Hope Deferred

Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.“

There’s a certain lyrical quality to this proverb which makes it beautiful, but there’s also an intriguing ambiguity about its meaning that makes you read it over and over again.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” When your dreams do not come true, it is easy to become depressed. But notice, the hope is not necessarily failed. It is only deferred. The Hebrew word in this place means “to drag.” And so the Proverb is saying that when your hope takes a long time to come to fruition, when it drags, the time of waiting can be very sad and disappointing.

You can imagine how it feels to wait for something, something that you believe to be very important, even the realization of your dreams. You start to wonder if God is ever going to give it to you. You start to wonder why He’s taking so long. Does He really love you after all?

And this is where the second half of the Proverb comes in, and it seems to cut both ways. “But a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” A tree of life– that’s an interesting metaphor. A fulfilled desire is like one of the trees in the Garden of Eden, the one that granted immortality. What could this mean?

There’s a simple contrast at work. The fulfilled desire is very good, whereas the deferred hope was sad. I think there’s something else going on, though, and I think the Eden imagery is an important clue. You see, Adam and Eve’s sin was a sin of false hope. Instead of trusting in God’s timing and being patient and content with His plan, they decided to take the object of their desire, the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Genesis 3:6 says that this fruit was “desirable,” and so we can see that the original sin was a false desire fulfilled.

Thus while the fulfillment of our desires can be a very good thing, the pursuit of this fulfillment can always also be a temptation to sin. Are we allowing our heart to become sick because of our desires and our expectations about when and how they should be fulfilled? Are we, like Adam and Eve, trying to grasp now what might be given to us at a later time, on our own terms rather than on God’s?

“Heart sickness” is a very complicated thing, but it always takes us to an encounter with God. What do we think about Him and what He is doing in our lives at this moment? Do we place our hope, as well as our faith, in Him or are we still hoping for something else?

We must make sure that our desire for the Tree of Life does not become a desire for something more, for something that is not ours to take on our own terms. We must learn to wait on the Lord, to trust that He knows best. And as we trust Him, we will find that He is the true fulfillment of our desires.

All of this should drive us to the Cross. Jesus Christ must finally be our Tree of Life.

12 Days of Christmas Carols- Joy to the World

Today we’re going to cover what is perhaps the most popular carol, “Joy to the World.”  But did you know that it actually isn’t a Christmas carol at all?  Written by Isaac Watts, “Joy to the World” originally appeared in his 1719 The Psalms of David, and it was Watts’s unique take on Psalm 98.  The full title of Watts’s song book is The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship, which sounds like a noble effort, but in reality most of the words bear only a slight resemblance to the Biblical text.  Watts began his project in a time when many Puritans only allowed for the use of the Psalms in worship music (no other songs of any kind), and his title makes it clear that the goal was to “Christianize” the psalms, making the person of the Savior explicit.  In retrospect, Watts actually managed to supplant the use of Psalms in worship altogether, as most of his hymns are paraphrases at best and their popularity cleared the way for even less-textually based worship songs in the future.  As an extended result, there aren’t many psalm-singing churches left at all, not even among the Presbyterians.  But that is another conversation for a less happy occasion.  Today we’ll stick to the fun stuff.

Exodus Sunday School

The holiday season has me sufficiently busy, which is why this blog has been slow.  Our discussion of politics and theology will continue once more free time opens up, but for now I thought I would point you all to a series on Exodus that I’ve been doing with my Sunday School.  You can listen the classes here.

Observations on Samson

A few other interesting features of the Samson narratives are:

1. Samson has a wedding feast. He dies during a Philistine worship feast.
2. Samson has a sense of humor. His manner of burning the fields is bizarre, and after he kills the Philistines with the jawbone, he names the hill “Jawbone Hill” (15:17).
3. Samson dwells in the cleft of a rock (15:11). He will later have water miraculously provided for him (15:19). This reminds us of Israel and Elijah.
4. When Samson gives Delilah the false answers, each answer has some relationship or similarity with his hair. He mentions seven bowstrings. He has seven braids of hair (16:13). He mentions ropes which are like hair. He even has Delilah put his hair in a loom. Samson is playing around with his vow at this point. He is not taking the situation seriously, and he should have expected the betrayal by the fourth attempt!
5. Whereas the Philistines had previously roared against Samson, they quietly lie in wait to make sure that his power is gone (16:9, 12).
6. Samson becomes a grinder in the Philistine prison (16:21). He had attacked their grain and harvest earlier. His punishment is to help produce their bread.
7. Samson destroys the Philistines and their Dagon temple (16:23). This parallels the Ark of the Covenant’s destruction of Dagon in 1 Sam. 5:2-5

Structure of the Samson Narratives

Judges 13 is dedicated to announcing Samson’s birth and describing what his role will be. The next time we see Samson he is grown up and beginning his ministry. His ministry is described in Judges 14-16. The general outline is two-fold. Chapters 14 and 15 together are the first half and chapter 16 serves as the second half.

Compare:

a. Going to see women:

1. 14:1 Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.

2. 16:1 Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.

Both events involve Samson with a foreign woman. In the first he marries her and though his parents protest, the text says that it was of the Lord. In the second account it is not of the Lord, yet Samson is still able to “move against the Philistines.” He later moves to Delilah who, if not herself a Philistine, is a Philistine associate.

Both women “entice” Samson. They press him and press him until he finally reveals his secret.

b. Both narratives will end with Samson being tended to by the Lord and a conclusion statement of his twenty years:

1. 15:18-20 Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

2. 16:28-31 Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.

Samson’s first wife will parallel Delilah, as both women will pressure him into divulging his secret. Samson is clearly in control in the first half, and even when his secret is given away, he is able to defeat the Philistines. The second story presents Samson in a state of moral decline, and he loses his strength and authority.

In the first section, Samson will throw a marriage feast. He is the bride-groom. In the second section, the Philistines are having their own religious feast, and Samson is the court jester. He had loved to ridicule the Philistines, and so his punishment is to be ridiculed.

Samson’s strength, however, is from the Lord, and when he prays for the Lord to remember him one last time, he is able to pull down the Philistine stronghold.

The Chariot of Israel

“My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!”

Elisha shouted this out in 2 Kings 2: 12 when Elijah was being taken up in the fiery chariot.  The question that ought to come up in our minds, though it often doesn’t, is “How did he know what this was?”

Is there another reference to “the chariot of Israel” in the Bible?  This would be the primary verse.  I’ve heard others point to the fiery angels in Ezekiel 1 who seem to move with a wheel.  This is not totally clear though, and it isn’t explicit in Ezekiel 1.  We’d need to know what the chariot is first in order to see it there.

So is there another place to find the chariot?

The only other reference to “the chariot” is in 1 Chronicles 28.  This is a section describing temple furniture.  It says:

16 And by weight he gave gold for the tables of the showbread, for each table, and silver for the tables of silver; 17 also pure gold for the forks, the basins, the pitchers of pure gold, and the golden bowls—he gave gold by weight for every bowl; and for the silver bowls, silver by weight for every bowl; 18 and refined gold by weight for the altar of incense, and for the construction of the chariot, that is, the gold cherubim that spread their wings and overshadowed the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

So, the chariot is the piece of furniture that covers the ark of the covenant and would be used for carrying it.  It has gold cherubim that spread their wings over the ark.  More can be found in Exodus 25:10-22.   Here we see that the Lord would meet with his people atop the chariot.  He would speak to his people from the mercy seat, between the cherubim.  In 2 Samuel 6:2 we even read that the Lord dwells between the cherubim.

And so when Elisha sees a fiery chariot, with angels presumably, carrying Elijah up to heaven, he sees the chariot.  He recognizes it from the temple.  Elijah was being taken up in the ark of the covenant’s own covering.

He was being taken up in the reality, of which the temple furniture only served as a sign.

The extra neat part of all of this is that we are not told that this piece of furniture is called the chariot until the book of Chronicles, which was the last book written in the Old Testament.  The piece of furniture existed, but we, living today, don’t know that until we get to Chronicles.  So we learn that you have to use a stream-of-consciousness hermeneutic.  =)

This is the same way the New Testament works though.  It tells us all about the Old Testament, and it isn’t just making up a new way to read.  Rather, it is explaining to us about what was there all along.

Not Just Filler

So part of how I’m going about my Genesis study is just asking “What is this here for?” Sometimes the answer is obvious. Sometimes it is not.

A good example is the space between Abraham’s test of faith with Isaac and the Jacob and Esau stories. There is a whole chapter dedicated to the death and burial of Sarah.

Following that, I notice that chapter 24 is is 67 verses long, which is huge, and it wholly concerned with what most would consider a fairly minor story. It is about three times as long as Chapter 22, which is about a “big” a story as it gets.

So we ought to ask the question “Why?” when we notice that the bible is doing things differently than we are. I don’t always know the answer, but I know that it is important.

Circumcision and the Holy War

Circumcision is a prelude to the destruction of Sodom (Gen. 17), as the circumcision of Moses’ son is a prelude to the destruction of Egypt (Exodus 4:24-26). The Israelites took unleavened bread with them out of Egypt and went to The Mountain; Lot also took unleavened bread (Genesis 19:3), but did not go to The Mountain.

Joshua has the people circumcised at Gilgal before destroying Jericho (Josh. 5). Joshua says that the reproach has been rolled away. Gilgal means “rolling rolling.” The army of Israel rolls around Jericho, sanctifying it and conducting holy warfare.

David asks, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?” and “What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach of Israel?” (1 Sam. 17:26). He then goes out and rolls away the reproach by taking off Goliath’s head.

Holy Warfare is warfare through holiness. The army of the LORD sanctifies its enemies. Fire reigns down on Sodom, producing salt. Salt is crystallized fire. It flavors, and it burns.

The same thing happens with the Church militant.

Sarah and Hagar

In Galatians 4, Paul applies the characters of Sarah and Hagar to his current day. The Jews are now Hagar, and the Christians are Sarah:

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are allegorical. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written:

“ Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband.”

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

Now I’m not even sure where to start in understanding Paul’s exegesis here. He says “the law” says this, but then he quotes from Genesis and Isaiah. Jesus often quoted from the Psalms after saying “the law says,” so we can be sure that “the law” was often shorthand for the entire Old Testament.

The Isaiah quote is interesting because just a few verses later we are told of Gentile inclusion: Is. 54:3- “For you shall expand to the right and to the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations, And make the desolate cities inhabited.” Doubtless, the Jews had a different understanding of how this would happen.

One of the ways in which we can understand Paul’s reading of Genesis is to think about the larger context of Sarah and Hagar. Hagar was an Egyptian slave-woman. However, her descendants went on to be those who would hold Israel in captivity. But at the outset, it was the reverse. Paul is continuing this reversal, as Jerusalem is made into Egypt. This is much like other New Testament passages that make Jerusalem into Babylon.

Paul is leading a new Exodus, complete with mixed-multitude and all, out of the captivity of the Old Covenant. Just like in Genesis when originally going to Egypt was good and proper at the outset, things went sour, and God created a new situation. The faithful Gentiles have joined the Church, and the Judaizers are reminiscent of those Jews in the wilderness asking to go back to Egypt.

And of course, Ishmael was the first-born, but he was a child of the flesh. Sarah came up with her own plan to bring about the promise through the works of the law, but God would have none of it. No, instead Abraham would have to keep waiting for God to make good on his promise himself. And that would take a faith that sees things that aren’t visible at the present.

My Sister My Bride

Song of Solomon 4: 9- 12

You have ravished my heart,
My sister, my bride;
You have ravished my heart
With one look of your eyes,
With one link of your necklace.
How fair is your love,
My sister, my bride!
How much better than wine is your love,
And the scent of your perfumes
Than all spices!
Your lips, O my bride,
Drip as the honeycomb;
Honey and milk are under your tongue;
And the fragrance of your garments
Is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
A garden enclosed
Is my sister, my bride,
A spring shut up,
A fountain sealed.

This too shows the gaal.