Catching Fog

It can be disturbing for people to discover that the Bible, though the Word of God, is also a human document, written by human beings and subject to all the issues that afflict any human created material. Over the years, the text has been copied and recopied and it has suffered the normal sorts of issues that any multiply copied text experiences. This does not negate its value or contradict that it is authoritative for faith and practice. But the reality of the nature and quality of the text of scripture must be accepted. Ignoring reality is never a good idea.

Consider one small section of the Bible in the book of Exodus, a section that many might skip over simply because it is, to be honest, rather boring:

 These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.
The sons of Gershon, by clans, were Libni and Shimei.
The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years.
The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi.
These were the clans of Levi according to their records.
Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.
The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg and Zikri.
The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.
Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These were the Korahite clans.
Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas.

These were the heads of the Levite families, clan by clan.

It was this Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, “Bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.” They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt—this same Moses and Aaron.

The genealogy takes this basic form from Levi through Moses:

Levi
Kohath
Amran
Moses

The number of years from Levi to Moses, assuming the genealogy is complete, was not that many. It is, in fact, the distance from my great grandfather to me. Perhaps a hundred years stand between the birth of Levi and Moses, if that. So perhaps by the time Moses brought Israel from Egypt, 150 years had passed. If the genealogy is complete.

But the genealogy is certainly not complete. Why? Because the text says in Exodus 12: 40 that the Israelites had spent 430 years in Egypt (cf. Gen 15:13, Acts 7:6, and Galatians 3:17) Some might suggest that, if one adds up the lifespans of the people mentioned in Exodus 6:16-27 one gets a figure of 407 years (137 + 133+131 = 407). However, it is clear that they did not each have a child their last year of life; there would be considerable overlap in those years, especially given that most children are born when people are in their 20s and 30s. It is better to assume either that the genealogies are selective or that the numbers are off—or perhaps both, since that isn’t mutually exclusive. And that there are problems with the numbers throughout the Old Tesatament is demonstrable. Compare the numbers between the following:

2 Kings 24:8 with 2 Chronicles 36:9
Ezra 2:5 with Nehemiah 7:10
Ezra 2:69 with Nehemiah 7:70-72
1 Kings 7:16 with 2 Kings 25:17
2 Samuel 8:13 with 1 Chronicles 18:12
1 Samuel 18:25, 27 with 2 Samuel 3:14
2 Samuel 8:4 with 1 Chronicles 18:41
Kings 6:2 with 2 Chronicles 3:4
1 Kings 9:23 with 2 Chronicles 8:10
2 Samuel 23:8 with 1 Chronicles 11:11
1 Kings 4:26 with 2 Chronicles 9:25

This is a common textual issue that afflicts all sorts of manuscripts, not just the biblical texts. The problems are not as commmon since about the middle of the 900s AD or so, when–at least for the Old Testament–the Hebrew copiests developed a system to check their copying: they counted the letters and the words of each OT book, as well as other parts of each text. The copying issues also have decreased even more since the advent of the printing press. However, there have been some notorious errors over the year, even in printed texts of the Bible. For instance, an edition was produced that instead of saying “thou shalt not commit adultery said “thou shalt commit adultery.” And even with computers, my high-end Bible program by Logos (an excellent program, incidentally; highly recommended) periodically issues updates to the various texts to make occasional corrections. Such errors are of little consequence and we can even laugh about them since sometimes–as in the adultery Bible–they are amusing. Such typos are to be expected in a document that people have been involved with. Remember, the Bible is both divine and human.

Regarding the passage in Exodus: the primary point to notice is that the purpose of such genealogies is not to give us a chronology. Rather, they are there to show the connections between people in the Bible. They are selective, just as when Jesus is referred to as “the Son of David.” That leaves out a lot of other names, obviously.

It is important, in reading the Bible, to pay attention to the point that the text is attempting to make; it is not designed to be read by lawyers as if it were a legal deposition.

Paul wrote:

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12).

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Thankfully life has a certain amount of inertia. That is, sometimes you wonder how you keep going, and the answer is that it would be considerably more difficult to stop. In general, what real choice do we have?

You live in a certain place, you have a certain family, there are certain people in your life, and you have certain responsibilities. Although one might fantasize about just walking away from it all, where, exactly, would you actually go? How would you pay for it? What would you do there? And in the end, wouldn’t you simply wind up with only slightly different scenery?

The reality of life is that what you are doing, who you are doing it with, and how you are living is a consequence of who you are. “Walking away from it all” would still involve taking you with you—and so nothing would actually change.

Changing one’s life is not simply a matter of dropping everything and running away. Children will say they are going to run away from home. They might make it all the way to the end of the block, but then they go back once it starts getting dark or they get a little hungry.

Most people in the the time of Jesus time were looking forward to the Messiah bringing them the Kingdom of God. They conceived of that very concretely: when they Messiah arrived, he’d kick the Romans out of Israel and restore the Davidic kingdom. But that’s now how it was actually going to be. “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is within you.'” (Luke 17:20-21)

Doubtless several people who heard that were disappointed. But what Jesus revealed about the nature of the Kingdom is the good news. As bad as everything might seem at the moment for you, the Kingdom of God truly is inside of you, whether you feel it or not, and no matter how bad things are just now. How you feel does not alter fundamental reality.

In Romans 12:2 Paul wrote about “renewing your mind.” And, as much as we might want to be able to run away, as much as we wish there were an “Easy Button” to press, or that we could twitch our nose and change the world around us, in fact, the way we change our lives is by changing ourselves—by being willing to make different choices today and to think differently about what we’re experiencing.

There are no easy answers. And life is often a struggle. It may sound like a cliché, but you just have to keep on struggling. And remember, as a Christian, you’re not alone. God is with you no matter where you go, no matter what you face. Don’t expect him to take you out of your circumstances; instead, expect him to walk with you through them, to give you the strength to endure.

There is a reason that the Bible speaks about the importance of encouraging one another. That’s because life is not encouraging in and of itself very often. And because we are human, it is easier to see the problems than it is to see the hope. It is easier to get down than it is to get up. It is easier to forget than it is to remember

Consider the following passages as you struggle through today; reading them regularly can help you keep things in perspective:

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34)

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:18-39)

Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
(Isaiah 40:27-31)

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Some people say, and some people think, “It’s hard to be a Christian.”

But I don’t think they are corrrect.

Instead, I think the Christian life is not hard at all; it is remarkably easy. Unless we decide to make it hard. Which a lot of people do.

Jesus said, “my yoke is easy, my burden is light.” The gospel is “good news.” Jesus talks about loving God and loving people. And so it all comes down to that, and really, that is not complicated, it is not hard to figure out. It is simplicity itself: and it doesn’t mean warm fuzzies. “Love your neighbor as yourself” How? “if your enemy’s animal has fallen into a pit, help him get it out.” And “If you are compelled to go a mile, go two.” And “Turn the other cheek.” Love is not a warm fuzzy; it is sometimes, perhaps mostly, a cold choice: you want what is best for the other. You do to others as you’d have them do to you.

The Christian life has been described as difficult. Repeatedly from pulpits around the world, Christians are told, “It’s tough to be a Christian.” They are endlessly taught that there is a cross to bear, that discipleship is costly, that lives must be given up for the sake of the gospel.

But such an attitude creates an odd paradox with Jesus’ words that his yoke is easy and his burden is light (see Matthew 11:28-30). Yet elsewhere (Matthew 16:24-25) his words tell us that we must take up our cross and follow him. But then, although we are told that we must give up our lives, we’re also told that whoever loses his life will find it. And finally, the Greek word that gets translated into English with the word “Gospel” means simply, “good news.” How can becoming a Christian be considered good news if it means a life of burdensome discomfort?

Religion lives and breathes asceticism; that is, there is within the religious, the thought that in order to become closest to God, pleasure must be sloughed off. Christians give up chocolate for Lent, though some joke about giving up liver. Monks and nuns, the priests of Catholicism and the Bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy give up marriage—and thus sex—and are counted especially holy. Those who arise early, who spend hours in prayer, who take vows of poverty, who wear sackcloth, who sleep little and work much, are considered the most righteous of all. The more they chose to suffer, to go without, to experience deprivation, the more closely they are believed—and believe themselves—to be closer to God.

And yet, Jesus said his burden is light, his yoke is easy.

Like the old saying from the old story, “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”

Did Jesus redefine easy and light to mean miserable and hard? I don’t think so. But perhaps love really is difficult for some folks. Maybe they really do find their brother a bothersome load.

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If communication is going to work, the one speaking, and the listener must have something in common. That is, if I talk to you, it helps if we both communicate with the same language. That is a start, but not all that is involved, unless by language, we give a definition more specific than normally understood. That is, beyond having English in common, for instance, it helps if we both are from the same general local (say Southern California), are about the same age, and have the same basic interests and experiences. Then, we can be pretty certain that communication will occure with a minimum of misunderstanding. The less that these items exist between the two of us, the less likely unconfused communication will occur.

Octagonal red signs at the corners of streets with white lettering or an outline of a hand are meaningful to the denizens who are of age and drive cars here at the beginning of the twenty-first century. To those of another era, they would be meaningless puzzles. All communication involves such symbols, of one sort or another. When I say the word “water”, or write it on a piece of paper, that verbalization or those black marks on the white paper will not quench your thirst or clean your hands. The word, whether spoken or written, is a symbol for the object. The connection between the object and the symbol is pretty direct and easy in the case of something concrete like a noun; but the connection becomes more tenuous and hard to pin down when we start talking about “grace” or “liberty”. And then what are we to do with idioms, like “it’s raining cats and dogs” or metaphors like “his tongue was sharp as a sword”; even more difficult becomes parables, fables, or allegories (like Pilgrim’s Progress).

When one considers that the Bible is written in three different languages, over a period of about a thousand years, by perhaps upwards of sixty different people, in a pre-industrialized, non-Western, Semitic culture, and that the biblical materials encompass a wide range of literary styles and genres (ranging from prose to poetry, parable, allegory, proverb, wisdom literature and historical narrative), the difficulty in getting good communication, and the potential for great misunderstanding, becomes obvious. It would be helpful if more readers of the Bible understood this. It might reduce the prevalence of idiotic conclusions and bogus interpretations by those who don’t know what they’re talking about.

Given how easily we misunderstand people who live in the same world and culture as us, you’d think there’d be more recognition of how careful we must be when handling two thousand (or more) year old texts–and an acknowledgement of how frequently we probably misunderstand it.

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Critics of the Bible are odd in their treatment of it, doing things with the text that they would not likely do with other works of literature. Moreover, they tend to read the Bible very naively, accepting the approach used by the most naïve and hateful of fundamentalists. I wonder why they expect the extremists of Christianity to offer them a reasonable look at scripture. Who’s more likely to give an accurate portrayal of Hinduism: Mahatma Gandhi or Hindu nationalists who blow of mosques and murder people? Who’s more likely to give you an accurate portrayal of Islam, a Sufi mystic or the Taliban? And yet, when it comes to the Bible, critics want to interpret it the way slave holders in the old South did, rather than the way the abolitionists or leaders of the civil rights movement approached it. It’s as if they look around at Christianity and decide “Let’s talk to members of Westborough “Baptist” “Church”; they must have the best handle on Christian theology.”

Which side seems more likely to have an accurate concept of the Bible: slavers or those who opposed slavery? Especially when one considers that slavery has been common throughout human history—and it was abolitionists motivated by their faith as Christians who spearheaded first the abolition of the slave trade (such as John Newton, former slaver trader who became a Christian and then Anglican minister, as well as the author of the well-known hymn, Amazing Grace and the MP William Wilberforce) and all the Christians who then sought to end slavery all together. The leaders of the later civil rights movement, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., who practiced peaceful civil disobedience, came out of the church as well.

Something else needs to be pointed out and stressed: the Bible never encourages people to own slaves. It does not tell people “thou shalt own slaves” and it doesn’t tell us that slavery is a good thing or that some people deserve to be slaves or that some people are better than others. Instead, on a regular basis it uses the image of slaves being freed as a metaphor for sinners being rescued from sin and guilt, and being forgiven by God. Consider the story of the Exodus (Israelites rescued from 400 years of slavery in Egypt) and the use of that story in the New Testament to picture redemption (and the common New Testament Greek word used for ‘redemption’ means “to buy from the slave market and set free.”) Consider the theological concept of “salvation history” applied to the story of Israel in the Old Testament (for instance, look at 1 Corinthians 10:1-14 for one of the places Paul made use of the events from the Exodus, comparing the Israelite’s passage through the Red Sea to baptism in verse 2). Consider the story of Hosea buying his wayward prostitute of a wife out of the slave market as a picture of God saving Israel from its bondage to idolatry (Hosea 3).

What the Bible does with slavery is what it does with so many less than good, or even evil things that human beings do: it first regulates it, and then rather consistently teaches—often through story rather than legislative fiat—that it’s wrong. What the Bible does is take people where they are, wherever they are, however awful they are, and then tries to nudge them toward a better place.

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