Down and Out in Egypt

Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread of them had fallen upon it. -- Psalms 105:38

I admit that I am a rather perverse Christian.  I always smile when I read this verse.  It has often been the case in my life that people have been glad to be rid of me, probably not so much for dread as for annoyance.  The basis of the psalmist’s chant is Exodus 12:33, The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, We shall all be dead.  Plague after plague and destruction wrought by God had left the Egyptians fatigued, terrorized, beaten and baffled. 

The world has been, here in the West, remarkably tolerant of the Church in some of its manifestations.   There is, these days, though, a rising and more blatant animosity being expressed, not only by the militant atheists but society in general.  I am not worried by this. 

As individual believers, the times of stress and turmoil that we face can be the times when we experience the most rapid and genuine growth and fruitfulness. So, it can be, too, with the Church as a whole.  Persecution brings purification, and, sometimes the Body of Christ is in need of that, though we certainly don’t enjoy or welcome it.

There isn’t much that I would call “official” persecution going on here in the United States apart from the incursions of the fabulous gay –marriage gestapo against bakers and photographers.  The growing cultural opposition and antagonism to any public expressions of Christian faith, values, and piety, however, indicate that a watershed may be approaching.  More and more people find the idea of free speech on the part of anyone outside the Borg offensive.  Not content with ignoring and deriding us, they might prefer to have us silenced.

I am old enough to have attended school when the teacher led us in prayer, when Bibles were commonly found and even read from in the classroom, and we stood together to say the Pledge of Allegiance.  I doubt that any of those things were harmful to any child.  Being a child, when these activities ceased, I did not give much thought to it.  I am such an opponent of public schools and the dastardly teachers’ unions that I would oppose sending children to those indoctrination centers even if they allowed prayers.  In fact, it may not be too long before they do sanction prayer – five times a day, facing Mecca.

When the Israelites left Egypt, the biblical account states that they spoiled the Egyptians, taking much in the way of jewelry, gold and silver from their former masters.  The Lord was able to move the hearts of the Egyptians and make those arrangements because it all belongs to Him.  I believe that He will, amid the coming turbulence, give gifts to the Church, perhaps material riches, but certainly wisdom, insight, understanding, skills and talents that are necessary for the furtherance of the kingdom.  This will be the case all around the world, even in the heart of Muslim nations and oppressive socialist regimes.    

The pendulum swings; the wheel turns.  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

All That Is Breathless

Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

-- Psalm 115:2-8

Yesterday's post touched on the idea of identification, and, so, it seems, does today's.  This time we are warned to beware of a dark side as we inexorably become like the object of our worship.  Putting our faith and trust in something or someone triggers our innate identification process.  The family is where this starts, and, assuming one's family is fairly healthy, that's positive, especially if the parents are godly people whose own loyalties point the children toward the God who is Good. 

It's pretty easy to translate the heathen idols of stone and wood, images plated with gold and silver to modern digital images, to icons of power, fame, prestige and wealth.  The pagan priests of old called on worshipers to placate their lifeless gods with offerings in order to end plagues, bring rains, or gain favor.  Our modern priesthood demands we buy their goods that we might find favor in the digitally-enhanced eyes of airbrushed gods and goddesses. 

The consequences are still the same, too.  The man who makes gold his god loses his will and his sovereign, individual purpose.  He becomes but as a coin himself — a counter, a cipher within the system.  Those who worship power may, for a time, gain power over others, but eventually they are enslaved, reduced to useless heat — empty, depleted batteries fit only to be tossed aside.  Those who worship the famous become as two-dimensional, vapid, superficial, and valueless as the forms they idolize. 

The idolaters dismiss the Living God.  They see no image.  They hear no voice.  Golden calves are easier to perceive, not to mention a lot less demanding.  How hard is it to be worthless?  

The psalmist points up to the transcendent One who is not just beyond perceiving but beyond naming.  He is there, on the other side of that cloud of unknowing, doing that which He pleases. But make no mistake, God has not abandoned the earth:  The heavens are the LORD's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man (v. 16).  We are His agents, created from the first in His image and likeness.  When we turn back to Him as our God, we become like Him so that His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

The Wills of God

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. – Matthew 6:10

A few days ago I was reading a book by a fairly well-known modern evangelical minister.  The book has been around for nearly thirty years and widely read, if not taken too seriously.  It is not one I would recommend – which is why I’m not naming either it or its author – since it is merely a warmed-over rehash of better works from authors like C.S. Lewis, William Law, and, especially, the great American thinker, Jonathan Edwards.  Since he mentioned Edwards and his Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections so frequently, it occurred to me that I might better spend my time reading Edwards myself.  I don’t mean to imply that the contemporary author’s work is without value.  For some it may be a good starting point.  I found myself underlining phrases and writing in the margins, but the author sometimes seemed miss his own obvious points in favor of putting forth a homogenized, pasteurized version of the truth more in keeping with what is acceptable in modern Christianity.

Edwards’ original version of Religious Affections is heavier going than I have the time for at the moment, but, fortunately, I have an abridgement from an old Multnomah Press Classics version republished in 1996 by Bethany House.  This is one of those books that really can benefit by some thoughtful editing.  Edwards was a genius whose mind so overflowed with understanding and insight that he has a tendency to overwhelm the reader.  Even the abridgement deserves to be read slowly – which I’m doing. 

“Affections” are feelings (wo-oh-oh, feelings) in one sense, but they are intertwined with the will.  Edwards explained that we have the rational faculty which perceives and judges.  We also have the faculty of the soul by which it is inclined to one thing or another.  As he says, “The soul, because of this faculty, does not want to see things as an indifferent, unaffected spectator.”  We like things or we dislike them.  When our affective inclination governs and determines our choices and our courses of action, we call that inclination “the will”.  It may also be called “the heart” when our mind is involved in consciously making the choice. 

I may put up some thoughts on the relationship of affections and religion as I work my way through the book.  I believe Edwards is correct in his assessment and gives a thorough, accurate treatment of the subject. 

Right now, though, I’m going off on a somewhat related subject regarding the sovereign will of God.  For a long time, I recited the Lord’s Prayer without giving too much thought to it.  Then one day, I realized that I was asking for God’s will to be done everywhere in the material universe as it was being done already in heaven.  In Matthew 18:18, echoing what He said in another context in Matthew 16:19, Jesus tells His disciples about their authority as believers, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  Other translations or marginal readings give the idea a slightly different twist, saying, in effect, that we are able to bind on earth what is already bound in heaven and to loose what has already been loosed – in other words, to manifest the heavenly reality in the earthly realm.   It’s pretty heavy stuff in any case. 

The question I asked, though, is, if God is sovereign upon earth, why is His will not done on earth as it is in heaven?  Why would that even be an issue?  Is God in control or not? 

There is no power equal to God, not even a viable competing power:   

I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.  I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. (Isaiah 45:5-7)   

There is not much room for questioning such a statement.  I see little in Scripture that would offer an alternative view and much that reinforces this concept.  The devil looks more like a tool.  It is Milton more than the Bible that makes him look powerful -- God’s nemesis in a dark realm.  Satan’s kingdom and his influence are circumscribed and limited by the Lord.  The devil might be our nemesis, but he is not in God’s class. 

Consider that Jesus was betrayed by Judas and crucified in accordance with the Father’s will.  Jesus is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”.  Every lamb offered from the Exodus the death of Christ prefigured, foreshadowed, and typified that crucifixion.  Yet there is no question that the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus was an evil act, and those involved who did not repent of their part in it were held responsible and judged as guilty.  The will of man to do evil became a part of God’s overall plan to accomplish a good end. 

Edwards addresses the problem by saying that God has a “will of command” or a revealed will as well as a “will of decree” or His secret will.  Though worthwhile, this can be a little boggy:

When a distinction is made between God’s revealed will and his secret will, or his will of command and decree, will is certainly in that distinction taken in two senses. His will of decree, is not his will in the same sense as his will of command is. Therefore, it is no difficulty at all to suppose, that the one may be otherwise than the other: his will in both senses is his inclination. But when we say he wills virtue, or loves virtue, or the happiness of his creature; thereby is intended, that virtue, or the creature’s happiness, absolutely and simply considered, is agreeable to the inclination of his nature.

His will of decree is, his inclination to a thing, not as to that thing absolutely and simply, but with respect to the universality of things, that have been, are, or shall be. So God, though he hates a thing as it is simply, may incline to it with reference to the universality of things. Though he hates sin in itself, yet he may will to permit it, for the greater promotion of holiness in this universality, including all things, and at all times. So, though he has no inclination to a creature’s misery, considered absolutely, yet he may will it, for the greater promotion of happiness in this universality.

Easy for you to say.  (Read more of this HERE, if so inclined.)  Sometimes people will refer to God’s “permissive will” – even those who are not as committed to the sovereignty of God as was Edwards.  Most Christians still believe that God is ultimately in control, and He will allow us to suffer temporally for a greater eternal purpose.  Thus you might look at the division as God’s eternal will – which is secret – versus His temporal will – which is revealed, or as absolute versus relative. 

For the Christian, suffering in this world makes sense only if there is another world.  As my grandmother used to say, “Just this world and one more.”  Or, as Paul said, “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” 

Fishing on Sunday

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. -- 1 Corinthians 15:50

This would seem to say that the kingdom of God is completely out of reach of flesh-and-blood, material entities.  Yet Jesus Himself spoke frequently of how we might strive to enter into the kingdom.  Both He and John the Baptist preached that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.  In the prayer He taught His disciples, we read, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Also when we read Christ’s parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price, the Lord is telling us that we must give up everything if we would gain the kingdom.  The very next parable in Matthew’s gospel describes the kingdom as a net cast into the sea that brings out fish of all kinds – large, small, acceptable and unacceptable.  It suggests that many are lured by the kingdom, but not all find a home therein. 

Though Paul is primarily addressing the death of believers and the necessity of a resurrection both of the Lord and of His saints, our transformation out of the flesh does not begin with physical death, for, “those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”   In order to be a part of the kingdom one must belong to Christ which can only happen if the Spirit of God dwells in us.  But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:8-11).  That is a new kind of life, a life that is eternal in its nature, not just its duration.  This mortal begins to put on immortality.  It's almost like being a little pregnant, but it is true.

In the same way and at the same point, our death to the flesh begins as we are drawn into the kingdom.  Maybe we should take a closer look at the Parable of the Dragnet:  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.  When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.  So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:47-50).  Normally we think of each fish as a person who is judged by God’s standard, i.e., Christ, to be worthy or unworthy of inclusion in the kingdom.  That is correct, but there is another way to look at it.  I caught, filleted, and deep-fried a couple of fish this past weekend.  They are, as animals, quite simple.  You could not construct a human being out of hundreds of fish – except, to some extent, by the process of a person digesting said fish.  We are far more than the sum of our parts; yet there are parts to us. 

When by His Spirit the Lord draws us into His kingdom, if we are willing to surrender ourselves completely to Him, He will sort through us like the fisherman opening his net.  Some of those seemingly alive parts of us -- “raw and wiggling” as Gollum prefers them – are acceptable while the Spirit must dispose of other parts.  He is separating "the evil from the righteous".  The flesh cannot enter in, and all that is flesh that must be consigned without mercy to the furnace of judgment.  Weeping and gnashing of teeth indeed is present there. 

How I have wailed over my weaknesses, often less because I could not overcome them than out of fear that I might lose them and lose, in the process, something I thought of as an essential part of my identity.  Have you ever said, “that’s just me”, or of another, “that’s just him” with regard to a foible or “eccentricity”?  It is a sacrifice to surrender those ugly, useless, worthless fish.     

Under the Law, God decreed that the fires of the altar might burn throughout the night for the burnt offering.  Those fires would, nevertheless, from time to time, need to be lit and fueled.  In the kingdom, the fire is never quenched.  There are flames always patiently waiting to consume the flesh we will sacrifice that we may pass clean through the gates.