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From a sermon I gave to my church October 21st:
I’d like to talk about reading the Bible, but this will not
a “You should be reading your Bible more!” thing, and it’s certainly not a dry
lecture about different genres or anything like that! Last week Sid spoke about prayer, which is us approaching God with our thoughts and
feelings, so this week I’m going to speak about the Bible, which is God approaching us with his thoughts and
feelings.
I’ll talk briefly about why read the Bible and then spend
more time on how to read the Bible, but my main thing today will be that
horrible contradiction of the loving God … who seems to behave in an unloving
way.
But, first, let’s look at some of God’s promises regarding
the Bible to briefly address why we
should bother reading it at all. (… If
there’s anyone here who is not a Christian, thank you for coming – we are truly
delighted that you’re here and would love to help you feel at home! The passages we’re about to hear may help you
to understand why the Bible – often called his Word - is so important to
Christians.)
I don’t want to add anything to these passages because, as
it says in Romans 10:17, “faith comes by hearing the word of God” - not the word of God as filtered through
me or anyone else.
Ok: “why read the Bible?”
Proverbs 30:5-6 … Deuteronomy 8:3 … Luke 8:11,15 … Luke
11:28 … Revelation 19:12-13
There are many others - one that hits the nail right on the
head, for me, is John 6: when many turn away from Jesus, he asks his closest twelve:
‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ … Peter answers him, ‘Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!’
Another term for this Word of God is “The Law”. Many of the concepts we’ve looked at are
brought together in the Psalms, such as:
Blessed is the man who
does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or
sit in the seat of mockers. But his
delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of
water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
But I don’t read the Bible every day. I do
think of the tree, though, planted by an abundant stream of fresh water,
sucking up the goodness in order to be refreshed, and grow, and bear fruit …
and I wonder: Why don’t we read the
Bible every day, especially if all these benefits are true?
One reason is because we just don’t ‘get’ passages in which the God we have come to trust as loving behaves
in a way that does not seem loving at all!
The God we have come to trust as loving is the God who loved
us to death … his own painful, humiliating death on the cross.
He is the God who showed us that his love for us was so
great that it even eclipsed his love for himself, as he endured physical and
psychological abuse, poured on him by creatures he could have snuffed out with
a word.
He is the God who showed us his power to do all the good he
has promised us, when he put death in its rightful place under his command, humiliating Satan, and when he rose from death
to life forevermore.
And he is the same God who, time and again, has shown me his
wisdom as he has dealt with each and every turn of my life from as long as I
can remember.
This is the God that defines
love!
… And then we read about the God who sentenced Adam and Eve
to death for eating from the wrong tree;
… who cursed them when they were deceived by the guardian he appointed;
… who ‘loved Jacob but hated Esau’;
… who ordered the destruction of entire nations just because
they weren’t Hebrews;
… who wrote laws that involved the murder of, literally,
millions of innocent animal sacrifices;
… the list goes on.
So there’s a problem: God is love … but we don’t always see him acting like it when we read his own account of how he interacts with
his creation.
I’ve purposely dressed up this list in a provocative way,
and I know the problem lies within me, not in God or his word. But it does leave the question:
… how do we read
the Bible?
I’ll not spend any time on that all-too-common way of just dutifully reading the words on the page
without actually engaging with what is being read - that really highlights the
phrase “you get out what you put in”.
But what about when we read to know God better or to hear
from him? This may involve having to
really grapple with what we’re reading, wrestling with concepts until they make
sense in the context of the rest of the Bible, and it won’t always be easy, or immediately conclusive. Then, when we do read ‘thinkingly’, there’s the issue of interpreting what we’ve read.
For example, when we read ‘God is love’ and then we read a
passage that looks like God is not
love, do we…
1. … simply throw out one or the other as a mistake that
should never have made it to the final cut of the Bible?
2. … note the disagreement, resign ourselves to thinking “God
is mysterious and we’re frail, fallible humans who’ll never understand God”,
and move on to read something else?
3. … note the disagreement and try to devise a new
definition for the word ‘love’ that allows for the occasional unloving act?
… OR:
4. … note the disagreement and try to find a different way
of interpreting the stories such that they show God, in fact, being loving?
Let’s just quickly take a look at the natural outcomes of
each of these …
The first –
editing the Bible myself - is a non-starter: if I can decide what should be in the Bible and what should not, I am
no longer seeking to know God, but to invent a god of my own. Paul wrote, in 2 Timothy 3:16, that “All
Scripture is God-breathed” - editing the Bible is not an option.
The second
option, however, does seem to have an apparent humility that makes it quite
appealing to many Christians: surely being humble is a valid argument for not
delving deeper into the things of God?
The problem is: being humble without knowing God is nothing on knowing God!
In fact, true
humility is only possible when we know his
humility … and how can we, until we
know him?! God wants to be fully known
by his children, with an intimate
knowledge.
Sure, we are finite, mortal, and small-minded, and can’t
cope with the infinite-ness of God,
and there are things we are not
supposed to concern ourselves with in this lifetime, but what we’re not supposed to concern ourselves with
is clear from its omission from the Bible.
… So, how – then - do we interpret passages that seem to suggest that questioning God is
wrong? For example …
·
“my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and
my thoughts than your thoughts"
Well, this is preceded by verse 7: “Let the wicked forsake
his way and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God,
for he will freely pardon.” … so, putting
verses 8 and 9 in context, God is specifically
explaining why he will freely pardon
the wicked, even after all their wickedness, just for turning to him … even though this flies in the face of …
the ‘thoughts and ways’ of human
justice.
… Or what about this one …
·
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?
Again, in the context
of the rest of the passage, this is talking specifically about questioning God’s wisdom concerning the gifts
and purposes he has given each of us,
in order to best communicate his love to - and through - us.
… Ok, so what about …
·
Job chapters 38-41 … I won’t read them all(!) …
but God doesn’t seem too happy about Job’s questioning of him!?
Here, God says why
he is not happy about being questioned: it is not that he is being questioned, but that the way Job has gone about this questioning has resulted in him discrediting
God’s justice and condemning God, in order to justify himself.
So even passages in the Bible that seem to put us off getting to know God better aren’t actually designed to do that at all. God’s being too mysterious for us to
understand is not an option.
The third option
- redefining ‘love’ - is more understandable: so many stories that make God look unloving, and only two
occurrences of the expression ‘God is love’!
The Bible was
written in unfamiliar languages, by unfamiliar people, from unfamiliar
cultures, in unfamiliar times … and I know that, in Greek for example, they had
five different words covering what we call ‘love’! Maybe we’ve just misunderstood what “God is
love” means?
But, God
established the Bible for all people,
in all places, throughout all time: if cultural differences might
mislead us, he provides help in his word.
And he gives example after example of what ‘love’ means,
both in his Word and in Creation: think of marriage, parenthood, friendship, or
any relationship where, to ‘love’,
you have to give your time, money, thought and consideration, sleep and
strength and energy, care and protection, and more besides … to someone with an
unquenchable appetite for all this and more … even when you have nothing left
to give.
Think of how God has given us breath, water, food, clothing,
shelter, family, friends, joy, comfort, and everything we need, throughout our
lives, unfailingly, … even before we
ever even knew him.
… Think of the Cross …
God knows what
love is, and he has given it to us to know what love is too. Redefining ‘love’ is not an option.
That only leaves the
fourth option. What about holding on
to the understanding that God is love, and seeking to understand the stories in
which he appears spiteful or discriminatory or aloof in a different light?
A legitimate fear, here, is that a pick-and-mix God is no
God at all: believing the bits we like and rejecting the bits we don’t? Not an option.
But that’s not
what I am talking about. I am talking
about clinging to the God whom I know
through his Spirit in me and through all the time I’ve spent - with his Spirit
- in his word and in his church … I am talking about looking for a more real sense of what is going on in
each event … I am talking about looking around the Bible for help in
understanding…:
·
… what’s the back-story?
·
… where else has something similar happened with
the same or a different outcome?
·
… what were the similar or different factors
involved?
… In short, using the Bible to
understand the Bible.
Sounds like detective work!
But getting to know anyone
involves time spent with them …
looking into who they are and what makes them tick, and struggling with things
that make them different to us until we accept or understand them.
It was never intended for us to do this alone, however. God sends his Holy Spirit to anyone who truly
seeks him, and the Holy Spirit lives forevermore in all who put their trust in him.
So, whether I am a Christian or not, if I am honestly seeking the one true living God, then the very author of
the Bible is ready to enter into discussion with me about what I am reading.
Luke 11 reads: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone
who asks receives; he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be
opened. Which of you fathers, if your
son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a
scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your
Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Some Christians say: “I believe in a God of love, but I also
believe in a God of justice.”
They mean, they believe in the God that - A.D. - walked
around the eastern Mediterranean, healing and forgiving and performing
miracles… and the God that - B.C. -
looked down from on high and ordered the slaughter of entire people groups … it’s
just that they’re not sure if these were the same person or not!
This is a real problem:
… does the God who is both
of these … really want no-one to
perish?
I want to try to show how the God of love is the God of justice … and how this loving God is the Father as much as the Son and the
Spirit.
An Old Testament story that seems to show God with a split personality (in this case, the God
of love to Israel, but the God of justice to Egypt) is the story of Moses and
The Pharaoh.
In brief:
·
the Israelites are enslaved in Egypt
·
they cry out to God for rescue
·
God sends Moses to The Pharaoh to command him to
free them … but he also hardens The
Pharaoh’s heart to resist this command
·
He then shows The Pharaoh a sequence of
miracles, which, had he sought God,
he would have understood to be showing that his sin could be forgiven through the
death of God’s innocent one
·
The Pharaoh, instead, hardens his own heart
·
The Pharaoh is forced to let the slaves go … but
he chases after them and, along with all who follow him, is killed in the sight of the freed slaves
The Bible says that God raised The Pharaoh up for this very
purpose: “that I might display my power in you and that my name might be
proclaimed in all the earth”. So, did
God set this man aside, from birth, and raise him up to be forever separated
from him – in hell, eventually – with no chance for him to change God’s mind?
… Is this love?
… Alarm bells are ringing!
Let’s look at the back-story:
The ‘raising up’ referred to the way God made him into
someone the whole world would hear about: God made Egypt the richest nation on
the face of the planet through
Joseph, an Israelite. This made the position of Pharaoh the most powerful in
the world: what The Pharaoh said and did, and what happened to him and his
people, would be proclaimed throughout the world. God then put this hard-hearted young man in
that position, and the Israelites became this Pharaoh’s slaves.
With this world stage, and the characters in place, God
could ensure that all would hear about his love for the world, in the hope that
they would reconsider their current dead
relationship with him, and enter into the marriage-like love with him that he
had always wanted for them.
… So the question is: does God show his love by raising up men to die for the sake of his name and fame? … Or does he show his love by offering himself to death in place of man?
"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his
one and only Son into the world that we might live through him … For Christ
died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to
God”
Let’s check Romans 9 again – surely that was where it said
that God raised him up to send him to hell, right? … verse 17: “I raised you up
for this very purpose: … that I might
display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
This remit doesn’t seem
to mention anything about The Pharaoh’s salvation. As it happened, The Pharaoh did not make peace with God and surrender
his own pride to trust in God’s love … and God’s power and name were proclaimed
throughout all the earth! (In Joshua 2, Rahab,
a citizen of faraway Jericho, confessed: “I know that the Lord has given you
this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live
in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water
of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt”) …
… But what would have happened if The Pharaoh had surrendered his resistance against
God? Surely, this act, alone, of The Pharaoh turning to God – quite apart
from all the miracles that helped him reach that faith – would ensure God’s
power and name were proclaimed throughout the earth?!
God’s plan that did not
preclude The Pharaoh’s own salvation - Christ’s death on the cross provided for
The Pharaoh too, if he would only accept it.
The choice to surrender his resistance to God’s love lay with The
Pharaoh until his death. … Sadly, The Pharaoh continued to reject God and to
grasp at his people - attacking the children of The Father … the Bride of the
Bridegroom - until God stopped him permanently.
… A bridegroom or a father will go to great lengths to
protect his bride or child from someone who would enslave or kill them. If the would-be abuser, kidnapper, enslaver,
or murderer refused to stop their attacks no matter what, the most peace-loving
bridegroom or father in the world would do whatever they could to stop them
once and for all.
Violence - even resulting in death - inflicted on someone
unrepentantly hell-bent on enslaving or killing your beloved is not a lack, or a compromise, of
love. On the contrary, it would be very unloving if the bridegroom or father didn’t
take whatever action was in his power
to stop the attacker.
… So does God love
us any less than this?
“I tell you the truth,
unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever
humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this
in my name welcomes me ...But if anyone causes one of these little ones who
believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung
around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
God loves his church – his bride, his children - SO much that he protects us from any and
all that is truly harmful, even to the death.
This is not unloving, but
deeply loving.
In fact, ‘hell’ is the result of deep, deep love! Hell will be the unbreakable holding cell for
those who, despite God’s greatest efforts throughout history and throughout their
lives to win them with his love,
continue to hate and wish harm to God and his church. There, there will be gnashing of teeth, which
is a term used in the Bible for hateful anger, not regretful repentance. There, their worm (their hatred towards
God) will not die – they never stop hating God.
God reached out to them in their lives to offer his love, which was not
accepted. Now his love for we who did
accept this same offer will cause him to protect us from them.
This understanding of how a wrathful God and a loving God
are one and the same – the fact that God can get wrathful because he is loving – helps with so many stories, particularly
from the Old Testament, where, initially, it feels like we’re reading about a
completely different God to the God who is love, who we’ve come to know from
the New Testament.
There are other, more subtle places where we can find
ourselves thinking of a God different to our God of love, but the same advice
still applies: use the Bible to understand the Bible, and ask God for his Holy
Spirit to come and chat it through with you.
Another example is when God forbade Moses from entering The
Promised Land because he disobeyed an instruction. This seems both harsh … and quite bizarre,
given the bigger picture of the whole story of the exodus, given how intimate
he had become with God, …
… and given Moses’ own desire to enter The Promised
Land. Yet, at one point, God seems to
snap at him: “Do not speak to me any more about this matter!”
Again, the back story helps: Moses had, at a crucial point in their travels,
demonstrated a pride in his position as intercessor between God and his people
– a pride that, as Ezekiel tells us, was the root cause of Satan’s fall at the
first; a fall which brought death into the world.
We know that God is love, and that he loved Moses
intimately, and that he forgives sin
after sin after sin – it makes no sense whatsoever that he would punish this
man that he loved for a solitary slip-up.
It makes a lot more sense that
he wanted to protect Moses from his own pride.
This pride would have only been fed if he were to be the one man who led
God’s people both out of slavery and
into The Promised Land (and, inevitably, continued to rule until his
death). God, in his deep love for Moses,
did not want him to go the way of Satan, so he forbade this for Moses’ sake.
Just one last thing I want to address, and this, whilst
tremendously important, will be brief.
Another problem with seeing the God of wrath being different
to the God of love is that we tend to see Jesus as the God of love and the
Father as the God of wrath – have you ever thought that?
There are many significant problems with this, including the
break-up of the trinity and the preservation of the idea that we’ve been
fighting today: that of God (i.e. the Father) as NOT loving.
It is useful, at these times, to remember that Jesus is the visible
image of the invisible God, so it was he who we see acting, both lovingly and
wrathfully, in the Old Testament, before he was born as man.
AND, he himself
said he did nothing without seeing it first in his Father.
So, as Jesus cries from the cross: “why have you forsaken
me?” … he must be doing only what he
sees the Father doing: … so, the suffering of the cross, rather than being
about the lashings of a wrathful Father against his loving Son, must instead be
about the removal of sin as far from God as the east is from the west, to use a
Biblical phrase. Both Father and Son suffered this forsakenness … this separation
from each other … this horror of a perfect relationship broken … so that we may
enter into a loving relationship with them.
As I finish, may I plead with you to know and remember that God – Spirit, Son, and Father – is love, and
that this love is constantly poured out into you and me. Whether you are a Christian or not, please –
in the privacy of your own heart and mind - ask God to open your eyes to his
love for you today; seek to really know that love, with his Holy Spirit and his
Word; and knock on the door of the home of that love – I promise you, it will be opened to you.
Who
forgives your sins and heals your diseases?
Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and
compassion? Who satisfies your desires
with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s? The Lord made known his ways to Moses, his
deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord
is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or
repay us according to our iniquities. As
high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love; as far as the
east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions. (Psalm 103)
