My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children (Hosea 4:6).

The situation reads like an apocalyptic horror story.

No one trusts anyone else. Everyone is out for their own advantage. Kill or be killed. Rampant theft. Pervasive adultery. Blood in the streets. Even the land itself is in mourning.

While some may think this would refer to parts of America or other parts of the world today, this is the description of Israelite society 750 years before Jesus as provided by the prophet Hosea (Hosea 4:1-3).

Hosea presents a picture of a society unhinged from moral bearings, having cast off all restraint. He presents God’s case against the people, and does so powerfully; God’s impending judgment of the people is just. Nevertheless, we are left to ask: what went so wrong? What led to such disastrous conditions in Israel?

The controversy God has with the people is that there is no truth or goodness in the land (Hosea 4:1); this is directly associated with the real cause of the problem: there is no knowledge of God in the land (Hosea 4:1). As God says through Hosea: my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6)!

How could this be? There were temples to YHWH in Dan and Bethel; if you asked the “Israelite in the street” about religion, he would tell you that YHWH was the God of Israel, and how He delivered His people out of Egypt and gave them the land of Israel. So how could it be that the people did not have sufficient knowledge of God?

The answer would be apparent if you continued to question the average “Israelite on the street.” He would likely tell you that the golden calves in those temples in Dan and Bethel were representations of YHWH, and that Baal, Asherah, and other gods really existed and were the gods of the people around them. The average “Israelite on the street” would prove to be the average person of the ancient Near East with the usual worldview and beliefs of the average person of the ancient Near East; this was not at all what God was looking for in His people (cf. Deuteronomy 13:1-18)!

Israel had some cultural memories of who God is but was not taught directly and/or effectively from the Law about the nature and essence of that God and the conduct He expected from them. The blame for this begins with the priests and Levites who were instructed to teach the people about God and the Law (Deuteronomy 31:9-13). They were perfectly positioned to do so since they were intermediaries, standing between God and the people; nevertheless, from the beginning of the northern Kingdom of Israel, priests came from all sorts of places God had not authorized, and were likely under political pressure to modify what had been declared to suit the purposes of the king (1 Kings 12:31). In a mostly illiterate society, if the Law is not constantly read to the people, they will not be able to know it; thus we have the judgment pronounced by Hosea. The people do not have the true knowledge they should have, and it will lead to their destruction!

But the people themselves are not blameless; even if the priests were not reading the Law, they should have encouraged one another in the knowledge of YHWH as the One True God, the Creator, their Deliverer (cf. Romans 1:18-20); instead, they went out and engaged in the same idolatrous practices as the people around them (cf. Hosea 4:8-14). Ignorance was inexcusable; even if the Levites and the priests were not speaking the true word of YHWH, God provided Israel with prophets like Amos and Hosea who did speak the true word of YHWH. These prophets went unheeded; the people preferred the prophets with nicer messages and who did not condemn them.

The ultimate consequences were severe; within a generation, the northern Kingdom of Israel would fall to Assyria; most of the people would be exiled and absorbed into the population of Mesopotamia. Most of the priests and Levites of the north would not stand before God and minister to Him, and all because they had forgotten about YHWH. Their punishment is just: since they acted and believed little differently from the rest of the peoples of the ancient Near East, they were absorbed into the ancient Near Eastern world and would have little inheritance in the promises of the God of Israel.

We can make many parallels with the modern day. Sure, there are plenty of people who will profess to believe in God and His Son Jesus Christ, and even claim that He was raised from the dead. But if you press the average “man on the street” when it comes to his understanding of God, it becomes clear rather quickly that most are little different from their secular neighbors. Their behaviors and attitudes differ little from everyone else; they look at things in the way most good postmodern 21st century Americans would, not the way Jesus does. And those behavior patterns tell the story: there is little knowledge of God in the land, despite all the bluster and appearance to the contrary. Understanding of who God is and what He expects from mankind is as superficial today as it was 2750 years ago!

Blame can be laid at the feet of many perceived religious authorities; too many proclaim Enlightenment modernism or post-Enlightenment postmodernism, nationalism, or other worldly philosophies in the name of Christ to their own hurt as well as ours (cf. Colossians 2:1-10). Too many preachers proclaim a moralistic therapeutic Deist god, and not the God revealed in the pages of the Bible. We can be assured that God’s judgment upon them will be just and decisive; as many such organizations decline in membership and relevancy, they are experiencing something somewhat similar to Israel, for they are becoming fully what they aspired to in their preaching and ideology. They are being good 21st century Americans, not Christians. How many people have been destroyed because of such things?

But, in the end, ignorance is no excuse, especially today. Most everyone can read; everyone can easily get their hands on God’s message to mankind. Nevertheless, even though people have plenty of reason to believe in God, they go off and engage in the same behavior as the nations around them. They blindly follow after cultural and societal norms to their own destruction.

People whom God wishes were saved are being destroyed for lack of knowledge; there is insufficient knowledge of God in the land. Let us not fall prey to the superficiality of faith in our culture and go down the same dead ends as those who came before us; let us learn of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and follow after Him!

Ethan R. Longhenry

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it (Genesis 2:15).

In the midst of our lives of toil, one of the great fantasies providing comfort to many is the prospect of never having to work again. People dream about the never-ending vacation; many people count down the days to retirement.

But is a lack of having to work really so wonderful? Sure, for a few days, perhaps even weeks, doing nothing might be great. Yet, after awhile, people get antsy; they want to do something. Sadly, too many find out how their lives were sustained by their work or the stress levels accompanying that work; how many die of heart attacks within a couple of years after retirement?

It is interesting to see how people who really do not have to work still find ways to occupy their time and engage in various tasks and effort. Rich people rarely just sit around; they go out and do things. Many retired people end up being more busy and active in retirement than they ever were while working. Many who are disabled and unable to work find it a hard pill to swallow. No matter what, it seems that humans feel compelled to work, some way, some how.

This tendency should not surprise us, for man was made to work. When God created the world and created man, He took Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it (Genesis 2:15). We do not know how much effort this would take, but it is important to note. Man was not created for leisure, nor was he created for hard bondage; the first man was created to tend God’s garden.

This work was not a curse; the curse would not come until sin entered the picture in Genesis 3. The curse took work as a beautiful thing and made it an onerous burden (Genesis 3:17-18). God’s curse upon man explains why so much of his work is expended just to survive with no lasting merit. The curse cannot entirely rob work of its dignity.

Work and effort provides many benefits for mankind. Our identities are wrapped up in our careers, our families, the organizations in which we participate, and other such things; all of them require work to some degree or another. We can find great enjoyment and comfort through creating things, making things, helping others, and such like, either through careers or in our personal time. There is a satisfaction in finishing a project or putting in good effort that can never come through slacking off or from a lack of achievement.

But we must be careful to not make an idol of work. Humans prove easily enamored with their own creative abilities and the things which they create; how many have turned away from serving the God of Heaven and have instead put their trust into the efforts and abilities of man? Many others make work the most important thing in their lives, sacrificing their own identities, their families, and perhaps even their happiness on the altar of work; no wonder such people are called “workaholics”! One of the greatest dangers man faces is believing that God will only be satisfied with us if we have worked hard enough or expended enough effort to please Him: while we are to work for God and strive to obey Him, we can never be saved by how well we have worked (Romans 3:20). We can only be saved through our trust in the Lord Jesus; our relationship with God is never something we can earn (Romans 4:1-12).

It is good for us to work and to keep our various efforts in their proper perspective. We are made to work and we will expend effort doing something in life, but will our efforts have any lasting significance? If we expend all of our energy toward the pursuits of this life alone, we will likely find that it will all perish when the present universe does (1 John 2:15-17). Instead, we must seek to promote the message of Jesus and serve God and our fellow man as He did; only by investing in people, encouraging them in the faith of Jesus, will our efforts ever find lasting benefit (Matthew 6:19-20). Let us work to advance the Kingdom of God and glorify Him!

Ethan R. Longhenry

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

Beginnings are extremely important: they set the tone and the scene for everything that follows. Is it foreboding? Is it optimistic? What is going on? How will things proceed?

If such is true for the beginning of common stories, how much more significant is the beginning of the story of stories, and, for that matter, the beginning of all beginnings! Even though we humans were not there nor could be there when everything began, how we understand our origins has a profound influence on how we view ourselves and our relationship with our surroundings. Little wonder, then, that every culture has told some sort of story about how everything began. It allows them to understand who they are in the context of their environment.

So many of these stories tell as much about the story-tellers as it does about possible origins. Some, like the Egyptians, understand creation in terms of copulation. The Babylonian creation story, called the Enuma Elish, sees the earth and skies as created from the corpse of the defeated goddess Tiamat (Chaos), and the blood of her husband Kingu was used to create humans to work the soil and provide food-offerings and thus sustenance for the Babylonian gods.

These and many other stories see the universe in terms of different divine forces in strong competition, bickering, arguing, killing, or, for that matter, copulating or other such activities. In many of these stories the gods seem to need humans, but humans are reduced to divine servitude of the lowest order. When these are the stories that one believes explains who they are and why they are here, what will they make of their lives? How will they feel about the divine or about their fellow man?

The Bible’s story of creation stands in stark contrast to all of this. Sure, there is chaos in the beginning, but there is never an argument or a disputation about the events to follow. The story is told simply: God spoke, and it happened (cf. Genesis 1:2-2:3, Psalm 33:6). There is little sense of mythologizing in this early portrayal: God systematically creates light, the expanse we call Heaven, dry land and seas, vegetation, sun, moon, and stars, fish and birds, and then land animals and humans (Genesis 1:2-31). And then He rests, finished with His acts of creation (Genesis 2:1-3, Hebrews 4:1-11). No fighting; no contest; no copulation. A God with power speaking the world into existence!

And yet man knows where he stands: God created him in His image, and is given dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-30). God does not need him, but without God, man is nothing and has nothing. God does not want to reduce man into servile bondage; instead, He created man in order to share in relationship with Him as He shares in relational unity within Himself (Genesis 1:26-27, Acts 17:26-28, John 17:20-23). Since God is love, His act of creation is an act of love (1 John 4:8); He does not force people into relationship with Him, following after His will, but provides every opportunity and invitation for them to do so.

Many have tried to show all of the commonalities of many of the stories of creation, but in many ways the differences could not be greater. The different stories provide completely different views of the nature of divinity, the purpose of mankind, and the relationship between the divine, mankind, and the creation. The Bible’s story tells of a God who has all power and has no need for a power trip; He creates in an orderly fashion with complete sovereignty and always acts in love. As humans we are created in love for love as expressed in relationship, both with God and with one another; we are not caught up in a divine power trip or serve as divine minions to keep the gods fed so they can devote their time to leisure.

The Bible’s story of the beginning emphasizes God’s power and the dignity and integrity inherent within mankind as created in the image of God for relationship with God and one another. Let us be thankful for such a beginning, and let us devote ourselves freely to the God who created us, loved us, and worked diligently to redeem us!

Ethan R. Longhenry

It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not? (Hebrews 12:7).

Discipline; chastisement: we do not like the sound of these words. They may bring back unpleasant memories from childhood. Even the Bible makes it clear that no one really enjoys discipline when it happens (cf. Hebrews 12:11). How many times have we schemed in life in attempts to avoid discipline and/or chastisement? And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we understand the need for and value of discipline.

The word translated as chastening (or, in other versions, discipline) is the Greek paideia, which can refer to the whole training and education of children, and for adults, that which leads to correcting errors, limiting the exercise of passions, and actual chastisement for bad behavior. In 2 Timothy 3:15, Paul describes Scripture as providing “instruction” (paideia) in righteousness; in Ephesians 6:4, he encourages parents to raise their children in the “nurture” (or “discipline”; paideia) and admonition of the Lord.

We do well to keep the breadth of meaning of paideia in mind when we consider discipline, since it is very easy for us to focus on the negative. “Discipline” or “chastisement” tends to be associated only with some kind of penalty or punishment for misbehavior; that automatic association is unfortunate and a distortion. Just providing (or suffering) a penalty or punishment is not discipline: punitive acts alone do not change or alter behaviors. Instead, the aim of any kind of discipline ought to be corrective; any punishment or penalty should be designed with correction of improper behavior in mind.

We normally associate discipline and chastisement, as seen above, with raising children. This remains a most critical aspect to discipline, for children will grow up and have to learn about the boundaries of proper behavior somehow or another. The only question involves the quality of that instruction and from whom it is received: will instruction and discipline be based in the message of the Lord Jesus or not? Will the child ever learn truly proper behavior, or will they just learn to go along with the boundaries society or the law imposes upon them? How much will they be taught by their parents, and how many lessons will they have to learn through their own mistakes?

It is easy to imagine discipline only in terms of growing up from childhood into adulthood, but discipline does not end because we have left home and are now “grown up.” We must maintain discipline within our own lives, whether through learned behavior or by external restraints. We have to live within our means; we have to conduct ourselves within the boundary of certain standards. We will be punished in various ways by not abiding within these boundaries.

If we believe in God, trust in Him, and seek to do His will, we will receive discipline and chastisement from His hand (Hebrews 12:3-11). Such a view seems sharp and harsh; too many already have a view of God as an authoritarian disciplinarian, and passages like this do not seem to help that perspective. People want to envision that God provides all the good things in their lives, but then will blame God for abandoning them when bad things happen. But let us hear out what the Hebrew author is telling us.

The Hebrew author makes it clear that the problem is with our views and expectations, not God Himself. After all, we have all seen overly permissive parents and the royal terrors and spoiled brats coming out of that relationship. Most of us can look back in our own lives and understand the value and benefit received from proper discipline and chastisement that we received from a figure of some authority. We all need to learn boundaries and understand that there are negative consequences for transgressing boundaries; there is not one of us who can live among other people and not learn this lesson. And since, as human beings, we are all fairly hard-headed, we must pay a penalty or suffer a consequence if we will ever really learn to respect certain boundaries. We did not like discipline at the time: we did not enjoy punishments, we did not enjoy homework, we did not enjoy having to put in a lot of work in order to gain some reward or benefit, but through it all we were supposed to learn to respect boundaries, that we are not entitled to receive anything without working for it, that in order to accomplish anything of value we must devote our time and energy to them, and so on and so forth.

This is exactly what the Hebrew author is saying about discipline (Hebrews 12:3-11); he shows how the example of earthly fathers and the discipline they impose upon their children is a (albeit imperfect) type of the reality of our relationship with God. Just because we have reached the age of 18 (or 28, 38, 58, 78…) does not mean that we no longer need discipline; if anything, as we reach mature adulthood, the necessity of discipline is more evident. God provides discipline and chastisement to His children precisely because He loves them and wants them to live well! Without that discipline, God would be a permissive parent– in the words of the Hebrew author, if God did not discipline us, He would be treating us like illegitimate children! If we are illegitimate, we have no share in Him! How tragic that would be!

As in childhood, so in life: we have lessons to learn in every situation. There are wholesome lessons to be learned through hard effort and success; there are wholesome lessons to be learned when things go wrong and/or when we suffer. Sometimes we might experience pain, misery, suffering, or other such difficulties so that we might learn to stay within the proper boundaries of God’s will and to develop peace and righteousness. It is rarely enough to just intellectually grasp such things; we need to experience them if we will learn from them.

Therefore, in times of difficulty, let us not assume that God has abandoned us. We might be experiencing a moment of chastisement. Even if it is not some kind of punishment or penalty for our excess or transgression, we can still learn discipline through the experience, having our faith refined and developing the characteristics of self-control, peace, patience, and faithfulness, which seem to only develop through suffering. Even if it is unpleasant, let us be willing to endure discipline; without it, we cannot be children of God!

Ethan R. Longhenry

But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8).

To say that we live in a fast-paced world might be one of the greatest understatements of the age. Technological advances allow us to get things done more quickly and efficiently than ever; communication can happen instantaneously. We now expect things to be done already; we have very little patience to wait for anything that we feel takes too long. A package may take a week to ship; a website might require a few additional seconds to load; we chafe and chomp at the bit, wanting to have it or to see it already.

Meanwhile, Jesus died, was raised in power, and ascended on high almost two thousand years ago. For two thousand years we have been waiting for His return and for the consummation of all things (cf. Romans 8:17-24, 2 Peter 3:1-14). And to think that even within a hundred years of Jesus’ death people were scoffing, wondering when He would return (2 Peter 3:4)!

Peter wants to encourage Christians regarding this dilemma: why is God taking so long to accomplish His purposes? But before he can provide an answer, he must first establish the proper perspective on all of these matters.

Peter declares that one day is as a thousand years to God, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8). It has been tempting for people to emphasize one half of this verse over the other half, suggesting that one “Biblical day” is really a thousand year period; from the second century until today people attempt to hypothesize how much longer we will be around on the earth based on this suggestion. But Peter’s statement is not that one day is a thousand years, or, for that matter, that a thousand years is one day. Peter uses a simile: to God, a thousand years is like a day; a day is like a thousand years.

Such a statement, on its surface, seems ridiculous. It is ridiculous only when one seeks to literalize the statements or try to use the statements to make some declaration about the nature of time in the Bible. Peter is not providing a cipher with which one can unlock the numerological mysteries of the Bible; instead, he uses a simile to communicate how God transcends time. A day, a thousand years; it does not matter with God. God is above time, eternal in nature, from everlasting to everlasting (Romans 16:26, Psalm 41:13).

Therefore, even though we are bound by the constraints of time, spending our few decades up to perhaps a century on the earth, we should not impose such constraints upon God. Sure, to humans, two thousand years seems like a long time; yet, on the divine scale, one could compare it to two days. Then again, humans believe that two days is a short period of time; yet, on the divine scale, one can compare it to two thousand years! God cannot be so easily compressed and fit into the boxes that dictate our existence!

Peter says this in order for us to take comfort and be encouraged. The fact that two thousand years have transpired between the momentous events of the first century and the present day does not mean that God has neglected or abandoned us. It does not mean that God is slow as humans would consider slowness. Time is meaningless to Him; He has His purposes, He is carrying them out, and when His purpose has been fully accomplished to His satisfaction, the end will come and we will understand better.

God promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan; 500 or so years later, they obtained it (Genesis 17:1-14, Joshua). God promised Israel through Moses that He would raise up a prophet like Moses for the people; 1,450 years later, Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the promise (Deuteronomy 18:15-19). When God cursed mankind, He provided the promise of the One who would bruise the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15); it took no less than 4,500 years before Jesus’ death and resurrection allowed anyone to be freed from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-4). God will do what God does according to His purposes, and He is not limited to our time-frame or our scale of time. Let us therefore be patient and maintain our trust in God and His purposes for us in Jesus Christ!

Ethan R. Longhenry

“And it shall come to pass, when ye are come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, ‘What mean ye by this service?’ that ye shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.’”
And the people bowed the head and worshipped (Exodus 12:25-27).

After so many years, things were proceeding very quickly.

God had been terrifying the Egyptians with plague after plague. The final plague was about to come upon them; Israel would soon be released. Moses is preparing the people for their imminent departure.

One would think, in such circumstances, that there was enough to deal with for the present. Mobilizing a large group of people for a treacherous journey is a daunting proposition. And yet we see Moses providing legislation regarding the Passover and its expected future observance in the land of Canaan! What is going on?

Moses understands the immense significance and meaning involved in what God is doing for Israel. Yes, God is delivering this specific generation of Israelites out of the land of Egypt, out of bondage, and toward deliverance and the land of promise. But this is the story of God and Israel and the basis of everything that will come later. God is the God of Israel because of His promises to their fathers and because He delivered them from the land of Egypt. God loves Israel, and that love was declared powerfully in that deliverance. God is worthy of all honor, praise, glory, and obedience, because He is the Creator and acted powerfully against the Egyptians in ways no other god ever even claimed to act.

Therefore, the Passover was not merely for this generation of Israelites. The Passover was for every generation of Israelites as a way of continuing the story of Israel and its God. Each successive generation, in turn, would come to an understanding of the God of Israel and the acts of deliverance He wrought for their ancestors. For those Israelites enjoying the blessings of the land of Israel, it was a moment to give thanks and to appreciate what was done to allow them to enjoy the life they lived. For those who found themselves cast out from the land of Israel, the remembrance fostered the cherished hope that God would again act powerfully in their generation for their deliverance as He had so long ago.

The observance is very intentional, designed to be full of meaning. It is the perfect means of communicating a message across the generations: children will participate and will want to know what is going on. God has provided Israel with the most important teachable moment for successive generations: if the children do not understand why they should honor the God of Israel as their God, the time will come when they will have no reason not to turn their backs on Him and to follow after other gods. If they do not understand what makes the God of Israel distinctive and special, worthy of all honor and glory, they will not honor or glorify Him.

That generation of Israelites did not prove to be as far-sighted in their understanding; they would end up dying in the wilderness. The next generation would enter the land of Israel; but of the generation afterward it could be said that they did not know the LORD or the work He had done for Israel (Judges 2:10). Little wonder, then, that we read of all the sinfulness, rebelliousness, and idolatry of that and successive generations in the days of the Judges. Far later, in the times of the later kings of Judah, we are told that they observed the Passover in ways not seen since the days of old (cf. 2 Chronicles 30:1-27, 35:1-19). If the Passover is not being observed, then Israel is not remembering the act of deliverance which God wrought for them. If the Passover is not being observed, then the next generation has no opportunity to ask for understanding as to what it means. If the next generation never has that opportunity, they never learn about who God is and what He has done for Israel. All of a sudden, Israel’s idolatrous and rebellious history makes more sense.

Religious experience in activities that are laden with spiritual meaning are extremely important. They remind us of God’s saving acts of deliverance, His goodness, His power, His love. They are designed to help us to keep a proper perspective, always thankful for what God has done, remembering why we honor God as the Lord of our lives and how all things are to flow from that submission before Him. Yet, just as importantly, such experiences give children the opportunity to learn about God and what is really important. God has provided such teachable moments for us so that we may have opportunity to impart such understanding to our children as we have received from those who have gone on before us. This is not a task to be off-loaded upon someone else; we are given the opportunity to explain to our own children the reason why we believe God is Lord and how He has powerfully acted in order to provide deliverance and salvation for all mankind.

But that conversation can only happen if we are participating in God’s work and participate in those actions invested with spiritual significance. That conversation can only happen when we really believe that God is Lord of our lives and that all things should flow from our submission to Him. Our children can only see the power of God’s saving activity when they see it not just explained but lived as well. If we merely pay lip service to God while serving idols, our children will see it. If we live as if we do not know God and what He has wrought for mankind, then our children will more likely than not continue in that same path. But if we honor God as Lord, our children will likely do the same.

Children’s questions are extremely important; that is how they learn about life and what is really important. Let us take the opportunities we are given not only to explain to the next generation what God has said and done, but why we should even follow God in the first place, recounting His glorious saving acts for mankind!

Ethan R. Longhenry

And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch (Genesis 4:16-17).

There are certain things that are almost universally accepted as good, right, beneficial, and the way things “should” be, and few such things have such power over us as the idea of civilization. Ever since the Greeks looked upon themselves as “civilized” and everyone else as “barbaric,” our history and our language assumes the overwhelming benefit of civilization over any substitute. We are all expected to conduct ourselves as if we had been civilized; barbaric behavior is frowned upon. Our history books tell a story of the development of civilization out of– and often in the face of as well– the forces of chaos, primitivism, and barbarism. Since civilization seems to be so wonderful, we might think, the Bible would commend such a message. Surprisingly, the Scriptures are a bit more ambivalent about civilization than we might imagine.

Civilization means cities: centralized locations wherein different people maintain different tasks to the benefit of all. The Scriptures do not reveal that Adam, Noah, or Abraham build cities. Instead, the first person to build a city is none other than the brother-murderer Cain!

The story is told in Genesis 4:1-17: Cain is Adam and Eve’s first child. He grows up to be a farmer; his brother Abel becomes a shepherd. They each bring the produce of their work as sacrifices before God, but God only accepts Abel’s sacrifice. Cain, angered and jealous, kills Abel. As a consequence for this crime, God condemns him to be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth which will not produce its fruit as a response to his toil. Cain expects that his fellow man will kill him if they find him; to this end, God provides some type of mark upon him so that this would not happen. Cain therefore departs from God’s presence, heads east of Eden to the land of Nod, marries, has a child Enoch, and builds a city named Enoch in honor of his son.

So many questions about this story center on what the Genesis author has not told us: who are all of these other people? Where did Cain’s wife come from? What was the mark placed upon him? While we understand that Adam and Eve had other children (Genesis 5:4), and Cain’s wife and these other people likely came from that union, most of these questions remain unanswered. We should not miss the story that the Genesis author is trying to tell us while wondering regarding all the matters he has left unrevealed.

In his punishment, Cain was separated from the presence of God, went east of Eden, and built a city. To build a city is to reject wandering as a fugitive on the earth; to build one while separated from God, separated from the Garden in which God placed man and from which man was expelled, is quite telling.

The Genesis author consistently demonstrates a level of ambivalence with cities and civilization. The next city of note mentioned features the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9): Babel, or Babylon, will develop into a civilization and empire that will become paradigmatic for the godless oppressive power against God and against God’s people. The next cities of note are Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 14, 18, and 19, which also become paradigmatic for sinfulness. Later, when Jacob buys some land and settles down a bit near Shechem, his daughter is there defiled, and his sons take vengeance upon the whole city (Genesis 33:18-34:31). Meanwhile, God calls Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to live in tents, maintaining a far more “primitive” lifestyle than provided by the big city. Abraham, after all, was called out of the big city of the day– Ur of the Chaldeans– to go to Canaan (Genesis 11:27-12:1).

It would be tempting to roundly condemn civilization on the basis of these and other texts, but such would be going too far. Egypt, its cities, and its civilization provide refuge from famine in Canaan. The Israelites will eventually live in a settled, civilized existence in the land which God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The city of Jerusalem will become paradigmatic for the location of God’s presence among God’s people, ultimately becoming the image of the glorified church at the end of Revelation. Even though the Roman Empire would be chastised for its opposition to the Kingdom of God, such chastisement never extended to many of the benefits of civilization provided by the Romans.

One can serve God in the city; one can serve God in the fields. One can be “civilized” and serve God; one can be “primitive” and a “barbarian” and serve God as well. The Bible’s critique of civilization, however, remains a good reminder for all of us that whereas we might think of civilization in purely glowing and rosy terms, there are hazards involved as well. “Culture” in cities tends to magnify man over God; certain sins are easily found within cities. Cities and civilization may bring some people together but all too often pulls people apart, both from each other as well as from the earth that sustains them. God has often worked among the shepherds, summoning Abraham from the city to the hinterlands; God Himself became flesh and dwelt among us, growing up far from the big city in the rural hinterland of Israel.

Civilization has provided us with innumerable benefits; our current population and way of life is entirely impossible without it. But let us not be fooled into thinking that civilization is the be all and end all of everything; it comes with a price. Let us continue to live in our civilization, keeping its challenges in mind, and praise and honor God!

Ethan R. Longhenry

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

The poor; the mourning; the meek; those hungering and thirsting for righteousness: so far, Jesus has been speaking about many of the downtrodden in society, forcing people to consider the silver lining in some of life’s most difficult circumstances. And now He addresses some of the people who make life livable: those who are merciful, showing compassion to others.

Mercy, properly understood, is not giving what is deserved. Compassion literally involves “suffering with”: one can identify with the difficulties of another, and seeks their benefit.

Both of these concepts underlie the conduct of “the merciful” in Matthew 5:7. Showing mercy is a choice; as human beings, to some extent or another, we can identify with the conditions of our fellow man. When people say bad things about us or do bad things to us we can choose to forgive them and not take it to heart, or we can choose to hold it against them and/or seek revenge. It is not “above anyone” or “beneath anyone,” therefore, to show mercy.

What Jesus is saying can be understood in both physical and spiritual terms. In spiritual terms, since all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (cf. Romans 3:23), all are equally worthy of condemnation (Romans 6:23). God has displayed mercy by allowing the possibility of reconciliation with Him through the death of Jesus (Romans 5:6-11): through Jesus we do not obtain what we truly deserve. God has been most merciful toward us; therefore, we are to be merciful (Luke 6:35-36). As Jesus illustrates in Matthew 18:21-35, those who do not show mercy in forgiving others of their transgressions will not be shown mercy when it comes to their transgressions. The opposite also holds true (Matthew 6:14-15): if we show mercy to others, God will show mercy to us. Thus it is that those who are merciful shall receive mercy.

Yet Jesus’ principle here remains true even in the physical realm. Most people understand that since they are not perfect, no one else is perfect either. Our responses to other people, however, are often conditioned on their general behavior toward others. When people who are known for showing mercy and compassion fall on hard times, finding themselves in need of assistance or forgiveness, others often prove willing to help them or forgive them. But what happens when people who are known to be rather selfish, demanding, and unforgiving find themselves in need of assistance or forgiveness? Sure, the truly merciful may help them, but will such ones find mercy at the hands of most? Hardly!

Since people appreciate the merciful, why is showing mercy such a difficult practice to develop and maintain? Showing mercy is often counter-intuitive. When we feel attacked, our natural response is to attack in return. If we see others in need, and to help them would diminish what we have, it is often hard to let go and to help. This is why those in the world, while appreciating the benefits of mercy shown to them, find it hard to show mercy in return. Showing mercy requires sacrifice: absorbing the pain or freely giving of what one has for the benefit of others.

Yet indeed the merciful are fortunate and happy; they will receive mercy from God and often from others as well, although there will be some who will take advantage and still do evil (cf. 1 Peter 2:18-25). Showing mercy is a challenging habit to develop and maintain, but it is impossible to demonstrate true love toward others without it. We must prove willing to absorb pain and forgive; we must prove willing to help even if we are reviled in return, for so God proved willing to absorb the pain of suffering for us through Jesus on the cross, and God has provided us with every good thing physically and spiritually without repayment or reward. Let us be merciful so that we may obtain mercy!

Ethan R. Longhenry

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made (John 1:1-3).

In the beginning…

Even to this day, thousands of years after it was written, most people know the line: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). It is the foundation of all that will follow in Scripture: God is the Creator of the universe and of mankind, and that is why everyone should heed Him and what He says.

In the first century, this text was well-known to all of the Israelites. They would tell you how, “in the beginning,” YHWH created all things. No great cosmic upheavals and battles among gods; the creation was a very powerful but orderly affair. YHWH spoke, and it was so (cf. Psalm 33:6).

As John begins his Gospel, he evokes the same language: “in the beginning…”. The mind is immediately transported back to Genesis 1:1.

Yet here, “in the beginning” was the Word. The Word was with God, yet the Word is also God (John 1:1). The Word existed before the creation did, for He was in the beginning with God (John 1:2). Furthermore, all things were made through Him– thus, nothing that exists was created apart from Him (John 1:3).

This passage is as controversial as it is powerful. Many want to make much of the use of the “Word,” in Greek, Logos, and the many different possible meanings for Logos: speech, reason, account, and so on and so forth. Others are as offended as many Jews were at the suggestion that the Word was with God and yet was God (cf. John 8:58-59); they thus want to minimize the idea that the Word was God.

Yet there is an elegant simplicity to what John has presented, just as there is elegant simplicity in the creation account in Genesis 1:1-2:3. We should not allow the controversies and the argumentation to lead us to miss the force and impact of what John is trying to say here. He intends for us to never understand the creation account in Genesis– the beginning story of mankind– in the same way ever again.

God creates by speaking, and it happens– “Let there be light,” and there was light (cf. Genesis 1:3). We are to now understand that when God “speaks,” that which God speaks is the Word, and the Word effects what God has intended. How this process works is not described and is most probably beyond our understanding; it is very challenging for humans to comprehend how that which God speaks has life and personality in and of itself, and is to be reckoned as God along with God. And yet this is how the Word is active in the creation of all things (John 1:3).

This understanding helps to melt away a lot of the controversy. Yes, there may be different meanings of the word Logos, but we can understand what John means because of the referent in the Genesis story: that which God has “said,” or communicated, is done by means of the Word. There is no justification for turning “the Word was God” into “the Word was a god”; the constitution of the Greek text simply does not allow it, and the testimony regarding the full divinity of Jesus can also be found in Colossians 1:15-17, 2:9, and in other places. That which God “spoke” was as much God as the One “speaking” it, and this understanding is designed to transform how we view not just the account of Creation but also every other time in Scripture when God “speaks.” Little wonder, then, how early Christians connected all of God’s communication with mankind to the Word, the Son of God (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:1-12, Jude 1:5)!

Ultimately, however, John is setting the tone for the rest of his Gospel. The Word will be speaking to mankind again in the first century as had happened in the past; this time the Word has become flesh and speaks as Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:14). That which Jesus says about Himself throughout the Gospel of John is to be understood in terms of the Word through whom God created all things and has communicated His message.

John is making it clear that the message of the Gospel and the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth are not some mere appendage, “update,” or “fix” to the story that had already been presented; it is the fulfillment of that story, the unveiled revelation, making sense of all that came before and demonstrating that the whole story of creation points to the creative act that took place through the Word and how the Word would redeem that which was created. God sending His Son was not an aberration in the plan; it was the plan (cf. Ephesians 3:10-11). Despite all the sin and evil in the world, God is still in control.

In the beginning, God spoke, and the Word which He spoke effected the creation. In the first century, God “spoke,” and the Word which He “spoke” effected redemption for mankind and communicated the very nature of God to mankind in bodily form (John 1:18, 23). As the Word brought forth life, so now we can only find that which is truly life by trusting in that Word. Let us follow after God our Creator and be saved!

Ethan R. Longhenry

And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant (2 Corinthians 3:4-6a).

Few things are as dangerous as when the instrument begins to vaunt itself over its designer and operator.

We see this happen sometimes in the movies. The Terminator series and the Matrix series all presuppose such a situation: humans make computers/robots, computers/robots get too smart, computers/robots try to take over. We have this feeling, deep down, that if our creation to take us over, it would be a very bad thing. We perceive that something is out of place in that condition.

The Apostle Paul understood this danger in his own life as it related to God his Creator and Christ his Savior, and it was a good thing. His ministry featured signs and wonders; many converted to the Lord on at least two continents based on his preaching and teaching. As he writes for at least the second time to the Corinthians, he has spoken of them as a living “letter of Christ,” through Paul’s ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:1-3). In that sense, the Corinthians themselves are commendation for Paul, and in that work he has great confidence (2 Corinthians 4:4).

What would happen if Paul rooted this confidence in what he could perceive in the physical realm? What if Paul thought that it was by his own strength, cunning, and persuasive ability that the Corinthians were converted to Jesus? It would be very tempting; it would satisfy the natural conceit that dwells within us all. He could feel quite important, vaunting in his position. In short, his pride could quickly undo all the work that had been done!

And that is why Paul hastens to declare that whereas the conversion of the Corinthians is his confidence in Christ toward God, it was not from his own strength or power; indeed, he declares that he has no sufficiency in himself (2 Corinthians 3:4-5). His sufficiency is from God; God is the one who made him sufficient to minister in this new covenant through Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). Paul recognizes that he is the instrument; God is the power and provides what is sufficient to accomplish His purpose (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:7).

Paul’s declarations have become controversial since he established them. Some have taken his words to mean that the believer is able to do nothing at all, becoming entirely passive agents of God. Others, in seeking to avoid this extreme, go the other way, and over-emphasize the free will of mankind and come dangerously close to declaring their own sufficiency, albeit in a limited frame. What, then, are we to understand from what Paul has declared here?

We can all confess as true that everything we have and are come from God; we did not create the universe, we did not give ourselves life, and we did not make this creation for our use (cf. Genesis 1:1-2:3, Acts 17:24-29). Beyond that, since we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, there was nothing we could do in order to save ourselves; God did what we could not do in reconciling us back to Him through Jesus His Son (Romans 3:20-23, 5:6-11, 8:1-3). Therefore, every spiritual blessing comes from God through Christ, and we do not deserve them (Ephesians 1:3).

And yet God expects people to serve Him in Christ, to seek after His will (Romans 6:16-23, Philippians 2:12, 2 Peter 1:3-11). This cannot be forced, for that is not the way of love (John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 1 John 4:8). People must turn from sin and submit themselves to God, seeking His paths, walking as Jesus walked (Galatians 2:20, James 4:7, 1 John 2:6).

But is there any sufficiency in us to accomplish this through our own strength? We still fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23); we still are beset by sin (Hebrews 12:1-2, 1 John 1:8); left to our own devices, we still wander off onto the wrong path (Jeremiah 10:23). Therefore, it is good to agree with Paul: as he understood that he did not have any sufficiency in himself, but only received sufficiency through Christ, we are not sufficient in and of ourselves for anything, but must find our sufficiency through Christ.

That is why the concept of the believer as servant is so consistently maintained throughout Scripture (Luke 17:7-10, Romans 6:16-23, etc.). The slave does all things at the behest of his Master. Another image that indicates as much is that of the instrument (Acts 9:15, Romans 6:13): the tool may accomplish a given work, but only because it has been directed by the One wielding the tool.

So we ought to understand ourselves. Do we work and labor for the Lord? Absolutely. But do we labor by our own sufficiency? Our “sufficiency” always proves insufficient in every respect. Instead, Christ must be our sufficiency. We must do all things according to His direction (Colossians 3:17); we must be strengthened with the strength that comes through Him (Ephesians 3:16-17, Philippians 4:13). Our thoughts, feelings, and actions– our entire being– must be laid at His feet for use to advance His purposes (Galatians 2:20, 2 Corinthians 4:7, 10:5, Philippians 4:8). We may have confidence in Christ toward God for what is accomplished for His purposes through us, but it is no reason for us to glory in ourselves– all praise, honor, and glory are to go to God in Christ, because He is our sufficiency! Let us serve the Lord and use our energies toward His purposes; let us be His instruments to be directed according to His good purpose!

Ethan R. Longhenry