when Nazirites are normal, you'll know you’re not in Kansas anymore

The Word for today:
Numbers 5:21- 6:21

mark this:

When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink.
All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head.
He shall not go near a dead body. Not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean.  (from Numbers 6:2-7)



We have a certain fascination for the Nazirite.

For the duration of his vow, he couldn’t drink any wine or even eat a grape. He couldn’t cut his hair. He could have no contact, or even proximity, to the dead.

Though most Nazirite vows were temporary and were taken by adults, both Samuel and Samson were dedicated at birth to be lifelong Nazirites. (1 Samuel 1:11; Judges 13:3-5))

(Samson’s life would be defined more by his vow-breaking than his vow-keeping. His hair was, famously, cut. He reached inside the corpse of a lion for some honey. The Bible also infers that he attended many a party, and not as the designated driver. Samson’s Mom may have dedicated him as a baby, but it seems the grown-up Samson wasn’t as dedicated as Mom.)

John the Baptist was the most famous Nazirite of all. His wild hair and clothes and diet have come to define the genre.

The popular perception of the Nazirite, therefore, was that he was strange, weird, and unusual--which he was, when seen against the background from which he came.

But when seen from God’s point of view, the Nazirite was normal. Here’s why:

When the Nazirite vowed to dedicate himself to the LORD, he was a picture of what man was meant to be, all along. That Israel saw him as unusual was an indictment of how far man had fallen from God’s original intentions.

In the same way, when we look at the life of Jesus, we are not to think of it as unusual. He lived the way we were always meant to live! He bore, and restores in us, the image that we were given in the first place.

It is especially significant that Jesus, the ultimate Nazirite, never took the three-fold vows. He made water into wine, he touched the dead to raise them. And God only knows how long his hair was.

The point is that he did not need to effect the outward appearance of the life which he lived through and through, all the way from the inside out. The image and likeness of God, which the Nazirite vow reflected, was not necessary for Jesus to wear. He didn’t need to take a vow; to promise to become, temporarily, what he eternally is!

The Nazirite was a picture of the way we’re all going to be (not look).  Someday, when we see Jesus as he is, we will be like Him again (1), which will make the “non-Nazirite” seem strange.

On that day, when Samuel and John the Baptist seem normal, we’ll know we’re not in Kansas anymore.

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(1) 1 John 3:2

the family Name

The Word for today:
Numbers 3, 4

mark this:
These are the generations of Aaron and Moses at the time when the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.
These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he ordained to serve as priests. (Numbers 3:1-3)

 

Biblical genealogies:

You’ve seen ‘em,
you’ve skipped ‘em,
but did you know you’re in ‘em?

The genealogy of Jesus Christ opens the New Testament and everything depends on it. We might skim those names, but you can be sure that the enemies of Jesus scrutinized every detail, hoping to expose a mistake.

We have coarse words for people who don’t know who their Dad is. But we’ll use illegitimate, a synonym which is slightly less stigmatized.

In the Old Testament, the priest had to be able to prove his heritage. He had to be able to prove that he was Levitical in order to be legitimate.

If he weren't from the tribe of Levi and the the clan of Aaron, he could not serve as priest. Here’s an instance, from the book of Nehemiah, of de-legitimacy due to a deficient genealogy:
The sons of Hobaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, and the sons of Barzillai sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but it was not found there, so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. (Nehemiah 7:63-64)

Can you declare your pedigree as a Christian? If you’re not sure, then let me point to your scriptural genealogy:

Now are we the children of God. (1 John 3:2)

You are the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)

To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12)

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. (Romans 8:14-16)

***

A Christian must and ought to know he’s a child of God:

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:11-13)

Any experienced child of God will tell you that there will come a dark wilderness night when the enemies of your soul will question your pedigree. When they do, you're in good comany--because they already tried it with Jesus:

And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." (Matthew 4:3)

They will say that you don’t resemble God at all. They will say that you don’t act like God all the time. (The attack usually comes when we are most vulnerable to these charges.)

That’s when you will need to turn to these verses, in order to set the record straight. So write them in the back of your Bible somewhere, read through them every now and then, and don’t skim!

Don’t try to defend yourself with your own words. Just show the enemy these words of God, which comprise your genealogy. Don’t try to joust intellectually with those who would question your eternal paternity. In the kingdom of heaven, as on earth, it’s not primarily what you know, but who you know:

I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him.  (2 Timothy 1:12)

Just mention the Name of Jesus Christ, and indicate that you’re related to the Father through him. Then watch the enemy retreat. He cannot withstand the Name:

"Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation." (Psalm 91:14-16)

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the carousel of unbelief

The Word for today:
Numbers 1, 2



“If only I knew then what I know now…”

That’s the lament of many lives. But a wavering believer’s lament is different.

The book of Numbers documents the wayward wandering of Israel. God told them the Promised Land was theirs for the taking. But instead of acting on God’s word, they looked at their enemies and their obstacles and let their fears overcome their faith.

The name of the book comes from the census taken in chapter 1 and another census in chapter 26. Those “numbers” tell a tragic tale. In chapter 1 there are 603,000 (men over 20, capable of combat.) In chapter 26 there are 2,000 less. They were fewer than when they had started.

And their forty years of wilderness wandering had gotten them exactly nowhere. When we get to chapter 20, they are at Kadesh Barnea — where they had refused to go into the Promised Land in the first place. It was like they were riding a merry-go-round and got off where they got on. Because of their unbelief, they had not advanced an inch.

A wasted generation ago, Israel had known what they needed to know. God had been their eyes. He told them what was up ahead. They knew, but they didn’t believe. They trusted their own limited vision instead.

When we look back over our lives, we will not regret that we weren’t told what was ahead. Our experiences will have confirmed that we were truthfully told all that we needed to know. Our regrets will be that we didn’t believe the advance word that we were given.

So why don’t we cut our losses right here and now. Let’s say you’ve known the Word but haven’t fully acted on it/followed it for two years, or ten, or twenty. That’s still a lot better than forty years of going nowhere.

Hank Williams, Jr. wrote that he was fated to live out the life his Daddy had led (1). We are not. We do not have to wait until we’re in Kadesh Barnea (again) to get off the Carousel of Unbelief.

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(1) “Family Tradition,” 1979

By faith others – “faithfulness”

The Word for today:
Hebrews 13.9-25

mark this:
Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated-- of whom the world was not worthy--wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:36-40)


Yesterday, I wrote that the persons enshrined in God’s Hall of Faith might seem, to us, to be less than likely candidates:

Who invited a con artist like Jacob to this party? Or a womanizer and vow-breaker like Samson? Or an adulterer like David? Or a prostitute like Rahab?

There are many persons in the Bible who make us wonder what God sees in them. Our befuddlement is compounded when God commends them amongst the heroes of faith.

Not many of us would have voted them into the Hall of Faith. If anything, we might have voted them into the Hall of Shame.

There’s a person you know who, to you, isn’t just less likely but least likely to ever have his portrait in the Hall of Faith. You’ve concluded that there’s no way that such a misfit could ever make it.

But just for the heck of it, I want you to envision this person’s portrait hanging in the Great Hall. The best way to do that is to walk into your bathroom, look into your mirror, and behold a hero of faith!

Then read what God said about the unnamed “others” in the Hall:

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets-- who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated. (Hebrews 11:32-37)

Put yourself in the shoes of these others. What evidence did they see in their lives of the great faith that God would someday honor by including them among his Heroes of Faith. They weren’t, like the heroes mentioned in the preceding verses, conquerors who put armies to flight. They did not witness the resurrection of their loved ones. They did not enforce justice or stop the mouths of lions.

Instead their faith brought them mockery, affliction, and mistreatment. No signs and wonders, no acclaim, no miracles, no success at all. Many of them might have thought that their failures proved how weak their faith had been. In their very own eyes, I’ll bet that many of these “others” saw themselves as the last persons on the planet whom God would commend for faith.

Sound like anyone you know?

But in a very deep way, these “failures” had greater faith than the conquerors and the miracle makers. How so?

When we remember that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1), then these who remain faithful to God without tangible success are in a realm of faith which Jesus placed in a special category of its own:

Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:27-29)


We think of faith in terms of drama -- as something akin to magic, as something that moves mountains. But that’s not the faith that is most precious to God. What honors God more than dramatic faith is expressed by a simpler and more modest word: faithfulness.

There’s an unrecognized hero of faith-fulness in that mirror of yours. She reads God Word, day by day, and stays true to Him.

She reads his letters every day, and remains true to Him while he’s away. That’s what a hero of faith looks like.

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By faith Rahab – “What are you doing here?”

The Word for today:
Hebrews 13:1-8

mark this:
By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. (Hebrews 11:31)

I once had a snooty girlfriend who herself had many snooty friends. So it came to pass that my snooty girlfriend invited me to a snooty party at her snooty friend’s home.

At the time I was working until 9:00 p.m. almost every night. So I told my girlfriend that I’d be arriving a little late.

I was careful to bring what I considered my preppiest clothes to change into after work. But it turns out they weren’t preppy enough.

Because when I rang the doorbell a very pretty smiling faced opened, looked me over, turned her face back into the room and called out, “Did anybody order a pizza?”

For a second it was kind of funny. I actually glanced over my shoulder to see if there were a pizza delivery person, or a pizza delivery car in the driveway. There was not, so it dawned on me that Miss Snoot (who’d already had a snootful, I might add) was dissing me!

This was confirmed when, having ascertained that no one had ordered pizza, she turned back to me and asked, “What are you doing here?”

I was annoyed, and when I am annoyed I get quick-witted. “I’m here to raise the average IQ at this party by ten points,” I proclaimed as I strode past her and disappeared into the mix.

***

“What are you doing here?” Many people have the same question about some of the strange rangers who populate the pages of the Bible and, in some cases, have even been enshrined into the Bible’s Hall of Faith.

Who invited a con artist like Jacob to this party? Or a womanizer and vow-breaker like Samson? Or an adulterer like David? Or a prostitute like Rahab? Did anyone order a pizza?

There are many persons in the Bible who make us wonder what God sees in them. Our befuddlement is compounded when God commends them amongst the heroes of faith.

This is as it should be. God wants our presuppositions to be shaken to the core. He wants our sometimes spiritually snooty selves to understand that seeing all, he sees us all on the same basis — as sinners. Rahab had just been a more open sinner than some of us are.

But there’s never been a prayer meeting, or a pastor’s conference, or a church retreat where she wouldn’t raise the average Faith Quotient by 50 points — just by walking in the door.

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By faith Jacob — the fighter still remains

The Word for today:
Hebrews 12:18-29

mark this:
By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped as he leaned on his staff.  (Hebrews 11:21)



A long, long time ago I grabbed my duffel bag and my track spikes and set out for Williamsburg, Virginia, to attend the College of William and Mary. It was 1971 and the world was as young as I was.

William and Mary was the east coast mecca for middle-distance runners. If you could make it there, you could make it anywhere. And I was going to try. By god, I was going to fly or die.

We weren’t, in 1971, within a million miles of the technological sophistication we take for granted today. We had transistor radios and record players with weak speakers. So when I got to William and Mary, I was blown away by the music I was hearing.

Some of those students were made of money. They didn’t have cars, they had imports. And they didn’t have radios, they had sound systems. So it was like hearing the music all over again. I was particularly taken with a song called “The Boxer,” by Simon and Garfunkel. I’d heard the song before, but not the way it sounded through a Yamaha receiver and Advent speakers.

The first lines seemed particularly appropriate to my situation:

I am just a poor boy.
Though my story's seldom told,
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles,
Such are promises
All lies and jest
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.

When I left my home
And my family,
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station,
Running scared…

As the months went by, I learned that William and Mary wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and neither was I. And I kept on hearing that song, with its one-word chorus:

Lie-a-lie, lie la lie lie lie la lie, lie-a-lie

During my first season, I did not light up the skies at the east coast middle-distance mecca. Then the winter came on and I began to perceive, between the lines of my Mother’s letters, that all was not well with my Dad. About a week before the college emptied out for Christmas, I heard from the Boxer again:

Then I'm laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone,
Going home…

And I did.

***

When I first encountered Jacob in the book of Genesis, I distinctly remember thinking that I’d met my twin. He was a confidence man and a usurper, cutting the corners and playing the angles.

I read familiarly about his first trip away from home, when he dreamed of a ladder reaching to the stars. But time passed him by in the far country until, one night, he fled. Behind him were the lies and broken promises of his Uncle Laban. Ahead of him waited retribution, at the hands of Esau, for his own lies.

Sending his family and possessions ahead, he was alone again. Or so he thought, for that was the night he wrestled with God:
And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.  (Genesis 32:22-25)

God, ever the Savior — and by whatever means necessary -- had broken Jacob’s leg in order to save Jacob’s soul.

***

One of the dear scenes in scripture is when—wouldn’t you just know it-- God calls Jacob back for a curtain call. It doesn’t happen until way down at the other end of the Bible, in the New Testament book of Hebrews:

By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped as he leaned on his staff. (11:21)

What staff? Remember that he had been crippled, so he had a staff that enabled him to walk. Even when death came, this man did not want to lie down and die.

That verse always carries me back—to Genesis; to races run and lost; to wishes, lies, and dreams; and to a clearing where stands a boxer,

A fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of ev'ry glove that laid him down

I don’t know what God broke in you to save your soul. He may have blessed you with a broken spirit, a broken heart, broken promises, or a broken leg.

What I have learned from my own wrestling match with God is that he will mend your heart but leave the stitches. He leaves just a little reminder of every glove that laid you down.

I’m not sure why. All I know is that there was another man in that wrestling match long ago, who to this day carries the marks (1) of the battle that saved your soul.

But the fighter still remains.

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(1) John 20:25-28

By faith Enoch -- the company God keeps

The Word for today:
Hebrews 12:1-17

mark this:  (Hebrews 11:5)
By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.



Stand in the Rain likes to exercise its vivid scripturally-based imagination.  So when we see the chance, we take it.

Today’s article, then, will be in the realms of speculation, conjecture, whimsy, and delight. Though these things might not butter your bread, they will surely frost your cake…

Enoch is one of those characters who make the Bible a mystery! Just when you think you’ve got things figured out, you run into a Melchizedek or an Enoch to remind you that you don’t know jack, Jack.

Genesis gives us all of 51 words about Enoch…

Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not,  for God took him. (Genesis 5:21-24)

And every one of those 51 words leaves us hoping for the 52nd, which isn’t there—because Enoch isn’t there anymore, either.

Enoch is the answer to some of the best Bible trivia questions:

Q. Who is father and son, respectively, to the Bible’s oldest and second oldest persons, respectively?
A. That would be Enoch, whose son Methuselah (969 years) and father Jared (962 years) had the longest lives in scripture.

Q. There are two people in scripture who do not die. Name them.
A. Enoch and Elijah.

***

Most of the time, Enoch is taught as a picture of the Rapture, which he certainly is.  Stand in the Rain has already presented him in that way,  as a picture of our transported future selves.

But he’s more, so much more, than just Enoch the Transported.  So today we’d like to introduce you to Enoch the Transformed…

Genesis says that Enoch walked with God and he was not. Enoch had vanished! Certainly that can mean more than a mere disappearance. Could it be that as he walked with God, his “appearance” became more and more Christ-like, to the point where Enoch was not.

In this transcendent regard, carefully consider these scriptures:

John the Baptist:
"He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

The Apostle Paul:
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. “  (Romans 8:29)

And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.  (1 Corinthians 15:49)

The Apostle John:
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2)

***

It is true that Enoch disappeared, in a moment—poof!

But the far greater story is that a man named Enoch, who had not walked with God for his first 65 years, turned his steps around. Nothing much happened at first, but day after day, step after faltering step, he kept on and on with God. Then one day, after 300 years of a re-shaping relationship, God noticed that Enoch had become so much like Jesus (and so unlike the old Enoch) that, effectively, Enoch was not.

So, the transformation complete, God took him.

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