Category Archives: Arts

Arts, Christianity, Culture

Book of Isaiah: Why did the prophets have a thankless task?

OLD TESTAMENT

– A narrative on Isaiah 6:9-13

Isaiah (and other prophets) were given impossible jobs; to deliver a message which God knows will be rejected.

This passage, which was quoted by Jesus in Matthew 13, does not imply that God is vindictively hardening people so that they cannot turn to him. Rather, this is a description of what is inevitable, not what is determined, apart from, or against, people’s own will. The people are so blind and prejudiced that they can’t receive the truth when it is set before them.

Isaiah’s clear message (people even despised it as simplistic, 28:9,10), hardened their hearts further because they had already decided to ignore it or reject it. They were not prepared to listen, so they were unable to “hear”.

That was the fate of many prophets. People despised the message so they shot the messenger; but they could not accuse God of not having warned them of the coming tragedy that the prophets foresaw.

Christians face a similar scenario. Their message is not one which all people want to hear. But the task is to explain it clearly and faithfully and with as much cultural relevance as possible (Ezekiel used visual aids to enforce his message!). Some people will respond. There will be a harvest, and we should look for it. But we should not be surprised if some reject it scornfully and forcefully.

Enlarge your vision and grow

Isaiah 54,55

Pioneer missionary William Carey used 54:2 as the text for a sermon in which his famous dictum was first used. “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” Isaiah’s vision is expansionist, as he sees the exile coming to an end and the Jews getting ready for a restoration to the Promised Land.

In the last two decades of the twentieth century, many had been predicting a period of church expansion if not revival. The growing interest of ordinary people in the broadly spiritual dimension to life, the sense of lostness and purposelessness, which grips many and stimulates an ultimately unsatisfying race for possessions and experiences, fuelled that idea.

The growth movement has devised any number of potential strategies for taking advantage of this situation. Growth was never intended in the New Testament to be a private spiritual matter; it was intended to be numerical as the disciples took the gospel into all the world and many were added to their number.

However, as many of its exponents would admit, this passage from Isaiah provides us with the only starting point for growth. Before anything can happen, even if revival and growth are promised in writing across the sky, God’s people must first turn back to him and continue to depend on him.

In 55:1-7, the prophet describes first a necessary thirst for God himself, not just for what God can do or give. He is the source of all spiritual life (the waters). With that thirst comes an acknowledgement of our own spiritual brokenness in the call to “seek him while he may be found”.

And following that, our dependence on him and not on our techniques and accumulated expertise, is to be absolute, for his ways are beyond our understanding and his strategies will not always follow our neat formulae (55:8,9).

Love and serve the LORD

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

The Book of Ruth

OLD TESTAMENT

Intro: The book of Ruth is a touching human story of faithfulness, love and decency. It tells how Ruth, a Moabite, came to Israel and became an ancestor of David (and Jesus). The book was written during the judges’ period c. 1150–1050 BC.

– FAITH RESTORED

EVEN in the darkest of places and times there is usually some trace of decency and faith. The book of Ruth, set in the lawless period of the judges, is like a candle-flame of hope glimmering in the darkness of despair.

It begins with what seems to be a majestic act of self-sacrifice. Ruth opts to emigrate to her mother-in-law’s homeland when common sense suggests she would be better off in her own country.

Relations between Moab and Israel were constantly strained. During the judges’ period the Moabite king Eglon had oppressed Israel for 18 years (Judges 3). So Ruth could not be sure of a welcome in a country which in any case was hostile to foreigners for religious reasons.

Yet faith in God and love for Naomi overcame personal considerations. Ruth does not know that all will work out well in the end, and neither do we when faith and love demand unusual and sacrificial actions. The story reminds us that God does not let down those who trust him.

But Ruth is also a treatise on God’s providence. It illustrates superbly his provision for his people and his sovereignty over their affairs. This superbly written and carefully constructed story shows that God has not left his people.

He is not mentioned much, but he does not need to be. People may suffer heartache, grief, and hardship, but he is directing their steps through the hazards even though they are at best only dimly aware of the fact. God is like a director hovering behind the camera, placing the actors in the right places at the right times. His providence extends over a long-time scale and across territories.

Boaz also reflects God’s character. He is described as a “kinsman-redeemer” (2:20). It was the custom – indeed, the law – that the nearest relative should take as an additional wife the widow of his close relation to provide for her and to maintain the family line.

So he becomes a picture of God for hard-pressed believers. Boaz is not tarred with the brush of selfish indulgence that is clearly seen in Judges. Indeed, he is touched by Ruth’s willingness to have him as he seems old enough to be her father (3:10). For them relationships are matters of trust and honour, of faithfulness more than feeling.

Throughout Scripture God is seen as a redeemer, bringing his people out of spiritual poverty and slavery, and giving them new life and hope. He is faithful, doing what is right and keeping his covenant. And he is kind. This story reminded oppressed people at the time of the judges that the God of the Exodus had not forsaken them; his character had not changed.

Boaz’s selfless willingness to take Ruth (when a closer relative refused) and at the same time to abide by the strict conditions of the law provides a colourful illustration of the New Testament picture of God’s redemption through Jesus Christ. We too are without eternal hope; we too are dependent on mercy and grace. Christ fulfilled the law and revealed his love on the cross.

Ruth restores our faith in human nature, giving us two great examples to follow. It also rekindles our faith in God. He sticks around in the worst of times, works for our good over long periods of time, and remains faithful to his own character.

For today, the book of Ruth has a clear message. Faithfulness to God and love for others is more vital than personal comfort, and we are to trust God to guide our steps when we can’t see the future.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Genesis: The roots of life, the universe and everything

OLD TESTAMENT

THE emotional health of a human being depends partly on an awareness of one’s roots. Persons who have been adopted usually want at some stage to rediscover their natural parents, just to satisfy a deep longing.

In the same way, the spiritual health of an individual, and even more of a group of people, depends partly on knowing their own story. Such knowledge puts the present into context and provides pointers for the future.

The book of Genesis provides people of all races, cultures, and generations with a set of roots. Its first ten chapters address some of the deepest questions anyone can ask. Where did the world come from? Is it planned or just an accident? Why is there so much bad in the world now? What does God think about human wickedness?

Then in chapter 11 the story focuses on the family of one man, Abraham, which is to become the nation through which God promises to reveal himself to the world. The ‘people of God’ prove to be quite ordinary and extremely fallible. The ‘Patriarchs’ are not saints.

Genesis is a preface to the story of God’s people. Christians who rank Genesis and the Old Testament below the New Testament Gospels and letters are ignoring their roots. The ‘Christ event’ springs from the opening chapters of the Bible.

All in a day’s work?

THE chief conflict between science and Christian belief has centred on the interpretation of the ‘days’ of creation. Scholars have suggested that they might be unspecified periods of time using ‘day’ poetically (as in Psalm 90:4 or Isaiah 2:11) or part of a liturgical celebration pictured as a week’s work.

If the author’s purpose was theological rather than descriptive, then the issue of creation’s mechanics must assume a secondary place. The book of Job (chs 38,39) calls for humble agnosticism in the face of processes far beyond human understanding. (This applies as much to Christians anxious to maintain biblical integrity as to scientists anxious to explain the beginning of time).

However, Christians also believe that the author chose his words carefully, and therefore ‘day’ must have some significance. For today’s readers, perhaps the compactness of the story is a welcome balance to the mind-numbing statistics of the age and expanse of the universe.

From God’s point of view, what is immense to us was really just a few days’ work for him. The universe is not then such a frighteningly big place after all. There is Someone behind it so powerful that, as Isaiah says, he can hold the oceans in the palm of his hand and count the drops.

With that in mind, Christians do not need to fall out over the precise interpretation of ‘day’. That God spoke everything into existence, when previously nothing was there, is the important truth to grasp.

– A narrative on Genesis 1

THE biblical account of creation is primarily theology. It answers the age-old questions, ‘Why is there a world?’ and ‘Why is it the way it is?’ in timeless terms from which people in every culture can gain insight.

For example, as the twenty-first century dawned people sought some unifying principle in holding together the vastly complex and apparently random systems of nature. Genesis reassured us by showing how God weaved order out of chaos as part of his creative task.

It tells us that God is the one constant of the universe. He is uncreated and the reason for all that exists.

Christians may see in the passage a hint of God as a Trinity who uses the ‘royal we’ at the creation of people (1:26). There is also a reference to the Spirit of God (v 2). God is portrayed as a personal being, not simply as a ‘force’.

We notice him to be a methodical Creator. He leaves nothing to chance but has an eye for detail. What he makes is good; it reflects his character and is pleasing to see. Built into it are the seeds of life reproducing itself at all levels. Creation is not a part of God but separate from him.

The ultimate purpose of his work is to make an environment fit for human beings. They are made in God’s image, that is, they are capable of moral choice and of a willing relationship with him. They are not trapped in a body of instincts and desires but can transcend their physical limitations in a way that no other part of the animal creation can.

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