Carpe Crustula

Sometimes the relationship of type to antitype is plain. Hosea was told to marry an unfaithful woman to be the type of unfaithful Israel. Gomer his wife was an accurate picture of the unfaithful wife that Israel was to her husband. Paul wrote in letter to the Romans that Adam was a type of Christ. Both were the covenant heads of their respective families. Adam failed in his stewardship and the whole human race – his family – was plunged into darkness and death as a result. Jesus was faithful in his stewardship and light and life for his people is the result.

Our God is not a sissy. CS Lewis said that Jesus is often pictured looking like a 7-foot-tall girl with some sort of health problem: frail and sickly. Our God is not like that. He knows reality when he sees it, and he expects his people to look long and hard at it. Some tremendously ugly things happen and we need to be able to look upon them and know that God has not just fainted away like a scared little girl. He is sovereign over everything, no matter how heartbreaking or triumphant. His worship needs to include those triumphs and tragedies because he owns them all, just as he owns you and me.

In life there are times when something must be taken out in order for other things to progress. It is easy to understand if you have a bad tooth. It is rotten and infected, and unless it comes out, pain and suffering are the results. It is less easy to understand when it is something or someone that is near and dear to you. Relationships sometimes have to be broken in order to be ultimately be built up. That happens in some cases because the relationships are built on the wrong foundation. If everything must always stay the same, we will miss the opportunity to see things built up at the right time and in the right way.  Remember that it can be God acting that causes the relationship to crumble. Solomon said it best:

To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to break down, and a time to build up...

When a Christian falls into sin, it rarely happens all at once. It is most often like the Three Stooges at Niagara Falls: Slowly I turned; inch by inch, step by step. One of the first inches is not thinking about God. He stops entering our thoughts, and soon we are doing things that we would never dream of doing ordinarily. Saul did not start out as a wicked man, but he ceased to listen to the word of God and became an oppressor of David, losing his throne and life in the process. Watch your heart: are there signs that you are not listening to the Word of the Lord? You can see it especially in the things you give yourself leave to do. Perhaps a little unkindness here; a little impatience there; maybe even a little lust over there. What could it hurt? It could hurt you and those you love and are supposed to care for. God has made the world in such a way that we cannot secretly abandon our responsibilities and get away with it. Sooner or later the truth will come out. One result of that drift is that we will miss the discipline that the Lord has given for our own good. That is the irony of chasing after our selfish desires. Just like Saul we lose everything in the end.

Mighty Lord, extend Your kingdom, Be the truth with triumph crowned;
Let the lands that sit in darkness Hear the glorious Gospel sound,
From our borders, From our borders, To the world’s remotest bound.

By Your arm, eternal Father, Scatter far the shades of night;
Let the great Immanuel’s kingdom Open like the morning light;
Let all barriers,  Let all barriers, Yield before Your heavenly might.

Come in all Your Spirit’s power; Come, Your reign on earth restore;
In Your strength ride forth and conquer, Still advancing more and more,
Till all people, Till all people, Shall Your holy Name adore.

Earth has no sorrows that Heaven cannot cure.

So, when Paul commands that we show piety, we tend to think of a snooty little Pharisee condescending to give their mother a few crumbs in the name of God. This is not what Paul is communicating to us. Learning to take care of parents is the same as learning to worship God. Notice also that Paul reminds us that caring for our parents is one way of repaying them for the support they gave us when we were growing up. In our society, we
no longer see the children as having the responsibility to care for their elderly parents. The government has stepped in to that place, replacing family care with Social Security.

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and acceptable before God.  1st Timothy 5:4