This is the sixth in a series of biblical summaries from David Dorsey's book The Literary Structure of the Old Testament. This is the second in the sub-series of historical books, covering the book of Ruth:
a introduction: devastation of Naomi's family (1:1-5)
b two of Naomi's relatives deliberate whether to support her (1:6-19a)
c return to Bethlehem in emptiness and hopelessness (1:19b-22)
d TURNING POINT: meeting of Ruth and Boaz (2:1-23)
c' Ruth's appeal at the threshing floor and her return to
Bethlehem in fullness and hope (3:1-18)
b' two of Naomi's relatives deliberate whether to support Naomi (4:1-12)
a' conclusion: restoration of Naomi's family (4:13-21) (Dorsey 126)
The 'a' pattern shows the reversal of Naomi's fortune. Earlier, her family is lost. Later, it is restored. Ruth's marriage to Naomi's son ends tragically. Later, Ruth has a happy marriage to Naomi's relative. Naomi's two sons die earlier. Later, Ruth is proclaimed to be more to Naomi "than seven sons." All this suggests that what Naomi has lost has been restored.
The 'b' pattern shows the admirable quality of those determined to help - Ruth in the first case, Boaz in the second. In both events, two relatives initially agree to help. Then, in both, one relative turns back when marriage is mentioned. One then chooses to stay with an admirable speech. In both, a blessing is uttered for Ruth. Then, in the first story, Ruth's decision to support Naomi means that Ruth will probably not remarry, while in the second, a decision to support Naomi means that Ruth will be married. All this underscores Ruth's loyalty, and the blessings that are given to her.
The 'c' pattern contrasts two returns to Bethlehem. In the first, Naomi returns in despair. In the second, Ruth returns in hope. The first takes place at the barley harvest. The second, when the people were "winnowing barley." The first features a question of Naomi's identity. The second, a question of Ruth's identity. In the first, Naomi says she left full but came back empty. In the second, Ruth leaves empty, but returns with six measures of barley. In the first, Ruth and Naomi come into Bethlehem in despair. In the second, Ruth comes into Bethlehem with good news and hope. All this underscores the scale of the changes of fortune that take place.
Finally, the story turns on the meeting between Boaz and Ruth in which he offers her his full and enthusiastic support. The story turns on Ruth's need and Boaz's generosity.
Friday, January 26, 2018
Judges
This is the fifth in a series of biblical summaries derived from David Dorsey's book, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament. Having moved past the Book of the Law, we now look at historical books. This one covers the book of Judges:
a Israel's holy war against the Canaanites (1:1-2:5)
b Israel's cyclical, idolatrous decline, generation after generation,
during the period of the judges (2:6-3:6)
c Othniel (3:7-11; 1:11-15)
d Ehud (3:12-30)
e Deborah and Barak (4:1-5:31)
f TURNING POINT: Gideon (6:1-8:32)
e' Abimelech (8:33-9:57)
d' Jephthah (10:6-12:7)
c' Samson (13:1-16:31)
b' Israel's permanent idolatrous revolt at Dan, under Moses'
own grandson and descendants (17:1-18:31)
a' Israel's (unholy) civil war against wicked Benjamites (19:1-21:25)
The 'a' pattern suggests that Israel's disobedience leads to decline. Earlier, military activity, inquiring of God, weeping, and the offering of sacrifices are all part of the divinely ordered conquest of Canaan. (Dorsey 118-119) Dorsey continues: "In the former, the procuring of wives is a positive theme: Othniel wins his wife by a courageous victory over the Canaanites; in the latter, the procuring of women is a very negative theme, featuring rape, mass kidnapping, etc. In the former, the Benjamites fail to drive out the Jebusites from Jebus (1:21); in the latter, the Levite avoid pagan Jebus and seeks hospitality instead among fellow Israelites in Benjamin's tribe, ironically suffering an outrage far worse than he presumably would ever have experienced at Jebus. All this underscores how the Israelites, initially doing righteous battle against the wicked Canaanites, end by doing wicked battle against themselves.
The 'b' pattern shows that sporadic or cyclical idolatry later becomes a permanent institution. In the former, children reject the obedience of their parents and turn to idols. Later, parents encourage idolatry to their children. Before, God preserves some pagan tribes to test Israel's faithfulness, including the Sidonians. Later, idolatrous Israelites attack a town of peaceable Sidonians. Before, obedience to Moses' law is key. Later, Moses' own descendants are enlisted in encouraging idolatry. All this suggests that the Israelites have become worse than the Canaanites.
The 'c' pattern, like the 'd' and 'e' patterns, shows the decline of Israel from good judges to bad. Othniel marries well by obeying God. Samson disobeys by marrying Canaanite women. Othniel drives Canaanites from the land. Samson settles among them. Othniel's wife prepares him for good - particularly an extended territory. Samson's wives press him for bad things and betray him. Othniel unites Israel. Samson divides it.
The 'd' pattern continues with Ehud and Jephthah. In both cases, a transjordanian king oppresses Israel eighteen years. Ehud has a message from God for an enemy king. Jephthah sends two messages to enemy king. Ehud kills thousands of enemies with the Ephraimites help. Jephthah kills thousands of Ephraimites. Ehud's judgeship is marked by Israelite unity. Jephthah's is marked by fragmentation and civil war.
Finally, the 'e' pattern continues with Deborah/Barak and Abimelech. Earlier, an Israelite woman crushes the pagan Sisera's skull. Later, a pagan woman crushes the Israelite Abimelech's skull.
The book hinges on the judgeship of Gideon. Though he starts off as a faithful judge, his idolatry sets the stage for all that follows in the book of Judges. Gideon's story makes its own chiasm:
1) Gideon's stand against idolatry at Ophrah (6:1-32)
2) Gideon's battle against Midianites (6:33-7:25)
2') Gideon's battle against Israelites (8:1-21)
1') Gideon's lapse into idolatry at Ophrah (8:22-32)
All this suggests that the option given to the Israelites in Deuteronomy has been answered. They have chosen idolatry rather than to worship the one true God. This leads them to be more wicked than their enemies, and they conclude by going to war against themselves.
a Israel's holy war against the Canaanites (1:1-2:5)
b Israel's cyclical, idolatrous decline, generation after generation,
during the period of the judges (2:6-3:6)
c Othniel (3:7-11; 1:11-15)
d Ehud (3:12-30)
e Deborah and Barak (4:1-5:31)
f TURNING POINT: Gideon (6:1-8:32)
e' Abimelech (8:33-9:57)
d' Jephthah (10:6-12:7)
c' Samson (13:1-16:31)
b' Israel's permanent idolatrous revolt at Dan, under Moses'
own grandson and descendants (17:1-18:31)
a' Israel's (unholy) civil war against wicked Benjamites (19:1-21:25)
The 'a' pattern suggests that Israel's disobedience leads to decline. Earlier, military activity, inquiring of God, weeping, and the offering of sacrifices are all part of the divinely ordered conquest of Canaan. (Dorsey 118-119) Dorsey continues: "In the former, the procuring of wives is a positive theme: Othniel wins his wife by a courageous victory over the Canaanites; in the latter, the procuring of women is a very negative theme, featuring rape, mass kidnapping, etc. In the former, the Benjamites fail to drive out the Jebusites from Jebus (1:21); in the latter, the Levite avoid pagan Jebus and seeks hospitality instead among fellow Israelites in Benjamin's tribe, ironically suffering an outrage far worse than he presumably would ever have experienced at Jebus. All this underscores how the Israelites, initially doing righteous battle against the wicked Canaanites, end by doing wicked battle against themselves.
The 'b' pattern shows that sporadic or cyclical idolatry later becomes a permanent institution. In the former, children reject the obedience of their parents and turn to idols. Later, parents encourage idolatry to their children. Before, God preserves some pagan tribes to test Israel's faithfulness, including the Sidonians. Later, idolatrous Israelites attack a town of peaceable Sidonians. Before, obedience to Moses' law is key. Later, Moses' own descendants are enlisted in encouraging idolatry. All this suggests that the Israelites have become worse than the Canaanites.
The 'c' pattern, like the 'd' and 'e' patterns, shows the decline of Israel from good judges to bad. Othniel marries well by obeying God. Samson disobeys by marrying Canaanite women. Othniel drives Canaanites from the land. Samson settles among them. Othniel's wife prepares him for good - particularly an extended territory. Samson's wives press him for bad things and betray him. Othniel unites Israel. Samson divides it.
The 'd' pattern continues with Ehud and Jephthah. In both cases, a transjordanian king oppresses Israel eighteen years. Ehud has a message from God for an enemy king. Jephthah sends two messages to enemy king. Ehud kills thousands of enemies with the Ephraimites help. Jephthah kills thousands of Ephraimites. Ehud's judgeship is marked by Israelite unity. Jephthah's is marked by fragmentation and civil war.
Finally, the 'e' pattern continues with Deborah/Barak and Abimelech. Earlier, an Israelite woman crushes the pagan Sisera's skull. Later, a pagan woman crushes the Israelite Abimelech's skull.
The book hinges on the judgeship of Gideon. Though he starts off as a faithful judge, his idolatry sets the stage for all that follows in the book of Judges. Gideon's story makes its own chiasm:
1) Gideon's stand against idolatry at Ophrah (6:1-32)
2) Gideon's battle against Midianites (6:33-7:25)
2') Gideon's battle against Israelites (8:1-21)
1') Gideon's lapse into idolatry at Ophrah (8:22-32)
All this suggests that the option given to the Israelites in Deuteronomy has been answered. They have chosen idolatry rather than to worship the one true God. This leads them to be more wicked than their enemies, and they conclude by going to war against themselves.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Genesis 1-Joshua 24 (Summary of the Book of the Law)
This is the fourth in a series of biblical summaries derived from David Dorsey's book, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament:
a primeval history: the nations receive their allotted territories (Gen. 1-11)
b Abraham (Gen. 12:1-21:7)
c Isaac and death of Israel's founding father, Abraham (Gen. 21:8-28:4)
d Jacob: a story illustrating evils of social and family discord (Gen. 28:5-37:1)
e Joseph: a story of how God rewards faithful obedience (Gen. 37:2-50:26)
f exodus from Egypt (Exod. 1:1-13:16)
g failure and divine grace in the wilderness (Exod. 13:17-19:2)
CENTER: treaty at Sinai (Exod. 19:3-Num. 10:10)
g' failure and divine grace in the wilderness (Num. 10:11-21:20)
f' victory in Moab (Num. 21:21-Deut. 3:29)
e' call to obedience; based on lessons from history (Deut. 4-11)
d' laws for stability and justice in society and families (Deut. 12-26)
c' Moses' final words and death of Israel's other founding father, Moses (Deut. 27-34)
b' conquest of Canaan (Josh. 1-12)
a' allotment of land of Canaan to Israel (Josh. 13-24)
(Dorsey, 101)
The 'a' pattern illustrates the parallel qualities of Genesis and Joshua. In Genesis, nations' have territory according to their families. Later, Israel has territories according to their families. Earlier, we are introduced to Israel's ancestor's in Mesopotamia: Terah, Nahor, and Abraham. Later, we are reminded of these same three ancestors. This all suggests that while the nations have their respective lands, this story chronicles how the descendants of Abraham came to live in their respective land.
The 'b' pattern shows the promise to Abraham being fulfilled. In the first section, God promises to give Canaan to Abraham's descendants. In the second section, this is fulfilled. In the first section, Abraham builds altars in Shechem, between Bethel and Ai, and in Hebron. In the second section, Israel builds an altar in Shechem, and wins battles in Ai and Hebron. This suggests that Israel is seeing the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, and even walking in Abraham's footsteps as they see it.
The 'c' pattern focuses on death and life. In the first section, Sarah, Abraham, and Ishmael die. Isaac is near death when Abraham brings him to Mount Moriah for the sacrifice. In the second section, Moses dies, and also holds out life and death to the Israelites depending on whether they obey. In the first section, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and Esau all receive blessings. In the second section, Moses holds out blessings for obedient Israel. This suggests the significance of figures like Abraham and Moses in God's providential plan, as these sections contain their final words, deaths, and burials.
The 'd' pattern links the stories of Jacob's family and laws concerning families. The first section, Jacob's section, is a story of social and family strife, murder, lying, theft, and in the case of Laban's abuse of Jacob, the mistreatment of aliens and the disadvantaged. In the second section, there are laws to counter each of these things. In the first section, we encounter a story of an unloved wife, hired man, younger and older siblings, and birthrights. In the second, we find laws covering each of these things. This suggests that the chaos and wrongdoing that Jacob's family experienced are also the subject of the Deuteronomy laws that will bring peace and order to society.
The 'e' pattern shows how in the same way Joseph's obedience is rewarded with faithfulness, Israel's obedience will as well. In the second section, Moses points out that when Israel was obedient to God, they were blessed, but when they disobeyed, they were punished. Joseph, the subject of the first section, is a great example of this. Despite all the sins committed against Joseph, he remains faithful to God, and he is rewarded for this. This underscores the importance of obeying God.
The 'f' pattern relates Israel's earlier experience in Egypt to their later experience in Moab. In both cases, God saves Israel in a foreign land. In both sections, a foreign king fears Israel is too numerous, calls magicians to oppose Israel, which fails. This reinforces the theme of God's great power.
The 'g' pattern relates Israel's wandering in the wilderness before Sinai to their wandering in the wilderness after Sinai. Both sections feature Israel in migrations. Both show meetings between Moses and his father-in-law Jethro. Finally, both evoke themes of Israel's complaining and God provides water from a rock, manna, and quail in both sections. All this suggests that God's covenant with Israel is not based on their righteous, since they complained and quarreled all the way to Sinai and from Sinai.
Finally, at the center is the Treaty of Sinai. The Treaty guards the very central, climactic event of the whole Book of the Law: the glory of God entering and filling the sanctuary. Dorsey writes: "Yahweh's remarkable act of tabernacling among his people, then, represents the climax of the climax. It is the central point, the bottom line, of the entire Book of the Law. Almighty God has taken up his abode among humankind, among the people of Israel. All else in the book and in Israel's history leads toward or derives from this central truth." (Dorsey, 102)
a primeval history: the nations receive their allotted territories (Gen. 1-11)
b Abraham (Gen. 12:1-21:7)
c Isaac and death of Israel's founding father, Abraham (Gen. 21:8-28:4)
d Jacob: a story illustrating evils of social and family discord (Gen. 28:5-37:1)
e Joseph: a story of how God rewards faithful obedience (Gen. 37:2-50:26)
f exodus from Egypt (Exod. 1:1-13:16)
g failure and divine grace in the wilderness (Exod. 13:17-19:2)
CENTER: treaty at Sinai (Exod. 19:3-Num. 10:10)
g' failure and divine grace in the wilderness (Num. 10:11-21:20)
f' victory in Moab (Num. 21:21-Deut. 3:29)
e' call to obedience; based on lessons from history (Deut. 4-11)
d' laws for stability and justice in society and families (Deut. 12-26)
c' Moses' final words and death of Israel's other founding father, Moses (Deut. 27-34)
b' conquest of Canaan (Josh. 1-12)
a' allotment of land of Canaan to Israel (Josh. 13-24)
(Dorsey, 101)
The 'a' pattern illustrates the parallel qualities of Genesis and Joshua. In Genesis, nations' have territory according to their families. Later, Israel has territories according to their families. Earlier, we are introduced to Israel's ancestor's in Mesopotamia: Terah, Nahor, and Abraham. Later, we are reminded of these same three ancestors. This all suggests that while the nations have their respective lands, this story chronicles how the descendants of Abraham came to live in their respective land.
The 'b' pattern shows the promise to Abraham being fulfilled. In the first section, God promises to give Canaan to Abraham's descendants. In the second section, this is fulfilled. In the first section, Abraham builds altars in Shechem, between Bethel and Ai, and in Hebron. In the second section, Israel builds an altar in Shechem, and wins battles in Ai and Hebron. This suggests that Israel is seeing the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, and even walking in Abraham's footsteps as they see it.
The 'c' pattern focuses on death and life. In the first section, Sarah, Abraham, and Ishmael die. Isaac is near death when Abraham brings him to Mount Moriah for the sacrifice. In the second section, Moses dies, and also holds out life and death to the Israelites depending on whether they obey. In the first section, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and Esau all receive blessings. In the second section, Moses holds out blessings for obedient Israel. This suggests the significance of figures like Abraham and Moses in God's providential plan, as these sections contain their final words, deaths, and burials.
The 'd' pattern links the stories of Jacob's family and laws concerning families. The first section, Jacob's section, is a story of social and family strife, murder, lying, theft, and in the case of Laban's abuse of Jacob, the mistreatment of aliens and the disadvantaged. In the second section, there are laws to counter each of these things. In the first section, we encounter a story of an unloved wife, hired man, younger and older siblings, and birthrights. In the second, we find laws covering each of these things. This suggests that the chaos and wrongdoing that Jacob's family experienced are also the subject of the Deuteronomy laws that will bring peace and order to society.
The 'e' pattern shows how in the same way Joseph's obedience is rewarded with faithfulness, Israel's obedience will as well. In the second section, Moses points out that when Israel was obedient to God, they were blessed, but when they disobeyed, they were punished. Joseph, the subject of the first section, is a great example of this. Despite all the sins committed against Joseph, he remains faithful to God, and he is rewarded for this. This underscores the importance of obeying God.
The 'f' pattern relates Israel's earlier experience in Egypt to their later experience in Moab. In both cases, God saves Israel in a foreign land. In both sections, a foreign king fears Israel is too numerous, calls magicians to oppose Israel, which fails. This reinforces the theme of God's great power.
The 'g' pattern relates Israel's wandering in the wilderness before Sinai to their wandering in the wilderness after Sinai. Both sections feature Israel in migrations. Both show meetings between Moses and his father-in-law Jethro. Finally, both evoke themes of Israel's complaining and God provides water from a rock, manna, and quail in both sections. All this suggests that God's covenant with Israel is not based on their righteous, since they complained and quarreled all the way to Sinai and from Sinai.
Finally, at the center is the Treaty of Sinai. The Treaty guards the very central, climactic event of the whole Book of the Law: the glory of God entering and filling the sanctuary. Dorsey writes: "Yahweh's remarkable act of tabernacling among his people, then, represents the climax of the climax. It is the central point, the bottom line, of the entire Book of the Law. Almighty God has taken up his abode among humankind, among the people of Israel. All else in the book and in Israel's history leads toward or derives from this central truth." (Dorsey, 102)
Numbers 10:11-Joshua 24:33
This is the third in a series of biblical summaries derived from David Dorsey's book, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament:
a wilderness journey: only Caleb and Joshua are faithful (Num. 10:11-21:20)
a wilderness journey: only Caleb and Joshua are faithful (Num. 10:11-21:20)
b conquest of Transjordan under Moses (Num. 21:21-Deut. 3:29)
c Moses' exhortations to serve Yahweh, in light of lessons from Yahweh's past blessings
and punishments (Deut. 4-11)
d CENTER: laws for life in Canaan (Deut. 12-26)
c' Moses' exhortations to serve Yahweh, in light of the prospects of Yahweh's future
blessings or punishments (Deut. 27-34)
b' conquest of Canaan under Joshua (Josh. 1-12)
a' allotment of Canaan: only Caleb and Joshua are rewarded with their own allotments (Josh. 13-24) (Dorsey, 95)
The 'a' pattern has to do with spies of Israel going into Canaan. In the first instance, only Caleb and Joshua are faithful to God. Later, only Caleb and Joshua will enter into the land with a whole new generation of Israelites, while the former generation has died in the wilderness. In the first section, Caleb gives a good report at Kadesh, and follows God "wholeheartedly," and is promised he would inherit Hebron, the area he explored. In the second section, Caleb recalls his experience at Kadesh, his good report, and that he followed God "wholeheartedly." Both sections include brief historical notes about Hebron, that it is the home of the Anakites. Finally, both sections feature men being sent out to explore Canaan. All this suggests the theme of obedience and its rewards. Obedience is rendered by Caleb and Joshua in the first section, and rewarded in the second.
The 'b' pattern connects the military conquests of Moses to those of Joshua. The first section conveys the war spoils Israel achieves under Moses. The second section, those achieved under Joshua. The first section expresses that the Transjordanian tribes of Israel must enter the land against their wishes, and the second section shows them doing this. Both sections feature victories from their main camps. And both sections are almost entirely upbeat, in which Israelite victories are re-narrated, and both sections also feature an isolated disobedience which is quickly remedied (defeat at Baal-Peor in the first, Achan's sin in the second). All this suggests that Israel will have divine blessing (particularly in military conflicts) as a reward for obedience.
The 'c' pattern is all contained with Moses' farewell address to the Israelites in Deuteronomy. Both sections relate narrative about Moses transferring leadership to Joshua. The first section recounts blessings and curses that have come upon Israel related to obedience in the past. The second section holds out the blessings and curses that will come upon Israel related to obedience in the future. Finally, the first section relates that Moses will die before crossing over to Canaan, and the second section relates Moses' death on Mount Nebo before crossing over. All this suggests the importance of obeying God in Israel's past and in Israel's future.
At the center, 'd' conveys the law's central importance, as Moses gives a grand review of its contents. The law is central in this extended passage, and thus is central to Israel's future prosperity, and its hopes for peace in the land they've been promised.
The 'a' pattern has to do with spies of Israel going into Canaan. In the first instance, only Caleb and Joshua are faithful to God. Later, only Caleb and Joshua will enter into the land with a whole new generation of Israelites, while the former generation has died in the wilderness. In the first section, Caleb gives a good report at Kadesh, and follows God "wholeheartedly," and is promised he would inherit Hebron, the area he explored. In the second section, Caleb recalls his experience at Kadesh, his good report, and that he followed God "wholeheartedly." Both sections include brief historical notes about Hebron, that it is the home of the Anakites. Finally, both sections feature men being sent out to explore Canaan. All this suggests the theme of obedience and its rewards. Obedience is rendered by Caleb and Joshua in the first section, and rewarded in the second.
The 'b' pattern connects the military conquests of Moses to those of Joshua. The first section conveys the war spoils Israel achieves under Moses. The second section, those achieved under Joshua. The first section expresses that the Transjordanian tribes of Israel must enter the land against their wishes, and the second section shows them doing this. Both sections feature victories from their main camps. And both sections are almost entirely upbeat, in which Israelite victories are re-narrated, and both sections also feature an isolated disobedience which is quickly remedied (defeat at Baal-Peor in the first, Achan's sin in the second). All this suggests that Israel will have divine blessing (particularly in military conflicts) as a reward for obedience.
The 'c' pattern is all contained with Moses' farewell address to the Israelites in Deuteronomy. Both sections relate narrative about Moses transferring leadership to Joshua. The first section recounts blessings and curses that have come upon Israel related to obedience in the past. The second section holds out the blessings and curses that will come upon Israel related to obedience in the future. Finally, the first section relates that Moses will die before crossing over to Canaan, and the second section relates Moses' death on Mount Nebo before crossing over. All this suggests the importance of obeying God in Israel's past and in Israel's future.
At the center, 'd' conveys the law's central importance, as Moses gives a grand review of its contents. The law is central in this extended passage, and thus is central to Israel's future prosperity, and its hopes for peace in the land they've been promised.
Monday, January 8, 2018
Exodus 19:3-Numbers 10:10
This is the second in a series of biblical summaries derived from David Dorsey's book The Literary Structure of the Old Testament.
a Ten Commandments - and holiness on Mount Sinai (Exod. 19:3-20:21)
b civil laws - moral, ethical purity (Exod. 20:22-24:11)
c tabernacle instructions - sacrificial altar (Exod. 24:12-34:28)
d CLIMAX: tabernacle built and filled with Yahweh's glory! (Exod. 34:29-40:38)
c' sacrificial instructions - for sacrificial altar (Lev. 1-10)
b' purity laws - ritual, moral purity (Lev. 11-18)
a' holiness laws - most of Ten Commandments repeated (Lev. 19:1-Num. 10:10)
The 'a' pattern corresponds with the Israelites arrival at, and departure from, Mount Sinai. The experience of Sinai seals itself on Israel's worship and manner of life. In the first section, Israel arrives at Sinai. In the last, they are departing from Sinai. God's glory appears on Mount Sinai like cloud and fire. Later, God's glory on the tabernacle is like cloud and fire. On the mountain, God's presence sounds like trumpets. At the end, silver trumpets sound orders from God's tabernacle. The Ten Commandments are introduced at the beginning. Most of them are reiterated at the end. All this suggests that the tabernacle bears many reminders of what it was to stand before God at Sinai. As Peter Leithart put it, they are taking the mountain with them.
The 'b' pattern is weak, consisting mostly in the common pattern of laws concerning moral and ethical purity. Still it is worth attending to, for despite the tenuous connections, the common link is the purity of the people entailed in the first section, and the purity of the house of God in the second section. Both sections focus on moral, ethical behavior. There is a shared condemnation of "following the practices" of Canaanites, and also of eating meat of animals torn by wild beasts. Both treat of the topic of the use of blood and fat in sacrifices, and the use of blood for ritual cleansing. All this suggests that the tabernacle is a picture of Israel: tending to the ethical purity of God's people entails tending to the ritual purity of God's house.
The 'c' pattern is linked by the tabernacle itself. The first section shows how to build it. The second section shows how to conduct sacrifices inside it. Both sections provide instructions for sacrifices to be offered on the altar. Priestly ordination is prescribed earlier, and described later. Both sections conclude with sins: the first concludes with Aaron's sin with the golden calf, and the second concludes with the sin of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu. All of this suggests that there is a strong link between the rooms and furniture of God's house, and the types of sacrifices that are offered there. Two quotes help: "So the house of Israel is like the house of the Lord, and the house of the Lord is a picture of the house of Israel. This is why the blood of the animal offerings is always sprinkled or thrown on some piece of furniture in the tabernacle and never on the people. This seems odd at first. How can blood make a sinner clean if the blood is never put on him? The answer is that the tabernacle is a picture of Israel, and so putting blood on the tabernacle is counted as putting blood on the sinner." (Leithart, A House for My Name, 84) And this one: "(God) doesn't need (sacrifices) to stay alive, but He eats Israel's food as a sign that He is their friend. He "eats" to make a covenant with Israel, to continue the "wedding" feast that started at Sinai. Of course, what God truly desires is not the flesh of animals but instead people who love and obey Him. God wants us to be thankful, humble, and sorry for our sins. That's the sacrifice that pleases Him (Psalm 51:14-17). God wants to eat you." (Leithart, 88) These quotes show the sense that the tabernacle itself, its architecture, its furniture and the sacrifices offered within both convey a wealth of symbolism that both represent the people Israel.
Finally, the 'd' pattern centers on God's own presence indwelling the tabernacle. This is important because this whole section highlights a treaty between God and his people. At its heart, at its climax, is God's own presence among his people. This makes everything go. As Dorsey writes, "Israel's life, its calendar, its camp, its order of march - everything - will now center around Yahweh's sanctuary. Yahweh's sacred presence is the reason for Israel's special status among the nations; and it is the focus of all its laws." (Dorsey, 82)
a Ten Commandments - and holiness on Mount Sinai (Exod. 19:3-20:21)
b civil laws - moral, ethical purity (Exod. 20:22-24:11)
c tabernacle instructions - sacrificial altar (Exod. 24:12-34:28)
d CLIMAX: tabernacle built and filled with Yahweh's glory! (Exod. 34:29-40:38)
c' sacrificial instructions - for sacrificial altar (Lev. 1-10)
b' purity laws - ritual, moral purity (Lev. 11-18)
a' holiness laws - most of Ten Commandments repeated (Lev. 19:1-Num. 10:10)
The 'a' pattern corresponds with the Israelites arrival at, and departure from, Mount Sinai. The experience of Sinai seals itself on Israel's worship and manner of life. In the first section, Israel arrives at Sinai. In the last, they are departing from Sinai. God's glory appears on Mount Sinai like cloud and fire. Later, God's glory on the tabernacle is like cloud and fire. On the mountain, God's presence sounds like trumpets. At the end, silver trumpets sound orders from God's tabernacle. The Ten Commandments are introduced at the beginning. Most of them are reiterated at the end. All this suggests that the tabernacle bears many reminders of what it was to stand before God at Sinai. As Peter Leithart put it, they are taking the mountain with them.
The 'b' pattern is weak, consisting mostly in the common pattern of laws concerning moral and ethical purity. Still it is worth attending to, for despite the tenuous connections, the common link is the purity of the people entailed in the first section, and the purity of the house of God in the second section. Both sections focus on moral, ethical behavior. There is a shared condemnation of "following the practices" of Canaanites, and also of eating meat of animals torn by wild beasts. Both treat of the topic of the use of blood and fat in sacrifices, and the use of blood for ritual cleansing. All this suggests that the tabernacle is a picture of Israel: tending to the ethical purity of God's people entails tending to the ritual purity of God's house.
The 'c' pattern is linked by the tabernacle itself. The first section shows how to build it. The second section shows how to conduct sacrifices inside it. Both sections provide instructions for sacrifices to be offered on the altar. Priestly ordination is prescribed earlier, and described later. Both sections conclude with sins: the first concludes with Aaron's sin with the golden calf, and the second concludes with the sin of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu. All of this suggests that there is a strong link between the rooms and furniture of God's house, and the types of sacrifices that are offered there. Two quotes help: "So the house of Israel is like the house of the Lord, and the house of the Lord is a picture of the house of Israel. This is why the blood of the animal offerings is always sprinkled or thrown on some piece of furniture in the tabernacle and never on the people. This seems odd at first. How can blood make a sinner clean if the blood is never put on him? The answer is that the tabernacle is a picture of Israel, and so putting blood on the tabernacle is counted as putting blood on the sinner." (Leithart, A House for My Name, 84) And this one: "(God) doesn't need (sacrifices) to stay alive, but He eats Israel's food as a sign that He is their friend. He "eats" to make a covenant with Israel, to continue the "wedding" feast that started at Sinai. Of course, what God truly desires is not the flesh of animals but instead people who love and obey Him. God wants us to be thankful, humble, and sorry for our sins. That's the sacrifice that pleases Him (Psalm 51:14-17). God wants to eat you." (Leithart, 88) These quotes show the sense that the tabernacle itself, its architecture, its furniture and the sacrifices offered within both convey a wealth of symbolism that both represent the people Israel.
Finally, the 'd' pattern centers on God's own presence indwelling the tabernacle. This is important because this whole section highlights a treaty between God and his people. At its heart, at its climax, is God's own presence among his people. This makes everything go. As Dorsey writes, "Israel's life, its calendar, its camp, its order of march - everything - will now center around Yahweh's sanctuary. Yahweh's sacred presence is the reason for Israel's special status among the nations; and it is the focus of all its laws." (Dorsey, 82)
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Genesis 1:1-Exodus 19:2
Over the past few years, people from the church have written devotions on Scripture. I have wished to provide some kind of shared biblical overview. I've decided to focus my blog in the near future on the work of David Dorsey in his book The Literary Structure of the Old Testament and of Peter Leithart in his survey of the four gospels, titled The Four.
The blog posts will follow the organization of Dorsey's and Leithart's books. For instance, this post focuses on Genesis 1:1-Exodus 19:2 because that's what Dorsey does in this particular chapter. There is much more in Dorsey's book than I would get to here. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The only exception is with the minor prophets. I intend to treat the minor prophets two per post: for instance, Zechariah and Malachi will be the same post, whereas in Dorsey they each get their own chapter.
Why this type of biblical summary? I find the use of these chiasms really helpful. Ancient people really worked hard at their texts. Books were few and they were labored over really carefully. Books were written so that they could be studied. Texts were organized in such a way that, beyond the words, even the way they were organized represented something beautiful, something symmetrical. See the way the chiasm forms half the letter 'x'. 'Chi' is the Greek word for the letter 'x' This helps to understand how ancient people could remember the way that texts went even if they weren't in front of them. For in chiasms, hidden or overt themes alike often reoccur. And seeing the text organized this way can help us to remember that Exodus 13 may have a lot to do with Genesis 1. The best interpreter of the Bible is always the rest of the Bible. Not that this stuff should be in peoples' devotions! The way the text rubs up against your own life will be all the fodder you need! But we can benefit as readers from Dorsey's and Leithart's (and others') hard work and study. And the work of the Spirit? To borrow from a future post, it seems that the houses God built - such as tabernacle and temple - were built after the pattern of things above - of heaven, of what Moses saw on Mount Sinai, of Christ. In the same way, the Scripture is a dwelling place for God here where we can see the patterns of things above. The Holy Spirit dwells among us to show that this world, these lives, our words, our tables, our relationships can be used to point to the ultimate world, life, table, and relationship we have with Father, Son, and Spirit in heaven and in the eventual new heavens and earth. The Scripture shows us both: this world through God's eyes, so that we can see that other world with our own eyes.
If anyone would like more information on a text, write a comment or email me. I'm trying to keep this as short as possible. I haven't included additional text references in my summaries. These texts are often included in the Dorsey book.
a primeval history: Yahweh's power in creation and the flood (Gen. 1-11)
b Abraham: Yahweh promises numerous descendants and an exodus (Gen. 12:1-21:7)
c Isaac: strife between brothers; triumph of younger (Gen. 21:8-28:4)
d CENTER: Jacob and birth of twelve tribes of Israel (Gen. 28:5-37:1)
c' Joseph: strife between brothers; triumph of younger (Gen. 37:2-50:26)
b' exodus: Yahweh increases Israel and delivers them from Egypt (Exod. 1:1-13:16)
a' wilderness journey: Yahweh's power in the desert (Exod. 13:17-19:2)
Looking first at the 'a' pattern, we are encouraged to think of the crossing of the Red Sea as following a similar pattern to creation and the flood. God demonstrates mighty power over the sea and wind. He creates dry land in the midst of the sea at creation. He does the same when the Red Sea parts in the exodus from Egypt. The wicked are drowned in the flood and in the Red Sea. Finally, in the same way God provides food for his people in the garden and for Noah and his family after the flood, he does the same for Moses and his people in the wilderness, and in both cases, a Sabbath rest is mentioned: it is created in early Genesis; it is first implemented in the wilderness after the exodus. This all suggests that the exodus from Egypt is like a new creation, as though the world is being created again.
The 'b' pattern shows us Abraham experiencing himself much of what his descendants will eventually experience in Egypt. Just as Joseph's brothers are all driven to Joseph and his grain supply by the famine, Abraham is as well years earlier. Just as the Israelites are wrongfully retained by the Pharaoh who did not remember Joseph, Sarah is also wrongfully retained by Pharaoh in the earlier Genesis story. God speaks to Abraham of a 400 year sojourn, enslavement, punishment of the nation where they stay, and Israel's enrichment as they leave, all of which happens to Israel in Exodus. Abraham's descendants are promised to be numerous. In Exodus, they are shown to have grown from 70 people to 600,000 men. Abraham and his sons are circumcised. Moses and his son (maybe) are as well. And finally, just as Sodom and Gomorrah are punished earlier, Egypt is punished later. In both cases, the righteous are spared. This all suggests that not only did God do what he told Abraham he would; he also did it in a way that mirrored the events that occurred throughout Abraham's own life.
The 'c' pattern follows the motif of the triumph of the younger brother. The stories both follow younger sons - Isaac, Jacob, Joseph - who emerge from conflict with older siblings and are chosen by God. Though Ishmael's expulsion is part of Isaac's being chosen, Jacob and later Joseph are expelled and it is in this exile that they experience God's blessing and birthright unexpectedly. In both stories, the elder son (Esau, Judah) marries a Canaanite woman. In the first story, the cave of Machpelah is purchased and first used by Abraham for the burial of Sarah. In the later story, it is used for the last time as Joseph buries Jacob. This all suggests that the promise to Abraham is initially given in the triumph of a younger sons Isaac and then Jacob, and then the triumph of the younger son Joseph leads to a greater sign of the promise being fulfilled in Israel's multiplying in Egypt.
And at the center of all this - the d section - is the birth narrative of Jacob's children, forming the twelve tribes of Israel. This is fitting because the ultimate sign of God's presence is not simply Abraham's, or Jacob's, or Joseph's individual success, but rather that God's promise is going forward - that Abraham's seed is multiplying. This is all book-ended by the stories of God's power over his foes - in creation, flood, and the parting of the sea. God thwarts his opponents. But the positive side of all this is what is in the center: God will achieve great things through his people Israel.
The blog posts will follow the organization of Dorsey's and Leithart's books. For instance, this post focuses on Genesis 1:1-Exodus 19:2 because that's what Dorsey does in this particular chapter. There is much more in Dorsey's book than I would get to here. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The only exception is with the minor prophets. I intend to treat the minor prophets two per post: for instance, Zechariah and Malachi will be the same post, whereas in Dorsey they each get their own chapter.
Why this type of biblical summary? I find the use of these chiasms really helpful. Ancient people really worked hard at their texts. Books were few and they were labored over really carefully. Books were written so that they could be studied. Texts were organized in such a way that, beyond the words, even the way they were organized represented something beautiful, something symmetrical. See the way the chiasm forms half the letter 'x'. 'Chi' is the Greek word for the letter 'x' This helps to understand how ancient people could remember the way that texts went even if they weren't in front of them. For in chiasms, hidden or overt themes alike often reoccur. And seeing the text organized this way can help us to remember that Exodus 13 may have a lot to do with Genesis 1. The best interpreter of the Bible is always the rest of the Bible. Not that this stuff should be in peoples' devotions! The way the text rubs up against your own life will be all the fodder you need! But we can benefit as readers from Dorsey's and Leithart's (and others') hard work and study. And the work of the Spirit? To borrow from a future post, it seems that the houses God built - such as tabernacle and temple - were built after the pattern of things above - of heaven, of what Moses saw on Mount Sinai, of Christ. In the same way, the Scripture is a dwelling place for God here where we can see the patterns of things above. The Holy Spirit dwells among us to show that this world, these lives, our words, our tables, our relationships can be used to point to the ultimate world, life, table, and relationship we have with Father, Son, and Spirit in heaven and in the eventual new heavens and earth. The Scripture shows us both: this world through God's eyes, so that we can see that other world with our own eyes.
If anyone would like more information on a text, write a comment or email me. I'm trying to keep this as short as possible. I haven't included additional text references in my summaries. These texts are often included in the Dorsey book.
a primeval history: Yahweh's power in creation and the flood (Gen. 1-11)
b Abraham: Yahweh promises numerous descendants and an exodus (Gen. 12:1-21:7)
c Isaac: strife between brothers; triumph of younger (Gen. 21:8-28:4)
d CENTER: Jacob and birth of twelve tribes of Israel (Gen. 28:5-37:1)
c' Joseph: strife between brothers; triumph of younger (Gen. 37:2-50:26)
b' exodus: Yahweh increases Israel and delivers them from Egypt (Exod. 1:1-13:16)
a' wilderness journey: Yahweh's power in the desert (Exod. 13:17-19:2)
Looking first at the 'a' pattern, we are encouraged to think of the crossing of the Red Sea as following a similar pattern to creation and the flood. God demonstrates mighty power over the sea and wind. He creates dry land in the midst of the sea at creation. He does the same when the Red Sea parts in the exodus from Egypt. The wicked are drowned in the flood and in the Red Sea. Finally, in the same way God provides food for his people in the garden and for Noah and his family after the flood, he does the same for Moses and his people in the wilderness, and in both cases, a Sabbath rest is mentioned: it is created in early Genesis; it is first implemented in the wilderness after the exodus. This all suggests that the exodus from Egypt is like a new creation, as though the world is being created again.
The 'b' pattern shows us Abraham experiencing himself much of what his descendants will eventually experience in Egypt. Just as Joseph's brothers are all driven to Joseph and his grain supply by the famine, Abraham is as well years earlier. Just as the Israelites are wrongfully retained by the Pharaoh who did not remember Joseph, Sarah is also wrongfully retained by Pharaoh in the earlier Genesis story. God speaks to Abraham of a 400 year sojourn, enslavement, punishment of the nation where they stay, and Israel's enrichment as they leave, all of which happens to Israel in Exodus. Abraham's descendants are promised to be numerous. In Exodus, they are shown to have grown from 70 people to 600,000 men. Abraham and his sons are circumcised. Moses and his son (maybe) are as well. And finally, just as Sodom and Gomorrah are punished earlier, Egypt is punished later. In both cases, the righteous are spared. This all suggests that not only did God do what he told Abraham he would; he also did it in a way that mirrored the events that occurred throughout Abraham's own life.
The 'c' pattern follows the motif of the triumph of the younger brother. The stories both follow younger sons - Isaac, Jacob, Joseph - who emerge from conflict with older siblings and are chosen by God. Though Ishmael's expulsion is part of Isaac's being chosen, Jacob and later Joseph are expelled and it is in this exile that they experience God's blessing and birthright unexpectedly. In both stories, the elder son (Esau, Judah) marries a Canaanite woman. In the first story, the cave of Machpelah is purchased and first used by Abraham for the burial of Sarah. In the later story, it is used for the last time as Joseph buries Jacob. This all suggests that the promise to Abraham is initially given in the triumph of a younger sons Isaac and then Jacob, and then the triumph of the younger son Joseph leads to a greater sign of the promise being fulfilled in Israel's multiplying in Egypt.
And at the center of all this - the d section - is the birth narrative of Jacob's children, forming the twelve tribes of Israel. This is fitting because the ultimate sign of God's presence is not simply Abraham's, or Jacob's, or Joseph's individual success, but rather that God's promise is going forward - that Abraham's seed is multiplying. This is all book-ended by the stories of God's power over his foes - in creation, flood, and the parting of the sea. God thwarts his opponents. But the positive side of all this is what is in the center: God will achieve great things through his people Israel.
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Saturday, January 6 - Jesus' Baptism
In the Gospels' account of Jesus' baptism, the Father and Holy Spirit both appear. Malcolm Guite reflects that the Father, Spirit, and Son:
Reveal to us the single loving heart
That beats behind the being of all things
And calls and keeps and kindles us to light
The dove descends, the spirit soars and sings
'You are beloved, you are my delight!' (Malcolm Guite, "Jesus' Baptism," Sounding the Seasons)
In Jesus' baptism, we see who God really is: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Guite captures the tri-unity of God with the image of a "single loving heart that beats behind the being of all things." One life. One origin of all things. One rhythm which sets the order, pattern, and beauty of everything that is to come. And the Christian faith, and the church that proclaims it, burrows deeply into this oneness of God when we proclaim that Jesus, though a man, is also fully God. For otherwise, what sense could be made of the great unity between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which presents itself as the great given, the great foundation, of all other truths throughout the New Testament? There could be none, if Jesus was another type of creation, someone that God at some point decided to make. No, the authority that Jesus claims is that he is the very image of God. When people see him, they see the Father. And yet, Jesus' baptism doesn't show us God as some sort of static, functional dead image on a page. We see God precisely in this unveiling of the holy communion that God has shared for all eternity. Guite's sonnet has many active verbs, suggesting the power and love of God that was busy at creation was also showing itself in the baptism of Jesus. When we see the fellowship of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - their mutually abiding love for one another - this is when we see God.
And Guite reminds us of our place in Jesus' baptism:
He calls us too, to step into that river
To die and rise and live and love forever. (Guite, Sounding the Seasons)
As the evil of the world drowned in the great flood, as Pharaoh's horsemen and chariots drowned in the Red Sea, so our sinful selves die in our baptism. Yet, as Noah and his family had an ark, and Moses and the Israelites had the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, so we have what those images ultimately pointed to - Christ. The one who gives up his life and who has the power to take it up again. He rises from the grave. So our baptism is not only into his death on the cross, but also into his resurrection. We live and love forever, knowing that it is in Christ we live. I like how in Guite's sonnet, it is not quite clear we have left the river we've gotten into in the first place. I like this because, although we eventually dried ourselves off from our baptisms, we don't dry ourselves off from the Lord we've now entered into. We emerge from the water eventually, but we don't emerge from Christ. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." (Gal. 2:20) We've left whatever river Guite is referring to, be it the Mississippi, the St. Johns, the Euphrates, or the Jordan River. But we never leave this river, the river of Christ, the stream of living waters.
Life in him is so different that Jesus referred to it as a new birth. Thus, we resolve the story and season of Christmas - the day of Christ's birth - with Epiphany - the day of our birth. For this is what baptism means: the fulfillment of Christ's work, received as an effective and powerful symbol and sign showing us who we really are. God is a great rescuer. His word has gone out into the world and hasn't returned back empty-handed. His will is being accomplished - seen chiefly in women and men who find the riches and treasures of all things in their source and destiny - the one who all things come from, and who all things are for - Jesus Christ.
Reveal to us the single loving heart
That beats behind the being of all things
And calls and keeps and kindles us to light
The dove descends, the spirit soars and sings
'You are beloved, you are my delight!' (Malcolm Guite, "Jesus' Baptism," Sounding the Seasons)
In Jesus' baptism, we see who God really is: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Guite captures the tri-unity of God with the image of a "single loving heart that beats behind the being of all things." One life. One origin of all things. One rhythm which sets the order, pattern, and beauty of everything that is to come. And the Christian faith, and the church that proclaims it, burrows deeply into this oneness of God when we proclaim that Jesus, though a man, is also fully God. For otherwise, what sense could be made of the great unity between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which presents itself as the great given, the great foundation, of all other truths throughout the New Testament? There could be none, if Jesus was another type of creation, someone that God at some point decided to make. No, the authority that Jesus claims is that he is the very image of God. When people see him, they see the Father. And yet, Jesus' baptism doesn't show us God as some sort of static, functional dead image on a page. We see God precisely in this unveiling of the holy communion that God has shared for all eternity. Guite's sonnet has many active verbs, suggesting the power and love of God that was busy at creation was also showing itself in the baptism of Jesus. When we see the fellowship of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - their mutually abiding love for one another - this is when we see God.
And Guite reminds us of our place in Jesus' baptism:
He calls us too, to step into that river
To die and rise and live and love forever. (Guite, Sounding the Seasons)
As the evil of the world drowned in the great flood, as Pharaoh's horsemen and chariots drowned in the Red Sea, so our sinful selves die in our baptism. Yet, as Noah and his family had an ark, and Moses and the Israelites had the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, so we have what those images ultimately pointed to - Christ. The one who gives up his life and who has the power to take it up again. He rises from the grave. So our baptism is not only into his death on the cross, but also into his resurrection. We live and love forever, knowing that it is in Christ we live. I like how in Guite's sonnet, it is not quite clear we have left the river we've gotten into in the first place. I like this because, although we eventually dried ourselves off from our baptisms, we don't dry ourselves off from the Lord we've now entered into. We emerge from the water eventually, but we don't emerge from Christ. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." (Gal. 2:20) We've left whatever river Guite is referring to, be it the Mississippi, the St. Johns, the Euphrates, or the Jordan River. But we never leave this river, the river of Christ, the stream of living waters.
Life in him is so different that Jesus referred to it as a new birth. Thus, we resolve the story and season of Christmas - the day of Christ's birth - with Epiphany - the day of our birth. For this is what baptism means: the fulfillment of Christ's work, received as an effective and powerful symbol and sign showing us who we really are. God is a great rescuer. His word has gone out into the world and hasn't returned back empty-handed. His will is being accomplished - seen chiefly in women and men who find the riches and treasures of all things in their source and destiny - the one who all things come from, and who all things are for - Jesus Christ.
Friday, January 5, 2018
Friday, January 5 - Being Caught
Malcolm Guite's book Waiting on the Word features a poem by Luci Shaw called "Rocky Mountain Railroad, Epiphany." It begins by setting us in a railroad car, seeing mountainous views:
The steel rails parallel the river as we penetrate
ranges of pleated slopes and crests - all too complicated
for capture in a net of words. in this showing, the train window
Shaw expresses a sense of epiphany over these events and observations, hoping for "each sweep of view" will flash:
and flash again its unrepeatable views. Inches. Angles.
Niches. Two eagles. A black crow. Skeletal twigs' notched
chalices for snow. Reaches of peak above peak beyond peak
Finally, after metaphorically (and sacramentally) suggesting a worship service - the sun burning "silver birches" into "brass candles" - Shaw reflects on epiphany again. She "mind-freezes for the future:"
this day's worth of disclosure. Through the glass
the epiphanies reel me in, absorbed, enlightened. (Guite, Waiting on the Word, 147)
Guite reflects on the way Shaw begins and ends the poem by holding the idea of 'capture' before us. At the beginning, she can't "capture" the images in a net. At the end, she herself is 'reeled in', caught in the net:
"There is a final and beautiful turn at the end of this poem. It is customary to speak of the flashing and moving images that go past a train or car window as something that we 'reel in', or pictures that are reeled into us. But this is Epiphany, and what we see in Epiphany is always greater than what we are. Luci Shaw's last line reverses the flow. We do not reel in the epiphanies; they pull us out into themselves. There is perhaps some long reach between the image of the net at the opening of the poem and that of the reel at its close. It begins with a confession that we cannot do the catching - our 'net of words' will never be adequate for the reality that slips through them - but it ends with a confession that we ourselves are caught, and glad to be caught, to be reeled in to a reality beyond us." (Guite, 150)
Guite concludes his reflection suggestively by alluding to the passage in the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus tells the disciples that he will teach them to fish for people. The disciples thought they were choosing him, and though in a sense they really were, what Jesus says suggests that he had also chosen them. "You didn't choose me, but I chose you." (John 15:16) We come to Jesus often as Nathaniel does early in the Gospel of John, anticipating something less than excitement, trying not to get our hopes up too much, and not having much great expectation of what we'll find. Then, when he meets Jesus, he finds that Jesus had already met him in what he thought was a private moment alone with God. Nathaniel immediately confesses that Jesus is King. Jesus had already found him. Jesus had already loved him. Like Nathaniel, and like Coleridge in Thursday's post, we go off trying to catch an epiphany. Then, like Luci Shaw, like Malcolm Guite, and yes, like Nathaniel, we realize that, instead, we've been caught in one.
The steel rails parallel the river as we penetrate
ranges of pleated slopes and crests - all too complicated
for capture in a net of words. in this showing, the train window
Shaw expresses a sense of epiphany over these events and observations, hoping for "each sweep of view" will flash:
and flash again its unrepeatable views. Inches. Angles.
Niches. Two eagles. A black crow. Skeletal twigs' notched
chalices for snow. Reaches of peak above peak beyond peak
Finally, after metaphorically (and sacramentally) suggesting a worship service - the sun burning "silver birches" into "brass candles" - Shaw reflects on epiphany again. She "mind-freezes for the future:"
this day's worth of disclosure. Through the glass
the epiphanies reel me in, absorbed, enlightened. (Guite, Waiting on the Word, 147)
Guite reflects on the way Shaw begins and ends the poem by holding the idea of 'capture' before us. At the beginning, she can't "capture" the images in a net. At the end, she herself is 'reeled in', caught in the net:
"There is a final and beautiful turn at the end of this poem. It is customary to speak of the flashing and moving images that go past a train or car window as something that we 'reel in', or pictures that are reeled into us. But this is Epiphany, and what we see in Epiphany is always greater than what we are. Luci Shaw's last line reverses the flow. We do not reel in the epiphanies; they pull us out into themselves. There is perhaps some long reach between the image of the net at the opening of the poem and that of the reel at its close. It begins with a confession that we cannot do the catching - our 'net of words' will never be adequate for the reality that slips through them - but it ends with a confession that we ourselves are caught, and glad to be caught, to be reeled in to a reality beyond us." (Guite, 150)
Guite concludes his reflection suggestively by alluding to the passage in the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus tells the disciples that he will teach them to fish for people. The disciples thought they were choosing him, and though in a sense they really were, what Jesus says suggests that he had also chosen them. "You didn't choose me, but I chose you." (John 15:16) We come to Jesus often as Nathaniel does early in the Gospel of John, anticipating something less than excitement, trying not to get our hopes up too much, and not having much great expectation of what we'll find. Then, when he meets Jesus, he finds that Jesus had already met him in what he thought was a private moment alone with God. Nathaniel immediately confesses that Jesus is King. Jesus had already found him. Jesus had already loved him. Like Nathaniel, and like Coleridge in Thursday's post, we go off trying to catch an epiphany. Then, like Luci Shaw, like Malcolm Guite, and yes, like Nathaniel, we realize that, instead, we've been caught in one.
Thursday, January 4 - Trying to Catch Epiphanies
The Christmas season ends January 5, and Epiphany begins January 6.
Malcolm Guite describes an epiphany:
"An epiphany is a showing, given only for a distinct moment, yet of something eternal. The question always arises, how do we deal with such epiphanies?...We no sooner have these moments of epiphany than they seem to be taken from us. The question is how we can live from them, draw from them, return to them." (Guite, Waiting on the Word, 150)
The celebration of Epiphany in the church centers on events of Jesus' life that acted as 'showings', moments that revealed, through dense scriptural allusion, who Jesus really is. Three particular events that have become significant for this season over the centuries are the Magi visiting the child Jesus, Jesus' baptism, and the Wedding at Cana when Jesus turned water into wine.
But back to Guite's question: how do we deal with epiphanies when as soon as we have them they are taken from us? We have 'mountain-top' moments. God becomes clear, and we do too - as clear as the landscapes and vistas that spread out before us. But soon enough, we are down from the mountain again, trying to recall the splendor, but it just isn't the same. How do we catch epiphanies?
Guite relates the story of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. An opium addict, married, yet nurturing a passionate, adulterous attraction to another woman, unable to tolerate the daily drudgeries of home life, yet struggling to sustain an income through his work and thus leaving his family nearly impoverished for much of their life - Coleridge had good reason to be spiritually pent-up and dissatisfied. And it was in this state that while climbing a mountain, he found himself physically pent-up as well, stuck partway down a cliff, unable to rise nor descend. In his terror, he experienced there an epiphany of the gift of life:
"My Limbs were all in a tremble - I lay upon my Back to rest myself, & was beginning according to my Custom to laugh at myself for a Madman, when the sight of the Crags above me on each side, & the impetuous Clouds just over them, posting so luridly & so rapidly northward, overawed me. I lay in a state of almost prophetic Trance & Delight - & blessed God aloud, for the powers of Reason & the Will, which remaining no Danger can overpower us! O God, I exclaimed aloud - how calm, how blessed am I now... (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, quoted in Guite, Waiting on the Word, 144)
Coleridge would write a poem about this thrilling experience of spiritual transcendence which took place on Scafell Pike in Great Britain. But you wouldn't know it from his poem. Considering Scafell Pike to be too 'humble', he had encountered a description of the Vale of Chamouny in the Swiss Alps. Finding it to be a better match, he reframed his poem to take place there instead. A better external representation for his internal mountain top experience!
Malcolm Guite thinks this sheds light on a common human tendency: we are embarrassed by the distinct and sometimes embarrasing settings in which we experience transcendence and joy:
"In some ways it's a pity that Coleridge felt so ashamed of his own fraught circumstances, so unworthy of the religious epiphany he had experienced, that he felt the need to transfer it to some safe distance, for to my mind there is gospel in knowing that God gives us these experiences just where we are, on our own 'humble mountains', in the midst of our complicated, shadowed and ambiguous lives."
Sinners don't deserve epiphanies! When they encounter them, its tempting to 'reframe' them to emphasize something heroic. As though the epiphany didn't happen to lowly Coleridge on lowly Scafell Pike, but rather Coleridge went out and heroically found the epiphany while scaling the heights of the magnificent Vale of Chamouny! As though God doesn't really have to come down to us, but we can go up to him.
We come back to the initial question: how do we deal with epiphanies when as soon as we have them they are taken from us? Coleridge shows us how we try to keep control, how we try to catch epiphanies and keep them. Like Coleridge, we fudge the truth and make ourselves and our situation look better than they are. As though God didn't have to come that far down to reach Coleridge. Or me. But this also distances us from the God we see in Jesus. He didn't only love us when we were good. He loved us in our wretchedness. He gave his life for sinners. We were as low as could be. And that's where Christ comes to meet us and save us.
Coleridge's life seemed to have been touched with tragedy all through. No great reconciliations, no great triumphs marked its end. So we'll end with his poetry from the event we've described here:
That as I raise my head, awhile bowed low
In adoration, upward from thy base
Slow travelling with dim eyes suffused with tears,
Solemnly seemest, like a vapoury cloud,
To rise before me - Rise, O ever rise
Rise like a cloud of incense from the Earth!
Thou kingly Spirit throned among the hills,
Thou dread ambassador from Earth to Heaven,
Great Hierarch! tell thou the silent sky,
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun,
Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God
(Coleridge, "Hymn Before Sunrise, in the Vale of Chamouni", quoted in Guite, 145)
Malcolm Guite describes an epiphany:
"An epiphany is a showing, given only for a distinct moment, yet of something eternal. The question always arises, how do we deal with such epiphanies?...We no sooner have these moments of epiphany than they seem to be taken from us. The question is how we can live from them, draw from them, return to them." (Guite, Waiting on the Word, 150)
The celebration of Epiphany in the church centers on events of Jesus' life that acted as 'showings', moments that revealed, through dense scriptural allusion, who Jesus really is. Three particular events that have become significant for this season over the centuries are the Magi visiting the child Jesus, Jesus' baptism, and the Wedding at Cana when Jesus turned water into wine.
But back to Guite's question: how do we deal with epiphanies when as soon as we have them they are taken from us? We have 'mountain-top' moments. God becomes clear, and we do too - as clear as the landscapes and vistas that spread out before us. But soon enough, we are down from the mountain again, trying to recall the splendor, but it just isn't the same. How do we catch epiphanies?
Guite relates the story of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. An opium addict, married, yet nurturing a passionate, adulterous attraction to another woman, unable to tolerate the daily drudgeries of home life, yet struggling to sustain an income through his work and thus leaving his family nearly impoverished for much of their life - Coleridge had good reason to be spiritually pent-up and dissatisfied. And it was in this state that while climbing a mountain, he found himself physically pent-up as well, stuck partway down a cliff, unable to rise nor descend. In his terror, he experienced there an epiphany of the gift of life:
"My Limbs were all in a tremble - I lay upon my Back to rest myself, & was beginning according to my Custom to laugh at myself for a Madman, when the sight of the Crags above me on each side, & the impetuous Clouds just over them, posting so luridly & so rapidly northward, overawed me. I lay in a state of almost prophetic Trance & Delight - & blessed God aloud, for the powers of Reason & the Will, which remaining no Danger can overpower us! O God, I exclaimed aloud - how calm, how blessed am I now... (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, quoted in Guite, Waiting on the Word, 144)
Coleridge would write a poem about this thrilling experience of spiritual transcendence which took place on Scafell Pike in Great Britain. But you wouldn't know it from his poem. Considering Scafell Pike to be too 'humble', he had encountered a description of the Vale of Chamouny in the Swiss Alps. Finding it to be a better match, he reframed his poem to take place there instead. A better external representation for his internal mountain top experience!
Malcolm Guite thinks this sheds light on a common human tendency: we are embarrassed by the distinct and sometimes embarrasing settings in which we experience transcendence and joy:
"In some ways it's a pity that Coleridge felt so ashamed of his own fraught circumstances, so unworthy of the religious epiphany he had experienced, that he felt the need to transfer it to some safe distance, for to my mind there is gospel in knowing that God gives us these experiences just where we are, on our own 'humble mountains', in the midst of our complicated, shadowed and ambiguous lives."
Sinners don't deserve epiphanies! When they encounter them, its tempting to 'reframe' them to emphasize something heroic. As though the epiphany didn't happen to lowly Coleridge on lowly Scafell Pike, but rather Coleridge went out and heroically found the epiphany while scaling the heights of the magnificent Vale of Chamouny! As though God doesn't really have to come down to us, but we can go up to him.
We come back to the initial question: how do we deal with epiphanies when as soon as we have them they are taken from us? Coleridge shows us how we try to keep control, how we try to catch epiphanies and keep them. Like Coleridge, we fudge the truth and make ourselves and our situation look better than they are. As though God didn't have to come that far down to reach Coleridge. Or me. But this also distances us from the God we see in Jesus. He didn't only love us when we were good. He loved us in our wretchedness. He gave his life for sinners. We were as low as could be. And that's where Christ comes to meet us and save us.
Coleridge's life seemed to have been touched with tragedy all through. No great reconciliations, no great triumphs marked its end. So we'll end with his poetry from the event we've described here:
That as I raise my head, awhile bowed low
In adoration, upward from thy base
Slow travelling with dim eyes suffused with tears,
Solemnly seemest, like a vapoury cloud,
To rise before me - Rise, O ever rise
Rise like a cloud of incense from the Earth!
Thou kingly Spirit throned among the hills,
Thou dread ambassador from Earth to Heaven,
Great Hierarch! tell thou the silent sky,
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun,
Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God
(Coleridge, "Hymn Before Sunrise, in the Vale of Chamouni", quoted in Guite, 145)
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Wednesday, January 3 - The Paradoxes of Christianity
In his book Living the Christian Year, Bobby Gross explores the paradoxes of Christianity:
"Throughout the centuries, beginning with John, writers have explored the mystery and paradox of this divine enfleshment, this incarnation, through the language of poetry. Consider these five excerpts from poems:
Him who dwells beyond the worlds
The Virgin bore today.
Him who bounds the universe,
Earth shelters in a cave.
(St. Romanos, "The Melodist," Syrian, sixth century)
Blessed mother, by God's gift,
the One who is the highest of all powers,
the One who holds the world in his hand,
was cloistered in your womb.
(Hymn from The Prymer, European, fifteenth century)
Today you see in a stable
the Word speechless,
Greatness in smallness,
Immensity in blankets.
Such wonders!...
He who had no beginning,
His being of Time begins;
the Creator, as a creature,
is now subject to our griefs.
Such wonders!
(Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, "Carol 3," Mexican, seventeenth century)
After
The white-hot beam of annunciation
fused heaven with dark earth,
his searing, sharply focused light
went out for a while,
eclipsed in amniotic gloom:
his cool immensity of splendor,
his universal grace,
small-folded in a warm, dim
female space -
the Word stern-sentenced to be
nine months' dumb -
infinity walled in a womb,
until the next enormity -
the Mighty One, after submission
to a woman's pains,
helpless on a barn's bare floor,
first-tasting bitter earth.
(Luci Shaw, "Made Flesh," naturalized American, twentieth century)
(Bobby Gross, Living the Christian Year, 62-64)
Gross sums it up:
"Christmas - not just the single day but the festival of twelve days - offers us anew this gift and draws us again into this mystery: Word-become-flesh, Creator-turned-creature, immensity-contained, fullness-poured-out, power-made-vulnerable, eternity-subject-to-time. All this self-giving by God for our sakes - a gift immeasurable, a love incomprehensible." (Gross 64)
This points to mystery that is less of a cop-out and more of a paradox. For G.K. Chesterton, this helped to explain why people could be made at Christians for seemingly contradictory things:
"...Christianity was reproached with its naked and hungry habits; with its sackcloth and dried peas. But the next minute Christianity was being reproached with its pomp and its ritualism; its shrines of porphyry and its robes of gold. It was abused for being too plain and for being too coloured. Again Christianity had always been accused of restraining sexuality too much, when Bradlaugh the Malthusian discovered that it restrained it too little. It is often accused in the same breath of prim respectability and of religious extravagance. Between the covers of the same atheistic pamphlet I have found the faith rebuked for its disunion, "One thinks one thing, and one another," and rebuked also for its union, "It is difference of opinion that prevents the world from going to the dogs." In the same conversation a freethinker, a friend of mine, blamed Christianity for despising Jews, and then despised it himself for being Jewish." (Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 90)
Chesterton discovers the key to this in relating that Christian doctrine embraces two seemingly opposite extremes in one, rather than some sort of mushy middle:
"Last and most important, it is exactly this which explains what is so inexplicable to all the modern critics of the history of Christianity. I mean the monstrous wars about small points of theology, the earthquakes of emotion about a gesture or a word. It was only a matter of an inch; but an inch is everything when you are balancing. The Church could not afford to swerve a hair's breadth on some things if she was to continue her great and daring experiment of the irregular equilibrium. Once let an idea become less powerful and some other idea would become too powerful. It was no flock of sheep the Christian shepherd was leading, but a heard of bulls and tigers, of terrible ideals and devouring doctrines, each one of them strong enough to turn to a false religion and lay waste the world. Remember that the Church went in specifically for dangerous ideas; she was a lion tamer. The idea of birth through a Holy Spirit, of the death of a divine being, of the forgiveness of sins, or the fulfillment of prophecies, are ideas which, any one can see, need but a touch to turn them into something blasphemous or ferocious...Here it is enough to notice that if some small mistake were made in doctrine, huge blunders might be made in human happiness. A sentence phrased wrong about the nature of symbolism would have broken all the best statues in Europe. A slip in the definitions might stop all the dances; might wither all the Christmas trees or break all the Easter eggs. Doctrines had to be defined within strict limits, even in order that man might enjoy general human liberties. The Church had to be careful, if only that the world might be careless." (Chesterton, 101-102)
"Throughout the centuries, beginning with John, writers have explored the mystery and paradox of this divine enfleshment, this incarnation, through the language of poetry. Consider these five excerpts from poems:
Him who dwells beyond the worlds
The Virgin bore today.
Him who bounds the universe,
Earth shelters in a cave.
(St. Romanos, "The Melodist," Syrian, sixth century)
Blessed mother, by God's gift,
the One who is the highest of all powers,
the One who holds the world in his hand,
was cloistered in your womb.
(Hymn from The Prymer, European, fifteenth century)
Today you see in a stable
the Word speechless,
Greatness in smallness,
Immensity in blankets.
Such wonders!...
He who had no beginning,
His being of Time begins;
the Creator, as a creature,
is now subject to our griefs.
Such wonders!
(Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, "Carol 3," Mexican, seventeenth century)
After
The white-hot beam of annunciation
fused heaven with dark earth,
his searing, sharply focused light
went out for a while,
eclipsed in amniotic gloom:
his cool immensity of splendor,
his universal grace,
small-folded in a warm, dim
female space -
the Word stern-sentenced to be
nine months' dumb -
infinity walled in a womb,
until the next enormity -
the Mighty One, after submission
to a woman's pains,
helpless on a barn's bare floor,
first-tasting bitter earth.
(Luci Shaw, "Made Flesh," naturalized American, twentieth century)
(Bobby Gross, Living the Christian Year, 62-64)
Gross sums it up:
"Christmas - not just the single day but the festival of twelve days - offers us anew this gift and draws us again into this mystery: Word-become-flesh, Creator-turned-creature, immensity-contained, fullness-poured-out, power-made-vulnerable, eternity-subject-to-time. All this self-giving by God for our sakes - a gift immeasurable, a love incomprehensible." (Gross 64)
This points to mystery that is less of a cop-out and more of a paradox. For G.K. Chesterton, this helped to explain why people could be made at Christians for seemingly contradictory things:
"...Christianity was reproached with its naked and hungry habits; with its sackcloth and dried peas. But the next minute Christianity was being reproached with its pomp and its ritualism; its shrines of porphyry and its robes of gold. It was abused for being too plain and for being too coloured. Again Christianity had always been accused of restraining sexuality too much, when Bradlaugh the Malthusian discovered that it restrained it too little. It is often accused in the same breath of prim respectability and of religious extravagance. Between the covers of the same atheistic pamphlet I have found the faith rebuked for its disunion, "One thinks one thing, and one another," and rebuked also for its union, "It is difference of opinion that prevents the world from going to the dogs." In the same conversation a freethinker, a friend of mine, blamed Christianity for despising Jews, and then despised it himself for being Jewish." (Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 90)
Chesterton discovers the key to this in relating that Christian doctrine embraces two seemingly opposite extremes in one, rather than some sort of mushy middle:
"Last and most important, it is exactly this which explains what is so inexplicable to all the modern critics of the history of Christianity. I mean the monstrous wars about small points of theology, the earthquakes of emotion about a gesture or a word. It was only a matter of an inch; but an inch is everything when you are balancing. The Church could not afford to swerve a hair's breadth on some things if she was to continue her great and daring experiment of the irregular equilibrium. Once let an idea become less powerful and some other idea would become too powerful. It was no flock of sheep the Christian shepherd was leading, but a heard of bulls and tigers, of terrible ideals and devouring doctrines, each one of them strong enough to turn to a false religion and lay waste the world. Remember that the Church went in specifically for dangerous ideas; she was a lion tamer. The idea of birth through a Holy Spirit, of the death of a divine being, of the forgiveness of sins, or the fulfillment of prophecies, are ideas which, any one can see, need but a touch to turn them into something blasphemous or ferocious...Here it is enough to notice that if some small mistake were made in doctrine, huge blunders might be made in human happiness. A sentence phrased wrong about the nature of symbolism would have broken all the best statues in Europe. A slip in the definitions might stop all the dances; might wither all the Christmas trees or break all the Easter eggs. Doctrines had to be defined within strict limits, even in order that man might enjoy general human liberties. The Church had to be careful, if only that the world might be careless." (Chesterton, 101-102)
Monday, January 1, 2018
Tuesday, January 2 - All My Heart This Night Rejoices
Paul Gerhardt was a German pastor in the 17th century. Here is his hymn, All My Heart This Night Rejoices:
All my heart this night rejoices
As I hear
Far and near
Sweetest angel voices,
"Christ is born," Their choirs are singing
Till the air
Ev'rywhere
Now with joy is ringing.
Forth today the Conqueror goeth,
Who the foe,
Sin and woe,
Death and hell, o'erthroweth.
God is man, man to deliver;
His dear Son
Now is one
With our blood forever.
Shall we still dread God's displeasure,
Who, to save,
Freely gave
His most cherished Treasure?
To redeem us, he hath given
His own Son
From the throne
Of his might in heaven.
He becomes the Lamb that taketh
Sin away
And for aye
Full atonement maketh.
For our life his own he tenders;
And our race,
By his grace,
Meet for glory renders.
Hark! A voice from yonder manger,
Soft and sweet,
Doth entreat:
"Flee from woe and danger.
Brethren, from all ills that grieve you,
You are freed;
All you need
I will surely give you."
Come, then, let us hasten yonder;
Here let all,
Great and small,
Kneel in awe and wonder.
Love him who with love is yearning;
Hail the star
That from far,
Bright with hope is burning.
Dearest Lord, thee will I cherish.
Though my breath
Fail in death,
Yet I shall not perish,
But with thee abide forever
There on high,
In that joy
Which can vanish never.
The first stanza traces joy through the night, first through the singer's own heart, then through angel voices, and finally through the air itself. This quality of the creation praising God returns in stanza six, when all are beckoned to love Christ and even the star burns bright with hope.
Gerhardt powerfully expresses the great cost to both the Father and to the Son in the economy of salvation. In stanza one, Christ's victory is expressed in the terms that he has made a binding covenant with humanity. Salvation is as surely ours as he has truly and eternally become human - "His dear Son now is one with our blood forever." Humanity isn't a mask he at some point intends to remove. Before dying on the cross, the decision to become human, to be born, is for Christ a marriage covenant with his bride, the church. He will never go back on it. When Jesus ascends into heaven, as recorded in the beginning of Acts, a human being enters God's highest heaven for the first time. Because he is there, we have hope to be there too! Likewise, in stanza three, Gerhardt invites us - if I can stretch the rhyme a little farther - to measure God's displeasure against his treasure so that we may see that the Father was willing to incur great cost to reclaim us. I find this quite powerful. I'm sensitive to others' displeasure. Aren't we all? That's why Gerhardt meets us there first, and then so pastorally and comfortingly rhymes the word he'd rather leave in our ears, the Son of God, the treasure of the Father - leaving the displeasure to evaporate like a passing mist.
The seventh and final stanza touches on death and expresses a clinging to Christ which persists despite our own failure to cling to our own breath. George Grant provides some helpful context:
"This carol was written during a difficult period in Paul Gerhardt's life. Soon after he had been ejected from his pastorate for political reasons, his wife and four children died. He went with his one remaining child to a small parish in Luebben, Germany, where he continued his preaching and hymn writing until his death in 1676." (George Grant, Christmas Spirit, 120)
Gerhardt's writing bears no trace of heavy-handedness to me. I, for one, wouldn't be able to intuit personal tragedy in such lines about death, which I find to be typical of great, Christ-centered hymnody. Yet, he finds a splendid place within the stanza to speak of the unspeakable loss of his family. Through the entire hymn, the first and fourth line rhyme, while the second and third, sandwiched in between, also share their own scheme and have consistently far fewer syllables to accomplish their task. Here, in the last stanza, this works powerfully, speaking of the horror of loss and death precisely where he has the least words to express it in, and also where it is bound before and after, in the first and fourth lines by words of stirring hope - "thee will I cherish," and "I shall not perish." And this captures the soul's experience of Christ's preeminence: we are sad people bound on all sides by losses, regrets, and sorrows. But even in this we are sandwiched, bound on all sides by the Alpha and the Omega, the Lord who goes before and after, the one who has gone deeper into the sorrow than any of us have. And Paul Gerhardt came to love Jesus Christ even more over the course of his life because deeper sorrows brought deeper understanding of the lengths to which God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - have gone to make a fallen people like us fit for glory again.
All my heart this night rejoices
As I hear
Far and near
Sweetest angel voices,
"Christ is born," Their choirs are singing
Till the air
Ev'rywhere
Now with joy is ringing.
Forth today the Conqueror goeth,
Who the foe,
Sin and woe,
Death and hell, o'erthroweth.
God is man, man to deliver;
His dear Son
Now is one
With our blood forever.
Shall we still dread God's displeasure,
Who, to save,
Freely gave
His most cherished Treasure?
To redeem us, he hath given
His own Son
From the throne
Of his might in heaven.
He becomes the Lamb that taketh
Sin away
And for aye
Full atonement maketh.
For our life his own he tenders;
And our race,
By his grace,
Meet for glory renders.
Hark! A voice from yonder manger,
Soft and sweet,
Doth entreat:
"Flee from woe and danger.
Brethren, from all ills that grieve you,
You are freed;
All you need
I will surely give you."
Come, then, let us hasten yonder;
Here let all,
Great and small,
Kneel in awe and wonder.
Love him who with love is yearning;
Hail the star
That from far,
Bright with hope is burning.
Dearest Lord, thee will I cherish.
Though my breath
Fail in death,
Yet I shall not perish,
But with thee abide forever
There on high,
In that joy
Which can vanish never.
The first stanza traces joy through the night, first through the singer's own heart, then through angel voices, and finally through the air itself. This quality of the creation praising God returns in stanza six, when all are beckoned to love Christ and even the star burns bright with hope.
Gerhardt powerfully expresses the great cost to both the Father and to the Son in the economy of salvation. In stanza one, Christ's victory is expressed in the terms that he has made a binding covenant with humanity. Salvation is as surely ours as he has truly and eternally become human - "His dear Son now is one with our blood forever." Humanity isn't a mask he at some point intends to remove. Before dying on the cross, the decision to become human, to be born, is for Christ a marriage covenant with his bride, the church. He will never go back on it. When Jesus ascends into heaven, as recorded in the beginning of Acts, a human being enters God's highest heaven for the first time. Because he is there, we have hope to be there too! Likewise, in stanza three, Gerhardt invites us - if I can stretch the rhyme a little farther - to measure God's displeasure against his treasure so that we may see that the Father was willing to incur great cost to reclaim us. I find this quite powerful. I'm sensitive to others' displeasure. Aren't we all? That's why Gerhardt meets us there first, and then so pastorally and comfortingly rhymes the word he'd rather leave in our ears, the Son of God, the treasure of the Father - leaving the displeasure to evaporate like a passing mist.
The seventh and final stanza touches on death and expresses a clinging to Christ which persists despite our own failure to cling to our own breath. George Grant provides some helpful context:
"This carol was written during a difficult period in Paul Gerhardt's life. Soon after he had been ejected from his pastorate for political reasons, his wife and four children died. He went with his one remaining child to a small parish in Luebben, Germany, where he continued his preaching and hymn writing until his death in 1676." (George Grant, Christmas Spirit, 120)
Gerhardt's writing bears no trace of heavy-handedness to me. I, for one, wouldn't be able to intuit personal tragedy in such lines about death, which I find to be typical of great, Christ-centered hymnody. Yet, he finds a splendid place within the stanza to speak of the unspeakable loss of his family. Through the entire hymn, the first and fourth line rhyme, while the second and third, sandwiched in between, also share their own scheme and have consistently far fewer syllables to accomplish their task. Here, in the last stanza, this works powerfully, speaking of the horror of loss and death precisely where he has the least words to express it in, and also where it is bound before and after, in the first and fourth lines by words of stirring hope - "thee will I cherish," and "I shall not perish." And this captures the soul's experience of Christ's preeminence: we are sad people bound on all sides by losses, regrets, and sorrows. But even in this we are sandwiched, bound on all sides by the Alpha and the Omega, the Lord who goes before and after, the one who has gone deeper into the sorrow than any of us have. And Paul Gerhardt came to love Jesus Christ even more over the course of his life because deeper sorrows brought deeper understanding of the lengths to which God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - have gone to make a fallen people like us fit for glory again.
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