Kingdom Expansion (Zechariah 2)

 

watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyfoa47QzRU

 

            After four Sundays in a short, rarely-visited book, Haggai, today we turn to his back-of-the Old Testament neighbor, Zechariah.  We don’t visit these prophets often, but don’t overlook them.  They sit right there in our Bibles. There’s nothing minor about these prophets. We linger in the Psalms, make seasonal stops in Isaiah, pay Jeremiah short visits every couple of years, and then quickly, skip to where we feel at home, the gospels.  God speaks through Haggai and Zechariah.    To have a robust, Biblical faith, we need pay attention.

             We also need to resist the urge to read Jesus back into the prophets.  We believe the Old Testament points to him.  He is the second person of the trinity, God in human skin.  Remember though, Zechariah didn’t know Jesus.  Zechariah didn’t know his prophecy’s ultimate fulfillment would come when God in human flesh was crucified on a Roman cross.  Zechariah wouldn’t have imagined the Messiah dying that way or even that God would inhabit a human body.  Zechariah probably didn’t know Rome.  Enter the story Zechariah is telling.  Follow that story. 

            In Zechariah 2, the prophet, has a vision of a man about to measure Jerusalem.  Then an angel approaches the angel who has been Zechariah’s guide.  The prophet watches the angels confer.  That’s on my bucket list: ascend Mount Kilimanjaro, see a Kodiak in the wild, and listen in as two angels talk. 

            The second angel tells Zechariah’s guiding angel Jerusalem is too big for walls.  The only wall around Jerusalem, a wall of fire provided by God, provides unlimited opportunity for growth in all directions.  Expansion of the city is anticipated and expected.  Before addressing this idea of the Kingdom of God expanding, we need to understand the way the power dynamic the moves the action in Israel’s story and in ours.

            The northern kingdom of God’s people, Israel, had been defeated and deported because Assyria was more powerful than them.  Assyria was overthrown by Babylon because the Babylonians had grown more powerful than Assyria.  Then, the Babylonians overpowered the southern kingdom, Judah, and took many from there to exile in Babylon.

            When Zechariah comes on the scene why are these exiles able, after 70 years, to go back to Judah?  It’s not because while in exile they attained the power to make this move!  Another empire, Persia, overpowered Babylon and permitted the Jewish people to return.  In power dynamics, the one holding the power permits the weaker one to do things, or, with their power, withholds permission. 

            Zechariah, in the tradition of the prophets, firmly believes that all has happened because God allowed it.  However powerful Assyria, Babylon, or Persia might appear, real power belongs to the Sovereign Lord.  The Israelites held tightly to this belief in spite of the appearance of their own impotence.  “The Nations” could only overpower God’s people if the all-powerful God permitted such a thing.

            How we perceive power plays into how we see the world and live in it.  Are we stuck in this seemingly never-ending condition of social-distancing because of the merciless, unfeeling power of the virus?  Or, are we dealing with curfews and mask mandates because our state and federal government is over-reaching, inappropriately extending its power to control our lives? 

            Or, do we take a different tack?  We’re not staying at home and wearing masks because the virus is too powerful and malevolent, nor are we committed to social-distancing protocols because the government is so oppressive.  We’re claiming our own power.  We choose to be good neighbors and good citizens and cooperate in the fight against a pandemic.  In living as we do, we’re exercising our own power to make choices! 

            One of the key themes in Zechariah has to do with how we, Zechariah’s readers, understand power.  As we enter God’s word, we accept our own powerlessness.  Naked and broken is the only way to stand before God.  Confessing our sins, our mistakes, and our weaknesses, we come hoping God will be merciful. 

            The people of Israel found themselves in such a defeated state when they dragged themselves into Jerusalem in 520 BC.  To these returnees, God said in Zechariah 2:10, “Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!  For I will come and dwell in your midst.”  God calls Israel “the apple of my eye” (v.8).  In their fragile condition, God received them with love, welcome, and grace.

            On the other hand, God spoke a different word to the plundering nations, who did what bullies do, use power to take what’s not theirs.  To Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and every empire down through history, God says, “I am going to raise my hand against them, and they shall become plunder for their own slaves” (2:9).

            A century ago, Britain’s reign as world superpower ended.    Thirty years ago, Russia made the same exit from center stage.  Like China and Japan, these great nations are still regional powers, but today, “superpower” is a title fit for only one people on earth: The United States of America. 

            Zechariah’s story should give American readers pause.  I have heard some megachurch pastors brag about America’s might and in some twisted fashion try to tie faith in Jesus, a crucified Jewish peasant, with American exceptionalism.  In the Bible, empires run afoul of God’s purposes.  Every time.  God has no interest in our chest-thumping.  Exposed, broken, and confessing: that’s how we approach God. 

            Zechariah spoke God’s condemnation of the nations in 2:6-9.  However, after promising to be present with his chosen people Israel in the newly constructed temple, God then makes this promise.  “Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord.”  They come seeking.  Twice the angel says, “Then you will know the Lord has sent me.”  First, he says it when the bullying superpowers are judged and humbled by God.  That humbling confirms God’s truth.  Second, when humbled nations make pilgrimage to seek the God of Israel, and are welcomed, that also signals that God’s truth has been spoken.

            Back in verse 4, the angel said, “run!”  The angel was urgent in declaring this would be a city without walls except for those provided by God.  The city needed to be able to continue to grow in every direction. 

            In the final vision of the entire Bible, a picture of God’s final victory and the salvation of all things, a new Jerusalem is imagined.  Describing the heavenly city, John of Patmos, in Revelation 21, draws on images from Zechariah 2.  To describe what he saw, John says, “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light. … The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of earth will bring their glory into it.  Its gates will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there.  People will bring into it the glory and honor of the nations” (Revelation 21:22-26).

            We live between what God hinted at in Zechariah and the final picture revealed to John.  Both show God’s power used to express God’s love.  How do we bring these prophetic portraits together? 

            We declare that all power and authority belong to God.  We believe this. We say it out loud.  We mean it.  In this declaration, we recognize our own vulnerability and we see all claims of power for the caricatures they are. 

            We name God’s power.  We also confess our sins and our desperate need for the love and new life only God can give.  Why in verse 11 did Yahweh, the Lord, accept “many nations?” Because they did not come expressing their might. They came in humility, offering gifts, bowing before the God of Israel.  Similarly, we who name God’s might, also name our need and come humbly, worshiping him. 

            Of course, in one short message I cannot cite every way we might live faithfully in this time we find ourselves between the nervously hopeful days of Zechariah and the picture of God’s final triumph we see in Revelation.  However, in addition to verbal testimony and confession, one more faith expression we must note in the here and now.  We must announce and demonstrate God’s I’ve halove. 

            True faith for the prophets was always tied to justice.  Justice, in God’s eyes, is the love that allows people to thrive; in other words, it is abundance, shalom.  When you donate to the “Helping Hand” ministry, you know your gift help someone pay their rent and get closer to shalom.  When we pray for each other, assuring each person his or her concerns are shared by the church family, we help the one prayed for take a step toward the abundance of shalom.

            Note, it’s not about wealth.  It is life lived in peace, safety, and right relationships with God and neighbor.  We live faithfully in the time between the resurrection and the second coming by proclaiming, confessing, and promoting right relationships and the abundance Jesus promises in the Gospel.

            This expanding Kingdom of God overtakes the shadow of decay and death cast over humanity since sin entered the world.  It’s not about counting converts or reporting how many weekend services were so packed-out people had to be turned away at the door.  It’s about living in right relationship with God and neighbor.

            The rebuilding of the temple in Zechariah signals this expansion of God’s people.  We do too, when we live faithfully.  We’ve heard how to do just that.  Now, we must respond.  You can choose how do this in the way you promote the Gospel and approach relationships with people you see every day.   Take a moment now to ask God to help you respond faithfully to his grace.

AMEN

Messiah in the OT - Psalm 22, 16

Messiah in the Old Testament (W. Kaiser) – Psalm 22, 16

            Walter Kaiser cites several Psalms in his effort to draw the line from the Old Testament idea of Messiah to identification of Jesus as the fulfillment of messianic prophecy.  Included in his work are comments on Psalms 40, 45, 68 & 72.  The reader can refer to his book The Messiah in the Old Testament (http://www.christianbook.com/the-messiah-in-the-old-testament/walter-kaiser/9780310200307/pd/0030X?product_redirect=1&Ntt=0030X&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP) for his comments on those Psalms.  Here, I will summarize Kaiser’s writing on Psalm 22 & Psalm 16 as each one points to Jesus as messiah.

            Kaiser cites five scholars dating back to Calvin who, in different ways, believe that the sufferer in Psalm 22 is King David, but also that the experience described in the Psalm transcends the experiences of David.  So, the Psalm definitely ties to David, but also must be fulfilled by someone (a) who comes after David, and (b) whose experiences are expressed in the Psalm in a way that goes beyond David’s experiences of suffering.  One of the scholars cited by Kaiser, Charles Briggs, writing in 1889, says, “The sufferings [described in Psalm 22] transcend those any historical sufferer with the single exception of Jesus Christ.”[i] In other words, only Jesus could fulfill what’s said in the Psalm. 

            Kaiser agrees, with his pointing to New Testament quotations of the Psalm as being among the strongest of the points in his argument.  Two of the supposed 7 last words of Christ, the 4^th & 6^th, come from this Psalm.  The fourth word is “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:45-49; Mark 15:33-37).  Kaiser observes that the Psalms were titled by the first line of the Psalm when the New Testament was written.  Matthew and Mark present Jesus as having the entire Psalm on his mind in those moments on the cross.  Also, the point of emphasis is on the word “my,” emphasizing the relationship of the speaker to God as his father.[ii]

            The 6^th word, “it is finished,” signifies the completion of God’s redeeming work (Psalm 22:31; John 19:30).  That Jesus’ final cry of accomplishment is a quote of the final words of the Psalm further demonstrates his identification with the one singing the lament.  From these observations as well as the other points he raises, it is clear that Walter Kaiser sees the Messiah Jesus in the words of Psalm 22.

            Psalm 16 points to the resurrection.  “My body lies secure; for you do not give me up to Sheol” (16:9b-10a).  Peter quoted this Psalm in his Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:27 as he discussed the resurrection.   Kaiser feels the hinge that keys the messianic interpretation is in the middle verse 9.  The NRSV translates the subject there “my body,” but the actual Hebrew word is plural and means “Holy ones.”  Kaiser’s reputation believes this must be translated in the singular, that it refers to Messiah, and that the Messiah is the one who will not be given up to Sheol.

            How does one avoid eternal death?  Resurrection.  Kaiser believes David, the author/singer of Psalm 16, knew one of his descendants would surpass him and would overcome death.  He thinks this is all David knew.  He didn’t know it would be Jesus, a carpenter’s son from Nazareth.  But, he knew one of his descendants would be the one and he conveys that in Psalm 16:9-11.  Kaiser also speculates that Psalm 16 could have been one of the passages the resurrected Christ shared with the Emmaus Road disciples (Luke 24).

            Kaiser offers much more material demonstrating the presence of the messiah in the Psalms.  He says more about the two I’ve discussed as well the ones I mentioned earlier and in the previous post on this topic.  In the next post I will review his identification of the messiah in passages from some of the Minor Prophets.

---

[i] Kaiser, p.112.

[ii] Kaiser, p.114.

Reflection from Walter Kaiser's "The Messiah in the Old Testament" - intro

Comments on The Messiah in the Old Testament – Opening Remarks

            In the 1720’s Anthony Collins published two works in which he attempted to show that “the literal meaning of certain messianic proof-texts from the OT could not support the messianic interpretation placed on them by the NT.  … The so-called ‘complete’ or ‘spiritual’ fulfillment of these OT texts that many were applying to Jesus, Collins concluded, could be no more than an illustration” (Kaiser, p.14).  The eighteenth century scholar Collins felt that there was no proof that Jesus had been anticipated as ‘messiah.’

            Kaiser then lists 7 methods of interpretation of prophecy used to overcome the challenge posed by Collins. 

1.      Dual meaning.  There might be an original meaning of a text, say from Isaiah’s time, and that meaning stood in Isaiah’s day.  This prophecy had a later, fuller meaning, to which messianic interpretation and application could be attached.  This method came from Thomas Sherlock in 1732.  The problem with this is the loss of predictive value.  The prophecy said something in Isaiah’s day, but they did not ‘predict’ something else, a future ‘anointed one’ of the Lord.

2.     Single meaning.  This view from J.G. Herder and J.G. Eichhorn declared the only meaning of prophecy to be its original meaning.  There was no secondary application.  Eichhorn was convinced that the last three decades of the 1700’s completely erased the idea that the OT prophets predicted anything.  The Bible reader had to discern the individual prophet’s life in order to glean hope for the future.  I have to say, I have real trouble understanding this method based on the brief description.  To me it seems like a reiteration of Collins’ original thought.

3.     New Testament meaning.  From 1828-1858, E.W. von Hengstenberg published and re-published a 3-volume work on prophecy.  In it, he gave final arbitration to New Testament authors.  For him, they determined how to understand the OT texts considered ‘messianic.’  His critics said his reading was dogmatic and ignored the historical context of Jeremiah or Hosea or whatever prophet was in question.

4.     Developmental meaning.  Nineteenth century scholar Franz Delitzsch could see that there were pericopes[i] used to support the idea of messianic prediction, but these passage simply did not provide that support.  They clearly contained different meaning (Kaiser does not provide an example on p.21 where this method is described).  So, he took a tact different than Hengstenberg.  Delitzsch saw the meaning of such passages developing.  The prophecies did not contain an absolute prediction but there was more to their meaning than the original OT understanding yielded.  The full development of the meaning was seen in later doctrine and Christian experience.  As I write this, I am conscious of the fact that I do not clearly see the distinction Kaiser is drawing between Hengstenberg and Delitzsch.

5.     Goal Meaning.  A.F. Kirkpatrick, in 1897, proposed that Jesus was the ethical and moral goal of what the OT prophets had in mind.  He did not fulfill specific and detailed promises.  He united all the lines of prophecy by filling them with new meaning.  Of course this rendered each individual pericope of Isaiah or Zechariah vague and void of specific significance.

6.    Relecture Meaning.  This is a process of reading old prophecies in a new way so that they have new meaning (without removing their original meaning).  This process appears encouraging (for Christians who want Jesus to be the fulfillment of the OT), but it is too subjective.  It cannot be sustained and it cannot have any sort of precision in identifying the history of a passage.

7.     Theological Meaning.  Whether or not Jesus fulfilled the words of OT prophets historically, theologically, what the prophets aimed for was the Messiah who was Jesus (even if the prophets themselves were not fully away of this).  H.G.A. Ewald said the history of Israel would find consummation and its final stage of growth in the Christian church.  I have talked to many Jews and read works by many others; they would nearly all be thoroughly offended by Ewald’s suggestion.

These seven meanings applied to prophecies considered potentially messianic are not necessarily Kaiser’s thought.  Rather, he summarized them on pages 19-22 in order to trace the history of how readers have tried to tie the OT to the NT.  Where does he come down in this conversation?

He thinks all seven procedures are self-defeating (p. 27) essentially because they are not comprehensive enough.  Each approach zeroes in on specific OT passages and in one way or another tries to draw a line to a NT idea.  But Bible verses or even entire passages cannot be ripped out of the Bible.  They must be read within the story.  The story shows that God has a single, unified plan.

Prophecies made within the course of the story are based on a relationship with the God who makes the promise.  Those prophecies, some of which might be categorized as ‘messianic,’ are not predictions the way we understand the notion of prediction. 

It is not like saying “Detroit will beat Green Bay 18-16.”  Would that prediction be right if Detroit beat Green Bay 21-7?  Or would it be right if Green Bay beat Detroit 18-16?  This is not what is happening in the OT words we have in the Bible in Amos and Joel and the Psalms and Ezekiel and the rest.  The words in the Bible come in the flow of people who are in relationship with the God of promise.  The prophetic words are seeds full of God’s promise. 

We only see the fullness of the potential of the seed as it blooms.  It is alive and growing along the way.  Isaiah’s words in chapter 45-55 spoke to Israelites in exile in Babylon in the late 6^th century BC.  But when that era passed, Isaiah’s words did not stop speaking.  Rather, his words that have become scripture were infused with the wisdom and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  As time went out, the message grew and “filled out” as a flower does.  The full bloom is seen in Christ.  He said as much (Matthew 5:17).

Here is what Kaiser has to say.  “We conclude, therefore, that the messianic doctrine is located in God’s single, unified plan, called in the NT his ‘promise,’ which is eternal in its fulfillment but climactic in its final accomplishments, while being built up by historical fulfillments that are part and parcel of that single ongoing plan as it moved toward its final plateau.  Thus what began simply as a ‘word’ about who God was and what he was going to do for a select group of people became a word that was intended from the start to be cosmopolitan in its effects, for it announced simultaneously who God was and what he was going to do for all the other nations on earth through this one group” (p.31).

After this introduction, Kaiser goes to a place that surprised me.  The title of chapter 2 is “The Messiah in the Pentateuch.”[ii]  I did not expect to find words pointing to Messiah in those first five books.  I think that is part of Kaiser’s point about the unity of the Biblical story.  I should have expected to find the Messiah there.  In my next post, I’ll share how Kaiser does that.

---

[i] Pericope – an extract from a text, especially the Bible https://www.google.com/search?q=pericope&oq=pe&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j69i60j69i61j69i60j69i59.2360j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

[ii] Pentateuch refers to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy.

The Messiah in the Old Testament

The Messiah in the Old Testament

            The Messiah in the Old Testament (Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) is the title of a book by Walter Kaiser, professor of Old Testament at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.  Monthly, in my newsletter articles and weekly in my blog, I will begin 2016 with thoughts Kaiser’s book has raised in me. 

            I don’t know that I could write an opening paragraph any dryer than this.  What possible interest could my reading of Kaiser have for you, friendly reader?  Only this: there is continuity between Christianity and Judaism.  If we Christians are ignorant of Judaism, we ignore our spiritual relatives to our peril.  Thus we must give our attention to our spiritual roots.

            The Apostle Paul calls all non-Jewish Christ followers “wild olive shoots.”  In order to be part of God’s people, we have to be “grafted in” (Romans 11:19).  To follow Jesus with a deep, mature faith, we have to embrace that by God’s grace, we gentile Christ-followers are adopted into Israel and not at the expense of Israel. 

            What is the eternal destiny of Jewish people who do not accept that Jesus is the Messiah?  That is for God to decide.  I will not in this space offer any opinion about the eternal destiny of Jews or anyone else.  I enter this exercise with fear and trembling.  I know the history of evils Christians have committed against Jews.  It is understandable that one of the most detestable things to Jews is the attempt Christians make to convert them.  I pray I can write in a way that is respectful.

As an evangelical Christian, I would try to help anyone of any background who does not follow and worship Jesus come to that point in their journey where they decide to worship and follow him.  But my role is to love, to encourage, to help, and to support and to do it all with compassion.  I do not convert anyone.  I do not “win souls.”  The Holy Spirit does this.  My efforts at reading about the Jewishness of Jesus are not part of a design to specifically witness to Jews.  I feel called to witness to all people.  But for reasons stated above, this witness is shared humbly.  Confidently and boldly, but just as important, humbly.

            My goal in this study is to more deeply understand Jesus.  And I invite you to join me in this.  As the Gospel makes clear, Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed one of Israel.  So, if we are to understand our Lord, we need to understand why he is called “Christ.”  It’s a title, not his last name.  It serves as a name, of course, because there is no other Christ.  But to know Jesus, we need to know all aspects of Him (or as many as we can).  John 21:25 implies what we obviously see when we realize Jesus is God.  No one can ever know all there is to know of Him.  So we strive to know as much as we can. 

            Kaiser writes, “The Bible is to be read with an appreciation of its wholeness, its unity, and its concept of a divine plan that is being enacted both in immediate historical fulfillments, and in a final, climactic fulfillment in the last days” (p.26).  This unity carries from Old Testament words about the Messiah through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and into the age of the church.  Kaiser’s proposal is that “the messianic doctrine is located in God’s single, unified plan, called in the NT his ‘promise,’ which is eternal in its fulfillment but climactic in its final accomplishments, while being built up by historical fulfillments that are part and parcel of that single ongoing plan as it moved toward its final plateau” (p.31). 

In other words, from the start, God planned to save the world through the Jewish Messiah.  I hope you’ll walk with me as I explore all the implications in the claim that Jesus is the Christ even and we are his, ‘Christians.’ Follow the blog (http://honesttalkwithgod.blogspot.com/).  Leave comments, or Facebook me or tweet at me.  Participate in the conversation.  Together, let’s begin growing in our knowledge of our Lord by growing in our understanding of what we mean when we say Jesus Christ.

At Home in the Story (Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 1:67-77)

As Christians with an evangelical bent, we feel called to scripture.  The Bible is special, unlike any other writing.  With tools of analysis we read critically, probing, questioning, and framing.  As we do this, we hold our sense that the Bible is God’s holy word and will stand up to our scrutinizing. 

            The Bible stories speak in the real world historical situations from which them come, but the stories also reveals the Bible as transcendent, speaking beyond the historical circumstances of the original writing. 

            With this in mind, how do we Christian, Easter people live in the Old Testament?  How do we find a home there?

For instance, how can we live in Jeremiah’s prophecy? We don’t understand exile.  We don’t know what it is like to see our nation fall into slavery. 

Moses led the ancient Israelites out of slavery, performed wonders from God along the way, and led them to the land Promised by God.  David led the nation into the city of peace, Jerusalem.  That city became Zion, the city of God. 

However, God’s people worshiped statues and idols.  God’s people dishonored the poor.  So God handed them over to foreign powers: Philistines, then Assyrians, and finally, Babylon. 

To the Babylonians, Jerusalem was not the city of God.   It was the capital of a backwater colony that was easily overrun. God’s chosen people, became slaves.

How do we feel the story?  Exile is not our experience.  Where is our connection?  How do we find a home in this story?  We have been told this is the word of God and in Jesus we are included among the people of God.  Through his prophet, God said, “I will fulfill the promise I made.  … I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up from David.”  What does that mean?  Did Jeremiah know that in the next part of the story there would be a virgin birth in a stable?  Did he see the cross coming?  Or the resurrection?  No.

How do we find the home we know is in the Old Testament but seems distant?  I suggest we pay attention to what the prophet tells us about this God who is our God.  Jeremiah says God promises that something better is on the horizon. 

God’s people had been utterly defeated by a large, powerful empire, the Babylonians.  In that situation of abject humiliation, God reassures His people that He sees them.  God is in control even in the horror of exile, and God will bring a new day through a future descendant of David.  When the Promised One comes, the people will experience the new thing God is inevitably going to do.  Jeremiah does not know what God will do.  But he knows God is going to do something. 

Insight into God’s character connects us to Jeremiah.  God is a God of promise.  God is present.  God is a God who acts.  We can relate to the words, but, what does it allmean?  What exactly has been promised?  What is it, specifically, that God does?

In Luke’s gospel we meet the elderly priest Zechariah. His wife has already gone through menopause.  They have no children.  Then an angel tells Zechariah they are to have a son. 

No one around them says this is it!  This is that Righteous Branch, that descendant of David that Jeremiah described!  No one says that.  Zechariah doubts the angel’s message, and who can blame him?  But the angel silences him. For 9 months, the priest cannot speak. 

Finally the miracle baby comes and Zechariah’s speech is restored and so too is his spiritual insight.  He remembers that God made a promise and that God was and is active in the life of his people.  A miracle pregnancy and a 9 month imposition of silence were effective reminders.  When Zechariah opened his mouth, he had a lot to say. 

Someone asked, what will become of the miracle son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the baby named John?

⁶⁷ Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a mighty savior^[a] for us
    in the house of his servant David,
⁷⁰ as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
⁷¹     that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
⁷² Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
    and has remembered his holy covenant,
⁷³ the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
    to grant us ⁷⁴ that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness
    before him all our days.
⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    by the forgiveness of their sins.

Interestingly, the priest Zechariah answers a question about his own son, with a prophecy about someone else – Jesus.  What of your son, Zechariah?  He answers that God is about to change the world through ‘Yeshua,’ Jesus, the one named ‘salvation.’ 

Finally, after 8 stanzas of praising God’s action in the coming one, only then does he speak not about but to his own son, John.  “You, my child, will be the prophet of the most high who will give knowledge of salvation and forgiveness to God’s people.”

Zechariah knows things Jeremiah did not know.  We know things he did not know.  We know much that the disciples did not know.  Before we read about the cross, we know the story ends in resurrection.  We know Jesus will go to be with the Father and will send His Holy Spirit.  We have the completed Bible.

Because of this are we more at home in the entire story, Jeremiah and Luke included?  The crucifixion and resurrection happened almost 2000 years ago.  The Second Coming, when Jesus makes things right in the world as he brings our final rescue from sin and death is in some uncertain future time that will come long after our earthly lives have ended.  Yes, God is present in the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit is elusive.  Yes, God is at work in His church.  But the church is so full imperfect people that the messes we create make it hard to see God when we are together. 

We asked Jeremiah is what do you mean?  How can we be at home in your words?  Now, we ask Luke and Zechariah, what does it matter?  Between the resurrection, 2000 years ago, and the Second Coming, 2000 or so years from now, what good is the story today? What is my part in it and why would is it good news with all that’s happening in the world right now?

Each week of Advent this year, we are singing verses from the hymn “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.”  Jesus is anticipated, born to set people free and release us from sin, and Jesus gives rest.  It’s there in the words.  We sing it.  Jesus is the hope of all the earth and the joy of every longing heart.  And every heart is a longing heart. 

Yet, this sense of distance persists.  We read the Bible and read it some more, we go through worship every year, and somehow it feels beautiful for the season, but just that.  How can this story go from being just another feature of December something more?  I know God is in the story and is inviting me in, but there are times I feel more lost the more I read and more distant, the more familiar it becomes.

This week, I went to UNC hospital several days in a row visiting various HillSong folks.  One day when I pulled in to the parking deck, I had a parking strategy in mind.  I knew which entrance I needed and I was visualizing where I thought I’d find a good spot for my car.  As I was doing this, I was surprised to find a spot on the first level.  I never get spots there.  But here it was.  So I left the car there and went in.

I was in there a long time.  When I came out, I had a sinking feeling.  I could not remember where I parked.  I the parking strategy that filled my mind when I had first arrived hours earlier.  The memory of where I actually left the car, on the first level where I never park, was gone.    

So I walked all through level two, and did not find my car.  I thought it was there, but I tried level three.  I walked every row; no car.  Doubt crept in.  I didn’t park on level four, did I?  That’s under construction.  I would have remembered that.  So, hurriedly glanced down a few rows of level one, but I knew my car wasn’t there.

So I kept searching.  I knew what I was seeking was in this parking garage. My feet ached from walking.  Relief was in that building.  The home we need is in the Bible –words of hope, peace, and love and truth.  All we need to thrive in the face of the struggles of our day has been revealed in God’s word, both Testaments.

After an hour of wandering through UNC hospital’s parking deck, I called my wife.  She drove over with H__ and M__.  As they came through the entry gate on level one, H__ said, “I see Daddy’s car.”  Candy called me and said, “Tell me exactly where you are and just stay right there.”  I got in the van and M__ said, “Dad, why couldn’t find your car?”

Sometimes even in church, even in the pages of the Bible, it can be hard to find our home.  Everything need and long for is before us, but there is background noise and we are so vulnerable to sin, we miss seeing God even though God is right here. 

It helps me to remember that the Bible is the ongoing story of God.  Jeremiah, lives in one part.  The days of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection are part of that story.  God interacts with human beings in each part. 

As we saw from Jeremiah, God is the promise-giver.  The priest Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, shows that God is the promise-keeper.  Jesus on the cross and at the empty tomb brings the best news; the promise is a promise of eternal life.  We can count on it.

We can also count on God involving himself in our daily lives.  God’s story is not paused between the end of book of Revelation and the Second Coming.  God’s story is going on right now.  We are actors in it.  The stuff of our lives matters to God. 

I was focused on this idea that I am in God’s story throughout that silly hour when I wandered around the parking deck.  I thought, “I don’t know when I’ll find my car, but God is doing something and that fills me with hope.  And I need to be responsive to God in my life.”

Recently in a project I am organizing, I have asked God to bring additional people.  Numerous times, I just asked for people.  And God has done it! But then, I looked at the people God brought I said, “Not them, God.  I meant other people.”  God said to me, “You never needed people for this because you had me.  I didn’t give you these specific people because you needed them.  I gave you these specific people because your heart won’t be right until you see the beauty in these individuals that I see.” 

This happened because these individuals along with me are in God’s story.  You are too. 

At the Lord’s Supper table, Jesus keeps us in the story.  “Do this,” he said, “eat this bread and drink this cup in remembrance of me.”  Communion centers us.  We live stories than God’s.  We can find our home in other places.  The discipline of communion brings us back to God.

We come to the table at Jesus’ invitation.  He invites all who have received forgiveness and come into life in His name.  Of course receiving forgiveness implies we need forgiveness.  We come as admitted sinners, owning our brokenness.

At this table, we remember who we were, but also who we are.  We eat the body of Christ.  We, the forgiven ones, are filled with Him.  We drink the cup and are filled with eternal life because Jesus shed his blood.  Jesus, who died and rose, left his Holy Spirit to live in us and among us.  At the table, we encounter God and He revives us as He shows us our place in His story.  We can face the things of life, the good and the bad because God is here and we are His.  In Him, we find our home. 

AMEN

Rejoicing in the Word (Nehemiah 8:1-12)

          On October 10 of last year, I began reading through the Bible.  I read The Message, an English version translated by Eugene Peterson.  He said his intent was to translate the Bible into “American English.”  Read The Message and you will realize how quickly language shifts.  What he calls “American English” is very much 20^th century “American.” A few phrases and idioms are out of vogue.  Even so it is a delightful translation and I read all the way through by the end of the year. 

          Not everyone would want to do that.  Not everyone has the freedom.  That’s a lot of scripture in a short time, but not as short a period when author Margaret Feinberg read through the entire Bible during the 40 days of Lent last year.

          Why would she or I or anyone try to digest the entirety of scripture this way?  In such large chunks, it is hard to narrow in and meditate on specific ideas in the Bible.  What is the benefit of this approach to reading?

          It helped me condition my thinking according to the world of the Bible.  I felt the story.  The journey through 1^st and 2^nd Kings alone is exhausting and painful.  Over and over the kings of Judah and Israel worship false gods, ignore the prophets of the one true God, exploit the people, and find themselves at the mercy of foreign monarchs who abuse without restraint.  By the end of 2^nd Kings, the reader is depressed. 

          But then, exile comes as the last King, Zedekiah, is blinded and led off to slavery in Babylon.  And then, we see God’s people in Babylon and Persia and we realize God is there too.  Even as the layers of disobedience pile up, God never leaves.  Esther, Nehemiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel show God’s faithfulness and grace as second chances are given over and over.  Reading through it all gives the reader the arc of the story, a sense of God as God moves with humanity through the eras of history. 

          Another book I read in 2013 is The Book of God: The Bible as a Novel.  Wangerin is extremely creative in his telling of the stories of scripture.  Max Lucado too is an author who brings passion to his depictions of the Bible narratives. 

          I am recommending as a pathway into the Bible that we read it as a great story.  Ignore chapter and verse and simply get into the story.  A translation like The Message may facilitate this.  So too might a novelization like the writings of Wangerin or Lucado, to name just two of many outstanding writers who reflect on scripture.  This year I am going to go through the Contemporary English Version.  Like The Message it is in language patterns similar to our every day speech.  I won’t cram it in in less than 3 months like in 2013.  I’ll read a chunk, leave it, then go back to it.  For me, the exercise is a way to live in the story world. 

          This approach to the Bible as story helped me tremendously in reading Nehemiah.  Nehemiah is situated in the time of exile.  Israel has fallen to Babylon.  Then Babylon falls to Persia and the Israelite slaves go from one master to another.  Yet all is not lost.

          We see in the Bible the Jewish people cling fiercely to their role as God’s chosen even when they appear utterly defeated.  Other ancients assumed when they were defeated that the gods of their conquerors were superior to their own gods.  Not Israel.  No matter what happened, Israel claimed the uniqueness and superiority of Yahweh as the only God. 

          In the book of Genesis, Israelite Joseph, son of Jacob is a slave who rises from death row to become governor.  He runs the empire and through his divinely inspired wisdom the Egyptians survive the famine.  Similarly, Daniel rises in Persia to great authority, a slave ruling over the nation.  Nehemiah, also in Persia, becomes the cupbearer to the King.

          This slave from Jerusalem is so important that the Persian emperor a man with enormous responsibilities pays attention to Nehemiah’s emotions.  Nehemiah receives reports that Jerusalem, the city of David, lies in ruins.  He is overcome with depression and the king takes note of his sadness.  The king grants Nehemiah permission to leave his service as cupbearer, travel to Jerusalem, and rebuild the city. 

          By the time we arrive at the book of Nehemiah, chapters 8 and 9, the priest, Ezra, has come from Persia, to join the rebuilding effort.  Israel will not be the people of God without worship and not just any offering to the Lord, but proper worship.  This is crucial to know in the story world of Bible.  Worship matters.  The identity of the great “I AM,” Yahweh, the God of Abraham, demands that worship be at the core of who Israel is.   

          With this sense of story, we realize what is happening when we open Nehemiah 8 and see Ezra addressing the nation as they gather.  They are starting over.  After slavery, after the destruction of the temple and the city, they once again gather, turn their hearts to God, and worship.  We would not get all the undertones of the story by just opening up Nehemiah and beginning our reading at chapter 8, verse 1. 

          British preacher Peter Mead says, “I often ponder the fact that the Bible men and women whom I most aspire to be like are not those with a ready quiver full of pithy proof-texts, but those who know the God of the Bible because they are washed in the Bible as a whole, book by book.”[i]  Are we so washed in the Bible so that we get a sense of what God is doing both in the Bible story we are reading and in our lives as we read?  Or do we just whip a verse or there with no connection to all God is doing in history.  Dangling Bible verses quoted out of context do a disservice to God.  When we quote without a sense of story, we deceive ourselves into thinking we are being Biblical when in fact we’re just self-righteously drawing to our own abilities to memorize.  Quoting is fine and is good, but only when it is connected to story – God’s and ours.

          In Nehemiah 8, worship stands as the highpoint marking the moment the nation re-forms as God’s people.  In the center of the worship is the Torah, the law, the word.  Torah is the content of the first five books of the Old Testament.  It is what God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai as God called his people out of Egypt in the Exodus.  Before they could go to the Promised Land, they had to understand God.  The Torah is creation, 10 commandments, the story of deliverance, and the review in Deuteronomy, the entire law revisited to prepare the nation to enter the land. 

          Nehemiah 8:3 reports that the people, men, women, and children, stood at the Water Gate in Jerusalem while the priest Ezra read.  I thought about having us all stand throughout the sermon this morning.  They stood there from early morning to midday, maybe as long as 4 hours without sitting.  They stood and listened as Ezra read and explained the Torah. 

It had been so long since the people of Israel lived in the land and live in the word that many had even forgotten the language.  They needed priests to translate Ezra’s teaching from Hebrew into Aramaic (8:7-8).  But they patiently endured the lengthy session because they could not think of anything that mattered as much as being in the word.  Their return to God would be founded upon the word.  The Torah was how God communicated and on it they would stand. 

          Walter Brueggemann comments that “remapping and reconstruction becomes the ongoing work of Judaism.  It is clear,” he writes, “the work of Judaism is always postexilic [after fall in sin and restoration by grace] and is always on the horizon of Yahweh’s gathering, healing, forgiving, loving propensity.”[ii]  In our lives as followers of Jesus, we remember that he is the Jewish Messiah and that in Him, as we read in Romans; we are grafted into the people of God.  But this is only so because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.  Our story cannot be told without the cross and the resurrection.  Israel had to begin with Torah and continuously return to Torah.  We have to begin with the Gospel and continuously return to it.  This ongoing work of reconstruction is ours as we commit ourselves to repentance (turning from our sins), receiving forgiveness, and giving it.  As the New Testament puts it, the Gospel is new wine and we are new creations.

          In Nehemiah 8, when the law was being read during that four-hour stretch, people began weeping.  They were overcome by their own guilt.  However, the governor, Nehemiah, and the priest, Ezra, stopped the lamentations.  The people felt their sin, the weight of it, the filth of it, but Ezra and Nehemiah wanted to introduce a new emotion – joy.  We weep in sin because we are cut off from God.  We grieve our sins because sin rips us away from the good that God created us to be.  We become something less than fully human.  At the cross, Jesus took it all on himself.  In Him, in the waters of baptism, the sins are washed away.  Isaiah 61:3 – He gives beauty for Ashes, gladness instead of mourning.

          Nehemiah 8:10: “This is a special day for the Lord your God.  So don’t be sad and don’t cry.  Enjoy your good food and wine and share some with those who don’t have anything.  … This is a special day for the Lord, and he will make you happy and strong.  This is a sacred day, so don’t worry or mourn” (8:10b-12).

         

          A few weeks ago, we talked about the sin cycle that is so prevalent in the book of Judges.  The people worship other gods and fall away from the Lord.  The Lord gets angry.  The people fall into domination at the hands of cruel invaders.  The people cry out and the Lord responds by sending a hero, a judge.  Through the judges, the Lord brings salvation.  After the salvation, the people live in peace, joy, and faithfulness.  This is bliss until they forget and in disobedience, they abandon the Lord and it starts all over.

          Nehemiah lies within the story of this cycle of sin, fall, and deliverance.  Chapter 8, verse 1, the deliverance has come.  Ezra stands and reads the word because the story is important and nothing can happen between God and the people until they locate themselves within it.  They hear and they realize their place and they weep. 

          Sin.  Restoration.

          And then, as Ezra and Nehemiah insist, not weeping, but rejoicing.  God has given the word, which speaks who He is and it – the word – is able to hold us up and make us new. 

          To be human is to live with our own failures.  Dreams die.

          It does not mean we die with them.  It may feel that way.  But no.  We can’t wallow in sorrow because a story is beneath us and around us and the God of that story lifts us. Fallen, we rise because he raises us.          When we start again, after the fall-out and deep pain has infected our souls, we stand on the Gospel.  We stand on the truth that God spoke to the world through Israel, and then again through His son our Savior Jesus.  The Bible draws us to Jesus and Jesus lifts us to our feet.  Failure is not the end of our story.  We belong to Jesus, risen one.  Because of Him, the sin cycle is broken and in all circumstances, we have joy.   

AMEN

---

[i] Peter Mead (2014), Sermon Central website - http://www.sermoncentral.com/pastors-preaching-articles/peter-mead-why-bible-reading-is-down-at-your-church-1801.asp?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=scnewsletter&utm_content=SC+Update+20140130

[ii] Brueggemann (1997) Theology of the Old Testament, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, p.444.