Proverbs: Too much, continued
September 12, 2007
This past Lord’s Day I preached on the wisdom found in Proverbs concerning excess–or as I called it in the sermon, too much. Alas, I had too much material to include in the time allotted for preaching that evening. I wanted to read a paragraph from C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra, in which Ransom is acclimating himself to the new planet, reminiscent of what Adam’s first hours must have been like in Eden (thanks to Grant Carroll for bringing this passage to my attention last week):
Now he had come to a part of the wood where great globes of yellow fruit hung from the tress–clustered as toy-balloons are clustered on the back of the balloon-man and about the same size. He picked one of them and turned it over and over. The rind was smooth and firm and seemed impossible to tear open. Then by accident one of his fingers punctured it and went through into coldness. After a moment’s hesitation he put the little aperture up to his lips. He had meant to extract the smallest, experimental sip, but the first taste put his caution all to flight. It was, of course, a taste, just as his thirst and hunger had been thirst and hunger. But then it was so different from every other taste that it seemed mere pedantry to call it a taste at all. It was like the discovery of a totally new genus of pleasures, something unheard of among men, out of all reckoning, beyond all covenant. For one draught of this on earth wars would be fought and nations betrayed. it could not be classified. He could never tell us, when he came back to the world of men, whether it was sharp or sweet, savoury or voluptuous, creamy or piercing. “Not like that” was all he could ever say to such inquiries. As he let the empty gourd fall from his hand and was about to pluck a second one, it came into his head that he was now neither hungry nor thirsty. And yet to repeat a pleasure so intense and almost so spiritual seemed an obvious thing to do. His reason, or what we commonly take to be reason in our own world, was all in favour of tasting this miracle again; the childlike innocence of fruit, the labours he had undergone, the uncertainty of the future, all seemed to commend the action. Yet something seemed opposed to this “reason.” It is difficult to suppose that this opposition came from desire, for what desire would turn from so much deliciousness? But for whatever cause, it appeared to him better not to taste again. Perhaps the experience had been so complete that repetition would be a vulgarity–like asking to hear the same symphony twice in a day.”
Did you catch that? Perhaps the experience had been so complete that repetition would be a vulgarity. Something in Lewis’ thought here sheds light on our sinful tendency to overindulge and binge. We find something good and pleasurable, and we feel we must have more and more and more. Opposed to us is the teaching of Proverbs 25:16: If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it. Paul’s expression their god is their belly comes to mind as well.
When you look at it closely, too much is a lordship problem, a worship disorder. Who is your master, God or your desires? Do you desire God above all else, is he the strength of your heart and your portion forever? Or do you desire something in the creation more than you desire the Creator? At root, drunkards and gluttons and workaholics and exercise-obsessives are worshiping another god. Their worship is actually a form of self-worship. We worship what brings us joy and contentment and rest.
I had the opportunity to feast with dear Christian brethren last night in Fort Collins, Colorado (I’m here for the annual RYM board meeting). My conscience was teased along with the thought: there was plenty of “honey” to eat, but how much better to taste and move on, rather than have my fill and vomit it.
Fear of the Lord: where does it go?
August 14, 2007
Where does the fear of the Lord take us? What is its orientation? Proverbs maps it out for us: Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil [3:7]. The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate [8:13]. By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil [16:6]. Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off [23:17-18].
The fool has no fear of God before his eyes [Psalm 36:1]. He lives for what this moment can deliver and for what his eyes can see.
Fearing God has a lot to do with what we love and hate, i.e., our affections. In fearing the Lord we love what he loves, we hate what he hates. We are happiest when we are pleasing him. Fear of the Lord is the internal motivator of the wise person. God, his presence, his will, and his glory drive him to do what he does. He does not live for his own momentary pleasure or for what he can possess. He does what he does because God has spoken—not because someone is watching, or out of fear of the consequences, but out of a deep, worshipful love and reverence for God. The thought of knowingly and purposefully disobeying God is unthinkable.
Why are you doing what you are doing? What you really are is what you are when no one else is watching. What will keep you faithful, loving and obedient in times of temptation when no ‘authority’ is watching and when the pressure is on to step outside of God’s boundaries?
Fear of the Lord: what is it?
August 9, 2007
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. [Proverbs 1:7; 9:10]
The fear of the LORD is the principal part, the primary ingredient of godliness, the foundation of spiritual life. It is a comprehensive term for the way we live the Christian life—not just what we say, not just the activities we are involved in, but the way we act, feel, and live.
It is something more than FEAR + LORD. It not the fear that paralyzed the wicked and lazy servant in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25:24-25); rather, it is the attitude of a loving child toward his father.
The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor [Proverbs 15:33]. The proverb draws a parallel between the fear of the LORD and humility. You know humility, right? Paying close attention to who God is and what he does, not thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought–rather, forgetting ourselves in our love for God and others. This arises from the depth of mercy shown to us in the Gospel (see Jeremiah 32:39-40 and Psalm 130:4). I think it is Eugene Peterson who describes humility as becoming absorbed in what God has been doing and the way he continues doing it by his Son Jesus and by the Holy Spirit. Humility involves reckoning with a holy God at every moment in reverent responsiveness.
Here are some powerful lines from Frederick W. Faber about the fear of the Lord:
My fear of Thee, O Lord, exults
Like life within my veins,
A fear which rightly claims to be
One of love’s sacred pains.Thy goodness to Thy saints of old
An awful thing appeared;
For were Thy majesty less good
Much less would it be feared.There is no joy the soul can meet
Upon life’s various road
Like the sweet fear that sits and shrinks
Under the eye of God.A special joy is in all love
For objects we revere;
Thus joy in God will always be
Proportioned to our fear.Oh Thou art greatly to be feared,
Thou art so prompt to bless!
The dread to miss such love as Thine
Makes fear but love’s excess.The fulness of Thy mercy seems
To fill both land and sea;
If we can break through bounds so vast,
How exiled shall we be!For grace is fearful, which each hour
Our path in life has crossed;
If it were rarer, it might be
Less easy to be lost.But fear is love, and love is fear,
And in and out they move;
But fear is an intenser joy
Than mere unfrightened love.When most I fear Thee, Lord! then most
Familiar I appear;
And I am in my soul most free,
When I am most in fear.I should not love Thee as I do,
If love might make more free;
Its very sweetness would be lost
In greater liberty.I feel Thee most a father, when
I fancy Thee most near:
And Thou comest not so nigh in love
As Thou comest, Lord! in fear.They love Thee little, if at all,
Who do not fear Thee much;
If love is Thine attraction, Lord!
Fear is Thy very touch.Love could not love Thee half so much
If it found Thee not so near;
It is Thy nearness, which makes love
The perfectness of fear.We fear because Thou art so good,
And because we can sin;
And when we make most show of love,
We are trembling most within.And, Father! when to us in heaven
Thou shalt Thy Face unveil,
Then more than ever will our souls
Before Thy goodness quail.Our blessedness will be to bear
The sight of Thee so near,
And thus eternal love will be
But the ecstasy of fear.
Ring the bell!
July 6, 2007
It was M.C. Hammer who declared, Yo, sound the bell, school is in, sucka! The Old Testament book of Proverbs sounds the bell for us in our willful blindness and blind willfulness as sinners–or as Proverbs like to call us fools. It is worth noting this list of characteristics of the fool–one who thinks he sees, knows and understands how life works, when in reality he is blind, ignorant and confused. In Proverbs a fool:
- is convinced he is right (12:15)
- quickly shows his annoyance (12:16)
- is hotheaded and reckless (14:16)
- spurns discipline and correction (15:5)
- wastes money (17:16)
- delights in airing his own opinions (18:2)
- is quick to quarrel (20:3)
- scorns wisdom (23:9)
- is wise in his own estimation (26:5)
- trusts in himself (28:26)
- rages and scoffs, and there is no peace around him (29:9)
- gives full vent to his anger (29:11).
NOTE: Any resemblance to actual persons living or in my life or myself, for that matter, is more than coincidental–it is the living and true God bringing the lens of his perfect wisdom to bear on our lives.
