More than Incredible

“No matter how many times we save the world, it always manages to get back into jeopardy again. I say to myself, ‘I just cleaned up this mess!’ Sometimes I wish that the world would just STAY SAVED!”

Those “immortal” lines I paraphrase above, came from one of my favorite cartoon characters, the Pixar/Disney creation, Mister Incredible. In the movie, Mr. Incredible is wearing a microphone, being interviewed by a TV person about his heroic exploits. He apparently was born with super-powers, including unbelievable strength and stamina, as well as a physical body virtually impervious to harm. Incredible indeed!

My affection for super-heroes goes w-a-a-a-y back. I forget whether it was George Reeves’ old TV portrayals of the Man of Steel, or the comic book version of Superman that got me hooked, often running around the house with a bath towel around my neck, pretending I was flying, and, at least vaguely, wondering if I could launch myself into the sky literally from the top of my back porch steps…

Supported in my childish daydreams by an equally fascinated older brother, we began collecting comic books about such improbable characters as Flash (“The Fastest Man Alive!”), Green Lantern (His power ring could project any imaginable object, composed of green energy!), The Fantastic Four (Their powers involved stretching, turning invisible, bursting into flame, and clobbering people as a Thing made up of rocks!), and of course, “Your friendly neighborhood” Spider-Man (Wall-crawling, web-shooting, etc.).

Anyway, it took Disney far too many years to catch on to the appeal of super-heroes to moviegoers. The Incredibles (both 1 and 2) explored a “what if” world in which “supers” abound and, due to a battery of lawsuits, are driven underground by an act of Congress. Mr. Incredible (and his super family) come out of hiding to face a threat called Syndrome, who creates an attack robot that only he can neutralize. The robot runs amok and the Incredibles save the day as they work together, combining the powers they have hidden for so long.

This fanciful journey into my love of super-heroes was brought on this morning as I heard part of Robert Godfrey’s series about Samson, Israel’s final judge in the latter part of the Old Testament book of Judges. I’ve found his series on Samson fascinating for a number of reasons, chief of which is Samson’s ordination by God Himself, and the repeated mistakes and rebellious acts that nearly made Samson a walking disaster.

I relate to Samson in so many ways. And, in many ways, Samson’s weaknesses represent those of the entire Israelite nation throughout its history. Surrounded by enemies who worshiped a variety of false gods, they were continually within ear-shot and eye-shot of temptation to idolatry. 

During the days of the Judges, Israel drifted away from the teachings of their great leaders, Moses and Joshua. Indications are that they rarely, if ever, visited Shiloh, the site ordained for the erection of the Tabernacle once they’d conquered the Promised Land of Canaan. The dismal watch-word in this Old Testament book: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” 

Very apropos for the judge named Samson, for it was always “his own eyes” that got him into trouble. Seduced and deceived by Delilah (whose name means “flirty” by the way! No, really!), Samson strung her along when she, in the employ of the Philistines, asked him to reveal the secret of his super-strength. After teasing her with some false explanations, he finally “revealed to her his whole heart” and betrayed his secret to her.

Samson’s love for Delilah was a one-way street. “If you loved me,” she whined, you’d tell me everything! You’d tell me the truth!” Never in the text are we told that this woman loved Samson in return. To her, he was just a riddle to be solved for money. This makes me think of all the lovely ladies who plaster their wares over the internet. They and their filmmakers and producers are laughing at all the guys tuning in to have a peek. Laughing all the way to the bank!

Samson’s fall into idolatry wasn’t caused by some devotion to a god of wood or stone. It was by giving his love to a lying female devil named “Flirty.” The love he gave away was one he was called to reserve for God alone. He’d been set apart for divine service even before his birth. Much like Samuel…much like John the Baptist…much like Jesus of Nazareth. 

Judges teaches me that, without our eyes in the right focus, we will always “manage to get into jeopardy again,” in Mr. Incredible’s semi-immortal words. Over and over again, the disunited tribes of Jacob failed to be satisfied with their one, true, exclusive Deity. They saw other worshipers around them having a ball with their gods and the illicit practices they enjoyed, and they tiptoed into those strange, forbidden temples of pleasure. They forsook the lessons of the past, the holy requirements of their loving, holy Savior and Lord. They had no human king to remind them of their heavenly One.

Like Samson, like Israel, you and I are no good on our own. We need the body of Christ to encourage us, to instruct us, to remind us, to challenge and warn us. We need the Word and the Holy Spirit to keep the Lord “always before my eyes” (Psalm 16:8). Otherwise, we are “flirting” with disaster just like Samson. Perhaps it was his own super-powered giftedness that made him so vulnerable. Like Simon Peter among Jesus’ twelve apostles, he might have thought, “I can handle it. I won’t fall. I’m capable of passing this test on my own.” Then, BOOM, denial…denial…denial…cock crowing.

Throughout Samson’s ministry as Israel’s final judge (not counting Samuel in the following book), he seemed to be denying his commission again and again and again. By what he looked at, by what he said, by what he did. But there were redeeming moments that made it clear that Yahweh was still at his right hand, ready to strengthen the poor sap when he came to his senses. Faltering, willful, foolish Samson was, for all his faults, GOD’S MAN. Sadly, it was by his death that he gained the ultimate victory over his enemies. Just as, by HIS death, our perfect, virtuous Savior gained HIS.

The word “judge,” as used in the Old Testament book, doesn’t really mean a person in a black robe who rules in a courtroom. It rather has the connotation of a chosen savior and leader who rallies the faithful for battle and eventually achieves victory. Praise the Lord that His choice of such leaders doesn’t always depend on their sterling character or flawless track records. Bone-headed “Samsons” like me are often the very people our gracious God might choose to rally the troops and gain the victory.

To me, that is truly the INCREDIBLE message of Samson’s life.

Blessings!

MNA

11/10/2022

Psalm 119 Themes (Part 3)

 Themes from the Psalm of Psalms

(Loving the God of Psalm 119)

Gimel: Seeking enlightenment and trusting God’s truth before the great ones.

17. Deal bountifully with Your servant, / That I may live and keep Your word.

18. Open my eyes, that I may see / Wondrous things from Your law.

19. I am a stranger in the earth; / Do not hide Your commandments from me.

20. My soul breaks with longing / For Your judgments at all times.

21. You rebuke the proud–the cursed, / Who stray from Your commandments.

22. Remove from me reproach and contempt, / For I have kept Your testimonies.

23. Princes also sit and speak against me, / But Your servant meditates on Your statutes.

24. Your testimonies also are my delight / and my counselors.

I am assuming that King David probably wrote Psalm 119 late in his life, or else worked on it on and off as an ongoing project during his kingly reign. There is a unique flavor or theme to each stanza of eight verses, each verse beginning with the next Hebrew letter of the alphabet. This time we are looking at the third stanza, beginning with the Hebrew letter Gimel. Gimel sounds like the letter G in the word “giving” or “getting,” and in this stanza God is giving some great truths about His word, and I hope you and I will be getting those truths as we consider David’s wonderful Psalm of psalms. The theme of this stanza we’re looking at is:

Seeking enlightenment and trusting God’s truth before the great ones.

David begins this stanza with a strange request, that God would “deal bountifully” with him, so that David “may live and keep [God’s] word” (v. 17). Throughout the stanza David seems to be blinded, a stranger, brokenhearted, under reproach and contempt---even by the Princes of the earth. This may well have been a time of great distress in the psalmist’s life, when he was having trouble finding wisdom and comfort, even from God’s word. He needed ENLIGHTENMENT. 

There are certainly times in my own life when I’ve felt lost and in distress. Times when I needed a fresh word from God, a reassuring word. I knew that ALL of the Bible was a precious gift from the Lord. I knew that every PART of God’s word was there for a purpose in my life. But at those distressing, difficult times of trial, I needed God to “deal bountifully” with me. I was feeling blind and in need of having my eyes OPENED and behold something WONDROUS and new!

David might even have been despairing of life itself when he wrote this verse: “Deal bountifully with me that I may LIVE,” he wrote. Apparently he was being confronted by “the proud–the cursed” ones who “stray from [God’s] commandments” (v. 21). Perhaps these proud lawbreakers were seeking to take David’s life and he was desperate for a special word from the Lord to quiet his doubts and reassure him. 

Have you ever felt this way? Like everyone around you was out to get you and had no intention of “playing fair” or being reasonable? History tells us that King David experienced many episodes like that in his life, like when King Saul seemed to have him cornered like a rat in a trap, or even times when his own sons turned against him and tried to take his throne! When we face such crises, we cry out to God in our distress, looking for some extra-special answer. This might be one reason God gave us such a LARGE book, such a LONG history of His own dealings with us, His people. When we encounter characters like Abraham and Sarah, like Jacob and Joseph, like Job and Naomi, like Ruth and King David, we see people like ourselves who faced doubts and struggles. People who often needed a special, fresh revelation from their God.

At this point in his life, David is feeling like a “stranger in the earth” (v. 19). He may have been actually away from his home, fleeing from some threat that drove him out into the wilderness. Away from all the familiar comforts of home. David did, in fact, dwell for a time in the land of the hated Philistines. People who had no regard for David’s God or God’s commandments. In a sense, when we are among ungodly people, we might think that God’s law is off someplace else, seemingly HIDING from us and from people generally. One of the ways Paul describes the fallen human race is: “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18). Even David’s own people, Israelites who HAD God’s commandments in writing, were often guilty of breaking them, acting as if those laws were hidden from their eyes.

In this desperate situation, David confesses that his heart is indeed BREAKING with his feelings of “longing for [God’s] judgments at all times” (v. 20). Here, he uses the word “judgments” as a synonym for God’s word. A judgment is a decisive pronouncement. When a judge brings down his gavel in the courtroom and declares the defendant guilty or innocent of the crime. What David is certainly longing for is relief from his distressing enemies. He yearns to be vindicated as an innocent man, and to have his enemies pronounced guilty and liable to God’s punishment for what they’ve put David through. They have wrongly accused King David and shown contempt for his kingship and his claims of innocence. There seems to be no one in David’s corner to defend him, counsel him, even care about what happens to him.

And so, in this time of longing, he reminds the Lord of His own holy character. He praises God for what He is like, what He customarily does with the ungodly. “You [Lord,] rebuke the proud– the cursed, Who stray from your commandments. [So, Lord,] Remove from me reproach and contempt, For I have kept Your testimonies” (vv. 21-22). Notice the contrast between these two verses of the psalm: those who STRAY from God’s word, and those who KEEP God’s word. 

Straying has the idea of a sheep or other domestic animal who wanders away. Whether because of confusion, forgetfulness, willful disobedience, carelessness, whatever, they wander from the proper path, away from what’s expected of them, away from what’s GOOD for them as well as others. The prophet Isaiah wrote that “All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way. And the Lord God laid on [Christ] the iniquity of us all.” When a human being strays from the laws of God, it is called iniquity, another word for SIN. And it is for those iniquities that Jesus Christ went to the cross to die.

Those who “have kept [God’s] testimonies,” on the other hand, have treasured and memorized God’s truth in their hearts (v. 11) so they “might not sin against” Him. The word “testimonies” refers to God’s sworn account of how things have been, are now, and shall be in the future. His reliable word of truth. In the Ten Commandments, we are prohibited from giving “a false witness against [our] neighbor.” Every word in the Bible is a true witness from God, our Maker, Ruler, Redeemer and Friend. He will never lead us astray from the right path. Rather, He marks out that right path for us in His perfect, infallible word. And those who treasure and keep His word will one day be totally vindicated, WHATEVER the ungodly might say to accuse and reproach us.

When we read verses 23 and 24, we might think of the great Reformer Martin Luther. On the last day of October, we remember Reformation Day, the date in 1517 when the monk named Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the castle church door in Wittenberg, Germany. He had begun to question the practices of the Medieval church in selling special indulgences that would give extra forgiveness of sins for people and their dead relatives. Eventually, Luther’s eyes were opened to the true gospel of God, the good news that promises forgiveness and eternal life through the finished work of Jesus Christ alone! He began to preach that it wasn’t the church that granted freedom from sin and its punishment, it was a free gift of God received by faith in Jesus.

History tells us that Martin Luther became an outlaw both from the church, and from the state government. The pope and the emperor both wanted him silenced or put to death! And on the day that he stood before the emperor and the emissaries of the church in the council chamber in Worms, Germany, these verses were surely among those that had been on Martin’s mind: “Princes also sit and speak against me, But Your servant meditates on Your statutes. Your testimonies also are my delight And my counselors.” Luther told the princes of the state and the church that he COULD NOT recant the writings he’d made that proclaimed the true gospel. He couldn’t revoke the truth of those writings because, he said, “My conscience is held captive by the word of God.”

It was God’s will that Martin Luther would escape from his enemies and go on to lead a great Reformation for the church that would renew mankind’s knowledge of God’s saving truth. God’s will for King David would be that he, too, would be saved from all his enemies and pass on his kingship to his son Solomon. 

Then, one day about a thousand years later, the greatest descendent of King David would take the throne of the universe when the risen Christ ascended to God’s right hand. Those who place their hope and trust in Jesus Christ alone, can have their slate wiped clean of all their sins, and get all of Christ’s righteous deeds transferred to their account to make them perfect in the eyes of a holy God. These truths are not just man’s claims; they are the true and trustworthy “testimonies” of the God of truth, of Christ who is “the Way and the Truth and the Life.” 

They are the truths that should delight US as they delighted David. They should counsel us and comfort us even when we stand alone among the great and ungodly of this earth.

Amen

MNA

11/07/22