Jared Longshore's Blog, page 4

Forbearing One Another

After telling the Colossians to put on kindness, meekness, and longsuffering, Paul instructs them to forbear one another (Colossians 3:13). This is a funny directive when you consider it. He’s literally telling them to put up with each other. Every good dad or mom has pulled this one out before on family vacation. And every sibling has known exactly what it means to tolerate the unpleasantries of fellow travelers in the minivan.

As you come to this table, make sure that you come putting up with each other, cheerfully. Saints have had to do so since the time of the apostles and you will be doing so until you go an meet those apostles. If you find it cumbersome to put up with another saint, that’s because it is. But if this Christian duty is putting you out of sorts, remember that you have likely been tolerated by others about as much as you need to tolerate them.

A community that really forbears one another is down right dumbfounding to the world and compelling to outsiders. It is a community that is righteous without being righteous over much. And the only way to have such a community is to commune with Righteousness Himself. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Because He First Promised

The baptism of a covenant child is a reminder that we love God because He loved us first. It is also a reminder that we trust God because He promised us first. Faith does not create promises in the mouth of God. But faith does receive such promises. And God’s promise to us is, “They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them” (Isaiah 65:23).

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Confront or Cover

All sorts of trouble arises in relationships when sin is not cancelled, when it backlogs or runs in the background like too many apps open on your computer. Your mind and soul then becomes that pinwheel of death, slowing down everything from your joy and peace to your productivity.

You have two means for avoiding that sin slog in your relationships. When you realize that you are bent out of shape by someone else, your first option is to confront the person who has sinned against you. The second is cover the offense in love. Both of these options are loving. You confront for things that are big enough. And you cover for minor violations.

Considering the confront option, you may discover that you are more bent out of shape than you need to be and opt for the cover option. If you do decide to cover a minor offense, make sure it really is covered.

You will know that it is covered by the fact that you don’t ruminate on it. It takes strength of course to truly keep no record of wrongs. But that strength and love is supplied to you by the Spirit of God who dwells in you.

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Three Cheers for Einstein and Gödel

Both Einstein and Gödel are as far from seconding the ancient Sophist’s “man is the measure of all things” as it is perhaps possible to be. For both of these men the methodology of their respective fields—the complex mixtures of reasoning, including both intuition and deduction (and, in the case of physics, which is not a priori, observation as well)—does not consist of arbitrary sets of rules that govern an elaborate made-up mind-game or language-game, which could just as well have been played by some other sets of rules entirely, leading to an altogether different construction of reality.

Rebecca Goldstein, Incompleteness, pg. 40

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Christ in All

When Scripture tells us that Christ is in all, we must remember that He is in all really and truly. This bread will enter your mouth and as it does you will feed upon Christ. This wine will nourish you inwardly and so will the blood of Christ nourish your soul. If it is true that Christ is in you, then it is equally true that He is in your baptized brother or sister. So look around and discern the body, Christ’s body, not only now as we partake of this table, but as you go about the days ahead.

When you ignore another saint, when you really do look down your nose at them, when you are impatient, when you bicker, and when you slander, you are slandering one in whom Christ resides. You are bickering with Christ’s house. Or to change the metaphor, you fighting with His arm or leg. Positively, consider how much more interesting your fellow saints become when you really believe this. Christ is in them. What is He up to? What will He do in them next? Nobody knows exactly. But the knowledge that Christ is in us all is truth enough for us to love each other. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ. 

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The Gym and Piety

It is striking how difficult it can be to order ones loves toward the gymnasium. When it comes to bodily training, it is often feast or famine. One family lives for their boys to play basketball and another family insists that bouncing inflated leather is of no value at all. Paul’s words are helpful and simple enough: “Bodily exercise [γυμνασία] proffteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things” (1 Timothy 4:8). Paul did not mean that all of your sports are meaningless. And he didn’t mean that physical exercise necessarily stands contrary to piety, not at all. But if you do decide to weigh them in a scale, piety simply profits more.

So take an honest look at what you and your children esteem. Young men, if you know every accolade of Lebron, Curry, and Mahomes and nothing of the victories of Abraham, Moses, Gideon, and other heroes of our faith, then be honest about how your loves are ordered. The Lordship of Christ over your sports involves more than doing the same thing pagans do minus cussing. And entire athletic ecosystems have long forgotten what sports are for. So make sure you remember.

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Ship and Tabernacle

Introduction

Isaiah prophesied from around 740 to 687 B.C. during the reign of four kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Ahaz was a wicked king who locked up the doors of the temple in Jerusalem, burned his sons in fire, cut the vessels of the temple to pieces, and made Judah a vassal state of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser by paying him for protection (2 Kings 16:8, 10). Ahaz’s son, Hezekiah, came to the throne at twenty-five years old and called for a recovery of the Passover festival in Jerusalem. That assembly of joy was so grand the like had not been seen since the days of David and Solomon (2 Chronicles 30:26). But the Assyrian threat was looming. They took Samaria in the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign. And by the fourteenth year of his rule, the Assyrian king Sennacherib had come against Judah and Jerusalem.

The Text

“Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity” (Isaiah 33:20-24).

Survey of the Text

In the face of the Assyrian threat, Judah must look upon Zion, the city of their festivals. It will be a place of peace, a tabernacle that will not be folded up. Not a single tabernacle peg will be removed; and unlike the cords on the Assyrian war ships, not one of her cords will be snapped (v. 20). The tabernacle of Zion will remain because the LORD Himself will supply it with streams of water that no Assyrian oars will touch (v. 21). The LORD, Judah’s Savior-King, will not permit their ships to come upon His holy habitation (v. 22). Their cords will forsake them, not supporting their mast. Their sail will not be spread to catch the wind. And the result will be that the predator becomes prey. The lame inhabitants of Zion will plunder them (v. 23). Those inhabitants will not say that they are weak because their sin is forgiven (v. 24).

A Place of Streams and Festivals

Jerusalem was a festival city, a place of bread, meat, and drink. And this meat and drink was the very thing Sennacherib threatened to cut off, “Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria, ‘Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem? Doth not Hezekiah persuade you to give over yourselves to die by famine and by thirst'” (2 Chronicles 32:10-11)?

But these threats fall flat when God feeds His people with bread from heaven, when He satisfies their thirst with water from a Rock. Isaiah’s prophecy was not only that the LORD would give them rivers, but that the LORD would be unto them a place of rivers (v. 21). Sennacherib laid siege, but he could not get to the Rock from which the water flowed. The Gihon Spring has its source in the City of David. Water still flows out of the rock that is Zion.

Stakes and Cords

The stakes and cords of the tabernacle speak to its stability, contrasted with the faulty tacklings of the Assyrian ships. The same Hebrew word [hevel] lies behind the tabernacle’s “chords” in verse 20 and the ship’s “tacklings” in verse 23. Not one of the tabernacle’s hevel will fail but the Assyrians’ hevel will forsake them.

The tabernacle cords tied down the different parts of the tabernacle to the stakes. These cords are a reminder of feminine glory, which has a way of holding things together. It was the wise-hearted women who wove the cords of the tabernacle, “And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen” (Exodus 35:25).

The stakes of the tabernacle were of brass (Exodus 27:19). And those stakes, Isaiah prophesied, would be driven in as sturdily as Jael drove the stake through Sisera into the earth.

Sails in the Wind

Zion’s tabernacle is contrasted with the Assyrian ship. What you want is wind in your sails but the Assyrians would have their sails in the wind. Their sail would not spread. This sail not only served the practical function of moving their ships. It was also a banner or a sign. The word for sail is nēs, which often means sign or banner. When Moses grew tired lifting up his arms at the battle against Amalek, he was assisted by Aaron and Hur. After the victory, Moses built an altar and called it Jehovah-nissi, “The Lord Is Our Banner” (Exodus 17:15). The pole that held up the snake in the wilderness was a nēs. 

But while Moses’ raised hands and the raised snake did not fail, the banner-sail [nēs] of the Assyrians would. And so those who sought to spoil would be spoiled (Isaiah 33:1). The lame plunder the plunder.

The Inhabitant Shall Not Say

The payout of this deliverance is that even the beleaguered inhabitants of Zion will not say, “I am sick,” which includes “I am not wounded. I am not weak. I am not famished and I am not thirsty.” For those inhabitants have their sin forgiven by the King of Zion. He was bound with cords but broke their bonds apart. He was pierced with stakes only to become “a nail in a sure place” upon which all of God’s promises are secured (Isaiah 22:23). For “he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

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The Fundraiser

Let your bounty take a nap. I will awake it anon.

William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

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Life Through Flesh

Jesus taught that the Father has life in Himself and has given to the Son that He also has life in Himself. This sets Christ apart from us. We most certainly do not have life in ourselves. But we access that life, that eternal and abundant life, through this bread and wine.

Jesus said, and indeed it was a hard saying, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood hath eternal life” (John 6:53).

As Calvin once said, “What our mind does not comprehend let faith conceive.” The flesh and blood of Christ feed our souls just as this bread and wine feed our bodies. 

You need this soul food. And it comes to you from the gracious hand of God who is outside of creation through the flesh and blood of His beloved Son. Eat and be satisfied. Drink and rejoice. For Christ says to you, “My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him” (John 6:55-56). Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ. 

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The New Peace Offering

Both worshipers and priests ate the Old Testament Peace Offering. In this way, the Lord’s Supper fulfills the Peace Offering. The Peace Offering could take two forms: one was the Peace Thanksgiving Offering, which had to be eaten the same day the offering was made, while the other was the Peace Vow Offering, which had to be eaten on the day the offering was made or the following day. In either case, practically speaking, the sacrifice had a shelf life and would spoil.

But as new creatures in a new creation, we come to partake of a sacrifice that has risen from the dead. We do not feed upon a dead Christ, but a resurrected Christ. So as you come to eat and drink, come with thanksgiving and a vow. This New Peace Offering is a Thanksgiving because Christ has been raised from the dead, and we in Him. Additionally, this Peace Offering is a Vow because here we swear to accomplish the kind of good works for God that resurrected people perform. So give thanks and make your vow, knowing this New Peace Offering will feed you today, tomorrow, and every day following. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ. 

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