RE: TARDIS

In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, declares the LORD who does this. -- Amos 9:11-12

The booth or tabernacle of David was the tent in which the Ark rested after David brought it up to Jerusalem until the completion of Solomon’s temple.  Amos is prophesying some two hundred years after the reign of Solomon.  Referencing the tabernacle of David would have been analogous, in a historical sense, to our referencing that period when the seat of the federal government was in New York rather than in Washington, D.C.  The words of Amos, though, look forward to the Son of David and His resurrection. 

We were talking about the Ark and how we are God’s dwelling a couple of days ago.  It is sometimes said, in words to this effect, God is so vast and transcendent that the cosmos itself cannot contain Him yet so immanent, so personal and intimate that He is able to dwell within a human heart.  We are not worried by paradoxes, recognizing enlightenment reconciles parallel lines at the vanishing point of language.     

I am not a diehard Dr. Who fan, but I know what TARDIS is, and I know that it is bigger on the inside than on the outside.  Humans are the same way.  We tend to think, in common sense, of our bodies as containers.  They are more like three-dimensional interfaces.  I won’t be tattooing this old carcass – too much like branding cattle – but if I were of that persuasion, I would consider:  Cosmos Inside.      

Restoring the booth of David would serve to unite the people of God.  Edom, that is Esau, and Israel are brothers separated and often at odds with one another.  The Lord rejected Esau as He had previously rejected Ishmael but not forever.  The rejection of the nations, whatever their lineage, was only temporary and relative.  Eventually all are reunited in and under the one Tabernacle: Christ.  We are all in Christ, and He dwells in us.  The kingdom of God is within you.   

On Valleys

And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.  And there she shall  answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. -- Hosea 2:15

The word “valley” came to me this morning.  I am in one.  It’s not bad; it’s just a valley.  The “valley of Achor” means the valley of trouble, but, through faith, trouble is becomes hope, a door that opens into a wider place of vision and understanding. 

A valley may be big or small, but it has a visible boundary.  The barriers that create the valley cut off our ability to see what lies beyond them.  The horizon is above us, perhaps far above us, and we may not be able to see a way out.  We may be called to live in the valley for a time -- short, long, or indefinite, and it is a place where we can live – peace in the valley and all that. 

Vineyards speak of both permanence and joy, wine being a symbol of the Spirit, of the joy of the Lord, and of life in Christ.  Nomads and wanderers do not plant vineyards.  A valley is a place of cultivation because it is sheltered and can be hidden.  The same heights that cut off the view from within protect it from exposure.  The storms that assail and batter the heights are not so severe when they reach the lower ground. 

We may feel compelled, from time to time, to scale the heights, to find a pass and to look beyond the bounds of our valley.  We do not know, when we have grazed on those vistas, whether we will turn back to our vineyards in the soft land below or be drawn on to find yet another valley with its trouble and hope.  For, as much as we may long for the visions from the mountaintops, few are called to live there at all times.

A Temple Eternal

… And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.  But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away. – Ezra 3:11-13

One of the accusations brought against Jesus was that He spoke of destroying the temple then raising it back up again in three days (Matthew 26:61, Mark 14:58).  John’s gospel gives us the statement directly from Jesus in context (John 2:18-22).  Jesus had driven the moneychangers from the temple.  The Jews gathered round and asked Him, more or less, who He thought He was taking that kind of action on His own.  What sign are You going to show us, they wanted know, to justify Your usurpation of authority.  Jesus replied that if they were to destroy the temple, He would raise it up again in three days.  Literalism and Asperger’s being nothing new, someone objected that they had been building on the temple for forty-six years. 

Like the older generation -- those representing the Law of Moses and the priesthood of Aaron, in the days of Ezra, some compare the elegant simplicity and grace of the Gospel to the stately, formal, complex, and, perhaps, baroque requirements of the Law and find themselves grieving for the loss.  They fail to see the beauty and liberation of Christ’s Melchizedek priesthood.  They weep, longing for the orderliness of Aaron and the solidity of the stones raised by Solomon. 

The heart is soft.  It is subtle and easily moved.  The temple of stone does not move.  It is set in time, still, a monument to God, a testimony that lasts through generations.  Though it may stand for five hundred years, a hundred lifetimes of the priests who serve within, it, too, is temporal.  Even if not overthrown by the hand of man, wind, rain, and dust, heat and cold, sun and ice, root and tendril, even the shifting of the bedrock below will bring it to nothing, leave it a ruin buried like dry bones in the earth. 

Man, every man, is eternal.  Our bodies pass away and are laid aside like the tabernacle of Moses, but the golden ark at the heart in which dwells “the law of the Spirit of life”, overshadowed by the presence of God himself goes on forever. 

The order of service in the temple was predictable, regular, and precise.  It could be intricate and elaborate, but it was comprehensible.  It could all be known by the experts.  This is not the case when the heart of man becomes the dwelling of God, when the Spirit asserts His undeniable precedence over the letter.  Aslan is not a tame lion.  The Law of Moses can be made to jump through man’s hoops.  The wild Law of Christ, the Law of Love cannot, and we must, instead, surrender to it. 

It is no wonder that some weep as other shout for joy.  Freedom is a fearful thing, but the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

Who Do You Think You're Fooling

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. -- Galatians 4:8

Those who reject God are not escaping some servitude or slavery.  They are not free to think and do as they please.  The great deception of the world is that I can, as “Invictus” says, be The master of my fate/ The captain of my soul.  We are never without “gods”.  If we lack knowledge of the true God, we are drawn to follow the false ones, as Matthew Henry says, adding then:   Those who forsook the God who made the world, rather than be without gods, worshipped such as they themselves made. 

Paul expresses the same idea in Romans 1:25 in speaking of those who … exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator….  And, again, in 2 Thessalonians 2:11, we learn those who chose to remain in ignorance and deceive themselves will be sent “a strong delusion” by the Lord Himself that they may be locked and held captive by that which is false.  Only in Christ do we have peace with God and liberty.   

For this reason, among others, we do well to remember that our struggle in life is a spiritual one.  The creatures of flesh and blood that would oppose us, do us harm, and otherwise oppress us are themselves deluded to a greater or lesser extent.  Do not fear them.  At the end of Fargo, Marge chides her prisoner for his bloody crime spree saying it was for a few dollars.  You can look at the men who have held the title of “leader of the free world” over the last hundred years, and, aside from a couple of exceptions, they are mostly small, shallow men, perhaps clever, some decent enough, but not anyone you would want your child to emulate.  Most sought power and adulation to fill the emptiness in their souls, thinking that by ruling over others, they might find freedom.  It never happens.  They, too, sell their souls for false, vain promises and illusions.  Do not envy them.  The bill is due, and Mephistopheles knocks.

Our Father's World

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.  – Galatians 4:1-2

With regard to these verses commentaries focus on the distinction between Israel – the called of God, under the law and the called and chosen under the New Covenant in Christ.  I was immediately reminded of one of my top five most-quoted passages, Ephesians 4:11-16, and in particular verse 13 which asserts that God gives us leaders and teachers … until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.   We can understand the historic perspective, but we should also see the personal application.  Individually, we start out in Christ needing a lot of help, a lot of support, teaching, and discipline.  We are, in effect, “under the law” for a time until our ability to communicate with God develops and matures.  Even after we have grown in the faith, there are often times when we need others to come alongside to encourage or correct us.  Sometimes I need a rebuke or reproof as 2 Timothy 3:16 says. 

We see something else inherent in this passage, though.  We have been adopted by the Father who “is the owner of everything”, and, that, as Paul points out, makes us the “owners” of everything as well.  Man was created and commissioned to rule in this world.  Adam lost his position through sin, and so we all have suffered in our fallen state.  We have been rained on where we should have reigned.  In Christ, our enslavement and servitude to the elements and powers of this world come to an end. 

I don’t know about me.  I believe there are saints who have overcome and matured in this life to the point that they rule and reign in this life.  I may have to wait until the next one – which is all right.  I don’t mind being in school all my life.  It seems to me that too much authority and power is kind of dangerous both for myself and for those around me.  Nevertheless, I think we need to realize we are part of the hierarchy, part of the ruling family, whether we are responsible for running much of the show or not. 

We all have spheres of authority, influence, and control.  Like the servants who were entrusted the talents, it may be small or large.  We are obligated to care for that with which the Lord has entrusted us to His glory and in His honor.  My wife always considered the condition of her house, her car, her lawn, whatever, as a reflection on Christ.  She kept things neat and orderly, clean and in good repair because a) she’s German; and b) it’s all the Lord’s stuff.  I believe that she was right in that we owe it to God to do the best we can where we have been placed. 

I also think it is a mistake to be silent and passive concerning the issues of the day.  This is especially true when it comes to children and education, but we ought also to stand up to oppression in every area where we can make our voices heard.  This is our Father’s world.  It’s never going to be utopia, Disneyland, or heaven, but it’s His, and we should live, work, and speak with that in our minds.