Truth in a minor key

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people--Proverbs 14:34

I like musicals. There, I said it. Descended from classic opera, these dramatic portrayals of the lives of epic heroes and heroines almost always include three major themes. First, there is a love story; even in a historic setting or biopic, the story needs a love interest to keep the audience interested (example: the love letters between John Adams and his wife Abigail in the musical 1776). Next, there is always a villain, who lays out his or her evil plans in a minor key (see "Be Prepared" from The Lion King, or "Poor, Unfortunate Souls" from The Little Mermaid). Finally, there is almost always an ending where good triumphs over evil--unless, of course, it is a tragedy (think West Side Story) where the audience is left to ponder what might have been had tragedy not taken over. It is formulaic, but when it works, it is pure magic.

Similarly, those of us who grew up in church know the classic formula to a good sermon is three points and a poem. Usually, the poem is at the end, and it is selected for inspiration (to inspire the congregation to act), for meditation (to urge the congregation to focus their thoughts on the attributes or Person of God), or for punctuation (to underscore a point the preacher is trying to make).

I started thinking of messages and musicals when I read the final sermon of Moses in Deuteronomy chapters 28 through 32. Moses spends the first 5 minutes of his sermon listing all of the blessings that God promises to the faithful.

Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.  Blessed shall be the offspring of  your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.  Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.  The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways....The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully. --Deuteronomy 28: 3-7, 13

Pretty impressive.  However, knowing human nature and our propensity to sin, Moses' second point is much longer.  It is the curses associated with disobeying God.

Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.  Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of  your flock.  Cursed shall you be when  you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.  The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me....Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed  you.  --Deuteronomy 28:16-20, 47-48

This is just an excerpt--the blessings, comprehensive as they were, are summarized in the first 14 verses of chapter 28.  The curses, however, take another 54 verses, to drive home the point.  Chapter 29 outlines the history of Israel to that point, underscoring the blessings of God when the Patriarchs were faithful, and the curses endured by their fathers when they became faithless.

Moses' third point is the most hopeful, because it deals with restoration.  Our sin nature entices us into a cursed existence, but we can break out of bondage by returning to the righteousness of God.

(When) you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore  you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. --Deuteronomy 30:2-3

He gives them words of encouragement: "For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach." (Deut. 30:11).  He sums it all up with a simple choice: "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity." (Deut. 30:15).  He urges them to choose life.

To drive home the point, Moses composes a song, which he sings to the people in chapter 32.  Does he sing something upbeat and peppy?  Hardly.  Is the song Moses sings inspirational?  Not in the way you would think.  The song Moses sings sounds more like the song of the villain in a modern musical, because he wants to avert a tragedy.  The verses of the song go like this:

God is Good
"For I proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God!  The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He." (Deut. 32:3-4)

Men Have a Sin Nature
"They have acted corruptly toward Him they are not His children because of their defect; but are a perverse and crooked generation.  Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people?  Is not He your Father who has bought you?  He has made you and established you." (Deut 32:5-6)

Look To Your Past--The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
A.  The Good
"Remember the days of old, consider the years of all generations....When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.  The Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.  He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.  Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions.  The Lord alone guided him, and there was no foreign god with him.  He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the produce of the field; He made him such honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock, curds of cows, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, and rams, and goats, with the finest of the wheat, and of the blood of grapes you drank wine." (Deut 32:7-14)

B.  The Bad
"But Israel grew fat and kicked--you are grown fat, thick, and sleek--then he forsook God who made him, and scorned the Rock of his salvation.  They made Him jealous with strange gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger.  They sacrificed to demons who were not God, to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread.  You neglected the Rock who begot you, and forgot the God who gave you birth.  The Lord saw this, and spurned them because of the provocation of His sons and daughters.  Then He said, 'I will hide My face from them'." (Deut. 32:15-20)

C.  The Ugly
"I will heap misfortunes on them; I will use My arrows on them.  They will be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, with the venom of crawling things of the dust.  Outside the sword will bereave, and inside terror--both young man and virgin, the nursling with the man of gray hair.  I would have said, 'I will cut them to pieces, I will remove the memory of them from men,' had I not feared the provocation by the enemy, that their adversaries would misjudge, and that they would say, 'Our hand is triumphant, and the Lord has not done all this.'  For they are a nation lacking in counsel, and there is no understanding in them."  (Deut. 32: 23-28)

The Choice Is Yours
 "Would that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would discern their future!  How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up?...Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, in due time their foot will slip; for the day of their calamity is near, and the impending things are hastening upon them.  For the Lord will vindicate His people, and will have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their strength is gone, and there is none remaining, bond or free.  And He will say, 'Where are their gods, the rock in which they sought refuge? Who ate of the fat of their sacrifices?  Let them rise up and help you, let them be your hiding place!'  See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; it is I who put to death and give life.  I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from my hand....Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance on His adversaries, and will atone for His land and His people." (Deut. 32:29 and following).

I worked a concert last night at ATT Stadium in Arlington (yes, where the Dallas Cowboys play).  The band was U2, doing their 30 year reunion tour.  Lead singer Bono was recently quoted in a discussion about today's popular Christian music.  Bono, who is a Christian himself, said there is a lot of dishonesty in modern Christian art.  "I would love if this conversation would inspire people who are writing these beautiful gospel songs, write a song about their bad marriage.  Write a song about how they're pissed off at the government.  Because that's what God wants from you, the truth," Bono said.  "And that truthfulness will blow things apart."

Perhaps there should be more songs like Moses sang, songs about the consequences of sin, and the dreaded fate of those who reject God but expect His blessing.  Before restoration comes repentance.  To quote a popular musical number, "You can't have one without the other."

Confessions of a wandering mind

Jesus is either a stumbling stone, or a rock you can build your life on. --Robert Morris http://gatewaypeople.com/watch/message-archives/individual

My mind has been all over the map in recent days.  Okay, now where was I?  Oh, yeah.

This morning I woke up to thoughts of justice, but how certain groups may get offended by injustice, and perpetrate lawless acts themselves as a result.  No justice, no peace.  We will riot in the streets until justice is done.  Know justice, know peace.  We will loot and plunder and steal and kill and destroy until we get our way.  Wait, what? Personally, I don't know if the ends justify the means, but that's just me.

Last night I was thinking about the philosophy of the origin of the Universe.  I am neither a scientist, nor a philosopher.  I am an amateur theologian, meaning I come to the idea of beginnings with certain presuppositions.  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.  Scientists would scoff at me, because there is a great deal of physical, historical, and scientific evidence that I will ignore or lay aside because it does not fit my world view.  However, it seems to me that most scientists come to the table with their own set of presuppositions.  God cannot be considered in the equation, because He is not observable or provable.  Therefore, the only evidence that is considered is that which fits neatly into their scientific method.

For the last two days I have been working on a sort of poem about addictions and overcoming addictive behaviors.

Each second is a grain of sand,  

Each task a drop of water. 

Every thought is a single piece of straw.
Life consists of gathering our time, tasks, and thinking into little bricks called days.
Each struggle is like a kiln, hardening the bricks, 

so that they can be stacked together to make up a life. 

Stack up enough bricks, and you make a defense  

against falling back into old habits 

  against falling back into destructive patterns 

    against failing at life....

It's a work in progress; don't judge.

The thread that holds all of these disparate thoughts together is a sermon I heard this evening.  The text was the sixth commandment, Thou shalt not commit murder.  The theme, on the other hand, was love.  It almost sounds like the preacher was having a week like mine.  But here is how he built his case.  Murder is preceded by hate. "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." (1 John 3:15).  Hate is preceded by anger. "...but for Cain and his offering the Lord had no regard.  So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell." (Genesis 4:5--the anger of Cain led to the first murder recorded in the Bible.)  An offense precedes anger. "And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another." (Matthew 24:10, NKJV).  Unfulfilled expectations precede offenses.   John the Baptist was in prison when Jesus came to Jerusalem, and John sent his disciples to Jesus with the question: Are you the Expected One, or should we look for another?  Jesus answered by performing many miracles, then sent back this message, "Blessed is he who does not take offense at me." (Luke 7:23).

Now, the Greek word that is translated "offense" is the term scandalon.  It is where we get the word "scandal".  The word has two meanings.  The first is "a snare."  It could be thought of as the stick that holds up the edge of a box; when a small animal comes to grab the bait, he will push aside that support, that scandalon, and be trapped.

Many people are trapped by the concept of justice.  A black man is killed by police.  The community is offended, because the police officer did not meet their expectations to protect and serve the community.  The community is angry.  Many in the community allow hatred to overcome them.  Hate leads to murder, or at least murderous oratory.  The same progression the preacher outlined above.  An unjustified killing of a member of their community leads to plotting murder of police officers.  "The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God." (James 1:20).  Murder begets murder, violence begets violence.  An eye for an eye, and all that.  This is scandalous.

A second meaning for the word scandalon is "a stumbling block."  Here is where I want to go back to my study of the origins of the Universe.  Noted seminary professor and Christian author R.C. Sproul, along with Keith Mathison (professor of systematic theology at Reformation Bible College), have recently released an updated and revised edition of Sproul’s book Not a Chance, first published in 1999.  This philosophically and theologically oriented book covers much of the same material that a Philosophy 101 or Logic 101 textbook might discuss. However, the parts that will interest our readers the most explore the evidence that the universe arose due to purposeful intelligent design, and a First Cause, rather than unguided chance
processes.  So how did the universe come to be? In a passage that is very helpful for framing the issue, they note that there are only four options for explaining the origin of the cosmos:

Option 1: The cosmos is an illusion; it doesn’t exist.
Option 2: The cosmos is self-existent (and eternal).
Option 3: The cosmos is self-created.
Option 4: The cosmos is created by something else that is self-existent. (p. 154)

Clearly, option 1 is false.  We are not illusory; we do exist.  Option 2 is refuted by leading scientists, whose consensus  is that the cosmos had a definite beginning: they call it "the Big Bang", and date it at approximately 15 billion years ago.  15 billion years is a very long time, but it is not, by definition, "eternity."  Option 3 is logically impossible, because in order for something to create itself, it would have to be in existence before it was itself created.  Option 4, then, is the only logical answer to the origin of the Universe.  God is that "something else that is self-existent."

Now, evolutionists would laugh at our little philosophical exercise, and point out that there is a lot of observable data that serves as evidence of a big bang and subsequent evolution of life on Earth, and perhaps elsewhere in the Universe.  They do not realize that the "evidence" they rely upon is random information that they are organizing, along with some opinions and presuppositions to come to their godless conclusions. If there were evidences of God, it must be discounted because it is not easily replicated.  I have myself seen irrefutable physical evidence that exists in a small riverbed in Glen Rose, Texas, showing footprints of men and of dinosaurs in the same rock strata.  Evolutionists set this evidence aside as unexplainable, an anomaly that doesn't fit their narrative.

"It is written, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and he who believes in Him will not be put to shame." (Romans 9:33).  Modern science sees God as offensive, and Jesus as a stumbling block.  We Christians use that same scandalon as the cornerstone of our faith.  What is offensive to the World is foundational to our theology, our religion, and our world-view.

A better poem about the rock-solid nature of Jesus in our lives was penned by Michael Card in his song Scandalon:

The seers and the prophets had foretold it long ago
That the long awaited one would make men stumble
But they were looking for a king to conquer and to kill
Who'd have ever thought He'd be so meek and humble
Chorus
He will be the truth that will offend them one and all
A stone that makes men stumble
And a rock that makes them fall
Many will be broken so that He can make them whole
And many will be crushed and lose their own soul
Along the path of life there lies a stubborn Scandalon
And all who come this way must be offended
To some He is a barrier, To others He's the way
For all should know the scandal of believing
He will be the truth that will offend them one and all
A stone that makes men stumble
And a rock that makes them fall
Many will be broken so that He can make them whole
And many will be crushed and lose their own soul
It seems today the Scandalon offends no one at all
The image we present can be stepped over
Could it be that we are like the others long ago
Will we ever learn that all who come must stumble
He will be the truth that will offend them one and all
A stone that makes men stumble
And a rock that makes them fall
Many will be broken so that He can make them whole
And many will be crushed and lose their own soul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wf8OGTqiSw


By the way, the end of the sermon contrasted love with hate, and the final point in the sermon is that love is preceded by forgiveness.  To err is human, to forgive divine.  It is hard for a community to forgive a perceived injustice by those tasked with preserving justice.  It is hard for a scientist to forgive the religious for laying aside evidences until an alternative explanation can be found, one that has room for God in it.  Christians, on the other hand, should find it easier to love and to forgive, since we are loved and forgiven by the One who came from Heaven to live on Earth, to die for our sins, and then to be raised from the dead by the power of God.