Tag: love

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Micah’s Personal Prescription

As the prophet Micah gives a series of stinging rebukes against the nations of Israel and Judah, he takes pause for some personal reflection.

As if keeping a journal, he wonders how he should approach God.  With reverence, with offerings, with sacrifices?  No.  That is not what God wants.  God requires something much different, for him to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly.

Then Micah returns to his God-promoted discourse of doom.  After a bit more invective, he becomes filled with remorse, saying, “What misery is mine?”

Micah then reflects some more, delving into a depressing bit of introspection, before confidently affirming that his hope is in God; Micah will wait and God will hear him.

So Micah’s personal prescription then becomes to:

Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly, and hope in and wait on God.

Works for me.

[See Micah 6:6-8, Micah 7:1, and Micah 7:7.]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Hosea Shows Us God’s Unconditional Love

In the Bible, many of the prophets are instructed by God to do some strange and bizarre things.  Isaiah is a case in point.  Perhaps the most extreme, however, is Hosea.

In short, God tells him to marry a prostitute so that his life can become an object lesson.

Imagine young Hosea coming home one day and telling his parents: “Guess what?  God called me to go into the ministry!”  His parents beam with pride until a bombshell is dropped on them,” …and he told me to hook up with a whore.”

That seems so inappropriate, ill-advised, and ungodly, yet that is what God says to do — and Hosea obeys.

The strangeness doesn’t stop there, however.  When his hooker-wife gets pregnant, God tells Hosea to give the kids some unbecoming names.  His daughter is given a name that means “not loved” and his second son, a name that means “not my people.”

This suggests that Hosea has reason to question who actually fathered his wife’s children.

Next, his wayward spouse splits, returning to her former way of life.  So, God tells Hosea to go find her and take her back!

Although this chain of events was a horrific ordeal for Hosea, it is a profound object lesson for us: regardless of what we do, how badly we act, or how far we stray, God loves us unconditionally and pursues us relentlessly.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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God’s Sovereignty Allows Him to be Benevolent

God is sovereign; it is one of his characteristics.  To be sovereign means to have supreme rank, power, and authority.

The word sovereign appears hundreds of times in the Bible (mostly in the Old Testament) and is usually used as a title for God or in addressing him, as in “Sovereign Lord.”

Many people object to the idea that God is sovereign; it offends them or causes fear.  That may be because of a tendency to see sovereignty from a human perspective. 

They assume that God’s sovereignty allows him to be malevolent; that is, he is just waiting for us to mess up and then he will do us harm — or give us grief just because he can.  But that is not his nature.

God is good and just.  His sovereignty actually allows him to be benevolent.  He wants to do good to us, to offer us good things we don’t deserve (grace) and to withhold punishment that we do deserve (mercy).

God’s sovereignty allows for benevolence; his love prohibits malevolence.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Esther Was Not Like Cinderella

I’ve always liked the story of Esther.  She was a peasant girl who won a national beauty pageant and became queen.  In my imagination, I’ve given this tale a Cinderella-like grandness, with Esther and the king, falling in love and living happily ever after.

Alas, the story does not mention love and fails to include any thoughts of happiness.  Let’s review the facts:

  • Esther and her people had been taken captive and forcibly relocated to a foreign land; she was a spoil of war.
  • Esther did not opt to take part in the beauty contest; all attractive virgins were compelled to participate.
  • Esther’s heritage prohibited her from marrying outside her faith; to do so would be a shameful and disobedient act.

Add to this these reasonable conclusions about Esther’s “relationship” with the king:

  • Even after she was made queen, he seemingly continued to enjoy the company of other women in his harem.
  • She was estranged from him; she had not been “summoned” by him for thirty days.
  • She feared him; she could be summarily executed by merely approaching him without permission.

In the New Jerusalem Bible, we are treated to the prayer that she offered in the midst of this.  She says, in part:

  • “I loathe the bed of the uncircumcised” (that would be the king)
  • “I am under constraint” to wear the crown, that is, to be queen
  • “Nor has your servant found pleasure from the day of her promotion until now”
  • “Free me from my fear”

Sadly, there is no love, happiness, joy, or satisfaction in her role as queen.  Even so she did use her unwanted position to save her people, the Jews, from a certain annihilation. 

So this account of Esther isn’t a love story, at least not in the traditional sense.  It is, however, a tale of valor and bravery — and a reminder that one person can make a difference.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Awesome Love

The word love is overused and misused.  Consider the following:

  • I love my wife.
  • I love my house.
  • I love pizza.
  • I love that movie.
  • I love to take nature walks.
  • I’d love to attend.

Love, then, can mean anything from complete devotion to a slight preference — and everywhere in between.  As such, when love is used, it takes on a vague connotation, expressing a feeling that is open to wide interpretations.

Another overused and misused word is awesome.  Its usage also takes on a full gambit of meaning, from being completely amazed to expressing a slight preference.

Awesome literally means to be worthy of awe.  Awe is defined as an inspired mixture of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder.

Given that, it seems to be that only God is truly worthy of our awe — and therefore only God is awesome.

Couple true awesomeness with the ultimate, perfect form of love and one could conclude that God’s love for us is awesome.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth — Not

Moses gave a curious command: “Show no pity: life for life, eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”  This seems to be an excessive response when one is wronged, but given the culture of that day, it was actually a move towards moderation.

For example, when Jacob’s daughter Dinah was raped, her brothers avenged her violation by killing the perpetrator and all the men in his village and then sacking the city.  That is excessive—and what God, through Moses, wanted to rein in with his “eye of the eye, tooth for tooth” imperative.

Jesus, however, took this one step further when he told us to love our enemies and pray for them.  That’s how we should act today—lovingly, not vengeful.

[See Deuteronomy 19:21, Genesis 34:1-31—especially verse 2 and 25, Matthew 5:38-48—especially verse 44.]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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The Meaning Behind the Names

In ancient times, names were given to people for a reason, no matter how trivial.  The meaning of the names of Jacob’s twelve sons gives great insight into the competitive struggle between his two wives, the sisters, Leah and Rachel:

Reuben means “See, a son! ” (Leah said, “The Lord has seen my humiliation and affliction; now my husband will love me.”)

Simeon means “God hears.”  (Leah said, “Because the Lord heard that I am despised, He has given me this son also.”)

Levi means “companion.”  (Leah said, “Now this time will my husband be a companion to me, for I have borne him three sons.”)

Judah means “praise.”  (Leah said, “Now will I praise the Lord!”)

Dan means “judged.”  (Rachel said, “God has judged and vindicated me, and has heard my plea and has given me a son.”  Rachel named him; not Bilhah.)

Naphtali means “struggled.”  (Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings, I have struggled with my sister and have prevailed.”  Rachel named him; not Bilhah.)

Gad means “fortune.”  (Leah said, “Victory and good fortune have come.”  Leah named him, not Zilpah.)

Asher means “happy.”  (Leah said, “I am happy, for women will call me blessed.”  Leah named him, not Zilpah.)

Issachar means “hired.”  (Leah said, “God has given me my hire.”)  [For the details behind this, see Genesis 30:14:18]

Zebulun means “dwelling.”  (Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good marriage gift for my husband; now will he dwell with me because I have borne him six sons.”)

Joseph means “may he add.”  (Rachel said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”)

Benjamin means “son of my right hand.”  (Rachel, as she was dying, named him Ben-Oni, which means “son of my trouble,” but Jacob called him Benjamin instead.)

[See Genesis 29:1-35, Genesis 30:1-24, and Genesis 35:16-19.]

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Jacob’s Twelve Sons…and Their Four Moms

In Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, a reoccurring theme is Jacob’s twelve sons.  What isn’t apparent from Dreamcoat is many of the sons were half brothers. Jacob was indeed the father of all, but there were four different moms.

Here is how this convoluted family tree happened:

Jacob fell in love with Rachel (his uncle’s daughter, that is, his first cousin). Since he had no dowry, he agreed to work for his uncle seven years for her hand in marriage.

The morning after the wedding, he discovered that his veiled bride was actually Leah, Rachel’s older sister.  He had been duped by his Uncle Laban. After protesting, Laban also gives Jacob Rachel’s hand in exchange for another seven years of labor.

Leah begins having children (six sons in all), but Rachel is childless — so she has her husband sleep with their maid, Bilhah, to produce children in her stead; Bilhah has two sons. In an escalating competition, Leah follows suit, giving her maid, Zilpah, to sleep with Jacob; Zilpah also has two sons.

Finally, Rachel gets pregnant and has Joseph. As the first-born of Jacob’s favorite wife, Joseph is doted upon by his father; hence he is given the infamous coat of many colors, thereby earning the wrath of his brothers.

Later, Rachel also gives birth to Benjamin, the youngest of the twelve; sadly Rachel dies in childbirth.

Although the nation of Israel is launched through these twelve sons, Jacob’s family life is a lesson of everything not to do.

[See Genesis, chapters 27 through 29.]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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God Personifies Love

God is the personification of love — and he loves us.

Some people look at their life, the good things they do and the bad things they don’t do, thinking that they are good and therefore worthy of God’s love.

Others consider their life, the bad things that they do and the good things that they don’t do, concluding that they are bad and therefore unworthy of God’s love.

The truth is that there is nothing we can do that will make God live us any more and nothing that we can do that will cause him to love us any less.

God’s love for us is perfect and unconditional.  We can’t earn it and we can’t lose it.

God is love.

[See 1 John 4:8 and 16, Psalm 89:28, and Lamentations 3:22, and many others.]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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A Fable to Consider

Consider the fable of six blind men encountering an elephant for the first time.  They have no comprehension of what an elephant is, forming their own understanding based on touch:

  • The first, feels the animal’s side and says that an elephant is like a wall
  • The second, feels the pachyderm’s legs, declaring it to be like a tree
  • The third, touches the animal’s tusks and visualizes a spear.
  • The fourth, experiences the flick of the elephant’s tail, envisaging the animal like a rope
  • The fifth, encounters the mammal’s ears, stating that an elephant is like a blanket.
  • The sixth is touched by the curious animal’s trunk, thinking the elephant is snake-like.

Yes, an elephant is like a wall, a tree, a spear, a rope, a blanket, and a snake.  Each is correct, but also incomplete.  Even putting them all together provides only are partial caricature of an elephant.

In the same way our word pictures for God as a potter, vine, hen, shepherd, master, father, friend, and lover are also correct, but even more incomplete.  Therefore, when we put them all together, we are provided with only are partial caricature of God and our relationship to him.

Nevertheless, these word pictures do allow us to perceive him more fully than before.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.