A "Prophetic" View

One thing we must acknowledge right at the beginning of this post: the Bible is a really large book.  I really feel for the person who doesn't have any experience with the Bible who decides to read it one day, and then starts to do so in typical book fashion.  That is, start at the beginning and work your way through to the end.  Sure, the first part is pretty exciting, as Genesis and even Exodus have some exciting stories.  But then, once you get part way through Exodus, things can really start to bog down on you.  Lists of "do's" and "don'ts" fill the pages, and even the most devoted reader may start to find excuses not to read.

One thing that the size of the Bible has led to is an overlooked view of the books toward the end of the Old Testament, those books known as the prophets.  The things that people find most familiar about them are the little quotations that we come across in the New Testament.  We hear of their foreviews of Jesus, but really don't know much more about them than that they spoke those words.  As for the time in which they lived, or the reason for the words they spoke, or even the general theme of their messages, these are mostly unknown.

I've asked around a bit over the past few weeks about what people know about the prophets, and have found that most people seem to have what I am calling a "romanticized" view of the prophets.  That is, they think that the prophets were wise, well-respected men who spoke as though they had most of their attention on the future in Jesus.  In general, people seem to think that they were liked, almost to the point that the people of their day would be waiting breathlessly for their next words.

That is hardly the case for most of the Old Testament prophets.  To put it bluntly, the life of a prophet, while blessed in the eyes of God, was not an easy one to live.  Most prophets were not liked, and even had attempts on their lives.  Tradition has several of them dying in rather harsh ways, such as Isaiah being sawn in half.  People like Jeremiah were despised, imprisoned, called traitors to the country, and even seen as blasphemous to the people.  They lived on the edge of society, proclaiming God's justice and wrath, as well as God's grace and favor.

For anyone who wants to get an idea of what some of the prophets went through, I would always suggest reading through Jeremiah.  If his story doesn't give you a clearer picture about what it means to speak God's Word to people, then I don't know what will.

Being Truly Human

As I've mentioned before, I do a lot of reading.  Some of it is required reading, especially those books that I have to read as I study for my Doctor of Ministry degree.  Over the past week, I just finished a fascinating book, called "Theology is for Proclamation" by Gerhard Forde.  For those who want to take a deep look at the relationship between systematic theology and preaching, this is a good (albeit academic) book.

One point that Forde made has really made me think quite a bit.  He talks about Jesus being true man.  We confess that belief in the Apostles' Creed, where we confess that Jesus is both true God and true man.  But I found his thoughts on what it means to be true man (for Jesus) utterly fascinating.

When God created man, the first man and woman "knew" who they were in relation to God.  God was the creator, and was "above" them.  But when they were tempted by the serpent, he caused them to think that they could strive to be like God.  After all, that was the temptation.  "You could be like God, knowing good and evil."  By taking that step, the man and woman "fell" into sin by over-reaching their role in relationship to God.  Previously they had been His loved and perfect creation.  But now, in their lives, they sought to be like God, thus exalting themselves to a place that was never intended for them.

Here's where Jesus being true man then really strikes home.  In His entire life, Jesus never once sought to be more than what He was in relation to God the Father.  Jesus was the Son, and never sought to rise above that.  Jesus was completely human, and never sought to be more than that as He lived in this world.  Even when it came to the Father's will for Him, Jesus did not question if the Father really knew better than He did about what was best for Jesus.  Instead, Jesus willingly accepted what the Father's will was, even though it meant being betrayed, abandoned, persecuted, beaten, and put to death.

That's what it means to be truly human, at least as I understood it from Forde's thoughts.  And that actually makes a lot of sense to me.  When we question God, in one respect, we are trying to tell God that we know what's good for us better than He does.  When something happens in life and we complain to God about it, we're saying that we know what God should and shouldn't do in our lives.  Each of these, and there are many more examples of things we do like this, show that we simply cannot remain merely God's created, loved creation, but instead, we strive to be God in our lives to some degree or another.

Being truly human means that we recognize that we live completely at God's mercy and by God's grace.  Our trouble is that we simply cannot see what God is accomplishing when things happen in our lives that we don't like.  If we knew what God was accomplishing when we were suffering, or when a family member was hurting or dying, we'd probably be a bit more able to accept our place in our relationship with God.  However, because sin has cut us off from that connection, we are left with no alternative but to seek out the place of God.

As I said, I'm fascinated by this thought.  I've tended to think about Jesus becoming like us as a human being, and have rarely given thought to the fact that Jesus came to be truly human, and what that means for us.  I'm thankful for Forde for making me think about things like this.

Doctoral Reading

This summer I am scheduled to take my next two classes toward my doctoral degree.  This year, my time for reading is going to be a little shorter than before, as Carrie and I are expecting our first child in early May.  My classes are the last two weeks in June, so I want to have everything done prior to that birth.  Believe me, it will mean some good time reading in the next few months.

Think about the many books that you have seen about faith matters.  Have you had some that have been more inspirational than others?  How about some that have simply been informative?  I typically get at least one or two things out of every book I read, even if I disagree with the author. 

The thing that I always strive to keep in mind is that the reading of all these books will never take the place of the simple message of God's Good News.  Only the book which conveys God's Word to people can make true changes to people's life and faith.  All these other books, no matter how helpful, simply are not God's Gospel message.

This isn't to say that reading is a bad thing.  On the contrary, I believe in being well-read simply because it makes you clarify your thoughts and beliefs more than if you never encountered those other things.  The danger, of course, is that we start to slip because of a persuasive argument on the part of an author, or when we start putting knowledge ahead of God.

So go ahead and read.  In fact, I would love to hear about the many books that you all are reading.  From time to time, I'll ever share some on here with you (in summary fashion, of course), and whether or not I recommend them.