What is a pointless life?

A pointless life involves no sacrifice, no discipline, and no courage.

From where does purpose come?

Purpose is not something I create. It is something I receive from the Lord. Each Christian receives different talents and gifts which establish their role in God’s Kingdom. Yet each Christian, united to Christ by faith, has the same responsibility to worship and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do I live with spiritual purpose?

The only way is to depend entirely upon the grace of God, which, through faith in Jesus, covers my sin and enables my fight against it. Faithfulness is as active as ants. It is the virtue of drinking up as much living water as each situation spouts. It requires exceptional vigilance, which is why I pray for the Holy Spirit’s help.

How are men and women different?

Women are not driven by the same goals and inner springs as men. The distribution of wants among the two sexes is distinct enough that they don’t want the same things from their lives. With respect to work outside the home, men want competition in the market. With respect to work inside the home, women want to provide care for the family.

What is the source of such differences?

Since the roles and gifts of men and women are from God, equality-of-result ought not be socially engineered or biologically buffeted. God hard-wires into women a feminine nature that is not a prison crippling her humanity, but a clarifying summons enabling her faithfulness.

How are men and women most themselves?

C.S. Lewis said that the masculine is oriented toward strength, rigidity, and protection of life, while the feminine is oriented towards softness, fluidity, and creation of life. So, men act according to their nature when they embrace their strength and duty to protect others. Women act according to their nature when they create environments that nurture life.^[1]

How should I spend my time?

I must reject the self as my sole obsession and cultivate a love for others. This happens by making things in real life to build culture and life outside myself. My time and attention are too valuable to give it away to social media companies. Instead, I will rouse up myself and fill my days with creativity and labor directed to worthy objects that bring value and esteem, such as learning a foreign language and how to play an instrument, learning to grow things and corral a group of kids, learning to organize events and a lead a book club, and learning to sew and prepare a meal.

How does displaying the fruit of the Spirit affect those around me?

When I live out the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control—I am most myself. When I live in sin—sexual immorality, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, envy, drunkenness—I am less myself.

By living the fruit of the Spirit, dressing modestly, acting with self-control, and adorning myself with good works (1 Tim. 2:9-14), I have the power to transfer the sincerity and love of Christ onto every person I know and to strike at error and wrongdoing in a way that makes the adversary cower.

Should women be educated?

Women should be educated in God, God’s Word, and God’s world. Those who are so inclined are free to pursue higher education, provided it leads to the fulfillment of God’s design. Scripture provides the example of Mary, who nurtured baby Jesus and also wrote the stinging words of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). And there is the example of Jael who was a homemaker who turned her domestic tools into weapons of violence when needed (Judges 4:17-5:27).

What does Titus 2:4-5 says about the education of girls?

“Train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” The Bible does not prescribe preparation for a girl boss feminism of hustle culture that says career success, promotions, and prioritizing job above family are the most important things. The Bible does affirm the goodness of marriage, the blessing of children within marriage, and the virtues, skill, and honor necessary to run a home well.

What does 1 Peter 3:4 say about a woman’s beauty?

“Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” This means I should cultivate the quality of soul that makes me loved by little children, strong to help those in sorrow or trouble, and sympathetic to the human heart because of genuine concern for other people.

How can I become the Proverbs 31 woman?

I develop skills for being a faithful woman who works from home, is productive, hardworking, skilled at management, and able to conduct family business. I must become competent to make decisions and exercise my agency with intelligence, cultivating the skills of discernment, shrewdness, resourcefulness, hospitality, and wisdom. It’s not that women will never or should never work outside the home. But as a girl in training, I ought not be burdened by career expectations as my paramount concern.

What does 1 Timothy 5:14 say about young women?

“I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander,” meaning girls must be trained to become housemasters, exercising real authority to manage the house in submission to the headship of her husband (1 Tim. 3:5). I must beware of the Betty Friedan message that centralizes career as a woman’s path to self-actualization, and regards children and marriage as perfunctory.

What did G.K. Chesterton mean when he said that only “domestic education” is particularly true?^[2]

The opening line of G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man, explains that “There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there.”^[3] His point is that domestic life is the larger matter. Commercial or official life is the lesser matter. This is why Titus 2:5 instructs women to be about the greater matter of “working at home.” This means a mother providing conversation, culture, meals, and moral support for her own child is more important than social work for one hundred children absorbed by the system. Chesterton’s point isn’t that girls can never choose public life. The point is to teach them that commercial life is the smaller life.^[4]

If the role of a wife is to respect her husband, what should women be looking for in a man?

Respectability. If she respects him, and if her parents and pastor respect him, then that enhances the chances that she can respect him for the rest of her life. A woman might desire her husband to be a certain height, make a certain amount of money, or take her on fancy dates. But God’s standard is that she respects and submits to him (Eph. 5:22-33).

What should a woman be working toward in preparation for a husband?

Since the husband’s job is to (1) love his wife sacrificially, (2) nourish her, (3) cherish her, and (4) lead her like Christ leads the church (Eph. 5:23-29), then a woman looking for a husband needs to become the sort of lady that a man can (1) love sacrificially, (2) nourish, (3) cherish, and (4) lead.

What does living the good life require?

Because of Christ, life is strong in me. I will press on and live with gratitude. I will seek truth, make beauty, live well, and love big. This is my spiritual act of worship as a happy warrior of the Kingdom of God.

^{Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.}

^{[1] C.S. Lewis, Perelandra (New York: HarperOne, 2003), 172-174.}

^{[2] Dale Ahlquist, The Story of the Family: G.K. Chesterton on the Only State that Creates and Loves its Own Citizens (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2022), 172.}

^{[3] G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man (Rough Draft Printing, 2013), 7.}

^{[4] Dale Ahlquist, The Story of the Family: G.K. Chesterton on the Only State that Creates and Loves its Own Citizens (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2022), 170-180.}

Growing up in a Baptist church in the country, we used to sing a hymn written by Ira Stamphill titled “Mansion Over The Hilltop.” Reverend Stamphill was inspired by John 14:2, which he, no doubt, read in the King James Version: “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Having a story about a rich man building a mansion just over the hilltop ringing in his head, Stamphill wrote:

I’m satisfied with just a cottage below / A little silver and a little gold / But in that city where the ransomed will shine / I want a gold one that’s silver lined. [Refrain] I’ve got a mansion just over the hilltop / In that bright land where we’ll never grow old / And some day yonder we will never more wander / But walk on streets that are purest gold.

Elvis even recorded the song on one of his religious albums. That heavenly mansion has been a source of comfort given to families at funerals and the longing of many Christians, particularly in the evangelical South.

My aim is not to disappoint anyone who was looking forward to living in something like the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, NC, but it is my responsibility to tell what Jesus was actually talking about. Jesus’ imagery here is actually quite complex and requires that we put a few things together.

We must first begin by understanding his Father’s house. What is his Father’s house? “Heaven.” That is not wrong, but it is not the complete picture either. Jesus told us what his Father’s house is at the beginning of his ministry when he cleansed the Temple. He told the moneychangers to “Take these things away! Do not make my Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (Jn 2:16). His Father’s house is the Temple. The Temple is the Father’s earthly palace, the footstool of his throne. The Temple is an image of heaven and connects heaven and earth, but it is the Father’s house.

To add another layer, Jesus then redefines the Temple as his body. Jesus told the Jews that day, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John tells us that he was speaking of the temple of his body (Jn 2:19, 21). Jesus’ body is the Temple, the house of God the Father. John told us this in his introduction when he said that the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us, revealing his glory (Jn 1:14).

Heaven is a real place just as earth is a real place. The two were separated from the first days of creation, waiting for the earth’s maturity so that they could be reunited. This is realized in Christ’s incarnational work. In his body, he unites heaven and earth, making a new heaven and earth, or a new creation. To be united to Christ, or to abide or dwell in Christ, is to dwell with the Father.

The word translated “mansions” or better “dwelling places” is related to the word that Jesus will later use to speak of abiding in him in chapter 15. The Father’s house is the body of Christ, the new Temple, and the new heavens and earth.

The new creation has been the focus of Jesus ministry and a primary theme of John’s Gospel. John begins his Gospel as if it is a new book of Genesis. Jesus performs seven signs within the first twelve chapters, indicating that he is undoing the effects of sin in order to make a new creation. Jesus is making a new creation in himself, which is the Father’s house, and there are many dwelling places for the disciples in this new creation. Jesus is going to the cross and through the cross to resurrection and ascension to prepare this place for them.

If he goes to prepare this place for them, he will come again to receive them unto himself. Is Jesus speaking about his resurrection or his final second coming? Yes. Jesus will go to death to prepare the place for them, but he will come back for them, freed from the chains of death to receive them and cause them to sit in heavenly places with him. Jesus’ resurrection and eventual ascension are guarantees that he will come again in like fashion to finish the work of new creation and receive us all to himself as the angels told the disciples in Acts 1 and as Paul told the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4.

When you abide in Christ, whether you are on earth in this life or in heaven after death, you are dwelling in the Father’s house. To be united to the body of Christ is to be in the Father’s house.

The Old Testament calendar is a full life liturgy that regulated temple activity, moral expectations, legal codes, and purification processes. It also regulated work and rest. But how many days did the calendar prescribe work and how many days was spent not working?

It’s not a simple answer. Counting the work and rest days of Israel’s calendar requires a biblical-theological reckoning on a 49-year cycle with a concordance in one hand and a calculator in the other.

This reckoning can be organized according to five categories:

First, the ordinary year.

Second, the annual feast days.

Third, the seventh year.

Fourth, the Jubilee year.

Fifth, the implications.

Let’s get started.

First, the ordinary year

The expectation for an ordinary week was that the people would work six days and rest one day. The pattern was established at creation. In Genesis 2:1-3, God finishes his work in six days and rests on the seventh day. Notice several things. First, this occurs before the Fall, which means this pattern is not a reaction or result of the Fall. Second, this pattern predates the Mosaic Law, which means it is a creation ordinance. Third, Adam’s first day on earth is a full day of rest, not labor, meaning that in God’s calendar, rest precedes labor.

The 6/1 pattern was then commanded in the Decalogue. Exodus 20:8-10 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work.” Why are people to rest on the seventh day? The answer is in Exodus 20:11, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” This means that the 6/1 pattern is imitation.

Deuteronomy 5 also contains the Decalogue, but the fourth commandment contains a different rationale for the 6/1 pattern. Why must they rest on the seventh day? Deuteronomy 5:15 says, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand.” So, the reason for the 6/1 pattern in Exodus 20 is creational imitation. The reason for the 6/1 pattern in Deuteronomy 5 is in memorial of redemption. Different reasons, it seems. Or are they? In both cases, rest is God’s blessing to his people. The backdrop of Egypt reminded them that slavery is the condition of the person who cannot stop working.^[i]

The 6/1 pattern is also reflected in the surrounding laws of the Torah. Sabbath mercy is extended downward, to servants, foreigners, and animals, suggesting that a society that cannot stop their labor especially harms the dependent parts of the community (Ex. 23:12). During the harvest season when economic pressures is heightened, God’s command for rest is still in force (Ex. 34:21). This is why Nehemiah shut down the Tyrian merchants, wine pressers, and grain loaders working on the Sabbath (Neh. 13:15-22). In the passages about the construction of the tabernacle Moses writes, “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest” (Ex. 31:15; 35:2), reminding the people that even the construction of God’s house does not override the command to rest.

Those who resent the disruption of their work grumble and complain about the command to rest (Amos 8:5). But required rest is God’s good design. Six days of work suffices for seven days needs. The story of the manna in Exodus 16:22-30 includes a double portion on the sixth day. This is God’s provision to protect the rest day of the people.

The ordinary year also includes the new moon days (Num. 10:10; 28:11-15). These days don’t explicitly include the no-work clause. They are primarily a day for sacrifices to God. But then in other passages they are described as special days when work ceased (1 Sam. 20; 2 Kings 4:23; Amos 8:5; Ez. 46:1-3). Sometimes the new moon days are mentioned alongside Sabbaths and feasts, as if they are one class of holy days (Hos. 2:11; Is. 1:13f; 66:23; Col. 2:16). There is one new moon at the beginning of each month (Num. 28:11; Ps. 104:19; Ex. 12:2). The year has twelve months (1 Kings 4:7; 1 Chronicles 27:1-15). So, there are twelve new moon days a year. One out seven new moon days occur on a Sabbath, which was already a non-work day, meaning new moon days add ten or eleven days to the 52 Sabbath days.

Now for the calculation. One sabbath rest day a week for 52 weeks means 52 rest days per year, plus ten new moon days equals 62 non-work days, which is just over 17% of total days in the year.

Second, the annual feast days

Leviticus 23 is a catch-all description for the feast days in the liturgical calendar.

The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread is seven holy days for the year on which “you shall not do any ordinary work” (Lev. 23:6-8).

Next is listed the Feast of Firstfruits (Lev. 23:9-14). More slender and subtle, no additional holy days result from the Feast of Firstfruits. When there is a holy day of no work, like with the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:7), Pentecost (Lev. 23:21), Trumpets (Lev. 23:24), Atonement (Lev. 23:27), and Tabernacle (Lev. 23:35-36), it is explicitly said there is “no ordinary work.” The Feast of Firstfruits has no such statement, suggesting it is not a day of rest (Lev. 23:9-14).

The Feast of Weeks (AKA Pentecost) is described in Leviticus 23:15-22 and has one holy day (Lev. 23:21). The Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, likewise, receive one holy day each (Lev. 23:24, 27). The Feast of Tabernacles (AKA Booths) has eight holy days. The first and eighth days are for solemn rest. Days two through seven are feast days. No ordinary work is done on these days.

The feasts tell a story. It begins with redemption in the Passover feast, then resurrection in the Feast of Firstfruits anticipating Christ in 1 Cor. 15:20, then the creation of a people at Pentecost where they receive unleavened bread for the first time (Acts 2), then the Feast of Trumpets where a trumpet blasts summons the congregation, then the Feast of Atonement where the blood is carried into the holy place anticipating Christ (Heb. 9-10), then the Feast of Tabernacle where God dwells with them (Zech. 14:16-19; Rev. 21:3). The point of the story is to train the popular instinct to return to it, even in times when the doubting instinct is let loose.

The calendar of feasts and holy days annually walk the people through the story of redemption, past, present, and future. This would continue until the Messiah came to fulfill it. The body and soul are being trained to look to the higher work of the Lord. God is writing a story that has a plot, a crisis, and a resolution. It moves. There are twists and turns; ups and downs; bad guys and good guys. And walking through the shadows of the story, the people see the One True Good Guy, the Messiah. When the Savior fulfills the feast days, it satisfies rather than replaces the need to set aside time to look to the higher things and be shaped by them. This is the real R&R of Scripture. In the divine calendar, the harvest is preparation for the feast. The work is preparation for rejoicing.

The feast days in total add eighteen holy days. When you account for the overlap with Sabbath days, which were already rest days, that means, at minimum, an additional 15 non-work days for the year. So, Sabbath/new moon days (62) plus non-overlapping feast days (15) is 77 rest days a year, which is 21% of the total days in the year.

Third, the seventh year

Leviticus 25:1-7 says that when Israel comes into the land, the land shall be given a Sabbath (Lev. 25:2). For six years Israel works the land and harvests the crops. The seventh year is a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land. This is a time when the people will not work the land (Lev. 25:3-5). This is the 6/1 pattern of the week stretched and applied into years.

What exactly is prohibited on the seventh year? Active, productive agricultural work. Leviticus 25:4-5 say, “You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine.” Reaping is prohibited, meaning they may not harvest the field systematically for the purpose of stockpiling. Gathering is prohibited, meaning, they may not strip the vines completely to press the grapes and store the wine.

What is permitted on the seventh year? Leviticus 25:6-7 says, “The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you.…all its yield shall be for food.” So, on that seventh year, the land is not under cultivation, but it doesn’t stop producing. The people and their animals must still eat. What will they eat? Whatever the untended land yields of itself. But this volunteer growth may not be treated like a harvest. Day by day the people pick and eat what they need.

There are other components of the seventh year. First, as Exodus 23:10-11 explains, the fallow year is a means of provision for those with no land of their own. So, in years 1-6, the person treats the land as their harvest. They own it. In year 7, the owner denies his special claim on the harvest, making it open to those in need. Second, as Deuteronomy 15:1-11 explains, the seventh year is a release from debt. “Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed” (Dt. 15:2).

So, in the seventh year, people still eat, worship, keep the weekly Sabbath, and keep the feasts. They still tend the flocks and gather the volunteer growth. Trades and craft work continue, as does commerce, study, and domestic labor.

How should we handle this in our calculation? Are these 365 rest days? Not exactly. There is prescribed resting from some work. The farmers are given a distinct kind of rest, while other work remains. A significant category of work is removed, but not work as such. For a herdsman or craftsman, the seventh year apparently changed very little. For the agrarian majority of Israel, the seventh year changed a great deal. They experienced a lighter year. Mathematically, these are not counted as additional non-work days, but as lighter work days for a majority of the people.

Fourth, the Jubilee Year

Leviticus 25:8-11 describes a Jubilee year that should take place every “fiftieth year,” which is probably referring to the last year of the 49-year cycle and the first year of the next cycle. So, the “fiftieth year” is overlapping in a way that makes it the 49^th year itself.^[ii] The Jubilee was announced on the Day of Atonement with a trumpet blast (Lev. 25:9). Three releases are commanded. The release of the land (Lev. 25:11-12) where the land was given rest, the release of the property where land reverted to its original family holding (Lev. 25:10, 13-34), and the release of the slaves where Israelite indentured servants went free (Lev. 25:39-55).

The Jubilee year adds no new category of human rest day beyond what we’ve already counted. The Jubilee sets right who is free and who owns what. The free servant returns home, not to rest, but to work his own land. So, it’s not extra rest from work. It’s a different kind of gift, a sort of homecoming of money, people, and land such that everyone is returned to their inheritance. It’s a reset, a refresh, a re-creation, which is what all the work and all the rest was pointing toward, a time when the people and the land would be made whole.

So, the rest days point to the Jubilee year, and the Jubilee year points to the Great Jubilee of the Messiah. Isaiah had foreseen a coming Messiah anointed to “proclaim liberty to the captives” and to announce “the year of the LORD’s favor” (Is. 61:1-2). This is the language of the Jubilee horn, now applied to all history. When Jesus stood in the synagogue at Nazareth and read Isaiah 61, He closed the scroll and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). He was declaring Himself the Jubilee Incarnate. Every seventh year that rested the land, every “fiftieth” that freed the slave and restored the field was a preview of Christ, the Son of God arriving to cancel the true debt, to set the real captives free, and to return His people to the inheritance lost since Eden. Christ accomplished the homecoming the Jubilee year pictured. The rest and worship that Israel practiced one day in seven, Christ offers without end, saying “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28).

Fifth, the implications

When it comes to rest and work, we should strive to talk about it as biblically as possible, which means we must understand God’s liturgical calendar. We must see and count the days. We must run the calculation. We must see the purpose of resting from work.

What is the purpose? The point of rest and leisure is not to make people more efficient cogs in the economic system, but to restore the soul to wholeness. This allows a person to worship the Lord and Giver of Life, celebrate existence in God’s world, see the goodness of reality, and receive truth and beauty as gifts not measurable on a P&L sheet. A feast day, or celebration, or Sabbath that merely stops work for the sake of work serves no higher purpose than work. When the entire liturgical calendar, or corporate calendar, is reduced to fine-tuning man to be a tool for profits, then work becomes a cult—a religion—as if work included the whole field of human existence, activity, and life. This changes the nature of human existence by making “worker” the whole conception of man.

In the Old Testament calendar, 77 out of 365 days are explicitly non-work days, which makes for 1.5 days out of 7. So, the weekly ratio is to work 6 and rest 1, while the annual average is to work 5.5 and rest 1.5, which is the floor for rest days. The seventh year of land rest must also be accounted for. The seventh year hasn’t entered this calculation because some people kept herding, cooking, trading, and foraging.

But, for the agrarian majority, including the farmers and vine dressers who made up most of ancient Israel, the seventh year was dramatically lighter, even if not classified as a rest day. In a normal year, the farmer’s calendar was dominated by the grueling labor of cultivation, plowing, sowing, pruning, weeding, and harvest time. Exodus 34:21 singles out the work of the farmer as part of the covenant renewal need for Sabbath rest.

In the seventh year, all of that work stops. No plowing, no sowing, no pruning, no harvesting. What remains for the farmer is lighter than the work of the other six years. For the majority of people then, the seventh year wasn’t 1.5 rest days a week; it was closer to a year-long reduction to subsistence gathering. This can’t be neatly fit into the calculation, but it is part of the calendar to keep in mind.

It’s true that the laws and ceremonies of the Old Testament expired with that nation-state, including the liturgical calendar of feast days, new moon days, and so on. But the general equity principles still remain for the people of God, which suggests there is biblical wisdom in trying to apply the biblical-theological calendar, calculations, and commission of work and rest.

There are other factors to think about before these principles can be comprehensively formulated, such as (1) how work is not equal to a job/career, (2) how much of the work days should be spent working at the job and how much time should be spent doing other work, (3) the change from an agrarian society to an industrial one, (4) the shift of work as something that once took place inside the home to something that now takes place outside the home, (5) the difference between manual labor and desk work, (6) the intolerance of laziness in the covenant community (2 Thess. 3:6-10), (7) the exact nature of a convocation day, a feast day, and a Sabbath day, (8) the nature of leisure as awakening your soul to higher things, and (9) how the purpose of rest days points to the work of Christ as the great giver of rest (Mt. 11:28).

But for now, we can say this. Israel’s calendar built rest in at every scale. One day in seven, an extra half-day worth of feasts, and then an entire agricultural sabbatical every seventh year. Rest is woven into the day, the week, the month, and the year, all the way up to the Jubilee, which is not a corporate Christmas party to build company loyalty, but an entire year of receiving divine gifts. God’s divine design is a society that works hard and unto the Lord (Col. 3:17). But the people were forbidden from working endlessly. The whole calendar was pointing to the rest, not just as a time to put your feet up, but as the time to worship, celebrate, and receive the divine rest of the Redeemer who is Lord Sabbath.

Without the liturgical calendar, Israel would have been like the Canaanites, where strange gods were worshiped under strange skies. God’s design of worship, rest, celebration, and work points to the King of King’s defiance of the pagan program that thrusts people up against a vast and vague hostility to divine rest. So odd and beautiful is God’s movement toward rest that the faithful might hear not only the blast of the trumpet, but the voice of the outsider singing along, longing for the perilous grace that is poised to receive him in eternal rest.

^{Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.}

^{[i] The author of Hebrews had something to say about the rest of God (Heb. 3:7 – 4:13).}

^{[ii] We should note that there is another view that this is a distinct 50th year. For our purposes, it matters only very little, as it will change the math slightly if we are calculating on a 49-year window or a 50-year window.}

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Cor 5:17)

Prayer: Almighty God, who formed the earth out of water and through water by your word, who saved Noah and his family through water while destroying the wicked, who delivered your people Israel through the Sea while defeating Pharaoh and his armies, all of which are types of baptism into Christ Jesus, we pray that you will look mercifully upon these children, saving them with your people while destroying sin and death. May they, throughout their lives, relying upon the grace you give to them this day, continue to mortify sin so that at the last day they may participate in the resurrection of the just and reign with Christ Jesus eternally. Amen

Since the time of the fall, new creation was the plan. New creation wouldn’t be the annihilation of the old creation but its transformation into what God intended from the beginning. New creation would be old creation transformed through overcoming sin and death.

The new creation couldn’t be realized until sin and death were conquered because death interrupted the movement from one stage of glory to another. The old creation had to die. Death was the just desert for sin. As long as sin and its death dominated the creation, God’s purposes for the world could never be realized.

We are all conceived in sin, inheriting the guilt and corruption of Adam’s sin. We are conceived as old creation. For this reason, we must die. To say that Jesus died for us is not to say that we no longer must die. Death is an absolute necessity. The benefit of Jesus’ death for us is that we can die with him; that is, we can participate in his death and in his death our old creation selves die.

When we die in union with Christ Jesus, we die with the promise of his resurrection. The old creation man must still die. That is why each of us must be baptized, because in baptism we are buried with Christ in death, as Paul says to the Romans (Rom 6). But if we die with him in baptism, we will also be raised with him, Paul concludes. Christ is the new creation. To be united with Christ, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, is to be new creation.

Today these children will die with Christ just as the rest of us in the church have died with Christ. But they will also be raised with him and be a new creation in Christ Jesus. They, like the rest of us, are a part of God’s promised future world.

New creation like the original is not a completed product but a project. They will need to cultivate their faith consistently, learning what it means to live as God’s new creation.

They must develop this new creation that God has given them just as Adam and Eve were to develop the original creation.

Fathers and mothers, your role in their lives is vital for their continuing lives in the faith. They belong to Jesus, but he has given them to you to be faithful stewards, bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of our Lord. Be faithful to your calling.

Church, encourage these families to faithfulness.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

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Introduction

The Old Testament calendar is a full life liturgy that regulated temple activity, moral expectations, legal codes, and purification processes. It also regulated work and rest. But how many days did the calendar prescribe work and how many days was spent not working?

It’s not a simple answer. Counting the work and rest days of Israel’s calendar requires a biblical-theological reckoning on a 49-year cycle with a concordance in one hand and a calculator in the other.

This reckoning can be organized according to five categories:

• First, the ordinary year.

• Second, the annual feast days.

• Third, the seventh year.

• Fourth, the Jubilee year.

• Fifth, the implications.

Let’s get started.

First, the ordinary year

The expectation for an ordinary week was that the people would work six days and rest one day. The pattern was established at creation. In Genesis 2:1-3, God finishes his work in six days and rests on the seventh day. Notice several things. First, this occurs before the Fall, which means this pattern is not a reaction or result of the Fall. Second, this pattern predates the Mosaic Law, which means it is a creation ordinance. Third, Adam’s first day on earth is a full day of rest, not labor, meaning that in God’s calendar, rest precedes labor.

The 6/1 pattern was then commanded in the Decalogue. Exodus 20:8-10 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work.” Why are people to rest on the seventh day? The answer is in Exodus 20:11, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” This means that the 6/1 pattern is imitation.

Deuteronomy 5 also contains the Decalogue, but the fourth commandment contains a different rationale for the 6/1 pattern. Why must they rest on the seventh day? Deuteronomy 5:15 says, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand.” So, the reason for the 6/1 pattern in Exodus 20 is creational imitation. The reason for the 6/1 pattern in Deuteronomy 5 is in memorial of redemption. Different reasons, it seems. Or are they? In both cases, rest is God’s blessing to his people. The backdrop of Egypt reminded them that slavery is the condition of the person who cannot stop working.^[i]

The 6/1 pattern is also reflected in the surrounding laws of the Torah. Sabbath mercy is extended downward, to servants, foreigners, and animals, suggesting that a society that cannot stop their labor especially harms the dependent parts of the community (Ex. 23:12). During the harvest season when economic pressures is heightened, God’s command for rest is still in force (Ex. 34:21). This is why Nehemiah shut down the Tyrian merchants, wine pressers, and grain loaders working on the Sabbath (Neh. 13:15-22). In the passages about the construction of the tabernacle Moses writes, “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest” (Ex. 31:15; 35:2), reminding the people that even the construction of God’s house does not override the command to rest.

Those who resent the disruption of their work grumble and complain about the command to rest (Amos 8:5). But required rest is God’s good design. Six days of work suffices for seven days needs. The story of the manna in Exodus 16:22-30 includes a double portion on the sixth day. This is God’s provision to protect the rest day of the people.

The ordinary year also includes the new moon days (Num. 10:10; 28:11-15). These days don’t explicitly include the no-work clause. They are primarily a day for sacrifices to God. But then in other passages they are described as special days when work ceased (1 Sam. 20; 2 Kings 4:23; Amos 8:5; Ez. 46:1-3). Sometimes the new moon days are mentioned alongside Sabbaths and feasts, as if they are one class of holy days (Hos. 2:11; Is. 1:13f; 66:23; Col. 2:16). There is one new moon at the beginning of each month (Num. 28:11; Ps. 104:19; Ex. 12:2). The year has twelve months (1 Kings 4:7; 1 Chronicles 27:1-15). So, there are twelve new moon days a year. One out seven new moon days occur on a Sabbath, which was already a non-work day, meaning new moon days add ten or eleven days to the 52 Sabbath days.

Now for the calculation. One sabbath rest day a week for 52 weeks means 52 rest days per year, plus ten new moon days equals 62 non-work days, which is just over 17% of total days in the year.

Second, the annual feast days.

Leviticus 23 is a catch-all description for the feast days in the liturgical calendar.

The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread is seven holy days for the year on which “you shall not do any ordinary work” (Lev. 23:6-8).

Next is listed the Feast of Firstfruits (Lev. 23:9-14). More slender and subtle, no additional holy days result from the Feast of Firstfruits. When there is a holy day of no work, like with the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:7), Pentecost (Lev. 23:21), Trumpets (Lev. 23:24), Atonement (Lev. 23:27), and Tabernacle (Lev. 23:35-36), it is explicitly said there is “no ordinary work.” The Feast of Firstfruits has no such statement, suggesting it is not a day of rest (Lev. 23:9-14).

The Feast of Weeks (AKA Pentecost) is described in Leviticus 23:15-22 and has one holy day (Lev. 23:21). The Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, likewise, receive one holy day each (Lev. 23:24, 27). The Feast of Tabernacles (AKA Booths) has eight holy days. The first and eighth days are for solemn rest. Days two through seven are feast days. No ordinary work is done on these days.

The feasts tell a story. It begins with redemption in the Passover feast, then resurrection in the Feast of Firstfruits anticipating Christ in 1 Cor. 15:20, then the creation of a people at Pentecost where they receive unleavened bread for the first time (Acts 2), then the Feast of Trumpets where a trumpet blasts summons the congregation, then the Feast of Atonement where the blood is carried into the holy place anticipating Christ (Heb. 9-10), then the Feast of Tabernacle where God dwells with them (Zech. 14:16-19; Rev. 21:3). The point of the story is to train the popular instinct to return to it, even in times when the doubting instinct is let loose.

The calendar of feasts and holy days annually walk the people through the story of redemption, past, present, and future. This would continue until the Messiah came to fulfill it. The body and soul are being trained to look to the higher work of the Lord. God is writing a story that has a plot, a crisis, and a resolution. It moves. There are twists and turns; ups and downs; bad guys and good guys. And walking through the shadows of the story, the people see the One True Good Guy, the Messiah. When the Savior fulfills the feast days, it satisfies rather than replaces the need to set aside time to look to the higher things and be shaped by them. This is the real R&R of Scripture. In the divine calendar, the harvest is preparation for the feast. The work is preparation for rejoicing.

The feast days in total add eighteen holy days. When you account for the overlap with Sabbath days, which were already rest days, that means, at minimum, an additional 15 non-work days for the year. So, Sabbath/new moon days (62) plus non-overlapping feast days (15) is 77 rest days a year, which is 21% of the total days in the year.

Third, the seventh year

Leviticus 25:1-7 says that when Israel comes into the land, the land shall be given a Sabbath (Lev. 25:2). For six years Israel works the land and harvests the crops. The seventh year is a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land. This is a time when the people will not work the land (Lev. 25:3-5). This is the 6/1 pattern of the week stretched and applied into years.

What exactly is prohibited on the seventh year? Active, productive agricultural work. Leviticus 25:4-5 say, “You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine.” Reaping is prohibited, meaning they may not harvest the field systematically for the purpose of stockpiling. Gathering is prohibited, meaning, they may not strip the vines completely to press the grapes and store the wine.

What is permitted on the seventh year? Leviticus 25:6-7 says, “The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you.…all its yield shall be for food.” So, on that seventh year, the land is not under cultivation, but it doesn’t stop producing. The people and their animals must still eat. What will they eat? Whatever the untended land yields of itself. But this volunteer growth may not be treated like a harvest. Day by day the people pick and eat what they need.

There are other components of the seventh year. First, as Exodus 23:10-11 explains, the fallow year is a means of provision for those with no land of their own. So, in years 1-6, the person treats the land as their harvest. They own it. In year 7, the owner denies his special claim on the harvest, making it open to those in need. Second, as Deuteronomy 15:1-11 explains, the seventh year is a release from debt. “Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed” (Dt. 15:2).

So, in the seventh year, people still eat, worship, keep the weekly Sabbath, and keep the feasts. They still tend the flocks and gather the volunteer growth. Trades and craft work continue, as does commerce, study, and domestic labor.

How should we handle this in our calculation? Are these 365 rest days? Not exactly. There is prescribed resting from some work. The farmers are given a distinct kind of rest, while other work remains. A significant category of work is removed, but not work as such. For a herdsman or craftsman, the seventh year apparently changed very little. For the agrarian majority of Israel, the seventh year changed a great deal. They experienced a lighter year. Mathematically, these are not counted as additional non-work days, but as lighter work days for a majority of the people.

Fourth, the Jubilee Year

Leviticus 25:8-11 describes a Jubilee year that should take place every “fiftieth year,” which is probably referring to the last year of the 49-year cycle and the first year of the next cycle. So, the “fiftieth year” is overlapping in a way that makes it the 49^th year itself.^[ii] The Jubilee was announced on the Day of Atonement with a trumpet blast (Lev. 25:9). Three releases are commanded. The release of the land (Lev. 25:11-12) where the land was given rest, the release of the property where land reverted to its original family holding (Lev. 25:10, 13-34), and the release of the slaves where Israelite indentured servants went free (Lev. 25:39-55).

The Jubilee year adds no new category of human rest day beyond what we’ve already counted. The Jubilee sets right who is free and who owns what. The free servant returns home, not to rest, but to work his own land. So, it’s not extra rest from work. It’s a different kind of gift, a sort of homecoming of money, people, and land such that everyone is returned to their inheritance. It’s a reset, a refresh, a re-creation, which is what all the work and all the rest was pointing toward, a time when the people and the land would be made whole.

So, the rest days point to the Jubilee year, and the Jubilee year points to the Great Jubilee of the Messiah. Isaiah had foreseen a coming Messiah anointed to “proclaim liberty to the captives” and to announce “the year of the LORD’s favor” (Is. 61:1-2). This is the language of the Jubilee horn, now applied to all history. When Jesus stood in the synagogue at Nazareth and read Isaiah 61, He closed the scroll and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). He was declaring Himself the Jubilee Incarnate. Every seventh year that rested the land, every “fiftieth” that freed the slave and restored the field was a preview of Christ, the Son of God arriving to cancel the true debt, to set the real captives free, and to return His people to the inheritance lost since Eden. Christ accomplished the homecoming the Jubilee year pictured. The rest and worship that Israel practiced one day in seven, Christ offers without end, saying “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28).

Fifth, the implications

When it comes to rest and work, we should strive to talk about it as biblically as possible, which means we must understand God’s liturgical calendar. We must see and count the days. We must run the calculation. We must see the purpose of resting from work.

What is the purpose? The point of rest and leisure is not to make people more efficient cogs in the economic system, but to restore the soul to wholeness. This allows a person to worship the Lord and Giver of Life, celebrate existence in God’s world, see the goodness of reality, and receive truth and beauty as gifts not measurable on a P&L sheet. A feast day, or celebration, or Sabbath that merely stops work for the sake of work serves no higher purpose than work. When the entire liturgical calendar, or corporate calendar, is reduced to fine-tuning man to be a tool for profits, then work becomes a cult—a religion—as if work included the whole field of human existence, activity, and life. This changes the nature of human existence by making “worker” the whole conception of man.

In the Old Testament calendar, 77 out of 365 days are explicitly non-work days, which makes for 1.5 days out of 7. So, the weekly ratio is to work 6 and rest 1, while the annual average is to work 5.5 and rest 1.5, which is the floor for rest days. The seventh year of land rest must also be accounted for. The seventh year hasn’t entered this calculation because some people kept herding, cooking, trading, and foraging.

But, for the agrarian majority, including the farmers and vine dressers who made up most of ancient Israel, the seventh year was dramatically lighter, even if not classified as a rest day. In a normal year, the farmer’s calendar was dominated by the grueling labor of cultivation, plowing, sowing, pruning, weeding, and harvest time. Exodus 34:21 singles out the work of the farmer as part of the covenant renewal need for Sabbath rest.

In the seventh year, all of that work stops. No plowing, no sowing, no pruning, no harvesting. What remains for the farmer is lighter than the work of the other six years. For the majority of people then, the seventh year wasn’t 1.5 rest days a week; it was closer to a year-long reduction to subsistence gathering. This can’t be neatly fit into the calculation, but it is part of the calendar to keep in mind.

It’s true that the laws and ceremonies of the Old Testament expired with that nation-state, including the liturgical calendar of feast days, new moon days, and so on. But the general equity principles still remain for the people of God, which suggests there is biblical wisdom in trying to apply the biblical-theological calendar, calculations, and commission of work and rest.

There are other factors to think about before these principles can be comprehensively formulated, such as (1) how work is not equal to a job/career, (2) how much of the work days should be spent working at the job and how much time should be spent doing other work, (3) the change from an agrarian society to an industrial one, (4) the shift of work as something that once took place inside the home to something that now takes place outside the home, (5) the difference between manual labor and desk work, (6) the intolerance of laziness in the covenant community (2 Thess. 3:6-10), (7) the exact nature of a convocation day, a feast day, and a Sabbath day, (8) the nature of leisure as awakening your soul to higher things, and (9) how the purpose of rest days points to the work of Christ as the great giver of rest (Mt. 11:28).

But for now, we can say this. Israel’s calendar built rest in at every scale. One day in seven, an extra half-day worth of feasts, and then an entire agricultural sabbatical every seventh year. Rest is woven into the day, the week, the month, and the year, all the way up to the Jubilee, which is not a corporate Christmas party to build company loyalty, but an entire year of receiving divine gifts. God’s divine design is a society that works hard and unto the Lord (Col. 3:17). But the people were forbidden from working endlessly. The whole calendar was pointing to the rest, not just as a time to put your feet up, but as the time to worship, celebrate, and receive the divine rest of the Redeemer who is Lord Sabbath.

Without the liturgical calendar, Israel would have been like the Canaanites, where strange gods were worshiped under strange skies. God’s design of worship, rest, celebration, and work points to the King of King’s defiance of the pagan program that thrusts people up against a vast and vague hostility to divine rest. So odd and beautiful is God’s movement toward rest that the faithful might hear not only the blast of the trumpet, but the voice of the outsider singing along, longing for the perilous grace that is poised to receive him in eternal rest.

^{Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.}

^{[i] The author of Hebrews had something to say about the rest of God (Heb. 3:7 – 4:13).}

^{[ii] We should note that there is another view that this is a distinct 50th year. For our purposes, it matters only very little, as it will change the math slightly if we are calculating on a 49-year window or a 50-year window.}

I believe understanding duty in this way is misguided. Duty reflects an allegiance that runs deeper than present emotions. It is being committed to people so that you do what is best for them no matter how you feel in the present.

Jesus loved us dutifully. On the night Jesus was betrayed, he told his disciples that his being glorified by the Father for their sakes would involve him going on a lonely journey (Jn 13:33). No one else could do this. This was Jesus’ personal responsibility, his duty. We know from Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane that he didn’t have the warm fuzzies about enduring the cross. Emotions may have been screaming at him to find every way to avoid the cross, but he had a deeper allegiance to his Father, his disciples, and the world than his present feelings of dread. He had a duty.

Jesus gave the same duty to his disciples when he told them, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (Jn 13:34). Loving one another is our duty. We are to have an allegiance to God’s people that runs deeper than our present emotions of irritation or impatience. While we are to work to get our emotions in line with our duty, we are to dutifully love whether we feel like it or not. We are to serve others’ genuine needs when it disrupts our comfort or even when they don’t understand (as the disciples didn’t always understand why Jesus was doing what he was doing).

Only as we do our duty in love will all men know that we are Christ’s disciples. They will not know that we are Christ’s disciples by how we demonstrate our intelligence or how many online arguments we engage in. The world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples when we fulfill our duty to love one another

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In order for your family to fulfill its God-given mission, the first thing that must be done is for you and your family to be subdued to the lordship of Jesus. This begins in fulfilling our mission to enter into the presence of God to hear from and speak to him. This is prayer. God’s plan is for the world to take a certain shape, to look like heaven. We won’t know what that is unless we first hear from him. This is where family worship or family prayer comes in. Family worship is time dedicated to prayer and the Scriptures in the context of daily life. It is focused and purposeful reading and meditation on Scripture and responding to God in confession, praise, thanksgiving, and supplication. One of the goals of family worship is to shape your family as a whole and each individual more into the image of Christ.

Those whom God has placed in authority in the home (principally husbands and fathers but also wives and mothers) are expected to be leading the household to be shaped by the Scriptures. God expected Adam to lead Eve. Paul instructs the Corinthian women to seek instruction from their husbands at home (1Cor 14:35) as well as fathers to bring up their children in the culture and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4). Proverbs speaks several times not only of a son listening to his father, but also to his mother (Pr 1:8; 6:20; 23:22). This instruction is to take place throughout the course of daily life (Deut 6:4-9) as well as having dedicated times for prayer. No one method of family worship is prescribed by Scripture, but the principle of developing our families as Christian families begins by leading them to be worshipers of God. It is incumbent upon Christian families to spend time in prayer.

Family worship has a bigger purpose than your specific household. Your family worship serves the church, the family of God. Regular, faithful family worship has each of our families dealing with sin, being instructed in righteousness, and praying for the needs of others. When we are being confronted with the Scriptures, dealing with our own sins, and praying for others, the peace, purity, and unity of the church are being promoted. As we practice faithful family worship throughout the week, we are also being prepared to gather with our larger family, the church, to participate in corporate worship. Our minds, hearts, and bodies have been cultivated all week for this gathered worship. Our children have been trained to distinguish worship time from playtime. As your family is disciplined to set aside time in which the children are trained to speak and not speak, they are learning how to submit, deferring to others, and worship in unity with their brothers and sisters. Family worship contributes not only to your own personal discipleship but also to the discipleship of the entire family, thus fulfilling Christ’s commission to his church.

Family (or household) worship should never be seen as a replacement for worship with the rest of the church. Paul distinguishes what goes on in households from the gathering of the church when he speaks to the Corinthian church (1Cor 11:17-34). Nevertheless, family or household worship is vital to the health of the church. Since the church doesn’t gather every day for prayer, our health is maintained through individuals and families being disciplined to meditate on the Scriptures and spend time in prayer. In order for the church to be faithful, its individuals and families must be faithful. To remain faithful, we must be continually transformed by the renewing of the way we think about God, one another, and the world around us. This does not happen by meeting together once or twice a week. We must be shaped daily by meditation on the Scriptures and prayer. Your family worship is one discipline that shapes you and your family to think and act biblically.

If family worship is to take place, it must be deliberately scheduled. Like any other discipline, family worship will not “just happen.” If left unscheduled, it will be left undone. Due consideration needs to be given to the schedules in the household, and there will need to be flexibility at times. But if family worship is to be a part of your family’s life as it should be, there will have to be some time in which you say, “Everything else must be set aside. Now is the time for family worship.” It is good to have family worship around meal times since that is generally when everyone, or most everyone, is there. Whenever it is scheduled, it must be scheduled.

Family worship will also require some preparation. This may not be extensive preparation as if you are preparing a lecture, but there will need to be a “plan of attack.” What are you going to do? Is there a liturgy/order you follow? Where will you be reading? Those things need to be thought through. There are many materials out there to help you work through the Scriptures. You may even draw from weekly sermons, focusing on different points in the sermon and discussing them with your family. Even if you are only reading through books of the Bible, have a plan.

Family worship should include Scripture reading and prayer, but it may also incorporate the use of catechisms and creeds. You may want to include singing as well. There are no hard and fast rules about what you should and shouldn’t do. If you only read the Scriptures and pray, that’s fine. If you have very small children, those may be the only things you are able to do. The situations change depending on the life stage of your family. If your children are really young, ten to fifteen minutes may be a long family worship time. As they grow older and interact, you might spend much longer. Know your family and adapt. But whatever you do, don’t neglect the Scriptures and prayer in your home. The discipline is rewarding, and the rewards are eternal

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No, he didn’t.

John tells us that Jesus was “troubled in spirit” when he announced to the Twelve, “one of you will betray me” (Jn 13:21). Being “troubled in spirit” is what we might call “being torn up inside.” Jesus was heartbroken. Referring to Psalm 41 earlier, Jesus speaks of his betrayal as the fulfillment of the pattern set in David’s life, particularly in the rebellion of his son, Absalom. Absalom was the son of David, but he wasn’t the son in line to inherit the throne. However, he wanted to be king. He sat at the gate, the place of judgment, and stirred up discontent against David, positioning himself with the people as the answer to all the wrong ways of David being king. He was successful. Even Ahithophel, David’s “familiar friend,” his closest counselor, bought into Absalom’s rebellious mission. Ahithophel joined Absalom in “lifting up his heel” against David.

“Lifting up the heel” is an image that goes back to Genesis 3 and the curse of the serpent. The heel that is bruised will bruise the head of the serpent. To put someone underfoot is to defeat them as you would the serpent. To Ahithophel, David was the serpent whose head needed crushing. David’s closest counselor, the one in whom he entrusted himself and all that he did, believes him to be the serpentine enemy who needs crushing.

During the meal that night, Judas was on the left-hand side of Jesus, a place of honor. He was given bread that had been dipped, a sign of friendship and unity. But Judas had already bought into the Jewish leadership’s view of Jesus’ kingship, rebelling against him as the Son of God, and seeing him as the serpent who needed to be crushed.

Jesus was troubled in spirit. Though it was all part of the plan, it still hurt deeply.

We are created for relationships of peace because we are created in the image of a Triune God who dwells together in a relationship of peace. Whenever a close relationship is damaged or broken, we hurt. Yes, we believe that God is sovereign, and that all of this is according to his plan. It still hurts. Yes, we are confident that we are being faithful to God in what we are doing, and the relationship is being damaged because of that faithfulness. It still hurts. The emotional pain doesn’t deter us from faithfulness to God, but it still hurts.

If you live long enough, you will be betrayed. Someone you trust will turn on you and count you as the enemy. The servant is not greater than his Lord. Examine yourself to see if you, indeed, were being faithful. If you weren’t, repent and ask for forgiveness. If you were faithful and the problem lies in the other person, grieve and stay on mission. Let them go as Jesus let Judas go

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A good leader sees the deeper needs and seeks to meet them so that those he leads may become whole, healthy people. Jesus gives us an example of this on the night he was betrayed, when he washed his disciples’ feet.

Jesus loved his disciples. He loved until the day that he died, when he gave everything for them (Jn 13:1). He loved impetuous Peter, the disciples who feared and doubted, and impenitent Judas. He loved them all to the uttermost, and he demonstrated that love in parabolic action when he washed their feet.

While John’s record focuses on Jesus’ act of service, two disciples stand out: Peter and Judas. Both received Jesus’ service. Each responded differently.

When Jesus comes to Peter, Peter, being Peter, objects to his Lord washing his feet. This is below his Lord’s station. “You shall never wash my feet,” Peter exclaims. Jesus tells Peter that if he doesn’t receive the washing, he has no inheritance with him. The pendulum swings the other way violently, and Peter wants his head and hands washed. Jesus told him that there was no need for that. Washing his feet was sufficient.

Jesus knew exactly what Peter needed, and Peter didn’t. In fact, Jesus told him that he didn’t understand and wouldn’t understand until after everything was accomplished (Jn 13:7). Jesus served Peter by giving him what he genuinely needed, not what Peter thought he needed.

The phrase “servant leader” is used in the Christian church today, grounded in Jesus’ words about the greatest among his disciples being the servant of all. While the title can be justified, the meaning stuffed into the semantic skin cannot. “Servant leader” has come to mean becoming a “Yes man” or saying, “Yes, ma’am.” A true, humble servant is a doormat for everyone’s perceived needs. Capitulation is true service. Never do we see Jesus doing this. Jesus didn’t say, “Peter, whatever you want. I’m here to serve you.” As the leader, Jesus’ responsibility was to understand the greater mission and, therefore, the true needs. He was then tasked with meeting those genuine needs. This meant saying, “No” to Peter’s false humility and then to his zeal without knowledge. Peter didn’t know what he needed. Jesus did, and he was lovingly unyielding to Peter.

After Jesus’ correction, Peter submits to Jesus and receives his grace. Judas, on the other hand, never objects to Jesus’ service, but doesn’t receive his grace. Judas remains unclean, even though his feet are washed by the Lord (Jn 13:10-11). His impenitent heart of betrayal accepts the washing but refuses Jesus’ service. Unlike Peter, who sees his error, Judas persists in his quiet rebellion. Yet Jesus offers him nothing more, even knowing that he is about to betray him. This is it. He has the offer of the grace of cleansing just as the other disciples. Jesus doesn’t beg, plead, or cajole. He lovingly offers. Though grace is given by the hands of Jesus himself, Judas refuses.

Servants are not greater than their Lord. If we, following Jesus, are called to offer grace to others, we can expect similar responses. There will be some who receive it. There will be others, like Peter, who zealously flail around until they are brought to their senses. There will be some who refuse. No husband, father, wife, mother, pastor, elder, deacon, or anyone else in authority will have a one hundred percent positive response rate. While we should consistently evaluate our approach, we should always seek to meet the genuine needs of those we serve and not capitulate to and, thus, enable, immature and sinful behavior. This requires that we understand what the genuine needs are, first, and then be lovingly unyielding to the whims or rebellion of those we serve

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The sign of the Abrahamic Covenant was circumcision, which was not merely a national or ethnic identity marker, like a tribal tattoo or a passport stamp. It was God’s covenant sign, marking that a person belonged to His covenant family outwardly and inwardly. The physical cutting away anticipated a spiritual cut to the heart, a spiritual change that included faith (Dt. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4; Rom. 2:28f). Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision, which was considered “a sign and seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised” (Rom. 4:11). Circumcision was a physical sign pointing to a spiritual reality.

God said this to Abraham, “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant” (Gen. 17:7). This is why in the Old Testament they started applying the covenant sign not just to the parents who had faith, but to their male children, pointing forward to the day when the child would receive the gift of the covenant sign with faith.

But what about the baby girls? They couldn’t be circumcised. Does that mean they were not included in the covenant like the boys?

Girls were covenant members just like the boys were, but not by their own sign. They were members of the covenant by federal representation through the circumcision of the household males. Genesis 17:11 says “You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.” The “you” is plural, meaning “you all.” When the males were circumcised, the entire household, including the females, was counted as bearing the covenant sign.

So, the OT contains a male covenant initiation sign of circumcision that included blood. But also, there is a broader washing ritual, a program of purification that was applied to all, including baby girls.

Leviticus and the purification of mother and newborn

Leviticus 12 describes the process of purification for a mother and her newborn child in three phases.

Phase one is the time of impurity. For the male child, the mother is ceremonially unclean for seven days (Lev. 12:2), and the boy is circumcised on the eighth day (Lev. 12:3). For the female child, the mother is ceremonially unclean for fourteen days (Lev. 12:5). Part of the asymmetry between male and female is that the male child’s eighth-day circumcision happens the day the mother’s first phase ends.

Phase two is the blood of purifying. For the male child, the mother remains “in the blood of her purifying” for thirty-three days (Lev. 12:4). For the female child, the mother remains “in the blood of her purifying” for sixty-six days (Lev. 12:5). During this time, the mother, “shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed” (Lev. 12:4).

Phase three is the sacrifice and washing at the sanctuary. When the days of her purifying are complete, she brings a lamb, or if poor like Mary (Lk. 2:24) she brings two birds (Lev. 12:6). This is for the burnt offering and a sin offering, as mentioned in Leviticus 15:30. The priest “shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her. Then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood” (Lev. 12:7).

Think about the three groups. There is the mother, the baby boy, and the baby girl. How is the mother restored to temple worship? Through sacrifice and cleansing, not circumcision. How is the boy incorporated into the covenant? Through the blood-sign of the covenant cut into his body (Lev. 12:3), then through atonement and offering (Lev. 12:7), and finally through ceremonial washing. How is the girl incorporated into the covenant? Through the atonement and offering mentioned in Leviticus 12:7 and the ceremonial washing. Leviticus 15:19-28 elaborates on the postpartum impurity. There is washing with water (Lev. 15:21, 27), which returns the mother and child to cleanness through water.

The boy’s sign of circumcision is named while the girl gets no named rite. Instead, the girl, along with the boy, passes into the water purification process. Why are the newborns impure? Impurity is transmissible by contact (Lev. 15:21-23; 26-27). So, the mother is unclean, and the newborn is in ongoing physical contact with her. The mother is nursing the child and holding the child through the entire seven or fourteen-day phase. Thus, the newborn is unclean and in need of the washing with water.

The question is this: Does washing the newborn girl with water have any significance for entrance into the covenant? On the surface the answer seems to be an obvious “no.” But then we read the prophetic words of Ezekiel 16.

Ezekiel 16 – Covenant Entry by Washing

Ezekiel 16:4-9 depicts God’s covenant relationship with Israel using the figure of an abandoned newborn girl. At birth, this baby girl was not washed with water for cleansing. She was not salted or swaddled (Ez. 16:4). The Lord saw this pitiable child wallowing in blood and decided to enter into covenant with her (Ez. 16:5-8). How does God enter into covenant with the baby girl? He washed her with water, cleaned off the blood, and anointed her with oil (Ez. 16:9).

The actions of Ezekiel 16:4-9 don’t strictly follow the postpartum cleansing phases described in Leviticus 12 and Leviticus 15. Rather, it is an image of a newborn girl being washed at birth as the beginning of a covenant relationship. It’s not a male child in this passage, but a female. The sex that does not receive the covenant sign in the Torah does receive covenant washing in Ezekiel. And the sex that does not receive covenant washing in Ezekiel does receive the covenant sign in the Torah.

This anticipates the New Covenant where “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ …. male and female” (Gal. 3:27f). There is something fitting, almost narratively foreseeable from the perspective of the Old Testament. In the Abrahamic Covenant the sign, carried out by knife, excluded half the children, while the female child was purified with no knife. According to Colossians 2:11-12, in the New Covenant, circumcision gives way to a new sign carried out with water, the very element that had been ceremonially washing the mothers of the covenant, and their newborns, for millennia. Water was always in view, even when it hadn’t become a covenant sign yet. If the blood-sign of the Abrahamic Covenant was selective (male only), the water-sign of the New Covenant is comprehensive (male and female).

Consider another Old Testament text that anticipates the inclusiveness of the baptism rite.

Numbers 19 – Water in the Sacrifice

In Numbers 19, a red heifer, without blemish and never yoked, is slaughtered outside the camp and burned entirely, including hide, flesh, blood, and even dung (Num. 19:1-5). The priest then throws cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet into the fire, and the heifer burns (Num. 19:6). The priest cleans himself and his clothes with water before gathering the ashes and storing them outside the camp in a clean place (Num. 19:7-10).

Why is all this done? It is preparation for the purification of the people to use as a sin offering (Num. 19:9). When needed, a clean person takes some of the ash, adds “living water” (Num. 19:17) and this becomes the water to clean those who are impure (Num. 19:19). A clean person dips hyssop in the water and sprinkles it on the defiled person on the third and seventh days (Num. 19:17-19). The blood was applied once and sprinkled toward the tent (Num. 19:4), but the ongoing work of cleansing is through the sprinkled water (Num. 19:19).

The author of Hebrews describes this process in Hebrews 9:13, saying, “The blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh.” This is one of the “various washings” (baptismois) referred to in Hebrews 9:10. Unlike circumcision, the red-heifer water (what else shall we call it?) reaches everyone, male and female; adult and child; even “for the stranger” (Num. 19:10) who needed purification (19:9). All “the persons who were there” where death occurred get sprinkled (Num. 19:18). This inclusiveness seems to be anticipating Galatians 3:28.

The reason the ceremonial rites of Numbers 19 are inclusive is because it deals with the impurity that comes from being near a dead body. Anyone in a tent or house where death occurs; anyone who touches a dead body or grave, becomes impure, whether they be infants, females, or sojourners. Which means infants, females, and sojourners—indeed everyone—each receive, in the words of Hebrews 9:10-13, baptism by sprinkling, not as covenant-initiation, but as the sprinkling of purification water.

Hebrews 13 – Christ Connection

In Numbers 19:9 the ashes are gathered up outside the camp. Remember, Hebrews 9:13 summarized the red heifer sacrifice of Numbers 19. Then Hebrews picks this thread up again in Hebrews 13:11-13. Look for the connection.

“For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.”

Christ suffering “outside the gate” (Heb. 13:12). The water that cleanses is ash-of-death mixed with living water, kept outside the gate (Num. 19:1-9, 17). In the Old Covenant, death and living water were combined and sprinkled on everyone who had touched death. This was done so they may approach the sanctuary. In the New Covenant, Jesus’ death, in complete fulfillment of the sacrificial system, sanctifies the people through his blood (Heb. 13:12). It’s a new rite where “our hearts sprinkled clean… and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22). And not just water, but also the Spirit, as Jesus taught, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:5).

This inclusion of the Spirit for all God’s people takes us to the promises of a New Covenant.

New Covenant Prophecies

The New Testament merges the male sign of circumcision and the various purification washings to create the sign of the New Covenant, baptism by water. This is an inclusive measure that replaces the blood of circumcision, the male-exclusive sign. The New Covenant prophecies reach for water and Spirit imagery when describing the internalization. The shift from a blood-sign to a water-sign means the sign of the New Covenant is applied to both sexes.

Ezekiel 36:25-27 describes the New Covenant with a sequence that involves water, new heart (internalization), and Spirit.

Ezekiel 36:25, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.”

Ezekiel 36:26, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.”

Ezekiel 36:27, “And I will put my Spirit within you.”

Notice a few things. The mode of applying the water is sprinkling. This is the same mode as Numbers 19 and the same mode emphasized in Hebrews 9-10. Why does Ezekiel pick the mode of sprinkling? Remember, Ezekiel is not just a prophet, but also a priest (Ez. 1:3). He was trained in the purification system where sprinkled water was used to restore the impure.

Notice also that Ezekiel changes the sign from circumcision to water baptism. The New Covenant promise includes internalization (Ez. 36:26; Jer. 31:31-34) and the Spirit for all (Ez. 36:27; Joel 2:28-30). In Ezekiel’s presentation, the sign of the New Covenant, baptism, is entrance into the New Covenant of internalization and receiving the Spirit.

Jesus brings these two things together in John 3:5, teaching that those united to Christ are “born of water and the Spirit.” Jesus is getting this from Ezekiel 36:25-27 and Isaiah 44:1-5. It’s worth noting that Jesus’s words in John 3:5 use Isaiah 44:1-5, which says the recipients of the water and Spirit are the newborn offspring of believers. So, in Jesus’ mind, the New Covenant promise and the application of water retains the same household form found in the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 17:7). Jesus knew the words of Jeremiah 31:34 where the New Covenant is given to all. Who is all? “The least of them to the greatest,” an all-inclusive phrase that refers to all ages, from infants to the elderly, and both sexes, male and female (Jer. 6:9-15). Jesus also knew the words of Isaiah 52:15 that extends the sprinkling of water to the nations, signaling that the New Covenant is inclusive not just of age and gender, but also to Gentiles.

Then there is Zechariah 13:1 which says, “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.” So, this takes the fountain of living water image and specifically connects it to cleansing from not just uncleanness, but also sin. Paul sees this same connection when he writes that God saved his people from their sins by the water of regeneration (Titus 3:5).

Conclusion

The asymmetry of circumcision applied to boys but not girls was always pointing toward a water-sign that would gather in everyone. The prophets describe the new sign of water and apply it to the whole people, and to their offspring, and to the Gentiles. In the New Covenant, there are not “various washings” as in the Old Testament (Heb. 9:10), but one baptism and one people joined to one Spirit. One faith in the one Lord, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:4-6).

_{Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.}

However, relying upon the biblical story told through the prophet Isaiah, John tells us that this is exactly how the story was always intended to unfold. John quotes from Isaiah 53:1, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Isaiah is speaking of the Suffering Servant who “lifted up” (Isa 52:13) as Jesus spoke of himself (Jn 12:32). The Messiah will be exalted, but his throne will be a bloody throne, just like his earthly throne in the Temple, the ark of the covenant. The arm of the Lord has been revealed as it was in the Exodus (Ex 6:6), but it is through the suffering King who bears our griefs, carries our sorrows, and is wounded for our transgressions. Who would believe such a message? Obviously not Israel.

But this too was prophesied through Isaiah. When Isaiah was commissioned in the Temple vision (Isa 6), God told him that his preaching would further Israel and Judah’s blindness, deafness, and hardness of heart. The purpose of his preaching was judgment on these rebellious people, not their salvation. They don’t believe the message (“the report”) because that is what God intended.

The one Isaiah saw exalted and who commissioned him is the glory of God that performs all these signs before Israel. Rejection of Isaiah was rejection of the one who sent him, and the one who sent Isaiah stands before them. The story within the story is that Israel must be hardened so that God’s purpose of salvation for the world can be accomplished (Rom 9—11). God’s plan was always “failure.” This was the only way to greater fruitfulness.

God’s metric for success is and has always been faithfulness. Faithfulness is never failure in God’s economy. We tend to measure ministries by nickels and noses. Men don’t tend to flock to pastors of small churches who have faithfully shepherded God’s people for years to seek their counsel. We are drawn to those who are bringing in the numbers. The man who has fought and struggled with little outward success is looked upon with suspicion. Maybe he should be. Maybe he hasn’t been faithful, and that’s the reason for the troubles he’s faced. But it is possible that, like Jesus and Paul, he might need to be judged by a different standard.

The same is true in other situations in life. Maybe that business venture failed because a man refused to compromise morals with his partners. Maybe that man lost his wife because she didn’t want to be faithful.

The metric God uses is faithfulness. Sometimes the fruitfulness of that faithfulness is seen immediately and steadily. Sometimes it is seen in the future, even after someone’s death. Faithfulness will always be fruitful, but it will not always be “successful” in the short run. Our concern is faithfulness. Be faithful in everything: what you say, how you say it, what you do, and how you work. Be faithful wherever God has put you, even if it is in a difficult place to be “successful” in the short run. Your faithfulness is never failure

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Introduction

The God of the Bible is addressed as a “He,” and never a “She.” God the Father is repeatedly called Father and given the pronoun “He” (Dt. 32:6; Ps. 103:13; Is. 64:8; Mal. 2:10; Mt. 6:9; Mt. 7:11; Jn. 5:19-23; Rom. 8:15; 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 1:3). God the Son is repeatedly called Son and given the pronoun “He,” even becoming a man (Is. 9:6; Mt. 1:21; Lk. 1:32; Jn. 1:1-3, 14; 8:58; Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:3; Rev. 1:13-18; Eph. 5:25). God the Spirit is repeatedly given the masculine pronoun, signaling that the Spirit is not an “it” but a person, and signaling that this person should be recognized masculinely (Jn. 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-8, 13-14).

The Transcendent “He”

In the ancient world, “She” symbolized something immanent, something familiar, something motherly. “He” symbolized something transcendent, something other than the world. When God made the world, he made a ‘creaturely other’ outside of God himself. God is something distinct from Mother Earth, something outside the system.

The transcendence of God establishes the Creator/creature distinction. Before there was space, time, or matter, He was. He created space and time; the heavens and the earth; ethereal and human beings. God creates the world and then rules the world with full authority. He (not She) impregnated the created order with life. The Personal created the impersonal, and as an apologetic aside, we should carefully note that the reverse is impossible.

Non-being received life from Being, which means there are two modes of being. The first is that God existed in the beginning. He is eternal. The second is that human beings exist because God created them. They are derivative. God is unmade and man is made. Except for that one man, Jesus Christ, the one divine “He” that incarnated and came to the earth from without.

The Representative “he”

Priests are representatives of their God, which is why Israel had no priestess or goddess. The priest mediates between God and man. The mediator, as a symbol of his God, cannot be a woman for a God who is not a mother.

Women are not excluded from the role of pastor or elder because of prejudice or contempt for women. Jesus had a large following of women (Luke 8:1–3; Matthew 27:55–56; Mark 15:40–41; Luke 23:55–56; John 20:1–18; Acts 9:36). Women prophesied in the Old and New Testaments (Exodus 15:20; Judges 4:4; 2 Kings 22:14; Joel 2:28–29; Luke 2:36–38; Acts 2:17–18; Acts 21:9; 1 Corinthians 11:5), and wrote some of the most beautiful poetry in all of revealed religion (Jdg. 5:1-31; Lk. 1:46-55). The central question isn’t the worth, competence, or talent of women.

A pastor is a representative who represents the church to God and God to the church. He prays to God for the congregation. He preaches to the congregation for God. These tasks, along with the Sacramental ones, require the masculine imaginary. Since God is our Father, the divine He, rather than mother and She, a female pastor would embark on a different religion. The drive to clothe God with female pronouns under the sanctimonious imprimatur of egalitarianism—all bow—is the creation of a new “gospel.”

God has taught us how to speak of him. He has given the church men who are pastors and elders (1 Cor. 14:35; 1 Tim. 2:11-15; Titus 1:6). To change God from He to She, and change his representative from he to she, is not an argument for tolerance. Neither is it a benign theological eccentricity, as if some law of mutuality must clobber every part of life. It is an argument against Christianity as a revealed metaphysical religion. The only female gods in scripture are false gods, such as Ashtoreth, the wife of Baal (Judg. 10:6, 1 Sam 7:4, 12:10). If you can change the biblical concept of God, you have created a false god.

Masculine representation and imaginary mediate the identity of God. Sex and gender can’t be neutered without God himself being neutered. God is teaching the congregation through biological sex, which symbolizes something unchangeable about God, similar to how marriage between one man and one woman for one lifetime expresses something unchangeable about the union of Christ to the church (Eph. 5:22-33). Pastors can’t be female unless absolute reality can shift and change. He and she are not just facts of nature, but the shadows of reality that are designed to teach the world.

Conclusion

Jesus refers to God as the heavenly Father (Matthew 6:9; Matthew 6:26; Matthew 7:11; Matthew 11:25–27; Matthew 23:9; Luke 11:2; John 5:17–18; John 20:17), as does Paul (Romans 1:7; Romans 8:15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 1:3; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 4:6; Philippians 4:20). They saw this in the Old Testament, and they believed it themselves. They believed in one masculine God, not in a pantheon of gods and goddesses like the ancient Greeks or the Hindus.

Christ is the bridegroom and the church is the bride (Matthew 9:15; Matthew 25:1–13; Mark 2:19–20; John 3:29; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25–32; Revelation 19:7–9; Revelation 21:2, 9; Revelation 22:17). God is He and the church is she. This is because of who God is. He is the one and only Absolute Person of the universe, the only self-existent being. God is never the means to our end or the cherry on top of a comfortable life. He is not subordinate to us but us to him. He is not relative to us. He is absolute, and we are in relation to him. He is the great I AM. He asks the questions and He has all the answers. We are not the judge and God the defendant. He is the judge and we must give account. He is the Potter. We are the clay (Rom. 9:19-23). God is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and not act? Does he promise and not fulfill (Num. 23:19)?

God’s various names reveal Him, which means the name “Father” reveals Him, as does the pronoun He. God is a He and never a She. It is ontologically who He is. It is metaphysically the grammar of complete and utter sovereign self-existence.

^{Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.}

^Bibliography

^{John M. Frame, The Doctrine of God, A Theology of Lordship (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2002), 383-386.}

^{Peter Kreeft, The Philosophy of Jesus (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2007), 14f, 40ff.}

^{C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1970), 234-239.}

There are endless Scripture passages that I could go to in entering into this discourse. One of my favourite passages in talking about the fight against sin and for holiness is Colossians 3.

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God… Put to death therefore what is earthly in you… and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Col. 3,5,10)

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Another favourite passage is Ephesians 6:10–13 and forward:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm…”

Throughout the Scriptures, the imagery for fighting sin is martial imagery.

Of course, those who would fight and would fight effectively, must not only hate what is in front of them, but also love what they are fighting for. In order to fight against sin, you must know what is true, good and beautiful that you are fighting for.

For example, a man may be fighting off some sort of sexual sin - pornography usage, lustful thoughts. To fight that sin, you must not just hate the sin, but you also must love something more than the sin. You must love Christ, you must love the Triune God. And in loving God, your loves will be rightly ordered. You will fight the sin with an affection for your own wife. You will fight the sin if you are not married by dwelling upon the beauty of a chaste life and the joy of walking with God, with the hope of potentially getting married in the future.

For that reason I want to lay out a list of tools in the tool-belt of fighting the wiles of Satan.

(1) Confession of sin. There is no greater tool that Satan uses to oppress Christians than the guilt and the shame of unconfessed sin. When that sin has been confessed and forgiven, he loves to remind the Christian of it so that you will be hampered in your war against evil and against the Evil One.

We read in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” James writes in James 5:16: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

(2) Speaking the truth. Satan love the shadows, the spin, the grey spaces of the night. He hates the truth because the truth sets men free (Jn. 8:31-32). That is because Satan hates Christ and Christ is the source of all truth, beauty and goodness.

We read in 1 John 1:6: “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” The Apostle John also pens in John 3:20–21: “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” The Apostle Paul uses martial imagery again in Romans 13:12: “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

(3) The Church. A man was not supposed to do this all alone. I have already quoted from James 5:16: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” Notice the one anotherness here. Obviously it is helpful to confess your sins to a pastor and to receive counsel from that pastor. But there is also a priestly aspect to the congregation and those within the congregation as we reflect Christ to one another. The healthiest congregations of the church are where sin is exposed in a healthy manner and tended to by individuals and communities in obedience to Jesus Christ, always acknowledging the mercy and grace of His loving sacrifice.

Of course, the ministry of the Word & sacrament is pivotal in the battle with sin. The Lord’s Supper being one of the major places where the Lord Himself nourishes our faith and gives us strength to go out into the battle again. The ministry of the Word is necessary for encouragement, rebuke and exhortation in this ongoing warfare.

(4) Prayer is a major tool for waging war. Paul includes in the full armour in Ephesians 6 the line “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayers and supplications.” When a Christian is too stubborn and proud to get down on his knees and call out to God in prayer, that is a sign that he will lose the fight. God has given prayer as a means by which we fight against the evil one and win in the evil day.

(5) Singing. Singing is a form of prayer. Melody can be a powerful tool for evil, but also for good. Remember that King David calmed Saul down with melody. In Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, Paul acknowledges that the singing of Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs plays a central role in the life of the congregation. In James 5:13, James calls on men to pray when they are in trouble and to sing when they are cheerful. In Zephaniah 3:17, God sings over the salvation of His people.

But singing is also warfare. In II Chronicles 20, singing plays a central role in the defeat of Jehoshaphat’s enemies. In Acts 16:15-26, the Apostles sing in prison. In Psalm 59:16, King David sings in the face of threats.

This should not fall flat on the ears of the Christian, that song is a tool of war against sin and evil and temptation and the Devil.

(6) Meditation. By meditation, I don’t mean emptying your mind, but filling it with truth beauty and goodness, especially with the holy Scriptures. God commands Joshua in Joshua 1:8: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” This is descriptive of the righteous man in Psalm 1:2: “but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Our Lord Jesus Christ is the righteous man, and demonstrates through the gospels His deep knowledge of the Scriptures in teaching the people and refuting the errors of the teachers of that day. We must meditate on the Scriptures in union with Him.

(7) Holy laughter. This is not often included the list of tools, nevertheless the Bible is full of references to joy. In Nehemiah 8:10, Nehemiah tells the people “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Our Lord demonstrates His joy by rejoicing over His people with song (Zeph. 3:17), but also laughing at the vain conspiracies of the nations against Him and His Word (Psalm 2). Throughout the Scriptures we see the mockery of evil from Elijah, Ezekiel, the Apostle Paul, and our Lord Himself.

Now, of course we must distinguish here between the mockery of what is evil and the mockery of what is good. Too many young men have taken good advice on mockery, and turned it on what is good in our age, reflecting the foolishness of the young friends of Solomon’s son Jeroboam, rather than imitating the humor and mockery of our Lord and His prophets.

If there is one principle target of our mockery, that is the Devil himself, as Luther so aptly displayed in his example.

To laugh as you face trouble and battle with the Evil One and his minions is quite fitting in response to the command of James in James 1:2–4: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Joy and laughter will blow away the clouds of moroseness and sorrow that afflict the embattled man.

With that I’ll leave you for today and invite you to add anything you think I missed in the comments. Of course, the focus of this article was on the major Biblical tools, but there are many supplementary tools for this battle, like exercise, diet, sleep etc. Don’t forget about those. But what I have laid out above is of the highest value.

Pastor Nathan Zekveld

Note - This article has been cross-posted today on both Kuyperian Commentary and Nathan Zekveld’s Substack.

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b) What Cape Verde—a nation of roughly half a million people—accomplished is the pinnacle of excellence: a country unknown to much of the world emerged on the world stage and took on the greatest team in the world, Argentina. From Vozinha to Duarte, a tiny country showed what a concentrated strategy can look like when applied rigorously and methodically. Lots of life lessons here.

c) Germany’s might in 2014—defeating Brazil 7–1 and then winning the World Cup—was the end of an era of greatness. Germany’s talents have lost their competitive sense of the game. You cannot simply rely on Bayern Munich’s excellence to propel the nation to glory. Even if Neuer were 25—he’s 40—he still could not have protected a weak defense and an unimpressive squad.

d) Around five billion people engaged with the World Cup in 2022. I suspect that number will increase this year. It’s a testament to American capitalism, creativity, and marketing. Fox One’s line-up with Henry, Ibrahimović, and Lalas is hilarious, tense, and informative—a perfect combination.

e) Messi is far superior to Cristiano Ronaldo. He may not have scored as many goals, but he is a player who can always change things; he can do the unexpected at any moment. Ronaldo is fabulous, but predictable in his capacity. Messi plays like a man who sees three seconds into the future.

f) Mexico made the Azteca Stadium look like a coliseum. Those players fought hard, and aside from Norway, they had my favorite fans.

g) The future of Brazilian soccer will require a form of national congress, a Vatican-level, Constantinian gathering of the intellectuals and practitioners of the game. We need to reconsider the sport anew: how to develop midfielders, wingers, and true 9s who can get the job done. And we need the speedy retirement of the philanderer and aficionado of self, Neymar. He has taught an entire generation of players to cherish the nightlife and manage their portfolio of doom.

h) Futebol is remarkably musical. Every move is a stanza, and every goal is a refrain. The reason it is hated by so many is that it has achieved a status of power that can never be revoked. It provides the chants of a generation and hearkens to national pride in a way no other sport can.

i) Hoping the U.S. national team shows the Belgium players how to get to Dallas International Airport after this evening.

j) Take a look at that picture below. David Pivtorak is right: “A thousand years ago, this is the last thing you saw before your skull was caved in by a battle axe.” That was the face Brazil saw before its predictable death.

Paul speaks of “empty deceit” in Colossians 2:8, and there is an entire lifestyle of empty deceit marketed and available right now. It’s especially targeted at young men, though women fall for it too. People of all ages can be taken captive. We might call it gamification.

Gamification is the direction the world is trending. Amp up everything. Join the app and keep the streak going. Put action on everything, prop bets on everything.

Why is all this enticing? Because life itself has become insufficient. People are dulled to thinking the world doesn’t offer an interesting enough story. So they desperately engineer artificial stakes to make existence feel like something worth paying attention to.

The sunrise with its prolific, staggering radiance isn’t enough anymore. Let’s bet on what time it crests the horizon. The game itself isn’t compelling enough. We need a parlay on every possession just to sustain interest through the fourth quarter. A bag of chips won’t do. It needs to be flaming, loaded, extreme, McDonald’s-flavored chips to overwhelm every taste receptor you have.

And underneath so much of it runs a seductive current: the promise of free money and no sacrifice. Pick the right game, pull the right lever, tap the right screen, and unlimited crypto appears. No knowledge required. No discipline. No years of study, no mastered craft, no professional competence. Just reactions, reflexes, and luck dressed up as skill.

Everything is impacted. The way to get people into politics is to make it WWE. Let’s pave over the White House lawn to set up the octagon for UFC fights to win crypto.

The vision of this empty deceit looks something like this: a young man sunken into a couch, vape pen in hand, Reese’s Cup flavored energy drink within reach, two screens running simultaneously, live betting on one, something pornographic on the other, while somewhere in the background a refrigerator the size of a small room slowly fills with food that will be forgotten and thrown away untouched.

This entire ecosystem of gamification exists because a marketplace discovered it could commodify idle hours, especially the idle hours of the young, and extract wealth from them. The whole experience is deliberately, scientifically engineered to be addictive. Hooks everywhere. Rewards timed to maximize dependency. It is not accidental. It is predatory.

This is the modern version of Paul’s warning against “empty deceit” wearing a modern costume. It promises fullness and delivers vacancy. It promises freedom and delivers addiction. It promises meaning through stimulation while systematically destroying the capacity to find meaning in anything real.

Meanwhile, you were made to be filled with Christ (Col. 2:10). The gamified life is a slow substitution of that fullness with enough noise, enough dopamine, and enough artificial energy to make it so that you won’t even notice you’ve been sold a bill of goods.

_{Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of the books The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.}

From that time until this, our two-hundred-fiftieth birthday, the American flag, going through all of its iterations, has flown in times of war and peace. The flag embodies our history, good and bad. Because of what it stands for, it promises and anticipates future independence and freedom. Waving the flag in national pride is a statement. When we greet our national heroes with flags, we are not only celebrating them, but we are also saying that they embody what the flag stands for and have preserved and moved the purpose and promise of this country forward.

What our American flag is for us, palm branches were to the Jews of the first century. When Jesus entered Jerusalem to crowds waving palm branches, it was what we might call “a political” or “nationalist” statement. The crowds didn’t simply pick up the closest thing to them to wave. They were declaring in symbol as well as with their words, “This is our King, our deliverer, the embodiment of our history and promise for our future.”

A little over a century before Palm Sunday, Israel greeted Judas Maccabeus the same way after his defeat of Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus had conquered Jerusalem and desecrated the Temple. Judas led a guerrilla warfare revolt that eventually drove him from Jerusalem. The Temple was rededicated, and Judas was proclaimed king.

The Jews knew exactly what they were doing when they waved palms before Jesus. The palm branch became a national symbol, even being used on coins as a revolt against Rome. Palm branches told Israel’s story from the time God delivered them from Egypt and protected and preserved them in the wilderness as they dwelt in leafy booths. Judas, and now Jesus, embody that history.

Jesus never rebuked them for this display of national pride. Even though they didn’t understand the depth of the story being told, they were in the ballpark. Jesus was the embodiment of Israel’s history and the promise for its future.

Though not completely analogous since America isn’t a chosen nation as Israel was chosen, our flag-waving gratitude to God for all that he has done in our country is not a bad thing. There are some, even within our circles, who downplay national pride (in the best sense of that word), so that it seems to turn into practical disdain for our country. All that matters is the kingdom of God, so there is no celebration of our national history. It is almost as if America and her history and culture have nothing to do with the kingdom of God. So many bad things have happened and are happening in America, why would we celebrate this country? Well, it’s not like bad things didn’t happen in Israel’s history, but God, in his providence, blessed the world through Israel. God has blessed us and the world through America, even with all the horrible things that have gone on. We can be thankful for that even while mourning our sin and calling our country to repentance.

There are others in our circles who seem to want to make American nationalism the be-all-end-all. It is almost as if the kingdom of God doesn’t survive if America fails. We must preserve America at all costs. There are problems with this as well. Just as Israel was expendable, so is America … even more so than Israel. God has done and is doing great things through America, but he is writing a deeper story through her history that will last long after America is but a page in a history book. This doesn’t mean that we and our country are insignificant. God doesn’t do insignificant things. Creating and sustaining one of the greatest countries in world history is no insignificant matter.

However, even while we celebrate the wonders he has done, we must recognize that he is transforming all of it into something new and more glorious. There is nothing wrong with celebrating our heritage and loving our country, but there may come a time when God tells us, our children, or our children’s children to let it go in order to enter a more glorious future, just as he did with Israel.

Jesus came in as a Jew, embodied all the history of Israel, entered as Israel’s king, and then transformed everything for Israel’s sake and for the sake of the world. He is writing a deeper, more profound story than the history of America. He is remaking the world. America is a part of that, but only a part. We can’t be near-sighted so that all we see is America, and we can’t be so far-sighted that we lose sight of our place and part in God’s grand kingdom work.

Jesus is King of America. He loves our country. He has blessed our country, and we ought to be thankful for that. We ought also to use our privileges as Americans to advance his kingdom purposes, not only in America, but for the whole world

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Is America worth saving? As we celebrate our 250th anniversary, this is both a provocative and important question. Yet, it needs further defining before it can be answered. As a Christian, it takes on its own complexities.

If by “save America,” the question refers to saving individuals, then few Christians would disagree with an affirmative answer. Of course, we should seek the salvation of our American neighbors. This is the mission of the church: to preach the gospel and win souls for Christ from every nation, including ours. But that is not the question I’m asking.

Rather, I’m asking, “Should we seek to save and preserve America’s institutions, structures, and culture? Are these things worth saving?” Such a question is far more controversial, both inside and outside the church. Nonetheless, I still believe the answer is a resounding yes. Before I explain why, let’s consider two common objections.

Objections to “Saving America”

First, some reject the idea of saving America because Christianity should only concern itself with saving souls. Individuals like David VanDrunen argue that culture, politics, and human institutions all belong to the common kingdom and thus cannot be saved. The reach of Christ’s redemptive work is limited only to individuals and to the church. While Christianity certainly isn’t less than saving individuals, it is also more.

The New Testament provides a much broader and more glorious view of the impact of Christ’s work. All things, in heaven and on earth, were created through and for Christ, and he is uniting all things “by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:15-20). All here does not mean all without exception, but rather speaks to all types of things. The blood of Christ’s cross is reconciling all types of things to himself. This includes things in heaven and on earth, seen and unseen. All means all. What exactly this will look like in the new creation, I cannot address here, but we must recognize that Christ’s work is more, but never less, than saving the fallen human race. Through the blood of Christ’s cross, God is making all things new.

Second, many today believe America is unworthy to be saved because she is systemically rooted in evil, racism, and every form of oppression. For some, America’s institutions, structures, and culture are too sinful to be saved. Through the influence of various shades of critical theory, the woke attack and impugn the character of our nation. One must ask, by what standard can these critics judge our nation? Many of them reject any notion of God and a universal morality. If truth is relative and all that is left is power, then America is not evil because there is no evil.

There is a universal moral standard. God is there, and he is not silent. America has never been morally perfect, and we know it. The founding of our nation was deeply shaped by Reformed thought, particularly its view of man’s sinfulness. For this reason, our nation was never intended to be a utopia. Our founders knew better. Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation recognized this as he called the nation to repent of her sins. One of the reasons America’s structures are worth preserving is its realistic and biblical view of man. Man is both uniquely valuable and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights. Yet, it also recognizes that we are sinful and cannot be trusted to usher in a utopian government. Therefore, wisdom dictates that we separate powers and hardwire checks and balances into our very society. This balanced view of the fallenness and worth of man laid the foundation for both the perseverance and refining of our government for these last 250 years. For this, we should be grateful.

Why America is Worth Saving

This reality moves us to why our nation’s structures, institutions, and culture are worth preserving and saving. Not now, nor ever, has our nation been perfect. Right now, the sins of sexual immorality, abortion, and the mutilation of children often find their epicenter within our borders. These sins are worthy of God’s judgment. Yet, these evils reflect a deviation from the ideals of our founding. It is our ideals, not our betrayal of them, that are worth preserving.

America is worth saving because her ideals are good, true, and beautiful. Unlike any other nation, America has been shaped by a distinctly Christian and Protestant view of man, God, and government.[1] Our ideals of human rights, the supremacy of the law, individual liberty, limited government, and that the state cannot save us spring forth from centuries of Christian political theory.[2] America’s greatness is found in that she is, to this point, the pinnacle application of Protestant political thought. America’s ideals work because they are true. Being true to reality, these ideals produce goodness and beauty in this world.

These ideals have made the world an objectively better place.[3] American culture, as it aligns with these ideals, is worth preserving. The greatness of our nation waxes and wanes as we either embrace or reject the beliefs that formed the foundation of our ideals.

Ironically, such preservation will only come if individuals return to the beliefs that shaped these American ideals—the Protestant faith as it is applied to all of life. America is worth saving because her ideals are rooted in the truths revealed to us through the Christian faith. Preserving such truths, under the redemptive reign of Christ, is a worthwhile pursuit.

As we celebrate 250 years of the American experiment, it is right for us to be thankful to God for our cultural inheritance. It is right for us to mourn how we have failed to live up to the inheritance. It is right to petition God, and to seek through the preserving and saving of the American way of life.

[1] Donald Lutz notes that America was uniquely shaped by “radical Protestant sect

s” in The Origins of American Constitutionalism (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1988), 7.

[2] For more on this, see Mark David Hall, Did America Have a Christian Founding? Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth (Nashville, TN: Nelson Books, 2019). Also see, Gary Amos, Defending the Declaration: How the Bible and Christianity Influenced the Writing of the Declaration of Independence (Charlottesville, VA: Providence Foundation, 1989).

[3] For more on how Christianity positively changed the world see Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (New York: Basic Books, 2019); Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Made Yor World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2012); and Steven Smith, Pagans and Christians in the City: Culture Wars from the Tiber to the Potomac (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2008).

The same is true in our relationship with Christ. There is a time when things are exciting. We are learning new things. Our minds are being renewed. But as we grow older and are given new responsibilities, we allow them to become distractions to our primary relationship. They are all good things, like rearing children and working the job. We are blessed with these ever-growing opportunities, but slowly, they become the primary focus. Your relationship with Christ in and through his church becomes just another activity on a crowded calendar. Those activities aren’t as important, and any excuse will do to avoid them. Besides, it’s not as if they are strictly “required.” A son’s baseball game, a daughter’s gymnastics demonstration, or a child’s musical performance aren’t strictly required either, but everything will be planned around them because they are important to you. And they should be. We plan and pour ourselves into those activities that are important to us. This reveals where our love is.

When Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with the extremely expensive nard in John 12, it was a demonstration of extravagant loyalty. It wasn’t strictly required. She, most likely, paid her tithe as was required by God’s Law. That was fundamental loyalty. Because she lived close to Jerusalem, she probably even attended Passover, though, technically, she wasn’t required to do so. Only the men were required to attend. So, she probably already went above her strict requirements. The nard that was worth a year’s wages was gaudy love, so much so that there were some who were offended by what they considered waste. However, like the bride in Song of Songs 1, who is overcome with desire and affection, Mary wants to give the best she has, not because it is strictly required or because she is afraid that if she doesn’t, Jesus will send her to hell, but because she loves Jesus.

Granted, Jesus had recently raised her brother from the dead and, no doubt, she is feeling a deep sense of gratitude. She is overwhelmed with emotion. But she had already confessed her loyalty to Jesus even before he raised Lazarus from the dead. Her loyalty was already there.

We are not going to remain in a “red-hot” love all our lives. No one can live that way. But the danger is that we don’t cultivate our relationship with Christ and allow apathy to creep in so that one day we wake up and just don’t care. What’s more is that this apathy is contagious in our families. What is important to parents becomes important to children. That is, children know what you genuinely love and what you simply endure. They will endure with you while they are at home, but if you simply endure your Christian duties so that they are not a part of your deepest loyalties and your fundamental identity, they will not only notice, but they will not become what they love in the future. This is why apathy is such a problem in second- and third-generation Christians.

Cultivate extravagant loyalty to Christ. Fight slow-killing apathy

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So, as the AI maximalists continue to produce entire news-journal cycles completely out of nothing, the church will not need fewer rhetoricians; we will need more. We will need men who know how to speak because they have first learned how to listen, men who can distinguish between borrowed eloquence and embodied/enfleshed conviction.

Yes, AI can arrange words, but it cannot suffer with a congregation, nor can it offer comfort from on high. It cannot bury the dead, baptize the infant, rebuke the wayward son, or stand before the saints with tears when a prodigal returns home. It can mimic urgency, but it cannot possess the burden of the ministerial presence.

This means we are going to need to test rhetorical skills a lot more. We will need to ask not merely, “Did he produce good content?” but “Can he speak with judgment? Can he comfort without mechanical sentimentality? Can he answer objections in real time? Can he take a doctrine and make it sing before the people of God?” I can assure you that it must come from the man himself and the Spirit who indwells him.

The next generation of pastors, teachers, and leaders can't be judged simply by polished manuscripts. A polished manuscript may now prove very little. Anyone can prompt what they will into existence. God made men creative, but the manipulation of language, or the contradiction between the language written and the language spoken, is a reversal of the co-creative powers from the dominion mandate.

Ultimately, we will need to know whether a man’s words come from formed affections or from the arrangement of machines. In my estimation, the renewal of rhetoric is the next pastoral warfare.

Jesus was causing problems for the Jewish authorities. He was revealing not only that the world they were living in was coming to its prophesied end, but he was also revealing their rebellion against the God they said they worshiped. He was performing signs like a greater Moses, announcing a greater Passover and Exodus. No matter how much the aristocratic Sadducees and the Pharisees hated one another, they liked their present power, even under their Roman overlords. The tensions they had with one another and with Rome would be solved if they killed Jesus. This was Caiaphas’ solution after Jesus gained even more followers subsequent to raising Lazarus from the dead. “One man must die for the people” (Jn 11:50). Kill Jesus, and we will resolve the tension.

Caiaphas’ mentality is classic scapegoatism that continues to be reflected in our human relationships. Our marriage is a wreck, and it’s because the counselor is not giving us the answers. My personal life is all out of order, and it’s because President Trump went to war with Iran. My friendship is a disaster because of this third party. So, we fight the scapegoat. He is the distraction that draws the focus of all our anger, so we don’t need to home in on the genuine issues. If the scapegoat is undefeatable, all the better, in some cases. I am then interminably in a fight with something other than my sins. If he can be defeated by cutting him off, we are then left again dealing with the real issues, so we begin the cycle again.

While Caiaphas meant to engage in the cyclical scapegoatism, his words were sovereignly chosen and had a deeper significance than he knew. As high priest, he was prophesying (Jn 11:51-52). God has always intended to provide a true “scapegoat,” a Passover Lamb who would die for the people and create genuine peace. God accomplishes this by defeating the sin that caused the tensions. Because I have a place where I can deal with my sins, I am able to live in true peace with others, not merely as a temporary arrangement of co-belligerents. Because I am at peace with God, I can be at peace with others instead of always seeing them as my rivals or the cause of all my problems. I can take full responsibility for my sin because I am forgiven, and that forgiveness gives me freedom, allowing me not to see everyone as a threat.

God has provided the true scapegoat. If you trust him, you will need no other

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