Song of the Drunkards

JESUS FACED A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF OPPOSITION FOR HIS HARD WORDS AND UNFLINCHING DEVOTION TO YAHWEH. NO SURPRISE THEN IF WE FIND OUR NAME FESTOONED IN BARROOM BALLADS (CF. PS 69:12).

Dog Fighting

December 31, 2008 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Meditations, Mosaic Law

This is an old meditation I read again and decided to post.

1 Cor 9:9-10. 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? 10 Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.”

Much ink has been spilt and much furor unleashed in the past several weeks here in North Idaho and throughout the nation. Condemnation has come from all directions: actors, athletes, farmers, politicians, writers. The collective conscience has awoken. “Cruel, insidious, monstrous, criminal, immoral”, these are only a few of the words of censure that have been leveled.

What is it that has caused such a stir in our otherwise calm demeanor? What activity has inspired such prophetic ire? Is it the systematic termination of human life in our abortion clinics? Is it the repeated lying, cheating, and stealing practiced by our public officials? Is it the rank idolatry of our populace? The exploitation of the poor and needy by our welfare state? Or perhaps the exploitation practiced by the Indian Casinos? Or the extreme fighting sponsored in and by them? Is it the widespread growth of prostitution? The explosion of pornography via the internet? The lies and deceit practiced by homosexuals to advocate their perversity in America? No, the nefarious practice that has animated the cultural conscience is dog fighting. It seems that Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has landed himself in a heap of trouble for organizing dog fights at his mansion.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Dog-fighting is a bad thing – for the Scriptures tell us that the righteous man cares for the life of his beast. But the idea that dog fighting is the activity that should be animating the moral consciousness of the public in our day is absurd.

When a culture loses its moral compass, it inevitably strikes out with Puritanical indignation at random “sins” in order to hide the very real sense of guilt and pollution that it senses as a result of its transgression of God’s law. As R.J. Rushdoony in his book, Politics of Guilt and Pity, says, “The guilty person [or culture] conceals a greater crime by open profession of a lesser one.” The question for any civilization is not whether it will be indignant – the question is what it will be indignant over. And what is our culture indignant over? Dog-fighting. Global warming. Homo-phobia. Smoking. Trans-fats. How does this compare to the Scriptural priorities? Should we follow the fad? Should we jump on the band wagon and say, “Yeah, crucify Michael Vick! Let him be the scapegoat for our sin.”

Well Paul offers us a bit of perspective in the text before us today by citing the OT regulation regarding muzzling oxen. “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,” God had declared through Moses. And Paul asks, “Is God really concerned about oxen?” Now on one level the answer, of course, is yes – He is. He created the oxen, He gave this regulation regarding the oxen; He expected His regulation to be obeyed. But Paul notes that in another, more important sense, God is not concerned about oxen at all – the regulation serves to highlight the importance of principles that apply to people – those made in the image of God. And what is this principle? That those who labor should enjoy the fruit of their labor. That is why God says don’t muzzle the ox.

And so, why should we oppose dog fighting? Because it highlights the barbarity so prevalent among the men and women in our culture today. What else explains the rise of extreme sports? The rise of battered women? The popularity of reality TV shows like Survivor? Do we really need to repent of dog-fighting? Or do we rather need to repent of the greater sin of hating and despising other men and women who are made in the image of the Triune God, which God we have abandoned that we might bow before our idols?

Reminded of our tendency to hide our guilt under the show of moral indignation, let us kneel and seek God’s forgiveness and cleansing.

The Learned Servant

December 28, 2008 in Bible - NT - Hebrews, Bible - OT - Isaiah, Meditations, Word of God

Hebrews 4:11-13 (NKJV)11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Much has transpired in the last week. We have moved out of the time of Advent and into the time of Christmas. And in the season of Christmas we celebrate! We celebrate the arrival of the long anticipated One; we celebrate the fulfillment of God’s promises in the life and death of His Son, in the work of His Servant.

Last Sunday we noted that Jesus was called to be a Learned Servant. He was called to meditate and muse upon the Word of God. The Servant of the Lord was awakened morning by morning by His Lord, his ear was awakened to hear as the learned. And so we found that in the ministry of our Lord Jesus, He spent thirty years in preparation, thirty years studying the Word of God and meditating upon it, so that He might fulfill three years of ministry and achieve that which the Father had set before Him. And during His earthly ministry He kept His eyes fixed upon the promises of God – and this enabled Him to endure the pain and sorrow and humiliation through which His path took Him.

Our text in Hebrews today urges us to have this same type of faith. We are to be diligent to enter the rest of God – the final rest when heaven and earth will be one and God will be all in all. We are to strive to enter into this very rest, to keep our eyes fixed on the goal. Even as Jesus, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, we are to keep our eyes fixed on the joy, the rest set before us.

But notice the next thing the author of Hebrews tells us. He directs us to the Word of God, which is able to slice and dice us, able to show us our faults and illumine our shortcomings. Why direct us here? Why direct us to the Word? Because this is the same place that our Lord went to direct His own walk with His Father. He was a student of the Word of God. He allowed the Word of God to make and fashion Him into the type of man His Father desired Him to be. And though He was free from sin, free from the necessity of going back and redoing things that he had messed up, He nevertheless grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man through the things that He learned in the Word.

And so the author of Hebrews directs us to be students of the Word of God. We are called to be disciples. To hear what He says to us that we might correct our faults and that we might be reminded of the great promises that He has made to us.

Reminded of our calling to be learned disciples, let us kneel and confess that we have failed to meditate on His Word as we ought.

Now is the Day of Salvation

December 21, 2008 in Bible - NT - 2 Corinthians, Bible - OT - Isaiah, Meditations

2 Corinthians 6:1-2 (NKJV)1 We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Last week we noted that the Servant Songs of Isaiah serve not only as descriptions of the ministry of our Lord and Savior but also, frequently, as commissions for us. The character of our Lord is to be lived out in the life of His people.

But perhaps we have gotten ahead of ourselves? Did the New Testament really think that these Servant Songs with their lavish promises were being fulfilled through Jesus? Perhaps these things weren’t going to be fulfilled for many years yet to come. It is this suggestion that Paul’s words today completely undermine. He has just finished discussing the purpose of the death of Jesus. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And so God is urging us, through His preachers, through His Church – be reconciled to God. Paul concludes this thought with our words today –

We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the
grace of God in vain.

Paul urges His audience not to delay in calling upon the Lord to save them, to deliver them. They were not to be distracted by the deceitfulness of sin or by the winsome words of others but rather to trust in the Lord and believe His Word. To prove His point, Paul quotes from one of the Servant Songs. “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.”

The questions this raises are who is “I” and who is “you”? The answers are that “I” is God and “you” is the Servant of the Lord. Listen to the passage:

Isaiah 49:8 (NKJV)8 Thus says the Lord: “In an acceptable time I have heard You, And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people, To restore the earth, To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages; that you may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’”

So the question we posed at the beginning was this – does the New Testament teach that these lavish promises of restoring the earth, of rescuing prisoners and giving sight to the blind, are being fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus? Well what does Paul declare in our text today?

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

The long promised restoration from exile is upon us. God has acted to deliver His people from their sin; He has lifted up the cross as a standard to the nations and is, by His Spirit, drawing all men to it. And so the call to us is the same – don’t miss out. Don’t miss God’s call and fail to join ranks with His people. He is remaking the world through His Christ – will you be part of this new world of life and joy or will you continue to dwell in the old world of death and war?

Reminded that we often fail to keep the contrast between the world that God has introduced in Christ and the world as it once existed in death; reminded that we too often coddle our sins, coddle the path of death; let us kneel and confess our sin to the Lord.