The Living Facts
Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them: Exodus 21:1 NASB
Ordinances – “The service of God is an extremely concrete, an extremely real, literal, and factual affair. We do not employ symbols to make Him understand what we mean. We worship Him not by employing figures of speech but by shaping our actual lives according to His pattern.”[1]
“Are you saved?” “We believe in a God of love.” “Jesus died for my sins.” “This is the Lord’s Supper.” “You have to be baptized to be a member.” “Christians will be raptured in the end times.” “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
All these figures of speech beg the question, “Where are the living facts? Do you and I have a faith of concepts or a faith of actions? Do we have to worship in a certain place in a specific way with particular rituals or are we worshipping when we get out of bed, dress, eat, walk and talk? What are the facts of your service to God? Can you quickly list them or do you find yourself struggling to write them down? Just how literal is the expression of worship in your daily pattern?
Heschel reminds us: “It is not enough to read the words; what is necessary is to answer them.”[2] What words of YHVH are you answering now? How has your life been altered because God spoke? Perhaps this begs the question, “Do you know what He said?” Or is your understanding of God’s words the result of what you have been taught by your religious participation?
If the service of God is really concrete, really literal and factual, shouldn’t you be able to point to a host of behaviors in your living that proclaim His character and declare your fidelity? And what does it mean when you can’t? What does it mean when the most significant elements of your “faith” are confessions, creeds and doctrines?
Could you be faithful if you had no more resources than Abraham? Could you be obedient without the text? Satisfied without the symbols? Grateful without the grail?
What would your faith look like if you only had the request of “Come out”?
God graciously provided ordinances (mishpatim). Detailed instructions about all sorts of trivial matters. If worship is factual, do those trivial things matter to you?
Topical Index: mishpatim, ordinances, facts, faith, Exodus 21:1
[1] Abraham Heschel, Man’s Quest for God, p. 132.
[2] Abraham Heschel, Man’s Quest for God, p. 82.
A community note: With sadness I report that long-time reader Mary Boardman of Australia died from breast cancer yesterday. Please keep her family in prayer.
To answer the word and not read the word…
What a paradigm shift. Not read understand and do… Answer.
How would we answer as we understand we do…
Or would the answer be… Become what I called you for… Here I am… Or as Adam hide because we are naked… Lot to think about as I cannot answer the word…
“We worship Him not by employing figures of speech but by shaping our actual lives according to His pattern.” Amein!
Isn’t this what Torah/Bible is about, an instruction book on HOW we ought to live?
“Just how literal is the expression of worship in your daily pattern?”
In every way…in attitude, and behaviour toward others, begins from the heart of how we think of, or treat others.
“.. do those trivial things matter to you?” Certainly do!
Women, I think, if not just speaking for myself, is really picky on details.
I often think if we can’t be careful with “trivial” things, who will trust us with bigger things?
“What would your faith look like if you only had the request of “come out”?” I had that request, as I have recounted before. I understood it as “come out or die”. I was terrified. Over the next decades I have had to learn how to love in the dark; how to obey in spirit and in truth. I felt completely naked and I lived in the shame of the knowledge that I was all alone and inadequate. The bottom of the pit is a hard, hard place to build faith from, but, you know, I found that a whole lot of things I suffered from, including a whole lot of things I DIDN’T know I was suffering from, were absent or at least toothless in that bottom, where there were no external evidences of my faith, and not one person around me who represented what I said I believed.
One of the biggest things that fell off was the pressure to lie about my faith, or to put up a front. No one cared! Another has been the challenge of a direct relationship. In the wilderness, where the landscape is empty for miles, an encounter with the Lord of the place is rather what it is. I mean, there isn’t even a bush (another reality) to hide behind! When I have looked around, its just been us two. I see Him, and I know He is seeing me. We are slowly learning how to build sacred from zero. Together. The wilderness has been good for me, I will have to say. And, hey, the locusts and honey haven’t been too bad, either! (Haven’t had too many of those church potlucks, Truett, to try to figure out what is really food. LOL)
I read once that there are so many microorganisms (such as nematodes, say), present in most other things, that if you erased all the substance of the other things, except for those organisms, you could still see the outline of those things clearly. (I have also learned that I have more foreign organisms dwelling in my body than I have body cells, and that’s a fact, too.) I have wondered if, standing in my stocking feet, if you went and erased all of ‘me’, in each minute of my day, could others still see my Lord, or do I still think that ‘I’ am having to channel the evidence of His presence in my life?
This TW really resonated with me, and, after reading so many other similar lonely accounts in this forum, I think it probably could speak for a whole lot of other people who are finding themselves going in the other direction, too. Thank you for giving us a voice, Skip!
I am getting to that place too. AWTozer said – I do not talk to my pastor or my doctor , I talk to my God ( not a direct quote). My orthodox friend in Israel says the desert is a clean place. I agree. No wonder that in Israel my favorite places to visit are in the desert. Thanks Laurita – your comment spoke to me.
My Sincere condolences for your loss and prayers of consolation for Mary Boardman of Australia , and her family , My prayers as you mourn and begin grieving,
Adonai we pray as we remember Mary ,Send your heavenly help , draw close and hold my heart , dry my tears, convince my heart in things it don’t understand, wrap your arms around my heart, be close to me , to my tender and faint heart, let me receive your comfort for our pain , may your words be my comfort , draw me close . Thank you for your love and care be my strength my support, during this time, bring comforters , heavenly help , your comforters to be your arms and legs that are loving , compassionate, generous . the resources we need to get through this time.. My sincere loving prayers for all whom also that are alone and have loss, are in mourning , anguish , despair in loss at this time. Amen we remember..
To the family of Mary: You are in our prayers. May “HaMakom” comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Living Facts? Are we not the “proof?” Are we not the trophies of His grace? Jesus (who is the) resurrected living Christ is THE change Agent. Has the direction of your life changed? Are you running to sin or from sin? Has the motivation or inspiration of your life changed? What motivates you? What (or who) inspires you?
~ Therefore, since we are [now] surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
~ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children! And since we are HIs children, then His heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.~
Our fruit will be according to the Root. An apple tree will bear apples. Need proof? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.
Wow that 4th paragraph! I’ll be contemplating on that for the rest of the week. Can’t even put my response in words now
Carl Our root or foundation is apostle and prophet while Christ be the chief cornerstone… What will our fruit look like. Repeating what is already made known or clarifying that what is coming…
Bear many fruit as He goes before us…