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When I spent that summer in Berkeley, back in 1980 or so, one of the leaders told us about reading Malachi. He'd read something like
"Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord Almighty.
from Malachi 3.7
and then he'd pray, "How shall I return to you?" Then he'd look down at his Bible again and find this:
"But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’"
from Malachi 3.7
There's more than one place in Malachi that's like this. Actually Malachi's book opens with a dialogue like that.
I think this is really cool. Often when I read the Bible I just read it like I'd read, oh, a nonfiction article. But the Bible isn't supposed to just make us smarter; it's given to us to change our lives -- as many others have said. So it's better to interact with it, to talk back to it, to ask and object and complain, and to hear the Lord's voice in it.
Back to the passage then. What immediately follows the above is this:
"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
"But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
"In tithes and offerings.... Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."
Malachi 3.8,10
What might we say to this? One place I begin is: "Lord, does this still apply to me today?"
How about, "But I have too many bills already!" Let me extend that. The text promises to those who give the tenth that blessings will flow. "Really, Lord? Is that promise for me?" The text urges its readers to test him. Which might be a place to start. To give to him a tenth of... time, talent, treasure? The "treasure" (money) part is the easiest to measure, but what about the others? That would be a growth point for me.
How about for you?
Today's reading from Proverbs introduces the "wife of noble character." This passage has brought needless feelings of inferiority and inadequacy to countless women who compare themselves to her. I mean, just look at her: - Proverbs 31.13
- She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.
- Proverbs 31.15
- She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family
- Proverbs 31.17
- She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.
- Proverbs 31.19
- In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
Sounds like a very diligent person, somewhat of a workaholic maybe? Is this really what the Proverbs say about the "ideal wife"? And why did I say "needless" above? First, let me point out this part of the passage: - Proverbs 31.15-16
- she provides food for ... her servant girls. She considers a field and buys it; with her earnings she plants a vineyard
OK, so what kind of woman is this? She's a real estate investor, a vintner? She has servant girls? Sure, the passage praises her strong arms, but her servants must also be doing some work.
If you're a woman who's felt persecuted by this passage, do you have servant girls? Does your checking account have enough in it for you to go around buying fields and planting vineyards? Then this passage may not apply to you! Who does it apply to then?
Looking back a few verses, I see that chapter 31 begins with "The sayings of King Lemuel." I don't know who this king was, but my takeaway from that was: this is advice for a prince, a future king. We're talking about a princess, in other words.
Considering that, it's not surprising to learn that "wife of noble character" (as in the NIV) may not be the best translation of the Hebrew there. "A powerful wife who can find?" maybe. Or "a capable woman." The word "puissant" came to mind, and though I don't really know what it means, an online search gives me this:
Having or able to exert great power (www.answers.com)
So there it is. If you know a woman who feels inadequate or inferior because of this passage -- or especially if you are one -- then I hope you remember that this passage is talking about a woman with servant girls, with millions in her checkbook, and that most of the specifics in this passage aren't for you or anyone you know.
And if you're married to a puissant woman, then I hope you keep in mind that the book of Proverbs praises such women. Never mind the bad teaching you've heard that says a woman should be subservient to her husband; consider this powerful woman and consider how you can support your wife to be a powerful force in the world.
In the summer of 1998, we spent a week or so in Karuizawa, Japan. We were living in Kobe, and some missionary friends knew of a vacant cabin in their compound. This cabin wouldn't have passed a health inspection by any innkeeper's guild, but it was okay for a week. Anyway, we heard two terrific speakers at the old chapel there. One of them mentioned this verse from today's reading:
On that day his (the Lord’s) feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.
Zechariah 14.4
His point was that this prophecy was as yet unfulfilled, and the fulfillment (how could it be anything but literal, talking about the Mount of Olives?) meant that the literal, physical land of Israel would continue to be important to the Lord.
Well, perhaps that is true, but looking again at this verse, it strikes me that if the Mount of Olives is literal, then "his feet" must also be literal. But since God is a Spirit, he doesn't have feet as such. Therefore the splitting of the Mount of Olives can't very well be literal either.
So what does the verse mean? I think it means that there will be tremendous and terrifying events: earthquakes and the like, geological events. Beyond that I'm not sure. But I don't think our speaker was right to say that this passage was intended to communicate the importance of the geographical Land of Israel in future events.
As for what this means to you and me, I think its point is that there will be Big Trouble in the future, and that it's a good idea not to let ourselves get caught up too much in our own concerns -- which are, let's face it, often of a trivial nature against a backdrop like this. In the face of such cataclysmic events, it behooves us indeed to trust in the Lord and in him only.
You may have heard the concept that salvation in Old Testament times was by works or by the law or something, whereas in the New Testament it's by faith. Today's reading from Psalm 147 indicates that this is not quite the case:
His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse
nor his delight in the legs of a man;
the Lord favors those who fear him,
those who put their hope in his lovingkindness.
Psalm 147.10-11
What I see here is that the Lord delights in those who revere him and who put their hope in him. I don't see anything here about sacrifices, or the Law.
I think that in some sense, it's always been about faith, because if you didn't believe in the Lord, why would it make sense to make any of those sacrifices? Why would you deny yourself bacon with your eggs, barbecued pork ribs, tako-yaki, shrimp scampi and so on, if you didn't have a relationship with Someone eternal?
And for us today -- for the majority of us who have never believed in the Law anyway -- what does this mean for us? For one thing, it means that the Lord does not delight in the rich, the competent. He doesn't especially love the ones who sing better, who know more Scriptures and get more questions right in Sunday School. If somebody gives more or somebody's prayers sound better or they have more people come to their Bible study, that's not what delights him.
Nope. What delights him is when we put our hope in his unfailing love, when we trust him, when he is our highest joy.
Isn't that something, that the master of the universe cares whether we trust him and want to know him? What a wonderful thing, to know that we can bring delight to the Lord of heaven and earth, that by honoring him in our hearts we can bring delight to his!
posted 12/29
A few weeks ago, our pastor mentioned the Magnificat (Mary's song starting in Luke 1:46) as talking about a great reversal, where he brings down rulers, lifts up the humdle, fills the hungry, etc.
Today's reading from the psalms includes this:
He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
Psalm 146:7-8
Is there a 1000-year echo in here? Well, of course there is, and it's both longer and shorter than that -- longer because we still recite these words today, 2000-3000 years later, and shorter because Mary could easily have gotten them from the prophet Isaiah, who spoke long after David about freedom for captives, beauty for ashes, gladness for mourners, praise for the despairing (Isaiah 61).
Why is this interesting to me? Because it shows the kind of thing the Lord loves to do -- free the captive, encourage the despairing, give sight to the blind. Isn't that cool? Aren't you glad to serve someone like that? What better to give my life to than to bring joy and hope and gladness and freedom to those who are made in God's image?
There are things to do this time of year, feeding the hungry, caring for the destitute and so on. But God doesn't love to do this kind of thing only in December; he loves to do it all year long!
There are opportunities for this sort of thing all year long, but I don't avail myself of them very often. Somehow I'm afraid I get caught up in other things too often; I don't always attend to what's truly important, or truly rewarding.
Garrison Keillor does some terrific monologues, which he starts off with “It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, my hometown.” A flood of applause always follows, because the audience knows what's coming.
A few years ago, he described an accidental adventure that John Soderberg (iirc) met while walking along the ice, thinking about life and not paying quite enough attention to his footsteps. He was wondering about his place in the cosmos and recalling an incident from childhood. Thinking about that incident, he had just concluded that “God is good,” when he stepped into someone else's ice-fishing hole and broke his leg. So there he was, alone on the ice. He dragged his ruined leg over to his own ice-fishing house and realized that he had no matches with which to light the stove. Through a series of events too long to recount here, his wife drove their car out to that ice-fishing house right then. She was very unhappy with something he'd left undone, and confronted him. He says, “God is good. God is good.” His life was saved.
Today's reading from the Psalms talks about God's goodness:
The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. -- Psalm 145.9
What do we have to do, who do we have to be, if we want God to be good to us? That verse says we don't have to do anything; we don't have to be anyone. He is good to all and has compassion on all he has made. What a deal! Here are a few more details:
The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. -- Psalm 145.14
The Lord is near to all who call on him.... -- Psalm 145.18
If we fall, he will uphold us; if we are bowed down, he will lift us; if we call, he will be near. The last point I wanted to mention is something I've mentioned to my children at times. The Pharisees and priests who arranged for Jesus's death -- did they wake up one morning and say, "Today, I'm going off the rails. This is the day that I'm going to conspire to destroy the author of life"? Of course not! They went off a little at a time. They headed in the wrong direction, and quelled their doubts (the ones that should have corrected them). At the end, these men were wicked. How can we avoid their fate? This verse gives one clue:
The Lord watches over all who love him, but the wicked he will destroy. -- Psalm 145.20
Note the contrast between all who love him on the one hand, and the wicked on the other. If I love the Lord, if I welcome his oversight of my life, then he will help me not to become the wicked and be destroyed.
How cool is that? We don't have to perfect some sort of skill, accomplish some heroic act, in order to get this sort of help. We don't have to "clean up our act" or gain some esoteric knowledge or anything like that. What we have to do is love him, call to him, reach out to him.
He'll do the rest.
Today's reading from Proverbs contains an odd list, a list that reminds me of the old Sesame Street song
Three of these things are just like the others,
Three of these things are kinda the same.
One of these things just doesn't belong here —
Now it's time to play our game
When I read the list, I wonder if the author was implying that there's an "odd man out":
There are three things that are stately in their stride,
four that move with stately bearing:
a lion, mighty among beasts,
who retreats before nothing;
a strutting rooster, a he-goat,
and a king with his army around him.
Proverbs 30.29-31
So: Is there an "odd man out" in this list? Each is powerful in its own domain, but each is subject to a greater power (of course God is more powerful than the king). Only the king is mentioned as having others around him.
The list isn't in order of increasing (or decreasing) power; I suppose the author is telling us that the differences among the items in the list are of degree rather than kind. Or is it this: the animals feel confident (or move with stately bearing) because of their physical strength, equipment, or fighting skills, whereas the man's power is based on social convention?
What I take from this verse (which still strikes me as very funny) is that a rooster is not so much different from a powerful politician, tycoon, or syndicate boss. The strutting rooster looks ridiculous when confronted by a dog (say) and has to suddenly turn tail to flee; likewise, a strutting tycoon looks pitiful when fired by the board or sentenced to prison for securities fraud.
And how many powerful men will feel worse than ridiculous when their Maker confronts them? May they turn toward God while there's still time, and may we do the same.
