The Battle is Won on a Field of Faith

The story of Gideon in Judges 6 helps answer a couple of common questions new Christian believer’s have about God's character. These are also questions that arise when a veteran Christian’s faith is being put to the test under struggle, loss and failures. Gideon was a judge of Israel given by God. The writer of Judges presents Gideon as sort of a second Moses in his calling. Both men were reluctant to lead God's people. Gideon's name means "Hewer." It is ironic that God used him to cut down the altar of Baal and then the Midianites the very people that were currently attacking the Israelites viciously and repeatedly.

In calling Gideon to deliver the Israelites, God commanded Gideon to destroy the Baal worship and renew worship of Yahweh. He called on Gideon to acknowledge Him as his God. Instead, Gideon dragged his feet and doubted God in a lack of faith. It is through God’s use of him that Gideon becomes a man of faith just as Moses did. The Angel of the Lord addressed Gideon as the man he would become by God's enablement, not the man he was at the time. In the same way God had called Moses who would confront Pharoah and lead the Israelites out of Egypt. One of the great truths of Scripture is that when God looks at us, He does not see us for what we are, but for what we can become. Gideon isn’t necessarily doubting that God, more likely he is doubting his own ability. Most Christians do the same at one time or another. If God calls us out, answer. Its not like you could hide from him anyway. 

The mightiness of Gideon to which the Angel referred (Judges 6:14) was what God's promised presence and commission guaranteed (Judges 6:14, 16). Gideon did not disbelieve the Angel as much as he failed to understand how he could be God's weapon of deliverance. There were plenty of reasons he could doubt but God allayed those fears over time building Gideons faith over time and reinforcement. In Gideon’s story we see God ally Gideons fears over time. We should also see how the answers to the following questions about Gideon’s predicament will ally our fears when we encounter similar questions about situations in or lives.

Does God Care About Me?

Judges 6:12-13 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

Let’s be honest, Gideon is basically saying that God had forsaken them and left them to their fate in response to the angel’s message. God had in fact provided just the opposite. God had given Gideon and Israel proof of his concern for them by the very angel that was giving this message to Gideon. In the darkness of despair God sends light.

What Gideon and Israel face is a chastening not their doom. Chastening is not the evidence of hatred for his people but rather evidence of His hatred for sin and the His love for his people. God would not sit back and watch His people destroy themselves so he used this chastening by Midianite invasions to straighten them out. The chastening made God’s people more receptive to His word since they had few other places to turn. God in turn comes to their rescue. Gideon’s response to the Lord is a complete lack of faith. Sadly, this form of lack of faith itself stems from sin in a person’s life. It is apparent God would have to spend considerable time with Gideon turning his doubt into courage and indomitable spirit. Yet, that is exactly what happens. By the time of Hebrews 11, Gideon is listed among the heroes of the Faith. This should give Christians strong encouragement even in their weakest hour.

The answer to the first question is a resounding and clear, yes.

Does God Know What He’s Doing?

Gideon then questions God’s wisdom in choosing him to be the nation’s deliverer. To outward appearances to another human this question would’ve been valid but not coming from God. The Lord gave Gideon all the assurance he should’ve needed, but he wouldn’t believe God’s Word. Again he is being like Moses (Exodus 3:7–12). If God tells us to do something He assuredly will provide the path and means to see it completed. In God’s very nature, He cannot lie and He never fails. Faith understands this and obeys.

Faith means obeying God in spite of what we see, how we feel. This second one seems to be the biggest stumbling block for believers as they are often too tied up into how they feel rather than what Scripture teaches us about the nature and reliability of God. Regardless, Gideon’s faithless responses seemed to allude to the fact that God could do little or nothing. Gideon asks for a sign to assure him that it was really the Lord who was speaking to him and surprisingly the Lord was gracious enough to accommodate Gideon’s unbelief. Christians shouldn’t expect this as God has since revealed Himself through His Son Jesus Christ.

We must understand that whenever God calls us to a task that we think is beyond us it very well may be. We need to remind ourselves that we must look to God and not to ourselves in these situations. If the task is beyond us, He will also enable it. If we are not capable at the time of our commissioning for the task God will act in our lives as He did in Gideons to make it feasible. Even if it means completely changing us and remaking us in the process. Trust me, I speak from experience on this one. I am not the man I was when I came into the faith. Nor will you be in the end.

The answer to the second question is a resounding and clear, yes.

Does God Keep His Promises?

The Midianites and their allies made their annual invasion with more than 135,000 men (8:10; 7:12). The equivalent of about five (5) modern divisions. They moved into and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. It was time for Gideon to fulfill his destiny and the Spirit of God gave him the wisdom and power that he needed. The same will be said of us as we seek to do God’s will. Gideon blows his trumpet first in his hometown of Abiezer and men rally around him. God’s reformation of Gideon and many of His people has taken hold. Those called then put out further calls to arms throughout the tribes of Manassah, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. At Gideon’s call, 32,000 men responded. There were 32,000 of God’s men against an army of 135,000 pagan men. The Jews were outnumbered and would be outmaneuvered, except for one thing: God was on their side and promised them victory. What chance did Gideon and his men have? It was going to be a rout…against the Midianites. It is understandable that there might be doubt of lack of faith in this situation. The odds were staggering. It is here we see the true nature of the believers battle. It is not a battle against an earthly for but one in the spiritual realm. Gideon questions to God reveal that this battle is a more a battle of faith then a battle of men.

Did God really want him to lead the Jewish army? Does God really want me to be a teacher of the Gospel? What did Gideon know about warfare? What did I know about Scriptures and the nature of God? After all, Gideon was only an ordinary farmer, and there were others in the tribes who could do a much better job. After all Andy was just an ordinary Quality Engineer that focused on systematic processes, rules and regulations not systematic theology and God’s laws and God’s commandments.  The story of the fleece then begins and the miracle of the wet fleece occurs. The fact that God agrees to Gideon’s weakness only proves that God is extremely gracious and understands how lacking in faith sinful men really are (Ps. 103:14). The fact that we would hold out for proof when he has already given us not only his word but also the life of his absurd.

The answer to the third and final question is also resounding and clear, yes.

Gideon’s and our story are stories about victory of faith over doubt. The real enemy is unbelief in a very serious and real war. The world and men contribute to that unbelief but they are not the real enemy. That is why our faith and belief of Christ’s work on the cross becomes so important and comes into such sharp focus. The real battle is a war over sin and death. Everything else becomes a moot point. The real and absolute victory therefore is won or lost on faith. If we hold out against the enemy and accept the victory at the cross, we realize that this victory is the one that has overcome the world. If we do not persevere to the end, we end up as casualties on that field.

1 John 5:4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has 

The Fifth Horseman

Please visit my new add-on site Fifth Horseman over at Medium.com.This site will read my posts to you if you don't have the time to read them. I'm just trying to extend my reach out through other methods. You are still free to read it here in its original form though. 

The Fifth Horseman

https://medium.com/@andyman131354

A Trained Professional VIII: Let’s Make A Deal

This is another in a continuing series on occupations and what the Scripture says about those trades and vocations that I started back in 2021. When I say trades I mean employment, work or a person's productive role in society as a whole. They may be things done or performed in exchange for payment of some form or monetary compensation...or not.

The buyer or purchaser….every middle-sized to large company has at least one nowadays. They purchase everything from pencils to million dollar components for jet fighters. In the realm of business today a buyer is an integral and well-paid person. They must have an innate feeling about the selling value of certain goods, and know where and how to buy to the best advantage of tradesman and customer alike. They need to understand that timing of arrival of goods is critical to a company’s ability to manufacture and sell goods. An old proverb once said, “Buyers needs a hundred eyes; sellers none.” In other words a purchaser / buyer needs to be wary and realize there is a responsibility to examine goods on offer. It’s up to the buyer to establish the nature and value of a purchase before completing the transaction. The buyer needs to assure they get the best deal possible but not be taken by the seller either.

Proverbs 20:14: “Bad, bad,” says the buyer, but when he goes away, then he boasts

Solomon notes an aspect of the real world here without actually endorsing it. What's depicted here is a common strategy used in business negotiations since ancient times. It is to downplay the value of something one wishes to buy. The opposite is also the case, as a seller may over-promise or exaggerate a product or service. In one sense, Solomon's comment is a reminder of this aspect of business. When a potential customer criticizes some product or service, it's naïve to assume those words are free from all bias or motive. It's called haggling and its to achieve the lowest price possible. The other side is also shown in Solomon’s follow up comment. The buyer will brag later about what a great deal they got. Its up to the seller to "talk up" something so a buyer spends more on it than they need to while simultaneously the buyers trying to "talk down" the value.

An examination of the verses in which “buying” and “selling” are mentioned reveals the range of commodities dealt with in both material and spiritual. A glance at commerce in the Bible shows that among the many products of Israel, both saleable and export¬able, were oil, wine, wheat, barley, oak timber, honey, fruits and spices, balsam, sand, wool and leather (Gen¬esis 43:11; II Samuel 1:24; II Chron-icles 2:10; Ezekiel 23; 26:2; 27:6, 17, etc.). Other countries, like Ophir and Tarshish, traded in silver and gold. Yam came from Egypt. There is a list of some 118 articles coming from foreign coun¬tries into Israel are mentioned in Scripture. By the time of Solomon there had been a tremendous in¬crease of imports and exports, buying and selling and a buyer had become a recognized pro¬fession as it is today.

There are at least two or three references to buying and selling used spiritually in the Bible. First of all, to buy means to obtain something from God by waiting upon Him in His appointed way — “Buy and eat” (Isaiah 55:1), which implies, “You have no money, come therefore and buy on My terms — though salvation is infinitely valuable, I will charge you nothing for it. When Solomon exhorts us to “Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom, instruction, and understanding.” (Proverbs 23:23), he seems to say, “Spare no cost for truth’s sake, neither depart from it for any gain; be a merchant in buying it; but never be tempted to surrender it.

Of course one of the most interesting transactions of the Bible is the price paid for each and every one of our salvations through Christ’s work on the Cross. Christ paid for our salvation through his death and Resurrection from the tomb on the third day. Prior to that death and resurrection he had told His disciples that, if they asked, Jesus would send a helper.

John 14:15-17 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.

The word advocate here in Greek is παράκλητος/parakletos. The Parakletos is referring to the Holy Spirit who Christ would send after his later departure in his Ascension to the Father in Heaven. The thing that should be noted in terms of buying is the fact Jesus did so at the cost of His life but also that when he left he was also leaving behind something in a business-like transaction. In Greek a parakletos was a person who pleads another's cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant; an advocate. In Hellenized philosophy it is universally, one who pleads another's cause with one...an intercessor. The evidence that Christ would still be working on and through them would be this Intercessor. In effect, the Holy Spirit was to take the place of Christ with the apostles to lead them (and us) to a deeper knowledge of truth and to give the divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom.

In Ephesians 1, Paul further explains that not only is the Spirit a Intercessor before the Father and helper in the world, he also acts to fulfill a financial transaction related to the original purchase of our salvation through Christ on the cross.

Ephesians 1:13-14 In him [Christ] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Our inheritance or salvation is guaranteed. The word guaranteed here in Greek is ἀρραβoν/arrabon. What was an arrabon in Greek? It was a binding legal or financial pledge. Financially understood it would be referred to today as a down-payment on a purchased item or something already reserved as being bought and paid for. The Holy Spirit is/was sent to us is a down payment on our salvation. This purchased item is of infinte value to the reciever. The seal on the deal mentioned is σφραγίζω/sphragizo and is the modern-day equivilent of signing on the dotted line of a binding contract. It is called assurance. So in reality, we already know what's behind Door #3. It has already been promised to us in writing...in the Bible.

Working for A Living

What...if not work and our chosen vocation (job)...is the gravitational center for the proclamation of Christ and Him crucified (the Gospel)? We are no longer an agrarian society teaching and living Christian life on the farm. I in-fact travel and have been many places for my employment and have been employed by many. Hence the reason I believe God keeps me healthy and constantly moving job to job. Every employer and every single trip for those employers another opportunity. 80% of our waking hours are in employment. I am a teacher without a pulpit. I am the pulpit.

We are in fact as Chrsitians...all bi-vocational. We need to work and we are also commanded to spread the Gospel. In both of these vocations we are in-fact emulating God's work of creation in Genesis and the spread of His word all throughout Scripture,

Most of us will be pastors or teachers in our workplaces, not the church (brick and mortar). Our main effect on the world as salt and light is in the streets or corridors of industry not dying behind cloistered walls in dead church buildings being obsoleted by false doctrines. By all means find a sound theological church and attend but don't hide your theology in it.

Genesis 2:15 say: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Colossians 3:23-24 says: "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

Because He Is...I Am

Hebrews opens with lofty and majestic language. It is hard to encapsulate God’s existence and being into such a finite medium as words. At these points imagination and words fail. The writer of Hebrews did the best he could with what he had but it was like trapping God with paper.

Hebrews 1:1-3 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 

The writer is making an absolute truth statement here and speaking in a matter-of-fact style. No Hebrew writer would for one moment entertain the idea of proving that ‘God is’. It would have been assumed and admitted as a fact on which all his thinking rests or what is called a presupposition. That's what we see in the Bible in general. The writers of all Scripture assume God is.

It is not possible for man to argue on any scientific subject unless he accepts certain facts which cannot be proved, and which it is mutually agreed shall be accepted without proof. Pythagoras or Euclid assumed the acceptance of certain axioms (a priori knowledge) and postulates before they could work out a single mathematical problem. It is knowledge inherent in the Universe and is required before mathematics can even be performed.

Similarly, there is one thing that must be admitted before any theological system can be constructed. It is an absolutely improbable thing...that every proof that can be offered must rest on assumptions, not on knowledge, since man has no power to know in the sphere to which this primary truth is related. A primary truth being is defined as a conception/proposition which is dependent for its truth on no other principle in the same order of thought. An axiomatic truth may be considered self-evident, intuitive insight but it is not or cannot be demonstrated. It’s taken for granted because…it is immutably true. It is the very being of God, truth is. A man can deny the being of God. Then we cannot talk theology with him; nor can we give him any idea of his moral duty. Scripture makes no attempt to prove that there is a God. It helps us to apprehend what He is, but not that He is.

In the beginning of the Bible, God is assumed to be. He is self-existent. It starts with the sublime assertion, “In the beginning God.” It proposes to deal only with men who accept that altogether incomprehensible fact as their starting-point being drawn from the essence of God and His creative power. No human intellect can pry behind that assertion. The absolute being, God, no created being can ever fully understand. The only thing we can do is to begin our thinking with this as our accepted first fact, our foundational truth-God is. One Being three persona, one uncreated, independent Being, sole source and absolute Originator of all things that exist.

Yet there is more in this passage.

God first and foremost. The first verse of the Bible asserts something that God has done. “God created the heavens and the earth.” But there is something that goes before the Divine action. God Himself must exist—the uncaused, eternal Being. “In the beginning God.” This is the place for Him, the only place, the place in which all reverent souls should forever keep Him. The foundational cornerstone of the great temple of thought and revealed truth is a pronouncement which forces us see one infinite Being, having life in Himself. 

He is self-existent and independent of all. When there was no heaven and no earth, in the silent, mysterious eternity, there was God. In the infinite deep of the quantum unknowable a first utterance of Divine Word pierces and resonances evermore in the created order that it spawned. The first divine work in the universe forever echoing down in all subsequent work performed in that universe by man. Word.

The greatest demand of faith for the Christian is to believe this happened as no one was there to see it yet…it is axiomatic and self-evident. It had to have happened for us to be here or for you to be reading this. Yet people deny it. The existence of God needs to be the beginning of human thinking or everything else thought in a man’s mind is based on a false presupposition or false beginning. The first stone in the edifice of thought is therefore flawed.

Even in light of this fundamental truth, God provides more proof for His existence for the feeble unbelieving mind. God has set the proofs of His existence so abundantly in the created order that He did not need to rewrite them in His book (but did). He has even put them in the very ability of our minds to think in an inductive manner and to be able to deduce things. We can never see anything without at once thinking there must have been a cause for it in this universe. 

The universe didn’t need to be ordered such as it is...but it is. There is order, another axiomatic assumption in reality. When one asks why, the answer is quickly arrived at…Someone created it. Our minds refuse to stop at anything short of that. We see a book; we assume a writer, a painting a printer. We see a machine; we know there was an inventor and maker.

We are surrounded with objects which we did not make, air, trees, flowers, streams, mountains, clouds, creatures; all trace their origin to God. Without some of them we could not survive. Systems designed to work interdependently. Within Creation the reality that we are dependent on these other created things, so in effect, we are dependent on nature, food and atmosphere. The length of our lives, the measure of our health, the formation of our diseases, are all things out of our own control. The universal nature of our dependence all tracing back to the Originator and Sustainer.

Here in Hebrews 1 and in Genesis 1 is an assertion of God’s eternality. What we find in the opening of Hebrews is also a statement of the absolute unity of God. The chapter asserts the exclusive relation of this one God to everything man can see or know. God made it; God ordained it; God arranged it. God allows it or doesn’t allow it (grace). This includes all natural forces and laws which act in creation. Every created thing has a power to act on every other created thing. 

Changes are going on in nature continually, changes sometimes  very silent and very gradual. Moses and the writer of Hebrews show us One living God at the beginning of all changes, designing all change, and presiding over all change. He deals with chaos, without form, and void, dwelling upon emptiness and confusion. He called forth light, and set order into motion.

The abrupt beginning of Hebrews startles us to attention. It reminds us of the stark but life-giving beginning of the book of Genesis. Scripture never proves the being of God. It assumes it. It deals with men only who assume it. It assumes: God is. God only is. Man can know Him, in part but cannot know Him perfectly. God gave the ability to understand him enough to be adequate for morality and salvation. Upon these facts all else is built. 

Here in the beginning of Hebrews we see the manifestation of God in humanity through God’s Son. Christ…was God taking on human form, so that He would not just be word or thought in man’s head. Instead he would be flesh. It was the whole plan from the beginning. God, the One God of Judaism and Christianity…because He is, I can be. Because He is the Great ‘I Am’ everything is. Because he was a man, died and rose again, I am forever.

Near at Hand

In the Apostle Paul’s address at the Areopagus (Mars Hill) we hear him address the men of Athens. At the time Paul speaks it was still the cultural and intellectual center of the Greek world. It is likely he is addressing pagan Gentiles so he simplifies his theology to help them understand what he is saying and uses one of their own altars to make a point. Basically he used one of their altars as a sermon prop.

Acts 17:22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…

The verse goes on but I stop at verse 27’s… “He is actually not far from each one of us…” The Greeks in Athens had built altar to an Unknown God…a mysterious, impenetrable or an unknowable deity. As if this one form of divinity was unknown to them. It is such a simple verse and such a simple sentiment that carries directly into our day and is symptomatic of the same thing it showed in Athens. It is the product of a lack of faith. A simple idea: God, mostly forgotten in times of loss, suffering and during the bad times in life. He is forgotten in a way that makes Him seem ‘unknown’ or more specifically unhelpful or callous. This is not the God of the Bible. As if to put an exclamation point on the opposite God came among us. For a brief three decade period about two millennium ago Jesus actually descended from his throne taking on the attribute of flesh and made his habitation among men. He became Immanuel or God among/with us. Not distant but immediate and immanent. He was and still is relational. From his relationship with humanity in Genesis to the ending verses of Revelation where He tells us He is coming back to us. In truth he never leaves us as He is always with us in Spirit (John 15:26-27).

Revelation 22:12-13 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Paul’s intent appears to be that he was about to tell his audience more about a God whom they worshipped but did not know much about, namely, Yahweh. Paul seems to have meant that he would inform them of a God whom they did not know but had built an altar to honor. In either case, Paul began with the Athenian interest in gods and their confessed ignorance about at least one god and proceeded to explain who that One God was. It was Yahweh and he was not unknown or unknowable. He is the true God who created all things and had determined when and where all things would be…including them. Including us when we are distraught, when we are struggling, when we are alone and even when we are dying. As a matter of fact He first died for us so that He would be there when we died to take us to be with Him forever. He is never far off but…here…now. If He is in any way distant and not available to us it is because we pushed Him away and chose to have little or nothing to do with Him.

God's purpose in regulating times and boundaries (v. 26-27) was that people would realize His sovereignty and seek Him (cf. Rom. 1; John 6:44; 12:32). He is a God who has absolute ownership of the universe in all is physical, temporal and spiritual aspects. An ownership flowing out of necessity due to His relationship to it as its Creator (Romans 10:12). Completely filled with His presence that anything in it would not be able to escape Him. Eternally present in place and time. He is a God who has guided all our movements by an invisible hand. He, who had called us into existence, and who, far from being indifferent to and ignorant of our fortunes, has in actuality determined our appointed seasons and the limits of our earthly and eternal habitation. He has fixed the periods of our rising, falling, decaying and the limits of our territory both in place and time. Yet somehow, we can feel completely isolated and ostracized because of our sin and the blinding darkness it can bring.

Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet-Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. ~Lord Alfred Tennyson

Even David, God’s anointed lost sight of Him at times during his darkest days. Pain has a way of distracting a person. In the midst of his affliction David rested in confidence in the Lord even though he saw no immediate relief from his predicament, possibly illness or a suffering brought on by his own sin. Blinded by life his heart laments in words but his soul tells him that God will never abandon him.

Psalm 13:1-2 “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me. How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”

David felt like God was distant to him and that He had forgotten him, like God was hiding His face from him but was this true? No, because later in this same psalm, David wrote that “I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation” (Psalm 13:5) and because of that, he wrote “I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:6).  David’s point was that even though God felt distant from him, the reality is God is closer to us when we’re crushed than when things are cruising along and going well.

It is therefore sadly ironic that a God who would do so many things to make Himself evident and available to men would go so often overlooked, ignored in blindness or forgotten. Unable to recognize their Maker while all the plain evidence needed is placed in our paths. He is a God who literally came looking for us. He did so from the very beginning in Genesis 3:9 when where man first fell in sin….the very sin that causes us to run from Him and not seek him out. He is a shepherd who knows His sheep. His sheep should know their shepherd... but most do not. They don’t recognize his voice. They do not obey his commands. An especially troubling behavior when the wolves arrive to scatter the flock, running to-and-fro in mindless chaotic movement, scared and directionless. Those weak will be restored and those dying will be comforted. A God who will find even the last that seek the safety of home.

Ezekiel 34:11-12, 16 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness….I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

Even when men have left you to your end in your time of dying because there is nothing more they can do for you…He is there.

Romans 14:8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.

Isaiah 62:12 …And you will be called, “Sought out…not forsaken.”

Talents: The Currency of The Kingdom

If one reads the Bible they will quickly see a pattern of people specifically set aside by God for specific tasks. These tasks are usually aligned with their natural inclinations. In the case of Nehemiah and Ezra they were gifted in administration and planning. Samson was gifted in strength and Luke was a great physician and historian. Even Jesus did what was necessary to fulfill the sovereign plan of God. It is no accident that these types of people ended up doing the things they did at the time and places they did. That is because the other pattern we see in the Bible is that God is sovereign and puts people and circumstances together where needed to accomplish His ends. At times it is difficult to see where the natural inclination ends and the true gifts begin.

Every Christian is responsible for making his own contribution for the good of other Christians and the world (1 Cor. 12:7, 11, 28). If they are in fact gifts in a traditional sense the people that possess them are therefore stewards of them. God is investing them in us for divine gain. The Bible is clear that we are to use our gifts (like finances) to get a better return on investment so to speak (Matthew 25:14-30). It is ironic and a play on words to call gifts a spiritual talent. A talent also being the word for a unit of weight and coin, used by the ancient Romans and Greeks. That’s because our gifts act as skills and currency in the world and God’s economy. The more talent we have the more the weight of responsibility comes to bear on the possessor of those talents. In Jesus’ Parable of the Talents (Bags of Gold) are given to a servant. The gold or finances are given to the servant with the expectation that they will be used and not just squirreled away. As goes the servant's finances (talents), so too the servant's gifts (talents).

[Insert ironic chuckle here]

The Giver of talents expects that every talent (gift or coin) shall be traded so as to gain something. If two are given, it is expected the trader will make other two; if ten are given, the result looked for is other ten, and so on. The fruit tree that occupies the fertilized soil, and has had most time, cost, and labor bestowed upon it, is expected to yield the most fruit. If given gifts it’s expected you’re a sound investment. No one gets talents/gifts by accident. To whom much is given, much is required. God had done great things for Eli and for David, and from them God expected greater returns of duty and obedience in their lives; but when they failed, God was sorely displeased with them and curses fell upon them. Solomon having received much offended God when he had no answerable returns to give God and instead pursued pagan wives and their gods.

God gives to some many gifts, both of nature and of grace. He gives some much more knowledge, learning, wisdom, riches, honors, offices, places, time, liberty and choices. Some may even get special providences and dispensations which others do not get. It isn’t that these people are lucky or more deserving so much as given much more responsibility. God will expect much more of those bequeathed these loads of talent than those he does not give them to. If no suitable returns are made on them it will provoke God. 

Regardless of one’s allotment of talents, no one is freed from making returns of duty to God. If you received many you will inevitably need to invest much more time and effort into gaining a return. It will require devotion of time, material and resources. Sometimes everything that person has...or more than they expect.

Every Christian should ask himself the question: For what am I best qualified? Upon discovering that talent or stumbling upon it the person should recognize that the discovery was in reality an indication from God in his providence that this area or gift is appointed to them for the duty of furthering God’s Kingdom (getting a return on investment). It may be to visit the sick or the disenfranchised. It may be the task of expressing sympathy with the destitute or the bereaved. Maybe it is to give aid to those in distress. Perhaps it is to counsel the naïve, gullible or inexperienced...those exposed to strong temptation. Perhaps something wholly different like carrying on spiritual conversation to blue collar and white collar alike to lift them to a greater spiritual understanding that they are not capable of on their own because they don’t study Scripture. It could be to be a prayer warrior for those that neglect prayer in their daily lives. The list goes on…there are endless needs of mankind living in a spiritually destitute world cut adrift from morality in sin.

Could it be that the very fact that talents, the gifts and the finances being unevenly distributed is intentional? What seems like a horrible injustice or irregularity is also part of the greater plan? What seems at first to a great irregularity is really the best means that could be devised for knitting and cementing together the body of Christians in one whole. Those Christians who are rich in gifts or finances know they are debtors to God who is their benefactor in both gift or finances (and salvation) through grace. The poor who God has made dependent on others are indebted to God for salvation and talents passed on to them from God through those rich among them. The rich are called upon to exercise grace on the poor just as God does to all men. The poor Christian understands their situation and so become bound to the rich Christian in gratitude. The rich conversely understand that destitution is only one bad decision or one day away. It should breed a divine humility in both. No one is promised good fortune in this life and rich and poor alike should be aware of this. Their roles could be reversed in an instant (read Job).

Foremost, the Parable of the Talents and passages on spiritual gifts teaches us the exact same thing. We are put on Earth to work and bring about the Kingdom of God through our work. That work will include gifts we are specifically endowed with to help complete said work. Talents being the primary currency to perpetuate God's Kingdom. God rewards those who put considerable effort into bettering their lives and the lives of those in community. Gifts/talents given to us when used and invest properly increase the return God invested in us. God does not command us to bury our talents and sit back, awaiting salvation. Rather, we are commanded to use what we have to make the world a better place. It is not each servant's job to compare gifts to those of the others, but instead we're to be grateful for and make the most what we did receive for our and other's benefit. We will be held accountable for how the talents were used. We should recognize the talents we receive, and make the most of them. Even seemingly small deposits can make a big difference when properly handled. In variably everyone will receive the same reward in the end: Salvation.

Addendum

As I scanned over this one last time, I realized that I was assuredly spending one of my talents that the Lord gave me. He bestowed on me a gift for words. As it is currency in the kingdom, like currency I pay it forward in ideas formed of words. I weave words and am a wordsmith. I start with a rough lump of an idea or ore and hammer/parse it away until a completed figure of thought or refined impression remains. 

A discussion on the interplay of the words talent and gift were not my intention when I began writing. I had merely intended to write on the spiritual gifts and try to distinguish where natural talent ended and God’s gift began. What is practiced skill? How much of this is God-given natural talent (Proverbs 22:6) ...and how much is the pure work of the Spirit? At what point on the continuum does/did the Spirit take over? 

Halfway through I began to see the irony and paradoxical nature of the words gift and talent and the reader got this post instead of my original intent. I realize now at the end, somewhere between the time I started typing and the end the Spirit took over. I didn’t write this (at all)…I’m not smart enough or talented enough. This addendum isn’t even the end I had envisioned when I started. Every time I type or write I just end up accumulating more written evidence of the Spirit working in me and through me to produce these ends. I take no credit for this post. I can’t, I failed English twice in high school. It was Him all along…from the first letter to the last…the Alpha and the Omega.

The Unforgivable Sin

In Matthew we see Jesus approached by the Pharisees accusing Him of performing miracles by the power of Beelzebul or the Devil. It was a heady accusation to be sure and a slight to a Holy God that would not be overlooked…ever. Nor would it be forgiven. Here in this passage we have the only unforgivable sin. Some say that suicide is the unforgivable sin as one cannot repent after death. Suicide is not unforgivable. Wipe that from your head. Nowhere in Scripture is this assertion made and it just isn’t true. Besides, saying this to someone that lost a loved one in this manner is just cruel. What the Pharisees and teachers of the Law did to the Spirit was in-fact the only thing that would permanently condemn someone assuming they perpetrated it. There was a line and the Pharisees crossed it in their arrogance.

The people brought Jesus a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. The people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” When the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”

These were heady accusatory words for the Holy Son of God and in truth, counter-intuitive and counter logic. The Pharisees really weren’t thinking clearly here. They were accusing Jesus of being demonic and saying that the demonic was driving out the demonic spirit. Jesus knowing their motive and realizing their stupidity of blaspheming the Holy Spirit accusing Jesus of working in the spirit of Satan retorts:

Matthew 12:25-28, 30-31 “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.  Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

Jesus then condemns them where they stand. The will be unforgiven for such an affront to God in stupidity. Not so much because of the accusation but because of the spirit or mind that drove it. The Pharisees for all intents and purposes are demonic in their thinking. The demonic is speaking through them. Going to the grave believing what they stated will condemn them. Verse 31 specifically tells us that, “… every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”

Matthew 12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Therein lays the only unforgivable sin. A persistent refusal to acknowledge the presence of God in Christ. Why? It is because, to blaspheme the Spirit, they would need to hate the light the clearer it became, and resolutely to shut it out which, of course, precludes salvation. Realize that Jesus had just performed a divine miracle healing a blind and mute demoniac. The Pharisees attributing the healing miracles to Satanic agency…appeared as if the Pharisees had just vented mindless words against the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees were likely internally convinced of the Messianic nature of Jesus by the miracle which they had witnessed but it would have been inconvenient to them to have acknow­ledged His claims. By doing so, they would have to submit their authority to Christ.

Yet isn’t that the rub? Even now, we as modern-day Christians will not submit ourselves full to Christ’s authority? Why? It is because we would have to do something that our fallen human nature works against doing. We’d need to admit we are flawed sinners. We would need to admit we are incapable of doing anything to rescue ourselves from our own sin. In admitting this we know we would have to stop purposely and willing committing sins. Especially the ones we like sexual sins, greed, etc. The more a man knows of his wrong the more he is held accountable for those actions. Better to sin in ignorance.

So, without honestly believing their own absurd explanation, they attributed the cure of the blind and dumb man to Satan. The irony was they admitted outright it was supernatural yet slandered God in the process. In effect it was a dishonest shuffle, they knew it and avoided making a confession which was clearly forced on their minds. A confession which would have required them to suppress their sin of pride and jealousy. Their minds recognized the truth but their tongues were being steered by their sin. Said more simply: Whoever speaks a word against Christ or the Spirit without violating internal convictions speaking ignorantly in unbelief… "…it shall be forgiven him.” Whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit in actuality violates the internal convictions placed upon their own heart by the very Spirit of truth that they slight. That will not be forgiven here or in the afterlife.

As Jesus clearly explains in the example of tree bearing fruit...words or language are not as most think...a separate and separable thing from our reason or thoughts. Words have a deep and living connection with our state of mind. Words, thoughts and reasoning have their roots intertwined together. Corrupt language arises from corrupt reasoning. A demonic statement arises from a demonic source.

“Every empty/idle word…” Those words will meet judgment and those who utter them will need to make account for them. The words of the Pharisees were not simply useless, unfruitful, unprofitable words; but far, far worse. They were false words and they counteracted conviction within their own hearts crowding out the saving work of the very Spirit they were blaspheming. This isn’t a sin of omission but firmly deliberate in the face of their own convictions. They were spoken with the calculated intent to do harm to others that heard them, misleading hearers and the ignorant that didn’t know any better looking to authority. There is a difference between spiritual blindness and purposeful spiritual self-destruction. That is why we see Christ so heavily condemn empty/idle words of these ‘vipers’. Vipers being snakes that bite at heels when you turn to walk away thereby exposing yourself to attack when you are unprotected with your back turned.

There are three considerations which may serve to show us our responsibility that attaches to the words we use with others. The words that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and defile the man and others around him. It seems certain that every word spoken will have influence lasting into eternity good and bad. God knows every word we have spoken. “For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” We’d be well-advised to avoid speaking foolishly or gossiping. We are to avoid slander and/or libel. We should avoid speaking words in anger. These last things put us firmly in the face of the judgment seat of God.

Christians today need to not necessarily focus in on one specific sin when this question is asked. Instead we should be self-aware of any hardening of our hearts or arrogance that would have us not acknowledge the work of the Spirit and Christ in us yet ignore and disregard it as insignificant or irrelevant. By doing this we would be allowing our hearts to turn cold and incapable of continued repentance. Repentance isn’t a one-time deal folks… its and ongoing process until we die. Something the Pharisees and those like them completely missed in their inability to humble themselves.

A Bone of Contention

I literally just discussed obedience to civil authorities in my post American Politics and Jesus. That of course was from Jesus’ point of view. This passage in Titus follows suit. This also encompasses the argumentative spirit of people who think they ‘know better’ as shown in my upcoming Unforgiveable Sin post. There are of course further nuances covered in Titus that warrant examination. In this letter Paul is writing directly to Titus who Paul left in Crete to set the church there in order (Titus 1:5). A mess of a church it was too, hence the need to write his letter.

Titus 3:1-7 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Titus' task of setting the churches in order included dealing with false teachers (1:10-11). The Cretans had a reputation for being idle, corrupt and frankly, troublemakers. There was even a Greek word κρῆτὶζεὶν/kretizein derived from the name Cretan which meant 'to deceive' (Titus 1:12). These traits apparently characterized some of the Christians as well (3:14). Part of Titus' task consisted of motivating them to change. The same thing expected of sinning believers anywhere once they have been brought into the Christian faith (1 Corinthians 6:11).

As with Jesus’ teaching we see that a Christian is on the side of law, order and justice. It is an insult even today to call a man a Cretin as it infers that they are brutish and dull-witted. Cretans were easily excited to rebellion, and the Jewish element in the island fostered a proclivity to violence against Christians. Titus was urged to enforce on his people an obedience to magistrates, and to render cheerful help in maintaining the peace. True Christianity (not a self-described one but one based on actions) is on the side of law and order, and does more to prevent war and suppress rebellion than thousands of soldiers and policemen. In truth the civil powers should find powerful allies in Christian individuals, Christian Churches and institutions.

Christians should not sanction the denigration of civil officers, especially not to speak evil of dignitaries and leaders unless they are themselves clearly performing evil against God or His people. The leader is the embodiment and representative of law that maintains order in a chaotic world. Civil powers have often made great mistakes in harassing the Christian belief, and the only retaliation the Church has made has been to defend the rights and privileges of leaders. This warning against conflict was not only applicable to Cretans, but is directed against all who would disturb the peace of the Church or of the community by giving way to a fault-finding spirit. 

It’s a two-way street. The only defense the Christian should mount against the State is when the State attacks the foundation of Christian belief and even then it should only be to point out how leaders are usurping God’s authority in matters of the spirit. To this point, believers need to recognize the difference between obeying a law in spirit and obeying it to the letter. If the spirit is evil it is against God and warrants being ignored or resisted (Matthew 22:21), otherwise obey it.

In truth Scripture teaches we’re to be gentle, meek (not weak mind you). The Christian spirit is forbearing and kindly, not insisting on rights to the point of fighting or taking up arms against its oppressor (Social Gospel adherents take note). If God is kind and benevolent to all, we should be the same. In contrast to this peaceable nature Paul reminds us of our former non-Christian lives. We’re reminded of our own lawless impulsivity in the past and the Christ-like forbearance that was patiently shown to us in our immaturity and youth. One good turn deserves another. Reap what you sow. Christianity should be the guardian of peace. Why? It is because sin is the cause of the rebellion, disorder and our own salvation is an act of unmerited grace as Paul alludes to in Titus 3:5, “…not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy…He saved us.”

When we do we’re merely emulating what God has already done for us. He clearly had the ability to bring the entire worldly system down but instead submitted Himself to the humiliation of death on a cross. Salvation entitles otherwise impetuous, rebellious people to the blessing of eternity with God. In truth, the gospel is the only system that helps us to be and do good. Our sin only assists us in being more contentious and error prone. Acting in grace and forbearance instead of lashing out and fighting allows a situation to be blessed twice. It blesses the man who gives it and blesses the one that receives it. Grace allows room for regeneration and rebirth. A contentious spirit suffocates it not allowing any room for change and actually encroaches on the perceived ‘foe’ further exacerbating an issue. So what do Christians do with a rebellious spirit like that of the Cretans? Paul tells us that Titus is encouraged to admonish those that would be defiant and argumentative.

Titus 3:9-11 …avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.  Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.

The belligerent spirit dwells on small petty stupidity. By dwelling on trivialities the idiotic man exalts them and gives them unwarranted importance and attention. We see this daily in the media and politics. Everyone is offended or butt hurt by everything. Even the slightest perceived infraction is an excuse to start another war of words or of legislation further perpetuating another salacious news cycle. We are seeing this clearly in abortion legislation and the homosexual/transgender disputing spirit pervading society now. Some have gone as far as to make the law agree with sinful human practices, thereby making sins into ‘rights’. 

False premises create false conclusions. By codifying sins into law we see man attempt to make God agree with men. Instead of passing moral laws to aid the good of the whole or the community the petty spirit seeks to give ‘rights’ to small immoral vocal groups. Instead of judging all human theories by the measure of moral right or wrong we see the pressure of a vocal contentious minority inflicting immorality on everyone.

Paul clearly tells us to admonish these things, twice if necessary through repetition and then walk away. Fundamental moral truths should always be reinforced. Telling the truth is never out of season even when people don’t want to hear you and are trying to silence or control your speech. Give them pause with statements of their error so that they understand they’re wrong and then end the opposition. If they refuse to change and continue headstrong, leave them to themselves—have nothing more to do them anymore for any reason. You cannot help a man who refuses to listen and is controlled by a bad temper. You can’t argue a fool to their foolishness otherwise you become a fool too.

This confrontational fool eventually brings about his own punishment. Stupid and sin runs right to the bone and marrow of these people and inevitably leads to death (figurative or literal). The perversity of this stubborn spirit leads to its own ruin like two dogs fighting. It’s not like these types of people can say no one has told them better. They are willfully sinning against knowledge and morality. The Gospel is the cure of this spirit; but even this will not work unless it be believed and accepted.

There is internal war in man between reason and the passions. … Having both, he cannot be without strife, being unable to be at peace with the one without being at war with the other. Thus he is always divided against, and opposed to himself. This internal war of reason against the passions has made a division of those who would have peace into two sects. The first would renounce their passions, and become gods; the others would renounce reason, and become brute beasts. But neither can do so, and reason still remains, to condemn the vileness and injustice of the passions, and to trouble the repose of those who abandon themselves to them; and the passions keep always alive in those who would renounce them. ~ Blaise Pascal, Pensées, Section 4, 412-413

My Generation: Time In a Bottle

[Yes, I’m really borrowing three songs to create a blog title and to merge ideas. Every generation loves their pop culture, mine is no different and neither is yours. The song titles are The Who’s, My Generation and Jim Croce’s, Time in a Bottle. Weaved in and out of this post there are innuendo of The Byrd’s, Turn, Turn, Turn. My use of these songs is very deliberate. I'm hoping that when people listen to these songs they will think about what I've said here and it will leave a mark for posterity.]

In Acts 13, Luke records one of three of Paul's evangelistic messages to unbelievers. Ironically, this is a message to unbelievers but also a reminder to believers. The first of Paul’s messages is in Acts, geographically in Pisidian Antioch. In this passage Paul makes reference to the great Israelite King David and states.

Acts 13:32, 34-36 32 “We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus…God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God has said, ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’ So it is also stated elsewhere: ‘You will not let your holy one see decay.’ Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

There is something dramatic but sublime stated here, “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep…”

The duration of life in many ways is an inadequate period from the merely earthly point of view. Fifty years of work in this world, then—that is the most we can reasonably look for, after we are equipped and before we’re on deaths door. There is not much time to lose; our own generation is a quantity that is often limited in opportunity. Yet it is one great opportunity from first to last. It’s very brevity accentuates the greatness of any accomplishments we can achieve within that small window of time. To live and work in a world like ours means to bear and battle our way through it. In light of this struggle, we inevitably look to a higher existence. Otherwise, what is the point of such a brief life? Are we best using the time on our lives or are we wasting it in frivolous pursuits?

In particular this passage mentions David’s ‘own generation’. Why?

The words suggest a thought that a man has a lasting personal relation to the time upon which his earthly experience is cast. It sort of hints that the period of the world’s history upon which our personal relations center is the only time we'll ever truly have an impact in this world for good or for bad. In short, our history affects history in the larger scale of things just as David’s did. History therefore bears the marks of everything our personalities, actions and labors impacted. Our presence alone on this earth exerts a force on everyone in history from this point forward. In this perspective, everyone’s life is effectual and nothing is ineffectual...as if in accord with a plan. To take up the cause of evil leaves a negative impact. To take up the cause of the good and Gospel leaves a positive one. ‘Our’ generation whether it be the Boomers, the X’ers, the Millennials, The Y’ers… we all leave impressions in our generations that bleed down perpetually into the next ones.

Ephesians 5:15–16 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Our experience of ‘world-life’ and ‘world-history’, brief as it is, and passing rapidly from successor to successor is forever bound up with the circumstances of our own journey, and has gathered into it memories. A man is called to note and to know the peculiar character of his own time.—“His own generation.” There is individuality about every generation. It has its own disposition, temperament, moods, capabilities, opportunities, not all of which are shared in the same measure by any other generation. Each generation has something in it of every generation that has been; but it also has an originality in it to give a unique contribution to itself and upon the generations following. Intelligence about the past is mostly of value according to how it helps us to be intelligent about the present. In other words, what do we contribute that will be useful and helpful to others in our generation and succeeding ones. Will it be a blessing or a curse? Ephesians 5:16 specifically tells us to redeem or use time to the best of our ability.

Ephesians 5:16 uses the word for time kairon/καιρόν meaning a very specific time that is set within in an overarching time or era chronos/xρόνος. A unique time…like your/our generation for instance. It is time in a bottle so to speak. It is the same type of time Jesus refers to when he says that His time has come (for his crucifixion) in John 12:23-24. As Ecclesiastes specifically tells us about time…there is a time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3) in the grand scheme. Perfectly allotted, planned or known by God. In fact, time or a generation are lives and ideas to be poured out on succeeding generations that unfold into eternity.

So what do we see in Paul’s brief statement of King David. We see brevity of life and purpose. Invariably David’s life with all its ups and downs, good and evil was remembered as a life in service to His God. Ours should be the same or otherwise much of it is vanity, stupidity and irrelevancy. The only reason we still speak of David was because of his purposes in God’s Sovereign plan and his foreshadowing of the Messiah. Even David’s idiotic moments in his life led to a life that unwaveringly points to Christ. At the epicenter of David’s biography lies Christ’s biography. The great Christian truth: It’s about Christ…the history, the lives, the generations...all of it.

So what should that life and the generation it contributes to be? That’s the big existential question, isn’t it? Why am I here, for how long and to what end? 

In an instant Paul encapsulated David’s entire life. A lightning strike that flashes into existence and out again. The words from Paul are as striking as they are short. It is a reminder that there is no wasted time in a human life. The time needs to be redeemed or the best use must be made of it. Paul tells us in this brief Davidic biography how….speaking of the Resurrection and its affect on ALL generations. Paul mentions David because of whom he pointed to. In the brevity of David’s epitaph we see the eternality of Christ and our future in which we embrace the Resurrection.

David and through him Christ… are introduced at once as to their purpose in abbreviated form in Paul’s divinely inspired punctuated statement. A life lived without purpose is pointless but Paul state’s David’s and Jesus’ succinctly. David is a foreshadowing of Christ and a lineage by which the King will come. Christ’s life a foreshowing of Resurrection. Resurrection being essentially a foreshadowing of eternal life that will lead to an eternal state that removes the need for the concept of a generations and time bound distinction completely. All other matters like the time, birth, educa­tion, social environment, plans and difficulties, conflicts, achieve­ments and inevitably death are but incidents or episodes that become irrelevant in the eternal scale. Time itself becomes irrelevant. Generations and lives pass away in the arrow of time but the purpose to which the lives and time point is eternal.  They point to an eternal God. 

American Wars and Jesus

…and now a quick detour down a war-torn side road to address the issue of war and what Jesus said or didn’t say about it.

Many arguments in defense of war are easily set aside. Such as Jesus not condemning it or not commanding soldiers to abandon their profession. One could just as easily use these same arguments to support slavery. Jesus did not condemn slavery, nor did He require believing masters to release them. The arguments for war (and against slavery) are much more complex. Too complex to break down completely in a single 5 minute blog post. I will do my best to surmise though.

Most arguments against war are easily set aside as well. Such as the violation of the commandment, “Thou shall not kill.” This leads to obvious conflicts, especially during the time God gave the commandment! God instructed Joshua, Moses’ second in command, to wage war against Canaan (all of the Hittite country) and to annihilate them (Joshua 1). It is true, as Christian pacifists maintain, Jesus came to give principles of conduct that were peaceable and peace loving, but to contend further that this leaves no place for war is naïve. The inevitable position for the pacifist is evil people may dominate, but good people may not resist the domination of evil.

War is the employment of force for the attainment of an object or for the prevention of an injury. If the object is wrong, the use of force is wrong. God is constantly resisting people to protect others, which is a form of force (war). The fact that God manages physical force by His will does not alter the fact that He does wrong if it is intrinsically wrong to use force. Thus, using forceful methods to achieve righteous objectives cannot be wrong, therefore, a just war or just use of force. The same goes for the use of force to levy or equalize justice in a paramilitary or policing action.

Romans 13:3-4 ~ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

A war waged for selfish ends is not justifiable, but one for selfless ends is. Jesus’ words, “Resist not evil,” do not mean allow evil to happen...

Matthew 5:39 ~ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

There is no reason for a person to surrender to the will of another for the wrong reasons. This also applies with double emphasis to rulers and to nations; for these in reality have no personal rights but are a collective whole. That’s not what Jesus was saying when He said to turn the other cheek. He is saying that when you have the ability to absorb the wrong, retaliation as vengeance is in fact the Lords but when evil will prevail in you inaction, you need to act. Nations and leaders are by their positions guardians and are morally bound to act in the face of foreign hostility or even internal ones. They are even to the use of force, if need be, for the rightful interest of their wards, just as a parent would do for their child or a pastor for his flock.

It is true that Jesus said, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. ~Matt. 26:52; He also said, “My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight” ~John 18:36. These passages need to be understood in context. Jesus was submitting to death for the good of the human race and salvation of the elect which was a one-time act in history. The application for us is not necessary salvation, but if our death will secure great ends then we must be willing to die. Jesus also told His disciples that the time would come to take up the sword in Luke 22:36.

The Church does not have the power to go to war, but governments and nations do. In fact, they are obligated to do so to exalt justice and prevent evil. Paul explained this right of civil government in Romans 13. If the Christian or Church do not support the cause of a just war as in the case of the Nazis then those like the Nazis win. This is not a Scriptural outcome. In the cases of pure demonic evil waging war, God not only condoned the reaction of war, He often commanded His people to annihilate those who waged spiritual war against Him or unjust war against His people down to the last person. Passivity in the face of obvious evil force isn’t being Christ like as much as it is being a limp-wristed doormat.

Are all American wars a just war? Sadly, no. The participation in World War I and II was justifiable against evils like Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The Revolutionary War to secure American Independence and Civil War to create and maintain the American Union was marginally justifiable as revolution against a ruling authority is never condoned Scripturally and the rebellion of the Confederacy was dubious at best. The rest of the American wars are predominately sketchy. There is the question of the motive for the Middle Eastern wars that stem from oil interests. There are questions to be asked about geopolitical wars like Vietnam and involvement in the Ukraine. Sadly, the wars against the Native Americans were essentially genocide. 

In the end just wars are justifiable (killing) and unjust wars are not (murder). Killing and murder. They're different things. It helps to realize and differentiate them when discussing war. The Bible forbids murder in (Exodus 20) not killing. If it did Joshua, David nor Saul would've been commanded to annihilate entire peoples.

The prudent thing to do as a Christian is to prepare for war in vigilance, but pray for peace in grace. We must understand that above all reigns God in Sovereignty through the times of peace and in times of conflict.