R.P. Nettelhorst's Blog, page 32
September 22, 2015
Shared Pain
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people
not been restored?
O that my head were a spring of water,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night
for the slain of my poor people!
O that I had in the desert
a traveler’s lodging place,
that I might leave my people
and go away from them!
For they are all adulterers,
a band of traitors.
They bend their tongues like bows;
they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they do not know me, says the LORD. (Jeremiah 8:20-9:3)
Our pain is God’s pain. God expresses his suffering over the suffering of his people. Their wounds are self-inflicted, they have turned their backs on God and gone off their own way. They have been unfaithful to him—committed adultery—by worshipping other gods than Yahweh. They have believed lies rather than the truth and as a consequence, they no longer know God: they believe lies about him, have false notions about his intentions, believe the worst about him in order to justify for themselves the poor choices they have made. Like a husband watching his wife spiral down into addiction, leaving him for abusive relationships and suffering privation and misery, so God is miserable, not just because of the loss of affection, but because he still loves his estranged wife and hopes to rescue her from herself.
But he also knows that the time has not yet come. Israel must suffer for a long time, must endure significant pain, must hit rock bottom, before she will be ready to hear God’s voice again and accept his help, his rescue, and be willing to restore the shattered relationship.
In the meantime, God will cry over his people. Gilead, the hill of testimony and the region around it, was noted for its spices, oils and aromatic gums. The question regarding balm in Gilead was rhetorical, akin to asking someone in a swimming pool if they’re wet enough yet. The solution for Israel’s suffering was obvious to God. Their pain was entirely unnecessary. They already knew what God expected and it was so easy.
God’s discipline is not only unpleasant for us, it is also unpleasant for God.
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September 21, 2015
Forgiveness
You assessed your defenses that Day, inspected your arsenal of weapons in the Forest Armory. You found the weak places in the city walls that needed repair. You secured the water supply at the Lower Pool. You took an inventory of the houses in Jerusalem and tore down some to get bricks to fortify the city wall. You built a large cistern to ensure plenty of water.
You looked and looked and looked, but you never looked to him who gave you this city, never once consulted the One who has long had plans for this city.
The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
called out on that Day,
Called for a day of repentant tears,
called you to dress in somber clothes of mourning.
But what do you do? You throw a party!
Eating and drinking and dancing in the streets!
You barbecue bulls and sheep, and throw a huge feast—
slabs of meat, kegs of beer.
“Seize the day! Eat and drink!
Tomorrow we die!”
God-of-the-Angel-Armies whispered to me his verdict on this frivolity: “You’ll pay for this outrage until the day you die.” The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says so. (Isaiah 22:8-14)
You never save money by skipping the oil changes. When God gave this message to the prophet Isaiah, it was still a hundred years or so in the future before the Babylonians would burn Jerusalem down and destroy the sacred temple. God outlined the preparations that had been made for the sieges: the rebuilding of the walls and the water tunnel by King Hezekiah. Despite all those physical preparations, however, no spiritual preparation had been made at all. Instead of mourning over their sins, feeling the pain that they had caused God, feeling regret for how they had turned to idols and oppressed the powerless—the widows and orphans and poor—the people went on as before, worshiping the false gods and reveling in celebrations of their pagan worship, spending their time partying and enjoying themselves instead of repenting instead of fixing the real problems which had absolutely nothing to do with walls or water systems.
God pointed out that the consequences for their behavior, for their attitudes, was dire: rather than the forgiveness they might have enjoyed, they would suffer in the years of siege against Jerusalem and ultimately they would die. God had plans for his people: he intended to fix them. Sadly, the repairs would be both expensive and painful. When the water pump is busted and the tires are flat, if we expect to get home we’re going to have to pay for the tow truck. Thankfully, God realized we were flat broke and paid for it all himself.
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September 20, 2015
Missed Opportunity
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’ ”
Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, saying, “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.” ’ ”
Then Isaiah said, “Take a lump of figs.” So they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. (2 Kings 20:1-7)
God’s open to hearing you out. Hezekiah was considered one of the righteous kings of Judah. That didn’t keep him from becoming deathly ill. When Isaiah visited him, he gave the king bad news from God: “You’re going to die.”
That was not what Hezekiah wanted to hear, so he prayed. God answered his prayer favorably, granting him fifteen more years of life.
The lump of figs placed on the boil were a symbol for Hezekiah that God would act: an illustration. Lumps of figs do not inherently have healing properties that somehow Hezekiah’s physicians had missed until then.
Had God lied to Hezekiah when he first told him he would die? Had Hezekiah’s eloquence in his prayer changed God’s mind? Neither. Hezekiah had mistakenly assumed God meant he would die from his illness. In response to Hezekiah’s prayer, God told him he would still die. But God added a new detail: not just yet.
His son, Manasseh was twelve when Hezekiah finally died fifteen years later. Hezekiah could have trained him well in the years he had with him. Instead, Manasseh was the most evil king Judah would ever have. Hezekiah failed to take the opportunity God gave him. It’s easy to miss the opportunities that could have been ours.
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September 19, 2015
Opening Day
The LORD said to Moses:
Set up my tent on the first day of the year and put the chest with the Ten Commandments behind the inside curtain of the tent. Bring in the table and set on it those things that are made for it. Also bring in the lampstand and attach the lamps to it. Then place the gold altar of incense in front of the sacred chest and hang a curtain at the entrance to the tent. Set the altar for burning sacrifices in front of the entrance to my tent. Put the large bronze bowl between the tent and the altar and fill the bowl with water. Surround the tent and the altar with the wall of curtains and hang the curtain that was made for the entrance.
Use the sacred olive oil to dedicate the tent and everything in it to me. Do the same thing with the altar for offering sacrifices and its equipment and with the bowl and its stand. Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent and have them wash themselves. Dress Aaron in the priestly clothes, then use the sacred olive oil to ordain him and dedicate him to me as my priest. Put the priestly robes on Aaron’s sons and ordain them in the same way, so they and their descendants will always be my priests.
Moses followed the LORD’s instructions. (Exodus 40:1-16)
Worship is more than ritual. Until the tabernacle was built, until the clothing had been made for Aaron and his sons, until the altar and ark, and the lamp stands had been made, until the oil had been pressed and mixed with just the right spices, the Israelites had not performed sacrifices or conducted formalized rituals associated with worshiping God. Centuries later, Jesus would tell a Samaritan woman that one day people would no longer worship God in a temple at all, but rather in spirit and in truth.
The tabernacle and its rituals were not the essence of worshiping God. They were simply an outward expression of what had been, would, and would continue to be the inner reality in people’s relationship with God. Worshiping God was always performed in spirit and in truth, not by means of the outward rituals. Those rituals were supposed portray the attitudes in people’s minds. Robes, spices, and sacrifice were designed to serve as illustrations of a relationship that already existed.
Real worship happens when people love God and love the people around them. Real worship is shown by acts of kindness. The outward show can never take the place of a life lived with God.
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September 18, 2015
September 17, 2015
You Need a Break
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.
“‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested.’ ”
When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. (Exodus 31:12-18)
All work and no play doesn’t just make Jack a dull boy, it can make him sick and unproductive. In college, we might brag about how we pulled “all nighters.” But God isn’t so impressed. Instead, he thinks that we should take some time off on a regular basis, one day a week, every week. Even God took a day off after he created the world. Are we better than God?
Besides, we need the time off just for our own health and happiness. Working all the time isn’t good for us and frankly, it ultimately it reduces our productivity. And an hour off here or there doesn’t cut it. For the ancient Israelites, they were expected to take a whole day just to do nothing with it. They didn’t spend their day off mowing the grass, cleaning the garage, or building a shed. Instead, they were required to just do nothing: to goof off, to be lazy, to sleep and eat and play. Not only did the Israelites not get to work, they couldn’t make anyone else work for them: no slaves could work, not even their animals could work. No cooking, either: they weren’t allowed to start a fire; they had to eat whatever they already had at hand. God was serious about the resting thing. And as Jesus would later point out, it was designed, just like any of the laws God made, for our good. So take some time off. The world won’t end because you goofed off one day this week.
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September 16, 2015
Celebrate Good Times
“Celebrate this Festival of Unleavened Bread, for it will remind you that I brought your forces out of the land of Egypt on this very day. This festival will be a permanent law for you; celebrate this day from generation to generation. The bread you eat must be made without yeast from the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day of that month. During those seven days, there must be no trace of yeast in your homes. Anyone who eats anything made with yeast during this week will be cut off from the community of Israel. These regulations apply both to the foreigners living among you and to the native-born Israelites. During those days you must not eat anything made with yeast. Wherever you live, eat only bread made without yeast.” (Exodus 12:17-20)
God is not a dour killjoy. He is not afraid that somewhere, somehow, someone is having a good time and he needs to stop it. Instead, God is all about joy. He wanted his people to happily remember what God had done for them by rescuing them from Egyptian bondage. Their rescue from Egypt was a good reason to celebrate, much as Americans celebrate Independence Day or enjoy the holiday of Thanksgiving. God wanted the Israelites to set aside not just for an hour, or a day, but for a whole week. Their fun was not to be cut short.
Why no yeast at this annual party? Unlike the modern world, where we can make or get food quickly, in ancient times, making food was a slow process. There was no fast food restaurant just around the corner. There wasn’t even any quick rising yeast for their bread machines. And so they didn’t have time to make bread the right way. Rushed to cook plain dough, they ended up with crackers—matzo—instead. To remind them of that rushed night before their deliverance, during their seven day festival they were not allowed to have normal bread, only matzo.
Given that the Israelites enjoyed their celebrations, we should never imagine that we are somehow less Godly, or less connected to God, or less holy because we happen to be having a good time with our friends and family. It’s spiritual to have fun.
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September 15, 2015
Love Your Family
Dedicate yourselves to me and be holy because I am the LORD your God. I have chosen you as my people, and I expect you to obey my laws.
If you curse your father or mother, you will be put to death, and it will be your own fault.
If any of you men have sex with another man’s wife, both you and the woman will be put to death.
Having sex with one of your father’s wives disgraces him. So both you and the woman will be put to death, just as you deserve. It isn’t natural to have sex with your daughter-in-law, and both of you will be put to death, just as you deserve. It’s disgusting for men to have sex with one another, and those who do will be put to death, just as they deserve. It isn’t natural for a man to marry both a mother and her daughter, and so all three of them will be burned to death. If any of you have sex with an animal, both you and the animal will be put to death, just as you deserve. (Leviticus 20:7-16)
Can’t we all just get along? God had chosen his people and as a consequence of the relationship that he now had with them, he expected them to obey him. Obedience was a result of God in their lives, not the cause. God then prohibited a variety of bad behavior, ranging from the cursing of parents to inappropriate sexual activities. What all of these bad behaviors had in common was their penalty: death.
Given that the overall principle in punishment according to God was eye for eye—that is, the penalty for a crime must not exceed the crime—why was cursing parents, adultery, and intercourse with animals treated the same way that murder was treated?
Murder was punished by death because human beings were created in the image of God. A man and woman became one flesh in marriage and produced offspring who were in their image and likeness. Sexual intercourse outside of that pattern broke the image of God just as much as murder did. Cursing parents was like cursing one’s own existence and threatened one’s very survival.
God knows the importance of relationships and family. For human beings to survive and prosper, they must get along. God treated all threats to the survival and prosperity of his people harshly. Love isn’t just a pleasant feeling. It ensures our continued existence.
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September 14, 2015
September 13, 2015
The Reunion
The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went; and he met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which he had sent him, and all the signs with which he had charged him. Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites. Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses, and performed the signs in the sight of the people. The people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had given heed to the Israelites and that he had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. (Exodus 4:27-31)
People who need people are not just the luckiest people—they’re normal people. Moses had seen God in a burning bush. He’d received miracles that he could perform whenever he needed. God had answered all his questions. But it had taken the offer of his brother’s help to overcome his continued reluctance to do the task God had assigned. Moses knew that his big brother Aaron would stand with him and so he would face the job God had given him.
At the same time God was recruiting Moses, God was also recruiting his brother. Moses did not have to talk Aaron into helping him. God had already paved the way, letting Aaron know what was up and had sent him off on the long journey from Egypt to meet his brother on the mountain of God.
Moses did not have to face his return to Egypt alone. He did not face the other Israelites alone. He didn’t have to face Pharaoh alone. From the beginning, his big brother acted as his spokesperson. All Moses had to do was perform the miracles. If the work that God calls us to is more than we can do alone, God will have already made provision for any help we’ll need. For God, failure is not an option.
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