Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 5

Get up, make your way across Wadi Arnon,[1] Moses’ account of the words yehôvâh (יהוה) spoke to him after all the military men had been eliminated from the community[2] continued.  Look!  I have already delivered over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land.  Go ahead!  Take it!  Engage him in war!  This very day I will begin to fill all the people of the earth with dread and to terrify them when they hear about you.  They will shiver and shake in anticipation of your approach.[3]

The Hebrew word translated and to terrify was yirʼâh (ויראתך), the word I’d hoped would distinguish the fear of the Lord from ordinary fear.  In English to fill all the people of the earth with dread and to terrify them, causes me to wonder if I should simply accept that yirʼâh, similar to the fruit of the Spirit, comes from God, like the song says: “’twas Grace that taught, my heart to fear.  And grace, my fears relieved.”  The Hebrew word translated to fill was nâthan (תת).  It was also translated I have already delivered (נתתי) in I have already delivered over to you Sihon the Amorite, and is giving (נתן) in the land the Lord our God is giving us.[4]

The Hebrew word translated engage in Engage him in war was gârâh (והתגר), to grate, to anger, to cause strife, stir up, contend, meddle.  Moses’ tactic was to send messengers with an offer of peace.

Numbers 21:21, 22 (NET)

Deuteronomy 2:26-29 (NET)

Then Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, saying, “Let us pass through your land; we will not turn aside into the fields or into the vineyards, nor will we drink water from any well, but we will go along the King’s Highway until we pass your borders.” Then I sent messengers from the Kedemoth Desert to King Sihon of Heshbon with an offer of peace:  “Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the roadway.  I will not turn aside to the right or the left.  Sell me food for cash so that I can eat and sell me water to drink.  Just allow me to go through on foot, just as the descendants of Esau who live at Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land the Lord our God is giving us.”

I admit to wondering whether Moses’ tactic betrayed his unfaithfulness toward yehôvâh, or duplicity toward King Sihon.  Either way it didn’t alter the outcome.

Numbers 21:23a (NET)

Deuteronomy 2:30, 31 (NET)

But Sihon did not permit Israel to pass through his border… But King Sihon of Heshbon was unwilling to allow us to pass near him…
…because the Lord our God had made him obstinate and stubborn so that he might deliver him over to you this very day.  The Lord said to me, “Look!  I have already begun to give over Sihon and his land to you.  Start right now to take his land as your possession.”
…he gathered all his forces together and went out against Israel into the wilderness.

It didn’t matter because the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) our God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך) had made him obstinate, literally, hardened his spirit.  The Hebrew word for hardened was qâshâh (הקשה), translated ἐσκλήρυνεν (a form of σκληρύνω) in the Septuagint.  He also had made Sihon stubborn, literally, made his heart obstinate.  The Hebrew word for obstinate was ʼâmats (ואמץ), to be strong, alert, courageous, brave, stout, bold.  It was translated  κατίσχυσεν (a form of κατισχύω) in the Septuagint.[5]  Look!  I have already begun to give over Sihon and his land to you, yehôvâh reiterated.  Start right now to take his land as your possession.

Numbers 21:23b, 24a (NET)

Deuteronomy 2:32-35 (NET)

When he came to Jahaz, he fought against Israel. When Sihon and all his troops emerged to encounter us in battle at Jahaz…
But the Israelites defeated him in battle… …the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, along with his sons and everyone else.
At that time we seized all his cities and put every one of them under divine judgment, including even the women and children; we left no survivors.  We kept only the livestock and plunder from the cities for ourselves.

We call this genocide and fault yehôvâh for commanding it (or assume that He did not).  I won’t mount an elaborate defense here except to say that this is how law works to purge out wickedness (Deuteronomy 21:18-21 NET):

If a person has a stubborn, rebellious son who pays no attention to his father or mother, and they discipline him to no avail, his father and mother must seize him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his city.  They must declare to the elders of his city, “Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say – he is a glutton and drunkard.”  Then all the men of his city must stone him to death.  In this way you will purge out wickedness from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid (yârêʼ, ויראו).

So that was then; this is now (Matthew 5:38-48 NET):

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’  But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer.  But whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well [Table].  And if someone wants to sue you and to take your tunic, give him your coat also.  And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not reject the one who wants to borrow from you [Table].

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Even the tax collectors do the same, don’t they?  And if you only greet your brothers, what more do you do?  Even the Gentiles do the same, don’t they?  So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Fankly, in our natural selves we care little more for the latter than the former commandment.  We are like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to one another, “We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; we wailed in mourning, yet you did not weep.”[6]  But before we call yehôvâh cruel or Jesus naïve, we who want to follow Him would do well to deny ourselves.  When we do we may notice that the Israelites defeated [Sihon] in battle because the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) our God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהינו) delivered him over to [them]:

Numbers 21:24b-26a, 31, 32 (NET)

Deuteronomy 2:36, 37 (NET)

…and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strongly defended. From Aroer, which is at the edge of Wadi Arnon (it is the city in the wadi), all the way to Gilead there was not a town able to resist us – the Lord our God gave them all to us.
So Israel took all these cities; and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages.  For Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites…
So the Israelites lived in the land of the Amorites.  Moses sent spies to reconnoiter Jaazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.
However, you did not approach the land of the Ammonites, the Wadi Jabbok, the cities of the hill country, or any place else forbidden by the Lord our God.

In other words, here Israel obeyed yehôvâh, killing only those who were under divine judgment (châram, ונחרם) and taking only the land that was promised.  The law reads: Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord (yehôvâh, ליהוה) alone must be utterly destroyed (châram).[7]  Nevertheless no devoted offering (chêrem, חרם) that a man may devote (châram, יחרם) to the Lord (yehôvâh, ליהוה) of all that he has, both man and beast, or the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted offering is (chêrem, חרם) most holy to the Lord (yehôvâh, ליהוה).  No person under the ban (chêrem, חרם), who may become doomed to destruction (châram, יחרם) among men, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death.[8]

If we stop blaspheming yehôvâh for a moment, thinking He has no right to make such laws, we can begin—using the very laws I quoted above—to grasp what He meant when He spoke through the prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 20:11 (NASB) Ezekiel 20:25 (NASB)
I gave them My statutes and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live. I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live…

We aren’t told how many parents, if any, brought their drunken rebellious sons before the elders of the city that they might be stoned to death.  I can surmise that some parents remained silent or lied about them, while others with means bribed elders to redeem them.  It’s fairly clear that many a drunken rebellious son rose to become an elder who led the people of Israel into πορνεία (Ezekiel 20:28, 30 NASB):

When I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and they offered there their sacrifices and there they presented the provocation of their offering.  There also they made their soothing aroma and there they poured out their drink offerings…Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers and play the harlot (zânâh, זנים; Septuagint: ἐκπορνεύετε, a form of ἐκπορνεύω) after their detestable things?

Paul wrote about the law in ways quite similar to yehôvâh’s words through Ezekiel.

Romans 7:10b (NET) Galatians 3:21b (NET)
So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.

I wrote about this elsewhere.  Here I want to skip ahead to begin to explore what life was like for Israel under law as the sharp tip of the sword of divine judgment, and to present an example of yirʼâh which resulted in fear and faith in yehôvâh.  Outside Jericho just before the rams’ horns sounded and the city’s wall collapsed, Joshua gave the army of Israel the following command (Joshua 6:17-19 NET):

The city and all that is in it must be set apart (chêrem, חרם) for the Lord, except for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house, because she hid the spies we sent.  But be careful when you are setting (châram, תחרימו) apart the riches (chêrem, החרם) for the Lord.  If you take any (chêrem, החרם) of it, you will make the Israelite camp subject to annihilation (chêrem, לחרם) and cause a disaster.  All the silver and gold, as well as bronze and iron items, belong to the Lord.  They must go into the Lord’s treasury.

I looked to see if yehôvâh commanded this.  So far all I’ve found was Moses’ command: You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God.  You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house and thereby become an object of divine wrath along with it.  You must absolutely detest and abhor it (chêrem, חרם), for it is an object of divine wrath (chêrem).[9]  A few commentators considered Jericho a kind of first fruits offering to yehôvâh.

The exception made for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house is interesting.  The somewhat crass tit-for-tat cited above—because she hid the spies we sent—doesn’t quite tell the whole story (Joshua 2:1-7 NET).

Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them: “Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho.”  They stopped at the house of a prostitute (zânâh, זונה; Septuagint: πόρνης, a form of πόρνη) named Rahab and spent the night there.  The king of Jericho received this report: “Note well!  Israelite men have come here tonight to spy on the land.”  So the king of Jericho sent this order to Rahab: “Turn over the men who came to you – the ones who came to your house – for they have come to spy on the whole land!”  But the woman hid the two men and replied, “Yes, these men were clients of mine, but I didn’t know where they came from.  When it was time to shut the city gate for the night, the men left.  I don’t know where they were heading.  Chase after them quickly, for you have time to catch them!”  (Now she had taken them up to the roof and had hidden them in the stalks of flax she had spread out on the roof.)  Meanwhile the king’s men tried to find them on the road to the Jordan River near the fords.  The city gate was shut as soon as they set out in pursuit of them.

What she did is exactly as Joshua reported.  As James asked rhetorically, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another way?[10]  But I think her reasons, why she defied her king to do what she did, are far more interesting in this study of yirʼâh (Joshua 2:8-13 NET).

Now before the spies went to sleep, Rahab went up to the roof.  She said to the men, “I know the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) is handing this land over to you.  We are absolutely terrified (ʼêymâh, אימתכם) of you, and all who live in the land are cringing (mûg, נמגו) before you.  For we heard how the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you left Egypt and how you annihilated the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, on the other side of the Jordan.  When we heard the news we lost our courage (mâsas, וימס) and no one could even breathe for fear of you.  For the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיכם) is God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) in heaven above and on earth below!  So now, promise me this with an oath sworn in the Lord’s (yehôvâh, ביהוה) name.  Because I have shown allegiance (chêsêd, חסד; Septuagint: ἔλεος, literally, mercy) to you, show allegiance (chêsêd, חסד; Septuagint: ἔλεος, literally, mercy) to my family.  Give me a solemn pledge  that you will spare the lives of my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all who belong to them, and rescue us from death.”

Though Rahab didn’t use all of Moses’ words, given her testimony—the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below—and her plea for mercy, I feel confident thinking that she feared (yârêʼ, וייראו) the Lord, and [she] believed (ʼâman, ויאמינו) in the Lord.[11]  She was as saved as anyone in Israel: Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, and all who belonged to her.  She lives in Israel to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho.[12]  As the writer of Hebrews declared: By faith Rahab the prostitute escaped the destruction of the disobedient, because she welcomed the spies in peace.[13]  Everyone else: Israel annihilated (châram, ויחרימו) with the sword everything that breathed in the city, including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeysthey burned the city and all that was in it, except for the silver, gold, and bronze and iron items they put in the treasury of the Lord’s house.[14]

But the Israelites disobeyed the command about the city’s riches.  Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, stole some of the riches.[15]  I’ll continue this in another essay.

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 6

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 7

[1] Deuteronomy 2:24a (NET)

[2] Deuteronomy 2:16 (NET)

[3] Deuteronomy 2:24b-25 (NET)

[4] Deuteronomy 2:29b (NET)

[5] A translation of the Septuagint reads: hardened his spirit and prevailed over his heart.

[6] Matthew 11:16b, 17 (NET)

[7] Exodus 22:20 (NET)

[8] Leviticus 27:28, 29 (NKJV)

[9] Deuteronomy 7:25, 26 (NET)

[10] James 2:25 (NET)

[11] Exodus 14:31 (NET)

[12] Joshua 6:25 (NET)  This verse also provides a clue that Joshua was written during Rahab’s lifetime.  See: “An Introduction to the Book of Joshua

[13] Hebrews 11:31 (NET)

[14] Joshua 6:21, 24 (NET)

[15] Joshua 7:1a (NET)

Who Am I? Part 4

I spend a large portion of my Christmas holiday with three post-Christian women I’ll call Grandmother, Mother and Daughter because of their relationship to one another.  I call them post-Christian because they were all professing Christians at one time.  Grandmother still calls herself a Christian.  She means a non-Buddhist, non-Hindu, non-Jew, non-Muslim who believes in Jesus.  Her ex-husband was a Baptist Sunday school teacher who abused her, and Mother as a child.  Daughter is the most non-Christian, vocally pagan of the three with Mother falling somewhere between.  Their transformation began with a desire for a more feminine God.  I regret now not taking Mother’s question more seriously.  I didn’t understand at the time that this desire would lead through Mother Earth to a Mother Goddess and on to full-fledged paganism.

I pointed out that yehôvâh (יהוה) created male and female: God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) created humankind in his own image, in the image of God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) he created them, male and female he created them.[1]  I talked about the meaning of El Shaddai (ʼêl, אל; shadday, שדי) and a few other references to God as feminine.  But I emphasized that the general understanding of God as masculine was due primarily to the fact that we are all feminine in relation to the operation of his grace through Jesus Christ.

I am accepted among them as the kindly, odd, somewhat benighted, old man who studies the Bible in his spare time, so ordinary conversation—what’ve you been up to?—offers many opportunities.  A recent conversation with Grandmother and Daughter turned naturally to Jesus’ dying thoughts on the cross.  I read Psalm 22 aloud.  Daughter was visibly, tearfully moved and vocally overwhelmed that David could write such exact knowledge so many centuries before Jesus was born.

I spoke of God having mercy on whoever he chooses to have mercy and hardening whoever he chooses to harden.  I said I had been considering how, and told them the story of two prophets, Nathan and John the Baptist.  When Pharisees and Sadduccees, religious leaders, came to be baptized for repentance (Matthew 3:11, 12; Mark 1:4-8; Luke 3:15-17) John said, You offspring of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?[2]  And he challenged them to put their works religion to the test: Therefore produce fruit that proves your repentance[3]

What I didn’t say but will record here for my own memory’s sake, whether these particular Pharisees and Sadduccees were directly responsible or not, John’s words were not secret and would have tended to harden the resolve of the religious elite to kill Jesus: the Lord (yehôvâh, ויהוה) desired to crush him (e.g., Jesus).  On the other hand yehôvâh desired David’s repentance and sent Nathan to that effect.

He was sent after King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed to cover it up.  Nathan told David a story (2 Samuel 12:1-6) about a rich man who had entertained a traveler with a meal.  The rich man hadn’t served up any of his own sheep or cattle, but the one ewe lamb he took from a poor man.  Then David became very angry at this man.[4]  You are that man![5] Nathan said to him.

“Did he kill him?” Daughter asked.  I was actually surprised that she had forgotten the story.

No, I answered, I have sinned against the Lord![6] David said and then he wrote the 51st Psalm.  I got to read Psalm 51 aloud to them.  When I finished Grandmother responded to a look on Daughter’s face at the line—Look, I was guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.[7]

“I don’t believe that either,” Grandmother said.

This is a point to concede by the way.  If it offends or hurts your feelings, welcome to the human race.  Being guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me is equivalent to being born of the flesh of Adam (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:42-58).  You do not want a relentless God who will pursue you with goodness and mercy all the days of your life to spend that time convincing you the hard way that you are a sinner instead (John 16:7-11).

Goodness and mercy, by the way is the NKJV translation of Psalm 23:6a.  In the NET it was translated goodness and faithfulness (chêsêd , וחסד).

chêsêd Hebrew KJV NET Tanakh Septuagint
Psalm 23:6a וחסד mercy faithfulness mercy ἔλεός[8]


Daughter
informed me that my religion has a lot of guilt in it as she praised me for my adherence to it, and insisted that we, she and her pagan friends, desperately need a canon (i.e., of written scripture).

On Yule I learned that Mother had been taking drugs.  I wasn’t personally that aware of the winter solstice.  Daughter and Mother wished one another happy Yule in the car as I drove them to rehab.  It’s probably the only reason I knew anything at all.

I hadn’t known the night before that Mother had informed Daughter she was abusing drugs.  Daughter called me the next morning when Mother hesitated to actually commit herself to rehab.  In the car on the way Daughter was jubilant and excited that Mother was doing the right thing.  Yes, rehab is better than sitting home alone shooting dope, but I was much more somber and subdued.

At her home I had sat with her, held her and listened to her enough to convince myself that Mother had no interest in repentance.  Daughter was right.  My presence alone persuaded Mother to shower, dress and leave with us for the rehab facility.  But in the car I felt like I was delivering her up for more hardening.  In my admittedly limited experience I know no one who has returned to faith in Christ from the higher power mysticism of a twelve-step program.  I watched sadly the full realization of incarceration creep across her face as she was taken from us.  No matter what I say or how much I protest, Mother and Daughter believe I live a life of rules, while they are free.

I gave them My statutes, yehôvâh explained in the philosopher’s dream chapter of Ezekiel the prophet, and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live.[9]  I call it the philosopher’s dream chapter because yehôvâh explained so much of his own understanding of Israel’s history there.  Then the twelve-year-old Jesus had this chapter at his disposal to renew and refresh his now human mind.

The Hebrew word translated My statutes was chûqqâh (חקותי).  It was translated προστάγματά in the Septuagint.  The Hebrew word translated My ordinances was mishpâṭ (משפטי), and δικαιώματά, a form of δικαίωμα, in the Septuagint.  This was translated the righteous requirements in: Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys the righteous requirements (δικαιώματα, a form of δικαίωμα) of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?[10]

In the same chapter yehôvâh explained: I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.[11]  Here the Hebrew word translated statutes was chôq (חקים); chûqqâh is the feminine of chôq according to Strong’s Concordance.  It was still translated προστάγματα in the Septuagint.  And again, the word translated ordinances was mishpâṭ (ומשפטים) in Hebrew and δικαιώματα in the Septuagint.  I don’t think these are different statutes or different ordinances.

The commandmentwas intended to bring life.[12]  The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.[13]  But if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.[14]  God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh.[15]  For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died.[16]  For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.  For I don’t understand what I am doing.  For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate.[17]

Also I gave them My Sabbaths, yehôvâh said in the philosopher’s dream chapter, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who sanctifies them.[18]

In practice many professing faith in Jesus do not believe that yehôvâh/Jesus sanctifies[19] them.  We trust Him for justification only, primarily forgiveness.  We believe our sanctification is a measure of our own good works, obedience accomplished in our own strength for our own glory.  We do not believe that here and now a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God.  For the one who enters God’s rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works.[20]  I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.[21]  Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience[22] (ἀπειθείας, a form of ἀπείθεια; literally, disbeliefDo we then nullify the law through faith?  Absolutely not!  Instead we uphold the law.[23]

I want to consider the movie The Host as a Holy Spirit metaphor for one who does not yet experience Him.  There are many spoilers here and as a metaphor the film is fatally flawed.  But in the hope of communicating some small portion of the Ineffable, here goes.

“The earth is at peace,” a resistance leader named Jebediah (William Hurt) narrates the beginning of the film.  “There is no hunger.  There is no violence.  The environment is healed.  Honesty, courtesy and kindness are practiced by all.  Our world has never been more perfect.  Only it is no longer our world.  We’ve been invaded by an alien race.  They occupy the bodies of almost all human beings on the planet.  The few humans who have survived are on the run.”

Then we are introduced to Melanie (Saoirse Ronan) fleeing her enemies: honesty, courtesy and kindness.  Following her earthly father’s example, she attempts suicide but lives, despite her best efforts, only to be possessed by Wanderer (also Saoirse Ronan).  Melanie’s old human survives to fight Wanderer for control of their body.

The Seeker (Diane Kruger) interviews Wanderer to glean Melanie’s memories for knowledge of other old humans in the resistance underground.  When she decides that Melanie’s old human is too strong for Wanderer, she plans to put Wanderer in a more compliant host, search Melanie’s memories herself and then let Melanie die the death she wanted.  But Wanderer has begun to love Melanie.  They flee The Seeker together.

Melanie tricks Wanderer into the desert and leads her to Uncle Jebediah and the underground resistance.  Uncle Jeb uses all of his authority as a leader to keep others in the resistance from killing the obviously possessed Melanie/Wanderer.  Even Melanie’s lover Jared (Max Irons) has no sympathy for her at first.  In a get-to-know-you walk-and-talk Uncle Jeb shortens Wanderer’s name to Wanda.

Melanie begins to love Wanda as she witnesses Wanda’s concern for the people Melanie loves, even some she hates or is indifferent toward.  The metaphor breaks down, of course.  The holy spirits, called souls in the film, are many and varied, and some or not as holy as Wanda.  The Seeker ironically becomes almost human in her fears that she personally is losing control to her host Lacey (also Diane Kruger) and that the holy spirits may ultimately lose their possession of the humans.  In the end The Host becomes Satan’s wet dream as The Seeker’s fears become flesh: holy spirits collaborate with the resistance to rid humans of the holy spirits.

 

Mother is on the verge of bankruptcy.  I helped her in a similar position nearly twenty years ago.  She called me before I left for Christmas.  I offered to help again.  She accepted.  As I drove the hundred miles or so to my own mother’s house the evening after Mother committed herself to rehab I understood why we hadn’t met to review her finances yet.  I recalled the things I’ve said and done with Grandmother, Mother and Daughter, fretted over some things I hadn’t said or done and heard Darth Vader echoing in my head, saying, “Now his failure is complete.”

As far as I know I am the believer of record in their lives.  I will give an account of this stewardship before Jesus.  As the enormity of my failure to live a life that commends others to Jesus inundated me in crushing waves, the image of my mother scrubbing the basement floor on her hands and knees popped into my mind.  Of all the things she had said or done, of all the things I might have complained that she hadn’t said or done, this simple image stuck with me.

I had overdosed on some hallucinogen.  I had thrown up all night long on her basement floor.  My mother cleaning up after me became a living metaphor of my life.  I had returned to drugs because a simple taste a few days earlier brought back the feeling I had lost since my early days of trusting Jesus again.  I made many more bad decisions along the way.  But my mother never gave up on me.

As I drove through the dark hills thinking perhaps I had been spared from helping Mother again financially, the admonition of my penny-pinching father came to mind:

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

The words weren’t his but Rudyard Kipling’s.[24]  A man like me would be a fool to attempt Kipling’s vision of manhood apart from the Holy Spirit.  But the image of my mother’s loving persistence and my father’s words of counsel gave me some hope that I was there, the right person at the right place and time.  And that image and those words carried me through that dark night until the continuous infusion of the Holy Spirit’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and control took over again the next morning.


[1] Genesis 1:27 (NET)

[2] Matthew 3:7 (NET)

[3] Matthew 3:8 (NET)

[4] 2 Samuel 12:5a (NET) Table

[5] 2 Samuel 12:7a (NET) Table

[6] 2 Samuel 12:13a (NET) Table

[7] Psalm 51:5 (NET) Table

[8] In the Septuagint both chêsêd (וחסד) and ṭôb (טוב) were translated by the one Greek word ἔλεός.

[9] Ezekiel 20:11 (NASB)

[10] Romans 2:26 (NET) Table

[11] Ezekiel 20:25 (NASB)

[12] Romans 7:10 (NET)

[13] Romans 7:12 (NET)

[14] Galatians 3:21b (NET)

[15] Romans 8:3a (NET)

[16] Romans 7:11 (NET)

[17] Romans 7:14, 15 (NET)

[18] Ezekiel 20:12 (NASB)

[19] When I struggled the most with this concept my Pastor was from the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  Today, as I scanned their webpage titled “Sanctification,” nothing jumps out at me as problematic except my own spiritual tic.  My flesh and my religious mind hear obedience in step 3 “to A Spirit-Filled Life”—“We maintain a continuous relationship with Jesus through obedience to His Word”—as a trigger word, calling me back to a DIY works religion.  But now I just translate obedience back into Greek, ὑπακοή, attentive hearkening, and the trigger obey disappears.  I remain (μείνατε, a form of μένω) in Jesus through faith instead (which is the actual word used in John 15:1-11 the Scriptural source of step 3).

[Addendum 1/26/2017] I’m not so sure Paul would agree that 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 “clearly teaches that there are two kinds of Christians.”

[20] Hebrews 4:9, 10 (NET)

[21] Galatians 2:20 (NET)

[22] Hebrews 4:11 (NET)

[23] Romans 3:31 (NET)

[24] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/46473