Tag Hate

The Snares of Death

Todd R 2 Comments

Sometimes a particular Psalm, or part of a Psalm can be hard to identify with.  Often the writers were going through circumstances unlike anything we have faced or ever will face.  The author of Psalm 116 mentions such a situation in verse 3.  Here are the first 4 verses:

“I love the LORD, because he has heard
            my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
            therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
            the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
            I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the LORD:
            “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!””

Have you ever felt like this: “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me”?  The Reformation Study Bible notes on this that “It was as if ropes came out of a grave, pulling the psalmist into the ground.”  Has death ever felt this imminent?  I can imagine someone who has experienced war or terminal disease can relate to this, but many of us can’t fully understand it.

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

But even if we have never felt this way, there’s an important part of the image for all of us: evil is not passive.  The “snares of death” do things.  They come after us.  There are forces of evil that actively seek to derail us from following Jesus.  If we’re not actively fighting these forces, we will lose ground.  These battles may take place within ourselves, as we war against the flesh, or the battles may be with external influences in the world around us.

My pastor once referenced a similar idea when during a sermon he said: “the culture is trying to kill you.”  When Proverbs 16:25 tells us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death,” it suggests that most people believe things that they think are fine, but that actually lead to death.  And when most people in a group believe something, it becomes part of the culture.  Every culture endorses thoughts and actions that should be condemned by Christians, because they aren’t putting us on the path of life, but on the path to death.

But there’s more to it.  Part of American culture that’s trying to kill us is the part that tells us we’re in a war against other people, instead of in a war against sin.  Many aspects of our culture assume that we should love people who are like us and hate people who aren’t.  Maybe we hate those who have a different ethnic background, religion/denomination, or a different political party.  Maybe they have a different economic status, color of their skin, or sexual orientation.  Sometimes all it takes is that someone likes a different sports team.  This hate is a “way that seems right to a man.”  Should we war against the culture, or against sin?  Are those different goals?

In the book of Joshua (1:7b) we are told about the law of God: “Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.”  Why point out the left and the right?  I believe this is like Scylla and Charybdis from Greek mythology.  Scylla and Charybdis were two very dangerous monsters that lurked on either side of a narrow water passage.  Therefore, if you drifted too far left you were killed by one of them, if you drifted too far right, you’d be killed by the other.  And also, trying too hard to avoid one would inevitably put you in the path of the other one.

Sometimes in life we end up too far from the correct path because we define our path as being against the other path.  We go right because we are avoiding going left, and vice versa.  We define ourselves by what we are against rather than by what we are for and end up hating the other side.  And then, either Scylla or Charybdis have devoured us!  The “snares of death” and the “pangs of Sheol” are upon us and we might not even know it.

How to avoid this path?  By defining right behavior and attitudes by Christ’s standard, which includes commands to love our enemies.  Once we think someone is our enemy, we need to reject the instinct to hate them and accept Christ’s grace which enables us to love them.  We define the Christian life by what it is for, not by what it is against.  We love God and love our neighbor, regardless of who they are.  To do otherwise may put us on “the way to death,” where “the snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me.”

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8

Jesus Overcomes Tribalism

Todd R 2 Comments

The Bible is a book for all people, in all times and places, and its lessons hold eternal value.  Yet the Bible was also written in particular times and places and knowledge of those contexts is sometimes assumed rather than explained.  For instance, in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, we read the phrase, in parenthesis: “(For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”. We also read that Jesus and His disciples “had to pass through Samaria.”  Hate is a difficult thing to measure or quantify, but the story assumes we know something about how intense the Jews’ hate for Samaritans was.

According to Warren Wiersbe, “So intense was [the Jews’] dislike of the Samaritans that some of the Pharisees prayed that no Samaritan would be raised in the resurrection!”[1]  This hate was so strong that many Orthodox Jews would travel much longer routes around Samaria to avoid setting foot in it.  They thought the dirt itself would contaminate them.  Why all this hate?

One reason for this hate was genetic.  Anyone who reads the Old Testament knows there are many extensive genealogies.  To the Jew, it was very important to know which of the original 12 tribes you descended from and that your ancestors had not intermarried with people of other religions.  But Samaritans genealogies were not pure enough for them.  Much of Samaria was populated with the descendants of poorer Jews left behind by the Assyrians, many of whom had intermarried with foreigners the Assyrians planted there.  So, Jews in Judah looked down on Samaritans because of their mixed genealogy.  The Samaritans were considered “half-breeds.”

Another reason was religious.  When the Samaritan woman said “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” in John 4:20, she was referring to an alternative Judaism.  Among other differences, the Samaritans had a center of worship on Mount Gerizim, with its own temple.  They even re-wrote parts of the Pentateuch to justify this.[2]  To Israel, Jerusalem was the only center of worship.  Sacrifices to Yahweh were only to be offered there, and every male was supposed to make a pilgrimage there three times every year.  There was to be no rival temple, and therefore the Samaritans (in the Jewish mind) had cut themselves off from the true worship of Yahweh and should be shunned.

John has to write that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” because doing that was unusual, especially for a Jewish rabbi like Jesus.  But then Jesus went there, simply being in Samaria was a strong statement that Jesus didn’t care for the hateful tribalism.  But not only did He go there, He interacted with its people, at a time when “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”  Jesus was and would continue to break down these barriers.  In the four gospels, Jesus preached to the Jews first, then to the “half-breed” Samaritans, then to full Gentiles, and the apostles followed the same pattern in Acts.  This sequence progressively illustrated that the gospel is for all tribes of people.

What does this mean for us today?  Hate like what the Jews felt for Samaritans is rampant and if Jesus could overcome that hate, He can overcome any hate.  Any reasons we have for hating, or even disliking people just because of what group or tribe they belong to aren’t good enough reasons. 

But tribal rivalries are everywhere we look: national and regional, political and economic, cultural and ethnic, musical and athletic, and every other dimension we can imagine.  But no tribal loyalty is more important than the obligation to love God and love our neighbor, no matter who they are.

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:38-39 –

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Not only does this describe the love God has for us in Jesus, but it also describes the love we should have for others.  Nothing should get in the way, including any religious, racial or other differences.

Jesus overcomes tribalism, and so should His people.

[1] Wiersbe, Warren.  Be Alive (John 1-12) (1986).  P.65.
[2] Edersheim, Alfred.  The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1886).  P. 274-5.

Jesus Overcomes Tribalism

Todd R 1 Comment

The Bible is a book for all people, in all times and places, and its lessons hold eternal value.  Yet the Bible was also written in particular times and places and knowledge of those contexts is sometimes assumed rather than explained.  For instance, in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, we read the phrase, in parenthesis: “(For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”. We also read that Jesus and His disciples “had to pass through Samaria.”  Hate is a difficult thing to measure or quantify, but the story assumes we know something about how intense the Jews’ hate for Samaritans was.

According to Warren Wiersbe, “So intense was [the Jews’] dislike of the Samaritans that some of the Pharisees prayed that no Samaritan would be raised in the resurrection!”[1]  This hate was so strong that many Orthodox Jews would travel much longer routes around Samaria to avoid setting foot in it.  They thought the dirt itself would contaminate them.  Why all this hate?

One reason for this hate was genetic.  Anyone who reads the Old Testament knows there are many extensive genealogies.  To the Jew, it was very important to know which of the original 12 tribes you descended from and that your ancestors had not intermarried with people of other religions.  But Samaritans genealogies were not pure enough for them.  Much of Samaria was populated with the descendants of poorer Jews left behind by the Assyrians, many of whom had intermarried with foreigners the Assyrians planted there.  So, Jews in Judah looked down on Samaritans because of their mixed genealogy.  The Samaritans were considered “half-breeds.”

Another reason was religious.  When the Samaritan woman said “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” in John 4:20, she was referring to an alternative Judaism.  Among other differences, the Samaritans had a center of worship on Mount Gerizim, with its own temple.  They even re-wrote parts of the Pentateuch to justify this.[2]  To Israel, Jerusalem was the only center of worship.  Sacrifices to Yahweh were only to be offered there, and every male was supposed to make a pilgrimage there three times every year.  There was to be no rival temple, and therefore the Samaritans (in the Jewish mind) had cut themselves off from the true worship of Yahweh and should be shunned.

John has to write that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” because doing that was unusual, especially for a Jewish rabbi like Jesus.  But then Jesus went there, simply being in Samaria was a strong statement that Jesus didn’t care for the hateful tribalism.  But not only did He go there, but He interacted with its people, at a time when “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”  Jesus was and would continue to break down these barriers.  In the four gospels, Jesus preached to the Jews first, then to the “half-breed” Samaritans, then to full Gentiles, and the apostles followed the same pattern in Acts.  This sequence progressively illustrated that the gospel is for all tribes of people.

What does this mean for us today?  Hate like what the Jews felt for Samaritans is rampant and if Jesus could overcome that hate, He can overcome any hate.  Any reasons we have for hating, or even disliking people just because of what group or tribe they belong to aren’t good enough reasons. 

But tribal rivalries are everywhere we look: national and regional, political and economic, cultural and ethnic, musical and athletic, and every other dimension we can imagine.  But no tribal loyalty is more important than the obligation to love God and love our neighbor, no matter who they are.

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:38-39 –

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Not only does this describe the love God has for us in Jesus, but it also describes the love we should have for others.  Nothing should get in the way, including any religious, racial or other differences.

Jesus overcomes tribalism, and so should His people.

[1] Wiersbe, Warren.  Be Alive (John 1-12) (1986).  P.65.
[2] Edersheim, Alfred.  The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1886).  P. 274-5.