My Times are in Your Hand (Psalm 31:15)

 My Times are in Your Hand (Psalm 31:15)

Our times are assigned to us. We don’t pick them. We certainly have little to say about when and where we were born. We understand that life is a gift from God. Even those who don’t believe in God must believe that it is some kind of “happy accident,” and thus we cannot take credit for it ourselves. But for believers, since we believe life is a fleeting gift from God, we also don’t know how long this earthly life will last.

Therefore, “my times” are not really mine. They are lent to me, to be given back when I die. “My times” are really God’s times, or the times that God has assigned to me. And therefore, “my times” are not in my hand, though we make many decisions about how “our” life will be lived. Nonetheless, my times are in God’s hand.

The verse goes on to request, then, that God would “deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.” There is something about this life of ours, as managed by us, that leaves us with scant resources to fight dangerous enemies, whether physical or spiritual. And it is the spiritual enemies that are the most cunning. We ask God for help against this vast array of enemies because we cannot handle the job ourselves. But also, we ask, because since “our times” are actually God’s times, He has a deep interest in our success against these enemies, and for our living with His ownership in mind.

Psalm 1:3 says that the one who separates himself from sinners so that he might be devoted to God and His Word “will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither;  And in whatever he does, he prospers.” That is, he is seeking God’s help in charting a course for living apart from enemies and persecutors, and in return, God brings “success” or “prospering” into his life. Certainly, this success must be defined Biblically. God’s prospering can include things like health and wealth, but it more importantly includes fellowship with God and usefulness in His service. It includes things like peace and joy and love that flow out of us from within.

These things happen, according to Psalm 1, “in its time.” That is, in God’s timing that He has ordained for us. Some of these things may happen in our youth or they may happen in old age. Some pick up the lessons quickly. For others, it comes through a variety of struggles and defeats, until we submit to God’s will and way - when we finally realize that what we have regarded as “my times,” my life, my goals, my values and agenda and passion, my, my, my - when we finally realize that all these things actually begin, not with “my” or “me,” but with what is rightfully God’s, for His glory.

 The Color of Christmas

I’ve been thinking this week about C.S. Lewis’ rather negative view of our Christmas craziness. He was writing this back in the 1950’s or so. I assume that the craziness has only grown crazier.

He says that there seem to be two holidays. One is called Xmas, and involves a great deal of partying and gift-giving. It is practiced by the religious and irreligious, as though religion is not essential to it. And he personally preferred to have little to do with it.

The other holiday he called “The Feast of the Nativity.” This is the solemn yet joyful observance of the Incarnation, God taking on human form in the Person of the Son. It is the celebration and consideration of a mysterious, divine act, whereby the infinite Son of God submits to the finiteness of human form. 

My thought on this was that those who espouse the Big Bang theory of origins claim that there must have been some nugget or particle that was so dense, when it exploded, it expanded into our present universe. I find more interesting the density that must have existed in the human person Jesus who at the same time was eternal Son of God. And, He indeed has universal significance. 

But back to C.S. Lewis. He says that just because these two holidays happen to occur on the same day of the year doesn’t mean that they have anything to do with one another.

I’ve read that the brain has never seen color. It has never smelled a rose. It has never heard a symphony. The only stimuli are electrical/chemical signals which the brain then interprets, so that you can make sense of red, fragrance, and harmony. 

You don’t know something is red until your brain tells you, the brain that has never seen red. I would like to apply this to Lewis’ two holidays. 

Many, many people celebrating Christmas this year don’t know the true color of Christmas, which is Christ. It is a reality about which their brains have not yet been triggered. The Gospel stimuli has not  reached them. And so these many, many people know a great deal about the merchandising of Christmas. But they don’t know the true color of Christmas. It’s as though they can’t see red.

Can you? It’s not an ability-thing. It’s not a “try-harder” thing. You can only appreciate the sensations that your brain interprets for you. Yet there is something mysterious, something spiritual about this, whereby you come to know, to see, a color that you have never seen before. And once you see Christ, the color of Christmas, you can never un-see Him.

Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? (Matthew 2:2)

Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? (Matthew 2:2)

You know the story of the wise men who came from the East seeking Jesus. They followed a star. They were probably astrologers who followed pagan notions. But somehow, God got their attention and set them on the right path. And so they brought gifts to baby Jesus, and we expect that we will see them in heaven. Who knew that among those who first worshipped Jesus, there would be some from Iran?

But that’s not the whole story, because on the way to see Jesus, they first had to see Herod, or, as he liked to be called, “Herod the Great.” Herod was a master politician who had positioned himself to gain the favor of the Roman emperors, and had finagled his way to a position in Israel called, of all things, “king of the Jews.”

One would suppose that to be “king of the Jews,” one should probably actually be a Jew. But that was not the case. In the language of the time, or at least how it’s translated now, Herod was an Idumaean. That word was an update of an older word used often in the Old Testament. Herod was as Edomite.

Edomites were the descendants of Esau. Esau was the grandson of Abraham, and the firstborn of Isaac. He was born a twin, and his younger brother, Jacob, got the upper hand: the birthright; the blessing; and father of the people of Israel. Esau was set aside. 

Jacob had twelve sons, roughly the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob’s 4th son, Judah, would be the tribe from which most kings of Israel would come, and certainly the line of David. These would be the true kings of the Jews.

So Herod, from Esau, was a fake. He was a powerful fake, and a ruthless face. But he was also an insecure fake, because he knew that he wasn’t the true “king of the Jews.” And so one day, when strangers from out of town came seeking the one born “King of the Jews,” he suspected that what he always feared was about to take place. Esau was about to be set aside once again, in the person of Herod.

Scheming, lying, and threatening had always worked for Herod. But it didn’t work now. The wise men were led by a star, and Herod wasn’t it.

Jesus’ path was strange as well. He avoided the throne and embraced the cross. But even in His death, there was a sign above his head that spoke the truth: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”