Digging Deeper: What Do We Do With Samson?

Each Monday I try to maintain a series on this blog called "Digging Deeper."  The purpose of these posts will be to "dig deeper" into the text that I preached the previous Sunday.  It is almost always the case that there is more that could be said on every text that I preach at Riverview, and sometimes time constraints don't allow me to say everything that could be said about a particular text we are studying together.  Invariably, some things get left on the cutting room floor.  For this reason I thought it might be helpful to pick up some of those scraps on Monday and try to learn from them.

Samson: childhood Sunday School hero, strongman, womanizer, sleaze ball, Judge of Israel, avenger, warrior, fornicator, Nazarite.  The list of descriptors for the man whose story we read about in Judges 13-16 could go on and on.  One thing is for sure: Samson was a man whose life was a big hot mess, and almost always not in a good way.

So what do we do with Samson?  Many have undertaken the difficult task of attempting to find some kind of redeeming element in the story of Samson, but any way you look at it, the guy's life was a shambles of disobedience, apathy, and selfishness.  It's hard to find something redeemable about someone so scummy.  Is there anything about this guy that is worthy of admiration or emulation?  No.  At least not from the account of him that we read about in Judges.

The answer changes, however, when we read Hebrews 11.32-34: "And what more shall I say?  For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets - who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight."

It's interesting: when you read the account of Samson's life in Judges 13-16, the author never commends any of Samson's actions as being faithful.  That is, the author never explicitly says that Samson performed any of his mighty deeds because of his faith.  In fact, the opposite is true: the overwhelming circumstantial evidence of Samson's actions points us to the conclusion that he instead performed his mighty deeds out of selfish ambition field by sinful desire.  The author of Hebrews, however, reveals that Samson's mighty deeds were, in fact, fueled by faith.  Although these faith-fueled deeds are not at the exclusion of all of the rotten things he did too.

For instance, of the qualifiers that are listed in Hebrews 11.32-34, Samson fits at least five of them.  In Samson's story we read about him 1) stopping the mouth of lions; 2) escaping the edge of the sword; 3) being made strong out of weakness; 4) becoming mighty in war; and 5) putting foreign armies to flight.  All of these, the author of Hebrews implies, Samson did with resolute faith in God, albeit with significant personal failings mixed in along the way.  Nevertheless, Samson was a man of faith.

It took faith for Samson to believe that God would give him the strength to overpower the lion; it took faith for Samson to believe that God would allow him to escape from the many enemies that wanted to kill him; it took faith for Samson to believe that God would make him strong in spite of his physical weakness; it took faith for Samson to believe that God would make him mighty in war, and faith to believe that God would use him to put the foreign army of the Philistines to flight.  Samson knew - at least at some level - that it was God who was empowering him and working through him to achieve God's purposes.

It is also true, however, that nearly all of the great things Samson did and victories he won were born out of the sins of pride and selfishness.  As I've stated previously, praise God that he can even work through our impure motives and desires - and even our sin - in order to achieve his purposes.  Even Samson's major-league-level bungling of every situation he was in couldn't stop God from achieving his intended ends.

So what do we do with Samson?  How does such a rotten guy end up being mentioned in the "Hall of Fame of Faith" (Hebrews 11)?  The answer is, as I've said before, there's no such thing as "Bible Heroes."  Everyone that we read about in scripture - including those mentioned in Hebrews 11 - were depraved sinners, saved by grace.  And if we will see them as such, God's grace in their lives will be all the more magnified.

Moreover, we need to understand that faith is a gift of God and does not come from us, but from him.  As such, God can do anything he wants with our faith, regardless of how large or small we might deem it to be.  As linear human beings, we have a tendency to gauge or categorize or evaluate the size of "faith" based on some man-centered objective.  God's categorization of faith, however, works on a different plane that we will never understand.  To us, Samson's faith appears small because he was such a lout during his life.  But what did Jesus say?  "If you have faith like a grain of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you'" (Matt. 17.20).  From our perspective, Samson's faith was small - smaller even than "a grain of mustard seed."  From God's perspective, however, Samson's faith was just the right size to accomplish what God wanted to accomplish.

To this extent, we can aspire to have a faith like Samson: that in the day when I am attacked by a lion, I will believe that God will give me the power to stop his mouth.  And if and when I am called on to put "foreign armies to flight," I will believe that God will make me "strong out of weakness."  This is what Samson believed, and this is what God did.

At the same time, we can and should aspire to avoid the mistakes that Samson made.  He serves us as an example of the damage that can be done when we are only looking to fulfill our own desires and serve our sinful passions - even in the midst of actively believing God.

What do we do with Samson?  We take the good and leave out the bad; eat the meat and spit out the bones; see the great things that he did in faith, and mourn the incredible damage caused by his sin; aspire to believe God like Samson, and desire to master the sin that he didn't.

Semper Reformanda

On October 31, 2017, the Protestant Church will celebrate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses on the doors of the Wittenberg church.  This event is commonly marked in history as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, although the seeds of the Reformation were planted years before.  Nevertheless, we intend to mark this momentous occasion at Riverview with a celebration this coming Tuesday, October 31 from 6:00-7:30 with our "Reformation Celebration."

While many great reforms were made to the church as a part of the Reformation, the most commonly known are the "Five Solas of the Reformation," Latin phrases that succinctly delineate the doctrine of salvation: Sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus, sola scriptura, soli Deo gloria.  Translated into English these phrases state that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, according to scripture alone, for the glory of God alone.

Another Latin phrase that came from the Reformation is: "Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda."  Translated to English, this means, "The church reformed, always reforming."  When we think about the Reformation, we tend to think of historical events, such as Luther nailing his 95 Theses, or historical people, such as Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and many others.  But the spirit of the Reformation, I think, is encapsulated nicely in this latin phrase: Semper reformanda.

Semper Reformanda ("always reforming") reminds us that reformation is not an historical event - it is a continual process that never ends.  That is, we always need reformation.  The need for us to reform our thinking by submitting to the authority of the word of God and living and serving in God's grace is one that is continuous for Christians.  Indeed, we will be "reforming" until the day we die.

Our continual need for reformation has been brought to bear recently by way of a Christianity Today article, in which a Pew Research study recently revealed that 52% (!) of American Protestants believe that faith in God and good deeds are necessary for entrance into heaven.  52% also believe that scripture alone is not enough to know God - one must also have the traditions and teachings of the church.  Across the ocean in Europe (the birthplace of the Reformation), the numbers are similar amongst European Protestants.  For many protestants across the globe, the Reformation (and distinctly Protestant) doctrines of sola fide (faith alone) and sola scripture (scripture alone) have gone by the wayside

Not only do these percentages (and many more listed in the CT article) reveal that the majority of Protestants have no grasp on their Protestant heritage and history, but even more concerning is that these statistics reveal that the majority of Protestants have fallen into wrong thinking about the Bible and the gospel.  If 52% of American Protestants believe that faith and good deeds are necessary for salvation, then 52% of American Protestants aren't believing the biblical gospel.

Put simply, the majority of Protestants in America and Europe have stopped reforming.

As Christians, we are in a daily battle against the flesh and against spiritual forces to sin, doubt, and rethink our relationship with God through Christ.  We try to add to what he has done by keeping a tally of our good works, hoping that we can earn God's favor.  Or we are tempted to listen to spiritual gurus (or even pastors), or other man-centered spiritual wisdom as our authority on spiritual matters, instead of the Bible.  Our daily battle against these temptations to continually submit ourselves to the authority of scripture and rest in God's grace through faith - not through any merit of our own - is at the heart of semper reformanda.

We need to continually reform our thinking to know that we are saved by God's grace, and not by works.  We need to continually reform our thinking to know that salvation comes through faith, and not through any other means.  We need to continually reform our thinking to hold that faith in Christ is the only way of salvation.  We need to continually reform our submission to God's word as the only authority in all matters of life.  We need to continually reform our belief that God alone is sovereign, and that his glory is the chief end of man.

If and when we stop reforming, we fall into error.  If and when we stop reforming, we will be believing something less than the biblical gospel.

The battle for a pure and biblical faith and Christian life is a continuing one.  Although the Protestant Reformation is recognized to have started on October 31, 1517, it is not over.  We must continue to always reform our thinking, our churches, and our faith to come into line with what scripture teaches.  The moment we stop reforming, we begin to fall away from the truth of God's word and the biblical gospel.

Although we are celebrating an historical event on October 31, we are also celebrating the Reformation that is happening today in our churches and in our hearts, as we continue to submit ourselves to God and his word.

"Semper reformanda.  Soli Deo gloria."

Digging Deeper: Stop Wasting Time

Each Monday I try to maintain a series on this blog called "Digging Deeper."  The purpose of these posts will be to "dig deeper" into the text that I preached the previous Sunday.  It is almost always the case that there is more that could be said on every text that I preach at Riverview, and sometimes time constraints don't allow me to say everything that could be said about a particular text we are studying together.  Invariably, some things get left on the cutting room floor.  For this reason I thought it might be helpful to pick up some of those scraps on Monday and try to learn from them.  

The story of Samson is tragic.  As we've gone through his story, recorded in Judges 13-16, we've seen that he has done things according to his own desires, or, as Samson says what "is right in my eyes."  Needless death, revenge, womanizing, betrayal, and more are all part of Samson's story.  But perhaps the most tragic and telling verse of Samson's story is Judges 15.20: "And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years."

Samson never knew a single day of his life apart from Philistine oppression.  The Philistines had occupied Israelite land before Samson's birth, and their occupation continued even after his death.  Samson is the only leader of Israel in the book of Judges who did not release his people from the oppression of their enemies.  Even louts like Barak, Gideon, and even Jephthah (!) took up arms to follow God's lead and bring their people out from under the oppression of their enemies.  Samson, however, was too busy serving his own desires to be bothered to organize his people under the banner of God.  Never had a man with more God-given potential achieved so little.

In spite of Samson's disregard for God's program, God still used him to strike several blows against the Philistines' oppression and occupation of Israel (see, for example, 14.19, 15.4, 8, 15, etc.).  But the sad reality is that God worked in spite of Samson, rather than through his willing obedience.  At the end of Samson's brief life, Israel was still in the same predicament as when it began.

This is not to say that Samson's life was meaningless, and that God couldn't work through him.  Before Samson was born, God told his parents that he would use Samson to "begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines" (Judges 13.5, emphasis mine).  Israel wouldn't be free from Philistine influence until the time of king David.  Indeed, however, God did use Samson to begin to free his people from the Philistines.  But imagine what Samson could have done if he hadn't wasted his time pursuing his own desires!  Imagine what Samson could have done if he had dedicated himself to holiness and obedience instead of doing what was right in his own eyes.  Instead of investing his time and efforts into God's overarching purpose for his life, Samson invested his time and efforts into his own purpose for his life.

I cringe when I think about how much time I spend on frivolous pursuits that pique my interest: things that are not essential to my well-being; things that are not eternal or meaningful (Facebook, anyone?); things that are here today and gone tomorrow; things that seem enjoyable in the moment; things that I wish I hadn't done; things that are innocuous and only serve to fill/waste time.  If you do the math, you spend about 1/3 of your life sleeping.  I wonder how much of my life is spent doing pointless or even sinful things.  I shudder to think.

There's a cliche story about how, after your death, your tombstone will record the date of your birth and the date of your death.  And in between those two dates there is a dash - a mark that symbolizes everything that happened between those two dates.  That dash symbol is the story of your life.  Everything you've ever done will be characterized by that dash.  The dash that characterizes Samson's life does indeed include a few instances where God used him to help his people.  But the list could have been longer.  When people saw the date of Samson's death on his tombstone, they no doubt compared it to the date of the end of the Philistine oppression and remembered, sadly, that Samson's death came long before.  Samson wasted his time.  Even though he was set apart for the service of the Lord before he was even born (Judges 13.5), he never saw even a fraction of the potential of his special status as a Nazirite.

When we read that Samson "judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years," it's a warning to us to get busy while the getting is good.  When we read Samson's story, it's an encouragement to us to not waste the time that we have here on frivolous and selfish pursuits; it's an encouragement to us to use the things that God has given to us for his plans and purposes in this world; it's an encouragement to us not to take the gifts and talents God has given to us for granted.

God has a purpose that he is working out in this world - a grand, universe-sized plan that is constantly unfolding, second by second.  It is the high calling and privilege of every Christian to be a part of what God is doing in the world.  God will still use us for his purposes even if we aren't willing, and even if we're too self-absorbed to get with his program, but I certainly don't want that to be the story of my "dash."  To an extent, Samson's legacy is as a man whom God gifted greatly, but who squandered those gifts on temporal - and even sinful - pleasures and pursuits.  I want my legacy to be the opposite: that I used everything that God has given me for his glory; that I partnered with God in what he is doing in the world so that his name might be known throughout the ends of the earth; that I used my very brief time on earth well; that I used the gifts God had given me to the utmost.

No Such Thing As Bible Heroes

When I was a kid I went to Sunday School and learned all about the heroes of the Bible.  People like David, Moses, Gideon, Samson, and many others, and all of the amazing things they did through the power of God were brought to life through flannel graph.  I marveled with childish wonder at the strength of Samson, the deadly accuracy of David, and the strategy of Gideon.

The first time I ever read through the Bible cover-to-cover I was around 20 years old.  I remember being shocked that many of the "heroes" I had learned about as a kid weren't really very heroic.  In fact, most of they seemed like downright scumbags!  The picture I had learned about them in Sunday School as a kid was very incomplete.  Yes, Samson was physically strong, but he was also a womanizer, liar, and a vengeful jerk.  Sure, Gideon trusted the Lord and took on more than a hundred thousand Midianites with just 300 men, but he was also narcissistic and bloodthirsty and bent on revenge.  And yes, David did defeat the giant Goliath, vanquish the Philistines, and lead Israel into its golden age, but his personal life was a shambles, consisting of womanizing, adultery, lies, and murder.  

Why was I ever taught that these guys were heroes?  It's no wonder that some people who, like myself, grew up in the church and learned all their Bible stories became disenchanted with the Bible after having read it as adults.  All of those men and women we were told were heroes and who were worthy of emulation seem to be anything but.  In my opinion, the people whom God used in the Bible are decidedly not heroes.  A quick look at the accounts of their lives easily disqualifies them from heroic status.  

The problem is that, in trying to find human heroes throughout the pages of scripture, we have inadvertently overlooked the one true Hero of the Bible, the only One worthy of admiration or emulation: God.  God is the hero of the Bible.  The Bible shows us no other hero but Him.  All of the other characters in the story of the Bible are broken, flawed, damaged, sinful human beings who are empowered by God to perform heroic deeds in spite of their very significant personal moral failings.  If we look to the Bible for human heroes, we won't find many, because human heroes will always have flaws.  But that's not the point of the Bible.  The point of the Bible is to focus our attention on the only Hero who is worthy of praise.   

One of the amazing things about the Bible is its transparency.  "History is written by the victors," as the saying goes, and usually the victors write their history in such a way as to magnify their own strength, courage, power, and glory.  This is not the case when it comes to the Bible, however.  In almost every instance of the Bible's portrayal of a person whom God used for his purposes, you not only get a sense of their God-empowered courageous actions, but also of their significant personal shortcomings.  The Bible bares all when it comes to its heroes: their glorious victories, and their most depraved failings.  

But this reality should not cause us to despair that all of our childhood Sunday School heroes are frauds.  Instead, this reality should serve to magnify God's amazing grace, and leave us in awe and wonder that God can even extend his saving grace and use the scumbags recorded in the pages of scripture for his purposes.  

Think about it: Samson was a man who was only concerned with his own selfish desires.  This led him to womanizing and the loss of innocent life.  But God extended his grace to him, and even used him in the process of delivering the Israelites from their oppressors.  What kind of God does such a thing for such a lowlife as Samson?  Only a truly heroic God could do such a thing.  Or consider Gideon: fueled by bloodlust and a sinful desire for revenge, he went on a rampage and ultimately led his people away from God by creating a false object of worship.  What kind of God could reach down and rescue such a wayward individual?  Only a truly heroic God could do such a thing.  And think about David: his power and lust led him from woman to woman, until he ultimately murdered a woman's husband so he could have her for himself, and then he tried to cover the whole thing up.  Certainly only the most amazing of grace could come into his sleazy, murderous heart and deliver him from such sin.  Finally, think about Jephthah, whom God raised up to deliver Israel from their oppressors, but who was also the barbaric thug that convinced himself that sacrificing his own daughter was the right thing to do.  The kind of grace that is required for his redemption is no doubt inconceivable to the human mind.  

No, there is no such thing as a Bible hero, and that's a good thing.  Because if there were, they wouldn't need grace.  Thank God that all of the people we read about in the Bible are failures.  Thank God that all of them have debilitating character flaws.  Because it is in the contrast between their failures and God's kindness towards them that his grace is most magnified.  In other words, because our Bible "heroes" were such louts, we can more clearly see the true Hero who rescued them through his amazing grace.  

So don't become disillusioned when you read about the failings of the people recorded in scripture, and don't try to fool yourself into thinking that they weren't actually as bad as they were.  These were first class losers.  But don't forget, they're just acting like sinful people, just like the rest of us.  It just so happens that their failings are different than yours and mine, but we are all on the same level when it comes to our need for grace.  

Unfortunately, we sometimes try to sugar-coat the characters of the Bible, especially when we teach their stories to our kids.  We shouldn't.  Instead, we should know them in the fullness of all of their magnificently sinful failures.  Because when we realize who the heroes of the Bible aren't, we'll know who the true Hero is.  The more we can know their (and our own) sin, the more we will know and appreciate God's amazing grace that saves them (and us).  

Digging Deeper: Daughters and Donkeys

Each Monday I try to maintain a series on this blog called "Digging Deeper."  The purpose of these posts will be to "dig deeper" into the text that I preached the previous Sunday.  It is almost always the case that there is more that could be said on every text that I preach at Riverview, and sometimes time constraints don't allow me to say everything that could be said about a particular text we are studying together.  Invariably, some things get left on the cutting room floor.  For this reason I thought it might be helpful to pick up some of those scraps on Monday and try to learn from them.  

The biblical concept of holiness is one that is being lost among American Christians, much to our detriment and shame.  Holiness speaks to an "other" quality.  For example, God is holy.  That means that he is utterly unlike anyone or anything else.  He is in a class all his own.  He is perfectly good and righteous, he is completely all-powerful, and his wisdom is unsearchable.  And we could go on and on talking about the ways that God is holy by listing his many attributes and counting all of the ways that he is completely "other."

Since God is holy, he calls his people to be holy as well (Leviticus 11.44-45, 1 Peter 1.16).  That is, God calls his people to be different, to be set apart from the rest - to be "other."  In the Old Testament, in order to make his people set apart or holy, God gave them several laws that they were to obey to show the world that they were different and that they were in a covenant with the true and living God.  In other words, Israel was to stand out from all the other peoples of the earth because of how they lived their relationship with the true God, and the purpose was for all the world to see that they were different - that they were holy like their God was holy.  If a foreign nation interacted with Israel, they could tell that Israel was different simply by the way they lived their lives.  Their holiness (their "otherness") was apparent by how they thought, lived, ate, acted, worshipped, and so on.

The opposite of holiness is what we'll call "worldliness:" an identification with and similarity to the world.  In the Old Testament, God's people - who had been called out, separated, and made holy through their covenant relationship with God - began to forsake holiness when they compromised the requirements of their relationship with God and began to think, look, and act like the world.  The more they looked like the world, the less holy they were.  In other words, the more they looked just like everyone else, the less they looked like God, and the less they fulfilled their duty of being a representative of God to the nations.

This temptation to conform to the world and to not be "other" is one of the main problems of the nation of Israel during the time of the Judges.  They seem to have compromised on everything, from worship, to culture, even to the very foods they ate.  Rather than being a people who have been separated for God, they were quickly turning into a people who looked, thought, acted, and lived just like everyone else - even pagans who worshiped false gods.  The focus of the sermon this past Sunday was to show how this was evident in the lives of Samson and both of his parents, and to warn us from following down the same path.  But there is even more evidence of Israel's tendency toward a lack of holiness that took place before the time of Samson.  Israel had been sliding down the slippery slope of worldliness for generations.  Indeed, as early as the time of Gideon we can begin to see that Israel doesn't look very different from all the other nations they're living with.  They're even worshipping the same gods as the pagan nations, and forsaking their cultural traditions and religious laws and ceremonies that had previously set them apart.

At the end of Judges 12 we read about three of Israel's judges who ruled over Israel and, unfortunately, didn't do much to bring Israel back to the holiness that God called them to.  Ibizan, Elon, and Abdon all judged Israel for a period of years.  There's not much known about these guys, and you probably didn't learn about them through a flannel-graph story in Sunday School when you were a kid.

When it comes to Elon, all we know about him is that he was of the tribe of Zebulun, that he judged Israel 10 years, and that he "died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun" (Judges 12.11-12).  But with Ibzan and Abdon, there are some subtle clues in the text that show us that these two judges weren't too concerned about being "other," but instead were quite content with blending in with the rest of the world.

Since the time of Gideon, it seems that Israel's judges were not necessarily content with just holding the office of "Judge."  Rather, they wanted to be king.  Gideon lived as a king with a harem and had 70 sons by at least 14 women.  That is not how "common" people lived.  Rather, that was the lifestyle of a king.  His son, Abimilech (which means "Son of the King") also wanted to be king, and murdered his 70 brothers to eliminate any competing claims to the throne.  After him, Jephthah agreed to fight for Israel only if he could be its "head" (i.e. "king").  Ibzan and Abdon wanted the same.  They didn't want to be just a "Judge" and represent God's justice and righteousness to their people.  They wanted a bigger piece of the pie.  The whole pie, in fact.  They wanted to be king.

How do we know that?  Daughters and donkeys.

First, Judges 12.9 says that Ibzan "had thirty sons, and thirty daughters..."  Like Gideon, Ibzan had lots of kids.  And to have lots of kids you need, well, lots of wives.  And the only people who had lots of wives in those days were kings - at least supposed kings.  And, like Gideon, this may have even included a harem with concubines.  And in order to feed all of these mouths (wives and children), a person in Ibzan's position would have to have a healthy stream of resources coming in.  Only a king could have those kinds of resources.  Ibzan could have stood out and been holy by judging over his people with humility and justice and righteousness.  But instead he wanted power, so he gathered up as many wives as he could find and had as many children as he could - 60 in total.

Furthermore, when it came time for his children to be married, Ibzan went "outside" of his people.  That is, he gave his daughters in marriage to foreigners, and he brought in foreign women for his sons to marry.  It's not going to be easy to be separate and different from the rest of the world when you're bringing the rest of the world in for your children to put down roots and raise a family with.

Similarly, Abdon disregarded the call to be different and instead went the way of the world.  We know this because "He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys..." (Judges 12.14)  Not only did Abdon follow in Ibzan's footsteps of having lots of children with lots of wives (just like all of the pagan kings), but his sons and grandsons also rode on donkeys.  In the ancient near-east, it was common for kings and nobility to ride on the backs of donkeys for their main mode of transportation. Abdon wouldn't let his travel in just any fashion.  They were sons of the king, after all.  They "deserved" to ride on donkeys.  And the kicker is that they rode on donkeys - just like all the rest of the pagans who lived around them.

God called Ibzan and Abdon to be different, to be set apart from the rest, to be "other."  But when it came down to it, they looked just like the pagans.  You couldn't even tell that they were part of God's people.

Unfortunately, even the church has fallen prey to the temptation to be like the world.  Many churches try to emulate the music, dress, speech, and multiple other aspects of the world all for the sake of being "relevant."  In a very real sense, the modern American church has ceased to be "other."  How do our gatherings differentiate us from the world?  How does the way that we interact with people at home, school, and work differentiate us from everyone else?

Like the Israelites of the Old Testament, and like Ibzan and Abdon, and all the rest of the Judges, God has called us to be holy - to stand out from all the rest because we are like him.  No, we don't live under the Old Covenant as part of the nation of Israel, so we don't follow the laws that they did, or hold the same culture or traditions.  Instead, Christians are called to stand out and be "other" by following the way of Jesus: by obeying God and his word in all things, by loving our enemies, by reaching out to sinners, by helping the poor and sick and hungry.  Jesus has given us the perfect example of what it looks like to be "other."  By emulating his life and death we will surely stand out from the rest of the world.

God wanted Ibzan and Abdon to be different.  He didn't want them to go the same way that all of the other pagan kings of their time were going.  He didn't want them to ride donkeys.  It's not that there was anything inherently sinful about riding a donkey, but he called his people to be different, to be other, to be holy.  God calls you to be different, to be other, to be holy.

There is a tradition in Major League Baseball that when a pitcher takes the field, it is bad luck to step on the foul line.  Every pitcher who takes the field makes a point of stepping over the foul line so as not to incur the bad luck that such an action brings.  In his autobiography, Dave Dravecky, a former pitcher for the San Francisco Giants said that every time he took the field as a pitcher, he made sure that instead of stepping over the foul line, he mashed it with his foot.  He wanted to be different.  wanted to be "other."  He wanted to make a statement that he didn't believe in luck.  Sure, it was just a little thing, a minor statement in the grand scheme of things, but it set him apart.

Even the "little things" of holiness are important, and serve to set God's people apart in the way of Jesus from the rest of the world.  And it makes a difference.  We don't strive for holiness for its own sake, but we strive to be different because our God is different, and we want to be like him.  We want the world to see him through us, through our holiness.

So even if you can have 60 sons and daughters, don't.  God doesn't want you to.  Be different.  And even if your sons and grandsons can ride on donkeys, don't.  God doesn't want them to.  Be different. Be holy.

Calvinist

 About two months ago I saw a trailer for a yet-to-be-released documentary called "Calvinist."  As a Calvinist myself, and since the trailer was intriguing and looked well done, I preorder a copy of the DVD.  The movie was finally released and I received it and watched it earlier this week.

A Calvinist is a person who adheres to a Reformed understanding of salvation (also called the doctrines of grace, summarized by the acronym TULIP) and the complete sovereignty of God in all things - theology that was developed and propagated by Reformers such as John Calvin and many others.  The documentary does a great job in briefly explaining these doctrines in a creative, entertaining, and very well-produced way (in other words, learning about this theology through this documentary is anything but boring).

An additional purpose of the movie is to look at why Calvinist/Reformed theology has made such a resurgence in American Christianity over the past 20 years or so.  This is where I really connected with the documentary, as it seemed to be telling the story of my adult Christian life.  Almost every instance that led to this resurgence listed in the film has also been evident in my life.  Looking back on my life through the eyes of this film made me grateful to God how he awakened me to these life-giving, Christ-exalting doctrines in my spiritual journey.

First, the documentary says that one of the initiators of the Reformed resurgence was a preacher and teacher named R.C. Sproul.  Sproul, now 78, is a Presbyterian minister who has written countless books and taught on Reformed theology for decades.  In the year 2000 I was 20 years old and working as the janitor at Riverview.  The days of constant mopping, window washing, and vacuuming soon grew long and boring.  So I explored the church library for some listening options and came across a series of R.C. Sproul's teaching on cassette tape (yes, tape).  I began listening mostly just to pass the time while I cleaned the church, but soon became enraptured in what he was saying.  Later, I picked up one of Sproul's books, The Holiness of God which was a game-changer for me.  In this book, Sproul lays out God's holiness in a way that I had never heard before, elevating God to the position of supreme sovereign of the universe, and myself as a worm.  The contrast between his holiness and my own lowliness had never been clearer.  When we understand God's holiness, we get a new appreciation for his sovereignty and how and why he works in the world.  As I look back, this book was my entrance into Reformed theology.

Second, the documentary notes that a particular sermon by a preacher named Paul Washer was instrumental in drawing many people back to the authority of scripture and the call to continual repentance and Christian holiness.  Washer is a former missionary to Peru and is now the leader of a missionary society and itinerant preacher.  The untitled sermon has been unofficially regarded as the "Shocking Youth Message," as it was originally preached at a youth evangelism conference in 2002.  I don't recall how I was first turned on to listening to this sermon, but I do recall, however, sitting at my desk in my office, enraptured by what he was saying, almost in tears, feeling as though I was being punched in the gut over and over by what this man was preaching.  As one commentator I heard put it, "This sermon made me want to get saved - again."  I was so impacted by this sermon, I immediately purchased DVD copies and gave them out to as many people as I could - both Christian and non-Christian alike.  If you've never seen or heard the "Shocking Youth Message," you should stop what you're doing right now and take the next 59 minutes to watch it.  You will be changed by it.

Third, the documentary notes that one of the supreme reasons for the resurgence in Reformed theology over the last two decades or so has been because of the writing and preaching of John Piper. It wasn't until after I was married that I really got into Piper's writing and preaching.  I remember my first exposure to Piper's theology merely through the title of one of his books: The Pleasures of God: God's Delight in Being God.  The title intrigued me.  I had never before considered that God delighted in himself - that he delighted in being God, or that such a being as God had the right to delight in himself.  The content of the book had much more to offer, however, and I was hooked.  I have memories of washing dishes in the first apartment that my wife and I lived in, with John Piper's sermons in my ear buds (I had moved on from cassette tapes by then).  And Piper kept publishing books.  Books upon books.  And I ate them up.  The focus of Piper's writing and preaching, and his contribution to the Reformed resurgence has been to, I think, magnify the sovereignty of God, and how we as his children find our utmost satisfaction and fulfillment when we delight in his ultimate sovereignty.  This overarching message is probably most clearly communicated in Piper's seminal work Desiring God.  In this book you will most clearly read about Piper's flavor of Reformed theology.  Probably the most accessible representation of Piper's theology and its application to everyday life is his brief book Don't Waste Your Life.  If you want a taste of what delighting in the sovereignty of God looks like in your life, you should read this book.  It was significantly influential in my own life and thinking.

It has been interesting to see how my personal spiritual development has influenced my thinking in every day life.  My kids have recently gotten into the music of Petra - an 80's and 90's Christian rock band.  Their 1990 album Beyond Belief is truly a masterpiece and occupies a spot on my personal top 10 list (on cassette tape).  Recently, as I was listening to some of the songs from that album, my kids overheard and have since developed an appreciation for the music, to the extent that it's all they want to listen to nowadays.  Last week I told them that in conjunction with the album, Petra produced a 60 minute movie that told a story with music videos of their songs interspersed, and they wanted to watch it, so we did.  The movie tells the story of two brothers, the younger of which is an up and coming track and field star who is in the process of being recruited by universities and is receiving scholarship offers.  His older brother (who is also his running coach) reveals that he has been diagnosed with cancer.  This revelation infuriates the younger brother, who begins to blame God for all of his personal and family problems.  The older brother maintains his walk of faith, and tries to encourage his younger brother to continue to trust God.  As part of this process, the older brother tries to comfort his younger brother by saying, "God didn't give me this cancer."  This statement, regardless of how comforting a person might find it, is biblically inaccurate (and actually, I don't find it either comforting or encouraging).  This statement implies that God is not sovereign over cancer.  Rather, the Bible teaches that God is sovereign over all things - even horrible things like cancer - and that he either causes them or allows them to happen for his purposes, which, also according to scripture, are always for the good of those who love God and who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8.28).  God is sovereign over everything - even cancer.  And that should change how we think about cancer: it is not stronger than God; it is not out of his control; cancer is not sovereign - God is.  That truth is encouraging; that truth is comforting.  The idea that God is not sovereign over cancer is, to me, terrifying.  If God is not sovereign over cancer, then it is an unsolvable mystery that can only lead to fear and doom.  Praise the Lord that he is, indeed, sovereign over cancer.  (Note: to show how even cancer is under God's control and can be used for his purposes and for our good, John Piper has written an excellent article called "Don't Waste Your Cancer."  Even if you don't have cancer, you should read it.  It is an excellent example of how Reformed theology is practically applied to every day life.)

In this documentary I saw a lot of myself, and the journey I took to get to where I am today.  This is just a snippet of what it covers.  I'm glad for the release of this documentary, and I hope a lot of people will see it.  If a documentary on the resurgence of a theological stream doesn't sound very interesting to you, you'll be surprised at how engrossing this film is, and by how much you enjoy it.  You should see it (the film is available on DVD in the Riverview library), and come to know the doctrines of grace which most beautifully and gracefully describe our God and the sovereign, glorious salvation he offers.

Digging Deeper: Did Jephthah Really Sacrifice His Daughter?

Each Monday I'm going to try to maintain a series on this blog called "Digging Deeper."  The purpose of these posts will be to "dig deeper" into the text that I just preached on the previous Sunday.  It is almost always the case that there is more that could be said on every text that I preach at Riverview, and sometimes time constraints don't allow me to say everything that could be said about a particular text we are studying together.  Invariably, some things get left on the cutting room floor.  For this reason I thought it might be helpful to pick up some of those scraps on Monday and try to learn from them.  Hopefully this series will be helpful to some, and interesting to those who want to dig deeper into the text.

The first installment in this series will center around Judges 11.1-12.7.  These verses contain the story of Jephthah - one of the judges of Israel.  The most shocking and controversial portion of the story is verses 11.30-40.  In these verses Jephthah vows that if the Lord gives him victory over the Ammonites, then he will sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord the first thing that comes out of his house to meet him upon his return.  No doubt Jephthah assumed that one of his animals would be the first thing out of his house to meet him, but this was tragically not the case.  Instead, Jephthah's daughter was the first one to meet him.  Being a man of his word, Jephthah laments that he will now have to offer up his daughter as a burn offering to the Lord.  But does he, really?

Many people have interpreted this part of Jephthah's story differently.  Some scholars believe that, instead of sacrificing his daughter, Jephthah merely dedicated her to the service of the Lord, perhaps in some fashion at the Tabernacle or in some other means.  There are several reasons that many have arrived at this interpretation.

1. God does not honor human sacrifice.  The primary reason that some believe that Jephthah didn't actually kill his daughter as a sacrifice is because the Old Testament clearly prohibits the practice of human sacrifice.  "You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods." (Deuteronomy 12.31)  God hates human sacrifice.  He finds it to be "abominable."  Surely God would not have been pleased with Jephthah's vow, and the fulfillment of said vow.  Jephthah would have known that, and would have backed off when the first thing to come out of his house to greet him was not an animal, but instead a human being.  Or certainly God would have done something to prevent Jephthah from carrying out his vow literally.  But, still wanting to be faithful to his vow, Jephthah "sacrificed" his daughter to the Lord by dedicating her to his service for the rest of her life.

2. Jephthah's daughter mourns her virginity.  When Jephthah's pronouncement is made ("Alas, my daughter!  You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me.  For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow." Judges 11.35), his daughter's concern doesn't seem to be her impending death, but instead her virginity.  In fact, she asks her father to give her two months so she and her friends can go up into the mountains and weep not because of her impending demise, but because of her virginity.  Many have understood this as meaning that part of the service to which she would be dedicated (in place of being offered as a burnt sacrifice) would require life-long celibacy.  Thus the mourning she does is for her impending life-long commitment to celibacy (not being married, not having children, not having the same fulfillment that others might have, etc.), and not her death.

3. The occasion became a national holiday.  A third piece of evidence for this interpretation is that the Israelites used the occasion as a type of holiday.  Every year the "daughters of Israel" would remember Jephthah's daughter and her virginity (Judges 11.39-40).  Had Jephthah actually sacrificed his daughter as a burnt offering, it is very unlikely that Israel would have marked such a barbaric and godless occasion on their yearly calendars.  It seems more likely that this remembrance was of the occasion of her forced celibacy, not her death.

Others, however, have not found this evidence persuasive, and I count myself among them.  It is my opinion that Jephthah did actually sacrifice his daughter to the Lord as a burnt offering.  I affirm, however, that God abhors human sacrifice, and that it is prohibited in the Old Testament Law, and that the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter was not pleasing to God.  But this doesn't mean that Jephthah didn't do it.  Many people have committed heinous acts in God's name - both in the Bible and throughout history - and we should count Jephthah among them for burning his daughter on an altar.  In his wisdom and for his purposes, God did not stop them from doing the evil deeds they did in his name.  There are several reasons why I believe this to be the case with Jephthah.

1. The plain reading of the text indicates that Jephthah carried through with his original vow.  When interpreting the Bible, there's a rule of thumb that is almost always true: "the plain reading of the text is almost always the correct reading."  Nowhere in the story of Jephthah is it even ever intimated that Jephthah did something other with his daughter than what he said he would do.  In fact, it is stated overtly: "And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made."  Any attempt to posit that Jephthah did something else with his daughter other than sacrifice her as a burnt offering is speculation.  The most plain reading of the text is that Jephthah did indeed sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering to the Lord.

2. Jephthah's spiritual life was syncretistic.  Religious life in Israel during the time of the judges was overwhelmingly dominated by syncretism.  Syncretism is the combining of ideas and beliefs into one.  Israel had become so influenced by other cultures and religions that their religion was virtually indistinguishable from other religions.  All of the "Gods" of the peoples looked pretty much the same.  This meant that the Israelites regarded Yahweh - the true God - as being pretty much one in the same, or at least on the same level, as all the other gods that "existed."  Other gods demanded human sacrifices, so it follows that the syncretistic thinking of the Israelites led them to believe that Yahweh also delighted in human sacrifice.  Thus, regarding God simply as a god, Jephthah makes the mistake of thinking that Yahweh desired human sacrifice.  There seems to be a good amount of contextual evidence for this.  First, Israel's main problem in the book of Judges is idolatry.  They mix themselves into other cultures and religious thinking all the time.  It is the perpetual thorn in their side.  Second, Gideon appears to make a religious symbol that, at least to some extent, is to represent God or his will (Judges 8.27).  This is blasphemy.  God is spirit, and is not represented in any symbol, statute, painting, or otherwise.  Third, Jephthah himself appears to equate Yahweh, the true God, with Chemosh, the false God of the Ammonites by intimating that both "Gods" have the power to bless their people with physical resources such as land.  In Jephthah's mind, Yahweh and Chemosh are on the same level, so then to him it stands to reason that Yahweh would approve of human sacrifice just like Chemosh did.  I believe that syncretistic thinking led Jephthah to make his tragic, profane, and detestable offering.

3. Human sacrifice fits with Jephthah's pattern of life and behavior.  When considered as a whole, there's not much (if anything) about Jephthah's life that is commendable or worthy of admiration or emulation.  Indeed, it is difficult to find a single redeeming quality in the man's story in scripture.  While of course serious and reprehensible, human sacrifice is not the only mark against Jephthah.  He has many other issues that would serve to condemn him in the eyes of God.  Jephthah's story in Judges appears to be characterized by self-centeredness, wickedness, and a lust for power.  If this is true, and if his thinking was so deluded so as to bring about his other sins recorded in scripture, then it certainly isn't that much of a leap to think that he was led by his faulty thinking to the sacrificing of his own daughter.  Is it really so surprising that a selfish, wicked, power-hungry warlord would sacrifice his own daughter if it served his self-centered purposes?

In Hebrews 11.32 we read that Jephthah's faith is commended.  It is my belief that many have attempted to explain away Jephthah's barbaric action of sacrificing his daughter in an attempt to justify him, or to make him seem not as bad as he looks, as though Jephthah would have been a stand-up fellow if it weren't for that human sacrifice business.  After all, how can God save such a vile, wicked human being?  How could God justify using Jephthah for his purposes when he has done such horrible things?  This kind of thinking is unnecessary, though, and in fact, diminishes the glory of the gospel.  The mystery of the gospel is that God is a God of infinite grace who pays for the debt of sinners - horrible sinners.  All sin is a horrendous offense against a holy God, from white lies, to pirating music or television from the internet, to human sacrifice.  And God's grace can and does cover them all through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin.  Rather than justify Jephthah by diminishing the severity of his sin, I think an honest accounting of this text rather serves to magnify the grace of God.  God's grace can cover any sin.  Even the sin of child sacrifice.