Archive for » November, 2008 «

Taking A Bite

Sunday, November 30th, 2008 | Author:

You shall not lend on interest to your brother Deuteronomy 23:19

Interest – What do we do with a commandment like this?  Our entire global economy is based on financial leverage.  Interest is an integral part of this mix.  How could God command us not to loan funds without any profit?

There are several verses in the Scriptures that speak about interest-bearing loans.  You might look at Psalm 15:5 or Exodus 22:25.  Of course, there is also Deuteronomy 23:21, the very next verse, which says interest-bearing loans to foreigners are acceptable.  Finally, you could look at the implication in the great blessing of Deuteronomy 28:12.  The simple fact is that God expects a different behavior toward those within His community.  The legislation about interest-free loans applies to action between followers, not to everyone.  If we looked carefully at the Hebrew word for “interest,” we would see why this is the case.

The Hebrew verb here, nashak, also means “to bite.”  The pictograph of this Hebrew word really paints a picture we would recognize immediately – biting the hand that feeds you.  Why is interest described as biting the hand that feeds you?  Two important factors help us understand this image and its implications for the community.  First, from the Hebrew worldview, every blessing comes from God.  If I am wealthy enough to be able to make a loan, it wasn’t my money in the first place.  My wealth is a direct result of God’s blessing.  I am merely the steward of His treasure.  Therefore, He determines how I am to use it, not me.  Secondly, the circumstances surrounding loans to fellow believers imply that these loans are given to those members of God’s community who are in real need.  These are not loans so I can buy a new car or take a vacation.  These are loans so that I can stay alive.  The idea is that one of my brothers in the faith has fallen on desperate times.  God says, “You are to help him without expectation of profit.”  In the cultural setting of the 14th Century BCE, these loans were given as a shield against abject poverty.  They were not so much financial transactions as they were charity.  God expected His people to be gracious to each other.  After all, the money was His.

Why is loaning money with interest like biting the hand that feeds you?  The only reason you have the money needed to make a loan is because God gave it to you.  So, to take advantage of the blessing God gave you by charging interest to one of His own is literally to bite God’s hand.  The commandment is simple:  Don’t do it!

On the other hand, the Torah does allow interest on loans to those outside the community.  These loans are not expressions of charity.  They are business transactions, and the Scriptures explicitly allow profit from such transactions.  The Scriptures never allow exorbitant rates but they do allow reasonable interest.  Even some of Jesus’ parables imply that business transactions with bankers should bring profit.  So, rest easy.  You have a different obligation to those inside the household of God, but it doesn’t apply to everyone.  Or so it seems, until we take seriously Jesus’ requirement to love our enemies.  What is allowed may not always be what love requires.  Jesus’ commentary on the Torah gives us something else to wrestle with, doesn’t it?

Topical Index:  Money

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Open Hand

Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Author:

YHWH looked down from the heavens on the sons of Adam to see, “Is there someone discerning, someone seeking out God?” Psalm 14:2 (Hebrew text)

Discerning – What do you think about when you read the word “discerning?”  If you’re like most people of contemporary civilization, you think of a cognitive process.  You think about choosing one thing over another.  You think about careful examination of the alternatives.  In other words, you’ll think that discernment is a mental exercise.

Now let’s look at the Hebrew word.  It’s sakal.  The consonants of the word paint a very different picture than our Greek-based cognitive assessment.  The picture is about eating from an open palm.  Think about this in a nomadic culture.  Think about what it means for an animal to eat from your open hand.  It means trust.  When an animal is willing to eat the food that you hold out in your hand, that animal trusts you.  That animal discerns that there is no evil intent behind your offering.  That animal senses care and faithfulness.  You see the difference.  In Greek thinking, discernment is a mental process that results in choosing.  In Hebrew, discernment is the active display of trust.  God isn’t looking for decisive people.  He’s looking for those who will trust Him.  He seeks those who are willing to eat from His open palm.

What a difference it makes to realize that discernment isn’t a mental process!  It’s not about making correct choices or valid decisions.  It’s about my willingness to place my well-being in God’s hands.  Ultimately, it comes down to submission.  No wonder the Bible often uses the metaphor of sheep for human beings.  Sheep don’t have a lot of sense.  Without a shepherd, they get lost.  Without a protector, they wander into danger.  If they need anything at all, they need discernment, that is, they need to trust in the shepherd.  They need to know his voice and follow him (isn’t that what Jesus said in John 10).  The next time you read passages about discernment, think of sheep.  You’ll get the picture.

This verse contains a Hebrew parallelism, but you can’t see it unless you look for the pictographs in the words.  The word for “seeking” is darash.  It provides another image about eating.  This time the word displays “the path of a person who eats.”  Now you can see the parallelism.  God searches for someone who will eat from His open hand, someone who follows the path of those who eat.  There is nothing more basic to human life than eating.  In Hebrew thought, all life’s provisions, especially food, comes from the hand of the compassionate God.  If you want to eat, you need to find His open hand.  That’s the source of life.  Discernment is nothing more than searching for the source of your existence.

But here’s the twist.  The psalmist says that God looks for those who are seeking.  We will never find the source unless God does the looking.  The Father is anxious to find those who search for His open hand, and when He finds them, they are encouraged to come and eat – and be filled.

When it comes to discerning, are you Greek or Hebrew?  Are you weighing your choices or are you searching for the source?  Who will feed you today?

Topical Index:  Discernment

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Preach It, Brother!

Friday, November 28th, 2008 | Author:

Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; Acts 10:17

Perplexed In Mind – Why in the world would Peter be confused about the meaning of the vision?  Doesn’t it seem obvious?  The sheet lowers from heaven.  It’s full of clean and unclean animals.  God instructs Peter to eat.  Peter protests.  God says, “What things God made clean, you do not make profane.”  How could Peter miss it?  It’s about setting aside the dietary laws, right?  If it’s so obvious to us, why did Peter have any doubt?

The Greek is en eauto dieporei.  Literally, it means “was thoroughly confused in himself,” or “was hesitating greatly in himself.”  It’s a synonym for the idea of being double-minded.  Peter just couldn’t figure out what God was trying to tell him.  This should give us an important clue.  Peter knew that the vision wasn’t about clean or unclean animals.  Violating the commandment about food was simply impossible for a Torah-observant follower like Peter.  The vision was just the analogy.  The meaning had to be about something else, but he didn’t know what it could be.  It’s time to do some detective work.

First, we see that ten years after Pentecost Peter is still a torah-observant Jew.  When the animals are presented to him, he says that he has never eaten anything unclean.  Ten years after the supposed beginning of the “church”, Peter is still following the Torah.  It never crosses his mind that there is any other way to live in obedience to God.  He is confused because he knows that the Torah was never abolished.  Clean animals are still the only kind of acceptable food.  He just can’t figure out what God is talking about because he knows that God would never set aside the torah.  Jesus didn’t set it aside, and he won’t either.

Secondly, we must notice that for ten years Peter has been a leader in the Messianic movement in Jerusalem.  Ten years ago he preached that famous sermon proclaiming that the prophecy of Joel was now fulfilled.  Ten years ago he announced that God’s grace had come to both Jew and Gentile.  But for ten years he still continued to withdraw from Gentiles.  In spite of what he said, he wasn’t living it.  He could preach it, but he wasn’t demonstrating it.  In fact, Peter doesn’t realize that the vision is about people until he sees what is happening at the home of Cornelius.  Notice what Peter says in verse 28.  Peter still believes that it is unlawful for a Jew to even come near a Gentile.  Of course, there is no such provision in the torah.  This is strictly tradition; a tradition that was preventing Peter from fulfilling the commission of reaching the Gentiles; a tradition that God decided to break.

Finally, we discover that once Peter realizes what God has done in the house of Cornelius, he is no longer confused about his vision.  He realizes that his traditional practice concerning Gentile interaction stands in the way of God’s plan and his own previous announcement.  Peter is changed.  But the change is not about the way he eats.  It’s about the way he evangelizes.  And it only took ten years.

Topical Index:  Traditions

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Measure-for-Measure

Thursday, November 27th, 2008 | Author:

“My punishment is greater than I can bear” Genesis 4:13

Punishment – One of the greatest lessons of the Bible is reciprocity.  It is so important that the principle is repeated over and over in the stories of the Scriptures.  Once we recognize this principle, it helps us understand the potential dangers in our own actions, and the way righteousness confronts these dangers.  We can see the principle quite clearly in the Hebrew word translated “punishment.”  It is awon.  It is one of the four Hebrew words for sin.  In this case, it is sin that is especially grievous because it is deliberate.  The word itself paints a picture of something hung on a nail, twisting in the wind.  This kind of sin is premeditated, twisted perversion.

Consider how strange it is for Cain to use this word.  By using this word, Cain admits to deliberately killing his own brother.  His own choice of words, following the measure-for-measure principle, indicates that his action was not an outburst of uncontrolled rage.  God warned Cain about this possibility, advising him to gain control of his anger.  Cain’s sin is intentional.  He says so.  But then He complains to God, the righteous Judge, that his “punishment” is too severe.  Using the same word that describes his intentional act of evil, Cain tries to shift the responsibility to God.  Amazing!  Does Cain think that his murder should be swept away in forgiveness?  Doesn’t he recognize that taking his brother’s life means forfeiting his own? God is gracious, even under these circumstances.  God does not take Cain’s life.  He condemns Cain to wandering and exiles him from the land.  Why?  Because the land has been polluted by Cain’s action.  It is no longer fit for his purposes.  The land that swallowed Abel’s blood will not produce for Cain.  What Cain wished to use for his own success has now been taken away.  Measure-for-measure.

It’s the principle of measure-for-measure that Cain acknowledges in the word awon.  The only problem is that he has the measurement backwards.  His admission of the worst kind of sin results in a complaint against the Judge rather than an admission of his guilt.  In other words, he attempts to make God the perpetrator of the crime.  The guilty one deflects his responsibility by making the judge into the wounding party and the victim an incidental happenstance.  When criminals rationalize their actions, they always attempt to move from perpetrator to victim.  Cain now claims to be the victim of God’s unfair punishment (awon).  The truth is twisted.  The guilty squirms to recast the circumstances.  The second original sin shows us just how convoluted sin really is.

Cain’s rationalization seems to be repeated time after time.  It takes three steps.  First, it ignores the real act of evil.  Notice that Cain never mentions Abel.  Secondly, it shifts the blame from the crime to the punishment.  And finally, it attempts to make God (or the authority God puts in place) the real culprit.  Here’s the saddest part.  We have all done this.  We have all entered into the Cain project, rationalizing our behavior, denying our guilt and trying to make God responsible.  But here’s the hope.  God still protects Cain.  God still shows grace.  God’s character does not change.  Once we learn the measure-for-measure principle, we can be much more aware of the risks in sinful behavior.  Cain should have fallen on his face in repentance.  It’s far too late for him, but it isn’t too late for us.

Topical Index:  Sin

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Inside-Out

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 | Author:

“but the flesh of the bull and its hide and its refuse, you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.” Exodus 29:14

Sin Offering – How can we understand what a sin offering is unless we first know what sin is?  This question is just as relevant for us as it was for the children of Israel when God gave these instructions to Moses.  Whether we’re talking about the sacrifice of bulls or the death of Yeshua, unless we know what sin is, we won’t understand the nature of a sin offering.

We can start by digging into the construction of this Hebrew word.  In this verse, the word is chatta’at.  It paints a picture of separation in two interrelated ways.  The first pictograph shows us a sign of strong separation.  This is a fence between two things, in this case, between us and God.  But the second pictograph from the same consonants shows us a strong mark of the covenant.  This is also a fence, but instead of standing outside the barrier, we are now inside, protected and secure.  This dual nature of the word chatta’at means that the same word for “sin offering” in this context is also used in Genesis 4:7 to describe sin crouching at the door, ready to take Cain as prey.  Even in the earliest revelation about a sin offering, the idea of substitution is clearly conveyed.  I stand outside, burdened by my sin (chatta’at).  I bring a sin offering (chatta’at – exactly the same thing that kept me on the outside) and, when it is accepted, I move inside the fence of the covenant, but my offering is substituted and takes my place outside the fence.  That’s why the sin offering is burned outside the camp.

God’s divine economy is perfectly balanced.  What separates also unites.  The only thing that shifts is the beneficiary.  Once I was held captive by sin and death.  That sin was not erased.  It remained as a blot against the Creator and a verdict against me.  God did not wipe out the sin.  He moved the sinner.  In Exodus, something else took the place of the sinner so that the sin could be moved outside the camp.  Ultimately, someone else had to be the final sin offering.  And since no person born of Adam could ever act as the sinless substitute for all men’s sins, God Himself became the substitute sent outside the camp.  It is a great – and wonderful – mystery.

So, what is the nature of my sin, and how does that affect the reality of the sin offering?  In this glimpse into God’s plan, we see that sin is a catastrophic separation, a strong wall that removes me from Life.  The root of this Hebrew word means “missing the mark,” precisely the same idea that we find in the Greek hamartia.  But now we know that it is more than simply getting things wrong.  It’s more than being off center.  It’s being outside, being separated from the way, the truth and the life.  And without a sin offering, without a substitute for my position outside the fence, there is no way in.  My sin offering is really my sin, converted by God’s grace into something that can be taken outside the camp where I really belong in order that I can stand inside the camp where I long to be.

Topical Index:  Sin

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Commodity Exchange

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 | Author:

And He sold them into the hands of the Philistines Judges 10:7

Commodity Exchange

Sold – Prognostication is a useful art.  It’s too bad that we’re not more adept at it.  Unfortunately, when it comes to foretelling, most human attempts are nothing more than trial and error, with lots of error.  Fortunately, God’s prognostication is never mistaken.  The only problem is that we don’t pay much attention to what God says.  Apparently, we prefer our errors to God’s truth.

That’s pretty much the pattern of Israel after the exodus.  By the time Israel occupied most of the land of Canaan, they forgot God’s warnings about the tragic results of idolatry.  They entered into the worship of the local fertility gods, much in the same way that we have entered into the worship of our local fertility gods.  You know, the gods of a better life, more money, faster cars, bigger retirement accounts, celebrity idols and the whole culture of consumption.  Just as Israel believed that serving and sacrificing to these fertility gods would improve their circumstances, so we serve and sacrifice to our contemporary versions – all in the name of self-improvement.

God’s warnings are the same because the pattern produces the same results.  Prideful economic self-reliance brings about slavery.  Notice the choice of the Hebrew word to describe the way God deals with this form of idolatry.  God sells His children into bondage.  The Hebrew verb is makar.  It’s the basic verb of all transactional exchanges.  It’s used for the selling of a birthright (Esau in Genesis 25:31), of land (Genesis 47:20), of livestock (Exodus 21:35) and of people (Genesis 31:15).  The historians use this verb to describe selling oneself to evil intents (1 Kings 21:20).  God’s character doesn’t change.  If we decide not to follow His instructions, He allows us to choose our own poison.  The pursuit of leverage in exchange will become the method that brings us down.  Worship wealth, die in poverty.  Serve self-reliance, be sold into slavery.

It’s hard to imagine that God could make the object lesson any clearer.  For centuries, Israel repeated the pattern.  We seem to want to do the same thing.  Of course, our lack of historical perspective, especially the history of God’s interaction with men, is no excuse, but it does point to the stupidity of removing the biblical history from any form of reasonable education.  It’s almost as though someone wants us to never understand.  I wonder who that might be.

Israel finally did learn this lesson.  It took the Babylonian captivity to make it sink in.  Total devastation.  Loss of everything held dear.  Ruin of all the sacred places.  Torment and tragedy so great that people ate their own children.  It was not a pleasant experience.  The scar it left on the consciousness of the people was so deep that they never turned to idolatry again.  Doesn’t it make you wonder how deep the scar might have to be in order for us to abandon our fertility gods forever?  If I were a prognosticator, I suppose I might be inclined to suggest that a culture that lives according to its money may just have to die according to its money.  I think we call it poetic justice.  God calls it something else – judgment.  If He sold Israel in order for them to understand the true nature of commodities, what makes us think He won’t do that same again?

Thiruvalluvar, an Indian Tamil poet who lived before the time of the Messiah, said, “The only gift is giving to the poor; all else is exchange.”  We must to listen to this wisdom or become commodities ourselves.

Topical Index:  Worship

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Good Enough?

Monday, November 24th, 2008 | Author:

But woe to you, Pharisees, because you tithe the mint and the rue, and every plant, and pass by the judgment and the love of God. Luke 11:42

Pass By – Pharisees were characterized by their scrupulous attention to the commandments of the Torah.  In addition, they followed the teachings of the oral tradition in a real effort to make sure that there wasn’t even the possibility of violating one of God’s instructions.  In their zealous pursuit, some of the Pharisees replaced inward devotion with outward compliance.  In other words, they thought that they fulfilled God’s requirements by their behavior alone.  Jesus took them to task over this mistake, but He didn’t argue that the outward demonstration wasn’t needed.  He argued that the outward demonstration must begin with inward reverence.

In order to be sure that they never violated the necessity of the tithe, these Pharisees offered ten percent of everything, including their herbs growing in the garden.  If there were ten leaves on the mint plant, one must be offered to God.  Their zeal was admirable, but the motivation was mistaken.  They were so concerned with the details of compliance that they forgot the bigger picture.  Jesus says that they passed by (parerchomai is the verb) the real issues.  The imagery is important.  The word means to come close to, to come near.  In other words, this verb tells us that the Pharisees were in the proximity of righteous behavior, but they didn’t quite get there.  What they were doing wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t quite right either.  They just barely missed the mark.

Most of us don’t tithe from our herbs.  Maybe we should, as a reminder that it all belongs to God.  Jesus just might smile at our desire to be so careful with His Father’s Word, but we will be no better off than the Pharisees He criticized if we don’t pay attention to the weightier matters.  Even tithing today can become merely the fulfillment of a religious obligation.  The tithe means nothing unless it is part of a life that finds the source of its action in the character of God.  Jesus points to judgment and love.  Today we have the tendency to emphasize the second and ignore the first.  That is also a mistake.  Unless we do more than come near God’s judgment, His love will not mean much more than a tenth of its true nature.

We have replaced tithing herbs with tithing budgets.  It’s the same problem – meticulous counting to meet a particular requirement.  That’s not in alignment with the character of God’s judgment or love.  Imagine if God dispensed His love with the same calculated exactness as the way we tithe.  How would we respond to ten-percent grace?

If your tithe smells like basil or mint, you might want to reconsider Jesus’ remark.   God’s love knows no boundaries.  Neither does His judgment (which fortunately is presently postponed).  Now is the time to convert from one leaf in ten to cheerful gratitude.

Topical Index:  Tithe

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Too Late

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 | Author:

Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day. 1 Samuel 8:18

Will Not Answer – America’s political beauty contest is over.  America has a new king.  While the world applauds the peaceful transfer of power, the righteous should quake.  We have seen it all before – and all too often.  The fatal flaw of humanity is the belief that we can find our own answers to problems.  All we need is a new leader, a new perspective, a change in the right direction.  The tragic mistake is that the same corrupted nature mounts the throne again.  Change never solved anything.  Righteousness is the only path away from judgment and destruction, and the rejection of righteousness as a way of life guarantees a terrible result no matter who sits on the throne.  It’s only a matter of time.

Since the election, several prominent Christians have spoken out about the ineffectiveness of prayer to change the outcome of the election.  I’m afraid that equating partisan politics with faith is myopic misunderstanding.  Samuel told Israel long ago what the results would be for choosing to be governed like other nations.  The fact that America changes its leaders by a democratic process doesn’t really matter.  Nationalism is not faithfulness.  It’s far more likely that prayer seemed ineffective because God is no longer answering.  Generations of disregard for His commandments eventually construct a lead ceiling.  Praying for Nineveh was pointless.  What Nineveh needed was repentance.

It must have been an ominous day when Samuel uttered the words lo-ya’ane.  Imagine being warned that God would not answer your pleas.  What kind of life could you possibly expect knowing that God was no longer accessible?  Yet this dire warning did not stop Israel.  Why?  Because Israel wanted to be like everyone else.  Israel wanted a change.  They looked at Egypt and Assyria and saw power and glory and wealth, and they said, “We want what they have.”  They placed their hopes in men – and they got exactly what Man can provide – no guarantees of anything.

In the history of every civilization there is a tipping point, a point where God stops listening.  The inevitable consequences are collapse, destruction and judgment.  Who am I to say that we in America have reached that point?  I am no prophet, certainly not like Samuel, but I can see that righteousness is no longer the model for living in my country.  It hasn’t been for a long time.  This path of “change” is as dangerous as it gets.  And I’m afraid.  I’m afraid that God might stop listening.  This has nothing to do with who was elected president and who wasn’t.  Frankly, I’m not sure that either choice could turn the tide.  Ego, hubris, power and seductive promises riddled both sides of the aisle and the people voted their own morality.  I am afraid because I read the history of Israel and I know the God of the Bible.  I am afraid because I see civilizations that think they can ignore Him.  None has ever escaped.  I want the Lord to answer our cries, but I’m afraid.  Maybe we’ve gone too far.  Maybe it’s too late.  I pray that it isn’t, but I know that the moment will come when it is, unless Nineveh’s response is ours.

Topical Index:  Righteousness

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Gods of War

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 | Author:

and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Genesis 1:2

Was Moving Over – It’s a clarion call, a red banner, a sky rocket announcement and headliner.  This God is different!  If you don’t realize just how different the Genesis account is, then you will miss the great revelation of the character of God right here in the opening verses of Scripture.  If you don’t understand how Genesis opposes all other cosmogonies (i.e. explanations of the origin of everything), your relationship with this God will start on the wrong foot and be forever off track.

All ancient cosmogonies except Genesis portray the beginning of everything as warfare.  In other words, this world began in conflict, in the divine battle between good and evil.  From Babylonian to Egyptian, the pattern is the same.  An evil force tries to defeat the protector of human beings.  In a cosmic struggle, good triumphs, usually at great cost.  The result is the creation of this world, laced with the remnants of Evil’s prior dominance; a world of struggle and triumph.  This is the Superman cosmology, repeated over and over in Saturday morning cartoons, comic books, epic poems and movies.

But this is not the biblical account.  In the Bible, God does not create from conflict.  He creates out of love.  There is no battle with evil.  There is grace, right from the beginning.  God doesn’t struggle against another divine force seeking to overthrow the human world (in spite of our popular mythological understanding).  God creates the world perfectly, without a war, without flaws and without resistance.

This is best seen in the Hebrew word me-rakhefet.  The root is rakaf.  It means to hover, to tremble or to move.  Here it is a participle – a continuing action like hovering.  It’s not used very often in Scripture but when it is used it is about things like eagles hovering over their young chicks.  Certainly it does not connote violence or struggle.  This is a word that describes tender, loving care.  This is particularly important because in this instance the waters represent the formless and chaotic void.  The first part of this very verse speaks of the emptiness and darkness on the earth and in the depths.  Yet God’s spirit does not enter the scene like a conquering hero.  No, it would be much more appropriate to say that the spirit of God approaches the material world like a gentle mother.  With tenderness and compassion, God forms all that we observe from that stuff of creation.

The God of the Hebrews is not like any of the gods of war, not in character and not in method.  This difference is so startling, so radical, that it can hardly be overestimated.  It sets a completely different tone about the nature of the universe.  If the creation reflects the Creator, then something truly wonderful has happened.  Yes, sin has broken and disrupted the heavenly harmony, but it has not diminished the original design or the Designer.  We are part of a program of universal redemption – back to the original.  And the original was (and is) totally unique.

Isn’t it comforting to know that from the beginning His hands were soft and warm?

Topical Index:  Creation

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Ciphers

Friday, November 21st, 2008 | Author:

according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets Romans 16:25-26

Mystery – “Why don’t they see it?”  The question concerned the Jews, but it could just as easily be applied to anyone who finds the claims of Yeshua unwarranted.  It just seems so obvious to believers.  However, for some reason, even those who have held the Scriptures in highest regard for centuries still don’t see that they all point to the Lord and Savior Messiah Yeshua.  It’s a mystery.

Perhaps those of us who are followers of the Way, who have experienced the transformation that accompanies a relationship with Yeshua, don’t give enough weight to this word – mysterion.  The Greek idea is not about something extra-terrestrial or intractably perplexing.  Mysterion simply means something not fully revealed, something hidden.  There are two important implications here.  First, because the plan of God is a mystery, it can never be worked out through our own reason.  From the perspective of human understanding, it will always remain hidden.  Don’t underestimate how crucial this really is.  God may have designed the universe in such a way that the heavens declare His glory, but that does not mean that we are capable of figuring out how God will deal with our unholiness on our own.  In fact, the full impact of this statement means that every human effort to find a way into the presence of God is doomed.  There is no human way to find God.  He has to find us.  Revelation does not come from the human side of the equation.  The answers must be given to us, not reasoned through us.  Wherever you find religious activity that asserts Man’s essential ability to connect to God through rational exploration, you will find hubris and futility.  A mystery is not a riddle.  It is an impenetrable cipher.  Without a key, it will forever remain locked.

Secondly, the fact that God’s plan is a mystery explains why so many don’t get it.  If I refuse to use the key, it’s impossible to unlock the box.  In order to peer into God’s method of redemption, I must receive the key of the Messiah.  Until I open the mystery with the perspective of the Messiah as the key, it just won’t make any sense.  In this regard (and only in this regard), faith comes before understanding, but not much before, for the moment that I accept the key, the mystery unlocks and the world changes before my eyes.

Why does God use this method?  Why not just make it so plain and obvious that no one could ever miss it?  That’s the tendency in our evangelical penchant for rational evidence.  We think that the gospel is Greek and that all we need to do is present a compelling case.  But that’s not what is happening here.  The gospel is a mystery, held in secret for ages.  The reason that faith comes before the mystery is unlocked is that faith is obedience, not understanding.  I commit myself to the Lordship of the Messiah.  Then I understand.  I am not Greek, waiting to collect all the information and evidence before I decide if I want to join forces with God.  From the Hebrew perspective, I am confronted by a holy God.  My unworthiness stinks.  I see my true state.  And there is no escape.  I accept what He has done on my behalf in faith.  I acknowledge Him as my Lord.  Then the box opens.

Are you enjoying the mystery of obedience?

Topical Index:  Obedience

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