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The Temptation of Christ — Matthew 4:1-4

09 Mar

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This image is from Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups by Ned Bustard. The image was created by Matthew L. Clark.

Matthew 4:1-4
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. 2 For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.
3 During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”
4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,
‘People do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

 

Dear God, I might or might not have noticed this before, but this morning what strikes me about this passage is the fact that the Spirit appears to Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism, and then it is the Spirit that leads him into the wilderness to be tempted. You didn’t shield him from temptation. You actually led him into it so that he could learn and be stronger.

That’s one of the hardest things to understand as a parent. Where is the line between protecting our child and getting in the way of the lessons they need to learn for later in life? And it changes with every age. There are the early stages when they reach for an electrical outlet and we physically prevent it because they cannot understand. Then there is the phase where we warn them with words, but sometimes they disobey us and get hurt anyway. And then there are the times when they are adults that we offer them our love, but we also offer them tough love and truth (not that tough love isn’t appropriate during the earlier parts as well).

In the spirit of looking at the art that Ned Bustard put with these Bible stories in Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-ups, I want to spend some time with the artist who did a piece about this picture and see what he/she noticed that I might have missed or interpreted differently. In this case, Matthew L. Clark did this piece called “Temptation.”

So what do I notice in this piece?

  • Jesus looks pretty haggard. I’m not sure that I’ve ever thought about what he would look like after being in the wilderness for 40 days with no food, but I suppose he wouldn’t have looked like the pretty pictures of him I saw in Sunday school. This is a good point by the artist.
  • This image focuses only on the first temptation. The first words at the top are not explicitly said by Satan, but they carry that feeling of self pity that we all get from time to time. Self pity is the root of a lot of sin. “I have the right.” “I deserve better.” “How dare you?!?” In this case, Clark is suggesting that part of Jesus’ temptation is the idea that he might be questioning what all of this is for. “Why did the Spirit lead me out here for 40 days to do this?” “Is this suffering necessary?”
  • The words “Stones” and “Bread” set the stage for the temptation Clark is addressing. It’s hunger, but he is also suggesting in the first one that it’s also about doubting you and doubting the Spirit.
  • I couldn’t tell what the image is at the top of the top speech bubble. In the description, it is apparently batwings. It is to indicate that this is not scripture. Clark says he took the line from Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring.
  • I wondered what Satan is wearing in the picture. Is he a king? Again, thankfully, Clark gives us an explanation. He has Satan appearing to tempt Jesus as a Jewish holy man. Someone whom he should trust. How many times have I been led astray by those I trusted? How many times have I led others astray who trusted me

Finally, here is what Clark has to say about his piece:

I think an important thing not to overlook here is the fact that this was a real temptation. Jesus had to really be tempted if this episode was to have any significant meaning. As such, I tried to show him emaciated and weak. At least physically weak. I have no idea if forty days of fasting leaves one spiritually weakened or strengthened. But I assume it would be immediately weakening or Satan would not have chosen that time to act.”

Father, I will face temptations today. Help me to recognize them when they come. Help me to renounce self pity and embrace the work you have given me to do today. Guide my heart into the channel of your will for me regardless of its benefits or costs to me. And help me to know how to parent my grown children. Help me to not do anything that will get in the way of what you are trying to do in their lives. Love them richly. Love my wife as well and help me to know how you need me to love her. Again, do all of this for your glory, your plan, and so that your will and kingdom will come to earth.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 

 
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Posted by on March 9, 2019 in Matthew, Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups

 

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The Wife of Your Youth — Proverbs 5:15-23

16 Feb

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Image: “The White Shirt (Man and Wife)” by Edward Knippers from Revealed: A Biblestory Book for Grown-Ups by Ned Bustard

Proverbs 5:15-23 [NLT]
15 Drink water from your own well—
share your love only with your wife.
16 Why spill the water of your springs in the streets,
having sex with just anyone?
17 You should reserve it for yourselves.
Never share it with strangers.
18 Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you.
Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 She is a loving deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts satisfy you always.
May you always be captivated by her love.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an immoral woman,
or fondle the breasts of a promiscuous woman?
21 For the Lord sees clearly what a man does,
examining every path he takes.
22 An evil man is held captive by his own sins;
they are ropes that catch and hold him.
23 He will die for lack of self-control;
he will be lost because of his great foolishness.

 

Dear God, can it be ironic to me that Solomon wrote this (I assume Solomon wrote it)? With his hundreds of wives and concubines, did he know what he was missing and wished it wasn’t too late for him? Did he wish for something simpler and more pure?

It feels like I could go in a lot of different directions with this passage and image this morning. There’s promiscuity before marriage. Of course, the obvious is adultery. But then there is prostitution and sex trafficking (including minors) and also pornography (the gateway drug for it all–not that all of this didn’t happen before pornography existed).

Verses 22 and 23 are a great crux of this whole passage for me: “An evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him. He will die for lack of self-control; he will be lost because of his great foolishness.”

Before I get too judgmental towards others, let me first, once again, apologize to you for the ways in which I have failed you sexually. You know that, since I was a teen, there have been times when I’ve failed in this area when it comes to pornography. Nearly 30 years ago, in one of my first deep conversations with my wife (then girlfriend), I told her that I had struggled with that. Satan’s power is in the secret and I didn’t want it to be a secret. I didn’t want to pretend to be some puritan that I’m not. Even now, the image that accompanies this passage that I put above could be considered pornographic in a way. But when reading the context it becomes not dirty and what sex is supposed to be.

I heard one time that almost no one hears about sex for the first time in a healthy way. Maybe not everyone, but almost everyone’s first exposure to sex is unbiblical. It might be bad information from another kid on the playground or from an older sibling. It might be porn. It might be a TV show that depicts a negative sex act or reference to sex.

When our children were small, I would screen movies for them not based on language or even violence, but I found myself being very sensitive to how it depicted sex. As a friend of mine once said, “We only get our innocence once.” I wanted them to keep their innocence as long as possible. My wife and I even went to the Christian bookstore when our oldest was about five years old and looked for a book that would be age-appropriate for us to talk about with our son. I don’t know if we did the right thing or not, but we were doing our best to make his FIRST exposure to sex to be what you intend sex to be.

So now, on to what I think the artist is trying to communicate to me in this picture.

  • First, he has “man and wife” in the title, so we are given a frame of reference. This is what you intended.
  • It looks like there is an air conditioning unit at the top of the wall. If that’s what it is, then it’s a fairly modern portrayal.
  • There are two people, with the woman on the bed and the man standing. What I notice about the woman is that she appears to be on her elbows. She isn’t just lying there waiting for it to happen. She seems to be anticipating it.
  • The husband is standing and taking off his shirt (apparently last). They aren’t in the throws of passion, lying in bed and ripping each other’s clothes off. This is a marriage. This is something they’ve done before. This is an experience for both of them.

In the little blurb on the bottom left side of the picture, Bustard quotes from Tim Keller’s piece, The Gospel and Sex.

The Bible is full of covenant renewal ceremonies….The ultimate covenant renewal ceremony is the Lord’s Supper. The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper renews the covenant made at baptism; through the breaking of bread and the pouring out of wine it reenacts the selfless sacrifice of Jesus to us….In the same way, marriage is a covenant, one that creates a place of security for vulnerability. But though covenant is necessary for sex, sex is also necessary for covenant. The covenant will grow stale unless we continually revisit and reenact it. Sex is a covenant renewal ceremony for marriage, the physical reenactment of the inseparable oneness in all other areas–economic, legal, personal, psychological–created by the marriage covenant. Sex renews and revitalizes the marriage covenant.

Father, help me to be pure today. Help me to be pure in my thoughts and in my words. Help me to be pure in what I do, and help me to fail to do nothing that you have called me to. Help me to hear your voice and clearly see your path ahead for me. Help me to love my wife the way to which you called me, and help us to live our lives as a couple in the way you need us to. Do it all for your glory and so that your kingdom will come and your will will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 16, 2019 in Proverbs, Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups

 

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Samson & Delilah — Judges 16:4-22

26 Jan

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Judges 16:4-22 [NLT]
4 Some time later Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the valley of Sorek. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice Samson to tell you what makes him so strong and how he can be overpowered and tied up securely. Then each of us will give you 1,100 pieces[b] of silver.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes you so strong and what it would take to tie you up securely.”
7 Samson replied, “If I were tied up with seven new bowstrings that have not yet been dried, I would become as weak as anyone else.”
8 So the Philistine rulers brought Delilah seven new bowstrings, and she tied Samson up with them. 9 She had hidden some men in one of the inner rooms of her house, and she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” But Samson snapped the bowstrings as a piece of string snaps when it is burned by a fire. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.
10 Afterward Delilah said to him, “You’ve been making fun of me and telling me lies! Now please tell me how you can be tied up securely.”
11 Samson replied, “If I were tied up with brand-new ropes that had never been used, I would become as weak as anyone else.”
12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them. The men were hiding in the inner room as before, and again Delilah cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” But again Samson snapped the ropes from his arms as if they were thread.
13 Then Delilah said, “You’ve been making fun of me and telling me lies! Now tell me how you can be tied up securely.”
Samson replied, “If you were to weave the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on your loom and tighten it with the loom shuttle, I would become as weak as anyone else.”
So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric. 14 Then she tightened it with the loom shuttle.[c] Again she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!” But Samson woke up, pulled back the loom shuttle, and yanked his hair away from the loom and the fabric.
15 Then Delilah pouted, “How can you tell me, ‘I love you,’ when you don’t share your secrets with me? You’ve made fun of me three times now, and you still haven’t told me what makes you so strong!” 16 She tormented him with her nagging day after day until he was sick to death of it.
17 Finally, Samson shared his secret with her. “My hair has never been cut,” he confessed, “for I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else.”
18 Delilah realized he had finally told her the truth, so she sent for the Philistine rulers. “Come back one more time,” she said, “for he has finally told me his secret.” So the Philistine rulers returned with the money in their hands. 19 Delilah lulled Samson to sleep with his head in her lap, and then she called in a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. In this way she began to bring him down,[d] and his strength left him.
20 Then she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!”
When he woke up, he thought, “I will do as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him.
21 So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind grain in the prison.
22 But before long, his hair began to grow back.

Dear God, before I start talking about this story, I just have to comment on verse 22. It’s a little cliffhanger like at the end of the old Batman television show from the 60s with Adam West: “But before long, his hair began to grow back.” Love it. I suppose I should also mention that the image above is from Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups by Ned Bustard, and the picture itself was actually created by Ned Bustard.

It the midst of our #metoo wave that is currently happening and changing our perspectives on how men treat women, I can’t help but read this story this morning through a different lens–the lens of her perspective. Why did she do what she did?

It wasn’t for the money. Samson had no qualms about taking and/or killing anything he wanted. If she had said, “Samson, I could really use 1,100 pieces of silver,” he would have gone and killed those same Philistines and taken it from them. No, the money wasn’t the deal-maker–unless…

She wanted freedom. That money gave her freedom from a boorish man who probably did not treat her very well. And we aren’t told what she did after this story, but I would imagine she had to move into the center of Philistine territory where she would have been treated like a hero. If she had stayed in Israel, the people would probably have killed her for her role in Samson’s demise.

So how does this apply to my life? Well, beyond the obvious questions of whether or not I am ever a Samson (driving people to betray me) or a Delilah (betraying others for my own gain), I think one thing that is important to do is to look at betrayals that I see and try to look beyond the surface and find a deeper reason.

For example, very few people are actually evil. Even when they have done something that I find reprehensible, they usually see it as morally justified from their own perspective. And then there are addictions to things like alcohol, drugs, and even pornography that can make a person do things they wouldn’t normally do. Where I work, we see that with domestic violence all of the time. And of course, there are always two sides to every story.

Father, make me more thoughtful in my assessment of others. Make me more aware when I am doing something that others perceive as evil. Help me to give people the benefit of the doubt and understand how to be an instrument of your peace.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on January 26, 2019 in Judges, Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups

 

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Enoch Walked with God — Genesis 5:1-8, 21-29

17 Jan

Genesis 5:1-8,21-29 NIV
[1] This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. [2] He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created. [3] When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. [4] After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. [5] Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died. [6] When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. [7] After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. [8] Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died. [21] When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. [22] After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. [23] Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. [24] Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. [25] When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. [26] After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. [27] Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died. [28] When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. [29] He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed. ”

Dear God, My thoughts on this story really just flow around the lives we live. We are here, we are a small part of the world, and then we die, leaving behind the little ways in which our lives caused ripples in the pool. A little George Bailey-esque, if you will. Enoch’s tale is unique because he wasn’t that old when compared with his contemporaries describe in these verses, but he was apparently taken up whole to be with you. I wish I knew more details about this story. It’s all pretty vague.

Bot the fun part of going through Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-ups is getting to look at the art as well. What do I see in this piece that the artist might want to tell me?

  • The first thing I notice is the size difference. God is too big for the frame and cannot be fully seen.
  • The road that Enoch is walking is not smooth, but apparently paved with stones, over which Enoch might stumble.
  • God is carrying a shepherd’s crook, but dressed in modern clothes. I don’t know that this image was specifically drawn for the Enoch story or if it just fit with the Enoch story, but the image is obviously for me as well. The picture’s title is “Walking with God” by Rick Beerhorst. Going back to the shepherd’s crook, I think the artist is intimating that you are ready to catch us at any time. And you are also ready to nudge us along the right path.
  • I suppose those are fields next to the path, but it could conceivably be a river as well. Either way, there is something to the left that the man can see, but is not interacting with.
  • I guess the last thing I noticed is that the mountains are in the distance, so this picture is taken of the man while he is in the valley, where most of life is lived. Mr. Beerhorst could have placed the man anywhere and given the picture any background, but he chose to show us “Walking with God” in the valley.

I heard a speaker one time try to make the point that all of our lives are smaller than we think they are by asking us a series of questions.

  • How many of you know what your father did/does for a living?
  • How many of you know what your grandfather did/does for a living?
  • How many of you know what your great grandfather did for a living?
  • Great-great grandfather?

He then went on to indicated that, for our great-great grandfather, his life was complicated and could be overwhelming. His problems seemed so big to him, but now with the passage of time his work is largely forgotten. What remains of our great-great grandfather’s legacy are the relationships he affected while he was living and how his touch on them ripples through to time to our lives. It was a great reminder then, and seeing the legacy and lineage around Enoch is also a good reminder that, at the end of the day, Enoch’s biggest contribution to history was to be part of Noah’s family tree and then getting out of the way.

Father, help my life to ripple through time for your glory. I don’t know what will be left of my physical work when this world is all said and done, but I hope that, even after people have forgotten my name, that the love that I showed someone today will be there for someone else through someone else tomorrow.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on January 17, 2019 in Genesis, Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups

 

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Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups by Ned Bustard

13 Jan

Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups by Ned Bustard

Dear God, I came in this room this morning expecting to continue on with my series on Peter and John when I found the book of an artist I met this weekend. He has taken different pieces of biblical art from various artists (including his own) and compiled them with the stories they portray. I really liked the guy and I had been wanting to pick up his book to check it out.

I just flipped it open, and the page I turned to struck me immediately. The art piece was titled “Isaac Blesses Jacob.” I didn’t even have to read the corresponding verses. I just wanted to dive into the picture, which was done by Wayne Forte. After only a couple of moments, I noticed so much in the picture (I should mention that this image is copyrighted and I hope that my publishing it here isn’t a violation of a copyright by him or Square Halo Books):

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* The goat skin on Jacob’s arms
* Esau in the background has hair on his arms
* The food is prepared while Esau is still hunting
* Rebekah is looking on, not only approving of the deception, but leading/participating
* Isaac is in bed, weak and gullible

And that’s just with a cursory look. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll bet I could spend some time with this one image and come up with well over 1,000 words on what you might be saying to be about this story through the artists.

I am sorry for underestimating art for so much of my life. My wife helped to expand my horizons a bit, but it was my daughter being involved in theater that really made me appreciate the value of art in human development. And I might think, “Hey, I’m 48. I am already developed.” Well, obviously I’m not. My daughter needed it while she was growing up, but I need it too. You are still teaching me. I’m still growing.

Father, use whatever you need to use to reveal yourself to me. It might be a conversation, a secular song, a thought that passes through my head while I’m in the shower that you don’t want me to forget, or the things you have revealed to others that they can share with me. Put me in a position to hear, see, and understand, and then help me to not miss you in both the sacred and the secular that is around me.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on January 13, 2019 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories, Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups

 

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