Archive for » March, 2012 «

What’s Yours Is Mine

Saturday, March 31st, 2012 | Author:

For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked.  Psalm 73:3  NASB

Envious – All of the major English translations use the word “envious” for the Hebrew qanah.  But this is strange.  The word qanah can mean envious but it is most often translated “jealous.”  Even the LXX uses the Greek equivalent of “jealous” (zelos).  Clearly the translators believe that the context calls for envy rather than jealousy.  What’s the difference and why does it matter?

Envy is the desire for the property of another.  Jealousy is the desire for one’s own property.  Envy is the emotion I experience when I want what belongs to you.  Jealousy occurs when I want what is rightfully mine even though it is in your possession.  Asaph is not jealous for that would imply that the prosperity of the wicked is rightfully his.  He is envious.  The prosperity of the wicked belongs to them, but he desires it to be his.  This distinction helps us to see a crucial difference between Asaph’s struggle over the success of the wicked and our typical approach to prosperity.

It is common among the proponents of the prosperity gospel to claim that the wicked have no right to the rewards of this world.  We often hear proof texts claiming the treasures of the wicked are stored up for the righteous.  We assume that God intends the righteous to have wealth, health and good living and that somehow the wicked have usurped this divine plan.  Prosperity Christians claim that they are the rightful heirs of God’s blessings.  They are jealous of the success of the wicked.

Asaph recognizes the fallacy in this argument.  Followers of the King realize that He distributes as He wishes.  The wicked do not circumvent God’s purposes, stealing treasures from the heavenly Kingdom for their own use.  They also fit within the will of the Father.  Exactly how they fit isn’t clear to us, but there is no suggestion in Scripture that the wicked come by their rewards independently of God’s will.  Since Asaph realizes that God is in control of distribution in this life, he correctly evaluates his emotion as envy, not jealousy.  What the wicked have is also the will of the Lord.  Asaph’s temptation to take what is theirs is not motivated by desiring what really belongs to him.  It is motivated by wanting what belongs to them.  Therefore, in this context, qanahis translated “envious,” not “jealous.”   Asaph needed to hear Yeshua’s parable of the land owner who paid all of the laborers the same amount.

Asaph’s use of qanah clarifies our reaction.  Are we envious of the fame or fortune of others?  Do we believe that God should have given us those gifts?  The Bible tells us that the wicked will pay a very high price for rewards in this life.  When we find ourselves secretly asking why God seems to have favored them, we need to consider the cost of such accumulation.  In the Bible, there is a place for jealousy, but there is no place for envy.  Envy is a cancer on the God’s sovereignty.

Topical Index:  envious, qanah, jealous, Psalm 73:3

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The Slippery Slope

Friday, March 30th, 2012 | Author:

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.  Psalm 73:2-3  ESV

Almost stumbled – Asaph proclaims that God is good to Israel and all who are Israel are known by their “clean heart” actions.  But he quickly realizes that his steps court disaster.  As much as he wants clean heart actions (reverence, duty, devotion, charity, benevolence, virtue and goodness), he is astute enough to notice his envy of the arrogant and his desire for the riches of the wicked.  In Asaph’s mind, just entertaining such thoughts leads him right to the edge of the cliff.

I almost stumbled.  The Hebrew phrase is kim’at natavi (there is an alternative reading kim’at natayu).  The words are me’at (little, few, small) and natah (to extend, stretch out, bend, incline, bow).  The verb presents considerable translation challenges.  For example, it is used 35 different ways in the King James.  There is simply no way to connect all the variations in translation with the same underlying Hebrew verb.  Context must determine the translation.  About the only thing similar among all the variations is the fact that most of the 215 occurrences are figurative.  Certainly that is the case here.  Literally, Asaph says “my feet little stretched out.”  But the verb also means “to pervert, to turn,” so the idea of stumbling fits.  This is the same verb that is used in the phrase, “God stretched forth his hand.”  Natah is a perfect example of the umbrella of meanings that can fall under a single Hebrew word.

Let’s turn to Asaph’s concern – envy of those who do not follow YHWH.  This is as close to home as we can get.  How many times have we nearly slipped when we considered the apparent success of the wicked?  How many times have we said, “Why doesn’t God take care of me that way?”  And even if we don’t actually verbalize our complaint, haven’t we, however briefly, felt dissatisfied that God doesn’t give us what the wicked clearly don’t deserve?

What is it that Asaph envies?  He mentions two things – arrogance and prosperity.  What is the Hebrew idea of arrogance?  The root is hll.  It is used poetically to describe the shining of the sun and the light given off by celestial bodies.  The word seems to be related to the idea of pagan mythologies where the sun and the moon were objects of worship.  From this context, we derive the idea of boasting about some connection to a deity.  There is another remarkable thing about this verb.  It has the same consonant structure as the Hebrew word meaning praise.  You will recognize the hll root in the words tehillah and hallelujah.  Arrogance is really twisted praise.  Arrogance is intimately connected to the proper praise of God.  It is the same action projected toward the wrong object.  No wonder it lives so close to home.  Arrogance is not an alien invasion.  It is merely a fork in the road.  When we experience God’s goodness, in whatever form that may come, we stand at the place of choice.  Which road will we take; the one that is content with His blessing or the one that assumes we earned it?

Asaph’s second concern is the Hebrew word shalem.  You know the derivative shalom.  Shalem means “to be complete, to be sound.”  It encompasses all that is needed for life to be full, productive, useful and satisfying.  But the Hebrew idea behind this word is not the possession of things that make life pleasant.  The Hebrew foundation is the restored relationships that provide meaning in life.  The principle indication of proper relationship is peace.  In this sense, the Beatles had it exactly right when they sang, “Give you everything I’ve got for a little peace of mind.”  The Hebrew point of view puts no ultimate stock in things.  Things are to be used to foster relationships.  Relationships are not to be used to gain things.

But that is precisely the indictment of the wicked.  They use what should be treasured and treasure what should be used.  The result appears to be gain, and so we envy their possessions.  But Asaph knows that this gain is really loss because what they spent in order to acquire it was what should have been kept in the storehouse of eternity.  The spent the relaitonships God put in hands to acquire assets.  They should have spent the assets to further relationships.  I suspect that if we really examined our lives we would find that we spend what should be kept in order to gain what should be spent.  We aren’t all that different from the people Asaph knew.  In fact, we aren’t all that different from Asaph.  Our struggle to see clearly which road to take is a continuing problem.  It’s a good thing that Asaph writes about it.  Perhaps we will learn from his struggle.

Topical Index: envy, arrogance, prosperity, helel, halal, shalem, shalom, Psalm 73:2-3

 

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FREE BOOKS

Thursday, March 29th, 2012 | Author:

Hi all who asked for free books.

All of the books were sent today.  That means in the next week or so you will receive some of the books you asked for IF you got an email from me telling you what the shipping and packing costs were.  If you didn’t get the email, then the books you already gone by the time to asked.  Sorry.

For those who got the email, please go to 

skipmoen.com/donate

and make a one-time donation to cover the costs.  Please remember that PayPal also takes a percentage.  Thanks.  I hope you like the books you get.

There will be another list in a month or so.

Skip

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Who Are We?

Thursday, March 29th, 2012 | Author:

A Psalm of Asaph.  Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are of a clean heart.  Psalm 73:1  Hebrew World

Clean heart – Christians are quite familiar with Paul’s argument in Romans that those who are cleansed by Yeshua are included in the true Israel.  But Paul didn’t originate that idea.  The psalmist Asaph notices the connection a thousand years before Paul’s letter.  In Hebrew poetry, his synonymous parallelism tells us that Israel consists of those with lebare levav (of pure heart).  What does this mean?  A little investigation reveals that ethnic Israel isn’t exclusively God’s elect.

The Hebrew word bar appears to be related to the Arabic barra meaning “to be reverent, dutiful, devoted, charitable, benevolent, virtuous, good.”  That covers a lot of ground, but what it clearly does is locate the sense of the word in actions, not inner moral character.  Think about each of the possible synonyms of this word.  Each one involves something that I do and that is observable by others.  It is useless for me to claim that I am benevolent if I do not provide for others.  I can’t be considered devoted if I do not show unmitigated loyalty.  And you would never call me charitable if I never gave anything away.  When we read Asaph’s Hebrew claim about who may be considered Israel, we realize that he is not talking about my inner conviction of forgiveness, my affirmation that I have been saved or even my spiritual “feelings” that God loves me.  To be part of Israel is to act in the ways Israel is supposed to act.  A clean heart isn’t a forgiven heart.  It is a transformed heart – and that kind of heart produces transformative action.

Perhaps Asaph helps us understand Paul.  If we thought that Paul is concerned with our spiritual well-being, then we have inadvertently transferred Paul’s rabbinic exegesis into our modern evangelical parlance.  Just like Asaph, Paul is concerned with how we live.  Claims of forgiveness and acceptance that do not result in barra actions are bogus.  To have a clean heart is to live a purified life – and the telltale signs of a purified life must be evident to others.

By the way, this does not speak well of cultural relevance.  Cultural relevance is another way of saying, “I want to be like you.”  The Bible suggests that we should be aiming at being different than the culture.  From the Hebrew perspective, cultural irrelevance is the correct posture toward all others ways of behaving in the world.  When my actions are no different than the actions of the world around me, I have nothing to say different to those who populate that world.  When we practice reverence, duty, devotion, charity, benevolence, virtue and goodness in a world that does not sustain these values, we invite inspection and call for action.  You might ask yourself if that’s what you understood by “a clean heart.”

Topical Index: clean heart, bar, lev, relevance, Psalm 73:1

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Where’s Rachel?

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 | Author:

I had an opportunity to visit my daughter, Rachel, while I was in Seattle.  She is stationed at the Whidbey Island Navel Air Station.  Here she is with the kind of jets that fly in her squadron.  She will be going back to deployment in a few months.

She’s a great woman, nearly 20, and growing up too fast.  If you think of it, please pray for her.  She is holding Christian values in a very tough world.  I already miss her.

 

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A Little Extra

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 | Author:

that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  Colossians 1:9  NASB

Knowledge – One of the Greek words for knowledge is gnosis.  There was an ancient sect called the Gnostics.  They believed in secret knowledge.  Both of these words, gnosis and Gnostic have made their way into English.  They now mean mystical religious beliefs.  In fact, there are still secret knowledge religions around today – religions that are based entirely on the concept that knowledge is power.  But the Bible does not teach that knowledge is power.  The Bible teaches that wisdom is power and knowledge is the means to gain wisdom.  Wisdom does not come from Man’s reason but from God’s revelation.  That doesn’t mean that we abandon reason and opt for “the Spirit told me.”  God uses the rational capacity given to men to bring about understanding and action.  But reason is not the final arbiter of truth.  It does a man no good at all to be filled with knowledge if it does not lead him to wisdom, spiritual understanding and action.  All the degrees on the wall can’t make a man into the character of Christ – and those degrees can’t rid a man of his guilt either.  I know.

The word in this verse has a little Greek prefix added to it.  Here it is epignosis.  This tiny word epi adds intensity.  It makes the idea stronger.  Paul is not saying that he prays for the believer to be filled with knowledge.  He is saying that he prays for the believer to be stuffed full.  He prays that this knowledge will overflow.  He prays that the dam of your mind will break under all that you learn of God.  He wants you to be completely saturated so that every fiber of your being is drenched with God’s wisdom and understanding.  That’s how you will know what God has in mind for you.

How will you experience this extra knowledge?  Well, if you’re part of the first century rabbinic worldview, you discover all the extra that God has in mind by doing what He says.  That’s right, understanding follows obedience.  To know the will of the Father is to first do what He asks right now.  Greek education offers information so that you can pass the exam at the end of the course.  God asks for obedience so that you can stay in the class today.  Greek thinking focuses on the goal, the end of the information.  Hebrew focuses on the path, the next step in the right direction.

So what kind of knowledge are you seeking?  God’s will is right in front of your face, in that next tiny, tiny thing that you need to do.  It’s much easier to always look over the horizon at the final objective.  “Over the horizon” vision means we don’t have to pay attention to those tiny obstacles at our feet.  But then we usually trip, don’t we?

Topical Index:  knowledge, epignosis, Colossians 1:9, reason

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Where’s Skip

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 | Author:

Just thought you might like to know where I will be in the next few weeks, and perhaps offer some prayers for those I will meet and for the travel times.

I am back in Florida today, traveling to Melbourne to do a 2+ day conference with the Bridges for Peace people.  Then I leave for Singapore to work with John Samuel on a new book, and on to India for two conferences, then back to Singapore and a return to the USA on April 14, just in time to go to New Orleans for a conference with Matt Woodward’s The Gathering.  When that’s over, the next day I leave for Israel with the Today’s Word group from all around the globe.  Two weeks in Israel, returning on May 6 and then on the Phoenix on May 10 for a conference there.

Whew!

Skip

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Do This in Remembrance

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 | Author:

we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ  Colossians 1:3  NASB

Thanks – We all know this Greek word; we just didn’t know that it was the Greek word for “thanks.”  It is eucharisteo.  When you sound it out, you will see that it is the word Eucharist – the Lord’s Supper.  Now you know that taking the Lord’s Supper is an act of thanksgiving, for that is exactly what it means.  It means to express gratitude, give thanks and to be thankful.  This verse comes from the letter to the church at Colossae, but this greeting is very common in all of Paul’s letters.  Why do you suppose Paul was so anxious to give thanks each time he wrote to a struggling assembly?  Because Paul knew the power of redemption.  Paul knew that Yeshua could completely remake a life of hatred, envy, revenge, murder and persecution into a life of unwavering commitment to God’s purposes.  Paul knew because it happened to him.  Each time he opened his mouth, thanks to God spilled forth.  He couldn’t help it.

In the Twelve Step tradition there is a special emphasis on being eternally grateful for the life changing power of God’s redemption.  Sometimes when we get so busy with our everyday concerns, we tend to forget what God did for us.  We may not have been the worst morally perverse person we could have been – although of course, all of those possibilities reside somewhere in our selfishness.  If we are honest, we all know that we could have been what we decry and that those acts of self-gratification that belong to our past removed us just as far from God as any act of Paul’s.  The Twelve Step traditions also call for a fearless moral inventory.  That work comes before real gratitude.  After we have really examined ourselves by God’s standard, we can see what we really were before God pulled us out of our self-made hell.

That’s reason enough to celebrate eucharisteo today.  You don’t need bread and wine.  All you need is a heart that is eternally grateful.

Topical Index:  eucharisteo, thanks, Colossians 1:3

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The Unbearable Lightness

Monday, March 26th, 2012 | Author:

for you are all sons of light and sons of day 1 Thessalonians 5:5 NASB

Light – The Greek word for light is phos.  We have so many English words that come from this Greek heritage.  Phosphorous, photograph, photon.  The early Greeks saw the divine structure of the world in terms of light and dark.  This theme was particularly developed in Plato.  He taught that men of reason would come to the light, an internal place of illumination where they would see the world as it really is, a shadowy place of the mixture of dark and light.  Seeing true reality would encourage men to emulate the light and be drawn out of this world into a world where the divine light within each man would shine forth.  We hear much of the same religious philosophy today in New Age thinking.  It is really as old as Plato, or even older.

The Bible rejects all such speculation.  There is a good reason why God first creates light. Light has no ontological priority.  It doesn’t exist until God calls it into existence.  From the beginning we see that God is sovereign over light.  All of the cults that worshipped the sun, moon and stars (and still do in astrology today) are shown to be worshiping what is created, not the Creator.  All the philosophy of “illumination” that doesn’t begin with the sovereignty of the Creator is still in the dark.  Light belongs to God.

The Bible does use light in a positive sense.  Wisdom is light to the soul.  The Law of God is light to those who follow it.  Those who worship God dwell in the light.  But it isn’t until we see the concept in the New Testament that we discover its full metaphorical usage.  Yeshua announces that He is the “light of the world.”  John tells us that God is light and that the light came into the world but the world preferred darkness.  Paul reminds us that the hidden deeds of men will be brought into the light.  We are told that fellowship with God is walking in the light. God’s truth brings light.  Light becomes the symbol for openness, harmony, community, obedience and redemption.

Someone once told me that character is what you are when the lights are turned off.  In this verse, Paul is reminding us that the light of God is never off.  Our darkest secrets, our hidden past, all those things that we would like to keep inside the closet, God knows them as though they were in bright daylight.  And He doesn’t care!  Before we realized that God was ready to turn our back alleys into open highways, we tried to hide in the dark.  But God doesn’t care how horrible we think those dark parts of our life are.  He wants to flood light into our lives and show us that His Son has been there all the time, waiting to lead us out of the dungeon.

Today, when the sun rises and the light nourishes the earth, remember that the Son also shines, constantly, nourishing the place where you grow.

Topical Index: light, phos, 1 Thessalonians 5:5

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Reading Scripture

Sunday, March 25th, 2012 | Author:

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.  2 Timothy 2:15  NASB

Be diligent – If you grew up in the King James era, then you know this verse as “Study to show yourself approved.”  With that translation, we often imagine that Paul is recruiting for Bible College.  But the Greek is from the verb spoudazo, “to hurry, to make haste, to treat with diligence and seriousness.”  This is the equivalent of Paul urging Timothy to be zealous about the things of God.

Why do we need to revise our King James idea?  Isn’t studying included in the concept of spoudazo?  The reason we need revision is that our idea of studying carries with it the Greek concept of education.  We are apt to think Paul wants Timothy to pour over the information in the text, to memorize the verses, to answer the theological questions and to pass the ordination exam.  But if Paul is asking Timothy to be zealous, then there is a lot more involved than fact gathering.  Spoudazo already directs us toward physical action like hurrying or speeding on the way.  Wouldn’t it make sense that Paul wants Timothy to live as a worthy example of God’s handiwork and not simply to study the words of the Lord?  Think of the use of spoude in Romans 8:12 or 2 Corinthians 7:11.  These references are about zeal and commitment.  How is Timothy supposed to present himself?  As a workman (producing, expending effort, accomplishing tasks) who shows himself publicly (for that’s what shame is about) as an example of the word of God.  Would it be sufficient for Timothy to pass the catechism but never make the changes in his behavior?  I don’t think so.  Information is not the essence of Hebrew education. Information without transformation means shame.

Everywhere we look, spoudazo is about urgency.  It means striving dedication, intensity of effort, conscientious discipline.  There are no couch potatoes in the Kingdom.  This corrects the mistaken belief that God wants your life to be comfortable.  I think not.  God wants your life to be conflict, confrontation and continuance.  How else will you be spurred to growth?  How else will haste and urgency become your watchwords?  Retirement?  No, retirement is for the dead.

Correcting the translation also provides insight about reading Scripture.  Reading the Bible is an encounter with the holy God of Israel.  It is not comfortable, although at times it may be comforting.  It is responding to the call of the Spirit in a way that summons us to more than we are.  It is to be engaged with the text in a way that brings transformative meaning to the text.  As readers, we are incorporated into the message.  The power of Scripture is not to convey spiritual information but to force spiritual examination.  If you read the Bible without weeping, without rejoicing, without regret, without indentifying, then you haven’t read the Bible.

Hurry.  The days are short.

Topical Index:  diligent, study, hurry, spoudazo, 2 Timothy 2:15

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