God’s Disgrace
O my God, in You I trust, do not let me be ashamed; do not let my enemies exult over me. Psalm 25:2 NASB
Ashamed – We have encountered this word, bôš, many times in the past. We’re familiar with the fact that the Hebrew idea of shame is public disgrace, not the inner attitude we ascribe to our contemporary psychological meaning. With this in mind, perhaps we should translate the verse differently. “O my God, in You I trust, do not let me be publically disappointed.” The idea is this: if God does not uphold the faithful, they will be considered fools and God Himself will be scandalized. His name will be disgraced among the nations because His chosen suffer humiliation. This is precisely the argument Moses uses when he confronts YHVH about the possibility of exterminating Israel and beginning again with Moses. Moses argues that God Himself will be disgraced in the eyes of the world. And God agrees! When David pleads not to be disappointed, the request has many edges. First, it claims that if God does not uphold David, David will be publically shamed. But second, it also claims that if God does not uphold David, God Himself will suffer the scorn of unbelievers. And finally, it claims that the real reason for upholding the righteous is the witness to those who do not yet believe. It is the miniature Sinai. See what God does with the ones He loves and decide to join them.
The only problem is that God doesn’t seem to always uphold the righteous. This is, as Paul might suggest, a great mystery. If God always protected the righteous, wouldn’t that be a stunning endorsement of His existence? If the righteous never lacked, wouldn’t all others rush to follow YHVH? But this is not our human experience. The righteous are abused, rejected, downtrodden and slain. Yes, we can theologically justify this mysterious godly action by claiming that God has purposes beyond our understanding, but that really doesn’t help much, does it? We still see and feel the pain. We still cry out without an answer. We still have no justice.
Perhaps there’s something else going on here that makes David’s plea resonate within us. Perhaps the free choice consequences of being human are so important that God Himself will not interfere without considerable provocation. Perhaps God does care, but He knows that if He intervenes each and every time, the entire structure of what it means to be a free agent in His image will collapse into a calculation of benefit. Perhaps the most telling testimony of the righteous is not their shalom but rather their atsav (sorrow). As we discovered in Job’s friends, most men equate calamity with sin. They have an incredibly difficult time imagining that a righteous man can suffer. Yet this is precisely what happens to the Messiah. Can we ask for anything more?
Topical Index: bôš, shame, righteous, Psalm 25:2
Does the recent delving into Job hint at this? Is the accuser pointing out to us that the evidence of God’s existence (and the basis of Job’s faith) is found in the blessings poured out on the ‘righteous’ (or at least Job) and thus Job has no choice but to believe in God because there is no room for free choice in the obvious?
And what of the revelation at Mt. Sinai? Not much choice there…but belligerence seemed to have ruled the day for that first generation out of Egypt.
I wonder if there is a Hebrew word for Belligerence; or maybe Moshe defined it when he complained to God about those around him.
“collapse into a calculation of benefit”. Gotta love the truth! This is so true!
I think He is waiting for us to love Him back by following Him to our own crosses. It’s not a treasure hunt: it is a continuing dance. Its not about resting on our laurels, its about peeling back another layer of not only our onions, but – and we can keep forgetting that it is NOT just about us – also the onions of those around us, too. God cannot reach the lost directly; He has to reach them through us, and I am not talking about evangelism. I am talking about us being tied to the choices of the lost around us. This can look disastrous! We can find ourselves, like Houdini, chained under someone else’s water to their consequences, and neither will make it unless and until the righteous can figure out how to get both back out, without overriding the free will of others OR just expecting God to ‘fix it’.
The righteous in Israel got carried off to Babylon and castrated and enslaved along with the unrighteous, but they also hung their harps on the willows and wept and walked in fiery furnaces before EVERYBODY. We cannot be salt and light if we are not mixed into the problem, but we are told to “be of good cheer” for He “has overcome the world” – we don’t have to. We just have to be willing to be poison neutralizers and taste enhancers and light and warmth in cold and dark places. Halleluah!
Laurita,
It’s been a few years since I’ve joined in the discussion, but your post resonated, reminding me of something, when you wrote “…and we can keep forgetting that it is NOT just about us.”
Well said dear sister! Once upon a time–once upon many times, actually–I had to endure a difficult period of suffering. Like our brother Job, I spent considerable time searching my heart and examining my behavior hoping to make sense of what was happening. Sometimes repentance is the answer, but sometimes it’s about more than merely discovering “what I did wrong”; it can be about growing by patiently trusting our dear Father to reveal “the why.”
As months passed without any clear understanding, I wondered, “Father, am I waiting for you, or are you waiting for me?” Now, God is always present, but sometimes His presence is more tangible than at others. This turned into one of those times. That still, small voice spoke clearly to my mind: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU, IT NEVER HAS BEEN, AND DON’T EVER THINK IT IS!
Under the circumstances, that was light to my mind and made more sense than I wanted to admit. I sat with this revelation for a few days, internalizing the insight, and then He spoke again: BY THE WAY, IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU, IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN, AND DON’T EVER FORGET THAT IT IS!
Contradiction? Not quite. Our God can be paradoxical in His reasoning, and I love that about Him! (I.e., we must die, to live! The way up is down BUT the ‘low seat’ is in a high place!) In one brilliant, two-part revelation, He showed me my error and brought me to peace in the midst of tragedy! He also revealed His sense of humor, which was not lost on me even though I was suffering at the time. In fact, it released me from the pain. Funny how simple real truth can be–simple, though often obscured until released at its appointed time to accomplish its appointed purpose. We struggle with contradictions, but we can rest in a God-given paradox because, even though it seems that both statements cannot be true at the same time, the beautiful, real truth is that our God is not bound by our small mindedness. If He wants to rock our worlds by saying things that bend our brains, then so be it! (When He does that, it ALWAYS gets my attention and sticks.)
I had an interesting discussion with a friend the other day. He reminded me that their are only ten rules for life and our love towards YHVH and His creation. With this said he also reminded me that the rules are principles that set us free and it is the extra rules we add to the Ten Instructions that bound us and keep us in bondage. The norm as you say Laurita is to help others accept the rules as their deliverance as seen with Yeshau etal we must be careful of not adding more rules because they grant authority we need to add more guidelines and alternative options to manifest the Ten Commandments.
As for the calculated benefit that is what keeps human dogmas and authority advancing what more can be done to stop this path to self destruction…
The spectrum of free choice spans the highest highs . . .
and drops to the lowest lows. It’s the way.
Along our way, the free choices of a believer, (et al), matches his/her
experiential understanding with what God’s Word tells us to expect.
No surprises. Hang on. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.”
Read 1 Peter 4:12-13 and James 1:12 as God’s Word encourages us all.
Perhaps one of the reasons we face humiliation from the hand of God (no matter whose hand, foot or mouth He employs) is because we failed to humble ourselves in that specific area. It is only when we leave Him with no other recourse but to air our dirty laundry in public that this nuclear option is used. We then suffer ignominy before the very community in whom our identity is forged and to whom we are submitted to and dependant upon. Internally humiliation is designed to produce feelings that include fear, anger, guilt, shame, alienation, loneliness, and regret to goad us into introspection, then repentance, leading us finally into shalom. Better we seek first the kingdom of humility whose sweet fruit produces openness, curiosity, vulnerability, engagement and acceptance rather than the bitter fruit of mortification. Perhaps that familiar verse “…choose you “this day” whom you will serve…” can be temporarily amended to read “…choose you “which way” you will serve…” Humility or humiliation. Your choice. Choose wisely or face the choice of the “God of Shame”… El Bos.