Deriving principles from the Old Testament

[This is an exerpt from a book I'm writing on social justice in the Old Testament.]

The Old Testament reveals the nature of God and His expectations for societal interactions. It is an amazing, coherent narrative showing how God chose one nation—the Israelites—out of many nations to demonstrate to all people who He is, who humans are, and how God and humans relate to one another. God’s dealings with the Israelites in the Old Testament are for our instruction today. Paul used examples from Israel’s history to warn the church in Corinth against idolatry, and then explained, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings to us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.”[1] Following the example of Paul, Christians today can examine the history of God’s relationship with the Israelites and derive principles that are applicable in modern situations.

Identifying the principles taught in the Old Testament does not require extraordinary spiritual insight. There is no secret “Bible code” that Christians must learn before interpreting the Bible. Ordinary Christians endowed with discernment by the Holy Spirit—and, perhaps, some basic historical context provided by a study Bible—can understand and apply the principles laid out in the Old Testament. However, Christians must read the scriptures responsibly, just as they would read any other text responsibly: in context and faithful to the author’s intent. For example, when reading correspondence between two people, one would first want to understand who is writing to whom, the occasion of the letter, and the intent of the author before trying to discern the “meaning.” The same diligence is required when reading the Old Testament. Unfortunately, many Christians skip the work of reading the Bible responsibly and jump straight into interpretation and application devoid of context. Doing so, they derive “meanings” that neither the author nor the recipients of the book would never have imagined.[2]

To properly interpret the Old Testament, we must understand that its authors, although inspired by God, were not mindless robots taking divine dictation. They always had a purpose for writing, an intended audience, and a message to convey. Even in the case of the prophetic books, we can safely assume that the prophecies and historical interludes were recorded in the books with a specific audience and message in mind. Sometimes the audience and message were roughly contemporary to the events described, as with Deuteronomy, Nehemiah, or Ezra. Other times, such as with Chronicles, the author and audience lived and wrote centuries after the histories recorded, compiling existing written or oral accounts.[3] But, in general, the authors were Israelites writing to other Israelites about what happened in the past, with the aim of helping the audience understand the character and requirements of God for their contemporary situation, especially in light of God’s special promise to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Acknowledging the author, audience, and message of the Old Testament does not diminish its divine message, but instead clarifies and even elevates it. Taken together, the Old Testament is extraordinary in world literature, with a consistent theme that stretches across a millennium. It begins with Moses, who recorded the history of man’s beginnings, the relationship between God and Abraham, the lives of the other patriarchs, and the law (or, instruction) given by God. Moses’ aim in recording all this was to remind the Israelites of their special role in history and of God’s expectations for them as they established their new nation in the Promised Land. Many centuries later, after the Israelites had been carried into exile by the Babylonians, the authors of Kings and Chronicles wrote histories of the kings of Judah and Israel to help Israelites understand their national tragedy—why God allowed the scattering of the Israelite nation. The prophets before and after the exile recorded God’s direct messages to the Israelites, reminding them of His covenant with their nation, the disastrous ramifications for their breaking that covenant, and the promises of mercy and blessing to come.

With a perspective that takes into account the author, audience, and message, every Christian today can read the Old Testament expecting to learn something about who God is, how He wanted the Israelites to relate to one another, and how He responded when they failed to follow His commands. And, once the Christian understands what a particular Old Testament book meant for the original audience, they can then begin to answer the question, “What does this passage mean for me today?” By studying the examples given in the Old Testament in this responsible manner, Christians can derive principles—understood in the light of teaching in the New Testament—that they can then apply to current situations.

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[1] 1 Corinthians 10:11

[2] The exception is the New Testament authors who were inspired by the Holy Spirit in a unique way, or when the Holy Spirit reveals personally applicable messages to Christians in a way that is consistent with the rest of the Bible message.

[3] Take Chronicles, for example. Eight generations of descendants are listed after the post-exile governor Zerubbabel in 1 Chronicles 3:19-24. That would indicate an authorship for Chronicles around 400 B.C., whereas the events recorded in Chronicles occur centuries before.

[This post is an excerpt of my work-in-progress book on social justice in the Old Testament. Feedback is welcome! More on Learning to Do Right.] 

Child sacrifice as analogous to abortion

[This is an exerpt from a book I'm writing on social justice in the Old Testament.]

A study of child sacrifice in the Old Testament yields some basic lessons that Christians can apply to the modern debate surrounding abortion. The Old Testament repeatedly conveys God’s abhorrence of child sacrifice. God commanded the Israelites through Moses, “Do not give up any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech [a Canaanite god], for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.”[1] God says that child sacrifice is antithetical to true worship, and that the Israelites profane His name if they practice it while claiming to be His specially chosen people. Despite this clear command, the Israelites did eventually sacrifice their children to Molech. The author of Chronicles condemns various Israelite kings for sacrificing their own children and for allowing their subjects to do so. Later, prophets warn the Israelites against child sacrifice, reminding them of God’s command given in Leviticus. The command is clear, yet the Israelites repeatedly fall into this sin.

The Book of Jeremiah provides a glimpse into the possible motive for the Israelites murdering their own children—something contrary to nature. Influenced by their Canaanite neighbors, the Israelites had begun sacrificing their children to idols in the hope that they would receive good harvests or other favors.[2] [3] “They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind,” God says through the prophet.[4] To the Israelites in Jeremiah’s time, sacrificing their children was a way to make their lives better: relief from famine, victory over an adversary, or success in a business venture. It is too easy for modern-day readers to condemn the Israelites as bloodthirsty idol-worshippers. When they sacrificed their child to the gods, Israelite parents made a pragmatic decision that weighed the lives of that child against their own welfare or the welfare of their family. In the midst of a drought and looking at the child they intended to kill, many Israelite parents must have thought, “What good would it be for this child to grow up in our house if we have nothing to feed them?” Unless there is evidence to the contrary, the reader must assume these parents shed profuse tears of grief as their child burned.

By observing the issue of child sacrifice in the Old Testament and interpreting the relevant passages in context, Christian readers today come away with a message that is tremendously applicable to the modern issue of abortion. Although people today do not abort their children in sacrifice to a physical idol, they largely share the same motivations as the Israelites did in 600 B.C. To be generous, most women who abort their children, or fathers that urge an abortion, believe it will be the best solution to what is often an admittedly difficult problem. An unplanned pregnancy in today’s society can upset plans for college, family finances, or career aspirations. Weighed against these consequences, parents today may decide to abort their child—contrary to their natural instinct to protect and love a unique life bequeathed to them by God.

Christians who regard the Bible as the word of God cannot question the immorality of abortion: it is directly analogous to the child sacrifice in the Old Testament that God unambiguously condemns. Every human life is a sacrosanct gift entrusted to a natural family, whether planned or not, or convenient or not. But, Christians diverge when it comes to applying the teaching of Scripture in a representative democracy. Based on their understanding of God’s righteousness standard, Christians that adopt the “pro-life” position believe that they must do everything they can democratically, including peaceful protest, to minimize the number of elective abortions where the life of the mother is not in danger. Christians adopting the “pro-choice” position agree with biblical teaching that abortion is immoral, but they maintain that the government cannot legislate morality and that abortion is a personal matter for the mother to decide. Dictates of conscience, however, require Bible-believing Christians advocate the former position, as is argued in the previous chapter.

[This post is an excerpt of my work-in-progress book on social justice in the Old Testament. Feedback is welcome! More on Learning to Do Right.] 

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[1] Leviticus 18:21

[2] We see an example of this motive in 2 Kings 3:26-27. With his army defeated and his capital besieged by the Israelites, the king of Moab offered his firstborn son on the city walls as a propitiation to the gods.

[3] These Israelites still worshipped the God of their ancestors, Yahweh, but saw nothing wrong with worshiping the gods of the nations that surrounded them as well. King Solomon set the precedent for this syncretistic worship several hundred years earlier. 2 Kings 11:4-5, “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.”

[4] On three separate occasions in Jeremiah, God emphatically denies that He ever wanted the Israelites to sacrifice their children. God told them that, if they sought His favor, then sacrificing their children would by no means induce Him to bless them. Jeremiah 7:31, above, and also repeated in 19:5 and 32:35.

God’s justice includes salvation for the weak and oppressed

[This is an exerpt from a book I'm writing on social justice in the Old Testament.]

In the same way that Christians can find biblical principles in the Old Testament to answer the specific question of abortion, they can find the principles of justice and righteousness that help clarify biblical teaching on social justice. Following the pattern shown in the preceding section, the place to start is in the law given to Moses. What the Old Testament is to the Bible, the Mosaic Law is to the Old Testament. The instruction that God gave to the Israelites in the Torah is the background necessary to understand Old Testament history and prophesy. In it, God lays out the terms of His covenant with the Israelites and the teaching to which they must adhere as a society.

The law is the touchstone for understanding social morality and is replete with provisions meant to ensure an equitable society. If asked about these provisions, many Christians today would think of the commands that ensure fairness and impartiality. For example, the law not only prohibits stealing outright but even includes details such as the prohibition against moving a boundary marker between properties. In the judicial process, the law forbids both perjury and partiality. The law also includes sundry other stipulations for fair conduct between husbands and wives, and masters and slaves. Perhaps no other command sums up the fairness prescribed in the law as the phrase “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” recorded in Leviticus 24:17-22:

“If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. Anyone who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution—life for life. If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the Lord your God.”

All the provisions aforementioned describe a strict standard of justice in a purely legal sense, and for this reason the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments are displayed in courthouses throughout the United States. However, God’s standard of justice is not only characterized by fairness, but also by generous mercy and grace.[1] The social justice provisions in the Mosaic law go beyond fairness and impartiality—they teach the character of God as one who protects the weak and vulnerable from oppression and fills the hungry with good things. As Moses explained to the Israelites:

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the case of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.[2]

Truly, God is fair and impartial in His judgments, but thankfully He is more than that. He is merciful and gracious, with a special eye for those who are desperate to receive His salvation and peace. If God was only concerned with strict justice in a legal sense, He never would have sent His Son Jesus to die as an atoning sacrifice for people’s sin. It is because of His loving kindness that He sent His Son to save needy people from their deserved punishment. Jesus Himself taught that God’s special favor was consummated in the incarnation of His Son, but that this favor was for the poor and needy, the weak and oppressed, and all who desperately hoped in Him.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
      “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
                  Because he has anointed me                  to preach good news to the poor.      He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners                  and recovery of sight for the blind,      To release the oppressed,                  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”[3] 

“The year of the Lord’s favor” in the passage refers to the Year of Jubilee, an important social justice provision in the Law of Moses that provided an economic salvation for poverty-stricken Israelites, but Jesus referenced it to describe his own ministry to the weak and marginalized. He later expanded this merciful characterization of His ministry, saying, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous [or, rather, those who consider themselves righteous], but sinners [who acknowledge themselves as such and admit their need of a Savior] to repentance.”[4] By examining the social justice provisions in the Mosaic Law, Christians can understand God’s standard of justice and righteousness as more than legal fairness or religious purity.

Unfortunately, many Christians miss the message of mercy and grace portrayed in the Law of Moses and instead focus on what it teaches about God’s holiness and wrath against sin. In the worst cases, Christians see the God as exhibiting different natures in the Old and New Testaments—punishing sin in the Old and extending mercy in the New.[5] But, more commonly, Christians simply do not understand the full extent to which God reveals His grace and mercy in the Old Testament, especially through the commands He gives in the Mosaic Law. As a result, they see sins of commission such as stealing, sexual deviance, or idolatry as clear breaches of God’s command in the Old Testament, but not the equally condemned sins of omission, such as the neglect of those in need or failure to protect the weak.

Christians living in representative democracies today must consider the totality of what the Old Testament teaches about the character of God if they are to advocate for policies that adhere to His standard of justice and righteousness—not just fairness and impartiality in a legal sense, but also protection for the weak and provision for those in need. They cannot fulfill their unique role as salt and light to society if they advocate a lop-sided view of God’s justice that zealously protects private property while paying only lip-service to social equity. They must balance the view that “God helps those who help themselves” with the realization that God delights in helping those who are unable to help themselves. Notice, again, how Moses describes God at the outset of his reiteration of the Law:

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the case of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.[6]

Here, Moses holds God up as the ultimate arbiter—and, indeed, source—of true justice. There is no higher authority to which one could appeal, nor any need for appeal. God is, in His nature, the final and inflexible standard of justice and righteousness. Yet, in the same breath, Moses declares God’s intervention on behalf of a special segment of society—a bias for the disadvantaged and marginalized. This brief statement by Moses encapsulates the essential truth about God’s justice: that His mercy is not contrasted against His absolute justice, but instead is an integral part of that justice.

Christians who seek to advocate for the biblical standard of justice and righteousness need to understand how God’s justice includes salvation for the weak and oppressed. To do so, we must look back to what the Old Testament reveals of God’s character, starting with the Law of Moses.

[This post is an excerpt of my work-in-progress book on social justice in the Old Testament. Feedback is welcome! More on Learning to Do Right.] 

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[1] As James put it in James 2:13, “Mercy triumphs over judgment!”

[2] Deuteronomy 10:17-18

[3] Luke 4:16-21, referencing Isaiah 61:1-2

[4] Luke 5:31, with amplification from the author.

[5] The Second Century heretic Marcion, for example, rejected the Old Testament and Jewish elements in the New Testament because he saw them as contradictory to a message of grace. Today, some Christian “grace” preachers make the same mistake.

[6] Deuteronomy 10:17-18

Social justice in the Old Testament: God's justice for day laborers

[This is an exerpt from a book I'm writing on social justice in the Old Testament.]

Compared to our modern economy of global corporations and labor markets, the economy of biblical times was relatively simple. The Law of Moses anticipated four economic classes of people among the Israelites once they settled in the Promised Land: estate owners and their families, servants who lacked freedom but were considered to be part of the family, hired workers who retained their freedom and lived on a wage, and finally foreigners who had made their home among the Israelites.[1] In Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the Mosaic Law prohibits employers from delaying the payment of wages due to hired workers. Lacking the property and equipment needed to operate their own enterprise, these poor but free men hired themselves out to estate owners who needed help working their land.

References in Job and Isaiah indicate that hired workers agreed to contracts as short as one day or as long as one year.[2] Genesis records that Jacob agreed to seven-year labor contracts with his rich uncle, Laban. However, the provisions in Leviticus and Deuteronomy aim at protecting the former class of hired workers—the day laborers who lived a hand-to-mouth existence and who counted on their daily wage for sustenance. These men, and perhaps women, lived on the fringes of society and, lacking the security of property or stored wealth, suffered the most in times of national duress, such as famine or war.

Though a New Testament example, the Prodigal Son described by Jesus in Luke 15:11-32 provides an excellent picture of this type of worker. Alone in a foreign land, his money exhausted, the son hires himself out to a local landowner as a swineherd. His position is so low and precarious that he envies the pigs for being able to fill their bellies. Another apt New Testament example is another of Jesus’ parables: the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16. In that parable, the owner of a vineyard hires day laborers from the marketplace and agrees to pay them a denarius (a day’s wages) for their work at the end of the twelfth hour, or six o’clock in the evening.

Indeed, nearly every society since biblical times has included some people without the property, equipment, or trade skills needed to employ themselves. In economic terms, these people lack the capital required to start their own business. Serfs in mediaeval times or Irish peasants under the English aristocracy had no access to land of their own. Instead, they worked the land of other men in exchange for a share of the harvest. Currently in the developing world, large numbers of workers from rural areas continue to flock to cities where they manufacture or assemble goods for large overseas corporations. Depressed wages and weak or unenforced labor laws make the situation of these hired workers precarious, and they are compensated only a small fraction of the value of the goods they produce.

Even today in the United States, many people work to receive an hourly wage without any capital share in the company they work for. Labor-friendly laws and an economy that is driven by specialized skills and knowledge put most hired workers in the United States on equal footing with even the most powerful employers. To find people in the United States facing similar circumstances to the hired workers in Jesus’ parables, do not look for office-park cubicle farms. Instead, line up early in the morning at temporary employment agencies. Or, they wait in groups at the edge of the parking lots at home improvement stores. There, you’ll find desperate people hoping construction contractors or homeowners will hire them to work at low-skill tasks such as painting, fence repair, or landscaping. Or, look to the fields during harvest time, when entire families in agricultural areas will hire themselves out to farmers for long days of picking fruits or vegetables. Or, look in the homes of the wealthy where immigrant women work as nannies and maids. None of these people are slaves, but they are poor and desperately need work. The money they earn that day will mostly be spent within days on food, shelter, and clothing.

It is about these types of people that Leviticus 19:13 says, “Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.” Moses expands on the same command in Deuteronomy 24:14-15:

Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns. Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

First, Moses clarifies that to hold back wages from a hired man is to take advantage of him. Without collective bargaining and all other things being equal, employers hold an advantage over employees, especially those who have little financial or social influence and who depend on their daily wages for basic necessities. Moses indicates these people have no other support or recourse except to cry out to God. They have no money saved up, no patrons in the community to champion their cause, and would be powerless to demand justice themselves. It is for the sake of these powerless and vulnerable people that God gives the command to the Israelites. Although there is no specifically prescribed penalty for an infraction of this law, God Himself will bring retributive justice against the unjust employer.

Jacob’s service to his uncle Laban reveals something about unequal relationships between employer and employee. Although Jacob enjoyed some advantages compared with the day laborers referred to in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, Laban had become a powerful landowner who considered everything Jacob earned as belonging to himself. Laban took advantage of his more powerful position to unscrupulously lessen his compensation ten times over twenty years. Finally, Jacob had had enough and decided to flee back to his father’s country and out of under his oppressive employment to Laban. When Laban pursues and overtakes him, Jacob finally pleads his case:

I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.[3] 

God’s intervention and family ties kept Laban from taking from Jacob twenty years’ worth of labor. Many centuries later, God tells the Israelites that He will similarly intervene on behalf of oppressed workers. Where we are left to infer a moral standard in Genesis, here God makes it clear: He ardently desires just employment practices where employer and employee negotiate on equal terms.

Jesus’ Parable of the Great Banquet, told in Luke 14, emphasizes God’s special grace extended to those on the lowest rungs of the societal ladder. The master in that parable, his invitation having been rejected by those of means, commands his servant, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.” As the commentator Matthew Henry notes, these people are “the vagrants, or those that are returning now in the evening from their work in the field, from hedging and ditching there.” In other words, Jesus implies that God’s grace is effectual for those who, because of their desperate situation, would welcome it as a day laborer would welcome a rich and free banquet at the end of the day. Jesus’ message reaffirmed that those who are powerful and rich in this world, as a result of their self-absorption and self-importance, will not receive God’s grace though it is equally extended to them. Those who have little in this world, as a result of their desperate need for salvation, will receive God’s help.

With this same idea in mind, James the brother of Jesus writes: “The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.” But, James scathingly rebukes the rich landowners who have forgotten God’s defense of the needy. Recalling the provision for day laborers in Deuteronomy, he writes:

Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.[4] 

[This post is an excerpt of my work-in-progress book on social justice in the Old Testament. Feedback is welcome! More on Learning to Do Right.] 

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[1] This list is taken from Leviticus 25:6.

[2] Job 7:1-2, 14:6; Isaiah 16:14, 21:16

[3] Genesis 31:38-42

[4] James 5:4

Social justice in instruction for the Sabbath and debt cancellation

[This is an exerpt from a book I'm writing on social justice in the Old Testament.]

God established His pattern of Sabbath rest when, after six days of creation, He rested from His work. Speaking through Moses on Mt. Sinai, God instructed the Israelites to follow His example by observing a day of rest on the Sabbath. God linked observance of the Sabbath with His rescue of the Israelites from slavery. Expounding on the Ten Commandments forty years after first delivering them, Moses said this about the fourth commandment:

Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.[1] 

Moses asked all members of Israelite society, from the highest to the lowest, and even including the foreigners who lived among them, to cease from work for one day out of seven. While an irreligious, wealthy Israelite landowner may have chafed at the cessation of work on his property, the Sabbath was a welcome respite for the slave of his household and for his hired workers—not to mention his oxen, horses, and donkeys! A believing landowner, however, would welcome the rest as a reminder of God’s pledge to provide for those who trusted in Him, rich and poor alike. As they rested from work on the Sabbath, Moses asked the Israelites to remember God’s care and attention to them in their misery. The Sabbath served to regularly remind the Israelites had time to reflect on how much God had provided for them, rescuing them from slavery and establishing them as an independent nation in a “land of milk and honey.” In addition, the Sabbath was a time to look forward to the ultimate rest that the Messiah would bring.[2]

The Sabbath occurred every seven days, but every seventh year was also a Sabbath in an analogous sense. Teaching the same lessons of trust and salvation that marked the weekly Sabbath, the seventh-year Sabbath required Israelites to let their land lie fallow and allow it to replenish nutrients and regain fertility. Israelites that owned land and storehouses would not need to cultivate, sow, or reap during the Sabbath year because God promised to provide a super-abundant harvest on the sixth year. Poor inhabitants of Israel without land or storehouses were allowed to freely pick olives, grapes, and other produce that grew unaided during this time.

Observation of this seventh-year Sabbath required special trust in God. All humankind experiences and understands the need to ceaselessly work, whether out of greed for more wealth or simply to provide sustenance for ourselves and our families. This toilsome need stems from the curse that befell our ancestor Adam: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” Paul put it in more simple terms: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” For this reason, it feels unnatural to cease from our efforts to provide for ourselves. But God wants His people to acknowledge the salvation that comes from Him alone. When the Assyrian army threatened Judah, King Ahaz sought help from the other great regional power, Egypt, instead of turning to God. This lack of trust displeased God, who spoke through the prophet Isaiah, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” God wanted the Israelites to learn to rest in Him, to cease from their labor and trust God to provide what they needed. When Ahaz’s faith-filled son, King Hezekiah, faced the same Assyrian threat, he trusted in God’s salvation instead of seeking alliances or other help outside of God’s will. As a result, God sent a destroying angel into the Assyrian camp and annihilated the Assyrian army. The prophesies of Isaiah record God’s view of both King Ahaz and King Hezekiah, and instructs us as the readers to trust God and not our own efforts. Both the weekly Sabbath and the seventh year in the Sabbatical cycle taught and tested the Israelites in their trust in God.

The seventh-year Sabbath taught another aspect of God’s merciful salvation: debt forgiveness. While their land enjoyed a Sabbath rest, Moses required the Israelites to forgive the debts owed them by fellow Israelites.

At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you.[3]

Because they were prohibited from charging interest on loans made to their countrymen, the Israelites already had a disincentive to lend money to those who needed it. But, the Sabbath year demanded even more, requiring the Israelites to not only offer interest-free loans, but to completely cancel the debts at the end of the Sabbatical cycle of years. From a natural, individualistic perspective, this command seems grossly unfair. Interest-free loans seem indulgent by most standards, but interest-free loans with a high likelihood of default are nonsensical in any time and place. However, as recipients of God’s abundant grace, the Israelites were obligated to extend extraordinary grace to weak and vulnerable groups in their own society.

Moses continued, warning the Israelites from feigning an inability to lend.

If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for cancelling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward your needy brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal to the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.[4] 

As with the commands concerning day laborers, gleaning, and the tithe, Moses put the command to lend freely in the context of the Israelites’ relationship with God. They were debtors to God, and must likewise forgive debts owed them. Rich and poor alike, all Israelites understood they were indebted to God. Not only had He rescued them from their Egyptian slavery, but He had also provided a covering for the sin that separated them from Himself. Because of this provision, the Israelites alone among all people on earth could claim to have a God that dwelt in their midst in the form of the tabernacle, and later, in the temple in Jerusalem. God also prescribed elaborate sacrifices meant to illustrate the atonement of people’s sin. Blood was the required payment for sin in most cases. However, God made an exception for poor people who could not afford the more customary goat, lamb, or pair of doves: “If, however, he cannot afford two doves or two pigeons, he is to bring as an offering for his sin a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering.”[5]

All this ritual was designed to demonstrate the indebtedness of the Israelites and their rescue from that debt by God. This debtor-savior relationship required the Israelites to relate to one another accordingly, including rescuing their brother or sister who fell into poverty. More than a thousand years later, Jesus repeatedly drew the same lesson, teaching, “Freely you have received, freely give,” “Give and it will be given to you,” and “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Jesus most fully illustrated this principle in His parable of the unmerciful servant: A servant owed his master an exceedingly large amount of money. Graciously, the master forgave the debt entirely, saving the servant from ruin. However, the servant went on to meet one of his fellows who owed him a small sum and demanded a prompt payment. On hearing of this injustice, the master of the first servant grew incredibly angry and threw the first servant into prison until he should pay back every penny of his original debt.

In light of their covenant relationship to God, the Israelites cancelled loans on the seventh year out of obligation, not charity. Charity implies giving when otherwise not required and only God is in the position to extend that type of free grace. As debtors themselves, Israelites who skirted the command to provide for those in need practiced injustice. Failing to provide for the poor was a positive offense against God and a breach of the covenant.

[This post is an excerpt of my work-in-progress book on social justice in the Old Testament. Feedback is welcome! More on Learning to Do Right.] 

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[1] Deuteronomy 5:12-15

[2] See Psalm 72 for an example of Israel’s Messianic hope, and Hebrews 4:1-3 and Colossians 2:16-17 for the fulfillment of the Sabbath in Jesus Christ.

[3] Deuteronomy 15:1-3

[4] Deuteronomy 15:7-11

[5] A tenth of an ephah is about one-tenth of the amount of grain that Ruth gathered in her first day at Boaz’s field.

God’s sovereign choice

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:25-30

 

Over the last couple years, my writing energies have gone into sermons, Bible study lessons, and my book. I haven’t had much creative juice left over for this blog, but today’s going to be different. I’d like to share something that has helped clarify my understanding of God’s sovereign choice and who is the “elect.”

Recently, I taught from Matthew 11:25-30, quoted above, and it seems to me to perfectly encapsulate the Bible’s seemingly paradoxical teaching about who God calls and to whom He reveals Himself. This passage teaches three things:

1. Jesus says that divine revelation (“these things”) is hidden from a certain group of people but graciously revealed to another group. He then says that this is God’s sovereign choice.
2. Jesus emphasizes that the only way to know God is through grace. Specifically, the people who know God must be chosen by Him.
3. Jesus gives an open call to everyone who suffers from the burden of sin and desires His rest. The solution is a servant-master relationship with God, and an infilling of the Holy Spirit that will enable people to fulfill the requirements of God joyfully.

Going back to the first point, there are two groups of people. One group cannot receive God’s revelation—it is hidden from them. The other group receives God’s revelation graciously. In both cases, this is God’s sovereign will. The second point emphasizes the first. Who are those from whom God hides divine revelation? It is the “wise and learned,” probably in the same sense that Paul uses those words when describing how people received the scandalous message of the cross: “Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20) Both Jesus and Paul said that God’s revelation is hidden from people who will not receive it because of their self-sufficiency.

 

Who does God choose to reveal the divine message to? To “little children,” or those who receive from God as a little child trustingly receives from his or her father. This is God’s sovereign choice. God does not choose to hide and reveal the gospel message arbitrarily. No, but He hides it from those who will not receive it, and He reveals it to those who will receive it. Before the creation of the world, God foreknew those who would willingly receive the gospel message by faith. He chose, elected, and predestined these people “for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.” (Ephesians 1:5)

 

If you’re confused at this point about whether God has chosen you, there’s one way to find out. Read the next verses in Matthew 11. After emphasizing God’s sovereign choice, Jesus calls out to everyone who carries the burden of sin and seeks relief: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Your response to this call will tell you whether you are God’s chosen or not.

 

Some Christians get so caught up in God’s sovereignty that they miss the point. They are so concerned with God being in control that they think He arbitrarily predestined some to salvation and others to damnation. That’s wrong because Jesus says that we can know who God hides the message from and who God reveals it to. Basically, God gives to those who will receive. The way that they receive is not through any learning or merit, but simply by childlike faith. This is His good pleasure.

The role of government and Its limitations

Today, the Christian church still struggles to reclaim the uniqueness that differentiated the Jesus, his disciples, and the early church from the society they lived in. Jesus warned against salt that lost its flavor and against light hidden under bowls. When Christians cannot distinguish between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world then they mistakenly believe that God favors one nation over another, or one political party over another. They compromise their unique message by thinking “It’s my country, wrong or right” or otherwise excusing the ways in which their nation or party deviates from God’s standard of righteousness and justice. They self-servingly highlight scriptures from the Bible that support their partisan viewpoints while ignoring or misinterpreting those that might undermine their ideology. Moreover, they see the success of their nation or party as the success of God’s kingdom—and see their rivals as opposed to God’s kingdom. This view leads Christians to label nations or political opponents as “heathen” or as opposed to the kingdom of God. But, if they do that, then they misidentify their enemy. As Paul wrote, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”[1] Like Jesus, Paul emphasized the otherworldliness of God’s kingdom—that it was not set up in opposition to earthly kingdoms, but rather existed on a completely different plane over and above them. In fact, Paul taught that all earthly governments are established by God and that earthly rulers wield authority as God’s servants.[2]

Earthly government has a proper place, according to Paul’s writings and life example. Paul taught that God establishes governments to maintain peace and order, and to enforce justice. Even though he was frequently jailed for the practice of his faith and eventually martyred under a cruel tyrant, Paul understood and respected government authority. Paul instructed the churches under his care to offer prayers for government leaders so that they could live peacefully.[3] He insisted on his rights as a Roman citizen, such as the right to a trial before flogging and an appeal to Caesar, a right he exercised when the Jewish leaders accused him before the Roman Governor Porcius Festus.[4]

In general, governments, political leaders, and nations can be relatively good or evil—that is, they can be relatively good or evil compared with one another. However, no earthly government can be measured as absolutely good compared against God’s absolute standard of justice and righteousness. And, contrary to Jesus’ teaching and example of submission and service, all worldly governments rely on subjugation and coercion to restrain evil. As Paul wrote:

“For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”[5]

According to Paul, earthly governments wield authority punish wrong or immoral actions and can commend righteous actions, but they have no power to change people’s hearts for good. Indeed, capitalist, democratic forms of government tend to succeed because they do not rely on people’s better natures, but instead assume people’s self-interestedness, both as individuals and as groups of like interest. Capitalism harnesses people’s greed and selfish ambition to make society more productive. Much in the same way, modern democracy contains harmful natural tendencies through elaborate checks and balances in government, but does nothing to erase those tendencies. Politicians understandably pander to voters’ self-interest. After all, no one expects people to vote according to what is right for all mankind, especially when that might mean losing benefits for themselves. Winston Churchill famously summed up the advantages and deficiencies of democracy by saying, “Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

Christians must understand the proper role of government and its inherent limitations. When an earthly government takes up Christianity as its own cause, it still operates according to the principles of this world, which are subjugation and coercion. This does not change even if Christians control the government and dictate all its policies. Certainly, Christians play a preserving role by advocating laws and policies that align with God’s standard, as shown in the next chapter, but they must not put their faith in these imperfect and temporary kingdoms. Instead, Christians must put their faith in God’s heavenly kingdom, which is established as believers yield their lives to God, operate according to His kingdom’s principles, and shine as examples of His righteousness and justice. One day, Jesus will return and replace all earthly governments with His eternal government. Till that day, Christians live as sojourners here on earth, act as salt and light to society, and secure their victory through submission and service, not subjugation and coercion.

[This post is an excerpt of my work-in-progress book on social justice in the Old Testament. Feedback is welcome! More on Learning to Do Right.]

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[1] Ephesians 6:12

[2] Romans 13:1-7

[3] 1 Timothy 2:1-4

[4] Acts 16:37, 22:25 and 25:10-11, respectively

[5] Romans 13:3-4

Growing close to God in difficult times

This is a sermon I preached a couple weeks ago. Since then, several people in our congregation have encountered very difficult circumstances. My conscience is stricken with the thought that perhaps this sermon was to help people prepare for difficulty. Even though God is sovereign over all circumstances and always has good things prepared for those who love Him, it's stomach-twisting to see people you care about go through hard times and be limited in how you can help. Lord, please have mercy on Your people! Help us to depend on You and stand firm with faith until we see Your deliverance!

Growing Close to God in Difficult Times (Sermon)

Jingoism vs. the love of God

I had heard about the Back to Jerusalem (BTJ) movement when I read The Heavenly Man, an account of the ministry of Brother Yun in China. Today, I came across an article on BTJ in the Washington Post and couldn't help but see the stark contrast between how Chinese Christians view the Islamic world and how U.S. Christians view the Islamic world.

Chinese Christian missionaries are training for jobs in Muslim lands, learning Arabic, and relocating their families to these areas in order to build churches and train disciples. There is no word among them about the threat of Muslims in China or elsewhere. No doubt they would strongly condemn terrorism and have no affinity for extremists such as Al Qaeda, but if they do, that's not the story they lead with. You never feel that these Christians view Islam as a threat or Muslims as enemies. Instead, the only sense you get is that these people feel deeply the love of God for the lost. They are acting as true salt and light to the world.

Compare that with much of the alarm among U.S. Christians that Islam is taking over the Western world. Legislation barring Sharia Law in Oklahoma (what the heck?!), rumors that the President is covertly a Muslim, and threats to burn the Koran are the most extreme examples of this alarm. If U.S. Christians do acknowledge the need for evangelism to the Muslim world, they do so only quietly after catching their breath, having wasted it screaming about the Islamic threat. It's hard to imagine these people conceiving a vision similar to BTJ. They certainly are not salt and light as Jesus described.

In my opinion, the basic difference between Chinese and U.S. Christians in how they view the Islamic world is the definition of the kingdom of God. Instead of framing their worldview in terms of the universal kingdom of God against a general world system (selfishness, hatred, and rebellion against God), they conflate the kingdom of God with earthly kingdoms, much as Christians did after the Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity in 312 A.D. Many U.S. Christians conflate Christianity with America, democracy (as long as it doesn't elect Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood), Second Amendment rights, and capitalism. This is wrong and unbiblical.

Roman coin (c. 350 A.D.) showing the military standard first adopted by Emperor Constantine containing the Chi-Rho, or the first two Greek letters of Christ.

Jesus was clear about his distinction apart from the Roman emperor, the king Herod, the Sanhedrin, and every other worldly governmental power at the time. When cross-examining Jesus to determine if he was guilty of sedition, the Roman governor Pilate asked if Jesus claimed to be a king. Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

What Jesus understood, and many U.S. Christians do not, is that God’s kingdom is uniquely over and above, and not in competition with, any earthly kingdom. God’s kingdom is not in opposition to worldly kingdoms because they exist on different planes. Later when Pilate asked Jesus, “Don’t you realize I have the power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” All authority belongs to God, and there is no earthly authority that God has not established. The rise and fall of governments and nations will always be in God’s hands. In contrast to the impermanence of worldly governments, God’s kingdom even today continues to expand and brighten, like the rays of the sun breaking at dawn, and no power, earthly or spiritual, can stop it.

Jesus warned against salt that lost its flavor and against light hidden under bowls. When Christians cannot distinguish between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world then they mistakenly believe that God favors one nation over another, or one political party over another. They compromise their unique message by thinking “It’s my country, wrong or right” or otherwise excusing the ways in which their nation or party deviates from God’s standard of righteousness and justice. They self-servingly highlight scriptures from the Bible that support their partisan viewpoints while ignoring or misinterpreting those that might undermine their ideology.

Moreover, they see the success of their nation or party as the success of God’s kingdom—and see their rivals as opposed to God’s kingdom. This view leads Christians to label nations or political opponents as “heathen” or as opposed to the kingdom of God. But, if they do that, then they misidentify their enemy. As Paul wrote, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Like Jesus, Paul emphasized the otherworldliness of God’s kingdom—that it was not set up in opposition to earthly kingdoms, but rather existed on a completely different plane over and above them.

Social justice in the Old Testament: Second and third chapters (in draft!)

I've finished the second chapter in my book on social justice in the Old Testament, and am half-way through the third chapter. Read both below, or my first chapter here.

If you have any experience self-publishing a book, including marketing, editing, and formatting tips, please share your best practices! My goal is to create something that I'll be proud of and that will add something to our collective understanding of God's principles of justice and righteousness, and the Christian role in advocating those principles.

The second chapter covers the motives for Christians to get involved in political advocacy; those being dictates of conscience and a desire for the general welfare of society.

Motive for Christian Political Advocacy

The third chapter begins an exposition of the social justice provisions in the Mosaic Law, notably stipulations governing day labor, harvesting, tithes, debt-cancellation, and the famed Year of Jubilee.

The Law God Gave to Moses

What is revival?

[This is an article that I wrote for our church newsletter a couple years ago.]

Revival is core to what New Hope International Church is about. We want to see people, families, churches, and cities in revival. According to the dictionary, revival means to move from a seemingly dead state to a live one. For Christians, revival means to move from man-made religion to a vibrant relationship with God, with undeniably miraculous results following.

The specific term "revival" comes from English and American history and describes periods where the Holy Spirit acts principally to stir people's spirits. As a result of these episodes, Christians' passion for God is renewed and the lost are inexplicably converted. As masses of people repent and are transformed by the love of God, the society around them changes for the better. The "Second Great Awakening" in the 1800s gave birth to the abolitionist movement (to end slavery) in the United States, for example.

But revival is much more than a historical term. Revival is also prophesied about in the Bible, especially in Ezekiel when God promises to replace Israel's stony hearts with hearts of flesh, and in Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones that are made into a living army (read Ezekiel 36:22 - 37:28). When reading these verses, we find that God emphasizes that He is the one who revives His people. This is an essential aspect of revival that we must understand—true revival is the obvious product of God, the Sovereign Lord, not man. It is not manufactured or engineered. It is not learned through teaching, dependent on human resources, or honed by market research. Revival only occurs when God moves freely in His church. This means there is nothing we can add of ourselves to revival—any human manipulation will only serve to obstruct and distract from the move of God.

Revival is part of God's plan to prepare His church for the end times and Jesus' return. Although God is always at work in His church, His relationship with the church is a tremendous story that winds through history. In the same way that God periodically moved to spiritually revive the nation of Israel (followed with physical blessing) in the Old Testament, God also pours out deliverance, power, and love to His church in certain places and times.

What is a revival church? You can't have a church in revival without people in revival. Revival starts in our own hearts. It starts when each person repents of sin and desires God. The Bible gives us a recipe for revival in James 4:8, "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." Although we cannot dictate when God will bring revival, we can prepare for revival by repenting and hungering for the things of God.

We believe that each person in a revival church needs to have an intimate relationship with God that radically changes the way they relate to their family, coworkers, and friends. In a sense, each member of a revival church should become a "carrier of revival." This is consistent with history and the biblical model of revival. The first-century Christians saw tremendous revival because of how individual believers lived and evangelized. Their success had very little to do with church organization and came in spite of opposition from Roman authorities. The success of more modern revivals was also dependent on individuals. Even though we know the names of past revivalists, the reason those people's ministries were powerful was because of the radical change produced in their hearers' lives—revival is not just a meeting, but a lifestyle.

Also, a revival church seeks the genuine move of God by allowing the Holy Spirit to operate freely. This is more difficult than it sounds—when God moves, He often breaks man-made traditions, pays no attention to denominational organization, and offends people's sensibilities of what is proper. Jesus' own ministry is an example of how the move of God goes "against the grain" of established, institutional religion. In the same way, more modern moves of God have encountered opposition because of unconventional methods. George Whitefield and Jonathan Wesley, for example, drew criticism because they preached in open fields to accommodate large crowds and because their hearers sometimes had physical manifestations of God's inward work. From open-air preaching to holy laughter, God uses new (but biblically consistent) methods to touch people's hearts.

Because God uses new methods to bring revival, we at New Hope International Church are careful not to "put God in a box" by strict adherence to man-made traditions and practices. This mindset is most evident in our Sunday services, where we try to structure the service to facilitate, not constrict, the move of the Holy Spirit through prayer, worship, and preaching. We are not ashamed of unorthodox methods if those methods deliver people from sickness and the bondage of sin, and produce the life-change that is characteristic of revival.

Another key to being a revival church is to obey the specific call of God, whether on a church level or an individual level. God has a particular fit for each local church in the Body of Christ, and a particular role for each person to play within his or her local church.

We believe God has called our church to bring revival to the nations, which means:

1. Encouraging revival in our own church and community
2. Supporting our pastor's calling to spread revival and work as an apostle to other revival churches

Today, our society is ripe for revival. People are disgusted with institutional religion, ensnared by sin, bound by sickness and poverty—and at the same time longing for a more authentic experience of God. If we act as a human-run organization, depending on wisdom borrowed from the world and our own ability, our church cannot hope to meet this need. Instead, we at New Hope International Church aim to be a revival church that is open to the authentic move of God, recognizes and obeys the call of God, and continually fosters a lifestyle of revival among our members.