It is not from the depths of the grave
Underneath deaths deep black wave
Nor is it from Golgotha’s bleak skull hill
Where the Lord our King directs his Father’s will
Neither between ancient olive trees
Where he does dispense the Spirits breeze
It is not with sweat, blood and why’s
Knees wet, knees bent, with agonizing cries…
It is not from the temple mount
Whip in hand with his furious shouts
Tables turned, he drew a very thick line
Where He challenged religions thieving paradigm
Nor is it from the churning ocean
Where a disciple expressed such shocking devotion
Where the storm did rage and shook his faith
As eyes turned down to an ebon aqueous fate
His voice does no longer on Tiberius resound
Where waylaid sheep once lost were soon found
Where the same man who had sunk before
Now plunged in and made for the shore
Having halted the hands of a tax taking man
He called him surely and asserted His plans
What greater glory and what greater grace
Those hands would later record what took place
He was buried down deep in the dark of the earth
After the death he died to display all God’s worth
Taking the wrath of His Father Jehovah
A lamb beneath the righteous super-nova
Rather He reigns from the place that is best
Where he resides is within His deserved rest
Having won and having crushed, the power of sin and death
He bequeaths to us His Holy Spirit breath
Now he can make the earth His footstool
To deny Him his due, is to be a ripe fool
A branch dead shriveled plucked as a brand
To be cast into the fire, by His very hand.
We don’t have a King whom hasn’t been tempted
By this we know that we are not exempted
To labor for that which you might have guessed
Labor therefore to enter His rest…
He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.Psalm 126:5-6
We ought to tarry long on this verse and plumb the depths of it’s meaning. It’s message clearly ties together brokenness and fruitfulness, weeping and reaping. Although it’s terminology is agrarian and not theological, it is the exact same terminology Jesus used in his parables about evangelism. And since interpreting this verse in a strictly agricultural way makes absolutely no sense, I will interpret it using the parable of the sower as a cheat-sheet of sorts.
Jesus referred to the word as “seed” and and evangelism as “sowing seed”, so interpreting it through Christ’s teachings the message would go something like this: ” He who goes out weeping. bearing the word for evangelism, shall come home bringing many people with him.” When you interpret this verse through Christ’s lens you draw a strong and immediate conclusion, a bountiful harvest of souls is the fruit of a weeping evangelist. A fruitful harvest requires a grief-stricken messenger. Unless the man is broken the fruit will be nonexistent or sparse. Leonard Ravenhill put it this way “It takes a broken man to break men.”
The necessity of brokenness for fruitfulness should surprise none of us. Jesus mission on earth was to come and be broken in our place, so that we could be saved. The prophet Isaiah described Christ’s ministry this way “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 1 Jesus mission on earth could never have been completed without his being broken for us; why would we think we could successfully spread his message by any other means?
I have come to the conclusion that we have the concept of success all wrong. Which could be defined as the ability to reach a said goal. In the West we may understand the definition of success, but not the measure of it. Though we may have the concept right, we have the goal wrong. In America our goals are things like home ownership, retirement, or attaining happiness. But our time-line is far too short, and our perspective is far too close, to know what our goals really ought to be, or where true success really lies.
Since it is before God that we will be judged we need to measure ourselves by His standards. His value system is far different form ours because He is far different from us, “For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 1 God is all good, all powerful, and all knowing. He measures us by our faith, which is seen in how closely we’ve followed his commands. Jesus told us the greatest commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 2 These should be our two primary success gauges; how we respond to God, and how we treat people. If we are failing in these area’s we are failures no matter how much money we have or how high we’ve climbed our career ladder. So we ought to calibrate our gauges well.
Are we loving God with all our heart, or with lip-service? Are we loving him with all our soul, our favorite activities and pastimes focused on him? Are we loving him with all our mind; is our thought life focused on sports, sex, or God? Do we love him with all our strength? How much effort are we putting into establishing His kingdom.
Do we value our spouse and treating them as God commands? Are we raising up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Are we being faithful employees? Are we helping others practically, and not just saying “God bless you”? These are the standards by which our “success” will be judged, and we ignore them at our own peril.
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8
His life was a tumultuous tapestry woven with the warp and woof of spiritual low-lights and physical high-lights. His exploits can disgust us, and at the same time, offer hope of eternal salvation. He was a man who sinned hard, but to the degree that he did so…I think he repented even harder. For some reason, this passionate king was given probably more insight toward the hope of resurrection than anyone before him. If he was not given more insight, he certainly saw it with profound clarity.
Post Nathan’s parable to David, we see that God tells David that the son of his sin with Bathsheba will not live. (II Samuel 12 & 13) The depths of David’s sins with Bathsheba then become eclipsed by the gravity of his repentance. For seven days he fasted, roaring on the ground, held down to the earth making mud with his tears, sapping his body of moisture until it was as the drought of summer (Psalm 32:4.) This…is repentance. It was not a show, it was not monastic piety, evidently this man understood the earthy roots of repentance.
When David’s attendants asked why he stopped mourning as soon as the child was announced dead, David responds almost cryptically, “…But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” (II Samuel 12:23)
Is it a coincidence that David gets a glimpse of the idea of resurrection right after a prolonged period of deep repentance? Is it possible that God revealed this to him during all of his roaring? I am not sure it was during this occasion, but David wrote another Psalm where he most certainly saw prophetically the clearest Old Testament prophecy concerning the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
“I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16:8-11)
It is here that David is given the knowledge that he will not stay in hell after he dies, and neither will the Holy One see corruption. This is an obvious reference to Jesus being raised from the dead, and is quoted by Paul in Acts 13:35, and confirmed as a prophecy fulfilled by the Christ.
What is the point? The resurrection was clearly prophesied, yet the prophecy is veiled in a Psalm that I imagine would have been difficult to decipher its meaning prior to the Messiah actually accomplishing it. Secondly, there is a synergy between repentance and resurrection. For the moment I am making a tentative connection between resurrection and repentance, we will lock this idea down with steel jaws later on. But just as prophecy is tentative, until the fulfillment of the prophecy locks down the impact of its prediction, so also we will soon begin gleaning the locked down measure of the fullness of Christ’s resurrection power.
A few other passages where David sees Resurrection is:
Psalm 17:15, “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, (more than likely from the grave) with thy likeness.”
Psalm 49:15, “God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: (hades) for he shall receive me.”
The first allusion to the resurrection of Christ comes prior to the first mention in scripture of His death. Right after the fall of Adam and Eve, God tells the serpent how the “seed” of the woman would bruise his head, and that the serpent would bruise his “seed’s” heal. (I have often wondered what the seed of the serpent was exactly, but I would not be surprised if it has something to do with 1Cor 2:8.)
So we are faced with a prophetic ultimatum. This is chronologically before the time of Job’s conclusion which I discussed in the last post, and from a Christian perspective we know what this means. While we have insight into this prophecy now, for thousands of years, God was content and absolutely patient in waiting for the actual event to unfold before declaring (I will explain later what I mean by this) what it meant. What does this say about the nature of God? It is arresting that the resurrection is mentioned first, and the death of Christ (at the hand of the serpent’s seed) occurs second. It is of interest that this is one of the first major prophecies in the Bible. From the time this prophecy was given no-one could have known it spoke directly of the Resurrection of Christ unless the Holy Spirit had revealed it to them. Though I may be wrong (and if anyone knows please tell me) I do not think there is any revelation on this at all anywhere until the actual event.
The next allusion to the concept of resurrection that I know of (my study will not be exhaustive because I am flawed, I am sure there will be many I miss) is found in Exodus 3:6. This was when God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush and said, “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.” If you know your bible well, you are not scratching your head…
In the gospel of Matthew, in the 22nd chapter, the Sadducee’s think they have the Christ in a corner with their willy question about the woman wedded to seven brothers. According to Alfred Edersheim in his book, “Sketches of Jewish Social Life,” the Sadducee’s were a reactive sect*. Their way of thinking was the result of being anti-Pharisee. Who held to the concept of resurrection, but the Sadducee’s contrarily postulated that, because the Pentateuch never mentioned resurrection, it could not be true. The living Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob evidenced resurrection. This is likely why Jesus quoted from Exodus and not from the Psalms or the Prophets in Matthew 22:32. This tells us a few things as a side-bar: 1) be very careful about filtering all of scripture through one lens of thinking (aka systematic theology, I am not saying don’t use them, just be very cautious.) 2) Don’t raise men (like Moses) on a pedestal above Christ, not even Paul. 3) If Christ were sought sincerely, and He so desired, He could annihilate sectarian beliefs without batting an eye or opening a concordance. 4) This point is a bit mystical maybe, and I will understand if some disagree with me, but it is no irony to me that the mention of the truth of resurrection through God being the God of the living and not the God of the dead is the point which basically dissolved all of the Sadducee’s theology/doctrine/dogma, whatever you want to call it. In one stroke, Jesus made being a Sadducee rather pointless. I suspect that if the Church began walking in the fullness of Christ’s resurrection power, all of our prideful differences and divisions would also dissolve. To look at it more micro-cosmically, when we die to self and Christ’s resurrection is manifest through us as individuals, our tendency to backbite, strive, be bitter, and react to others in an un-spiritual fashion will also dissipate.
Now I am getting a bit ahead of myself. Consider that an allusion and a taste of things to come in this series of posts. Stay tuned for the next blog!
* “Sketches of Jewish Social Life,” -Alfred Edersheim, Hendrickson Publishers – 1994, Seventh Printing, March 2003.
“And he (Hezekiah) did that which was right in the sight of the LORD according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.” -II Kings 18:3-4
That which was intended to bring healing from the curse of the wrath of God had become an idol to the children of Israel. Hezekiah did what was right and destroyed it. Was the serpent healing anyone of flaming poison at this time? Not likely. That which God deemed useful metaphorically had been replaced by itself in a physically limiting sense.
By implication, burning incense meant that the brass serpent had become just another Idol of compromise to the children. In Hosea, God lamented over a wife whom never verbally or contractually denied their bridegroom, either through covenantal divorce or complete apostasy. Rather, they continually tried to maintain their connection to YHWH, all the while fornicating with the Gods of Canaan. Are we much different? He who has ears to hear! That which had once symbolized salvation from wrath had become a seal of adultery. While dumb idols, in and of themselves were just elemental objects fashioned by hands, Paul tells us that when the Gentiles sacrificed they did so to devils. I Cor 10:20 I am not entirely positive that a Devil had inhabited Nehushtan, but I would not be surprised to find out that one had.
In the book of Jude, the archangel Michael disputed with the devil over the body of Moses. I have heard it suggested that one reason could be because Satan wanted to use his body for idolatry. I cannot be absolutely confident in that assertion, but conceptually speaking I can see the reason behind such a claim. Whether that is accurate or not, does not negate the idea that Satan often uses physical constructs to hold men sway to his power.
I suspect the Shroud of Turin is not much different. First of all the word of God only gives us one main physical description of Christ and it is found in the book of Revelation.
It says that His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice was as the voice of many waters. Rev 1:14-15 This description of Christ speaks of very many things, and it is not the point of this post to discuss them. But I think it is significant that this is how the word wants us to visualize our Lord. Not lying down covered in blood, bruises, and with the shadow of death upon him. He wants to be known as the God of Judgment, risen and ascended. Satan does not want to be reminded of this, every time it happens, the bruise on his head grows sore and tender. John 16:11
I wonder if Satan chuckles every time someone pays to see that shroud…for you are then stuck with an image…an image that does not bear any semblance with the reality of eyes which consume with fire. Pay incense to it (the shroud) if you wish, just remember it could be fornication. Satan would be much more satisfied if we only remembered Christ in his “bruised” state…Genesis 3:15. Christian websites ought not to be promoting this. Unfortunately I have seen more than a few promoting it as if it is a good thing. However, search the scriptures yourself and see if the Lord is concerned about his grave-clothes.
The internet is vividly abuzz with the supposed “Evidence,” or proof of the resurrection of Christ. It is obvious that the debate around the shroud of Turin is heating up once again, but my purpose is not to debate the authenticity, or the validity of these claims. I have not seen the documentary from the History Channel, and to be honest, I have little interest in it. The fact that this documentary was released so close to Easter is obviously to generate as much hype about it as possible, and who can blame them? It is great marketing.
However, I have to say that the whole premise of needing a “scientific” proof of the resurrection is symptomatic of quite the consistent modern problem concerning genuine faith. The Bible proves the point over…and over…and over…and over…that genuine saving faith is not generated in the realm of the miraculous. Nor is it generated through scientific reasoning. The wonders of the exodus resulted in most of its witnesses dead in the desert, for when the gospel was “preached, the word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Hebrews 4:2) Elijah saw God consume a soaking wet altar with fire, and soon after he doubted Gods ability to save him from Jezebel. Jonah saw an entire nation repent at his few words…and still wanted to see them consumed in wrath. The disciples were told numerous times by their own Lord that He would die and rise again on the third day! How many of those disciples were twiddling their thumbs outside the tomb waiting for him to fulfill that promise? Judas saw all the miracles a human had ever had the privilege of seeing, yet he found his guts spilled all over the place for his selfish treachery and wickedness.
If God wanted to give us rationalistic evidence of Himself…he would have done it. We ought to be FAR more concerned about Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Our lives, when transformed by the resurrection power of Christ, are the only valid proof we need of the resurrection. If that be lacking, then maybe the shroud will make you feel a bit better about yourself and your intellectual comforts.
In the midst of ash and accusation, boils and belligerent philosophy, a spark of trouble flew upward, beyond the lowly crags of mountain heights, into the deep blue etherium of divine contemplation. His name was Job, which means “hated, or persecuted.” According to his accusers, he must have done something to offend the Almighty. His suffering dictated that it must be so. It is no wonder that the oldest book of Hebrew lore deals with the deepest questions humans have tried to apprehend. In the midst of extreme suffering, we have all inevitably questioned the point of life. Job’s bitter query did not proceed until after seven days and seven nights of silence amidst the conjoining of dust, ash, rending, and “friends.”
There he sat in silence so long…I am sure the day of visitation was fresh in his mind…being replayed like a video again and again and again. No doubt his silence was one of agonizing mental anguish. Once the silence is broken, Job basically says that the day of his birth ought to be cursed into eternal blackness. (Job 3) His deep pondering begs the question. WHY LIVE??? Why live if suffering is our bread, if misery is our drink?
Once Job finally broke his silence…Eliphaz was quick to speak the abundance of his heart and accusation against Job. He starts off with a few quick words of flattery, probably out of cultural respect, then promptly begins to develop a thread of thought that Job must not be innocent, of course his suffering must be the result of sin because, “Who ever perished, being innocent?” Or, “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.” (Job 4:7-8)
Like so many councilors that lack any form of humility, Eliphaz completely ignores the questions Job raises, and displays the true motive behind why he sat seven days and nights on Job’s pile of ash. His motive was to bring accusation against his friend. Job had asked why it was that he did not just die when he was born. Then he would have moved on to the indomitable vault of equalization…the grave. Where the, “Prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.” (Job 3:17-18) Job was concerned with the deeply subterraneous questions of his soul. Eliphaz was concerned with emanating his own religious pomposity via his theology.
The temptation to give a ringside, blow by blow account is difficult for me to withstand; however, for succinctness sake we must jump forward numerous arguments later, after Job has received jabs, hooks, uppercuts and below-the-belt accusations from his “friends.” In the midst of his suffering and incrimination Job raises one of the single most important questions that suffering must force someone to ask. Keep in mind this is probably the oldest book of the Bible, if not one of the oldest written manuscripts ever. In Job 14:14, he laments, “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” God had not yet been fully manifest and in the Son, so total revelation about life and death had not yet occurred to humanity. Job did not know yet that eternal life was knowing the Father, and the one whom he would send.
Eliphaz proves his religious ignorance once again by calling Job’s questions an, “uttering of vain knowledge and a filling of his belly with the east wind.” Why think deeply about your pain Job? Just repent for your ox-dumb pride.
Job then responds to this indictment and receives one more from Bildad. It is at this point in chapter nineteen where Job reaches a crescendo of angst. He points out that his miserable councilors have accused him ten times, and he begins to lament that he has been forsaken by every last person whom he valued. He first laments deeply of God forsaking him, and how God had stripped him of his glory and crown. (Job 19:9) Job was destroyed on every side…troops had been raised against him, his brethren were put far from him, every acquaintance of his had become completely estranged from him. His kinsfolk failed him, and his familiar friends forgot him. Those most intimate with him, his maids and dwellers of his home, now viewed him as an alien and a stranger in their sight. His breath even became strange to his own wife. The word strange in the Hebrew is metonymous with the word for adultery. So it could be said that his very breath was as the breath of an adulterer to his own spouse. This gives us a sense of just how disgusting Job’s suffering was to his kin. His own children also rose up and despised him and spoke against him. All this would be bad enough but the dagger in his back is twisted a little bit more when he says that even his “inward friends” have turned on him as the hand of God touched him.
The Valley of the Shadow of Death by George Inness
It is as if the veil of fellowship had been drawn and stitched. It was woven from the fabric of solitude, and the stitches were the condescending glances of accusation he received. No man is more forsaken in the midst of people than this man. He was so alone that his bones clove to his skin and flesh. This was likely due to malnutrition from prolonged fasting. Eating no longer meant anything to him.
Finally, it is within this broad context that Job laments, “Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh that my words were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever. For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.”
Was it not Christ our Lord, whom upon the cross asked from the bottom of the deepest well of trepidation ever probed, “My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Did not all of Christ’s sheep scatter into hiding? Did not Jesus become as an adulterer to them? Were they not completely ashamed of His suffering? Was Peter not in the valley of the shadow of death?
By now, I hope you have noticed the parallel between Job being forsaken by all, and Christ being forsaken by all, even His Father. These continuities are absolutely staggering. I will let your imagination continue to connect these concepts. It is at this point, of Job’s deep suffering, where deep calls unto deep. Some divine tremendous light has perforated the subterranean expanse of his tragedy, and he concludes the only thing an open mind, a humble heart, and a suffering soul can conclude…there must be, there has to be, I know there will be…a resurrection from the dead! My Savior will stand upon the earth someday and I will stand with him. So it was that He (our Lord), for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The broadest depths of human suffering when contemplated with a view of God in mind, require resurrection to be true. Were it not, sanity would become pointless…
But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”
Call me naive or simplistic but I cannot for the life of me understand how someone could claim their plot to overthrow the government is based on scripture. Christ makes it clear that if his kingdom were an earthly kingdom his servant’s would be fighting to defend it. I’m not one to believe every single thing the media reports. But if these men were indeed plotting to murder police officers in cold blood then they are far from Christ indeed.
Nothing Jesus or the apostles taught tells us that murdering civil authorities is good or godly in any way at all. We are told that we will be persecuted for our faith at times, and our response to persecution is to turn the other cheek (non-violent resistance). We are not told to overthrow the government in order to avoid persecution, we are told to rejoice in persecution, because our patient endurance in persecution is the most powerful testimony we can share. If we are fighting to avoid persecution here and now, we are displaying a complete lack of faith, we are declaring we don’t really believe in heaven by trying to craft our little christian kingdom here and now.
When Jesus stood before Pilate he gave the crowd’s a choice, did they want Barabbas the political revolutionary or Jesus who was declaring a heavenly kingdom. I am convinced that many self identified Christians today would choose Barabbas again.
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” John 18:36
