April 16, 2015 · 11:09 am

God hates divorce?

Does Malachi 2:16 teach that God hates divorce?

The King James: For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

The New King James: “For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the LORD of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.”

The New American Standard: “For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the LORD of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”

The English Standard: Malachi 2:16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

The New International Version: “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the LORD Almighty. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.

One can certainly tell that there is no unanimity in the translation of this rather difficult text.

The current interpretation of the text by conservative Christians is close to the New American Standard translation. “I hate divorce”, says the Lord, the God of Israel…”

I have an incessantly curious nature when it comes to God’s word. Why are there so many different translations? Why are there so many interpretations? Why, if God hates divorce, does God divorce his people Israel? Why does God permit divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1-4? God never permits that which he hates. What does it mean?

Another problem that arises is that anyone who strays from the “God hates divorce” camp is immediately accused of being tainted by the world. “50% divorce rate because of liberal thinking like this. God hates divorce!” You will be called worldly, or worse, a feminist!

But I am a Christian who believes in the infallible and inerrant word of God as our only guide to eternal life. Our faith and our practice is driven ONLY by the inspired word.

So with that understanding, I delved into Malachi 2:16. I could not simply allow the “professionals” to translate it and pick which version I liked best. I am accountable to God to use whatever gifts He has given me to discern what the text actually says.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what the world says. It doesn’t matter what accusations are thrown around. It doesn’t matter the opinion of the latest celebrity preacher. All that matter is what God says.

This article is a little more technical than I usually write. There is a reason for it. I am fully aware that the views expressed here will leave me open to accusations of being “soft on divorce”. I assure you that is not the case. My only concern is to rightly discern God’s word and go where it leads. This article is for the purpose of making it clear what my view is; how I arrived at it; and perhaps open up some very closed minds to the truth of God’s word.

If we believe that the Bible is the word of God; if we believe that it is sufficient, necessary, clear and authoritative; then we must go to the text itself and let it speak for itself.

There are certain principles of interpretation that every student of the Bible, especially those of the Reformed and Presbyterian persuasion, should recognize.

First, the primary author of Scripture is God Himself. There is only one author, and He is perfectly wise and His lips speak knowledge and understanding. For this reason, there are no contradictions in Scripture. God doesn’t change His mind. God doesn’t grow in His knowledge and understanding. Jesus doesn’t contradict Moses and Malachi doesn’t contradict Hosea. To apply this simply, those texts that are clear must interpret those texts that are rather difficult. If an interpretation on a text flat-out contradicts a clear text elsewhere in scripture, great care must be taken. God is not foolish. He is not “yes” and “no”.

Second, God used human language and human authors. This means that ordinary rules of grammar were used to communicate eternal truths about God. These human authors lived in cultures and eras of history and their language was the language of the time. Of course, this can be and has been greatly abused – mostly by those who do not keep the unchanging Divine Author clear in their thoughts. But the truth of the matter is that the words that were used were intended to be read and understood by a contemporary audience. There was no “secret” language with secret numbers and hidden codes. Just ordinary words used in an ordinary way following the ordinary rules of communication.

Third, the Hebrew language contains some challenges all its own, especially for English speakers. The Hebrew text is a consonantal text. This means that in the original there were only consonants. Vowels were passed down from generation to generation through oral tradition. In the early Middle Ages after Christ, (around 800AD or so) a group of Hebrew scholars known as the Masoretes invented a system of dots and lines to indicate the vowels and the proper pronunciation. After several centuries, this system was modified, edited and corrected until it was received by all, and by the 10th century, there was a received text of the Hebrew Bible with the vowel points added.

The vowel points are crucial to the interpretation of the words. If the pronunciation of a word changed, the meaning and the grammar of that word would change. If the vowel points are not reliable, then the text is not reliable.

I hold to the general inerrancy of the Hebrew vowel points. I believe that God has providentially preserved even the pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible. I am aware that this means that at times there will be difficulties, but I am far more comfortable saying that I don’t understand something than I am saying that the text is somehow corrupted .

This is important. Current scholarship generally denies the inerrancy of the points. Whenever a passage is difficult to interpret, they tend to try to make sense of the words by attempting different vowels here and there until they think that they have a solution. I believe that this is bad exegesis. It tends to lend itself to endless variation of translation based upon the presuppositions of the translator.

This also explains why there are so many different translations of Malachi 2:16, especially as the “fluidity” of the vowel points became more and more an acceptable interpretation technique. Change a vowel here and there, and “he hates” becomes “I hate”; and the verb “to send away” becomes the noun “divorce”.

For example, one analysis reads:

“The verb ‌שָׂנֵא‎‏‎ (sane‘) appears to be a third person form, “he hates,” which makes little sense in the context, unless one emends the following word to a third person verb as well. Then one might translate, “he [who] hates [his wife] [and] divorces her…is guilty of violence.” A similar translation is advocated by M. A. Shields, “Syncretism and Divorce in Malachi 2, 10–16, ” ZAW 111 (1999): 81-85. However, it is possible that the first person pronoun ‌אָנֹכִי‎‏‎ (‘anokhi, “I”) has accidentally dropped from the text after ‌כִּי‎‏‎ (ki). If one restores the pronoun, the form ‌שָׂנֵא‎‏‎ can be taken as a participle and the text translated, “for I hate” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).”

Do you see what great lengths this commentator has gone to twist the words to say what he wants them to say? Amend the words, assume an entire pronoun has dropped out, and that the Masoretic scribes got the pronunciation wrong, even though there is absolutely no reason to believe so. The manuscript itself has never been in dispute.

So to summarize: God’s word does not contradict itself; God used ordinary language and grammar to communicate His word; The Hebrew text has been passed down to us accurately – let’s begin to look at the words themselves.

With that in mind, lets look at Malachi 2:16

As it happens, the entire difficulty in this passage is in the interpretation of the first three words of the text:  כִּי־שָׂנֵא שַׁלַּח ki-sane shallach

        The first word is ki. It is a common Hebrew conjunction that can be translated many different ways depending on the context. It can mean “because” or “for” or “that”, or it can be used similar to our quotation marks to mark off a direct quotation. Other possibilities are “When, if, although,” and so on.

        The second word, sane,  is “he hates”. The third word, shallach is “send away, set free, let go.”

        After these three words, the text says, “Says the LORD, the God of Israel”.

        So what does it mean? We will take the conjunction last, since its interpretation depends upon the other two words. Here are the possibilities from the English translations:

First, “For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away” (King James Version). In this version, the conjunction is tied to the second phrase, not the first one. The assumption is that the subject of the verb “to hate” is God and that the object of God’s hatred is “the sending away”. This scheme is generally followed by the NKJ and the NAS. But there are some problems:

First, the third phrase, completing the quote is this: “and violence covers his garments”. If “he” in the first phrase refers to God (as the one hating) then why would the antecedent suddenly change in the rest of the quote? Is it God’s garments that are covered with violence? If “he” is God in the first, it must be God also in the rest of the quote. Then we would have “God hates divorce and violence covers his garments.”

You could make some sense of it in English, but not without mangling the Hebrew.

If you took the stance of the New American Standard, and changed the subject of “hates” to the first person singular pronoun, (I hate), then the rest of the phrase could justify a change in the pronoun (as the NAS does) but the problem is that the vowel points do not fit. In fact, there is only one translation that matches the pointing of the text: “He hates”. That’s the only thing that it can mean without twisting the pronunciation. So who is the subject of the sentence? It can’t be God, because that doesn’t fit the rules of grammar. Since the subject is not given expressly, I would take the subject as a hypothetical man, an indeterminate “he”.

The next word shallach (to send away) is a little more difficult.  The first problem is the assumption that “to send away” is the exact equivalent of “to divorce”. It is not. The primary meaning is to send. The form that it is in (the vowel points and double consonant “L”) is what is called the piel form, which slightly changes the meaning. The most common translations are “set free”, “let go”, “dismiss”, “send away”. Divorce, as it is understood today, and as practiced in ancient Israel (give her a bill of divorcement), is the legal procedure of acknowledging the broken marriage covenant. One can certainly “send away” a wife without divorcing her. Furthermore, Deuteronomy 24:1 uses both the legal term “divorce” and the word “shallach”, meaning to send (her) away. These are not identical terms.

If the meaning of this text is as it is commonly presented, “God hates divorce”, then even the translation of the word itself is problematic. Usually those who hold this view say that if a woman is in an abusive relationship, she can separate, but not divorce. However, the word shallach means to send away, not to obtain a bill of divorcement. If divorce is forbidden here, then certainly separation is.

Instead of ascribing a rather obscure and perhaps unknown meaning to the word shallach, let’s take it in its most common and highly attested use, “send away”, and see where that leads us.

The next issue are the vowel points. As they stand, there are only two forms of the Hebrew verb that use these vowel points. One is called the infinitive construct, the other is a masculine singular imperative (or, command).  The infinitive construct is similar to an English infinitive. If it was an infinitive construct, the two words together would be translated, “He hates to send away;” Since this doesn’t make a lot of sense, it is generally understood as a participle: “He hates the sending away”, or “he hates divorce”.  But there are a lot of assumptions that need to happen for this to be valid. First, one would have to assume that an infinitive construct is the equivalent of a participle, which it is not. The second assumption is that “he” refers to God, and then switches to the treacherous man in the second half of the quote. That is a big leap, and contrary to the ordinary rules of grammar. Quite simple, we must rule out the infinitive construct, for it would be complete nonsense grammatically. To view an infinitive construct as the direct object of the verb “to hate” is to do violence to rules of grammar. It is nowhere attested as a valid interpretation.

But there is a far easier way that fits the grammar, the historical context, and the analogy of Scripture perfectly. The word shallach is actually a command. It is an imperative, 2nd person, masculine singular. That is the only form it CAN be without twisting the natural use of language. The use of shallach, the exact spelling – points and all – is found fifteen times in the Old Testament. Three times it is used as an infinitive construct (Genesis 8:10; Exodus 8:29 and Jeremiah 40:1). In the Genesis passage, the infinitive construct acts as a helping verb to complete another verb, which is the most common form of an infinitive construct standing without a preposition. But in the Exodus and the Jeremiah passage, both the infinitives have a preposition. (that’s a whole other story. I just added that for the Hebrew purists). Every other time it is a command, translated “Let go, drive away, release” depending on the context.

Nine of those times, it is the command of the Lord to Pharaoh. Thus saith the Lord, let my people go.

In not one of these places does shallach mean “divorce”. That would be nonsense. Did Noah divorce the dove, or send her away? Did Pharoah divorce Israel, or send them away?

The problem with the translation given by the ESV (“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her”) is that the word “divorce” is translated as if it is a simple action verb. But the vowel pointing does not allow that. In order for this to mean “he divorces her”, the verb would have to be spelled differently.  The points don’t fit. The only form where the points and the grammar fit is an imperative, (command). Not only does shallach NOT mean divorce, but it isn’t an simple action verb, nor is there a connecting conjunction (and). Taking these liberties with the text is contrary to the history of the church in translating this phrase, but it also changes the meaning and misses the point.

Taking the whole phrase in its most natural sense, without any assumptions and without changing any of the pronunciation, we have this:

“Because he hates, let (her) go,” says the LORD, the God of Israel…

This translation not only is the only one that does full justice to the inspired text, including the vowel points and the simple, ordinary use of language, but it is also well attested in the history of the church. It is the translation of the Vulgate, the Geneva Bible of 1599, and Calvin. In fact, Calvin wrote,

“This then is the reason why the Prophet now says, If thou hatest, dismiss; not that he grants indulgence to divorce, as we have said, but that he might by this circumstance enhance the crime; and hence he adds, For he covers by a cloak his violence.”

This may seem a bit strange to those who have been steeped in the teaching of the church for the past 30 years. Does the Bible really say that if a man hates his wife, he should set her free? This can’t be so! Does that fit the context of Malachi?

That will be the subject of my next article.

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March 14, 2015 · 9:57 am

Thoughts on King Jesus

I take great comfort from this psalm:

I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.

2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

4 A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.

5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.

6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.

7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.

8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.

(Psa 101:1-8)

This is a Psalm of David, who was the king of Israel. But as we know, he never did these things perfectly. He came far short. But when Jesus was born, the angel said to Mary,

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: (Luk 1:32)

And when Jesus ascended into heaven, Hebrews 1:3 tells us that He sat down at the right hand of the Father. This means that he was crowned King of Kings, ruling over all things until the end. The last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Cor. 15:26).

I am making this short today, so that those who are oppressed and bowed down by great evil will not be discouraged. Read this Psalm again, now that you know that it is prophesying about the reign of King Jesus:

I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.

2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

4 A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.

5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.

6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.

7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.

8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.

(Psa 101:1-8)

Jesus will never rest and never stop until he has obliterated wickedness from all creation. He HATES lies, oppression, deceit, pride and wickedness of every kind. He calls men and women to repentance, but all who reject him and continue their wicked, evil ways will be destroyed.

When the justice system fails you, remember that they all answer to Jesus. When the Supreme Court fails you, remember that it also answers to Jesus. He truly is king of kings and lord of lords.

This should, on the one hand, strike terror into the hearts of the oppressor. Repent and throw away your pride and your high looks. Quit looking down on the oppressed and flee to Jesus for forgiveness.

But on the other hand, to those who have been oppressed, cast aside, scorned, ridiculed and afflicted by arrogance and pride, take comfort!

It is so easy to get discouraged by current events. Too often the words of Isaiah are taking place everywhere we look:

 14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. (Isa 59:14)

But Jesus is on the throne. He is king of kings. His eyelids try the children of men, and he will never acquit the guilty.

Praise God that justice will always prevail!

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February 25, 2015 · 9:56 pm

Because she mattered

Luke 8:43-48

And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.

Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, had begged Jesus to come to his house to heal his only daughter, who was dying. Jesus agreed and they began to make their way through the crowd. The crowd pressed him from all sides. It was slow going. A jostle here, an elbow there. Besides the regular crowd hassle, Jesus was also quite famous at the time. Everyone wanted to touch him, to be near, to see him.

He makes his way. Suddenly, he stops. Everyone else stops. Jesus is looking around at the crowd.

“Who touched me?”

A silence descends. Maybe they didn’t hear the question right. It was a strange question. They were in the middle of the crowd, shoved and jostled from every side, and Jesus says, “Who touched me?”

When Jesus persists in looking around and asking, Peter finally wonders. “Jesus, we’re in the middle of a crowd. Everyone has touched you.”

Jesus continues. “No. You don’t understand. Someone touched me. I felt power go out from me. Who touched me?”

We know that Jesus is true God and knows all things. We know that the grace to heal is not accidental. Jesus healed this woman and did it on purpose, knowing what He did. So why did he say, “Who touched me?”

Jesus also told us to pray, and said “You Father knows what you need before you ask.”

So why pray? Hold that question a moment. Let’s go back to the crowd.

We have the advantage of the readers. We know who touched him.

A woman with an issue of blood for 12 years touched him.        Under Moses’ law, a woman in the time of her cycle was ceremonially unclean. She could not enter into the congregation of the Lord until her time was over and she was cleansed. Further, anyone who touched a woman in the time of her cycle was also ceremonially unclean and could not enter into the congregation of the Lord. She had been ceremonially unclean for 12 years.

12 years.

12 years of being able to touch no one. 12 years of spending every penny she had on doctors and being told that there was nothing to be done. 12 years of being excluded from her family, her friends, the worship of the Lord.

12 years of loneliness, isolation. She was an outcast, unclean. She was used to the look. You know the one. “Stay away from me. You’re unclean. You’re not worth my time. You’re not even worth God’s time.”

The rabbis had a prayer. “I thank God that I am male, Jewish and free.” No one else was worth the time.

Especially not this woman – an endless flow of blood. Outcast. Unclean. Stay away.

If you have ever experienced being an outsider, you know how this woman felt. She was excluded from every circle, every gathering, every fellowship. If you have always been in the circle, you have no idea.

You don’t know what it is like to never be welcomed, never be accepted. To always be the odd one out, the “outsider”. It’s our worst fear come true. That we are no good. Not fit for company, either with God or man. Weird. An outsider. “She’s just not ‘our kind of people’”

She had had this for 12 years. Not our kind of people. An outsider. Unclean. Outcast.

12 years.

By now she had given up. She was now used to being alone and outcast – at least, used to pretending and surviving. But she hears about Jesus. She truly believes that he has the power to heal her.

But she has been an outcast for 12 years, and those habits do not easily turn themselves off. She would not again risk the contempt and scorn of the included, the clean. She would not speak. She would not draw any attention to herself. She would just sneak through the crowd and touch his garment.

And she reaches out, touches his garment and the whole world stops.

The first thing that she notices is that she is completely cleansed. She feels the power. She feels the healing. Everything has changed. She is like a schoolgirl again!

The next thing that she notices almost immediately is that everything is silent. Everyone is looking around. And Jesus is asking, “Who touched me?”

It like the worst nightmare for one who has been a pariah for 12 years. She is used to the shadows and now the spotlight is on and pointing right at her.

She shakes her head and tries to slink away. But the Master persists.

Now he is looking right at her (see Matthew 9:22). Who touched me?

Why? Why didn’t He just let it go? He had already healed her and given her life back! Why is he persisting on saying “Who touched me?”

The answer is here: this woman had been an outcast – filthy and unclean for 12 years. Nothing will make you feel more filthy than actually being filthy. There wasn’t anything that she could do about it. But Jesus came to collect his sheep. He came to call out a people for his name. He came to deliver His people from their sins – so that they might KNOW the Lord.

Think of this: God doesn’t just save us from our sins. He doesn’t just heal our iniquities. He actually delights to call us his bride, his people, his children, his sons and daughters!

But this woman has been unclean for 12 years. What she has to say isn’t wanted. Isn’t needed. She isn’t’ worth the bother. People quit listening to her years ago. People quit caring years ago. All she had left was sneaking through the crowd and touching the hem of the garment. If she could just be healed, she would go away, no one would be bothered, and everyone could go about their lives.

But Jesus came to call His people home. He wouldn’t let this one get away. She needed to know that HE had the time to listen. That he cared, that he would stop just for her. That she mattered to HIM. That her life was redeemed from the grave and it was important to him.

To Jesus, she wasn’t a nobody, she wasn’t an outcast – for He had taken that away.

This is the beauty of the doctrine of election. God chose ME. He doesn’t love everyone in general, for that would mean that He loves no one. He loves ME. He chose ME to be His bride.

This is what the woman needed to know. Not only did Jesus heal her, but Jesus loves her, hears her – has betrothed Himself to her forever.

She needed to know that His blood would take ALL of her sickness and weakness and uncleanness and nail it to the cross forever so that she could live, so that she could know the Lord.

And how can you KNOW the Lord if you don’t talk to him?

So He looks this unclean, outcast woman in the eye and says “Who touched me?” And she falls on her knees and tells him everything.

That she has had this horrible uncleanness for 12 years.

That it hurts; that she is weary and desperate and helpless.

She tells him her pain and her hurt and her losses.

She tells him what it is like to be outcast and alone.

How it feels to spend every penny on doctors and they can’t help.

We were created to be in fellowship with God. We were created with ears because God hears. We were created with tongues and breath and mouths because God speaks. And we were created with the gift of speech so that we could talk with God Himself – a God who speaks. And a God who loves to listen! He delights to hear our prayers!

Jesus didn’t suffer the pains and torments of hell so that we could just touch his robe and slink away. He won’t let it happen. He will say, “Who touched me” until he is looking right at us. He redeemed us from our sin and misery; He calls us His own; He has betrothed us to Himself forever – and He desires that we talk to Him.

Think of it! The Creator and Sustainer of the whole universe offered Himself for ME because He loved me and wants me back in fellowship! He wants me to talk to Him. He wants us to always and forever acknowledge that we have absolutely nothing apart from Him; every good thing comes from His hand alone.

And further, He desires that we know that He is willing to save, being our heavenly Father, and able to save, being almighty God.

And He keeps saying, “Who touched me…” looking right at us until with fear and trembling we fall down on our knees before Him and finally tell Him everything.

Everything. Our pain, our longings, our frustration, how many years it has been, what it is like to be despised, outcast, unclean…

What it feels like to spend our last penny on doctors who can’t help. What it is like to struggle against sin and misery and how we long to overcome it. How much we long to be in His presence, clean and whole and healed. We tell him of those who persecute, of those we long to be reconciled to. We tell Him of our hurts and the hurts that we have caused others. And as we are telling Him we learn a little more about what it means to KNOW the Lord

Notice also she tells him how she was healed immediately. We pray because it is the chief part of thankfulness. Jesus did it. Not her. There wasn’t anything she could do. She didn’t deserve His kindness and mercy, but He was able and willing and actually healed her.

He redeems our life from destruction and crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies, so that we might know Him. So that we might talk to him.

As Calvin says, we enter into holy conversation with God Himself. And in this conversation we also hear the voice of God in the holy Scriptures: “Go in peace; your faith has made you whole.”

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January 7, 2015 · 8:28 pm

On Suffering and Bruised Heels

I recently read again God’s curse upon the serpent in the Garden of Eden:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15).

This verse is known in theology as the “protoevangelium” – the first proclamation of the gospel. In the context, the serpent has beguiled Eve and she gave the fruit of the forbidden tree to Adam, and he ate of it contrary to God’s word. In separating himself from God, mankind made a covenant with death. He chose fellowship with the devil rather than fellowship with God.

In this first proclamation of the gospel, one thing sticks out at you. The gospel was first spoken as a curse upon the serpent. Men and women were not created originals. they were created to be image bearers of God. When they disobeyed God, they made a league with the devil and became enslaved to the kingdom of the devil and all the sin, misery and death that are operative in this kingdom. Being in bondage, man cannot free himself. In order for there to be good news for man, the power of the devil must be broken. God promises the serpent that his kingdom will not last; his head will be bruised; there will always be a remnant – a “seed” – who will be at war with the serpent’s seed.

We know, having the complete revelation of God, that this defeat of Satan came at the hands of the True Seed of the Woman, our Lord Jesus. But how was this victory achieved? Jesus defeated the devil, not with armies and weapons, but by suffering the death of the cross. The covenant with death must be broken, and it could only be broken when it was carried out. So the Son of God tasted death for man that the power of death might be broken.

14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15).

The crushing of the head of the devil bruises the heel of the Warrior. Notice what Hebrews says. Through suffering the death of the cross – seemingly the defeat of the Seed – the warrior destroyed the devil (him who had the power of death).

This is central to our faith. We do not pity the One on the Cross, we marvel at His love for us! We wonder at the power of the one who entered into battle with death and conquered it! Jesus was not a passive victim on the cross, carried away by circumstances out of His control. Rather He was a conquering hero, waging war against the kingdom of the devil, casting out the Strong Man, and ushering in the kingdom of Heaven. And He will reign until He has put all enemies under His feet!

This is also the same Lord who says to each one of us, “Take up your cross and follow me.”

Being united to Christ, we also do battle with the kingdom of the devil. Being united to Christ, we are assured victory. And being united to Christ, the war will also bruise our heels.

This changes how we should view suffering. We too often ask the wrong questions and miss the point. We ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” “If God loves me, why are there so many difficulties in life?” “Does God have a purpose in suffering? What is that purpose?”

When we suffer – chronic, unrelenting pain; reproach and insults; doubts; illness; battles with our sinful nature; persecution – it is natural to wonder why.

Why do Christians suffer so much in this world?

Because they are doing battle with the devil. Because they belong to Jesus Christ. Because they are conquering heroes in Christ. Because the devil never lets go of his kingdom without bruising the heel. When the heel is bruised, Satan’s head is crushed.

What a wonderful thought! Our suffering is not simply meaningless. It isn’t because God is angry with us. It isn’t because God won’t interfere with man’s free will (what hogwash!). It is because we are doing battle with the devil and we are winning.

The devil was in his greatest danger when Jesus was in his greatest pain. When Jesus gave up the ghost, the devil’s power was destroyed. It is one of the greatest paradoxes of our faith. Jesus defeated the greatest created power by becoming weak, hungry, tired, despised. He crushed Satan’s head by obedience to the death of the cross as a common criminal.

He calls us, as Christians, to take up that cross and follow. As the hymn says, “We are soldiers of the cross.” As “little Christs” (Christians) we follow our Lord. The path to resurrection and victory is through suffering and death, for from the very beginning, God purposed to destroy the kingdom of Satan by bruising the heel of the Seed of the Woman, and we are all partakers with Christ in His death as well as His victory.

For this reason, God promises the church in Rome that He will bruise Satan under their feet (Romans 16:20). The church was suffering, as it always had. But God promised them that something far greater was going on. Satan was being put under their feet!

Why did their feet hurt? Because they were crushing Satan’s head.

Why do we suffer on this earth? Because in our suffering we are destroying the power of the devil.

Don’t view your hard times as signs of God’s displeasure. Instead view them as opportunities to crush Satan’s head. You are doing battle with an ancient enemy and you WILL prevail by the power of Jesus, who has already assured the victory.

But it will bruise your heel. You will walk with an uplifted head, a song in your heart, a glitter in the eye, and a limp in the feet.

And the God of Peace will bruise Satan’s head under that bruised heel. It’s a promise.

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December 11, 2014 · 4:13 pm

To Those Who Have Been Hurt !Trigger Warning!

!Trigger Warning!

I recently heard news from a friend that broke my heart.

The details we hear again and again. A child is sexually abused. At some point in her life, she finally tells the truth about what happened to her. She’s torn up. She relives the horror. She gives the details. She is finally believed by someone.

She wonders if the pain will ever go away. Wasn’t it better before? Wasn’t it better when I didn’t have to talk about it? When it was just my secret?

Then comes the trial. She may be an adult now and have to testify against the one who has tried everything he could to destroy her.

And then those who profess the name of Christ step in to “help”.

He’s repentant now. He’s a new man now. You must forgive. He needs our support, not our condemnation. Let it go. Whatever it is, just let it go. It’s the only way to heal.

And so she goes to the judge. He didn’t mean it. He was always so good to me. He’s really changed. He doesn’t deserve this.

And a man who is capable of doing monstrous things to a child is free to continue as he has always done. He’s better now, so he doesn’t have to answer for his crimes.

Dear child of God, hear me closely. They are wrong. They are so very, very wrong.

Pretending that there are no consequences to wickedness can never be the way to healing.

Pretending that the one who has so wickedly used you is “better now” so he shouldn’t have to pay for his crimes can never make your pain go away.

There is only one way to heal from the grievous, hard and terrible wounds that you have: the hard way. Only with the truth – always, steadfastly, painfully. Tell the truth. Acknowledge what has happened. Acknowledge the hurt and the grief and the pain and the anger. Acknowledge and confess that this happened and it HURTS and you didn’t deserve to be treated this way.

Acknowledge that you were a child and should have been protected and honored and nourished.

It won’t go away if you bury it. It won’t be healed if it never sees the light of day.

Certainly pray that God will forgive the one who hurt you.

Certainly let go of bitterness and wrath and anger and malice.

But you can’t do any of those good things by pretending that horrible wickedness wasn’t so horrible after all.

That you somehow deserved it;

That he was misguided, made mistakes, is really a good person who just has some flaws.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

He isn’t a good person with flaws. He is a child of the devil. Perhaps the truth of that will someday set him free – but he won’t ever get there by pretending something that isn’t true.

It wasn’t your fault in any way. Yes, I know that you also are a sinner. But what happened wasn’t your fault.

And you can’t ever let go of your anger and be a peace until you acknowledge the truth.

HE did this. It was wicked and evil, deserving civil punishment AND eternal punishment.

Perhaps God will use civil punishment to wake this man up and drive him to Christ for forgiveness. But that isn’t your job.

Your job is only to tell the truth – tell it to yourself; tell it to God; tell it to the judge; tell it to the jury. It will be the hardest thing that you have ever had to do. But if you think that this is hard, the alternative is so much harder: you can carry it with you your whole life. You can hide it from time to time, but it will always be there. It’s a burden you were never intended to carry.

I am so sorry that you were given this advice. I am so sorry that those who profess to know the love of Christ have conveniently forgotten that it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

I am so sorry that people who were uncomfortable talking about this forgot that you were the one who had to live through it.

I am so sorry that the church, once again, buried it’s head in the sand and tried to pretend that everyone was just nice, and good and kind and loving.

I am so sorry that we confess total depravity but have no idea what it means, except that it must apply to “other people”, not one of ours, of course.

And I am sorry that you listened to them. This is a hard road and my heart goes out to you. How can you ever “let this go” when it was so monstrous and evil and ugly?

The only way is to acknowledge and confess what it was, like David did:

Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:

 2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.

 3 The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.

 4 The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. (Psa 129:1-4 KJV)

The wicked who afflict the helpless have them tied up with cords that only the Lord can break. And the Lord breaks those cords because He is righteous.

But first we must acknowledge the truth.It happened. It happened many times; It was affliction. It hurt. I was helpless. But they didn’t prevail against me!

It is not an easy road to healing, but it is the only one that there is.There is no easier path. It won’t come by pretending something that isn’t true.

Whatever road God calls you to take, remember that the day will come when all tears will be wiped away. But part of this wiping away of tears is when the wicked are cast into the lake of fire.

Perhaps those who afflicted you will be saved by the blood of Christ. Pray for that. It is truly terrible to fall into the hands of the living God. But they will never come to repentance if they are never called to account for the crimes they have committed.

When Christ comes again, those who were so powerful and so haughty and so rich and untouchable will be crying out to the hills to fall on them, to hide them from the wrath of the lamb.How can a wicked man ever understand the love of the lamb, when he refuses to acknowledge the wrath of the lamb?

How can the church be faithful in its witness of the gospel if it refuses to be faithful to the hard doctrines of hell and wrath and judgment?

What did Jesus come to save us from if even the rapist of a child is just a “nice person who made some mistakes? – or whatever tripe we spin to pretend that sin is something that it isn’t?

Ideas have consequences. We say that Jesus loves the sinner but hates the sin, ignoring all of the scripture that teaches that Jesus HATES the wicked. And now we have the results.

Jesus just loves this child rapist to pieces, doesn’t he? Shouldn’t you just let it go, like Jesus did?

And we have no justice, and ultimately, no gospel.

I think it is time we stopped, don’t you?

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December 3, 2014 · 9:51 am

In Defense of Barak

Judges is one of those books that you have perhaps read through once or twice in you life.  You are more likely, however, to have heard the stories from Sunday School from long ago.  The stories are so familiar to us that even when we read through them we rarely take the time to think about them.  We just give them a once over and then move to the New Testament.

What do you remember about Barak? If it isn’t ringing any bells, try Deborah and Barak.

Oh, yeah.  He was that guy that was too afraid to go to battle unless Deborah went with him.

Now you may remember the account.  It might be helpful for you to read Judges 4 again.  I can wait.

Israel again did evil in God’s sight, and God sold them into the hands of Jaban and Sisera.  Sisera was an extremely powerful general. We can’t possibly imagine the power of 900 chariots in this day of smart bombs and fighter jets, but in Barak’s time, the army was impossible to defeat, especially since Israel didn’t have any weapons at all (See Deborah’s song in Judges 5:8).

But even greater than that: this oppression was of the Lord. Who can fight against the Lord? Since it was God Himself who sold Israel into bondage, only God could deliver them.

Now Deborah is introduced (4:4).  All we know about her is that she was a “prophetess” who judged Israel.  At this point, most of what you have heard is a defense of God using women to lead men. It was because the men were so weak and cowardly that God cursed them with women leaders.

Perhaps. But that isn’t in the text. I would rather have you read simply what is there.  All that the text tells us is that Deborah was a prophetess and that she judged Israel at the time.

Then Deborah receives word from God to call Barak and send him into battle against Sisera.

Barak responds, “If you go with me, I will go.  If not, I will not go.”

Most of the Sunday School accounts of this end here, with an admonition not to be as cowardly as Barak.  He has gone down in history as the one who was so frightened of battle that he refused to go to battle unless a woman went with him. My study bible has the footnote “a faithless and cowardly response.”

But let’s pause there for a moment and look ahead a few verses:

13 And Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the river of Kishon.

14 And Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the Lord gone out before thee? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.

Picture the scene.  Barak has gathered together 10,000 men. Remember that they have no weapons. Sisera sees them at the top of Mt. Tabor and gathers his chariots and armies together at the foot of the mountain.

At the top of the mountain – Barak, Deborah, and 10,000 unarmed farmers.  At the foot of the mountain, 900 iron chariots, a multitude of trained, armed men.

The plan is for Barak and the farmers to charge down the mountain. Let that sink in for a moment.

Now Deborah receives word from God. She says to Barak, “Now. God has given them into your hand.”

And they go!

And they go!

They charge down the mountain, and God gives the entire army into their hands.

As I was reading through this again, it occurred to me that perhaps in our zeal to keep women from getting uppity, we have misread Barak.  The man at the top of Mt. Tabor didn’t seem like a coward to me.  I understand that it is the Lord that gives men and women courage and perhaps the complete change in Barak’s personality was a miraculous intervention of God.  But rather than go that route right away, I looked at the passage again with fresh eyes, and saw something astounding.

Barak was not at all a faithless coward. Rather than a statement of unbelief, his statement – “If you go with me, I will go” – is one of the most astounding professions of faith in scripture and should be an example to us all – which is actually what the writer of Hebrews says of Barak.

This, I understand, will need some explaining.  First, remember who Deborah was.  She was a prophetess.  Barak couldn’t run down to the local Walmart in Bethel and buy a 5.99 bible.  Revelation was not complete at this time.  They had the books of Moses, but those would not have been accessible to the general public. They would have known the 10 commandments, but other than that, where would one go for the word of God?

They could go only one place: Deborah. She WAS the word of God to Israel. She was a prophetess and all Israel knew it and came to her for judgment.  She would not have been a political leader, for Jaban would never have allowed it. Israel’s politics were dominated by Canaanites and their religion was corrupted by idolatry. The word of God to Israel was found in only one place: Deborah.

Barak was not at all expecting Deborah to fight the battle for him, or even with him.  Deborah stayed at the top of Mt. Tabor. Barak went into battle.

But Barak knew something most of us miss. The battle is too great. Our armies are too small. If we will conquer at all, we DARE not take one step without the word of God.

Barak, rather than being a coward, was a man of tremendous faith who refused to take one step against the enemy without God’s word. And God’s word was found in only one place: Deborah.

So Barak would rather be slandered as a weak and cowardly man and take Deborah with him than go in his own strength against an enemy that was too strong for him.

 

I realize that you are probably frantically re-reading this chapter, and have come to verse 9.

9 And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.

        This is immediately read as a rebuke to Barak.  Of course, our natural understanding tells us that Barak would want honor for the victory and it is shameful for God to bring victory through a woman. So we can’t see it any other way than as a rebuke.

        But is that really what she says? Once again, I would encourage you to read it from the perspective of all of scripture.

        God will never give his glory to another. Since the Garden of Eden, we all have been sold into a bondage so deep and so cruel that none of us can ever escape it. And God promised Adam and Eve that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

        The fact is – God ALWAYS delivers his people in such a way that the strong, powerful and wise can never, ever take the glory.

        Deborah is actually clarifying the choice for Barak.  “You can go in your own strength, in your own wisdom and seek glory – but without God. Or you can submit to God’s word and expect victory from him alone.”

        “I, the prophetess of God, will certainly go with you. And with me will go the word and blessing of God. But if God fights this battle, you won’t get the glory. God will deliver you at the hand of a woman, so that no one can ever say that Barak’s strength got us the victory.”

        “If, Barak, you want glory, then go get your glory.  I’ll stay here – and the word of God will stay with me. You do the best you can against all of those iron chariots and we’ll see what happens.”

        Do you see the choice that Barak had?  It is the same choice that we all face every day. The enemy is too strong for us. The battle is too fierce.  We can take up our arms and our wisdom and our pride and fight manfully onward – just like the sons of Sceva did (Acts 19:14-16) – and take our chances.

        Or, we can say with Barak – I won’t move a step apart from God’s word and I don’t care what anyone else says about me or who gets the glory.  But as soon as God says “Charge!” I’m charging full-bore right into the battle!

        We spend so much time reading what ISN’T here, that we miss the point of the account entirely.  This passage says nothing whatsoever about women in positions of leadership in the church or elsewhere. If you want to find out about women in positions of authority in the church, look at 1 Cor. 14:34; 1 Tim. 2:11-15.  This passage has nothing to do with that.

        But if you want to know how to do valiant battle against the evil one, who seeks to destroy us daily, you will find no better example than Barak.

        You wouldn’t go into battle without a sword. The only sword that will do any good at all in the battle that we are in is the word of God (Eph. 6:17).  Barak was wise enough to arm himself with the sword.

        Are we?

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December 1, 2014 · 9:40 pm

The Meaning of Christmas

It’s inevitable this time of year.  People seem obsessed with “putting Christ back into Christmas”.  They seem to mean by this that we should put Nativity scenes up instead of Christmas trees, and that we should rant incessantly about spelling the holiday “Christmas” instead of “xmas”. Soon we will be asked to share memes if we agree that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Even now, perhaps there are some that are concerned that I might be taking too light a view on changing Christmas to “xmas”.  No, I’m not. “X” is simply a Greek chi, and for 2,000 years it has stood for the name “Christ.” Everyone relax.

I agree that at many times the holiday seems overdone, vain and aesthetically offensive. Christians are not immune to this charge.  There are only so many times that you can hear “Jingle Bell Rock” or “Mary did you know?”

On the one hand, people become obsessed with gifts, wrapping presents and staying busy to ‘get into the Christmas spirit”, and the marketplace takes advantage.  On the other hand are those who decry the commercialism of Christmas, and shout to “remember the true meaning of Christmas”.  Movies and stories abound, teaching us that the true meaning of Christmas is family, doing good to others, sharing, and basically remembering that we can make a difference with sacrificial works and putting others, primarily children, first.  

But did God send His Son into the world in the womb of the virgin in order to teach us better ways of being better people?  Did God really become flesh and dwell among us so that we could go to Walmart and buy plastic idols to put on our front lawn, patting ourselves on the back for putting Christ back into Christmas?  Not according to the Bible.

People have tried for thousands of years to “make a difference” and after a few well-meaning spurts of outward displays of charity they  immediately return to their vain, shallow, cruel and abusive lives.  The fact is that we are all so hopeless, powerless, vain, shallow, self-centered and sinful that there was absolutely no hope in humanity whatsoever.  Every single one of us from the fall of man until now is subject to death and misery.  We aren’t smart enough, loving enough, strong enough or good enough to do anything about it.

But our natural religion says that we can fix this mess by greater motivation, or bigger acts of charity.  We can make a difference by doing better things better, by loving more, by “remembering the true meaning of Christmas all year round”, or by electing people smart enough to fix all of our problems.

It never works and never has.  But as a dog returns to his vomit, we return to our folly.  Every year at Christmas we offer our incense to the plastic gods of our self-righteousness, pat ourselves on the back for being basically good people, cry over “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and try to convince ourselves that we really can make a difference if we just try harder.

But what if we really aren’t good enough?  What if there really isn’t anything that we can do to make a difference?  What do we do when something happens in our lives that leaves us devastated, and there isn’t anything that we can or could have done about it?

What sacrifice will you offer to your gods that will take away the pain, misery and emptiness of the vanity of life?

Now we can begin to see the true meaning of Christmas.  The angel told Joseph “You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins”.

It isn’t about the spirit of giving.  It isn’t about the message of Santa inside of each one of us.  It isn’t about our basic goodness and kindness, for we have none.  The fact is this:  We are so hopeless, vile and corrupt that there is no possibility of saving ourselves in any way.  If there is any hope for man, God must save him.  So God became flesh in the womb of the virgin Mary in order to take the curse of death upon himself.  He gives us His righteousness, for we have none of our own.  And He takes our vile rags on Himself, dying under God’s curse, so that we might live.

When He rose from the dead, He showed the world that the curse was finally taken away, and He now reigns until all of His enemies are put under His feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Fellow professing Christians, please quit fretting about “secular humanists” or Hollywood taking Christ out of Christmas.  We have been managing the mangling of the gospel just fine without their help.  When we send the message that it’s about nativity scenes, “xmas”, Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays, giving and works of charity, all we are doing is enforcing man’s natural religion: that we can make a difference by our efforts and good will.

If we could have made a difference in this world, Jesus would not have had to come. The baby in the manger was the eternal, almighty, glorious Son of God, “whose goings forth are of old”. Instead of teaching us the inherent goodness of man, it teaches the opposite. We were so lost and helpless that it came to this. God became flesh and came to save us. He became poor, despised, rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief in our place.  That was what we deserved – the outer darkness of hell. But Jesus took it upon Himself. Every child but one was born to live. Jesus was born to die.

Only when we get that figured out can we eat our bread with joy, drink our wine with a merry heart, live joyfully with our wives, and do what we can to relieve some of the suffering around us.  But this is only possible if we aren’t trying to save the world.  God will not give his glory to another, and there is only One Savior.  We will never save the world.  We will never HELP God save the world.  Only Jesus is strong enough, wise enough, good enough and loving enough.  All we can do is offer our lives to Him with gratitude and awe.  All we can do is wait and see the salvation of the Lord.

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November 7, 2014 · 10:25 am

Something We Must Get Right Immediately

As Reformed Christians, we get a lot right.  We have rightly rejected the false theology of the Methodists that led to prohibition. We rightly affirm that all things are given to us by God and are clean if they are sanctified by the word and thanksgiving. And we are right whenever we include beer, wine and spirits in the list of good things given to us by God.

But in our zeal for the correction of self-righteousness I fear that we often overcorrect. Moses warned us not to stray to the right hand or to the left. We must stay on the path of God’s revelation. Far too often, we look at one’s beverage of choice as a test of Reformed Orthodoxy. I happen to prefer iced water with my meals, and I cannot tell you how often I receive sideways glances or even intense questioning of my orthodoxy when I turn down wine or a beer.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a teetotaler. I also robustly affirm that God created all things good and that they should be received with thanksgiving, alcoholic beverages included. I guess that I am actually more indifferent than anything else. If it sounds good when it is offered I might accept a beer or a glass of wine. But what usually sounds the best to me is iced water or perhaps a lemonade or iced tea. I would generally rather have a fresh-squeezed lemonade than a merlot or a micro-brew. But this is a question of taste, not an ethical or theological statement.

That being said, there is a danger that I see creeping up in Reformed circles that seems to me to be a far greater danger than even the dangers of teetotalism. We don’t take the sin of drunkenness as seriously as we ought. God told us quite plainly that a drunkard will not inherit the kingdom of God.

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God  (1Co 6:9-10).

Think about what Paul wrote here.  Christians inherit the kingdom of God.  Drunkards do not. The unavoidable conclusion is this.  You can be a drunkard, or you can be a Christian.  But you can’t be both.

I will even use the modern term since what I have to say might be more readily heard.  You can be an alcoholic, or you can be a Christian.  But you can’t be both.

The next statement will be extremely controversial.  Most of God’s word is. There is no such thing as a Christian alcoholic. They do not co-exist. They are contrary. According to the passage above, a Christian alcoholic is as meaningless as a Christian adulterer, a Christian sodomite, a Christian thief, or a Christian extortioner.

To continue on with the same thought: when it comes to all sin, you don’t taper off. We would never allow an adulterer to “repent” and at the same time keep his adulteress relationship. A repentant thief doesn’t continue to rob banks. A repentant homosexual doesn’t keep his old buddies around. There really is only one way to deal with sin: radical mortification. As John Owen said, “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”

I am fully aware of addictions. All sin is addicting. Jesus raised quite a few eyebrows when he said, “If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

The Pharisees responded, “We are Abraham’s seed and have never been in bondage to anyone.”

The response echoes today. “I’m not an alcoholic. I can quit anytime.” “I’ve been raised a Christian and have been catechized by the best in Reformed Tradition. I’ve never been in bondage!”

And Jesus’s response is the same, “He who commits sin is the slave of sin.”

The lie of the Pharisees is the same lie that Jesus is calling us to forsake: the lie that we can continue unrepentant in sin and have it all under control. We can quit any time; that God cares more about pedigree and correct doctrine than he does about holiness. That we can be repentant and at the same time continue to love our sins.

Please do not be deceived. Drunkenness is an abomination against God; it is perverse and hateful rebellion. It is an idolatry and bondage to wickedness.

I do not say this to be spiteful and mean to those who are caught in this sin. I say this because only by acknowledging this truth can you be set free from it.

We know that Jesus actually does set us free from sin – even the sin of drunkenness.

Ezekiel foretold it:

 25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. (Eze 36:25 KJV)

And again here:

 23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

And Paul acknowledged that this had indeed been fulfilled. After strongly rejecting the sin of the unbeliever in the passage quoted above, he writes:

 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11).

But do not allow the grace of God to distort the Bible’s teaching on the horrors of sin. God’s grace is for those who acknowledge the filthiness of sin, not for those who continue to live in sin that “grace may abound”.

Do not let false views of Christian liberty distort the damnable sin of drunkenness. Christian liberty sets us free from bondage; it never places us back into it.

And do not ever think that words are the same as repentance. God does not desire our words of sorrow; our further lies and self-pity. He desires to save us from our misery by acknowledging the truth. Turn from your ungodly ways and live, says the Lord God. Repentance is not saying “I’m sorry”. Repentance is a hatred of sin, turning from it more and more as hateful to God, and at the same time, turning to the living God, seeking to please Him in all things.

It is better to renounce all creatures than to do the least thing against the will of our Father in Heaven.

Young people, as you head off to college, please remember this. Drunkenness is now expected behavior. But you are treading on very dangerous ground. Do not be partakers with them, for because of this the wrath of God is coming on the children of disobedience. It isn’t a game; it isn’t fun; it isn’t something to trifle with.

Sin should fill the hearts of God’s people with abhorrence and horror.

If you are caught in this sin, there is only one way to freedom, and it is offered to you freely by God. Repent. Turn from it with confession and abhorrence and turn to Christ, your only savior. Medical help might be helpful in getting you through the physical effects, but it can never take the place of repentance. It is not enough to clean the outside of the cup; repentance must go to the heart.

Repentance is always a recognition of the truth of scripture. Therefore true repentance always acknowledges this hard fact: if you are in bondage to alcohol, you are not a Christian. It does no good to fool yourself on this count, for God is not fooled. The only solid ground on which to place our assurance is in the word of God, not in our feelings, our upbringing, or our assent to certain orthodox doctrines. The word of God says that a drunkard will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Before we can know the comfort of our redemption, we must first know the how great our sin and misery is (Heidelberg 2). My duty as a shepherd of God’s people is to declare what God has said. It is both unloving and untrue for me to say otherwise. I cannot stand on the tower and refuse to sound a warning. There can be no hope of the gospel without a true recognition of the enormity of sin.

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October 23, 2014 · 4:17 pm

Having It All

Jesus once spoke of a sower sowing seed. He told of some seed that fell among thorns and didn’t bring forth any fruit. When His disciples asked Him about it, He said,

18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,

19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

I read that again this afternoon and thought about it. He says that the lusts of other things choke the word. Is this why our lives are often so unfruitful? We seek God for the things. If He gives us enough money, nice enough clothes, a good marriage, well-behaved children, then we would be content.

But the problem is that we are in a continual search for more things, better things.

I don’t think that most readers of this blog are vulgarly materialistic. I don’t think that our desires are for a new car, designer clothes, the best delicacies, and diamonds on the soles of our shoes. But we all have those other “things” that we seek after.

Those desires become very acute when we lose some of the comforts of life. What about those in continual pain? What about irretrievable broken relationships? What about extreme poverty?

Perhaps it is loss of reputation. Someone has slandered and reproached us with such skill that our name has a question mark in the minds of those whom we loved dearly.

The hard facts of life in a cursed world often lead us into discouragement – perhaps even wondering if God is there at all. We live unclean lives among people with unclean tongues and long for something greater. But our idolatrous nature turns our longing into a desire for things – health, good food, sex, relationships, wisdom, good reputations – and we lose something very important about living a gospel centered life.

Happiness, contentment and joy will never come from things. What we all long for is God Himself.

If we search the scriptures to learn how to raise happy and well adjusted children, we will not find either God or happy and well-adjusted children.

If we search the scripture to learn how to have a successful relationship, we will fail. The lust for things chokes the word.

When we come to church to hear how to succeed at work, how to make friends, how to save money, how to save our marriage, how to …(the reader can fill in his own desires)… we will never find God, nor will we find what we seek.

Because of this, many fall away. Young people leave the church in droves. They heard how God was cool, awesome, and just so relevant and “now”. They were promised great marriages, great sex, great jobs – God wants them to be happy and well-adjusted.

And then the reality hit. The totally cute, God-centered man that they fell for isn’t what he appeared to be. That girl that the successfully wooed turned out to be human.Their reputation was shattered in college by reproach and lies. The job market collapsed.

What happens when you seek the things of this earth and those things disappear like soap bubbles on a sunny day?

Where is God when your life is constant physical pain? Where is God in the unemployment line? Where is God in the foreclosure notice? The divorce papers? What happened to all of the promises made by the soul-patched and skinny-jeaned youth pastors, signified by the purity rings and virginity pledges, and sung about by the dreamy Christian rock band of the day?

Jesus told us. The desires for something else choked the word of God. And now a question arises. Other than what? What is it that we are to desire above everything else?  David answers this in Psalm 27:

4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.

God Himself. God is Abraham’s reward (Gen. 15:1). God is the portion of the saints.

I love the hymn that says, “The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom’s face”. God Himself is the pearl of great price that can only be obtained by selling all that one has.

It took Jacob many decades to learn this. Finally, when he was returning with four wives and twelve intolerable children to meet his greatest enemy, Esau, he wrestled with God and prevailed. He held onto God and cried “I will not let go until you bless me!”

From that day on he walked with a limp, but he held on to God.

From that day on, he was inflicted with misery after misery, but he held on to the Shepherd who guided him every day of his life.

When he met Esau, he gave flocks and herds to his offended brother. Esau said, “Keep them for yourself.  I have enough” (Genesis 33:9).  And Jacob responded, “Please receive this blessing for God has been favorable to me.  I have enough” (Genesis 33:13).

In the English, both statements, “I have enough” look the same. But in the Hebrew they say different things. Esau says, “I have much!” But Jacob says, “I have everything!”

Esau’s mind was still on the world. God had given him many flocks, herds, servants, children, wives. But Esau didn’t have God Himself.

Jacob had all of the material goods, but this isn’t what he is referring to. He was able to be generous, because he had “everything”.

On this earth, we may have riches or poverty. We may have health or sickness. We may have a house of peace or a house of trouble. We may have good reputations, or men may speak evil of us for Jesus’ sake. But if we have Christ, we have everything.

There is nothing more. There is no more to be sought. The things of this world always prove as satisfying as cotton candy to a starving man. With Christ, we are full. Without Chirst, we have nothing, though we may inherit the whole world. With Christ, we abound as Paul did – even in a Roman prison (Phil. 4:18).

There may come a day soon when we could very well lose our current prosperity.  We could lose our current status with the state. We might even be in fear of our lives. Millions all over the world have been driven from their homes, separated from their families, and killed by the sword for the sake of Christ and the gospel. But they have Christ. Things are not what they appear.

With Christ, we truly have everything and abound.

It depends on what you seek. If you seek the things, you might get them. But you will still be poor.

If you seek Christ, you may not get things, but you will be richer than you could have possibly imagined, for you will have God Himself.

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October 13, 2014 · 5:07 pm

Apricot Jam and Hope

A reprint, but still the truth.

Sam Powell's avatarMy Only Comfort

We are a proud bunch.  I remember my youth.  I thought that any problem that came along I could fix.  I was pretty clever, healthy, able to hold down a job.  I was catechized when I was young so I knew my theology.  I figured that I had the answers to whatever life threw my way.

But I didn’t understand this: to believe the gospel is to declare war on the devil.  And the devil doesn’t let go of his kingdom easily.

I always knew that their was a devil and that he was our enemy.  Our catechism said so.  But he seemed far away and not really relevant to anything in my life.  I guess that I had the same view of God.  When it came right down to it, I got in trouble because I was foolish and if I would just be wiser, I could get myself…

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