Big Idea

Grant Osborne talks about the "Hermeneutical Spiral," which just means that as you understand the details in a book it shapes your understanding of the big picture, and as you better understand the big picture of a book you better understand the details, and so these two work back and forth and "spiral" toward the actual meaning of the text. Little stories like the tower of Babel and David and Goliath should be taken into account for what the Pentateuch or the Book of Samuel as a whole mean, and visa versa. 

The Bible is not the only text that works this way. I completed an English minor during undergrad at Multnomah, and the striking thing to me was that literature across the board is written like this. When an author sets about to put together a book, he has a big idea in mind. The biblical authors were really great authors. They were master craftsmen, and their skills mainly consisted in being able to put together what could otherwise simply be nice moral stories in such a way that creates one coherent theme. The Pentateuch or the Book of Samuel were not written like modern novels are written. Stories like the flood and Babel had probably been passed down orally; there may have even been written sources which he gathered and arranged. So when Moses wrote the Pentateuch, he did not write it from start to finish. His skill in "writing" the Pentateuch consisted of putting together stories and laws in a way that relate to each other. The biblical authors of many of these historical narratives were perhaps "making books" (Ecc 12:12) rather than writing books. 

So it is extremely important to read the legal codes in the Pentateuch for instance in view of the fact that 60 chapters of narratives and stories (stories that teach us about the importance of living by faith) precede these laws. It is likewise important to recognize that the story of David is placed within a book that begins saying, "Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his Christ (anointed)" (1 Sam 1:10) and ends saying, "Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his Christ, to David and his offspring forever" (2 Sam 22:51). 

If you read through Samuel, it becomes quite clear that Israel is foolish for trusting in a king who looks good like the other kings. They wanted "a king to judge us like all the nations" (1 Sam 8:6) and Saul was "a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people" (1 Sam 9:2). Israel trusted Saul because he looked like he could compete against the Gentile kings. Yet "man looks on the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks on the heart. (1 Sam 16:7). 

So the story of David and Goliath is in a book with an author who is very concerned to demonstrate that the best king for Israel is not the one who looks good and strong on the outside, but one who trusts in Yahweh. What kind of King should Israel trust in? What will the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ, the one who will finally totally save Israel from their enemies - what will he look like? He looks like David, the one who had faith in Yahweh and defeated Goliath. 

This is reading the story of David and Goliath in context. The Book of Samuel is not an anthology of short stories in Israel's history. The author is a very good author. He is strategic in the way he crafts his work. These stories had probably been told for centuries. His skill is not in coming up with nice moral stories. His skill is in how he arranges them and crafts them in a way that tells one big story. This is why paying attention to the context of the big idea of a book is very crucial. The story of David and Goliath was simply not meant to be read alone. There were no chapter breaks; this was all one book about the promised king of Israel, the promised Messiah who would save Israel.

The story of David and Goliath is about the coming Christ who would save Israel. This is perhaps not obvious to modern readers because we live in a flannel graph Christian culture which tends to pull these stories out of the context of their books and retell them as nice moral stories. 

To conclude, I will mention that it is on the hand crucial that we see that moral aspect of these stories. Christians are called to follow Jesus, to be like Jesus. We are all called to faith in the Father. We are called to trust in God and find our strength in him as we face the giants in our lives. But if we miss Jesus in these stories, I think that Jesus might accuse us of what he accused the pharisees: "You search the Scriptures for you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me" (John 5:39). He also explains to his disciples "that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled" (Luke 24:44). 

This isn't a mystical Holy Spirit code we imposing upon the Hebrew Bible. It is simply acknowledging that the Hebrew Bible is a book about the coming Messiah. 

Building Blocks

Life consists of people coming and going from their homes and their jobs. It consists of pilgrims going on journeys, of traveling, of hiking up mountains and then back down again. It is made up of entering rooms and leaving rooms, of walking through hallways, going up elevators, passing through wooded areas, of taking trips to the grocery store.

Our world is made out of flowers and butterflies. Flowers begin as seeds which "die" and are buried - just like Jesus, just like people - and which blossom into new, beautiful, fragrant life. Butterflies start out as caterpillars, and then they come up out of Egypt and pass through the Wilderness and become butterflies.

Light exists. Bread and water exist. Snow exists. Rain exists. Sun exists.

Rivers exist. Oceans exist. Fountains exist. Plants exist. Honey badgers and squirrels exist.

Life consists of songs and stories, which are made up of tension and resolution, just like the people who come and go from their homes, just like butterflies, just like flowers. We set out, we study, we labor, we cry, we argue, and then we sleep at night.

Life consists of a million little narratives, which can each be broken down into smaller segments, or lumped together into larger segments. This is the infinite depth of life. No thing is not made up of many things which make up one thing. And each of the many smaller things are likewise able to break down into even smaller pieces. And any group of things can be lumped together to make up one thing. This is the possibility of human art. This connection of things creates meaning. When all things are connected, when all things are lumped together - everything in the universe and all moments in history - what is the meaning? What is the picture this Mosaic creates?

Life is utterly ironic and the universe constantly turns itself on its head. The loser often wins. And you often backtrack to get onto the freeway which in the end will save you time. And sometimes you hurt your knee when you try to run and then you can't run at all. And sometimes people realize that they are humble and become Pharisaical. You would expect the clergy to be guilty of pride, but in this world the layman makes a parade of the fact that he's a layman, and the Gentiles need to be warned that their non-Jewishness, their unworthiness which has brought them to a place of faith, is precisely what would cause them to think that they are something significant in themselves, and what will sever them from the vine.

Leverage is ironic. You push down to create an upward force. Manipulation is ironic. Instead of an explicit imperative, you fake a "poor me" sort of self pity (push down), and you get what you want (upward force).

Batman is ironic. He is a bat-man, a man of the night, yet he will fight for justice in the face of enemies like the joker, who wear goodness and cheer on their face as they blow up hospitals.

Pornography exists. It is like a spider, like a snake, like a tape worm, like cancer, like leprosy, like disease in general, or any such thing which amounts to perversion, evil, lie, and nonexistence which somehow creeps into life as a tangible, concrete manifestation. Pornography is like an evil clown that wears a smile from ear to ear called marriage and purity. A thing is only as evil as it ought to be good, right, just, and beautiful.

And music exists. There is rhythm. There is harmony. There is many, and there is one. There is tension, and there is resolve. And i-pods and MP3 players exist. We like taking these little stories with us.

In the early 20th century, guitar amplifiers would create a clean sound. But rebellious rockers pushed their amps, cut them, dipped them in water - they were literally breaking their amplifiers to get the distorted sound they wanted. Now amplifiers are designed to have such a broken sound, and nobody would think twice when they heard the tone on the radio.

I wait in the rain for my friend to climb in his car and unlock my door. Again, I wait in a dark hallway as he struggles to get his keys out of his pocket. I wait in line for coffee. I wait in traffic. I wait until the bell rings at 330 and my shift ends. I wait until my teacher finishes his lecture so I can talk with the girl sitting in front of me. I wait until I get my test back. I wait for my food to cook. I wait for Josh to finish his shower so that I can take my own. I wait until I get my license, until I graduate high school, until I get a girlfriend, until I get married, have kids, get my Masters. I wait for this movie to get over, so I can more politely tell my friends goodnight.

We hate waiting because we aren't wise or observant, and the thought just never occurs to us why the sovereign Father would create such a world. And the truth is, we are just really idolatrous people who think that these things will satisfy us. We are pragmatic, impatient people trying to make do in a world of signs and images; these signs and images actually do mean something more real than themselves.

We hold dear these little pictures, much more than the real thing.

"All things with which we deal, preach to us." - Emerson

The Trinity and the Covenant

The Trinity

Trinity is the word theologians have used to express the "threeness" of the one God, that God is one being and that he is three persons. These three persons are the Father, Son, and Spirit. Each of these persons are distinct from one another; they relate to one another. It is precisely their distinction and relationship to one another as separate persons that brings the unity of the one God.

The implication of this doctrine that sets the Christian God infinitely apart from the gods of false religion is that God, when he exists apart from anything that he has created, is in his essence a loving Father. A father is only a father if he has a son. So if the Son of God was not fully God and did not exist with God the Father eternally, the Father would not be the Father; he would depend on a thing which he created to be who he is most essentially, viz., the Father, and this ruins his self-sufficiency. 

Likewise, if the Father and Son ever existed apart from the Holy Spirit of love, some standard outside of these two persons - outside of God himself - would determine their essence. In other words, they would be loving only because they conform to a standard or law of love which exists outside of their relationship. God himself would not be who he is in and of himself; he must look to and depend on something that exists outside of himself to be God. Once again, this ruins his self-sufficiency. 

But the standard or law which declares that the relationship between Father and Son is holy, loving, and good is God himself, yet he is a person distinct from the two; he is the Holy Spirit of Love. So God is completely self-sufficient in the relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit. He is a loving Father in his very essence as he exists in and of himself apart from what he has created, apart from anything that exists outside of himself. There was a time, in fact, when he did exist apart from everything else, and Christ declares that then the Father loved him (John 17:24). 

In this way Jesus is the Truth. The Truth is that God is a loving Father. Jesus is the Truth because he is the Beloved Son. When Jesus is revealed, the world sees that God indeed has a Son and that this Son is loved by the Father. The Gospel writers make this central to the revelation of Jesus: "This is my Beloved Son; listen to him."

Jesus is what is true about this universe, because Jesus is what is true about God; God is the fountain from which reality proceeds; he is the Creator; he is the loving Father from whom all things good and beautiful shine forth (James 1:17).

What is real about life is therefore a person, namely, the Eternal Son of God. Jesus is the Truth. Truth is a Person. Knowing Jesus is knowing what is true and real about life, because knowing Jesus is knowing that God is a loving Father; and this is the essence of God himself. 

Two types of knowing should be distinguished. A chemist, philosopher, or historian may know a vast amount of facts about this universe, but if he does not know Jesus he does not know anything about reality. He is on the outside looking in. In this way God has turned the wisdom of the world on its head. The most simple-minded person who does know and love Jesus (to be greatly distinguished from the discipline and science of theology) is infinitely more wise than Socrates.

The one type of knowing is only a model of the other kind. In other words, when a scientist learns a fact about the universe, that action is an image, a little picture of Trinitarian knowing, of relational knowing. When a scientist conducts an experiment and discovers a thing that is "true" about the universe - some rule or law - that is like a little dramatization of the human being who is filled with the power of the Spirit and brought into the knowledge of their Creator. This scientist experiences only an imitation of the real thing, namely, knowledge of the Creator, knowledge of the Father, Son, Spirit. Because the simple minded believer knows Jesus, he is infinitely more aware of what is real about the world than the most brilliant scientist.

Epistemology is therefore relational. Everything humanity can know calls them into relationship with their Father through the revelation of Jesus Christ his Son. 

The Covenant

As God the Father is the sovereign Creator, Sustainer, and Guider of all Creation, History, and specifically what is called "salvation history," it seems to me absolutely nonsense to develop a Christian theology which does not relate to the doctrine of the Trinity. If a theologian's system cannot answer the question of how it relates to the Triune God, then they have gone about their work upside down.

I have noticed that much of the recent discussion of dispensationalism, new covenant, and covenant theology has almost nothing to do with the Triune God. I am convicted that theologians would benefit greatly if we took a few steps back in this discussion and understood how the only possibility of covenant is grounded in the Truth and Reality of the Triune God. The most obvious thing about a covenant is that it is relational, that it exists between two parties as an agreement. The Hebrew Bible reveals Trinity by teaching that God is the Father of humanity (Gen 5:1-2) and then more specifically after the fall he reveals himself as the Father of Israel (Deut 32:6; Hos 11:1; Mal 2:10). God has revealed himself as a Father. This means that his very identity and essence is wrapped up in humanity who are the sons and daughters of God. Thus, when humanity fails to live in faith and obedience and to trust their Father, his very identity and essence is blasphemed. That is why there is such strong language of wrath throughout the Hebrew Bible, especially the Pentateuch and the Prophets. When humanity has rejected their Father and looked to other means for their satisfaction and joy, they become living proclamations that God is not a loving Father, that he will not do, that humanity ought to look elsewhere for true joy and satisfaction; these are the messages that human beings proclaim when they fail to live in the covenant (as I will show) relationship between God the Father and humanity his sons and daughters.


"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; [the covenant witnesses from Deut 4:26]
    for the Lord has spoken:
“Children have I reared and brought up,
    but they have rebelled against me." (Is 1:2)

Israel is often rebuked as the Son of God (Deut 32:6; Hos 11:1; Mal 2:10). Their failure in the covenant is not merely a failure of walking through "do"s and "dont"s. Their failure is a relational failure involving their identity as the Son of God. In fact, the Israelites often do walk through the tasks and ceremonies of the law, and still Yahweh rebukes them strongly in their failure to live as his sons and daughters; he rebukes them because this law has become a wearisome task for them (e.g. Isaiah 1).

Further, Hosea mentions that Israel, like Adam, transgressed the covenant. This means the moral failure to live under the Mosaic law is precisely the same failure which Adam had made in the garden. Now, there are certainly several concrete covenants between specific individuals (Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon, etc.) and between the nation of Israel, but these are to be understood theologically as demonstrative of God's relationship with every human being. That is why Hosea can speak theologically and say that Adam transgressed the covenant. The covenant is this special relationship between God the Father and humanity, his sons and daughters. All humanity is called to live in his grace and goodness, yet humanity looks inward to themselves and throws away his love in their pride. All humanity is guilty of transgressing this covenant, because all humanity are created as the sons and daughters of God; that is their fundamental essence.

We speak theologically of the covenant like we speak theologically of idolatry (and New Testament writers did this too). As there are several concrete instances in "salvation history" where God makes a covenant between himself and humanity, so there are concrete instances of humanity literal bowing down and worshiping idols. But these concrete instances are demonstrative of something theologically true about humanity, viz., covenant and idolatry. The covenant between these individuals is revelatory of something pervasively true about humanity, viz., covenant; between God the Father and every human being who has ever existed there is an agreement: if they live in faith and obedience and look to their sovereign, gracious Father for their identity and worth they will experience infinite blessing; he will follow through faithfully; and if they reject the grace of the Father and build their identity and worth in their pride and selfish ambition (Gen 11:1-9) they will experience the infinite wrath of God. Covenant is pervasive. Covenant is a Trinitarian reality. It is the relationship between God and humanity which reveals God to be a Father. If humanity obeys the covenant they will experience the blessing of the infinite love of the Father; if they reject their very identity as sons and daughters, the misery of life separated from the Father will likewise reveal the reality of his goodness; the misery of those who go their own way will reveal the life that is found in the Father.

All humanity has rejected their Father. The biblical text consists of zooming in on specific groups of people who one after another fail to live as sons and daughters of God. 

New Covenant

In a very real sense, the New Covenant is precisely the same as the Old Covenant. What is different about the New Covenant is that the divine Son of God has become a human being. God, instead of wiping out humanity who lives in this covenant with him, has sent his Son to become a human being and live as the Son of God. Since the meaning of the universe culminates in humanity living as the sons and daughters of God, the Incarnation of the Son of God to make this a reality must not be overlooked. If this had not happened, the meaning of the universe would be hell and utter misery.

The relationship of God and humanity is a covenant relationship between the Father and his children. The new covenant is only new in the sense that God himself has become a human being and upheld man's obligation in the covenant. This is what Jesus means when he says he did not come to abolition the law, but to fulfill it.

1 John 2:7-9 is even more precise:

"Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining."

Human beings are called into the life of God through union with Jesus. God is the infinite Love between the Father and Son. Jesus prays, "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world." (John 17:24)

Creation and history tell the story of sinful, treacherous humanity being brought back into the eternal joy of their Father through union with the Son; it is the story of the covenant Love of a Father for his children. 

Aggressive Truth

Aggression in the corner

And on a paper

It's color, sight, and sound

Around a planet of pain

Let it burn

Let it rain

Let reality constrain

Scholars, athletes

Let me see you learn

Let me hear you sing

Sing, love,

And live the Truth

The Truth is Aggression

The Truth is Passion

The Truth is One

The Truth will not bow

The Truth is Above

It is in the corner

It is on the train

Under bridges

To hide from the rain

The Truth is Aggressive

It is pain

And it cannot be stopped

He won't be changed

A Bit of Irony From Mark

14:65 "And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, "Prophecy!" And the guards received him with blows."

The irony in this verse is that Jesus is prophesying in and through receiving these blows and mockery. It is in this moment when he is rejected by men that he becomes the cornerstone (12:10-11). It is this moment when he speaks the Word of God most clearly to the world.  No prophet has ever spoken the Word of God more clearly than Christ speaks it here precisely while he is mocked. The cross is the event where God is most clearly revealed; he is a God who loves human beings and is willing to be crucified by them, receiving the punishment for their sin, so that he could bring about forgiveness and reconciliation. Jesus is the Prophet. He is the Word.

Euthyphro and the Holy Spirit of Love

Euthyphro's dilemma goes like this: ""Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?""

This has been a problem for theists in general.

In other words, is God good because he follows a moral system of good higher than himself? Or does he not follow a moral system of good, and is therefore not good?

Euthyphro's dilemma really is a problem if your God is Allah or the Unmoved Mover. But if your God is Yahweh who is Father, Son, and Spirit, then this question reveals an incredible answer.

The Hebrew Bible reveals Yahweh as a Father who loves his children (Gen 5:1-3; Deut 32:6; Mal 2:10; etc.).

Yahweh is a good Father. He is not evil. So the second horn of the dilemma is denied by Scripture; Yahweh is good. He is not capricious. He is consistently good. He is a loving Father.

But does this mean that he submits to a law higher than himself? Are we caught on the second horn of the dilemma? If he is a loving Father, doesn't this mean that he submits to some sort of standard above himself?

The Scriptures are also clear that God is self-sufficient. It was not necessary for him to create heaven and earth or humanity for God to be God. God has been a loving Father for all eternity. God himself is the relationship between the Father and Son.

For God the Father to be God the Father he must have a Son. For a father to be a father there must be another person who qualifies him as a father, namely, his son. So God is a Father and he is a Son. These two persons are one God, yet they are distinct from one another.

But this relationship between Father and Son is a good, loving relationship. It is not an abusive or neglectful relationship. So doesn't this mean that God still appeals to a higher standard, some source outside of himself which qualifies this relationship as a good relationship?

No, because the Holy Spirit is God. The goodness of the relationship between Father and Son - this standard, this thing which qualifies the nature of their relationship - is himself God; it is not something outside of God which must exist with God for God to be God; he is a person distinct from Father and Son, and yet he is God, and God is one.

Theologians have always recognized this.

Jonathan Edwards says, "This [The Spirit] is the eternal and most perfect and essential act of the Divine nature, wherein the Godhead acts to an infinite degree and in the most perfect manner possible. The Deity becomes all act, the Divine essence itself flows out and is as it were breathed forth in love and joy. So that the Godhead therein stands forth in yet another manner of subsistence, and there proceeds the third Person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, viz., the Deity in act, for there is no other act but the act of the will."

C.S. Lewis describes the Spirit like this in Mere Christianity: "The union between the Father and the Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person.  I know this is almost inconceivable, but look at it thus.  You know that among human beings, when they get together in a family, or a club, or a trade union, people talk about the ‘spirit’ of that family, club, or trade union.  The talk about its ‘spirit’ because the individual members, when they are together, do really develop particular ways of talking and behaving which they would not have if they were apart (this corporate behavior may, of course, be either better or worse than their private behavior).  It is as if a sort of communal personality came into existence.  Of course, it is not a real person: it is only rather like a person.  But that is just one of the differences between God and us.  What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, this Person is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God."

Barth says the same thing: "This relationship between Father and Son does not yet exhaust the reality, the nature of God... it is the Father and Son together who clinch the unity of God a third time in the Holy Spirit."

The three persons within the Godhead are distinct from each other and qualify each other so that God is who he is most essentially, namely, a loving Father. If these three were three different gods who just hangout together, none of them would be a self-sufficient god.

But Yahweh is self-sufficient and he is one. The Trinity is really the only possibility here.

Lies

With spectacles I see

Spring won't be what I think.

I'm less than I seem to me

An American dream

All in flux

The creation of a king

Ruthless, insecure

Cruel, unsure

It isn't me

Not who I am

Something I become

Whenever I begin

To make the mistake

Over again

And shape the world

Under my skin