The Second Best Bible Story (Pt. III)

The people journeyed farther from the land they had known to a place God would show them just as their ancestors had done hundreds of years before.  The man who had stood in God's presence and led the people prepared a message of warning for the people on the eve of entering their new country, saying:

"You yourselves know how we lived before and how we passed through the countries on the way here. You saw among them their worthless idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. Make sure there is no one among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those countries; make sure there is no root among you for it produces such bitter poison.

"When such a person hears the words of his oath to God and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the land. The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them.

"All the nations will ask: 'Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?'  And the answer will be: 'It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of slavery. They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them'...In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord will uproot them from this land and thrust them into another land."

Faithfulness and undivided hearts to God were the requirement for receiving and keeping this new country.  And so by God's leading and might, they settled in the land by battle and treaties with the people already there.  The people held to God but gradually adopted the practices of their neighbors.  The warning began to come true.  Invasions and military confrontations threatened their peace, but a renewal of devotion to God led to restoration.  In such times, God would raise a leader from among the people to protect them and remind them of the binding relationship they had with him.  This age lasted for over three centuries.

New generations forgot the faithfulness of God; they had not experienced freedom from slavery nor had they been fed from the skies.  They had not watched their numerous enemies defeated by miraculous events in battle.  They had not remembered that the houses and vineyards they enjoyed were built and planted by the enemies of God for their provision.  The people had wandering eyes.  They began to look at neighboring countries and desire more than just their customs.  They chose to practice idol worship with all the revelry and self-satisfaction those religions aroused. The people implemented a monarchy as other countries had.  They still professed to love God, but how could it be with all these new allegiances?  The people persisted in devoting themselves to lifestyles that pushed God out. 

For a time God prospered his treasured people giving them kings and priests who honored him.  Yet even the good kings failed to follow God wholeheartedly.  Some priests even lost their way. And while the splendor of the nation was at its peak, the kingdom began to crumble.  A rebellion arose dividing the nation in two.  The smaller kingdom to the south had God's temple where the worship of the Lord continued. 

The more populous kingdom to the north needed to distinguish its identity from what they had been.  Their new king devised a plot to secure the people's loyalty and prevent them from returning to their former king and to the worship of the Lord.  The king had two golden calves crafted placing them in two prominent towns.  He invented a religion and arbitrarily selected priests to promote it.  He fabricated shrines all over the land.  He made counterfeits of the holidays God had established and selected dates and meanings for them randomly.  The people followed his lead and gave offerings as if this were a legitimate religion.  The king's betrayal to God was institutionalized and the people were deceived.  When their hearts were devoted to inanimate objects instead of God, they intentionally discarded the oath they had made with God.  This is how they purposefully forgot him to do as they pleased.

The Adoration of the Golden Calf by Nicolas Poussin [source]

Text adapted primarily from Deuteronomy 29 and 1 Kings 12.

The Second Best Bible Story (Pt. II)

In an ancient night over 3000 years ago, a people was gathered in a camp at the base of a mountain.  Three months beforehand, they were slaves oppressed by a merciless king in a land not their own.  Their release from captivity was achieved by wonderful and devastating miracles; a land was cursed until these people were free.  Out of thin air and solid rock, God provided for their hunger and thirst.  And on a quiet night at the base of a mountain, God expressed in words a love his actions had already demonstrated to the people, saying:

You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.  Now if you obey me full and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.  Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation... 

The people all responded together, "We will do everything the Lord has said."

Then the people took two days to purify themselves, and on the third day they went to the base of the mountain to meet their Lord.  God appeared in the morning as fire on the mountain cloaked by a thick cloud; the blast of a trumpet ushered in his coming.  Thunder boomed, lightning crashed, and the ground quaked beneath their feet.  Yet God was not fully revealed for the people would have perished in his unveiled presence.  Who could behold his holiness?  One man was able to ascend the mountain and approach the living God to learn all this people would need to know.  This was the marriage of God to a nation; a covenant of the people's faithfulness and God's unbridled love.

The man on the mountain had been gone for a long while.  The people began to suspect that he had perished on that flaming hill.  Fraught with uncertainty, they turned to the man's brother and begged for a new god.  Full of doubt himself, the brother collected all the gold earrings from every man, woman, and child in the camp and cast a calf with his hands and tools.  He declared, "This is your god who brought you up out of slavery."  He prepared a place to worship it and led the people to give offerings before it.  There was a raucous party, and the people indulged in food and drink to excess.  They danced unfettered before their crude idol.  But God saw them.  He sent the man on the mountain down to the people to put an end to this folly.  The man burned the handmade calf in a fire, ground the remains into a fine powder, and scattered the remains in the water.  He made the people drink the glittering water.  If they had been tempted to refashion their pseudo-god, it would be impossible to do so out of their own gold.  Then God said, "come to me," to anyone who would acknowledge him as the true God.  There was punishment for those who were unfaithful yet returned.  But for those who rejected his appeal there was only death.  

Tables of the Law with the Golden Calf by Cosimo Rosselli  [source]

It was time to move forward.  The camps were packed up and the people prepared for the journey ahead.  God would lead them to the home he had promised their ancestors.  His desire to do good for them had not wavered in spite of the people's betrayal.  And while God spoke generously of all he would provide (safety from their enemies, a fruitful land, and a prosperous future), the heart of God confessed he would distance himself from them.  Their waywardness had pushed their loving God away from his treasured possession.

Text adapted primarily from Exodus 19, 32, and 33.

The Second Best Bible Story (Pt. I)

Everyone knows John 3:16~ for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  Most know that Jesus' death on a cross is the highest revelation of God's love for mankind.  We know that God loves us so dearly that he gave over his perfect son to an unspeakably grim death for imperfect us.  There is no greater action in the history of time that shows the love of the Father for his children.  But what if I were to ask you where I could read the second best demonstration of God's love in the Bible (specifically outside the life of Christ)?  I would like to submit to you that it is a story found in the pages between the Psalms and the gospels.  That least explored area of the Bible called prophecy where God's stories are removed from the confines of time, and reality is illustrated with curious imagery~ it's no wonder why prophecy is a challenge for any Bible reader.  But if you overlook these stories, you may have overlooked the second greatest story of God's love of all time.

He was a man of God.  She was raised secular.  They were wed and became parents to a little boy.  God named the boy "scattered".  She came to expect another baby, perhaps by someone other than her husband.  This time it was a girl God named "not loved".  A third pregnancy shrouded in unknown paternity led to the birth of a second boy.  God called him "not mine".  The marriage was put to the test, but the man of God loved his wife and the children she bore.

One day the man of God came home to find the children unattended.  Their mother had left with no indication of where she was going or when she'd return.  The man of God had an idea where she'd be-- off seeking satisfaction outside of their marriage.  She had left before but this time she wasn't coming back.  The reality of her departure solidified her rejection of her husband and children.  She exchanged it for fancy dinners and gifts from the company of untold numbers of men.  The man of God still loved his wife; what aching pain he must have felt trying to explain to his children that their family was "scattered, not loved, or not mine" to their mother.  What shame he must have felt as his friends began to realize how fitting his children's names were.  His grief must have weighed heavily on him.

Across town, the unfaithful wife was beginning to lose her charm.  Lovers lost interest and dismissed her.  She searched desperately for anyone who would just share a scrap of food in exchange for a place in their bed.  Her moral poverty became true poverty.

One day, the man of God heard how his wife was struggling.  He risked being rebuffed by her current paramour to take her some food, water, and clothes.  Confused by the husband's presence, this lousy lover gladly took the provisions only to pass them off as his own gifts to the wife.  And how she praised her lover wrongfully for this kindness as her husband listened in.  The true love of the husband had not reached the wife, and he returned home leaving her to her deluded and destructive ways.

The wife soon became so unlucky in love that she could find no man to take her in.  As she attempted to just forestall starvation, her debts began to mount.  This prodigal wife reflected on how much better off she was in her husband's home saying she will return to him.  But for some reason, she doesn't go.  Maybe she feels too much guilt.  Maybe she can't imagine how she's supposed to go back to being a full-time mother after living only for herself for so long.  Maybe she considers that they are better off without her.  She stayed put, and her indebtedness reached its nadir.

Her lenders had had enough; something must be done.  It was determined that she would be sold as a slave to try to recoup some of their losses.  She was taken to the center of the capital, lined up at the auction block with actual slaves, stripped naked, and offered to the highest bidder.  Except there was no highest bidder.  No old flames came to rescue their damsel in distress.  Her utter worthlessness was on full display-- until from out of the crowd she heard a familiar voice.  Her husband had come offering fifteen coins and a sack of animal feed for his bride.  She was valued at half the price of a common slave.  Legally her husband's purchase made him her master and her his property.

How foolish the man of God must have appeared.  More degrading that being cheated on and used as a meal ticket by his wife's lovers, he publicly paid for what was already rightfully his.  His friends must have thought it a terrible waste of money; after all, she had not indicated that she desired to turn from her wild ways.  Yet there he was, ready to love her and rescue her.

The man of God began to restore his wife.  At her purchase he clothed her as his wife-- not in the rags a slave would wear.  He told her that he was hers and she was his.  She must not seek any man besides him anymore.  Without condemning her, he required her to turn from her old life and live with him.  This is the story of a woman named "complete" who lived in complete depravity before she was made complete in love by her husband.  This is also the story of God's man, "the Lord saves", who lived up to the foolishly persistent and pursuing love of God in order to save the one he loved most.

Engraving of Hosea and Gomer by Matthäus Merian [source]

I received a tremendous amount of help from the following resources:
NIV Scofield Study Bible
Believer's Bible Commentary by William MacDonald
The Minor Prophets, Volume 1 by James Montgomery Boice
The Amazing Collection, Set 6: The Early Minor Prophets

Afternoons & Evenings

Any parent will tell you that having kids is a full-time job.  Aside from a few times of day when the children are sleeping, every waking moment requires readiness to meet their needs.  Long gone are the days of leisurely sleeping in on weekends or enjoying a quiet stroll to Starbucks to read a book.  In this season of life with two under age three, my time is rarely my own.

So how greedily do I long for naptimes and bedtimes?  How wistfully do I bid my husband farewell in the morning when he heads to work?  I never know what any given day will hold-- meltdowns, disastrous diapers, boo boos that make me want to cry, or simply animated children who desire a lot of hands-on play.  I hardly ever believe I'm equipped to face the variety of activities and responsibilities caring for two little ones requires.  So when miraculously the stars have aligned and simultaneous naps occur, the house is quiet.  And my mind fills with all the things I'm finally free to do.  I declare this "ME time" and covet every glorious minute I get.  As soon as the first cry comes from a nursery, I get that same sensation as when one's alarm clock goes off-- the dream is over, now back to it.  I regularly sigh and dolefully reflect that even the alarm clock has built in grace for the weary sleeper with its generous snooze button...

Lately; however, God has been speaking to me about my quiet time not being my own.  I am quick to assert, "But Lord, don't you see I'm serving these little ones all day?  Aren't I entitled to veg out for a bit to unwind?"  God has said "No Leah.  I know you are tired, but this is kingdom time."

James 4:2-6 reads:

  You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.  You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?  But he gives more grace.

So maybe I'm tired or two days behind on taking a shower.  Maybe my eyes are burning because the baby woke up 4 times in the evening.  But dispensing my time on frivolous things not only leaves little time for me to spend alone with God.  It actually makes the gap between us greater.  It communicates to my Maker that he doesn't really get how I feel or what I need.  Has there ever been a more ludicrous predication?  No wonder James says I'm acting like God's enemy; it's like walking the opposite direction from a water source in my greatest thirst.

Kingdom time.  Well, it is different everyday.  Sort of like the station activities from Kindergarten.  Sometimes it's reading devotions or reviewing notes from my Bible study class.  Sometimes it's writing in my prayer journal.  Sometimes it's reading a stack of updates from the ministries we support financially and with prayer.  Sometimes it's writing notes to a few special people God has given me to care for.  Sometimes it's listening to sermons on a podcast.  Today it's blogging (my favorite station, if I had to pick one).  Most days I have God's word with me to read and reflect in the hopes that my time is inline with His word.

Only this past week have I really thought, "wow, this is the part of the kingdom He's given me today."  To be entrusted with any spiritual charge is quite humbling.  Even more so when I reflect on the knowledge that He "yearns jealously" to be with me like the Spirit who indwells me.  How could I resist that kind of loving attention from the Father?

Perhaps this is my own personal interpretation or application of the phrase, "but he gives more grace", but I can testify that when I do dedicate time to him in my afternoons while the children sleep, he renews me.  He gives me a better attitude as I face the challenges of the rest of the day.  He gives me glimpses of glory where I truly see and experience how precious this time is with my tiny ones.  He reminds me of his presence when things go all wrong and I turn into a monster mom-- and he forgives me when I repent and restores the loving connection with my children that I break.  God is truly gracious to me.

And with all this said (so to speak), I hear the cry of one ushering in the time for late afternoon play...

Girlfriend!

I was spending time with my mom, big sister, and our baby girls yesterday.  We were talking about how challenging it has been to have sustained friendships with other women.  I marvel at girls who have lifelong best friends.  What must that be like? 

Big sis & me

 I had two very dear friends when I was a child; in many ways they were practically sisters to me.  Our closeness deteriorated, I believe, because I went through a very dark internal season of the spirit when my parents got divorced.  I was already predisposed to being moody and selfish anyhow, but I must have been insufferable at that point in life.  That season was too quickly followed by an insanity that often claims pre-teen girls: boy-mania.  I had crushes upon crushes.  My closet was literally a shrine to Hanson, Green Day, Silverchair, and Bush.  I may have liked their music, but I likely never would have discovered that if the singers weren't cute.  I was much more driven to have a boyfriend than to nurture my friendships with girls.

It wasn't until I came to know Jesus that all the sudden I saw how deep my desire to have girlfriends was.  One of my very first sincere prayers was that God would put me in a place where I wouldn't be distracted by boys and would have an opportunity to get to know girls.  You may giggle when you find that I prayed this after completing my first year at Georgia Tech where the ratio of guys to girls at the time was 7 to 3.  I did, however, secure a job at a Victoria Secret.  Initially I believed it was an answer to my prayer.  Too soon, though, I learned that girls that work at VS are not too different from boys.  As a new follower of Jesus, for me it was an unsavory and less than ideal environment in which to be. 

My big sister remarked on the nature of closeness.  Among her good friends, the degree of intimacy was too often characterized with "cattiness".  You weren't really that tight if you didn't call each other b----.  Rudeness substituted kindness as terms of endearment.  I know exactly what she was talking about.  Regardless of whether my friends were non-Christians or Christians, in some cases it was as if the relationship wasn't authentic until you breached the barrier of acquaintance with crassness.  When did demeaning candor replace the gentleness that is intrinsic to being a female?

I admit I have been bawdy with friends.  But God teaches that, "love does not delight in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth" {1 Corinthians 13:6}.  What a challenge to the notion of what is so common to our thinking~ to my thinking.  The wisdom of the world promotes callous affection, "but the wisdom that comes from heaven is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere" {James 3:17}.  

My problem with not having long lasting close friendships with girls hasn't been for lack of desire.  It is more likely that I haven't been 
"pure" in my motives (thinking the friendship is about meeting my needs), 
"peaceable" in how I speak (I have said and continue to say provocative and destructive things much to my chagrin), 
"gentle" in the content of my speech (this lady doth share too much), 
"open to reason" (which would require me to be a better listener than I am), 
"full of mercy" (too busy occupied with myself to consider my friend's thoughts, needs, or feelings),
"full of good fruits" in giving to and serving others,
"impartial" to who the Lord has purposefully put in my life,
and "sincere" (often behaving the way I think I ought to in order to fit in).

If I am honest with myself, what I have deemed closeness to other ladies as an adult has too often resembled the culture and not enough of what I knew to be true as a kid.  To have a friend, you must first be a friend.  And who better to learn that from than the truest Friend we could ever ask for.  God shows his desire to befriend us in that while we were still his enemies, he sent Christ to die for us and save us. {adapted from Romans 5:8}

Our sweet baby girls

Just a thought on Jesus

In my devotion time I have been reading Hebrews.  The writer begins by establishing Jesus' superiority to all things; the first of which is angels.  This is significant because it must mean Jesus is more than a mere man.  A passage in Psalm 8 reads:

When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?
 You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
 all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
 the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

In God's creation, there is a hierarchy of beings clearly presented by the psalmist (David): first the angels, then mankind, and finally all animals.  It got me thinking about how Jesus must be both man and God.  Indeed, he has his identity confirmed by the angels at his birth.  Luke records how a great company of heavenly hosts suddenly erupts in praise after an angel announces the birth of the Messiah to a group of shepherds.  It had never occurred to me how absurd the angels worshiping God at Jesus' birth would be if he weren't God's son. I can't imagine getting all my loved ones together to worship God at the birth of any animal (this is the closest parallel I can imagine). 

In what may seem like an unrelated event, my son and I were looking at pictures a friend had shared.  He recently went on a trip to Paris where he snapped a picture of a statue of Julius Caesar outside the Louvre.  At first sight, my son exclaimed, "That's an angel, Mama!"  I was simply stunned.  His exposure to angels has been what most children see~ the cherubs of Fisher-Price and various storybooks.  

Here, he beheld a strong, larger-than-life Roman warrior.  Without a doubt this statue is a better representation of what an angel ought to look.  Most accounts of angels in the Bible involve their human witnesses falling to the ground in sheer terror.  Angels guard, strengthen, destroy, deliver, and command.  They obey God completely and at times reveal God's will to his people.  They are eternal and enjoy being in the presence of the Lord constantly.  As much as I can comprehend, that would make them in most ways superior to me in design. 

God turned my own "storybook" conception of the nativity on its head.  God has shown me that Jesus' lordship is confirmed by a mass of seemingly superior creatures bursting forth in glorious praise to God at his birth.  It also wasn't a chorus of cherubs singing Hark! the Herald, but a multitude of heavenly warriors praising God.  It's an image that strikes me with how great Jesus is-- leaving his heavenly splendor to become a helpless baby yet still God receiving praise from his own creation.  The angels confirm the incarnation, and I see more of him.

If ever man was God or God man, Jesus Christ was both.

~Lord Byron~ 

Readiness

The two minutes are up.  Nap time is imminent.  I say, "it's time, Bubba!"  Suddenly all the eagerness my son embodies ebbs away, and he scrambles to retreat, saying, "no, I not ready!  Two minutes!"  I can see the signs: sleepy eyes, an attitude shift from cheerful to irritable, and a dissatisfaction with all his good toys and books.  He is ready.  It's time for him to sleep, but he can't see it (or won't see it) my way.  His unyielding comportment lasts until we are by his bed singing songs to Jesus.  He finally surrenders and nearly gladly accepts that nap time is good.  I am no longer the villain leading him to imprisonment; I am his mother who loves him.  He says sweetly to me, "Je t'aime maman.  Au revoir!"

These daily episodes drain me.  I started praying and asking God why it had to be like this every time.  Can't my boy remember from one day to the next that all turned out well?  God was gracious and quick to remind me that this is the dynamic of my relationship with Him.  Too often when God calls me to something, my knee-jerk reaction is to say, "I'm not ready, Lord!"  God was leading Kyle and me to have another baby last year-- I'm not ready.  We moved into a home that wasn't unpacked or fully furnished for months, but God said to invite folks over-- I'm not ready.  My boy spiked a fever of 103.9, and I had to stay home with his baby sister while Kyle took him to the emergency room-- Lord, I am not ready for this.  Most convicting of all, opportunities arise to tell my friends about Jesus or openly give God the glory for the good things in my life and I say I'm not ready.

Matthew 19:16-22 reads:
Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
“Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

When I tell the Lord I am not ready, it's no different than saying no.  It's no different than this rich young man who receives an invitation from Jesus to follow him and chooses to walk away.  Because like the rich young man or my son at nap time, I can't envision following and trusting God through life's challenges not costing me a lot.  What if I were a better mom with only one child?  What if our friends think our house is abysmal?  What if Bubba's fever is a sign of devastating illness?  What if I lose a friend because my love for Jesus weirds them out?

But Jesus never said that following him wouldn't come at a cost.  In fact he says the opposite; it come at great cost.  The rich young man was asked to give up his wealth.  Bubba surrenders his partial-autonomy and toys at nap time.  But what Bubba receives that the rich young man missed (and too often I miss) is the loving embrace of a parent and rest.  I could trade my own free will with all its worry and anxiety and missed opportunity with closeness to my Father in heaven and peace within.  All my "what ifs" could come true, which I dread admitting.  I simply desire that God would transform my reluctance into readiness, my free will into willingness to follow Him.  Please make it so, Lord.