Spiritual Adultery

"They whored after other gods" - Judges 2.17

The main source for this summer blog is going to be the passages I read in my daily Quiet Times as I work through the Bible. One of the blessings of reading through the whole Bible is that you don't get to cherry pick the bits you like. That is why I was brought up short by this verse from Judges. It is particularly stark in the words of the ESV translation of the Bible.

I've never actually counted, but I am pretty confident that the #1 way the Bible speaks of our sin is as adultery. And it is no common or garden adultery - it is a form of adultery that is desperate, repeated and for personal gain. It is whoredom. It is the turning away from God and instead seeking from other things what we can only truly find in him. It is taking all that he has given us, in his abounding grace, and then using those things to worship something else, or even ourselves.

In the Bible, spiritual adultery is always linked to idolatry. In the Old Testament (the part of the Bible leading up to Jesus' birth), that idolatry was obvious. People would make a statue and start to worship it and give it things. They hoped that the god, whose idol it was,would give them security, blessing, purpose. 

Even in the OT though, it was clear that idolatry went further than this and started to include making treaties with nations who did not worship the LORD, rather than trusting in him. By the New Testament (the story of Jesus and his first disciples), idolatry included money and anything else which we might live for, instead of or in addition to God.

There is loads to be said about this idea of idolatry - how it promises much but never delivers - how it enslaves. But why does God use the notion of willful adultery as a way of describing it. Why does he cast himself as a husband who has been cheated on, by his wife. One thing it emphasises is that sin is not primarily the breaking of some legal code. Instead, in the words of one preacher, sin is primarily an offence against love.

So our love for other things more than, or instead of, or alongside God, is ultimately a rejection of his love. So when I live for money, or reputation or my work, or drugs and alcohol, and that love leads me to lie, be proud, cheat or simply forget God, the problem is not that God is cross that I've broken some command, but that I have rejected the one who made and saved me.

Spiritual Science

"He upholds the universe by the word of his power" Hebrews 1.3

Right up until the last minute I was all set for a path of science. It was only at the eleventh hour that I chose to do History at 6th Form rather than Physics to go along with my Maths and Chemistry. The rest was history. I have always had a fascination with both science and history. History because, as the saying goes, it is His Story. I love the fact that I can use my historical education to look at the events of Jesus life and in particular the resurrection - it is also why I loved Chris Sinkinson's talk at our church in April.

I love science for its wonderful logic, its striking patterns, its ability to predict, but most of all because as I read about it I am hearing something of the voice of Jesus. Psalm 19 speaks of this, before going on to rejoice in God's written word. Hebrews 1.3 though says it in a still more remarkable way. 

There is a false view of God sometimes called Deism. It says that when God created the universe it was like a massive clockwork device, with each part obeying certain unchangeable laws. He then stood back and let it run. This is a view of the universe that makes miracles very hard to accept. It also leaves the universe as cold and unyielding. 

More significantly, it runs counter to God's witness to himself in the Bible and especially in Hebrews 1.3 (also Colossians 1.17). Here we have the Lord Jesus intimately involved in every part of his creation. It carries on, because he commands it to - every second, every nanosecond of every day and night. We can talk of laws, governing how the atoms of my body behave, because every day he commands them to keep on obeying his word. The reason my atoms keep on making the bonds necessary for the complex molecules that make up my physical body, rather than atomising - or doing wildly unexpected things - is because the Son of God goes to the trouble of telling them to do so - that is truly miraculous.

Does this blow your mind? How great God must be to sustain everything, every moment of the day. Suddenly the universe is not merely fascinating, but alive with God's word. Science, is not just rewarding and a means to an end, it is part of the deepest relationship we could ever have.

The end of the matter

"The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man." Ecclesiastes 12.13

I've just come to the end of Ecclesiastes in my Bible Readings and at first glance, you might think "Phew!" For much of the church's history, it's not really known what to do with the book of Ecclesiastes. But the truth is that Ecclesiastes is a book for our age, because it deals with meaninglessness. 

Over the whole book, hangs the dark curtain of death - it's fair to say that it is not a laugh a minute! The writer explores what would life be like if death is the end, the great full stop. His answer is vanity, or meaningless, or pointless - depending on your translation. The reason is that death negates all human achievement. Even if we look to make a name for ourselves, such that historians record our great or dark deeds, even history itself will one day find death's curtain drawn across it. It is very moving and quite troubling to walk through a graveyard and read the inscriptions on the more modern gravestones. One of the most poignant phrases often repeated is, "Always in my heart". It is a lovely testimony to the enduring love we have for those who have died. And yet strictly it is not quite true, because my heart will one day stop beating.

This sense of pointlessness matters, because we are inevitably drawn to try to judge what a good life looks like. There is something innate in us that seeks to do something meaningful. The problem is that every judge we might seek to please, will one day die. So, if I am sitting in my workplace, worried by what my boss, customer or pupil will think of my work, I am living for a good opinion which will one day die. If my hope is that one day my children will turn out to be a vindication of my life, that too is only temporary. If I live for the esteem of those whom I esteem, it is pointless, because we will all die. Someone told me of a person whose ambition was to die a millionaire. What a pointless ambition. If death is the end, then better to die having been a millionaire!

Ultimately, the book of Ecclesiastes is not as depressing as it sounds. There are holes in the curtain, through which sparkling light pours and the last verses are an example of this. It's final verse speaks of something beyond the grave - it is a judgment. We normally think of this as bad news, but once we've read Ecclesiastes it gives it a new flavour. That judgment gives meaning to our lives - it denies the dread power of death. Knowing that, means that we can now live for a judgment that will not die. And so the writers conclusion is to fear the one who holds that judgment. Not cowering fear, but wonderful fear. This fear is one which gives hope and meaning, purpose and life to our lives. It helps put all other judgments on our lives into perspective. 

So I will try, whenever I am worried about some judgment on my life to ask this - will this judgment last forever, or will it go the way of all flesh? Then I will try to look to the judgment of the one who holds the keys of death and Hades, who has risen again and who has promised to return to bring all his people to the new heaven and the new earth.

Worshipping feet

"They came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him." Matthew 28.9

I've just come to the end of Matthew in my Quiet Times and had one of those moments with a familiar reading, in which you are struck by something you've not noticed before. In this case it is that Matthew records that the women, when they saw Jesus risen, took hold of his feet. I suppose that, until now, I've not really visualised what this means. It's not an easy thing to take hold of someone's feet - not unless they are sitting down or you rugby tackle them! Certainly a toddler can grab their parent's feet and ask to be dragged along - but for an adult!

So for the women to do this would mean lying on the ground amidst the dust, stones, grass etc. What would cause them to do this? We don't read that they did this to the angel, whose entrance and appearance seems much more dramatic - earthquake, lightning, dazzling light. He simply inspires fear and causes the guards to collapse. With Jesus they fall at his feet, not as though dead like the guards, but in worship. Seeing Jesus standing among them is more amazing to them than all of the visible signs surrounding the arrival of the angel. 

Why is that? The obvious answer is that they knew that people did not rise from the dead. Sometimes people suggest that the accounts of the resurrection were by people who were gullible, who did not realise that resurrection is impossible. But the actual accounts testify that the exact opposite was true (look ahead to v.17 in which Matthew records that some doubted even after seeing the risen Jesus - that really is an illogical scepticism).

The real opportunity of this passage as we look on at the women lying in the dust filled with awe, wonder, love, worship and fear, is to get a glimpse, though their eyes, of just how wonderful Jesus is. If we were to meet him now, we would hurriedly get down on the floor - (some of us with more difficulty than others!). I'm now 42, 6'5", 16 stone, with an arthritic hip, and I know what a big deal it is to get down on the floor. As I was reading this, I was trying to imagine actually doing it. Despite all this though, I would do it because he is so amazing, so glorious; his resurrection is so wonderfully, awe-inspiringly true, that I would fall down (or at least creakily lower myself to the ground) to worship him.

One day we will really see him, and as Philippians 2 tells us, we will bow our knees. In the meantime, the women help us to hold on to his majestic risen glory even as, at the moment, we cannot see him.

Camping

"The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him." Psalm 34.7

Over the past few years I have come to value massively the discipline of memorising passages of the Bible. I'm just working through Psalm 34 and have got to v.7 - test me when you next see me! - there's an incentive for me to keep learning. Memorisation is a lost skill in our culture - what's the point when you have the world at your thumb-tips. But as I saw somewhere recently - whilst Google helps you find what you are looking for, it can't help you know what you need to find. Bible memorisation gives me Scriptures that will spring to mind when I am in the middle of a crisis or temptation, or overcome with joy. It is also a way of helping God's word work deeply into my life - not just going in one ear and out the other, but taking root along the way. Why not have a look at this blog on 10 reasons why it is worth doing. Another big aid to me has been Scripture Typer - it is available on Google Play - according to it I am at present no. 1773 at Bible memorisation in the world!

One key help I have found is to set out to learn off by heart bits of the Bible which have meant a lot to me, or hit me hard when I hear them in a sermon or in my Quiet Time. Psalm 34 is one such text. It speaks of God's protection for his people, who it describes as those who fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is a massive theme of the Bible and amongst other things means tha act of placing ourselves wholly in the hands of God, looking to him alone for our security, hope and peace.

v.7 has a particular power for me. It is a great image of the mighty angel of the Lord, encircling God's people who have placed their trust in him. It is a protection which is mostly unseen (except briefly in 2 Kings 6.17), but is powerful beyond human conception. After all, one angel destroyed Sennacherib's army (2 Kings 19.35). What a comfort when faced with enemies of any type, whether human, or medical, or economic. When I have been afraid, repeating these words have been the life jacket to which I have clung - "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him"

Is there significance in the fact that the angel of the Lord camps around us rather than building walls around us. One of the difficulties of Psalm 34 is that it can, on first glance, appear as if the one who fears God will be spared all suffering, but there is a stunning verse hidden at the end - "he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken". This was a prophecy fulfilled in Jesus at his crucifixion (John 19.36). What a strange choice of Bible reference for John to use. At the moment when Jesus is being brutally executed, John quotes from a Psalm talking of the Lord's protection of his people. The point is this: God's protection is not from trouble, but through trouble. His protection is not that of the city wall that repels all trouble, but that of the convoy which sees his people through trouble - "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death". So whatever trouble we are walking through today, why not spend a moment looking up and imagining God's mighty angel encamped around you. No one can see him, but God's word promises that he is there, encamped around those who fear him.

Beautiful Worship

"She has done a beautiful thing to me" Matthew 26.10
This phrase leapt out at me as I read through this account of Jesus being anointed just before his death in Jerusalem. Would Jesus ever describe my worship of him as beautiful? 

In Matthew's account, we are not told anything about the woman's background; we are not told anything of her previous encounters with Jesus. The only thing we know about her, the only way we can judge her is by her actions. And the disciples do judge her - they were indignant. Why do they judge her? Their own words suggest that it is concern for the poor. My immediate reaction is to find more sinister motives in some sort of pop psychological analysis - perhaps they are reacting with indignation to cover up their fear that their own worship doesn't measure up. But in doing so, I am trapped by my own judgmentalism.

What is more striking to me is the idea of cost. The disciples focus on cost, the woman doesn't seem to. On first reading, I thought that a central point of the story was that beautiful worship should be costly. Maybe not just in monetary terms, but still costly. I don't want to pray today, but I should; I don't want to go to church, I want a lie in, but I should...

Now, though, I am not so sure. Only the disciples speak of cost. The whole impression of the passage is that the woman doesn't regard the gift as costly. She doesn't count the financial cost, nor the risk of such a public display of worship at a time of such growing hostility to Jesus. It is simply a delight to her. It is not extravagant, but wholly inadequate as an expression of her worship of Jesus. But look at what it achieves - something far greater than the cost of the expensive ointment. She gets the unique privilege of preparing Jesus for his death. As he hung on the cross, the aroma of the perfume might well have drifted into his nostrils, reminding him of her worship. She also will be remembered. We remember great Christians for any number of reasons, but to be remembered for loved filled, beautiful worship, that would be something. And what is striking is that her worship is complete - we don't know her name. We remember her in order to be reminded of how precious Jesus is. 

How can I be so captivated by Jesus, that my worship becomes heartfelt and wholehearted, rather than routine and ritual? How can I prepare for Sunday worship, so that I recognise how precious it is? How can I so focus on him, that my concern about what others think, or the cost of my worship dissolves?