Timothy & Countering The Culture (part 11)

Not only would the Roman governors look upon Christians with suspicious eyes, it would be difficult to doubt that Christians would happily return the favor.  While there is certainly an element of Christianity that rightly and responsibly challenges the power of governments, calls the world’s rulers to account, challenges arrogant actions and arrogations of power, and regularly holds up restraining hands that tell governments that “you go here and no further,” there is, of course, a legitimate role for governments.  For balance and a response, those same hands that are held up in attempts to restrain governments, insisting that they not go beyond their rightful place as the church says “we’ll take it from here,” are then to be turned outwards, with arms extended wide to embrace and deal with the issues to which the church of Christ must address itself.   

Naturally, Paul recognizes the potential for unhelpful and unhealthy conflict between the members of the church and temporal powers.  Concordantly, he urges that ‘requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people, even for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a peaceful and quite life in all godliness and dignity.  Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, since He wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1a-4).  Though at one level this may appear to be an acquiescence, is it not an effective counter-cultural witness?  Christians, of course, are to be the greatest of earthly citizens because they are also citizens of the kingdom of heaven that looks to the renewal of the whole of creation (not an escape to heaven). 

Now, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that the Christians, who, owing to their “atheism” (because they did not worship the Roman gods or Caesar), their “cannibalism” (for the words that accompanied their communal meals), and their lack of participation at the temples (which were also the markets and the center of public activity) that was taken to portend a destruction of social cohesiveness, experienced persecution at the hands of governing authorities, would look upon those persecutors as their enemies.  Therefore, this prayer for all people, including kings and governing authorities, was a strict following of the teachings of Jesus, who demanded His disciples to “love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45a – realizing that Matthew was probably not in circulation and may not yet have taken the shape in which it is now to be found at the time of the composition of the letter, and therefore, the passing along of the words of Jesus would have been based upon Paul’s knowledge of the Jesus tradition). 

These words reach a second level in the face of the Jew and Gentile divisions in Ephesus (and other cities whose churches may have been recipients of the letter now called Ephesians), with these divisions addressed in the second chapter of Ephesians.  The insistence that the Creator God “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” speaks to the lingering hesitation on the part of ethnic Israel to grant Gentiles status as full and legitimate members of the covenant people of the Creator God. 

So while praying for those that may potentially be perceived or actually be enemies is counter-cultural, so too is Paul’s insistence that Israel’s God wants all people groups to be saved (come under the provisions of His covenant), with this running counter to the Jewish culture that wanted to continue to reserve their God’s blessings to Israel alone, and who attempted to enforce this restriction by insisting that Gentiles needed to adopt the covenant markers of Judaism (primarily circumcision, food laws, and Sabbath-keeping) to indicate their participation under their God’s covenant. 

Love On John's Terms (part 22)

Without rehearsing the history of attempted rebellions under Israel’s various oppressors, a simple acknowledgement that a long line of attempts at violent overthrow (most of which came to naught) backed by messianic claims and provided tenuous foundation by hopes concerning their God responding to rebellious actions by acting on behalf of His people to legitimize the activity and establish His kingdom will suffice.  That acknowledged, it is possible to confidently propose that when Jesus speaks of thieves and robbers that came before Him, He was making a reference to previous messianic claimants. 

Jesus was referring to all of those who had risen up in revolt in efforts to overthrow the nations that ruled over the land of Israel, grasping at that which was not theirs to take and attempting to set themselves up as kings and rulers of the Creator God’s land and people.  Not only could this be directed towards all of those that could be looked back upon as potential and failed messiah figures, but it could be rightly applied to Israel’s then current ruling and dynastic family, as Jesus adds “the sheep did not listen to them” (John 10:8b).  Certainly, there were very few in Israel who looked upon the Herods as legitimate rulers of the covenant people.  In many ways, they were as despised as the Romans. 

Jesus repeats Himself and says, “I am the door.  If anyone enters through Me, He will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” (10:9).  Keeping in mind that the notion of being “saved” had everything to do with participating in the fullness of the Creator God’s covenant faithfulness by participating in the kingdom of God, the renewal of creation (by those living at the time of its expected in-breaking), or the resurrection of the righteous dead (by those who had died as people faithful to the covenant), the covenant people were in constant expectation of the re-establishment of national sovereignty and subsequent superiority to the surrounding nations, as in the halcyon days of David and Solomon. 

By and large, the covenant people were expecting their God to break in upon history and set up His kingdom in and through them.  This was a motivating force behind the repeated messianic movements and claimants, and the associated revolutionary activities.  Many looked to the long-held promise of a land of their own in which they ruled themselves, knowing that as long as the present situation of being ruled by foreign powers continued, that they were still in a state of exile from their God’s promises to them. 

It is in this context that Jesus informs the people that the way in which they were attempting to regain control of their land was not the way that their God had intended for them.  It was not the door, so to speak.  Jesus told them that He was the door, and that entrance into the kingdom of the Creator God was going to be provided through Him and through following on the path of love and self-sacrifice that He was forging.  The people would find their pasture, their land, through what it was that He was going to do, through their believing in Him as Lord and KIng, and through their loyally adhering to His instructions and examples concerning the way that He was presenting---which would ultimately be the way of the shame and suffering and the cross. 

Presumably turning His thoughts to the thieves and robbers who were the pretenders and presumptuous usurpers that had come before Him (in no way at all is the Satan in view here as the thief and robber), while also considering those that would have followed after Jesus and been known to the Johannine community (especially considering the fact of the destruction of the Jewish revolt of 66-70, the destruction of the Temple, and the burning of Jerusalem), Jesus offers commentary on their methods by saying that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (10:10a).  This method was not the Creator God’s intention for His people and His kingdom.  Then, as it is now, it was not the Creator God’s design for His chosen people to establish and extend His kingdom by force of arms and violent revolution.  There was no need to steal and kill and destroy, as such would be quite counter-productive to His plans.  That is the method of the thieves and robbers.   

Joshua's Battles (part 5)

It is said that when the kings of the people that were occupying the promised land came out to do battle against Joshua and Israel, that their armies “were as numerous as the sand on the seashore” (11:4b).  Quite naturally, the use of this language would have been meant to evoke thoughts of the Creator God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  To each of those individuals, the covenant God promised to give them descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore, so the fact that kings and armies were coming out against Israel, in great numbers and with those numbers reported in this way (imagining that the word would have spread among the people of Israel in this same way), should not have been a cause for panic. 

Rather, it would have been a reminder of the promises of their faithful and powerful God.  Because He is reported to have not failed, up to that point, to bring any of His great promises to pass, there would thus be no reason to be faithless in the face of this multitudinous enemy.  Yes, the words of the Divine catalog, as the whole of the narrative is crafted to hang together, are carefully chosen to remind and reveal and demonstrate the covenant faithfulness of the Creator God. 

In the midst of that reliance upon their God’s faithful power, as it had been demonstrated through plagues, deliverance from Egypt, the splitting of a sea, pillars of cloud and manna from heaven, water from a rock, and more, there was the ongoing realization that the campaign would be long and the battles would be numerous.  Eventually however, there was another realization that the land would eventually be handed over and given to the saints of God, Israel, His covenant people, with His power exercised through His people.  Indeed, as one reaches the end of the book of Joshua, one reads that “the Lord gave Israel all the land He had solemnly promised to their ancestors, and they conquered it and lived in it” (21:43). 

Again, the opportunity is taken to point to the Creator God’s promises and His power to perform according to His promises in order to bring about His own purposes.  Such is the constant refrain of the Scriptures, always pointing to the actions of the God of Israel, which should prompt praise and worship of the gracious, righteous, and redeeming God on the part of the believer, along with a desire to be fitted into His plans by the working of His Spirit within, rather than causing those that call upon His name to turn inward in consideration of what things to avoid so as to be able to live as one ought to live.  The life of the Christian is an outward spirituality---always expressing itself in action that shows that Jesus indeed is Lord and that the land indeed has been conquered.  It is much more than a personal, private matter of faith and conscience.  

Continuing on in Joshua, the reader finds that “The Lord made them secure” (21:44a).  Why is it that He did this?  It is said that He did so “in fulfillment of all He had solemnly promised their ancestors” (21:44b).  Here is yet another signpost that directs the believer to further realize the basis upon which he or she lives and serves, which is the power and faithfulness of the God that is revealed in Scripture and in the person of Jesus, that has and will bring all of His promises to pass, with the Resurrection the evidence of and great seal upon those promises  It is a constant looking away from self, with that gaze directed towards the Creator God for the purpose of fitting within His purposes for the renewal and redemption of His creation.  

Place For You (part 2 of 2)

Moses, who was the first to be recognized as a deliverer of Israel (something of a pre-messianic sensibility messiah), had spoken to the people of the covenant about the land of their Father’s promise---the land in which the Creator God said that He would dwell with His people---telling them that it possessed many dwelling places for them.   Specifically, the people were informed that this promised land contained large, fine cities which they did not build.   

In that mold, Jesus, the presumed messiah and deliverer of Israel and renewed Israel, speaks to the people of the covenant and the new covenant that was to be centered upon Him, about the land of the Father’s promise---the place in which His people would one day dwell with Him---also telling them, as had Moses in a previous time and place, that it was a place of many dwelling places.  These words that were said to have fallen from the lips of Jesus mark the beginning of what is generally known as His “farewell discourse” in the Gospel of John, as they follow the “last supper” and Judas’ having gone out to complete what would come to be understood as his betrayal of Jesus.  As Jesus is now on His path to the cross, He says “I am going away to make ready a place for you” (14:2c).  This is deliverer-speak. 

Based upon the route He traveled in His vocation, Jesus understood where it was that He was going.  If He was indeed Israel’s Messiah, He operated with a certain level of trust and expectation in regards to  what it was that His death would accomplish.  Believing Himself to be the representative of Israel (its King), He knew that He was going down into the curse of death on behalf of His Israel, but did so in what appeared to be complete trust in the promise-keeping God of Israel---Whom He is shown to have trusted with His whole mind, being, and strength---to fulfill the expectations of His promise, to raise up His Messiah from the dead, to conquer death through that Resurrection, and to inaugurate the kingdom of heaven on earth in a radically transformed creation in which Jesus reigned and Resurrection power was available through the mysterious agency of the Spirit for all those who were moved to a trusting allegiance to Him as Lord and King---for the purpose of bringing the Creator God’s glory to bear in this world. 

Because Jesus consistently spoke of the kingdom of God on earth, when He says that He is going to make ready a place for His disciples, we can safely understand that He is speaking of the kingdom of God that was going to be established with His Resurrection.  He is not necessarily talking about an eternal home full of mansions in a far-away place called heaven.  This expectation of the kingdom of heaven being established on earth (the life of the age to come breaking in upon the present creation, renewing and restoring, and the Creator God making His dwelling among men as the realm of His existence overlaps with the realm of man’s existence---heaven on earth) would be completely in line with the Jewish worldview, which looked to a resurrection of the righteous dead and a restoration of the creation to a pre-fall condition, with Israel’s God as ruler through His Messiah.  For Israel, and Jesus as the representative of Israel, this would be a world in which renewal had been commenced, in which heaven was going to be everywhere breaking in and shining forth in the world through God’s covenant people. 

When Jesus says “if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with Me, so that where I am you may be too” (14:3), He seems to be speaking of His Resurrection.  With this, one must consider the Apostle Paul’s repeated insistence that all those that trust in Jesus as King will be raised up from the dead in the exact same way in which He was raised up from the dead---into a world now subject to and experiencing the kingdom of God that has Jesus as its ruler.  Finally, because He had spoken so many times of His death and His Resurrection, Jesus rather pointedly says to His disciples, though they would neve grasped the message or want to believe it until after the climactic events of all of history, that “you know the way where I am going” (14:4).       

Israel & Adam (part 2 of 2)

Can one even imagine the providential and creative God’s response to being rejected by Adam?  A sense of it can be had through understanding that God’s response at having been rejected by Israel, as Jeremiah exclaims “Be amazed at this, O heavens!  Be shocked and dumbfounded…Do so because My people have committed a double wrong: they have rejected Me, the fountain of life-giving water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water” (Jeremiah 2:12-13).  As humankind (via Adam) rejected their life-giver, turning their trust away from their Creator and looking elsewhere for support, ultimately, to other creatures now marred and cursed and corrupted, so too did Israel reject their covenant God that had redeemed them from Egypt and carried them through all their years. 

The Creator God of Israel says, “You have brought all this on yourself, Israel, by deserting the Lord your God when He was leading you along the right path” (2:17).  Effectively, this bears little difference to what that same God can have been thought to have said to Adam.  Again, it should be noted that though the Adam story may very well be a retrojection of the Israel story, it is still the story by which Israel partially defines, understands and presents itself.  Did Adam not desert the Lord and His path, bringing a curse upon all creation, as it is reported, through not heeding the warning promise?  Israel failed to heed the warning promises, and as a result, their faithful covenant God was going to bring a curse upon His people. 

Jeremiah goes on to share that “Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment” (2:19a).  For Israel, the punishment was going to be the curses of siege, destruction, exile, captivity, and oppression.  For humankind, the immediate judgment was that “cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:17b).  Continuing in Jeremiah, the God of Israel informs His people that “Your unfaithful acts will bring about your punishment.  Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you” (2:19b).  Israel’s unfaithfulness was to the covenant, and to their God’s requirements that they do not engage in idolatry, that they reverence the sanctuary, and that they keep His Sabbaths (while also caring for orphans and widows).  Their punishment and their discipline represented their God’s faithfulness to His covenant, in response to His people’s lack thereof.  Adam fared no better.  His unfaithful act most certainly brought about punishment, as it is understood to be the vehicle that carried death into the world for Himself and all living things.  Jumping further along in the story, as the second Adam to come, Jesus reverses this so as to ultimately carry death out of the world by exhausting the curses brought about by both Israel and Adam.   

To Israel, to Adam, and to His covenant people from all nations and generations, the Creator God says, “Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful it was for you to reject Me, the Lord your God, to show no respect for Me” (2:19c).  This is what is spoken by “the Lord God Who rules over all” (2:19d).  The rejection, by Adam, of God’s singular command, brought the curse.  The rejection, by Israel, of their God’s covenant laws and responsibilities (what can be thought of as a singular command) brought exile and captivity.  Later, that rejection would be manifested in the rejection of Jesus as their God’s anointed, crucified, and resurrected King and Lord of all creation.  Submission to His rule means being brought into a fertile land, as were Adam and Israel, so as to enjoy its fruits and its rich bounty in eternal life (the life of the age to come brought into and making itself felt in the present as the Creator God’s people become the place where heaven and earth overlap as part of their service in recognition of their King) and a renewal of God’s good creation.  Rejection means a continued march into the bonds of death, under that curse forever.