The Transforming Glory of God

The glory of God has been a theme on which I have been reflecting throughout this year of 2012. I've been re-reading a book which I first read two years ago concerning the glory of Christ. It is called "The Glory of Christ" by the 17th century Puritan minister John Owen.

I highly recommend this book. If you are new to the writings of John Owen, you may wish to get the Banner of Truth version of the book edited by R.J.K. Law to make Owen's 17th century English a bit more readable and understandable to an early 21st century reader.

Here's a quote from that edition about meditating on the Bible to see the glory of Christ in it by faith:

Having come to the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ from Scripture or by the preaching of the gospel, let us regard it as our duty to meditate frequently on his glory. It is the neglect of meditation that keeps so many Christians in a feeble state, regardless of their privileges. They hear of these things and assent to the truth of them or at least they do not question them. But they never solemnly meditate on them. They think that meditation is above their capabilities, or they are totally ignorant of how to go about it, or they are not too concerned about it, or they treat it as fanaticism. Many cannot meditate because their minds are so cluttered up with earthly things. The mind must be spiritual and holy, freed from all earthly clutter. It must be raised above things below if we wish to meditate on the glory of Christ. So many are stangers to this duty because they do not mortify [put to death] their earthly desires and concerns.

I highly recommend this book. It put me into the mindset of recognizing how central, how marvelous and how transforming is our beholding of the glory of God.

The Benefit of Reading Multiple Bible Versions

During my seminary days back in the 1990s, one of the classes I was required to take was Biblical Hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is a word we usually don't use in everyday conversation. Perhaps the class title should have been what the original class name really means...Biblical Interpretation.

The professor who taught the class was a man named Haskell Stone. He had been a Christian for many decades. I'm thankful for not only his academic knowledge of guidelines for correctly interpreting the Bible but also what he could teach us in the class based on his experience as a believer in Christ.

The one piece of counsel he gave us that has stuck with me over these years has been that we should systematically, over time, read through different translations of the Bible. Professor Stone remarked that the slight differences in the way in which a translation renders certain words and phrases could give us a broader understanding of what the Bible means in a given passage. I have taken up the challenge. Over the years, I have read through the Bible in the King James Version, New International Version and the New American Standard Bible translation. During this year, I have been reading through the English Standard Version.

Following through on Professor Stone's advice to us has really been a blessing. There are variations in these four translations which in many passages provide a depth of meaning of which I would not be aware had I not read that passage in a different translation. These variations can happen for a number of reasons.

One of those reasons happens to be the method in which a translation was made. Of the four translations which I have read, the King James version is probably the most literal translation (i.e. word for word) among the four. The New American Standard and the English Standard Version are also translated more literally, but in contemporary English and not the English of 400 years ago. The New International Version is translated as a "dynamic equivalence" work. This means that a priority is given to translating the Bible in an "idea for idea" method.

Sometimes, there are variations in the way that one biblical manuscript will read from another. These "textual variants" can occur for a number of reasons (which I may explore in this blog at another time). The overwhelming number of variations occurred due to a difference in spelling or simply repeating a word when visually copying a manuscript by hand. However, some variations reflect what a scribe may have thought a word meant rather than the word itself. One example can be found in Jude 1:5. In most of the translations I have read, there is a reference to the Lord saving a people out of Egypt. However, in reading the English Standard Version, the manuscripts from which it was translated used the word "Jesus" and not "Lord". That really grabbed my attention. Really early in church history, some scribe correctly understood that while God saved His people out of Egypt, since Jesus is God, Jesus saved His people out of Egypt.

In reading the Bible, one big help can be reading a translation with cross-references and a list of the textual variants all in one place. In 1 Peter 2:24, we read: "and He Himself (Christ) bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness." The versions of the New American Standard have those cross-references and alternate readings. In some manuscripts, the word "cross" is replaced with "wood." When I discovered this, the meaning of this verse took on a deeper signifance for me. Jesus was placed upon the wood of the cross. However, to read this passage as Jesus was laid on the wood, the imagery of the burnt offerings referred to in the Old Testament really comes out. Jesus being laid on the wood reminds us that of all the Old Testament burnt sacrifices which needed to be done over and over again, Jesus performed one sacrifice perfectly (once for all according to the book of Hebrews).

There are many other examples which I can raise. First, let me encourage you to read the Bible, in its entireity from Genesis to Revelation. Once you have read through the entireity of a translation of the Bible, please consider doing another full reading in another translation. You will be presented with a deeper sense of what God is telling you in the text. It is worth the effort.

Bible Resources

We are blessed to live in a time in which so many resources which allow us to read, study, search and reflect on the Bible. Here are just a few links to finding a way to read or listen to God's Holy Word.

THE BIBLE ON THE INTERNET

BIBLE GATEWAY

Bible Gateway biblegateway.com is a great way to look for a text of the Bible. It can be read in a large number of translations such as the New International Version, New American Standard, English Standard Version or even the King James Version. You can look up passages by book, chapter and verse. You can search it by keyword. It also contains a number of links to non-English translations. If you're on your computer, IPod or some other mobile, wireless device, this is a great way to get a hold of the text you're looking for.

DOWNLOADABLE BIBLE AUDIO

Perhaps you want to download a portion of the Bible for use on your IPod, mp3 or some other audio device. One site which offers free downloads of each chapter of the Bible. They are in the public domain. In otherwords, there is no copyright restriction. The site is for the World English Bible audiotreasure.com/webindex.htm

BIBLE FOR YOUR MOBILE DEVICE
There are a number of companies which produce Bible software for mobile devices. I have used Olive Tree software for my Palm Tungsten "E". A link to them here www.olivetree.com/ provides you the opportunity to download a number of currently used Bible translations for a minimal price. Olive Tree also offers a number of free resources, (found here at olivetree.com/resources/free/), some of which are older translations of the Bible, but some are other types of books, such as those of Christian biography, theology and prayer.

ONE YEAR BIBLE

There are a number of plans for reading the Bible through completely. One plan which I have used multiple times is that of the One Year Bible. Link at oneyearbibleonline.com . There is a page for specific use of mobile devices which allow you to access these readings from your Blackberry, IPod, etc. Link at www.oneyearbibleonline.com/oybomobile.asp?version=51&startmmdd=0101

SCRIPTURE MEMORY

Memorizing portions of the Bible is a great way to keep God's Word in your heart and mind. One site which can help is memoryverses.org/. Another is creativebiblestudy.com/Biblememorization.html which employs a number of techniques and even gives links to print off sheets which can be stored as small cards which can easily be carried and used where the opportunity allows.

BIBLE STUDY TOOLS

There are two downloadable pieces of Bible software which I highly recommend. The first is E-Sword. E-Sword is software which enables in-depth study of the Bible. Once it is downloaded, it remains on your computer (thus it is not an internet link such as Bible Gateway). Some of the Bible downloads have a small cost. However, a version as recent as the English Standard Version (put out in 2002) is a free download. The link for E-Sword is here.

One other free Bible Study resource I would like to recommend is Quick Bible. It does not have all of the features of E-Sword. However, if you are looking for a free, searchable Bible in a modern translation, Quick Bible may be what you are looking for. It is produced by the Lockman Foundation, the translators of the New American Standard Bible (probably the most literal translation of the Bible into English). The link for the download can be found here.

Protecting Prayer

One way of understanding the title of this entry is that of a prayer which asks the Lord's protection in a difficult or dangerous situation. Such prayer has biblical precedent. We find an example of such a prayer offered by a group of exiles as they prepared for the long and dangerous journey from Babylon to Israel (see Ezra 8:21-23)

However appropriate and true it is, that is not the intended meaning for this blog entry. My meaning here is the protecting of the time and circumstances in which prayer occurs. The three enemies which war against the Christian, namely the world, the flesh and the devil, have a way of trying to entice or convince us that time in prayer with God in Christ is not a top priority. In our entertainment-crazed culture, we find too often, as Shakespeare put it, that "the world is still deceived with ornament" (The Merchant of Venice Act 3, Scene 3). My wife refers to this as "being distracted by shiny objects." Our culture exists in a time in which these "shiny objects" are available to us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These are the things which grab our attention and often take away (as in steal) our time with the Lord. This may take many forms depending on our lifestyles. Perhaps it is that "just one more" television show or video game that you think will take only a few minutes and mutates into an entire evening. Perhaps it's that "I'll hit the snooze button one more time" which ends up becoming several snoozes and results in little or no time in prayer in the morning.

There can be other aspects to the world's call to neglected or deflected prayer. Many of us live through times in which a number of real demands are made upon us. Perhaps it's an increased number of hours at work. (Ironically, I received a call at home for tech support from work while I was writing this entry). Perhaps you've just brought your newborn baby home and the child is keeping you up at night. There can be a number of demands, legitimate in themselves, that demand our attention. It must be noted that an increased workload was an strategy of an evil Egyptian pharaoh. You can find it in Exodus 5:1-9

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.' " Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go." Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword." But the king of Egypt said, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!" Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working." That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."

For Pharaoh, the most important thing in life was not God. It was himself and his own glory in the building projects of his reign. Therefore, according to Pharaoh, it was critical to get the attention of the Israel off God and onto him. Reflect on how this attitude still prevails in so many ways in our own time and place.

More on this in the next entry...

An Interesting Meditation on Numbers 21

During the summer, while doing research for an article, I happened to find an autobiography of one of the individuals who preached in England during the revival which swept the British Isles in the late 1850s and early 1860s. From Death Into Life is the story of William Haslam (1818-1905), an English country parson who, in 1851, was converted during the preaching of a sermon on the topic of conversion. The unusual aspect of this is that the sermon was preached by William Haslam himself. The evidence of his changed heart and mind during that sermon was so obvious that a Methodist preacher in attendance at the service began to cry out "The Parson is converted!"

I wanted to include a brief section of Chapter 34 of the book as it is a meditation on the text of Numbers 21:5-9:

The people spoke against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food." The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us." And Moses interceded for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live." And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.

Numbers 21:5-9 NASB

Recounting an incident just prior to his departure from Hayle, St. Johns, Haslam reflected:

A few weeks before leaving Hayle, as I was sitting by the fire one wet afternoon, my eyes fell on a little coloured picture on the mantle-piece, which had been the companion of my journeys for all the twenty years of which I have been writing. It was a quaint mediaeval illustration of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, copied from a valuable manuscript (Book of Prayers) in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

As I looked at the engraving before me, I began to suspect for the first time that there was a design in the arrangement of the figures, and that it was really intended to convey some particular teaching. I took it in my hand and studied it, when I observed that the cross or pole on which the serpent was elevated stood in the centre, dividing two sets of characters, and that there were serpents on one side, and none on the other.

Behind the figure of Moses, is a man standing with his arms crossed on his breast, looking at the brazen serpent. He has evidently obtained life and healing by a look. On the other side, I observed that there were four kinds of persons represented, who were not doing as this healed one did to obtain deliverance.

First, there is one who is kneeling in front of the cross, but he is looking towards Moses, and not at the serpent, and apparently confessing to him as if he were a priest.

Next behind him is one lying on his back, as if he was perfectly safe,though he is evidently in the midst of danger; for a serpent may be seen at his ear, possibly whispering "Peace, peace, when there is no peace."

Still further back from the cross there is a man with a sad face doing a work of mercy, binding up the wounds of a fellow-sufferer, and little suspecting that he himself is involved in the same danger.

Behind them all, on the background, is a valiant man who is doing battle with the serpents, which may be seen rising against him in unabating persistency.

I observed that none of these men were looking at the brazen serpent as they were commanded to do. I cannot describe how excited and interested I became; for I saw in this illustration a picture of my own life. Here was the way of salvation clearly set forth, and four ways which are not the way of salvation, all of which I had tried and found unavailing. This was the silent but speaking testimony of some unknown denizen of a cloister, who lived in the beginning of the fifteenth century, in the days of ignorance and superstition. But not withstanding this darkness,he was brought out into the marvellous light of the Gospel, and has left this interesting record of his experience.

Like him, I also had fought with serpents, for I began in my own strength to combat with sin, and strove by my own resolutions to overcome. From this, I went on to do good works, and works of mercy, in the vain hope of thus obtaining the same for myself. Then, I relied in the Church for salvation, as God's appointed ark of safety; but not feeling secure, I took another step beyond, and sought forgiveness through the power of the priest. This I found was as ineffectual as all my previous efforts. At last, I was brought (by the Spirit of God) as a wounded and dying sinner, to look at the Crucified One. Then (as I have related), I found pardon and peace. Ever since it has been my joy and privilege (like Moses pointing to the serpent) to cry, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). "I have determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified;" that is, to tell only of the person and office of Jesus Christ our Lord.

As you may have guessed, the photograph above is that of William Haslam.