Night and Day

In Hebrew thought, in the Old Testament of our Bibles, each day begins at sunset. This seems strange to us. Perhaps, though, it is no more odd than our usual arrangement in the West. We are fast asleep when day starts at midnight and only wake – if we are fortunate enough to be good sleepers – when a fair few hours of the day are already spent and gone. Even so, to have a day that begins as night falls must change one’s perspective on life.

The eminent 19th-century Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote a meditation on Genesis 1:5 (“And the evening and the morning were the first day”) that gave me much pause to ponder.

Spurgeon explains that the fact of darkness coming first in the Hebrew “day” makes a spiritual point for us. “Observe that the evening comes first. [In our spiritual natures] we are darkness first in order of time, and the gloom is often first in our mournful apprehension, driving us to cry out in deep humiliation, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner.’ The place of the morning is second, it dawns when grace overcomes nature.”

Spurgeon also points out that the word we use to describe a 24-hour period is “day”. It includes both darkness and light, “and yet the two together are called by the name that is given to the light alone!” This too corresponds exactly to our spiritual experience. “In every believer there is darkness and light, and yet he is not to be named a sinner because there is sin in him, but he is to be named a saint because he possesses some degree of holiness.”

This should be an enormous comfort to those who wonder how God can regard them as children of His when there is so much sin and spiritual darkness still in them. Just as the day takes its name not from the darkness but from the daylight, so the word of God treats believers as if they were full of light, as indeed they will be before long. “You are called the child of light, though there is darkness in you still. You are named after what is the predominating quality in the sight of God, which will one day be the only principle remaining.”

How supremely encouraging this is! On the one hand, all our spiritual darkness as sinners is intolerable and disgusting to God, to be shunned and rejected. Yet by His mercy in Christ God matches us up with the “sacred, high, eternal noon” which is the condition of things when we are finally in His presence.

The sun shall be no more

your light by day,

nor for brightness shall the moon

give you light;

but the Lord will be your everlasting light,

and your God will be your glory.

Your sun shall no more go down,

nor your moon withdraw itself;

for the Lord will be your everlasting light,

and your days of mourning shall be ended.

Isaiah 60:19-20 ESV

Thank God for His patience in treating us this way. Let us resolve to honour Him by banishing the remaining darkness in

our lives as far as we can!

The best things in life are free

Maybe having a grandmother who was born in Edinburgh has something to do with my urge to get something for nothing. I don’t claim to be as fanatical as some folk about searching for “free stuff”, but there are moments when I spot an opportunity.

Sometimes these come during a visit to a garden centre. Garden centres in the UK have grown into massive, sparkling retail spaces with every conceivable item for sale, some of them having nothing to do with gardening. The smart display techniques require a huge investment by the burgeoning businesses, which means increased cost to be passed on to the customer. Everything, plants included, tends to be pricey. At one otherwise delightful establishment I was taken to, even the smallest cacti (I am building up my cactus collection again) were all of £3 each.

But then I spotted a segment of a cactus lying forlornly on the gravel bed where its fellows stood in pots, awaiting a buyer. It had obviously snapped off another plant. It struck me that it should grow on its own with a bit of care. It was the perfect opportunity to buy one and get one free! I chose another cactus for purchase and took both this and the segment with me to the cash till. “By the way,” I remarked casually, “I found this lying around. I didn’t break it off, honest! Is it OK if I take it too?” “Yes, of course, go on,” replied the friendly sales assistant.

Back home I found a pot and some cactus compost and placed the appropriate end of the cactus in it. Despite my cosseting it for some months, it still looked shrivelled and I thought I had wasted my time. But not long ago it started to fill out and develop. My shrewd move had paid off, and a free of charge new cactus was mine! Rarely have I taken such pride and pleasure in any plant that I have grown.

It doesn’t always work out that way. Earlier on I did a bit of haggling over a weedy-looking Japanese maple that had not found a buyer by the time the season had come to an end and the leaf fall had set in. Again I took care of it and it made early progress, but the rigours of last winter were simply too much for it and is now too weak to grow. But the satisfaction of taking a free or cheap plant away from an otherwise expensive garden centre is worth a lot, and no doubt I shall try again when the chance presents itself.

The beauty of the Christian gospel is that, while costly, it is made available free of charge to anyone who will believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour. The prophet Isaiah pointed out long ago how senseless it is to waste your resources on “paying” remedies for sin:

“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.”

- Isaiah 55:1-2 ESV

“Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
those who trust in their wealth
and boast of the abundance of their riches?
Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
that he should live on forever
and never see the pit.”

- Psalm 49:5-9

The forgiveness won by the crucified Jesus Christ is worthy of respect and acceptance because it is not a part of any grubby financial deal. Truly the best things in life are free.

Words or pictures?

Do you think mainly in words or in pictures?

Some folk claim to be visual thinkers, while others respond better to the spoken or written word. Where religious practice is concerned, visual thinkers reckon that churches focusing mainly on words may not be for them. I once knew a man who converted to Roman Catholicism because others convinced him that he was a "visual thinker". He was led to believe that the spoken word was of little help to him. Only visual drama and imagery would touch his heart. The ancient churches have long provided this, because most of their early followers could not read. Pictures on the walls, statues, ornate clothes and moments of theatre in the liturgy spoke volumes to them. In the eyes of many, they still capture the imagination today.

Some might consider worship in our Reformed churches too wordy and intellectual. We have an answer for that. If our communication were to become all pictures without real depth, much important doctrine would be lost and Christians would fall into gross error by default. Look how the central gospel truth of Justification by Faith – that we are put right with God first and foremost not by good deeds but by faith in Christ as Saviour – was almost lost sight of by the time of the Protestant Reformation!

At the moment, much of my preaching and teaching is based on the book of the prophet Isaiah. I have tended to fight shy of him in the past. There are a lot of words in Isaiah. 66 chapters’ worth, in fact. Enough to exhaust any congregation if you present the book in the wrong way. Yet those words paint amazing pictures. How about the Song of the Vineyard in chapter 5, where God laments that His people are like a vineyard that produces only bad grapes? As the tenderly caring vineyard owner, He is heartbroken to see such a poor return for His pains. Or what of Isaiah 53 and the blow-by-blow sketch in words of the agonising death of our precious Saviour, visualised even though He would not arrive on earth for 700 more years? Or God the Judge and Saviour “treading the winepress alone” in Isaiah 63?

Significantly, the book of Isaiah starts like this: “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem ...” (Isaiah 1:1, ESV).

Eugene Peterson, pastor, scholar, author and poet, procuced in 2002 a popular paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, which has had widespread currency and acclaim. He likes to use the word “Message” in his rendering wherever he can. But he is glad to accept that the message of Isaiah is visionary, not just verbal: “For Isaiah, words are watercolors and melodies and chisels to make truth and beauty and goodness. Or, as the case may be, hammers and swords and scalpels to unmake sin and guilt and rebellion. Isaiah does not merely convey information. He creates vision, delivers revelation, arouses belief. He is a poet in the most fundamental sense – a maker, making God present and that presence urgent. Isaiah is the supreme poet-prophet to come out of the Hebrew people.”

For Peterson, the whole book of Isaiah is a Salvation Symphony in three movements, Judgment (chapters 1-39), Comfort (chapters 40-55) and Hope (56-66), with the Saviour God transforming men and women in the furnace of Holiness. We do well not to dismiss the visual and visionary impact of the word pictures in the Bible. Furthermore, our most devout and eminent hymn writers have offered us their own powerful word pictures to sing about and to ponder:

See, from His head, His hands, His feet

sorrow and love flow mingled down;

did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

Pictures serve to illustrate. But, for digging deeper, give me every time the sheer power of words inspired by the living God.

Learning God's language

Later on this year, I hope to pay my first ever visit to the Iberian Peninsula. I gather I'm not the only one of my acquaintance who has never yet been to Spain or Portugal. This rather surprises me as nearly every Brit seems to visit one of these countries at some point. Indeed, 1.7% of the population of Spain is reckoned to be British. Spain is a popular destination for arthritis sufferers who want to escape the damp climate of the UK.

The reason I am going, however, is not to do with bodily ailments but to find out how gospel Christianity is faring. The Spanish Gospel Mission has operated in Spain for around 100 years, evangelising and planting churches. They offer an opportunity to stay in their Bible centre south of Madrid and tour some of these churches. The buildings are hardly architectural marvels like the great cathedrals. Yet they are places of worship for many brave local men and women who have overcome prejudice to honour God in the simple way of Evangelical Christians.

The Mission promotes this experience as allowing the traveller to meet "real" Spanish people. Presumably that means people in the interior of Spain, away from the coastal areas that are so geared to tourists. For that reason I am trying to learn Spanish, in the hope of entering into the experience more fully. It is a challenge. I have now turned sixty and most of my foreign language learning was done in my teens and twenties. I found an audio-visual course on the internet that suited me (there are such courses that are worth having, if you search long enough) and I think I have made rapid progress in easy steps. As well as learning words and grammar, I am trying to pronounce the language as authentically as possible. I had training in phonetics so am well aware what a difficult task this is. Over the course of centuries, each language develops its own unique speech patterns which come naturally to native speakers but which outsiders have to acquire painfully, sound by tedious sound.

It leads me to ask: how well am I doing learning God's language? Believe it or not, God is not an English-speaking Brit. Isaiah 55:8 "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord."

However, God does not make it difficult to learn His language. True, His plan to save lost sinners took centuries to mature. Its intricacies are way beyond our feeble understanding. Yet we see the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ stretched out on the cross, open to receive us. It is a gesture that speaks volumes in any language. God simply offers it to us and asks, "Now, what part of that don't you understand?"

Grace and graciousness

When I began to go to evangelical churches, I quickly discovered that “grace” is sometimes used as a code word. Most Christians know that it is found both in the Bible and in everyday life. It comes in the benediction that many church services close with: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14 NIV). Roman Catholics encounter it in the greeting given by the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary in Luke 1:28. Translated out of the Latin language, this begins, “Hail, Mary, full of grace”. This unusual greeting prompted German Protestant reformer Martin Luther to comment something along the lines of, “The common people understand about a bag full of gold, but what do you do with a girl full of grace?”!

“Grace”, as in-group code word, is used by some super-spiritual Christians to pass judgment on the rest. “Is this person a true believer? Is he or she in on the secret mysteries?” For them, grasping its significance is like seeing the light. The one who knows the secret of “grace” has almost become more than an ordinary mortal.

The excuse for this snobbery is that “Grace” in divine terms is vastly different from grace in human terms. My dictionary defines grace from a theological point of view as “the free and unmerited favour of God as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowing of blessings”.

Among human beings, grace means this: “The quality of pleasing, attractiveness, charm, especially that associated with elegant proportions or ease and refinement of movement, action, expression or manner.” It’s not all that often that one word can have such diverse meanings! Apart from the fact that it is no doubt “pleasing” and even possibly “charming” to be on the receiving end of God’s grace, there seems little tie-up between the human and divine meanings.

Yet to use grace to prove your superiority is tragically misguided because God’s grace is practical; it doesn’t only belong in the rarefied realm of ideas. It rubs off on human behaviour in everyday life. Grace is a way of life and not just a technical term in theology.

God sets the pattern. Human sin grieves Him, but He graciously offers free and undeserved salvation, without strings attached, to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. How can you and I honour Him by mirroring that in our own lives?

The Lord’s Prayer talks about forgiveness. At the end of it, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus makes a pointed comment: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (6:14-15 ESV). In other words, the person who has appreciated God’s grace in Christ will demonstrate the fact by displaying grace to others. His or her life will be one of graciousness. Let ungracious Christians take note.

Treasure in clay pots

These days, historical documentaries on television are regularly presented by people endowed with both beauty and brains. But it seems that those in Bible times with the greatest story to tell, the good news of Jesus Christ, were not much to look at.

The apostle Paul, perhaps the greatest missionary who has ever lived, is described this way in an early account: "A man small in size, bald-headed, bandy-legged, well-built, with eyebrows meeting, rather long-nosed". Yet the same writer saw that in spite of this his personality made an impact: "… full of grace. For sometimes he seemed like a man, and sometimes he had the countenance of an angel.”

Paul seems to have recognised that he did not have the appearance of a superstar. He writes in his second letter to the Christians at Corinth: "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" (2 Corinthians 4:4-7 NIV).

Ours is not the only day and age when people have been blinded by the cult of personality. An intriguing Jewish wisdom story tells a tale about the daughter of a Roman emperor, a woman who would have been steeped in the classical notion that beautiful people were the most wise.

"The daughter of the emperor spoke to Rabbi Joshua, the son of Hananiah: "Oh, your skill in the law is so great, and yet you are so deformed! What a huge helping of wisdom is held in such a plain-looking container!"

The rabbi answered, "Do tell me, what are the vessels you keep your wines in made of?"

She answered, "They are vessels of clay."

He replied, "How is it, seeing you are so rich, that you do not store your wine in silver vessels, to set yourself apart from the common people who store theirs in clay jars?"

She went back to her father and persuaded him to have all the wine put into silver vessels; but the wine turned sour. When the emperor heard about it he asked his daughter who had given her that advice. She told him that it was Rabbi Joshua.

The rabbi told the whole story to the emperor, and added this sentence: "The wisdom and study of the law cannot dwell in a handsome man."

Caesar objected: "There are handsome persons who have made great progress in the study of the law."

The rabbi answered, "Had they not been so handsome they would have made greater progress; for a man with a handsome physique does not have a humble mind, and therefore he soon forgets the whole law."

The truest followers of Christ today will not have been won over by slick packaging of the gospel, though there is plenty of that around. The one who wins them, under God, will more likely be an unassuming man or woman that may well have suffered hardship through being a Christian. That pressure may well show in lines of worry and care in their forehead. But there will be a beauty within that nobody can deny.