R.P. Nettelhorst's Blog, page 78

Never Give Up

“Staying with it—that’s what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry, and you’ll be saved. All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come.

“But be ready to run for it when you see the monster of desecration set up in the Temple sanctuary. The prophet Daniel described this. If you’ve read Daniel, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you’re living in Judea at the time, run for the hills; if you’re working in the yard, don’t return to the house to get anything; if you’re out in the field, don’t go back and get your coat. Pregnant and nursing mothers will have it especially hard. Hope and pray this won’t happen during the winter or on a Sabbath.

“This is going to be trouble on a scale beyond what the world has ever seen, or will see again. If these days of trouble were left to run their course, nobody would make it. But on account of God’s chosen people, the trouble will be cut short.” (Matthew 24:13-22)

Winston Churchill once gave a commencement address that consisted of one sentence: “Never give up.” That thought had kept him going during the darkest days of the Second World War. The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans was one of the major turning points in history.

In 66 AD the Jewish people revolted against Rome, established a revolutionary government, and kicked the Romans out of Jerusalem. In 70 AD the Romans returned in force. When the Roman army under arrived in Jerusalem bearing the banners and standards of Caesar—idols of the emperor—Christians made the connection to Daniel’s prophesy about a “monster of desecration.” Because Jesus warned his followers to flee, all the Christians ran away from Jerusalem.

Thankfully, the events Jesus foretold did not happen in the winter. And the Romans did not attack on a Sabbath. But thousands of people were slaughtered and those that survived were scattered. Persecutions arose against Christians with ever increasing ferocity. But the church grew in the face of that persecution. So much so, that within a couple of hundred years, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire that had once persecuted it. Jesus had told his followers to never give up and in the end, they triumphed. It’s the same for us today. Sticking with it, regardless of what we face, is all Jesus asks.

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Don’t Worry

Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:1-8)

The world always has trouble. The disciples asked Jesus three questions. First, they wanted to know what Jesus meant by the destruction of the temple. Second, they asked about the sign of his “coming.” And finally, they asked about the end of the age.

The disciples were not thinking about the second coming of Jesus. When they asked about his “coming,” they were wondering when he’d come into his kingdom and take the throne of David. When they wondered about the end of the age, they wanted to know “when will this age of Roman domination over Israel” end?

So the disciples were a bit puzzled by Jesus’ answers. Jesus began by explaining about his “coming.” He warned of false messiahs offering false hope. He warned that the disasters of war and earthquake were merely the beginning of sorrows.

Since Jesus spoke those words to is disciples in the last week before his crucifixion, the pattern of the world he described has continued without end. The endless wars and endless natural disasters have merely been the beginning of our sorrows. Life has problems in it. Such ordinary problems—even big things like wars and earthquakes—do not mean that God is about to end the world. Life continues despite disasters and God is in control. Jesus told us not to be troubled by any of it.

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The Kingdom’s Value

Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, “Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field.”

So he explained. “The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.

“The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father.

“Are you listening to this? Really listening?

“God’s kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field. (Matthew 13:36-44)

What’s the price of your life? The kingdom of God is worth far more. What is the kingdom of God? It’s not like any worldly government. Instead, Jesus said that it’s like wheat seeds among weeds, which are separated only at the harvest. Then he said that it’s a hidden treasure buried in a field and the one who finds that treasure happily sells everything he has in exchange for it.

So what do Jesus’ two parables, told one after the other, teach us about the kingdom? They teach us that it is not just about tomorrow. The kingdom of God is also now. The seeds planted in the field belong to God’s kingdom now, not just at the harvest. And the kingdom of God has such a high value that the one who gives up everything for it doesn’t feel as if he’s given up anything.

We are friends of the king, his brothers and sisters, reigning with him. We lose sight of reality if we forget we belong to God now. We are children of the king, not tomorrow, but today and our treasure is not here, but with our king.

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Patiently Waiting

Habakkuk had asked God to do something about the misbehaving people of Israel and God had promised that he’d send the Babylonians to judge them—which made no sense to the prophet since he knew the Babylonians were far worse and much more deserving of God’s judgment than the Israelites. He couldn’t wrap his head around how God could use greater evil to judge a lesser evil. But he decided he would just trust God, even if it made no sense to do so. He wrote:

I heard and my heart pounded,

my lips quivered at the sound;

decay crept into my bones,

and my legs trembled.

Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity

to come on the nation invading us.

Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the LORD,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign LORD is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

he enables me to tread on the heights. (Habakkuk 3:16-19)

Sometimes life doesn’t make sense. That’s no reason to give up on God.

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The Price is Right

Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, “Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field.”

So he explained. “The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.

“The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father.

“Are you listening to this? Really listening?

“God’s kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field. (Matthew 13:36-44)

What’s the price of your life? The kingdom of God is worth far more. What is the kingdom of God? It’s not like any worldly government. Instead, Jesus said that it’s like wheat seeds among weeds, which are separated only at the harvest. Then he said that it’s a hidden treasure buried in a field and the one who finds that treasure happily sells everything he has in exchange for it.

So what do Jesus’ two parables, told one after the other, teach us about the kingdom? They teach us that it is not just about tomorrow. The kingdom of God is also now. The seeds planted in the field belong to God’s kingdom now, not just at the harvest. And the kingdom of God has such a high value that the one who gives up everything for it doesn’t feel as if he’s given up anything.

We are friends of the king, his brothers and sisters, reigning with him. We lose sight of reality if we forget we belong to God now. We are children of the king, not tomorrow, but today and our treasure is not here, but with our king.

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Past, Present, Future

In May, 1979 I graduated from college Summa Cum Laude, with a 4.0 GPA and a BA in history. I was first in my class. I had been accepted into a master’s degree program at UCLA. My parents had given me their five year old car as a graduation gift: a 1974 Buick LeSabre. At the time they gave it to me, it was in perfect working condition. I had spent most of the summer between my junior and senior years of college working full time at a brush factory as a “material’s handler.” I was paid minimum wage, 2.65 per hour, and I worked forty hours per week. I saved every penny.

So when I graduated from college I had about 900 dollars in the bank. I thought I was in good shape financially. Within a week or so I was able to find a place to live. Nothing fancy, no kitchen, just a couple of rooms and a bath. With the utilities included as part of the rent, it would only cost me 180 dollars a month. Meanwhile I began the process of trying to find a job.

Within two weeks I was working for a large apartment complex cleaning and rehabilitating apartments. At first, it seemed like the perfect job: something part time that wouldn’t conflict with my upcoming class schedule at UCLA.

Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that the job was a very bad one: I was lucky to have even a single apartment to clean each week and I ended up barely clearing two hundred dollars for month’s labor. I was expected to be on the premises of the apartment complex every morning by eight and had to stay until six. They made me do various odd jobs, but I only got paid when an apartment needed to be cleaned. I wound up putting in a full forty hour week and was lucky to get paid for even eight of them.

With the 180 dollars I paid for rent each month, I didn’t have much left for food or gasoline. And given the hours I was expected to be there, I had little opportunity to seek an alternative job. With no other income, I didn’t feel comfortable just quitting. I wasn’t getting much, and it wasn’t a good situation, but I figured some money was better than no money.

At the time I graduated from college, gas was going for about 60 cents a gallon. By mid-summer, the price had doubled. My eight-cylinder Buick LeSabre got less than fifteen miles to the gallon.

Then the car began having mechanical problems: a blown water pump, a leaking radiator, a dead alternator, a flat tire. It seemed something went wrong with it every other week. My savings vanished thanks to the car repair bills—savings that I had been counting on to pay for my first year of classes at UCLA.

Now what was I going to do?

I could barely afford to eat two meals a day—sometimes only one meal—and those meals consisted of ramen noodles or Kraft macaroni and cheese. By the end of August I had lost more than thirty pounds—and I’d barely weighed 130 to start with.

I couldn’t find any other jobs. And no one I asked at church or anywhere else offered any suggestions or help. I began to doubt that I’d be able to keep enough gas in the car to get to the job I had, let alone have enough to get to UCLA. And how would I ever pay for classes even if I could get there?

There was nothing I could think to do but to keep on doing what I was doing, to perform my job to the best of my abilities, and to keep cutting back on my food intake so I could at least keep paying the rent. By the beginning of September I despaired of ever being able to get my master’s degree.

Then, in late August, a man in the church told me about a job opening at the Burbank Airport. He worked in upper management at Lockheed, and at the time, Lockheed had the contract for operating the parking lots there. So he saw to it that I got the job. Practically overnight I went from making so little I was slowly starving to death, to making four times the minimum wage—with health coverage. Within the first week, my bank account was replenished and I had food in my refrigerator that wasn’t just dried noodles. By the time class registration came three weeks later, I had enough to pay for my courses at UCLA. I could even afford the gas for the trip.

That hungry summer had felt like an eternity. I had thought things would never get better. I was certain that all my hopes and dreams for the future, for my education—for even just living—had been dashed forever. I had become certain that the light at the end of the tunnel was an approaching locomotive.

But I passed through it and life went on. Over those next three years before I finished my graduate studies I faced other bad times—but those passed as well. Nothing in life is more certain than, “this too, will change.” No matter how dark your graveyard shift, morning always comes.

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Comfort

This passage was in the section of the Bible that I read today for my devotions (I read the Bible through every year). I always find this section very comforting.

Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi). Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.  The people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.

Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard and said:

“LORD, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?  They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’

 “But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance.  Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chronicles 20:2–12)

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Simulated Universe

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration.

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Things That Go Bump in the Night

1 Samuel 28 is an odd biblical story in so many ways. See my previous postings: Transfiguration and Snarks where I’ve referenced the passage before. The first and largest question usually relates to Samuel’s ghostly appearance, when Saul consults a medium (or necromancer; KJV: witch). The Bible elsewhere forbids calling up the dead (see Leviticus 19:31, for instance)–which would, perhaps, imply that it is something that can be done–as it was done in Samuel’s case. Of course, many Christians wonder if Samuel was really called up. Which raises a spectrum of questions: Is this really Samuel? Or is it a demon? Did the medium actually call him up, or did God send him? Are ghosts real? Can mediums actually communicate with the dead?

There is a tendency in Christian theology to wave one’s hands about and simply explain it all away—sort of like when the Wizard of Oz says “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain”.

Lots of good that does, of course. The reality is, most readers of the story would prefer just to turn away from it and pretend as if it’s not there. It’s not the only passage in the Bible that doesn’t quite fit prevailing theology. Of course, what this passage (and other uncomfortable bits of the Bible) fundamentally means from a practical point of view is simply that our theology is obviously woefully inadequate. As Shakespeare points out,

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

- Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio

My take on this is that we might want to hold off on an utter rejection of the possibility of ghosts, and posit the slim possibility that mediums just might, on rare occasions when they aren’t just charletons, contact the dead and not demons. It seems the most natural reading of the biblical text in this case is that Samuel actually comes back from the dead and talks to Saul. If you accept the Bible as God’s word, you can’t just ignore what it’s saying, after all.

But the weirdness of the passage does not begin and end with Samuel as a ghost. This chapter just keeps on giving. Look at 1 Samuel 28:13:

The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?”

The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.”

Focus on the phrase “ghostly figure” (NIV 2011). If you look at other translations you’ll find “a divine being” (NRSV, NASB) and “a spirit” (NIV 1984, CEV). The LXX–the ancient Greek translation–has Θεοὺς (theos) “a god”. The KJV has “gods” and in this instance, the KJV most literally translates the underlying Hebrew, since the Hebrew word appearing in 1 Samuel 28:13 is indeed the word אֱלֹהִים (‘elohim), and the verb translated “rising” is a masculine plural participle, so it is indeed to be rendered as the plural “gods” rather than as most commonly in the OT, “God” in the sense of Yahweh. But when Saul demands to know about what she sees, “gods” becomes singular: an old man. Given the range of translation, it is obvious that the translators find the wording of the passage problematical, since obviously Samuel is not a god, let alone a group of them.

Bear in mind though that polytheism is rampant in the Israel of this time. Saul’s daughter Michal had an idol handy that she used to help David escape from Saul (see 1 Samuel 19:13). Most Israelites worshiped other gods in addition to Yahweh, having a much less than firm grasp on the whole concept of monotheism. Ashera (a female deity somewhat equivalent to Venus or Aphrodite—a goddess of love—mentioned regularly in the OT in relation to the Ashera poles—phallic symbols—that various kings would occasionally cut down) was widely believed by the Israelites to be Yahweh’s wife. Thus, the medium’s initial description of what she saw—“gods”—would fit the commonly held world view of the average Israelite.

Unfortunately for us, we are still left with the appearance of a ghost, raised by the actions of a medium. The only real problem for us, of course, is that it is simply not something we want to believe in. Perhaps we need to adjust what we think is so; after all, the Bible, for Christians, is our authority for faith and practice, not those things that comfortably fit our pre-existing notions of how things are.

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Where’s Your Heart?

Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called. And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple. (Luke 21:29-37)

My dog recognizes the sound of my wife’s footsteps on the front porch. His tail reacts immediately, long before the front door actually opens. Jesus used similar images so that his disciples would understand that the kingdom of God was near. In fact, not long before he was crucified, Jesus announced to his disciples that God’s kingdom would arrive before their generation had passed away.

So where is this kingdom of God that Jesus promised his disciples? Was Jesus wrong? Or are we misunderstanding something? Repeatedly, Jesus told his disciples that the kingdom of God was near. Repeatedly, he told parables to describe what the kingdom of God was like. And never once did his description sound even remotely like a political entity.

Like the disciples, we tend to misunderstand what the kingdom of God was all about: it was first of all about God taking up residence and ruling in the hearts of his people. With the coming of God’s Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and then with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, the church became something separate from the old earthly nation of Israel. We became a kingdom of priests, worshiping God in Spirit and truth. Our worship was no longer—and could never again—be conducted in an earthly temple. The kingdom of God began when Jesus came and it has been expanding ever since—and will continue to do so until Jesus returns as he promised.

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