Faith of the Fathers

The three Patriarchs of the people of Israel were amazing examples of faith. Yet, it’s difficult to beat the example of Abraham offering Isaac in obedience to the One promising him children. This event is recorded in detail in Genesis 22. God tested Abraham. In the Hebrew, this word for “test” can refer to temptations as well as qualitative tests.

The word used in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Septuagint) is also used by the writer of Hebrews in 11:17 for “test”. It refers to testing to determine quality, and sometimes originates from ill will (temptation). God does this sort of thing with us, but we are not to do such things with Him (Luke 4:12, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16). The Pharisees did this sort of testing of Jesus constantly.

So, here’s the way the writer of Hebrews uses it:

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

Hebrews 11:17-19 NASB

Think through this test for a second. In Genesis 21, God has had Abraham send away Hagar and Abraham’s son Ishmael, telling Abraham that Isaac would be the “child of promise”. Now, “some time later”, this same Yahweh calls on Abraham to kill Isaac, specifically calling out both Isaac, and the special relationship between he and Abraham. Think about that for a second. It should give you chills. It should give you some pause for a moment, possibly even doubt. Because behind this story is the reader’s reaction of “what might my Savior ask of me?” And that’s a very good question.

The test of Abraham is of his quality of belief. God had promised that He would fulfill Abraham’s promise through Isaac. So, Abraham had to decide whether he would believe this God even when He seemed capricious. Did Abraham believe that this God would make good on a promise even when He seemed to be reneging? Do you?

When things aren’t going well, do you still believe in the goodness of our Savior? When it’s no longer “fun”, when it’s taking too long, when you are actually being persecuted and suffering, will you persist in your belief of the goodness of your Creator? Is Jesus still on His throne interceding for you? Is the Father still caring for you? Is the Spirit of the Living God still residing within you? Do you still believe, even when it’s not convenient, popular, fun, or even safe? What if persisting in belief and being obedient actually costs you something precious?

It’s easy to answer “yes” in the abstract imagination of “what might be”. I suspect that I have a limit to my faith. I don’t know where it is, exactly, but I suspect it wouldn’t be very difficult to find. I have spent time doubting my Savior. I have spent time behaving as if He was’t real, His promises weren’t sure, and as if He didn’t truly love me. For some peculiar reason, He still forgives me. I can’t answer the above questions with absolute confidence because I haven’t been tested to the extremes of my faith, not yet, but my day is coming.

How about you?

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Suicide By Lover

Three times Samson told Delilah a fib about how to take away his strength, and three times she has tried it. Samson knows what she’s doing, and who for. Delilah knows he knows. Basically, she’s trying to get him killed. And finally, Samson goes along with it.

And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.”  And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death.  And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.” (Judges 16:15 — 17 ESV)

She wore Samson down. After three times failing her benefactors, three times failing to get the silver, she plays the “you don’t love me” card. And she kept at until “his soul was shortened to death”. Samson would rather die than hear her say that again. As far as he knew he did love her. Clearly, that love was not returned.
What does a woman do when a man who loves her reveals whole heart? She betrays him, of course. If the question had been, “what does a woman do when the man she loves reveals his whole heart”, that would have received a different answer. But that’s not what happened. 

Delilah didn’t love Samson. Although, there is the story-element that the Philistines don’t kill Samson. We’re not told that this part of the deal Delilah makes, but what if it were? The thing is, Samson is safer being strong, so it’s doubtful Delilah was interested in his safety. It’s more likely the Philistines wanted him alive to torture, than dead as some sort of inspiring hero of Israel.

Either way, having now seen his whole heart, she promptly betrays him.

When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands.  She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.  And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.  And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison.  But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. (Judges 16:18 — 22 ESV)

This time the princes of the Philistines brought payment. This was sure to succeed. The ambush set, Delilah has Samson sleep in her lap. How tender and sweet, she does love him…and then calls for a man to shave the seven braids of his hair. Okay, maybe she doesn’t. In fact, she “torments” him after his hair is shaved. That statement doesn’t fit here. Literally, she “profanes him to humiliate him”, but that word, “profane” can also mean “begin”, hence the common translation. Since what she does causes him to lose the Nazarite status, I think “profane” actually makes more sense.  Samson sleeps, how does she “torment” a sleeping man? She probably put his hand in warm water.

Whatever it is she does, Samson’s strength leaves him. It’s not blatant, but the writer has personified Samson’s strength. Once Samson wakes, the writer notes, “But he did not know Yahweh had left Him.” In a rather literal sense, Yahweh was Samson’s strength. Samson was now separated from his true Master. Instead he is bound to new masters, they put out his eyes, and force him to grind grain in the mill, like an ox. Samson may not have enjoyed being the weapon of Yahweh, but it had to be better than this.

Have you ever wondered if serving God was worth it? Your friends seem to be having so much fun…without you. They do what you can’t, go where you shouldn’t, and talk about things unholy, with smiles and laughter. Does your Master seem a heavy burden? Let’s be honest, in many tangible ways, He is. Our enemy makes sin stuff easy, popular, and sensible. The lie is that “it’s all about us”, and we like that. 

Don’t deny it, you know it’s true. We’re not referring to bars, singles scenes or “clubbing”. We’re referring to other things to do on Sunday, no time to read Scripture, pray, no time for our Master. I did it in my late teens, in the Army. It became “inconvenient” to go to chapel. So, I didn’t do church at all. Eventually, I didn’t recognize the place I was in my life, not at all. It happens, once we choose “easy”, which is to not to follow our Master. And that choice is death, it’s suicide-by-<enter your personal desire here>. You know its true. So, lets chose life instead.

That’s my view through this knothole this morning. What do you see through yours?

Choose Your Trap

Wouldn’t it be great if one good choice ensured the rest of your choices would be just as good?  Maybe if the reason we chose correctly was right, the rest of our choices would just as right? Then again, maybe not.  Here, again, we find choices leading to a sad ending.

Passion Week XXI

Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.  And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.  When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, and said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:43-46 NASB)

Why is it we remember Jesus sweating drops of blood but not the angel comforting Jesus as he does?  Luke adds two details, only one of which have made it into common imagery of Gethsemane.  We don’t have verses 43 and 44 in the other Gospels, and, honestly, they are missing from the majority of the early manuscripts (Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, and especially the Bodmer Papyrus).  There is a single reading in the Sinaiticus “original hand” which supplied an early witness, yet a “corrected” version doesn’t have it; as if it were removed later from that manuscript.  The rest of the evidence is from later copies of these.  So, our best evidence is that it was written, disappeared, and shows back up nearly 800 years later.  Weird.

So, why do we remember the intensity with which Jesus prays but not the strengthening angel?  Perhaps it’s because the angel comes, but Jesus still sweats blood (or like blood); as if we don’t think the angel was all that effective.  On the other hand, the intensity with which Jesus prayed purged His will in total submission rather than obtained His own will.  The prayer aligned Himself with the divine purpose rather obtaining an alternative.  How often have we prayed with such intensity to purge our own will?  How driven are we to obtain alignment with our Master that we will sweat out thick dark drops as we pray?  Probably not as often as we pray to gain our own will.

Rising from this intense prayer for submission to His mission, Jesus finds the disciples sleeping.  Only Luke provides the reason of their sorrow.  The other Gospels record that their eyes were heavy, but we assume they were simply tired because it was late.  Luke has the detail that their weariness came from sorrow.  After the intensity of the meal they just shared, sorrow seems a fitting reason.  Reading John 13 through 16, gives us a very intense picture of that event.  It had to be confusing, yet leaving an indelible sense of Jesus’ doom.  Just as Jesus had surprised them by changing the meaning of the Passover itself, He forced changes in their view of the purpose and work of the Messiah.  It made no sense, yet left the impression that this was His end.

Jesus still returns to call them to prayer in order to avoid temptation.  There is no statement about weak flesh and willing spirit.  And there is only a single instance.  Matthew and Mark both have 3 repeat prayers.  John, as we’ve said, has none.  And Luke has just this single instance.  It’s likely that there were 3, and that Luke sees no need to repeat, and John sees no need to repeat the other Gospel writers.  Therefore, that Luke has only a single prayer isn’t a disagreement, but a literary compression of the event.

It may be more important that Jesus repeats His call to pray to avoid temptation.  Jesus sees their need differently.  Matthew and Mark both have Jesus desiring that they “watch” with Him rather than praying to avoid temptation.  Luke records a different reason for their act of prayer, just like He records a different reason for their sleep.  Praying to avoid temptation is critical, and not praying a critical error on the part of the disciples.  Is prayer our first defense against temptation?  Or is it more often that we try another tactic to avoid it.  Or would it be even more accurate to say we react against temptation rather than try to avoid it at all?  Praying that we avoid temptation would sure simplify our struggles against our propensity to give into temptation.  Perhaps we would do so much better to “keep the barn door shut” rather than trying to shut it as the horse bolts or after it escapes.

I have resisted praying to avoid temptation.  Sometimes I prevent myself from surviving temptation because I want to fail.  By not being proactive I have an excuse in that it caught me off guard.  Yet simply being proactive would have prevented the problem from appearing, and once appearing from overwhelming me; or at least providing an excuse for my failure.  I have to want to succeed to pray consistently to avoid temptation.

That’s my view through this knothole this morning.  What do you see?

Passion Week XX

And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him.  When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”  And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:39-42 NASB)

Honestly, I’ll be looking at the Garden prayer and arrest in much less detail than it warrants…seriously.  You’d be amazed at how much can be found simply in comparing the four Gospels to each other just with this event.  It’s amazing.  I believe that, together, they paint a very powerful picture of our Redeemer.  Unfortunately, I blog three days, teach the fourth, and prepare through the weekend, and blog three days.  It’s a pattern I’m strapped into until I either retire or am fired.  So, less detail is all I have time for.

Jesus and His disciples were “camping” in the Garden of Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives.  They were probably not alone since the Passover brought people from all over the world to Jerusalem, and I’m pretty sure camping was common.  The Mount of Olives would have been popular for historical and religious reasons as it provided the best view and proximity to the temple.  Tonight, though, there would be no rest.

In Luke, Peter, James, and John (or the sons of Zebedee) were not set apart from the rest as they were in Matthew and Mark.  Jesus simply tells them all to pray to avoid temptation.  While Jesus doesn’t go into detail as to what sort of temptation or to do what exactly, it needed prayer apparently to be avoided. There’s no comment that “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”.  There’s one prayer, not three.  Luke is so focused on prayer throughout his Gospel, yet here there only a single prayer of Jesus.  Luke seems focused on the effect and purpose of prayer, not the number of prayers; to avoid temptation, and relinquish the will.

There is this prayer that seems to be Jesus wrestling with what comes next.  It is not the will of Jesus to go through the suffering, death, and resurrection?  I have a very unpopular idea of what that actually looked like for Jesus, but I still find it makes the most sense to me.  If I’m right, then Jesus had more suffering to face than we can imagine.  In fact, the reason it’s so unpopular is that it’s impossible.  My contention is that the impossible is sort of God’s “wheelhouse”.  I believe Jesus was facing something that was creation-shattering huge.  It will cause all of heaven and earth to gasp in horror; and hell to roar in victory.

Somehow, please let the cup of suffering pass from Me!  Yet, I relent to Your will.  The first scene in the Passion of the Christ is this prayer.  It’s dark, and it’s being overseen by Satan.  The relinquishment is of Jesus’ will to avoid what comes.  I don’t think it’s the beatings He wants to avoid.  The relinquishment is of Jesus’ will to find another way that doesn’t include such a high price for the sin of all creation.  But as the stars of heaven declared His arrival, so the clockwork skies would herald His death; set in motion before the first sin was even an option.  There was no other way, not from the beginning was there another option.  And Jesus already knows this even as He prays.

That’s my view through this knothole.  What does God look like through yours?

The Temptation of “Gluttony”?

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” (Luke 4:1-4 ESV)

A couple of descriptors Luke uses are interestingly strung together, which by themselves are not nearly as interesting.  For instance, Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit but hungry.  He was led by the Spirit, but into the wilderness where there was nothing to eat.  It’s an odd juxtaposition of literary elements.  Of course it also sets up nicely an odd event.