JEREMIAH 30:  12 – 22

  Realism is a necessary requisite in preaching. The Word of God must convince us that we are lost before we are found in Christ. Jeremiah was a realist to the point of great personal anguish and in the face of great opposition. Pastors are drawn to acclaim rather than to disapproval. Preaching is not a popularity contest and our prophet was not a popular figure. He spoke what was true even if it earned the disapprobation of clergy and people. There are too many encouragements to seeking success in the promotion and preparation of ministry. Failure in a human sense may well gain favour from God. The world is at war with God and sometimes the church is influenced by its standards. Witness must always be ready for persecution and martyrdom. History shows us that a step into the pulpit may be an ascent to the gallows. Our cosy, affluent, applauding churches are not good training for the hatred of the world. The flattery of celebrity in ministry is not conducive to toughness in enduring the malice of the opposition. Our enemy is rallying his forces in such a way as to make our Sunday events of preaching and worship look like farces. We have lost the do or die spirit that prevailed throughout previous centuries.

  Jeremiah’s calling and circumstances make him a complex figure that doesn’t seem to fit so well into the modern notion of prosperous and comfortable religion. Modern Western Christianity is a version of the faith far removed from the depth, gravity, costliness, conflict, and realism of our forbears. Our theology is thin and our spirituality nigh spent and infantile. We need to be resourced from our past before we are past all help and hope. The giants of the ages need to be invited into ours. We must reacquaint ourselves with the makers of our heritage and the authors of our traditions. For Anglicans a step into ancient wisdom is through the Book of Common Prayer which shapes the truth of Scripture into prayer, worship, and mature spiritual devotion and discipline. Our unruly, individualistic, superficial, subjective, and fanciful variety of Christianity has almost destroyed us and left us the prey of our own illusions. Preachers must preach every sermon with the enthusiasm and sense of dependence felt in their first, and with the conviction and candour that ought to characterize their last. Through Word, Spirit, reliance and prayer, and filled with truth, they must spell out the pure doctrine of Scripture and address it to the situation they confront. A sermon is not orthodox if it is not on target at the point of delivery. This thrusts the preacher upon God and places the onus of courage upon the preacher. Jeremiah encountered struggle without and within. He cast himself upon God and did not shirk his commission.  His message was a paradigm for preaching.

  Jeremiah embraced the two aspects of the gospel which make the good news good sense. His twin themes were ruin and restoration. His message could be presented in the form of two parallel columns. An accountant lists assets and liabilities to ascertain an individual’s or company’s exact financial position; to show them either solvent or sunken. The Scriptures present an account of our standing with God.  By nature we have nothing but liabilities, but through grace our prospectus shows infinite assets for the believer. His future is thoroughly sound.

  Jeremiah in one column reveals that our situation is all liabilities. In the adjacent column he assures us that we have nothing but innumerable possessions and advantages.  The first column lists our own self-inflicted ill-deserts. The second shows that we are rescued by an infinitely, lavishly generous, benefactor. The gospel is glorious when we know all the facts. Sinners are broke. Through the grace of God we are greatly endowed with wealth, blessed and enriched. We see a great contrast drawn by Jeremiah. To sum it up, we begin as outcasts and by the mercy of God we become his intimates. We are part of a favoured community that knows and enjoys the compassion of God. It is a community that God establishes and preserves. He enlarges it and maintains it: And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:47). This is testimony to God’s sovereign action – the restoration of his people and their increase.

  But the sweetest insight from this passage is the disclosure of the One through whom God will fulfil his purpose. We will advance to this state of blessedness and attain it through a specially chosen leader. Salvation does not occur willy-nilly or haphazardly. It reaches individuals, of course, but it is not individualistic.  We are a community with someone divinely selected as our head and we only know God through his representation, mediation, and intercession. Jeremiah states his credentials – the qualifications of our leader. He will be one of his own: from Israel’s perspective an Israelite, and from the universal human point of view he will be a man.  He will amend the lamentable performance of man. He will be able to sympathize with man in his predicament. He will put our record right with God and lead us to him. He will rectify our sorry account and rule over us as protector and guide. He will be truly and fully human – one of us and yet apart from us in one special and essential way. He will be close to God – never banished because of sin. Therefore only he could dare to draw near to God. So acceptable is he that God himself will bring him near in full approval. It will be a bond of mutual devotion, delight, and deep communion.

  The rhetorical question “Who is he” prevents presumption on the part of any proud human being. All of us are excluded from intimacy with God as rebellious outcasts. The passage can only point to one perfect person – the prophesied Lord Jesus Christ. He is close to God in his sinless, submissive manhood.  Through him as our Mediator we are heirs of the promise made to Abraham, the friend of God. Jesus appropriated this promise to all believers: I no longer call you servants. Instead I have called you friends (John 15:15ff). He laid down his life for us to heal our soul’s diseases and our distance from God. Because of his representation, because of his substitution for us in enduring our death the promise of the covenant comes into full force for us: So you will be my people and I will be your God (v22).

  We get close to God through Christ. He closes the distance between ourselves and God. Through and because of Jesus God bids us to “come close to me”. Because of Jesus’ mediation we dare to do so (Hebrews 10:19-23).

  Being close to him is God’s desire for us. Being close to him is our chief privilege and delight – sublime enjoyment for every soul that approaches God through faith in Jesus. He is one of us, and will remain so, and he makes us one with God.

  Our guilt is erased. Our unsightly sores are healed. Incurable wounds are remedied. Our health is restored. All of our previous impossibilities are overcome by the unconquerable grace of God exercised in enormous kindness with strength and tenderness.

  And God says, All is well. You are close to me. And there you will be for the rest of time and throughout eternity.

RJS

“If you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”
Luke 22:36

  That very sound Biblical scholar George Bradford Caird specialized in the figurative language and pictorial theology of Holy Scripture. The kind of studies he majored in as an expositor of  the Word enrich an understanding of divine revelation and steer us away from both an over-literal interpretation of the text when it is actually addressing us in terms of imagery, and our own idiosyncratic and fanciful notions as to Scripture’s intent. The combination of these two tendencies is especially noticeable in popular commentaries on Revelation and certain prophecies in the Old Testament. If we do not approach the Bible with a certain poetic and pictorial sense we are bound to misuse and abuse it. The Roman Catholic Church arrogated civil authority to itself by a misinterpretation of the above quotation. St Augustine got the wrong end of the stick when he took the words of Jesus in the Parable of the Great Banquet to justify physical compulsion in bringing people within range of the gospel: Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in (Luke 14:23). Jesus possessed an amazingly creative and agile mind, to say the least, and we do not do his teaching justice if we do not endeavour to get behind the words to gain his true meaning. Every statement of the Son of God invites us to dig and delve with prayer and purposeful investigation. The essence of the gospel is simple but not shallow. Scripture is a deep mine of good things. The Bible is a beautiful blend of literal, historical, and figurative truth. Our task is to discern the differences and often we will seek the help of specialists, among whom there will not be complete agreement, but prayerful common sense can usually discern the point whatever genre we opt for.

  Professor Caird points out “Jesus’ fondness for violent metaphor”. We are not to understand this is as a delight in cruelty, horror, and malice but as an emphasis on urgency, preparedness, readiness, and resolve. The issues of personal redemption or ruin are of supreme import and eternal significance and our sluggish minds need to hear the alarm call of the Saviour. He has to verbalize with vigour or we are likely to be dismissive of his message. We are impervious to spiritual truth. And even when we are aroused it is temporary and we soon recline into customary mental comfort and illusions of ultimate wellbeing. Violence can often be necessary as when we heave back a person from a stumble or fall or thrust them away from impending danger. Violence may often be a positive force for good. We shout when someone stands under a falling object or in the way of a speeding vehicle. We grab or shove a person in peril if we are near them at the time of thereat to their welfare. Jesus is violently engaged in the conflict with the kingdom of evil for our sakes. He deals with hostility and harmfulness in our interests. He overcomes our violent resistance to the divine love and mercy. The strong Son of God exerts his mighty power in judgment and salvation. He urges us to be realists in the opposition that we shall confront, the battles we shall wage, and the dangers we shall encounter. As he faced the enmity of his accusers and the agony of the cross he warned us of hard times ahead. If our Captain is so ill-treated we can count on similar rough handling from the haters of the Lord.

  Jesus tells us in this particular passage that we shall need to avail ourselves of every means of provision and subsistence in an unfriendly society ill-disposed towards us (Luke 22: 35-37). We are foolish to rely on the generosity of our fierce opponents. Persecutors will not provide for our essential needs. And because they will inevitably attack our most vital need will be for protection. Jesus is not proposing that we should arm ourselves with weapons for our physical defence but that we should be equipped with the strength and methods of the Holy Spirit to preserve ourselves from evil, its assaults and influences in circumstances that are unfavourable. The followers of One alleged to be a criminal will be charged with criminality also and “punished” accordingly. Rough treatment may be in store for us as war is waged between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness.  Jesus employs the image of a sword and stresses its necessity even above a night cloak essential for warmth through the cold hours of slumber because our lives must be guarded at all costs and above every other priority. We are in combat with the slayer of souls and every means of grace is crucial for our spiritual survival.

  Contemporary western Christianity is not ready for this tribulation which always bears down upon the people of God with varying degrees of intensity. We are not ready for this state of militancy and adversity that Jesus refers to. It is a serious warning from One so near to such great suffering himself. Our cross and conflict are coupled with his. We are to be fighters not faint of heart. Jesus is disappointed at the disciples’ notion of literal sword play. When they proffer two swords to him in naïve understanding of his exhortation he responds, “Enough. You’ve missed the point. You must be “en garde” for the enmity of the world”.

  Jesus warns us that truth will divide and that this division may occur in the midst of our most natural and intimate relationships. The closest of hearts can be separated by allegiance to the Lord Jesus. A sword represents sharp disagreement and even heated antipathy as the believer loathes the ways of a rebellious world and

others love the world, its mores and fading rewards. “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34ff).

  Spiritual hardship and warfare are on the agenda for the earnest Christian. In that sense we have too many pacifists, compromisers, and backtrackers from the fray. The militancy of the Christian’s life is not characterized by hatred and harshness but by the love of God and righteousness that subjects them to the taunts and even torture of those who declare war on God and his kingdom. Evil must be avoided, resisted, and even grappled with as circumstances dictate. Our enemy and his troops are not tame. He is tyrannous and his army savage. The forecast is: trouble ahead!

  Jesus speaks of the sword.  It is the sword of the Spirit wielded in dependence on the strength of God and the skills he supplies to praying and reliant people. Paul speaks of the whole armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). Violent metaphor suffuses Scripture and spreads throughout it. The opponents of its message denigrate the Bible as gratuitously warlike, but evil is itself the source of conflict and references to the warring savagery of a “primitive tribal god” is satanic propaganda designed to make us drop our guard apologetically and expose ourselves to the onslaught of the most murderous being in existence, that lying soother of deluded minds, the devil himself.

  The sword is an image we must keep in mind as commanded by Christ himself.  It keeps us alert to danger, cowardice, and surrender. It reminds us that we are in alliance with Christ and the cause he came to effectuate. He told us to arm ourselves as he spoke from the shadow of the cross (v37). We are to expect the battle and gear ourselves for it. The cross he had to bear is ours also.  Onward Christian soldiers!


RJS

“INSPIRED INEXACTITUDE” : PSALM 68:18

    The authors of the New Testament were given inspired access to the “great secret” of the canon of the Old Testament now meant to be open to all. The Old Testament is the Book of Jesus Christ. When the New Testament writers penned their account and interpretation of the advent, action, atonement, and ascension of Jesus the Messiah the key in which the former writings of Israel sounded the message of his coming was transposed to a higher register. What was somewhat muted or hinted at in the prophetic witness was elucidated in the apostolic witness with great boldness. Now they could point to Christ in all the Scriptures and with divine insight and creativity turn every proposition pertinent to the plan of salvation, man’s need and his provision, toward Jesus like a light that illuminated his person and purpose. What was veiled in the Old Testament, or enigmatic, became visible to the inner eye. The entire Old Testament could be marshalled as evidence and information concerning the assignment of Jesus Christ among men. They could gather and develop a full testimony to the Promised One and add it all to what they had seen and heard. They could combine the before and after of the gospel pledge fulfilled in Jesus, and in the process the Old Testament became current for all believers, a history and series of prospects as up-to-date as the morning news until the end of time. In the New Testament testimony to its central Figure the Old Testament retains its original vigour. Old and New are inseparable as the complete Word of God. By God they are matched and by men they should not be detached. We cannot know Christ as we ought ‘til we know what the prophets taught. The inspired pairing of the Old and New is amazing and adds to our sense of the glory of Christ and the exquisite wisdom of God. Old and New lock together. They are a perfect fit.  In Christian minds the “two halves” of divine revelation should never be divided. We need both sides of the portrait of Christ to see him as he is. If we only possessed half a photograph of someone beloved we would lament the fact and maybe even discard the picture with dissatisfaction. We can never be satisfied of soul until we gaze upon the complete depiction of the God-man. The prophetic eye and the apostolic eye enable us to view the Redeemer with our two eyes so that we may be fully attentive to him and absorb all his features.

  It is alleged that the Matthew Coverdale version of the Psalms in the Book of Common Prayer is often inaccurate and elusive in meaning. In strictly academic terms that may be so and an accurate rendition of Holy Scripture is mandatory, but something has to be said for the evocative quality of Coverdale’s translation. This highly spiritual man of great godly wisdom has not strayed from general gospel truth derived from a wide understanding of the Bible. His language, albeit of a distant era, stimulates reflection and his imagery enriches the mind. If he misses the sense, as experts may say, he never misses what Scripture might say elsewhere. The whole gospel shaped his comprehension. You may dispute his rendition but never his conviction. There is, arguably, a sense in which any use of Scripture which does not contradict the truth of revelation is not entirely invalid, As Augustine recognizes. There are dangers if Scripture is corrupted or contradicted, but there may also be room for skilful adaptation and application that are not of private interpretation (fancifully invented).

  Paul’s inspired practice is sometimes to take an Old Testament passage and adjust its original specific reference to a larger spiritual meaning in relation to Christ and the significance of his work and human participation in it. Habakkuk expresses the second of two complaints to the Lord in words that question why a just God seems to tolerate evil and injustice and not bring them to judgment (1:12-17). The answer comes from God that he will act justly in due time and that his holy intentions do not fail. In the meantime, says the Lord, “The righteous will live by his faith” (2:4). It is no illegitimate stretch for Paul to take this exhortation to patience and hope and appropriate it to a saving “righteousness that is by faith” in the Lord Jesus – the fulfilment of hope (Romans 1:17). In accordance with the drift of Scripture on the subject of the justification of man before God it is not wrong of Martin Luther to conclude that the justification of sinners is through faith alone, for salvation is entirely by grace alone as the Scriptures make clear. And so we see in this example that a word from the Old Testament is upgraded to maximum salvific significance, and correctly understood by a godly and prayerful mind that ranges over the whole content of God’s revelation and exercises the “analogy of faith” – the interpretation of Scripture by comparing Scripture with Scripture and capturing its essential meaning through extensive research. This is how maturity of understanding is attained. It is not gained by breaking Holy Writ into fixed fragments and by pulling isolated texts out of context. The quoting of texts can be misleading, inappropriate, and cliché tic. Our use of the Bible must be supported by the weight of its whole teaching. This is why the first and necessary prayer on every opening of God’s Book is for heavenly wisdom and comprehensive comprehension. The Bible was crafted for reflection and meditation, not quick-fire and slick citation. The use of Biblical texts must have respect for the texture of the Bible, its total weave and pattern.

  The constituent parts of Coverdale’s translation fit into the warp and weft of Scripture. The thread of his thoughts is accurate and this is shown beautifully in Psalm 68:18. Thou art gone up on high, thou hast lead captivity captive, and received gifts for men: yea, even for thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them.  A psalm that initially celebrates a victory of the people of God, and perhaps David’s conquest of the Jebusites to make their city his capital, renamed Jerusalem, becomes a pointer to Christ’s victory on behalf of sinners. Captives to evil become captives to divine love, recipients of gifts of grace, and rebels who now long for God to reside among them. Messianic militarism is defined as winning and wooing enemies to the friendship and favour of God. This vision anticipates Paul’s use of the psalm, whether through divine influence of his wit or dependence upon a variant translation to which he had access. The traditional source common to the Hebrews of Paul’s age speaks of the victor in mind receiving gifts of tribute from those he defeated and perhaps sharing them with his comrades: “You received gifts from men, even from the rebellious.”  Paul turns the passage around to magnify the gracious intent of Christ’s conquest – rescue, recovery of rectitude, and serviceableness to God as new Master in preference to Satan. “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men’ ” (Ephesians 4: 7-8). All Scripture is in service to the gospel, and the gospel fulfilled in Christ gives us sight to see him in so many places where a longer look will excitedly discern him. In a developmental sense Scripture rises to reveal and exalt Christ by a series of revelatory instalments. His greatness requires gradual disclosure.  Looking back to the Old Testament descriptions of the Messiah and his mission enriches and reinforces the message of the New. “He said to them, ‘Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old’” (Matthew 13:52). Our Anglican Matthew (Coverdale) was assiduous in polishing and displaying the treasures of Scripture.


RJS