Tag Revelation

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps

Todd R Leave a comment

According to Wikipedia, “”Quizás, quizás, quizás”, sometimes known simply as “Quizás”…is a popular song by the Cuban songwriter Osvaldo Farrés.”[1] Translated to English, the song title is “Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps” and the song has been covered by many artists over the years in both English and Spanish since it originally became a Spanish hit in 1947.  The artists covering it are diverse, from Doris Day to Cake.  The song is about someone trying to figure out whether someone else loves them, but they only answer “perhaps, perhaps, perhaps,” leaving the person perpetually wondering.  Being in such a position can be frustrating, but sometimes we can do no better, as the song suggests.  And when we can do no better, maybe we should stop trying.

What’s this doing on a Christian blog?  Well, in a lot of sermons, discussions, and elsewhere, we can find many instances of “perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.”  Or “maybe.”  Or “most likely.”  I see it regularly when I read study Bible notes.  I also find that if I’m not careful, I take something that is “perhaps” true and treat it as Gospel truth.  I base a doctrine on it.  I base an action on it.  I build more “perhaps” thoughts around it.  One unlikely thing grows into more even less likely things.

The temptation to do this comes up more often when reading passages of the Bible we don’t understand.  For example, in Numbers 29, there is a long list of daily offerings to be made during the Feast of Booths.  There are sacrifices of bulls, rams, and lambs.  The number of rams and lambs doesn’t change over the 7 days of the Feast, but the number of bulls decreases by one each day until it gets to 7.  Why?  The Bible doesn’t tell us, but that doesn’t mean people don’t have theories.  In such situations, I think the best approach comes from John Calvin in his commentaries: “why the distribution was so unequal, I confess, is not clear to me, and it is better to confess my ignorance than by too subtle speculations to vanish into mere smoke.”

How to avoid speculation?  Consider these two quotes from each end of the Scriptures:

Deuteronomy 12:32 – “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.”

Revelation 22:18-19 – “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

Photo by D koi on Unsplash

While the first is referring specifically to the law and the second to the prophecy of the book of Revelation, the principle is consistent: don’t add to God’s words or take away from God’s words.  Anything he wanted to say, He would have said it, and anything He said He wants us to take seriously.  Beyond God’s own words, I find “it is better to confess my ignorance than by too subtle speculations to vanish into mere smoke.”

The song “Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps” ends without a resolution.  The singer still doesn’t know the other person’s feelings toward them.  Likewise, there are a lot of unresolved, unexplained things in the Bible, but unlike the song that doesn’t mean we don’t know that God loves us.  God has given us everything we need to know, but He also doesn’t expect us to understand everything.

Therefore, don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know.”  Don’t be overly concerned if you can’t explain everything in the Bible.  This doesn’t mean to just give up and stop trying to wrestle with God’s word, but to insist on answers sometimes can lead us to conclusions we should have never jumped to.  When we read or hear “perhaps” or “maybe,” realize we just might be on shaky ground.  The Bible doesn’t exist to satisfy all of our intellectual curiosity, but it does exist to point us to our Lord and Savior.  When I cling tightly to what I do know about God, what doesn’t come with a “perhaps,” I find everything I need to trust God, yet also everything I need to know that I am far from perfect and have plenty of work to do.  Perhaps I should focus on that.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” – Deuteronomy 29:29

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz%C3%A1s%2C_Quiz%C3%A1s%2C_Quiz%C3%A1s

“The Sea was No More”

Todd R Leave a comment

  One of my favorite places to be is the ocean.  I love the roar of the waves and the feel of the sand.  I love catching waves with a boogie board or just bodysurfing.  Being in the ocean is my “happy place.”  But will it be that for me in heaven?  Will it be like that, only better, or will it be something completely different?

The Bible doesn’t provide us with a lot of specifics about what the afterlife will be like, but the Apostle John’s vision in Revelation 21:1 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”  Once upon a time, that last phrase – “the sea was no more” – bothered me a little bit.  How could one of my favorite things on earth not exist in heaven?

Two thoughts have gotten me over that, and I’m no longer bothered by it.

Chaos

First, that “the sea was no more” may not be literal.  What does that mean?  While the sea was part of God’s original creation and declared “very good”, later it is described as a source of chaos and evil, where Leviathan lives and the serpent emerges.  In ancient times, the sea was seen as chaotic and dangerous.  It was something to be feared and avoided.  In Canaan and other ancient societies, many believed there were gods over the sea and when the sea became stormy and unruly, it meant those gods needed to be appeased.  Therefore, when we see Moses parting the sea, or see Jesus calming the sea in a storm, or even walking on the sea, we are seeing God’s power over not only the chaos and disorder of the literal and the figurative sea, but also His power over the supposed Canaanite gods.  In that pantheon, Baal was the storm god and Asherah, the goddess of the sea, was his consort.  So, if “the sea was no more” is meant figuratively, John’s vision tells us that in heaven the sea will no longer be a fearful and dangerous symbol of chaos and death.  Whatever ‘gods’ we imagine rule the sea will be conquered.  The chaos that the sea symbolizes will not exist at all: the entire world will be ordered according to God’s perfect will and mankind’s work to make the whole earth like Eden.  “The sea was no more” is a good thing.

The second thought is that if God says a perfect world has no literal sea, I need to trust Him.  I don’t get to choose what’s in heaven and what isn’t, but God does and is infinitely more qualified to make that decision!  While the images of heaven we get in the Bible are obscure and difficult to understand, they do make it clear that heaven will be more amazing and glorious than anything we could imagine, or that we could achieve ourselves.  “The sea was no more” is a good thing again.

So, whatever your favorite things are here on earth, God has something much better in mind.  It will be the “very good” world He intended from the beginning, no matter what our expectations of it are or what we’d wish it to be.  It will the perfect “happy place” for all of God’s people.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”

God Loves His Unfaithful People

Todd R Leave a comment

The story of the prophet Hosea can be a controversial subject.  In only the second verse of the book, we learn that: “When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom’” (Hosea 1:2a).

A common interpretation of the “wife of whoredom” is “prostitute,” but it doesn’t necessarily mean that.  However, it certainly means a wife who is not faithful to her husband.  An adulteress, as Hosea’s wife Gomer is described in Hosea 3:1.  Gomer has 3 children in the story, and the last 2 may have been illegitimate.

Is it scandalous, is it even believable, that God would command His own prophet Hosea to marry this way?  The God who demands that we be holy.  Could He ask one of His spokespeople to “become one flesh” with a woman like this?  What kind of lesson can we take from this?

It only really makes sense when you realize why God did it.  The full verse of Hosea 1:2 says, “When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.’”

Photo by Worshae on Unsplash

Because of the word “for,” there’s a connection between the unfaithful wife and the people of the land: God’s people Israel.  It’s as if God commanded this marriage because Israel was unfaithful.  God had something to say about that.  While Hosea’s marriage was real, it was also a symbol meant to give a message: that, like Hosea marrying Gomer, God is willing to love unfaithful people.  After all, there is no other kind of person.  We all fit the description, yet He is willing to love us so much that the church is called the bride of Christ, like Gomer was the bride of Hosea.

While some think God’s command to Hosea is too scandalous to have really happened, it is no more scandalous than God choosing sinners to be His bride in Christ, which He did.  From the beginning of time God knew that His people would be unfaithful to Him, yet He designed and implemented a plan to bring those same people back into a right, intimate relationship with Him.  This plan meant taking on human flesh, being abused, and dying horribly for His people, but then being raised from the dead and taken back up into heaven.  This was the cost of restoring sinners to fellowship with their Maker who loves them.  And He thought it was worth it.

So, what is the lesson of God’s command to Hosea?  That there is no limit to who or how God can love.  Nobody deserves God’s love because all are unfaithful, but in spite of that, God loves His unfaithful people.  Why?  Because in His love He chooses to.

Praise God that He does!

Amen.

“The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” – Revelation 22:17

Who We Shall Be

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The apostle Peter wasn’t always a follower of Jesus.  He also wasn’t always Peter; he was originally named Simon.  He got his new name when his brother Andrew took him to meet Jesus.  Andrew “brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).’” (John 1:42).

Photo by Lionel Gustave on Unsplash

Something that stands out in Jesus’ words are the phrases “You are,” and “You shall be.”  It’s as if Jesus saw 2 people: the one Simon was, and Peter that Simon would be.  The Simon of the present and the Peter of the future.  Jesus knew there was work to be done with this Simon who would become His disciple, but He also knew that the work would be completed.  It was inevitable that Simon would become Peter, the rock, which is what the name Peter means.  Cephas also means rock in Aramaic, but Peter is the Greek name we know him by.

But in the meantime, Peter was going to be a work in progress, like all of us.  Jesus sees everyone as they “are” and as they “shall be.”  He sees the raw material and He sees what it will take to finish each competed work of art.  Jesus takes us as we are, begins our transformation there, and will complete it in eternity.

Revelation 2:17 says of believers: “To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”  This new name represents our future, eternal identity.  The person we will be when God is finished with His work of creation in us, the person Jesus sees in us, but that is beyond our wildest imagination. C.S. Lewis wrote that believers will “one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.”  This is how completely we will be changed and conformed to the image and likeness of God that He intended for us from the beginning.[1]

So, if you ever feel disappointed in yourself, if you feel unworthy of God’s attention, if you wonder how God could love someone like you, remember: God sees who you “are” and who “you shall be.”  And who “you shall be” is beautiful beyond what we can imagine, but not beyond what He can see.

“You are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).”

[1] Genesis 1:26-27

God, Our Eternal River

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When comparing Genesis and Revelation, we find similarities between the Paradise man lost and the Paradise to come.  Consider these verses about each:

Genesis 2:8-9: “And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.  And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.”
Revelation 22:1-2: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

A stream in Llanberis, Wales.

In each description is the tree of life, and also a river. Rivers are greatly beneficial to the growth of cities and civilizations, providing benefits for agriculture, trade, travel, etc.  Even today, most large cities that don’t border a large body of water have a navigable river nearby or flowing through it.  A big city without one is rare: in the United States, Dallas, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina, may be the only major cities not located near a significant river.

Rivers are mentioned a lot in the Bible, including in this Psalm about God being our refuge and fortress.  An unnamed river in the “city of God” is mentioned:

“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
            the holy habitation of the Most High.” (Psalm 46:4)

However, Jerusalem, the place Jews in the Old Testament period would have considered the “city of God” does not have a river.  The Psalmist certainly knew this, so their point is about something else, that the “city of God” has, well, it has God, as described in the next verses:

“God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
            God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
            he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
            the God of Jacob is our fortress.  Selah” (Psalm 46:5-7)

Jerusalem may not have a river, but it has God who provides all it needs and more.  No river required.  Even though the literal, ancient Jerusalem was eventually destroyed by the Babylonians, and later by the Romans, the eternal City of God will never be moved.  All other nations “rage” and “totter,” but God’s kingdom is forever secured by the One whose voice melts the earth.  Hebrews 1:10-12 (quoting from Psalm 102:25-27):

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
            and the heavens are the work of your hands;
they will perish, but you remain;
            they will all wear out like a garment,
like a robe you will roll them up,
            like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
            and your years will have no end.”

Do you worry that you lack things others have?  Things that would provide benefits for your business, spare time, or other pursuits?  With God as our fortress and refuge, we don’t need a river, but in Paradise He will provide one anyway.

Fret not, for you have God, our eternal river.