Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 86 - Navigating Numbers v. 3 - Atonement: An Unlikely Marriage

The first reflection on Numbers was about the tribes of Israel who camped and journeyed together through the wilderness.  The second reflection was about whole-hearted vs. half-hearted following.  We have several examples of whole-hearted following in Caleb and Phineas.  We have plenty of examples of half-hearted following which I shared in that reflection.  This third reflection will be about the idea of atonement.

Atonement is easily understood by looking at the word itself – at-one-ment.  Atonement takes parties that have been separated and reconciles them to new unity, bearing the cost of whatever caused the division.  A sinner and a holy God.  They are ‘one’ again.  At-one-ment.  Atonement.

Have you ever seen an unlikely marriage – he’s a slacker and she’s type A…she’s athletic and he’s clumsy…he’s short, and she’s tall (or maybe the other way around : - )… and you wonder, “How did they ever find each other?  They seem like such opposites.  What an unlikely marriage!”

Justice and mercy are an unlikely marriage.  Justice is severe with no exceptions made.  Mercy covers over sins.  Throughout history, it has been downright impossible to keep the two together.  Mercy without justice is too lenient.  Justice without mercy is too severe.  Where do we find them both?  In Christian worship.  In atonement.

Atonement is a miracle, really.  It is the marriage of God’s justice and God’s mercy.  God alone is 100% just and 100% merciful.  Consider two examples from Numbers.  In Numbers 16, Dathan and Korah have just rebelled against Moses and against God.  They tried to usurp the priesthood by offering unauthorized fire with censers.  Those are like torches.  The Lord’s wrath goes out against the sinners like a plague.  It is basically moving person to person!  This is God’s holiness and justice – his anger against sin.  This is the same justice that you rarely see married to mercy in the world.

Look what happens next.  Aaron goes out with his censer and rushes out into the plague as it sweeps peoples’ lives away.  How scary!  But the plague stops.  The rightful priest stands in the gap between the living and the dead.  He makes atonement.  This is God’s mercy on his people. 

That’s not all.  Consider the censers – the torches I just mentioned.  These disastrous instruments which have caused such awful death are brought into the tabernacle, the most holy place of worship.  What is such a sinful thing doing in the house of worship?  Look at the passage: “For the censers of these sinners have become holy at the cost of their lives…Thus they shall be a sign to the Israelites.” (16:38)  Do you see what has happened?  The censers are now a reminder.  It is a reminder of God’s holiness.  They remind everybody of the terrible sin that Dathan and Korah did.  To look at it is to say, “I fear God, so I will obey him.”  But that is not all.  It is a reminder of his mercy as well.  To look at it is to say: “God has been merciful to protect me from danger in this way.”  God’s ways alone are life for us.  In this way, atonement creates in us the vivid and authentic, whole-hearted worship of God that he desires.

This is atonement – a marriage of justice and mercy.  To remove one of them obliterates the concept.  It is a miracle.  It is at the heart of the Christian faith.  We must keep this in mind as we read.

Here’s another example.

In chapter 21, the people sin and “speak against God”.  God sends poisonous serpents into their midst.  We are told that many died.  The people repent.  God instructs Moses to make a serpent out of bronze, to put it on a pole.  If an Israelite had been bitten, it took only a glance at the bronze serpent and they would be healed.  The bronze serpent made atonement for the punishment of sin.  They would live.

In John 3:14-15, Jesus speaks about the bronze serpent of Numbers 21.  He says, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  He would be lifted up.  On the day he died, he was lifted up on a cross. 

In this lifting up, he accomplished our atonement.  We can see Jesus in these stories from Numbers.  Although the censers of Dathan and Korah were unholy, they become holy through the sinners’ death.  The serpents brought death to the Israelites’ camp.   Redemption came when their eyes fastened upon the image of the serpent.  Even though this is the Old Testament, we see that our atonement in the New Testament is similar.  Jesus died a long time ago.  But when we see through the eyes of faith that he bore our sin on the cross, we receive eternal life as God’s gift.  We see our judgment fall on our divine substitute.  We are cleansed.  At-one-ment.  We are ‘one’ with God again.

Do you believe this?  Isn’t it powerful to know that another has made atonement for you?  Justice and mercy are married together in him.  Death to sin, and alive to Christ in his new life.  This is his gift to you.  Your chains are gone.  This is the heart of Christian worship.  It is an old truth – as old as Leviticus and Numbers!  But it isn’t old-fashioned.  The atonement we see throughout the book of Numbers in these examples and others is “lifted up” by Jesus.  It is fulfilled when he is lifted up on the cross to make atonement for us.

Are you thankful that God’s judgment has fallen on another instead of you?  Are you grateful for the mercy that has given you new life?  Spend some time thanking God for Numbers, for Jesus Christ, and for how the marriage of God’s justice and mercy in Jesus has changed your life.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 74 - Whole-Hearted or Half-Hearted?

The book of Numbers teaches us about holiness.  One of the best examples of holiness is the whole-hearted following of God shown by Caleb of Jephunneh. Caleb takes an expeditionary journey into the promised land with other representatives of the twelve tribes.  Everyone else is intimidated by the size of the people there.  Only two have enough confidence in the Lord to go in.  One of them is Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ apprentice.  The other is Caleb of Jephunneh.  And here is what God says about Caleb: “But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me whole-heartedly, I will bring into the land...” (14:24, emphasis mine)

What does it mean to follow God whole-heartedly like Caleb?  It means to take a public stand of trust in God.  It means to be courageous in standing alone.  It is hard to be the only one standing strong.  Moments like these prove not only to God but to the other people that there is one present who whole-heartedly follows the Lord.

We can also learn what it means to be ‘whole-hearted’ by looking at its opposite.  We can learn from the failures of others in their half-hearted following.  There are a number of examples of this in Numbers:

1)      Queasy Over Quail.  The Israelites grumble for food in chapter 11.  What does God give them?  He gives them way more quail than they could ever want.  The sin is not their hunger.  Their punishment comes “because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” (11:20)  They have scorned the favor God has shown them.  In the same way, we can scorn God’s deliverance by ignoring what he has done for us and say “take us back to our old lives!”  This is half-hearted.

2)      Aaron and Miriam – Seditious Siblings.  Moses’ family – his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam – question whether God has actually called him.  They are angry at him for marrying a Cushite woman.  Don’t buy it – that’s a red herring.  The real issue is this: “…and they said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?  Has he not spoken through us also?” (12:2)  It is not a bad thing to be an ‘Aaron’ in God’s plan – it is a great thing.  It is not a bad thing to be a ‘Miriam’ in God’s plan – it is a great thing.  To compete with one another to be God’s mouthpiece – this is half-hearted.

3)      Ignorant Israelites.  After the spies’ bad report, the people rebel and they refuse to go.  Their punishment: to die out in the wilderness.  But now the Israelites change their minds: “Here we are.  We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.”  Moses warns them: “Why do you continue to transgress the command of the Lord?  That will not succeed.  Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you…” (14:40) They suffer disaster.  This is half-repentance – they say they are sorry, but they ignore all that God has just said in verses 26-35.  Half-listening  to God is not enough.  His grace is not cheap.  It demands a changed life.  This is half-repentance.  It is half-hearted.    

4)      Tribes in Tumult.  The revolt of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in chapter 16 brings the tribal competition to crisis pitch.  The twelve tribes were made to worship God together.  Now the Reubenites and Levites have rebelled against Moses.  Chapter 17 illustrates the moral of the story.  God has chosen Aaron’s family to be priests.  Everyone else has to be content with that.  Competing with others for muscle, power, and leverage in God’s family is tragic.  Rather than facing the Lord in the center of the camp, they face each other in rebellion.  It is half-hearted.

5)      Moses’ Mistake.  Even Moses fails in a critical moment.  Instead of his usual precision, to-the-letter obedience, Moses tries to obey the ‘spirit’ of what God is saying.  This is not whole-hearted Caleb-style following.  In his half-hearted devotion, Moses turns away from God’s commandment.  His half-hearted devotion is an insult to the holiness of God: “But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” (20:12)

6)      First Commandment Failure.  Moments like Moses’ failure at Meribah and Dathan and Korah’s idolatry in the wilderness are memorialized so that the people would walk in the fear of the Lord and not consider their own ways to be wise.  But this all comes crashing down when the Israelites commit idolatry and sexual immorality with Midianite women.  It seems a compliment to even call this half-hearted worship.  Are their hearts in it at all?

Imagine walking with God and then rejecting him on the scale they have by Numbers 25.  Phinehas the priest kills Zimri the Simeonite, who has yoked himself to a Midianite woman.  God applauds this killing.  What are we to make of this?  It is a difficult scene.  There are many scenes in this book in which the solution seems harsh.  And yet the same words will be there – whether this is your first reading of Numbers, or your 25^th.

And yet from our end of history, we see that Israel’s pursuit of holiness has failed.  Phinehas is not always there.  The disease can’t just be cut out.  Israel ultimately failed at holiness.  But God’s mission – to put holiness in his people – has not failed.  Rather than execute us, God allowed himself to be executed.  Rather than impale sinners, God allowed his own wrists to be impaled, and pinned to a cross.  The passage with Phinehas reminds us that the quest for holiness is a whole-hearted affair.  It tolerates no compromises.  But thanks be to God that the cost for all our half-hearted compromises have been born by God in Christ.  His Spirit lives in us.  He is whole-hearted.  He is holy.  Because he is, we can be too.

I’ll write tomorrow on our third theme: on how sin is atoned for in Numbers.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 70 - Navigating Numbers 1...The Twelve Tribes of Israel

Over the next several days, I’ll write on three themes from Numbers.  Today, it is the twelve tribes that make up these long lists of names that we call “genealogies.”

Twelve Tribes

I recently went camping with some folks from MPC.  Ah, camping…it’s the best, isn’t it?  Sleeping under the stars, meals over the fire, talking into the night.  Actually, we skipped the whole ‘overnight’ part because daylight savings time was the next morning and we would lose an hour.  Ouch!  Of course, as we read Numbers, the Israelites have been traveling in the wilderness.  They’ve been camping as well.  Just like us, although I doubt daylight savings time was a concern of theirs’.  They grumbled a lot, but at least they didn’t grumble about that.

 In Numbers, chapter three, we receive a picture of the way the Israelites camped: the twelve tribes circled around the tent of meeting, facing it in the center.  In other words, the people of God circled around the presence of God at their center. 

This is not the only time in the Bible that this happens.  When Jesus called his disciples, we saw in Mark 3 that he appointed twelve disciples to be with him.  Do you think Jesus randomly decided he would choose twelve?  I don’t either.  There is a connection between the twelve tribes of Israel and Jesus’ twelve apostles.  The twelve tribes ultimately fail.  They fight with each other rather than working together.  They turn from God.  But God is merciful.  He continues with them.  Likewise, although the twelve disciples also fail constantly, Jesus continues with them.  Ultimately he and his disciples fulfill the mission of the twelve tribes of Israel.  Across the two testaments of the Bible, the two grand salvation stories mirror one another: God led his people out of Egypt and the twelve tribes journeyed from the wilderness to the Promised Land.  Jesus led his people out of sin through his cross and resurrection and the twelve apostles lead God’s people, the church, into a new wilderness of discipleship and into a new Promised Land.  There is a great biblical link between the twelve tribes and twelve apostles.

The twelve tribes of Israel and Jesus’ twelve disciples are not only linked in our Bibles.  They are also linked in the vision of eternity in Revelation 21:9-14.  The vision is of a city shaped like a square – the new Jerusalem.  It has three gates and walls for each of the four sides, adding up to twelve total gates and twelve total walls.  The twelve tribes are written on the gates.  The twelve apostles are written on the walls.

I’ll say that again: their names are written on the foundations of the heavens themselves in God’s coming new creation!

The lesson here is that we are not islands – standing unconnected from one another.  We come from the twelve apostles.  The twelve apostles come from Jesus.  And Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah, one of the twelve tribes.  These aren’t just themes connected in the Bible.  This is history.  We are connected to all of this!  This is our heritage, given to us in Jesus.  This is where we come from.  But this is also where we are going.  In Christ, our destiny is the city of the eternal God – the city with the tribes on its gates and the apostles on its walls. 

If our real heritage is with the twelve tribes and apostles of God, this idea challenges the way we normally think about identity.  What is our identity?  In his book The Real American Dream, Columbia University professor Andrew Delbanco says that from the time of the earliest American settlements, American identity was found in God.  Then as that confidence dimmed, our identity was found in the sacred nation-state.  Now, in our time, our identity is found in ourselves.  The Scriptures reveal human life to be filled with divine significance.  Without it, life and history can seem meaningless.  We have nowhere else to turn.  The great 20^th century German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer put this search for meaning well: “It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to His Son Jesus Christ, than to seek what God intends for us today…only in the Holy Scriptures do we learn to know our own history.” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 54) 

Our heritage is in these genealogies of the people of God camped around the tent of meeting.  Sure, the genealogies of Numbers 1-2 are boring.  They’ll be boring later in the Bible too.  But they are there for a reason.  They show us a heritage that runs deeper.  Deeper than our broken and bruised family tree.  Deeper than our American citizenship. 

We have a deep need to be connected to something. It is really hard to make it through the day without that sense of purpose that you can connect to.  What will it be for you each morning?  Will you find your identity in our country?  Will you find it in yourself?  Or will you find it in the heritage of God’s people that goes back thousands of years and that will extend into eternity?  If you do, you will find in your time with God and in your Bible study what Bonhoeffer found to be true.  What he found is that our heritage with God has unlimited resources for rich, abundant, joyful life.  The reason for that is simple: God has created us for this.  He made and re-made us to orient ourselves and all of the stuff of life around God.  Just like the twelve tribes so long ago, we were made to set up our camps facing the tent of meeting, facing the place where God lives.  In the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, God is above us, before us, and within us.  God’s face shines on us.  Jesus is the way laid out before us.  The Holy Spirit lives inside us.  We are surrounded on all sides.  God camps around us.  This is so that we might set up our camp – our jobs, our families, our homes, our communities, hopes and dreams – all around God.

The Israelites camped around God.  Thanks be to God that he also camps around us.

Tomorrow, I’ll write on the holiness of God that we’ve seen in this great book called Numbers.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 57 - Loving Leviticus

As of today, we are close to the end of the book of Leviticus.  Are you loving it?  Some people find it difficult to read.  I have found in the last few years that the book retains my attention for one simple reason.  God is speaking.  When God speaks, the words that are said are authoritative for us.  And it is impossible to miss the authoritative tone of Leviticus.  I experience what I would call a healthy fear of God when I read Leviticus.

But how can we truly say that Leviticus is authoritative for us when we don’t do everything the book tells us to?  Whether it’s mixing fibers, stoning people to death, or not eating seafood without fins or scales, there are a number of laws we don’t obey.  In fact, there is a lot of confusion in our society when Christians refer only to Leviticus.  The reason is that there are so many laws in Leviticus that we don’t follow.

So how is it authoritative?

Christopher J.H. Wright is one of the great Old Testament scholars.  He wrote a fabulous article for Christianity Today last summer called “Learning to Love Leviticus”.  I want to provide three keys to reading Leviticus that he discusses in his article.  These will help us to see Leviticus as truly authoritative even as we don’t keep all the rules it gives us.

Principles

Did you know that London taxi cab drivers are still required by law to have a bale of hay and a bag of oats for their horses?  Do they follow that law?  No, because taxi drivers no longer ride horses, but drive automobiles.  But the principle still stands: provide sufficient food for your horses.   In the same way, we find principles for Old Testament laws that it no longer makes sense for us to follow.  Wright includes another example.  Paul in the New Testament is writing to the Corinthian people.  He quotes from a Deuteronomy passage about how oxen that are grinding corn should be fed from the product of their labors.  The urban Corinthians would not have had oxen.  So what is Paul’s point?  The point is in the principle.  Just as the oxen deserve the reward for their labor, so do people.

Notice that just because an Old Testament law like the one I just mentioned is not addressed to me (I have no oxen) does not mean it is not authoritative.  If I had oxen, it would be.  This is what it means to see the principle behind the Leviticus laws.

Finding the Principles

Wright lists a number of helpful questions for finding principles.  We can ask ourselves these to help engage imaginatively with the book of Leviticus.  1) What kind of situation was this law intended to promote or to prevent?  2) What change in society would this law achieve if it were followed?  3) What kind of situation made this law necessary or desirable?  4) What kind of person would benefit from this law, by assistance or protection?  5) What kind of person would be restrained or restricted by this law, and why?  6) What values are given priority in this law?  Whose needs or rights are upheld?  7) In what way does this law reflect what we know from elsewhere in the Bible about the character of God and his plans for human life?  8) What principle or principles does this law embody or instantiate?

These questions won’t make sense of all the laws, Wright claims.  “Some laws are just plain puzzling.”  Even just looking over these questions helps us to understand that the most important thing about the laws isn’t what they are preventing.  Sometimes we need to look further and imagine the kind of life these laws are creating and protecting.

Why We Don’t Keep Certain Laws

There are certain laws that we don’t keep because they are fulfilled in Christ.  We find cause to keep levitical rules, or see them as fulfilled, depending on how they are treated in the New Testament.  The food laws and the sacrificial laws are fulfilled in Christ the New Testament.  For the food laws, see Acts 10.  For the sacrificial laws, see…wait for it…the next book we’re reading!!  The Letter to the Hebrews is the next book on our reading list.  Its entire subject is the finished work of Christ.  There is no sacrifice that can improve upon it. 

I hope these three points from Wright’s article help you to learn to love Leviticus.  

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 42 - Unanswered Questions, Running Partners, and Finding Jesus in the Book of Acts

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

We’ve been through Genesis, Mark, Exodus, and we’re currently making our way through Acts.  I’ve heard from a few people who are still in Exodus.  Maybe some of you are still in Mark!  I encourage you to press on.  As hard as it is to imagine, I believe a day will come when you will get a heaping portion of time to read Scripture.  And that will bless you.  In the meantime, I’ve decided in this devotion to speak about how our questions and running partners can humble us and also bring our reading to life.  This will allow me to look back at some of what we’ve covered so far, of which I hope to do more in future devotions.  Then, I’ll write about seeing Jesus through what we’ve read - and what we will read - in the Book of Acts.  This will be our way of looking ahead.

Allies in Our Reading: Questions and Running Partners

Fun stuff happens while reading the Bible.  Especially since my wife, Jessica, is reading it with me.  I was reading Exodus 16:13-36 and thinking about the manna that God provided.  The Israelites only got a certain amount – an omer.  This was to last each person a day.  I was wondering whether this really filled them up.  I should admit that eating too much has been a struggle for me lately.  “Could I make it on an omer?” I thought to myself.  “How much is an omer anyway?”  If I’d had a Bible dictionary, I could have found out.  But then as I read, the Bible told me: small enough to fit in a jar. (16:33)  So I’m bragging to my wife about my close Bible-reading.  Now, I know how much food is in an omer – a jar’s worth.  “Well, how big were their jars?” she asked.  I answered, “you know, like one of our mason jars probably.”  She gave me a look that was like, “Really, Chris?”  I understood the look immediately.  I started to laugh at the presumption that the Israelites were marching through the desert 3000 years ago with jars the exact same size as the ones in my food pantry.  I didn't know as much about omers as I thought I did.

All sorts of questions come up as we read the Bible.  I’ve collected quite a few so far.  Here are several:  “It seems like the midwives lie to the Egyptians in Exodus 1:17.  Do they really though, since they are doing the right thing?”  “Exodus 12:40 tells us that ‘this was for the Lord a night of vigil.’  What does it mean for the Lord to keep vigil if he never sleeps?”  “In Exodus 14:13-14, I love the verbs ‘do not be afraid,’ ‘stand firm,’ and ‘see the deliverance the Lord will bring you’.  Do other translations express this phrase like this?”  I’m sure you’ve collected some too!  Are unanswered questions obstacles in our reading?  In answer to this, I prefer to think of our questions as opportunities into deeper reading and reflection.

I mentioned Jessica in the paragraph before last.  Twice over the last several weeks, she has made a comment on the scriptures that has led me into serious thought and prayer.  Once, she shared that she thought the Gospel of Mark often spoke of what real faith was.  That really shaped the way I read Mark.  Another time, she read me the passage from Exodus 14 in which God tells the trembling Israelites, stuck between the angry Egyptians on the one side, and the Red Sea on the other, that all they have do is "be still." (Exodus 14:14)  (I’ll write more about this line soon).  It surprised me in looking over my reflections how much I’ve thought about these two passing comments Jess made from her reading. Allow your running partner (if you have one) to lead you into deeper reading and reflection.

Seeing Jesus’ Mercy and Power in the Book of Acts

Some of you may still be in Mark.  Some of you may be up to date as of today and are at Acts 12.  Acts has given us scenes of preaching, judgment, exorcism, healing, opposition, and danger.  Does this sound familiar?  It sounds a lot like the Gospel of Mark.  This is no accident.  When Jesus ascends into heaven at the beginning of Acts, he tells the disciples that they will be his witnesses and they will receive his Spirit.  Their work will continue his work.  We can begin to see the connection in the way the books begin.  In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is baptized and begins his ministry.  In Acts, the disciples are “baptized in fire” at Pentecost and begin their ministry.  As we see the church develop in Jerusalem, Damascus, Antioch and other places, we are often reminded of why we call the church “the body of Christ”.  Their lives are shaped by devotion to Jesus.  They look more and more like Jesus’ life.  Moved by the Spirit, they continue Jesus’ ministry.  We do too! 

 

As we continue to read Acts over the next week, reflect back upon the themes that stood out to you in the Gospel of Mark.  We have seen in Peter’s numerous speeches that the mighty acts that occur are linked to the name of Jesus. (Acts 10:36, 5:29, 3:13, 2:22)  When Saul gained his sight, Jesus spoke to a man and said about Saul, “I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:16)   Jesus is intimately involved in all that happens in Acts.  He is intimately involved in our lives as well.  When something happens to Peter or to Paul, ask yourself, “where is Jesus’ power or mercy reflected in this scene?” 

 

We have seen a lot of Peter in the previous few chapters.  Starting tomorrow, we’ll really be introduced to the ministry of Paul.  As we continue, we will get to know his ministry better through reading his many letters over the course of this year.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 28 - The Bible...points to God

What if reading the Bible was like the burning bush scene in Moses?  And instead of a coffee cup, a robe, and a pen, my reading involved a terrifying voice, a mountain top, and real flames?

Reading Scripture surrounded by four walls as opposed to whipping mountainous winds can’t hedge us off from God.  The power is in God’s Word.  God’s words are powerful.  Some people hear them and can’t get enough.  Others hear them and say “enough!”  One way or another, God’s words stir things up.

The Bible is obviously a very old book.  Why do we read it?  One of the most refreshing things we can do is to stop reading and take a few minutes to ask God to speak.  There is nothing more important than that. 

Isn’t the Bible the “word of God”?  Why should we ask God to speak to us if the Bible already does?

The best part of the Bible is not the Bible itself.  The best parts are the eternal God, all powerful and glorious, and his amazing plans for people like us who really have no idea who he is and have no idea who we are.  Without God, it doesn’t matter how many times we read the Bible, or how much Bible trivia we know.  The Bible is not our savior.  Jesus is our savior.  The Bible doesn’t talk about itself much.  It is focused on God.

Chris Webb puts it well: “Moses was not changed by a text.  He was utterly transformed by a direct encounter with God…When Moses heard the voice of God, he shook with terror and hid his face in the folds of his robe?  Why?  Because he was about to receive a couple of chapters of the book of Exodus?  No!  He was awestruck because the voice he heard made real and immediate the presence of the Holy One of Israel.” (The Fire of the Word, p. 21)

John Calvin tried to articulate what it is that makes Scripture the Word of God.  He used a helpful metaphor: spectacles, or glasses.  The Bible isn’t what we look at.  It is what we look through, like glasses.  Calvin taught that, without our glasses, the world looks fuzzy.  Sinful humans look at the beauty of creation, and they don’t ascribe its beauty to God, nor do they worship him.  Through God’s gift of the Holy Scriptures, we are given the gift of glasses.  This helps us see God.  But notice what else it does.  It helps us see the world!  The Bible teaches us that all of creation points to God.  We learn to love people, birds, trees, water, caterpillars, and sunshine even more because God made them.  As C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”  We don’t look at Scripture.  We look through it.

When we look through it, we are led into an encounter with an amazing God – so near to us that we could easily be distracted from his presence in the burning bush, and yet so holy that he claims to be the only God.  The Scriptures point to God.  Jesus himself learned from these Scriptures.  In Colossians, we learn that everything “is created through him and for him.”  In Luke 24:27, we learn that the Old Testament speaks to us of him.  The Scriptures are trustworthy because they lead us to Jesus for everything we need.

If your reading feels dry, ask God to focus your heart on responding to him, and not on your “Bible-reading plan.”  There is no hurry.  As we venture into a few reflection days at the end of January, I’ll post again about where we’ve been so far.  Feel free to comment or to send any questions you have.

Reading the Bible in 2014: Day 21 - Well-Defended

I watched Denver play New England on Sunday.  As always, I enjoy the signs people bring to the games.  The classic sign is the defense sign, and the footage repeatedly included two fans who had a letter ‘D’ and the picture of a fence that might be around a house.  “D-Fence!” 

Our first two Mark passages included a number of passages about demons.  They are cast out of people.  Jesus tells the healed persons to keep it a secret.  He wouldn’t want people to mis-interpret him as some sort of magician.  But word gets out.  And crowds come from near and far.  Jesus’ exorcisms play an undeniably big role in the gospels.  This can be awkward for everyday Christians, for whom the big enemies each day tend to be personal sins like impatience, anger, and loving things of this world more than God.  What do we believe about demons?  What “D-Fence” do we have against them?

Mark 1:21-28 shows us two typical qualities of demons – 1) they recognize Jesus’ authority, but 2) they hate him and his authority.  The demon, when confronted by Jesus, responds: “Have you come to destroy us?”  They recognize that he can destroy them.  But unlike the Christian, they think he probably wants to destroy them.  That’s different.  Jesus is their feared enemy.  This has always scared me.  How can someone see Christ in all his glory and then still oppose him?  I don’t get it.  But this has always been the mystery of evil.  It defies explanation.

If we believe in these satanic forces, does this make us strange?  Not in the least.  Spiritual warfare against satanic forces is firmly biblical and is firmly rooted within the Christian tradition.  New Age philosophies, the occult, Satanism, and pagan religions often present this battleground as something natural for the universe – that there has always been a war between good and evil.  This is not what Christians believe.  We believe that God is sovereign.  Evil is not part of him.  Nor is it a part of his creation.  Rather, it is an alien force that has corrupted the goodness of his plan. 

Seeing “The Exorcist” might have kept you awake at night when you were young, but no Christian should have sleepless nights about evil spirits.  Demons hate Jesus because they fear him. (Mark 1:21-28)  Victory over evil is already assured in the cross.  This is contained in Christ’s “It is finished.” (John 19:30)  We are not fighting a losing battle.  World War II lasted for another year after D-Day.  But D-Day made victory inevitable.  Jesus’ cross and resurrection is our D-Day.  God’s battle against evil will restore the universe to the beauty, righteousness, and fruitfulness with which he created it.

Thoughts of spiritual warfare are scary because to acknowledge them seems to put us on the defensive.  It’s scary to be ‘on defense’ against evil because we understand so little about it.  But we are ‘on offense.’  One of the more famous things Jesus says about his church is that “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)  When I hear this, I always instinctively picture hell not on defense, but on offense, trying to beat us but ultimately failing.  But that isn’t quite right.  Gates only prevail if they keep the enemy out.  Gates aren’t helpful for offense because they are a protective, defensive measure.  If the gates of hell won’t prevail against us, then it must be the church which is on offense.  In our worship, prayer, and fellowship in the name of Jesus, we are taking the battle to the gates of hell.  We are on offense.  They should be worried.  Not us. 

But even if we feel bothered or, indeed, possessed, by temptation, anxiety, fear, or an evil spirit, we are well-defended in Christ.  We should pray, and learn to trust him.  He is our shield.  Psalm 23 reminds us to “fear no evil”, even in the valley of the shadow of death.  Jesus has won.  What we should fear is our own indifference to evil, that tendency of Christians to sit on the sidelines in the midst of this great, and real, battle.