idolatry

John Piper has a great article on idolatry on his blog at desiringgod.org.  Worth a read.  It (idolatry) is bigger than you think.

the witness

altar image borrowed from teldan.files.wordpress.com

As I’ve said, frequently and fervently, I’m believe that the first 3/4 of your Bible is just as important as the the last 27 books.  I don’t think they were an accident, or that Isreal was Plan A and the church is Plan B.  Or that God somehow needed to go through Abraham, Moses, David and the Prophets to get to Jesus.  I believe, like Paul wrote to believers in Rome and Corinth, that these things were written as examples to us.  I believe that God, the author, architect, and artist of creation used the Hebrew race to give us a picture of who he is, how much he loves us, and his purpose for us.

So I’ve been hung up for two days on Joshua 22 – the story of the witness. Here it is in brief:

• The children of Israel have just finished conquering the promised land
• The families of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had chosen land west of the Jordan river for their inheritance, but they’d gone on with the other tribes to conquer the rest of the land
• When Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh went back to their land they built a huge altar
• The rest of the tribes heard about it and got crazy mad.  They came back across the Jordan ready to do battle against the “rebels“.  Why?  Because God had said he would designate one specific place for all Israel to worship.  Anything else would be an abomination.
• When the ten and a half tribes confronted the two and a half, Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh told them they had it all wrong.  They weren’t going to worship at the altar or sacrifice.  It was just a reminder to them that they were part of Israel and needed to go to the tabernacle (later the temple) and worship.
• This satisfied the ten and a half tribes and they went on home

The reason the ten and a half were upset is they remembered what happened at Peor and with Achan at Ai.  In both cases, a small group had sinned and brought God’s wrath on the whole nation.

I could go off on the judgment aspect of it, but the thing on my mind is the one place of worship that God designates.  My mind immediately jumps to Jesus’ discussion with the woman at the well about where to worship.  In response to her question Jesus said, “an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.   God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

He told the woman it was no longer a relevant question.   Yes, God had designated a physical place – the temple in Jerusalem – as the one place he would accept our worship.  But Jesus was saying “It’s a new day.  The physical temple was a placeholder to lead you to the spiritual temple where God now allows our worship“

Which makes me kinda cringe when someone stands up in front of a church and says “Aren’t you glad to be in the house of God today?”   Because we don’t come to the house of God on Sunday.  If we’re there at all, it’s because we live there!

flip side

It seems to me that two common fallacies about the Kingdom of God are opposites

• one: there is something i need to do so God will be okay with me
• two: God will bless me  because he loves me unconditionally

Want a picture?  Go back to the Bible!

Start with Leviticus 16 – Yom Kipur, the day of atonement, one of the biggest days on the Jewish calendar.  Where were the people?  In Jerusalem?  Nope!  At their local synagogue?  Nope (God never told them to go to their local synagogue, btw).  They were at home, fasting and praying.  Why?  Because the high priest did all the work!  Get it?

Feeling a little helpless in your quest to be good enough for God?  Give it up – you’re doomed to failure.  You can’t do what our high priest Jesus has already done.  Most of us know that with our mind, but we still fight with the concept from time to time in our heart.

So what about the blessings thing?  Check Deuteronomy 28.  God promises all sorts of blessings, preceded by the little word, “if”.  There’s a sort of narcissistic myth in the church that goes something like “If i just tell God what I want long enough and hard enough, he’s going give it to me.”

The serpent planted three lies in Eve in the garden:

1. doubt – you can’t trust God
2. desire – there is a shortcut to maturity/perfection/completion
3. rebellion – disobedience doesn’t have consequences

Number three is in play here.  Yes indeed, God trully wants to bless you.  He doesn’t even want you to work for blessings.  Deuteronomy 28:2 says that blessings will run up to you and jump on you!

It’s the “if” word we stumble on.  Salvation is a gift.  “Here, take the keys to this new Lexus.”  “Here’s a million dollars.”  “Here’s the deed for this 14-room mansion.”  All we do is stretch out our hand to receive it.  But blessing comes with obedience.  It requires both relationship – knowing the Father’s will – and the action of doing it.

Think about a family.  If yours is messed up, think about a good family you know or picture an imaginary perfect family.  The dad says, “Clean up your room.”  The child says “I want a new <something>.”  Will the child get the desired thing if they don’t clean the room?  In a good family, no; because the father is working to teach the child obedience and uses even insignificant life situations to reinforce that teaching.  Why should God behave differently toward us?

speak now against the day unveiled

Church Under the Tree benefit at Eisenbergs skate park

so Saturday last i was at Eisenberg’s skate park for an event sponsored by Church Under the Tree and 89.7 PowerFM. Brent Mills, the worship guy from CUTT was the one who set the thing up and he was generally awesome. Ron Mills, their pastor, was there hanging out and seemed cool too.  if i got the story right, he preaches at Eisenbergs once a month.

Drue Mitchell MC’d the show Dawn and Wes were there staffing the Power FM table.  There was a rapper, Mike Something, from some frozen wasteland of the north, that brought some good rhymes to start off the show with Drue backing him up.   Mike i’m so sorry i didn’t write down your last name.  actually i’m not totally positive about your first name either.  forgive me?

next up was Unveiled, who i happen to like a lot.  i was at a show in Denton last year where they were supposed to be playing, but Audra, the lead voice, was in a car wreck and didn’t make it.  i picked up their cd though, and liked it, so i was expecting a good show.

and they did a very good show.  Audra is not only a good singer but also knows how to work the crowd.  Phillip was tight on drums, Caleb played some very pretty guitar, got a great sound, and has a killer “rawr”.  one sweet thing about having a single guitar is that you can hear the bass lines loud and clear – and Elijah’s are worth listening to.

i guess a rockin band with a girl lead is going to get the inevitable comparison with Flyleaf, and there are some similarities.  the first time i saw Flyleaf (Passerby) they weren’t as together as the current Unveiled though.  Audra and Lacey have different vocal styles and quite a different stage presence.  Lacey seems more desperate somehow.  Audra was at ease and sounded like she was having a good time.

next up for what seemed like a short set (i didn’t time it) was Speak Now Against the Day from Arlington.  they were loud.  both guitars (Aaron Warren and Michael Olson) had their amps pretty cranked.  I was in the sound booth across the room  from them and my ears were bleeding.  Nathan Olson – bass and vocals – did a good job on vocals and a fair job on bass. i couldn’t really hear the drums (Joseph Spencer) too much over the guitar amps. Erick Sigmond did lead vocals and was actually pretty fun to listen to.  i’m not sure who the songwriting talent comes from but i think i like it.  Russell Martz played synth.  Again, the guitars drowned out a lot of it, but he had some clever lines during the quiet moments.  SNATD could really be a good band.  they suffered a bit from coming on after Unveiled, who is much more polished, and also from too much guitar volume.

i suffered too, as it turned out.  at one point Russell turned one of his synth’s up a lot hotter than during sound check, i guess trying to compete with the guitars for volume.   he also hit a very low very expensive note.  that note burned up a JBL EONs we were using for a floor monitor ($600) and the two JBL MRX-515 subs ($650 x 2), making it a $1900 evening.  [that may come down a bit - i have the drivers out of the subs and will take them tomorrow to see if i can get them re-coned.]  it does put them out of commission for sound gigs i was supposed to do this thursday and friday though.

Eisenbergs was a benefit show.  the bands were there for w/e they sold in merch plus to advertise their names.  we (Anthony Corder and i)  donated the sound system and our time knowing we were unlikely to get anything for it.  probably Russell just wasn’t thinking and  just went for all the volume he could get.   anyway, i wish he hadn’t.

party time!

image borrowed from bijbelstudie.110mb.com

I finished up Leviticus this morning – chapters 22 to 27 – which had more meaty stuff than i could possibly fit in a blog, so here’s a bit from chapter 23.

He starts of the chapter reminding them about the Sabbath day, then goes down the list of religious holidays.

• Passover (Pesach)
• Unleavened Bread – right after passover
• First Fruits (Yom Habikkurim) – a symbolic portion brought from the very first of the harvest
• Pentecost or Feast of Weeks (Shavu’ot) – 50 days after First Fruits
• Trumpets
• Atonement (Yom Kipur)
• Booths (Sukkot)

For three of these – Passover, Pentecost, and Sukkot – all males in Israel were required to go to Jerusalem (Exodus 23 and 34).

It’s interesting to me that the entire public requirements of the Torah were fulfilled during these few holidays.  The rest was focused more around the family – a good thing, I think.

Of course, it wasn’t possible to stay that way.  One way religious people people maintain control is by coming up with new responsibilities.  So by Jesus’ day there were rabbi’s and synagogue’s in every town and commentaries about commentaries interpreting what God said.  There were meetings at the synagogue on Sabbath mornings where the rabbis would explain what the Torah said and what the commentaries said about it.  Obviously a normal person certainly couldn’t be trusted for such scholarly activities.

firehose

i’m reading Leviticus right now, with frequent excursions into almost every other part of the bible.  i’m seeing so many new things that i can hardly get my mind wrapped around them.  i’ve decided to read Hebrews after i get through Deuteronomy. 

now i’m off on a little bunny trail to read Romans 9 and 10

breath of life

i’m ok with Koine Greek, but i don’t read Hebrew at all.  so Charles Van Der Pool’s interlinear  Apostolic Bible is a real joy to me.  it has a “literal” English translation underneath the Greek text for both the old and new testaments.  the old testament text is from the Septuagint, translated about 250 years before Christ.

when the old testament is quoted by new testament authors, they generally quoted from the Septuagint (a.k.a.: “LXX”) version.  you can tell which they used because the LXX often varies a bit from the Hebrew in ways unlikely to occur if they were translating Hebrew on the fly.  because of this scholars think that normal people during Jesus lifetime read and studied the Greek translation more than Hebrew original.

so it’s called the Apostolic Bible for good reason.  it has the same texts that the apostles could have read in their day – though it’s unlikely the gospels and epistles were collected in one place until quite a while later.

the biggest benefit to me – besides having the old and new testament Greek texts together in one place – is the concordance.  finally it’s easy to consider the meaning of a word by seeing all the times it was used in both sections of the bible.

one that had me excited this morning is in Acts 2:2.  the NIV says:

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting

in the Greek, “violent wind” is “pnoes biaias” (πνοῆς βιαίας).  “biaias” is the adjective translated “violent”, but i wasn’t familiar with the word translated “wind”.  it’s similar to pneuma (πνεῦμά) – translated wind, breath, or spirit – but is a little different word.

so off i went to the concordance.  and it turned out there was a reason for my unfamiliarity.  it is only used twice in the new testament, the other use also in Acts at 17:25 where it’s translated “breath”.

so maybe, i thought, it was more like the sound of a “strong breath”.  the thought that came to my mind was a 40-year old blowing out the candles on his birthday cake.

but it was the old testament that helped me out most.  our word is used a number of times, but the first one is enough.

The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. – Genesis 2:7

“Breath of life” (pnoen zoes – πνοὴν ζωῆς) uses the same word as the Acts 2 passage.  and it makes perfectly clear what happened in the upper room.  when God created Adam he imparted life to lifeless clay by breathing on him.  in Acts he did the same thing to 120 people.

gray clouds on the horizon

by Viktor Vasnetsov, courtesy wikimedia

i spend a couple hours last evening reading and watching political and economic news.  in the US, the news is mostly bad, and some worse.  it seems a majority of our politicians are disingenuous – selling out our country for the price of campaign contributions and political pressure.

my assumption is that the bible is true and that the horrors of the last days will be beyond what i care to think about.  we can fight, and it’s our responsibility to, but we won’t get final victory until a guy shows up on a white horse.

then this morning i found myself in the last chapter of  Isaiah:

For behold, the LORD will come in fire And His chariots like the whirlwind, To render His anger with fury, And His rebuke with flames of fire. For the LORD will execute judgment by fire And by His sword on all flesh, And those slain by the LORD will be many. “Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the gardens, Following one in the center, Who eat swine’s flesh, detestable things and mice, Will come to an end altogether,” declares the LORD. “For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory. “I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations: Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have neither heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations. “Then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the LORD, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the LORD, “just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. “I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites,” says the LORD. – Isaiah 66:15-21 (NASB)

So the good news is, there will be survivors.

who you know, not what

the guys Jesus was hardest on were also the ones who dedicated their lives to reading, studying, memorizing, and teaching the bible.

don’t ever think that’s what it’s about.  rather, it’s about knowing God, loving him, and serving him.  it’s 100% relationship.

things psalm 1 doesn’t say:

• his delight is reading through the bible every year of his adult life
• his delight is in memorizing a new scripture every day
• his delight is in correlating the use of every word in the bible

rather, his delight is meditating on the things God has said – like i would a letter from the one i love.  to know God, to begin to grasp his ways and the things that are important to him, so i can live pleasing to him.

words, words, words (part 1)

i have a number of issues with english bible translations, most going back to the latin vulgate, by way of the bishops bible and geneva bible translations of the 16th century.  bible translation mistakes are insidious because, almost inevitablly, somone will stand up in front of a church, or radio microphone, or tv camera and build a teaching on the peculiar reading the translator picked.  after that, said preacher will fight to the death any “correction” to that translation.

as a bunny-trail diversion down the “i said it so it must be right” path:   to this point in my life, 100% of people i’ve bumped into who are adamantly, actively pro-choice have either had an abortion or counseled someone to have an abortion.  after that, it’s more guilt than any of us can handle to say: “i killed my baby” or “i counseled my friend/daughter/girlfriend to kill her baby”. so the person becomes “pro-choice”.

i have no doubt i’ll eventually find a “pro-choice” person for whom this isn’t true, but i’m convinced they’re the minority.

so, back to the bible (i can picture my friend Kathy Johnson doing that airplane-circling-the-tower gesture and mouthing “the point.  what is the point? get back to the point”).

the greek word ἐπιθυμια (epithumia) is translated as both desire and lust in the most new testament translations.  same word in the original text, two different words in our english translations.  here are a couple examples of each, all from the 1995 New American Standard translation:

and He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” – Luke 22:15

For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. – Matthew 13:17

and

…but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. – Matthew 5:28

Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. – 2 Timothy 2:22

what this does, in my always-humble opinion, is give the appearance that the bible counts desire and lust as distinct categories.  it fits our western culture perfectly. we believe it’s ok to desire physical gratification, an extravagent lifestyle and adulterous relationships; as long as we don’t “let it slip over to the area of lust”.  “she is so hot!”  “oh, me?  i wound never be unfaithful to my wife”

what the translators should have done

they should have consistently translated ἐπιθυμια as desire.  is this harder to handle spiritually?  you betcha!  but it is what the bible writers actually wrote.  try swapping out desire where it says lust in the two examples i gave earlier.  or, try this on for size:

For all that is in the world, the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its desires; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. – 1 John 2:16-17

John isn’t saying there is some special class of desire called lust that belongs to this world and is going to come to an end.  he’s saying that IT ALL is.

just as an obtw: the septuagint (the greek translation of the hebrew old testament – the bible that was commonly in use when Jesus was on the earth and that he most often quoted from) uses the same word, ἐπιθυμια, in the 10th commandment in exodus 20:17 and deuteronomy 5:21:

‘You shall not covet [desire] your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’