Bible Application from the Patriarchs’ Lives
It has been well observed that God’s word instructs us in two ways: by precepts, and by illustrations. Sections including the Decalogue, the Proverbs and New Testament epistles emphasize right living by precepts and commands; then we have illustrations of real people’s lives – such as the patriarchs and King David – that show us the good and bad, including the consequences of sin.
The Tabletalk 2007 back-issues (the same calendar year as 2018), going through the lives of the patriarchs, are excellent studies, packed with application regarding Christian living. I was familiar with some of the more obvious issues — such as the repeated patterns of lying (Abraham and Isaac), parental favoritism (Isaac and Rebekah with Esau and Jacob), and Jacob’s years with Laban, for Jacob to learn some things about his deceitful behavior the hard way – and the general point that the Bible is a divine book, that it does not whitewash the heroes of the faith, it does not hide but tells us the many faults of these men, to show that it is all of God’s grace and not ourselves.
Beyond that, though, Genesis has much more to say about day to day life and the trials and suffering, showing us by way of illustration that it has always been this way for God’s people, and that what we experience is nothing new or unusual (ref. 1 Peter 4:12 and 1 Peter 5:9).
Abraham and Sarah lived, day by day, through 25 years before the promised heir was born.
Isaac and Rebekah clearly did not have a great marriage, one that had broken down in communication by the time of Genesis 27, such that each was doing their own thing. Along the way, they both experienced the daily grief of Esau’s wives—and this went on for decades, from the time when Esau married them (age 40) to the time of Jacob’s stealing the blessing when they were about age 76-77: life events did not come and go quickly, but they endured this situation for over 35 years.
One of the Tabletalk articles from February 2007 consists of John Calvin’s exposition of Genesis 26:26-35. In the details of Isaac’s life we see a Bible example of what Spurgeon pointed out in his sermons: when God does not answer our prayers and provide relief in one specific area, He will answer us in some other way (a truth which I have come to know, time and time again, in my own trials):
Here we see on the one side, how God would comfort his servant [Isaac] every way: For it was not only showed him that he should be assured from then on that none should hurt him — seeing the king himself of the country came to seek him — but also he had water given him, which he might enjoy peaceably and quietly as his own. When therefore our Lord shows this great favor towards Isaac, let us know that He does not tempt him above their strength, but always sweetens their afflictions in such sort, that they shall not be, as it were, ever oppressed and quite overthrown. Let us hope, that just as Isaac was upheld, God after He had afflicted him, looked also again unto him to give him some comfort, so likewise must we wait, and then we shall not be disappointed if we rest there. For God knows our frailty, and there is no doubt He will always give us such taste of His mercy and favor that we shall have good cause to bless His name and have no occasion to think the sad thought that we do not know how to comfort ourselves anymore in Him.
Then another Tabletalk article from this same issue defines the law of retaliation, the talion (an eye for an eye, for equivalence of punishment), followed by reference to the specifics of Jacob’s life. Jacob deceived his father who was blind; later, Jacob was deceived by Laban due to the blindness of night (Genesis 29:21-30, Leah substituted for Rachel). Jacob deceived his father with a goat skin; his own sons deceived Jacob with the blood of a goat (Genesis 37:31). Noting the specifics of how God worked out His justice in the life of Jacob, is good application to God’s Providence regarding our own lives, to reflect on the reality of this in our own lives. I can relate the events in Jacob’s life, and the truth of Galatians 6:7, to my own circumstances, to better understand the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of God’s chastening in the specific events in my own life.
Yet God’s grace and kindness comes through as well, sometimes in very amazing and unexpected ways–in their lives, as well as ours.
But God is rich in mercy as well as justice. By Leah, Jacob’s wife through Laban’s deception, was born Judah, through whom Christ was to come (Gen. 29:35). And by Joseph, who was at last restored to Jacob, God delivered the world from a famine (41:57). So in all of this we see that God is rich in mercy as well as justice. In wisdom He works to accomplish His sovereign ends even through the just punishments He visits upon His errant covenant people for their evil means.
A Theology of Suffering: Mark Talbot Lectures
From last fall’s free special from Reformed Resources, a series done a few years ago by Mark Talbot is very helpful, a five-part series on Trusting God When We Suffer. These lectures look at what suffering is, within the plan of God: a divine, though unsought gift. Yes, we do not seek suffering – but it is still a gift from God. So much information is presented, and presented clearly with the challenge for us to really think hard about it, to think through it.
Talbot mentioned a book he was working on, not yet published; this book is apparently still unpublished, but one free book resource from John Piper includes a chapter from Talbot: Suffering and the Sovereignty of God.
Talbot responds to apostate agnostic Bart Ehrman, who has claimed that the Bible has nothing to say about the reality of suffering by believers; according to Ehrman, the Bible depicts a loving God who rescues His people and does not allow suffering, but instead provides good and prosperity not only in the life to come, but in this life also. By contrast, scriptural examples of suffering (many to pick from) include the stories of Naomi (Ruth 1), Job, and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20). Profound suffering sometimes involves the person coming to have false beliefs about God, such as Jeremiah in chapter 20; in other cases such as Naomi, the person maintains their basic belief in the goodness of God, while seeing no possibility of any further good in their own life.
Suffering includes physical and mental, and sometimes both, as well as many levels and degrees. It is person-relative, such that the particular suffering one person endures, would not necessarily affect another – an adolescent being bullied online versus an adult’s more mature response, for example. An overall definition of suffering: from the sufferer’s standpoint, all suffering involves something disrupting his/her life’s pleasantness, to the point where that disruption feels disagreeable enough that he/she wants it to end. Suffering can be considered on a sliding scale, from minor (such as Talbot’s wife, who dislikes Wagner and Opera, having to listen to it) through more intense, chronic, or other types of suffering. For scriptural support, Hebrews 12:1-13 deals with this in the abstract, the definition. For experience of it, we can turn to many places in the Bible, including the Psalms – such as Psalm 126, which contrasts positive and negative events.
A solid theology of suffering includes application from the many Bible accounts of actual suffering, “breathing” the promises of God, and a robust understanding of God’s sovereignty over everything – including our next breath, and even our thoughts. How many times in everyday life do we start to say something and then realize we don’t know the words to express it, or forget what we were about to say? God is sovereign over our thoughts. Theological anthropology is another term, the biblical understanding of what it means to be human—and applied to suffering.
Talbot references studies that conclude that most people are happy most of the time – when accounting for all other factors such as age, gender, and economic situation – as long as a few basic physical and social needs are met. Thus we find that poor people in third world countries are happier than some wealthy, successful people in developed countries. Again we can return to biblical proof: Acts 14, Paul’s speech to the people who attempted to offer sacrifices to him and Barnabas (as Hermes and Zeus); verse 17, “Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
We view life within the bookends of scripture, the first two and the last two chapters of God’s word. Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22 both describe a time – past and future – of undisturbed peace and pleasantness. Everything in between these two times will be a mixture of pleasant and painful experiences.
Another area where people get tripped up is in their view of God as our Father. Viewing this from a bottom-up expansion, of how good human fathers are and thus how much more God is this way, sufferers have trouble with Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:7-11. Instead we need to see God as Father from a “top-down” view: God is the starting point, all goodness is in Him; when we happen to see some goodness in human fathers, that is a derivative or shadow of the reality in God. Further analysis also brings out the reality of even human parenting: children cannot see the future, long-term good of certain things done by their parents – who have long-term goals for their children such as a good education and life-skills. Mark Talbot as a child could not understand the value of the restriction his mother placed on him, requiring him to read for a certain amount of time every day before going out to play; the child who wants to have the same “popular” shoes as every other kid cannot appreciate the value of a different, higher quality shoe.
This series is very helpful, with a lot of information to think through – and held up to a second round of listening a few weeks later. For further study of the theology of suffering, the above-mentioned book by John Piper looks interesting. The Tabletalk issue from April 2007 (the same calendar year as 2018) also featured a study on Grief, with several articles on suffering and grief. A good quote from one of the articles, ‘From Grief to Glory’:
God will birth His glory in us as we allow ourselves to honestly and passionately face our most terrible losses. To live honestly is to admit the pain and sadness of the loss. There is no reason to live in denial — Jesus did not die on the cross so we can pretend. … We must embrace God and the mystery of His provision and His sovereignty in the midst of our suffering. Through the pain, God is birthing a child who depends upon Him more and knows that He is good even in the most difficult of times.
All of us will experience loss. We will either withdraw from our loss with creative repressive strategies, or we will embrace our loss with faith in God. God is continually birthing renewed, revitalized, and dependent believers, but the road to hope often navigates through despair.
Challies’ 2018 Reading Challenge: Autobiography (Steven Curtis Chapman)
In my ongoing Challies’ 2018 Reading Challenge, I’ve enjoyed some “freebies” and sale books, including ChristianAudio.com’s free monthly audio book deal, which has offered several good books, including two I read last year–Kevin DeYoung’s Taking God at His Word and Steven Lawson’s The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd Jones (reference this blog post).
One recent free Christian Audio monthly offers, Steven Curtis Chapman’s autobiography – Between Heaven and the Real World: My Story – is well-written and quite interesting. In my early Christian years I bought a few of his albums, and saw him in concert twice (in Denver, CO): his first New Years Eve concert there, and then, two years later, a concert on the first Tuesday night in November, Presidential Election day 1992; we learned on the radio while driving home afterward, that Clinton had won the election. Among the trivia from those years, I recall one time that he paused to tune his guitar; he remarked that his wife had said that Phil Keaggy tuned his guitar while he played, and that ‘I tried to explain to my wife that Phil Keaggy is not human.’ Some time later I also saw Phil Keaggy in concert, and noticed that, sure enough, Keaggy was adjusting the guitar tuning pegs while very animated, playing and jumping around on the stage. In later years I did not follow CCM as much, though I recall the local church (Memphis area) youth group in ’96 doing a music program that included Chapman’s then-hit song ‘King of the Jungle.’ And I remember hearing in the news, almost ten years ago now, about the tragic accident in which his adopted 5 year old daughter was killed, hit by a vehicle driven by their teenage son.
Chapman’s autobiography is lengthy and detailed, almost 450 pages, yet reads well as an audio book (and rates close to 5.0 on Amazon user ratings). It includes interesting history about the 1980s Christian music scene, the time I can relate to from my conversion in 1989 and the music CDs then available in the local Christian bookstore. Over the years my theology and Christian music tastes have changed, such that I have come to prefer Michael Card, Steve Camp and other more Reformed music, and I probably would not have chosen to read this, but that it was a free Christian audio offering. This book exceeded my expectations, and I have not regretted the time spent reading it. Covering his full life since early childhood, Chapman’s auto-biography brings out and agrees with my recollections and impressions from his early concerts: basic evangelical Christianity and a love for Jesus, the importance of his family, and a tendency to self-righteousness. He was saved at age eight, and was one of those people who get their act together (the Lord working in them since childhood) while young (thus a successful career), married with young children by his late twenties; it wasn’t exactly what us singles in our mid-to-late 20s could relate to, but we still enjoyed the music. His autobiography includes interesting background related to some of the songs from those years; I liked the story where he performed “His Eyes” for others in the Nashville CCM group, and Michael Card gave him a standing ovation; Chapman as a young performer in the business appreciated that, noting Michael Card’s standing in the business as ‘a song craftsman.’
Chapman’s theology is general evangelical, non-Reformed, noted in his references to his friends and Christian-teacher influences. One family conflict (from his early career and marriage days) he relates, soon turned into a heated argument—which ended when he suddenly shouted aloud to Satan, declaring to Satan that ‘you will not have my family’; a less mature response, as contrasted with the Christian growth and sanctification process, learning God’s preceptive will including how to resolved conflict viz Ken Sande’s The Peacemaker approach.
Where Between Heaven and the Real World gets more interesting, and more spiritually in-depth, is the later years–the full story concerning the family’s adoption of Chinese orphans, the details of the terrible accident, and the consequent effects of that great affliction. As with all of us, great trial and affliction brought about the Christian growth and sanctification, the growth that God will accomplish in His ways in His people. Through the grieving process and counseling, Chapman relates his new appreciation for the Psalms, with reference to some of the very same things I’ve learned through reading books and articles on the overall topic of spiritual depression and biblical counseling and coping with my own trials, including Psalm 13, and David’s talking to himself in Psalm 42, ‘Why are you cast down, O my soul?’; also the great need to study and work out one’s theology, expressing emotions to God instead of the stoical approach, and relying on God day by day through the emotional pain.
It is easy to be a Christian and love God when everything is going well in your life. Chapman’s story, along with other biographies and autobiographies of believers, brings home the truth of our very different personalities and experiences, and that God perfectly measures out the particular trials and problems we will have, fitted to each of us individually. Some people may have more relational problems early in life – resulting in other types of trial later in life. Chapman did not have a perfect, ideal upbringing but overall a life with fewer difficulties, financial success, and a strong, close family life, with that family very important to him; thus the great God-ordained trial for him and the family, came in the tragic loss of one of the children, five year old Maria.
This book demonstrates the truth behind the Challies’ reading challenge, the value of reading a variety of different types of books. I would not read Steven Curtis Chapman’s story for its theological value within the normal scope of ‘Reformed’ Christian reading, yet it is an interesting story to broaden the perspective of the lives of other Christians.
Christian Theology and Classics: Augustine, William Perkins, and Millennial Views
In the 2018 Challies Reading Challenge, my recent reading has included writings from the 4th and the 16th centuries: Augustine’s Confessions as a book about the early church, and Volume 1 of the Works of William Perkins, as a book by a Puritan.
Both of these were featured in Puritan Reformed Seminary’s 2017 conference: Carl Trueman’s talk about Augustine’s Confessions and Joel Beeke’s summary of William Perkins. Augustine’s Confessions was an interesting read, my first such reading of early church writings, and I noted the parts mentioned by Trueman: Augustine as a youth stealing figs from a fig tree; and a much later event that happened to one of Augustine’s friends (who resolved to never go to the gladiatorial games, was taken there by force by his friends; he kept his eyes closed, determined not to look; but the sounds aroused his curiosity so that he looked –and was then ensnared again in the games). Trueman had noted here, the power of the visual image. Other interesting parts included references to the other Christian leaders of the time including Ambrose of Milan and his role in Augustine’s later conversion, as well as descriptions about worship services including the singing of hymns.
As others who have read Augustine’s Confessions have noted, the last few chapters are strange, getting into Augustine’s Platonic philosophy, with a lot of repetitive thought as Augustine considered the meaning of time, memory and forgetfulness. In this tedious reading, I also observed that the Librivox volunteer readers must have had similar difficulty; the majority of the recording, through Augustine’s conversion, was read by one or two authors. Then, for each ‘track’ section of the last few (weird) chapters, it was a different reader for each segment.
William Perkins
Volume one of Perkins is over 800 pages and three treatises. I read a little of the first treatise, all of the second one, and about a third of the last and very lengthy treatise (the Sermon on the Mount). The first treatise was about biblical chronology and dating of early Bible events; after a while it was too detailed and tedious. Here I first learned the idea that the Israelite stay in Egypt may have been only 215 years instead of 430 years—the 430 years starting from the time of Abraham instead of the actual time in Egypt. I have always thought that the stay was 400 years in Egypt, from the narrative reading and my old NIV Study Bible dates. From checking online articles, though, apparently this is an area of differing views, and some do take the 215 years view regarding the Egypt stay. At this point, the 430 years in Egypt seems more reasonable to me, given the large population at the time of the Exodus and allowing for gaps in the genealogies, which occurs often even in later Old Testament genealogies. For further reading and study on this, are these two articles:
The second treatise was of a manageable length and more interesting: Perkins’ exposition of Matthew 4:1-11 and the parallel account in Luke, the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Good points brought out here include Perkins’ look at the scientific understanding of the human ability to live without food and water, that the human body has a limit of about 14 days. This event was supernatural, and necessary for Christ to experience, in similar fashion to the previous 40 days and 40 nights fastings of both Moses and Elijah. Perkins adds, to any who might reason that ‘why did Christ not do double the length of time, 80 days?’, that Christ also must be shown to be human, and a fast of 80 days would have us question His humanity. Another of Perkins’ ideas, though, seemed rather strange (again, the first time to hear this idea, for me): the temptation of Jesus standing on the top of the temple in Jerusalem, was accomplished by Satan’s moving Christ’s body, slowly through the air, from the desert to the actual temple location. Here again Perkins considers the known natural laws, and reasons that a human body could not physically withstand such flight movement through the air at very high speeds, but that Satan certainly could physically carry Christ a short distance at a slow speed. I haven’t read other commentaries on this matter, but have always thought of this temptation as done in a vision, not actually there; if Christ were actually there, surely there would have been other people around to notice a man standing up on the top of the temple structure. But Perkins reasoned that a temptation by vision would not be a real temptation.
The third work in volume one is a detailed exposition, with many excurses, of the Sermon on the Mount. The reading is straightforward enough to follow, and similar in style to the later Puritans (who held Perkins in great esteem and were greatly influenced by him), with the outline format of different observations and ‘uses’ for application – as noted by J.I. Packer in his summary lecture series on the Puritans . Throughout the reading, though, at several points I was turned-off by one particular aspect of Perkins’ views: his anti-millennial interpretations. This comes out in such places as his exposition of Matt. 5:5 (the meek shall inherit the earth), in which he cites four ways in which the meek are said to inherit the earth. The last two of these, Perkins considered as the primary ones: 3) inheritance in Christ in which ‘all things are yours, whether it be Paul or Cephas, or the world, things present or things to come’ (1 Cor. 3:21-22) and 4) that the meek will be made kings and ‘rule and reign’ (Rev. 5). Before that, however, he considers that “if it fall out that meek persons die in want or banishment, yet God gives them contentation, which is fully answerable to the inheritance of the earth.” As a premillennialist (and here I recall Spurgeon’s strong words about this text) such an idea misses the mark: to say that a poor person being contented with what God gives him or her in this life “is fully answerable to the inheritance of the earth” is to seriously underrate and misrepresent the wonderful future promise of really inheriting the earth. Elsewhere in the exposition, Isaiah texts about the millennial era are applied to what we have spiritually here and now. At a point about various views regarding our neighbors and revenge, Perkins writes: “Now the devil perceiving this to be their [the Jews’] natural disposition, makes God’s doctrine of salvation seem to them a doctrine of earthly benefits, for he caused them to dream of an earthly king for their Messiah, and of an earthly flourishing kingdom under him.” Such statements reveal the standard European anti-Semitism along with an apparent hatred of the premillennial doctrine itself, implied in the idea that an earthly kingdom is somehow evil, carnal and unspiritual. Premillennialists recognize the both/and of a future literal, earthly kingdom that is also spiritual in character, and that both physical and spiritual can co-exist, as in us believers today; and that the Old Testament did promise a future literal, earthly kingdom. The Jews had the basic idea correct; their error was in failing to recognize the two-stage purpose of God, the cross and then the crown, what is described in 1 Peter 1:10-11: the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, 11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.”
The criticisms aside, both works — Augustine and William Perkins — are good for overall reading of classic and Reformation-era thought, as both provide interesting ideas and points for further thought. They both serve the purpose of reading “the classics” of Christian theological works, and variety in reading, to go beyond the comparatively shallow and superficial nature of many modern-day books.