The death and resurrection of Jesus are the center of Paul’s proclamation of the Gospel. It is by means of Christ’s death and resurrection that the two evils introduced into the world at the time of the Fall are overcome. Christ’s death on the cross is God’s solution to the problem of sin, and Christ’s resurrection from the grave is God’s solution to the problem of death. – Keith Mathison
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How Lady Folly Dresses Her Children
The book of Proverbs is always an engaging read for me. Every time I go through it I find something new. I hope that means that I’m growing in wisdom. As I’ve been reading recently, I noticed that in chapters 1 through 9 Solomon warns his son primarily against the adulterous woman. I usually read these warnings as something to salt away in case I or someone close to me runs into that kind of situation. It just isn’t the kind of temptation I ever face so that advice goes into my pocket figuring I’ll give it to someone else some day.
In that section Solomon also warns his son about Lady Folly and he pushes him toward Lady Wisdom. I’ve always considered this advise and the warning against loose women as two different bits of wisdom but I’m not so sure that is what is going on. And, of course, it takes some wisdom to understand this kind of literature.
The adulterous woman is seductive and alluring. “For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil.” (Proverbs 5:3) And so is Lady Folly, “The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive… (Proverbs 9:13) It seems that these are really the same woman doing the same thing. Adultery is used here as a metaphor for the allure of foolishness. That path is attractive because it looks easier and quicker. The adulterous woman is the same. She is seductive and pleasure with her is quick and easy to come by. In other words, a woman like that is a fitting picture of what foolishness looks like practically applied.
So the wise way to read this is to not assume we’re being warned only against the adulterous woman. We should avoid that kind of woman but we should do much more than that. The wise need to be weary of anything that is a seductive shortcut to pleasure through unrighteousness. Folly is like that. If folly were as repulsive as its fruits, few would choose that way. But she’s not. Compare these two descriptions:
Wisdom has built her house…
She has sent out her young women to call
from the highest places in the town,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks sense she says,
“Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.” (Proverbs 9:1, 3-6)
The woman Folly is loud…
calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,
“Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” (Proverbs 9:13, 15-17)
They both sound the same call but you have to listen for a moment to tell which one is right and which is wrong. And don’t forget that Lady Folly is foolish but she is not stupid. Her call to pleasure via the shortcut is not always so blatantly wrong. Her words are chosen to seduce and so they can be very subtle; stealing isn’t the word she uses to describe stealing, adultery isn’t called adultery and greed isn’t called greed. They still are those things but they aren’t as enticing if she dresses them like that. It takes wisdom to discern the difference.
Linus on Sound Theology
Natural Causes
Why did Jesus die? He was beaten brutally, had a crown of thorns put on his head and beaten with reeds, he carried a heavy cross in this weakened state and was finally nailed hand and foot to it where he hung for hours. When they came to break his legs so his death would come quickly they found him already dead and when a soldier stuck him with a spear, blood and water flowed out of the wound. Apparently he’d suffocated. But Jesus didn’t die of natural causes like the criminals he was been crucified with did.
So if it wasn’t these brutal physical abuses that killed Jesus, what did? Jesus said,
“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” – John 10:17-18 (emphasis mine)
Jesus laid down his life, no one took if from him. It looked like he was lead away as if he were not in control of his final hours, but he was. He laid down his life and he did that because the Father gave him authority to do so.
Also take a look at Psalm 69. It is pretty clearly a Psalm about Jesus. The New Testament applies verse 9 to Jesus in John 2:17 and Romans 15:3. Jesus applies verse 4 to himself in John 15:25. There are a few other passages that are cited from the Psalm that don’t directly apply to Jesus himself but indirectly to his enemies. Psalm 69 pretty strongly applies to Jesus. And in it, the Psalmist says:
For they persecute him whom you have struck down,
and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. – Psalm 69:26 (again, empahsis mine)
If we read Psalm 69 the way the New Testament does, you can’t help be notice that God struck down Jesus. As horrible as the physical punishments were, they weren’t what killed Jesus. He didn’t die of natural causes from his wounds. God placed the sins of all on him, turned his face from him and Jesus died. It is as if at the right time the Father said, “die for those sins now Son” and the Son said, “Yes Father” and he died. Jesus was never out of control. He entered Jerusalem at the right time knowing what was coming. He selected Judas knowing what he would do. He offered no defense against the false accusations of the Jewish leaders and wouldn’t excuse himself to Pilot. God gave Jesus authority and charge to lay down his life and take it up again. They and they alone were in charge of his death and resurrection. And they didn’t do it to be cruel but to save.
For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
that dishonor has covered my face.
I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s sons. – Psalm 69:7-8
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed. – Isaiah 53:4-5
Infallible Revelation, Fallible Interpreters
RC puts it really well. Humility must be part of the hermenutic.
What Do You See?
“What Dana [Tierney, writer for The New York Times Magazine] observed about believers–their wonder over the creation–is at the heart of why we even have science. If the stream is a result of accidental natural forces, then you just see water, rocks, and dirt. If God equals the stream, then you worship the stream god, not the creator of the stream. But if God created the stream, then wonder and curiosity naturally flow into study.” – Paul Miller, A Praying Life
“The contemporary atheist movement has a scorched earth strategy – chop down Christianity, root and branch. I don’t believe in God either, but this strategy is entirely counterproductive.
“Not satisfied to point out that elements of Christian belief are historically implausible, or that religion is scientifically unsubstantiated, the New Atheist movement wants to prove something more. That Christianity has been a force for bad, that there is something fundamental about religious belief that holds back progress, approves of oppression, and stokes hatred.
“Yet virtually all the secular ideas that non-believers value have Christian origins. To pretend otherwise is to toss the substance of those ideas away. It was theologians and religiously minded philosophers who developed the concepts of individual and human rights. Same with progress, reason, and equality before the law: it is fantasy to suggest these values emerged out of thin air once people started questioning God.” – Chris Berg, Secular World Has A Christian Foundation, Brisbane Times, 4/15/2012
Only Jesus
In his resurrection Jesus did what was impossible for humanity and in his death he did what was impossible for divinity. Only in Jesus could two impossible things be accomplished.
What You’re Told To Say
And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.” So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. – Numbers 22:20-21
But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as his adversary. – Numbers 22:22
Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.” And the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak. – Numbers 22:34-35
Setting aside the talking donkey for a moment, what is up with this? Balaam asked once and God said no so he didn’t go. Then better princes come and he asks again and God said to go. So he goes and God gets mad and sends an angel to kill him. Balaam admits he’s wrong and offers to not go but the angel says to go. Anyone else get whiplash following that?
From the information I’ve summarized above I can’t see where Balaam did anything wrong. He asked God and didn’t go till God said yes and if a donkey crushed my foot against a wall it would probably get a good crack on the hinder too. So is God just being fickle here? May it never be! As Balaam himself says in the very next chapter, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.” So assuming Balaam is right here what gives? The Angel of the LORD tells Balaam and us:
And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me…” – Numbers 22:32
The problem wasn’t with Balaam going, it was with why he was going. It appears that despite what God had told him, he was planning on doing what Balak had asked him to do: curse Israel.
Look at Balaam’s response to Balak’s people. First, in verse 13 he says, “Go to your own land, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you.” Then in verse 18 when the second set comes he says, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the LORD my God to do less or more…” When God lets him go in verse 20 he says “But do what I tell you.” Then after Balaam’s encounter with the angel when he meets Balak in verse 38 he finally gets it and says “Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.” It looks like the meeting with the angel is what convinces Balaam that going or not going wasn’t the issue. He really has to do what God told him and will tell him. Period.
Okay, so what about the talking donkey? It is entirely possible that God temporarily gave the beast the ability to speak her mind. However, since her conversation during that brief interlude was so focused and the angel takes up her defense even though he says that his mission was to oppose Balaam, I kind of think that was the angel speaking to Balaam through the donkey. She doesn’t speak any more after the angel starts talking so perhaps he’s done with her. Even if the donkey were speaking of her own volition, she is doing what Balaam should have been doing. She was saying nothing more and nothing less that the LORD told her to say.
Made by Not Made of
And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. – Genesis 4:4-5
Why did God accept Abel’s offering and reject Cain’s? Some have said that it because Abel offered blood and Cain didn’t. That won’t work because in the law there were commanded grain offerings, even as sin offerings. (Lev 5:11) There’s nothing in Genesis 4 that indicates the offerings they made were supposed to be a sin offering, it was most likely a fellowship offering. No, the problem wasn’t the offering, it was the offerer. Hebrews 11 says that “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain”. By faith Abel did that. Cain lacked faith. And why did Cain kill Able? “Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.” (1 John 3:12) God rejected Abel’s offering because it was made by a faithless, evil man not because it was made of grain.
Piper on Edwards on the Trinity
The Trinity in Two Minutes from Desiring God on Vimeo.
Piper perfectly summarizes Edwards conception of the Trinity in two minutes here and that is difficult to do! I think Edwards is correct and if so, it explains why we don’t see the Holy Spirit mentioned sometimes (often?) when the Bible speaks of the Father and the Son. The Spirit may be expressed there in other words.
If you’re interested in reading Edward original thoughts on this to see if Piper is accurate, I did some formatting on Edwards unpublished paper on the Trinity in 2002. It is posted here.