to capitalize the divine pronoun. When we sing Christmas carols, do we exhort one another to come and adore “Him” or “him”?
By capitalizing the pronoun we stress the transcendance of Jesus. He is the Him of hims, after all. But he is also near. A baby lying in a feed trough. He is most blessedly “him.”
All of this is to say I think the choice is a matter of preference. For what it’s worth, I incline toward a lower-case pronominalism. For example, I feel free to write, “Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many.” There was a day when my conscience would have been very jittery neglecting the shift key, but now I see that a lower-case “h” need not be disrespectful.
What do you think?
- Deadbolts
- Pesticide
- 911
- Counseling
- Open heart surgery
- Barbed wire fences
- Contact lenses
- Aspirin
- Security lights
- Caskets
Of course, I’m referring here to Adam and Even before they ate the fruit. The point here is to remember that the way things are now is not the way they always were, nor the way they always will be. After all, through the cross and resurrection of Jesus, God is bringing his people back to Eden.
The angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. (Revelation 22:1-3)
Are there any other things you would add to the list?
It’s very common for believers to pray before eating a meal. I think support for this practice comes from two places, at least:
Mark 8:6 — “And he directed the crowd to sit on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.”
Luke 22:19 — “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’”
What I find curious, though, is that we don’t usually pray before snacks. I don’t see any qualitative difference between mashed potatoes and an ice cream sandwich. We are indebted to God for both.
What do you think? Does our hesitancy to pray before snacking indicate some mistaken assumptions about dinnertime blessings? Or perhaps a false distinction between the sacred and the secular…or in this case, the meal and the munchies?
I had the opportunity to speak with a Muslim and a Jehovah’s Witness this past week. Though there are sweeping differences between the two religious frameworks, there is one striking bond.
Both reject Jesus.
The tricky part, though, is that neither would say they do. For the Muslim, Jesus is a prophet who is to be honored. For the Jehovah’s Witness, Jesus is the Son of God who offered his life to make atonement for sin.
However, both balk at the idea of Jesus being God. Therefore, both reject Jesus.
The Muslim arrives at this conclusion by disregarding the Biblical witness to Jesus’ divinity. The Jehovah’s Witness arrives at this conclusion by distorting the Biblical witness.
The response to both approaches is the same: show them Jesus.
Point them to texts like John 8:58 — “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’”
Or John 10:31-33 — “The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?’ The Jews answered him, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.’”
Or John 20:27-28 — “Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”
Show them Jesus, correct them gently, and then trust that “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25-26).
If I’m honest with myself, suffering for Jesus scares me. By “suffering” I mean here things like imprisonment, torture, starvation, death. People really experience these things because of their faith. Take Paul’s list in 2 Corinthians 11. Imprisonment. Countless beatings. Lashes. Rods. Stones.
On top of all that, Peter says that such treatment is not abnormal. “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:12-13).
All this makes me wonder how I would hold up under that kind of pain.
I’m helped by the testimony of Brother Yun, a Chinese Christian who endured deep affliction for the gospel and wrote about his experiences in the book “The Heavenly Man.” Here is his description of God’s faithfulness during a four-year prison sentence he had just been released from:
I had experienced so much in those four years, but God had been faithful. I’d suffered some horrible tortures, but God had been faithful. I’d been dragged in front of judges and courts, but God had been faithful. I’d been hungry, thirsty, and had fainted from exhaustion, but God had been faithful.
Through it all, God was always faithful and loving to me. He had never left me nor forsaken me. His grace was always suffiecient and he provided for my every need.
I didn’t suffer for Jesus in prison. No! I was with Jesus and I experienced his very real presence, joy, and peace every day. It’s not those in prison for the sake of the gospel who suffer. The person who suffers is he who never experiences God’s intimate presence. (187-188)
Amen. God will be faithful, and I have nothing to fear. They may lock me away, but Jesus will stand by me. They may starve me, but Jesus will be my bread. They may torture me, but Jesus will be my solace.
They may kill me, but Jesus will be my life.
“Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death” (Revelation 2:10-11).
Before I begin I want to mention two things by way of clarification:
1) I believe the question of whether or not to get a tattoo is largely a matter of personal conviction. There may be strategic and Christ-centered reasons for decorating your appendages, and there may be strategic and Christ-centered reasons for keeping them clean. This is not a cop-out. It is a call for Biblical discernment.
2) Though I will point out some concerns I have with body art, I want to equally stress that there are dangers inherent in abstaining. For example, a person may be tempted to assign greater moral significance to a tattoo than to a besetting sin such as greed, covetousness, or gossip. In other words, the tattoo parlor becomes a greater menace to the souls of men than the Mall of America. This is dangerous.
With that established, here are my reasons for abstaining from artificial pigment:
- We ought to wrestle seriously with the reality that we are not our own (1 Cor. 6:19-20). I realize that the issues are complex and deal as much with body piercing and plastic surgery, but I feel like the culture of tattooing simply assumes that we are free to do with our bodies as we please.
- Tattoos can (not must) breed an infatuation with novelty. One is usually not enough. This is just as true of purses and neckties, but tattoos are so…well…permanent.
- Crash the Christian tattoo artist (from yesterday’s post) said that the primary reason for the popularity of tattoos and body piercings is a desire to express individuality. This seems to distort the purpose for which our bodies are designed, namely, to display the worth of God (1 Cor. 6:20, which is admittedly addressing sexual immorality; however, I think the general principle of glorifying God with our bodies can be applied here).
- Personally speaking, I feel like I run a greater risk of causing offense by having a tattoo than by not having one. Since I don’t have a compelling reason to sport a tat, why needlessly assume a potential liability?
- Practically speaking, tattoos look impressive now, but if all predictions are accurate, my skin will sag and that ink will fade. I really don’t want to be stuck with a fuzzy patch of green tissue at age 70. I have enough freckles and scars to keep me occupied.
As I close, let me express my sincere love for my brothers and sisters who are persuaded that body art is a good thing. My only encouragement would be to view tattoos in relation to the centrality of Jesus and let that govern your motives and decor.
Anything you would add or challenge?
When I was in high school, a friend of mine (who claimed to be a Christian) told me he was considering getting a tattoo. I was mortified. In a last-ditch attempt to dissuade him from what I thought would be certain catastrophe, I rushed to my exegetical armory and pulled out my trusty saber:
“You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD” (Lev. 19:28).
I couldn’t site chapter and verse at the time, but I knew the Bible condemned tattooery and I wanted my friend to know it.
Never mind the fact that nine verses earlier Moses forbade wearing a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material. I was oblivious to the possibility that Leviticus 19 might require a bit more hermeneutical rigor than proof-texting.
How should we think about tattoos today, particularly in light of Leviticus 19:28? Back in September ‘07 Denny Burk linked to an audio clip from John Piper answering the question, “What do you think of tattoos and body piercing?” Here is part of Piper’s answer:
On the verse itself [Lev. 19:28], there were probably circumstances that made that absolutely warranted there. Whether that should be applied with the same absoluteness today without other factors being taken into consideration, I’m not ready to go there yet. I think there are other questions to ask that are more heart and motive and Christ-exalting questions than simply “Is there a verse?”
What do you think? Is it ever appropriate for a Christian to get a tattoo? What questions should we ask ourselves when contemplating the choice?
More to come…
Sometimes God ordains that spectacular events take place in our lives. A large inheritance. Odd weather. A strange message. Our tendency is to receive such anomalies as endorsements from God to do a particular thing, even when God has clearly forbidden it.
For example, David and his men are sitting in the innermost parts of a cave when Saul, who is seeking David’s life, enters that very cave to relieve himself. This is a spectacular stroke of providence.
David’s men mistakenly infer from this that God is giving Saul into David’s hand. “And the men of David said to him, ‘Here is the day of which the LORD said to you, “Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you”‘” (1 Samuel 24:4).
David glides up to Saul in secret and severs a piece of his robe. His conscience immediately pierced, David says to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD’s anointed” (1 Samuel 24:6).
David understood that God sending Saul into his very clutches was not a divine endorsement for assassination. He chose to interpret his spectacular circumstances through what God clearly desired, rather than interpreting them as what God clearly desired.
We would do well to follow his lead.
Peter tells us that the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire (2 Peter 3:7).
Some would use this to justify not caring for the earth. It’s a sinking ship, after all.
Can you think of other situations where we care for things that won’t last?
Sometimes when we are in the wilderness of despair, we default to praying for a change in circumstances. New job. New roomates. New ministry. New city.
I wonder if it would be better, sometimes, to pray that God would create the miracle of refreshment within the distressing context.
In other words, rather than praying that God would transport us to the water hole, maybe we should ask God to call forth a pool in the desert.
“When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is non,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the LORD will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valley.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.”
Isaiah 41:17-18
After waking up this morning, I looked out the window and saw snow on the ground. Granted, it wasn’t much, but it was enough to make my heart sink like a cast-iron rowboat.
I got in the car after clearing my windshields of winter condensation. A heavy-hearted southerner met me on the radio, lamenting a fresh case of “Deep River Blues.”
My computer tells me it’s 34 degrees outside. If it were alive, I know it would be choking down a maniacal snicker.
On days like this, how do you keep from muttering? Here are five things I can think of:
1. Thank God for the snow.
This sounds counter-intuitive, but I have to remember that my “intuiter” is rotten. “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
2. When people ask, “Why is it snowing in April?!?!?!”, tell them, “God told it to.”
This can become excessive, but take a risk. And don’t scowl when you say it! “For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour” (Job 37:6).
3. Remember that, compared to the lake of fire, out-of-season flurries aren’t that bad.
God has saved me from so much. When I think about the fury my sins deserve, parking it right above freezing for a day is blissfully refreshing.
4. Shock someone by telling them how thankful you are for a day like this.
To do this step requires that you actually mean it. See steps 1-3.
5. Remember that valiant acts happen on snowy days.
“And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two ariels of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen” (2 Samuel 23:18).
Here are three observations I have in thinking about Baba’s definition of sin from yesterday (”There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft”):
1. Baba’s definition works….for a while.
Baba’s definition of sin is not logically inconsistent. At least not on the surface. It actually makes a good deal of sense. If a man kills, he steals a wife’s right to a husband. If a woman lies, she steals another person’s right to the truth. Fair enough. But all this talk about rights raises the question, What happens when perceived rights conflict? A thief may believe it is his right to do what he pleases. What then? Does Baba’s explanation leave room for the possibility that I may not be an impartial judge when it comes to determining what I’m entitled to?
2. Baba leaves God out of the picture.
Amir’s father is not a believer. Therefore, it is fitting that his understanding of sin does not include God. Fitting, but tragic. The question of sin becomes clear when we understand that God created us. We owe our existence to him. It would follow, then, that God’s rights ought to determine our notions of morality. This is the testimony of the Bible: “Has the potter no right over the clay….?” (Romans 9:21). “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). The fact that we are deeply resistant to this possibility may indicate more about our hearts than it does about reality.
3. Sin is stealing……from God.
What is God entitled to? What is the Right that trumps all our creaturely notions? In a word, it is glory. God, as our Creator, is entitled to all honor and praise. He says, “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols” (Isaiah 42:8). When I do anything that attempts to exalt myself as supreme, I steal glory from God. This is the heart of all sin.
Murder is sin, not ultimately because it steals a wife’s right to a husband, but because it steals God’s right to determine the length of a man’s days. Lying is sin, not mainly because it steals another person’s right to the truth, but because it exalts me as supreme over another person’s mind. Cheating is sin, not finally because it steals a man’s right to fairness, but because it places my desires on the throne of the universe.
The reason Baba’s definition won’t work isn’t because it’s implausible. It won’t work because it’s idolatrous. It never leaves the swamp of man-centered reasoning. In fact, rather than defining sin, Baba’s definition compounds it by insisting that the creature’s rights are divine. If only his idea was as fictional as his character……
I was unable to post last night because we were barreling northward in a church bus. There is nothing quite like being stuck with thirteen other guys in a rolling rectangle for hours on end. We had lively conversations about Biblical inerrancy, slept in odd positions, and watched the Bourne Ultimatum on a borrowed laptop. All three were very enjoyable. I am happy to be home and to see my lovely wife.
John Piper preached yesterday morning. His message was titled, “How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice.” His text was Hebrews 13:13 - “Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.” He referenced other texts in Hebrews to demonstrate that the surpassing value of having Christ impels us to risk-taking ministry. It was a deeply moving message. Piper pled with us to not spend our lives accumulating endless possessions and cultivating churches that idolize ease. Rather, he said, we ought to embrace suffering because of the promise of eternal, deeply-satisfying fellowship with Jesus.
Here’s an excerpt from early in the message:
“My desire and prayer to God is that your life and your ministry would have a radical flavor. A risk-taking flavor. A gutsy, counter-cultural, wartime flavor that makes average American people in your church uncomfortable. A strange mixture of tenderness and toughness that keeps people a little bit off-balance, a pervasive summons to something more, something hazardous, something wonderful. A saltiness and a brightness about your life and about your church. Something like Jesus.”
Finally, a closing ballad:
Amid the sweeping tide of ease and leather La-Z-Boys,
John Piper bellowed, “These are not the most enduring joys!
The fellowship of Jesus blazes hotly like a lamp
And beckons us to join him on the hill outside the camp.”
John Piper bellowed, “These are not the most enduring joys!
The fellowship of Jesus blazes hotly like a lamp
And beckons us to join him on the hill outside the camp.”
If I had to choose a favorite message from today’s lineup at T4G, my vote would be R.C. Sproul. In a word, he was magisterial. His text was Galatians 3:10-14, and he spent nearly sixty spellbound minutes explaining with calculated precision what it meant for Christ to become a curse for us.
He sat in a chair while he preached (on account of recent struggles with vertigo) and, aside from the characteristic upper body swivel, made little use of exaggerated gesture. But his words…..his words were like clubs. Heavy. Round. Blunt. Powerful. He beat the air with the agony of the cross until the room sizzled with the majesty of God. I thank God for the gospel and for men like R.C. Sproul who tell it so well.
Here is my balladified recap of the session:
He perched atop a wooden chair and with his eyebrows arched,
The raspy voice of R.C. Sproul was anything but parched;
Instead it flowed with springs of gospel richness like a flood,
And swept us up to Calvary where hung the cursed God.
The audio is already posted.
The other day, I was reading in Numbers 21. Verse 26 says, “For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.”
Now, verse 27 says, “Therefore the ballad singers say, ‘Come to Heshbon, let it be built; let the city of Sihon be established. For fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It devoured Ar of Moab, and swallowed the heights of Arnon.”
Sometime between verses 26 and 27, history was translated into ballad. Prose became poetry. Victory donned the cloak of verse.
I want to learn from that.
I’m here in Louisville for Together for the Gospel. Rather than report on each day’s events, which others will do much better, I thought it would be interesting to try my hand at a little historical balladification.
More to come……
Why do we sleep? Let’s put it another way. Why is it that, at any given moment during the day, over a billion people lie unconscious? As I post this, it is 3:25am in Mumbai, India. Many are flat on their backs and breathing hard. I’ll be there soon. Not in Mumbai, but in bed (probably later than I should…I’m notorious for piddling around when I should be asleep). How should we think about this? Why did God create us so that we need to be dead to the world for hours on end?
Here are two observations. This is not all that could be said, but it may help orient us to a proper framework for thinking about questions like these:
1. For man, sleeplessness is vanity.
Psalm 127:2 – “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”
2. For God, sleeplessness is glory.
Psalm 121:2-4 – “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
When I sleep, God is giving me something that he doesn’t need. Come to think of it, he is always doing that. God has, I need. God is, I’m not. God can, I can’t. I need to hear that message all the time, but it comes to me in unique sweetness when I kiss my wife good night, close my eyes, and let God keep vigil.
Funny what you hear when you’re not awake to listen.
David faced down a steamroller. We get a glimpse of his affliction in Psalm 56, where he cries out, “Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me” (56:1).
David knew what it was like to be squished.
And yet, like a grape, the blood that flowed from his flattened soul was soaked with faith in God: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” (56:3)
How might we have the same response to suffering? How is it possible not to fear the steamroller of affliction?
Let’s try to answer David’s question. “What can flesh do to me?”
Answer #1: Flesh can do lots of things to us.
Here’s a sample from verses 5-7:
- People can injure our cause.
- People can fill their minds with evil thoughts against us.
- They can stir up strife.
- They can lurk in corners and dark alleys.
- They can lie in wait for our lives.
David was not naive to all that flesh could do. What then does he mean?
Answer #2: If God is for us, flesh can do nothing to us.
Listen to David explain the hope that steadied his trembling hand: “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me” (56:8-9).
This was his hope: that God was for him. Sounds a lot like what Paul would say many years later: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
How then can we be sure that God is for us? Answer: by treasuring the One who was flattened in our place. Jesus knew every sorrow David was talking about. “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). He knew what Psalm 56 was like.
There is one crucial difference, though. Jesus knew sorrow because he was bearing it for us. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4). “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
If we look to the One who was crushed for our sin, God is no longer against us. We don’t need to fear the steamroller, even if it grinds us into the pavement. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).
May God give us grace to not cower before the steamroller of affliction. In Christ, our Father is for us, and if he is pleased to have the cylinder of evil press our lives to flattened extinction, we will not fear.
We have a God who will raise us from the asphalt.
