Dogs and Pigs

Dogs and Pigs

Our verse for consideration is this: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:6 NAS95). These are words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, and they sound a bit judgmental, immediately following, as they do, verses that warn against being judgmental.

But guarding against judgmentalism is not to say that we should not be wise and discerning. And we should know that dogs and pigs are not going to make good use of what is holy and precious.

Now, of course, I’m not talking about your pet dog or pig. Jesus is referring to dogs and pigs in His day. Dogs were not house pets, but were scavengers and travelled in packs. They could be dangerous, as indicated from Psalm 22:16 “For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me.” Pigs could be dangerous, I suppose, but their chief offense would be their uncleanness. You can scrub up a pig, but it will return to the mire straightaway. And Old Testament law prohibited contact with pigs as unclean.

So we are not to desecrate what is holy by throwing it to the dogs, nor to waste what is precious by allowing pigs to root around in it. But to what does this apply? I think it must be the Gospel.

That presents a bit of a problem, because Jesus said that we are to sow the Gospel (using a different metaphor) indiscriminately. Whether it falls on the roadway, or on rocky soil, or amongst thorns, or on good soil, our job is to chuck seed and let God be in charge of the increase. How do we solve this apparent contradiction?

We are to share the Gospel freely and widely and lovingly. Our mindset is not how we should refrain from sharing, but in how we may find opportunity to share the Gospel. And yet we do so watching and praying for the hungry heart - for the person who is seeking to know God and to be set right with Him.

Think of Jesus talking with Nicodemus, a religious ruler who came to Jesus by night. He might have been testing Jesus. He may have been cynical. But he came asking, “how can a man enter the kingdom of God?”, and Jesus was glad to answer his question (John 3). In the next chapter Jesus talks to the broken woman at the well, disappointed by men, and rejected by the women of the village. Jesus regarded neither one as either a dog or a pig. He saw them as people with hungry hearts, and they responded accordingly.

But there are those with hard rather than hungry hearts. They are the ungodly, the sinners, and the scornful of Psalm 1:1.They are like the judge in Luke 18 “who did not fear God or respect men.” They are the enemies who took David’s men ad cut off half their beards and bared their backsides in order to humiliate them. They are like the religious leaders of Jesus day who were more concerned with impressing people than with being right with God. There is nothing more doggy or piggy than self-righteousness, and to lay out the Gospel patiently and clearly with this kind of people is not only to see this precious truth trampled, but also to invite them to tear you to pieces as well.

But let’s be clear. That is exactly what Jesus did. He shared the Gospel, even with these type of people, and turn on Him they did. They turned on Him and tore Him to pieces. And He did this in order that we - you and me, could be saved from our own doggishness and piggishness. And the power of God’s grace is such that it can take dogs and pigs and turn us into those who gradually look more and more like Jesus.

The Problem of Prayer

The Problem of Prayer

There are a good many things about which our talking outpaces our doing. I would put prayer in this category. We talk about prayer more than we pray. Why? Why is prayer such a problem?

There may be a host of reasons, but one would be our desire to solve our own problems in our own way and according to our own schedules. We can put it on “pause” if we want. But when you make that problem a primary feature of your conversation with God, then you have lost control of how to manage it.

Also, we talk to normal people about a lot of dumb stuff. We can “shoot the breeze” with friends and then walk away and forget that it happened. It makes no difference for them or you. But you cannot talk to God about “dumb stuff,” and prayer is certainly not “shooting the breeze.” We are not accustomed to the exposure of deep-level communication with the divine.

In Colossians 4:2, Paul says, "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” Do it; take it seriously; and be happy about it. It’s important. Note that Paul goes on to say, “conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders,” that is, those outside the faith. As I understand this passage, you do not have a lick of hope of having wisdom with outsiders apart from prayer, that is, without that deeper level of communication with the One who is known as Wisdom.

Paul then goes on to say, “Let your speech be always seasoned with grace,” which again, is impossible without prayer. The summary here would be that you can do nothing good without prayer, because you can do nothing good without divine direction. And yet, we find ourselves failing to submit to this practice and discipline.

Tim Keller has written a great book on prayer that makes the following point: “To fail to pray, then, is not to merely break some religious rule—it is a failure to treat God as God. It is a sin against His glory. ‘Far be it from me,’ said the prophet Samuel to his people, ‘that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you (1 Sam 12:23).’”

I think that is a great point that brings us back to where we started. Why is prayer such a problem? We confess that we can do no good thing without it, and yet we stubbornly refrain from its practice. Why? Because we do not want God to be God of our personal business. We don’t want to hand Him the keys to our castle. We want to choose our own options and say yes to our own solutions. But these will not be solved from out of the resources ofsin-clouded hearts and minds that serve as the operating systems of our own selves. We need help from above. So we understand that we should bow before Him. But we would rather than others bow to us. And we understand that we should confess to Him plainly and honestly our failings and our prejudices. But we would rather focus on the failings of others. And we understand that we must be willing to wait for God’s direction. But we want an instant answer. And we understand that God may require some instant action or correction on our part. But we would rather put that part off.

You see, there really is not a problem with prayer. The problem is with me.

Judging the Judge

Judging the Judge

I am thinking about God as Judge. It is something that God is, not just something that He does. Yes, God is other things alongside of Judge, such as Creator and Redeemer, but He is still Judge. For God to fail to function as Judge, it would be an instance of Him not being who He is. He would cease to be God. Is that what you want?

A friend complained that God should “practice what He preaches” when I mentioned Sunday’s passage, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged” (Matt 7:1). He had observed that God Himself judges, so He should not tell others not to judge. I’ve been a little fired up ever since. My friend does not understand that there is a difference between man and God. He seems to think that God should abide by man’s rules, and that God’s judgments and ours are similar. They are not.

We make judgments, but they are based on limited knowledge and most often self-interested. God is Judge, and His ability to Judge is not compromised in any way. He is not swayed by rhetoric or frustration. He does not judge more severely when He has a bad day. His judgments are always perfectly righteous.

A metaphor of the potter and the clay is used in the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is not difficult to understand. God is the potter; His people are the clay. Note what Isaiah says: Is. 45:9 “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker — An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’? Now let me apply this to our “judge” discussion. God is the Judge, and we are those standing before the judge. God sits in judgment against us, but we do not stand in judgment against God. He has an authority as “God” that we do not have. It is part of what is contained in the word “God,” a sovereign being who rules from heaven. We believe in one, true God who is sovereign. Part of this is only logical. Two gods cannot be sovereign, because the sovereignty of one will impinge on the other. There can only really be one sovereign, and thus, one supreme Judge. And, it is not me or you.

So for a mere human, no matter how rich or smart, to stand in judgment of God - it is just foolishness. But it is not a slaphappy kind of foolishness. It is of the tragic kind. Because we can go through life and decide how God has shorted us one way or another; how He hasn’t been fair; or how God has failed to acknowledge our sterling qualities. But all of that is standing in judgment of the very God before whom we will one day bow. He is the Judge; not me.

This all reminds me of the atheist who was carrying on about the non-existence of God, but then blurted out, “and I hate him (God) so much.” I wonder if that is not buried in the mindset of the person who objects against God’s prerogative to judge in a way that supersedes our frail judgments. I wonder if we have a sneaking resentment that God is God and I am not. Is it possible that we would rather have the
world bow to ourselves rather than us living in a holy fear of God which produces a humility so that we would bow before His judgments?

We should be glad that there is a Judge with a righteous standard. This Judge will hold all evil accountable to His judgment and punishment. We should also be glad that this Judge is also a Savior, and that He has provided for forgiveness for those who submit to His salvation in Christ, and thus escape the condemnation due to those who have lived their lives faulting God instead of examining themselves in the light of God’s Word.

The Eclipse of God’s Glory

The Eclipse of God’s Glory

From Texas to Maine, people will be flocking to “the path to totality” in order to see a full solas eclipse. It is a notable event, and aside from widespread FOMO (fear of missing out), scientists and astronomers, professionals and amateurs, are interested. The sun is the dominant feature of our solar system, and it is jarring for the sun to be obscured, even for a few seconds. But what about the eclipse of God’s glory?

How’s that for a transition? But let me give you one parallel: you can’t look directly at the sun, due its brightness or glory, without physical damage. Nor can a person see directly the glory of God and live. Moses asked to see God’s glory, and God said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” (Exodus 33:20). Our vision of God is a mediated vision. We see God in the face of Jesus Christ, or we don’t see Him at all (2 Corinthians 4:6). We don’t need funny-looking glasses to “see” God. We need Jesus, - faith in Jesus.

One feature of Monday’s eclipse is that the “culprit” of the eclipse is a piece of rock called the moon. There are many, many moons.They produce no light of their own, but our moon is able to obscure the sun’s glory for a few seconds on a narrow track across our continent. I am more interested in the obstructors which obscure the glory of God across the centuries and much more widely. Let me suggest a couple:

Spiritual blindness: it is the condition of being unable to ascertain heavenly things (Nicodemus), a casualty of the human race falling into sin. The Bible says that we are all spiritually blind, and that it is the Spirit of God, along with faith in Christ, which removes our blinders. The sad point is that spiritual blindness is universal apart from regeneration, and yet people are unaware of this spiritual blindness. They see many glories in the world, but they are not able to see the glory of God or God’s connection to these created glories. In essence, people are left to worship the created order rather than the Creator, because they have not yet been bowled over by His glory.

Unbelief: we do not overcome spiritual blindness by trying harder. We come to a place of despairing in out own abilities, and then we turn to Jesus who is able to open the eyes of the spiritually blind, even as He opened the eyes of the physically blind. This “turning to” Jesus is a step of faith, and it is an abandoning of the unbelief that has reigned in our heart. This new faith leads to a new life, and a new vision of the glory of God.

World News interviewed David DeFelice, a NASA retiree who has an appreciation, not only for the glory of the sun, but also for the glory of God. He notes that “NASA talk(s) about solar eclipses on Earth (as) a convenient coincidence, because the sun's diameter is 400 times larger than the Earth and the Sun 400 times farther away than the moon. .. (Y)ou can .. see how God did that, and that’s not just an eclipse.”

I believe his point says this: that for those who have been gifted with a vision of the glory of God, we see the glory of God everywhere in creation. We hear it in the frog’s croak and the bird’s song, and we see it in the movements of the sun and moon.

Psa. 19:1 “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”
Psa. 119:18 "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things.”

I pray that you will not miss out.