Listening to understand is a discard from a nobler time. Imagine a whole movement based on setting the date of Yeshua’s return. Imagine libraries full of books of exegetical notes and the creeds of most groups adrift from the things one needs to get saved and live with confidence.

We have to stop pretending that we understand, especially when we have neither heard the matter nor have the ability to work with the texts nor the aptitude to interpret them.

Words to use with care

There are words that we abuse regularly to our detriment: totally, always, never, and true.

Isaiah 29:11-12 lights up this problem.

And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

Church leaders need to acquire the tools of make understanding happen and those tools are not materials that say the things we want to hear.

Practice: ancient and modern

Nehemiah 8:8 records that the priests and Levites read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Luke tells us that conflict and blindness attended the preaching of the gospel.

For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them [the Scriptures] by condemning him. Acts 13:27

What Scriptures might we be fulfilling by putting Christ in second or third place?

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. Galatians 6:7

In all our seeking of God’s will we are often eager to jump into the narratives, usually on the side of or into the person of the victors. This brings the seeker to the drama and hopefully to the pixels of a high definition embedded Christ.

It is normal for readers to see themselves in the stories they read, and the more they think about the daily lives of people in Bible times as primitive and unsophisticated the less likely they are to be realistically benefited with a “takeaway”.

Avoiding and dodging

1. When the evangelist tells us that Yeshua is the good shepherd he is stating a fact that does not change.
2. When the evangelist tells us that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep he is telling a story that is not recurring and that too does not change.
3. When the evangelist tells us that the good shepherd describes all who preceded him he is giving us a condition that does not change.

• Sheep is us, never God
• Good shepherd is never human.

The new Testament material outside the Gospels and Acts is replete with real actors that we are slow or loath to embrace.

Empty places at the table

Who am I in that Romans 7 picture?

Who is it that, after dying to law and sin, commits him/herself to adultery with the law?

Who am I in the 1 Timothy 4 last day unbelief picture?

Have you seen any set of believers who are stepping up to to be identified as the departed and doctrinally demonized in 1 Timothy 4:1ff

The reason most Christians grow so little is that we keep committing to the same thing that started our journey, and we avoid the confessions that authorize God to change us.

Why does God say things about Israel and Judah that make us shudder? For one, they are true. Secondly, if they were not said all we’d have is the word of dead prophets. When God says you are shallow and incorrigible then offers you a 490 year grace period you know you are in quicksand most terrifying.

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Hosea 6:4

I made them cling to me

The intimacy of the relationship ebbs and flows. Watch what Jeremiah was observing.

For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.

Jeremiah 13:11

How far, how near!

As close as underwear, but alas, Ephraim and Judah have no intention of going Yahweh’s way. The promises of restoration are waterless clouds. With evidence like the exposure of the temple trade and the ignorance about God’s lifegiving power on the part of the leaders in New Testament times we have little reason to hope.

We should be aware that there are promises which will not see the light of day without the relevant compliance and there is nothing left after the land becomes home.

We did not need lessons from our parents on how to pray. We begin life with a cry. While the many observers of human births may not see the expansion of our lungs and chest all who could hear heard the sound of our voice. Like the baby’s newborn cry, the cry of the newborn-from-above is Spirit-borne. When we pray we are also engaged something God initiates and supervises.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! Galatians 4:6

It is the Spirit who cries, uttring the first exciting words of the newborn-from-above. It is neccessary that the cry of the adopted child be uttered by God, the parent. A human baby utters its first cry as a plea for comfort.

Imagine our prayer life having the same heavenly arrangement

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26

We do not know what to say when we pray that the believer’s mind must get its cues directly from the Holy Spirit even when the human mind is unfruitful (not producing). See 1 Corinthians 14

For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 14:2

It is not only into narratives that we inject ourselves, taking on starring roles, duties as extras, we are also featured in those sayings that have no drama.

No drama

John 12:25 tells us about loss of life to those who love their lives, and it may seem simple and straightforward to keep eternal life without hating the present situation.

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Whose team do we join when the crowd is saying “Crucify him”? When the choice is to flee to safety or stay and endure persecution which path do we elevate as righteous? If we are not in touch with God on a one-to-one basis all the lists about how to live successfully are useless. We can keep pinning our hopes on compliance with hundreds of regulations or we can throw ourselves into the stream of Holy Spirit praying for us.

The Mystery of God’s Plugged Ear

Isaiah 59:2