“There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
King David committed far worse sins than did King Saul. Saul was not an evil man, yet his judgments caused the deaths of many people, including Jonathan, his other sons and even the priests of God. Why did a reign that began so well end in such tragedy?
“Now therefore fear the Lord (T)
and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. (H)
Put away the gods that your fathers served (E)
beyond the River and in Egypt, (O)
and serve the Lord.” (S)
Joshua 24:14
Israel famously wandered in the wilderness for forty years. They were tested, offered as a sacrifice and refined with the holy fire of the Law of Moses. This “threshing” process appears at the centre of the Bible Matrix. It is pictured as the time of harvest (Pentecost – the giving of the Law), and as the burning eyes of the Lampstand watching over Israel (sun, moon and five visible planets). In the Covenant pattern it is the “Ethics,” the bit where God lays out the rules for success. Threshing is also a biblical euphemism for sexual relations. At this point, under the Lawful eyes of God, Israel is either shown to be a faithful bride or an adulteress. Is the fire of her desire true or “strange” (foreign). We can see this pattern in James 1:15. It is a sick parody of the Covenant process because it begins with a “false word.”
[This post has been refined and included in Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes.]
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“We steadily covet more than our humble (but beautiful) selves can ever contain.”A thought-provoking post from Matthew Jepsen. (Reproduced here with permission).
Below, Lewis articulates a contemporary rendition of Augustine’s “God-shaped hole”:
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In a recent sermon on 1 Samuel 30, Doug Wilson commented on David’s insistence that those who stayed behind to guard the supplies received an equal share of the plunder:
A few months ago I posted some lengthy quotations on Biblical gender roles. Richard Walker has provided a helpful summary. I know I’m quoting a blog that quotes this blog, but he wraps it up nicely.
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The dreamtime is over.
The Bible teaches us that flesh is temporary. This is bad news for those who distrust God. Flesh is all they have.
“What if your gospel-preaching pastor is not as good as one of the great orators of our day? Is it time to sell the house, pack up the family, and change churches? No, I don’t think so. But what should you do?”
I’m banging the drum again. Under the title Constant Conversion, Doug Wilson writes:
The true Christian life is a life of true conversion. The Latin is the word for turning around, turning from one direction to go in another.
Kerry Lewis shared an interesting article relating the difference between the final events on the Titanic and the version portrayed in movies.
“Men of power and prestige sacrificed their lives for women and children of the lower class, many of whom were indentured servants, day laborers, and domestic workers. On this flotilla of self-absorption, self-sacrifice became a prevailing virtue during a crisis moment, and the powerful chose death that the powerless might receive life.”
The era of such brave sacrifice is gone, along with the Christian worldview that sustained it. Progressives accuse conservatives of nostalgia for a culture that is past, a time we cannot recreate. They are half right. It is gone forever, but the future (or “eternal utopian present”) imagined by progressives is unsustainable, if not downright destructive. We agree on the death of the old culture, but have very different ideas about the future.
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