Tag Archives: Old Testament

Asia, Christianity, Culture

Proverbs: Down-to-earth advice for living

OLD TESTAMENT

THE Book of Proverbs is blunt, earthly, and practical. It belongs to the genre of “wisdom” literature which was common in the ancient world. It is not a book from which to cull theology, but it is a book to show how theology can be applied.

Proverbs has previously been described as a “book which seldom takes you to Church”. Its function in Scripture is to put godliness into working clothes; to name business and society as spheres in which we are to acquit ourselves with credit to our LORD, and in which we are to look for his training.

Although rooted in the culture and lifestyle of an ancient world, much of its wisdom can be extrapolated into modern life. The advice to have honest scales (in which ‘the LORD delights’, 11:1) is fundamental to social order in any age, and the statement that getting drunk is unwise (20:1) has always been rued by those who ignore it.

The book originates from the sayings of a class of “wise men” in ancient Israel, from the time of Solomon onwards. They seem to have been given a status close to that of the priests and prophets as guides of God’s people (cf. Jeremiah 18:18). Other cultures had them too, but we know little of how they operated.

This is a book to be read in short sections and meditated upon. It is perfectly possible to delve into it at random and gain some insight, encouragement, or warning – a practice which is inadvisable for any other Biblical book.

Wisdom is mediated through the Holy Spirit

– A narrative on Proverbs 8

TODAY, wisdom is not often praised as a virtue, but that is partly because we have other ways of describing it. Knowing what is the right thing to do; avoiding mistakes we might regret; keeping our eyes open; seeing all sides of a situation; not being driven by foolish desires.

Wisdom is the mind controlling the heart, the heart informing the mind, and both subjected to the law and leading of God. As a result, compassion, thoughtfulness, and generosity are displayed in social relationships, and blind impulse gives way to far-sighted consideration.

Throughout the book wisdom is lauded as something to be treasured. It produces better returns than monetary wealth (3:13,14), and is more attractive than a bride’s garland (1:8,9); it is the supreme principle of successful living. Get wisdom and you get a lot else thrown in.

Living by wisdom is living God’s way, in harmony with the rules and constraints which he built into creation. With it, we can avoid the pitfalls of sin (2:9-11), look forward to a rewarding life (3:1,2) and enjoy protection from needless danger (4:6).

The author of the first section seems so carried away by his theme that he personifies wisdom, elevating it almost to divine status, but being a Jew, he cannot be suggesting that there is a real divinity named Wisdom.

Christians can see the imagery as a pale foreshadowing of the New Testament image of Jesus as the divine “Word” (Logos) in John 1:1. But it would be stretching the Old Testament too far to suggest that Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is an exact portrayal of the Second Person of the Trinity.

Instead, he is using a poetic image to convey a truth. In human affairs, wisdom is supreme; everything worthwhile in life depends on it, just as life itself depends on God. But the ability to live wisely as God intended does not come naturally; it must be sought and learned, just as God waits for us to turn to him and does not force himself upon us.

The Word made flesh is the source of our wisdom which is mediated through the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6-10; John 16:7,8,13). And the New Testament agrees that to become a human trait, wisdom needs first to be received as a divine gift (James 1:5). The fact that it restrains the excesses we rather enjoy may be one reason why we don’t seek it with the same urgency as did the authors of Proverbs.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Isaiah: Society drifting without a leader

OLD TESTAMENT

ISAIAH: AN OVERVIEW

PEOPLE who wait on the LORD shall “soar on wings like eagles”, Isaiah declares (40:31). His book does just that. In the second half especially, the poetry and thought rises above the petty concerns and trivial harassments of human life and transports us gracefully into the presence of God.

Isaiah looks down from a great height on Judah, Israel, and the surrounding nations, and sees them all from God’s vantage point. Then he looks upwards in paeans of praise and adoration that surpass even the best of the psalms.

Yet the book has been the subject of some of the bitterest wrangles among scholars. Although regarded by the Jewish community and the New Testament writers as a unity, Isaiah’s authorship of chapters 40-66 has been doubted consistently over the past 150 years.

Although such questions are important for our understanding of Scripture as a whole, they have only a mild influence on our interpretation. “Second Isaiah” clearly relates to a specific historical situation (which, despite the often-timeless character of its poetry, should inform the way we use its message), whether it was written in advance by Isaiah or closer to the time by someone else, prolonging the whole wide range of Isaiah’s emphases.

Among Isaiah’s great themes are the promises of God’s refreshment and restoration after a time of trial, discipline, and correction. Isaiah never minces his words, but he is a prophet of hope even when he roundly condemns social injustice and religious apostasy.

He is at his greatest when he contrasts the power and resourcefulness of Israel’s holy God with the poverty and impotence of idols which people create from what they can touch and see to give meaning and purpose to their lives. Our idols are different from those of his day, but they are aggressively marketed by image-makers in advertising and public relations agencies.

Music lovers will hear in the call to prepare the way (ch 40) and the catalogue of the servant’s suffering in chapter 53 words immortalised in Handel’s Messiah: readers familiar with the New Testament will recognise them as being fulfilled by John the Baptist and then Jesus’ crucifixion.

If you come to the Old Testament with doubt and suspicion as to its relevance for today, and you want to retain your doubts and suspicions, it is may be best that you avoid Isaiah.

The Book of Isaiah contains majestic poems of God’s greatness and supremacy, as we witness in Isaiah 40:25,26

“‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”

SOCIETY DRIFTING WITHOUT A LEADER

– A narrative on Isaiah 3

THE philosophy of leadership changed in the latter half of the twentieth century from “command and control” to “team building”. People who can inspire others are more likely to gain respect than those who shout orders, give few reasons, and expect to be obeyed.

We need leaders at every level of society to hold the structure together. But sometimes people aspire to leadership simply to feed their own emotional or power-hungry needs. And the wrong people may be given leadership roles because other people can’t be bothered to do the job.

The picture in this chapter is of a leadership society, drifting like a rudderless ship. Instead of having mature, wise leaders with a steady hand on the tiller, Jerusalem is being piloted by inexperienced “boys” prone to naïve mistakes and laddish excesses.

It is a form of judgment on a degenerate society to have the leaders it deserves. As society drifts from God, it loses its bearings. When people start to pull in different directions fellowship and outreach break up on the reefs of schism. Lack of leadership in such situations compound the misery of what is going on.

So, we hear calls for “strong leadership” to tug society or the Church back to its moorings. But that sounds like a return to the command and control of a military dictatorship. Modern leadership theory is much more in line with Jesus’ teaching. He said that leaders were to act as servants and lead by example (Matthew 20:24-28). When we feel ourselves to be drifting towards the rocks, don’t pray for a tugboat; pray for a helmsman.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Hard knocks form rounded character

OLD TESTAMENT

– A narrative on 1 Samuel 17-19

SOME people become sharp and angular when pelted by life’s hard missiles. Others, like David, are rounded by them and their concerns are rubbed off. Once again, a Bible author is giving us a potted biography that reveals the familiar pattern of God’s dealings with those he calls to his service.

David began in obscurity where he learnt survival and faithfulness in the harsh realities of an unsympathetic world (17:14,15,34-37). His secret anointing was perhaps not fully understood by either his family or himself (ch 16). It was followed by minor service in Saul’s court which may explain why Saul knows him in 16:14-23 but not in 17:55, unless the chronology is reversed for the sake of giving us an earlier summary.

He is then elevated quietly to high office (18:5), succeeds, but becomes the object of Saul’s jealousy and is ousted from his job, surviving several assassination attempts.

Many Christians in such a situation would ask why God behaved so badly towards them. The author is telling us that it is Saul who is behaving badly, and that God is protecting David from him. The heir apparent is a victim of human injustice, not of divine caprice. It was that knowledge that enabled David to survive his outlaw years, and it will enable us to survive the wilderness periods when God’s call seems to have been forgotten.

Love and serve the LORD.

. See also The Books of Samuel: Real lives and frank confessions

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