Oh Israel, Trust in YHWH

I got one of those ESV Study Bibles for free. My old NASB has endless scratchings on nearly every page - highlighters, pens of various colors, and tons of notes in the margins. So, the first thing I did in this new Bible was read straight through the book of Psalms. I just finished. It was so refreshing.

In my Psalter journey, I underlined every time the word "trust" was used. If this is the way God has desired His people to relate to Him throughout history [Hebrews 11], I figured the OT's hymnbook was a good place to discover the nature of true faith/trust.

The word itself is used close to 50 times in Psalms. Out of its 50 uses, YHWH or YHWH's promises are generally the object or aim of the faith/trust exhibited. In fact, it is only used negatively 7-8 times [i.e. Ps 44.6: "For not in my bow do I trust"].

Thus, as Paul says that idols are not real gods in 1 Cor 8, so faith/trust in other things apart from YHWH is not really faith/trust at all. It has the appearance or the sense of faith/trust, but not the essence. Truly trusting can only be done toward one Being. Any faith/trust between humans is too mingled with our selfish ends even if it appears to be serving or sacrificial. However, believing and trusting God is the grounds for us to have a kind of sincere honesty among the people of God.

Individually and corporately walking in this faith/trust is God's desire for His people. First, vertically. And in turn, horizontally.

Those who trust in YHWH are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever [Ps 125.1].

PSALM 9.10

And those who know Your name put their trust in You,

For You, O YHWH, have not forsaken those who seek You.

Much of the OT poetry is written in couplets, two lines that are getting across one primary point. These can also be called "parallelisms."

I love the parallel we are confronted with in Ps 9.10. It shows that trusting God and seeking God are intertwined realities. There is always an initial saving arrival at belief or trust in God in the broad theological sense, but here David is delighting in the ongoing pursuit of God as trust. The righteous kingship of YHWH in Ps 9.1-12 is grounds for David's believing and pursuing.

HEBREWS, JAMES, FAiTH, and MATURiTY

Both the writer of Hebrews and James talk about faith in a very distinct way from Paul. For the writer of Hebrews, faith is that which must be maintained for the people to have vital and true endurance, especially in the face of religious and political pressure. The 18 instances of "by faith" in Hebrews 11 are historic examples for the people to be encouraged by [Heb 12.1-2].

James sees faith in a similar light. James shows that sincere and persevering faith will manifest itself. That's how it happened with Abraham. He believed in Gen 15 and then "proved" his belief in Gen 22. James says that faith "produces" endurance [1.2-4]. This verb for "produces" comes from the same Greek root as the noun for "works" in Js 2.14-26. The same is true for the "effectual" doers of Js 1.25.

But what is the purpose of the lasting faith of Hebrews and the working faith of James? Why do the biblical writers exhort their audiences to these ends?

The purpose of these differing emphases on faith is Christian maturity, fulfilling how God desires for you to live. This is seen in that the same root is used in Heb 5.9, 5.14, 6.1, 7.11, 7.19, 7.25, 7.28, 9.9, 9.11, 9.26, 10.1, 10.14, 11.40, 12.2, 12.23 and in Js 1.4, 1.4, 1.15, 2.22, 3.2, 5.11.

For the Hebrews, they shouldn't have been drifting away [2.1-4]; they had need of endurance [10.36]. For the scattered 12 tribes, their faith needed to work with works for this maturity [2.22].

For us, we are liars if any one of us thinks we are outside these two needs: persevering maturity and/or evidential maturity. Lord, thank you for the grace in Hebrews [13.25] and James [4.6].

KELLER ON FAiTH

It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.

[from pg 234 in "Reason for God"]

The Plague of Passivity and the Hyper-Spiritualizing of Decisions

This is an excerpt from Kevin DeYoung's book "Just Do Something" [pgs 50-51].

Passivity is a plague among Christians. It's not just that we don't do anything; it's that we feel spiritual for not doing anything. We imagine that our inactivity is patience and sensitivity to God's leading. At times it may be; but it's also quite possible we are just lazy. When we hype-spiritualize our decisions, we can veer off into impulsive and foolish decisions. But more likely as Christians we fall into endless patterns of vacillation, indecision, and regret. No doubt, selfish ambition is a danger for Christians, but so is complacency, listless wandering, and passivity that pawns itself off as spirituality. Perhaps our inactivity is not so much waiting on God as it is an expression of the fear of man, the love of the praise of man, and disbelief in God's providence.

BREASTFEEDiNG 101

The girl who is teaching our birthing class says that breastfeeding can be tougher than giving birth. Clearly, I have no clue and I never will. But there are a couple things about it that I find intriguing, beautiful, remarkable, and/or just dang weird. 

First, if you're a believer, you're called to think about this. It's a picture of our dependence on what God has revealed. Read 1 Pe 2.1-3.

Secondly, when a child is born, the extent of their vision is usually about 18 inches or so. This happens to be about the distance from the mother's breast to her face. Newborns are hardwired for intimate dependence and not mere provision from a distance. This is explicitly the product of nothingness, chaos, chance, random mutations over billions of years, and people with real emotions surviving because they're better than others [like Hitler]. Or... even as Darwin suggets ["To suppose that the eye... could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree."], there is likely another Source for its intricate design and beauty.

Lastly, [and I'm sure I'll miss some miniscule biological detail here], when a baby first latches on to breastfeed, he/she exchanges fluid with mama through the breast. This newborn spit tells mama's body what the appropriate balance of nutrients should be for that child. Thus, mama's body makes a special batch of milk for her kid that wouldn't be the best for any other kid.

Again, because we worship the scientific method and human reason, this is easily explainable as surviving to be fit. But if you actually think about it, it's humans needing humans to remind humans that we need something other than humans. Any school of thought demands that we need external means to survive. But surely that cannot apply spiritually because spirituality is a product of the human psyche to pacify humanity so that they can get through tough times. It is "the opiate of the masses" [Marx]. Or... There is a good and wise God who sent Jesus [who went through more crap on earth than you'll ever go through] in order to make whole those who trust Him.

This is how theological neatniks think about breastfeeding. Maybe this is also what Jesus had in mind when he said, "Consider the lilies." I sure hope so.

DANiEL, THE LiON'S DEN, GLOBAL EVANGELiZATiON, & iNAUGURATED ESCHATOLOGY

I've been reading Daniel lately. It's incredible. It's all about world politics and YHWH's faithfulness as the true King.

Remember, Daniel and his pals are in captivity under world superpower Babylon, which is then overthrown by the Persian empire. YHWH's covenant people are under His hand of judgment because of their whoredom and stubbornness to His covenant love while they were in the land He promised them. Within this context, I love the two snapshots of trial some of these young Jews face while under foreign kings:

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah [affectionately Rack, Shack, and Benny] in the fiery furnace and Daniel in the lion's den.

These little stories have snuck their way to flannel graphs and cartoons for 40 years, but there is something extra in them that is sweet to see.

• In both stories, the young guys find themselves in their respective predicaments because they refuse to bow the knee to the temporal religious-political systems above them. This results in their execution.
  
• In both situations, their executioners are slain, showing that there is a justice that transcends worldly authority and empire.
  
• In both situations, the Jewish fellows being killed seem to be somewhere in between "minimal" to "not-at-all" on the nervous scale. But the text gives us the reason behind this.
  
• Both stories show that they TRUSTED their God [3.28, 6.23]. Strange that this is what Abraham did before torah and Jesus [Gn 15.6], what the people did when they were redeemed from Egypt [Ex 14.31], and what we're called to do as well [Rom 4.5] - just trust.
  
• At the end of both stories, the kings in charge each sent forth a decree. Each decree was addressed to "all peoples, nations, and languages" [4.1, 6.25]. Why in the heck does that sound so familiar? Oh, maybe it's because the whole story ends with God's covenant people under different religious-political systems, far from their promised land, knowing that they get to be a part of God gathering people from "every tribe, tongue, and nation" [Rev 5.9, 7.9].
  
• This decree went out from two different pagan kings, from two different passing empires, at two different periods of times. But somehow, both decrees said essentially the same thing: "Peace and Shalom is multiplied! There is a God Most High - the God of Daniel! He works signs and wonders! And His kingdom and dominion are everlasting!"

So, here's the deal. The fiery furnace and lion's den are marginal kids' stories at best. They might be able to entertain because kids know that fire is hot and lions are scary. BUT, and this is a huge BUT... If you walk away from those stories without seeing God as the faithful and true King, then your blind to the Bible and only have a half of one eye opened to decent kids' entertainment.

The God of Israel is the King of all kings. His kingdom has been brought nearer to us in Jesus to include peoples from every tribe, nation, and tongue. If that is not the seasoning that flavors Daniel, we might just miss it elsewhere.

BLAiSE PASCAL

"He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright."

Story Time with Pastor Spurgeon

There is a young girl in heaven now, once a member of this church. I went with one of my beloved deacons to see her when she was very near her departure. Fair and sweetly beautiful she looked, and I think I never heard such syllables as those which fell from that girl's lips. She had had disappointments, and trials, and troubles, but all these she had not had a word to say about, except that she blessed God for them; they had brought her nearer to the Saviour. And when we asked her whether she was not afraid of dying,

"No" she said, "the only thing I fear is this - I am afraid of living, lest my patience should wear out. I have not said an impatient word yet, sir; I hope I shall not. It is sad to be so very weak, but I think if I had my choice, I would rather be here than be in health, for it is very precious to me; I know that my Redeemer liveth, and I am waiting for the moment when He shall send His chariot of fire to take me up to Him."

I put the question, "Have you any doubts?"

"No, none, sir; why should I? I clasp my arms around the neck of Christ."

"And have not you any fear about your sins?"

"No, sir, they are all forgiven; I trust the Saviour's precious blood."

"And do you think that you will be as brave as this when you actually come to die?"

"Not if He leaves me, sir, but He will never leave me, for He has said, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.'"

HOPE DOESN’T DiSAPPOiNT

If it is tangible or visible, it undefines itself. Who hopes for what he already sees? Hope, by nature, must be a conviction of future surety. It is a horizon of absolutes that is apprehended and daily known through faith. Yet one day, these things which are our food for today, will be no longer needed. Faith and hope will die. Our faith shall be sight and we will meet the sun on the horizon of hope. But in the now, this kind of hope births perseverance and does not waver in the face of temporal options. This is the precise type of hope that does not disappoint. Or as G.K. Chesterton notes, “Hope cherishes no illusions, nor does it yield to cynicism.”

NT FAiTH

Faith in ROMANS is the key to how someone becomes right with God. That is precisely what Paul was articulating in chapters 1-4. We are justified by faith alone, apart from works of the Law.

Faith in HEBREWS is what grants us endurance to stay right with God. We are not of those who shrink back, but of those who persevere [10.35-39] in "the assurance of things hoped for" [11.1].

Faith in JAMES is the conduit for good works in the Christian life. This is why faith without works is useless [Js 2.20]: because faith is descriptive of the life of a Christian and not just of the hoop one jumps through to become a Christian.

So, why is it so hard to see that these three do not contradict one another but are instead inextricably linked as a whole. Different situations call for preaching and teaching faith in different ways. But without this framework, legality, Antinomianism, and the faith healing prosperity gospel are "crouching at our door" [Gen 4.7]. Furthermore, none of this is ever divorced from the Holy Spirit graciously and sovereignly working in sinners "as He wills" [1 Cor 12.11, 18] to draw us, sustain us, empower us, and cause to serve the King for the kingdom.

why did Paul write Romans?

I'm glad you asked. Rom 1.5 and 16.26 are quite significant. Both include the phrase "the obedience of faith among all nations." Obviously translations vary, but the Greek is nearly identical [eis hupakoen pisteos en pasin tois ethnesin]. This highlights the whole purpose for the epistle. Many say the reason for Romans is in 1.16-17. However, that fits under the rubric of this inclusio. Just as Psalm 8 begins and ends with the same phrase for emphasis, Paul opens and closes his magnum opus in the same manner to shed light on everything in between.