by Michiana Covenant | Jun 17, 2012 | Job, Pastoral Notes
There are three questions that drive the book of Job:
1. Job’s question: Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul? (3:20)
2. Satan’s question: Does Job fear God for no reason? (1:9)
3. God’s question: Have you considered my servant Job? (1:8)
The wisdom debate with the friends drives Job to see past his own original question to ponder Satan’s question in chapter 21. He quotes the wicked as saying, “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?” (21:15), and finally concludes, echoing Psalm 1, “The counsel of the wicked is far from me.” (21:16)
And indeed, as Job comes to his final summary in chapter 27-31, you can even see how Job is pushing towards God’s question — although he can only affirm God’s description of him: “a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil.” He does not identify himself as “the servant of the Lord.” Until he sees himself as the suffering servant, he will not understand his own question!
So what is Elihu doing in all this?
The simplistic structure is that in chapter 33 he echoes Job (offering to play Job’s advocate — or comforter — one who will “justify” [piel] Job, not as a judge [which would be the hifil], but as an advocate). It was fitting that we covered this on Pentecost Sunday — since Elihu offers to play the Advocate to Job’s Suffering Servant! — and whatever response Job may have had to Elihu, *our* response should be, “thanks be to God we have a better Advocate than Elihu!!”
Now in chapters 34-35 he echoes the friends, paraphrasing and quoting them (in spite of his claim that he will not answer Job with their arguments!), and coming to the same conclusion as the friends: Job “answers like wicked men” (34:36). But is this Elihu’s conclusion? Or is it Elihu’s summary of the friends’ conclusion?
I have become convinced that this is, in fact, Elihu’s own conclusion. He address the friends in 34:2 and 10 as “you wise men,” and “you men of understanding,” and then in 34:34 he says that “men of understanding…and the wise man” will say that Job speaks without knowledge. And Elihu clearly agrees with them: as he concludes in his own statement, “Job opens his mouth in empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge.” (35:16)
Elihu is convinced that God will never condescend to answer Job. Therefore Elihu must answer Job on behalf of God. The wise men of the earth must judge Job — and their verdict must be: “Guilty”! And if anyone else had said what Job said, Elihu would have been right.
And if anyone else had said “the Father and I are one,” they would have been right to condemn him! The book of Job serves as a warning to the rulers and judges of Israel — beware! Do not condemn the suffering servant of the Lord! Do not be too quick to condemn the one who claims “I am innocent” — “I am in the right!”
by Michiana Covenant | Apr 15, 2012 | Catechesis, Pastoral Notes, Westminster Shorter Catechism
At 10:00 a.m. every Sunday morning we have a our weekly singing practice and catechism quiz. This week I would like to suggest some reasons why you should participate.
I should start by providing some background: around eight years ago, the elders decided to have a weekly catechism quiz, working through the Shorter Catechism together. We decided that if we were going to have the children memorize the catechism, then we should do it together with them. Since then we have worked through the Shorter Catechism four times (next fall we will start on our fifth time around!). In this last cycle, we have added a really helpful practice of memorizing a couple of scripture verses each week that show where the scriptures teach the doctrines of the catechism.
I would especially like to address fathers and mothers in the congregation (though others may take note as well). If you are like me, then you did not grow up with the catechism. I was a latecomer to Reformed theology and only started memorizing the catechism eight years ago with my children. Since I didn’t grow up with the catechism, I didn’t think of it as something that was very important — but there are a number of observations that I have noticed over the years:
- The catechism provides a vocabulary that overflows into other conversations as well. I cannot count the number of times that we have talked about “the estate of sin and misery”! When dealing with sin, the catechism’s exposition of the Ten Commandments encourages both the memorization of the Ten Commandments, and the application of the commandments in daily life. Likewise, I frequently use the language of the catechism now in talking with my children about repentance and faith. And because they have worked through it many times, they are beginning to understand what it means.
- Parents often wonder, “if they don’t understand the words, what’s the point?” Well, they probably don’t understand the words “hallowed,” “debtors,” “substance,” or “apostolic” — but we still teach them the Lord’s Prayer and the Nicene Creed. And over time, as we continue praying, confessing, and reciting, we learn more and more about them. If you wait until they understand the vocabulary before you use it, some other vocabulary will have already taken root in their hearts. Language plays a powerful role in shaping the way we think.
- Catechism memorization works best when it is connected with regular family worship. We have also included it in the children’s home-school work, but when Daddy is also working with the kids on their catechism, it makes a big difference. And when you show up for the catechism quiz on Sunday morning, you send a major signal to your children (and for those without children — you send perhaps an even louder signal!) that this is important.
- The discipline required to keep the practice going in our home for eight years has been useful in other areas of life as well. Family worship, catechism memorization, elder visits — all these things are part of an “older” way of doing things that our culture has rejected — a way of living that embodies the principles of the scriptures and seeks to exhibit them publicly in the life of the church.
And particularly as fathers we are often so busy with our careers — with “providing” for our families — that when we have time for our children, we just want to “have fun” with them. But what do we communicate to our children that way? That “fun” is the meaning of life? If we are to teach our children the great works of God — if we are to lead them in loving God with all our heart, all our soul, and and all our strength — then leading them in the study of the scriptures is our first priority. And the catechism provides a really useful summary of the biblical teaching on “what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.”
by Michiana Covenant | Apr 8, 2012 | Pastoral Notes, Pastoral Practice
“Do you know what your problem is? Your problem is that you don’t love God!”
Do you have any idea how much trouble you can get into with those words?!! At Pastor in the Pub yesterday, I had a fellow suggest that we “step outside” and he’d show me how much he loved God! Such is the deceiving power of sin, that we can convince ourselves that we love God — and that it is some outside force (or split personality) that “makes” us sin.
John Owen makes the useful distinction between the “dominion” of sin and the “indwelling” of sin in the believer. Sin shall not have dominion over the believer — but it still dwells in us. Okay, that’s not particularly original to Owen — Paul said it first!
But too often we don’t want to admit that sin has even taken up residence in us. “I’m a good person,” said my acquaintance, “I love God and I pray regularly.” But his actions make clear that sin has residence — at least!
So — what do you say? You may suspect that sin has dominion — that the person you are talking to is (in fact) unregenerate. But he insists that he believes in Jesus, that he loves God, that he is a believer. What do you say? I take comfort in knowing that whether sin has dominion over him — or whether sin merely has a very strong presence in him – the solution is the same! Repent and believe the gospel! Whether it would be the first time or not doesn’t really matter. If he has been living in bondage to sin, under the dominion of the devil, then he needs to repent and believe the gospel. If he is a “believer” who has been ensnared in sin for many years, then he needs to repent and believe the gospel. Either way, he has believed a lie and he has devoted himself to the service of something other than the Triune God, and he needs to repent and believe the gospel!
Of course, this will have a host of practical consequences as well. Repentance and faith must then work itself out in new obedience — your new identity in Christ must also be reflected in the new community, the “one new man” including both Jew and Gentile that God has established in Christ. This is why Jesus said to make disciples, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit [new identity], and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you [new community].”
by Michiana Covenant | Feb 26, 2012 | Pastoral Notes, Worship
I often say, “Your biggest problem is that you don’t love God”? We had a good discussion about this in the Men’s Discipleship Study on Tuesday morning. I usually emphasize how we love the creature rather than the Creator — and some people have wondered, “what about selfishness? Isn’t our problem that we love ourselves?”
In one sense, I would agree that loving the creature is self-serving — namely, we think that we will get what we want — but in that sense you could also argue that loving God is self-serving, since we will certainly get the best thing by loving and serving him!
My overall point is that we were created to worship — and very few people actually worship themselves. You could look at this in terms of prophet, priest and king.
As prophets we are meaning makers. We were created to interpret and explain God’s world and word. But instead we listen to other voices and explain ourselves and our world in terms of other gods and their words [lies]. And so we wind up speaking lies to others as we speak on behalf of our gods. As prophets we trust the idol, and assign meaning or value to the idol. We think that it is capable of helping us achieve our goals. An athlete may believe that an Olympic gold medal will give him fame, importance, etc., and so he trusts in the gold medal–he sets his heart upon it.
As kings we use authority and power. We were created to use God’s authority to serve others. But instead we wield the authority of other powers to dominate and control others. Ironically, we end up enslaved to the very powers we sought to control and manipulate. And so we obey the idol’s demands. The worshipper is under the authority of the “god” he serves; he rules for the sake of the god. The athlete obeys the idol of the gold medal by strict training, and forsakes all other “gods” so that he might obtain the desired blessing. Power is exercised as trust becomes active.
As priests we mediate blessings. We were created to receive God’s blessing and give it to others. But instead we seek blessing and happiness from created things. Of course, the opposite of a blessing is a curse — and so we wind up under the curse of our gods, and mediate those curses to others. We receive the idol’s blessing or curse. The athlete wins the race, and receives the gold medal, with the supposed blessings and peace which he sought. But such blessings are illusory. It does not satisfy. If he fails, and loses the race, he receives the idol’s curse–he has no peace because he has failed his god.
As you begin to understand the idols in your own heart, you can begin to understand patterns in your life. Often, what we call “personal development” is actually the refining of our skills as idolaters! The athlete will someday learn that his body will not let him pursue the gold medal anymore. So then he turns to relationships, and tries to find meaning and purpose in his wife. He trusts her to provide a warm and caring home which gives him security and happiness (prophet); so he then obeys her demands and his whole life is consumed with attempting to make her happy (king); when he succeeds, he receives her blessings, but when he fails, he receives her curse! (priest) ESPN interviews him a few months after his retirement, and does a special feature on how the great athlete has become such a devoted family man. The sportscaster even makes a comment about how beautiful it is to see him exercising the same devotion to his family that he used to have for his athletics. What they could say is that he has simply refined his idolatry and has merely switched gods. The heart hasn’t changed.
Because honestly, is his wife capable of providing everything he wants from her? Of course not! She will fail him–just like his pursuit of the gold medal couldn’t satisfy, neither will she.
Only faith in Christ can break the death-grip of fear and bondage to idols. But how?
First we need to understand the nature of idolatry better:
Idolatry as Defiance–Gen. 3:5
We were created to imitate God for his glory–instead we imitate God to defy his glory (Rom. 1:21)
Imitation as son became perverted into imitation as rival (“you will be like God…”)
Why do people sin? Some people suggest that sin is a misguided attempt to find satisfaction, happiness, etc. Others suggest that sin is selfishness–putting self at the center, and trying to gratify the self. But if people were really seeking happiness, if people really wanted to find contentment, what would they do? Wouldn’t they turn to the truth?
Prov. 8:35-36–sin is folly. Sin is irrational. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is the love of death.
Only a covenantal perspective can make sense of this. Man is a priest who expects blessings from his covenant partner. He has a purpose for his sin. Hence there is an element of rationality involved. But this priest serves idols rather than the true God. His goal is unattainable, self-defeating, disordered, and inconsistent. Hence the irrationality of sin.
Idolatry is not merely something which arose from fearful people who were attempting to deal with the human dilemma (evolutionary portrayal of religion), idolatry is a deliberate, hateful, rebellious provocation of the Almighty God (Jer. 7:17-18)
The fear of punishment, fear of rejection, and fear of failure do not explain sin–rather, they describe the experience of those who are sinners.
The psychological confusion which so many people experience is not the unavoidable, pitiable lot of the weak and misguided–rather it is an expression of defiance against God. There is not a human being on the face of the planet who is innocent. Rather than respond to their situation with trust and obedience toward God, they prefer to follow their worthless idols–who inevitably lead them in a downward spiral.
And yet, if we are to be sons of God, imitating our Heavenly Father, then we must have compassion on these people–showering them with the peace of Christ, the Word of God, and Power of the Holy Spirit. But compassion may be expressed in numerous ways. These people think that they can have their lusts, and yet not be ruled by them. But the sinner is a slave of sin.
The solution is the gospel — Christ, the prophet who has spoken to us the Word of God and show us the way of salvation, the king who has subdued us to his will and rules and defends us from all our enemies, and the priest who has blessed us with every blessing in the heavenlies through his once-for-all sacrifice which has removed our sin!
A Religion for Everyone?
The following link is an intriguing proposal from an atheist as to how to create a “Religion for Everyone.” He suggests that the death of religion has resulted in the death of community. I especially appreciated his comment that “A church gives us rare permission to lean over and say hello to a stranger without any danger of being thought predatory or insane.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577221603720817864.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
All around us are people who are disconnected and alienated from one another (and from God). When we understand that the human problem is not merely ignorance (the prophetic symptom), nor merely rebellion (the kingly symptom), nor merely sin and misery (the priestly symptom), but that all of these things are the constituent parts of idolatry — loving and worshiping the creature instead of the Creator — then we can also see how the solution is not education (by itself), nor good order in society (by itself), nor simply the forgiveness of sins (by itself), but a return to worshiping the living and true God!
And where the living and true God is worshiped and glorified aright, you will find true knowledge, good order, and the forgiveness of sins, as the prophetic, kingly, and priestly ministry of Christ is exhibited in the life of the church, unto the salvation of the world!
by Michiana Covenant | Feb 5, 2012 | Job, Pastoral Notes
Job 1-2 recounts the worst three days in Job’s life. They were not necessarily sequential (each time it merely says, “And there was a day”), but by condensing the story of Job into three days, we are being encouraged to see the whole of Job’s sufferings as a three day descent into hell!
And it is all God’s fault!
There are some interesting parallels with Jonah – who spent three days in the belly of the fish. But in Jonah’s case, while it was true that God was the one who had done this, it would be easy to see how Jonah had (if anything) deserved worse of God. But Job has done nothing to deserve what happens to him.
It’s all nice and good to say, “Oh, but Job was a sinner!” The problem is that the text disagrees with this diagnosis. After all, when they asked our Lord Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answer was, “Neither!”
The story of Job is the story of God’s suffering servant. Job is all that Israel was supposed to be — and he endures a sort of exile, abandoned by God to torment and despair. And during his exile, God is silent. God does not explain anything until Job has passed through the ultimate test. But when Job passes the test, the LORD restored the fortunes of Job. There is an eschatological message in the book of Job: the suffering servant must wait patiently, because the LORD will make all things right in the end.
And because our Lord Jesus Christ waited upon the Lord, and endured all that Israel was called to endure, he has been raised up in glory — and we who are called by his name are now called to endure patiently through our “light and momentary” trials because Jesus has already been seated in glory — the Lord has restored his fortunes, and has given us his Holy Spirit as the guarantee of the full inheritance!
