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A drop in the bucket

By on May 27th, 2011

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A sense of proportion is priceless.  But it can be very elusive.  When things go wrong we speak of life getting on top of us.  Chips on both shoulders.  We can be weighed down with worry, drowning in troubles, outnumbered.  It’s us against the world.  And the world is winning.

Isaiah knows how this feels.  Foreign armies have surrounded God’s city, threatening God’s house – the temple.  (Read Isaiah 36-39).  The super-powers have devoured other nations like locusts and they come right up to the walls of Jerusalem.  It is God’s people who must feel like a drop in the bucket.  But no, says Isaiah in chapter 40.  We must get a true sense of perspective:

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.  (Isaiah 40:15)

It might feel as though God’s people are a drop in the bucket of these mighty nations.  But no, it’s these mighty nations that are a drop in the LORD’s bucket!  That’s the sense of proportion Isaiah instills.

God’s people are not to look within to find the strength to fight.  Nor to look out to find a chink in the enemy’s armour.  They must look up to see a LORD who dwarfs their troubles.

He dwarfs them in might and in mercy.  Verse 12 tells us about His might:

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

The LORD holds His world the way you or I would hold a contact lens on the tip of our finger.  Whatever problems we face, we are one speck on the contact lens bothered by another speck.  Does this help us have a sense of proportion?

But it’s not simply the might of the LORD that shapes our perspective.  Isaiah also urges us to think of His mercy.  Verse 11 says

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

Divine power will not help us in our troubles unless we are assured of divine love.  And Isaiah tells us that the Mighty LORD is the Merciful Shepherd.  He feeds, He gathers, He carries, He gently leads.  He is the LORD who rages at His enemies and comforts His children.  He clears out the temple and binds up the broken-hearted.  He calls forth Lazarus yet first He weeps.  He bursts through death yet first bows His head to it.

We can trust this LORD.  And when we look to Him our problems are seen in their true context.  Viewed by themselves they seem an overwhelming ocean.  Set against the backdrop of the Might and Mercy of Christ, they are a drop in the bucket:

Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely… Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love. And repose in his almighty arms.  (Robert Murray M’Cheyne)

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The lion shall lie down with the lamb

By on May 26th, 2011

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Here’s a phrase that has morphed from it’s biblical origins.  Isaiah wrote about “the wolf dwelling with the lamb while the leopard lies down with the kid… and the young lion” (Isaiah 11:6).  Yet, as with a phrase like “Pride goeth before a fall“, it’s the abbreviation that has survived the test of time: the lion shall lie down with the lamb.

But however it’s phrased, what could sound more unnatural than a wolf or lion lying down with a lamb?

It’s a vision that has drawn mockery from many quarters:

—  “Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn” (Martin Amis)

—  “No absolute is going to make the lion lie down with the lamb unless the lamb is inside.” (D.H. Lawrence)

—  “The lion will lay down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t get much sleep.” (Woody Allen)

Isaiah has painted a deliberately provocative scene.  Nature, as Tennyson reminded us, is red in tooth and claw.  How absurd to think that nature itself could be tamed!  What could possibly bring about such a cosmic reversal?

Well, as ever, Isaiah answers by pointing us to the Messiah.  In the face of warring nations and warring nature, Isaiah continues to set our hope on a miraculous birth.  He will be called Immanuel or the Prince of Peace, or here in chapter 11 He’s called “the Branch.”

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.  5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them… 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.  (Isaiah 11:1-9)

When the true King reigns in righteousness, the world is set to rights.  This is not a spiritual truth divorced from historical and physical reality.  There will be a day when actual wolves and actual lambs graze together contentedly.  When seals will swim happily with great white sharks.   When children will play with crocodiles.

Impossible!  Ridiculous!  Fairytales! you might say.   Yet Isaiah refuses to live in a double-decker universe. We often think that Christian truths apply to a spiritual realm while the real business of life occurs on some irredeemable physical level.  We might concede that Jesus has spiritual power but, we imagine, it has no bearing on the way of the world.

But Isaiah cannot believe in such a divorce of spiritual and physical.  He believes in a very earthy Messiah.  He believes in God with us.  A God who becomes a Child.  A God who really enters into our world – to be born as a human king.   The power of heaven will enter into this world from the inside.  Not simply to grant spiritual benefits to spiritual people, but to remake His own creation.

We know that the false king, Adam, brought spiritual and physical death.  Well then, is Christ less powerful than Adam?  Is His victory less decisive than Adam’s fall?  No.  Therefore Christ, when He comes again, will bring spiritual and physical redemption to the ends of the earth.

The believer in Christ has a physical hope – death defeated, wars vanquished, disease abolished, nature itself brought to peace and prosperity:

6 And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. 7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.  8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. 9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.  (Isaiah 25:6-9)

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Unto us a child is born

By on May 25th, 2011

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I grew up with Summer Christmasses.  Mangoes for breakfast.  Cold meats for lunch.  Backyard cricket.  Swims and BBQs.  And I loved them.  But, biblically speaking, a summer Christmas is a contradiction in terms.  Christmas is not a celebration of our sunny circumstances.  Christmas comes in the darkness.

That’s what Isaiah prophesied in chapter 9.  It’s a famous Christmas reading, written 700 before the Christ-child was born:

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”  (Isaiah 9:2)

Isaiah was facing a terrifying army sweeping down from the north.  The people were “in the land of the shadow of death.”  It seems like Isaiah had been meditating on Psalm 23 which uses exactly the same language.  What possible “light” could dawn on this devastating darkness?

Well, again, Isaiah reminds the people of Immanuel.  He will bring peace when war threatens to swallow them whole (v3-5).  It’s the Messiah who will be the rising sun, the other-worldly Light, to shine upon this hopeless situation:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.  The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.  (Isaiah 9:6-7)

It might seem odd, but the one hope for a people “in the land of the shadow” is a baby.  Of course not any baby – this boy will be called “Mighty God.”  That’s a tough name to live up to!  Unless of course He is the Mighty God.  And then the name fits.

In fact “Mighty God” is a title unpacked by the other three names:  Wonderful Counsellor, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.  This son is Himself the Prince, but in Him dwells the Father and the Counsellor, such that the fullness of deity dwells in this child.

He comes to sit on David’s throne, just as promised.  The Prince of Heaven comes to establish His reign on earth.  The Mighty God comes for man and as man.  And like a Good Shepherd hoisting a wayward sheep onto His shoulders (Luke 15:3-7) so Christ comes to take the government on His shoulders.  He will march us through that darkened valley and out into the sunshine of His resurrection.

And what is our part to play?  Nothing.  “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”  We would only get in the way.  No, the whole character of the Messiah’s work is such that we can only be grateful beneficiaries:

The Light shines.  How can we remain in darkness?  The Prince carries the world on His shoulders, how can we attempt the feat?  The Son is given to us.  How can we not receive Him?

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Immanuel

By on May 24th, 2011

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A man begs for change.  Some throw him coins.  Most pass on by.  But imagine a true philanthropist (meaning “lover of man”).

He doesn’t just reach into his pocket for some change.  Imagine he stoops down beside the poor man and sits down in the gutter.  Imagine he reaches an arm around the man and says “Friend, I’m going to be with you.  From now on my kind of life will be your kind of life.  And I’m going to lift you out so that your kind of life will be my kind of life.”

That’s the meaning of Immanuel.

It’s a Hebrew word that means “God with us.”  And it’s been the hope of the Hebrew people from the very beginning.  Back in Genesis 3 the human race were promised the Messiah to be born as the seed of a woman.  Among other things, this meant that

1) divine help would come in human form

and

2) this entrance into our world would involve a miraculous birth.

You see women don’t have seed – men have seed.  Yet the help of a man is not mentioned in this promise of a Deliverer.  The serpent-crusher would be the offspring of a woman – a miraculous gift.

And so, as Isaiah faces the troubles of his own day, he reminds himself and his people of their true hope:

The Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.  (Isaiah 7:14)

The Messiah will come, says Isaiah.  And when He comes He won’t be against us, He won’t be over us or above us, He will be with us.  In fact He’ll be so with us He will become one of us.  This is incredible philanthropy!  This is God getting down on our level.

Think again of the homeless man.  Every other religion has the gods walking past and maybe handing out some change.  Other faiths might have helpful deities bestowing benefits from on high.  We have Immanuel.  We have Jesus – God with us, entering the mess, entering the darkness, drawing very near.

And He has not changed.  Though He is seated at God’s right hand, He remains one of us – bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh.  He still yearns to stoop, to come close and to be with us in our situation, whatever it is.

Anyone can tell you God is big.  Immanuel tells us He is also small.  May you know Him drawing near today.

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Woe is me

By on May 23rd, 2011

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What does a spiritual experience look like?  Warm feelings?  Groovy vibes?  Not if you ask Isaiah.

In Isaiah chapter 6 the prophet has the ultimate spiritual experience.  He meets the LORD:

“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train [i.e. the train of His robe] filled the temple.”  (Isaiah 6:1)

Isaiah sees the LORD Jesus Christ 700 years before He was made flesh.  We know that this is Jesus because no-one has ever seen the Father.  Appearances of God are always appearances of God the Son (John 1:18; Colossians 1:15).  And John actually tells us it was Jesus’ glory that Isaiah saw (John 12:40-41).

Well how does Isaiah respond to meeting Christ?  In terror!

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.  (Isaiah 6:5)

The appearance of the LORD is not some expected, explicable event on a continuum with all the other events of Isaiah’s life.  Just like Job found when he met the LORD, a divine encounter ruins everything.  Isaiah is “undone”.  He is exposed.  And he cries “Woe is me.”

That’s very interesting because in the previous chapter, Isaiah had been dishing out “woes” on other people.  “Woe” is a word that combines judgement with just a dash of sympathy.  To say “Woe to you” is to say “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.”  And Isaiah has been declaring “woes” to all around him.

In Isaiah 5 he dishes out 6 “woes”.  There are “woes” to the greedy, the drunkards, the deceitful, the perverse, the arrogant, the corrupt – a six-fold denunciation.  But, biblically speaking, six is an incomplete number.  It would be like a sailor bragging that he’d sailed the six seas.  He’s missing one.  Where’s the seventh?

Well in the temple we read about the seventh woe.  Isaiah had been saying woe to you, to you, to you, to you, to you and to you.  But when he meets the LORD Christ he is humbled:  “Woe is me!”

That’s where a true divine encounter leaves you.  Unable to point the finger at anyone else but profoundly aware of your own spiritual poverty before the Lord.

And notice that Isaiah highlights the corruption of his “lips” here.  That’s interesting because Isaiah is extremely good with his lips.  He’s a prophet and fantastic with words.  If people are still studying your writings in two and a half millennia you’ll know that you’re good with words too.  But Isaiah’s lips are his best feature.  Yet even his best feature is entirely unclean before the LORD Jesus.  That’s how unsettling a true divine encounter is.

What hope is there for Isaiah?

Well hope comes in the form of judgement.

Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.  (Isaiah 6:6-7)

Imagine yourself in Isaiah’s sandals.  You have just confessed to woeful corruption before the LORD Almighty.  And in response one of His flaming angelic servants flies at you with a burning coal taken from the altar – the place of judgement.  Surely this is it for Isaiah.  And yet the judgement becomes the cleansing.  The coal from the altar doesn’t harm but heals.

What a picture of Christ’s cross.  His altar ought to be our judgement.  Yet Jesus endures the burnings for us.  And now through His death it becomes our cleansing. We are driven down in confession but raised up in forgiveness.

Have you been too busy declaring “woes” to other people?  Do you know what it is to be “undone” in the presence of King Jesus?

If so, what have you confessed to the LORD Jesus?  What woeful corruption is laid bare in his presence?  Here’s the truth of the matter: if you have named it before Him, know that, through His cross, forgiveness flies to you, touches that guilty part and Christ’s verdict is this:

thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged.

This is a true spiritual experience.  It casts us lower than we’d ever imagined and lifts us higher than we’d ever dreamed.

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Swords into ploughshares

By on May 23rd, 2011

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Bill Hicks used to joke:

“A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. You think when Jesus comes back he’s gonna want to see a cross?”

Hicks wasn’t original of course.  The incongruity has always been there.  A method of extreme torture and humiliating execution has become the most prominent religious symbol in the world.  And when you understand who is hanging on the cross, the fact that it has become the world’s greatest devotional symbol is astonishing.  How can the butchering of the Lord of Glory be a universal symbol of hope?  It’s an incredible redemption of an abysmal horror.

And that’s what “swords into ploughshares” is all about.

It’s a phrase that comes from the same chapter as yesterday’s phrase “And it shall come to pass.”  This is the state of affairs that will come when the Messiah breaks in – weapons of war will become tools of fruitfulness and life.

“2And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

3And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

5O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.”

Everything will be turned upside-down when this Messianic future “comes to pass.”  The house of the LORD will be lifted up, the nations will flow uphill and war-mongering will turn to peace-making.

We have witnessed the lifting up of the house of the LORD.  Christ – the true Temple – was destroyed and raised again on the third day (John 2:19-22).  He is the true Meeting Place with the living God.  And in risen power His word goes out to the nations and the world flocks to find peace in Him.

Yet, for the full benefits of Christ’s peace-making we will have to await His second coming.  He told us in Mark 13 that until His return there would be “wars and rumours of wars” (v7).  But in the meantime we see the principle of His redemption working its way out.

There are any number of modern examples of swords into ploughshares: technology designed for destruction, redeemed for productive purposes.  But the power, the pattern and the prototype for all such redemption is the cross of Jesus.  There the greatest evil imaginable – deicide! – is turned to the greatest good – the salvation of the world.  The sword of judgement fell upon Jesus and yet, as He went into the ground, it was only to become more fruitful! (John 12:24)

Christians know this redemptive power in themselves.  And we await its application to the whole creation.  With eyes fixed on the cross we have hope that the deepest darkness will be turned to light and peace:

Crown him the Lord of peace; his kingdom is at hand.
From pole to pole let warfare cease and Christ rule every land!
All hail, Redeemer, hail, for you have died for me.
Your praise shall never, never fail throughout eternity.
.

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And it shall come to pass

By on May 22nd, 2011

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Here’s a really lovely bit of over-translation from the KJB.  Six English words render a single Hebrew verb.  It’s merely the future 3rd person singular of the verb “to be”.  They might have simply said “It shall be”.  In fact many times they might have left it entirely untranslated (as many modern translations do).  But we would have missed a beautiful turn of  phrase.

There are 526 “comings to pass” in the Old Testament and 87 in the New.  And one of the great benefits of the phrase is its sense of prophetic history.  By using the phrase, the translators manage to convey both a sense of future and past.  These events will not only come, they will come to pass.  That is, they will be established as new states of affairs.  The world will have to reckon with these fresh happenings.  It will be a future that makes history.

Therefore this saying is the very opposite of that similar sounding phrase which comes from Persian poets:

“This too shall pass.”

Legend has it that this saying was inscribed on a ring given to a powerful king.  It was meant to remind him that both his achievements and his sufferings were only fleeting.  It would make him happy when sad and sad when happy.

It’s a phrase invoking the transience of all things.  Yet the words of the Old Testament prophets could not be more different.  For them, the things that “shall come to pass” are earth-shattering events that will change history for good.  The Messiah will come and establish His kingdom, He will shatter His enemies and reign in peace and righteousness.  What will come to pass will never pass.  That is, it will never fade or be lost.  They strained ahead towards this Messianic future.  And while all things in the meantime might pass, the Messiah’s coming would be the real making of history.

For instance, the KJB translates Isaiah chapter 2 like this:

2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people.  (Isaiah 2:2-4)

Notice how this future event will make history.  What is yet to come will establish a whole new world.  Even the mountains will shift when this “comes to pass.”  The nations will flow uphill to the “house of the LORD”.  At the same time the word of the LORD will flow out to the ends of the earth.

These events indeed “came to pass” when Jesus, the true Temple, was torn down and raised up again through His death and resurrection (John 2:19-22).  Now the nations flock to Him and His word flows out to the four corners of the earth.  The future Isaiah longed for is coming to pass.  But, as we’ll see tomorrow, it awaits a final consummation.

More tomorrow…

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White as snow

By on May 20th, 2011

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“She’s pure as New York snow” says the song.  That’s to say – not pure at all.  New York snow is quickly sullied by the city’s grit and grime.  But, for the first hour or so, that white blanket covers over a multitude of sins.

Isaiah the prophet knew a people whose spiritual condition was worse than a New York sewer, but for whom the LORD has a covering more dazzling than gleaming snowdrifts.

In showing us the LORD’s solution to our sin, Isaiah will take us to depths we rarely tread and heights we can’t imagine.

First, the depths.

Isaiah opens his book with this description of the people:

“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores.”  (Isaiah 1:4-6)

If we diagnose our own ills, we usually leave a glimmer of hope.  We don’t mind a thorough spiritual check-up as long as the verdict is: “There’s life in the old girl yet.”  But Isaiah sees only wounds, bruises and sores.  He takes us to dire depths.

And then Isaiah surprises us.  He spurns the well-trodden path of religious improvement.  He’s not interested in selling a cheap spiritual salve to the people.  He doesn’t commend religious activities to a sinful people.  Instead he reports the LORD’s speech from verse 13:

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.  (Isaiah 1:13-15)

According to the LORD, religion is not part of the solution to sin.  It’s part of the problem.  He could not be more clear that His “soul hateth” the “solemn meetings” of the self-justifying.

The people are much worse than they thought.  And their religious activities are no help to them.  Isaiah brings people utterly to the end of themselves, and then drops in a wonderful gospel promise from God:

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”  (Isaiah 1:18)

It’s not that their sins “aren’t so bad after all.”  No, they are bright red – scarlet!  Yet there is a covering for sins.  Like a blanket of snow on a grimey city street, there is a gleaming purity that can be laid over our filthy lives.

All of us need this covering.  How do we get it?

Later on in Isaiah, the LORD Jesus Himself speaks (Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:16-21).  He is the true King, full of the Spirit, who comes to preach good news to the poor, blind, bound and bruised.  He binds up the broken-hearted.  Here is a King who comes for those in the gutter.

And He has a covering for them.  He says this in Isaiah 61:10

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

Christ Himself has a pristine covering.  He has garments of salvation – a robe of righteousness.  But this covering is not simply for Him – the Bridegroom.  It is also for His bride.  He will adorn His beloved.  He will cover His people with gleaming purity.  Those who come to Him are robed in His righteousness.  Through Christ, though our sins are as scarlet, we’re made as white as snow.

"Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 13:14)

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My beloved is mine and I am his

By on May 19th, 2011

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The bible begins with a wedding and ends with a wedding.  In the middle Christ comes as Bridegroom to win His bride.  Throughout, the LORD is described as jealous and his people are either “faithful” or “adulterous.”

No wonder that when Solomon turns from his exercise in spiritual doubt (Ecclesiastes) to pen the “Song of Songs”, it will be a love song.

“The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.  Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.” (Song 1:1-2)

Here is the wonder of Lover and Beloved calling to each other in tender intimacy:

“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.”  (Song 2:4)

“My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”  (Song 2:10)

“Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair.”  (Song 4:1)

“Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.  How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!  Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.  A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.”  (Song 4:10-12)

It is an unabashed celebration of love.  Yet it is far more than that.  Given the meaning of marriage in the bible we should have our eyes open to the significance of what we read.

The beloved is likened to a vineyard – indeed she seems to be one (1:6; 8:12).

The lover is a shepherd (1:7) and a king (1:4,12).  He smells like a priest (perfumed with myrhh and frankincense).  And he looks like the LORD – coming up from the wilderness in a pillar of smoke (3:6).

So here is a relationship between the Shepherd-King-Priest-LORD and His vine (His people – Isaiah 5:1-7).  This truly is the Song of Songs.  It’s the greatest love story ever told.  Here is Christ and His bride the church.  And the burning love which they share?  It is the very flame of the LORD!

Let me quote to you one of the concluding verses of the book in a more modern translation:

love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave.  Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD.  (Song of Songs 8:6)

The LORD Himself is a blazing fire of love (1 John 4:8).  Love is the divine nature and it is this love that is shared between Christ and the church.  This is wonderful news: the eternal love of God can be ours.  How?  In marriage union with Christ.

Because in marriage, all that is ours becomes our spouse’s. And all that is theirs becomes ours.  This is a common theme in Song of Songs:

My beloved is mine, and I am his (2:16)

I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine: (6:3)

I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.  (7:1)

This is why Martin Luther sought to explain the gospel as the marriage of a King to a prostitute. We are the prostitute.  We are the beloved, full of sins and shame and spiritual debts.  Yet when the prostitute marries the King, what happens?

All our debts go to him, and all his riches come to us.  Better yet – we belong to him and he to us.

So it is with our union to Christ.  Our sins and shame are taken by our Heavenly Bridegroom and He pays off all our debts on the cross.  Then He turns to us and gives us all that is His – His royal name and wealth and power and Family connections.  It is all ours.  Better yet – He is ours.  And we are His.

Who can even begin to appreciate what this royal marriage means? Who can comprehend the riches of this glorious grace? Christ, the rich and divine bridegroom, marries this poor, wicked whore, redeems her from all of her evil, and adorns her with all of his goodness. It now is impossible for her sins to destroy her, for they are laid on Christ and swallowed up by him. She has her righteousness in Christ, her husband, which she now can boast is her very own. She can set this righteousness over against all of her sins and, in the face of death and hell, say with confidence: “If I have sinned, nevertheless, the one in whom I trust, my Christ, has not sinned. Through our marriage, all that is his is mine and all that is mine is his.”  (Martin Luther, The Freedom of the Christian)

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King James Celebration Site

By on May 18th, 2011

Ben Myers points us to…

…the ABC’s new anniversary site for the King James Bible.

The site will be featuring loads of good stuff in the weeks ahead, all celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Already you can read Diarmaid MacCulloch on politics and the KJV; Tom Wright on Bible translation (including some samples from his own forthcoming translation of the New Testament); Barry Spurr on the Bible and liturgy; Philip Jenkins on the Bible in Luther and Africa; John McClean on the Bible and the word of God; and Laura Knoppers on the Bible and the English revolution.

The site will also feature a growing number of audio readings from the King James. You can hear John Bell’s (very lovely) reading from the Song of Solomon; and Tim Costello’s (very Australian) reading from Ephesians.

Elsewhere in the ABC, I’d recommend this wonderful audio recording of Robert Alter’s lecture on the eloquence of the King James Bible. And – just to mention it one more time – if you haven’t read his Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible, it’s still the best of all the new books I’ve seen on the King James.

From what I’ve seen so far, I’d echo Ben’s recommendation heartily.  The ABC site looks very good indeed.