Understanding the Real Word of God

How would you describe the Bible to someone who had never seen it before? A number of possibilities might come to mind. It is the Word of God. Which may not be all that helpful to the inquisitive yet ignorant mind of the seeker. It is a Theology book, or maybe something about ethics or an ideology. That may be true, but it would be unhelpful to the uninformed. You could go with history, however, the history that is there is rather spotty. It also contains some pretty unsettling stories of immoral behavior, murder and a touch of the supernatural. There are times when this history isn't even chronological and bounces from one genre to another. Stories, poetry, letters, some rather apocalyptic stuff, with both gaps and redundancy. It doesn't even seem to hold a very consistent order of things. Moving from expression of literature to another. And what of some of those strange literary images of beasts and wheel inside wheels. None of the Christmas tree topper angels looked like these descriptions. As believers, we can take for granted that all this makes some sort of sense.

Yet, even for us, we tend to gravitate from one Biblical category to another. There is a bit of truth in all of our labels, however, none are really all that satisfying. We struggle, in part, because we are bound to our culture. If you come from a western mindset, Europe or America for example, you view things from a certain perspective. Even those at a greater arms distance have been affected by the influence that western, American, culture wields. With the internet, music and the American film culture few have escaped the western influence. For whatever reason God has determined to reveal Himself through a record of encounters with humanity. For the most part, through His relationship with Israel. The events recorded are relational and experiential, giving information as to who God is, what He has done and what He requires of His creation. We learn of Him through the recorded accounts of His people over an extended time. The accounts are not sanitized or edited to make them more palatable. They carry the wonder of grace and kindness and the horror of depravity and unspeakable cruelty. They do so because that is the reality of humanity either in concert with God's instructions and directions for life or the abject rejection of His authority. These are placed on display in various degrees of agreement or rebellion for us to review, consider and apply.

Western culture prefers order, neat timelines and crisp structure to our stories. We want logic and the right answers. While at the same time we are sold out to situation ethics and flexible morality that changes with the times. The good guys should win, in the end. Directions should be evident and relatively easy to follow. How you feel is important and as long as nobody gets hurt, your actions should not be judged. As the revelation God has chosen to share does not follow those guidelines we pursue ways to make God's accounts more acceptable. Thus, theologians may spend a lifetime writing a systematic theology to gather all the fragments of delineated concepts into one discernible package. We spend vast amounts of time categorizing and cataloguing our findings. We tag them with impressive titles like, pneumatology, hamartiology, Christology and eschatology. We endeavor to create timelines and chronologies so the stories of the Bible can be followed easily and grouped together in handy flow charts. We also spend generations debating topics like "free will vs predestination" "faith and works" and whether you are pre-, post, or a-millennial, struggling to convince the rest of Christendom that we have the right answer.

None of these are particularly wrong. However, I fear we miss much of the real revelation of God in our vain attempt to organize and codify what has been graciously given to us. God integrates everything He chooses to reveal to us. What we desire to divide, the Lord reveals as an integrated whole. As we strive to know the right answer, God desires a right relationship. He gives us a book of examples as to how to achieve that and how to see relationships fall apart. We argue over the future while God reveals how we should live now. We develop charts and timelines while God reveals that He works in cycles. He lets us know if we fail this time there will be another opportunity to get it right. Our timelines tend to imprison us in failure while God reveals that He gives second chances.

Perhaps we need to step back and let the Word of God just be what it is. A remarkable gathering of profoundly messy relationships and experiences with the God of Israel and among the humans that have inhabited this planet. That is where we learn what we need to know. We learn of compassion from the story of Ruth. How to deal with unjust accusations as we follow David while he flees from Saul. Justice and mercy in the account of Sodom and Gomorrah. God's sovereign control in the story of Esther. A bit about the consequences of deceit and the God of second chances from the life of Jacob. How God redeems a murderer in the life of the Apostle Paul. The hope of the resurrection from the women at the tomb. Real people, real relationships, real life experiences with the God of creation. Has our effort to "rightly divide the Word of truth" left us with a cold academics that denies the real Word of God? A message from a God who loved us so much He recorded a book filled with experiences we can relate to just to show us who He is and how we can best live life in the here and now. Maybe this is the real revelation God has given us after all.       

           

God's Gracious Gift, Torah at the Mercy Seat

I am always impressed with the ways God chooses to reveal Himself to us. Psalm 119 lets us know that "the heavens declare the glory of God". Anyone who has observed a sunrise or a clear night when the stars shout His praise would have to agree. Hebrews 1:1 reminds us that, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets." God's prophets brought us the Word of God. There are numerous passages like 1 Corinthians 2:10 that tell us the Spirit of God also reveals who God is and what He requires of us. We have His Creation, His Word and His Spirit to show us who the Lord God is. However, these are not the only tools God uses to help us understand things about Him and His purposes. God likes to use illustrations that reveal much about Himself in terms we can see and even touch. If you have ever raised grapes the vine and branch illustration of John 15 comes alive. Many of us have had experiences with seeds and soil, maybe even a sheep or two. And very few of us have never seen a door. Divine object lessons abound that bring the realities of God down to our level. It seems God's fingerprints are everywhere.


I appreciate the tangible object lesson the Lord gave to Israel many years ago. Unfortunately, it is an object that has been lost, thankfully, we have the Biblical record to provide a mental picture of this treasure. It is the Ark of the Covenant. Exodus 37 gives the details as to its construction. A very fine crafted box with an ornate top and the means to transport without coming in direct contact with it. The cover served as the mercy seat. This is where the blood was sprinkled on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, as a covering for the sins of the nation of Israel. A place of grace and forgiveness. It was a significant article in Israel's history and worship.

However, the mercy seat is only a part of the Ark of the Covenant. It is the top, the covering of the box that is the Ark. Hebrews 9:4 tells us what was placed into the ark, "which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant." Manna, bread from heaven to give food, to provide life for the children of Israel for forty years. Bread unearned and undeserved yet provided by the grace of God. The Rod of Aaron, representing the priesthood which would provide the way to fellowship, forgiveness and worship of Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Finally the two tablets of the Ten Commandments given to Moses on the mountain. The Law of God, the basic instructions and directions for the nation to follow as they walked with God. The Law was a gracious gift of God to a new nation that had only known slavery and needed God's direction. For many Law and Grace are like oil and water, they can never mix. The difference between the Old and New. The pre-Christ instrument of death and the post-Christ deliverance by grace. However, God unites the Law of the Ark together with the mercy seat of grace. They are combined in the same illustration.

As many work to separate God's Law and God's grace the Lord reminds us that they are an integrated gift from Him. Consider Exodus 25:22,  “And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel." It is from the mercy seat that God will give Moses the commandments, Torah, the Law, which is then to be given to Israel. A gift of grace from the God of grace and mercy so God's people will know how to best live. Without these instructions from the Lord Israel would be left to borrow and adapt the cultural norms of the neighboring pagan nations. Cultural norms that devalued life, grounded in the fear of a variety of demanding and ever changing gods and goddesses. Torah brought truth, stability and a relationship with the God of all creation. It is an amazing and blessed place to be.

If the Lord God intended for us to separate His Law and His grace, why does He combine them at the very beginning of His relationship with His people? Godly boundaries and directions have always been and continue to be a gracious gift of God. As is true with any loving father, our Heavenly Father shows us His love, His grace, His mercy now as He did for Israel. Just look at the illustration He made in the Ark of the Covenant. Law and grace together at His mercy seat.