First there was nothing. Then there was everything.
Then, in a park above a western city after dusk, the air is raining messages.
***This is a tome. So, be prepared. So far, however, worth every penny.
Principle: The Coherence of the Biblical Worldview in a World of Incoherence
Intro: I was reading through the book of Jeremiah again. It is a theological powerhouse of a book. Why? Because it reveals God’s holiness, man’s sinfulness, God’s judgment, and God’s covenant faithfulness to redeem.
Text:
23 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. 3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.
5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
7 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 8 but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he[a] had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land” (Jer 23:1-6, ESV).
Encouragement: To state the obvious, we live in a time like Jeremiah’s time. Judah and Israel were largely apostate and demonstrated nothing so much as antipathy and/or utter disdain towards God. Moral debauchery was epidemic. So, what do you in the passage from Jeremiah 23 above? What does God do at such times? He calls out the false shepherds; he rebukes them for not equipping the saints. Moreover, God promises not to lose any of his true people. God will provide for them a true shepherd, one who is faithful and true. He is called the righteous Branch in verse 5. And he is a deliverer by nature. The righteous Branch is none other than the messiah, Jesus, the Christ. All of Scripture coheres, you see; it tells one coherent story. It hangs together across its 66 books to tell the story of God’s glory in salvation through judgment. God is refining a people, gathering them, testing them, and redeeming them throughout the course of redemptive history. May we, in the crazy times in which we are living, learn from the mighty book of Jeremiah.
Principle: Righteous judgment reflects the unchanging nature of God; God is not the One who needs to change; we are, for God changes not (Malachi 3:6).
Historical Context: Jeremiah was a prophet in the 600s B.C. as Israel (the northern kingdom) and Judah (the southern kingdom) were split due to their sin and wickedness. God was judging the nations for their sin, and Jeremiah was God’s prophet to tell hard truths to the people. The goal was restoration and redemption. But the people were recalcitrant and largely unwilling to repent and return to the Lord.
Text:
7 “Though our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name’s sake;
for our backslidings are many;
we have sinned against you.
8 O you hope of Israel,
its savior in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why should you be like a man confused,
like a mighty warrior who cannot save?
Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us,
and we are called by your name;
do not leave us.”
10 Thus says the Lord concerning this people:
“They have loved to wander thus;
they have not restrained their feet;
therefore the Lord does not accept them;
now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.”
11 The Lord said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12 Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
Takeaway & Encouragement: When I survey our current situation domestically and internationally, I think it is both shortsighted and dangerous to not recognize the importance of the theology (the doctrine of God) and spirituality that undergirds our decisions. Behavior reflects belief. We do what we believe, in other words; the rest is mere talk.
Jeremiah told the hard truths to people (and to himself) for the right and noble reasons—out of love for the truth and out of love for the people’s good. Left to themselves, they invariably made a mess of things and judgment fell. May we have the wisdom to not just recognize the theology undergirding every worldview but have the wisdom to repent and return to the unchanging Lord of all righteousness who both raises nations and humbles them.
Got home today for a day, and piddled in the woods around the house some.
Some of the critters came out to say hi, as is our pattern.
The buck was still in velvet, and the does were browsing.
Topic: Genuine connection.
“Whenever you go out, walk together, and when you reach your destination, stay together,” wrote one of my favorite theologians many years ago. It speaks just as powerfully now as it did in the 300s when he wrote it.
The idea revolves around genuine connection. The irony of our day is that technology has connected the world but simultaneously torn us asunder. The image that invariably comes to mind is when I am in the nation’s airports. I love to watch people. And what I am about to write is the absolute truth: I will put down the book I am reading between flights and watch the people for minutes at a time. Almost always, no one is making eye contact. Why? Because their eyes are bent downward onto an illumined screen. It is either a phone or a laptop. Just try the experiment yourself next time you have the opportunity. People will sit right next to one another, but not talk. They will put their heads down and scroll, scroll, scroll. Sometimes I think if someone were to burst into flames, others would not extinguish the flames but hit the record button on their gadgets and post it on the internet.
Technology has been a massive blessing in so many ways, of course. But my prayer is that we don’t jettison the human connection that is essential if we are to live lives of depth and not just breadth.
Encouragement: Technology comes from the Greek word techne (τέχνη). Its corollaries are art, skill, and craft. May we be a people who have the wisdom to know that our gadgets should connect rather than divide us, because human and divine connections are ways in which the Author of life blesses his creation.
Bottom Line, Up Front: O’Connor recognized that most people live as if shame is to be eradicated. “Ashamed of Shame” summarizes O’Connor’s biblical anthropology. “Man-centeredness is king,” boasts our culture. Glory to man in the highest!
Truth Remains: The half-brother of Christ penned, “For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14b ESV). The psalmist wrote, “For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace” (Psalm 102:3 ESV).
But perhaps the most direct: “Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:20 ESV).
We Suppress to Our Judgment: I finished O’Connor’s volume of masterful short stories again this week. I should not say I finished them; I reread them with immense appreciation. She saw man’s problem; we think we are smartest, that we have outwitted our Maker. But that is the pot calling the Potter a fool, and that only reveals the pot’s hubristic folly.
“Lord, have mercy,” remains one of the true church’s most necessary prayers, for we–breath by breath–reveal why we merit God’s justice.
Holy God, have mercy, for if you give us justice, we perish. And the justice that follows is just that–just.
Flannery, I love and appreciate you. We grew up just miles apart, and I know your zip codes like the back of my hand. Thank you for employing your gifts to quicken a deaf and blind people.
Bottom Line, Up Front: Sin diminishes both individuals, nations, and epochs but righteousness honors the Lord and finds favor from the Author of life.
Our Days: The behaviors of some men and women at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in France this month mocked the Christian ordinance of the Lord’s Supper at levels that stagger the senses of both believers and unbelievers. We are living amidst a time where crassness is celebrated, and godliness and humility are derided. Speaking just for myself, it breaks my heart. Why? Because I have studied history enough to know that vileness of this level merits the judgment of God, and God is not mocked, because what man sows, he reaps. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7, ESV). Generally speaking, people do not fear God. And that is dangerous, folks. We did not create ourselves (we all have birthdays and navels), and we are therefore foolish when we spit in the face of the holy and divine.
Historical Example: In 2 Kings, Manasseh made a lifestyle of doing “evil in the sight of the LORD” (2 Kings 21:2). He built altars to demons; he sacrificed children; he dealt in necromancy and witchcraft; he mocked God. 2 Kings 21 is one of the darkest chapters of the Bible. But it’s there for our instruction and warning. We’re to learn not to be foolish, but to repent and return to the Lord. That’s the hallmark of wisdom, you will remember: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10a, ESV).
Encouragement: I heard someone say recently that we have reached a tipping point in our culture. And then he uttered this zinger: “It’s revival or bust.” I think he is right. As for me and my household, we want to be part of “the good guys,” because God is the Author of all that is good, beautiful, and true. And I pray with all I have that God will raise up courageous truth-tellers who will count the costs and be found faithful at such a time as this. Because we are flirting with judgment of biblical/cosmic proportions.
Introduction: This evening as I arrived back at my work location after a brief blessing of time with family, church, friends, and fellow soldiers, I was eager to reread one of the most profound books of Scripture–Isaiah. This evening I was struck once again by Isaiah 57:15:
15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite (Isaiah 57:15, ESV).
Doctrine: God is transcendent; he is ‘above’ us creatures and all of creation in every sense. But he is simultaneously ‘amidst’ us via his immanence. He came to us via the incarnation. He is both exalted and also knowable. He is terrifyingly beautiful and powerful, but at the same time, he calls us sinners to himself.
He is, in sum, both above and amidst. And when we come to understand that, and be gripped by that, it satisfies hungers we have to worship the majestic and be known by the One who knows us better than we know ourselves, and yet still loves us. Christ came to the world for sinners:
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life (1 Timothy 1:15-16, ESV).
Encouragement: God is both above and amidst, and he calls us sinners to respond in repentance and faith, and he bids us welcome.
Much to my chagrin, houses are being built all around us, and so the deer are discombulated, looking around as if in lamentation. A few of them remained with me this morning as I picked up downed limbs from the wind and litter left by construction workers.
The mom (at the back of the last picture) looks out. I do, too, lovely lady, and miss the trees and forest that were there only days ago.
Bottom Line, Up Front (BLUF): David’s forgiveness of his and God’s enemies is a picture of God’s forgiveness of sins of all those who flee to Christ in repentance and faith.
Historical Context: Wicked King Saul had committed suicide (1 Samuel 31:4); David had been anointed by Samuel to be the rightful king, the one of God’s choosing (1 Samuel 16). Now the king of Judah, what might you think David would do? What would a wise ruler do?
Listen to 2 Samuel 2:1: “After this David inquired of the LORD . . . .” Remarkable. If he had been a lesser man, he would have made everything about himself. He would have been narcissistic. He would have found himself amidst braggadocio.
But that’s not what we see. David knew he was a great sinner; he never got “too big for his britches,” if you will. He knew his promotion was all of God’s grace.
What’s more, David forgave his and God’s enemies, and even praised the ones who had been loyal to King Saul, wicked though he was, while he (Saul) had been the people’s ruler. In other words, don’t miss this: the king was forgiving sinners. Sound familiar? Sound like the gospel?
Encouragement: When we recognize that we are sinners, we come to understand and grasp the profundity of what it means to be debtors to the grace of God. It’s the gospel right there in 1-2 Samuel, guys, and it is beautiful to behold.
MIND & MATTERS 