God Hates... ME?!?

Hiding is not an option

Unfortunately for a lot of people their knowledge of God doesn't extend past 1 John 4:8, and for the vast majority of those people, all they know is the last three words of the verse:

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Yes, God is love, but God is many, many more things than that. Love is most certainly one of His attributes, and a very important one, but love is only just a part of His Glory. If a person concentrated only on his divine love then that person is doing himself and everyone around him a huge disservice by shoehorning God into such a narrow definition. 

I've actually heard people that should know better say something to the tune of "God is love - He won't send good people to hell." To narrowly define God in your own mind you convince yourself that God is some fluffy deity that created kittens and puppies just for your pleasure and someday if you're good he'll give you a pony. With a rainbow colored tail. And all your sins are forgiven even before you commit them because God is Love and he couldn't possibly feel any anger toward you. 

It's not like that. If God is Love and only Love, where did the concept of "The Wrath of God" come from? (Hint: It came from the bible.) God is so much more than a single emotion, here's a partial list of some of His attributes:

• God is Eternal
• God is Perfect
• God is Gracious 
• God is Compassionate
• God is Jealous
• God is Merciful 
• God is Mighty 
• God is Almighty
• God is Slow To Anger
• God is Righteous
• God is Awesome 
• God is Holy 
• God is Truthful 
• God is Faithful 
• God is Just 
• God is All Powerful 
• God is a Consuming Fire

I actually was one of those folks that believed God was a fluffy loving cloud sitter surrounded by babies with wings that played harps and that hell was only populated by Hitler, Stalin, and Margaret Sanger. Imagine my shock when I found out that God is actually capable of hate. As I sat for the first time in what I now fondly call The Church of the Bereans our pastor gave a fiery sermon (and when's the last time you heard a fiery sermon?) which mentioned the list of things that God hates. GOD HATES?!? Whoa, wait a minute sarge, this was a whole new concept to me. So I did the Berean thing and started to research, and son-of-a-gun he was right! which explains why he's the pastor and I'm feverishly highlighting my bible every Sunday morning.

The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all who do iniquity. (Psalms 5:5)

That was my first ooops moment - that God truly is capable of hate. But iniquity? I'm a fairly modest guy so I don't do the boastful thing (much) but it's not like I run around doing iniquity all the time. Iniquity, that's like mass murder, genocide, torture... right? So I looked up iniquity - it means a sin. Just a plain ordinary run-of-the-mill sin. Darn. Looking back at the 10 commandments I broke them all EXCEPT #2! (I thought hopefully) I never actually made a graven image. Then I read on: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God - bummer. I was raised Catholic, my youth was filled with Graven Images.

Oh but there's more, God hates:

16 There are six things which the Lord hates,
Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
18 A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
19 A false witness who utters lies,
And one who spreads strife among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16-19)

Most of these are pretty easy to understand: a lying tongue - God hates liars. Hands that shed innocent blood - He hates murderers. Feet that run rapidly to evil - God hates people that are eager to sin. And one who spreads strife among brothers - He hates people that stir up anger and hatred (rabble rousers). But a false witness who utters lies? We've already covered a lying tongue, why twice? Because God hates liars but He really hates a false witnesses; a perjurer, someone who lies under oath, a person who makes false legal accusations against an innocent person. Remember when President Clinton was impeached for perjury and all the press was busy defending him by saying a little lie doesn't matter? God thinks it does.

That leaves a heart that devises wicked plans and haughty eyes. A Heart that devises wicked plans isn't a sin is it? it's just thinking, we can't be held responsible for thinking about sinning can we? Jesus says we can:

27"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery';28but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28)

So what about haughty eyes? Haughty means scornfully and condescendingly proud, so what God is saying is that he hates arrogant pride, because pride is the root of all sin. Of all sins Pride is the most serious, most subtle of sins. Pride turns us away from God instead of turning toward him. It's pride that makes us think we can manage our problems when instead we should be turning to God for help. All disobedience and rebellion has pride at it's root. Pride causes hate by arrogantly placing yourself ahead of someone else, pride causes racism by pride based on skin color or theology, it's pride that wedges itself between us and God. Pride causes people to go their own way instead of God's way, it makes you think you're above all those rules and warnings God has layed out for you. Pride causes people to begin worshiping rocks and stars and natural phenomenon that was created by God yet in their pride they ignore God. 

Pride is the thing that makes a person say "God couldn't possibly hate someone as good as >>>ME<<<." 

God has some high expectations for us mere mortals for one awesome reason - we were created in His image. All of these things he hates about us he hates because these things, these sins, hurt us. He doesn't want that, what He wants is us to live fulfilling lives, to glorify Him and thank him for his gift of life, then to all come and be happy with him in heaven. Of course that's kind of hard because you can't come into his presence when tainted with sin, and we all sin because Satan is very good at convincing us sin is fun. 

Lucky for us among all other things that he is, God is love. He knows we sin, he knows we are really, really good at sin and some of us sit up nights perfecting new creative ways to sin. But God gave us a way to cleanse ourselves of that sin, cleanse ourselves of sins we haven't committed yet, and come join him. All we have to do is ask. 

25 When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" 26 And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:25-26)

Crumbs From The Table

As I journey through the bible I often find things that surprise me. Thanks to my early religious education (and probably a few movies) I always pictured Jesus as a kindly young bearded man (with awesome hair) treating everyone around him with gentle loving kindness, the utmost respect, and deep humility. So when I found a reference that says that Jesus told a petitioner to go away I was a little shocked to say the least. I thought He was teaching, preaching, and casting out demons from anyone who dared approach but apparently not: 

21Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." 23But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, "Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us." 24But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 25But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" 26And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 27But she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." 28Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish."And her daughter was healed at once.(Matthew 15:21-28)

What's going on here? Did Jesus, our lord and savior, just tell a weeping woman to 'take a hike'? Apparently He did! But why? And what's a Syrophoenician anyhow?

The second question is easier to answer. The title of this scene in the NASB is called The Syrophoenician Woman but she's called a Canaanite in the narritive and this same scene is related in Mark 7:24-30 where the Canaanite woman is called a Syrophoenician woman. Is this some kind of skin rash that Matthew was too polite to point out? Nope, Canaanite and Syrophoenician mean the same thing, in the New Testament days the area of southern Turkey, Israel, and Syria were all part of the Roman province of Syria, and the southern part was referred to as Phoenician Syria. Canaanites in pre-exodus days lived in the Tyre and Sidon region which is part of Phoenician Syria so both words mean the same thing but to different people.

The difference between usage is dependent upon the target audience of the author. If I'm writing about life in the northern prairies and I use the term Nodak, a native of the area knows what I'm talking about because they probably are one. But if my target audience is in southern Florida I'm going to have to use the word North Dakotan to get the same idea across. This idea applies here too, as Matthew's target audience is primarily Jews and Jews call people from the Tyre and Sidon area Canaanites because of their long history in the area. Mark's target audience is Greeks and Romans and they call people in that area Syrophoenicians because that's what their maps read. Either way, calling this woman either a Canaanite or a Syrophoenician means one thing to both target audiences: She's a gentile, and that's important to know if you want to understand the rest of the narrative.

However this leads us into another question: Why was Jesus in Canaanite territory? Simple, Jesus had just embarrassed a bunch of Pharisees and quickly deciding that discretion was the better part of valor he withdrew from Israel to regroup and plan his next mission. If you read Mark's narrative you'll see this was a covert withdrawal:

Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. - Mark 7:24

As we read we find that there's no hiding for the Son of God, a Syrophoenician woman realized who He was and immediately she began begging him to heal her daughter. She was begging and crying and pleading but in Matthew 15:23 Jesus refused to even speak to her! What's up with that? She raised such a ruckus that Jesus' disciples begged him to toss her out and finally He speaks.

But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matthew 15:24

However He wasn't talking to the woman, He was talking to his disciples, probably to remind them that He had a whole lot of work to do (save Israel) and not a lot of time to do it, but still He proceeded to question the woman. Jesus had a way of testing people, like when a ruler asked him "Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. (Luke 18:18-19) or better yet when Blind Bartimaeus begged Jesus to have mercy on him, Jesus didn't immediately spring to his aid, He actually made Bartimaeus come to Him to show how much faith He had. (Mark10:46-52). Like poor blind Bartimaeus, Jesus was going to test the faith of the Syrophoenician woman.

"It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." He said to her, and to me it looks like He threw her an insult too, but the original word means 'little dogs' so He wasn't trying to stab her in the heart with his response. But she promptly responded "Yes, Lord; but even the [little]dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." Don't you just know that His heart melted for that woman at that very moment. "O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish." He answered

How it must have hurt Him that the people He was sent to save kept turning their back on him, and here this poor weeping woman who by the standard of the time should have despised him because He was a Jew was pleading and begging him on her knees to show a little mercy to her demon possessed daughter. I'll bet He even smiled a little at her wonderful, marvelous answer "even the dogs feed on the crumbs that fall from their masters table".

So what happened here is that Jesus went into Gentile territory and tested a gentile woman who it turned out had greater faith than the people He was sent to save. The entire subtext is that He goes far afield and when begged for mercy His response is "You know that I'm the Jewish messiah, don't you?" and her unspoken response was "You're the son of God, who cares if you're Jewish?" and in this one little scene, which is so easily misunderstood, Jesus boldly proclaimed to his disciples and to the world that he's come for all of us.

O.T. Tuesday - When God Wants Something Done...

Everyone knows the story of Jonah, right? He was doing something in the ocean, fell off a boat, got swallowed by a whale and the whale spit him up on dry land because God saved him. Right? That's the story I got as a kid (I wasn't raised in an evangelical religion) and if you ask the average person on the street this is the story they recall. Sounds good to me. 

Until you actually read the book, then the real story takes on some incredible depth and becomes a fascinating study of how when God wants something done, it gets done. I actually fell in love with the Book of Jonah after about the 2nd time reading it and listening to a lecture on the stories implications, so let's look at the real story:

Jonah didn't start out as a prophet, and to be honest, I don't think any prophets except Jesus actually do start out as a prophet. It's not a job you apply for, there never was a school of advanced prophecy, it's a calling from God, and as Jonah finds out, it's a calling you can't ignore, no matter how hard you try. Jonah is a passive man, living up to his name (in Hebrew Jonah means "Dove") and he was just hanging out in Israel doing his thing. The bible doesn't say what his thing was, but ancient Israel was not a welfare state, you either did a thing or you starved to death. Suddenly one day God spoke to Jonah:

"Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me." - Jonah 1:2

Jonah arose, looked toward the east where Nineveh lay (near present day Mosul, Iraq) and promptly split for the west. He hightailed it to Joppa (on the Mediterranean coast, present day Tel Aviv) and boarded a ship bound for Tarshish, which is Spain, or, more importantly to Jonah, as far west as one could possibly go in 750 BC. Nestled at the heart of Assyria, Nineveh was one of the largest cities on Earth, and being an Assyrian stronghold it was not Jew friendly to say the least, so you can understand why Jonah was intent on leaving a vapor trail heading off into the sunset. 

Life aboard ship soon grew unpleasant as God saw what Jonah was up to. Soon He caused a great storm to arise and the sailors did everything to keep from sinking, they threw the cargo overboard and they called upon their gods for mercy while Jonah slept below deck. Finally, under questioning from the crew Jonah admitted he was running from God. 

He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you." - Jonah 1:12

The crew didn't throw him overboard immediately but tried to row to shore, but when they realized that it was hopeless they threw him overboard. Immediately the storm stopped and God sent a great fish (that's what the Bible says, 'great fish' NOT a whale) to swallow Jonah. For three days and three nights Jonah prayed

"I called out of my distress to the Lord,
And He answered me.
I cried for help from the depth of Sheol;
You heard my voice. - Jonah 2:2 (Ps 30:3)

Finally the fish vomited up Jonah on shore and God once again told Jonah to go to Nineveh and warn them that if they don't repent that the city will be overthrown in forty days. This time Jonah went to Nineveh and warned them, and surprisingly they listened to him and repented and God did not destroy Nineveh. However Jonah grew angry, and who could blame him - all eaten up by a fish, smelling like fish guts, walking across the desert into enemy territory all just to save a bunch of gentiles? Gentiles! God wasted his mercy on Gentiles? It's better to be dead than to have risked his life to save gentiles, he told God. So now it comes out, he wasn't running because he was scared, he was running because he didn't want God to save the Gentiles!

So Jonah went out into the wilderness to pout. He found a place to sit and it grew hot. God caused a plant to grow to give shade to Jonah, and Jonah liked the shady plant, I bet he even gave it a name, I'll bet you he named it Tsel. But that night God sent a worm to kill the plant and the next day a hot wind came up and killed it dead away, and Jonah was angry! His pet plant, Tsel, was dead! and he wanted to be dead too.

9Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death." 10Then the Lord said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?" - Jonah 4:9-11

That's pretty powerful stuff; God showing mercy and love for a city full of Gentiles. Contrast the fate of Nineveh with the fate of Sodom. God demanded that Nineveh repent and they did. All God asked from Sodom was 10 righteous men and they couldn't even come up with that, and in the end both cities got what God promised. And that's where the story ends. It's a very short story, but it's jam packed full of adventure, excitement, and lessons: 

1. God keeps his promises, He promised Nineveh that if they would repent he would stay his hand. They did repent and He didn't destroy them. In fact Nineveh prospered for another 140 years and it became one of the largest cities on earth in 668 BC. I've heard it described as "God changing his mind" but I'm not sure of that. He did promise to destroy them if they didn't repent and to spare them if they did. They repented and he spared them, it was their choise and He kept His word.
2. God's mercy and love is not just reserved for his chosen people but for all of mankind. Is this the first time he showed the Israelites his love for Gentiles? I'm not sure
3. When God wants something done, it gets done.

There's one more topic that comes to mind: Did Jonah actually die in the fish and God resurect him? or did God miraculously protect Jonah from the fishes teeth and digestive acids and provide air for him for 3 days? The narrative doesn't say, however  In Matthew 12:40-41 Jesus says:

"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.” 

Jesus arose after 3 days in the heart of the earth, Jonah arose after 3 days in the belly of the great fish, is there another parallel? Were both men dead for those three days? The Bible has no qualms about parallel situations so could this be one of them? Any insights or opinions on this would greatly be appreciated

Emergent Monday: The Mess of the Message 1

The New Testament of the Bible contains the word Gospel 91 times. The word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning "good news" or "glad tidings". It is a calque (word-for-word translation) of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion (eu- "good", -angelion "message"). The Greek word euangelion is also the source (via Latinised evangelium) of the terms "evangelist" and "evangelism" in English. Ninety one times is a lot for a particular noun to appear in a book.

In The Message paraphrase of the bible the word Gospel only appears once. Is that important? Probably not as the Message generally uses the word message in place of the word gospel, and the one time the word Gospel is used, and it's used grammatically incorrectly. This too is also not important, but it does do two things; it makes me feel a lot better about my writing skills, and most importantly it sets the stage for Eugene Peterson's heretical satire of the Bible titled The Message. Eugene Peterson said this about studying the Bible:

One of the Devil’s finest pieces of work is getting people to spend three nights a week in Bible studies… They (Christians) should be studying it less, not more. You just need enough to pay attention to God… Study is normally an over intellectualized process… I’m just not at all pleased with all the emphasis on Bible study as if it’s some kind of special thing that Christians do, and the more they do the better… (source)

L.O.T.S. - So... Who Is This Jesus Fellow?

"Who is Jesus" is kind of an odd question - thousands upon thousands of books have been written about him, in fact the best selling book of all times, the Bible, is his autobiography. So why does this question even exist?

Because we don't stop to learn who Jesus is, we just ask and take the first answer given to us, then ignore the rest. Many Americans, self professed Christians (basically people who should know who Jesus is) when asked who Jesus is will answer "A good person" and to them that's it. These people will tell you that the Bible is the word of God, 99% say that the bible is accurate but about 70% will then tell you that they have doubts about what the Bible says about Jesus. Their problem is Jesus' exclusivity about salvation, that whole John 14:6* thing seems to bother them.

I've heard from people whom I thought really knew Jesus such inane frivolities like Jesus was a good man, and Jesus was a wise teacher and nothing more than that. So I started the L.O.T.S. series of posts to help reintroduce Jesus to the world. To get the ball rolling let's start out with what you need to know about Jesus. To get started if you don't know Jesus there's only 4 things you need to know about Him:

1. Jesus is the son of God

2. Jesus is God

3. Jesus died for your sins

4. Jesus is the one true path into heaven.

Numbers 1 and 2 sound contradictory, but we're not talking auto parts or computer programs here, we're talking about spiritual mysteries of the highest order, and we will address this in more depth in the future. But for now as we are just getting to know Jesus here let's address this with one of his greatest quotes:

And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." - Matt 19:26

This applies to a different (but just as intense situation) but it really applies here. Just let that wash over you - with God all things are possible - no, he's not going to give us all ponies for Christmas, but he could if he thought it would save your soul from eternal damnation. Instead he gave us something more awesome - he forgave all of our sins, and all he asks is that you admit that you sinned and thank him for it. And that covers item 3 and 4 which we'll cover in future L.O.T.S. installments, but one question I can answer right now:

Q: Why do you call Jesus "The Lord Of The Sabbath"?

A: Because he said he is The Lord Of The Sabbath. (Mark 2:28)

There's so much more to cover, and I really intend to show in L.O.T.S. posts some really cool things Jesus said and did, and as I stumble on them I'm completely in awe of how much much more than just a "good man" Jesus truly is.

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*John 14-6 states "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." That does sound pretty exclusive, but when the road map shows that there's no way to drive to Hawaii from Los Angeles do these people reject Rand McNally for being too exclusive too?