Saturday, February 26, 2011

Genesis and Matthew XXI

YHWH said: Here, (they are) one people with one language for them all, and this is merely the first of their doing - now there will be no barrier for them in all that they scheme to do!


And their eyes were opened. And Jesus thundered at them, saying, "Make sure no one finds out!" But they went and publicized him throughout the country.

As much as we love collaboration and cooperation, there is a potential for things to go terribly wrong when humans get together.

Humanity has a great capacity for invention, innovation, and almost god-like achievement. A well-functioning team can outperform an equal number of competitors that do not get along well. There is no limit to what we can do, if we can all just get unified. But humanity unified in the goal of reaching the level of God always goes wrong. Only God is God. When we try to become what we're not, our achievements take a wicked turn. So God had to stop what was going on at Babel.

Jesus, likewise, did not want his deeds to be published like a slick ad campaign. He did not want the word to go out by way of advertisers and promoters. God does not operate that way! He does his work in the quiet places of our lives.

Consider the recent coordinated uprising in Egypt, and similar ones going on the Middle East, fostered along by the lightning speed and global reach of the Internet. Language and distance barriers are breaking down, and we wonder what awesome power is about to be unleashed on the planet!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Genesis and Matthew XX

Two sons were born to Ever: the name of the first one was Peleg/Splitting, for in his days the earth-folk were split up . . . 


And as he passed through there Jesus was followed by two blind men shouting, "Have mercy on us, son of David."

We keep seeing this fracturing of humanity in the generations following the Flood, and then a magnetic effect of the Christ, as he walked the earth.

Let's review . . .

* God creates Adam and Eve, and gives them full authority over the earth and its creatures. This is a great deal of power and responsibility to give the young human race. Within a generation, power is already abused more than once: Adam and Eve foolishly seek knowledge for which they are not ready; and then their son Cain murders his brother Abel. Curiosity killed the cat, and ruined humanity. Cain took "have dominion" to a ghastly, but accurate level, by taking the life of his own brother. The first earthly family begins to fracture as soon as the first generation reaches adulthood.

* By the time of Noah, violence runs rampant on earth, as humans everywhere assert their dominion over everything and anything, including other humans. They do what feels good, disregarding any kind of natural consequences. Quite possibly, humanity stands on the brink of self-extinction, (sexually transmitted diseases? Pestilence? Famine? War?), if not for God stepping in, saving Noah and his family, and restoring order . . .

* Within the first generation of the righteous man Noah, his own sons begin to split apart, resulting in a curse upon one of them.

* Just prior to the incident at Babel, humanity has not only spread far apart, but this time its selfish deeds has the aspect of efficiency and strength in numbers. We have learned how to form alliances, collaborate, build empires. Once again our advancement is rushing ahead at a rate greater than our capacity to handle it. Perhaps technology was advancing at a fast pace! This time God causes the earth to fracture even more, by confusing our languages so that cooperation among wicked empire-builders would be unlikely.

But in a quiet village of Judea, thousands of years later, the son of God walks about the moral chaos of the Roman political system, which has established order through its might only. And as he goes about, blind people are drawn to him like steel needles to a magnet.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Genesis and Matthew XVIX

Afterward the Canaanite clans were scattered abroad.


But when the crowd was thrown out he went in and took her hand, and the girl woke up.

We continue to see the effect of humanity on earth: towards disorder and chaos. We see how God comes in, sometimes personally, sometimes through emissaries such as angels, sometimes as humans like Moses, and in this last age, through His son, Jesus. God intervenes and restores order.

He set up a way of life for us: orderly families, orderly refuges, orderly communities, orderly churches. He knew that, left to ourselves, we start making up our own rules, and things get out of hand.

There has not been a single human being in history, that could establish order anywhere, without God's help. Dictators talk about setting up planned, efficient systems of government, that are run with an iron fist. But within the spirits of these citizens there is fear, and loathing.

Notice how God always cleans the place up, before establishing order. The nations grow, and they spread out. They expand their borders. But the more they expand, the more people there are that want to be in charge. First there is confusion, then disorder, then chaos, and sometimes, violence.

Families are a very simple system set up by God. Men and women meet, and covenant together to establish homes based on stability, deliberate love, security, and most of all, clarity, so that the children have a sense of belonging.

My Grandmother, for instance, knew her grandparents, and aunts and uncles, very well! Yet today, dozens of descendants of these same people whom my grandmother loved, are spread out all over the US, with very little awareness of each other! As a family, they have descended into disorder!

Christ comes in to a chaotic place. A little girl has just died, and in the home a party seems to be going on. The place is overrun with visitors and "well-wishers", but as so often happens, the mob loses a sense of focus and direction.

The first thing he does, is to send the crowd away. In the ensuing silence, order is restored. And in that setting, he touches the girl's hand, her breath returns, and she rises up from death.

Life and peace return. Order is restored.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Genesis and Matthew XVIII

Now these are the begettings of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Yefet. Sons were born to them after the Deluge.


As he was saying these things to them, next a high official came and bowed before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but go and put your hand on her, and she'll live."

After the Flood, humanity began to repopulate the earth. There was an orderliness to it, as each nation that came from Noah's sons had a role to fill in history. Interestingly, the cursed son, Ham, who was supposed to serve the other brothers, became the forbear of such great empires as Egypt and Assyria. Perhaps the point was made even then, that the greatest would be servant to the least!

But inevitably, the spread of humanity would eventually yield to the return of chaos. The first such episode would be Babel, which is just around the corner in our study. God does not want to force us to behave and choose against our own will. But the lesson of the Flood taught several generations to multiply and control the earth, which was God's first and perhaps most important directive in creation. They behaved quite well. Noah's family became very successful.

There's an interesting juxtaposition with the beginning of Christ's ministry. The more ordered society became; in other words, the greater and powerful the world governments, the more in disarray we became, in reality. The Egyptian Empire yielded to the Assyrian, which fell to the Babylonian, and then the Persian, Greek, and finally the Roman, the most terrible of all!!

Rome was the shining moment of the Ancient World, in terms of the expansion of the sons of Noah! How organized and efficient was this nation! It dominated the earth, and even for a time operated as a Republic! It ultimately high-jacked the Church of Christ and sought to make it it's own! How adaptable, how functional, how awesome!  How human!

We have always been very good at the having-dominion-over-the-earth part of God's directives! In the time of Christ, the fleshly part of Noah's legacy was unsurpassed, and completely consummated! But God's flock, His sheep, His children, were scattered, lost, and even fearful.

See how people begin swarming to the Christ! From high Roman officials to poor beggar women, they come. In the midst of a totally disordered and chaotic world (disguised as Roman efficiency) he walks among us, and where he goes, order reigns.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Genesis and Matthew XVII

May God extend Yefet (Japheth), let him dwell in the tends of Shem, but may Canaan be servant to them!


Nor do they put new wine in old wineskins, because if they do, the skins break and the wine pours out and the skins are ruined; instead, they put new wine in new skins, and both are preserved.

We can learn about the Kingdom of God by looking at families.

I marvel at how it only takes a generation or two, to unravel what may once have been a close family. One of the major roadblocks in doing family research, is recovering information from family whose ancestors had become estranged from their siblings. Resentment that one sibling may feel towards the rest of the family, seems to get locked into the DNA, when generations later the descendants form no desire to reconnect with their family.

My great-great grandmother is a great mystery to many of us. Her daughter, my great-grandmother, when asked about her mother, would say, "You don't want to know about that," with anger. The next generation, that of my grandmother, learned never to ask about it. Or - what they knew, they learned never to share. But now, a hundred and fifty years later, we do want to know about it!

Relationships are destroyed like old written records that are cast into a fire. Photos are left behind, with no identifying labels. A brother that breaks away from his sister, never to speak to her again, results in grand-children that just want to know where they came from. Are there cousins living nearby, that they do not know about?

Other families, where the parents make an effort to keep their children connected, do much better. Their children seem to accomplish more, and fare more effectively in society.

Christ spoke about putting new wine in new wineskins. He came to simultaneously change everything to a New Order, while preserving the essence of the Old. The Old Covenant, with its emphasis on laws, rules, religious practices, families, nations, and military campaigns, served to define God's holiness, His expectations,  His vision for us, and to clearly define how we are to behave.

Humanity, in its natural state, thinks in terms of rules. Note how children learn the word "No!" immediately after they learn the word "Ma". In our natural, most basic state, we understand rules and  boundaries. So God started off with treating us this way.

We also like roles and positions. We understand authority. We like to know where we stand. Observe elementary-aged children, and their complaints of "that's not fair!" We see ourselves as part of a group, of belonging to something or some group. This explains the influence of gangs in lawless communities. We want to belong, and we want rules, even if the rules are violent (this is in our natural, unredeemed state).

Noah pronounces an order of authority for his sons. Shem would be on top, and Japheth was to be favored in Shem's world. Ham was to be their servant. How cruel this seems! But our parents' decisions always seem not totally fair, from our purview! But Noah's curse on Canaan has been used throughout history, to justify everything from Slavery to military conquest! Noah, a just man, committed a grave error on history, it would seem!

But, Noah's order was part of the world's order in those times. Your family identification mattered. And it still does today, for the world is not completely redeemed yet! Everyone reading these words can instantly identify  a close relative that is drifting away. Siblings and cousins, that once were closer than two people can be, today hardly ever say a word to one another! We identify with our group!

The redeemed person, the one living under Grace, does not just put away family identifications!

When Jesus sat down with sinners, he was sitting down with his own distant cousins that were unfortunate enough to be born into the wrong clan! The new wine in new wineskins, in this case, was that we are now free to hang out with these others, regardless of their birth circumstances, their inherited wealth, their college background, their lifestyle choices, the way they dress, their style preferences.

Families are God's gift to us, to train in Kingdom living. Embrace your family. Renew your connections with brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles. Put away the old bitternesses whose origins no one remembers. Set aside resentments. Stop being so judgmental! Help the relative in need! Stop gossiping about a niece or nephew whose personal choices have landed him or her in IC, and go pay a visit!

Our families serve a great purpose. And God has given us the chance to redeem the Canaans in our families, to sit down with them, once again, and to treat them as our equals.

 . . . which is exactly what they are!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Genesis and Matthew XVI

I will call to mind my covenant that is between me and you and all living things - all flesh: never again shall the waters become a Deluge, to bring all flesh to ruin!


He heard that and said, "It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

In a way, God now has a problem. Humanity had already decayed into total corruption in the days before the Flood. Only Noah and his family were spared. God favored Noah, because he was a just and fair man. He honored God, prayed to Him, fellowshipped with Him. Noah did what was right in God's eyes. Now notice - Noah and his family were spared.

God's problem is this: what is He going to do if humanity declines once again? He can't destroy them with a flood, because of His promise. He even has rainbows as a constant reminder of this promise (the reminder is probably more for our benefit!)

But there's something about keeping one man, and his family, around. Noah's righteousness covered his entire family. It is important to belong to a family.

But if humanity is to be spared, then God needs a new plan, a new approach. He had known all along that we were born with a sickness. Mortality itself is the worse kind of illness. What, really, does it matter whether we go by cancer, heart disease, murder, accidental death, or old age? Indeed, what if a direct act of God's judgment is what kills us in the end? We still die. We die because we are sick, and the illness itself is mortality. We need to be saved from Death! Sin is just a cause - but Death is the problem!

The Flood had the effect of teaching us the seriousness of sin and of death. But it must have pained God to have to go to such lengths. His new approach, now that we have seen how awful sin and death are (and every catastrophe should always remind us of this!), is to heal us.

The Scribes and Pharisees died. Tax-collectors and godless people die. We all die. Judas died, and Jesus died. We all are sick, and we all need a physician.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Genesis and Matthew XV

Whoever now sheds human blood, for that human shall his blood be shed, for in God's image he made humankind.


Seeing that, the crowds were terrified and praised God for giving that kind of power to mortal beings.

The first murder in history was that of Cain over his brother Abel. I do not think that Cain understood what would happen. No one had died yet. Perhaps the brothers had fought before, thrown punches at each other. They had felt anger and hatred before. But no one actually ever killed anybody. This time Cain was so jealous and angry that he sought to hurt Abel more than he ever had before. But this time Cain's blow ended Abel's life. The healing powers of Eden had ebbed enough that there was no saving Abel, the brother whom Cain loved. Cain's punishment was banishment from his family. And indeed, his life work was blessed beyond that of any other. God flourished and expanded Cain.

God was basically letting humanity have its way, and following through on His directive to us, that we would be fruitful and multiply, and have dominion over the Earth.

But as evil sprouted, with little consequence, humanity became more and more corrupt. We can imagine murder being pretty much rampant. Sin, violence, and evil were the norm. It had to be pretty bad for God to want to nearly exterminate the human race!!

This was humanity when in full control of its destiny. It's the way we still are. Without God's involvement, we drift away into savagery.

God gave us all the control we can handle. He gave us dominion over creation. But this directive goes awry when we seek to have dominion over each other. And we always seek dominion over each other. We extend the Great Commission of the Old Testament (have dominion over the earth) into a pass for us to control, enslave, and even kill each other!

God then says - if you take a life, you will lose your own life. Without violating His commissioning to us, without taking away trust or our dominion over the Earth, He provides a framework that will get some control back over Creation. He tells us what we may do, what we must do, if we are to avoid another era of rampant chaos.

But He is also making a statement about the value of life. Life is so value, that if you take it away from another, you must lose your own. This is not an undervaluing of life. It is a lesson in how precious it is to all of us! Our life, here on Earth, is everything!

What great power we have, when we can end something as precious as life! Is there no other manifestation of dominion and what it means, than for us to have this power? Truly God placed great trust in us, in making us such powerful beings!

But there is something even more powerful than that: the power to return life again to the one who has lost it; the power to restore a limb, or organ, or sense, that has been damaged either through nature or artificially! The taking of life is common, unimaginative, evil. But the giving of life is real power, and God has reserved that for Himself. Thank God we do not have that power yet! As a race, we do not value life enough yet, to be able to grant it!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Genesis and Matthew XIV

"I will never curse the soil again on humankind's account, since what the human heart forms is evil from its youth . . . "


And Jesus, seeing their mood, said, "Why are you brooding evil in your hearts?"

God shows a distinct quality in His ability to change. Before the Flood, He was fed up with humanity, and seemed quite eager to eliminate all but a few humans and animals. (Notice that even the animal kingdom paid for man's sins!) But afterward, His heart softened and He proclaimed that He would never wipe out humanity with a flood, ever again. This turning point in His relationship with humanity now moves in the direction of helping us find salvation.

But perhaps there was also a realization, on God's part, (yes, I know, this is awkward, knowing as we do, that God already knows everything!), that man is, basically, evil. He says - humans are evil, and they can't help it. I can't just punish them for something that is inherent in their nature!

God says, "What the human heart forms is evil from its youth."

Jesus says, "Why are you brooding evil in your hearts?"

Why the change? I think it has something to do with God's role as teacher, mentor, parent, Savior. First comes the conclusion: we are evil. This is guilt, shame, and repentance.

Next comes light on our hearts, paring away at our sinfulness, exposing us for what we are.

Okay, we're sinful - how will we change? By letting Christ in, and exposing ourselves, willingly, to Him.

"Brooding evil." Jesus says, "Why are you doing this?" We sit around with our anger, resentfulness, bitterness, jealousy, irritability . . . and our Lord says "What are you doing?" If we will be honest, we will admit that this is pretty much true. There is not a moment when we are not easy targets for evil thoughts to enter in and take over.

Just stop. Jesus can see our moods. Other people can see, too. If we can be asked "Why are you brooding evil in your hearts" then does it not follow, that we can put a stop to it?