Tag: Gospel

ziggaruts and arrows

“Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves…”

Genesis 11:4

We’ve long believed the people of Genesis 11 wanted to build a tower for themselves to scale the heavens, but that wasn’t it. The Tower of Babel was a ‘stage’ for their god to come down and visit them. Such towers, or ‘ziggurats,’ sat atop temples, providing their god(s) a ‘landing pad’ on which they could descend in grand style.

Trouble was, these were Mesopotamians; they certainly weren’t ‘YHWH’ people. The builders in the text longed for false gods with phony promises. In a similar story the prophets of Ba’al tried to upstage Elijah’s God by building theirs a runway. But guess who didn’t land? Although they wailed and hollered and chanted until they were blue in the face Ba’al never showed up (1 Kings 18:20-29).

Vanity of vanities, these worshipers of Marduk or Inanna or Anu, or whichever gods they could coerce to visit (‘build it and they will come’???), thought a skyscraper might get their attention. Alas, no.

Annnnnnd we keep building our towers. And they keep failing us. Careers, ideologies, reputations, portfolios, fantasies. Towers. Rubble. The Titanic was thought unsinkable. No less than a dozen utopian experiments have failed. Voltaire said within a hundred years of his death Bibles would be obsolete. One hundred years later, Bibles were being published in mass out of his home.

name above all names

A word about the phrase “make a name for ourselves” (Gen 11:4). In ancient thought it meant to create a ‘legacy.’ These ziggurat-builders wanted something lasting for their children and their children’s children. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Even us modern folk can justify our ambitions to be for the good of our children and our species. But in all our construction are we ignoring the Chief Cornerstone? Do our kids see us representing the Name above all names or is our handprint all they can see?

These Mesopotamians hoped to erect a Shining City on a Hill for their race. Trouble was, it was the WRONG CITY. There’s a reason we call it the Tower of Babel. Babel is about empire-building and man-exalting.

The gospel reverses all that. God wants to build a house, a CITY, a nation for US, for his people. We have nothing to offer him but ourselves in worship of his majesty.

Now I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God—the All-Powerful —and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God lights it up, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their grandeur into it. Its gates will never be closed during the day (and there will be no night there). They will bring the grandeur and the wealth of the nations into it, but nothing ritually unclean will ever enter into it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or practices falsehood, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Revelation 21:22-27

We live for the glory of the King. We are not here to build a legacy, much less “a name” for ourselves. Rich Mullins, the prophet-minstrel reckoned himself “an arrow pointing to heaven.” He said,

“If my life is motivated by ambition to leave a legacy, what I’ll probably leave as a legacy is ambition. But if my life is motivated by the power of the Spirit in me—if I live with the awareness of the indwelling Christ, if I allow his presence to guide my actions, to guide my motives, those sorts of things. . . . That’s the only time I think we really leave a great legacy.”

— Rich Mullins

That’s our legacy, too. We are ziggurats made of clay (2 Cor 4:7), “tent-temples” groaning for our release from this world that we might enter his.

Shinar people, to their great misfortune, set their aim for earth and got nothing out of the deal. No personal deity, no lasting city, no enduring legacy.

a ‘ziggurat’ named abram

In the very next chapter, lo and behold, there was a visit from Deity! The Supreme God found a landing pad in a nobody named Abram and said I want to make your name great for My glory. God had plans to give him a people, a City, a nation, and himself!

Now that’s a legacy!

Father Abraham looked out his tent one day and saw what God was up to. He witnessed in a billion points of shimmering light a family of arrows each pointing to and worshiping the Almighty.

Like him, let us live out our days “looking forward to that City with solid foundations of which God himself is both architect and builder” (Heb 11:10). Ziggurats of Zion. Arrows until eternity.

Selah, fellow arrows. Until the Day!

psalm 68

God springs into action.
His enemies scatter;
his adversaries run from him.
As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away.
As wax melts before fire,
so the wicked are destroyed before God.
But the godly are happy;
they rejoice before God
and are overcome with joy.

🔹🔹🔹🔹

Psalms 68:1-3, NET

The Goliath you’re facing day in and day out, the one that’s been harassing and intimidating you, rattling your cage and kicking sand in your face? That devil is still ‘God’s devil.’ (Martin Luther)

To the army of Israel, Goliath looked huge from a far distance, but David discovered that he was just a scalp on his belt up close. Even the champion’s arsenal fit quite nicely on David’s mantle.

Psalm 68 is a victory psalm. It’s ten stanzas of battle hymns and rah-rah emotion. The writer, presumed to be David, is electrified by God’s feats on the field of battle. He recalls how the ark once went out with the armies of Israel and every time the enemy was soundly defeated. Now he’s bringing the ark home.

The Bible tells us God is our rear guard. A soldier might say he has our “six.” He goes before us. He covers us. Beneath are his everlasting arms holding us up. Everywhere you look God is … there.

he fights for you

Maybe the devil is having his way in your life. It seems so. The preponderance of evidence says so. But take heart, believer; your Lord, the God of the angel armies, is orchestrating his doom.

My young godson, Maddox, wants to know if the devil is stronger than we are. With all the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness at his disposal, we are not a match for him in ourselves. But he’s not greater and stronger than our God. When we trust the God of heaven, and take our strength from him, the devil is no match for us!

You are the apple of God’s eye (Deut 32:9-10; Psa 17:8), a stone on his breastplate; your name is engraved on his palm (Isa 49:16). As a benefactor of the blessing of Abraham, the Lord God Almighty is your shield and reward.

Early in our ministry I did a lot of singing. A few of you know that Sandy and I recorded three albums of music and I wrote a few of the songs. One of them, Encourage Yourself in the Lord, is based on 1 Sam 30:6. Years ago I was blessed to share it in a conference where Joni Earekson Tada was speaking.

He fights for you

He lifts up the fallen

And he cares for you

He meets all your needs

He wants you to rest in his promises

And yearns for you

To trust and obey

So encourage yourself in the Lord, my friend

Encourage yourself in the Lord!

There’s a whole story about how the sound guy didn’t cue the accompaniment track correctly and started it in the middle of the song. I was completely lost, humiliated, and ready to stone the sound guy. But I digress.

The point is God fights for you when things happening to you are out of your control. The devil will have his “Pyrrhic” victories here and there; that’s not in dispute. The truth of it is better than the shame of it. God is working even your defeats into triumphs and your failures into glories.

if the devil’s been defeated, why am I getting beat up?

Good question, that. Goliath, vanquished forever, is still out here intimidating and spewing curses on the Church. He’s defeated, yes, but still he roars.

What he cannot do is unsave you. He can lie to you but he can’t lie to Jesus. He can’t separate you from the love of God. He can boast but he can’t back it up. He can beat you today but he can’t defeat you ultimately. He isn’t more powerful than the God who is in you.

He’s been de-fanged and de-clawed. Neutered. The Christ of the Cross has crushed his head. Whatever you’re facing, God stands between you and it. At times it’s difficult to see the Lord when there’s nothing but smoke and blackness of night, but he’s there all right, an imposing pillar of fire. The enemy doesn’t have a snowball’s chance with God on your side.

The devil is still God’s devil. You think he’s running amuck in your life when he’s really on a leash held by Christ. He can’t do a thing to you without the Almighty’s permission. The enemy intends evil, but your Savior Lord intends good.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Romans 16:20, CEB

The God of the angel armies rides on the clouds. Jesus walks on the waves, the Spirit follows with resurrection power. Believe me, nothing can overcome you. You are safe. But not only safe; in Christ, you are victorious. God’s plan is for you to be overcome…with joy.

I pray you are overcome today.

Selah, beloved.

emmaus or bust

The Road to Emmaus, artwork by Daniel Bonnell

C. S. Lewis identified many of us as “ordinary privates in the huge army of the bereaved, slogging along and making the best of a bad job.”

Today is a struggle job for me. I went through my prayers this morning with monotone indifference. The reading of the Word was like a dried up fountain. I’m very close to tears and want very much to be left alone.

Very little is working out the way Sandy and I hoped (expected?) 333 days ago. I am slogging through sludge in heavy boots and an overfilled backpack. If I didn’t feel the need to preserve an iota of dignity I’d be tempted to throw my head back and scream. I’ll restrain myself.

When I left the house this morning I said barely ten words to Sandy, telling her, “Headed to the library. I love you.” How I longed for some quiet and introspection. I need to process; I need to think; I need to write.

🔹 🔹 🔹 🔹

Before heading out I grabbed the recent Plough Quarterly that arrived in yesterday’s mail and have it open before me now. The theme for the issue is, “PAIN & PASSION.” What a coincidence.

One of the opening articles features a Dominican order of Sisters who offer palliative care to dying patients in NYC. Here’s what got me: the older Sisters advise the newbies that (1) their ministry is just that; it requires they first attend to their own souls in Christ before they can love and offer mercy to their patients. And, (2), never forget that all their patients are terminal; the Sisters are there to lovingly prepare them for the next world.

Those same pieces of advice will do good for me today, if I pay heed. I can’t rise above this unless I receive the love of Jesus and trust him, first and foremost; and next I must resign to the dictum, once again, that I am not made for this world.

A page over, a pastor who lost his 22-year old to an aggressive form of lymphoma cancer wrote about his desperate search for solace against the backdrop of stupefying loss:

It was a tremendous relief to realize that we [he and his wife] are not strong people; we are plain, ordinary people. And if we need to cry, then cry. If we need to grieve, then grieve. Do it hard and deeply, and then move on.

Randall Gauger, In Search of Solace

That’s good counsel. I think I’ll cry.

🔹 🔹 🔹 🔹

I’ve spent some time this week with three people: N. T. Wright and a pair of disgruntled disciples on the road away from Jerusalem. Wright captures their mood with,

“They had been traveling up a road they thought was leading to freedom, and it turned out to be a cul-de-sac.”

N. T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus

The thing is, the Emmaus Road disciples were having their debate in the early evening hours of Easter! They’d heard rumors about a Missing Body and certain women having visions, but instead of staying back and investigating they slogged their way home.

Jesus had already risen. The apex of redemptive history has just happened. The Blessed Hope of Mankind is alive! And they are grousing about how nothing has worked out the way it was promised.

About here is where I need to do some Soul Talk. I don’t mind that you’re here, but if you’ll excuse me: Soul, why are you downcast? Why are you in turmoil? Has Jesus not Risen?

Bring me your sorrow, and watch for the sunrise of the resurrection. Yes, truly there comes always a resurrection – a morning when hope is reborn and life finds new beginning. Wait for it as tulip bulbs anticipate the spring. The rarest blooms are enhanced by the coldness of winter…Your God is your maker. He is your defender. And He is mighty to save. Yes, He is not only mighty to save from sin, but He is mighty to save from despair, from sorrow, from disappointment, from regret, from remorse, from self-castigation, and from the hot, blinding tears of rebellion against fateful circumstances.

Francis J. Roberts, Come Away, My Beloved

These two, perhaps husband and wife (I think so), mourned the loss of hope. But, just then, a Man joined them in their walk of sorrow. Jesus was a Stranger to them but he gave both something they could carry the rest of their way home. The Resurrected One granted them their own resurrection. Did not our hearts burn within us?

I’m on the struggle bus today but I’ll be fine. My heart will live to burn again another day. Today I cry; tonight I’ll still be His. He’s resurrected my tired bones before and he’ll do it 10,000 more times before I get home. What I have is terminal; what he has is eternal.

Amen.