Josué 22

Josué 22

Piper - When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy (allows download) - Excerpt BACK TO THE TENSION BETWEEN FIGHTING AND REJOICING Now back to the question we began with: Do fighting and joy go together? I’ve tried to address one issue, namely, that the stakes are so high we should not be surprised that we must fight. Our souls hang in the balance. So I hope it sounds more fitting and crucial now when the summons comes: Take up arms and fight for joy in God. A manual in that war is what this book aims to be. But another thing that makes fighting and joy seem incompatible is that joy is spontaneous and fighting is planned. Joy happens in the heart spontaneously. You don’t get up in the morning feeling blue and then immediately experience joy simply because you decide to. If you are tired when you wake up, you can force yourself to throw your legs out of bed. But if you are gloomy and discouraged when you wake up, you cannot just start feeling happy. Joy is not in the power of the will the way physical motion is. So how does the intentionality of the fight relate to the spontaneity of the joy? This is virtually the same question that I posed in the previous chapter and promised to try to answer here: How does the fact that joy is a free gift of God relate to our responsibility to have it? (ED: SEE NOTE BELOW) One of the reasons we experience joy in God as spontaneous is that it’s a gift. And one of the reasons we must fight for it is that we are responsible to have it. So the questions are virtually the same: How do we fight for something that is spontaneous? And, what can we do to obtain a totally free gift? NOTE: Lest it appear that we have created an artificial paradox here, take note that there are others like it in the Bible. This paradox is woven into the very fabric of biblical revelation: We are responsible creatures (and therefore God commands); and God is sovereign (and therefore he gives what he commands). Neither his sovereignty nor our responsibility cancels out the other. Consider these examples: Responsibility: Deuteronomy 10:16, “Circumcise … your heart.” Gift: Deuteronomy 30:6, “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart.” Responsibility: Ezekiel 18:31, “Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!” Gift: Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.” Responsibility: Mark 11:22, “Have faith in God.” Gift: Ephesians 2:8 “You have been saved through faith … it is the gift of God.” Responsibility: Acts 2:38, “Repent.” Gift: 2 Timothy 2:25, “God may perhaps grant them repentance.” Responsibility: John 3:7, “You must be born again.” Gift: John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes.… So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” This entire book is meant as an answer to that question, but here I will simply offer a broad summary answer in three parts. THE FIGHT ITSELF IS A GIFT First, we embrace the truth that not only our joy in God, but also the fight for joy itself is a gift of God. In other words, God works in us to enable us to fight. Embracing this truth prevents us from thinking that the joy we fight for is ultimately our achievement. Joy remains a gift and continues to be spontaneous, even though we ourselves are engaged in its cause. The evidence for this point is found in numerous biblical texts. For example, in 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul says, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” Paul worked hard. He did not say that God’s grace made his work unnecessary. He said God’s grace made his work possible. He worked, but “it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” So the fight for joy is our fight, and we are responsible to do it. But when we have fought for joy with all our might, we say with the apostle Paul, “it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” It was a gift. Philippians 2:12–13 describes how Christian work is enabled by the work of God within us. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” God’s work in us does not eliminate our work; it enables it. We work because he is the one at work in us. Therefore, the fight for joy is possible because God is fighting for us and through us. All our efforts are owing to his deeper work in and through our willing and working. This is why I say our fight for joy is a gift of God. The same thing could be shown from Hebrews 13:20–21: “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good (ED: GOD'S SOVEREIGN PROVISION) that you may do his will (ED: MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY), working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” God works in us that which is pleasing in his sight. The fight for joy is owing to his working in us. When all is said and done, Paul says, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me” (Rom. 15:18). In this way the gift of joy remains a gift and remains spontaneous, even though we fight for it. All our fighting is a work of God, and when a work of God brings about joy in God, the joy is manifestly a gift. Werner H Franzmann - Bible History Commentary: Old Testament What was the meaning of the rite of circumcision? It does not lie on the surface. It did not have merely a sanitary or health purpose. Rather, this rite represents a putting away of evil. It was a rite of purification. It symbolized the obligations which God lays upon those whom he has received into a covenant with himself. The chief of these obligations is to put away the sinful, inborn resistance and hostility to God and his will. This view is borne out by the Scriptures. In Deuteronomy 10:16 we have these significant words of the Lord to Israel: “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.” Jeremiah 4:4 is likewise helpful: “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts.” In the New Testament Stephen’s words to the self-hardened Jews are illuminating: “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears!. … You always resist the Holy Spirit!” (The New English Bible has an excellent translation for the italicized words in Acts 7:51: “heathen still at heart and deaf to the truth.”) Circumcision—The symbolical meaning of this rite would readily be caught, since circumcision is performed on that organ which is the very source of life. Therefore it pointed to the necessity of purifying life at its very source. The rite could not bring about such purifying or cleansing. Abraham’s offspring were to look to the promised Seed of the Woman (Genesis 3:15, Gal 3:8, 16). Only by faith in Him (JESUS) could they find cleansing from all their sins. (1 John 1:7). However, circumcision was something more. It was a means of grace, since it was a seal, the strongest possible assurance or guarantee, to the circumcised believer that he had been taken into the covenant of God’s grace and that all its blessings were his to enjoy. Again the New Testament helps us to understand the Old. In Romans 4:11 we read: “And he [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.” We call baptism a seal of God’s pardoning grace. Circumcision was the same for the Old Testament believer. Therefore circumcision can rightly be called an Old Testament sacrament, as Lutheran theologians have done in their works on doctrine. In the case of Abraham the “seal of righteousness” was given to further strengthen his faith, that he might receive wholeheartedly and without question the promise of a son, which was about to be given. Old Testament Restoration Prophecies regarding the Nation of Israel: Literal or Symbolic? by Benjamin L. Merkle (Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Volume 14 - THE TRUE NATURE OF BIBLICAL RELIGION The Christian faith is a religion of the heart. It is not primarily external but internal. Mere outward, external religion is never the goal of our faith. God is primarily interested in the deeper, inner faith of His people. This is true not only for the New Testament but is also clearly seen in the Old Testament. CIRCUMCISION OF THE HEART Circumcision was a significant part of both the Abrahamic and Mosiac covenants. It was the outward sign that separated God’s chosen people from the other nations. And yet, according to the Old Testament, true circumcision was not the outward, physical act but the inward circumcision of the heart: Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn (Deut 10:16). And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live (Deut 30:6). Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem (Jer 4:4a). This emphasis on the inner circumcision of the heart is continued in the New Testament (Rom 2:25–29; 1 Cor 7:19; Gal 5:6; 6:15; Phil 3:2–3; Col 2:11).