More on Will

In the New Testament, Christ cries,
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Matt 23:37 (emphasis mine).

Ye would not! This is the fundamental problem with humanity. We do not want help from anybody, not even the loving God who created us for His glory. We want be self-sufficient. Like a child, we say "I do it mine self," and stubbornly refuse to listen to our divine Parent. And He grieves because He wants us in relationship with Him.
This unwillingness to obey God's command is the same problem that got us into trouble in the first place.

The devil in the form of a serpent told Eve that God was holding out on her and Adam, keeping the knowledge of good and evil to Himself, so that they would stay under His control. Then our first parents decided that that would not do--they wanted to have the knowledge, instead of trusting the One who personally breathed Life into them to do His Will. So they ate of the Fruit and condemned the entire human race to sin.

The universe's problems occurred because of humanity's will. We would not do as God asked, and we lost Eden, our chance to walk with God in the Garden, and, ultimately, immortality on the first Earth. Now we can only attain these things through the death of His Son. We must deny our old nature, our will, pick up our crosses, and follow Him (Matt 16:24) in His Holy WILL.
In fact, our old will must be killed, crucified with Christ, so that we will not to do evil, our will, but God's. We cannot just "fix" the old will; it is broken beyond repair. We need a new will and there is only one way to get it. Through Christ. And anyone who is truly in Christ will have a new will--His.

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6:6

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2Cor. 5:17

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philipians 2:13

However, despite being reborn, we find ourselves still trapped by our old nature. Like the Old Man of the Sea (Arabian Nights), this old nature gets us in a strangle hold and will not let us go, making us carry him this way and that wherever he wills, and punishing us when we try to get away. However, unlike Sinbad we cannot be rid of our Old Man by getting him drunk. We are stuck with the Old Man. But believers are regenerated as new men through the death and resurrection of Christ, so why, if we are reborn spiritually as new men and women and have a new will, the Will of God, why do we still sin? Paul gives an explanation regarding the law which also applies in this case(the Law being the Ten Commandments, God's holy will):


For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Romans 7:14-23

The Old Man still has us in his strangle grip, and no matter how hard we try to get away, we cannot. Even though we will to do God's will, we are hampered by the flesh. Christ has died and risen and redeemed us, but until we "shuffle off this mortal coil," we can never be completely free of our sinful nature. Even though the thing is done, as Christ said on the cross "It is finished," we are still constrained by the body.

The believer can say along with Paul,

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 7: 24-25(emphasis mine)

As the redeemed of Christ, we are already free of the law of sin, even though we still feel its effects.

"And speak to her heart..."

For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
Isaiah 51:3

In Hosea 2:14, we told that we are brought by God into the wilderness. The wilderness is usually regarded as a bleak place, scarce of water and harsh. But God takes His Bride there, the Bride that had run from Him to other lovers, in order to be alone with her, to woo her back to Him. The last portion of the verse speaks of this. It says "I will...speak comfortably unto her" (KJV) or as another translation puts it, "I will...speak to her heart" (Darby). The Hebrew word translated as "comfortably" in the KJV, actually means "inner man, mind, will, heart", so the Darby translation really is closer in meaning to the original (as far as I can discover).

The heart is the centre of a person, it is our most vulnerable spot. I am not talking physically, though this is also true, but mentally, spiritually. When God speaks to our heart, He speaks to us, the true "us", the one that hides behind the things we can do and the life we lead and the ambitions we pursue. He speaks to the real "me", that core of soul that makes me "me" -- and He uses words of love.

My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Song of Solomon 2:10-13


The word "speak" in Hebrew, Dabar, has many interpretations, declare, speak, command, converse, threaten, warn --some rather chilly, disturbing words-- but there are some more meanings, "promise" and, surprisingly, "sing". In this context ("My beloved spake"), singing would fit the context as well as the poetry. We are crooned to by God, wooed with love poetry. Twice, we are begged to "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."

God wants to be our loving Husband, but we keep running away. So He takes us into the desert, where we have no luxuries to distract us. He wants all our attention focused on Him. We are to look to Him for everything necessary for life in the desert -- food and water. But God is not stingy. He doesn't starve us.
In Isaiah 51:3, He says that He will comfort us. The wilderness shall become like the garden of the Lord, like Eden.

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
Isaiah 35:1

He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
Song of Solomon 2:4

A place of barrenness becomes a banqueting house when Love brings us there.

The next verse in Hosea 2 speaks of Israel singing in the desert, which is now become fruitful--literally. God does not only give His Bride water, but wine (vineyards).

And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. (vs. 15)

A place of trouble, the valley of Achor, where Achan and his family were stoned after he stole goods from the city of Jericho, becomes a door of hope. The place where we stole from God (stole the glory and love that is rightfully His as our true Husband, giving it away to false lovers) becomes the scene of reconciliation and grace. New hope will spring up here, a new life with Christ as our Ishi, our Husband.

Some thoughts on free will...

[originally written June 5, 2006]

God gave man free will. We have the ability to choose. We are not "forced" into our eternal marriage, we have the choice: whether to choose God as our Husband or Satan. We only have two choices: Good and Evil. The choice should be clear, but it isn't. Why? Because we chose once at the beginning, chose wrong, and now, we cannot comprehend, can see, what is truly the right choice, the good choice.

We have two Beings vying for our attention: One all-knowing, all-wonderful, all-powerful, but He demands something of us now. The other offers us pleasures now before the deal is sealed, but he cannot tell us what comes after. The Other tells us that although He cannot(won't) give away all the details, we have a most glorious surprise waiting for us if we will choose to sacrifice self-gratification now, if we wait...

One promises us Now, the Other FOREVER.
Again, the choice should be clear, but we cannot seem to see past Now to FOREVER. Like children not yet tall enough to see over the wall to the beautiful garden next door, we grasp at the paper flowers we find on our side, and cry when they aren't perfumed and crumble away in our hands.

If we could only see, we say, we could make the right choice. But we forfeited that option long ago and cannot get it back. Not in this lifetime.

*
Our free will is hampered by our fallen nature. Our only comfort is that God chooses to allow us to come to Him, calling us before Him, and gives us the opportunity to make the choice.

Face Time with the Almighty

I asked in my devotion book about a year ago --
"What is this time [being single] for?"

God's answer seemed to be-- "To know Me. To spend with Me." And I was glad.

It is important as a single person that we take the opportunity and the time singleness affords and use it to come closer to God. So often we go through periods of real growth where we feel very close to God, and then, almost suddenly, we find ourselves drifting away in the relationship. Periods of growth seem to always be followed by periods of deadness where even prayer seems difficult. It is not really a fallow period in our spiritual life, but more like stagnation. Temptation hardly finds any resistance during these times, while disobedience --and downright rebellion-- against God doesn't even seem to matter as it should. We know it is sin, but we are apathetic, we don't even care that we're sinning.

It is crucial that we don't slack off or neglect our prayer and devotions during this time, even though it seems fruitless and we don't "feel"(a dangerous word) close to God or that He is listening to us. We must cling to the guide rope even when we can't see the Person who leads us.

These stagnate periods are insidious attacks of Satan. He tells us:
"You're too tired or busy for nightly devotions--save your strength and go to sleep instead."
"Don't read tonight--you wouldn't get anything out of it anyway--just pray instead."

But neglect of Bible reading and devotions leads to neglect of prayer, and then where are you? You have effectually severed your connection with God. Just saying meal prayers and "quickies"(the prayer equivalent of instant messaging) is almost worse than no prayer at all. You acknowledge God's existence, but you don't deign to spend quality time with Him. Is you attention really focused on God for those few seconds of thoughtless thanks or desperate petition? Are you really learning about God and standing heart to heart with Him? Is it an embrace or a perfunctory peck on the cheek as you pass on your way to other "more important" things?

Are you only sending God on errands? Beware -- God is not your errand boy! He is no mere page, but a Warrior-King!! --and you treat Him as a minion and mere djinn to do your bidding?! For Shame!

Come into His arms and "learn of Him"(Matt 11:29). Let Him be the focus of your day and you will never waste it or be alone.

His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me.
Song of Solomon 2:6

quote from Elisabeth Elliot's Passion and Purity

"S.D. Gordon, in his Quiet Talk on Prayer, describes waiting.
It means:
Steadfastness, that is holding on;
patience, that is holding back;
expectancy, that is holding the face up;
obedience, that is holding one's self in readiness to go or do;
listening, that is holding quiet and still so as to hear."

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. Ps 27:14

And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. Ps 39:7

(This last verse can be read two ways: the first, as a plea for the Lord to hear, the second, as a confession of faith in the Lord.)

Sonnet XIV -- John Donne

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.


This poem really says it all. I've loved this sonnet ever since I first read it and use it as a prayer every time I feel myself slipping. It is difficult to pray sincerely though--the consequences of God really taking me up on my word...could be painful. Sometimes, I avoid praying it, just because it is dangerous, and just use it as a reminder of what I should feel, should want, as a true Christian--but that is copping out. God will do everything we ask ("Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" Matt 7:7. "And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him" 1 John 5:15.), He can "even" do more ("Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us..." Eph 3:20), we must be courageous enough to face the consequences of our requests. God often answers our prayers in ways we do not at all expect, and it is only after we have the perspective of hindsight that we see how right His way is.

I added this sonnet to the bottom of my blog to remind myself of the real situation of the Christian: we are "betrothed" to Satan and it is only through Christ's death and resurrection that we can ever be "divorced". His love "ravishes" us, it is so overwhelming. He takes us, rather than us allowing Him access, choosing Him. Some may say differently, but it is always God who is the instigator in the relationship, never us.

C.S. Lewis said that he became a Christian against his will. And some people ask, how is it possible that one is an unwilling Christian? The force of God's battering ram can sometimes be so overwhelming and moving that it is almost as if we had no choice in the matter, despite free will. As I once heard in a sermon, it is as if we are a train locomotive and God picks us up and faces us the opposite way on the track: we have no choice but to go forward. (The analogy can be taken farther: the locomotive may slip backward on a steep hill, but it is still facing forward in the direction the Engineer pointed it and, through His grace, the train will, sooner or later, reach its destination.) Only God has the power to turn the engine, no one else, not Satan, not ourselves. We may think that we have turned away from God, but, really, we're only traveling in reverse -- still pointed in the direction God intends us to go.

Comparisons

Even so would he have allured thee out of the jaws of distress into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and the supply of thy table [would be] full of fatness.
Job 36:16 (Darby Translation)

Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.
Job 36:16 (KJV)

Indeed, God would have allured you out of the mouth of distress into a broad place where there is no situation of perplexity or privation; and that which would be set on your table would be full of fatness.
Job 36:16 (Amplified Bible)

Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress,
Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint;
And that which was set on your table was full of fatness.
Job 36:16 (New American Standard)

Indeed, He lured you from the jaws ^[a] of distress to a spacious and unconfined place. Your table was spread with choice food. ([a]Lit from a mouth of narrowness)
Job 36:16 (Holman Christian Standard)

The word in the above Bible verse is translated in various ways: allured, lured, enticed, removed. At first I thought that this was the same word as used in Hosea 2:14(Therefore, behold, I will allure her....), however, this, I discovered, is not the case. I went looking for different verses using this word and in the process discovered a website (Crosswalk)that accesses the King James Version of the Bible with Strong's Concordance numbers. The word translated "allure" in Hosea 2:14 (htp-transliterated-pathah)is completely different than that in Job 36:16 and is used in more pejorative contexts, particularly those involving deceit and persuasion. The word "allured/removed/lured/enticed" in Job 36:16 (two-translit.-cuwth) is also used in contexts of persuasion, but it actually is a more literal translation in that it does mean "allure, entice" (it can also be used when someone instigates someone to evil). The definition of the second word(cuwth) does not involve seduction(the first, pathah, does); this word seems to apply to a more forthright type of persuasion, rather than one of deceit/trickery.

It is interesting that it is the deceitful/seductive "allure" that is used in Hosea 2:14. Because Israel is so foolish, God must seduce her into the wilderness, playing on her gullibility and sensuality(she has gone "whoring" after other gods) to get her alone with Him.

This makes sense when viewed in light of a following verse, Hosea 2: 16: And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Baali.

Ishi means in this context (see KJV) "Husband", while Baali means "My Lord" or "Master" (Baal is also the name of a heathen god). Israel views the Lord as a taskmaster who has laid requirements upon her, while He wants to be her Husband and His laws are only just. Israel (and all man) broke God's laws in the Garden of Eden, ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and now has to live by laws. If Man had not fallen, we would not have to have laws: we would have lived by God's will naturally.

Israel's rightful Husband must seduce his Bride in order to get the chance to regain her affections.

In Job 36:16, God removes Israel from a place of want ("strait" place, "mouth of distress", "mouth of narrowness") to a broad place where all her needs are met. Her appetite is sated with fat. (Besides being very desirable in a situation of starvation, fat is also a wonderful vehicle for flavour. God gives His people sustenance and savour in the food He puts before her. In the old temple sacrifices, God always required the fat, the part with the most caloric value.)

God allures Israel from the jaws of distress. Israel doesn't want to leave, even though she is starving. God has to persuade her, entice her, from a place of want. He lures her to a place where she has plenty to eat. This applies to physical needs as well as spiritual, especially spiritual.

Wilderness

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.
Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.
I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.
Ps. 55:6-8

The wilderness is not just a place of desolation, but also a place of refuge. God leads us, "allures" us into the wilderness to be alone with us. The wilderness is a place of silence and rest. It is harsh and apparently barren, but it is also a place to be alone in meditation, away from the bustle and noise of everyday life ("the windy storm and tempest" that buffets us). We can listen in the wilderness, like Elijah, for that "still, small voice" which is the voice of God(1 Kings 19:12).

Before Christ began his ministry, directly after his baptism, he spent time in the wilderness, forty days and forty nights. "And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness"(Luke 4:1). Christ was tempted of the devil there, it was a time of testing, as it often is for us as well; however, later Christ went away from the crowds to pray and commune with God. "And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone" (Matt. 14:23). An apparently barren place becomes a fruitful place of prayer.

Being led, allured, into the wilderness does not mean that our spiritual life is put on hold, while we struggle through a desert on our own, beset by the temptation to give up and yield to the seductions of the world. God brings us into the wilderness to "speak comfortably" to us, as an alternate translation(Darby) says, "to speak to [our] heart[s]". The silence allows us to hear Him speak; in the wilderness His voice is not drowned out by the tempests and distractions of the world. By the grace of God, we can find wells of life-giving water in the wilderness, like Hagar("And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water" Gen. 21:19a).

We must be careful to take advantage of our wilderness times and use them to grow closer to God, rather than away from Him. Prayer is important here and meditation on God's word. Sometimes, it will seem that God is not listening to us and we will beg like David, "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were"(Ps. 39:12), and claim like him that God has promised that "He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them" (Ps. 145:19). We must not become discouraged, but let God pursue us even as we pursue Him.

This idea...

I was sitting in church before the sermon and suddenly had an idea. I've kept a kind of journal of Bible verses that strike me as interesting, applicable, moving, etc. and sometimes write some personal notes on them. Occasionally, I've shared my notes with a friend of mine. I've also found myself slacking off on keeping my journal up to date. So. I decided that I would write more; in fact, I would write the beginnings of what (hopefully) will become a book, a book for singles like me who find themselves out in the metaphorical "wilderness" alone--with God.
I'm not going to pretend that I have any stunning insights into things spiritual, but I sometimes find tiny inklings of ideas that sort of make sense and apply to my single situation. I'm hoping having a little (insert understatement here) goal will provide some incentive towards better study for myself and may be serve as a help for others who may feel, at times, as discouraged as I do.

Inspiration?

Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
Hosea 2:14 KJV