Tag Archives: Psalm 23:6

Who Am I? Part 4

Posted on by

I spend a large portion of my Christmas holiday with three post-Christian women I’ll call Grandmother, Mother and Daughter because of their relationship to one another.  I call them post-Christian because they were all professing Christians at one time.  Grandmother still calls herself a Christian.  She means a non-Buddhist, non-Hindu, non-Jew, non-Muslim who believes in Jesus.  Her ex-husband was a Baptist Sunday school teacher who abused her, and Mother as a child.  Daughter is the most non-Christian, vocally pagan of the three with Mother falling somewhere between.  Their transformation began with a desire for a more feminine God.  I regret now not taking Mother’s question more seriously.  I didn’t understand at the time that this desire would lead through Mother Earth to a Mother Goddess and on to full-fledged paganism.

I pointed out that yehôvâh (יהוה) created male and female: God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) created humankind in his own image, in the image of God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) he created them, male and female he created them.[1]  I talked about the meaning of El Shaddai (ʼêl, אל; shadday, שדי) and a few other references to God as feminine.  But I emphasized that the general understanding of God as masculine was due primarily to the fact that we are all feminine in relation to the operation of his grace through Jesus Christ.

I am accepted among them as the kindly, odd, somewhat benighted, old man who studies the Bible in his spare time, so ordinary conversation—what’ve you been up to?—offers many opportunities.  A recent conversation with Grandmother and Daughter turned naturally to Jesus’ dying thoughts on the cross.  I read Psalm 22 aloud.  Daughter was visibly, tearfully moved and vocally overwhelmed that David could write such exact knowledge so many centuries before Jesus was born.

I spoke of God having mercy on whoever he chooses to have mercy and hardening whoever he chooses to harden.  I said I had been considering how, and told them the story of two prophets, Nathan and John the Baptist.  When Pharisees and Sadduccees, religious leaders, came to be baptized for repentance (Matthew 3:11, 12; Mark 1:4-8; Luke 3:15-17) John said, You offspring of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?[2]  And he challenged them to put their works religion to the test: Therefore produce fruit that proves your repentance…[3]

What I didn’t say but will record here for my own memory’s sake, whether these particular Pharisees and Sadduccees were directly responsible or not, John’s words were not secret and would have tended to harden the resolve of the religious elite to kill Jesus: the Lord (yehôvâh, ויהוה) desired to crush him (e.g., Jesus).  On the other hand yehôvâh desired David’s repentance and sent Nathan to that effect.

He was sent after King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed to cover it up.  Nathan told David a story (2 Samuel 12:1-6) about a rich man who had entertained a traveler with a meal.  The rich man hadn’t served up any of his own sheep or cattle, but the one ewe lamb he took from a poor man.  Then David became very angry at this man.[4]  You are that man![5] Nathan said to him.

“Did he kill him?” Daughter asked.  I was actually surprised that she had forgotten the story.

No, I answered, I have sinned against the Lord![6] David said and then he wrote the 51st Psalm.  I got to read Psalm 51 aloud to them.  When I finished Grandmother responded to a look on Daughter’s face at the line—Look, I was guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.[7]

“I don’t believe that either,” Grandmother said.

This is a point to concede by the way.  If it offends or hurts your feelings, welcome to the human race.  Being guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me is equivalent to being born of the flesh of Adam (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:42-58).  You do not want a relentless God who will pursue you with goodness and mercy all the days of your life to spend that time convincing you the hard way that you are a sinner instead (John 16:7-11).

Goodness and mercy, by the way is the NKJV translation of Psalm 23:6a.  In the NET it was translated goodness and faithfulness (chêsêd , וחסד).

chêsêd Hebrew KJV NET Tanakh Septuagint
Psalm 23:6a וחסד mercy faithfulness mercy ἔλεός[8]


Daughter informed me that my religion has a lot of guilt in it as she praised me for my adherence to it, and insisted that we, she and her pagan friends, desperately need a canon (i.e., of written scripture).

On Yule I learned that Mother had been taking drugs.  I wasn’t personally that aware of the winter solstice.  Daughter and Mother wished one another happy Yule in the car as I drove them to rehab.  It’s probably the only reason I knew anything at all.

I hadn’t known the night before that Mother had informed Daughter she was abusing drugs.  Daughter called me the next morning when Mother hesitated to actually commit herself to rehab.  In the car on the way Daughter was jubilant and excited that Mother was doing the right thing.  Yes, rehab is better than sitting home alone shooting dope, but I was much more somber and subdued.

At her home I had sat with her, held her and listened to her enough to convince myself that Mother had no interest in repentance.  Daughter was right.  My presence alone persuaded Mother to shower, dress and leave with us for the rehab facility.  But in the car I felt like I was delivering her up for more hardening.  In my admittedly limited experience I know no one who has returned to faith in Christ from the higher power mysticism of a twelve-step program.  I watched sadly the full realization of incarceration creep across her face as she was taken from us.  No matter what I say or how much I protest, Mother and Daughter believe I live a life of rules, while they are free.

I gave them My statutes, yehôvâh explained in the philosopher’s dream chapter of Ezekiel the prophet, and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live.[9] I call it the philosopher’s dream chapter because yehôvâh explained so much of his own understanding of Israel’s history there.  Then the twelve-year-old Jesus had this chapter at his disposal to renew and refresh his now human mind.

The Hebrew word translated My statutes was chûqqâh (חקותי).  It was translated προστάγματά in the Septuagint.  The Hebrew word translated My ordinances was mishpâṭ (משפטי), and δικαιώματά, a form of δικαίωμα, in the Septuagint.  This was translated the righteous requirements in: Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys the righteous requirements (δικαιώματα, a form of δικαίωμα) of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?[10]

In the same chapter yehôvâh explained: I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.[11]  Here the Hebrew word translated statutes was chôq (חקים); chûqqâh is the feminine of chôq according to Strong’s Concordance.  It was still translated προστάγματα in the Septuagint.  And again, the word translated ordinances was mishpâṭ (ומשפטים) in Hebrew and δικαιώματα in the Septuagint.  I don’t think these are different statutes or different ordinances.

The commandment…was intended to bring life.[12]  The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.[13]  But if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.[14]  God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh.[15]  For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died.[16]  For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.  For I don’t understand what I am doing.  For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate.[17]

Also I gave them My Sabbaths, yehôvâh said in the philosopher’s dream chapter, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who sanctifies them.[18]

In practice many professing faith in Jesus do not believe that yehôvâh/Jesus sanctifies[19] them.  We trust Him for justification only, primarily forgiveness.  We believe our sanctification is a measure of our own good works, obedience accomplished in our own strength for our own glory.  We do not believe that here and now a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God.  For the one who enters God’s rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works.[20]  I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.[21]  Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience[22] (ἀπειθείας, a form of ἀπείθεια; literally, disbelief)  Do we then nullify the law through faith?  Absolutely not!  Instead we uphold the law.[23]

I want to consider the movie The Host as a Holy Spirit metaphor for one who does not yet experience Him.  There are many spoilers here and as a metaphor the film is fatally flawed.  But in the hope of communicating some small portion of the Ineffable, here goes.

“The earth is at peace,” a resistance leader named Jebediah (William Hurt) narrates the beginning of the film.  “There is no hunger.  There is no violence.  The environment is healed.  Honesty, courtesy and kindness are practiced by all.  Our world has never been more perfect.  Only it is no longer our world.  We’ve been invaded by an alien race.  They occupy the bodies of almost all human beings on the planet.  The few humans who have survived are on the run.”

Then we are introduced to Melanie (Saoirse Ronan) fleeing her enemies: honesty, courtesy and kindness.  Following her earthly father’s example, she attempts suicide but lives, despite her best efforts, only to be possessed by Wanderer (also Saoirse Ronan).  Melanie’s old human survives to fight Wanderer for control of their body.

The Seeker (Diane Kruger) interviews Wanderer to glean Melanie’s memories for knowledge of other old humans in the resistance underground.  When she decides that Melanie’s old human is too strong for Wanderer, she plans to put Wanderer in a more compliant host, search Melanie’s memories herself and then let Melanie die the death she wanted.  But Wanderer has begun to love Melanie.  They flee The Seeker together.

Melanie tricks Wanderer into the desert and leads her to Uncle Jebediah and the underground resistance.  Uncle Jeb uses all of his authority as a leader to keep others in the resistance from killing the obviously possessed Melanie/Wanderer.  Even Melanie’s lover Jared (Max Irons) has no sympathy for her at first.  In a get-to-know-you walk-and-talk Uncle Jeb shortens Wanderer’s name to Wanda.

Melanie begins to love Wanda as she witnesses Wanda’s concern for the people Melanie loves, even some she hates or is indifferent toward.  The metaphor breaks down, of course.  The holy spirits, called souls in the film, are many and varied, and some or not as holy as Wanda.  The Seeker ironically becomes almost human in her fears that she personally is losing control to her host Lacey (also Diane Kruger) and that the holy spirits may ultimately lose their possession of the humans.  In the end The Host becomes Satan’s wet dream as The Seeker’s fears become flesh: holy spirits collaborate with the resistance to rid humans of the holy spirits.

 

Mother is on the verge of bankruptcy.  I helped her in a similar position nearly twenty years ago.  She called me before I left for Christmas.  I offered to help again.  She accepted.  As I drove the hundred miles or so to my own mother’s house the evening after Mother committed herself to rehab I understood why we hadn’t met to review her finances yet.  I recalled the things I’ve said and done with Grandmother, Mother and Daughter, fretted over some things I hadn’t said or done and heard Darth Vader echoing in my head, saying, “Now his failure is complete.”

As far as I know I am the believer of record in their lives.  I will give an account of this stewardship before Jesus.  As the enormity of my failure to live a life that commends others to Jesus inundated me in crushing waves, the image of my mother scrubbing the basement floor on her hands and knees popped into my mind.  Of all the things she had said or done, of all the things I might have complained that she hadn’t said or done, this simple image stuck with me.

I had overdosed on some hallucinogen.  I had thrown up all night long on her basement floor.  My mother cleaning up after me became a living metaphor of my life.  I had returned to drugs because a simple taste a few days earlier brought back the feeling I had lost since my early days of trusting Jesus again.  I made many more bad decisions along the way.  But my mother never gave up on me.

As I drove through the dark hills thinking perhaps I had been spared from helping Mother again financially, the admonition of my penny-pinching father came to mind:

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

The words weren’t his but Rudyard Kipling’s.[24]  A man like me would be a fool to attempt Kipling’s vision of manhood apart from the Holy Spirit.  But the image of my mother’s loving persistence and my father’s words of counsel gave me some hope that I was there, the right person at the right place and time.  And that image and those words carried me through that dark night until the continuous infusion of the Holy Spirit’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and control took over again the next morning.

[1] Genesis 1:27 (NET)

[2] Matthew 3:7 (NET)

[3] Matthew 3:8 (NET)

[4] 2 Samuel 12:5a (NET) Table

[5] 2 Samuel 12:7a (NET) Table

[6] 2 Samuel 12:13a (NET) Table

[7] Psalm 51:5 (NET) Table

[8] In the Septuagint both chêsêd (וחסד) and ṭôb (טוב) were translated by the one Greek word ἔλεός.

[9] Ezekiel 20:11 (NASB)

[10] Romans 2:26 (NET) Table

[11] Ezekiel 20:25 (NASB)

[12] Romans 7:10 (NET)

[13] Romans 7:12 (NET)

[14] Galatians 3:21b (NET)

[15] Romans 8:3a (NET)

[16] Romans 7:11 (NET)

[17] Romans 7:14, 15 (NET)

[18] Ezekiel 20:12 (NASB)

[19] When I struggled the most with this concept my Pastor was from the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  Today, as I scanned their webpage titled “Sanctification,” nothing jumps out at me as problematic except my own spiritual tic.  My flesh and my religious mind hear obedience in step 3 “to A Spirit-Filled Life”—“We maintain a continuous relationship with Jesus through obedience to His Word”—as a trigger word, calling me back to a DIY works religion.  But now I just translate obedience back into Greek, ὑπακοή, attentive hearkening, and the trigger obey disappears.  I remain (μείνατε, a form of μένω) in Jesus through faith instead (which is the actual word used in John 15:1-11 the Scriptural source of step 3).

[Addendum 1/26/2017] I’m not so sure Paul would agree that 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 “clearly teaches that there are two kinds of Christians.”

[20] Hebrews 4:9, 10 (NET)

[21] Galatians 2:20 (NET)

[22] Hebrews 4:11 (NET)

[23] Romans 3:31 (NET)

[24] If, by Rudyard Kipling

Romans, Part 54

Posted on by

To continue my attempt to view—Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord[1]—as a definition of love (ἀγάπη) rather than as rules, I’ll turn to the next item on the table I constructed: Love is…not self-serving[2] (οὐ ζητεῖ τὰ ἑαυτῆς; literally, “not seek itself”).

If someone owns a hundred sheep, Jesus said, and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for (ζητεῖ, a form of ζητέω) the one that went astray?[3] He made it clear He was not talking only about sheep and shepherds.  Looking at children, He added, In the same way, your Father in heaven is not (οὐκ, a form of οὐ; the absolute negation[4]) willing (θέλημα) that one of these little ones be lost[5] (ἀπόληται, a form of ἀπόλλυμι).  This is Jesus’ expression of David’s confidence, Surely your goodness and faithfulness will pursue me all my days…[6]

Still, I began to wonder in what sense the Father seeking his own was not self-serving or love seeking itself. I found a satisfying distinction in the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand men plus women and children.

Matthew

 Mark Luke

John
Now when Jesus heard [about John the Baptist’s death] he went away from there privately in a boat to an isolated place.

Matthew 14:13a (NET)

 Then the apostles gathered around Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught.  He said to them, “Come with me privately to an isolated place and rest a while” (for many were coming and going, and there was no time to eat).  So they went away by themselves in a boat to some remote place.

Mark 6:30-32 (NET)

 When the apostles returned, they told Jesus everything they had done.  Then he took them with him and they withdrew privately to a town called Bethsaida.[7]

Luke 9:10 (NET)

 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee[8] (also called the Sea of Tiberias).

John 6:1 (NET)

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John took pains to place the story in space and time. In Matthew’s Gospel narrative Jesus went to an isolated place after He heard of John the Baptist’s death.[9] John’s disciples came and took the body and buried it and went and told Jesus.[10]  Mark pointed out that this coincided with the return of the twelve,[11] the apostles Jesus had sent out two by two.  The purpose of this trip was rest and relaxation for the twelve and perhaps a moment for Jesus to grieve over the beheading of his cousin.  Luke added the destination, Bethsaida, and John added the body of water traversed, the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias).

John didn’t mention the apostles’ return (or that they were sent out for that matter). John didn’t make much of John the Baptist’s death.  He was still alive in chapter three[12] and spoken of in the past tense in chapter five.[13]  John set the story conceptually, if you will.

The fifth chapter of John’s Gospel account begins with a curious healing. A man lay by a pool in Jerusalem, believing apparently that if he were first to enter its waters after they were stirred up[14] (ταραχθῇ, a form of ταράσσω) he would be healed.  At least, that’s how his answer to Jesus question— Do you want to become well?[15]—sounds to me.[16]  Jesus healed him apparently by simple command (John 5:8, 9 NET):

Jesus said to him, “Stand up!  Pick up your mat and walk” [Table].  Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and started walking.  (Now that day was a Sabbath.)

Perhaps I should see this as a living expression of God’s grace as totally unmerited favor, but I can’t help but see Jesus as provocateur here, since the most important part of this story is the parenthetical—Now that day was a Sabbath.

When the religious leaders saw the man walking carrying his mat on the Sabbath, they said, “It is the Sabbath, and you are not permitted (οὐκ ἔξεστιν) to carry your mat.”[17]

“The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”[18]

“Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?”[19]

The man didn’t know Jesus, nor could he point Him out, since He had slipped out[20] among the crowd gathered in Jerusalem for a Jewish feast.[21]  After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, lest anything worse happen to you.”  The man went away and informed the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him [Table].[22]

John had a long lifetime to consider with the Holy Spirit what Jesus had said and done before he wrote his Gospel narrative. He related this story of the healing of a man by a command to break the Sabbath (as the religious authorities interpreted the Law) a man so ignorant of Jesus he could not even implicate Him when the religious authorities questioned him.  So Jesus met him again in the temple, all to orchestrate an opportunity for Jesus to say to the religious authorities, My Father is working until now, and I too am working.[23]

The religious authorities reacted exactly as one would expect religious authorities to react when confronted with a knowledge of God superior to their own, if the religious authorities in question were self-serving rather than God-serving: For this reason the Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.[24]

Jesus had a lot more to say to these religious authorities (John 5:19-23 NET):

I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing.  For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.  For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed.  For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.  Furthermore, the Father does not judge (κρίνει, a form of κρίνω) anyone, but has assigned all judgment (κρίσιν, a form of κρίσις) to the Son, so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father.  The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

I can do nothing more than listen to Yahweh come in human flesh speaking to religious authorities, THE religious authorities of the only religion ever authorized by the One living and true God (John 5:24-30 NET):

I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned (εἰς κρίσιν οὐκ ἔρχεται; literally, “into judgment is not coming”), but has crossed over from death to life.  I tell you the solemn truth, a time is coming (ἔρχεται) – and is now here – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.  For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he has granted the Son authority to execute judgment (κρίσιν, a form of κρίσις), because he is the Son of Man.

Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming (ἔρχεται) when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out – the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation (κρίσεως, a form of κρίσις, or, judgment).  I can do nothing on my own initiative.  Just as I hear, I judge (κρίνω), and my judgment (κρίσις) is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.

Here is a powerful clue to the meaning of a love that is not self-seeking: I do not seek (ζητῶ, another form of ζητέω) my own will (θέλημα), but the will (θέλημα) of the one who sent me.  Jesus continued speaking to the religious authorities (John 5:31-40 NET):

If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.  There is another who testifies about me [the Father, I assume], and I know the testimony he testifies about me is true.  You have sent to John [the Baptist], and he has testified to the truth [John 1:19-37].  (I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved.)  He was a lamp that was burning and shining, and you wanted to rejoice greatly for a short time in his light.

But I have a testimony greater than that from John.  For the deeds that the Father has assigned me to complete – the deeds I am now doing – testify about me that the Father has sent me.  And the Father who sent me has himself testified about me.  You people have never heard his voice[25] nor seen his form at any time, nor do you have his word residing in you, because you do not believe the one whom he sent.  You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify about me, but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.

I’ll take a moment to highlight what Jesus said about the authorities of the only God-ordained religion on the planet:

1) You people have never heard his voice nor seen his form at any time, nor do you have his word residing in you, because you do not believe the one whom he sent.  Contrast this to his words to Philip, John 14:8-14.

2) You study the scriptures thoroughly…it is these same scriptures that testify about me, but you are not (οὐ, the absolute negation) willing (θέλετε, a form of θέλω) to come to me so that you may have life.  This is utterly self-serving. For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, Paul wrote, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.[26]

Jesus concluded his discourse with the religious authorities (John 5:41-47 NET):

I do not accept praise from people, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God within you.  I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me.  If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.  How can you believe, if you accept praise from one another and don’t seek the praise that comes from the only God?

Do not suppose that I will accuse you before the Father.  The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope.  If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.  But if you do not believe what Moses wrote, how will you believe my words?

Here I’ll add a third item to the list:

3) If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.

In this light I’ll continue to look into the feeding of the five thousand men plus women and children in the next essay.

[1] Romans 12:11 (NET) Table

[2] 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NET)

[3] Matthew 18:12b (NET)

[4] I will leave it to others to debate whether the Father’s unwillingness was limited only to the children present at the time and place Jesus spoke.

[5] Matthew 18:14 (NET)

[6] Psalm 23:6a (NET)

[7] http://bibleatlas.org/bethsaida.htm

[8] http://www.bible-history.com/geography/ancient-israel/sea-of-galilee.html

[9] John 14:10, 11 (NET)

[10] Matthew 14:12 (NET)

[11] Mark 6:7-13 (NET)

[12] John 3:22-36 (NET)

[13] John 5:31-36 (NET)

[14] John 5:7 (NET)

[15] John 5:6 (NET)

[16] The explanation given in the KJV (John 5:4)—For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had—has been rejected as not original to the text by most contemporary Bible scholars.

[17] John 5:10 (NET) Table

[18] John 5:11 (NET) Table

[19] John 5:12 (NET) Table

[20] John 5:13 (NET)

[21] John 5:1 (NET)

[22] John 5:14-16 (NET)

[23] John 5:17 (NET) Table

[24] John 5:18 (NET)

[25] The Father’s voice, that is: Exodus 20:1, 19; Deuteronomy 4:12; 5:24.  I assume the voice they heard was Yahweh’s, the Son.

[26] Romans 10:3 (NET)

Torture, Part 5

Posted on by

I don’t want to leave the impression that I am so perfected in love that I never fear punishment.[1]  I’m a creature of habit.  The possibility that God is punishing me for something is the first thing that comes to mind whenever it seems that things aren’t going my way.  What I’m saying is, I think that is a bad habit.  If I trust Him instead of reacting in fear I find that, though things aren’t going my way, the way they are going is just as good if not better than my way (though comparing and contrasting actual events with my imagination or fears is a dubious occupation at best).

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,[2] the 23rd Psalm ends.  That translation sounded like what I thought I “knew.”  God’s goodness and mercy would follow in the train of my glory, confirming my virtue, if and only if I kept the law.  I didn’t, not so much.  So I didn’t expect (though I sometimes still hoped for) God’s goodness and mercy.  It was only later after his goodness and mercy hunted me down, tackled me to the ground and held me there that I began to see it and Him for who He is.  Later I learned that the verse was badly translated.  Surely your goodness and faithfulness will pursue me all my days,[3] is much more to the point.[4]  The rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose καταδιώξεταί,[5] follow hard upon, pursue closely.

The desktop image on the computer I use most often to study the Bible is a frame from Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist.”  She is on her side, facing away from us, recovering from the trauma of snipping off her clitoris.  Her “familiars,” the three beggars, wait patiently beside her.  She had an oracle that someone would die when they arrived.  In a few moments her husband will fulfill that oracle, crushing her larynx to silence the voice that spoke of an evil he rejected as implausible, and finally choking the life out of the woman he claimed to love.  This image by contrast reminds me of the Sunday I didn’t cut off my penis, and the different way I heard two passages of Scripture before and after that intervention.

Matthew 18:8, 9 (NET)

Romans 6:3-6 (NET)
If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.  And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into fiery hell. Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.  For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.  We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Before that Sunday, though they may have seemed harsh, Jesus’ words recorded by Matthew (and Mark,[6]) didn’t seem out of line when compared to a hero of the faith[7] like Jephthah who sacrificed his daughter to keep his oath.  And surely Paul’s words were metaphorical, a figure of speech, not to be taken literally.  After that Sunday I began to perceive cutting off my penis, or a hand or a foot as hyperbole, but being buried with [Christ] through baptism into death as the literal truth.  And to this day I’m not sure how to justify that opinion from the texts themselves apart from the (now obvious) fact that my hand or my foot, or even my penis, never causes (σκανδαλίζει, a form of σκανδαλίζω; or, entices) me to sin.

I introduce the story of the rich man and Lazarus[8] this way despite my sense that its context indicates reasonably clearly that it is not to be taken too literally.  Jesus’ illustration which precedes it of an unrighteous manager cheating his master/employer was certainly not a recommendation of good business practice.  His points were two: 1) the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries than the people of light;[9] and 2) make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth [one’s own presumably[10] rather than someone else’s], so that when it runs out you will be welcomed into the eternal homes.[11]

In Mark’s Gospel account Jesus’ was quoted, saying, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”  The disciples were astonished at these words.  But again Jesus said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God![12]  Jesus’ disciples were not contemporary socialists who assumed that the rich were swindlers and thieves who took whatever they had from the poor and working classes.  Their astonished question, “Then who can be saved?”[13] indicates to me they believed that the rich were blessed by God, that their wealth was a sign of his approval and favor.  And I assume they believed this because their religious teachers believed and taught it.  Jesus said (Luke 16:13, 14 NET):

“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money.”  The Pharisees (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed him.

This is the audience for, and the immediate context of, the story of a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen…who feasted sumptuously every day.  But at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus whose body was covered with sores, who longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.  In addition, the dogs came and licked his sores.[14]  In other words, Lazarus was “cursed” by God.

Both men died.  The rich man in hell (ᾅδῃ, a form of ᾅδης), as he was in torment (βασάνοις, a form of βάσανος),…looked up and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side.[17]  Hell is not γέεννα here but ᾅδῃ, Hades.  Peter quoted a Psalm in his first sermon after receiving the Holy Spirit: Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; my body also will live in hope, because you will not leave my soul in Hades (ᾅδην, another form of ᾅδης), nor permit your Holy One to experience decay.[18]  The rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose ᾅδην for Sheol (sheʼôl).

Peter (NET)

Blue Letter Bible (Septuagint)

Parallel Greek Text (NET)
…because you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor permit your Holy One to experience decay.

Acts 2:27 (NET)

 ὅτι οὐκ ἐγκαταλείψεις τὴν ψυχήν μου εἰς ᾅδην οὐδὲ δώσεις τὸν ὅσιόν σου ἰδεῖν διαφθοράν

Psalm 16:10

 ὅτι οὐκ ἐγκαταλείψεις τὴν ψυχήν μου εἰς ᾅδην οὐδὲ δώσεις τὸν ὅσιον σου ἰδεῖν διαφθοράν.

Acts 2:27

David by foreseeing this, Peter explained, spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades (ᾅδην, another form of ᾅδης), nor did his body experience decay.[19]  Jesus said: And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?  No, you will be thrown down to Hades (ᾅδου, another form of ᾅδης)![20]  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades (ᾅδου, another form of ᾅδης) will not overpower it.[21] Do not be afraid!  I am the first and the last, and the one who lives!  I was dead, but look, now I am alive – forever and ever – and I hold the keys of death and of Hades (ᾅδου, another form of ᾅδης)![22]  Three more times in Revelation (6:8; 20:13, 14) Hades was personified (ὁ  ᾅδης).  The NET translators only translated Hades as hell in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, which is progress.[23]

Of course, they also translated βασάνοις torment.  It was translated afflictions the only other place it occurs outside of the story of the rich man and Lazarus:  Jesus went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of disease and sickness among the people.  So a report about him spread throughout Syria.  People brought to him all who suffered with various illnesses and afflictions (βασάνοις, a form of βάσανος), those who had seizures, paralytics, and those possessed by demons, and he healed them.[24]  Perhaps they had good reason, for the rich man called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish (ὀδυνῶμαι, a form of ὀδυνάω) in this fire (φλογὶ, a form of φλόξ).[26]

The rich man was clearly thirsty, but was he in anguish in hell?  After the twelve-year-old Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem for three days, listening to [the teachers] and asking them questions,[27] His mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this?  Look, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously (ὀδυνώμενοι, a form of ὀδυνάω).”[28]  And the Ephesian elders were especially saddened (ὀδυνώμενοι, a form of ὀδυνάω) by what [Paul] had said, that they were not going to see him again.[29]  But the rich man was in this fire (φλογὶ, a form of φλόξ), surely that must mean he was being tortured in hell.

After forty years had passed, Luke recounted Stephen’s history lesson, an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai, in the flame (φλογὶ, a form of φλόξ) of a burning (πυρὸς, a form of πῦρ) bush.[30]  Other writers used forms of φλόξ as follows.  The writer of Hebrews quoted, He makes his angels spirits and his ministers (λειτουργοὺς, a form of λειτουργός) a flame (φλόγα, another form of φλόξ) of fire[31] (πυρὸς, a form of πῦρ).  Another form of λειτουργός was translated authorities in, For this reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities (λειτουργοὶ) are God’s servants devoted to governing.[32]  Paul was a minister (λειτουργὸν, another form of λειτουργός) of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles who served the gospel of God like a priest.[33]  Epaphroditus was my brother, coworker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister (λειτουργὸν) to me in my need,[34] Paul wrote the Philippians.

Jesus’ head and hair were as white as wool, in John’s vision on Patmos, even as white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery (πυρὸς, a form of πῦρ) flame (φλὸξ),[35] and, His eyes are like a fiery (πυρός, a form of πῦρ) flame (φλὸξ).[36]  Jesus described Himself as the Son of God, the one who has eyes like a fiery (πυρός, a form of πῦρ) flame (φλόγα, another form of φλόξ) and whose feet are like polished bronze.[37]  Paul wrote however, With flaming (φλογός, another form of φλόξ) fire (πυρὶ, another form of πῦρ) he will mete out punishment (ἐκδίκησιν, a form of ἐκδίκησις) on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.[38]  Perhaps that was why the rich man was in anguish in this fire.

But Abraham said, “Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish (ὀδυνᾶσαι, another form of ὀδυνάω).”[39]  So was the rich man simply thirsty and anxious or saddened because he and Lazarus and the Pharisees and Jesus’ disciples expected him to be blessed and favored by God?  If he had been hardened as one of the objects of wrath prepared for destruction[40] why didn’t he blaspheme the name of God like those who were tossed…into the great winepress of the wrath of God?[41]

Thus people were scorched by the terrible heat, yet they blasphemed the name of God, who has ruling authority over these plagues, and they would not repent and give him glory.[42]  They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their sufferings and because of their sores, but nevertheless they still refused to repent of their deeds.[43]  And gigantic hailstones, weighing about a hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people, but they blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since it was so horrendous.[44]

Granted, the rich man didn’t exactly repent either, though I’m not entirely clear how he might have repented of receiving good things in his lifetime, the stated reason why he was in anguish, anxious or saddened in a flame like the burning bush, one of God’s ministers or the fiery eyes of Jesus.  But when he couldn’t get any water from Abraham or Lazarus because a great chasm had been fixed between[45] them, he still didn’t blaspheme God.  “Then I beg you, father”, he said, “send Lazarus to my father’s house (for I have five brothers) to warn them so that they don’t come into this place of torment (βασάνου, a form of βάσανος; or affliction).”[46]  And here Abraham delivered the first of Jesus’ two points to this illustration: 1) They have Moses and the prophets; they must respond to them.[47]

In other words Moses and the prophets delivered the same message as Jesus, according to Jesus.  Then the rich man said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.”[48]  Again, Abraham spoke Jesus’ second point to this illustration: 2) If they do not respond to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead”[49]   And these two points serve his major point that what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight.[50]  In other words, while the rich man’s appearance (dressed in purple and fine linen…[feasting] sumptuously every day) may have impressed other people (You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, Jesus told the Pharisees), God was not so impressed (but God knows your hearts).[51]

And in that flame like the burning bush, one of the ministers of God or Jesus’ fiery eyes the rich man reconsidered his wasted life (Psalm 139:7, 8 NET).

Where can I go to escape your spirit?  Where can I flee to escape your presence?  If I were to ascend to heaven, you would be there.  If I were to sprawl out in Sheol [Septuagint: ᾅδην, another form of ᾅδης] there you would be.

Who knows?  Perhaps I’m meant to take the rich man’s thirst in the psalmist’s sense (Psalm 42:1-5 NET):

As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God!  I thirst for God, for the living God.  I say, “When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?”  I cannot eat, I weep day and night; all day long they say to me, “Where is your God?”  I will remember and weep!  For I was once walking along with the great throng to the temple of God, shouting and giving thanks along with the crowd as we celebrated the holy festival.  Why are you depressed, O my soul?  Why are you upset?  Wait for God!  For I will again give thanks to my God for his saving intervention.

[2] Psalm 23:6a (KJV)

[3] Psalm 23:6a (NET)

[4] The note in the NET reads: “The use of רָדַף (radaf, ‘pursue, chase’) with טוֹב וָחֶסֶד (tov vakhesed, ‘goodness and faithfulness’) as subject is ironic. This is the only place in the entire OT where either of these nouns appears as the subject of this verb רָדַף (radaf, ‘pursue’). This verb is often used to describe the hostile actions of enemies. One might expect the psalmist’s enemies (see v 5) to chase him, but ironically God’s ‘goodness and faithfulness’ (which are personified and stand by metonymy for God himself) pursue him instead. The word ‘pursue’ is used outside of its normal context in an ironic manner and creates a unique, but pleasant word picture of God’s favor (or a kind God) ‘chasing down’ the one whom he loves.”

[7] Hebrews 11:32-34 (NET)

[9] Luke 16:8b (NET)

[11] Luke 16:9 (NET)

[12] Mark 10:23, 24 (NET)

[13] Mark 10:26b (NET)

[14] Luke 16:19-21 (NET)

[17] Luke 16:23 (NET)

[18] Acts 2:26, 27 (NET) Table

[19] Acts 2:31 (NET) Table

[20] Matthew 11:23; Luke 10:15 (NET)

[21] Matthew 16:18 (NET)

[22] Revelation 1:17b, 18 (NET)

[23] The King James translators chose hell for every instance of ᾅδης. Addendum 2/11/2022: The current version of the NET has Hades rather than hell in Luke 16:23.

[24] Matthew 4:23, 24 (NET)

[26] Luke 16:24 (NET)

[27] Luke 2:46 (NET)

[28] Luke 2:48b (NET)

[29] Acts 20:38 (NET)

[30] Acts 7:30 (NET)

[31] Hebrews 1:7 (NET)

[32] Romans 13:6 (NET)

[33] Romans 15:16 (NET)

[34] Philippians 2:25 (NET)

[35] Revelation 1:14 (NET)

[36] Revelation 19:12 (NET)

[37] Revelation 2:18 (NET)

[38] 2 Thessalonians 1:8 (NET)

[39] Luke 16:25 (NET)

[40] Romans 9:22 (NET)

[41] Revelation 14:19 (NET)

[42] Revelation 16:9 (NET)

[43] Revelation 16:11 (NET)

[44] Revelation 16:21 (NET)

[45] Luke 16:26 (NET) Table

[46] Luke 16:27, 28 (NET)

[47] Luke 16:29 (NET)

[48] Luke 16:30 (NET)

[49] Luke 16:31 (NET)

[50] Luke 16:15b (NET)

[51] Luke 16:15a (NET)