Symbolic Reality

 July 8, 2022

In yesterday’s musings, I made the comment that the Genesis story is a mixture of symbolism and straightforward narrative, and that it can be hard at times to discern which is being presented (I should point out that symbolism is no less true than realism; they are two ways of seeing life). I was asked a simple, but important question: “What part of Genesis is symbolism?” There are many examples, but I will give one of the clearest that is found in the very narrative on which I had been commenting.

In chapter three, verses 14-16, we read:

“So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.””

The curse begins with something straightforward, something easily observable; snakes crawl on their bellies. The serpent speaks no more, but slithers across the ground. Then come these words describing the disgust with which snakes are almost universally regarded—“enmity between you and the woman.” God isn’t finished; he continues, “between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” With these words, we have slipped from mere description of how snakes are regarded into the realm of symbolism and typology. The bruising of the head and heel describe not only the serpent’s strike and the human response, but point to Jesus’ death on the cross. 

Upon the cross, Jesus was bruised in the heel. The devil thought he had struck a fatal blow, but Jesus was only wounded; three days later, he arose from the grave, and in doing so, struck Satan a mortal blow. The Tempter’s head was bruised, and he will ultimately succumb to that bruising.

We are awaiting the day. He writhes in raging agony, knowing his days are numbered. The blow to his head is fatal, but he is determined to destroy as many as he can before he finally succumbs. In the meantime, we wait, and wonder why it is taking so long. God tells us in 2 Peter: 

“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” —II Peter 3:8-9

That day is coming when that to which the symbol points becomes a discernible reality. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”

Trees

 July 7, 2022

In Genesis 2:15, something unusual happens. In the middle of a rather straightforward narrative about Creation, we find a Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, and in 3:1 a talking snake. Why in such a narrative would there be talk of a tree that had the power to give us such knowledge, and of a speaking snake? It’s almost as if in the middle of a historical narrative a fairy tale is inserted. I don’t understand the mindset that puts these together in this way. 

At the very end of the Bible, another rather fanciful tree is found—the Tree of Life, with leaves that heal nations (Rev. 22:2). In Revelation, we know we are dealing with symbolism, a fact not as easily discerned in Genesis. In between these two trees is another very literal one described in Galatians 3:13 and 1 Peter 2:24—

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.””

““He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.””

Between the tree that brought death and destruction upon mankind and the tree of life and healing for the nations is the tree on which our sins were nailed in the person of Jesus Christ. It is that tree which bridges the gulf between what our sins destroyed and what God will one day restore, for apart from the tree upon which Jesus died, no healing is possible and we would remain driven from the Garden and the tree of Life.

I still don’t understand the juxtaposition of ordinary and extraordinary in Genesis 2 and 3, but I do know how the supernatural invaded the natural 2000 years ago, and in my own heart some sixty years ago. I don’t understand it, but I am sure grateful for it!

Dehumanization

 July 6, 2022

While visiting a friend, I was perusing her late husband’s books and came across a thick volume about the Holocaust. I’ve read about it often, but have never seen it in such detail. Page after page filled with narratives, eyewitness testimony, survivors’ stories, and photographs. The photographs…

When General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces visited Ohrdruf concentration camp in April 1945, he saw bodies  piled like wood and living skeletons struggling to survive. Even as the Allied Forces continued their fight, Eisenhower foresaw a day when the horrors of the Holocaust might be denied. He invited the media to document the scene. He compelled Germans living in the surrounding towns and any soldier not fighting at the front to witness the atrocities for themselves. The Holocaust cannot be denied, yet there are those today doing exactly what he feared.

What struck me as I read wasn’t the graphic images or the tragic stories, but how it all happened. Anti-Semitism was rampant throughout Europe, and deepened as the National Socialist Party grew in power in Germany in the ‘30’s. It began and was fueled by the dehumanization of those perceived as different and therefore inferior. The Nazis looked at the Jew as subhuman, and when this happened, it was all but inevitable that they would treat them the way they did.

I fear we may not be far away from a renewed Holocaust. Political rhetoric has passed from seeking compromise in disagreement to vilification and demonization of “the other side.” Calls for violence are coming from our Senators and Congresspersons, and there are plenty of misguided and unstable souls all too willing to act upon such words of encouragement. I agree with Mother Teresa who opined that when a society has no problem with a mother killing her unborn baby, it should not be surprised when life in general is devalued. 

Our nation is a culture of death awash in violence. We have long ceased believing we are created in the image of God; we have sown the wind and are reaping the whirlwind. As Nazi Germany, drunk on hatred, racism, and violence dragged the entire world into war a generation ago, so we today are teetering on the edge of another calamity. I am not pessimistic; I believe in God, and in his purposes and goodness. He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not give us all things in Christ? It is the Enemy of our souls who robs, kills, and destroys, but he will not have the final say. The day will come when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and Savior. What a welcome day that will be!

Hunger

 July 15, 2022

A couple days ago, my son posted a video of him commenting on Matthew 15:32.

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

He spoke of the people being with Jesus for three days. “I’ve never spent three entire days with only Jesus,” he said. His words got me to thinking. I wonder how many times I have collapsed (“Fainted” in an older version) because I failed to spend the time with Jesus that I needed to have strength for the day. I can get so busy with the things I think are so important or urgent, and short change my time in prayer and Bible study, and then wonder why it feels he is so far away.

The fact is, Jesus never wants us to go away hungry and faint. He always desires us to have the strength we need to meet the challenges of the day, but sometimes we walk away before he has had time enough to really feed us. We grab a quick snack as we run out the door, in a hurry to get to work or play, and all the while, the table he has set for us filled with that which really satisfies and nourishes the soul lies neglected and forsaken.

Sometimes people are faint because as Jesus’ disciples, we haven’t done our part in bringing what we have to him to be blessed and multiplied. We have held onto that which has been entrusted to us for the purpose of sharing it with others. 

Sometimes we are faint because instead of continuing with Jesus, we have spent our time everywhere else, in places, on things, and with people who don’t have the ability to fill us with what we really need. Work, recreation, food and alcohol…even people cannot fill the empty place in our hearts God reserves for himself. Only Jesus can satisfy the hunger we have inside. And only Jesus will never send us away hungry.

Independence Day

 July 4, 2022

Here we go again. For the past eight years, I’ve assiduously avoided commenting on current events that always get interpreted politically. I have long grown tired of the arguments and vitriol that inevitably gets thrown around over such matters, but today, another mass shooting, this time at a celebration of our nation’s independence. Laudably, our president didn’t use this as a platform for political posturing, but others are unlikely to be so restrained. Handwringing will morph into futile inquiries into what motivated this young man to do what he did, and any number of new proposals for gun control which will do no more than those we already have to protect the innocent. Two statistics will probably not make the news.

The first is that, according to statistics, 97% of those perpetrating such crimes are on, or have recently been on one or more of a number of anti-depressants. The dangers of these medications are known; they can make symptoms worse, cause anger, suicidal impulses, etc., yet no one seems to be connecting the dots. These medications are increasingly being prescribed, and we seem to be reaping the consequences. Not being a medical person myself, there may be other factors, but this is at least telling.

The second is the absentee father syndrome. Upwards of 90% of incarcerated men admit the absence of a father in their lives. Again, the media say nothing about these statistics, instead focusing on the weapon used. Our young men are dying from the inside out because they’ve not known a father who would give them the stability of love, attention, correction, and example of what it means to be a man of real courage, integrity, and character.

An underlying corollary is the general decline of our culture. We have increasingly rejected the Judeo-Christian roots of our society, with the result that our connections with each other are more and more fractured and combative, even in public discourse. Instead of seeing each other as fellow citizens, we see one another adversarily, to our detriment. 

There are certainly other factors that play into the increasing violence we are seeing; violent video games, the proliferation of weapons, the hamstringing of our police, 24-hour news that makes instant celebrities of perpetrators and encourages copy cat crimes, and a growing culture of death evidenced by the rage of many over the recent Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade. When preborn babies are dehumanized and their killing lauded, it should not be surprising that the dehumanization of an impersonal crowd of people would follow.

I don’t pretend to have the answers. I do know that what we’ve been doing isn’t working, and that doing the same thing harder is unlikely to bring resolution. So I do what I can do; I live with as much integrity as I can, and lead my family and friends to do the same. I try to be aware of my surroundings; I vote. And I pray…that we will as a nation return to our roots in repentance, celebrate life from conception to completion. And I pray, “Even so, come Lord Jesus; save us not only from our sins, but from ourselves.”

God’s House

 July 3, 2022

This morning’s sermon was from Ecclesiastes 5 and entitled, “How to Go to God’s House.” Here’s most of the text:

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.”

—Ecclesiastes 5:1-2, 4-5, 7 

The pastor said just three things, with commentary on each. “When you come to the house of God,” he said,

1. LISTEN first. The most important thing that happens when we come to the house of God is not the fellowship or the music, but hearing what God has to say to us. Sadly, too often when we come to church, we are as it says here, “hasty in our hearts to utter anything before God.” We complain about the music, criticize the pastor, compare the decor to that church we visited last vacation. Even if we say nothing, such an attitude betrays a heart in need of repentance and grace. 

Do I come to hear what God has to say, or am I too busy with my own thoughts and judgments to listen?

2. SPEAK second. After listening, it’s time to respond with repentance, change, and commitment. But don’t be so hasty we make promises we have little intention of keeping. How often do we feel conviction, decide to do differently, but soon revert back to our old ways? Listening to God speaking requires that we respond by speaking back to him our faith and devotion.

3. FEAR GOD always. When I come into the house of God, I must come reverently. God is inviting me into his space—that’s amazing! It isn’t about me and my experience; it’s all about God’s revelation of himself to us. We wouldn’t even be able to come were it not for Jesus having opened the way through his death and resurrection. What an awesome privilege we have! 

I’ve noticed since the pandemic the anemic return of people to church here in America. We got used to watching from home, and many have not returned even though for most of us, it is as safe as we’ve always been. At the same time, my Cuban brothers and sisters are packing the churches wall to wall. What’s the difference? They have a desperation born of the deprivation they’ve been experiencing. We were inconvenienced; they were devastated. They are hungry for God, not satisfied with being spectators. They learned to listen,  are now speaking and acting in faith, fearing God more than man. On this eve of our independence, may God bring us to the same place here.

Cowardice

 July 2, 2022

“He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”” —Revelation 21:7-8 NKJV

It’s often instructive to note where we place ourselves in the Biblical story. In the story of the Prodigal Son, do we see ourselves as the wayward son, the elder son, the father, or one of the background characters? Am I faithful Daniel or lustful David? 

We love to think of ourselves as overcomers; we rarely see ourselves as unbelieving, abominable, murderers, immoral, sorcerers (the word here actually means those who deal in drugs), idolaters, or liars. We want to see ourselves roaming the golden streets, not roasting in a lake of fire. But John throws in a word that catches us off guard and challenges our smug self-confidence.

He begins this list of what we consider terrible sins with one we often think of more as a weakness than a sin: cowardice. Cowards too, shall be swimming through fire. 

When I first came to Christ, I wanted everyone to know him, and boldly witnessed to my friends whose response was mockery, ridicule, and rejection. No one had told me to expect this, and my confidence withered like a cut flower on a hot summer day. Though a pastor, when it came to publicly speaking of Christ, I was more often than not silent. I was cowardly in my witness, but never saw the consequences of such silence. I knew that others’ eternal destiny was at stake, but never saw mine as endangered.

And yet, here it is, plain as day: “the cowardly…shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” It doesn’t get much clearer than that! Those who refuse to warn people of their danger shall join them in it.

“Lord, forgive me my cowardly ways. Take away this weak heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh beating with passion and compassion for those whose present path is a highway to hell.”