Christmas really is one of my most favorite times of the year. I love the decorations, the gifts, the parties, and the church Christmas programs, but most of all I love the music. The traditional Christmas carols, the sacred Christmas hymns, they just give me all the feels when it comes to Christmas; in the car, at home, at church, you will almost always find me listening to Christmas music during the month of December. And one of my most favorite Christmas songs is the song “Mary, Did You Know?”, and my most favorite arrangement of the song is performed by Mark Lowry with the acapella group Voctave singing backup (posted above). Mark Lowry wrote the lyrics in 1985 when he was asked to write a script for a church Christmas play, and the lyrics were put to music in 1991 by Buddy Greene. Of course, it has been recorded by many varied recording artists over the years, both secular and sacred, and it is sung and played regularly during Christmas programs in churches all across the United States and, no doubt, around the world.
However, every year it seems, I read some renewed or repeated criticism of the song on social media. Some attempt to dismiss the song theologically, citing the Annunciation and the Magnificat as evidence that “she knew”. I have even seen some who have attempted to go line by line through the song to give a yes or no answer to each rhetorical question. Similarly, those in the Roman Catholic tradition take issue with the suggestion that Mary needed to be “delivered” and “made new” because of their (erroneous) beliefs about the sinlessness of Mary. Others argue that the song is mawkish, sappy, and infantilizing, that it is “the most sexist Christmas song ever written,” or that it “treats her like a clueless child.” Still others dismiss the song simply because it is overplayed and/or poorly performed by well-meaning church members during the Christmas season as “special” music. And to be honest, when I read criticisms like these, I just shake my head and wonder how we have lost our wonder at the miracle of the incarnation.
Biblically, it is true that Luke presents Mary as a paragon of faith. When she is confronted by the angel Gabriel with the news that she will conceive by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Son of God, she responds with simple faith, “See, I am the Lord’s servant. May it happen to me as you have said.” (Luke 1.38) And her Magnificat (Luke 1.46-55) clearly indicates that she understood that this was a pivotal moment in the unfolding of God’s plan of redemption for the world. However, we also know that at one point during his earthly ministry, she came with her other children to try to hide Jesus away because they thought he was an embarrassment to the family. (Mark 3:31-35, parallels Matthew 12.46-50, Luke 8.19-21) Time and again, the Gospels detail how the first followers of Jesus struggled to fully understanding the significance of who he was and what he had come to do, and we should assume that Mary would have been no different. We know that Mary treasured and pondered all these things in her heart, but the Bible is clear that the first followers of Jesus, including Mary and his brothers, grew in their understanding of the person and work of Jesus over the course of his life and ministry and that they did not understand him in full until after his resurrection and the coming of the Spirit.
The point is that we should not underestimate the richness of what it means for God to become flesh. When Jesus was born in the Bethlehem 2000 years ago, there was already plenty of theological and cultural expectations as to what he was supposed to be and do. But Jesus turned those expectations on their heads, and he demonstrated that he is a Messiah who cannot be fit into a preconceived box. And as his followers, we should never lose our wonder at this fact. Jesus will always be more than we could possibly hope to comprehend; we will never have him fully figured out. Even when we reach glory, we are told that “He had a name written that no one knows except himself.” (Revelation 19.12) This means that even then there will be more to learn and understand about him when he returns as glorious king. We must never lose our wonder at the person and work of Jesus. Even the things we think we know about him pale in comparison to the fullness of his glory.
And so, when we hear the song “Mary, Did You Know?” this Christmas season, we shouldn’t try to dissect it theologically. We shouldn’t dismiss it because of its musical style, its tone and perspective, or even its emotionality. We should allow it to spur our reflections, to feed our wonder, to drive us to worship the God who became flesh for our sakes, who suffered and died in our place, and who is coming again to receive us unto himself. The song is an artistic, poetic reflection on the miracle of Christmas and the sheer mystery of the incarnation. Mary was in a unique position to feel the weight and wonder of it all, and at Christmas, it is right for us to enter into her experience, to ponder anew what it must have been like, and to fall down in worship of the God who became flesh. This Christmas, let us rekindle our wonder. Let us stand in awe and silence, and let us rejoice in the fact that we have a savior who came to heal our brokenness, to free us from sin, and to restore in us the joy of living in his presence. He is Emmanuel; He is God with us!
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel.
2 When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, he said this to him:
Go and marry a woman of promiscuity, and have children of promiscuity, for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity by abandoning the Lord.
3 So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to him:
Name him Jezreel, for in a little while I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel in Jezreel Valley.
6 She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter, and the Lord said to him:
Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel. I will certainly take them away. 7 But I will have compassion on the house of Judah, and I will deliver them by the Lord their God. I will not deliver them by bow, sword, or war, or by horses and cavalry.
8 After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son. 9 Then the Lord said:
Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God. 10 Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And in the place where they were told: You are not my people, they will be called: Sons of the living God. 11 And the Judeans and the Israelites will be gathered together. They will appoint for themselves a single ruler and go up from the land. For the day of Jezreel will be great. 2 Call your brothers: My People and your sisters: Compassion.
Title: On the Love and Justice of God Text: Hosea 1.1-2.1; 3.1-5 Series: Hosea: A Love Story Like No Other Church: Redeemer Baptist Church, Jonesboro, AR Date: March 9, 2025
17 After they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As usual, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and rise from the dead: “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah.” 4 Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a large number of God-fearing Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women.
5 But the Jews became jealous, and they brought together some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly. 6 When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too, 7 and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus.” 8 The crowd and city officials who heard these things were upset. 9 After taking a security bond from Jason and the others, they released them.
~ Acts 17.1-9
Title: On the Rejection of the Gospel at Thessalonica Text: Acts 17.1-9 Series: The Book of Acts Church: Redeemer Baptist Church, Jonesboro, AR Date: September 8, 2024
137 You are righteous, Lord, and your judgments are just. 138 The decrees you issue are righteous and altogether trustworthy. 139 My anger overwhelms me because my foes forget your words. 140 Your word is completely pure, and your servant loves it. 141 I am insignificant and despised, but I do not forget your precepts. 142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your instruction is true. 143 Trouble and distress have overtaken me, but your commands are my delight. 144 Your decrees are righteous forever. Give me understanding, and I will live.
In keeping with the Hebrew alphabet acrostic form, the next stanza of Psalm 119 begins with the Hebrew letter tsade (צ), and it revolves around the Hebrew word for righteousness (צֶדֶק/ṣeḏeq). The word itself occurs in one form another some five times in these eight verses. It is a word that is rich with significance, both for our understanding of God and our relationship with Him, and for our our understanding of ourselves and our relationships with one another. Literally, it refers to something that is straight, like “straight paths” (Psalm 23.3, where the same word is used), but more often than not, it also carries the figurative sense of upright, true, normal, and just. Clearly, it is in this sense that we read, “You are righteous, Lord, and your judgments are just.” (Verse 137) There are few statements that define the character of God in this way, e.g. God is holy, God is perfect, God is Spirit, God is love. So also, here, we read that God is righteous. In other words, righteousness is a perfection of his being; it is essential to His essence. It is an attribute of His divine character. He is righteous, i.e. morally perfect and true, in every way, in what He thinks, in what He feels, in what He says, in what He does. It is impossible for Him to be otherwise, it is who He is. He is righteous. Of course, this is why His judgments are just, where the word used is a synonym for the word in question.
Of course, righteousness is more than simply who He is in himself; His righteousness extends to everything that He does. “Your decrees are righteous forever. Give me understanding, and I will live.” (Verse 144) This is an important affirmation especially in the context of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is filled with divine actions and events that make no sense to our modern minds, that stand as an affront to our modern sensibilities. The most often cited example of this is God’s command to the Israelites to exterminate the Canaanites in the conquest of the Promised Land. According to our Psalmist, even this deed of God is righteous. Of course, we may immediately ask, “how can this be?” I think it is important that we understand that we cannot understand the rightness of God’s ways by our own standards. Our perception of right and wrong and fundamentally flawed by sin. This is why our psalmist prays, “Give me understanding.” The only way we can hope to understand the righteousness of God and His ways is by divine illumination. This comes as a result of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. As the Apostle Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 2.14, “But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.”
Of course, the question for our psalmist remains, “how can we, as fallen individuals, experience or participate in the righteousness of God?” As our psalmist confesses, “I am insignificant and despised, but I do not forget your precepts.” (Verse 141) Compared to God’s righteousness, our righteousness is nothing more than “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64.6). We are sinners, and even our best attempts at cultivating our own righteousness fall short of the standard of righteousness that God is in himself (Romans 3.23). For our psalmist, however, the answer to this question is simple; it is to live in submission before and obedience to the Word of God. As he says in verse 140, “Your word is completely pure, and your servant loves it.” Now, we must be careful here, because this answer could come across as a legalistic effort to earn righteousness. I don’t believe that is what our psalmist is saying. As we have already seen, even our best efforts at attaining righteousness are tinged with sin. No, our psalmist understands that righteousness is something that is imputed from God to us. This is why he says in verse 144, “Your decrees are righteous forever. Give me understanding, and I will live.” In other words, he understands that the righteousness of God comes to us by the transformative revelation of God. This is why he prays for understanding.
As New Testament believers, we know that that ultimate revelation of God’s righteousness came to earth in the person and work of Jesus Christ; He was God incarnate in all the fullness of His being. “He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5.21) Ours is an alien righteousness; it is not our own. It is imputed to us by grace through faith because of Christ’s death and resurrection. This is why the Apostle Paul could write,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. (Romans 1.16-17)
Our justification, our right standing before God, is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And I think even our psalmist knew that. Old Testament saints were made righteous in the same way that New Testament believers are made righteous, that is by faith. This principle is confirmed in the example of Abraham, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness .” (Genesis 15.6, c.f. Romans 4 and Galatians 3) The point of all this is to say that righteousness is a perfection of God’s eternal being, and by grace we who believe in Christ have been covered in that same righteousness. This is the beauty of the Gospel. “It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption—in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.“ (1 Corinthians 1.30-31)
Thirty-some years ago, the Christian band D.C. Talk released a song entitled “Luv is a verb”; it was a song that resonated with the biblical truth that love is more than simply a feeling. Genuine love, true biblical love is demonstrated through acts of giving and service, putting the needs of others before our own, and seeking their good as a matter of first priority. As we read in Romans 5.8, “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Or again, in 1 John 4.10, “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Or even in the most memorable of verses, in John 3.16, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” The love of God toward sinners is the exemplar par excellence of true love. He loves, and so he gave. He acted for the good of those he loved, even when they didn’t love him. It is a love that is unconditional and undeserved, and it is a love that acts. Love, true biblical love, is indeed a actoin. It is a verb.
Of course, this understanding of love stands in stark contradiction to the sentiments of popular culture. For many, love is a feeling. It is something that is primarily felt in the warm fuzzies of attraction and desire. It is sensual, passionate, and oftentimes fleeting. People fall out of love just as easily and as quickly as the fall into love. The feelings of love ebb and flow like the tides of the ocean, and the more the feelings of love wane in a relationship, the more desperately we chase them. “Follow you’re heart”, we are told, but the scriptures remind us that our hearts are deceitful and wicked (Jeremiah 17.9). Christians rightly react to the idea that love is no more than an emotion. Love is commitment, love is service, love is a choice. Love is something we are called to give even if it is not returned in kind. We are called to love each other, even to love our enemies.
However, I think that this contrast sets up a false dichotomy. It is true that love is more than a mere emotion, but it is certainly not less than that. Emotions are good; they are God-given capacities, part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Even God has emotions, though His are perfect and completely without sin or selfishness. He is compassionate, merciful, gracious, and loving. “God is love” (1 John 4.8). Our emotions are a good and essential part of what makes us human, but as with our other capacities, they are fallen, corrupted by the sin. But they should not be rejected as if they are sinful in and of themselves, or somehow illegitimate partners in our sanctification. Just like our other human capacities, they need to be redeemed, reordered, transformed by the Spirit. This is why one of the fruit of the Spirit is, among others, love.
Therefore, I would submit that true biblical love is both action and affection; it is both something that we do and something that we feel. Of course, the question must be raised regarding what to do when we just aren’t feeling. Are we still required to love when the affections aren’t there. I would suggest yes, because, contrary to cultural sentiments, our emotions are not to be our guiding principle. We submit our emotions to the Word of God, to the work of the Spirit, such that they begin to follow our volition. So, yes, we are called to love others through acts of self-giving service and sacrifice, but we are also called to like others, as well. This, too, is part of the biblical command to love.
But how would this relate to a command like we find in Matthew 5.44, where we read, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” In this case, I think we have to be reminded that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.” (Ephesians 6.12). Our “enemies” are human beings made in the image of God who are enslaved and corrupted by sin, and but by the grace of God, there go we. So, we can have compassion and empathy for those who oppose us. We don’t have to agree with them or condone their actions; we don’t have to lower our defenses and pretend like no separation exists between us. But we cannot hate them outright; we cannot wish for their pain and destruction all the while trying to love them through acts of service and sacrifice. We must have some level of compassion and empathy, even for those who we consider “enemies”, because they too are made in the image of God. They have dignity, value, and worth, and we must loving actions toward them must be grounded in compassion rather than anger and animosity.
The point here is that feelings follow actions. If we set ourselves to love others through acts of service, I think we will be amazed at the affections that will well up for them in our hearts. No, biblical love is not some dry, emotionless, unfeeling command that we are called to obey. We are called to obey, but to do so holistically, with our whole selves. As Jesus reminds us, the greatest commandments are these, to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22.37-40) When we do this, we will find ourselves become more and more like the one who is love in himself. So, “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4.7-8)
129 Your decrees are wondrous; therefore I obey them. 130 The revelation of your words brings light and gives understanding to the inexperienced. 131 I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commands. 132 Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your practice toward those who love your name. 133 Make my steps steady through your promise; don’t let any sin dominate me. 134 Redeem me from human oppression, and I will keep your precepts. 135 Make your face shine on your servant, and teach me your statutes. 136 My eyes pour out streams of tears because people do not follow your instruction.
The next stanza of the acrostic begins with the letter פ/pe (pronounced like pay), and at this point, it would be tempting to think that our psalmist is beginning to be a little repetitive. After all, hasn’t he said what he needed to say in the first 130 verses of this Psalm? But no, there are five more stanzas after this one containing some 40 more verses. Let’s be honest with ourselves, the sheer length of this chapter is intimidating, especially in a culture that prefers 240 character soundbites. We have lost the capacity for sustained reflection; we simply have no taste for prolonged meditation on the scriptures. And as Christians, this is much to our shame. The Bible invites us into the life of the mind, to the disciplines of reading, study, and meditation. We must read and reread, we must ponder and linger over the scriptures, if we truly desire to be transformed by them. A 240 character nugget simply cannot provide the soul sustaining nourishment our life in Christ requires. It is clear that our psalmist has learned what it means to linger over the Word of God, to nourish himself on its inexhaustible depths. This psalm, 22 stanzas, 176 verses, is an invitation to linger, to pause, to meander slowly in the perfections of God’s sufficient Word.
Another reason that this psalm intimidates us as modern readers is that not only have we lost the ability to appreciate sustained reflection, but we have also lost the ability to appreciate beauty for the sake beauty. Of course, the psalms are not the only poetry that is found in the Bible, but they do represent a whole collection of hymns, prayers, and songs that speak to the human soul in ways that are unique and distinct from other portions of Holy Scripture. One of these ways is through their beauty. This psalm, in particular, is a masterpiece in poetic form and verse. We should be enraptured by its majesty, caught up in its elegance; it should capture our soul’s imagination and transport us to the pristine presence of God himself. In a world that is filled with ugliness and horrors and the sheer grossness of sin, we desperately need to reminded of what is beautiful, what is praiseworthy, what is lovely, what is good and righteous and true (Philippians 4.8). As our psalmist himself writes, “The revelation of your words brings light and gives understanding to the inexperienced.” (Verse 130) Interestingly enough, that last word could also be translated as “thoughtless”.
Speaking of beauty, there are two lines that stand out to me in this stanza; the first is verse 132, which reads, “Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your practice toward those who love your name.” Here again, in a psalm where almost every line contains some synonym for God’s Word, this verse stands out from the pattern, although “those who love your name” could be taken as a loose reference to obeying God’s Word. In the Old Testament, and in Deuteronomy in particularly, love of God is synonymous with obedience. After all, Jesus himself said, “If you love me, you will keep my commands.” (John 14.15) But we must be clear in affirming that this verse does not condition our reception of God’s grace upon our obedience. Love for God is much more than simply obedience; it is obedience that grows out of the soil of faith. Obedience apart from faith is nothing more than dead works. Faith in the ground of obedience resulting in our love for God. And grace is simply God’s response to those that come to Him in genuine repentance and faith.
The second verse that stands out is verse 136, which reads, “My eyes pour out streams of tears because people do not follow your instruction.” In other words, the disobedience and sin around him causes our psalmist great and deep mourning. Of course, we have seen similar sentiments throughout the psalm, and just a couple of stanzas back, our psalmist confessed his hate for the double-minded (verse 113), a statement that is somewhat startling to modern sensibilities. (For more on this verse, see my post here.) But here, we see that this hate is not malicious or malevolent in any way; rather, it issues forth in tears of sorrow and genuine grief. We live in a culture of outrage; in fact, there was a book recently published by Ed Stetzer entitled Christians in the Age of Outrage. When we are faced with the sin and disobedience of this world, it is easier to scoff, to respond in anger and outrage, but we should respond in mourning, in deep grief and sorrow over the corruption of God’s good creation, over the enslavement of human beings made in the image of God to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Our psalmist loves the Word of God so much; he is convicted by the goodness and righteousness of God’s ways so deeply that the disobedience of his fellow human being drives him to real grief.
But, of course, we have seen that our psalmist’s tears are not the end of the story; no, he is looking forward to a day when God will judge the living and the dead, when he will establish his righteousness on the earth forever, when God’s people will be perfected in holiness. This is the hope; this is the silver lining. This is the light at the end of the darkness. It is the grace of redemption. As our psalmist prays, “Redeem me from human oppressionand I will keep your precepts (verse 134), or again, “Make your face shine on your servant, and teach me your statutes (verse 135). Even when we are confronted with the total depravity of the world we live in, we can maintain our hope, because God has promised to right every wrong, to heal every wound, to deliver and vindicate his people. We stand firm in this promise by faith, even as our dear psalmist did so many centuries ago.
One of the most important advances in Biblical Studies in the last 100 years has clearly been the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thanks to the curiosity of a young Bedouin shepherd, the first scrolls were discovered at Qumran in 1947. Over the next ten years, hundreds of papyrus fragments were found in some eleven caves in the area containing various biblical and extra biblical writings dating from 200 BCE to 100 CE. The general consensus has been that these represent the religious views of a sect of early Judaism known as the Essenes, known previously only through the writings of Josephus. Over the past 50 years, the study of these scrolls has provided valuable insight in the religious thought world of Jesus, Paul, and the first Christians, and comparative studies are now basically the norm in New Testament monographs and the other academic publications.
In this post, I am not interested in the content of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as fascinating as the material may be; I am more interested in the textual transmission of the scrolls, particularly as that might be compared to the textual transmission of the biblical text. It is truly a wonder of God’s providence that the Dead Sea Scrolls were preserved they way that they were. They were likely buried in the caves prior to the Jewish War (66-70 CE), and then subsequently abandoned when the Essene community was destroyed by the Romans. Thanks to the arid and dry climate of the area around the Dead Sea, these scrolls were preserved in glass jars for over 2000 years. However, they do show the signs of their age. They mostly consist of fragmentary pieces, and even the larger documents are missing significant parts due to decay (see the picture above, for one example). This means that translating the scrolls into English for modern study is mostly piecemeal at best. Large portions of the text must be reconstructed through textual emendation and scholarly conjecture, in order to make the text readable and understandable.
For example, one paragraph from The Temple Scroll (11QT) reads,
On the fifteenth day of the month …[the corresponding] grain offering [and drink offering, all on] the altar, an offering by fire, of s[oothing odour to YHWH. On] the second [day:] twelve young bulls, [two rams, four]teen [lambs] and on he-goat [for a sin offerin]g [and the corresponding gr]ai[n-offering and drink-offering] according to the statue concerning the young bulls, the ram[s], the lambs [and] the he-goat; it is an offering by fire, of soothing odour to YHWH.
The braketed text in the quote above indicates where the text has been conjecturally emended and filled in by the translator. The point is that as valuable as the scrolls are, the condition of the text is partial, fragmentary, and dependent on scholarly interpretation and emendation.
By contrast, the textual tradition of the biblical text is far more substantial and stable. The earliest portions of the New Testament that are extant today can be dated to within in a century of the actual writing of the documents themselves, and the earliest complete manuscripts that we have today are removed by only 2 or 3 centuries from the time of the New Testament. Further, we have over 5000 extant manuscript witnesses to the text of the Bible, in addition to ancient versions, liturgies, and quotations in the church fathers. The point is that through the discipline of text criticism (see my post here), we can reconstruct the text of scripture with 99% accuracy, and any questions that do remain are mostly of peripheral concerns and have no bearing on the actual meaning of the text. Unlike the Dead Sea Scrolls, the biblical text is not fragmentary and dependent on emendation; no, it is stable, clear, and firm in it is manuscript foundations.
This then is an even greater wonder of God’s providence as he has preserved His Word throughout the centuries. He has graciously and providentially watched over His Word, and He has not left himself without a witness. This should give us a great amount of confidence and faith in the textual foundations of our faith. The text of the Bible has been preserved and passed down by God’s providence through the ages, so that we might have reliable witness to His revelation of Himself in Christ. Where would we be if the text of the Bible had been hidden in desert caves for over 2000 years? I shudder to think of the possibilities. When we read the Bible, we should give great thanks that God has not left us as blind to grope in the darkness hoping we might find Him. No, he has spoken clearly, firmly, and faithfully, so that we might know Him even as we are known. Thanks be to God!
For further study, see: Geza Vermes, trans. The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English. Revised Edition. London: Penguin Books, 2011.
113 I hate those who are double-minded, but I love your instruction. 114 You are my shelter and my shield; I put my hope in your word. 115 Depart from me, you evil ones, so that I may obey my God’s commands. 116 Sustain me as you promised, and I will live; do not let me be ashamed of my hope. 117 Sustain me so that I can be safe and always be concerned about your statutes. 118 You reject all who stray from your statutes, for their deceit is a lie. 119 You remove all the wicked on earth as if they were dross from metal; therefore, I love your decrees. 120 I tremble in awe of you; I fear your judgments.
The fifteenth stanza of Psalm 119 begins with the Hebrew letter ס/samek, and in this stanza, we read some lines that are quite startling to our modern sensibilities. Right out of the gate, we read, “I hate those who are double-minded” (Verse 113), and a couple of verses later, we read, “Depart from me, you evil ones” (Verse 115). Again, to our moderns ears, these lines seem unduly harsh. But I think we have to look at where our psalmist ends in verse 120, “I tremble in awe of you; I fear your judgments”; in the King’s English, the line reads, “My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments” (KJV). The word for “tremble” here only occurs in the Hebrew Bible in one other place, that being Job 4:15, and the context there clearly implies trepidation (see Job 4:13-15). So likewise, here the word implies that our psalmist is feeling fear, healthy trepidation, a holy terror, at the authority of God and His Word. And it is this fear, this holy terror, that drives him to pursue obedience and submission to the Word of God.
Likewise, it is this intense sense of fear and respect, of submission and devotion to the Word of the one true and living God, that motivates our psalmist’s statements regarding the wicked. Our psalmist understands that God rejects all who stray from His statutes (verse 118) and that He removes all the wicked on the earth (verse 119). So, in verse 115, he says, “Depart from me, you evil ones so that I may obey my God’s commands.” He doesn’t want anything, or anyone for that matter, to prevent him from obeying the laws and statutes of God. I will say more about his obedience in a moment, but suffice it say here that he is so devoted to God and to His word, that he “hates” those who are “double-minded.” The NET Bible renders the line this way, “I hate people with divided loyalties.” The word in question refers to those who are split in their allegiances, those who are two faced or hypocritical in their intentions. They are those who say one thing and yet do another; their verbal confession and their actual behavior are not consistent. “Their deceit is a lie.” (Verse 118). They lack integrity, and in the face of the authority and gravity of God and His word, this kind of attitude is wholly unthinkable for our psalmist.
However, it is imperative that we understand that our psalmists submission to God and His word is not simply motivated by fear of punishment. On the contrary, it comes from a place of deep conviction and faith regarding the goodness of God and His commands. His commands are not burdensome; they are not dull drudgery meant to keep us from enjoying the pleasures of life. No, they are the only path that leads to ultimate fulfillment and genuine human flourishing. This is why our psalmist writes, “You are my shelter and my shield; I put my hope in your word.” It is also why he says, “I love your instruction.” (Verse 113). There is nothing that is more delightful, nothing that is more empowering, nothing that is more fulfilling for our psalmist than obeying the Word of God. By committing himself to God and to keeping His word, he has entrusted his entire self to the goodness and grace of the law-giving God. His obedience is nor forced; it is not against his will. No, his entire will is submitted to the one before whom he stands in awe.
He expresses his faith further when he prays, “Sustain me as you promised, and I will live; do not let me be ashamed of my hope. Sustain me so that I can be safe and always be concerned about your statutes.” (Verse 116-117). It is interesting, though, that this would be his prayer. He has already committed himself to obey God Word. Why, then, would he need to ask God to sustain him? I think there are two reasons. First, he is asking God to sustain him in his obedience. Our psalmist is not naive; he knows the power of temptation, he knows the weakness of his own heart. He knows how easily and how quickly he would abandon his obedience if he were left to himself. So he prays that God would sustain him in his obedience. But secondly, I think he prays for God’s sustaining power because he understands that obedience before God cannot be motivated purely by what we might get out of it. We don’t obey God, so that he will in turn bless us. This tit for tat reckoning is in many ways alien to the economy of God. Our psalmist understands that we obey God because it is right in and of itself to do so; we obey God because that is what we owe Him as creatures. But, as creatures, we are completely dependent upon his sustaining grace every moment of every day for every need that we have. Without Him, we can do nothing. So he prays, “O God, sustain me.”
Sadly, for many Christians in the world today, this attitude of holy terror coupled with desperate faith is somewhat of an oxymoron. On the one hand, we have domesticated God and diminished his authority in our lives to the extent that we treat Him like an elderly grandparent who might give us a piece of candy if we behave, and on the other, we are so self-reliant and comfortable that we have forgotten just how weak and needy we truly are. In this light then, the attitude of our psalmist in this stanza is both a rebuke and an invitation. It is a rebuke of our selfishness and pride, and it is an invitation to rediscover the greatness and the grace of the God that we serve. As C.S. Lewis puts it, “‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
TEXT 7 “Are these things true?” the high priest asked.
2 “Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, 3 and said to him: Leave your country and relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.4 “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land in which you are now living. 5 He didn’t give him an inheritance in it—not even a foot of ground—but he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless. 6 God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for four hundred years.7 I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship me in this place.8 And so he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
9 “The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household. 11 Now a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find no food. 12 When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time. 13 The second time, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all, 15 and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there, 16 were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17 “As the time was approaching to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt 18 until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt. 19 He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them abandon their infants outside so that they wouldn’t survive. 20 At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home for three months. 21 When he was put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son. 22 So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.
23 “When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He assumed his people would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. 26 The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’ 27 “But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying: Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?28 Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?
29 “When he heard this, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. 30 After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came: 32 I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look. 33 “The Lord said to him: Take off the sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground.34 I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.35 “This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?—this one God sent as a ruler and a deliverer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.
37 “This is the Moses who said to the Israelites: Godwill raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.38 He is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron: Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.41 They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made. 42 God turned away and gave them up to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: House of Israel, did you bring me offerings and sacrificesfor forty years in the wilderness?43 You took up the tent of Molochand the star of your god Rephan,the images that you made to worship.So I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.
44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. 45 Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them, until the days of David. 46 He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 It was Solomon, rather, who built him a house, 48 but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says: 49 Heaven is my throne,and the earth my footstool.What sort of house will you build for me?says the Lord,or what will be my resting place?50 Did not my hand make all these things?
51 “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also. 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. 53 You received the law under the direction of angels and yet have not kept it.”
~Acts 7.1-53
Title: On the Value and Relevance of the Old Testament Text: Acts 7.1-53 Series: The Book of Acts Church: Redeemer Baptist Church, Jonesboro, AR Date: April 7, 2024
Today is Good Friday, a day when Christians around the world will pause to think about the death of Jesus Christ. It is a scene that has gripped the imaginations of Christian artists and sculptors now for two millennia, the Son of God hanging, naked, beaten, and bleeding, nailed to a Roman cross, and left to die. The brutal and gory realities of the scene would probably turn even the strongest of stomachs. And yet, for followers of Jesus, the words of the old hymn writer capture it well, “O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, has a wondrous attraction for me.” This is because for those whose sins have been washed away by the shed blood of Christ, there is simply nothing more beautiful, nothing more deeply profound, than the substitutionary death of Son of God.
The profundity of the scene is best expressed in the words of Jesus; “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemásabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Matthew 27.46) This “cry of dereliction”, which Jesus quotes from Psalm 22.1, is typically explained as the moment in which the full weight of God’s wrath toward sin was placed on the Son, and because God is essentially holy and cannot look upon sin, “the father turned his face away”, as we often sing. Of course, I am not sure that we will ever understand what Jesus was feeling in that moment, but the significance of the moment invites us to spend the next few moments attempting to understanding its theological implications.
And our reflection on this scene must begin with the affirmation of the hypostatic union, or the truth that Jesus was both God and man. He was God the Son incarnate. So, what might it mean for the Son to be “abandoned” by the Father? From a trinitarian perspective, it cannot mean that the godhead was divided in any kind of way. We confess that the God of the Bible is three in one – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – one in essence, three in person. As a corollary, we confess that there is one God; we are not tri-theists. So, if there is only one God, then, it is metaphysically impossible for God to be divided from himself. In other words, the “cry of dereliction” cannot be understood to imply a separation or a division of the Father from the Son, or of God from himself.
Secondly, the doctrine of the Trinity also implies the idea of inseparable operations, meaning that whatever the Father does, the Son and the Holy Spirit do also, because there is only one God. This means that when the Father poured out His wrath on Jesus at the cross, that wrath belonged equally to the Son and the Spirit as well. So, it is completely accurate to say that the Son poured out His own wrath toward sin on Himself at the cross. This is the beauty of the Gospel, namely that what the justice of God required the love of God supplied. God took into Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, the wrath that we deserve, so that we could be saved from His wrath. This truth should always leave us absolutely breathless and without words.
So, can we still sing the words “the father turned His face away”? I think yes; as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us.” One commentator that I recently read explains, “In a sense beyond human comprehension, God treated Christ as ‘sin,’ aligning him so totally with sin and its dire consequences that from God’s viewpoint he became indistinguishable from sin itself.” Jesus knew this to be his fate. He was fully and completely human, and, on the night He was betrayed, the burden of this task was so heavy that it caused even to sweat great drops of blood. Whatever the god-man felt in that moment, hanging there as the perfect and final sacrifice for our sin, is simply beyond our capability to fathom. Nevertheless, it was a fate that He willingly embraced for the sake of our salvation. And so we sing,
In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see, for ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died, to pardon and sanctify me.
Faith seeking Understanding 