Tag: guilt

Oppressors Are On Notice (Nahum 1:1-13)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Nahum, by James Tissot, 1888

A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
    the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The Lord takes vengeance on his foes
    and vents his wrath against his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
    the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
    and clouds are the dust of his feet.
He rebukes the sea and dries it up;
    he makes all the rivers run dry.
Bashan and Carmel wither
    and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
The mountains quake before him
    and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at his presence,
    the world and all who live in it.
Who can withstand his indignation?
    Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire;
    the rocks are shattered before him.

The Lord is good,
    a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,
    but with an overwhelming flood
he will make an end of Nineveh;
    he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.

Whatever they plot against the Lord
    he will bring to an end;
    trouble will not come a second time.
They will be entangled among thorns
    and drunk from their wine;
    they will be consumed like dry stubble.
From you, Nineveh, has one come forth
    who plots evil against the Lord
    and devises wicked plans.

This is what the Lord says:

“Although they have allies and are numerous,
    they will be destroyed and pass away.
Although I have afflicted you, Judah,
    I will afflict you no more.
Now I will break their yoke from your neck
    and tear your shackles away.” (New International Version)

I’m willing to wager you’ve never heard a sermon on the Old Testament book of Nahum. It’s unfortunate that many Bible-readers have never read the prophecy of Nahum, let alone know that this book even exists in Holy Scripture.

Each individual book of the Bible has its own particular message that is wise for us to understand. Although Nahum’s prophecy is against the long-dead empire of Assyria, it still contains a timeless message for us.

Nineveh

The capital city of Assyria, Nineveh, was a large and influential city in the centuries of 600-900 B.C.E. The Assyrians were a cruel people even by ancient standards. Their army was feared, and rightly so. Army officers were experts at torture, having turned it into an art form with all kinds of different ways of killing and maiming captured people from their conquests.

The prophet Nahum focused on the sure destruction of Nineveh, and the overwhelming judgment and justice of God. And at the same time, Nahum was also attuned to the great and many sins of Israel – their predilection for idolatry and immorality, as well as their purposeful ignoring of social responsibilities.

No matter who we are, or where we are from, the Lord God, the Almighty, shows no favoritism in condemning the guilty, and upholding the innocent. Unlike us, who have a nasty tendency toward practicing cronyism, bigotry, and ethnocentrism, Yahweh extends grace, judgment, and fairness in an even-handed way.

We humans also have a bent toward emphasizing one trait of God over another. There are those who talk only of love when it comes to the Lord; and others who always speak of God’s wrath and judgment.

Yet, in truth, God is the sovereign Lord of both wrath and love, judgment and grace. And, if we are able to hear it, God’s wrath is an expression of God’s love – not willing for oppression and violence to run amok among the powerless.

What’s more, God’s love has a penetrating way of arousing the conscience and bringing deep conviction of guilt for things we have done, and have left undone. So, when we talk of God, let us keep in mind that God is the Lord of both wrath and love, judgment and grace.

Nahum described Yahweh as a powerful God who is the avenging Lord against violence, cruelty, and injustice. If this God can make mountains move, oceans froth, and the earth heave, then no one, including the mighty Assyrian warriors, can stand against Yahweh’s indignation.

It is also true that with the Lord God there is abundant goodness which provides protection for those who seek refuge in Yahweh. Throughout Holy Scripture, including the prophecy of Nahum, divine vengeance and wrath is continually set in the context of divine mercy and grace.

Because God is holy and just, sovereign and powerful, God is Judge of the nations. Mercy only really has meaning when wrath is necessary. If everything were always unicorns and bunny rabbits, there would never be a need for mercy. But we live in a terribly broken world in which oppression and cruelty too often make sinister inroads into our lives.

Although the Lord is slow to anger and God’s fuse is long, divine patience has its limits. Yahweh does not let calloused hearts and selfish minds go on with impunity. Eventually, there will be hell to pay.

God saw all the foolish destruction and misery that Assyria brought to others. And so, Nineveh would see their own terrible destruction. This is why we now talk of Assyria as a long-past ancient empire; they no longer exist in any way, shape, or form. The Lord wiped the Assyrians off of the map.

As for Judah, there would be comfort. Even though it was true that God used the Assyrians to extend judgment upon Israel, there was also merciful relief and gracious rest from Assyria for the people.

With God, relief, rest, and recovery are sure and certain. Violence and oppression shall not last. Mercy always ends up winning the day.

This is most assuredly good news for us who seek the just, the right, and the good in this fallen world. The foolish decisions of contemporary politicians shall not win the day. God will have the final word on all things.

In a time when it seems the other shoe keeps dropping, we can be a hopeful people, because there is a transcendent God in heaven who sees it all, and will have mercy upon the innocent, while judging the guilty.

Therefore, those who engage in grift, corruption, violence, and cruelty, with no concern for the weak and needy, will eventually find themselves on the side of God’s vengeful wrath.

Whereas, those who are powerless against an evil misuse of authority, eventually they will know what it is to experience hope and deliverance from that evil. They shall know safety and perfect peace.

The overarching message of Nahum is that God is sovereign over all the world and all of history. The Lord will judge and love according to God’s own sense of divine wrath and divine grace.

Since God is the ultimate champion of the frustrated and the helpless, God will by no means acquit the guilty. The universe is God’s dominion, and in this dominion, violence, corruption, and oppression will face an awesome judgment which eradicates evil.

No nation, no person, and no government can withstand the God who is over all. Every corrupt person, especially politicians who have their eye only on themselves, should be on notice.

O God, by whom the meek are guided in decision-making, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us to do, so that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Look Up (Isaiah 42:10-18)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

Sing to the Lord a new song,
    his praise from the end of the earth!
Let the sea roar and all that fills it,
    the coastlands and their inhabitants.
Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice,
    the villages that Kedar inhabits;
let the inhabitants of Sela shout for joy;
    let them shout from the tops of the mountains.
Let them give glory to the Lord
    and declare his praise in the coastlands.
The Lord goes forth like a soldier;
    like a warrior he stirs up his fury;
he cries out; he shouts aloud;
    he shows himself mighty against his foes.

For a long time I have held my peace;
    I have kept still and restrained myself;
now I will cry out like a woman in labor;
    I will gasp and pant.
I will lay waste mountains and hills
    and dry up all their herbage;
I will turn the rivers into islands
    and dry up the pools.
I will lead the blind
    by a road they do not know;
by paths they have not known
    I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
    the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will do,
    and I will not forsake them.
They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame—
    those who trust in carved images,
who say to cast images,
    “You are our gods.”

Listen, you who are deaf,
    and you who are blind, look up and see! (New Revised Standard Version)

All creation, along with all creatures, are to praise the Lord. The coastlands and borderlands serve as witnesses to God’s justice and to human injustice.

The trees aren’t just standing there with their majestic trunks and branches. They are present to any and all of the wickedness that people may do.They experience all good that God does, and the evil which humanity does.

The rocks, the hills, the plants, all that is alive around us are sacred witnesses to what is happening on this earth – both the good and the bad.

All of creation declares God’s praise, and testifies to God of what is going on in the world.

As a result, the Lord is roused to action; God comes to attention like a soldier and is ready to move out.

The Lord will lead the (spiritually) blind in new directions. God’s active participation will put to shame all the people who trust in alternative gods or other things.

The prophet Isaiah says that the people were called to look up and see.

Everyone, look up. Look. Up.

Because the Lord knows that if folks will look up, and see God, that it changes everything for them.

We are invited to look up and sing praises to the Lord. The singers include every creature on earth, the oceans, the seas, the waters, the desert, the coast, the land, and the people.

Look up and see that God is about to act. And the action will be good for some, and not so good for others.

Whenever God moves, you know it. There will be some noise to it, like a woman in labor.

Nothing is beyond the reach of God. The Lord will do divine work of building up, tearing down, and building up again – all according to the divine will.

God will act on behalf of the faithful, the humble, the needy, and all those who look to the Lord. So, we must look up.

We cannot see what is happening, or who is there, if our heads are down. Everything has the potential to be different and changed if we will but lift our heads and look up.

There are a lot of reasons why we may be looking down. We might believe God doesn’t see or isn’t watching. But the Lord is neither deaf nor blind – we are. For us to notice, we must look up.

We may lack self-awareness, not realizing who we truly are, or what the state of things with us really is. Perhaps there is discouragement, despondency, or depression. Maybe hope has disappeared.

It could be that there is guilt, or shame, or uncertainty, and so fear is keeping the head down and eyes looking at the ground.

So, look up.

Abram looked up, saw an incredible future, and heard an amazing promise:

He [the Lord] took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:5-6, NIV)

Mary Magdalene looked up at Jesus, and her deep sorrow turned to great astonishment and joy:

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in.She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

“Mary!” Jesus said.

She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). (John 20:11-16, NLT)

Stephen looked up, and his persecution turned to glory:

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:54-56, NIV)

We are to look up so that we can see how things truly are, and whom we really serve. Only then can we accept what is, and what God is doing.

Spiritual awareness enables us to see clearly and discern well. It comes when we look up, see the glory of God, and accept the invitation to respond.

Lord God almighty, Creator of heaven and earth:

How awesome are your works!
    Because of your great strength,
        your enemies cringe before you.
All the earth worships you,
    sings praises to you,
        sings praises to your name!

If I had cherished evil in my heart,
    my Lord would not have listened.
But God definitely listened.
    He heard the sound of my prayer.
Bless God! He didn’t reject my prayer;
    he didn’t withhold his faithful love from me. Amen. (Psalm 66:3-4, 18-20, CEB)

Visible Signs of Invisible Realities (Hebrews 9:15-24)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. (Hebrews 9:15-24)

The Hebrew Christians were tired. They had faced adverse circumstances, unjust imprisonments, persecution, prejudice, confiscation of their property, and public ridicule.

Most of all, they encountered rejection from their Jewish families of origin. There was precious little support for them, outside of their group.

The suffering went on long enough that the Christians began to experience a weakening of faith. In their distress, they started considering whether to return to Judaism, and renege on their commitment to Christ.

The author of Hebrews saw the struggle and spoke up, encouraging and exhorting the believers to keep going, to exercise faith and perseverance in the face of their ongoing troubles.

The author’s overall message to the discouraged believers was that Jesus Christ is superior over everything and everyone. Christ is better than the angels, Moses, and Aaron. Jesus is the ultimate high priest who offered himself as a sacrifice, once for all.

By means of the cross, Jesus became the mediator of a new and better covenant. There is, therefore, no more need of another high priest. Christ now occupies that office permanently.

Jesus Christ Points us to God, by Elizabeth Wang

Christ’s death was efficacious for all. The sacrificial system with all of the officiating Levitical priests was the old order of things, meant to point us to Christ.

Offering sacrifices day after day, and engaging in prescribed liturgical rituals in order to access God, are no longer necessary. Perpetual anxiety exists wherever people keep wondering if they have done enough to satisfy their guilt and/or responsibility.

The answer of Christianity is yes, the work is finished; Jesus completed it, once and for all.

There is no longer anything that can distress us. Sin, death, and hell have been conquered through the death of Christ. His singular sacrifice has achieved victory over the sinful powers, and reconciliation and peace with God.

Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord does not count against them
    and in whose spirit is no deceit. (Psalm 32:2, NIV)

The covenant code’s sacrificial system was never designed to be a permanent way of doing things. All of the implements used in that system were symbols pointing to the real deal. They were a temporary means of leading people to Christ, who is the once for all sacrifice to end all sacrifices, the one who truly takes away our guilt and shame forever.

The picture is of Christ, as our high priest, who sprinkled us with his own blood and made us clean – not only today or for some temporary period of time – but for all time. We are not only made clean; we are made clean forever by the blood of Christ.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51:7, NIV)

The historical person of Jesus – his life, ministry, crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension and glorification – was a visible image showing us the great importance of invisible realities.

The Ark of the Covenant was a visible sign of God’s invisible presence, and the need for a restoration of the divine/human connection.

The temple, the worship implements, and the whole sacrificial system was a visible sign of God’s invisible holiness, and the need for purity of heart amongst the people.

Jesus was a real person with a real body and real human needs, a visible reality which showed us the invisible God, and what God truly deems as right and good.

It is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Humanity, in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God. (Colossians 1:14-15)

Christ is our Mediator, bridging the gap between heaven and earth.

Christ is our Savior, delivering us from our guilt and shame, our worry and anxiety, and our old enemy, death itself.

Christ is our Advocate, stepping in and acting on our behalf, and sending the Holy Spirit to be his continuing presence on this earth.

Christ is our champion, the pioneer of our salvation, securing redemption for us through his singular death.

Christ is our Intercessor, who even now lives to intercede for us, as we strive and struggle to live in humility, justice, and righteousness, as peacemakers in this world.

What this all means, from the vantage of Christianity, is that we need Jesus.

Without Christ, there is no hope. With Christ, all things are possible.

Jesus is the answer to every question, because Jesus is the center of all things. He is the fertile soil from which all of life sprouts; the first-fruit which provides life; and the continuing sustenance which saves us from a disconnected, fragmented, discouraging existence.

Along with the ancient Hebrew Christians, let us be encouraged with Christ, who is truly our everything.

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word, and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit; that we may know you and make you known; and through your Spirit, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

We Are All In the Same Boat (Romans 3:9-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
    there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
    “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
    ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.”
    “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (New International Version)

Whenever there is division, separation, and polarization between two groups of people, it’s important that someone has the ability to come back to what is true and common to all of us.

And that is what the Apostle Paul did in addressing the two differing groups of people in the ancient Roman Church of both Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus.

The Jewish Christians, Paul argued, did not have a leg up on the Gentiles, just because of their long history with God. They tended to see themselves as better than their Gentile brothers and sisters in Christ. After all, the Jewish believers reasoned, we don’t have such a background of sinful pagan practices and estrangement from God.

Well, actually they do, however the Apostle did not rehearse his own people’s long history of stubborn rebellion and waywardness from God. Instead, he went back to the scriptures, and reminded the Jewish Christians of something they seemed to have lost sight of:

To be a human being is to be intimately familiar with sin and godlessness, guilt and shame, no matter the group nor the individual. We are all in the same boat.

In saying this, the Apostle Paul was not implying there is not anything good in anyone. Quite the contrary. For what is also true of humanity is that every individual person is a good creature, created from a good Creator, with the divine stamp of God’s image and likeness. There are no exceptions to this.

With all the mudslinging within the church, Paul simply pointed out that there is more than enough blame to go around. All the things that one group accuses another of is also true about they themselves.

And when it comes to sin – all those actions, words, and attitudes we have done and failed to do in loving our fellow humanity, and God – every one of us is in the same boat of guilt before God. There are no exceptions to this.

The power and ubiquity of sin is everywhere. Sin is like a nasty weight which continually burdens the world, and like an acrid fog that is always hanging in the air. We all feel the heaviness; we all breathe the same air.

All of our puny attempts at dividing one another into star-bellied Sneetches, and Sneetches without stars upon thars, is only proof positive of our sinful predilections to acquiesce to sin’s power on this earth.

This means that none of us can claim to take the moral and spiritual high ground. Nobody has an advantage on another. Therefore, it is ridiculous to ever try and implement policies of favoritism, cronyism, or prejudice. Such thinking itself is sinful, and ought to be jettisoned at the first awareness of it.

Whether we know what is right, or not; and whether we have the law and a covenant code, or not, isn’t really the issue. Obeying the law and doing what is right and just, with a good heart, is the real issue for all of us.

But it’s rather difficult to truly embrace justice and righteousness if the heart is no good. In truth, all of us have some rather dark places in our hearts. And until these are addressed, we will keep having all of our humanly contrived divisions and separations based upon a supposed superiority of the other.

The very fact that it is so easy to point out the sin in another, and label them as sinner, ought to tell us that “It takes one to know one.”

All Jews and Gentiles are under the accusation of God’s law, without exception. Everyone is accountable to God and the law. Proper observance of the law is to love God and neighbor – and thus, condemnation under the law is to ignore and disobey God, and to ignore and hate one’s fellow humanity.

What’s more, neither Jew nor Gentile can be justified by the law. Not a one of us can undo our guilt by ourselves.

No amount of work can satisfy the breadth and depth of that guilt. Pledges of perfectionism cannot help us, namely because we don’t even have the ability to follow through on them. Sheer hard work will not do the trick, because it would be like trying to empty the ocean with a kid’s sand toy bucket.

Only grace can reverse things. We need a pardon, and a new heart, which can sync and beat with the holy rhythms of divine love and justice. We need Jesus.

The Apostle Paul eventually got to that point later in his letter. Yet, here, he needed to establish everyone’s commonality of sin, so that they would embrace Jesus together as the one people of God who are in desperate need of his saving work, and the Spirit’s sanctifying work.

Therefore, the proper place to begin in being at peace with God and the world is to confess our own complicity in sin. Let us, then, offer this prayer of confession:

Lord Jesus, we have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, and of neglect to seek you in our daily lives. Our sins and shortcomings present us with a list of accusations, but we thank you that they will not stand against us, for all have been laid on Christ. Deliver us from every evil habit, every interest of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of your grace in us, everything that prevents us taking delight in you. Amen.