'BARTHOLOMEW HECTOR was born at poictiers. having become acquainted with the gospel, he retired to geneva with his wife and children. being settled there, in order to earn a living for his family, he went from place to place, selling copies of the Holy Scriptures. he had come to piedmont in the month of july, 1555 and had already disposed of a large number of bibles in the hamlets of the vaudois valleys...
he... resolved to proceed from the alp of infernet to that of laouzoun and thence to the valley of st. martin. but on his way down he was arrested at rioclaret, by the segneurs of the place, named truchet, who had him conveyed to pignerol, from which a catalogue of his books was forwarded to the senate of turin.
after having left him to suffer and to pray for seven months,forgotten in the prisons of pignerol, they thought fit at last to take steps in his case. his first examination took place on the 8th of march, 1556.
-"you have been caught selling heretical books, they said to him.
*if the bible contains heresies in your estimation, in mine it contains the truth.
-but they make use of the bible to keep people from going to mass.
*if the bible keeps them from it, it is because God does not approve of it; for the mass is a piece of idolatry.
this last reply made his position a great deal worse in the eyes of the defenders of the state worship, which owned no salvation apart from itself.
*out of Christ, said the colporteur, i grant that there is no salvation and by His grace i will not forsake Him.
his examination was resumed next day. he endeavoured to set forth the doctrines of the gospel.
-we will hold no discussions with error, said the court.
*but judges are appointed to discern between error and truth: permit me then to prove that i am in the truth.
-if you are not in the Church, you are not in the truth.
*i am in the Chrurch of Christ and i prove it by the gospel.
-return to the church of rome, if you would save your life.
*Jesus says, 'he who would save his life shall lose it, and he who shall lose his life for my sake, shall live forever'.
-think of the abjuration
(renounce, repudiate, retract)
which is required of you; it is the only means left you of saving yourself.
*what about the saving of my body, if i lose my soul?
the urgency and threats employed to get him to abjure, thus remaining without effect, he was sent to turin.
he appeared before new judges, who were much inclined to lenity. but the strength of his convictions could bend to no compromise.
-if you are resolved not to abjure your faith, they said to him, at least you may retract your former declarations.
*prove to me that they are erroneous.
-it is not proving that is in question, but living.
*my life is in my faith..it is it which has made me speak.
the judges..came to a decision..to remit the case to the inquisitors...
...he..manifested a celestial resolution and mildness in the midst ..
*i have said the truth..how can i change my words and make a retractation? can a man change the truth as he would change his garment?
further delay was..granted him to reflect and abjure; but the more he reflected, the more he was convinced...the law was express; the penalty was death...this sentence was passed on the 19th of june, 1556..when the sentence was read to him in the prison, he exclaimed,
*glory be to God, for that He has thought me worthy to die for His name!
at the place of execution..upon the unexpected intelligence of a pardon which it would have been so easy for him to have secured, instead of replying to the messenger, fell on his knees and said,
*o Lord! give me grace to persevere unto the end; pardon those whose sentence is now to separate my soul from my body; they are not unjust but blind. o Lord! enlighten by Thy Spirit this people who are around me, and bring them very soon to the knowledge of the truth.
TRINGALET VERNOUX
...they again left geneva for the valleys, accompanied by two friends, named batailles and tauran, and by a third named tringalet, who had no intention to follow them any further than the frontiers of the genevese territory, but who, being a most intimate friend of anthony laborie, could not bring himself to leave him at the appointed time of separation.
*i will go with you to these vaudois valleys, which have preceded our blessed reformation in the way of salvation.
the vau have never been reformed, said another, they are still primitive christians, witnesses of the apostolic church.
*you increase my impatience to see them..it is of the Lord; i am resolved not to leave you.
having passed through a part of savoy, they arrived at faucigny, where they received a mysterious warning that they would need to be upon their guard. they turned aside from the great roads and took the mountain paths. ..in the gorges of the col tamis they were descried by soldiers (an armed police) of marechaussee, who laid hold of them. being carried prisoners to chambery, they made no attempt to conceal their faith, and received many solicitations to renounce it. ..
on the 10th of july, 1555, after a long conference, in which he vainly attempted to convince them of heresy, the judge who conducted the examination exclaimed,
-of what use is all this? do you not know that you will be put to death as heretics, if you do not relinquish your errors?
*yes, replied the pastor vernoux, the first thing which we learned from our master was, that whosoever will follow Him must expect persecution.
-but Jesus does not command you to die?
*He tells us that as many as will walk in His steps must take up his cross; and He bore His own cross to calvary.
_you are very young men: think upon the life that is before you.
*the which is before us is in the heavens and far from extinguishing our hope, you give us more impregnable assurance of it.
- is it possible that men can speak in this way of a condemnation to death?
*it is by death that our souls attain to the fulness of their life.
and in spite of all which the judges could do to obtain some concession of their part, nothing could triumph over the heroic firmness of these..blessed are the pastors whose lives correspond to such deaths!
..(when suddenly, unexpectedly receiving the news with pastor laborie of the fate which awaited them) ..'pastor vernoux, more sensitive, and liable to be moved by unexpected impressions, could not help being seized with an involuntary agitation. a cold sweat covered his temples; he fell into a nervous trembling; his resolution seemed about to fail. but all at once he found himself inwardly strengthened, the soul reinvigorated the body, the hand of God sustained him.
*my brethren, said he, with humble firmness, i pray you be not scandalized at my weakness, for i have experienced within myself the most terrible conflict which could possibly be endured. but glory be to God, who by His spirit has overcome the flesh! let us go forward! i can co all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
and his saviour did not abandon him. for the executioner having laid hold of him to fasten him first to the pile, he demanded a moment for prayer, and it being granted him, these words proceeded from his dying lips, breathing the assurance of his heart:
*o Lord God, eternal and Almighty Father, i confess before Thy holy majesty that i am nothing but a poor sinner, incapable of myself doing any good. be pleased, then, to have compassion upon me, O God of all goodness, the Father of mercy and to pardon my sins for the love of Jesus Christ Thy Son, my only redeemer!
LABORIE
..being declared guilty of heresy, the two pastors, vernoux and laborie, who were already numbered amongst the clery of the vau churches, and their three travelling companions, were delivered over to the secular tribunals. by a first sentence, of ..the 21st of august, 15555, they were only condemned to the galleys, but the kings procurator appealed..and the case had to be tried anew. the respect felt for them appears to have increased as their case proceeded. so, when lab refused to take oath upon a crucifix, they brought him a bible, which was contrary to all ordinary practice, for popery had proscribed it everywhere. again, after his examination, the president kindly laboured to show him that he might live in peace and serve God as freely in his own proper place of abode as at geneva. lab who preferred to live in exile along with fellow believers, rather than in his native country, where the gospel did not yet prevail, mildly replied,
*the primitive christians called one another brethren, and awakened christians must still have brethren.
-but, said the president, it is not serving God to withdraw in a scandalous manner from the church.
*the scandal is owing to those who have abandoned the purity of his worship and not to those who return to it.
thereupon the president, assailing him on the subject of his doctrines, endeavoured to prove to him by the holy scriptures, that man was not predestinated from all eternity, either to evil or to good; that a great many of the catholic ceremonies, although superfluous, were nevertheless tolerable, as the gospel did not condemn them, and as st. paul himself had circumcised timothy, although he made so great an opposition to circumcision.
it was a thing so rare at that time for a catholic judge to condescend to enter the arena of discussion with the bible in his hand, that i have thought it necessary to mention it. this dealing with scripture, moreover, making him familiar with evangelical doctrine, could not fail also ere long to create in his own mind some misgivings on the subject of heresy.
the accused frankly declared their opinions. circumcision, they said, was founded upon a commandment of God, whilst the popish superstitions had no other origin than the errors of men. not being able to convince their prisoners, the judges entreated them, with almost paternal earnestness, to return of their own accord to the Church and not to compel them unwillingly to pronounce an inevitable condemnation. they even added, that they themselves desired a true reform in the Church, but not out of the Church.
*would to God, gentlemen..that all the ecclesiastics of france thought as you do, for we would very soon be of one mind; and if i am a heretic, my lord president is not far from being like myself.
-the councillors smiled; and one of them replied, nay, you must become like him and not he like you.
after this sitting they separated lab from his companions, and finding himself alone, he prayed earnestly to God that he would not suffer him to fall.
*thus i continued..praying and meditating till two o'clock in the morning.
next day he adjured his judges, by the regard they had for their immortal souls, not to put away from them the knowledge of salvation which was offered them. he represented to them the duties of their office and told them that being appointed defenders of the truth, they ought not to condemn the truth.
*if we are not in the truth, prove it; if we are, acquit us; for you have to judge the cause of Jesus in our persons, and you cannot be amongst those who judge in ignorance, for has given you much light. they listened to me, he says, for about an hour without interruption and i saw that some of the younger ones wept'.
-did not God enjoin moses to punish heretics? said one of the most skillful.
*i granted him that, says laborie...and even cited the case of sevetus, who had endured the penalty of his crime at geneva; but only take heed, said i, that you do not treat the true children of God as heretics!
-ah well! my friend, said one of the judges, give us a simple retractation of your heresies, without specifying any of them.
*it would be as base in me to make a half-abjuration of the truth, as to recant it altogether'.
-this will commit you to nothing in respect of the future; and your life may still be useful, even to your own cause.
*i should serve it ill, if i were to begin by betraying it.
-you will do it still less service when you are dead.
*the death of the faithful is a seed of life, which remains behind them longer than their works would have done.
on the 28th of august, all the five were condemned to be burned alive...
the prisoners at chambery still remained ignorant of the day when their execution was to take place. one morning they were brought forth from the prison; they supposed that they were to be led to some new examination; but a friend found means to acquaint them on the way of the fate which awaited them.
*let us give thanks to God, said laborie, that He has thought us worthy to be martyrs for Himself!'..
laborie stepped upon the pile with firmness of manner and a joyful countenance, as if he had been going to a festival. and that triumph of these regenerate souls was indeed a festival. isaac may have groaned upon mount moriah; but behold! the christian pastor offers himself for a holocaust with joy in his heart and a smile upon his lips. how mighty the power of that faith which works such wonders!
NICOLAS SARTOIRE
in the same year (1558), a young man, who was born at quiers, a chort distance from the vau valleys, happening to be at aosta, on good friday, heard a preacher who said that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was renewed daily in the sacrifice of the mass.
*Christ has only died once, murmured the young man, and He is now in heaven, from which He will not come agin until the last day.
-you do not, then, believe in His corporal presence in the host? demanded a clerk, named ripet.
*truly, God forbid! do you know the creed?
-yes, but what of that?
*is it not there said that Jesusu is now seated at the right hand of the Father?
-yes
*well, then, He is not in the host.
not being able to reply to this argument, they imprisoned him who used it.
he was 26 years of age..his friends contrived to secure his escape by night; he then left the town of aosta, the ancient augusta praetoria, a place full of ruins and supersititions, and as he had already dwelt at lausanne, he took the way by they st. bernard, to take refuge in switzewrland. but at the village of st. remy, the last which he would have had to pass through before crossing the frontier, he was arrested anew, and brought back to prison. his friends of aosta then wrote to those whom he had at lausanne, that they should apply to the authorities of berne, who might demand him, as an inhabitant of that country. these attempts were made, but without effect. necolas..was tortured.
-retract your errors!, said the ecclesiastical judge.
*prove to me that i have errors.
-the Chrurch condemns you.
*but the bible acquits me.
-you incur the punishment of death by your obstinacy.
*he who shall persevere unto the end shall be saved.
-you wich, then, to die?
*i wish to have eternal life.
and torments, as well as soliciitations, were without effect.
after the rack, he was made to endure the strapado, but his courage did not forsake him. 'and for his obstinacy, says the sentence, he was condemned to be burned alive'. his friends implored him to retract; assured, they said, of being able still to obtain his pardon.
*the pardon which i desire, he replied, i have already obtained from my God.
MATHURIN AND WIFE
it was in the town of carignan that the executions commenced. a french fugitive, named mathurin, was the first seized. the commissioners enjoined him to abjure his religion if he would escape death. he preferred to die.
-we give you three days to reflect, said they, but after that time you will be burned alive if you refuse to come to mass'.
the family of mathurin were more distressed than himself. he had married a vau woman. his wife applied to the commissioners for leave to see him. provided that you do not harden him in his errors, said they. i promise you, she replied, that i will not speak to him except for his good. the commissioners never thought of any greater good than life, and conducted the young woman to the prisoner, in the hope that she would persuade him to prolong his days by a recantation.
but the courageous daughter of the martyrs dreaded, on the contrary, that her husband might be induced to follow that course out of affection for her, or through human weakness, and the good which she wished to do him was to confirm him in his resolution. accordingly, says our old chronicler, she exhorted him, in presence of the commissioners, as earnestly as possible, steadfastly to persevere in his religion, without putting the death of the body, which is of brief duration, in the balance against the eternal salvation of his soul. the commissioners, transported with rage, on hearing language so different from what they expected upon her part, loaded her with reproaches; but she, unmoved and earnest, continued to address her husband, saying to him, with a firm and gentle voice,
*let not the assaults of the wicked one make you abandon the profession f your hope in Jesus Christ.
-exhort him to obey us, or you shall both be hanged, cried the magistrates.
*and let not the love of this world's possessions make you lose the inheritance of heaven! said the christian woman, without pausing in her calm exhortations.
-heretical she-devil!, they exclaimed, if you do not change your tone, you shall be burned tomorrow.
*would i have come to persuade him to die rather than to abjure, she replied, if i could myself seek to escape death by apostasy?-you should fear, at any rate, the torments of the pile.
*i fear Him who is able to cast both body and soul into a more terrible fire than that of your billets.
-hell is for heretics; save yourselves by renouncing your errors.
*where can the truth be if not in the words of God?
-this will be the destruction of you both, said the magistrates..
*blessed be God! said the woman to her husband, because having united us in life, He will not separate us in death!
-instead of one, we shall have two of them to burn, sneeringly muttered the executioner's satellites.
*i will be thy companion to the end, the heroic woman simply added.
-will you come to mass and have your pardon? asked the magistrates again.
*i would much rather go to the pile and have eternal life.
-if you do not abjure, mathurin shall be burned tomorrow, and you three days after.
*we shall meet again in heaven, replied she, mildly.
-think of the delay that is still granted you.
*the length of it is of no consequence, for my resolution is for life.
-say, rather, it is for death.
*the death of the body, but the life of the soul.
-have you nothing else to say to us, you damned obstinate wretch?
the two martyr spouses had a last evening of prayer and meditation to spend together..
ANOTHER..
two men were arrested at st. frons.
-to what place do you belong?
*to these mountains.
-are you vaudois?
*we all are.
-abjure the heresty.
*when it has been proved to us.
it was not proved, but the two christians were thrown into prison. two others were arrested in another place, and likewise declared themselves vaudois. the one belonged to praviglelm, and the other to oncino.
*none of our people will abjure, said they to the inquisitors.
the marchioness of saluces then aremed 200 men and caused them to march towards the mountains. the greater part of the inhabitants fled to barges with their cattle, but some were taken and cast into prisons. their trial having been finished, and tortures not spred, five of them were condemned to death on the 24th of march, 1510.
ANOTHER..
the prelate having arrived in the beginning of the month of february, had taken up his abode in the palace of the counts of lucerna. after having held some private conferences with the count and the governor, he began by causing all the heads of protestant families residing in lucerna to be summoned into his presence.
'there were a good number of them, says gilles, and these among the principal families of the country, who had always dwelt in it from time immemorial'. his royal highness, thy were told, was resolved not to suffer two religions in that town, 'and he has sent us to you, said the prelate and the governor, for your own good, that you may make up your minds to live as good and faithful catholics, which if you do not, you will be obliged to sell your goods and leave the country.
of course these insinuating speeches did not remain unanswered; but more energetic language was next employed.
-you cannot resist the orders of your sovereign without being accused of reellion, and then you will be treated as rebels; whilst if you return to your duty, (that is to say to the church of rome), not only will you save all your property, but you will be largely rewarded.
*if it is a duty, replied the more resolute ones firmly, why speak of reward?
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Saturday, August 25, 2012
8.25.2012 PROVERBS 4.23 KEEP YOUR HEART
proverbs 4.23- keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
keil commentates, 'the scripture names the heart also as the intellectual soul-centre of man, in its concrete, central unity, its dynamic activity and its ethical determination on all sides. all the radiations of corporeal and of soul life concentrate there, and again unfold themselves from thence; all that is implied in the hellenic and hellenistic words
vous - mind
logos -
keil commentates, 'the scripture names the heart also as the intellectual soul-centre of man, in its concrete, central unity, its dynamic activity and its ethical determination on all sides. all the radiations of corporeal and of soul life concentrate there, and again unfold themselves from thence; all that is implied in the hellenic and hellenistic words
vous - mind
logos -
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
8.21.2012 ALL I REALLY WANT TO DO IS BABY BE FRIENDS WITH YOU
1.i ain't lookin' to compete with you
beat or cheat or mistreat you
deny, defy or crucify you.
chorus: all i really want to do is,
baby be friends with you
2. no and i ain't lookin' to fight with you
frighten you or tighten you
drag you down, drain you down
chain you down or bring you down.
3. i ain't lookin' to block you up
shock or knock or lock you up
analyze you, categorize you
finalize you or advertise you
4.i don't want to straight-face you
race or chase you, track or trace you
or disgrace you or displace you
or define you or confine you.
5.i don't want to meet your kin
or make you spin or do you in
or select you or dissect you
or inspect you or reject you
6. i don't want to fake you out
take or shake or forsake you out
i ain't lookin' for you to feel like me
see like me or be like me.
bob dylan
beat or cheat or mistreat you
deny, defy or crucify you.
chorus: all i really want to do is,
baby be friends with you
2. no and i ain't lookin' to fight with you
frighten you or tighten you
drag you down, drain you down
chain you down or bring you down.
3. i ain't lookin' to block you up
shock or knock or lock you up
analyze you, categorize you
finalize you or advertise you
4.i don't want to straight-face you
race or chase you, track or trace you
or disgrace you or displace you
or define you or confine you.
5.i don't want to meet your kin
or make you spin or do you in
or select you or dissect you
or inspect you or reject you
6. i don't want to fake you out
take or shake or forsake you out
i ain't lookin' for you to feel like me
see like me or be like me.
bob dylan
Friday, August 17, 2012
8.17.2012 LUTHER I - HERMANEUTICS
taken from 'luther and the bible' by willem jan kooiman..
...influence of medieval hermeneutics on L...
(science of interpretation, especially of the scripture)
the development of his understanding of how to interpret scripture appears below...
30.1 'st. augustine and faber were..luther's primary teachers in answering the question how the psalms should be read. he followed them in their metaphorical method of exposition, by which all possible passages in the psalms were in one way or another applied to Christ. faber held strictly to this ancient allegorical tradition. for him the literal sense of a psalm is the prophetic or Christological. it is Christ who speaks in the psalms and who is here spoken of. this is what the Holy Spirit, who wrote the bible, intended. naturally faber does not deny that there is also an original, grammatical, and historical-literal sense, but this possesses no importance for the christian church. it is useful only for jews, heretics and unbelievers. through the Spirit christians have received an insight into the prophetic, spiritual-literal and Christological meaning of the bible. the art of the true expositor consists in his ability to make clear where Jesus speaks according to His human nature and where he speaks according to His divine nature, where a text must be applied to the humble and where to the glorified Son of God. there are texts (for example, where the psalmist confesses his sin) which Christ cannot speak concerning Himself, but which He speaks in the name of , or as the personification of, His mystical body, the church. this method of exposition, which seems very strange to us, had its origin in the ancient church, where allegorical exegesis of the old testament played an important role. faber here stood in the augustinian tradition.
men like nicolas of lyra had already opposed such allegorizing, in favor of the literal and historical meaning..luther, however would know nothing of these views and continued to be an ardent disciple..of faber...luther argued; 'the psalms are prophecies given by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of the prophet david. all prophesies..must be related to Christ, unless the clear words of the text make this impossible..
...yet it was not alone the authority of tradition that led him to take this stand, for here we can distinguish the first beats of the Christological heart of all his theological thinking. even in these first lectures..for him no religious knowledge exists which does not have its origin in Christ and His cross..'as Christ is the head of the church, so the scriptures must speak, primarily of Him'. 'that is why i regard the psalms' prophetic message as its literal sense'...in his 'praefatio Jhesu Christi' to the psalter he quotes many of Christ's words from the old and new testaments.
here we can see clearly the distinction between spiritus and littera, the deadening letter and the life-giving spirit, which he had learned from augustine. in this also he follows faber. but while faber develops the neo-platonic background of this distinction (the Bible is a metaphysical document, full of secreta and mysteria, the real meaning of which can be found only through spiritual means), luther increasingly sees the bible as the witness of God's action in israel, in Christ, and in the world. this the Spirit enables us truly to see. that which is flesh cannot see the things of the Spirit. the natural man is blind to the true content of the scriptures, which can become known to him only when it is revealed by the Holy Spirit. but this true content does not lie in the explanation of mysterious phrases, but is given in Christ, His incarnation, His cross, His resurrection. through the work of the Spirit a living relationship is created between the reader and the bible. then the letter becomes Spirit, the word of the Bible becomes the living witness of that which God in Christ does with His own.
in this way luther took over the methods of literal-prophetic scriptural exegesis used in the ancient church, but..not..mechanically and arbitrarily as did the medieval scholars. on the contrary, through an intensely personal and genuinely theological use of this ..he attained a new insight..two texts were decisive for him in this connection. he applied them..and found in them the basis for his Christological explanation. one is the word of Jesus Himself, 'I am the door, and the other is the word of paul, 'i decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified'. from now on, this is to be the center of L's theological thinking.
clearly, we must associate this also with the hermeneutical principle L had held from the beginning, that we must read the new testament ..as an explanation of the old ..'every time that i find a text that is like a hard nut, of which i cannot crack the shell, i quickly throw it against the Rock (Christ), and then i find its delicious kernel'...'the old and new testaments are related..'the gospel is hidden in the law, as the water stream was hidden in the cliff, and it cannot be seen until you touch it with the wood of the cross. then the stone opens and the water pours forth'..'if the old..could be understood by our natural minds, apart from the new.., then i would dare to say that the new..has been written in vain'.
also..medieval exegesis..had what was called the quadriga, the four-fold sense of scripture.
the first..sensus litteralis, the LITERAL/HISTORICAL within which the CHRISTOLOGICAL is to a greater or lesser extent enclosed.
the second ..sensus allegoricus (also called ..sensus mysticus) an ALLEGORICAL sense applied to the people of God, the church or to its doctrine.
the third..sensus TROPOLOGICAL
(having to do with a 'speaking by tropes' (figures of speech, figurative language)
, PERSONAL where there is direct application to the individual believer regarding his inner life and his conduct here and now.
the fourth..sensus anagogicus where the scripture has an ESCATALOGICAL sense in which the consummation is in view
there were many varieties of this scheme and the order was not always the same, but this is the most common and the one with which luther grew up. it is a complicated and often bizarre method of bible study, which encouraged arbitrariness. it did not so much imply four different explanations, the one standing alongside of the others, but sought rather to establish a principle by which the different aspects of the one text could be clearly seen. in practice, however, it often occurred that scholars on wholly subjective grounds explained one text according to the first, another according to the second, and still another according to the third or fourth sense, as each pleased them best. in this way the most fantastic and speculative allegorizing was practiced.
however..one has pointed out that this amazing method had also a good aspect in that it encouraged men to view the text from various points of view...
it must also be remembered that no allegorical interpretation of a text could be accepted unless it were supported by another statement of scripture, and that the entire method had more a devotional objective than a strictly scholarly one. this is sen in the fact that at university disputations only those proofs were acceptable which rested upon the literal sense of the biblical passage.
...the way was open to Luther through a clarification of the concept of the opus Dei, the work of the Lord.
in the first section of the psalter he still seeks to explain this expression in terms of scholatic philosophy,
(scholaticism - the system of theological and philosophical teaching predominant in the middle ages, based chiefly upon the authority of the church fathers and aristotle and his commentators)
but gradually he begins to give it a Christological meaning:
God's work is not merely to be seen in the creation and preservation of the world according to the literal sense of the biblical text. the expression must be understood Christologically also. the sending of Christ is the most glorious work of God and it had its beginnings even under the old covenant. the term opus Dei must therefore always be understood Christologically, as speaking of God's judgment and redeeming work in His Son. Christ Himself is the opus Dei, the true work of God, who works all thing through the power of His word. in the tropological sense this also applies to what happens in the believer. faith is not something that has to do with our work or our merit. god alone works faith and He does so in Christ
in the literal sense, opus Dei therefore means God's deeds;
prophetically, it means Christ;
tropologically, faith in Christ.
the work of God done in Christ repeats itself in His faithful ones. as proprium opus Dei, the true work of God, Christ is both the source and archetype of all God's works. as Christ at His first coming was conceived by the Holy Spirit, so each believer is born again, not through human will, but solely through God's work. this is the second coming, the spiritual advent, that occurs daily. but this spiritual birth is not, as the mystics thought of it, achieved through asceticism, ecstasy, or meditation, but solely through the word, through the preaching of the gospel, since
'hearing is the door through which Christ enters the soul'.
what reborn man is and does, he is and does solely through God's work in him, just as Christ is solely God's work. as God dealt with Christ in His death and glorification, so he deals also with us. only insofar as we have part in Christ does the salvation of which the bible speaks come to us.that is why we must be patterned after his image, taking the way of suffering and the cross, so that we will live with Him.
here we must seek the exegetical roots of L's theologia crucis, his theology of the cross.
'according to the tropological rule it runs like this:
all that Christ, according to the literal meaning of the psalms, laments and prays in His physical temptations,
so every believing soul, who has been born again in Christ, laments and prays,
and has grown up to discover that he continues to be tempted and to fall.
Christ to this very day is spit upon, scourged, crucified and killed-in us.
'we begin to die with Christ-yes, Christ has died, so that we should die tropologically.
'all saints, united with him, must first die with the Lord and with Him descend to hell. by this way they will at last with Him be resurrected and ascend to heaven and send down the gifts of the Spirit upon others. all these things i say 'topologically'.
'Christ appears three times as God-
for the first time when He comes in the flesh
for the second time when He rises from the dead
for the third time when faith in Him was dead in the soul,
but rises again, that is to say, whenever someone, in repentance, turns to faith in Christ.
because just as Christ is crucified in us, so He also stands up, sleeps, awakens, acts, and rests in us.
strong emphasis is still laid upon the humility is no longer seen as a good work done by man.
it is God's work in him.
along this path of tropological exegesis and as a close parallel to his growing insight into the term opus dei, L also attained a clear understanding of the meaning of iustitia Dei, the righteousness of God. in the beginning this phrase summed up all of his fears. the problem was therefore musch more than a crux interpretum, and obscure term whose meaning was difficult to determine. it was rather a wrestling with God's word, in the most existential
(existentialism-a philosophical attitude associated especially with heidegger, jaspers, marcel, and sartre, and opposed to rationalism and empiricism, that stresses
the individual's unique position as a self-determining agent responsible for the authenticity of his choices)
sense. in his scholastic studies L had learned to understand the concept iustitia Dei as the property of God,
that property by which God gives to every man what he deserves-
punishment to the sinner and
reward to the righteous.
at this very point L's spiritual need was concentrated. for him a retributive righteousness was a punishing righteousness. for is it not true that there is none who did what was righteous?
He certainly not.
when L had to interpret ps, 31.1,
'in Thy righteousness, deliver me,
he was not able to grasp it. it caused him such a grievous temptation to despair that even after many years had passed he could not recall this experience without trembling. the verse, understood according to the literal-prophetic sense, was a prayer of Christ to the Father. men in accordance with their concept of righteousness have crucified Him, so now He prays that God will deliver Him from His suffering in accordance with His true righteousness, since He is a righteous judge.
but can man make this prayer of Christ his own, as the tropological interpretation demands?
no,
L was afraid to make such a claim.
man is always a sinner-even the believer falls again and again into unbelief and disobedience.
a righteous God can therefore do nothing else than punish the sinner with His eternal wrath.
for sinful man, therefore, the precise opposite is true of what must be said of Christ.
if God is really righteous, He cannot deliver the sinner.
Christ can indeed say,
'in thy righteousness, deliver me,
but no other can.
L was not able to find an escape from this dilemma.
yet this text would not let him go.
we see this when he finds the same thought in ps. 71.2,
"in Thy righteousness, deliver me and rescue me.
but now L is not willing to give it up.
the 'hard nut' must be cracked upon Christ the rock.
now he learns to interpret iustitia Dei, even as opus Dei according to a Christological-tropological interpretation.
he found help in rom. 1.17
(the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'He who through faith is righteous shall live),
to which he twice points in his exposition.
there paul says that the iustitia Dei comprises the content of the gospel and that we gain a share in it though faith.
this means, then, that righteousness and grace come together in the cross of Christ.
Christ has borne the wrath of God and precisely through this has revealed God's grace.
in the full meaning of the words, he suffered judgment for us.
then L dares to assert that iustitia Dei is,
in the literal sense, Christ in person and,
in the tropological sense, faith in Christ through which we become righteous in and with Him,
because HE LIVES AND REIGNS IN US EVEN THOUGH WE REMAIN SINNERS. (note: HALLELUJAH!
the difficulty for L had been that according to his earlier understanding this text should really have read,
'in Thy grace deliver me,
but instead it read,
'in Thy righteousness deliver me.
he had been taught to regard the righteousness and the mercy of God as two attributes that stood along side of each other and needed to be carefully weighed one against the other. now it became clear to him that in the cross of Christ grace works through righteousness and that God's righteousness and grace in Christ are one and the same for his own.
'it is a wonderful thing that grace consists of judgment and righteousness. He judges and justifies those who believe in Him.
this makes it possible for us truly to pray with Christ, tropologically,
'in Thy righteousness deliver me,
because this means,
'PUNISH ME AND SET ME FREE THROUGH THY ACTION.
now L can call out,
'how glorious are these prayers of the psalter!
just as Christ succumbs before the judgment of God's righteousness only to rise again,
so our old man and all his works ('also with his own righteousness', so L in his copy of the psalter had written above this passage) also dies in order that justified by faith, he might rise once more with Christ.
the righteousness of God, therefore, does not indicate an attribute of God that causes Him to give every man what he deserves.
rather is it the gift that God in Christ bestows upon His own.
L seeks out parallels:
Christ in us is become our truth, our wisdom, our strength and our salvation,
that is to say, God views us as being in Christ wise, strong and blessed,
and therefore in Christ He makes us such people.
the same is true with righteousness.
Christ is God's righteousness, which is to say,
God views us as being righteous in Christ and through Him makes us righteous.
there is here a parallel to the concept of the opus Dei,
which prophetically understood means that Christ is the work of God
and which tropologically means that He does God's work in us.
the same is true of the concept iustitia-
prophetically it means Christ Himself
tropologically it means what He works in us.
'Christ is everything in one.
the work of God consists literally of the creation of the world and in the words of the old law.
tropologically the work of God is justification through faith'-
through faith.
thus L could say:
iustitia Dei is, tropologically understood, the same as faith, the faith through which we are declared just by God.
the new man of faith is wholly God's work, as Chris is God's work.
therefore, the righteousness which endures before God is not something God demands of us-
something we must present to Him.
God works this righteousness in us, when in Christ He does His work in us.
iustitia Dei is not, as the scholastics had said, a retributive righteousness, an attribute of God which causes Him to give to every man what he deserves.
it is the righteousness freely given to men,
God's gracious gift in Christ through which the believer lives.
so we see the essential elements of L's theology appearing early. Christ is the content of the scriptures and He desires to come to us through them, both in His judgment and grace.
sola scriptura (scripture alone)
is the same as solus Christus (Christ alone), and that is again
the same as sola gatia (grace alone) and
sola fide (faith alone).
...influence of medieval hermeneutics on L...
(science of interpretation, especially of the scripture)
the development of his understanding of how to interpret scripture appears below...
30.1 'st. augustine and faber were..luther's primary teachers in answering the question how the psalms should be read. he followed them in their metaphorical method of exposition, by which all possible passages in the psalms were in one way or another applied to Christ. faber held strictly to this ancient allegorical tradition. for him the literal sense of a psalm is the prophetic or Christological. it is Christ who speaks in the psalms and who is here spoken of. this is what the Holy Spirit, who wrote the bible, intended. naturally faber does not deny that there is also an original, grammatical, and historical-literal sense, but this possesses no importance for the christian church. it is useful only for jews, heretics and unbelievers. through the Spirit christians have received an insight into the prophetic, spiritual-literal and Christological meaning of the bible. the art of the true expositor consists in his ability to make clear where Jesus speaks according to His human nature and where he speaks according to His divine nature, where a text must be applied to the humble and where to the glorified Son of God. there are texts (for example, where the psalmist confesses his sin) which Christ cannot speak concerning Himself, but which He speaks in the name of , or as the personification of, His mystical body, the church. this method of exposition, which seems very strange to us, had its origin in the ancient church, where allegorical exegesis of the old testament played an important role. faber here stood in the augustinian tradition.
men like nicolas of lyra had already opposed such allegorizing, in favor of the literal and historical meaning..luther, however would know nothing of these views and continued to be an ardent disciple..of faber...luther argued; 'the psalms are prophecies given by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of the prophet david. all prophesies..must be related to Christ, unless the clear words of the text make this impossible..
...yet it was not alone the authority of tradition that led him to take this stand, for here we can distinguish the first beats of the Christological heart of all his theological thinking. even in these first lectures..for him no religious knowledge exists which does not have its origin in Christ and His cross..'as Christ is the head of the church, so the scriptures must speak, primarily of Him'. 'that is why i regard the psalms' prophetic message as its literal sense'...in his 'praefatio Jhesu Christi' to the psalter he quotes many of Christ's words from the old and new testaments.
here we can see clearly the distinction between spiritus and littera, the deadening letter and the life-giving spirit, which he had learned from augustine. in this also he follows faber. but while faber develops the neo-platonic background of this distinction (the Bible is a metaphysical document, full of secreta and mysteria, the real meaning of which can be found only through spiritual means), luther increasingly sees the bible as the witness of God's action in israel, in Christ, and in the world. this the Spirit enables us truly to see. that which is flesh cannot see the things of the Spirit. the natural man is blind to the true content of the scriptures, which can become known to him only when it is revealed by the Holy Spirit. but this true content does not lie in the explanation of mysterious phrases, but is given in Christ, His incarnation, His cross, His resurrection. through the work of the Spirit a living relationship is created between the reader and the bible. then the letter becomes Spirit, the word of the Bible becomes the living witness of that which God in Christ does with His own.
in this way luther took over the methods of literal-prophetic scriptural exegesis used in the ancient church, but..not..mechanically and arbitrarily as did the medieval scholars. on the contrary, through an intensely personal and genuinely theological use of this ..he attained a new insight..two texts were decisive for him in this connection. he applied them..and found in them the basis for his Christological explanation. one is the word of Jesus Himself, 'I am the door, and the other is the word of paul, 'i decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified'. from now on, this is to be the center of L's theological thinking.
clearly, we must associate this also with the hermeneutical principle L had held from the beginning, that we must read the new testament ..as an explanation of the old ..'every time that i find a text that is like a hard nut, of which i cannot crack the shell, i quickly throw it against the Rock (Christ), and then i find its delicious kernel'...'the old and new testaments are related..'the gospel is hidden in the law, as the water stream was hidden in the cliff, and it cannot be seen until you touch it with the wood of the cross. then the stone opens and the water pours forth'..'if the old..could be understood by our natural minds, apart from the new.., then i would dare to say that the new..has been written in vain'.
also..medieval exegesis..had what was called the quadriga, the four-fold sense of scripture.
the first..sensus litteralis, the LITERAL/HISTORICAL within which the CHRISTOLOGICAL is to a greater or lesser extent enclosed.
the second ..sensus allegoricus (also called ..sensus mysticus) an ALLEGORICAL sense applied to the people of God, the church or to its doctrine.
the third..sensus TROPOLOGICAL
(having to do with a 'speaking by tropes' (figures of speech, figurative language)
, PERSONAL where there is direct application to the individual believer regarding his inner life and his conduct here and now.
the fourth..sensus anagogicus where the scripture has an ESCATALOGICAL sense in which the consummation is in view
there were many varieties of this scheme and the order was not always the same, but this is the most common and the one with which luther grew up. it is a complicated and often bizarre method of bible study, which encouraged arbitrariness. it did not so much imply four different explanations, the one standing alongside of the others, but sought rather to establish a principle by which the different aspects of the one text could be clearly seen. in practice, however, it often occurred that scholars on wholly subjective grounds explained one text according to the first, another according to the second, and still another according to the third or fourth sense, as each pleased them best. in this way the most fantastic and speculative allegorizing was practiced.
however..one has pointed out that this amazing method had also a good aspect in that it encouraged men to view the text from various points of view...
it must also be remembered that no allegorical interpretation of a text could be accepted unless it were supported by another statement of scripture, and that the entire method had more a devotional objective than a strictly scholarly one. this is sen in the fact that at university disputations only those proofs were acceptable which rested upon the literal sense of the biblical passage.
...the way was open to Luther through a clarification of the concept of the opus Dei, the work of the Lord.
in the first section of the psalter he still seeks to explain this expression in terms of scholatic philosophy,
(scholaticism - the system of theological and philosophical teaching predominant in the middle ages, based chiefly upon the authority of the church fathers and aristotle and his commentators)
but gradually he begins to give it a Christological meaning:
God's work is not merely to be seen in the creation and preservation of the world according to the literal sense of the biblical text. the expression must be understood Christologically also. the sending of Christ is the most glorious work of God and it had its beginnings even under the old covenant. the term opus Dei must therefore always be understood Christologically, as speaking of God's judgment and redeeming work in His Son. Christ Himself is the opus Dei, the true work of God, who works all thing through the power of His word. in the tropological sense this also applies to what happens in the believer. faith is not something that has to do with our work or our merit. god alone works faith and He does so in Christ
in the literal sense, opus Dei therefore means God's deeds;
prophetically, it means Christ;
tropologically, faith in Christ.
the work of God done in Christ repeats itself in His faithful ones. as proprium opus Dei, the true work of God, Christ is both the source and archetype of all God's works. as Christ at His first coming was conceived by the Holy Spirit, so each believer is born again, not through human will, but solely through God's work. this is the second coming, the spiritual advent, that occurs daily. but this spiritual birth is not, as the mystics thought of it, achieved through asceticism, ecstasy, or meditation, but solely through the word, through the preaching of the gospel, since
'hearing is the door through which Christ enters the soul'.
what reborn man is and does, he is and does solely through God's work in him, just as Christ is solely God's work. as God dealt with Christ in His death and glorification, so he deals also with us. only insofar as we have part in Christ does the salvation of which the bible speaks come to us.that is why we must be patterned after his image, taking the way of suffering and the cross, so that we will live with Him.
here we must seek the exegetical roots of L's theologia crucis, his theology of the cross.
'according to the tropological rule it runs like this:
all that Christ, according to the literal meaning of the psalms, laments and prays in His physical temptations,
so every believing soul, who has been born again in Christ, laments and prays,
and has grown up to discover that he continues to be tempted and to fall.
Christ to this very day is spit upon, scourged, crucified and killed-in us.
'we begin to die with Christ-yes, Christ has died, so that we should die tropologically.
'all saints, united with him, must first die with the Lord and with Him descend to hell. by this way they will at last with Him be resurrected and ascend to heaven and send down the gifts of the Spirit upon others. all these things i say 'topologically'.
'Christ appears three times as God-
for the first time when He comes in the flesh
for the second time when He rises from the dead
for the third time when faith in Him was dead in the soul,
but rises again, that is to say, whenever someone, in repentance, turns to faith in Christ.
because just as Christ is crucified in us, so He also stands up, sleeps, awakens, acts, and rests in us.
strong emphasis is still laid upon the humility is no longer seen as a good work done by man.
it is God's work in him.
along this path of tropological exegesis and as a close parallel to his growing insight into the term opus dei, L also attained a clear understanding of the meaning of iustitia Dei, the righteousness of God. in the beginning this phrase summed up all of his fears. the problem was therefore musch more than a crux interpretum, and obscure term whose meaning was difficult to determine. it was rather a wrestling with God's word, in the most existential
(existentialism-a philosophical attitude associated especially with heidegger, jaspers, marcel, and sartre, and opposed to rationalism and empiricism, that stresses
the individual's unique position as a self-determining agent responsible for the authenticity of his choices)
sense. in his scholastic studies L had learned to understand the concept iustitia Dei as the property of God,
that property by which God gives to every man what he deserves-
punishment to the sinner and
reward to the righteous.
at this very point L's spiritual need was concentrated. for him a retributive righteousness was a punishing righteousness. for is it not true that there is none who did what was righteous?
He certainly not.
when L had to interpret ps, 31.1,
'in Thy righteousness, deliver me,
he was not able to grasp it. it caused him such a grievous temptation to despair that even after many years had passed he could not recall this experience without trembling. the verse, understood according to the literal-prophetic sense, was a prayer of Christ to the Father. men in accordance with their concept of righteousness have crucified Him, so now He prays that God will deliver Him from His suffering in accordance with His true righteousness, since He is a righteous judge.
but can man make this prayer of Christ his own, as the tropological interpretation demands?
no,
L was afraid to make such a claim.
man is always a sinner-even the believer falls again and again into unbelief and disobedience.
a righteous God can therefore do nothing else than punish the sinner with His eternal wrath.
for sinful man, therefore, the precise opposite is true of what must be said of Christ.
if God is really righteous, He cannot deliver the sinner.
Christ can indeed say,
'in thy righteousness, deliver me,
but no other can.
L was not able to find an escape from this dilemma.
yet this text would not let him go.
we see this when he finds the same thought in ps. 71.2,
"in Thy righteousness, deliver me and rescue me.
but now L is not willing to give it up.
the 'hard nut' must be cracked upon Christ the rock.
now he learns to interpret iustitia Dei, even as opus Dei according to a Christological-tropological interpretation.
he found help in rom. 1.17
(the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'He who through faith is righteous shall live),
to which he twice points in his exposition.
there paul says that the iustitia Dei comprises the content of the gospel and that we gain a share in it though faith.
this means, then, that righteousness and grace come together in the cross of Christ.
Christ has borne the wrath of God and precisely through this has revealed God's grace.
in the full meaning of the words, he suffered judgment for us.
then L dares to assert that iustitia Dei is,
in the literal sense, Christ in person and,
in the tropological sense, faith in Christ through which we become righteous in and with Him,
because HE LIVES AND REIGNS IN US EVEN THOUGH WE REMAIN SINNERS. (note: HALLELUJAH!
the difficulty for L had been that according to his earlier understanding this text should really have read,
'in Thy grace deliver me,
but instead it read,
'in Thy righteousness deliver me.
he had been taught to regard the righteousness and the mercy of God as two attributes that stood along side of each other and needed to be carefully weighed one against the other. now it became clear to him that in the cross of Christ grace works through righteousness and that God's righteousness and grace in Christ are one and the same for his own.
'it is a wonderful thing that grace consists of judgment and righteousness. He judges and justifies those who believe in Him.
this makes it possible for us truly to pray with Christ, tropologically,
'in Thy righteousness deliver me,
because this means,
'PUNISH ME AND SET ME FREE THROUGH THY ACTION.
now L can call out,
'how glorious are these prayers of the psalter!
just as Christ succumbs before the judgment of God's righteousness only to rise again,
so our old man and all his works ('also with his own righteousness', so L in his copy of the psalter had written above this passage) also dies in order that justified by faith, he might rise once more with Christ.
the righteousness of God, therefore, does not indicate an attribute of God that causes Him to give every man what he deserves.
rather is it the gift that God in Christ bestows upon His own.
L seeks out parallels:
Christ in us is become our truth, our wisdom, our strength and our salvation,
that is to say, God views us as being in Christ wise, strong and blessed,
and therefore in Christ He makes us such people.
the same is true with righteousness.
Christ is God's righteousness, which is to say,
God views us as being righteous in Christ and through Him makes us righteous.
there is here a parallel to the concept of the opus Dei,
which prophetically understood means that Christ is the work of God
and which tropologically means that He does God's work in us.
the same is true of the concept iustitia-
prophetically it means Christ Himself
tropologically it means what He works in us.
'Christ is everything in one.
the work of God consists literally of the creation of the world and in the words of the old law.
tropologically the work of God is justification through faith'-
through faith.
thus L could say:
iustitia Dei is, tropologically understood, the same as faith, the faith through which we are declared just by God.
the new man of faith is wholly God's work, as Chris is God's work.
therefore, the righteousness which endures before God is not something God demands of us-
something we must present to Him.
God works this righteousness in us, when in Christ He does His work in us.
iustitia Dei is not, as the scholastics had said, a retributive righteousness, an attribute of God which causes Him to give to every man what he deserves.
it is the righteousness freely given to men,
God's gracious gift in Christ through which the believer lives.
so we see the essential elements of L's theology appearing early. Christ is the content of the scriptures and He desires to come to us through them, both in His judgment and grace.
sola scriptura (scripture alone)
is the same as solus Christus (Christ alone), and that is again
the same as sola gatia (grace alone) and
sola fide (faith alone).
Thursday, August 16, 2012
8.16.2012 INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 119
spurgeon's treasury of david..
the longest psalm (could serve as title)
..'nor is it long only;
for it equally excels in
breadth of thought
depth of meaning and
height of fervour.
it is like the celestial city which lieth four-square and the height and the breadth of it are equal...
..using only a few words, the writer has produced permutations and combinations of meaning which
display his holy familiarity with his subject and
the sanctified ingenuity of his mind.
he never repeats himself;
for if the same sentiment recurs it is placed in a fresh connection and so exhibits another interesting shade of meaning.
the more one studies it the fresher it becomes. as those who drink the nile water like it better every time they take a draught, so does this psalm become the more full and fascinating the oftener you turn to it.
it contains no idle word; the grapes of this cluster are almost to bursting full with the new wine of the kingdom.
the more you look into this mirror of a gracious heart the more you will see in it. placid on the surface as the sea of glass before the eternal throne, it yet contains within its depths an ocean of fire, and those who devoutly gaze into it shall not only see the brightness, but feel the glow of the sacred flame...
the psalm is alphabetical. 8 stannzas commence with one letter, and then another 8 with the next letter, and so the whole psalm proceeds by octonaries
(groups of 8)
quite though the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet. besides which, there are multitudes of appositions of sense, and others of those structural formalities with which the oriental mind is pleased,- formalities very similar to those in which our older poets indulged.
the Holy Spirit thus deigned to speak to men in forms which were attractive to the attention and helpful to the memory.
he is often plain or elegant in his manner, but he does not disdain to be quaint or formal if thereby his design of instruction can be the more surely reached.
he does not despise even contracted and artificial mode of speech, if by their use he can fix his teaching upon the mind.iIssac taylor has worthily set forth the lesson of this fact:
'in the strictest sense this composition is conditioned; nevertheless in the highest sense is it an utterance of spiritual life...
..we believe that david wrote this psalm.
it is davidic in tone and expression, and
it tallies with david's experience in many interesting points.
in our youth our teacher called it 'david's pocket book',
and we incline to the opinion then expressed that
here we have the royal diary written at various times throughout a long life.
subject..the one theme is the word of the Lord.
the psalmist sets his subject in many lights and
treats of it in divers ways,
but he seldom omits to mention the word of the Lord in each verse under some one or other of the many names by which he knows it;
and even if the name be not there,
the subject is still heartily pursued in every stanza.
he who wrote this wonderful song was saturated with those books of scripture which he possessed. andrew bonar tells of a simple christian in a farmhouse who had meditated the bible through three times.
this is precisely what this psalmist had done, he had gone past reading into meditation.
like, luther, david had shaken every fruit tree in God's garden and gather golden fruit therefrom. the most 'read their bibles like cows that stand in the thick grass and trample under their feet the finest flowers and herbs'.it is to be feared that we too often do the like
there is evident growth in the subject matter. the earlier verses are of such a character as to lend themselves to the hypothesis that the author was a young man, while many of the later passages could only have suggested themselves to age and wisdom.
the psalm is made up of three things, 1. prayers, 2. praises, 3. protestations.
in our german version it has the appropriate inscription, 'the christian's golden ABC of the praise, love, power and use of the word of God'. franz delitzsch, 1871
it is recorded of the celebrated st. augustine, who among his voluminous works left a comment on the book of psalms, that he delayed to comment on this one till he had finished the whole psalter; and then yielded only to the long and vehement urgency of his friends, 'because, he says, as often as i essayed to think thereon, it always exceed the powers of my intent thought and the utmost grasp of my faculties'.
in matthew henry's 'account of the life and death of his father, philip henry', he says: 'once, pressing the study of the scriptures, he advised us to take a verse of this psalm every morning to meditate upon, and so go over the psalm twice in the year; and that, saith he, will bring you to be in love with all the rest of the scriptures. he often said, 'all grace grows as love to the word of God grows'.
in order to be able to understand and to enjoy this remarkable psalm, and that we may not be repelled by its length and by its repetitions, we must have had, in some measure at least, the same experiences as its author, and, like him, have learned to love and practise the sacred word. moreover, this psalm is in some sort of touch stone
(test or criterion for the quality of a thing)
for the spiritual life of those who read it.
alphabetical arrangement
there may be something more than fancy in the remark, that Christ's name, 'the alpha and omega' -equivalent to declaring him all that which every letter of the alphabet could express- may have had a reference to the peculiarity of this psalm,- a psalm in which (with the exception of v 84 and122, exceptions that make the rule mare marked) every verse speaks of God's revelation of Himself to man. andrew a. bonar, 1859
origen says it is alphabetical because it contains the elements or principles of all knowledge and wisdom; and that it repeats each letter 8 times, because 8 is the number of perfection.
this is a psalm by itself, it excels them all, and shines brightest in this constellation. it is much longer than any of them; more than twice as long as any of them. it is not making long prayers that Christ censures; but making them for a pretence; which intimates that they are in themselves good and commendable. it seems to me to be a collection of david's pious and devout ejaculations, the short and sudden breathings of his soul to God, which he wrote down as they occurred, and towards the latter end of his time gathered them out of his day-book where they lay scattered, added to them many like words, and digested them into this psalm, in which there is seldom any coherence between the verses; but like solomon's proverbs, it is a chest of gold rings, not a chain of gold links. and we may not only learn by the psalmist's example to accustom ourselves to such pious ejaculations, which are an excellent means of maintaining constant communion with God, and keeping the heart in frame for the more solemn exercises of religion; but we must make use of the psalmist's words, both for the exciting and the expressing of our devout affections. some have said of this psalm,
he that shall read it considerately, it will either warm him or shame him;
and this is true. matthew henry 1662-1714
..this poem, or rather collection of poems, is designed for private devotion alone; and we have here here no distinct reference to any historical or national event, to any public festival, or any place of congregational worship..it consists of the holy effusions of a devout soul, in a state of closet retirement, unbosoming itself in blessed communion with its God, and descanting
(to comment of discourse at great length)
on the holy cycle of His attributes and the consolations of His revealed will under every trial to which man can be exposed...
it is a set or collection of ..smaller poems..poetical collections of this kind are still common in the east and especially among the persian poets..by the arabian poet temoa they are happily denominated strings of pearls.
names given to the law of God in this psalm are
1. God's LAW, because they are enacted by Him as our sovereign
2. His WAY, because they are the rule both of His providence and of our obedience.
3. His TESTIMONIES, because they are solemnly declared to the world and attested beyond contradiction.
4. His COMMANDMENTS, because given with authority, and lodged with us as a trust.
5. His PRECEPTS, because prescribed to us, and cannot be considered non-essential.
6. His WORD or SAYING, because it is the declaration of His mind, and
Christ the essential, eternal word is all in all in it.
7. His JUDGMENTS, because framed in infinite wisdom and because by them we must both judge and be judged.
8. His RIGHTEOUSNESS, because it is all holy, just, and good, and the rule and standard of righteousness..
9. His STATUTES, because they are fixed and determined and of perpetual obligation.
10. His TRUTH or FAITHFULNESS, because the principles upon which divine law is built are eternal truths. matthew henry
the longest psalm (could serve as title)
..'nor is it long only;
for it equally excels in
breadth of thought
depth of meaning and
height of fervour.
it is like the celestial city which lieth four-square and the height and the breadth of it are equal...
..using only a few words, the writer has produced permutations and combinations of meaning which
display his holy familiarity with his subject and
the sanctified ingenuity of his mind.
he never repeats himself;
for if the same sentiment recurs it is placed in a fresh connection and so exhibits another interesting shade of meaning.
the more one studies it the fresher it becomes. as those who drink the nile water like it better every time they take a draught, so does this psalm become the more full and fascinating the oftener you turn to it.
it contains no idle word; the grapes of this cluster are almost to bursting full with the new wine of the kingdom.
the more you look into this mirror of a gracious heart the more you will see in it. placid on the surface as the sea of glass before the eternal throne, it yet contains within its depths an ocean of fire, and those who devoutly gaze into it shall not only see the brightness, but feel the glow of the sacred flame...
the psalm is alphabetical. 8 stannzas commence with one letter, and then another 8 with the next letter, and so the whole psalm proceeds by octonaries
(groups of 8)
quite though the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet. besides which, there are multitudes of appositions of sense, and others of those structural formalities with which the oriental mind is pleased,- formalities very similar to those in which our older poets indulged.
the Holy Spirit thus deigned to speak to men in forms which were attractive to the attention and helpful to the memory.
he is often plain or elegant in his manner, but he does not disdain to be quaint or formal if thereby his design of instruction can be the more surely reached.
he does not despise even contracted and artificial mode of speech, if by their use he can fix his teaching upon the mind.iIssac taylor has worthily set forth the lesson of this fact:
'in the strictest sense this composition is conditioned; nevertheless in the highest sense is it an utterance of spiritual life...
..we believe that david wrote this psalm.
it is davidic in tone and expression, and
it tallies with david's experience in many interesting points.
in our youth our teacher called it 'david's pocket book',
and we incline to the opinion then expressed that
here we have the royal diary written at various times throughout a long life.
subject..the one theme is the word of the Lord.
the psalmist sets his subject in many lights and
treats of it in divers ways,
but he seldom omits to mention the word of the Lord in each verse under some one or other of the many names by which he knows it;
and even if the name be not there,
the subject is still heartily pursued in every stanza.
he who wrote this wonderful song was saturated with those books of scripture which he possessed. andrew bonar tells of a simple christian in a farmhouse who had meditated the bible through three times.
this is precisely what this psalmist had done, he had gone past reading into meditation.
like, luther, david had shaken every fruit tree in God's garden and gather golden fruit therefrom. the most 'read their bibles like cows that stand in the thick grass and trample under their feet the finest flowers and herbs'.it is to be feared that we too often do the like
there is evident growth in the subject matter. the earlier verses are of such a character as to lend themselves to the hypothesis that the author was a young man, while many of the later passages could only have suggested themselves to age and wisdom.
the psalm is made up of three things, 1. prayers, 2. praises, 3. protestations.
in our german version it has the appropriate inscription, 'the christian's golden ABC of the praise, love, power and use of the word of God'. franz delitzsch, 1871
it is recorded of the celebrated st. augustine, who among his voluminous works left a comment on the book of psalms, that he delayed to comment on this one till he had finished the whole psalter; and then yielded only to the long and vehement urgency of his friends, 'because, he says, as often as i essayed to think thereon, it always exceed the powers of my intent thought and the utmost grasp of my faculties'.
in matthew henry's 'account of the life and death of his father, philip henry', he says: 'once, pressing the study of the scriptures, he advised us to take a verse of this psalm every morning to meditate upon, and so go over the psalm twice in the year; and that, saith he, will bring you to be in love with all the rest of the scriptures. he often said, 'all grace grows as love to the word of God grows'.
in order to be able to understand and to enjoy this remarkable psalm, and that we may not be repelled by its length and by its repetitions, we must have had, in some measure at least, the same experiences as its author, and, like him, have learned to love and practise the sacred word. moreover, this psalm is in some sort of touch stone
(test or criterion for the quality of a thing)
for the spiritual life of those who read it.
alphabetical arrangement
there may be something more than fancy in the remark, that Christ's name, 'the alpha and omega' -equivalent to declaring him all that which every letter of the alphabet could express- may have had a reference to the peculiarity of this psalm,- a psalm in which (with the exception of v 84 and122, exceptions that make the rule mare marked) every verse speaks of God's revelation of Himself to man. andrew a. bonar, 1859
origen says it is alphabetical because it contains the elements or principles of all knowledge and wisdom; and that it repeats each letter 8 times, because 8 is the number of perfection.
this is a psalm by itself, it excels them all, and shines brightest in this constellation. it is much longer than any of them; more than twice as long as any of them. it is not making long prayers that Christ censures; but making them for a pretence; which intimates that they are in themselves good and commendable. it seems to me to be a collection of david's pious and devout ejaculations, the short and sudden breathings of his soul to God, which he wrote down as they occurred, and towards the latter end of his time gathered them out of his day-book where they lay scattered, added to them many like words, and digested them into this psalm, in which there is seldom any coherence between the verses; but like solomon's proverbs, it is a chest of gold rings, not a chain of gold links. and we may not only learn by the psalmist's example to accustom ourselves to such pious ejaculations, which are an excellent means of maintaining constant communion with God, and keeping the heart in frame for the more solemn exercises of religion; but we must make use of the psalmist's words, both for the exciting and the expressing of our devout affections. some have said of this psalm,
he that shall read it considerately, it will either warm him or shame him;
and this is true. matthew henry 1662-1714
..this poem, or rather collection of poems, is designed for private devotion alone; and we have here here no distinct reference to any historical or national event, to any public festival, or any place of congregational worship..it consists of the holy effusions of a devout soul, in a state of closet retirement, unbosoming itself in blessed communion with its God, and descanting
(to comment of discourse at great length)
on the holy cycle of His attributes and the consolations of His revealed will under every trial to which man can be exposed...
it is a set or collection of ..smaller poems..poetical collections of this kind are still common in the east and especially among the persian poets..by the arabian poet temoa they are happily denominated strings of pearls.
names given to the law of God in this psalm are
1. God's LAW, because they are enacted by Him as our sovereign
2. His WAY, because they are the rule both of His providence and of our obedience.
3. His TESTIMONIES, because they are solemnly declared to the world and attested beyond contradiction.
4. His COMMANDMENTS, because given with authority, and lodged with us as a trust.
5. His PRECEPTS, because prescribed to us, and cannot be considered non-essential.
6. His WORD or SAYING, because it is the declaration of His mind, and
Christ the essential, eternal word is all in all in it.
7. His JUDGMENTS, because framed in infinite wisdom and because by them we must both judge and be judged.
8. His RIGHTEOUSNESS, because it is all holy, just, and good, and the rule and standard of righteousness..
9. His STATUTES, because they are fixed and determined and of perpetual obligation.
10. His TRUTH or FAITHFULNESS, because the principles upon which divine law is built are eternal truths. matthew henry
8.16.2012 PREFACE TO SPURGEON'S TREASURY OF DAVID, VOL VI, PSALMS 119-124
...'i have been all the longer over this portion of my task because i have been bewildered in the expanse of the 119th psalm..
this marvelous poem seemed to me a great sea of holy teaching, moving, in its many verses, wave upon wave; altogether without an island of special and remarkable statement to break it up. i confess i hesitated to launch upon it. other psalms have been mere lakes, but this is the main ocean. it is a continent of sacred thought, every inch of which is fertile as the garden of the Lord: it is an amazing level of abundance, a mighty stretch of harvest-fields. i have now crossed the great plain for myself, but not without persevering and, i will add, pleasurable, toil. several great authors have traversed this region and left their tracks behind them and so far the journey has been all the easier for me; but yet to me and to my helpers it has been no mean feat of patient authorship and research. this great psalm is a book in itself: instead of being one among many psalms, it is worthy to be set forth by itself as a poem of surpassing excellence. those who have never studied it may pronounce it commonplace, and complain of its repetitions; but to the thoughtful student it is like the great deep, full, so as never to be measured; and varied, so as never to weary the eye. its depth is as great as its length; it is mystery, not set forth as mystery, but concealed beneath the simplest statements; my i say that it is experience allowed to prattle, to preach, to praise, and to pray like a child-prophet in his own father's house?..
above all, i trust that the Holy Spirit has been with me in writing and compiling these volumes, and therefore i expect that He will bless them both to the conversion of the unrenewed and to the edification of believers.
the writing of this book has been a means of grace to my own heart; i have enjoyed for myself what i have prepared for my readers. the book of psalms has been a royal banquet to me and in feasting upon its contents i have seemed to eat angels' food. it is no wonder that old writers should call it,-
the school of patience
the soul's soliloquies
the little bible
the anatomy of conscience
the rose garden the pearl island and the like.
it is the paradise of devotion,
the Holy Land of poesy
(lit. creation; poem, body of poems)
the heart of scripture,
the map of experience,
and the tongue of the saints.
it is the spokesman of feelings which else had found no utterance.
does it not say just what we wished to say?
are not its prayers and praises exactly such as our hearts delight in?
no man needs better company than the psalms;
therein he may read and commune with friends human and divine;
friends who know the heart of man toward God, and the heart of God towards man;
friends who perfectly sympathize with us and our sorrows,
friends who never betray or forsake.
oh to be shut up in a cave with david, with no other occupation but to hear hims sin, and to sing with him!
well might a christian monarch lay aside his crown for such enjoyment,
and a believing pauper find a crown in such felicity.
it is to be feared that the psalms are by no means so prized as in earlier ages of the church.
time was when the psalms were not only rehearsed in all the churches from day to day,
but they were so universally sung that the common people knew them, even if they did not know the letters
in which they were written.
time was when bishops would ordain no man to the ministry unless he
knew 'david' from end to end, and
could repeat each psalm correctly;
even councils of the church have decreed that none should hold ecclesiastical office unless they knew the whole psalter by heart.
other practices of those ages had better be forgotten, but to this memory accords an honourable record.
then, as jerome tells us,
the labourer, while he held the plough, sand hallelujah;
the tired reaper refreshed himself with the psalms, and
the vinedresser, while trimming the vines with his curved hook, sang something of david.
he tells us that in his part of the world,
psalms were the christian's ballads;
could they have had better?
they were the love songs of the people of God;
could any others be so pure and heavenly?
these sacred hymns express all modes of holy feeling;
they are fit both for childhood and old age:
they furnish maxims for the entrance of life, and
serve as watchwords at the gates of death.
the battle of life,
the repose of the sabbath,
the ward of the hospital,
the guest-chamber of the mansion,
the church,
the oratory(a place of prayer as a small chapel or a room for devotions), yea
even heaven itself
may be entered with psalms.
..when i reach (note: commentating on) the last psalm, it is my firm conviction that i shall find no truer closing words for myself than those of bishop horne..here to quote ..them as ..my own...
"and now, could the author flatter himself that anyone would take half the pleasure in reading the following exposition which he hath taken in writing it, he would not fear the loss of his labor. the employment detached him from
the bustle and hurry of life,
the din of politics, and
the noise of folly (note: tv and all her media children)
vanity and vexation flew for a season,
care and disquietude came not near his dwelling.
he arose fresh as the morning to his task;
the silence of the night invited him to pursue it; and
he can truly say, that food and rest were not preferred before it.
every psalm improved infinitely upon his acquaintance with it, and
no one gave him uneasiness but the last;
for then he grieved that his work was done.
happier hours than those which have been spent on these meditations on the songs of zion he never expects to see in this world.
very pleasantly did they pass, and
they moved smoothly and swiftly along; for when thus engaged, he counted no time.
the meditations are gone,
but have left a relish and a fragrance upon the mind,
and the remembrance of them is sweet".
reader, i am thine to serve, for Christ's sake, charles haddon spurgeon'
(note: i used to read the bible through many times,
as it has now appeared to me..for the learning of facts.
after my wife divorced me i spent the next five years in the psalms.
i now, i am hopeful, had become-at last-a sheep found of God in His grace through His blessed Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ...
i now, by His blessed Holy Spirit,
began to allow Him to pass His words through me
rather than ME go through His words.
instead of ME gathering..mentally,
it became HIM speaking..spirit to spirit.
i have not read the bible through in the last decade or so
since He has come to ...hopefully, savingly..know me..
since He has been, in His still small voice, helping me to come to know a bit of Him..
the believers where i worship God have begun a plan of reading the bible through in a year according to plan.
although not following their plan, this induced me to seek to do the same.
looking back now, i find that on 8.15.2011 i recorded the first date at the head of exodus 23.
at the start i was endeavouring to read 3 chapters a day and 5 on sunday and was most days doing something like this. so it was probably sometime, maybe, in june, 2011 i started.
i find 2.6.2012 noted at the start of job 38. so it was approximately six months ago that i fell into the psalms...
and have reached the beginning of psalm 119.
when i entered the psalms i began to slow down rather rapidly..
looking up words that cried out for greater light at first.
but this was soon replaced, or i should say supplemented by reading spurgeon's treasury of david commentaries on words, phrases or verses that i hungered to understand,
ultimately, for the purpose of knowing God better,
for the growing desire to live to, for and in Him
moment by moment.
as the psalms went by, more and more slowly, i,
bit by bit..
began to move toward reading
more and more
of the treasury
on each psalm.
my times of daily meditation and study have lengthened.
(note: this is not the only thing i do. often verses..at times concretely connected with nubs of everyday real life..at times, seemingly, unconnected... in other parts of the bible will come as luminous messengers that bid me do what david sought in psalm 27.4- '..that i may dwell in the house of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord (i am inquiring that He bring whatever this is into my life in Him..) and to INQUIRE in His temple..inquire not to know, but to become and then to live...)
my times
of talking to the Lord
of sitting before Him...listening
have increased
immeasureably
in richness and intimacy
with Him.
at this point i am being brought,
bit by bit,
into the beginnings of bishop horne and charles haddon spurgeon and innumerable saints before, concurrent with and still-to-come children of God's trystings
(appointments to meet at a certain time and place, especially ones made somewhat secretly by lovers)
that lead to a lifelong commitment to live as one with/for/in Him who is the only True Lover of a man's soul..
who is Life itself.)
this marvelous poem seemed to me a great sea of holy teaching, moving, in its many verses, wave upon wave; altogether without an island of special and remarkable statement to break it up. i confess i hesitated to launch upon it. other psalms have been mere lakes, but this is the main ocean. it is a continent of sacred thought, every inch of which is fertile as the garden of the Lord: it is an amazing level of abundance, a mighty stretch of harvest-fields. i have now crossed the great plain for myself, but not without persevering and, i will add, pleasurable, toil. several great authors have traversed this region and left their tracks behind them and so far the journey has been all the easier for me; but yet to me and to my helpers it has been no mean feat of patient authorship and research. this great psalm is a book in itself: instead of being one among many psalms, it is worthy to be set forth by itself as a poem of surpassing excellence. those who have never studied it may pronounce it commonplace, and complain of its repetitions; but to the thoughtful student it is like the great deep, full, so as never to be measured; and varied, so as never to weary the eye. its depth is as great as its length; it is mystery, not set forth as mystery, but concealed beneath the simplest statements; my i say that it is experience allowed to prattle, to preach, to praise, and to pray like a child-prophet in his own father's house?..
above all, i trust that the Holy Spirit has been with me in writing and compiling these volumes, and therefore i expect that He will bless them both to the conversion of the unrenewed and to the edification of believers.
the writing of this book has been a means of grace to my own heart; i have enjoyed for myself what i have prepared for my readers. the book of psalms has been a royal banquet to me and in feasting upon its contents i have seemed to eat angels' food. it is no wonder that old writers should call it,-
the school of patience
the soul's soliloquies
the little bible
the anatomy of conscience
the rose garden the pearl island and the like.
it is the paradise of devotion,
the Holy Land of poesy
(lit. creation; poem, body of poems)
the heart of scripture,
the map of experience,
and the tongue of the saints.
it is the spokesman of feelings which else had found no utterance.
does it not say just what we wished to say?
are not its prayers and praises exactly such as our hearts delight in?
no man needs better company than the psalms;
therein he may read and commune with friends human and divine;
friends who know the heart of man toward God, and the heart of God towards man;
friends who perfectly sympathize with us and our sorrows,
friends who never betray or forsake.
oh to be shut up in a cave with david, with no other occupation but to hear hims sin, and to sing with him!
well might a christian monarch lay aside his crown for such enjoyment,
and a believing pauper find a crown in such felicity.
it is to be feared that the psalms are by no means so prized as in earlier ages of the church.
time was when the psalms were not only rehearsed in all the churches from day to day,
but they were so universally sung that the common people knew them, even if they did not know the letters
in which they were written.
time was when bishops would ordain no man to the ministry unless he
knew 'david' from end to end, and
could repeat each psalm correctly;
even councils of the church have decreed that none should hold ecclesiastical office unless they knew the whole psalter by heart.
other practices of those ages had better be forgotten, but to this memory accords an honourable record.
then, as jerome tells us,
the labourer, while he held the plough, sand hallelujah;
the tired reaper refreshed himself with the psalms, and
the vinedresser, while trimming the vines with his curved hook, sang something of david.
he tells us that in his part of the world,
psalms were the christian's ballads;
could they have had better?
they were the love songs of the people of God;
could any others be so pure and heavenly?
these sacred hymns express all modes of holy feeling;
they are fit both for childhood and old age:
they furnish maxims for the entrance of life, and
serve as watchwords at the gates of death.
the battle of life,
the repose of the sabbath,
the ward of the hospital,
the guest-chamber of the mansion,
the church,
the oratory(a place of prayer as a small chapel or a room for devotions), yea
even heaven itself
may be entered with psalms.
..when i reach (note: commentating on) the last psalm, it is my firm conviction that i shall find no truer closing words for myself than those of bishop horne..here to quote ..them as ..my own...
"and now, could the author flatter himself that anyone would take half the pleasure in reading the following exposition which he hath taken in writing it, he would not fear the loss of his labor. the employment detached him from
the bustle and hurry of life,
the din of politics, and
the noise of folly (note: tv and all her media children)
vanity and vexation flew for a season,
care and disquietude came not near his dwelling.
he arose fresh as the morning to his task;
the silence of the night invited him to pursue it; and
he can truly say, that food and rest were not preferred before it.
every psalm improved infinitely upon his acquaintance with it, and
no one gave him uneasiness but the last;
for then he grieved that his work was done.
happier hours than those which have been spent on these meditations on the songs of zion he never expects to see in this world.
very pleasantly did they pass, and
they moved smoothly and swiftly along; for when thus engaged, he counted no time.
the meditations are gone,
but have left a relish and a fragrance upon the mind,
and the remembrance of them is sweet".
reader, i am thine to serve, for Christ's sake, charles haddon spurgeon'
(note: i used to read the bible through many times,
as it has now appeared to me..for the learning of facts.
after my wife divorced me i spent the next five years in the psalms.
i now, i am hopeful, had become-at last-a sheep found of God in His grace through His blessed Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ...
i now, by His blessed Holy Spirit,
began to allow Him to pass His words through me
rather than ME go through His words.
instead of ME gathering..mentally,
it became HIM speaking..spirit to spirit.
i have not read the bible through in the last decade or so
since He has come to ...hopefully, savingly..know me..
since He has been, in His still small voice, helping me to come to know a bit of Him..
the believers where i worship God have begun a plan of reading the bible through in a year according to plan.
although not following their plan, this induced me to seek to do the same.
looking back now, i find that on 8.15.2011 i recorded the first date at the head of exodus 23.
at the start i was endeavouring to read 3 chapters a day and 5 on sunday and was most days doing something like this. so it was probably sometime, maybe, in june, 2011 i started.
i find 2.6.2012 noted at the start of job 38. so it was approximately six months ago that i fell into the psalms...
and have reached the beginning of psalm 119.
when i entered the psalms i began to slow down rather rapidly..
looking up words that cried out for greater light at first.
but this was soon replaced, or i should say supplemented by reading spurgeon's treasury of david commentaries on words, phrases or verses that i hungered to understand,
ultimately, for the purpose of knowing God better,
for the growing desire to live to, for and in Him
moment by moment.
as the psalms went by, more and more slowly, i,
bit by bit..
began to move toward reading
more and more
of the treasury
on each psalm.
my times of daily meditation and study have lengthened.
(note: this is not the only thing i do. often verses..at times concretely connected with nubs of everyday real life..at times, seemingly, unconnected... in other parts of the bible will come as luminous messengers that bid me do what david sought in psalm 27.4- '..that i may dwell in the house of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord (i am inquiring that He bring whatever this is into my life in Him..) and to INQUIRE in His temple..inquire not to know, but to become and then to live...)
my times
of talking to the Lord
of sitting before Him...listening
have increased
immeasureably
in richness and intimacy
with Him.
at this point i am being brought,
bit by bit,
into the beginnings of bishop horne and charles haddon spurgeon and innumerable saints before, concurrent with and still-to-come children of God's trystings
(appointments to meet at a certain time and place, especially ones made somewhat secretly by lovers)
that lead to a lifelong commitment to live as one with/for/in Him who is the only True Lover of a man's soul..
who is Life itself.)
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
8.15.2012 TV: CAST OUT THE IDOL!
in the last verse of I john the apostle john says, little children, keep yourselves from idols. amen. paul says that 'there is nothing unclean of itself' (romans 14.14) and so this is true of the tv. but although the tv set is not evil in itself it has the continual capacity to function as an 'occasion for evil' to occur. have many images in my heart about the hideousness of tv in my mind along this line. i remember the horror and spiritual revulsion as seeing a whole room of men and women in their 70's and up, sitting like zombies, eyes glued to the single set in the front of the room on which was an ongoing spewing of the most salacious (lustful, lecherous) activity between the men and women images on the screen. in my spirit, confronted with the horror of such an image of wholesale acceptance of such evil on the part of, one would think, such unlikely subjects...i had the vision of how incredibly tuned to satanic activity of seeking to corrupt and destroy any remnant of the image of God remaining in us..the image likening watching the tv as being akin to opening the top of one's skull, putting in a huge funnel and pour raw, spiritual sewage in..of 'mainlining' what is akin to a spiritual drug whose effect is to totally destroy all that good and innocence of evil in us.
when i think of tv i also think of the images portrayed on it as two dimensional portrayals of what, before tv could only appear in three dimensions. now, in tv, we can be in the presence of evil influence which was once only possible when we were in the presence of real people who modeled in some way evil. so i take the warning paul gave in I corinthians 15.33- BE NOT DECEIVED, EVIL COMPANY CORRUPTS GOOD MORALS. it took me a long time, it was a long, spiritually arduous process by which i was finally delivered from this powerful influence for evil in my life. i hope that God helps me never to yield to the ongoing temptation to return to this, to me- evil spiritual drug, again. and my prayer for you is that you may be delivered COMPLETELY from it...something that is a hydra-headed fountainhead of evil influence.
when i think of tv i also think of the images portrayed on it as two dimensional portrayals of what, before tv could only appear in three dimensions. now, in tv, we can be in the presence of evil influence which was once only possible when we were in the presence of real people who modeled in some way evil. so i take the warning paul gave in I corinthians 15.33- BE NOT DECEIVED, EVIL COMPANY CORRUPTS GOOD MORALS. it took me a long time, it was a long, spiritually arduous process by which i was finally delivered from this powerful influence for evil in my life. i hope that God helps me never to yield to the ongoing temptation to return to this, to me- evil spiritual drug, again. and my prayer for you is that you may be delivered COMPLETELY from it...something that is a hydra-headed fountainhead of evil influence.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
8.15.2012 PSALMS 117 AND 118
the two psalms, 117th and 118th, are place together because, though each is a distinct portion in itself,
the 117th is an exordium (introduction) to that which follows it,
V1- O PRAISE THE LORD, ALL YE NATIONS: PRAISE HIM ALL YE PEOPLE.
V2- FOR HIS MERCYFUL KINDNESS IS GREAT TOWARD US:
AND THE TRUTH OF THE LORD ENDURETH FOR EVER.
PRAISE YE THE LORD.
an address and an invitation to the gentile and heathen world to acknowledge and praise Jehovah.
we are now arrived at the concluding portion of the humn, which Christ and His disciples sung preparatory to their going forth to the mount of olives.
'but I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom'. and after singing a humn, they went out.' matthew26.29-30
nothing could be more appropriate or better fitted to comfort and encourage, at that awful period, than a prophecy which, over leaping the suffering to be endured, showed forth the glory that was afterwards to follow, and a song of triumph, then only recited, but in due time to be literally acted, when the cross was to be succeeded by a crown. this psalm is not only frequently quoted in the new testament, but it was also partially applied at one period of our saviour's sojourn on earth, and thus we are afforded decisive testimony to the purpose for which it is originally and prophetically destined. it was partially used at the time when Messiah, in the days of His humiliation, was received with triumph and acclamation into jerusalem; and we may conclude it will be fully enacted, when our glorified and triumphant Lord, coming with ten thousand of His saints, will again stand upon the earth and receive the promised salutation, 'blessed be the King that cometh in the name of Jehovah.' this dramatic representation of Messiah coming in glory, to take His great power and reign among us, is apportioned to the chief character, 'the King of kings and Lord of lords', to His saints following Him in procession, and to the priests and levites, representing the jewish nation.
the Conqueror and His attendants sing the 117th psalm, an introductory hymn, inviting all, jews and gentiles, to share in the merciful kindness of God, and to sing His praises. it is a gathering together of all the Lord's people, to be witnesses and partakers of His glory. the first three verses of the 118th psalm are sung by single voices.
the first voice repeats,
V1- O GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD;
FOR HE IS GOOD
BECAUSE HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER
another single voice calls on israel to acknowledge this great truth
V2- LET ISRAEL NOW SAY, THAT HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER
and a third invited the house of aaron, the priesthood, to acknowlege their share in Jehovah's love.
V3- LET THE HOUSE OF AARON NOW SAY, THAT HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
the fourth verse is a chorus; the whole procession, the living and the dead who are raised to meet Christ (I thess. 4.16), shout aloud the burden of the song, verse 1.
V4- LET THEM NOW THAT FEAR THE LORD SAY, THAT HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
arrived at the temple gate, or rather, the gate of jerusalem, the Conqueror alone sings..He begins by recounting the circumstances of His distress, next, He tells of His refuge: I betook me to God, I told Him my sorrows, and He hear Me. v5-7
V5- I CALLED UPON THE LORD IN DISTRESS;
THE LORD
ANSWERED ME, AND
SET ME IN A LARGE PLACE.
V6- THE LORD IS ON MY SIDE
I WILL NOT FEAR:
WHAT CAN MAN DO UNTO ME?
V7- THE LORD TAKETH MY PART WITH THEM THAT HELP ME
THEREFORE SHALL I SEE MY DESIRE UPON THEM THAT HATE ME.
the procession, in chorus, sings vs 8-9, taking up the substance of Messiah's chaunt (obs. for chant..like the sound of it..rather regal..) ,and fully echoing the sentiment, 'it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes'.
V8- IT IS BETTER TO TRUST IN THE LORD THAN TO PUT CONFIDENCE IN MAN.
V9- IT IS BETTER TO TRUST IN THE LORD THAN TO PUT CONFIDENCE IN PRINCES.
the Conqueror alone again sings v10-14
V10- ALL NATIONS COMPASSED ME ABOUT; BUT IN THE NAME OF THE LORD I WILL DESTROY THEM.
V11- THEY COMPASSED ME ABOUT;
YEA, THEY COMPASSED ME ABOUT;
BUT IN THE NAME OF THE LORD I WILL DESTROY THEM.
V12- THEY COMPASSED BE ABOUT LIKE BEES;
THEY ARE QUENCHED AS THE FIRE OF THORNS;
FOR IN THE NAME OF THE LORD I WILL DESTROY THEM.
V13- THOU HAST THRUST SORE AT ME THAT I MIGHT FALL; BUT
THE LORD HELPED ME.
V14- THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH AND SONG, AND
IS BECOME MY SALVATION.
the procession in chorus, v15-6, attributes their Lord's great deliverance to His righteous person, and to His righteous cause. justice and equity and truth, all demanded that Messiah should not be trodden down. 'was it not Thine arm, O Jehovah, which has gotten Thee the victory?'
V15- THE VOICE OF REJOICING AND SALVATION IS IN THE TABERNACLES OF THE RIGHTEOUS;
THE RIGHT HAND OF THE LORD DOETH VALIANTLY.
V16- THE RIGHT HAND OF THE LORD US EXALTED;
THE RIGHT HAND OF THE LORD DOETH VALIANTLY.
Messiah now takes up the language of a conqueror, v17-9
My sufferings were sore, but
they were only for a season.
I laid down My life, and
I now take it up again:
and then, with a loud voice, as when He aroused lazarus out of the grave,
He cries to those within the walls,
'open to Me the gates of righteousness:
I will go into them, and
I will praise the Lord.
V17- I SHALL NOT DIE,
BUT LIVE,
AND DECLARE THE WORKS OF THE LORD.
V18- THE LORD HATH CHASTENED ME SORE;
BUT HE HATH NOT GIVEN ME OVER TO DEATH.
V19- OPEN TO ME THE GATES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS;
I WILL GO INTO THEM, AND
I WILL PRAISE THE LORD.
the priests and levites within instantly obey His command, and
while they throw open the gates, they sing,
V20- THIS IS THE GATE OF THE LORD,
INTO WHICH THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL ENTER.
as He enters, the Conqueror alone repeats v21.
His sorrows are ended,
His victory is complete.
the objects for which He lived and died, and
for which His prayers were offered,
are now fulfulled,
and thus, in a few short words He expresses His joy and gratitude to God.
V21- I WILL PRAISE THEE;
FOR THOU HAST HEARD ME, AND
ART BECOME MY SALVATION.
the priests and levites sing in chorus v22-4.
depositaries and expounders of the prophecies as they had long been,
they now, for the first time,
quote and apply one,
isaiah 28.16,
which held a conspicuous place,
but never before was intelligible to jewish ears.
'the man of sorrows',
the stone which the builders refused,
is become the headstone of the corner.
V22- THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REFUSED
IS BECOME THE HEAD STONE OF THE CORNER.
V23- THIS IS THE LORD'S DOING;
IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES.
V24- THIS IS THE DAY WHICH THE FORD HATH MADE;
WE WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT.
the Conqueror is now within the gates, and
proceeds to accomplish His good purpose,
luke 1.68- blessed be the Lord God of israel;
for He hath
visited and
redeemed His people.
V25- SAVE NOW,
I BESEECH THEE,
SEND NOW PROSPERITY.
the priests and levites are led by the Spirit to use the words foretold by our Lord, matthew 23.39
V26- BLESSED BE HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
WE HAVE BLESSED YOU OUT OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD.
the Conqueror and His train now praise God,
who has given light and deliverance and salvation,
and they offer to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving
(note- maybe not understanding the technical usage of the immediately preceding phrase, but would it not better describe what is said that 'they collectively recognize , with great appreciation, the active part of God the Father, as He-through human instrumentality- offered up His beloved Son, just as abraham offered up issac for Him, for them all?)
for all that they enjoy.
V27- GOD IS THE LORD,
WHICH HATH SHOWN US LIGHT;
BIND THE SACRIFICE WITH CORDS,
EVEN UNTO THE HORNS OF THE ALTAR
the Conqueror alone next makes a solemn acknowledgment of gratitude and praise to Jehovah,
V28-THOU ART MY GOD, AND
I WILL PRAISE THEE;
THOU ART MY GOD,
I WILL EXALT THEE.
and then,
all being within the gates,
the united body,
triumphant procession,
priests and levites,
end, as they commenced,
V29- O GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD;
FOR HE IS GOOD;
FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
the 117th is an exordium (introduction) to that which follows it,
V1- O PRAISE THE LORD, ALL YE NATIONS: PRAISE HIM ALL YE PEOPLE.
V2- FOR HIS MERCYFUL KINDNESS IS GREAT TOWARD US:
AND THE TRUTH OF THE LORD ENDURETH FOR EVER.
PRAISE YE THE LORD.
an address and an invitation to the gentile and heathen world to acknowledge and praise Jehovah.
we are now arrived at the concluding portion of the humn, which Christ and His disciples sung preparatory to their going forth to the mount of olives.
'but I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom'. and after singing a humn, they went out.' matthew26.29-30
nothing could be more appropriate or better fitted to comfort and encourage, at that awful period, than a prophecy which, over leaping the suffering to be endured, showed forth the glory that was afterwards to follow, and a song of triumph, then only recited, but in due time to be literally acted, when the cross was to be succeeded by a crown. this psalm is not only frequently quoted in the new testament, but it was also partially applied at one period of our saviour's sojourn on earth, and thus we are afforded decisive testimony to the purpose for which it is originally and prophetically destined. it was partially used at the time when Messiah, in the days of His humiliation, was received with triumph and acclamation into jerusalem; and we may conclude it will be fully enacted, when our glorified and triumphant Lord, coming with ten thousand of His saints, will again stand upon the earth and receive the promised salutation, 'blessed be the King that cometh in the name of Jehovah.' this dramatic representation of Messiah coming in glory, to take His great power and reign among us, is apportioned to the chief character, 'the King of kings and Lord of lords', to His saints following Him in procession, and to the priests and levites, representing the jewish nation.
the Conqueror and His attendants sing the 117th psalm, an introductory hymn, inviting all, jews and gentiles, to share in the merciful kindness of God, and to sing His praises. it is a gathering together of all the Lord's people, to be witnesses and partakers of His glory. the first three verses of the 118th psalm are sung by single voices.
the first voice repeats,
V1- O GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD;
FOR HE IS GOOD
BECAUSE HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER
another single voice calls on israel to acknowledge this great truth
V2- LET ISRAEL NOW SAY, THAT HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER
and a third invited the house of aaron, the priesthood, to acknowlege their share in Jehovah's love.
V3- LET THE HOUSE OF AARON NOW SAY, THAT HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
the fourth verse is a chorus; the whole procession, the living and the dead who are raised to meet Christ (I thess. 4.16), shout aloud the burden of the song, verse 1.
V4- LET THEM NOW THAT FEAR THE LORD SAY, THAT HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
arrived at the temple gate, or rather, the gate of jerusalem, the Conqueror alone sings..He begins by recounting the circumstances of His distress, next, He tells of His refuge: I betook me to God, I told Him my sorrows, and He hear Me. v5-7
V5- I CALLED UPON THE LORD IN DISTRESS;
THE LORD
ANSWERED ME, AND
SET ME IN A LARGE PLACE.
V6- THE LORD IS ON MY SIDE
I WILL NOT FEAR:
WHAT CAN MAN DO UNTO ME?
V7- THE LORD TAKETH MY PART WITH THEM THAT HELP ME
THEREFORE SHALL I SEE MY DESIRE UPON THEM THAT HATE ME.
the procession, in chorus, sings vs 8-9, taking up the substance of Messiah's chaunt (obs. for chant..like the sound of it..rather regal..) ,and fully echoing the sentiment, 'it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes'.
V8- IT IS BETTER TO TRUST IN THE LORD THAN TO PUT CONFIDENCE IN MAN.
V9- IT IS BETTER TO TRUST IN THE LORD THAN TO PUT CONFIDENCE IN PRINCES.
the Conqueror alone again sings v10-14
V10- ALL NATIONS COMPASSED ME ABOUT; BUT IN THE NAME OF THE LORD I WILL DESTROY THEM.
V11- THEY COMPASSED ME ABOUT;
YEA, THEY COMPASSED ME ABOUT;
BUT IN THE NAME OF THE LORD I WILL DESTROY THEM.
V12- THEY COMPASSED BE ABOUT LIKE BEES;
THEY ARE QUENCHED AS THE FIRE OF THORNS;
FOR IN THE NAME OF THE LORD I WILL DESTROY THEM.
V13- THOU HAST THRUST SORE AT ME THAT I MIGHT FALL; BUT
THE LORD HELPED ME.
V14- THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH AND SONG, AND
IS BECOME MY SALVATION.
the procession in chorus, v15-6, attributes their Lord's great deliverance to His righteous person, and to His righteous cause. justice and equity and truth, all demanded that Messiah should not be trodden down. 'was it not Thine arm, O Jehovah, which has gotten Thee the victory?'
V15- THE VOICE OF REJOICING AND SALVATION IS IN THE TABERNACLES OF THE RIGHTEOUS;
THE RIGHT HAND OF THE LORD DOETH VALIANTLY.
V16- THE RIGHT HAND OF THE LORD US EXALTED;
THE RIGHT HAND OF THE LORD DOETH VALIANTLY.
Messiah now takes up the language of a conqueror, v17-9
My sufferings were sore, but
they were only for a season.
I laid down My life, and
I now take it up again:
and then, with a loud voice, as when He aroused lazarus out of the grave,
He cries to those within the walls,
'open to Me the gates of righteousness:
I will go into them, and
I will praise the Lord.
V17- I SHALL NOT DIE,
BUT LIVE,
AND DECLARE THE WORKS OF THE LORD.
V18- THE LORD HATH CHASTENED ME SORE;
BUT HE HATH NOT GIVEN ME OVER TO DEATH.
V19- OPEN TO ME THE GATES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS;
I WILL GO INTO THEM, AND
I WILL PRAISE THE LORD.
the priests and levites within instantly obey His command, and
while they throw open the gates, they sing,
V20- THIS IS THE GATE OF THE LORD,
INTO WHICH THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL ENTER.
as He enters, the Conqueror alone repeats v21.
His sorrows are ended,
His victory is complete.
the objects for which He lived and died, and
for which His prayers were offered,
are now fulfulled,
and thus, in a few short words He expresses His joy and gratitude to God.
V21- I WILL PRAISE THEE;
FOR THOU HAST HEARD ME, AND
ART BECOME MY SALVATION.
the priests and levites sing in chorus v22-4.
depositaries and expounders of the prophecies as they had long been,
they now, for the first time,
quote and apply one,
isaiah 28.16,
which held a conspicuous place,
but never before was intelligible to jewish ears.
'the man of sorrows',
the stone which the builders refused,
is become the headstone of the corner.
V22- THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REFUSED
IS BECOME THE HEAD STONE OF THE CORNER.
V23- THIS IS THE LORD'S DOING;
IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES.
V24- THIS IS THE DAY WHICH THE FORD HATH MADE;
WE WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT.
the Conqueror is now within the gates, and
proceeds to accomplish His good purpose,
luke 1.68- blessed be the Lord God of israel;
for He hath
visited and
redeemed His people.
V25- SAVE NOW,
I BESEECH THEE,
SEND NOW PROSPERITY.
the priests and levites are led by the Spirit to use the words foretold by our Lord, matthew 23.39
V26- BLESSED BE HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
WE HAVE BLESSED YOU OUT OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD.
the Conqueror and His train now praise God,
who has given light and deliverance and salvation,
and they offer to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving
(note- maybe not understanding the technical usage of the immediately preceding phrase, but would it not better describe what is said that 'they collectively recognize , with great appreciation, the active part of God the Father, as He-through human instrumentality- offered up His beloved Son, just as abraham offered up issac for Him, for them all?)
for all that they enjoy.
V27- GOD IS THE LORD,
WHICH HATH SHOWN US LIGHT;
BIND THE SACRIFICE WITH CORDS,
EVEN UNTO THE HORNS OF THE ALTAR
the Conqueror alone next makes a solemn acknowledgment of gratitude and praise to Jehovah,
V28-THOU ART MY GOD, AND
I WILL PRAISE THEE;
THOU ART MY GOD,
I WILL EXALT THEE.
and then,
all being within the gates,
the united body,
triumphant procession,
priests and levites,
end, as they commenced,
V29- O GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD;
FOR HE IS GOOD;
FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
8.14.2012 LUKE 14.27 - ARE YOU ANGRY AT GOD FOR WHAT'S HAPPENING?
if you are a good, card-carrying, church going person you would never admit to this..or if you did you would give some smarmy, euphemistic- laden (the substitution of a mild, indirect or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, blunt (note: or REAL) remark that really doesn't mean anything...and certainly does not set you up to be black listed and politely avoided by the other righteous people of the fellowship.
very few people-church going, pagan or other- are honest about being angry with what (how can one avoid it) GOD puts them through. it is a very good thing to be honest- with yourself, God and others, in that order- about this. it is good to lay hold of God in prayer, it is good to seek to do His will, no matter how excruciating, until you see God doing luke 14.27 in you in a spirit of I thess. 5.16,18. once I find myself standing, with a deep spirit of LORD, YOU A-L-O-N-E ARE E-N-O-U-G-H! this garbage can i live in will be just a joy filled anteroom to being with HIM!
luke 14.27 - whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.
CARRY, to me is DEAL WITH, THANK GOD FOR, DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT or seek in subtle ways to get others to notice and feel sorry for you.
I thessalonians 5.16 REJOICE ALWAYS
I thessalonians 5.18 - IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.
very few people-church going, pagan or other- are honest about being angry with what (how can one avoid it) GOD puts them through. it is a very good thing to be honest- with yourself, God and others, in that order- about this. it is good to lay hold of God in prayer, it is good to seek to do His will, no matter how excruciating, until you see God doing luke 14.27 in you in a spirit of I thess. 5.16,18. once I find myself standing, with a deep spirit of LORD, YOU A-L-O-N-E ARE E-N-O-U-G-H! this garbage can i live in will be just a joy filled anteroom to being with HIM!
luke 14.27 - whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.
CARRY, to me is DEAL WITH, THANK GOD FOR, DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT or seek in subtle ways to get others to notice and feel sorry for you.
I thessalonians 5.16 REJOICE ALWAYS
I thessalonians 5.18 - IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.
8.13.2012 LUKE 14.26 - ARE YOU MORE CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT MAN THINKS OF YOU, THAN OF WHAT GOD THINKS ABOUT YOU?
luke 14.26 - if anyone comes to Me, and does not HATE his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and even his own life, HE CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.
if your answer is yes, then Jesus clearly tells you that You are not His disciple...that it is IMPOSSIBLE for you to be His disciple. can a person who is not a disciple of Jesus get into heaven..or was Jesus wrong here? should i be concerned about this? if this concerns me deeply until i match what Jesus says, am i crazy?
if your answer is yes, then Jesus clearly tells you that You are not His disciple...that it is IMPOSSIBLE for you to be His disciple. can a person who is not a disciple of Jesus get into heaven..or was Jesus wrong here? should i be concerned about this? if this concerns me deeply until i match what Jesus says, am i crazy?
8.12.2012 MATTHEW 5.10 - ARE YOU BEING PERSECUTED FOR BEING TRUE TO JESUS?
there are many church goers who have never been persecuted on account of Jesus. in fact some go to great extent to, at all costs avoid this...which seems very confusing in light of Jesus' words in
matthew 5.10 - blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus says here that if you are not persecuted yours is not the kingdom of heaven. in plain speaking, YOU ARE GOING TO HELL.
ask other church goers, ask your pastor, consult religious books and pray for illumination about this. after that come back again to the bible and see again what Jesus says. then decide who you are going to believe...and heed and obey whoever that is. are you going to continue to avoid persecution for Jesus' sake? are you going to start being obedient to Him no matter what anyone else thinks or does?
once you have made up your mind for Jesus, come hell or high water you are ready for the second question: ARE YOU ECSTATIC ABOUT WHAT'S COMING UP when Jesus decides you are done suffering here? ...IF NOT, WHY IN THE WORLD NOT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
matthew 5.11f - blessed are you when men
cast insults at you, and
persecute you, and
say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me.
REJOICE and
BE GLAD
for YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN IS GREAT, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
so, YEA, you and i have this choice to make every moment and every day, will i live for me and now or Him and then.
matthew 5.10 - blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus says here that if you are not persecuted yours is not the kingdom of heaven. in plain speaking, YOU ARE GOING TO HELL.
ask other church goers, ask your pastor, consult religious books and pray for illumination about this. after that come back again to the bible and see again what Jesus says. then decide who you are going to believe...and heed and obey whoever that is. are you going to continue to avoid persecution for Jesus' sake? are you going to start being obedient to Him no matter what anyone else thinks or does?
once you have made up your mind for Jesus, come hell or high water you are ready for the second question: ARE YOU ECSTATIC ABOUT WHAT'S COMING UP when Jesus decides you are done suffering here? ...IF NOT, WHY IN THE WORLD NOT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
matthew 5.11f - blessed are you when men
cast insults at you, and
persecute you, and
say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me.
REJOICE and
BE GLAD
for YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN IS GREAT, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
so, YEA, you and i have this choice to make every moment and every day, will i live for me and now or Him and then.
8.11.2012 ISAIAH 28.16 - AM I STANDING ON SOMETHING THAT WILL NOT MOVE?
Isaiah 28.16 says, 'he that believeth in Him shall not make haste'.
what does this mean? he that continues to believe in what shall not make haste to do what? that's one of the cool things about the bible. under God's inspiration He at the same time used
-the personality, genes, background, current historical situation as well as the particular situation of the one inspired , mistakes and all on the one hand and
-what He intended to communicate on the other hand
to mysteriously speak His will and His word to His creation, man.
at times, like here, He does not spell things out but rather forces one to think to try and understand. this verse seems in general to be out of context. the immediate context of v16 is v14-22. He is talking to the 'scornful men, that rule this people which is in jerusalem'. He says they have rejected Him in order to take refuge in lies..in this case they were going to lie to assyria to avoid being destroyed and then make a secret alliance with egypt...trusting in men rather than God.
God tells them thru isaiah that
He is laying in zion - in His promise to david to give him a seed, that is Jesus Christ, there is already
a stone
a tested stone
a costly cornerstone for the foundation
firmly placed
and any he who puts his trust in Jesus..in God
shall not make haste (kjv)... the hebrew word kUsh meaning 'to hasten, make haste'
shall not be disturbed (nasv)
will not have to move (keil) who in his exposition of the verse also says of the same, 'will not flee'...in other words 'will stand firm'.
so israel is in danger, and in this case in particular, jerusalem is in danger of being destroyed by assyria. its leaders are putting their trust in their own cleverness to avoid what has happened already to a number of other cities in israel.. in so doing they are rejecting putting their trust in Jehovah.
v14 he states that they are scornful
v15 he shows in what they are putting their trust ie. their own cleverness
v16 here he gives them a backhanded warning by stating that the man who puts his trust in God in time of need will stand secure.
v17 he says He will
make justice the measuring line, and
righteousness the level...a very clear contrast in which He,
the one they have rejected
will operate on a basis (justice, righteousness)
that they are rejecting (lies)
also He will sweep away the refuge of lies
that they have put their trust in.
...and continues warning them in the next verses.
it is good to trust in the Lord rather than in man (jer. 17.5f). man can cheat on this and think he is getting away with it in good times. in bad times there can be no cheating without quickly finding out that what God says is true and to turn one's back on God is to invite rapid destruction.
the question to ask is, 'how does a man actually KNOW that he is standing on Jesus Christ, the unshakable foundation?
1. he must be at the point where he is willing to do God's will..no matter what it is, no matter how much of what 'me' wants gets axed out of life.
john 7.17 - if any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak of Myself'.
2. he must spend much time with the Lord in prayer and in His word.
I thessalonians 5.17 - PRAY WITHOUT CEASING
psalm 27.4 - one thing have i desired of the Lord, that will i seek after; that i may DWELL in the house of the Lord ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.
II timothy 2.15 - BE DILIGENT to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.
psalm 1.2f - ..his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates DAY AND NIGHT. and he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf dose not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.
3. he must act upon what the Lord says to DO in His word.
matthew 7. 24f - therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. and the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house: and yet it did not fall, for it had been FOUNDED UPON THE ROCK.
and everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who build this house upon the sand. and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.
what does this mean? he that continues to believe in what shall not make haste to do what? that's one of the cool things about the bible. under God's inspiration He at the same time used
-the personality, genes, background, current historical situation as well as the particular situation of the one inspired , mistakes and all on the one hand and
-what He intended to communicate on the other hand
to mysteriously speak His will and His word to His creation, man.
at times, like here, He does not spell things out but rather forces one to think to try and understand. this verse seems in general to be out of context. the immediate context of v16 is v14-22. He is talking to the 'scornful men, that rule this people which is in jerusalem'. He says they have rejected Him in order to take refuge in lies..in this case they were going to lie to assyria to avoid being destroyed and then make a secret alliance with egypt...trusting in men rather than God.
God tells them thru isaiah that
He is laying in zion - in His promise to david to give him a seed, that is Jesus Christ, there is already
a stone
a tested stone
a costly cornerstone for the foundation
firmly placed
and any he who puts his trust in Jesus..in God
shall not make haste (kjv)... the hebrew word kUsh meaning 'to hasten, make haste'
shall not be disturbed (nasv)
will not have to move (keil) who in his exposition of the verse also says of the same, 'will not flee'...in other words 'will stand firm'.
so israel is in danger, and in this case in particular, jerusalem is in danger of being destroyed by assyria. its leaders are putting their trust in their own cleverness to avoid what has happened already to a number of other cities in israel.. in so doing they are rejecting putting their trust in Jehovah.
v14 he states that they are scornful
v15 he shows in what they are putting their trust ie. their own cleverness
v16 here he gives them a backhanded warning by stating that the man who puts his trust in God in time of need will stand secure.
v17 he says He will
make justice the measuring line, and
righteousness the level...a very clear contrast in which He,
the one they have rejected
will operate on a basis (justice, righteousness)
that they are rejecting (lies)
also He will sweep away the refuge of lies
that they have put their trust in.
...and continues warning them in the next verses.
it is good to trust in the Lord rather than in man (jer. 17.5f). man can cheat on this and think he is getting away with it in good times. in bad times there can be no cheating without quickly finding out that what God says is true and to turn one's back on God is to invite rapid destruction.
the question to ask is, 'how does a man actually KNOW that he is standing on Jesus Christ, the unshakable foundation?
1. he must be at the point where he is willing to do God's will..no matter what it is, no matter how much of what 'me' wants gets axed out of life.
john 7.17 - if any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak of Myself'.
2. he must spend much time with the Lord in prayer and in His word.
I thessalonians 5.17 - PRAY WITHOUT CEASING
psalm 27.4 - one thing have i desired of the Lord, that will i seek after; that i may DWELL in the house of the Lord ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.
II timothy 2.15 - BE DILIGENT to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.
psalm 1.2f - ..his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates DAY AND NIGHT. and he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf dose not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.
3. he must act upon what the Lord says to DO in His word.
matthew 7. 24f - therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. and the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house: and yet it did not fall, for it had been FOUNDED UPON THE ROCK.
and everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who build this house upon the sand. and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.
Friday, August 10, 2012
8.10.2012 VAUDOIS V - PERSECUTION II
this rather long account is of the second general persecution which took place in the vaudois valleys, starting 1560..
war was therefore declared. the vau families made haste to gather together the things most indispensable for subsistence and to retire with their flocks to the fastnesses of the figh mountains. the pastors everywhere redoubled their zeal and fervour. the religious assemblies were never more largely attended. the army approached. it was about the end of october. the vau valleys set apart a time for fasting and prayer. after the solemnities, an extraordinary celebration of the Lord's supper took, place, which united all the persecuted in one act of holy fellowship. thus, without fear of reakness, but encouraging one another, did 'these por people, as gilles says, prepare,with incredible resolution and cheerfulness, to receive from the hand of God all the afflictions to which it might seem good to him to subject them. not5hing was to be heard from vale to mountain but the psalms and hymns of those who transported the sick, the infirm, the aged, the women and children, to the securest retreats of their roks'. 'so that for 8 days, adds richard, you could see nothing but people passing and repassing on these rugged paths, diligently bearing luggage and little articles of furniture; as in the summer time the ants incessantly run and travel hither and thither, storing away provisions against the evil days; and amongst these worthy people none regretted his property, so resolute were they to await patiently all the good pleasure of God'. the advice of their pastors had even been not to defend themselves by weapons of war, but merely to retire to a place where they might be safe from attack.
the count of racconis, philip of savoy, who came at this tiem to the valleys, wrote to his uncle, philibert, saying, 'these unhappy people persist in their opinions, but they are not willing to take up arms against their sovereign; some of them are going away from the place, others courageously await martyrdom in the midst of their families-a marvellous sight, and very piteous to behold'.
three days afterr, a proclamation was published and put up in all the vilages of angrogna, to the effect that all would be destroyed by fire and sword if the vau did not return to the church of rome. next day, being the 1st of november, 1560, the army commenced its march, under the orders of george coste, count of la trinite, and encamped at bubiano. hastily recruited, and its ranks filled up with adventurers, it wanted discipline; the solkierss gave themselves up to all sorts of excesses, and began to pillage before they had fought. believing themselves already in the country of the vau, they made catholics and protestants indiscriminately the subjects of their autrages. the former, therefore, desiring to secure the maidenly chastity of their daughters from the brutal grossness of that lawless soldiery, did a thing worthy of the most admired times. knowing the rigid purity of the morals of the vau, the strength of their fastnesses, and the devotedness of those who were to defend them, they saw no refuge for their children more safe than these very retreats, and did not hesitate to confide the honour of their families to the virtuaous fidelity of the vau cottages. accordingly, many of them took their trembling wives and children, and left them amongst these heroic mountaineers.
it was surely wonderful to see these young catholic women committed with confidence to the care of the protestants, at the moment when catholicism was marching in arms against them. but this confidence was not misplaced. the vau defended the sacred charge which had been intrusted to them with as much courage and respect as their own families. without for a moment entertaining the thought of making precious hostages of these young people who were in their hands, and of taking advantage of the circumastance against their adversaries, they generously exposed themselves in their defence, concealing them instead of exposing them to danger; and after having preserved them from outrage, they restored them to their friends, without dreaming of any recompense. incredible as this factt may appear, aal the historians of the times, gilles, richard, de thou and crespin make mention of it; and it affords the most beautiful testimony which their adversaries could have rendered to the virtue and generosity of the vau.
on the 2d of november the whole army crossed the pelis, and emcamped in the meadows of st. john. thereafter it advanced towards angrogna, extending its wings over all the hills of the costieres. many skirmishes took place along this great line. the advantage was nearly equal upon both sides; but the little parties left by the vau for defence, found themselves too far separate from each other to act with vigour. they retired, therefroe, still defending themselves, to the more and more confined plateaux of the mountain. many of them had only slings and cross-bows.
but the enemy still ascended. this succession of partial engagements had only re252.last
war was therefore declared. the vau families made haste to gather together the things most indispensable for subsistence and to retire with their flocks to the fastnesses of the figh mountains. the pastors everywhere redoubled their zeal and fervour. the religious assemblies were never more largely attended. the army approached. it was about the end of october. the vau valleys set apart a time for fasting and prayer. after the solemnities, an extraordinary celebration of the Lord's supper took, place, which united all the persecuted in one act of holy fellowship. thus, without fear of reakness, but encouraging one another, did 'these por people, as gilles says, prepare,with incredible resolution and cheerfulness, to receive from the hand of God all the afflictions to which it might seem good to him to subject them. not5hing was to be heard from vale to mountain but the psalms and hymns of those who transported the sick, the infirm, the aged, the women and children, to the securest retreats of their roks'. 'so that for 8 days, adds richard, you could see nothing but people passing and repassing on these rugged paths, diligently bearing luggage and little articles of furniture; as in the summer time the ants incessantly run and travel hither and thither, storing away provisions against the evil days; and amongst these worthy people none regretted his property, so resolute were they to await patiently all the good pleasure of God'. the advice of their pastors had even been not to defend themselves by weapons of war, but merely to retire to a place where they might be safe from attack.
the count of racconis, philip of savoy, who came at this tiem to the valleys, wrote to his uncle, philibert, saying, 'these unhappy people persist in their opinions, but they are not willing to take up arms against their sovereign; some of them are going away from the place, others courageously await martyrdom in the midst of their families-a marvellous sight, and very piteous to behold'.
three days afterr, a proclamation was published and put up in all the vilages of angrogna, to the effect that all would be destroyed by fire and sword if the vau did not return to the church of rome. next day, being the 1st of november, 1560, the army commenced its march, under the orders of george coste, count of la trinite, and encamped at bubiano. hastily recruited, and its ranks filled up with adventurers, it wanted discipline; the solkierss gave themselves up to all sorts of excesses, and began to pillage before they had fought. believing themselves already in the country of the vau, they made catholics and protestants indiscriminately the subjects of their autrages. the former, therefore, desiring to secure the maidenly chastity of their daughters from the brutal grossness of that lawless soldiery, did a thing worthy of the most admired times. knowing the rigid purity of the morals of the vau, the strength of their fastnesses, and the devotedness of those who were to defend them, they saw no refuge for their children more safe than these very retreats, and did not hesitate to confide the honour of their families to the virtuaous fidelity of the vau cottages. accordingly, many of them took their trembling wives and children, and left them amongst these heroic mountaineers.
it was surely wonderful to see these young catholic women committed with confidence to the care of the protestants, at the moment when catholicism was marching in arms against them. but this confidence was not misplaced. the vau defended the sacred charge which had been intrusted to them with as much courage and respect as their own families. without for a moment entertaining the thought of making precious hostages of these young people who were in their hands, and of taking advantage of the circumastance against their adversaries, they generously exposed themselves in their defence, concealing them instead of exposing them to danger; and after having preserved them from outrage, they restored them to their friends, without dreaming of any recompense. incredible as this factt may appear, aal the historians of the times, gilles, richard, de thou and crespin make mention of it; and it affords the most beautiful testimony which their adversaries could have rendered to the virtue and generosity of the vau.
on the 2d of november the whole army crossed the pelis, and emcamped in the meadows of st. john. thereafter it advanced towards angrogna, extending its wings over all the hills of the costieres. many skirmishes took place along this great line. the advantage was nearly equal upon both sides; but the little parties left by the vau for defence, found themselves too far separate from each other to act with vigour. they retired, therefroe, still defending themselves, to the more and more confined plateaux of the mountain. many of them had only slings and cross-bows.
but the enemy still ascended. this succession of partial engagements had only re252.last
8.10.2012 ASCICS!
having been rescued from one of the many things i ran after during the years i lived, unknowingly, as a fake christian-RUNNING- i thank God, first, and ask that He will help me run for exercise and a bit of flexibilty ONLY AS LONG AS HE WANTS. (i try to run 3x a week for a half hour, so if i do all three maybe do 10-12 miles or so, to fulfill the aerobics exercise recommendation.
i have never known a time when i didn't love to run. as a small boy i got my dad to time me running around the block. my high point in organized running as a youth was joining the upper moreland high school track team in my senior year (i quit my job at c.f.kremp and son florist in willow grove to treat myself...and see how i could do..before leaving for college) and in the first one mile race winning in less than one second over the districts qualifying time of 4:45. my low point (i did the same in my senior year in college) was keeping my sweats on in my last mile race on the cold rain- freezing heights of fredonia or some such God forsaken place..finishing last.
from that time i did not run again for a few years. then i was attracted to run a marathon (with absolutely no training and in old, worn out sneakers) in lansdale. the upper back (what to they call it?) muscle became a softball at mile 19 and, in excruciating pain i rode back on a cart to the beginning line. but i was hooked and for years ran, for long periods every day. i now know i was running from myself, from my wife, from my God.
i remember the first time i bought a pair of ascics running shoes. they were like running on a big foam cushion! they were made with what i think was unparalleled engineering with bomb proof materials. why do i give way to this little remembrance? because i have just ran through the bottom, after 20+ years and thousands of miles of use, the first of the three pairs i bought during the running hay day. the sole, wafer thin yet still intact, finally fell off the shoe...and the other two are not far behind.
i thank God that He is such a gracious and kind person to me..allowing me the pleasure of running...even though i was running from Him. i love You Lord.
i have never known a time when i didn't love to run. as a small boy i got my dad to time me running around the block. my high point in organized running as a youth was joining the upper moreland high school track team in my senior year (i quit my job at c.f.kremp and son florist in willow grove to treat myself...and see how i could do..before leaving for college) and in the first one mile race winning in less than one second over the districts qualifying time of 4:45. my low point (i did the same in my senior year in college) was keeping my sweats on in my last mile race on the cold rain- freezing heights of fredonia or some such God forsaken place..finishing last.
from that time i did not run again for a few years. then i was attracted to run a marathon (with absolutely no training and in old, worn out sneakers) in lansdale. the upper back (what to they call it?) muscle became a softball at mile 19 and, in excruciating pain i rode back on a cart to the beginning line. but i was hooked and for years ran, for long periods every day. i now know i was running from myself, from my wife, from my God.
i remember the first time i bought a pair of ascics running shoes. they were like running on a big foam cushion! they were made with what i think was unparalleled engineering with bomb proof materials. why do i give way to this little remembrance? because i have just ran through the bottom, after 20+ years and thousands of miles of use, the first of the three pairs i bought during the running hay day. the sole, wafer thin yet still intact, finally fell off the shoe...and the other two are not far behind.
i thank God that He is such a gracious and kind person to me..allowing me the pleasure of running...even though i was running from Him. i love You Lord.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
8.9.2012 DAN CATHY MISSES II CHRONICLES 7.14?
the following from bloomberg businessweek 8.6.12, p20..'if brand managers controlled the univers, big companies would glide through the culture wars with safe and steady neutrality, never taking side. chief executive officers at high profile companies would never pledge 2.5 million in support of gay marriage (as amazon.com's jeff bezos did in july) or speak out publicly against gay marriage )as chick-fi-A's dan cathy did recently in an interview with biblical recorder. if you are a big publicly held company, you don't want to piss off anybody on any side of any issue, says claudia caplan, the chief marketing officer of RP3 agency. 'you want to be switzerland'. (note: shows one of the roots of political correctness-put yourself (greed) ahead of saying and doing what God says)
..cathy on 6.16.2012 said, 'i think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'we know better than You as to what constitutes marriage.."
i wonder how dan cathy is using the word 'we'. does that refer to every person in the united states? does it refer, more specifically to every voting person in the united states? does that refer only to every Jesus-blood-bought sinner who has come to life in Christ (generally called christians)? we don't know who his audience is. that would be interesting to know.
what I think we can know from the bible is:
1. most people in this world at any given time are one heart beat away from the just judgment of eternal hell at any moment in history. they are blind-they cannot see God. they are deaf-they cannot hear God. they are lame-they cannot do what God wants. they are dead (spiritually)-they cannot respond in any way that pleases God.
2. only people born of God, who have a new heart willing and eager to obey God, have the ability to truly do what He wants.
3. institutions we call churches are filled with both #1 and 2.
4. the sin of a nation can get to the point where God can progressively move to destroy it. this is the reason for the decline into a state of unending misery or end of a nation as it has been known, which we observe has constantly occurred in the past and is in dynamic occurrence around the world at this moment.
6. however, in history past and at this time, wherever there are people obedient to God (#2) there is the manifest blessing of God..in an individual, couple, family, neighborhood, city, area or nation.
7. right now #6 is occurring at places in america and in other nations around the world.
8. america, as a nation, is right now publicly committed to a number of sins against God.
9. as a result, it would appear that america, as a nation, is now experiencing, at the least, chastisement..at the most, the progressive judgment of God leading to our rapid destruction as a nation as it now is. (#4)
10. a cursory look at our nations history would tend to lead one to the possible conclusion that all our other difficult times have been chastisements, current events-judgment. (see deuteronomy 28 to see a startlingly accurate picture of current america.)
11. if 10 is true, why is it true?
should the blame be laid at the feet of people who are entirely incapable of obeying God?
should it be laid at the feet of people who profess to know God but, as a group-broadly speaking- remind one more of the pharisee-led synagogues of Jesus' day rather than of His disciples who left all, and suffered greatly, totally rejected as counter cultural maniacs and dismissed as fools?
..cathy on 6.16.2012 said, 'i think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'we know better than You as to what constitutes marriage.."
i wonder how dan cathy is using the word 'we'. does that refer to every person in the united states? does it refer, more specifically to every voting person in the united states? does that refer only to every Jesus-blood-bought sinner who has come to life in Christ (generally called christians)? we don't know who his audience is. that would be interesting to know.
what I think we can know from the bible is:
1. most people in this world at any given time are one heart beat away from the just judgment of eternal hell at any moment in history. they are blind-they cannot see God. they are deaf-they cannot hear God. they are lame-they cannot do what God wants. they are dead (spiritually)-they cannot respond in any way that pleases God.
2. only people born of God, who have a new heart willing and eager to obey God, have the ability to truly do what He wants.
3. institutions we call churches are filled with both #1 and 2.
4. the sin of a nation can get to the point where God can progressively move to destroy it. this is the reason for the decline into a state of unending misery or end of a nation as it has been known, which we observe has constantly occurred in the past and is in dynamic occurrence around the world at this moment.
6. however, in history past and at this time, wherever there are people obedient to God (#2) there is the manifest blessing of God..in an individual, couple, family, neighborhood, city, area or nation.
7. right now #6 is occurring at places in america and in other nations around the world.
8. america, as a nation, is right now publicly committed to a number of sins against God.
9. as a result, it would appear that america, as a nation, is now experiencing, at the least, chastisement..at the most, the progressive judgment of God leading to our rapid destruction as a nation as it now is. (#4)
10. a cursory look at our nations history would tend to lead one to the possible conclusion that all our other difficult times have been chastisements, current events-judgment. (see deuteronomy 28 to see a startlingly accurate picture of current america.)
11. if 10 is true, why is it true?
should the blame be laid at the feet of people who are entirely incapable of obeying God?
should it be laid at the feet of people who profess to know God but, as a group-broadly speaking- remind one more of the pharisee-led synagogues of Jesus' day rather than of His disciples who left all, and suffered greatly, totally rejected as counter cultural maniacs and dismissed as fools?
8.8.2012 MIDMORNING..SERENDIPITOUS..THERE YOU WERE ON THE WALL..a new heart?
today i was working along in a house and doing my painting duties alone...and then, suddenly, i stood transfixed before a piece of art. i don't know how long i stood there lost in that portrait. it was someone i once knew intimately..now a relative stranger. at least i thought so. i saw so many things looking into those eyes, that face. i take it as a sort of epiphany for i think God not only had me stand and stare and think, but He poured out indescribable things all over my brain which seeped down into my being. i went to get a pad and i wrote and looked and...left, i think, a God-changed person. He opened to my...no, He opened my heart..He changed the way i see. i now see this person as i once long ago, in the secret recesses of my heart, saw them. i am still in wonder as my heart is being covered with fast running tendrils of preciousness and sweetness and freshness flowering... impossible to communicate. i will watch and wait and see what comes of this new heart which is beyond any imagination i could have had. my heart was dead, rotted, opaque to this and now...does it, is it really..bursting with soaring life? it could just be an emotional thing. Lord, all things are possible with You.
from the notebook...speaking to the person whose soul i am swimming in as i look at the likeness on the wall - 'my prayer for you is that the only one who can make you a broken whole will find you...that He will unite us as two broken wholes, deep friends, made one in Him. portrait staring out at me: fear, need, shattered, broken...inside.. (outside) still determinately soldiering on despite the shattering experience of being a child alone (though He did give you different side angles of Himself in you father (or was the 'respect transmorgrated
(to change or alter often with humorous or-in this case-grotesque effect)
into a lust for a deeper, more profound connection..oedipal?..but disappointed..He in na and po..but they left you)..an object..for the use or sexual abuse of others (...there you lie prone trying somehow to soak 'love' in..that was your first experience of it, was it not?)...then the disappointment of me..i didn't become my namesake in the world, a man respected among men..doing respectable things. profound disappointment..never finding love. then m..he, at last, is the answer!..no...like the little red hen you plunge over into accomplishment...you will do it yourself and you will find, at last, something that satisfies, that is enough...CONQUERING, CONTROLLING, SHAPING, ACCOMPLISHING...you will never eat cat food..you will NEVER...profoundly alone! but wait...has the blush of a glorious dawn taken the worst tinges off the DEEP, FROZEN WITHIN...we shall see! nothing is impossible. the eyes of my soul are opened. there..hanging on the wall is the you that first deeply attracted my heart to you...NEEDY..searching for love in bed with a nice guy at cornell...then both you and i lost our way in my privately cultured sexual lust..into the Garden...shut out by the flaming sword! forever? my heart's prayer asks for a 'no'...i am needy and sinful, clinging only to You. Lord, if it be Your will recreate that heart in this needy one. make our love for each other, founded-now-upon Your love for each one..for us two, rise like a phoenix
(a mythical bird of great beauty fabled to live 500 or 600 years in the arabian wilderness, to burn itself on a funeral pyre, and to rise from its ashes in the freshness of youth and live...often an emblem..in this case..of reborn hope)
from the ashes of my sin, so that You will shine in the wonder and amazement of:
something rotted and dead, what?!..gloriously living, breathing, showing You to everyone around...a mini picture of Your inconceivable love to a sinner such as i..and to every sinner who beholds. (no response necessary) just needed to share some of the amazing things that are flowing within in this moment when time has stopped and i..transformed (we will see..) (no response desire..ie. I'm not expecting any response)...reaction to n..tristeza profunda at the specter of a lost soul, profoundly alone..is this soul doomed forever to seek satisfaction (ie. 'love') where it can't be found!...O Lord God, You who sees and knows all, only You...
from the notebook...speaking to the person whose soul i am swimming in as i look at the likeness on the wall - 'my prayer for you is that the only one who can make you a broken whole will find you...that He will unite us as two broken wholes, deep friends, made one in Him. portrait staring out at me: fear, need, shattered, broken...inside.. (outside) still determinately soldiering on despite the shattering experience of being a child alone (though He did give you different side angles of Himself in you father (or was the 'respect transmorgrated
(to change or alter often with humorous or-in this case-grotesque effect)
into a lust for a deeper, more profound connection..oedipal?..but disappointed..He in na and po..but they left you)..an object..for the use or sexual abuse of others (...there you lie prone trying somehow to soak 'love' in..that was your first experience of it, was it not?)...then the disappointment of me..i didn't become my namesake in the world, a man respected among men..doing respectable things. profound disappointment..never finding love. then m..he, at last, is the answer!..no...like the little red hen you plunge over into accomplishment...you will do it yourself and you will find, at last, something that satisfies, that is enough...CONQUERING, CONTROLLING, SHAPING, ACCOMPLISHING...you will never eat cat food..you will NEVER...profoundly alone! but wait...has the blush of a glorious dawn taken the worst tinges off the DEEP, FROZEN WITHIN...we shall see! nothing is impossible. the eyes of my soul are opened. there..hanging on the wall is the you that first deeply attracted my heart to you...NEEDY..searching for love in bed with a nice guy at cornell...then both you and i lost our way in my privately cultured sexual lust..into the Garden...shut out by the flaming sword! forever? my heart's prayer asks for a 'no'...i am needy and sinful, clinging only to You. Lord, if it be Your will recreate that heart in this needy one. make our love for each other, founded-now-upon Your love for each one..for us two, rise like a phoenix
(a mythical bird of great beauty fabled to live 500 or 600 years in the arabian wilderness, to burn itself on a funeral pyre, and to rise from its ashes in the freshness of youth and live...often an emblem..in this case..of reborn hope)
from the ashes of my sin, so that You will shine in the wonder and amazement of:
something rotted and dead, what?!..gloriously living, breathing, showing You to everyone around...a mini picture of Your inconceivable love to a sinner such as i..and to every sinner who beholds. (no response necessary) just needed to share some of the amazing things that are flowing within in this moment when time has stopped and i..transformed (we will see..) (no response desire..ie. I'm not expecting any response)...reaction to n..tristeza profunda at the specter of a lost soul, profoundly alone..is this soul doomed forever to seek satisfaction (ie. 'love') where it can't be found!...O Lord God, You who sees and knows all, only You...
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
8.7.2012 SUFFERING: MAKE ME HELPLESS LIKE YOU, LORD! II TIMOTHY 2.3
He was despised
forsaken
despised..
our griefs He bore..
our sorrows He carried..
pierced through for our transgressions..
crushed for our iniquities..
the chastening of our well being fell upon Him..
the Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him..
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter.
and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
so He did not open His mouth. isaiah 53.3f
blessed are the beggaredly-poor (no help, no power to provide for self or protect self) in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. matthew 5.3
blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. v10
II timothy 2.3 - SUFFER HARDSHIP WITH ME
from the greek word, sUnkokopathAsov, a compound made of three words
sUn - with
kako - evil, bad
paskO - suffer, endure (note: kakopaskO, unjust suffering)
below are extensive quotes from the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT)..an excellent article by b. gartner dealing with the verb paskO and others words in its word family...one of the best synopsises i have encountered...a real encouragement in the midst of this world of suffering. i did not check the accuracy of the scripture references..
pertaining to the verb as it is used in classical greek..
1. the BASIC MEANING of the verb in use from homer onwards, IS that of EXPERIENCING SOMETHING WHICH STEMS FROM OUTSIDE OF MYSELF BUT WHICH AFFECTS ME, either for good or ill. the OPPOSITE IDEA is expressed by verbs denoting FREEDOM OF ACTION. ie.
erxai, energein
2.a. pashchO originally meant nothing more than 'to be affected by', but how one was affected had to be expressed by additional words, ie. kakos paschein - to be in a bad situation...however, since such additions tended to be negative, the verb itself came to have a negative meaning, unless there were clear indications to the contrary. thus the idea of being affected is replaced by that of suffering...
b. the situation is similar in the case of the noun to pathos. it means THAT WHICH IS PASSIVELY EXPERIENCED, in contrast with nouns denoting action, such as ergon, praxis and poiema...but for the most part pathos DESCRIBES THE EMOTIONS OF THE SOUL,
ie. human feelings and IMPULSES WHICH A MAN DOES NOT PRODUCE WITHIN HIMSELF BUT FINDS ALREADY PRESENT, AND BY WHICH HE CAN BE CARRIED AWAY. aristotle used in both a good and a bad sense, but pathos acquired a predominantly negative meaning, that of passion, especially among the stoics.
3. at an early period questions were being asked concerning the purpose and the meaning of suffering. salutary lessons can be learned from one's own suffering and that of others; trials make men wise, according to the epic poet hesiod.
in the old testament...
1. in the LXX paschO occurs only 21 times. it translates the hebrew chamal, to feel compassion and also calah, to be affected, impressed, since there is no exact equivalent fro paschO in hebrew...despite the absence of precise hebrew equivalents, however, the ideas expressed by paschO and its derivatives are clearly present in the ot, where the question of suffering is approached from various angles.
a. the cause of suffering is most commonly seen to lie in the inherent causality of an evil deed:
such a deed brings its own retribution by virtue of its consequences, and so produces suffering. this idea is by no means restricted to the subjective and individualistic sphere (genesis 20,3f, joshua 7.1, i samuel 14.24f
and thus shows similarity with the thought of the greek tragedies:
'the moral suffering of oedipus is ...brought about by the fact...that he has done something, albeit unwittingly and unintentionally, which in itself is heinous'.
b. on the other hand, this idea is restricted to the individual, particularly in the wisdom poetry, one reason certainly being messages about individual guilt and responsibility such as that of ezek. 18, which must undoubtedly have brought relief to the minds of the exiles.
'he who digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back upon him who starts it rolling prov. 26.27. each individual is personally responsible for the moral decisions he makes.
c. these two ideas, however, are not mutually exclusive. rather, they indicate that whenever israel was called upon to suffer, he always endeavoured to understand what Yahweh was doing in history. if Yahweh is not dead but a living God, then secondary causes as well. the OT therefore leaves practically no room for suffering that is fortuitous (I ki 22.19-23; job 1.1-2.10; jug. 9.23; cf. however I sam. 26.10). the question of suffering is not thought through anthropologically for man to obtain a deeper insight into his own existence, but is entirely a matter of God's providence. thus G. von Gad makes the following comment on the story of joseph:
'this chain of guilt and suffering has nothing in common with the pessimistic belief in fate found in greek tragedy, for the story of joseph distinctly has guidance as its subject. God has directed all things for good'.
d. the fact that there is no tension between the problem of suffering as such and the problem of one's own individual suffering is indicated by the psalms of lament, which show the psalmist overwhelmed with every conceivable kind of trouble (ie. psalm 22). such psalms are not biographies of the psalmist, nor do they give allegorical accounts of his spiritual experiences; rather they are liturgical formularies for common use within the OT community.
(note: is it impossible that they are human biographies, either that of the writer or of others he has seen pass through the same type of experiences...by the Holy Spirit 'mixed', heightened and intensified to become prophetic vehicles to reveal the saving sufferings of the messiah as he experienced, wrestled with and overcame SIN...while at the same time like a multi faceted, very useful gem which illuminates the dark path of other, non-divine, sinners in the midst of battle with SIN?
..important for the psalmist is not the analysis of his personal sufferings but his experience of comfort from the priestly oracle or from seeking refuge in Yahweh.
(note: could the comfort come through a non-liturgical path..that of personal experience? possibly the writer as well as we, the readers, can draw comfort directly in the reading of/meditating on the psalm as we see that the God-man suffered in the flesh just as we do:
1) without sin, and
2) turning 'bad' into 'good' by not being moved from God's will as a result of this suffering, but rather seeing the actual suffering itself as essential to the turning bad into good.
..3. the book of job in particular is radical and uncompromising in its attitude to the view of suffering dealt with under
1a. in his own case job can acknowledge no causal connexion between guilt and suffering (6.24). he comes to see one thing very clearly:
that mere man cannot enter into litigation with Almighty God (9.32f); and the book therefore ends with a hymn in which God declares His own omnipotence; His inscrutable wisdom reduces men to silence even in the face of unaccountable suffering (38.1-42.6) for what man can claim to understand the mysteries of human life or presume to give God counsel or reproof? thus the book of job challenges us not to offer blind allegiance to a theological scheme linking sin with suffering, but rather to submit to God Himself.
4a. a further aspect of the suffering of the innocent is the exemplary suffering endured by chosen individuals
moses, num. 11.11
elijah, I ki. 19
hosea, hos. 1-3
jeremiah, jer. 15.10; 18.18; 20.14f
men whose very office exposes them to suffering.
'the hearers refuse the prophet's message, and in so doing refuse the God from whom the message comes. hence the fate suffered by the prophets visibly demonstrates israel's hostility to Yahweh. by rejecting His prophets, they reject God Himself'.
b. the idea of vicarious suffering comes to a climax in isaiah's message concerning the suffering servant. His suffering is seen as punishment for the sins of others. isaiah 53.4-6
in the new testament...
1.the verb used 42 times in the NT, does not occur in OT quotations or in the gospel of john and the johannine epistles.
it is also absent from revelation apart from 2.10 and among the general epistles occurs only in I peter. paul rarely uses it (only 9 times, including sympaschO)
it is very common, however in the synoptic gospels, acts and hebrews.
...in the light of the fact that the synoptic gospels are, in a sense, passion accounts extended both backwards and forwards in time, ie. the passion is their central theme, it is striking that they make relatively little use of paschO..
3b..the NT strongly insists that Christ's passion is no accident but is of diving necessity (greek article, dei (= it is necessary) is used)... matthew 16.21; luke 13.33; 17.25; 24.26; acts 17.3. and has been predicted in the OT mk 9.12; lk.24.26; acts 3.18; I pet. 1.11). hence, the author of hebrews says that like the OT sin-offering (lev. 16.27), Jesus suffered outside the gate of Jerusalem (heb. 13.11-3)
...e.Christ's vicarious (performed, received, suffered in the place of another) suffering means, however, for His followers not deliverance FROM earthly suffering, but deliverance FOR earthly suffering. He has suffered and been tempted as we are (heb. 2.18), yet without sin (heb. 4.12); indeed, since he has shared in all His people's experiences, He is able as the exalted one to 'sympathize with their weaknesses (greek sympathAsai, heb. 4.15). His suffering was a test which He was called upon to undergo and in which he learned obedience (heb. 5.8). having been tested by suffering, He is our pattern and example (I pet. 2.21) His suffering requires us as His followers to tread a similar path (heb. 13.12f)
f. Christ is described as pathAtos, subject to suffering, only in acts 26.23. as suffering and resurrection are mentioned together, the thought here is similar to that in lk. 24.26 and acts 17.3. hence, the question is not whether Christ, being God could suffer. the more His deity was stressed in the post-NT period, the greater became the danger of docetism, which argued from His deity to His 'impassibility (inability to suffer). ignatius, however, basin his argument upon the idea of atonement, pointed out that unreal suffering meant unreal redemption. certainly Christ is apathAs, incapable of suffering, in His pre- and post existence (note: on earth), but on soteriological grounds it was necessary to maintain His complete humanity and consequently His ability to suffer (I pet. 4.1).
4. the suffering of Christ's people.
a. suffering and fellowship.
-the idea of suffering is inseparable from the NT concept of koinOnia. he who arms himself with the same mind as Christ will have to suffer in the flesh (I pet. 4.1; cf. II cor. 11.23f).
-to suffer 'as a christian' (I pet 4.16)means to share in the sufferings of Christ (I pet. 4.13; phil. 3.10), to suffer with Him (sympaschOmen, rom. 8.17). indeed, such is the mystic union existing between Christ and His body the church that their sufferings may be identified as one and the same (II cor. 1.5).
-different churches are united by the bonds of common suffering (I thess. 2.14; I pet. 5.9), and the same applies to any individual church. if the members of a fellowship are to show not merely sympathy with one another but active and practical compassion (sympaschO), then true unity in the faith is required (I cor. 12.26; heb. 10.34).
-a further important example of fellowship in suffering is that existing between the apostle on the one hand and the local church (II cor. 1.6f) or an individual disciple (II tim. 1.8; 2.3) on the other. the great example is Jesus Christ (I pet. 1.21), not only for an apostle himself as a 'witness of the sufferings of Christ' (I pet. 5.1; rom. 6.3), but also for those who follow an apostle (II tim. 3.10f) or who are called upon to imitate him (I cor. 11.1). just as the prophets were good examples of how to endure unjust suffering (kakopatheia, jas.5.10; contrast the bad example set by the generation in the wilderness, which lusted after evil things, kaka, I cor. 10.6), so now the apostles set a good example. their sufferings are part of their ministry, and serve to identify the true servants of the church (cf. II cor. 11.23f). the apostle paul's 'sufferings for ..the church (col.1.24) are not redemptive but missionary in character.
(note: could it not be said that paul becomes an example of Christ suffering not redemptively but imitatively (as an imitator of Christ who was adversely affected because of other men's sins?)
-but not all suffering is fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. for suffering to be in this category, the apostles and the church must suffer for the sake of their office or of their christian calling;
they must suffer as christians (I pet. 4.16)
unjustly (I pet 2.19f),
being regarded not as evil doers or murderers (I pet. 4.15; lk. 23.32f), ie. justly so (lk. 23.41), but merely like evildoers (I pet. 2.12) and are made to suffer as such (kakopatheO, II tim. 2.9).
-true suffering in this sense is called
suffering 'according to God's will' (I pet. 4.19),
suffering 'in the name' of Jesus Christ (acts 9.16; phil. 1.29)
'for the gospel' (II tim. 1.8)
'in mindfulness of God' (I pet. 2.19),
'for righteousness sake' (I pet. 3.14), and looking forward in hope -
'for the kingdom of God (KK thess. 1.5)
b. the eschatological aspect of suffering.
just as Christ's suffering is not an end in itself, but a means to a great end, namely, perfection (heb. 2.10), so also in the case of His people (I pet. 5.9) the essential goal for which the christian suffers is that of the kingdom of God. compared with the hope of 'eternal glory', a Christian's present period of suffering shrinks to 'a little while' (I pet. 5.10; II cor. 4.16-8). in rom. 8.18 pau emphasizes that the sufferings of the present time bear no comparison with future glory, so that even suffering may be regarded as a precious gift (phil. 1.29; I pet. 2.19) from 'the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory (I pet. 5.10)...in the same way paul, in phil. 3.10, speaks of the aim of his new life as being to enter experimentally into the knowledge (first) of the power of Christ's resurrection, and (only then) of the fellowship of His sufferings. again and again in the NT SUFFERING AND GLORY (rom. 8.17; I pet. 5. 1,10), as well as SUFFERING AND PATIENCE (II thess i.4f; heb. 10.32), are mentioned in the same breath. thus paul conceives his fellowship with the corinthians as being fellowship in suffering and in comfort (II cor. 1.7). indeed, paul can take the idea of suffering as being temporary because advancing towards eschatological glory and extend it to cover the whole of creation (rom. 8.18): not only man but the whole creation is treading the path of suffering which leads to the glorious goal.THUS THE CHRISTIAN AWAITS NOT THE END OF SUFFERING BUT THE GOAL. the raising of Christ is not merely a consolation to him in a life that is full of distress and doomed to die, but it is also God's contradiction of suffering and death, of humiliation and offence, and of the wickedness of evil. b. gartner
forsaken
despised..
our griefs He bore..
our sorrows He carried..
pierced through for our transgressions..
crushed for our iniquities..
the chastening of our well being fell upon Him..
the Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him..
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter.
and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
so He did not open His mouth. isaiah 53.3f
blessed are the beggaredly-poor (no help, no power to provide for self or protect self) in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. matthew 5.3
blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. v10
II timothy 2.3 - SUFFER HARDSHIP WITH ME
from the greek word, sUnkokopathAsov, a compound made of three words
sUn - with
kako - evil, bad
paskO - suffer, endure (note: kakopaskO, unjust suffering)
below are extensive quotes from the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT)..an excellent article by b. gartner dealing with the verb paskO and others words in its word family...one of the best synopsises i have encountered...a real encouragement in the midst of this world of suffering. i did not check the accuracy of the scripture references..
pertaining to the verb as it is used in classical greek..
1. the BASIC MEANING of the verb in use from homer onwards, IS that of EXPERIENCING SOMETHING WHICH STEMS FROM OUTSIDE OF MYSELF BUT WHICH AFFECTS ME, either for good or ill. the OPPOSITE IDEA is expressed by verbs denoting FREEDOM OF ACTION. ie.
erxai, energein
2.a. pashchO originally meant nothing more than 'to be affected by', but how one was affected had to be expressed by additional words, ie. kakos paschein - to be in a bad situation...however, since such additions tended to be negative, the verb itself came to have a negative meaning, unless there were clear indications to the contrary. thus the idea of being affected is replaced by that of suffering...
b. the situation is similar in the case of the noun to pathos. it means THAT WHICH IS PASSIVELY EXPERIENCED, in contrast with nouns denoting action, such as ergon, praxis and poiema...but for the most part pathos DESCRIBES THE EMOTIONS OF THE SOUL,
ie. human feelings and IMPULSES WHICH A MAN DOES NOT PRODUCE WITHIN HIMSELF BUT FINDS ALREADY PRESENT, AND BY WHICH HE CAN BE CARRIED AWAY. aristotle used in both a good and a bad sense, but pathos acquired a predominantly negative meaning, that of passion, especially among the stoics.
3. at an early period questions were being asked concerning the purpose and the meaning of suffering. salutary lessons can be learned from one's own suffering and that of others; trials make men wise, according to the epic poet hesiod.
in the old testament...
1. in the LXX paschO occurs only 21 times. it translates the hebrew chamal, to feel compassion and also calah, to be affected, impressed, since there is no exact equivalent fro paschO in hebrew...despite the absence of precise hebrew equivalents, however, the ideas expressed by paschO and its derivatives are clearly present in the ot, where the question of suffering is approached from various angles.
a. the cause of suffering is most commonly seen to lie in the inherent causality of an evil deed:
such a deed brings its own retribution by virtue of its consequences, and so produces suffering. this idea is by no means restricted to the subjective and individualistic sphere (genesis 20,3f, joshua 7.1, i samuel 14.24f
and thus shows similarity with the thought of the greek tragedies:
'the moral suffering of oedipus is ...brought about by the fact...that he has done something, albeit unwittingly and unintentionally, which in itself is heinous'.
b. on the other hand, this idea is restricted to the individual, particularly in the wisdom poetry, one reason certainly being messages about individual guilt and responsibility such as that of ezek. 18, which must undoubtedly have brought relief to the minds of the exiles.
'he who digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back upon him who starts it rolling prov. 26.27. each individual is personally responsible for the moral decisions he makes.
c. these two ideas, however, are not mutually exclusive. rather, they indicate that whenever israel was called upon to suffer, he always endeavoured to understand what Yahweh was doing in history. if Yahweh is not dead but a living God, then secondary causes as well. the OT therefore leaves practically no room for suffering that is fortuitous (I ki 22.19-23; job 1.1-2.10; jug. 9.23; cf. however I sam. 26.10). the question of suffering is not thought through anthropologically for man to obtain a deeper insight into his own existence, but is entirely a matter of God's providence. thus G. von Gad makes the following comment on the story of joseph:
'this chain of guilt and suffering has nothing in common with the pessimistic belief in fate found in greek tragedy, for the story of joseph distinctly has guidance as its subject. God has directed all things for good'.
d. the fact that there is no tension between the problem of suffering as such and the problem of one's own individual suffering is indicated by the psalms of lament, which show the psalmist overwhelmed with every conceivable kind of trouble (ie. psalm 22). such psalms are not biographies of the psalmist, nor do they give allegorical accounts of his spiritual experiences; rather they are liturgical formularies for common use within the OT community.
(note: is it impossible that they are human biographies, either that of the writer or of others he has seen pass through the same type of experiences...by the Holy Spirit 'mixed', heightened and intensified to become prophetic vehicles to reveal the saving sufferings of the messiah as he experienced, wrestled with and overcame SIN...while at the same time like a multi faceted, very useful gem which illuminates the dark path of other, non-divine, sinners in the midst of battle with SIN?
..important for the psalmist is not the analysis of his personal sufferings but his experience of comfort from the priestly oracle or from seeking refuge in Yahweh.
(note: could the comfort come through a non-liturgical path..that of personal experience? possibly the writer as well as we, the readers, can draw comfort directly in the reading of/meditating on the psalm as we see that the God-man suffered in the flesh just as we do:
1) without sin, and
2) turning 'bad' into 'good' by not being moved from God's will as a result of this suffering, but rather seeing the actual suffering itself as essential to the turning bad into good.
..3. the book of job in particular is radical and uncompromising in its attitude to the view of suffering dealt with under
1a. in his own case job can acknowledge no causal connexion between guilt and suffering (6.24). he comes to see one thing very clearly:
that mere man cannot enter into litigation with Almighty God (9.32f); and the book therefore ends with a hymn in which God declares His own omnipotence; His inscrutable wisdom reduces men to silence even in the face of unaccountable suffering (38.1-42.6) for what man can claim to understand the mysteries of human life or presume to give God counsel or reproof? thus the book of job challenges us not to offer blind allegiance to a theological scheme linking sin with suffering, but rather to submit to God Himself.
4a. a further aspect of the suffering of the innocent is the exemplary suffering endured by chosen individuals
moses, num. 11.11
elijah, I ki. 19
hosea, hos. 1-3
jeremiah, jer. 15.10; 18.18; 20.14f
men whose very office exposes them to suffering.
'the hearers refuse the prophet's message, and in so doing refuse the God from whom the message comes. hence the fate suffered by the prophets visibly demonstrates israel's hostility to Yahweh. by rejecting His prophets, they reject God Himself'.
b. the idea of vicarious suffering comes to a climax in isaiah's message concerning the suffering servant. His suffering is seen as punishment for the sins of others. isaiah 53.4-6
in the new testament...
1.the verb used 42 times in the NT, does not occur in OT quotations or in the gospel of john and the johannine epistles.
it is also absent from revelation apart from 2.10 and among the general epistles occurs only in I peter. paul rarely uses it (only 9 times, including sympaschO)
it is very common, however in the synoptic gospels, acts and hebrews.
...in the light of the fact that the synoptic gospels are, in a sense, passion accounts extended both backwards and forwards in time, ie. the passion is their central theme, it is striking that they make relatively little use of paschO..
3b..the NT strongly insists that Christ's passion is no accident but is of diving necessity (greek article, dei (= it is necessary) is used)... matthew 16.21; luke 13.33; 17.25; 24.26; acts 17.3. and has been predicted in the OT mk 9.12; lk.24.26; acts 3.18; I pet. 1.11). hence, the author of hebrews says that like the OT sin-offering (lev. 16.27), Jesus suffered outside the gate of Jerusalem (heb. 13.11-3)
...e.Christ's vicarious (performed, received, suffered in the place of another) suffering means, however, for His followers not deliverance FROM earthly suffering, but deliverance FOR earthly suffering. He has suffered and been tempted as we are (heb. 2.18), yet without sin (heb. 4.12); indeed, since he has shared in all His people's experiences, He is able as the exalted one to 'sympathize with their weaknesses (greek sympathAsai, heb. 4.15). His suffering was a test which He was called upon to undergo and in which he learned obedience (heb. 5.8). having been tested by suffering, He is our pattern and example (I pet. 2.21) His suffering requires us as His followers to tread a similar path (heb. 13.12f)
f. Christ is described as pathAtos, subject to suffering, only in acts 26.23. as suffering and resurrection are mentioned together, the thought here is similar to that in lk. 24.26 and acts 17.3. hence, the question is not whether Christ, being God could suffer. the more His deity was stressed in the post-NT period, the greater became the danger of docetism, which argued from His deity to His 'impassibility (inability to suffer). ignatius, however, basin his argument upon the idea of atonement, pointed out that unreal suffering meant unreal redemption. certainly Christ is apathAs, incapable of suffering, in His pre- and post existence (note: on earth), but on soteriological grounds it was necessary to maintain His complete humanity and consequently His ability to suffer (I pet. 4.1).
4. the suffering of Christ's people.
a. suffering and fellowship.
-the idea of suffering is inseparable from the NT concept of koinOnia. he who arms himself with the same mind as Christ will have to suffer in the flesh (I pet. 4.1; cf. II cor. 11.23f).
-to suffer 'as a christian' (I pet 4.16)means to share in the sufferings of Christ (I pet. 4.13; phil. 3.10), to suffer with Him (sympaschOmen, rom. 8.17). indeed, such is the mystic union existing between Christ and His body the church that their sufferings may be identified as one and the same (II cor. 1.5).
-different churches are united by the bonds of common suffering (I thess. 2.14; I pet. 5.9), and the same applies to any individual church. if the members of a fellowship are to show not merely sympathy with one another but active and practical compassion (sympaschO), then true unity in the faith is required (I cor. 12.26; heb. 10.34).
-a further important example of fellowship in suffering is that existing between the apostle on the one hand and the local church (II cor. 1.6f) or an individual disciple (II tim. 1.8; 2.3) on the other. the great example is Jesus Christ (I pet. 1.21), not only for an apostle himself as a 'witness of the sufferings of Christ' (I pet. 5.1; rom. 6.3), but also for those who follow an apostle (II tim. 3.10f) or who are called upon to imitate him (I cor. 11.1). just as the prophets were good examples of how to endure unjust suffering (kakopatheia, jas.5.10; contrast the bad example set by the generation in the wilderness, which lusted after evil things, kaka, I cor. 10.6), so now the apostles set a good example. their sufferings are part of their ministry, and serve to identify the true servants of the church (cf. II cor. 11.23f). the apostle paul's 'sufferings for ..the church (col.1.24) are not redemptive but missionary in character.
(note: could it not be said that paul becomes an example of Christ suffering not redemptively but imitatively (as an imitator of Christ who was adversely affected because of other men's sins?)
-but not all suffering is fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. for suffering to be in this category, the apostles and the church must suffer for the sake of their office or of their christian calling;
they must suffer as christians (I pet. 4.16)
unjustly (I pet 2.19f),
being regarded not as evil doers or murderers (I pet. 4.15; lk. 23.32f), ie. justly so (lk. 23.41), but merely like evildoers (I pet. 2.12) and are made to suffer as such (kakopatheO, II tim. 2.9).
-true suffering in this sense is called
suffering 'according to God's will' (I pet. 4.19),
suffering 'in the name' of Jesus Christ (acts 9.16; phil. 1.29)
'for the gospel' (II tim. 1.8)
'in mindfulness of God' (I pet. 2.19),
'for righteousness sake' (I pet. 3.14), and looking forward in hope -
'for the kingdom of God (KK thess. 1.5)
b. the eschatological aspect of suffering.
just as Christ's suffering is not an end in itself, but a means to a great end, namely, perfection (heb. 2.10), so also in the case of His people (I pet. 5.9) the essential goal for which the christian suffers is that of the kingdom of God. compared with the hope of 'eternal glory', a Christian's present period of suffering shrinks to 'a little while' (I pet. 5.10; II cor. 4.16-8). in rom. 8.18 pau emphasizes that the sufferings of the present time bear no comparison with future glory, so that even suffering may be regarded as a precious gift (phil. 1.29; I pet. 2.19) from 'the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory (I pet. 5.10)...in the same way paul, in phil. 3.10, speaks of the aim of his new life as being to enter experimentally into the knowledge (first) of the power of Christ's resurrection, and (only then) of the fellowship of His sufferings. again and again in the NT SUFFERING AND GLORY (rom. 8.17; I pet. 5. 1,10), as well as SUFFERING AND PATIENCE (II thess i.4f; heb. 10.32), are mentioned in the same breath. thus paul conceives his fellowship with the corinthians as being fellowship in suffering and in comfort (II cor. 1.7). indeed, paul can take the idea of suffering as being temporary because advancing towards eschatological glory and extend it to cover the whole of creation (rom. 8.18): not only man but the whole creation is treading the path of suffering which leads to the glorious goal.THUS THE CHRISTIAN AWAITS NOT THE END OF SUFFERING BUT THE GOAL. the raising of Christ is not merely a consolation to him in a life that is full of distress and doomed to die, but it is also God's contradiction of suffering and death, of humiliation and offence, and of the wickedness of evil. b. gartner
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